a/n: So it was pointed out to me by a lovely reviewer that the drive would be way to long if they actually lived in Beaverton, so we're going to switch the locations to like Barstow…okay? Sorry about the random change.

"So how did you two meet?" Keith asks at an awkward dinner. Veronica knew that surprising her Father was sadly the only option she really had. If he had known she was coming, he would have put up all the defenses, and probably locked his bedroom to boot.

"We ran into each other at the bowling alley," Veronica gushes, her voice overwhelmingly bright and cheery, "And he asked me out to dinner right away."

"Oh you tell that story so well," Logan responds, picking at his cheese pizza. Keith is looking between them, surprised, and Veronica can only assume why. She's never really acted this way in the past, but she feels like she needs to act. If she's trying to act like herself, she thinks that she would end up stabbing him with a fork or something.

"I need to use the bathroom," Veronica excuses herself, "You boys just keep chatting up a storm," she rests her hand on Logan's shoulder for a moment before disappearing down the hallway. Her Dad's room is right next to the bathroom, and she closes the bathroom door so it looks like she's in there, before she slips into his room.

His safe is in the corner, and she creeps silently towards it. Once close, she bends down and begins to twist the dial back and forth expertly – what her Dad didn't know was that she had known his combination for ages. Or maybe he had assumed that she knew and decided that there was nothing she would be interested in anyways.

The door swings open, and it reveals a thick stack of case files. Praying that her Dad at least keeps this part organized, she begins to flick through them, noting all the files he hasn't told her about. Not that it's that much of a surprise anymore. It's when she pulls out a file that's labeled Kyle Mannson that she almost freezes. What was her Dad doing investigating that? It was over now. Done. She almost takes the file, but the memory of Logan's brown eyes comes to her mind. She can only hide one file up her shirt.

She quickly flicks through the rest – knowing that men just expected women to take a long time in the bathroom, but she's already been gone a while and even her Dad might start to wonder.

Finally the file marked Lily Kane comes into view and Veronica snatches it up. It's surprisingly heavy and thick. She tucks it in between the waistband of her jeans and her shirt, and then darts into the bathroom and flushes the toilet.

"Are you feeling okay?" Keith asks as she resumes her seat. Veronica smiles.

"Yeah Dad I'm fine," she waves a hand in the air absent mindedly, "Just had some bad food on the way up." Her Dad resumes his conversation with Logan – about baseball Veronica thinks – and she reaches under the table and squeezes Logan's knee. He visibly relaxes; probably assuming she's gotten the files for them to look at tomorrow.

.

.

.

"Logan's my boyfriend Dad," Veronica protests several hours later, "He's not going to sleep on the couch."

Keith looks like he's going to put up a fight, but Veronica grabs Logan's hand and pulls him after her into her room. She slams the door behind her, signifying she's annoyed, and then releases Logan's hand.

"I seriously could have slept on the couch you know," Logan says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I want him to suffer through the night thinking what you could be doing to me in here," Veronica declares grimly, and Logan snorts with laughter.

"You're really pissed huh?" he asks, and she nods.

"But I meant what I said. You don't have to sleep on the couch. I'm the one that dragged you up here, you can take the bed."

"It's your room Veronica, and I hired you," he protests, but she shook her head.

"You deserve it. You had to listen to my Dad grill you about everything, and you aren't even really my boyfriend." She took a couple of blankets from the closet and started to make a bed on the floor. Logan shifts uncomfortably.

"What if he walks in?"

"So?"

"Shouldn't – I mean you have a pretty big bed –" he's blushing furiously now, and she can't help but laugh.

"Are you trying to get in my pants Echolls?" she teases, and he shakes his head vigorously.

"Not with your Dad in the next room," he stage whispers, and she laughs nervously.

"Fine. But you better stick to your half of the bed Logan. I mean it. No funny business."

She goes into her closet to change into her PJs, and when she comes out Logan is changed as well. She lies on the opposite side, turned away from him, and tries desperately not to think of the mere inches between them.

This was going to be a long night.

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.

.

The next day, under the pretense that Veronica is showing him around town, they find a deserted corner of the local park and look at the Lily Kane murder files. It's not something that normal girls do with their boyfriends, Veronica muses to herself, but of course Logan's not her boyfriend.

For a moment though, she let's herself imagine what would happen if they were actually dating and she had really just taken him up here to show him around her home town. She would take him to her favorite ice cream place, they would walk around her favorite haunts, they would maybe even drive to Los Angeles, singing cheesy songs at the top of their lungs. Logan would kiss her forehead when he left to pump gas, and she would happier than she had been in such a long time.

Of course though, she thinks as she stretches out on her stomach, she just had to be looking at murder files in the park with someone who's not her boyfriend, someone who sees her for who she really is. Besides, neither of them were those people.

She flips open the folder before Logan can sit down, and takes a harsh breath. The girl, Lily, is lying splayed on her back, eyes staring unseeingly to the side, blood dripping down her cheek in a grim pattern, her arms flopped above her head.

"Logan don't –" she tries to say, but Logan reaches forward and takes the picture from her hands anyways.

"I've already seen this," he declares, "Your Dad showed it to me on the day he interrogated me," he tries to give her a smile, but it just seems fake and sad. "Don't worry about me Veronica."

Veronica takes the picture back anyways and tucks it out of sight. "It doesn't do us any good to look at pictures of her body," she tells him, brushing a few strands of her hair out of her eyes.

"Are these –"

"Full transcripts of the interrogation," Veronica says, and then pulls out her camera phone and takes a picture of a few. "Just in case," she explains, and flicks those aside.

"Here we go," Logan says, pulling out a sheet of paper, "Notes."

"Basically a summary," Veronica says, pulling the paper back. "It's pointing out the holes in Jake and Celeste's alibi, and –" she frowns suddenly down at the paper. "He writes about how when he got there, they were doing laundry."

"Seems like an odd thing to do when your daughter just got murdered."

"They were washing Duncan's soccer uniform," Veronica breaths, "But why would they do that? Why would they do that without a reason?"

"Look at what it says here," Logan points to a certain sentence, a crease forming in-between his brows. "It says Duncan was on meds for 'Psychological issues', what could those be?"

"And may I ask what you two are doing?" Her Dad asks from behind them, and Logan and Veronica whirl around, trying to stuff the papers out of sight before he can see them.

"Just making out in the grass," Veronica says sarcastically, "C'mon Pops, are you that slow?"

"I know how to tell when someone's been in my safe Veronica," Keith goes on, anger evident in his voice. "And I thought I told you I didn't want you to be investigating anymore –"

"I'm sorry Dad, but I'm legally my own person," Veronica stands up, crossing her arms over her chest. "You can't tell me what to do."

"Bullshit Veronica," Keith swears, and Veronica flinches. "We used to be really close, you used to tell me everything. Then Kyle came along and what happened? Now you're breaking into my safe, taking things, doing murder investigations?"

"You've changed too," Veronica snarls, "Because I don't remember you being one of those controlling Dad's before, but I guess I was wrong. And have you ever thought, even for a moment, that maybe I changed because of Kyle? And that's why I'm doing these things? Because if you want me to go back to being your perfect little girl, you can go fuck yourself."

She storms away, leaving Logan to pick up the papers. She's so angry, and she doesn't know why.

It's true that she and her Dad were close before, they used to be best friends. Especially after her Mom left. Then Kyle came along and fucked her up, and her Dad was still looking at her like the bright bubbly girl she used to be, like the person who didn't ever lie to him and had a bright future and so many things going for her. That's why she moved away. That's why she chose to escape, because while her Dad pretended she was okay, she couldn't be okay.

"Ronnie!" Logan calls, and he's running up behind her. "Ronnie wait up!"

"Sorry about that," she mutters, but doesn't stop walking.

"What are you apologizing for? It's my fault," Logan says, and she turns to stare at him.

"It's your fault?" she repeats, "Where the hell did you come up with that one?"

"Without me you and your Dad would still be on okay terms," Logan says, and Veronica shakes her head.

"We haven't been on okay terms for while," she admits, "I just think neither of us realized it until today."

"Who's Kyle?" Logan asks, and Veronica's expecting it. You can't just get in a screaming fight with your Father about someone named Kyle and not ask about it.

"You don't watch the news do you?" she asks, "But I supposed if you really wanted to know you could just google it."

"I won't," he swears, "I won't pry until you want me to." She looks at him in surprise, and he shrugs. "It's your place to tell me, not the Internet."

"I may never tell you," she warns him, and he gives her a halfhearted smile.

"I probably won't ever tell you what my secret is either," he says, "So we're even."

She laughs, the laugh bitter and angry. "I don't know where you came from Echolls, but you're breaking everything into pieces."

"Wasn't everything already falling apart?" is all he says in return.