Author: Miss Lindsay

Story: I Promise

Summary: Three years after graduating Hearst Veronica is a single mom living in Neptune and working as a journalist. Logan is living across the country and is a famous author. When there paths cross again will it be forever or just for now?

Rating: K+

Spoilers: None specifically but maybe say all episodes so far just to be safe.

Disclaimer: Rob Thomas owns all…not me.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning I woke up to laughing in the kitchen and I slowly pulled herself up off of the couch. I walked into the kitchen to find my daughter sitting at the table while Logan made smiley face pancakes.

I smiled because I always knew this was how it was supposed to be. How a normal family would be on a normal Saturday morning. And then I noticed the way Logan was avoiding my eyes. The way he would talk to Olivia but when I came close he would walk away.

Then I noticed the slight flicker of light off his left ring finger and I saw the wedding band there. I wanted to scream to faint or to wake up from this nightmare. Logan could not be married he just couldn't.

How could he be married when just last night he had promised to stay forever and he had said he hadn't dated anyone since he left? Plus I hadn't read anything about it in the tabloids so maybe there was a good explanation. Maybe just maybe everything would still turn out perfect.

All of a sudden Logan noticed me staring at his ring and all of the color drained from his face. As he grabbed my arm and led me to the couch he assured me that he could explain and I hoped with every fiber in me that he could and that he wasn't married. But the first words out of his mouth crushed every hope I had and made me want to die right there.

"Ronnie, I am married. I also have a child on the way with my wife. I never dated her and I never loved her, not like I still love you. I got really drunk at a movie release party and I had a one night stand with her. She was one of the waitresses at the club and she came to me about two months later telling me she was pregnant.

So, I decided to do the right thing and marry her. Plus I figured you would have moved on by now and that you wouldn't want me back. So, her name is Katie and we have been married for 6 months now and my daughter is due in less then a month."

I stared at him open mouthed for a very long time until he must've thought I had lost all chance of speaking again. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if I have.

"But I want to be there for you and Olivia. I don't want to walk away just because I have a family. But I cannot divorce Katie because she is also my daughter's mother and she depends on me both emotionally and financially. Now I need to head home and tell Katie about you and Olivia before she gets worried. But I meant my promise last night Ronnie. I will be here forever for you two and it will be a relationship not just money, okay."

I slowly nodded my head as I tried to let what he was saying sink in. Logan was married. He had another child on the way and he could not be with me the way I wanted him to. He wouldn't be my husband and lay next to me every night because some other girl named Katie had already claimed that spot.

He would be with her each night while I lay alone in my bed and cried myself to sleep each night. Logan seemed to sense that I wasn't in the mood to talk so he kissed my forehead and then kissed Olivia goodbye. As he was walking out the door he turned around and faced me once again.

"Ronnie, I still love you, always have always will. And I think you and Olivia should come meet Katie so I will talk to her this morning when I get home and then pick you two up for dinner at a restaurant here in town tonight okay. I will call you with the details."

With that he closed the door and the sobs began to take over my body. I did not know how he thought I would be able to have him in my life but only as a friend and the father of Olivia. It had never been like that between us so I do not know how he expected it to be like that now.

But one thing I knew for sure is that I would not be the "other woman" to break up Logan's marriage. If the marriage failed it sure as hell would not be because of me, at least not intentionally of course.

Dinner with Logan and his wife tonight would definitely be the most difficult thing I ever have to do. How am I supposed to sit there and smile at the wife of the man I have never stopped loving? How am I supposed to pretend that he is just a friend and not also the father of my daughter and my best friend and the man who left me alone and heartbroken all those years ago but can still take my breath away with a few simple words? How?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Logan called me about two hours after leaving my house and let me know that him and Katie would be picking Olivia and I up for dinner around seven. I went through the day of cleaning and taking care of some work as if I was a zombie. If I didn't have Olivia there seriously would not even be a reason to keep living.

The only man I have truly loved is married and will never be mine and now he is going to become a permanent fixture in my life since he is Olivia's father. Man I must have something horrible in a past life to get the karma I have.

Soon it was almost time for dinner so I bathed Olivia and myself and got us ready for dinner. I primped and curled both of our hair and smiled at the final products. I guess subconsciously I was trying to look perfect to be better then Logan's wife but I would never admit that openly.

Olivia is the perfect mix of Logan and I. She has my blond hair but she had her father's deep chocolate brown eyes. I stood at the mirror admiring my daughter when I heard the doorbell ring.

She heard it to and her eyes lit up. She had instantly started calling Logan 'daddy' and had been talking about him non-stop all day today. That had only made my self-pitying easier when I heard about him every few seconds.

I opened the door with the best smile I could muster. Logan stood there with his arm around a very pregnant red head. She wasn't gorgeous but she wasn't ugly either. She looked very nervous on my front doorstep as her eyes flicked back and forth between me and my daughter.

I finally decided that I needed to start some sort of introductions or this night would become ten times more awkward then it had to be. "Hi, I'm Veronica Mars and this is my, I mean Logan and my daughter Olivia Mars-Echolls." Logan smiled at the use of his last name as he took Olivia into his arms.

Logan's wife stepped away from him and asked if she could speak to me in the other room. I cautiously agreed and Logan looked concerned as his wife and I stepped into the kitchen.

"I know Logan already told you our story. My name is Katie Henry-Echolls and I am pregnant with Logan's daughter from a one night stand. I love Logan and I know he loves me but not in the way he loves you. I like you and I do not want you to hate me or resent me for taking Logan. But I also want you to know that I will fight to the end for my marriage and I do not want you to break that up"

I admired the woman for standing up to me about Logan and her marriage and it actually made me like her even more for letting me know she would fight for her marriage. I had no plans to be the other woman that broke up their family before but even if I had I would have forgotten them by now because I actually liked this woman.

I assured her I had no plans to break up her family and her smile became genuine at that point. It was contagious and soon I found myself smiling genuinely to.

"Now let's go out there and go get some dinner because I am so hungry I could eat anything right now!" Katie said as she gently pulled me arm in arm towards the entryway where Logan and Olivia were waiting.

Logan smiled when he saw us and I was actually happy for a few seconds. Then reality set in and the empty, lonely Logan-sized hole in my heart reminded me what I was missing and I knew that this would definitely be difficult but it was for Olivia alone.

When Olivia had been born I had made her a promise that day in the hospital when she was born and I fully plan on keeping that promise no matter how much it costs me.