(Sadly) I do not own Veronica Mars.
Keith's funeral was held on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It was small; Veronica did not want to turn her father's death into an attention attracting spectacle. Wallace's family, Mac, and Cliff were in attendance, as was a majority of the Sheriff's department, including Lamb. There were a few old friends that came to Neptune to pay their respects, but the ceremony was very private.
After the service, Veronica returned to her apartment, telling her friends that she needed time alone to think. She had already decided that she would not keep her current residence; she did not need the extra bedroom nor could she afford to live there much longer without her father's income.
The life insurance company had contacted her; her father's policy would cover the remainder of school and living expenses but not much more. Cliff was working with Veronica to contact all of Keith's current clients at Mars Investigations and cancel detective services.
Back at her apartment, Veronica checked her email; it was mostly sympathy greetings and junk mail from school. There was one strange email, from Professor Landry, it read:
Veronica, I am sorry to hear about your father's passing.
I believe I have some good news; you have been selected for the FBI internship this summer. I strongly suggest that you accept the honor, as applicants are not often reselected after turning down the opportunity. This internship is almost a guarantee of a future job with the Bureau. I encourage you to take your time thinking over the offer, but the deadline for acceptance is in one week, as the internship will begin in the week following the completion of your finals. I have attached a link to the program's webpage and your acceptance letter.
Once again, I am sorry about your father's passing and congratulations on your acceptance.
Professor Hank Landry
The FBI internship had been the last thing on her mind, between her father's death and the end of the school year coming up she had been trying to keep up with her school work and prepare for finals while grieving the death of her father.
Veronica knew the only way to keep from breaking down was to stay busy began packing boxes. Most of them contained her father's things that she had no use for…like old clothes and books he probably had never read.
After picking out a few sentimental t shirts, and boxing up the rest for Goodwill, Veronica decided it was time to find something to eat. Upon entering the kitchen, she discovered that she didn't have much of anything—at least nothing that was eatable.
While contemplating consumption of stale lucky charms or attempting to heat up what she thought was week-old ziti, Veronica heard a knock at the door.
She opened the door to find the sheriff, out of uniform, with a bag from Mama Leone's.
"Is that lasagna?" Veronica asked granting Lamb entry into her apartment.
"Yeah," he responded setting the bag down on the counter and emptying its contents onto two plates. "I thought you could use dinner."
"Thanks," Veronica accepted the food and sat at the table next to Don. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
"Why are you questioning my generosity?" Lamb asked, answering her question with a question, he was uncomfortable with her question because, honestly he didn't know why he was suddenly overcome with kindness—he wasn't usually a sympathetic person.
Twenty minutes later, Veronica was rinsing their plates from dinner and Lamb gave Veronica a straight answer to her earlier question. "It could have just as easily been me that died that day Veronica. Your father wasn't supposed to be there. His death demonstrated how close I am to death on a daily basis and I don't want to die with regrets. I know it sounds cheesy, but Veronica, that's why I am being so nice to you. I was wrong to treat you and your father so poorly for the past four years. I know I can't go back in time but I want to try to make things right."
Veronica finished cleaning up in silence, and then suddenly said "I got into an FBI internship for this summer."
"That's great," Don replied, not knowing what he was expected to say. He knew Veronica's future would include criminal investigation—and although he didn't always like to admit it, he knew that she would be successful.
"When I read the notification email, the first thing I wanted to do was tell my dad," she could barely get the words out. "Objectively I know that this is an excellent opportunity and I should be excited," she continued, "but I can't be happy for myself, not when I know how much my dad would have loved to share this with me."
"You should do it," Don replied, "take the opportunity, if for nothing more than to get out of Neptune for a while." Veronica remained silent, as though she were weighing her options; Lamb continued "Give Neptune some time to move on, when you come back in the fall, things will be less stressful and you will be able to begin to build a normal life."
A tear began to roll down Veronica's cheek, "normal" was the farthest thing from her mind, life would never be "normal" again—not without her father by her side. Don understood; he hadn't had a "normal" childhood; he was born into an abusive family and as an adolescent, moved from foster family to foster family, never really finding a place to belong and live a "normal" life.
Author's note:
I couldn't make this end the way I wanted it to...but I decided to upload this chapter and start over with the next chapter.
Sorry it took so long to get this up! Between work and summer classes, writing has been pushed to the back burner, hopefully there will be more to come soon!
