Veronica's weekend of alternating fun and non-fun continues. And then, the investigation begins.
Disclaimer: Rob Thomas owns Veronica Mars. But just wait until I invent time travel . . .
X X X X X
So then we got down to actual relaxation. Not being in the mood at the time for hanky or panky, I actually let Logan drag me into playing video games for a while, but after his warrior kicked my warrior's ass for the tenth time in eleven tries I demanded we do something else.
"How about lunch?" I asked.
"My culinary skills are limited to sandwiches and knowing which pizza joint delivers the fastest."
"No, I was thinking we'd go out for a bit."
I called Wallace and Mac; they were game and we all headed to a Chinese place (with an excellent vegan selection for Mac.)
"We don't tell them anything," I said as we got out of the X-Terra to walk inside.
"I don't kiss and tell, Mars."
"I mean it," I said. "Right now you're one of only three people who knows about this."
He stopped. "Who's the third?"
"Don Lamb. He ridiculed me and threw me out of his office."
"Terrific. That's the third person on the list of people I have to kill for hurting you."
"Well," I said, "Make sure not to leave any physical evidence."
"I do watch CSI."
We went inside; Wallace and Mac were already waiting and having a quiet and fairly intense conversation. "Hey, Veronica," Mac said. "I gave him the full story of yesterday. Didn't know if you were up for it."
I smiled. "Have I told you lately what a tremendously cool person you are?"
"No. But thanks."
Wallace did ask me how Mom was doing today -- I was operating on the "no news is good news" principle -- and then we got down to the trivial. Wallace was still riding his Friday night high in the basketball game, in which he'd been the major reason Neptune beat Pan High. "I mean," he said, "I must've gotten at least ten girls begging me to take them out afterwards."
"Cheerleader smorgasbord," Logan said. "I remember the days . . " he noticed my glare. "I said I remembered them, not that I wanted to relive them."
I laughed. "I'm fully aware of your sordid past."
"You say sordid, I say 'enormously entertaining.'"
Mac and Logan then got into a heated discussion on the merits of various video games, ending up in an honest-to-god challenge. "Me and you, Echolls," she said eventually. "Combat, platformer, 1st-person shooter -- I'll take you on in Pac-Man and kick your ass," she said.
Logan surprised Mac when he said, "You're on. Wolfenstein 3-D. Not Return to Wolfenstein. The original 1st-person shooter."
"Wolfenstein 3-D? Were we even BORN when that came out?" Mac demanded. "And anyway, the real first shooter like that was Catacomb Abyss."
"If you're too afraid . . ."
"I'll have Grosse saying "Mutti" while you're still floundering around on the seventh level."
"High score or speed?"
Mac said, "Speed, of course."
Logan shook her hand. "You're so on, MacKenzie."
Wallace and I watched this entire exchange with growing bemusement. "You have any idea what they're talking about?" Wallace asked.
"Not a clue."
And so Wallace and I got to spend most of the rest of the afternoon watching Logan and Mac play a computer game that came out when we were all barely out of diapers. They tried to explain it -- "You're a kickass US soldier who got captured by the Nazis and have to fight your way up through their most dangerous prison --" but when Wallace sensibly asked, "So if you're so kickass, how'd they catch you in the first place?" he was met by twin glares from Logan and Mac.
There were six episodes. Mac beat Logan 4-2. Wallace and I spent the afternoon MST3K'ing them and basically asking a lot of really annoying questions. Every time they glared at one of us, we scored a point. I beat Wallace, 40 glares to 36.
Logan bowed deeply to Mac and said, "You are truly the master."
"And don't forget it, bub."
X X X X X
Logan drove me home, gave me a quick kiss, and said, "Remember. Start with Duncan and Meg and Casey. I've got Sean and Luke. We'll meet at lunch to talk further."
"Wait a minute, which one of us is the detective here?"
Another kiss and I went in to talk to Dad.
He looked up at me from the couch.
From the look on his face I didn't need to ask him how things had gone. He'd clearly been crying, although he wasn't, now. And Dad never cried.
"What is it?"
"They did the brainscan," he said. "The damage . . . the damage is pretty severe."
I sat down. "What does that --"
"Veronica," he said, "They say she's not going to wake up."
I grabbed, wildly, at something irrelevant -- "They never get tests done this fast --"
"Someone told Jake Kane about it and he came down to 'grease the wheels.' By the time I found out what he was doing it was too late. The security guards had to stop me from hitting him."
"Damn security guards." A minute later I finally said it. "She's not going to wake up." It wasn't a question.
"No, sweetie."
I was cried out from yesterday and emotionally drained from the morning and I just could not deal with this any longer. I hugged Dad -- more for his sake than mine -- and said, "I'm going to go in my room for a while."
"Okay. If you need me, honey –"
"I know where you'll be. And if you need me, same thing."
I think I just lay there for most of the rest of the day. Dad came in and half-heartedly offered me a tuna salad sandwich for dinner; I think I ate it.
At some point I fell asleep. If I dreamed at all, I don't remember that either.
Too bad. I think I could have used some Lilly wisdom right about then.
X X X X X
New day. New agenda.
The time for feeling sorry for myself is over. Mom . . . was likely gone forever. Unless I developed superpowers or someone invented time travel there was nothing I could do about it.
Dad was off tracking down Abel Koontz's daughter and I had someone to track down as well.
I drove myself to school because I wanted to get there early and catch whoever I could coming in.
Casey Gant got there first. "Casey!" I called.
He turned and looked at me. "Veronica."
"First off, I don't know if I ever thanked you for tipping Duncan off to what was happening with Logan."
He smiled faintly. "You're welcome, but I didn't do it for you. Despite that those people got my priorities back in order, I still hate the way they did it. Didn't want to see Logan going through the same thing."
"And an awkward question."
"Ask away."
"Do you remember Shelly Pomroy's end of the year party?" He nodded. "What do you remember about me there? Did things get ugly?"
"Yeah." And then he explained when he saw Dick rubbing up against me, pulling me down on top of him, and kissing me. Then when Dick saw Madison he shoved me towards Casey. Dear God, I kissed Dick? Excuse me while I go gargle with Mr. Clean. Casey went on, "You're not going to go off on Dick for this, are you?"
"I couldn't possibly hate him any more than I did right now."
"True. But I'm thinking . . . if you don't remember much about that party, maybe you should leave it that way."
"Can't do that."
"Some of the guys . . . Dick, Sean, Beaver . . . thought it would be cool to see you making out with Shelly. Dick was feeding you shots; I guess they thought you were sobering up."
"Is that all you remember?"
He nodded his head. "Yeah. Don't know why you're asking, but I hope it helped." He walked off
It did. I was clearly drugged, not drunk – what parts of the evening I do remember don't include much in the way of alcohol. But if Dick, or Beaver, or Sean, knew I was on Liquid X, they wouldn't have needed to keep feeding me shots.
Doesn't mean they didn't rape me. Does mean they didn't set me up for it.
As I stood there thinking, Duncan and Meg pulled up. I called out to them as they got out of Duncan's car.
They walked up. Meg said, "I heard about your mother, Veronica. I'm so sorry." And she hugged me.
Duncan said, "Yeah. That . . . that really, really sucks. I liked your Mom." Not exactly the most original or emotional of statements, but he meant it.
"Thanks. That means a lot." After a second, "And now for something completely different . . ." I asked them what they remembered about my behavior at Shelly's party.
Duncan said, "Nothing, really. I have to go meet someone," and walked off, leaving Meg and me staring after him.
"Okay . . ." I said. If Duncan Kane thought he was going to get away with that, he was sadly mistaken. "What's --?"
Meg seemed as confused as I was. "Maybe he had a lousy time and doesn't want to talk about it."
"Well, since you haven't walked off . . ."
"Why?"
"My memory's a little fuzzy about that night."
"Maybe that's a good thing." I simply stared at her. "I don't want to get you mad at Logan . . ."
"Logan and I have had this discussion."
Well, maybe not all of it. Meg explained that she'd seen Logan put salt on my chest and a lime in my mouth and that people were starting to do body shots.
"I wanted to help you," she said, "But Cole held me back and told me 'it wasn't my business.'" She sounded disgusted with herself. "But then someone ran to your rescue and carried you off."
"You don't know who helped me?" She shook her head. "Thanks."
She looked at me and said, "If that's your big high-school related embarrassment, everyone has one. Let it go or you'll make yourself crazy."
Thanks Meg, but this one I'm not letting go of.
X X X X X
Logan and I met for lunch. Wallace was sitting with the jocks.
The first thing I did was ask him, sweetly, about the "body shots" incident.
"Oh. Right," he said sheepishly. "Kind of slipped my mind." At my glower, he said, "Look, Mars, you were wasted. I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to humiliate you." Then, a bit more softly. "But that is all I did."
"I said I believed you yesterday. I still do. But try not to let anything else like this 'slip your mind,' okay?"
"Aye-aye, Cap'n." Then I told him what I'd learned from Casey and Meg; he was also a little put off by Duncan's refusal. "Boy knows more than he's telling," he said.
"We think alike, Echolls."
"Wanna tag-team him later?"
"Sounds like a plan."
"So here's what I got from Luke and Sean," Logan said. "Luke said he'd taken his GHB and given it to Dick, who was planning to dose Madison and was also whining about her being on the Atkins diet. Madison was also the one who wrote nasty things all over your car."
"Probably because Dick kissed me," I said.
"Probably. Sean confirmed that Dick had been feeding you shots trying to keep you drunk. He also tried to get you to make out with Shelly Pomroy – but he watched while Dick dumped you on a bed – probably the one you woke up in – and also when Dick tried to get Beaver to have sex with you. According to him, he didn't stick around and watch." He grimaced. "You'd be proud of me, Mars. Not once did I even clench my fists. Although there's a locker around the corner from the gym that has a serious dent in right about now."
"Damn. This all seems like it's leading back to the Casablancas brothers and Madison, doesn't it?"
"Beaver may still be willing to talk to us. Good cop/bad cop?"
"Bad cop/psychotic cop."
"I get to be the psychotic cop."
I smiled. "Well, of course." I looked around. "We've still got a few minutes; want to head out to your car?"
"Why Veronica Mars," he said, "Are you trying to take advantage of me?"
"I don't think I'll need to try too hard."