A/N: Thank you for the continued supportive reviews. Glad you all want to stick with me for the long haul :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 5

"I still can't believe you're doing this. Seriously, girl, did you take a blow to the head or something?"

Mac smiled at Wallace's rant as they got out of their cars outside Dick Casablancas' place of residence. Wallace was such a good friend, he had no qualms at all about helping when Mac asked for assistance in getting a whole bunch of stuff from her apartment across town to a friends house. It was only when Wallace found out who said friend was, the concept of it just wouldn't fit in his head.

"I know it seems pretty wacky on the surface," said Mac easily. "Honestly? If anybody would have told me a week ago I'd be willingly moving into Dick Casablancas' bachelor pad, I'd say they needed to be committed, but he needs help. Who else is there to take care of him?"

"He has money," said Wallace, looking up at the impressive building before them that proved his words. "Hiring a nurse or whatever has to be pretty easy for a guy like Dick."

"I guess," Mac considered. "But hired help doesn't really care, and I doubt they would be here twenty four, seven," she said thoughtfully, before shaking her head. "I don't know, Wallace, he just seemed so... pathetic, lying there in the hospital bed. He's been through something traumatic and with his family torn apart and Logan away... I don't know, I guess I felt sorry for the guy."

"Sympathy for the devil," muttered Wallace. "That makes you an angel, Mackenzie."

"Well, I do like Halo," she told him with a smirk before they both laughed.

Mac opened up the trunk of her car and Wallace moved to do the same. Getting into the house was no problem. When everything else had been stolen from Dick, his keys remained in his pants pocket, latched to his belt by a key chain that clipped on. Mac hadn't expected him to be quite so smart as to ensure his keys couldn't go missing, but as Dick had said to her in the hospital this morning, all his best stuff was in his house and his car.

"Well, even you have to have some good sense, I guess," she had told him, only half joking, apologising when she realised she had made Dick laugh and therefore bring himself pain.

Now here she was, outside of a place Mac was going to call home for a while. She didn't know the duration of her stay exactly. It was hard to tell how long Dick would need help, but the doctors were saying at least a few weeks. They saw it as no big deal since Mac had told them she lived with 'her fiance' anyway, and she and Dick had to play it like they cared in front of the staff. It was weird how it wasn't too hard to do, not even for Dick.

In her car and Wallace's too, Mac had placed boxes of books and CDs, bags of clothes, and all her essentials, like toiletries and tech. It wasn't as if she couldn't drive home for anything she forgot and she was going to have to check in at her apartment to collect her mail on a fairly regular basis, but Mac didn't want to be back and forthing it every five minutes. Dick told her she could bring as much stuff as she wanted and pick any room she liked that wasn't already taken. He was being very accomodating, but then Mac supposed she was doing him a favour. It made her wonder if somehow the drugs they were pumping into Dick had got to her by osmosis as she sat by his bedside. This was such a weird situation.

"This is insane," said Wallace as they headed in through the front door, a couple of boxes piled in his arms and a large bag on Mac's shoulder.

"Wallace, I know you think I'm crazy, but-"

"I ain't even talking about you moving in here," he interrupted as they stepped inside. "Although that is nuts. This place is... I could fit my entire apartment in here three times over, and that's just the first floor."

"It's big," Mac nodded her agreement. "But it's Dick. I'm thinking he's the kind of guy for which size matters."

"True dat," muttered Wallace as he took a look around the place, dumping the boxes by the door until Mac decided where her things were going.

That was actually a task she wasn't enetirely looking forward to. Wandering around in somebody else's home when they weren't there felt strange. Mac smiled thinking maybe she should have asked Veronica for tips on such a thing. At least Dick knew they were there. Mac was invited, she was supposed to be picking out a room and making herself at home. It made her wonder if she could ever really feel comfortable in a place like this.

Wandering through the living room, Mac found a large and beautifully shining kitchen that she had to assume was hardly ever used by Dick himself. Full length windows let in all of the world's light and the most amazing view of the ocean. Mac headed for the French doors and let herself out onto the veranda. Her lungs filled up with warm, salty air and she smiled. For a person who usually preferred the indoors, she had to admit, this was pretty special.

"Maybe I can make myself at home," she considered.

"Can't knock the view," Wallace agreed as he appeared beside her. "Looks as if there's at least a couple of bedrooms that look out this way" he noted, moving across the veranda to peer up at the house.

"One of them is probably Dick's room," Mac considered, wondering if it was the best idea to choose to take the one right next door as her own.

On the other hand, if she was too far away and he had some kind of accident or whatever, she might never hear. There was no point to her being here if he was just going to fall down and die on her watch. Shaking her head, Mac turned to go back into the house and urged Wallace to follow her.

"So, I get that you're a good person, and that Dick has nobody else to care," said Wallace as he retrieved Mac's boxes and followed her up the stairs. "Makes sense to me that V is looking into who did the guy over, if she thinks it's more than your regular mugging. The Sheriff's department has gone downhill even further since Lamb the second took over, so yeah, I get why she's doin' it. Still, I'm having problems with why you gotta move into this house. It's just weird to me."

Mac opened up a bedroom door cautiously and peered inside. It was definitely Dick's personal space and she closed the door just as fast as she had opened it, moving along to the next one. That was a guest room, with the same epic view as downstairs. This was Mac's room.

Wallace let out a low whistle. "Okay, I take it back," he said, putting Mac's boxes down by the bed. "You sure Dick doesn't need another helping hand, 'cause I available," he said, patting his own chest and grinning when Mac turned to see.

"You know I'm not moving in here for the gorgeous view and the king size bed," she said, taking a dive onto that very bed and revelling in the comfort of the soft duvet and an enormous mattress. "Not denying though, it's a nice perk."

Wallace sat down on the edge beside her and looked over at Mac. She could make jokes, they both could, but he had meant what he said before. It was very weird to him that she was moving in here to take care of a guy who had never been a friend to any of them, not in high school, not in college, not after. In fact he had been pretty nasty to Mac back in the day, and less than pleasant to Veronica too. Sure, he went through a lot with his parents and his brother, anybody deserved a little sympathy after that, but Dick was still Dick and for the most part he lived up to the name. Why Mac cared so much for his welfare, her friend just couldn't fathom.

"You really think I'm crazy for being here?" she asked Wallace then, cracking one eye open to look at him.

"Yes and no," he considered, shrugging his shoulders. "You're a grown up woman, Mac, and you ain't stupid. You gotta know what you're doin', right?"

She sighed, lifting herself up on her elbows, her eyes wide open now. Mac looked at Wallace and she considered her answer carefully. There were certain topics she avoided talking about to anyone, but Veronica most especially. Maybe she could tell Wallace what she had been thinking about lately, and even have him understand a little bit.

"Okay," she said eventually, taking a deep breath. "When it comes to me and Dick, you're right, we never have got along, not really, but the truth is, we should," she tried to explain. "Of all the people in the world, there were only a handful that got close to Cassidy, and I know it was a long time ago, and I know it probably seems like I should have forgotten about him by now-"

"Nobody expects you to forget, girl," said Wallace kindly, his hand on her shoulder. "Seriously, Mac, you can talk to me about this, it's cool."

"I know, and I appreciate that," she told him with a smile. "But it's not the same. To you, he was a bad guy, to Veronica too. It's not like I don't know that all the awful things he did were just that, awful. It's a list of crimes nobody could forgive, nobody could be expected to, but... but me and Dick are two people, maybe the only two people, who have trouble seeing the Cassidy we loved and the terrible person he could be as the same guy. That's a connection we're always going to have, no matter what."

Wallace considered what she was saying and knew Mac was right. He wished he had a clue what to say after her little speech there. Wallace was never once sorry that Cassidy 'Beaver' Casablancas was dead. The guy was a murderer, a rapist, a despicable human being. He did everybody a favour the night he took a dive from the roof of the Neptune Grand, at least that was how Wallace always saw it from that day to this. Now he had to see it all from another point of view that he hardly ever considered before. Mac had loved that guy, and obviously Dick had to. A boyfriend was one thing, a brother was something else. Maybe the dude had suffered as much as Mac, potentially even more so. Certainly right now in his beat up state, Wallace could see why he needed not just a nurse but maybe a friend too. With a sigh, he shook his head.

"You a better person than me, Mackenzie," he said at last. "No way could I look at all this the way you do and come up with a plan to babysit Dick Casablancas with a smile on my face. Not even for this view and this damn comfy bed!"

She laughed like a bell at the look on his face if nothing else. He was kidding around and she needed that. In all of this, she needed to remember to laugh sometimes.

"Thanks, Wallace," she said, for nothing in particular, levering herself up off the bed and encouraging him to come with. "Let's get the rest of the stuff from the cars."

"I'm not asking you to tell me any great secrets of your precious club! I'm trying to help one of your best customers find out who attacked him in the alley and left him for dead!" said Veronica, starting to lose her temper as the bar manager of the 09er evaded her every question.

"Lady, it's like I told you, I gave the Deputy who come here all the info he asked for. No law says I gotta give you anything."

Veronica bit down on her tongue before she said something she shouldn't, something that would lead to making a bad situation worse. Trust the staff at the prestigious 09er to be assholes. It didn't mean they were involved in what happened to Dick, but Veronica was already making it her mission to find something to bust these idiots for. As if it cost them anything to give her a little info, a look at the security camera footage from the night of the incident. Shaking her head she turned away, moving towards the doors. She was pretty sure she heard a mutter of 'bitch' behind her back. Whether that opinion was reached from today alone or the stellar rep she had gained in her teen years, Veronica couldn't say and didn't care much. She had bigger fish to fry.

Driving back to the office, she wasn't entirely certain whether she would find the office empty or not. It was somewhat comforting to see Mac behind the front desk.

"Hey, V," she greeted her with a smile.

"Remind me again of all those wonderful reasons I had for moving back to Neptune and rejoining the ranks of the private dicks," she urged Mac. "Actually, don't. It'll just depress me more. How was the moving?"

"All moved in," Mac told her happily. "How goes the investigation?"

"Slow," confirmed Veronica with a heavy sigh as she flopped onto the couch. "Nobody at the 09er is talking. You'd think I was a journalist trying to out them for drug crimes, or a health inspector about to shut them down. Does nobody care about their fellow man anymore?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?" asked Mac immediately.

Veronica smiled to herself. "I'd tell you if I knew. Those people aren't my only avenue of investigation, but it'd be a whole lot easier to figure out what happened if Dick could remember anything."

"Well, he's getting out of the hospital in the morning. Maybe when he's all comfortable in his own bed and everything, he'll remember more."

"Maybe," Veronica considered, leaning her head back and closing her eyes a moment. "And how are you doing with your decision to get comfortable in Dick's guest room?" she asked, genuinely interested to know.

It still seemed odd to Veronica that Mac would want to be making nice with the town fool, especially after all these years. Of course, on closer consideration, all these years might be exactly what had made the difference. Veronica saw no signs that Dick had matured at the high school reunion, but Logan assured her he had his moments. His family falling apart took its toll, that was for sure, and to that at least, Veronica could relate. She supposed Mac could too, and if anybody understood the conflicted feelings brought on by the death of Dick's brother years ago, it had to be Mac.

"I'm okay," said Mac then. "It is a beautiful house, with the most amazing view. Huge refrigerator, a bathtub I could swim lengths in, and wifi throughout. I will not suffer," she assured her friend with an audible smile.

"I'll say you won't," Veronica agreed, opening her eyes again and sitting up straighter. "Except for enduring Dick's company twenty four, seven and being at his beck and call."

"Logan lived with him for years and he coped okay," considered Mac. "Speaking of, have you guys talked lately?"

"Last night," her friend nodded, getting up from her seat and stretching out - no position was comfortable for as long as she was in limbo on this investigation. "Logan's doing good. I had to tell him about Dick, which made him worry, but the fool trusts me to figure it out and see the bad guys brought to justice."

"That does not make him foolish," said Mac reassuringly, not entirely certain V was joking at this point. "It means he has faith in you, and so do I."

"Thanks, Mac," replied Veronica with genuine warmth, because it honestly did mean a lot. "Well, if I'm not going to get anything from the victim or potential witnesses, I guess it's time to dig a little deeper," she said, heading for the filing cabinet and pulling out a large plastic bag. "Evidence from the crime scene," she announced, presenting the contents of many more smaller baggies, each with a potential clue inside, to her friend and colleague.

"Nice," said Mac, eyeing the collection of bagged trash on her desk with some distaste.

"Yeah, but it might throw up some answers yet," Veronica told her. "You think you could voodoo up the rostas for the 09er staff?" she asked then, gathering up the baggies to take through to her own office. "I tried to get copies from the manager, but no go. He wouldn't even let me as far as the staff only door to sneak a peek of his paperwork surreptitiously!"

"The fiend," Mac dead-panned, turning back to her computer. "I'm on it."

"I guess you'll be working from home a lot from tomorrow," said Veronica from the doorway. "Well, from a home anyway."

"I guess," replied Mac, never turning away from her work, fingers constantly tapping on the keyboard. "But there's not much you need me to be physically here for, right? I mean, I could even have the calls diverted to my cell if it helps you out?"

"Maybe," Veronica nodded pointlessly. "We'll see how things go. Right now, I still have a lost pure-bred, a cheating husband, and a potential thieving maid to catch before I quit tonight, and that's before I get back to the prince that played Kick the Dick," she explained, letting out a long noisy sigh.

"A woman's work is never done," said Mac in mock-sympathy.

"Amen, sister-friend!"

To Be Continued...