A/N – So this story is quite a bit different than the other ones I've written. It's definitely the fluffiest so far. There of course will be some serious parts because it is LoVe, but there will also be a lot of sweetness. I don't want to give anything away though.

Please let me know what you think of this chapter with a quick review. I know it's hard to form an opinion from just one chapter of the story, but I hope there are enough fun parts that it catches people's interest.

Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.

Chapter 1

Veronica stretched out in the chair that she'd rolled over toward the giant fan sitting in the middle of the reception area. It had been an unusually hot week in Neptune and the office still didn't have central air-conditioning so the fan was an attempt to blow the small amount of cool air coming from a window A/C unit around the room. Veronica was regretting that she didn't try to find some sort of summer job that would have had A/C as a perk. At this point though, with only a few more weeks until she'd be heading up to Stanford for law school, it was a bit too late for that.

Her dad had a lunch meeting with a client, of course at a restaurant with air conditioning, so she was sluggishly working on some filing and billing updates alone. She was debating about giving up for the rest of the afternoon and coming back in the evening when it might be cooler when she heard the door to the office open.

Her eyes opened wide when she saw who had just walked into their office. Even though it had been a little over three years since she'd seen him, he looked basically the same. He gave her a nervous smile and tipped his head down slightly. His brown hair seemed a bit shorter than she remembered but the smile was definitely the same.

"I'm sorry that I don't have an appointment but was hoping I could hire you to help me find someone," he said a bit nervously as he looked back up at her with pleading brown eyes.

"Who are you looking for?" she asked, her tone a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.

He let out a deep sigh and his expression became troubled. "My brother," he said so softly that she almost couldn't hear him over the fan.

Her heart felt like a vice was squeezing around it. "Logan?" she asked in an equally soft voice.

Charlie looked up at her with a hopeful expression and nodded. "I wasn't sure if you'd remember me. I realized shortly after you'd stopped by my class, when I saw a picture of the two of you on some tabloid, who you were."

Veronica nodded and stood up from her chair pushing it back to her desk. She hadn't seen Logan since the end of freshman year. She'd been angry with herself that she'd momentarily been glad that he'd beaten up Gory for her, because that was exactly why she'd been mad at him in the first place, for beating up Piz. His irrational and dangerous behavior was going to get him killed or lead to him killing someone else and she couldn't bear to watch either happen. It was just like when he'd charged into the River Stix to save her. She was certain that Logan's passionate recklessness was going to end with someone's death and she really didn't want to feel like she'd contributed to it. She ran into him a few nights after the Gory incident and laid into him a bit harder than she probably should have. She'd left for Virginia shortly after that and when she came back and started the new school year, he didn't seem to be around at all. She refused to act like an obsessed ex-girlfriend so didn't actively try to track him down. She'd run into Dick a few weeks into the term and made a casual remark about not seeing Logan around. He'd responded with some flippant comment that Logan had finally wised up and gotten out of the gravitational pull of the evil planet Mars, so she figured he was fine wherever he was.

Veronica sat down at her desk and gestured to the chair in front of her for Charlie to sit down. Charlie gave her a grateful smile and walked over to the offered chair. "So first tell me why you want to find him," Veronica asked as she gave Charlie a curious look.

Charlie took a deep breath before he began to explain. "I have a two year old son, Nick, and he has a disease that the doctors say may be cured with a bone marrow transplant," he paused a moment with a worried expression on his face. "My wife, Wendy, and I aren't able to do it for various medical reasons, and I was desperately looking for other options and thought I'd see if Logan might be willing to do it if he was a close match. I know it's a total long shot, but at this point I'm willing to try anything. He probably hates me for never giving him a chance to apologize before and I don't blame him at all. I wish now I could go back and change that, but unfortunately I can't."

Veronica could see the tremendous amount of regret in his expression. She wondered if Logan would be happy to get the opportunity to finally know his brother or not. She knew three years ago he was devastated with how that all turned out. But given she hadn't talked to him in over three years as well, she had no idea how he'd feel about it now. Not to mention she didn't have any idea where he even was, although she'd tracked down enough missing people before to believe she could find him if she wanted to. It was just Logan after all. It wasn't like someone was asking her to find Duncan who was on the run from federal agents.

"I'm afraid I haven't talked to him in over three years, so I'm not sure what his response will be, but I'll try to find him for you and let him know," Veronica said after deciding to take his case. They spent some time talking over more details about his son's illness and what the procedure would require.

After Charlie left Veronica logged into the PI database to get Logan's latest contact information. The only thing she could find was the driver's license that had been issued to him when he was 16 still at the address that his parent's mansion had been before it was burned down. She'd actually driven by the property not more than a week before for a case she was working on and knew it was still just a vacant lot. She pulled out her cell phone and took a deep breath, trying to think of what to say to him if he answered. He'll probably see my name and send me to voicemail and I'll get one of his inspirational messages instead. She hit send and immediately got a no longer in service message.

She groaned to herself, but typed in Dick's name in the PI database and got a current address for him. Maybe I'll get lucky and he won't be home and I can come up with another way to track Logan down.

When she arrived at the beach front condo that matched the address from the DMV system for Dick, she heard loud music and figured he was probably there. She really didn't think Logan was still in Neptune since she'd never once run into him around town. She rang the bell and waited for someone to answer it.

After the second time she rang the bell, Dick finally answered the door. "Ronnie!" He said exuberantly when he realized who was there. He leaned against the door frame, holding a beer and giving her one of his goofy smiles.

"Hi Dick," she said as politely as she could muster. "I'm trying to track down your BFF."

"Chip?" Dick asked with a thoughtful look on his face, as if trying to actually think of where he might be.

Veronica let out a frustrated sigh, "No, Logan."

Dick gave her a salacious grin as he replied. "Running out of rich guys' souls to suck dry and going back through your Rolodex again?"

Don't tase him Veronica. He can't answer questions if he's unconscious. "No, I'm trying to get a message to him for a client."

"Ahhhh... did he knock up some chick and she went to the great and powerful Mars to track him down?"

No taser Veronica. "No. Do you know how to reach him or not? Current address or phone number?"

"Nope, nope and nope. He'd called a long time ago and said he'd been having trouble with some reporter getting a hold of his number and was going to get a new phone. He didn't want the number falling in the wrong hands again," Dick paused and gave her a questioning look, "so didn't think he'd send it to me."

Veronica rolled her eyes. "So you don't know where he is or how to reach him?"

Dick looked thoughtful again. "He did say if I ever needed to reach him, I could get a hold of him through his lawyer."

Veronica waited a minute for him to continue, but he just gave her the same oblivious look. She let out a loud sigh. "Did he say what the lawyer's name was?"

"Oh... yeah... but I forget now. It was like three years ago."

Veronica took a deep breath and restrained herself from grabbing her taser. "Think Dick. Anything you can remember at all?"

"Um... I think it was like McDonald or Macintosh."

Great he was probably just stoned and remembering what he wanted to eat instead of the lawyer's name. She gave him a grim smile. "Thanks for being so helpful," she said sarcastically. Of course the sarcasm was lost on Dick and he said 'anytime', and closed the door.

Veronica headed back to the office to look up lawyers with food like names. She'd called a few with no success when her dad came back to the office followed by Cliff. Veronica gave Cliff a curious look.

"So a new client dropped by when you were at lunch," she explained to her dad, though keeping an eye on Cliff. "Charlie Stone. Ring a bell?"

Both men gave her blank stares and shook their heads.

She watched Cliff more closely as she said the next part. "Logan Echolls' half brother." She saw Cliff barely raise his eyebrow at the mention of Logan's name. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could find Logan would you Cliffy?"

"Now why would I know where he is?" Cliff asked innocently.

"If memory serves, you were his lawyer a couple times many years ago." Veronica replied with a suspicious look on her face.

"That was years ago kid," Cliff replied with a smug smile.

"So you wouldn't know where he is now?" Veronica asked with a quirked brow.

"Hmm... I'd have to check my files, but you know there is something called attorney-client privilege. Maybe they'll teach you that at law school kiddo." Cliff replied smugly. "I'll just grab that case file and get out of your hair," he said to Keith with a grin as they headed into her dad's office.

"Oh, the hair jokes... They never get old..." Her dad said humorouslessly as they disappeared into his office.

Cliff came back out a minute later with Keith behind him. "Thanks Keith," Cliff said as he briskly headed out the door.

Keith turned and gave Veronica a quizzical look. "You can't find him in the system?" Veronica shook her head and then shared her visit to Dick with him as well as what Charlie had told her.

"I'm sure you'll figure something out," Keith said with a wink. "I've got to run across town for the Richardson case. I'll see you later for dinner."

As soon as the door closed Veronica grabbed her cell and pressed a contact name in her phone.

"Good afternoon Bond," Mac answered with a chipper tone.

"Hi Q!" Veronica replied back. "Feel like doing a little hacker work for me?"

"Always!" Mac replied back enthusiastically. "What have ya got for me?"

"I need to get some contact information on one of Cliff's clients."

"Sure, I still have the IP address from the last time. What's the name?"

Veronica took a deep breath. "Logan Echolls," she said somberly.

"Oh... okay... give me a little while and I'll get it for you." There was a loud crash in the background and the sound of Mac's mom yelling at her brother. "Actually... would it be okay if I just come there to do it?"

"Of course. See you soon."

Thirty minutes later Mac was sitting on the couch in the office typing away on her laptop. She had a discouraged look on her face.

"Can't you get in now?" Veronica asked as she watched her from her desk.

Mac scoffed. "Of course I can get in. its just there isn't an entry for Logan in his contact list."

Mac typed a bit more. "The only 'Logan' I even see listed is a Logan Lester."

"Wow... He's going by a different name?" Veronica asked curiously, more to herself than Mac.

Mac shrugged. "It might not be him."

"His mom's maiden name was Lester," Veronica explained. "So where is he?"

Mac's expression became a bit troubled. "Oregon?" Veronica quirked an eyebrow at her. "Some place called... Yak-hats..."

"What?" Veronica asked with a tone of disbelief as she walked over and sat down next to Mac. Mac pointed at the screen and said Yak-hats again.

"Maybe it's Ya-chats," Veronica said as she looked at it. "Where on earth is that?"

Mac pulled up a browser window and typed it in to a search engine. "Well it's actually YAH-hots, although I liked Yak-hats better and it's on the Oregon coast."

They sat there for a few minutes reading about the small Oregon coastal town. "Only about 600 people. Should be easy to find him there." Mac said with a chuckle.

"Yeah... And look, in 2007 it was named one of 10 coolest small towns in the US." Veronica read off the screen with a confused look on her face. "What on earth is he doing there?" Mac just shrugged again.

"Certainly not dying of a heat wave like we are," Mac said as she continued to scroll down the page looking at the climate information.

"Is there a phone number listed for him?" Veronica asked. Mac flipped back to the other screen and shook her head.

"Guess I'm taking a little trip. At least it will be nice to escape this heat wave. I wonder if he's even there though. Can you tell when that address was added?"

Mac typed on her keys again. "It looks like it was updated about 9 months ago, but I can't tell what it was before."

"Hopefully whoever is there now might know where he went if he's gone," Veronica said as she took a deep breath and stood up from the couch. She grabbed a notepad from her desk and wrote down the address. She thanked Mac who said she needed to get back home for dinner. After Mac left, she went to work figuring out travel logistics for how best get to Yak-hats Oregon.