September first, 1998

12

"Dude, are you insane!" Ollie yelled, his gaze flicking between Kyle's unconscious form and JD angrily stood over him.

Quickly, reality began to sink in, and JD regretted what he had done. He had just been so focused on protecting Veronica that he had let his anger come over him, an anger of which no amount of classes could fix. Usually he was in control, but occasionally he would just snap. He feared more than anything that it would happen in front of Jenna, even though it was very rare.

"Okay...so...um" he stuttered.

"Jason, if Kyle reports you, you're a gonner" Ollie warned, clearly freaking out, "I mean what were you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking" JD half whispered. They needed to think of something, a cover up. For Christ sake, it wasn't like Kyle was dead, although dead bodies were admittedly less inclined to snitch on their attackers than live ones.

"Okay, Ollie, please just trust me on this" he begged, as his friend nodded tentatively. With that, JD dragged his unconscious coworker out of the way, before as quietly as possible, though that was not quiet at all, pushing over the evidence cabinet.

"What the fuck are you doing!" Ollie yelled, though JD was too focused to respond, dragging Kyle back towards the filing cabinet.

"Look, he was climbing up the shelves like the idiot he is to look for the evidence box, and then whoops, it fell over, isn't that right?"

With that, he gave Ollie a glare that have warned him against making a report, but half pleaded with him, on the basis that they were just two friends that hated Kyle and he really needed that job. Not even financially any more. He had to stay close to the case.

"I mean that's exactly what happened" Ollie nodded, also resentful of Kyle's sexist attitude. He wasn't in any rush to help the guy out.

A few hours later when Kyle had been taken to hospital, unable to remember what had happened in the evidence room, JD was anxious to leave work for lunch and rush back to Veronica to warn her about the case. Under the dopey watch of his colleagues, he was easily able to sneak the year book out, as he still hadn't had a proper chance to go through it. He knew their would be a section dedicated to the suicides, and feared that his disappearance would be noted. While his father failed to report his supposed death to the authorities, he wouldn't have put it past Miss Fleming to dedicate a page to his tragic disappearance purely for the attention it gave her, especially considering the messy, distasteful tribute she had thrown together minutes after hearing of Veronica's fake suicide attempt.

His mind was facing as he pulled into Veronica's driveway. Would this mean she would have to leave Sherwood Ohio? He knew that would be safest, but considering he had to stay close to the investigation for their own safety, he dreaded the thought of losing Jenna after only five seconds of knowing her.

"Veronica, open the door please" he asked as he waited outside the house. Eventually, Veronica appeared slowly opening the door and peering through it almost shamefully. It was clear she had been crying.

"Veronica? What's wrong, what happened?" JD's tone quickly became much more soothing as he forgot about his own stress, concentrating solely on what was wrong with her. He knew it, his reappearance had upset her. He should have stayed away.

Veronica let him in, but as she closed the door, broke down into sobs, as though she was waiting for he sadness to be safely out of sight from any nosey neighbours. Out of instinct, JD dropped everything, yearbook included, and held her close to him, protecting her. She sobbed into his chest, as he simply held his arms around her and stroked her hair. He knew to give her time, so they just stayed their silent for what seemed like forever. But it somehow wasn't a sad silence. More of a relieved silence, like every thing would be okay.

Eventually, she stopped crying, but still didn't move. She just let him stoke her hair, it was the most internally peaceful she had felt in a long time.

"Hey, Veronica, tell me what's happened, I can help."

Admittedly in the past, JD's idea of help were rather over dramatic to say the least, killing of anyone that so much as breathed the wrong way around Veronica. But he was a different person now. Right?

"I'm just scared, I don't know why, but I just am. I don't want Jenna to hate me for lying to her for eight years"

"Sshh, it's okay, you weren't lying to her, you didn't know I was alive, you were just protecting her" he tried to calm her down.

"But what if she doesn't see it that way, Jenna's the only person in my life, I cut everyone else out of it. If she doesn't trust me..."

She was cut off as JD kissed her, partly to calm her down, partly to shut her up, and partly because he had been waiting to do that since he last saw her on the football field.

"You're not alone" he promised "you still have Jenna, and now you also have me, it's gonna be okay, but there's something you need to know."

At this, Veronica's face turned ghostly white, as if she wasn't stressed enough as it was. The kiss only managed to calm her down for about three seconds. But now JD also began to look concerned, which stressed her out even more.

"They're reopening the cases, but now they know it was murder."