Okay, it wasn't a week. I'm a liar but forgive me anyway.

Chapter 6

Coming Around

7:45 pm Monday September 3

She knows she probably deserves it. This mess of karma that's currently punching her in the face. She's hurt this man more then he deserves. In more ways then he even knows. So she should take this penance with silent dignity and grace.

She should. But who would she be fooling? Certainly not Logan.

He fiddles with the windows as she navigates traffic frustratedly. The rain is coming down in sheets and it's more like bumper cars at this point. Her fingers tense on the wheel as he presses the control button up and down over and over. Rain is getting in his face and wetting his clothes, he's being a child. She sighs and glances over, "Why are you doing this?"

Logan glares at her, knowing this has nothing to do with her annoyance over a little precipitation in the car, "If it's the same to you I'll pass on the obligatory pep talk. You don't mean it and I don't believe it."

"It's not a pep talk you jackass," she hisses, turning as she decides to take a less populated street to get him home. She forgets that less populated also means less street lights. Her speed slows to a crawl, "I thought you'd recognize it as the 'what are you doing with your life you idiot' speech. God knows we've been through it enough."

"All the more reason to skip it," Logan shrugs and with this cynical little half smile that has always made her want to strangle him he adds, "Besides when comparing lives, I think we can definitely classify me as winning."

"Yeah," Veronica shoots back quickly, finally finding her own reason to smirk, "getting drunk before nine on a weekday really shows how content you are." The truth is she can count on her right hand how many times she had seen Logan this drunk when she was in college. She wouldn't even need to use all her fingers. He had stopped being the guy that would embarrass her right around the time she started worrying about being the girl who would do so to him. He had flourished unexpectedly under the scrutiny of fans that legitimately adored him and in equal measure she had begun to fade away.

"Girls and gold baby," Logan shrugs, eyes blank, "I've got both in spades."

"You know," she remarks disgustedly, "I never thought I'd see the day when Dick was more mature then you." He could be so much better then this. He is so much better then this. But neither of them is really living up to their full potential at the moment. She doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to maturity and growth. All her flaws and scars still bubble just beneath the surface. She's even added a few new ones to admire.

Logan sighs, leaning his head against window. His voice isn't spiteful, but pained, "He picked the right girl. Mac's loyal."

She tries not to wince at the dig, countering, "He waited. He didn't try to push her-"

"You said yes," Logan bellows. Hands flailing. He doesn't know how long he can keep dancing in this stupid circle. She can't possibly be trying to pin this on him again.

"What was I supposed to say?" She questions, head whipping to face him before she turns back to the road. It's still pouring, and she's already distracted enough, "You wouldn't have gotten over a no. We would have broken up and I didn't want it to be over."

"But you didn't want to marry me either," Logan finishes, voice still raised and arms coming up to cross over his chest.

"At the time-" she starts, wincing at how lame it sounds. At how very drained her voice is. She's almost relieved when he immediately interrupts her.

"Do you hear yourself?" Logan asks, his voice low, "Just stop Veronica. I know what happened, I was there. Don't pretend I forced you into something. You said yes because you wanted to. The problem is that you'll sacrifice any relationship to further your own fucking self righteous ambition."

"Oh, great," Veronica hisses, throwing her hands up in the air, "Do you charge by the hour doc? 'Cause I don't think I can afford to get another evaluation right now."

"No, seriously let's review. Me, Wallace, Mac, Duncan, your dad," he lists, counting the names off with his fingers, "You'll lie, sweet talk, manipulate any of us to get your way. But the moment, the fucking split second, anyone does something similar to you it's an international incident. You demand total honesty and give the exact opposite in return. I wanted a life with you, a future with you, and even though you left me after accepting my proposal and planning half a wedding I'm the one that's supposed to feel bad? Fuck. That."

"I'm not saying you should feel bad-" Veronica interjects softly. But she's forgotten what her point was to begin with. How she was going to paint this to alter villan and victim.

"No," Logan relents, the volume of his voice lowering as he grumbles, "you're just saying you shouldn't have to either." And maybe that was it. Maybe she underestimates how well he really does know her. How skilled he has become at uncovering her bullshit and leaving her woefully transparent.

"Oh I feel guilty Logan," Veronica acquiesces finally, "Of course I do. But it's six years later, how much longer do you intend to make me pay?"

Logan rolls his eyes, he really hasn't even started, "This is the first conversation we've had since you moved your shit out of the apartment. I think I deserve a little more closure then that."

He does. And so does she. One night altered and they would be fighting about completely different subjects. Figuring out their future instead of painstakingly dissecting their past. But she made her choice. Both six years and three weeks ago. And now her only option is to attempt damage control, "And you're choosing to take your vengeance a week before your best friend's wedding?"

"It's not like I'm going to get another opportunity," he answers, his smirk turning dubious at the edges, "I have no doubt you'll be back in New York before they can throw the rice on the happy couple."

Her fingers tense on the wheel, and she has the deep urge to lie through her teeth. To accept the false statement or distract him by calling him out for being selfish. But she's sick of constantly proving his accusations correct, "If times your only issue give it a rest. I'm moving back at the end of the week."

He blinks and then turns completely in his seat, facing her with skeptical eyes, "Moving back where?"

She winces, "Jesus you really are drunk. I'm. Moving. Back. To. Neptune."

There is a moment of hesitation as he thinks about the announcement. The changes she makes to her life that really don't effect him, but on the other hand really really do. He knows it's irrational to think she would tell him. To think he should have a say. She'd denied him that right when she had denied him everything else.

"What?"

She's about to explain. At least some of it. But the words die in her throat as a flash of headlights and the blaring of a horn overwhelm her senses. She swerves and manages to avoid the car driving in the wrong lane. But the Porsche tips into the wet grass and she loses traction completely. The vehicle careens over the divider and into the woods, the hood wrapping around a thick redwood.

She remembers Logan shouting and throwing an arm across her chest. The airbags inflate on impact and her skull smacks the headrest behind her. She sees spots and she remember the doctor's warning three weeks ago about head trauma and concussions and things she should avoid. Then everything fades to black.

8:00 pm Monday September 3

She falls on top of him, already half asleep as the morning sun falls through the curtains of the Neptune Grand. She loves Thursdays, can think of nothing better to do with her three hours between classes then spend them in bed with Logan. She wants to nap, but knows already he has other things on his mind. His hands fiddle with her hair as he sucks in a breath and questions, "So, what do you think?"

She bites her lip, eyes knitting together in concentration. He wants to discuss the apartment. The monstrosity with views worth killing for. But she doesn't have the same urge, knows that an awkward conversation will follow. He is filled with questions she doesn't want to answer. So instead she lifts her head from his sticky chest and replies, "Solid effort," adding then with a cheeky grin, "Why, do you want a high five?"

"I only accept positive reinforcement for mind blowing actually," he deadpans, earning him a smile from his blonde counterpart. His hands are still running across the blunt edges of her currently cropped locks when his voice softens and becomes the one she is used to hearing in bed, "And you know I was talking about the apartment smart ass."

"Are you sure you need all that space?" she questions, rolling off slightly onto the mattress, one of her legs still tangled between to both of his. She sits up on her elbow to get a better view of him when she elaborates, "I know you're all up and coming and everything, but it's a lot of room for one person."

His eyes gleam and it takes her a split second of horror to realize she's walked right into the question. The inevitable evolution of their sometimes relationship into something decidedly more committed. His eyes glance down and she wants to scream, half of her in excitement and the other in fear. When it comes to Logan she's never sure at any given moment which emotion will persevere. He looks up again and smiles hopefully, still so young, bound and determined to break her heart, "Which is why I was thinking the two of us could live there."

She goes with the first fear that comes to mind, "Logan I can't afford that place. I don't think I could afford to use their bathrooms."

He rolls his eyes, all hopes for a simple, peaceful moment gone. He should know better by now. That's not even close to the relationship he'd signed up for. And most of the time that was alright, it was just at these moments when he wished she was a little less of a pain in the ass, "I'm not asking you to pay rent Veronica. I'm asking you to live with me."

"As your kept woman?" she mumbles into the side of his body snarkily. Because that's what everyone will say. What everyone always says. A nobody who'd managed to snag the two most eligible and richest bachelors in her town. He was her golden ticket, and she would ride his coattails to fame and fortune.

He sighs, she doesn't exactly make it easy for him. But he isn't asking for any favors. Winning Veronica over too easily would make him nervous anyway. His life is a battle and she is no exception. He decides to go for it, hand reaching out to brush the bangs out of her eyes, "I was thinking as my fiancé."

Veronica snorts and kisses his shoulder, muttering a sarcastic, "Haha."

Without pulling away he reaches to the side and grabs the box that's been hidden behind a generic picture frame for a month. He studies it for a moment before flipping it open and laying it in the space between them, "Not a joke."

She glances rapid fire from the ring to his face. Vulnerable and raw, so different from the witty and guarded man she spends most of her time with. She doesn't move, can't even form a coherent thought. Too young. Too volatile. She can't say yes, but she can't say no either. "Jesus, Logan," she manages to choke out.

"Veronica-" he begins. And she's sure he's about to make her an offer she can't refuse. About to wash away all her fears and doubts with beautiful words that will leave her in tears. And she's desperate to retain her sensibility, the rationality he always seems to steal from her.

The absurdity of their situation dawns on her and she clutches the thin sheet covering her, "You can't propose to me while I'm naked. While you're naked."

"Veronica-" he starts again, ignoring her.

"Logan-" she repeats.

"VERONICA," it's not Logan's voice in her ear anymore but her Dad's. Keith Mar's in full uniform. She's remembers it all at once. Why she's currently horizontal in a moving ambulance with her father leaning over her and Logan clutching his bleeding in the seat next to him. His jaw is clenched tight, the muscles in his throat jumping frantically. She wonders what he had to do to get her father to let them ride in the same ambulance.

"Sorry about the car," she murmurs as she tries to sit up. Both Keith and the EMT trying to examine her head push her back down onto the stretcher.

Logan grimaces, looking at her like she's crazy, "Fuck the car Veronica. Are you okay?"

"Have you suffered any other head injuries in the past six months ma'am?" the EMT asks, and she knows that he has found the stitches above her right ear, right across her hairline. She has suffered a recent trauma, but she'd rather bleed out on the stretcher then admit it in front of Logan and her dad.

Her father notices the old wound too, and pushes the professional's hand away. "Veronica," his voice is soft. There is no attempt at professionalism. He is her father and she is his daughter and things have gone horribly wrong, "what happened?"

"Professional hazard," she sighs, swatting his hand away, grasping at the shards of strength in her voice. She reads the blind rage in Logan's gaze, his eyes still locked on the long line of neat black stitches. She wonders when she became so terrible at guarding her own secrets.

She decides to defer, focus on things she can actually anticipate and change. She glances at her Dad, whose still looking at her in a daze. What did he think she did for a job anyway? What did they both think? She'd been fast tracked and put in the field. Being an FBI agent wasn't exactly low risk.

"The hospital's going to be a circus," she mutters as the EMT shines a bright light in her eyes. She doesn't like that. It gives her flashbacks to a similar ambulance when she was covered in blood from head to toe. Her's and her baby's. Her hands clench into fists and she hopes irrationally that Logan doesn't notice.

"I'll take care of it," Keith and Logan mutter at almost the same time. Keith glances to Logan frustratedly, he wonders if her should scream at the kid for putting his daughter in another precarious position. For giving her cause to be out driving in this mess. But Veronica's a big girl now, and he can't delude himself into thinking she would allow herself to be taken advantage of. She puts herself between Logan and disaster because that's where she wants to be. But the fact that she shrugs off bumps and bruises as acceptable collateral damage in both her personal and professional life leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. Logan doesn't meet his eyes. His knuckles are white as he grips the edge of his seat, his eyes on fire as he stares straight ahead. And Keith understand that he doesn't need to lay blame on Logan, the boy has already accepted it.

"Ma'am I'm gonna need you to put on this neck brace," the EMT commands, "it's standard procedure until we can get your head checked out at the hospital."

Veronica looks at him, pretty face screwing up in stubborn disbelief, "That's not necessary. I'm fine, really."

Beside him Keith feels Logan's entire body go rigid. And he remembers how he found them at the scene. Car alarm blaring and rain flying, Logan had been standing in the middle of the street holding his daughter's dazed body. He knows, had been informed a minute before he boarded the ambulance, that the driver's side door had jammed. That Logan had used a rock and his hands to pull Veronica out of her seat and through the busted window. Keith realizes that if Veronica doesn't start complying, they're going to be cleaning up pieces of Echolls from inside the ambulance.

"Ma'am you lost consciousness at the scene," the EMT argues clinically, "You must seek treatment."

Veronica looks at him sharply, "I don't have to do any-"

Logan opens his mouth, but Keith finds the words first, "Veronica," he snaps, his tone leaving no room for discussion, "put on the neck brace, now."

She glances at her father, looks like she's about to speak, but decided better of it and closes her eyes. "Okay," she caves, "okay." Keith feels Logan's body relax ever so slightly next to him.

Stuck between the two of them. Stuck with all the questions he seems to always have for his only daughter. Keith sits in the ambulance, waiting and willing them to arrive at the hospital.

It is the longest five minutes of his life.

Thanks to all my reviewers, especially epic how because I love your lists intensely.