A/N: Well, it seemed I handled the big step in the MaDi relationship well enough; now comes the aftermath, and fixing the Veronica/Piz mess too...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 16

"I am so sorry, Piz"

It had to be the seventeenth time Veronica had apologised since arriving at her boyfriend's place, or actually that should be ex-boyfriend at this point, since she had just completed the well-known but much feared dumping speech.

Veronica had done her best to avoid all pointless clichés. The words 'It's not you, it's me' had never passed her lips, though they were sorely tempted to. After all, she really couldn't blame Piz for their relationship failing. In a lot of ways it had been doomed from the start, though she had refused to believe it until very recently. She just wasn't in the right place for a new relationship, and a part of her wondered if she ever would be. Logan seemed to be the love of her life, no matter how much she wished it to be untrue. That meant Piz or any other guy, no matter how devoted, sweet, and kind, was never going to measure up to Miss Mars standard.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too" her latest ex sighed as he looked down at his hands in his lap, "but y'know, I can't say I'm like super surprised" he admitted.

"Ouch?" the blonde responded uncertainly, not really sure how to take his words at this point.

If he were angry at her she knew she would have to take it, after all, getting dumped was not nice for anyone, especially when they had done nothing to deserve said dumping. Still, she had hoped he would take it well, had banked on it in fact given what a decent guy he had always seemed to be since Day One of meeting at Hearst.

"It's not... I mean, I kinda always thought I was dating you on borrowed time" he explained, desperately seeking the right words so that this came out how he meant it to and in no way that could be misconstrued as insulting to this wonderful young woman that he still adored even as she dumped his ass, "Veronica, I'm not blind. Love is, but I'm not" he explained, "See, me and you, it was good, and I was totally happy, but... you weren't always there"

Veronica frowned at that before answering;

"Well, I know I went to Virginia but..."

"No, thats not what I meant" Piz interrupted her, "Even when you were here with me, and this is totally not your fault" he clarified, hands raised a little in some kind of surrender, "You just sometimes seemed like you'd rather be somewhere else... or maybe, with someone else?" he suggested with a knowing look.

He knew. Of course, he knew, and Veronica ought to have known that Piz wasn't so very dumb. He could see what she couldn't, that he was being used, not deliberately, but she was still guilty of doing it. She loved Logan more, even though she wished she didn't, and there was no way to get around that.

"I can't say you're entirely wrong" she admitted then, never quite managing to meet his eyes, "I don't know why I'm such a total train wreck when it comes to guys and relationships" she laughed humourlessly, "I mean, you should be my ideal boyfriend. You're smart, you're good looking, you make me laugh" she smiled, making herself look up then and meet his gaze.

"I know, I'm awesome" he joked, though the humour was thin and there was obvious pain in his eyes, "But that's not what you need, Veronica. You can't love me enough, and I pretty much knew that from the get go" he admitted, "I guess I was just pinning a little false hope on the fact that you might change your mind somehow"

"Believe me, I wish I could" she sighed, "Life would be way, way simpler if I could love you more, but…"

"But you don't, and that's okay" he shrugged as if it were no big deal, as if she'd just said she watched his favourite movie and found it utterly boring, but they both knew it wasn't that simple.

She was hurting him, even now as she told him how great he was, it was like a knife in his heart and Veronica hated that almost as much as Piz did. He was the most decent guy she knew, with the possible exception of Wallace, and he ought to be the man she devoted herself to. He was everything she could want and yet she could not love him, not enough, not like you needed to love a person to be fully committed to them. There was only one person she was ever really going to feel that way about, and it seemed so obvious to her now that they both knew who that was.

"I'm such an idiot" she declared whole-heartedly, though honestly she wasn't sure exactly what she was talking about.

She had been a fool expecting to be able to get over Logan so easily and an even bigger moron perhaps for thinking she really loved Piz enough for things to work out with him. She knew it before today, it was why she was here telling her boyfriend they had to be over. Still, it hit her full force, right between the eyes as Piz seemed to be telling her that he'd had this figured out from the start.

"You're not so stupid, Veronica" he assured her, and it killed her inside that he was still trying to be nice to her even after she dumped him, "A little blind maybe, but that's not a crime"

"It should be" she sighed heavily, as she looked across at him, "Not to start up a pity ditty, but I just feel like I screw up one relationship after another, and not just with guys, with everybody" she shook her head.

"Come on, you have a ton of friends" he rolled his eyes at her crazy negativity, "I mean there's Wallace and Mac and..."

Veronica loved that he would make an effort, but after just two names they both knew the list was going to stall. She couldn't call Parker a friend since the disastrous way she and Logan broke up. Dick was really only a part of her life through Logan and lately Mac, and there really wasn't anybody else. Lilly was dead, Duncan was long gone, along with Troy, Gina, poor Meg, a whole long list of people she had cared about in some form or other, all gone from her life.

"Oh, and, er, that Weevil guy" said Piz suddenly, snapping his fingers, "He's like your hombre, right?"

Veronica let out an odd spasm of laughter at the phrasing but nodded her head anyway.

"Yes, he's a friend" she admitted, "but the list is short and a lot of it is my fault... or it feels that way sometimes" she sighed, "You know, Piz, and I totally understand if it'll be too weird for you but... well, I'd like for you and I to be friends" she told him, expecting the wince she got at that comment, "Yeah, thought not"

"No, Veronica" he reached for her hand the moment she tried to get up and walk out, "It's not... its not that I don't want us to be friends, because I do" he promised her, "It's just gonna take some time, getting over you" he told her honestly.

Veronica was flattered, of course she was, and she understood entirely. She only wished she had never let Piz become more than a friend in the first place. Wallace had been right all along, it was wrong to play on his feelings when she couldn't really return them. Like most lessons in Veronica's life, this was another to be learnt the hard way.

Mac felt strangely calm and yet giddy at the same time, lying here in the arms of Dick Casablancas after their second time of having sex. To be fair, she had very hazy memories of the first time and had assumed that her subconscious had grossly exaggerated the heated passion and mind-blowing ecstasy whenever she dreamt about that one drunken night. Apparently she was wrong about that.

Today had proven one thing above all others - Dick knew how to make a woman feel good. Of course, the whole point of today wasn't just for Mac to have proof of his bedroom skills, far from it in fact. The more she thought on their odd and undefined relationship, the more she came to realise how much she really liked him. She enjoyed his company and wanted him around all the time. Talking to Veronica about it made her more sure on one level and yet on another less certain.

Pregnant lady hormones had a habit of causing all kinds of mixed emotions; crying for the dumbest reasons, hissy fits at the slightest thing, the ability to get turned on by the merest thought of anything sexy. It made Mac start to wonder if that's all her feelings for Dick really consisted of, just a strange friendship and imbalanced hormones playing off his cute factor of ten. She had figured the best way was to just come over here and lay it on the line, tell him what she was feeling, show him if necessary, and see where they went from there.

She really hadn't planned to go this far. A kiss perhaps, a little making out, just to see if it felt right. All of a sudden they'd been stumbling towards the bedroom and Mac realised it was her doing all the running. She was practically asking Dick to take her, and though he willingly accepted, he was as good as his word when it came to being careful with her fragile self.

They had passion aplenty, no doubts about that, but Mac at least felt like she was participating in this, like it mattered she was here. Dick had slept with so many women, and she knew for a fact that most of them had just been a body to make it with for Dick. They were nameless, faceless bimbos that he could hardly remember by morning, and perhaps knowing that was the way he had always behaved made Mac a fool for willingly being taken to his bed like this. Still, she would disagree with that, especially now as they lay here together, both trying to get their breath back after the exertion of the afternoons activities.

Honestly, the only person more overwhelmed than Mac by what had to be the best sex she ever had, was the guy she had experienced it with. Dick was more than a little confused as he lay there staring at the ceiling, one arm around Mac's shoulders and her head on his chest. Something weird had happened here today, something he really hadn't expected. Not that having sex with Mac was weird, hell, they'd done it before, and she was totally hot and everything, so why not? The weird was how it had felt, how he had behaved without really processing what he was doing.

Usually Dick wasn't much of a giver, and sex for him was about getting from A to B the best way that worked for him. Sure, you had to give the girl something or she didn't wanna play the game, but he got away with being as greedy as he could usually. With Mac it was just different. These past few weeks, spending time with her, he had so wanted to help her, be there for her, give her whatever she wanted or needed. It hadn't occurred to him to want to do that here, but it was what had happened.

Dick wasn't a complete idiot. He knew that for Mac sex wasn't just something you did with anybody. She was one of those good girls that believed you had to be pretty much committed to someone, in love maybe, before you went that far. Their drunken one night stand notwithstanding, he was sure he had her philosophy figured out, which meant today was a very big deal for her. She wanted to know he was committed to her, and usually when a chick asked for any kind of promise from Dick he ran a mile... unless it was to never tell her boyfriend what they'd done together. It was almost scary how much he wanted her to feel good, as much as himself. As far as he could tell, objective achieved on both counts.

As Dick's brain finally caught up with his body, and the humming and buzzing of electrical pulses through his form finally settled some, he remembered something important. Glancing down at Mac, he tried to meet her eyes and barely managed it as she hid partially behind her hair.

"So, you're okay, right?" he asked her.

"Oh, yeah" she told him definitely, blushing just a little as he stared at her, "I mean, I don't know how well I'm gonna walk later but... yeah, I'm good" she assured him.

"Yes, you are" he confirmed, his meaning a little different to hers as he leant down to kiss her lips, "but y'know I was talking about... y'know with the baby and everything" he made a random gesture with his free hand and Mac caught on then.

"It's fine, Dick, I swear" she promised him, feeling stupidly tearful.

This whole thing had been beyond beautiful, and now he was being so adorably sweet. What self respecting woman wouldn't cry at that?

"I just... I'm a little over-awed" she admitted then, causing a grin on Dick's face a mile wide.

"I get that a lot" he said cockily, at least until Mac sat up very suddenly in the bed, pulling out of his grasp.

It was really only a matter of time before he said the wrong thing, and Dick had pretty much known it wouldn't take long. Sometimes his brain just went on vacation and left his big stupid mouth to flap open and say something completely inappropriate. With most girls, he wouldn't even care if he offended them or said something dumb, not post-sex when he just wanted them out of his place already anyway. Mac was so different, in all kinds of ways, and the very last thing he wanted to do was piss her off, especially after what they'd just done.

"Mac..." he moved up behind her, putting a hand to her shoulder, "Babe, I so don't think you're just like all those other chicks I banged and forgot" he told her.

It wasn't exactly romantic but the sentiment beneath the awkward words was sweet enough, Mac supposed. She was pretty sure he ought to understand what a big deal today had been for her, she'd asked him before they started and he seemed to get it. Now she was panicking that she'd just made a fool out of herself.

"Then what am I, Dick?" she asked, peering over her shoulder at him, "I mean, I know we're having this baby but I thought maybe there was more to it than that"

Dick opened and closed his mouth three times with no sound making its way out. He hadn't a clue what to say to her right now. 'I love you' would be a lie, since he couldn't say he was definitely there yet, but he'd also meant what he said about her not just being another random lay he wanted to cast aside.

"You're Mac" he told her lamely and he knew it, "You're cool and awesome and I want you around, like, all the time" he tried to explain in words that didn't come easy at all, "And it's not just 'cause I knocked you up or because of Beav or anything, it's like... it's like you're different to all these other girls I know and, and if I had to choose between them and you? I'd pick you, okay?"

By the time Dick finished his awkward impromptu speech, Mac had tears streaming down both her cheeks. Sure, he wasn't the most romantic guy in the world, his words were not exactly eloquent or poetic, but there was no doubting how honest he was being right now. 09er guys were known for the lies they told to get girls into bed, but Mac was already here, the deed was already done. If that was all Dick wanted, he could've blown her off in the last five minutes, instead of declaring everything short of love to her. She was above all other women in his estimations and that was incredible to the young woman who had been traded at birth, used and abused by her first real boyfriend, and behaved like a fool on the anniversary of that same guy's suicide. Of all things, she actually almost felt like the unworthy one out of the two of them, and so overwhelmed by all Dick had just said to her.

With no words springing naturally to mind, she shifted closer to him on the bed, reaching a hand out to his face and pulled him in close enough to kiss. God only knew where they were going to go from here. There were a hundred questions still to be asked and answered on the road yet travelled, but this was as good a place as any to start.

To Be Continued...