Don't panic. Every road has a few unexpected curves.

Disclaimer: It is not mine, much as I'd like it to be. (Maybe someday when I'm fabulously wealthy . . . )

X X X X X

Celeste looked at the three of us. Clearly struggling to be civil, she asked, "And what are you doing here?" I'm sure in her head it came off like a neutral question. In the real world, it came across like she'd just found Marilyn Manson hiding in her azaleas.

"It's okay, Mom," Duncan said. "They were just coming over to tell me something."

Coldly, Celeste said, "What?"

"Well, Logan asked Veronica to go to the Total Eclipse of the Heart dace – you know, the one I'm setting up."

"I know. Go on."

"And they wanted to be sure I'd be okay with it before Veronica said yes." My opinion of Duncan's skills at improvisation just jumped several notches. That was a hell of a good reason for Logan and I to have come. "And I am," he said. "I'm totally cool with the idea."

Celeste nodded her head maybe a millimeter. "Yes. Yes, it was nice of them to do that." She looked in the general direction of me and Logan. "Logan. Veronica." Then she walked out.

"Bullet dodged," I said. "Thanks, Duncan."

"You're welcome," he said, smiling. "Now let's get you guys out of here before you have to repeat the performance for my father."

As we walked to the door, I said, "That was clever of you."

Duncan seemed puzzled. "Not that clever. Logan did tell me that in the hall while you were going through Lilly's vent." Then he smiled again. "And I really am happy for the two of you."

Logan looked at me a bit sheepishly. I told Duncan, "Thanks," in my best phony-happy voice, and all but dragged Logan off to the X-Terra.

"You. Told. Him. What?" I demanded.

"It was the best reason at the time I could think of to drag him out in the hall!" he protested. "What was I going to do, ask him for tips on how to get through the Auntie Poulet missions in Vice City?"

As we got into the SUV, I said, "This is going to get over school, you realize. It's not like Duncan's Carrie Bishop, but he's not going to keep it a secret."

"So?" he said. "Are you ashamed of the idea."

"No," I said evenly. "I'm pissed off by the blackmail attempt."

"No blackmail attempt," Logan said. "A little wishful thinking, maybe, but not a blackmail attempt. We don't have to actually go."

"Sure," I said. "And then I look like a heartless bitch for agreeing to go and then changing my mind."

"I thought your reputation didn't bother you."

"That doesn't mean I want it made the topic for a whole new round of dump-on-Veronica."

After an uncomfortable period of quiet, Logan said, "I'm sorry."

"I know. And I accept that. But this is a bit too big to be immediately forgiven."

"Is the campaign over?" he asked.

"No. But I'd advise against any immediate maneuvers."

He nodded. "Fair enough. About the tapes –"

"I'll look at them and get back to you," I said. "I assume you don't want to see them."

"I'd sooner watch a Golden Girls Marathon." We didn't talk for the rest of the trip back to the Neptune High parking lot.

X X X X X

Damn Logan for doing that. I have no idea what goes on in his head sometimes. Despite what he said, I'm sure part of him had expected me to simply go along with it. Or at least, had hoped that I would.

Would I forgive him? Probably. But I was too pissed right now to want to. There would be fallout from this, I was sure. I'd deal with it when it came.

For the moment, best to throw myself into other matters. Earlier today, I'd called the only person I could think of who could help me hide the drawer full of tapes.

Logan: No one else was home, but he kind of didn't know I'd saved this drawer. Mac, Wallace, Meg: their parents might find out and I didn't want to get anyone in trouble. Weevil: no one short of a SWAT team would get to them, but I'd rather not freak out his grandmother. Home was out for obvious reasons. For one, Dad; for two, it's not like our apartment has a whole lot of extra room. I couldn't have hidden the drawer in there at gunpoint, and I kind of wanted to keep them intact, in the drawer.

So that left this guy. I knocked on his office door and he told me to come in.

"Hi, Cliff," I said as I struggled through the doorway with the drawer in my arms.

"Veronica," Cliff said. Then, noticing the tapes, he said, "I don't care how many favors you've done for me, I'm not watching your family vacation."

"Not what I had in mind," I said, setting the drawer down. "I just need you to hold this for me."

"The U-Store-It down the street full up?" he asked.

"No. I need to keep these somewhere safe."

"And you immediately thought of me. I'm touched, Veronica, really. A little less convinced of how smart you are, but touched. When did I become the 'safe' choice for anything?"

"Since I either can't trust anyone else or don't want to drag them into it."

"But me you'll drag."

I grinned. "Well, that is kind of the nature of our relationship."

"Point." After a second, he asked, "So. Do I want to know what's on these tapes?"

"Probably not. But they're really important for a case I'm working on."

Cliff nodded. "Okay. I'll do it. But two things. One, you're a minor. So this isn't any kind of legal arrangement. If someone shows up with a warrant, I'll have to give them up."

"Of course. This is more of a favor than anything else. And the other thing?"

"You owe me one, now." I agreed that I did. "Good. Miss Loretta Cancun is in trouble again with the Neptune Sheriff's Department."

"Who arrested her this time?"

"Sacks."

I laughed. Sometimes it was easy. "Just show them the same tape as before. I'm stunned that they're letting Sacks go anywhere near the vice busts after that."

"They confiscated the tape."

"I have a copy. I'll get it to you tomorrow."

He reached out and shook my hand. "Pleasure doing business with you."

"Always is," I said, and left.

I liked Cliff. He may have liked to pretend to be sleazy, but he was really a halfway decent human being. I just needed to make sure never to tell him that.

X X X X X

I showed up at Mars Investigations right as dad was locking up. "Honey," he said. "Glad I caught you." He pointed to the receptionist desk. "We had a visit today from a Russian woman trying to track down her ex-boyfriend. I took down the information and told her we'd do a quick lookup for her – the $75 job, nothing fancy."

"And by we you mean me?"

He grinned. "That's my daughter. Anyway, the guy's name is Tom Cruz."

"Are you sure we should be taking money from a crazy person?"

"C-R-U-Z, sweetie. I'm not that hard up for cash. Anyway, do what you can?"

"Of course." I went inside and picked up the information, and then followed Dad home.

Wallace and I hung out for a bit later that night, during which I did my search – to Wallace's consternation – and I asked him if he'd do me a favor with trying to track down whether it was Caz or Martin who'd been texting Meg. (I suspected none of the above.)

After Wallace left, I looked at the tapes we'd found in Lilly's vent.

Yes, it was her; yes, it was Aaron.

I didn't need to see anything else. I didn't want to see anything else. I would have paid good money not to have even had to see that.

The next day Meg had a big bouquet of flowers in her locker and an invitation to the dance. I noted the type of flowers – fairly rare, so a clue – and promised her I was looking into the text messages.

"So what's this I hear about you and Logan going together?" she asked coyly.

I sighed. "Not happening."

She seemed upset by this. "But it's all over the school –I heard Dick say he'd have to do some kind of intervention to stop Logan from making such a horrible mistake."

"An intervention," I said. "Cool. I'm now up there with gambling, booze, and heavy cocaine use. My Dad'll be so proud. No, Meg. I'm not going with Logan. It was a misunderstanding."

"You don't hate him again, do you?" I had no idea why she cared, but she obviously did. Meg was just too nice to be real.

"No. Just one of those things."

"Well, Veronica Mars, you are going to the dance. Whether you go with Logan Echolls or not."

"I am?" She nodded. "Any other orders, general?"

She laughed, but said, "It'll be fun." I was still dubious. "C'mon, at least put in an appearance. I'll even help you with your costume."

"Alright, alright!" I said.

When I got back to the office that day, I told the Russian woman I'd had no luck tracking down Tom Cruz and apologized. She tried to get me to agree to look more, but I said that Mr. Mars was really too busy to do much of anything else and advised she look elsewhere in Neptune if she wanted to keep trying to find him.

Sadly, she walked off.

I don't know why I turned her down; we could have used the money. I guess I just wasn't in the mood to do anything more than help Meg.

And get together an '80s costume for a dance I'd been pressured into going to, twice. Boy, was this going to be fun . . .