Look Who's Stalking
34 weeks
"Please? Get a room. In Australia, possibly." she says jokingly as she and Eli come up on Wallace and Jackie cuddling near the lockers.
"Hey, we're practicing for the prom." Wallace says with a smile.
Eli wraps his arms around her and leans against the lockers, pulling her with him.
"What debutante bit you and turned you into a prom zombie?" he asks.
With a laugh, "We just gave in. The whole nine yards, the ridiculous dress, the tux, lobster dinner, limo. I mean, it happens once. Why not go all out?" Jackie tells them.
"Because no one sold you as an indentured servant to Butters." Mac says joining them.
"Querida?" he says since he thought she had been joking about it.
"Q, I didn't think he'd actually..." she starts.
"He's picking me up in a Hummer limousine. We're having dinner on a replica pirate ship and I suspect he's hired a zeppelin for the ride home...If you weren't weeks away from having..." she quickly covers her mouth, her eyes wide.
"Wait! Mac knows and I don't!" Wallace exclaims, utterly offended that he isn't in on the secret.
"Logan knows too." Eli tells him.
"Oh that's not fair." he pouts slightly.
"Yes, it is. Eli doesn't want to know and those two are the only ones that won't let it slip. At least I thought they wouldn't." she says trying to look annoyed and failing.
"Attention students. Due to a significant number of alcohol violations on the senior trip, this year's prom has been cancelled." Clemmons announces over the intercom.
"Yes! Prayer works!" Mac yells with a huge smile.
"Mac..." she says motioning to Wallace and Jackie.
"Oh, sorry." she mumbles walking off.
Gia sits down next to her in journalism.
"Have you ever been stalked?" Gia asks.
"Umm, well..."
"Because someone's stalking me. I was hoping you might have some tips or something."
"Dancing around in your underwear with the curtains open is always good..." she jokes.
"No! No, no, I mean for catching him. I keep seeing this car following me around."
"Any reason why anyone would be following you around?" she asks rubbing her stomach when the kicking starts.
"Well, at karaoke, I did 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' and I dedicated it to this table of cute guys, but then I realized they weren't cute. They were dweeb Pan High guys and not the nice nerd kind but the weird, creepy..."
"Potential stalker kind?"
Gia just nods. "Can you help?"
"Sure. Easy."
"Can I help you?" Keith says barely looking up when someone enters the office.
"I want my hard drive back. I know that you took it." Kendall demands.
"Did your husband know about you having your own place or who you really are?" he says full of snark.
"If the hard drive shows up by Friday, I won't press charges." she says handing him a self addressed package.
"Mrs. C! I trust you're well." V says as she and Eli enter the office.
"Well, if it isn't little Miss Teen Mom. Your dad and I were just dealing with a little trouble." Kendall snarks brushing past them.
"Like Trouble, with a capital T, that rhymes with C, that stands for.."
"Veronica!" Keith exclaims while Eli tries not to burst out laughing.
"I was gonna say cute." she smirks as Kendall leaves.
"How was your doctor visit?" he asks as she sits down.
"Everything is going the way it should be. This little one should be right on time." she rubs her stomach. "Can I borrow the remote cameras tonight?"
"What for?" he asks.
"This girl I know suspects that one of several creepy weirdoes she sang a Kylie Minogue song to at karaoke night might be following her around. We're trying to narrow down which one it is." she says not revealing that it is Gia.
"You know what, mail out these to everyone on our contact sheet." he says handing her a box of printed off pictures.
"And who is this charming fellow?" she snarks showing Eli the drawing.
"The charming fellow who hired the escort to steal Cliff's briefcase."
"And his heart. Poor Cliff." Eli jokes.
"Yeah. She must have been something. 'Cause he won't shut up about it." Keith says as they get up and grab the cameras before they head out.
"Cameras are on the roof, so if this guy followed you here, we should be able to spot him." she tells Gia as Eli sends her a text that the cameras are up and he is heading out.
"Wow! How Mission: Impossible." Gia replied.
They watch the video feed on her laptop for a few minutes.
"There! That's the car. Isn't it totally nondescript?" Gia says pointing when the car comes on screen.
"That's a 2002 silver Gallant." she says bringing up the screen to look up his information.
"You can just look him up, right there on your computer? That's awesome." Gia says watching her.
She just smiles as his information comes up.
"Leonardo D'Amato? God, what kind of loser is that?"
"Greek-Italian." she sighs picking up her phone to text Eli.
"Hey, how's it goin'?" she says to Logan as she bumps into him the next day at school.
"You look like you would rather be anywhere but here." he says pulling her to a stop at his locker.
"What?" she says confused.
"You have that 'I'd rather be making out with a broken bottle' look."
"This? This is my "I'd rather be spelunking" look. It's like you don't know me at all."
He just laughs at her.
"So tired." she says rubbing her belly.
"Little man giving you problems." he says placing a hand on her stomach only to be kicked.
"I think the doctor lied about me lasting the full forty."
"I umm...I noticed that Wallace was looking a little bummed about Prom being cancelled."
"Yeah, he and Jackie were looking forward to it." He hands her a flyer. "Wow, you and your drunk 09er buddies get the prom cancelled, and then use your inherited wealth to throw a private prom." she says looking at the flyer.
"When you say it like that it sounds unjust."
"How does it sound when you say it?"
"Mm, glamorous. So...are you and Eli going to come?"
"I'll think about it." she tells him before walking off.
"Batting cages. There's one up north. We could get some flowers, play a little music, take out some Chinese..." Wallace tells Jackie, trying to make up for Prom being cancelled.
"The prom has been cancelled and you want to take me to a batting cage instead?" Jackie says arching her eyebrow.
"Yeah. It's for that 'so casual, it's super romantic' thing."
"That's not a thing! That's male wishful thinking. But I want to wear my dress, think fancy." she says smirking.
"Can we do it anyway? I mean go to the batting cage in the afternoon..."
"I'm going to be seeing my dad."
"How's it going?" he asked as V and Weevil sit down with them.
"It's good."
"Okay, I have something that might make your day." she says passing them a flyer. "The senior memories once thought lost forever can, in fact, be generated after all, albeit in a slightly degraded form. Logan and others are throwing a private replacement prom."
"Alterna-prom. Hm. Formal attire." Jackie says smiling.
"Please don't give us the tux speech again." she says with a grin when she notices Wallace stat grinning.
"What? You mean, how when I put on a tux, I make James Bond look like Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel?" Wallace says trying to look serious.
Weevil just shakes his head at him and drops a kiss on V's shoulder. "So we going to this thing?"
"I would like too..." she whispers.
Mac walks by and grabs the flyer out of Jackie's hand and joins them.
"Oh, please tell me Butters knows nothing about this." Mac says looking upset.
Before she can say anything, Corny grabs the flyer and runs off, laughing.
"Gotta admit I was surprised to hear from you, Veronica. I figured after the whole eased out of the department episode I kinda fell off your radar." Leo says taking a sip of his coffee.
She just smiles, winching slightly when her back starts to hurt.
"You okay?"
"Yeah...So how have you been?"
"Good. Working in private security now. So...you and Weevil... still together?" he asks trying not to look at her stomach.
"Yes. So how's your love life?"
"Terrible."
"So is that maybe why you've been stalking Miss Goodman here?" she says as Gia joins them.
"Hi." Gia says.
"Same old Veronica." he scoffs. "It's my job. Woody hired me to follow her to keep her safe."
"Hmmm. If you say so. I'm going to go talk to my dad." Gia says leaving them there.
"You only called me because of this didn't you?" Leo says glancing at her.
She nods slowly.
"Figures." he mumbled just loud enough for her to hear.
Eli opens the door to Gia.
"I spoke to my dad and he told me that the security is just a precaution but I found this and it kinda freaks me out." Gia says coming into the apartment and handing her a disk.
She puts it into her laptop and starts it. The video is at Rodney's soccer game but instead of the game the camera is focused on Gia.
She lets it play more than once and pauses when she notices a woman with a camera.
"You know her?" she asks pointing the woman out to Gia.
"Yeah."
"Think you can get the tape she did of this game. Maybe she got the guy recording you."
"I'll try."
It only takes Gia an hour before she returns to the apartment.
"Told her I thought I saw my friend's boyfriend cheating and she all but threw it at me to help prove it." Gia says with a laugh.
Eli takes it from her and puts it into the DVD player and starts it up.
They watch and notice the guy, standing in a letter man jacket, filming Gia and her brother.
The camera moves away and when it goes back, he is gone. He rewinds the tape a points out that a red truck disappeared as well.
She, Eli and the rest of the PCHers head to go vote, she kisses Eli softly before heading into one of the voting boxes.
She looks over her voting slip and votes no on Woody's plan for Neptune.
"Who you taking to the alterna-prom?" Logan asks Dick as they get their books out of their lockers.
"Well, I figured I'd just go stag. Why narrow my options?" Dick says shrugging his shoulders.
"Shot down, huh?" he smirks.
"It's like a conspiracy."
"It's a good thing we're graduating. Seems you've hit that point where every girl in school knows you...and wants nothing to do with you."
"Dude! You need me to bring anything to the big bash? 'Cause if it's one thing I know how to do right, it's potluck." Corny says coming up to them before Dick can say anything.
"What bash is that?" Logan asks.
"Alterna-prom? I make these killer brownies. The secret: it's all in the butter." Corny says with a smile before walking off.
"Ronnie." they say looking at each other.
Thumper checks the parking lot but is unable to find the truck that V is looking for.
When he goes to tell her, he catches the end of an argument between her and Gia about something in the paper.
"What was that about?" he asks sitting down with her.
"Just dad stuff. Find anything?"
"Nope.'
"Hey querida, you and the Sheriff need to join the family for supper tonight abuela's orders." Eli says sitting down and wrapping his hands around her waist.
"She saw the article, didn't she?" she whispers to him.
He just nods a drops a kiss on the side of her neck.
Keith sits watching the news, where they are announcing there will be no incorporation when Eli and V walk through the door.
"Get ready Sheriff. You are having supper with us tonight." Eli says turning off the TV.
"Before we go, could you help me with something?" she says turning on her laptop and starting the DVD Gia gave her.
"Where did you get this?"
"Gia."
"I have something to show you." he tells them and gets the copy of the video that was sent to Woody.
"Woody hired me to find out who sent this to him. He let me look into it for a few days before showing up claiming that it was a ex-employee trying to frighten him and demanded the DVD back. Whoever or whatever this is scared him about something. I want you off this. This is more than an obsessed kid."
"Have at it." she says taking the disc out of the laptop and handing it to him.
"Good..Now let's go eat." he says tying to smile even though he is worried.
"Miss Mars, what do you think you're doing?" Mr. Wu asks coming up behind her in study hall the next day. She finishes folding the sketch of the guy that was behind Cliff's briefcase being stolen.
"Just some clerical business." she remarks.
"This is study hall... Mr. Echolls, so glad you could join us. Late." he says changing his focus off her to find Logan trying to sneak in.
"And that is what happens when you never get laid." he whispers to her as he sits down next to her.
She just smirks and grabs another sketch.
"Hey, a funny thing happened. That stoner dude Corny, whom I don't recall inviting, offered to bring dessert to alterna-prom. How many people are now coming to my party?
"I honestly have no idea. I told Wallace and Jackie about it and Corny kind of grabbed the flyer and ran off."
He shakes his head, "What's this?"
"Some work stuff for dad." she says showing him the sketch only for him to grab it from her. "Hey?!"
"I think I know this guy."
"What? How?"
"He looks like the guy that was sharing a cell with dear old dad."
"You sure?"
"Not 100%."
"Call my dad and tell him."
He just nods and takes a stack to help her finish putting them in envelops.
"Hey. Gia, I was heading out and thought maybe..." she starts going over to Gia. It's getting late and she wants to try to talk to her about the stalker.
"I'm really busy right now." Gia says ignoring her.
So, since strangling her would be counterproductive, that only leaves giving up. I understand standing by your dad but come on...
She leaves the classroom and walks past Lucky. They nod hello to each other and she leaves the school. She almost reaches her car when she notices a red pick-up parked in the Maintenance spot.
Oh fuck.
She quickly gets out her phone and calls her dad..which goes right to voicemail. She leaves him a message know that the truck belongs to Lucky and Gia is in the building with him.
She tries Eli, Thumper and Felix...she even ties Dick and Logan. Everyone of them go to voicemail. Where are all my boys?! I am so haunting their asses if this goes wrong.
She waits fifteen minutes before heading inside.
Sorry baby boy...Mommy has a problem staying out of things. Fifteen minutes. That's all I can be expected to wait. Have taser, will travel.
She finds Gia in Lucky's office.
Lucky is telling her about Iraq, and shows her a scar he got from a roadside bomb.
She tries to get Gia's attention but it's not working.
"Maybe I should do a human interest piece on you for the Navigator." Gia tells him.
"Sounds good.. I have something to show you." Lucky says and moves out of her view.
She finally gets Gia's attention only she lets Lucky know that she is around. Reluctantly she goes into the office.
"You're just in time." Lucky says still rummaging through his stuff.
"He's the stalker. We need to get out of here." she whispers to Gia just as Lucky turns with a fucking huge knife.
"You know I got this off a corpse in Iraq." he says coming close all but shoving the knife in their faces.
Gia actually puts herself in front of her, while she is pulling her away from Lucky towards the door.
Lucky laughs creepily, "You know I know your dad." he says to Gia seconds before Felix and Hector tackle him to the floor, Keith and Eli right behind them.
Keith handcuffs him and takes the knife. She rushes over to Eli, who seems torn between comforting her and helping her dad with Lucky.
"Why have you been stalking Gia?" Keith demands.
Lucky screams "He deserved it."
"Give me five minute alone with him, Sheriff..and he'll tell us everything." Eli snarls handing her off to Felix.
"Everyone freeze. Keith, when you call the Sheriff, you don't have to come yourself." Lamb says coming into the room. "Would you get up off the man? You said you have evidence to back up what you said?" he says moving
"He basically confessed already. We get him in a room for an hour..." her dad starts as Lamb and Sacks take Lucky away from him and Hector.
"I appreciate the heads-up. This is a law enforcement matter now, Mr. Mars. You can go." Lamb snarks.
"Honey, go to your party. Eli, make sure she has some fun tonight." he tells them as he takes out another pair of handcuffs and cuffs himself to Lucky.
"Very funny, Keith. Give me the key." Lamb demands.
Eli pulls her out of the room while Hector takes out Gia and she see her dad throw the key into a drain.
Dick walks into the elevator, already with a crowd of people in it.
Madison steps in.
The door dings and she and Eli hurry on, with Jackie, Wallace, Mac and Butters in tow. Thumper and Marisol are right behind them. Felix and Hector join as Corny gets on.
Finally full the door closes.
"Ghost World, you really do look.." Dick starts.
"Don't distract me. I'm planning how to kill Bond and make it look like an accident." she says quietly.
He smirks.
"God, longest elevator ride ever." Madison pretty much snarls.
Eli pulls her closer to him and just glares at the 09er.
"Wait for the space elevator." everyone looks at him like he is crazy. "They're designing it now. A huge elevator on a hundred-mile carbon polymer cable that goes all the way to space. That'll be a long elevator ride." VIncent says.
"Still not as long as this one." she and Mac remark.
They finally reach the floor of the party and everyone mutters a 'Thank God'.
Logan's hotel room is full of dancing people, with a large disco ball and DJ.
Logan smiles in greeting as they enter.
"Dude." he says grinning at Dick. They do their usual fist bump and he moves so the rest of them can come in.
Wallace and Jackie wave as they walk past and head right for the dance floor. Thumper and Marisol right behind them.
"Point us to the bar." Felix says.
"Yeah, need to show you fools how to make real drinks." Hector says with a laugh.
Logan points toward the back of the room and they walk off.
Vincent says something to Mac that she can't hear and Mac runs after Felix and Hector. Dick and Vincent follow.
"What was that about?" Logan asks her.
"Mac just had to have dinner on a pirate ship since V sold her to Butters for the night." Eli says with a smirk.
"I didn't think he would really do it." she pouts.
He laughs and shakes his head. "Have fun kiddos. Ronnie.. my only request is that you don't go into labor, please."
She just shakes her head and pulls Eli onto the dance floor.
Keith sits in a cell with Lucky, still handcuffed.
He presses him to tell him what Woody has done.
"Did he do something to you? Someone you know?"
Lamb comes in with a bunch of keys.
"What are you looking at, nutjob?" Lamb says.
"Cut him some slack, Don." he says.
"I wasn't talking to him." Lamb says with a glare.
"I don't think he likes you." Lucky remarks.
"I'm not stupid, you know. I know it's weird to force someone to go to prom with you. I know." Vincent says as he gives Mac a drink.
"So why did you do it?" Mac asks.
"Because I wanted to be true to myself. I am weird. I thought maybe you'd understand because...you're a little weird too. That's a compliment."
"Oh." she thinks for a moment than takes a sip of the drink he just gave her. "Well, then you're really, really weird."
"Senior year's almost over. In a less than a month, we might never see each other again." Dick says coming over to Madison.
"I'm not going to sleep with you." Madison says.
"Fine by me. Just thought maybe we could at least try to end the year not hating each other." Dick says handing her a drink.
"Dick, didn't I tell you not to bother her. You don't want to make her have to call the law, 'cause I hear the law really comes down hard." Ronnie says as she and Eli join them.
"Surprised you even dared to show up. Shouldn't you be home, waiting for that thing to crawl out of you?"
Dick no longer feels bad about spitting in her drink.
"You know Dick, you really should be careful tonight if you hook up with anyone." Eli says with a grin.
"Why?"
"Well seems the Grande has really good cameras in the elevators. They see everything is perfect detail. Man..I would worry about the cops...like Lamb catching you in the act." Ronnie says with a smirk.
Madison suddenly pales and leaves without a word.
Dick not understanding wanders over to Mac and Vincent.
"Hey, Ghost World...want to dance?"
"Ummm..." Mac looks at Vincent and he just shrugs. "Why not?"
She lets him lead her onto the dance floor.
"You know, my brother is an idiot." Dick says after a little while.
Mac looks at him in shock.
"You were the best thing that ever happened to him. He hasn't been the same since you two broke up. I even went to Ronnie on how to get the two of you back together or at least talking again."
"She never sais anything to me about that."
"I asked her not too..My idea was making Beaver jealous by flirting with you. Ronnie talked me out of it."
"Oh." Thank you Bond.
"I'm sorry..." he whispers.
"Why?"
"I don't know...just thought that I should say it since he won't."
"Oh." she says as they continue to slow dance.
She notices Madison give Gia a drink and rushes over to save her from drinking it.
"Thanks for helping me." Gia says. "I'm sorry about that thing with our dads."
"It's okay. Worse things have been said." she says with a smile as Gia goes back to her date.
"Dance with me." Eli says coming up behind her.
With a grin she lets him pull her onto the dance floor.
Wallace and Jackie slip out of the room and she just smiles knowing exactly where they are going since she slipped Jackie a key card when they got to the hotel.
"We made it." he whispers to her.
"Naturally." she says kissing him softly.
"Would you have put us here together? If Lilly was still alive?" he asks rubbing her back. I know I would have fought tooth and nail to be here with you.
"I think we would have had a rough road but yeah..I do. I think we would have always ended up here... together."
"Really?" he looks a little surprised to hear her say that.
"Of course. No one writes songs about the ones that come easy. No matter what I would have fallen for you."
"I think you are right. Te amo." he pulls her closer and kisses her deeply.
"I love you." she whispers against his mouth.
Keith continues to try and get Lucky to tell him about Woody.
He is almost there when Lamb bursts in and tells him that Lucky has made bail.
"Who?" he asks as Sacks unlock the handcuffs connecting him to Lucky and leads Lucky out of the room.
"Mr. Manning." Lamb says with a frown. "Seems to have a thing for weirdos."
"Yeah." he mutters.
Eli is making breakfast when he wakes up the next morning.
"How was the party?" he asks seeing that Veronica isn't up yet.
"It was good. We needed that." Eli says putting an omelet on a plate for him.
"You ready? Only a few weeks left."
"Yeah...Angel has agreed to help me with a apartment as long as I graduate. We have everything that the baby will need thanks to Celeste of all people." he says remembering the shock on his and V's face when the woman surprised them with baby shower.
"You two graduate and as long as Veronica goes to school in the fall and you keep a steady job if you don't go to school, I'll help as well. Veronica and I have talked about it and I have no problem with the two of you living together as long as I see her and my grand-baby at least a few nights a week."
Eli just looks at him in shock. "Sheriff, I love her...If she'll have me..." he is unable to get the words out so he just takes the ring box out of his pocket and places it on the counter.
Keith swallows the lump in his throat and picks up the box and opens it.
"It belonged to my mom."Eli says softly.
"If she'll have you...Eli." he just laughs softly. "I have no problem with you asking my daughter to marry you. Do you know when you are going to ask?" he says closing the box and giving it back to him.
Eli opens his mouths and quickly shuts it when they hear V trying to get out of bed.
"Can someone help me?!" she calls. "I have turned into a turtle stuck on its back."
Keith laughs loudly as Eli tries to hide his smirk as he goes to help her.