Spoilers: "Donut Run" - the basic premise of the episode, but no details.
Disclaimer: Duncan Kane, Lilly Kane (both of them), Veronica Mars, and Meg Manning belong to UPN, Rob Thomas, Stu Segall, and Silver Pictures. No copyright infringement intended.
Author's notes: Still not quite the point I wanted to hit, but...I tried. I figure I could have gone with this, or super-smutty WeeVer, and this surprisingly won out. Written for the always awesome vmlyricfic. Set a few years in the future. And...yeah, the lyric kinda got lost somewhere in the constant editing and re-editing, so all apologies for that.
Duncan is convinced that even the short amount of time Lilly spent with Veronica has rubbed off on her. Maybe the name has something to do with it, too. Either way, his little girl is determined to become a bona-fide hell raiser.
Lilly Kane is not a child to be trifled with - no matter the situation, she will figure out how to get her way. Her schoolmates defer to her as if she was royalty, pushing and shoving each other as they beg to be the lucky soul blessed with a play date invitation. Even the teachers are wrapped firmly around the blonde's tiny little fingers, and do nothing but sing her praises at parent-teacher conferences.
In the years since their departure from Neptune, Duncan's funds have started to dip dangerously low. He has a job at a local advertising agency, but it's still absolutely incredible just how expensive raising a child is. Nevertheless, Lilly's room is filled with toys of all different varieties - very few of which Duncan purchased himself. Be it her Sunday school teachers, or Ms. Rolf from next door, or any one of the slew of regular babysitters they employed, there is no one Lilly hasn't managed to charm, and charm translates directly into presents, much to the girl's delight. Veronica would be so proud - he imagines it won't be long before she's going undercover and planting bugs.
If he wants to look at this morally, ethically, Duncan supposes he should probably put a stop to her wheedling, because Lilly knows exactly what she's doing. But he just can't help smiling, because at age four she's already getting so much more enjoyment out of life than either of her parents, and ultimately he can do nothing to deny her.
Bathtime, for most children, falls somewhere in-between dinnertime and bedtime. But for Lilly, it comes directly after she returns home from school. Lilly attacks the concept of "playing" with intense ferocity that her clothes rarely stay clean, her hair neat, her shoes on her feet. She's a terror on the playground, according to her teachers, but Duncan can't seem to do anything other than smile fondly when she skips down the steps of the bus covered in mud.
Bathtime is undoubtedly Lilly's favorite time of day, and it shows. While Duncan fills up the tub, his daughter runs swiftly down the hall to her room, where she strips off her dirty clothes into the hamper and runs, stark naked, back into the bathroom to leap into the tub. Usually there's only a little water that has gathered by this point, so she only sends sprinkles of droplets outwards. But if she takes longer, the splash can sometimes completely soak her father. Duncan swears she does this on purpose.
Each night, Lilly is allowed to bring one toy into the bath with her. Not needing her to get anymore water on the floor, Duncan is usually sent to fetch the toy of her choosing from the large wicker basket behind the door. There's a plastic wheel that attaches to the tile with miniature suction cups - Lilly pours water through a funnel at the top and watches it cascade downward, setting the wheel into a flurry of brightly-colored spinning motion. Three ladybugs with wiggling, spring-mounted wings also have suction cups, and they are placed in various patterns in the near vicinity of the wheel. There are floating swans - two of them, with magnets in their beaks so that they drift towards one another to "kiss", the arches of their necks forming the shape of a heart. A terrycloth frog serves both as a plaything and a washcloth, and a frog with mechanical legs swims the length of the tub while a deep ribbit escapes from deep inside its plastic throat.
But Lilly is rough on her toys - whoever invented "unbreakable" plastic clearly hadn't had Lilly Kane in mind. Las week, there had been a toy mirror that had slipped from her soapy hands and shattered against the tile. The week before that, an inflatable duck had caught on the edge of a drawer in the kitchen and popped. She gets very upset when she breaks them, because really, she doesn't mean to - holding too tight and squeezing too hard are just hazards of Lilly's unbridled enthusiasm. This is purely his sister - Duncan remembers Jake screaming at her that he wasn't going to buy her nice things anymore if all she was going to do was break them.
By far Lilly's favorite is a butterfly net full of tiny blown-glass butterflies. When the net sinks into the water, the multicolored insects all emerge, skimming the surface and floating in slow, lazy circles around the little girl in their midst. Lilly can spend hours chasing them, never satisfied until every last bug is caught. Duncan considers it a miracle that the delicate butterflies have remained intact for so long.
Tonight, Lilly has chosen the butterflies for the third night in a row.
"I think Kermit over there is getting jealous," Duncan teases, gesturing to the cloth frog. Lilly places her hands on her hips as she rolls her eyes.
"That's Leonard, Daddy," she says in exasperation. Duncan nods gravely, knowing better than to laugh, or to ask where the name came from. Lilly is standing in the tub, fingers playing with the net full of butterflies. Duncan's shirt is already soaked.
"Sit down," he instructs. In a move that's quite possibly the least graceful thing he's ever seen, Lilly plops down into the water. In the process, the net hits the tile. In an instant, the entire flock of toy insects is smashed. Acting on instinct, Duncan quickly pulls his daughter out of the tub before any of the glass can get near her.
Lilly's crying profusely as he wraps her in a big, fluffy towel and carries her into the bedroom. "I'm sorry, Daddy," she sobs into his shoulder. Duncan cradles the little girl against his chest, hugging her tight.
"It's okay, sweetie," he reassures her.
At nine the next morning he rouses her from bed. A sleepy Lilly blinks and murmurs something he can't quite comprehend, but he has her dressed and in the car within minutes. By nine twenty-eight, they're in front of The Nature Store, and for two minutes Lilly jiggles impatiently, until the lone sales clerk comes to unlock the door and usher them inside.
At the back of the store are ceramic statuettes, of varying colors and sizes. One entire shelf is devoted to butterflies. Duncan pulls Lilly up onto his shoulders so that she can see them all.
"Pick one," he says. "Any one you want." He looks up as his daughter's mouth drops open slightly. She clutches his hands tighter as she surveys her many choices, her eyes wide with awe. It's not an easy decision to make - for several silent moments, Lilly contemplates her options. "Need any help?" Duncan asks. Lilly bites her lower lip.
"What was Mommy's favorite color?" she finally asks.
Duncan's pretty sure that most people would assume pink. Because that's who Meg Manning was to them - just another whirlwind of pink and blonde. But they'd be wrong.
"Green," he nearly whispers, swallowing the large lump in his throat. Lilly's tiny arms stretch out so that she can gently pick up the smallest green butterfly statue and cradle it in her hands.
Later in the afternoon, Lilly wears a green sweater to her play date with Abigail. When Abigail's mother drops her off, her jeans and t-shirt are covered in grass stains - but the sweater has been folded and tucked away in her schoolbag, so that it remains pristinely clean. When it comes time for her to request her bathtime toy, she asks for Leonard.
"I thought you'd want to play with your new butterfly," Duncan says, shocked. He hadn't planned on taking the risk of breakage with this one, but still he's surprised that she didn't even ask. She plays quietly with Leonard until her fingers start to prune, then gently wrings him out and hangs him on the towel rack to dry.
"Do you want a story tonight, Lil?" Duncan asks. Lilly nods, feet pitter-pattering down the hall to grab one of her storybooks. Her father enters her room just in time to see her stroke the small butterfly they bought, then set it on the highest shelf she can reach with the utmost of care. He pauses, watching as she picks her clothes up off the floor and folds them, setting them on a chair. Her room, for perhaps the first time since she's been old enough to walk, is perfectly in order. Lilly strides over to the bed in three even, measured steps, pulling herself up and sitting primly, with her legs crossed underneath her.
"I'm ready," she says.
Duncan knows that tomorrow, the clothes will be back on the floor, as well as a myriad of toys, stuffed animals, and probably her sheets, pillows, and comforter. Tomorrow, she'll come home even more filthy than usual, and splash him thoroughly. She'll sneak in a second candy bar after dinner and get into bed by starting halfway across the room and hurtling herself up onto the mattress, so that the headboard bangs into the wall, leaving behind yet another black scuff mark.
But right now, today, with her demure smile and sparkling eyes, she doesn't look like Veronica, or even like her aunt. Right now, she is Meg incarnate, and Duncan has never loved her more.
Object: Bathtoys
Lyric: "Summer embraces/Had a hold on me."