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~~VM~~
She sucked in a breath as she remembered how his laughter vibrated against her lips when he kissed her. She closed her eyes as she bit her lip when she thought about the way his lips moved with hers. She breathed heavily as she remembered running her hands through his hair and drew him closer. She blew out a breath when she remembered the feel of his arms around her.
Her legs felt weak as she drew them to her chest and she hugged them in comfort. Her stomach ached with a dreadful feeling and she tried to crunch it to drown out the twisting. Her heart felt heavy as it crumbled into bits every time she thought of the afternoon, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"You promised."
She sucked in a breath as the words crushed her all over again.
"I trusted you!"
She cringed as his words echoed in her ears.
"I-I can't do this."
She felt suffocated as her breath left her and struggle to come back in.
"Veronica, honey?" Keith broke her away from her painful thoughts. He looked at his daughter with concern as he saw her red-rimmed eyes and tear stained cheeks. She was cradled up in a ball, which he knew was a sign of her trying to burying herself away from all the hurt she felt. His heart broke at the sight; all a father wanted was for his daughter to be happy and safe. He sat down beside her and touched her hair which seemed to be wet with her tears.
"Daddy," she cried. The sight of her father seemed to break the dam wall and all the tears came flooding out again. He drew her into a hug as he whispered for her to tell him what's wrong.
She held him in a tight hug, almost afraid to let him go. He rubbed her back as he tried to sooth her but she didn't seem to be getting any better.
"Honey, what happened? Did your mother do something?" His concern was underlying with a bit of resentment for her mother. Veronica had to go through so much because of her mistakes.
She shook her head against his chest and slowly drew back from the hug. She drew in a deep breath and gript her father's arm a bit tighter to give her strength to voice her words. "Logan broke up with me." The words cut through her heart as she said it and it made her stomach turn in.
Keith's eyes widened. "Why would Logan do that?" He had seen that the boy had cared very much about his daughter but then he feared that he knew why...
She bits her lip trying her best not to cry at the memory.
It had been after school; she had spent some time with Lilly and then after Logan had met her on the beach.
She smiled as she turned to face her boyfriend but was met with a pair of angry, hurt and sad eyes. She frowned and asked, "What's wrong Logan?" She took a step toward him and lifted her hand to cup his face.
He stepped back and snorted with disbelief. "Like you care," he snarled. She was taken aback by his angry tone.
Confusion in her eyes, she said, "Logan?"
He didn't take her features of tone into consideration as he continued on his angry rant, "Tell me Veronica, did you think it was okay to ruin my life because yours was shattering down around you?"
Stunned, she froze in position. "What?"
He seemed angered by her confusion and her hurt eyes. "Perfect, innocent Veronica Mars! God Ronnie, stop acting so naive, I thought that act stopped when you chopped out your hair. How could you?"
She didn't understand why he was being harsh toward her. She didn't understand why he was pushing her away. But she knew that's what he wanted to accomplish. "Logan, what are yo-"
"I trusted you!" He spat out the words. "I told you things that I've never told anybody because I thought you cared! Did you even think about what would happen to me? Huh?" He spoke as if his mouth was a gun and his words were the bullets. It didn't matter if they were harsh or not because his tone was filled with anger, hurt and betrayal.
"I-"
He never gave her a chance to get a word out. "You broke your promise Veronica! I only asked you for one thing. But you had to be righteous Veronica Mars. Do no wrong, condone no wrong and don't give a fuck about what happens after?"
"Logan-"
"You promised!" He yelled with tears threatening to spill out.
Frustrated, she yelled back, "What did I promise?"
He ignored her yell as he continued, "And you said you wouldn't find your stupid loopholes but you just couldn't resist. So did you see me as a lost soul that needed saving? Is that it? Was I just a charity case for little Miss I'm-Everyone's-Angel?"
"Logan, I have no idea what you're talking about!" She huffed with annoyance at his words. She wasn't sure why he was behaving this way but she wasn't going to let him succeed in pushing her away from him.
He shook his head with disbelief, "Come on Ronnie, he's your dad!" His eyes widened with emphasis at the word 'dad'. "No one else knew." She still had the look of 'I have no idea about what you're talking about'. "You told your dad that Aaron abused me and now he's doing the Mars family righteous thing and decided to take Aaron on. But this time everyone in the fucking world knows!"
She looked at him with shock and disbelief; she didn't know that her dad knew; she didn't know that Logan had a chance of getting away from Aaron.
"So you thought that I wouldn't find out or that it wouldn't get leaked?"
She was still in shock by the news of her father opening a case against Aaron and everyone knowing that she didn't have time to react to his interrogation.
It seemed as if her silence was too much for Logan and he backed away as he ran his hand against his hair, "You know what? I-I can't do this anymore. We're done."
"Because he thinks that I told you that Aaron hurt him." She meets his gaze. "But I didn't so who did dad?"
"Honey, I'm not blind, I see-"
"Dad," she said sternly. "You couldn't have gotten that pictures and information by observation. What did you do?"
"Veronica..." He didn't want to involve her in this.
"Dad, no. Logan broke up with me because of this. He won't return my calls and I can't go to his house because of all the press and- Dad, please, I'm not only losing my boyfriend, I'm losing my best friend and he needs me but he thinks that I'm the one to blame. Please, tell me."
"I've been working this case for a year, unofficially."
"But those pictures and dates? How could you possibly have access to those and that was dated back further than a year ago." Realisation drew to her. "Lynn?" Her eyes a little wide. "She wasn't just standing idly by, was she?" Her voice was soft and she felt relief that Logan had a parent that cared and that the woman she saw as kind and gracious was still there.
Keith shook his head. "She's been helping me gather enough evidence. I have something that's solid Veronica but no one can know. And no one can know that Lynn has been helping me."
"But- but then Logan will think it was me. He'll hate me." Her eyes dropped. She really wanted to clear Logan's doubt of her, she wanted everything to be better and she wanted to be there for him.
"Veronica, this case is very sensitive," he tried to explain it. "Logan's not one to control his emotions. If he made the slightest hint to Aaron or anyone, this could end very badly. I know that Logan means a lot to you and you mean a lot to him. But this is for Logan's best interests."
"This, this will get him out, right?" Veronica swallowed hard, she couldn't believe that she's agreeing to this. She hated when people lied to her. And here, she was about to agree to lie to Logan or withhold the truth from him since he already assumed it was her. "He'll be free of Aaron." She convinced herself that it will be worth it.
"Yes."
"Okay, I'll do whatever it takes dad; I just want him to be safe."
"It's gonna be okay Veronica," her dad reassured her and she really wanted to believe that yet she had a feeling that it was going to get worse before it got better.
"I hope so," she breathed out as she laid her head against his shoulder.
~~VM~~
As much as Veronica appreciated her dad's attempt at making her feel better, she couldn't get over how hurt Logan had been and how much he hates her at this moment. He was driving them to lunch, she was very reluctant but he managed to twist her arm.
Suddenly there was a call on the radio, Veronica frowned at the interruption. Fear passed Veronica's face when the dispatcher said that there was a disturbance at the Kane estate. Keith glanced at his daughter at the mention of the place but hid whatever emotions he held well.
It didn't take long before the red and blue lights flashed of the Sherriff's car flashed in front of the Kane mansion.
"Stay in the car Veronica." Keith narrowed his eyes as he warned his daughter with a stern tone.
All Veronica could do was nod, as her father headed in she took notice of Duncan; he was seated on the bench as he rocked back and forth with a look of confusion and fear. She couldn't help herself; she needed to know what was going on.
She pushed open the door and then swung it closed. She hoped that it really was just a disturbance but really doubted it. Something was wrong, terribly wrong; she could feel it in the pits of her stomach.
When she reached the brother of her best friend, she knelt down and looked at him with a terrified expression. "What happened? Duncan, what happened?" She frantically questioned but received no answers. "Where's Lilly?"
His only reactions were his furrowed brows and loud sobs. She clenched her jaw in frustrated but had the fearful glint in her eyes at his lack of answers. After a few more failed attempts at getting him to speak, she grew fed up and ran pass him, to where all the commotion was happening.
Her eyes grew wide at the ambulance vehicle. She heard the loud sobbing around her; it was Celeste Kane and beside her was Jake Kane and her mother; Lianne Mars. All held looks of terror and fear.
"Oh my god!" Her breath caught when she saw her best friend in lying in the back of the ambulance. Her chest felt heavy and her stomach twisted inside. Her hands at her mouth couldn't keep the quivering away.
Her father held her shoulders which kept her from falling to the ground.
"Lilly? Lilly? Lilly!" Veronica broke free from her father's gasp and almost climbed into the vehicle as she yelled for her best friend.
"Veronica," Keith tried to calm her down and pull her back, "it's gonna be okay honey, she's alive. She's gonna be fine."
Veronica broke down; she fell to the ground and cried for her best friend who was now driving in away from her in the ambulance. When she saw the vehicle move away; she screamed and ran after it and yelled, "No, no, no! Come back!" When it didn't obey her words she ran in front of it. She didn't know how she managed to get energy in her but she had. She stopped the vehicle that was taking her best friend away from her.
Keith tried to hold Veronica back but she wasn't listening to her father. "Let me go! I have to be with Lilly! Please let me go with her!" Veronica begged with tears falling down her face.
Jake came and nodded to allow her to go with them, Veronica let out a sob climbed in. She wasn't going to leave Lilly's side. Lilly would be okay. Lilly would be just fine. Lilly was her sun and the sun always rose the next morning.
When the ambulance started up again, Veronica was beside her best friend and enlaced their fingers together. Her heart ached when Lilly's fingers were cold and didn't have the usual warmth it always had. She shook her head, it didn't matter because her hands were warm and she'd give that to her friend.
She closed her eyes for a second and squeezed her best friends hand and hoped that like always the fabulous blonde would read her thoughts. Please don't leave me Lilly...
