She focused on starting a small flame underneath the cauldron, smiling widely when she managed the spell with little effort. "So...You said your sister taught you this potion? I bet there's a story there."

"Not really I was just interested in testing the potion's abilities." Beckett says, glaring at her slightly when she nudged him with her elbow.

"Come on...I know that's not the truth. Just tell me." Rachael whines, persistently.

Beckett sighed deeply, shaking his head at her. "If you must know... my parents took me to visit Katrina in France, and while walking through the city, I found someone's Prinot."

"A Prinot?" Rachael asks, tilting her head to the side confused.

"It's a journal sealed with magick so it can only be opened by one person. This one was pretty well-worn, so I figured it was important. My imagination got the best of me. It could have been memoir, notes from a secret society, research on a new form of magick. Finally, I asked my sister to help me find its owner, and we made the potion together." Beckett explains, glancing over at her.

"But doesn't the potion show where an item originated? Wouldn't that take you to the factor it was made in?" Rachael asks.

"No. Items change as people use them and give them homes. That meant the Prinot's origin was where it was used the most." Beckett says.

"Well, did you get it back to them?" Rachael questions.

"Yes, but turns out it was just the book-keeping for a business. Nothing special about it." Beckett sighs, looking back at what he had been doing.

"That must have been disappointing." Rachael says.

"Not at all. It was a job well done. And Kat took me on a special trip to the archives of the Musee de la Magie that same day." Beckett shakes his head.

"You mean she took you there in order to cheer you up." Rachael teases, with a warm smile. He ignored her comment and focused on the cutting board in front of him. "Well it sounds like she really cares about you."

"She's always been like that. Even when we were little, she was always the overbearing sister trying to look after me." Beckett says, before quickly correcting himself. "Not that I needed looking after, mind you. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"Sure you are." Rachael giggles at him.

"I'm just going to pretend that you believe me." Beckett says. "Anyways...She mostly double checked my homework or helped me with school projects."

"I know you weren't talking about homework when you said she tried to look after you." Rachael softly.

"You don't let anything go do you? Fine... In elementary school, there was one kid who was bigger than me and always gave me a hard time. I didn't usually let him get to me. He was not worth my energy. But one day he pushed me on the playground while I was holding Sir Paul." Beckett sighs, talking like this story was the bane of his existence.

"And was Sir Paul an adorable stuffed animal you carried with you everywhere?" Rachael asks, with a bright smile spread across her face.

"No! Is that what normal children do?" Beckett gasps, at her assumption. "Sir Paul was a wire sculpture of a three headed dragon I made and enchanted to move and breath fire every hour."

"That's different... but still cute." Rachael smiles. He paused for a moment thinking fondly of the object he used to call his only friend.

"When my sister came to pick me up, she saw it was broken and marched straight over to the kid and cursed him with wet socks for two weeks!" Beckett says.

"She seems pretty over-protective." Rachael says.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it." Beckett chuckles a bit.

She nudged him with her elbow again, earning a playful glare from him in return.

"Would you quit that?" Beckett sighs, falsely rolling his eyes.

"Not until you elaborate. What else did she do?" Rachael asks, politely.

He scrapped the scales into the cauldron a loud sizzling sound resulting and he handed her a ladle.

"First, stir counter-clockwise ten times, then add the meteorite fragment." Beckett instructs, as he begins to chop up the stems of some plants.

"Beckett...You're stalling." Rachael says, nudging him again as she followed his instructions.

"I am doing no such thing." Beckett says, holding up his hands in defense when she nudged him again. "Okay, okay! When I was a senior in high school, I really wanted to brew Seer's Sight. It's very difficult potion that lets you see into the past. But when I asked Katrina to help me, she said it was too dangerous and that I needed to wait until I was at Penderghast to learn it."

"She must have had a good reason." Rachael says.

"Well, in my opinion, there is no harm that comes from learning. But in this case, she may have been right. Instead of listening to her, I attempted to make the potion on my own." Beckett sighs.

"And it went horribly wrong in every way possible?" Rachael asks, with a sympathetic, but entertained smile plastered on her face.

"It sort of exploded..." Beckett sighs, rubbing the back of his neck, embarrassment flooding his face.

"And?" Rachael questions.

"And...and singed off one of my eyebrows..." Beckett says, looking away from her.

"Oh, no! Not the eyebrows!" Rachael gasps, playfully. "How did your sister react?"

"Oh, she gave me the lecture of my life." Becker sighs.

"She was worried about you though, right?" Rachael asks.

"I suppose...When I first saw her, she was crying and kept going on and on about how scared she was. It was rather melodramatic of her." Beckett says.

"Any sane person would have been concerned about you. I mean I'm sure something much worse could have happened to you." Rachael counters. "But she's still your sister, so she must have teased you relentlessly about it."

"I'll have you know she only made a single joke about my face looking unbalanced." Beckett sighs heavily, turning back to the cauldron.

"Is everything okay?" Rachael asks, concern on her face.

"Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be? I'm perfectly fine..." Beckett says keeping his focus on the potion.

"Beckett...Beckett...Please tell me what's bothering you..." Rachael whines, tugging on his arm obnoxiously.

"Are you always this annoying?" Beckett scoffs.

"Yes, but we both know that's not news." Rachael pouts at him, sitting back. "But in all seriousness, you know you can can talk to me, right?"

He ran a hand through his hair, glancing over at her with a sigh. "It's just...It's weird not to see her all the time. Even when we were busy with school or charity events or research, we always had time to talk. But now that I'm here, it feels like we're so far apart."

"Everyone gets homesick. It's not something to be embarrassed about." Rachael says softly.

"I know. I'm sure it will pass..." Beckett says, giving her a sad smile.

"But until it does, I'm happy to listen." Rachael says, putting her hand on his shoulder supportively.

"I just don't know what I'm going to do when I can't manage everything on my own..." Beckett says, looking away from her.

"You aren't on your own. You've got me now and the others. And I know I'm not going to leave when the going gets tough. It's not like my life has been the easiest either. What with all the monster attacks and mysteries. But we have each other. That's what counts." Rachael smiles at him.

"I...I suppose that's true." Beckett says appearing surprised at first, but it slowly melted into a small glee filled smile.

"We can get through it. Together." Rachael says, supportively.

"Right...Well then..." Beckett mumbles looking away awkwardly.

Rachael bit her lip, observing his stature before formulating a course of action to take his mind off of things. She leaned forwards on her knees, pressing her lips to his. His eyes widened for a moment, before he returned the kiss with vigor. He slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her close, smiling as she nipped his lower lip before pulling away.

"I like making you speechless." Rachael smiles, looking into his umber eyes.

"Who said I was-" Beckett starts clearly flustered, unable to finish his sentence when she crashed her lips into his again.

She pulled away again after a minute, letting out a quiet moan as his lips pressed against her jaw and started to dip down to plant kisses against her neck.

"Now who's speechless..." Beckett smirks, as he pulled away.

She tugged him back towards her by his lapels, kissing him again hungrily. When they finally parted he rested his forehead against hers.

"We...shouldn't get distracted. We still have to finish the potion." Beckett says clearing his throat gently and pulling back from her entirely.

"Oh you're no fun..." Rachael pouts, but was certain they would continue their actions at a later date.

"We just need to add the baby's breath." Beckett says, both of them reaching for the vial at the same time. Their hands brushed against each others and his face flushed a dark red. "Sorry, you can, uh, go ahead. Just let it wash over the potion."

"It's so weird that this is actually baby's breath..." Rachael mumbles as she opened the vial letting it slowly pour out and swirl into the cauldron.

"Perfect, that's precisely what it's supposed to do. In a few hours, it'll be ready. This was actually easier than I excepted." Beckett smiles at her.

"It's nice to have help, isn't it?" Rachael asks.

"Only when the help is... capable." Beckett answers.

"Capable, huh? From you, that's the highest of praise." Rachael smiles.

"Don't be ridiculous. You were merely competent. That's nothing to preen at." Beckett says.

"Oooh! Now I'm 'merely competent'. You're just dealing out all the compliments today!" Rachael giggles, clapping her hands together happily.

Beckett rolls his eyes at her, but a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. The smile disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared getting relaxed with a slight scowl. "Whatever."

"Geez, calm down...I was teasing." Rachael sighs, retreating back a bit.