A/N: I am a fan fic writer for another show. Was watching Veronica Mars one day, recently. I watched the first season when it originally aired but when we moved; we lost the show. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it and decided to watch it on Net Flix. Recently looking at fan fic, I found myself liking some of the Dick stories. Decided to write one while on vacation this weekend. If enough people like it, I will continue. Please let me know either way.
Chapter One
When Only the Truth Will Set You Free
Entering the large ornate mansion the tall blond man stumbled down the hallway and up the stairs heading towards his bedroom. Stopping in the hallway, outside of the room he had avoided for the last several days he found it hard to even open the damn door. Now after having buried his brother and sat through a meeting with lawyers and accountants and damn cops, he just wanted to be left alone to wallow.
Kicking open the door he had closed the morning after his brother had high-dived off the roof of the Neptune Grand, he fell onto the neatly made bed, laid there staring up at the ceiling, desperately looking for answers to questions he knew would better be left unanswered.
~!~
There was a growing darkness in the sky when he finally stood and went to relieve his bladder. Standing in the bathroom, taking a piss, he felt older than his eighteen years, there was nothing left, he had no one left in this house he had grown up in. This house that had become his prison.
Washing his hands, then looking in the mirror, he wanted to destroy the image he saw, wanted to make it all go away, the pain the disappointment and mainly the feelings of being alone in room full of people.
Returning to his room, the blond sank back down on the bed, laid back down and tried to get his mind to shut down, bitterly acknowledging that most people thought his mind was an empty vessel.
~!~
It was dawn when he heard the sound of footsteps, then his mother and stepfather's voices as they made disparaging comments about his on the run father and his last wife. As he heard what they were saying, he felt anger and yet hope until he heard the urbane voice of his stepfather talking about options of what to do with him.
Standing, walking towards the hallway, he saw his mother coming up the stairs and couldn't resist sneering when he saw her shock at where he had been.
"What?"
"Richard, that tone isn't appropriate." she sharply snapped as she took in the wrinkled white dress shirt and the t-shirt with the nasty message that was still visible under it. "Why are you in that room?"
"Why is it your business?" he snarled at the woman who gave birth to him then abandoned them almost four years later to marry her new man. Then looking at her husband he said "Oh, and unlike what you believe, I am not a damn drunk. I drink, I won't deny it but I am not being shipped off to rehab."
Then looking at his mother, he said "Nor am I going to be a burden."
When she swallowed her shock at his repeating what she had just said about him, he spoke an icy cold feeling growing in his heart. "Don't worry Mom, I am not going to move in with you and step-daddy. I never ever once thought it was an option, so leave, go back to your plush life, to your new perfect family. I am eighteen and with the money from my trust, I don't need you."
"Richard..."
"Stop, my name is Dick." he snapped. "Its over, I am done with it. Dad and you, why the hell you ever married, I don't know. You clearly hate him, he... hates you. I remember when we were kids, Cassidy and I, we never had a normal family, we never fucking had a chance. All the money in the world, but none of the comforts of a family."
"Don't swear at your mother." snapped the stepfather. Dick looked at the two people standing there, acting like he was an inconvenience, acting like what Cassidy had done was not their fault in any way. Just like his father had done, just like he wished he could believe about himself.
Looking at his stepfather, then at his mother then back at the man who clearly despised him, Dick was determined to run them out of the house. His house!
"So, Edgar, according to my real dad, Betina was a cold fish who was locked at the knees once they had Cassidy and I. Does she ever get down on those knees, lube your knob, 'cause according to what I heard my dad say, not in this lifetime. Does she let you play hide the submarine? Let you get your freak on?"
"You are the spawn of the devil." Betina said her face flushed puce, as she reached for her husband's hand, grateful that no one in her current social circle knew about them. "We are leaving."
"Good, you didn't want Cassidy or me in your new perfect life, so stay the hell out of mine." he snapped as he followed them down the stairs still making comments meant to drive them away once and for all.
Slamming the door after they left with a shout of good riddance, Dick walked to the wet bar, grabbed the bottle of Glenfiddach scotch and drank straight from it, draining it as the alcohol burnt his throat. Tossing the now empty bottle, he heard his cell phone ringing.
Pulling it out as he heard Logan's ring tone, he hit ignore. "Sorry buddy, not this time, you have much bigger issues to deal with."
With that, he reached for the next open bottle and removing the cap, began to drink the liquor inside. Realizing it was the bourbon, he grimaced and just kept drinking, trying to ignore the pain, the guilt and the shame.
The pain at the loss of his baby brother, the guilt at knowing what his brother had done, the shame of knowing what he had driven his brother to become.
A victim to a sick child molester. A victim who was terrified that someone would learn the truth, a victim who had become as bad of a monster as Woody himself.
A rapist of an innocent young woman they had all known for years. Dick still felt sick at his part in what had happened to Ronnie. For the drugs, for sending his brother into that room. He could still hear the words of what had happened, how he had never believed his brother would EVER take advantage of an unconscious woman.
A person who would plant bombs and kill innocents to protect his secrets, a person who had sat there at funeral services and pretended to be upset.
A person who had then cowardly committed suicide to escape facing up to what he had done. Who had left those behind to deal with the mess he had created.
Families who had lost loved ones...
Dick took another bottle as he finished the bourbon, needing the numbness as he looked back at the last two weeks. This time he grimaced as he realized it was gin. He didn't really like the taste but right now, all he wanted was to gain a state of forgetfulness as he thought about the meetings he had had to sit in on.
The attorneys were offering the victims restitution from Cassidy's trust fund and most had agreed to take it. That had been their idea, Betina had been furious at the idea until she realized if they didn't make the offers there would be public trials and that she wanted to avoid at all costs. After all, her social standing mattered more than the truth.
Then there was his classmates, none of them had shown up at the small services, not even her... no, he wouldn't go there, he couldn't. Not yet, he wasn't drunk enough. Logan had been the only one there, the only person who had stood beside him in his hour of fuckin' need.
With that, Dick reached for the next bottle, grateful to see it was one of the many bottles of vodka. Standing wanting to stop his mind from going where it was, Dick stumbled back up the stairs and entered his dead brother's bedroom.
Sitting down on the bed, picking up the pillow he had been using earlier, Dick tossed it across the room, then the other one, then reached for the clock on the bedside table and threw it at the wall. The long black cord following like an attached snake.
Then the lamp, and with a sweep of his arm cleared the books still sitting on its top. Reaching down, he opened the drawer and threw the stupid shit he found in there, pens, highlighters, a deck of cards, batteries, a box of fucking candy.
Reaching down, he lifted the heavy wood chest and threw it. When it didn't smash, he reached for one of the fucking academic trophies from Be-Cassidy's chest of dressers. Using it to try and break the wood apart, he instead broke the damn fucking trophy.
Angry at failing in his plans for mayhem, Dick lifted the chest and threw it again and again until it finally gave way, breaking into large chucks of ruined wood. Feeling satisfaction, he went to the other side of the bed, reached down, cleared the clutter from the matching small chest, he lifted it and threw it, this time damaging the wall but not the damn chest.
Throwing it again, and again and yet again, he was almost crying when it didn't break. Furious, Dick in a alcohol fueled rage stormed down to the garage and went to find a sledge hammer, determined to destroy that room a piece at a time.
Grabbing the wood handled tool, he went back up the stairs, lifted the hammer, hearing it hit the ceiling leaving a huge dent before he slammed it down, shattering the wood.
Stepping back, admiring his handiwork, Dick saw that there was a small square wooden box and angry at it surviving his attempts at destruction, he lifted it, planning on throwing it across the room. Instead, realizing that it had a lock on it, Dick swore, determined to know what his brother had inside.
Dick brought the hammer down and using the square top, smashed it into oblivion. Finding the books, he sneered as he lifted them, planning on tearing them apart, instead he froze as his eyes focused on the fact that it was Cassidy's handwriting.
"... I laughed when I realized that Dick had no idea I knew. It was fucking hilarious watching his eyes following her, he had no idea anyone knew his secrets. And it was perfect, I finally found a way to punish him. To take what he secretly yearned for, the one thing he could never have. I watched his eyes, watched them following us, I knew it was killing him and it was so worth it, worth every single minute of my time.
Seeing the writing, the words came into focus Dick felt his heart begin to race as he sank down on the bed, the books he now realized were his brother's journals held tightly in his hands.
Quickly looking through them, he started with the first one which looked like it had begun freshman year. At the end of the first book, Dick was stunned at the level of anger and how with each entry it grew deeper and more dark.
The second book began with what had happened at Shelly's party, with his brother's rape of Veronica. Dick unable to read any further leaned over and puked up all that was in his gut. Standing on shaky legs, he stumbled down the hallway, back down the stairs and landed on the sofa in the game room, the sofa he had spent so much time with his brother on.
Knowing he needed more to drink, he heard his phone ringing and realizing it was on the wet bar, he went to find it. Looking at the time, realizing that it was two AM, Dick hit ignore, knowing that Logan would understand that right now, he couldn't face anyone, hoping he would at least...
Grabbing more to drink, he was about head back to the game room, when he realized he didn't want to be bothered with ignoring more calls from his old pal. Turning the phone off, he staggered back to the game room carrying all the bottles he could handle and threw himself down, reaching for throw blanket crap that Kendall had cluttered up the house with.
The next book was on top, reading, Dick felt sick as he realized what his brother had done, what he had thought about everything. What he had done to create the Phoenix Land Trust.
As he drank, Dick sank deeper and deeper into depression and anger as he began to realize how twisted his brother was. And that he was the reason at least one of his victims was suffering.
Coming to the end, reading of his plans for the night he died, Dick lost it again, reaching for the nearby bowl on the table, he dumped the glittery balls and lost what was left in his stomach.
Dry heaving after a while, Dick wiped his mouth on his sleeve and sank back, tears now flowing as he got how sick his little brother was...
Lifting the bottle, wanting numbness, he drained the vodka, reached for the nearest still full bottle and didn't even allow himself to acknowledge what it was. When it was empty he stumbled to his feet, grabbed a new bottle and stumbled up the stairs to his room.
Landing on his knees in front of his game console of the cluttered room full of every single teenage boy's dream, yanked it out without a care for the wires and reached behind it, hitting the secret panel and removing the purple plastic Little Pony lunch box inside.
Draining the last remaining bottle, Dick's hands were trembling, not from liquor but from what it contained. Popping the white clasp, Dick removed the trinkets inside.
As he touched each one, memories hit him, things he had sworn to forget mere months before. After getting to the bottom of the small container, Dick put his hands back further into the entertainment center and pulled out the envelopes of cards left unsent and now yellowing with age.
Lifting each one, recalling its purchase, the notes written inside and how instead of sending them he had hidden them to keep from being laughed at. When he came to the smaller white ones, the ones where the cheap glue had come undone, Dick pulled them out, read the block handwriting he had been so proud of at the age of six, then seven, then eight.
Dick was so intent on facing his nightmare he never realized that his hands were shaking, or that his breathing was slowing down. He was only dealing with his pain, his fear at what he had wrought. He never noticed as he fell forward, hitting his head on the edge of the game system, slowing losing consciousness.
~!~
Logan let himself into Dick's house, looked around the first floor and other than seeing the empty bottles on the coffee table in the game room, there was no evidence of his friend. Picking up the cell phone that was turned off from the now empty Wet Bar, Logan was beginning to fear what he would find.
Walking up the stairs, he stopped stunned at the evidence of destruction of Beaver's room. Standing there, knowing he was about to have to have a talk with Dick, he almost left, knowing that this was going to be impossible task.
Entering Dick's room, seeing the bed was still made, Logan almost left when he saw that the game system had been yanked from the wall. Moving forward, he saw Dick asleep and was about to lean down to wake him up when he realized that he wasn't snoring.
"Oh shit." he said as he knelt down and reached to take Dick's pulse. Seeing the blood flowing from a cut on his head, Logan pulled out his cell phone and quickly called 911.
"Hold on, buddy. Just hold on, Dick." he said as he kept trying to check over his pal even as he turned him onto his side in case he threw up again. Seeing the debris and the seriously strange and girly little girl lunch box, he moved it out of the way and under the bed when he heard the medics in the hallway. "Up here."
When the two men rushed in, he moved back and filled them in on what he had found.
Watching as they hooked up an IV and began to check Dick's vitals, all Logan could do was hope and pray he didn't lose another friend this year.
"Sir, do you know how much he had to drink?" asked the second medic as he wrote down everything his partner was telling him.
"Not sure, I saw two bottles in the next bedroom, one here and several downstairs." Logan answered, his eyes wide as he saw them loading Dick onto a gurney. His mind was on the destruction down the hall and he was certain that whatever had happened had started with Dick in Cassidy's bedroom.
"Do you know what he was drinking?" asked the medic working on Dick. Logan saw him frowning and putting an oxygen mask on his friend.
"A shit load of stuff, it looks like he cleared the entire wet bar and its nearly always full. Usually they keep scotch, bourbon, whiskey, gin, and vodka, no tequila though." he said as he followed the medics as they wheeled Dick out to their emergency vehicle.
"Can I ride with him?" he asked and was told yes. Hurrying into the back, he was listening as the medic spoke to someone through a mic and then did stuff that Logan had no idea why. Dick was stuck with a needle again and had another IV hooked up and had had changed something hooked up to the breathing mask on him.
"Do you know how to contact his parents." The medic asked after a call to the ER. Logan was astounded, clearly this was the last person in the state of California who didn't know who the Casablancas family was.
"No, his mom left town this morning."
Logan had watched as the former Mrs Casablancas had left the Neptune Grand this morning with her new husband. The woman had been running at the mouth to her husband about her worthless son and it was quite clear that she wouldn't lift a finger to help Dick.
"He is eighteen and she isn't exactly June Cleaver." More like Medusa thought Logan, his mind on the day that Dick had made that comparison. It had been right after she had released the purse strings on their trust funds in order to keep them out of her life.
"Do you know if your friend has a POA?" asked the man even as they were pulling into the hospital. When the ambulance began to back up to the emergency bay, Logan was beginning to freak out at the idea of there being no one to help his friend.
"Not sure, Dick isn't the most responsible party. I don't think he would think he would need one." he said awkwardly after thinking about it. "I uh, grabbed his cell phone. Let me call his attorney."
Making the call, knowing it was more than likely a waste of time, Logan took a deep breath then gave him the news about Dick and what was going on.
"I am sorry, Mr Echolls, but I can't give you that information. You need to have the hospital call me. I can tell them who his POA is." The full partner at the law firm was a bit shocked, Dick had set up his POA only the week before, naming the one person on earth he said that he felt would not take him for everything he had.
"I was just wanting to know if he had one." Logan said. Giving the news to the medic, he spoke to whoever was at the other end of his walkie talkie thing and soon passed on the news along with the phone number for the firm.
Inside, Logan followed as far as he could then heard his name being called. Looking up at the nurse, he took the clip board and said "I gave this information to the medic."
"We need you to fill in as much of the other data as you know, its for your friends sake." she said kindly. Seeing how frantic Logan looked, the woman was reminded of her own younger brother and said gently. "Your friend is going to be fine, honestly. Right now, if you don't want your friend to end up in rehab or in lock down wing as a possible suicide, help him by filling all of this out."
Nodding, getting control of his fear, Logan heard his phone beeping and began to cuss. He had set an alarm to remind himself that he was meeting Ronnie at her place this morning.
Taking the clipboard with him, he went outside and made the call.
"Well Echolls, I come back all the way from New York, bring you a gift and where are you? Not here." said the happy teasing voice. "Even Backup was more excited to see me than you are."
"Ronnie, its Dick. He is in the hospital." was all he could bear to choke out. "Its bad."
"I will be right there." said the blond pixie. Hanging up, frustrated to realize that her new car was at the office, she looked at her dad who had just entered.
"Uh oh, why does my baby girl look so upset?" asked Keith as he entered the apartment. "I thought that nere do well was coming to get you this morning."
"Dick Casablancas is in the hospital." she said at the same time as Keith's cell phone began to ring.
"Mars." he said with a slight chuckle as he watched his daughter pretend to pout at his answering the phone call. That chuckle went away as he asked "Would you please repeat that?"
When he had heard what the man said, Keith replied. "I am on my way."
Slowly closing the phone, he looked at his daughter then said "Veronica, do you know why Richard Casablancas would have me listed as his Power of Attorney?"
Shocked, Veronica looked at her dad and said "What?"
"That was Neptune General, they have received paperwork from Windmark, Carson and Thorpe, stating that one Richard Casablancas has me listed as his Power of Attorney."
Blinking, Veronica said "I have no idea."
With that, they quickly left for the hospital, none having any idea what the hell was going on let alone why Dick would list the father of one of his brother's victims as his Power of Attorney.
TBC