Disclaimer: I own nothing that has anything to do with Veronica Mars or the characters, unless you count the DVDs. This is just for fun.

Enjoy

Chapter 3

The next day a memorial service was held by the college, for the students and staff to share their grief, and to remember their classmates.

Another was held in Neptune, which was attended by many of their former teachers, classmates, acquaintances, friends and families.

In contrast, Dick spent his day in the company of a number of bottles of liquor, drowning his sorrow. While Keith and Alicia, Darrell and Vincent stayed at Veronica's side, praying that she would pull through, whilst still mourning their loss of Wallace.

It started as one person calling the sheriff's office in Neptune, asking if it was possible to donate money to the families of the crash victims, to help pay for funerals and other expenses, soon there was a large collection of donation money being held at the sheriff's office for the families, some would need it more than others, but the sentiment, the fact that hundreds of people had been compelled to find a way to help the families.

The Los Angeles police's crash unit had barely finished clearing the wreckage before the first announcement was made that a full scale inquest would be made to investigate the stretch of road, among other things, assess whether this tragedy could have been avoided.

The funerals for the victims from Neptune were held one after the last for the next three days, all were held at a local crematorium and cemetery.

First was Logan's. Trina had organized it, and that showed, it was a massive affair, 'a-list'ers and paparazzi were everywhere, but ultimately she and Charlie couldn't have cared less as they farewelled their brother.

Then it was Mac's. Her family sat in the front row as their pastor presided over the funeral, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, there must have been twenty all together, Mac had probably spent her time avoiding them, introverted, in her room, working on her computer.

The Sinclair's, Mac's biological parents were there too, sitting towards the back of the crowded chapel, Madison was bored and it showed, she didn't want to be there, but their parents and younger sister Lauren were grieving for their lost child, the child they never got to know.

While Dick hadn't made it out of his apartment to attend Logan's funeral, he was at Mac's, but he was still hung over, if not still drunk. He was the only person on the planet, apart from his acquaintance whom had broken the news to him that knew that he was not only mourning the loss of his girlfriend, but his unborn child. Even he had only known for a month.

What good would it have done to have told her parents? It would only hurt them more.

Jackie and Wallace's funerals were held together, many people gathered to grieve the loss of the young couple.

Keith had left his daughter's bedside to support Alicia and the kids through the difficult day.

Jackie's father, Terrence Cook had paid for Jackie's mother, Kim Waters to fly across the country to be at their only child's funeral. It was the first time in twenty-one years that they had been in the same room, but they still were holding each other, grieving.

No parent should have to bury their child. It wasn't how life was supposed to be.

It took months for the dust to settle, for life to return to normal in the community, at least for most people, for the families lives would never return to normal.

Terrence Cook reunited with his ex-love, Jackie's mother, Kim, and to Alicia's sadness, they took custody of Jackie's young son, whom she had seen as her grandson, but it was their right as his closest living relatives, the only real family he had left.

They moved away from Neptune, it held too many memories, the tabloids reported that they were living in a small town several hours from Boston, Massachusetts.

Dick continued to drink himself out of his pain, he dropped out of college, quit his life in favour of drinking.

Mac's parents tried to stay together, they did for a couple of months, but losing a child was more than they could bear, and they separated, her mother and little brother stayed in Neptune, while her father moved to Seattle, Washington.

Keith and Alicia stayed together, seeking comfort from each other, Alicia and Darrell officially moved in with Keith, but they had been staying in a hotel near the hospital with Keith, so they could be near Veronica, who was still on life support, her life hanging in the balance.

Just days before Veronica woke up, Keith and Alicia had gotten into a fight. They had been waiting outside Veronica's ICU room while a nurse tended to her, Alicia was trying to get her life back, to find a way to get past the tragedy, for her and her surviving son, but Keith wasn't ready to give up on Veronica, even though the doctors had warned him that she may never regain consciousness.

More than a few hurtful, angry words were exchanged.

Alicia had wanted to, and in the end she did move back to Neptune with Darrell in an effort to give him some semblance of a normal life.

But Keith had been determined to stay with his daughter, he couldn't leave her so far from home, and just go on with his life.

Trina and Charlie's lives remained much the same, but they were left with a hole in their hearts, which they knew could never be filled.

Keith had been overjoyed when Veronica regained consciousness, but it wasn't all good news.

Nurses and doctors had rushed into the room, pushing Keith out to the waiting room, when he returned, Dr Rhodes, Veronica's neurologist was the only person apart from one nurse left in the room, he sat down with Keith in two plastic chairs against the wall, before he told to overwrought father, "Veronica is stable. We had to sedate her, but she had regained full consciousness. I think she will pull through."

"Oh thank god," Keith sighed in relief, but then came the but.

"But a neuro exam revealed that she has severe weakness down the right side of the body. There is also the possibility of cognitive and behavioural complications. And we already know that Veronica has post-traumatic epilepsy, but that's under control with the medication, she hasn't had a seizure in three weeks, that's really good. Hopefully there will see an improvement in her condition in the next six to twelve months. I'm sorry to say that it's a waiting game, we'll take it a day at a time, and see how things go."

All Keith could do was go back to waiting, waiting for his daughter to wake up from her medicated slumber, to see if what the doctor had said was right, if she was brain damaged.

He wouldn't accept it until he'd seen it himself, he refused to believe that his smart, funny, quirky grown up child could have suffered injuries so deep in her brain that she may never be who she was before.

Unfortunately the doctor's and Keith's fears were confirmed, when Veronica woke up several hours later, she was groggy for a while, and Keith had waited patiently, ignoring her unclear speech, her agitated movements with her right arm and leg, the distinct lack of movement in her other limbs, or the left side of her face.

But once she was fully awake, he could no longer ignore it, she was trying desperately to speak, to seek answers as to where she was, what had happened, but the words wouldn't come out right, they were too unclear, garbled, slurred.

She quickly got frustrated, and Keith tried to calm her, but she only got angrier. She started to scream, to scream at her father, scream what even though she couldn't form the words was unmistakably numerous profanities.

Keith was shocked by her outburst, it was so out of character, but he pushed his fear and surprise aside for the moment, knowing that he had to calm his daughter. He tried to sound calm and reassuring, but he failed, badly, "It's okay, honey, you're alright. You're in hospital, but everything's going to be fine, you're going to be fine, just try to rest." He was trying to reassure himself just as much, if not more than her.

It took Veronica only fifteen minutes to calm down, but it was nothing that Keith said or did, or anything that the nurses who came when they heard Veronica screaming did, she just settled.

Afterwards, one of the nurses pulled Keith aside, and explained that it was part of the brain injury, it was technically known as emotional lability, an inability to regulate emotions, resulting in exaggerated or inappropriate emotions, a slight sadness would cause hysterical crying, a barely funny joke would have her laughing madly.

They could really only try to help her regain control, try to help her calm down.

Hopefully it would lessen over time, she would get back to normal, hopefully everything would go back to normal.

Keith hated that Veronica couldn't communicate, but in some ways it was a blessing, he didn't have to tell her that the love of her life and her closest friends were dead.

But the next day, one of the ICU nurses gave Veronica a pen and paper, so that she could communicate, the first thing she wrote was, "Logan?"

Keith forced back tears as he told her, "I'm so sorry, honey. He died."

Veronica was silent, she then wrote, "Everyone?"

That broke Keith, he was silently crying, tears running down his face, as he told Veronica, "No one else survived, I'm so sorry, honey, they're dead.

He was expecting tears, but then out of the blue, Veronica started to laugh, she was laughing hysterically, but at the same time there were tears rolling down her face.

Sighing, Keith sat down on the side of the bed, and wrapped his arms around Veronica. He just held her, rocking her gently as she laughed.

When she finally stopped laughing, she began to cry, not over the top, just distraught. Her friends were dead.

Veronica cried for hours, it hurt more than she ever thought possible, her friends were dead, her fiancé was dead. She and Logan were planning to get married that Summer, the fifth of September, their love had been epic.

It was over, and she couldn't even talk to anyone about it.

She wanted to go to funerals, say goodbyes.

It didn't even occur to her that they had been dead going on ten weeks.

Just one week after Veronica awoke from her coma, she was deemed stable enough to be transferred to a rehabilitation centre, which also served as a nursing facility, Rolling Meadows Center.

Veronica was still distraught, but she wasn't exactly in a position to fight anyone. The doctors, Keith as well weren't even sure that Veronica was fully aware, and comprehending what was happening.

But she was, she just couldn't communicate it.

It was still an hour and a half drive from Neptune, but it would be better for everyone to have Veronica closer to home, and to have her somewhere where they could truly work to help her recover.

But leaving the hospital wasn't an easy or happy experience for Veronica, everything had been going well, the medical transport team loaded her onto a gurney, and took her downstairs to the ambulance.

They got as far as starting the engine before Veronica suddenly began to scream and thrash around.

Keith was sitting in the back of the van with her, he was shocked by her sudden outburst, but what concerned him more was that it didn't stop, she kept screaming, her voice was distorted, her movements jerky, but it was unmistakably a panicked response.

The driver stopped the engine, and came to help, but it wasn't until he and his partner had lifted Veronica out of the transport van, and some distance away before she began to settle.

"What was that?!" Keith asked worriedly from where he stood beside Veronica, comforting her.

"Has she had panic attacks before? I think that's what just happened. She was hurt in a vehicle accident, correct?"

"Yeah, but what're we meant to do? She's got to be moved down the rehab centre."

The transporters started to move Veronica's gurney back towards the hospital. "We'll see if the doctors can give her a sedative to allow us to move her. At the rehabilitation centre, they might be able to help her more."

A powerful sedative later, Veronica was once again placed in the van, without incident this time.

Alicia woke up early, she pushed the doona away, and hauled herself out of bed, she was still exhausted, the only way she slept was kept in a bottle beside her bed.

Quetiapine, it was her new best friend.

It hurt more than words can describe for Alicia to have lost her eldest son, Wallace, her surviving son didn't truly understand, he knew that Wallace wasn't there, but she wasn't sure that he understood the concept of death.

Honestly she couldn't cope to have that conversation with her youngest son, it was all she could do to get out of bed in the morning, to do the mundane tasks that made up her life.

She would wake Darrell in the mornings, make him breakfast, pack his lunch, drive him to school. As soon as he was at school though, she would go back to the apartment, and break down, sit on the couch and cry until she had to pick Darrell up from school. She would make him a snack, start dinner, tell Darrell to stop watching TV, to do his homework, give him dinner, get him ready for bed, tuck him in, and then she would take the sedative, and the cycle started again.

But this day was different, Alicia was making breakfast for Darrell, simple toast and eggs, when the phone rang.

It was Keith. He and Veronica were in a transport ambulance heading towards San Diego, to a rehabilitation and nursing facility, they would be there in four hours.

Would she meet him there?

For the first time in nine days, Alicia didn't go straight home after dropping Darrell at school; she went to the shopping centre.

She bought a bunch of flowers, a ridiculous bouquet of colourful balloons, a oversized teddy bear, a pair of pyjamas, camouflage patterned, and a pair of black ugg boots.

It wasn't for her though, or maybe in a way it was.

She then drove back to the apartment, took Veronica's doona off her bed, her pillow too, she gathered up a duffel bag of various items for Veronica, tooth brush, tooth paste, hair brush, underwear, her portable speakers and a few of her CDs.

Veronica had been Wallace's best friend since they'd come to Neptune. Now Veronica was hurt, and she had said some awful things to Veronica's father, her boyfriend.

It was the least she could do to welcome them back.

Alicia left everything in her car, when she got to the centre, she went to the reception, and she explained what she wanted to do. They gladly gave her the number of the room Veronica would be going into.

Alicia spent the next hour and a half unpacking everything she had brought into the room, putting clothes in drawers, placing the flowers in a vase on the side table, switching the hospital linens for the ones she had brought from home, finally she placed the teddy bear on the end of the bed, and went outside to wait for the ambulance to arrive. By her count it would only be minutes now.

From that day on, Alicia focused all her energy into helping Veronica and Keith, and supporting Darrell, taking him out on weekends, playing with him in the pool. It didn't stop it hurting, but it did help.

Alicia was waiting out the front of the centre when Veronica and Keith arrived. Keith stepped out of the back of the van as one of the transporters pulled the door open.

He nearly ran to Alicia, they had both missed each other terribly, more than they would admit. They embraced right there in the driveway of the centre, as Veronica was unloaded from the back of the ambulance.

Keith gently kissed Alicia on the cheek, before pulling slightly, greeting Alicia, "Alicia, I'm so sorry. Oh god, I've missed you," He stroked her hair, and gently asked, "How are you?"

"It's not easy," Alicia said, putting on a brave face, this day was not to be about her. She then redirected Keith's focus, "How's Veronica? How was the drive?"

TBC...