Title: Mutual
Author: Brendan/brencon
Pairings/Characters: Logan/Veronica, ensemble
Word Count: 1,554
Rating: PG-13, so far.
Summary: What if Logan and Veronica got together before everything went to hell?
Spoilers: Set pre-series, but is now including season one plot.
Warnings: Swearing.
Disclaimer: Veronica Mars belongs to Rob Thomas and the nice people at the CW
Author's Note: Italics represent Veronica's thoughts and/or voiceovers.
Veronica Mars had thanked Steve, climbed out of the limo and unlocked the front door, watching as it slammed against the wall behind it, shaking the painting on its hanger. She sighed, entered her home and closed and locked the door behind her. She'd become a lot more conscious about self protection, even asking Keith to buy her a stun gun.
She went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before making her way upstairs, going through the motions before making her way to bed.
Her head hit the pillow and she was out like a light. Her dreams were filled with blood shed and coma's and gun shots. She tossed and turned all night, waking up nearly every hour.
--
Keith Mars had only just left the office and was nearing home when his cell rang. It was Lamb informing him that both victims of Aaron Echolls were awakening, but that their conditions were vastly different.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes once more this morning, Keith checked the time and decided against calling his daughter. She needed at least a few hours of sleep.
He thanked Lamb for informing him and hung up, before turning his SUV around and directing his truck to the hospital.
--
Lynn Echolls had entered her son's hospital room just five minutes ago and figured that the twitch of his hand or the flutter of his eye lids was just her imagination playing tricks on her when the silent body on the bed before her sat up and started to choke and splutter on the tube down his throat.
He tried to remove the tube before Lynn finally calmed him and called out for a doctor. The corridors, however, were empty, with even the security team of Kane family having vanished from their stations.
Striding down the hallway, Lynn looked in the Kane room and found the majority of the medical team situated in the room. Standing in the door way, she grabbed a nurse that was about to enter the room and informed him of her own son's waking up.
She followed the nurse as he quickly set about work on her son, glancing back at the busy team working on the heiress.
--
Duncan Kane awoke with a start from the ringing of the machines and the whirring and buzzing caused by all the wires connected to his elder sister. He jumped to his feet and froze, unsure what to do at first, when suddenly the door swung open and the room was filled suddenly with doctors and nurses as Clarence Wiedman dragged him out of the way, down towards the waiting room.
Passing his former best friends room, Duncan found the younger teens' mother sitting beside him, her eyes lost in a daze of worry.
--
Logan Echolls', blurred eyes and aching stomach, first sight upon opening his eyes was a man, who was checking his stats and breathing and conversing with someone to his left. Craning his neck, he found his mother hovering at his bedside.
Noticing her son's eyes on her, Lynn smiled brightly and leaned over him, kissing his cheeks and forehead before taking his hand in her own tightly.
"How you doing, son?" she asked, her smile evident in her voice.
"Better without that thing in my throat," he joked, coughing from his laughing, "What time is it?"
Checking her watch, Lynn returned to Logan's eyesight, "Almost half three in the morning." Lynn poured her son a glass of water and, adding a straw, helped Logan to drink some to aid his raw throat.
"Where's Veronica?" he finally asked, taking steady breaths.
"I sent her home, she has held a constant vigil of your bedside since you passed out in the sheriff's office; she was exhausted, so I sent her home with Steve. I can call her, if you'd like?"
"No, let her sleep."
Taking another drink of water, Logan got comfortable in his bed before facing his mother once more, another question forming on his tongue.
"How's Lilly?"
Pausing for a number of moments, Lynn looked towards her son with sorrow, "I think she's gotten worse. When you were waking up, she was having some sort of attack. Her room was swamped with doctors."
"Could you please check in on her?" Logan asked the nurse, who was still examining the read-outs from the machines Logan was connected to.
The nurse was about to speak, when Logan's mother interrupted him.
"I can check, it's just down the hall," she said, making a start to move when the grip from Logans hand increased.
"I need you to stay with me for a while… please?" Logan asked in a quiet voice, his heart beating hard in his chest.
"Of course honey… I'll stay right here."
The nurse, who was now finished with his work, left to check on the Kane girl. Mother and son shared a small smile before Logan started to quietly cry against his mother's chest.
--
Lilly Kane was floating on a blow-up bed in the pool in her back garden, Spice Girls playing on her CD player as Veronica and Logan sat beside the pool, playing poker. Duncan was constantly kicking his soccer ball against the wall on the east side of the garden.
Her blood red lipstick matched her bathing outfit perfectly as she lazed in the warm suns rays. Her blonde hair bounced down her back as she laughed when Logan threw the deck of cards into the pool, followed by Veronica.
The ripples were nothing to worry about when Veronica entered the still water, but when Logan bombed in, the waves were large and rocked her off her pedestal into the water.
"Logan! I was trying to get an even tan!"
"Sorry Lil, but Vee here was kicking my ass at poker and I had to do something."
"She always beats you in poker – why throw her in today?"
"Cause she said she wouldn't let me kiss her anymore if I didn't win that round – for a week!"
Laughing loudly, Lilly swam to the edge of the pool and pulled herself up onto the edge. Pulling herself to her feet, Lilly grabbed a towel and started to dry off.
"Finally using those womanly wiles to your advantage, Veronica? It's about damn time!"
Suddenly, a loud crying fractured the air and Lilly hurried in her drying. Duncan arrived at her side, a baby monitor in hand as he passed by Veronica. Holding it out to Lilly, when she finally took it, Duncan kicked the soccer ball hard, sending it through the air and smacking hard against Logan's head, knocking him beneath the water once more.
Veronica, now sitting on the edge of a deck chair, threw her head back and laughed hard, almost on the verge of tears.
"Great shot donut!" Lilly laughed, "But I gotta run – duty calls!"
She climbed the stairs two at a time, arriving at the baby's room. The kid was on it's side in the crib, screaming his little lung's out.
She picked the boy up and started to rub his back soothingly, when his cries started to quieten. In the silence of the room, an echo of screeching and beeping sang in the room and Lilly was suddenly on her back, men in green masks surrounding her and crowding her, a cool gel being applied to her bare stomach.
The boy in her arms suddenly started to cry once more and Lilly kissed his head in an attempt to calm him.
"Shush, David," she said, bobbing him in her arms, "shush baby."
--
Jake Kane hadn't slept in days, his daughters test results having him terrified out of his wits. He was busy signing off on new proposals and development projects for the firm when the call came.
His heart rate rose as it pounded against his rib cage. His baby was waking up. And she was in trouble. Jake was unsure about the fatherhood of Veronica Mars, but the daughter he was sure of, his Lilly, was in trouble and needed her daddy.
He called Clarence to let him know he was coming. And then he was going to pay a visit to an old friend.
--
Aaron Echolls was bored. The Balboa County Sheriff office was not the hive of activity as some of the police stations he has stared in for his films. He knew that once the charges were dropped, his life would be made into a biopic that would be award winning and a must see upon release.
His mind was still stuck on the thoughts of what brought him here. That Kane bitch was trying to sell him down a river. Her blackmail had threw him over the pressure point and all he saw was red until the haze lifted and it was his own son he was beating up.
For all his anger trips, Aaron never intended to beat up a girl… not after the way his own father treated his precious mother. Logan's own attempts to anger him were usually unintended incidents.
And now, here he rotted. Behind some small town, back water bars awaiting proper charges to be placed against him.
His abusive ways had finally come to an end. Just not the one he expected.