THE NEXT DAY

"Oh I hate this stuff!" It was a Wednesday morning and Kelley sat in front of the computer studying for her graduate school entrance exam.

"What is it Babe?" Charlie came up behind her with his first cup of coffee. He looked down at the screen.

"I can't remember how to do any of this stuff. I was always good at algebra, but I haven't done it for so long, I stink at it now." She crossed her arms over her chest made a pouty face.

"I can help you with it. I am a math professor you know?" He leaned down and kissed her cheek.

"Oh yeah I forgot about that." She smiled at him. "What time will you be home tonight?" She stood up and walked with him to the kitchen.

"I should be a little early tonight. Maybe we can work on it some before dinner, but defiantly after. You'll ace that part of the GRE." He put his arm around her as they entered the kitchen to find Alan at the stove.

"I hope so."

"Who wants an omelet?" Alan asked from the stove.

"Oooo That sounds good." She took a seat at the counter.

"I'll take one too dad." He joined her.

"Make that three, what are we having?" Don entered.

"Donnie, didn't expect to see you this morning. I've got my whole family here for breakfast. What a treat." Alan began to happily cook their breakfast.

Kelley smiled when she heard Alan refer to her as family. She did feel like family now. Don constantly picking on her, and Alan telling her she wasn't eating enough. She had forced Alan to let her do some chores around the house, one of which was laundry. So her new battles with Charlie to try and convince him to put his dirty clothes in the hamper made her feel even more at home.

"So Ladybug, did you get your application for grad school turned in?" Don's question broke into her thoughts.

"I sure did, and now all I have to do is send my undergraduate transcripts from Ole Miss and take the GRE." She gave Don a big smile as she got up to help Alan with breakfast.

"What's the GRE?" Don asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"It stands for Graduate Record Exam. I have to take it to be fully admitted. It's not too bad I just can't remember how to do some of the math part. Ouch!" Alan had slapped her hand as she reached to try and help him.

"Go sit down. I am making breakfast today." He gave her a smile.

"Fine. But I will fix everyone's drinks. Who wants juice?" She reached for the cabinet.

"I'll take some." Charlie had been reading the headlines on the paper and finally looked up when she asked the question.

"Same here." Don sipped his coffee.

"I'm just having coffee, Dear." Alan said adding ham to the egg pancake in the pan.

"Ok then two juices coming up." She took three glasses from the cabinet and began to pour juice.

"Wow this is interesting." Charlie commented on the article he was reading.

"What's interesting?" Alan asked from the stove.

"There have been three robberies of coffee shops in the past two weeks. They all have been at the same time of day and within just a few blocks of each other." Charlie stared at the map the paper featured marking the location of each burglary.

"Uh oh. I know that look." Kelley grinned as she continued to pour juice. "He's about to start in with one of his equations, telling us how to track them." Just then Don's cell phone rang.

"Eppes. No way. Ok I'll be there in 20 no make it thirty minutes." He hung up. "Well looks like that equation Charlie is coming up with is going to be useful after all. That was Megan, LAPD has called us in. They killed one of the clerks in the last one."

"Wow, what a coincidence. Are you gonna finish breakfast?" Kelley handed Don his juice. He quickly downed it and grabbed his jacket.

"No time. Hey Charlie, you want to ride with me?" He motioned to his brother.

"Sure." Charlie headed for the door.

"Um Charlie aren't you forgetting something?" Kelley looked at him with a strange look.

He turned to face her. "What?" He asked giving the most innocent look she had ever seen. She tried not to laugh.

"You're still in your pajamas." She couldn't help she had to laugh. He looked down and realized he was still in shorts and a t-shirt.

"Right. Um Don can you give me a few minutes." He blushed a little.

"Sure Buddy, but make it quick. I'll be in the car. See 'ya Dad. Bye Ladybug." With that he headed for the door. And Charlie ran up stairs to change.

"Bye Donnie."

"See 'ya Don." Kelley looked at Alan and then at the plates full of omelets. "Well there went our family breakfast." She smiled at Alan.

"Easy come easy go, that's how it always is around here. Welcome to the Eppes house." He gave her a big smile. Kelley went to the sink and got Charlie's favorite travel coffee mug and fixed it for him.

"Ok gotta go sorry about breakfast Dad." Charlie came back into the kitchen still buttoning his shirt. "I promise not to be too late." He told Kelley kissing her good bye. She handed him his coffee. He eyed it with pleasure. Charlie couldn't' function without caffeine in the mornings. "I love you." He took the cup and gave her a bigger kiss this time.

"For the coffee or just in general?" She smiled gave him a wink.

"Both, see you both tonight." He blew her a kiss and was gone.

"Well I hope you like omelets my dear." Alan said eyeing the table full of food.

"I do but not quite that much." They both laughed and ate their breakfast.

THURSDAY

Charlie and Kelley sat at their favorite lunch time restaurant.

"So what does Doris think about you being there for only two days each week?" Charlie asked eyeing his sandwich.

"She hates it. She says it's too quiet when I'm not there. Plus she doesn't know how to work my radio, so she has to sit in silence." She was adding dressing to her salad.

"That sounds like Doris." Charlie said with a little chuckle. "I bet it is quiet for her. She used to having her living, breathing 'Chatty Cathy' doll." He chuckled again as Kelley shot him a dirty look. "So have you scheduled your GRE yet?"

"Sure have. It is next Friday. I'm a little nervous." She took a bite.

"You'll do fine. You picked back up on the concepts of the math section really quickly." He gave her a wink.

"Maybe I'm a genius too." She returned the wink. Just then her phone began to ring, some rock and roll song was blaring from the tiny speaker. Charlie knew Kelley had a different ring tone for just about everyone in her phone book but this one he hadn't heard a whole lot. She picked it up, "Hello. Hey girl. I know. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Oh my gosh are you kidding, of course that will be fine. Sure I have a test that morning but I can pick you guys up afterwards. You know it. There's always trouble in LA." With this Charlie's eyes narrowed. She winked at him and smiled. "Both of you are 21 now right? Charlie's brother is an FBI agent; I can't have you two getting me into that much trouble." She laughed. "Yeah, just let me know when your plane will get here and I'll be waiting. Ok can't wait. Ok bye." She gave a big smile as she hung up.

"What was that all about?" Charlie was interested to know what the other side of that conversation consisted of.

"Pie and Cake are coming." She grinned at him.

"Who?" Charlie looked at her really confused.

"They are two of my best friends from college. They are both younger than me but we were practically joined at the hip my junior and senior years. They are still at Ole Miss, but have a four day weekend next week, so on the spur of the moment they decided to pay me a visit. Neither of them has ever been to LA so they figured now that they have connections, they want to come see what it's all about. It's going to be so much fun." She gave a little shiver of excitement. The three of them had had some great times back home; it was going to be great to be back together again.

"Did someone really name their kids Pie and Cake?" Charlie looked are her praying that no one's parent had been that cruel.

"No Silly, their real names are Amanda Timberlake and Megan Dempsey. But for some reason they have always been Pie and Cake." She gave him a big smile.

"Which is which?" He asked, he wanted to work on it so when they got there he would already know.

"Amanda is Pie and Megan is Cake. I'll pull out some of my pictures when we get home and I'll show you which is which." She took another bite of the salad.

"I'm looking forward to it." They finished their lunch and headed back to work.