A/N Hey guys, thanks for all the reviews!!! This chapter is pretty long so hopefully it makes up for my absence I'll try to be more timely!

Chapter 7:

Veronica woke up and immediately thought that she'd imagined the last 3 weeks. She felt the warm, comforting weight of a man behind her. Spooning with his arms held tightly around her middle. Okay, so she'd had a crazy nightmare and she was still happily rebounding with Logan. She and Piz had broken up earlier in the semester. What was the point of a theme park without the roller coaster? Pizneyland was NOT that happiest place on earth. He'd taken it okay, until he saw her walking arm in arm with Logan. That didn't end well and she'd gotten chewed out by Wallace for breaking Piz's heart. Okay, that's not exactly what Wallace said. It was something more like "you couldn't have waited three more months?! I wouldn't be living with him after that and I wouldn't have had to deal with it. Now it's Pout, Pout, Veronica, Pout…" Sorry Wallace, Piz was just… too nice a guy. It would never have worked between them.

Her rebound with Logan had lasted all of a week; they both knew that they didn't work together in the long term. She just wanted to remember what it was like to feel her blood boil in the bedroom. They were still friends, but they weren't meant to be anything more. Wait, that's right. It was over, why was she in bed with… that wasn't Logan's cologne. She opened her eyes. This wasn't the suite in the Neptune Grand. Oh. God. She opened her eyes and the bright sun harshly reminded her of the amount of gin she drank the night before. That's right, there had been drinking. And flirting. And now, well, this was definitely snuggling. Frantically she tipped her head down, HAD THERE BEEN SOMETHING BETWEEN FLIRTING AND SNUGGLING? She let out a sigh. No, she was still fully clothed. Well, there was that.

She felt some serious butterflies when she felt Lamb breathe out against her neck and tighten his grip around her middle. This should not feel so good. She should be throwing a fit and threatening to taze him. She should not be leaning back into him and closing her eyes. Lamb was not supposed to make her heart beat faster unless it was in rage. Oil and Water. Lamb and Mars. That's how it went. End of list. There was nothing in the cards for accidental cuddling or racing heartbeats. She felt Lamb shift behind her and pull her closer again. Veronica breathed in sharply as she felt his mouth softly come in contact with her neck and his hips roll subtly into hers. The fact that it was morning was extremely evident on his body, and it was pushing insistently through their pajama bottoms. When nothing else happened for what seemed to Veronica like minutes, she realized that Lamb was probably still asleep.

The alarm went off, blaringly loud and Veronica felt Lamb stir. So, she did the only thing she could think of. She closed her eyes and pretended to still be asleep. She listened as Lamb groaned, pulling one arm away from her and smacking his alarm clock. She expected him to be as freaked out be their proximity as she was. Maybe jumping out of the bed immediately, pretending it never happened. She did not expect him to run his free hand down her bare arm, so light that if she were asleep, she never would have even felt it. He ran his hand back up her arm body stopped at her face. She felt his breath, light as a feather, across her cheek as he kissed her temple softly. She could just lay there speechless. He rolled off the side of the bed and she heard him say to himself, "Shit, Don, What the hell are you doing?" When she heard the shower turn on she figured it was safe to open her eyes.

What the HELL had just happened? Was Lamb being… sweet? WHY DIDN'T SHE WANT TO TAZE HIM? That should be her default reaction to waking up in bed with Don Lamb. But no, all she could think was that she would have rather he not still been asleep when he rolled his morning wood into her. "Morning Wood," Veronica. Did you really just think that? She ran a hand down her face and moved to stand up, almost forgetting that she still needed crutches. The crutches that were, unfortunately, still in the living room because Lamb had carried her to bed. It was all coming back… slowly. AHA! A water bottle! Glorious. She hoped this would cure her ever pounding headache. 6:45am? Why am I awake?

As a senior in college she knew what she needed. Hell, by this time in their lives everyone had a hangover cure. She and Mac had theirs down pat: A room temperature Diet Coke, in a can (a bottle was just too fizzy) and a plain bagel, not toasted, not anything. Also sleep… Much. More. Sleep. She heard the shower shut off and realized that there's a solid chance that a naked Don Lamb could come walking into this room any minute. She liked the idea far more than she cared to admit… Alas out walked Lamb, dripping wet, and wrapped in a towel.

"Hey, Mars, good morning. You seemed like you were out for the count."


Oh, when you were kissing my forehead, you mean?
"Yeah, I…uh… heard the shower."

"Ah, well…" he looked a little uncomfortable, "Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you. I have to go to work. It's early, though, you should try to get some more sleep. You look really hung over."

"Ah, you know just what to say to a lady to make her feel her prettiest."

He raised an eyebrow at her and ignored her. "They'll be someone stationed outside the apartment if you need anything. You can go visit your dad at the hospital if whatever deputy assigned is feeling friendly, otherwise you're on lockdown."

"But I have classes!" she interjected.

"Nice try, it's spring break." Damn, should have known he wouldn't fall for that one. "Well I have to work."

"No, you don't. We can stop by Mars Investigations tomorrow and you can pick up any case files you need, or more importantly, that will help me solve this case."

"Help US solve this case."

"Sure, Mars, whatever you say." She laughed as he rolled his eyes at her.

"What if I want to invite people over?"

"You planning on having a kegger while I'm at the station?"

"You know me, Donnie, I'm a social creature, loved by one and all. I'm just not myself if I'm not surrounded by a room full of adoring spectators."

"Well who am I to separate the amazing Veronica Mars and her adoring public? Just let the officer outside know someone is coming over."

"Good, well, on to more important matters. I require room temperature Diet Coke, canned, and a plain bagel."

"Um…?" He looked at her confused.

"It's the patented Veronica Mars hangover cure."

"Right, well, why don't you let me put on some pants first, and I'll see what I have lying around."

She had nearly forgotten that Lamb was standing in front of her in a towel. As her eyes traced over his abs and chest Veronica could swear that she blushed at least ten shades of red. She was a little upset with herself for doing it actually, it's not like she'd never seen a half naked man before. Hell, this was California, any time she took Back Up for a walk she saw at least 3 half naked men… not the point.

She looked up at Lamb as he was grabbing his uniform pants out of the closet. "No, you can stay in here, I have to use the bathroom anyway, though I could use some help with the locale of my crutches. Someone was inconsiderate enough to leave them out of reach after carrying me to bed." Oh crap, she was flirting again.

"Oh well forgive me, your highness." She assumed that he would just go into the other room and grab them, but no, he threw her over his shoulder and carried her to the living room, plopping her on the couch right next to her crutches. "Better locale?" he said, mocking her.

Lamb didn't even wait for a response; he just turned and walked away. As Veronica grabbed her crutches and hobbled to the bathroom she most certainly did NOT check out his towel clad ass. Oh Man, she was in trouble.

Lamb had managed to find her a 2 liter bottle of ginger ale from the back of a cabinet and a packet of frozen bagels. "Close enough," he'd cited before heading off to the station. Veronica went back to sleep as soon as she was done with her hangover feast. Though, after waking up in Lamb's arms, the bed felt a little empty when she went back to sleep on her own. Between napping, showering, cleaning up the drinks from last night, and calling her dad at the hospital, Veronica had managed to successfully kill time for 7 hours. It was 1:00pm and she was now, officially, bored.

Daytime TV offered her nothing, so she thought about who to invite over to Deputy Don's house. Normally she would have said Mac, she'd had the least interaction with Lamb, and would find this the least weird. But No, Mac and her parents were on vacation. Camping again, she thought. Wallace was visiting his dad over spring break and things between she and Parker had been a little rough for awhile. She should really try to work on that when this was all done. She liked Parker, sure, Parker was a little bubbly, but she still liked her. What, with Veronica's ridiculously large circle of friends there was really only one other person to call. She dialed Logan's number and told him to come entertain her, though she made him promise that there would be no destruction of the fine Deputy's personal property.

After he agreed to keep her company, Veronica walked out of the apartment and waved the officer outside down. Seconds later Lamb's landline rang and she answered it, telling the Deputy calling from the car outside that one of her friends was coming to visit to help keep her sane during her occupation of Casa De Lamb.

When Logan arrived, he held up Scrabble and she laughed at him. "Oh, you are going down, rich-boy!" As they played the third round of the board game on Lamb's coffee table she was happy at how at ease they were with each other. Honestly, this was the best their relationship had ever been. It was almost as if their one week post-Piz-fling had been a form of closure for both of them. When he had first arrived they had talked about the accident and trying to think of who did it. But after awhile they'd settled into friendly conversation.

"You'll never guess who called me earlier?"

"Me?!"

Logan chuckled, "Okay, that is technically true. Let me rephrase. You'll never guess who ELSE called me today."

"Ghandi? Abe Bogota? MR MIAGI? Oh, Oh, I know…"

Logan interrupted her with a soft voice. "Hannah."

Veronica stared at him. "Hannah from Neptune High, Hannah?" Logan nodded. "Hannah, her dad tried to get you indicted for murder and then he shipped her away to a boarding school in Vermont, Hannah?!"

"Yes, Veronica, do we know another Hannah?"

"I… wow, well, what did she want?"

"She's transferring to Hearst next year. She's moving back to Neptune, Veronica. She wants to see me. She wants to give us another shot."

"You waited four hours to bring this up!? What did you say?"

"The car accident and your dad stuck in the hospital seemed more pertinent that my romantic endeavors."

"Nonsense, this is much less depressing. Besides, I need to live vicariously through the functional relationships of others, seeing as how I have so few of my own." Though as she spoke, Veronica thought back to last night Lamb and how good it all seemed.

"I think I might be in love with her. I think I always have been, I know I haven't seen her in years…" he seemed to catch himself. "I'm not saying that you and I didn't work out because I was thinking about Hannah, I… I was always thinking about us. You. Me. Together. I just mean…"

"Calm down, sparky. I'm not blaming you for anything. We've been over this. You and I are too similar yet too different. It would have never worked. This you and Hannah thing, though. This might be the right kind of star-crossed loving."

Logan chuckled and then said, "I'm kind of nervous, V, what if she changes her mind?"

Veronica reached over and pulled Logan into a hug. "You deserve this, Logan. Don't do anything dumb and it might just work out."

Logan was hugging her back tightly, though platonically, when they heard the door open. In walks Sherriff Don Lamb, looking thoroughly abashed for just a split second as his eyes caught Veronica's and took in the scene of her and Logan on his couch. Veronica quickly released Logan and looked towards Lamb apologetically. She saw him put something down on the counter and realized he'd bought her a bottle of red wine and a twelve pack of diet coke. Crap, when did Lamb start being sweet?

"Well Mars," he said "If I'd have known you were inviting your boyfriend over I would have called ahead. I only brought enough Chinese for two though, too bad." To Veronica, his voice sounded possessive. She didn't want to admit she kind of liked it.

"Well that's my cue," said Logan "Bye Veronica. Sherriff, always a pleasure."

Veronica would have laughed at the tension in the room if she understood it at all. Instead she just sat there, dumfounded, and annoyed that her next play on the Scrabble board would have been a seven-letter word. She looked at Lamb and felt like she should apologize, but instead she just said "So, Chinese? I hope you got dumplings" and smiled nervously at him.

To Be Continued…