"It's like you don't even know me," a humorously aloof Veronica told her friend.

"What was I supposed to think?" Wallace asked her in response. They were sitting on his back deck tucked cozily into a swing. Darryl was in the yard, playing with the dog, and Keith and Alicia were both standing over the grill arguing playfully. "This morning everyone at the beach was saying 'Tomorrow's my day with Veronica' and 'Friday's my day with Veronica,'" he did his best high-pitched impersonations. " You and I hadn't talked in a while—I felt like I had missed out on calling dibs."

"First of all, Wallace, I'm going to be freaked out if I find out Logan and Mac both now sound so eerily the same," he smiled at her mocking, "and second: BFFs always have first dibs. You should know that."

"I know that now. And it probably didn't hurt our little reunion that your Dad's been here almost every night this summer, so my brother says. He's forgotten how to cook for you on his own."

"Yeah, how is that going?" Veronica asked pointing a circle towards their sickeningly-lovey parents.

"I've only been Stateside about a week. But it's been like that ALL WEEK."

"Ew…so, has Dad stayed over?"

"Oh yeah, all the time, they're not even hiding it anymore. I think Darryl thinks Back-up is his dog." He nods to them playing fetch with what appeared to be a not-that-old shoe of Wallace's.

"I know you think I'm a marshmallow, Fennel, but don't put making a 10-year-old cry past me. Back-up is mine." She looked serious for a second, then they both laughed.

"So, you hung out all day with your dad?"

"Yeah, he's the best. He took the whole day off from the Sherriff's office and after he picked me up he took me out to lunch and then to ice-cream at the beach."

"And then you came here for dinner? Good thing the FBI does a body good, V. It'd be hard catching crooks this year if you had some new love handles."

"Yeah, well, I think after all that's happened, I'm going to try to catch fewer crooks this year."

Wallace looked at her incredulously.

"I said try," Veronica said shrugging her shoulders.

"So, really, V—what did your Dad say about all this?" He motioned to her and she nodded in understanding.

"He flipped out," she said, still a little in awe of her father's reaction. "Like for half an hour."

He gave a low whistle. "Whatever your dad did or said," Wallace started, "is going to pale in comparison to Logan's reaction."

Didn't she know it.

Later that same evening across town, Mac had a maroon Hearst polo shirt on and was wearing a name tag that said "I'm Cindy and I'm here to help!" She made her way to Donovan Hall, a freshman dorm, and was looking for the room of her next client when she saw a familiar face.

"Hey Dick!" she called out as he was hurrying outside, more as a greeting than a summons. He stopped, though, when he saw her and made his way back into the building and over to her.

"Cindy-Mac," he said taking in the name tag and joining her outside a door to a dorm room. "Didn't recognize you without that your itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny."

"What are you doing here, Dick?" Mac said, refusing to start off this conversation about beach attire.

"Here? Oh, you know, makin' friends," he said, trying just a little too hard to look nonchalant.

"Friends? With freshmen? Are you recruiting for the Pi Sigs already?"

"Yep," he said, latching on to this, "I've met some dudes that may just be Pi Sig material."

Mac studied him for a second then used her own powers of deduction. "False. Try again. You were totally makin' it with some freshman girl! On her first week of school!"

Dick looked at her then looked at himself and patted down his clothes as if to check that everything was in order. "How did you-?"

"I didn't," she said with a smile, "but it's midnight, you're in a freshman dorm, and you are smiling your smug little smile. Your response confirmed my suspicions."

"'Ronnie is a bad influence on you!"

" Dick—some girl is upstairs who has live away from home for three whole days is thinking you're going to be her boyfriend or her true love or something! " He smiled and shrugged as if to say, It happens. "Don't break some girl's heart before classes even start."

"I didn't say I was going to be her boyfriend. " he tried being sincere, then changed tactics, "Word's gotten around, Mackie: Girls know that when they're with me, they're just going to get Dick for one night."

"Disgusting," said Mac, for both ways he meant it. Not a chance in hell, Wallace. Wanting to end this conversation now, Mac knocked on the door in front of her.

"Who lives here?" he asked, "Max?" Dick was a little excited, hoping he'd get to see Mac really yell at him this time. Mac looked at Dick like he was an idiot.

A skinny, stoner opened the door. "Are you Brett?" Mac asked.

"That's not Max," Dick said to Mac, ignoring the unimportant guy in front of him, in true 09er fashion.

"Yeah, I'm Brett."

"See Dick? That's Brett. And I'm at work, so you can move along now," Mac said, giving him a little shove. She turned toward the guy in the door, "Hi Brett, I'm Cindy with campus IT. We had a call that your wireless router wasn't working? Is now a good time?"

"Yeah. I just called like 20 minutes ago, you guys are really fast. " he said waking out of his haze a little. "Want to see my computer?"

"Sure," Mac said, as she started to follow Brett into his room.

Dick reached out and grabbed Mac's elbow and in a loud whisper said, "You can't go in his room!"

"I can't? I think I'm about to. Dick, leave me alone, now. Please."

"What if he's, like, a killer or a rapist or something?" he was proud he got the terminology right.

"Brett?" Mac asked wanting to annoy Dick. "You're not a killer or a rapist, are you?"

"No." Brett said slightly confused, but not really bothered by the question either. Mac usually wouldn't be so unprofessional, but she knew Brett was so high he wouldn't remember anything she told him about his router, much less this conversation with an IT dork and a surfer-boy at his door.

"Are you happy, Dick? Brett's a boy scout. LEAVE." And she walked into the dorm room and closed the door behind her.

Twenty minutes later, Mac emerged from the smoky room and found a frazzled Dick still waiting for her outside, pacing.

He didn't give her any time to question why he was still there, "Mac, I know you're going to say something like 'there's nothing to worry about' or 'that guy looked harmless' but this is not a good job for you to have! It's not very safe. The next guy could be a maniac!"

"Walk with me, " Mac told him, not addressing his concerns, but allowing him to stay with her.

Since when do you even care?

Dick, ever obedient, followed her curiously.

Mac took out a little walkie-talkie on her belt and clicked it on as she walked.

"Mackenzie leaving Donovan," she said into the handset.

"Took you long enough," a voice over her walkie-talkie, "I had to tie Trevor down. You let a simple thing like a router trip you up?"

"That'd make you feel a little more secure, wouldn't it, Hollins?" she teased. " And tell Trevor to keep his pants on. That kid was stoned out of his mind and had no idea what I was saying, plus… I ran into…. a friend before," she looked over at Dick. Were they friends?

"You know full well Trevor would like nothing more than for you to—"

"Hollins!" she barked back, "We're not on a secure channel."

"Right, well, check in mid-way next time if you get slowed down. Don't want the boys going crazy here wondering if our star's okay. We've got a lull—you care to pick up coffee?"

"On it, Hollins. Back in 15."

"10-4, Mac."

Mac course corrected towards the all-night campus café, and shot a look over to Dick. See.

He smiled at her, his big dopey smile. "What you wanted me to hear is that you're safe, little Mackie. Point taken. What I actually heard was that you're safe and that there's a whole troop of nerds at your work who are in love with you."

She sighed, "And for that, you're buying my coffee."

"Gladly. I'd love to bring coffee to the troops. These boys that think you're such a hot commodity need to be reminded you have a boyfriend."

Mac stopped suddenly and shot a look at Dick.

"I meant Max!" Dick said, and then added, "They do know about Max, don't they?"

"Listen, things with Max are complicated," she began, sounding weary, "It's not like I was trying to be deceitful by not telling people I work with about my boyfriend, it's just that I don't see Max making the cut for much longer and I didn't want to go into all that with these guys."

Good, Dick thought, That will make tomorrow a little easier.

"It's kind of like you," Mac continued, "not advertising to these freshman girls who don't know your track record—they don't know you're not going to stick around for more than a night. They probably think you're a hot commodity, too." She laughed at that thought.

"Hey Mackie," he said, not really offended, as he held open the door to the café, "the difference is, you've worked with these guys all summer and had a boyfriend all summer. So Max has been on the chopping block for a while, hasn't he?"

She studied him for a long time. Dick Casablancas was completely sober, buying her coffee, and talking to her like a friend. Didn't he remember all those awful things he had said to her? Why was he being nice? Why was he even interested in her life? Was Wallace right?

"I haven't really gotten used to the sophomore version of you yet, Dick," she said before she could even process those thoughts. And she was avoiding the question. " The one who buys me fruit for breakfast, yells at Max when he's being an asshole, worries about me being in some guy's room, and asks me about my relationship problems—he's not really the guy I'm used to seeing in that sufer-boy façade. Couldn't you just go back to the guy who mocked me all senior year and yelled hateful things at my dorm last year? He was easier to ignore."

Now he was offended. Or, actually, he realized how offensive he had been and was hurt she wanted to ignore him. "Nope. You're stuck with this version. That Dick was a dick. And to no one more than you. I'm really sorry, for everything, Mac. But I'm not asking for your forgiveness yet. I want to show you I'm going to be the kind of friend you deserve."

Mac was a little shocked. Dick had put some thought into this. "And what if I still can't forgive you then?" They both thought of Cassidy and were somber for a moment.

"Well, then you'll be missing out," he said attempting to regain his jovial composure, "I know I'm a screw-up at most everything, but there are three things in which I excel: I'm a bad-ass sufer, lover, and friend."

Mac laughed, despite herself.

"Okay, well, I'm not talking about Max with you tonight, but you can come meet my friends at work," she offered.

"Lead the way, Macster."

Thanks for your patience—I enjoy writing these slow and getting them right— the next chapter will be 100% LoVe!