Title: Queen of the Castle

Author: DalWriter

Rating: PG-13 language, adult themes, sex, violence

Summary: My version of the Season 4 opener. Veronica returns to Neptune and Hearst after her F.B.I. internship. Back at school she has to contend with The Castle while a student who works as a Drag Queen enlists her help to stop the harassment he is enduring.

Spoilers: Through The Bitch is Back

Disclaimer: As much as I would love to own them, I don't. The characters belong to Rob Thomas & the WB. No copyright infringement is intended. This is for entertainment only. I am not making any money off this.

A/N: Special thanks to my beta LateVMLover. Despite our disagreements about commas she is an invaluable resource.

Chapter 1: Homecoming

Dropping her bags next to the door with a thud, the petite blonde squatted to greet the brown pit bull who launched himself at her wagging his whole body in happiness because his mistress was home. "Backup" she cooed, rubbing him behind the ears in that way all dogs love. The dog's infections energy counterbalanced her jet lag. "How've you been boy? Did you protect Daddy all summer like a good boy?"

"Is that you honey?" Keith Mars inquired emerging from the back room. "I thought your flight got in at 9 tonight. I was going to pick you up."

Kissing her father's cheek Veronica could barely suppress a grin at his disorganization, "Nine this morning, Dad. Nine this morning. And it's fine. Wallace picked me up."

"Are you sure? I could have sworn you said nine tonight." Keith looked perplexed. "And I thought he was in Africa."

"He's back," Veronica assured her befuddled father. "If you would just break down and get a Blackberry, Dad. It has a calendar feature and e-mail. I could have sent the flight information to your phone. It's a little thing called tech-nol-o-gy." Veronica flopped down in the oversized stripped chair in the living room in mock exasperation. "I don't know how you managed without me all summer."

"Who said I managed?" teased the seasoned private eye, not really trying to make her feel guilty. It was good to have his only daughter home but he wasn't going to tell her how empty his life had been without her all summer.

Sitting across from her trying to keep a lid on his enthusiasm, Keith asked, "So how was the life of a big time F.B.I. agent? I bet you are going to miss it, now that you are back home and a mere mortal again."

FLASHBACK

Collapsing on her bed in the Quantico dorms and kicking off her uncomfortable high heels, Veronica glared at her cell phone: four text messages from Piz and one missed call. Wearily, she put the phone down on the whitewashed pressboard nightstand. These rooms were worse than the dorms at Hearst. The digital clock radio flashed 10:13 p.m. Ironic. That was the universal law enforcement code for officer down, in need of assistance.

She was in no mood for this conversation or what she knew would be the inevitable outcome but she'd been putting him off too long.

Reluctantly, Veronica sat up and hit redial.

After two rings, Piz's chipper voice crackled over her phone. "Hello, beautiful! Did you have a good day of saving the world from evil?'

Rolling her eyes, Veronica secretly despised Piz's need to trivialize her internship. He was working in the marketing department of an indie radio station. Where did that compare to the most elite law enforcement agency in the world? "I'm tired. It's been a long day." He didn't need to know that most of it was spent filing, fetching coffee and cleaning up the messes real agents made when they drank their coffee. She was years away from any actual crime fighting.

"I just wanted to hear your voice," Piz practically whined.

Although she felt bad for being annoyed when he was simply trying to be sweet, Veronica couldn't stop herself, "Well you heard it. I'm going to go to sleep now. Five a.m. comes way too early around here especially when you have to run the obstacle training course. "

Every agent was required to maintain top physical fitness, even the interns. Veronica had never been pushed so hard in her life. During the first week she could barely move after the grueling work outs, but now in week six she was in the best shape of her life. She was tougher and faster in every way. The muscles of her arms and legs had more detail. Even her core was stronger and flatter. She may be tiny but she was wiry and nimble, much hardier than her demure size conveyed.

"That's my girl. So this weekend . . . What time are you arriving?"

Shit. Veronica cringed. She had forgotten that she had promised Piz that she would get up to New York to see him. Pitchfork media was hosting some blow out concert at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands and Piz was going to get them backstage, all-access passes.

She sighed audibly but before she could formulate her usual excuses – too tired . . . need to study . . . . national emergency - Piz cut her off. "Let me guess. You're not coming . . . again."

"Piz," she began wearily, "I'm . . ."

"Sorry," he finished for her. "You're always sorry. Of course you are. But this is important. I did so much work for this concert. I wanted you here."

"I know but. . . "

"Look I was gonna tell you when you got here. Talk to you about some sort of a plan but . . . Pitchfork offered me a job."

"A job? Good for you!" Veronica was genuinely excited for him. This was his dream job. Not many college students had the chance to break into big time broadcasting so young.

"It's here in the City. I'll be transferring to Hunter College for the fall semester," he informed her matter-of-factly.

"Transferring . . . ," Veronica let the idea roll off her tongue.

"I thought we could talk about the logistics when you got here. How we'd work out the whole long distance thing but that's a joke now, isn't it?" He chuckled bitterly.

"Piz,"

"Save it. We couldn't work out the long distance thing for one summer. How'd I ever think we'd manage for a whole year?" he sighed dejectedly.

"We were both just so busy," Veronica offered by way of explanation. "Maybe it will be easier when we are just trying to juggle school."

"Easier?" Piz snorted. "I don't think so. As soon as you get back home, you are going to be pulled in so many multiple directions and I bet I can guess who will be pulling most of your strings."

"Hey! That's not fair. You're my boyfriend."

"Am I?" Piz lamented. "Veronica, you are a great girl. Fantastic - even way more than I could have ever dared or dreamed to ask for. I'm a simple country boy from Beaverton who just wants to chill and listen to music. But you . . . you are Veronica Mars . . superhero. Always riding to the rescue of the downtrodden. An F.B.I. agent."

"It's who I am."

"I know but it's not who I am. It's not who I want to be."

There was a long silence on the phone. A lone tear teetered on the rim of her eye unsure whether to fall, waiting to be blinked back.

"Let's just end this now, Veronica, before it gets any worse and we have to fight over custody of Wallace."

"If that's what you want," Veronica whispered.

"Good-bye, Veronica," Piz hung up the phone leaving her alone in her dorm with a dead connection, wondering how it is that even when you wanted out of a particular relationship that wasn't working anyway it still hurts to be the one who got dumped.

END FLASHBACK