Prologue

"What's wrong with you today, Veronica?" She thought to herself for the thousandth time that day. It was more like a rhetorical question since she knew exactly what was wrong with her. It had been ten years since that day that changed her more than anybody could ever know. Ten years since her father told her that the Neptune sheriff had been badly beaten by an assailant and was in a coma and nobody knew if he would ever come out of it. It had hit her harder than it should have and she couldn't figure out why. She hated this man the whole time she'd known him, didn't she? This is the same man who'd laughed at her after she reported to him that she had been raped when she had been in high school, the man who'd humiliated her father time and time again, yet she couldn't help but feel like a part of her heart had just stopped beating when those words left her dad's mouth.

She didn't know if her dad could see it on her face at the time but if he did he didn't let on. She went to the hospital every single day like clockwork, when she knew that no one else would be there and she could be alone with him. It shouldn't have bothered her, people knowing she went to see him, but it did. After the same routine for six months, she was walking to his room when she realized there was something different. The room was full of people, nurses, doctors, and his family who she had never met but she had seen time after time before her visits. He was awake, it was the first thought that entered her brain and after confirming her suspicions with the desk nurse, the flowers she held in her arms fell to the ground and she started crying. She didn't realize she was crying until she felt her tears hit her arms and she couldn't stop them. He was awake and she was unbelievably happy but at the same time she was crying because she knew she couldn't just waltz in there. Everyone would be confused, who was she and why was she here? She could just imagine the look on Don Lambs' face; Veronica Mars, in his hospital room with flowers and tears in her eyes. No, she couldn't go in there. As fast as she walked in, she turned around and walked right back out.

She hadn't been back to the hospital after that, there really wasn't any need for her to go and have him laugh in her face when he found out she had been there every day. About a month and a half later she had just gotten out of the shower when she heard somebody knocking on her door. Her dad was out of town tracking a bail jumper so she threw on a robe and ran to the door and what she saw before her was the last thing she expected to see. Standing there in all his wonder was Don Lamb, looking healthy and a lot more uncomfortable than she would have expected. Apparently the nurse at the hospital had told him how often she had visited and he was more than shocked but had to hear it from her before he could fully believe it. They talked for hours and unbeknownst to them at the time, they had begun a beautiful friendship. Over the next year or so they had spent almost every day together and had gotten to know each other better than ever. They both agreed to not mention their friendship to Keith or Logan for obvious reasons, even though they were just friends those two would always see it differently and Veronica and Logan where just starting a new beautiful friendship again. After a while, Veronica finally admitted to herself that she had feelings for Lamb and had for a while, which would explain why she had spent so much time with him in the hospital. It was her junior year at Hearst and she was so positive that he felt the same way that she planned a whole night of movie watching and dinner and she was going to tell him how she felt. He agreed to the "friend" night as she called it because he had something to tell her as well and he was really excited about it. Come to find out his big news was that he was seeing somebody and he was sure she was the one. He had waited to mention the news to her because he wanted to see where it would go. After finding that out, she was sure she just needed to get him out of her mind and they grew apart. She and Logan started dating again and things were going better than ever. She would see Lamb once a week, sometimes not as often, but he was busy with his girlfriend and she was busy with Logan and school. A year passed and graduation was there before she knew it and she had a big decision to make; leave her friends and family here in Neptune and go across the country to intern at the FBI or stay here and figure out her life one day at a time. She was so close to choosing to stay with everybody she knew and loved until she received the phone call that literally changed her life. He was getting married to his soul mate and she knew then in that moment that she had to leave and get away from Neptune, California.

So that's what's wrong with her. Ten years ago today she received the news that led her down the path of finding her love and losing her love but hey, it led her to where she is today, a very successful FBI agent living in Washington D.C., doing what she loves.