Drunk Logan

Chapter 41

A/N: Just a reminder...I still don't own VM...didn't get JD or LE for Christmas or a festive 4th of July gift...and apparently don't own Harry Potter either...although, with the empire J.K. Rowling has built, I wish I did. Thanks to everyone for reviewing...and thanks to those of you who may not have reviewed, but have added me or the story to your alert and favorite lists. I see you and appreciate you, too.

I'm going to have an extremely busy Sunday, so I am posting this...technically on Sunday, since it's 12:43 a.m. my time. This will be my Sunday update. Thanks!!

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When Logan and Veronica woke the next morning, they were pretty sore and moving slowly. The doctor had come in and agreed to release them with instructions to 'take it easy' and telling them how lucky they'd been.

Logan had to laugh to himself. 'Lucky. Well, that's one way of putting it...if you consider being born to a psychopath and being raised in the limelight so that when your mother killed said psychopath, it would be splashed all over the media.

He let all of that go, though. He knew the doctor was talking about their physical injuries and he had to agree. He didn't know what he would have done if Veronica had met the same fate that Lilly had at the hands of his father. Although Logan knew it wasn't his fault, he still felt an overwhelming sense of guilt.

Not only had he lost his first serious girlfriend to the violence of his father, he'd almost lost the girl he'd come to love more than anyone. Even as relieved as he was about Veronica, they were still awaiting the outcome of Keith's situation. His head spun when he allowed himself to think of everything that his father was. He'd been so much worse than Logan could have imagined, which was saying a lot.

When Wallace came in to pick them up, they were dressed and ready to go. Logan really wanted to check on Lynn and he couldn't wait to be home, away from the hospital and the blood thirsty paparazzi. Veronica, although wanting to make sure Lynn was alright, was nervous about leaving the hospital...well, her dad.

Wallace smiled brightly at them, happy to see them up and around after everything they'd been through the night before. He walked over and took Veronica's hand.

"Ready to go, Supafly?"

"Yeah," she replied timidly and with a tight smile. Both boys caught her apprehension and when they questioned her about it, she told them the truth. Well, half of the truth.

"I want to see him before we leave to let him know I'll be by tomorrow. I just hate leaving my dad here alone. I want to be here when he wakes up." She shrugged, hoping that they would let it lie and they did.

The truth was that she'd spent a lot of the morning thinking about the whole situation. She'd had a restful night's sleep and had time to separate herself from all of the emotion she'd felt the night before. She'd been lost when she woke up after such a startling encounter with Aaron. Then, she was hit with the news of her father and it was like a Mack truck blind-siding her.

The morning allowed for perspective and reality to creep in. When it came down to it, now-a-days Veronica was usually quite practical. She'd had to be when her father lost his Sheriff's position. When their world was turned upside down after Lilly died and her father was recalled, when her mother left and they had to move into a crappy two-bedroom apartment, practicality set in. When her father took a financial risk and put everything they had into Mars Investigations and they had to squeeze by in order to pay the rent, when the thought of going to Stanford University was no longer about just the grades, reality set in.

That's what it always comes down to for her, reality and practicality. That is what she'd spent her morning focusing on, including all of the details of her new reality.

The reality of the situation was that she was homeless. Sure, they'd been staying with the Echolls', but that was never meant to be a long-term arrangement. In fact, her and her father had been due to move out and into their new apartment in a few days.

Veronica had access to the money in their business account but not to what was in her father's personal account. There wasn't a ton of money in the business account and what was there would need to be used to keep the business afloat for a while. She knew that she'd never be able to afford the new place, but she'd need to find somewhere to live.

She had thought a lot about what she would need to do in order to take care of everything. First things, first. She would meet with Cliff for a little bit of advice regarding her dad's incapacitated state and her status as a minor. Even though Cliff was an attorney specializing in criminal law, she also knew that her father had used him as a sounding board for his own legal advice since he'd had to give up the attorney he was able to afford as Sheriff.

Veronica was seventeen and knew that she could probably slide by until her 18th birthday, but she would need as much help and direction as Cliff could give her.

Her next thought was of her schedule. She would need to take a hiatus from school. As much as she hated the idea of getting behind and losing the chance at graduating on time and missing out on any scholarship opportunities, this was about necessity.

She could have some slightly abbreviated hours at the office, taking on the background checks and cheating husbands. There would be no big money bail jumpers, but the smaller stuff would have to do. When she finished up at the office, she could work as a waitress in a restaurant during the dinner hour, hopefully ensuring a good amount of tips. Once done there, she'd have time for nighttime stakeouts parked in front of The Camelot. When she got the money shot, she could easily pick up a couple of hours at an all night grocery or gas station. Maybe Wallace could put in a good word for her at the Sac-n-Pac. She'd have to remember to talk to him about that. On the weekend, she could work even more hours, since the office would be closed.

If she didn't open the office until 10 a.m., that would give her about four or five hours of sleep time. It wasn't a lot, but it was doable. Plus, she figured that if she were barely at her apartment, it wouldn't matter how crappy the place was. Worse came to worse, she figured she could always live at the office for a while. She could sleep on the couch, there was a mini-kitchen and it would cut down on her commute time. She would just figure out somewhere to take showers.

She was scared about it, but she was determined. She would keep things going until her dad woke up, or for as long as necessary.

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When Wallace dropped them off at Logan's, she excused herself to her room. Logan went in search for his mother, who had been dropped off by the Sheriff's Deputies just a couple of hours earlier. She would have come to the hospital, but she would have gotten there just in time to come back home with the kids.

Veronica called Cliff and told him what had happened and why she needed to talk to him. When she heard the muffled voices of Lynn and Logan behind the master bedroom door, she decided not to disturb them. They had so many issues to work through that they could be there for the rest of the day.

Veronica left word with Mrs. Navarro that she was going out and would be back later. They could reach her on her cell phone, if needed.

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Logan had called Veronica and asked what she was doing. When she told him that she was meeting with Cliff about her father's business and financial affairs, he offered to meet them somewhere. He wanted to be with her and help her while she dealt with the details of life less than 24 hours after she'd found out her father was in a coma.

"Logan, no, stay with your mom. She needs you right now. You need to be together." Logan was torn, he knew that both of the women he loved needed him, but he couldn't be in two places at once.

"Okay, but remember, Ronnie, you're supposed to be taking it easy." Logan reluctantly let her go, but not before adding, "I'll see you when you get home. I love you."

"Yeah, I'll see you later. Love you." She shut her phone and then turned her attention back to Cliff and the woman they'd been meeting with.

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Veronica was dog tired, had a pounding headache and was aching all over when she got back to the Echolls' house. She really just wanted to drag herself into bed and not get up until Monday morning. She was happy about one thing, though. She'd really accomplished a lot that day. Cliff had come through for her like she never thought he would have.
She heard Logan and Lynn in the dining area, but decided to sneak up to her room first. She'd put her stuff away, take a hot shower and then join them for a bite to eat. She wasn't all that hungry, but didn't want to be rude by not checking on Lynn.

As soon as she shut her bedroom door behind her, she walked over to the bed, placed her paperwork down and then collapsed onto the bed out of pure exhaustion. She passed out face down with her legs hanging precariously off the side of the bed.

Logan and Lynn thought they'd heard someone come into the house. Assuming it was Veronica, they waited for her to join them in the dining room, but when she didn't, they went searching for her.

When they found her sprawled out on her bed, they giggled at the sight.

"We should at least take her shoes off and put her all the way on the bed so she doesn't fall off," Lynn offered.

"Yeah, although she's probably so exhausted, she won't even notice until she wakes up on the floor in the morning." Logan chuckled again and shook his head at the sight as they walked over to his passed out girlfriend.

As Lynn was taking off Veronica's shoes, Logan picked up the pile of paperwork to move it to her dresser.

"What the..?" Lynn looked up at the sound of confusion in her son's voice.

"What is it, honey?" She asked him quietly as to not disturb the sleeping girl.

"I-I don't know." Lynn recognized the confusion and hurt in her son's voice. She walked over to him and begun looking at the papers he was reading. Lynn gasped.

"Is this what I think it is?" Logan questioned his mom, worry etched across his face.

"Well, I could be wrong, but it looks like our little Veronica spent her day of rest...apartment and job hunting." They were looking at several documents, including a rental agreement for a studio apartment in a seedy part of town with Cliff as a co-signor, and copies of two work schedules. One from Java the Hut, the other from the Sac-n-Pac. Logan's face paled when he saw that the Sac-n-Pac schedule had her working from midnight to four in the morning.

In the stack, there was also a pad of paper. It had various meticulous notes and to-do lists. There was a to-do list for getting the office in order and posting the new abbreviated hours. There was a budget listed with estimated income from her jobs and the cost of the apartment, utilities, gas and food. The budget showed that she'd just be scraping by.

She'd even had a written out schedule of her day:

M - F
9 a.m. - Wake, shower, go into office 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. - Work in the office
4:30 p.m. - 7:30 - Java The Hut
8:00 p.m. - 11:30 p.m. - Stakeouts
12 a.m. - 4 a.m. - Sac-n-Pac
4:30 a.m. - 9 a.m. - Sleep

Sat-Sun
7 a.m. - Wake, shower
8 a.m. - 7 p.m. - Java The Hut
7:30 p.m. - 11 p.m. - Stakeouts
11:30 p.m. - 3:30 a.m. - Sac-n-Pac
4 a.m. - 7 a.m. - Sleep

"Mom, look at this! She's giving herself, what, four and a half hours to sleep on weekdays and 3 on the weekend? And what is she thinking getting an apartment in that neighborhood. Plus, she's going to be on the streets and coming home at all hours of the night. What is she doing? Asking to be robbed by working that shift at the Sac-n-Pac? She's crazy!" Logan was really getting worked up, but Lynn stopped him and pulled him out of her room.

"Mom, what are you doing? I've got to talk to her." He tried to head back into Veronica's room, but was stopped once again by his mother.

"Listen, here, Logan. We're going to take care of this, okay? Do you trust me?" Logan nodded reluctantly.

"Good. Now let's let her sleep and we'll go downstairs and discuss this." Logan followed his mom quietly. He was furious, though, and almost to the point of frustrated tears by the time they reached the living room.

Lynn gave him a hug and reassured him again. They sat down and began discussing the situation.

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Veronica woke up pretty early Sunday morning. Although she wouldn't normally choose to wake up at six o'clock on a weekend, she'd gone to sleep at 7 o'clock the night before. She'd gotten eleven hours of sleep and, although she needed it, she just couldn't stay in bed any longer.

She crept down to the kitchen to grab some breakfast, but was startled by the sight in front of her when she got there. Logan and Lynn were sitting at the breakfast bar speaking in hushed tones. Veronica smiled at them and their attempts to not wake her. She appreciated that after the last couple of days. What she didn't understand is what they were doing awake.

In the time that she'd been staying at the Echolls' house, none of them had proven to be early risers. Considering it was a weekend and no one had to be anywhere, there was no reason for them to be up. It made her a little nervous and she began to wonder if something had happened to her father.

"Is my dad okay?" Both of the Echolls' spun around, surprised at her presence. After a minute of processing what she'd said, Lynn got up an walked over to her.

"Well, I believe he's still in a coma, the hospital hasn't called to report any changes in his condition." At Veronica's slow nod, Lynn wondered what was going through her mind. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just...you two." She waved her hand between Lynn and Logan. When they just looked back at her in confusion, she continued. "You two are up really early. You never get up this early and both of you are awake. I figured something was wrong. What's going on?"

"Oh, that. Yes, well, I wanted to speak to you about your living situation, Veronica." Her and Logan had known that Veronica would probably be up early. She normally didn't sleep in real late and she'd passed out early the night before. They made sure to be awake before she was so that they'd catch her before she tried to leave the house.

The day before had seemed so harmless. Veronica had slipped out because she'd needed to speak with her father's friend/attorney regarding Keith's health and the business. It seemed harmless, until she came home and they realized that she'd been spending the day scrambling to figure out how she was going to get through day-to-day life.

It was a foreign concept to Lynn and Logan. To think that this seventeen year old girl would spend the day that she was released from the hospital, while her father was in a coma, dealing with the logistics of where she would live, how she'd pay for it and how she would keep her father's P.I. business alive. Lynn and Logan knew they had it easy, but they would never expect such resilience from anyone, let alone a teenager.

Teenagers were supposed to be all about having fun and just living their lives. Sleeping in and putting off until tomorrow what could be done today were paramount in the teenage life. At least, that was before Veronica Mars. They were both impressed by her intestinal fortitude and depressed at the thought that she felt she needed to be strong enough to take care of herself and all of her worries.

"Oh, Lynn, don't worry. You don't have to say anything. I have everything taken care of and will be moving into an apartment later this week." Veronica didn't want to have the whole 'this was just supposed to be a temporary living situation' conversation with Lynn. She really didn't want to overstay her welcome.

"I'll be out of your way soon. I found a great little place located between the office, school and the hospital. It'll work great and it's close to everywhere I need to be." She was trying to cover her lies with a calm smile. She knew that Lynn was a wonderful and caring woman. She didn't want Lynn to feel guilty that she'd be withdrawing from school for awhile and she knew that Lynn wouldn't feel comfortable with the little apartment she'd found.

It was then that Veronica noticed the look on Logan's face. It was hard and he seemed to be angry. She misinterpreted that look as anger toward his mother for wanting Veronica to leave. She understood where Lynn was coming from and didn't want Logan to be upset with her.

"Logan, please don't be upset with your mom. She's right. It's time for me to go. My dad and I were only staying here as a temporary solution and we were planning on moving out this week anyway. Don't worry, I'll be fine. We won't see each other as much as we do now, but what high school kids get to spend 24/7 together anyway? We'll make it..." She stopped when she was interrupted suddenly by Logan's outburst.

"I'm not mad at my mom! I just don't understand how you could do this!" He was shouting at her and she was confused by his apparent anger toward her. What had she done to make him angry at her?

"What?" The hurt was rolling off of her in waves. She really didn't want to get into a fight with Logan. He'd been so supportive of everything she'd gone through in recent weeks. He'd been her rock and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to stay strong enough to do what needed to be done without his support.

"Logan, settle down, honey. We'll get this all worked out." Lynn's voice was smooth and calming as she walked closer to the kids.

"I don't understand. What's the problem?" Veronica was looking back at Lynn since she seemed to be the only one making sense at the moment.

"Well, Veronica, Logan and I saw the paperwork you had last night. All of your work schedules and the rental agreement and everything. We were a little shocked that you wanted to get away from us so quickly. I understand that you are probably uncomfortable in this house, now, but Aaron isn't here to bother us anymore." Lynn was well aware that Veronica's reasons for finding a new place to live were not because of Aaron.

Veronica had shown herself to be a prideful young woman, in the best sense of the word. Lynn wanted to be sensitive to that, and not bring up the financial issues that Veronica faced.

Veronica's eyes got huge. She had not meant to make Lynn and especially Logan feel like she wanted to get away from them. There was no one she wanted to be around more than Logan and she hated the idea of going to a small apartment all by herself, knowing that her father wouldn't be walking through the door at any time.

"No, no, no...that's not what I was doing. Please believe me, I'm sorry if you thought that I wanted to get away from you. I just knew that living here was temporary. I needed to get everything in order so that I could support myself until dad gets better. We don't know how long that will be and I can't just keep taking advantage of your kindness and stay here forev..."

"That's bullshit!" Logan shouted at her again, but stopped at the stern look his mother was giving him. She was surprising him with her strength. He'd never seen her display a great deal of strength when his father was around. It was like she'd been emotionally beaten down for so long that she had just given up. He was in awe of her as he watched the way she was handling Veronica. He could see that she knew exactly what to do and how to approach her.

"Veronica, we love you. We don't want you to leave. As far as I'm concerned, we are responsible for you now. Not only was Aaron responsible for getting you and your dad into this situation and he owes you for that, but more so because we WANT you to stay with us." Veronica was hesitant. She didn't want pity or charity. That's not how she was raised and she would be darn sure not to let her father down now.

At the hesitancy Lynn saw on Veronica's face, she decided to explain her plan.

"You need to learn that you are not alone, Veronica. I know you've had to get used to the idea of you and your father taking care of each other without anyone else's help, but dear, you're just going to have to get over that. You've got a whole new extended family now and we're not letting you do this on your own."

'Extended family.' Veronica repeated those words in her head. The idea was foreign to her. It seemed like it'd been years since there was someone other than her and her father.

"Now that you have worked out your plan all alone, here's our plan. The plan that Logan and I worked out together, you know, the way families do." She gave Veronica a pointed look.

"You are going to stay here. There will be no arguments about that. We will be paying for your father's hospital bills, like I said, Aaron owes him that anyway. And, I would like to petition the court's for temporary guardianship of you, just until your father recovers. That way, the state won't have the opportunity to ship you off to some foster home or something. You will stay in school, you will not work all of those extra jobs and you will be a happy member of our family. Do you understand?" Veronica's eyes were wide and she was fighting off the tears threatening to fall as the impact of Lynn's love flooded her. She slowly nodded.

Lynn placed her hands on both sides of Veronica's face. "Good, and when your dad is released, he will come and stay here until he is fully recovered and you guys are back on your feet." She pulled Veronica into a hug and caressed her hair.

"Yes, ma'am." Veronica had no idea where this assertiveness was coming from, but she decided not to challenge it. Lynn pulled back and looked into Veronica's eyes once more before apparently finding what she was looking for.

"Good! Now, you two had better go upstairs and undo all of the crazy plans that Veronica made yesterday. Then, you can head over to the hospital to visit Keith." With that, Lynn walked out of the room, leaving a stunned Logan and Veronica.

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09nerLoVer: Yeah, we all knew they were a couple of girls at heart.

Adja: Yes, Wallace and Logan work well together. When people who love Veronica come together, it can be pretty cool. 2 more chapters until we find out if Keith will be okay.

copperboom321: Well, I can admit...I'm probably not the biggest Aaron fan. lol.

lagurlroks: Hey, me too and I wrote the scene. It just reminded me of the S1 finale when she broke down when her dad was being taken into the ambulance.

Literati and naley forever: Hey, the fact that you were willing to put HP aside long enough to read, let alone review...is awesome.

Lorelei Candice Black: 2 more chapters...you'll have your answer in 2 more chapters

LoVeElle: Yes, I've got a good outline started for the new fic. I'm just trying to make sure I write it different enough and the characters different enough so that is truly departs from this fic. Anyway, having a chapter end on a light note or without a cliffhanger is nice every once in a while. 2 chapters before we find out Keith's fate.

Miss-Mars: What can I say, her life is never boring!

Nicole Therese: Thank you. I'm glad to know you enjoyed this one more.

pie108: Well, thank you for the review and your interest in the story. Hope you enjoy it!

RBDFAN: Well, I don't know when you're expecting your copy of HP, but I hope you receive it soon for your sake. I am sorry to hear that all of your favs are ending this year. At least Heroes is still new. I'm glad to hear that you got your DVD's of VM. I spent so much time watching mine. I used to put a disk on the tv, while I had an exercise video running on my laptop. I could exercise and watch VM at the same time.

ShmexyShmexyHinny: Well, I hope you enjoy your book and your trip. Thanks, "creep" (your word, not mine.

Vmfan387: Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was a pretty emotional chapter...made me tear up when I read it this time, too...even when I know what's happening.

XoSethCohenxO: Thank you. I'm so glad you are still enjoying it after 40 chapters. Hope you enjoy your HP read.

xosummerxo: Glad you liked it. You should be finding out the fate of Keith in a couple of chap. Thx for the review.

XXspuffster101XX: Thank you for the correction there. I'll tell you a secret about my evilness. (You never know the depths to which it runs.) But, your questions will be answered in 2 chapters. :-)