A/N: We're finally getting into the explanation of what the hell happened to Dick so yay for that, and at the same time, the MaDi is building up to a head, which I'm sure you're all grateful for too. Your reviews tell me you're still loving the story and this makes me happy, so thanks to you all :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 20

"You're getting really good at that."

Mac was smiling when she said it, in spite of the fact it made her a little sad to see Dick coping without her. That was so wrong and she knew it. Dick getting better was a good thing, but Mac was acutely aware that time was passing by and soon he really wouldn't need her at all. It was strange to realise how much that stung.

"Yeah." He sighed as he rejoined her on the bed, landing a little too heavily. "I'm so proud that I can go to the bathroom by myself. I feel like a four year old," he muttered, reclaiming his X-Box controller.

"Well, you're a very clever boy," said Mac, in full on over-the-top proud Mama voice as she ruffled the front of his hair and laughed.

"Now I feel like a dog who fetched a stick," complained Dick, knocking her hand away and fixing his hair.

"Some people are never happy," Mac told him, rolling her eyes and then fixing them back on the screen. "C'mon, I'm waiting to kick your butt some more."

"In your dreams, Macky," Dick declared, selecting the options to start a new game. "Prepare to be destroyed."

"You are all talk, Casablancas."

Mac couldn't keep the grin off her face even as they issued threats to each other and started kicking the crap out of their opposing characters on the screen. This was fun, maybe the most fun she had in a very long time. In a little over a month, she and Dick had become really close friends. They could literally talk about anything at this point, and they had the best time just hanging out together, playing video games and eating pizza like pros.

"How does a chick eat like you do and still look so hot?" Dick had asked at one point.

Mac had tried her darndest not to blush at the strange compliment and was pretty sure she failed miserably to keep the heat out of her cheeks. She mumbled something about a lucky metabolism and changed the subject fast, but quite honestly, Mac didn't mind being told she was attractive. It had been a while, she had to admit, and coming from Dick it was quite the compliment. The guy was a hottie in his own right, and she had always known that, no matter how much of an ass he could be when he put his mind to it.

"Yeah! That's how it's done!" declared Dick now, knocking Mac's character to the ground and keeping it there with a little too much ease.

Mac glanced sideways to see how he had pulled off that last combo. She was surprised to find his injured arm out of the sling for one thing.

"Hey, able-bodied dude!" she declared, sitting up and staring at him until she had his attention. "What's this about?" she asked, gesturing to his injured arm.

"Oh yeah," he said, as if only just noticing himself what he had done. "I needed my arm the other day and I wondered if I could use it, so I gave it a try. Totally doesn't hurt or anything. I mean, I don't exactly have all the movement with the cast and everything, but it's definitely better than it was."

"That's... cool," said Mac eventually, finding a smile. "You really are getting better. Won't need me for much longer."

She moved to get off the bed, checking her watch as if she might be late for something. It was Sunday and she was going nowhere, they both knew that, but even in their comfortable bubble of friendship, things could get awkward occasionally.

"I'm still not doing that great," Dick told her. "I mean, er... Like, there's a whole bunch of stuff I can't do for myself yet. Don't even get me started on the stairs, 'cause that's just not gonna happen!"

Mac turned to glance at him and wondered at the look on his face. He looked as freaked out by her leaving as she felt. They really had gotten close and yet never really discussed it as such. It was the one topic they still skirted around. Almost a week on from their big talk about everything else, she never had fully explained her feelings for him, or pressed him to say anything about what he might feel for her. They had agreed they were friends and to leave it at that. Until more evidence came out regarding Dick's attack, and moreover his potential status as the father of Lucy Laos' baby, it seemed safer this way, but it was awkward as hell sometimes.

A phone ringing made them both jump, breaking a moment that neither Mac nor Dick had really been ready for. It was her cell in her back pocket. She reached for it, saw Veronica's name on the screen and left the room in a hurry whilst accepting the call.

"Hey, V," she greeted her, headed to her own room.

"Hey, Mac. Sorry to call you with work on a Sunday, but... Well, I figured it's not exactly work for you since it concerns Dick's case."

Mac pushed the door to her room almost closed and sat down heavily on her own bed, transferring her phone to the other hand and firing up her computer with her right.

"You have news on that?"

"I had news a few days ago, sort of anyway," Veronica explained. "Nothing was concrete and if I'm honest I had a bunch of other important money-earning cases to deal with in between. I hate to say I put Dick on the back-burner but..."

"You have to eat, Veronica, I get it," said Mac in understanding. "And hey, you're using your day of rest to help out with this so I think you'll be forgiven in the end."

An almost painful laugh escaped Veronica's lips and Mac could just imagine the twisted smile that went with it. She paid rapt attention then as her friend divulged her latest information, the posts she had found on social media that seemed to indicate some kind of rift between Lucy Laos and Missy Stone, the potential for an affair between Missy and Darryl.

"It's like it makes sense but it doesn't," said Veronica. "All the major players are connected, but in no way that really adds up to Dick getting knocked out and beat up in an alley."

"So what's next?" asked Mac, not caring for anything but a way forward, a way to help solve a case that had been hanging around too long.

"My Googling mojo and the PI database only gets me so far," Veronica explained. "I found Facebook accounts for our major players-"

"But they have pretty smart privacy settings," Mac interrupted, sure she had said almost exactly what her friend was going to.

"Think you can crack the code, Q?"

"You got it, Bond."

The details were sent through in moments and Mac got to work on hacking the crap out of Facebook. She almost forgot that she had left Dick alone without any real explanation, but he had to have heard her saying hello to Veronica, so he probably wouldn't wonder on her absence for quite a while.

"Let me know if you find anything," said Veronica in Mac's ear. "But don't be surprised if my cell is off for a while later today. I'm gonna see if I can't shake a little info out of our chemistry major, Adam Durant."

"He doesn't have Facebook?" asked Mac, even as she held the cell under chin and typed frantically on her laptop with both hands.

"Not that I could find, but feel free to double check," her friend told her. "Er, how're things anyway? With Dick, I mean."

"He's doing better. We have another hospital appointment tomorrow, but-"

"You know that's not what I meant."

The moment Veronica interrupted with those words, Mac stopped typing. She knew just exacly what she really meant, it was just easier not to acknowledge it. A part of Mac actually thought she would get away with not talking about her non-relationship with Dick, but clearly not.

"We're okay," she said cryptically. "Better than before," she admitted at length.

"Good," said Veronica. "That's good."

It was all a little ambiguous but it was the best either of them could do right now.

It wasn't so weird for college students to have part-time jobs around Neptune. Some tended bar, others pumped gas. Adam Durant worked at the electrical store on main street whenever he wasn't busy studying his ass off at Hearst, this Veronica knew thanks to a little digging into his life. It was why she was here, about to enter said electrical store in her guise as Missy's friend, Sandy, hoping that her cover hadn't been blown yet and still wouldn't be.

The whole thing was pretty easy for an expert like Veronica. She walked in like she meant to be a customer, tried not to glance around too much and make a big deal about seeking out Adam, but working her way towards him just the same. He was price checking in the next aisle over and Veronica manoeuvred herself over there with ease, looking around at the shelving as if searching out just the right item. She accidentally on purpose bumped her shoulder against his as she passed by and got his attention.

"Hey, Adam, right?" she said with a winning smile. "Missy's room-mate?"

"Yeah," he replied, nodding once, clearly searching his memory for her name. "Sandy?"

"That's right," she told him with apparent joy that he recalled. "Wow, fancy running into you here."

Adam shrugged. "Gotta pay the bills somehow," he said, showing her he was wearing the company shirt and the traditional 'Hi, my name is...' badge.

"I hear ya." Veronica nodded in understanding that was her own rather than purely belonging to Sandy. "So I was looking for something for a friend of mine, she had a baby recently."

Adam frowned. "And you thought an electrical goods store was the place to buy a gift for a newborn?"

"No, no." Sandy laughed, her hand pushing his shoulder in that girlish way that guys usually just ate up. "I mean, everybody buys for the baby. I wanted to get something for Lucy, something like a massager or one of those facial spa things. Something to help her feel more like a person, y'know?"

"Sure." Adam nodded that he understood, gesturing for Sandy to follow him as he moved through the aisles. "Hey, your friend isn't Lucy Laos, is she?"

"Yeah. You know her?"

Veronica tried to hide her smile because this was exactly the direction she had wanted the conversation to take.

"Not directly," said Adam. "I know she's no friend of Missy's."

"Oh yeah, those two really don't get along these days. I'm guessing she told you?"

Veronica deliberately didn't tell all, not that she knew all for sure. The point was she wanted to see what Adam knew, and what he was willing to share. Apparently, it was quite a lot.

"About Darryl?" he said with a smirk she could hear before he ever turned to face her again. "She didn't so much tell me as I stumbled upon them. Kind of a mess, but hey, no offence, but your pal Lucy is no better."

"I'm the last one to defend her." Sandy shook her head, hands raised in mock surrender. "I'm not exactly judging, but I personally think a woman should at least know who the father is when she finds herself pregnant. Darryl was really upset from what I hear. I can't blame him for going after that Casablancas guy the way he did."

That part she dropped in very deliberately, eyes on the massager she was now picking up from the shelf, pretending to avidly read the back of the box.

"You know for sure he did that?" asked Adam.

"C'mon, it wasn't hard to figure" said Sandy, looking left and right down the aisle, before stepping in closer to her 'friend'. "I mean, it's all speculation, and I wouldn't say a word to the Sherriff or anything, but it had to be him."

There was a moment when Veronica really wasn't sure where this conversation was going to go. What she wanted, actually, what she needed, was for Adam to be proud of his part in the crime and admit it all. The problem was, she was banking on his pride being more important to him than keeping a dangerous secret. He was a male at the age of twenty one, so Veronica thought she was playing a pretty safe bet.

"Not just him," said Adam in a low voice, as wary as she was that somebody might be listening in. "Since we're buds and all, and I'm pretty sure you can keep a secret, Darryl did not act alone," he admitted freely. "Missy really had a chip on her shoulder when it came to Dick Casablancas. Seems he was willing to sleep his way through the entire 09er, staff and clientele alike, but he never touched Missy. Man, did she ever want him to. So she's mad at him for wanting everyone but her and Darryl's pissed at Lucy for sleeping with the same guy. They get their revenge sex on, and the next thing you know Lucy announces she's pregnant. Before long, Darryl and Missy are hatching their plan to beat the living crap out of the rich dude."

"Wow!" said Sandy, her eyes wide as anything. "I can't believe Missy didn't tell me she was involved. Though I can't imagine she was there throwing punches, was she?"

"Nah," said Adam, literally waved away such a nonsensical idea, "but she had a trick up her sleeve. My trick," he told her with a proud smile, tapping an index finger into his own chest. "I made her this stuff, it's like a cross between Mace and GHB. You put it in a spray bottle. One shot to the face and it's goodnight, sailor. After that, it's a pretty easy beat-down."

Veronica swallowed hard and painted an impressed looking smile on Sandy's face.

"I'll bet," she said, even as bile rose in her throat.

Sure, she was proud to catch the bad guys, but sometimes she really hated having to stand there and play nice with them. These animals did a horrible thing, even if it was to a guy that had led far from a pure life. It was not okay.

"So, the massager is on sale," said Adam then, getting right into his sales pitch within a minute, "but if you're set on the facial thing..."

Sandy smiled as if she was listening and thrilled to have his help, but Veronica was thinking about the recording device in her pocket and the breakthrough she just made. If she could just get out of here with the cheapest 'gift' possible, without seeing anyone who knew her true identity, she was home free, and the assholes that beat on Dick were going down.

To Be Continued...