{A/N: Duncan comes across kind of stupid. I apologize, but you all know how I feel about guys who aren't Logan (I don't like them). I've got a second chapter for this written, and it will be posted as soon as I write a third. Enjoy.}

"Ya know, I've hated my father since I was ten." Logan said as he turned on the light, making Duncan jump. He'd just let Kendall out the front door. When Duncan had made the booty call, he had assumed that Logan was passed out at Dick's or Casey's or wherever tonight's party had been. He certainly hadn't expected to find Logan in their darkened living room at quarter to four. And he certainly hadn't expected to find him sober and wanting to chat.

"Sorry?" Duncan was confused as to what Logan was trying to say.

Logan was pissed. Not that Duncan was sleeping with Kendall, but that he was cheating on Veronica. Didn't Duncan know anything? Logan couldn't just sit by and do nothing. "My dad. I've hated the great Aaron Echolls since I was ten years old. It was the first time he beat me. He'd lost the Oscars to Will Smith or somebody. On the way home in the limo, he got hammered. He couldn't take it out on my mom, not physically at least, because she had a press release the next day. He wasn't very good at hiding the bruises in the beginning. So he got drunk. When he got home, he came into my room. It was late so I was asleep, but that didn't stop him. He woke me up with his belt. He only hit me three times, but I was ten, so I was crying. It wasn't the first time he'd hit me, he'd taught me a lesson before when I'd 'done something to deserve it.'" Logan threw up fake air quotes. He could see that Duncan was still confused. His sometimes friend's ignorance did nothing to placate his own anger. "But this was the first time it happened when I didn't do anything to warrant it, or at least provoke it. It happened again a few weeks later, when he lost the MTV Movie Award. After each, my mom came into my room, after Aaron had passed out of course. She held me while I cried, tried to clean the cuts the best she could, cover them so they'd heal okay. This was before she started crawling into the bottle herself though. But she held me, told me it wasn't my fault. That 'daddy' was just mad that he'd lost, but that he still loved me." Logan paused here. He'd kept his eyes locked on Duncan's through his speech, but thoughts of his mother caused his eyes to tear. He looked away.

"Your dad was an ass, Logan. We already knew that. What are you doing up?" Duncan was hoping this would be the end of Logan's trip down memory lane. It was late and Veronica would be over early. He began inching toward his door.

"After that second time, I started wanting him to lose. I didn't think it was right for the bad guy to win. It wasn't fair if in the end, the ass ended up with the golden girl." He hoped Duncan could see where he was going with this.

"Wait a minute." Duncan understood what Logan was trying to say all too well. "You've got a lot of nerve Logan."

"I still believe it should be the good guy, the better man who wins. And for awhile, I thought that's what had happened. I mean, you're Duncan, her Duncan. Except you're not anymore," Logan eyed Duncan up and down. He was truly disgusted with Duncan's actions, which was an emotion he rarely felt.

"That makes no sense Logan. I'm not what? Not Duncan? Not hers?"

"Either" Logan stood up, shaking his head. No longer sitting, he and Duncan were now level, and he looked his friend in the eye.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'm the same guy I've always been. And she is my girlfriend." Duncan could feel his temper rising. If there was one thing that could push him to the edge, it was the thought of Logan and Veronica together. She loved him. Duncan knew that much. He could see it every time she came over and refused to let her eyes stray to Logan's door. He heard it every time she remarked on Logan's late night activities with Kendall, the jealousy dripping on every word. He tried to keep himself in check.

"You're right, you haven't changed. But she has. She's not the same Veronica you took to Homecoming. That girl is gone, we killed her."

"What do you mean 'we killed her'?" Duncan's head was starting to hurt. Logan wasn't making any sense.

Logan wanted to grab Duncan and scream at him. He wanted to punch him till he opened his eyes and saw the truth. Veronica was not who she had been before Duncan broke up with her, and Lilly died, and her mom left, and Logan became an ass. The paternity scare and what had happened at Shelley's house had changed her. "We did. You, and me, and Lilly, and her mom. Everything that's happened and been done to her since the day you broke her heart has affected her." He saw nothing but confusion in Duncan's eyes. "Open your eyes man! I don't see how you could possibly miss it. It's so obvious."

Duncan was torn between confusion and rage. On one hand, he had no clue what Logan meant. On the other, he was pissed that Logan would dare try to tell him about Veronica. "You don't know what you're talking about Logan.

Logan groaned in frustration, "No, you don't know what I'm talking about. And that's my point." Logan took a step around the table, moving toward Duncan. "You're the wrong guy for her now. She's not the fairy tale princess anymore. And you're sure as hell not her prince."

"And you are?"

"No, I'm not her prince. That's not what she needs anymore. But I am better for her then you are."

"How do you figure that, Logan? If I remember correctly, she dumped you."

"You're right, she did." The pain of that memory laced through him, but it didn't show. She'd been right to pull the plug, it had been a wakeup call he had desperately needed. He was even glad she'd done it when she had, the thought of what could have happened to her because of his own stupidity still haunted him. And that's what this was all about. She had changed in the last two years. And so had he, Duncan hadn't. Or maybe he had, into the jackass in front of him, he wasn't sure. Logan would like to think his friend hadn't always been a sleezeball, but he wasn't sure that was the case. "I wonder what Veronica would do to you if she found out about Kendall. Or if I told her that every other night, you're screaming for Meg in your sleep." He saw the look in Duncan's eyes, "Or that you're sitting here staring at me, like there's nothing in the world wrong with either of those two things."

Duncan ignored the accusations. "Why can't you just give it up, huh, Logan? You lost."

Logan's thinly held temper came closer to the breaking point, "Because she's not a prize to be won, you jackass. She's the most amazing girl out there and you're trying to turn her into some watered-down version of herself, or into Meg. Besides I told you, I hate it when the wrong guy wins."

"That's a little hypocritical, isn't it Logan?"

"Better a hypocrite then a cheating jackass, right DK?"

Duncan sighed, defeated. "What are you going to do? Are you going to tell her?"

Logan couldn't believe Duncan's audacity. Could DK really think he would just sit by and allow Veronica to be hurt? "No, I'm not." He heard Duncan sigh, could read his mind, and saw the hope that he'd be able to keep Veronica as a girlfriend and still have Kendall on the side. Logan was happy to burst that bubble. "You are."

"You're joking, right?"

"Not at all. C'mon, if you don't tell her on your own, she'll figure it out soon enough. And then she'll be even more pissed."

"She won't figure it out."

Logan chuckled, Duncan was either extremely confident in his own skills at being secretive, or else he had no idea how good Veronica was. "Dude, she figures this stuff out for a living. She'll put two and two together. She'll follow you or check your phone or show up unexpectedly. She'll work her Veronica magic, and she'll know."

"She won't follow me. She trusts me." Duncan had conviction in his voice.

Logan allowed himself a small smile. She had told him the same thing one night; of course it hadn't stopped her from believing the worst about him. When it came to trust, Veronica was a paradox. She wanted so badly to protect herself from the pain of disappointed trust that she tried very hard to live without it. But what she refused to admit, even to herself, was that she would never be able to stop giving that trust to the people she loved, the ones who had the greatest capacity to hurt her. And to compensate for this, she drew a distinct line in her head. She might trust Duncan, the way she'd trusted Logan, but she didn't trust herself. He hated that he had been part of the wave that had broken her trust in herself. "That doesn't matter. It won't stop her from seeing the truth; it'll just hurt her more when she does find out."

"Either way, it's none of your business. Veronica's not your girlfriend; she's barely even your friend. Why do you even care?" Duncan knew the answer. He'd known Logan for years, they'd grown up together. Duncan knew that the great Logan Echolls was in love with little miss nobody Veronica Mars. And Duncan was pissed because he knew she loved Logan back. But Duncan was not going to just let her go with out a fight. She was his first. Logan had no right to her.

Duncan wanted to know why Logan cared. Was he really that oblivious? Logan could have sworn he was wearing a sign that professed his love for the tiny blonde. But that wasn't what mattered. And it wasn't the only reason he was doing this. Yes, he did love Veronica Mars. But he wanted to protect her from the pain Duncan would cause her because she didn't deserve to be disappointed again. She should never have to live through another Kane heartbreak and he owed her a great deal. "I care because she's my friend. Because once upon a time, we all cared about each other. I don't know what happened to you that you forgot that. Even after all we did to her, she didn't forget it."

"The Fab Four was a long time ago. It doesn't exist anymore. It died with Lilly." Duncan was done with this conversation. He was sick of Logan and what he thought he knew about Veronica. He was not going to let Logan push him around and force him to confess to Veronica. He began to move toward his room once more, but Logan's words stopped him once again.

"That's why you're not the guy for her anymore." Ask anyone who claimed Veronica as a friend; she would never have been the first to walk away from the Fab Four. And Logan was a big enough man to admit, it hadn't been Lilly that had killed the group, it had been him and Duncan.

Logan's last comment was it for Duncan. He turned around and moved to lunge for Logan. But his eyes were drawn to a movement just over Logan's shoulder. The tiny blonde that stood there looked furious. Duncan wondered how much she had heard. If she'd come in late enough, he could still smooth things over. Duncan abandoned the attack he'd planned for Logan. He instead moved toward his girlfriend. "Veronica…How long…What are you doing here?"

Logan froze for a second. The attack that Duncan had been seconds from launching he had been ready for. But he wasn't prepared to turn around and see Veronica. How long as she been standing there? he wondered. But as he took a closer look, he saw the streaks on her face, the ones that revealed the tears she'd obviously shed in the last few minutes. That could only mean she'd heard enough of the conversation to once again be hurt.

He and Duncan were now equal distances from her. They both stepped forward at the same moment. She took two steps back. "Just…Don't." She turned around and walked out the door.

Duncan went like he was going to follow her, but Logan put a hand up. "You so don't want to do that. She needs to cool off." It looked like Duncan was going to ignore him, but he spun on his heel and walked to his room. Logan was left staring at the inside of the hotel room door. Every fiber of his heart wanted him to follow her out that door, but his brain told him that she would want to be alone. He let the struggle continue for about five seconds before he made his decision, and moved toward the door.

{A/N: Me again. I hate doing this, but I thought I'd let those of you who are also reading Never Leave Me know that I am trying to update ASAP. I've been posting the next chapter as soon as I have the following one done. I've written the third, and am halfway thru the fourth, which means I should be updating midweek. I just thought I'd let you all know that these multi-chapter stories are killing my GPA. But unfortunately (for my college career anyway) I can't seem to stop. So just hold on a little while longer, it's coming. And thank you for reading.}