DISCLAIMER: Characters of Veronica Mars, any recognizable dialogue, and the canon events of their storyline belong to Rob Thomas.

A/N:

Chapters 16 through 20 (plus Chapter 1 of Part 4 in this series) were all posted the SAME DAY.

Chapter 15 was posted a week earlier.

Click back if you need to.

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Chapter 20 is a modified version of #3.20 "The Bitch is Back."

Occurs late April 2007.

Chapter 20

I had just ended a call from Wallace – who had demanded that I get to his dorm room "immediately, if not sooner." Two seconds later, my phone rang again. It was Mac asking if I had "seen the video yet."

"Well, since I don't know what you're talking about, I'm going to go with … no, I haven't seen it."

Mac's next question was: "Where are you?"

"Heading to Wallace's room. Apparently, he needs to talk to me."

"Yeah, I'm betting it's about this video. I'm on my way."

When I turned the corner on Wallace's floor, Mac was approaching from the opposite direction.

Mac knocked as I came to stand beside her. When Wallace opened the door, she asked him, "You've seen it?"

He glanced at me as he said, "No, but I heard about it."

Then, he stepped out into the hall, pulling the door behind him. "Veronica, you're gonna need to do an Agatha Christie drawing room thing in there." He paused and then continued. "You'll have reason to be upset with at least one of them, but I don't know what the truth is."

Mac beat me to the obvious question: "Who's in there?"

"Piz and Eli."

"Is anyone gonna tell me what's going on?" I asked.

"I'll start," Mac said to Wallace, then turned to me. "There's a video that's been emailed to most – if not all – of the students here at Hearst."

"Of what?" I asked her.

They exchanged a glance but did not answer my question. I was starting to get pissed off, and I didn't even know what I was dealing with yet.

Mac finally spoke. "Of you and Piz – in this room, getting down and dirty. I didn't watch the whole thing but saw enough to know it's the two of you. And you were in there."

"How is that possible?"

She pulled out her phone and showed me the beginning. That was enough for me to confirm what she was saying. And to determine the camera angle.

I grabbed the door handle as Wallace asked, "Don't you want to hear what happened?"

"First, I'm gonna verify the camera location."

When I pushed through the door, both Piz and Eli stood, prepared to start defending themselves. I raised a hand and shushed them. Then, I pulled a chair over so I could reach up on the ledge.

Holding up the small camera I found, I addressed Piz: "Explain."

Piz looked genuinely confused. "I still don't know what's going on. He hit me and started yelling questions at me. And now you're holding … I don't know what that is."

"It's a camera. The camera that captured video of us in this room. A video that has now been seen by the entire student body."

He shook his head as he started to respond. "What?! Wait. You think I—?"

"Who else?" Then, I turned to Eli. "And how exactly did you get involved in this?"

Avoiding my eyes, Eli said, "Dick came by to have his car worked on. Showed it to me on his phone. Laughed about always forwarding porn."

"For starters, it's not porn."

Finally looking at me, he asked, "What exactly would you call a sex tape?"

"Well, see, that's where you'd be wrong. There can't be a sex tape when we haven't had sex."

Eli didn't respond to that.

But Mac did: "Oh. I guess we were all so quick to look away that we missed the fact that things didn't progress that far."

Glancing at Piz, I said, "We were kissing, making out. But …" My voice trailed off as I tried to decide how to explain what had happened – or rather, what had not happened.

Piz finished my thought: "We stopped. She stopped."

Turning to Piz, I asked, "Just to be clear, you did not record this and then send it out? You had no part in any of it?"

"Well, apparently I co-starred in it. But other than that, no. I swear. I had no idea."

My attention returned to Eli. "So, after Dick showed it to you, you what? Drove straight over here?"

"Yes."

"And you gave him a beat down?"

Piz answered for Eli: "Yes."

Eli corrected, "Not exactly. I hit him a couple times to get his attention and then asked some questions."

Looking at Piz's face, I had to acknowledge that he could have looked worse.

"Wallace, can you get him cleaned up?"

"Really?!" Piz exclaimed. "That's it? You're not going to interrogate him? Look at my face, Veronica."

"I am looking at it, Piz. I'm not saying it was right, but if he really wanted to do damage, you'd be in worse shape. Mac and Wallace can verify that." I watched as they both nodded. "He's been out of the PCH Bike Club for a while. But beating someone up for sport? Pretty sure it's like riding a bike." Turning toward Eli, I pointed at the door and said, "You, with me." To the others, I said, "I'll be back in a couple minutes."

Once we were in the hall, I asked, "What were you thinking, Eli?"

"I was thinking what I always think when someone is trying to hurt you – protect you at all costs."

"Well, why don't you wait until you know who deserves the broken nose before you start punching."

"If I'm being honest … it hurt seeing you with someone else. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have ... It's not my business anymore."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

He opened the door and stepped back inside. "Piz, I'm truly sorry, man. I didn't have all the facts, and I … lost control."

Piz considered what he said before responding. "Understandable, I guess. If I were you, I would've been upset if I saw that." He glanced at me as he said, "Mac showed me while you were in the hall." Turning back to Eli, he continued, "Easy to jump to that conclusion. And thanks for not completely beating the shit out of me. Wallace tells me I got off easy."

It seemed like Eli didn't quite know what to say to that. He nodded as he said, "Well, I'm gonna get going. I won't get in the way anymore."

Piz looked confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"Just what I said. All I ever wanted was for her to be happy and safe. I'll back off."

Turning to me, Piz said, "I thought you would've told him when you were out in the hall."

"What are you talking about?" Eli asked Piz and then turned to me, asking the same question. "What is he talking about?"

Piz chose to answer him. "She didn't just put a stop to what was happening the day of the recording."

"I'm confused," Eli said.

"So was I," Piz continued. "But apparently she has this nutty old-fashioned notion that if you're still in love with one guy, you shouldn't be starting something with another guy."

Trying to make sense of what he was hearing, Eli looked back and forth between Piz and I as he said, "Still in love with … ?"

I was in no way prepared to have this conversation. And certainly not in a room full of people. I glanced at my watch-less wrist, saying, "Oh, look at the time. Gotta go."

As I turned to leave, both Mac and Wallace made faces at me – not happy about the fact that I was leaving them to deal with Piz and Eli.

I made it down the stairs and to the exit, but as soon as I was out of the building, Eli was on my heels. He tried to get me to stop. He even stepped in front of me. Finally, when I walked past him again, he grabbed my elbow. His tone was firm yet gentle as he said, "V, talk to me."

"What would you like me to say, Eli? You told me to let you go."

After a long pause, he said, "I don't know what you're planning on doing, but I'm offering my help. Whatever you need, I'm in."

I took a breath before saying, "You were upset with me for putting you in a position where you'd be provoked to violence. So you went your way, and I tried to move on. And here you are, protecting me again."

He had nothing to say to that.

I left him standing there as I walked the rest of the way to my car.

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With more than a little help from my friends, I dealt with the Castle. Wallace went above and beyond normal best friend expectations. And after I obtained Jake Kane's hard drive, Mac decrypted the files at the speed of light. I did not take Eli up on his offer of help, but I did have Carlos motivate a few people to give me information during the course of my investigation.

Although he knew nothing about the video, my dad had gotten pulled into my mess. I was able to return the hard drive to Jake Kane before he retaliated against my father. But Dad still lost the election. I had a difficult time accepting that Vinnie Van Lowe was elected as the new sheriff of Neptune, but his allies in low and high places certainly made him look like a legitimate candidate. Apparently, you can fool most of the people if you have the right connections and spend enough money.

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[

The semester had flown by. As I sat down to eat lunch on the last day of classes, I pulled out my phone to check messages. I saw missed calls, a voicemail, and a few text messages – all from Eli. Skimming through the texts, it was apparent that he wanted to talk to me. It just wasn't clear why.

I replied to his texts: How can I help you?

Immediately, my phone rang. As soon as I picked up, I heard him say, "Where are you?"

"Food court. Eating lunch."

"Got time now?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

"We need to talk."

"Yeah. I got that from your many calls and texts. What about?"

"I think you know what."

"What's with the cryptic? Just tell me."

"Unfinished business. Time to finish it."

"Okay … I'm listening." And I was, but I was also eating. And trying to figure out where this conversation was going.

"Not over the phone. See you soon."

He hung up on me. I wondered aloud, "What does soon mean?"

I felt someone sit down beside me. I turned, half-expecting to see Eli. But it was Gory Sorokin. And he seemed pissed. He pulled my chair to face him and said some misogynistic things in a rather threatening tone. I tried not to respond, reminding myself that he was connected connected.

In the end, I didn't have to respond. Someone else did it for me.

Eli pulled Gory out of his chair and punched him, knocking him to the floor.

"Want to hear your friend apologize?" Eli asked, fully prepared to beat him into contrition.

"I'm not interested in his apology. But I would like my pen back."

Gory wiped blood from his face as he stood up, saying, "Whoever you are, you're gonna die."

"Yeah, some day."

Stepping between them, I turned to Eli and said, "You should go."

"I'm not going anywhere. Not without you anyway." He paused, extending his hand to me.

As we walked out of the student center hand in hand, I heard an old familiar song coming from the speakers overhead:

Along the road

Your steps may stumble

Your thoughts may start to stray

But through it all a heart held humble

Levels and lights your way

.~.

THE END

of

Part 3

A/N:

Lyrics from "Along the Road" by Dan Fogelberg (1979)

The last thing Eli says here ("I'm not going anywhere. Not without you anyway.") was said by V to Eli in Chapter 8 of Commence.

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Please READ the following BEFORE reading Chapter 1 of Learning (Along the Road – Part 4), which was posted the same day as this chapter.

Things are not quite what they seem in Commence. After reading Chapter 1 of Learning (Along the Road – Part 4), if you go back and reread Commence, you should find traces of a "hidden storyline."

Some things to keep in mind:

From the beginning of their relationship in this series, Veronica and Eli have kept things from each other. Not everything, but some things. And that has not changed.

For example, in Commence: He didn't tell her that he arranged to have Caz taped to the flagpole or that he was having Carlos follow her. And there are hints that something else is going on with Eli.

Several times, Veronica only gives him a vague response – or no reply at all – when he brings up something she doesn't want to deal with. She avoids him rather than work through things.

Without a doubt, they are going through a complicated time – trying to maintain a relationship while starting a business and adjusting to college, dealing with adult life, all while living in the corrupt town of Neptune, not to mention the shit both of them have been through in their lives (and they haven't fully dealt with that stuff yet). These things affect them individually and as a couple. There are lots of unhealed wounds, and they are not doing a great job of communicating with each other.

She doesn't always tell others – or herself – the whole truth. And you have only been hearing her POV.

There are times when I strategically choose to NOT use dialogue, but rather have her tell you what happened in a particular scene. So what you read is her version of what happened and what got said, told with her bias/spin/interpretation/assumptions.

Example of miscommunication and assumption: Eli didn't tell her not to take another case ever, yet that is what she has wrongly inferred.

Much of what Eli has said and done has been motivated by his desire to be worthy not just of Veronica's love, but also of her respect. And by his need for one part of his life to be stress-free/peaceful/calm.

Veronica will soon find out that there's a lot Eli hasn't told her during the previous 6 months.

Thanks for reading this continuing series,

~Jen

28 June 2020