Below are the 7 most recent journal entries recorded in rogueweevil's LiveJournal:

Saturday, April 22nd, 2006
10:33 pm	Mars Invests 2 Part 2 “So, your back here, Wallace is in the Carolina’s and Logan is going to Law school at some fancy school in the Mid-West. Where’s the mysterious Duncan?” Weevil lounged on the bed; his shoed feet perched off the side of the bed, while he leaned against her head board. “He’s out of the country. He and Lilly are doing really well; she’ll be six in December. He sends me pictures every few months and letters about how she’s doing in school and that kind of thing. No, I don’t know where he is, though I do know that he works for his dad and is doing rather well for himself.” She mimicked Weevil’s comfortable position, though the butterflies in her stomach still haven’t settled. Being in his tattoo shop had been one thing, even with her pants unbuttoned and her shirt tucked into her bra, she had some kind of comfort zone, they hadn’t really been alone then, now they where, and half buried feelings that she had ignored in high school where cropping up again. “Little miss detective doesn’t know where her boy is? I find that hard to believe.” Weevil gave her a playful smile and winked, knowing that it was killing her not to know where Duncan was. “He asked me not to find him and I’m respecting that.” She looked at her hands, trying not to give away what she knew, knowing that if Weevil could see into her eyes, he would know her secretes, the way he had been able to years ago. They might have been away from each other for five years, but some things just didn’t fade with time. “So what about you, what are doing back in California, I though that you had escaped.” “I did, I went to school in New York, and I loved it there. I got my degree in photography, yeah, I got an art degree, and I worked part time at the police department, taking pictures for them, mostly crime scene work. About three months ago, Dad called, he’s been working really hard these past years, saving up money and building Mars Investigations, and he wants to open a new office, one here in San Diego, I’ve come home to run it.” “So, your back?” “I’m back. Do I get to hear your story now?” She lifted her eye brows at Weevil, waiting for his answer. He took his time, gathering his thoughts, and then turned to her. “I’ve been here, for the past five years I’ve been working at the shop. I’ve done designs for all kinds of people, and I love it. But about two years ago I decided that I wanted something else, I wanted to do art that everyone would appreciate, not just ink on other people’s skin. I started taking art classes at the local community college; I have another year before I get my degree in graphic art.” Her grin took over her face; she had had so much confidence in him back in high school, and was so thrilled to know that he had done something, something for himself, something that he had come to on his own. “That’s fantastic.” She had the urge to hug him, but simultaneously had the urge to throw up; she shot off the bed and toward the bathroom. He followed closely behind, and rubbed her back, above the tattoo, while she was sick. “You okay, Chica?” “Yeah, just a bit nauseous, and I’m getting a head ache.” “Brush your teeth, I’m going to run to the vending machine and get you some skittles, the sugar should help.” “How is sugar going to help my stomach?” She loaded up her tooth brush with tooth paste and sticking it in her mouth, scrubbing away the taste, attacking her tongue with the bristles. “Just trust me on this one.” He left, propping the hotel room door open as he ran out. (Comment on this)
10:31 pm	Mars Invests Mars Invests She felt like such a baby the first time she had to clean her tattoo. Weevil, who liked to be called by his actual first name now, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to call him Eli, had taken her out for a quick dinner that was high in protein and carbohydrates to help her body heal after the trauma getting the tattoo had put her though. When he drove her to her hotel in San Diego, which she was staying at until she could find an apartment of her own, he gave her strict instructions to clean her tattoo when she got upstairs and then re-bandage it. “I’m scared to hurt it.” She could feel her face redden at the confession, Veronica Mars; bad-ass girl was scared to apply a little soap and water to a wound. “I’ll help you.” Weevil looked a bit put out, but she could tell he was making fun of her because of her childishness. She gave him the biggest grin she could and then cocked her head to the side and the put out look left his face and was replaced by a grin of his own. “Come on, Chica. I’m only doing this once.” Veronica led him up to her room, and unlocked the door. She could feel butterflies in the pit of her stomach that where about the size of the one on her back, as he walked into her hotel room, which was ridiculous, Weevil had been her friend for years, and yet all of a sudden, the idea of them alone in her room together made her nervous. She almost regretted the fact that she couldn’t bring herself to clean her own back, though the more she thought through the logistics of the task, the more she was happy that she had someone else, since reaching was also a problem. She placed her purse and keys on the bedside table and wandered into the bathroom to gather the things he would need to clean the tattoo. She turned around and bumped directly into his chest. She was still a bit unsteady, and wavered a bit upon impact, but his hands on her shoulders kept her up right. “Let’s sit you down, before you fall.” He smiled gently and guided her over to the closed lid of her toilet. “Thanks, I’m not feeling great.” “You’ll feel better in the morning; the body reacts to a tattoo almost the same way that it reacts to a really bad scrape. A tattoo in the end is trauma to the epidermal layer of the skin. The ink sits below that layer, because that is the layer of skin that you shed over time.” He was busy undressing the tattoo while he told her this, completely unaware of the smile on her face. “I always knew you where smart. I was a little disappointed that you didn’t end up going to college; I thought you could be anything. I was worried that you would throw your talent away and stick with being a mechanic.” “I wasn’t aware that you thought of me that much.” The soap and water on the raw skin hurt a bit, but she could tell that he was no stranger to taking care of this kind of thing, his touch was gentle and caring. “Of course I thought of you, you where my friend.” She turned a bit so she could look at him while he worked. “I worried about everyone, it was my gooey marshmallow center, and Wallace liked to tease me about it.” “I knew you worried, Echolls and Kane gave you enough to worry about. I guess it just didn’t occur to me that you would worry about me also.” He applied more ointment to the skin, which was cold and made Veronica’s muscles twitch. “Yeah, I worried about them, but I knew in the end they would be fine. You where my wild card.” “How are they all now?” “Do you really care, or are you just trying to distract me from cleaning my tattoo.” “I really care, and I’m done cleaning, see, that wasn’t so bad.” “For you, you can see what you are doing, I would have had to do the whole thing in the mirror, and my depth perception isn’t great when it comes to mirrors.” She spun on the toilet seat cover to face him. Weevil was now leaning against the sink. “They’re all fine, as predicted.” “Let’s go into the other room to talk about this. I’m not sure how much I want to reminisce in the bathroom.” Weevil helped her to her feet, and guided her to her bed, where she could get comfortable. “Be careful about sleeping on your back for the next few days. You might want to keep ointment and a bandage on it when you sleep for the first week, just so that you don’t tare the scab off, you want that to fall off naturally, which also means no scratching.” “Yes, mom.” “I’m serious.” “I know.” “Okay. Now, what’s Wallace up to these days?” “Well, he went to Hurst on a basketball scholarship.” “I knew that part.” Weevil made himself comfortable on the other side of the bed, due to the significant lack of chairs in her hotel room. “Well, he met a very nice girl there, someone even I get along with. They are currently living in North Carolina where Wallace is assistant coaching at a high school, while he works on his masters in criminal law at Duke.” “You must be so proud.” “I am.” She tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear; the years had given it a darker tint, making it almost a light brown. “Echolls, now him, I would think you would worry about more then the rest of us, he was a mess when we graduated.” “Yeah, he was. But now, he’s doing pretty well.” She paused, Weevil and Logan had never really gotten along, with the exception of the truce that they had had in high school, when trying to solve Felix’s murder, they had pretty much hated each other, and not that she blamed them. The only thing the two of them had in common, besides the fact that they where both friends of hers, Logan more reluctantly then Weevil, was Lilly. “Well, he got his act together. His first year at NYU was hard; he partied a bit to hard and got himself into trouble, not that that really should surprise anyone. He showed up at my door one night, asking for some help. I told him that if I was going to help him, he was going to have to get some help for his drinking. A year later, he was clean and sober and doing well in school. He’s in grad school in St. Louis at Washington University; he’s working on his Law degree.” “Now, that’s something I thought I would never hear.” “He calls once a week and checks in, we’ve finally found that balance that we had in our friendship before Lilly died.” (Comment on this)
10:27 pm	Ink Ink She walked into his shop five years after she had last seen him. She still remembered the look on his face at their high school graduation; it was the same look that she had carried on her face, relief. They had finally finished. Now five years later, she was ready for his offer. When she had been walking out to her La Baron, after all of the festivities where over, all of the pictures taken, after her father left her to set up her surprise graduation party, that she knew all about, he came over to talk to her. “So, you’re off to college next year?” He ran his hand over his cleanly shaved head, and she almost mourned the hair he had had so briefly that year. “Yeah, NYU, the Kane’s are even footing the bill.” She cocked her head to the side, “What are you going to be doing now, you going to keep working at your uncle’s garage?” “I got an apprenticeship with San Diego Ink, I might not be going as far as New York, but I’m getting out of Neptune, too.” “That’s great. You going to start to ink up everyone else, now that you’re running out of space?” “I’ve always liked art; I was just good at fixing cars. The diploma was the only thing keeping me from apprentice work.” He smiled almost uneasily, like he wasn’t sure what to tell her next. “Come see me, I’ll give you your first tat on the house.” “If I ever feel the urge to permanently ink myself, you’ll be the first person I think of.” She reached over and pulled him into a quick hug, “Take care of yourself Weevil, I’m not going to be around next year to pull your ass out of jail.” Now, here she was, a design in her hand, ready to let him scar her. She hadn’t called, or let him know she was coming; it had been almost too long for her to feel comfortable showing up, but the night before she had run into a girl with a beautiful Celtic design winding its way up her arm, when she stopped her and asked where she got it, the girl gave her a card, the card only had two lines of print, the rest was covered in artfully rendered angel wings. It said, ‘Eli Navarro, San Diego Ink, Owner.’ And like that, she knew where she was going. The woman behind the counter was covered in colorful tattoos, the ink almost overwhelmed her tiny frame, but instead of making her look over done, it accentuated her beauty. “Can I help you?” “I’m looking for Weevil, or, I mean, Eli Navarro.” “Can I tell him whose asking for him?” “Tell him it’s an old friend, that if his offer is still good, I’d like to collect.” “Wait right here, I’ll see if he’s finished with his client.” The woman stood up and walked to the back to the shop, her tiny frame even more colorful now that it was in motion. Once the woman was out of sight, looking for Weevil, she sat down on the colorful bench, underneath the framed picture of past customer’s finished tattoos. She thumbed through the binder on the table that was marked ‘Eli,’ floored by the beauty of his designs. She had seen the tattoos that he had had in high school, the craftsmanship that he had displayed, but she had never gotten to see his work, any art that he had done himself, the pictures in the art binder where beautiful, breath taking works. “Well, Blondie, I didn’t think that I would ever see you in here.” Weevil’s smile was genuine when he laid his eyes on her, and she couldn’t help but return it. “Has it been so long, Weevil, that you forgot my name?” She cocked her head to the side. “Veronica.” The word made her heart flutter a bit, the way an old friend, seen after a long absence, has a tendency of causing. “So, you want to get inked?” “I think its time.” She extended her design, but he waved it away. “I knew you would come, I have one already ready for you.” He turned on his heals and walked to the back to the shop, without waiting to see if she would follow. The woman who had greeted her had settled back behind the desk. “He had almost lost hope that you would come in. He has been working on this for years.” The flutter in Veronica’s stomach had become more urgent, she knew that whatever Weevil had designed for her, she would let him put on her skin. Her design fluttered to the table forgotten, as she followed him back to look at his creation. Weevil was busy pulling a frame off the wall when Veronica caught up with him. The picture in the frame was a butterfly, the pattern inside the shape itself created different pictures; the entire design was one line, flowing in and out of the pictures inside the butterfly shape, almost like a stain glass window. There was a lily and a magnifying glass and a pit-bull on one wing, and a basketball, a spade, like you would find on a playing card and a flask. Each one of them was represented, Lilly, her father, Back-up, all on the right wing, and Wallace, Duncan and Logan on the left. “Where are you?” Veronica held the frame in her hands, and looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I’m the ink, and you’re the butterfly.” “So, where am I going to put this?” The design was bigger then she was thinking of, the butterfly spanning a full hand length. “I would put it on the small of your back, but that’s just me.” “Okay, I’m ready.” He looked shocked, but instructed her to tuck the bottom of her shirt into her bra and then sit backwards on the massage bench that was in the small cubical like room. When she had trouble with her shirt, he helped her. He took it slowly, placing the design on her back, measuring it precisely on her back, centering it. He showed it to her in a mirror, asking her how she liked the position. In the end she had to unbutton and zip her jeans, and fold them down so that the bottom of the design could extend onto her upper butt. When he started the machine with the needles, she started to get scared, he rubbed her back until she was ready, then he took it slowly, taking breaks when she couldn’t take the pain anymore. The design took almost three hours in the end, and she was exhausted and shaky when it was finished. He held her hand and showed her the finished design in the mirror, before putting ointment on it and covering it with gauze. He told her how to take care of the new tattoo, and told her to wait while he closed up the shop. “Let’s go get some food in you, your bodies going to want it to heal.” She smiled up at him, and took his hand, pulling him out of the shop with her. (Comment on this)
10:17 pm	The Flip Side of Normal Cont... More Part 16 The sneers and name calling where enough the first time around, I walked down the hall with Weevil on one side of me and Logan, clinging to my hand, while trying to look as confident and unaffected as he could, on the other side. Weevil’s face was set in his trade mark ‘I’m a bad-ass’ sneer, Logan’s poker face was perfect, and I could only imagine the cold look that I had plastered over my own features. On the inside, all I wanted to do was run back to the safety of the yellow XTerra and hide Logan away from all of this; I wanted to protect my friend from the hard year he had to face at Neptune High. The summer would hopefully make everything a little better, but as I had learned here only this past year, sometimes the edge is taken off, but when you betray the coolest kids in school, you’re in for a rough ride no matter how much time is past. Weevil and his boys left us at the first hallway, Logan, Duncan and I having out lockers on the other end of the building. Weevil gently kissed me on the head, and patted none to gently, Logan on the shoulder and nodded to Duncan, then took his leave, tilting his head indicating his boys to go with him. I could feel the loss of his warmth along my shoulders and back, and wanted to call him back; instead I took a deep breath and squeezed Logan’s hand, and forced my face to stay neutral. After all, I would be abandoning my boys for lunch with the PCH Bike Club; the least I could do now was stand by them. Logan’s locker was papered with the news papers announcement of his father’s arrest. Along with the picture of his father hand cuffed in the back of a Balboa County curser, were picture of Lilly from the year before, her eyes open and dead and blood running onto the Kane family deck, there where also pictures of Duncan and I at the police station after we turned in the tapes, watching as they brought Aaron into the station. I almost, at that moment, wished that I hadn’t avoided the news papers, just so that I would be prepared for what I was looking at. Duncan and I stood on either side of Logan, so that no one else could see the tears slowly making their way down his face, as he knelt in front of his locker and tore down the pictures and the article. He crumpled them into a ball, and handed the whole mess to Duncan, who quickly threw them away. Logan wiped the tears from his face and turned to me. “Well, at least I got to see your shining face on my locker this morning.” He tried to smile, but the gesture just didn’t make it all the way to his eyes. “Do you think you can handle first period with Duncan, I promise to be bright and shiny in News Paper in an hour.” I looked up into his eye, which where still wet with unshed tears and then down at our intertwined fingers, I wanted to say something, anything else, to make an inappropriate comment on how my boyfriend wouldn’t like the way I was holding his hand, but it occurred to me, looking down at our hands, that my boyfriend wouldn’t care; not because he didn’t get jealous or because he was okay with me being with other guys, but because this guy was Logan, and as much as I will always love him, he was now like my brother, and I could pinpoint the exact moment that it had happened. It had happened the second the three of us had turned and looked at the video of Lilly and Aaron, when Aaron’s face showed up on the screen, I realized that I had only been with Logan to hold onto the last moments of Lilly, I had been with him to feel what Lilly had felt, to know how she felt. To some extent, with Logan, I got to be Lilly, and that was the thought that made me realize that as pretty as Logan was to look at, I wasn’t attracted to him in any kind of sexual way, and Weevil realized this too. “I didn’t mean to use you, Veronica.” Logan pulled his hand away from mine, thinking that the look on my face meant that I was angry at him for thinking of me as an extension of Lilly. “You didn’t, we used each other.” I looked him in the eyes and made a grab for his hand again, intertwining our fingers the way they where when we walked up to the school. “I wanted to feel like Lilly, I didn’t know that that was what I was doing, but it was. I don’t want to be Lilly, Logan, but I don’t want to lose you either.” “So that’s it, we’re friends, and we can’t be anything else. I mean, I knew that we wouldn’t be together again once I saw you with Weevil, god, Veronica, I’ve seen the look in his eyes when he looks at you for months, but I didn’t really think you saw.” “I saw, I just wasn’t quite ready yet.” “And you are now.” “Yeah, I think I am, more then ready. Logan, he makes me feel safe and excited, it’s the best parts of my relationships with you and Duncan, only without the other parts, the monotony from Duncan, and the lack of trust with us.” “You’re happy?” “As I can be at the moment,” I let go of his hand then, and pull him into a hug. “I know we can’t have Lilly back, but can the three of us be us again?” “Didn’t you ask that already?” “Yeah, I just wanted to ask again, now that things have changed. I want it to be the three of us, with what ever relationships we have outside of our group, I want us three to be together. God, do I sound sappy.” “That’s why you’re the girl in our group, don’t change, I like your sappy girly moments.” He turned to Duncan, who was back from grabbing his books from his locker. “What do you say, buddy, think we can be the Three Musketeers again?” “Again?” Duncan looked confused, “I don’t really remember us ever being the Three Musketeers, there was always four.” “Well, big bro, now its three.” “Don’t call me that here, people will talk.” Duncan’s ears turned a bit pink. “Okay, I get to be Porthos.” Logan grins and pretends to take a hat off his head and bows dramatically. “Of course you would be the arrogant one. Fine I’m Athos, I keep my secrets well, and my job is to know what crimes everyone else had committed.” I steeple my fingers together and do my best to look sinister. “Logan, you read?” Duncan looks shocked, and is rewarded by a swipe at the back of his head from Logan. “And how did I end up the pious one?” “Just suits.” The bell rings before Logan can go on, and we all head our separate directions to class. Lunch came entirely too quickly for my own liking. I was beyond nervous about leaving Logan and Duncan at a table alone with Wallace, though I knew Duncan and Wallace got along well enough. I had seen Meg around school, but she had been avoiding both Duncan and I since Logan’s party. “Duncan, either go apologize to her, or stop trying to watch her without her noticing, she can see you, and so can everyone else.” “I went nuts, Ronnie, I can’t face her.” My old nickname seemed to have found its way back, along with our easy camaraderie. “Go over there and talk to her, or I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and take you there myself.” I put my hands on my hips and try my best to look like I mean it. “Now, that would be something I would pay to see.” Logan joins us at my old table, before I head over to sit with my biker boyfriend. “Okay, I’m going, but if she throws something at me or pours something on me, I’m so blaming you two.” Duncan walks away leaving just Logan and I standing in the sun. “You going to be okay for lunch?” “I’m a big boy, Ronnie, I can handle myself.” “Okay, but just incase, here’s Wallace. Be nice, talk about sports. Hey, and maybe Duncan and Meg will join you soon, she hasn’t thrown anything at him yet.” Which was true, though she was yelling at him quite a lot, though to his credit, Duncan was looking appropriately chastised. When it looked like everything was going to be as good as it could, I left to go sit with Weevil. I sat down on the bench next to Weevil, more then a little nervous about sitting with the PCHer’s. Weevil I was used to, but the others scared me a bit, to be honest, the only other PCHer I had liked was Felix, if only because he was Weevil’s right hand, and I knew he would never hurt me. “Oh, no. Blondie is not sitting here. We’ve got business to discuss.” Thumper stood up, trying to use his height to intimidate Weevil. “Its okay, Weevil, I’ll…” I stood up and started to move away, but Weevil shot his hand out and caught me around the waist, propelling me back to him, sitting me rather forcefully in his lap. “You’re not going anywhere, Chica. Thumper, sit your ass down. The last I checked, I was in charge, and I say V’s cool. You got a problem with my girlfriend; we’ll settle this later, for now, eat.” Weevil tightened his arm around my waist reassuringly, while he downed his soda. Part 17 The school day finished without anything really happening, well, anything that we hadn’t been prepared for. Logan put up the ‘Out of Order’ sign on the girl’s bathroom right before seventh period, just needing a break from everyone; halfway through the period I went to check on him, and spent the rest of the period with him in the bathroom, just letting him talk. Given the right ear, Logan will talk about anything, if you give him a chance, he’s really an open guy; you just have to give him that chance. Looking back on it, I hadn’t really given him that chance since before Lilly died, I froze him out, partially because I was unwilling to let go of Lilly and my vision of her, and partially because he changed, or let everyone think he changed, after she died. Logan talked about our last Homecoming together, when it was the four of us. He remembered the dares we made, and the game of ‘I Never,’ he just wanted to remember, with someone else who was there, someone who loved Lilly. “Did you ever get that chance to go skinny dipping?” Logan asked, not to be crass, he didn’t even lift his eyebrows or attempt to leer at me, he kept his eyes firmly planted on his bottle of water, while he sat on the sinks in the girl’s bathroom. “Yeah, right before Homecoming this year, and I wore red satin for Lilly, too.” I smiled at the memory; Lilly spent forever trying to get me out of pastels and frilly dresses. “I remember. She would have been so proud of you.” “You cared to remember?” “Just cuz I was mad at you, Ronnie, doesn’t mean I ever stopped caring or looking for you. I’ve been a jerk this year, to you specifically, and I’m really sorry. I wanted you to hurt, I wanted you to hurt, because I blamed you, and I shouldn’t have.” “I know, I bugged Ms. James office when she was talking to everyone who was connected with Lilly.” I look down at my hands, almost ashamed of the fact that I broke so many people’s trust by listening in on those conversations, almost. Logan laughed, looking up at the ceiling and running his fingers though his hair. “I should have known. That’s something that you would do. So, did you learn anything else interesting while listening in?” “Plenty, though I’m not going to share what anyone else said, that’s for them to tell you.” “I already know that Weevil was with Lilly, I saw his tattoo.” “I know, you told me that already.” “So, what else is there to know?” Logan looked at me for this first time since I entered the bathroom, right in the eyes. “Nothing, there’s nothing else that you need to know about Lilly that anyone else said.” Which was true, nothing else about Lilly, but lots about other people, about Duncan and Logan himself, even Weevil had divulged secrets that they wouldn’t want others to know about, and I wasn’t ready to share. “Okay.” Logan went back to looking at his water bottle. “The period is almost over; you might want to go find your boy.” “Yeah, this afternoon is going to be fun.” I deadpan, I’m not really looking forward to the talk that Weevil and I need to have, the things that I need to tell him, about Duncan and me, about my mom, I need to open up, and trust him with things that I don’t want to think about, or talk about with anyone; but he needs to know. I have spent so much time since Lilly died running away from any kind of long term connection to anyone, and it was time for that to stop, and for that to happen, I had to let someone in. I was slowly letting my old friends back in, and I had never really let Wallace in up until a few days ago, now it was time to let in Weevil. I have learned over the past year and a half that walls are good, that they protect you when things go bad, in the past few weeks I realized that you don’t have to build your walls just around yourself, you can build them with people you trust, and they can protect you even from yourself. The bell rang as I was leaving the bathroom with Logan in tow. Duncan met us at the lockers with my books, since I had left class halfway though and hadn’t gone back. I stowed my books in my locker, grabbed my bike helmet, and left for the parking lot. I had no delusions of actually getting any homework done that night, if there was anytime after the talk with Weevil, we needed to go by the Sheriff’s department to have a nice talk with Deputy Leo, who was surprisingly getting along well with my biker boyfriend. I reached Weevil’s bike before he did, no one else was in the parking lot yet, and I noticed something that I wasn’t totally prepared for, but knew I should have been. The front right tire of Logan’s Yellow XTerra where flat. It took me by surprise, not some much that the tires where flat, but that I hadn’t thought to say anything before school about it, I had always thought that Logan had been the one to let the air out of my tires, and I didn’t think that anyone would be industrious enough to do it to him, I was wrong. I quickly texted Logan about the situation, then opened up the back to his car, pulling out his Jack and spare tire, and got to work changing the tire, while he came out to help me. Weevil made it there first, and took the tire iron out of my hands. “It’s so nice to see a chick who knows her way around a car.” He smiled as he knelt down next to me, working the tire iron. “Yeah, well, I’ve had a few mysterious flat tires in my time, I got the practice. The LaBarron is my baby, but she’s a bit temperamental.” I watched the muscles work on his arms as he coxed the tire off of the car, I could feel the tightening in my stomach that I had come to associate with Weevil. He made things in my body react like no one ever had, and I was basking in the feeling, when Logan interrupted my slide show of half naked Weevil that was repeating itself in my mind. “Well, it looks like your flats have become my flats, Ronnie.” Logan threw his backpack into the trunk of the SUV and then dropped down on the other side of Weevil, to help him wrestle the spare tire onto the car. “See, I always though that you had been letting the air out of my tires. I guess I was wrong.” “I only did that once. And that was after the whole bong incident.” He tried to take the tire iron from Weevil, who refused to give it to him. “Dude, I remember the last time you had a tire iron, I’m not letting you have one now.” Weevil had been my big hero that day, scaring Logan and his ‘09er buddies off, and here we where not even a year later, and we where fixing up Logan’s car, the three of us. “I promise not to bash in any head lights, but I should get the practice, I have a feeling that this is going to happen a lot.” Logan took the tire iron that Weevil surrendered, and worked the bolts back onto the car, securing the spare tire. Weevil and I left him to it as Duncan and Wallace walked up. “You going to be okay, Logan?” I asked, before going to Weevil’s bike. “Yeah, give me a call when you get home tonight, we’ll figure out rides for tomorrow.” “Sure thing.” “Take the car over to my Uncle’s shop, I’ll give him a heads up that its coming.” Weevil and Logan pounded fists, and we walked away. I looked back to see the three boys crouching on the pavement finishing up Logan’s tire, and I smiled. A year ago I would never have guessed that my life would be this way. I never thought I would be happy again, despite everything that was happening, knowing that Duncan was my brother, having Lilly’s killer behind bars, knowing who had raped me at Shelley’s party, knowing that it hadn’t really been rape, having Weevil at my side, Wallace at my back and two boys who I had been estranged from for more then a year, with me now. I was happy, and it was such a new feeling that it almost confused me. Weevil pressed the key’s to the bike into my hand as we walked up it, I looked at him in confusion for only a moment, before pulling my helmet on and swinging my leg over the bike, starting the engine and backing it out of the space. Weevil swung himself onto the bike behind me, and I could hear the cat-calls from Logan, Duncan and Wallace as I took the bike out of the parking lot and onto the main road. I didn’t go far, only as far as the beach, keeping the bike on residential roads, I wasn’t really ready to go much faster then thirty miles an hour, but it was exhilarating to be the one in control, to feel Weevil’s body pressed to the back of mine, his arms strong around my waist. Happy wasn’t so bad, now all I had to do was divulge all of my deep dark secretes to this man, and help him find his best friend, and who had taken his best friend, then I had to make sure that Aaron Echolls rotted in prison, and there would be more, but some how, it didn’t seem all that bad. Part 18 We left the bike in the parking lot, or helmets sitting on the seat and the bike tipped at an angle on it’s kick stand, looking for all the world like it had its head tilted, begging us to come back to it, to ride away and forget about the heavy talk that we had ahead of us. My body was wound tight from the short ride; the memory of Weevil’s body pressed up against mine was like a physical burning along my skin. I couldn’t think of what I needed to say to him, I couldn’t remember why we where here on the beach, I just had to touch him, to ground myself, make myself real after the day that I had just gone through. I pushed Weevil to the sand near the water, before the sand became wet, but close enough that I could feel the water lapping at the shore. He looked stunned at the gesture, but let his body fall to the sand, where he got comfortable, leaning back on his hands, and tilting his head to the side, waiting for me to start talking. I didn’t. Instead I dropped myself onto his lap, straddling his hips, pushing myself as close to him as I could, feeling the way our bodies fit together. “V, you can’t sit here if you want me to listen to anything you have to say, I’m not that good.” I run my hands over his arms, feeling his muscles bunch under my hands as my touch affects him, he tries to lift me out of his lap, but I can tell his heart isn’t in it, if it where I would be sitting on the sand. I stay firmly in his lap, continuing my exploration. When I don’t say anything, he lies back in the sand, and watches me with darkened eyes as I run my hands up under his wife-beater, his stomach muscles jumping at my light touch. “Baby, we’re not going to get any talking done if you keep doing that, and the beach is really not the place.” “I need to touch you, before I say anything, I need this.” I look him in the eye, and when he doesn’t say anything, I lay against him, pressing my body into his, running my fingers against his scalp and then behind his neck, before lowering my lips to his. The kiss starts out slow, reacquainting myself with the feel of his full lips against mine, so different from any of the other boys I’ve kissed. I run my tongue along the seam of his lips, and then inside when he opens to me. As I run my tongue along his, his hands find their way down my back, resting on my hips and bringing me closer to his, grinding my body against his. I wait for it to scare me, for my fight or flight instinct to kick in, telling me that we’re going to far, or too fast, but it doesn’t. My body starts to become warm, the butterflies in my stomach turn to fire and I moan into his mouth. He pulls away first, pushing my body back into a sitting position on his lap, and he follows me, leaning back against his arms. “Chica, we either gotta talk now, or we need to go some place else.” He runs his hands up and down my arms, almost like he’s making sure I’m still there. I swing my leg off of his lap, like I swing my leg off of his bike, and I sit in the sand facing the water, I don’t want to look at him for what I have to say. “Where do you want me to start?” Weevil brings his knees to his chest, resting his arms on them, and looks out at the water. I watch him from the corner of my eye, and wait. “Why did you leave Echolls’ house that night?” “Okay, that’s an easy one, I can answer that. I was in his pool house with him; we had just escaped the impromptu party that his father had thrown him. I told him that I didn’t blame him for what happened at Shelley’s Party, that anything that had happened was forgiven, he asked me if I wanted a drink, and then proceeded to break the key off in the door to the liquor cabinet, and left to go get some from the house. I had just finished telling him that I trusted him that I wanted to trust him; I could be his girlfriend, not just in privet but in public too. I was watching the ceiling fan, and noticed something, a reflection from a lens in the fan. I followed the wiring of the fan and found a hidden video system; the bed that I had been laying on was pictured, from two different angles. I had just said I trusted Logan, and in a second it was all erased. I called you, I knew you would come get me, I trusted you where I couldn’t trust Logan.” “But that’s not why you broke up with him.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, Weevil knew that Logan and I had talked after that. “No, I broke up with Logan because I couldn’t get the image of Duncan out of my head.” I turned to him when I said this, “Logan was too close to Duncan, he’s like a brother to me, I felt sick when I thought about kissing him, and I knew that no matter what I said, I would never trust him enough to let him that close again. In the end, I really just don’t have those feelings for Logan, I tried to, I think because we both needed to feel close to Lilly again, but there just not there.” “So, what happened at Shelley’s that you had to forgive Logan for?” I wished with every fiber of my being that Weevil hadn’t asked that question, not right then, I had a nice new relationship with this guy, one that while wonderful and comforting was still not stable yet, and I was going to tell him about having sex with another guy, a guy who happened to be my brother, not that I had known that at the time, and sex that I didn’t remember, sex that I had thought was rape not a week ago. “I was slipped GHP at Shelley’s party.” I left the statement out there for a moment, turning away from Weevil again, to stare at the horizon. “I don’t remember much about what had happened that night, and up until about a week ago, I didn’t know anything that had happened, other then the fact that I woke up in a guest bedroom at Shelley’s house the next day, missing my underwear.” A tear slipped down my face, the heat of it was the only thing that made me aware of it. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Weevil, but I felt him scoot closer to me and wrap his arm around my shoulder. I want to tell him not to touch me, that he may be disgusted with me in a moment, that I can’t bear for him to touch me yet, that if he walks away, its going to hurt all the more because of the comfort that he’s giving to me right now, but I don’t, because in the end, the only reason that I can go on is because of his arm around me, the weight of his body along the side of mine, “I spent several days last week tracking down what had happened at the party. Logan didn’t slip me the GHP, it wasn’t even his that I took, but he did slip some to Duncan.” Again I let the statement hang, hoping that I wont have to go any farther, that Weevil will know what comes next just by what I left out. I feel his arm tense against my shoulder, and I prepare myself for the weight to leave, for angry words to come out of his mouth, I’m completely ready for rejection. What I’m not ready for is what happens next. Weevil pulls my back into his lap, my legs both on the sand to one side; he hugs me to his body and whispers softly in Spanish into my ear. I don’t know what he says, but it’s amazingly comforting. He kisses me softly on the top of the head, and rocks me against him. “I’m so sorry, Veronica.” His words are quiet and full of weight, I can hear the tears at the back of his throat, and I let myself fall apart. (Comment on this)
10:15 pm	The Flip Side of Normal Cont. Part 10 If you asked most people, they would say that I have no fear of confrontation; they would be wrong. The idea of talking to Weevil about Lilly scared me, not so much in what he would have to say, but the thought of the emotions it would evoke. In the past two days I had really run the gambit of emotional upheaval, I had gone from typical high school student who did detective work on the side, to finding out that my ex-boyfriend was my brother, to watching he Aaron Echolls Lilly Kane sex tapes, to breaking up with my new boyfriend, to starting a new case for the local juvenile delinquent of choice, to wanting to jump said juvenile delinquent, to entering into a relationship with him. There was nothing in the world I would rather do then avoid any kind of confrontation that would lead to more emotional crap, I really wanted to leave all of my thoughts of Lilly and the part of her I didn’t know, until next week, when my brain had had a chance to settle a bit, and digest all of the things that had been thrown at it. Then again, another part of me just wanted to have it over with, to talk to Weevil about the elephant in the room, in hopes that it would then find another room to lurk in, the problem was, I had no idea where to start. I spent the better part of the trip to Felix’s bike in thought, trying to find the best way to broach to subject. Once at the bike I was completely distracted by the nonchalant attitude that the bike seemed to exude, while it sat there completely unassumingly, doing nothing out of the ordinary. The bike was parked under a street light, no keys, on its kickstand, and totally normal, other then the fact that it was stuck out in the middle of no where. I took a few picture of the area, studied the dials on the bike, and learned exactly nothing, other then the fact that we now had another bike to deal with, and no one to ride it and get it home. Weevil produced a key to the bike, which didn’t help us at all. “Well, we’re just going to have to come back here with a car. Too bad I don’t know how to ride one of these.” I look pointedly at Weevil, hoping that he will catch on to what I’m hinting at. “I’m not teaching you to ride on my bike, we will barrow one of the beat up ones at Angel’s shop, but you’re not taking my girl out.” “I thought I was your girl,” I pout. “You don’t love me anymore, is it that I won’t sleep with you, because you know how I feel about pressure.” “Yes, it’s the fact that you won’t sleep with me, there is nothing I like less then a girl who is a tease.” He roles his eyes at me. “Lets get out of here, there’s nothing to find.” I put on my helmet and move to let Weevil get on the bike. “You get on first; I want you to learn how to move with the bike, before I even think about teaching you to ride on your own.” He pushes me to the bike and helps me get on the front, it’s harder to balance and swing myself over without the solid hold on his body, but I do it, and feel him swing himself onto the bike behind me. It is possibly the most erotic feeling I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing, feeling him wrap his legs around me, sitting securely in the crook of his body. Once he’s on, he pushes me forward so that he can place his feet, I feel a little awkward being this far up on the bike, and the lack of anything to really hold onto scares me, but his arms wrap around me on the handlebars, and the cage of his body gives me a bit more confidence. He instructs me to lean back into him, so that I can feel how he moves with the bike, and starts the engine, which leads to another awkward moment of him reaching between my legs to get to the ignition, but I trust him, and am rewarded with the hum and vibrations of the bike and the feel of his body moving with mine as he pulls the bike out of the parking lot and onto the streets heading home. The sand is warm under my legs, as Weevil and I watch the sun set over the ocean. The ride back had been educational, and proved to push my thoughts away, but now it was time to talk about Lilly, and I felt my mouth go dry. “Tell me about Lilly.” I jump right in, like pulling off a band-aid, the faster you do it, the less it hurts, in theory; of course, when you’re ripping off a band-aid, you don’t have to take its pain into consideration. “What do you want to know? She was your best friend, shouldn’t I be asking you?” Weevil looked distant, watching the sunset so intently; I thought it might jump below the horizon, just to get out of his line of sight. “Tell me about the parts that she didn’t show me.” I wrap my arm around his waist and cuddle into his body, trying to let him know that I don’t want to put distance between us by bringing up Lilly, but that I want to bring him closer with this talk. “She loved you, she loved you so much that she even talked with me about you, and Lilly and I didn’t do a whole lot of talking. She talked about you more then she ever talked about herself, I almost felt like I wasn’t with Lilly at all sometimes, but a sounding board for what she wanted you to become. She wanted you to come out of your shell, to push beyond her shadow; she wanted you to become her equal, to rule the school with her.” Weevil put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me even closer to him. “She would be so proud of what you have become, how strong you are now.” “I see her sometimes, you know, since she died. She’s told me how proud she is. I know that it’s not real, and that it’s just my mind giving me comfort, but I like to think it’s really her, that she really can still see me.” “She sees you.” “I want to see it.” I can feel the tears leaking out of my eyes, running down my face, but this time they don’t hurt, talking about Lilly with Weevil doesn’t hurt, and I’m almost relieved. “See what, chica?” Weevil’s not looking at me anymore, but he’s not glaring at the sun either, simply watching, at ease with our talk. “The tattoo, Logan told me about it. I know you said it was your little sister’s name,” I let the sentence trail off there, letting Weevil take over to show and tell the way he pleases. “Yeah, it’s Lilly, our Lilly. But you’ve got to understand,” Weevil shifts uncomfortably, pulling away from me a bit, and pulling his wife-beater over his head, leaving him naked from the waist up, and I drift off a bit, superimposing the image over the images my mind came up with the day before; the real thing is definitely better then what my brain came up with. “I understand. You don’t have to justify your heart to me; you don’t even have to justify your tattoos to me. Its your body, you can ink it in any way you want, just don’t ask me to do it, and just as a heads up, if you want to get anything symbolizing me, its not going to be a heart with my name in it.” Weevil rewards me with a smile, and then turns his back to me. I trace over the letters of my best friends name, my tears are clouding my vision now, and I have to wipe them away. “She’s really gone. I miss her so much.” Weevil’s shirt is completely forgotten as he pulls me into his arms. I cry on his shoulder for the second time in two days, and I can’t help but feel a little weak. I can feel the tears run down his chest and soak into my shirt as he rubs soothing circles on my back. “It’s okay, Veronica,” Weevil utters soothing Spanish into my ear, none of it I know, even with my working knowledge of the Spanish language, not that it really matters what he says, just that he says it. While I cry, something in me vows to let my emotions show with this man, something that I don’t do easily, he will keep my heart safe, even with the swift pace that this relationship has taken, I know he’s not going to throw my emotions back in my face. “Will you take me home to my daddy now?” I feel like a little girl asking him, but the look on his face tells me its okay, that missing my friend, a friend both of us loved to an extent, is a perfectly fine time to be a child, to want my father. It’s okay for me to ask my boyfriend to take me home so that I can get comfort from someone else. “Will you stay though, when we get home, will you stay with me?” Part 11 Weevil carried me up to the apartment, I was already half asleep when he lifted me off his bike. I don’t even remember getting to the door. I woke up around three in the morning and I could hear my dads and Weevil’s voices in the living room. I half expected them to be talking about me, but they weren’t, they where talking about school, about Weevil’s plans for the future. I listened though my open bedroom door, as they chatted amicably, I could only guess that Weevil hadn’t yet told my father about our new relationship status, and I thought that that was wise, letting my father get to know the Weevil that I knew before disclosing that kind of information; plus, I kind of wanted to break the news to my father. I was perfectly happy to have Weevil there when I did it, I just wanted to be the one to say the words. “What are your plans after high school, Eli?” I knew that Weevil didn’t really like being called by his given name; it reminded him how far from that person he had come in the past six years. We had talked about it once, I asked if he would rather be called Eli, Cassidy liked his given name over his nickname, and I thought it only fair to give Weevil the choice as well. Weevil had been pretty adamant about being called by his nickname, I think to some extent it had to do with his status in the PCH, but he said that it’s the person that he was and wanted to be called by the name that he identified with, and I could respect that. “I’m not really sure, Keith. I know my grandma wants me to go to college, she says that I can be the first Navarro to break the cycle, and I want to do that, I just don’t know if I can.” I was so happy when Weevil called my father by his name; maybe this was really going to work. “Stick with Veronica; she’ll get you on the right track.” “Excuse me?” I could hear surprise in Weevil’s voice. “You have feelings for my daughter, don’t you?” There was a pause, I assume that Weevil nodded, because my father went on, “Stick with her; I know how highly she thinks of you. If you want to go to college, if you want to make something of yourself, she’ll push you to do it.” “I’m worried about her. She’s been a wreck these past few days.” That surprised me, I knew I had been a mess, I knew that Weevil knew about everything that I was going though, I just didn’t expect him to talk to my father about it. “You know what’s been going on, I assume she told you about it.” “Sort of, she left some documents on the table, and I kind of snooped.” I commended Weevil for his honestly; it’s hard to do around my father. Dad let out a short burst of laughter, “You and my daughter, sticking your noses into everything.” “But, I’m more worried about how she’s handling the end of the Lilly Kane investigation. I think that it’s just hitting her that she’s finally mourning for Lilly, and with everything else that’s been happening, she’s going to really need some support.” “Yeah, I can see that, luckily this time around, she’s going to have some great friends to hold her hand though this and she’s got you. I know she’s helping you find your friend, I hope you plan to stick around after this is all finished.” “Yes, sir. I plan to stick around as long as she’ll let me.” I decided at this point to make my presence known. I walked out into the living room rubbing my eyes, and sat down on the couch with Weevil. “You boys have a nice talk?” I looked between my father and Weevil, both of whom looked relaxed sitting together, Weevil holding a coffee mug filled with black coffee and my father drinking a glass of soda. “Eli here was telling me about his hopes for college.” “Really, and what does he want to study at college?” I looked to Weevil to answer, since I knew they hadn’t really gotten that far in the conversation. “Art, I want to study art.” “You’ll do great at it.” I smiled and patted Weevil on the knee. “Daddy, Weevil and I have something to talk to you about.” “Must be something big for you to call me ‘Daddy.’” Part 12 Neither of us knows what to say to my father’s comment, a little voice in the back of my head tells me that its encouraging though, for him to joke. I take Weevil’s hand in mine, and shift closer to him on the couch. We sit in silence as Weevil and I take a moment to collect our thoughts and communicate to each other encouragement, though a series of hand squeezes. “Daddy,” I pause again, trying to come up with the best way to tell my father that I’m dating the juvenile delinquent that he started picking up at the age of twelve, that the guy that my father didn’t even like me to be in a room with only a few months ago is now kissing his beloved only daughter. “Mr. Mars, I like your daughter very much.” I want to kiss Weevil right at that moment, I want nothing more then to show him how appreciative I am, and how brave I think he is for helping me and telling my father, but I know I can’t make him do it all on his own, I need my inner bad-ass to come up with something quick. “Weevil and I are dating.” I just jump right in, commit to what I need to say and do it, and I’m rewarded with my father not hitting my boyfriend. “How long, Veronica? Didn’t you just break up with Logan?” My father looks shocked, but not angry, which is definitely a good thing. “Well, it kind of started yesterday, Weevil came over after he heard about Aaron, and he wanted to see how I was, and needed help with Felix’s disappearance. We took my bike to the shop, and things just kind of fell into place. We talked today, and we decided that we want to pursue a relationship.” I look hopefully at my father, whose face is almost completely blank, my father give cop face like no one else I know. “I’ve got to say, it’s an improvement over Logan.” He stands and holds his hand out to Weevil, who takes it. They shake hands, but I know that my father hasn’t had the last word yet. “You hurt her, and I’ll kill you slowly. And don’t forget anything that I said this morning.” “I have no intention of hurting your daughter.” Weevil looks my dad in the eyes as he says this, and I just watch in aw as the men in my life size each other up. “That means no jail time because of you and I don’t want to have to pick her up from the hospital either.” “I will do everything in my power to keep her safe.” “Veronica, do you mind if I finish this conversation with Eli without you?” “I’ll be in my room.” I walk into my room, and hear the door to the apartment shut. My father knows me too well; he knows that if they had stayed in the living room I would have listened in at the door. I take the time that I’m alone to give Leo a call. I know that I rely too much on the Deputy, but I also know, it’s good to have friends in the Sheriff’s department, especially since the sheriff himself is completely incompetent. “Veronica Mars, to what do I owe this late night phone call. If this is booty call, I have to tell you, I’m taken.” Leo and I have finally reached a middle ground after I unceremoniously dumped him only a few months before. “Oh, but Deputy Leo, you told me you would always wait for me, that you knew deep down inside I loved you and now one else.” I let a little southern drawl sneak in there, just for fun, and I hear him chuckle on the other end of the phone. “What can I do for you, Veronica?” “We checked out the bike and there’s nothing. I want to file an official missing persons report, but I don’t want to mention anything about the PCH or Weevil; this is strictly me filing a report on a friend who I found missing.” “I can do that, but I need you to tell me what’s going on later.” “As soon as I know something, we can have one of our ‘your not a deputy and I’m not your ex-girlfriend who happens to be the ex-sheriff’s daughter’ coffee meetings.” “You know how much I look forward to being in the loop.” Yep, and that’s how we have found our common ground, I keep Leo in the loop and he looks the other way when I ask questions and favors. “I also want to check all of the hospitals and morgues around Neptune and San Diego.” “You mean you don’t have a doctor friend who can do that for you?” “Very funny, can you do that?” “I’ll do everything I can.” “I don’t want him found in a morgue.” “I can’t promise anything, Veronica. But for your sake, and for your friends, I hope that we don’t find him in one. I’ll give you a call as soon as I know anything.” I hang up with Leo, and check my e-mail. My phone rings a few minutes later, Duncan’s number flashes on my caller-ID, and I debate as to whether or not to pick up. On the one hand, I do owe it to him to talk about the whole brother-sister thing, but on the other, I’ve had so much emotional upheaval in the past two days, I don’t know if I can stand it. I wait three rings before giving in and answering the phone. “Veronica, do you think you can pick Logan and me up?” I can tell Duncan’s drunk without even having to hear him say it. Duncan is one of those drunks who is almost completely incomprehensible, I know that if he’s calling me, it’s only because Logan is feeding him the words. “Duncan, let me talk to Logan.” I hear shuffling on the other end of the phone and whispered conversation, which makes increasingly less sense. “Ronnie!” I cringe. “How are you doing?” “I was doing better before my ex-boyfriend and my brother called me drunk at four am asking for a ride, because the two of you got too drunk to get home.” “Please Ronnie, we promise to be good.” “Where are you?” “At Dick’s house, he started getting mean when he got drunk, and kicked us out, something about not wanting anyone to catch the murder’s son in his house in the morning.” My heart breaks just a bit for Logan; this is only the beginning of how bad it’s going to be for him. “Weevil and I will be around in a minute. We’ll have to borrow my dad’s car.” “What are you doing with Weevil?” “I’ll tell you when you’re sober.” “You like him don’t you, its okay Ronnie, I know you like him.” “Yeah, Logan, I like him a lot. Please don’t screw this up for me.” “I’ll try, for the sake of our friendship.” He sounds sarcastic when he says ‘friendship’ but I know that he will try not to do anything that will hurt me. He really wants to be my friend, and that means more to me then anything he did or said when we where dating. He knows that he needs to stick by me; he needs the friends right now. Part 13 It didn’t take much to get dad to let us borrow the car, as soon as the words 'Logan,' 'drunk,' and 'Dick's house' where out of my mouth, dad was already handing over the keys. Weevil was a little bit harder to convince. "What are you doing rescuing those boys. Don't they live like three blocks from there anyway?" "You've never seen Duncan drunk." I thought back to the time that we all played poker at Logan's, but that wasn't Duncan drunk, that was Duncan pretending to be drunk, which is not at all the same thing. To say that Duncan was a lousy drunk would be an understatement, when he drank he could barely walk, let alone perform simple tasks like finding his way home. "Anyway, there won't be anyone at either of their houses. Duncan's parents now have to deal with the fall out of covering up Lilly's murder and Logan's dads in jail." "So, you need me to get them in the car, then onto the couch at your house?" "See, this is why I'm dating you, but they're going to sleep in my room, I'm taking the couch, for the final three hours of the night. Then, while they sleep it off, we are going to go out for the day." "You're dating me for my muscle?" "No, you're brain, keep up." I stick the keys in the ignition, and get the chance to drive Weevil around; who looks very uncomfortable in the car, like the idea of four walls surrounding him while in a moving vehicle is too much. I open his window and he just glares at me. "I'm not a dog; you don't have to keep the window cracked." "I never said you where, but if I catch you sticking your head out, I'll have my doubts." The rest of the ride was in relative silence, neither of us feeling the need to fill it; it was comfortable, just being able to enjoy each others company. With Logan, I had always needed the radio on, or conversation to be happening, to go anywhere at night with him in the car. With Weevil, the silence was nice; his presence pushed away my thoughts, but at the same time filled them with the promise of what was to come. I realized that I was at peace with him around, and if I really thought back on it, he had brought that peace to me for a good part of the year. With him around there was one less thing that I had to worry about, my emotional safety, sure the two of us bantered back and forth, we said things to each other that could be construed as odd and or hurtful at times, but the knowledge that neither of us really meant them was the safe part. "I feel the need to apologize in advance for both Logan and Duncan." I turned onto Dick's street, and could see the boys from the corner. When they said that Dick had thrown them out, I was expecting them to be sitting on the front steps, not outside the gates. "You don't need to apologize for them." Weevil laid his hand on my thigh, giving it an affectionate squeeze, and then leaving it there, rubbing circles, soothingly against the fabric of my jeans. "Trust me, I do. Logan knows about us, and I'm pretty sure in his drunken state he's going to do or say something that he's going to regret in the morning, I'm just giving you a heads up. I have no idea what to expect from Duncan." I pulled to a stop in front of the Cassabloncas' Estate. Weevil ran his fingers through my hair, and gave me a quick chaste kiss before turning to get out of the car. "I'll be fine." He said, all too soon, getting out of the car, and immediately getting vomited on by Duncan. "Right after I kill this white boy." Duncan looked slightly amused, but quickly changed his tactic and tried to get away from the biker. "Ronnie! I knew you would come for us, you're such a good little rescuer." Logan threw his arms around me as soon as I was out of the car. "Can I ask you something?" "Only if you feel that it is appropriate for present company, if you think that Weevil might kill you for asking, I suggest that you wait until you're sober." His breath was deadly in my face, "Logan, you have to let go of me and get in the car." "Did you ever love me?" He looked so lost, his eyes brimmed with tears. "Logan, if this isn't love, I don't know what is, get in the car." "You only came to get me because Duncan called, you have to love him, it's like in the rules, even though you only found out he was your brother like yesterday." He pouted, but let go of me, and fell into the back seat of the car. "I came because you needed me too. Now, if you throw-up in the car, my dad will not hesitate to kill you." I buckled his seatbelt for him, and opened the window. Weevil was having a bit more trouble with Duncan, who seemed to be giving him the drunken version of the 'You hurt my sister and I'll kill you' speech, only Duncan's version sounded more like 'You hurt my sister and something really really, you have no hair' then Duncan proceeded to point continuously at Weevil, and tried to look menacing before he fell over. In the end it took both of us to pick him up and deposit him in the car. We opened his window and leaned his head out of it, because the jarring it took to get him into the car caused him to look a little green. "How are we going to get them in the house?" Weevil kept turning around in his seat on our drive home to check on them, and make sure Duncan didn't try to escape the car, since he had already done that once, when we stopped at a stop light. "We are going to enlist dad's help." "He'll be happy about that.' "Yeah, but it will get them both inside. And then I have the fun job of making sure that they don't vomit all over themselves in my bed." "Are you sure you don't want some kind of help with that?" "One of us has to sleep, and you’re the one driving in the morning." "What are we doing in the morning?" In all the commotion of dealing with the boys, I hadn't had the chance to fill Weevil in on my conversation with Leo. "I talked to Leo before Logan and Duncan called, he's filing an official missing persons report on Felix, so that we can find out if he's been checked into any hospitals in the area, and in San Diego. Tomorrow, we're going to go up to the San Diego PD and talk to someone local up there." "You filed a missing persons report? You know they're not going to take me seriously." "That’s why I filed it under my name." "This is why I date you." "So you can use me for my crime fighting abilities?" I smile at him, patting his leg and then intertwining our fingers. "No, for your brain, keep up." He chuckles at his joke, and I join him, until I hear vomiting in the back seat. "Logan, that better have been out the window." "Sorry, Ms. Mars." Part 14 Duncan becomes a bit of a wet noodle when he drinks, after about fifteen minutes in the car he’s asleep, which is a pain in the ass to deal with. Logan on the other hand becomes chatty; he wants to talk about everything, which is almost as bit a pain as Duncan’s semi-unconsciousness. Logan started talking about the night, about going over to Dick’s house so that they could unwind, Dick being about as smart as the carpet, hadn’t heard about Logan’s dad yet, and was thrilled to have them over. About three in the morning, someone let it slip, wondering why the murder’s son was hanging out at the house, this got Duncan angry, which in turn got them both kicked out. Logan moved on to his father, cursing and yelling and crying about how horrible the man was, no one in the car felt inclined to disagree with Logan, the problem was the decibel level that Logan used to share the information, which got Weevil and I complaining. What really pissed me off, and I could tell that it was making Weevil a little more then uncomfortable, was Logan’s decision to declare his unending love for me, then trying to hurl himself into my seat, luckily he didn’t take his seatbelt off first, and only managed to ram himself right back into his seat. This was about the time that Weevil pronounced that he would be taking care of the boys, and I would be sleeping. I was tired and a little more then grumpy, so I just agreed to avoid anymore confrontation. It took all three of us, me, Weevil and my father, to get Duncan into my room from the car. Logan spent that time cleaning up the mess he had made of the back seat, and was informed by my father that his throwing up had earned him the coveted floor bed. Logan said nothing, because at this point he had come down off of his buzz and was a bit more human, if not grumpy at the fact that he wasn’t all that drunk anymore. Duncan was unconscious as soon as he was in bed, not that he was all that with it before. Logan settled himself onto the floor of my bedroom and fell asleep. Weevil came out into the living room to tuck me in. “I have this urge to comment on your choice of men.” He sat down on the chair next to the couch while I made my bed. “Are you counting yourself in this?” “V, I’m the leader of a biker gang, I have a juvenile record that your father knows backwards and forwards, I’m not earning any points.” “But my father trusts you.” “That doesn’t mean I didn’t get a pretty hefty lecture on the consequences of my actions, I got a good one about, if either you or I end up in jail on anything but trumped up charges from Lamb, that I’m not aloud to see you again.” “Even if I land myself in jail?” I would be lying if I said that this surprised me. “Yeah, even then.” Weevil scooted closer to the couch as I laid down, stroking my hair, which was rapidly putting me to sleep. “I’ll do my best. But you got to do something for me.” “Anything.” “Go get the trash can out of the bathroom and put it between Logan and Duncan, one of them is going to need it before morning.” “How often do you do this?” “Too often, remember, I’ve been friends with the two of them for a long time, it’s just been a while since I’ve had to take care of both of them. Then again, back then there where three people for me to take care of.” “Your too good to them, V.” He got up and did what I asked. I was asleep before he got back. Sunday dawned entirely too early. Weevil was asleep, sitting up, on the chair next to the couch I had been sleeping on. We hadn’t even been dating a day, and he had already slept over, I filed that tidbit away for further thought, and then went to check on the boys. Duncan was still fast asleep, snoring loudly enough to wake the dead, funny how you forget about these fun facts, when you’re away from someone long enough, you forget that they do things that really annoy you, entirely to preserve the memories that are good. Duncan’s snoring was one of those things that I wished that I could continue to forget. Logan on the other hand, was not sleeping, though he was pretending to. He had his hand thrown over his eyes, in attempt to block out not only the sun, but I expect in attempt to block out Duncan’s existence, he was doing a lousy job of both. “Logan, I know you’re awake.” He groaned at me and tried to turn over, then thought better of it. “You only make that face when you’re pretending to be asleep.” “Go away, your annoying.” “Get up, we’ll get you in the shower, and you can use the bathroom, you’ll feel better. I want you to throw up before I give you the aspirin, not after.” “You just want to get me naked.” “I said in the shower, not naked, I intend on putting you fully clothed in the shower, dad and Weevil are both still sleeping, and I’m not dealing with a hung over naked ex-boyfriend this morning, I’ve only had three hours of sleep, and I’m grumpy.” “I’m not going to throw up.” “Yes you are.” “Am not.” “What are you five? You always wake up; get in the shower and puke, it’s what you do after a night of heavy drinking.” “It’s not fair that you know me too well.” He attempted to pout, and then turned green. “Okay, I’m ready for that shower now.” It took us almost five minutes to get to the bathroom, and then Logan sat on the toilet while I adjusted the temperature of the water, and helped him out of his shirt and jeans, before hauling him into the shower in his boxers. As predicted, ten minutes into his shower, Logan jumped out of the tub and proceeded to empty his stomach into the toilet, I sat dutifully by and rubbed his back until he was done, and got him back into the shower, and encouraged him to use soap. Weevil stuck his head in the bathroom door, which was open. “There you are, Duncan’s up,” he paused looking in at Logan’s silhouette in the shower, “You’re in the bathroom while Logan’s in the shower?” “Did you think I was sitting here contemplating the meaning of life?” I stood up and walked over to him, completely intent on giving him a good morning kiss, but he held me at arms length. “I’m not okay with you watching another guy shower.” “He’s wearing his boxers, its not like he’s naked, and I’m only in here to make sure he doesn’t fall and crack his head open.” I try again to kiss him, and he lets me. The kiss is brief and I can tell that he’s distracted and upset. “Here, now that your up, you can take Logan duty, I’ll go deal with Duncan. Will that make you feel better?” “I don’t want to be your substitute; I don’t want to be your guy if you’re only with me because you can’t be with him.” “What on earth gave you the impression that you where substituting for anything? Logan’s my friend, and for the first time in over a year, he’s actually acting like we’re friends again. I think the only reason we dated was so that we could find this ground again, so that we could be friends. I know that sounds twisted, and it isn’t supposed to work like that, but I think it was both of our ways of breaking our walls down again. I want to be with you, Weevil. I want everything, from the stubble you get after a few days without shaving your head, to the leer you get when you look at me and you don’t think I’m looking, I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it for months now and for the first time, I’m ready for it, I’m ready for anything that you want to give me.” I looked him straight in the eye, “I’m not Lilly, I’m never going to be her, I will never use you as a substitute for anything, I don’t work that way.” “Okay, then why don’t you attend to Logan, you know what your doing with him, I can get some water and aspirin into Duncan. Your dad’s making coffee.” He pulled me close, even though I knew my cloths where getting him wet, from my time getting Logan situated in the shower, and he kissed me, the kiss that I had been wanting when he first walked into the room. “I trust you.” “Good, because you don’t have any reason not to.” I watched him walk out of the room, and heard Logan jump out of the shower again to throw-up. I sighed and rubbed his back, and couldn’t wait until Weevil and I where alone again. Sunday ended up being a total bust. After cleaning up Logan and Duncan, and getting enough water and pain killers into them for them to function, dad took them over to the Kane estate to go back to sleep, in hopes that they would be fully functional for school the next day. While that was happening, Weevil and I traveled to the Sheriff’s department so I could make sure that Leo put in the missing person’s report, then we went to several hospitals in the area. In the end, we came up empty and found our way to an empty parking lot near Dog Beach, so that Weevil could teach me to ride his motorcycle. By the end of the day, I was able to ride it pretty effectively on my own, and we talked a bit about going later on in the week to get my license. Part 15 Monday dawned clear and bright, a perfect California morning; I had half expected it to be as gloomy and damp as my mood. I hadn’t slept all night, worrying about what was to come at school. I hadn’t been nearly this nervous the last time that I had to walk into school knowing full well that people where against me, of course this time I knew what to expect, and I had to held my head up for someone else, who actually had to attend school with me. I took longer then usual picking out my cloths for school, I had to think about the fact that I would be spending the day with Logan and Duncan, but then also, leaving school with Weevil on his bike. The day was hot enough that the jeans I had picked out where a bit impractical, but looked great, and the tank top I was wearing would be a bit chilly later, but perfect for now. I grabbed my backpack and my helmet and ran out the door when I heard the distinct sound of Logan’s horn outside. Dad had headed out early that morning, to do an interview about the investigation, I had been called non-stop during the weekend, but I had foisted it all off onto dad, he needed the good press, and I didn’t really have any intention on talking to the media, though I knew if they really wanted to, they would find me. Dad had been contacted about a book deal, by a reporter that he had been working with on the case, and with some prodding, he had agreed, after all, we needed the money. Duncan was sitting in the backseat by the time I got to the car, he was looking a bit pale, but then again, he had had a rough weekend. Logan sat behind the wheel, staring straight ahead, not looking at me, actually doing everything he could to avoid my eyes. “What are we going to say when we get to school?” Logan put the car into gear and pulled out of the parking lot in front of my apartment complex. “What do you mean?” I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to say at school, all I knew is that we had to present a united front, that I had to walk into school with my head held high, with both Logan and Duncan at my side, we had to make sure everyone knew that Logan was not his father, and that we didn’t blame him for what his father had done. I was only so optimistic about how the school would react to this, I knew that he would probably never be accepted back into the ranks of the ‘09er elite, but at least he would have a place; unlike I had at the beginning of the year. “Ronnie, you’re walking into school with a bike helmet, and I know you’re going to be sitting with him at lunch, it’s inevitable that people are going to figure out that your not with me anymore. You went to school Friday my girlfriend, and come Monday your with the leader of the PCH. People are going to talk, what if they say that you broke up with me because of my father; that you’re only around me because you feel sorry for me?” He stopped at a light and turned to look at me, panic, like I had never seen before, was on his face. “What am I going to do?” “You’re going to walk into that school with Duncan and I, you’re going to hold your head up, and you’re going to give everyone your I don’t give a shit, I’m the psychotic jackass, you have to love me because I’m Logan Echolls attitude, you’re going to pretend like their whispers and staring doesn’t affect you. You’re going to do all of this, even though I am sitting with the PCH at lunch. You’re going to sit at a table, away from the ‘09ers and your going to declare it your table, the cool table, and if you do this exactly like I tell you to, your going to be an outsider, but a confident, don’t mess with me, outsider.” “What if I don’t want to be an outsider, what if I want to be at the top of the social ladder again, what if I want to be at the ‘09er table?” He looked so lost, so scared, that I wanted to take him in my arms and tell him that everything would be alright, but I knew that it wouldn’t, I knew that everything would be different. “Then get ready for the harsh looks, the backpacks scooted over so that there is no space for you to sit. Be ready to face real scrutiny and anguish. I remember how it feels, and it’s hard to make the choice, but you can. You can choose to try and fit back into their world, or you can build your own, and know that you have friends that are going to stick by you though everything.” I smiled and patted his knee, “We are going to walk into that school together, not caring what they think, we are going to put my helmet in my locker, and then the three of us are going to go to yours and tare down whatever they have stuck up on it, and if your really good, I’m sure Weevil will glare at a few people for you, but only if you ask real nice.” “Okay, I’m ready.” He wiped the scared look off his face, and it was replaced by the ‘I don’t give a shit’ look I was so used to seeing. The school parking lot was getting ever closer, and I could see the PCH bike club parked in the lot, sitting on their bikes waiting. “And it looks like Weevil and his boys are waiting for us, I feel all honored.” The hard edge of Logan’s voice made me flinch a bit, but it also made me proud. He was going to be just fine. Logan parked the XTerra in a space just to the outside of where the bikes where and well all piled out. Duncan hadn’t said a word the entire ride, but looked a bit less peeked then he had when they picked me up. We locked the car and started heading to the school, with the PCHer’s not far behind us. I felt a hand on the small of my back and turned, stopping our progress to the front doors. “Mind if I walk in with you all?” Weevil had his back to the PCHer’s, he looked a bit lost and unsure, I looked to Logan, after all, we where presenting a united front for him, he just inclined his head, indicating that it was fine with him. “Of course you can walk with us.” I smiled and pulled his arm around my waist, then extended my other hand to Logan, who took it, interweaving our fingers together. Duncan took up Logan’s other side, decided not to touch his friend, but showing his support in a more manly way. Weevil dropped a quick kiss on my lips before we started again for the school. I could feel everyone’s looks as we walked up. They whispered their disbelief at the show they where getting. Not only was Duncan with Logan, but so was I. The bigger gossip was the PCH with us; they all stood to the back, trying to look unobtrusive, but also mean and vicious at the same time. They where failing at the unobtrusive, being that there where about twenty of them, and none of them where particularly small, but they rather affectively kept anyone from bothering us. I knew that before lunch I would be asked a million questions about why I was with Weevil, and what had happened to me and Logan, and if I was with Weevil, why I was holding Logan’s hand. I also knew Logan would get the same questions. I just hoped that he ignored them like I planed to. (Comment on this)
10:05 pm	The Flip Side of Normal The Flip Side of Normal Part 1 “You’re not trying to burn a hole through a stack of paper using only the power of your stare again?” I say upon entering Mars Investigations to find my father staring at the papers on the coffee table. “Hey sweetheart, have a seat a minute; I have to talk to you.” The tone of his voice worried me a bit, but I sit on the couch and face him none the less. “I met with Celeste Kane today.” “She’s paying you double and sponsoring our club membership?” I say trying to lighten the mood. “Well, she actually agreed to pay up but only if you sign this contract that says that you’ll never sue them again. She wants you to wave any claim on the Kane fortune.” I pick up the document and a pen, there is no doubt in my mind, no matter what my DNA might say, that Keith Mars is my father. Dad just watches me. “What? Was I supposed to sign in blood?” “Do you know what you just signed away?” Dads choked up, his voice hesitant, like he doesn’t want to tell me something. “There’s nothing that I want from them.” Dad gives me a sad smile and hands me the test results which he had under the contract. It takes me some time to make sense of what it says, I’m a Kane, and there is no doubt about it. I can feel the tears falling down my face, but I ignore them and launch myself into my father’s arms. “Just because my DNA says one thing doesn’t mean that my heart agrees.” “I know, sweetie.” He hugs me fiercely before letting go. “I hate to sign over millions in inheritance and run, but there’s someone else who needs to see this.” “I’ll be here when you get back.” “Yeah, you will. I love you dad.” “You too, daughter.” I wait until I get to the car before I start sobbing. I only let myself go for a few minutes before wiping my eyes and starting the car. The Kane Mansion was always intimidating, though today it wasn’t the size that was intimidating, but the what if’s. I could hear the ringing of the door bell though the door, echoing thought out the house. When Duncan answered the door I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved or throw up, I chose neither, instead I started to cry again. Duncan just watched in confusion as I broke down. After a few minutes I wiped my eyes. “Can we go sit down somewhere?” My voice was thick from crying and my eyes stung. Duncan continued to look a bit shocked but nodded his head. “Yeah, we can head to my room.” I must have looked as uncomfortable as I felt because he quickly changed his mind, “or Lilly’s?” “Lilly’s,” I confirmed. We walked down the hall in silence, the kind where no one is comfortable, where you can feel the tension crawling up the back of your neck. Duncan opened and held the door for me, then followed me in, closing the door and leaning on it. I sat down on the bed and took a few deep breaths. “Well?” Duncan looked unhappy, not only about me being there, but by the way I wouldn’t look at him. “I want to apologies about the way you found out about Logan and I.” I looked up from the floor, letting my eyes gaze at him about mid chest. “We wanted to be the ones to tell you, not the way you found out.” “Is this why you came over here, to say your sorry?” Duncan crossed his arms over his chest and stood over me. “Couldn’t you have done this over the phone?” “Yeah, I could have.” I looked into his eyes then, he was standing so close it was hard to look, but I felt that I should. “But, I couldn’t show you this over the phone.” I handed him both envelopes, the one with the contract on top. While he read them over, I looked around Lilly’s room. My eyes caught on the vent and it triggered my memory, Logan opening the vent in his pool house. Something struck me as odd about Lilly’s vent. I stood up from the bed and walked over to it, momentarily forgetting that Duncan was there. I dragged the desk chair over to the wall and stood on it, bringing the vent to eye level. One of the screws to the vent was missing. I fingered the remaining screw and it came away easily in my hand. “This can’t be true.” Duncan’s exclamation brought me out of my trance, but I finished opening the vent anyway and put my hand inside. I pulled out a bad full of videotapes. Not knowing what else to do, I showed them to Duncan. “I have something that can play those, but afterwards, we talk.” “Deal.” Duncan puts the first tape into the camera and presses play. The pool house at Logan’s comes onto the screen. “Where’s that?” “Logan’s. The pool house.” Duncan gives me a look that says he doesn’t want to know how I know this. I shake my head, then nod back to the screen, right as Lilly appears. “That’s her pep squad uniform. This… this is the day she died.” One the TV Lilly is talking, “Come here, lover. Time to earn your keep.” Lilly flops back on the bed and a look of curiosity comes over her face. She stands up on the bed and looks directly into the lens in the fan. Then the tape cuts out. Duncan looks confused, “what?” “Let’s see the other tapes.” Duncan swaps the tapes then comes back to sit beside me. “This one is dated October first.” He points the remote at the TV, hitting play. We see Lilly lying on top of someone in the bed. Duncan shifts uncomfortably, but continues to watch. After the camera angle switches a few times, the other person’s face appears on the screen. “Oh, my god.” I want to vomit, but before I do my mind starts racing, I vaguely hear Duncan exclaim “Mr. Echolls?” Duncan pauses the tape on Aaron Echolls’ face; the man clearly knew that he was being taped. I remember back to what Lilly said to me the day she died, “I’ve got a secret, a good one.” “Veronica?” “I know what happened.” I tell Duncan what I’m thinking, about Aaron killing Lilly over possession of the tapes, about how she found the recording equipment like I did, how she swiped the tapes then drove back here and hid them, how Aaron hit her with the ashtray when she would give them back. “Could he really do that?” Duncan looks at me in disbelief. “He’s psychotic. I watched him beat a guy into a bloody mess and then ask Logan how his school day was. He beats Logan, you know?” Duncan just nods. “Oh god, I have to call dad, he’s going to turn over evidence on Logan’s blown alibi.” “What?” “I’ll explain in the car, we have to go to the office.” “Don’t think that this changes the fact that we have to talk.” “Catch Lilly’s killer now, talk about incest later, okay?” “Sounds fabulous.” Sarcasm simply dripped from Duncan’s voice. Dad answered the phone after only one ring. “Mars Investigation.” “Dad, don’t go to Lamb with the ‘Baked in Ensinada’ information, I’ve got a new development.” “It’s too late, sweetie, they already picked up Logan.” “Meet me at the Sheriff’s department. I know who did it, and I have proof. It’s not Logan.” “Where are you, I’ll come get you, we can go together.” “I’m at the Kane Estate, I’m with Duncan, and we’ll meet you there in ten minutes.” “Be careful.” The phone went dead in my hand and I shoved the cell in my bag. “Let’s go, they already picked up Logan, he’s going to be pissed.” I walked out the door without looking back. “Bring the files too. I don’t want to just leave those around.” I would hear Duncan shuffling around behind me. With the tapes safely in my messenger bag and Duncan holding my documents, we headed out to the La Baron. Part 2 I entered the Sheriff's Department at a near fun, I hadn't met the deputy behind the desk, but he seemed to know me. "The sheriff's in interrogation." The deputy seemed to think that would stop me, he was wrong. "Oh, good, then I'm right on tome." I walked right past the deputy to the closed interrogation room door. "Logan Echolls?" The deputy nodded weakly and I pushed the door open as my cell phone rang. "Ask and you shall receive." Logan grinned at me and closed his cell phone, which prompted mine to stop ringing. "Logan didn't do it." I started to tell Lamb. "Your father seems to think you disagree." Lamb just looked annoyed, Logan looked confused. "You turned me in? Wait, you where investigating me?" He looked hurt and I was sorry I had caused it, but I was also unsure whether or not I could trust him. "Not until your alibi fell though and the shot glass you bought Lilly turned out to have been in her car the day she died, but the point is moot, you didn't do it." "I know that, I don't understand how you could even think that I would be capable of that." Logan was no longer just hurt, he was angry, shoving his hands though his hair and pacing the room. "I found something that made me not trust you, I'll tell you all about it on the way home, I have to show these video's to Lamb, I'll meet you outside." As I said this Duncan came into the room with a TV and the deputy in tow. "Does Duncan get to watch?" Logan almost sounded jealous. "Trust me man, you do not want to see these." Duncan looked a bit green at the memory. I was about to protest when Logan took the first video out of my hand and popped it in the player. Lilly's face came onto the screen. "Is that my pool house?" "Yeah, I found the recording equipment, that’s why I took off." "It's not mine." "Trust me," I pointed at the screen where Mr. Echolls was now visible, "I know." Logan's jaw dropped and he steadily turned more and more white. "Oh, God." Three hours later the three of us had left the Sheriff's Department and where sitting in the living room of my apartment. "So, its all really over?" Logan twirled the glass in his hand slowly, watching the ice in his drink. "Except for the trial, yeah, its over." None of us really knew what to do. "Oh, in other news, I'm a Kane." "I really screwed up that much that you not only turned me into the police, but married Duncan?" Logan looked like he was about to get angry again. "That would be illegal for way too many reasons." Duncan chuckled a bit then looked kind of green. "Okay, I'll bite, how are you a Kane?" I handed the genetics test results over to Logan. "Oh, god." "Yep, that’s what I said." Duncan tried to smile, but settled on not looking sick. "Wait, did you say that you had sex with Duncan at Shelley's Party?" Logan looked confused and Duncan bolted for the bathroom, from the living room we could hear him vomiting. "Maybe its best if we pretend that Shelley's party never happened." "Okay. I have another hard question." Logan started watching the ice in his glass again. "What are we going to do about us?" "I think we need to have trust before there can ever really be an us." "So what? Are we going to be friends or something?" "Can't we go back to how it was when Lilly was alive; can it be the three of us as friends?" "Without the awkward coupleness, we can try." Logan looked sad, but at the same time relieved, I think that our relationship was taking as much out of him as it was me. "Do you think we should check on Duncan?" "He'll come out when he gets images of Shelley's party out of his head." "How are you so calm about it?" "I don't remember any of it." Logan placed his free hand on my shoulder and looked pained. "I'm relay sorry for my part in all of that." "And I told you I forgive you. Now let's concentrate on this friend thing." "I'm game, but first, what am I going to do on Monday?" "The same thing I did after my dad was kicked out of office, hold you head up, and ignore the fact that people who you thought where your friends are now tormenting you. Only you will have Duncan and I at your side." "It's amazing how much you've changed in all of this; you really are a wonderful friend." "You're just saying that cuz you want to get back to the groping." "True, but I think you and I are a long way from that if we want to work on this trust and friendship thing." Duncan stumbled out of the bathroom at that point, looking a bit less green. "I think its about time we head out Veronica, my parents are going to be worried." "Yeah, I can see why, take care of Logan this weekend." "Will do, see you at school Monday." "Oh, give the contract to you mom, I want that check. And can you give me a ride to school on Monday; I La Baron's going to get a tune up." "Sounds good, we should present a united front anyway, Monday will be brutal, and we can take the Yellow Monster." "Hey, I like my car!" Logan pretended to look offended. "Thanks Ronnie. See you Monday." The apartment was too quite after the boys left. Dad was at the office putting the Lilly Kane file into some what usable order for Lamb, mom had taken off as soon as Aaron was arrested, probably not wanting to be in the spotlight again, and Backup was sleeping on the couch. All I had to keep me company where my thoughts. It all kept coming back to one thing, Duncan was my brother, it was beyond a disturbing thought. Suddenly all of my wonderful memories with him became disturbing and wrong. My mind bulked at the knowledge that I had had sex with him; that I had lost my virginity to my brother, this was Southern California, that just didn’t happen here. I took off for the bathroom and repeated Duncan's scene from earlier, I threw up, trying to vomit out the memories of this touches and his kisses, trying to purge my body of all of the things he made me feel. I tried to block it out with memories of Logan's touch, his kisses, but to some degree that felt incestuous to me as well. I rinsed my mouth out and turned on the shower as hot as I could stand it. Today had gone by so quickly and now, standing in the near scalding water, watching my skin turn pink, it hit me. It was over, I solved Lilly's murder, Aaron Echolls was in jail and I suddenly didn't have leads to follow, people to question, checks to run; I was completely at a loss as of what to do. The door bell rang right when I was about to put shampoo in my hair. I rinsed the soap from my hands and turned off the water. It seemed that people only wanted to visit when I was in the shower home alone. I would analyze that later. The air outside the bathroom was like ice and I was shivering when I answered the door. "I was wondering when you would get here." My visitor just nodded and pushed off the railing. Part 3 “Its all over the news, V. Aaron Echolls, charged with the murder of Lilly Kane. I must say, I’m impressed, I didn’t think you could do it.” Weevil stood in my doorway, his leather jacket open over his white wife-beater, maybe it had my long day, maybe it was my inner Lilly whispering in my ear, but he looked almost too good to pass up. He slid past me into the house and my eyes followed him the entire way, admiring the way his shirt molded to his chest and seeing his tattoos peaking out over the collar or his shirt, like they where bagging me to pull the shirt off and free them. I shook my head, trying to dislodge the images of the half naked leader of a biker gang. I could almost hear Lilly giggling in my ear, whispering for me to seize the moment. “Like what you see, Chica?” Weevil grinned and pushed his hands onto his hips, shoving his jacket out of the way, showing more of his wife-beater hugging his body. I wanted to drool, I wanted to touch him, I wanted to know where these lusty thoughts of Weevil had come from. Sure I had noticed him before, he’s nice eye candy, but I’ve never had the urge to rip his cloths off and have my way with him. He was the leader of the PCH Bike Club, not someone my father would approve of me being with, and anyways, I had just broken up with Logan. “Your very pretty, Weevil.” I shoved the lusty images of him to the back of my mind for later consideration. “What can I do for you?” Weevil took my slip of the tongue as an opportunity to wiggle his eyebrows at me, while shrugging out of his leather jacket and depositing it on the chair in my living room. “That wasn’t an innuendo.” I sounded more annoyed then I meant to, probably because I had just been undressing him in my mind. “It’s late, and you interrupted my shower, what do you need?” “Felix is missing.” He stopped grinning and genuinely looked worried. “He rode of with Thumper last night, said they where going to some party. He was supposed to meet me at my uncles shop this afternoon, we just got a new part in for his bike and we where going to install it. But he never showed. His mom said he hasn’t been home.” “What about Thumper, have you seen him?” I lead Weevil over to the couch and sat with him, giving him my full attention, lusty thoughts momentarily forgotten. “Thumper came back early this morning, according to his mom; he was at work when I rode by.” “Did you ask him where Felix was, if he had seen him since the party?” When people panic and worry they tend to skip steps and go into worst case scenario mode. Sometimes it just helps to talk things out with someone who is outside of the situation. “I don’t think there was a party. Things have gotten rough the past few months, Felix has kept my back while the others have been putting pressure on me, saying I’ve been going soft, cuz I’ve been helping you. I got lots of crap for running out on a petty theft to go pick you up from Echolls’ place the other night. The boys went anyway; a few got picked up by Lamb.” “You think Thumper and you boys did something to Felix to weaken you?” I was completely confused. “And you think I can help, even though you just said that working with me has weakened your status in the PCH?” “Kind of.” “How ‘Kind of.’” “I want you to help me find Felix, then I want you to help me regain my status, or, if they really did something to Felix, it might be time to get out, and I will need your help there too.: He said the last part hesitantly, as if he hadn’t really though it through before that moment. “I’ll help you find Felix, but how can I help you in any other way? I thought you said I was hurting your reputation.” If I hadn’t already been sitting down, I would have done it at that moment. My world seemed to be spinning in all kind of directions; today had just come with too many surprises. “They think I’m just some whipped puppy to you, that I follow you around helping you because you’re like Lilly.” “Do you?” This was news to me, since when was I like Lilly? “No, I respect you; I’ve watched you grow from Lilly’s little shadow into someone who I think even Lilly would be afraid to cross. I help you because I know when I really need it you’ll help me. I may even venture so far as to cal you a friend.” Weevil looked almost uncomfortable, sitting in the ex-Sheriff’s apartment, having a heart to heart with his daughter. “I know you’re my friend. And as such, I’ll help out, for now, on finding Felix, we’ll see how it goes from there, hey, if you want you can even call me ‘woman’ in front of your boys.” That made Weevil smile, the tension leaving his shoulders a bit, he leaned back on the couch, stretching, showing off the muscles on his chest, and just like that business went right out the window and all the lusty feelings from before came right back. “Wouldn’t your boy get all upset if he saw you looking at me like that?” Weevil’s leer cam back, suggesting things only suitable for the bedroom. “My boy?” I couldn’t think of who he meant, I had a boy, wasn’t that one of those things that someone should inform you of. “Echolls, the boy whose house you called me from, the lost puppy that’s been making eyes at you all this week because you’ve been ignoring him.” “Oh, yeah. We broke up today.” “Okay, why? Tell me it had something to do with our late night ride.” “No, more to do with the fact that I turned him into Lamb.” “What did you do that for?” Weevil looked confused and a bit scared, not that I blame him, since I have plenty of dirt on him that I could go to Lamb with also, not that I would. Weevil has been using me as a get out of jail free card all year, I wasn’t about to switch sides on him now. “It had to do with the Lilly Kane case, he lied to me, and his alibi was false. I found evidence that he had been in Neptune the day Lilly died, so I turned him in. The real reason is that I don’t trust him, I want to, but I don’t.” “Why did you tell me all of this?” “Because you asked, and I do trust you.” I stood up from the couch and picked up the glasses that the boys had left earlier. “And now, I’m going to ask you a favor.” “Alright.” “I need to take the La Baron into your Uncle’s shop; she’s making a noise I don’t entirely like the sound of, which means I’m going to be car less this weekend. Will you be my ride while we track down Felix, and follow me over to the shop now and bring me home?” “On one condition.” Weevil looked pointedly at my bathrobe. “I will not wear this to ride on your hog.” I felt a bit offended that he would even ask. “I wasn’t implying you should, I was going to say that you needed to change first, put on some heavy jeans, its chilly tonight.” Now it was his turn to look offended. “You night want a jacket also.” “Oh, right, sure thing.” I could feel my face turn a bit red at what I had been thinking. “But, if you want to go a bit underdressed later tonight, you’re welcome to take a ride on my hog after we get back.” Weevil smiled and cocked his head at me, and was rewarded with a glare. “I’ll go change.” I put the glasses into the sink and left the room. Part 4 When I came back into the room Weevil had his nose pressed into the file I had left on the coffee table, any other day I would have gotten angry at the invasion of my privacy, but today I was just too tired. “Read anything interesting?” I asked, watching Weevil’s head rocket out of the folder. “When did you find out about this?” “This morning, that’s why I was at the Kane Estate, I had to tell Duncan.” “Wow, V, you had a long day.” “That’s the understatement of the century.” “So, now that you know you’re a Kane, you going to become an ‘09er chick?” “Being a Kane changes nothing, I’m not getting a penny out of it, just a bucket full of disturbing memories.” I wasn’t really sure that I wanted to say that last part out loud, if I wanted anyone else to think about the fact that Duncan and I had dated, but Weevil just let it pass completely. “I’ll hold you to that, I like my Veronica as a PI, suits my purposes quite well.” Weevil cocked his head to the side, imitating my signature move. “Ready to go?” “Am I dressed appropriately now?” I had traded my bath robe for a pair of dark jeans, a black t-shirt that stated ‘Groupie’ in sliver and a close fitting leather jacket. I did a turn, trying to get the words ‘my Veronica’ out of my head. “To ride my motorcycle, yes; for anything else, your way over dressed.” Weevil headed out of the apartment, holding the door open for me. “Well, as your motorcycle is the only thing of yours that I intend on riding tonight, I guess that works.” “Tease.” Weevil closed the door and smiled at me. If only he knew what I had been thinking earlier. The ride over to the shop was too quite, one of the many things that was wrong with the La Baron was the radio, it was stuck on an oldies station and had been for a few weeks. It wasn’t that I really had anything against oldies, but I just couldn’t bring myself to listen to one more Elvis song. The only thing I could do about the radio at this point was replace it. Though I guess I should be glad I had turned the think off, because it was the only reason I had heard the noise that the car was making. Weevil followed behind me on his bike, it was almost comforting to know that he was there, with all that had happened today, and I didn’t really want to be alone. The drive seemed entirely too long and with the silence my thoughts crept back in. What was I going to do now, investigating Lilly’s murder had been the only thing keeping me going, keeping me from really accepting the fact that she really was dead. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I expected her to come back once the case was solved, which is ridicules, I know. Thinking of Lilly made me think again about Duncan, who had been my first love, my first, the guy I had sex with at Shelley’s party, not that I remember it, and now, it turns out that he’s my brother. Even though I don’t remember the party of the sex, there are a million more memories that we shared, I felt dirty, like I had after I found out Logan had had the GHB at the party. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scour my brain with a brilow pad. I wanted Lilly to be in the car with me, I wanted a girl friend to talk to, and I didn’t have one. I could feel the tears rolling down my cheeks as I pulled into the auto body shop, but I couldn’t bring myself to wipe them away. I shut off the car and just let myself cry, for everything, for Lilly, who wasn’t coming back, for Duncan and out horrible memories together and for me, I cried for everything that had happened in the past year and a half, everything I had held in and hoped would just dissipate into the wind if I ignored it long enough. I didn’t even hear the passenger door open, but I felt the strong arms wrap around me and pull me over the center dash to situate me in this arms. I didn’t feel the need to spill my guts to Weevil, but it does feel good to have some one hold me. He says nothing, just sits there until my tears dry up, he wipes the stray tears from my face and smiles reassuringly at me. “You ready?” I know he means if I’m ready to get out of the car, to head back home, but doing that means reuniting with reality. Can you ever really be ready for your life to change? I wasn’t ready at all, but at least this time I knew what to expect to an extent, this time I had people to stick by me, people who counted on me to stick by them. “Yeah, we can get out, but I don’t thin I’m ready to go home just yet. I have too many thoughts.” Weevil just nodded and lifted me out of the car. He pulled the keys from the ignition, locked the doors and put the car key in the drop box, the disappeared into the shop, leaving me standing by his bike. “Thought you might like a real helmet, since we’re going to be riding all weekend.” Weevil held up a black full face helmet when he exited the shop, it had a blue and purple butterfly air brushed onto the back of it. “Wont it’s owner miss it?” I took the helmet from Weevil; it was small and looked like it would fit with out rattling around on my head, like Weevil’s always did when I rode with him. “It’s Angel’s exes, I don’t think she’ll come back looking for it, and the amount of time you spend on my bike these days, you should hang on to it.” I slid the helmet over my head and let Weevil adjust the strap under the chin. It was snug and made my hearing muffled, but the clear glass in the front had the same affect that goggles sometimes do, making everything seem a little brighter, even though you know that there not really doing it. Weevil slipped on his own helmet then swung his leg over his bike and sat, waiting for me to join him. I marveled at how natural it had come to feel, getting on to the bike and fitting myself around him, being able to feel his body molded to mine from knees to chest, how nice it felt to loop my arms around his waist and lean in. I gripped my legs a bit tighter around him, grounding myself with the feel of him between my legs, hoping that it would rid me of all the things that had happened that day. It worked, too well; my thoughts flew from my head and the images from before of a half naked Weevil cam flying back into my head. “V, if you don’t stop squirming and squeezing back there we’re not going anywhere. What, did Logan not treat the lady right?” “Logan and I never got past the kissing stage, the whole GHB rape incident left me a bit gun shy.” “Well, if you don’t quit rubbing on me, even I’m not going to be able to resist pulling you into my lap and having my way with you, and I’m a gentlemen.” With that revelation, Weevil started up the engine and roared out of the parking lot. I held on tight, loving the feel of the wind whipping by me. Riding on Weevil’s bike was like flying, breath taking and exhilarating and just a little bit dangerous, though I knew he would do everything in his power to keep me from harm. Weevil stopped at the parking lot to God Beach and I slip from the bike without a word, pulling off my helmet as I walked along the sand toward the water. I settled quietly on the sand, feeling Weevil sit down next to me in silence. If it had been anyone else, I would have felt the need to break the silence, to fill it with something, but the silence was already full, filled with the good byes we where both saying to Lilly. “She loved you, you know.” Weevil was the first to speak, and I would have been lying if I said I wasn’t shocked at what he had to say. “She talked about you all the time. When we were together it always felt like you where in the room also.” “I wish she would have said something about you. I told her once, while we were sitting out by her pool, that I liked your tattoos and I wondered what it would be like to ride a motorcycle and be bad for just one day. She told me you where dangerous and to stay away.” “She didn’t want to corrupt you, she liked you innocent.” “I wouldn’t have approved then, Logan was safe to me, with Lilly. And some how, I feel safer with you here then I would have ever felt with Logan.” “We should get you home.” He got up and brushed the sand from his pants and extended his hand to me, helping me up. We rode back to my place in silence, this time Lilly wasn’t there to fill it, we had said our good-byes, and she was gone, not forever, she would always be in Neptune, but for now. Weevil walked me up to the door, polite like after a first date when you’re fourteen, awkward and sweet. “What time do you want me to come get you in the morning?” He ran his and over the back of his neck, rolling his eyes up to look at me. I looked at my watch, amazed that it was after one in the morning. “How about ten, we can head over to the office and start there.” “You’re going to let me Sleuth with you?” “This is your case, I’m just chaperoning, don’t want your boys to think you ran to the little white girl for help as soon as you got into trouble.” “I’ll see you at ten.” He turned to leave, but I grabbed his arm, spinning him back to me, I put the hand not holding the helmet on his chest and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. “I would have let you, you know?” “Let me what, V?” He didn’t look upset, only a bit shocked and confused. “Have your way with me.” I look him right in the eye when I say it. “See if you feel the same way after you ride with me for the weekend, my world isn’t all sunshine and puppies.” “Neither is mine.” He pulls me to him, wrapping his arms around my waist and kisses me hard, then he was gone, and I was left standing on my door step holding a butterfly motorcycle helmet. Part 5 I stood in the door way to the apartment that I shared with my father and my beloved pooch, thinking about the gang leader who had just kissed me. Not only had he kissed me, but had turned down sex, telling me that he wanted me to see his world before hand, almost as if he wanted me around for more then just one night. I had just broken up with Logan, not six hours before, and I was already thinking about another guy; I had already kissed someone else. I was such a slut. I smiled and rubbed the pad of my thumb over my lips. This was going to be an interesting weekend. I woke up at six thirty to an enthusiastic pit bull licking my face, wanting desperately to be walked. I hauled myself out of bed and pulled on my sweats and left my room, checking briefly into my father’s room to see if he was up yet. He must have gotten in pretty late, because his shoes where still on, and he was facedown on the bed, snoring like a champ, not even under the covers. I snickered as I closed his door and got Backup’s leash from the kitchen counter. In typical Southern California style, it was beautiful out on the beach, even at a quarter to seven in the morning. The sun reflected beautifully on the water, surfers catching the early morning waves, and me, alone with a pit-bull sitting on the sand. Backup ran excitedly back and forth between me and the ball I was throwing for him, mindless of the sand that I was sure he was swallowing, and knew couldn’t possibly be good for his digestion. My thoughts stayed firmly on the surfers in front of me, a nice distraction of the flashes of memories I kept getting from my time with Duncan, sometimes even my time with Logan. Don’t get me wrong, I love them both dearly, though I would never tell Logan that, he would use it to his advantage any chance he got; but now the thought of either of them made me a little sick. I know Logan and I aren’t related in anyway, but he reminded me too much of Duncan, with the hair and the eyes and his coloring. And I think that right there was the problem, he looked too much like my brother, and Weevil looks nothing like Duncan at all. All the trying not to think had led my mind right to all of the things that I didn’t want to have swimming around, the elephant in the room was looming over my shoulder, and there was nothing I could do about it. I had done my crying, I was done with that, now I just had to come to terms with everything. But how does one come to terms with the fact that her ex-boyfriend is actually her brother, that said boyfriend had slept with her, knowing that she could very possibly be his sister, while both where under the influence of drugs? How do you deal with the fact that your dead best friend, whose murderer you had just caught, was really your half sister? How do you deal with the fact that your newest ex-boyfriend’s, and your dead best friend slash half sister’s ex-boyfriend’s, father was her murderer? And then there was the newest question, how do you deal with the fact that you want to jump the gang leader, in a completely clothing optional kind of way, when you have to spend the weekend with him, on the back of his bike? I flopped back into the sand, hoping, on some level, that the world would chose this moment to swallow me whole, on the other hand, I wanted to know how this would all pan out, how I was going to actually face the world and how this next part of my life, this new change, would affect everything. What was the new Veronica Mars going to be like, the one with friends and family to stick by her? Last year it was just me and dad, this year I have a whole slue of friends to back me up. Dad was up and in the kitchen when I got back with Backup at almost eight thirty. He looked tired, but then so did the coffee machine, which looked to be on its second pot of the morning. “Morning Sweetie, how are you today? I know we didn’t get a chance to talk yesterday, and I did dump something pretty big on you. Do you want to talk about it?” Dad handed me a cup of freshly brewed coffee and a muffin, and I knew that he was feeling guilty for not being around the day before. “I’m fine, dad. I’m not really ready to talk about everything. Too much happened yesterday.” I sat at the counter with my coffee and my muffin, not even bothering with cream or sugar. I wanted my coffee bitter. I wanted it to burn down my throat and hurt a little. I wanted something outside of all the questions that I had been asking myself. “Can we talk about something else?” “Okay, how about we talk about where your car is?” “Oh, yeah. I had it taken over to Angel’s shop yesterday; it’s been making a noise. Weevil gave me a lift home.” “You know how I feel about that kid, sweetheart.” “No, I know how you felt about him a year ago, before he became my friend. He’s going to be my ride for the weekend; he’s helping me with a case.” I took a deep sip of my coffee, letting it burn down my throat, only letting myself show a slight grimace when it burned. “Well, at least I’ll know where he is then. Don’t let him get you into too much trouble. When is your car going to be ready?” Dad didn’t look too happy, but I knew he trusted me, and that was all that really mattered. “Probably not until later this week, we just dropped it off last night; no one was there when we got there.” “Are you going to be riding with this boy all week?” “No, Logan and Duncan are giving me a ride to school on Monday; we’ll see where it goes from there.” “And how are things with you and Logan?” “We broke up. With our lack of trust I felt it was best if we build on that first, before we try something more then that.” “My little girl’s all grown up.” He smiled at me, his ‘I’m so proud of you’ smile, the one he gave me after I caught my first philandering spouse on camera, the one he gave me when I held my head up high and walked into school after he had lost his job. I knew I had done well by him when he gave me that smile. At least I knew one thing in my life was going to be okay, my father and I where family no matter what, and that smile proved it to me. Part 6 Despite the fact that my father trusted me, he still gave poor Weevil a lecture before letting us leave to go to the office, where my father could continue to watch the boy. I listened quietly from my room, while I ran around finding something to wear. Since Weevil had interrupted my shower the night before, I had hopped in the shower after breakfast with dad, washing my hair and finally getting a chance to try out the new razor that I had gotten a few days before, in the end, I wasn’t satisfied and decided to go back to my pretty pink Venus, and trash the weird vibrating battery operated, will lift the hairs right up so that you get a cleaner shave, piece of crap. My father was going through the finer points of just how much he would kill Weevil if we got in any kind of accident, or if Weevil got me in any kind of trouble, while I was pulling my wet hair into a loose ponytail at the base of my neck. Weevil was taking the lecture very well, answering my father with ‘Yes sir,’ and ‘I understand Sheriff Mars;’ while my father continued to talk, peppering his lecture with ‘Please call me Keith,’ which let me know he, on some level, trusted and liked Weevil. My father had always made Logan call him Mr. Mars; then again, Logan called him Dude and not Sheriff Mars. I grabbed the helmet that Weevil had given me the night before, when I heard my father wind down on the lecture, exiting my room, and shutting the door. “Well, I’m ready to head to the office. Dad, are you done with Weevil?” I smiled and pulled my messenger bag over my shoulder. “I’m done. When did you get a motorcycle helmet?” I could hear another lecture coming on, and to spare Weevil yet another twenty minutes listening to my father explain how, if my daughter is hurt in anyway I will make sure that when I kill you no one will come looking for you, I grabbed Weevil’s hand and pulled him out of the apartment, throwing a “See you at the office, Dad,” over my shoulder. Weevil was quiet as soon as we left the apartment, not seeming to know where to look, but trying his hardest not to look at me. I was trying not to be insulted, knowing that after last night things where going to be a bit strained between us. I never really understood why things got strange after a first kiss with anyone, people all of a sudden don’t know what to do our say around another person. It was like, once you kiss them, suddenly your entire relationship changes, which is untrue; once you kiss someone your comfort level around them should increase, you no longer have as much of a space issue, the question of how and when you can touch them stops being a problem. This is my theory anyway, in actuality, there is always a period of awkward glances and careful avoidance that happens, while you’re figuring out what your new relationship means, what’s going to happen next, and how your supposed to act around the person now. I felt the need to completely avoid this part of the relationship; I wanted to move right along to the next step, the comfortable with the other person, new touches and hand holding part. I had completely embraced the fact that I was attracted to Weevil, he was a nice, deserving guy, and it helped that I was absolutely positive that there was no way I could be related to him, and to me, that was hugely attractive. I stopped Weevil before we had gotten to his bike, outside of the gates to my apartment complex, where I knew my father couldn’t be looking out the window watching us, which I had no doubt he would be once we got to Weevil’s bike. “I don’t like dancing.” Weevil cocked his eyebrow at me, so I continued. “I don’t want to deal with the awkward, we kissed last night, what does it mean, where are we going from here, bullshit.” “We’re dancing?” Weevil looked only a bit less confused. “You are, you haven’t even said hello yet.” “Your father just gave me a twenty minute lecture on how disposable I am. I’m digesting.” He put his hand on the back of my shoulder and pulled me into him, wrapping his free arm around my back. “Good morning, Veronica.” He kissed my forehead and turned me to walk to the bike. “Your fathers watching.” I turned back to the complex and saw my dads head poking out from around the corner; he was trying to look like he was just on his way to his car. I waved at him, and he looked a bit sheepish at his spying, which made me feel better. I slipped the helmet onto my head, and swung my leg over the back of Weevil’s bike, looping my hand around his waist. I got to do this all weekend, and I was thrilled. “Hang on tight, chica, its going to be a rocky weekend.” “Promise?” I could hear the innuendo in my voice, and wondered if Weevil could hear it too, he just chuckled and started the engine, pulling us smoothly out of the parking lot. Part 7 We spent three hours at the office, with my dad watching from the next room, trying and failing at being stealthy. After the first twenty minutes of him watching us over the top of a case file, and Weevil and I glancing back at him constantly, he gave up trying to hide the fact that he was watching, and moved into the main room with us, adding his two cents in whenever I got stuck on something. In the end, we had established that Felix had no credit card, his cell phone hadn’t been used since the call he received from Thumper, supposedly about the party, and his bike was MIA. I had called Leo at the station, and finagled my way into another favor from him, which was rewarded with my father, yet again, pointing out that he couldn’t understand how I got the poor guy to do favors for me, when I had treated him the way I had. Weevil told my father that he knew exactly how I got people to do favors for me. “Really? And how exactly does my daughter get men to do favors for her, I’ve been dying to figure this little mystery out. She has one female friend that I’m aware of and even Mac does favors for Veronica, seemingly without any kind of payment or return favor.” My father tilts his head to the side and looks at Weevil, who grins. “That, what your doing right now, the head tilt, that is how she gets people to do favors for her.” Weevil looks at me, “I can see where you get it from. Unfortunately for you, Sheriff Mars, you’re not a tiny little blonde girl.” “She just tilts her head?” “That’s what I’m saying and it works, she can get anyone to eat right out of her hand with that tilt.” “Hey, I do favors in return for people.” I’m slightly offended at the assumption that people do things for me without anything done in return. “That’s true; you do favors for lots of people.” His grin makes me want to punch him, but I resist, which gives me the opportunity to pat myself on the back, I can grow as a person, I don’t have to hit everyone who makes innuendos at me. Of course, if I hit everyone who made innuendos to me, every time they did, I would not only never do anything else, but I would probably develop a pretty impressive bruise on my hand. “And, with that, I think its time for us to take a break.” I check my watch, seeing that it’s almost one thirty in the afternoon. “We should swing by the Sheriff’s department, see if Leo has anything for us, then I say we grab something to eat, and go over and talk to Mrs. Toombs.” “V, are we making you uncomfortable? Cuz you know, there are many fun story’s I’m sure your father and I could come up with that would turn that pretty face of yours a nice pink.” “And I’m walking out the door, I’m assuming that you’re following me, since you are my ride, and who knows what I could do to your bike all on my own.” “Don’t touch the bike, V.” Weevil’s panicked face made everything the two of them had said in the past twenty minutes worth it. The Sheriff’s department, though not one of my favorite stops in Neptune, seemed to be one of my most frequent. And despite this fact, there are always faces I don’t recognize, then again, I was usually at the department doing one of three things; one, I was being detained for one reason or another, and Lamb came up with new and creative reasons to bring be in just about every week, two, I was bailing one of my friends out, usually either Logan or Weevil, and three, I was there to get a favor or information from Leo. I would say that I felt bad about that last one, but he never seemed to complain, at least not anymore, maybe he had just given up. The deputy that greeted us, I had seen on several occasions, though I had never bothered to learn his name, since they are so conveniently displayed on the front breast pocket of their uniforms, I saved the space in my brain for more important things. The deputy, whose uniform informed me that his name was ‘Smith’ and I was almost embarrassed that I hadn’t remembered something so simple, informed us that Lamb was out, and there for we would have to take a seat and wait. “Wow, you mean, Lamb is actually doing his job? No, wait, that can’t be right. He went out to grab lunch didn’t he, that sneaky devil, he’s just trying to avoid me.” Deputy Smith looked a bit ashamed, but I didn’t really feel the need to care much. “Actually, I’m here to speak with Leo, and look, I see him right there at his desk, so if you’ll excuse me.” I try to slide past Smith, who continues to block my way. “I’m sorry, I’ve been asked to keep you from behind the desk, it seems you tend to cause trouble.” Weevil took the opportunity to walk right past the deputy, while he was preoccupied with me. Walking right up to Leo’s desk and sitting down in the chair next to it. “Well, this feels familiar, though I don’t usually come in here of my own freewill.” “Deputy Smith, you can let Veronica by, I’ve been expecting her.” Leo informs the deputy, as he gets off the phone. I walk by the deputy and can’t help but look smug as I do it. I look directly at Weevil, who is sitting comfortably, or as comfortably as you can in an orange plastic chair. “Aren’t you going to offer the lady your seat? It’s the polite thing to do.” “If I saw a lady, V, I would get up without hesitation. You have two choices though, you can sit in my lap, or you can stand.” He smiles, knowing that I find it cute. I take option A, knowing that he didn’t think that I would. I sit crosswise over his legs, so that I face Leo, and smile my ‘I’m just being cute and adorable, and don’t feel that there is anything wrong with me sitting on the juvenile delinquent’s lap’ smile. Leo just shakes his head and goes to his computer. “Okay, Veronica, I’ve run the plates though the database, and I’ve put out and APB on the bike. I just got off the phone with the San Diego Police department, and they have spotted the vehicle about ten miles outside of the city limits, in an abandoned parking lot. They say that they haven’t seen anyone around it, or in the lot, and the engines cool, so it’s been there at least a few hours, but you said your friend went missing sometime last night. So that wouldn’t really be a surprise. I’ll give you directions to get out there if you want.” “That would be great, thanks Leo.” “Hey, no problem, it always makes Lamb red when he sees that I’m doing a favor for you, it makes my day, just a bit.” “See, Weevil, its not just the head tilt that gets people to help me, it’s the affect that help has on others.” I turn and smile at him, and he looks a bit uncomfortable at my closeness, which give me the urge to kiss him right there, but if I really want to have something with him, I decide it would be a bad idea. Once we leave the Sheriff’s department, Weevil stops me before I get to his bike, pulling me towards him, and wrapping his arms around my waist. At first I tense up a bit, almost shocked at his abrupt need to be close to me, after his stiffness in the department, but the look on his face causes me to relax. “I don’t like to dance, either.” He leans forward and rests his lips agents mine, the kiss is so much different then the one he initiated the night before, it’s almost as if it’s a different person. The kiss is soft and gentle, and wonderful. I open my lips to him, drawing his bottom lip into my mouth, slowly caressing it with my tongue. Before I know it, he has me pushed up agents the outside of the station, battling me for dominance over the kiss. He breaks away, panting. “See, no dancing, I just wanted to be away from all the prying eyes.” “I’m all in favor.” I rest my forehead against his, and breathe in the smell of him. Men have a very distinctive smell, its dark and usually earthy, Weevil is no different, he smells like good earth, the kind that’s ready for planting in the spring, he also smells like leather and motor oil, but not in a bad way, and a hint of cologne, which is almost completely over powered by his natural guy smell; just breathing him in makes me feel secure. It’s a feeling that I have been looking for, without ever really knowing that I’m looking. Logan made me feel wanted, but in an over powering almost primal way that scared me and Duncan made me feel safe, in an almost boring way; Weevil made me feel both wanted and safe, but in a completely comfortable way, in a way that wasn’t over powering or dull. I smiled up at him, knowing that I had to break the moment, or we would never get to the next step in our investigation. “We need to head out, though.” “I know, just let me breath for a moment.” Weevil kissed me again, a simple chaste kiss, which had my toes curling. Part 8 We learned nothing new from Mrs. Toombs, other then the fact that she wouldn’t look me in the eye. She hadn’t seen or heard from Felix since he had left two days before, and the fact that we where questioning her, upset her a great deal. I wanted more then anything, to help the woman, I wanted to provide some kind of comfort, but she wouldn’t even acknowledge that I was in the room. Any question that I posed to her, she would answer looking at Weevil, as if he had asked. I had never really had to deal with the racial issues in Neptune, mainly because the socio-economic issues had over shadowed them by so much. I was part of Weevil’s neighborhood; I lived only a few blocks from him, I wasn’t an ‘09er when it came down to it. Before my father had lost his job, everyone gave me a bit of respect, I was the Sheriff’s daughter, and I was outside of the socio-economic classes, because my father was an equal opportunity sheriff, unlike Lamb, who heavily favored the ‘09ers. In Mrs. Toombs house, she didn’t see the sheriff’s daughter, or the girl who lived down the block, to her, I was a white girl, and I had entered her house on the arm of one of the good boys of the neighborhood, one of the boys that, if he left the gang, and put his mind to it, he could go to college and make something of himself. She didn’t at all like the fact that he was associating with yet another white girl, and she didn’t even have to say anything for me to know this, her expression told me everything. I was completely at a loss of what to do. I usually adapt well to situations and can morph myself to fit in just about anywhere, and if I can’t, I adapt an ‘I don’t care’ attitude. In the Toombs house, I couldn’t do either. I wanted desperately to take Weevil’s hand, hoping that that would make the discomfort level lessen, but knowing that doing that would just make Mrs. Toombs even more hostile towards me. If the worst she was going to do was ignore me, I could handle that, or at least that was what I kept telling myself. The twenty minutes inside that house where some of the longest of my life. When Weevil and I took our leave, and stepped out the door, it was like I could breathe again, like all of a sudden the air was movable, inside the house the air had been almost too heavy for me to breathe. “I’m sorry about her.” Weevil’s face was so sad I wanted to cry, and hold him and tell him everything would be alright. “She hates me. Is it because of Lilly?” I watch him lean against the brick wall surrounding the Toombs’ house. “Partially, part of it is because she doesn’t think you belong down here, she wants to see me with someone a bit more of the neighborhood.” “I understand, I’ve just never really felt that out of place before. I’ve lived in Neptune my entire life, I’ve dealt with the ‘09er’s crap for a year and a half, and I’ve had to live outside of their world for most of my childhood, the only break I got was being Lilly’s friend, but that hostility was something I’ve never known.” “I have.” The sentence was so simple that I almost missed its meaning. “I’m sorry.” “V, you have never done anything to be sorry for. You’ve never treated me any different then anyone else. Sure, you stayed away from me before Lilly died, but that’s understandable. You’ve never made me feel like I was different, or outside because of my skin color or my economic standing.” “Well, your economic standing on most days is better then mine.” I smiled trying to lighten the mood; our conversation had gotten entirely too heavy for the Toombs’ front yard. Weevil returned my smile, though I knew that the conversation wasn’t over, this would be something that would come up time and again if we decided to pursue any kind of relationship. Not only would we have to think about it here in the Neighborhood, but also at school. The upside being, that I was pretty sure that my father and my friends would say nothing, after the initial shock. Part 9 The ride to San Diego was heavy with thought, both of us trapped in our own worlds. My mind was a clutter of my issues with Duncan, thoughts of how we where going to deal with the brother sister issue, where we going to tell anyone, was it going to be public knowledge, would we only tell those close to us? How was Monday going to go, what would the fall out be with Logan and the knowledge that his father had not only killed his girlfriend a year and a half before, but had also been having sex with her, was going to be all over school; what kind of fall out would that bring on Logan, and how where we going to support him though it? Then the new question, the one that I hadn’t even really thought of until an hour before, where did Weevil fit into all of this? We stopped at a small diner on our way to San Diego, because now that it was well after two in the afternoon, my stomach was protesting heavily about the lack of food for it to digest. We sat staring at each other across the plastic table, neither of us really knowing how to deal with our issues, both separate and combined. I decided to start with a topic outside of our shared discomfort, wanting a sounding board for my issues with Duncan and the Kane family. “You saw the contract I signed for the Kane’s?” “Yeah,” Weevil seemed relieved that I had chosen a less weighty topic for him to deal with. “I was wondering why you had done it that could have been the end of your financial troubles forever.” “I did it for dad, and I did it before I knew the results of the DNA test. I never wanted their money, sure it would make life easer, but I guess to a degree, I didn’t want to believe that Jake Kane could in anyway be my father, and by signing that contract I was sealing that fate. I guess I was wrong.” “Do you mind if I ask you questions about it, about you and Duncan, and what happens on Monday?” He looked concerned, like this had been weighing on this mind like it had been threatening to crush mine. “You can ask, I can’t guarantee that I have an answer for them.” “You and Duncan dated for a long time.” Weevil let the statement hang in the air between us, giving me the opportunity to stop him before he went on. “Your not going to advertise that you know that you’re a Kane are you, I mean, and I’m saying this only because I can’t think of a better way, that’s incest, it wont go over with the people at school, you take enough crap from them.” “Oh, and there’s more to it then Duncan and I dating.” I take a deep breath in, wondering if I should go for full disclosure, wondering if I can tell Weevil about Shelley’s party, about the GHB. He knew that I had been avoiding Logan for a while, that I had been asking questions about the party and what other people remembered, but I had never really told him anything that he didn’t hear in the hallways at school. “You don’t have to tell me anything that you don’t want to.” He placed his hand over mine on the surface of the slightly sticky plastic table. “I want to, I need to tell someone. I haven’t been able to talk about it yet, and I can’t with Logan, and Wallace doesn’t really know what’s going on. I cried to him once already, and I’m not the kind of girl who does that. I don’t know if I can again.” “Then save it, we’ll go for a ride after school on Monday and you can let all your frustrations out then, I’m sure you will have more after facing everyone at school. Your going to stand by the boys on Monday aren’t you?” I looked Weevil in the eyes then, surprised at the fact that he knew that without me having to tell him. “How do you know?” “Your one of the good guys, Veronica Mars.” He smiled at me, as the waitress set down our food, a knowing, easy smile, and I wanted to reach over the table and hug him, I wanted to feel him in my arms at that moment, because I knew that whatever decision we made about our relationship, how ever this weekend ended, I would have him at my back, and that, on top of knowing that my dad and I where going to be alright, made everything seem a little less difficult. This time, when I went back to reality, when I faced school again, I was going to be alright, I had protection from the bad guys. “It’s not going to be easy for us, is it?” “Not any harder then anything you’ve faced this year.” “It’s going to hurt you in the PCH, though. Dating a white girl isn’t only taboo with Mrs. Toombs; your boys are going to give you shit.” “Not if you stick by them, too. All we have to do is make it clear that you’ve got my back, that it’s not just a one way thing.” I picked a fry off of his plate and pretended to contemplate what he had said. “I don’t think that’s a problem. But just so you know, I’m all out of ‘Get out of Jail free’ cards, the last one was almost to pricy.” “Can I ask you what if cost?” “No, but I’ll tell you anyway.” I popped another one of his fries in my mouth, “I told Mrs. Kane to drop the charges against you, and I would look for Duncan free of charge. It’s a good thing dad found him and not me, otherwise we would be out 50 grand.” “Don’t do favors for that woman on my behalf, Chica.” He stopped my hand from taking another fry off his plate. “Eat your own.” He smiled, letting me know that he wasn’t upset at me, for either making a deal with Celeste or for stealing his fries. “Did we just make a decision?” “Yeah, on Monday, you get to walk into school with your boys, but you are going to have to remember, that at lunch, I’m going to expect my girlfriend to sit with me.” He turned over the hand that he had grabbed and traced patterns on my palm. “I think that’s something that I can deal with, but I may have three boys that are very upset that I’m not sitting with them. Wallace in particular, since he’s a bit uneasy around Duncan and Logan.” “Wallace is welcome, it might take too much convincing to let Kane and Echolls sit at the PCH table.” “They’ll just have to understand.” And it would take some really sweet talking on my part, since I left school on Friday Logan’s girlfriend. Lunch finished with casual conversation, though Weevil refused to give me my hand back. At the back of my mind, I knew our next conversation would have to be about Lilly, we had said our good-byes, but there was still lingering questions that I wanted to ask Weevil, and I knew from Logan about the tattoo on his back. I new what ever they had had was long since over, and Weevil had moved on, I just wanted to know a bit about the side of my best friend that I didn’t get to know before she died, and the only person that could tell me was Weevil. “My dad is just going to be beside himself with the knowledge that I’m a PCHer’s girlfriend.” I smiled, knowing that Dad would take it in stride, there would probably be yelling and some stern lectures in my future, but nothing that would deter me from seeing the man in front of me, the man who was quickly breaking down all of my carefully constructed walls, the ones that I had spent so much time cultivating, and for once, I wasn’t scared of what would happen. Of all the things that had happened in the past two days, this was the one thing that was making everything else seem bearable. “I get another lecture don’t I?” Weevil pretended to look scared, though I could see the hesitation in his eyes. “Probably another one about how dispensable you are, and one about dad’s hand gun, and then one about, if you get me pregnant my father will castrate you. He’ll probably also come up with a new one just for you, involving getting me arrested.” “So, no getting you arrested, and very very safe sex. I can handle that.” “Yeah, and then I get to call you and tell you all about the fun lectures dads going to give me.” “That I can also handle. You, on the other hand, get to come and have dinner at my house, and let my grandmother teach you how to cook. You’ll like my family.” “I’ve met your grandmother, and she can try to teach me how to cook, I’d like to be able to make something other then Snickerdoodles.” He raised his eyebrows at me, “I make them for Wallace and put them in his locker, it’s a residual Pep squad thing.” “Is my girlfriend going to make me cookies?” “Do you want yours to be in Spirit Boxes, too?” “And with that, I’m changing the subject. Are we ready to find Felix’s bike, and when we find it, what on earth are we going to do with it, since you don’t know how to drive a motorcycle?” “That is a very good question.” (2 Comments |Comment on this)
10:04 pm	okay... So... I've been writing fanfiction off and on for years now... and I've finally found a show that I can get on board with... Veronica Mars is one of my favorite shows... and the one that is easyist to write for... so here is where I'm going to place my VM fics... have fun reading them, feel free to comment on them... I know I love to write them! (Comment on this)