20. Picture This

Logan had insisted on taking Veronica to the hospital for her appointment with Dr. Stevens although he had class directly afterward. He wanted to take her home but she insisted on coming to class with him. That was one of the greatest things about college. You didn't need to be enrolled to attend. He held her hand as he drove enjoying the comfortable silence. He could tell just by the smile on her face that things went just the way she wanted them to go. Veronica post accident was just as hard headed as Veronica pre-accident.

"So after class I was thinking you could bring me home and have dinner with us. Maybe its time we tell the family," Veronica had been toying with the idea of telling her parents that her and Logan were together. They knew that they spent a lot of time together and she gathered that they figured it out but it was time to just tell them.

"I was hoping that after class I could take you home and have my way with you," Logan said raising his eyebrows, "But dinner with the Mars sounds like a nice consolation prize," he laughed when he saw the look Veronica gave him. He lifted Veronica's hand and brought it to his lips. "I should just learn to smile and say yes dear."

Veronica laughed at Logan. "I think it would be helpful but remember, I like my boys a little bad and not so much conformist. Imagine you suddenly became a Yes Dear type of man and agreed with everything I said. I'd get so bored and have to turn to someone really bad."

Logan didn't hesitate to reply to his girlfriend, "I should count my lucky stars that you don't remember that many people. Right now your boy choices are limited to me, Duncan, Logan, Wallace, Piz, and your dad. I'm definitely the worst of those guys right?"

"Uh Logan, did you forget my tattooedvato? Eli is much badder than you. Ohhh now that I think about it those tattoos are kinda sexy. Why didn't we ever hook up in high school," she teased Logan. She knew Weevil was always in and out of trouble from what her trusty laptop revealed. "I might still need to try some taco spice."

"Mars, you are breaking my heart. I thought I won this competition already. I had to win against Prince Charming and the Jester, if you add Go Diego Go to the mix I just don't know where I stand." A few weeks ago Logan would have been worried about where this conversation would lead but he knew now that they were together and nothing would tear them apart. This is just the banter that made them uniquely them.

Logan parked the car and Veronica unclicked her seat belt and leaned over kissing him softly at first and then harder. The need to kiss him had just overcome her. " So what's your nickname in all of this," she asked between kisses as Logan reached over picking her up and putting her on top of him. She was straddling him and looking down smiling at him. "I'm gonna go with Mr. Right," she let her hand fall between the door frame and the driver's side seat pulling the lever to recline his seat.

"You know this feels a bit weird right," he pulled her down closer to him, "I'm usually the one initiating sexy time," he gave her a smile, "and its broad daylight and we are in the Hearst parking lot. There is a little bit wrong with all this," he gave her a kiss, "But I'm not complaining…but I do have a perfectly good hotel room that would be a bit more ummm comfortable and private."

She sat up and gave him a lopsided grin. As much as she felt like getting more than cuddles from Logan she wasn't sure she was completely ready for that next step. She could only assume that she had been with Logan before but this would be her first time since the accident. It was like losing her virginity all over again. "And as much as I'd love to see the inside of that hotel room you have class. Scat. Go. Learn something. One of us should be useful members of society." She slowly eased off of Logan and back into her own seat. The temperature in the SUV felt about 20 degrees hotter than it had when they first pulled into the parking lot. She ran her hand through her hair and let out a deep breath. "Give me time Logan and…"

"Hey, I'm not pressuring you. You started this who-"

"I'm not saying you are pressuring me. I think I was having a conversation with you in my head but the words actually came out of my mouth," she laughed at herself. "My brain is having a hard time wrapping itself around this whole situation." Logan nodded as she spoke. He couldn't say he completely understood how things felt for her but he knew how it felt for him. He was beyond nervous about doing the deed with Veronica again. For once Logan Echolls was completely cool with taking things at a snails pace.

"Look, just go to class. I'll meet you back here in two hours." She opened the car door and let herself out. Logan reached into the back seat and got his books. He walked to where Veronica was standing and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone…but my phone is on so if you need anything just call or text me."

"What could I possibly need besides directions," she laughed as she made her way towards The Hearst cafeteria. She had promised Piz she'd swing by his radio show and this was as good as a time as any.

"When do you ever need anything," he mumbled under his breath as he walked towards his class. He turned around to watch Veronica walk away. Logan smiled to himself thinking that all that praying finally paid off. His prayers had been answered and he had his Veronica back, but something seemed off. It wasn't exactly "his" Veronica. While they were dating the only thing he wanted was for her to put the P.I. in her away and be a normal student and stay out of danger and that's exactly what he got now but for some reason he couldn't shake the feeling that she was in more danger not knowing. He remembered getting the feeling of being watched the day they went out for lunch and ice cream and the day that Veronica said she thought Piz was watching her.

She was running a potential conversation with Piz through her head trying to figure out what to tell him, how to react to his come ons if he'd even bother. She'd managed to keep herself pretty distant from him over these past few weeks and that should have been a pretty big clue on how she felt about him romantically. She walked into the cafeteria and grabbed a soft drink before heading towards the radio station. Piz was just announcing the start of his talk show, "But We Were Just Talking." Veronica noticed that he didn't have anyone in the booth with him which probably made it hard to have a talk show but what did she know about radio?

She knocked on the window and Piz motioned for her to come in. "Hi," she mouthed giving him a little wave while he continued to do his radio thing and then put a song on to fill the void until a someone called in.

"I'm surprised to see you here," he said giving her a smile. "You have been a little MIA lately and I figured you were avoiding Hearst altogether."

Veronica smiled. She wasn't going to let him piss her off this early on. She promised she'd come by to watch him work and all she had to do was dedicate two hours of her life to this. "No, oddly enough I've been kinda busy. You know Mac managed to unlock my laptop so I've been going through old files on my hard drive and I've been relearning everyone," she gave another smile as she nodded her head. "And I learned that you and I had a sex tape go viral on campus. That was interesting."

Piz swallowed hard. He never wanted to relive that particular part of their past. He had paid for that dearly and it wasn't even his fault. "Yeah, well, I hope you read far enough to know that I had nothing to do with that other than having the misfortune of having the wrong roommate at the time, oh and I think my ribs are still bruised from the beating Logan gave me."

She bit her cheek to keep from laughing. She couldn't imagine Logan and Piz fighting. In fact, if she was asked to bet on who would win in a fight between Piz and Logan she would say Piz. He was just all around bigger but Logan had something that Piz couldn't match. Love for Veronica. His love was a driving force.

She took a sip from her drink, "Yeah I read about that. I keep details notes on everything," she pulled her hair over one shoulder, "So Piz, tell me, what was I doing before the accident? Tell me about us." For a moment Veronica was confused about why she wanted to know. She had just spent the better part of an hour explaining to her doctor that she didn't want to know her past and now she was quizzing Piz about their life together. Something had clicked when she mentioned her detailed notes. It didn't spark a memory but it did spark a feeling.

Piz looked just as taken back as Veronica was. "Give me a second," he went to the telephone lines and took a caller. Exams were quickly approaching so people weren't much into showing up to have a conversation on the radio , they just wanted to hear their favorite songs. He finished up the call and put a song in queue to be played. "We were okay, better than okay, we were good, great even. Why are you asking now?" He was curious as to why this was coming up now instead of when she first came home, when he was dying to explain everything to her. He was going to skip over the part that they had broken up because Veronica wasn't really over Logan. She tried to move on but her feelings were too strong. She probably craved some of that bad boy life and Piz just couldn't give it to her. He wasn't made that way. He didn't grow up with the type of drama that seemed to be popular in Neptune.

Veronica thought about what Piz said but she couldn't believe it as true. If they were really "great" wouldn't she feel a sort of bond to him like she did with Logan? Not only that but taking a page out of the "stupid things Duncan Kane did" book she started to keep an electronic journal and Piz was rarely mentioned. Her journal entries seemed to focus on cases she was working on as well as her relationship with Logan. If she had a great relationship with Piz wouldn't she document that somewhere so when they were married and had grand kids she could tell her grandchildren about the sweet gestures their grandfather did? "I was just really curious about us. I don't know if I've said it enough but I'm really sorry that I can't remember what we had. I made a decision to start over with a clean slate ... and..."

"I know, that clean slate involved Logan. I get it Veronica, I'm not stupid. " Piz looked a bit defeated. Veronica stood up and gave him a hug.

"I..." she paused trying to find words to say what she wanted to say. "I am really sorry that I can't remember the relationship that you remember so beautifully. I wish I could remember it. I really do. I've had a look through my entire life and you seem like a really sweet guy. You are the welcome calm after the storm but I think I need to continue to ride out this storm." She titled her head and smiled at him, "In the spirit of being complete clichés I really hope that we can be friends. I'd like to mend the fence between you and Wallace."

"Don't even worry about it Veronica. Wallace and I worked it out already. I get why he was so protective of you. I was trying to hard. I needed to give you space." He squeezed her a bit before releasing her from their embrace. "So now that we got all that out of the way, you don't have to stay here for the rest of the show. Go wait for Logan."

"You know what, I think I'll stay here with you. Show me what all these buttons do and maybe I can even take some callers. I've always been told I have a face for radio," she joked suddenly feeling more comfortable around Piz. Maybe that was all she needed, to clear the air and things could be "normal".

She stayed for the rest of the show talking with Piz and sharing a few laughs at the callers requests or what they choose to talk about. When Piz mentioned on air that Veronica Mars was in the station they got a few calls thanking her for her part in putting the Hearst Rapist behind bars and others called to wish her well. Her accident had made the news and of course the Free Press reported it as well. To be honest she was really touched by all the callers. She didn't realize she had made such a huge impact on the school.

"Look, I have to get going now. Logan's class is getting out in a few minutes and I'm supposed to meet him at his car," she said grabbing her bag and standing up. "This was fun and we really should do it again sometime." Piz stood and gave her a hug before opening the door for her to leave.

"I'd like that," he said as the door closed behind her.

Veronica exited the cafeteria and looked around trying to remember where Logan's car was parked. It was easy to get disoriented in a place so big. She retraced her steps and remembered where she came from and started heading that way. As she walked across campus she enjoyed the warm breeze and the warm sun hitting her face. She almost couldn't wait to start classes here next semester. She was looking forward to having some sense of a schedule and spending free periods with Logan wasn't too bad either. As she walked absent-mindedly someone bumped in to her knocking her to the ground and then ran off.

"Geez thanks jerkwad," she shouted. "Apparently excuse me and I'm sorry is too hard to say these days." As she was getting to her feet she noticed that they had dropped something. "Hey wait, this is yours," she yelled looking around to see where they went. She picked up the dropped item and noticed it had her name on it. Did it fall out of her bag? Upon closer examination she saw that it was a USB drive. "What the heck."

She pocketed the USB drive and continued to walk to Logan's car. He still wasn't out of class yet so she took a seat on the hood of the car and pulled her laptop out of her bag and inserted the drive. Her computer popped up the message about opening the drive and she clicked okay. "What the fuck," she said out loud as her screen popped up a folder with hundreds of thumbnails of picture of Veronica.

Veroinca with Piz, Veronica at home, Veronica with Backup, Veronica at work at the Free Press, Veronica at the mall with Mac and Wallace, Veronica with Logan at the beach.

"Whatcha starin at kitten," Logan said as he approached the car. Veronica didn't move, she seemed frozen. "Veronica, whats up," he said once he got closer. He saw what was on her screen and opened his eyes wide. "Veronica, what is this?"

Suddenly Veronica felt cold and a chill ran down her spine. "I was walking here and someone bumped into me and dropped this. Logan, these are old pictures right? I mean, like, I'm holding hands with Piz...do you think my dad is right? My accident wasn't really an accident?"

Logan climbed on the hood of his car and slammed the laptop shut. "I don't know. I mean, the lack of skid marks and no one coming forward? Do you have any idea what you were working on when you had your accident? The rapes were done, Dean O'Dell's was solved, what were you working on?"

"Remember, I don't know," she said looking truly defeated. She covered her face with her hands, "All I know is that I left my class early on the day of my accident. I left in a rush...look," she said as she fished out her note book to show Logan her notes. "Do you think someone is after me?"

He put his arms around her. "Let's go talk to your dad. If someone was after you he needs to know...and I'm here for you. I won't leave your side."

"We can't tell my dad Logan. I'll be under house arrest until he figure out what is going on."

"Maybe that isn't such a bad thing. Veronica I'd rather have you locked up and lonely then not have you anywhere because there is some crazed stalker out there. C'mon get in the car. I'll take you home...and I won't say anything unless you say something first." The expression on her face was full of gratitude but Logan wasn't too sure he was doing the right thing for her.