Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Author's Note: I've gotten several comments on my knowledge of geography and people wondering where I was writing from, to know these places so well. To answer your questions: my knowledge of geography comes from the joys of Mapquest. And I am from California, originally the Los Angeles area, and now Santa Cruz. And yes, Santa Cruz is the city I had in mind when I was writing the first chapter, where Witness Protection first moved Veronica. Every city I've used, I've either been to (particularly every city I've mentioned in California), or I've seen in a movie or TV show. For example, Seattle was where Dark Angel took place. And all my meager knowledge of Helena comes from the two or three hundred times I've watched Legends Of The Fall...which I just watched again today. Moving on, I'm glad everyone is enjoying this so much.
Author's Note 2: Last chapter, I issued a challenge to name which author I got the names Harvey, Lulu, and Bombeck from. No one got it, but I do feel I should mention that Harvey and Lulu (not the characters, but the names) are from The Thief of Always, by Clive Barker, my favorite book, which I just read for the 27th time in the 15 years I've had it. The last name of Bombeck comes from Tesla Bombeck, of The Great and Secret Show, also by Clive Barker. Anyway, enjoy!
Dedication: As always, to Kelly, and my readers and reviewers.
Witness Protection 14
"Did you have any dinner, dear?" Lulu asked.
"Not really; we just drove straight through from Seattle," Veronica answered. "We sort of had to. Couldn't stay in a hotel and we didn't want to wake you up, so we did the fast food thing a few hours back."
"But we were on the move all day," Logan finished. "Had to get far away from where that agent expected us to be."
Lulu shook her head, clearly angered by the situation Veronica and Logan had been thrown into. "Awful. Let me make you something."
"You don't have to," Veronica protested. "You must be tired, and you're being generous enough..."
"Let her cook," Harvey interrupted. "It's a calming process. Might as well reap the benefits. We can sleep in tomorrow if need be."
"You don't work?" Logan asked.
"We're writers," Lulu answered, pouring them all more hot chocolate. "Children's books. We make our own hours. How does some chicken stir-fry sound?"
"Excellent," Veronica answered, a smile coming to her face.
Logan reached for her hand. "It's been a while since we've gotten a home-cooked meal."
"Awful," Lulu repeated.
"When will those friends of yours be getting here?" Harvey asked.
"Probably tomorrow," Veronica replied.
"And let me apologize in advance for Dick. He's sort of an idiot, but he means well."
Harvey chuckled. "We've all got friends like that, son. But as long as he's helping you, he's good in our book."
Veronica smiled. "And I hope you remember that when he shows up and starts making 'your mom' jokes." With that on her mind, she added, "But don't worry, we'll be out of your hair before long."
"Nonsense," Lulu said. "You're welcome here for as long as you need to stay. You and your friends. Even if they make...inappropriate comments. This isn't exactly a Neptune-sized mansion, but let's not pretend we're not well off. We've got more than enough room."
"Empty nest syndrome," Harvey said. "She misses having the twins in the house since they went off to college. But what she says is true. You'll stay as long as it's safe. No reason for you two to be running all over the damn country. Life's tough enough, right?"
They had been in the house for less than an hour, and already Logan felt more at home than he ever had in the Echolls mansion. He could easily see why Veronica loved these two, and she was right in saying that they would be safe there for a time. Harvey and Lulu would never sell them out. In fact, Lulu reminded him a little of his own mother, of what she might have been like if she hadn't been destroyed by Hollywood and his father.
"Now, tell us more about how you two got together," Lulu said as she cut up vegetables.
Veronica and Logan looked at each other. It was going to be a long night.
Dick had readily agreed to pay for everything, so Mac had no objections when he chose a very nice hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah to spend the night at. Her only stipulation was that the room had to have two beds. Most people would take such things for granted, but with Dick, it was always better to clarify beforehand.
It took them a while to get settled, the awkwardness of spending a night together for the first time hindering the process significantly. They were being so overly gracious to each other that Mac knew Veronica would be laughing her ass off if she could see it.
"I'm going to take a bath," she said, grabbing her pajamas out of her suitcase. She couldn't help it...the tub was too nice to not take advantage of it. "If you want to use the bathroom, you should do it now."
Dick shook his head. "No, I'm good. Enjoy your bath."
Mac nodded and retreated to the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Once she'd started running the water, she sat down on the edge of the tub and buried her head in her hands. Dick had apologized. When he didn't think she was listening, which, for some reason, made it mean more. What was bothering her more than anything was that he'd said he blamed himself.
When the tub was full, Mac turned the faucet off and stripped down, then climbed into the hot water. She closed her eyes and let her mind wander. Did she still blame Dick? She knew there was a time when she had. The first six months after Cassidy's death, she'd been pretty confident that if he'd been an only child, he would have turned out much differently.
But after that, she had more or less come to the decision that Dick wasn't really to blame. Big Dick was. And what an appropriate nickname, she thought. Dick Sr. was responsible for most of the cruelty that had been visited on Cassidy through the years. Even everything Dick did to him, she blamed the elder Dick for, since he was the one who taught him how to torture his little brother.
Of course, she also assigned a large amount of blame to Woody Goodman. It had been years, and Mac was still sure that, had Cassidy not blown the bastard up, she would have killed him herself. The amount of lives that man had ruined was mind-boggling.
So no, she didn't blame Dick, not anymore.
But how was she supposed to tell him that?
After their dinner, Logan and Veronica retired to the bedroom the Bombecks had made up for them, promising to fill them in on their history post-Duncan in the morning. When they started to tell their story, both of them had been so sure that rehashing their entire history would be a terrible idea. There was so much pain there, on both sides, that going over it couldn't be good for them. But they'd discovered, somewhere around telling Harvey and Lulu about when Veronica had accused Logan of killing Lilly, that the whole thing was actually helping them. After they'd finished preemptively flinching at all their painful moments, they'd come to find those things didn't hurt anymore. They truly had forgiven each other for their past transgressions.
"So, what do you think of them?" Veronica asked with a smile. She already knew the answer to her question.
"Can they adopt me?" Logan asked.
She snorted. "You're twenty-three, Logan. I'm not sure if that's legal." She started changing into her pajamas.
"So?" He took off his shirt and draped it over a chair, then changed from his cargo jeans to flannel pants.
She finished changing, then went to kiss him. "Don't worry, once we get married, they'll be practically your family too. So I take it you wouldn't mind staying here for a while?"
"I'm with Harvey," he said, wrapping his arms around her. "As long as we're safe here, I'll be perfectly content to stay put." He chuckled. "It also helps that they were nice enough to give us a room on the other side of the house."
"Lulu's parents were super-repressed," Veronica explained. "So she understands the need for a young couple to be able to be intimate without everyone glaring at them. And without worrying about waking up the people nice enough to open their house to them."
"Good," Logan said, kissing her again. "Then she can be the one to talk to your dad when he shows up with his shotgun."
She laughed. "We're safe here, Logan. From the Fitzpatricks and my dad. He won't come here; he's too afraid of leading everyone else here. And Harvey and Lulu won't tell on us. Besides, he'll have to come to terms with the idea of us having sex eventually. What if we have kids? Is he going to trust in the idea of immaculate conception?"
Logan looked down at caught her eyes with his, brushing her hair out of her eyes. The mood turned serious instantly. "You want kids?"
Another huge step in our relationship in one night. Impressive, he thought. The previous times they'd been together, they'd never talked about kids. As much as they'd loved each other, they hadn't been thinking about the future at the time. It had never really occurred to either of them that they were already with the person they would spend the rest of their lives with, so the idea of children had never come up. Logan was fairly sure that them talking about it now was another sign that they really were in it for the long haul.
Veronica shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. You?"
He matched her shrug. "I don't know. On the one hand, you and I would make very adorable babies. But on the other, I've always sort of worried about passing on my faulty genes. Just because it looks like I may have avoided the abusive philandering psycho killer thing doesn't mean I can't pass it on to a kid. Maybe it skips a generation or something."
She sighed and hugged him closer, tucking her head in under his chin. She leaned her head against his chest so she could hear his heartbeat, then finally said, "What Aaron was isn't in you. It wasn't his DNA that made him who he was. He probably learned everything from his father. You knew better. There isn't any part of me that believes that you could do what he did. Not anymore."
He kissed the top of her head. "Thank you, Veronica."
She looked up at him. "You're welcome. Now, ready for bed?"
"And by bed, you mean..."
"Yep."
"So ready for bed."
About five seconds after Dick turned off the lights so they could go to sleep, Mac decided she should speak up and talk about his apology. "Dick?"
"Yeah? Did you need the light?"
"No, you can leave it off." This would all be so much easier if she didn't have to see his face, didn't have to worry about him seeing hers. "I heard your...what you said earlier. In the car."
Dick felt himself blush. He didn't need to ask what she was talking about. "Thought you were asleep," he muttered.
"Wanted you to think I was asleep," she replied. "But I just wanted to tell you...I don't blame you. I haven't for a while now. So maybe its time you stopped blaming yourself too."
"Who do you blame?" He wasn't quite as stupid as most took him to be. Blame simply had to be assigned for everything that had gone on with Cassidy. Unless Mac was a Buddhist monk, she had to have somewhere to direct her anger.
"Your dad," Mac answered honestly. "And Woody. Mostly your dad though. Everything you ever did to him was more or less encouraged by your dad. Any remotely decent parent would have stopped you from bullying him. He not only encouraged you, but participated as well. And I don't think I'll ever be able to stop hating him."
"But you don't hate me?" Dick asked, trying hard to keep the hopeful tone out of his voice.
"No. I don't hate you." She had various conflicting and confusing feelings concerning Dick, but not a single one of them was hatred.
"Good," he said, relieved. "I'm glad." He sighed, wondering if he should share the thought that had come to him when she was in the bath. "Um, not to change the subject but...I don't know if we'll be able to go back to Neptune right away."
"What? Why?" Mac asked. She'd gotten a few days off work, and she could mostly do her job from her laptop, but being away from home for too long didn't appeal to her.
"I'm not sure about it yet, but, uh, if the Fitzpatricks notice we're missing. Or, you anyway. Logan and Ronnie don't think they're watching me. But if they notice you're missing, they'll know you went to see her. And so it won't be safe for you to go back. But that's, you know, only if they notice."
Mac buried her head in her pillow. Why hadn't she thought of that? It obviously hadn't occurred to Veronica either. "Well, then I guess its a good thing we're getting along."
Dick chuckled. "Yeah. Anyway, good night, Mac."
"Night, Dick."