Well here it is. The last chapter was fairly "Rick-Centered" so I thought we'd take a peek at what Kate was up to in College. I want to give a big shout out to my Beta. She had her handsful with this chapter. So thanks Mags, I promise to pay attention next time. ;) Anyways before I let you all go I thought I'd mention that I have finally given in to social media and now have twitter. If you wish to follow me you can find me (at)vatrask And as always, reviews are the only way of letting a writer know what you think - good or bad - so please donate generously.

Enjoy 3

"Oh, Katie, look at you." Kate rolled her eyes as her father grabbed her bags from her hands, tossed them on the floor and pulled her into a big hug. "You look so grown up." Returning the hug with no less enthusiasm, she let him swing her back and forth in his loving arms before pulling back with a hearty laugh.

"Dad, I've only been gone for a few months; it was a semester-long trip, remember?"

"Yes, but your father has been moping around the house since you started at Stanford almost two years ago." Kate beamed as her mother's clicking heels announced her entrance and she walked into her embrace. "It's a long way for him to only talk to you once a week and I've had to deal with the backlash."

Holding Johanna tightly, Kate closed her eyes, pretending she hadn't missed her mother, and stage-whispered in her ear. "I am so sorry for leaving you with him for so long."

"Hey!" Jim protested.

The Beckett women released each other with matching smiles and turned to him with a shared look of amusement.

"Come on, dear, you know we're only teasing you," Joanna said.

"Yes, well, one thing you could have left overseas is your need to gang up on me with your mother," he replied, aiming his gaze as his daughter.

With mock indignation, Kate leaned forward to kiss her father's cheek. "I missed you, too, Dad." Returning her smile, Jim turned back to their open front door to where the cab driver had driven off and left her bags in the doorway.

Johanna held her daughter's waist as they watched the man in their life bend down to pick up Kate's forgotten luggage. Hearing his groan of protest, she clicked her tongue in disapproval. "Katherine Marie, I'm surprised at you. Go and help your father." Kate offered her mother a disdainful look before rolling her eyes with a heavy sigh.

"All right, all right." Kate moved out of her mother's grip as her father looked at her expectantly. "Lift with your knees, Dad, you're less likely to injure your back that way." When an echo of surprise rang through the room, Kate shook her head. "Fine."

As father and daughter shared the burden of four months' worth of travelling, Johanna followed behind the pair, ascending the stairs in a slow, steady manner. "All right, I want to hear all about your trip to Kiev. Starting with how many foreign hotties you-"

"La, La, La, La, I'm not listening." Jim had slung Kate's carry-on onto her bed and plugged his ears in protest.

Rolling her eyes at her husband's antics, Johanna leaned into whisper quiet enough that her husband needn't hear. "Practiced your Russian with."

Kate couldn't help but giggle at her parents almost teenage-like behaviour and shook her head. "I got to practice plenty of Russian. I just don't know when I'll ever use it." By this time, Jim had finally released his fingers from his ears and was busying himself with flopping the rest of Kate's luggage on the bed while the women-folk gossiped.

"Oh, who says you always have to learn something useful? Sometimes you just have to learn something for the hell of it."

Jim straightened. "Language." He scolded as both women rolled their eyes in sync.

"Oh please, Dad, I've heard you say much worse when you're watching a football game. Besides, 'hell' isn't even a swear." With a grunt of disapproval, Jim returned to his task as Johanna grabbed her daughter's hands.

"As I was saying, not everything you learn has to be applied to your future goals. I once learned how to speak French just so I could date this massage therapist."

Again, Jim straightened and physically turned to face his wife. "You are not telling her that story, Jo, it is far too dangerous."

Of course, now Kate's interested was peaked and she was not about to let the subject die. "Well, now I have to hear this story." She bounced on the bed, disturbing some of Jim's careful unpacking as she got comfortable.

Smiling at her daughter, Johanna leaned into it all the way. "Well, back when your father and I worked together, he had the hugest crush on me, but of course I wouldn't give him the time of day." With a snort from the peanut gallery, Johanna shot a glare in his direction before continuing. "Anyway, I had been annoyed with him at first, but eventually I grew to like him."

"Try 'infatuated with me'," Jim mumbled before a pillow flew at his head.

"Your father, believe it or not, was very shy around me. So I figured the only way I would get a date is if I asked him out myself. And right when I was about to ask him out, he showed up to work with a new girlfriend – and she wasn't even that attractive."

"Excuse me." Jim threw the pillow right back at her. "Amanda was a beautiful woman; you just thought she was ugly because you were trying to deny your feelings for me."

With a scoff, Johanna returned to her daughter who was watching their interactions with amusement. "Naturally I was a little upset because your father had passed me over for some dumb blonde."

"She was the District Attorney." Again, the pillow flew at him, but this time he caught it and used it to prop up for his head as he sat at the head of the bed.

"Would you stop with the side comments?" she teased.

"I'd stop if you got the story right."

Straightening her body, she kicked his legs off the bed, disrupting his balance so that he nearly tumbled to the bedroom floor. "Just let me tell the story, okay?"

"Yes, dear," he responded dejectedly. Kate couldn't suppress a giggle and it pulled Johanna back to her tale.

"So, as I was saying, your father had started dating this blonde woman and I was upset. I decided to make him jealous by dating the hottest guy I knew – Pierre. He was my massage therapist that I saw whenever work was getting too stressful. Unfortunately, he barely spoke English. So I figured the natural solution was to learn French in order to get him."

"Let me guess, it backfired?" Kate loved her mother's stories because they always had a twist.

"Nope, I got the guy," she responded smugly. "Johanna Beckett always gets her man." She tossed the pillow at her husband before he could even open his mouth. "And fortunately for me, your father responded exactly how I thought he would: he got very jealous." Kate eyed her father, waiting for a retort; when it didn't come, she shrugged and returned to her mother. "So jealous in fact that he showed up during one of our dates and punched him – right in the middle of the restaurant."

Kate gaped at her father before a smile broke on her face. "Actually, that's kind of sweet."

Johanna returned to smile. "Hell-" She turned as her husband cleared his throat and she rolled her eyes. "Heck, yes. I thought it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me and that actually became our restaurant."

After a moment of all smiles, Kate's face crinkled into confusion. "I forget what the moral of this story was."

Johanna laughed out loud and Jim joined in with a chuckle.

"There's always a moral to your mother's stories, but this time, I think she just wants you to know that any experience is a good one."

Johanna shifted so that she was sitting within hand-holding distance of her husband. "Thanks to Pierre, I learned French and I still retained enough of it that it keeps our marriage alive."

Seeing the purposeful look that Jim offered his wife, Kate cringed and jumped off the bed in disgust. "Oh ew, I did not need to know that."

Johanna released Jim's hand as she slowly stood from the bed. "Oh get your head out of the gutter, missy. I'm talking about French restaurants and such."

"It's the 'and such' I didn't need to know about."

Before the odd argument could escalate, Jim jumped from the bed, knocking a few cases off the bed. "Hey, what do you say we all leave this work for tomorrow and head out for supper? The return of the prodigal daughter demands a celebration."

Knowing her husband too well, Johanna nodded her head and joined in the party. "I love it." She clapped her hands together. "Let's get fancied up and head out for a night on the town."

"Let's do it." Kate grinned, subtly pushing her parents out of her bedroom. "We'll meet up in twenty minutes?"

Taking the hint, Johanna turned, grabbed her husband's hand and responded in a sing-song voice. "All right, all right I get it; out."

Kate closed the door behind her parents, collapsing against it in exhaustion. Yup, she was definitely home.

Ten minutes later, Kate was dressed in a flowing blue-grey skirt and white three-quarter V-neck shirt with her hair in a lose bun that allowed several wavy tendrils to fall around her neck. She was about to apply makeup when there was a knock at her door.

Johanna opened the door a crack. "Kate, have you seen my diamond studs? I wanted to wear them tonight but I can't find them."

Kate froze; it had been three years and she still hadn't forgotten what had happened to those earrings. After her escapade at her first college party, she had realized she had lost one of her earrings and had hid the other in her jewellery case, which had eaten it sometime during her first year of college, of course. So essentially, she had lost her mother's earrings almost two years ago and she still hadn't told her.

"Uh…" Kate slowly stood from her place in front of the mirror, mascara poised at the ready against her eyelashes. She was about to form a sentence – really she was – when her mother held up her hand, sensing that her cell phone was ringing from her bedroom and dashed to answer it. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kate hurriedly completed her task before grabbing a shawl and nearly running down the stairs to where her father was waiting patiently.

"What's up, honey?" Jim turned as his daughter sauntered slowly down the stairs but Johanna appeared at the top of the stairs before she could answer.

"I'm sorry, guys, but I have to grab something from the office."

Kate turned to her mother in confusion. Johanna rarely ditched the family for work; she was the most balanced person she knew. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

Johanna shook her head. "No it can't." As she spoke, Kate wondered why her mother was looking so anxious but brushed it off as case-related stress; not uncommon in the life of a lawyer. "Why don't I just meet you two there? I promise I won't be longer than twenty minutes. Just go ahead and order; I'll have something when I get there."

Jim looked at his wife and instantly recognized the look in her eyes, choosing not to question it. Something was up in her latest case that she wasn't sharing with him. Because they had worked for the same law firm before Kate was born, Jim and Johanna had gotten into the habit of essentially debriefing each other of their cases at the end of the day. It helped to bounce ideas off each other when they were stuck and it also meant that there were no real secrets between each other. He promised himself he would ask her the moment he caught her alone. "Alright dear, I'll order you your usual?" He looked at her over their daughter's head with a meaningful glance which she returned in kind.

"For sure." Her smiled didn't meet her eyes but he let it go. She would tell him when she was ready and he could wait for her. "I'll see you soon."

It had been nearly two hours and Kate had officially gotten worried. They had tried Johanna on her cell and office phones, but there was no answer on either. No one they called had seen or heard from her. She continued to pester her father to leave but he insisted that her mother was fine and it only served to worry her further. Finally, Kate dragged her father from the restaurant and they headed home.

As they approached the house, the knot in Kate's stomach grew tighter as she saw a man standing at their door about to give up trying to ring the doorbell.

"Can I help you?" She hadn't realized that her father was just as worried as she until he spoke, letting her hear the concern in his voice. As the man turned around, both Becket's held their breath.

"My name is Detective Raglan, are you James and Katherine Beckett?" When they nodded in confirmation, his lips tightened and his jaw set firmly. "May we go inside? I'm afraid I have some news…"