A/N: I am overwhelmed and humbled by your wonderful feedback after that last chapter. When I started writing, I really didn't expect this at all. In between work and letting my muse slowly take bites out of this latest update, I haven't been able to reply to all of you, but I really just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your comments. You all rock and I hope you stick with me as I take this adventure with our favorite characters. To answer a question I received, Lianne and Hunter will definitely be making an appearance sometime soon. For now, there's plenty of fun stuff ahead, so I hope you enjoy. I know I have.

Chapter Four

Veronica had been surprised to wake up in her own bed. The last thing she remembered was hanging out on the couch with Logan, the low hum of the TV in the background as she read. After the events of the previous day, she must have passed out hard. Sitting up slowly, she rubbed sleep from her eyes and glanced at the time. It was early. She wondered briefly how Logan was holding up. His welcome back to Neptune had certain been eventful. Must have been a day that ended in 'y'.

As soon as she got up and got herself a cup of coffee, she would call him.

Though, it appeared, she wouldn't need to.

Logan was sitting at the island counter in the Mars kitchen when she stepped out of her room. There was a mug of steaming coffee in his hand as he read that morning's paper. His shirt, the same one he had worn the night before, looked a little wrinkled and there were faint, dark shadows under his eyes. A sort of bemused expression crossed her face as she moved to wrap her arms around him from behind.

"Did you stay here all night? You know, my dad is probably hiring an assassin as we speak."

"You have one beer with the man and he insists you sleep on the couch because you're unfit to drive."

"Next time you two should smoke some of Dick's good ganja. Maybe he'll advocate some free loving and invite you to sleep with his only daughter." She gave him a little suggestive nudge with her shoulder.

"I wouldn't count on it, honey." Keith Mars walked in then with fresh donuts and bagels in hand.

Unsticking herself from Logan, she moved to give her father a kiss on the cheek. "Early morning donut run? How many beers did you two really have?"

"Enough for your dad to clean me up in poker. I hope you're open to living in a tent on the beach in the future. I may have lost the remainder of my inheritance to him last night."

"Have I taught you nothing over the years?" Veronica feigned disappointment as she poured her coffee. "Never play cards with the Mars family. We're hustlers, baby."

Logan snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her into his body, "Don't I know it."

"Watch out for that one," Keith pointed at Logan with a mock serious expression on his face, "He might only be after you for your money now."

The ease with which the banter and quips unrolled over breakfast gave Veronica her second surprise of the morning. There was a sense of comfort there and for the first time, without really knowing why, she was not afraid of what either her father or her boyfriend might say. It was so foreign to her, especially when it came to Logan, that she didn't know what to do other than enjoy it. Having the two most important men in her life get along like this meant the world to her. She could only hope it continued.

Keith was the first one to excuse himself from breakfast. Physical therapy waited for no man and though Veronica knew that her father was feeling much like his old self again, she wouldn't allow him to skip it for fear of a setback, especially as he insisted more and more on actually getting out into the field. Chasing bail jumpers was no easy task and she had not stopped worrying about him since she had sat cradling him in her arms and pleading for him to open his eyes on the side of the road, sirens wailing in the background as Logan called for an ambulance.

"So what happened last night?" Veronica turned towards Logan when they were finally alone, tilting her head to the side slightly. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but she had never been able to resist. "Did you bring him a baby goat to sacrifice in exchange for my hand in marriage?"

The words tumbled from her lips before Veronica even realized what she was saying. It was the second time in two days that she had thought about Logan and marriage in the same sentence and it caught her completely off guard. This time she had said the words out loud, in front of Logan no less, and she looked up with a semi-panicked expression on her face. Maybe he didn't even notice.

The amused look on Logan's face told her otherwise. "A pig, actually."

"And I didn't even get a stinkin' t-shirt."

"Am I not enough of a prize?" He turned his body to face her, placing his hands on her hips.

"My very own trophy boyfriend," her hands gently rested on his shoulders as she stepped into the space between his legs, "I swoon."

His lips were on her then, brushing her nose and then both of her cheeks. "How about you play hooky from work and I'll let you take advantage of me?" he asked as his mouth finally met hers.

"Hmmm…" Veronica kissed him again, letting the low hum drag on before shaking her head, "I've got things to do." Gently, she shoved herself away, but he pulled her right back up against him. Laughing, their lips found each other again, "Rain check?"

"Tonight? I'll make you dinner. And by make, I mean I'm going to order food and pass it off as my own."

She nodded, "It's a date."

Even as they agreed to reconvene after Veronica finished work for the day, Logan's hands had slipped up the hem of her shirt. A look of mischief was in his dark eyes and in the way his lips twitched upwards just slightly. There was no bargaining with him and as stubborn as Veronica could be, she found her will weakening at the warmth of his skin against hers. "Logan, I have to take a shower."

"Well, good thing I have two very helpful hands you can use to help you reach those hard to reach places." To demonstrate, his hands moved up along her spine. There was no winning with him, but Veronica wasn't even sure why she would want to win at all. She could be late.

And she was late, too. By the time Logan had finished "helping" her shower, Veronica had missed two calls from Mac informing her that she had paying clients waiting at the office. She promised to be in as soon as she could, with sustenance for Mac, swatting away Logan's playful fingers trying again to undress her as she hurriedly slipped her shirt on over her head. He was insatiable.

By the time she did finally arrive, there were two slightly annoyed trophy wives waiting on the couch, tapping designer heels impatiently, and a sullen Benjamin Adams. Zoey White was there, too. She hovered over Mac, observing her computers in awe. For some reason, that surprised Veronica. She hadn't expected brunette. Not for the first time, she found herself wondering what exactly the best friend and ex-boyfriend had been doing together the night before Eve Martin had been found dead.

"I'll deal with you two in a minute," she pointed at the teenagers before giving her best business-woman smile to her, as Mac had so perfectly put it, paying clients, "Ladies, please step into my office. I have some good news and bad news that I'd like to share with you."

It took Veronica all of five minute to inform the perfectly manicured women that yes, they were right. Their husbands had been having affairs. In fact, the men had been having an affair with each other. A surprise to everyone. Then, she shuffled Benjamin and Zoey into her office as Mac dealt with payment.

Which is exactly where they sat now. Benjamin looking distracted and disinterested, Zoey watching Veronica with quiet, intense green eyes. For someone who was just unofficially accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend by the local Sheriff yesterday, Benji seems cool as a cucumber. A fact that, had Veronica not seen him yesterday when she and Cliff had burst into the interrogation room, normally would have made her suspicious. Not that she trusted either of them entirely. There were always secrets.

"So, Benji, why don't you tell me why exactly Sheriff Lamb seems to think he has a witness seeing you leave Eve Martin's place the night before she was found dead." Veronica leaned forward on her desk, voice cool and even.

Benjamin Adams immediately cast a look to Zoey, who sat to his right. Interesting.

"If you don't tell me, I can't help you," Veronica pointed out.

And it was only when he received a quiet nod from Zoey did Benjamin begin to speak. "She called me. Probably around 9:30. Asked me to come over. She was scared."

"Scared of what?"

"She had a stalker."

His words caused Veronica's eyebrows to jump up in surprise. Mention of a stalker had never popped up in any of Mac's searches for Eve Martin, legal or otherwise. "Did she go to the police?"

The look Zoey White gave her was all the answer Veronica needed. She had and Lamb had done nothing. It was hardly shocking. She remembered how he had handled Hayley Dewalt going missing over spring break as just an irresponsible college girl having too much fun to check in. Clearly, the complaint of a teenage girl, however rich, of a stalker would just have been written off as her looking for attention.

A girl is dead, it's probably wrong that I want to rub this in his face.

"Okay," Veronica nodded slowly, refocusing on the task at hand, "So you went over there to check on her. I'm assuming she was alive and well when you left. What happened?"

"When I got there-" Ben hesitated just a second, taking a long breath in, "When I got there I realized that it was all just one of her schemes. She just wanted to-"

When he broke off, he looked at Zoey again, but she wasn't looking at him anymore. The brunette was staring at Veronica's nameplate intensely as though it was the most interesting thing in the world.

Veronica understood without him needing to finish, "Did you sleep with her?"

"No, I left and went straight over to Z's place."

All the while as he spoke, he had kept his eyes trained on the young girl next to him and Veronica could have sworn that she saw Zoey White's shoulders relax just a little at his response.

Tapping her pen against the notebook that she had left open in front of her when they had originally walked in, Veronica jotted a few things down about Eve Martin's stalker. Mainly, she wanted to give them both a beat now, a chance to relax. The more comfortable they felt, the more information they were likely to give her. If Veronica was going to figure this out, she needed all the facts and she could tell that there were plenty that they were not telling her by their secretive glances.

"Did Eve have any idea who her stalker was?" Veronica circled back, deciding that it was the best way to keep them from getting jumpy on her.

"Yeah." Zoey was the one who spoke this time, "Holden Masterson."

Veronica froze, realizing that she recognized the name. It had been years since she had even thought of Holden Masterson. Why would she have? Over a decade had passed since she had babysat him. His father was Deputy William Masterson and as far as Veronica knew, he still worked for the Sheriff's department to this day.

I suppose I should give Lamb some credit. He's loyal to his deputies, even in the face of the richest families in Neptune. She frowned, remembering the car accident that had taken the life of Deputy Sacks. Unless that deputy is trying to oust your corruption, then he's of better use to you in a body bag.

For the first time, Veronica wondered if she was getting in over her head with this investigation.

A small part of Logan felt bad that he had lied to Veronica, especially considering they had pledged to do away with lies and secrets just the night before. In his defense though, it was for a good cause. How was a guy supposed to surprise his girlfriend if he told her exactly what he had planned?

Which was an honest to god home cooked meal. Or, at the very least, a barbecued meal.

Despite the fact that he had probably been the world's worst father, Aaron Echolls had still managed to teach him a few things growing up. Mainly, how to grill a pretty mean steak. It was something that Aaron had learned especially for an Access Hollywood feature on the family and had insisted on passing onto his son one especially long stretch he had been home with them.

Logan still had scars from that particular lesson. Two thin, faint white lines on his wrist.

They had been his punishment for accidentally dropping one of the steaks on the porch. Rolling up his sleeve, he examined them quietly. He told mom it was an accident. That it happened when he let me man the grill on my own. And Lynn had believed him. Or had chosen to pretend as though she did because it was easier. He felt a rush of hot anger thinking about it.

It made him even angrier that after all these years, his father could still illicit this kind of blind rage from him. Aaron was dead and Logan was a grown man now. Whatever the tabloids had tried to dredge up about his past during his relationship with Bonnie DeVille, he had changed. He had stopped living in his father's shadow a long time ago and decided to make something of himself on his terms.

"You know, I'm pretty sure they don't cook the food for you once you buy it here."

Logan turned slowly at the sound of the voice, brow furrowed in confusion. It was the middle of the day, so he hadn't considered that he might run into someone he knew here. Veronica was busy and the only other person he seemed to spend much time with in Neptune probably didn't know this place existed.

"I'm sorry, do I know you? You remind me of someone, but you couldn't possibly be her. She's got a computer attached to her to her fingertips." He pretended to type on an invisible keyboard in front of him, grinning stupidly at Cindy Mackenzie who wore an amused expression.

"Even computer geeks need sustenance."

While the pair had gotten to know each other mainly through Veronica in college, they had spent only a minimal amount of time together. Logan had always liked her though. As different as she could be from Veronica, it had never been hard for him to figure out why the two women had gotten along. And through everything that had happened in their relationship before Veronica had transferred to Stanford, Mac had never really treated Logan any different. He had appreciated that.

"I just thought you survived off spam."

Mac gave him an exaggerated eye roll, "Your wit is as sharp as ever, Echolls."

"It's all part of my charm."

"So what are you doing here?" the tiny brunette asked, crossing her arms over her chest, "Because I don't remember seeing you ever eat anything but take-out before."

"If I tell you, can you keep a secret?"

Mac nodded eagerly, "Now cough it up before I tweet a picture to the world of Lieutenant Logan Echolls shopping for food like an everyman and the paparazzi swarm the place."

"I'm making dinner for Veronica."

"Don't tell me if you're going try and poison her, I'd rather be able to maintain plausible deniability."

"I can cook." Mac gave him a skeptical look and he sighed and corrected himself, "I can grill. I can also follow recipe instructions like a pro. Our educational system at work, ladies and gentlemen."

This got him another eye roll from Mac and Logan just laughed. He was glad to see that things hadn't changed all that much between them over the years. After all the shit he had put Veronica through and then how his relationship with Parker had ended, he had been sure that she would have hated him by now. Logan had certainly given her enough reason to. In fact, he had given all of Veronica's friends enough reason to hate him over the years. Still, she wasn't treating him differently.

"I'll just have to prove it to you," he added after a beat.

"We've been trying to make dinner a weekly thing since Veronica got back, so we'll make reservations at Casa de Echolls one day so you can show off for us. You're becoming a permanent fixture around here and we like our Mars time, too."

The prospect of rounding up the former Logan Echolls fan cub was not entirely appealing to him, but that might have also had something to do with his selfishness of wanting to keep Veronica to himself. Still, he nodded his head at the suggestion. Veronica's friends were important to her, especially Wallace and Mac. If he wanted things between them to work this time, he needed to be all in and make amends.

And Logan really wanted things to work. He had spent nine years waiting for Veronica Mars and now that he had her back again finally, he didn't want to spend one more day of his life without her.

Of course, he didn't doubt that they still had a lot to talk about, but Logan was all in.

After the news had broken about Eve Martin, Neptune High had cancelled classes for the remainder of the week. Instead of English and Spanish, the halls of school had been opened for students seeking grief counselling over the loss of their peer. No expense had been spared. The best counselors from around the country had been flown in for the occasion. A publicity ploy to show how much they cared about their children. Veronica could read the headlines in the morning paper already.

Wallace had volunteered to keep his office hours open in case any of his basketball players had wanted to talk. Which was why Veronica was meeting him in the hallowed halls of their old stomping ground that afternoon for lunch. A place she had been more than happy to leave behind a decade earlier

Not for the first time since she had gotten back to town over six months ago to help Logan with his case, she was seated with her best friend at their old table. The red benches just as uncomfortable as she remembered them. Wallace still eating his sandwich with the crust cut off. Very little had changed, it was almost eerie.

"Tell me your mom still doesn't make your lunch for you," Veronica sighed as she watched him, "You're a grown man, Wallace. You live in a killer bachelor pad. You've got to let Alicia off the hook."

"Oh really? And who's living in their dad's guest room?"

"Touché, but I don't cut the crusts off of his sandwiches. He does that all on his own."

Loud sobs suddenly erupted from behind them and both Wallace and Veronica turned to look as a girl ran from inside the building, hands covering her face. There was a bitterness in Veronica's chest as she watched, remembering the time after Lilly's murder. How many of these people actually knew Eve Martin? How many actually liked her?"

"Man, this is crazy," Wallace shook his head. "I had two of the cheerleaders in my office crying when I walked in there this morning. I didn't even know what to say to them."

"Two cheerleaders in your office? That's the dream, Wallace Fennel."

"Very funny Veronica, but you know that whole sarcastic act isn't fooling me. I know that look and it usually means you want me to do something that can get me in trouble."

"Can't a girl just want to have lunch with her best friend?" She gave him her biggest, most innocent eyes, but Wallace wasn't biting. "I'm not asking you to try and get Eve Martin's permanent file or anything. I mean, if you wanted to get it for me, I'm not going to turn it down, but all I'm asking for is a little gossip."

"Is this because it reminds you of Lilly?"

"It's because Zoey White came to me for help yesterday. Lamb seems to think Eve's ex-boyfriend Benjamin Adams did it, but she's pretty convinced otherwise. I figured you might have some 4-1-1 on them that they're not giving me." It wasn't a lie. That was why she was looking into this.

"Adams definitely had motive," Wallace said thoughtfully, "Eve named him as the leader in a cheating ring a while back, got him suspended and kicked off the baseball team. He was banking on a scholarship, but it's not going to happen now with a black mark on his permanent record like that. He was pretty pissed off about it."

Wouldn't you be, if your girlfriend basically screwed you out of your future? Of course, neither Zoey nor Benjamin had mentioned any of this to Veronica in their meeting earlier that morning, Strike one.

"Worst thing is," Wallace added, "I don't even think he did it. There was no real hard evidence either way, just a lot of he said, she said. But he's got a history, so everyone believed her and no one else was stepping forward to take the credit."

Confused, Veronica frowned. "Why would Eve frame him?"

Wallace leaned forward at the table with his water bottle between both his hands and a conspiratorial hush to his tone that transported Veronica back to high school. How often had they done this very thing as teenagers? Always working through a case together. "She caught him kissing her best friend."