Disclaimer: I do not own Veronica Mars. Warner Brothers, Spondoolie & Rob Thomas do.
Summary: A twist on the end of 03x07: Of Vice & Men. Some bits of dialogue taken directly from the episode.
Pairing: Veronica & Logan
Rating: T to M (for later chapters, if there are any)
Vows
Veronica is exhausted as she carries her tray through the food court searching for a table. DJ Hellfish is yammering over the intercom from the campus radio station. She's exhausted by everything that has been going on lately.
Fighting with her dad.
Fighting with Logan.
Solving the case and reuniting Meryl and Sully has given her a renewed sense of hope.
Maybe she and Logan would work it out after all. She loves him. She thinks her loves her too.
But what if love isn't enough to make a relationship last?
Her parents had loved each other once.
Look how well that turned out.
She finds a table and sets her tray down. She stares at the contents of her plate and picks up the tray again, leaving her drink behind.
"Excuse me," Veronica says, as she approaches the counter, "I ordered the pasta and I'm pretty sure that hair doesn't belong to an angel."
The cashier gives her an apologetic look, and takes the offending tray, replacing it with a new one a few moments later. Veronica returns to her table. Her blue plastic soda cup is still there, right where she left it. She sits down, sighs, and takes a long sip.
She sets her bag on a nearby chair and digs through it until she finds her phone. She tries to shove down the ache in her chest as she listens to several increasingly panicked messages from Logan. As she listens she keeps sipping her drink.
She finishes listening to the message from her dad, asking her to come home and saying he ended things with his married girlfriend.
It's hard to keep her eyes open. She has to blink several times as her vision blurs and goes in and out of focus. The ordinary chaos of the food court is too loud. Too bright.
She feels nauseous. She pushes the feeling away and keeps eating.
Logan goes to Wallace's dorm after Veronica's dad tells him that's where she might be. To his disappointment the only person in the room is Piz. Logan stumbles through the words as he asks him to tell Veronica to call him if he sees her.
Veronica leaves the food court, walking as quickly as she dares. The dizzy sick feeling is getting worse. She hopes she has enough energy to make it home. If she's going to pass out she'd rather do it in her own bed. The sun has long set. The quad is dark as she lurches her way through it toward her car. She walks more slowly as she approaches the stairs leading to the parking lot. The last thing she needs right now is to fall down the steep, concrete stairs. She has to pause at the bottom of the stairs. Her bag feels too heavy on her shoulder.
I know this feeling.
It'll be fine as long as she can make it to her car and find her keys.
She gets to the parking lot. The cars around her all blend together as her vision blurs once more. She tries to remember where she is.
Level 2.
She finds her keys with difficulty as she walks past a dark pick-up, a silver sedan, and a red compact before she locates her silver hybrid SUV.
She scrubs her hand against her face as her vision swims in and out of focus.
I can't believe this is happening to me. Again.
She spots a shadowy figure standing across from her in the parking lot as she makes her way to her car.
The figure is dressed in black. She can't see his face. She tries to capture every detail she can about him.
She makes it to the car and manages to open the driver's side door before she falls.
The black figure moves towards her as she drops the keys. But she manages to hit the panic button.
Logan has a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach as he looks across the campus parking lot at the sound of a car alarm. He instantly recognizes the silver SUV with the white headlights flashing.
It's Veronica's car.
He breaks into a run towards it as the alarm blares.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
The figure in black makes his way towards Veronica, who's now prone and unconscious on the concrete. Her reaches out a gloved hand and presses the button on the keys, silencing the alarm.
Logan is halfway down the stairs when the alarm stops. He jumps down the last few steps onto Level 2 of the parking garage.
The hairs stand up on the back of his neck as he runs through the aisles of cars.
Something's wrong.
He can feel it.
"Veronica!" he calls out, his ears attuned to the slightest noise.
Finally he spots her car.
His breath catches in his throat as he falls to his knees at the sight of her laying unconscious on the concrete beside it.
Veronica.
His Veronica.
He feels the soft fabric of her sweater beneath his fingers as he grabs her by the shoulders and gently turns her onto her back.
"Hey … C'mere …," he whispers as he takes her into his arms.
"Take me home," she whispers as he cradles her, supporting her head while she drifts in and out of consciousness.
"I'll take you home," he promises, "Hang in there and I'll take you anywhere you want to go, Veronica."
It's only when he lets her head rest against his shoulder that he sees the bloody, red marks on the back of her scalp where the rapist had hastily tried to shave her head. He'd run off before he could finish the job. But there were several strands of her beautiful, wavy, blonde hair strewn across the concrete.
"Oh my God," Logan whispers, shocked, as he rocks her, and brushes his fingers against her face, trying in vain to keep her conscious.
He holds back tears as he realizes what almost happened. In that moment, he vows to find whoever did this to her and end them. He makes a vow to himself to protect her from now on. To make up for the way he couldn't protect her before.
From Beaver.
From Lily's death.
From her mother.
From his father.
Whether she wants him to or not.
As he cradles her there in the parking lot, he vows to never feel this helpless again.
"Hey," he repeats over and over again because it's the only word he can make himself say. But it's not what he wants to say. He wants to say.
I love you.
I need you.
Please don't leave me.
Sometime later, Veronica's still barely conscious on the living room couch. Logan's there. Her dad's there too. The sleeves of his blue dress shirt are rolled up as he tries to spoon red cough syrup into her mouth with a spoon.
"That's nasty," Veronica protests as she swallows her head falls back against the pillow.
"Cowboy up, Mars," Logan replies his voice thick with emotion.
He's snuggled up beside her on the couch. He's as exhausted as she'd been at the beginning of this terrible day.
"Don't leave me," Veronica mumbles, her words slurring together as the powerful drugs still course their way through her system.
"I'm not goin' anywhere," he promises reaching for her hand.
"I love you. And I'm sorry," she says, squeezing his hand. "I shouldn't have tried to push you away. I'm gonna try not to do that anymore."
"Okay" he replies, "I'm sorry too. I love you."
"I think we all learned a valuable lesson about faith. You give it to the people you love. But the people who really deserve it are the ones who come through even when you don't love them enough."
Veronica glances at Logan one last time. She finally feels content and safe as she drifts off to sleep.