Drunk Logan
Chapter 11
A/N: What happens when you combine good memories with bad memories with no memories at all?
This is actually one of the main chapters I worked toward when writing this fic. I knew I wanted to do this chapter in this way and had to set up a way to get here, hence L/V working on the project together. It'll make sense when you read it. I hope I didn't rush it and hope you like it.
Thanks for the reviews. They feed my soul.
A/N2: I'm posting this tonight, because I don't know how hectic things will be tomorrow. I know I'll be out for at least a good part of the day.
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Logan woke up extra early on Monday morning. He was in a rush to get to school which was unprecedented for him. He usually rolled out of bed at the last possible moment and would stroll into school as late as possible.
He had been really disappointed on Saturday night when Veronica left him at the beach. For a few moments, he had what he'd wanted. It was so much better than what he'd hoped for. She had actually gone skinny-dipping with him, something he never thought would happen. Then, when she whispered in his ear and kissed his cheek before walking away, he wanted to grab her and never let her go. He'd spent all night and all day Sunday thinking about her. He couldn't wait to see her.
Logan got up, showered, shaved and paid special attention to his hair. He picked out his favorite green shirt and sprayed on some cologne. He adjusted his puka shell necklace and tugged at his hair as he looked into the mirror one last time. He laughed at himself because he felt like he was getting ready for a date, not school.
When he pulled into the Neptune High parking lot, it was pretty barren, save a couple of cars. He was surprised that the black LeBaron was there already. 'What did I expect, that I'd beat her here?' Logan knew from past experience that Veronica was always early. Since he was so early himself this morning, he'd just assumed he would be waiting for her. 'Is it too much to hope that she wanted to get here early to see me, too?'
He pulled into the stall next to her car and got out. He'd seen her sitting in her car, but she hadn't gotten out yet so he walked over to the driver side door. What greeted him was a very relaxed Veronica Mars, eyes closed and head slightly moving to the music pumping through her MP3 player.
Logan thought it was funny that this was the second time he would be catching her zoning out in music land. He blushed a little thinking of how the first meeting ended. Then, he got a look on his face that would have scared Veronica...had she been paying attention.
'I think Ronnie needs to be taught a little lesson,' Logan smiled like a Cheshire cat. 'She really needs to be more aware of her surroundings.' Logan rubbed his hands together and plotted his evil attack.
He very gently opened her door so that she wasn't alerted to his presence. Then, he moved into position, one hand settled inches above her knee, the other right between her hip and waist. Logan remembered those to be the best spots for Veronica Tickle Torture. He hoped that hadn't changed as he dove in and began tickling her with vigor.
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Veronica had been completely nervous thinking about her prior meeting with Logan at the beach. She'd spent the rest of the weekend thinking and dreaming about it. What possessed her to go skinny-dipping with him, she still didn't know. She had a good time at the dance, but if she'd had the choice, she would have stayed with Logan that night. They were so connected by the thoughts of Lilly and the previous Homecoming, that she felt really comfortable with him. Which, if she thought about it, was just outrageous. She had been more comfortable and felt more at home than she had in a long time; all while naked in the ocean with the boy who had made her life a living hell for the past year.
'How messed up is that?' She knew that after they cleaned up the A/V room, they would go their separate ways and have no reason to talk. As much as she hated to admit it, she was going to miss spending time with him. They had finally gotten to a weird, but good place after so much hurt. She felt like she was going to have to re-strengthen herself for the return of his animosity. She just wasn't ready yet. He had definitely had an affect on her hard shell and she could tell she didn't have a lot of fight in her.
This is why she had decided to relax with her music. She knew it'd be awhile before Logan showed up and she wanted to settle the thoughts in her mind. She just continued to go through scenario after scenario of how they would act around each other today, how long it would take for their public war to return, what it would have been like had Logan kissed her when they were in the ocean. 'Oh yeah, music is much safer.' Veronica knew that she would just make herself crazy if she continued on. She decided that she would just act very nonchalant with Logan. That way when he decided to turn back into an ass, she wouldn't be completely taken off guard.
That was a good plan until she was jarred out of her serenity by what Logan used to refer to when they were friends as, "The Terrible Tickle Torture." Her entire body tensed and it seemed that every one of her limbs flew in a different direction. Her eyes flew open to see the culprit laughing maniacally at his own evil genius.
"S–stop, Lo---gan, stop!" Veronica was laughing uncontrollably while she tried her best to fight his hands off. Finally, he stopped and they were both breathing hard as they tried to control their giggling. "Good morning, Miss Mars." He said in a very sophisticated tone.
Veronica was rubbing her leg as Logan held out his hand to help her out of the car. "Veronica Mars, our clean-up awaits." He said as he swept his other hand out motioning toward the school.
She took his hand and couldn't help but think of how nice and natural it felt. She had gotten out of the car and was about to shut the door when she spun around. "Wait, I almost forgot my bag," she said as she bent into the car to retrieve it from the passenger seat. Logan groaned as he watched her bend over in her brown sweater that rose when she stretched to reach her bag. Logan could see the skin between the sweater and her low-rise jeans when she stretched to reach her bag.
"What was that?" Veronica asked as she straightened.
"Nothing, I was just stretching. It's still a little early, Ronnie." He was covering. Every part of his body was awake this morning, but it seemed to placate her.
"Yeah, I'm shocked that you're here so early. I figured I'd have another half an hour to wait for your lazy butt." She chided him with a smile and a nudge of her elbow.
"Yeah, uh, I just thought I'd get an early start on the day. Actually, I thought I'd have to wait on you." He was a little nervous broaching the subject as he didn't want to let her in on the fact that he was here solely for her. "Silly me, I know. You're probably here this early every morning awaiting the opening of the great doors of education." The thought deflated him a bit.
"Are you kidding? This is not my favorite place to be now-a-days." She saw him cringe. "I just had trouble sleeping last night and figured I was awake anyway." She shrugged.
He smiled back down at her, glad that she had let it slide that he was the reason she hated coming to school. When he noticed that she was limping, he stopped immediately.
"What's wrong? What happened to your leg?" Veronica was surprised at the amount of genuine concern written across his face.
"Well, I don't know. See, I was just relaxing in my car when some jackass decided to tickle torture me...causing me to jump and hit my leg on the steering wheel." She narrowed her eyes at him.
Logan laughed a hearty laugh. "Well, then, let me give you a lift." He said as he got in front of her and bent down a bit with his back to her.
"Umm, Logan? What are you doing?" She was looking at him like he was crazy.
"I'm going to give you a piggy-back ride." He said like it was the most obvious answer in the world. He knew it was a little childish. The truth was, he would have done anything to be as close as possible to her. He just wanted to touch her and have her wrap her arms around him.
"No, really, Logan. I'm fine, it'll just take a minute." She couldn't believe he had offered to give her a piggy-back ride. 'I wouldn't mind a ride, Logan, that's just not the type I was thinking about. Whoa! Wait a minute, Veronica. What are you thinking? Repeat after me...You do NOT want to jump Logan Echolls' bones. Say this over and over to yourself. Wow, you'd think there would be a sign saying 'Welcome to The Twilight Zone.' I sure didn't see it if there was.'
She was pulled out of her thoughts by Logan's voice.
"Well, this is the way I see it. Since I am the reason for your discomfort, I should be the one to help you in your time of need. You have a choice. You can either hop on or...I'll just throw you over my shoulder like a cave man. What's it going to be?" He waited for her response.
"If I remember correctly, doesn't that refer to the cave man throwing his woman over his shoulder so that he could take her into his cave and ravage her? I don't think that is the same thing as this twisted attempt of yours to be chivalrous." She laughed as she stood there with her hands on her hips.
"Well, now that you brought it up..." Logan began looking around. "I could have sworn there was a cave around here somewhere."
"Shut up!" She said as she smacked his arm. She knew that he didn't really mean anything by his remarks. Logan had always excelled in flirting and innuendo. He had it down to a science. "If those are my only options, I'll take the piggy-back ride." She said as she jumped onto his back.
"Alright, Mars, but you don't know what your missing." He sing-songed. He was practically skipping into the school. He couldn't help it; it felt amazing to have her so close. He also figured out that when he swerved and jumped a bit, she would hold onto him tighter, trying to stay on his back.
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When they got into the A/V room, he stopped, but didn't set her down yet. "Man, I forgot what a mess it was in here." He finally let her slide down his back, although, he may have let his hands glide over her butt a little on the way down. 'Hey, I just don't want her to fall.'
He turned to look at her in time to see the blush that had spread across her face and one side of his mouth lifted into a smile. She turned around immediately and tried to direct his attention to the task at hand.
"Well, it shouldn't take that long. You get all of the tapes into that box over there and then throw away all of the notes we made. I'll work on cleaning off the extra clips we downloaded onto Duncan's computer. We can give him his own copy of the final product." She nodded to herself. It was a good plan and wouldn't take long.
They both went to work. It was about 10 minutes later when Logan told her he was going to go put the box of videos in his locker so that he could give them to Duncan when he came to school. When she looked over, she saw him bend down to pick up the box. She licked her lips as she watched the muscles in his back and arms flex with his movements. 'Man, that shirt is definitely an asset to his wardrobe. Of course, I'm not sure that there is a shirt out there that would look bad on him, but that one...definitely a keeper.
He glanced back at her and saw her fanning out her sweater. "Hot?" He thought that it was a little on the cold side in the room.
"Oh, yeah." Veronica breathed out without even thinking about it. Then she realized what was happening and snapped out of it. "Yeah, I don't know why I decided on a sweater today."
If she'd been some other girl, he would have thought he was seeing lust in her eyes, but knew that wasn't it. This was Veronica, she would never think about him that way. They'd been through too much, and he could just kick himself for it all.
When he walked out of the room, she continued her work on Duncan's computer. She noticed an icon that she wasn't sure about. 'Is that something we added during this whole process?' She thought as she clicked on it.
What came up looked like a filing system sorted by date. 'Are these more pictures that we missed?' She thought until she noticed the dates. They spanned from about 3 years back to a week ago. She didn't know what it was, but it obviously wasn't anything that needed to be cleaned up. She was about to close it when she saw a date that would forever haunt her, December 6, 2003. That was the date of Shelly Palmeroy's party.
She clicked on the date out of a fascination for that specific date. She had no idea that she would be accessing Duncan's journal. When she finally realized what she was reading, she started a little and guilt overcame her. Again, she moved to close the file, but stopped. This time it was good old-fashioned curiosity. She knew he was at the party that night. Is it possible that he could have seen something? That she could find a clue to what had happened to her that night?
She began reading very cautiously, looking up at the door so that Logan couldn't sneak up on her again. She read until the entry ended with him signing off to go to the party. Veronica closed the file and proceeded to open the file for the next day.
Logan walked in before she could read much, but she had seen her name and was desperate to find out what was written about her. She told Logan that she was just about done with the computer work and reminded him to clean up the papers that they had left scattered around. When he complied, she went back to the journal.
Tears began to fill her eyes the further she read and a tidal wave of emotion hit her as she neared the end of the entry.
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Logan had been cleaning up the papers and looked over to see how Veronica was doing. Something didn't look right about her. She seemed pale. Then, he noticed what looked like tears welling up in her eyes as she placed her hand over her mouth. She let out a gargled sound and then shot straight up sending the chair she was in flying back as she ran toward the bathroom that was attached to the room.
"Veronica, Veronica are you alright?" He rushed over to the door to hear her puking and sobbing. He had no idea what had happened, but he was scared. He'd not seen her react like this to anything and the last week had been a rough one.
He glanced over to the computer screen expecting to see an especially poignant picture of Lilly. Instead, it just looked like a Word document. He walked over to see what it was that had gotten her so upset. This is what he read:
December 7, 2003
I can't believe what has happened. I can't believe what I've done. I don't know what to do now. I just love her so much. When I saw Veronica laying there in the bed in Shelly's guest room, she looked like an angel. She smiled at me and gave me that look that she gives only to me and she told me how much she missed me. When she pulled me to her, I should've resisted. I knew better, but for some reason I just didn't stop myself. I just completely forgot why it was that I had broken up with her, why I knew that we could never be together. When she kissed me, I knew I was a goner.
Being with her was beautiful and tender and everything that I had hoped it would be. We had always planned on losing our virginity together, but when my dad told me that she was his daughter from an affair with Lianne, I knew we could never be together. But, now, what have I done? I slept with my own sister. It's just so sick. I knew I couldn't tell her why I was breaking up with her because it would tear her family apart. Plus, I didn't want her to go through what I was, knowing that I had kissed and touched my own sister. Now, she can definitely never know. Then she'd have to deal with knowing she'd slept with her own brother. I'm going to have to deal with it every day of my life, every time that I see her. I love her too much to do that to her.
Why did I go to that party? Why did I drink? Why couldn't I resist her and remember that she was my sister, not the love of my life.
What am I going to do? I'll just have to ignore it. We can never talk about it. If she brings it up, I'll just tell her it was a mistake.
Logan was almost hyperventilating at this point. He couldn't believe what he'd read and he had to reread it to make sure that he had understood Duncan's words. Everything was moving in slow motion and he had blocked out everything around him.
"Oh, no. No, no, no! Ronnie." His senses came back to him as he heard her continue to sob in the bathroom. He had not gone in earlier, deciding to give her some space. Now that he knew what had upset her, he couldn't let her deal with this information alone. He had no idea of what she must be going through.
He got up almost as quickly as she had a few moments before and rushed over to the bathroom. He didn't even knock, he just went in.
Veronica was crouched on the floor by the toilet. She was startled when Logan came in and raised her head to see who had opened the door. Her hair was a mess, her face red and soaked from the tears that had been flooding from her eyes. They looked at each other and she saw that he had tears flowing down his face also. She knew that he had read the journal and she was wrought with embarrassment that he knew this awful thing about her.
Logan was on her in an instant. He lifted her easily and placed her in his lap while he held her tightly as she broke down again. He ran his hand over her head and rocked her back and forth while kissing her head between soothing sounds.
She was crying so hard and clinging to him like he was her lifeline while she tried to burrow her body into his as far as she could. She was talking incoherently between sobs, but Logan couldn't make out anything she was saying.
When she had finally exhausted herself and thought that she'd run out of tears, Logan lifted her face to look into her eyes.
"We need to get out of here before people start showing up for school. Can you walk?" She didn't say anything, she just nodded. As much as she didn't want to move, she knew she wouldn't be able to face anyone today. She clung onto Logan as he helped her up. They left the bathroom, but she stopped walking when they were next to the computer.
He looked down to see what had stopped her. He read her mind. "Don't worry, I've got it." He said as he unplugged it and stuffed it in the case. He grabbed it and her bag and then held her up as he guided her to the parking lot.
He opened his passenger side door and situated her in the seat. When he got into the driver's seat, he put the bags in the back and grabbed a blanket. He placed it on the center console, then guided her to lay down over the padding and lay her head on his leg. She was completely compliant and hadn't said a word since she'd stopped crying which scared him to death.
He started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. He moved his hand from the steering wheel and laid it on her arm. He was startled when he felt her fingers on his. He lifted his hand slightly and she threaded her fingers through his and then gently pulled his arm tighter around her as she snuggled further into him.
His heart broke when he looked down at her. She laid there wrapped into his body, clinging to him like a security blanket. Her eyes were closed and he couldn't help, but think she looked like a scared little girl trying to escape the bogey man. He couldn't remember the last time she looked so weak.
He could feel the anger start to boil inside of him, but knew he couldn't go there yet. He didn't know yet what she could handle emotionally. He needed to focus on being her strength.
He pulled into his driveway and parked the SUV. There was no way he was going to let anyone see her like this and he knew that his parents were on some publicity tour and wouldn't be home for a few days. He sat her up gingerly and rested her head against her headrest. He went to her side of the car and opened her door. He didn't even think twice when he reached in and placed an arm under her legs and one behind her back. He lifted her out of the car and carried her into his house and to his bedroom. He placed her in his bed and covered her up.
When he moved to stand, she grabbed his hand and looked at him with pleading eyes. He blinked slowly and gave her a soft smile. He kicked off his shoes and climbed into the bed, wrapping her tightly in his arms. She snuggled into him once again and they fell asleep easily.
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BrokenGravity23: Thank you so much...I know, blame it on the Tillamook Mudslide. It's not my fault.
Kaleena Mason: Hey, keep on rambling! If it means that you loved it, I'm good with it.
2honest4myowngood: Well, I hope you enjoy this update and that I can take at least a little bit of your boredom away. It was good to hear from you...thanks for the great review.
storynerd89: Thank you so much. I'm glad you liked it...I mean really, mis skinny dipping and Logan Echolls, what's not to like:-) Thank you for your rewiew.
Sagebeth: Thank you. I appreciate your demanding attitude. I know that it just means you like it, so thanks and thank you for reviewing.
Miss-Mars: Thank you. I hope you continue to enjoy it.
xosummerxo: Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. When I first wrote it, I wasn't sure if people would be upset because I hadn't carried the scene further...but I felt like it would have been rushing things.
09nerLoVer: I always like reading fics where Logan and Veronica's thoughts are explained. Even those fics that just follow canon step-by-step...because then you get to see a little bit of a different perspective than we got with the show.
IluvVM: Thank you so much. You are so great and encouraging. Hope the wait wasn't too long!
RBDFAN: Yeah, really. I mean how could you go wrong with that combo double sighs
VMLoVeR87: Thank you so much. Yeah, I wanted to incorporate the parts of the show where I really think RT hit the nail on the head. I mean, why mess with perfection...and certain scenes are perfection. For example, when Keith questioned Troy about the hotel room. TOO FUNNY!
Literati and naley: Thank you. FYI, as you can see by Ch. 11, it's not ALL cute stuff. There is angst to come. I hope you enjoy it as much as you have the rest of it. Thanks!
HPHGKCroar: Thanks for the review, it was nice hearing from you. You may have to wait a little bit...or you may not. Hmmm...