Chapter Nine

A/N: I know I know I haven't posted in a few days but I was seriously busy with finals and papers but after my last exam on April 22 I should be fully committed to this story! I hope you enjoy it! Finally the cliffhanger gets solved! There were actually two of you who guessed who the real rapist was by the second chapter! I was very impressed! I can't wait to read you reviews! Enjoy!!


"Hi there everyone." Alicia broke the deafening silence. "Please come one in and we can get started." she said as she moved aside to let the five through her door. "So Veronica how have you been holding up this past week?"

"I have been doing good. I am not too sure how I would be doing if I didn't have these four with me all the time, but I don't want to think about that. I haven't had any nightmares which is nice."

"That is very good. The best way to deal with a rape is to keep the people you trust the most in this world around you as much as possible, so I am glad to see that is what you have been doing. Please, take a seat."

Veronica sat down in the middle chair, Logan sat to her left, her father to her right, and Duncan and Lily stood directly behind Veronica with their hands on her shoulders. Veronica's hands had a hold of both her father's and Logan's.

"Okay before we begin I would like to inform you that the sheriff has already been informed on who the man is and he is on his way to pick him up as we speak. Are you sure you are ready for this Veronica?"

Veronica swallowed the lump in her throat and felt the grip on her hands tighten. She nodded, not really trusting her voice to keep from cracking.

"Okay then let us begin." Alicia stated with trepidation. She knew that this would be very hard for every individual in the room to hear. "The person who raped you Veronica, did not have a criminal record-"

"Which means he goes to school at Neptune High?" Veronica cried out.

"Yes." Alicia responded meekly. Gone was her strong, usual manor, replaced by sorrow for the family of friends sitting right in front of her.

"Which means I have spent all week walking around with him through the halls. I think I am going to be sick."

"That is why we built up a support system for each of these people to be with you all week Veronica. These people were there to keep you safe. They never left you alone, which is what you need to remember. They will always do their best to keep you safe." Alicia said with a renewed sense of strength, that she knew she needed to have to make the others feel strong.

"Please just tell me who it was." Veronica croaked out in barely a whisper.

Logan moved his chair so that he was right next to Veronicas. He started to take deep breaths as he knew this moment would change a lot in Veronica's world and he had to be as calm and strong as humanly possible, no matter how much he was screaming on the inside.

Alicia took a deep breath before starting. "Veronica, the guy who raped you was Troy Vandergraff. I am so sorry."

Veronica always used to roll her eyes when Lily would use over dramatic phrases, but the phrase 'my world stopped' suddenly seemed very real to her now. All sounds were blocked out of her head as if they didn't exist. The hands on her hands and shoulders could not be felt because her whole body was numb.

They say the best way to cure a person with amnesia is to show them their old memories. It was as if the night of Veronica's rape came throttling back into her life at top speeds. She suddenly remembered running into Troy again after coming out of the bathroom and him telling her to 'come have a little fun with me baby' and she had refused. She was not ready to have sex and she had tried to explain that to him many times but he had always just ignored her and would mutter 'it better be soon' under his breath.

Veronica remembered chugging down her drink with the intention of getting out of there faster to go find Logan, but having her inhibitions gone and being lead into one of the guest bedrooms by him. She remembered letting Troy lie her down on the bed and falling asleep to the feeling of his hands all over her body. His cold and disgusting hands all over her warm and innocent body.

The world and her surroundings came thrusting back onto her as she soon found herself kneeling down on the floor throwing up into the garbage can. She saw Logan holding her hair while her father rubbed circles on her back. She noticed Lily crying in Duncan's arms and Alicia briskly walking back in with a bottle of water.

Once the contents of Veronica's stomach were emptied she sat back on the floor and drank the water Alicia had gotten for her. Logan and Kieth stared at her with worried looks on their faces because of the way Veronica just sat there expressionless. She showed zero emotion and no one in the room knew what to do about it.

No one except for Logan. He knew about the pain she was feeling inside. He remembered not knowing how to feel or how to react the first time his father had hit him. He knew that she could definitely not keep all of her emotions bottled up inside or they would all come crashing out at once one day. Logan knew that he had to get Veronica to express her emotions and he knew he had to do it slowly.

Logan moved so that he was sitting on the floor directly in front of Veronica. He took one of her hands in his and used his other hand to lift her chin so that her eyes were looking directly into his own. He knew words would roll right off of her so he used his eyes to tell her everything. With his eyes, he told her he loved her, he told her she was safe, and he told her that he was going to stand with her through all of this. No matter what.

She looked into his eyes and saw it all. It was the only thing she could see. Nothing else existed in that moment except for the two of them. Not her father, not Lily, not Duncan, not Alicia, not her mother, and not Troy. Logan was the only one she saw and the only one she needed. Veronica did not need empty reassurances, she just needed to know that she was loved and she was not alone. That was the only thing that made it feel real, was not feeling alone.

A few tears began to build in the corners of her eyes. Logan's thumb stroked her cheek and when he gave her a slight nod of his head she knew that it would be okay to cry. The tears came in like a tidal wave that never seemed to end.

A loud sob pierced the silence as Logan pulled the tiny and broken Veronica into his lap. She was curled in a ball with her head on his chest, allowing her tears to stain his dry shirt.

As her tears fell on him, Logan's tears joined them. He knew that from now on, whenever Veronica was in pain, he would be too. They were one person in that moment, joined together in their sorrow.

Everyone in that room was in tears. They were crying at the sight they had just witnessed. A love so pure that words were not needed. They had just watched as Logan and Veronica became one through their eyes. He had pulled her out of her numb state into a place where she could feel. He had started the healing process in her that, albeit would take a long time, but that no one else could figure out how to do.

Once the tears began to slow from Logan and Veronica's eyes, they were able to grasp a hold of what was going to happen next. Neither of them knew what would happen legally to Troy now, but they both knew he has to pay for what he did.

"What happens now?" Veronica's question pierced the silence, turning all red-rimmed and tear stained eyes to her.

"Well like I said before, the Sheriff has already put out a warrant for Troy's arrest. He will be arrested this afternoon and then there is a very big possibility that he will be released on bail-"

"What?!" Logan shouted as Veronica felt his entire body tense up around her. "How can they release him on bail?"

"I am sorry Logan. You need to calm down." Kieth tried to calm down the raging Logan. He saw the way Veronica was staring up at him with beyond scared eyes. Kieth looked directly into Logan's eyes, glanced down at Veronica, and then back up at Logan, as if to tell Logan silently that his behavior had to stop for the sake of Veronica.

"I am sorry." Logan said as he tried to compact his emotions for the sake of the broken Veronica in his lap. "Can you please explain what is going on Mr. Mars?" Logan said while taking deep breaths to stop his from running straight out of this office to go find Troy himself, to kill him.

"Well being released on bail is standard procedure, until it is time for the trial. We will get a restraining order for Veronica against him so that he will not be able to come anywhere near her."

"But what stops him from just breaking his restraining order?" Logan questioned.

"Well if he does he will face even more jail time. We will also set it up so that Veronica is never alone until the trial is over. Something tells me that he is going to plead not guilty so that means that there will be a full trial. Veronica hunny, we are going to need to talk to more people at school to see if there were any witnesses who would be willing to testify." Keith said. His voice softened drastically when he spoke to Veronica as if a normal tone of voice would break her into two.

"Lily and I will take care of that part Mr. Mars." Duncan said as Lily nodded quickly in agreement. Veronica gave them a look of thanks as she settled down more into Logan's lap and his arms surrounding her.

"Okay well there is not much else we can do at this point right now so why don't we go home Veronica?" Kieth asked. Veronica did not move or speak, but just sat there looking up into Logan's eyes. "And why doesn't Logan come over for a while. Would you like that Veronica?" Kieth asked knowing that they needed each other more than anything right now. Veronica did not move her eyes away from Logan's but nodded slowly to agree with her father. "Okay well lets get you home." Kieth said as Logan began to stand, carrying her and never breaking his hold on Veronica until they got to the parking lot. He placed her in his front passenger seat of his car and followed her father back to her house. Neither spoke during the ride because words seemed unnecessary.