The Rooftop

[watching_you]

Veronica's still shaken as she steps off the elevator - Aaron Echolls just has that kind of effect on people - but she forces herself to shrug it off. There are more important matters at hand, like making sure Mac is safe, and that Beaver doesn't hurt anyone else.

"Mac!"

Grimly, she realizes that her next hurdle will be convincing Lamb of the truth. It's not going to be easy, especially with her dad away and Woody - such an obvious suspect - already in custody. But Lamb will have to listen, won't he? Especially after she shows him the photograph, and brings in Hart...

"Mac!"

It would be hard to ignore such evidence, even for Lamb. If questioned, with Woody around, maybe a confession would even...

Why...

Why would Mac ask to meet on the roof...?

It's quiet up here, and very dark, and suddenly Veronica feels a chill.

"Mac...?"

Comments

[obligatoryass]

Logan looks back at Beaver, surprised.

Didn't you sort that out last year?

Not important.

"You're not a killer, Veronica," he says, his eyes wide, earnest.

Not being a killer is a really important identity trait.

[watching_you]

Maybe neither of them is.

(Maybe they both are.)

But Beaver, well. He's not so much a grey area, is he? Smiling, smirking. Taunting her as she dialed.

The gun's aim wavers, as Veronica sobs.

[obligatoryass]

Logan is absolutely certain he's not a killer. Whether it's objectively true is another question, but he can't allow himself to think of that. This is not a relative question. You either are or you aren't, and Logan's firmly put himself in the former category.

He knows Veronica does too, but the question is: Does she know? And also, is he right? Logan's been wrong too many times for certainty, but in this case, he is as close as it's possible to be.

Logan keeps repeating the words, "Give me the gun, Veronica, you're not a killer," over and over, over the sound of her shaking sobs. His hand is almost, but not quite, touching hers, almost close able to reach out and take the gun.

That's not what he wants. He wants her to give it to him. That's the only option that is acceptable now.

[watching_you]

How easy would it be. How simple.








Keith Mars is dead.






Seconds stretch out. There's a low hum at the base of her skull, a taste like ashes, like copper, a smell like the ocean. She can't stop crying.

( Now that you have nothing left to live for ... )


Maybe Cassidy was wrong about that.
( What would Lilly think? )

Her hand droops and Logan takes the gun, and Veronica leans into his arms, her tear-stained face pressing into his shoulder.

[obligatoryass]

Logan holds her tightly, rocks her back and forth, as if she's a tiny child and he's the only thing standing between her and the boogeyman.

Maybe he is.

He leans his face into his hair, his heart aching at every sob that rakes her body, wishing he could do more, but also just glad he can do something.

[neptune-npcs.livejournal.com]

His bravado's gone. It's been gone ever since Veronica found the gun.

It's not coming back.
they say that what you mock will surely overtake you
Pale and sick, Beaver slips away, walking to the edge of the rooftop as if hypnotized. He glances over his shoulder at Logan and Veronica, sets both hands on the rail, and looks down at the streetlights, one hundred feet below.

Then he boosts himself up and over to stand on the ledge.

[obligatoryass]

Logan looks up, just to check on Beaver, to make sure he hasn't decided this would be a fun time to find the taser and come at Veronica again.

He's shocked at what he sees: Beaver's leg swinging over the railing, the slight figure staring at the street below.

The Coronado Bridge

"Beaver!" he says, releasing Veronica, taking a step toward

his mother's car

"Don't!"

Weevil's face, jeering and hateful.

[neptune-npcs.livejournal.com]

He turns around.
and you become a monster so the monster will not break you
"My name," he screams, face twisted in anguish, "is CASSIDY!"

[obligatoryass]

"What are you going to do to me, huh?"

"Cassidy, don't!" Logan says, his voice hoarse. He's hoping like hell he's not too late, that he can do something, and really doubting that anything short of pulling Cassidy down

"We'll think of something."

from the railing, and he can't do that, it's too dangerous and Cassidy's crazy. Crazy gives you extra strength. Logan ought to know.

[neptune-npcs.livejournal.com]

Crazy comes in a lot of different forms.

There's the crazy of before; and there's the crazy of now, less wild than despairing, more like the kid they thought they knew who never said much and did even less.

"Why not?" he demands.

[obligatoryass]

Logan opens his mouth - to say what, he doesn't know, so he closes it again, and just gapes at Cassidy like a fish.

He's not on the Coronado Bridge anymore. He's here, fully and totally, and he can see what happens next as clearly as if it were a movie playing out in front of him.

[neptune-npcs.livejournal.com]

Beaver's mouth sets. He nods, just once.

"That's what I thought," he whispers.

And he steps backward onto nothing, and falls.

[obligatoryass]

Logan watches the figure disappear, silently. It's almost anti-climatic, in a way, with the silence and the resigned look on Beaver's face. It was the one Logan had seen a thousand times, the one Beaver wore when Dick ribbed him or Big Dick left him at home with Kendall.

It was nothing new, and maybe that was what made it the hardest thing to watch. Maybe that's why he can't stop watching the space on the railing where Cassidy Casablancas used to be.

[watching_you]

There's an eerie silence, and then the sound of
( wings )
a car alarm, which Veronica supposes is the end result when a teenage boy jumps off of the roof of a building and lands in the parking lot.

She's finding it hard, at this moment, to feel much of anything for Cassidy; her heart's already full of mourning for his victims. But she does step closer to Logan, and wrap her arms around him again, trying to comfort him as much as he does her.

At least now it's finally over --

"Oh God," she says.

"Mac!"