I know I promised to never leave you hanging and look at what I did. I've just been terribly swamped with midterms and papers that the story took the back burner. But now that I've freed up my schedule by not procrastinating AND getting a surge of inspiration, here's the next chapter.

I did get a bunch of reviews for the last one and though I normally respond to each, I figured I'd get the chapter out faster. But do not think your reviews don't mean anything to me. The good, the bad and the ugly help me keep writing the next chapter. So please give me that extra boost so that maybe you'll get a few chapters this week before I go on Spring Break and don't have my computer with me.

Everything about the office was familiar besides the second name on the door. My dad might as well just make it Navarro Investigations. The jingling of the bell was comforting as I walked into the reception area.

"I'll be right wit you," Weevil called from my father's former office. How quickly he had made himself comfortable in the office.

It was strange walking into the office, my office, and sitting on the couch situated in the waiting area. Never in my life had I ever needed to go to anyone else for help because I had had all the resources at my fingertips. But along the twisted road, my priorities shifted and I, Veronica Mars, was asking someone for help.

"V?" Weevil startled me. My mind was too occupied with everything else in my life to realize he had stepped into view, "What are you doing here? Your father will kill me if he knows you were here playing detective."

I put on a strained smile and titled my head, "He knows I'm here. And I'm not here to work."

"Uh oh," He shook his head, knowing my powerful head tilt all too well, "Who's tires do I need to slash this time?"

I shook my head, "I have this couple who need to disappear."

"A couple, huh?" He eyed me questioningly.

I stood up, trying to look as natural as possible, "Her parents don't approve. They asked for my help. I'm a sucker for a happy ending."

"So what do you need from me?" He was as confused as I felt.

"Papers," I said plainly, "The works. Birth certificates, social security cards, driver's license…a marriage license."

He nodded making a list of my needs. I had never asked for so much before, especially requiring more than just a small job like stealing Madison's car or stripping Dominic's car. He would really have to devote some time and money to this one.

"I have the cash right now," I pulled out the wad 'the couple' had given me, "They told me to keep the change for my troubles. It's all yours."

He unrolled the money and his eyes grew wide, "V, are you—" I put a hand up to stop him, "Did they request any specifics? Names, birthdates…"

I nodded pulling a sheet of paper with all the information on it out of my bag. I watched as he scanned everything, "And you know to burn all this after you give me the papers."

"Shouldn't I just deliver them to this couple?" Weevil inquired, "You're really not supposed to be working. I bet both your dad and rich boy will have my head if I let you deal with this."

I shook my head sternly, "You can't know who these they are. They can't risk their parents finding them. It won't be pretty for anyone who knows anything. I'll finish up with them and I'm done until after the baby is born."

"How is the little guy?" Weevil's gaze traveled to my protruding stomach.

I smiled, placing a hand to rest on it, "You mean little girl."

He rolled his eyes, "Just what the world needs. Another Veronica Mars."

I shuddered, "That is a scary thought."

Too bad no one will know her. Too bad Veronica Mars will no longer exist.

"When will you have these papers by?" I got back to the business at hand, "They need them A.S.A.P."

"Friday," He shrugged, "Saturday the latest. I'll call you, V."

I smiled grateful and pulled him in for a hug. At first he was tense but he warmed up eventually.

"Thanks, Eli, you're the best," I said as I backed towards the door.

With the papers being taken care of, I had to get home to start the next phase: money. Logan was waiting restlessly for me in the living room staring at the blank T.V. screen.

"Oh, thank God," He jumped up when I walked through the suite's door, "I was so worried."

I appreciatively flew into his open arms, knowing the safety they provided, "Papers are taken care of."

He nodded in understanding, "What next?"

"You need to slowly start withdrawing money from your accounts. Nothing too suspicious. Once we get our new identities, we'll need to deposit it into a new account."

He pulled me down to the couch. Rest was something I needed but didn't have time for. In a week, I could rest easy. At least I hoped my dreams wouldn't be littered with nightmares.

"We're going to need to write wills, too." I spoke again, being bombarded with all the things we still needed to do.

"There's no way I'm leaving all that to Trina," Logan huffed, "All that money will be gone in the blink of an eye."

I shrugged, "Do what you want. Will part of it to her, though because you don't want things to look suspicious."

"What about the rest of it?" He questioned.

"Leave it to me."

He cocked an eyebrow curiously, "But you'll be dead too."

"But you won't know that to plan for that," I pointed out, "And then I'll leave everything to my dad."

I could see it in his face that it pained him to lose the Echolls' fortune. He deserved that money after the life he had endured. I knew my father wouldn't touch the money. It would break his heart, but it would be safe from Trina.

"Alright," He finally relented.

"I'll get Cliff to take care of them," I nodded walking off to make the call.

Things were settling into place. No end would be left untied. A clean break from the life we were destined to die to a life full of promise. The stress of the matter was wearing on both of us.

Logan was still sitting and staring on the couch when I returned. My heart was breaking to see him so lost.

"There's one more thing we have to do," I announced as I crossed the living room. His gaze shifted immediately at the sound of my voice, waiting intently for my next set of orders, "We need to go through the motions."

His eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Like, to prepare for the baby," I sat down, facing him. A mix of emotions were evident on his face, "Like cribs and car seats, nothing too expensive. And we need to start house shopping. That will be the best alibi for withdrawing a large sum of money."

He nodded, understanding yet again. I wish he would react differently. I wished he would react at all but it seemed that Logan had become a shell of his former self. I was watching him slowly slip away and if he did, I would be alone.

"Logan, talk to me," I laid my hand in his lap.

"What do you want me to say?"

I brought my hands up to his shoulders, squaring him to me, "You told me not to shut you out but I'm the one on the outside. Tell me how you're feeling?"

"I just—" He started, shivering under my grasp, "I want to protect you, but I don't know how."

I shushed him, "The only way to protect me is to be with me, on the same page. Otherwise there's room for error and we can't screw this up. But I promise you, we will be fine. We have to be."

"I don't want to lose you."

"You won't," I shook my head, rubbing my hands up and down his arms trying to comfort him, "You, me and our daughter, we're our own family now. Forever."

It seemed I had said all the right things to ease his worries. Or at least curb them. He melted into my arms and wrapped his own around my waist. That same warm, safe feeling took over my body. Sitting here, wrapped up in each others' arms was perfection. If only it could last.

He was the first one to pull away, "Well, we've got work to do."

"We can take a minute," I wanted so badly to be back in my safe haven.

"You already said we'd have forever," He whispered, his voice low and soothing, "Let's get this over with."

He reached his hand out and pulled me off the couch. Once outside the suite, he laced his fingers in mine. Once outside the Grand, he became more protective, pulling me close to his body. His shifty focus was driving me crazy. Six more days.

We spent hours, silently driving around Neptune looking for For Sale signs on the front lawns. Crossing into the 09er district made house hunting a little harder though we lucked out with an open house.

The lavish house sat far off the main road. The winding driveway was one you could only imagine driving down to fetch the newspaper or retrieve the mail. It was all wrong for us but it was expensive, flashy and typical for an Echolls' lifestyle. Passing through the front gate, we both knew this had to be our new 'home'.

Upon stepping into the foyer, the realtor bee-lined toward us, blantantly ignoring another couple's question.

"Mr. Echolls, it's so nice to meet you," She stuck her hand out excitedly, "My name is Anne."

Logan forced a smile, "Likewise. Tell me there's a pool."

"What Logan is trying to say," I stepped in, sweeter than chocolate, "Is, we'd like a tour of the house, please."

"Yes, right away," Anne held her arm out, ushering us towards a large doorway, "This here is the living room. Notice the bay windows."

Logan and I circled the room together. To Anne, we looked like we were examining the Crown molding and large window. In reality, we were pulling each other along.

"It's beautiful," I smiled at her, "So bright."

"Wait until you see the master bedroom," She said cheerily, in probably the best salesperson voice she had. Landing a sale to Logan Echolls would really bump this lowly realtor's marketability up tenfold.

The house was undeniably beautiful. The architecture was modern and innovative. The hardwood floors were to die for. The tiling and details throughout were things I had only seen in magazines. My apartment could fit in the foyer alone. The house had just as many rooms as my whole complex. The clean pallet was something I could enjoy working with. But this was not and would never be home.

After touring the last of the five bedrooms, which Logan dubbed his "man cave", we followed Anne back into the foyer. Anxiously she waited for one of us to speak.

"It's absolutely beautiful," I broke the impending awkward silence, "And it's definitely on the top of our list, but we have other houses to tour."

Logan held up a finger before wrapping an arm around my shoulders and turning us away from Anne. "Babe, I can tell you love this house. Let's cut the nonsense and make an offer," He whispered loud enough for Anne to hear but she was out of view of his wink, "There's no way there's going to be anything better than this."

"Logan, I don't know," I calculated how much I estimated the house to be. It was far too expensive to make an offer that we wouldn't close on.

He shook his head, "I want to give you everything you want." And with that we were back in the triangle with Anne, "So how much is this place going to set me back?"

Excitedly she ruffled through her portfolio, suddenly forgetting the sellers' asking price, "They're asking for $1,590,000."

"Here's what we're going to do," Logan leaned in closely to Anne, "Call them up and say you've got a buyer who's willing to pay two mill as long as we close next week. No other bids. We really want this house. Can you do that?"

She nodded nervously, "They should be pleased with that. They're currently unavailable until Friday, but if you'll give me your contact information I'll let you know as soon as I get in touch with them."

Logan brought a hand up to massage the lines out of his forehead, "We're kind of in a hurry to buy a house. Our baby is going to be here soon and we just want to have everything prepared. We're looking to close by next week at the latest."

"I totally understand," Anne realized she would be losing the sale if she didn't do something quick, "I will do whatever it takes to get in touch with them tonight and I can let you know their answer by opening tomorrow morning. Would that be okay with you?"

Logan and I shared a glance before I gave him a small nod, "That would work. But I hope you'll understand that if we don't hear from you, we will not hesitate to move along with our house hunting."

"Of course, but you won't need to worry about that," She held out her pad and Logan scribbled his cell phone number across it, leaving off his name. He was confident enough that Anne would remember who he was, "Okay then, I'll be in touch tomorrow."

It was that easy. It had always been that easy for Logan and slowly, I was getting used to the perks that accompanied being with him. But for some reason, the power and pull he actually had still amazed me. With just a last name and his playboy smile, he had the world at his fingertips. And now, so did I.

He laced his fingers in mine once we were back in the Range Rover, "So baby shopping now?"

"Logan," I traced my thumb carefully over the back of his hand, "We have a whole week. We can take things slowly."

He shrugged, "Might as well start now. Besides, I don't think I'd be able to just sit around doing nothing. My mind wanders far too much."

He did have a point. Better to keep moving because there was nothing good to think about than our future. Or if the Sorokins had there way, the lack there of. I didn't have the heart to tell him to slow down because I feared that he would think the worst. Like I wasn't worth all this trouble, that I wasn't worth ending his life.

By the time we had gotten back to the Grand, Logan was weighed down with bags and bags. Filled with both baby supplies and more maternity clothes, he dropped them in the living room. After the long and exhausting day, sleep was going to come easily.

My night was peaceful. No nightmares or dreams I was too ashamed to even think about again filled my head for the first time in a long time. And then the phone had to ring. Suprisingly, it was morning already.

"Hello," Logan spoke softly into the mouthpiece, "No, it's fine." He paused, "Okay, that's great." He listened, "Yeah, we can bring the ten percent. Let's say, Wednesday." Again, silence on our side, "Yes, thanks. Have a nice day, Anne."

I turned over to face Logan and regrettably the sun.

"Good morning, sunshine," Logan whispered, cuddling close to my body, "I didn't mean to wake you."

I sighed, "It's okay. I had the best sleep ever."

"That makes me feel even worse that I interrupted it."

I kissed his nose, "I'm totally refreshed. I'm eve ready to get up and start the day."

And as if the gods had heard me, my phone rang.

I groaned, reaching for my phone on the nightstand, "Hello?"
"V," Weevil said without a greeting, "I got the stuff."

"Wow," I sat up in the bed, "That was fast."

He laughed, "I figured the fasta the betta."

"No, definitely," I reassured him, "Are you going to be in the office? Because I'll come pick them up."

"Already there, V," I could tell he was smiling, his feet up of my father's desk, "But I'll be working a case by eleven."

I got the hint, "Alright, I'll be there soon."

"Time to get up?" Logan propped himself up on his elbow as I fell back down onto my pillow.

I pulled the covers over my face, "Five more minutes."