It was just a couple months after she had crossed that yellow tape. It was just a couple months after her mother never showed up to dinner. It was just a couple months after the night that had changed her life forever. It was just a couple months after her mother had been murdered in a cold dark ally.

Things have changed so much in those few months. There were still no new leads as to who had killed her mother. They eventually attributed it to random gang violence. Everything that she knew, or that she thought she knew, had changed. She went from wanting to be the first female chief justice, to wanting to join the police academy. Her life was now all work and no play. She knew that there would be a time when she would eventually be able to have the kind of life that she wanted; the kind of life that her mother wanted her to have. But the only way that she could have that kind of life was that if she caught her mother's killer. That was going to be her way of coping; giving the dead a voice, giving them justice. Her father, however, turned to the bottle as his way of coping. It was just like losing two parents. He was never himself. She would go over to his house a couple times a week to check up on him. Sometimes he even thought mom was still alive. Seeing like that was one of the hardest things that she had ever had to do.

The last couple months had been hell for her and the fact that she was starting her last semester at Stanford, before entering the police academy, this morning was not making things any better.

Since her mothers murder, she had lost the little enthusiasm that she had about getting up in the morning. Her morning routine was pretty much the same everyday. She would roll out of bed, hop in the shower, brush her teeth and comb her hair, and she was out the door. Her only hope was that she could survive the day so she could get home and take a bath.

Her first class was at eight in the morning. It was literature. She wasn't quite sure what the course was actually on; she wasn't really paying much attention when she signed up. There were obviously other things on her mind.

She walked up to the literature building at Stanford. She thought about just walking away, going home, getting in bed and sleeping the day away. She knew she couldn't. She knew that her mom would want her here; she knew that her mom wanted her to move on and live a normal life, just like every other girl her age.

She sighed as she pushed open the door to the building. It smelled of old paper and white board markers. The lights in the building buzzed as they lit up the hallway. She found the stairs and walked up to the top floor, where her classroom was. She was a little winded after walking up the three flights of stairs, it was probably from all the coffee and bear claws that she had been eating lately. She made a mental note to start running again.

She finally reached her classroom. It was literally the last classroom in the hallway. The room was dimly lit. There were only a couple other students in the classroom, but after all she was fifteen minutes early. For her, early was on time and on time was late. The professor wasn't even there yet. She took a seat closer to the back by the wall.

As the minutes passed more students started coming in. Some of them were talking, others were like her, keeping to themselves. She wondered what this class was even about, but the girl who had sat down behind her snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Hey, do you know the professor's name?" The girl asked. She was about her height, with straight brown hair, with really pretty eyes.

"Not at all, I don't even know what the class is about." She laughed to herself, she was probably coming off as one of those students that really didn't care and just wanted to get by in school.

"I'm right there with ya." The girl laughed, "I'm Temperance, by the way" she said as she stuck out her hand.

"Pretty name. I'm Kate." She said as she shook Temperance's hand.

"Hey do you want to exchange email's?"

"Yeah that would be great" Kate smiled.

They exchanged emails right before the professor walked in. He was tall, he wasn't exactly muscular, but he was solid. His hair was brown and a few pieces fell in front of his face. His eyes were a sea blue that you could just set sail in and never come out. He had a five o'clock shadow that really brought out the lines in his face. The top two buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned, revealing just enough of his nice skin. Kate couldn't think of just the right words to describe him. She finally got the right ones when his voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Hi, I'm Professor Rogers, and we'll be seeing a lot of each other for the next couple months so lets get some things straight."

Ruggedly handsom, Kate thought.

AN: My first fanfiction, please review and help me out! Thanks!