"Mom?" She turns her head back and forth, searching. "Mommy?" Thunder booms, and the sky opens to let loose a storm. "Mommy!" When she turns again, she's standing in front of the headstone of a grave. Johanna Beckett.
Kate sits up in the bed, her skin cold and clammy with sweat. She breathes heavily.
She has the same nightmare almost every night since her mother's death.
Kate falls back onto her pillow and sobs.
A light knocking on the door of her bedroom makes her look up. "Kate?" It's Kevin, looking in through a crack at her door.
He slips through and tiptoes to the side of her bed. "I could hear you talking. Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she tells him, wiping tears from her eyes. "Just a dream, Kev. I'm fine."
"Captain says that you're usually lying when you say that," he whispers, and sits on the end of her small bed.
She doesn't respond, but pulls her legs in close to her body.
They sit there a moment, silent. She likes that she's not alone, but she knows she needs to be strong. For him, and for herself.
"Go back to bed, Kevin. I'm okay."
"You sure?" he asks, not entirely convinced.
"Yeah. I'll see you in the morning."
Reluctantly, he stands and moves for the door. "'Night, Kate."
"'Night," she whispers, and then he's gone back to his room, and she's alone again.
Hiding her face back in her pillow to suppress her sobs, Kate cries herself back to sleep.
The next morning's the same as always. Get up, fight over the shower, scarf down breakfast, walk to school.
But as they're walking out of the house, a car pulls out of the driveway across the street and speeds past them. The driver is the kid that waved at them the evening before.
Javi and Kev start talking animatedly about what Kate assumes is the car that just drove past, but she stops listening. Her eyelids are heavy and there's a tap-tapping at the base of her skull.
While the nightmares and the lack of sleep were fairly regular, the less-than-occasional headaches were almost her undoing.
But her feet keep moving down the sidewalk in pace with her brothers, and eventually they make it to the school. She waves half-heartedly at the boys and turns in the direction of her locker.
Leaning against it is Lanie, nervously biting at a fingernail. Her eyes get wide and her hand drops when she spots Kate. "Hey!" she calls, attempting to mask the worry in her voice.
Kate approaches. "Can you tone it down a little? It's one of those mornings."
Lanie slides off her locker and onto the one next to it. "Sorry, girl. Nightmares again?"
Other than the Cap and her brothers, Lanie was the only person who knew about the dreams. And only Lanie knew how ofter they came about, but Kate had a feeling Kev would be figuring it out if she kept sleep-talking.
"Yeah," she sighs. "And we've got that damn Chemistry test today."
"Well, I'd let you copy me but I'm totally gonna bomb," Lanie admits.
"Shut up," Kate argues. "You're the smartest one in the class. If we didn't do our homework together, I would fail." Kate spins the combo on her locker and yanks it open. A hidden bottle of aspirin beckons from the back corner, and she wraps her thin fingers around the white, label-less bottle.
Lanie talks about Chemistry while Kate pops off the top and shakes two white pills into her hand. She throws them back dry, and Lanie makes a face in the corner of her eye.
When the bottle's returned to its place and her locker's closed up, the girls turn to walk down the hall. The bell shrills over their heads and they split in their respective directions with a quick goodbye.
And Kate can tell it's going to be a long day.
Chemistry is right after lunch, so Lanie and Kate walk in together. They claim their table in the second row beside the wall, with Kate on the inside.
Slowly, the class files in and the tables fill up. The bell rings and the teacher starts giving instructions for the test.
Mid-sentence, the door swings open and a student walks—more like saunters—inside.
"And you would be…?" Mr. Graves asks, glasses tipped on the edge of his nose.
"Rick Castle," he answers, and he glances in Kate's direction.
They lock eyes for a fraction of a second before he's looking back at Graves and smirking.
"Okay," Graves sighs. "Find an empty seat."
When he'd looked at her, Kate realized that he's the one who lives across the street. The one who drove past them on the street this morning.
Lanie leans in closer to her, "Isn't that…" she whispers.
"Yeah," Kate breathes.
He stars in their direction, and finally sits directly behind Kate.
She resists the urge to look back at him. Graves starts to talk again, and she can feel the boy's eyes on the back of her head.
The tap-tap-tapping of her migraine is suddenly gone. Or, at least, less noticeable.
When the teacher starts to pass out the tests, he walks up to the table behind Kate.
"You're new, so you don't have to take the test. I don't know your range yet."
"I'll take it anyway," he says, and she can hear the grin in his voice. "I like a challenge."
"Suit yourself," Graves says dismissively, and Kate can hear the test flutter onto the tabletop.
When she picks up her pencil to start, she finds she's forgotten her name.
Lanie walks home with Kate, Kev, and Javi. When they get there, there's a plate of cookies wrapped in plastic on the kitchen table.
"Oh, sweet!" Kevin exclaims, and Kate smiles for the first time all day.
But when him and Javi get there, they sigh. He picks up a note and begins to read aloud: "Take these across the street and make nice with the new neighbors. All of you."
Kate glances out an open window across the street. His car isn't there. "Let's go, guys. Why not? They might offer to let you have some."
Kev perks up immediately. "Okay!" he says, and gathers up the plate.
"Whatever," Javi mutters, and follows Kev out the side door.
Kate grabs Lanie's arm and drags her after the boys.
They cross the street and walk up the half-empty driveway. Kevin slides a hand out from beneath the plate to ring the doorbell.
The group stands awkwardly on the front stoop of the house, and a voice echoes from behind the door.
"Coooominnnnng!" a woman's voice sing-songs.
The door swings open and a woman with long, wavy, dark red hair appears in a majestic blue evening gown. "Why, hello! And who do we have here?" she says breathily.
"We live across the street," Kev says. "And we just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood."
"Oh, how delightful. And cookies! Alexis, come here!" she calls into the house.
Around a corner teeters a little girl, maybe four or five, with straight, fiery orange hair. "Hi!" she exclaims at the sight of company.
"Alexis," the woman says, "show the young man with the plate into the kitchen."
"Okay," the little girl squeaks, and she grabs Kevin's arm and tugs him into the house.
She turns back to the other three. "Well, do come in!"
They're just about to step inside when there's a loud roar behind them and a car pulls into the empty space in the driveway.
"Oh, there's my son. Richard!"
The boy from Chemistry climbs out and eyes the new faces on his doorstep. "Hello, Mother. Do we have guests?"
"These are our new neighbors, darling! And they've come bearing cookies!"
"Ooh!" he says, and slips past the crowd and into the house.
The woman waves them inside and shuts the door.
A/N: Don't hate me for forgetting about this story. Fringe took my mind hostage (that I was willing is beside the point) but Season 5 reinspired me. Working on chapter 3!