**Hello my darlings! I have no excuses for my lack of updates! I hope this satisfies those of you still out there! More will come shortly, I am fine tuning the next installment right now!**

Chapter 10

Beth remained firmly planted where she stood, her feet encased within imaginary concrete blocks, weighing far more than she could lift. Mick laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, "It's ok. She's here to help," he whispered. Beth remained silent, her eyes casting a deadly warning toward her one time friend.

"We should catch up sometime, Beth," Coraline's voice echoed around in Beth's mind as she tried to dissect the meaning behind the seemingly innocuous words, "Of course, with my big brother about to descend and kill us all now is really not the time." Her lips curved, a rueful smile overtaking her otherwise pretty features.

"Right so where is he now?" Josef was the first to break the silence that shrouded the room.

"Somewhere over the Atlantic," Coraline's gaze was in a stalemate with Beth's but her words were directed at Josef.

"Does he know where we are?" Dick didn't fully understand the weight of what was happening but his nervousness fed off of the urgency in the people around him.

"Probably not, but I wouldn't count on it. He always seems to find what he's looking for," Coraline's voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard to Beth and she outwardly cringed.

"What's our next move? Josef, you know he is never going to lose interest in this," Lamb pointed to Veronica's stomach. Her arms immediately coiled around her midsection shielding her baby.

"I know," Josef reached an arm around Veronica's waist allowing his hand to hover over her arms strengthening the protective cocoon she had formed there, "but I can't let him near them."

"So we fight? We make a stand," Casey's voice snapped Veronica out of her silent trance and her mind swirled with the very real threat that she would loose Logan again. She was powerless, not a sensation Veronica Mars was used to. Not one she liked in the slightest.

"No…." but the rest of her words died on her lips as her body fell from beneath her. Lamb and Josef both dove for her as her eyes closed and she collapsed. The stress of this new epic battle combined with the demands of her pregnancy overtook her for the third time in a week and she slumped into Josef's terrified embrace.

Days passed, that turned into weeks, slowly cascading into months and Veronica did not wake. Her stomach swelled and began to ripple as the baby turned summersaults in her tiny body. Still she did not wake. They moved between safe houses, flying out at a moments notice, seeming to be constantly one step ahead of Lance. Coraline had drawn a line and danced dangerously across it between the loyalty her brother assumed she held for him and the allegiance she chose to pledge to Josef and Veronica. She had lived centuries: sat at dinner tables with William Shakespeare, held tryst with Victor Hugo, and at one time had counted Emily Brontë and Jane Austin as two of her closest friends. Never had she seen a love like the one this gaggle of characters were risking their beings to protect. It was an all-encompassing love that enveloped everyone around it in a desire, a desperate need to guard it and ensure its survival. Logan and Veronica were like two characters in an epic romance novel- meeting on page one and then not again until page 147, all the while seeking each other's comfort, constantly missing each other by moments, at no fault of their own. Their love was the tortured result of missed opportunities that kept the reader eagerly turning pages in the hopes that they find one another once more resulting in the often sought after but rarely found happily ever after. Despite the tragedy of Veronica's current state the emotions surrounding her bedroom were palpable and seemed to demand the utmost respect.

Beth's glares no longer affecting her, Coraline had issued a silent truce and no longer overtly antagonizing her, keeping distance from Mick unless his familiarity was absolutely necessary. Beth in her own right had tried to keep the snide comments to a minimum as they breezed across continents, preferring to concentrate on the grander plan of their marathon fight for survival.

They were somewhere off the coast of Australia when Veronica's silence ceased. Her body never moved but she cried out in her comatose state; begging for Logan to help her, calling out for his comfort. She was never alone, though none knew if she was aware of their presence or not. A constant stream of visitors sat at her bedside: Beth, Mick, Lamb, Casey, Mac and Dick. Logan – always Logan, and yes he was Logan now- no more the businessman whose eternal life had made him a force with which to reckon. He was suddenly a scared little boy with human emotions. He sat with her day and night, barely sleeping, never leaving her side. His unyielding desire for her to wake silently screamed from his subconscious every time her lips allowed his name to escape her otherwise still form. He was telling her their story for probably the millionth time when Mac came into the room. She was waiting for the inevitable pause that came after he finished the lament of their multiple break-up scenes, his regret for every moment they were apart silencing him, before she spoke.

"So Dick has an idea," Mac pulled a chair up beside Logan and placed her hand on his, "Coraline thinks it might work, it might help."

"Might? Might, isn't good enough."

"Josef..."

"Logan. I'm Logan. She doesn't call for Josef in her sleep. She wants Logan and that's who I will be," his eyes pleaded into Mac's and she relented.

"Logan. We have been hiding for months and so far we have been lucky. Lance hasn't found us but how long can we really hide here? How long can we convince Keith and Wallace that we are running from Gorya? At some point Weevil is going to tell Sheriff Mars that Gorya has 'disappeared.' At some point," She gulped, "…at some point Veronica is going to go into labor. We don't know if she will ever wake and then where will we be? It's hard enough toting her around with us but a baby too? Dick thinks that we should go after Lance. Coraline thinks she knows where he is. She went to check it out."

"Did you draw the short straw?"

"What?"

"Someone had to confront me about this eventually. Everyone has been dancing around my feelings for months. I hear the whispers 'Don't upset him.'- you are all afraid that if you do I will go after his royal ass by myself," Mac tried to respond but Logan continued, "and don't for a second think that I have not thought about it. I could kill him. I could hunt him down and kill him like the rabid animal he is and…There is no reason for any of the rest of them to die for me."

"Logan we are all in this together," A voice lurking in the doorway interrupted his irrational rant, "Stop acting like you are the only one who loves her. She's my family too. She is my responsibility too. I promised her I would protect her. I promised her I would take care of her. You were gone. You died and left us all alone."

"I was gone a week, to protect you Dick."

"A week. A year. Forever. Same difference when you think someone you love is dead. Don't put me through that again. I already lost one brother. Don't make me lose another and Veronica is the closest thing to a sister I have. If you changed me I could fight too," Dick slammed his fist against the doorframe with a loud thrapp and stormed off down the hallway, leaving Logan speechless, his jaw dropping to the floor.

Change him? That's his brilliant idea? "Changing Dick is not an idea! It is a death sentence," Logan finally spoke.

"He was a wreck when you were gone, you know?" Mac reached her hand out to weave her fingers between Veronica's, "We thought we were going to lose him. I thought he would drink himself into oblivion but he didn't. He stepped up- he stepped up for you."

"When did dick turn into a knight in shinning armor? Has he always been braver than the rest of us? We just didn't notice?"

Mac shrugged, smiling slightly, "Maybe we never gave him enough credit. He wants to help keep them safe. He just doesn't think he is strong enough… he… he was serious about asking you to change him," Logan's gaze left Veronica and his eyes buried themselves in Mac's warm chocolate orbs, "Before you start arguing with me about it- he knows it's a bad idea. But he wants to help."

The sunlight that had previously been slipping through the small window seemed to disappear on queue as the silence cast an eerie shadow over the room.

"Are there any other ideas?"

"Just one."

"Tell me."

"How is the sunlight affecting you?" confusion emerged from Logan's eyes as Mac spoke.

"I'm still ok for short periods, I think. I was fine surfing the other day and we were out in the water for hours after sunrise. I had a headache but that was about it."

"Well that's half the battle then," Mac smiled, "We need to pack."

"What's going on?"

"Casey has a private island off the coast of Alaska, near his house. There aren't any trees and only one small house. You, Me, Dick, Duncan, and Veronica are going to go there. Clarence is bringing Duncan here now. He is nearby and he knows what's happening. He says he is all in. Mick and Beth are taking Lilly to Beth's mother's house with their foster kids. Beth is going to stay with the kids there. Mick will meet us at Casey's."

"I will get the Duncan situation in a minute but Mac! Have you people really thought this through? A human take down of the most powerful vampire known? You cannot be serious! Mac! It's a suicide mission! They will all die. You will die."

"No we could die. We've weighed the risks," She squeezed his hand solemnly and stood, "We all love you. We all love Veronica. This baby is going to be born in 8 weeks, maybe less, if we don't act now you will be running for the rest of your existence. Get your things together Logan; we are leaving as soon as Clarence gets here with Duncan."

"Mac, you cannot do this!" Logan's voice was pained.

"Yes. We. Can." She enunciated every syllable, "While you have spent the last five months in here with V, Dick and I have talked this through with Mick and Lamb. We've learned to fight from Clarence. We are prepared. Lance will be weakened by the sun and we HAVE YOU, Logan, our secret weapon! The sun doesn't affect you the way it does Mick and Casey but you are just as strong as they are! You can do this. You said a minute ago you could hunt him down and kill him yourself," Logan nodded- her words slowly forming coherent thoughts in his head, "Do it! Kill him. The rest of us will be there to slow him down. We can distract him."

"You can't distract him! How can you distract him?" Logan was frantic now.

"I don't know exactly. Shoot guns at him, fire arrows, and flamethrowers? If I have to I will go all Third Wife on his ass and use my own blood. He hid the last time humans came looking for him, right? The French Revolution?" she wrapped her fingers tightly around Logan's shoulders, "We can do this Logan. Let us help you. I've been Q since high school. It's my turn to be Bond- just this once."

"The blood thing only works in the movies, Mac, and guns and arrows will only slow him down for a minute."

"A moment is all we need. Think about it. It's the middle of June! If Coraline convinces him that Veronica has already had the baby and you have them hidden on an island that gets battered by the sun 24 hours a day is he really going to think you are there? No! He doesn't have any idea that the sun no longer hurts you. He will think she is with other humans. Coraline says he thinks he is invincible! He will come for the baby, and because of the suns effects on his vamp minions, he will come alone."

If blood had still run through Logan's veins it would have all drained in that instant. He will come for the baby. Suddenly the world snapped into place and Logan knew what he had to do. He knew this really was their only chance, "Ok Mac. I'm in. But tell Dick to find a Coast Guard ship. Mick and Lamb and Casey and Felix, and anyone else we can contact need to be near by and prepared to attack from a distance. Tell him to get a boat with a large cabin and the biggest guns he can find. Maybe they can blow his boat or plane or whatever to smithereens before Lance even makes it to land. Make sure it is a Coast Guard boat, Navy maybe? I don't know. Something that should be there otherwise he will be suspicious. Not a research boat- they wouldn't have guns. Get Clarence in on this- he will know how to get his hands on what we need."

"That's the Logan we were missing! We knew if we gave you the crap idea first that you would cave."

"I would NEVER syre Dick, or any of the rest of you, Mac."

"I just wish…" Mac paused as a single glistening tear escaped her eye, "I just wish Veronica were awake."

A nervous laugh breezed over Logan's lips, "Veronica does enjoy a good chase scene, as long as the bad guy gets it in the end."

"He will Logan," Dick stepped back into the room, "Come on Macaroni, let's get your stuff. Duncan and Clarence are here and we're almost ready to go."

"One more thing, Mac," Mac stopped in her tracks, "You aren't getting away that easy. Duncan Kane? Really? What? Piz wasn't available?"

She smiled and shook her head, "Actually…"

"MAC?"

"Just kidding."