A/N: Here's chapter two! Thanks for reviews and follows, and of course reading!

Chapter Two

"What's the matter, little bro?"

Logan Echolls had been used to his older sister, Trina, calling him that for most of his life, but in recent years, he'd gotten accustomed to not hearing her refer to him as "little bro" twenty-four/seven. He was starting to wonder why his father had never once thought about murdering Trina when he was alive. Her whiny, obnoxious voice proved too much for Logan. He tried to escape the house as much as possible, but he only had so much opportunity.

"Didn't you hear me?" Trina Echolls asked, positioning herself right in front of the TV. "You've been sulking here all day. Is this because your latest girlfriend broke up with you? Aww, poor Logan."

Logan didn't look amused as he slid to the other end of the couch in an attempt to see the TV again. "Trina, can you please move your stupid ass out of my way?"

"Someone is pissy today," she said as she sat beside her brother. "I was just trying to be a good big sister, you know, on account of the whole our parents being dead thing."

Logan rolled his eyes. Trina sure loved to milk that one. He had never once asked for anyone's sympathy, yet she was always the one to bring up the fact that their parents were gone.

"I thought you liked that," he muttered. "I mean, you get more attention this way. Who knows? You might not even have gotten to do that stupid TV movie."

He nudged his head to a framed movie poster hung up on the wall. It replaced the several posters their father once had hanging on the walls before the house burnt down. The movie poster had been especially made for Trina to hang up on the wall. The title read: "Little Girl Lost: The Aaron Echolls Tragedy." An unknown actor that looked nothing like their father was placed at the forefront, with Trina standing next to two girls and a boy behind him.

"Oh, shut up," she said. "I'm just trying to make light of a bad situation. I think you should be doing the same, Mr. Pissy Pants. You know what? You should find something constructive to do instead of sitting around the house all day watching TV."

Logan sighed. Why did he ever agree to move back in with his sister? He knew now that it was a bad idea, but at the time… he still thought it was a bad idea. He was just hoping it would surprise him. He had grown tired of living in a hotel suite all alone and really had no one else to turn to. Dick had moved back into his old home with his father over a year ago. When Trina approached him with the idea moving into their old home, now rebuilt, he was initially hesitant, but he eventually decided to go along with it.

But now... Now he spent his afternoons sitting home alone on the couch, hoping Trina would be off working that day so he could enjoy some peace and quiet. With school starting up again soon, he was hoping to escape, but somehow dorm life didn't exactly seem like a viable option for him.

"Maybe it's better you two are broken up," said Trina. "I don't think walking in on you two making out counts as introducing your girlfriend to your big sister. And any girl you're not willing to introduce to your family might not be a keeper."

Maybe they're not the problem, he thought. Maybe it's you.

"Whatever happened to that girl who spent Thanksgiving with us a few years ago? What was her name? Paige? Penny?"

"Parker." Logan refused to look at her this point. His eyes were set on his feet, now resting on the coffee table. He was surprised Trina even remembered the girl. They'd only met that one time, over Thanksgiving of his sophomore year of college. She decided to stay with Logan instead of going home to Denver, much to the dismay of her parents. They'd spent their summers apart from each other and got back together when school started up again. They lasted until Christmas Eve.

"What happened to her?"

"We broke up," he answered before grabbing the remote and turning the TV off. As if it wasn't obvious enough. Every one of Logan's relationships ended badly, even with the few girls he briefly dated over the last two years. Parker was the last person he actually felt something for. He couldn't help but be at this house now and think about his mother all the time. She was a great woman, and great women are hard to find. Usually they're underappreciated. Why couldn't his dad see how amazing she was? Instead he had to go around sleeping with other women, including Lilly Kane.

Lilly. As if Trina's bad TV movie weren't reminder enough, being here reminded him of her from time to time. It felt like a lifetime ago since he last saw her. Sometimes he worried he was forgetting about her and felt guilty about it even though he knew she probably wouldn't care. He couldn't help but laugh thinking about her. How young and stupid he was when the two were together. It's pretty amazing what a few years could do to someone. He thought the two were completely in love. He had even had dreams of marrying her someday, but now he realized what they had wasn't all that great, and it wouldn't have lasted past her high school graduation. After being with someone like Veronica, he knew what really caring for someone was like.

"You know, I really need to go get some fresh air," he said. "You're right, Trina. I should get out. I'm gonna go see what Dick's up to."

Trina looked even more confused as her brother got up off the couch to grab his wallet and keys off the kitchen counter. "Wait!" she called after him. "I wasn't trying to get you to leave! I don't have anything to do!"

He just kept walking. I have to get out of this house, he thought to himself.

What the hell are you doing? Have you lost your mind?

Cindy Mackenzie couldn't help think of her good friend, Veronica Mars, as she sat in the driver's seat of her green bug, parked across the street from a home she'd only ever seen a few times in her life. She felt like a stalker sitting there, but telling herself that Veronica used to do this all the time made her feel somewhat better. And if there's anyone she knew who had herself together, it was Veronica.

But somehow, telling herself that didn't make her feel much better. She'd been sitting there for about half an hour now. No, she wasn't holding a listening device up to her ear or holding out an expensive camera to take dirty pictures when the residents walked out. She was contemplating going up to the front door and knocking. It would be either the best or worst decision of her life.

Well, there were a few probably much worse decisions in my life, she thought. But this might be up there with them.

It was anyone's guess. If she had to guess how well the outcome would be on a scale of selling 09ers back their purity tests to renting a hotel room with Beaver the night of graduation, she wouldn't be able to come up with an answer.

Go up to the door already. Come on, grow a pair, she thought to herself.

Mac looked away from the house for a moment. I can't believe I just thought that to myself. That's something my Nascar-loving family would say. What the hell am I even doing here anyway? This is stupid.

The smell of the bouquet of flowers sitting in her passenger seat suddenly hit her nose. She'd picked them up on the way over. She tried looking for a card, but gave up, as she didn't have good experience with this sort of thing and had no idea what card to pick. I've already spent money on these people and I don't even know them… Well, isn't that the point I guess?

She finally mustered up the courage to get out of the car. Mac grabbed the flowers and shut the door to her car behind her before hesitantly walking over to the front yard. The front lawn had been cut perfectly, and they had obviously spent a lot of time and money landscaping. It looked nothing like her own yard. The driveway had a few cars parked in it. The one nearest to the front door looked shiny. It was probably just a few years old. The license plate read "GOTZMINE."

Gotzmine? Mac thought. Seriously?

She immediately turned her attention away. You're trying to be nice here.

In a moment, Mac found herself standing a few inches away from the front door. She moved her hand to place it by the door, hesitating to knock.

What are you going to say? 'Hi, you might remember me. I'm your biological daughter that got switched at birth with your now adoptive daughter. I hated her in high school and thought she was a total bitch, but when I found out she died last night, I rushed over here to say how sorry I am. Maybe you could invite me inside for tea and we can catch up on the past twenty years while you're still grieving.'

She shook her head, suddenly realizing how stupid this was. How stupid she was for even considering this. She looked down at the flowers before placing them down on the front stoop and sprinting back to her car to drive away. This was all a little too much to handle.

"So, I've already got spring break all planned out next year. So don't you go making any plans, you hear me? No meeting any girls that are gonna drag you on their leash and make you their little bitch."

Logan wasn't sure if his good friend Dick Casablancas was referring to Parker or Veronica. No one had made him their "little bitch" since those two. And Dick? Logan wasn't sure if he'd had anything like that with anyone ever.

"Sure, whatever you say," said Logan. "What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking head down to Tijuana for the week. We'll pick up some beer, some weed, and hopefully some girls."

Logan rolled his eyes. He supposed he couldn't expect much else from his now best friend. When are you gonna grow up? Logan thought. Then again, Logan hadn't done all that much growing up recently. He'd probably done more growing up in his last two years of high school than the three years he'd spent in college.

"We're going all out. Senior year baby!"

Logan didn't want to bring down the mood by saying anything about Dick not being able to graduate on time with his failed classes. He would graduate in five years if he was lucky. But Logan shouldn't have been passing judgment really. His GPA wasn't the greatest. He often wondered if his business degree would help him out at all in life.

Logan looked around Dick's room. Posters of bikini-clad women were spread across the wall. A stop sign they had stolen their sophomore year of high school was perched by the door. His clothes were thrown about everywhere. The only thing that mattered was that the bed was clear and the TV could be seen. And as they sat on his bed with Playstation controllers in hand, Logan realized that almost nothing had changed in the past five years. Sure, the both of them had gone through a lot, but Dick's room still looked the same as it did when he was sixteen. And he still acted the same too. Besides brooding from time to time, Logan almost liked to think he hadn't changed that much. It was almost comforting to hope that he hadn't been deeply damaged by all the mishaps in his life.

"What's wrong with you today?" Dick asked. "I'm kicking your ass in this game. It's like you're not even trying."

"Nothing," said Logan, quickly brushing this off. "Just, I don't know. Theresa and I broke up the other night, but it's not a big deal."

"Nope, not a big deal," said Dick. "Girls are overrated anyway."

Same thing he'd been saying since high school.

They suddenly heard a knock at the door and looked up to see "Big Dick" standing in the doorway. Wearing a business suit and tie, it was like he hadn't changed at all either, despite spending almost two years in hiding and a year in prison. The cheery smile on his face indicated that he was the same businessman he'd always been. Logan was almost expecting him to start trying to sell him a used car, or in his case, stock in fraudulent hotel business.

"How are you boys doing?"

Dick didn't look away from the game, so Logan took it upon himself to answer. "Just fine, Mr. C."

"Good," he said with a grin. "Well I was just about to head out. I just wanted to let you know there's some leftover pizza in the fridge if you're hungry. Otherwise, Dick, feel free to call me up and I can pick something up on the way home."

"Thanks, Mr. C."

He stood there, waiting for Dick to say something, but Dick didn't turn his attention away from the screen. He was pushing buttons as fast as he could with his mouth open, staring intensely at the TV. Logan wasn't trying at all at this point.

After a few seconds, he muttered, "Thanks Dad."

"Alright, well I'll see you boys later."

Logan waved goodbye before the man left.

"God," Dick uttered. "The guy is such… such a…"

"Dick?" Logan finished for him.

"Not my choice of word, but I guess you could say that."

"He was just trying to be nice," said Logan. "You gotta give him credit for that."

"No. What he's doing is trying to overcompensate."

Logan was about to ask what for, but he quickly stopped himself. That would have been bad. Of course Logan knew what for. For participating in criminal behavior. For leaving his family alone to go into hiding and eventually go to prison. And for just being a shitty dad in general, to both him and Beaver.

He wanted to tell Dick that he should be happy he has a father, but Logan knew sometimes that isn't always true. He was glad his own father was gone. And besides, Dick already had to deal with losing a brother.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much starving. I'm gonna go grab some pizza from the fridge."

"Alright," said Dick.

Logan was only somewhat hungry. He mostly just wanted to get out of the room to give Dick a bit of time to cool off. He didn't sound overly upset, but Logan knew him well enough to understand that he was. Besides, Logan needed his own alone time. He'd run over here to get away from Trina, but now he didn't want to be with Dick. Kind of ironic considering he'd been telling himself that he hated being alone these days. He supposed he just had to be with the right person.

As Logan got down the stairs and started heading to the kitchen, the doorbell rang. He was reluctant to go answer it, but knew Dick probably wasn't going to. He walked back over to the front door and opened it. A middle-aged man wearing a suit greeted him.

"Hi there. Logan Echolls?"

Logan looked puzzled. Why was someone reaching him at Dick's house? "Yeah, actually, but this isn't my house. If you're looking for Mr. Casablancas, he - ."

"Oh no," he stopped Logan. "I'm looking for you actually. I stopped by your house and your sister said I could find you here. She wanted to know why, of course, but that's private."

"Not private to me, though, right?"

"No, of course not." The man started fumbling around in his pockets looking for something before pulling out what looked like an envelope. He handed it to Logan. "You are twenty-one, right?"

Logan nodded. He stared at the envelope for a second before starting to open it. A folded over piece of paper sat inside. He began reading it.

Logan,

I know how hard all of this must have been on you and I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For everything really. I just don't think I can handle much more of this, so it's time for me to go. I'm going to miss you dearly. I can only hope you turn out to be a better man than your father. I'm sorry it has to be this way. It's my intentions that by the time you see this, you'll be 21 and have already grown as a person. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to see that person someday.

Mom

A phone number was scribbled underneath "Mom" at the bottom. Logan immediately looked back up after he finished reading it to start interrogating the man, but he was already in his car about to leave.

"Hey!" Logan called. "Hey, wait! Don't leave! I need to talk to you."

The man started backing out of the driveway as Logan started sprinting after him. He was gone before Logan could even really try to catch up to him. He was left breathless standing in the street. By time he got back inside, a million thoughts were racing inside his head at once. The most prominent one? What the hell is this?

He sat down on the couch in the living room to read it again. And there he sat reading the small letter over and over to himself. He wasn't quite sure how much time had passed.

This has got to be some kind of joke.

His mind brought him back to his mother's funeral. He wasn't convinced then that she was actually gone. It wasn't until he'd hired Veronica to help him look for her and found nothing that he started to accept it. And now, after all these years, this. What did it mean? Was it just some sort of odd note she scribbled down before jumping off that bridge in hopes of making him feel better? Was it some sort of encrypted letter trying to let him know that she was still alive and in hiding?

He picked up his cell phone and began dialing the phone number on the paper. He didn't recognize it as a local area code. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Logan waited as the phone started to ring. It immediately connected him to voicemail. He couldn't even get a sense of who owned the phone, as it was the generic voicemail message that came with the phone.

He tried several more times before giving up and leaving a message. "Hi," he said right away, unsure of what he should be saying. "This… this is Logan Echolls. I got… sort of a weird letter in the mail today with this phone number written on it, and I was wondering if you could call me back as soon as possible? Thanks."

He hung up and placed the cell phone in his pocket. Logan tried to remain calm, but it was hard. His heart felt like it was about to explode out of his chest. Let's try to think rationally about this, he thought as he got up from the couch. Who the hell am I kidding? I'm not going to be able to think rationally about this.

He started making his way back upstairs while playing with his cell phone. He eventually found himself in his contacts, going through a list of endless people he didn't really care about, until he stopped on someone's name. Veronica Mars.

She might be the only one who can make sense of all of this, he thought. But then again, she probably still hates me. Well, who knows? It's been a while. I'm probably going to sound like a psychopath on the phone.

He paused before dialing her number and placing the phone up to his ear. His heart was almost beating faster now, as if he were almost more nervous about calling Veronica than he was about receiving that letter. He waited and waited. The ringing felt like it went on forever. And then… nothing.

"Hi, you've reached Veronica Mars. I'm not able to pick up the phone at the moment. It's 2009 and I expect you already know what to do by now without me telling you."

Typical Veronica.

He contemplated trying her again, but he came to conclusion that the best solution to this was not bombarding his ex-girlfriend with calls when she might be busy. Logan was surprised to hear nothing but silence coming from Dick's room as he approached it.

The TV and Playstation were both off, and Dick's face was buried in his hands. His arms were shaking a little. Logan had rarely ever seen him like this.

"Everything okay?"

Dick immediately moved his head up to face Logan. He hadn't been crying or anything, but he just looked a little shaken up. It was odd. Had his dad really gotten to him that much?

"I just turned the satellite back on when you went downstairs. I was flipping through the channels and the news came on."

"What happened?"

"It's Madison."

Logan appeared puzzled. He wasn't sure he'd heard Dick mention Madison Sinclair more than a few times over the past few years.

"What about Madison?"

"She's dead."

"Hello?"

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Veronica would have pinned this on her new heavy breathing mystery caller, but she knew perfectly well who this was. Him not saying anything described perfectly what their relationship had become.

"Hello? Anyone there?" Veronica asked.

"It's me."

"Who's 'me?'"

"Veronica, cut the crap," Logan said.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Her tone of voice was harsh. Probably harsher than it should have been, but she didn't care. What did she have to lose speaking to him this way anyway?

"You know what? I called you because I needed your help with something, but I'm starting to think it was a bad idea."

Veronica sat down at the kitchen table. She had just gotten home from the diner and picked up Logan's call on the way in. Piz was nowhere to be found when she opened the door, and she was almost relieved. She wouldn't have been able to come up with a lie about whom she was talking to.

"What do you want, Logan?"

"I need your help. Some guy showed up at my place today and gave me a letter from my mom."

"But, Logan, your mom's…"

"Dead? Yeah, I remember. It was a little note she wrote for me. There was a phone number written on the bottom."

"And…?"

"I need to know whose phone it is," said Logan on the other line. "I'm no expert, but this kinda adds something new to the mix here. Veronica, she made it sound like she might still be alive."

Veronica hesitated to say anything. How could she put this without being a bitch? "Look, Logan, I know we aren't on the greatest terms. I know we haven't actually talked since God knows when, and I know that fact makes me seeing this that much worse, but have you considered the thought that you might not have anything here? Some random guy you don't know shows up at your house with a letter that may or may not even be from your mom. Why would she be in hiding? Why would she fake her own death and stay in hiding all these years, Logan?"

"Gee, Veronica, I was hoping that's what you could figure out."

"I'm sorry," she said. "But Logan, I don't know if I can do anything for you. Maybe track the phone number, but who's to say that will lead you anywhere. Remember the Charlie Stone incident? This could just be another case of that. It probably is to tell you the truth."

He paused. "I don't care."

"I can't just drop everything and come running to you now," said Veronica. "I have a week left at my internship."

"New York?"

"Yeah. How did you know that?"

"I know things."

Veronica paused. Had Logan Echolls been stalking her?

"I can't. I'm going to be here for another week. And when I get home I'm going to have to spend some time with my dad before going back to school. Maybe I can swing by after that."

"No, that's not good enough." There was a sense of urgency in her voice. The same urgency he tended to have when he asked her for help.

"Funny," she started, "you're kissing my ass for a favor… again, and then you start going all jackass on me."

"Come on, Veronica. This is serious."

"I told you what I could do. You don't like it? Find someone else."

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Then "Fine. I'll pay you twenty grand just to get your ass back here ASAP to look into this."

Veronica was about to curse him out when she stopped herself. Logan sounded incredibly desperate. Even if she wanted to go home, what would she tell Piz? There was no way he would understand if she told him the truth. And what would she do about her internship? She worked her ass off to get here just to leave a week early? Her dad would probably be disappointed in her too.

But on the other hand, the money would put a huge dent in helping to pay off her student loans. She might even be able to set some aside to put towards getting her own place after graduation.

The truth was, a huge part of the reason she didn't want to was because she would feel immensely guilty taking Logan's money when she knew there was a 99% chance he wouldn't find anything. She recalled ripping up the check she gave him their junior year of high school after their first search for his mother led them to a dead end.

"Fine…"

"Cool," he responded. "Do me a favor and let me know when you can get a flight back home. I'll be waiting."

Click.

That was it? "I'll be waiting"? Veronica rolled her eyes, cursing herself for just agreeing to that. Neptune High School's Class of 2006's Biggest Ass (well, maybe second to Dick) just asked her for help and she said yes.

For how smart you are, Veronica, you sure do some stupid things, she thought as she sat herself down.

Veronica took a look around the crappy old apartment she and Piz had inhabited for the past three months. After her freshman year of college, she set a plan for herself. She figured she had to start planning out her life at some point. At some point, everyone had to make the decision to grow up. And she supposed that was a good time.

Her internship at the FBI had been ruined by everything that happened right before she left. The whole escapade with Piz and Logan, sneaking into Jake Kane's house and stealing from him, causing her father the sheriff's election… just to name a few. She spent the summer fretting about everything, and coming to the realization that she really did deserve better. Her dad was ecstatic when she told him she was planning on going to law school after Hearst.

She imagined her life going right for once. She would get a law degree, become a lawyer, move to New York, maybe get married some day (with Piz maybe), have a family…

She placed her hands on her forehead in frustration. What was she telling herself? When your best friend is murdered and you spend your last two years of high school staking out cheap motels and taking dirty pictures – in addition to almost getting yourself killed on several occasions – it's pretty hard to get yourself back to any sense of normal.

She sat there for about half an hour before getting up and packing her things. It wasn't hard. She didn't have a lot of stuff to pack. Piz walked in the door about fifteen minutes later. His puppy eyes scrunched up and his face tilted like a confused dog.

"Veronica, what's going on?"

"Something came up?"

"What came up? Is everything alright?"

She didn't bother looking away from her suitcase. "It's… it's a case."

Awkward silence followed. Veronica wanted to be straightforward, but she wasn't about to tell Piz the whole truth. "I just need you to trust me on this one, okay? This is important. And it's a lot of money I can use toward loans."

"Okay."

This one word was symbol enough for the fact that Piz really did have too much faith in her. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he said. "If it's that important… What is it?"

"I can't really talk about it," she replied, throwing a few pairs of pants in the suitcase. "That whole confidentiality thing, you know?"

"Have you called the firm to talk to them about leaving early?"

"No."

"Are you sure this is - ?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine," she said while zipping it up. "I'm going to book a flight for early tomorrow morning if I can. I know I won't see you until school starts up again and I feel really bad."

"Don't."

She hesitated before leaning in and kissing him. She really didn't appreciate him enough. He was sweet and wonderful. Probably the best boyfriend she'd ever had. When she saw him again, things were going to change. She was going to make sure she was the best girlfriend he'd ever had.

The following morning Veronica got up at the crack of dawn to get ready to leave. She tried calling the law firm several times, but she wasn't able to get through. The thought of going back to Neptune made her die a little inside, but there was still some part of her that knew it was a good thing. All she knew was it was gonna be a long flight home.