Disclaimer: Excuse me?If that show was mine I'd... probably faint.

Oh, and by the way, I just saw that sneak preview thing for season 2 on SPOILERS, promise!) and since I can't talk about anything (except to say that it looks GREAT!), we'll just stick with Kristen Bell's hair, which, I correct myself, looks awesome! Awesome! Thank Goodness!

Right, then, topic now. I'm so glad you guys liked the last chapter! It was my way of avoiding the "who's at the door" scene because I really can't handle it... Besides, I was really ticked off about Veronica coming out of a major car accident without so much as a few scratches, especially because in first-aid class I was in we had a teacher who traumatized me for life talking about the things that can happen to a person who goes through a car accident, even if he's wearing his seatbelt. Not to mention Aaron? Getting up and prancing around? No way.

Ok, then, moving on, thanks as always to wildhorses's for reading this stuff in advance, and to everyone who REVIEWS! Have fun, guys!

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Twenty minutes had passed since Veronica was lead into the emergency room. Duncan and Logan had followed close behind the stampede of doctors; anxious to see what condition she was in.

And now all the two boys could do was sit outside the room and wait impatiently. Duncan used the time to fill Logan in on everything he knew about the events of the night, being as gentle as he could when he told him about his father's affair with Lilly and what Veronica speculated had happened the day she was murdered. But Duncan wasn't sure what had transpired between Veronica and Mr. Echolls after they left the party, and to say it didn't hang uncomfortably between them, well, it'd be lying.

Logan felt something painfully pressing on his lungs. This was too much, way too fast. . When he had wished his father would get as much jail time as possible he hadn't hoped it would involve killing (or at least trying to kill) his girlfriends. A simple tax fraud would have been sufficient. But no, Aaron Echolls always went for the jackpot. Stupid asshole.

He desperately needed something to do. Anything. For a minute he even contemplated checking up on his father, but quickly decided he didn't care in the least. Instead, he turned to his worn out best friend and asked: "what about you, man? How are you handling things?"

Duncan chuckled, "How am I handling things? You're the one who just discovered…" he looked away, embarrassed.

"My father is a psychotic killer?" Logan added, lowering his eyes, "A psychotic killer who happened to be having an affair with my jailbait girlfriend?"

"Yeah. Sums it up," Duncan said, a bit too cheerfully and instantly regretted it, "I'm sorry man," he said, "it's just that… ever since you told me about the files, I thought it was me. So…"

"You're bordering on ecstatic," Logan completed serenely, "I get it."

Duncan shrugged apologetically but Logan waved his hand, motioning that it was all good.

He wasn't angry with Veronica anymore because suddenly he remembered that just seconds ago he was pretty sure Duncan had done it. And if he could suspect his oldest friend, who had no motive for killing Lily, he could understand why Veronica would suspect Lily's wounded, slightly crazy and intense, ex-boyfriend.

He wasn't angry, but it still hurt, damnit.

What Logan couldn't put behind him was Lilly. He felt like a piano fell on his head every time he thought about Lilly willingly sleeping with his father. His Lilly. Weevil was one thing, but his father? And god knows how long it had been going on before they had broken up for the last time.

And his dad. Damn. He must've known how much he loved Lily, even though he was never around. She was his girlfriend. They must have met one time when she came to see Logan as his girlfriend. Did his dad covet her right away? Was she the one who started the whole thing?

"Dude, what happened to your face?" Duncan asked, suddenly noticing that Logan had a pink, rapidly darkening, bruise under his eye.

"Got into a little argument with Weevil," Logan answered as if it was the least important thing in the world, which it was, obviously.

Duncan nodded, "Hum… are you alright?"

Logan snapped back to reality, "Yeah man, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Duncan insisted, "Because you don't look so hot…"

"Hey, it's been a long night," Logan reminded him, "but I'm fine, really."

Duncan nodded nervously, "Then I think I should go call my dad…"

"Oh yeah," Logan said, "can you apologize for my family?" he added, lowering his eyes.

Duncan nodded understandingly and disappeared with his cellphone.

It made Logan remember about his own turned off cellphone and about what Veronica had said earlier. He quickly yanked it from his pocket and waited impatiently until it turned on.

"Logan, it's Veronica," he heard her half-hasted, half-joyful voice, "listen, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. For everything. I know it wasn't you, of course it wasn't… it never is. Anyway, I know you probably don't wanna hear anything from me, but I just wanted to tell you that I'm here for you… and that… I-love-you, really. Anyway, I'll be out groveling on your doorstep soon enough, right now I'm just too happy to think… also, I gotta run. Tell you about it later. So… bye."

Logan felt drained. Completely drained. Screw this.

He almost wanted to laugh. The message was so like her – short and sweet. Plus, it was nice to know that she finally stopped blaming him for everything that was wrong with her life. About time too, they were running out of crimes.

The next message was from Duncan, who attempted to sound casual but failed miserably, "Hey man, it's Duncan. Listen, I need to find your dad. It's urgent. I can't explain over the phone, especially when you're not answering. Anyway, can you please call me immediately if you see him? And can you please not let him out of your sight? Thanks man, I'll explain as soon as I get the chance. Bye."

Yeah man, thanks for being so honest, he thought. Although, from the third message (which was also from Veronica), he gathered she hasn't been too honest with him either. They both apparently thought that it was ok to ask him to do things for them without telling him anything, which, to be honest, made him a little angry. Even though what they had been asking him to do was distract his psychotic, murdering father.

But oh well, in days like these, grudges seemed to be pushed back out of the way and forgotten. Right now all he cared about was Veronica getting out of surgery. She had to be okay. She just had to be, too much has happened already.

He should probably call Trina. She was his sister after all, even though he hated her guts.

With a sigh, he made a quick call, telling her what had happened in footnotes and adding that she should come to the hospital immediately because Aaron was in bad shape. It felt good to say that out loud. Too bad his dad wasn't dying, because he imagined saying the words 'Dad's gonna kick off' would have wiped all his sadness away.

Duncan came back and rubbed his temples, "This is a mess."

"Why?"

"I called my mom so she could post the bail," Duncan said wearily, "but apparently they took her in too. So now I have to go… anyway, I just wanted to see if you needed anything."

Logan gave him one of his I'm-lying-please-don't-leave-me-alone smiles, "No. Go man, I'll be fine."

"You sure you'll be ok here on your own?"

It was nice that even after all they'd been through – Logan dating Duncan's Joey Potter, Duncan believing Logan was the killer and Logan believing Duncan was the killer, plus, the past year in general – they still cared about each other enough to ignore all that baggage.

"I'm sure. Don't worry about me."

Duncan nodded skeptically and opened his mouth.

But Logan knew what he wanted. "I'll call you the minute they let me know. Promise."

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"God Lilly, it was just a kiss," he said exasperatedly, throwing his hands, "I was drunk, for god's sake, stop being such a bitch!"

They were in her room, she had just dumped him again, this time for kissing Yolanda, and his attempts at begging for her forgiveness had gone a bit downhill somewhere along the way.

"Get over yourself Logan," Lilly shot back, "I don't care about you kissing some girl."

That hurt. "Then what the hell's wrong with you?"

Llily shot him an uncaring look, which seemed a bit vicious in his opinion, "This is getting kinda boring, these jealous rages. You don't own me, no one owns me." She could be kind of cold sometimes.

Logan rolled his eyes, "Can you blame me for being jealous? Look at you, Llily! You're a slut! I can't trust you at all," he yelled desperately.

"Boo freakin' hoo," Lilly retorted flatly before grabbing his backpack from the floor and tossing it at his chest, "I think reality's calling now. Thanks for stopping by. Have fun in Mexico."

Logan looked at her silently; his eyes glistened, and shook his head. "See how long this breakup lasts," he snarked, "a month is our record," he reminded her.

Lilly placed her hands over her hips and raised her head, "I think I'm gonna break it. Now go cling on someone else."

"Yeah," Logan said, not as un-sincerely as he would have liked, "I love you too, Lily."

"Kisses."

And that was the last time he spoke to her, although it wasn't the last time he saw her.

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He remembered watching her a few days later at the car wash. She was cheerful and lively, playing with the soap and fooling around with Veronica. So completely not mourning their breakup. He, on the other hand, was starting to resemble a rag that had been used too many times on an ungrateful floor, more and more each day.

He knew at that moment that it was definitely over. He couldn't be with a person who cared about him so little, even if it was Lilly and even if he was crazy in love with her. She clearly didn't love him as much as he loved her, she probably didn't love him at all, and that thought was a bit too much to bear. And he just couldn't pretend he didn't mind them having a casual relationship anymore.

So he sat in the car and wrote her a goodbye letter in which he unloaded everything he felt and thought about their 3 years relationship. Which naturally lead to a five page angst fest. He walked out of his car and placed the letter and the shot glass gently on the passenger's seat of hers. Looking back now, he couldn't remember seeing any tapes there; maybe she had picked them up later.

Looking back, if Veronica and Duncan didn't find the letter in Lilly's air vent and no one else found it when they searched the room and her car, he assumed she had probably thrown it away, just like she had thrown away their relationship. He hoped she had at least read it, although she might have been too worked up from her juicy secret and just tossed it out of the window. That really hurt. Damnit.

Logan sprung up when the doctor stepped out of the surgery room, "How is she?" he snapped.

"Are you a relative?"

"I'm a fri…" he started to say but then stopped himself and tried to sound determined as he corrected his words, "I'm her boyfriend."

The doctor smiled sympathetically, no doubt thinking this kid was delusional. "She's going to be ok," he said. It was the same line he'd been saying for 10 years (but at least it was better than the 'I'm sorry, there was nothing we could do' line).

"Can I see her?" Logan asked even more urgently, "Is she conscious?"

"Won't be for about 12 hours, until the anesthesia wears off," the doctor answered, "you should probably get that bruise taken care and get some rest."

Logan ignored it completely, "Can I see her?" he asked again.

The doctor sighed. They never listened to that advice, "Sure. But I should really find a relative of hers," a real relative, he almost added.

"Her dad's somewhere in here," Logan said distractedly, contemplating on whether or not he should tackle the annoying doctor to get him out of the way, "his name is Keith Mars."

The doctor nodded and wrote it down in his notebook, "Thanks. And son? Please try to get some rest." He added before disappearing.

Again, Logan ignored him completely and almost knocked over a nurse on his way to the room.

He was afraid to see her connected to all kinds of menacing tubes and IVs, but to his relief, Veronica was just lying peacefully on the bed as if she slept through the whole night and didn't actually have a clue about what was going on. Yeah, right.

He sat next to her and gently took her hand. He pressed the part that wasn't bandaged to his lips and took a few deep breathes. The doctors had obviously cleaned and disinfected her, but he could still faintly smell the smoke and gasoline that he had smelled before, when she was just brought in. He shuddered as he tried to imagine what would cause that smell.

He got up, looked at her for a long time, making sure she was really asleep and kissed her forehead softly (much like he did earlier before he found out she turned him over to the police) before leaving the room.

He called Duncan and informed him of the situation. After that short conversation (Duncan said he'd be there in no time, of course) Logan braced himself and walked into the reception area.

"Can I help you?" the woman, who's name was Sally, asked nicely, although the phone kept ringing and she seemed to be under some stress.

"What room is Aaron Echolls in?" he asked, as usual, without a slight hint of politeness. A person could change, but only to some extent.

Sally the Receptionist instantly lost her kindness, "Are you a relative?" she demanded, "Because if you're not, I'm not allowed to give out…"

Logan interrupted her by taking out his ID, "I'm his son."

"You're Logan Echolls?" there she was, kind again but this time, there was awe in her voice.

"So it says," he answered shortly and added before she had time to ask for an autograph of his dad: "The room?"

"ER, room 22, third floor." Sally looked disappointed, she heard, read and saw everything that was published about the Echolls' and knew that their beady little teenage son was unkind in general and to fans and press specifically. Still, she had hoped her sweetness would melt him a little. Ungrateful Punk.

ER, he thought as he walked towards the elevator, dragging his feet, I hope he dies on the table. It would have been poetic justice for him to die during surgery seeing as how in 'The Pursuit of Happiness' he had played acomatosed man who's chances of waking up were slimmer than a spider's web until new good looking Dr. Mitchell was assigned to treat him. She, of course, tried some miracle treatment on him and saved his life. The movie ended with him opening his eyes, telling her she was the most beautiful creature he has ever seen and kissing her. Dr. Mitchell was Lynn Echolls' first role in Hollywood.

It didn't really matter if he survived, though, because he was bound to get the death sentence anyway.

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