AUTHORS NOTES:

So this story? TOTAL ACCIDENT. I heard a song in a store and had some dialogue come to mind, and I thought, this'll be two, three pages tops. And it turned out to be 45! Insane! I've published the whole thing at once and would love to hear your feedback! It's not easy writing characters you don't like but it just sorta wrote itself!

The coffee cart line has actually grown in front of me. People joining their "friends" because they don't wanna wait twenty people back when their class is starting in ten minutes. This is why I should have replaced the moldy coffee maker in my dorm room.

My phone ringing was the last thing I needed right now. I fished it out of my bad and answered without looking, which I know better than to do. "I need caffeine, I was up late studying and I'm not in the mood for your shit," was my greeting.

"Hello to you, too," Mac laughed. "Late night cram sessions getting to you?"

"Something like that," I glanced up and saw that again, the line had grown. It was becoming apparent that I was going to have to choose between a quiet corner of the library and coffee. Shit. "What's up?"

"Have you seen any news today?"

"I haven't seen any news in weeks," a couple a few people ahead of me started to fight and we closed the gap in the line between them as they argued.

"End this call, swipe up, then call me back." Mac hung up and I rolled my eyes and did what she said.

"Holy shit." I hadn't meant to say it out loud, but it was the only thing I could do.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground and someone was handing me ice water.

"Can I get a double shot with this?" I sat up and looked at all the people staring at me. "What?"

"You fainted."

"What?" I grabbed my phone off the ground beside me and as soon as I looked at it, I saw the reason I fainted.

"Are you okay? Do you need anything?" a kid from one of my classes asked. I don't know his name but I think he's a psych major, too.

"Coffee," I told him. "Huge, huge coffee."

He ran off and I sat on a nearby bench and opened the story whose headline had knocked me off my feet, literally.

Meg Manning's parents were arrested for child abuse. Grace wasn't the only child they were abusing. They had a son that no one knew about, and he'd never been out of their basement.

With their legal troubles, their kidnapping accusations against Duncan were dropped.

And he was coming home.

The kid brought me the coffee which I took without thanking him and kept reading as I drank.

According to CNN, Jake Kane was thrilled that his only son was coming home to his "rightful place"at Kane Software.

I sent Mac a text that we would talk later and then the same to the texts I saw from my dad and Wallace. I finished my coffee, went to the library, went to class and then collapsed in my dorm.

Mac had called a couple other times so I started with her. I don't know what everyone is so worked up about, this has nothing to do with me.

"This has nothing to do with me," I said when she answered.

"Are you kidding? Veronica, he's already called your dad's office and come by Hearst looking for you. I'm sure he's on his way to see you."

Why the hell would she think that?

"Why do you think that?" I demanded.

"I just told you. He called around looking for you. And….."

"And?" I pressed.

"And I know he saw Logan today. He probably told him where you were."

At the mention of the L word, I felt a little sick. "Great."

"You don't have to see him," Mac pointed out. "I just wanted you to be aware."

"Thanks." I hung up the phone and looked around my small dorm room. It was a mess. I was a mess.

If Duncan wanted to show up here, unannounced, uninvited, unwanted, well, he got what he got.

It took him two days to show up. He was waiting for me outside one of my classes, looking like he thought he belonged there. He grinned at me, and I walked right past him.

"Veronica, what the hell?"

"Hello, Duncan. How's Lilly?"

"She's great," he whipped out his phone to show me pictures but I wasn't interested.

"That's great, I'm really happy for you Duncan." I pushed past him and entered the cafeteria. I swiped my ID at the entrance and waved at him. "Good luck with whatever."

"Veronica!" he called after me. "Veronica!"

I managed to ignore him for the rest of the afternoon but when I returned to my dorm he was waiting in the hall.

"I charmed my way in here," he said.

"I'll have to talk to security," I pushed him aside, unlocked the door and entered my room. It wasn't lost on me that Duncan was easy to lose most of the time. Easy to push aside, unlike someone else who continued to occupy unwanted space in my head.

"Can I come in?" Duncan hovered in my doorway. Another memory floated through my mind and I pushed it away.

"Will you leave if I say 'no'?"

"Not likely."

"If you must," I waved my hand in a welcoming gesture. "Dump sweet dump."

"It's fine," Duncan looked around, I don't know what he was looking for, but there were no photos, no mementos, nothing but study materials and empty coffee cups and fast food containers.

"Who's watching Lilly?"

"The nanny."

"Not your mother?"

"Celeste isn't really into the whole grandmother thing," Ducan shrugged.

"So nothing's changed?"

"Some things have," I felt him looking me up and down but I was busying myself with unloading my bookbag, opening my laptop.

"I have homework," I said, trying to get rid of him. I hadn't even really looked at him, but I really couldn't be bothered. Duncan was the past. And I left that life behind me the day I set foot on this campus.

"Veronica," I realized that the door to my dorm was still open because Duncan closed it now. He sat on one of my storage benches and crossed his arms. "You look great."

"I look like shit," I smelled an open bag of Doritos to see if they were stale and tossed it in the trash.

"Can you just stop for a second?"

I looked up from the empty pizza box I'd picked up. "Stop what?"

"Stop picking up trash, stop running away."

I sat on the bed and looked at him. "Duncan. Why are you here?"

"I wanted to see you."

"You've seen me. I asked about Lilly. I'm happy you're home, but I've really gotta study, I have finals coming up."

"Veronica," Duncan was still sitting there, looking at me. Someone else would've had me pinned against the wall, daring me not to touch him with his eyes. I blinked that out of my head and looked Duncan in the eye.

"I'm not that girl anymore," I said lightly. "I think you should go."

"You want me to leave?" it was an actual question, and I couldn't decide if that pissed me off or amused me. Maybe a little of both.

"Yes, I would like you to leave."

Duncan stood up. "When are your finals over? I'll come back? Drive you back to your dad's?"

"I'm not going to my dad's. I have an internship near campus. It's related to my major so I'm staying in the dorms through the summer. 'Til I leave."

"To go back home?" he asked hopefully.

"To move to New York. Law school."

"That's…..I'm really happy for you."

"Thanks. So….."

Duncan moved to hug me, then pulled back. He nodded, then turned around before leaving. "You don't have time for dinner?"

I paused. Did I have an excuse? I glanced around the room and saw the litter of my weeks' worth of take out and delivery meals. Sitting down in an off-campus restaurant with menus and actual silverware was tempting.

I reached for my bag. "There's an Italian place not too far from here. Do you have a car?"

"I have a driver," he shrugged. "Come on."

I followed him out, still not touching him. There was no electricity between us. No chemistry, no push-pull, no feelings.

Just the way I wanted it.

"You're what?!" Mac and Wallace had come to spend a few days with me after finals, and found me packing.

"I'm passing on the internship and moving to New York now."

"Why?" Mac asked. "And doesn't that affect your scholarship?"

"Actually," I sat on the bed and looked at them. "I'm not going to need it."

"You're bailing on law school now too?" Wallace's voice was incredulous.

"No of course not. I just don't need the scholarship anymore."

Mac and Wallace exchanged a Look. "Did you win the lottery and forget to tell us?"

"Not exactly."

They looked at me expectantly. There was no way out of this.

"I kind of….am moving in with Duncan and Lilly."

"WHAT?" they cried in unison.

"When did this happen?"

"Are you back together?"

"Isn't it a little fast?"

"Have you even spent any time with Lilly?"

I let them rapid fire questions at me for a minute then I sighed.

"It kinda just happened in the last few days. He said that Lilly needs a mother and that he still loves me and he brought her up here and she's really adorable-she looks just like her mom, which is kinda hard-and I found myself telling him that I would move to New York with them, help out with Lilly, and Duncan would pay for Columbia."

They looked at me like I had six heads.

"Um, we're also kind of engaged."

"WHAT?" the constant barrage of questions continued for a few minutes while I ate my pizza.

"Veronica, say something," Mac finally said,

"This is good. I don't have to worry about maintaining my GPA and taking specific classes and working a student job."

"That's not a reason to marry someone," Wallace said after a minute. I have a feeling this is the same conversation I'm going to have with my dad.

""What is?" I asked them. "Mac, you excluded, do you guys know anyone with happy, married parents?"

"My parents were happy until my dad died," Wallace pointed out.

"Exactly. Until."

"Wallace, would you go get us some ice cream?" Mac asked.

"Girl talk time," Wallace stood up. "I'll be back."

Mac waited until the door closed to sit on the bed next to me and shake my shoulders.

"Where is Veronica Mars and what have you done with her?"

"Mac. I'm fine."

"You're not. You're getting married? To Duncan? Are you insane?"

"Yes, yes, and no."

"Veronica. You don't even believe in marriage."

"Things change."

"You don't," Mac said, and a few unsaid things hung in the air between us.

"I'm fine. It's fine," I assured her. "This is for the best."

Mac gave me a Look. "For who? For Duncan? For Lilly? That little girl is four years old and she's never had a mother and you think you're just gonna jump into the role?"

"She's adorable."

"That doesn't make you her mother."

"Mac. Please. I've thought about all this. It's for the best, really."

"If you say that one more time, I'm going to drag He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named down here to knock some sense into you."

"Don't go there," I shook my head. "This has nothing to do with him."

"This has everything to do with him! Come on Veronica!" Mac was standing now and pacing. "You didn't leave Neptune because of Hearst or Piz or anything else. You left to get away from Logan. THERE! I said his name. Logan. You were running away from him and now you're running away from him with Duncan. That's even worse."

"Mac," I said even though we both knew every word was the truth.

"What do you think he's gonna do when he finds out?" she asked softly. "You remember what happened after you left."

I blocked that information out of my head. If I don't know it, it didn't happen. "This has nothing to do with him," I lied poorly.

"Bullshit."

"Mac-"

"Veronica, come on. You can bullshit Wallace and maybe even your dad. You can definitely bullshit Duncan because he's never been the brightest bulb in the marquee but you can't bullshit me. I can see through all this 'it's fine' and 'it's for the best' crap. You're marrying Duncan because then you think you'll be safe. You think that means you'll never have to worry about Logan. But you know what, Veronica? If you love Logan, you'll never fully get away from him, no matter how far away you move."

"You're wrong," I said with zero conviction in my voice. My phone buzzed with a text from Wallace that he'd met a cute girl at the student store and we were on our own for the night.

"Good," Mac said when she read the text. "Now I don't have to stop yelling at you."

"Lucky me," I flopped down and pulled my pillow over my head.

My dad was less thrilled than Mac with my announcement, not surprisingly. I sat at the bar in his kitchen drinking coffee while he yelled at me longer and more profanity-laden than he'd ever yelled at me when I was in high school.

"Veronica," he said after a long tirade, "Is this about Logan?"

"I guess it hasn't occurred to anyone in this town that I can make a decision without factoring him into it? Since he's not a factor at all, because he's out of my life?"

Dad stared at me, pursed his lips, nearly rolled his eyes.

"Veronica."

"What?"

He sighed. "I don't want you to make a mistake you're going to regret."

"I'm not. I know what I'm doing."

Dad sighed again. "I'm pretty certain that you don't."