Title: Lies My Mother Told Me
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for characters of my own creation.
Summary: "Ryan Mars. Although on my birth certificate is says Ryan Elizabeth Mars Echolls. Hello, Daddy." Ryan Mars, at seventeen, has just found her father, and found that her mother has been lying to her, her whole life.
Veronica must have sat for hours watching videotape upon videotape of Ryan growing up. Growing up in Portland, Sacramento, and finally east LA.
It was undeniable that Ryan was gorgeous. She was born with a full head of strawberry blonde curls and the most wondrous pair of eyes Veronica had ever seen. Ryan's left eye was a dark blue color and the right eye was a green, almost brown color. It was amazing to see when she experienced intense emotion. As she grew older her eye began to match more into a light green color. Veronica barely saw that intentness of them any more.
After the accident Ryan had learned how to somewhat control her emotions. She had built a brick wall the size of China that kept Veronica out of her daughter's life.
Veronica continued to watch her daughter's smile brighten up the screen. Ryan had just taken her first ride on the back of Weevil's motorcycle. Her golden brown locks were windblown and her cheeks were rosy.
"How was it, Ry?" Veronica said from behind the camera.
"Oh my God!" Ryan gushed getting off the bike and rushing toward her mother. Weevil could be seen behind her with a smile just as happy as Ryan's. "Mom, that was so cool! I can't believe I never did that before!" Ryan turned toward Weevil and jumped onto his back. "Hey, Weevil, when you get too old for this thing, wanna let me have it?" Ryan winked.
Weevil laughed heartedly. "Somehow I doubt that V would appreciate that too much." Weevil was still chuckling as Veronica put the camera down and ran toward Weevil and her daughter. The screen became blurry as tears sprang to Veronica's eyes for the second time that night.
"So, are you hungry?" Logan asked as he locked the hotel room door behind him and Ryan.
Ryan looked around the hotel suite at the top floor of the Sunset Regent in LA. "No, not really." She mumbled. "Dude, I knew you were rich, but damn."
"How did you know I was rich." Logan asked pouring himself a glass of water.
"Well, since mom never talked about you, and all I knew was your name, I would Google you every now and then." Ryan said bashfully.
"So what did Google tell you?" Logan said almost intrigued.
"That your dad, my grandfather, Aaron Echolls, was a famous movie star until he was sent to jail on charges of murder, statutory rape, two counts of attempted murder, and child abuse." Ryan breathed out and began again. "Your mother, my grandmother, Lynn Echolls, jumped off a bridge your junior year of high school, that is if I did my math right. You have a stepsister, Trina Echolls, who has stared in numerous adult films. Apparently acting doesn't run in the family. Uhm, about three years ago you were arrested for drunk driving, got your license suspended, and was sent to rehab for a consecutive amount of ninety days. Now your are, supposedly a recovered alcoholic. That seems to run in the family." Ryan clapped her hands together as she faced her father. "So, you gonna point me to the shower or are you gonna let me get lost finding it?"
Logan nodded, "Down the hall to the left."
Ryan picked her bag up and followed his simple directions. Logan sat down on the over stuffed couch and put his head in his hands. He didn't know what he should do. Should he get a blood test to make sure? Or should he believe what he's been told? He wasn't able to make a decision when the phone rang. "Hello?"
"Yes, Mr. Echolls, there is a Ms. Mars on line one. Do you wish to speak to her?" The front desk attendant asked.
Logan sighed rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, put her on." Logan heard a click and then ringing.
"Of all the reunions in all the world, you had to walk into mine." He heard the voice say from the other line.
"It was my reunion, too, Ronnie." Logan answered.
"Yeah," Veronica trailed. "So, I'm guessing that Ryan's with you."
"Yeah, she's taking a shower right now." Logan said absently as looked over at the bathroom door.
"Logan-"
"Ronnie, could we not get into this now. I mean I've had a hard couple of weeks as it is and now I have a seventeen year old daughter in my bathroom." Logan sighed loudly. "How 'bout you come over tomorrow morning around ten-ish and we all could have that continental breakfast the hotel keeps telling me about." He offered.
"Okay." Veronica whispered into the phone. "I'll be there."
"Or be square." Logan added. He heard her light chuckle and a click on the other line as he put the phone in its cradle.
"Was that mom?" Ryan asked with a white terry cloth towel wrapped like a turban on her head, baggy pajama pants and an East LA Memorial High athletics tee shirt.
"East LA?" Logan asked nodding toward her shirt.
Ryan looked down with a trace of a smile on her lips. "Yeah, it was the last place I called home."
Ryan moved to sit across from her father on a different couch with her legs Indian style. "How many places have you called 'home'?" Logan asked.
"Uh, four." Ryan recited. Logan nodded for her to continue. "Well, I was born in Portland, Oregon and we lived there until I was about five. We had to move because mom was dating this guy who ended up hitting her. So we moved to Sacramento and lived with Uncle Wallace. He got married when I was ten and mom thought that we had over stayed our welcome so we moved to East LA and lived with mom's friend Weevil. We stayed there up until the… uh… my sixteenth birthday."
Logan knew something was up when she faltered at the end. "When did you move here?"
"In May." Ryan answered.
"When's your birthday?"
"Jan… April?"
Logan made a loud buzzer noise. "Wrong answer. What happened in between your birthday and when you moved here?"
Ryan looked up and smiled a bittersweet smile. "Rehab." She answered flawlessly. "I wasn't joking when I said it ran in the family."
Logan just stared at her. She was so much like him, it was shocking. "Why?" His voiced had turned horse from the shock.
"Don't tell mom I told you this, because she had to find out from the cops. I wouldn't tell her." Ryan breathed in and began playing with the teddy bear she had stuffed in her bag earlier. "It was my seventeenth birthday and me and my best friend, at the time, Zoe, had gone to this party and got completely wasted. I knew it was a mistake to drive but it wasn't that far to her house so I figured I'd be okay. I wrapped my car around a telephone pole. I was in a coma for two months, but Zoe… Zoe died. Her parents already didn't like me so when I woke up I was charged with vehicular manslaughter, but since it was my first offence I got off with 60 days rehabilitation and 100 hours of community service. Lily's dad Duncan thought that it would be a good idea that I got out of East LA and so we moved to Neptune, and I went to rehab. I was almost done with my 60 days when I tried to kill myself. As you can tell that didn't work. And I was kept for another month. By the time I finally got out of rehab school was practically over and I had already taken the finals so I just started my senior year in September like everyone else."
"Wow," Logan breathed. He looked down into Ryan's lap at the bear, and noticed something red. "Can I see that?" Ryan handed him the bear. It was wearing a shirt that said 'I wuv you beary much!'. Logan smiled genuinely. "I gave this to your mom at a carnival we went to."
"I know. She told me." Ryan admitted. Logan looked up expectantly. "She told me so many stories about you two that, even if I never met you, it's like I had already known you."
"You better get some sleep, we're having breakfast with your mom tomorrow." Logan handed her the teddy bear back and stood up from the couch.
"Gee, sounds like that's gonna be a blast." Ryan mumbled as she climbed under the covers.
"Just go to sleep Ryan." Logan sighed pleadingly.
Ryan heard the strange certainty in his voice and obeyed.
Logan went to the master bedroom and sat on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands.
"Logan?" Logan looked up to see Ryan standing in the doorway. "Did you ever think about her?"
"Everyday." Logan said with out hesitation.
Ryan nodded and walked out of site. Logan rubbed his face and headed toward the shower. He must have stood there under the water for thirty minutes just letting the small expensive pebbles hit his back. When Logan got out he walked to the kitchen for something to drink. That's when he spotted her. His daughter already fast asleep.
She was absolutely gorgeous. Her long golden brown hair was swept across her face. She had so much of his hostility, even in sleep. He was so angry that he hadn't noticed it before. He knelt down on the floor in front of Ryan's face and tentatively lifted his hand and brushed her hair out of her eyes. It reminded him of all the times that he had touched Veronica's.
She was scared. He could tell. She had that look in her eye that indicated instinctual fear.
"Veronica," Logan said as he stepped toward her with tepidness. "I'm going to kiss you, and you don't have to kiss me back, it's just something that I have to do."
Veronica's cerulean eyes went wide but she nodded. Logan stepped forward the rest of the way so that when she breathed her chest would rise against his. He brought his hand to her cheek and stroked the tears away with his thumb.
"Three, two," He whispered. He pulled her face closer until their lips were milimeters away. "One."
When their lips touched something in both of them ignited. For Logan it was a feeling that had been squandered for far too long, but for Veronica it was something that she had never felt before.
Veronica's arms automatically wrapped around Logan's neck and hung on as if her life depended on it.
When they broke apart they were both breathless, foreheads touching, never breaking the intamacy. "Logan," Veronica took a few rapid gulps of air before continuing. She pulled away and looked into his chocolate eyes with such clarity that he tilted his head in contimplation. "I love you."
The insistent buzzer of the alarm clock dragged Logan out of the distant memory as he rolled over to turn it off. It was only mere seconds after he closed his eyes that the phone began to ring. He let out an exasperated sigh as he yet again rolled over. "What?" he barked into the phone.
"You better start waking her up." Veronica's voice flittered through the reciever. "She sleeps like you."
Logan automatically smirked at that comment. "Okay," He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and put his feet on the ground. "I'm up."
"Logan just because you put your feet on the floor does not mean that you are up." Logan could almost see the hand poised on Veronica's hip.
Logan chuckled lightly as he sat up. "Alright I'm sitting up. Anything else to make you happy Sugarpuss?"
"No, that will be all," And more quietly, "For now."
"What was that?" Logan asked intruiged as he pulled the phone closer to his ear.
"Nothing. Go wake up your daughter." Veronica hung up the phone, giving Logan a new spring in his step. Meaning to, or not.