Disclaimer: I don't own Veronica Mars or any of the character you might recognize form the show.

Veronica was heading towards her wearing a victorious grin.

"Got it", she said as she passed Mac on her way out of the frat house. The brunette followed gratefully.

"I thought we were never getting out of there.",Veronica sighed as she stopped on the front lawn.

"Well, it did take more than you thought it would. But you can always rely on a mindless idiot to cheat on his girlfriend and contribute to your allowance."

"That I can", she replied holding her camera up like a trophy.

"So do you think we still have time to watch the movie?"

"Well maybe if we..."

Before Veronica could finish a loud laughter interrupted their exchange. Both girls turned around to look for the source of the disturbance.

About 50 feet away, two obviously drunken boys were looking to get into a shiny sports car. Said inebriated individuals were Logan Echolls and Dick Casablancas jr.

"Crap...", Veronica said as she looked at Mac with a pleading look.

Shrugging Mac followed her friend who had already begun walking in the direction of her wasted ex and his equally intoxicated bff.

"Ronnie!.." Dick bellowed, distracting Logan who had been unsuccessfully trying to open the car door.

"Ronnie" didn't say anything. She just headed towards Logan who had almost fallen over and helped him up without a word. She started leading him towards Mac's Beatle when he started protesting.

"'Mnot leaving new car ...smbdy might st..stol...steal it." he slurred .

"Fine."

The blonde turned to Mac

" Mac, would you mind driving Dick to the Grand in your car. I'll drive Logan. We'll meet there..?" she ended questioningly.

Mac glanced at the blond boy. He could barely stand. Looking a little confused he leaned on a tree in a vague attempt of making everything stop spinning. Once the world had stabilised slightly he looked at Mac and gave her a goofy smile.

„Sure. We'll meet upstairs."

After Veronica wrestled Logan in the passenger seat she drove off giving Mac a shy, somewhat embarrassed wave.

Mac walked up to Dick. Sighing, she put one arm around his waist and helped him put the other around her shoulders. She began leading him to her car. Seeing as how she was almost a foot shorter than him and several dozen pounds lighter, it had not been an easy task but she finally managed to get him on the passenger seat of her Beatle.

"Mackie...", he whispered, "I've missed you...you'v'been s' busy..."

Ignoring him she got in the car and drove off. She may have her .. arrangements with Dick, but dealing with him under other circumstances had never been necessary. She worked hard to separate those aspects of her life. In fact, she sometimes pretended that the hours they spent together didn't exist. She never thought about it outside the privacy of the four walls they occurred in. Well rarely thought about it. Never talked about it, anyway.

She couldn't help looking at him though. His head was leaning on the passenger window. He looked like a twelve year old on his way home from a particularly tiring birthday party. But the issues he was drowning were different than those of any almost-adolescent boy. She knew him. Knew what he was dealing with. His careless mother, his selfish father and ... his brother. She knew that and many more things about him. His favorite songs, bands, movies, video games, underwear... Not that they actually ever talked about any of it. Just that in the six months they had been... meeting things had come up. She had learned to read his face, his eyes, his body language. At first she couldn't figure out why she had started paying attention to these things. Then, about one month ago, she had broken down the walls of sweet denial she had built around herself. She realised she was in love with him. But that didn't change things. Didn't mean much. She was still too far gone. Caught in lies, self loathing, self destructive behavior and melodrama. No drugs, no booze, no sleeping around. Just emotional numbness. And acting like she was normal. Going on dates once in a while. Just to make sure her friends wouldn't realise that she avoided relationships. It was easier this way. Or maybe it was just what she thought she deserved. For not seeing it. For not seeing he had been so hurt, so broken.

"Stop!"

Startled, Mac pushed the break peddle so hard that her head almost collided with the windshield.

"What the fuck was that, Dick?", she asked scared and annoyed.

He had gotten out of the car and was now stumbling on the beach. Dropping to his knees Dick started drawing patterns in the sand. He raised his head and looked at the sea. Managing to stand, he headed for the water. Mac had caught up with him and was now pulling him by the sleeve.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Going for a swim." he answered in an almost clear voice.

"No you don't" she voiced trying to turn him to face her.

But it seemed that although his speech had cleared up, he still had trouble keeping his balance. He slowly turned to her and looked into her eyes.

"Mac... I think I'm... you did something cause I can't... and I want to... I have this..." he gestured towards his chest.

Incapable of forming a coherent sentence he leaned in for a hug. But he was to heavy. He forgot that she couldn't hold him up by herself and they both collapsed on the sand. He leaned further in and got on top of her.

His weight was crushing her. She could barely breathe. But she didn't push him off. Her hands were gripping his shirt and her breathing was becoming heavier. He leaned in for a kiss. She couldn't resist. She let him touch her lips with his. She felt his alcohol stained breath in her mouth. She moaned slightly. Tears were stinging her closed eyes. Her ribs were aching because of his weight and the lack of oxygen. Still Mac couldn't bring herself to push him away. She gripped his shirt harder. He lowered his mouth starting to place soft kisses on her jaw line. She was now gasping for air, almost choking. Although she didn't seem to do anything about it, he had noticed and was not rolling off her gracelessly. He got to his feet with effort and waited for her to do the same.

"Mac? You ok?"

His eyes were struggling to remain open. His hands were searching for something to grip. Without a word she gave him the support he needed. They walked back to the car in silence.

10 minutes later they had reached The Grand. They had made one more stop on the way over so that Dick could empty the contents of his stomach on the side of the road.

"There you are", Veronica said as Mac let herself in the penthouse using Dick's key card.

"Yeah..." , she said leading Dick to the couch. As soon as his head hit the soft surface he began snoring loudly.

"I pity Logan for having to live with him.", Veronica said hearing the loud snores.

"He doesn't usually snore.", Mac said with a smile without thinking.

Veronica's eyes widened. Her forceful gaze was shouting more questions than her mouth could have.

"Umm... I assume... I mean...alcohol makes people snore. Maybe he's not usually this loud."

"Right." Veronica said skeptically.

"Right" Mac mimicked,"So we should umm... get going, right?"

"You go. I wanna make sure he's alright."

"No, it's fine. I can stay. I mean if you don't mind. Keep you company..."

Mac's eyes had traveled to Dick who was passed out on the couch in a position he would be regretting the next morning. She wanted to make sure he was ok too. They were just referring to different „he" 's.

"We should probably try to get this idiot to his bed then.", Veronica said interrupting her reverie.

Mac sighed trying to get used to the idea of dragging Dick to his bedroom. It would take some effort. Neither she nor veronica were cut out for that kind of work. It would be such much easier if she could „program" him in his bedroom instead of having to support his weight.

They stared at each other for a few moments. Veronica shrugged and they both leaned in to grab Dick. Getting him off the couch wasn't as hard as they though. He didn't protest event though he had partially woken up. He even tried to carry some of his own weight and managed to drag his legs. They had almost reached the bed when Dick looked to his right and realised it was Mac who was helping him.

"Mackie?",was all he managed to say almost asleep again.

They laid him on the bed, took his shoes off and let him sleep.

Once out of the room Veronica started shooting her inquisitive glances again. It wasn't as though she couldn't understand her friends curiosity. Dick hadn't said much. But the fact that he had noticed her and the soft and almost tender ring to his voice as he said her name would seem peculiar to Veronica. He had said her name like he was used to saying it. Familiarity and intimacy had been dripping from his voice. Damn those inflections. It was amazing how much someone can say without shooting their mouths off. But then again, both Veronica and Mac knew that usually when you talked a lot it was because you wanted people to be distracted from the fact that you don't really want to tell them anything important.

"So, are you going to tell me what's up with this?", Veronica finally asked not being able to deal with the uncomfortable silence anymore.

"What's up with what?", Mac asked back acting stupid.

"Do you honestly think the "acting oblivious" thing will work with me?"

" I honestly don't know what you're talking about."

"Why are you doing this? Why won't you talk to me about this, Mac?"

Mac rolled her eyes trying to convey a lot of revealing emotion with that supreme gesture of annoyance.

"Let it go, Veronica. There really isn't anything to talk about. I think you've become paranoid."

"I already was. And don't try to deny it. I know there's more to this than you're telling me."

All of the defense mechanisms that Mac had perfected in her 20 years of existence were responding automatically.

"I don't even know what the „this" you're talking about is. For fuck's sake give it a rest already. You're being absurd and annoying."

Veronica wasn't a physically intimidating person. A 5' 1" pixie as Dick had put it. But she could be scary as hell anyway. And was definitely not the person to back down or be discouraged by rough language.

" You know very well what I'm referring to. And since when do you swear?"

Mac wasn't answering. She chose a point on the wall in front of her and proceeded to study it fervently.

"Can you please stop acting like a 5 year old and answer me", came the almost calm voice of her friend „I know you. Something isn't right."

At that Mac got up suddenly.

"You know me? No shit? You don't know the first thing about me Veronica Mars. So being presumptuous won't help."

The girl opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by another angry tirade.

"I don't even know why I bother with this. You know everything anyway. Or so you like to think. So why don't you just tell me what went on. Or better yet, keep it to yourself. I'm out of here."

Hasty and noisy movements followed that statement. A few second later Veronica was staring at the massive door that had just been slammed shut by one of her closest friends.

A/N: First of all I want to thank everyone who reviewed. I also want to apologize for taking this long. I don't really have an excuse. Except maybe that I'm lazy. The more you review the less lazy I am. HINT HINT. I also apologize if this chapter isn't as good as some of you would expect it to be. Please let me know what you like and don't like about it. I love a harsh critic. Anyway, I'll work on my laziness issue if you decide to click the go button.