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dontwantmebackTitle: Play Me A Melody (17/18)
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis/Veronica Mars/Heroes/Iron Man/Once Upon A Time
Pairing: John Sheppard/Veronica Mars
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Rockstar AU, discussion of domestic violence
Length: 2830 words
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Seven 1/2
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Part Twelve
Part Thirteen
Part Fourteen
Part Fifteen
Part Sixteen
"Welcome back to our very special live edition of Enchanted Entertainment. Our next guests bring us a more serious topic. Very good personal friends of mine have been swept up in scandal recently and I was thrilled to find out they're joining us today to give us the truth. You've all seen the magazines, the speculation all over your televisions. Here to clear things up are Veronica Mars and John Sheppard."
The applause were politely hesitant when John and Veronica took the stage, both hugging Emma in greeting. John wasn't surprised; the lies about their relationship had only spread and people were going crazy. The whispered and pointed whenever the two of them went out, and it was different than the usual whispering and pointing that they were so used to. It wasn't excited, or even curious; it was the kind of whispering people did when they were talking badly about acquaintances, when they were expressing their distaste about something they thought they knew anything about.
And it had been a rough week getting to where they were. The day after they had found out how bad things really were, had been lined up for the show, John and Veronica were called into the label office, sat down in front of the board again, only this time O'Neill and Teyla sat there with them. People in suits who didn't know John half as well as they ought to have after so many years wanted to know if there was any truth to the stories; O'Neill snapped at them saying the board of all people would know if he'd decided to stage an elaborate cover-up like the accident and Teyla was so insulted by the very implication she would have anything to do with it she nearly snapped her pen in half.
Between those two, John and Veronica had hardly needed to say a thing. But when Landry expressed what the group across the table was thinking, that this was exactly the sort of rumour they'd been afraid of, why they hadn't wanted John and Veronica together, they snapped too and joined in the shouting.
It quickly became nearly impossible for them to go out except to the handful of places where John was close to the owners or the staff, and they couldn't stay in the apartment and make it look like there was anything for them to be concerned about. Still, it only took a couple days for O'Neill to insist they take Teal'c and Ronon out with them and leaving for New York couldn't come soon enough, even if getting there was just as bad as Nashville. Some woman on the street outside their hotel recognized them and berated John, and when they checked in it was obvious none of the staff at the front desk were comfortable with them sharing a room. They opted to stay in, order room service and pay-per-view instead of seeing any of what New York had to offer, and stayed there until they had to head to Emma's studio.
They knew most of the other guests on that evening's show, and every one of them expressed their support, their disbelief of the stories and their disdain of all the writers and producers and publishers who had run the story without the facts. And for the first time since everything had started, John felt comfortable among people who weren't his closest friends. The feeling didn't last; it vanished in a blink when they got on stage and even Emma couldn't fix that. He sat beside Veronica on the couch, held her hand in the space between them and used their bodies to hide the gesture from the audience.
Emma thanked them for coming, for being willing to open up about the whole story, and John and Veronica both thanked her in return, for letting them come and hopefully put an end to it all, assured their friend that she could ask them anything, no restraint needed.
"Let me just start by saying I was shocked when I first heard this story about you," Emma said to them, then turned to her audience to explain. "I've known John for years; not just professionally, we're friends too."
John didn't even bother trying to smile. "Imagine how we felt."
"How did you find out the story was being run? The statement from your label only came last week. Is it safe to assume you didn't know before then?"
"I had no idea," Veronica answered. "We don't really keep up with the magazines at home and we don't watch the news, entertainment or otherwise, so we had to wait to hear it from PR. And, I mean, I never would have imagined something like this would come out. And run so wild with absolutely no evidence. Frankly, we're both shocked and insulted."
"I'd actually heard about it a couple weeks ago, about the time Veronica got out of the hospital." John hadn't told Veronica as much, and he could feel the sharpness in her gaze when she looked at him, though he kept his own eyes fixed on Emma. "Teyla, our publicist, showed me a couple covers when the story was still just in those magazines that are usually reserved for alien abduction stories. She said she'd do what she could to take care of it before it got out of hand and, most people won't know this but if you're in the business you already know exactly who I'm talking about, Teyla's one of the best, if not the best at what she does. I figured if it could be handled, she'd handle it."
"Judging by the look you're getting, you obviously decided not to share with Veronica."
John did very nearly smile then. "Yeah, she's got the angry eyes on. I'm going to hear about this later for sure. But no, I didn't share. She was still recovering and it was better not to add stress. Next I heard anything it was this big."
"John has this really unexpected mother-hen side to him," Veronica told Emma, like a secret between the two of them. "He was so worried I was going to strain myself or something he spent days after I got home just hovering around looking useless."
He probably deserved to have her saying something embarrassing like that on national television, but John still turned slightly away from the camera like he could hide from it.
"Looking at you two now," Emma went on, after hiding an amused smile at John's expense, "you seem to have a great relationship. I don't think the camera's picking it up," she glanced toward the monitors, then looked out at the audience again, "and you all definitely can't see it, but they're sitting here holding hands. It's sweet."
It was both their turn to hide embarrassment, but Veronica answered as she did. "We really do. We have a lot in common and after that whole thing with our label when we started dating, I think it's made us stronger."
"Do you argue much? I know I've never seen it personally, and John's never mentioned one when we talk but that doesn't surprise me."
"We...don't, really," John told her, surprising himself when he realised that was true. "We bicker more than fight, and usually about stupid things. I don't think we've even had a proper fight." Which just made him think one was bound to come along.
"Which is weird," Veronica continued for him. "We're both really strong-willed people, and you'd think we'd argue over everything but we see eye to eye on the important stuff and the little stuff, well, like John said, we bicker about stupid things."
"Can you give an example?" Emma asked, and John glanced over at Veronica and gave a half shrug.
She answered for them. "Little things, really. What's the better pizza topping, which actor played the better Batman. When we were still working on music for our album we disagreed about that a lot, but that was work."
And had nothing to do with their relationship. They'd managed to keep the two apart fairly well, aside from the obvious and even that hadn't become really serious between them until their tour was nearly over. When they'd gotten around to recording, they'd kept all disagreements about the music out of the apartment, like some sort of unspoken agreement to separate them and the work.
"Now, I know the answer to this but I'm sure everyone watching wants to know, what's John's temper like?"
"From what I can tell, he doesn't seem to have much of a temper," Veronica said, and gave John a little smile. "He's annoyingly serious sometimes, but I think I've only ever seen him angry...two or three times?" She looked at John for confirmation, and he just shrugged. He didn't know, but he was sure he'd been mad way more than that. Maybe she just hadn't seen it.
Emma leaped on the topic though, mindful of their time and knowing she needed to get to the heart of the subject before they ran out. She gave John a glance that he knew was meant to be apologetic, leaned into Veronica slightly and asked flat out: "Have you ever seen him be violent?"
"No." There was absolutely no hesitation, Veronica's voice firm. "Never. I know he's got a violent past, or more violent than the average person anyway, and you hear all the time about soldiers coming back with anger issues, but..." she looked over at John and for the first time ever, found the words to say something about his past, which was no more violent than her own in completely different ways. "I think you're just sad."
And John couldn't help but lean over and kiss her right there in the middle of their serious interview, soft and short and he squeezed her hand where he still held it between them. "I'm not." And he turned to Emma to continue. "Everyone knows I fought in the war, that's no secret. But when I came back, yeah, I was angry. Most guys are. You see things and you lose people and of course you're going to get mad. I took all that and put it all into music, though. I guess you could say I found a different sort of outlet."
"Those memories are obviously still with you," said Emma and John knew exactly where she was going with it. "You sing the music you wrote with that anger all the time. How do you deal with it now? You must still feel angry sometimes."
"I write," John answered simply, and that was how he'd taught himself to deal with it. "It's not always something I'm going to share, but I get it out like that. Or if something's happened and writing doesn't work, I go to the gym and punch a bag around. It's important that people understand here that I've got healthy ways to deal with what happened. I talked to a psychiatrist when I first got back, and I've got her number just in case. So do people around me. I don't expect I'll ever be some sort of well-adjusted sane person, I wasn't even before I joined up, but I don't need to go around hitting my fiancée to deal with it."
"You've never mentioned any of that before," Emma told him, in her friend-voice, clearly surprised to hear it that she nearly forgot where they were.
"That's not what we're here to talk about," John reminded her gently.
"Of course not. Sorry. That's a personal conversation for later." John would prefer to never speak of it again, but he knew the women in his life too well to know they wouldn't just drop it. "Veronica. Do you remember the times you've seen John angry? What kind of thing makes him so mad you remember it?"
"The first time was when the board of directors at the label told us they weren't going to let us be together. After he kissed me in Asheville," her smile at the memory was fond. "He didn't really say or do anything, but I just kind of knew. More recently, it was again because of the board. They called us in for a meeting just before we came up here, actually, told us that this was exactly the kind of reason they didn't want us together in the first place. We were all mad at that meeting, though."
"Nothing between those events?"
Veronica glanced at John again, but gave a small nod. "Just once, and I actually think this is incredibly relevant so I'd like everyone to listen carefully. I remember it happening so clearly because the moment it happened I thought, yeah, this is the kind of man I could be with forever." Another glance, another smile and that time she squeezed his hand. "We'd just started recording the album, and the sound mixer made some sort of joke about smacking a girl around. John didn't even look up from what he was doing. He just told the guy 'Not funny. Get out.' And wouldn't get back in the booth until he'd been removed and a new mixer brought in. It wasted a good three hours replacing him, but John insisted he wasn't going to work with someone like that."
Again John was embarrassed, that wasn't something he'd ever banked on getting out. It wasn't something he'd ever thought would happen, either. Everyone at the label knew his preferences and knew to keep people with poor-taste humour away from him. That guy shouldn't have ever been allowed in the same studio as him, he never should have had to kick him out, and it should never have happened at all to be talked about on television. Emma smiled, though, and there was a murmuring of approval from the audience, so the embarrassment was almost worth it.
"We're running short on time," Emma announced, "so I'd like to address a few last things very quickly. Veronica, your relationship with Evan Lorne?"
"Friends. Old, close friends who are deeply in love with other people."
"John, would you say you're jealous at all?"
"No. And I don't think I have the right to be when she's so great about you and I."
Emma chuckled a little. "Which brings me to my next question. How would you define our relationship?"
John nearly laughed too. "Friends. And much more appropriate than Veronica and Evan."
"Veronica, do you have any suspicions about John and I, or John being unfaithful at all?"
"None," Veronica smiled, and it was a little devious. "But if you two wanted to make out or something, I'd like some pictures at least."
There was a ripple of laughter from the audience, and more from John and Emma themselves.
"We'll remember that then. Do you have anything to say about your accident being used as a cover-up?"
"Absolutely ridiculous," Veronica answered quickly. "It was an accident, other people were seriously hurt too. It's incredibly rude to them to say our label orchestrated the whole thing. Not to mention creating a cover-up like that is straight out of some movie version of the CIA handbook; no music label would go to that much trouble."
"Especially for talent that causes as much trouble as we do," John added, and behind the cameras the director made motions for them to wrap it up.
"It looks like we're out of time. Is there anything you'd like to say to everyone?"
John and Veronica both looked straight at the camera, and it was Veronica who said what they were both thinking. She was better with expressing herself than John was, and they both knew it would sound better coming from her. "We just want to say that we take this accusation incredibly seriously, and will continue to speak out against it. Inventing this kind of story to explain away a traffic accident is insulting. This is a real problem in our country and if everyone is so concerned about my well-being, John and I would like you to also consider the thousands of women out there who may actually be in trouble."
"Well said," Emma praised. "Thank you Veronica. And thank you John. We appreciate you coming today to talk about this with us. And to all our viewers, if you'd like to know more or would like to find a local charity to help women escape abusive relationships, go to the website on your screens now. We'll be right back with a special appearance by this year's biggest up-and-coming megastar, West Rosen."
John and Veronica stayed there on the stage while the show went to commercial, while the cheers for the Rosen kid died down, saying goodbye to Emma and making quick plans to arrange dinner or something when she was done the show. When they finally left, just before the break ended, it was amongst applause like John had been frightened they'd never hear again.
Part Eighteen
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis/Veronica Mars/Heroes/Iron Man/Once Upon A Time
Pairing: John Sheppard/Veronica Mars
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Rockstar AU, discussion of domestic violence
Length: 2830 words
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Seven 1/2
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Part Twelve
Part Thirteen
Part Fourteen
Part Fifteen
Part Sixteen
"Welcome back to our very special live edition of Enchanted Entertainment. Our next guests bring us a more serious topic. Very good personal friends of mine have been swept up in scandal recently and I was thrilled to find out they're joining us today to give us the truth. You've all seen the magazines, the speculation all over your televisions. Here to clear things up are Veronica Mars and John Sheppard."
The applause were politely hesitant when John and Veronica took the stage, both hugging Emma in greeting. John wasn't surprised; the lies about their relationship had only spread and people were going crazy. The whispered and pointed whenever the two of them went out, and it was different than the usual whispering and pointing that they were so used to. It wasn't excited, or even curious; it was the kind of whispering people did when they were talking badly about acquaintances, when they were expressing their distaste about something they thought they knew anything about.
And it had been a rough week getting to where they were. The day after they had found out how bad things really were, had been lined up for the show, John and Veronica were called into the label office, sat down in front of the board again, only this time O'Neill and Teyla sat there with them. People in suits who didn't know John half as well as they ought to have after so many years wanted to know if there was any truth to the stories; O'Neill snapped at them saying the board of all people would know if he'd decided to stage an elaborate cover-up like the accident and Teyla was so insulted by the very implication she would have anything to do with it she nearly snapped her pen in half.
Between those two, John and Veronica had hardly needed to say a thing. But when Landry expressed what the group across the table was thinking, that this was exactly the sort of rumour they'd been afraid of, why they hadn't wanted John and Veronica together, they snapped too and joined in the shouting.
It quickly became nearly impossible for them to go out except to the handful of places where John was close to the owners or the staff, and they couldn't stay in the apartment and make it look like there was anything for them to be concerned about. Still, it only took a couple days for O'Neill to insist they take Teal'c and Ronon out with them and leaving for New York couldn't come soon enough, even if getting there was just as bad as Nashville. Some woman on the street outside their hotel recognized them and berated John, and when they checked in it was obvious none of the staff at the front desk were comfortable with them sharing a room. They opted to stay in, order room service and pay-per-view instead of seeing any of what New York had to offer, and stayed there until they had to head to Emma's studio.
They knew most of the other guests on that evening's show, and every one of them expressed their support, their disbelief of the stories and their disdain of all the writers and producers and publishers who had run the story without the facts. And for the first time since everything had started, John felt comfortable among people who weren't his closest friends. The feeling didn't last; it vanished in a blink when they got on stage and even Emma couldn't fix that. He sat beside Veronica on the couch, held her hand in the space between them and used their bodies to hide the gesture from the audience.
Emma thanked them for coming, for being willing to open up about the whole story, and John and Veronica both thanked her in return, for letting them come and hopefully put an end to it all, assured their friend that she could ask them anything, no restraint needed.
"Let me just start by saying I was shocked when I first heard this story about you," Emma said to them, then turned to her audience to explain. "I've known John for years; not just professionally, we're friends too."
John didn't even bother trying to smile. "Imagine how we felt."
"How did you find out the story was being run? The statement from your label only came last week. Is it safe to assume you didn't know before then?"
"I had no idea," Veronica answered. "We don't really keep up with the magazines at home and we don't watch the news, entertainment or otherwise, so we had to wait to hear it from PR. And, I mean, I never would have imagined something like this would come out. And run so wild with absolutely no evidence. Frankly, we're both shocked and insulted."
"I'd actually heard about it a couple weeks ago, about the time Veronica got out of the hospital." John hadn't told Veronica as much, and he could feel the sharpness in her gaze when she looked at him, though he kept his own eyes fixed on Emma. "Teyla, our publicist, showed me a couple covers when the story was still just in those magazines that are usually reserved for alien abduction stories. She said she'd do what she could to take care of it before it got out of hand and, most people won't know this but if you're in the business you already know exactly who I'm talking about, Teyla's one of the best, if not the best at what she does. I figured if it could be handled, she'd handle it."
"Judging by the look you're getting, you obviously decided not to share with Veronica."
John did very nearly smile then. "Yeah, she's got the angry eyes on. I'm going to hear about this later for sure. But no, I didn't share. She was still recovering and it was better not to add stress. Next I heard anything it was this big."
"John has this really unexpected mother-hen side to him," Veronica told Emma, like a secret between the two of them. "He was so worried I was going to strain myself or something he spent days after I got home just hovering around looking useless."
He probably deserved to have her saying something embarrassing like that on national television, but John still turned slightly away from the camera like he could hide from it.
"Looking at you two now," Emma went on, after hiding an amused smile at John's expense, "you seem to have a great relationship. I don't think the camera's picking it up," she glanced toward the monitors, then looked out at the audience again, "and you all definitely can't see it, but they're sitting here holding hands. It's sweet."
It was both their turn to hide embarrassment, but Veronica answered as she did. "We really do. We have a lot in common and after that whole thing with our label when we started dating, I think it's made us stronger."
"Do you argue much? I know I've never seen it personally, and John's never mentioned one when we talk but that doesn't surprise me."
"We...don't, really," John told her, surprising himself when he realised that was true. "We bicker more than fight, and usually about stupid things. I don't think we've even had a proper fight." Which just made him think one was bound to come along.
"Which is weird," Veronica continued for him. "We're both really strong-willed people, and you'd think we'd argue over everything but we see eye to eye on the important stuff and the little stuff, well, like John said, we bicker about stupid things."
"Can you give an example?" Emma asked, and John glanced over at Veronica and gave a half shrug.
She answered for them. "Little things, really. What's the better pizza topping, which actor played the better Batman. When we were still working on music for our album we disagreed about that a lot, but that was work."
And had nothing to do with their relationship. They'd managed to keep the two apart fairly well, aside from the obvious and even that hadn't become really serious between them until their tour was nearly over. When they'd gotten around to recording, they'd kept all disagreements about the music out of the apartment, like some sort of unspoken agreement to separate them and the work.
"Now, I know the answer to this but I'm sure everyone watching wants to know, what's John's temper like?"
"From what I can tell, he doesn't seem to have much of a temper," Veronica said, and gave John a little smile. "He's annoyingly serious sometimes, but I think I've only ever seen him angry...two or three times?" She looked at John for confirmation, and he just shrugged. He didn't know, but he was sure he'd been mad way more than that. Maybe she just hadn't seen it.
Emma leaped on the topic though, mindful of their time and knowing she needed to get to the heart of the subject before they ran out. She gave John a glance that he knew was meant to be apologetic, leaned into Veronica slightly and asked flat out: "Have you ever seen him be violent?"
"No." There was absolutely no hesitation, Veronica's voice firm. "Never. I know he's got a violent past, or more violent than the average person anyway, and you hear all the time about soldiers coming back with anger issues, but..." she looked over at John and for the first time ever, found the words to say something about his past, which was no more violent than her own in completely different ways. "I think you're just sad."
And John couldn't help but lean over and kiss her right there in the middle of their serious interview, soft and short and he squeezed her hand where he still held it between them. "I'm not." And he turned to Emma to continue. "Everyone knows I fought in the war, that's no secret. But when I came back, yeah, I was angry. Most guys are. You see things and you lose people and of course you're going to get mad. I took all that and put it all into music, though. I guess you could say I found a different sort of outlet."
"Those memories are obviously still with you," said Emma and John knew exactly where she was going with it. "You sing the music you wrote with that anger all the time. How do you deal with it now? You must still feel angry sometimes."
"I write," John answered simply, and that was how he'd taught himself to deal with it. "It's not always something I'm going to share, but I get it out like that. Or if something's happened and writing doesn't work, I go to the gym and punch a bag around. It's important that people understand here that I've got healthy ways to deal with what happened. I talked to a psychiatrist when I first got back, and I've got her number just in case. So do people around me. I don't expect I'll ever be some sort of well-adjusted sane person, I wasn't even before I joined up, but I don't need to go around hitting my fiancée to deal with it."
"You've never mentioned any of that before," Emma told him, in her friend-voice, clearly surprised to hear it that she nearly forgot where they were.
"That's not what we're here to talk about," John reminded her gently.
"Of course not. Sorry. That's a personal conversation for later." John would prefer to never speak of it again, but he knew the women in his life too well to know they wouldn't just drop it. "Veronica. Do you remember the times you've seen John angry? What kind of thing makes him so mad you remember it?"
"The first time was when the board of directors at the label told us they weren't going to let us be together. After he kissed me in Asheville," her smile at the memory was fond. "He didn't really say or do anything, but I just kind of knew. More recently, it was again because of the board. They called us in for a meeting just before we came up here, actually, told us that this was exactly the kind of reason they didn't want us together in the first place. We were all mad at that meeting, though."
"Nothing between those events?"
Veronica glanced at John again, but gave a small nod. "Just once, and I actually think this is incredibly relevant so I'd like everyone to listen carefully. I remember it happening so clearly because the moment it happened I thought, yeah, this is the kind of man I could be with forever." Another glance, another smile and that time she squeezed his hand. "We'd just started recording the album, and the sound mixer made some sort of joke about smacking a girl around. John didn't even look up from what he was doing. He just told the guy 'Not funny. Get out.' And wouldn't get back in the booth until he'd been removed and a new mixer brought in. It wasted a good three hours replacing him, but John insisted he wasn't going to work with someone like that."
Again John was embarrassed, that wasn't something he'd ever banked on getting out. It wasn't something he'd ever thought would happen, either. Everyone at the label knew his preferences and knew to keep people with poor-taste humour away from him. That guy shouldn't have ever been allowed in the same studio as him, he never should have had to kick him out, and it should never have happened at all to be talked about on television. Emma smiled, though, and there was a murmuring of approval from the audience, so the embarrassment was almost worth it.
"We're running short on time," Emma announced, "so I'd like to address a few last things very quickly. Veronica, your relationship with Evan Lorne?"
"Friends. Old, close friends who are deeply in love with other people."
"John, would you say you're jealous at all?"
"No. And I don't think I have the right to be when she's so great about you and I."
Emma chuckled a little. "Which brings me to my next question. How would you define our relationship?"
John nearly laughed too. "Friends. And much more appropriate than Veronica and Evan."
"Veronica, do you have any suspicions about John and I, or John being unfaithful at all?"
"None," Veronica smiled, and it was a little devious. "But if you two wanted to make out or something, I'd like some pictures at least."
There was a ripple of laughter from the audience, and more from John and Emma themselves.
"We'll remember that then. Do you have anything to say about your accident being used as a cover-up?"
"Absolutely ridiculous," Veronica answered quickly. "It was an accident, other people were seriously hurt too. It's incredibly rude to them to say our label orchestrated the whole thing. Not to mention creating a cover-up like that is straight out of some movie version of the CIA handbook; no music label would go to that much trouble."
"Especially for talent that causes as much trouble as we do," John added, and behind the cameras the director made motions for them to wrap it up.
"It looks like we're out of time. Is there anything you'd like to say to everyone?"
John and Veronica both looked straight at the camera, and it was Veronica who said what they were both thinking. She was better with expressing herself than John was, and they both knew it would sound better coming from her. "We just want to say that we take this accusation incredibly seriously, and will continue to speak out against it. Inventing this kind of story to explain away a traffic accident is insulting. This is a real problem in our country and if everyone is so concerned about my well-being, John and I would like you to also consider the thousands of women out there who may actually be in trouble."
"Well said," Emma praised. "Thank you Veronica. And thank you John. We appreciate you coming today to talk about this with us. And to all our viewers, if you'd like to know more or would like to find a local charity to help women escape abusive relationships, go to the website on your screens now. We'll be right back with a special appearance by this year's biggest up-and-coming megastar, West Rosen."
John and Veronica stayed there on the stage while the show went to commercial, while the cheers for the Rosen kid died down, saying goodbye to Emma and making quick plans to arrange dinner or something when she was done the show. When they finally left, just before the break ended, it was amongst applause like John had been frightened they'd never hear again.
Part Eighteen