Outsider
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the OCs.
Another VM story from me. This is basically a VM mystery from an outsider's point of view.
Day 1.
New Jersey.
The thing that tipped him off at first was that the door was ajar.
The door was never left open, not in the thirteen years that he had lived in his house, not even if his uncle quickly walked the seven feet from the house to get something from their parked car. His parents had made sure that there was a bolt on every door as well as a normal lock and that they had an alarm system that he suspected they'd copied from Fort Knox.
The door was never just left open.
Jamie stood at the top of the gravelled path that led to his house, his school bag slung over his shoulder. He looked at his house that was like every other house in the street and for a fleeting moment he thought that something had happened.
He pushed that thought from his mind quickly. Nothing ever happened in the small town in New Jersey. The last scandal was when his parents walked out on him when he was five and left him with his uncle.
He sighed and glanced at the house next door, belonging to his friend Casey, who he had just walked home with. She was a foster kid and the only other person in the house was her foster brother who was probably passed out in his room, still recovering from his adventures the night before.
He shook his head and put one foot in front of the other until he reached the door. He pushed it open, looking into the dark hall. Every window was covered with curtains because Uncle Ted said he didn't like it when people could see into the house. But it was quiet, really quiet. He couldn't hear his uncle working in his study or in the kitchen.
Jamie dropped his bag by the door and called out "Uncle Ted?"
Jamie jumped when he heard a thump from the back room and the sudden creak of the floorboards like footsteps.
"Uncle Ted?" He yelled again as he walked forward. A hand shot out from the sitting room door and covered his mouth, smothering another yell while an arm pulled him into the room. Jamie was pulled downwards until he was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall.
He looked beside him to see Uncle Ted crouching and panting. "What is going on?" Jamie asked, his words muffled by his uncle's hand.
Uncle Ted looked at him and paused. "Listen to me carefully and don't. Make. A. Sound."
Jamie was frozen but he managed to nod. There was more creaking and footsteps from the rooms on the other side of the house. Someone was looking for them.
"I can't believe they found us," Ted whispered, almost to himself.
He looked at Jamie and said "There are three people in this house and they want to kill me and maybe you too."
Jamie's eyes widened and his uncle continued. "We need to get to the cupboard in the hall upstairs. On the top shelf is a gym bag. I'm going to cause a distraction and you will get the bag and then get to the car. Get the bag and run. Don't stop for anything. Anything. And if anything happens, you need to get to Neptune, Califorina. Neptune. No police. Do you understand?"
Jamie nodded and Ted slowly lifted his hand away. The adrenaline was pumping through his veins and he had no clue what was going on. But something was telling him he could do this and to follow instructions. Jamie heard the floorboards creek on the other side of the wall. Somebody was in the hallway, only the wall separating them.
Uncle Ted held up one finger, then two. Jamie saw the countdown and when Uncle Ted held up a third finger and then sprang up; he pushed himself off the floor and sprinted out the other door that led to the stairs.
He heard a shout and some noises like punches but he took the stairs three at a time and hit the landing. He pulled open the hall closet and after seeing the bag, grabbed it and shut the door.
Jaime turned to see a man, tall and built; arrive at the top of the stairs. They both froze and then the man charged at him. On instinct Jamie ran forwards instead of back and when they met Jamie crouched down so the man tripped over him. He stood up, throwing the man over his back and flipping him to the ground.
Jamie didn't stop; he flew down the stairs nearly tripping at the bottom. He ran towards the open door but stopped when another man appeared in front of him. The man smirked, the scar on his cheek stretching like elastic.
"Hello, Scott."
Jamie frowned and stammered, "I-I'm not-."
Suddenly Ted appeared wrapping his arm around the man's neck in a chokehold. The two of them struggled and Ted called, "Forget the car! Just run!"
Jaime took off. He skidded on the gravel trying to keep hold on the bag. He ran down the street and around the corner.
Suddenly he stopped. Instead of running down the street, he threw the bag over the fence and then hopped over it into Casey's yard. He picked up the bag from the now crushed flower bed and made his way to the door, opening it, slipping inside and closing it behind him.
He stood there for a few minutes in Casey's laundry room looking out of the window, peaking to see if anyone walked by the fence. He turned when Casey walked into the room.
"Jamie?" she asked, "What are you doing here? What is going on?"
Jamie stood there panting and he said, "That is a very good question."
Ohio.
Jane and Carl were sitting at the kitchen table, the picture of a normal couple. The roast was well done, the vegetables were cooked and the cutlery shone. A normal couple, a normal family, living in Ohio.
He smiled slightly at this thought, watching them from his place on the other side of the table. If only they were normal.
"Is something funny Alex?" Jane asked her head tilted to the side in question.
Alex. That was his name now. It had been for a few months until they moved along again. He really needed to remember their new names too.
"Nothing," he mumbled.
There was a beeping from Carl's phone and both of their heads snapped towards the device that was sitting beside his wine glass. Alex frowned. His phone had never done that before.
Carl stood up and grabbed the phone answering it quickly and walking out of the room.
"Alex, go finish your homework," Jane ordered and Alex didn't dare tell her he had none. He stood up and walked towards the stairs.
As he slowly walked up the stairs, Alex could hear Carl hang up the phone and start talking to Jane. He heard fragments of their conversation. Something about 'Ted', 'New Jersey' and the 'files'. He never knew why they were running, having fake names and stories. Carl and Jane had always told him it was to protect him. But by the sounds of it, things just got very complicated.
"Is Jamie ok?" Jane asked quickly.
"Ted says that when got away himself, Jaime was nowhere in sight."
When Jane frowned Carl replied, "I'm sure he's fine. The kid's a natural fighter and Ted says his instinct is like no others. Plus they're not after Jaime. He is of no interest to them. It's Scott that they want."
Jane looked towards the stairs and then back at her husband. Carl picked up the phone again to dial a number. Jane watched him. The phone he had was like no other in fact there were special made and there were only a few like them. They had one, so did Veronica and Logan and according to Ted, Jamie had the one that was in the bag while Ted had managed to hang onto his own. He had given Jamie strict instructions and she only hoped he would follow.
California.
On the other side country Veronica Mars picked up her phone from the coffee table, the California sun shining in the windows and read the quick text message. Her heart dropped and she yelled out "LOGAN!" causing her husband to run into the room. They hadn't aged much, the years had been kind to them but tell-tell signs of worry marred their faces now.
"Scott?" he asked.
"He's fine," Veronica said, "But they're closing in. The house in New Jersey was attacked."
Logan sighed and placed an arm around Veronica. "What about Carl and Jane's boy?"
"He's ok too. But I'm guessing both of them are confused."
"Aren't we all?" he muttered. The two stood in the room, leaning on each other. Logan looked over Veronica's blonde head to look at the photo standing on the mantelpiece, the smiling face of three year old boy looking back at him.
Veronica turned to look at it as well. "We'll get him back some day," she said, "We will be a family."
Logan didn't doubt it.
New Jersey.
Jamie was sitting at her kitchen table while Casey got him a glass of water. He watched as she filled the glass, her blonde hair pulled up in a messy ponytail, and she turned off the tap, walking over to place the glass in front of him.
"Go through it all again," she said, trying to make sense of it all.
Jamie sighed. You can't make sense out of something that you knew nothing about. "There are men who tried to kill me and my uncle- who seems to have developed some form of ninja skills- and all I know is that I'm supposed to take this." He gestured towards the gym bag that was sitting on the table. "To some town called Neptune in California. And I'm not allowed go to police about this. How does any of that make sense?"
Casey sat down at the table and replied, "Is there anything else?"
Jaime sighed and shrugged, "One of the guys called me Scott. I don't know any Scott and I'm not him so...maybe he's the guy they're after as well. Plus my uncle said something about them finding us."
"Sounds like you guys were on the run or something," Casey said.
When Jamie gave her a disbelieving look she replied, "Hey do you know how many foster homes I ran away from? All those phrase you're using and the bag really sound like you were in hiding. Maybe your uncle was involved with something."
Jamie snorted, "The man colour codes his shirts and alphabetises everything. I doubt he's a dangerous fugitive."
Casey tilted her head, "What about your parents?"
Jamie shrugged and raised a hand to touch the necklace around his neck. The silver chain held a ring that he had had for years. Uncle Ted said he has found it in the dirt one day and that his parents had wanted him to throw it away. He had kept it though and Jaime considered it his first act of rebellion against the people who left him anyways.
"There was no mention of them and they've been gone for years."
"Well at least you know what to do now," Casey said, "Go to Neptune."
"Are you crazy?"
"That where your uncle told you to go-."
"Would you stop yelling?"
The two of them turned to the doorway to see Casey's foster brother, Tom, standing there, sleepy and in the same clothes that he had worn the night before. Casey tensed and replied, "Sorry." Jaime kept a close eye on Tom as he walked forward, swiping the glass of water from the table. He drained it dry and tossed to back in front of Jaime. Tom glanced around and then shuffled back towards the stairs.
"This place looks like shit!" he called, "Clean it before I get pissed."
They waited until they heard the slam of his door and then Casey let out a sigh. Jamie hated leaving in this house filled with people who treated her like crap.
"I'll go to Neptune if you come with me."
She stared at him for a moment and replied, "Why Jamie, I thought you'd never ask."
Minutes later they were in her room, Casey throwing clothes into a bag and Jamie staring at one. He was sat on her bed with the gym bag in front of him and finally Casey said, "You might as well open it now. We need to know what's in there."
Jamie sighed. Somehow he felt like there was no going back when he opened the bag. But he still reached forward and pulled the zip. The two of them looked into it.
"Well at least you don't have to pack," Casey commented after a moment. There were clothes in the bag, in Jamie and Ted's sizes as well as an extra pair of shoes. A laptop sat beside the clothes as well as a phone and what looked like another small bag.
Pulling this bag onto his lap, Jamie opened this as well. His jaw dropped at the sight of at least ten piles of fifty dollar notes. "There is at least 10 grand in there," Casey breathed.
Jamie put the bag back and the caught sight of something else that was under it. He hesitated at holding it but pulled out the hand gun. "Why do I think this got even more dangerous?"
"Just put it back," Casey said and Jamie quickly put it back at the bottom of the bag. Casey grabbed her bag while Jamie took the phone.
Turning it on and going straight to phonebook, he said, "There are no contacts in this thing, only words."
Casey looked at the screen too as she put her laptop in her bag. "Try that one," she said pointing to the one labelled 'Car'.
Jamie tapped the screen and a load of information appeared. A phone number, a name and an address for someplace in their town. "We need to get a car, fastest and safest way to get someplace without having to give information," Casey said.
Jamie nodded and pressed the call button. Putting it on speaker the two friends listened to the ring and then heard a man's voice say, "What is the emergency?"
They paused and Jamie looked at the phone. He didn't want to wait too long so he blurted out, "Scott."
There was a mumbling as someone seemed to be cursing and then the man said, "Sunside Mall parking lot. Third level, space 23."
The man hung up and Jamie put the phone back in his pocket. "I guess we have a car," Casey said.
Later.
It was dark by the time they were on the road. The car was where the man said it was, with the keys in the ignition.
Jamie felt the need to check the car over for tracers, telling Casey it was what they did in the movies. He was too afraid to tell her that it was his instinct telling him that. Just like it was instinct telling him to rush the man back at the house instead of run and to hide in Casey's house instead of run around like a headless chicken.
He was now sitting in the driver's seat while Casey slept beside him. He watched as the lights beside the road whizzed by, the miles to Neptune California dropping away.
That morning when he left for school, he never thought he would be doing this just a few hours later. He was way out of his depth and the only thing that kept him from freaking out about all the sudden turn of events was the fact that he had a goal. Get to Neptune.
Scared that his mind would drift to dangerous waters, he flipped on the radio. Music blared out, jolting Casey awake. Jamie quickly turned it down and apologised. She shrugged and Jamie changed the stations to hear the late news.
"...and there was another arrest made today in the bank robbery case in California. The police have extended their thanks to Veronica Mars, an independent private eye that has helped the police on this case as well as many others."
Jamie frowned and mumbled, "Veronica Mars...Mars...I've heard that name before."
Casey looked at him as he reached out and grabbed the phone from the dashboard and then pulled it off him. "No phone while driving," she said, "Where will I look?"
"Contacts," he said, "Under M."
She searched and then stopped, "There's a Mars here...but it's not Veronica. It's Scott. And there is nothing else. Coincidence?"
Jamie gripped the steering wheel. "You were right; this must have something to do with my parents. They are the only ones I think of and Veronica Mars is in California."
Casey nodded, "This guy seems to be in the middle of it."
Jaime only nodded and stayed silent. Scott Mars had a lot of explaining to do.