Disclaimer: Only borrowing these wonderful characters from Rob Thomas. I sadly own nothing, but wish I did.

Chapter 10 - Avoidance

Thursday morning, Veronica called Logan to see if he could talk so that she could clear the air with him about Casey. She could imagine the outfit and late night arrival time had way different connotations than just meeting Casey for dinner. She had tried him at 8, and it went straight to voicemail. She left him a message that she wanted to talk with him when he had some time. She didn't want to try to explain things in a voicemail message. She hoped he wasn't actually avoiding her call. At 8:30 he sent her a text that he got her message but he was tied up with work meetings and that he'd try to call her when he had a break.

In addition to worrying about what Logan might be thinking, Veronica was also frustrated that they didn't seem to be making much progress yet on Debbie's case and after reading through the police report a couple more times, she finally decided to go into the office to work on some of the other cases. She had let Mac know that they'd hold off on looking at Growlers' security footage until they had more information, since she still wasn't sure Debbie had been at Growlers that night.

Her mind kept drifting from Debbie's case, to Logan, occasionally landing on what might be happening back in Massachusetts in regards to her employment status, as well as what she was going to do about all her stuff that was still at Dillon's apartment, and then cycling back through those in random order through out the morning. It made it hard to concentrate on the other cases she was trying to work on for her dad, and she had to keep starting over several times when she would get off track. Logan finally texted her again around 11 and apologized that he was having a screwed up day and still hadn't had a chance to call her back but he hadn't forgotten.

At 5 minutes to noon her phone finally rang and she saw his name flash up on the display. She felt the tension that had been building in her body all morning subside a bit with the relief that he wasn't actually just avoiding her. She had tried to rationalize that with herself, but for the four hours since she first left him the message, her troublesome imagination was starting to get the better of her.

"Hi Logan, thanks for calling me back," she started out before he quickly jumped in, talking with her at a rather quick pace.

"Sorry Veronica, I only have a minute before I have to go into another meeting, but I didn't want to make you think I was avoiding you. There were a bunch of last minute strategy meetings that we had to cram in before a big board meeting and sometimes we just have crazy days like this."

"It's OK," was all she was able to get out before he started talking again. While his voice sounded a bit frantic, it was more of a busy frantic than an angry with her frantic at least.

"Then there was a last minute cancellation by one of the board members to go to a charity benefit dinner in LA tonight with Alexis, and so I'm going to have to fill in and take off as soon as the meetings are over to drive up for that. But you should go to the poker game tonight. They'll all still be getting together at Dick's and Weevil should be there and I know he'd love to see you."

"Oh, ok." Now she was the one that was starting to feel frantic.

"I'll be back tomorrow and then I think several us are probably going to go to Growlers tomorrow night, so maybe we could meet up there and talk. I've got several more meetings tomorrow and will probably be busy until the evening anyway. You really should go and check out Dick's club. It will be a lot of fun. Sorry, I'm getting called into the next meeting now. Hopefully I'll talk to you tomorrow night at the club, otherwise I'll see you at 10 on Saturday. Bye."

Veronica said goodbye, although she thought he may have hung up before she actually finished saying it. She sat staring at the phone after the call was disconnected. She didn't imagine the life of the Mayor to be so fast paced and demanding. And then of course there was the whole, going to LA tonight with Alexis and not coming back until tomorrow that didn't sit so well with her either.

Veronica called Mac about the plans for the evening. "So I was told that I should crash Dick's poker night," she teased when Mac answered.

"You definitely should!" She cheerily replied. "I'm so excited for you to see our place too." Then she jokingly added, "I can't wait for you to give me that 'you've lost your mind living the 09er lifestyle' look again." Veronica laughed heartily at that.

"Usually the guys have the poker game at Logan's, but since he's out of town, Dick volunteered to have it at our place. I'll be sure to have Weevil bring Carmen and Elijah along too. Usually us ladies don't get together for poker night, but we can have our own fun to welcome you back to town. I'll see if Cora wants to come with Wallace too."

"That would be great." Anything to keep my mind off Logan and Alexis in LA, she thought to herself.

"John Enbom and Luke Halderman might be coming too, but I don't really know their girlfriends, so we'll just stick to the four of us. Sometimes Leo joins them as well if he's not working, but I don't know if he's going to make it this week. He stays so busy with work." As they finished the call, they decided Veronica would come early so she could have dinner with them before the others came for the poker game.

Mac and Dick's house was smaller than the mansions that Dick and Logan had lived in when they were younger, but it was still much larger than a normal house and extravagantly furnished. It was located on the beach, which may have been why it was smaller than the other estates they had grown up in. It had the basics she would have expected for an adult 09er home, including a theatre style media room, work out room, state of the art kitchen and an elegantly decorated living room. Mac of course had her own office which was filled with state of the art computer equipment. There was one room that Mac just described as Dick's Man Cave. It had a poker table, pool table and ping pong table, as well as couches set up in front of two giant TVs with game consoles hooked up to both of them. They also had a swimming pool and hot tub out back that faced the ocean, with a small pool house located near them. Veronica also noticed a small sunroom near the pool that had an extensive collection of surf boards and other ocean toys.

Of course Veronica couldn't help but laugh at Mac again and teased her relentlessly about living the life of an 09'er now. Mac took her teasing in fun, since she sort of brought it upon herself with the earlier comment on the phone.

"It definitely took some getting used to when I first moved in with Dick. Hey at least we don't have any full time maids or butlers… yet. Although we do have a wonderful lady that comes in at least once a week to clean and sometimes she'll help me with preparing meals, especially if we're having a large party."

Dick had been busy in the kitchen when Veronica arrived, preparing some chicken and veggie patties to grill up for them to eat. After the tour, Mac and Veronica returned to the kitchen to help put together the rest of the meal. Veronica still felt like she was in some sort of bizzaro world with the two of them being a couple. Though she had to admit they were very comfortable with each other and it was almost cute to watch them give each other little kisses and looks. She was just having a hard time with the reality that one of the parties in this relationship was Dick Casablancas.

While Dick was out grilling the chicken, veggie patties, some vegetables and bread on the BBQ, Veronica offhandedly commented to Mac about Logan's last minute trip to LA.

Mac sympathized with her and said she wasn't surprised. "Alexis always seems to wrangle Logan into last minute events like that. From what I've learned doing consulting work down at City Hall, they are all a pretty close group and it seems like the men have some sort of unspoken agreement that they make sure the ladies have a male escort when they attend out of town benefits and meetings."

She paused and thought about it for a bit, "I guess in some ways that could be considered a little chivalrous, but I still think Alexis takes advantage of it to keep some level of control over Logan's life. It's definitely not the first time that the guy who was supposed to be going instead had a last minute reason to cancel."

Veronica sighed and went back to chopping the cucumbers that she was working on for their salad. From all that Mac had told her so far about Alexis, she was disliking her more and more. She was also even more curious about what had happened to end their engagement. While she thought that would probably be a good topic to try to work into conversation during the 12 hours she'd be with him on Saturday, she wasn't sure the best way to approach it either. It seemed he'd been pretty tight lipped about it if Dick didn't even know. She also still couldn't help but wonder how strong Logan's feelings toward Alexis were and if he was hoping they might still reconcile at some point.

Weevil and Carmen, were the first of the poker group to arrive. Carmen apologized that they hadn't brought their son Elijah along, but she was looking forward to a night hanging out with the ladies and not chasing around after a toddler. As soon as Veronica had finished giving Weevil a hug, Carmen dragged her to a couch to sit down and showed her adorable pictures of Weevil and Elijah. Veronica gave Weevil a teasing look and he just rolled his eyes and asked Dick for a beer.

When Carmen finished with the pictures, Veronica snuck back into the kitchen where Weevil and Dick were talking. Carmen was getting a bit too deep into baby-related conversation for her liking, so she was glad Mac had been there too and seemed to be more engaged in the topic. Although that brought up an entirely different set of worries for Veronica, Mac and babies. As she was joining the guys in the kitchen, Dick said he needed to take some refreshments to the Man Cave, leaving Veronica and Weevil alone.

"How's it feel to be back V?" Weevil asked with a teasing grin on his face.

"Honestly, sometimes it feels like I stepped into some strange twilight zone version of Neptune. I mean, Mac and Dick engaged? That was a shocker. I can't say I'm terribly shocked you and Carmen are together though, a little surprised about all the baby making, but that's not really all that far fetched either. Now a Dick Casablancas spawn, that's going to give me nightmares the day they spring that on me. Mac was a little to eager to talk about babies with Carmen." She visibly shivered and shook her head.

"And the Mayor?"

"Yeah, that was a huge surprise."

"He's really grown up a lot V. I almost hate to admit this, especially to you, but I'm actually really grateful to him for helping me to get my job at the city. The pay and benefits are so much better than what I had been making at Hearst as a lowly janitorial worker. It's crazy to think that we are actually sort of friends now isn't it?"

"Yep, just one more Neptune bizzaro world reality I've uncovered."

"He mentioned you've seen Casey Gant a couple times."

Veronica smiled and shook her head, "You two really are like a couple of Gossip Girls aren't you, come on, which one of you is Blair and which one's Serena?"

Weevil laughed and shook his head at her. "Come on, I just got to look out for my boy you know."

"Yeah, I'm going to add that to my list of things I never expected to hear when I came back to Neptune. 'Weevil Navarro looking out for the best interests of Logan Echolls.' It's official, the end of days are upon us."

Weevil laughed again before going to see if Dick needed any help getting ready for the game.

John and Luke showed up a short while later and were quite surprised to see Veronica, but both gave her warm welcomes before heading to Dick's Man Cave. Wallace and Cora showed up shortly after the other two. When the men all disappeared into the Man Cave, Mac suggested they pick out a chick flick to watch in the media room.

Veronica tried to not let her mind wander to Logan and Alexis, but the movie that they picked, 'Friends with Benefits', didn't help her at all. Part way through it she whispered to Mac that she was going to go see how the poker game was going, and decided to just hang out and watch the guys play instead.

As she exited the media room, her eyes glanced out toward the pool, and she decided a bit of fresh air might help clear her mind, so she headed out the door. At first she thought she'd just sit by the pool, but with the ocean so close and the sound of the waves, she was drawn to wander out to the beach. There was a full moon out, and with some lights from their property illuminating the beach in front of the house, she felt safe enough out there alone.

She found a piece of dry drift wood that made the perfect spot to just sit and think. It was soothing hearing the waves lightly crash against the shoreline, and there was a pleasant breeze blowing the scent of the saltwater closer to her. After enjoying the peace and tranquility for a few minutes, her mind wandered back to Logan. While she couldn't deny that it bothered her that he was in LA with Alexis, the rational part of her brain tried to remind her that it was his job to attend things like this. His grown up Mayor job. She was really proud of him for what he had accomplished, and Alexis was a part of that, regardless of whether she was his ex or not.

Of course it still troubled her how comfortable the two of them were together. She had to face the reality though that Logan and Alexis had physically been a part of each other's lives for basically as long as Veronica had been before she left. And not all of her years with Logan been good times either, especially right after Lilly died. It shouldn't be surprising to her that if the two of them were friends for the last 7 years that they would be close, especially since they dated and had been engaged during a part of the time.

She took out her phone and flipped through her contact list, stopping when she got to Logan's name. She wished he hadn't been dragged away to LA so she could have seen him tonight. She pressed on the text icon and her fingers hovered above the screen. She wanted to at least let him know that she was thinking about him even if she couldn't talk with him. She finally typed, "Hope you're having a fun evening. I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night at Growlers." She sat staring at it for a few more seconds before she took a deep breath, hit send, and walked back to the house.

As she reentered the house, she continued to her original destination of Dick's Man Cave to see how the game was going. As she opened the door, the conversation stopped as 5 pair of eyes all turned and looked at her to see who had disturbed their male bonding time. She gave them a little wave, and they all turned back to looking at their cards, and the conversation slowly started up again.

"How's it going lil' bro?" she asked as she pulled a chair up near Wallace. He gave her an annoyed look and she wasn't sure if it was from the lil' bro dig, or if it was the fact that his pile of chips was noticeably smaller than everyone else's at the table.

"Want us to deal you in for a few hands, V?" Weevil asked as they were shuffling up for another hand.

"Thanks, but I wouldn't want to have to teach all you boys a lesson," she teased back. Weevil smiled knowingly. He still remembered that night at Logan's pool house, before everything went to hell with Aaron being stabbed, and how Veronica was cleaning their clocks at the table.

Watching the guys play and listening to their banter was a bit therapeutic and she appreciated the distraction from having to think about more serious topics. Although after a while she also couldn't help but get a little nostalgic about that same poker game at Logan's pool house, which made her start to imagine what this get together would have been like if he'd been there too. She was doing so well getting him off her mind when she first came in the room, but sadly it was only temporary. She glanced down at her phone to see if he'd replied to her text. No reply yet though. She really needed a new distraction to keep her mind off him and Alexis in LA, since listening to the guys play poker wasn't working anymore.

As expected, considering his position when she first joined them, Wallace was the first one to lose all his chips, so the two of them decided to play pool while the other guys kept playing cards. She was certainly thankful for something new to concentrate on. Dillon had actually been quite fond of playing pool and they would frequently go out with some of the other officers and play. He'd taught Veronica quite a bit of strategy and she'd actually gotten pretty good. She had fun taunting Wallace and then beating him. Of course the other guys had fun poking fun at Wallace for losing to Veronica, but none of them were brave enough to challenge her themselves.

She of course checked her phone several times through out the rest of the evening and when she arrived back at Keith and Alicia's. No replies from Logan. She locked up the house and climbed into the guest room bed. She laid there in the dark trying to turn off her mind so she could get some sleep. After 30 minutes or so, she heard her phone chime and quickly grabbed it from the bedside table to check it.

She smiled as she read the text from him. "Had my phone off at the dinner, and just saw your text when I got back to my room. It was fine, but these are never really all that exciting to me. I'm really looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night too. Sweet dreams."

She felt her body finally relax after reading his message and soon she was able to drift off to sleep.