Keith picks Vendetta up at the gas station that the bus stops at for a bathroom break as soon as she climbs into the passenger seat and says "hi" to Backup petting the top of his head she shows him the picture of Veronica with Terrance Cook Keith takes the camera from her "now I promised that it would be "destroyed" after you saw it!.... but I never promised that you wouldn't print it out for your own safe keeping.... you know fear of selling it for cash on eBay or somethin" she tells her uncle Keith kisses the top of her head in his excitement she laughs softly "you know what?!.... I think I'm gonna go back onto the bus.... that way V isn't all alone.... she stayed to chat with Meg while some of the others called for a limo service" she tells him then she kisses his cheek "we'll be fine!.... we'll protect each other as we always do!" she assures him Keith smiles at her as she climbs out of the car and back onto the bus.... Eli was at the gas station when it stopped but he never saw Vendetta though he did see Veronica and asks as he stands up from wiping his bike down "what are you doing here huh? shouldn't you be running for homecoming queen or something?" Veronica replies "I'm safe standing here right? I mean you're not going to shoot me are you?" Eli asks his anger at what happened in school burning inside him and fueling his words not really thinking just saying what comes to the top of his head "so did you like your taste? your little year of living dangerously? did you get your fill? as soon as they'll have you back you go running to the 09ners and as a little bonus you give it up to the richest boys in school wow! ha-ha well hell I'm sure their sheets are clean" Veronica plays along and allows him to get it all out of his system as he goes back to wiping down his bike "you don't know anything about me and you don't know anything about them" Eli stands back up and says "yeah I do I know that Logan stabbed Felix.... he had his buddies keep Vendetta busy so he can "get to work" on my best friend!.... and he got away with it because he's rich and he's white!" Veronica couldn't believe what she is hearing she know that he doesn't truly believe that but she also knows that 09ner vehicles were used that night and that the culprits were wearing masks so she once again let it slide and played along "6 guys jumped Logan they broke his ribs they gave him a concussion yet somehow he managed to wrestled away one of their knives to stab Felix ESPECIALLY with Vendetta there you didn't see it you weren't there and you know as well as anybody that he would never go THAT far when it comes to hurting her!.... words yes but physically no way in HELL would he EVER do that!" in truth the fight she spoke of happened on Logan's way home someone had been waiting for him with a few buddies on motorcycles so they could make it look like he was actually apart of it.... they also wore masks and the came as a surprise to Logan when he got home and found them waiting so he didn't get a chance to take any of the masks off.... "so I guess Felix stabbed himself?.... so what he could get some attention from V?! nah he's not that stupid!" he asks "well somebody stabbed him!.... and with the way your fellow PCHers are treating Vendetta....!" she says "my boys? nothing goes down in the club without my say-so.... and I would NEVER let any harm come to her!" he replies "so I guess you know about the shot blast that almost killed Logan and me? bikers ride up and blow a hole through Logan's car? you sure you're still in charge?" she asks then she hears the bus pull away then turns and walks toward it as Eli drives off she starts to call Wallace till she hears Eli pull back in then she hangs up "hop on" Eli says throwing his helmet at her "she'll never forgive me if I just leave you here!" Veronica's eyes widen understandingly and she says with a surprised tone "you were following us!" Eli nods and says ashamed of himself it seems that in those few seconds of driving away he was able to cool off just a bit "she stood up for you with the guys and I.... I tried to stop her!.... man I really am an idiot!" Veronica chuckles softly then she climbs up behind him placing her hands on the sides of his hips and they ride off....
Eli and Veronica see smoke and some of the 09ners get out of their limo and rush to the side of the highway Eli parks his bike and Veronica gets off and rushes over to see what was going on "it didn't even slow down they're all dead" Gia tells her as she rushes over Duncan rushes over to her yelling her name and that's when Eli realizes that the girl was talking about the bus he ran over and with fear in his voice yelled "V!!.... V!!!!" Duncan held onto Veronica as Eli ran over almost running into her and yelling down into the ledge where the bus drove into "V!!" Veronica gasps and her father pulls up behind them Veronica turns and sees her dad then rushes over to his car "dad!.... V!.... she....!" she tells him Keith holds her tight as Eli stares into the water "V!!" he whispers sitting on the edge of the cliff.... about an hour later the police show up with an ambulance, the fire department and it takes them a few more hours to find and fish the bus out of the water.... there was one survivor out of the whole ordeal "V!!" Eli says as he jumps up looking at her battered and bruised body she seemed to wake up at the sound of his voice and hers came out in a harsh scratchy whisper "Eli!?!" he runs over to the bed they carried her body on and his hand grips hers as he says "I'm here V!.... and I'm never leaving your side again!" the paramedic tells him "sir you can't....!" Keith rushes over and says "it's ok.... that's her fiancé" the paramedics eyes widen but he says nothing as he allows Eli to climb in and sit next to V's bed "I'll get your bike home Weevil" Veronica tells him as the doors shut Eli smiles at her "what!?! V taught me!" Veronica tells her father with a shrug he laughs then says with a smile "of course she did!.... just.... be careful!" Keith kisses his daughter's forehead and she rushes over to Eli's hog and drives to the hospital.... Eli didn't leave Vendetta's side.... unless he had to go to school he knew that she wouldn't be happy if he skipped just to watch her lay there breathing through a tube.... "my girls a fighter!.... she's gonna pull through this!" he tells one of the nurses one night who only smiles at him.... his anger boiled even more furiously with her gone he had no one to keep him calm his best friend is gone, his girl in a hospital bed.... he didn't blame Veronica he didn't know who to blame and that pissed him off even more.... a few weeks later Eli wakes up in the chair near her bedside to the sound of coughing and choking "V!?!.... bébé!?!" he stands up at her bedside and hits the call button to him they were taking too long to get there so he gently pulls out the tubing.... he had watched them put it in so he hoped that he had done it right.... "Eli?!?!" she whispers softly in a tone that made it sound like she was making sure she wasn't imagining things her voice came out raspy but he took it as a good sign he carefully hugged her and her arm slowly wrapped around him and she winced in pain at the small movement "bébé don't!" Eli says with a worried tone as he looks into her eyes sadly tears starting to form but not fall "I don't care!.... it's been far too long since I....! I just wanna feel safe again!.... and I only feel that way with you!.... come here!.... please!" she whispers he slowly and carefully climbs into the small bed and lays by her side on his side that is when the nurses and doctors storm in "what do you think your doing!?!" one of the nurses asks harshly Eli tries to get up as his face reveals his shock but she has a very weak version of her death grip on his shoulder he smiles down at her it's ok bébé!" he says softly and she shakes her head "I'm not going anywhere!" he whispers as he lays back down and her body calms down as soon as it once again feels his completely by her side seeing this the doctor says "just let him stay" the nurse makes a face but says nothing Eli is grateful that Vendetta seems to have lost her voice and isn't as strong as she normally is or he knows that she would have given the nurse a piece of her mind he chuckles at the thought and sees her painfully smile at him "I'm gonna go call V.... tell her that your awake.... I'll be right back!" he tells her she nods he kisses her then gets up and makes a few phone calls when he was finished he walked back inside her room the look on his face when he walked in she knew that look.... the doctor had given her a notebook and a pencil to write with he wanted her to rest her voice and drink lots of fluids she she wrote "gotta go teach someone a lesson huh?!" and lifted it up for Eli to see with a silly smile on her face he chuckles nervously rubbing the back of his head as he replies "yeah!" then he walks over and kisses her then promises "I'll be back though.... I promise!" she wrote "you better!" he laughs again giving her another kiss then walking away looking back at her when he reached and opened the door blowing her a kiss with his lips then turning back around and continuing to walk away....
The next day in school Eli catches Veronica at her locker and he says "yo Martha I heard you took a ride downtown behind the 187 so did you flop the cops or did the local Wapner hook you up with some new ankle bling?" Veronica answers "you know the deal cuz every time a kitty cries in this town one-time tries to put a case on me speaking of bling what's with the hoops? if I rub your head do I get three wishes?" he replies "you rub my head and you might wanna make one of those seeing tomorrow your first wish.... only one girl is allowed to even touch my head and you know who that is!" she stares at him in realization of where his earring might be "you need to be alone for a second?" he asks "where's that disco ball you usually wear?" she asks "it's probably deep in some chick's shag carpet" he answers "well for your sake I hope not!" she replies "yeah!" he answers softly regretting his choice of words "though I'm guessing more like an evidence bag in the sheriff's office" he turns to the guys behind him and whispers while pumping fists with one of them "I'll holla at your dog" the guys take a step back "my question and I'm betting it's the sheriff's is what was your earring doing at the Road Hog in the last place Curly Moran was seen alive?.... though I do have one more for you.... what would V think if she found out that's where it was found?!" she asks "you know I-I don't even know what earring you're talking about so" he replies "it's kinda like the one you're wearing in your yearbook photo hmm sheriff's department speed dial" she says holding up her phone calling quite possibly a random number "if this doesn't get me out of that jaywalking ticket.... hello Inga" he replies "okay a couple of weeks ago a few days before Curly beached I got this weird call some guy saying Curly was behind the bus crash" as he talked she hung up when he finished she asked "you don't know who it was?" he answers and they started walking down the hall together "they just said that Curly was hired by the Fitzpatricks to get back at Carvando" she asks "as in the fighting Fitzpatricks" he answers "uh-huh" she says "I think my dad put like five of the Fitzpatricks in Chino" he says "look they're Irish Catholic for every five you put away there are ten more at home Carvando had been goin around braggin about how he hustled Liam Fitzpatrick out of a few grand down at River Styx" she replies "that's a lot of information for an anonymous call what'd you do?" he says "nothin" she replies "I'm sure" Eli says "the Fitzpatricks are meth head lunatics but they're not gonna kill a bus full of kids over three grand their problem with Carvando would have been solved in an alley with a baseball bat.... besides I got my girl to think about!.... I wanna be around for when she's able to come home.... I miss her!" she says "give me your cell" he replies as he does as she asks "I called the mystery guy back already all it does is ring look should I be expecting a visit from Lamb? if I know I'm being brought in I'll put on good underwear you know?" she puts the number in her phone as he talks and replies "you should really do that anyway" as she hands him back his phone he smiles then says softly "I will.... for her!" she smiles back then says "tell her I said hi and will visit soon" Eli nods and Veronica walks away