A/N: I fully intended on the wedding being The End, but I woke up with this scene already written in my head, so I couldn't resist adding it.

Lauren drew a deep breath, thankful it didn't catch in a quiver. She'd shed all her tears in private and fiercely hoped she wouldn't break down now; you'd think she would be used to it since it was the third funeral in two years, but living after death never got easier.

"My dad, Logan Echolls, was the greatest man I ever knew. He lived life as fully as possible because he understood the value of what he had."

She hadn't truly known her father until she read his journals, read his life from his point of view, from the beginning of his rocky childhood until the day Veronica finally went somewhere he couldn't follow. There were gaps of time missing, but he was a fairly faithful chronicler and she understood some of the references and short-hand her parents had for as long as she could remember.

"The face he showed the public, one of wit and charm, was both a mask and a true reflection of who he was. He was more than the actor, philanthropist, and philosopher everyone knew. He was also a deeply flawed man who understood the darkest parts of life because he'd lived it and somehow made it through; he didn't allow it to make him weaker, but instead used it to come out stronger.

She still winced when she recalled the accusations she'd hurled at him when she was sixteen, angry because he wouldn't let her go to a party with her friends. She'd said he was a tyrant and if he were really her father, he would give her permission. He'd turned and walked away, quietly closing the door, and it was her mom who angrily explained why Logan didn't want her going. Lauren hadn't known much about Veronica's past, but that day she'd gotten an earful and a clearer understanding of why they did the things they did.

"Dad spanked me once. I can't even remember why, but he was so horrified by what he'd done, he started crying with me. I wasn't even hurt and ended up comforting him. Mom told me his biggest fear was he would abuse me as he was abused by his father, but instead of repeating the cycle, it spurred him to donate his time and money to abused children all over the world."

As an only child of two adoring wealthy parents, Lauren could've turned out as spoiled and rotten as the 09ers they grew up with, but both refused to allow it, so instead she'd been well-traveled and highly educated, tutored by a battalion of teachers from different parts of the world. It wasn't until she started high school they settled into one residence for more than a few months so she could actually experience public education at its most horrifying. It was, as her dad once said, the gauntlet everyone must go through as a precursor for real life; even for those with money.

"When my mom died two years ago, I was terrified Dad would follow immediately. He loved me, but was obsessed by her. Now normally when I use that term, it's meant negatively, but with them, it's the only word that comes even a smidge close enough to describing their all-encompassing togetherness."

Veronica's death from a burst aneurysm was sudden and shocking. She'd been laughing and alive one minute and dead the next without warning. Lauren's relationship with her mom was complicated and thorny, their personalities too similar and dissimilar for them to be truly at peace with one another, though they were close. She'd often envied her friends who had smooth mother-daughter relations, but in hindsight (and seeing Veronica as Logan had), Lauren wouldn't change a thing.

"When the doctor told me Dad had died of a massive heart attack, I wasn't surprised. It's hard to keep on living when your heart is missing."

Logan's world was knocked off its axis with the loss of his wife and Lauren truly feared she'd lose him to insanity before any other infirmity; yet somehow Mac had managed to tell him the right thing and he'd shaped up, though he was a ghost of the father she'd known. Almost two years to the day of Veronica's death, Logan passed, leaving her with memories and a stack of journals spanning nearly seven decades of life.

"Mom was the practical one of the two, the planner and the doer, while Dad was the dreamer, and I'm a proud reflection of their best traits."

This last part wasn't conceit, but the final words Logan wrote to the child of his heart if not his body as he reread the "fatal arrogance of a self-satisfied asshole who had too much wealth, love, and luck for anyone to ever believe him more than a fictional character." Lauren had laughed at his self-deprecation, knowing he was giving his beyond the grave permission to use him and his life as fodder for a book. Writing was her passion and something she obviously came by naturally; his journals, however, were private and would never be available for public use as they were entirely too honest and raw.

"I love you Daddy, and I know you'll find Mom. If she's not waiting for you, kick her ass for me."

Lauren ended with a tear-stained smile as she carefully upended the urn filled with the mixed ashes of her parents and released them to the capricious ocean breeze; watching as they were carried over the water into the eternal horizon.