a/n: One of the more consistant reviews of my stories mentioned she had a birthday on May 16, she wanted more Dick and Mac stories. Well I found an almost complete story on my thumb drive and this is for Suzanne. Oh, she is also getting you an update tomorrow for Neptune.
Vengence
Chapter One
Dick eavesdropped on Veronica's conversation with Logan via Skype and gave a triumphant smile as he quietly walked away. He wasn't thrilled that Logan was back on the roller coaster called Veronica Mars but at least it had done one thing.
It had given him access to information; to a way to make a certain someone pay. In his bedroom, he looked up the number of the doctor who had been selling scripts to 09ers for years and said "I want a medical file."
"I can't do that. It could get me fired." She said.
"Yes, it could but if you don't do as I ask, you will find out that the California Medical board will get an anonymous tip about how you paid off your student loans so quickly and you will not only get fired but will go to jail. So which will it be, could or would?" He asked.
"Who's file?" She queried.
Dick opened the file he had hidden in a place not even Veronica Mars would look in and found the name. "Sam Mackenzie. You have a half hour."
Hearing squawking from the other end of the line, he just hung up, knowing she would do as he had asked. Putting an alarm on his phone to let him know when thirty minutes was up, he went back down to the kitchen, grabbed a beer from the fridge and made it look like he had been on the back patio when Mars came out from the study.
"So did Logan and you have phone sex?" He leered and when she glared at him, he shrugged and said "Hey you do what you got to do to get your freak on."
When she just shook her head and walked away, he drained the beer and went inside to see her car pulling out of the driveway. Watching as she went west that meant more than likely she was heading back to the hospital, he went back upstairs and grabbed the file on his desk and went over what else was in there.
With a cold smile he said "It took almost nine years but this time I have you right where I want you, Cindy."
The phone rang mere seconds before the alarm went off. "So, what did you find?"
"Sam Mackenzie needs a transplant and he is going to be a difficult match, plus his insurance won't cover much of the transplant. He is starting to rack up some major medical bills."
Dick thanked her and hit end before going to the bathroom and showering, shaving and even brushing his teeth. Dressing in one of the expensive tailored suits that he had gotten when he considered taking the job offered to him the previous year he grabbed the keys to his Mercedes and with a bit of pep to his step went to get some vengeance.
LoVe&MaDi
Mac listened stoically as the doctor told her mother the latest on her dad's condition. She had even gotten a sample of tissue from Madison, though the blond didn't know it and she hadn't been a match. The chances of finding the needed tissue from a non family member donor were rare at best and with the financial issues, after all this was Neptune, she knew that there was a good chance she was going to lose her dad.
Holding her mom as she cried, Mac saw Veronica down the hallway and when her mom had calmed down she walked to where her friend was hovering. "Did you find out what happened to the liver?"
Nodding soberly, she pulled Mac down the hallway and said "The hospital gave it to another patient. Someone who was transferred in last night via private helicopter. He was moved up in front of your dad because he was a better candidate."
"So it wasn't because he was richer, it was because he was sicker." She said relieved a bit at that knowledge; that it hadn't been about money.
Veronica nodded and when Mac teared up, she hugged her friend. "We will find a way, Mac. I promise."
"It might not matter." She said sadly. "His insurance company did some cost benefit analysis and have decided that paying for the transplant isn't good business. They say that the present treatment is working to keep him alive. When I commented on how he is alive but that it isn't a good life, I was told that he had the option of going off the meds."
"How can they do that?" She asked shocked at the callousness of the insurance company. "If he stops taking the medicine, he would die. That would be murder."
"No, if he stops taking the meds, it is considered suicide and they also wouldn't have to pay out on his life insurance." Mac said with a bitter twist to her lips. "So unless I find a way to pay for the transplant myself, he is going to be bedridden for the rest of his life."
"Mac, let me ask him to help." She said repeating an argument she had had repeatedly with Mac. Logan had offered but Mac refused to even consider being in his debt. She didn't get it, Mac had said she would do anything to save her father but yet she refused to do the one thing that would.
"I won't be indebted to Logan or anyone else. I don't like the quid pro quo of it." Mac said harshly then walked back to where her mom was exiting her dad's hospital room. Hugging her and listening to what she had to say she felt tears begin to overflow as her mom gave her the news.
"Your dad is considering going off the meds." She said.
Mac had been afraid he was going to take that option, as she felt her knees weaken but looking down the hallway, she saw a shadow in Veronica's eyes and knew that she hadn't told her something.
"Mom, don't let him. I will find a way to fix this." She said in a determined tone of voice and then walking back to Veronica, asked her to join her in the chapel. Once there, she said "What didn't you tell me, Veronica? Don't bother denying it."
Reluctantly, Veronica said "The man flown down here from LA, he wasn't even in the top ten of patients due to get a liver up there. He shopped around to find out where he would be first on the transplant list. He owns a small beach house here in Neptune and a week ago he declared that his primary residence so that the Transplant Organization would consider Southern California minus LA his region."
"Is he is worse off than my dad?" She asked intently and saw Veronica's eyes slide to the right. "What?"
"Yes, but he was considered equal to your dad when it came to who got the liver, however he has connections to your dad's insurance company." She said sadly. "He used that to get your dad's insurance company to put a hold on your dad's possible transplant and his friends influence to do the rest."
"How?" Mac asked grimly.
"Through Celeste Kane and the Sinclairs." She admitted.
Mac's eyes closed as pain ripped through her at the knowledge that her biological parents had helped this man hurt her dad. Walking away, almost numb, she was exiting the chapel when Veronica said that they would deal with it.
"No, it's over." Mac said sick to realize she couldn't quit her job, that her mom was going to need her financial help and she was stuck working for the Kanes for at least a few more years.
Then there were the Sinclairs, that they had done this, had her sick to her stomach. Leaving the hospital, she drove to street they lived on and sat in her car, staring at the house she could have grown up in and wanted nothing more than to throw a rock through the window.
Pulling away, she went to check on her seventeen year old brother who was getting ready to be a senior at Neptune High. He should have been the star receiver on the football team but was on the second string due to outside influence. As she felt the helplessness of the mess that money had created in Neptune, she heard her phone ringing.
Looking at the unknown number, she was not going to answer it but did on the off chance it was about her father. "Hello?"
"We need to meet. Dog Beach in twenty minutes."
Hanging up, Mac ignored the order and went inside her childhood home. Checking on Ryan who was making himself a sandwich, she asked "Are you okay?"
"Mom refuses to see that I am almost an adult." He said with a wry smile as Mac took in the almost six foot blond with green eyes standing in front of her. He was handsome that much was for sure, but what got to Mac was how kind he had turned out to be as he had grown up. "I let her send me home so that she would feel better but does she really think that I am going to go to sleep."
"I know." She said hugging him and a bit surprised to find him hugging her back very tightly. "I will fix this, Ryan."
"It is what is, Cindy." He said then seated at the counter told her "We have to face that, it's not like any of us has a spare quarter of a million dollars lying around and even if he had the transplant, I am sure the insurance company will come up with a reason not to pay for the anti-rejection meds."
Mac's eyes closed as she realized she hadn't even thought about that part of the equation. "I just feel so helpless."
"Helpless? You?" He asked and Mac looked at him and saw he was serious. "Cin, you did all you could. You and I both know that for the last several months you have been the glue holding us together. I also know that your friend Logan offered to help pay for the transplant and that dad rejected it."
Mac rejected the idea that Logan was her friend, he had quickly faded away from her life once Veronica was gone. At most he was an acquaintance, if he had truly been her friend he would have stayed in touch.
"It is dad's decision, Cindy. At this point, all we can do is accept that we can't change things." He said as he reached for his sandwich.
Mac's phone was ringing as she left the house an hour later. Seeing it was the same unknown number she hit ignore and when the light flashed to tell her she had a message, she erased it without listening.
Back at the hospital, she did a little reconnaissance and found the patient who had manipulated things in his favor and wrote down his name. Vowing revenge when she saw him already sitting up and on his cell phone making calls, Mac went to check up on her dad.
Seeing him lying flat, his skin a very unhealthy gray had her growing angry all over again. Listening to his nurse speaking quietly to him, she asked "Have you seen my mother?"
"She is in the chapel." The nurse said and told Mac "Dr. Vista won't let your dad be passed over, Ms. Mackenzie. He took this back to the hospital transplant team. They are determined to make sure that this newest liver isn't given to another patient."
"Newest liver?" She asked in shock. "I-what?"
"Oh dear, I thought your mom might have called you. There is a patient who is brain dead but being kept on life support. He is a match for your father. Dr. Vista is working with the transplant team to get your father's insurance company to reconsider the transplant."
"Thank you." Mac said feeling her spirits rise a little at that information.
LoVe&MaDi
Dick saw Mac exiting the chapel where her mother was praying and walked over. "I told you to meet me at Dog Beach."
Ignoring him, she was heading back to her dad's hospital room when he stopped her, pulled her back so that he could whisper in her ear "Either you listen to what I have to say or that transplant goes away. So which will it be, Mac?"
Turning to tell him he had nothing to do with this, she saw him dressed in a suit and the smug expression on his face and said "What have you done, Dick?"
"There is a private conference room on twelve. Be there in ten minutes, Mac. I mean it, be there or that liver goes to someone else." He said with warning glance.
"What could we possibly have to talk about?" She sneered.
"Someone once told me that vengeance was a dish best served cold. I tried revenge while the anger still burned red hot inside of me but it didn't work. This time, it's cold as ice." He said the black expression in his eyes at war with the way that Mac was used to seeing Dick look. "It's simple; you want your dad to live. Well, I can make that happen. To do that, you have to give a life to me to replace the one you took."
"What life?" She asked completely confused by what he was doing. She would have thought that the pound of flesh he had extracted that summer after freshman year would have been payment for what he clearly believed was her responsibility for Beaver's suicide.
His eyes flashed then he said "You know damn well what life you took. Don't play dumb with me, Mac. I want back what you took from me. Ten minutes, Mac. Be there or you will be standing over your dad's grave in mere weeks."
Mac wanted to slap the crap right out of him, but she was drained by the emotional upheaval of the last few weeks so she could only stand there shaking her head in disgust at his taking advantage of her dad's illness this way.
After spending several minutes at her dad's hospital room door, watching as her mother cried over her dad, Mac gathered her strength and took the elevator to the twelfth floor.
"May I help you?" The security guard asked when she got off the elevator.
"I am meeting Mr. Casablancas in a conference room up here." She said grimacing as she realized this was an administrative floor not a medical floor.
"He should be heading that way any minute." The guard announced after making a telephone call. "He asked me to tell you he was in a meeting with the Neptune General Chief of Staff."
Mac tensed, knowing that was the doctor who was head of the committee that decided who received a transplant, but she kept walking towards the door with the small discreet sign declaring it a conference room.
Sitting down at the table, she took out her cell phone and called to speak to Keith Mars wanting to ask him if he had ever come across the man who had gotten the first liver.
Looking up when she felt that odd tingling she associated with someone staring at her, she saw Dick standing at the end of the table. He held an open file in his hands as he read it. "Right now, the total medical costs for your father are up over a hundred thousand dollars, Mac. I spoke to the agent at his insurance company. They want him released from the hospital tomorrow; that they are opposing the transplant."
"I know that, Dick."
He closed the file, tossed it down on the mahogany table and looked at her. "It's almost nine o'clock, tomorrow morning they will be making plans to release your father from the hospital at eight AM. You have until then to decide if you want to take the deal I am about to offer you."
"What could you possibly have to offer?" She asked sure that whatever it was would cost a huge chunk of her soul.
"Your father's transplant goes though, I pay the bill and for the anti rejection meds." He said and he saw she was about to reject it so he pointed out. "It's either me or a dirt nap. I know that pretty soon the cost of the meds will be prohibitive because the insurance company will be changing its prescription drug CO-pay for him."
Mac knew, she just knew that somehow he was behind that change so she glared at him and saw his smug grin. "So what is my payment Dick? What do you want for fixing things? We both know that it is something I won't want to pay."
"Oh I am sure of that." He said leering as he looked at her. "However, you are going into this blind. Simply put you agree to my offer. I help your dad and you do as I want."
"What is to stop me from walking away afterwards." She asked.
"Your dad is going to need those drugs the rest of his life, Mac." He said with a knowing smile. "Very expensive drugs, Mac."
"What do you want, Dick?" She repeated her early question. "I won't go into this blind. I don't trust you."
"It won't be anything illegal, I promise." He said with a mocking grin then something occurred to him and he said "It's also not anything even considered the least bit immoral either. In fact you might even say it is sanctioned by the church."
"Let me guess, the Church of Dick?" She asked inwardly hoping that he didn't know that they already had a liver and that it might be transplanted that evening.
"No, it's pretty much not considered immoral by any church anyplace in the world." He said with a smug look on his face. "So Mac, what will it be. You walk away from your dad or you agreeing to my plan?"
Mac felt sick as got ready to turn him down, worried she was gambling with her dad's life but before she could answer, he said "Oh, and I know about the liver from that brain dead man. It's part of the deal, Mac. They won't even think of turning off the equipment keeping him alive until tomorrow."
"Eleven hours, Mac," He said then looking at his watch gave her a cold look and then said "Make that a little over ten as we have been here for a good forty-five minutes."
"I want it in writing that you will do as you say." She said sure that he wouldn't agree and she would have a way out this that wouldn't make her feel guilty.
"Done." He said throwing a blue backed legal document down on the table and pushing it towards her.
Mac reached out and caught the paperwork reading beyond the legalese, she asked "I will have my attorney look it over."
"As long as it isn't Mars, I don't give a shit." He said coolly.
Nodding that she understood, Mac stood and looked at Dick. "I always knew you were a bastard but that you would take advantage of my dad's illness to get me back for the past. You make your father and your brother look charming."
He didn't even answer as he walked towards the door. "I want you at the beach house by seven tomorrow morning, Mac. Otherwise that liver will be finding a new host."
Mac's hands were trembling as she struggled to get through the papers he had sent her way. Finding that he was agreeing to help her dad in exchange for a yet unnamed project that she agreed he would have all legal rights to, she felt a sense of relief.
Apparently Dick wanted her professional services and would more than likely make her a life a living hell as she worked on it for him but it could have been much, much worse.
Going back to her dad's room, she saw that her mom seemed happier as she told Mac that they were going to perform the liver transplant the next morning. "The insurance company called the hospital. They are also going to be picking up the total cost of it."
Cynically wondering if Dick was the insurance company, she returned her Mom's hug and saw that her dad was also looking a bit better at the news his long medical drama would soon be over.
LoVe&MaDi
Dick sent Logan and e-mail, told him that he was thinking on looking for a bigger place that he was thinking on making some more permanent changes. That Logan's reunion with Veronica had spurred him into the realization that sometimes the past could be overcome.
After hitting send, he had sat back and reread what was written. "That should do it."
Going to the safe in his bedroom, Dick unlocked it and pulled out the ring inside. Looking at it, he remembered the reason it had originally been purchased and with a bitter twist threw it back inside. "Screw that. Where is the ring set that belonged to dad's second wife?"
Looking through the jewelry, he finally found the correct box and removed it from the safe. Making a call in spite of the late hour he waited until Tripp answered and said "It's Dick. I need a place near the beach. Four or five bedrooms all on the same floor, nice master suite. Media room and large garage as well as outdoor living space with a party set up. Price is no object."
"Any particular style?" He asked.
Dick thought about it and said "Nothing traditional or Victorian. Large though."
"Okay, I will call you back tomorrow with a list of what I have available." He was told.
"Fine, but I want it around nine." He replied then hanging up, made a few more calls, one that had his attorneys sighing with relief. "I want it tomorrow morning."
Going through the mental list, Dick had once last call to make and with a cruel smirk called his mother in Switzerland where her husband was stationed as an Ambassador and said "I am getting married next week."
Hearing her sharp tone as she asked who the girl was, he said "She graduated from Hearst with me, works for Kane Software and no, she isn't pregnant. Not yet anyhow."
When his mother wanted a name, Dick said "Cindy Mackenzie."
"Cassidy's ex-girlfriend?" His mother sounded surprised but not upset. "Really? She's not your usual blond air head type."
"No, she isn't. Why do you think I am marrying her?" Dick said not adding that he was blackmailing her. "We spent a lot of time together in college but then things happened. Her dad has been sick and it has drawn us together."
"I am proud of you, Richard." Dick was shocked to realize that his mom did seem to sound happy. "I was so afraid for the last few years that you would end up just like him but it sounds like you made a good choice. Like you have finally chosen to grow up."
Hanging up, a bit unsettled at the idea of finally getting his mother's approval for something, he sat there on his bed, looking at the phone, wondering what she would do if she learned the truth.
LoVe&MaDi
Veronica entered Logan's house, surprised at how quiet it was. Normally Dick had left the television on or music blaring when he went to bed but this morning there was no noise at all. Walking into the kitchen, sure that he had to have not come home the night before, she felt her jaw drop when she saw him standing in front of the coffee pot wearing a suit.
"Dick?"
She saw his unguarded expression when he looked her way and saw surprise and wariness in it. "Logan sent me an e-mail this morning. Worried about you."
"He shouldn't be." Dick said playing the part he planned to play in public for the next few years at least. "I meant what I told him. Its time to move on from the past. Look, what happened between the two of you, it's been... Well, not exactly inspiring because let's face it the jury is still out on the two of you. So far you two haven't been around each other much since your return. You had what, two weeks at most?"
"What are you trying to say?" She asked tersely.
"Nothing, I am hoping it works out for you this time." He said trying for sincere. "It's just this plus something else going on made me realize that I too can have that second chance."
"What happened with the first one?" She asked. "Wait, who are we talking about? Madison?"
"No, not in this lifetime or any other." He said shuddering.
Veronica's eyes went to his face and said "Who then?"
"None of your business." He said with just the right tone of belligerence. "I won't let you ruin this for me, Veronica."
Veronica didn't get what was going on, but it was very clear that Dick wasn't going to tell her anything and that she knew this girl. "What are you going to do?"
"Something I have never tried before." He said not telling her that it was blackmail and that he wasn't looking for happily ever after, only vengeance. "Talking honestly with her. Laying it all on the line."
Looking between the now finished cup of coffee to Dick she asked "Does that have Irish whiskey in it?"
"Nah, no false courage this time. Just truth and hopefully a chance to get back what I lost." He said playing her. When he saw her eyes seemed to soften, he inwardly chuckled as he took a sip of the hot coffee.
"If you need any help..." She trailed off as she grabbed her purse and keys from the counter.
Dick said "If I need your help then I have screwed this up, but thanks for the offer."
Veronica left the house a bit stunned at the difference between this Dick who seemed sober and almost an adult and the buffonish idiot with was usually drunk or stoned or worse both and knew that something was very wrong with the universe.
Heading to the hospital, she heard the news and saw that Mac didn't seem as happy as she should be. "Mac, what is it?"
"Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if...never mind." She said shaking her head. "The past is just rearing its head and I am doing a little bit of the what ifs. Nothing more."
"There is a lot of that going around." Veronica said her mind on Dick as well as her relationship with Logan. With regret, she said "I have to get to the office, I have an early client meeting at seven. It's why I am so early."
Hugging her, Mac said "Don't work too hard and if you go on a stake out, don't forget to take your law books. You still have a bar exam to take."
"Call me when your dad gets out of surgery." Veronica said and then went to leave. Looking back, she saw Mac seemed melancholy as she watched her family from the doorway.
LoVe&MaDi
Mac entered the conference room and slid her signed paperwork towards Dick who was seated at the same seat she had been the day before. "Here."
"I heard your dad was wheeled into the operating room right at seven." He said without looking up from where he was making notes. Mac wanted to reach down and grab the expensive silver pen he was using and stab him straight into the heart with it.
"He was." She said. "Do you expect me to thank you?"
That had him looking up, "No, at least not with words. Shut the door, I will tell you what I want in exchange."
Mac did just that and when she came back he told her to take a seat.
"I prefer to stand." She said just to be contrary.
"Fine, either way works for me. I just figured you might wish to be more comfortable." He said before returning to where he was writing what looked like pages of notes.
Mac stubbornly refused to sit but she did walk over to the window and look out over the hospital parking lot. Hearing the sound of his pen being capped, she turned and looked at the papers he was handing her. "What's this?"
"Read it." He said.
"Is this about the program you want me to write?" She asked.
His eyes widened with pleasure and Mac felt a bit less worried until she looked down expecting to find some sort of description of a computer software program and instead found her worst nightmare.
Looking up, she said "What the hell is this?"
"What you agreed to do in exchange for my help with your dad's liver." He said as he looked at her steadily. He saw she was wearing the same clothes as the day before and that her hair was a bit tousled and knew that she was going on no sleep which was perfect for what he had planned.
Mac's jaw tightened as she said "You have got to be insane if you think that I would agree to this."
"You already did, Mac." He replied. "This is just a more detailed outline to what you already agreed to. If you notice, I gave you a little time, it won't start until at a week from today."
"Why are you doing this, Dick?" Mac asked. "It won't change the past, nothing can."
"No, it won't change the past, I will never forgive you for what you did but it will help soothe the pain." He said then told her "No one and I mean no one out side this room is to know the truth. Not Veronica, not Logan, Not even your priest."
"I'm not Catholic." She said reading the files again, hoping this was a nightmare.
"This is how this is going to go. You are going to go back downstairs and be with your Mom. I will stop by later, we will take a small walk and when we return, you are going to say that we have been talking about your past."
"Which past?" She asked with a sneer on her face.
"The summer after our first year at Hearst. We can dress it up if you insist make it a little less tawdry. We stick as close to the truth as possible, say how we bonded out of worry about Logan, yeah, that should work. That we had a fling and you decided I wasn't smart enough for you."
"How about we stick to the truth? How about we say that I came to the penthouse and found you with Madison, Dick?" She snarled. "With Shelly there clearly waiting for her turn as you were stripping your ex girlfriend."
With a sneer he said "You were the one who told me you were too busy to see me."
"I told you I was busy because I was, not because I wanted to end things with us." She pointed out. "When I saw the drugs and the liquor not mention two of our former classmates half naked in your hotel suite, I was glad I hadn't told you what was really going on."
"We were partying. You were invited to join us, it's not my fault you didn't want to join us." He replied his anger reminding him that he had already known what was going on, it was what had led him to the downward spiral he had been on and now, he was going to make her pay for taking his only chance at a family away from him.
"You threw Beaver up in my face in front of those two bitches." She snapped.
"You deserved it, after what you did." He hissed as his heart reminded him that she had put him through hell and then torn his heart out and stomped on it.
Mac began to speak but he held up his hand and said with a cold grin "It's done with. We are moving forward and speaking of moving forward, you might want to think where you want to get married."
"Married? To you?" She asked laughing harshly as she looked at him. "Are you crazy?"
"Nope, in a week we are going to announce that we have been spending time together, that Logan and Veronica's reunion and what is happening with your dad made us regret losing each other. We announce our engagement and we then will announce our plans to get married. You might want to think of a date for that while you are at it."
"How about the twelfth." She said flippantly.
"The 12th of June?" He asked pulling out a pen to write the date down.
"No, more like the twelfth of never." She harshly replied then went to leave but before she could, he held her arm and didn't let her go. "Dick, all it would take is one conversation with Veronica."
"All it would take is one call to your dad's insurance company..." He threatened.
Mac's shoulders slumped and Dick knew he had won. Pressing a kiss to her nape, watching her shudder, he said "And Mac this won't be a marriage in name only."
When she burst into tears, he said "Get over it,"
TBC