A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews! You guys are amazing. I think that is really all I have for this chapter, other than it is a bit shorter than the last one. Uh. There is a flashback in italics. I guess that should be noted. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: Are You My Father?
However, Linley wasn't stupid enough to put in her credit card information online to buy a plane ticket. That was easily traced. She waited until she got to the airport, purchased a ticket there, with cash and a very skillfully done fake I.D. and boarded the plane, completely off the grid.
Wallace would notice she was missing soon enough, and she just needed a little extra time to find what she was looking for. He would call the police and they would give him a generic response to wait 24-hours. She still wouldn't be back and any possible leads they could have had would be gone. Wallace would know that too, since he had been friends with her mother for so long. He wouldn't find her unless she wanted to be found. Linley wouldn't even be surprised if he didn't have a recent photo of her to give to the police.
She had a layover in Minneapolis, where she was able to keep her head down and check the news to make sure the search hadn't begun. Once she was certain, Linley took a chair in the lounge and waited the short hour and a half before her plane to California boarded. If there weren't any officers waiting for her in California, she knew the rest of the journey would be easy.
After landing in California, she felt she could finally breathe again. Exiting the airport was a lot simpler than entering it, as she just needed to collect her bag from baggage claim, stroll out of the airport and catch a taxi to the address she had written down earlier. In less than an hour, she could be at her father's house.
The drastic change in time zone hit her when she exited the airport, noting it was still sunny out when her body expected it to be getting dark. The whole experience seemed so surreal as she got into a taxi and watched the landscape, wondering how much of this her mother grew up seeing every day and what was new.
Linley expected a small house in the suburbs, not a grand mansion with a gate and a fence surrounding it on a huge plot of land less than a hundred feet from the beach. The taxi driver didn't judge and just waited to be paid. He had taken dozens of people to the Echolls manor to gawk, why would this tourist be any different.
The fence, however, certainly threw a wrench in her plans of just walking up to the door and knocking. Linley noticed the security guard sitting in the booth at the gate and walked over to him; maybe she could talk her way in.
"Name?" he asked, annoyed at his profession.
"Hi, I was just wondering if..." she was cut off.
"Visitors are not allowed on the property unless they have an appointment or are on the list. Do you have an appointment?" the security guard looked at her and rolled his eyes. She didn't have an appointment, he could tell.
Linley thought for a moment, fidgeting with the ring, which she had placed on a chain around her neck. She didn't want it in her bag for the flight and thought it might be safer around her neck. "Where did you get that?" the security guard asked her, breaking her from her thoughts.
"It's mine," she defended and watched as the security guard moved to look at her more clearly. "Can I help you with something? You're kind of staring."
He shook his head, "Sorry, I thought you were someone else."
"Who?" she released the ring from her fingers and let the chain fall around her neck. "Who did you think I was?"
The guard moved back inside his station, "I don't remember her name, she's older now. I guess I always thought she would come back for him someday."
"Would you mind checking if I'm on the list?" she asked, hopefully, taking her mother's I.D. from her own wallet and handing it over.
Her mother hadn't had her photo updated in a while, they shared similar features and in certain light she resembled the small grainy photo on her mother's license, not that she ever tried to get away with it, since she had her own top notch fake, but maybe her mother would be on this mythical list.
The security guard had worked there for a while, at least fifteen years. He took the plastic card and went down the list of names before matching the I.D. to one about halfway down the list. "Okay Miss Mars, I'll buzz you in and let Mr. Echolls know that you're here."
Trying not to let her shocked expression show, Linley took the card back and waited for the gate to slide open. With a wave, she set off up the path to the house, bags in tow. The shock that would await the man inside the house when he opened the door and not find his long lost lover would be priceless.
Inside the house, Logan was surprised to hear his security guard informing him of a visitor, "Who is it?" he asked, pressing the button on the intercom to communicate.
"Miss Veronica Mars, sir," he responded as though it was an everyday occurrence.
Logan released the button and wiped his hands on the kitchen towel. Could it really be her? He hadn't seen her since that day in May sixteen years ago. He knew she would be mad, but he didn't think it would take her sixteen years to forgive him.
"Logan, please, don't," Veronica said, fighting him. "Why can't we just go to Paris like you promised?"
He hated to see her so upset, "Because I don't want you to wake up one day and regret turning down this amazing opportunity for me. Give it a year. If you hate it, you can come home. I'll be waiting, but please, promise me you'll give it a try."
She shook her head, "After everything? We worked so hard to get here and you're sending me away? There will be other jobs, Logan."
"This was your dream long before I was, Veronica. I have to let you do this," he said, trying to keep face. She was crying and it broke his heart, but he had to know. He had to know that she would still choose him after experiencing what the F.B.I. had to offer, so he put her on the plane.
She called and e-mailed him for months after that day, and he deleted every voicemail and e-mail that showed up in his box. He had to make her stay. He had to force her to give it a shot. Soon the calls stopped and the e-mails stopped and he knew she always belonged there; he was only borrowing her.
Opening the door, his jaw dropped. Standing in front of him was not the love of his life but a blonde teenager. Instinctively, he moved to close the door but she stopped it with her foot. "Don't," she said.
Linley looked up at the man whom she recognized from a few of the photos on her mother's cell phone. She definitely found the right place. Nervously she began fidgeting with the ring again, realizing it was probably a bad idea to do that in a public place, but not before he noticed it, and like the security guard asked, "Where did you get that?"
"Now you're interested?" she asked, rolling her eyes, "Two seconds ago you were slamming a door in my face."
He shook his head, "What do you want?"
"To be invited inside would be a nice start," Linley looked him up and down, taller than she expected. He moved out of the way and allowed her to walk in, stepping in from the shadow the house created on the porch and into the light in the entrance way.
He looked her over, noting her wavy blonde hair, bright blue eyes and her short stature. "I'm Linley Mars," she offered, starting one of the classic negotiation techniques. She offered something of value to him in order to get something she wanted in return.
"Mars?" he asked, putting the pieces together in his head. "As in Veronica Mars… you're her… daughter?"
Linley nodded, looking around, the place was nice. Something bad must have happened for her mother to prefer living the way they did to this. "Yeah, in the flesh. What is it that you do?" she asked, noting the expansive living space.
"I'm an actor," he said, distracted, "How old are you?"
Linley grinned, knowing she had him and he would answer all of her questions without even realizing it, "Sixteen. What kind of actor?"
"Television show," Logan answered, trying to do the mental math before his eyes widened, "Am I your…"
"Father?" she finished for him, "I'm pretty sure. She never told me. What's the deal with the ring?" Linley asked, holding it out.
He looked at it, almost in disbelief that she had it, "Engagement ring, does your mom know that you're here?"
"You don't know?" she asked, and received a look. Linley looked away, "She died almost two months ago."
She watched his face change from disbelief and anger to heartbreak and sadness. His strong frame crumbled as his knees gave out and instinctively she reached out to grab him. She was surprised at how similar his reaction was to her own, except she didn't have anyone to catch her. Linley had never been in the position to comfort someone before and it felt awkward to her to have a grown man crying on her shoulder, holding on to her for dear life, like his entire world was being torn from beneath him.
"How?" he asked once he had calmed the pain in his chest still overwhelming.
"Car accident. She was at work, on her way to a crime scene. Head on collision. Other guy got out and ran away. They never found him. She died on impact. Crazy, huh?" Linley remembered the story she was told and didn't believe at the time. She had fought Agent Weiner so hard, yelled at him for lying to her. "Why didn't you fight for us?" Linley asked softly.
"What?" Logan asked, as if she was speaking a foreign language.
She moved away from him, just out of reach, to get a better look, "You never once came to D.C. to look for us."
"I stayed in this house for sixteen years hoping she would hate it there and come back. That was the plan, give it a year," he fought back, not that it meant anything now.
Linley felt bad, she really did. This grown man was falling apart at the seams in front of her. "I read the e-mails; she just wanted you to want me." She paused for a moment, wondering if she should ask her next question, then gave in, "Do you want me?"
The silence that followed was deafening. "Right, okay. I get it. You never wanted kids. I guess mom was right. Well, it was great getting to meet you, sorry for ruining your day," she ranted, collecting her things and heading towards the door.
A/N: Review! I love reading what you guys think. For serious. Thanks for all of your support!
