A/N – Thanks for all the feedback and support so far! I had a bit of a tough time with this one, so please be sure to leave a review and let me know what you think! I'd love to hear what everyone thinks Veronica would be thinking and feeling at the end of this one. If you were her how would you be reacting to all the events in this chapter?
Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.
Chapter 14
Veronica quickly made her way back to her desk with Logan following a few steps behind her after they finished their lunch in the courtyard. She sat the brownie he'd given her on her desk, planning to have it a little later since she was pretty full from the fettuccini. Suddenly she had a flashback to a conversation with Mac at Hearst about Logan and Piz and how they'd compared Logan to fettuccini. She shook her head and tried to clear that from her mind. She most definitely still wanted the fettuccini, but it was someone else's now, so she'd just have to settle for something else.
"Do you have some personal information on Belinda that would help me look into the uncle?" Logan asked as he was walking by her. She nodded and said she'd need a few minutes to find it in the personnel records, trying to clear her mind of food comparisons. "That's fine. I'm just going to make a quick call then." She nodded and he headed back to one of the interrogation rooms instead of making it at his desk. She couldn't help but notice the stark difference to when he was going to make a call and when they came in when he was already at his desk. She wondered about his sudden need for privacy when he didn't seem hesitant to take fairly personal calls at his desk before.
She had just printed out two copies of Belinda's personnel file when Leo returned from lunch. "How's the case going?" he asked as he walked by her desk on his way to his office.
"Great, we had a big break in it I think."
"Why don't you and Echolls give me an update?" He looked around the station with a frown on his face. "He didn't go out on a call by himself did he?" She could easily see the anger he was trying to suppress.
She shook her head. "No. He's just in an interrogation room on the phone."
She watched him physically relax somewhat as he nodded and continued walking through the station. "Grab him then and meet me in my office."
She nodded before turning to pick up her file for the case and then headed back to the room Logan had gone into. She knocked softly on the door and waited a moment.
"Yeah?" Logan called out on the other side of the closed door. She opened it and poked her head through.
"Sorry... Leo wanted us to give him an update."
He nodded and held up his finger indicating one minute. "Hey babe, I need to go... Yeah, just meet me at the yacht after you run by your condo and get your stuff... Well if it's going to be later than noon let me know and I may run up to the club and just eat lunch there... I gotta run Bex... Okay see ya tomorrow."
He ended the call and gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry..." He stood with a slight grimace and waved toward the door. "Lead the way tiny one."
She narrowed her eyes at him, making him laugh. "Sorry... Deputy Mars?" he rephrased with a questioning expression though still the hint of a smirk.
"That's better," she replied as she shook her head at him. She turned and led the way to Leo's office. She couldn't help but notice his comment to Bex about 'her' condo. She'd been wondering if they were living together but hadn't wanted to ask. She'd wondered how serious things were since it sounded like they fought a lot and she was surprisingly relieved that they weren't cohabitating. She also had noticed that in the phone calls she'd overhead, the 'L' word was never mentioned either. She knew he hadn't said it to her over the phone very often when they were together, but there had been a few times that he had.
Leo was extremely pleased with the progress on the case as Veronica gave him the update. Logan didn't actually interject much and sat quietly listening to her tell Leo what they had discovered. Leo didn't seem terribly surprised that Logan had actually been the one to find the link to Belinda when Veronica shared that with him. It made her wonder how many similar cases he'd worked on.
When they were finished updating Leo and had gone back out to their desks, Norris and Doug were also back in the station again. It was the first time they'd been there in the last couple hours since they'd been out jumping from call to call the rest of the time. Doug started telling them about a crazy call they had just gotten back from where they had to arrest a guy for trespassing on his ex-mother-in-law's property and how the lady was actually trying to put a curse on the guy while they were putting him in the car and then the guy wanted them to arrest her for putting a previous curse on him that gave him athlete's foot and warts.
"I think I've actually arrested that guy before. Unless there's another guy who was also cursed with athlete's foot and warts," Logan said with a laugh as he took the information on Belinda from Veronica's desk and went back to his own.
After that Doug and Norris spent time catching up on the paper work from all their earlier calls while Logan and Veronica continued their research on Belinda. About a half hour later another call came in that Norris and Doug went out for, leaving the two if them alone again. Logan scooted his chair over to Veronica's desk and gave her a satisfied smile. "No dead uncle in Florida, at least not a blood relative anyway. Both her parents were only children."
"Perfect, thanks," she said as she added that to her case notes. She looked up at him again after writing it down. "Have you worked on many embezzlement and fraud cases?"
Logan shrugged. "A few, yeah."
Veronica bit on her lip thinking for a moment. "So if I wasn't here, this probably would have been your case?"
"Probably, but it's fine Veronica. I don't care that Leo assigned it to you if that's what you're worried about."
She shrugged. "Well maybe he'll let us work on future ones together."
"Yeah maybe," he replied with a slight nod and a small smile.
"You found her impressively quick." And I'm the one who spent a year in a fraud unit.
"Yeah, but you found the hard part. I just got lucky surfing social media," he replied with a kind smile.
She nodded and turned back to digging into Belinda's financial records again. She couldn't help but think about how modest Logan was being about identifying the suspect. Back in San Fransisco it was so competitive on her team that whoever would have identified the suspect would have made a huge deal out of it. It was nice working with a group of deputies that seemed to all get along and weren't cut-throat about one-upping each other all day long.
It was starting to get close to dinner time when Logan's phone rang again. "Hey man… yeah, he's probably tied up on the call he just went out for… sounds great… yeah she is, let me check." He pulled his phone away from his face and set it down on his thigh. "Hey Veronica?" She'd been looking at her laptop, even though she'd been listening to him. She looked up to see what he wanted. "Brandon was going to pick up a couple pizzas and bring them over for Norris, Doug and I for dinner. Did you want something too? Any special requests?"
She shrugged. "I guess I'll take a slice of whatever you guys normally get." She wasn't going to be picky and make a special request. It did feel a little odd that Brandon was calling Logan and then bringing them all pizza, but it didn't seem like much of a surprise to Logan based on his demeanor and response when Brandon called.
Logan smiled and nodded and picked the phone back up. "Make sure you get plenty of those breadsticks, Veronica loves those." She laughed softly and shook her head. Of course it was true, but she was surprised he remembered to even mention it. "Yeah, just have them put it on my tab." Logan continued. "No, I'm pretty sure it's my turn this time, I think you bought last Saturday." Logan let out a deep breath. "Of course he told you about that… yeah it's not that bad. Leo sort of grounded me here with Veronica for the day though." Logan chuckled somewhat loudly which of course made Veronica a bit annoyed that she didn't know what Brandon had said. "Okay, see you in about 30 minutes."
Veronica was still watching him as he ended the call and sat his phone on his desk. "I didn't realize you and Fire Marshall Bill were such good friends," Veronica said with a smirk.
Logan laughed and shook his head at her. "Yeah, we all hang out, you know… play poker, shoot pool… whatever." He shrugged before he continued. "I told you he was a good guy. I actually do know that first hand." He paused a minute before he continued. "He may stay and eat some pizza with us too. At least he usually does. Is that going to be a problem?"
Veronica shook her head. "No of course not. I'm fine with that. I never meant to make things awkward with him."
"Okay, good." Logan said as he turned back toward his desk again.
The next 30 minutes went by excruciatingly slowly with Veronica trying to focus on her research, while she was trying not to think about her personal life that seemed to be getting more and more complicated. When she decided to come back to Neptune, she never really expected things to get quite like this. She'd really hoped initially to figure out how to fix things with Logan so they could get back together again. Of course Bex totally ruined that plan and so she was trying to still convince herself that just being friends was enough. Then there were Brandon and Sebastian who both seemed interested in her. A part of her was telling her she should give one of them a chance, but another part couldn't let go of wanting Logan back and that part was the one that pointed out all the little flaws in Logan and Bex's relationship. It really sucks to be so totally torn between doing what logically makes sense and what I really want even if it is a bad idea.
Brandon arrived with the pizzas before Doug and Norris were back from their last call. Leo had also left to have dinner with Jane and so it was just Logan and Veronica left alone at the station again when he arrived.
"Hi Veronica," Brandon said as he walked in carrying two pizza boxes and a bag balanced on top of them. She said a quick hello back as he headed toward Logan's desk and stopped there, setting the boxes down on his desk. "Ouch man," Brandon said as he leaned in closer to look at Logan's injuries. "Norris said your ribs got pretty pummeled too. Worse than last month?"
Logan shook his head. "No that one was worse. Although they always seem to land shots in almost the same spot which sucks. Hopefully this time it won't bruise quite as badly."
"Yeah, that was pretty bad last time. Norris and Doug still out?"
Logan nodded and stood up from his desk slowly. "I'll grab some plates from the break room," Logan said as he turned and walked in that direction.
"How's the fraud case going?" Brandon asked Veronica with a warm smile on his face as he turned to face her desk. "Norris mentioned you were making some pretty good progress on it."
"Yeah," she replied back with a kind smile as well. "It's going really well. Logan helped me with it today."
Brandon nodded. "Yeah, Norris has said before that Logan seems to be surprisingly good at figuring those types of cases out. Logan always jokes around that it's because he thinks like a criminal, but I don't think that's it at all. I think he's just better at figuring out cases than people give him credit for. I've got to admit, I never expected him to be so modest when I first met him and then heard about all the stuff he did when he was growing up." Brandon chuckled a bit, "Of course about non-work stuff, like poker or surfing, there's absolutely no modesty there."
Veronica nodded in understanding. She'd noticed even since she'd been back that he seemed like two different people sometimes. "Do you surf?" she asked curiously.
"A little. Logan's dragged me out a few times to surf with him, but I'm not really all that good at it. I'm at least better than Norris. He spends 99% of the time in the water and 1% on the board. I'm at least fifty-fifty. Do you surf too?"
Veronica shook her head. "No, Logan tried teaching me once a long time ago, but I never really got very good at it."
"It's definitely a tough sport."
"What is?" Logan asked as he finally came back out with some plates and napkins.
"Surfing," Brandon replied as he took one of the plates Logan handed him. Logan handed one to Veronica too.
"It's not that tough. You're getting better at it. Man, we haven't actually gone in a while though have we?"
Brandon shook his head and picked up the bag that was on top of the boxes. "Breadstick?" he asked Veronica as he held the bag out toward her. She nodded and smiled and took the bag from him.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa Dude!" Logan said emphatically. "Don't give her the entire bag, or there won't be any for us."
Veronica laughed and stuck her tongue out at him. "Definitely none for Logan now."
Logan shook his head at her and spread out the boxes so he could open them. Veronica stood up and walked over to get a slice and smiled when she saw the same thing she'd had at Cho's with Norris and Brandon on half of one of the pizzas. She gave Brandon a small smile and thanked him when she saw the kale, sausage and ricotta. She knew it was especially for her because they'd teased her a bit about it being an odd combination the night they'd all had pizza together. He gave her a friendly smile in return and nodded. Doug and Norris came back a few minutes later and they both grabbed some plates and pizza too. Brandon stuck around for a little while as they were all eating and talking, but then he said he was exhausted since he'd had an extra long shift and was going to head home. Veronica thanked him again for getting her favorite as he was leaving and he gave her a warm smile and said he was just glad he got it right.
About 5 minutes after Brandon had left a call came in on the general line. Logan had just taken the left over pizza to the break room and so Norris was the one who answered the call. Veronica glanced over at Norris to see if she could tell what type of call it was. She knew the specific line it had come in on was one that the other emergency services would use to contact the sheriff's department when they needed their assistance on calls.
"Okay… anyone else at the scene?" She noticed he didn't write anything down and his expression was extremely troubled. "Thanks. We'll send someone there."
Logan had walked back out of the break room and froze as Norris turned and looked at him with an obviously devastated expression on his face.
"Fuck," Logan said before Norris even had a chance to say a word.
"Logan," Norris replied in a warning tone while he quickly stood up from his desk.
"I'm going to kill the fucker this time," Logan said as he headed toward his desk. Norris intercepted him and grabbed him by the shirt, pushing on him enough to make Logan cringe and stop.
"You're not going after him Logan," Norris said in an angry tone. "We need testimony from someone to arrest him."
"I didn't say anything about arresting him," Logan spat back angrily.
"You're not going after him," Norris repeated as he kept a hold on Logan's shirt.
"Ian?" Logan asked through clenched teeth.
Norris shook his head. "The paramedics said only Lacey was taken to the hospital and that there wasn't anyone else at the scene."
"Get out of my fucking way Clayton," Logan said angrily.
"No… you're not going after him. I'm not going to let you fuck up your career over that piece of shit, Logan. Somehow I think this time you'd do more than break his fucking jaw if you find him, so you're not going after him." Norris still had a hold of Logan and wasn't backing down at all. "You're going to take Veronica and go to the apartment and find Ian. See if any of the neighbors saw or heard anything we can use this time. Doug and I will try to find Goran, but we really need proof to arrest him. The paramedics said…" he hesitated and took a deep breath. "They said she's unconscious but they'll call as soon as she's awake. We'll at least find him, see if there's any physical evidence we can use on him."
Goran? Why do I know that name? Veronica had been quietly watching the scene unfold in front of her without trying to make it worse, especially since she really had no idea exactly what was going on. She noticed Doug seemed to be doing the same as she glanced over quickly at him. He was completely focused on the other two and didn't notice she'd even looked at him. Fuck… wait… Dylan Goran?… the guy who beat up Trina?
Logan pushed at Norris again, but Norris wasn't letting him go. "Fine," Logan finally spat at him pushing him again. "He's probably at River Stix."
"Do you really think he's stupid enough to go there? Knowing that's where you found him last week?"
"He'll probably want an alibi, and the scumbags there won't give a rat's ass about lying for him." Logan replied angrily.
"Okay, we'll check there. Would any of the other dancers at D's know where he might be if he's not there?"
Logan took a deep breath, but his jaws were still firmly clenched. "I don't know. Try Ruby maybe."
Norris nodded and grabbed his coat. "Find Ian," he said firmly as he looked intently at Logan. "Come on Devlin, let's go."
Norris and Doug headed out of the station without another word.
"You okay?" Veronica asked as she stood up and moved cautiously toward Logan.
"No," he said angrily as he grabbed his coat from his chair and headed toward the door. Veronica grabbed her own coat and walked as quickly as she could to keep up with him. Of course with his much longer legs it meant that she practically had to jog to catch up to him.
She was trying to piece things together in her mind as they walked out to the squad car. Neither Norris or Logan had said anything about an address so obviously it was someone that they both knew well enough to know the address without needing to write it down. She wondered who Ian was as well. They hadn't even said anything to each other before Logan freaked out. The look Norris had given him was enough for him to know exactly what the call was about. Things were quickly starting to fall into place. She figured if Logan broke Goran's jaw before, that was likely what got him suspended. Of course he wouldn't like Sebastian if he'd represented that asshole. And the fact that Norris mentioned D's, she figured that Lacey might work there. She couldn't help but wonder if she might have been the stripper that Mac mentioned Logan had dated.
"Who's Ian?" she finally worked up the nerve to ask as they climbed into the car.
"Lacey's 7 year old son," Logan answered tersely with his jaws still clenched.
Veronica didn't know what else she should say and whether what she did decide to say would make it better or worse. She didn't want to bother him with questions that didn't really matter or that she'd more or less figured out on her own. She wanted to ask him why he just didn't tell her about Goran before, but she was worried that might just make things worse. She finally decided to just ask if he was the same guy that beat up Trina.
Logan nodded slowly but didn't say anything. They arrived at an apartment complex that was in a slightly better neighborhood than she'd lived in with her dad, although still in a poorer area of Neptune. "I'll look for Ian if you want to talk with the neighbors," Logan finally said as they got out of the car.
"Do you want me to help you look first and then talk with them?" she asked cautiously.
"Okay," Logan said as she followed him toward an apartment on the second floor of the complex. The door was closed, but not locked. "I'll look in the closet in his room and you can check Lacey's." He pointed toward an open door on the left side of the hallway. Obviously he was quite familiar with the layout of the apartment, so her assumption that he'd probably dated Lacey seemed like the most likely scenario. She wondered how much of his anger was because of his feelings for Lacey versus his hatred for Goran. Veronica spotted a few pictures on her way through the small living room toward the bedroom of a beautiful blonde woman with a young boy who had the same color of hair. The woman looked to be about the same age as she was and also had striking blue eyes and wavy long hair that reminded Veronica of how she wore her hair her freshman year at Hearst. I'm sure the fact she looks so much like you is just a coincidence and doesn't really mean anything. It was obvious there had been a fight in the room with objects lying around on the ground and a broken lamp shattered across the floor as well.
"Ian?" Veronica said as she went into the bedroom. She stopped though when she realized that Logan hadn't actually called out for him when they came in. He'd gone into the room across the hall from where he'd sent her. She turned around and walked back toward the other room. She saw him opening the closet door before kneeling down and holding his arms out. A small body with short blonde hair flew into his arms and Logan wrapped his arms protectively around him. He stood up and walked back over to the bed and placed the boy there and then knelt down so he was eye level with him again. Neither of them had actually said anything yet, so she wasn't completely surprised when Logan's hands came up and he started to sign to him. The little boy signed something back to Logan and then started to cry when Logan nodded and signed back. Logan leaned forward and held on to him and slowly rubbed his back.
"I'll go talk to the neighbors," Veronica said softly and saw Logan nod his head without turning to look at her. She checked the apartments on either side and didn't get an answer at either, so she headed downstairs to the one below theirs. She knocked and waited a minute and then the door opened slightly, though she could see the security chain was still in place.
She pulled out her badge and identified herself as being a deputy at the Sheriff's department. The petite Asian woman who was at the door nodded, but didn't open the door any farther. "We're here because of an incident at the apartment above yours. Did you hear anything tonight?"
"Yes," the woman said a bit hesitantly. "We heard shouting and things breaking and so my husband went up stairs to check on Lacey. The door was open and he saw her lying on the ground and called 911."
"Did he see who had hurt her?"
The woman had a frightened look on her face and shook her head. "No, we didn't see anything."
"Could I talk to your husband?" Veronica asked next.
The woman shook her head again. "I'm sorry, but he works graveyard and left right after the paramedics came for Lacey."
"Did you recognize the voices?"
The woman shrugged. "I'm sure it was probably Lacey's boyfriend, but we couldn't actually hear enough to know for sure."
Veronica nodded with a compassionate expression. She wondered if the woman was afraid of Goran, or if they really didn't know. "If you or your husband remember anything specific that can help, will you please give the sheriff's department a call?"
The woman nodded hesitantly before she closed and locked the door. Veronica tried the apartments on the two sides of the one below Lacey's and one was empty and the other was occupied by an elderly woman who said she hadn't heard or seen anything. As Veronica was heading back to the stairs to go up to Lacey's apartment, Logan and Ian were on their way down.
"Any luck?" Logan asked. She could tell by his tone that he wasn't expecting her to have gotten anything to actually help them prove Goran had done it.
She took a deep breath and shook her head. "I talked to the woman in the apartment below theirs. She said they heard an altercation and her husband went up to check and was the one to call the paramedics, but they didn't hear or see anything that could be used to identify who had been there." Logan nodded grimly at her.
"Did Ian see anything?" she asked cautiously.
Logan shook his head and clenched his teeth before he finally started to talk in a low angry voice. "He said Lacey told him to go to his room when Goran had arrived. He could tell something was wrong with him and Lacey must have been worried about what was going to happen. But of course he didn't hear anything, and didn't see anything either. And we both know just saying he stopped by isn't going to hold any weight to prosecute him."
Veronica noticed he was carrying a backpack and gave him a small questioning look when she saw it. "I want to take him to his grandmother's house," Logan said in response to her look. Veronica nodded in understanding and turned to follow them to the car. Logan had his arm protectively around Ian's shoulder and the boy was walking slowly next to him.
Logan helped him into the back seat and then climbed into the front. "I didn't know you knew sign language," Veronica commented as he started to pull out of the parking lot.
He let out a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, I took a few classes for work."
She let out a deep breath as well. She hated how things were between them right now. It was glaringly obvious that Logan had put up impenetrable walls around himself ever since the call came in. "Logan, I'm not some stranger. Will you please talk to me?"
"I am talking, Veronica," he said abruptly as he continued to drive.
"You obviously know Lacey and Ian quite well. I'm really sorry this happened," she said trying to break through to him. She wasn't really sure what she expected him to do, but the icy coldness that had overtaken him since they left the station was really starting to concern her.
"So am I," he said tersely but didn't elaborate any further.
It took them about 20 minutes to drive to a residential area that wasn't very far from where Veronica had lived with her parents before her dad had been ousted from the Sheriff's position. It didn't escape Veronica's attention that Logan seemed to know exactly where the house was and didn't even use his GPS to find it. They also didn't say anything else to each other the rest of the way there. Logan turned off the car and Veronica opened her door to get out. "You don't have to come," Logan said as he opened his own door. She wasn't sure why, but she felt this urge to be there for him even if it probably wasn't necessary.
"I'd like to," she said softly as she climbed out and closed her door. She wasn't sure if he even heard her because he didn't say another word as he opened the back door for Ian. He put his arm around the boy's shoulder again and walked up the steps to the house with Veronica following right behind them.
It took a few minutes for someone to answer the door after Logan rang the doorbell. The expression on the woman's face who had opened the door instantly changed to one of disapproval when she saw who was at her door.
"What happened now?" she said in a cold voice as she looked squarely at Logan.
"Paramedics were called to her apartment and she was taken to the hospital. She's still unconscious so we don't know all the details yet."
The woman shook her head angrily at Logan as she reached out her hand for Ian. Ian hesitated for a moment, but then took her hand and stepped away from Logan moving into the house to stand next to the woman.
"This is all your fault," she said bitterly. "If you'd just loved her the way she'd loved you, she never would have gotten involved with that bastard."
Logan took a deep breath and looked down at his feet. Before he even had a chance to say anything the woman slammed the door and Veronica heard the deadbolt being locked. Logan slowly turned around and headed back to the car without another word. Veronica stood frozen on the porch for a moment reeling over what had just happened before she turned and walked back to the car herself. Logan was already in the car staring at the steering wheel with his hands grasping it tightly when Veronica climbed in and closed her door.
"This isn't your fault Logan," Veronica said as she reached over and put her hand on top of his. Regardless of what may have happened between Logan and Lacey, she couldn't believe that her being with someone who would abuse her could in any way be his fault.
He immediately jerked his hand away from hers causing her to instinctively pull her hand back away from him as well. He sucked in a loud frustrated breath and clenched his fist in the air before exhaling and putting it back on the steering wheel.
"I'm sorry," he said distraughtly and then shook his head. "I told you I was an asshole now."
"I don't believe that," Veronica said without any doubt.
"Maybe you should," he said again, still staring straight ahead and not looking at her.
"Whatever happened to Lacey isn't your fault Logan, no matter what that woman said." She reached over and put her hand on his again. This time he didn't move it, but let out a slow breath. "I seriously doubt you encouraged her to be with Goran, so you can't blame yourself for this."
Logan's cell phone rang before she could say anything else and he answered it. She could tell by his response that it was the hospital. "Lacey's awake, so they said we could come and try to get a statement now," he explained somberly as he started the car.
They drove in silence to the hospital. There were a million questions she wanted to ask, but didn't think asking them now was a good idea. She glanced over at him a few times as he was driving and he had the same angry expression with his jaws clenched tightly shut. She wished she could reach him some how though and help him feel better. When they finally reached the hospital she reached over and grabbed his hand after he turned off the ignition. "Logan, look at me please." He took a deep breath and turned to look at her, though he only looked her in the eyes for a second before he looked down at her shoulder. "Logan this isn't your fault. You didn't do anything that caused this to happen. I'm sure you've had to deal with a lot of horrible things as a deputy and you know none of it was your fault. You can't take this one personally either no matter what Lacey's mom said to you. You understand that right?"
He glanced back at her eyes for a second and then looked away again. "It doesn't make it any easier Veronica." He took a deep breath. "Not when it's someone you… someone you've cared about."
"I know," she said as she squeezed his hand that she was still holding on to.
"We'd better go in," he said as he glanced up at her eyes for another second and then slowly pulled his hand away from hers. She nodded and climbed out as well.
They'd moved Lacey from the ER to a regular room because they were going to keep her a day or two given the extent of her injuries. When they reached her room, Logan hesitated at the door for a minute before he opened it to walk in. Veronica tried not to react when she saw how bruised and swollen Lacey's face was. Her right arm was in a brace and her left wrist was bandaged add well. Lacey's eyes immediately locked on Logan's, not even sparing a second to look at Veronica.
"Where's Ian?" she asked in an almost desperate tone.
"I took him to your mother's house," Logan said in a tone that was a bit more resigned than Veronica had expected.
Lacey shook her head and looked away from him down at her lap.
"Would you rather I have let him go to C.P.S., Lacey? Because that's the alternative you know," Logan continued with his voice taking on an edge of anxiety.
She shook her head but didn't look back up at either of them either. "Please tell me you're going to press charges this time?" Logan asked next, his tone changing so that the question came out more as a plea.
"Why do you care Logan," she finally asked defiantly as she looked back up and glared at him.
He took a deep breath before he answered. "Because I don't want Ian to loose his mother, like he lost his dad. He needs you and if you stay with Goran, he could end up killing you Lacey. Even if it doesn't get that bad, Ian doesn't deserve to see you go through this again. I also don't want him to hurt Ian either."
Lacey let out a frustrated breath and looked away from him again. "I don't know…" she finally said barely above a whisper.
"You know it's the right thing to do Lacey," Logan urged.
She laughed bitterly and shook her head. "The right thing? Really Logan? Since when do you know anything about 'the right thing'?"
"I'm trying to do the right thing now okay damn it. I'm trying to protect both you and Ian. Look, I'm sorry I didn't feel the same way about you that you felt about me, but that didn't mean that I didn't care and I never wanted to see you get hurt like this Lacey. You deserve so much better than this. Better than Goran… better than me."
Lacey laughed bitterly again. "Yeah… because strippers deserve happy endings. This isn't a fucking movie Logan, its real life and sometimes it just turns out shitty."
"It doesn't have to be. Press charges… get a restraining order… just don't let him back in your life again. Please do it for Ian if you won't do it for yourself."
Veronica saw a tear roll down Lacey's cheek. "Fine… but you have to promise me you'll make sure he can't hurt Ian or me."
"I promise," Logan said with a relieved sigh.
She nodded and looked at him sadly. The next 20 minutes or so were spent getting her official statement of how Goran had come into the apartment, high on something and started pushing her around which then escalated to him beating her more violently. Logan called Norris and Doug, who were still out looking for him, but at least with her statement they could put out an A.P.B. to send to other agencies as well. Lacey had given them the address of Goran's apartment in LA so there was a high likelihood he'd gone back there. They'd have the LA police department send a few officers there to look for him.
When they were finished with Lacey they headed back to the car. "So was Goran the case that led to you being suspended that Sebastian was involved in?" she asked as they were pulling out of the hospital parking lot. Now that they had evidence to arrest Goran, she was hoping he'd be a little less on edge and maybe they could talk a little about it. Logan nodded but didn't say anything. "Why didn't you tell me that when I asked you why you didn't like Sebastian?"
Logan shrugged. "I still broke a suspect's jaw Veronica. Not exactly the exemplary deputy performance that would be expected. Not to mention it was because he'd beaten up my stripper ex-girlfriend." She instantly recognized the self-deprecating tone.
"Was it as bad as it was tonight?" she asked hesitantly. Logan shook his head. She wondered for a moment what he would have done if he had found Goran tonight after seeing Lacey. His comment earlier that he was going to kill him had still been echoing through her mind and after seeing Lacey beaten half to death, she wouldn't have been surprised at all if he'd tried to. She really hoped that Goran had gone back to LA and that he'd be apprehended at his apartment there. And what the hell am I supposed to do about Sebastian now knowing who the scum bag was that he'd represented against Logan. He'd told her that first time at lunch that he was just doing his job, but surely he had to have had some reservations about taking a case for a guy like that. He'd almost seemed confident that what Logan had done was totally wrong and that his client was in the right. She seriously doubted his client had been very innocent at all after seeing what he'd done to Lacey tonight. And then there was still the issue of Logan seemingly hating himself for everything that had happened.
"It's not always easy being a cop, Logan. I know I haven't had to deal with the same sort of fucked up cases, but my dad had to go through a lot when he was working for the Sheriff's department and I know it's never black and white."
He nodded and let out a deep sigh. "Thanks, Veronica."
She almost hated to ask the next question, but decided to anyway. "Do you think Sebastian will represent him again?"
Logan let out a frustrated breath. "I don't know…" He paused before he continued almost reluctantly. "But you'd better find out before…" He paused again as if he really didn't want to say what he was about to say. "…before you get involved with him… since you've helped on this case."
She nodded slowly, but didn't quite know what to say. They drove the rest of the way back to the station in silence. Norris and Doug were waiting for them inside.
"The LAPD already picked him up at his place," Norris said cautiously as they walked toward him.
"Good," Logan replied somberly. Veronica couldn't help but wonder if a small part of him hadn't wanted to be the one who found him. Someone's always supposed to pay.
"Let's get a drink when you're off," Norris said to Logan, coming across more as a directive rather than a question. With the call coming in toward the end of their shift and how much time it took, Veronica realized her and Norris would have been off about 45 minutes ago, and Logan and Doug were almost done too.
Logan nodded and walked over toward his desk. "Wanna join us Mars, or are you headed home?" he asked as he caught her gaze on his way by her.
"Sure," she said with a slight nod.
"We can go and try to get a table," Norris added as he gestured with his head toward Veronica. "Buckley's?" He asked Logan.
Logan nodded as he sat down at his desk.
"I could stay and fill out the report Logan," Veronica offered as she walked closer to his desk.
"Thanks, I've got it though. Your shifts over anyway." He gave her a small half smile. "You should head over with Norris. Doug and I will catch up with you there."
She nodded and went over to grab her stuff to leave. Of course filling out report forms seemed more appealing than having to think about everything that just happened. She already knew her mind would jump to a million different places once she had nothing to do but reflect on it all. Looks like you got your wish of wanting to know more about what happened between Logan and Sebastian, are you happy now Veronica?