Disclaimer: These characters all belong to the brilliant Rob Thomas not me.

Authors note: The more reviews I get the faster I update!

Logan had decided that he was going to leave the graduation party. He hadn't drank since the night of the alterna prom, and something about being around a lot of drunks when you're not drunk yourself was almost unbearably boring. But there was no way he was going to drink, not around Veronica. He was sick and tired of hurting her, seeing her cry, it drove him crazy that he can't be the guy who picks up the the pieces. he is just the guy that causes her to break and make the pieces shatter. When he got the text message he wasn't sure if he was going to open it or not.

ugh Dick probably drank too much and got himself in trouble He thought to himself, but curiosity quickly got the better of him and he opened the message.

Meet me on the roof now.

"What the hell" he said aloud but he didn't think twice, it said there was no name but he recognized the number instantly. "Veronica" he whispered all ready out the door. He ran up to the roof wondering what on earth Veronica wanted with him. She hardly spoke to him since the morning after alterna prom, when she seen him with Kendall Casablancas. Then he wondered for the billionth time what he had said to her that night. He tried his hardest to push those thoughts out of his mind, whatever he said got through to her, but he fucked it all up. It was too much for him to think about, When he did think about it, it made him want to go back and stand on the ledge of the Coranato Bridge. So he started to think about the roof again and what Veronica could possibly be doing up there. He wished the Neptune Grand's elevator didn't go so damn slow. the curiosity was killing him. Finally he reached the top floor and stepped out on the roof and thats when he saw Beaver... little old Beaver pointing a gun at the girl he loves more than his own life.

"NO!" He screamed, and suddenly the gun was pointed at him.

He ran around frantically trying to avoid the gun shots. Any other day or time the gunshots would be welcome, he meant what he said to Ms. James. There is nothing good about living for him... not anymore. But today Veronica needed him to protect her. He moved around trying to keep Beaver's attention on him. run Veronica, save yourself. He thought. Then Suddenly Beaver was on the ground and Veronica was on top of him. Logan couldn't help but feel a little proud and annoyance towards Veronica. She was tough, he knew that. But he still wished she wouldn't be so full of herself, that she didn't think she could handle everything, that she wouldn't put herself in these situations. If something ever happened to Veronica he wouldn't be able to go on living himself. Most of all he wished she would realize that.

Beaver flipped Veronica over and she was on now on the ground, she appeared to be hurt pretty badly. He quickly ran over there and kicked Beaver away from her and began wrestling with his once upon a time friend. He didn't know what had gotten into Beaver, but he was trying to hurt Veronica, so he really didn't care. Suddenly he felt a strong shock run through his body. shit he thought Beaver is going to kill me and then Veronica, I failed her again. Then he heard gunshots. He looked up and there was Veronica with the gun. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Veronica, the girl who ruthlessly pursued Lilly's murderer even after everyone had turned on her. The girl who brought on hell for all bad-doers in Neptune. But there she was pointing a gun at Beaver and himself.

"Logan move away from him" She called

"Veronica, don't" He replied in the most calming voice he could muster

"HE KILLED MY FATHER!"

At this moment nothing mattered more than keeping Veronica from becoming a murderer herself.

"Give me the gun Veronica"

"He killed everyone on the bus, he raped me!"

He looked at Beaver disbelivingly. Now it was him that wanted him dead he wanted to rip Cassidy Casablancas apart for hurting Veronica like that. But he couldn't not now. He knew what was important. Keeping Veronica alive and keeping her from becoming one of those sick fuckers that she has devoted herself to bringing down.

"You are not a killer Veronica." He said moving closer to her. She was shaking and the tears in her eyes almost killed him. He hated seeing the people he loved cry.

"Give me the gun" He repeated while moving his hand closer to hers.

She was finally beginning to ease her grip on the gun. He slowly moved his hand on top of hers and took the gun from her, he put his arms loosely around her at first. He wasn't sure if she would object to him being there and touching her when her whole world seemed to have been falling apart. After all it its only been a couple weeks since she seen him and Kendall together and only a few days since his own murderous father walked away a free man. But within a couple seconds she was returning the embrace and holding on to him as if she were drowning and he was a lifeboat. He didn't know what he should do, he couldn't just take her down to his room and make her a sundae to make her feel better. Anything he thought of just seemed like an incredibly stupid thing to do. He decided to just stand here and hold her for a little while, he hasn't been this close to Veronica since that day she had danced with him at the Sadie Hawkins dance. He was sure she was just trying to save him from saying something to the mayors daughter that he would later regret. He looked up from Veronica's hair and seen Beaver climbing over the railing, he was going to jump. He let go of Veronica for a second to try to save his friend.

"Beaver don't!"

"MY NAME IS CASSIDY!" he called back, and the words felt like a knife inside his gut.Logan had always known how much he hated being called Beaver.

"Cassidy, don't"

"Why not?" For this Logan had no answer, but he would have, if Cassidy gave him a little while to think he knows he would have thought of something. It was just hard to get past the Cassidy is a killer, who raped Veronica and killer her father.

"Thats what I thought." And then he jumped, just like that. Logan wonders if his mom had the same look in her eyes before she jumped off the Coranato Bridge.

Now its Veronica who grabs hold of him. The two of them just stand there on the roof holding on to each other for a while. Its Veronica that speaks first.

"Mac"

Logan feels horrible that it takes him a minute to realize who that was Ghost World Logan makes a mental note not to ever call someone by Dick's nickname for them again. Until Cassidy's statement he never realized how hurtful they could be. And the last thing he wants right now is to hurt anyone.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know, they wouldn't tell me which room Cassidy was staying in." Veronica said shaking and looking like she might start to cry again.

"Don't worry, we'll find her." He said in his most convincing voice. Truth is he didn't know which room they was staying in either. but chances are he will be able to bribe the people at the desk. Or maybe they already know Cassidy Casablancas is dead and they will just tell us.

"Okay" She said in a defeated tone.

"What happened?" He blurted it out. He really did not mean to, but there it was.

Veronica turned her head to look at him and before she could start talking Logan cut her off.

"Oh God Veronica, I'm sorry, I don't know why I asked you that, I'm a fucking idiot. I should have known something was wrong when you came to talk to me at the party. I should have known something was up with Cassidy, hell Dick and I are probably some of the cause of psycho killer Cassidy."

"Logan, stop. You can ask me that. You saved my life.

"Veronica, I will always save you. Your life is worth more than mine" he said in a very sincerely

"Don't say that."

"Its the truthand youknow it. If you're gonna tell me what happened do it soon because Mac is still in that room somewhere."

"Do you think he killed her?" Veronica asked with tears falling from her face again.

"Why would he kill her? What the hell is going on with him?" Logan asked.

"Logan, when he was a kid, he was molested."

"What the fuck, who did it?"

"His little league coach, the mayor, your old boss, Woody Goodman."

"I really am the reason of all this."

"Logan what are you talking about no you are not."

"When I was an intern for Woody he was touching me all gay like. I should have said something. Maybe ifI did he wouldhavebeen stopped and Cassidywouldn't have jumped. Andfor as long as I can remember Dick and I have been making gay jokes at Beaver because he never had a girlfriend until Mac. I've called him Beaver ever since I met him and Dick, I always knew how much he hated being called that. I'm so stupid we should have been nicer to him, its not like we didn't care about him. If we would have known that Woody did that to him we wouldn't have talked like that. We would have done something to Woody. I am going to do something to Woody." Logan stated starting to get angry

Veronica bursts into tears, "Cassidy killed him."

"What..."

"He blew up Woody's plane. The same way he blew up the bus, My dad was..." She trailed off

"Veronica..." Logan said softly, losing all the anger that he felt just a moment ago.

"Wait, we don't have time for this now. We'll go find Mac and we can talk later"

"Okay"

The rest of the elevator ride was silent, but he kept her close to him the whole time.

When they finally reached the lobby it was Logan who took charge.

"Tell me which room Cassidy Casablancas is staying in" Logan commanded.

"Sir, I'm afraid we..."

"NOW" He yelled.

For a moment the woman behind the desk looked so scared that she might tell him the room number. That of course was not the case.

"That guest does not want to be disturbed."

"Yeah? Well you are too late, he was very disturbed, he just threw himself off the roof of this building, did you know that? And his girlfriend is still up there. We need to get in that room right now lady." Logan said. It took quite a bit of strength to keep the tears that he felt beginning to well up in his eyes from falling.

She already must have known that there was a jumper, maybe she didn't know who it was. Because she told them that someone from the hotel staff would go let them in the room.

Logan looked over at Veronica sitting in a lobby chair she didn't look like Veronica at all. She was shaking and still crying. He has never seen her look so sad. He didn't know what to do so he walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry." He got down on his knees, and took her hands into his own "Veronica, I know that I'm a really shitty substitute for your dad, but I love you. I love you more than I've ever loved anything else and I swear I'll do my best to take care of you."

Veronica looked up at him with tear streaked cheeks "Logan...You don't have to...I'm fine"

"I want to. The thought of you all alone makes me feel sick Veronica, look what happened tonight, or at the River Styx. Veronica you need someone to keep you safe."

She didn't have a response. She wasn't used to seeing this side of Logan, not since they broke up last summer. She just fell into his arms and hoped that her actions would speak the words she was unable to say.

They sat on the floor Veronica sobbing in his arms until the hotel manager finally came up to them with the key and said he would escort them up to the room.

"About fucking time man" Logan said in a very annoyed tone.

They made their way up to Cassidy's room and when they finally got there the hotel manager unlocked the door and was the first to step inside. He started on a rant about the hotel's things not being in room anymore.

"Mac?" Veronica called

When they seen her she was sitting on the floor with a shower curtain wrapped around her. Veronica immediately ran over there to her and the two girls that were damaged sat there and held on to each other

after a few minutes of looking over the room the hotel manager started asking her questions. This really pissed Logan off

"Hey man back the fuck off, can't you see she isn't dressed?"

He either didn't hear Logan or ignored him and continued asking Mac questions. At this point Logan was so pissed he was seeing red. He grabbed the guy by his Jacket collar and pinned him up against a wall.

"I'm going to fucking kill you if you don't leave them alone"

Both Veronica and Mac looked up at him and instantly he regretted showing such brutality

"Why don't you make yourself useful and get her something to put on?" He said trying to mask his anger at this douche bags complete disregard for the girls' feelings.

"Yes sir" The hotel manager said and left the room rather quickly. He was clearly afraid of Logan now.

"I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean to lose my temper like that. After tonight thats the last thing either of you needs. I'm gonna go to my room to grab some stuff and give you two a chance to talk. I'll be back before that prick, I promise"

To Logan's surprise it was Mac that spoke "Don't apologize, thank you for getting him away from me"

"It was nothing" he said and turned out of the room. He never liked being thanked for things it didn't seem normal to him, but he was still glad that he did something right.

When he returned to the room where the girls still sit holding each other the hotel manager had not been back yet.

Logan didn't want to be the one to bring this up but it was important and it couldn't go unsaid. "Mac, I think you should call your parents and tell them you are alright before all this shit makes it on to the news"

"Umm, I'd rather not, could you just bring me home?"

"Of course. Do you need anything first, besides clothing?"

"No I just want to get home and go to sleep I've never been this tired in my life."

"Got it, I'm going to call down to the desk and ask what is taking that retarded guy so fucking long to bring up clothes."

But Before he could pick up the phone the guy was back at the door again. Logan snatched the clothes out of his hand and pushed the guy back out the door. He threw the clothes on the bed near where Mac and Veronica sat, then he walked out the door himself.

After about 5 minutes or so the two girls emerged from the room.And the three of them made their way to Logan's Xterra in silence. They were both clearly too damaged to speak and Logan didn't know what to say so the silence wasn't totally unwelcomed. Mac and Veronica climbed in the back seat still holding on to each other. Logan asked Mac for her address and the drive there was completely silent except for the sound of sobbing.

When they finally arrived at Mac's house she had fallen asleep in Veronica's arms

"I don't want to wake her up" Veronica said

"Its okay I got it"

Logan carried Mac up to the door and it was then that he realized he couldn't actually get inside especially with her in his arms. There were no lights on so he assumed everyone was sleeping and he didn't want to wake them up by ringing the door bell. Veronica must have also realized this because she came up behind him.

"Veronica... you should have stayed in the car." Logan said full of concern for her.

"Yeah because you are going to use your telekinesis to get the door open?"

Logan sighed in defeat as Veronica opened up the door and led him to Mac's room. He placed her very carefully on the bed so not to wake her. Veronica pulled the blankets up around her and left a message on her dry erase board to call us when she wakes up if she needed anything at all.

Logan stared at the board or more specifically at the uspartuntil Veronica started to walk out the door.

"You wanna lay down in the back seat again?" He asked her.

"No"

"Are you sure?" He was worried about her and he wanted to make sure that he could make her as comfortable as possible without actually being too worried that it annoyed her.

"Yeah"

He opened the passenger side door of the bright yellow X-terra and helped her get in and fasten her seat belt.

"Where do you want to go?" he asked

"Home."

"Are you sure that wont be too hard on you? I can take you somewhere. anywhere you want to go, we can leave the country if you want" he said desperately.

"No I think I'll be okay to go home, but umm, will you stay with me?" she asked in a quiet voice.

He stroked her hair gently and said "Veronica, I wouldn't leave you right now for anything"