Lying beside you

Here in the dark

Feeling your heart beat with mine

---Open Arms, Journey

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After leaving The River Styx Logan and Lilly went back to her house to plan stage two and grab something to eat. And after much talk they decided that they would have to go to Veronica to figure out where to go next. But first they were going to stop of at school to fill Mac and Cassidy in on everything and then pick out some flowers for Lianne's funeral.

"Logan! It's been a long time. What are you doing here?" Jake asked as he walked into the kitchen where he found Logan finishing a turkey sandwich while skimming through the yellow pages.

"I'm with Lilly. She's upstairs."

"Why aren't the two of you in school?"

"No school." Logan lied without even flinching. "Teacher's workday."

"Huh." Jake said and began looking around the counters, in search of something.

"Loose something?" Logan asked as he wrote an address down on a scrap piece of paper.

"I'm missing my watch. Celeste just got it for me and if she finds out that that it's missing already she'll kill me."

"What does it look like?"

"It doesn't matter I'm sure it's around here somewhere. I'll find it."

"Logan did you find where the place is?" Lilly

"Yeah. I did."

"Then let's go. See you dad."

"Bye honey."

Lilly and Logan began to walk out to their when the little light in Logan's head went on and he turned and looked at Lilly.

"Do you think that you could go talk to Mac and Beaver alone? I got something I want to check on."

"Sure, I guess. You want me to go order the flowers or…"

"I'll do that. Two dozen red and white roses, right?"

"Yeah."

"I'm on it."

"Okay when do you want to meet up again?"

"I'll call you when I'm done with this thing."

"Okay." Lilly said suspicious.

They walked to their separate cars, pulled out of the driveway and headed in separate directions.

When Lilly arrived at Neptune High she went strait to Mac, who was talking with Cassidy in the hall outside of Mr. Wu's class.

"Hey Beave. Can I steal your girlfriend for a little bit?" Lilly asked as she locked arms with Mac.

"Sure but the bell is going to ring pretty soon…"

"It'll be okay. Come on Mac."

Lilly began to pull her down the hall to the nearest bathroom.

"What is going on?" Mac asked as they walked in and Lilly began looking in each stall to see if they were alone.

"Lilly what is going on?" Mac asked with a drawn out sigh.

"There was an accident last night." Lilly began as she leaned up against a sink, "Veronica's mom was driving drunk."

"Oh my god." Mac said as she covered her mouth and leaned against the sink next to Lilly, "Is she…"

"She died. First paramedics on the scene said that she died on impact."

"Oh my god. How's Veronica doing?"

"I really don't know. And I don't know what to do to help. And, I know this sounds horrible but, I just keep thinking that could have been me. I mean life is so short. I easily could have been the one to die last night. And then that makes me think about all the other times that could have been my last."

"It really opens your eyes."

"It really does."

The girls continued to stay in their spot, unfazed, as the tardy bell rang and the noise from out in the hall became loud with students rushing to class.

Across town Logan found himself back at the River Styx.

"Look who came crawling back." Danny said with a smug look on his face as Logan walked in, "Where's your girl? I liked her. She had spunk."

"I've got a question for you. And you're going to answer it no matter what. Now, it could be done the easy way, you going along with this without a hassle, or we'll have to do it the hard way."

"And what way would that be?"

Suddenly Weevil walked and took a seat next to Logan

"Now you see," Logan placed a hand on Weevil's shoulder, "he happens to be really good friends with the girl I was talking about earlier. And the girl with spunk, he was her boyfriend. Multiple times. And, oh yeah, there's this rumor about him hating you."

"Answer the boy's question Danny. Or this whole thing will get really messy."

"What do you want?"

Logan placed a photo on the bar and slid it across to Danny.

"Was he the guy?"

A while later Veronica woke up in Logan's bed to find Logan seated on the edge, watching her sleep.

"Hey." Veronica said groggy, "What's up?"

"I found something out that you're not going to like."

"Logan what is it? What did you find out?" Veronica asked, sitting up.

"Your mother was with someone last night."

"Who?"

"Here. " Logan handed Veronica a sealed envelope, "His name is in there. But I have to tell you that this is going to change everything. So think about if you're really ready to know this information before you open that."

Veronica sat still for a moment looking the envelope in her hands over a time or two before telling Logan. "There's nothing about my mother that would shock me anymore."

And with that Veronica tore the envelope open and stared at the name that was in it.

"You want me to drive you?"

"I need to do this on my own. But thank you anyway."

"No problem"

Soon after she left Logan's Veronica found herself on the doorstep of an all too familiar house, ringing the doorbell relentlessly.

"What is it?" Jake Kane asked as he threw the door open and found Veronica standing in front of him, wearing one of Logan's hoodies that seemed to make her look as small and as weak as she felt.

"You were with my mother last night?" Veronica asked trying to hold back tears

"Veronica, I 'm about to have dinner with my family so could this please wait…"

"No, it can't. You were the last person to see my mother alive so you owe me this."

"What?"

"Lilly hasn't told you? My mother died in a car accident early this morning. She was driving home from a bar. Drunk."

"What?" Jake repeated.

"She smashed her car into a traffic light."

"Oh my god. Veronica, I am so sorry…"

"Stop. Just stop. Look, I know that you were with my mother last night. And I'm guessing that it wasn't the first time in recent weeks." Veronica took a deep breath and tried to speak without crying, "Were you having an affair?"

"Yes."

"How long?"

"Veronica, can we not…"

"How long?"

"A while."

"Did you love her?"

"Yes."

"That's all I needed to know. "

"Are you going to…?"

"Don't worry. Your secret is safe."

Veronica turned around, headed back to her car and drove strait home, as if she was on auto pilot. When she arrived at the apartment she went strait to her room, uttering a quiet "Hey." to her father on her way past, turned on her cd player and took a seat on the floor with Backup. And that's where Logan found her an hours later, with Tori Amos singing about her hatred for Monday's.

"Hey." He said leaning up against the doorframe, "In the mood for a visitor?"

"You? Always." Veronica said sitting up.

"I brought you ice cream but your dad said you're not eating."

"I'm---not feeling well."

"It's okay."

"I shouldn't feel this way."

"It's normal. After my dad told me that mom died I was sick for days. So it's okay. It's normal."

"I know it's just…I shouldn't feel this way."

"What do you mean?" Logan asked running his hand through her hair

"I hadn't talked to my mom in a month and then last night out of the blue she called me up and I couldn't give her five minutes."

"Veronica…"

"I invited myself over for dinner tonight while at the same time mentally coming up with a reason to cancel. I shouldn't feel this way Logan. It's not fair."

"Of course it's fair. Look, I hate my father more than I think it's possible to hate anyone but if he died tragically I'd take it hard too, because as much as I hate to admit it he's a part of me. Just like your mother is a part of you."

Veronica took a deep breath and slowly exhaled as she tried to slow down the tears that were filling her eyes. At the same time Tori Amos continued to sing.

"School's out early and soon we'll be learning the lesson today is how to die. And then the bullhorn cackles, and the captain tackles with the problems and the how's and why's. And he can see no reason, 'cause there are no reasons, what reason do you need to die?"

"Come here." Logan said with a soothing tone in his voice as he pulled Veronica closer and kissed the top of her head.

"Logan?" Veronica whispered as tears began to stream down her face, "Tell me a joke."

Logan chuckled to himself slightly as he began, "So this grasshopper walks into a bar…"