Summary: Veronica must decide whether to stand by her husband, the sheriff, or her first love, and brother, Duncan Kane, as history repeats itself. Slightly AU future fic.

Spoilers: Anything in season 1 is fair.

Rating: PG-13/R for incest, mainly in later chapters.

Pairings: Veronica/Duncan, Veronica/Leo

Disclaimer: I don't own VM, and am in no way affiliated with those who do.

Chapter 3- Veronica

I walked up the front walk to Duncan's house and rang the bell. After what felt like hours, he came to the door, and let me in. It was the first time I had been inside of his house. I had dropped Elly off before she could drive. I would stand outside, and wait to pick her up, sometimes with little Lilly, too. When Meg had been alive, she would be my shuttle service, and if Leo had time, he would drive for me. They knew my entire twisted history with Duncan, and respected how much it still hurt to see him at times. They still had soft spots for their first loves, and felt bad that Duncan and I couldn't.

"Hey," I said, smiling weakly at him.

"Hi." He attempted to smile, but it was so feeble it couldn't be called an actual smile. How could I say what I came to say?

I turned to the little table on my right, and examined the photos. There was one of Duncan and Meg on their wedding day, and some from high school, and their honeymoon. There were pictures of Elly and Lilly. Pictures of the Kanes, Jake, Celeste, Lilly, and Duncan. One of them had me in it as well, and, I noticed, none of the other pictures had all four of them. There was even a picture of me with Jake, Celeste, and Lilly. From looking at the pictures, no one would be able to guess that we weren't all one big family.

I picked up a picture from the back of the table. It was of me, Lilly, Logan and Duncan, all dressed up for the dance. We all had our arms around each other, looking like the close-knit group we were.

"I can't believe they're dead," I whispered, my thumb tracing over Lilly and Logan.

"It's only us now," he agreed, sadly. I looked at the picture again. How had we let our friendship fall apart? We had been friends when we both thought we were related. I had remained friends with Meg while she dated Duncan, but after Dad showed me that paternity test, we had never truly been friends.

"Why did you come over here?" he asked, breaking me out of my reverie, as I slid the photo back into place.

"I...I came to tell you that you're a suspect. In Lilly's murder case."

"I know."

"You do?"

"I had an episode. The last thing I remember is Lilly showing me pictures she found."

"Pictures of...what?" I asked, certain I knew the answer.

"Us. Together."

"What pictures?"

"The rest of those," he gestured towards the one I had just replaced, "some random snapshots, pictures of us making out."

"Veronica Mars, if you only want to come over to make out with Donut, you could at least say so," Lilly fake-complained as she bursted in on Veronica and Duncan making out on her bed.

"Lilly, I'm sorry," Veronica apologized. She knew that Lilly was probably joking, but it couldn't hurt to try to make amends, just in case.

"Don't apologize to me. I'm not the one you only want to make out with. Honestly, poor Donut. He must be just dying from all the sexual tension. Give him some release!"

"Okay," Duncan said, getting up from under Veronica, and stalking over to his sister as the two girls giggled.

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving, get back to it!" Lilly promised, slipping back out the door, and shutting it.

"Well, what did you do?"

"I don't know. The next thing I remember is Leo waking me up, and telling me to come in for questioning."

"But, when Lilly died, you don't remember everything up to when you saw her, right?"

"No. But I don't know. I could have done it. And I'm not going to hire someone to take the heat for me. I want the person who killed her to pay, even if it's me."

I looked up at him, longing to press my lips to his. I couldn't remember the last time I had wanted to kiss someone this badly. I turned my face away from him, and hugged him. I stood on the very tips of my toes, my arms right around his neck, my face buried in his shoulder. Surprised, he hugged me back. I allowed myself a second to enjoy being in his arms, before pulling back.

"I have to go," I said quickly.

"Wait, Veronica!" he exclaimed, grabbing my arm. I held my breath, silently begging him not to kiss me. "What should I do about a funeral?"

"Why are you asking me?" I asked him in shock, taken aback.

"Because she was just like her namesake. You knew Lilly better than anyone, even me."

"Then I'd say, if you're going to have one, make it be to remember how alive she was, not to mourn her loss."

"Like Logan did with Lilly's memorial?"

"Exactly like that."

"She'd like that better. To be admired, not mourned." I chuckled slightly.

"You named her well. I'm glad I didn't name Elly Lilly, because Lilly seems so much more like Lilly. I wish I hadn't let our past get in the way of knowing her."

"Me too. You would have loved her."

"Do you ever think about how it could have been? If Keith really was my father?"

"Yes. More since Meg died."

"I do sometimes. Not that often, but sometimes."

"You have Leo. I didn't as much when I had Meg."

"Is it lonely, with her gone?"

"It was, a little, but I had Lilly, and Elly was always over. Lilly...she was everything to me. I don't know what I'm going to do now, without her."

"Have you had girlfriends."

"Some. Nothing serious. Once I lost Meg, I just didn't have the energy to fall in love with someone else. Once I let myself think about how things could have been, I couldn't get myself back to the way things are. I couldn't let you go again. So promise me, Veronica, you never look back. Because even if we were both in the place I'm in now..."

"We couldn't do anything, so it's better that at least one of us is happy."

"Exactly." He smiled at me, and leaned forward, and gently kissed my forehead. "I'll see you around." I nodded, turning so that he couldn't see the tears welling up in my eyes. I turned, and ran out of the house.