I apparently caused some confusion with the last chapter. I hope things start to clear up with this one.
Chapter 3
The shower shut off and a minute later Logan emerged; hair damp but back in his clothes.
Veronica would have preferred a towel but that wasn't what this evening was about. She handed him a steaming mug.
"What? No cream and sugar?"
"You don't take cream and sugar."
"So good of you to remember."
"Oh shut up and follow me." Veronica headed towards her bedroom.
"I thought you wanted to talk. Now you're telling me to shut up. I know it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind but—"
Veronica paused outside her bedroom.
"Your bedroom? I think your definition of talking and my definition of talking are a weeee bit different." He held a finger and thumb up to show what he meant by wee.
Veronica clasped a hand over his. "There's an e-mail I want you to see."
Logan looked puzzled but entered the room and sat in the computer chair.
Veronica pointed. "This one."
"So…we're picking one out for adoption?" Logan put his hand over his heart. "I'm touched but honey, I thought we'd finish college first."
Veronica slugged him in the shoulder. "Read the subject line again. Who uses three 'verys' in a sentence?"
"An 11-year old girl?"
"Yeah, it was one of Dick's girlfriends who sent me this." She pointed at the subject line again. "It's code. Eight words." She moved to the PPS file and clicked through the slides.
"…six, seven, eight." She stopped on the photo of a wide-eyed baby girl. "Remind you of anyone?"
"Lily," he said, so quietly that Veronica could barely hear him.
"Yeah," she said softly. "that's what I thought, too."
"Wow." Logan touched the screen. "So this is Duncan's…"
"Yup."
He turned towards Veronica. "How many other e-mails have you gotten from him?"
"This is only the second one. Mac set up a pretty sophisticated method of contact but we still don't want to risk it that often."
"So you knew Duncan was planning to leave town?"
"Guilty."
"And you helped him?" Logan slapped his forehead. "Of course! That's why not even the FBI can find him. The Mars expertise."
Veronica smiled. "Guilty."
"And the big fight you two had just before he left was staged so no one would suspect you of aiding and abetting."
"Guilty."
"And if Duncan had never left town you two would still be together."
Veronica opened her mouth to speak, and snapped it shut again.
Logan pushed away from the computer and stood to leave. "Yeah, guilty."
She blocked his path. "That's not true. We wouldn't be together any more."
"Come on, Veronica, quit lying and get out of my way. I'm out of here."
Veronica crossed her arms. "I'm not lying and you're not leaving."
Logan's face remained grim. "You're going to stop me?"
"No, but you lost the pool game. I know you and you won't back out on that."
"Don't make me out to be honourable," Logan growled. "Besides, I lost on purpose."
"I know. Which means that part of you wants to talk to me."
Logan sighed. "I never could fool you. Fine. The masochistic part of me wants to hear you whisper sweet nothings while I pretend for a while that they're true. The self preservation part of me wants to get the Hell out of here. So if you care about me at all you'll just let me leave."
Veronica felt like her heart was being ripped out. He was in such pain and this time it wasn't his father that caused it. It was her. "Do you know why I showed you that e-mail?"
"Oh, I don't know. To torture me?"
"You're Duncan's best friend and I knew you could be trusted with the information. And I wanted to show that you could trust our relationship."
"And how does knowing you're still in contact with the love of your life – and oh by the way, that big fight was just staged and you're actually soooooo perfect for one another that you've never ever wever had a fight – just how is that supposed to make me trust our relationship?"
Veronica took his hand and led him back to the computer. "Duncan only sent the e-mail a few minutes ago. He's probably still at whatever computer he typed this from. I thought we'd send him a reply…together."
Logan looked up sharply. "It's almost midnight. If he knows I'm in your bedroom at this time he'll think…"
"Exactly what he's supposed to think. That we're back together." Veronica gave Logan a nudge to sit down. "Better that he find out from us. Not like last time."
Logan backed away, shaking his head. "No point messing with his head when you and I are done."
"ARGH!"
"Logan looked up, startled.
"Why do you keep saying that?" she shouted.
"Because it's true," Logan said cautiously. "I can't compete with Duncan. He's smart, he's noble, and let's face it, he's perfect. And what the hell am I? A first class A-hole.
Veronica started to speak but Logan shook his head. "Come on, you know as well as I do that I'm a total screw-up. You would choose Duncan and I can't blame you for that."
Veronica blinked back tears as she stared at Logan's chest. She wanted to just hold him tight and squeeze away the pain. How could he not know how she felt about him? "I would choose you."
Logan gently cupped her chin and lifted it so their eyes met. "You can't even look at me when you say it."
"No – I—"
"And when I said a few minutes ago that you would still be with Duncan you couldn't say anything at all."
"I was surprised you suggested it, that's all."
"Listen, I'm not mad. I'm not going to go all psycho and bitter on you like last time. Duncan is your first choice. I get that. Hell, he'd be my first choice too. You know, if I were inclined that way."
Veronica gave a small smile. "Warped comments like that are why I choose you over Duncan."
"You expect to woo me by calling me warped? Ah, flattery." He smiled but the smile quickly disappeared. "Banter alone doesn't get a couple to their golden anniversary, with grandchildren bringing them tacky gold spray-painted crafts as presents."
"You think about things like that?" Veronica said softly.
Logan looked away. "No, I – just another warped comment to come from my warped brain."
Veronica didn't know what else to do. Nothing she was saying seemed to matter. If he wouldn't listen to words…maybe…