DISCLAIMER: I don't own Veronica Mars.

Prologue

"Push, honey, push!"

"Drop dead, you are not popping watermelons through your nostrils here, I'll swear I'll kill you if you don't get away from me!" Keith Mars looked lovingly down his panting and sweating wife, Lianne Mars, and caressed her forehead and Lianne soon got other things to worry about, as the first of her daughters were about to enter the world.

"And here she is!" The doctor held up a screaming lump of something utterly gross and bloody. That was what Lianne first thought at the sight of her firstborn. Keith on the other hand was smiling wide and almost bitted his own fingers in excitement as he cut the umbilical court. Lianne looked tiredly at him and thought:" How did I end up like this - with him? Do I really want to be trapped as a sheriff's wife and never use my own talents again?"

Suddenly another contraction ended Liannes chain of thoughts and she started moaning in agony again. The thing she did not take well as she had a very low threshold for pain. Thankfully the doctor and Keith didn't have to listen to Lianne's complaints for long as her second daughter entered the world.

"Is that what's been in my womb for all this time - is that it?" Lianne asked herself and looked at her husband of several years, who was once again making a fool of himself by grinning like an oaf while cutting the umbilical court. Keith didn't notice his wife's gloomy look as he was so caught up in the emotions of finally becoming a parent. The doctor took their twins and checked their health state and to Keith's joy nothing was wrong with them except their petite size. Well, one was very petite and the other quite normal.

Keith turned to Lianne and asked:" Don't you want to hold them honey?" Lianne sighed inside herself and turned on a fake smile as she answered:" Off course love, but let's get them cleaned up a bit and make sure they are healthy. "Keith thankfully agreed and Lianne had a chance to think for herself as Keith followed his children and left Lianne alone.

Lianne sighed out loud this time and leaned back to the pillows and almost cried in disappointment. She had truly hoped that the birth of her children would give her some clear sense of what to do. "How am I gonna keep my secrets and my lover with those sucking machines?" Lianne asked herself. "Would Jake try for a paternity test? No," Lianne answered her own question, "but his dear wife Celeste might try." Lianne rolled her eyes and looked out the window and thought of her past. She had always been an A student with a popular circle of friends. People liked her and asked for help with a lot of stuff. And when Lianne had begun dating the pretty jock Jake Kane they had become the royal couple to follow. "Well, until Celeste showed her true colors of bitchness", Lianne added to herself. "Now here I am a secretary at the sheriff department, married to the boss and am his breeding cow. What did I do to deserve this?" Lianne closed her eyes and an inch of fear crawled under her skin," If Keith finds out there's even a chance the girls aren't his, I'll be ruined. And worse if he ever discovered the whole "Jake Kane might be the true father" thing as well".

Just as Keith entered the door with a giant bucket of flowers Lianne decided to leave as soon as possible.

"Congratulations honey and well done too!" Keith saluted as he leaned down and gave Lianne a peck on the lips. Lianne was too exhausted to fake a smile and simply said:" Likewise Keith. So have you seen them?" Keith nodded and a wave of father love entered his entire face as he described them to perfection.

"The firstborn is the biggest. She's got dark hair and a round and healthy face. Her grip is firm and she seems to be very calm for an infant, because she didn't even give a cry as the nurses changed her." Keith sighed happily at his memory and then his grin widened even more

"And the other one looks a lot like you honey. She's very petite and blond. Her grip is strong too though, and I think she'll be a handful, she screamed and acted like a little diva and made all the other babies cry as well, except her sister. They are wonderful"

Lianne tried to feel happy, she really did, but nothing of what Keith told her gave her itching feeling to storm out of bed to see for herself - on the contrary, she felt even more pressured to leave as quickly as possible.

"What's wrong with me?" Lianne thought a bit afraid of her own dark thoughts. Keith like before was oblivious to his wife's struggle and sat down beside her and looked so lovingly at her, that Lianne almost had to look away.

"So, what are we gonna call them?" Keith asked.

Lianne didn't have a clue and looked puzzled for a moment. She was named after her mother, but didn't want to repeat that - especially since she'd decided to leave town in search of greener pastures.

"You name one and I the other?" Keith suggested and looked proud of his own idea.

Lianne sighed again and threw out the first name she remembered.

"How about Nicole?" Keith lit up in another smile.

"That's pretty, where's that from?"

Lianne told the truth, part of it anyway:" I had a half brother once and his wife was named Nicole - she was really nice and ordinary and well, I like the name."

Keith stood up again and said:" Nicole it is then and as for the little one. She was herself back there and so pure she looked too. Don't laugh okay? I always liked the bible story about a legendary saint who wiped Jesus' face and then found an image imprinted on it and me being a semi good detective I like to find things true image, so how about Veronica - true image?"

Lianne almost laughed at her husbands rambling and as the name thing didn't matter to her one bit she agreed.

Late at night after Keith had returned home to sleep Lianne stood looking down on her children.

"Why don't I love you like I should?" Lianne mumbled to the infants.

The big one - Nicole didn't respond to her mother's voice, but the little one, Veronica opened her eyes and didn't look away. Lianne felt pierced by that look and stood unmoving for several minutes. Then Veronica smiled a toothless smile and something in Liannes heart finally melted just a little.

"Well, when I leave," she told her tiny daughter, "I'll take you with me, I promise."

Then the mother turned and walked back to bed to start hatching a plan - Keith Mars was a brilliant man, but Lianne thought her self a lot smarter.

A/N: Here's my first story. A lot of credit goes to co-author - maipigen. Please review and tell your impressions.