Based on yet another prompt, Leo good man. Don't even ask where this came from.
Don't own Veronica Mars, trust me if I did season 3 would have been very different.
He was always the good kid.
The kind kid, the one who took care of everyone. The one everyone could count on, to support, to help. He was the kind of boy who's parents were extremely proud of, so much so that Leo spend his entire youth trying to make sure he didn't disappoint them. Girls always found him to be a great friend, a shoulder to lean on, a person who always listened to them. But never quite more, he was never quite enough for them, he never would be. He's the best big brother in the world, the perfect son, and still it wasn't enough. He chooses to be a cop to help other people, after all it's what he's always been good at, helping other people.
That's what he'd like to be, the person that everyone turns to in need.
He's got a lot of problems with Neptune, especially trying to understand how it all works. For him it was always pretty simple, help people when they need help, lock criminals in jail. Simple, logical, easy. Neptune is none of those things, Neptune is confusing and difficult; it doesn't take him long to realize that those simple (logical) acts of locking criminals in jail and helping people isn't part of their job, not really. The town is divided in to ( rich and poor ), and the Sherriff station only seems to focus on one side. He thinks it's wrong and twisted, and completely against everything he's learned, against everything he has ever believed in.
It's the other side that needs them the most, and yet those are ignored as if they were never there.
It's against his conscience to turn them away, to not respond to a person's cry of help. He's a good person after all, always there for other people, a good man. And yet he finds himself doing just that after some time, after all there's only so much one person can do. Most of the officers seem to be following Sherriff Lamb's lead ( how did an idiot like that even become the Sherriff? ), and eventually he does so as well. After all he has to keep his job, has to stay on Lamb's side, he needs this job, he has to earn money ( has to feed his family, take care of his people). He turns most of them away ( attempts to reach out if he can ), it eats him inside, but he can't change anything about it.
Veronica is the first beautiful thing he sees in the office.
She's different, she's beautiful and full of live, and he likes her (hopes she might like him to). She seems so innocent, so good, and it (almost) makes him believe that people like that still exist in Neptune (that they are not all like Lamb). Since he's met Keith Mars it makes it even harder to believe that Lamb could ever become the Sherriff, he's pretty sure that Keith would be a lot better as Sherriff. Still for some reason he is not, and nobody will really explain it to him (most of them look at Veronica for one split second, before telling him they'll talk about it later, it all has something to do with her, he thinks).
It doesn't make sense to him, but not much in this town has made sense so far.
And then she uses him, and it hurts because he trusted her (he's a good man, always trusting people), but he thinks she must have had a reason. He tries to find out more about her, find out what the story is behind everything, and the story he is told is heartbreaking. He understands now (or at least he knows now, understanding is not part of it yet) why Lamb is the Sherriff and not Keith. Still he thinks it was a mistake because Keith is a good man, a strong man, a kind man, a just man. The kind of man Leo would see being the Sherriff (the kind of man he'd like to be), not the man they have now, because Lamb is weak and corrupt (there's really no other word for him, maybe it's bit strong, he only cares about the rich people).
The story is hard to hear, the dead girl, the best friend, the wrong man accused.
He understands Veronica, because he would be broken as well and he would want justice for his friend. But at the same time he doesn't understand her, because justice has been served (hasn't it?). She broke the law, she broke the rules, she used him and yet he thinks he might still help her if she came back. And she does, she comes back to explain it to him, to try and make him understand. First he doesn't want to hear it, then her thinks she's crazy, he should probably keep thinking that. But there is something in her eyes that calls out to him, determination and pain, so much pain. And he simply can't run away from it, because she is a person in need and he has always been determined to be there for people when they needed him.
She needs him, and yes she might sound crazy, but it was her best friend.
And if he was in her shoes, he'd want to know the full truth to. So he can't really blame her (alright it might have something to do with his growing feelings for her). When he finds her crying in her car much later (the day of that dance), he doesn't even hesitate anymore, he offer her a hand (he doesn't even care why she cried, just that she did) and helps her back on her feet. No he doesn't really understand what happened to her, he probably never will, but that's not really important. The only important factor is that she needs him, and he will be there for her.
He almost kisses her that day, and as he watches her run away he knows he's falling in love.
He knew from the beginning he wouldn't be able to hold onto her, he never had been able to hold onto anyone. First there seems to be a boy ( she doesn't like him, at least it's what he got from what she said) and then there is the leader of the local gang. And he wonders (just like he asks her) why do girls always fall for the bad boy's? Why? He thinks perhaps it's the danger, but it's not like it really matters anyway. He's a good guy, but good guy's seem to finish last, and he knows he's losing her that he won't get her back. And he wants to stop her, kiss her and never let her go. But he's a good man (a kind man), and he wants her to be happy, so all he does is watch her walk away, he wouldn't have been able to hold onto her anyway.
He will help and protect her still, but he's not sure she wants him to.
The next time he sees her, she's bruised and wounded (and obviously exhausted), and all he has is more bad news. He wants to turn around, walk away from this and spare her more pain ( what she went trough was already enough ) but he can't. It goes against his conscience and it's not like he can really change the facts. He wishes he could reach out and take the pain away, take it all away from her, but he can't. He touches her cheek lovingly, tells her he's sorry ( wishes he could take it all back ) and walks past her to arrest the boy. He feared she might end up hating him, but she doesn't ( maybe she's just to tired ).
The next time he sees Veronica they are voting for a new Sherriff. Everything has changed in the meantime and he's not entirely sure what happened, but it's not like it really matters. Everyone in the station seems to be voting for Lamb, but he is not ( not that he would ever tell anyone that), he's going for Keith. Because that was the man he always saw as the Sherriff, and he'll never understand why they had fired him, but it's not like he can change the past ( if he could he'd find a way to make all of Veronica's pain go away). Keith is a good man (and proven right about the things they fired him for) and he belongs in charge.
He's not voting for Lamb, because Lamb doesn't care, he doesn't believe in anything anymore.
But Keith does, he cares about all of them and he deserves the job. But of course, despite all of that, he simply knows that Lamb will win. He knows it deep inside, because nobody in this town will ever admit they made a mistake, never admit it, so things will never change.
He was always the good kid, there for other people, the kind of boy parents were proud of. He was still a good man when he grew up, still there for other people. But Neptune was harsh and different, and it made him doubt everything about him. It made him go against his own believes, change everything about him. It makes him resent everything, it changes him and he doesn't really notice, until it is actually to late. There was a time he would have never done this, he would have never even considered it. But Neptune is broken, and it spends it's time breaking other people, breaking their beliefs, their spirits. Until there is nothing left but broken people, broken souls.
It's an impossible situation, he wants to justify it but he knows he really can't. He doesn't want to take the tapes, doesn't want to destroy Veronica ( it's her dead best friend on those tapes, they're important to her ) , but his sister needs him, and he's out of options and so tired. He was a good man once, once he would have never done this, not even considered it ( he's stealing evidence, going against everything he ever believed in ), but Neptune (Lamb) had slowly been eating away everything he once was. His conscience, his good nature, his desire to help out. It breaks him, and destroys everything about him, until all that is left is a man who steals evidence.
And attempt to sell it on the Net.
Eventually he changes his mind, he does, somewhere he knew he would never be able to do it. It eats him, and he feels guilty, and he must have always known this is how it would end. It happens when he sees Veronica, and thinks of all she went trough to get those tapes. And he can't do it, can't sell it so he takes it of the Net, determined to bring them back to the station. But then there's a mail from Logan, and he's offering him money ( not what he could have gotten, but it's still a lot of money), and he knows Logan will never do anything to hurt Veronica (if only because it's his dad and girlfriend on the tape).
In the end he loses it all, the girl he loves, the job he loved, his conscience, everything he once was.
He was always a good man (kid); but if there is one thing he has learned over the years is that good man (kind man, just man) always finish last.
Especially in a town like Neptune.