Part 3

Veronica gave him a toothy grin from the emergency room where her arm was put in a cast to the nurse's car. Logan had awkwardly tried to straighten her beside him in the backseat, because the nurse could still see them and Veronica had been adamant about the secrecy. However, when the painkillers finally completely kicked in and he found Veronica slumped against his body and drooling on his jacket, Logan found himself grinning and wincing at the same time.

A box of tissue paper landed beside him. He picked it up and took one, then gingerly tried to wipe some of the saliva that inched its way out of Veronica's mouth. The nurse was not stupid. He knew he signed a confession when he did not throw Veronica off of him at the sight of her bodily fluid darkening his designer clothes.

He looked up at the rearview mirror where he met the nurse's eyes. "Thanks," Logan mumbled.

"Sure," she said. "I know your mom's friends with her dad."

And Logan was pretty sure that she patronized him then. As a sign of gratefulness, he decided to refer to the nurse by her name and not by her occupation. Lynn Echollas often lectured him that that was how people felt valued. "Ms Lee, you won't tell anyone right?"

"Tell anyone what?" she asked with a glint in her eye.

Logan smirked and caught Veronica by her shoulders as the turn of the road caused her to fall off his shoulder and almost onto his lap. "How long is she gonna be knocked out for?"

"Give or take four hours," Ms Lee offered. "Logan, can you give me the directions to Veronica's place? We have to drop her off first."

Logan maneuvered Veronica's body so that she could lie halfway in the backseat and just use his lap as a pillow. "Just drive us to school. I'll take her back home in my car."

"Alright," Ms Lee agreed. "But I'm going to follow you two back to her house, okay? Seeing her home is still part of the school's responsibility."

The school nurse then helped Logan get Veronica into his car and followed his car to her place. When Ms Lee had seen Logan run up to Veronica's door and open it, then rush back to the car and tenderly heft the girl into his arms before walking slowly into the house and kicking the door behind him, the nurse drove away.

Meanwhile Logan made his way inside the Mars' place and recalled the times when he picked Lilly up from the house. He created a mental layout of the living room, the kitchen and the bedrooms. Logan walked over to Veronica's bedroom and placed her on the bed.

"How much liquid have you had today?" he muttered. Logan reached for another piece of tissue paper from the side table and wiped at her cheek.

He sat on the edge of the bed and reached for the cast, then ran his fingers down the hard path until he reached her peeking fingers. They were warm and a little bloated. He wondered what kind of patient she was going to be when the painkillers had worn off. She had been an angelic patient all the time in the clinic and in the hospital. He should have known it was the drugs, of course.

Logan's gaze wandered around Veronica's room. He had not had the chance to assess it yet. He was aware of Veronica's efforts to get him to spend more time in the place but since he started to feel certain things for Veronica, Logan had been uncomfortable around Keith Mars. He could not help but feel that Keith would be weighing him, checking to see what he's made of, testing his material and eventually finding him lacking.

It was definitely a girl's room. The walls had half a dozen posters of different landscapes. The dresser had a few brushes, perfume bottles and brushes scattered on it. Held up on the mirror by cartoon magnets were photographs of herself and Lilly. There were a few pictures of her parents and even of Logan and Duncan.

The phone started ringing. Logan stood up and walked over. He was about to answer when he realized that that would be a huge mistake. The machine picked up. He listened as Keith Mars' voice filled the room. "Veronica? I thought you'd be home by now. Anyway, honey, I'm sorry I can't make it home tonight. We're following a case lead out of town. I might be home late tomorrow night. You be good to your mom, ok?"

Logan turned around and walked in to Veronica's bedroom. He leaned over and pushed her hair away from her face, then placed a kiss on her forehead. "I'm going home. I'll call you later."

He was about to leave when he heard the phone ring again. He waited around until he heard Lianne's voice. "Veronica, sweetheart, it's mom." Logan frowned. He had lived with Lynn Echolls enough to recognize that that stiff cheer in Lianne's voice was affected by alcohol. "Your dad called and told me he's not coming home. I'm supposed to be there by seven to make dinner but there's an emergency here in Louise's place and I can't make it home. Order some takeout and I'll give you money tomorrow, alright? Goodnight, sweetie!"

Logan sighed. He walked over to the refrigerator and hunted around for any type of food he could prepare. He then picked up the phone and ordered enough pasta for two people. He sat on the couch and turned on the television, then surfed some channels.

About an hour and two sitcoms later, the phone started ringing again. Logan glanced at the clock. "Who knew Veronica Mars got so many messages?" He should really teach her some deep inspirational voicemail messages.

"Veroooonicaaaa!"

Logan sat up and narrowed his eyes at the answering machine, as if Lilly Kane could see him.

"Veronica, you haven't answered my two previous messages." Logan could almost picture the pout that accompanied that statement. "I've been waiting and waiting for you to call me back. You still aren't home? I'm so worried about you and so is Donut," Lilly grumbled. "Anyway, when you are finally home you have to spill about gorgeous male nurses or any young doctors that you should so have flashed in the hospital."

Logan rolled his eyes, then turned the volume of the television up.

"Alright then, Veronica. Call me!"

The doorbell rang. Logan peered through the peephole and saw the food. He pulled open the door and drew his wallet out of his pocket.

"Logan Echolls?"

Logan froze. He was looking straight into the eyes of one of the high school seniors, the one running for valedictorian. "Uhhh… I thought you were working for your dad's pizza place?"

The other young man smirked at him. "It's Hamilton Cho," he offered. "And I do. I also work part time at Luigi's."

"Wow," Logan replied awkwardly and handed him the money to more than cover for the food.

Hamilton looked down at the receipt. "Logan Echolls ordering for the Mars address." He counted the money and then handed Logan back a hundred dollars. "I think you miscalculated." Logan met his gaze but did not move to take the money. "You really don't need to, man," Hamilton said. "I don't care enough to spread rumors. I've got too much on my plate."

Logan took the food and released a deep breath. He closed the door and then placed the food on the table. His stomach rumbled. Logan went into Veronica's bedroom and saw her still sleeping soundly. Logan took his phone from his pocket and dialed his mother's number.

"Hey mom. I might not come home tonight. I'm spending the night at a sick friend's. Huh? Well no one's gonna stay with her."

Logan set his jaw when his mother asked who it was. There was a long pause. His mother threatened to have the police start looking for his car if he did not tell her. The sheriff would kill him if he heard over his radio that Logan Echolls had finally been found right inside the sheriff's own house.

"It's Veronica, mom. Her parents aren't here and she's sick."

He expected her to tell him to go home because it was Keith who busted his father having an affair anyway. Logan was surprised when Lynn agreed that he should hang around with Veronica.

He took a pillow from Veronica's bed and placed it on one end of the couch, then stretched himself in it. His feet propped on the couch armrest. It was not the most comfortable position. Still, he was within eyesight of Veronica's bedroom. He fell asleep.

A few hours later, it was Veronica's voice that woke him. He opened his eyes to see Veronica leaning over him, her eyes blotchy. He immediately looked down at the cast.

"Hey how are you feeling?"

"Awful!" she responded honestly. "Do you know where the pain meds are?"

He smiled. "You put it in your bag."

Veronica turned around to get it, but he caught her uninjured arm. "First, you eat. You can't take that on an empty stomach," Logan warned her.

She groaned. "Is there even food? I don't think mom cooked anything."

He cocked his head. "What, you think I'd let you starve? Never." Logan led her to the dining table, where he took the pasta contained and popped it in the microwave. Logan prepared two places on the table. After heating the food, he opened the contained and placed it at the center of the table. "Voila!"

Despite the haze of throbbing pain, Veronica had to smile. "You got my favorite!" She watched as Logan served some on her plate then put some on his. When he started wolfing down the pasta, she frowned. "You didn't eat while I was asleep?"

Logan swallowed the food, then shook his head. "You were bound to get hungry sooner or later." He saw that it was already midnight. "I didn't want you to eat alone."

Veronica jumped up from her seat and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Oh sorry," she said. "I think that was a wet kiss."

"Oh you don't know how wet you can be," he commented.

Veronica gasped, then threw a very small piece of garlic bread at him. "Logan, that's disgusting!"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Mars. I was talking about your drooling all over my jacket while you were knocked out."

She flushed. "I did not!"

"It's okay, Veronica," he assured her. "You didn't know what was going on."

"How long was I out for?" she wondered.

Logan calculated mentally, then informed her, "You fell at around three, then you were at the clinic getting your temporary cast until four thirty. Since then you were flying in fantasy land, but you weren't knocked out until we were driving you back at five thirty."

Veronica turned and saw the time. "I was out for a long time." She narrowed her eyes at Logan and joked, because she trusted him completely to not have done anything, "You didn't try some hanky-panky did you?"

"Oh you were all over me!" Logan teased back.

"Must be the drugs then," she answered back.

Logan grinned and watched her eat. While she was in a good mood, he was just going to tell her. "You have a lot of messages," he told her. "Your parents can't come home tonight; Lilly wants you to call her; and," he finished quickly and almost incoherently, "MsLee-and-Hamilton-Cho-know-about-you-and-me-and-you-don't-have-to-worry-because-they're-not-gonna-tell."

She looked up at Logan with a frozen smile while her mind worked to transcribe the information. Her smiled faded. "Oh my God, Logan! I was out for just a few hours and two people know?"

"You're the one who fell off a pyramid. They wouldn't have known if you hadn't fallen," he defended himself.

She narrowed her eyes. "I wouldn't have been at cheerleading practice if you hadn't been so jealous in the first place."

"And I wouldn't have been jealous if you hadn't been getting flowers from Duncan."

"Well thank you for all the flowers you keep giving me at school," she retorted.

Logan's jaw fell. "I thought you didn't want anyone to suspect anything!"

"Well that just won't work anymore now that Hamilton and Ms Lee know."

Logan opened his mouth to speak. Nothing came out. He had no argument for it. Then he started laughing. Veronica looked at him as if he were crazy. Slowly though, she started chuckling. Then she gasped for breath, wincing when she felt her arm getting jarred because of her laughter.

"Hey are you okay?" Logan prompted.

Veronica nodded, wiping at her tears of laughter. She followed as Logan stood up then stepped out of the house. Veronica waited anxiously, because he had only been laughing a few seconds ago. It was improbable that he just walked out on her. Soon enough, he was back with her bag in his arms.

"You were so heavy when I carried you in here. I couldn't carry your bag too."

Veronica accepted the bag gratefully, looking at Logan with something close to adoration. Instead of saying something that would be too sweet for someone like Logan Echolls, she said, "I will kick your ass if you imply I'm fat again." She was trying to hard, after all, to not become too much of anything that Logan would find disagreeable.

"I wouldn't dare," he answered, kissing her on the nose. Logan then opened the bag because she was just going to struggle with the zip using one hand. He took the bottle out and unscrewed the cap. Then he handed her one of the pills. "You're one scary woman."

Veronica accepted the pill with a smile, and kissed him on the lips. "Thank you." After taking the pill, she pulled him with her to the bedroom. She lay down and waited until he lay down behind her. Logan rested his arm over her waist and pulled her close. "We can't be late for class," she reminded him. "Wake me up, okay?"

"Promise."

They woke up the next day ten minutes before first period, glaring at each other in Logan's car as he drove them.

"I'll go in first," she told him when they arrived.

"I'll follow after ten minutes."

Veronica did not get out, expecting something. She then sighed and decided not to bother. He leaned over and pushed her door open. When she was about to slide out, he placed his hand on her thigh. She turned to him and he kissed her on the lips. "Veronica, don't forget to take your pill after," he checked his watch, "three hours and thirty eight minutes."

She smiled and nodded. Veronica took a slip of pink paper from her bag. "One of my last. It's a late pass."

Logan accepted the slip of paper. "I'll check later if you took your meds. Have fun today."

"You too," she said.

He rolled his eyes. "As if that's possible."

tbc