A/N: I am not sure if this chapter is good or bad.

Chapter Four

Today was one of the days she didn't have literature in her program. Which in some way disappointed her.

On the other hand, she had a lighter schedule and it would give her some more time for studying and then find something interesting in the library. It became one of her favorite places.

Taking a turn, she unexpectedly bumped into someone's big frame. The notebooks she was holding, fell onto the ground.

"I'm really sorry, I was late for my - Kate?"

She looked up and the sight in front of her made her heart skip a beat. It was him.

Josh.

"It's fine, really-"As she was bending down to pick her stuff up, he joined in gathering her papers.

"Let me."

The corners of her mouth lifted up into a shy smile. He really was sweet and very intelligent guy.

It felt like she is in some kind of a movie. The boy bending down to help her…

When he collected them in his hands, they stood up and he gently gave Kate her belonging, brushing his hand against hers. She was too excited to understand if he did it on purpose or accidentally.

"By the way lunch was great with you last time. We should do it again." He smirked.

"That would be nice." She bit on her bottom lip.

"Look, I am really going to be late now, but do you want to hang out after lectures? Maybe I can walk you home?" Her eyes lighted up at the suggestion and her mouth went dry.

Josh Davidson wanted to walk her home.

Did he really suggested to walk her home?

He did?

"If you think it's too soon I can-"

"No." She blurted out, shaking her head. "It's perfect."

Really, Kate? Perfect?

"Okay, it's settled then. Meet me on the bus stop?"

Kate nodded and when he left, she couldn't help herself, but grin widely and dance on her way to the lecture.

When she entered the chemistry lab and found herself settled next to Lanie, her friend on the first second narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Kate remained calm, chewing on her bottom lip.

"By the amount of red on your cheeks I can tell something exciting happened to you." She teased. "C'mon share with me."

"S'nothing."

Lanie gave her the look. Yeah, she was good at gleaning information and convincing people.

"I'm going to be seeing with Josh after lectures." Kate blurted out in a whisper.

"What?" Lanie hissed in disapproval.

"What, what?" Kate's eyebrows gathered in confusion. What was wrong with that? Couldn't she hang out with people, huh?

"It's Josh." Her friend rolled her eyes.

"And?"

"Are you seriously going to-"Their conversation was interrupted by the old lady leading their chemistry lectures. Kate frowned at Lanie's sudden reaction.

What she meant by 'It's Josh.'? He seemed to be a normal and generous guy.

Maybe she was just jealous.

Probably.

"So what do you want to do after you graduate?"

"I want to be a Detective."

She watched his eyebrows raise up in astonishment. Maybe she said the wrong thing.

"Wouldn't this take you a lot of training and time?" Josh asked, walking in rhythm with her, brushing their shoulders together.

"Yes, but I think I can handle it. Studying is the hardest part." He laughed at her last statement.

"What about you?" She found herself asking back.

"I like entertaining myself with motorcycles. But this is not something that would help me in future, so I am striking for a medicine."

"Dr. Davidson." She smirked and Josh bumped her arm with his playfully.

It was good.

To have someone you can talk to and hang out after lectures. She likes having more time to herself, but now she could spare some for friends… Not that she had a lot of friends. Lanie, Josh and Maddie were the only people she had talked to until now. But it's her first week here, so it's normal. Besides having a lot of 'friends' was not something Kate Beckett relies on.

"Why did you choose medicine?"

"I like saving people's lives." He shrugged. "It makes me live more peacefully knowing I can help somehow. Once upon a time when I was fifteen years old, I saved a girl's life."

"You did?" Kate's eyes widened in admiration.

"Yeah, we were camping at the time with my class and we were jumping from a hill down into the water. It was fun. Until one of the guys thought it's going to be more fun if he push the girl from the hill. She couldn't swim and I jumped after her. Then when we made it to the dust I helped her come back to consciousness."

"This is priceless. I bet her family was really glad you were there at the time…"

"Actually I've never met them." He shrugged. "But the girl was thankful, though. And alive. That's enough for me."

Kate hummed and he asked "And you – what draws you towards the idea of becoming a Detective?

His question nearly made her stumble over her own feet. Her head tilted down to hide her wrecked facial expression. Shrugging her shoulders she answered simply "I don't know. I guess – that bringing justice to the world is my thing."

And after that she quickly changed the topic. Of course she was not going to bring up this right now.

Her feet were hurting and she was exhausted, but the walk with Josh was worth it. With every passing day with him, she convinced herself that he is a very good person. Not a jerk.

Finally they reached her building.

Saying 'goodbye' to someone, especially in front of the doors was always awkward. So she waited for him to make the first step.

"This walk was definitely worth it. And the little talk with you, of course. I look forward to know more about you, Kate." He smiled and she nodded coyly, chewing on her bruised lip.

"I had a great time, too."

"See you tomorrow?" Josh asked, bouncing on his long feet.

"See you tomorrow." She responded and turned around to enter the doors of her building, but he caught her by the elbow and leaned down to kiss her on the cheek.

And then he left.

Nice way of saying goodbye, she thought.

In a long time she haven't been feeling, so good.

But her filled with exhilaration smile quickly faded away, knowing what disaster is waiting her at home.

Twisting the key and entering her loft she met with the smell of heavy alcohol and baseball show thrumming through the walls. The curtains were closed and everything was dark, even though outside was sunny.

"Katie." He was sitting on the couch with propped legs on the length of the coffee table and bottle of whiskey on it.

"Hi, dad." She sighed and threw her bag on the floor. Heading towards the windows, she opened them and then went back to the TV turning down the volume. Her father followed her movements with his blurry eyes, getting frustrated. When she reached to take his bottle he asked "What are you doing?"

"I am throwing this in the trash." She held it up away from him and Jim stood up from the couch furiously, watching her with irritation.

"Give me back the bottle, Katie. Don't make me take it by myself."

"No."

Her heart trembled in fear, noticing how his jaw clenched.

"Dad – please, stop drinking." She wanted to make him understand. "You are not making it better. Trust me. I know you don't want to feel that way anymore. Me neither, but – the alcohol only numbs your real feelings and emotions for a while and then… - you are in the same place as before. You want drink the same amount as you are feeling so that you can at least get to a neutral point, but – Dad this does not help. It only destroys you."

She knew that he was already an addict, and that he couldn't control the urges to drink after he introduced it into his system, and it becomes a habit, you cannot stop at just 1. Or just 2, or just 3.

You cannot stop until you are falling down drunk, and pass out. You cannot stop until your life has become completely unmanageable, you are spiritually bankrupt, and you hit rock bottom.

He stepped closer to her and she flinched.

"Don't make me repeat, Kate. Give it."

"Or what? You are going to hit me again?"

The next time he saw her, it was in the library.

21:47PM and she was there. Sleeping. Her body was numb on top of the desk full of books and sources taken from the science section. It made him frown at the sight of her so drained out and tired.

After a minute of staring he noticed something odd on her pale face. There were bruises. A lot of bruises. Heavier than before and it made his heart clench, wondering who would do something like this to such a brittle person. They were recent and non-formed, yet. Her old wound on her eyebrow was re-cleaved and her bottom lip was slightly swollen with purple forming on the wounded spot.

It was really bad.

On one hand, he didn't know what to do. Whether to wake her up, or leave her to sleep.

One the other, he was just a - teacher that she obviously will never look at as a friend even for a moment. Or a person who cares.

And she thinks it was creepy.

And it was really creepy, thinking about it.

But he couldn't just leave her and act like he haven't noticed. This is serious. Someone kept on adding marks on her.

We are talking about a student's life here.

He gritted his teeth and gained some courage to sit quietly next to her on the desk.

"Kate?" He whispered, but there was no response from her. He cleared his throat and tried this time louder.

Her head detached from her elbow, she was sleeping on, turning to find him staring at her carefully. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were rimmed in red. If she didn't look, so exhausted he must've thought she is high.

"I fell asleep." Kate murmured, looking down at the pile of open books. "I have an assignment to write."

"It can wait." He said simply and she glanced with gathered eyebrows at him.

"What?"

"Are you alright?" He suddenly asked, which made her even more jumbled.

"Yeah. I'm just tired."

Something like deep worry flashed into his eyes. This was the first time she perceived something like this in him.

"Kate." He stared at her swollen eye and she quickly adverted her gaze away from him. "You are – your face…"

Oh. Right…

"I am fine." She sighed and wrapped her arms around her abdomen.

"Are you sure? Because couple days ago you showed up with bruises on your face and now it – it's even worse. I don't know how you are here studying through such a pain."

"Prof. Rodgers I really admire your concern, but I can assure you that there isn't-"

"Now it's really not time for persuasion. You can trust me and tell me who keeps on doing such things to you. I promise to not tell anybody if that's what holds you back from sharing. You just need help." He spoke with fear written all over his face, showing how apprehensive he is.

"I do not."

"Yes, you do." He hissed.

"No, I don't. What are you? Therapist undercover?" This was getting on her nerves. But she regretted what she said, because for first time someone actually cared. And all she do is- "I snapped. Sorry. But – really, I am fine."

"Right. Says the girl who shows up in class with bruised face, sleeps in the toilets and then after couple of days-

"Okay, I get it." she held up her hands. "You want to help, Prof. Rodgers, although it's super weird. But just accept that you can't. And I won't tell you anything, because the person who did - he – it wasn't on purpose. I love him no matter what." She didn't mean to say the last words, but they just escaped.

"Your boyfriend." He narrowed his eyes at her and if they were in darker room she would feel interrogated.

"Look – you are not even close. Don't dig into this."

"Your friend who you owe money?" He tried again and she just stared at him with crossed arms. "Nah. More like – some enemy from your past? No, wait… you said you love him."

Kate swallowed anxiously, because he was going to find out very soon and she can't deal with-

"Brother or father?"

Before he could empathize what was going on, she was on her feet, gathering her notebooks in the backpack, turning to leave.

Fuck. That wasn't his plan, he didn't mean to… Well done. Couldn't he just keep his mouth shut?

He caught her by the arm slightly, making her look at him in surprise. And he realized that for the first time in his life he permitted himself to touch a student. To even get close to a student. And his hand immediately dropped away from her.

"Hey, wait – please, sit. I'm going to go. Just please-"He breathed out fretfully.

She was scared.

Scared that if people learn about her father they will start talking and throwing rumors. Actually, that wasn't the real obstacle. The problem was that if someone reports him, they'll send him somewhere he don't belong. And he was the only thing she had.

She sat back down on the chair.

"I overstepped. I apologize." He mumbled and Kate watched him run a hand through his brown hair. Then he took out a little white card from his jacket, sliding it next to her on the desk.

"I'll stop. Just one last thing that I want to tell you. And it's – whenever something like this happen again, you can always give me a call. I can help."

Her mouth went slack. He was already gone before she could say something.

There was his number on the little card.

She wanted to take it and smash or cut it into pieces, but there was something holding her back from doing it. Her vulnerability. So instead she just stared at it, deciding on what to do.

Now there was definitely no way she could write her assignment for tomorrow or get any sleep.