Chapter 27: Looking For Answers

******Still at Neptune Memorial Hospital******

The group was silent after Weevil left for a few minutes. Wallace looked miserable. "What do I do? I can't live with the guy thinking he may have hurt Jazmin," he said.

"You can come stay with me at my dad's," Dick offered. "He's going to be out of town a lot and has been bugging me about not letting the house be empty."

"You already have a house," Veronica said with a frown.

"Yeah, I know. But it's getting crowded," Dick said. "And you two are going to be married soon. Don't you think it's kind of lame that I still live there?"

"You said it," Veronica said with a grin.

"Dude, it's your house. You and I bought it. Not Veronica and I. She and I can go look for a new place that's ours," Logan said.

"That's true," Veronica said. "You love the beach."

"I do. But it's not like I won't be by all the time," Dick said. "My dad's house is huge. Trina and Richie can come visit me when you guys need some alone time!" He gave Logan a wink.

"Nice of you to think of that," Logan said with a grin.

"Besides, Wally-World, I'm not ready to be so domesticated! We can have, like, a bachelor's pad!" Dick said with a grin.

"You're a bachelor? Good to know!" Mac said with an eye roll. She was still peeved about his embarrassing comment about her period.

Dick cringed guiltily when he realized what he said. "You know what I mean! I just meant less girls under foot all the time!" he explained to Mac.

Logan and Duncan snickered. "Dude, quit while you're a head," Logan advised while Mac shot him an annoyed look.

"Jay, your dad's not going to, like, kill me if it ends up being David?" Wallace asked, changing the subject.

Jason shook his head. "No. I'll get all the blame. He really did tell me to watch David. He didn't like the way he was looking at Jazmin at the dinner party we had at Luigi's," Jason said.

"I don't get you," Veronica said in bemusement. "You're a very intelligent guy who seems to respect women. Why do you put up with your dad's antiquated bullshit?"

"It's just the way it is in our family," Jason said with a weary sigh.

"Jazmin is an independent, strong, intelligent woman. She's not some helpless woman looking for some guy to take care of her," Veronica said in disgust. "Hasn't your dad heard of the women's movement? This isn't the 1950s!"

"It's not about sexism or thinking she's helpless," Jason said. "We're not trying to demean Jazmin. She's my other half. I know how capable she is. We just treasure the women in our family. Hold them in the highest regard. Wives, daughters, and sisters are meant to be watched over and treasured like the jewels they are."

"Greeks are similar," Thea added. "Highly patriarchal for the most part. But I don't have an older brother, and my dad's outnumbered with all the girls. My baby brother is spoiled, pampered, and very sheltered."

"Well, I'm an only child," Veronica said.

"My dad was like that with Trina," Logan said. "She was treated like a princess and me the whipping boy."

"It wasn't like that in my family," Duncan stated.

"Understatement. You were the spoiled prince," Veronica said.

"Maybe if my parents were more like Jason's dad, Lilly would still be alive," he pointed out.

Their musings were interrupted by Mac's cell phone. "Hey, Lauren," she said. "What? Are you okay?...Really?...Okay...Yes...I'll be right there." She hung up and glared at Veronica. "Guess where my little sister is?"

Veronica frowned. "How would I know?" she asked.

"Maybe next time you go planting drugs on Madison's car and tipping off the cops, you think about the fact that Lauren could be in the damn car!" Mac yelled, her voice getting louder with each word. She was on her feet by the time she was done.

"What? Lauren's in jail? I didn't call the cops. I've not thought about Madison in the past 24 hours," Veronica said.

"So you had nothing to do with this? I'm supposed to believe that?" Mac asked crossly.

Veronica began to get angry. "I'm not a liar!" she exclaimed in annoyance.

"Uh, snookums, you do sometimes bend the truth," Logan said with a smirk.

Veronica shot him a dirty look. "I don't lie to my best friends about things that matter!" she insisted. She turned back to Mac. "My dad would kill me if I planted drugs or bought drugs to plant them."

"I can't argue about this now. I got to get down to the police station. Madison and the parents are unglued over this and causing an ugly scene with your dad," Mac shared. She glared at Dick. "You can stay here and think about how badly you want your new bachelor's pad. Give me your truck keys!"

"Don't you want me to go with you?" he asked in surprise. He got up and dug them out of his pocket.

She accepted them. "No," she said simply. Then she turned and left.

Dick sat back down, upset. He turned to Veronica after she left. "What the hell, Ronnie?" Dick asked. "A little payback is one thing, but did you have to go that far?"

Veronica gave him an annoyed look. "It wasn't me," she bit out. She looked at Logan.

"Hypothetically speaking," he said, "it may have been me." He didn't look sorry about the fact.

"What?" Dick asked incredulous.

"You think Veronica's the only one pissed at Madison? That was my baby she was carrying, in case you forgot," he said coldly.

Veronica looked at him in surprise. "Really? How did you manage that?" she asked.

The door opened and Weevil came in. "She's awake! Jazmin is awake!" he shouted excitedly.

Everyone got to their feet at his announcement. "Really?" Jason asked, afraid to believe.

"Is she talking?" Veronica asked.

"I just ran and got the nurse when she opened her eyes and looked at me. They chased me out of there," Weevil said.

Jason went out the door to her room in ICU. Everyone trailed after him. They crowded around him as he stood in the doorway of her room. The nurse had moved the bed up, so they could all see Jazmin was awake. Jason went toward her, ignoring the nurse. "Jazzie, you're awake!" he exclaimed in relief. He grabbed her hand.

She gave him a wan smile. "Yeah," she said softly. "What happened?"

Her friends looked at each other in surprise. Weevil stepped to the other side of the bed and grabbed her other hand. The nurse frowned at all the visitors. "We will move her out of ICU within the hour, but until then, only two visitors at a time!" she said firmly. The friends all reluctantly went down to the lobby.

"You don't remember?" Jason asked her.

She frowned. "No. I remember trying to sleep and not being able to shut off my mind," she said.

"I came to see you yesterday afternoon, and Mac couldn't wake you up," Eli told her. "I tried, and you were unresponsive. Barely breathing. Then I found a bottle of Xanax. You'd swallowed the entire bottle. You went into respiratory depression and slipped into a coma."

"We're so glad you're okay," Jason said. He hugged her. "You scared me to death!"

Eli was both happy and relieved that she was okay. However, anger at her actions began to seep in. "Why would you want to kill yourself? Who hurt you?" he demanded to know.

Jazmin's eyes widened in surprise. Then they saw both fear and shame in them. She looked down at her hands. The doctor came in. "I need to examine the patient," he told them.

The two men left. When they made it to the lobby, Jason stopped and looked in disapproval at Eli. "She just woke up and you want to start drilling her like she's a criminal! You got to give her some time!" he insisted.

"I'm not going to pretend this didn't happen, or that it was an accident!" Eli exclaimed. "You don't swallow an entire bottle of pills accidentally. Or do it in one bad decision swallow. It takes many times, so she had to have thought about what she was doing. I'm damn well sure going to find out! You can keep sticking your dumb-ass head in the sand, but I'm going to get to the bottom of this!"

His angry voice drew his friends to the waiting room doorway to see what was going on. Logan and Veronica stepped toward them.

"Guys, fighting is not going to help Jazmin," Veronica said in disapproval.

"They'll kick you out if you don't lower your voices," Logan added.

"She just woke up, and Eli here wants to give her the third degree," Jason said.

"I want answers!" he replied.

"We all do, Weevil. But until we find out how precarious her health is and her mental state, we can't push too fast," Veronica advised.

"Fine. Why don't you call me if she asks to see me?" he said and stomped toward the elevators. He couldn't stand doing nothing anymore. One way or another he was going to find out if it was David who hurt her.

******Neptune Sheriff's Department******

Mac got into the police station in time to hear the loud voices that she knew were connected to the Sinclair family. She went around the corner and sure enough there was Madison yelling at Keith Mars. Mac quickly got closer.

"Your insane daughter has a vendetta against me! She has gone too far this time, and I want to know what you're going to do about it!" Madison yelled.

"Vendetta? Isn't that a bit much?" Keith asked.

"Keith, what would you call it?" her dad said with a frown. "Your daughter tazered Madison on campus and threatened to make her life miserable. It's been pretty miserable this past week. She's got pulled over just about every time she's left the house. And now someone planted drugs!"

"My daughter would never plant drugs on anyone!" he said. Then he recalled the time she'd done exactly that to Logan and mentally groaned. Or was that just a bong? He wasn't sure. His daughter made him so tired sometimes.

"Are you sure? I don't think there's much your daughter won't dare to do!" Mr. Sinclair said. "She's sicked your deputies on my daughter!"

Mac quickly stepped up and did something she hated to do. She purposely put herself in the middle of the argument. "Veronica didn't do this," she said loudly, getting their attention.

All eyes looked to her. Lauren looked disappointed that she was once again defending Veronica. Getting arrested was the most humiliating experience of her young life. And considering she was known at school as the "Cancer Chick" that was saying a lot. "Mac, why are you defending her still? I got handcuffed! I have a mug shot! If this gets out around school, I will just die!" Lauren exclaimed, upset.

"So you know someone else eager to tape drugs to the undercarriage of my car?" Madison asked hotly.

"I accused her of it, and she was adamant in her denial. She said her dad would kill her if she went that far," Mac said, giving Keith a weary glance.

"Like I believe anything that meddlesome tramp says! She is convinced I killed her baby! There's no telling how far she'll go!" Madison insisted.

"First of all, I don't appreciate you talking about my daughter that way. You did have an altercation with her knowing she was pregnant. Second of all, if you and your sister both pass a drug test, I will have the charges dropped," Keith said. He'd do about anything to get rid of them.

"What about your daughter?" Madison's father said. "Are you going to rein her in? This needs to stop!"

Keith sighed tiredly. He wanted to be on Jazmin's investigation and got called away to deal with the Sinclairs. "I will talk to my daughter. I promise," he said, hoping to end this. He motioned to a deputy. "Have the two young ladies take a drug test." The deputy nodded. He led them away.

"I have work to do, so I'm going to excuse myself," he said to them. "Mac, I'll talk to you later."

He quickly made a hasty retreat to his office after telling his secretary to page Leo. If anyone was doing his daughter's bidding, he had a feeling it was the one his daughter used to date.

Marilyn gave Mac a sympathetic look. "It's okay, sweetheart. It was good of you to come down. Madison was being difficult. This was hard on her. Having Lauren in the car just made it worse," she said.

"She has a right to be upset over this, Marilyn," her husband said.

"You're sure the drugs aren't Madison's?" Mac asked.

Her parents looked shocked at the suggestion. "Of course not!" her mom said.

"Parents are always the last to know what's going on," Mac said.

"Is there something you want to tell us, Cindy?" Marilyn asked in concern.

Mac groaned. She was so bad at this. "No. I promise, I'll talk to Veronica and end this," she said.

"How's your friend?" Marilyn asked.

"She's doing better. She was still in a coma when I left," she said. Her phone buzzed, and she read Dick's message. A huge smile broke out on her face. "She just woke up! I gotta go. Tell Lauren I will come see her tonight before I go home."

She raced out of the hospital. It didn't take her long to make it back to the ICU waiting room. Her friends were still there. "How is she?" she asked Parker.

"Good! They're getting a regular room ready for her now. We can visit then. Her dad and Jason are with her now," she said.

"Where's Weevil?" Mac asked, noticing his absence.

"He and Jason got into it, and he left," Veronica said. "How's your sister?"

"Very upset. I didn't get to talk to her much. Your dad agreed to drop the charges if they both passed a drug test," Mac shared.

"That's good," Veronica said.

"This has got to stop, Veronica," Mac said firmly. "I can't take this anymore! You should've seen how Lauren looked at me. She was humiliated, and my family is convinced it's your fault."

"It's not! This wasn't me!" Veronica insisted.

"I told them, but I don't think they believed me," she said tiredly.

Duncan came up to Veronica. "Listen, I was talking to the others, and we decided it'd probably be better if some of us left. Thea doesn't think it's a good idea for us to bombard her with all of us at once. You and Parker are her roommates. Maybe you two should stay. I'll come back in the morning before class," Duncan said.

"Thea and I will come back tonight," Wallace said.

"That's a good idea," Veronica said. "I want to stay, though. Just to let her know I was here and worried."

"I think I'll go home for a few hours. Let her get settled into a room," Mac said. "I got to deal with my sister. She was really upset." She walked over to Dick. "Can you run me home? I need to get my car."

Dick nodded eagerly, relieved she was talking to him. However, he didn't like that she never reached for his hand like she normally did, so he reached out and took hers as they waited for the elevator. She didn't pull away, so he smiled at her. She still looked miffed.

"It's not going to work, Dick," she said as she stepped into the elevator. She pulled her hand away and crossed her arms.

"I'm sorry, Mac!" he said woefully.

"Yeah, you're always sorry, Dick, but it doesn't seem to stop you from humiliating me!" Mac said crossly.

They elevator door opened, and Mac stepped out. Dick followed her to his truck but waited until they were inside before speaking again. Instead of starting the car, he turned and faced her. "I didn't mean to embarrass you! Honest! I was just nervous and didn't think!"

"You never do, Dick. And I'm getting tired of you not respecting my privacy," Mac said.

"All girls have periods and stuff, so I didn't think it was something that was that private," he replied. He reached for her hand. "I'm sorry. Don't leave me! I'll do better! I promise!"

The look of panic and real fear on his face pierced Mac's heart. The man was impossible! If she didn't love him so damn much, this would be easier. "I'm not going to leave you, Dick. Quit thinking that!" she said.

Dick's relief was tangible. "I know you're too good for me, and that I'm the luckiest guy on the planet. You're so much smarter than me. I can't help but worry that maybe you'll get bored or tired of telling me stuff all the time," he said.

"I do get tired of telling you stuff all the time, but you're never boring," she said with a small smile. "I love you, Dick. I don't say that lightly. Love is a commitment."

"I love you so much, Mackie! I'll do better! I swear!" he vowed. "And you know I didn't mean you when I was talking about girls underfoot. I meant Veronica and Trina. They've been fighting lately. You're my best friend. I always want you around. I mean, I'd rather have you move in than Wallace. Or both 'cause it's a huge house."

Mac gave him a real smile, letting go of her annoyance. She had enough going on in her life right now and didn't need to pick a fight with Dick. She knew she was going to have to quit being so sensitive about private stuff, or they'd always be in a fight. He just didn't get the concept of privacy, and she knew he tried hard. "Well, not now, Dick. The timing's not right. But I can stay on weekends. Are you sure you want to move out of the beach house though? You love it there," she said.

"I do, but I think my dad's right. If they're going to be married, they should have some privacy. I love Ronnie and all, but it'll be nice not being nagged about crap all the time. She's kind of a buzz kill sometimes," Dick admitted.

Mac smiled. "Okay, we'll move you out over Thanksgiving break," she said.

Dick leaned over and kissed her. "Now we can go to your place and have make-up sex!" he declared with a grin and a wink. He started the truck and pulled away from the hospital.

Mac laughed. He had a one-track mind sometimes!

*******Later That Night*******

Veronica climbed into bed next to Logan. It'd been one of the longest weekends of her life. "I'm so glad the weekend's over! I can't believe we have to get up for class in the morning!" she complained.

"Well, just two days left. Think of that," he said as he put his arms around her. She laid her head against his chest and sighed.

"I'm so glad Jazmin's going to be okay. Or I hope she'll be," Veronica said. "It took a lot for me not to question her. I can't blame Weevil. I want answers, too."

"We'll get them. I doubt her father will go long before demanding his own answers," Logan said.

"I can't believe David would hurt her. He seems so nice. Wallace is going to be crushed that he once again misjudged someone if it is him," she said.

"Yeah, the poor guy's going to turn into a distrustful cynic like you and me!" Logan said with a grin.

Veronica looked up at him and frowned. "I hope not! I love his optimistic nature," she said.

"True optimists can't be beaten down. Just look at Dick," he pointed out. "Wallace will just learn some wisdom."

Veronica nodded thoughtfully. Then her eyes narrowed. "So tell me, you evil mastermind, how did you set Madison up?" she asked as she rose up on her elbow and looked at him.

"An evil mastermind never reveals his secrets!" he bragged.

"Well, this one better if he ever wants to see me naked again!" she said with an evil glint of her own.

"You're a coldhearted and cruel woman!" he complained.

"A perfect fit for you," she replied with a cheeky grin.

"Very true," he said. He leaned down and kissed her.

Veronica pushed him away when he tried to take the kiss deeper. "You're not going to distract me! Spill! Mac's still pissed at me over this," she said.

"I set this up on Thursday, and I didn't really think about it after all the Jazmin stuff," he said. "I saw Ratner on campus and offered him $1000 to do the nefarious deed. The bag of coke was only $50, so he made out well."

"Jeff Ratner? Really?" Veronica asked in surprise.

"Since he got fired from the Grand, he doesn't have access to the big tips. Guess an easy payday like that was too hard to pass up. I told him to wait until the weekend sometime to call in the tip," Logan said.

"He knew who she was?" Veronica asked. "He never went to our high school."

"Well, it seems he got blown off by sweet little Maddie at a party two years ago, and her stinging insult still pisses him off," Logan said with a grin.

"Leave it to Madison. Making friends wherever she goes," Veronica said dryly.

"I knew it'd probably not stick but would humiliate her and piss her off," Logan said. "Too bad Lauren was in the car with her."

"You don't seem too broken up about it," Veronica observed.

"Well, I do feel a bit bad about that. I don't like Mac being upset either, but we vowed to teach the woman a lesson," Logan said. "I want her broken and crying at my feet!"

"Maybe we should let it go, Logan. Mac's getting really mad at me over this," Veronica said. "We nearly lost Jazmin. I don't want to lose Mac."

"You won't. But Mac may have to pick a team. If her new family is more important to her than us, then we don't need her," he said sourly.

Logan had never had close family ties and never understood anyone picking family over friends. He hadn't when Veronica had done that with her dad.

She sighed. Maybe she needed to rethink this. Logan was serious, and she didn't want him losing Dick. Dick loved Logan, but Veronica knew he'd never pick Logan over Mac. "What about Dick? You know he can't stand to see her upset any more than you could me. He's not made a big deal about this yet 'cause he believes us and not Mac. But he's not going to risk losing her over it either," Veronica said.

"I know Dick better than he knows himself," Logan said. "He may stay away from me a while, but he'd never truly be angry with me about Madison." His expression changed. "Let's quit talking about the shrew. I'd much rather talk about you, and all the nasty things I wanna do to you!" He moved and began kissing her neck.

Veronica decided he was right. Talking about Madison was not the way she wanted to end her crappy weekend. When he began sucking on a particular sensitive spot, she sighed in contentment. "I do like the way your mind works!" she said happily. Then she threw her arms around him and let him have his way.

******Texas*******

Eli and Nico were in a rented car across from David's parents' house watching and waiting. The front door opened. David came out carrying a bag of trash to the curb. "Not now, Eli," Nico advised. "We must wait for an opportunity. We don't want to attract attention."

"The bastard is right there!" Eli fumed. He wanted to rip the man's head off.

"We're going to do this right! We don't know for sure what happened or if he is the one who did anything," Nico reminded him. "We're just going to talk to him. I'm good at reading people. I'll know."

"Then what?" Eli asked.

"We'll go from there. We gotta catch him alone. We know where he's at. We'll come back tomorrow and follow him in daylight. We'll get our chance," Nico said, starting up the car.

Eli watched the football player walk into his house. He was going to make this guy regret having one lustful thought about Jazmin. He didn't care what his revenge cost. The man was going to pay!

******Chapter End*******

I hope this was a satisfying chapter. Please review and let me know what you think!