Author's Note: Ugh! It's been so hard to stay motivated to keep writing. Your reviews really help, so let me know if you especially like (or hate!) anything that I think happened during those two weeks. The interest in this story seems to have dropped off, so let me know if you think it's worth it to keep writing.

As usual, I sadly own absolutely no right to any of these characters, but I do enjoy taking them out for a spin!

Try – Chapter 5

Friday

The buzzing of the alarm tore her from a good dream. She hated that feeling, that no matter how good the day was it couldn't quite live up to the warm feeling you started with. She hit the snooze button and rolled back over to the center of the bed where another warm body was taking up a significant portion of both the mattress and the blankets. As she processed Logan's presence, she could feel the corners of her lips turn up. I take that back. Maybe today will outperform my dreams after all.

She hesitated a moment, deciding whether to wake him or let him get a few more hours of much-needed sleep. She opted for the latter. But as she carefully began to slip out of bed, she felt an arm drape around her waist and impede her movement.

"Nope," he mumbled, eyes still closed. "I like you better where you are."

"I didn't know you were awake," she whispered. "I'm sorry my alarm woke you. I've just got to get an early start on some case work at my dad's office."

"Hmph." He used his arm to pull her closer, and she laid her head on his shoulder. "You know what they say about all work and no play…"

"It keeps the rent paid?"

"It makes this bed very lonely." He smiled at her as he opened his eyes and pushed a hand through his short hair, a habit left over from his pre-Navy days when he'd worn it longer. He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. "Good morning, bobcat."

She smiled and traced a path of kisses along his stubbly jawline. "Good morning yourself." His grin faded to a soft smile as a far-off look invaded his eyes. "What? Where did you go?"

"I was just thinking that I want to remember you exactly like this when I'm floating on some far-off ocean for six months. Warm, soft, and still too sleepy to do anything that makes me crazy."

She grimaced and tried to pull away. She didn't need the reminder of his fears of her work or his upcoming deployment to start the day. So much for improving on my dreams. But he didn't let her go, instead rolling on top of her and offering a big grin.

"I kid, I kid. Well, not about the morning part, I do love that. But you know I enjoy many of the ways you find to make me crazy." He waggled his eyebrows at her, and she couldn't help but let a laugh escape. No need to confront the reality of his deployment just yet, not when they still had nine more days.

"I'm afraid those tactics may have to wait for later. I do really have to get going. I've got a lot to do before I meet Wallace for lunch, and then I made dinner plans with Mac to get some tech advice on an on-going case."

He groaned. "So you're saying I'm not going to see you today."

"Well, not during the day. But maybe I could work on making you crazy when I get back tonight?"

"Perhaps you could offer a sample of what this crazy might look like? You know I like to plan ahead."

She smiled and leaned down to kiss him. This time, it wasn't quick, and by the time she came up for air, both their hearts were racing and she felt slightly out of breath. He began to slip her camisole off her shoulder – damnit, Veronica, focus – but before things could go any further, she quickly jumped out of bed.

"You're killing me, Veronica," he groaned, and put his arm over his eyes.

"Sweet, sweet Logan. Trust me, when I decide to torture you, you'll know."

He moved his arm away from his eyes and leered up at her. "Don't make promises you don't intend to keep."

"You know me," she smiled over her shoulder as she walked towards the bathroom. "I always keep my promises."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

She had a productive morning in the office, so much so that she didn't even feel guilty for taking a long break to meet Wallace during his lunch period at school. As she walked from her car to the patio area, she couldn't help but notice how strange it felt to be back on the campus of Neptune High. She could almost feel her defense mechanisms going on high alert as she braced for insults from every angle. Even knowing intellectually that she was unlikely to run into any of her former classmates, her eyes acted almost instinctively as they scanned the horizon for any sign of the Madison Sinclairs of the world.

"Hey, Veronica, over here!" She could see Wallace waving her over. Get a grip, Mars. You're not 18 anymore, and no one's likely to tag your car during lunch hour.

Wallace rose and gave her a quick lunch when she reached the table. She sat down the bag of Mexican take-out she'd picked up from the local taqueria on her way in. "OK, Fennel, I know I've made you wait a week to give me a piece of your mind, so let me have it."

He laughed. "You know, Veronica, not everybody's out to get you."

"The jury's still out on that one."

He smiled. "You know I only yell out of love. How's your Dad doing?"

"His recovery's going well. The doctor says he's ahead of schedule, and he should be out in a couple of weeks. I'm going to hang around at least long enough to keep things running until he's back on his feet."

Wallace raised his eyebrows. "At least? What's the at least?"

She looked down. "Let's just say my travel plans are…in limbo."

"Veronica, what the hell does that mean?" He gave her a hard look. "Your job is back in New York. Your life is back in New York."

"What life?" She smiled. "You know me, I never get too attached to any one place. I'm a love 'em and leave 'em kind of girl."

"Veronica, be serious. Just this once."

"Jeez, Fennel, take it easy. Trust me, I'm giving this a lot of thought. I know I spent all that time in law school, and I got all those corporate job interviews, but the longer I'm here, the more impossible it seems to go back. As much of a hellhole as Neptune is, the last few weeks have reminded me that it's my hellhole."

"Is this because of the breakup?" He asked the question in a quiet voice. "Because I know Piz is real torn up about the whole thing. Maybe if you talked to him—"

"You've been talking to Piz?" She hadn't stopped to consider this possibility. This lunch was beginning to take a direction she wasn't sure she was comfortable with.

"What did you expect, Veronica? He's my friend, and he's going through a hard time. Maybe you should be the one talking to him. Did you consider that? Did you even tell him about your dad's accident?"

She sighed. "No. I know, I know, I should call him. But it's hard because, because—because there's not really anything to say. He was right to break up with me. As awesome as I am—and believe me, we both know how awesome I am," she said with a grin, "and as much as I care about him, we're done and we both know it."

Wallace looked at her, and she knew what he was going to ask before he asked it. "This is about Echolls, isn't it? Damn, Veronica, that didn't take long."

Now she was a little pissed. "Logan isn't any of your damn business, Wallace. If I want your opinion on my love life, I'll ask." She glared at him from across the table. He may be her oldest friend, but she didn't feel any need to justify her relationship to him, especially not since he barely knew Logan anymore.

"That's cold, Mars. Real cold. You know I'm just worried about you. I've seen what a Logan-Veronica break up looks like. The Cold War had nothing on you. I'm not especially interested in living through another Mutually Assured Destruction kind of situation. When the bombs start going off, leave me out of it."

"Trust me, I will." They sat and stared at each other for a few moments. Veronica began gathering her things so she could exit the situation. As she stood up, she felt Wallace grab her hand.

"Wait. Come on, sit down. I don't want to fight with you."

"You put on a pretty good impression of someone who does, Rocky."

"Look, I'm sorry I got in your face about Logan. I'll back off. Under one condition. You need to call Piz. I don't want him reading about this in the tabloids. It wouldn't be fair."

Damn. She knew he was right. "Fine. I'll call him this afternoon." She held out her hand. "Truce." He smiled, and shook it, finishing with their traditional fist bump. "Thanks for caring, Wallace. I know I don't always show it, but I appreciate it."

"Anytime, VMars. Anytime."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

She stopped by her dad's hospital room for a quick visit before heading into the office. She managed to duck the inevitable phone call for a few hours by focusing on her father's investigation into yet another cheating spouse. Does anyone stay married in Neptune? The divorce rate must hover around 90% with all these husbands frequenting the Camelot Inn.

As the time of her dinner with Mac approached, the little voice in her head reminded her that she made a promise to Wallace, and she picked up her phone. The line rang several times and she wondered if she was going to get his voicemail. Just before she hung up, she heard his voice.

"Hello?" He sounded nervous.

"Hi, Piz. It's—"

"I know who it is, Veronica. My caller ID still works. Though it's nice to discover that phone lines from California still do, too." She sighed. All hope that he'd make this easy evaporated instantly.

"I'm sorry I haven't called. Things have been a little…crazy here."

"I saw the news story on the murder report. Looks like your mission was a success."

"Yeah, though that's not the only reason I'm still here. The night after we talked-"

"The night after we broke up?" Now he sounded pissed.

"Yeah. The night after we broke up, my dad was in a really bad car accident. He almost died."

Piz let out a long breath. "Shit, Veronica, I didn't know. I'm sorry. Is he going to be OK?"

"Yeah, he's going to be in the hospital for a couple of weeks, but the doctor says his recovery is going smoothly. I've been spending a lot of time with him, keeping him company." That's true. But it's hardly all I've been doing.

"I'm glad he's doing better. Is there anything I can do to help?" Count on Piz to be the nice guy, the guy who offered to help after his girlfriend treated him like shit. She felt even worse.

"No, you know, we've got a bunch of people out here, so I'm doing ok. But I'm going to stay for a while longer, till he's back up on his feet. That's one of the reasons I called actually. I'm going to hire some movers to come in and pack up my stuff, ship some of it out here. I've been making good use of the two outfits I packed, but I could use a few other things."

There's a long pause on the line. "Right. Sure. Just let me know. Happy to let them in or whatever."

"Thanks." She paused. "I'm sorry, Piz. About everything. About—about not being able to be the girl you deserve."

"I didn't want some hypothetical girl, Veronica. I wanted you. Crazy, I know, but true."

"I'm sorry, Piz."

"Yeah, you said that. Look is that all? Because if so, this conversation isn't exactly the highlight of my day, so—"

"There's one other thing." She paused. Despite thinking about this conversation all afternoon, she still has no idea how to put it. "I feel like I owe you the truth, and I don't want you reading it in the tabloids, and—"

"Veronica, did you call to tell me that you're back together with Logan."

She felt like he knocked the wind right out of her. "Yes."

"Fine, message delivered. Have a nice night. Or you know what? Don't."

The line went dead. Well that could have gone worse. Actually, no it really couldn't have.

She leaned back in her dad's chair and let out a long groan. She'd managed to break the heart of a genuinely nice guy, one who'd never done anything to hurt her, one who she'd really deeply cared about. She felt like a total asshole.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

"Sorry, sorry I'm late." Veronica rushed into Mama Leone's and found Mac already waiting for her at their table. "I had to make an incredibly unpleasant phone call and it delayed me a little bit."

"Unpleasant, how?" Mac asked, genuinely curious.

"Wallace made me promise to call Piz. He didn't want him finding out about me and Logan in the tabloids. Needless to say, I enjoyed my short period of incarceration more."

Mac let out a long whistle. "Two questions. One: how did he take it, and two: what do you mean, you and Logan?"

Veronica walked her friend through the phone conversation and gave her the update on her romantic status. Mac wasn't any more thrilled with the news than Wallace had been, but she also seemed less surprised and less inclined to give Veronica a hard time. One day, this will be normal, and everyone will just let us be. I think. I hope.

"So it sounds like you had a shitty day. As it turns out, I did too. Working for the man is less than it's cracked up to be. On that note, can I interest you in the bottle of red wine I just ordered?"

"Hit me." Veronica didn't drink very often—after growing up with her mother the boozehound, she didn't usually have much appetite for it—but this night was an exception. She was frustrated, a little pissed, and wanted very much to forget the day that had just gone by.

So they went to work on the first bottle as they talked about the sheriff. Mac had some interesting ideas for accessing the information on her father's case, and they made plans for Mac to swing by the office soon to put them into place. In no time, they were on the second bottle, and both women—neither of whom had much tolerance for alcohol—quickly became the life of the Mama Leone's party.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Logan stirred in bed when something bumped into the bedframe. "Shhhhhh," he heard someone slur.

"Veronica, why are you shushing yourself?"

"Because," she hiccupped, "you're sleeping."

He smiled. "You're drunk."

"Maybe just a little?"

"What time is it? How did you get home?"

"A little after 12. And we took a cab. Did you know the 09er has a whole row of them sitting outside," hiccup, "waiting for drunkees like me?"

He looked confused. "I thought you were having dinner with Mac? How did you end up at the 09er?"

She gave him a brilliant smile as she struggled to take off her shoes. "I did have dinner with Mac! And we drank some red wine! And then we both thought 'wouldn't it be great if we had a few more drinks?' But they didn't seem to want us to keep drinking at Mama Leone's—the waitress looked very perturbed with us, whatabitch—so we went to the 09er." She dove into bed, only halfway out of her clothes. "I'm sorry I'm so late. And so drunk. Don't be mad." She stuck out her lower hip and he couldn't help but laugh.

"How could I ever be mad when you're just so damn cute. But you never drink. What brought this on?"

"Wallace was mad at me. And then he made me call Piz. And Piz doesn't like me very much at all."

Realization dawned over Logan's face. "Why did he make you call Piz?"

"He said," hiccup, "that it wouldn't be fair for Piz to find out about you and me from the stupid paparazzi," hiccup," and that seemed right. So I called him and told him and he hates me and I'm a terrible person."

"You're not a terrible person, Veronica."

"Piz thinks I am. And I think maybe my dad. And Wallace. And—"

"Not me. I'd say you're even in my top three favorite people. So how could you be terrible?"

"Top three?" she yelled. "Who the hell is ahead of me?"

"Well, the top of the list is a little bit in flux. But you know, I've been friends with Dick for a really long time—"

"Dick Casablancas? I'm way better than him."

"—And you know how much I admire the work of Matthew McConaughey. He really has had an incredible year, first Dallas Buyers Club, then Wolf of Wall Street, and I mean, True Detective, it's been quite a comeback—"

"I'll show you a comeback." She swung her leg over his hip and straddled him. "I'll bet you $100 that by tomorrow morning, I'll be at the top of your list."

"Now that's money I'm happy to lose." He smiled as he put his hands on her hips. "Though I can't imagine you'll be at the top of your own list given how you're going to feel tomorrow morning."

"You think I can't handle my liquor?"

"I know you can't handle your liquor."

"So you're saying you don't want to get me drunk and take advantage of me?" She raised her arms and removed her shirt. It took longer than usual as she drunkenly struggled to get it over her head.

"I think you took are of the getting drunk part all on your own. But I think I can help you with the rest of it." She shrieked with laughter as he rolled her over. She knew she was going to pay for the booze in the morning; she might as well enjoy the results while she still could.