Part 2

Each morning the ride up in the elevator became more difficult for Duncan. He had thought the ache that throbbed in his chest whenever he would leave for work was brought about by his inherent need to protect Veronica when she was still incapacitated and helpless. It would disappear when she was well and able to take care of herself. The opposite happened. As she struggled her way out of her stupor and slowly grew more vibrant and alive, Duncan found it even harder to be apart from her.

To keep up pretenses however, he had to leave. Duncan had to put on a shirt, a tie and a coat daily and leave her in their home, go down the elevator to Kane Pacific, and check reports, read email, then pretend to run a company that ran itself.

That day was no different. Duncan returned to the same old floor, passed by the same hallway, greeted the same security guard and received the same brown envelope from his secretary—just the way he did every day.

Duncan entered his office with the brown envelope in his hands. He proceeded to the glass windows and looked down at the buzzing Causeway Bay below. Morning, noon and night, the streets never stopped moving. Hong Kong crawled with people who lived in buildings and fleetingly passed by outside. Of the hundreds of people populating the street below, Duncan wondered if there was that one feared man who would destroy everything he held dear.

Duncan tore the top of the envelope and shook the contents out. He found himself staring down photographic evidence that the threat remained. Pictures of Logan Echolls in the island of Tsim Sha Tsui scattered on his desk. There he was, taking pictures of the horizon in the pursuit of that futile productivity portraits of the sky provided. Logan was everywhere on that island, and the photographs told their own story as Duncan followed Logan's journey from the ferry to the park, and Logan's small moment of nothingness as Logan sat on the wet floor of the port, tinkering with an unimpressive camera.

He drew a deep breath and picked up one photograph of his former best friend caught wearing a longing look towards the city.

"Go back to America, Logan. There's nothing for you here."

Then just like every day, Duncan's speakerphone buzzed with his secretary's voice, "Mr. Chien in line one, sir."

"Put him through," was Duncan's response. When a male voice came on with a greeting, Duncan immediately said, "I want to know if he'll be in Tsim Sha Tsui for the entire day and not back in the city."

"Already checked, Mr Kane. Mr Echolls has booked himself into the lodge for three days."

"You'd better countercheck your information. I don't want another Ocean Park debacle."

i"Duncan, I can't believe we're actually here!" Veronica exclaimed.

He watched closely as a bundled up Veronica, whose scarf twisted twice around her neck and whose gloves were rolled up to her elbows, ran up the inclined entrance to the amusement park. "I promised you an outing right?" Duncan prompted. "I keep my promises."

She grinned and jogged over to the Fortune Wheels. Veronica watched the children spin the fortune wheel. She then read the marker and informed Duncan, "Spin the wheel for good luck. The longer the wheel will stay spinning, the more luck you will have in your future." She placed her hand on one end of the wheel and drew it back for more force. Duncan prepared his mini digital camera, which he had gotten in the souvenir shop because it was not an equipment he often thought about, and focused on her. "Give me all of it," she wished on the Chinese gods guarding the wheel, "health, happiness and love!"

When she spun the wheel, Duncan clicked. He froze when the flash faded. He was certain it was captured in the picture. Duncan displayed the last picture and saw the image of Veronica waiting beside the spinning wheel. What stunned Duncan was the small face behind Veronica. He zoomed the picture and saw distinctly the face of Logan Echolls photographing the rides.

"Veronica, come on, let's go! I forgot about my meeting with our CEO."/i

"Never mind," Duncan muttered. "I'll make sure myself." He released the call and dialed the number he simply had to keep. When it was picked up on the other line, Duncan said, "Logan, you've become a stranger, man."

On the other line, Duncan heard the soft chuckle. Logan protested, "I'm ready and raring to go. Unfortunately, I'm here in Tsim Sha Tsui. I can't catch a ferry back and I've already paid for my room over here. You know the Chinese don't do refunds. I'm not exactly a dependent son of a moviestar anymore."

Satisfied with the answer, Duncan continued, "You'd tell me if you needed me to spot you some money, right?"

"I've got some money," Logan assured him. "I've been working for the past few months, you know. I'm not the same penniless guy from when I got here first."

"Then why are you staying at the lodge?"

"I've fallen in love with this life," was the answer. "Beauty in the simplest things is equivalent to polishing a diamond from the rough. Speaking of beauties," Logan continued, "have you fallen in love with someone yet—someone beautiful?"

"Gorgeous," Duncan replied. "Move on, Logan."

One name hung in the air between them. That name was never mentioned in the context of their conversation.

"In time," Logan promised. "But I'm glad you have. A few months ago I doubted that we would ever speak again."

"And now I wouldn't trust anyone else but you," Duncan concluded for him. "Just know, Logan, that whatever happened it did because of how much you loved her."

After their conversation, Duncan hung up the phone and dialed his home phone number. Veronica picked up at once, telling him so much about what was happening in the room.

"Baby," Duncan says into the phone, "I'm going back. It looks like I have a fever."

Veronica promised to wait for him with some asparagus soup. He pushed the button on his intercom and said, "Li Shia, I will have no appointments today. Cancel it all. I will not be working today."

"Yes sir, Mr Kane."

Duncan was opening the door to the apartment a mere five minutes later. At once, Veronica was in front of him. She laid her hand on his forehead and pronounced, "You don't feel sick to me."

He gave her a grin, then informed her, "I'm playing hooky because you are going to get the chance to go to Ladies' Market."

Veronica squealed and clapped. "I'm changing my clothes!" She kissed him on the cheek and ran to the bedroom.

"Bundle up!" he reminded her.

In Tsim Sha Tsui, on the other hand, Logan Echolls strode around the park where he had before as a visitor. As a photographer, the island had a whole different meaning, and he saw many things he had never seen before. Logan turned around and saw a simple brown bird perched on the rope of a ferry. He walked closer so that he would not disturb the bird. Logan focused on the bird, capturing the shadow of its wing feathers as it splayed on the dock tiles, then gently pushed the button. He viewed the picture on the camera screen. She would have been so proud. It was so professionally done that she would not have believed that Logan was the same photography novice that she had encountered again on March 2011.

iLogan Echolls had spent most of the time since Aaron's arrest traveling the world. Trina did the same. The similarity stopped there. Where Trina had spent hordes of her money as she skipped from one city to another living high in hotels and attending jetsetter parties, Logan decided to backpack across Europe and Asia. There was no money to spend. Logan touched nothing that was already tainted by his father. He had left his old life behind. There was nothing he wished to carry with him.

During his journey, Logan relished the adventure of meeting new people. Often an old friend would catch him on a walking tour as they 'slummed it out.' Logan had no patience for rich children pissing on his playground. The world was his private space and Logan vanished into it.

Because he needed to survive, Logan started to write. He invested on an old notebook with only a word processor and email capability. He sent his articles to Trina's friend and received his paycheck wired to whatever country he traveled to. In their correspondence he had been asked to travel to different destinations that the magazine needed to feature. Logan usually refused to big city assignments. Hong Kong was the last place he wanted to go after visiting Cambodia. There were too many rich Westerners walking around. Money became tight when his old laptop started failing him, and he decided to take the Hong Kong assignment that went together with a per diem that he blew on a new notebook computer. If he was going to write about Hong Kong though, he was not going to stay in the city proper. That was when he discovered that a subway ride, a twenty minute walk, then a ferry ride away from the city proper was a beautiful tile dock that led to the simple island of Tsim Sha Tsui—a place of characters, sceneries and a melting pot of people.

He sat on the cement bench that overlooked the river and allowed the place to sink in to his brain. Logan twisted his pen and took out his binder, then started jotting down concepts for his article. He looked towards the pier and narrowed his eyes as he spotted a blonde woman wearing a denim jacket, kneeling on the wet ground as she shot a photograph of the skyline. He supposed he could write an article about Westerners littering the Pacific. Logan grinned as he watched the woman turn her back on him. She let her camera hang around her neck as she grabbed the railing and looked down at the river. He would if she fascinated him enough. His eyes widened when she placed her foot on the lowest railing and climbed up. "Crazy," he muttered. He watched her hold on and titter on the railing. She settled her ass on the top rail and held the camera up to her face again. She now had elevation and she focused the camera on the people at the back, where Logan was sitting shaking his head as he thought about many synonyms of insane that he could use to brand her on his article. Suddenly he wished he had a camera to take a photograph of her position. Since he had none, he had to come up with the best description of the woman's actions.

He was still staring at the blonde whose face was a camera when he saw her slowly lower the equipment to her chest, where he focused on for about five heartbeats. Then he looked up at her face. She was openmouthed in surprise, and he could not blame her. Logan stood up abruptly. His pen and pad fell on the rain puddle, but he did not notice it. All of a sudden, the insane way she climbed the dock railing made sense. Veronica Mars never did think first if she had an agenda.

Logan started running towards her. His heart stuck in his throat when she started climbing down, then caught his foot on the rail. She stumbled, and Logan froze. Then she jumped down easily. Veronica Mars jogged towards him as he continued sprinting in her direction. They met halfway across the tile dock. Three feet away from each other, they stopped.

"Veronica Mars," he drawled. "Long time no see." He did not mention the fact that the last time he saw her, she was up on the witness stand crucifying his father.

"Duncan said you were in Europe," she said tentatively. "Obviously he was wrong."

Logan forced his smile to remain. That she hooked up with Duncan after their explosive breakup in Dog Beach had reached him. "Still together with DK, huh?"

"No," she said. "But that doesn't mean we don't talk."

"Meaning he calls," Logan clarified. She nodded with a grin. "And I've not been in Europe for two years. Asia's my playground now." He spread his arms wide. "Lots of things to see. Look at this beauty."

Veronica chuckled. "You mean lots of almond eyes and slender figures," she told him. "Nice long black hair."

"I don't know." Logan grinned. "I've always been partial to blonde all-American girls."

She waved away the flirtation. "Oh stop!"

"Well, seeing you halfway around the world means only one thing," Logan said. "The universe wants us to have dinner together." He extended a hand and waited for her to take it. "Well?"

Veronica hesitated as she looked at the proffered hand and then back at his face. "That's it?" she asked in disbelief. "You're okay with all our issues?"

Logan sighed. "Did we really travel half the globe to talk about our issues?"

Veronica smiled and took his hand. "I'm paying," she said.

He shrugged. "No arguments here. I'm paying my own way here."

"Good," Veronica pronounced. "Because I have a business proposition." They walked towards the road to grab a cab. He was about to protest. She held up her hand. "I better get this out of the way so dinner is more about friends catching up."

"Spill."

"I want you to caption my pictures for my new book. I've taken tons of great pictures of this country, and I need your writing talent."

Logan felt his chest puff out on its own, as the compliment washed through him. "You want me to collaborate with you on a project," he repeated.

"I can't think of someone who'd do a better job."

"Have you even seen my style?" Logan asked as he flagged down a cab. He opened the door and ushered her in then climbed in beside her. He wrote with wit and sarcasm, and he wondered whether Veronica would pitch a fit when he ruined her dramatic sepia with his humor. "It's not exactly art collection material."

"Oh please," Veronica responded. "I own a file on all your published works. Dad makes it a point to send them to me."/i

On that one unexpected day in the very same spot where he now took pictures of a busy dock, Logan met his past and locked his future on her image. The book was never published because life took all their time.

i"Thanks for dinner," Logan murmured as the cab stopped in front of his hotel, accommodation paid for strictly by the magazine.

She nodded, her eyes beaming with mirth at the memory of the last story he told her about a used clothes shop he visited in Singapore. "It was good to see you again, Logan."

"It's gonna be better if you see me again after this."

She laughed and agreed with him. "I missed this. We've always been so lighthearted about so many things."

Logan leaned close and placed a tentative kiss on the corner of her lips. She grabbed his face with both hands and deepened the kiss. "And so passionate on other things," he said. "I missed you, Veronica." He smiled and laid his forehead against hers. "Come up to my room."

"No," she said as if it was the most difficult word she ever had to say. Gently she pushed him back. "If we're going to start anything, we're going to have all our faculties making the decision, not just our lower bodies. I'll see you tomorrow. We're going to start working on some pictures. I'll bring them over."/i

It was ridiculous how proud Logan was when he became a full fledged photographer. He used to believe that his gift was words. Photography had almost been an accident to him.

i"Oh my God!" Veronica exclaimed, giggling when he caught her by her waist. "Logan, get off me." She swatted at his shoulders with her hands. "I can't believe you spilled wine all over my pictures."

"Well who in their right mind would bring wine on a working night?"

She smiled and kissed his eyebrow. "I can't help it. You've turned working night into a whole erotic fantasy." They had been working on captioning the pictures for a month and a half and somehow, they never captioned more than four pictures each night. "I give up on this partnership. You really can't mix business with pleasure."

"So you prefer the pleasure?" he prodded.

"Oh do I!" Veronica started packing up the pictures when her eyes fell on the series of photographs she had taken of Logan in Victoria's Peak. There he stood by the rail at the edge of the highest point in all of Hong Kong. Behind him, the city was lit up with its night light. "As close to heaven as earth allows," she had read. Logan had egoistically captioned it with what he said Veronica probably felt when she took that picture. "I'm entering this in the photo contest in Causeway Bay. At least we got something out of this collaboration."

"I'm touched," Logan told her. He then pulled her onto his lap. "Since you've just prettily fired me from your project, you'd better come here to soothe the hurt away."/i

Logan sighed deeply and sat down on the bench again, fixing the camera in his hands. The lens was stuck again, and he worked on fixing the problem. A few minutes later, his sun was blocked. He looked up and saw a strange woman grinning down at him.

"Logan Echolls?"

Logan frowned. "Depends on who's asking."

"I'm a fan. I was so excited to see you here working. I saw your exhibit in the mall Pearl Gallery."

Logan nodded. "Thanks for coming by."

The woman saw him fixing the camera. "Your unit is kind of outdated," she pointed out, surprised. "Why haven't you upgraded to some higher model? I would've expected you to look for something better by now."

Logan shrugged. "It's not dead, is it?"

When the fan had left, Logan looked down at the camera and smoothed his hands over it protectively.

iVeronica rose from the bed with a naughty smile towards Logan. He reached out to grab her by the waist, and she fell in a tangle of sheets on his chest. "Logan, let go! I have to get something from the closet."

"Clothes?" he inquired. "I'm never letting you go if you're threatening to put on clothes."

She laughed. "No. A gift." She stumbled over and grabbed the bag from her shoe rack. She handed it to Logan and then climbed into bed beside him.

He sat up and took out the gift wrapped box. He looked at her in confusion. When he tore the wrapper, he saw the new camera. "Where did you get this?"

"It's the money from the photo contest."

"You're giving it to me?" She nodded happily. Veronica leaned her head on his bare shoulder as he tinkered with the equipment in his hands. She pointed out the features of the camera, and gave him tips on taking pictures with it. Logan turned and kissed the top of her head. "Thanks, sugarpuss."

"It's not much. You could have bought several with a week's allowance from your Neptune days."

Logan inspected the camera, then jarred her head off his shoulder. He turned the camera to her and looked at her through zoomed lenses. "Do you regret being with a piss poor me when you were last with Duncan Kane, the prince of Neptune?"

She took the camera out of his hands and placed it inside the box again. Veronica straddled his thighs and asked, "Do I look like I regret it?"

"I don't know," Logan answered. "It's so dark."

She slapped him on the chest lightly. Veronica bent to capture his lips with his and moved up. Logan's hands settled on her waist. Then Veronica positioned herself above him and slowly sank her body onto his. Logan inhaled sharply as he thrust inside her. He lifted her easily and drew her back down firmly, eliciting a gasp from her. "Logan," she whispered as she moved easily up and down, biting her lip at the sensations aroused inside her.

Logan buried his fingers in her hair and turned her face to his so that they mouths latched together as he pushed inside her even deeper.

"Logan, I need—"

"What do you need?"

Veronica tightly closed her eyes, tears seeped out from the corners. "I need to—"

Swiftly, knocking the breath out of her, Logan maneuvered them so that she would be lying beneath him. He hiked her legs up and helped her wrap them around his waist. The position helped him do deeper, and he surged forward.

"I need you," she moaned.

Logan buried his face in the crook of her neck. "You have me," he breathed into her ear./i

Across the river, Duncan Kane jogged across the market with two cones of three scoops of ice cream each. "Cappuccino, vanilla and cheese," he announced as he presented the ice cream to Veronica. "Your wish, my command."

Veronica beamed and took the ice cream from her husband. "You're a doll!" She looked at a souvenir shop and pointed to it. "Duncan, can you get that cheongsam for me?"

"I'll get anything," he said quickly. "But what's a cheongsam?"

"That Chinese-style blouse. I want the red and gold one. Get a medium."

"You're not coming with me?"

Veronica shook her head. "My feet ache."

"Alright." Duncan turned to the shop she pointed to. Veronica stood up gingerly and started walking over to the artist shop. "You're small."

She shook her head. "Not out here I'm not," she pointed out. "I'll just sit there to look."

When Duncan vanished into the shop, Veronica jogged over to the artist shop. Duncan would take time, because Veronica knew first hand from the conversation of the tourists that the proprietress had a hard time understanding English and that Duncan would be asked to sit down and draw a design he would want. He would be asked about Veronica's birthdate, hobbies, likes. It was a personalized cheongsam shop. Veronica would have enough time to accomplish what she wanted.

"Can we help you?"

"I want to know if you can draw me a picture." The artist nodded and gave her a chair to sit on. "Not me. I want you to draw me a picture of someone I saw in my dream." Veronica smiled. "Please."

tbc