Veronica suddenly sat up. It was morning, the tv was of so that was not what had woken her up. Then she smelled coffee and turned around. "Dad!" She screamed as she jumped up and hugged her dad. "When did you get here?" She asked. "Yesterday evening. You were asleep, I didn't want to wake you!" "You were sedated!" She said. "I was and I think you were too, they told me you finally left to get some rest the day before yesterday, and that sandwich on the table looks like it has been there since then!" He said and she turned around, now she realized that she had been sleeping for a very long time.
"Wallace drove me home, he said he tried to call you!" Veronica again looked at her phone, it was still off. "Yeah. I should talk to him… later!" She said. "How are you?" Keith Mars gave her a cup of coffee and they sat down by the kitchen table. "I am fine honey, tired. Have you spoken to Bradly?" He asked and she shook her head, she hadn't even given him a though since she left for Neptune in the beginning of the week after that fateful call, telling her that her father had a heart attack.
"He is probably worried about you!" Keith said. "Maybe. You need to lay down!" She said. "According to the doctor I need to do the opposite, I need to exercise more and stress less!" Veronica looked at him. "Sounds like the doctor wants you to retire!" She said. "Yes, and maybe he is right." He said and Veronica got a smile on her face for the first time in a long while. "Great, imagine all the annoyance you will give me!" She said. "You mean when I come up unannounced and demand Bradly not to give you so much work, because it interferes with my daddy/daughter time?" Keith said and Veronica put her coffee on the table. "No. I mean when you come in when I run the firm and have "tips" on how I should do it!" She said and Keith looked surprised and a bit worried.
"Honey, I thought we agreed that Neptune made you more sick than it helped you!" He said. "I don't think it was so much an agreement as it was me deciding to leave for a while!" Keith looked out of the window. "You have made a good life for yourself, and you deserve that… I just want you to be happy!" He said. "Great, retire and give me the firm and I will be!" Veronica said, and she now had a more serious tone. "I really don't think it is for the best." He said. "Fine, then don't retire, I will just go back to work for you, that way I can make sure you don't cheat on your diet and exercise!" Keith let out a smile. "You do know that your are my child, adult or not… your job is not to watch me, your job is to be safe and be happy!" He said. "I'm sorry, are you under some kind of assumption that I will not move back to Neptune?" She now asked. "Yes. Look at what you have done over what, the course of only a few months. You and Bradly are an amazing team, and you are actually doing what you are trained to do, you are being a lawyer!" He said. "I am not going back dad!" She said and finished her coffee before walking out, slamming the door pretty loudly on her way out.
"Me and my dad use to have a pretty simple life. We were a family of three, me, dad and mom. We lived in a pretty nice house, nowhere near the 09 zip code, but still a nice home. Dad was the sheriff, and even though Neptune had it's share of criminals, it always felt safe to me to have dad. I never actually felt scared for him as I know many others with family members in the force does. He was well liked, by most. Of course the criminals never did care much for him, but they shouldn't. Some did always call him sheriff and never made a big deal of being arrested because they knew he was a fair man.
Then my best friend, Lily Kane, died and with that my simple, safe family life crashed down. Mom left but dad and I made it work though, we had to. He has always been by my side, always and losing him would mean losing myself, specially so close after losing Logan. I knew what he was doing of course, I knew that he wanted me out of Neptune so that he wouldn't worry. It's pretty strange, but I think he would rather have me pretty much anywhere else than here."