Disclaimer: Do not own Veronica Mars, own the characters I made up though.

A/N This chapter is rather long, and talks about Veronica's history with the Kanes, and with the people in Neptune.

Chapter 2

Second: A/N: I forgot to mention who Kelly and Ben were. Kelly is Mac's daughter, who is Victoria's best friend and Ben is her husband. And you know that Grace and Lizzie are Meg's younger sisters. I should mention that Wallace is a teacher and a basketball coach at Neptune High. He was married, but it did not work out, furthermore, he has a daughter named Portia (I know, old fashioned, but I like the name.)

"Victoria Echolls!" Victoria heard her name in that mothering tone. She winced and said, "oops. Mom it's not my fault."

"Explain." Veronica was a lot tougher on Victoria than Keith was or Leanne had ever been on her.

"Eric Casablancas, asked me to get his t-shirt back for him. He offered me one hundred dollars."

"Only one hundred? I would have held out for a better deal. Besides, you don't need the money."

"Actually," Victoria winced again, "I met a new friend online. She's from Australia and-"

"Wait. Australia?"

"Yeah. She said that her dad lived her a long time ago, and that she wanted to come here to visit, but she did not have any money. I said that I would help her get the money and that when she came, she could stay at out house."

"She?" Veronica said a little bit relieved, but still worried.

"Yeah. Lilly Kane."

"Oh, sh-man." Veronica rubbed her suddenly tired eyes, "Hold on." She closed the principal's door, with them in the office, after all Clemmons let her come in first, to get an explanation. "Let me get this straight. You met a girl named Lilly Kane, who lives in Australia with her dad, who used to live here? In Neptune?"

"Yes. And she said she really wanted to see Neptune and she did not want her dad, Duncan, to know, because she said it brings bad memories for him."

"Did she say which bad memories?" Veronica asked, still shaking inside over that fact that Victoria had been corresponding with Meg's (and Duncan's) daughter.

"No," Victoria frowned, "And why are you so interested? Oh, Mom, I can't believe I totally forgot. You grew up here. You probably know Duncan- Kane!" She suddenly realized and hit her head with her hand. "Oh mom, I completely forgot. You showed me the pictures from when you dated him. And you told me about his sister- Lilly." Victoria looked confused, but only for a moment, "Ok, mom, it's your turn. Explain."

"Not now. Certainly, not here. I'll tell you the whole story, but at home. And not in front of your dad. This story still upsets him a lot. Okay, first of all, I'll tell Clemmons that I forgot, and gave you the key for the files, so you could get a file for me. He'll know I'm lying, but what can I do?"

"No, Mom, it'll make you look bad. I'll tell him it's my fault, and that I left the bracelet that Jason gave me, when I was in here earlier working on an article for the Navigator."

"You sure? You might get suspended for being in here without permission."

"It'll be fine mom. I could use the vacation." Victoria said, joking. She went to the door and said, "Mr. Clemmons, I owe you an explanation for coming in here without permission. You see, I dropped the bracelet that Jason gave me," she showed him a pretty silver bracelet with two linked hearts on it, "and I thought it would be easier just to come in here, using Mr. Fennel's key than to ask permission. I'm sorry." Victoria gave him a repentant look.

"All right, Miss Echolls. You may be excused now. Sheriff? Will you stay?" Mr. Clemmons sat back in his leather chair.

"Yes, Mr. Clemmons. Victoria, we'll talk about your punishment at home." Veronica waited until the door was shut, "What's up Mr. C?"

"I need to ask a favor."

CH.2 part 2

"So what did Mr. C. want to talk to you about?" Victoria asked her mother once she got into her mother's Crown Vic. She found it ironic, yet cool, to be named after a car, sort of, even though her whole name was a mixture of family names- Victoria Lynn Echolls; Victoria after her great-grandmother, and Lynn after her grandmother. She didn't mind sharing her name- or part of it, with a car though- especially since her Uncle Eli- or Weevil as most people still call him, even though he was one of her mother's deputies, worked on, and made it the ult- legally of course. It would not do for a Deputy to be associated with anything illegal of course. Victoria waved to one of her school chums and turned back to her question, "Mom, what did Mr. C. ask you?"

" It's a case, Victoria, and I want you to stay out of it," Veronica gripped the steering wheel with both hands so tightly that her hands turned pale.

"Mom-"

"No, Victoria! I didn't see it as clearly when I was a kid, how worried my father was when I poked my nose in his cases. I see now, that all my activities caused my father to go bald so early- as well as turning his hair gray."

"What hair?' Victoria joked, trying to distract her mother.

"New topic. What were you thinking- corresponding with someone you don't know? And why didn't you remember that your parents- me and your dad, might have known Duncan?"

"It slipped my mind? I don't know. I just assumed it was a coincidence. At least, until she told me about her dad. I know, I should have told you, but she made me swear not to tell anyone, and I tried to keep that promise. What's the bfd?"

"Because Lilly Kane was my best friend."

"What?!"

"Duncan's sister was my best friend. Duncan was my boyfriend. Logan was Lilly's boyfriend. It's a long story, honey."

"Mom-"

"Yes, I'll tell you the whole story. It's complicated though. Convoluted even. Okay, I start at the beginning. Logan moved to Neptune when we were twelve, Lilly was thirteen though. She was my best friend even then. She was so different than me. Wild, flamboyant, more experienced in some cases. Nobody was more surprised than I when we became best friends. Lilly made sure people saw her. I hung out at Liily's house often- Duncan and I eventually started dating. It was safe relationship-neither of us were quite ready for sex-"

"Mom, trust me, I do not want to hear about your sex life."

"All right I'll just say we waited a while. Anyway, in my sophomore year, Duncan broke up with me and a few weeks later Lilly was killed." Veronica say Victoria's look of horror and laughed a little bitterly, "yeah, and I saw her body." Veronica told her daughter about how she sided with Keith, and how he was recalled as Sheriff when he accused Jake Kane of covering up something. About how she became an outcast at her school- how people mock and ignored her. "But, I knew something wasn't right either, because my dad had-still has- great instincts and skills. I had my doubts sometimes, but I just stuck by him. What did I have left? Duncan dumped me, my best friend was gone, Logan blamed me- because he wasn't there when Lilly was killed, because they were on an off period. They were not together then, because I told Lilly that I saw him kissing another girl- a girl who was a friend of ours. The other '09ers, they just tolerated me because of Duncan and Lilly." Veronica continued telling her daughter about the case, and how she helped her dad solve it. How she met Wallace, how Meg and Duncan got together. She told her about her rape- about Duncan and his suspicions that they were brother and sister, simply because Celeste told him- "Don't blame him for believing her. She was his mother, and she hated my mother because of the affair between her husband and my mother." She told Victoria about the Aaron/ Lilly sex tapes. "I knew when I saw Aaron's face on that TV screen, that Aaron had killed Lilly, because she had threaten to take them to ACCESS Hollywood. I took them with me, when I should have stayed there, and waited for my dad. Aaron was waiting for me in my car, and I was almost killed-"

"Mom," Victoria was crying, her face revealing her shock.

"Let me finish. I was almost killed that night. I found those videos and Aaron was willing to kill me to make sure those tapes never found there way to the public. Aaron was in my car-waiting, and I forced myself crash that Le Baron- to get away from him. I hid the tapes. He got into the house there somehow and he punched me in the face, knocking me out. When I woke up, I was in a refrigerator-about to be barbequed- all because he needed those tapes back. My dad saved me that night- like I knew he would." Veronica was in tears by now, but she knew this would be the last time she would have to tell it. She told Victoria the rest- about the next year and the bus crash, and the screwed up love life, and about her hopes of a normal life disappearing quickly. She told her about Meg's baby and about helping Duncan to get out of the country from the Mannings. By now Veronica was calm again, her face still wet, but calm. "Duncan still loved me and I still loved him, but I know we'd never see or hear from each other again- or so I thought. I just worked harder in school, and at the detective stuff, and on the bus crash case, and Weevil was the one who discovered that Thumper killed Felix. The Aaron Echolls trial went to crap," Veronica saw Victoria's shocked face, and said "yeah he got off. The tapes were stolen- by Leo and bought by Logan, because he did not want those tapes to get out to the tabloids. Don't blame your father about that. I never did. Logan loved her- even if she didn't always love him. He was protecting her. He was stupid, yeah, but it still isn't completely his fault. There was some "new" evidence fought that implicated Duncan-but I knew it was false and that someone –still don't know who- planted it. I also suspect the Jury and judge were bribed." Victoria opened her mouth to ask something, but at her mother's look decided to wait. "I found out that Cassidy Casablancas had caused the bus crash, and when I confronted him, he blew up the plane with Woody Goodman right in front of me, because I told him that my dad was with the Goodman and that he knew everything. I was distracted so much, because of the overwhelming grief that my dad might have been on that plane. Your father saved me that night and that night Cassidy jumped off the roof in front of me and Logan. I didn't cry for him. I thought he was my friend once, but he was so twisted and he changed so much that he was evil. He violated me, and he was the one who gave me Chlamydia and I thought he killed my father. I wanted him dead, and Logan made sure that it was not at my hands- he did not want me branded a killer. Cassidy's self-hatred led him to suicide. I went home with Logan, and he comforted me. And in the morning, my dad was alive- because Lamb, for once being smart, made sure the he would not be on the same plane as Woody. The same night Cassidy jumped- Aaron Echolls was shot – case still remains unsolved, but I have my suspicions of who did the deed. I felt relief, he was gone and I was safe. And that was that." Veronica took the tissue her daughter offered her, wiped her eyes, and smiled, because this was the last time she would ever have to talk about her past. She could now move on. "Any questions?" willing to answer any now, knowing Victoria deserved the truth.

"Yes. Why did you say you thought you'd never hear from Duncan again?"

"To put it simply, because he would disappear and make a new life, for himself and baby Lilly. I did hear from him about ten years ago though. He wanted pictures of Meg and her sisters for Lilly, and that he wanted to tell her everything- even about me. I guess he did, because we never talked about it since. He emails me once in a while- for news about his mother. He even asked me to talk to her for him, to assure that he was all right. I told him I would, but I lied. I can't do it, not after all she had done to me, to us, to my mother. He knows that Logan and I are married and he knows about you and your brother. He knows I'm sheriff and he thinks it is sooo funny."

"Do you still love him?"

"Yes. He was always my friend, and he was my first love. You don't ever forgot something like that. I know we can't go back to the way it was when Lilly was alive, and I am glad of it, because I realized, when we broke up a second time, that I had another chance with your dad- although I did not act on it at first.

Thank you for telling me the whole story. I know it was hard, but everything that happened to you allows you to be the person you are now. Strong, and compassionate, yet still cynical enough to keep crime levels down in Neptune.

Veronica laughed, and said, "I'll take that as a compliment. Let's go make dinner."