Chapter 1: Onus Probandi

A/N: The chapter title is Latin for "Burden of proof"

2nd A/N: Takes place soon after the VM series finale "The Bitch is Back".

Flashback

May 2007

I had just walked out of the voting booth, and lo and behold, it's raining! Just the thing to match my current mood. Angry at Jake Kane, frightened about my father, and as for Logan, I no longer knew where I stood with him. Our relationship, being friends or otherwise, was at present swaying on the head of a pin. I was with Piz now but, even though I would never tell another soul, I missed Logan terribly.

I was so wrapped up in thought that I almost failed to notice the great boom six blocks away. I turned to my right slightly and was hit by something unmistakably sharp. I managed a few pithy moments of coherence before I succumbed to the big black void.

I woke up to a mantra, "Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay..." and a not unwelcome pressure on my hand.

"Logan..." another voice warned.

I interrupted the latter voice. "I get it, slave. You're not worthy, now will you please let go of me?" Dear god, I sounded like an old woman. Scratch that, I sounded like me, though probably after living fifty years in the desert.

"Veronica, thank god!" Was I being hugged by a literal bear?

"Need...to...breathe...Logan!"

"God, I'm...sorry. Veronica, I'm sorry. How are you feeling?"

"Like I swallowed a palm tree. What happened?"

Logan just looked at me quietly.

My alarm bells were ringing. "Logan, what happened?"

My father spoke up, "The River Styx blew up. Apparently there was enough C4 hooked into Liam's Barracuda to level three blocks. The moment he turned on the car, the luck of the Irish fell through. You managed to get caught in the residual debris field. A shard of the Dionne's Bakery sign cut your right cheek open and you fell to the ground unconscious. That was three days ago."

"No leads?"

"Not yet," my dad responded. I had a moment of doubt then. I was lying in a hospital bed, and without a mirror could only speculate as to how many cuts and bruises I had. Now my dad, with the entire sheriff's department on standby, says he hasn't found anything? Either meaning that the guys who planted the bomb in Liam Fitzpatrick's car are highly skilled pros or that he is indirectly responsible. I prayed for the former option.

My dad made me aware of the home robberies the Fitzpatricks may have been behind, but I don't believe he'd actually kill someone for the sake of saving his career. His ousting as sheriff due to accusing Jake Kane of Lilly's murder proved that.

Still, if this is some sort of retaliation against him, it may rule out Jake Kane's involvement. One, the press has already been apprised of the 'disappearing evidence' that saw me climbing into the Kane's house. Two, Jake Kane likes to do things subtly, be it through paper trails, computers or bribing his staff. It's outside his repertoire. Whether or not he's responsible in some way is a question I'll have to revisit. I'm going to go with option #3: that it is a group of highly skilled pros, possibly vigilantes, who've made the mistake of coming to Neptune. Professional, maybe. But everyone manages to slip up at some point in their lives, and I'll make sure to expedite their fall.

Whoever they are.

Getting back to the conversation, however, proved difficult, as the absent pain henceforth made a reappearance.

I hissed. Not unlike practice in a lamaze class, but the pain became excruciating. My shoulder felt it had been rammed by a table saw and my face had been caressed by a hot poker. If this is what delivering a baby is like, I want no part of it.

My pride in subsidence, Logan and my dad called for a doctor and, said doctor, Susan Liang, softly told them there was no emergency. The morphine drip had only slowed down enough for the stitches to throb. No biggie, she says. Want to trade places with ME?! I'm more than happy to oblige!

Unfortunately, the doctor left before I could so much as throw a tantrum. The morphine drip kicked in moments later.

My mind started to wander, but I had one thing I still needed to say.

"I'll get the proof, daaaaad...jusssssst yoooouuuu waiiiiitttt..."

Logan chuckled. "Determined to the end, huh, Mars?"

"All the way to Mount Dooooooooom..."

Dad took that moment to kiss me on the forehead. "That's my girl."

I fell asleep.