Since chapter 1 posted about 8 months ago, iZombie has seriously veered away from where this AU went. I think it goes without saying that this Chase would not have taken Liv up to his hotel room desk and I hope that with Veronica in the mix, Plan B would have been thwarted before Seattle officially became Zombietown.
I've been pushing around the idea of continuing in this AU, so Veronica could embark on a buddy cop adventure with Liv. Day 1 of the Logan/Veronica AU Week focused on crossovers, so I decided to at least get started, to help celebrate 4 years since our movie. I can't promise I'll ever get to the actual adventure part of this story, but at least here's the start.
"Veronica, come on, this is a terrible idea."
Logan "Chase" Graves sat on his hotel bed, watching his wife carefully apply eyeliner. She had someplace to be this morning, and he wasn't happy about it. Unfortunately, while he had no problem commanding the entire Fillmore Graves field army, and now its civilian brigade as well, he'd learned a long time ago that he had zero ability to tell Veronica no if she didn't want to be told.
"Logan, stop worrying. I'm excited about this. I think it'll be fun."
He flopped back on the mattress with a huff. "Fun. Yeah."
She laughed, then stood and walked back to the bed, climbing up to stretch out beside him. "Logan, what's the big deal? Investigating things is how I grew up. Yeah, I'm not in the field much anymore—"
He huffed again. "This isn't sitting in front of the Camelot to catch some idiot cheating on his wife. This is a murder investigation."
"I've solved murders before. Several of them, in fact. And I'm going to be working with the police. What could go wrong?"
He knew he probably should be embarrassed by the disbelieving squeak that registered in his throat, but it was Veronica. He didn't have to prove himself to her. Not anymore. "Oh God, don't say things like that. It's like an invitation to the universe to chase you down and try to stomp on you."
She chuckled and snuggled against him, resting her cheek and hand on his chest. "You're just mad that I'm getting a designer meal. That stupid paste is the worst."
He tugged her closer. "You know that's not the problem."
"If you weren't such a fucking puritan who won't sleep with me when I'm on another brain's personality..."
"We did that once. I don't want to do it again." He rolled her up to rest on top of him. "And again, you know that's not why I'm not crazy about this plan of yours." At the rise of her skeptical eyebrows, he shrugged. "Okay, I'm not a fan of you turning yourself into someone else, because that does take you out of my reach. In some ways at least."
She pressed her palms against his cheeks. "It's not for long, and stop worrying, I'm going to be fine. Liv's been doing this for a couple of years. You heard her last week. This isn't inherently dangerous. She gets a brain vision and sometimes can just figure things out. You know I'm good with the figuring out part." She stroked his face, lowering her head to brush her lips across his.
"I'm your husband, Veronica, not your boss. No, I don't love the idea, but when was the last time I made you do anything?"
She gave him a begrudging nod, that was belied by the warm look in her eyes. "Pretty much never. Except the no sex on other brains thing. That seems to be a hard limit for you."
"Well, of course, what do you think? I only want you. And I think it shouldn't be hard to understand why I won't be a guy who takes advantage of your altered state. I don't care how much you beg."
He caught a glimpse of her cheeks staining pink before she hid her face in his chest. "Will you never let me live that down?"
"You're kidding, right? That answer is an absolute no." He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head, grinning as she shook with embarrassed laughter. "Ooh, Logan, please," he teased in a high-pitched voice.
"Ugh, no, just stop." He laughed as she swatted at his chest. "All right, get serious. Can't you get on board with this plan? I just want to give it a try. Who knows how much longer it'll even be an option. Between Dr. Chakrabarti and the science department, there's a good chance we're all going to be human again soon."
"Maybe." She raised her eyebrows at his dubious tone, then powered on like he hadn't interrupted her.
"And once that happens, I won't have a chance to get in a dead guy's head to try to figure out who killed him. I mean seriously. Think how long it took to figure out about Lilly. And the Dean. And if we could have done this with the Dean's wife; we might have found out if Professor Landry actually killed her or if she did just fall off the boat like he claimed."
"Wouldn't have helped with the bus crash victims." He combed his fingers through her hair. "And let's get real. You weren't going to eat Lilly's brain."
"Not back then, obviously. But if I was a zombie, and I had this opportunity to find out what happened to her, you bet your ass I would have." He wrinkled his nose, disturbed by the image she was conjuring for him, but of course, she wasn't done creeping him out. "And think about it. What if we'd known about how this works back when Harrison died...maybe we could have figured out who killed him. Viv was probably more like the kids on the bus; she probably had no idea that anything even happened before it was over, but your brother..."
"Yeah, you might be right," he interrupted, not wanting to get her going along that line of thinking. The thought of Veronica, or anyone, eating his brother's brain, made him want to vomit, but she wasn't completely wrong. "But, it's too late now."
"Yeah, unfortunately, that's true." They were silent for a few moments, lost in thoughts of Harrison and Vivian, before Logan shook off the sudden melancholy and ran his hands down Veronica's back. "Okay, so what time are you supposed to be at the morgue?"
"Around 10:30 AM. How about you? What's your schedule like this morning?" This time, she was the one who squeaked as he flipped her onto her back and rolled to press against her. "Logan! What are you doing?"
"What do you think I'm doing? You have time, and I don't have anything scheduled this morning that Carey can't handle as well as I can. If you're leaving here in an hour to become someone else for a few days, I think I need a little authentic Veronica on Logan action to tide me over until you're the only one in your head again."
"Oh really?' She grinned up at him, wrapping her legs around him and hooking her heels together. "Authentic Veronica, you say?"
He shrugged and nodded, then dropped his head to nuzzle at her neck. "The only acceptable Veronica." He nipped at her collarbone and she rolled her head to the side.
"All right, you convinced me," she said in a breathless voice. "I've got a while before Liv's expecting me, and a little one on one time sounds like a great idea."