A/N - I'm going away for two weeks tomorrow to see Kanye West in Brisbane (U2's been postponed until November :( ) so there won't be any new chapters until I get back. So since I'm going on holiday, I thought for this part V&L could have a little holiday of their own. Enjoy:) and thank you to all the new people who reviewed my story, especially to skagirl who noticed all the comic book references (yes I have a love affair with comic books). It's nice to know that people are still reading, even though this is Chapter 17 of Part 1. Thank you.
XVII.
Veronica was moving around the kitchen, baking and singing. Logan looked on in amusement.
"Sugar...da da da da da da...oh, honey, honey..." The front door opened and Wallace walked in. He took in the sight in front of him and looked towards Logan. Logan shrugged his shoulders and grabbed something from a cooking tray. Wallace saw what it was and turned to Veronica.
"Hey! Those are my snickerdoodles." Veronica spun around and saw Wallace.
"Not today, my brotha," she answered as she picked up a snickerdoodle and threw one at Wallace. "Today they are Logan's." Wallace walked over and sat beside Logan.
"Judas!" Wallace whispered loudly but smiled as he said it.
Logan couldn't help but smile at the movement around him. He hadn't felt so at ease in a long time and a weight felt like it was being lifted from his shoulders. 'I'm happy,' he realized.
"So, are we going to check out that website Logan found out about?" Wallace asked. Veronica's eyes darted to Logan and quickly back to Wallace before anybody noticed.
"Nope. For the rest of the day we are going to pretend that we are three normal teenagers doing normal teenage-y things," Veronica answered happily. Both Logan and Wallace looked at her skeptically but decided to go along with her.
"From what I've learnt on TV, teenagers go to pool parties where the girls wear bikinis," Logan said as he pointedly eyed Veronica. She answered him by picking up a cookie and throwing it at his head.
"What's with that, anyway?" Wallace interrupted. "I've been over her countless times and not once have we used that lovely big pool you've got out there."
"Well, let me get one of my bikini's for you to wear and you can swim to your heart's content."
"So, you do own a bikini, then?" Wallace retorted as a snickerdoodle hit him in the face.
"If you guys can get past your hormones, I thought we could go all eighties. Say Anything..., Breakfast Club, popcorn and soda. What do you say?"
"Okay, but next time it's going to be monster trucks and beach parties." Logan said.
"Whatever..." Veronica replied as she brought over the popcorn. Wallace took the single chair, while Logan and Veronica shared the couch.
Wallace took in the scene in front of him. He noticed Veronica sitting closer to Logan than she need to. He then saw Logan put his arm up along the back of the couch so that Veronica could move closer.
'Interesting,' Wallace thought. He didn't think that the two of them were even aware of what they were doing. That intrigued Wallace even more.
He thought back on what Veronica had been like a week ago to what she was like now. Wallace could hardly believe that she had turned down the chance to work on a case to actually just hang out. He felt guilty about doubting Logan after his talk with Duncan. If Logan could have this much of an effect on Veronica, Wallace was willing to trust him.
ooooooooooooooooooooo
'No wonder Veronica gets away with so much at this place,' he thought as he looked up and down the hallway of Neptune High.
"So much for the dedication to acadaemia," he murmured as he noticed that the place was absolutely deserted.
Finding Veronica's locker, he grabbed the slip of paper out of his pocket and slipped it inside.
ooooooooooooooooooooo
Simple Minds' 'Don't You Forget About Me' was again playing when Keith finally came through the door. Veronica, who had been resting on Logan's shoulder, quickly got up and stopped the DVD.
"Hey guys. How's everyone hanging?" Keith asked.
"Oh God, Dad. The visual of that question alone is worth about two therapy sessions. Plus, no one past 1995 says that anymore," Veronica said as she greeted him with a hug.
"Are you saying that I'm not cool?"
"You're proving that all by yourself, Mr. Mars," Wallace said as he got up to get a drink.
"No love in my own house," Keith said as he looked around the kitchen. "What's for dinner, people?"
"Actually, I thought I'd get us pizza. My treat," Logan offered as he stood up.
"Have I mentioned that I love this guy?" Keith said as he headed off to his room. Logan knew that Keith wanted to talk to Veronica about the temporary living arrangements, so he turned to Wallace.
"Hey, Wallace, you wanna come with, man? We can get some Baskin Robbins on the way back." Wallace looked a little surprised at the invitation.
"Sure," he answered as he looked questioningly at Veronica, who just shrugged her shoulders in answer.
"Do you want anything special?" Logan asked Veronica as he headed out the door.
"Some chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream probably wouldn't go astray."
"Gotcha," he said as he winked at her and walked out.
Veronica smiled at the spot where Logan had just stood. They still hadn't spoken about what was happening between them. All she really knew was that the sight of him made her stomach tingle. 'And I don't even want to get started on what his voice does...' Veronica's thoughts were interrupted by her dad's reappearance in the kitchen.
"Logan and Wallace have gone to get dinner, I gather."
"Yeah."
"What did we ever do before we got the servants?" Keith quipped.
"You worked your poor daughter to the bone," Veronica replied. Keith waited a few moments before he decided to speak.
"Veronica, I want to talk to you about something."
"Don't worry, Dad. I already know. You're getting Logan to stay here." Keith was a little surprised at that.
"Did Logan...?" Veronica didn't let him finsh.
"No, Logan didn't say anything. Your lullaby story wasn't very convincing, and I've learnt that at three in the morning, these walls seem about as thin as paper."
"Why didn't you say something?" Veronica thought about her dad's question.
"I knew you wanted to ask in your own way. I would've been more surprised if you hadn't done something. Although I'm thankful that you didn't go for 24hr camera surveillance."
"I may be getting a large box in the mail," Keith joked.
"Dad..."
"I'm serious about someone being with you at all times though. There's no wiggle room on that rule." Veronica eyed her father skeptically.
"I'm telling you, Dad. This guy is not the hands on type." Keith went and sat down on the couch.
"Yeah, about that, sweetie. I took all of the photo's to my friend Matt today. He seems to think that whoever made the photo of you is a different person to whoever made the other ones." Veronica stared at her father as she made her way over to the lounge and sat down.
"How does he know that?"
"The usual things. The paper and the inks don't match up." Keith watched as Veronica thought about what he had told her.
"But there could be many reasons for that. Maybe he had to use a different computer. There was a new one today. Wallace has it in his locker. You could get Matt to look at that one and see if it's different as well."
"Okay, but still Veronica...I want you to be extra, extra, extra careful. We don't know who we're dealing with or how many of them there actually are." Keith waited for an answer. Veronica slowly nodded.
Keith didn't like seeing Veronica looking so lost, but he knew that he had to get her to understand the situation that she was in. When Keith was sure that it had sunk in, he decided that a change of subject was needed.
"What about your day, honey? Did you find out anything?" Veronica tried to push the photo case to the back of her mind.
"Aaron Echolls rang Logan today." Of all the things Keith thought that Veronica was going to say, that didn't even make the list.
"How did Logan take it?"
"Oh, Dad. You should have seen him. He was a mess. It killed me to see Logan that way." Veronica's eyes watered at the memory. Keith saw the sadness in his daughter's eyes and understood how hard it must have been.
"What did Aaron want?"
"He wants Logan to visit him...so he can explain. Can you believe that? And Logan knows that his dad is just going to keep trying."
"Is Logan ready for that?"
"I don't know if he'll ever be ready for it."
Both father and daughter sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts. Veronica was focused on what Logan must be going through, while Keith's thoughts were directed at Aaron. Both members ot the Mars family were shaken out of their respective reveries when the front door opened and the smell of pizza wafted into the room.
"See, I told you I was the life of the party," Logan said to Wallace as they both noticed the lack of conversation in the room.
"God, how you manage to walk around without your ego crushing everything in its path, I'll never know," Wallace replied.
ooooooooooooooooo
