Disclaimer: I have never nor will ever own any of the characters. They belong to Rob Thomas. If I did own them, I would never have done what he did.

Chapter Fourteen

Veronica's POV

"Umm babe, where are all of my shirts?" Logan says, sticking his head out of the closet.

"What do you mean? They are still in there hanging up," I say as I am walking back into our bedroom. My hair is still wet from my shower and I am still in my towel. We are both trying to get ready to leave so we can start the busy day that we have ahead of us.

I know I should have packed up his clothes and not left them hanging in the closet or neatly placed in his drawers in the dresser, but I could never bring myself to box up his things. Everyone told me I should on multiple occasions, especially recently. The more time that passed, the more everyone started to encourage me to move on and they all said the first step in moving on would be to pack up his clothes and belongings, but I just couldn't do it, and now I am glad I didn't.

"I see some of them, but I am still missing several. Any idea where those could be?"

I know exactly what shirts he is talking about. They were favorites of mine for him to wear. They were also the shirts I kept under the edge of the bed, where I could grab them in the middle of the night and slip them on or cuddle them close to me. The shirts I could never bring myself to wash, even though I found them in the bottom of the dirty laundry after everything happened.

I walk to the closet and pretend to vaguely look around for his shirts while I am grabbing my own clothes. I get dressed, still pretending to search for his shirts. I'm about to answer and admit yet another embarrassing, girlie habit that I had in his absence and show him where his shirts are hidden, but luckily, I am saved by a knock at the door.

"I got it," I say as I quickly make my way to the door. However, my relief for the distraction is short lived when I open the door to reveal Leo. 'Well shit, this isn't going to be good,' I think to myself.

I haven't even said hello, but that doesn't seem to matter because he starts in pretty much as soon as I open the door.

"Listen Veronica, I know that this may seem a bit insensitive on my part and you may not think it has been long enough, but I have been thinking and I think it would be good for you to get out and do something. With that being said, I would like to have dinner with you and was wondering what you thought about that. I know that I'm not Logan, but we were good together once upon a time and I think we could be again."

To say that I am shocked is an understatement. I am literally standing there with my mouth hanging open. Where in the hell did this come from? I had not seen Leo for almost a year, the last time being when he stopped by shortly after Logan's funeral to tell me how sorry he was.

I don't even know how to respond to that. Even if Logan had not come back, Leo would still be way off course if he thought I would want to go out with him again. It just makes it even worse that Logan has actually come back.

As I am thinking that exact thought about Logan, he walks up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me back to his chest. He pulls me flush against him and rests his chin on the top of my head.

"Well Leo," he says, "don't you think it is a little awkward to be asking my wife out. I mean it was bad enough when you showed up on our doorstep with a pizza and that was before we were married. Now that we are married, it makes it even worse."

"What the fuck?" Leo gasps.

"That seems to be the exact same reaction we have been getting for days now," I say, trying to lighten the situation.

It's no secret that Logan never appreciated my spending time with Leo, and I'm sure him showing up here and asking me to move on with him, has only made that worse.

"Listen Leo, not to be rude, but I'm really kind of tired of explaining this again and again and Veronica and I actually have a full day ahead of us, so if you don't mind, I'm really not in the mood to get into it. All you really need to know is I am home now, therefore, Veronica is not on the market or in need of your help to move on."

I turn to glare at him. Nothing like an old boyfriend to bring out the jealous asshole in my husband.

Leo still looks stunned, not that I blame him. Here he thought he could come and try and convince me to go out with him, only to find that my husband, who everyone thought was dead, is actually alive and well.

"So, umm turns out Logan didn't actually die in the explosion and I just found out a couple of days ago and I'm not really sure what else to say," I try to explain.

"Well, I guess I should be going then. I'm sorry. If I would have known..." he trails off, not finishing his thought.

"Leo it's fine. You didn't know. You don't have to go," I tell him.

"No really, Veronica, I think that it would be best if I just leave."

"Yeah, I think that would be a great idea Leo," Logan says, still clearly acting like a jealous teenager.

"I'll see you, sometime," Leo lamely says as he turns around and walks down the stairs.

"Was that necessary Logan?"

"Yeah, I think it was Veronica! How many times has he stopped by in the last year? Did something happen between the two of you?"

"You're kidding me, right? No, nothing happened, you idiot! That was only the second time I have seen him in a year. The first time being right after your funeral and I barely said two words to him the whole time he was here. I was clearly not in the right frame of mind then."

I walk away from him, more than a little angry about what he is trying to imply. How could he think that I would be able to move on so quickly? I walk into the bedroom and pull the shirts that he was looking for out from under the bed.

He has followed me into the bedroom, by this point, so I hold the shirts out for him to take.

"These are what you were looking for right?"

He looks a little puzzled, but he takes the shirts anyways.

"Everyone has been telling me for months now that I should pack up your things. They would say I couldn't begin to heal with all of your things surrounding me. I couldn't do it though. I found these shirts in the laundry. They were my favorites you know. I kept them under there and would pull them out when I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming after the nightmares where I would relive your death over and over. You weren't here to hold me and chase away the nightmares, so I would pull the shirts out and cuddle them close until I could fall back asleep. If I wasn't even able to box up your things, do you really think anything could have actually happened with Leo?"

He wraps his arms around me in a hug and I wrap mine around his waist. I rest my head on his chest and he runs one hand down my hair.

"No, I don't. I'm sorry. I don't know what is wrong with me. Can we just forget about this? Are you ready to go?"

I sigh and look up at him. He looks down at me and I place a soft kiss on his lips.

"Yeah pretty much. Give me five minutes and I will be."

Veronica, we are okay, right?"

"Of course, we are," I say, kissing him one more time before letting go to finish getting ready.

We get Logan's phone working, which was the first thing on our agenda. Logan calls the base and sets up a time for him to go in and speak with his CO about his discharge. That call puts us one step closer to being done with this whole ordeal.

"So, are we meeting Wallace for lunch?" Logan asks when he hangs up the phone.

"Yeah, we are supposed to meet him around 1:00."

We walk hand and hand deciding that we can just walk to lunch because we are close to where we are meeting Wallace.

"How do you think he is going to be today?" Logan nervously asks.

"I think he will have had time to calm down and so he will be better today."

I know that Logan is nervous about seeing Wallace again. He is still struggling with being back himself and the reactions of everyone else. We have been so preoccupied with dealing with telling everyone and the issues that came about as a result that we haven't even really had a chance to talk about what happened to him while he was gone.

I don't even want to think about all of the possibilities of things that he could have seen and done and the emotional toll that those probably took on him. I know he says that he is alright, but I would think he has to be struggling with it and I worry he is keeping it bottled up because he doesn't want to burden me with it. I make a mental note to make him talk to me about it, however, now is not the time as we are at the restaurant and I can see Wallace is already there waiting for us.

"Hey Wallace," he stands when we get close to the table that he has already been seated at and I give him a small hug.

Logan not knowing what to do simply gives a slight wave and we all move to sit down. I'm really not sure where to start or what to say. All that I really want is for things to be okay between these two. I was so glad when Logan and Wallace got over their issues and became friends and I would really like for things to go back to that.

"Listen man," Wallace starts, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "I'm sorry about the other night. I was just so shocked and I couldn't seem to let go of the anger that I felt. After we left, Shae and I talked about everything we found out that night and I know it wasn't your fault the way that things turned out, but you have to understand where I was coming from too."

I look to Logan who nods and looks down at the table. Only briefly making eye contact. I take his hands, lacing our fingers together. His thumb instantly starts to rub across my knuckles.

"I get it. I really do," Logan finally responds. "I can't imagine what it was like to watch her have to go through that. Honestly, I have been trying to not think about it since I got back. I feel nothing but guilt for what I put her and all of you through. I had no idea and if there was a way for me to go back in time and change it all, I would, but I can't."

Wallace holds up his hand, putting a stop to Logan's guilt induced ramble. "I was mad Logan, but now that I have had time to think about it, I'm really glad that you are alright. I'm so glad that I don't have to watch my best friend suffer through her life without you. We all kept hoping that with each new day she would slowly start to get better, but that never happened. It was just one day after another of the same sad, defeated Veronica. I don't think I realized just how much she loved you until I had to watch her lose you. We didn't just lose you that day, we lost her too."

I look between two of the most important men in my life and once again think how lucky I am to have them. I know that most of the time, I don't deserve them. I really need to work on showing them how much they both mean to me. I never even realized the impact that my sadness was having on Wallace.

"So, are we cool then?" Logan asks.

"Yeah, that is my point in all of this. As long as she is happy, then we are cool. And I guess I kind of missed you too."

Logan exhales a breath I hadn't realized he had been holding and smiles.

"Welcome home, man," Wallace says, standing up.

Logan stands too and gives Wallace a one-handed hug.

"So, boys, are we ready to eat because I am starving?"

They both look at me and laugh. "What?" I say. Not really understanding what is so funny.

"Now that is the Veronica that I have missed," Wallace says through his laughter.

Logan kisses my cheek and I smile at them both as we all pick up our menus and enjoy our lunch.