Chapter 3
Disclaimer: All Veronica Mars characters belong to Rob Thomas and UPN/CW. Doesn't in any way shape or form belong to me
A/N: I started this before the Season 2 finale but I included the information from it in this story
The next morning the three of them were a somber group.
"I'm going to go pick up Mac. We'll meet you there." Veronica said as she kissed Logan on the cheek.
Dick was struggling with his tie and had he hair slicked back. Veronica walked up to him helped him with the tie and mussed his hair up. "We wouldn't want Cassidy not to recognize you."
Dick gave her a small smile.
It was a small group who was there when Cassidy Casablancas was buried. Dick stood by his mother, with Logan beside him. Veronica held on to Mac tightly. Casey, Luke, Wallace and even Madison came to give Dick support. Veronica on her way to the cemetery with Mac had picked up a dozen white roses. The priest said a few words as Sarah MacLachlan's Angel played in the background. Veronica walked up after the priest was finished and laid four roses on the coffin. Logan, Casey, Luke, and Wallace followed suit. Madison went last turned and gave Mac a hug and kissed Dick's cheek before she walked away. His mother went next, and Dick followed suit. Mac was the last one at the grave. She kissed the rose and placed it on the casket turned and walked back to where Veronica and Logan were waiting with Dick.
"Did you want to come by?" Dick asked Mac hesitantly.
"Yeah."
"My mom wants to ride in the limo back to the house. I'm going with her. Why don't you ride along with us?"
"Okay. Veronica?"
"Go ahead. I'm going to drop my car of at my place and ride with Logan." Veronica said as her heart broke for Mac and Dick as they got in the limo.
"You did good baby." Logan said as his arm went around her and he kissed the top of her head. They turned to the group that was still standing there.
"Thanks for coming here guys I know it wasn't easy." Veronica said. "Especially you Madison, Thank you."
"Thanks for trusting us with this, Veronica. Bea-Cassidy may have done some bad things, but no one deserves to be buried alone." Casey said quietly. "You'll tell Dick to call us if he needs anything? Even if it's company while he gets drunk?"
"We'll tell him." Veronica said as she took Logan's hand in her and intertwined their fingers. "Let's go drop off my car so we can go to Dick's."
Wallace came over and gave her a hug. "Call me if you need me BFF. You too Logan." Wallace said as he gave Logan what was considered a guy hug. "Thanks for helping her out the other night."
"I plan to do better this time around."
"See that you do."
Logan walked Veronica to her car. "Drive safe. I'll be right behind you."
"I know. See you at my place." Veronica said with a sigh.
"What's wrong?"
"We've been to too many of these Logan. We're eighteen years old and we just had to bury another seventeen year old."
"There is nothing right about any of this. Come on let's get your car dropped off so we can be with Dick."
Veronica got in her car and drove off. Logan walked over to wear his Xterra was parked and followed her.
It didn't take long to drop off her car and have them heading to Dick's. They sat silently in his car. When they pulled into the Casablancas driveway. Logan grabbed her hand as parked the car and turned off the engine. "I need to say something to you."
"What."
"I am really proud of you."
"What are you talking about?"
"Cassidy, tortured you with the idea he had killed your father, he tasered you, held a gun on you, and you found out he raped you. Yet you've put that aside somehow and you've done nothing but be supportive as Dick, a guy who made your life hell, buried his brother. I don't know how you do it. I still want to beat the crap out of that poor kid for what he did to you."
"That's the whole crux of it Logan. He was abused first. He didn't get help. If it hadn't think how different our lives would have been this year. I'm still upset about everything, but under it all I'm just so sorry for him. That he felt to keep his secret he had to kill. He needed help and never got it."
"I don't know what I would have done if he'd-"
"Same thing was running through my mind when he took those shots at you. I realized in that moment nothing else mattered. Not Duncan, not Kendall, we mattered. If we wanted to be us again; we had to let the past go."
"I wish we could have said something to keep him from jumping."
"I don't think we could have. He needed to have the pain end, and in his mind that was the only way to do it. Come on lets help Dick get through this."
"You think your Dad would mind if I drove you to the airport tomorrow so we could talk some more. I know we still have to deal with everything that happened this year."
"I think I'd like it if you gave me a lift. You gonna kiss me in front of the security check point?"
"Nope."
"No?"
"No, I'll buy a ticket and kiss you when you're about to get on the plane."
"You're nuts." Veronica said as she opened the door and got out of the Xterra.
Logan exited the car as well, "About you, when you come back you'll have to tell me what you think of my new place."
"What new place?"
"The new place I'm buying. It's going to be real close to Hearst and the beach."
"You're buying a house?"
"I can't live in a hotel forever."
"Why near Hearst?"
"I got in on a trial basis."
"Colleges do that?"
"They do when you're rich. If I make a 2.5 GPA both semesters, I'll be considered a matriculating student at Hearst. Besides if it's close to the college maybe you'll consider spending more time there then your dorm room."
"Maybe."
"See, you don't have to worry. I'll be busy meeting with lawyers over Aaron's estate. Hashing things out with Trina. Getting the new place all set up."
Veronica took his hand in hers, "We still have a lot to deal with. I want to say this okay?"
"Okay."
"I do not like the fact that you had an affair with Kendall. I really hate it. I know that you hate that I broke up with you and seemingly jumped back into Duncan's arms."
"You're right we have a lot to talk about. How about the day after you get back from New York we get it all out? If we are going to start over we have to talk about what happened in the past. Otherwise we are just going to hurt each other all over again."
"That is a good idea."
"I just need to know one thing."
"What is that?"
"If Duncan called you tomorrow and said he could come home, would you go back to him?"
Veronica stopped and really thought about what she would do and say if that happened. "Logan, I'm always going to love Duncan, just like you're always going to love Lilly. They were our first loves. My answer is no, I wouldn't go back to Duncan. I realized I wasn't happy when I was with him. I'm no longer the girl Duncan fell in love with, I have changed too much. I don't like being protected from the truth. I like who I am, that was something I learned this year. I needed to like myself just as I am, before I could accept that someone else could like me for who I am."
"Like me?"
"Like you. You understand when we talk about us, one of the things we have to talk about is the fallout from Lilly's death."
"Yeah, not looking forward to that. Let's go in and see if we can help Dick through the rest of the day."
The rest of the day passed by in a haze, no matter what Cassidy had done, it was still hard to mourn a seventeen year old. Veronica barely remembered Logan dropping her off at her apartment and kissing her goodnight. He had promised to pick her up tomorrow at her Dad's office to take her to the airport. She did remember packing her suitcase, with the bare essentials before she fell into bed. After all some shopping would have to be done while in New York, it would be a crime to go to New York and not buy something.
Veronica watched as Kendall Casablancas a.k.a. Priscilla Barnes sashayed her way into her father's office.
"You okay?" Logan asked concerned.
"I really dislike that woman, and believe it or not, it's not because she had an affair with you." Veronica said as she turned and headed toward Logan's Xterra.
"Really? You're not at all mad that I slept with her?" Logan asked and then wanted to bite his tongue, he didn't want to fight with her before she left on her trip.
Veronica stopped at the passenger side of the Xterra, "Of course I'm upset with you for that, but Logan, there is no way to say this without being a little insulting, so I'm just going to say it. You were seventeen when you did this, and seventeen year old males think with only one piece of their anatomy and their brain isn't it. I'm sorry but she was married, and while I don't like Dick's father he wasn't exactly seventy years old. She could have found someone who was closer to her own age, to have the boinkfest with."
"I can't undo what I've already done, Veronica." Logan said quietly as he unlocked and opened the door for her.
Veronica got in the SUV and looked at Logan, she touched the side of his face and waited until he was looking at her before she continued. "I know that, and I also know I probably played a bigger part in that fling happening, more than I'm comfortable with. It hurt more seeing her there in your hotel room with you after prom then walking into your bedroom and realizing what or should I say who you'd been doing."
"I'm sorry about-"
Veronica interrupted him with a quick kiss. It turned into a slightly longer one then she meant to. She broke off the kiss and looked into Logan's eyes, "I know, I have to stop running away from you; especially when you open your heart in an inebriated state. You're more vulnerable to vultures in that moment."
Logan smiled and shut the door and walked around getting into the driver's side. Once inside he closed the door, looked at Veronica sighed and said, "I know you need time alone to deal with anything, and I'm okay with that. Veronica all you have to tell me is that you need time. As long as I know you aren't trying to leave me, I won't do such impulsively stupid stuff"
"You won't, huh?" Veronica asked as she fastened her seatbelt.
"Okay, I'll really try not to do such impulsively stupid stuff." Logan answered as he fastened his own.
"As long as you're trying, don't hurt yourself though, I don't want to lose my favorite jackass. Logan we're going to get us right."
"When?" Logan asked as he started the car and pulling into traffic; so he could get Veronica to the airport on time.
"This time, because we're doing it right. No secrets, no hiding our fears, no hiding our relationship. We're going to be us and have fun, and we're going to listen to each other, not assume we know what the other person is talking about or wants."
"I like that idea. So, what are you doing a week from Friday?"
"Nothing I have the day off because I'm working a double on Thursday at Java the Hut."
"I was thinking maybe we could try for Catalina again. Have dinner and a movie; take a sail on what is now my boat."
Veronica smiled, "I think I'd like that."
"Then it's a date?"
"It's a date. Now, tell me what are you going to do while I'm in New York?"
"I'm going to find my own place. I'm tired of room service. I want it near the beach with plenty of privacy. I'm just not sure if I'll go for a house, townhouse or a condo."
"Well a townhouse and a condo aren't going to give you very much privacy. Now when you say house are we talking a house that normal people would live in? Or are we talking a house in that two people could live in it and not see each other for weeks at a time?"
"Something somewhere between the two. I like a lot of space, but not so much that if my girlfriend came to visit she'd be lost."
"Would it have a pool?"
"I could make sure it does. Why?"
"It's nicer to skinny dip in a pool then on the beach. That sand gets in the most uncomfortable places."
"You went skinny dipping and I missed it?"
"I promise to tell you all about the experience when I get back from New York. You know if you narrow it down, I'm sure my dad, when we get back, could help you out with any home-owning questions you might have. He also could help you, by recommending a good security system. I'm also sure Cliff could look over any documents for you."
"I could do that or I could tell you I think I found the place."
"Really? Where?"
"I'm not telling you until you come back from New York."
"Logan, I'm coming back." Veronica said as they pulled up to the curb at the airport.
Logan parked the SUV and got out so he could go around and open Veronica's door. After he opened her door he opened the passenger side to take out her suitcase and he set it on the curb. "I wish I could wait at the gate with you." He said as she got out of the car and closed the door.
"I know but they don't let you do that anymore." Veronica took Logan's face in her hands. "Logan, it's going to be fine, not perfect but fine. We will be fine. I'll be back in a week. In fact you can even come pick me up and we can do something when I get back."
"You'll be exhausted."
"Then I guess I'll fall asleep watching movies with you."
""That'll go over well with your dad." Logan said rolling his eyes. He leaned down to kiss her, not meaning for it to get quite so enthusiastic. "Call me when you get there okay?"
"Okay. Logan?" Veronica asked as Logan headed back to get in his car.
"Yeah?"
"I'll miss you."
Logan came back around the SUV and picked her up at the waist and kissed her again, hard. "I'll miss you too. Have a good time in the Big Apple."
"Be good! I don't want to have to come back and bail you out of trouble." Veronica said as he started the car and she grabbed her bags to walk in the airport.
Logan gave her a wave as he drove off.