FANFIC!

[sroni]

Oh, my gosh. Has it really been that long since I’ve written fanfic?

Yes, it has. First one up is a drabble. Veronica Mars crossover with a surprise.

Strong

Lilly’s voice was confident, her smile wide, her laughter holding a mocking edge. Because, really, who could be with her and not bask in the fabulousness that was Lilly Kane?

Only her smile was slipping and the laughter disappearing as everything went into slow motion, Aaron’s hand and the heavy glass ashtray arching through the air with deadly speed: the glass catching the dying light, and she knowing with cold certainty that she had underestimated him and this was a man who would not be blackmailed.

And then, a tiny inner voice asked her, Do you want to be strong?

***

Second and third ones are standalones that are part of a series. The Season One finale of Veronica Mars intrigued me. I didn’t have to wait a whole summer to find out who was at the door since I had the next season on DVD. I waited all of not even five minutes. But the possibilites of who it could have been? That struck me. So I’m writing various stories about who it could have been, and the things that could have happened. And by various, I mean that I have hazy ideas for ten, and five others planned out and just needing to be written.

Go me!

So, second story.

Pooh and His Simplistic Wisdom

Veronica was woken from her Lilly dream by a knock at the door. Somehow, she knew that while she might dream of memories or could-have-beens, in which Lilly might make appearances, that this was the last time she’d be visited by the real Lilly Kane herself, in all her awesome glory.

That knowledge left her feeling bereft, like a ship without its mooring and adrift at sea, or a building in SoCal without its foundation in the middle of an earthquake.

The driving force in her life for over a year had been solving Lilly’s murder.

And making that person pay.

She’d done it. She’d found out who it was, she’d gathered the evidence —

– she’d almost gotten killed for it –

— and it was done. Over with.

So … what was she supposed to do now?

She woke to the knock, checked her clock and crawled out of bed. 3:07. It had better be who she was hoping it would be, or she’d sic Backup on them, just on principle.

She opened the door, her only concern to her appearance being to check and make sure her light blue tank top and plaid girls’ boxers hadn’t ridden up in her sleep. She ignored the messy ponytail, and didn’t even think about the bruised scrape on her cheek.

She recognized the figure in the shadows and smiled softly. “I was hoping it would be you.”

Wallace stepped into the light, his little brother asleep in his arms. “I know it’s late, but I didn’t like the idea of you being by yourself tonight.” He deposited the sleeping Darrell on the couch and touched her left cheek lightly, inspecting the abrasion. “Veronica —”

She cut him off. “I know.” That was the beauty of their friendship; she really did know what he meant.

He said it anyway. “You could have died tonight.”

She cracked a wry grin. “Believe me, I know. I used to think that the best thing about summer vay-cay was the barbecues. Something tells me I won’t be doing any of that this summer.” A slight pause. “Or crawling into small spaces just for the hell of it. Which shoots my awesome ability to hide anywhere in the foot. Darrell might just beat me next time we play hide and seek.”

Wallace’s nostrils flared, and Veronica suddenly realized just how angry he was. Wallace only flared his nostrils under two circumstances: when he was lying, and when he was furious. She’d only seen it under the later once, the day she’d parked outside his house and started crying. After she’d told him she was drugged and had woken up alone without her underwear, but before she’d managed to tell him that it was Duncan and that he’d thought it was consensual, his nostrils had flared and he’d held her so tightly that she’d found bruises on her arms the next day. It hadn’t been a restraining hold, but an anchoring one, and she’d needed it then and he’d needed it, too. Truthfully, she hadn’t felt the pain, and she’d made sure to wear sleeves that would cover the bruises because he didn’t need to know about them. “Veronica, I know that you like to hide behind humor, and usually, I’ll for that and right there with you. But right now, tonight, for my sanity, don’t.”

Veronica understood. “Hey, at least you didn’t find out I was in danger until you knew I was all right.”

He rolled his eyes. “You assume too much, white girl. The radio said Aaron Echolls had been arrested for the murder of Lilly Kane and the attempted murder of Veronica Mars. It said that you and your dad were at the hospital, but didn’t say anything about what kind of condition you were in. So we knew you were safe, but we didn’t know that you were okay. Why’d it take so long for you to call?”

Veronica pulled him into her room so she wouldn’t have to worry about waking up Darrell, and the two friends sat on her bed and bobbed gently as the water adjusted for them. “It took so long because Lamb hates me and kept questioning me, trying to pick holes in my story. For once in my life, I was completely truthful.” He shot her a disbelieving look and she clarified her statement. “About tonight.” A pause. “Mostly. Anyway, he was all set to book me for trespassing and whatnot, but Jake Kane refused to press charges. Which, okay, kinda surprised me, since it could be blamed on me that I’m the reason Jake was dealing with being charged with Obstruction of Justice. Lamb finally decided to let me go, but took my cell phone as evidence. I went straight to Dad, and honestly, it didn’t even occur to me that people would know and be worried until I spoke with your mom after the nurse asked if anyone else could stay with Dad. Your mom was surprised that I was asking her instead of my mom, but didn’t ask the whys of it. She was so obviously worried about my dad, about both of us, and it was only then that I realized other people would be worried, too.” She gave a light chuckle. “Your mom is such a mom. She actually chastised me for worrying her and not calling sooner. I swear, the good moms must go to the same mom school, because only moms can sound so relieved, so grateful, and make you feel so guilty, all at the same time.” And the bad moms learn to hide their vodka in water bottles so their husband and daughter don’t know that she’s still drinking, and her daughter doesn’t realize that she wasted Veronica’s college fund and checked herself out of rehab before she was done.

Wallace draped an arm over her shoulder and she leaned her head against him. Any other guy and she would have been teasing him about putting the moves on her. Not Wallace.

When she’d cut the skinny black kid down from the flagpole all those months ago, she had no idea that she’d earned herself a solid friend who would put up with her crap even when he was annoyed with her simply because that’s what family does for each other.

Family. The thought brought her up short. Since when did she think of Wallace as family? Better question was, why did it surprise her that she did?

His voice pulled her out of her thoughts. “Why didn’t you call your mom and ask her to stay with your dad? You told my mom you’d be here alone, so where is your mom?”

Veronica answered flatly, her expression not changing in the slightest. “I kicked her out. Told her to leave. She was still drinking. I pulled some water out of the fridge and it was vodka. She didn’t finish rehab. I lost my college money because of her. I wouldn’t let my dad lose your mom because of her.”

Wallace’s arm tightened around her shoulders momentarily. “I’m sorry, V. That’s rough. Anything I can do to help?”

She smiled up at him. “Be yourself. Be what you are. Be family.”

He ruffled her hair, mussing it out of it’s low ponytail. “I get top bunk.” She stuck her tongue out at him, and he retaliated by poking her in the ribs. “Seriously, V, I’m always going to be here for you. When we go off and do our own things after high school, living our own lives, you just need to know a few things. You’re stronger than you think you are, smarter than you know, and better than you give yourself credit for. Mostly, though, you need to know that even if we’re on separate sides of the country, I’m always here and I got your back.”

Veronica blinked at him. “Dude, did you just paraphrase Winnie the Pooh to me?”

“Hey, don’t knock the Pooh. He’s really smart in a really simple, non-convoluted way. That little yellow bear and Dr Seuss are two of the best philosophers this world has ever seen.” He shifted to get more comfortable on the waterbed. “I’m just shocked hat you found me out.”

Veronica shrugged. “I read Darrell a bedtime story last week. It happened to be the Winnie the Pooh story that had that quote.” She yawned widely and announced, “I’m going to go back to sleep now.” Wallace started to pull his arm away, but she didn’t let him go. “Stay. You were right, I don’t want to be alone tonight. Just stay. You’re family.”

Wallace stayed, grumbling about pushy blondes, and how he was never going to get a moment’s peace if she got the top bunk.

Because that’s what family does.

***

Ice Queen

Veronica woke to a knock at the door and checked her clock. 3:07. Whomever it was had better have a damn good reason for waking her up at three in the freaking morning after the night —

– week –

– year –

— that she’d had.

She tugged her pajamas back into place as she walked; wouldn’t do to flash the sleep disturber that must die.

When she opened the door, she suppressed the urge to sigh or roll her eyes. “I was hoping it would be you.” She managed to get the words out without sarcasm, to her credit.

“There’s no need to lie.” Celeste Kane stepped out of the shadows.”

“What are you doing here?” Sure, a bit blunt, what whatev.

“I would like to speak with you.” Celeste, as always, looked impeccable, the aura of confidence an impenetrable armor around her.

Veronica stepped aside to allow Celeste to come inside. “Because three in the morning is the perfect time for a girl chat. I could do your nails! I know I have ‘overbearing mother pink’ around here somewhere.”

Celeste brushed past her. “You don’t like me. That’s fine. I did what I had to do to keep my son safe. Before Lilly’s death, that meant making sure the two of you didn’t get serious.” She surveyed Veronica cooly, her shoulders straight and her expression carefully controlled and maintained. “I put off that conversation as long as I could, you know. I didn’t want to hurt Duncan, and I hoped you’d be like most other high school relationships and burn out in a few weeks. I should have taken into account that he was a Kane. It wasn’t until that Homecoming that it became clear that he was serious about you and it wasn’t simply a case of puppy love. I insisted that Jake tell Duncan and that was that. The problem was solved, and we could move on.”

Oh, Veronica just loved being called a problem. No consideration to how much it had hurt her when Duncan had walked out of her life without an explanation. Just a problem that had been wrapped up. “And then the pesky Mars family kept making a nuisance of themselves, so you had to take care of that problem, too. And what better way to do it than to have the head of security of your husband’s company send my mother, your rival for your husband’s affections, I might add, pictures of me in the cross hairs of a rifle. Because that screams class like nothing else.”

“She wasn’t supposed to abandon you and Keith. She was supposed to take the two of you with her.”

“Oh, goody. That would kill three birds with the same stone. You’d get my dad out of town so he could no longer poke holes in Abel Koontz’ story. You’d get my mom away from your cheating husband. And you’d get me away from your son. The only problem with that is that you protected the man that actually killed your daughter, and I don’t carry Kane genes. So the only thing you really accomplished that you might consider a victory was running my mom out of town. Forgive me if I don’t profess undying gratitude.”

Celeste’s mouth tightened, and she spoke very quietly. But quiet doesn’t mean soft. “My family is everything to me. I loved my daughter. I didn’t always understand her, and I was frequently disappointed in her. But she was my daughter and I loved her with a fierceness that you can’t even begin to comprehend, not being a mother yourself. When Jake and I found Duncan holding Lilly, my world as I knew it ended, and I had only one goal. I’d just lost one child and I’d be damned if I’d lose my other one. I did everything I could to protect Duncan and keep him safe.” Celeste’s posture remained perfect, her expression a perfectly cultivated mask that gave nothing away. But something in her eyes shifted, allowing Veronica a glimpse of the hell Celeste dealt with. “In the end, it was all for nothing and I still lost him. Not to death, not to prison. I lost him by trying to protect him, because in doing so, it showed my doubt of him. When he needed me to believe in him most, I failed him, and he will never forget that, and never forgive.” If eyes were the windows to the soul, Celeste pulled the shutters right then, and Veronica was once again seeing the perfectly cultivated image that Celeste worked hard to project. “I just came to thank you for finding Lilly’s killer. Now I’ll let you go back to whatever you were doing.”

“I didn’t do it for you. You’ve never given me any reason to help you, and my altruism stopped stretching far enough to cover you ever since I found the photos in my mom’s safety deposit box. Lilly was my best friend. I did it for her. She deserved to have the right man punished.”

Celeste didn’t respond as Veronica expected. She simply nodded and said, “Very few people are as loyal as you are, Veronica. That is something to be commended.” She turned to leave.

Veronica hesitated, but asked anyway. Worst case scenario, this moment of good will would end and Celeste Kane would simply walk out the door and go back to pretending that Veronica didn’t exist. “Why do you stay? Your husband cheated on you since high school. Why do you stay?” That was something she couldn’t understand, and she couldn’t understand it of her father, either.

Celeste was silent for a long moment. “When I married Jake, I thought he would take his vows as seriously as I took mine. I stay because I promised I would. You don’t break a promise just because it’s hard, and things aren’t the way you thought they would be. I stay because I swore to be beside him in good times and bad. I can’t renege on my promise simply because he didn’t keep his promise to be faithful. The one does not negate the other. He hasn’t kept his end of the bargain, but I have kept mine, and I will continue to do so because I promised I would.” There was a brief flicker in Celeste’s eyes before Veronica was once again shut out. “Good night, Veronica.”

And then she was gone.

It made sense. Certainly, she hadn’t stayed for the money. A person can only use so many billions. Celeste could live a life of luxury if she got one tenth of Jake’s money, and almost two decades of infidelity would be a slam dunk in a divorce.

Veronica still didn’t like Celeste. She had a suspicion that the feeling was mutual. But after the last 24 hours, her respect for Celeste had gone up, albeit grudgingly, a few notches.

She had a sneaking suspicion that that feeling was mutual, as well.

***