A/N – Here's the latest chapter. As always, thanks for all the support and for continuing to read along. Please let me know what you think with a review! There's a lot going on in this chapter so I'd love to hear what everyone thinks of it.
Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.
Chapter 21 Mac and Cheese
Veronica woke up in the morning to an empty bed. She didn't remember feeling Logan crawl out of bed, and hoped he hadn't woken up in the middle of the night from nightmares and she wasn't there for him. She sat up and took a deep breath and the scent of coffee reached her. She realized it was only 6:45 as she grabbed a robe and headed toward the bedroom door. Before she even reached the stairs she could hear Abigail laughing about something. She padded down the stairs and followed the sound of laughter to the kitchen.
"Hey good morning," Logan said as he spotted her. He was cooking up some scrambled eggs in one pan and bacon in another.
"Mmmm… g'morning," Veronica said, still sounding a bit sleepy as she walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned up against him, closing her eyes for a few seconds.
"There's coffee," he said with a bit of a chuckle to his tone. "Would you like me to just start an IV drip?" He turned slightly so he could see her face and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead.
"You two are up early," she commented, sounding a little bit more coherent as she went to grab a cup of coffee.
"Yeah, Abby came in at about 6:00 and was nudging me in the shoulder until I woke up," he said with a smirk. "We decided to let you sleep longer though. Abby enjoyed listening to you snore though."
Abigail giggled and Veronica gave him an insulted look. "I don't snore!" she said adamantly.
"Right," Logan said with a smile, "I forgot… you just make cute little purring noises… like a kitten."
"Exactly," Veronica replied with a firm nod. "So what's your plan for today?" she asked Logan after taking a drink of her coffee.
"I thought Abby and I could go visit Toodles and Mr. Murphy, and take him some of the cookies you two baked." Logan said as he put the eggs and bacon on plates and set them on the counter in front of the two girls. "I'll probably go to the hospital later and see how Alexis is doing too. Mac said she'd have a couple hours free to watch Abby today."
"That reminds me that I need to talk with Mac about the jewelry case too," Veronica said thoughtfully. "I need to check in with Leo and Norris and see how their visit to Gavin's place went yesterday too."
Logan nodded but gave her a slightly concerned look. She knew he still wasn't thrilled that she was working on a case that could potentially involve the Fitzpatrick's. She also wanted to see if there were any new leads on Alexis's case, but didn't want to mention that in front of Abigail.
The games they'd played the day before were still out on the dining room table, so after they finished eating breakfast, Abigail convinced Logan to play Chutes and Ladders with her. "Good luck honey," Veronica said in a playful voice as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "She's ruthless!" Veronica watched them for a few minutes, and then said she'd better get ready to go to work.
Veronica left about forty five minutes later after consoling Logan on his defeat. He had demanded a rematch, so they were about to start a new game as Veronica grabbed her bag and purse and headed to the garage. Once she arrived at the station she gave Mac a call.
"Good morning, Mac," she said with a chirpy tone to her voice. "Any good news for me?"
"Umm…." Mac replied a bit hesitantly. "Not really. He um… it was hard to isolate anything too suspicious in his bank account since his family is one of the wealthier 09er families and he has a pretty substantial bank account as it is. There were a few large deposit transactions, but they were preceded by large withdrawals and charges on his credit card at some of the casinos in Monaco, so I'm thinking it's more likely gambling winnings than selling stolen jewelry."
"Hmm…" Veronica said thoughtfully. "So you're also trying to say he really didn't need to steal the jewelry. That he could have just bought her whatever she wanted?"
"More or less, yes." Mac replied with a discouraged tone to her voice.
Veronica still thought Stephanie was involved in what was going on. It was too much of a coincidence that she had worked for all the families she'd checked with. Veronica thought back to her visit the day before. "Hey, is there a way for you to tap into a Skype call?" Veronica asked when she remembered Stephanie telling Jake she should be able to Skype today.
"Um… legally?" Mac asked with a bit of humor in her tone.
"Well yeah… I'd have to see whether the search warrant we already have could be expanded for wiretaps, but if it can, can you tap into the call? I don't think our department would have anyone with that much expertise. Phone taps are one thing, but Video calls, I'm not so sure of."
"Yeah, it's not exactly easy with all the encryption they use… but if you get the okay from the proper authorities… I might be able to do it."
"I'll get to work on it. She said she'd skype with him 'tomorrow night', which would be today, but I don't know if she meant her night or his. It's got to be evening there now, but she'd be at school…" Veronica thought about it a bit. "Maybe he just gets up really early and she stays up really late. I'd really love to catch her the first time she talks to him after our visit yesterday if she hasn't already contacted him. I'm sure being questioned by the Sheriff's department, including a search warrant, probably rattled her a bit if she's involved."
"You do your thing, and I'll do mine." Mac said a little joyfully.
"You'd probably better wait until I do mine," Veronica said in a slightly warning tone.
"No worries. No one will know. I'll just monitor to make sure we haven't already missed their call. Just hurry so if we do get them, we can use it as admissible evidence, okay?" Mac said as Veronica heard her already typing on the keys of her computer.
"On it," Veronica replied before saying good bye.
Veronica went to see if Leo was free. She heard a woman's laugh in his office before she knocked lightly on the closed door and then it took a minute before he finally said to come in. Emily was sitting in the chair across from his desk and gave her a friendly smile. She could have sworn Leo had a bit of a blush on his face but was still trying to act normal.
"I really should get going," Emily said as she stood up from the chair. "I had the morning off and brought Leo some bagels and coffee," she explained with an almost embarrassed look on her face.
Apparently Leo was very grateful for the delivery. Veronica gave them an understanding smile and nodded. "It was nice to see you again, Emily."
Emily nodded and said something similar to Veronica. Leo stood up and gave Emily a quick kiss goodbye and thanked her for bringing him breakfast before she headed out through the open door.
Veronica gave Leo a teasing look as she sat down in front of his desk and he closed the door. "Soooo… things seem to be going really well with you and Emily."
Leo gave her a bashful smile and shrugged. "I don't think you came in to discuss my personal life, so what's up?"
Veronica pretended to open a book in her lap. "Nope, right here… under 9:15… go check on Leo's personal life… done!" She pretended to put a check mark in her invisible book.
Leo chuckled and shook his head. "What's up Mars?" he asked in a tone that almost sounded authoritative and if it had been anyone other than Veronica, probably would have fooled them. She decided to let him keep his delusions in check and let it go.
"So Mac didn't find anything concrete on Stephanie's boyfriend. I guess he's pretty wealthy and already had such a padded bank account that Mac couldn't find fencing stolen property transactions that would stand out from a good weekend in Monaco."
Leo gave her a thoughtful look. "Hm… that makes the motive to help steal the necklaces for financial gain fall apart now doesn't it."
Veronica let out a sigh. "I still think it's them though. It's just a feeling I have… maybe it's not about the money. Maybe it's about the necklaces themselves. I know the amethyst one had a pretty rare stone."
Leo nodded in agreement. "So do you have something in mind for proving it?"
Veronica explained her plan to try to tap into their next Skype call with the help of Mac.
"I'll need to check with Roger to be sure that was within the boundaries of the warrant we already have," Leo replied when she was done explaining her plan.
Veronica nodded, "I just think we need for it to be done soon so we can try to catch them in their first call after our little visit yesterday. I just hope we aren't already too late." She let out a frustrated sigh. "So how'd the search of Gavin's place go yesterday?"
"We didn't find anything, but I think we really rattled his cage. Stella was there as well and she was definitely one mad mama bear," Leo explained as Veronica gave him a curious look about the bear comment. "I guess I've been listening to Emily talk about some of the mom's down at the hospital a bit too much." Veronica chuckled and nodded in reply. Leo also said they hadn't picked up anything useful from the wiretap on Gavin's phone yet. Veronica wished they'd been able to tap Liam's phone because if Stella was upset about things, she may go after him for getting Gavin into trouble.
Veronica decided to go back and look over her case notes on all three cases while Leo went to talk to Roger about the warrant on Stephanie. Norris said he'd join her so they could mull over all the information they had on all of the cases together. She was hoping that revisiting their notes again would spark something they hadn't noticed before.
After losing a second time to Abigail in Chutes and Ladders, Logan decided they'd take some cookies down to Mr. Murphy's house. Abigail was very excited to see Toodles again and quickly ran up to her room to get her jacket and some shoes. Mr. Murphy was delighted to have them stop by and invited them into his house. Logan had seen the house many times from the beach, but this was the first time he'd been inside. It was easy to tell that the house had been decorated by his late wife, and it was filled with lots of pictures of the two of them over the years. Logan couldn't imagine how hard it would be to try to go on if something ever happened to Veronica. He tried to push those thoughts aside and not let it get to him though. With everything going on with Alexis, he really didn't need to worry about something happening to Veronica on top of that, but it was so hard not to worry with her job. He knew that Leo would do whatever it took to keep her safe, but he also knew Veronica too well and her propensity for getting into bad situations.
They spent about an hour visiting with Mr. Murphy before walking back to Logan's house. Logan called Mac to see if it would be a good time to stop by with Abigail, and she said she'd be available shortly after lunch. That gave Logan and Abigail about two hours to kill and he suggested they play some video games since they really hadn't gotten to do that yet. Even though Logan loved to win at video games, he couldn't help but take it easy on her so she wouldn't get discouraged or upset. So far he didn't think she could tell that he wasn't actually trying to beat her, but he figured in time she'd probably start getting suspicious about it. For now he was content to continue the little charade he had going, despite his innate desire to always want to win. He'd been a bit more ruthless against Heather, but she was older and even then, he'd throw a game now and then to boost her confidence too.
After they played for a little while he asked her what she wanted for lunch. "Mac and cheese," was her immediate response.
"Umm… I don't think I have time to make a cheese sauce for lunch kiddo," Logan said, thinking about the last recipe he'd made and wondering if he even had the proper ingredients.
She gave him a puzzled look. "But Veronica made me some yesterday. Why can't you?" she asked a bit impatiently. Logan raised his eyebrow at her. She let out a sigh. "The blue box stuff. Can't you make that too?"
Logan almost made a gagging sound. "The orange powder stuff?"
"What?" Abigail asked in confusion. "The blue and yellow box. Come on I'll show you." She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the kitchen and retrieved one of the boxes from the pantry handing it to him.
Logan let out a deep sigh and shook his head. "Are you sure? I could make something else."
"No this," Abigail said as she shook her head and pointed at the box again. Logan cringed slightly, but turned the box over so he could read the directions. He got some fresh fruit out while he was waiting for the water to boil hoping to give her something better than just the mac and cheese. He saw the left over Thai containers and asked if she'd rather just have some Thai food. She made a grossed out face and shook her head. Yeah, that's exactly how I feel about your mac and cheese. He decided he'd have the leftover Thai food while she had the mac and cheese. Once he cooked the pasta he drained it and opened the cheese powder packet.
"Seriously Abby," he said as he poured it on the noodles and cringed at the bright orange powder. "This is not cheese!" He tipped the pot so she could see into it.
She just shook her head at him. "You're not doing it right!" she complained. "Do it like Veronica did it."
He shook his head and added the milk and the butter and stirred it all up. It still didn't look much better to him even though the orange powder had become mostly liquefied. He cringed again and scooped it into a bowl for her, setting it on the counter while he grabbed his plate of leftover Thai food.
"Mmmm," she said with a satisfied grin after she took a bite. "Are you sure you don't want some?" she asked with a smile.
He shook his head and took another bite of his Thai. "Nope, I'm good."
Abigail just shrugged and went back to devouring her bowl of orange colored sauce and macaroni pieces. Logan studied her with a bit of curiosity. He seriously couldn't fathom how that could even taste edible, let alone as good as she made it sound.
"You really should have some," she said when she noticed he was staring at her. "It's so yummy."
"Umm… maybe next time," Logan said with a small smile. He really didn't feel like getting his stomach pumped with everything else that was going on that week.
After lunch he dropped Abigail off with Mac and headed to the hospital. Victor and Maggie were in Alexis's room when he arrived and the nurse let him go back as well. He suggested they get out of the hospital for a while since the nurse had commented that they'd pretty much been there non stop since he'd last been by the day before. He promised he'd stay with Alexis until they returned.
The medical staff had told them they should talk to her as much as possible to help with her recovery. He'd pretty much exhausted the topics he'd already thought of before, so spent some time talking about the mac and cheese. He covered everything from the horrid bright color and what on earth could be in it to make it that color to how it seemed to still be a bit gritty even after he'd stirred in the butter and the milk. He'd reached out at some point and held her hand again like he had the times before, and was staring at it while he talked rather than at her face. He'd been having a harder and harder time dealing with how weak she looked with all the tubes still hooked up to her, so at least just focusing on her hand he was able to keep those emotions more in check. He'd gotten to the point of starting to describe the smell of it when he felt her squeeze his hand. No one had said anything before about her moving her hands or feet and at first he wasn't sure if he'd just imagined it.
"Lexi?" He said softly, turning to look at her face and lightly brushing his hand across her forehead. He felt her squeeze his hand again and then her eyes opened slowly. Logan lunged for the buzzer by her bed with the hand that was on her head while still holding her other hand with his.
"Lexi, can you hear me?" he said softly after pressing the button and putting his hand back by her forehead again.
He watched her eyes blink open and then they closed again, A nurse appeared and he gave her a quick update on what had happened. He felt her squeeze his hand again and the nurse saw it too and said she'd page her doctor and left the room.
"Lexi, please wake up," he said softly being careful not to touch her head where the bandaged injury was. Her eyes opened again and the expression on her face was one of complete terror. "You're okay Lexi," he said and looked at her tenderly. "It's okay."
She started breathing a little more rapidly and then her eyes fluttered shut again. The nurse was back a second later and checking her vitals again. Logan pulled his phone out of his pocket while still holding on to her hand and tried to send Victor a message. He wasn't sure it would go through though with all of the call blocking they had in the hospital, but he didn't want to leave Alexis like that either.
The doctor appeared a few minutes later and she happened to open her eyes briefly again when he came in. "It may take her a while to be completely coherent. We've had her on some various medications to help her and those might make her groggy and incoherent for a while. This is a positive sign though."
Logan nodded and squeezed her hand a little tighter, rubbing the back of it slightly with his thumb. The doctor was busy examining her when she opened her eyes again and they seemed a bit more focused than they had been before. She was still hooked up to various tubes though and seemed completely confused about what was going on. The doctor calmly spoke to her and instructed the nurse of a few things he wanted her to do. Alexis's eyes locked on to Logan and she squeezed his hand tighter than she had before.
"There's the fighter I know," Logan whispered softly, more to himself than anyone else.
After observing and monitoring her for a while, the doctor said it might take a while before she'd be coherent enough to talk, but he wanted to start removing some of the tubes since she seemed to be stabilizing nicely. She'd been keeping her eyes open for longer and longer periods of time and was responding to some of the questions from the doctor with blinks and squeezing his hand as well.
Victor and Maggie had returned from lunch and heard the news from the nurse since Logan's text hadn't made it through to them because he hadn't wanted to leave her alone. The doctor cautioned them again about needing to keep her calm and not having too many people in the room at once. Logan let go of her hand and was going to leave so her parents could be there, but she squeezed it harder and wouldn't let go.
She still couldn't talk, but tried to at least mouth 'no' when he stood up to go.
"I'll be back soon okay?" He said softly and nodded at her. "Your parents need some time with you too."
She shook her head slowly and squeezed his hand again.
"Lexi, it's fine. I'll be right back." He slowly pulled her hand off of his and moved so her mom could move closer and hug her.
He gave Victor a nod and then headed out to the reception area. His phone at least worked there, so he gave Veronica a call.
"Hey you," Veronica said as she answered. "I was just thinking about you. How's everything going?"
"Ummm…" Logan hesitated for a moment before continuing. "Alexis is finally waking up."
"Oh… that's… that's great Logan. I'm sure you and her parents are so relieved."
"Yeah… they're in with her now. She's still pretty out of it and can't talk yet though, but she's responding to the doctor's questions and seems to be getting more coherent by the minute."
"That's great news Logan," Veronica said, trying her best to sound supportive and not apprehensive at all. "I'm guessing you'll probably want to stay there a while then?"
"Yeah, probably, although I don't know how long yet. Abby's with Mac. I didn't give her a specific time when I'd be back though."
"Don't worry, I'll give her a call and let her know. I need to talk with her more about the jewelry case anyway, so maybe I can head over in a little while and do that and then pick up Abby."
"Okay… if that's not a problem…" Logan replied a bit hesitantly.
"No of course not."
"If I'm back in her room, I won't be able to take calls, but I'll step out again later and update you, okay?"
"Yeah, that's fine," Veronica replied softly.
That tone doesn't sound fine. "I love you Veronica," Logan said firmly into his phone.
She blew out a short breath. "I know. I love you too. I'll talk to you soon then. And of course if she remembers anything… from you know…"
"Oh… of course, I'll let you know immediately. Thanks for being so understanding about… about all of this."
They said goodbye and he disconnected the call, staring at his phone for another moment. He felt a firm hand on his shoulder and spun around to see Victor standing there.
"I think Alexis wants you back in the room," he said softly.
"Is she able to talk yet?" Logan asked as he studied the older man's face.
Victor shook his head, "No, but she seemed pretty upset that you'd left."
Logan gave him a slightly concerned look. He wanted to be there for her, but he also didn't want to send any mixed messages to either Alexis or her parents. Their breakup had been hard enough and even though Victor and Maggie had never seemed to hold any sort of resentment towards him, he wasn't sure what they expected of him now though either. Logan let out a deep sigh and nodded and headed back to her room.
Maggie gave him a grateful smile as he walked in. "How's she doing?" Logan asked in a whisper.
"Lo…" Alexis whispered in a raspy voice.
Logan took a deep breath and walked over next to her. "Hey there. Welcome back." She still looked almost as terrified as when she'd first woken up. "You're okay now," he said as he moved closer to the bed. Seeing Alexis scared of anything was as foreign to him as having her look helpless and frail.
"The doctor said she may have a hard time talking for a bit longer." Maggie said as she held on to Alexis's hand on the far side of the bed.
Alexis slowly reached out with her other hand toward Logan. He froze for a moment and looked at her hand and swallowed hard. She's probably scared if she doesn't understand what she's doing here. He took her hand and gave it a little squeeze. "Just rest and get better okay?" Logan said with a small smile. Alexis squeezed his hand back, but the look in her eyes was still filled with fear. "It's okay, you're safe here." Logan said again reassuringly.
Alexis's expression became confused. "Why… here…" she said weakly.
"You don't remember?" Logan asked as he gave her a gentle look. She shook her head slightly. "It's okay Lex, we don't need to talk about that now. You got hurt, but you're getting better now."
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She seemed to have dozed off and her grip on his hand loosened. The monitors were all reading that she was fine though as the nurses came in to check on her every few minutes. The nurses told them that she'd probably doze on and off as her body continued to recover.
After about 45 minutes, she started waking up again. Victor and Maggie had stepped out of the room for a few minutes to talk to Vanessa, so it was only Logan in the room again. The look of fear and confusion was back on her face again. "Hey, you're okay," he said softly as he squeezed her hand again and rubbed her forearm with his other hand.
She swallowed hard and coughed a bit. "I don't remember…" she whispered softly.
"It's okay Lex, the doctor said it might take a while for you to remember everything that happened, if you do at all. You remember me right?"
She gave him a soft look and nodded. "Yeah, Logan… my fiancé."
A panicked feeling coursed through Logan and he was sure it was reflected on his face by the way her expression became worried again. He swallowed hard, really not wanting to have to explain this to her, but knowing he absolutely needed to. He took a deep breath and gave her his most reassuring smile. "Friends Lexi, we're just friends now."
Her expression became completely confused. How much of her memory has she actually lost? He squeezed her hand a little tighter. "We've just been friends for quite a while, do you remember?" She shook her head slowly, with a pained expression on her face. "It's okay, don't worry, you'll be okay. Just rest and get better and everything will come back to you soon." At least I hope that it does. He thought he'd remember the doctor saying something about asking her about more recent things to help her piece things together again. "Do you remember Casey? You've been dating Casey now." Well perhaps Casey and a few other guys, but I'd at least want you to remember him. She looked at him intently for a moment, recognition not quite seeming to be there. "Casey Gant." She shook her head slowly again. "It's okay, maybe if you see him, you'll remember. Just try to rest again, okay?"
She squeezed his hand a little tighter. "Don't go please," she said in a weak pleading voice.
"I'll stay a while longer, but I'm taking care of Abby, so I'll have to go home in a while. Do you remember Abby? Abigail?"
"Yeah," she replied with a small smile on her face. "Your niece."
"Yeah, she's my niece," Logan replied and nodded at her. I also need to get home to Veronica. He swallowed hard again. I should say that too, but Lexi's already so overwhelmed. I'll explain that later, after she's doing better.
Her eyes closed again and it seemed like she'd fallen back asleep watching the way her breathing had become steadier. Maggie and Victor came back in and he quietly told them that she was talking a bit more, but she was still having a hard time with her memory. After watching her sleep for a while, he said he should go out and call Veronica again, but would come back in before he left.
He took the elevator downstairs this time to get a bit more privacy than the middle of the reception area had provided. It was getting closer to dinner time and starting to get dark out. He found a bench in a secluded area and called Veronica again.
"Hey," he said softly as she answered.
"Hey," she replied back a little tentatively. "How's Alexis doing?"
"She's talking more, but is still having a hard time with her memory."
"Like amnesia?" Veronica asked trying to understand what exactly was going on.
"Maybe, I mean… she remembers some things… just not recent things."
"Oh… how recent does she remember?"
"Um… I don't know specifically… she doesn't seem to remember Casey though, but she does remember Abby."
"Oh, okay. Well… hopefully it's just temporary."
Logan could tell Veronica was feeling uncertain about everything, but it was hard to fix that over the phone. "I wanted to check in with you and see if you needed me to go and pick up Abby from Mac's."
"No, it's okay. I'm heading over there in a little while to talk with Mac and she said she'd make dinner for us, so everything's taken care of. Of course if you're done there, you can come and eat with us too." He thought he could sense a bit of hopefulness in her voice.
"Okay, I'll see how things are when I go back up. She's still sleeping off and on. I did tell her that I was taking care of Abby so I would need to go in a while."
"Okay… well… call me later if you need anything and hopefully we'll see you for dinner."
"Yeah, I'll see you soon. I love you."
"Love you too," Veronica said tenderly before disconnecting the call.
She stared at her phone and let out a sigh. You knew this could be coming, Veronica. It's sure to be a relief to her family and Logan that she's finally conscious again. I can't imagine how unnerving it would be to wake up in the hospital and have no idea how I got there. Veronica let out another sigh and went to check to see if Leo was back to update him on Alexis and see what Roger said about Stephanie.
"Is Leo back yet?" Veronica asked Norris as she stepped out of her office. They'd spent the last couple of hours going over their cases before Logan had called again and Norris had gone back out to his desk.
"Yeah, actually he just walked in a minute ago and I told him you were on the phone with Logan."
Veronica nodded and headed into Leo's office. He was on the phone and gave her a little wave. "Yeah, that sounds good," he said into the phone. "I'll give you a call if anything comes up. The reservation is for 7:30…. me too… bye."
Veronica took a seat at his desk while he was saying goodbye. "Emily?" she asked as he hung up the phone in a less than enthusiastic tone.
He nodded, "Is everything okay? You seem a bit... not your normal persnickety self."
"Persnickety?" She asked with a puzzled look. He just shrugged and gave her a sheepish grin. She shook her head and let out a frustrated sigh "Everything's fine." Ah, there you are denial, you've been gone a while. "How'd it go with Roger?"
"He said he could extend the warrant to cover it if you're able to get anything from the Skype call." Leo paused for a moment. "So, Norris said Alexis woke up?"
Veronica nodded. "Yeah, but Logan said she's having a hard time talking and remembering things. So far she doesn't remember how she got hurt." Veronica let out a small sigh again. "Apparently she doesn't even remember Casey, so I'm not sure how much she does and doesn't remember." I wonder if she even knows I'm in Logan's life now?
Leo gave her an understanding look and nodded. "I'll head over and check in with her doctor. See if she's starting to remember anything helpful yet."
"Okay, I'm going to head over to Mac's to see if she had any luck getting a way for us to monitor Stephanie's Skype call. Let me know if you get any information from Alexis. Our main suspects of course are Matt Barone, Kennedy O'Reilly and Victoria Branford. Perhaps mentioning one of them to Alexis might refresh her memory." Veronica suggested. "David Spellman has also been acting a bit suspicious throughout this entire ordeal, so maybe you should mention him too."
Leo gave her a warm smile and stood up grabbing his coat from his chair. "Thanks Veronica. I'll let you know if she remembers anything." He stopped next to her before heading out the door and squeezed her shoulder gently. "I'm sure things will be better now that she's awake."
Veronica nodded and tried to agree. She really hoped he was right.
Logan was in Alexis's room when Leo came in to talk to her. She'd dozed on and off since first waking up and the doctor had come in and checked on her a few times. He gave Leo permission to talk with her for a few minutes if she was awake, but didn't want him to upset her. He had a nurse in the room to monitor the discussion so she could ask Leo to stop if it was too much for Alexis to handle. Logan was sitting in a chair in the corner while her parents were in the chairs closer to her bed.
"Hi Alexis," Leo said softly as he came in the room. She gave him a small smile and nodded slightly. "I was relieved to hear you'd woken up. I just wanted to ask you a few questions, okay?" Alexis nodded slowly again. "As your doctor told you, someone hurt you and we are trying to find who that was so we can keep you safe, okay?" Alexis's expression became a bit concerned, but she still nodded slowly. "Do you remember getting in a fight with anyone?" Leo asked in a gentle tone.
Alexis shook her head and Leo nodded understandingly. "There are a few people that may have seen you that day before you were injured. Maybe hearing their names might trigger something in your memory okay?" Alexis nodded again. "We do know Matt Barone had stopped by your office earlier that day. Do you remember Matt?" Alexis nodded in reply. "Do you remember getting into a fight or argument with Matt?" Alexis thought about it for a minute and then shook her head. "Okay. How about David Spellman? He was supposed to be meeting you for dinner that day."
Alexis thought about his question for a few minutes, and then gave Logan a worried look. "Do you remember something about David, Alexis?" Leo asked, noticing her expression.
"I remember… I remember fighting with Logan about David." Alexis explained, causing the other people in the room to turn and look at Logan.
Logan's eyes opened wide. "We didn't… not…" he shook his head and looked at Leo and then back at Alexis.
"Logan?" her dad asked in an angry tone.
"No…" Logan quickly replied looking around at the others in the room. "We did fight about David… right before we broke off our engagement… but that was years ago… and I wouldn't have hurt her..." He turned back towards Alexis. "Lexi, you know I would never hurt you right?"
"No… I…" Alexis closed her eyes and shook her head. "I just don't remember."
The nurse put her hand on Leo's arm. "I think that's enough for Miss Calloway for now."
Leo nodded. "If you do remember anything Alexis, please let your family know." He turned to look at Logan. "Can I talk to you in the hall please?"
Logan let out a deep sigh and nodded. He gave Alexis a concerned look and then followed Leo out to the hall.
"We didn't fight about David… well we did but that was over three years ago. And I would never have physically lashed out at her." Logan explained with a concerned look on his face. He let out a frustrated sigh. "When she first woke up… she um… she still thought we were engaged… so I'm guessing she's just remembering things that happened a while ago and not sure when they happened."
Leo gave him a concerned look. "Okay… I do want to believe you of course Logan. Just… maybe you should stay away from her for a little while until things start coming back to her."
Logan nodded. "I'll just let her dad know."
"I'll get him for you," Leo said and turned back toward the door. A moment later he walked back out with Victor, who was giving Logan a suspicious look.
"Leo suggested I give Alexis some time to see if things start coming back to her. But I swear Victor, I've never hurt Alexis. I never would. I hope you believe me."
Victor let out a deep breath and nodded. "I'm sure the Sheriff's right. We can call you if anything changes or she remembers anything else."
"Okay," Logan said with a small nod. Victor turned and walked back into Alexis's room.
Leo and Logan headed toward the elevator. Neither one of them said anything as they stood there waiting for the door to open. Once they were inside and the doors closed Leo cleared his through. "I know you wouldn't hurt her Logan… I didn't mean to make it sound like I doubted that."
Logan shrugged. "It's fine Leo." Leo nodded. The door opened at the ground floor a moment later and Leo gave Logan a look to see if he was coming. "I'm in the basement parking level." Leo nodded and turned again as the door closed. Logan let out a deep sigh and shook his head.
He called Veronica when he got into his car. "Hey, are you at Mac's already?" He asked after she'd said hello.
"Just about to pull in to their driveway," she replied. "Are you going to be able to come for dinner too?"
"Yeah," he let out a frustrated sigh. "I'll be there in a few minutes too. Can you… can you come out and talk to me when I get there. I just wanted a few minutes alone with you before we eat."
"Okay…" he could hear the hesitation and worry in her tone. "Sure… Just text me when you get there and I'll come out… Are you okay?"
"Yeah… no… I don't know…" Logan said in a defeated tone. "We can talk when I get there, okay?"
"Yeah… See you soon."
Veronica hung up the phone with a worried feeling in her gut. She parked and headed up to the front door. Mac answered the door with a big smile which faded as soon as she saw Veronica's expression.
"What's wrong?" she asked as she opened the door for her.
Veronica let out a deep sigh and glanced around. "Where's Abby?" she asked when she didn't see her anywhere.
"She's in the game room playing a video game with Dick." Mac gestured with her head toward the kitchen. Veronica followed her and they sat down at the counter stools.
"So, what's going on?" Mac asked with a look of concern.
"Logan called right before I got here. He sounded upset," Veronica explained with a sigh. "He wanted to talk to me alone before coming in for dinner."
"I'm sure it will be fine Veronica," Mac said reassuringly and gave her hand a squeeze.
"Yeah…" Veronica said quietly. "I hope so."
Her phone beeped, and she saw it was Logan. "I'm going to go out front and talk to him. We'll be right back in." At least I hope we'll both be right back in.
She walked out the front door and found him leaning against his car.
"Hey," she said softly as she walked over. He gave her a half smile and reached out for her, pulling her against his chest.
"What happened?" she asked as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "Is everything still okay with Alexis?"
He let out a sigh, "I sort of got kicked out of her room."
"What?" Veronica leaned back so she could see his face and opened her eyes widely.
He took a deep breath and shook his head. "Leo came by…" she nodded since she knew he was planning to. "He asked her if she remembered fighting with anyone…" he paused and shook his head. "The only fight she could remember was the one we had about David… probably the first time we broke up… the second time wasn't much of a fight…"
"Oh…" she wasn't sure how to react to what he'd just said.
"I never hurt her though…" he quickly replied seeing the expression on her face.
"Oh, no… I never thought you would have Logan." She reached up and stroked his cheek. "Did Leo…" She suddenly realized that Victor and Maggie were probably there too. "Oh no… do you think her parents think you hurt her?"
He shrugged and took a deep breath. "I don't know… god I hope not… they of course…" he swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "Alexis had told them about Aaron abusing me. I don't even know why it had ever come up… but of course she'd seen some of my scars and we'd talked about it…" He paused and shook his head closing his eyes. "I hope they don't think I'm anything like him."
Veronica stood up on her tiptoes so she could wrap her arms around his neck and pull his head down to her shoulder, kissing him gently on the cheek. "I'm sure they don't Logan." She ran her hands in soothing patterns across his back. She felt him let out a slow shaky breath. "Leo believes you didn't hurt her though right?" She asked quietly.
Logan nodded against her. "He said he believed me… but thought it would be better if I stayed away from her for a while… I guess hoping she'll remember what actually happened to clear everything up."
"So she doesn't remember it at all?" Veronica asked, still rubbing his shoulders.
He shook his head and took a deep breath. "I don't know how many recent things she remembers. She um…" he hesitated before he continued. "She thought we were still engaged." Veronica froze. She stopped rubbing his back. She wasn't expecting that at all. "I told her that we weren't anymore though," Logan quickly added standing up so he could look at her face again. "I told her we were just friends now and not together anymore. She was just really confused about everything." He stroked her cheek and watched her carefully.
Veronica nodded. He wrapped his arms around her again and let his head fall against her shoulder. She took a deep breath and started rubbing his back again. "It's going to be okay Logan," she said softly. She really wanted to believe that it was. She was about to suggest they go inside when her cell phone rang.
"I don't recognize this number, but it might be for work, so I should take it," she explained to Logan who nodded.
"Hello?" Veronica said as she answered the call.
"Um… yeah, Veronica?" A woman's voice that she couldn't quite place asked through the phone.
"Yes, this is Veronica," she replied trying to figure out who was calling.
The woman took a deep breath and then spoke quietly into the phone. "It's Molly… Fitzpatrick…" she paused for a moment before talking again. "TJ said… TJ said if something happened to him, that I should call you."
"What's happened Molly?" Veronica asked with a sinking feeling hitting her.
"He's never just not come in for work without calling. And I've called his phone several times and there hasn't been an answer. I think something bad may have happened to him." Molly explained with anxiety in her tone.
"Oh no…" Veronica replied into the phone. "When did you… when did you last see him?" Logan's eyes widened as he watched her.
"Last night when the club closed. He sometimes comes by for lunch, but not everyday, so I didn't think about it when he didn't stop by earlier. But he should have been here about an hour ago to get things ready for tonight and he hasn't shown up yet."
"Thanks for calling Molly. I'll see what I can do," Veronica said before disconnecting the call and giving Logan a distressed look.