Everything you think you know baby, is wrong

And everything you think you had baby, is gone

Certain things turn ugly when you think too hard

And nagging little thoughts

Change into things you can't turn off

Everything you think you know baby, is wrong

--It's all over but the crying (Garbage)

Logan leaped up and away from Keith Mars so fast he stumbled backwards and fell on his ass.

"What are you doing here," he demanded.

"Working on my tan," Keith responded with a slightly wicked grin. "Why do you think I'm here, Logan?"

Logan stared at him, wondering vaguely if he was having a hallucinatory flashback from all the drugs he'd taken.

"I know my dad didn't hire you to find me," he replied, scrambling to his feet.

"No, no. I'm not usually too picky about my clients but even I would have to pass on taking a job from the man who put me in the hospital and tried to barbecue my daughter."

Logan looked down at his feet.

"Yeah, I'm uh, sorry about that…"

"Why? You didn't have anything to do with it." He paused for dramatic effect. "Did you?

Logan never realized how scary Veronica's dad could be. He shook his head and looked down at his feet.

"Unless you count being completely oblivious to the entirety of my existence," he replied.

Then something occurred to him and his head shot up.

"Did Veronica send you?"

"No," he said. "She doesn't know I'm here."

Logan let out a demented chuckle. Did Veronica send you? Pathetic much?

"So who pulled my golden ticket," he asked.

"Duncan Kane."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"Are you feeling ok?" Duncan asked Veronica collapsed in a heap on the couch. "You seem down. Well, down-er then usual."

"Down--er?" She said, grabbing a pillow and hugging it. "Who said your daddy bought you into that AP English class?"

Duncan chuckled.

"You want to skip the movie?"

"Are you kidding? There's nothing like a movie about wild and crazy heroin addicts to snap me right out of the blues."

"You look tired. We'll try it again some other time, OK?"

Veronica eased across the couch and put her head down on the pillow.

"OK. You're too good to me," she mumbled. She closed her eyes and didn't see the way Duncan grimaced.

"Yeah, well somebody needs to be," he said quietly as he turned to go out of the door.

As soon as it closed she opened her eyes again and sat up.

"Damn," she whispered.

I wonder if you can actually die from a never-ending stream of regret?

Shaking her head she walked back to her bedroom to change her clothes. She peeled off her long sleeve blouse carefully. While she dug in her dresser for another shirt she glanced at the picture of she, Duncan, Lily and Logan from the homecoming dance. It use to remind her of Lily but now the dull ache she felt when she looked at it was because of Logan.

How could it have possibly worked out? She thought to herself, as she often did. It was the Veronica Mars regime of flushing Logan out of her systemListing the many, many reasons why Logan's leaving her high and very dry was actually a good thing. There was not one thing going for it. His friends hated you. You hated his friends. And really, how could you have ever dated a guy who was buddies with Dick?

"If you have a problem with Veronica then you're pretty much dead to me."

Veronica shook her head.

OK, but one romantic gesture does not a relationship make. Even if it was a declaration made in front of a house full of 09ers.

Well this isn't having the desired effect, let's move on to reason 29: We dated in secret, and not just because you were concerned for Duncan's feelings. "Secrets are hot, too," he had said. That's all it was, lust. She was a teenage girl. She was allowed to let her hormones rule her world once in a while.

OK, now we're rolling, reason #30: daddy dearest. Hell he could be classed as reasons 30--80.

She heard the quick knock on the door and heard Wallace letting himself in.

"Hey girl, you ready to go?"

Veronica quickly pulled the shirt over her head and went out into the living room.

"Wallace, you don't have to drive me every time. They're only taking blood."

"I know, but--" he shrugged. "You know."

She smiled sadly at him.

"Yeah, I know."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"What, he didn't send his personal jet?" Logan said as he and Keith Mars roared down the highway to a Jimmy Buffet song.

"Actually he did." Keith replied. "But I didn't think it was such a good idea with the press and all."

"The press." Logan nodded. "Of course. My triumphant return should get the whole media circus whipped up into yet another frenzy. They'll be thrilled. After three months their well must be coming up pretty dry these days. Glad I can keep pop in the papers."

Keith nodded but didn't say anything. Logan glanced out the window.

"So, Veronica, she's OK, right?"

"Her bruises have healed if that's what you mean."

Logan winced.

"But the rest of her isn't in such great shape."

Logan turned a stricken glance at him.

"What do you mean?"

"She's broken," Keith said flatly. "And I hope you can appreciate the weight of that statement. Last year her boyfriend dumped her, her best friend was murdered, her mother left her, and she still managed to wake up with a smile on her face every day. But now, she smiles so that I won't worry. It only makes me worry more. And she won't talk about it but I get the definite sense that you're the reason for it."

"I--I don't know why," he said. "We broke up before I left town. I figured that after about two seconds of serious contemplation she would hate me, end of story."

"I wish she hated you," Keith said bluntly. "I mean, "See, I didn't kill my ex-girlfriend" isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for the boy my daughter brings home to dinner."

He looked away from the road to give Logan a very scary look.

"I'm only telling you this so that you know what condition she's in. Whether she hates you or not you're bound to run into her with the trial starting up soon. Don't make me regret bringing you home."