A/N: This chapter was a little bit...I don't know...interesting to get Dick's voice, I mean, he's great and all, but he is so sarcastic that I think his dialogue may be my weakest link, because I don't know if I can get it quite right. I didn't play him over-emotional, those scenes will be in future chapters between MaDi. Hopefully you all enjoy this! For me, Veronica never liked Dick, ever, so I am not letting either off lightly with that, and Mac is aware of that, of course.

Mac shifted in her chair uncomfortably. She was waiting outside of Dick's hospital room while the doctors performed their last examination on him before they signed the release form to let him go home. Worn out, Mac was wishing for a real chance to sleep. The night before had not been a restful one, and fighting with the hospital staff all day had just about been all she could take. But it wasn't looking like rest would be on the agenda anytime soon.

Keith had come right after she had called, playing tough and impatient just like she had hoped. He had been able to work his magic, and soon the staff became more forthcoming about Dick's situation. The best news had come when the admitting doctor had come to tell them that with most cases of alcohol poisoning, the patient was released within 24 hours, so there was no real reason to move him out of County. Dick was improving as expected, and once he woke up they would set to work releasing him.

Before too long, the staff had moved Dick up to the third floor, where Mac made sure he got a private room. Keith had left once Dick was settled, promising to be back later with food. After he had left, Mac had run down to the gift shop to grab a book, planning to spend the remainder of her day sitting in an uncomfortable chair next to Dick's bedside.

It had felt strange, being with Dick for such a long period of time, especially with no snarky or obnoxious comments from him. The only noise in the room was the beeping of the various machines hooked to him, which had been disturbing, so before too long, Mac had turned the television on just for white noise.

When that hadn't help, Mac firmly shut her book, turned the TV off and looked at Dick, still unconscious. She took in all the lines in his face, at the stitched eyebrow, the fat lip. Her hand had grasped his, holding on to it tightly, the other hand running lightly up and down his arm.

"What happened to you, Dick?" She had whispered. "This has to be about Cassidy. Why couldn't you find somewhere safer to be?" She had let the words flow, more cathartic for her than anything about Dick. "Last night, I wanted to get wasted, too. I bet you don't believe that, do you? Just…June third is always a hard day for me. June itself is a hard month anyway. I always get thinking about what Cassidy was to me and what he became to everyone else. It's hard to reconcile mourning the loss of someone everyone else hates. It's so tempting to just not be anything for a while. To not think and not have to worry….to not explain why it hurts so much. No one understands it, do they? Not even your best friend! Because that's who he hurt the most!" She had felt tears begin to stream down her face. "We should have talked about it, you and me, you know that? We should be dealing with his damn ghost together!"

Interrupted then by a nurse, Mac had gratefully left the room, walking around the third floor hallways, her mind racing. She eventually had come back, picked her book up and read until Keith had shown up with a bag of take-out.

They had taken the food outside to the courtyard, quickly eating and heading back to Dick's floor. As they rounded the corner from the elevator, they had heard a commotion coming from within his room. One look to each other and they had both been rushing down the hallway and into Dick's room where three male were nurses attempting to restrain him in his hospital bed.

She and Keith watched as Dick seemed to overpower the nurses attempt to keep him in his bed, pushing himself up and over the edge, standing up on wobbly legs, a feral look in his eyes as he had grabbed at all the wires attached to his body and started to viciously pull them off. He had already ripped the tube out of his throat, and it lay limp on the floor beside his feet.

"Dick, calm down!" Mac had yelled, stepping further into the room.

The sound of her voice had stopped him; his casted hand hesitating as it hovered over where the IV was inserted in the opposite arm. Immediately, his had eyes found hers, widening slightly, and he had sat back onto the bed, where the nurses quickly went to work on him. His eyes never left hers as the nurses had finished their job and then quietly left with a silent thank you from their lips as they had passed her.

She and Keith had come nearer to the bed, Keith urging, "Dick, why don't you lay back down and relax on the bed, we can adjust it so you're sitting up." Dick had relented, letting Keith find the remote to adjust the bed into a better sitting position.

When he had finally seemed comfortable, Keith sat at the end of the bed and Mac sat in the chair she had been using all afternoon. Looking between the two of them, Dick had asked, his voice raspy, "What happened to me?"

Keith had leaned over to where a rolling table sat with a water jug and offered it to Dick, who took it gratefully and drank thirstily through the straw, a slight grimace on his face. As he had placed it back on the table, Keith had said, "We've been hoping to ask you the same thing, actually, Dick."

Keith had then explained what they knew, about his injuries and how he had been found on the beach, passed out. "You had no ID on your person, so they brought you here."

Dick had looked confused. "How the hell did you find me, then?"

Mac had spoken then, explaining, "I was at the ER for a case, looking for a missing person, and you were their only unidentified person. I was able to identify you." She hadn't really wanted to admit she had sat with him the whole day.

Sympathetically, Keith had asked, "Do you remember anything before you passed out last night?"

Twisting in the bed, Dick had closed his eyes, concentrating. "Uh, yeah, I locked up the shop like I usually do at five and left there, headed home. Grabbed my gear and uh…." He had sat up, looking uncomfortable, shooting a quick look at Mac. "I'm not real sure from then on."

Chewing her lip, Mac had watched him closely. "Dick," she'd said softly, "are you sure you don't remember? You were found at some beach more than ten miles from your place, which has plenty of beach from your back door. There was no feasible reason that any of us could come up with that puts you at a different beach than your own."

His blue eyes had swung open to glare at her. "No feasible answer, huh? That figures."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She'd asked defensively, crossing her arms.

"You know exactly what that means." The forcefulness of his words had caused him to start coughing uncontrollably, his eyes watering in his struggle. Keith again had handed him the water jug.

Before they could continue, the rotating doctor had come in to look at his patient and kicked the two non-patients out into the hallway. As he did, the doctor had told them that with any luck, he would be releasing Dick later in the evening.

Keith had been quiet for a few minutes, pacing back and forth while they waited. Finally, he turned to Mac and said, "What's going on between you two? I thought you didn't really know Dick?"

Shaking her head, she had answered, "I don't, not really. But…it's complicated, I guess."

"Does it have something to do with Cassidy Casablancas?" Keith had ventured tentatively.

Staring at her shoe, Mac had given a slight nod. "I think so, yes." Then she had cleared her throat, looked up and given him a cheery smile. "Did you hear the doctor though? They will probably be releasing him tonight. That's good news. I wonder how he'll feel leaving in an ass-less gown."

Keith had humored her and let it drop. "By the look of it, I'm thinking he won't be impressed."

"Maybe you should call and see if Veronica can pick up some clothes at his place. I think she has a key."

Now, sitting, waiting in the hall as the doctor to complete his exam, Mac watched as Veronica rounded the corner from the elevator and approached her with a bag full of what she knew to be Dick's clothes.

Smiling, Veronica stopped in front of her and cast her a long look. "You remind me of 'The Thinker'. Really, how long have you been sitting like that? You'll turn to stone soon." She set the bag down at her feet. "Remind me to never root around Dick's clothes again. As enlightening as the 'I pooped today!' t-shirt was, I found the lesser of the many evils in his closet," She leaned down and pulled out a gray t-shirt that said 'I'm disguised as an adult!' slapped across it. "My choices were limited."

"Nice." Mac took the bag and stuffed the shirt back into it. "I think they're releasing him soon. Thanks for bringing this."

"Where's Dad at?"

"He got a call and went down to the waiting room to take it. The nurses were giving him dirty looks. He should be back soon." She stood up to stretch her back. "How did the case go today? Any luck with Madison?"

Mac listened with interest as Veronica filled her in about her day, laughing hard as she explained The Vertical Limit class. "Sounds like a productive enough day."

"Yeah, tell that to my thighs in the morning." Veronica grimaced, "and quite possibly my whole body. Wow."

The door to Dick's hospital room opened and the doctor stepped out, nodding at them, saying, "You're welcome to go on in. I've signed the discharge forms, but he needs to come back in three days to see me, or else his general practitioner for a checkup and to remove the stitches. It's imperative that he stay away from alcohol. He should not be left alone." The doctor looked sharply at both of them. "Does he have someone that can stay with him for the next week or two?"

Mac's eyes flew to Veronica, who was having a deer in the headlights moment. Two weeks?! For some reason, it hadn't really occurred to Mac to wonder what would happen once Dick was released, only that she couldn't leave him alone in this crappy hospital. She couldn't imagine anyone having to take care of him for two solid weeks, let alone herself. No thank you.

Keith was suddenly next to them, having appeared from seemingly nowhere. He gave the doctor a smile. "I'm sure between all of us, we can help Mr. Casablancas out for a while. He has the resources to hire a nurse if need be."

As soon as the doctor had excused himself, Keith had let himself into Dick's room with the bag of clothes, leaving the two women to discuss the pending situation.

"I'm sorry, but there is no way that I am taking care of Dick. I don't care how close he and Logan are, he is not my BFF. I never signed onto diaper duty for Richard Casablancas." Veronica was talking faster than normal, pacing up and down the hall. "He has money, he's lucid, we can help him find a live-in and that's it. That's all I'm going to take responsibility for."

"What other options do we have, though, especially right now? It's too late to arrange care for him tonight, he'll have to come home with us or one us will need to stay at his place with him." Mac leaned back against the hallway's wall.

Turning to face her, Veronica shook her head hard. "No. You can't make me."

"Well, I won't make you." Blowing out a sigh, Mac made a face, "After tonight." Sensing that Veronica was about to interrupt her, Mac held her hand up and said, "Just listen. He can't go back to his place; I expect he'd know where all the alcohol is there. He probably has it hidden in his sock drawer or something. I am not in the mood to purge that place right now. He's going to either have to go to our apartment or your dad's for the night, and Keith told me he has to fly out early for that fraud case. In the morning I'll do some research and see if I can find someone to stay with him."

Veronica looked like she wanted to protest, but just then, the door opened and Keith emerged motioning them inside the room. Following his gesture, they entered to see Dick dressed, sitting at the edge of the bed, slowly slipping his shoes on his feet.

Looking up, Dick said hoarsely, "Glad Logan gave you my key; he must have sensed you would need it. Doc told me I can't go home alone tonight. Which one of you lovely ladies won the Dickster for the night?"

Keith audibly sighed and Veronica started to speak, but Mac interrupted to say, "We played two out of three Rock, Paper, Scissors and I lost, so you get me. Yay." She cocked her head. "Play your cards right, you'll probably get us both." She saw his eyes flick in surprised interest, which made Mac second guess why she was playing this game. She could almost see Veronica's open-mouthed gawk in protest. Quickly backpedaling, she amended, "Actually, you do get us both, because you're coming home with us and staying on our couch for the night." She could feel Veronica stiffen beside her. "Tomorrow I'll help you find a live-in nurse. You can afford it."

"What if I don't want a nurse?" Dick asked petulantly.

Rolling her eyes, Mac replied, "You still get a nurse."

The staff insisted that Dick had to be wheel-chaired out of the hospital because it was procedure. So while Keith stayed with Dick, she and Veronica had left to pull Mac's car around to the loading zone to meet them.

In the elevator, Veronica turned to give Mac a hard look. "What was that about, Mac?"

Keeping her eyes up on the numbers slowly lighting showing their descent, Mac murmured, "Whatever do you mean?"

Veronica grunted. "That little 'play your cards right' thing. If I didn't know better, I would say you were flirting with that tool." She folded her arms in disgust.

Taking a deep breath, Mac dared to look at her. "Relax. I didn't mean anything by it. He's just… Dick, you know? You gotta play by his rules sometimes." The look on Veronica's face made her laugh. "I won't do it anymore. I promise. He just needed to not be on the defensive, and the best way is to joke along with him. Besides, there is no way that he can beat you at cards. You have nothing to worry about."

The elevator binged and the door opened, and as Veronica passed her to exit, she said under her breath, "But I don't think I was dealt into the game."

Dick had ended up in Mac's car by default. Keith had to go straight home to pack for his trip and Veronica protested loudly about being in a confined space for more than three minutes alone with Dick. Therefore, it was Mac's front seat that Dick slid into with a groan.

As they headed toward the apartment, Dick began flipping through the radio stations, grumbling, "Nothing decent on poor man's waves."

"Hey, I can still strap you to the roof of the car, so I'd watch my mouth if I were you."

Under his breath, Dick replied, "Yeah, I'd like to see you try."

Flipping her blinker, Mac said forcefully, "And you might be surprised."

Dick leaned back and turned to look at her. "I might not be."

She bit back the retort on her lips when she glanced at him, his appreciative gaze lingering at her breasts. Her pulse was suddenly at her throat, beating wildly for some idiotic reason. Focusing on the road, she chose to ignore his last comment and changed the subject. "Tomorrow, I'll take you over to your place and help you find a nurse. Although…" Her thoughts jumped to the realization that it was the weekend, "I wonder how hard it will be to find someone on a Saturday. Shit."

Dick laughed lightly, now looking out the window. "You'd think I'd timed this little incident to get more time with you." He fidgeted with the cast on his arm. "A little private time in the Ghost World."

"Shut up." Mac felt her patience waning. "You don't know anything about me, Dick. You never did. Just keep your stupid comments to yourself and we will get along just fine."

Scrunching up his face, Dick said rudely, "Pretty sure I know something about you."

She glared at him. "Enough." She wasn't sure why she was letting him rile her. Mac knew that this was a great time to ask about what happened to him last night, but she wasn't ready for whom that conversation would ultimately lead to. "Maybe we should just not talk."

The rest of the ride was comment free, and when they arrived to the apartment, she came around to help him out, but he had already gotten the door open and was halfway out before she got there. Shrugging, she stepped ahead of him to let him follow her.

"Veronica had to stop at the pharmacy to grab your prescriptions, so she might be a while." Mac told him as she unlocked the door. Stepping in, she flipped the light on and motioned him to come in. "Be it ever so humble."

"I'm impressed, Mackie. Nice digs." Dick tromped in and made his way to toward the living room couch. "For an 08er, this apartment has some class."

Shutting the door, Mac pulled her shoes off and followed him, helping him situate himself within the cushions and pillows. Feeling a little like she was fawning over him, she pulled back and told him, "I'm gonna go change. Then we can settle you in my room."

Dick's eyebrows quirked and a quick smile touched his lips. "I knew I'd wear you down."

"Oh, is that what you were doing?" Mac headed for her door, "Maybe you need more practice. We don't have a hide-a-bed and this couch is super uncomfortable. You're sleeping in my room alone."

When Mac emerged from her room twenty minutes later, Veronica had arrived and was sitting down across from Dick in a lounge chair, eyeing him uncertainly. Dick had found the remote to the television and was watching an old rerun of SNL, studiously ignoring Veronica's stare.

She seemed content with that until about five minutes in, Veronica leaned over and shut the TV off with the remote that sat on the coffee table.

"Hey! I was watching that!" Dick protested, finally looking at her. "What's your problem?"

"We need to talk." Veronica glanced at Mac, nodding at her to sit down. "I'm a little concerned about what happened last night, Dick." She kept speaking as Dick tried to interrupt her, "I don't care 'why it happened'," she air-quoted, "we can get to that some other time. Or tell it to your therapist. Whatever. It really doesn't matter to me. What I'm worried about is where your car's at. It wasn't at the beach house when I stopped tonight. So that means you drove it somewhere. If it was left at the beach, by now it would have been impounded, and I had Norris check to see; it hasn't been yet." She looked meaningfully at his injuries, "I think you got robbed."

"Robbed?" Mac repeated, hollowly.

Dick looked between the two of them. "Why would you think that?"

Veronica motioned toward Dick's arm and face, "Those injuries are not consistent with a fall on the beach. Your fat lip and black eye, stitches…that's all consistent with a fist fight. And your arm easily could have been broken if it was an ambush."

Dick guffawed. "Me, lose a fight? These fists have won wars, baby." He flexed his fingers, grimacing in pain. "Okay, you might have a point."

Mac frowned. "But what about the alcohol poisoning? Certainly you're not suggesting that these robbers plied him with alcohol first."

For the first time, Veronica looked slightly uncomfortable. "No, I think his inebriated state made him an easy target." Clearing her throat, she went on, "When you got to the beach, you were probably already drunk, right? Someone looking for a mark would have seen how you were acting and just bided their time until the opportunity arose to rob you and take your car, leaving you abandoned at the beach. I want to find those kids that called into report you passed out and find out if they saw anything."

"That was an anonymous called; I asked the front desk at the ER." Mac reminded her.

"Yeah, but I think if we hang around long enough at that beach, someone will talk. We'll find them."

"Well," Mac said as if to remind her, "You're working on the Mad—" she caught herself, "on your case, Keith is leaving on the fraud case, and I have to babysit Dick. When do you propose one of us will have time to hang out at the beach?"

Smiling, Veronica said, "It just so happens that Wallace has the day off tomorrow. I'll just give him a jingle and see if he wants to go for a swim." Glancing at the time, she said, "It's late and you need rest, Dick, so in the morning, I think you should call the police and report your car stolen first thing. Your wallet was probably in there, right?" When he nodded, she continued, "You're going to want to put alerts on your bank accounts and things also."

Mac stood and motioned at Dick to stand. As he did so, she went to where Veronica had set the bag of prescriptions down, pulled out two pain pills and found a bottle of water in the fridge. She returned to lead Dick into her room.

"The sheets are clean. I changed them just now, hopefully it doesn't get too hot in here for you." Nervous energy was causing her to blab, "The morning sun can get intense even with the blinds closed. How late do you want to sleep? I can take you to your place anytime in the morn—"

"Easy, Mackster," Dick interrupted, "I don't mind a little heat in the sheets—I actually prefer it." She felt her face warm at his unabashed words, "I have no plans in the morning, I'll just get up when I get up…but if you're really that worried you can always join me to make sure I'm all right. After all, you did win me fair and square, right? No need to waste the opportunity."

As he made his way toward the bed, he brushed past her, lightly touching his arm into her body, causing a shiver to run down spine. When she caught the cocky grin he cast over his shoulder, she openly rolled her eyes. "What a temptation." But as the words left her mouth, Dick began peeling his shirt off, discarding it quickly as his hands fumbled with the snap off his jeans. Mac mouth went dry as she stood and watched him struggle.

He caught her eye and grinned, uncomfortable. "Yeah, uh, V's dad had to help a little. She maybe should have brought sweats." He waggled his eyebrows at her. "You wouldn't mind helping a guy out?"

Mortified, Mac backed up toward the open door and shook her head, weakly saying, "Uh, you're going to have to handle that one yourself, sorry. See you in the morning."

Stepping into the kitchen where Veronica was getting the coffee ready for the morning, Mac sat heavily into a kitchen chair and sighed loudly. "Dick Casablancas is a pain in my ass."

Veronica paused as she scooped coffee grounds into the filter, studying her. "Join the club." Thoughtfully, she remarked, "I seem to be the spokeswoman for a lot of clubs these days."

Mac grimaced, unamused. "I mean it. Every five seconds it's some sexual innuendo. And the worst part? Oh, the worst part is that my damn body betrays me. I haven't had a man in so long that my body sees the first naked man in my room in months…possibly years…and it goes into visual overload."

Veronica came and sat down across from Mac, a sober look in her eye. "You can't be serious."

"Don't judge me, you have a man, and more recently, said man probably did a strip tease for you over the airwaves." As Veronica started to object, Mac shook her head, "Come on, you know it's true. You can get off digitally any old time, thanks to your loverboy."

"And your point is?"

"My point is, it's only natural, right?" She ran her fingers through her short-cropped hair. "I mean, I wouldn't be a woman if I didn't look, right?" She met Veronica's eyes, a little desperately, "He's naked in my bed. Words of wisdom, oh wise one. And…go."

Sitting back in her chair, Veronica clasped her hands together and said, "It's Dick Casablancas, Mac." She shrugged her shoulders. "That's all I got."

Nodding Mac replied, "Okay, I got your point. Very wise. Can I sleep on the floor in your room, though, just to be safe?"

A/N: Okay, so thanks for reading! Reviews are always welcome, they quite literally make my day. There is lots more of the Madison mystery coming up, I have just nailed down exactly where I am going with that and am anxious to get it into words. Thank you thank you thank you for the reviews, comments, favorites, and follows. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!