A/N: I have several different stories on my thumb drive. This one was finished so I decided to post it.

The Heir

Dick entered his office, nodded at his personal assistant and sank onto his chair. Looking at Kayla, he said bleakly "You were right to insist on my going to the doctors."

His forty year old assistant who in the last eight years had been more of a mother to him than his own mother had been in his entire life sat down across from him and asked "What happened, Richard?"

With a bitter laugh, Dick replied. "For once my dad did me a favor. Once again however the information he gave me was too late."

"I don't understand." Kayla said, her brown eyes scanning the twenty six year old sitting in front of her, taking in the dejected form and clearly broken spirit.

"I got my results back from my tests." Dick replied and then gave her the bad news. "They found a tumor, Kayla."

"Was it cancerous and where?" She asked wanting to know all of the facts. Dick had come to her eight years ago, wanting to make different choices in his life, of course with typical Dick Casablancas disregard for niceties, he had sat drunk at the counter in the bar she owned and had spilled his life story.

How he had been born the eldest son of a rich family, how his mother had abandoned the two sons, how his father kept getting younger and younger trophy wives and how his brother had killed innocents and had then committed suicide himself.

He had finished his story by telling her about his freshman year of college and how it had just ended earlier that day. With his best friend fleeing the country to get over a girl he had described as pure destruction for said friend, how he had tried to apologize to his late brother's girlfriend, about the almost drunken kiss, and finally how having his father around was making him want to just run away. What he hadn't told her but that she had figured out was that he had already been drunk for several days before entering her bar.

She had taken one look at the blond, resisting the urge to shake him until his brain rattled then blasted him when he was too drunk to leave. Having already confiscated his keys, his wallet and his cell phone, she had left him drunk on the booth bench then the next morning had shown up with coffee and a lecture and a very large dose of honesty.

He had stormed out of the bar, swearing at her. A week later he had returned, apologized and had listened to her suggestions. He had moved into a small apartment off campus, gotten his act together and had graduated from college.

He had still partied a bit, after all he had still been a young boy, but there had been a difference to it, less of a sense of desperation. The only thing she hadn't been able at the time to change was his habit of sleeping around with as many different girls as possible.

When she had suggested maybe finding a girl to love, she had seen the old wildness in his eyes and something told her that there might have been someone who had touched him, but that in his fear of commitment, of trusting someone that he had let her slip away.

This morning however, she saw in his eyes, the same fear but this time it was for a different reason as he explained about the tumor being malignant. "Dick, there are options."

"They would only extend my life by a year or so, Kay." He said his eyes distant. "I don't want to die that way, needing a nurse, unable to dress myself, unable to… to… I can't, I won't live like that."

Kayla could understand that, when she had met Dick she had just lost her husband of ten years to MS, she could understand that sometimes extending life wasn't that great when the quality of that life was so terrible. "What do you need me to do?"

Dick sat there for a few minutes and then looked at her. "I need you to help me start settling my estate. My doctor gives me a year at most. I can't; I won't spend that time working. I have things; things I have to fix. Things I pushed back thinking I would have the time to do later."

"I will see what projects, what contractors you need to arrange meetings with." She said slipping into business mode even as her mind tried to figure out what to do to help him with this.

"Kay, I want you to know, you will be taken of." He felt her hand slam against his lips, then when she had lifted it wryly added "How about instead of me saying that I just say that there is a plan for taking care of my estate."

Staring at the boy whose will was a one page document when she met him, she said "Richard, what is going on in that head of yours?"

Standing, moving to the window, he said "I am never going to get a chance at a family, at doing right what my parents messed up at. I always thought; give it time, prove I wasn't like my dad, like Beaver but there is no time left."

Turning he leaned against the credenza and said "Is it selfish to want a child, a legacy to make sure the world knew I was here?"

"Richard." Kayla saw the bleakness in his eyes and then the way his hands were on the photo he had long kept on his desk of his brother and a girl with dark hair that had blue streaks in it. "Why don't I take care of business today? Go to the beach."

"No, I need to go to the cemetery on the other side of Neptune." He said as he went to grab his keys. Staring at them, recalling all he had read in the doctor's office about his illness and he looked at her and said "Its on my list, driving soon won't be possible. I am going to head down the coast, top down and just breathe then go visit my brother."

When Dick had left, Kayla sat there, stunned at the idea of losing the young man she had come to love and respect in such a way.

Making calls, canceling meeting with contractors for their upcoming projects, she went back to his office, looking at the model of was going to be the last project for this company. An open air shopping mall, made with sustainable products that Dick had in typical fashion described as the ultimate prison for married men.

On her way out, she stopped at the blueprints Dick had on his wall in a frame. Her boss' dream home, the only project he had ever started and didn't finish. It was hard not to stare at them, knowing that he had said he would wait until he was thirty to build it. She knew there was more to it then just the house; she just had never gotten him to explain why.

Arriving at her desk three hours later, she heard the elevator opening and grimaced when Dick Senior exited the elevator and came her way.

"Where is my son?" He asked.

"Richard is out of the office right now. Would you like to leave a message?" She asked and when he tried to open the door to the inner office but found it locked, she repeated. "I am sorry, Mr. Casablancas but like I said, Richard is out of the office."

"That's fine; it's fine to let me in, Kate. I am going to be running things here, soon enough. Richard would want me to take a look at any current projects and would you please bring me in any files on projects that we are just looking for investors for." He said as pleasantly as possible.

When she didn't move, his eyes turned to ice as he said "I am waiting."

"Mr. Casablancas, I am sorry but by the requirements of our company bond, I can't legally do that." She said not sorry at all, she knew the entire history between Dick and his father. "Only staff members may look at those files."

"Well, with my son's illness, I will be taking charge of things around here. Now unless you want to be replaced, I suggest you do as I asked." He tersely stated.

Kayla now knew why Richard was shutting down his company. He had worked hard, using his own funds to start this company, they NEVER used outside investors to build projects, he still felt guilt at how his father had fleeced so many people and she also knew that he would burn the building down rather than ever turn it over to Dick Senior she said "Well until I hear those words from Richard, sir, I am afraid that I can't do as you requested."

Dick moved closer to the frump who worked behind the desk, once again frustrated by her even being allowed to work there. He didn't understand why on earth when his son could have the pick of any woman to work for him, he would chose this battle ax but he wasn't going to stand being talked to that way by a mere employee. "You're fired, clear out your desk and leave."

Kayla said "You are going to have to call security before I do that. Mr. Casablancas wouldn't fire me for keeping you out."

The man moved in until he was inches away and hit the buttons on the office phone. Hearing a distant voice he snapped "I want security up on the top floor."

When security arrived, Dick Senior saw that the man in the suit was on the phone. When he ignored him and kept talking to whoever he was speaking to, he walked over and ripped the phone of his hand. "I want that woman removed from this building."

Webster looked at Dick Senior then at the woman he knew was second in charge and his second boss, took back his phone and hit redial. "Yes sir that was your father."

Putting it on speaker, he let Richard Casablancas Senior hear his son's worlds. "Why is my father there?"

"He fired me." Kayla replied.

"He can't do that." Dick retorted then they could hear him counting to ten then saying "Kayla would you please call me on the office phone so that I may speak to my father privately."

When she had done that and handed the phone to Dick Senior with a smirk on her face knowing that it chaffed the older man that he didn't have his son's cell phone number, the security staff moved far enough away for her to ensure privacy as Dick talked to his old man.

"Father, leave my office. I don't want to hear anything. Not why you are there, not what right you seem to think you have to fire my staff. Just leave and don't come back."

"Richard, don't you think with what is going on that maybe it might be a good idea for someone healthy to take charge of the company."

"I will be running my company until the day of my death, at which point my heirs will inherit it." He said then hearing his father muttering something, he added "Let me make it very clear, you are not my heir. You never will be. I have accepted you back in my life, but you will never run my company. Do I make myself clear?"

Dick Senior was fuming as he saw the smirking assistant and the head of security talking and clearly dismissing him as he said "Richard, I don't think you truly appreciate the gravity of the situation. You are going to die, there is no one else."

Dick didn't like how his father seemed to know his medical diagnosis but he dismissed it in the need to make sure that his father didn't get access to his company. "I understand the situation; it's you who doesn't, father. I don't care if I die tomorrow, you will never, ever get your hands on my company."

"Richard, you need to think about your shareholders, your investors." Dick Senior tried his most charming voice. "Don't you want what is best for them?"

"Even if I had shareholders or investors, which I don't; something tells me that turning my company over to a man who fleeced his own investors wouldn't be the smart approach."

"Wait, what do you mean you don't have shareholders or investors, Richard?" Dick Senior was confused. His son ran a multi-million dollar real estate and construction company, he builds major projects on the California coast; of course he had investors and shareholders.

"Simply put, its all mine. I didn't use others' money, I took out a loan on the house you oh so conveniently put in my name for my first building, then used it as leverage to get a loan for my second, then when it was paid back I used the second for my next. Simply put I owe about two million five to the bank for the mall but the rest is all my funds."

Stunned, Dick Senior looked around the tenth floor office of a twenty million dollar building that apparently his twenty six year old son owned outright, thought about the other businesses he knew his son owned and gulped as he realized just how rich his loafer of a son had become on his own before the age of thirty. Two point five million was pocket change and yet he had taken out a loan. "Why did you take out a loan then?"

Chuckling bitterly Dick said "I am using the loans and paying them back not only as tax shelters but also to rebuild the Casablancas name in the business community. I wanted it to stand for honesty and good business decisions, something that thanks to you it didn't when I first started. There is no way in hell you will ever get your hands on my company and ruin what I built, dad."

Dick Senior saw the security staff start to move forward after his son had hung up the phone; quickly deciding to leave, he went to his hotel suite and found his wife. "We have to head out of town."

"I thought you were going to take your company back from your son?" The woman said as she looked up from where she was filing her nails and at her much older and rich husband. "I thought that was why we were here?"

"I have to go to New York on a business trip for him." Dick Senior lied. When he had gotten her in a better mood, clearly not wanting to go to New York during the winter time with thoughts of a shopping trip on Fifth Avenue, Dick called down and ordered a limo to take them to the airport.

Speaking to the pilot, Dick soon had them on the way to the Big Apple while he contrived of another way to get control of his son's business. He had money but he needed a way to launder it after years of denying he had any of his investor's funds.

In several bank accounts around the world, he had close to four hundred million dollars just sitting around waiting for him to play with. Looking at his wife, wondering if she was pregnant yet, he thought about his father's will and the trusts set up for possible Casablancas heirs and how getting access to that measly five million dollars was now his only chance of setting up a new company.

Dick arrived back in Neptune after the drive up the PCH and drove to the beach. Sitting on Dog Beach, remembering the past, he heard someone calling out to a Lilly to be careful and was reminded of the past.

Turning, he saw the blond girl flying a kite and smiled when he saw the fierce concentration on her face. He felt sick at the idea of never getting a chance to watch his own child but more sure than ever of his plan.

"Dick?"

Dick looked up to see Duncan Kane standing near him. Looking back at the little girl he asked "Is that Meg's daughter?"

Nodding, Duncan sat down and said "Long time no see."

"Yeah, fleeing the country can ruin that for you." He said dryly then stated "I would guess things got straightened out for you?"

"Yeah, thanks to Grace Manning." He replied. "She was almost fifteen when she got the courage to escape her dad."

"Some of us can't do that as adults." Dick stated.

"Yeah." Duncan went quiet then said "I uh, I haven't seen anyone since we got back last month. My mom said that she never kept track of anyone."

"If you are talking about Veronica." Dick began.

"No, I spoke to Veronica. I know she is working to get her license as a lawyer in New York. I also know that she is completely fucked up emotionally." Duncan said quietly then thinking on his determination to no longer hide things said "I know about Beaver and what happened at Shelley's party."

"Yeah; I fucked up, big time." Dick said sick to his stomach. "I never ever thought-."

"I can guess what happened." Duncan said then added "Veronica still deep down in spite of I think still being in love with Logan, blames him, blames Madison but I am the person really at fault."

Dick's eyes went to Duncan and said "How are you at fault for that night?"

"I was at fault for what happened that year, for a whole hell of a lot of things that time away and growing up and becoming a dad made me face." He said then told Dick about his belief that Veronica was his sister, how his inaction had led to the terrible chasm between Logan and her.

"Fuck, Duncan. That was some pretty heavy shit to be dealing with when your sister had just died." Dick stated then looking around saw that Lilly was with another girl and distracted.

"Anyhow, Veronica deep down can't face what really happened. She never will and frankly until she does, both Logan and she will never be happy." Duncan stated. "I wish I could fix things but no one knows where Logan is."

"I used to get a post card now and then from him but that stopped a few years ago, now I get an odd e-mail here and there." Dick admitted. "It's usually a picture from some distant beach and says wish you were here."

"I screwed him over in a need to get my life back and then it wasn't even the life I wanted. I knew Veronica was back with me because strong emotions scared her. That I was safe." Duncan said sadly. "I hurt Meg, I hurt Veronica and Logan but at the time, I just thought that if I was dating Veronica, things would be like they had been when Lilly was alive."

Dick sat there; he could understand that, he hid from his emotions by covering them with shallow superficial ones. He had for most of his life and after today he couldn't do that, not any longer.

Looking at Duncan he didn't sugar coat things as he said "Yeah, you fucked up. So did I, so did everyone else, man. Logan tried and tried with Veronica, but nothing he ever did was good enough."

"Dick, they both fucked up. Logan did too." Duncan said then looking at him said "Veronica admits that she hasn't had a relationship that lasts longer than six weeks since she left Neptune. I saw Wallace; do you remember her basketball friend?"

"Sure, he became an engineer or something, right?" Dick recalled the kid with the airplane from Hearst.

"Yeah, his mom recently married another executive at my dad's company. I saw him in town for the wedding. He and I talked. He says that Veronica basically doesn't date much and that when she does it is guys like the old me, like someone named Piz."

"Piz, what an ass he was." Dick can still recall the day the DJ had taken such pleasure in rubbing it in Logan's face that Veronica had transferred to school in New York. That was the day that Logan had changed, he had dropped out of school and just left town.

"Yeah so I heard." Duncan said then turning he greeted the two girls both of whom called him dad to Dick's surprise. "Dick, these are my daughters, Stephanie and Lilly."

"Dad is it time to meet Mommy?" the youngest asked and Dick couldn't help estimating her age to be about seven. Looking at Duncan when he suggested they gather their stuff, he asked "Two daughters?"

"I met someone in Australia. I went to therapy before dating her, a bit freaked out because she reminded me of my sister Lilly." He said wryly.

"You are married now?"

"Yes, Devon has our two sons with her." Duncan saw Dick's surprise and admitted. "We live in the Outback, Dick. Not a lot to do there."

Smacking his arm, Dick looked at him and got serious. "Man, I am glad you found what you are looking for. Be happy, at least one of the screwed up children of Neptune deserves that."

Duncan's eyes went to Dick's face and asked "Why aren't you happy. I heard about your company, that it was successful."

"Money isn't everything." Dick said soberly. "I uh, I wish you well."

Leaving the beach, Dick drove over to the house that gave him his first start. Looking around inside, seeing the dust covers and the feeling of emptiness, he decided to hire someone to pack up the personal shit and then donate the furniture to some charity before tearing the place down.

Looking around, he had an idea and went to visit Logan's lawyer. "Thanks for seeing me, Cliff."

"What may I do for you, Mr. Casablancas?"

Looking down at his hands, he said "Something came up and I really need to track down Logan. When he calls you next time, would you give him a message for me?"

"Sure. You do know that he doesn't call regularly?" Cliff asked.

"Yeah, just tell him that- just tell him-" Dick didn't know what to say. He didn't want his best friend to learn from a newspaper about his death but he also didn't want to just spill the beans via an attorney.

Looking up he asked to borrow some paper and when it was handed to him, Dick took a deep breath and put down in words what he needed to. Sealing it in the offered envelope, he said "Please make sure he gets this, its urgent."

"Something I should know about?" The man asked.

Dick looked at the attorney and said "I uh, found out I have a brain tumor. I didn't want Logan to read about it in the paper."

Cliff's smile went away as he got that this wasn't some weird attempt to get a hold of Logan, no this was clearly serious. "What are your options?"

"When and how I die are about it." Dick admitted.

With that, he thanked the man and left the small office that had once held the Mars Investigations offices. He had one more stop to make before he went home and that was not one he was looking forward to.

Stopping at the florist, being sure to purchase a cactus plant, he drove out to the cemetery and walked across its rolling lawns to his family's private mausoleum.

Seeing the evidence that the staff kept things cleared of graffiti, he entered the wrought iron gate and sat down on the marble bench across from the square bearing the name Cassidy.

"Hey bro." His voice was steady as he sat there and told him about business. At the end, he said "Dad showed up again. I know he means well but he can't let his games and his shit go. No matter how much I try to forgive him, to forgive myself. I can't. Now, now it's too late."

"I have cancer, Cass. How funny is that? I used to think I was invincible, clearly I am not. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I mean I knew I had some seriously bad karma coming my way, but at the same time, I guess I thought that the changes I made meant it wouldn't find me."

Resting his head in his hands, Dick said "I have a plan. How is that, hilarious huh, I have a plan. I don't want dad to get a hold of my money and I want a baby but I guess it's a good thing I won't be here to screw it up? I mean look how badly I helped screw you up."

Dick kept talking, rambling about how he would see parents with their kids in the park and how it had made him wish things were different. "I thought I had all of the time in the world to find the right person, to finally, finally understand why other people seemed to love their family."

He looked at the marble slab etched with his brother's name and admitted. "But to have that, I would have to find the right girl and all I ever seemed to find was the right this second girl. We have talked about this before, how I missed seeing what was right in front of me. I have a plan though, I am going to use this to right a few more wrongs."

"Cass, I am going to do something that is going to make you kick my ass when we finally meet but I need to do this, I need to ask someone I trust absolutely to be the mother of my child. We both know who I am going to ask."

Dick stood and walked over to the planter he had had placed in front of Beaver's spot and put in the cactus plant. "You already hate me, how much worse can you hate me for what I am going to do?"

With that, he walked to the slab next to Beaver's which would soon be his and looked down at his hands and admitted. "I don't want to die, Beaver. I don't want it to end this way, not now. Still I had almost twice the amount of time on earth you did, so I guess I should be happy with that."

Mac was annoyed as she heard the sound of someone leaning on her buzzer. Letting in Veronica, she waited until her best friend had joined her in her admittedly sparsely furnished loft and said "You know right this minute, I am not exactly regretting the move back to Neptune. No one showing up at my place in the middle of the night; no one to drive me insane, I won't know what to do with myself."

"Really 'cause last time I checked, Lauren still went home during the summer and Ryan still visited in between sports seasons." Veronica said with a cheeky grin at Mac. "Besides, you know you are going to miss me."

Looking around her wide open loft, Mac asked "Are you sure you don't mind moving in here and taking care of things for me?"

"Let's see, moving into a loft in Tribeca with four times the space of my tiny itty bitty apartment rent free in exchange for making sure my land lord's property manager doesn't commit any crimes. Yeah, that will be such a hardship." Veronica said with chuckle.

"So, what did Duncan want?" Mac asked as they settled onto the sofa.

"He was telling me that they are heading home to Australia; that to Celeste his wife Devon is even more of the antichrist that I ever was and that he had the oddest run in with Dick Casablancas."

"Uh oh, are we talking about the unmentionable?" Mac asked a bit hopefully.

"No, they only mentioned Logan in passing." Veronica admitted then looking at Mac said "It's too late, Mac. It's too late and I have let it go."

"That's why you have barely dated since you left Neptune." Mac said quietly. "That's why perfectly hot guys like that bistro owner with the Irish accent didn't even get your number. Veronica, until you deal with your past, you won't be able to have a real future."

Veronica looked at Mac then said "Hello pot, my name is kettle."

"At least I understand my issues. Its not too many girls whose first boyfriend was a rapist, whose second came out and announced to the world he is gay and whose third ended up running off and marrying an ex hooker during the summer break during which he spent it lying to me about taking care of a sick grandmother. Seriously,
the most normal guy I have had any contact with was Dick Casablancas when he tried to kiss me while drunk once." Mac announced.

"Dick and normal in the same sentence, yup, you win the bad relationship trophy." Veronica said handing her the box of Kleenex on the coffee table. "Wait, back up, Dick tried to kiss you?"

"Long story but simply put, he was drunk and tried to kiss me. I think that I am hardly the last girl that has happened to." Mac said rolling her eyes at the memory. "Now on to more important subjects; I still haven't found property for my office. Cliff is seriously about to be fired."

"I thought he sent you a list already." Veronica asked as she took the offered glass of wine then watched as Mac poured herself one. "Wait, is the wine stock staying, because I have to say that is deal breaker."

Laughing, Mac said "Yes it is. I am thinking that while home I might start finding some good California wines to add to it. Just imagine road trips to Napa."

Taking a sip, Mac said "Cliff's list included some seriously 'are you kidding' buildings, including one not that far from the Fitzpatrick's old stomping grounds and of course the building Dick owns. I told him that I can't afford that kind of money but in truth I can't think of any place less I would like to move to."

"You don't want Dick as your landlord." Veronica said with a twist of her lips at the idea of the boy who never took anything serious ending up being successful in business.

Mac and Logan had sold the majority of the shares in the Internet start up of 'Grade My_!' and had kept about a twenty percent share evenly divided. As a result, Mac had found herself a good tax attorney who when she moved to New York had talked her into buying some real estate in an up and coming area, which promptly had doubled in value.

She had moved to New York to finish her schooling and to be closer to Veronica who had known she was going through a bad time that she never really explained to anyone. The two friends had found themselves enjoying living in the big city and had spent the last five years visiting every single major city from Boston to Miami when they had free time.

The two friends discussed everything with one major exception. Neptune and what had gone on during their freshmen year of college. Both had moved on they claimed but in truth, neither of them had faced their pasts.

Early the next morning, Veronica helped Mac load her suitcase into her car and asked her to reconsider driving back to California. "A train, a train would show you all the scenery you want, Mac."

"I will be fine. I have my cell phone; my car has a tracker on it. Veronica, I need to do this. I need to get my head on straight before returning home to help my dad."

Mac's father had had a stroke and was now pretty much unable to work. Mac had helped him start up his own company, having kept a tight rein of things so that the company showed a profit but now, with Sam unable to run things, Mac had to go home and decide what to do, but she still had her own company to worry about.

She had been creating games on the side but Mackenzie Internet Security was a very good part time gig and she had shunted some business to her competitors as it was in order to head home but Mac knew she was the best and that when she was done dealing with things, her clients would return.

The problem was that Mac was growing bored with things but she had no idea what to do about it. Her company gave her the time and money to do all of the things she had longed to as a teenager but at the same time, she was getting tired of coming home to an empty loft.

She loved having Veronica around but someday her friend would pull her head out of her ass and straighten things out with Logan. She really didn't want them to be forty year olds with nothing to show for her life but a nice career and a great view.

As she passed through Ohio two days later, Mac heard her phone ringing and seeing the Balboa county area code, sent it to her voice mail. Arriving in Saint Louis, she saw another call from the same number and debated answer it but she knew it wasn't her family so she hit ignore.

Just outside Tuscan, she saw the third call and didn't even think before sending it to voice mail. Arriving two days later, she pulled over and listened to her voice mails glad she had taken the time to drive to Neptune.

She felt calm and at peace as she heard the first voice mail, this one from Veronica that ended with a threat to eat the secret stash of candy she had found.

The second call was a hang up. Realizing this was the number she hadn't recognized, she listened to the next which had some heavy breathing as if someone was trying to find the words then the third mystery call was a woman asking her to meet her when she arrived in Neptune at the new trauma center near the beach.

"What the heck?" She knew it wasn't about her father; he was doing as well as could be expected for a man who refused to listen to his doctor and eat healthier. Then she thought about it, what if it was Logan.

While he never sent Veronica anything, Mac would frequently receive post cards from out of the way beaches. She also knew that he had her listed as one of his contacts in case of emergency.

Driving over to the hospital, she found that it had valet parking and quickly handed over her keys while asking to be directed to the main desk. Arriving, she asked the woman "I am looking for Logan Echolls' room."

"Logan Echolls, is that with a k?" The woman asked and Mac tersely spelled out the last name. The woman did some typing then frowning said "We don't have a Logan Echolls listed."

"What about a John Doe?" Mac asked worried he had had a surfing incident and that no one knew his name but threw that idea out when she realized that someone here had called her. "No, never mind."

Taking out her cell phone and waving off the woman when she announced this was a no cell phone zone, Mac moved back to the doorway. "Hello?"

"Hi, this is Mac Mackenzie. Someone at this number called me regarding a Logan Echolls." She said.

"Logan? Dick's old friend?" The woman said.

"Yes, they called and told me to meet them at the Neptune Trauma Center." Mac announced.

The confusion going away the woman said "I will be right down; I am here at the hospital, I think there is a bit of miscommunication going on."

Mac sat down and waited for the husky voice woman to join her, her mind on what type of miscommunication there could be.

Kayla entered the lobby and saw the girl from the photo on her boss' desk and stopped dead. Her eyes went wide as she saw the young woman fiddling with her phone, clearly worried.

Moving forward she introduced herself and said "I am sorry that you misunderstood. My name is Kayla Northam; I am Dick Casablancas personal assistant. Dick had a bit of an accident and when I found his phone, I saw that your number was the last he had dialed."

"Dick? Why would Dick be calling me?" Mac asked then added "What did he do, fall off his surfboard."

Recalling her promise to her boss not to tell a single soul just yet what was going on, Kayla said "Would you have time to go upstairs and speak to him. It's rather important."

"Just tell him that I am sure he knows more about Logan's whereabouts than I do." Mac said firmly as she began to walk out the door.

"Ms. Mackenzie…" Mac turned and saw that the tall older woman wearing glasses and twisting her hands seemed upset so she returned. "Please, just speak to my boss."

"Fine, but I have to get to my parents house soon." Mac stated knowing that they wouldn't worry because they weren't expecting her to arrive until the next day.

Surprised when instead of heading to trauma they went to oncology, Mac was unable to process what she saw when she went into the room and saw Dick arguing with a doctor.

"I told you, I don't want the treatments. Listen, you are my doctor; I pay you to do what I want. So, just back off." Dick growled.

Hearing footsteps and hoping that Kayla had returned, Dick looked up and saw Mac. Mac standing there looking a bit wrinkled but still absolutely incredible. "M-mac?"

"Hey, hi, I mean hello, how are you?" Kayla who had followed her in saw the odd exchange and something clicked as she saw the way Dick seemed to be in stunned shock yet his eyes were taking in every detail of the young woman in front of him.

"Fine." Dick answered then scoffed when he saw her disbelief. "Guess I am not as a good a liar as I used to be. Uh, well turns out; karma is a bitch. I have cancer."

"Skin cancer?" She asked her mind on all of the times she had seen him at the beach without a shirt and more than likely with his skin exposed to the sun.

Blinking he asked "Why would you think that?"

"You used to spend a lot of time in the sun without a shirt, Dick." Mac pointed out.

Dick replied "No, not skin cancer. I did know to use sunscreen, Mac."

Mac waited for him to continue, was about to ask him when he finally spoke. "Turns out I have brain after all and that there are tiny microbes up there eating away at it. Funny huh, Dick Casablancas has brain cancer."

Taking in the news, Mac asked "When we came in, you were refusing treatment, why?"

"Why not?" He asked. Seeing her shock, he said "It's fatal Mac. There is no coming back from it."

"How?" She asked still trying to wrap her mind around the idea.

"I don't know, I guess the usual way. All I know is that a few weeks ago, my eyes started to hurt and I would get migraines. My dad mentioned that my great grandfather died of a brain aneurysm. The money I got from my trust, I inherited it when my granddad died of some cancer of the brain."

"I'm sorry, Dick." Mac said feeling a sense of surrealism as she listened to him speaking. "Is there anything I can do? Kayla mentioned you had called me, did you want me to locate Logan?"

"Logan will show up, it's how we are. No, I need to ask a huge favor of you." Dick said then looking at her decided that this wasn't the time or the place. "Would it be possible for you to have dinner with me tomorrow?"

"Let me get back to you." Mac saw him shutting down and reached out to touch his arm. "I am not brushing you off; I just need to see my dad. He had a stroke."

"Oh, I am sorry and here I am bothering you." Dick didn't want to put pressure on Mac; she clearly had enough to deal with without his adding to it.

"No, it's no bother." Mac said swallowing the lump in her throat as she patted his arm and began to back out of the room, needing air for some reason when she looked back and saw him sitting there being checked over by his doctor.

TBC