SquidgeWorld Archive

You know me. While I might secretly cop to being a marshmallow, I am not the touchy-feely type. Unless you're my dad, and then of course you get to invade my personal space. For hugs. And that's it.

But when I saw Logan standing there in my doorway, arms wrapped around himself and hoping beyond everything that his mother was still alive and all right?

Fine, I admit it. I wanted to hug him. There, are you satisfied? Logan looked like he didn't have a single friend left in the world, and maybe because I knew what it was like to have your mother disappear and wonder if she was still alive or if she even cared about you, but I agreed to help him.

It's just a job, he says. We're not trading friendship bracelets. That might be true, but I know where you live now, Logan, and I don't just mean your address. And it's not that different from where I live. We both lost Lilly, we lost friendship, and now, we lost a mother. Yeah. Welcome to the neighborhood. I hope you don't have to stay long.

- = - = -

Veronica saved the journal entry she'd just written, and turned off the screen of her computer. Her phone sat on her pillow, beside Backup, mocking her.

Sighing, she sat on the bed beside Backup, scratching his ears. "Don't look at me like that."

Backup popped his jowls once before looking up quizzically at Veronica.

"I know what you're thinking," Veronica continued, getting to her feet to pace. "I'm too involved in Logan's case; too much personal involvement, and too much invested in the outcome. But Logan said it himself. We're not friends; this is a purely business transaction."

Backup just whined tiredly, and put his head down on his paws.

Veronica gave an answering sigh, and flopped down on her bed beside the dog. "Who'm I tryin' to kid, Backup? I'm as invested in this thing as I can get. I'm hip-deep in blind spots and subjectivity, but it's working for me and I'm not gonna stop now."

Backup blinked, yawned, and then closed his eyes.

Veronica buried her face in the dog's warm fur for several moments, then reached for the cell phone on her pillow.

- = - = -

Logan picked up on the first ring. "Yeah?"

Veronica let out a breath. She'd kind of been hoping he was sleeping, or at least resting. "Hey, it's me."

Logan's tired voice perked up hopefully. "Anything new on my mom's credit card?"

The hope in Logan's voice was heartbreaking, because Veronica knew she sounded the same way about Lianne. "Not yet; I'm still trying to get a copy of the receipt and the signature."

"Okay... but why? People around here know what my mother looks like--it's not like anyone else could use a card with Lynn Echolls' name on it," Logan answered impatiently.

Veronica nodded. "I know, Logan, but you saw how easy it was for Caitlin and Chardo to set up those fake credit cards in your family's name. This could be someone who found or stole the card, because clerks never check the name on the card anymore. Think about all those POS terminals at every store nowadays; I could swipe your credit card, and as long as I signed the right name on the slip, nobody would know because they didn't check."

"Yeah, okay. Fine. So if you didn't have anything new for me, why did you call again?" The annoyance in Logan's voice was suddenly overwhelming, displacing the hope from before.

Veronica had to pause to consider the answer to that. "Just to let you know where we are." Another pause. "And to make sure you're all right," she added.

"Just wonderful," he bit out sarcastically. "Never been better."

"I know." Veronica made a sympathetic noise, which Logan ignored. "You want to come to the office and wait? No guarantee when the receipt comes in, but--"

"Yeah, I'll be there when it does come in," Logan agreed, interrupting. "I'm on my way."

Logan hung up immediately after, and Veronica looked at the phone in her hand. "Somehow, this is gonna come back and bite me in the ass, I just know it," she muttered.

- = - = -

"So who taught you to play poker, anyway?"

Veronica raised her head from the desk, where she'd been napping while Logan had gone across the street for soft drinks and snacks. "Where did that come from?"

Logan just tossed a bag of Fritos at Veronica as he put the pink 7-Up by her elbow. "They're selling poker-themed lottery tickets this week."

"Wonderful. Remind me to pick up a few." Veronica opened the bag of corn chips, and stared at Logan for a long moment. "Lilly did."

Logan gave a short bark of slightly bitter laughter. "Why doesn't that surprise me? Let me guess--Weevil taught her."

"I don't know; she never told me where she learned, I just figured either you or Duncan taught her." Of course Weevil taught her, but Veronica wasn't going to say that out loud. She didn't have any proof, after all, but after the Christmas poker games? She'd seen enough of Weevil's techniques to recognize who'd taught Lilly.

"Right." Logan sat back on the couch, and rubbed his face. His elbows were resting on his knees, and one hand slipped to rub the back of his neck before he got back to his feet and started to pace. "Your contacts always this slow, or is it just because you're working for me?"

"Depends on what they're trying to do, and since passing on credit card receipts is usually illegal and frowned upon besides, yeah, it's going to take them some time to get it to me," she answered, glaring at Logan as he paced in front of her desk. "Sit down, calm down, and please don't drink anything else with caffeine in it."

Logan sneered laughter in her general direction, but his head snapped up when the fax machine rang, and then gave the whistle of an incoming fax. "Is that it?"

Veronica wheeled her chair over to it, and glanced at the number on the display. "Yeah, it is." Her cell phone rang almost instantly afterwards. "Yeah?" She paused, and then broke out into a smile. "Oh, man. You're the best. Brownies or cupcakes?" Another pause. "Okay, you got it. Thank you so much. I'll see you this weekend, okay?" She closed the phone, and took the fax from the machine as soon as it stopped printing.

Logan snatched it out of her hand, and then after a few seconds, tossed the paper down on the desk. "That's not my mother's handwriting. That's her personal--wait a second." He reached for the fax again, but Veronica had already picked it up.

"Her personal what?" she asked, holding up the bill. "Her personal shopper? Cause this is for about six thousand bucks worth of clothes and makeup at--"

"Nessus," Logan supplied. "It's her favorite store here in Neptune, because they're the only one that carries the brand of makeup she uses." He grabbed the fax again, and then looked up at Veronica. "She's getting that woman to buy her new clothes."

Veronica gave Logan a small grin. "Don't get your hopes up. You know the woman's name?" She was picking up her car keys and her satchel even as Logan was folding the receipt up and sticking it in his pocket. "Let's go."

"Yeah, I do, and I know where her office is. Closes at four, though." Logan was out of the office door before Veronica was, shouting the information to her as they went downstairs.

Veronica just grinned at Logan. "That's what you think."

- = - = -

Half an hour after Katherine Jensen had closed her office on Malibu Avenue, Veronica Mars was sitting at her computer, loading the last few transactions she'd taken care of for the day.

"You're really good at the breaking and entering thing," Logan observed.

"It's not technically breaking and entering unless we're caught, which I don't intend for us to be, so humor me and pull the shades down, okay?" There were only two windows in the entire small office, and Logan quickly lowered the shades over them.

Settling herself in Katherine's chair, Veronica cracked her knuckles. "Let's see where you've been shopping at lately, Ms. Jensen."

Half an hour later, she had her answers.

"Six thousand dollars at a twenty-five percent commission, and it's not logged in anywhere," she finally said, leaning back in the soft leather chair behind Katherine's desk. "You don't just give up fifteen hundred dollars by not logging it into your accounts payable."

Logan was standing behind Veronica, reading over her shoulder. "Unless you're getting a lot more bang for your buck," he pointed out. "Look. Up about four days ago, Marnie Rutland. That's one of the names my mother uses when she has to order flowers or whatever the hell it is she does and doesn't want anyone to know."

"Are you sure?" Veronica asked, scrolling up to inspect the transaction.

"Oh yeah. If I had to watch that movie once, I watched it a hundred times. Marnie is one of her favorite movies," Logan said firmly. "I know it's her. Look, the credit card numbers."

Veronica looked down at the list of numbers that Logan had given her earlier. "I'm almost afraid to ask how you got your mother's credit card numbers."

"Let's just say that you're not the only one here with sticky fingers." Logan wiggled his fingers impatiently as Veronica scanned the list. "See? The last three? They all match."

"Okay, so let's see... Marnie Rutland bought--wow. I didn't know a credit card company would let you buy a car with their card."

"Platinum gets you a lot of things," Logan said shortly. "She bought a car with the credit card?"

Veronica looked up. "Not just a car, Logan. A van. A black van."

- = - = -

"There are reasons I work alone," Veronica stressed as Logan breathed literally down her neck. They'd been crammed together in the closet of this hotel room for the last forty minutes, and she was really starting to wish she'd left Logan at home.

"Shut up," Logan whispered back, keeping his voice extremely low. "The van my mother bought is outside. This is the room registered to the same fake name. She's got to be here, and I want to hear when she comes in."

"And then we're going to what, jump out of the closet and yell boo?" Veronica elbowed Logan in the ribs. "You should have let me take care of the desk clerk."

"Yeah, well, you weren't doing too well by yourself until the money came out," Logan reminded. "Money gets you the places where charm doesn't."

"That explains a lot." She elbowed him again when a bright orange sweater got in her face, the plastic sticking to her sweaty face. "This isn't making sense. It's too easy," she muttered, fingering the plastic-covered garment as she shoved it out of the way. "Way too easy."

"What are you talking about? It makes perfect sense," Logan countered.

"Yeah, that's what I mean," Veronica said, brow wrinkling. "It's too easy. There's nothing... there's no loose ends. There's always a loose end, Logan, because no human being is perfect enough to plan for every contingency. I mean, look at it. First the credit cards get used, but it's Katherine's signature instead of your mother's. It's your mother's store, but--" Veronica shoved the slats of the closet open, to shed light on some of the outfits. "--since when does your mother wear bright orange and furry collars?"

There was barely enough room in the closet to turn around in the middle of all the new clothes, some of them still wrapped in the department store plastic, that filled the closet. But somehow Logan managed it without making too much noise, and he slammed the slats of the closet closed. "So what are you saying? That it's all one big coincidence?"

Veronica put her hand on the closet doorknob to open it, and nearly jumped out of her skin when Logan's hand closed over hers. "Stop, somebody's coming."

Veronica and Logan both froze in the closet, his hand holding hers still on the knob. She wanted to pull loose but didn't dare to move as the key scraped in the lock on the hotel room door, and the tumblers clicked. A voice singing in Spanish floated into the room, and an elderly Hispanic woman pushed a cart into the room, bearing towels, bed sheets, and all other kinds of linen. "¿La sra. Rutland? ¿Necesita usted linos frescos hoy? "

When no answer came from the depths of the hotel room, the maid shrugged to herself, and quickly re-made the bed anyway, and then left a stack of fresh towels and such in the bathroom before leaving, and locking the door behind her.

As soon as the maid had left, Logan let his hand drop from Veronica's with a deep sigh. "That's weird. Why's she calling in Spanish?"

Veronica opened the closet and spilled out into the spacious room, pulling the digital camera out of her purse and taking a quick series of pictures of the room, including the closet and everything else she could see. "Possibly because it's the only language she knows."

Logan shook his head. "No, this is the Mezzanine. They don't hire anyone who isn't bi-lingual for anything. Trust me. And my mother doesn't speak Spanish. I mean, she can't."

"How do you know she can't? Your mother might have hidden talents." Veronica finished taking the last picture of the corner of the bathroom, when something caught her eye. "She could and you just don't know it," she said over her shoulder as she started towards it.

"No, I mean, she can't. Mrs. Navarro tried to teach her, and gave up after Mom couldn't remember the difference between a goat and a cat." Logan paused. "Uh, gato and cabra."

"Yeah, I know what they are, I took the same Spanish class you did," Veronica said, poking at the dirty clothes hamper. It seemed extremely heavy for having dirty clothes in it, and she pulled away from it when the sides of the hamper seemed to sag a little, and a dirty white-colored fabric bulged out of the top. "Oh, no," she murmured softly.

"No, what?" Logan asked, shouldering his way past Veronica to look at the hamper. "What? It's just dirty clothes." Logan started to lift the lid, and Veronica's arm shot out to stop him.

"No. Don't. Don't look in there, Logan," she pled, because she had a very, very bad feeling as to what was going on. "C'mon. Let's go. There's something I need to look at. We're going back to Katherine's office, and then we're calling the police."

Logan yanked away from Veronica as the hamper sagged again, and more of the dirty white material fell out. "Hey, what is this?" he asked as he saw the familiar-looking fabric.

Veronica yanked on his arm with all her strength. "Logan. Please. Listen to me. We have to find out who's signature is on the receipt for the van, okay? Please."

Logan just shook Veronica off as though he hadn't even heard her. He flipped the lid up on the hamper, and stared down in horror. Veronica just closed her eyes and rested her forehead on the back of Logan's shoulder as she started pulling him out. "C'mon. C'mon, Logan, let's go. Please."

Logan didn't budge, and he couldn't make any noises other than a squeak.

"I know," Veronica said quietly, still yanking him. "C'mon. You don't need to see this. Logan, please. We'll call the police and they'll handle things. Please."

All of a sudden, Logan moved, bolting out of the bathroom, and onto to balcony, where he leaned over the railing and vomited. Veronica followed him slowly, dialing her dad's office.

Keith answered his own phone, since Veronica wasn't there to do it. "Mars Investigations."

"Dad... it's me. Call Sheriff Lamb and have him come to the Mezzanine, room 312. Logan and I just found his mother's body, shoved in the dirty clothes hamper," she explained quietly. "I'll give you the details when you get here."

"Ah, dammit." Keith rubbed his head gently. "I was hoping for the kid's sake it'd turn out better." He sighed. "Just... did you do anything illegal to get the details you're going to tell me about?"

Veronica was guiltily silent.

Keith just sighed. "Where are you now?"

"The balcony of the hotel room. Logan's... not doing well, Dad. I gotta get him out of here."

"All right. You bring him home, Veronica. As in our apartment. And you sit your butt down on the couch and you don't move it until I get home to clear this up, understand?" Keith rubbed his face again, and pulled his notebook over to him. "What did you do?"

"We just... kind of borrowed some of Katherine Jensen's records--she's Lynn's shopper and Dad? I think she's the one that did this. She knew Lynn was planning something, because she helped her buy the van, but she bought the van under a fake name, but when we got the credit card receipt today for the clothes, they were signed for by Lynn, not the fake name that Lynn was using to make the escape Logan thought she was making. I think that Katherine was trying to make it look like Lynn had run and was still alive somewhere, so she could keep using the credit cards and the money."

"You got a copy of Lynn's credit card receipts, and you broke into someone's office to steal their files?" Keith was torn between irritation and pride. Hell of a girl, his Veronica, but she was going to put him in an early grave. "Logan help you do any of it?"

"He was just along for the ride," Veronica answered, rubbing Logan's back as he finished vomiting and straightened up only to collapse on the balcony, against the railing. "And he gave me a list of Lynn's credit cards, so we knew which numbers to pull."

"Jesus. I'm going to kill you both. Okay. Take him home, and stay there." Keith hung up, and dialed the sheriff's station.

Veronica hung up too, and got on her knees beside Logan. "C'mon. We're going back to my house. We're gonna wait there for my dad, and he's going to get Sheriff Lamb over here to take care of this."

Logan's face was still frighteningly blank, but he let Veronica pull him to his feet. He didn't say anything until she'd gotten him back into the hotel room, and he looked down at the carpet, and then at his hands. "She... Mom really was trying to get away, wasn't she?"

Veronica nodded. "Yeah. She was. At least, I think so. And it looks like Katherine got in the way of it." A quiet pause. "Please, Logan. Let's go. Okay? We need to go."

Logan just nodded. "Yeah. I think we should go." He got to his feet, shakily but there, and shook his head as though he were going to say something, but no words would come out.

Now was not the time for Veronica to say 'I told you so' and she knew it. Instead, she just squeezed his arm and let it fall around her shoulders as she took as much of his weight as she could. "You okay to walk?"

"Yeah," Logan said, moving slowly but steadily as he leaned on Veronica.

The elevator ride down to the lobby was excruciatingly slow, and Veronica made a point of not staring at Logan even as she watched his reflection in the mirrored floors and walls. Pale as a sheet and shaking, there was a fine sheen of sweat that was starting to form on his cheeks. His eyes had a slightly glazed look to them, and Veronica felt in her pockets for the keys as the doors opened and she guided them out around the woman waiting to get in.

She was so intent on Logan and the car keys that she didn't notice that the woman from the elevator hadn't gotten on; instead, she'd turned around and was following them through the carpeted lobby. There was no clicking as her high heels moved quickly to catch up to the two teens, and the first time Veronica realized they were being followed is when she felt a tap on her shoulder. "Yes?"

"Excuse me," the woman said, with a bit of an embarrassed laugh. "But you're Veronica Mars, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," Veronica answered, turning around. Her hackles were already up because the woman had been able to sneak up on her, but she didn't have time to react before she was yanked violently forward, then had her arm twisted behind her back.

"I thought so," the woman said.

Logan had turned around as soon as Veronica spoke, but he wasn't able to keep his balance as Veronica was yanked from under his arm. He fell backwards onto the carpet, and then blinked. "Katherine?"

"Logan... why am I not surprised?" A little sneer. Katherine Jensen took off her sunglasses, and tucked them into her jacket pocket. When her hand came back out, she was holding a gun. "On your feet, but be quiet about it. Go get the elevator. Miss Mars and I are going to have ourselves a little chat." Katherine tightened her grip on Veronica's arm. "And if she knows what's good for her, she'll be quiet about it."

Veronica made a little whimper, but she was quiet as Katherine hissed in her ear. She nodded at Logan as he went back over to the elevator, and taking slow backward steps towards it. "Nosy little bitch," Katherine bit out. She kept the gun at Veronica's side, hidden under the loose sleeve of her jacket so that they looked like exceptionally close galpals walking through the lobby. "What do you know?" The gun pressed more insistently.

"W--I found Lynn," she said, thinking as quickly as she could. "In the bathroom, shoved in the dirty clothes hamper. And I found the receipt for all the clothes at Nessus, and the car that Lynn bought." Veronica hyperventilated a second. "Logan waited outside the room while I looked around."

"Oh, I'm sure he did," Katherine agreed sarcastically. "The two of you are entirely too nosy for your own good." Another press of the gun into Veronica's side. "Look at it this way; Logan's going to be reunited with his mother very, very soon."

Oh, God. Not if I can help it. Veronica set her jaw straight, and when Katherine turned them around to face the elevator, she shook her head. Don't do it, Logan, please don't do it, don't do it, please...

To her surprise, Logan stayed right where he was, his eyes glazed over and fixed on a point somewhere over Katherine's shoulder. "The elevator's on the way," he said softly, eyes flickering upwards to look at the floor indicator and then back down to the same point in the distance.

"That's very good," Katherine said. "Now smile, because we're all on closed circuit television and we all need to look like one happy little family."

Logan was smiling. He was smiling as broadly as Veronica had seen him smile in weeks, even, and seconds later, she found out why. In fact, she joined him.

"Yo, you got room for one more?" Weevil Navarro dropped one arm around Veronica's shoulders and one arm around Katherine's shoulders, a deployed switchblade sitting against Katherine's throat but hidden by the fur collar of the jacket and Katherine's own hair. "Long time no see, V."

Veronica gave a little squeak as Weevil shouldered his way in between her and Katherine and the gun slipped away. "Weevil! I didn't expect to see you here!"

The knife stayed close to Katherine's throat as he gave a self-deprecating little shrug. "I was in the neighborhood and I thought I'd drop by."

Veronica took the chance to sidle away completely and stand beside Logan, and to her surprise, Logan's arms came around her shoulders and squeezed tightly. "I'm really glad you did."

Katherine didn't dare move while the knife was at her throat, but she gave Veronica and Logan a calm stare. "Just wait," she said softly. "Your friend can't wait here forever," she murmured. "He'll leave, and you'll both be alone."

For the first time in over a year, Veronica was actually glad to see the police come in at that moment. "I wouldn't count on it." She hugged Logan back, and then lunged at Katherine, shoving her away from Weevil as she made the threat.

Katherine's gun went off as she went falling back, and the glass skylight overhead shattered. Weevil pushed Veronica down first, and then Logan, the three of them barely escaping the shards of falling glass. The police were on Katherine fairly quickly, and then on the three young people almost as quickly. Deputies jerked Veronica and Weevil to their feet, and helped Logan up carefully as--

"Dad!" Veronica yanked her arm away from the cop and ran towards her father.

"Veronica!" Keith was ready for her and had his arms open. "I heard guns."

"It's okay. They've got her, she had a gun, Dad. She was going to shoot me and Logan until Weevil got here." She turned around and walked back to Weevil, and held out her hand. Weevil tapped his fist against hers, and she grinned. "You've got perfect timing there, Mr. Navarro."

"That's what all the ladies say," he answered, motioning with his hands. "You cool?"

"Yeah, I'm cool. Thanks for backing me up." She looked at Logan, who was staring openmouthed. "What?"

"You knew he was there?" Logan came closer, and left his arm on Veronica's shoulder as he leaned against her for support.

"Well, yeah. Nobody else I'd trust to have my back," she explained. "Weevil's got friends everywhere, and I do mean everywhere."

"In this case, it was my grandma," Weevil explained, shaking off one of the deputies as Keith gestured for them to get out of his way. "She mentioned when she come home that you got a phone call and then took outta the house like your ass was on fire. I figured wouldn't anybody but V be callin' you, so I waited outside the office and followed you guys here."

Veronica nodded. "I picked him up outside the shopper's office and knew he'd be following us the rest of the way," she added. "I owe you, Weevil. Seriously this time."

Weevil shook his head. "No, we cool. You got my five grand back, you're always there to help me out, I can get your back." He looked over his shoulder at the other cop that was still standing behind him. "You wanna move that hand or you wanna lose it?"

The cop yanked his hand away, and Keith came up beside his daughter. "Veronica. The officers are heading up to the suite now; you kids get out of here and the deputy will come by your houses to get your statements."

Veronica nodded. "You coming too, Dad?"

Keith shook his head. "No, I've got a few things to take care of here with the sheriff. You need keys?"

"Got mine, thanks." Veronica kissed her father's cheek and then turned to Logan, who was still unnaturally quiet. "You ready to get out of here?"

Logan had paled at the mention of the suite. "No. I want... I want to be here when they bring her down."

Weevil gave Logan a deeply sympathetic look, but turned to Veronica. "I'm gonna blow before they change their minds and hook me up with a seven by seven."

Veronica just nodded, because her attention was centered on Logan. "See ya, Weevil." She rubbed Logan's upper arm gently. "You don't want to be here," Veronica said softly. "Not after all this. The cameras are going to be here soon, and that's the last thing you need to deal with." Veronica didn't dare mention Aaron or the fact that he might be pissed by Logan's attention-getting fiasco this afternoon.

"No, actually, I do want to be here." Logan didn't try to jerk away as he watched Weevil leave and the rest of the officers disperse. "That was my mother up there, crammed--"

"I know," Veronica said softly. She couldn't hope to imagine what it felt like, but when Logan broke down in her arms, all she could do was keep her arms around him, softly rubbing his back.

- = - = -

Keith Mars considered himself to be a good man, and a good father. He knew that Veronica was stubborn and headstrong, and did things the way she wanted to do, but for the most part, she was a wonderful daughter who listened to him when it suited her, and he could live with that because she knew how to take care of herself.

But there were limits to his laconic parenting style, and finding his daughter asleep on her waterbed with Logan Echolls was one of the things that really pushed it. They were both completely clothed, which was the only reason he didn't kill both of them right now, but the closeness of their--yeah. Fathers weren't meant to contemplate this. He rapped his knuckles loudly on Veronica's bedroom door, and cleared his throat before calling her name sharply. "Veronica!"

It woke both of them up, and Veronica stared sleepily over Logan's shoulder at her father before she realized what was going on. Oh, shit. When Logan stirred, trying to get up, Veronica gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Go on back to sleep; Dad's home and I'm gonna make dinner. You hungry?"

Logan grunted softly. "Not really." He rolled over to the back of the bed, and gave Veronica enough room to move over his legs so that she could get out of the bed. "I should be going home."

Veronica threw an immediately pleading glance to her father, and Keith really wanted to say no, but he couldn't help giving in. "It's okay, Logan. Stay here, finish your nap. You're welcome to stay as long as you need."

"Thank you, Dad," Veronica whispered softly, sliding completely off the bed and sidling out beside her father on her way to the kitchen.

Keith followed, and perched himself on one of the barstools as he watched Veronica flitting around the kitchen. "So how was your day, honey?"

"Oh, the usual," Veronica chirped. "Little bit of sleuthing, little bit of romance, little bit of hot love and drugs from the bikers."

Keith glared at Veronica. "Not funny."

"I thought it was." She smiled brightly at him as she got out the milk to measure for macaroni and cheese.

"Why is Logan Echolls sleeping in your bed, with you?"

"Because we don't have a guest room and the couch is lumpy. He likes waterbeds, and he needed a place to crash that wasn't staked out by every photographer and reporter in Neptune," Veronica countered.

Keith sighed at that. "Already?"

"Try still," Veronica corrected. "We cruised down his street, and you could barely get into the block because of everyone crammed in there with cars and news trucks," she continued. "So we came back here, where it's safe, and he can rest." She lowered her voice as she turned around, leaning in to confide to her father. "He broke down and cried right there in the middle of the hotel lobby, Dad. I've never seen him do that before, even when Lilly died because he did it in private. He wanted to be strong for Duncan or something. I couldn't send him out to the wolves after that." *I guess Wallace was right; Veronica Mars, she's a marshmallow.*

Keith nodded, and sighed. "All right. He can stay tonight, and in the morning I'll call Aaron and talk to him about getting a few deputies down to their property to clear out the photogs."

"You're the best!" Veronica put down the bowl of cheese sauce and kissed Keith on the cheek.

"And don't you forget it." He looked seriously at his daughter. "Veronica..." He let it trail off, trying to decide what to say. "If you decide to do anything... stupid? Don't tell me about it. Just promise you'll be careful about it."

Veronica turned back around to the cheese sauce, pretending to whisk it extra roughly when she was trying to keep the little twist of that knife from showing in her face. "No problem, Dad," she said over her shoulder. I've been keeping that secret for a year now, why should that change?

Keith was aware that there was something Veronica hadn't or wasn't telling him, but he didn't push. If she wanted him to know, they'd talk about it. "So what's for dinner?"

"Um... some kind of Helper, macaroni and cheese, and toast," she answered. "Although you get to make the toast because that machine does not like me."

"Mystery Helper. Yum. Just... don't make that tuna noodley stuff. It was..."

"Gross? Yeah, I threw that out last week," Veronica agreed. "We're having..." she stopped to consult the box. "Lasagna."

"Oh, sounds good. I'm gonna go shower and then I'll make the toast when I get back."

Veronica snickered. "I'll try not to use the hot water while you're in there."

"Just remember who controls your allowance, Veronica," was Keith's parting admonishment.

"I will!" Veronica turned back to her macaroni, which was almost about to bubble over. "Oh, oh crap." She wasn't going to be able to reach the strainer hanging from the under-cabinet rack without leaving the macaroni and if she left it, the pasta pot was gonna boil over.

"Here, let me." Logan's arm reached over Veronica's shoulder and handed her the strainer, and then got out of her way, sitting on the same barstool that Keith had been. "Nice place you got here. It's... what's the word I'm looking for?"

"Small?" Veronica said defensively, waving the strainer briefly in thanks as she dumped the macaroni out to drain while she melted butter for the powdered sauce.

Logan shook his head. "Warm. Like it's a place where a real family lives. People... together in a tight proximity because they actually like each other and don't mind spending time together."

Veronica kind of blushed at that. "Yeah, me and my dad, we're into the family togetherness thing. Sometimes we're too together, but that's why he has an office and I have a car. There's only so much togetherness I can take before I kill him."

"Yeah, I got that," Logan said with a half smile. "You cook?"

"I cook. I clean. And occasionally I can balance a ball on my nose." She turned around and clapped her arms together, arfing like a baby seal just to get Logan to laugh.

It worked, and he ran his fingers through his hair. "You know, if your dad wants, I can go crash at Duncan's--"

"No," Veronica said. "Make yourself useful." She tossed him a tub of butter, and a plastic knife, then set the loaf of bread down in front of him. "Toaster's over there."

Logan looked at the butter in his hands and burst into laughter again. "You think I know how to make toast?"

Veronica tried to keep the snickering to a minimum as she stirred the cheese sauce, and checked the sizzling hamburger that had been quietly browning on the back burner. "It's not that hard. Take a piece of bread, put it in the slot, and push the handle down. When it pops up, take it out and butter it. You make two pieces at a time, there's three of us, so, six slices."

"The last time I put anything in a toaster, the Pop Tarts exploded all over the kitchen because the setting was too hot. Mrs. Navarro was picking strawberry icing out of the china cabinet for days."

Veronica's shoulders were trembling as she held the laughter in, and it finally bubbled out of her as she turned the burners off. "Oh, God. You're worse than me. Me, I just burn the toast." She put the macaroni in the pot and stirred the sauce in with it, turning the pale pasta bright orange and rinsing the strainer before draining the grease off the ground beef.

Logan shared the laughter for a moment, but when Veronica turned back to the stove, he stared at her back for several long moments, and then asked the question that'd been burning in the back of his mind. "Why are you being so nice to me, Veronica?"

Veronica's hand faltered and the lid she was putting on the macaroni pot clattered. "I... don't know, really." A pause. "Actually, no, that's a lie. I do know. I've been trying to help you lately, and you've seemed more like... Logan. The real one, that I used to know and actually liked. You dropped the jackass routine and you've been a real person who wanted to find his mother because he loved her so much. You didn't care if she took you with her, just that she was all right and away from the person that was hurting her. Believe me, I can understand that. My mother took off, too, so I know what it's like to sit there and wonder why and if it was your fault, and nobody needs to go through that. Nobody. Not even you."

Logan was shredding one of the paper napkins on the bar as he listened to Veronica answer, and when she finished, he got up and circled the small bar quickly. When she turned back from the stove to look at him, Logan caught Veronica's arm with his hand and pulled her close, kissing her.

Firm and deep, Logan's tongue stroked into Veronica's mouth as she kissed him back, her toes curling in her socks as he let her go when Keith's shower went off, and he sat back down at the bar, only this time, it was on the stool in the kitchen.

Veronica looked at him several times, barely remembering to reach behind her and push the pot off the burner. "Whoa. I was not expecting that."

The End