A/N: I own nothing. From 2.22 "Happy Go Lucky."
"Your father caught you in a compromising situation with Mr. Echolls, didn't he, Veronica?" The defense attorney smiled at Veronica, but it wasn't a real smile. It was a "cat with a mouse under his front paw" smile.
"Compromising?" she asked.
"You and Mr. Echolls had a relationship."
"Excuse me?"
"Were you afraid to tell your father?"
"You know," Veronica burst out, and then remembered to check herself. "My father told me to restrain myself. To remain calm. However, I cannot do so if this court continues to allow questions which have absolutely no basis in reality. What Mr. Echolls has told this court, under oath, is a complete and utter lie-"
"Miss Mars, silence!" the judge looked sharply to Veronica. "You may have to be dismissed from the witness stand. Please continue to answer the councillor's questions."
"I will. If he'll answer two of mine." Veronica said, in a quieter tone. "Would you mind explaining," she asked Mr. Echolls's lawyer, "Why, if everything Mr. Aaron Echolls said is true, why was my father sent to the hospital with second-degree burns? And why," she asked, "are you so afraid to simply ask me to recount my recollection of that evening, the way that Mr. Aaron Echolls was privileged to do?"
"Miss Mars, that is not pertinent." The lawyer said. "Now, to move on-"
"Councillor," the judge interrupted him. "I think, that as a key witness to the events of that night, Miss Mars should be permitted to relate her perspective."
"Miss Mars," the lawyer said grudgingly, "What are your recollections from that evening, following the Kanes' Christmas party?"
"I drove away from the party, with the tapes of evidence. Mr. Echolls was in the backseat of my car. He attempted to reach for the tapes, and seemed intent on injuring me. I drove my car purposefully into a telephone pole, and escaped from it with the tapes, but without my cell phone. I ran to the nearest house. I scattered the few tapes throughout the junk by the side of the house. Mr. Echolls came from the car, and assaulted me. When I regained consciousness, I was in a confined space, a refrigerator, with a walkie talkie from my car.
"He...he spoke to me from the other walkie talkie. He drenched the refrigerator with gasoline. I could smell it. My dad showed up then, because I could hear them struggling. Mr. Echolls rendered my father unconscious," she looked right at Aaron Echolls, "and then set fire to the refrigerator. With me inside." Veronica waited for the court's reaction before continuing. Many looked shocked. "My father, who was bleeding from the head, set me free from the burning refrigerator, and was burned severely himself. He was sent to the hospital, while Mr. and Mrs. Jake Kane, who had shown up with Duncan, were taken in for obstruction of justice. Aaron Echolls was arrested. My father spent several days in the hospital. Did the hospital lose all records of him having been there? Or did you just not bother checking?" she directed the questions to the lawyer. "Did I leave anything out, Mr. Echolls?" she asked.
The court sat in stunned silence. "Mr. Echolls," the judge asked, "Did you or did you not set fire to a refrigerator with Veronica Mars trapped inside?" Veronica glared at him.
"I did." he exhaled.
"Why?"
"She was going to ruin my life."
"Mr. Echolls," the judge said, "she just did anyway."
The jury deliberated for some time, and then returned with their verdict. The foreman stood and read each charge out loud, with the jury finding him, on every count, guilty.
Veronica knew then, for the first time in a long time in Neptune, that everything was as it should be. She walked outside into the bright sunshine and saw Logan.
"Are you okay?" she asked, quietly.
"Not yet. I'm going to be." he said, leaning toward her, and enveloping her in a hug. "I'm going to be okay."