5 things Mac learned about Weevil while on a stakeout for Veronica

Weevil has a very big family. Tons of sisters and brothers, all older—he's the baby. When he was seven his mother died and six months later his father was sent to prison for murder. He'd never seen him again. When Weevil told her this he said it matter of factly with no hint of any feeling about it. If she'd only been listening she'd have thought he was a bitter callous person, but after he said it he'd turned to look at her and his eyes radiated so much pain she could feel it in her bones.

Weevil got his nickname from his cousin, not from his gang. He'd been twelve at the time and had stepped between his cousin and a huge bully. The bully had gone down fast and hard and the name had been his ever since.

Weevil really hates violence. This would seem strange for a man who spent time in jail for abduction, assault and who barely managed to plead out of a murder charge, but it was the truth. His father never hit his mother, but when they argued he sometimes grabbed her and shook her and he tells her that his father used to swat him aside when he tried to help her. When he tells her she listens, but she doesn't really get it until a few weeks later. They are on a stakeout and she and Dick are arguing, again, and when she turns to walk away Dick grabs her arm, twisting it as he yanks her back against him. The next thing she knows Dick is on the floor and Weevil…..Eli is rubbing his thumb over her wrist to soothe her. She really gets it then.

Eli hates small spaces. It's a new fear, he tells her, only he doesn't use the word fear and he mutters something about jail afterwards that she can't catch even though she's only a hairs breath away from him. He paces the elevator back and forth, back and forth until she can't take it anymore and practically begs him to stop. He does for a few seconds, sitting next to her in the small car, but his hands begin to twitch, then his feet and she can see that he is seconds from climbing the walls and she doesn't think of the consequence, just reaches up and pulls him down to her, seals her mouth over his until neither of them can breathe. Neither of them move again until the elevator does.

She knows that he wishes he could take her to expensive restaurants, buy her expensive jewelry, but she doesn't, because what he does do is so much more wonderful. He brings her a rose for no reason, he opens the door for her, he remembers what flavor of ice cream she likes when she's sad, he watches Grease with her and never once makes fun of her, he checks her oil and tires every month, he tells her she's gorgeous every time he sees her. He doesn't think so, but she knows he is the most romantic boyfriend in the world.

5 things Weevil learned about Mac while on a stakeout for Veronica

Coloring her hair is not just her way of standing out. She's not making a statement or trying to be different or weird. She just hates her hair. Her entire family is blonde. All perky and laughing and when she was little she wished she could look like them. Wished she looked like mommy's little girl even though she never felt like it. So when she'd turned fourteen she'd dyed her whole head blonde. It had been a mess and she'd rushed to dye it back and covered some spots with blue hoping to make it look better. And she'd been addicted to it ever since.

She's not as good as she says she is with computers….she's a whole hell of a lot better than that. His uncle's computer had crashed taking with it months and months of numbers and bills and it looked like he was going to be out a lot of money. He'd thought he'd take a chance and call her, bribing her with the promise of a tune up for her little wind up car that she loved so much. She'd spent a total of ten minutes at the computer and he thought his uncle was going to shit himself as all of his files popped back up. Mac had simply smiled and told me that she needed her brakes checked too.

She took ballet lessons when she was a kid. That actually makes him double over in laughter, which only stops when she starts kicking his shins in retaliation. Apparently it was something her mother wanted her to do. She hated them, at first, especially when she'd heard that tights were involved. But it wasn't long into the first class that she discovered she loved moving to the music. Getting lost in the beat, in the movement. It was freeing. She'd used the word free so many times it made him want her to feel that way again, so he brought her to his favorite restaurant and taught her how to salsa. She was absolutely horrible, but she'd smiled the entire time.

She isn't impressed by money or presents. So, when he first sees her around campus with Surfer Dick he's a little surprised. He gets V's inability to break off from rich boys, but Mac. It just seems so unlike her, so unlike the girl who grimaces when he twirls her on the dance floor. When he asks her about it she tells him that Dick, despite being a jerk, is in pain. He's lost and confused and all he really has left is Logan—and her and V, well kind of. He needs their help, if they desert him he might….she never finishes the sentence, but the meaning is clear. She doesn't want Dick to end up like he did.

Mac doesn't like to be touched anymore. She doesn't recoil or freak out—she just doesn't feel it, doesn't go looking for it. So when she kisses him the first time, trapped in an elevator of all places he's shocked. But no ones more shocked than she is when he pulls back—flushed and grinning like a maniac at him. Now Mac loves to be touched as long as it's him doing the touching.

5 colors of Mac

The first time he saw her after he got out of jail her hair had blue streaks, which pretty much matched her twenty-four hour a day mood. She put on a good face, hell she put on a great face, he was pretty sure even V was fooled by the smile that didn't come close to reaching her eyes, but her hair said it all. She was blue inside and out.

The second time it's green, but not a neon green like you'd expect from her. More of a bland, pathetic, sickly green. Like she was trying to get it out of her.

The third time he sees her she has red streaks. A dark red color that screams anger and pain. As someone who's seen it he knows it's the color of dried blood.

The fourth time it was orange. It was the color of a pumpkin and mad her face look lighter that it had in months. It was the color of transition. Not quite the angry blood red—not yet completely purged of it either.

By spring it was yellow to match the big bright sun. It lit up her face, erasing the pain, the worry that had been there for so long. She was healed and yellow was his new favorite color.

5 dates Mac and Weevil never went on

He's walking her back to the dorm one night when she mentions how hungry she is and how much college food sucks. Which she considers herself somewhat lucky for because at least she didn't put on the freshman 15. He opens his mouth to ask her if she wants to go to dinner. He knows the perfect little restaurant with great food and music where they could sit and talk for hours. But he doesn't ask then, he just leers and tells her even 30 pounds wouldn't stop her from being hot, and listens to her laugh as they walk.

She doesn't want to be alone in her room the Saturday her roommate is visiting her family, but she has too much work to go home. So, he sits on her couch and watches television while she writes a 5 page paper. He doesn't actually think he can call it a date. Although when she finished the paper they ate leftover pizza and watched Infomercials. So maybe.

She goes on and on for days about Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese and hoe awesome The Departed is supposed to be and how V is a complete traitor for seeing it with Logan. He sighs and tells her he'll go with her if she shuts up. He tries to sound like it would be a horrible sacrifice for him. It backfires when she smiles, says thanks, and tells him her mother finally agreed to go when she learned Matt Damon was in it.

She's picking her car up from the garage and mentions that she's thinking about taking a dance class. She says she thinks she might like it. All he can think about is dancing with her in the moonlight. Watching the twilight bounce off her skin as he twirls her around. He thinks it, but he doesn't ask.

He's walking her home from a stakeout when she turns to him, giggling, which tells you that she's in an incredibly good mood says, "You know, if we were anyone else tonight would be a date."

"Oh yeah," he answers, "Why's that?"

"Well, you bought me dinner, we sat in a dark car for hours and now you're walking me home."

"I really hope you don't think that's a date."

"Would be if I put out."

"Any chance of that?"

"You just said this isn't a date."

He stops; she walks a few more steps, but then turns and faces him, "What?" she asks.

"What if I kiss you? Would that make it date?"

She shakes her head, "No. You were right, it's not a date."

He nods, disappointed, but then she speaks again, "But if you kissed me I'd go on a date with you tomorrow."

He's kissing her almost as soon as she finishes the sentence.

4 times he almost kissed her and the one time he did

1. V has gotten them in too deep again and when it's finally over Mac is a mess and pissed off at her best friend. Her hands are planted firmly on her hips as she rails at V, her cheeks flushed, her eyes flashing and all of a sudden he imagines pushing her down on the bed and closing his mouth over hers, feeling all of that emotion pouring into him.

2. After she tells him what really happened that night with Cassidy she cries. It feels like hours that she cries, she only stops as sleep claims her. He stays with her until she wakes up, until she looks up at him, eyes swollen, face streaked with tears, and she's looking at him like he saved her from the pits of hell and it takes an incredible amount of strength not to kiss her pouty mouth as it moves around the words, "Thank you."

3. They are at the movies and V and Logan are practically screwing behind them, Dick and his moronette of the week are moaning and groaning. Next to him, Mac is staring straight ahead, her hands clenched in her lap, her face red with heat. He put his arm around her, surprised at how smooth his move still is after so long and begins to lean in when suddenly there's a light in his eyes. Apparently the audience has enough of their antics. They're thrown out and the moment is over.

4. Mac, V, Wallace, and god help him Logan come to the party his sister insisted on throwing. Mac is twirling Ophelia in a circle as his niece laughs and asks for more. He knows if she were right in front of him instead of halfway across the yard he'd be kissing her now.

5. She's wearing green jogging pants and an old t-shirt the first time he kisses her. She's in a bad mood, is gorging her pain in chocolate and is not at all happy to see him. He's actually thinking about getting the hell out of there before she really turns her bad mood on him when he notices the smear of chocolate on her lips. He's sucking on her top lip before he can stop himself, before he even knows he's doing it. He expects to be smacked when he pulls back but he doesn't get the chance as she wraps her arms around his neck and deepens the kiss.