"You should only wear this. Ever."

Logan chuckled, shaking his head as he approached Lilly. Shuffling his bag off his shoulder, he dropped it near her feet in the middle of the busy airport before bending and wrapping her in a giant hug that lifted her off the ground. Laughing loudly, she grabbed the white dress uniform cap off his head and planted it on top of her long blond hair as he returned her to her feet.

"Thanks. I had a meeting with my superiors at Navy HQ just before catching my flight and I didn't have time to change."

Stooping, he scooped his bag up and swung it over his shoulder. As he rose, he snatched his lid off Lilly's head and placed it securely on top of his. Lilly's mischievous blue eyes sparkled up at him and she crossed her arms across her turquoise wrap dress, a wry smile on her deep plum lips. Though it had been a year since he last saw her, it always amazed him how she managed to seemingly stay as fresh and vivacious as she was as a teenager – even if they were all now on the other side of thirty.

"A likely story. You should wear that to dinner tonight…Veronica may just walk out of the house of her own volition and this mission will be easy-peasy." Lilly snapped her plum-manicured fingers in the air.

"Lilly…"

Letting out a sigh of frustration, Lilly rolled her eyes, turning her back to Logan as she started to walk away, causing Logan to quickly follow. They hadn't had sex in almost a decade, and still, sometimes he felt like her lap dog.

"So, how's Catherine?"

Flicking her two closely cut fingers in the air, Lilly laughed. "Fine. She just left to shoot a show in Paris this morning – I'm going to join her in another week. I promised her I wasn't interested in cock anymore and she said to give you her best. How's what's-her-name?"

"Layla? Wouldn't know – haven't seen her in months. That's what happens when you find your girlfriend in your bed with her ex-boyfriend."

Lilly glanced over her shoulder at him, her teeth clenched together as she sucked in air. "Geez. Sorry. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Doesn't matter. Just another in a long line of mistakes. She only moved in because her apartment was being fumigated – it's not like I actually lo…"

Pressing his lips together, Logan decided to say no more, hoping Lilly would just drop it. Pulling his aviator sunglasses from his pocket, he tried to hide his eyes, hoping she wouldn't do that trick she always did of seeing directly into his soul with those wide, witchy eyes of hers.

"No. We know who you actually love – which is why you're here. She's turned into an elegant drunk and Duncan isn't helping so we have to do something, before it's too late." Stepping through the sliding doors of the airport and out into the bright California sun, Lilly continued her pace, not looking back at Logan as she spoke. "Veronica needs you, Logan, now more than ever."

"How many times have we been over this? She loves me…as a friend…like she loves you. That's it. That's all it's ever been."

Lilly stopped short in the parking lot, causing Logan to almost run right into her as he failed to compensate for her halting. "And I told you, like a million times, on her wedding day to my brother, she started to get cold feet and talked about this mysterious 'what if' with some guy. What if he really cared and this was a mistake? Maybe he would come forward and tell her he loved her, before the ceremony? She wouldn't tell me who she was talking about, but when you showed up at the door with that note from Duncan, I thought she would jump out of her skin."

Pursing his lips, Logan raised his finger in front of her face. "One time, Lilly. I kissed her that one time and it was an accident."

"Oh, sure it was. You thought you were climbing into bed with me." Rolling her big eyes again, Lilly cocked her head to one side and sighed dramatically. "Even though I left the party with Casey that night."

"I. Didn't. Know! How was I to know she was going to crash in your bedroom?! She and Duncan were engaged for fuck's sake – why wasn't she in his bed that night?"

Logan felt himself starting to lose his cool. It had been almost fifteen years since that night – when they were eighteen years old and Logan staggered into Lilly's bedroom, hoping the sexual inuendoes she had been tossing him all night at the party would lead to another no-commitment fuck before she left for Vassar the next day. Spying the back of her long blond hair stretched across the pillow in the semi-darkness as she slept, the satin duvet pulled up over part of her face - and knowing how Lilly was more than amiable to waking up to his hands on her - he slipped under the covers, fully clothed, next to the blond hair and wrapped his body close to hers. He remembered how she sighed, pressing her half-naked body back against his, making him instantly hard and ready, if she wanted him. He was drunk and stoned, but when he burrowed his face into her hair, he realized the scent was not Lilly – this was soft floral and sugar and vanilla, the delicate aroma of Veronica. In that second he froze, realizing his mistake, but paralyzed at what to do. It was then that she rolled in his arms, her eyes half open and glassy as she parted her soft pink lips.

"I was hoping it was you," was all she said before her lips brushed his, smooth and light, her breath caressing his skin as she moved her body against his. That's when he allowed himself the biggest mistake of his life, closing his eyes and sinking fully into a deep, warm kiss. Now he still remembers how her hands cupped his cheeks as they continued to tease each other, gently, tenderly, and his cock twitches just thinking about how he desperately wished he could make love to her right then and there. But instead, he stopped, pausing briefly as his eyes met hers, recognizing that he was in fact in bed with not only the woman he had secretly grown to love as more than a friend, but also the fiancée of his best friend. Without a word, he retreated, and dealt for the next year with the unsaid between them and the pain of watching her walk down the aisle with someone else, one year later.

"You know why she wasn't in bed with my brother as well as I do – because Donut is terrible in the sack. I mean, what kind of man doesn't eat pus…" Beside them, the door to a minivan opened, and a very stern looking older woman stepped out with a glare in their direction, just as the side door slid open and two kids tumbled out. Lilly's eyes became wide as saucers before a snort of laughter rose from her throat. "…pussycat. You gotta see the kittens, Lo. They're adorable!"

She slapped him on the shoulder, and he chuckled, tipping his hat slightly to the pissed-off mother trying to wrangle her kids before Lilly began walking quickly away. Catching up to her, Logan shook his head.

"You need to let this drop, Lilly. This is one of the reasons I joined the Navy in the first place – to give Veronica and Duncan some space to figure things out without me around being the third wheel. And every time I visit, it looks like they have. She's a successful corporate lawyer. He's Mayor of Neptune for Christ's sake! They have a big 09er house, and a beach house in Santa Barbara, and a jet that can take them anywhere they want in the world. I would say they have this whole adulting thing down."

Lilly finally stopped at her little red Fiat convertible, bending slightly to open the trunk for Logan's bag. He tossed it inside, and she slammed the lid closed a little harder than needed. "Looks are deceiving, Lo. Veronica's been miserable for a while now - she's just always had her job to distract her - but ever since her dad died a few years ago, it's all spiraled out of control fast and I'm worried that she'll end up like her mom - or my mom, or your mom - some drunk socialite, trying to keep up appearances, even if it kills her."

Shaking his head, Logan scratched his cheek in thought – trying to reconcile the Veronica he knew with the one Lilly was describing now. Even though he'd moved across the country, Veronica had remained his friend for all these years – sending him care packages of homemade cookies while he was in basic training, and then throwing him a large congratulatory party the first time he returned home before his first mission abroad. There were emails and phone calls on special occasions and Logan was proud every time he returned home to Neptune that he could maintain this special connection with her, even if they were separated by miles and time.

And when Duncan called to tell him about Keith Mars' death, he hadn't hesitated to jump on a plane in the middle of the night, to be there for his friend the next day. Logan would always be glad he was there to support Veronica as she went through the worst day of her life. He remembered how Lianne Mars got drunk at Keith's funeral and had to be escorted home by two deputies. He also remembered how the only slightly less inebriated Celeste Kane chided Veronica in front of the crowd of mourners because Veronica and Duncan didn't have any children before Keith died so he would never know his own grandchildren - as if they should have known the Sheriff would be killed in the line of duty before that happened.

He knew what it was like to grow up with an alcoholic mother and was shocked as an adult to find that Veronica had the same problem in her home when she was younger - she just hid it well from their group - while it had been a very open and visible problem for him. Being stationed on the other side of the country meant that Logan only had to deal with his own mother's alcoholism the few times a year he came around to visit and pose for photos with Aaron and Lynn, just so his father could send them to the tabloids and show off how his son was a goddamn, honest to goodness U.S.A. brand hero.

The truth was, he never showed up in Neptune for his family; it was Lilly and Veronica and Duncan that were the ones he always came home to, for birthdays, anniversaries, and vacation get-aways. But no matter what brought them together, whenever he visited, he still always looked forward to sitting down with Veronica, at her kitchen table, and talking about their exploits since they last spoke. If he couldn't be her lover, he was damn sure she would still be his friend.

"Veronica's too strong to let anything kill her."

"You're right. She is." Standing, Lilly walked around to the driver's side door and smiled. "We just have to remind her of that."