It was a fall morning in November and Katherine Beckett had just spent the weekend celebrating her 21st birthday. It was a sad time as it was her second birthday she had celebrated without her mom. But also a happy time she had just found out she had been accepted into the NYPD under a Captain Montgomery. Jim Beckett was proud of his daughter, but also nervous of what this job meant for his "little girl". The job started up in a week so Katherine needed to go shopping for some professional clothes. No girl goes shopping alone so she called her bestie; Maddie to come with. She had gotten a motorcycle the year before so she and Maddie rode it to Downtown New York. About two hours later they had found Katherine five professional outfits, so they decided to stop at Starbucks. After that it was time to bring Maddie back home so they got on the motorcycle and took off. They were two blocks away from Maddie's when the unthinkable happened; a black sedan going way too fast hit them causing them to fly off the motorcycle. Katherine lay there on the pavement, her ears ringing of police sirens, an ambulance and the people who crowded her. It was a blur the EMT's hovering over her asking her questions, and strapping her onto a board and loading her into an ambulance. As she rode in the ambulance the EMT kept telling her to keep her eyes open and look at him. She tried but alas her eyes closed. In ten minutes they had arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital. They brought her in and she was whisked away by a team of doctors and nurses. Jim Beckett had gotten the call every parent dreads there had been an accident and one girl was DOA. Jim arrived at the hospital and immediately went to the ER desk. He waited for the nurse to hang up her call, then as soon as she did he asked her " I like to see my daughter, is she okay?"
" Can I have her name sir?" the nurse questioned. " Katherine, Katherine Beckett" a distraught Jim replied. The nurse looked through her charts. " Ahh, Miss Katherine Beckett, If you follow the hallway that way ( she was pointing to the left of her) she's in Room 47. Ohh one more thing". she whispered into Jim's ear; he reacted in disbelief. He headed off to Katherine's room when he got there he hesitated at the door a moment so he could mentally prepare himself for what he might see. He opened the door to see his Katie with bandages around her head, stitches on her cheek, a broken right wrist and ankle. He walked into the room slowly and sat himself down in a chair by her bedside. He then took her left hand and placed it between both of his. About half an hour later Katherine's eyes started to flutter and eventually they opened. She looked around confused about where she was and then she saw her dad. He gently hugged her. " How's Maddie?" she asked her father. For a moment Jim seemed to struggle to find the words , I mean how do you tell your daughter that her best friend is dead. " Dad?" Katherine said questionly. Finally Jim spoke. " Umm...Katie, sweetheart; I'm so sorry but Maddie was dead upon arrival". Katherine started crying hysterically. " It's all my fault, I killed my best friend".
" No, no you didn't Kitkat, it was an accident" replied Jim trying his best to console his daughter. The nurses told Jim that his daughter also had a concussion and they wanted to keep her overnight for observation. The next morning Jim arrived at the hospital early eager to take his daughter home. He had brought with him some clothes for Katherine to wear home. He was so grateful his daughter was coming home with him and not in a black bag in the city morgue.