Season 1 Episode 7

Episode Guide: Logan reluctantly re-evaluates his position on corruption theories. A student election goes haywire and Veronica and Logan are forced to work together on the article which may lead to more than either of them bargained for.

A/N I don't own anything…if I did I would not be living my life vicariously through fanfic

Logan's POV

"Ok before you take my head off…" This comment is mainly directed at Veronica who doesn't make any promises but continues to stare at him dumbfounded.

"Duncan Jake Kane what the hell is going on?" In the whole year Duncan dated Veronica I don't think I ever saw her yell at him. She was all feisty now and if I wasn't so busy hating her I might notice.

"So I sort of told Logan." Her eyes flit over to me nervously. In reality Duncan hasn't told me anything he simply said that he had something important to show me and gave me the address. I only realized it was Veronica's dad's sad excuse for an office when I saw her standing at the door her tiny face scrunched up in confusion. I decide to go with this story though that Duncan had 'told me' something and give her a little half-nod.

"I thought we agreed we weren't telling anyone." Her voice is measured and she is trying so hard not to slap Duncan who looks like he is about to pee his pants. Holy shit Veronica Mars is scary.

"Tell anyone what. Are you two dating again?" That's possible isn't it? Duncan Kane and Veronica Mars caring on a clandestine relationship right under the nose of the 09ers and their parents. For some reason this makes me want to hurl but I keep my cool mask of indifference on as I look patiently from Duncan to Veronica.

"I thought you said you told him." She's back to pissed-at-Duncan. It's refreshing to not be the bad guy for once.

"I said sort of." Now I'm getting pissed.

"DK you simply told me to meet you here that does not qualify as telling me anything at all." Duncan almost winces at the evil glare from Veronica. Veronica then looks at me with apprehension in her eyes before turning back to Duncan.

"What happened to not telling anyone?"

"I thought he could help."

"Sid, Nancy could either of you tell me why the hell I'm standing in the doorway of Keith Mars' office while you two re-create a bad sit-com?" Duncan is about to scowl at me before remembering he is in the dog house and thinks better of it.



"Koontz didn't kill Lily." Wow talk about cutting to the chase. Veronica looks at me straight in the eye when she says this and it takes all my willpower not to throw her against a wall and tell her to give the Kane's a goddamn break.

"Hm. I think I've had my fill of Mars' corruption theories to last me a lifetime." Veronica simply shrugs and turns back to scowl at Duncan who has been staring at the floor. I wonder if he knew this was what she was going to spring on us tonight. That still didn't explain why Duncan knows something I don't. I would care but the thought of being around Veronica right now after she dropped a bomb like that on Duncan is enough to make me turn on my heel and head for the door.

"Logan she's right." Ok now you have my attention. I turn around and stare at Duncan in shock. Surely he was not suddenly insisting that the killer now sitting on death row was wrongfully accused because that would mean the real murderer is still breathing air that should have been Lily's.

Veronica's POV

Duncan and Logan were two very different people. Duncan though articulate and kind, choose to keep most of his emotions to himself. The rare times where he showed emotion it was done with careful control and restraint. Logan was a different story. Logan always reacts. He may react to sadness with anger and fear with disdain but the fact was he was an emotional volcano.

"What the hell are you talking about Duncan?" His eyes are narrowed with rage as he faces off with Duncan torn between disbelief and anger. A very calm Duncan explains the parking ticket trying his best to explain the facts while not upsetting anyone. God he's going to make a fantastic politician.

"So Veronica is here to do what? Sleep her way in to the evidence locker?"

"No you do not get to do that." Duncan speaks with enough force to surprise himself and Logan simply raises his eyebrows asking him to bring it on and explain at the same time.

"My sister is dead Logan, Your girlfriend is murdered, her best friend is now 6 feet under." He is shaking from anger now and he takes a moment to calm himself before continuing. "If you want to continue using each other as human dart boards afterwards then go ahead but you play nice until we find out exactly what happened to Lily." Logan seems a little taken aback by this but quickly recovers.

"But my mother told me not to mix the clean laundry with the dirty." He is struggling to find some sort of normalcy in the twisted little threesome we have just created. He's not going anywhere I can tell by the pointed way he sat down after his little quip and just this once I'm going to let him have it because the knowledge that Lily's killer is out there is new to him. Duncan shoots Logan a warning look but seems to be on the same page as me. "So Nancy where do we start?"

"You start by ordering dinner, I'll start by trying to crack into my Dad's safe and Duncan I need you to find a box somewhere in my Dad's office marked Playboys." Duncan raises his eyebrows but goes towards the office.



"Geez Mars you think you're going to find the answers to Lily's murder in a Playboy centerfold?" Logan asks cheekily smirking from behind the take-out menus. "I get more convinced of your talents every day."

I am too busy trying to crack into the safe to be bothered with Logan's nattering. He keeps looking at the ticket over and over again like Duncan and I did when we first found it. When he thinks I'm not looking he brushes his fingertips slowly over her picture and whispers something inaudibly.

Logan POV

"Got it!" Veronica's gleeful opening of the safe stops my trip down memory lane. "Some of these notes are less than a week old." She says with confusion. "What has he been up too?" Keith Mars still believes Jake Kane killed his own daughter. Remind me why I'm here again.

"More conspiracy theories?" I say not hiding my cynicism. Jake Kane was the father I wish I had no matter how cliché it sounds. He is far from perfect and drove both Lily and Duncan crazy but there was never any doubt that he loved his children and sometimes he even extended that paternal influence to me.

flashback

"So Logan the sweet 16. You have your permit?" Jake asks as I settle into the chair across from him. Lily always took at least 15 extra minutes to get ready and Jake always spent those 15 minutes with me.

"Yes sir got it this morning." I smile handing him my new license.

"Has your father taken you out yet?" These were the times I hated being with the Kanes or even Veronica. My three friends had the perfect family lives, or at least happy family lives. It was embarrassing because while my own father didn't know I was failing physics Jake insisted I sit in with Duncan's tutor, or that Keith would ask me about university while Aaron figured I'd be content to just live of my inheritance.

"No, sir he's on location." Jake nods and I see a glimpse of pity in his eyes and I know what's running through his head: What father misses his son's sixteenth birthday? I shift uncomfortably and try to stop the red from crawling up my cheeks.

"Well Lily will be at least another 15 minutes. Common I'll take you out."

End flashback

The first time behind a wheel was supposed to be a big father-son moment and Jake had stepped up for me. Lily had been ready 15 minutes later but had called Jake while we were on the road and instructed him to keep teaching me until I could drive well enough to pick her up on dates. I like to think she knew how much it meant to me to have an afternoon with a man my father's age that treated me with sincere kindness but in reality I think she was using the time to screw the pool boy. I sigh heavily trying to shake the memory as Duncan roots through the Playboys box.



"DK you really think this is the time for porn?" I say sarcastically walking over to him

"Logan, are you saying there is a bad time for porn?" Veronica smiles over the safe and it is a little too reminiscent of happier times for my liking so I concentrate on ordering Chinese. "They're the closed files."

A few minutes later the three of us are sitting around pouring over the evidence logs and the new timeline Veronica created. I can tell she is trying to postpone showing us the pictures something I, for one, am grateful for. She is about to bring them out when the Chinese arrives. Immediately she makes Duncan pay stating it's the least he can do for making her suffer through a night with Logan Echolls. Duncan and her share a laugh and I wonder just how long it is going to be before they go all Joey and Dawson on me. It would be swell to have a walking reminder of what could have been. The thought alone makes me grimace.

It is common knowledge that seeing your sister/girlfriend/best friend with her skull bashed in will ruin your appetite so we leave the files as is and go eat Chinese. Veronica stops talking and is chewing the Chow Mein pensively. Her eyes widen and she slaps the chop sticks out of my hand before they hit my mouth.

"What the hell Veronica." I jump up quickly picking the noodles off my 200 shirt. She says nothing but picks up a piece of shrimp off the floor.

"I don't have an Epipen handy" Is all she says before picking up my plate and dumping all food in the trash. Veronica Mars has a way of surprising people by knowing the most random things about them. She pays attention to detail in a way that would make someone with OCD jealous. Even the Old Veronica had a way of knowing most people little idiosyncrasies. There weren't many traits of Veronica's that I valued over Lily's but that was certainly one of them.

"You ok man?" Duncan asks with a knowing smile before passing me a shrimp free container. I nod and listen, with an odd feeling of contentment, to Veronica tearing apart the Chinese food lady for their stupidity.

Veronica Mars

Do not get me wrong. I do not care about Logan Echolls. He is mean, damaged and classist not to mention rude and self-centered. This does not mean I want his esophagus to start to close up as he struggles, in vain, for air on my office floor. Death scares me. Death scares a lot of people but Lily dying made the possibility of death that much more real and, personally, I do not want to go through that again. This is the logic I use to explain why I spent the last 5 minutes yelling at the Asian take-out lady (who I'm pretty sure didn't understand me anyways) and then the next 5 yelling at very surprised Logan for being too dense to double check his food.

"Veronica color me crazy but when I order beef chow mien I don't feel the need to check for shellfish." Logan exclaims finally cutting in to my tirade which, if the small smile on his face is any indication, he kind of enjoyed.



"Ok now that we've established Logan is not only an anaphylactic jackass but a stupid anaphylactic jackass can we look at those pictures now?" Duncan cuts in trying to preemptively stop world war III. In midst of my lecture on the proper-way-to-be-allergic-to-shellfish I had completely forgotten about the pictures.

"Yeah." I reluctantly hand them out. "Look for anything that doesn't add up." I feel the need to state the obvious as revered silence falls over the room. No one speaks as we closely examine pictures of the dead girl who once meant so much to each of us.

flashback

"Do you ever think about death?"

"Lily Kane how morbid of you." I say as I flip over on the Kane's patio chair. Our boyfriends were off having some guy-time with Dick, Luke and Cassidy which meant we had the whole day to paint our nails and discuss boys. Of course Lily never does anything typical and the whole conversation has shifted into the very emo topic of the after-life. "I don't know I guess sometimes."

"I think I'm going to die young." Lily says with a devilish smirk before picking up a Cosmo.

"Why is that Lily." I ask mostly just to appease her but I can't contain the roll of my eyes.

"I don't know getting old isn't for me." Lily scrunches her face in concentration as if trying to imagine herself with wrinkles "I think I want to die some tragic death like Princess Diana."

"Lily haven't you heard you're not allowed to die." I say with a sigh propping myself up on my elbows. "And if you do it is going to be when we're old and wearing matching muumuus."

"As if I'd ever wear a muumuu Veronica Mars." Lily said with a laugh before diving in to the pool.

end flashback

There seems to be nothing in the pictures and I move on to the shots of the crime scene and Lily's room. I'm almost done looking at shots of the pool when I realize Logan hasn't switched pictures. I squeeze my eyes shut when I realize exactly which photo he is looking at. It's a close up of Lily's head wound. The shot shows just the edge of her pale forehead and her golden blonde hair matted with blood along with a large, bloody gash that is the focus of the picture. That image gave me nightmares for weeks. I meant to hide it before Duncan came over but I forgot in all the excitement of the car theft.

"Logan that picture doesn't tell us anything we don't already know." Being a P.I.'s daughter I knew to expect these photos. Being an actor's son Logan didn't and if the whiteness of his face is any indicator, he does not need to see that. He is almost transfixed by the bloody image and I basically tear the image from his hands. He mumbles about having to use the bathroom which either means he is going to puke or have a mini-break down. Duncan is doing far better even if he is eerily quiet. I am about to give up on the pictures when I see it.



"Oh my god." Duncan looks up immediately at this and Logan walks back in to the room looking slightly more composed.

"Hi my name is Sydney Black I'm a journalism student from Neptune High I am doing a follow-up piece on your article on Abel Koontz and I was wondering if you could send me a copy of the piece you did on Koontz the other day. I'll call back in the morning with the address." Duncan and Logan both look at me expectantly, case files laying forgotten on the floor. "I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure those are the shoes that they found on Koontz's house boat." I glance from Duncan to Logan expectantly.

Logan POV

"Tick tick losing interest." I say to Veronica as she waits for either Duncan or I to figure out the importance of a pair of Lily's Keds.

"This picture was taken after the murder" Veronica says slowly seeming slightly shaken by this discovery. "If these are the same pair of shoes somebody had to have planted them on his houseboat." Duncan's face pales and Veronica's mouth is set in a grim line as she looks back to the picture. The expression on her face tells me something. She doesn't want Lily's death to be a conspiracy. She doesn't want Jake to go to jail for some sick, twisted personal reason. She just wants the truth. I didn't believe there was even a possibility that the ex-sheriff could have been right until I saw that picture. The parking ticket was enough to raise my interest but coroner's screw those up and I figured it was an honest mistake. I hung around because Duncan wanted me to and I knew if I walked out that door without making sure Koontz was a killer than I would never forgive myself if Veronica was right. Now I'm standing here believing that maybe I was wrong all along. My mom calls and tells me that my dad is coming home and I know better than to miss his arrival. Duncan leaves too after promising Veronica he won't ask his parents for more information. We decide that no one needs to know we're working together. Too many questions will be asked and we don't want to raise the Kane's suspicions. Duncan informs me that that doesn't mean I'm allowed to be mean to Veronica and I hold up my hands reminding him of my promise to play nice until Lily's killer is in jail.

Duncan and Veronica are fast on their way to being right back where they were. He glares at anyone who talks badly to her and even goes as far as to befriend Waldo-Willard? Whatever. They're sitting beside each other in journalism. Not speaking in hushed, cutesy tones like they used to but there is an undeniable comfort surrounding their silence as the both regard the student council election with disinterest.

"I was thinking you may be interested in covering the student newspaper." Mrs. Dent says interrupting the quiet calm that has come between the two ex-lovers. I plop down beside Duncan who is waiting to gauge Veronica's reaction.

"Sure. I'll write it up this afternoon."

"The election's tomorrow." Mrs. Dent's brow furrows in confusion and I realize I forgot how entertaining it was watching Veronica Mars interact with people she doesn't know.



"I can already see the headline. Brown-nosing resume-packer wins in land-slide." She is not as unpredictable as she thinks she is. She agrees to the story and is about to mention something to Duncan

"Well I'm sure you can dig a bit deeper." Mrs. Dent chides "Logan why don't you work on this with Veronica you haven't written a story in a while." Before either of us can protest Mrs. Dent walks away leaving Veronica with her mouth hanging open in displeasure and me banging my head on the counter and Duncan laughing with an appreciation for the irony.

Veronica's POV

"Hey Dude can she do that?" Logan asks his horror about having to work with me on the story momentarily replaced by the thought that his precious pirate points may be rescinded.

"Student council giveth, student council taketh away." Duncan says with a smile before turning back to his assignment. Frustrated Logan leans in closer.

"No, we're not giving up those points, man, you gotta run!" Duncan sighs as if this isn't the first time someone has tried to badger him to running recently.

"Actually, I don't" Duncan sends Logan a look telling him the discussion is over then turns back to me to discuss the mysterious key. In order to get in to the safety deposit box of a dead relative you need a death certificate and an appointment with the bank manager. I have had the death certificate since last week but between the whole paternity thing, getting Logan up to speed with Lily's case and dealing with the fact that my boyfriend was a druggie has kind of put my mom's abandonment on the back-burner. It was Duncan suggesting that if Jake was, in fact, covering up something the necessary evidence might have been given to Leanne and put in her safety deposit box since no one knew the connection between them was still strong. That coupled with the fact that they met at the Camelot at 1 in the morning after she supposedly left town makes Duncan's assumption a good one.

"You and I need to interview Wanda." I command Logan who bristles at having to interview the person potentially responsible for having to eat cafeteria food.

"Can't you interview…"

"No." I reply before he can put on the Echolls charm to get himself out of doing the assignment. We pull Wanda aside half-way through lunch after I try to convince Logan to play nice with the sophomore candidate

Logan's POV

"Give 'em hell Wanda"

"You give 'em hell Rodney." The fugly dressed girl who I vaguely recall as being on pep-squad back with Veronica and Lilly basks in the glory of being the queen of the nerd as Veronica flips on a recorder.



"One of your campaign staff." I ask dryly getting a warning look from Veronica

"I'm all about grass-roots." She replies with a smile and I resist the urge to roll my eyes. She goes off about being disenfranchised and the split between the haves-and-the-have-nots.

"So how do you account for your sudden popularity?" Veronica is acting incredibly serious and has her mouth contorted to a firm line and I can tell her eyes are searching for something vaguely interesting in Wanda's little 'it-sucks-to-be-poor' sob story.

"It's class warfare the haves versus the have-nots. You, more than anyone at school should understand that." That pool of guilt that seems to so constantly rise whenever she's around comes up again. When she mumbles in agreement I can't help but wonder just how bad things got for her. I feel even worse when I realize that there isn't much to wonder about. Anything really bad that happened to Veronica was caused directly or indirectly by my own quest to avenge Lily's tape being released by her father. After looking through Keith's detailed notes last night it is hard to still believe that the man didn't care about Lily or her memory. In with all the press releases Veronica had me read in case of a discrepancy there was one where he insisted he wasn't out to get the Kane's but he refused to over-look evidence leading to them simply because of their wealth and power. It changed my opinion of Keith in two ways. Firstly it was such a logical argument that lifted the white noise that clouded my reason since the day Jake Kane was accused and I realized that he was just doing his job. Secondly it made me realize that the days I spent wishing that an authority figure would not over look evidence linking my dad to my back simply because of his wealth and power would be hypocritical if I didn't expect the same treatment of the Kanes.

"Logan are you alright?" Veronica's voice quickly pulls me out of my moment of realization and I quickly look away from her blue eyes.

"I think Duncan should run."

Veronica POV

The boy does have a gift for evasiveness. I nod in agreement.

"He'd be good." Logan's thoughtful smirk turns into a wide grin. Which, believe me, is scary.

"I gotta go." He says running off before I can ask him what the hell is in the delivery that has made him crazy. First he looks all guilty during Wanda's tirade as if he actually feels bad about the elitist school system. I know Logan enough to know that that's not the case. Two seconds later he thinks Duncan should run for class president which, though not the worst idea he has had recently, is totally off topic.

His 'brilliant idea' is revealed later when he surprises Duncan by getting Aaron to endorse him. As soon as the commercial finishes Duncan glowers at Logan seemingly caught between punching him and simply being amused at the length Logan will go to have his lunch delivered. His mood does not improve when he comes to sit with us at lunch.



"Did you vote for me?" Wallace shrugs innocently which means he did. Duncan glares at him then turns to me.

"I think you'd be a great president Duncan." I say with an innocent smile and his face is caught between shock and disgruntlement "However I, unlike Logan, do not feel the need to force you into it." His pained expression turns to relief then back again when the PA system starts announcing the election winners.

"There will be no run-off election for student body president." Duncan mutters in relief and, in a wonderful act of hypocrisy, starts to eat the Chinese he brought us. "The winner of this year's election is Duncan Kane!" Wallace laughs at Duncan who almost chokes on an egg roll.

"And that's how it's done!" Logan says sitting beside us a foot-wide grin on his face receiving a death glare from Duncan. Surprising all but Duncan by gracing us with his presence in public, something tells me Duncan has another 'chat' with his best friend.

"Dude, don't take this the wrong way." Luke, another sometimes fixture at our table, sits down beside Logan. "But there is no way you could have carried half the student body." All members of the table look around to see the majority of the students sympathizing with Wanda.

"Now we have a story." I say grabbing a carton of chow mien from Logan who looks a little too comfortable with results of the election.

"Duncan won. We have lunch delivery. I fail to see the problem." Logan says tucking a knee under his armpit before passing a container of sweet and sour pork to Wallace.

"The problem is there is no way Duncan won that legitly" Duncan nods in agreement then turns to me with the last egg roll.

"Mars, get me out of this and you get the last egg roll." He raises his eyebrows hopefully and I take out the egg roll who am I to refuse food from the student council president.

Logan's POV

Lily had a thing for pissing off Celeste. She'd drive too fast, stay out too late and date me. Caitlin had a thing for status. She'd talk to the right people, when to the right parties and date me. Veronica Mars has a thing for conspiracy theories. So that is why I am standing with Wallace and Wanda putting scantron after scantron through the machine. I'm partly there because Veronica made me but more so because I don't particularly want to go home.

"What did you get?" Veronica asks after I put the last one through

"Duncan still wins in a landslide." Wallace says confused "How many times are we going to run it?"

"My man we are stuck here until she is done uncovering corruption" I say making bunny ears around the last part and receiving a semi-snarl from Wallace in response.



"Hey if Wanda rules why did you vote for Duncan you head case." Veronica says more to herself than to the room before passing the ballot to Wanda. She turns to Wallace "I want to find out who this kid is and what art room he voted in." She says quickly before looking back at the ballots. This bossiness is definitely a new development but judging by Wallace smile of inevitability, a development that he deals with daily."

"And I want a statue of myself in the main lobby, holding a musket, staring down at danger." If Wallace were a girl this is where he would bat his eyelashes innocently. "Since we're talking about stuff we want."

To appease him Veronica simpers and says please before dragging me down to the kid's art room. Turns out she was right about the whole conspiracy theory thing.

Veronica's POV

"Say it again." We had just proved to the administration that two sets of ballot instructions supplied by a duplicitous Madison Sinclair were the sole cause of Duncan's victory.

"You were right." Logan growls before opening up a word document. "I still think Duncan would make a better president."

"I agree" If Logan is surprised by this he doesn't show it. "So we're going to check out the safety deposit box next week. You can come if you want." Logan agrees and I think he's realizing that sometimes conspiracy theories pan-out.

"Come over tomorrow." Logan smirks at my raised eyebrows "To work on the assignment I won't threaten your virtue Veronica."

"Well it's not like I have much virtue to tamper with." I give Logan my patented you-know-exactly-what-I'm-talking-about look before turning back to the computer.

"Did the lacrosse team take it all for themselves. God they're selfish that way." Logan has done a pretty good job of playing nice ever since Duncan dragged him to the office and told him Koontz didn't kill Lily. Apparently that was just Logan appeasing Duncan.

"Just as the critics were having some doubts Logan." I say with a heavy sigh and pick up my books before he can hurl another insult at me. Maybe I shouldn't take it personally and chances are he was just falling back into old habits or joking but I'm done pretending it's funny. It is like he has become two separate people. Sometimes he's his old self rude, obnoxious but has that air of being a genuinely good person. Then it's as if he catches himself acting like a human being and he reverts to being a complete jackass.

It defiantly the jackass vibe I get when I walk into school the next morning and see the words NARC spray painted boldly over her signs. As one who has had multiple words spray painted on her locker I can't help but feel sorry for her.

"I think my campaign just went negative." Duncan said looking at the defaced sign. My dad always says he can tell a guy's true intentions by looking in his eyes. So I give him a very hard, very calculated stare. 

"Don't give me that look Veronica you know I didn't do this." As many flaws as Duncan has, being a complete ass isn't one of them. It is, however, a flaw of Logan's. I find him in journalism staring at one of the computer screens as if it is about to bite him.

"Bravo Logan this is a new low even for you." I've apparently snapped him out of some sort of daze and his momentary look of confusion twists into one of malice.

"You must be talking about your narc friend W-W-Wanda." Here's the thing with Logan the second he has you believing he is not the spawn of Satan, he reminds you that all he is lacking is horns.

"Look I just don't have time to be responsible for every little thing that goes wrong in your life." He takes another look at the computer than shutters involuntarily before storming out. If I wasn't mistaken he sounded genuinely offended. Wallace tells me he'll ask around for the initiator of the narc campaign and Luke assures me it wasn't an 09er. For about two seconds I feel bad about accusing Logan. I get over it quickly.

A bit more digging and pretending to have E proves that the narc rumors were more of a reality and I have no qualms about voting for Duncan. One look at a pride-filled Jake Kane during his son's acceptance speech – which promised to extend pirate points to the 'disenfranchised – and I want to take him off the suspects list. Surely a man who skips work to watch his son accept his student council presidency could not have killed his own daughter. I expect to see Logan as Duncan accepts his spot as king and assures him that he doesn't have to eat sloppy joes. It is then I remember the idiot staged bum fights and was going to soup kitchens to clear up his Dad's P.R. I snap a few more picture of Duncan, and flash him a cheesy thumbs up which he returns with a subtle eye roll before asking what candy should be sold at prom. A few minutes later I'm pushing past the hall and heading to the Echolls' mansion.

A flustered maid answers the door and looks a little wary when I say I'm here for Logan. Assuming she thinks I'm some fan of Aaron looking for an in through his son I tell her to look at the list and push past her towards Logan's room. It has been a while since I've been to the Echolls mansion but I've been there enough to know exactly where Logan's room is and to be confused about eerie quiet that seems to have settled over the house. Chalking it up to Aaron being a foul mood because Logan is an idiot I knock gently on the door.

"Mom I told you I'm fine, just leave me alone please." His tone sounds as bored and apathetic as it usually does when he is trying to get someone to leave him alone but there is undercurrent of something I haven't heard before.

"Logan?" I knock again and open the door. "If you think I'm writing 2,500 words praising Duncan Kane alone you…" There are few things that shock Veronica Mars. Jumping out from beside a door still works, as does 09ers being nice but Logan Echolls lying face down on his bed looking utterly defeated would have made my jaw drop if I didn't quickly realize that would be the worst reaction I could possibly have.



"Veronica Mars. Can this day get any better?" He quickly jumps to his feet and gives me a half-smirk. He didn't jump up fast enough for me to miss the speck of blood on his shirt though. Even if I did the black eye was a bit of a giveaway something was definitely up.

"Logan what's going on?" Had he gotten in another fight? His face darkens for an instant before he looks at me like I'm an idiot.

"Mars you're slow for a detective. I was at a homeless shelter. I am a classist pig."He then gestures wildly to his black eye. "This is what happens to classist pigs at homeless shelters." I pick up the pack of ice he abandoned on his beside counter and wrap it in one of the shirts he has strewn on his bed. I push him down by his shoulders and he complies with only a slight eye-roll. Gently I press the compress to his swelling eye and he holds my eye contact intensely.

"How about you tell me what really happened Logan." His forehead crinkles and he his eyes shift to the side as if trying to figure out how I knew he was lying.

"It's nothing against your talent for bullshit Logan but the polysporin was kind of a giveaway." His face quickly contorts from confusion to anger. God keeping up with this guys emotion's is like going on a bike ride with Lance Armstrong.

"Tell me something does your super sleuth kit come with a spy pen? Decoder ring?" He stands up quickly dropping the ice pack on the bed and starts scowling menacingly at me. It would be more effective if he had the use of both his eyes.

Logan POV

There are certain things you don't want anyone to find out about. These things you really don't want the one person in the world with the power and the motivation to destroy you to find out. When I talk about power and information getting into the wrong hands I mean Veronica Mars. Who is, of course, on the verge of discovering a childhood secret that I would really prefer to remain a secret.

"Detective kit does come with a spy pen. I had the decoder ring brought in special." There is no fire behind her eyes and she I know retorted to my quip only to make me realize I wasn't going to intimidate her into leaving.

"Look just leave what you have so far and I'll finish it. I'm sure you found plenty of nice things to say about Duncan." So the anger was a little misplaced there but when your father whips you with a belt while talking about how Duncan never embarrasses his father a little antagonism is expected. I'm pretty sure it is the insult to Duncan that clues her in that something is really wrong. Veronica knows my loyalty to Duncan is unwavering. She lost her circle of friends because of it. I sit on the bed and put the ice pack over my eye well aware of the fact that Veronica is weighing her options. She sits down beside me and I through her a pointedly annoyed look which she, of course, ignores. She puts a hand on my back and, because karma is apparently a bitch, lands on one of my fresh welts making me flinch and hiss audibly and causing her to recoil in a mixture of shock and confusion. No one outside my family has ever been 

privy to this and I certainly cannot think of a single response she is going to have that I am going to be ok with.

"Veronica I'm not one of your cases go play Nancy Drew with someone else." I can't stand the look of what I'm sure is fake concern on her face. There is no way a girl who I have treated so horribly can feel any true compassion for me now.

"Take off your shirt." Finally something I can work with

"I knew the rumors were true." I add a half-hearted smirk at the end. Enough slut comments and she'll be huffing out of here making a snarky exit in no time. Unfortunately, I underestimate Veronica's persistence. The shirt is sticking to the fresh welts and, in reality, there is nothing I'd rather do then take it off and go to sleep. The only reason it was on in the first place was because I didn't want my mother to see the full-extent of my father's work. She carefully lifts the hem of my shirt, too her credit she's going slow enough that I could stop her. It would be pointless to stop her she's Veronica Mars she'll step over anyone to get her answers.

"God you're nosey." I say with a humorless laugh as she looks under my shirt. I wait for her to pull away in horror or pull a Trina and maintain that there is no way my father could have done this. She doesn't do either just pulls the bloody shirt over my head being extra cautious over the areas where the blood has connected to the shirt. The sting is starting to subside without the constant chaffing from the shirt. I turn around confused on why she hasn't said anything and I realize she's gone. Why are the women in my life she such flakes? I lie stomach-down on the bed and close my eyes wanting to go downstairs to grab enough pain-killer to get a decent night's sleep but to sore and fed-up to actually to it. I'm about to drift off when I feel something warm and wet on my back. Assuming it's my mother I automatically pull away from the touch I turn around to tell her I'm find and just to leave it but when I see Veronica I realize that argument won't fly. Her hands are more careful than my mothers. She is gentle and takes her time going softly around each angry red gash. It's probably because she's sober.

"You really don't have to do this whole Florence Nightingale thing really, I'm fine." The gentle way she blots away the excess blood along with how she lets her hands linger on the unharmed part of my back as if to assure me she is not leaving reek of pity. The last thing I want is pity from my enemy. "Really I don't need you're pity."

"Good, because I was secretly waiting to get the salt shaker out so I could really lay the hurt on." She puts the washcloth and lets one had rest softly on my shoulder blade. "I am not pitying you Logan." Her voice is so soft and maternal it is hard to imagine in coming from someone as tough as Veronica Mars.

Veronica's POV

I wonder if he knows how scared he looks right now. Even when he tries to mock me he is so afraid of my reaction that I would be laughing hysterically if the circumstances were remotely funny. In addition to finding Lily's murderer I have a new life's mission: Destroy Aaron Echolls' life. Logan may be a jackass 

but no one deserves to be treated like this. He shaking and I would say it is from the cold but it's warm enough in here. He's freaked out and right now he's not scared of Aaron, he's scared of me.

"So I suppose you want me to go the authorities with this." Logan's back is tense and I can tell he's been mulling that comment over for a while.

"I think that you're father is a very powerful, very loved man." Logan squeezes his eyes shut and I realize with horror he is expecting me to say I don't believe Aaron did this. "Jesus Logan I don't mean that. I know very well that he did this." Logan relaxes slightly at this "I just mean that I understand your father has the ability to pay off the people who are meant to make a difference." I start to gently rub circles on the unmarred area between his shoulders. "If you do want to go to the authorities I'll help you as much as I can and I'm sure I can speak for Duncan when I say we'll stand by you."

"Don't bother. No point. My mother went when I was 12 and all Lamb wanted was a donation. My father found out. Wasn't happy." He stifles a yawn and shifts trying in vain to find a comfortable position. I hand him the strongest painkillers I found in the house and he gratefully takes them dry before I have a chance to offer him water.

"We'll figure it out Logan."

"We?" The painkillers are starting to affect the already exhausted boy and I can't stop myself from stroking his hair.

"Yeah. We." Oh god what have I gotten myself into. The painkillers drive him into a fitful sleep and it's only then when I really look at Aaron's handy work. Long, sliver width scars intricately weave throughout his back each one holding its own traumatic experience. I allow my fingers to softly trace the lines on his back as I carefully avoid the fresh wounds. If we ever did decide to go to the cops Logan's case would have to be impermeable. Circumstantial evidence and here-say would not be enough do take down someone who can afford such powerful lawyers. He's fast asleep, slack jaw and drool-puddle proof that drugs really do work. Quietly I pick my camera out of my bag and shoot crime-scene-like photos of his scarred back. I go at with abandon, zooming in on the worst wounds as well as some circular shaped marks. I bring the camera down when I realize what they are. Burn marks. Oh Aaron Echolls is going to wish he were dead. My eyes fill with tears and I quickly blink them back. How could I have missed this? My stomach churns as I think of the bong incident, the time Duncan sprayed champagne all over Logan when he borrowed Aaron's tux all the times he made some off-hand comment about his father being an asshole and I chuckled sympathetically before chalking it up to teenage angst. He grunts and mumbles something incoherent in his sleep and I instinctively place a soothing hand on his shoulder. The gesture immediately causes him to relax and I can't help but think he is so much easier to deal with asleep. Knowing I have to develop and hide the pictures of Logan's back before he or anyone else can find them I turn up the heat enough so he won't need to be covered by a blanket, re-stuff my camera in my bag and quickly scribble him a note instructing him to call me if he needs anything. I hesitate for a minute than under-line everything. Guess I'm back to caring about Logan Echolls. I probably never stopped.