Morning at the Beckett apartment
As the sun begins to rise across the city and the light is slowly entering from outside and replacing the darkness, Jim Beckett is sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee.
As Johanna stumbles out of the spare room, down the hall, and moves slowly, stumbling, toward the kitchen. He can tell that her body is reacting to the heavy amount of alcohol still not yet processed out from her system. She reacts to the small amount of light in the room as if she were in the spotlight of a Super Trouper on the stage of a Broadway show
"The light is too bright! Can you turn if off?" her tone matches her features
"The lights are NOT on"
"Then WHY is it so bright in here?"
"That is the sun"
She squints and looks toward the window that is filled with the morning daylight "OH!" She turns away toward the counter and moves slowly in the direction of the coffee machine. She stops at the counter, leans her hands down, and tries to get her balance. She reaches out for a cup, but her hands are shaking so badly that her husband is afraid she will crop the ceramic.
Getting up from his chair "Sit Down before you fall down"
Instead of arguing she moves away from the counter as her husband grabs a cup and pours it full of a triple shot of caffeine.
She is sitting down when he sets the cup in front of her and then moves back to his chair.
He waits a minute before beginning his morning discussion. A discussion he knows so well. A discussion that usually begins with him trying to address the situation and ending with her yelling and storming out of the room claiming that she is NOT an alcoholic and can stop anytime she wants to.
"Jo…do you remember Katie calling last night?"
She looks at Jim then shakes her head no.
"She called last night and wanted to talk to you…but you were in no shape to talk to our only daughter or anyone for that matter"
"What do you mean?" anger fills her eyes
"Jo... You were so drunk you couldn't even stand up. I was not going to put you on the phone with her"
"Why?" she softens somewhat then hardens
"She would have known that you were drunk, and I would have had a fight on my hands with her heading for the airport wanting to come home"
A small appearance of understanding crosses Johanna's face
She then sits quietly for a moment before Jim continues "Jo…" she looks up at his concerned face "You need help"
/\/\/\/\/\/\
TWO MONTHS LATER
Katherine Houghton Beckett has just finished her sophomore year at Stanford and is packing her stuff up to head home for the summer. She is more than ready to get back to New York because something is not right back in the big apple.
Every time she has tried to call home, her dad answers the phone. Many of those times he does let her talk to her mother, but during those calls. Kate notices that she seems distracted by something and there seems to be an inordinate number of calls that her dad finds some reason that Johanna is not available to speak. Kate is positive that there is something very wrong back in the city and the only way she will find out the truth is to be face to face with her mom and dad, in the same room, and not from three thousand miles away.
She has packed up a lot of clothes and personal items and shipped them home and with the rest in two suitcases and a carry-on back pack for the plane.
The ticket clerk can even tell that Kate is distracted by something when he asks her if the bags were always in her control and nothing is in them not allowed on an aircraft.
"Ms. Beckett…" he tries to get her attention "Ms. Beckett" he repeats more firmly
She snaps back to reality "Yes?"
"Did you pack these bags yourself"
"Yes"
"And no one asked you to carry anything for them?"
"No" she responds with her mind still back home
She takes her ticket packet with two claim checks inside and a boarding pass and she heads to security
After a little less than an hour the page is made to begin boarding. She is getting more anxious to get home.
When she gets settled in her seat and the aircraft is pushed back from the terminal, her mind begins to drift off to what possible terrible things may be taking place back home Has her mother suffered some mental breakdown? Did her mom and dad have a giant breakup that was under the surface and as long as Kate were still at home they stayed together but now they are getting a divorce?
Were her injuries from the stabbing last year more serious than she was told Kate and now her mom has a permanent health issue?
She hopes that she will soon know the truth.
After what seemed like an unusually long time on the apron waiting to depart, the pilot comes over the PA system and announces that they are now the next in line and should be in the air shortly.
As soon as he announces that the seal belt light is turned off and they have reached cruising altitude, Kate is ready to get up and walk around the cabin, but the attendants have already begun the refreshment service and she is stuck, at least until they have passed her row.
She orders coffee and watches out the window as the next passengers' orders are taken. A few minutes pass before the attendant returns with the refreshments
As the drink cup is been passed over to Kate, the man on the aisle seat speaks up
"You're Kate Beckett"
His recognition of who she is catches her off guard
"Do I know you?"
"No, but I know you…or rather know of you" he seems a little shy
"I don't understand"
The man reaches out his right hand "My name is Jay Huddleston"
Kate pauses for a moment then reaches out her hand. Hello"
A smile enters his face "We were both in Professor Coskow's history class"
A moment of recognition appears "That was a LARGE class" she emphases the word LARGE
"Yes, it was. That is why it was in a large lecture theatre. Too large for a regular room. "
Kate smiles gently. There was over a hundred and fifty students. How did you know my name?"
He chuckles "I didn't know you name until the line at ticket counter. The clerk called you by name and I was listening"
"Oh, Really?"
"No…not like that…I mean I just accidently heard your name. I wasn't trying to…"
"Listen…" she pauses trying to remember his name "listen Jay?" she asks more in tone of a question "I am not interested…"
"No Kate" he tries to calm her down "I just wanted to introduce myself to you. You do seem to have something on your mind and I am not trying to pick you up or anything…. just trying to have a conversation with a classmate. Nothing more"
She looks in his direction and decides that he might really be just friendly "Sorry…you did say Jay, right?" and she reaches out her hand to greet him
"Yes, Jay Huddleston. Nice to meet you"
She nods her head as they shake hands "I am really sorry, but I do have a lot on my mind right now"
"What can you have on your mind during semester break? We have no classes, no lectures, no term papers, and no pop quizzes…just summer break then back to the grind in the fall"
She tries to sound more positive than she feels "Yeah. Two months then two more years before graduation"
"The BA degree anyway. I am pre-law, so I got more after that to get my JP doctorate"
"I am also. I am planning to follow in my parents' footsteps"
Are they attorneys"
"Yes. Both are. That is how they met. They actually met at a law firm where they were interning"
"That is so cool. What do they practice?"
"My dad does corporate law and my mom does a lot of pro bono work helping the under privileged and less able to get good representation"
They both sit quietly for a few minutes, then a soft smile crosses her lips for the first time in months "So, Jay, are you from the big apple of just passing through?"
"Heading home to Manhattan. My dad is a doctor and my mother works at a rehab hospital as a social worker"
"Well, those are both honorable professions. Is that what you want to do?"
"I'm not sure yet, but I am leaning toward becoming a homeless person and get me a 'will work for food' cardboard sign and stand on the corner of Broadway"
Kate laughs briefly then then turns to look out the window. A minute later she turns back to her fellow traveler "I'm sorry for being so snappy before"
"That's OK. I did kind of jump into your space without warning"
"No, that is not what happened…I um…I have been dealing with some things at home "
"I understand" he does not push her to tell what is happening
The trip that Kate Beckett had been dreading because of the hours she would be spending in the air just became more tolerant and the 5 hours in the air passed quickly. The two of them discussed going to off campus parties and
In what seem like only a few minutes, the pilot announces that they are on final descent to LaGuardia and should be on the ground in about ten minutes.
This becomes the longest ten minutes Kate has ever experienced in her life. As the plane descends into the New York airport, time seems to slow down for followed by the jot of the wheels touching the runway. Once more time drags as they taxi to the gate and finally halt at the sky ramp connecting to the terminal
Before deplaning, Kate and Jay exchange phone numbers and promise to keep in touch.
Waiting for her turn to leave the aircraft time seems to drag as the other passengers deplane between her and the door.
She finally feels relief when her turn comes to walk down the ramp and into the passenger lounge. She almost runs down the concourse and to the baggage claim, where she knows her mom and dad will be waiting and she can once gain hold her mother and dad
But!
When she exits the baggage area, only her father is there and the look on his face is not giving her a warm feeling