Logan Echolls scowled

Title: Decade

Pairing: L/V

Rating: PG-13, for a tiny bit of language.

Spoilers: All aired episodes.

Word Count: 2,017

Summary: Future fic. Veronica and Logan think they have moved on with their lives. They both end up in New York, where Logan is an actor and Veronica a photographer. L/V.

Disclaimer: Obviously, these characters do not belong to me. I have just adopted them for a little while.

Author Note: THANK YOU to all my amazing reviewers. You are the reason this is out at all, and quite fast if I do say so myself. Again, I would love some more because it's a bit addictive.

Logan Echolls scowled. He was annoyed and a little hung-over. He closed his eyes. The rat-like face of Joe, his manager, was not what he liked seeing at 10:30 in the morning, but apparently it was an "emergency". October 4th was never a day when Logan liked hearing about faux-emergencies. He opened his eyes again and heard Olivia asking, "So, what is this emergency?"

"Well, there's been a problem with the Vanity Fair shoot," Joe said apologetically, "The photographer we were supposed to have had to cancel for some personal reasons. I got the magazine to send over the portfolios of some other choices. You two need to look at the portfolios and choose someone by noon. I need to tell them and you've got a lot of stuff already planned for this afternoon." He indicated the pile of folders on his desk.

Olivia picked up the first pile and handed Logan the second. "Sweetie, just mark the ones you like with a post-it, okay? This shouldn't take too long. I'll do the same and then we can switch."

Logan flipped through the portfolios nonchalantly, glancing at the photos only briefly. Then one caught his eye; he stopped at the photo of two men in a standing in a fountain at night. The water was lit up like a halo around the dark, indefinite figures and the effect was as ethereal as it was surreal. He flipped back looking carefully at each of the photos in the same portfolio. He handed it to Olivia, saying, "I like this one. What do you think?"

She looked carefully at the portraits and photos that were related to what they wanted. They were good, she would admit that. Olivia would have preferred to look through all the folders very carefully, but she knew that Logan was as restless and stubborn as a little boy and when he liked something, he had to have it. "This looks great, sweetie. We'll get this—" she checked the spine of the folder, "—this V. Reynolds guy."

She kissed him lightly on the lips as Joe was already dialing the magazine.

"So I guessed even this celebrity had the good taste to appreciate my work," Veronica said as she entered the studio and greeted Norm with two air-kisses. "That's pretty shocking."

"Well, maybe he can just tell you're going to be a big hit like I can," Norm said smiling. "No time for chatting, though, they're arriving soon and we have so much shit to do."

"Wait, I don't even know who I'm shooting today. I mean, I might have to imdb them just so we have something to talk about."

"Well, he's famous enough you probably won't have to imdb him. And a hottie, so this is your lucky day. It's Logan Echolls. And we're going to put his fiancée Olivia Gleeson in a few as well."

Veronica froze. She felt almost lightheaded with shock. "Logan Echolls?" Why am I even surprised? This would be my kind of luck.

"Yeah, Logan Echolls." He noticed her strange expression, confused. "Don't tell me that you're going to get all fan girl on me and that you can't possibly work with that hunk of manhood because he makes you go all gooey inside and that you're just so excited to meet him."

Veronica let out a strangled laugh at this suggestion. Norm looked a little alarmed. "Seriously, V, what is it? It's kind of late for me to get a new photographer…"

Veronica shook her head, partly to say no to Norm and partly as an attempt to rearrange whatever was in there. "No, no, it's really, um, fine. It's just that I know him… We went to high school together. It's just a strange coincidence, that's all." When I phrase it like that it sounds perfectly innocuous. Good job, Veronica.

Norm still looked at her oddly. "You went to high school with Logan Echolls, Hollywood's current Big Thing and you never mentioned it?" Veronica shrugged. "Okay, whatever, we have a lot of stuff to do and no time for digging into your past. Let's do this thing. Maybe you and Logan can reminisce afterwards, hmm?"

Veronica nodded distractedly and they both started getting the lights and props set up. She was almost so busy that she forgot whom they were expecting. Until she heard a voice behind her.

"Hi, I'm Logan Echolls," she heard a familiar voice introducing himself to Norm. "And this is my fiancée, Olivia."

Veronica turned around slowly, steeling herself for the meeting. Logan was turned away still talking to Norm. Veronica walked over to Olivia, smiled and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm V. Reynolds, your photographer." Olivia shook the offered hand, smiled back and said, "Olivia Gleeson. Nice to meet you."

At the first sound of Veronica's voice, Logan's head had whipped round. Dumbstruck, all he said was, "Veronica."

Veronica couldn't help smirking at his look of complete shock. I guess forewarned is forearmed alright. "Hi, Logan," she replied as calmly as she could.

He repeated her name again, sounding like he couldn't believe he was saying. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

By this point, Norm and Olivia were staring at them speechless. A couple of the makeup and hair people were inching over to hear as well. "I'm your photographer," Veronica said lightly. Just keeping control of herself enough to respond to Logan calmly kept her occupied enough to ignore the fact that the two of them were in the same room for the first time in four years.

Logan looked puzzled. "But I thought the photographer was V. Reynolds."

"Yup," Veronica took a business card out of her pocket and handed it to him, "V. Reynolds. That's me."

Logan looked at the card like it was an object from an alien civilization. "But… wait, is Reynolds your married name?"

Veronica wanted to snark at him for saying the word married with such disbelief. So I guess he can't imagine anyone wanting to marry me. Charming. She was trying very hard to be the professional one though. "No," she said shortly, "I use it professionally." Logan looked like he was going to ask some more questions, but Veronica cut him off, "I think it's time for you two to go to hair and makeup."

As Olivia led Logan away, she asked him sharply, "How do you know her?" He answered distractedly, "We went to high school together. We used to be friends. A long time ago."

Forty minutes later, Logan and Veronica came face to face once again. They were going to do Logan alone first and then Olivia and Logan together for the "romance" portion of the story. He stood awkwardly on the plain set, plainly discomfited. He didn't meet Veronica's eyes.

Veronica sighed. Oh God, Logan, can't you just be a professional and do your job so I can do mine? Please? She walked over to him so they could talk without being overheard. She touched him lightly on the arm. He started slightly when she touched him and she, too, felt a strange wave of emotion. So I guess he actually is real. Surprise, surprise. "Logan," she said in a tone meant to remind him to snap out of it and get to work.

"My dear Veronica," he said theatrically, doffing an invisible hat, "I am entirely at your service. I'm sure you missed the Echolls' family charm."

Even with the jab intended in his last line, Veronica knew this Logan and that it was one she could work with, however annoying. He sat in his chair backwards, trying to outstare Veronica's camera. Veronica snapped away, feeling his almost magnetic stare on her always. She directed and he changed position, expression, costume. However, she couldn't get a smile out of him as hard as she tried; only that classically arrogant "Logan Echolls" smirk and a tight-lipped smile so sad it hardly qualified.

Then he saw Olivia enter and his face became one giant smile. Click, click, click, click. Veronica, remember when you were the one who made him look so joyous? Remember? Veronica was trying as hard as she could to quash the memories and the emotions that went with them. Professional. Job. Client. Those are the watchwords. As she watched him give Olivia a quick kiss on the lips, her stomach turned over professionally. Luckily her hands were more under her control than her stomach and got the shot. Two people in love. How sweet.

If that first shot was like shoving her hand into ice-cold water, for the next hour she had to look so closely as they posed lovingly together that it was as if the immersion let her almost forget that she was freezing to death at all. I'm sure I'm feeling as any single ex-girlfriend would feel when having to see her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend, scratch that, fiancée cuddle for hours. Actually, I'm sure any human would feel ill faced with so much unattainable happiness. God, when did I get to be such a misanthrope? Oh, right, I remember, it was when my best friend died, I got raped and Logan made my life hell. And you thought you'd moved past that, Veronica.

The shoot ended at some point, far after all of its participants wished it would. She shook Olivia's hand goodbye, but somehow Logan had managed to miss saying goodbye to Veronica at all. As everyone was wrapping up, exhausted, she watched Logan's back as he left, his arm wrapped around Olivia. When he finally disappeared, she let out a breath she didn't even know she had been holding. Goodbye, Logan. Another surreal chapter finished in our strange saga. Have a nice life with Olivia; I'm sure you'll be perfectly happy. And I will continue my beautifully Logan-less life exactly as it was before. Even now I can barely remember what it was like with him here. Thankfully everything seems to be going back to normal.

On her subway ride uptown, she thought about what she was going to have for dinner, her plans for next week, whether she should make plans for Halloween, what she should send Mac for her birthday and when she would have time to go down to see her friend Jerome's show in Chelsea. Anything and everything utterly mundane. Veronica was almost smiling when she got out at her stop and walked towards the exit, until she saw Logan Echolls' eyes staring right at her. They had just put up a new poster for "Fight or Flight" starring Logan Echolls and Olivia Gleeson in the subway station. Veronica groaned. This is exactly what I need.

Logan and Olivia were getting driven downtown to their loft but had hit gridlock due to an inexplicable garbage truck that was taking up the whole street. Olivia looked at Logan who was being uncharacteristically quiet. "So, Logan, who is this Veronica girl anyway? You just went to high school together? That can't be all."

"Yeah. And college. That's all there is to know," Logan said curtly, sounding exasperated. Olivia knew that was all she would get from him. She got her Blackberry out of her purse and scrolled through new emails. Then she turned it so Logan couldn't see the screen, typing in "Logan Echolls" and "Veronica" into Google and pressing search.

Logan was tired. He needed distraction. He fished in his pocket for his iPod and came upon a white paperboard rectangle. He looked at it surprised, reading the words slowly:

V. Reynolds

Freelance Photography

917.756.1229

Logan tucked the business card in his wallet, carefully behind his platinum AmEx. He turned up the car's air conditioning to high, closed his eyes, and put in his iPod.

I talk to you as to a friend
I hope that's what you've come to be
It feels as though we've made amends
Like we found a way eventually

It was you who picked the pieces up
When I was a broken soul
And then glued me back together
Returned to me what others stole

To be continued…

FYI: The song quoted at the end is "Sway", by the Perishers.

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