Disclaimer - I do not own the characters of Jessica Sammler and Katherine Singer, they are the properties of Once and Again and ABC. I also do not own the lyrics to the song Never Gonna Fall In Love, they are the properties of Eric Carmen and Arista Records.

Part 2:

Welcome to Kate's Home and Crafts, a store for all you housing and garden needs. Her store got everything you need for your home, chainsaws, sheetrock, kitchen sink, yarn, plants, pottery, etc. If it's about your house or crafts she's got it! Unlike Home Depot she don't hire anybody from off the street, she makes sure that the employees she have in her store know their stuff. However none of them is a charismatic and have a wide range of knowledge than Kate herself. She can help you find the perfect screwdriver for you door and yet at the same time tell you what is the best baking pan for your cake.

She started the business even though there was a Home Depot and a Wal-Mart in the area. Even though everyone told her not to build her store she still built it. She felt that her service, the product quality, and a community sense that she can bring through her store can win over the customers and she was right, her stubbornness paid off. It was the only place where you can find a construction worker and housewife chatting together in the new café they just added to the store. Also people in the area could sell their products in the store, something that Wal-Mart wouldn't dare to do.

However business was going down, it seemed that people came to see Kate for advice and by then she rarely appeared in the store. She was mostly in the office either doing financial work or just plain daydreaming about her and Sarah, and on occasions she fell asleep in the office. The employees are feeling the effect too, she was a very good boss during her days with Sarah, but after Sarah left she became more difficult to deal with. Two of her employees quit because of it and she fired one employee just simply because he brought up Sarah.

There was one employee who stood by her even through the difficult times and his name was Darnell Charles. He was like the Assistant Supervisor to Kate, basically making him second in charge of the store. He was a well-built African-American male in his mid-late 20s who was still working for her because she gave him an opportunity when nobody else would. He himself also have a degree in Architecture from Oregon University yet due to his race and the stereotype that's associated with it (not smart enough for Architecture) nobody didn't hire him. However one day when Kate just opened store, he came in looking for a type of drill, she showed him her selections and he was impressed. From there on they ended up talking about homebuilding and Kate was really impressed with his knowledge, so she hired him a few days later. Even since then they became good friends.

He was also the guy who helps her in a lot of side projects that Kate gets involved in. They are co-owners of the side business they have; basically with the exception of temporary hired help they do all the work themselves. Anyways one day while Kate was in her office actually daydreaming Darnell walked in. Being a polite person he always knocked before coming in. That snapped Kate out of her daydream.

"Come on in!" As she tried to regain her thoughts and pretend that she was working.

"Hey girl, what's up?" Darnell said.

"Nothing, trying to find out how much we made on those quilts we had on sale."

"I think we made enough, although there are a few quilts still remaining." Darnell replied.

"Yeah but I didn't think that those that are remaining will sell. Well you know Mrs. Appleby quilts are, as I can put it in a nice way...unique."

"Yeah, so what should we do to them?"

"Give it to the Salvation Army or Goodwill, I'm sure they can use it."

"That sounds good. I'll do that tomorrow morning. By the way, Esmeralda told me to tell you there are no more Tulips and Lilies in the flower section of the garden."

"What? Why didn't she tell me directly?"

"That's because she's afraid to talk to you after you yelled at her about screwing up on the watering of the plants." Darnell said with a small frown on his face.

"But she should know better by now, she's been working here for eight months now."

"That doesn't give you a reason to yell at her," Darnell said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah but what am I suppose to do, baby her? She makes lots of careless mistakes, mistakes that no one with her years of experience should make." Kate said rather angrily.

"She does make careless mistakes but there's no need to scream at her and call her incompetent." Darnell responded with some anger of his own.

"I just don't understand how she can forget to water the roses. The roses are our big sellers."

"Look Kate, I'm you friend and a very good friend but I need to be straightforward with you and don't get mad at me because of it, but you need to stop carrying you anger on other people."

"I'm not carrying my anger at other people! She did something very stupid!"

"Yes you are Kate, Esmeralda was crying after you screamed at her! I had to support her for 10 minutes after that. That might not be a good example but I can think of others. Like when Mike talks about her girlfriend and you tell him rather coldly not to talk about his love life, or when Esmeralda talks about her girlfriend and their baby daughter you get really upset with her. This is all because of Sarah!"

"Don't you ever bring that woman's name up in here!" Kate said with a harsh tone.

"NO, WE NEED TO BRING HER NAME UP!" Darnell screamed back at Kate with every bit of air in his lungs. "It's because you haven't gotten over her that you treat people the way you do! The hurt that she did to you, you are bringing it to everybody, you're hurting your employees, your customers, your friends and your business! You're hurting every god damn mutha fuckin' thing that's around you!"

When she was about to scream back to him, she realize she had to calm down or things can get ugly, which means it can come to fist and blows with each other. As good as a fighter as Kate was, she is no match with Darnell, who was also a trained Kung-Fu expert.

"Now you listen to me, go back out to the front and help out the customers. Don't come back in here and don't talk to me for the rest of the day, understand?" She said with as much coldness and harshness that she could put into it.

Darnell couldn't believe that his good friend would say something like that to him. He wanted to say more but was afraid of the consequences, so he returned back with the same coldness responding "I understand." He then slammed the door and walked away.

After a while Kate sat back in the desk and started to cry. She cried with everything she had in her heart and she cried like that for nearly an hour. Everything around her was falling apart right in front of her, but most of all she was still crying about Sarah. While looking at a picture of Sarah and her on a camping trip she started to ask questions.

"Why did you leave me? What did I do to deserve this? You know I love you more than anything else in this world. Why? WHY?"

While she was crying, a song from SM95 came on that fits her current feeling. It was Eric Carmen's Never Gonna Fall in Love Again.

At first we thought that love was here to stay
The summer made it seem so right
But like the sun we watched it fade away
From morning into lonely night

Never gonna fall in love again
I don't wanna start with someone new
'cause I couldn't bear to see it end
Just like me and you


No, I never wanna feel the pain
Of remembering how it used to be
Never gonna fall in love again
Just like you and me

In truth she really didn't stop crying until a phone rang.

She had to get her composure together so that it didn't sound like she was crying. See succeeded somewhat, "Kate's Home and Crafts, this is Kate speaking," she said with a a little bit of crackle in her voice.

"Hi, Kate" said a woman with a soft Chicago accent. "My name is Jessica Sammler and I'm a producer for a TV show on the Travel Channel. It's called Several Places of America That You Probably Missed and we need some ladders and possible one or two scaffolds for our camera men. I was wondering if you have any in stock."

"Oh yes we certainly do, I have many types of ladders and scaffolds for your needs. By the way are you from Chicago?"

"Yes I am, how do you know?"

"I can tell by the way you said 'scaffold'. From what part of Chicago are you from?"

"Well I'm from Evanston. You must be from the southern part by the way I hear you say ladders."

Kate chuckled a bit "Yes I'm from Bridgeport."

"Oh you must be a Sox (Chicago White Sox) fan?"

"Damn right! 2005 World Series Champs!"

"Oh you Sox fans have to rub it in."

"Sorry that I have to remind you that your team hasn't won the World Series since 1908."

"OK I'm going to call some other store..."

"Just kidding, just kidding! Jesus, Anyways I think you should check out the ladders and scaffolds that we have in our store, if you can't find what you need, we can order it for you. We have excellent customer service, our products are of excellent quality and we have excellent warranties for our products."

"OK, that sounds cool to me, can you give me the directions to get there? We are currently in Eugene."

Kate then gives her directions to her store. She just thought to herself that it was just another customer who just happened to be from Chicago, little did she know that Jessica would change her life for the better, that's if she lets her.