The party ended around six, Rachel got behind the wheel and began their journey home to Neptune. She was absent, reserved, away in thought and depression. She kept looking back at Logan, she would open then close her mouth like she was going to say something but didn't. Logan was so kind and sweet to her and she couldn't get up the courage to do it. She decided the only way she was going to get through this was to get angry.
She thought about Peter, the beating the sick twisted way he would smile while doing it. She thought about Madison and Dick and how they had almost killed her baby but didn't care, she though about Duncan kissing Shellie, and lastly she thought about herself. She was pissed; she whipped the car into the hotel parking lot and slammed into a space.
"What the hell" Duncan yelled worried they were getting in a car accident. Rachel flew open her door and stomped around the car, she yanked open the back and drug a very sober Logan from the backseat. 'god I wish he was drunk, this would be so much easier, I just cant do it he is to happy' she thought.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Logan yelled. 'yes' she thought pulling on her fierce face again and looked around trying to focus on anything but them.
"I have been lying to you" she screamed.
"What?" he asked confused.
"I knew about you, Veronica, and Duncan before I ever came here, before you were in the tabloids, before the trial, before the mystery was solved. I knew about your dads Christmas attack, about your abuse, about lilly and you. And I didn't read it in a magazine or watch it on TV." She said panting.
"And.." he said confused pushing her to go on.
"A couple days before Christmas my grandfather was in the hospital, and I was all alone." She said. "Now this is where the lies start, I never had to wait for my parents inheritance, I got it a week after they died." She said looking down avoiding their stares. 'There goes the anger, now comes the regret'.
"I loved your mom Logan, she treated me better then my own mother ever could and I would have done anything for her. And I did." She said looking him in the eyes. "She called me a couple of days before Christmas. She told me about your father, about the photos, about the abuse, and also that she knew he was hiding something big." Rachel couldn't keep the tears back any longer. "She asked me to help her…..Escape." Rachel said looking down tears falling from her eyes.
"O my god" Logan said starting to form tears of his own. "Is she alive?" he asked.
Rachel nodded, she then she was grasping for air now her arms clutching her chest 'why cant I breath? She gained back some composure to go on when her phone rang.
She opened it "not now….give me a couple minutes….you fuck up my life, and you make me hurt the ones I love you owe me a couple minutes" she sneered closing the phone.
"She knew that your dad wouldn't hurt you when she was gone, she knew that you would be fine…." tears again. "She called me two days after the Aarons stalker attack, I drove to the Coronado Bridge we threw off a dummy and drove off. We already had a jet ready and were in Aruba by the next day. All she wanted to do for the first two months was call you, to see if you were okay, to hear your voice to talk to you. She cried for months, I couldn't stop her." She was shaking and took a breath trying to continue. "When Aaron was arrested and the case was solved she asked me to come to Neptune to watch over you until she could come back, she needed the right time."
Logan was in complete shock, Rachel knew that he wouldn't, couldn't fully believe her so she gave up. "She is in room 3233" she said pointing back at the hotel. "I am so sorry I didn't tell you sooner." She added walking down the street and crying. She needed to get away, she needed him to talk to his mother, to cool down.
"What so that's it" yelled Logan.
Rachel turned around at the harsh tone in his voice. "What you just push this on me and leave, I don't think so I need more then a half cocked explanation." He said anger filling his tear filled eyes.
Rachel started walking through the Lobby of the hotel, she looked behind her Veronica had her arms around Logan comforting him, while Duncan tagged along behind. Duncan's head was overflowing with questions, but this was Logan's time he would talk to Rachel later. They got in the elevator and went to the 32nd floor, got out and three doors down was the room. She knocked and the door flew open, the three stayed behind while a woman pulled Rachel into a hug. "Oh sweetie I missed you" she said. 'It was her voice it was my mom' thought Logan. Rachel moved into the room and began to sit on the bed while Logan turned the corner and finally saw the person he had wanted to see for a year.
She was just as beautiful as ever, her hair was longer and blonder. She was wearing a white suit with matching heels. She smelled the same too, like lilacs. She didn't know what to expect when he saw her, so she waited for him to make the first move. He leaned in and pulled her into a huge hug. He didn't want to let go, he never wanted to let go again. She pulled him into the room and sat him down on the couch. Her arms were still around him and his head was on her shoulder.
"Baby" she cooed swaying back and forth "o, have I missed you" she said tears streaming down her face. Finally Logan pulled himself sitting up.
"Why now" he asked sadness in his voice. "Why didn't you come back when Aaron was in jail, when I needed you?"
"Because now has been enough time, when Aaron was arrested if I were to come back they would think I was in on it, that I disappeared because I was guilty, then how would we be together?" She said stroking his head.
"Are you guilty?" he asked not believing it but needed to know.
"Of course not" she said kissing his forehead.
"I got to go" Rachel said getting up and moving toward the door.
"So you're not pregnant?" Duncan said looking at his hands.
Rachel spun around in disbelief, "What?" she exclaimed.
"I mean what Rachel, you were sent here to what hook up with his best friend and try to get close to Logan, is that it, are you even pregnant, was peter really some abusive ex. Or were you playing us all from the beginning?" Duncan huffed getting into her face.
"Don't you dare fucking make this about you and me this has nothing to do with you and me." She hissed pushing him back. "from the moment I met you to right now I have told you two lies that I haven't been completely honest with, one was that I didn't have my parents inheritance, and the second was that I didn't know who you were." She said turning around to leave. He grasped her arm and swung her around.
"So what you expect me to believe you after all of this?" he said pointing to Lynn.
"No, I guess that would be asking to much, so why don't you believe the doctors, the lawyers, my relatives, Lynn and lastly the baby growing inside me." She screamed running out of the room.
Everyone in the hotel room was silent; Duncan sat on the bed and couldn't help but feel dizzy from all the questions flowing inside. "Tell us everything" he said looking at Lynn.
She told the how story from top to bottom, including all the things Rachel had told her over the phone and in letters. She sent her pictures and tapes of all of them. How many times had he seen her with a camera? Almost everywhere they went she brought it along. How did he never notice it before?
Veronica was dumbfounded at this point, how did she never catch on? I can find bail jumpers and drug dealers in a couple of days but I can't see what was going on right in front of me? She thought.
Duncan jumped up and started running toward the door, he needed to find her, he loved her and he knew that he would screw everything up if he didn't tell her so. But Lynn stopped him, "Give her time, she has had to deal with a lot, you may not know her as well as you think" she said.
"Trust me we know everything there is to know her by now" he said looking over the past events and all the things they had uncovered. But he stopped and realized maybe he didn't know anything about her. "I love her I can't let her go I know she has lied and she has hurt you" he said to Logan. "But she did it for a friend, I am sorry man but I probably would have done the same if your mom needed help" he stated.
"I know man and I wouldn't have it any other way" he said with a smile. "But she is right you need to give her time, I mean we have been hurting for about 40 minutes but she, she has had to hold this inside for months." He said.
They all sat there again in silence, but then the conversation picked up and they began to talk about everything that had happened since she was gone. They then talked about how this was to be opened to the public. They decided to say that she had tried to leave the media spotlight and divorce her husband but he refused so she left, she tried to make it look like a suicide so she could live a normal life, but could not stay away from her son. It was the story that people would believe.