Disclaimer is in chapter One

A/N Seriously guys/girls... Three chapters since someone last reviewed but I keep getting mails telling me that someone follows and favorited the story...That sucks. Oh well, at least it only makes me more certain never to post on ff. net anymore due to lack of feedback. I'm not even sure I'm not gonna discontinue this and never publish the entire thing (it's done btw)...

Makeovers and Failed Plans

There was an echoing silence that seemed to scream out its mockery so soundly it was like someone was standing on the other side of the bedroom door, just waiting to make fun of him.

Oh yeah, Logan thought sourly, that'd be my wife…

He took a deep breath and yelled out what he truly felt was very pertinent at that moment, ignoring the flush in his cheeks that spoke of his obvious – and growing – embarrassment.

"I swear, Veronica that if you're even thinking about laughing, I'll hurt you so badly that not even Papa Mars can recognize you!"

Logan waited a beat but then relaxed when no answer to his threat came forth. He turned his attention back on his borrowed reflection. He was currently standing in his old bedroom at the suite in the Grande Hotel, eyeing himself with the same amount of scrutiny some might use to solve some kind of unsolvable puzzle.

The former male had to be honest, if only to himself; he looked very nice. Logan was wearing a familiar-looking black dress that he'd bought without Veronica knowing.

And for such a lame ass reason, Logan mentally scolded his sentimental side. He'd only wound up buying the stupid dress because it shared an almost eerie similarity to another pretty black dress that Veronica had worn at the original Alterna-Prom.

She looked so damn beautiful that seeing myself like this is messing with my mind, Logan thought ,battling old memories of a younger Veronica, who hadn't entirely given up on them. No, don't think about that now, Logan urged his mind roughly, there's too much other stuff to do to focus on the wreck that is my marriage…

Before Logan's mood could deteriorate further downwards at the mere thought of the way his relationship with Veronica was in shambles, she knocked on the bedroom door and finally responded to his earlier comment.

"I don't know what you're thinking about in there, Logan," she said uncharacteristically cheery, "I'm not the kind of person to laugh at myself you know and that's technically what I'd be doing if I in fact did laugh at you so…man up and get out here!"

Logan didn't get a chance to react before the door slammed open hard enough to bounce back a little from the impact against the wall. He tried not to gawp as Veronica confidently marched into the bedroom with a familiar head tilt that kinda made him want to laugh out loud.

"Also," she continued as if she hadn't just opened a locked door and burst inside uninvited, "I wouldn't even dare say anything untoward about your outfit tonight of all nights. I'm pretty sure that with your vanity you'd just storm out and refuse to participate in the whole thing if even one little giggle managed to escape my lips. Tell me I'm wrong…oh."

Veronica stopped dead in her tracks and Logan could almost feel his confidence soar as her expression transformed from smug superiority to a gobsmacked mess that clearly stated that he had surprised her.

Finally, after a long moment of silence, Veronica seemed to regain her composure. She instantly tried to play down her earlier behavior by crossing her arms and plastering on a familiar-looking smirk.

"Gotta say, Logan," she announced with a hint of rare sincerity beneath the teasing, "You're not looking quite as butch as I thought you'd do tonight."

Logan smiled his half smile without replying, choosing instead to turn and look into the mirror again. A part of him still couldn't quite believe that the one whose reflection was staring back at him was supposed to be him of all people.

For one thing, the former male was actually wearing expertly executed makeup and his hair was twisted into something fancy that he'd never in a million years have been able to do, even with his new experience of being a female.

Of course, Logan thought with a small smile, I would have looked like crap if it hadn't been for Lily's interference.

Lily's arrival had been as unannounced as ever, but Logan had been too relieved to see her when she'd popped in while he'd been lying in the massive tub in the bathroom and desperately trying to figure out how to look even a fraction as beautiful as Veronica had done that night so many years ago to him.

Logan had been in the middle of cursing the unfairness of…well, everything when Lily's voice had sounded from right next to him and damn near scared him half to death.

"Jeez Echolls, who'd have known you'd be such a cry-baby?"

Logan had jumped out of the hot water, desperately reaching for one of the soft towels and had instead slipped on the expensively tiled and very water-soaked floor. It had ultimately resulted in him landing inelegantly on the floor with his head in Lily's lap.

Lily being Lily had reacted just like he'd expected her to. She'd burst into a carnal smile and practically purred at him, "Well hello again, Lovah. Didn't think I'd be seeing you near my lap anytime soon, but I can't say I hate the experience."

Lily's voice was just as teasing and taunting while dripping with innuendos as Logan remembered, but he was way older than the last time he'd been anywhere near his dead ex-girlfriend's lap and as such needed to regain at least some of his dignity.

Without saying anything to Lily's suggestively wiggling eyebrows, Logan merely extracted himself from her person and wrapped the nearest towel around him and covered up the body he still deep down didn't want anyone but him to even look at.

His attempt at dignity didn't seem to cool the deceased Kane's behavior in the least. Instead, she started laughing hard and so loud that, for a brief moment, Logan had worried that the noise would attract Veronica's attention from the living room. He shushed Lily loudly, hoping she'd get her merriment out of her system before Veronica came in and discovered what was going on.

She'd already seen him at less than his best enough times as it was and Logan wasn't eager to practically hand deliver another incident to her.

"What are you even doing here anyway?" Logan hissed with annoyance, "Veronica's still angry at you, you know."

That statement sobered the Kane girl up immediately and Logan felt a sharp stab of guilt at being responsible for the sad expression on her face. When she replied, her voice was weary and there was a tired shine to her very being that didn't suit her in Logan's opinion.

"Yeah I know, Logan and to be honest, I hate it…"

Lily sighed deeply and momentarily, Logan's attention was caught by the expanding bosom that was practically right in his line of sight. Despite evidence to the contrary, he was still very much a man and the view was one he had more than one fond memory of after all.

"Those aren't my eyes, Lovah," Lily pointed out with a self-satisfied smirk. She looked entirely too pleased by his appreciation of the female gender before she continued seriously, "I hate Ronica being mad at me like this. I only wanted to help, you know. I just hope that my services tonight will help bridge the gap between us a little."

Hearing Lily's words, Logan stopped his half-hearted attempt at toweling his hair with a just grabbed towel from the rack next to him and he couldn't even begin to stop the annoyance from reaching his voice when he next spoke.

"For fuck's sake, Lils; don't you ever learn? You've proved time and time again that the whole fixing people thing isn't one of your strong sides."

Lily simply shrugged the critique off and got to her feet fully with an air of elegance that Logan secretly envied her for. "I don't need your little comments, Logan; especially not when I'm here to help you."

Logan arched a brow and tried not to seem too tentative at that announcement. "Help me with what exactly?"

Lily laughed her pearly laugh, bringing back a lot of best forgotten memories of childhood mischief if one asked Logan. He watched with dawning horror as she snapped her fingers, and instantly she was holding a set of tweezers in her slim fingers. Before he could do anything but swallow a lump of pure dread, Lily had unceremoniously pushed him down on the toilet seat and started eyeing him with a rather too determined glimpse in her eyes that Logan had hoped never to see again after the whole sex fiasco.

It didn't make his foreboding any better when she broke into a beautiful smile and at long last answered his question. "Me?" she asked coyly and finished fiercely, unhindered by Logan's show of pure fear, "I'm gonna make you look fabulous, Baby."

It didn't take a genius to spot the way Logan's face turned white as snow, clearly not liking the sound of his former girlfriend's proclamation. He really really didn't like it when her words turned into two hours of feminine torture, wherein he found himself plucked, waxed, dressed and styled within an inch of his life.

It was beyond horrible.

Fortunately, after the torture session (which said event would forever be branded as in Logan's fragile mind) Lily only spent a few minutes vehemently admiring her job and throwing a few offers of the sexual kind in just for old time's sake. After Logan had decidedly turned down her offers, Lily vanished as spontaneously as she'd arrived with a jaunty wave and a giggle.

"Yuhuu, Logan?"

Veronica's curious voice tore Logan out of his reminiscing and he looked over at her and in doing so, he finally realized that she too had gone the extra mile to make herself look good.

"Wow, Ronnie," Logan smirked with as much honesty as he could muster under the circumstances, "you're actually making that body's former owner rather proud right now."

Veronica smiled and shrugged it off with a shake of her head, but Logan caught the satisfied gleam in her eyes that she couldn't quite hide.

She was wearing a black tux with a red tie and the hair was neatly styled looking as though she'd never had any troubles adjusting to being a man.

For one short minute, Logan envied her fiercely

It was that envy that he decided to blame on what he muttered bitterly next, "you didn't have to wax your entire body to conform to male gender-expectations…"

Veronica broke into a soft laugh that he immediately wanted to never end, it'd been so long since he'd actually made her laugh like that and…No, he thought, don't go down that road now…

"I bet you'll never call women the weaker sex ever again, will you?" Veronica smiled, her eyes uncharacteristically gentle in her teasing and Logan couldn't make his mouth work for a long moment.

A part of him wanted to point out that he'd never actually called her or any woman weak, having grown up around such strong females that it'd been beyond hypocritical of him to do so.

In the end, he merely shrugged, unable to voice anything. His eyes were somehow locked on Veronica's in a way he'd not experienced since…well, since before their lives went to crap basically and he didn't want to break the spell that seemed to have captured her as well for some reason.

The way Veronica's eyes burned into his was reminiscent of times long gone by and for once there wasn't an inch of loathing, hurt or betrayal in them. Instead, it was all soft humor and genuine contentedness over their shared laugh. Something broken felt as if it'd just discovered a small bit of glue and Logan hardly dared breathe as their bodies – seemingly without their command – slowly came closer and closer to one another.

Suddenly, the crackling tension that had woven the estranged couple into an almost impossible to penetrate bubble, burst when the entrance door to the suite slammed open and Dick's voice echoed loudly throughout the massive space.

"Yo, Yo, Yo; don't worry my peeps! The party can finally start! The main man has arrived; Party Pig and all!"

0o0o0

Hours later, Veronica was sitting in an armchair that she'd dragged into the corner in an effort to keep a careful eye on Cassidy and Mac through the massive crowd of people dancing and laughing to the booming music.

Well, she thought self-deprecatingly, I'm trying to watch them at least but I just can't seem to stop looking at him…

The one she was thinking about was, of course, Logan. At that moment in time, he was standing with Wallace and Jackie and apparently was having a very animatedly and friendly chat that seemed very out of character for him.

It's not so weird that I can't seem to stop looking at him, Veronica justified to herself, that moment we shared earlier left me all confused and…No, don't think about that right now. Focus on the plan!

It took a lot more strength than Veronica would ever willingly admit, but finally she managed to turn her attention back on Cassidy.

For about ten minutes, before she realized that she'd used her peripheral vision to count the amount of times that Logan smiled at Jackie.

"What am I doing?" she finally muttered exasperatedly and got up to grab a beer, momentarily giving up all pretenses of sticking to the plan.

As she drew nearer to the table where all beverages had been placed along with an almost unbelievable amount of various salty snacks, Veronica noticed that Dick was already flat out drunk. He was moving around without any of his usual grace, clearly inebriated and doing his utmost to charm his surrounding classmates, not realizing that he was doing nothing but make a massive fool of himself.

To Veronica's innate surprise, she found herself actually glaring viciously at some girls standing by the table as well. The girls were sniggering mockingly and saying something about what a loser Dick was with so much distain that it could peel paint.

Both girls stopped abruptly when they registered the scorching glare from who they thought was Dick's best friend. A moment later, they'd both disappeared into the mass of dancing people nearby, not noticing the look of shock that overtook Veronica as she watched them leave.

Oh my God, Veronica despaired even as she reached out and steadied Dick's flailing body, I can't believe I kinda like him now…This must be what going mad feels like.

Dick grinned stupidly and offered her his half-empty beer bottle as if he wanted to salute her realization. Veronica almost gave in to the temptation to lose herself in a drunken haze, but ultimately knew it'd be too cowardly a way to handle things.

Instead, she helped Dick into a more comfortable position in a nearby empty armchair and watched for a brief while as the blond cradled his beer and seemed to succumb to his own inebriated state and fall asleep.

Satisfied with knowing Dick wouldn't get into any trouble, Veronica returned to her earlier position to watch over Cassidy and Mac. She managed about an hour wherein she almost didn't look at Logan, but then she caved to the realization that the whole thing was boring and not going anywhere.

She watched with a curious mix of bitterness and envy as Cassidy blushed crimson when Mac leaned closer to him and gently kissed the tip of his nose.

I can't believe that child raped me…Veronica thought, not for the first time and with a quiet huff, she drained her beer. As she set down the bottle, it was like something from deep within her finally snapped, and in that moment, Veronica decided that the plan could go screw itself. She was done.

Before any semblance of calm or logic about the idiotic notion to finally go confront her rapist could stop her, Veronica got to her feet and walked over to the innocent-looking couple, who were completely engrossed in one another.

"Hiya, Cass," Veronica greeted, while she gestured over at Dick's unmoving form in the armchair she'd abandoned him in, "mind if I borrow you for a sec? Dickie's an embarrassment to us all and I'd like your help to get him into Duncan's old room to sleep it off."

Cassidy reluctantly tore his happy gaze away from an equally content-looking Mac to smile up at her with such a friendly look about him that Veronica felt a small pinch of guilt, which she ruthlessly shut down.

"Sure Man, let's go."

Veronica nodded to Mac and followed Dick's younger brother, who had already begun wrestling a deeply sleeping Dick up from his chair. It was rather obvious that it wasn't the first time Cassidy had wrangled his drunken brother and Veronica once again wondered what could've become of the otherwise kindhearted male if he hadn't turned to murder and rape to cope with his issues.

Stop wondering, Veronica ordered her softer side, he's too far gone for us to let him slip through our fingers again. It's necessary so stop hesitating!

A few seconds later, they were all three in the bedroom and while Cassidy was occupied with removing his brother's shoes Veronica quietly locked the door and turned to watch silently.

"So…" She began after a while of quiet observation.

The courage that had bubbled up through her system, more than likely aided by the alcohol in her system seemed to dwindle as soon as the lock clicked into place and Veronica didn't quite know how to continue on.

Cassidy looked up at her as her voice registered in the more silent room and smiled softly, without a care. "What's up, Logan?"

It was that seemingly complete innocence in his face that finally managed to reignite Veronica's earlier fire of anger. "Well," she said through gritted teeth, trying to inject as much command in her voice as possible, "I need to know everything."

Cassidy frowned, his eyes narrowing a fraction with barely hidden suspicion at the odd lilt of her voice. "Everything about what exactly?"

"Well, all about the Woody Goodman thing, the bus explosion you are responsible for among other things, but that's not really important to me right now, I'll get that later. No," Veronica's tone turned harsh and she didn't have to look in a mirror to know that she was currently wearing a look on her face that Logan only used when things were extremely dangerous, "I want to know why you raped Veronica Mars."

Cassidy Cassablancas actually looked like he had died of shock right then and there. His tanned skin looked sickly pale and his entire body was frozen in its earlier relaxed pose, making it look like he'd been trapped from one second to the next.

"Wh-what …I don't know what you're on right now Logan, but come on…did you watch one to many of your dad's action movies?" Cassidy tried to laugh it off, but it failed miserably and they both knew it.

Cassidy flinched when Veronica's only response was to cross her arms and lean against the door. They both ignored the knocking that suddenly started up behind her.

Logan's voice revealed who the interrupter was, and Veronica easily recognized the tone of warning in it. "Logan? What's taking you and Beaver so long? Mac's getting bored out here, looking all neglected…"

A flash of the purest agony flew through Cassidy's eyes and for the first time ever Veronica truly understood that Mac wasn't just some convenient cover for him. He really cared about her brunette friend and that notion made something twist uncomfortably in her gut.

The knocking on the door turned to pounding and Veronica knew she had to give some kind of answer to her no doubt worried husband to justify her straying from their plan.

"We'll be right out, Veronica," she yelled, not looking away from the young murderer in front of her for a second. "Dick just puked all over and I don't think he would want anyone but me and Cass to see that."

The doorknob moved and even over all the noise from the party Veronica could easily hear Logan's muffled curses when he realized that the door was locked.

Cassidy seemed to grasp that fact at the same time as Logan and it was like he'd been held up by invisible strings and then find out that they were suddenly cut, leaving him to almost fall down to the floor in an undignified slump.

"Oh God," he whimpered in what truly looked like the purest despair. The teenager looked as though he wanted nothing more than too curl up in a ball and never leave the room again, but he didn't move from his slumped over position on the carpeted floor.

He was trapped and he didn't have to meet Veronica's burning eyes for that fact to seep deeply into his very being. After a long while, Cassidy finally regained some sort of strength and he slowly lifted up his head to lock eyes with a silently staring Veronica.

Dick lay forgotten on the bed, but neither of the other two occupants spared him a glance, too caught up in their own little miserable world.

"Ho…," Cassidy cleared his throat of the stutter and hesitation to try again, "How did you know?"

Despite herself, Veronica couldn't stop her lips from twisting into a fair rendition of an honest smile. Briefly, she wished that Cassidy had been as drunk as his brother, because it'd probably be easier for him to believe her incredible tale if he'd been intoxicated.

Looking closer at the incredibly focused boy, Veronica belatedly amended inwardly that alcohol wouldn't be needed. Something told her that the youngest Cassablancas would believe her every word.

Ignoring the little inner voice that for once didn't sound like Lily, but oddly enough Logan, that told her to shut up and keep to the plan, Veronica sighed and walked over to sit down in front of her once upon a time rapist.

There was a long beat of silence wherein Veronica took a deep breath and finally announced gently.

"I know Cassidy because I was there every step of the way…"

0o0o0

Even in the crowded mess that was the bustling Alterna-Prom, Logan quickly noticed how Veronica had enlisted Beaver's help in removing a sleeping and drooling Dick from the main room. Additionally, it didn't take him long to realize that something wasn't quite right after that.

Especially when the closed door to Duncan's old room wasn't reopened after a few minutes.

It was only because of the loud music that no one heard the vehement cursing that spewed from Logan's mouth when he understood that Veronica had gone completely off script.

What the fuck's she doing now? Logan wondered with dawning worry and annoyance. Then he froze when his eyes landed on the otherwise unnoticed arrival in the room.

Lily was standing in front of the closed door. It was the saddened look on her face that managed to increase Logan's worry. Lily rarely let her emotions show so clearly.

Just as she turned sideways to look at him, Logan heard her voice in his mind as if she was standing right next to him. She's following her own mind now and I'm not gonna interfere this time. I've already messed up so bad. Hopefully this time, Veronica will get an end she can actually learn to live with…

Logan all but ran to the closed wooden door after Lily vanished quietly without another word. It took everything in him, but he managed to speak somewhat normally as he knocked on the door, saying something unimportant about Mac feeling abandoned.

Veronica reply would've seemed legitimate to someone that didn't know her as well as Logan did. He recognized the tone in her voice that spoke of blowing through any and all preconceived notions and it was clear that his temperamental wife was in the middle of breaking all the rules she'd so insisted on following up until that point.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to do much of anything without causing a major scene, Logan turned away from the door to go distract Mac from looking too hard for her boyfriend. "Please let everything work out okay," he prayed to a deity he barely believed in even after all of his mother's and Lily's comments to the contrary.

As the transformed male made his way through the dancing people, Logan decided that he wasn't even that surprised by Veronica's actions. After all, he thought, fifteen or so years of unchecked hatred had to explode eventually…

Hopefully this time Veronica will get an end she can actually learn to live with…

Lily's hopeful remark before she'd vanished crept into Logan's weary mind and it was that hope that managed to keep him from breaking down the door as he desperately tried to act nonchalant and carefree in front of an increasingly dejected-looking Mac.

But, no matter how hopeful Logan was, every so often his eyes would still wander back to the door that remained so conclusively closed.

0o0o0

TBC…