"OHMYGOD, you're Kelsey Carlisle!"

Of course, Kelsey had just taken a gigantic bite of her breakfast when she heard these words. She and Jack were grabbing breakfast at their favorite IHOP in the valley on their way to the studio for the first day of shooting. Jack started classes in a couple weeks, so he wanted to go with her as long as he could.

Kelsey looked up, smiling as she chewed. Jack hid his mouth behind his hand and laughed at her. She tried to simultaneously glare at him and look friendly to the waitress, who hadn't noticed whom she was serving until now.

Kelsey nodded and swallowed. "I am," she acknowledged. Gone were the days when she brushed off her fans whenever possible, or just ignored them outright. They were her people, she realized. She was here because of them, and for them, too.

"And you're Jack LaGuardia," the starstruck waitress continued, eyes huge in her pretty face as she turned to Jack, who had just taken a huge bite of his pancakes.

He nodded as he, too, tried to acknowledge her and eat at the same time. This time it was Kelsey who laughed, eyes merry in her lively face as she enjoyed his predicament.

"You guys are such great people," the waitress said, completely unaware of how discombobulated the couple in front of her was. "I knew when you went after that race car driver at that party that he was no good, you know?" She leaned toward Jack conspiratorially. "Never liked him." She looked at Kelsey. "No offense or anything."

Kelsey shook her head vigorously.

"And you were so brave, Ms. Carlisle, to do what you did to make sure everyone would know what a dick he was," the waitress went on. "You made the world a safer place by exposing that cocksucker, you know?" Her eyes widened as she realized what she'd said. "Oh, shit, I'm sorry, I hope I didn't offend you or anything!"

Kelsey sat back to laugh, shaking her head. "No, no, Sherry," she reassured the waitress after glancing at her name tag. "You're totally right, he is a cocksucker."

The waitress, heartened, continued as Jack and Kelsey listened to her with amusement.

"After all that hit the news, me and my boyfriend got in a fight about it, and I'm telling you, it was the last straw, and I threw his useless ass out of the apartment, so I have you to thank for that, Ms. Carlisle. He beat on me whenever the hell he felt like it, and I was sick of it, let me tell you." Sherry looked between the two of them, indignant, as they looked back, all traces of amusement gone.

"Anyway, I'll let you get back to your breakfast, but I just wanted to say thank you, and that I'm a huge fan, okay?" And Sherry sashayed away, calling out for more coffee at table three.

"Wow," Jack said, taking Kelsey's hand across the table. "That got weird and serious fast, huh?"

Kelsey nodded.

"You're an amazing person, missy thing," Jack said, winking at her, making Kelsey swoon a little bit over her international pancake breakfast.

"Speaking of Don, have you heard the latest?" Kelsey asked as she took a drink of her juice.

"No, I haven't, and I wasn't speaking of him, either," Jack retorted, blinking at her. "I don't understand why you have heard the latest, and do you have to say his name? Can't you just call him 'cocksucker,' like our fine server did?"

"Oh my god, Jack, I don't think I've ever heard you swear before," Kelsey said. She looked really startled.

"I swear, when circumstances warrant," Jack said, embarrassed. "What about him, anyway?"

"He had to sell one of his villas," Kelsey said gleefully.

"One of his villas?" Jack repeated, not even bothering to keep the disgust out of his voice.

"It was his favorite," Kelsey elaborated. "On the Amalfi coast. He loved that place, but he was running out of cash, and couldn't find any sponsors or something."

"I don't understand exactly what he did for a living," Jack said, grabbing a slice of bacon off of Kelsey's plate and feeding it to her.

She took a bite of the proffered piece, chewing as she spoke.

"He's kind of what you call a professional playboy," she said at last. "I mean, he earned money racing cars, but it's such an expensive sport that you don't really go into it for the money, you know? And he lived kind of on the cheap, spending months and months at a time with other really wealthy people, family members or people in entertainment who wanted to be able to say they knew a Baron. He's also a prince or something, too."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I'm all atwitter with excitement," he said. "Just makes me tingle all over, Jesus."

Kelsey laughed. "Anyway, he hasn't been getting those invitations since everything, so he has to live on his own dime, and he likes to live big, so I'm sure his bills are piling up." She scooped up the last of her eggs and popped them in her mouth. "And not getting invited to the gala is the biggest blow, I'm sure, but it's definitely not the only snub he's received."

"Seriously, sweetheart, why do you know all this?" Jack asked.

Kelsey saw that the question was coming from a deep place. She could see it in his eyes, blue and green with little flecks of gold, framed by curly lashes that faded to gold at the tips. She sighed.

"The grazers of the veldt sleep better at night if they know the movements and habits of the lions and stuff, you know?" she replied finally.

Jack continued to look at her for a moment, then nodded his acceptance of her words. "Okay, fair enough, I get that," he said.

He rose and moved to her side of the booth so he could cuddle her, and Kelsey, who hadn't even known Jack's name six months ago, found nothing strange about this at all. She leaned comfortably on his shoulder for a few seconds, then sat up and speared a sausage on her fork and fed it to him.

He remained there for the rest of the meal.

When the time came to pay, Sherry came to their booth and said, "Your breakfast's on me today, okay? You helped me, and I just want to show my appreciation." She winked at them and walked away. Sure enough, when they looked at the tag, there was just a big smiley face where the total should've been, along with her name and the word "Paid" circled under it.

So while Jack went to the register with the tag, Kelsey found Sherry and pressed a fifty dollar tip into her hand.

"Good luck with everything," she said to the surprised waitress.

"You too, Ms. Carlisle, you too."

After they got in the car, Jack asked, "Nervous?"

Kelsey resolutely shook her head. "I'm ready," she told him. "I'm pretty much off book already, loved everyone I met at the table read, and," she leaned over to kiss Jack on the mouth, "I have the best boyfriend in the world." She leaned back and shrugged. "Life's damned near perfect, I think."

"We have to get moved into our new place next week," Jack reminded her. "And I start school right after that. We're going to be so busy." He started the car and pulled out of the parking lot for the short drive to the studio.

Kelsey had decided to sell her West Hollywood mansion. It really was too big for two people, and with everything that had happened that summer, it had too many unpleasant associations for both of them. She had bought a cute Spanish style bungalow in Hollywood, about half an hour from UCSM, though it was like no bungalow Jack had ever seen before.

To him, a bungalow was something small and quaint, vaguely reminiscent of something from Gilligan's Island, perhaps. It certainly wasn't three thousand square feet, on a ten thousand square foot landscaped lot, with imported Italian tile floors, and no way did it cost north of three million dollars.

"You understand that I can't help pay for any of this?" Jack had asked when they'd decided to move into the house together.

Kelsey had waved a hand airily, indicating that such a trivial thing didn't matter. "You can pay me back by cleaning and stuff," she said, laughing.

"Oh yeah?" Jack replied, crawling on top of her as he shook his head. "And what about the fact that we're sleeping together? What about the sex, hm?"

"Oh, I'll throw that in for free," Kelsey had quipped, crossing her eyes up at him, making him laugh so hard he'd fallen on top of her, making it hard for her to breathe.

"So I get to stay there in exchange for doing housework and having sex with you? Is that right?" he'd asked when they could both finally breathe again. At her nod, he continued. "You know there's a name for that, missy thing. I mean, do you know what that makes me?"

"A wife?" Kelsey replied, unable to contain her giggles.

"Oh, you did not just go there," Jack replied, aghast. "You just set your gender back fifty years with that remark."

"Why, what were you going to say?" Kelsey had asked.

"A prostitute," Jack answered, and they both collapsed again, unable to stop laughing. It seemed to Kelsey that she spent a lot of time laughing these days, which was a wonderful thing.

Jack smiled as they headed to the studio, remembering this conversation.

They pulled in and Kelsey led her boyfriend to the right place, pointing things out as they entered a huge building. She explained to him that movies were shot out of order, so today they were shooting some hospital scenes, nothing too dramatic.

It was all joy to Jack, who just wanted to spend as much time with Kelsey as he could before he had to go back to the grind of his senior year of college, and really start swimming hard. After his outstanding performance at the exhibition meet, the powers that be at UCSM had wisely decided not to expel him, though he still had to go before a discipline committee over the status of his scholarship. Jack wasn't too concerned about that, however, because of all the media attention their situation had received.

Kelsey was now leading him into a large room, where all kinds of equipment was set up, cameras, cables everywhere, and people, all of whom seemed very competent, focused, and busy.

She introduced Jack to Robin King, the woman who was directing the movie. Jack had heard of her, and was a huge fan, though he'd never known what she looked like before. Then they went and sat to wait for Kelsey's turn in the make-up chair before her first scene.

"Wow, look at that," Jack said. Kelsey actually had a chair that said 'Kelsey Carlisle' on it, just like a movie star in a movie.

"Yours doesn't have your name on it, Jack, I'm sorry," Kelsey joked as they sat.

Jack grinned at her and kept looking around, trying to take everything in.

"Kelsey, good morning," a voice called, and Jack and Kelsey turned around.

"Marian, hi," Kelsey replied. She and Jack rose, and Kelsey made the introductions.

"Jack LaGuardia, Marian Lowell, I know you know who she is," Kelsey joked.

"Marian, this is Jack, my boyfriend," Kelsey said. "He's also my swim coach. We worked together all summer to prepare."

"Marian, a real pleasure," Jack said, holding out his hand. "I'm a huge admirer, as a person and as an IMer, of course."

"Oh, you do the IM?" Marian asked.

She looked a lot like Kelsey, of course, and even if Jack hadn't known who she was, he would've recognized a fellow swimmer immediately. She had broad swimmers' shoulders, and the smooth, muscled arms of an athlete. She was shorter than Kelsey, and didn't have her long legs, but the resemblance was uncanny.

She smiled at Jack, and he saw that her eyes were blue, not gray like Kelsey's. Her hair was also a bit lighter, probably from the swimming.

"Yeah. I mean, not like you, not at an Olympic level or anything," he hastened to add.

"Well, I'm not at that level anymore either," she replied, laughing. "I haven't trained like that since those games, actually. I'm just a law student now."

"I didn't know you were going to law school," Kelsey said. "Jack's pre-law, you guys should have lots to talk about."

"Super." Marian said, smiling again at Jack. "I'll look forward to it."