So I have no idea how long this story will turn out to be, and I'm not exactly sure where it's going to go, but I like the idea of doing a story with a time jump. So while the story begins during the summer after our gang's 1st year of college (S3) it will eventually jump forward to the movie years and maybe beyond, so spoilers through the movie and possibly the books (just to be safe). There will definitely be some strong language throughout, and a few chapters may get a little M, but I'll warn in advance.

I do my own proofing and do apologize for any grammar/mispspelling/cannon problems. Please do feel free to let me know in the reviews or through a PM if there's something egregious that I need to fix.

I of course have to thank Rob Thomas and company for creating these characters and letting me borrow them to explore my favorite unlikely pairing. I own nothing!

- Prologue -

Dick was desperate and as the saying goes…'desperate times call for desperate…,' uh, 'measurements'? That didn't make any sense. 'Rulers'? Fuck! He couldn't even get that right. Who was he kidding? Logan was the one with all the clever things to say. He was…he was…royally fucked at the if he couldn't figure out how to convince his 'dad' that he definitely could not spend the summer upstate so that they could 'bond' or some shit like that.

Dick had already accepted that his surfing trip with Logan wasn't going to happen. That was blown when his dad came back to town and decided to 'fix' their relationship, which usually involved near-silent room-service dinners watching tv in his dad's hotel room, usually followed by his father's rant about how 'Cassidy was never a man' and 'Dick was a loser, but at least he wasn't a pussy.' 'So long' Belize and Biarritz chasing perfect waves with Logan for the summer. 'Hello' trips down memory lanes he had worked hard to forget with his good friend "Jack" and meaningless sex.

To make matters worse, now his dad wants to take him on some kind of father-son bonding adventure in the Sierras that was supposed to be a month-long hiking-camping-sit-around-the-sweat-lodge and find their shared bond in masculinity, and he was just not up for that shit with his scumbag of a father. Besides, Logan could barely get out of bed before 3:00 in the afternoon since finding out that Veronica was skipping town for Stanford.

Dick was worried enough about leaving Logan alone for a day, much less a month. There was no way he could leave him for that long, not right now, but his dad wasn't taking no for an answer and had threatened to call his lawyer about denying him his trust money until he was 25, claiming there was a dead-hand clause that if Dick wasn't a 'a person with 'good morals' then his dad could restrict access to the funds. He really didn't think that was true, especially considering his father was now a convicted felon, but Big Dickrwas such a sneak that Dick didn't doubt that he could screw things up with his inheritance if he really set his mind to it.

So it had come to this, a soap-opera level scheme, that he had serious doubts would work, and he had to humiliate himself even further to get it done. "Logan, you are so going to pay me back when you come out this latest Veronica-induced bender." Dick muttered under his breath, and approached the one person that could make or break him for the next five years.

xxxxx

Mac really had to hand it to the Hearst administration; they had somehow managed to simultaneously find the dumbest and laziest summer program students of all time, and was at that moment seriously reconsidering just how desperate she was to earn some extra cash by taking a job to help run the computer lab and IT help desk at the school this summer. Mac had figured it would be an easy gig; hang out in the computer lab, make sure the printers had paper, help the summer program kids reset passwords. Instead she was the on-call computer/tablet/phone fix it squad for 200 babies that had never lived away from home. And the porn site viruses—so, so many porn viruses. She wanted to cry anytime anyone brought her a laptop claiming that they got a virus after his or her 'roommate' went on this 'totally sketch Russian website'.

Mac had just spent her afternoon dealing with a guy that had dropped his tablet in the Hearst swimming pool—'dude, I like totally thought it would be cool to film my girlfriend's swim practice', and just wanted to grab something from the student union before crawling under the covers in her for room to sob over the size of her college loans. Making her way out of the lab she caught sight of a familiar face and her breath hitched for a moment at the site of him in all his surfer-Californian-boy glory. Mac shook her head and rolled her eyes, 'and I thought my day couldn't get any worse'. Sighing, she slowed to meet the former bully-douchebag/dead-boyfriend's brother/best friend's boyfriend's best friend whom she had sort of buried the hatchet with earlier in the year. They weren't enemies, but they weren't really friends either, so she prepared herself for whatever frat-boy douchey thing Dick was about to say to her.

"Hi Dick," Mac mumbled, squinting up to look at him, feeling almost blinded by the light shining on his white-blonde hair.

"Hey Ghostwor—I mean Mackie. How's it going? Haven't seen you in like forever."

"Yeah, I'm great. I've gotta get going though." Feeling a little bad for brushing him off, Mac continued on her way towards the student union and was a little surprised that Dick was continuing along with her. Glancing over at him, she had that usual traitorous thought she always had when she saw him lately— that he was too fucking attractive for his own good. It was like he was too much; too tall, too blonde, too tan, his biceps perfectly molded, his shoulders broad, his waist narrow. Mac had to shake herself in disgust for a moment at her unconscious inventory of Dick's attractions, making a mental note to either find some mechanical help with her raging 20-yr old libido, or put herself back on the meat-market now that things were over with Max.

"So umm, yeah Dick, is there something you wanted to talk to me about because I have this thing I, umm have to do…?" Mac turned to look up at Dick her was giving her this bizarre 1000-yard stare over his shoulder. "Uh, Dick, earth to Dick."

Hearing Mac's voice, Dick seemed to shake off whatever had distracted him and was now looking at Mac almost, shyly, like he was embarrassed. 'Oh god, please tell me he's not going to try to kiss me again.' Mac flashed back to that awkward moment at the beach when Dick had drunkenly apologized then gone in for a kiss, which Mac had shrugged off as a moment of drunken insanity on Dick's part.

"So Mac, how do you feel about making some easy money?" Dick looked intently at Mac, then glanced down, as if fascinated by the stretch of pavement between their feet. Relieved, and definitely not disappointed that Dick wasn't going to attempt another weird kiss, Mac perked up with interest at Dick's words.

"How much money, and do I have to do anything illegal?" Hearing Mac's enthusiastic response, Dick looked up at her and smiled, his face softening and a slightly predatory gleam entered his eyes. Mac was momentarily stunned by the smile, and realized that she wasn't exactly unaffected by that Casablancas charm. 'So this is how Big Dick swindled people out of their money,' Mac thought to herself as she waited for his answer.

"Not illegal, and how does 4000 G's upfront with six more coming if my plan works?"

Stunned at that amount of money, Mac's mind started spinning. With that she could pay off some of her loans, maybe drop down to part time work at Hearst…. Mac hesitated before answering, but only a moment because she doubted whatever Dick wanted her to do would be pleasant, but seriously, how bad could hacking into somebody's email or whatever shady thing Dick probably wanted her to do could be? She'd probably done worse for herself and for Veronica in the past. "10,000 dollars and I won't have to go to jail to get it. Count me in, Dick."

"Just hold on there Ghostworld. You might wish I were asking you to do something illegal once you hear what I want you to do"