Thanks to mydearbriana :)


True to his word of the previous year, Hackett refused to let Katie spend the summer with Jason. This turned out to be a good thing when she had a meltdown at Ryan's graduation party. Hackett found her afterward, passed out in her old room at Jason's house, having drunk an entire bottle of whiskey. Far from arguing about it, Jason agreed that any length of time spent at the bar wouldn't be good for her. Katie disagreed vehemently, stopped speaking to both of them and spent the summer with Jeff's family instead. It took Jeff the entire three months to convince her that her father and uncle weren't the enemy and that drinking an entire bottle of whiskey was not a good solution to any problem.

The following summer, there was no argument. There was no reason for one, because Katie didn't even bring up the subject of going to stay with Jason. She was too preoccupied by the surprise addition to the Moreau family, a baby girl named Hilary. She had offered to help look after Hilary when Mrs. Moreau went back to work, an idea which was met by approval from all sides, except Jeff, who didn't see the fun in spending summer vacation taking care of an infant. But by the end of the summer, he was just as smitten as everyone else.

Their senior year was spent listening to teacher after teacher giving the same damn speech over and over: "Think about what you want to do after you graduate! It's important!" Katie and Jeff, along with the rest of the class, tuned them out after the first week. Most of them had had their plans figured out since elementary school, if not earlier. They were all hitting the recruitment office on their 18th birthdays. All except those who had slightly younger friends with whom they'd made pacts to wait to sign up together. Like Jeff and Katie, who had made such a pact in ninth grade.

Finally, Katie's 18th birthday rolled around. The second school was out, she and Jeff (who had turned 18 two months before) were at the recruitment office, signing up. Admiral Hackett stood by, watching sadly. He had known for years that she'd do it; she'd told him she would someday when he and Jason had come home from the First Contact War.

He wasn't prepared, however, when she told him she wanted to change her name, though he did understand her reasoning.

"Sorry, Dad," she said quietly. "But I want to be able to succeed or fail because of me not because of my name."

He nodded. "I know, sweetheart. So from now on you're going to be known as...?"

She grinned. "Kat Shepard."