Wow! I am kind of overwhelmed by the subscriptions and reviews from you guys. I know it might not seem a lot to some people but to me, it means a lot. Thanks to superlc259 for being her awesome self and welcome to all the new readers.

I am very tired right now so I am going to post this and pray that when I reread this later, I won't hate it.

*I added a small section in the middle. It was supposed to flow better but I forgot to put that scene and that was the oly place I could find to put it in. Please forgive me*

Reviews make me happy inside. Enjoy 3

Several hours later, Jessica groaned from the couch in the Beckett's home and sat up – a little too fast… much, much too fast. Holding her head in a vain attempt to stop the spinning she retried sitting up on the couch and was promptly greeted with the welcoming scent of lukewarm coffee. Inhaling the merciful aroma, she squinted at the bright lights burning into her retinas but followed her nose nonetheless. As she entered into the brightly-lit kitchen, she had a brief moment where she wondered if maybe she were a vampire but dismissed it as a really bad hang over – a really, really, really bad hangover.

"Good morning sleepyhead." Johanna Beckett greeted the teen.

"What time is it?" She groaned, rubbing her scorching eyes.

"A little after nine." The lawyer flicked her wrist and watched a chocolate chip pancake fly into the air and land perfectly back in the frying pan. "I'm actually surprised that you didn't sleep longer. I hear you had a pretty long night."

Hearing the time brought Jessica a little out of her sleepiness. "My mom-" She shouted.

"Was called at about eleven o'clock last night to be informed that her daughter would be sleeping over and would be returned before Monday morning." The brown eyed woman tipped her head as though she were peering over a pair of imaginary glasses in a scolding, teacher-like manner.

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Beckett," the young girl apologized, "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"I'm sure you didn't, Jessica." She resolved to keep from smirking as she flipped the pancake into a mile high pile of cooling pancakes. "But next time, Kate might not be there to get you home in one piece. Next time, you might be on your own and you need to be responsible enough to know when to stop drinking."

"Mrs. Beckett I am so sorry for what happened last night." Jessica approached her friend's mother pleadingly. "You should know that Kate wasn't drinking last night."

"I know that." There were those invisible glasses again. "I'm just glad one of you was using her head." Jessica couldn't help but blush. For most people, it would feel odd getting chewed out by your friend's mother but Johanna's lectures were logical and made sense – unlike her own mother's which tended to just end in yelling and slamming doors – this was by far the better option.

"Where is Kate anyway?" Now that they had gotten the hard part over with, Jessica settled into a bar stool opposite the woman to snack on a chocolate chip pancake.

"She was at the library by eight this morning." She shook her head. "I swear that girl is going to work herself to death."

The young ginger furrowed her eyebrows in uncertain curiosity. That was the opposite of Kate. The Katie Beckett she knew was a carefully but devious party animal. She did NOT hit the books just hours after partying till dawn.

Not that she remembered much after ten o'clock.

Regardless, she would bet her entire Michael Jackson CD collection that Katherine Beckett was not at the library.

Deciding that some fresh air would clear her head anyways, she opted to walk down to the public library to prove that her Kate Beckett was no bookworm.

There was a book store right beside the library and Jessica looked through the window as she walked towards her friend's supposed location.

As she passed by the 'new releases' section, she noticed a bright green cover that instantly caught her eye. Pausing for a moment to admire it, she tried to recognize the author but was unable to place it.

In Hail of Bullets by Richard Castle

Picking up the book for a moment, she flipped it over and found a semi-lengthy description of the novel including a rave review by Stephan Canell on the brilliance of this new writer. She contemplated buying it but shook her head with a new determination to focus and prove Johanna wrong.

She could not believe it. It was absolutely impossible. She found Kate Beckett sitting in the Classical Literature section of the library curled up against a book shelf reading The Great Gatsby.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald, huh?" Kate jumped about a foot and a half in the air as her friend's voice broke through the comfortable silence.

"Jessica?" The brunette scampered to her feet, closing the book and losing her place in the process. "You're awake." She suddenly leaned forward with a sense of concern. "How are you feeling?"

"I've been better." Her friend laughed lightly so as to not attract too much attention to them. It was rumoured that the librarian was a former soviet spy, trained in all forms of torture. "The question is how are you?" The accusatory tone took Kate by surprise but she barely showed it.

"What do you mean?" Jessica offered her friend a pointed look.

"You, Kate Beckett, are the opposite of a bookworm. You rarely read the books we study in class and when you do, it's the skimmed over version."

"So?"

"So… you are reading classical literature; willingly." Her hands flew to her hips expectantly. "What's up with that?" Kate was silent for a moment and Jessica swore she saw a ghost of a smile on her lips.

She remembered talking to Rick; she couldn't stop remembering talking to Rick. At one point, their conversation had slipped to literature and she had shyly confessed that she wasn't a reader. In fact, she hated reading. This had started Rick on a long, windy lecture on the benefits of being well read. He had quoted Shakespeare, T.S. Elliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and even Prince and after forty-five minutes, she was in love with books. The way Rick described it made it seem like books were the most fascinating thing on the planet. He made her want to read. Not even her mother, a scholar and a lawyer – an expert at winning arguments – could convince her. It was just something in his voice that had drawn Kate in.

"I just think it's time I focused on my education." Kate prayed that she sounded more convincing than she thought. "It's never too late to care right?" Jessica's expression didn't help her confidence in the slightest but she rode it out and waited patiently for her friend to call her on her blatant lie.

It was nearly a full minute before Jessica finally nodded her head slowly. "I guess…" She shrugged "I'm just wondering what changed."

"Nothing changed really," who was she kidding; everything had changed last night "I guess last night just made me realize what my future could be like." She had to change the subject and fast. In an attempt to divert the suspicious attention, she decided to throw in some playful teasing. "I don't want to be the girl at the frat parties who's stripping on the pool table."

"You mean someone was that drunk last- that was me wasn't it?"

Mission Accomplished.