“Veronica...not that I’d ever tell you what you should or shouldn’t do, because, well, you’re you, and that look in your eye? Means you’ve already made up your mind, and I’m just here for background color.” Mac got up off her bed and stood with her arms crossed. “You can’t help it, can you? You’re like my nine year old cousin. My aunt says he can’t watch his damn Yu-Gi-Oh DVD for the fiftieth time, but he just says screw it, and once she’s gone...” She managed to smile despite the situation. It was brief.
“Explain how a Japanimation analogy works in this context.”
“Exactly – it doesn’t. That’s the point. This is something else entirely. This is… so far beyond Aaron Echols. It’s more like that horror movie he did.” The detective had to agree – she was out of familiar waters here.
“‘Fangs for the Memories.’ Classic.” Veronica took a beat. “So what am I supposed to do? Just forget?” when Mac didn’t answer right away she was shocked to realize that the computer genius was actually considering it. “Mac, this isn’t something that I can just fade out! Do you have any idea what I just saw tonight?”
The brunette leaned back and glanced at her computer screen once more. The image from Veronica’s camera lay bare and enlarged, the high pixel resolution allowing for undeniable detail. Much as she might boast about it in a more humorous situation; Veronica had perfect timing. The captured image even allowed the viewer to see the area around the weapon – what they were both refusing to name –as it turned to ash and moldy-looking dust.
Night time, silent stalking, the teeth she’d seen in the lamp-light, his face when he’d been given the round-housing of his (un?)life… then there was the piece of wood (they had determined to was wood and not an impact baton only after closer inspection of the image) being shoved into the heart of what was clearly some kind of super-natural… thing. Noooo – no one had ever used the term ‘Vampire’ in this room, hell no… But the thought was running rampant.
There was a knock at the door.
The two girls glanced at each-other. Parker was in Mexico with Logan for the weekend, Wallace was pulling an all-nighter in the modeling studio and Piz was filling in at the radio station.
“It’s Buffy.” Came through the door in a strong voice. Veronica turned and jumped away from it as though she’d just been told it had ‘The HIV’. The two girls started mouthing frantically to one another, gesturing at and thinking the other understood – but they were both doing it at once and getting nowhere.
“Look, I’m off duty so if you’re trying to hide alcohol or whatever don’t bother – it’d be harder for me to explain what I was doing searching a student’s room off hours without cause…” Veronica slammed Mac’s laptop shut and dove into Parker’s closet, shoving all the hanging coats aside. Waving Mac towards the door with a look of panic she closed the closet all but a crack so she could listen. Mac opened the door.
Framed in it, looking oddly smaller than usual, Mac could see what she hoped Veronica could only hear.
Buffy’s natural confidence that made up for her diminished size seemed gone from her. Oddly, after all that had happened tonight, she seemed so much more human than before: fragile and flawed. Mac held her breath as Buffy took in a long, slow breath, “I only have three questions, so I won’t be long.”
Mac nodded.
“Is she here?” Buffy asked quietly.
“Veronica? Nope.” She said, shaking her head and tilting it to the side, trying to feign casualty. She’d blown it – she over did it by drawing the words out too long. Buffy nodded, and the trace of a smile that there’d never been? Now it seemed even more absent. They both knew Veronica was in there.
“Is she alright?” she asked, a bit flat. “Physically.” She clarified and a bit of that human weakness snuck in again.
Mac nodded again at this, the “yeah” coming out in a genuinely relieved sigh. The older girl nodded too, trying to say she understood.
“Will you take care of the rest? You know, the non-physical part?” Mac smiled briefly and started closing the door. “Thanks Mac.” She muttered, turning to go.
“Buffy?” Mac called. The older girl turned around and stopped. “Thanks.”
Buffy made her way down the hall, not saying anything. When the brunette closed it again she found that Veronica had extricated herself from amongst the halter-tops and jackets.
“God that was scary.”
“She likes you.”
“What?” Veronica demanded, angry.
“She didn’t have to come here; she didn’t have to see you. It was a risk and she did it any way.”
“She didn’t know I was here-”“Hell yes she did!” Mac said gesturing at the door, “She-”
“Because you are the worst liar ever! That was embarrassing!”
“Veronica!” Mac cut in, “She cares about you. She obviously knows that you know – hell, she probably followed you here!” she got out in a rush “The point is, she was reaching out. She wanted to make sure you were safe because, yeah danger, but also ‘cause she wanted to make sure you were alright – you know, with her?”
Quiet stretched out in the room and Veronica still had her arms crossed, disbelieving. It was then that Mac realized something: for all the good that Veronica’s determination and resolve brought to her that was good? It certainly had a flip side. She’d convinced herself that whatever feelings Buffy had for her were not the kind she had for Buffy. She was a great detective, but when it came to the Case of the Girl with an Overly Broken Heart, Veronica only seemed able to collect evidence that supported what she wanted to believe. And not what was true.
“Look, all I’m saying is, you might want to try another approach.”
“Such as?”“Such as,” Mac reiterated, losing her patients, ““Don’t shine a light in her face, get her blind, and then subject her to the ‘Veronica Mars’ ninth degree.”
“But it’s so cute!”“She’s not a bad guy, Veronica. Or a case. For some reason, she almost cares about you, so just, try to trust her? A little? Don’t find the facts by yourself just so you, I dunno, can trap her in a lie or something. She saved your life tonight. For once, don’t be who you usually are, and endanger it again. Just try talking to her instead. Hear her out.”
“Oh frak.” Veronica breathed, suddenly so very, very sorry. How many alleys had she walked down? How many shady places in this tiny little town had she seen? How many men with feet of advantage over her had she managed to take down before? She’d lost count – and this one wasn’t backing off so easily.
When Veronica followed this stranger down a narrow patch of street, she’d thought he was trying to lose her. When he’d disappeared somehow in the blind alley they were now in, she’d been sure it was just a matter of him knowing a way out that she didn’t. But when he’d appeared from nowhere – just as her previous Midnight Stalker had? Well, the satisfaction of knowing she’d found the right mark was short lived. Veronica was pretty sure she’d drained the battery pack of her taser before she realized it was having no more effect than a bee-sting.
His hands were frozen and hard, his clutching fingers gripping her jaw and clamping it shut as he forced her head back and away from his metallic-smelling lack-of-breath. Veronica didn’t feel the heat of his breathing on her neck but she knew that if he’d been alive she would have for that one brief moment. Through the corners of her now watering eyes she saw inhuman, animalistic teeth for the second time.
And just as Veronica felt the flesh of her neck give to the points of his fangs, it was his head being jerked around and to the side. A loud series of pops echoed off the surrounding brick walls, sounding like knuckles cracking or cartoonish bubbles bursting. At the exact same moment a jagged piece of wood was shoved into the Stalker’s chest and his body was shoved away like an unwelcome advance. He burst into that sickly green ash the moment his body mad contact with the cement.
The look on Buffy’s face was a disappointed rage. It softened again so quickly Veronica seriously wondered what could have happened. Reaching out a hand to the younger woman’s shoulder and one at her collarbone –just where the man’s hands had been – Buffy’s gaze became far more focused than merely on her distressed damsel but specifically on her neck.
“I got it.” She muttered, and out of an inside pocket of her coat she produced a roll of gauze. Not even unrolling it she pressed the bulge of it against Veronica’s neck. It was at the wound whinging that she remembered that the thing had actually managed to bite her. The lump in her throat, the ache in her chest and the hot tears in her eyes at seeing Buffy there at just the nick of time made fine misdirection. She felt it now. “I got you.” She said again quietly, and Veronica doubted if the woman knew she’d even said something entirely different.
“Hospital.” Buffy said, lifting the cotton and checking the bite. Veronica’s eyes widened. “It’s not that bad,” the older woman assured, her tone disappointed even if her expression had changed. “But, he was squatting in the store-room of an old factory and feeding off Meth addicts. Blood tests and some antibiotics – just to be safe. Besides, some painkillers might not go amiss. Sometimes, the shock…” she trailed off not wanting to finish that sentence. Veronica felt Buffy’s hand on her upper-arm give a comforting squeeze.
“I know what he was.” Veronica said, trying to get Buffy to look her in the eyes, trying to get her strength back and her body to move. It worked.
“I very much doubt that.” Buffy replied, the voice of I’m so much older than you should ever be surfacing again. The hand slid down her arm and into Veronica’s bag, taking her keys from their hiding place in an inside pocket. Turning around and nodding to the mouth of the alley Buffy made no sign of letting go of the bandage at Veronica’s neck.
(To Be Contniued…)