Title: Appeals
Fandoms: Veronica Mars/Law & Order: SVU
Pairing: Logan Echolls/Alex Cabot
Rating: NC-17
Length: 5100 words
Disclaimer: I am neither Rob Thomas nor Dick Wolf.
Summary: Alex, a first year law student, is working on Aaron Echolls's latest appeal.
AN: For Sloanesomething.

Appeals

by

***

First year of law school's finished, and doing her summer internship at the most prestigious firm in Southern California had seemed like a good idea at the time. But the longer Alex spends there, the more irritated she gets at the rich clients who are so very guilty, at the entitlement, at everything.

They're handling the latest round of appeals on the Aaron Echolls case. She's checking statements, reinterviewing witnesses, doing the grunt work. It's dull, mostly.

This afternoon, she's talking to the son. She heard he just got out of court-ordered rehab. Again. He's only a year younger than she is.

He shows up a half hour late, pulls a chair out irritably, slumps at the table. Alex raises her eyebrows and looks at him.

"Let's get this over with," he mutters.

"All right," she says, looking down at the file. "Let's talk about the hours right before the murder. You said you saw your father..."

Logan interrupts. "He did it, okay? Let's drop the bullshit about alibi already."

"You think your father killed Lilly Kane?"

"Uh, yeah."

Alex sits back and looks at him. Logan is staring right at her, like he's daring her to say something.

"You think your father was sleeping with your girlfriend and then killed her?"

Logan's face tightens, just a little, but he keeps staring at her. Eventually he smiles, humorlessly, aggressive. "He's not exactly what you'd call a good person."

"Okay," Alex says.

Logan looks around the room, which is dark paneled and expensive. "Aren't you a little young to be working here?"

She shrugs. "I'm an intern."

"You want to have dinner with me tonight?"

Alex snorts. "No. So let's talk about Veronica Mars. Would you say that she's emotionally stable?"

Logan drops his head back and looks at the ceiling, exasperated. "I don't want to talk about Veronica fucking Mars."

"Would you say that she's emotionally stable?"

"No," Logan says. "I would say that she's a pain in the ass. Have dinner with me."

"You had had a falling out with her shortly before she accused your father of murder. Would you say that her accusation was motivated by personal reasons?"

"GodDAMNit," Logan says, getting up from the table so fast he knocks his chair over. "Fuck you, all right?"

Alex just sits at the table and watches him pace.

"I'm leaving," Logan says finally, pulling the door open. "If you still want to get dinner, I'll be at Hogan's at eight."

"I never wanted to get dinner," Alex says to his back, but he just smiles at her over his shoulder and lets the door slam behind him.

**

As far as Alex is concerned, that would be the end of things with Logan Echolls. Unfortunately her boss has other views on the subject, and after Alex gets chewed out for not getting the questions answered, she leaves five messages on Logan's voice mail. He doesn't call her back.

On the first call, his voice mail message says, "This is Logan Echolls, with your inspirational thought of the day. 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.' Margaret Mead."

By her third call, it says, "This is Logan Echolls. A Chinese proverb says, 'Persistence can grind an iron beam down into a needle." Keep calling."

On the fifth call, the voice mail just says, "See you at Hogan's at eight."

Rich arrogant bastard.

**

She gets to the restaurant fifteen minutes late, and Logan's already ordered them wine. He smiles when he sees her. She sits across from him and glares.

"Hi, Alex," he says. "Glad you could make it."

"This is blackmail," she says.

"No, it's not," he says. "I didn't promise to give you anything if you showed up."

She rolls her eyes and gets her file out of her bag. "Whatever. Look, I just have to get this information from you, and if you don't act like an ass and storm out, we can get it done in a half hour, and I can get home in time to watch House. Deal?"

"Alex," he says, leaning forward and putting his hand on hers. "We haven't even ordered. Don't you know how rude it is to talk business before the entrée?"

She pulls her hand back and gives him a withering look. "Please don't touch me."

He shrugs and takes a long drink of wine.

"Rehab didn't take?" she says dryly.

He glares at her, then leans his head back and drinks the whole glass at one go. When he sets it down he says, "Not so much, no. Strangely, the Serenity Prayer doesn't actually change the fact that my father's on death row for fucking and killing my high school girlfriend."

"Oh, it's your father's fault you're an alcoholic."

"Yeah," he says, nodding and smiling sarcastically, and his eyes are dark. "Pretty much."

"Fine," she says. "So answer my questions and we'll get your dad off death row, all right?"

He looks at her. "He's totally fucking guilty."

"I know," Alex says. "But do you really want your father to get the death penalty?"

Logan opens his mouth to say something, then stops and closes it again. The waiter's refilling his wine glass, and as soon as he's finished Logan picks up the glass and drinks it down. He keeps his eyes on the tablecloth.

"Oh," Alex says.

Logan stands up. "Suddenly I'm not really in the mood for dinner." He tosses some bills on the table, and stumbles a little as he starts to walk away.

"Logan," Alex says, but he waves her back and keeps walking. He runs into a waiter on the way out.

Alex rolls her eyes and follows him. She catches up just as he hits the door, walking out into the parking lot, fishing in his pockets for the valet stub.

She grabs his arm. "Exactly how much have you had to drink today?"

"I'm fine," Logan says. She can smell the alcohol on his breath - he must've been drinking since he left her office. "Back off." He's still looking through his pockets.

"I'll drive you home," Alex says.

"I'm FINE," Logan says, and hands the stub to the valet. "Go to hell." The valet looks startled. "Not you," Logan says, and shrugs his arm out of Alex's grip.

"I'm driving you home or I'm calling the cops," Alex says

"Fine, call the cops, then," Logan says. He's standing on the curb with his hands shoved into his pockets, and his shoulders squared, and he looks young.

When the valet comes back with the car, Alex takes the keys and pushes Logan towards the passenger door. "Fuck you," Logan mutters, but he gets in, and she starts the car.

"I'm not answering any fucking questions," Logan says, staring straight ahead.

"Fine," Alex says, and pulls onto the highway.

**

Logan gives her directions to the house in a low voice, then leans his head against the back of the seat and closes his eyes. After a few minutes, he says, "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything," Alex says.

"Whatever. You don't know what my life's like, okay?" he says. His face is dark and tight, miserable.

Alex smiles. "Yeah, I do. I read about it in People magazine."

Logan snorts. "There's a reliable source." The streetlights move over his face, and he opens his eyes and looks out the window.

"I'm sorry about your mom," Alex says quietly. She's feeling bad for him at the moment - his family's a mess, murder, suicide, prison, rehab. The works.

Logan doesn't respond. They're going over a bridge.

"Pull over," Logan says suddenly.

"What?" Alex says.

"Pull OVER," Logan says, and his voice sounds urgent, panicky. Alex hits the brakes and pulls over, puts the car in park and the emergency blinkers on. Good thing there's no traffic at this time of night.

"What?" she says, thinking maybe he's going to throw up, but Logan's pushing the door open and heading for the edge.

"What are you doing?" she yells after him, but he starts climbing onto the railing.

Oh fuck. Which bridge is this? Oh fuckity fuck fuck. This is where his mom jumped, isn't it? FUCK.

Alex gets out of the car and walks slowly over, trying to think of everything she's ever read or seen on TV about talking jumpers down from ledges. "Logan," she says, trying to sound calm and rational. "Let's talk about this."

Logan's staring down at the water below him, swaying slightly. Oh fuck.

"Logan," she says again. Her boss is going to kill her if the Echolls kid kills himself while she's driving him home. Not to mention the prosecuting attorney - witness tampering, reasonable doubt. Her voice is shaking. "Logan, come on, come down."

"It's not worth it!" he yells. He sounds a little... melodramatic. "I can't go on any longer!"

"Logan, damn it, get back here right now," she says, losing her temper. She is freaking out, picturing his body falling off the edge, getting smaller and smaller until it disappears into the darkness. She wonders if he'd die from drowning or if he'd break his neck when he hit the water. Her heart's going a mile a minute.

After a long second, Logan turns around and jumps down. He smiles, baring all his teeth. "Just kidding," he says, and goes back to the car.

She stands there staring, her breath finally coming back. She feels like slumping against the car, but doesn't want to give him the satisfaction.

She'll kill him. She really will.

She gets back in the driver's side. "What is WRONG with you?"

Logan's still smiling, and he shrugs.

"You are such an asshole," Alex says, and Logan smiles a little more. She pinches the bridge of her nose between her fingers, feeling a headache coming on. "Put on your seatbelt," she says, but he doesn't move. "Oh, c'mon, give me a break," she says.

He fumbles at it half-heartedly before giving up. "Too drunk," he says.

Oh, he's too drunk to put on his seatbelt, but not too drunk to pretend to jump off a bridge. Asshole. She leans across him to take hold of it and pull it across his chest.

As she leans across, he puts his hand on her shoulder and leans in and kisses her on the lips. He tastes so strongly of alcohol that she'll probably fail a Breathalyzer now, and she is NOT kissing him back.

When he pulls away, she finishes putting the seatbelt on him like nothing's happened, and starts the car.

"Fine," Logan says. "Be like that."

"You taste like a still," Alex says, and puts the car in drive.

**

At Logan's house, there's a gate and a guard, but the guard waves them through when he sees Logan in the passenger seat. The house isn't so much a house as a mansion - apparently the legal bills haven't been hurting them too much.

"Nice house," Alex says.

"Whatever," Logan says. He's looking a little green. When Alex parks the car he staggers out and pukes into the bushes.

"Classy," Alex says. Still throwing up, Logan holds up a hand with his middle finger raised. She leans against the car and wonders how long until she can leave.

Finally he stops retching and straightens up, pale and sick. He starts trying to walk to the front door, but staggers and nearly falls. She rolls her eyes and grabs him before he hits the ground, slings his arm over her shoulders.

"You are so pathetic," she says, and starts pulling him towards the door.

"So?" Logan says.

The front door's locked. "Keys?" Alex says. Logan's head is hanging, and he's looking barely conscious. "Keys?" Alex says again, and shakes him.

Logan mumbles something.

"What?"

"Left pocket," he says.

"Oh, for the love of... FINE," Alex says, and reaches down to dig in his front pocket. "I really didn't want to get to know you this well, Echolls."

"Yeah, you did," he mumbles, and she gives him a look.

"If you're faking to make me feel you up, I will kill you. Slowly and painfully. Do you understand?"

Logan straightens up a little and shrugs. He reaches into the other pocket and pulls out the keys. "Wrong pocket," he says. "My bad."

She groans. He unlocks the door.

"Fine," she says. "You're home safe. I'll call you later and you can come down to the office and answer the damn questions and we'll call it even, okay?"

Logan has dark circles around his eyes. He starts to nod but then goes paler and runs for the bathroom.

She sighs and follows him, leans against the doorway as he throws up into the toilet. When he finishes he rubs his forehead and sits back against the wall. He's sweating.

"Look, Logan, is there anyone I can call?" she asks. There has to be someone who can come over and make sure that he doesn't asphyxiate on his own vomit.

He shakes his head. Of course there's not.

"What about your sister?" Alex asks, one last desperate attempt at getting out of there.

"She's in... France? I think," Logan says. "She's got a thing. A shoot. Or something." He leans his head back against the wall and breathes through his nose, closing his eyes. "Look, don't worry about it. Nobody else does."

She looks at him. "You're the most manipulative person I've ever met."

He smiles, just a little. "Guess you don't know the right people."

**

Logan passes out on the bathroom floor. Alex turns him onto his side so if he throws up he won't die, and he makes a mumbly noise but doesn't wake up.

She crashes on the couch, still in her suit and makeup. When she wakes up, Logan's still unconscious in the bathroom, and she has to be at work in a half hour. He doesn't move when she nudges him to the side with her foot so she can get at the sink to wash her face and try to brush her teeth with her finger.

She calls a cab and sits on the edge of the tub and stares at Logan. He still didn't answer her ream of questions and her boss is going to kill her.

She rifles through his pockets and comes up with his cell phone. She pulls her legal pad out of her bag and leaves him a note.

"Logan, I have taken your cell phone hostage. Come down to the office and answer my questions and you can have it back. Please try to be sober at the time. -Alex"

She puts the note on his head, and the cab comes, and she gets to the office fifteen minutes late anyway, in yesterday's rumpled suit.

She runs into her boss coming out of the elevator. He looks her up and down and raises his eyebrows. "Are you sleeping with that Echolls kid?"

"What?" Alex says. "No, of course not."

"Too bad," he says. "We could use him on our side in this case."

Alex really, really hates defense attorneys.

She puts Logan's phone on the side of her desk and writes a brief. Logan doesn't get any calls. Around 3:30 he gets a text message from "Kane" that says "dude, u going 2 that party sat?"

Just after 4:30, Logan walks into her office, rubbing his forehead. He looks hungover and depressed.

"I can't believe you took my cell phone," he says.

"Desperate times," Alex says.

She expects him to come back with a smart remark, but he just slumps in the chair and looks at her.

After a long moment she gets out her page of questions, and they go through them, and Logan answers without getting upset or even snarky, and it's like he's not really there.

When she gets to the end, she says, "Okay, well, that's all I have. Thanks."

He stands up and reaches over to take his cell phone back. His hand brushes against her arm, but it's accidental and he doesn't take the opportunity to hit on her more, just picks up his phone and puts it in his pocket and leaves without saying anything.

So she won, she got the questions answered - Logan even acts defeated. She doesn't know why that's so depressing.

**

She doesn't see Logan again. She works on what they tell her to work on, and gets coffee when they ask for it, and at night she goes home and watches TV. She's only in town for the summer, and it's not like she knows anybody.

Sometimes she wonders if Logan's still drinking until he passes out, and if he's always alone in that big house, and thinks about calling him but doesn't, because he's an asshole and she doesn't even like him.

Her boss is going over to the prison to talk to Aaron Echolls, and he makes Alex come along to take notes.

The infamous Aaron Echolls. She's only seen him in the movies before, and in person he's more charming than she expects, even in an orange jumpsuit. When he's introduced to her, he takes her hand in both of his and says, "So lovely to meet you." She smiles, and thinks about how his son wants him to die, and doesn't believe a word he says.

On their way out of the prison, her boss tells her to type up the notes and get them to him in the morning; he's got a meeting across town. They took separate cars, and he peels out of the parking lot in his Jaguar. She digs around in her purse for her car keys, and when she looks up, Logan Echolls is standing in front of her.

"What are you doing here?" she says before she thinks about it, and he raises an eyebrow. She shakes her head. "I mean... you visit your father?"

Logan smiles sardonically. "Every week."

"Huh," Alex says.

Logan looks at her.

"So, uh... how've you been?" she says. He's making her nervous.

He shrugs. "Fine."

"You still drinking?" she can't help asking.

"You still breathing?" he shoots back.

She crosses her arms across her chest and gives him a look.

Logan rolls his eyes and nods towards the prison. "So, you've been to see dear old Dad, huh?"

"Yeah," she says. "He's very... charming."

Logan smiles like he wants to hit somebody. "That's his job. You sleep with him yet?"

Alex is surprised into a disbelieving laugh and feels like hitting somebody herself. Logan's watching her closely, and she can't tell if he's actually worried that she slept with his father, or if he's just being an asshole on purpose to make her stop feeling sorry for him. "What is wrong with you?"

He shrugs. "So is that a yes?"

She rolls her eyes. "Of course not."

He looks at her, and he's smiling in a way she can't read. "Yeah, well, give it time."

He pushes past her and into the prison, and when she looks back through the glass door he's putting the contents of his pockets into a container at the checkpoint and staring at her. She gives him the finger and goes back to work.

**

The appeal finally goes to court, and Alex has to go, because she's part of the Echolls team, or so her boss says, so she sits on the bench behind the defense table and doodles. Logan slides in next to her right before the judge walks in. He's wearing a dark suit, black, and a dark tie, and when they all rise, he bumps her with his shoulder and their hands brush.

When they sit back down, she writes, "Nice suit" on her legal pad and slides it towards him.

He pulls the pen out of her hand and writes, "I always wear it to funerals."

Then he sits up straight and stops passing notes and is a model of good behavior for the reporters and sketch artists in the back. But he shifts in his seat so that his leg is pressing against hers, and they sit like that through the opening statements.

She's forgotten that her boss's strategy is to convince the jury of reasonable doubt by arguing that Logan is the killer until he actually stands up in front of the courtroom and says it.

Logan moves to get up (and storm out, she's pretty sure, she knows how he is), but she grabs his knee and holds him down until he stops moving. The press would just love some drama, and Logan would hate it, and he'll thank her later. Uh, maybe.

He's glaring at his father's back and his face is bright red, and Alex keeps her hand pressing down until he looks at her and makes a face like she's hurting him. She lets go, and in the back reporters are scribbling into notebooks. Fantastic.

At the recess Logan gets up and pushes past her, stepping on her foot in the process and not apologizing. He hits the doors at the back and she sees an explosion of flash bulbs, but he puts his head down and gets through the mob like he's done it a thousand times. He probably has.

She follows him out without knowing exactly why, and heads for the nearest men's room. It's down a long empty corridor, and she leans against the wall outside it and waits for Logan to come out. It seems like a long wait.

Logan emerges with his hair a little wet at the temples and the front, like he's been splashing water on his face. He does a double take when he sees her. He's still kind of red in the face, and his lips are tight.

"What?" he says, as though it offends him that she's standing there.

"Are you okay?" she asks.

"What do you care?" he says. He's looking at her like she's Judas Iscariot. "I killed Lilly, right? What does it matter?"

She sighs. "Of course you didn't. Don't be such a martyr."

He snorts. "Oh, come on. Your people are laying the unstable son and ex-boyfriend routine on pretty thick. Was it your idea, or are you just the little minion who gets the coffee?" He's right up in her face, his hands clenched at his sides, and now she's angry.

"Hey," she says, and grabs his arm. "Watch it."

He grabs her other wrist, and his face is right there, his eyes half-lidded, and just as it occurs to her that he's looking at her mouth, he's kissing her, hard, teeth scraping along her lower lip, and oh fuck, she hopes there aren't any reporters that have to pee right about now.

"Fuck you," Logan mutters into her mouth, and his hand comes up to fist in her hair, and they're kissing like they're going to eat each other alive. He walks her back until she's against the wall and he's pressing into her, and finally she pushes him back, gently, because the trial's about to start up again and she'll be in trouble if she's not on time.

He's smiling at her - and it's the first time she's seen him actually smile like he's happy, not like he hates the whole world.

"I have to get back to court," she says.

He rubs his forehead. "Yeah." The smile falters a little, but then he looks at her again and it's back, he's happy, it's like a miracle. "I think I'm going to pass on that, but you have fun."

"Okay," she says, and tries to straighten her clothes.

He grins and looks at her like he likes her, and he's sort of surprising, as a person.

"Oh," Logan says, like he's just remembered something, "tell my father I said hi." She looks at him, surprised. "No, wait," Logan continues, "sorry, I meant, tell him I said go to hell." He grins again, but it's back to being ironic, like a window's closed.

She watches him walk away, down the long hallway and out past all the reporters, his hands in his pockets, and she leans against the wall and collects herself. Then she heads back to the courtroom for a endless testimony that she can't quite seem to pay attention to, and when they're done for the day, Logan's sitting on the hood of her car.

He's in the sun, and she squints at him. "Hi," she says. He's changed out of the suit, and is in cargo pants and sneakers so he looks like a college kid.

He smiles at her, that real smile again, and slides off the hood of the car. "Hi," he says, and he's standing right in front of her. She thinks about stepping back, but lets him kiss her instead, because. Well. Who knows?

"How was court?" Logan says. "No, wait. Why am I asking when I can just watch the reenactment on E! tonight?"

"Funny," she says.

Logan leans against the car and crosses his arms. "So tell me," he says, and he's pretending like he doesn't care what the answer is, but he's not very good at it. "Is he going to get off?"

Alex watches him fidget for a long moment. "I don't know," she says. "Probably. Eventually. He's rich."

Logan runs his hand through his hair sharply and pushes himself up from the car, paces back and forth for a few steps.

"Sorry," Alex says.

Logan nods, and rubs the back of his neck, and doesn't really look at her. "C'mon," he says after a long moment. "I'll drive you home."

They drive most of the way in silence. Logan puts on sunglasses and she can't tell what he's thinking. The sun's straight ahead of them.

"What will you do if your dad gets out?" she asks finally.

He taps his fingers on the steering wheel, and half-smiles. "Hide."

**

She makes Logan wait in the living room while she changes into jeans. When she comes out, he actually IS watching the trial reenactment on E!.

"Oh, c'mon, don't do that to yourself," she says.

He hits rewind on the TiVo. "Watch this," he says. She sits on the arm of the couch next to him, and he plays it.

Some actor with hair vaguely like her boss is giving his opening statement, and when he says that thing about Logan killing Lilly, the camera cuts to right behind the defense table, where a chiseled twenty-something sits next to a blond woman. Is that supposed to be HER?

On screen, "Logan" looks agitated, and "Alex" grabs his leg.

Alex groans and rubs her forehead. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Can't keep your hands off me," Logan says, and she laughs in spite of herself.

"Shut up," she says, and hits him on the shoulder, and he grabs her wrist and pulls her until she's in his lap and he's kissing her, and his hand is on her waist, creeping up under her shirt, and the opening statement is still playing on the TV.

"Suspicion was thrown unfairly on my client by an unstable teenage girl, whom all witnesses state was frighteningly obsessed with Lilly Kane's murder. This same teenage girl, shortly before accusing my client of murder, had, in fact, provided the police with evidence that Logan Echolls had both motive and opportunity to kill Lilly Kane."

Logan's still kissing her, but his breath is coming hard through his nose and he puts his hand on her back and eases her back into the couch, pushing her down, his hand unhooking her bra. He breaks the kiss to pull her shirt over her head.

"Why did she change her story? Why was Logan Echolls never further investigated after his questioning by police? Lilly Kane had broken up with him shortly before her murder, and on the day of the murder he had become convinced that she was seeing other men. In fact, his friends will testify that he had driven back to Neptune early to find and confront her."

Logan's biting at her mouth, and his breath is catching like sobs, and his hands are rough on her breasts, thumbs skating over her nipples.

"For God's sake, Logan," Alex says. "Turn that off."

He just kisses her harder, and one hand slides into her jeans.

"Logan Echolls was a very troubled teenager, prone to violent outbursts, and was extremely possessive of his girlfriend."

Logan slides a finger into her. "That's true," he says, watching her face. She twists against him and tries not to gasp.

"Turn it off," she says, and he smiles in a way that worries her. "Logan," she says, but he just pushes another finger into her and her eyes close and she can't think.

He's undoing her zipper and pushing her jeans down her legs and thumbing her clit, and somehow the attorney is still talking, and all she can hear is unstable and violent and vendetta and Veronica Mars, and when she looks at Logan he's still staring at her and for a second he really does look like he could kill somebody.

But then he's kissing her again, and fumbling with his belt, and they're fucking on the couch while her boss talks about how Logan's a killer, and Logan's got his face buried in her neck so she can't look at him, and when he comes it's the saddest thing she's ever heard.

**

Alex cleans herself up in the bathroom, and sits on the edge of the tub for a little bit because her legs are shaking and because she needs a minute. She stares into space and doesn't think about anything at all.

When she finally goes back to the living room, Logan is sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. The television is still going.

She turns it off and rests her hand in Logan's hair. The room is quiet.

Finally she says, "Next time let's try to be, oh, at least 50% less fucked up, okay?"

He half laughs, disbelieving, and when he looks up at her his eyes are reddish and she can tell that he didn't think there'd be a next time.

"Right," he says, and slumps against the couch. He rests his head on the back and looks up at her. He seems drained.

She curls up next to him and flips channels until she finds some movie with spaceships, and they watch it without saying anything. After awhile, he puts his arm around her and she rests her head on his shoulder, and it's kind of ridiculous, considering. But. There it is.

**

END

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