Author's Note: Thank you everyone who is still reading this story! I know it's been a long wait and I'm hoping to start writing more! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and followed! You guys are awesome! I hope you guys had some good holidays too! I can't believe we're already into feb! The mystery will be more in next few chapter than this chapter, just a head's up! Please review!

Thank you to: Guest, msmaj, Sunkissu9, delphine05, palmbeach, tigerlady1981, labroussard, cheshire15, Guest, Guest, Angelpete87, hansongirl14, kerali, JoeCool701, Kayte76, & LovePJandBrucasLover!

Enjoy!

Chapter 9: The Sickness

The silence surrounded them. It pressed down on them as if it was trying to squash the life out of everyone in attendance. Veronica wasn't sure whether to feel smothered by the silence, or happy that so many people took this so seriously.

She snapped another picture of Lilly's memorial and the people surrounding it as they spoke about Lilly Kane and her greatness. Glancing across the crowd her eye caught Logan's and she smiled reassuringly at him. He returned it without hesitation and she felt stronger knowing he was there for her.

Their day on the beach with their little family was much appreciated, but it also wasn't enough to make them forget about the memorial later that night. Despite how badly both of them wanted to fully immerse themselves in the beach, enjoying the easiness of a nice day, they both knew that the memorial would come.

It wasn't as bad as she had expected it to be. People spoke about Lilly, mainly the Kane family, there was the unveiling of the plac, and then there was a video tribute to Lilly that Veronica thought was all wrong, but Duncan put it together so what could she really expect.

Once the ceremony was over and she had finished taking the pictures she needed for the paper she found Logan in the crowd.

"What'd you think?" she asked.

"Duncan made her out to be some kind of saint…he didn't show the real Lilly, the crazy Lilly." He said quietly.

Veronica replayed the video in her head and had to agree with his statement.

"Too bad he didn't ask you or me to do the video, that would've made the evening. I have that video from Homecoming still on my computer that would've been a good addition." She mused as they got into the Xterra.

Logan laughed, "could you imagine Celeste's face if we played clips from that night? She'd be so embarrassed."

"And it would be the last time Lilly embarrassed her mother. It would've made the night."

"Yeah it would've…"

They shared a knowing look and began their way home.

The weekend flew by much too quickly for both Veronica and Logan. Neither was ready to face Monday or school, especially because the Lilly Kane Memorial was in full display in the front of the building. Veronica half wished they could just skip again, but she knew it was imperative that they go. She did need to graduate, although sometimes she did think about getting her GED since that might be easier.

Early Monday morning loud crying came through the baby monitor.

"It's your turn." Veronica muttered cuddling deeper into the down comforter and pillows.

"I went last night. It's all you, bobcat." Logan mumbled back half asleep.

One of Veronica's eyes popped open taking in Logan's sleeping form as she thought about what he said. Frowning she realized he was right and she made her way toward Marsden's room.

She found the little guy crying his eyes out and despite all of her best efforts she couldn't seem to get him to stop. She checked his diaper, tried to feed him a bottle, and tried to rock him back to sleep, but nothing seemed to work. It wasn't until Logan stuck his head into the bedroom did she really start to panic, since he had been crying for almost two hours now.

"What's wrong with him?" Logan asked taking him from an exhausted Veronica and attempted to calm him much the same as she had done.

"I don't know. He won't stop crying." She said running a hand through her messy hair and trying to keep the anxiety out of her voice.

Logan gave her a look and began to move around the room trying to sooth the child.

"Go lay down for awhile, it's still early. I'll take care of him." Logan said giving her a peck on the forehead and sending her out of the room.

She cast them one last look before reluctantly leaving the room and going toward their own bedroom.

It wasn't until an hour later when Logan came in to wake her up did she realized she had fallen asleep in the first place.

"Veronica?" Logan asked shaking her awake.

Tiredly she opened her eyes to find him standing over her a worried look on his face.

"What's wrong?" she asked becoming more alert.

"It's Marsden, I think…I think he's sick." Logan said obviously trying to remain calm for Veronica's sake.

"What? Sick? Are you sure?" she asked worriedly sitting up and getting out of bed.

She heard the distant cried of the baby down the hall and took off toward the bedroom.

"He hasn't stopped crying and he's been tugging at his ear. I took his temperature and he has a fever." Logan said walking quickly behind her.

"Why didn't you wake me up then?" she snapped going into the room and immediately picking up the crying child.

"Because I had it handled. I was reading on the internet and—"

"Logan! You should've woken me up. We need to call the doctor." She said quickly rushing around and collecting some things to put in his bag to take to the doctor's.

Logan stepped in front of her tentatively putting a hand on her shoulder to slow her down.

"Veronica, you need to relax. Listen to me, everything's going to be fine. He probably just has a cold or something. I'll call the doctor and tell him what's going on and he can tell us if we should come in or not." He said trying to get her to calm down.

She threw an irritated look at him and then sighed, "fine. Call the doctor. I'll get his bag ready and go tell your mom we're going to take him to the doctor's."

"If he needs to go to the doctor's. Don't jump to conclusions." He said giving her a knowing look before leaving the room.

She rolled her eyes at his back and then turned to look at the crying child in her arms.

"It's okay, Mars. It's okay." She said unsure if she was soothing herself or the baby.

Quickly she packed a bag for him and then went into her room to change into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, while brushing her teeth and hair. She could hear Logan in the bedroom on the phone with the doctor and she mentally went through what she had to do that day at school and for the case that she could put off or the next day.

When she was ready she took the crying child from Logan and made her way downstairs unsurprised to see Lynn and Alfonso in the dining room having a lavish breakfast.

"What's wrong with him?" Lynn asked looking up in alarm at a frazzled looking Veronica and the baby in her arm's.

"We aren't sure, but Logan's on the phone with the doctor." Veronica said eyeing the food on their plates.

Lynn smiled sympathetically and held her arms out to take Marsden from her. Veronica handed him over and grabbed an apple and a muffin from the table. Glancing over at Alfonso she saw him watching Lynn with Marsden carefully.

"He has an ear infection." Alfonso said suddenly.

"What?" Veronica and Lynn inquired in surprise.

"He has an ear infection. He has pus coming out of his ear and he's tugging on it. I'd say it's an ear infection." He said taking a bite of his eggs and giving her a sympathetic look.

Veronica frowned looking at the crying baby in Lynn's arms.

"Thanks." She said dryly taking the baby back from Lynn as Logan came down the stairs.

"They can see us in an hour." He said taking a muffin from the table.

"An hour? What are we supposed to do until then?" Veronica cried bouncing the baby up and down trying to sooth him.

Logan shrugged sitting down in a seat at the table.

"Eat breakfast, make—"

"I'm glad you're both here actually." Lynn said cutting Logan off before he could finish his snarky remark.

"Why?" Logan asked frowning suspiciously.

"Well, as you know the trial for…for Aaron is coming up soon." Lynn began looking at both of them intently.

Veronica and Logan exchanged looks both unsure how to handle the news. Veronica knew, of course that the trial was coming up, she'd marked it on the calendar, but it seemed so surreal that it was already here. She felt like the arraignment was yesterday, she wasn't even sure how she could handle facing the man that had tried to kill her and Marsden even if it had been a several months now.

"And?" Logan asked when she didn't say anything.

"And we need to meet with the lawyers, tonight. The trial was pushed back until next week so the lawyers—"

"And you're just telling us this now? Why couldn't you have told us this sometime this weekend so we could prepare? We're already dealing with a sick kid." Logan exclaimed frustration evident.

Lynn frowned, "Logan, I know you're upset—"

"Obviously, you can't just spring this on someone in a 'hey by the way, we're meeting tonight to figure out a plan to make sure you're murdering father never gets out of prison.' Why didn't you tell us this sooner? Oh right, I forgot you were with your boyfriend all weekend." Logan snarled angrily running a hand through his hair.

Lynn glanced over at Veronica who was standing watching them carefully.

"Logan, I know it's a lot to deal with—"

"And I don't want to deal with it right now. I have to take care of my son." He said turning away and walking toward the front door.

Veronica glanced over at Lynn who looked worried and then Alfonso who was tentatively eating the rest of his breakfast.

"We'll see you tonight." Veronica said giving Lynn a sheepish smile before leaving the house.

The drive to the doctor's was spent in silence as Veronica allowed Logan to stew in his anger.

"Why are you so angry about this?" she asked when they pulled into the parking lot for the doctor's.

"Because she spent all weekend out with Alfonso and while we're trying to take care of our kid she just nonchalantly tells us that my – Aaron's trial is coming up and we have to meet with the lawyers. She always waits until the last minute to tell me stuff. Like with my brother, or—"

"Maybe she didn't want to deal with the trial either." Veronica said cautiously.

He glanced at her annoyance written on his face. "Maybe. It's just…I thought we had more time before..."

Veronica was silent for a long time as they both sat in the car, since they were almost twenty minutes early for their appointment.

"You know, it'll be okay. It's going to difficult but…at least it's happening. And at least we have each other." She said breaking the silence.

Logan nodded slowly, "yeah."

As the clock ticked on they finally decided to get out of the car and go face the doctor. Neither of them wanted to talk about tonight or Aaron anymore.

After filling out some information they were asked to come in to figure out what was going on with the baby. The doctor poked and prodded Marsden as Logan and Veronica watched in trepidation. After taking some tests and disappearing for a little while to make some conclusions the doctor came back to announce to them that Marsden had an ear infection.

"It's best to take the wait and see approach with these things. You don't want his immune system to be too low." The doctor said with a chuckle.

"Just watch him carefully, and prop his head up if he sleeps since it hurts more if they are laying down. Call me if you have any other questions or the symptoms don't go away in 2-3 days." He said handing them his card.

"Are you sure there's nothing that can be done?" Veronica asked feeling bad for the little guy for feeling so sick. She didn't like to see him in pain.

"I'm afraid not this time. If it gets worse, sure, but like I said the wait and see approach is the way to go." The doctor said before leaving.

Veronica sighed heavily and watched as Logan packed up their stuff as she attempted to calm Marsden by bouncing him.

"Well that was a waste of time." She muttered looking down into the crying baby's face.

"So I guess we have another day off from school." Logan mused.

"At least it'll give us some time to prep for tonight." She added as they left the doctor's office.

Just as she finished her words she felt a vibration in her pocket and she reached to grab her phone. Her father's name was flashing across the caller ID and she smiled slightly since she hadn't talked to him in a few days now. She missed seeing her father everyday and she sometimes wished she still lived at him.

"Hey daddy-o." she greeted.

"Veronica, I was going to leave a message. Why aren't you in school?" he asked in a disapproving tone.

"Marsden had to go to the doctor's." she said.

"What's wrong?"

"Ear infection."

"Poor little guy."

"Yeah, he's been crying non stop and the doctor won't give him anything." She said tossing an annoyed look to the nurses as they went back into the waiting room to leave.

"So what's up?" she asked when he didn't say anything.

"I just wanted to let you know I'm coming over tonight to talk with the lawyers for Aaron's trial. I thought I'd bring some food too. What do you and Logan want?"

"Italian." She said without asking her boyfriend.

She saw him roll her eyes and she smiled slightly.

"Logan wants Italian too?" he asked and she could practically hear the smile through the phone.

"Of course." She said earning an annoyed look from him.

"Text me your order and I'll bring it over when I come tonight. Ask Lynn if she wants anything too if you get a chance."

"Will do, pops." She said before they both said their 'I love yous' and hung up the phone.

Logan helped her put Marsden in the car seat and then they started their drive home both thinking about Aaron's trial, the meeting with the lawyers, and their sick son.

(A/n: What did you think? please review!)