Who: Veronica Mars & Frank Hardy What: Frank "randomly" encounters Veronica while they wait for their takeout orders When: Last week Where: An Italian restaurant Warnings: Stalking and chocolate cake! Status: Complete on posting
Doing a fluff piece about new carnival rides on the pier was not the most exciting story Frank had ever covered, but the new guy at the station rarely got much else. Most days it was all he could do not to end up the coffee gopher. No, if he was going to get anywhere in the industry, he was going to have to make the stories come to him instead of the other way around.
Which was why when he first heard about something called “The Agency”, Frank jumped at the chance to start his own investigation. A week later he was still drawing blanks. Officially, The Agency did not exist. Unofficially, well, he was sure some of the stories were the result of one too many hallucinogenic drugs and too few people home upstairs. Blood rain? Seriously? Sure, he’d read about freak storms making it rain frogs or fish - or even alligators! - but blood? That was right out of the Illiad!
His first break came in the form of an anonymous tip that had been sent to the station. Most of his coworkers had laughed it off as the rantings of a lunatic, or a stalker, or both, but Frank knew better. Granted, it was not much to go on. All the guy would say was a name and the location of a restaurant the woman frequented. At least Joe will be happy I’ll be bringing home dinner for a while.
So that was how Frank ended up sitting at the same restaurant for the third time that week, waiting patiently for his take out order. He made a point not to call ahead so that he could spend the time watching the other customers. Hopefully this ‘Veronica Mars’ would show up before he started to get tired of eating the same take out food.
Since moving in with Logan there was less of a need for her to get take out. He usually cooked. However he was a detective and sometimes he had to work late. Tonight was one of those nights, so takeout it was. After she was done at The Agency for the day she called in an order to her favorite Italian place and headed over there. She was ready to just pick up food, head up and relax with Backup, enjoy having the house to herself before Logan got home. Not that she didn’t enjoy her boyfriend’s company but sometimes Veronica just needed her space.
When she got to the restaurant her food wasn’t quite ready yet. Veronica sighed tapping her foot as she waited. Yeah it wasn’t as bad as if she had waited to order her food till she got there, but still she was hungry and ready to get home.
Frank had watched from his seat as the new arrival had gone to the counter. It took him a moment to realize that the woman matched the description he had been given. Could it be her? Well third time was supposed to be the charm, and it was time he turned on said charm. He had gotten far more information with honey than vinegar.
“They’re usually pretty fast.” He called in her direction. “At least, they have been the few times I’ve been here so far.”
Was this guy talking to her? Had to be, there was no one else waiting for food at the moment. Veronica turned on her heel in the direction the voice had come from facing the guy. “Thanks for the tip,” she replied her arms folded over her chest. “But I’ve actually been here before. I know the drill.” Veronica wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy to begin with and catching her when she was ready to get home didn’t help. Even if the guy was just trying to be nice.
Yikes! It looked like Frank was going to have his work cut out for him. Still, he was not one to shy away where a story was concerned. He got up out of the chair and walked toward the dessert case. Did Italian places have pie? He gave the woman an apologetic smile. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest you didn’t. I’m new in town, so I guess you could say the place is still novel for me.”
He held out his hand, trying to get her to uncross hers. “I’m Frank.” He looked at the case and then back at her. “At least let me buy you a dessert to make up for my rudeness.”
Right, not everyone came with her sarcasm. Some people were genuine with what they said. “Welcome to the crazy,” Veronica replied as Frank made his way over. Because well this place was crazy, and dreamer or not strange shit still happened. Although it was technically part of her job to help cover it up.
“Veronica,” she replied introducing herself as well. “You weren’t rude,” she told him she was well aware that she had come off as the rude one but still she wasn’t going to turn down a free dessert. “But if you want to get me a slice of that chocolate cake,” she nodded to the display case. “I won’t stop you.”
“People keep telling me that. So far the craziest thing I’ve seen is a guy in a gold bikini dancing along the beach to his walkman.” Frank winked. If he could get her talking about the things that had happened in the county, perhaps she would be more willing to talk to him about the Agency that covered them up.
“One slice of chocolate cake, coming up.” He looked at the very delicious and very chocolate cake in the dessert case. It might not be pie, but it certainly looked like it would be good enough for Frank not to mind. “Actually, make that three slices. My brother will kill me if I tell him I bought someone else a slice of cake and didn’t bring one back for him too.”
“What?” Veronica asked with a raised brow. “There aren’t a lot of guys in bikinis where you’re from?” Honestly the craziest part about that whole statement was the walkman. Who even had those anymore? Hell she didn’t think people had iPods anymore, everything could be accessed on your phone these days.
“You’ve been here a few times and haven’t gotten the cake yet?” It didn’t seem like he had and Veronica was usually good at telling these types of things.
“I grew up in a small town in New York, so no. Not many guys willing to stake their reputations with the girls by strutting around in a bikini.” He grinned. He loved the idea that people still had walkmans in this age of instant gratification and new technology. Sometimes the classics really were the best. “We did have a few who would wear kilts and re-enact Braveheart when the class monitors were out sick, though.”
“Never saw a reason to before now.” Frank admitted. “Too many bad experiences with stale window cakes in diners, I suppose.” That’s why he usually went for pies; pies were never dry and very rarely were around long enough to get stale.
“I’ve seen a few of those too,” Veronica reply. Well not reenacting Braveheart but she’d seen a few dudes in kilts when she was back East for law school. “What brings you to Orange County?” The two coasts were a lot different. Veronica grew up here, lived back East for about ten years and now she was back here again. She wasn’t sure which she preferred. Probably the East Coast, but this was where her dad was, where her friends were.
“Missing out,” she commented with a shrug. “I guess it’s a good thing I snapped at you. Might have just changed your life,” she quipped.
“Work, like everyone else.” Frank laughed. He was hoping she would not ask what type of work it was. That would probably close up any possible information avenues he had managed to open with that slice of cake. “But really, I think I just wanted to help my brother.” Sorry, Joe. You’re getting dragged into my investigation tonight whether you wanted to or not. “He had a few really rough years in the City, so I figured the other side of the country might just be far enough for him to get a new start, you know? Find his feet again.”
“I think you might have. If that cake is anywhere close to as good as you claim it is, you might even make me into a cake believer.” Frank pretended to think about it. “Maybe. What other wonderful foods would you suggest to a East Coast Transplant like myself?”
Of course Veronica was going to ask what he did. She was nosy by nature. Or maybe thanks to dreams? No she was nosy before the dreams started however that only intensified it. But then he brought up his brother again and distracted her. That situation seemed much more intriguing than whatever his job was. “Must have been one hell of a time,” Veronica commented. “What happened?”
She grinned at his comment. “Trust me, it’s good. Well if you like chocolate.” Which he really should if he was ordering it. “Depends what you like. There’s a pretty good Chinese place a few blocks away.”
“It was.” Frank was glad the distraction had worked, but he had to be careful how much he said or he would have one very pissed off brother if Joe ever found out his story had been used as a distraction. There was not enough chocolate cake in the world to get him out of that particular brand of trouble. He shrugged, throwing out some more rope. “He lost someone close to him, and, well, I guess you could say that justice was not served very well. It’s not a perfect system, but I suppose that’s all we have to fall back on right now.”
“I haven’t met someone who doesn’t like chocolate, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.” Frank grinned. “Chinese, huh? I think I’ll try that the next time it’s my turn to cook. Being a New Yorker, though, I guess what I’m really interested in is a place where I can find a proper pizza pie and coffee that will knock my socks off.”
Veronica actually understood that. It was actually why she used to be a lawyer. To try and bring more justice. However after dreaming it felt as if she had another calling in life. Not a PI necessarily but something with more investigating, more action. “Murderer got away?” the was the logical deduction from his statement. She didn’t say ‘sorry for his loss’ or anything like that. Even if Veronica did know the guy she wasn’t one for those type os sayings.
“If you keep comparing every pizza place to New York you’re in for a lot of disappointment,” she commented. “But there are some pretty decent coffee places around.”
“Walked right out of the courtroom and there was nothing we could do about it.” Frank looked down. Not that Joe had not tried. It had taken both him and his father to pull Joe back after his brother had jumped the scumbag. It was a sad story, but it was not the story he was pursuing. Time to turn things back a bit. He looked up at Veronica with a sad smile. “Part of me is kind of hoping that this place does have crazy things happen like people keep saying, just so that it’ll distract him from what happened.”
“I’m not sure if two bachelors can survive without good pizza, but after those words I suppose I’ll give up now and save myself the heartbreak.” Frank gave an overly dramatic sigh that was very obviously fake and placed a hand on his heart. “Maybe these coffee places can pick up the pieces? The right brew can do wonders to put a man back together.”
“Sorry,” Veronica said a small frown on her face. And her sorry was sincere. But she didn’t say much else about it. She knew the law, knew the guy couldn’t be tried for the murder again. He had gotten away with it. Veronica despised cases like that. But there wasn’t anything she could do about it now. “If you guys stick around long enough who knows,” she shrugged. “There’s lots of weird stuff in the water and air here,” that was the standard story for most non dreamers.
“I didn’t say the pizza was horrible,” she pointed out. “But if you are constantly comparing it to what you’ve had back in New York you’ll never be satisfied.” There was other good food here though. They’d survive, she was sure of it. “I guess i can give you the name of some places,” both coffee and pizza. “Since you bought me dessert.” It was only fair.
“Weird stuff in the water?” Frank gave her a quizzical look. There it was. The excuse he had heard from the few people who had noticed that things had gone wonky. “You make it sound like there’s some sort of biohazard floating around in the smog. I don’t need a mask, do I?” He tried to make it sound like a lighthearted joke. If that was what was really happening, he would probably need to look into such things, however.
“Great! I’d definitely appreciate that.” Frank patted down his jacket pockets until he found a small notepad and pen. He ripped the top sheet off with a sheepish smile. “Grocery list. I’ll just get those tomorrow. And I’ll try not to compare the pizza to the pies back in New York. A new start goes for everything, right? It’s only fair.”
“I think you’ll be fine.” Veronica replied with a small smile. If he ended up dreaming than he would understand it all a lot better but for now she was just going to leave it at that.
“Only way you will survive,” she quipped before listing off a few places for both pizza and coffee. None as good as New York, especially the pizza but they were decent enough. Just then her food was ready. She paid and accepted her food before turning her attention back to Frank. “I should get going, but who knows maybe I’ll run into you again,” at one of the places she had just named probably. She had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last she saw of this guy.
Frank dutifully wrote down the various restaurants that Veronica listed. Each of them posed both a place for him to bring home something on his nights to “cook”, as well as more opportunities to garner more information from her. Back in the woods of New York, Fenton Hardy had taught his sons to be patient while fishing. Sometimes, you had to let the line go a bit in order to hook the bigger fish down below.
Not that Frank was leaving entirely empty handed. After tonight, he would be able to approach her without worrying about being seen as anything other than a friendly guy. A few more “unplanned meetings” and perhaps they would move on from the idle chit chat of strangers to more familiar conversations. Such as a certain Agency she was supposed to know about.
“Thanks again for the recommendations, Veronica. Especially for the pizza places. I’ll try to keep an open mind about them.” Frank gave her a grateful grin as he closed the notebook. Now that she had her food, keeping her here would only lead to cold takeout and unpleasant feelings about the stranger that had delayed her. “It was nice talking to you. I look forward to running into you again. Maybe next time there will be pie instead of cake.”
With a grin, he held the door open for her and waved her out into the night. Once she was gone, Frank headed back to his seat to wait for his own order to be done. The grin was still on his lips when his name was called a few minutes later. Really. It was amazing what kinds of dominoes could be set up with just a single piece of cake. Perhaps he really was turning into a cake fan. Frank chuckled into the night air.