Work Text:
Her phone rings and 'Jackass' pops up on the screen.
That number hasn't graced her phone with a call or message in six years, the day she left Neptune.
The last time she saw him was five years ago in a supermarket when she was visiting her dad. They didn't speak.
Four years ago she changed his name to Jackass after a friend found his number on her phone and literally swooned. She told her it was a joke between friends and it wasn't really him. The same friend got arrested two weeks later for stalking her ex.
Wallace stopped mentioning him during their weekly catch-up calls three years ago. She doesn't know whether that was because he just doesn't know or because he thinks she doesn't want to know. She doesn't think it matters anyway.
Two years ago she packed up most of her photos from Neptune. Four survive. Graduation: Wallace, Mac, Weevil and Herself. Lilly and herself at twelve, mid-jump on their way into the pool. Duncan and Lilly Kane (formally Faith Manning) in the hospital before she helped Duncan go on the run to Australia. The last one is a picture she took of her dad and Lilly eating ice cream when they were fourteen. He doesn't feature any of them, not even in the backgrounds, she had made sure of that.
Six months ago she took the little heart charm he gave her for her charm bracelet. She thought she had finally let him go. Now one phone call and it feels like her chest has been ripped open all over again.
Fuck.
She flipped the phone open. “What on earth did you manage to fuck up so badly you needed to call me?”
“Duncan Kane is standing in my kitchen.”
Veronica blinked.
“Excuse me, I think I misheard. Could you please repeat that?”
“You must be slipping, you're usually pretty quick on the uptake. Duncan Kane, run-away heir and kidnapper is standing in my kitchen eating a tuna sandwich.”
Duncan wouldn't come back without a good reason. Without a damn good reason. Fuck. They both knew it.
Silence.
She sighed.“Where are you living now?”
“You don't know?” She could almost hear his brows raise. “No tracking devices? No shady source telling you my every move? I'm hurt Ronnie, I thought all your loved ones had GPS implants?”
“Well, now we know why you don't have one.”
The silence was fucking deafening.
“Get to the airport, a ticket has been booked for you and there'll been a driver waiting on the other end.”
Dial tone.