The air was stiff in Veronica's room as she let her eyelids fall and her muscles relax, letting her typical tenacity seep out of her exhausted body. Dozing into a light sleep, Veronica sighs, her breath hovering in the stale air before falling lightly on the pillow next to her. The breeze outside the window whispers softly, telling secrets to the trees as the moon hangs in the sky, prominent in a night scattered with stars.

A hand slips over Veronica's mouth as her eyes dart open and the tenacity that had left her body only a few hours before crawls back through her skin, swimming through her veins. Her hands automatically fly to the arm of the invisible stranger whose shadow is only barely discernible from the shadows of the piles of laundry that clutter the floor.

Surprisingly, a soft whisper answers the questions posed by the clawing of Veronica's fingers.

"Shh...it's only me."

"Oh my God... what are you doing here? Wait.. 'only you', Veronica mockingly asks? "... Only you in the middle of the night, breaking and entering and I have a feeling a kidnaping charge will be added in just a few minutes."

"Veronica...you just woke up and already you have the capability and energy to throw smart ass remarks at me?

"At least I'm not throwing punches."

Logan shifts on the side of the bed causing a wave as he moves closer to Veronica. He is only inches from her face when Veronica, letting the sheet that she had held protectively in front of her chest fall, leaned in next to Logan's face and whispered in his ear, "where are we going?"

"Well from the look of your pajamas, or rather my shirt, I'll be taking my shirt back and leaving you down on the corner with the rest of the working girls."

With a histrionic expression of hurt plastered on Veronica's face Logan responded, "Okay...I'm kidding, just get dressed...please."

Veronica climbed out of bed stepping over Logan as she went and over to her pile of clothes. She pulled her jeans on, not bothering to change her shirt, well his shirt to be exact, and she stood waiting for Logan. Standing up right in front of her, his own height towering hers, Logan reached down and grabbed her hand. They walked to the door where Logan stealthily peaked to see if Keith had awoken, but he hadn't and his muffled snores were still audible as the two walked down the hallway and slipped out the door.

When outside in the night/early morning, air, Veronica took a deep breath and followed obligingly behind Logan. She had no idea where they were going or if they even had a destination, but for the moment she was with him and that is all that mattered then and it is all that mattered now.

She climbed up into Logan's Xterra as Logan climbed in the driver's seat and they were off. They were leaving for somewhere not yet known or decided. Logan's hand was wrapped around Veronica's on the armrest as they drove, but neither remembered when if had happened but they really didn't care anyway.

They drove through quiet neighborhoods where the children were tucked in, safe in their beds. They drove down desolate streets where the trees that lined them were the only company the vacated road offered. Through all this time, however the car remained silent.

Finally Logan parked the car and they walked, hand in hand, to the beach. At first they stayed on the boardwalk, watching as couple after couple walked by, watching as everything they had once aspired to be jabbed a knife in each of their hearts and then twisted it, sending the pain throbbing throughout their bodies until it hurt so bad that it blurred their vision.

"Veronica, do you think you could ever love me?"

"Logan you've barely said anything to me all night and then you ask this deep, serious question...," Veronica trailed off.

"Sorry but I need to know, could you? Could you ever love me?"

"Logan..."

With pleading eyes that seemed to pierce through every part of her, Logan whispered, barely audible, "just...please...could you ever?"

"I already have... Oh God, we can't do this. It will never work, Veronica stated mostly to herself but to Logan as well. Silence revisited them then as the awkwardness of the moment escalated.

They continued to walk down the boardwalk, past all the little shops and stands until they got to the balloon stand. Veronica smiled as she walked over and bought all the red balloons the vender had left, 5 dozen.

Veronica handed the balloons to Logan for a second as she took off her sneakers and socks, carrying them in one hand and having taken the balloons back from Logan, held them in the other. Veronica trudged out into the sand and to the edge of the water, letting the cool water roll over her feet and soak the bottom of her jeans. As she held one of the balloons apart from the others she mouthed something that Logan could not distinguish and he watched her let the balloon go. He watched it go until it became just a small dot in the colors that were currently slicing through the sky, claiming it morning.

"What are you doing," Logan asked with a confused expression on his face.

"Why? Wanna try, Veronica responds with a sparkle in her eye that had been absent for the longest, time and if anyone, besides Logan, had been there to see it they would have thought Veronica Mars lived a happy, normal, teenage life, but she didn't. The sparkle was just an abstract illusion and was once extremely commonplace but now was a rare, welcoming entity. And life goes on with or without the fluff in it that makes it better, easier to handle. You learn to cope.

"Here take this, watch me and I'll start and then you can go next," Veronica directed.

Veronica took another balloon from the bunch and said, "a cure for a broken heart," before she let it go. "Just say a wish or a dream and then let the balloon go."

"Umm... "A smile in a world of frowns," Logan said before he too let a balloon go.

And so this pattern continued for good friends, dreams coming true, love, hope, a familiar face in a sea of strangers, family, Lily's happiness, and friendship. Logan and Veronica laughed at some and were quiet and emotional for others, but then again the topic of Lily and Lily herself were always emotional roller coasters.

There was only one balloon left and it was Logan's turn to make up its purpose.

" For wanting something more," he said and he let it go.

Veronica watched it leave and climb into the air, away from this earth and she whispered,

"Ninety nine dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go..."