Lamb Apartment - Night

Chris and Claire make out heavily on the couch. It's been two weeks since he and Claire have been officially dating. Though, no one, but Penny knows anything about it. It was a mutual decision...more Chris than anyone of course. It would cause to many problems.

"Chris?" Claire said softly between kisses.

"Yeah?" Chris said as he caressed her back, pulling her closer to him.

"Is your dad going to be home anytime soon?" Claire asked as she stopped kissing for a moment and looked into his eyes giving him a look.

Chris shook his head. "I think he's working late." He said with a smile. "He's finally given me time alone in the place.
He's kind of gone overboard with the father/son bonding thing." Chris said with a shrug.

"Wanna move this to the bedroom?" Claire said with a smirk.

"Yeah." Chris said as they stood up. Taking her by the hand, he lead her towards the hallway, and that's when the door could be heard opening. "Damn." Chris said looking to Claire. Both of them bolt towards the couch and grab a magazine as if they were reading it just before Lamb makes an enterance.

"Hey, Lamb." Chris said with an awkward wave.

Lamb looked puzzled. "Hi. Ms. Casablancas...nice to see you."

"Hi, Sheriff." Claire smiled. "We were just studying."

"Right." Lamb said rolling his eyes. "I'm going to go to bed. It's been a long day."

"And Claire and I are going to do the same." Chris said nervously. "Ummm...separately. I mean, she's leaving, and I'm going to go to bed."

"Good. Night kids." Lamb said as he went into his bedroom and shut the door.

"That went well." Chris said leaning his head on her shoulder. "Well, see you at school tomorrow?"

"Bathroom?" Claire stated with a sigh.

"Or at the front steps." Chris said with a smile. "No reason to hide, right? I mean, people are going to find out anyways, might as well just deal with it."

Claire smiled brightly. "Okay then. See you at school." She said as she got off the couch and made her way out of the apartment.

Neptune High - Morning

Life the past 2 weeks has been hectic. I've been trying to keep up with the case load coming in at Mars Investigations,
starting a new romance with my worst enemy's ex, and trying to solve the murder of my mother. Mac still hasn't found a connection with the dates. I'm beginning to think I've hit a roadblock. One that I'm not going to get passed.
The only evidence I have is unsolvable, and the only person who knows what that information means, is lying in a coma.

Chris made his way up to the steps of school. There she was. Claire Casablancas waiting for him. It was surprising.
Chris smiled and made his way over to her and planted a kiss right on the lips. Like clockwork, the crowds began whispering and gasping. It was expected. "Ready to do this?" Chris asked as he held out his hands.

"Lets make people jealous." Claire said as she laced her fingers with him and they made their way towards their classrooms, taking notice of all the glances.

This day is going to be interesting.

Neptune High - Day

Lunch took forever to get here, and now I have to say that I'm dreading it. Penny and Claire in the same place for 30 minutes? Not going to go very well, I imagine.

Chris made his way over to Penny, and waved. "What's up?"

"Hey." Penny said as she took a bite of the pudding she was eating. "Heard the big news. You and Claire are officially the it couple of Neptune High." Penny said a mild look of disgust on her face.

"Yeah. It's been a day of feeling like everyone is talking about me behind my back right in front of me." Chris said with a small chuckle. "So, we still on for tonight?"

"Steakout? I'm down." Penny said with a smile which quickly faded when Claire made her way over to the table.

"Hey Chris." Claire said kissing Chris on the lips. Her gaze went to Penny, and frowned. "Pigtails." She said sitting next to Chris.

"Uberslut." Penny said with a fake smile as she took another bite of pudding.

There was silence. The three of them sat at the table eating their lunch in complete silence. "Well, this is fun." Chris said looking around for an exit strategy if they were to maybe start to kill each other.

"Hey, Mars." Coop Navaro said as she came up and took a seat at the table. Dressed in her leather jacket, she had an heir of confidence to her.

Thank you, Coop.

"Hey, Coop. What can I do for you?" Chris asked hoping it might need his immediate attention.

"Got a problem. Time to cash in on that favor you owe me." Coop said with a look. "Can we talk?"

"Sure!" Chris said standing up quickly. "Lets go to my office...which is...somewhere else." He said as he kissed Claire on the cheek and waved to Penny.

"Play nice." Coop said to both Claire and Penny as she got up and followed Chris away from the lunch area.

Okay, this is the first part of the last chapter before we find out who killed Veronica. I have many twists playing in my head, and deciding if I should go certain ways is very hard, and I hope you like the direction I take this story.
As always, please review and respond. How's everyone feeling about the direction of the story? Any suggestions or stories that you as the audience would like to see? Little spoiler: Mac makes an appearance next chapter. AND we've met Veronica's murderer already in this fic.