Chapter 9
A/N: So I got a review about the police academy, it said that it wasn't a residential school. I would change it so that it's accurate but I think it would be too confusing, and people would have to read it again but if I ever do another story and the NYPD academy is mentioned I will make sure to get it accurate. I had tried to do research on the academy but I didn't find much.
I wanted to update sooner but I had some issues with my internet connection.
This jumps to when she's out of the academy and is working with Royce, her training officer.
It's 5:30 P.M. when Kate walks into the large classroom in the first floor of the church. There are now only about 2 or 3 kids left, other than Jo and James. All of them are about 3 or 4 years old. Kate looks about for her kids and finds Jo playing with the doll house with another girl and James talking the teacher's ear off. When Jo sees her mom she puts down the dolls she was playing with and runs up to her.
"Hi Mommy!" she exclaims. Kate squats down so that she's level with Jo and gives her a big hug.
"Hi sweetheart! Are you going to say goodbye to your friend?" Kate asks.
"Oh, right," Jo runs back to the little girl by the dollhouse says, "Bye Emma," then runs back over to her mom.
Kate leads her over to where the teacher, Miss Amy, and James are sitting. "Hey bud, are you ready to go home?" she asks.
"Mommy!" he exclaims. He jumps up from his small chair and makes to give her a hug. Kate squats down and gives him a big hug. Once she releases him she stands back up to talk to the teacher.
"He was telling me all about you and how you're a policeman," Miss Amy says, getting up from the floor.
"Oh were you now?" Kate asks looking down to James. He nods and smiles.
"So are you still on patrol with the training officer?" Amy asks.
"Actually today was my last day riding with my training officer. You have the training officers for three months in total and then you're more or less on your own," Kate explains, as she had many times before.
"Oh, but won't you get a partner after you're done riding with the training officer?"
"Some people get partners and some don't. I'll be part of a squad but it's not certain whether I'll have a partner or not."
"When can you make detective?"
"Oh, I won't be able to do that for another two years or so, I have to get some experience and then I might make detective. It's not certain though."
"How was your training officer? Did you learn a lot?" Amy asks.
"Yeah, I did. I have a lot of great memories. We had a lot of fun stake outs and weird arrests. I'm going to enjoy being a part of the squad though. I hope I get to work a couple of crime scenes in homicide, to get a taste for what they do."
"Hopefully you do. Well I'll let you get going," Amy says wrapping the conversation up.
"Okay, thank you. We have to go do some grocery shopping. Oh and Lanie is going to pick them up tomorrow, I'm working the later shift."
"Okay I'll expect Lanie. You have a good night!"
"You too, come on guys let's go," Kate says taking their hands and leading them out of the classroom.
The three take the short walk from the church to their apartment. They're stopping there so that Kate can take her uniform shirt and hat off and lock her belt full of tools and weapons in the safe. After she looks more like a civilian, except for her badge, they go down stairs and down the street to the corner store.
Kate puts Jo and James in the seats on the buggy and starts going up and down the aisles. She picks up the essentials: milk, bread, eggs, and butter. The twins try to make suggestions.
"Can we get chocolate cereal?" James asks.
"No we're not getting chocolate cereal," Kate laughs and says.
"What about chips?" Jo asks.
"Oh I was going to get some corn chips," Kate says turning the buggy around and going back to the chips and snacks aisle.
"What about chocolate bars?" James asks.
"Are you nuts? Mommy's not gonna get chocolate bars," Jo chides.
"Why not?" James asks.
"Chocolate bars are treats, you only get treats if you've been good," Kate says pushing the cart up by the meat section.
"But I have been good," James says.
"What about that tantrum before naptime I was told about yesterday? Or what about stealing that other child's toy?" Kate asks.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that," James says looking at his lap.
"You aren't getting any treats until you start acting better," Kate says. She picks up a bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts and examines it before placing it in the cart. She also picks up a bag of burgers and puts it in the cart. The combination of the burgers, chicken, and fish that they have at home should get them through the week.
"Okay we have rice, baked beans, and canned vegetables at home. We have milk, eggs, and butter. We have meat for the week. What am I forgetting?" Kate asks putting her hand on her forehead trying to remember her grocery list.
"Juice," Jo says.
"Oh right, how could I ever forget juice?" Kate says smiling at Jo.
"Can we get orange? We got apple last time," James asks.
"Sure we can get orange juice," Kate grabs a bottle of orange juice and places it in the cart.
Kate pushes the cart to the checkout station and puts the items up on the conveyer belt. When the cashier asks for the cash Kate roots around but can't get to her cash.
"Jo will you hold this?" Kate asks putting the wallet in Jo's hands so that she can look for her cash with both hands.
"You got it dude," Jo says. Kate smiles and shakes her head at this.
"You've been watching too many Full House reruns. When do you watch this?" she asks. She finds a couple of twenty dollar bills and gives them to the cashier.
"Aunt Lanie watches it sometimes and I watch it with her," Jo says. The cashier hands Kate her change and Kate puts it in her wallet. She hoists Jo and James out of their seats in the buggy and gives them each two bags to carry.
"Oh really, what else does Aunt Lanie watch?" Kate asks loading her own arms up with bags.
"Not much she usually plays with us," James pipes up and says.
"Oh well that's good."
"Sometimes she watches Bear in the Big Blue House and Rolie Polie Olie with us," Jo says.
"Oh really?" Kate asks. They come in off of the street and get on the elevator.
"Yeah she likes Ojo just like I do. Because Ojo is the best," Jo states.
"Nuh uh, Pip and Pop are the best," James says.
"Nuh uh, Ojo," Jo says.
"Pip and Pop."
"Ojo!"
"Pip and Pop!"
"Ojo!"
"Hey guys! You're each entitled to your own opinions. Just because someone likes something you don't doesn't mean they're wrong," Kate says stopping the argument. She unlocks the apartment door and Jo and James run in. They put the grocery bags that they're holding on a chair at the kitchen table and run off to their room to play. Kate follows and puts her groceries on the kitchen table.
She puts them away and starts on dinner. She takes out three tilapia filets from the freezer and puts them in a bowl of hot water to thaw out, and then she puts on a pot of water to boil. After a few minutes the filets are thawed enough to cook quickly so she puts them in a baking dish. She sprinkles them with salt and pepper, squirts a little bit of lemon juice on them, and puts them in the oven at 325°.
Once the pot of water starts boiling Kate pours in about a cup of rice and leaves it to start cooking.
Dinner is ready about 20 minutes after she began and the small family is sitting down to eat at 7:00. The twins eat quickly and ask to be excused so that they can go play some more.
"Wait, somebody's got to get their bath," Kate says scooping up the last of her rice on her fork.
"I went first last night," James says running to his room.
"Alright little bits looks like you're first," Kate says using her pet name for Jo. She gets up from the table and stacks the three plates up, then takes them and the silverware to the sink.
After she cleans up dinner she leads Jo to the bathroom for her bath. Ever since she had graduated from the academy and started taking care of the twins again she had started bathing them separately. She would put one twin in their bedroom and bathe the other, leaving the doors open so she could hear if they were in trouble or needed help.
Both of the twins were bathed and ready for bed by 8:00. She gets them into their beds and asks what story they want to hear.
"Tinker and Tanker," James says.
"No we heard that last night," Jo argues.
"So, I like it," James retorts.
"I wanna hear Cinderella," Jo says.
"We've heard that three times," James argues.
"So, I like it," Jo retorts using James' words.
"How about 'Bedtime for Francis?'" Kate suggests.
"Okay," Jo concedes.
"Okay," James says.
Kate walks over to their book shelf and picks up 'Bedtime for Francis.' She reads it and then gets up to tuck them in. She makes sure that they're all snug and then recites a rhyme to them.
"Good night, sleep tight, don't let the…" she trails off and watches James squirm because he knows what's next, "bed bugs bite!" she starts tickling him all over. He laughs uncontrollably and squirms and can barely utter "Please stop." When he does she stops tickling and finishes the rhyme with, "and don't let the fleas run away with the pillow."
She walks over to Jo's bed and recites the same rhyme. Jo squirms and laughs as well and eventually asks Kate to "Please stop."
When they're all tucked in Kate turns out their light and goes to her room to read. She reads Richard Castle for about an hour and a half before turning out the light and going to sleep.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
The alarm clock beeps at 7 A.M. and a very groggy Kate blindly reaches up to hit snooze. She hits the clock many times before finally finding the snooze button and rolling over to go back to sleep.
Two little Becketts hear the alarm from their post outside of Kate's room and run in to get her up. They can't quite get onto the bed but they can reach her comforter, they tug and tug until the blanket is on the floor saying, "Wake up Mommy, wake up Mommy!"
Kate feels it get cooler and reaches for her comforter, when she can't find it she starts to sit up and hears "Wake up Mommy, wake up Mommy!" She sits all the way up and rubs her face with her hands to wake herself up.
"I'm up, I'm up," Kate says.
"Yay!" the twins cheer.
"Come on munchkins let's get you some breakfast," Kate gets up off the bed and stretches. The two toddlers clothed in long johns run out of her room and towards the kitchen. She follows slowly, continuing to stretch her arms and neck.
When she gets to the kitchen Jo and James are sitting in their chairs, ready for breakfast. She smiles at them and gives them each a kiss on the head saying, "Good morning." Their favorite cereal is stored in one of the wall-mounted cabinets, out of their reach, so, every morning they wake up their mom then run into the kitchen and sit at the table to wait while their mom gets cereal and milk and juice.
Kate gets all of the ingredients for their morning meal out on the table, along with bowls, spoons, and Sippy cups. She pours their cereal and milk and their orange juice and then goes to the coffee machine to start a pot. Once the coffee is started she gets the raisin bran down from the cabinet and makes her own breakfast.
The three sit eating breakfast. It doesn't take Kate long to wake up, since she's a morning person, and soon she's asking Jo and James about preschool.
"So what are you learning in school?" she asks.
"We're learning to count," James says.
"Really? What number can you count to?"
"Five," James says proudly.
"Alright let's hear it," Kate challenges.
"One, two, three, four, five," James says holding up fingers as he says the numbers.
"What about you Jo can you count to five?" Kate asks turning to Jo.
"Yes, one, two, three, four, five," Jo says also using her fingers as a visual aid.
"Are you learning anything else?" Kate asks.
"Colors," Jo says.
"Oh, and what are your favorite colors?"
"Green," James says.
"Purple," Jo says.
"Nice, I like those colors too," Kate says.
They finish their cereal and Kate cleans up the dishes. When the dishes, cereal boxes, and beverages are put away Kate ushers the twins toward their bedroom to get dressed. She picks out a pair of overalls and a purple t-shirt for Jo and some jeans and a t-shirt for James.
"Alright ladies first, James you stay in here and play, Jo you come with me to change," Kate takes Jo into the bathroom and gets Jo into her shirt and overalls. Kate then grabs a brush and puts Jo's shoulder length brown hair into pigtails and helps her to brush her teeth. When she's all ready Kate swaps kids and gets James dressed and his teeth brushed.
It's a brisk March day in New York, high of 45°, so Kate grabs their coats from the hooks near the front door of the apartment and bundles them up tightly. She's still dressed in an old Yankees t-shirt and some flannel pants and she doesn't have time to get fully dressed so she sits Jo and James on the couch and gets a pair of dirty slacks out of the laundry to wear to drop them off. She slips into them and hurries back out to the living room.
Kate slips into her shoes and thick jacket and grabs her keys to go.
"Come on guys, time to go to school," she says opening the door. The twins jump off of the couch and run out of the apartment.
She follows, locking the door, and they go off to the church. They arrive right on time at 8 o clock and are some of the first kids to get there.
"Alright have a good day guys. Aunt Lanie is going to pick you up today, I won't see you tonight, I have to work late," Kate says squatting down to their level.
"Okay bye Mommy," James says giving his mom a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek and running off to play with some of the other kids.
"Bye Mommy," Jo says giving her mom a tight hug as well but not letting go.
"Jo, Mommy has to go, I've got some stuff to do, let go little bits," Kate says trying to coax Jo into letting go of her neck.
"I don't want you to go, I want to see you tonight," Jo says sniffling a little.
"Hey don't worry, I'll give you a kiss when I get home. And guess what? Tomorrow I have the day off and it's Saturday so we can go to the park and have a picnic and everything," Kate reassures, pushing Jo away slightly and wiping at her tears.
"Okay," Jo says wiping at her nose with the back of her hand.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning, we'll make pancakes okay?" Kate asks giving her a smile.
"Okay," Jo says.
"Alright bye little bits," Kate says giving her a kiss on the cheek and standing up to go. Kate goes to the door and looks back; Jo stands all by herself looking at her mom. All of a sudden a little girl, the same one Jo was playing with yesterday, runs up and greets Jo. Jo smiles and runs off with the little girl.
Kate smiles and starts on her way back to the apartment to get showered, dressed, and start getting the apartment clean. She vacuums the floors of the living room and the two bedrooms, sweeps the floors of the bathroom and the kitchen, runs the dishwasher, and pours herself a cup of coffee.
Once she's properly started the morning with her cup of coffee she hops in the shower. She stays in for a good while to relax, only getting out once her skin turns pink. She gets dressed in clean black slacks and a gray shirt and goes back to cleaning.
Today she's working the 4 PM to midnight shift, one of the more experienced officers' daughters' dance recital is tonight and she's the low man on the totem pole so to speak so she has to take his shift. Her usual shift is 8 AM to 4 PM, then at 4 she goes down to the records room and cracks open her mom's case file. She investigates for an hour or so and then goes to the church to pick up the twins from the late stay program.
Kate cleans the apartment, eats lunch, takes a nap and then goes to work. The evening is pretty eventful, the homicide detectives catch a case and her unit is assigned to the crime scene. She spends the better part of the evening collecting evidence, interviewing eye witnesses, and canvassing.
After the crime scene though, not much happens. She takes directions from the detectives and helps with their investigation but at about 9 o clock the detectives go home and she's stuck waiting for another homicide that probably won't come. At 10 o clock she sneaks down to the records room and gets the old bankers box with her mom's case out on her lap. She doesn't want anyone to notice the overhead light on so she uses her flashlight to shed light on the files. She pores over the files, memorizing every line, looking for something someone missed. She pays close attention to all of the statements, looks at every piece of evidence, and studies the M.E. report.
She doesn't notice the man come into the room. She only looks up when he says "Officer?"
"You're Montgomery, I mean Captain Montgomery," she stutters, standing up.
"Do I know you, Officer," he looks at the name on her badge, "Beckett?"
"No, sir, I've just always wanted to do what you do, I've wanted to be in homicide," she gushes.
"What are you doing now?" he asks.
"Patrol," she says pathetically.
"I see that, but what are you doing in the archives?" he asks pointing to the shelves full of bankers boxes.
"I'm sorry sir, I didn't mean to be here. I know I shouldn't be, but I was looking into a case, my Mom's homicide," she tries to explain.
"Johanna Beckett," he says, sort of like he's remembering her.
"Did you know her?" Kate asks hopefully.
"I know her case is unsolved, and you're looking into files thinking somebody might have missed something," he says, seeming to understand.
"Yes," Kate says.
"If the case is unsolved, chances are the answers you're looking for aren't in that file," Kate looks away, depleted, "What did your mother do, Officer Beckett?"
"She was a lawyer," Kate says easily.
"And you think her death might have had something to do with a case she was handling?"
"Well the detective working her case, Detective Raglan, said that it was just random but—"
Montgomery cuts her off, "Did you look through her personal belongings, old notebooks, journals, diaries, cassette recordings, stuff like that?"
"Yes sir, tons of times, but I haven't found anything that seems relevant," Kate says, and she had, sometimes she would go home and spend the night looking through her mom's old notebooks looking for answers.
"Well keep looking, you never know when something might turn up," Montgomery says. He's not writing her up, Kate lets out a breath she had been holding and gathers up her courage to ask him something.
"Sir, I know I have no authority to ask, certainly not now, but, can you talk to someone about keeping my shift as the 8 to 4? I have two small children and it's important that I be there for them," Kate says.
"Really, what are their names?" Montgomery asks, surprising her.
"James and Johanna," Kate says smiling when she thinks about them.
"I'll see what I can do, nice meeting you Officer Beckett," Montgomery says. He then stands up straighter and salutes. She salutes back. "Sorry about your mom," he says.
"Thank you sir," she says smiling.
Montgomery nods and walks off. Kate checks her father's watch on her wrist; she sees that it's 11 o clock and packs up the banker's box, sliding it back on the shelf and hurrying up to the upper floors to see what her unit is involved in.
When she's fully enthralled in paperwork along with the rest of her squad she reflects on what Captain Montgomery had said. She had looked through her Mom's personal belongings a hundred times; the writings that she found didn't seem relevant. There are some writings that she can't decipher because they're in her mom's shorthand. She's looked through everything. She hasn't found any cassette recordings as Montgomery suggested, she brushes it off and continues with her paper work.
A/N: Here's the infamous 'Montgomery meets Beckett' scene. I hope you enjoyed this. I enjoyed writing it! The next chapter will jump a year or so to when she makes detective. I didn't actually put Royce in the story but she does talk about him so yeah. I'm trying to minimize the amount of stuff I say about her time as a rookie because I don't know much about it. I try to do research before putting anything into this story because I want it to be accurate but sometimes I still get it wrong.