Disclaimer: I don not own Veronica Mars or any of the characters used. They belong to Rob Thomas.
Spoilers up to 2.16 Rapes of Graff
AN: I am not sure what made me write this, I am not a Dick/Veronica shipper, and I love Sheriff Lamb. I started it a long time ago and finished when I could sleep.
Summary: When Dick finds out who Madison's new boyfriend is he is not happy. Slight DiVe.
"Hey Veronica" Dick stops Veronica on her way to English class. "I need you to do me a favor." Veronica looks at him like he is crazy. "I would pay you"
"What is it, if I have time I will look into it." Veronica's case load is pretty full, trying to solve the rape at Hearst. She does not need to waste her time with Dick's problems.
"It's Madison, we just broke up and her friend said she has moved on. She said it was someone older." Realizing how desperate he sounds, Dick adds, "Not that I'm jealous or anything. But we were together for like a really long time."
Veronica already knows who Madison is with, she saw the tape from the elevator, but knowledge is valuable. "Five hundred dollars, half now and the rest when I deliver the news."
"Fine." Dick sighs. He pulls out his wallet and starts counting bills. Veronica realizes she should not be surprised that an 09'er like him carries that much cash daily. When he handed her the wad of cash she pulles out a pen and paper and scribbled a name: Sheriff Don Lamb, and handed it to Dick.
The look on Dick's face is unreadable, even for a seasoned private eye like Veronica. His face looks surprised but his eyes are almost sad. Maybe he had not gotten over Madison as well as he claimed.
"I guess I owe you two hundred and fifty dollars." Dick says to Veronica with out emotion.
Veronica feels almost sorry for him, although she is not quite sure why. "You can pay me later. If you want to see evidence, swing by my dad's office after school."
"No," Dick responds quickly, "I would rather get this taken care of now." As Dick counts out the rest of the money Veronica notices someone walking down the hall and mutters "speak of the devil." Dick turns around to see none other than Sheriff Lamb walking down the hall with Deputy Sacks.
"Veronica Mars," Lamb greets her in a manner that is not exactly friendly, and then notices the large amount of money she is holding and Dick standing next to her. "I am here about some rumored drug dealings. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" He stares at her hands and the money and pops his gum. Lamb notices Dick making a weird face and staring at him, "What's wrong with your friend?" Lamb directs at Veronica. Before she has a chance to respond, Dick takes a swing at Lamb. He makes contact with his jaw, sending the sheriff a few steps backward. Sacks puts handcuffs on Dick for assaulting a police officer. Dick remains silent as Sacks escorts him down the hall. Once Sheriff Lamb regains his balance he follows them out.
Once the small crowd who had gathered to see what the sheriff wanted broke away, Veronica is once again alone at her locker. She decides that protecting Dick from anything else stupid he might do is more important than her English class next period.
Within minutes Veronica is pulling up to the sheriff's department and getting out of her car. Veronica walks into the building and sees Sacks looking at paperwork. "Did you book him yet?" Veronica asks before Sacks looks up.
"Just waiting for the sheriff to fill out the paperwork," Sacks replies "It might take a while because his lip is bleeding pretty badly. The kid had a pretty good swing at him. Any idea what it was about?"
"Lovers quarrel" Veronica replies. "Is Lamb in his office?"
Sacks looks confused by her answer to his question. "Yeah, but I don't think he wants any visitors."
"I'll just be a minute" Veronica says letting herself into the office.
"You are not going to charge him." She says to Lamb who has not looked up from his papers.
"Like hell," Lamb replies. Sacks was right, his lip was pretty bad. "You saw him hit me; I will be expecting a witness statement from you."
"It's all yours. If you don't mind all of Neptune finding out about your girlfriend. Think about it. What would angry voters do if they found out you were sleeping with a girl in high school. We both know how easy it is to have a sheriff thrown out of office." Veronica new she could get him.
"You don't have proof of anything." Veronica could tell that Lamb was worried but he was not going to give up easily. Opening her messenger bag she pulled out a disk. She handed it to Lamb who put it in his laptop and pressed play. When he saw himself and Madison in the elevator on the screen he slammed the computer shut. She had won, again.
"That will really go over well. I am sure I can have it online by the end of the night. Tomorrow morning the county commissioner will be here to escort you from your office. Just think about all the attention you will get. I know you love to be the center of attention." Veronica reaches across his desk and removes the dvd from the computer. "Unless you wanted to keep it," Veronica says with a smile.
"Sacks," Lamb yells, "Let Dick Casablancas off with a warning." As Veronica is about to exit his office he asks her one last question, "Why are you so worried about him, Veronica? Are you together or do you just hate me?"
Honestly, veronica hadn't thought about why she was doing what she was doing, she just knew it was the right thing to do. She chose to remain silent and exited the office. She met Dick in the reception area.
"Hey, Veronica," he greets her like nothing has happened, "I was wondering if I could get a ride back to school with you. My car is there and I really don't want anybody to know about this."
"Fine," Veronica replies, not really sure how she feels about Dick in her car, "But I get to pick the music."
"Ok, but I draw the like at the Backstreet Boys." Dick says catching her attempt to make the situation less awkward.
"Damn, I finally broke down and bought the Never Gone album." Veronica smiles and unlocks the car door for Dick.
The ride back to school is quiet except for the radio playing softly in the background. By the time they get back to school the final bell is about to ring and Dick decides he is going to go home instead of back to class. When Veronica stops at his car to let him out Dick turns to Veronica, "Thanks for this, all of this." Veronica can tell he is not used to thanking people for favors. "If you want I'd like to do something, sometime, if you want. Maybe I could take you out to dinner." Dick starts to open the door.
Veronica is stunned. Did Dick Casablancas just ask her out? This is the same Dick who has treated her like crap for years, he even left a flaming bag of dog poop on her front porch. Of course she should turn him down. This is just business, after all. If she is not attracted to him, why is it so hard for her to say no? Suddenly something slips out of her mouth, "That would be nice." Did she really just accept an offer from Dick Casablacnas. Dick nods and gets out of her car.
"I'll call you sometime." He says with a genuine smile. When he closes the door Veronica drives to her apartment to take a hot shower and relax, that's just what she needs for a day like today.