Title: The Return 40-Four
Rating: NC-17 (There's some naughty stuff at the end)
Word Count: 14,132
Characters/Pairings:Lilly I, Weevil, Parker, Piz, Veronica, Mac, Logan, Wallace, Dick, Madison, OMC (mentions: Celeste and Jake Kane, Duncan Kane, Keith Mars, Trina Echolls, Aaron Echolls, OFC, Lilly II)
Spoilers: All episodes (from 1.01: Pilot to 3.20: The Bitch Is Back. Just to be sure) Although this is obviously AU and there are obviously going to be some alterations to events and especially some in the last couple of episodes.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Literally, nothing. So don't sue me over this, because you won't get anything. It all belongs to Rob Thomas and if I had owned it when it was still on the last season would have been way different.

A/N: This takes place BEFORE chapter 37, kind of like a flash back to some important moments in the year between chapters 36 and 37. Remember that for when you're reading. Also, sorry this took so long to get posted, I've had the busiest month ever with weddings and funerals and festivals galore. Plus my computer deleted chapter 41&42 and while I have a lot of it still in my head I have to rewrite a large chunk of 41 (b/c about 80% was saved on an external drive) and all of 42. Hopefully that will get done in between An Ri Ra this week and the apple festival/celebration next weekend.

The Return

40

Four

Hour 1

18 January 2008 – 3:00pm

~Lilly~

She didn't seek him out. In fact she'd been actively avoiding him for the last two and half months, but there's only so much effort one can put into avoiding someone else when there's so much to do. She had assumed that the campus was big enough for her to meet her friends for a late lunch and not run into the one single person she was avoiding. Unless it was the simple act of avoiding him – if avoiding him was at all simple – that made the universe conspire against her by shoving her into his path. Literally. She'd probably have a bruise from the encounter of his shoulder slamming into hers.

"Oh, I'm sor–" Weevil began before cutting himself off and staring into her face for a moment. "Lilly? You go here now?"

She was still a little stunned at her poor luck. Poor timing? She didn't know which to blame for this, probably both, but she would probably take it out on Veronica later. After all, if Veronica wasn't so insistent that they meet on campus instead of at a restaurant this never would have happened. "Huh?" Oh God. It just slipped out, the dumb reply as if she hadn't heard him, understood. It was almost automatic these days, her uttering a small 'huh' before the question or statement fully set in. It's like how Dick always seems to say 'what?' immediately after you finish speaking and then rushes on as if that had never happened.

"Oh, I asked if you started going to Hearst? The new semester just started and…" He trailed off as she started to shake her head.

"No, I was supposed to meet Veronica thirty minutes ago. I've been standing here, feeling a bit ridiculous. I think I've been stood up." She explained and wished, for the hundredth but now more desperately, that Veronica would hurry up and get here.

"Okay, well… I'll see you around Lilly." Weevil said, awkwardly, before continuing on his way.

Lilly turned to watch him leave, she rested her hand on the side of her purse and felt the familiar buzzing of her cell phone. She pulled it out and saw a text message from Veronica. She'd gotten a mani-pedi that morning so she'd put her phone on silent and never took it off. It was the fourth text from her best friend and there were also two missed calls as well. The voicemails said she'd be late, but the texts, which had come after, said she'd have to push the lunch to a dinner because she was in the middle of something with her professor. Lilly texted back that she'd meet her at Mamma Mia's pizzeria at 7 and not to be late.

"Weevil! Wait up!" Lilly called before common sense could set in and she changed her mind. He stopped and turned and, to his credit, didn't look at all annoyed or confused. No impatience either, merely waited for her to catch up to him. "It turns out that Veronica can't make it for even a late lunch and we're meeting up later. You want to get some coffee? Catch up?"

It was a bad idea and she couldn't believe she'd gone through with it, asked him for coffee where she'd have to spend at least a few very awkward minutes 'catching up' with him. She prayed that he'd say no, that he was still working. Or was meeting someone. Or had an appointment. Anything, she just needed him to have a little common sense even if she'd lost all hers today.

"Sure. There's a coffee cart and a bench not too far from here." Weevil suggested starting to walk in the direction of said cart and bench before turning to look at her. "Unless you want to go in to the food court, get some there?"

"No. The cart is great." She was dumbfounded that he'd so readily agreed. After the last time they'd been near each other she'd have expected him to take the out and turn down the coffee. He'd never been one to bother with niceties, didn't care about being polite or sparing her feelings.

"Great. It's not too far from here." He led the way and they walked in awkward silence for a minute or two. She was quietly dying inside, the embarrassment of this walk coursing through her.

Oh, God. I hope he doesn't think I was asking him out. Isn't this how college kids date? Going for coffee? Technically, even though they were on a college campus, neither of them were actually in college. But they were 'college age' right? This is how people their age start dating, how adults begin a relationship. A cup of coffee today and dinner and sex tomorrow. I can't do that, I'm celibate for at least another three and a half months.

She was panicking and jumping, like, five hundred steps ahead of herself and him but she didn't think the whole thing through first. From this point on she was going to have to have Veronica vet every single thing she did, make sure that she wasn't unintentionally asking someone out. Was it even unintentional? Hadn't she been daydreaming about running into him even as she avoided it so diligently?

"Their coffee is really good, plus they've got this biscotti and these scones that a great afternoon tide-you-over kind of thing. I know what you're thinking, but I stop here most days after my shift for a cup of coffee and a scone for the drive home or to the garage or whatever." Weevil told her as he handed over cash to the guy at the cart and waited for his order. Did she miss him ordering? Panicked right through the walk and his ordering and everything?

"Yeah, a scone is kind of manly – in London – but… Biscotti, Weevil?" Lilly teased, trying to mask her discomfort and confusion and misplaced panic. He couldn't think it was a date because he hadn't paid for her and it was more her accompanying him, following him, on a coffee run he made almost everyday.

"I know, but Veronica actually started me on them. We met up for coffee a few times last year and it's at that point of day where she'd had lunch and it wasn't even close to dinnertime so she can't justify eating a whole meal so she buys a bunch of snacks. She shares… sometimes." Weevil explained and she could have sworn he was blushing a little. She didn't know if he was embarrassed about liking and ordering biscotti or if it was about meeting Veronica for coffee. Those meetings couldn't have been a date though, because she had never mentioned going on coffee dates with Weevil. But she did mention how Weevil and her would meet up so he could help her out on cases.

"So you help Veronica with her cases a lot, huh? That's cool. I haven't gotten the chance yet, but all this spy stuff sounds like a lot of fun." Lilly joked, still somewhat uncomfortable, as she followed Weevil to an empty bench.

"It sounds fun, but trust me, it's not exactly a laugh a minute. Veronica doesn't always get herself involved in the safe and easy cases. A lot of the time they're way more dangerous than she makes them sound." It was weird, he sounded like he was both scolding her for thinking what Veronica did was 'fun' and talking her best friend up. It sounded like he was a little in awe of her badassery. It's funny, but she seemed to have this affect on every single one of their friends, Logan more than anyone. She had always known that there was more lurking beneath the cotton candy surface of her best friend. Strapless red satin. An edgy haircut and taser in her purse.

"Trust me, I probably won't be invited on a stake out or anything anytime soon. Apparently I talk too much and I'm a bit of a distraction. Plus I don't think I'm what Logan had in mind when he said that she had to have someone there for protection on the dangerous cases. Although I think I could probably do a lot more damage than if she brought Piz along. He doesn't look like he does fisticuffs very well." Neither did she for that matter, but she could scratch and pull hair with the best of them.

"So how've you been?" Weevil asked, apparently done with the subject of Veronica and her spy work.

"Good, real good. I've been taking and completing equivalency exams for the Neptune public school district. They give me all this course work to study and then I take what would've been the end of the year exams for you after a couple weeks. My parents have hired tutors and, while my mother hates the fact that I've moved into a house with a bunch of college girls, they've all been really helpful with helping me with it all. Especially Mac and Veronica, who actually took the classes I'm trying to pass. In fact, Veronica is the one my mother hates but she's been the most helpful in getting me through the coursework and everything. Turned out she still had her notes from high school for me to study off of. I still have to do a bunch of these projects for different classes and, while she doesn't have the physical project anymore she does have all the notes and instructions and stuff, so it's been great. She won't let me cheat or anything, but she's been way more helpful than the tutors Celeste hired." She was rambling, she knew that. He was probably less than interested in how her school work was going. According to Veronica he'd passed all his classes only to be arrested at graduation.

"So you're adjusting?" She saw him glance at his watch, although it was discreet, as he asked the question.

"Yeah, pretty well." She took a deep breath, maybe she had been avoiding him but there was something she had been needing to say. "Look, I'm sorry about the last time we were… you know, around each other."

"You mean the road trip from hell?" Weevil asked and she swore she saw a hint of a smile.

"Yeah, that. I know I was a total bitch and completely impossible in that backseat and it wasn't like any of it was your fault. I mean, a VW Bug has what? The smallest backseat in the world? But after the entire trip and everything, that ride home was just… it was bad and I was upset and I felt completely justified for taking it all out on you." She had felt ashamed of this fact for the last couple months, regretting that she couldn't even sit in a backseat and behave like a normal twenty-one year old. She acted like a spoiled sixteen year old and, while Logan and Veronica and Duncan hadn't blamed her for her stunted maturity level, she knew that the others did. She was older than they were and they hadn't known her they way those three had, they didn't understand her personality or why she did the things she did. Mac and Dick had probably understood more than most but the only ones she got any leeway with weren't in that car and didn't witness her behavior.

"You know, it was a really stressful trip and it wasn't exactly fun and relaxing for me as V had promised it would be. I don't think anyone came back from that trip in a happy place. Besides Echolls and V because if there are any two people that can turn a melodramatic and miserable trip into a romantic getaway for two it's them." Maybe Logan and Veronica weren't the only ones that let her get away with things because they knew exactly how hard this was for her. Maybe Weevil understood her a little better than she ever thought he did.

"It's just… I want you to know that I'm sorry for it. The way I acted and the way I treated you in that car. I made a promise that I was going to change and grow up and not even twenty-four hours later I was acting like the same old brat. It wasn't fair to you and I know that." She felt sick to her stomach now. She hadn't gotten all that used to apologizing and this felt wrong, that he should be saying he was sorry to her for going off and sleeping with that girl but he wasn't and he shouldn't be because it'd been years and he was over her and she had no right to expect any different from him.

"It's fine Lilly, it's done and over and we can just forget it." He said it like he was passed the whole thing, but she'd seen his entire attitude toward her change the moment she had said she was sorry. She'd always stopped just short of apology with everyone else, except Veronica because she never did play that game, because she thought it was a sign of weakness. The admitting you're wrong thing always seemed like such a copout, that if you did something then you should stand behind it 100% and not apologize for it but, apparently, if you're wrong and you say you're sorry the other people actually appreciate it.

"So, what have you been up to? Anything interesting?" This was another new concept that she'd been working on. She'd always shown just enough interest in other people to entertain her but not enough to actually become invested. The only people she ever remembered listening to when they talked was Duncan and Veronica, and sometimes Logan. That's where Weevil surpassed Logan in the 'who did she mistreat more' contest. She had cheated on Logan but kept Weevil a dirty secret to torture her mother with at a later date, but she had actually listened to Logan when he spoke to her. She hadn't even bothered with Weevil most of the time because he wasn't supposed to be important, he was just a weapon in her pointless war against her mother.

"Well, it's not really all that interesting being a part of the maintenance crew at Hearst College. Maybe a little more interesting than most since this college involves murdered deans and has a girl detective as a student, but mostly it's just replacing light bulbs and that kind of crap. I work at my Uncle Angel's garage a bit after shifts and stuff, sometimes on the weekend. My car is pretty crappy but I've been rebuilding this old Mustang on the side, Angel lets me take parts and stuff if I help out a bit."

She had never realized he had an affinity for cars, just assumed that he'd always be on a bike and never thought that, maybe, being a biker wasn't what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He'd never talked about anything else, never mentioned school or college or any kind of goal so she just assumed he didn't have any. "So are you a muscle car aficionado now?"

"Not really, I just don't want to be driving a shitty car forever. I'm pretty good at the whole garage thing though, and I don't exactly want to be a janitor for the rest of my life. But it's good for now, I have to have a job for my parole and V went through all this trouble to get me the job. I actually helped the Sheriff out with some of the P.I. stuff for a couple days last year. I was pretty good at it, liked it, but I screwed up. Now I just help V with her stuff." She could see where he'd be good at the spy stuff, knowing the criminal mind the way he does.

"I bet you were real good the detectiving stuff. It's so weird thinking about you helping out Mr. Mars, or hanging out with Veronica. Back before I, you know, I don't think you guys even knew each other existed." It was so strange to think of her best friend who wore nothing but pastel cotton hanging out with her secret lover who wore nothing but black leather. The leader of a biker gang and the cotton candy princess of Neptune High, friends. Life had turned out more different than she could ever have imagined it would.

"Yeah, well, she helped me out with some stuff." He scuffed his foot along the ground and stared at the lid of his coffee cup. "And I did know who she was. Before. It was hard not to hear about her in that school, even before. She was your best friend and the Sheriff's daughter and one of the most popular girls in school. At Neptune High she was famous, just like you were. It wasn't just the fact that you were 09ers, it was a matter of the fact that everyone was obsessed with you and her and your whole little clique."

Her eyebrows raised involuntarily, shocked that he had paid any attention to gossip back then. That he had known exactly who her best friend was and that he seemed to have a tiny crush on her, even back then.

"Listen, Lilly, I have to get going. Like I said, I help out at Angel's after my shift here so if I don't get going now I'm going to be late." He stood and stared at her awkwardly for a minute, waiting for her to… what? "Uh… I'll see you later."

"Yeah, I'm going to wait for Parker to get out of class, but we should do this again sometime. You know, hang out. Like friends." Of course that was never going to happen because she was going to die of embarrassment as soon as he left.

"Yeah, that sounds good." He agreed awkwardly, but he gave her a slight smile before he turned and hurried toward what she assumed was his 'shitty' car.

She pulled out her phone and glanced at the time before shooting Parker a quick text about where to meet her when she got out of class. It was four so she had another fifteen minutes to wait, that was fine. She still had almost a whole cup of coffee and a scone to get through.

Hour 2

21 May 2008 – 8:00pm

~Parker~

"I'm bored." Lilly complained, once again, from beside her on the couch. It wasn't like this was concept for the two of them, they'd been complaining of boredom for the last three hours. Three hours ago they had started homework and studying and now, three hours later they were just as bored but without homework and neither could study anymore than they already had.

"We could go out." Parker suggested, again.

"Oh yes, lets go out and find a party and… wait, what exactly is there to do at eight on a Wednesday night?" Lilly shot down the suggestion just as easily as Parker knew she would. Wednesday wasn't a night for parties and fun, it was a night they usually sat home with Mac and Veronica and watched television. America's Next Top Model had already wrapped up last week and now their television viewing options were limited to reruns and News channels, so Mac and Veronica had ditched them in favor of their boyfriends.

"We don't have to go to a party. We could go to a movie or bowling or something." Even as she made the suggestions she knew that there was no chance either of them would be doing either of these things. There wasn't anything new in theaters that they hadn't already seen except for the recently released biopic of Aaron Echolls, written and produced by Trina Echolls. Parker had never met Trina, even when she was dating Logan, but he never had anything all that nice to say about her and Lilly talked about her like she was a joke and Veronica just changed the subject whenever she came up. According to her friends though, this move was highly unlikely to be anything any of them would enjoy. Secretly though, she and Piz had plans to go see it tomorrow night when all their friends were busy and they could get a glimpse at this great tragedy that has touched all their lives. Then they would never speak of it again.

"A movie? We could go see Into the Breaking Point, the true story about the rise and fall of movie star Aaron Echolls. God, I can't believe Trina actually went through with that crap." Lilly shook her head in annoyance. Logan and Veronica had seemed to brush off this particular brush with fame, they didn't' seem to care all that much. In fact Logan seemed to expect that his sister had made a movie about how wonderful their father was and how all these things had conspired against him in the end, before he was brutally murdered in his hotel room after being acquitted of two counts of attempted murder, assault charges and a whole other slew of charges that Parker couldn't remember. Lilly on the other hand raged against it at every possible opportunity and belittled Trina whenever Logan wasn't in the room.

"Okay, no movie but we could go bowling or mini-golf or something." Parker was desperate to get off the subject of the Aaron Echolls movie. Maybe she and Piz shouldn't go and see it. She knew what happened – basically – back then, she'd been filled in on most of the major details by various members of the group. She still wanted to see the movie though. It was like a train wreck, a tragedy that was just so big and gory, she just couldn't not go and stare at it for a couple hours. She remembered reading about it in the tabloids, and when she'd finally realized at the end of that first year at college that she was not only going to school with but friends with two of the major players she'd barely stopped herself from calling every friend she had in high school and gossip about it. Then she'd realized how that would look to them, even though she had broken up with Logan and wasn't on the greatest of terms with Veronica by then, it would still look pretty bad if she went bragging about how she knew and dated Logan Echolls, son of movie star and attempted murderer.

"I can't believe that people actually went to see that movie. Number one at the box office last weekend! Can you believe that? And Logan and Veronica keep telling me to just ignore it but how can someone ignore an entire movie about what a slut they are? You know that's what Trina made it seem like, and I know that the girl's name isn't Lilly Kane, but come on! Rose Lane? Everyone knows what she was getting at, everyone knows who that's supposed to be. Veronica actually thinks it's funny that the pseudonyms are so basic." Lilly continued to rant. Parker had heard that Lilly and Veronica and Logan had all refused to sign the release so Trina could use their names, so Trina had had to change all their names, although Logan was supposedly really difficult about it. Rose Lane. Vanessa Mercury. Landon Echolls.

"Lilly! Bowling? Golfing? Pick something." Parker interrupted, unable to focus on the movie anymore. She wouldn't go. She's the one that had talked Piz into it so he'd probably be more relieved than put out. Her curiosity didn't extend far enough to deal with the fallout if any of her roommates found out about her voyeuristic need to see the movie based on their lives.

"Neither. I've never bowled in my life and I am so not boring enough to golf. No matter how bored I am." Lilly sat back in the couch and let out a huff of either annoyance or boredom, Parker didn't know but she mimicked the sound.

"Then I'm out of suggestions. What do you got?" There was a time when she was the life of the party and, according to legend, Lilly too. They were supposed the fun ones and now here they were, home alone and bored, boyfriendless. "How is it that we don't have boyfriends? That we're single?"

"I don't know. We're the only ones in the groups not currently involved. Except for Piz.." Lilly groused, turning to flop against the armrest of the couch and swinging her feet up onto Parker's lap. "Maybe we should call into Piz's radio show and harass him about it, meet up with him afterwards? I don't know if he'll have anything better to do than just hang out but bugging him will give us something to do."

"Actually, no. We could call and bug him on the radio, but he's dating this girl named Nikki. They're going out after his show tonight." Parker informed Lilly as she lifted the stereo remote and flipped it on, it was already tuned to the college station. Piz's voice came through the speakers.

"Whatever, I'm calling and bugging him anyway." Lilly decided as she sat up and looked around for her phone. "What's he talking about tonight?"

"I don't know… give it a second." Parker turned the radio up for a second, listening to Piz. He's in the middle of a sentence about women's rights in the current presidential election and how these topics seem to be rolled out for election years and then practically forgotten while in term.

"Excellent." Lilly said evilly, doing an incredible Mr. Burns impression as she snatched up her phone off the coffee table and pressed her speed dial for the station. This had become her habit, calling in to harass Piz on whatever topic he had chosen for the night. Most times she actually got on the radio and sometimes Piz cut off the call when he realized it was Lilly on the other line. Last week she had taken on a fake British accent when Piz had the misfortune of discussing the upcoming Aaron Echolls biopic. According to Piz his producer had basically demanded that it be that night's subject and Lilly had had a field day with it until they went to commercial and Piz had disconnected her.

"You know, I think I'll play, too." Parker announced sliding her own phone out of her pocket. She didn't call in as often as Lilly did but Piz hung up on her way less than he hung up on Lilly.

"It's ringing." Lilly whispered as she turned the radio down. Parker heard Lilly go through the introduction as she spoke to the show producers and was put through to the call list. Lilly almost always got through to the call list, it wasn't until she was actually on the radio that she got cut off. Parker often wondered if the producers liked to torture Piz with Lilly calls, if they warned him at all. Probably not if his groan every time her voice came over the line was any indication.

"Hi." Lilly's voice came from both beside her and over the stereo speakers.

"Hi Lilly." Piz groaned out over the speakers just as Parker's call was answered on the other line, a faceless voice greeting her.

"Hey. I'm calling about the women's rights discussion on Piz's show." She explained, the same way Lilly did sometimes. Sometimes Lilly just called and said her name and she was put through.

"I'll put you through to the call list but I don't know how long it'll be before he gets to the call. Can I get your name?" The guy asked and she smiled as Lilly got more and more worked up in her discussion with Piz.

"Parker Lee." She told the him and he switched her over to hold. Parker always liked being put on hold for the college station because they played the show while you waited to be put on the air. No boring muzak for their callers.

"Parker, you're on the air." Piz said in her ear, to the average listener they would think she was just any other caller but to her – and all their friends – they could hear his annoyance with both of them and the hope that maybe she'd be able to reign Lilly in a bit. No chance. "Maybe you can clarify for Lilly that I was not doubting the importance of women's rights but really saying that trotting them out for election year could be deemed insulting."

Parker returned Lilly's grin, she took a deep breath and began. "Actually, the part I find insulting is the insinuation that during the three term years that are not an election year this subject is forgotten. It isn't though, we're always having to defend our rights to our own bodies and our say in what happens to them. We are always dealing with the objectification of women, on a daily basis, it's only because you don't have to personally deal with it that you don't notice it."

"Did he cut me off?" Lilly whispered to Parker, her hand covering the mouthpiece of her cell phone. Parker shook her head, she didn't think that Piz had cut Lilly off.

"That's not what I meant–" Piz started but was quickly interrupted by Lilly.

"That's what it sounded like, that you think that the subject goes away just because it's not headline news at the moment. For women though, the subject is never far from the surface." Lilly told him, her voice raising an octave by the time she reached the end of her statement.

"It's not something you have experience with, obviously, because you're not a woman and yet you continue to discuss the issue as if you have first hand knowledge. As a white male, you're what society is built around, you're what society helps to succeed. Women, on the other hand, while they can depend on intelligence to a point, it's suggested in media and in day to day life that what really helps a woman is if she's pretty. The pretty ones are the ones that get the jobs because a pretty girl gets all the breaks."

"So basically, what you're saying, Parker, is that if I want to be a scientist I should look no further than the porn shop where I can buy a sexy scientist outfit?" Lilly asked, now too caught up in what she was saying to remember to keep her volume in check and Parker could hear Lilly's voice echo on the radio as it traveled through both her cell phone and Parker's.

"Are the two of you sitting next to each other?" Piz asked as Parker got up and moved into the kitchen.

"No. But that wasn't what I was saying, exactly, it's just that if you're pretty you have an added edge. Studies have shown that men, when the candidates are equally qualified, they'll choose to hire the 'prettier' one instead of the one they'd deem most competent." Parker explained.

"Are you saying that women never let a pretty face affect their judgment?" Piz challenged.

"I'm saying that women aren't as known for letting it affect their professional judgment as men are. It's a much more common occurrence for men to do hire the pretty girl than it is for women to hire a pretty boy. It's only in our personal lives that we let sexual attraction supersede our judgment." She heard Piz sigh and Lilly take a deep breath at the same time.

"I'd have to agree with Parker, to a point. It's true that men let the little head do most of the thinking whether in the professional or the personal realm, but women judge attraction on a different level. Women are more likely to go with the competent man because women are, inherently, attracted competency. They're attracted to a type of man that can, potentially, take care of them." Lilly argued back.

"But the point is, ladies, that the issue of abortion rights is brought up most specifically during election year. It has been consistently and it's not the only issue that gets top billing during the campaign period, keep that in mind. A big hot topic this year is the issue of gay rights and same-sex marriage, almost eclipsing the abortion issue." Piz shot back over the radio, obviously desperate to get off the subject of women and objectification. It was probably a good thing because at some point in this conversation either her or Lilly were going to bring up the fact that he and Wallace are often found staring at the sunbathers on the southeast lawn. Disgusting.

"Are you discussing that disgusting piece of legislature? Prop Hate? Because I've written in about this." Lilly demanded and Parker shut her eyes and took a deep breath. Piz should have known better than to bring up gay rights to Lilly. She was actively participating in the protests against Prop 8 and she had dragged all them to protest meetings at some point or another.

"I know you've written in about it Lilly. And as soon as you're a student here at Hearst I'd be happy to have you on the show to talk about your views, but you'll have to wait until then." Poor Piz, Parker thought. She could hear the exasperation in his voice.

"You know Piz, you don't have to have Lilly on to put it out there. There's several on campus groups and organizations that arrange protests and the like. Not to mention the there's a group on campus that I'm sure would be more than happy to participate in an on-air debate for your show." Parker suggested, now trying to become the mediator between the two. Piz and Lilly had been arguing about this for weeks, about his refusal to pander to Lilly's requests to go on air to publicly bash the legislation just because she's a friend.

"Thank you, Parker. I think that's a great idea. I could put you into contact with several members of the on-campus gay rights organization that I'm involved in, despite the fact that I am not yet a student." Lilly offered with such a syrupy sweetness that Parker knew that every listener had to know what she did: that it was feigned sweetness. She was getting what she wanted with an on-air debate, but she obviously still thought she was the most qualified to lead the pro side of the gay rights debate on Hearst campus radio.

"Thank you, Lilly, I'd appreciate that." Piz was obviously not going to acknowledge the challenge in Lilly's tone. He was finally learning. "We're going to go to commercial and then a small music break before we continue taking callers."

Parker heard the sound of a familiar PSA for the campus safe ride program start up and she returned to the living room.

"Is there really nothing else the two of you can do on a Wednesday night than to call and harass me?" Piz complained over the phone. They weren't on-air any longer but obviously still connected to the station.

"Actually, I plan my entire week around your show Piznarski. I mean, how are you going to finally let me on your show if I don't show my dedication week after week?" Lilly asked, her taking on that sweet tone that rang so completely false to anyone that really knew her at all.

"Plus I can't just let you on here to rail against something for an hour. It would only be fair for me to invite Campus Christians for a Pure America to the show to share their point of view." He couldn't leave it there, could he? Parker thought as she heard Lilly gear up for another rant.

"Stosh Piznarski, don't you dare bring those religious nut jobs on there. All they do is quote the bible and anything you have to say against them is either not Christian or they say God will sort you out come judgment day. There's no middle ground for them, everything is either their way – which they claim is God's way – or it's hell for you." Lilly yelled into her phone and Parker felt Piz's cringe as well as her own at the use of his full name. It was funny how Lilly preferred to use someone's first and last names when she addressed them.

"She has a point Piz, the CCPA isn't exactly capable of a decent debate because they don't allow for any deviation from what they perceive as God's plan, you might want to try one of the less extreme organizations on campus." Parker suggested, again relegated to the role of mediator.

"I'll think about it." It was the best they were going to get from Piz tonight. No matter how much he tried to hide it, the fact was that he was annoyed at both of them for calling in with such frequency. These were topics that they debated as a group, often, and he probably didn't think it was totally necessary for them to call in and practically take over his show. The one thing he had outside the group. "I'm disconnecting you both now. I'll have five or ten minutes of show left after the commercials and song and I'd like to give the other callers a chance to vent their own opinions about the subject matter of tonight's show."

Parker winced at the formality of his words, of his tone. They'd probably get a call from him later, after the show but before his date, where he'd attempt to bitch them out. It never really worked out for him, though. Lilly always found it so funny when he yelled, she said it was like watching an angry puppy: cute but not at all intimidating. Still, Parker hated it when they made him mad. It was never really her intention to upset him, and it was probably mostly Lilly that did the upsetting, but she always felt guilty that he was upset and they couldn't just let him have this one thing away from them. They couldn't just let him escape them and their opinions and let him go be whoever he wanted to present to his listeners.

She and Lilly hung up their phones at the same time and glanced at each other before Lilly leaned forward for the stereo remote. For all the teasing they did, and they did a lot of teasing, they enjoyed Piz's show for the most part. Sometimes he went off on tangents about things none of them really cared about, bands that none of them had ever heard of, and his topics weren't always something they felt strongly about, but in the end they all supported him. They all listened. Mac and Veronica might be with their boyfriends right now, and Wallace with Tamsin, but Parker knew that they were all tuned in and listening to their friend. It'd taken them all a while but they were a unit now, friends and supporters and allies. Weevil was probably even listening while he worked on that old car in his garage.

Lilly flopped back into the couch cushions before looking over at Parker. "So Parker Lee, what do we do now?"

Hour 3

20 July 2008 – 9:00 am

~Veronica~

The boxes looked heavy. Really heavy. She wondered, briefly, what exactly it was that Piz had acquired in the last year that was so cumbersome. She couldn't remember anything in their dorm room looking particularly heavy when she had visited it last. Of course that had been months ago and she'd only stayed a minute while Wallace finished getting ready for their BFF night of pizza, talking and surveillance.

It definitely looked heavy and awkward. "What do you think is in there that's so heavy?" She asked aloud to her couchmates.

"I don't know, but it looks like it requires two people to carry it." Mac replied, nodding along with Veronica as they sat and watched as Piz struggled with the large – and apparently heavy – box.

"I hope it's not breakable." Lilly added. "If he drops it, and it breaks, I'm not cleaning up the mess. He's the one that packed it up, he should have known better."

"I think someone should help him." Parker's voice was concerned and she actually leaned forward, her back coming off the couch cushions in a gesture that suggested that she might be the one to get up to help. "He looks like he needs help."

"You know, I can hear you, right?" Piz asked, his voice strained as he continued to struggle with the large box. "And I could use a little help."

"Okay." Veronica said and he looked over at her, hopeful. Silly boy, she hadn't even moved her own stuff when she'd moved into the room he was claiming. Or when she'd moved out of it six weeks ago. "Logan!"

She heard her boyfriend's footsteps thunder up the front steps of the house before he appeared in the front doorway. "Yeah?" He asked, looking at Piz, scanning the room and, finally, landing on her… lounging on the couch with her feet up on the coffee table Lilly had stolen from the expertly decorated second living room of the Kane Estate seven months ago. "If you ask me to get you a glass of water I swear to God I will pour it over your head." He sounded perturbed.

"Piz needs help." She said it innocently, smiling at him. She bit her lip a little bit, tilted her head and watched as any annoyance he'd had completely melted away. They were in the honeymoon state of living together and he couldn't stay mad at her for long. She didn't know when the honeymoon would end and they'd find a balance where they didn't let each other get away with every single thing, so she was determined to take advantage of this for as long as possible.

"Okay, baby." He said, giving her one of those secret smiles that she was only just learning. Normally he would have responded with a little of his trademark sarcasm and wit, asking her if her legs were broke. But instead he turned to Piz and took half the weight of the troublesome box. "What the hell is in here?"

"My text books." Piz responded matter-of-factly.

"And?" Logan prompted, because there was no way that all that was in there was books.

"Some stereo equipment." Again, Piz's responded as if it was obvious what was in the box.

"And?" Logan asked again, backing up the stairs.

"Some blankets to pad the stereo stuff from banging too much against my amp." Piz explained before a look of realization came over his face. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh." There was the sarcasm she loved so much. "Just because it fits doesn't mean that it should all go in."

All four of the girls burst out laughing as the two boys slowly made their way up the stairs, bickering all the way.

"You think that we should help?" Parker asked, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, watching the front door for Wallace even though she knew he was unloading his car at the back and through the kitchen so he could go right into the basement. The basement that Veronica had sort of converted into a dark room at the beginning of spring semester when she'd started her new photography class. Hopefully she'd gotten all her equipment out of there, most of the stuff she had in the dark room at her and Logan's place was new and already in there when he'd surprised her with it. She had to have the best boyfriend ever, surprising her with a newly built, state-of-the-art dark room a couple days before she moved in.

"Nah. The boys can get it. There's five of them, in and out of the house, back and forth to the cars. We'd just get in the way, adding four more to the fray." Veronica said and Parker eased back into the couch between the armrest and Lilly. Didn't take much to convince her.

"You mean four?" Lilly corrected.

"No, there's five." Veronica assured her best friend that was more like a sister than ever before, after having lived together for six months before Veronica finally broke down and agreed to move in with Logan at the end of their second year at Hearst.

"No. Logan, Piz, Wallace and Dick." Lilly counted each of the boys off on a her right hand before holding out four raised fingers, her thumb tucked into the hollow of her palm. "Four."

"And Weevil. He came showed up right after us with a carload of stuff. Piz has been storing his dorm stuff in Weevil's garage while he was up in Beaverton visiting his parents and getting the rest of his stuff." Veronica explained, seeing a change in Lilly's posture when she mentioned Weevil.

She had been hoping that Lilly had finally let all the Weevil stuff go. Veronica had honestly thought Lilly had moved on. She was dating a guy she'd met on campus at the end of last year. She and Parker had their new radio show that they were starting next week. She was even taking a couple classes over the summer to try and get a head start on her general courses. When, and why, did she have time to pine for Eli Navarro?

"Weevil's here?" Lilly's voice was breathier than normal as she brushed her hair behind her ears and glanced back toward the kitchen where they could hear Wallace and someone coming in with boxes, laughing. They could all tell it was Dick's laugh, but Lilly still looked hopefully towards the voices. Veronica watched as Lilly bit her lip and leaned back over the couch, arching her back ever so slightly as she tried to see down the hall and into the kitchen. It was impossible. Veronica had tried it about a billion times when she lived here and was always curious about what exactly Logan was doing in the kitchen when he was over.

"Yeah. Probably out front though, since he's got Piz's stuff, not Wallace's. Wallace kept his stuff at his mom's place while he was, you know, staying there." Veronica stared sternly at Lilly. She had a boyfriend and had made a promise last year to let this Weevil thing drop. To leave him alone and let him just be over her because they'd decided, together, that she'd already put him through enough.

Lilly's head whipped back around to look at Veronica, her body falling back into it's indentation on the couch. Her face was stubbornly blank but Veronica could see the guilt in her eyes. She was still trying not to, but also trying, to get to Weevil. To get him to remember why he'd been with her in the first place, what he felt before and that even though she hadn't reciprocated his feelings then and had hurt him pretty badly, that she was still here and open to the possibility of revisiting their affair.

"I thought you were through with that." Veronica tried to soften her voice a little, tried not to sound too stern but at the same time get her message across to Lilly. I thought you weren't going to try and mess with his head anymore.

"Well, it's easy to say it." It's totally hard and difficult and impossible to actually follow through with what you say. Veronica could hear the rest of the statement, she saw it echoing out of Lilly's eyes. She could understand it. Hadn't she made the same kind of statements about Logan? Hadn't she found it just as impossible to follow though, to give up on him and whatever they had always been to each other? She knew how hard it could be.

"You've made steps, come so far." You're dating again. You have a well rounded life that doesn't revolve around your next scandal, around the different ways you can piss Celeste off. She would hate to see Lilly come so far only to fall back into the mess again. To fall back into the bad habits she'd had.

"I'm not going back." This is just a hiccup, a lingering feeling. I'm not going to let it go any further. Lilly's eyes pleaded with her to understand this, that the friendship she'd forged with Weevil was just that. Friendship. Veronica had been shocked when they'd started talking again, even going so far as having coffee once in a while to catch up and hang out. It had seemed like a bad idea, at the time, but Lilly had insisted that they could be just friends and nothing more. It was starting to seem like a bad idea again.

"Does it seem like we're missing something in the conversation." Mac asked from Veronica's left, leaning forward so she could look around Veronica and Lilly to see Parker.

"MacKenzie, you're always missing something." Lilly joked, her voice tense from the non-conversation she and Veronica had just had.

All four of them laughed at the joke and, thankfully, the tension was gone and they were back to hanging out.

"What- You-" They heard Wallace stutter from behind them and she felt herself, and the other three girls, cringe at his voice and the accusation in it.

He stomped around the couch and Veronica knew that she could head tilt and smile her way out of this because Wallace never did fall for that. He was always stubbornly resistant to her tricks.

Standing before them, hands on his hips and a stern look, he looked amusingly like his mother. Veronica remembered the same stance and the same expression on Alicia's face as she stood in front of her son and his best friend while they watched movies and made a mess. Her tricks hadn't worked on Alicia either and she'd always been the one to have to pick popcorn out of the seat cushions while Wallace wielded the vacuum.

"And what, pray tell, do the four of you think you're doing?" Wallace demanded and Veronica swore that she felt the couch sink a few inches into the ground under his weighty stare.

"Hanging out?" Parker said, her words lilting up at the end to make it sound more like a question than a statement. Veronica glanced over to see Parker's shoulders up around her ears as she looked guiltily up at Wallace.

"As I recall that wasn't what we were gathered here for. I thought we were all going to pitch in and get this moving thing out of the way, get all the boxes into the house." Wallace's eyes traveled over the four girls and the couch sunk a couple more inches.

"But we've all been so busy lately, we just need a minute to catch up." Parker's voice wasn't any stronger than it had been a minute ago. Veronica knew she hated to let people down, and she had been pestering them about getting up and helping.

"If you could give us a couple more minutes Wallace, we would probably be a lot more helpful if we got all the gossip out of the way." Lilly's voice was stronger than Parker's had been, but she was obviously a little thrown by such a stern Wallace.

"If ifs and buts were candy and nuts we'd all have a Merry Christmas." Wallace repeated his mother's old saying, completing the effect and Veronica had a hard time keeping the laugh in. She could see the strain around Wallace's mouth, he was having a hard time keeping this up. He just needed one little push…

"I still don't get what that means." Veronica said, looking right in his eyes as she raised an eyebrow and smirked.

That was it. Wallace burst out laughing before cramming himself onto the couch between Mac and Veronica, throwing his arms over both girls. "Me neither."

Parker looked confused and still a little guilty over her lack of help, her shoulders slowly easing down to their normal position. She was going to give in, Veronica knew it. Parker was going to get off the couch and go help the boys move into the house.

"You know, I always did kind of like this big ole house that you girls moved into. Reminds me of my old house up in Chicago. Although I don't remember there being this many girls in that house." Wallace reminisced as he propped his feet up on the coffee table next to Veronica's.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Dick asked, suddenly standing in front of the couch, glaring at Wallace. He looked sweaty and annoyed, probably didn't want to spend the day helping his friends move into their rooms. Especially since he and Logan had had to cut their surf short this morning in order to meet up with them.

"I'm trying out the girls' way of moving, it looked a hell of a lot more fun." Wallace explained, giving Veronica a look that made her slightly more guilty than the sternness he'd faked earlier. "After all, this is how Veronica got moved in and out of this place."

"Oh, well then…" Dick said as he flopped back into the lounge chair across from the couch. "Do the boxes just float in by themselves or is there a ghost situation going on?"

Dick's eyebrows were raised in question and he was looking at her for the answer. Wallace looked at her expectantly as well and Veronica barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes at them. Their jokes weren't quite as funny as they thought they were.

"I don't remember, I didn't pay all that much attention but if memory serves you were both there," she pointed at her best friend and her boyfriend's best friend before continuing. "Do you remember any ghosts? Did they help you with the boxes?"

"Oh, that's right. They don't move themselves." Wallace exclaimed like it was a suddenly new concept to him, that it took physical labor to move into a new place.

"Oh, fine then. I'll help." Veronica said to the boys indulgently, pushing up off the couch and walking towards the front door.

"Um, V? My stuff is out back." Wallace informed her, getting off the couch himself. His head jerked in the direction of the kitchen and the backdoor and, what she assumed, the general direction of the car and his stuff.

"I said I'd help, didn't say I'd help you." Veronica smirked at him as Logan game barreling down the stairs. He stopped at the bottom, his arm wrapping around her waist as he turned himself to face the rest of the group.

"What's going on?" He asked her as his other arm wrapped around her, pulling back against him as his chin settled down on her shoulder.

"Wallace is trying to guilt trip and Dick is nagging, you know, the usual." She said in a light voice. Mac stood and tugged at Dick's hand until he stood up next to her.

"Is there a reason I'm the only one outside moving stuff?" Weevil's voice came from behind her and Logan and the entire group of friends seemed to turn towards him simultaneously. He had two boxes, one under each arm, and looked rather annoyed with that fact. "Y'all taking a break? This ain't a one man Mexican moving company."

"No, we were just discussing who was all going to help Wallace and who was going to help Piz. We're coming." Veronica told him, giving him a reassuring smile. He was being nice enough to give up his morning off to come and help, she didn't want him to think that it wasn't appreciated.

Piz chose that moment to come down the stairs, walk over to the couch and flop down between Wallace and Lilly, taking Veronica's recently vacated spot. "Man, that box was heavy."

Logan's arms slipped out from around Veronica and he went back outside to grab a few more boxes. Wallace, Dick and Mac headed towards the back of the house to continue unloading Wallace's stuff. Parker eased herself off the couch, gave Weevil a tight smile and headed out front too. Lilly remained resolutely on the couch, her feet propped up on her mother's second favorite coffee table, studying her nails with a nonchalant air of indifference.

"You ain't helpin', Kane?" Weevil asked from the doorway, his eyebrows raised in question. It was some new, weird thing he had, calling her Kane instead of her first name. Like it made them more friends than former lovers if he did the guy thing and called her by her last name.

"I don't think so, Navarro." Veronica heard the barely contained annoyance in her voice as she said his last name. She did not enjoy being called Kane. "I'm already going to have to live with them, and in Piz's case work with him, do I really have to move them in too? Am I not sacrificing enough?"

"It wasn't my idea to let you and Parker on the radio. If it was up to me you'd both be banned from calling in to the station. Instead the manager thinks you're both so cute and need your own show." Piz complained, yet again, that his producer and the station manager had decided that the girls needed their own show. Apparently they helped with ratings whenever they were on and the producers were impressed how they could argue with each other without it getting too heated. Lilly would get passionate and Parker would reign her in when necessary. They were able to discuss politics, religion, movies, celebrities and school policy without getting too annoying. They're show was, conceptually, an hour long talk radio show where they'd play some Top 40 in the middle of the afternoon. The part that Piz was most annoyed with though was the fact that they were combining it with his Wednesday night show. He'd be on air five days a week now, but he had to share the show with two of his new roommates.

"Get over it Piznarski. Or at least save it for the air waves." Lilly pushed at him with her foot. She would never admit it but she had a soft spot for Piz, no matter how much she denied it. When she, Parker and Mac had agreed to let Wallace and Piz move into the Big House she had told Veronica that it would be just like having a puppy. One that could potentially change the light bulbs, get the stuff off the top shelves in the kitchen and finally fix that annoying leak in the upstairs bathroom. Veronica hadn't had the heart to tell her that it was more likely that the light bulbs would need changing because neither he nor Wallace ever turned off the lights, the stuff on the top shelf would be gone because they ate like they'd never seen food before and neither boy would go near that leak because the tampons were kept under that particular sink.

Veronica left Lilly and Piz to continue arguing and followed Weevil outside to help with the boxes. She rubbed her hands together in faux anticipation as she reached the car where Logan and Parker stood, pulling boxes out. "What can I do?" Her enthusiasm sounded just as fake as it felt.

"Here." Logan said as he handed her a pile of pillows.

She hadn't really been looking forward to lugging boxes up and down the stairs but she was a little insulted by this offering of pillows. "I can take more than that." She said indignantly, scowling at her boyfriend as he pulled another box out of the back of her car.

Piz had stored a bunch of his stuff in Logan's garage after his parents had brought a load down right before finals week. Apparently they were moving into a smaller house and there wasn't any room for most of Piz's stuff, he'd picked up the rest when he'd gone up to stay for a couple weeks.

"Okay, if you insist." Logan piled a blanket on top of Veronica's pile of pillows before he leaned forward, gripped her shoulders and kissed her forehead before turning her towards the house and lightly patting her on the ass. "Off you go."

Her jaw dropped in shock and indignation, but she could hear Logan chuckling behind her and she knew he was expecting her to turn and yell at him. Instead she marched up the front walk and stairs, pounding her feet and making as much noise as she could. Piz passed her on his way out of the house but he didn't say a word, merely raised his eyebrows as he tried to avoid running into her.

"Wow, Veronica, way to really strain yourself." Lilly commented sarcastically from the couch then laughed at Veronica's answering growl of indignation.

She trudged up the stairs toward the smallest bedroom that had been previously occupied by Mac. When Veronica had moved out the three remaining girls had played a game of musical bedrooms. When they had moved in originally they'd numbered the bedrooms and then pulled numbers out of a hat to see who got which room. Veronica had lucked out with the larger bedroom that had a connecting bathroom. Parker had gotten the second largest, Lilly the third and Mac the smallest. When Veronica had moved out they'd sort of rotated. Parker moved into Veronica's old room, Lilly into Parker's and Mac into Lilly's leaving the tiny upstairs bedroom open for one of the boys. Wallace had claimed the basement and Piz got stuck upstairs in a little room surrounded by girls.

Veronica threw the pillows and blanket onto the bed before turning and running right into Parker and Logan. Parker teetered slightly with her box and Logan dropped his in order to stop Parker from falling. "Hope that wasn't anything important." Logan mumbled as he slid his box just inside the bedroom door with his foot. Parker gently set her box on the desk in the corner of the room.

Logan headed back downstairs, glancing at his watch. "Veronica, we better get going if we're going to pick the Munchkin up by Celeste's designated time. You know how she gets when we're late, ranting and raving about how we don't take it seriously and," Logan's voice took on a higher register in what had officially become his Celeste's-a-bitch voice, "what was Duncan thinking letting two troublemakers like us have access to his baby girl."

"Okay, let's just make sure everything is out of the back of my car. We have to run by the house to grab her booster seat or we'll get an earful about that, too." Veronica told him as she followed him out of the house, jogging to her car.

Hour 4

22 September 2008 – 7:00pm

~Mac~

He had tried. That's what counted, right? Dick had tried to make their anniversary as special as possible, no matter how much it hadn't worked out. Her class had run late so they hadn't mad their six-thirty reservations and now they couldn't get into her favorite restaurant until nine and that conflicted with the movie showing he'd already bought tickets for. The earlier showing had sold out and the only other showing that had any tickets available didn't start until nearly eleven and she had an eight o'clock Tuesday morning.

"So, should we wait to eat at nine or should we eat now and go to the movie at eight?" Dick asked, looking at her with a sad little smile. He'd been so excited to make the one year mark, he'd been planning their night for over a week and she had ruined it with her stupid advanced computer theory class that she hadn't even really wanted to take because it seemed like such a colossal waste of time. She should have taken it last year but she'd been hoping that she could just skip it even though it was required for her major. Then her professor had lectured on and on and on, as if it was the most important thing you'd ever have to know about computer programming, the theory of it. That class ran consistently late every week and she couldn't bring herself to get up and leave while the professor was still talking even though it was going on three years of college and she'd seen others do it quite often.

"Well, I'm famished. We can eat there another night, maybe this weekend when we don't have to worry so much about time." Mac knots her fingers with his, smiling at him so he won't feel so bad about the night not going as he'd planned. He didn't often plan anything more than an early morning surf trip with Logan or when to meet Mac for lunch, it wasn't his style, so when he'd planned the evening out it'd made it even more special. More important because Dick wasn't just going to 'wing it' like he did most everything else.

"You want to hit the food court then? It's not the most romantic place to eat, but they have all the vegan stuff and we'll still be able to make the movie." Dick suggested. They were still standing, hand in hand, outside the building her computer theory class had been in, right where he'd said he'd meet up with her after his own Intro to Business Law ended at five-thirty. Poor Dick had waited outside, in the dark, for nearly an hour before Mac and the rest of her class came pouring out of one of the side doors.

"Sure." She liked the eggplant lasagna that they served at the Italian place and the sweet potato fries and garden burgers they served at the vegetarian place across from that. Dick could have all the fried chicken and steak-on-a-stick he wanted also and they'd both be happy. It may not be romantic but they'd both get what they wanted and they'd be able to eat it together. There was probably champagne at home, legally obtained by Dick's completely legit ID since he'd turned twenty-one a little over two weeks ago. They could be romantic when they got home, right now she just needed food and to vent a little about her stupid class and her stupid professor and his inability to keep track of time.

It wasn't a long walk to the food court, as easy as walking straight across the lawn and into the side door of the student union. Dick set her down at a table and offered to go get their food – the eggplant lasagna, which seemed better suited t the occasion than a burger and fries – and drinks. She smiled and watched him walk off before she slid out of her chair and walked over to the glass fronted radio booth where Parker and Lilly were sitting, covering for one of the other deejays who apparently was sick this week. Lilly waved her to come in as Parker got up to open the door for her. Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl' faded into the Ting Tings 'Shut up and Let Me Go' as Mac entered the booth.

"Hey, I thought you guys were eating at some fancy restaurant tonight?" Parker asked at the same time that Lilly said "Don't tell me Dick is too cheap to take you somewhere other than the food court for your big night."

"No, my class ran late so we missed our reservations. We can't get in until nine now and Dick has tickets for that movie we were all going to see on Friday but it was sold out. We can't see it earlier so we're going to eat here and then the movie at eight." Mac explained, leaning against the wall as she watched Dick through the big glass window. He was still waiting for her lasagna and whatever he was getting, holding a tray with just two sodas sitting on it. She glanced over at their book bags sitting at their empty table, keeping their space for only as long as it took for the other tables to fill up.

"That sucks." Parker and Lilly said at the same time. They were spending way too much time together.

"I better get back to the table before Dick gets back or one of our bags get stolen." Mac shoved off the wall and headed to the door. "I'll see you guys tomorrow, kay?"

"Yeah, there's another song set up after this but we'll dedicate one to you and Dick after that." Lilly offered, already scanning a song list for something appropriate and Parker was getting up to walk her to the door.

"Sorry your night isn't going as planned." Parker said softly, giving Mac a tight conciliatory smile before giving her a hug goodbye. Mac thought it was funny that after two years among the emotionally retarded Neptune elite, Parker still felt the need to give comfort hugs. It was one of the best things about her, even if she never did get a return hug.

She walked quickly back to the table and slid into her seat just as Dick turned and headed for their table, a tray laden with her lasagna, his pasta, two sodas and what looked like a very large slice of chocolate cake.

"Mmm… cake. Are we going to start with that? Veronica always says that dessert should come before the meal, otherwise you're too full to enjoy it." Mac informed her boyfriend as she stabbed the cake with her fork.

"Yeah, Veronica also justifies dessert for dinner by adding a cherry on top of her sundae." Dick said, giving her a look just a little reminiscent of her father when she tried to use the same logic on him at dinner a few days ago.

"Okay, then I'll just have this little bite. A kind of teaser to the chocolaty goodness that awaits the end of my lasagna." Mac said, wrapping her mouth around her fork and sliding it slowly out of her mouth, watching Dick as he watched her.

"Don't be mean." He twirled noodles around his fork and a popped the rather large bite into his own mouth as he glared at her. She merely smiled back at him as she began eating her own food, staring back at him and not really looking at what she was doing. What's an anniversary without a little staring contest? She thought as Dick's eyebrows jumped a little, trying to get her to look away and break the stare. No way, buddy. She vaguely heard the song morph from the Ting Tings into Britney Spears' 'Womanizer' and she vaguely hoped that this wasn't the song Lilly thought to dedicate to them.

Dick shoved extra large bites into his mouth, tucking the food into his cheeks as he chewed and she felt herself beginning to crack. He swallowed a little before he spoke around the food in his mouth. "Want seafood?" and she turned her head away quickly before he could open his mouth and show her what was in there.

Mac squeezed her eyes shut and wrinkled her nose and uttered a small "Damn" as she realized his trick a moment too late. Dick swallowed loudly and then laughed.

"And now, a special dedication to Mac and Dick for hitting the one year mark." Parker announced over the radio.

"May you be as disgustingly cute in the next year as you were in the last. Congrats guys." Lilly picked up where Parker left off. "Muah." Mac and Dick both looked over to see Parker and Lilly making kissy faces at them as the subtle strains of The Plain White T's '1 2 3 4' began.

"Gross, you two are dating?" And a glass of cold water was suddenly dumped over their heads in the form of Madison Sinclair, bitch extraordinaire.

"What's it to you Madison?" Dick asked, his voice tense and annoyed. He glared up at his ex-girlfriend, but Mac turned to her food and dug in with a little more concentration than was necessary. The last time she'd seen Madison had been rather traumatic. Not that the news that they had been switched at birth was such a big deal to anymore, she'd had years to cope with it, but Madison's reaction had been a little tough to witness.

Mac had known it was a bad idea for the eight of them to sit down like one big happy family and break the news to them all in one fell swoop. Madison had thought it was a joke and, when it became apparent that it wasn't, she had shown everyone the side only other students at Neptune High got to witness. The raging and screaming about how it wasn't fair and she wasn't going to allow them to tell her that she's nothing like this other family. She's not trash and she certainly doesn't have anything in common with the loser computer freak from high school. She'd gone storming up to her room, screaming about how she wasn't going to be sharing anything with Mac and Mac could just forget it. Mrs. MacKenzie had tried to smooth it over but the Sinclairs had been too shocked at the fact that the girl they had raised had behaved in such a way when Mac had taken the news so gracefully. Of course Mrs. Sinclair and Mac both knew that she had known for years, but neither had mentioned it since their moment on the street in front of the MacKenzie house almost four years earlier.

"I'd like to know if I'm going to be seeing this around campus now that I go here." Madison's voice was just as snotty as it had been at every prearranged dinner since that night when the truth of their parentage had been announced. Madison was never going to get over this, never going to let things equalize into some version of normal.

"You go to Hearst now?" Mac asked, shocked that she hadn't heard about it until now. The Sinclairs and the MacKenzies had been sharing an awful lot of information with each other over the past several months, trying to get to know each of the daughters they had given up knowing for so long. Mac had assumed she would be kept in the loop of such major changes, how had this happened without her knowing?

"Yes. Apparently my behavior a few weeks ago left a lot to be desired and my parents thought I should be closer to home. I guess they think I've done too much partying and not enough studying at my previous college, but I'm sure you'll be welcome to take my place. After all, you seem completely at ease taking all of my leftovers so far." Madison's voice dripped with venom as she looked between Mac and Dick.

A guy behind Madison cleared his voice and Mac realized that Madison was on a date herself. The guy looked a little familiar, like one of the basketball players on Wallace's team, but she couldn't place his name.

"Oh, right. This is my boyfriend, Mitchell. I'm not done with him yet though, Mac, so you'll have to wait for my sloppy seconds." Madison sneered. Mac wondered when the appropriate time to go from empathetic and forgiving about the whole thing to bitchy and violent. She was thinking now was about the right time, maybe she'd give Veronica a call and plot a little revenge with her friend that was so good at it.

"Actually, Madi, if you think about it, it's really just an equalizing thing. I was with you for so long but it was because I was supposed to be with Madison Sinclair but you weren't the right one. Now I'm with who I'm supposed to be with and I'm realizing why everything with you was so bad. Because you're second rate." Dick interrupted Madison's tirade. Mac had asked him to cut her a little slack when she'd explained the situation to him the night after their parents had dropped the switched-at-birth-bomb. He'd agreed but she'd never been so happy that he had ignored her and done what he wanted anyway. "Makes sense right? You were always supposed to be a wannabe and some how there was a mistake and you were given a shot at friends you weren't supposed to have. It couldn't last forever, right?"

Madison's mouth dropped in shock and Mac could see her frantically searching for words to say, to shoot down Dick's words and what he meant and the truth of it. She hadn't been meant to be an 09er and, if it weren't for a little mistake, she would have always been on the outside looking in and wanting so desperately to have the life that Mac would have had. Madison had to know that if it hadn't been for the grace of their parents and their attachment in those first three years, she could have been back at the MacKenzie house for the seventeen years since they had all found out about the switch, living a mediocre existence. Mac had only made it this far because of superior genes of her birth family and the understanding of the family that raised her. Mac had the talent of a Sinclair but humility of a MacKenzie.

"Come on Mitchell." Madison ground out, grabbing her boyfriend's hand and dragging him off towards the other side of the food court, far away from Mac and Dick and everything they represented.

"Sorry about that. I hope you don't think that I was insulting your family or anything it's just that–" Dick started, looking down at his empty plate. She could hear the scuffing of his sneaker against the linoleum of the floor.

"I don't think you were insulting them, not on purpose." Mac assured him, reaching across the table to hold his hand. "That was kind of awesome though."

"Yeah? I know you said to cut her some slack, but I couldn't just sit back and let her say what she was saying, you know?" Dick looked up at her and smiled and suddenly Mac wasn't hungry anymore. She didn't want chocolate cake or to rush to a movie or anything but to get Dick alone so she could just kiss him and not have to worry about who was watching or what they would say. "Anyway, I think that with Madison, if you let her get too far she thinks she's allowed and she'll never stop."

"Let's go." Mac said suddenly, sliding out of her chair and tugging on his hand for him to follow her.

"You're not done with your lasagna… and the cake." He was saying but she looked back to see him grab their book bags and follow, his hand never slipping out of hers.

She pulled him out of the building and halfway across the lawn towards his SUV before he tugged her backwards. She stumbled a bit into his arms and he kissed her, deep and loving his hands coming up to frame her face a moment before she broke away from him and started the pull him towards the parking lot again.

It was even darker by time they reached his car and they stood there in dim yellow glow from the security lights a few rows away from his car. He pressed her against the back passenger door, his mouth on hers, one hand on her breast as the other pulled open the front door to shove the bags inside. She reached out and slammed the door shut and gave him a small shove away from her. He looked at her, confusion in his eyes as he went to open the door for her again, but she moved away from him and the car, opening the door he'd had her pressed against. She bit her bottom lip as she slid backwards into the backseat of his Escalade. She'd teased him mercilessly over the last seven months since he bought the behemoth of a vehicle, but she was grateful for it and the big back seat and what she planned to do him back there.

"What are you doing Ghost World?" His voice was filled with affection and she no longer cringed in annoyance at the nickname. It may have started out as an insult but he hadn't meant it that way in a long time. Now it was something he teased her with at night when he tugged on a chunk of colored hair before he kissed her.

Dick crawled in after her and pulled the back door shut behind him. She attacked him, pressing him against the inside of the door he'd just closed, her lips fusing to his and her hands running up his chest, his shirt bunching around her wrists. "Did I ever tell you how glad I am that you got the extra dark tinted windows?" She whispered, her voice was husky and lust filled and she blushed at the sound of it.

"No, I don't think you ever mentioned it." Dick's voice was rough and surprised as she pulled his shirt off of him in the backseat of his car. "You know I didn't get it for this, right?" The last question was said nervously, as her hands dropped to the button on his jeans. He was hard, she could feel that with just the lightest brush of her hand at the front of his crotch. It didn't take much to get him excited. She unbuttoned his pants but didn't go any further than that.

Mac backed away from him, sliding across the back seat to press herself against the other door, giving herself enough room to kick off her ballet flats and pull off her own jeans. She left her underwear on and reached out for Dick, meeting him in the middle of the seat. She straddled him and his hands fell to her hips, gripping her as his fingers slid in the waistband of her underwear, just a little. Her own hands slid into his hair as she put her mouth back on his and their tongues met and mated, mimicking the actions that his rocking hips suggested.

Dick's hands pressed her down against him and she moaned a little, encouraging both that and the path his mouth took down the side of her neck. He quickly rid her of her shirt and tossed it far into the back along with her jeans and his own shirt, his hands quickly returning to her hips. His ass lifted off the seat as he thrust upwards, grinding against her the same moment that his mouth cover her breast, nipping at it through the material of her bra.

Her hands slid down to grip his shoulders at the same moment she felt one of his slide up her back to release the clasp of her bra. She released him for a moment to slid the straps down her arms and then that too joined the rest of their clothing in the back. Her nails, as short as they may be, dug into the cords of muscle of his shoulders as he continued to attend to her breasts. She gasped when he thrust upwards again, straining at the confines of his jeans, and then rolled to the side so she could pull her underwear off. He took the opportunity to push his jeans and boxers down passed his hips, his erection springing almost comically free. He tried to toe off his shoes and kick his pants the rest of the way off as she swung her leg back over him, straddling him once more.

"The movie starts soon." He mumbled, gripping her hips.

She could hear the hope in his voice and smiled. "Screw the movie." And with that he thrust upwards sliding in and they both let out long moans of satisfaction.

He pulled out slightly and she thought about how he wasn't wearing a condom and she couldn't remember if she'd taken her pill this morning, or yesterday, and they should really have the added protection of the condom either way and she knew there was one somewhere in this massive vehicle and they were in the middle of a parking lot of a college campus and if the car's a-rockin' then don't come knockin' and… and then he slammed back into her and all her thoughts spun away and everything faded until it was just the two of them there, in the backseat of his mansion on wheels. Together.

A/N: I hope everyone remembered that this takes place before Chapter 37. This chapter was easy to write, it just kind of flowed out, which was nice considering I had such trouble with chapter 39 that I had to pause in the middle of writing that to write this chapter. Hope you all liked it, we'll get back to 'present day' in the next chapter.