A/N: Thanx for all the reviewage! I know its a pain in the butt when your fave couple fight, but if they just got along and everything was perfect, the story would be much shorter and a whole lot more boring! Bear with me, folks, it'll get better... later...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 11

Logan had the good sense to come back to the room he and Veronica were meant to be sharing around dawn. Duncan and his staff never suspected they hadn't spent the night together, and that was the plan. After all, their cover story would be pretty blown if people realised they had spent the night apart. Some newlyweds they would be if that were true!

They stayed long enough to eat breakfast, but that was all. Every time Veronica tried to talk to Logan, to tell him she was sorry for what she said, he just shied away. In front of Duncan he played his part because he had to, but there was no way they could stay here any longer. Their host would get suspicious before long and for good reason, besides, Veronica couldn't see any point in them continuing this trip anymore, not when things were so awkward between her and Logan. She planned to tell him as much as they thanked Duncan for his kindness one more time and headed for their car.

"Y'know, I think maybe you guys should head home" he said sagely, as if he were much older and wiser than the couple he was talking too, "It's obvious you two love each other, I'm sure your folks would come around if you explained"

Logan gave Veronica a look at that particular remark, opening his mouth as if to say something, though her glare silenced him a second later.

"I don't know, Duncan" she said, still looking at Logan even as she spoke to the other guy, "Some people won't listen, no matter how much you try to explain... or apologise" she said pointedly, before finally climbing into the drivers seat of the car.

Logan's eyes shifted from the blonde only briefly as he shot a salute-type wave at Duncan and dropped into the passenger seat of the car, slamming the door after him. He stared straight ahead and waited for Veronica to pull away, her words still echoing in his head, both from now and from last night. They were a good few miles from the Kane house before either of them spoke again.

"Logan" sighed Veronica, unable to let this deafening silence go on any longer, "Can we please just talk about what happened?" she urged him, glancing from the road to his face and back.

"What exactly is there to talk about, Veronica?" he asked her snippily, "Besides, why would you even want to talk to me at all? I'm just a kid, remember?" he said, voice icy enough to make frosticles on the inside of the windshield, Veronica was certain of it and almost surprised she didn't see them forming right there and then.

"I didn't mean that the way it came out" she tried to tell him, though she was pretty sure it was no use.

Logan had turned almost completely sideways in his seat, refusing to look at her at all, his eyes fixed on the scenery flashing by. It wasn't long before he had earphones attached to his cell that was flipped to the music player setting and stopped listening to her completely.

Veronica sighed. She hated this, hated that she ever started this whole adventure with Logan. She shouldn't have let him into her car that first night, she shouldn't have offered to take him on some whacky Summer Holiday style trip like this, and she certainly shouldn't have given the back-up the slip. Her Dad was going to go crazy when he caught up to her, and she knew he would have to eventually. God only knew what the Echolls were going to say either, they might even try to fire her father over this and that thought added to everything else just made Veronica feel ten times worse.

Beside her, Logan was trying not to notice how she looked sad or maybe even upset. He wasn't supposed to care if she was hurting, after all, as childish as it sounded, she hurt him first. He wasn't completely naive, just because he was a couple of years younger than her. He knew what he felt for Veronica and he also knew that she felt it too. It wasn't like he never kissed a girl before, hell, he wasn't even a virgin though the few sexual encounters he'd had so far hadn't exactly been what anyone would call special. Logan had thought last night would change things, that he and Veronica would be together in some real way. Right now, it felt like there was miles between them, in spite of the fact she was right there next to him.

The display on his cell phone flashed then, and Logan's eyes shifted to look at the words that had appeared, telling him he had a new text message. What made him frown a little was that this particular message wasn't another one from his parents trying to chase him down, but from Dick Casablancas.

'Yo dude, wot u did iz 2 kewl' he read from the screen, 'On the run jst lik u now. Wanna meet up?'

Logan spared Veronica a brief glance, before re-reading the message and trying to keep the smile from his face. If she really didn't want him around, he was free to go do whatever the hell he wanted and with a friend who got that he wanted to be young, free, and easy right now. Apparently Veronica only liked him so much, if what she said last night was to be believed. Cutting lose with a guy friend could be cool, going out and seeing what other babes were on offer. His grin was even more difficult to hide when he realised he even had the perfect place to meet up with his almost-friend, Dick. The concert tickets he'd won on the radio show, they were still in his wallet, he'd spotted them when they were at the Kane house. Had last night gone well, he had planned on asking Veronica to go with him to see his favourite band, but now he wasn't so willing to ask her anything.

"I need to fill up before we go any further" she said, tapping Logan on the leg to make sure he was paying attention as she pulled into the gas station.

"Fine" he said shortly, pulling the headphones from his ears and getting out of the car when she did, "Nature's calling anyway" he told Veronica as he wandered away.

She let out a huff of a sigh as she set about pumping gas into the car. Logan couldn't exactly come to much harm in the bathroom right around the corner, at least she hoped not. In any case, she couldn't exactly follow him without looking like a completely perverse weirdo.

Of course, she had no idea that Logan had no intention of using the bathroom at all. Around the corner of the building, and therefore out of sight and earshot of his travel buddy, Logan hit call back off Dick's text message and waited impatiently for the guy to pick up.

"Echolls, my man!" the blond greeted him with words that sounded as if they were being grinned into, "How cool is this 'man on the run' thing?" he chuckled in Logan's ear.

"It's pretty cool, Dick" he agreed with a smile, "Listen, meeting up sounds good. I got these concert tickets for two days time. We could meet there, rock out, whatever"

"Awesome!" was Dick's initial response, over enthusiastic as ever, as Logan gave him the details of time and location and such.

A smirk had settled on Logan's face by the time he hung up from the call, and he headed back round the building to meet Veronica. She looked as if she'd like to ask him what was so funny, but the question never left her lips. Maybe she knew he was going to blow her off before long, right now he couldn't care much. She clearly didn't get how much she hurt him last night. Maybe she just liked being an ice queen, pretending she didn't care about anybody, but right now Logan only knew about the pain she'd caused him in particular. What he didn't seem to realise was that this sulky behaviour was only reinforcing the idea already in Veronica's head that in many ways he was still a kid, no matter how much of a man he believed himself to be.

"You sure this is the place?" asked Sachs as he and D'Amata got out of the car, looking around at the large house that dominated their view.

"It's the address the boss tracked the car to" he said, taking off his shades as they headed up the gravel path.

Honestly, Leo wasn't so sure what they were going to find here. Keith Mars was the very best at what he did, only rivalled by his daughter, Veronica. This whole thing had become a Mars v Mars battle of wits, with himself and Sachs caught in the middle. It was perhaps the last place Leo wanted to be right now, but he had no choice if he wanted to keep his job.

How Keith had figured out Veronica had switched cars, he couldn't conceive, though he figured the guy just knew which contacts his dear daughter was likely to call in a crisis. She was playing the mother of all games with everybody here, running out on the back-up just to prove that she could, Leo surmised. Now she and her charge, Logan Echolls, were supposed to be at this particular house. If they'd split before the security guards ever arrived, Leo was not going to be surprised.

Ringing the doorbell brought a maid to them immediately, and a flash of their ID soon got them an audience with Mr Duncan Kane, the son of the rich family who owned this fancy homestead.

"Gentlemen, what can I do for you?" he asked, looking genuine enough.

"Sorry to disturb you, sir" said Sachs with the usual good helping of respect, "We were wondering if you'd seen either of these people" he asked, handing over photographs of Logan and Veronica.

Leo and Keith had both agreed asking for the pair by name would be fairly pointless. Veronica character-acted too well and aliases came to her as easy as swimming was to fish. Given Logan's inherited acting talent, coupled with his partner-in-crime's own skills, it was likely they had given false names when they stayed here, if they stayed here.

"Oh, the newlyweds" Duncan smiled as he looked at the two pictures in is hands, apparently not noticing as Leo and Sachs both had trouble not letting their jaws hit the marble floor in shock, "They were here yesterday, stayed overnight" he explained, "And left early this morning. I did tell them they should head home, that their families would be worried"

"I'm sorry, newlyweds?" Leo echoed, unable to shake the look of shock from his face.

"Yeah, they said they got married" said Duncan looking dubiously between the two men, "Did you not know that?"

"Now what do we do?" Sachs asked his partner who waved a hand for him to be quiet whilst he tried to think.

"Er, excuse me a minute, I just gotta make a call" he forced a smile as he walked across the foyer, pulled out his cell phone and dialled Veronica's number.

It was unlikely she was going to pick up, even though he was using a different cell that she wouldn't recognise the number of, but he had to try. Surely she and Logan Echolls hadn't really got married, it had to be just another scam she was pulling, but then this was Veronica Mars they were talking about, which pretty much meant anything was possible.

"Logan? Logan?" said Veronica for the fourth time, smacking him across the knee to make him pay attention, struggling to concentrate on driving at this point.

"What?" he yelled back at her, rubbing his leg where she'd struck him with one hand and pulling his headphones from his ears with the other.

"I need you to take over driving for a while" she told him as calmly as she could, "Not that I know where we headed right now, but... I can't concentrate anymore" she admitted, hating that she was giving in to anything be it a person or an intangible thing like the need to sleep.

Unfortunately, having not got much in the way of rest last night thanks to her fight with Logan that left her head spinning with too many thoughts, too many hours on the road were taking their toll much faster than they should.

"Then find a hotel and sleep it off" he shrugged, "I don't want to drive today"

"Oh good, more proof of your childish behaviour" she snapped at him for his ridiculous attitude, "Because that's really helping a lot" she said sarcastically, pulling over to the side of the road before they both got into full argument mode and crashed the car or something.

"Stop playing the high and mighty, Veronica" he told her crossly, "You're three years older than me, not thirty, and don't pretend you know anything about my life, because you don't!" he yelled, yanking open the passenger side door and climbing out, slamming it shut behind him.

Veronica growled with frustration as she followed him out of the car, storming after him as he hiked down the grass verge at the side of the road.

"Hey" she called, grabbing hold of his arm as soon as he was within reach and spinning him around, "I said I was sorry for last night, I never meant to hurt you" she told him once again, "but..."

"But what, Veronica?" he urged her to explain, seeing her resolve softening some and meaning to make the most of it.

"But... things are complicated" she sighed, starting to feel defeated as she pushed her hair back off her face, "Logan, it's not that I don't like you" she admitted however dumb she was for doing so, but she needed him to understand, "I do, it's just..."

"What?" he prompted the moment she paused, "Tell me. C'mon, Veronica, explain to me what the problem is" he said, perhaps more loudly than was necessary.

Veronica fought for the right words to say. She couldn't like Logan, it wasn't sensible and wouldn't help, and yet she found it impossible to help it. He was right, he wasn't so much younger than her to make it inappropriate or wrong for them to be together, if it was what they both wanted. He clearly liked her a lot and she had to admit if only to herself that she could easily feel the same. Unfortunately, what she'd told him about things being complicated was also true. He wasn't supposed to be a friend much less a lover, he was just a case to work on, a job, for lack of a better word. He had become so much more than that and the longer things went on, the more Veronica realised what a fool she had been to start this so-called adventure in the first place.

'Saved by the bell' she thought to herself as her cell phone rang in her pocket. She had it turned off most of the time, knowing her Dad would doubtless be able to track them down with it on. This morning she had started to wonder if that would be such a bad thing and never bothered to switch the phone off again after checking the credit and battery levels.

"Unknown number?" she said with a frown the moment she saw the screen.

She never got a chance to decide if she was going to answer or not when the cell was unceremoniously ripped from the hand and thrown into the bushes that lined the road-side.

"We were talking!" yelled Logan, an explanation, excuse, and exclamation all rolled into one apparently, though all he'd achieved was to make Veronica angry, not return to their previous conversation at all.

"Are you crazy?" she asked incredulously as she moved to look for her cell, a little panicked at the thought of it being lost or broken - in an emergency she was going to need it.

"Look, I'm sorry" he immediately apologised somewhere behind her, sounding genuine enough, and yet Veronica couldn't care.

"You're sorry, Logan?" she exploded, turning back to glare at him, "Well, believe me, so am I! Right now I'm sorry I ever took this trip with you!" she told him angrily, going right back to looking for her cell.

The blood in her veins felt like it was boiling she was just so mad at Logan, and at herself, truth be told. After all, she was the fool that had let him into her car that first night. She was the idiot who deliberately gave the back-up the slip, ignored calls from her father and the Echolls. Going off grid was pretty stupid, even for Veronica, and the realisation of her own idiocy only made her all the more mad.

"You're right, Veronica" said Logan from behind her, though she didn't turn back to look at him, "This isn't working out anymore..." he added sadly, just as she found her somewhat broken cell and turned around.

"Logan, I..." she was stunned to realise he was no longer there by the car where she'd left him, but instead she spotted him climbing into some random vehicle that had pulled over on the highway, "Logan!" she called after him, but he didn't listen.

In seconds he was in the mystery car and gone from her sight.

To Be Continued...