A/N: Hey, all of my lovely readers are still here! You're all awesome for reading and reviewing and everything :) Now, on we go with the story...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 8

Mac woke up with the sun in her eyes and the rank taste of day old pizza on her tongue. She vaguely recalled video games and junk food with Dick, but everything after that was hazy. Honestly, Mac couldn't even remember finishing the games and going to bed. The first two nights they had done this, she had been fine, but perhaps staying up too late and not sleeping enough during the day to compensate was catching up to her.

It was only when Mac tried to raise her head off the pillow and found it didn't come easy did it occur to her that this time she never actually headed back to her own room. She was still sharing space with Dick, and the reason she was having trouble moving was because he had his uninjured arm flung across her body. Being sound asleep, Mac had to assume Dick had no idea he was touching her at all. If he did, he might just be as mortified about it as she felt, on realising they had slept together. Sure, that was slept in the literal sense, but it was still pretty freaky for her.

Swallowing hard, Mac took a couple of deep breaths. Even now, after all these years, she was prone to the occasional moment of panic. Not a full attack exactly, but she could get in quite a state if she let herself when it came to guys and waking up where she didn't expect to. It wasn't as if this sort of thing happened much with Mac, but once or twice after a few drinks or just waking from a bad dream, she had found herself lying in the arms of a man that was momentarily unfamiliar to her and it hadn't ended well.

This was different. This was just Dick and nothing had really happened. They fell asleep that was all, both fully clothed and everything, a perfectly innocent situation. The weird thing was that it felt the complete opposite of innocent somehow. Not that Mac was about to accuse Dick of taking advantage of her. For one thing, she doubted in his current state that he could. Besides, for all that he had been kind of a man-slut in high school, quick to work his way into the panties of any girl that would let him, Mac knew things were different now and had been for a long time. Sure, Dick had his fair share of women, and some other guys share to go along with if the rumours were to be believed, but he wasn't a monster now, if he ever really was.

Lying next to him was oddly comfortable. Mac took the time to really look at the man who had been her bedfellow last night. There was no doubting that he was good-looking. She recalled him being adorably cute as a little boy in elementary, and then just down-right hot when they were in high school, at least Mac would have thought so if Dick wasn't constantly living up to his name by then. The physical appeal of a person was easily dimished by ass-hat behaviour, that much Mac knew for sure, but these days Dick was better, not anything close to perfect, but better. Besides, she felt as if she were fast learning why he behaved the way he did before and even now. Certainly whilst he was sleeping soundly there was nothing to detract from his looks, and he was still gorgeous.

"Get it together, Mackenzie," she told herself in a whisper, retracting the hand that had risen, apparently of its own accord, as if to push Dick's hair from his eyes.

It was the second time already that she caught herself itching to mess with his hair. Mac wondered if that's how it started, how perfectly sensible women just lost their bearings and fell headlong into completely unsuitable relationships. It was just too much temptation to touch the pretty, pretty hair!

Almost laughing at herself for being so dumb, Mac let her hand fall on Dick's arm instead and gently began manoeuvring her way free from his grasp. She could've just said 'to hell with it' and woken him up, even yelled at him for ever holding onto her in the first place, but Mac couldn't see the point. He was still injured, still needed rest, and besides, she had fallen asleep just as easily as he had. Just the same, they could have ended up lying there with her arm across his body, though the thought of it made her shiver in a way Mac refused to examine.

Finally raising Dick's arm enough that she could slide out from under it, Mac misjudged how little bed there really was behind her. What should have been an elegant exit proved to be anything but as she actually rolled herself off the edge of the bed and landed in an ungraceful heap on the floor.

The crash of Mac's landing woke Dick with a start. He sat up quickly, wrenching his injured arm from the sling without thinking and making his head swim wildly as well. He looked left and right, wincing with terrible pain, and then his wobbly gaze landed on Mac as she levered herself up from the rug.

"Dude, what the hell?"

"Dude, I could ask you the same thing!" she shot back.

Covering her embarrassment by turning this around on him seemed like a plan to Mac, however unfair it actually was. Apparently the guy wasn't going down without a fight either.

"I repeat, what the hell?" he asked again. "You always wake up patients by crashing into their rooms?"

"You always grab the nearest woman in your sleep?" she shot back, hands on her hips and eyes flashing with fire.

The trouble was she was asking about something that Dick didn't even know had happened. It was written all over his face that he had no clue he was ever holding her, that she had even slept here at all. He glanced away, frowning from more than just the headache now, looking to the place on the edge of the bed where Mac had been. There was a second dent in the pillows next to where he had been laying, and one of Mac's shoes was caught in the comforter near his own feet.

"Huh," he said eventually. "Well, that's... Y'know, you're probably the first chick I ever slept with that I didn't actually, y'know, sleep with?"

"I'll mark that down as a win," said Mac, hurriedly straightening the clothes she had spent all night in and making a hasty exit. "I'll fix breakfast, figure out what pills you need..."

Her voice disappeared down the stairs along with the rest of her, and Dick lay back down, trying not to wince at the pain still shooting through his arm and thumping in his head. It was so weird. He and Mac had spent the night together, fully clothed and with no funny business. She had just been there, and honestly, it was the best night's sleep he'd had in years.

"What does that mean?" Dick asked the ceiling too seriously.

Oddly enough, it didn't answer, and Dick sure as hell didn't have an explanation of his own, so it would have to remain a mystery for now.

"Hey, you." Veronica smiled into the computer webcam and tried to make it convincing. "How are things out there in the big blue yonder?"

"They're okay," replied Logan with a brave grin of his own. "Nothing much that I can talk about, you know that. Besides, you're the one with the exciting life."

Veronica almost laughed at the joke, but didn't quite manage it. These Skype calls were supposed to make it easier, she was supposed to miss Logan less because she would at least see him this way, talk to him a little. The reverse was true. It didn't make it easier, only harder. Having him here but not broke a little piece off her heart every single time, but pain was an old buddy to Veronica Mars and she embraced it, she had learnt it was the only way.

"Yeah, me and my exciting life," she said with a sigh. "This morning alone I've found a lost dog and busted a cheating husband at the Camelot."

"Some things never change," said Logan knowingly. "How's Dick?"

Veronica knew he was going to ask that before long. It was killing Logan to be away from her, but also from his best bud when he knew the guy was in need. Dick may be an ass much of the time, but the beating he took was uncalled for, Veronica was almost certain on that. She expected Logan to want answers and justice for his BFF, she was just having trouble with both of those things right now.

"Dick is... He's okay. Mac's doing the nurse thing still, and they haven't killed each other yet so that's a plus."

Logan smiled.

"That's good. Y'know, it's weird. I always thought that if they were ever forced to actually send quality time together, something good might come out of it."

"Really?" checked Veronica with a raised eyebrow that went so high even Logan could see it through the grainy webcam and jumpy internet connection. "'Cause I never had Mac and Dick down as an obvious pairing."

"Think about it," said Logan thoughtfully. "They both had pretty screwed up beginnings, they both have that slightly off-kilter sense of humour, both computer game nerds, and... and, well, you know they both had a connection with... him."

He faltered for Veronica's sake more than his own, though she knew very well how Cassidy Casablancas death had haunted Logan for a long time too. They were both there when he jumped, both knowing all that he had done and yet unable to bear watching any person, no matter how awful, leap to their death by design. Veronica looked away a second and cleared her throat.

"I guess," she said eventually. "Um, in other news, I get to go out to dinner tonight."

"Some other guy I should know about?" asked Logan, only half joking.

"Actually, yes" Veronica told him smartly. "There will be a guy there, and that guy's wife, and their daughter. I've been invited over to Chez Navarro."

"Tell Weev I said a cheery 'hi'," Logan told her too sincerely.

It was tough for Veronica to keep a straight face and quite honestly, she didn't try all that hard.

"I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know you're thinking of him."

"Well, I have to have something to get me through the long lonely nights, and recalling some of mine and Eli's good times helps. Man, I punched him in the face a lot."

"My man has grown so much," said Veronica, rolling her eyes. "Seriously though, keep on being careful out there, okay, Navy man?"

"So long as you do the same, Detective woman," he countered, leaning in closer to the camera. "I love you, Veronica."

"I love you too, Logan," she promised, blowing him a kiss.

It really was so much harder seeing him like this, and yet Veronica could never give up their long distance talks. Without them, she didn't know how she would keep on going.

Mac was avoiding him. Dick knew it was true, after all, it didn't take a genius to figure it out. She had brought him breakfast and his pills first thing and then declared she had a lot to do and disappeared from his sight in a second. She said to call her cell if he needed her, since she was going to be downstairs and wouldn't necessarily here a yell. Dick hadn't had to do that yet. By the time he decided he really had to go to the bathroom, Mac came up with lunch and more drugs for him to take. After that she was gone again and Dick had spent too many lonely hours playing GTA solo and channel hopping until he wanted to scream with frustration at shopping channels and soap stars he didn't care about.

Having Mac here had seemed a little weird at first, especially that first night when she brought him out of an embarrassingly bad nightmare, but since then Dick found they got along. They played computer games and talked about stuff that didn't matter, it was just comfortable. Mac could eat junk food like no other woman he ever met, apparently not caring about counting carbs or whatever, and yet still looking pretty smoking hot as far as he could tell. They were some strange kind of friends these last couple of days and Dick actually forgot he was recovering from injuries with an assistant type here to watch out for him. They were just buddies hanging out and it was cool.

Suddenly it had all changed. Mac was pissed at him and as far as Dick could tell it was for something that shouldn't even matter. So they fell asleep together, so what? Sure, he never did that with a chick before when there hadn't been some serious activities of the horizontal rhumba kind beforehand, but it wasn't as if he did anything wrong. The only reason Mac could possibly have for being so mad at him, as far as Dick could tell, was that maybe she wanted him to make a move and he hadn't. That didn't seem right either, for as big as Dick's ego was, he was pretty damn sure Mac hated him up until a week ago, and even now she was just being nice to him because of the attack and all. She felt sorry for him, she didn't like him. She knew him too well, that was the problem.

Dick turned off the TV and slammed his hand into the mattress with a thud. He hated this. He hated when something was going on and he couldn't figure it out by himself, especially these days because most of the time he couldn't even ask Logan for advice. There was nobody who cared about Dick anymore, at least nobody inside of the continental United States right now, except maybe for Mac and she was the whole damn problem.

Grabbing his phone from the nightstand, Dick punched in Mac's number. She had to be downstairs still, though he hadn't heard her moving around in a while. He really needed to talk to her and getting to the lower level of the house in his current state would not come easy, especially now when the pain was increasing, proving he was probably due another couple of pills. He knew at least that he had an excuse in that for calling Mac. He waited three rings and was about ready to give up and just yell for her when the bedroom door opened.

"I was already on my way up," she told him, manoeuvring through the door with a tray in her hands.

There was a snack and a drink all laid out, alongside two pill bottles and a magazine. Mac deposited all onto the bed beside Dick and then counted out the right number of drugs for him to take. All this without a word as Dick abandoned the phone and just watched her a moment. The second she headed for the door again, he called her name and stopped her in her tracks.

"What is up with you today?" he asked plainly, the same way Dick asked most things that he wanted to know.

Mac let out a long sigh, the hand not on the door knob coming up to rub her forehead.

"Nothing," she told him. "I'm just busy."

She tried to leave again, but again he stopped her with his words.

"Bull. You had plenty of time for me until this morning. What's your problem, Mackenzie? Got your panties in a bunch because they were still on when you woke up?"

She turned around, face like thunder, both hands balled into fists now. It was the most disgusting and inappropriate thing he could have said and they both knew it. Dick looked as if he might be regretting it already, but Mac was too mad to care.

"If you didn't have enough bruises and breaks already, I would smack you in the face for that," she told him sharply. "You're out of line, Casablancas!"

"Well, something has you all pissed at me, and at least now you look like you might tell me what the hell it is," he countered.

Mac opened her mouth to speak and closed it again fast. She wasn't exactly thrilled to realise she had pretty much just been out-manoeuvred by Dick Casablancas. He made her mad on purpose, knowing she would yell at him, knowing she would tell him what he wanted to know. Of course, it would be a little easier on Mac if she knew herself what her problem really was.

"I didn't come here to sleep with you, Dick," she told him at last, eyes closed for as long as she was ranting because it had to be easier not to look at him right now. "My plan is not to seduce you for your body or your money or whatever else you have. I'm here to help you, not to be your best buddy and not for any other reason. You need help and I'm helping, that's all."

When Mac eventually opened her eyes and looked at him, she was surprised to see Dick staring at her in stunned silence. She wasn't sure what she really expected to him to think or say. She was just trying to make clear that what happened last night was an accident, a freakishly weird happening that meant nothing at all. Mac wasn't sure what he thought about the way they woke this morning, but she was leaving him in no doubt about her thoughts now. It seemed safer that way.

"Okay," he said after a long moment of silence. "I get it, I'm not your type and you're not mine. What's the big deal?"

Mac hadn't expected quite such a sensible response from Dick, but then he just seemed to be full of surprises lately. Now he had her wondering what her problem really had been. Neither of them did anything wrong and neither wanted more out of their arrangement than what they already had. Things were cool, no harm, no foul.

"I guess, nothing," she said at last. "No big deal," she added, shrugging her shoulders.

"Cool," replied Dick, nodding once. "So, I'm pretty sure Logan left Mario Kart last time he was here. You in?"

Mac smiled in spite of herself, pushing her short hair back with one hand as she sighed.

"Yeah, I'm in."

To Be Continued...