Summary: Set near the end of A Trip to the Dentist. This is how the scene with the ceiling fan should have went down… LoVe style.

Disclaimer: I don't own Veronica Mars, lucky Mr. Rob Thomas does.

Author's Notes: If you happen to be a big Duncan fan, you might not like this chapter. Sorry, but he's been upsetting me a bit on the show lately and I couldn't help it. This chapter and those following will have similarity to the actual show, because Rob Thomas did a lot of things right. But don't worry, it's got a lot of my own thrown in to make it much more... LoVely. Oh, and sorry if anyone thought she trusted him to soon. Once she let him explain himself, I didn't think she had anything to not trust him about. And it was, after all, Veronica herself who said she trusted him. : ) I'm just going with that. Enjoy!

The next day at school everyone was abuzz with news of Abel Kootz's innocence. Beaver and Dick were standing in a corner outside the building, both with newspapers in their hands.

"There's phone records, man. An-an-and how do you explain the shoes, huh?" Beaver stammered, obviously worried.

"It doesn't mean jack. You need to chill out, Beav, right now. To the grave, man, that's what we said," Dick said a with conviction that Beaver lacked. Beaver just stared at him, still looking rather scared before shaking his head and walking away.

Veronica had a little more bounce in her step than usual as she entered Neptune High. Her father had single handedly proven that Abel Koontz couldn't have murdered Lilly, and she had Logan. They'd spent the rest of the night drinking their 'refreshments' in the pool house and talking. She'd reluctantly left him early enough in the night that her father wouldn't send out a search party. Now, despite how many looks she was getting, she held her head high. They weren't going to bring her down today. As Veronica made her way to her locker, she could see someone facing away from her and leaning against it. Through all of the people, and with her shortness, it was hard to make out who, but she smiled and quickened her step hoping it was Logan. Once she squeezed her way through the crowd and reached her locker, her face fell. It was not Logan; it was Duncan. She considered turning and running in the opposite direction, but the gasp she let out made him spin to face her.

"Duncan…" she breathed, speechless for one of the few times in her life.

"Veronica," he stated with little emotion. The only one she sensed in it was anger, but even that was well hidden.

She swallowed hard, "Duncan… I-"

"Don't." He held up his hand, obviously not interested in hearing what she had to say. "I just wanted to say that I don't appreciate that you guys were purposely keeping this from me. I'm sure you thought you were… I don't know, protecting me or something. But I feel a little… well betrayed would be a good word. By both of you. You've just been laying it on thick lately Veronica. I'm a murderer, a rapist, and you're going around with my best friend behind my back. I'm not sure what to expect next, really." He took a deep breath before continuing to a shocked and hurt Veronica, "And then there's Logan, of course. My best friend." Duncan laughed ironically, "What a joke."

Veronica sighed and tried to interject, "Duncan… we wanted to-"

"Stop!" he yelled, "Just stop okay! I don't want to hear how much you wanted to tell me, but just couldn't think of the right words. Or how you didn't want to hurt me. Great job of that, by the way." He took a step towards her, and she instinctively took one backwards. This was apparently a mistake as well as he laughed again, "Scared I'm going to kill you, too?"

Veronica kept backing up, unsure of just how upset he was, and not knowing how he would express just how upset he was. "Duncan, I think we should try and talk about this another time. When you've calmed down."

"Right. That's a great idea," he continued. The hallways had nearly cleared now as the bell signaling they had one minute to get to class rang. He walked after her as she went backwards, never allowing her the distance she so desperately wanted.

"Please Duncan. The three of us just need to talk about this, and I'm sure everything will work out," she continued backing up straight, until she reached the end of the hallway and made a right turn. Her backward mobility was hindered by a large body. She connected and almost lost her footing, but two arms wrapped around her waist before that was possible.

"Just the girl I was…" Logan trailed off as Duncan bounded around the corner. The two looked at each other for a moment, and Logan made sure Veronica had her bearings before stepping slightly in front of her. "Is there something going on here that I should know about?" he asked, keeping a protective hand on Veronica's stomach.

Duncan considered the question a moment, "I could've asked the two of you the same thing a few days ago."

"Look Duncan, we messed up. Not in being together, but by waiting too long to tell you we're together," Logan took a steadying breath, trying not to think of what Duncan might have done had he not found them. "It's not like we planned this. We wanted to see how things went with just us before getting anyone else involved. Didn't want to get everyone all in a huff for no reason."

The two stared at each other in silence, until it was broken by the bell going off again, signaling they were all late to class. Duncan simply shook his head, turned on his heel and went towards the door leading out of the building.

Veronica let out a long sigh of relief. Logan spun her around to face him, holding her out at arms length, "Are you okay? If he even touched you…" Logan assured her, somewhat frantic. He squeezed her shoulders gently, begging her to respond.

She smiled slightly at his intense look of concern, "No worries. Rage has been his immediate response to seeing me for the past few weeks now. I could handle him with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back, with all the experience I have with it."

Part of him wanted to smile at her flippancy towards the situation, but he couldn't bring himself to until he was sure she was alright. He looked into her eyes and could see she wasn't hiding anything. He let out a sigh of relief and pulled her in tightly to him, squeezing her as tightly as he thought she could stand. After a moment Veronica maneuvered her hands in-between the two of them and pushed just enough to get him to relax his hold, "Logan… I'm okay. I promise."

He looked down into her eyes, "I know… I just… I got scared."

Veronica squinted her eyes in confusion and slight amusement, "Scared? Of what?"

He shook his head, "Well, it started this morning when I picked up the paper and saw that Abel Koontz wasn't the one who murdered Lilly. Which, of course, made me remember all the things you'd told me about the possible other suspects." Logan took a stabilizing breath before continuing, "When I saw one of them running around the corner after you…"

Logan looked down at his shoes and clenched his fists, struggling with whether he was furious or just terrified. Veronica put her hand on the side of his face and made him meet her gaze. "Logan… You stopped him before anything could happen. You were my knight in shining armor." She joked and then smiled, trying to get him to do the same.

"But what if I hadn't been right around this corner?" He said, ignoring her joke, "When I think of him putting his hands on you, hurting you… It makes me crazy." Logan had been pacing and stopped then to look at her. "I meant everything I said last night. I want to protect you… from Duncan, from my jerk friends, from everything. It's all I want to do, Veronica."

"I know you do," she said closing the space between them. She kissed him chastely on the lips, "We'd better get to class. We'll have to deal with Duncan after school hours if we don't want to be stuck in detention for all eternity."

"Yeah… but at least we'd be together sugar puss," he quipped, pulling her flush against him, smiling his goofy grin.

"How romantic… you… me… and the rest of the juvenile delinquents of Neptune High," she quipped right back, swooning up at him.

"Alright, alright… we'll be good kids for once." Logan gave in and gave her a kiss on the forehead, "I'll meet you at your car after school."

"I'll be counting the seconds," she sighed, batting her eyelashes.

"Laugh it up, but these next few hours without me are going to be a real test of your self control. Just how long do you think you can last without seeing this perfect representation of the human specimen?" Logan asked with a smirk on his face as he backed away from her, hands in the air.

Veronica just laughed before rounding the corner towards her class. Logan turned as she went out of sight and a giant grin began to form. For the first time since Lilly's death, he'd finally found something that made him happy.

Feedback is much appreciated! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. : )