The characters are not mine. All credit goes to Rob Thomas and the television network. Enjoy!
"But Dad, if you know I'm going to work on the case anyways, why can't you show me the file?"
"Veronica," Keith eyed his daughter with a warning tone.
She just looked at him, giving him the same face as when she was two and wanted another cookie.
"Because," he continued, "a little thing called client privacy laws exist. And if I want to keep my business open, I'd be best to follow them."
Keith watched as Veronica took in his response, narrowed her eyes, and then called his bluff—just like he knew she would.
"You're lying through your teeth. I've helped you on how many cases before," she took a break from reaming him out to mime thinking. She screwed up her eyes and put her hand on her chin to drive home the point that she was an irreplaceable aspect of Mars Investigations. And it almost worked, except that Veronica had used the same tactic to convince Keith to let her go to Homecoming with Duncan, Logan and Lilly. Keith remembered quite clearly how that turned out.
"It is Mars Investigations. I'm a Mars—I don't see an issue" she carried on innocently.
The only issue, Keith thought, is that Veronica learned all her convincing strategies from me. Which meant he was hardly fooled.
"The issue is that you're seventeen, and your occupation is high-school student, not private investigator," Keith replied, unruffled.
"See I think I do a pretty convincing both."
"And I think we've both done enough work for tonight." Keith shut his case file and returned his pen to its holder on his desk. He wondered how long he would be able to retain his authority to shut down these conversations. How long he could keep his daughter safe and out of trouble. Judging by recent events, his power to control Veronica's involvement in Mars Investigations cases was dwindling. And Keith couldn't decide if it was his fault or not. She was an invaluable worker, and seeing her excel at his work gave him a rush of pride. Selfishly, it was nice to have someone with which to share the case work. But above all, she was his daughter, and frankly, one of the only things that kept him sane in this town. Her safety came first, he decided, he would not let her work on this case.
"I'm hungry," Keith continued, ignoring Veronica's I-know-you're-evading-me stare, "do you want lasagna or pizza?"
"You're really not going to let me see that?" Veronica ignored his question, instead asking her own in the direction of the case file.
Keith sighed, defeated, "How about pizza? I'll order it after I put this away." He motioned to the file and let her watch him put it in the top right drawer of the filing cabinet and hide the key under the fish food.
Yes, he decided, it was at least partly his fault. Yet he couldn't think of anyone else more capable to work on the case with him than Veronica, and that made him love her even more fiercely.