CHAPTER 11

Veronica screamed instinctively when they went after each other.

She didn't think that she would ever live it down. Her, Veronica Mars, screaming like a girl; it was embarrassing. If anyone found out about it, she would lose her reputation as a hard-ass.

Fortunately, it didn't seem like Logan had noticed. At least…he hadn't said anything about it yet.

They were sitting on her couch, Logan pressing a wet cloth to his nose to stop the bleeding. She was cleaning up his hand, it having been messed up pretty bad from the fight. Veronica couldn't help but remember a few months back when Logan had been there nursing other bruises. She hoped that this wasn't going to become a habit of his.

"Shit!" Logan hissed out, moving his hand away from Veronica quickly when she put antiseptic on it. He gave her a reproving look and only slowly moved his hand back. Veronica chuckled lightly at how much of a baby he was being.

"What's so funny?" he grumbled at her, wincing at the pain from his busted lip when he spoke.

"At how much of a baby your being" she answered bluntly, a smile teasing the corners of her lips. It always seemed funny to her that men acted oblivious to pain while fighting, but blubbered at the clean up.

"I'm not the one that screamed" Logan snarked back at her as he replaced the cloth to his nose and tilted his head up a little.

Veronica groaned, her eyes closing. Just her luck, he had heard it. She could hear Logan chuckle and her eyes cut to him, narrowing.

"I was surprised" she defended herself.

"Kind of like when that shit…" he motioned to the bottle of antiseptic. "…touched my cuts?" he asked with a raised eyebrow at her.

Veronica swallowed a laugh at how ridiculous he looked. He had blood staining the front of his shirt, a cloth pressed to his nose, his head tilted back, and he was giving her his best arrogant look. And if it weren't for the fact that he looked like a truck had ran over him, he would have been pulling it off.

"You're right" she said, trying to sound serious. "I shouldn't have laughed at you" she apologized to him.

"I know you shouldn't" Logan said, his eyes twinkling. "But I'll forgive you"

Veronica did laugh then, amazed at how they were acting. Duncan had freaked outfifteen minutes ago and attacked Logan; and now they were making jokes? The benefits of loving a man like Logan.

The door burst open, making them both look up at the same time in surprise.

Keith burst through the door and his eyes glanced quickly around the room, spotting where they sat. They looked fine, except for a few bruises and some blood on Logan that is. Keith took a deep breath and let it go slowly.

He had called on his cell phone by Lamb; a courtesy call to let Keith know that a fight had broken out at his apartment. The sheriff hadn't thought that it was necessary to tell Keith the details, but had only laughed arrogantly and had hung up. Keith had barely taken the time to say goodbye to Alicia before he ran out the door.

Even without details, Keith had known that it had had something to do with Duncan. The young man had phoned Keith an hour before, wanting to know if Veronica was alright. Keith had told the young man that Veronica was fine, but she was tired and he would have to see her tomorrow.

Something in the way that Duncan had sounded had worried Keith, but he had dismissed it. Duncan after all had always acted like a gentleman to Veronica. The one that Keith had always had to watch for was Logan.

But as Keith looked at Logan and Veronica sitting on the couch, Veronica holding one of Logan's hands, Keith thought that he would have to change his perspective.

"Dad!" Veronica said with the shock evident in her voice. Logan had to stop himself from trying to hide the evidence of his fight with Duncan. From the way that Keith had come in, Logan would have to assume that the man already knew about it.

"Mr. Mars" Logan said respectfully, his words muffled a little bit because the cloth was too near his mouth. He moved it and repeated his words.

Keith winced as he saw the damage on Logan's face. "Jesus, Logan. You let Duncan do this to you?" he asked, his tone commiserating and reproving at the same time. He moved over to where Logan was still sitting and inspected him.

"You should see the other guy" Logan joked weakly, feeling uncomfortable because he didn't know what he was supposed to say. Keith had given his blessing for the relationship, but Logan didn't want to push it too much. And he couldn't help but think that getting into a fight on the man's front step might be pushing.

"I'm going to hope that he isn't this bad" Keith said with a rueful smile. "Otherwise, the Kane lawyers will be having a field day"

"It was Duncan's fault" Veronica jumped in quickly defending Logan. Logan smiled over at her slightly. He would give her a kiss, but it would hurt a lot, and probably piss Keith off. "He came over, and then waited for Logan. He didn't even say anything when Logan got here; he just jumped him" Veronica continued in a rush.

"Then what?" Keith asked, his face not giving anything away. Logan stayed silent; he knew that Veronica would want to handle it.

"Well, they fought, and…then Lamb showed up" she answered her father simply. "He broke it up and took Duncan with him when he left"

Logan looked at Veronica incredulously. She had completely omitted the fact that the sheriff had threatened jail time to Logan, but had only backed off when Veronica had mentioned that putting Logan there would mean putting Duncan there too. Lamb hadn't seemed too thrilled with that idea and had just left instead. Logan wasn't really sure where he had taken Duncan, but it was probably to a doctor. And Logan would bet his car that a phone call to the Kanes had been made pretty quickly.

Keith was giving Veronica a suspicious look and Veronica was returning it with a completely innocent one. After another moment Keith sighed, rolling his eyes as he moved away to the kitchen.

Logan closed his eyes in relief and checked his nose again to see if it was still bleeding.