TITLE: His Friend Too
AUTHOR: arbailey
WORD COUNT: 3,632
RATING: PG-13 for language
SUMMARY: When Veronica catches her best friend and an aging action hero together, everything falls apart.
SPOILERS: Pre-series that quickly goes AU but does spoil the 1st season Lilly/Aaron storyline
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any rights to Veronica Mars, and this story is written as a tribute only.
A/N 1: I'm all done making promises. I have nothing to offer but my apologies and a bunch of excuses about IRL boring-ness. Still, here is a chapter, and I'll do my best (NO PROMISES!) not to make you wait another month for the next one...
A/N 2: Apologies for the buggy 1st upload... Lost an entire section in there, but this should be correct and complete :)
Chapter 9: My Best Friend's Girl...
Aaron is wheezing quietly in the back, his breathing unlabored and restful. And that's fucking unfair, because in the front seat Logan is having a pretty hard time drawing breath. His hands clench and unclench on the steering wheel rhythmically and the muscle in his jaw tightens as he stares up at the stoplight, willing it to change. When did they start measuring out the lights in geological time!
And he can't even turn his gaze away from the road because Duncan has him on lockdown, staring in such a way that Logan can feel all of the hairs on the back of his neck standing up individually. Logan has a lot of experience waiting out tense situations, but this? This is seriously going to kill him. There is no painless way to have this conversation, but he was at least hoping for the weekend's reprieve. Hoping he could actually figure out what the hell was going on in his life before he had to deal with the collapse of his most important remaining relationship. But Duncan is sitting there, glowering, and then he makes this little disgusted scoff in the back of his throat...
And all of the sudden, Logan is furious. He's done a fair amount of bad in his life, but he's pretty sure NONE of this is his fault. Yes, his dad is a creepy, cradle-robbing voyeur, and yes, Duncan's ex had just kissed him, but so what! DUNCAN dumped HER, and she left with Deputy Derp, anyway. And that aches in ways that are stupid, and presumptuous, and which he would rather avoid thinking about in the first place, but Duncan is making that all but impossible! He swings his own gaze to Duncan and replicates the grimace he sees there. "What! Just say it!"
"How long have you been screwing Veronica behind my back?"
Logan's jaw collapses open in shock. Duncan looks almost as surprised at his harsh words, but he rallies quickly.
"Are you serious! Do you even know Veronica?" Logan hisses, his hands beating out an angry rhythm on his steering wheel to punctuate his words.
Duncan falters, but he's not ready to abandon his anger just yet. "So it was my imagination when I saw your tongue snaking down her esophagus?"
Logan's guilt flares, and he covers with indignance and half truth, "Yeah, that was most definitely your imagination. Any tongue was added in post production. And besides, SHE was kissing ME, not the other way around!"
Duncan's chin juts out petulantly, "And that's somehow better!"
Logan shrugs violently, "I don't know dude! And here I thought you were the one who broke up with her!"
For the split second before his friend drops his head into his hands, Logan can see the turmoil on Duncan's face. "Yeah. I know. God. Sorry. Dude, I'm sorry."
Logan is woefully ill-equipped to deal with Duncan's breakdown and watches his friend warily as if he were a live grenade. Quietly appeasing, he mutters to his friend , "Hey. It was nothing, man. Less than nothing. Lilly said... It doesn't matter... Anyway, Veronica was just trying to get my attention. And she's too short to efficiently slap me. Seriously, fifteen minutes before she was kissing me, she was telling me what an asshole I was."
Duncan lets out a small, mirthless chuckle, but he doesn't say anything else, his head still buried in his hands.
Logan hesitates, and then steels himself. "Are you sure Celeste isn't lying? It wouldn't be the first time... Like when she told us our cell phones wouldn't work in the 02 neighborhood and we would be attacked and nobody would come round to save us. Or the thing with Molly and the garden. Your mom is not exactly a beacon of truth."
Duncan's head shoots up, his eyebrows drawn together in consternation. "You... What?" Then his expression clears, and he says with a pained snort, "Lilly." Duncan's head drops back into his hands, and Logan hears his muffled reply, "Mom wouldn't make something like this up. It's a little dramatic and sordid even for her. And Dad didn't deny it."
Logan nods, staring at the road, and the Xterra leaps away as the light finally changes and he lays on the gas. The rest of the drive is quiet, neither boy willing to continue such a difficult conversation and both plunged deeply into their own thoughts.
The driveway is blessedly free of paparazzi, and Wiedman pulls up behind them as the ornate brass gate slowly swings wide. Between the three of them, they manage to wrestle Aaron up to his room where the doctor and his PA are waiting.
Wiedman is briskly efficient, speaking sotto voce to the doctor and handling all the details. Logan and Duncan stand on opposite sides of the door, staring blankly into space and subconsciously mirroring each other. They both follow Wiedman downstairs without sparing the other a glance.
Logan stops in the doorway, watching the retreating Kane heir with his private fixer and hesitating. Eventually, he quietly calls out, "She's really hurting, man. She doesn't know what she did. If she's your sister... Either way, you'll have to fix this."
Duncan freezes and looks over his shoulder, "I can't fix it. I can't do anything. It's done. All I can do is avoid her and hope it gets easier."
Logan grimaces, "And if it never does? When she finds some other guy, when she graduates, when she leaves for good? What then?"
Duncan shrugs, his face pained, "Good. I look forward to that day. That's better, in the end."
Logan's frustration bubbles over, "You'd never tell her? You'd never find out the whole truth? You'd just let her go like that? That easily!"
Duncan turns away again to look at Wiedman, now standing stiffly by his black Beemer and waiting, "Not easily. But yeah. That's the only choice I have."
He doesn't see Logan's dark expression as he stalks back to the town car.
Monday morning, Lilly is waiting at his locker, which is beyond bizarre. She never just hung around waiting for him, not when they were dating, and he approaches with the slow wariness of someone adept at walking on eggshells. She glances at him for a second before her nerve fails, and he watches her steel herself with a flick of her long blonde hair over her shoulder, turning to him. The smile she gives him is tense and chagrined, but genuine, and it does absolutely nothing to put Logan's mind at ease...
"Lilly," says Logan, formally as he steps up to her and gently shoulders her aside to open his locker.
"Logan," she parrots back with false solemnity, smiling. It falters a bit when Logan won't meet her eye and continues pointedly searching his locker.
She steps closer to him, her hand catching the door of his locker as he attempts to close it, and he finally unwillingly glances at her. Her pasted-on smile is unconvincing at these close quarters, and he can see how tenuous her calm is. He takes pity and turns to her, his jaw setting slightly.
Her smile blooms just a little in thanks before she quickly stammers out, "I promise you, I didn't know. But I should have. And this," she says gesturing a little with the tape, "is insurance."
Logan's distaste is palpable, and he pushes the proffered tape back at Lilly. In harsh but hushed tones, Logan mutters, "The only good thing about this situation is that I didn't actually SEE you porking my dad. Don't take that from me, please."
Lilly flushes with something that looks dangerously like embarrassment or shame, and she stutters uncomfortably, "...You don't have to watch... You don't need to do anything but let him know that it exists. This is something you put in a safety deposit box and forget about unless you need it."
Logan's jaw flexes subtly, and he hisses under his breath, petulantly, "I'm fine. I've BEEN fine. Two years. That's all I have left. Do you think this changes anything? Honestly, Lilly, after all this, what difference does it make?"
As she palms the last tape and places it in his hand, she wraps her fingers around his wrist and holds tight. She smiles softly as she says, "It might change things. And it makes a difference to me. I guess I'd much rather have you think of me as an oblivious bitch than as an intentional sadist," and she steps up on tiptoe and kisses his cheek.
Pressed against him, she whispers in his ear, "Please. Give me this. Let there be one bright spot to my colossal fuck up."
Pulling back, Logan looks into Lilly's eyes and sees an entirely unfamiliar creature there. This new Lilly is repentant and vulnerable and uncertain. After one long searching look, he nods his acquiescence and smiles hesitantly. For so long, Logan could forgive Lilly anything. Just once more, just a little. For old time's sake.
Lilly smiles more broadly and pulls her hand out of his, leaving the tape behind. She looks back at him as she does a cheerful little hop down the hallway, and he buries the tape in a deep internal pocket in his bag. Suddenly aware of their poorly-disguised voyeurism, everyone watching abruptly bustles about and makes too much noise. As if this will fool either Lilly and Logan, experienced as they are in being surveyed.
Madison smirks as she watches Lilly skip away. She's still smirking when she steps into class and spots Veronica. She plops down into the seat behind Veronica, pokes Shelly Pomeroy with a quick jab, and says in a stage whisper, "Lilly and Logan are back on."
Shelly glances at Veronica's back and plays along gamely, though she subtly soothes the bruise Madison gave her, "Well, they are epic after all."
Madison cuts a look to Veronica's stiff frame and says with a simper, "I know, right? When you have something real like they do, stupid rumors and nosy sluts just don't figure into it in the long run." Grinning cruelly, Madison watches with satisfaction as Veronica's white-knuckle grip on her pencil tightens until a small snap is heard...
She's standing at her locker, manically stuffing things into her bag, when he comes up behind her. He reaches out to tap her shoulder and she jumps, startled at his touch. Turning to him with a wobbly smile as she pulls her messenger bag across her body, Veronica attempts to wave him off, "I'm sorry Logan, I've got to go. I'm meeting Leo in fifteen minutes."
"Leo?" Logan says, blankly.
Veronica flushes just a little, "Deputy D'Amato. From last night."
Logan's jaw tenses and his eyes flash, but Veronica doesn't see it. She's too busy staring past him longingly at the door to the parking lot.
Twisting the shoulder strap of her messenger bag in sweaty knots, Veronica gives Logan a short glance and quickly drops her hands to her sides when she catches herself in such a blatant tell. She takes a deep breath and attempts to shake off her nervous expression. "Logan... Last night... That was just... I just needed you to snap out of it."
Logan feels a twinge run through his chest, but he just scratches the back of his neck as he shrugs, "Yeah, of course. I mean, that was what I assumed. I told Duncan as much."
She has a shocked little scoff and then smiles brittlely, "Well. Fantastic. Glad we're all on the same page. And I'm so glad you guys are entirely simpatico! And discussing me behind my back. Well, after all, what are best friends for? And congratulations on getting together with Lilly. You two really are regular comeback kids. All that kissing and holding hands in the hall. It's adorable! "
Logan's brow crinkles and he goes to interrupt, but Veronica cuts him off, a hand pressed against her forehead, her eyes closed, and her face penitent. "Sorry. That was nasty. I know what Lilly means to you. So good for you. It's kind of incredible. Your forgiveness knows no bounds." He thinks he hears her whisper in the next breath, "For some, anyway," but instantly her shuttered smile is back, and she step past him.
Logan throws out an arm to block her way and says, "Seriously, we need to talk." She glances with annoyance at his arm, and Logan snatches it out of her way but doesn't move out of her path. She crinkles her brow and opens her mouth to refuse, but he cuts her off abruptly, "Meet me at Dog Beach at 6, and I'll tell you why Duncan broke up with you."
For a split second she looks eager, but then she smiles a little warily, "Yeah, well, fool me once Logan..."
He shakes his head decisively, "No games. Just meet me there. And then we never have to speak again," he finishes with a half-hearted attempt at his trademark smirk.
She just nods and then steps around him awkwardly, rushing through the halls to get to her car. This is only the second most horrible conversation she's going to have today, and she's nearly late for her meeting at the Sherriff's Office.
Fifteen too-short minutes later, Veronica is pulling up outside the Balboa Sherriff's Department with only the barest bones of an excuse worked out. Leo leans against the building with a smirk, but she can read the notes of quiet panic in his eyes . What she says in the next twenty minutes may well determine Leo's future success in the department, not to mention decide her own ultimate fate and/or compulsion into a nunnery. She still believes she made the best possible choice given her options. Now she just has to convince her father of the same without ever giving him the true specifics of last night's unfortunate incident.
As he greets her at the door, Veronica can tell that he is pretty close to freaking. Veronica has been dreading this meeting with her father, but Leo has been a basket case all day. He smiles a little too widely as he ushers her in. "It'll be fine. You have him wrapped around your finger. Right!" The dangerously high rising inflection at the end of his question has Veronica snickering in spite of herself, but she is chastened by his baleful look.
"Sorry. As for the finger thing... We'll have to see. I've never had to push it this far..." she whispers as Inga announces their arrival to her father.
Keith smiles as two of his favorite young people enter, but when he catches sight of their own megawatt smiles, his eyes narrow. "Veronica. Deputy D'Amato. Deputy, I understand you want to make some clarifications of last night's report. And Miss Mars is here to assist in that? Please, have a seat."
Ridiculously eager, they both clamber into the chairs placed in front of the sheriff's desk with what they hope are matching guileless expressions. He stares down at them like a stern but benevolent elementary school principal discovering minor malfeasance from a favorite pupil. Regarding them carefully, Keith subtly shakes his head, but makes no further comment. "Leo, last night you called in a disturbance at the Kane residence, correct?"
"That's correct sir," replies Leo, quickly.
"And you reported an injury, possible assault. But no arrest was made, despite all primary parties still being on scene?" Keith says, relishing his role as inquisitor.
Leo swallows thickly, "At the time, I was informed that no charges were going to be filed. Furthermore, in the intervening hours, I have learned that the incident arose from a case of mistaken identity and that no actual injury was incurred. All parties involved have agreed to seek no further action from this incident."
"So, am I to understand that you called this meeting to make me aware that essentially NOTHING happened last night?" says Keith with painstaking slowness.
"That's correct," says Leo, quailing just slightly.
"Well. Okay then. Thank you for your diligence, Deputy D'Amato. You're dismissed." Leo and Veronica both move for the door, but stop as Keith continues, "Not you Veronica." Leo shrugs and makes an apologetic face as he sneaks out the door. Veronica just watches him sourly through the glass before turning back to her father with a sugary smile.
"You want to try this again?" Keith asks, gesturing for her to take a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
"I really don't think I have anything to add to Deputy D'Amato's excellent report. Boy, that kids is going places, amiright?" says Veronica, determinedly cheerful as she throws herself down in the chair.
"Okay, I guess it's time to abandon euphemism. Did you or did you not taser Aaron Echolls?" Keith huffs in exasperation.
"I maintain that I thought he was a rabid badger. I'll take a polygraph. You can't pin this on me," Veronica bites out, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Veronica," and this time there is no playfulness in his tone. "Will this come back and bite you? In any way? Can I trust your judgment in this?"
Her smile is tight, but genuine. "You can. Mistakes were made last night, but they weren't mine. I'm covered."
"And Logan? Is he covered? Lilly and Duncan?" Keith asks quietly. Veronica's gaze shoots to him, her mouth dropping open. She shuts it with a snap, and pauses for a moment.
"Everyone's fine. I think some things may even have been rectified," she finally replies quietly.
Keith nods slowly, "Good. Okay. Well then. I'm deferring your admittance to the convent, but no more tasering incidents young lady. You're on thin ice."
Veronica pouts prettily, "No pony again this year, hunh?"
Keith folds her in a hug and kisses the crown of her head. "All pony privileges are indefinitely suspended. Now, go. Before I can't control myself and accidentally enroll you in a scared straight program."
Veronica jumps up and gives her father a smart salute, bouncing out the doorway and closing the office door behind her with a sharp click. And only then does she exhale.
She considered not meeting him at Dog Beach. For all of five seconds. Veronica is a girl with a number of strong internal motivators, but nothing drives her like the need for truth.
When she finally finds him, Logan seems to be in deep meditation. He could have been there for minutes or millennia, gazing coolly out with that brooding, bruising intensity. She gets tired just looking at him. He is sitting in the shade of the same dune where he went to escape Lilly's betrayal, and he is again staring, unseeing, at the horizon. Veronica is overcome by a terrible sense of weary deja vu as she drops down into the sand beside him.
"How long have you known about my dad?" says Logan, an incredibly awkward opener.
She huffs, annoyed and off-center, "I thought we agreed no games! But again, it's Twenty Questions!"
Logan shakes his head absently, still not looking at her. "Not Twenty Questions. Just one."
She tries waiting him out, but no dice. Finally Veronica sighs, "I guess, probably, my suspicions arose after that 'surfing trip' the summer before last with your family where you came back with the welts on your back. I don't surf, but I'm pretty sure you don't sharpen the edge of the board. Or emboss them with the same classic leatherwork designs that appear on the belt your dad kept from his time on that Lonesome Dove knock-off. When I noticed how much more careful you apparently were when your father was on location, everything kind of clicked into place."
"So you've known for a year and you never said anything? Not even to your dad?" Logan is only trying to clarify, but he's obviously hit a nerve. He feels, rather than sees, her shoulders draw up in angry tension.
Now she's indignant, "Don't you think I wanted to! YOU didn't want anyone to know! You made that very clear with your endless unlikely-but -fiercely-defended excuses! I agonized over what to do for months, but in the end I knew you'd never cop to it. Don't pretend you would have been willing to admit to the abuse, much less to testify! The best I could do was minimize the damage."
A lot of her behavior is starting to add up. Veronica's careful maneuvering of his drunken antics into the relative privacy of the pool house. Her obsequious bowing and scraping to Aaron. Her terse politeness to his mother. Her wet blanket act which was most likely to appear when Aaron was in town. Perhaps Lilly wasn't the only one in this situation who had missed some crucial clues.
"Why?" Logan asks, finally turning to look Veronica in eye. But now she's turning away from him, still fuming.
"EEEEEnnnnhhhh," she says, imitating an annoying buzzer sound, "Sorry, your turn is over. Why did Duncan break up with me?"
Logan takes a deep breath. "You're his sister."
Beside him Veronica lets out a pained sigh. "Thanks Logan. What an immense waste of time," she says as she begins to get up.
Logan shakes his head sharply, still staring blankly into the middle distance. Veronica falls back into the sand with a quiet thump, hesitating. Logan starts again. "Your mom's from here, right? So is Jake. Celeste seems to believe that they never ended their high school romance. I don't know if it's true. But Duncan seems pretty sure. And Lilly to."
He doesn't actually hear her leave, but when he finally looks up several minutes later, he isn't surprised to find out she is gone.
A/N 3: As always, reviews and con-crit are most deeply appreciated! Let me know what you're thinking :)