Though he hated the circumstances surrounding it, Hackett was quite thankful that the first summer Katie and Jeff had ever spent together, they were supposed to take it easy. He wasn't sure he or the Moreaus could handle the amount of trouble they would have gotten into if they'd been completely healthy, considering what they managed to accomplish on the average weekend during the school year.
Since the order came from their regular doctors on Arcturus and not Dr. River, who they seemed to have some sort of vendetta against, they begrudgingly agreed to behave. The pair spent most of the summer hunkered down in the middle of the Moreau's living room, watching marathons of military TV and movie vids.
When school finally started, not a whole lot changed except that Jeff reported Katie was more skittish around everyone. But they finally settled back into a routine and everything was fine after a couple of weeks.
As the holidays rolled around, the Hacketts and the Moreaus spent a pleasant Thanksgiving together. Jason and Ryan came back to the station for Christmas; things got tense when Hackett told Jason he should have done something to protect Katie if he suspected there was something wrong. She took refuge with the Moreaus, jokingly asking Jeff's parents if they would adopt her. Jeff nearly cracked a rib and his father choked on his eggnog from laughing when his mother actually said yes.
The second semester of Katie and Jeff's sophomore year went along much the same as the first. One Friday afternoon in April, Katie stayed after school to get help with math. She'd tried to get Jeff to stay, reminding him exams were coming up soon (he knew then she was mostly back to her old self if she was nagging him about exams) but he begged off, saying he'd be waiting when she was done. There was something he had to do while she was distracted.
He wasn't actually going anywhere, but he needed to have a chat with her father. Tomorrow was Katie's birthday and he intended to try to take her mind off of it. He'd had to have a lengthy discussion with his mother after she tried to plan a party, explaining that, especially after what had happened the year before, a party was the absolute last thing Katie needed.
Text Chat
From: Jeff Moreau
To: Steven Hackett
15:52 JM: Sorry to bother you, sir, but I need to talk to you about Katie.
15:54 SH: Is she alright?
15:55 JM: Yes, sir. She's doing some tutorial thing for math. Tried, and failed, to get me to take it.
15:55 SH: Well, I'm sure your parents won't hold it against her if you fail your math exam.
15:56 JM: We'll see. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about tomorrow.
15:57 SH: You know she doesn't celebrate her birthday, Jeff.
15:58 JM: Yes, sir, I know that. I also know that she gets really depressed every year on her birthday. Given how this last year has gone, I'm guessing that might be especially true tomorrow.
15:59 SH: And you want to do something to take her mind off of it.
16:00 JM: Yes, sir.
16:02 SH: What did you have in mind?
16:04 JM: I don't have all the details worked out yet, sir. I just wanted to see if it was okay with you if she was out most of the day.
16:05 SH: Aside from it being her birthday, it won't be any different than any other day, Jeff. You two are out all day every day.
16:06 JM: Point taken, sir.
16:07 SH: This is good actually. I unfortunately have a meeting for most of the day. Glad to know she won't be alone. Not that I expected her to be.
16:08 JM: Thank you, sir.
16:10 JM: Apparently she's done. I can feel her glaring at me.
16:11 SH: Good luck.
16:12 User Disconnected.
Katie woke Saturday morning with a plan. She was going to stop being so depressed and maybe actually enjoy her birthday for once. That was the best revenge, right?
She decided to call Ryan to tell him about her new plan. As she picked up her omni-tool to hail him, it beeped with a vid-chat request from him.
"Hey kid," he said when she answered. "Did I wake you?"
She shook her head. "No I was... kid? Really? The second you turn 18, suddenly I'm a kid?" she asked with mock indignation.
He grinned. "Excellent. Something new to add to my list of Things That Make Katie Mad."
She rolled her eyes. "I can see you're going to be a very mature adult."
"So how ya doin'?"
"Pretty good. I decided something this morning actually."
He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Care to share with the rest of the class?"
"That's why I was calling."
"Um... I called you, Katie."
"I was trying to call you but you beat me to it. Anyway, I've decided that I'm not going to be depressed about today anymore. I'll remember everybody, like I do every year, but I'm not going to sit around and mope like I usually do."
Ryan nodded. "Good. Me too."
"Great minds and all?" Katie said with a smirk.
He grinned. "Something like that."
"You realize this may give our dads heart attacks that we've actually matured."
"Speak for yourself," he said with a wink.
She rolled her eyes. "All right, one of us has matured."
There was another beep on her omni-tool, a message from Jeff:
The tree. One hour.
She looked back at her vid-chat. "Crap. Ryan, sorry, I gotta go."
"Jeff?" he asked with a knowing smirk.
She rolled her eyes again. "Bite me."
He laughed. "Have fun, kid. And happy birthday."
Katie grinned. "Happy birthday, Ryan."
Twenty minutes later, she was working through her second Boston cream doughnut when her father came into the kitchen carrying a box.
She smiled. "Hi Daddy."
"'Morning, sweetheart," he said. "You're in an awfully good mood."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Not that that's a bad thing. What's going on?"
"I decided I'm gonna have a happy day today, that's all," she said.
He smiled. "Glad to hear it."
"What's in the box, Daddy?"
He handed it to her. "It's a present from your mother."
She blinked and looked up at him. "How's that now?"
He laughed. "Just open it."
She lifted the lid and stared at the silver shamrock pendant necklace lying on top of a handwritten note. She took out the note and her eyes filled with tears as she read her mother's words:
Kathrine Anne,
This necklace was given to me by my mother on my sixteenth birthday, as it was given to her on hers. So I'm passing it on to you.
The engraving on the back has been worn away through the years, but it was part of an old Irish blessing:
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be ever at your back.
Happy 16th birthday, sweetheart.
Love, Mom
Katie looked up to see her father watching her.
"Thanks, Daddy," she said with a smile as she took the pendant out of the box and hooked the clasp at the back of her neck.
"You're not upset, are you?" he asked quietly. "You do have that whole 'no presents for your birthday' rule."
She shook her head. "Of course not. I love it. I'm... a little confused though. Did Mom actually write the note?"
"Yes."
"When? It's like she... knew she wasn't going to be around on my 16th birthday or something."
Her father chuckled. "No, it was nothing like that. It's just a tradition that goes with the necklace. I'm not sure who it first belonged to, but your grandmother wasn't the first recipient. I don't think she even knew. Anyway, it was tradition that a note, whatever was going to be said, was written the day the daughter was born."
"Guess that explains the full name." Katie was quiet for awhile, rereading the note. Then she looked back up at her father. "Was Mom wearing the necklace the day that –"
He shook his head. "No. She hadn't been wearing it for months before that. I asked her about it when Jason and I got back from the war. Apparently, you had been playing with it a lot and she was afraid the chain would break. So she'd put it away until you were older."
Katie laughed. "Oh. Well, I have always liked shiny things." She got up and walked to the other side of the breakfast bar to give her father a kiss on the cheek as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Thanks, Daddy," she said again. "I think this may be the best birthday ever. That I can remember, anyway."
"I was beginning to wonder if you were gonna show up," Jeff said when Katie wandered over to the tree in the park by his apartment.
She grinned. "Sorry. I was talking to Ryan when you sent me that message and then... Daddy gave me a birthday present."
"Hey!" he protested. "I thought that wasn't allowed."
She laughed. "First of all, he's my dad, he can do whatever he wants –"
"That was not the impression I got at Christmas, Kit-Kat," Jeff teased.
She ignored him. "Second of all, the present wasn't technically from him. It was from my mom."
He gave her a look that she thought probably resembled the one she'd given her father earlier.
She smirked. "Yup, that's what I said." She showed him the necklace. "It's a family tradition on my mom's side."
"Awesome. So, first stop the usual?"
"Of course," Katie said. "After that though, today's a new day."
"In the way that every day is a new day, Katie?" Jeff asked.
She rolled her eyes. "Smartass. No, I mean the Bastard Who Shall Remain Nameless Forevermore isn't going to have any influence on my life anymore. Other than the ways that... yeah."
Jeff looped his arm through hers as they walked toward the chapel. "I know what you meant."
