She stands next to herself, peering inquisitively. She questions whether or not its a good idea to attend ones own funeral. The cynic inside her says that she really just wants to know exactly what they thought of her. The innocent inside her questions whether or not she was ever really loved.

That list wasn't something she ever expected to be found, much less paid attention to. The file on her computer 'In Case of Emergency' was something she had written in a flurry of angst, anger and fear. She wonders now if she shouldn't have included Madison and Clarence on her list of people to be denied. It would have been interesting to see what they did.

The headstone is something she smiles at. She can't be angry at her father for putting the sentence there, and can't begrudge him for the small bronze lily flower pressed into the left-hand corner of black marble. He had somehow known that she wouldn't.

Looking around the crowd she notices that there are people missing, people that should be there, but have chosen not to show their faces. She decides that she won't go through that door next to her plot until they come and visit her.


I will find out what happened.

When her father walks up to her shell- it's not her, just a shell of what she used to be- her breath catches. It isn't fair for him to lose everything. His job, his wife, his daughter. It isn't fair that he escaped being on that plane, only to arrive back home to an empty world.

She notices the item and laughs, despite the grief. It looks like she finally got that goddamn pony she always asked him for. Hearing his thoughts- apparently it's a skill they have yet to mention in the movies- the laughter quickly turns to tears. He knows how unfair it is. And somehow he's decided that it's his fault she's gone. That the skills she honed with him were the cause of this.

Leaning towards him she tries to place a comforting hand on his arm. When it falls through his solid flesh, she steps back. Her voice not working, she can only mouth the words.

You're my Daddy.


I love you.

Noticing a new person standing to come forward, she wondered if it was possible for your heart to stop if you're already dead. The murmers of the crowd are from people who don't understand. Her father says nothing and steps aside slightly. He is the one person who never took her bull. He saw through her carefully constructed webs made of lies by omission, the biggest one being her inability to give in to him. To be with him completely, to love him the way he deserved to be. He is the one that she's the most concerned for. Her father will throw himself into her case. Once he solves it, then she'll worry about how he's going to survive.

But the boy in front of her is a different story. She's heard the same newscasts that she has- that their former group of carefree days was cursed. She bleakly wonders if it's true. Two dead, one missing, and the final member hasn't touched a drop of alcohol. That was the sign that scared her the most. It seems that anguish is just enough of an inhibitor to keep him from the world. It terrifies her that she might be the final nail in his coffin.

The tears fall harder now, and she's overcome with the whirlwind of emotions that always seems to surround the two of them. In her misery she attempts a kiss, but it fails just like the previous interaction. Between gasps, the words stutter out as she stares at the gift he had promised her when their relationship had seemed so easy.

I never should have caused you pain.


You're my best friend, you pissy little marshmallow.

She remembers the day that she cut the new kid down from the flagpole, the day she mocked the leader of a biker gang and somehow made friends with the only person in Neptune who wasn't around when Lilly died. The boy who refused to flee when she gave him the glare she had perfected so many weeks previous.

With a gasp she sits up and realizes the bitter karma. The thing that forced her to change had now been placed on his shoulders. He is now going to live with the icy memories of a girl who was no longer with him. Her pain was going to be his pain.

It isn't until she hears the thud of a flour sack that she sees what he has given her as a final gift. Apparently, he still expected spirit boxes to be made from the afterlife. She would be offended if she wasn't so touched. Afraid to stand, she doesn't reach out to hug him. The pain of another pass-through would be too much. So she settles with hugging her knees while leaning against her headstone, and whispers the regret that fills her now.

I am so sorry you have to live with this.


There will never be another one like you.

She could see him during the ceremony. Sitting on the right side, in the center. She wonders if he's here out of obligation.

Getting up to stand before him, her face fills with wonder as she listened. The man who called her to his office so many times was actually sad that she was gone. Sure, their rapport had been slightly more casual than it probably should have, but their standings as administration and student were always clearly defined. Noticing the keyring that he's clenching in his fist, her tears stop and a watery grin breaks out.

The touching isn't an issue here, the two of them never hugged when she was alive. The one handshake they had shared was when he was saying farewell to her and handing out diplomas. But she is still able to hear thoughts, and laughs when she hears his sentiment.

I should hope not, she replies dryly it would suck to have another round of heartbreak.


I loved you like a daughter.

She had wondered if he was going to visit. She knew he would attend the funeral, despite his wife's protests. There weren't any tears, but he was still there in the back. He had never been able to resist a Mars woman. Scoffing at her bitterness, she sits back and listens.

It shocks her that he was proud of her. She had always assumed that he thought of her as the dirty little secret that turned out to be a false alarm. He had been nice when she was at the house, but she had chalked it up to either playing a role or paternal instinct.

The tears almost start to leak again when she sees the bracelet. But she stops, reminding herself that she's spent enough time on the Kanes. She's surprised once again to know that he could see the transformation within her when regarding him. But he wasn't completely right. She had never grown to ignore him like he thought, but simply came to accept that he had made mistakes. In response to his quiet admission, she says nothing for a while. But as he is leaving, she finds the words.

At one time, I loved you like a father.


Veronica Mars is smarter than me.

She knew he would show up at some point. Since her father had obeyed her wish, Wallace had been given the job of telling the local law that his presence would not be required at the funeral of the pretty blonde girl he made cry. Both Logan and Wallace had told her dad that they knew the reason she didn't want him there, but they refused to reveal the information. For that her love for them grew even more.

Disgusted at his silent admission of desire, she had been ready to go see how Logan was doing. She had actually stood and dusted her jeans out of habit before she saw it.

Then she was ready to find out if at some point in the last few minutes, she had solidified. Wanted to see him try to fight off invisible punches fueled by the rage of a distraight dead girl. As he held the star in its envelope. The badge of honor he had no place holding. But he seemed to know it, and set it quickly on the ground. Breathing out, she shook her head and bitterly says the words she had come to accept.

I can't bring myself to hate you.


You were someone I could have really been with.

Knowing he would come at some time, she had waited for the gang leader. She knew that he didn't miss out on her funeral purposely, but Lamb had kind of arrested him at graduation. And it's hard to say goodbye to a girl when you're stuck behind some bars.

Leave it to him to see this as another failure on his part. She could hear him mentally tabulating the favor scale, and realizing that he was never going to be even. The jacket made her laugh, she always knew she was the bigger badass.

This declaration of love was not one that made her gag. Sadness filled her when she beheld the tears streaming down his face. Knowing that despite his criminal past, he was still too good a guy for her. With a wistful and sympathetic smile on her face, she sighed at his choice in women.

You always fell for the wrong ones.


I always loved you.

She's stuck between angry and amused to find him on a boat. She had told him specifically not to keep one, since that's the way he came to his new life. But he had never listened to her. Never noticed that she was different.

But seeing him with his daughter made her forget about the boat issue. He was actually a good father, despite having the parents he did. There was no pressuring of her, no enrollment in a private school, or encouragement of ballet. He had his own life to worry about, his own problems. Like why it was that all three women he had slept with ended up dead.

It made her sad that the photo he dropped was of the old her. It confirmed her suspicions that he still couldn't see the changes she had made. He had been amused by her cases, but not in the way Logan had. He had seen them as a hobby, like scrapbooking, something that kept her entertained and amused. With bittersweet eyes, she quietly corrects him.

I'm not the girl you'll always cherish.


It takes three months for them all to visit her. Three came more often than the others, but that's to be expected. She almost cried when Logan went with Wallace to shop for college stuff. She did cry when her father was there during freshman orientation, and he took them all out to lunch. She still occasionally found herself transported to one of them, when they thought about her particularly hard.

Observing them all, hearing their whispers, she realizes with a cold shudder that her life had been filled with lies. She lied to her father, never telling him about her rape. She lied to Logan, never being truthful about her feelings for him. She lied to Wallace, never warning him that she sucked at the whole friendship thing. She lied to Clemmons, but she never felt guilty. She lied to Jake, never telling him that she knew. She lied to Lamb, and never did it without a smile. She lied to Weevil, never giving him a chance to explain his relationship with her dead best friend. She lied to Duncan, never showing that she wasn't happy with him the second time around.

But despite the lies, she had genuinely cared for all of them at one point. And now she knew that she had touched their lives in the same way they left imprints on her.

So here she was, standing with all the items they had left her: a childhood wish, the meaningful stuffed bear, ingredients for her final batch of cookies, keys to a school she no longer attended, the trinket that had adorned her dead best friend's wrist, a mocking symbol of truth and justice, a worn leather jacket and the picture of the girl long gone.

The shimmering door opens without a sound, and through the light she can hear her name called by an old friend. Wiping her eyes, she steps away from her plot. Despite her intention while alive, she will not stick around and taunt the people who wronged her. Instead, she will watch over those who loved her. Turning to the entrance, she takes one more glance and whispers the words that she knows will come true.

Remember me.