Fic: "Hurricane Season" (Casey/Veronica) PG
“Hurricane Season”
By halfway2home

Disclaimer: Rob Thomas owns “Veronica Mars,” and me.
Word Count: 3802
Rating: PG
Pairing/Character: Casey/Veronica
Spoilers: Through "Leave it to Beaver."
Summary: "If people were finding it hard not to notice that he was slowly befriending Veronica and were teasing him about it, Casey really only had himself to blame for it.”
Author’s Note: Thanks to mspooh and eolivet for the betas. Feeling down from all the Logan/Veronica angst? Finding yourself depressed at the remembrance of every betrayal? Well, then I bring you the anti-L/V, the coupling that's more love than LoVe. The cure to the L/V blues...



Casey had never really noticed Veronica before. When Lilly had been alive, Veronica had faded behind the glow of Lilly’s exuberance. She was meek and quiet, and while they traveled in the same circle, they never really talked. They weren’t friends.

But then things changed and it became difficult not to notice Veronica Mars. Her hair was suddenly shorter, jagged edges framing eye-liner laden eyes. Her clothes became a little bit tighter, a little more daring. She was in everyone’s face, words flying out of her mouth like bullets. She was bringing down her classmates, and then...

Then she was helping him, acting like what some would call a friend, but the words “Veronica Mars” and “friend” were rarely used in the same sentence by an ‘09er.

The ‘09er gossip mill surrounding Veronica Mars had returned to high fervor since the news of Aaron’s arrest and what had happened with Logan. Apparently, Veronica had seduced Logan in order to get information. Or so one story went. Another claimed that Veronica was using Logan to protect Aaron. And yet, despite the constant portrayal of Logan as the helpless deer-in-the-headlights in Veronica’s seduction scheme, he was still greeted by whispers and taunts (“Serves him right for getting involved with that skank.”) at school.
                               
Casey smirked and shook his head every time a new story surfaced. Veronica might be Neptune High’s victim of choice, but she could still bring down every last student at the school.

---

It was hard not to notice Veronica when she was kicking the tire of her car, exclaiming, “Damn it!” Her hands were balled into tight, little fists, and her cheeks were puffing in frustration.

“Damn!” she yelled again, squinting in anger at the flat tire. A group of students passing by sneered, and she shot them a pointed look over her shoulder. “I’d sleep with one eye open, if I were you.”

Casey smiled, observing the scene from his car.

“Let me guess, he just bumped Dick down the list to number three,” he said, driving up to her.

“Excuse me?” she asked pointedly, and Casey wasn’t sure if she was confused or angry.

“The list you’re mentally composing of who’s going to find that their final project has magically disappeared from their computer or whose locker a bong is going to appear in just in time for a locker search.”

“The bong idea is old. Been there, done that. But I like the vanished project idea,” Veronica said, smiling.

“Need a ride?” he asked, gesturing at her flat, and she nodded.

“Thanks,” she replied gratefully, sliding into the passenger seat.

“So where am I on the list?” he asked as they drove out of the parking lot.

“What makes you think you’re on the list?”

“Oh, come on. I did some pretty shitty things in my day. No amount of free car rides is going to change that.” Veronica nodded her head in consideration, a small smile forming on her lips. “So where do I rank?”

“That’s for me to know, and for you to find out,” she replied, wagging her finger at him. “Hey, if you were so sure Dick was number two on my list, then who’s number one?”

“Logan Echolls,” he replied without hesitation. Veronica shot him a surprised look as he glanced at her, trying to measure her reaction. “Actually, I don’t know. He might be on your get-married-to-and-have-babies-with list, for all I know. One minute, you’re in each other’s faces, the next, you’re in each other’s face. Literally. What’s up with you two, anyway?”

“I don’t believe that’s any of your business,” she said, her voice sharp.

“It’s high school, Veronica. It’s everyone’s business.”

“Well, then you should already know.”

“I know what people say. What I don’t know is the truth.”

“The truth is that the villain is the one that splits. The second he turned eighteen, he split without so much as a goodbye.”

“Logan’s the villain, huh?” he said, more as a statement to himself than as a question. “So it’s true.”

“Yeah, that Veronica, she’s a bitch. Better watch out,” she replied bitingly, her lips curving into an empty smile.

“No, not that. Well, that too,” he smirked, “but that’s not what I was referring to.” She raised an eyebrow, challenging him to explain, and so he said, “You really did fall for Logan Echolls.”

---

If people were finding it hard not to notice that he was slowly befriending Veronica and were teasing him about it, Casey really only had himself to blame for it.

He couldn’t quite pinpoint why he was drawn to her. Sometimes, he felt like he was walking along in a trance, and when she walked by, something in his wiring sparked. She was a walking contradiction, all sharp circles and soft squares. Regardless of the reason, it was becoming very hard for everyone, including himself, not to notice that something had changed once again.

When he saw her in the hallway, he waved and paused to say, “Hey.” It was a small gesture, but it was one word more than what most of the students at Neptune High had to say to her. At lunch once, he had shared some of his take-out with her and Wallace. And when she found herself the victim of yet another mysterious flat, he offered her a ride again. The next day, he found a calling card for escorts taped to his locker.

It wouldn’t be Neptune if his actions didn’t elicit some looks and whispers, and they certainly didn’t go unnoticed by his friends either.

“Dude, were you giving Veronica Mars a ride again yesterday?” Dick asked, stumbling through a crowd of party-goers. “What the hell?” he drawled.

“She helped me out last year. I was returning the favor.” He took a drink of his beer, hoping to dull Dick’s voice. “It’s called being nice. You know nice, right? That what you pretend to be when you’re trying to get into your girlfriend’s pants.”

“Oooh, ouch,” some of the onlookers remarked and Casey rolled his eyes.

“Whatever,” Dick replied nonchalantly, shrugging. “I was just trying to look out for you. You gotta be careful or that girl will take you down with her just like she took Logan down.”

Casey smirked, and secretly hoped that she did. It had to be better than this.

---

It was hard not to notice Veronica when she was parked outside of his house at three in the morning. Actually, it would have been very easy not to notice her if she hadn’t honked three times in a row, waking him up. He dragged himself out of bed and to the window, shaking his head in surprise at the sight of her parked in his driveway. For a moment, he thought that maybe he wasn’t the only one being drawn to places he couldn’t explain.

“You’re crazy, you know,” he said through a yawn, resting his head against her open car window. He was still dressed in his drawstring pajamas bottoms, a white tee, and a pair of sneakers. “You’re lucky my parents aren’t home. They’d have an aneurysm.”

“I know they’re not home,” she replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Right, of course. Forgot who I was talking to for a second.”

“Overnight, weekend charity thing, right?”

“Why are you asking me if you already know?” He smiled, and she shrugged.

“So what are you doing?” she asked casually.

Casey nearly choked on his smirk. “I was sleeping. Now I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing out here.”

“You want to get away?”

“What?” His eyes widened in surprise.

“I want to get out of Neptune for a little while.” She looked away for a moment, glancing out the driver’s side window as if something important had suddenly appeared there. “Do you want to come?” Her voice was soft and serious, and every word sounded like it carried a one-hundred pound weight. He must have been quiet for a while because she sighed heavily and then jokingly said, “I’ll have you back before school if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Funny,” he replied sarcastically. “Okay. Let me just go get changed.”

“No,” she said, grabbing his arm. “Get in now, or I’m leaving without you. I’m counting to ten. One.” She looked at him expectantly, but he didn’t move. “Two,” she continued pointedly. “Three.”

He shook his head in bewilderment. “Are you seriously doing this?”

“Four.”

“You’re certifiable,” he said, opening the passenger door and sliding in.

“And with six seconds to spare,” she replied, happily.

They drove for hours, both silently starring out the window, and Casey knew that something had happened because Veronica always had something to say. He wasn’t sure how to deal with a quiet Veronica, and so, he hesitated to speak up. Adding to the pile of confusion, he wasn’t sure why she had asked him to come with her. Why was he here and not Wallace?

An unspoken agreement was made, and so, they remained silent until she asked, “Are you hungry?”

He looked at the dashboard, and realized that it was almost 7:30am and his stomach was starting to rumble. He nodded.

She got off the highway at the next exit, and pulled up to the nearest diner. The silence continued over pancakes (for her) and eggs (for him). He was on his second cup of coffee when his brain finally started to wake up, and he began to remember why he hated silence.

“So to what do we owe this impromptu, little trip?” he asked, breaking the quiet.

She looked up abruptly, surprised by the sound of his voice for the first time in hours. “Just got sick of Neptune.”

“Right. Normally, I’d believe that, but...” He paused, crossing his arms over the top of the table, and looked her solemnly in the eyes. “What happened, Veronica?”

She looked down for a moment, playing with her fork, and then back up at him. He could see her shoulders tense as she said, “I tracked down Logan.” A pause. “And I went to see him.”

Logan, of course. He should have known. Even Veronica Mars wasn’t beyond boy troubles, he realized.

“I take it didn’t go well,” he said.

“No, not unless you consider yelling and accusations as falling under the category of ‘going well.’ He wouldn’t even look me in the eye.” She laughed softly, and he looked at her questioningly. “I don’t know why I’m surprised it ended this way,” she started to explain. “It was doomed from the beginning. I should have been more prepared for this. ”

“You couldn’t have known what was going to happen. It’s not your fault. You gotta stop blaming yourself.”

“Not my fault?” she asked incredulously. “I accused him of murder. I believed that my boyfriend was capable of murder.”

“You made a mistake, albeit a really big one, but you’re sorry for it. You’re practically giving yourself an ulcer with all the guilt. If he can’t see how sorry you are and find it in himself to forgive you, then maybe you just have to forgive yourself and move on.”

She was silent for a minute, mouth slightly ajar, and then shook her head, smiling. “Wow, that was deep. Where did that come from?”

“Hey, just because I stopped giving all my money to the collective and no longer worship poinsettias, doesn’t mean I forgot everything I learned there,” he said proudly.

She laughed lightly while he waited for realization to dawn on her. Then, just as surely as he knew it would, her laughter subsided until all that was left was her signature know-it-all face. “The deprogramming didn’t take, did it?”

He gave her a small smile. “No.”

“I don’t understand. What about --”

“I figured it’d be easier to just pretend,” he cut in. “Gets my parents off my back, and it’s safer for the collective.”

“But dear God, how do you stand being friends with Dick, knowing what an annoying jackass he is?” she asked in mock-disgust.

“It isn’t easy.”

“Sometimes, I think his parents knew what they were about to unleash unto this world, and thus, the name Dick.”

The waitress brought over their check, and he insisted on paying until she reminded him that he didn’t have his wallet on him. She pointed at his pajama pants and top, and told him that he’d fit right in if they were at a college campus. The waitress returned, picking up their bill and Veronica’s credit card. The quiet returned as they waited, and Casey could tell that she was thinking something over, turning the questions and possible answers over in her head.  

“What are you doing here?” she said finally, staring straight at him. “What possessed you to get into the car of some girl you barely know at three in the morning? Why did you come with me?”

For the first time, he thought that maybe she wasn’t as smart as she appeared to be.
               
“Because you asked me to,” he answered simply. He leaned onto the table, edging towards her. “But the more important question is, ‘Why did you ask me to?’”

Just then, the waitress brought back her credit card, and Veronica busied herself with the pretense of putting her card and receipt into her wallet.

So there are some things Veronica’s afraid of, Casey realized.

“We should get going. It’s a long drive back,” she said, fishing around in her purse for her car keys.

He nodded, following her out of the booth.

---

It was hard not to notice that Veronica was avoiding him. Since their impromptu road trip, he hadn’t spoken to her once, and only saw her from afar in the hallway just before she mysteriously and conveniently disappeared through the nearest door.

Casey felt like he was unmasking a little more of the Veronica puzzle. For example, he’d learned that when Veronica didn’t want to face something, she went out of her way not to have to. Running away, be it on highways or through doorways, seemed to be the preferred M.O.

Casey looked on from across the parking lot as she swore loudly at her tire.

“Why aren’t you riding off on your white horse to giver her a ride?” Dick asked, coming up behind him. Casey’s brow furrowed as he looked at her across the lot. “Uh-oh, trouble at home with the wifey?”

“Shut up, Dick,” he replied sharply, getting into his car and driving off before Dick could formulate a response.

This was getting ridiculous, he decided. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

“Need a ride?” he asked, pulling up next to her.
                                       
She turned around, and looked at him wearily. “No, it’s okay. I’m just going to --”

“Come on, Veronica. Get in the car,” he said, his voice taking on an edge of desperation.
       
She shifted from foot to foot, before nodding reluctantly. They were making their way onto the street when she took out her cellphone, dialing furiously.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“This is my third mysterious flat in less than a month. I’m going to give a friend a call, find out who did this, and then make him pay.”

“I have a confession to make,” he said, his voice wavering. He took in a deep breath before quickly blurting out, “I let the air out of your tire. But just today. I swear I had nothing to do with all the other times.”

“Why would you do that?” she exclaimed.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“And you say I’m certifiable? Haven’t you heard of phones or email? Even the age-old tradition of coming to my door still works in this technology-driven age.”

“That’s all great and wonderful under normal circumstances, but you,” he looked straight at her, “you’ve been avoiding me.”

She looked down guiltily. “I know,” she said so quietly he almost didn’t hear it.

“Okay then,” he said, pulling over to the side of the road.

“What are you doing?” she asked worriedly, shifting in her seat.

“You never answered my question. Why did you ask me to come with you?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I figured Wallace deserved a break from my whining,” she answered, half-jokingly, half-seriously.

“I’m going to make this really easy for you, Veronica,” he said, learning forward. “I like you.”

“What about your cover?” she asked, wiggling an eyebrow at him.

“I’m sick of pretending to be something I’m not. And as far as I can tell, you’re the only real person at that entire school. So...” he trailed off.

“Casey, you’re really sweet. And for some reason that I can’t comprehend, you’ve been a real friend to me recently despite my mood swings, the black cloud that follows me in Neptune, and the incessant use of your mileage. I --”

“Okay, I know how this goes,” he interrupted. There was a heavy coat of disappointment in his voice. “You can stop.”

“No, you don’t understand,” she said defensively, shaking her head.
                       
“Yes, I do. We’re just friends. It’s cool. Blah, blah --”

Suddenly, her lips were on his, small hands cupping his face. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer over the console separating them. She was so sweet and small under his hands, he was afraid he might break her. But then he chided himself silently at the ridiculousness of the thought as she tugged him closer, pulling on the strands of hair at the back of his neck, before breaking away. He rested his forehead against hers, his breath coming in soft, short strides. Her hands slipped down, resting flatly against his chest.

“You asked me before where you rank on the list?” she said softly. He nodded against her forehead. “You’re on the other list,” she said, a small smile quickly forming and disappearing on her lips. “But I’m a mess right now. If I thought I was a train wreck before, I’m a natural disaster, category five hurricane now.”

“Hurricanes get downgraded eventually,” he offered hopefully.
                               
“Yeah, they do,” she whispered against his cheek. “You just have to wait them out.”

The End

cross-posted to 09erdom