Mac was late to work on Monday because there was a long line at the Apple store where she went to get her phone fixed. By the time she made it in, Veronica had come and gone, already out working on a case. That suited Mac just fine because she didn't think she was quite up for putting on a happy face, and she also didn't know if she could pass Veronica's BS detector with any lies. She had barely slept the night before, and the broken coffee maker at the office just made her want to start crying again. Seriously, who can be expected to live on instant coffee?

She could barely concentrate on work and no matter how hard she tried visions of Dick rushing into the office, throwing out all kinds of apologies and declaring his love for her kept breaking into her thoughts. She found herself glancing down at her phone incessantly and seemed on the brink of even more tears at every moment. If Keith Mars noticed anything out of place with his favorite techie's demeanor, he did not comment on it.

Later that day Veronica texted to let her know this job looked like an all-nighter. Fine with Mac, with any luck Veronica would be kept away long enough for her to pull herself together and get by without anyone knowing what sort of things she had done with Dick, and the humiliation that had shortly followed.

Tuesday proved to be a little different. Veronica was sleeping in after finally getting what she needed for her case, and Keith was out meeting with the client to discuss what she had found.

Mac was somewhat impressed with her own progress. She had left sad and was now approaching mad. Very very mad. She still couldn't get Dick out of her head, but instead of imagining his embraces and unsaid apologies, she stayed focused on the memories that should have been more front of mind the night in question.

Dick mocking her and Cassidy pretty much every time he saw them together.

Dick almost punching Cassidy after that prank at the winter carnival.

Dick banging on her dorm room door drunk, only to tell her his brother had never cared about her.

Sure, he had apologized for those things, but clearly he was far from reformed.

Dick sleeping with her and taking off with no explanation or even a phone call. Only a sorry ass "sorry" text that merely told her he was still alive and could work a phone.

Mac was glad neither of the Mars detectives were around to hear her banging on her computer, a fierce look on her face.

Veronica finally stopped by after lunch, but only to quickly grab some notes and finish up on the Greene case she had been working so hard on. "Hey Mac, feeling better?" She asked.

"Mmphh" was all she got in response.

"You know, now that this case is closing up it should be a little slower here, maybe you should go home and rest up?" Veronica's voice was full of concern and while Mac preferred her to assume it was just some illness that had her out of sorts, she also really needed the distraction of work. Sulking or seething at home for hours didn't seem like a good idea at all.

"No thanks, I have some upgrades I want to get done and I don't feel that bad anyway."

Veronica seemed to take this at face value and left for the day, Mac didn't see her again until the next morning, when she was caught yelling obscenities at the broken coffee maker.

"Seriously Mac, wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?" Mac gave her very disgruntled look.

"How am I supposed to be happy when there is no real coffee in this place," she said with her eyes accusingly on Veronica, who threw her hands up in surrender.

"I know, I know, I said I would replace that a week ago and I will absolutely do it today. Absolutely. Real coffee coming up tomorrow." Mac sighed, she knew she was being unfairly pissy, but she just couldn't seem to control her anger.

"Sorry Veronica, I'm just having a bad day I guess."

"Day? Sure. Whatever. How about this, tonight you trade in those cranky pants you've been wearing all week for a hot little number and we will go out on the town! Boys better watch themselves tonight!" She did a little dance.

"Oh, that's ok I should probably just—"

"Just what exactly?" Veronica interrupted. "Just get your groove on with your bestie because we haven't hung out just the two of us lately and with the Greene case cracked I am two for two in as many weeks baby!" Veronica's grin was slightly infectious, and Mac allowed herself a small smile.

"Ok crazy lady, but if you dance like that in front of people I'm gonna act like I don't know you."

"Deal."

Mac wasn't exactly thrilled about a night on the town, but she tried to psyche herself up since it was better than having to explain herself to Veronica. She drove the two of them over to their favorite club, and she couldn't help but smile as the bouncer gave them both appreciative looks before letting them in. Maybe she did need a night out.

Her optimism didn't last long though, they had barely made it inside the club before she heard Veronica squeal, "Oh look who it is!".

"Hello there, lover," came the response in a voice Mac would know anywhere. She just went from girls' night project to third wheel. She spun around to greet Logan and was shocked to see he wasn't alone; Dick was staring at his friend in disbelief.

"Dude, when I said guys' night I meant not with Veronica."

Logan rolled his eyes, "What, she's here with Mac, we can still totally hang." Dick quickly glanced up and his eyes froze on Mac's who quickly turned away, looking anywhere but at him. She could barely breathe and was aware of a tightening in her chest, she felt like someone had hit the off switch on her brain and it was all she could do to keep herself from crying (seriously, wasn't she a little old for the girl gene to kick in?).

"Oh," Dick finally chimed in. "Ok, I'll go grab some beers."

Dick had been gone for a few minutes and Mac still couldn't move, she could hardly breathe.

She heard Logan and Veronica talking but it barely registered.

"Whatever, all guys' night means to Dick is let's go out drinking and meet women. This way I get to dance with a hot chick without getting my ass kicked after." Logan.

"Oooh, well Mac and I are on for some girl time so you get one dance and I better not catch you talking to any other ladies tonight, mister. You got me?" Veronica.

"Mac, one dance and we'll be right back. K?... Mac?" Shit. That was directed at her.

"Sure, whatever," she answered, not really clear on the question.

She stood there for a another minute before it occurred to her that the only thing to do was get the hell out as soon as possible. She had just started turning towards the door when Dick appeared, four beers in tow. Looking around for Logan and Veronica he held one out for her. Not trusting herself to speak she gave him a quick shake of the head.

"Where'd they go?" She nodded to the dance floor and started toward the door again.

"Mac… Mac, wait." Dick moved after her, dropping the drinks on a nearby table. Her body moved to face him of its own volition, her brain still shouting Go! Go! Go!. "Mac listen, I know I like really fucked up and shit. I know, I just need to talk to you ok? Can we just like, talk?"

She finally looked up at him and thought he looked like he was about to shit himself. It would've been funny if she could remember what funny was. She didn't realize she was just staring at him until he spoke again. "Mac? Listen, I'm really sorry, ok."

This was too much for her, finally the anger took over and allowed her to speak. "Sorry? Yeah I know, I got your text," her words drenched with betrayal. Dick looked like she had punched him in the stomach.

"Mac," he repeated, his voice a whisper, "c'mon we just need to talk about this ok?"

"We really don't," her voice coming back to her, sounding more confident than she felt. "In fact, what would be great is if we could not talk about it. Like ever. Just pretend it never happened, ok? I'm sure you should be able to handle that Dick," she spat, her eyes throwing daggers.

He swallowed. "Is that really what you want?"

"What I want is to not have to pretend, to go back in time and offer myself some sanity pills, but since that isn't an option yes, please, let's just forget the entire thing." She turned and left, not bothering to tell Veronica. She didn't notice when Dick came out shortly after her, abandoning the beers and their friends to also head home to another night of solitude.

Veronica apologized profusely the next day, feeling terrible that her planned outing to cheer Mac up had made her feel worse. Mac shrugged it off, blaming her abandonment on illness and PMS. Whether Veronica thought Mac was upset their evening had been crashed, or if she knew Dick was involved with her not wanting to stay wasn't clear, but either way the blonde didn't push it. Still, Mac didn't find herself on any surprise double dates with Dick over the next couple of weeks. In fact, she didn't see Dick at all. Usually there was a party at their place eventually, but no invitations came.

Not seeing Dick for long periods of time was certainly not weird, but she couldn't decide if she was happy or upset about it. Her anger had somewhat faded, but there was still a very hurt part of her that wanted an explanation, that wanted Dick to reassure her that everything she had felt that night wasn't fake. She pushed this part down very deep and instead told herself that Dick was who he was, just because he was attracted to her didn't mean he was suddenly "boyfriend material". It was her own fault for thinking it might be more than just a drunken hook up, she had probably scared him away. Mac knew she shouldn't blame herself, but she also knew Dick well enough that she shouldn't have been surprised. Finally she settled on trying to be happy to put as much time as possible between them so she could to act as normal as possible if and when the elusive Mr. Casablancas reappeared into her life.

It finally happened one Thursday. Veronica had left her phone at the office and Mac knew she was having lunch with Logan at a nearby diner; she did not know Dick was joining them when she decided to drop the phone by to her on her own way to lunch. The exchange was remarkably unremarkable.

"Hey Veronica, just wanted to drop you this."

"Thanks! Hey you wanna join us?"

Dick looked up at her when Veronica asked, trying to give an inviting smile that just looked awkward. "Yeah, these dudes make an awesome burger," he added, his face contorting as he remembered that she didn't eat burgers.

She let it slide, "No thanks, got my stomach set on some pizza at the vegan joint." He gave her a wave and she was gone.

She suspected Veronica was extra careful around her the rest of the day, even bringing her back a cup of coffee from the Hut after lunch, but maybe she was just imagining things.

The first real time she had to hang out with Dick was unexpected, for everyone it seemed. She had been kind of bored lounging around one Sunday, and Veronica invited her to crash a movie date she had with Logan. She had wanted to see the film anyway, and she figured she would have something to pay attention to besides the lovebirds so why not? When they entered the theater to find Logan with Dick, Mac saw the surprise and concern on Veronica's face. Logan quickly jumped up, surprise also on his face.

"Hey Mac! I didn't know you would be here," he gave Veronica a look that said this is not my fault. "Dick was moping around the house so I drug him out here too since I knew he was looking forward to seeing this."

So Veronica and Logan knew she didn't want to be in the same room as Dick, or maybe that he didn't want to be in the same room as her? Had Dick told Logan what had happened? That seemed unlikely, as there was no way Veronica would have been so passive about her sleeping with Dick, and she would definitely not be having lunch with him if she knew he had bailed on Mac like he did.

Mac felt confident the two were just making guesses so she just shrugged. "Whatever."

Dick was standing by, a bored look on his face as he rolled his eyes at Logan's stammered explanation. "I'll be in in a minute, gonna grab some munchies."

Mac sat next to Veronica, and was a little nervous when she heard Dick coming down the aisle on her side. She thought she had handled his presence well enough but she didn't know about sitting next to him in a dark room for 90 plus minutes. Feeling the heat that always seemed to radiate off of him. Smelling the ocean on him. Stop, she told herself firmly, but was glad when he turned into the row behind her, passing drinks to Logan and Veronica, then herself. He handed the couple a tub of popcorn to share, then gave her her own smaller bag and some candy.

"Didn't know what you like," he mumbled, sitting back in his seat behind her.

"Thanks," she whispered. She tried to focus on the movie, but found herself fighting the urge to turn around and look at him constantly. Occasionally she would hear his bright chuckle and would find herself smiling, only to smack herself back into reality where she felt on the edge of tears. She was glad it was a dark room.

After the movie Dick suggested they all go out and grab a beer and some food, he mentioned one of the Thai places he knew that had a big vegetarian selection he thought, glancing quickly at her before turning back to Logan. She must have looked uncomfortable because Veronica jumped in before she could speak.

"That's cool, I think we were actually going to order some food and go over some case stuff for tomorrow." Logan looked disappointed but Mac was grateful for the excuse, she just hoped she wasn't the case in question.

Fortunately Veronica didn't question Mac on why she suddenly didn't want to be around Dick. She had her suspicions, most of which circled around Dick making an obscene comment to Mac either about sex, money, or Cassidy. Truth be told she was fearful it was the last thing, which is why she hadn't pushed Mac to explain why she was avoiding the surfer. Mac did her best to act normal, and Veronica figured whatever had happened, Mac was trying to ignore it and move on so it was safe to broach the topic she had been avoiding with her for the past week.

"Sooo… Logan's birthday is coming up and we were thinking of doing a cookout at the beach house next Saturday," she said slowly, trying to gauge Mac's reaction.

"Sounds fun," Mac answered noncommittally. Veronica took this, and the movie, as a good sign that whatever weirdness was going on with Dick and Mac was getting better.

"Great, so you'll be there right? There will be food and general merriment making!" Mac hesitated but couldn't come up with a good reason to miss Logan's party that wouldn't require more explanation than she was prepared to give. Besides, Logan was her friend, if mainly by association. She felt a momentary flash of anger at Dick, she certainly wasn't going to stop hanging out with her friends and doing what she wanted because he was an idiot. If Dick felt weird about her being there let him deal with it, she was done missing out on events and making Veronica feel awkward about inviting her places, she didn't do anything wrong and from now on she wasn't going to act like she did. She gave Veronica a big smile.

"Definitely."