Who: Leo D'Amato and Veronica Mars What: Reunion/Welcome When: A few hours after his arrival Where: Coffee shop Warnings: None/angst Status: Complete
Leo had seen a lot of things in his time with law enforcement and his brief stint with private security. But being yanked to the midwest without any explanation that made sense to him won for the Weirdest Experience Ever award. Oh, he’d been given his welcome packet, including a key to an apartment and smartphone, but no matter how many times he read it nothing cleared anything up. He was told that he should post to some network saved for the new residents to introduce himself. Leo wasn’t quite ready to open himself up like that yet. He wanted a look at what he was getting himself into.
He found a nearby coffee shop, got himself a strong Americana and a blueberry muffin then chose a table near the back where he could have his back against the wall and see the entrances. After a bite of muffin he began to read through the network in an attempt to get an idea of what kind of people were here, what was going on and what he could expect. After going back a bit one name stuck out.
“Mars.” Leo smiled, shook his head then sighed.
***
Even though she’d been back for a couple of months now, Veronica still wasn’t anywhere close to okay. Losing everything would do that to a girl. Most days, she at least managed to make it into the office though she was grateful that Jessica and Sherlock were handling the bulk of the cases. She was still drinking too much, knew it wasn’t a healthy coping mechanism, but didn’t see any reason to why she shouldn’t indulge. No one here was relying on her and she wasn’t interested in getting close to anyone else who could be cruelly yanked away from her.
She did have to be functional though and after a bottle of wine last night, that required a copious amount of coffee. Standing in line waiting for her order, she thought she heard her name. With an inward groan, she turned to see who it was and was shocked when her gaze fell on a familiar face. It only took her a moment to realize that he wasn’t actually calling out to her, his attention was on his phone, and she assumed that he’d seen her name somewhere. For a very brief moment, she considered sneaking out before he saw her, but then she felt guilty, so as soon as she had her coffee in hand, she walked over to his table, forcing something approximating a smile to her lips.
“Agent, I promise this is not my fault,” she quipped, though her inflection was flat and if he looked close, he’d notice her eyes were faintly bloodshot.
***
Oh, Leo was observant. More than most people gave him credit for. Once, that included the woman standing before him. Veronica had learned the error of her ways. So, he noticed the details that said she wasn’t feeling near as together as she was playing off. He didn’t let on that he noticed, however. Just smiled and sat back in his chair.
“If it was you’d be dressed up and have a pizza since you’d want something,” he quipped then gestured for her to sit down. “Think you can shed some light on what all this is about?”
***
“You know me so well,” Veronica said, keeping her tone light as she sat down in the chair across from him. She took a long sip of her coffee, hoping to clear out the cobwebs in her brain, before she answered his question. “I wish I could. Unfortunately, I haven’t come close to solving this mystery in six years.”
To be fair, she’d had plenty of distractions over those years. Distractions she didn’t intend to discuss with him. At least not yet. Someone would probably tell him that she’d been married to Captain America and had his baby at some point and she figured that it should probably come from her. She just couldn’t handle the pity that she knew she’d get if she told him right now.
“Anything can happen here. People come from all different times and places. The past. The future. Other planets. People we know as fictional. It’s all completely inexplicable.”
***
It just all seemed so unbelievable, and yet. Here he was. Leo wasn’t anywhere near stubborn, let alone be too stubborn to take in what was right in front of him. “I thought I saw the name Peter Parker on that network. Kinda hard to imagine Spiderman outside of New York.” Of course he’d read comic books! He had also been an Eagle Scout. Shut up.
“So how long do people stick around?” he asked. It was a reasonable question, especially when he had open case files on his desk back home. And he had no idea he was pressing a big red button in Veronica.
***
Veronica lifted her cup to take another drink of her coffee in an effort to hide the involuntary wince at the mention of Peter. She hadn’t known the kid well, at least not this time around, but once upon a time, a version of him dated her adopted daughter.
“Well, that all depends,” she said after a moment. “This all started almost seven years ago. People come and go, but I think the longest people have been here about six… six and a half years.” As far as she was aware, no one from the beginning was still around. Until her recent trip home, she knew she’d been one of the folks around the longest consecutively.
***
She’d done her homework. Leo wasn’t surprised. Usually Veronica knew more than anyone...which was usually what got her into trouble. Still, Leo also knew her well enough to know she was holding back.
“How long have you been here?” He watched her closely for any tells while he took a drink of his coffee.
***
“Six years,” Veronica said. “It was March 2014 when I arrived. It’s April 2020 now.”
She had no idea when he was from, though since he didn’t balk when she referred to him as Agent, it had to be at least somewhat close to the same time. “I did go home for a while recently, but only about a week or so passed here while I was gone.” A week in which her life here crashed down around her as badly as her life in Neptune had.
***
This time Leo did blink in surprise. She looked pretty much like how she looked when he’d seen her last. But six years? His brain skipped past that right into the math. Six years plus her looking like this and him knowing about Logan. It didn’t add up to what he was looking at now.
“So what happened?” He expected her to dodge the question or try to joke it off. His expression said he wouldn’t buy anything but the truth.
***
That was an ambiguous question, though the way he was looking at her made it pretty obvious to Veronica that he was asking about Logan. It was the mixture of pity and sadness that made her want to punch people in the face.
“At home? Or here? Because a lot has happened in six years here. It’ll take me a lot longer than one cup of coffee to fill you in.”
***
Ambiguous to anyone else. This was Veronica Mars. Insightful didn’t even begin to cover a description of her. That and she knew him. Leo assumed she’d know what he wanted to know...and he was maybe gambling that she’d give away a bit more.
“We heard about Logan,” he said gently. “I’m sorry you went through that. Are going through that.” He couldn’t even imagine what she was feeling. “What happened to you here?”
***
The tears filled her eyes unbidden and she angrily wiped them away. “Yeah, well… no one to blame but myself for that,” she said making no effort to hide the bitterness in her tone. As far as Veronica was concerned, it was her fault Logan was dead, that bomb had been meant for her, and nothing anyone said would change her mind about that.
She cleared her throat and took a sip of coffee. “Oh, you know, nothing major,” she said, striving for a breezy tone. “Got married, had a kid, adopted a kid, even had the damn dog and they all disappeared because that’s how this town rolls. No big deal.”
***
Leo had kind of assumed she’d take the blame about Logan. That wasn’t a surprise to see the guilt in those tears. It was the rest of it that punched a sympathetic hole in his heart. He didn’t say a word. Just got up from his chair to walk around to Veronica and pull her into a hug (without yanking her out of her chair) whether she liked it or not.
***
If anyone else tried to hug her, Veronica would punch them without hesitation. This was Leo though and she always had a soft spot for him. Plus it was kind of nice having a familiar face around here. It had been a very long time since she’d had anyone from home with her.
She managed not to break down sobbing and finally pushed him back gently. “I’m fine, Leo,” she said. It was a blatant lie, but this wasn’t the time or place. “So you’re here. When did you get here? They give you an apartment?”
***
Leo with the puppy dog smile which was turned down at her after she pushed him away. Before he went back to his seat, however, he tucked her hair behind her ear. “I know. You’re Veronica Mars. Definitely fine.” He grinned as he sat back down.
“A few hours ago and yes,” he answered. “Got the packet and everything. But I wanted to get a feel for the place before just settling in.” He held up his phone to show that he had been skimming the network. “People really have no shame, huh?”
***
That smile got her everytime and she actually managed a small one of her own in return. “Well, we’re probably neighbors,” Veronica said. “I was heading into my office, but I can take a detour and show you the building first.” It wasn’t like she had anything pressing on her desk. Her colleagues had been taking on the bulk of the work to keep WAMM running lately.
***
“Your office, huh?” Leo stood up as indication that he was taking her up on that offer. “Let me guess. Mars Investigations, Madison Valley branch.” He couldn’t see her doing anything less than investigative work. Certainly not law enforcement. That had too many restrictions on what you could and couldn’t do.
***
“WAMM Investigations,” she corrected. “Started with three partners who are no longer around.” She missed all of them, especially Mac. “I’ve got Sherlock Holmes working for me now though.”
***
“Sherlock Holmes,” he repeated in amazement. “How is that going?” The famous detective and Veronica would either hate each other or get along scary well.
While he held the door open for her his mind raced over the things he’d learned today. Logan was still a touchy subject so that was as recent for her as it was for him. Top that off with whatever husband and family she’d lost here...Leo was worried. Very worried.
***
Veronica chuckled as she headed out of the coffee shop. “It’s going pretty well,” she said. “He’s very bored here though.” Cheating spouse cases were far below the man’s intellect. They were still money makers though, which still surprised her when they were all trapped under this stupid dome.
“The apartment building isn’t too far from here,” she said.
***
“I’m surprised you aren’t bored, yourself,” Leo said. Of course it didn’t surprise him that the building wasn’t far from where they were. He got the impression nothing was very far from anything. And he used to think Neptune was small.
“So is there room for another PI in your company or do I have to get up and go, go find work somewhere else?” Leo assumed incorrectly about the spelling.
***
Until recently, Veronica had lots of other things to keep her occupied. She wasn’t going to belabor that point though. “I get by,” she said breezily. “And I might be able to find room for you on my payroll. Unless you want to pick up a security gig at the college or casino.”
***
Leo groaned as he rolled his eyes so hard his head went with them. “Yeah, no. I had enough of working security after following Gina.” Which had been a royal pain in the ass. Even though it had been years ago it had stayed with him.
“Seriously. If you don’t have the space or it would make things weird for you I can look into local law enforcement.” He gave her that smile again. That smile that said her well being was more important than his at the moment. All of the things he knew better than to say outloud for fear of being punched.
***
“Local law enforcement won’t hire you,” Veronica told him. “They’re still skeptical of us even after all this time.” It was stupid and she wished that the people here had more opportunities than they did, but they were making do the best they could. “Take some time to settle in and then, yeah, if you’re interested, we can have you meet the rest of the team.”
She wouldn’t mind having him around. He’d always been one of the people who could make her feel better.
***
“Weird,” he said with a puzzled crease of his brow. “You’d think they’d want someone from this side of things on their payroll. It would help form trust between the societies.” Leo always looked on the bright side of things. “But thanks. That will be great.”
He took in details of his surroundings as she showed him the way to the apartment building. He looked at the apartment number on his keyring. “Which one are you in?”
***
Veronica glanced at his key ring and chuckled. “I’m right down the hall from you,” she said, pulling out her own key to display a number only a few away, though on the opposite side. “Guess we really are neighbors.” That wasn’t such a bad thing, though she realized that it probably meant he’d be keeping track of her comings and goings. She’d have to think of clever ways to hide her recycling so he wasn’t aware of how much she was drinking.
It hadn’t escaped her notice that she was turning into her mother and she hated that about herself.
***
Good! Leo was relieved. It would be easier to keep an eye on her living down the hall from her. “Oh good. This way I don’t have to walk across the parking lot in my boxers to borrow a cup of milk.” No way he’d have done that, but he was trying to make her smile.
***
A small smirk spread across her lips. “You’re welcome to show up at my door in your boxers any time,” Veronica teased.
***
Leo laughed. “I might do that if pizza and beer are involved.”
Once at his door he used the key then turned to Veronica. “It’s good to see you, Veronica.” He meant it. He always meant it. There was just something about her that would always have him there for her, even if just as a friend.
***
“You too, Leo,” she said, feeling the weight of everything lift ever so slightly for the first time in months. “Let me know if you need anything.” There could definitely be pizza and beer.