TITLE: Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
CHAPTER TWO: Dirty Little Secrets(Part Two)
AUTHOR: Sarah
WORD COUNT: 3,680
SUMMARY: AU. Lilly lives. Veronica Mars moves to Neptune Junior year, leaving behind the tragedy that shaped her past in Waterford.
SPOILERS: General Season 1
AN: The POV changes halfway through the chapter, just a warning. Big thanks to my extremely speedy and efficient Beta Desire'.

Dirty Little Secrets

Part Two

Veronica and Duncan stood outside in the cold night leaning against Duncan's silver SUV that was about to get impounded, waiting for their respective parents to show up.

"I'm sorry," Duncan says for what feels like the hundredth time that night.

Veronica sighs before replying for what feels like the hundredth time that night, "It's O.K ".

"Lilly's not the most responsible person." He states a little annoyed but there is an undertone of affection in his voice.

Veronica just nods her head before attempting to lighten the mood.

"The real mystery here is why does the son of a billionaire, share a car with his sister?"

Duncan just laughs at her, shaking his head in amusement.

"Lilly totaled her first car, since then our parents have been reluctant to get her a new one, no matter how much she protests," he says in way of explanation.

It is then that the cavalry decides to show up in the form of Jake Kane. He rushes out of his car obvious worry etched across his face.

"Duncan… what's going on?"

"It's nothing Dad, Lilly just forgot to pay some overdue speeding tickets. They want to impound the car."

Jake Kane visibly relaxes and makes his way over to the officer that pulled them over. While Jake Kane schmooze's his way out of this mess Veronica and Duncan wait in silence.

It takes approximately three minutes for Jake Kane to worm his way out of the situation and he walks back over to the two teenagers more cool, calm and collected then he was previously.

There is an uncomfortable silence as Jake Kane looks between his son and this young girl, entirely unsure of the situation. Duncan chooses this time to be a rare occasion when he isn't oblivious to his surroundings and hastily introduces his father to Veronica.

" Uh..Dad, this is Veronica Mars. We were working on a school project together. Veronica this is my father Jake Kane."

Jake politely shakes Veronica's hand while he simultaneously seems to be looking her over, and not in a creepy leering way but rather in a curious way. Jake opens his mouth to say something but is cut off by the arrival of Keith Mars who is looking anything but pleased.

After explanations and introductions are made once again, this time even more awkward then before, even though Veronica did not think that was possible. It's not that Jake Kane isn't polite or that her father is rude, it's the sense of this tension between the two, all to meaningful looks and stilted pleasantries. It almost makes Veronica think that her father and Jake Kane had some kind of history, but that couldn't be possible.

Before Veronica can go into full investigation of the behavioral patters of these two, Jake and Duncan are going on their merry way and heading back to their car and her dad gives her the universal look for 'well-talk-about-this-later'. And strangely enough, at the moment that seems like the least of her worries.

"I'm sorry."

His voice cuts through the stale silence in the car and Veronica turns her head away from the window and looks at her father. She doesn't know what to say, so she says nothing, internally praying he will continue because she just wants the pain to be over.

"I didn't want you to resent me, I know the price you have had to pay for my actions and I hate that I put you through that, but I know that the man in prison is not the man who killed your mother and I can not let that go. I didn't tell you because I felt that you needed a second chance at a normal life and I didn't want to drag you back into this mess of a case."

"In case you haven't noticed Dad, my life will never be normal," She says jokingly and they both smile through their tear stained, glistening faces.

Veronica had never questioned her father's reasons for what he did, because he was her father and for as long as she could remember he had always been right, the wise and all knowing Keith. The best Sheriff Waterford had ever seen. So if he said they had got the wrong guy, then according to Veronica they had got the wrong guy. She had trusted his decision and had left it at that. But now she really really wanted to know what had made him come to his conclusion. And if now was not the right time to ask, she didn't know when that time would ever come.

They both have tears running down their face and Veronica hates the fact that she has lost count on the amount of times she has burst into tears in the last six months.

"Dad I need you to answer this one question for me, why don't you think Michael Adams killed Mom?"

Keith sucks in a deep breath, as if he had been preparing for this moment for a while…well because he had. It had surprised him to no end when Veronica had not asked questions, so inside there was a small part of him that was relieved. But that was a very very very small part.

"At first it was just a gut feeling, the weak confession, the clean cut record, the wife and a baby on the way, but mostly it was the deposit of one million dollars into his bank account three days before he confessed."

Veronica soaks it all in, process's the same information her father had and although she thinks it seems like fairly weak reasoning she feels relieved that her father isn't going crazy. Veronica never really believed that, but when everybody around her was not so quietly whispering those sentiments, it was hard not to worry and wonder.

Keith continues, getting it all off his chest and it is Veronica's turn to be surprised at her father whom is willingly telling her this information.

"There is also the speeding ticket I received yesterday. The camera caught your mother the day of her murder at 3:30 pm."

Veronica looks over at her father, a questioning, "so what?", look on her face before she realizes the great significance.

"But….that's half an hour after Adams claimed the murder took place."

Veronica's eyes light up, "Dad, you have the evidence to prove that you were right. We need to go to the Sheriff with this!"

"I can't Veronica. They would just laugh me right out of there and besides, the fact that we know that Adams didn't do it means that Lianne's killer is still out there somewhere. I'll go to the police once I have solid proof."

Veronica looks disheartened, the thought of "I-told-you-so-ing" everybody in Waterford and Neptune for that matter had flickered through her head and gave her pleasant satisfaction.

They settle into silence once again, both are on an information overload and are still trying to contemplate what all this means. Veronica is the one to break the silence this time, a nagging thought that has been playing on her mind needs to answered.

"There is something that has been bothering me Dad, if you're still investigating Mom's death why did we move to Neptune? Wouldn't we have been better off staying in Waterford?"

"Veronica your mother was born and raised in Neptune, I thought it might hold some clues into what happened to her."

Veronica is shocked by this declaration, as far as she knew her mother was from Fresno. It makes her wonder what else her mother was hiding. She had always thought they were close before her alcoholism began to get in the way but apparently not.

Veronica knows Keith is still holding back something. The words coming out of his mouth were too smooth, too easy. She lets it go, she will find out eventually but the last fight with her dad had been so draining she is not sure she can handle that again.

She supposes everything her father told her last night should have made her feel lighter, her father was right, but it didn't. The amount of unanswered questions swirling around her head had doubled and she knew the more she delved into this, the more her head was going to hurt. She was going to help find her mother's killer, maybe Keith didn't know it yet but she had set her mind.

But first things first she thought, crouching in front of the glass cabinet in Neptune Highs deserted hallway that was currently displaying a lovely exhibit on cameras. She pulled out her planted video camera out of the cabinet, switching it off before shoving it into her bag and walking off the deserted campus.

Come on….Where is my little note-leaving-girl- threatening-fiend?

Veronica had been sifting through the video of the halls of Neptune High for the last hour and has yet to spot the perpetrator who was leaving Georgia little "suprises" in her locker. This person must be a real coward, what was wrong with saying "I hate you" in person these days? Why did everything have to be so secretive?

Apart from being a great study on the social psychology of teenagers. The video had yet to supply Veronica with the knowledge of who the culprit was even though she had trained the camera so it got a good shot of Georgia's locker.

Finally someone who is definitely not Georgia approaches her locker and Veronica immediately recognizes the girl who covertly opens up the locker using a set of keys and places in a piece of paper. Veronica recalls what this masterpiece so elegantly said, "Why don't you fucking leave Neptune you fucking skank. Nobody wants you here, you're just a waste of space."

Ahh…Yes a real Wordsworth this one was.

Veronica was just about to turn off her camera, her first case officially solved when something on the screen catches her eye.

You've got to be freaking kidding me.

Lilly POV

Lilly Kane was always in control. She was always calling the shots, making the moves, she pulled the punches. But something had changed, things were shifting and it pissed her off. Somehow she had managed to get sucker punched and Lilly realized it fucking hurt.

She hadn't meant to hear, it was a conversation she was never meant to know had taken place but she was Lilly Kane and she knew everything or so she thought.

So when she is creeping down one of the many hallways in the Kane Mansion at two o'clock in the morning on her way to hook up with Eli Navarro and hears a heated discussion coming from her parents bedroom she stops. She waits, anxious to hear the tidbits of information that caused Celeste to be using that tone.

Lilly expected to hear arguing over money or over Duncan's future, or their next charity dinner, or hell, over her. What she had not expected to hear was that her father had an affair and Veronica Mars could be her sister.

And everything shifted and she wasn't in control and she wasn't the one pulling the punches and it fucking hurt.

Back to Veronica POV

"Hey nameless bimbo, left any nasty notes for people you particularly don't like?" Veronica says facing the girl, Brian, Georgia's Ex, was getting extremely close to the other day.

The girl's face goes from confusion to shock before settling on anger.

"Look, I don't know what you think you know, but whatever it is you don't." She glares at Veronica in hopes of getting her to back off. She was about to walk off after a quick adjustment to the micro mini skirt she was wearing but had underestimated the determination of this tiny, blonde girl.

" I have proof of you leaving the notes in her locker so if you don't stop I will be taking the evidence to Clemmons and you might find you have a harassment charge on your hands and who knows if you're lucky maybe even expulsion. " Veronica's steely gaze unnerves the bimbo and the whole attitude of the girl changes and she suddenly looks defeated.

"He still keeps a picture of her in his wallet, I was angry." The girl's eyes begin to water as she goes on to tell her story, "I work as an office aid it was easy to get the master keys, they really slack about stuff like that." Veronica made sure to file that bit of information away for future reference.

"I'll stop, I swear. I just wanted him to want me the way that I wanted him. He is still hung up on her and I thought maybe if she wasn't in the picture we would have a real chance."

Ahh …the dramas of young unrequited love, fortunately some of us are in a love drought that we aren't likely to get out of in a long time.

Out of all the things Veronica could have wanted to see on Thursday morning pictures of her dead mother was not one of them. Johhny Depp naked was high on her list but crime scene photographs of her mother lying dead on their living room floor was nowhere on the list. But still the pictures sat there hauntingly along with newspaper articles and an oh-so-cleverly phrased heading 'Like Mother Like Daughter' on the front of her locker.

Veronica seethed inside and immediately went to pull them down before any more people could see, but the culprit had gone to the trouble of using superglue. Tears began to creep into her eyes and she felt her throat burn.

She didn't have to get out her junior detective badge to work out who was behind this lovely piece of work. Her father had once told her about the guilty party always wanting to see their own handiwork and there stood Lilly Kane. Many meters away but still close enough so that Veronica could see the badly veiled satisfaction across her face.

And for some reason the sight of Lilly Kane did something to Veronica, she pushed the tears away, forgot about the burning sensation and walked briskly away from her locker with her head held high.

Veronica Mars was big on justice and revenge and it was about time the people of Neptune High realized just that.

Lilly Kane was going to pay.

Veronica enters her Journalism class. Neptune High's weekly news program broadcasts around the whole school and Veronica perches in her seat eagerly ready to watch.

"The Chess Club will be holding their weekly meeting on Thursday at lunch in the Drama room this week, not the usual time of Wednesday," The sweet voice of news reader Meg Manning reports out of the TV. "The Neptune Pirates basketball team thrashed Pan High last night, here's the footage from Friday's game".

The footage of rowdy boys celebrating their win in the basketball game on the TV but cuts out mid way. The picture quickly returns although this time it is not images of Neptune High's famous basketball team filling the screen but a deserted hallway. Suddenly out of the corner of the screen two figures make there way down the hallway. They're out of focus but you can tell it is a guy and a girl who are obviously about to have some 'fun'. They are hanging off each other, the guy's hands running over the girl's body as they make their way down the hallway. The figures come into focus as they have managed to get closer to the hidden camera, and gasps are let out simultaneously throughout Neptune High as the couple locks lips in a hungry, desperate kiss before pulling away and exposing their now clear faces for the whole student body to see.

Well, lunch was surely going to be interesting!

It was the only thing everybody was talking about of course. What would be more important then the Queen of Neptune High, Heiress to Billions hooking up with the leader of a local Bike gang? Veronica had hit the nail right on the head with the whole soap opera thing.

The talk wasn't startling but what was startling was that there had been no peep from Lilly or Logan. Apparently Logan had seen the footage but had disappeared soon after it and the illustrious Lilly hadn't even been at school. Different people had different interpretations on Logan's reaction to the tape, some said he had left the school in a fit of rage, smashing his fist into a locker others had said he had been laughing like a manic and ranting about Lily being a slut, someone had even said he had sex with a freshman named Cindy in Lilly's (and Duncan's) car as revenge. All these rumors seemed impossible and atrocious to Veronica but she still wondered if any of them were true. She had the feeling that they could be entirely wrong and entirely right and that confused her thoroughly before she realized that she was not going to be wasting her time thinking of Logan Echolls.

For the second time in one week Veronica had found herself at Dog Beach at night. There was something soothing about sitting in the sand and listening to the ocean, of course that was when pretty little rich boys weren't harassing her. And it seemed tonight was really going to be no different.

Logan Echolls sat in the sand and, apparently, they had the same idea. Veronica knew she should have walked away; she actually did but then had walked back. He hadn't seen her yet and this was an emotional wrecking ball that she did not want to be involved with. But there was still apart of her that wanted to see how he was because the aim of today's little "outing" had not been to hurt Logan and she was actually feeling a little guilty about that.

"Are you going to sit down because your little dance is starting to piss me off, you move like an elephant Mars."

Crap.

Veronica guesses that was some warped invitation for her to sit with him and even though he hasn't turned around once to actually look at her he said her name so he must know who he is talking to.

The first thing Veronica notices is the bottle of alcohol half sticking out of the sand. He looks like hell, and Veronica is being nice when making that observation. His hair is sticking up in all directions as if he has run his hands through it one to many times. His eyes are bloodshot and Veronica can't work out if it is from crying, or the alcohol.

She expects him to say something, he was the one that called her over here but he says nothing. And if it wasn't for the small sniffing noise from him every minute or so she might as well have been sitting alone. She thinks she should say something, but 'sorry' or any sort of comforting words seem weak and she has an inkling that Logan would not appreciate her pity so she keeps her mouth firmly shut.

Luckily Logan decides he should say something and breaks the silence.

"I'm not a complete dumb ass, I knew something was going on between them." Veronica is shocked that he is confiding in her, the most she had expected from him was a nasty jab at her family, or clothes, or lack of money. Not to talk about real feelings. "I just never had the proof. Thanks for that by the way."

Veronica is about to protest but the words die on her lips. She did what she did and there was no point denying it now, but she couldn't help this weird feeling she was getting in her chest at the sight of Logan sitting next to her. Arms wrapped protectively around his chest looking like a lost little boy who really needed a hug. For a split second she almost did, give him a hug, before she quickly realized how stupid that was and her and Logan weren't even friends, just acquaintances that liked pissing each other off.

"This is the last time though, this is the last time Lilly Kane rips my fucking heart out."

Veronica is fairly sure there are tears in his eyes now but through the dark night it's hard to tell and she really hopes that what he said was true.

He shifts on the sand and slowly lifts himself up making sure to grab the half empty bottle of alcohol. Veronica watches him, relieved that this little interaction was without bloodshed.

He pauses before he leaves and Veronica will later say it was the copious amounts of alcohol he probably had consumed.

"I'm sorry"

It's said so softly that Veronica wonders if she was meant to hear it or not.

Although he doesn't state specifically what he is sorry for he doesn't need to. And with that he is gone, stumbling down the beach leaving Veronica sitting there on the cold, hard, sand totally confused.

Drunken apologies, while nice they were unlikely to be remembered the next morning.

End Chapter Two Part Two

AN: I've been thinking of having Troy make an appearance, what do you guys think? Give me some feedback on whether or not you want some Troy action.