Author's Note: I apologize so profusely for the long wait! Thank you everyone SOOOOO much for reading and reviewing! Although I've been so slow at it. I got stuck on the fic and then RL got in the way. School has eaten my soul and I have to start working more because I'm in a pickle financially. Being adult is no fun. Anywho I'm on spring break for the next week so I'm going to be able to update at least once more before I fall into the black abyss of school once more. I was a bit hesitant for this chapter since I did feel like it was difficult to write whether because of my writers block or the path I decided to take I'm not sure. So I hope you like it! I'm going to try to update again by the end of the week, I only have a little bit of homework. I think. Anyway please let me know what you think and review!

Thank you to: jcampbell943, Bondopoulos, Sunkissu9, MarshmallowMore, sophiamommy, AngelPete87, guest, cainc3, Josielynn, hansongirl14, saderia, & kerali!

Enjoy!

Chapter 3 The Co-dependency Issue

Veronica jealously watched as Logan put Marsden in his water gear for their first day of swim lessons. It was Saturday morning and she dreaded the morning ahead since she wasn't spending time with two out of her three favorite men. She cursed herself silently wondering when she had gotten so dependent on other people. The thought struck her suddenly as if she'd never fully realized how much she had come to rely on Logan and she felt uncomfortable with the knowledge. Even when Lilly was alive Veronica still did things by herself, and now that she was living with Logan and taking care of their son she was barely ever alone. She hadn't realized the extent of it before until she had to spend the morning by herself for the first time in a long time.

She knew she should be enjoying her 'Me Time,' but all she could feel was jealousy and sadness for them doing something without her. She actually wished she hadn't told Logan to have bonding time with their son because she wanted to spend time with the two of them. They had been together, the three of them, ever since Marsden was born, excluding of course when Logan and her had began school a few weeks before.

It wasn't that she wanted to keep them apart – honestly she loved watching them together – but she was jealous of them doing something without her. She liked their family time and always looked forward to hurrying home from school to relieve the nanny so that she could spend time with Marsden.

Putting him to bed was her favorite thing to do since she and Logan had a routine and they did it together. It felt normal, like being part of a legitimate family, which was something she hadn't had in a long time. After her mother left she had wondered whether or not she'd ever have a family again. Her father was amazing, but there was just something very special to be able to call Logan, Marsden, and her a family. It was nice to have two other people to call her own.

She knew Marsden wasn't going to leave them anytime soon and Logan and her were pretty solid, although sometimes she woke up in the dead of night terrified he'd left. She'd reach out for him to make sure he was there and he always was, but she still waited for the day when he wasn't. Abandonment issues seemed to be the root of her problems, but she wasn't going to look that deep into it.

Their nightly routine consisted of the usual parental dealings like bathing him, changing his diaper, and reading to him. Reading was her favorite part since Logan was such an interactive reader by giving all of the character his or her own voices.

"You look grumpy." Logan said as he finished readying Marsden. He glanced over at her before he went to get his own swim clothes knowing that she was watching him from her perch on the bed.

"I'm fine." she snapped and cringed at how untrue the words rung out, especially in the snippy tone of voice she was using.

Logan smirked and pulled his shirt over his head before reaching for his pajama pants to slide them down his muscular legs. She watched from the bed feeling an ache in her lower regions at the sight in front of her. He looked delicious standing naked in front of her. She chewed on her lip watching as he got ready way too slowly and she knew he was enjoying torturing her with the view he was providing.

"You're evil." She mumbled getting off the bed and moving towards Marsden who was settled on a blanket with a mobile above him that was meant as a distraction. She smiled down lovingly at him and tickled his stomach making him gurgle and giggle at her.

"But you love me anyway." He said pulling a t-shit over his defined chest.

Veronica shrugged and picked up Marsden holding him to her chest protectively. Logan sighed heavily and moved towards her.

"Ronnie, I invited you to join us." He said trying not to roll his eyes at her behavior.

She was always so moody lately and as much as he loved her he wished that she would actually communicate her feelings to him. Some days she was fine and would tell him whatever he wanted to know and then other days – like today – she was closed off and prickly. He wanted to help her, but was unable to do so when she wouldn't tell him what was bothering her.

"I know." She mumbled.

"Then what's the problem?" he asked.

She begrudgingly handed Marsden over and gave Logan a stiff smile. "Nothing. Have fun. Don't take you're eyes off of him." She instructed.

Logan smirked, "I think I can watch my son."

Veronica's heart tightened at the word 'son' and she smiled genuinely at him.

"I love you." she said and leaned over to kiss him firmly on the lips. He returned the kiss eagerly and only pulled away when Marsden began to squirm in his arms.

"We'll be back around noon I think, unless I get snatched up by a crazy cougar. We're still on for dinner tonight?" he asked reluctantly moving away from her and standing up.

Veronica nodded, "yep."

He frowned slightly taken aback by her lack of a witty response. He wondered briefly if he should stay with her and try and get her to open up, but Veronica opening up could sometimes take days and he was very excited about this swim lesson. Taking swim lessons was the first step to teaching Marsden to surf, which Logan was even more excited to teach him to do.

"Alright, I'll see you later, Ronnie." He said leaning down and kissing her on the forehead before gathering his belongs and leaving the room. He hesitated for a brief moment at the doorway, glanced back, sighed, and then left to go grab the car seat before leaving.

Veronica watched him leave and chewed on her lip to stop herself from calling after him. She cringed at her behavior and got off the floor near the blanket and edgily walked around the room. It wasn't like she didn't have anything to do, she had homework, she could clean, and a kid named Justin had nervously approached her about finding his father. After much deliberation she decided to start on her new case of finding John Smith.

At half past eleven Veronica wondered downstairs to find Lynn lounging in the kitchen having a smoothie.

"I was wondering when you were going to emerge." Lynn said smiling kindly at her.

Veronica smiled slightly and sat across from her at the island. "I was doing some work." She said staring at the lime green smoothie with little brown specs floating in it.

"Do you want some?" Lynn asked mistaking her look of disgust for one of interest.

"No thanks." Veronica said trying not to cringe.

"So Logan and Marsden went to their first swim lesson?" Lynn asked curiously.

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you go?"

"I thought it would be a good bonding experience."

Lynn smiled knowingly and continued to sip at her smoothie.

"Are you and Logan still going out tonight?" she asked.

Veronica nodded, "Yeah Dad's going to come over around five to pick Marsden up. I figured you could use a break."

"I love watching him, Veronica. He's my grandson."

"I know, but I don't want to rely on anyone too much and my dad needs a break from working constantly and I felt this was the best way to distract him. Ever since Lamb died he's…just so busy." Veronica said quietly.

Lynn sighed and reached out a comforting hand. "He'll figure it out and then he'll have more time to spend with you guys. I think it'll help though that he's going to watch Marsden. I don't think I've seen him for more than a few minutes since your birthday a few weeks ago." She said thoughtfully.

Veronica nodded.

Lynn opened her mouth to say something else when Alfonso came in.

"Hello Miss Mars, Lynn." He said smiling at them both.

Lynn smiled back and Veronica frowned slightly noticing the girly smile on her boyfriend's mother's face.

"It's time to do training, Lynn."

Lynn nodded and stood up straight. Veronica watched her smooth her hair down self-consciously.

"Of course. Veronica, I'll be back later. You'll be ok by yourself, won't you?" Lynn asked her eyes never straying from Alfonso.

Veronica smirked slightly watching the interaction. "I'll be fine." She said wishing that she could say that more confidentially.

Lynn left shortly after and Alfonso followed her leaving Veronica wondering once again what to do. She knew Logan would be home soon, but what was really bothering her was how reliant she had become. She used to be able to be alone all of the time and now she just felt lonely without anyone. She tried to tell herself that being alone was a good thing, but all she wanted was Logan and Marsden and she hated herself a little bit for becoming so co-dependent. This really wasn't her.

To try and get her mind off of it she decided to bury herself in this John Smith case even further. She had started the beginning process with narrowing down her list to the California area, now she could go even more in depth. She went upstairs, gathered her stuff, and then left the house prepared to find this kid's dad because if she concentrated on something else maybe she wouldn't have time to think about her own issues.

It was almost four when Veronica came back to the mansion and she felt pretty proud of herself for getting so much work done. She walked into the mansion and found Logan feeding Mars and making funny faces at him.

"Hey." She said setting her bag down beside him and sitting on the other side of Marsden's highchair.

"Hey." He said glancing at her.

"How was swimming lessons?" she asked.

Logan smirked, "I got hit on by no less than three cougars all with stretch marks and at least two kids."

Veronica scowled, "I have stretch marks, Logan."

Logan paused in making an airplane noise to get Marsden to open his mouth and glanced at her. "Come on Veronica I didn't mean it like that. I just meant…" he trailed off and sighed.

"You just meant what?" she snapped crossing her arms and glaring at him.

Logan sat back in his chair and glanced over at Marsden who was looking between his parents curiously.

"What's wrong with you? You've been weird all day and then I come home to find you not here. Are you angry that we went and did something without you? Because I told you—"

"No!" Veronica snapped indignantly glaring at him.

He stared back at her in amazement. "Then what's wrong? What did I do?" he asked thinking it must be something he did for her to act this way.

"Nothing, I just…" she bit her lip and stared out the window.

"Veronica, please talk to me. I need you to talk to me if we're going to fix this." He said reaching across the table to take her hand.

She moved out of his reach and sat back against the chair gnawing on her lip. "There's nothing that needs to be fixed. I'm fine. I'm just…moody. This case is just driving me crazy." She said giving him a weak smile and trying to laugh it off.

He looked at her doubtfully knowing there was something she wasn't saying, but knowing if he pushed her she'd pushing right back and they'd have a fight.

They had been doing well recently. She had gotten him to communicate, but it was very hard to get her to communicate. Everything was fine, except when Veronica went into these moods, like she was angry at him, but sometimes he had the feeling she was more angry at herself than anything. He wasn't sure what was going on with her, but he knew for her to get over it they'd have to talk about it, although she never seemed to want to open up when it was her, but when it was him she push him until he did.

"Are we still going out tonight?" he asked after a lengthy silence.

"Yeah sure." She said giving him another half assed smile.

He nodded and went back to feeding Marsden. They were silent for awhile until Logan decided to break it.

"You know I'm here for you, right? If you wanna talk." He said quietly.

"I know." She said looking away from him.

"I'll always be here." He added.

"I know."

He stared at her willing her to look at him, but when she didn't he turned back to their son and continued to make airplane noises to get him to eat.

Keith came over at five to pick up Marsden and Veronica ran down a long list of things for Keith to follow as he listened with amusement and patience. Once Keith had left, Veronica went to get ready for her and Logan's date although her mind was a million miles away on the John Smith case.

Veronica finally came back to reality when Logan began to knock impatiently on the bathroom door to tell her to hurry up or they wouldn't make their reservations. She hurried through her makeup, and picked a dress without looking although she had to pick another because that one was too big.

Finally she was ready and Logan and her were in the car headed to the restaurant. The ride there was stiff and uncomfortable and Veronica was beginning to feel annoyed at how the night was going.

She knew that Logan was upset about their almost argument earlier in the afternoon, but she had difficulty communicating to him what she needed. She wanted to tell him that she was afraid of how co-dependent she had become on him and Marsden, but she also wanted to try to work it out herself. Wasn't telling him she felt co-dependent a sign of being too needy? Shouldn't she try to work it out herself if she was going to move past this? If she fixed how much she relied on Logan and worked it out herself then that proved she didn't need anyone, right? If she told Logan about how she felt she'd be proving that she couldn't do anything alone and that she was just as dependent. Her brain was starting to hurt thinking about all of this.

They arrived at the restaurant, which was on the nicer side, but not too nice. Logan and her switched off when it was date night, both picking somewhere they wanted to go so that way they didn't argue over their food. Although food wasn't generally something they argued over since they both had the same taste. He liked to pick different restaurants they'd never been too and she liked to pick her favorite Italian restaurant.

The hostess sat them and they both buried themselves behind a menu. Once the waiter came and took their drink orders Logan couldn't take it anymore.

"Did I do something? I keep replying the day and I have to say, Veronica, I've barely seen you, which is kinda weird since generally Saturdays we—"

"Do we have to do this right now?" she snapped.

He scowled, "Veronica, I thought we talked about communicating. I know you're used to doing things alone, but—"

"I've done nothing alone! I'm always with you or Marsden and I can't be alone." She blurted out a little too loudly.

Some other tables looked over at them curiously and she flushed and stared down at the table.

Logan frowned making sense of her words. "Do you want to be alone? I mean, are you saying you…you want to leave?" he asked.

She snapped her head up and shook her head immediately trying to ignore the panic in his voice.

"No! That's not what I'm saying at all. I just…after you guys left today I realized…it's really hard for me to admit this but…I realized I haven't been left alone in a long time. It's either us, or Marsden and us, or me and Lynn, or my dad, or Mac, or Wallace, and I just…I've become so needy and this isn't me." She said hurriedly feeling like an idiot for spilling her inner feelings out into the atmosphere.

Logan stared at her for a minute trying to wrap his head around what she was saying. "So you've been this way all day because you realized you're co-dependent and you don't think this is you?" he asked for clarification.

She nodded slowly, "I mean when you say it like that it's kinda—"

"I know, everything has been an adjustment. We've been adjusting since Marsden was born and we'll continue to do so, but Veronica you aren't needy. You've never been needy."

"You don't understand when you left this morning I just…I realized I rely on you for everything. I rely on you to help take care of Marsden, for living, for being there…I mean, what happens…what happens if you leave?" she whispered staring down at the candle on the table. She couldn't meet his eyes and see whatever she imagined was there.

Logan reached across the table and took her hand in his. He was happy that this time she didn't pull away.

"Veronica, I'm not going anywhere. You can rely on me. I encourage you to be needy and co-dependent. You never need anyone's help and I think you'll be ok if you ask for help every once in awhile. I'm not going to think anything less of you." he said tightening his hold on her hand.

She gave him a wobbly smile and nodded. "I'm being ridiculous aren't I?" she whispered.

Logan smirked, "I've known you since we were 12. I know when you're being ridiculous and I understand that you aren't a needy person, but sometimes circumstances change and you need to ask for help. You've done plenty of things on your own anyway like solving Lilly's murder, the cases you do at school, and now I have faith you'll free Weevil."

"I'm just used to doing things myself. I mean, the pregnancy was one thing I was carrying our kid and you were there to help, but after this morning I realized just how not ok I am without you being around." She admitted feeling weak as she said the words.

Logan was about to reply when the waiter came back to get their order for food. Once they ordered the tension seemed to dissolve and before Logan could bring up the topic again Veronica changed it to ask about swim lessons and their plans with her dad for dinner tomorrow.

As the night wore on the discussion of Veronica's co-dependency seemed to be put on the back burner and everything between the two teen parents seemed to be right as rain.

(A/n: What did you think!? Next up is more Love, Marsden, and Ms. James.)