London Calling
Logan/Veronica AU Future Fic (no S3) PG
Summary: After graduating from college, Logan and Veronica vacation in London.
Notes: Written for the "Where in the World is Veronica Mars" challenge at the LJ community vmtruechallenge.
Complete: Yes
When Veronica and Logan stepped inside Madame Tussauds Wax Musuem in London, they were still talking about their previous stop on their day of what Logan derisively referred to as "typical touristing" – the London Dungeon.
"You know, if Scotland Yard had you around back then, they'd never have let Jack the Ripper slip through their fingers."
Veronica laughed. "Sure, Logan. Because in the 1880s Scotland Yard would have been more than happy to give a woman a job as a detective at all, let alone in Whitechapel."
"Work with me, Mars!" he replied, squeezing her hand lightly. "I'm trying to compliment you on your mad PI skills."
"The compliment is duly noted and shall be recorded on your Good Boyfriend score sheet." She stretched up on her tiptoes and lightly kissed his cheek. "Happy now?"
"I'm with you, aren't I?" he said, kissing her forehead.
Veronica chuckled. "God, we got schmoopy while we were at college. No wonder Wallace was so eager to see us off at the airport after graduation."
"I could call you a whore for old times' sake, if that would make you feel better."
Veronica tilted her head to the side as they walked through the museum as if contemplating the offer. "Hmm, that's a very generous offer. But I think I'll pass." She glanced at the brochure map she'd been handed at the door. "Movie premiere exhibit, that way," she said, gesturing down the hall. I want my picture with Bogey, stat."
"I think you're mixing your genres, but okay," Logan said dryly. "Do you think the Maltese Falcon will be in there?"
Veronica was opening her mouth to deliver a snappy comeback when Logan stopped in his tracks so abruptly that it ended up yanking Veronica backwards. "Logan, what the…" Veronica trailed off when she saw the figures in front of which they'd stopped. She gripped his hand tighter and moved to stand in front of him, placing herself between Logan and the wax replicas of his parents. "Logan?" she said tentatively.
"'The tragic story of Aaron and Lynn Echolls,'" he read from the placard in front of the display.
"Logan…"
"'Aaron played the hero in his movies, but his infidelity eventually drove Lynn to commit suicide. Aaron was later tried for the murder of his son's girlfriend. He was found not guilty, but was murdered in his hotel room shortly thereafter.'" Logan paused, his jaw clenching, before finishing the short blurb. "'It was a horrible end to what began as a Hollywood fairy tale, but here they live on forever as they were on the happy day of the premiere of Aaron's movie Beyond the Breaking Point.'"
"Logan, I'm sorry…" Veronica reached up with her free hand and touched Logan's cheek. He switched his gaze from the display to her face, but before she could say anything or tug him away, a pair of girls rushed up to them.
"Ohmigosh," one of them gushed, her voice high-pitched and American. "You're Logan Echolls! I can't believe it, I loved your father and his movies, and we were so glad when he was found innocent but so crushed when he died, and Brandy –" she gestured to her friend – "and I have always thought you seemed really cool." As she spoke, she and her friend managed to bounce and paw their way between Logan and Veronica. "It would be so amazing if you would pose with your parents and us for a picture! Our friends back home would just die." She shoved her camera into Veronica's hands. "You'll take it, please? Thanks!"
Veronica was about to throw the camera at the bubbly girl's head, grab Logan, and make a run for it, when she saw her Logan, who moments ago had been numb and frozen from shock, transform before her eyes into Logan! Echolls!, movie! star's! son!
"Of course I'll take a picture with you!" he gushed, the tone in his voice making the girls think of enthusiasm and Veronica check to see where the nearest security guard and nearest exit were. This could get sticky, she thought as she gamely raised the camera and snapped a photo. The grin on Logan's face looked maniacal to her, but she thought perhaps to someone not as trained to read his moods as she was it might pass for forced enthusiasm.
As they stepped away from the wax figures, the girls reached into their shoulder bags and pulled out small notebooks and Sharpies. "And could you sign our autograph books?" the girl called Brandy asked, her voice just as high-pitched and airhead-cheerleader-sounding as her friend's.
Veronica felt the same dread she'd felt when Gia had told Logan to tell her what he really thought of her, but held her tongue as she handed the camera back to Brandy. She couldn't help feeling that these girls deserved whatever Logan was about to dish out.
"Sure, sure. And when you get home, you show all your little friends the picture, and the books, and you tell them all about how you met Hollywood's favorite orphan and his girlfriend in the wax museum, right in front of the statues of his dead parents. And how you made him stand next to the man who did kill the first girl he ever loved and almost killed the second and who drove his mother to suicide." His voice was bright and cheery, his words punctuated with over-wide smiles and a dangerous twinkle in the eye. "It'll be the best story ever!"
He handed them back their autograph books and took Veronica's hand and turned as if to go, but then stopped and looked back toward the stunned girls. "Have nice lives, by the way. Though I pity you if you honestly think that bastard's movies are worth the price of a rental."
Without another word, he walked out of that section of the museum so fast, Veronica found herself almost jogging to keep up with him. Finally, he came to a stop in the movie premiere exhibit, right in front of Humphrey Bogart.
"Logan, I'm sorry," Veronica said again as she caught her breath.
"It's not your fault that there are stupid girls in the world." His tone told her that he wanted nothing more than to pretend it hadn't happened. She wanted to press him, wanted to keep him from burying the pain she knew he felt, but she knew it was neither the time nor the place for that kind of discussion. Confrontation. Whatever.
"Look," he was saying as she shook herself out of her thoughts. "It's Bogey. Let's get that picture." He smiled at her, a real (if slightly weak) smile, and she relented. She stepped up to the Bogey figure and gave her best smile as Logan raised the camera.
"Here's looking at you, kid," he said, and snapped the picture.
They worked their way quickly through the rest of the museum, no longer in the mood for oohing and ahhing over well-sculpted chunks of wax.
"You want to just go back to the hotel?" Veronica asked when they exited the museum.
"What? And miss our dinner at that Sherlock pub we saw on the way here?"
"We don't have to go if you'd rather just be alone."
Logan halted his walk down Baker Street and turned to Veronica with mock incredulity. "Veronica Mars, are you propositioning me? I am appalled!"
Veronica laughed despite herself. "Oh really? You weren't appalled last night when I had my hands-" Logan cut off her rejoinder by pressing his lips to hers.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, pressing his forehead to hers. "Though I wouldn't be opposed to an attempt to jog my memory after dinner."
They resumed their walk down Baker Street until they reached the pub in question, then settled in for dinner. Two plates of fish and chips, two pints of Guinness, and one glass of wine later, they headed out the door. The mood was light, but undercurrents of sadness were still there thanks to the episode in the wax museum. They walked idly down the street where the shadows had lengthened whilst they'd eaten, chatting about nothing in order to avoid talking about what had happened.
"You know," Veronica said, "if I had even one pint of that Guinness stuff, I'd probably fall over. You put away two and you could probably fool a cop into not even bothering with a breathalyzer."
"That, oh tiny blonde one, is why I had them and not you."
"Ha, ha. Hey, where are we going?" Veronica asked as Logan led her down into the Baker Street tube station.
"It's a surprise," he said.
"What kind of surprise?" They slid their tickets through the machine and Logan led her toward the Jubilee line.
"The kind that I don't tell you about because it's a surprise," he replied, amusement coloring his voice.
Veronica made a show of pouting as they boarded the train, and spent the entire short journey trying to get Logan to give up the details of their destination. She was beginning to despair of her interviewing skills by the time they reached Westminster station and emerged from the tube station. It was almost sunset, and the river Thames glistened, making Veronica almost forget how polluted it was. Almost.
Lost in contemplation over what the surprise could be, she didn't realize their destination until Logan had stopped and gestured grandly in its direction.
"The London Eye?!" Veronica found herself in the rare position of being at a loss for words. She thought about mentioning how you had to book in advance, but figured Logan wouldn't have brought her here if he didn't already have tickets. She shook her head as if to clear a fog. "A ride on the London Eye at sunset," she murmured, turning to face Logan. She cupped her hands on his cheeks. "You know, if you're not careful, you'll ruin your reputation."
He grinned. "As a psychotic jackass? I'm really worried. Especially after this afternoon." He immediately wanted to take back his last words as her face fell with the mention of what had happened earlier. Unable to turn back time, he scrambled to change the subject. "Okay, you ready? Let's get this party started."
He pulled her towards the fast-track entrance. "Hi," he said to man in the ticket window. "I have a special reservation for Echolls."
The man turned to his computer, clacking away at the keyboard. His eyes widened slightly, which Veronica thought odd. Why would he be surprised that they'd booked ahead? "Mr. Echolls," the man said a moment later, "if you and your guest would follow Gemma, she'll show you to your capsule and will be your host for the evening."
"Thank you," Logan said. As he and Veronica followed Gemma, he leaned and whispered in Veronica's ear. "I'd like to request bonus Good Boyfriend points for resisting the urge to call that guy 'Jeeves' just now."
Veronica stifled a giggle. "Hmm, judges?" She cocked her head as if listening for a response. "Ah, yes, yes, points will be added as requested for not publicly embarrassing your girlfriend in a foreign country." She bumped his hip slightly with hers. "And you say you're not worried about your jackass reputation. I think you're mellowing."
Their eyes met, sparkling with amusement. "Naaah," they said together.
Just then, Gemma gestured into an empty capsule. "Here you are." She ushered them inside and Veronica suddenly realized she wasn't just getting to ride the Eye like a normal person. Gemma reached for the bottle of champagne chilling in something far too elegant to be referred to as an ice bucket. With an economy of motion that suggested she'd been working at the Eye for some time, she poured two glasses of the bubbly wine and handed them to Logan and Veronica.
"Here are your truffles," she said, and pointed out a box of sinful looking chocolates which Veronica couldn't wait to attack. Gemma handed Logan a small guidebook. "This is your mini-guide. Any questions?" Logan shook his head. "Well then," Gemma said with a smile. "Enjoy your flight."
Fifteen or so minutes later, Veronica was feeling pleasantly warm from the chocolate and champagne and properly awed by the view and the sunset.
"Logan, this is the most amazing surprise. I can't believe you did this, it must have cost a fortune." She stood at the railing, Logan at her side, as they both gazed out over the city, watching the lights come on as the sun sank below the horizon.
"Only a very small one," he said with a smile. "And I've got nothing better to do with my very large one." He moved so that he was standing behind Veronica, and put his hands on the railing on either side of her, so that she was boxed in between the glass wall of the capsule and his body. She leaned back against him and he pressed a kiss to her temple.
"I love you, Veronica."
"I know you do, Logan. I love you, too."
"I'm sorry about what happened this afternoon. I shouldn't let either the fact that there are wax figures of them in some museum or that a couple of stupid cheerleaders from Bumfuck, America still think my dad walked on water get to me like I did."
Veronica turned around to face Logan; a tricky business since he didn't bother to back up. But she managed it, and put her hands at his waist, fisted loosely in his shirt. "I don't care about girls like that. I don't care about your father. All I care about is you. I wish I could keep things like that from happening, because you've been through enough. And you might be a tough guy or a jackass or whatever, but you deserve a little peace." She pressed a kiss to the skin of his chest exposed at the neck of his shirt. "I wish I could give it to you."
Logan let go of the railing and tucked a wayward strand of Veronica's hair behind her ear. "You do," he murmured. "Just by being with me, even though I'm a jackass, even though sometimes we fight like cats and dogs. Just by loving me enough to deal with everything I am that sucks and everything about who I am that makes life more difficult, like those girls, or the paparazzi outside my house, or my gold-digging half-sister."
Pressing a kiss to Veronica's forehead, Logan reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet-covered box. He went down on one knee and Veronica leaned back against the railing in shock.
"We're pretty unconventional," Logan began. "But I figured this was a big enough deal that I ought to try and do it right." He opened the box to reveal a simple diamond solitaire, which Veronica managed to appreciate was not of ostentatious size. "Veronica Mars, I love you. We've been through a lot, together and apart. We've said things we regret, and things we wouldn't take back for all the world. We've been separate, and we've been together. Let's beat the odds, let's take a chance that we won't make the kinds of mistakes our parents made. We're better when we're together, Veronica. Let's be together forever." He took the ring out of the box and picked up her limp left hand. Holding the ring by her finger, he gazed up into her eyes.
"Will you marry me?"
Veronica blinked back tears, and almost before she realized she'd made the decision, she was nodding, a wide grin breaking out over her face.
"Yes, Logan. Yes, I'll marry you."
Logan jumped to his feet and slid the ring onto her finger before capturing her mouth in a passionate kiss. When they finally came up for air, Logan rested his forehead against Veronica's and grinned widely.
"What was that you were saying earlier about being alone in our hotel room?"