A/N: Thanks to those who review - I appreciate it :)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 11 - I Know What You Did...
"Hey, Mac," Veronica greeted her with a big smile the moment she opened the door.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" her friend asked, putting on a frown. "I mean, you look vaguely familiar but I don't think I've actually seen you in quite a while." she said, eyes sparkling with fun.
Veronica faked an over the top laugh as Mac let her into the dorm.
"It's only been a few days," she said definitely.
"Long enough that I haven't heard a thing about a certain significant date that occurred, say, last Tuesday?" said Mac, one eyebrow raised as they both sat down, Mac back on her desk chair and Veronica on the edge of the bed. "I'm guessing that might have something to do with the smile on your face too."
"It might," Veronica agreed, feeling particularly girlish in making her admission. "Come on, Mac, you know this feeling. It wasn't so long ago that you and Bronson were in the same place."
"It is kind of a rush," she admitted, smiling right back at her friend. "It still is, mostly, but the first time, the first few times," she amended with a look.
"Yeah, the first more than a few times," said Veronica, giving her a similarly significant look back.
They really were not the kind of girls to get too personal with their conversation. Some things were between couples and didn't need to go any further, but it was no secret that both Veronica and Mac were enjoying the fact that they each had a boyfriend right now and were finding themselves completely satisfied in all departments.
"I am sorry I haven't been around," said Veronica eventually. "And it's not all Eli's fault either, although he is a big distraction that I do not mind at all," she admitted, grinning yet. "I have also been doing a little extra studying of the non-Hearst, variety. I booked my PI licence exam for this week."
"Wow. That is a big deal." Mac nodded. "I'd wish you luck but we already both know that you'll ace it, Bond."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Q." Veronica smiled. "I hope you're right. You have no idea how much I want to beat my dad's score!"
Mac laughed at the expression on her friend's face when she said it - it would've been tough not to.
"Speaking of your dad, how's he dealing with the whole you dating Weevil thing?"
"He's... dealing," she said vaguely. "I don't know, it's not like he was thrilled when I was with Logan either. I'm not sure a father is ever happy to know his daughter is having sex, that's for sure, but he trusts my judgement, he knows I wouldn't be with Eli if I wasn't sure of him."
"And you are sure of him." Mac nodded.
"Oh, yeah," Veronica said easily. "It's crazy, Mac, because I never saw this coming but it just... works. The two of us, we just fit. Yeah, I didn't mean that the way you're taking it," she added, seeing the look on Mac's face. "My goodness, you dorm-living girls, you think of nothing but sex!" she said dramatically, rolling her eyes.
"I'm not the one that has been AWOL for almost a week because the new boyfriend has too much stamina for his own good."
"He does that," said Veronica, deliberately leaving Mac wondering if she was kidding or not. "Anyway, I came here to catch up with you, and actually a little bit with Parker, but she seems to be elsewhere?"
"Probably with Logan" said Mac, shrugging her shoulders. "That seems to be going okay too."
"Good." Veronica nodded once, then saw the look on her friend's face. "Mac, I'm serious. I want Logan to be happy, I always have. We were friends from the age of twelve. I never hated him, not even when things got bad. I'm glad he's happy, and I'd like to think he's happy for me too."
"From what you've said, and from what I've seen, I'm not sure Logan and Weevil are ever going to see eye-to-eye on you, or anything else for that matter."
"Well, that's their problem." Veronica shrugged. "I'm too busy being happy right now to care."
Maybe Veronica ought to have known her happiness couldn't last too long. After all, she lived in Neptune and life hadn't been exactly rosy for quite a while. Every time she turned a corner she half-expected disaster these days, especially when things were actually going well. Of course, she passed her exam to become a PI, acing the test (though not quite beating her father's score), then a letter arrived in the mail, offering her an internship at the FBI in New York.
It was supposed to go that either your career or your love life was going well, never both, and yet Veronica had a boyfriend that she could rely upon too, and things were just going so well for her and Weevil. She was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the bad stuff to start happening, and it started with Leo.
Not that it was his fault exactly. He had turned up at the sheriff's station with a tip-off for Keith and an investigation into the suspected robbery followed, with the robbers being foiled by Vinnie Van Lowe, who then decided to run for sheriff in the upcoming election. That was the first problem. The second was that the Fitzpatricks seemed to be tied to Vinnie, even set on helping him win the Sheriff's spot, presumably because they knew they could get away with anything under his less-than-watchful eye. Those were the business problems, then there were the personal ones.
Veronica felt like she was spending less and less time with Wallace lately and so had really started making an effort to hang out. It seemed maybe she wasn't all of the problem. He seemed to be actively avoiding her, and that hurt, a lot.
"You know, if you tell me who put that look on your face, I will go and wipe the floor with theirs. Screw the consequences, it'd be worth the jail time," said Weevil as she met him by the cafeteria. "Don't they know better by now than to piss off my girl?"
"You would think," said Veronica, finding him a small smile. "It's nothing you can fix with violence, but thanks, anyway," she told him, leaning in to kiss him 'hello.' "Wallace is still avoiding me."
"And that's my fault," said Weevil regretfully.
"No, it's really not," Veronica assured him, her hand sliding into his own as they walked into the cafeteria for lunch. "Honestly, he's never been a huge fan of anyone that I've dated, and it's not like he doesn't have reasons to be mad at you."
"A reason," Weevil reminded her. "And that was a long time ago, V. He got his apology, more than once actually. That makes him damn lucky."
"I know." Veronica nodded. "He'll come around, it's just weird not seeing him so much. I kind of wanted to tell him about my internship... and my PI licence," she said, grinning then as she rifled in her bag. "Check it out," she said, flashing her very official badge.
"Wow. I'm actually dating a woman who carries a badge," said Weevil, considering that fact for a moment. "Never thought I'd live to see the day."
"Imagine how crazy it'll feel when you're dating a woman who interns for the FBI," said Veronica, bumping his shoulder with her own. "That'll be pretty special, right?"
"Sure," he replied shortly, not smiling anymore.
Veronica couldn't quite figure out what was bothering him where her internship was concerned. It was a very big deal to her, she knew Eli understood that, and he even looked happy for her when she first told him about it, but after, he got quiet, distant, a little weird about the whole thing, and for the life of her, she could not figure out why.
When they had their food and had picked out a table, she slid into the seat closest to him and went straight in with the question that was on her mind.
"Do you not like the idea of me being with the FBI? I mean, does it really bother you?"
"Why would it bother me, V?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders and keeping his eyes on his food rather than her.
"Well, you just said you never thought you'd see the day when you dated a woman who carries a badge. A PI is one thing, there's a badass vibe, I know, but if I did end up at the FBI one day - I'm not saying I will, but if I did - would that not work for you? Would it be a deal-breaker?"
She didn't mean to sound quite so worried about it. After all, if a man couldn't accept a woman's career then he probably didn't deserve her. That's what any strong-willed woman with a mind of her own ought to think. That didn't mean that Veronica wouldn't seriously consider bending a little if she had to. When Weevil picked up her hand in his, raising it to his lips to kiss, she felt weirdly relieved.
"The fact that you are even considering that this," he said, gestunring vaguely between them, "still being what it is by the time you would get into the FBI makes me happier than you'll ever know," he told her softly, squeezing her hand before releasing it so they could both eat. "Would it be weird for me to date a Fed? You bet your ass it would, but you know how I feel about you, Veronica," he told her definitely, meeting her eyes with an intense gaze she knew and loved so much. "You know."
"I know," she intoned, nodding her head.
"Then we'd figure it out," he promised her. "I mean, come on, I'm learning to walk on the right side of the tracks, at least as much as you do anyway," he reminded her with a look. "I'd deal with it."
"That's good to know," Veronica told him, trying not to let her sigh of relief be too obvious as she dug into her food.
"Of course, this whole internship has kinda blown some plans I was making," Weevil went on to tell her. "I was thinking with all that free time over the summer, you and me could have some good times, but now you're going away to New York. Why'd I have to get mixed up with a career woman, huh?" he half-joked.
Veronica grinned, she couldn't help it.
"Would you really want me any other way?" she asked, leaning closer across the table.
"You really want me to answer that?" he checked with that gleam in his eye again.
It was enough to make any woman's knees goes weak, career-minded or otherwise, and Veronica didn't mind that one little bit.
"Mmm, maybe later," she said, sparing him a kiss before she sat up straight in her chair, mindful of the people all around, several of which were staring. "Speaking of career," she went on, between bites of pasta, "and your previous one on the other side of the tracks, I wanted to pick your brains about something. It has to do with Vinnie Van Lowe and the Fitzpatricks..."
"Veronica, where did you get these?" asked Keith, looking over the photographs she just handed him.
"A tip-off from a friend of a friend of a boyfriend of mine," she said with a smirk she couldn't help. "Weevil may play by the rules these days but he still knows people who know people. When I mentioned on our lunch date the other day that Vinnie and the Fitzpatricks might be in bed together, a contact of his pointed us in the right direction to get the evidence you need to knock him right out of the Sheriff's race."
It pleased Veronica more than even her father could ever entirely comprehend that she could help him out like that. It didn't hurt that Eli had been part of the process too. Anything that put the two of them as a couple in her father's good books was all positive as far as Veronica could tell.
"So, nothing illegal was done to obtain these?" asked Keith with a dubious look that she couldn't quite blame him for.
"Hello, licenced PI now," she reminded him, waving her hand in the air. "I was investigating, officially, a situation that required attention for an unnamed client, using a reliable but anonymous source," she recapped with a wide smile. "Did I do good?"
"You did very good." Keith smirked, unable to help it. "Thank you, honey, and you can thank Eli for me too, next time you see him. I'm not saying I couldn't have beaten Vinnie in this race without the help-"
"But it certainly does make life a little easier to knock him out sideways, doesn't it?" said Veronica smartly. "Satisfying too, to think that my only competition in town, as a fully-fledged PI in my own right, will also be completely eliminated when all the honest folks in town find out that Vinnie is no more than the Fitzpatricks' incompetent lacky."
"Don't sell yourself short, sweetheart." Keith shook his head. "With what we have here, we might even be able to put a few of those Irish mobsters away too."
"Then my work here is more than done," Veronica declared, hopping down from her stool. "I think I'm going to go over to Weevil's place, I'll pass on your thanks for the help."
"Just maybe don't be too enthusiastic about it," said Keith, turning away.
Veronica looked back at him from halfway to her room but chose not to react. He was kidding, just using humour to cover the embarrassment of presuming he knew what form Veronica's thanking her boyfriend might take. Well, she couldn't exactly say he was wrong, or that it wasn't embarrassing to know that he knew.
Having a close daddy-daughter bond was all well and good, Veronica wouldn't trade her relationship with her father for anything, but there were some things they just couldn't ever discuss, and that was probably for the best.
"You seriously expect me to believe the Sheriff sent you over here with that in mind?" asked Weevil as he and Veronica lay in his bed together, passion spent.
"That is not what I said," she reminded him, head pillowed comfortably on his chest. "I just told you that he was grateful for the evidence we got for him and then I told him I was coming over to thank you. I'm not saying he didn't figure out how I was going to thank you, but that's really not the kind of thing a woman tells her father."
"Gracias a Dios for that," said Weevil, kissing her hair. "I've faced a lot of scary guys in my time, some with guns, and I never flinched, but your father? Damn, Mars, I love you, but there's a line, girl."
She giggled at that, she couldn't help it, then moved up next to him, propping herself up on her elbow.
"You know this isn't just about thanking you, right?" she checked. "I did actually want to be here."
"I figured," he agreed, smiling as he moved her hair back over her shoulder. "You know I'm still trying to figure out how this happened. I'm not sorry that it has but you and me? Always kind of seemed like a pipe dream."
"I know," she said, nodding her head. "You think our lives would've run any smoother if this had happened any sooner?" she asked, considering it carefully.
"Smooth living in Neptune, for people like us? I doubt it, V," he told her, fingers playing absently with her hair and making patterns across her bare shoulder. "'Course it might've been fun to see the looks on some faces if this had started back at Neptune High."
"Ha! According to what Mac was telling me before, a bunch of people thought that it did start there," she explained, lying back down beside him and curling happily into his embrace. "I don't know that it would've worked then. I don't think we were ready for each other."
"Believe me, sweetheart, I was more than ready for you," he told her in a low voice that made her shiver in the best way.
"Hmm, not what I meant," she told him, sure he already knew in any case. "I just think we had too much stuff to work through back then. It's better now. It's the right time," she said, shifting to meet his eyes. "It feels like the right time."
"Yeah, I guess so," he agreed, as their lips met in a slow, lingering kiss. "Speaking of time, you and your distracting ways did me a solid at lunch the other day."
"So, you didn't get in trouble for being late back to work?" asked Veronica, recalling how he said he might when their lunch date over ran more than a bit before they noticed.
"The boss never noticed." Weevil shook his head. "But somebody else did. There's this guy Marty in the department, good guy, but none too bright. Seems he thought he didn't need to wait on me and tried to move a washing machine across campus by himself. I don't know exactly what he did, but he wasn't walking so good this morning."
"Ooh, poor Marty," said Veronica, wincing at the thought, "but hey, could've been worse. It might've been you with the damage."
"You got plans to make use of my uninjured self, V?" he asked, unable to keep from noticing the way she was moving against him right now.
"I might," she said, smiling into a kiss that she planted on his lips as she made her intentions more than clear.
To Be Continued...
