AN: I can't tell you how much your fb has meant to me while I was writing this story. Thank you so much.

Part 8

How long he held the child, Logan would never be able to tell anyone. The moment he sat in the bedroom and looked into her eyes, he drowned. There were many times in his life when he felt drowned by emotion. When he was with Veronica, he had drowned—then he kicked and struggled out of panic and fear. He had drowned with Lilly, and he had risen off the water to save himself. In all of his relationships, as he told Veronica when he finally cut her lose in high school, Logan gave his all. He expected the same thing from his partner. It had always been his feeling of giving so much of himself and not having the same amount reciprocated that terrified him and made him fight against the bonds.

Holding Betty on his lap, recognizing how fragile and precious the life in his arms was, and all the time seeing in her gaze her mother, overwhelmed him with thousands of emotions he could not name. Yet Logan did not once struggle. In the rush of love and anxiety, Logan sucked everything in until he thought he would explode. Again, he breathed in the scent of the baby and closed his eyes.

Little kisses of memories gave him an insight into the time he lost. Logan had wondered what that secret was that Veronica had desperately wanted to tell him. When she needed to whisper her mind, Veronica did it over the phone. Secrets in affairs often were revealed long distance, especially since they had been seeing each other behind her fiance's back. They were going to inform Duncan when Logan arrived. When Veronica spoke of a secret that would surpass any other secret, Logan wondered what it could possibly be.

"You are the most gorgeous secret in the world, Betty."

In his heart he knew that had the succeeding events not happened the way they did, he would have probably had the most memorable time in his life when he saw Veronica that night. Logan created a fantasy in his head, because he was not going to live through his life knowing that wonderful moment had been stolen by criminals.

i"Are you ready?" she would have whispered into his ear.

"I've been ready to find out since you teased me about it over the phone," he would have told her.

Her eyes would have sparkled then, the way they did whenever they were together. They would sparkle with the brilliance she had given up since she had gone back to Duncan, the way they never did since he had cut her out of his life for one mistake that he had thought once he would never forget. Veronica would then take his hand and ask her to open it, then she would press his palm on her stomach.

His eyes would go wide, of course. It would have been so far from what he expected then. And then, he would give her a wide smile and cry out with his happiness. He would have taken her up in his arms and whirled her around and around and around—

And then he would have remembered that pregnant women grew dizzy easily and he would put her back down on her feet and embraced her. Then he would have thanked her as if there were no tomorrow.

"We're going to be a family," he would have whispered against her lips./i

"I'm going to have my family back together," he told the baby. "You're going to have a mommy and a daddy and a great big house." He had all that, but he had not been happy. "Only you, Betty, will have a mommy and a daddy who love each other so much and who adore you beyond anything they wouldn't dare hurt you," Logan promised his daughter.

Betty's forehead creased, and she let out a wail. Logan hushed the child and stood up, then danced around with her. "I'm sorry, Betty," he said, afraid that the intensity that radiated off him had scared her. He rubbed the baby's hair with his hand and marveled at how small she was that his hand easily spanned her skull. "I'm sorry, baby."

Logan danced around and was relieved when the baby laid her cheek on his shoulder and stopped crying. He had not wanted Alicia to come in to take the baby from him. Logan wanted to cherish his time with his daughter. Duncan was waiting outside, he knew. Keith had gone out to quell Duncan's reaction to what Wallace would tell him. While Logan had so many things to base his understanding on, such as the calls from Veronica, the bear and Wallace's comments in the car, Duncan had no such clues. He was going to be informed, and Logan knew that Duncan would not be as ecstatic as Logan was to find out that Wallace's kid was actually Veronica and Logan's love child.

As the crying waned, it turned to hiccups and slowly, to delightful infant snoring. Logan smiled. His precious baby girl did not snore. He would call it 'audible breathing.' Carefully, he turned the baby in his arms and caressed her plump cheek with his nose. He wanted to spend forever staring at her, but he knew that whatever it was he had to face outside would not go away of its own volition. Duncan and the truth he would have to face sooner or later. The sooner they settle it, the sooner they could put together their plan to take Veronica out of a shelter that had forced her to surrender her own baby.

Logan placed the baby in the center of the bed and gathered pillows to tuck around the baby's body. Betty was fast asleep, her eyelashes fluttering. Logan wondered if she dreamed of Veronica. He leaned down and dropped a kiss on Betty's forehead. "I love you, honey. Daddy's going to be right back," he vowed through the ball of emotion in his throat.

When he opened the door and walked into the living room, he was greeted by the glare of his best friend, who was sitting tensed and furious in front of Wallace Fennel.

"Is it true?" Duncan demanded. "Is that your kid?"

Logan searched the room for Alicia. She was standing beside Keith, with her hand on his back. "Mrs Fennel," Logan requested, "can you please stay with Betty to make sure she doesn't roll off the bed while she's sleeping?"

Alicia smiled and nodded. "Of course. I'll turn her on her tummy. She likes that, Logan," she said, squeezing his arm as she passed.

"I'll remember," Logan murmured. "Thanks." He turned back to Duncan. "She's mine and Veronica's, Duncan. And she's beautiful."

Duncan rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "How much did you two screw me over?" he said quietly. "Wasn't it enough that you were fucking her behind my back? Did you have to knock her up?"

Logan noticed many little things. Wallace pushed back his chair.

Keith's hands fisted on both sides of his body. "I would appreciate it if you can keep yourself civil, Duncan."

When Duncan looked up at Keith, his eyes were bright with tears. "Do you understand now why I couldn't tell you everything I knew?"

Keith took a deep breath and hesitantly laid his hand on Duncan's shoulder. "I know how you're feeling, Duncan. I know you're screaming at yourself now, and you demand to know where you made the mistake, if there was something you could've done to keep her from falling back in love with another guy she should have been over years ago. Believe me."

And Duncan knew it all. The great tragedy of Keith Mars was that his wife Lianne kept on falling back in love with the man she should have let go—Jake Kane. Was it Duncan's ultimate tragedy to win Lianne Mars' daughter and lose her over and over to Logan?

Duncan swallowed, then let out a strangled yell. "Is this eye for a fuckin' eye?" He unfolded himself from his seat, then strode towards Logan. The two stared at each other for a long time, then Duncan pushed Logan backwards as hard as he could. Logan slammed back against the wall.

Wallace rushed over to stand between the two. Duncan sneered. "You think you can defend him?" he asked. "Logan can fight his own battles."

Wallace shook his head. "This isn't a battle, man. There's no use fighting here."

Logan straightened. "Duncan, I meant it when I said I'm sorry we hurt you," he repeated from their conversation in the apartment. "That wasn't what we wanted."

Pushing Wallace aside, Duncan lunged at Logan and grabbed his collar. Duncan drew back his fist and slammed it up Logan's chin. Logan's head snapped back and he collapsed on the floor, dazed. He shook his head to clear it and heard Duncan say, "—you just never thought of me."

Wiping the droplet of blood on his lip, Logan looked up at the door to the bedroom. He stood up and held up his hand to warn Duncan away. Soon enough, the baby's cry could be heart. "You're completely right, Duncan. We never thought of you." He stumbled to the bedroom to look in on Alicia trying to calm down the baby. "Tell you what, Duncan," Logan suggested. "We find Veronica first. We help close this case that's already ruined too many lives. Then we find a place in which my daughter isn't sleeping in the next room. Then I'll let you have at it." He spread his arms wide. "I won't even fight and you can take out all of your pent up frustration on me. All right?"

Duncan glared at Logan. "Fine. We find Veronica first. She's got as much to answer as you." He then proceeded to the table and sat down. "Sorry," he mumbled at Keith. He then turned to Wallace.

The other young man looked in confusion at Duncan, who was seated at the table, and Logan, who leaned against the wall blotting out the blood on his lip. Wallace sought Keith's gaze, and the older man indicated that he had the floor. "You want to understand what happened to Veronica, right?" Wallace sat down. "It all started when I saw them dealin', you know. Had to tell Veronica about it, coz I knew she'd be able to help me tell the authorities. We were gathering enough evidence for a few days." Wallace looked at Logan. "Then she wanted out."

iVeronica set her bag down on the table and leaned close to Wallace. "Listen," she whispered, "this is all the evidence I have on your case." Veronica pushed the papers to her best friend. "Here are the pictures and the audio recording of the phone conversation we managed to tap. I've already contacted the authorities about this. They're going to communicate with you, ok?"

"Wow, Veronica! When they said you were good, I was impressed because you were my best friend," Wallace exclaimed. "Now I'm thinking they weren't all just empty compliments."

She grinned. "Thanks, Wallace."

"Why you givin' me all this stuff, though?"

Veronica gave him a shy smile. "I'm going to have to leave this all to you, Wal. I'm gonna have to bow out of this one."

"Wait, what?" Wallace asked, surprised. "Veronica, this is the biggest case you've had to handle outside the murder. You're just going to push this over to me?"

"This is a really important case. I've done as much as I can. Now I have to give this to the professionals, and they'll be coordinating with you about this," Veronica said. "I can't be involved in this anymore. It's personal."

Wallace shook his head. "You mean Duncan's not letting you finish this?"

"Duncan doesn't even know I'm investigating a drug ring," she said. "This is my choice."

"I've known you for a long time, Veronica. I know how dogged you are when you have an unsolved case. You've got to come up with a better explanation than that."

"Wallace, I don't want to be exposed to anything dangerous," she admitted. "I'm finally getting everything I want in my life, and it's stupid to let myself get hurt." She closed her hand around her friend's. "I'm pregnant, Wallace," she announced with a bright smile. "I'd rather not go running after or away from criminals while I'm carrying my baby."

His eyes almost popped out of his head. "Does Duncan know?"

She shook his head. "I have to tell you something but I don't want you to judge me." He nodded. "Promise."

"Promise," he agreed.

"It's not Duncan's, Wallace. We don't…"

"Veronica," Wallace warned.

"It's Logan's. We've been seeing each other since Duncan published the engagement. I'm planning to tell him tomorrow night, Wallace. So you have to turn that evidence in. I'm going to be here calling Logan. I'll ask him to come, and then I'll tell him."/i

Logan remembered that day. Those words had kept repeating back to him over and over. Betty. That's why she wanted to wait until he was there before she could tell him. News as wonderful as that didn't deserve to be told over the phone.

"I was with the FBI for a few hours," Wallace relayed. "I wish I wasn't. I found out later that that was when they started picking up some people. A few of those guys had been calling Veronica. I guess the name of the informant hadn't been as closely guarded as I was. She'd sent an SOS to a friend."

i"Mac, I'm scared. For the first time, Veronica Mars is afraid of her own shadow. I'm sending you this so that you can save it as part of a number of evidence I will funnel to you. Keep them safe, Mac. It's a matter of life and death."/i

"She was going to send Mac copies of the pictures we gave the FBI, just in case. She hadn't been able to do it. I have no idea why," Wallace confessed. He looked at Duncan. "She wouldn't tell me what kept her from funneling the evidence, but I guess it was because of you. You were the last person registered to have seen her, right?"

Duncan nodded.

iHe opened the door and slammed in. Veronica jumped in front of the computer and turned around. "Duncan, you scared me!" she gasped.

"When you've got a dirty conscience, you tend to be jumpy," he said tightly.

She frowned at him. "What are you talking about?" Veronica saw the brown envelope he held in his hands. "Duncan, what's that?"

"You cheated on me with my best friend. How clichéd is it that the bride slept with the best man?" Duncan ripped open the envelope in his haste to show her the pictures that had been haunting him since he received them. He took the pictures out and held them in front of her. "At least you looked like you were enjoying it!"

"Duncan," she cried out when he gripped her arms, "listen please."

He raised a fist, then drew it back. The anger in his eyes faded to defeat. "I didn't want to sleep with you until I could see that you were ready," he said softly. "Until we were married. All along you were sleeping with him?"

She shook her head. "Duncan, we were planning to tell you." Veronica pulled away from his grip. "I was going to leave you tomorrow," she said, delivering the fatal blow. "I didn't want you to get hurt, Duncan."

"You were going to leave?"

"Logan was going to come tomorrow and tell you everything. Then we were going to leave, Duncan. I'm sorry you had to find out this way."

Duncan gripped his head and screamed as loud and as long as he could. Then he straightened and slammed out of the apartment./i

"I wouldn't have hurt her, no matter how enraged I was." Duncan looked up at Keith. "I didn't tell you about that fight because I didn't want you to know what happened. She was dead. You can't clear your own conscience by sullying a dead woman's name."

"I understand, Duncan."

"Somehow," he admitted, "if I didn't tell anyone about what happened between us that night, then I could pretend I lost her to violence and not to my best man."

Logan shook his head. He had been wrong. He and Veronica had been the ones who betrayed Duncan. Somehow, he still wanted to be angry because he had lived for two years knowing that she had been in pain right at the end.

i"Veronica, what's wrong?" he yelled into the phone, his heart beating hard.

She sobbed into the phone. "He knows, Logan! Someone sent him pictures."

"Where are you?"

"I'm in the apartment. He left."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "I want you to leave and catch a flight out. I'll pick you up."

"I was going to tell him, I swear."

"Shhhh. It's okay, Ronnie. We'll fix it. I promise."

"God, Logan, Duncan didn't deserve to find out like this," she whispered into the phone. "I'm so sorry."

"Listen to me, Veronica."

He felt the punch come out of nowhere, and his phone flew out of his hand. Logan looked up at the enraged face of Duncan Kane.

"How could you?"

Logan lay gasping on the ground. He saw his best friend heaving angrily, towering above him. "You knew, despite all the shit between us back then, that I would have fixed it given time. Veronica and I were healing. I would have made it all better. You swooped in and took advantage of that. The question is, Duncan," Logan posed, as he stood up, "how could you?"

"You hurt her. Besides, we were never meant to break up."

"I loved her."

"So you did it for revenge?" Duncan demanded.

"I wanted her back."

"Stay away from her!" Duncan stalked back to the rental car. "We're getting married."

Logan tightly shut his eyes. "Don't fly back," he called out. "Stay here and cool off. Don't go back to her like that."/i

Keith Mars nodded at the story. "So we've established that Duncan went back, and so did Logan. What we haven't found out is why Duncan's next memory is that cliff."

"I was there," Wallace admitted. "I went to the apartment after my interrogation. They wanted me to go to witness protection, but I had to check on Veronica. That was when I saw that she was being attacked by two of the ring members."

Logan gripped the edge of his seat.

"I launched myself at one of them. The other one ran as fast as he could out of the apartment. Veronica grabbed one of the lamps and broke it over his head. We were going to run out of the apartment when he caught her by her ankle." Wallace sniffled at the memory. "She yelled at me to get out and call the cops. That was when he hit her and knocked her out." He looked at Duncan sadly. "Duncan pushed by me." At that, Duncan was surprised. Clearly, it was already at the point that had become a hazy memory to him. It was obvious to me that he was out of it. You didn't know what you were doing, did you?" Duncan shook his head. "Well he came in and beat the guy to a bloody pulp."

iHe threw a punch.

The lamp broke when it hit the floor.

Duncan glanced at his fist and saw his knuckles scraped and bloody./i

"I didn't hit her," Duncan shuddered. "At all. That night."

"No, you didn't," Wallace answered.

Duncan released a breath he had held for two years, relieved that that fear had been assuaged.

"The FBI arrived to take the bastard to custody," Wallace related. "That was when they decided, knowing how violent the entire ring was and what big money they were dealing with, to put both me and Veronica into witness protection. While they took us to the hospital to check out her injuries, they made sure no one would look for her again."

Duncan formed his own shattering conclusion. "They knew I was out of my mind and they drove me to the cliff, and towed Veronica's car off of it."

Keith closed his eyes as the holes in the investigation he had conducted regarding his daughter's death were filled in.

"You should've seen her when she woke up in the hospital," Wallace continued. "Bandages all over, but she was bossing everyone around. She wanted to inform her family where she was. They told us our families were already informed. And then she demanded to know how her baby was. That they didn't expect."

Logan looked at Wallace with hooded eyes.

"She wanted to keep her, but they were right. Betty wouldn't grow up well in the type of environment we were in. We were prisoners," Wallace said. "So instead she told them to send the baby to its dad."

"Duncan," Keith said. Logan glared at the older man. "That's what they thought."

"I don't know why they didn't agree. I suppose it would be because they had Duncan framed for the entire thing, and just made sure there wouldn't be enough hard evidence to get an innocent man incarcerated. Anyway," Wallace said, finally giving a hint of a grin, "we formulated an escape plan for me to take the baby out and give him to my mom. We created the perfect story that will allow my mom to keep the baby and for Keith to regularly see her without ever finding out the truth." Wallace's smile faded. "She'd been severely depressed. Her only comfort now is knowing that her dad gets to see her baby."

Logan waited for Wallace to continue. When it seemed nothing else was forthcoming, he demanded, "Well, you've turned Duncan into a hero and you've informed Keith that Veronica wanted the baby with him. What about me, Wallace? Where am I in your story?"

"She won't talk about you," Wallace said simply. Logan's shoulders fell. "Spending that long knowing only her, I've come to understand how important you must be."

i"Hey Veronica," Wallace said softly, sitting beside her and handing her another piece of tissue paper. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she whispered.

"Come on. It's just us against them. Are you going to hold out on me, girl?"

She closed her eyes and her tears slid down her cheeks. She laid down on the bed and placed her hand over her stomach. "Just one more day, Wallace. I would've had everything."/i

Logan drew a deep shuddering breath. How many times had he told himself that whenever he remembered that girl he lost?

Just one day, then the whole world…

What big difference one day made.

tbc