"Kappa…Kappa Tau…" a man's voice beside her breaks her thoughts and she stops dead in her tracks to look at him. Brows furrowed, she brushes away a strand of blonde hair from her face.

"Excuse me?"

"Your necklace," the man, whom she kind of recognizes, says as he points at the golden letters around her neck. "Kappa Tau…What's the last one?"

"Gamma," she replies. "Kappa Tau Gamma."

"We don't have that here," the man informs her, his own brows furrowed.

"Nope," she replies.

"Still holding on to a lost love? I only ask because Kappa Tau Gamma isn't a sorority," he tells her as if he's trying to compensate for his question before his voice drops lower as his certainty does the same. "Is it?"

"No, and I guess you could say that," she says as she grips the strap of her messenger bag and pulls it higher up onto her shoulder. There's a red imprint in her flesh, where the bag used to rest, right below the strap of her hot pink tank top. She smiles at him as she takes a step forward.

"I'm Luke, by the way," the man tells her as he walks along side her. "Luke Steinberg."

"Casey," she replies without stopping her movement across the quad. "Casey Cartwright."

"Well, Casey, I'm assuming that you don't just haul around criminal law books for fun, so would it be safe to say you're in law school?"

"Well, you know what they say happens when you assume. You make an ass out of me and you," she says stopping so that she faces him and her smile matches his. "But in this case, you are correct. I'm a law student, second year."

"What a coincidence," Luke says holding up his own copy of Criminal Law. "Me too."

"I wouldn't call it a coincidence, since you're in my class and all," she tells him with a smirk.

"Alright, you caught me there."

"That I did," she replies without losing her smirk and she turns to continue down the path.

"So, I'm going to assume again and go with the idea that the Kappa Tau guy isn't around anymore," he tells her and Casey snorts as stops and faces him again. "Can I tempt you to have a cup of coffee with me?"

She turns her head so she not looking at him and shakes her head.

"My treat," he says trying to catch her eye. Turning her head, she smiles at him.

"Sorry, but I'm kind of waiting for the Kappa Tau guy," she replies.

"Are you sure he's going to show up?" Luke asks her.

"Oh, I'm pretty confident," she says tilting her head to the left as a gesture and Luke follows her gaze with his own as she turns around and crouches down low to the ground. Luke shakes his head in shock as little girl with dirty blonde hair and dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a brown shirt comes running up the sidewalk darting past law school students, undergrads, and prospective student tour groups sporting Northwestern's trademark purple. He blinks and suddenly the little girl is wrapped tightly in Casey's arms and the blonde picks the little girl up off the ground, her criminal law book forgotten on the sidewalk.

"Mommy!" the little girl squeals as Casey brushes her slightly curled dirty blonde hair out of her face.

"Okay, didn't see that one coming," Luke tells Casey.

"Most don't," Casey replies as her daughter wraps her arms around her neck. Casey taps on the little girl's arm until she pulls away and looks at him. "Caitlin, this is my friend Luke. Luke, this is my daughter, Caitlin."

"Nice to meet you, Caitlin," Luke manages to make himself say and the little girl slyly smiles and waves hello. "How old are you, Caitlin?"

She doesn't respond, just holds up her hand with the ring finger trapped under her thumb.

"Three, huh?" Luke asks and Caitlin nods, her hair moving with her movements making Luke smile.

"Cappie," Casey says and Luke turns his attention to the man that's suddenly appeared next to them. Bending down, he picks up her forgotten textbook and holds it to his side as he sticks out his hand.

"Cappie," he offers and Luke shifts his own criminal law book so he can shake Cappie's hand.

"Luke," he replies as he shakes the other guy's hand. "So you must be the Kappa Tau guy."

Cappie doesn't reply, just raises an eyebrow, which makes Casey laugh.

"Luke and I were just talking about what happens when you assume," Casey fills in for him.

"Oh," Cappie says as though he just figured out the cure of some incurable disease. "How you make an A-S-S out of you and me."

Casey nods and Luke forces himself to smile.

"Are you ready to go?" Cappie asks her as he pulls her messenger bag off of her shoulder and onto his. "T-minus four hours."

She gives him a quick smile and turns back to Luke. "Cappie's photography exhibits tonight. You should come."

"Uh, sure," Luke replies. "When…"

"Eight o'clock," Cappie tells him as he fishes a card and two tickets out of his blue jean pocket and it's only then does Luke realize that there's a camera hanging under his arm. "At the Granger Exhibit."

"Uh, okay," Luke replies as Cappie hands him the card and the tickets and Casey smiles at him as she sets Caitlin down onto her own two feet.

"See you in class, Luke."

"Uh, see you in class," he replies as she walks off with her criminal law book in one hand and her daughter's hand in the other. She and Cappie lift Caitlin off the ground and swing her in the air between them and to Caitlin's squeals, he glances down at the card in his hand.

"Caslin Photography. Cappie Jones," he says chocking back his laughter. "Cappie?"

After a quick Google search, Luke now knows that Cappie Jones is one of the "greatest photographers of our time," according to Times Magazine. "The next Annie Liebowitz," according to Newsweek. But what really made him pause was a story he did with Vanity Fair.

"Josh," Luke calls to his roommate. "Come read this."

"The first photograph I ever shot was of my parents at a political rally," Josh reads allowed. "What is this?"

"Remember that girl I told you about that's in one of my classes."

"Stacey?"

"Casey," he corrects. "This is the boyfriend, fiancé, husband, whatever."

"I've seen this guy's work," Josh tells him as he scrolls down. "Melissa loves it."

"Hey, Casey gave me two tickets," Luke says pulling the tickets out of his back pocket. "Do you two wanna go?"

"Dude, you have just made me the best boyfriend ever," Josh says as he snatches them out of his hand and snaps open his cell phone. "Mel, guess what I got…"

"The first photograph I ever shot was of my parents at a political rally," Casey reads aloud on top of the bathroom counter as Cappie dumps a cup of water on Caitlin's shampoo covered hair, his hand shielding her grayish blue eyes from the no tangles shampoo.

"I was five and I dropped the camera into the mud as soon as I took the photo, Captain Jones said. However, fast forward nineteen years and this former amateur photographer has won two Pulitzer prizes and countless other awards for his photographs."

Cappie doesn't reply as Casey peers out over the top of the magazine to see him dump another cup of water onto Caitlin's head.

"Yet, the man who goes by 'Cappie' says it's all to his 'Caslin.' Caslin was born out of combing Caitlin, his three-year old daughter's name with the name his girlfriend and Caitlin's mother, Casey Cartwright. And that shouldn't come as a shock. Instead of visiting him at his studio, I spent the day at home with Cappie and Caitlin. He and Casey live in a modest two bedroom apartment and despite having moved in nine months ago, a couple of boxes are still unpacked."

Casey groans and pulls the magazine down to her side.

"You just had to show them that."

"Case, they're stacked by the front door," he replies as he grabs a towel off the rack and scoops Caitlin up into it.

"Today, Cappie is painting daughter Caitlin's room but by the time I've arrived, the room is almost done. 'She and her mom chose purple,' he said as he rolled on the final coat of paint on the wall. When I asked if he was an early riser, he laughed. 'No, not until Caitlin. And even then, Casey would usually wind up getting up with her.' Kind of ironic considering when I arrived at nine-twenty, Cappie asked me to be quiet since Caitlin, or Caity as her father calls her, was still asleep in her parent's room. After he's done painting, I wandered around the apartment while Cappie 'hops' in the shower. The living room wall has a jumbled display of photographs, all of them black and white and all of them shots of Casey or Caitlin.

'They're my favorite subjects,' he told me from the entry to his bedroom, Caitlin's hand in his. 'I could spend all day taking photos of them. Occasionally, Casey has to tell me to put the camera down.' Casey is currently a second year law student at Northwestern University in Chicago, a twenty minute walk from their apartment, and, according to Cappie, she's going to be 'the best lawyer there ever will be.'"

Cappie gently pulls the magazine from Casey's hand and hands her the blow dryer instead.

"I need to get dressed. Someone else needs a little help from her mommy."

"But I'm not done reading," Casey whines as she slides off the counter and picks up the blue comb.

"Mommy, I wanna my hair to be like your," Caitlin tells her she steps up on the stool and Casey sprays her hair with detangler.

The show opens in twenty minutes and it'll take them twenty-five to get to the gallery, so Casey's not surprised that Cappie's pacing in the living room and she could be content to watch him all evening because she loves his face when he's thinking about something.

"Calm down, Cap," she tells him from the doorway and he turns around to face her, in the process his jaw dropping.

"You…look…stunning," he drawls out and Casey feels the shiver of déjà vu, especially since she's wearing the same red dress.

"What 'bout me, Daddy?" Caitlin whines, her grayish blue eyes wide in wonderment.

"You, Caity-girl," Cappie starts as he crosses the room and bends down right in front of her, "look perfect."

Standing up, he turns back to Casey and cups her cheek with his right hand.

"Absolutely perfect," he mumbles as he captures her lips in a soft kiss.

"Ew!" Caitlin screams and her parents break away.

"Remind me to kill Spitter for teaching her that," he tells her and she smiles.

"Speaking of Spitter, we need to go," she says recapturing Caitlin's hand in hers and heading towards the front door of the apartment. "And no camera tonight."

He grabs the Vanity Fair off the coffee table, figuring Casey would want to finish reading the article, and dutifully follows after her.

They're four blocks away now and he's getting nervous. Everyone has a small fear of rejection but this is how Cappie supports his family, how he gets to stay home and experience everything again through his daughter's eyes, how Casey gets to stay in school, how he proves to everyone, especially Dean Bowman, that he's not some freeloading guy riding on Casey's coattails.

Because Casey will set the world on fire and he'll be there to photograph every minute of it.

Caitlin's singing along to some song on the radio that he's not sure how she can hear because Casey's got it turned down so low, he's not even sure if it's on.

"At four-fifteen, I followed Cappie and Caitlin on the twenty minute walk to Northwestern's campus to met Casey. 'Usually, she comes home for lunch but today she's getting ready for a mock trail thing in one of her classes, so she worked through lunch but four-thirty to eight is Caitlin and my time,' said Cappie. 'We've always made sure that we spend time together every day since Caitlin was born.'

Which one can only assume was hard, considering Caitlin was born in summer between Casey and Cappie's junior and senior year at Cyprus-Rhodes University in Cyprus, Ohio but Cappie doesn't dwell on the past. All he would say is that they both made sacrifices for Caitlin, for each other, and for their respective Greek houses. Cappie served as president of Kappa Tau Gamma for junior and senior year and Casey served as president of Zeta Beta Zeta for spring semester of junior yearl. 'But in the end,' Cappie added, 'if I had to choose between my girls and the KT house, I'd pick Casey and Caitlin every time.'"

She throws him an all too familiar look and Cappie smirks back.

"Excluding the Mount Vesuvius party. But, hey, it worked out. The evening still ended with you wearing nothing and in my bed."

She smacks his arm playfully and turns her attention back to the magazine.

"It's a flurry of activity as Caitlin takes off towards her mother, who's crossing the quad talking to another guy, see opposite page. When I asked him if that made him nervous, Cappie shook his head. 'She grabbed my hand first,' he said. Cryptic? Yes but when I later asked Casey a question about the guys who flock to her, she said the same thing. 'Besides,' Cappie added, 'they all get freaked out when they hear Caitlin call her mommy.' Although, by the way Cappie looks at Casey, who grabbed whose hand first doesn't matter. His gaze even made my knees weak."

Casey snorts as Cappie changes lanes. They're only a block away now.

"The two of them asked me earlier if I would allow them their family time, so this is when I break off. They both throw me look of gratitude and they take Caitlin's hands in theirs and head back where we came from, swinging the little girl between them, see opposite page. Cappie's final advice, 'Don't have any regrets. Say what you mean. Mean what you say. And along the way, take lots of pictures.'"

She folds the magazine shut again as Cappie pulls the car to a stop. There are quite a few photographers standing outside the gallery but as Casey slides out of the car and Cappie lifts Caitlin out of her booster seat, no one raises their cameras. Cappie slips his fingers into Casey's as they make their way up the carpeted entrance to the gallery, Caitlin resting on his left hip as his left arm holds her up.

"Hey, Mike," Cappie says as the bouncer and ticket taker opens the door for them.

"Cap," Mike replies. "Quite a big crowd. Sold out show."

Making their way into the gallery, Mike lets the door shut behind them as cameras shutter wildly and the crowd of photographers outside roar.

"Miss Logan!" a handful call out hoping to capture the senator's daughter in their lenses. "Mr. Chambers!"

"Evan and Becca are here," Cappie informs Casey as they open the final door to the gallery.

"It's your night, Cap," Casey replies as Cappie's agent, Susan Fox, rushes over to them.

"There you two are," Susan exclaims. "I was getting nervous."

She hands them both a glass of champagne, causing Cappie to let go of Casey's hand to accept the fluke from Susan's outstretched arm.

"Hi, Susan," Casey replies as Cappie sets Caitlin down on the ground.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Susan says tapping on the side of her own glass of champagne with a knife that neither of them is sure how she got in a gallery that is only serving oeuvres. But knowing Susan, she probably has a handful of them in the suitcase she calls a purse. "Mr. Cappie Jones."

She steps aside and gestures for Cappie to make a small speech.

"Thank you all for coming. I hope you enjoy the photos," he says as he rests his hand on the small of Casey's back. The viewers politely clap, Karen and Russell Cartwright raising their glasses to their daughter, her boyfriend, and their granddaughter.

After realizing that Casey's way of doing things had worked out, Karen and Russell had both taken sabbaticals from teaching at Northwestern, deciding instead the travel the world, occasionally meeting up with the free spirited Joneses.

Cappie steers Casey towards a small huddle of friends gazing at the portrait of Casey that Cappie took on the fly as they walked by the lake one night. Her blue eyes are sparkling and her smile is contagious.

"Cap," Beaver says, slapping Cappie on the back, as the first to greet them. "Caity!"

Caitlin is immediately swung up into the air as she giggles.

"Unkie Bather," she says between giggles.

"Beaver, short stuff," Beaver corrects before setting the little girl in the red dress back onto the ground. "Ready for this?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Beaver's wife, Megan, replies. She's just shy of thirty-seven weeks and Casey and Cappie had both expressed concern about them driving up from Ohio to be here tonight but Megan would have nothing of it, saying that she wouldn't miss it for the world. The redhead is wearing a pretty blue dress and Cappie smiles as she grabs Beaver's hand and places it on her belly.

"Hey, Heath. Calvin," Cappie says nodding towards his frat brother and Heath's boyfriend. The two are holding hands, something that Cappie's glad to see. After their break-up four months ago, Casey was convinced that the two would never get back together. But Cappie had assured that those two had a magnet pull between them and, now that he knows he's right, Cappie will be able to collect on that bet they had wagered.

"Casey!" Ashleigh's high pitch voice says behind them and Casey turns on her heels to greet her friend, Caitlin beating her two it.

"Aunt Ashleigh!" Caitlin says as she hugs her mother's best friend's leg.

"Caity," Ashleigh cries with the same enthusiasm as Caitlin detaches herself from Ashleigh's leg.

"How come she can say Ashleigh's name correctly?" Beaver asks, elbowing Cappie in the side.

"Because Ashleigh sends her clothes. You sent her a football."

"And a soccer ball," Beaver replies gesturing to the photo behind him of Caitlin lying in mud next to her soccer ball.

"I didn't think you were coming," Casey says as she hugs her friend. "Didn't you have some show to get to?"

After graduation, Ashleigh had headed to Los Angeles to study fashion, something she couldn't do in Ohio, and Casey was pretty upset that her friend wasn't able to stop over in Chicago before heading to her show in New York.

"Tomorrow," Ashleigh says and she refuses to make eye contact with Cappie. Casey shifts her gaze from Ashleigh to Cappie and narrows her gaze.

"You two are up to something," Casey says.

"Maybe," Ashleigh says shrugging her shoulders. "I'm going to get some champagne."

Ashleigh walks off, hand in hand with Caitlin.

"Well, look who finally decided to drag himself away from the paparazzi," Cappie says as Evan Chambers makes his way over to him. Rebecca Logan trails behind him, his hand holding hers behind his back.

"Evan," Casey says. "Bexs, congratulations on the engagement."

"Thanks, Casey," Evan replies.

"You know," Rebecca starts, "Evan's number four in his class at Yale."

"Really," Cappie says encircling Casey's waist. "Casey's number two at Northwestern."

All four of them hold each other's gazes until they all suddenly break out in laughter.

"So where's Caitlin?" Evan asks.

"Who knows," Cappie replies. "Ashleigh's probably taken her to the nearest mall."

Casey elbows him but even she can't hide her smile.

"Excuse us," Cappie says pulling Casey away. "Enjoy the show, Evvie."

"Hey, Cap," Wade says raising his champagne glass to his friend. "Casey."

"Hi Wade," Casey greets as Cappie pulls her away.

"We'll be right back, Wade."

"At least tell me there's an after party!" Wade calls after them and Casey laughs.

"Spitter, are you sure you should be drinking that?" Cappie asks as he pulls the champagne fluke away from Rusty's mouth. "Wouldn't want you to ruin your girlfriend's dress."

"I can hold my liquor," Rusty replies. "Hey Casey."

"Now, now, Spitter," Cappie starts throwing his arm over the younger guy's shoulders and pulling him away from his girlfriend. "Let's not get all defensive now. I'm only looking out for Tina."

"Hi Tina," Casey says greeting Rusty's girlfriend. She had been surprised that the relationship made it past their freshman year, especially since Tina hates the Greek system but as their graduation drawls near, Casey sees no end in sight and Tina has, kind of, grown on her.

"Casey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Casey replies as Tina marches over to one of the photos on the wall and points at it.

"How much would it cost me to get this photo and have all the other copies deleted?"

Casey walks over to Tina to get a better look at the photo she's talking about. The photo is in full color and in the middle of it, Tina is kissing Rusty. The photo is quite a few years old, since it was taken at the Kappa Tau house during the Vesuvius party senior year. Behind Rusty and Tina you can see the papier-mâché mountain but the "damaging" part of the photo isn't that the couple are kissing in the photo, it's that Tina is wearing an 'I Love Greeks' shirt that Rusty had managed to rouse up after spitting liquor onto her dress.

It's almost midnight but Cappie had been too energized after the show to sleep, so he managed to convince Casey to take a walk with him. He was expecting reluctance on her part, but with Ashleigh spending the night on their couch, they had a babysitter and he had a window of opportunity.

They're not wearing anything special. After the show, they had come home, tucked Caitlin in bed, and both thrown on a pair of jeans and sneakers. Over his blue t-shirt, he's thrown on his a long sleeve shirt, the one that's her favorite. She's wearing a grey Kappa Tau t-shirt under her zipped up black hoodie, her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail.

"I was thinking," he says running his thumb over her index finger, their hands tightly clasped together.

"Mmm," Casey replies, her head resting against his shoulder as they keep walking.

"In seven years, Evan will be running for senator. Rebecca will be paying the part of dutiful candidate's wife. Wade will have turned his small ad firm into one of the nation's largest. Rusty will have unlocked some secret for polymer science. Tina will be protesting something. Beaver will be teaching his sons, and daughters, how to play football while coaching at CRU. Ashleigh will be some famous fashion designer and I'll have to go to her shows. Caitlin will be ten. And you'll be a partner at some law firm."

"And what about you?" Casey asks, not missing a beat. "Winning another Pulitzer prize?"

"I will be right here," he replies.

"What are you going to do? Be one of those silver paint statue guys?"

"No, I'll be right here with you," he replies, dropping his head to kiss her temple.

"Marry me," he mumbles and Casey stops dead in her tracks.

"Wh…what?"

"Marry me," he repeats holding out the ring box he's been carrying around in his pocket for ten days. "In seven years, in our ten years, I just wanna be with you. And Caitlin. So marry me."

"Yes," she whispers.

"Yes?"

"Yes," she repeats. "A thousand times yes."

He smiles and she snakes her hand around his head, pulling his face towards hers until their lips touch. Breaking away from their kiss, he pulls away slightly and smiles.

"I love you," he mumbles before recapturing her lips with his.