It is an AU about the first season. Imagine if Veronica found the tapes a couple days after Lily's death.
Oh, and I don't own any of theses characters.
CHAPTER 1
Lights flashed from the cameras, blinding Veronica and making her shield her face with her hand. The reporters shouted questions at her, but the noise jumbled into one big roar of sound that she flinched away from. She felt them crowding in on her, some even grasping at her clothes, desperate for her attention, for the story.
"That's enough!" her father's voice sliced though the din as he pushed through to her side. Some of the reporters seemed to back up but the persistent ones still shouted their questions. And with the relative silence of the crowd Veronica could now make out the words.
"How long did you know about the affair?"
"How many other men did you two seduce?"
"What were you going to do with the tape?"
"How do you know that he killed her?"
The questions pounded at her until she thought she would scream. It had only been a week since her best friend's body had been found; four days since she had found the tapes in Lily's grate; an hour since Aaron Echolls was officially charged with murder. Her life was in shreds around her feet and she had no one to turn to for support.
Her parents were there, but not.
Mom was drunk more often than not, with Dad following after her trying to clean up the mess. And the rest of the time he was busy at work. She understood though. He was the sheriff in a county with a high profile murder; of course he was busy.
She had stopped depending on her mother a long time ago.
The missing part was her friends. Just a month ago Veronica would have bet that they would stick together through anything. But then Duncan had cut her out of his life. And Logan had blamed her for his breakup with Lily. And now Lily was dead.
The Kane's were dealing with their grief, and now anger, in solitude. The only public display they made was right after Veronica's discovery and Aaron's subsequent arrest. Jake Kane had gone on record to condemn Aaron's behaviour and express his belief that it had been Aaron who had killed Lily. It had been a highly emotional speech, leaving few dry-eyed and many out for Aaron's blood.
It wasn't a secret that Jake Kane was the beloved billionaire of Neptune. Most of the rich people here were rich because of him. Loyalty to him was transferred easily to loyalty to his little girl. She was far from an angel, but the only ones willing to say that in this town were the reporters.
"You heard the Sheriff. Move it!" another voice cut through the questions and Veronica's thoughts. She looked up to her other side and into Deputy Lamb's face. His face was set into unsmiling lines and his eyes were staring at the reporters like he could make them vanish with thought alone. The flexing of muscles under his snug uniform told her that he was prepared to use force if that didn't work. Reaching out with her hand, she took hold of his arm. She didn't keep eye contact, but pushed forward towards the car waiting just a few feet away. Keith and Don stayed by her sides, effectively becoming a barrier against the tide of people pushing to get a piece of her; a piece of the girl who had solved Lily Kane's murder in two days.
Logan couldn't help but watch the spectacle.
Every channel was showing a variation of the same thing; Veronica Mars rushing from the Sheriff's department towards a waiting patrol car. Her long, pale blond hair was held back from her face with a scrunchie at her nape, leaving her unpainted face revealed for the cameras. Her hand acted as a barrier, but it did little to shield him from her tangible innocence. Her large eyes were dark with her grief and glossed over with the threat of tears. Her small bow's mouth was drawn into a tight line that spoke of her anxiety.
But the questions being thrown at her didn't mesh with the image. The reporters seemed to look at her as some kind of co-conspirator that worked with Lily to seduce men. They acted as though the murder was her fault somehow; her and Lily's.
Logan's stomach twisted and roiled in disgust at the thought. His guilt was a hard knot of pain in his gut, his grief a burning behind the eyes. Burning from the tears he didn't let himself shed. He had wept like a baby when he had first heard the news; that the love of his life had been killed. But not now; not now that he knew it was his fault.
He had brought Lily into contact with the monster that was his father. If it wasn't for their relationship, Lily would be alive right now. And Veronica, sweet little Veronica, wouldn't be the pale ghost he saw on TV. Her eyes, finally making fleeting contact with the camera, wouldn't mirror the shattered pain of his own.
"I'm sorry" Logan whispered brokenly to the image of his once friend. Tears finally spilled from his eyes, burning tracks down his cheeks. He could cry after all then; if not for Lily, then for Veronica.