Better Life (2/?)
Better Life (2/?)
Chapter title: PDA - Public Displays of Annoyance
Rating: R, mostly for subject matter and language
Summary: It’s been 4 years since he almost died and in that time he’s rebuilt a friendship with her that’s even stronger than it was before he turned on her, but he wants more. He doesn't know if she feels the same way and she's not single but he knows he’s the one for her and their friends agree.
Characters/Pairing: Lamb, Wallace, Veronica (Eventual Veronica/Lamb, mentions Veronica/OFC)
Spoilers: entire series but AU from 3X14
Word Count: 3312
Disclaimer: I don't own Veronica Mars
Chapter One: http://community.livejournal.com/veronica_lamb/68678.html?view=219462#t219462
PDA - Public Displays of Annoyance
“Step away from the artichoke dip Deputy. It’s all mine and I’m not in a sharing mood.”
A huge smile spreads across my face as I feel a tiny pair of arms circle my waist from behind and I turn in them to find my favorite tiny blonde hugging me with her head against my chest. I take in a deep breath, wrap my arms around her and kiss her on the top of the head.
“Sorry Mars, but I made it, so if I want some I can have some and nobody, no matter how small and sneaky is gonna weasel it away from me.” And ok, so I didn’t make it, but I did buy it and heat it up so it’s pretty much the same thing.
She looks up at me and smiles. “Are you calling me short Deputy?”
I laugh, pull back and shrug. “Well, if the height fits.” Veronica playfully smacks my stomach and I swear I have million butterflies doing kamikaze dives in my belly. “And I’m not a Deputy anymore if you remember correctly Mars, nor am I Sheriff. And I thought I was the one with memory issues.”
Veronica smirks a little and moves behind me to grab a plate, she puts I swear half the dip on her plate and three huge hand fulls of chips next to it. I can’t help but chuckle because I know that she’ll not only eat all of it but she’ll be back for seconds. “Aww Deputy Donnie, you’ll always be a Deputy to me.”
I lean back against the table a little and look down at her. From my vantage point and my height advantage I can see right down her shirt getting a full view of her cleavage and I have to stop myself from having a very inappropriate physical reaction in front of the 50 people currently milling around my living room. “Well as long as I’m your favorite Deputy I can live with that I guess.”
She tilts her head and smiles again. “Of course, who else would be?”
A million comments begin swimming through my mind, but for the sake of self preservation and non-awkwardness I choose to change the subject. “So when did you get here?” Mac’s party started a couple of hours ago and Veronica was late, I hadn’t seen her come in and believe me, I’ve watching that door like a hawk. Ever since my conversation with Wallace yesterday she’s been on my mind more than usual, which is a pretty amazing feat considering the fact that she on it about 95% of time in general.
She scrunches her face like she’s thinking really hard and then answers me. “Ummmm… about 2 minutes ago.”
“Going for the fashionably late entrance I see.”
She snorts and laughs and it’s probably one of the cutest noises I’ve ever heard. “I’d like to say so but it wasn’t exactly my fault. Colby couldn’t decide what to wear.”
“What!? You mean he doesn’t come out of the shower looking like an Abercrombie and Fitch model?”
Veronica rolls her eyes but giggles a little. “You’d think so, but no….apparently looking like that takes work. More work than I ever put into it that is.”
I know what she means, she doesn’t take hours to get ready like most girls, whenever we have plans she’s always ready to go the minute we planned and there’s never any delays. “So he finally found the perfect combination I guess. Where is Colby ‘roaming hands’ Jackson anyways?”
She goes to reply and suddenly there are arms around her waist and she’s being pulled back against Colby’s chest. He nuzzles his face in the crook of her neck, she takes a bite of her chip and I…fight the urge to vomit on her plate.
“Oh look, we found him.” I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm, and disdain.
She gives me a look that says, ‘play nice Deputy’ and I know better than to go against her. But fuck, I really don’t like him, don’t understand what she sees in him and would really prefer that it was my arms around her waist. There I said it, I’m jealous, happy now?
Colby looks up with his mouth still attached to her neck and then pulls away and smiles. “Was I missing? Are we playing hide and seek? Because if we are there’s something I’d love to hide and I have the perfect place for it.”
Veronica looks at me like a deer in the headlights when one of his hands slides around her waist and promptly grabs her ass. She blushes 6 shades of red, is beyond embarrassed and hell, I’m embarrassed for her. She hates this, I know she does, why is she still with him?
I clear my throat and his hand moves back to her stomach but both his hands keep traveling south and getting dangerously close to the band of her ultra low rise jeans and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna sit there and watch as he finger fucks her in my living room. He shouldn’t even be touching her at all.
Deep breaths Don, deep breaths, just go with it, help her out a little, remind her of how cool you can be and how much you care. “You know Colby, some girls aren’t so big on PDA.”
He finally removes himself from her body and stands straight up. His stance is meant to intimidate me but I’ve got at least 4 inches on him and one of my biceps is the size of both of his put together, he’s in ok shape, but scrawny regardless. “Some girls Lamb. Not my girl.”
He emphasizes the my and I laugh at him before I can stop myself. Bullshit, she's my girl, well maybe not yet, but someday, hopefully. “Really? I’ve known her for 13 years and I’m pretty sure that when she gets that disgusted look on her face it’s not because she likes being fondled in a room full of people.”
He moves out from behind Veronica and steps right in front of me. “You trying to say that you know my girlfriend better than I do? She’s been my girlfriend for 9 months. Maybe she just doesn't like it when you touch her in public. Ever think of that?”
I’m about the sock him in his pretty face when I feel someone grab the back of my shirt and Veronica steps in front of Colby, pushing him out of my personal space.
“Hey, calm down there boys, this is my party if any punches are to be thrown I get to call the shots.”
I turn to see the person that the hand on my shirt belongs to and smile at Mac.
I put my arm around her and take a quick look at Veronica, she doesn’t look happy, but doesn’t look to be unhappy with me. She is however, looking at Colby like he's a fucking leper or something.
“Sorry Mac. Having fun?”
She smiles coyly at me and responds. “Well obviously more than you are. I’m leaving for six months and I’d really like it if my last memories of this place weren’t a bloodbath.”
Veronica breaks in then and agrees. “I second that. I don’t know what's gotten into the two of you lately, but you need to just deal with it.”
I have a feeling that I know exactly what had gotten into him. He feels threatened by me and that's a new development and a very exciting one at that. For 9 months he's paid me hardly any attention and now he's blatantly affronted by my presence. Veronica and I obviously have a very close relationship, something he apparently didn’t realize until about 3 months ago when he graduated from Hearst and got a job making his schedule became less hectic. He started wanting more of her time, but he found himself in direct competition with me and our friends for her precious spare time, more often than not we won the battle and he didn’t like it. Of course there was also the possibility that Wallace was right and maybe there was something I wasn’t seeing.
I hold up my hands and laugh. ‘Sorry Goldilocks, just a little testosterone overload, forgive me?”
Veronica narrows her eyes for a second, probably trying to figure out my angle on this and then smiles and hugs me tight and I make sure that I give her the full Don Lamb hug treatment. I crush her to my body making sure that she feels every inch of me, against every inch of her and kiss her on the forehead.
And then I look up and smile at Colby who looks ready to throw me into the refreshments table. He controls himself, but when I let go, he grabs her arm and pulls her to him into a very inappropriate kiss for anywhere outside of the bedroom. When he pulls back, he throws his arm around her shoulder and pulls her against his side. “I’m sorry too, sweetie. I’ll make it up to you later.”
I don’t miss the slight gagging noise to my right, even as well as Mac tries to hide it and I laugh again. He really is threatened by me, it’s plain as day.
It’s awkward for a second or two before Mac speaks up again. “So how much are you guys going to miss me, huh?”
I’m about to answer when I see Wallace come up on the other side of her and pull her into a tight hug. “Enough to beg you not to go. Please don’t leave me here with these fools; I don’t know if I can handle them on my own.”
Veronica gives him a look of mock disgust. “Gee papa bear, I didn’t realize I was such a handful.” And with that every single one of us breaks out into side splitting laughter.
Wallace is the first to get his voice back and she just looks indignant. “I’m sorry V, but really? Have you met yourself; do we need to do an introduction?”
“God guys, I’m not that bad.”
Mac finally stands up straight her hand on her stomach and smiles, “Oh V, yes, yes you are.”
She looks to me then, gives me her sad sack puppy dog look and I know that that I’m done for, no matter how right they are. “Doooonnnie?”
And oh, if that doesn’t just melt my heart. “Come on guys, give her a break, it’s not like she does it intentionally. She just seems to attract it unwillingly.”
Mac and Wallace both roll their eyes at my comment and Colby just gives me a nasty look. But Veronica grabs my hand and squeezes. “Thanks Don, I knew you’d take my side.”
Before I can reply Wallace jumps back in and even as I’m listening to him I can't tear my eyes from the arm that Colby has thrown over Veronica’s shoulder. His hand keeps moving further down and closer to her body and my heart is practically seizing.
“Anyways V, I wasn’t necessarily referring to just you, I was also thinking of Tweedle Dee and Dum here.”
I don’t hear what she has to say to that, because the only thing I can think about is the fact that Colby’s hand is literally hovering over her breast and then suddenly a finger grazes her, her nipple hardens from the stimulation and I let out a choked groan before I can stop myself. When I look up Colby is staring straight at me, staring straight at her chest. He looks beyond triumphant and I really wish I still had my gun.
The others seem to be oblivious to this silent stare off, but Veronica shifts uncomfortably under his arm and when she crosses her arms in front of her chest I smile right back victoriously. It’s like the perfect 'I told you so' and he just looks livid.
By this point I’ve lost track of the conversation and Mac says my name twice before I register it, when I finally look over they're all staring at me. “Sorry, what?”
“I asked if you were still taking me to the airport tomorrow.”
I shake my head, trying to remove the vision of Veronica's hard nipple from my head and then smile. “Oh, yeah, of course it’s….”
I’m about to finish when Veronica breaks in. “Thanks Don, I appreciate it, I’d take her but I have to take Colby early tomorrow morning and I don’t really want to make two trips to San Diego in one day and Mac doesn’t want to spend 8 hours waiting for her flight.”
When she’s done I finish my sentence and this time I address it to both of them. "Really guys, it's not a problem.”
The awkwardness eases a little after that, but I still can’t help but feel a little relieved by the fact that Colby obviously sees me as some kind of competition. As I’m replaying it all in my mind, wondering if there were any hints as to Veronica’s feelings for me, I half hear part of the conversation. Wallace has just asked him where he’s going and when he replies I let out a loud laugh. “I’m sorry, where did you say you were going?”
Colby looks at me like I’m insane and then repeats himself. “Home, to visit my family.”
“Yeah, but where is your home?”
“Wisconsin.”
At that point Wallace chokes on his beer and I can’t help but laugh again.
“Isn’t that, like dairy territory? Like the land of cheese?”
He is beyond confused and so is Veronica, but Mac seems to be aware of the joke and she and Wallace are giggling like crazy. “Yeah, why?”
I just shrug and smile. “Oh, no reason, I just didn’t realize that Colby Jackson hailed from the cheese capital of the USA.”
He still doesn’t get it but that’s the point where realization crosses over Veronica’s face and she just shakes her head. “Oh Don Lamb, you are terrible.”
I stop smiling and look at her seriously. “Oh come on now Veronica, you and I both know that you think I’m anything but terrible.”
I can see through my peripheral vision that Colby is just waiting for her to lash out at me for my comment since that’s probably what she’d do to him for telling her what she thinks, but she just shrugs and smiles. “Yeah, you’re right.” And the look on Colby’s face is well worth the torture he put me through earlier.
After that we all spread out and by midnight everyone is heading out. At that point I haven’t seen Veronica for over an hour and know that she'd never leave without saying goodbye, so I go to look for her.
I find her almost immediately out by the pool with Colby, and from the looks of it, things are not peachy keen in paradise.
“You need to get over it. He’s my friend, has been for years and I care about him. He’s not going anywhere.” Veronica hisses at him.
But he doesn’t back down. “Oh come on Veronica, you too are far from ‘just friends.’ Well at least in his mind. Don’t tell me you don’t notice how he looks at you. He wants you. It’s fucking obvious. And I’m tired of it. You’re with me and he needs to just step off.”
Form the look on her face she seems to be contemplating his words. And she seems to be a little confused actually. “What the fuck are you talking about? He doesn’t look at me in that way. You’re just paranoid.”
And that’s about where the conversation takes a turn for the worse. His eyes grow big and his mouth drops open for a second. “I’m paranoid?! Me?!? You’ve got more trust issues than every other girlfriend I’ve ever had put together. It took you a fucking month just to let me inside your fucking bra. And you’re calling me paranoid.”
Ooh too far buddy.
She is fuming and looks like she might pick up one of my pool chairs and hit him over the head with it at any moment. And I’m just ready to step in if he's stupid enough to lay a hand, or even a finger, on her. “Fuck you Colby! You know why we took things slow, I explained that to you.” Yeah you stupid fucking prick, she was raped, give her a fucking break, you're lucky she lets you in her pants at all, is what I want to say, but I stay out of it. “And you said you understood, so unless you were lying, you know why I have a hard time trusting. You’re just trying to stake a claim that you don’t need to stake so you can look like a fucking man. You know, maybe it’s a good thing that you’re leaving. You obviously need to get your priorities straight.”
She starts to walk away and Colby looks like someone has just punched him in the gut. When he finally seems to have digested her words, he moves forward, pulling her against him. “Wait! Are you breaking up with me?! Please don't baby, I’m sorry. Give me another chance, I’ll do anything. I love you.”
Those last three words practically rip my heart out but I don’t miss the fact that she doesn’t say it back, not even when he cups her face and kisses her a few times. She's unresponsive to him at first and even when she relaxes, she’s still angry as she finally responds. “I’m not breaking up with you, but you need to cool it, accept my friends or this isn’t going to work.”
He nods and kisses her again. “Ok, ok I'll play nice with Lamb, now let’s get out of here, go back to your place and make up a little.” And then he slides his hand down her side, over her hip and then upwards again until it closes over her breast and he’s cupping her with his hand.
I’m about to turn and run in the opposite direction when I see her push his hand away. “Oh we're leaving alright, but you’re going to your own home and I’m going to mine, you’re not getting anywhere near lucky tonight.”
I hide my laugh. That’s my girl.
He looks like he’s about to object, but seems to think better of it and just mumbles something under his breath.
As she walks away from him I step back inside and she crosses in front of me. When she sees me there she smiles and I beam down at her. Colby is hot on her heels and once he’s in the patio door she turns smiles at me and gives him a cold look. “Oh, and for the record, Don is right. I fucking hate heavy PDA, and you're like a fucking leech most of the time.”
Veronica gives me a huge hug and as she turns to leave she smiles again at me. “We still on for tomorrow?”
I nod. “Of course.”
“Can’t wait.”
She continues on the way to the door and as Colby passes me, he gives me the nastiest death glare I’ve ever seen and I just smile.
His days in her bed are numbered and I know it. Even if I don’t make a move he's definitely on his last legs where she is concerned.
I spend the rest of the night trying to decide if I should wait for her to dump his ass or just do it now. I still don’t know how she feels about me, but I know how I feel about her and that's enough for me to consider taking the chance.
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Thanks for reading! Review please!!!!
A/N I'm not too sure how long this will be. i could end it after the next couple chapters but i really like this set up and i do have a plot idea to prolong it, so i guess we will see. Id love to hear your opinion!