Merry Christmas Everyone! Have a safe and happy New Year!
People dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry deck the halls of the Echolls' Christmas Party, as Veronica and Weevil make their way towards the food buffet. With the same as ease as she had a long time ago, she picks up a plate for herself and one for Weevil. She passes him the plate as she begins to fill her own from the table of goodies.
"You are a natural at this stuff V" Weevil says once both their plates are almost filled with delicious food. Veronica shrugs, picking up a little ginger bread man and placing him on her plate. "Don't you think I just blend right in? Hey look" Weevil says, stepping back from the buffet table and further into the crowd. "Where's Weevil?" he asks, jutting his chin out and standing still, trying to look inconspicuous. Veronica chuckles.
"Years of practice," she replies, as Weevil joins her back at the buffet table.
Veronica spots Jake Kane disappearing down a corridor off from the main Party area, alone. She can't help but want to corner him to ask about her Mother and Clarence Weidman, but another lone figure gains her attention. Logan Echolls standing all by himself at his own house, and looking just a little bit lost and hurt.
"Can you hold this for me?" she says, passing her plate of food to Weevil absentmindedly before making a bee-line over to where Logan is leaning against the bar. The gloomy expression filters off from his face when she approaches him, instead a smirk takes its place.
"Nice sleuthing skills Detective Mars, did you use your giant magnifying glass to find the clues?" he asks sarcastically. Veronica rolls her eyes and grabs a can of soda from behind him, handing one to Logan as well. He nods his thanks, knowing that this is a social call not an accusatory one, as they both lean back against the bar and crack open their drinks.
"I vaguely remember teaching you how to play poker years ago, but how did you get so good?" he asks after a moment of comfortable silence. Veronica grins, turning to look up at Logan.
"Who do you think?" she replies. The same grin starts to spread across his face as he realizes who Veronica is talking about.
"Lily. Of course," he says taking a sip of his drink; a truce being instigated for the one person that could bring them together in peace, someone they both loved deeply.
"Yeah, she wanted to keep it a secret so I could hustle you and Duncan next time we played. But..." Veronica trails off, looking up at Logan with an apologetic frown; her jaw clenched and her lips pursed as if holding herself back from talking in fear of hurting them both.
"God, I miss her so much," he half whispers. Veronica doesn't know if he was talking to himself or to her, but she reaches out and squeezes his arm anyway. They were in the same boat. Not a day would go by without Veronica thinking about Lily. She was, is, her best friend and she would do anything to have her back. But she's not coming back. The thought causes bile to raise in Veronica's throat. She swallows thickly and tries to hide to pain on her face from Logan's perceptive gaze.
"I miss her too," she whispers in reply, looking out into the crowd instead of at Logan. She can't stand to admit the pain she feels, let alone see the hurt plain as day on his face.
"Yeah." He half-sighs the word, as if accepting the weight of the situation on his shoulders. There is a pause in their conversation, and Veronica considers how she got to be standing there talking to Logan. He was just standing by the bar, not talking to anyone, and something in Veronica made her walk over to him. They were friends once.
"You know how Weevil made us all strip so he could search us?" Logan says, interrupting Veronica's thoughts, his voice lighter as he begins to chuckle to himself.
"Ooh, steamy," Veronica replies, mock fanning herself, also trying desperately to lighten the mood of their conversation.
"Me and Duncan were both wearing the boxers Lily got us for Christmas the year before," he continues, rolling his eyes at Veronica's quip. He looks down at her with a genuine smile filled with that familiar warmth that he used to give to her when they were friends.
"The ones with the reindeers?" she asks, grinning up at him. He nods his head and Veronica bursts out laughing. "I remember those!" she says between breaths. Logan joins her laughter and for a moment neither of them can breathe.
"Yep, the very same. I don't know how we were both wearing them at the same time. Gave Weevil a good laugh," he says once they both recovered from their laughing fit.
"She demanded you guys try them on that day! When I was looking for film to give you for her video, I found those photos." Veronica says smiling nostalgically.
"Of course you had photos of that. You took your damn camera everywhere with you," he says shaking his head in mock annoyance. "I swear you caught every embarrassing moment of my life on tape," Logan says, a nostalgic smile on his own face now, the memories of their happy childhood coming to mind.
"Do you remember the time you and Duncan tried to slide down the giant staircase in your house, with a sleigh?" Veronica says, grinning at the memory.
"We were thirteen and Lily promised the both of us twenty dollars if we did it," he says in defense. "And you filmed the whole thing, until I fell off and hit the wall," he says glancing at Veronica, still smiling.
"You got a bloody nose and bled all over my favourite shorts," Veronica supplies.
"And then you ran to the kitchen and grabbed ice from the freezer for my nose. Then as you were running back you slipped and hurt your ankle," Logan says, remembering the event as clearly as Veronica does. "Lily had ran off to find my Mum, and Duncan had tried to clean up the blood stains from the floor, because he knew we'd all be in trouble for using the sleigh inside. So I had to stifle my nose with tissues and carry you to the living room. Where we used the ice, that you grabbed, for your ankle instead of my nose," Veronica smiles oddly up at Logan and he smirks down at her. "Yeah I remember that day," he says.
"What are you guys talking about?" Duncan says approaching the two of them with a confused expression on his face. Logan and Veronica look at one another and smile genuinely.
"Lily," they both reply at the same time. Duncan looks taken aback, but then his features soften into a nostalgic smile. Then he grins at Logan.
"Did you tell her about the reindeer boxers?" he asks, his face matching the other two.
"Yep," Logan replies. "We were just reminiscing about the sleigh incident."
"Where both of you got injured and your Mum thought I'd murdered the cat?" Duncan asks, remembering the aftermath of the catastrophic event.
"She started screaming and we all thought she was upset about the sleigh," Veronica says, suddenly remembering, and laughing at the memory. The boys joined in the laughter, doubling over in mirth.
Everyone knows that Christmas is a time for miracles, but not even Santa would have believed that Duncan Kane and Logan Echolls would be found laughing and reminiscing with Veronica Mars at the Echolls' Annual Christmas Party. Maybe time really can heal all wounds, even the most poisonous and painful. Or maybe, just once, at Christmas, enemies can wave white flags; ex's can be friends; and Mars' and Echolls' can make amends. Maybe Santa is real after-all. The fake snow and tinsel may just be for show, but sometimes Christmas can touch a person, or three to be precise, deeper than the stockings hanging above their fireplace.