Recipe for Reunion
I struggled during Season 2 of Beauty and the Beast for a variety of reasons and while I can acknowledge that drama needs conflict. I also think the writers of S2 did not fully understand the relationship between Catherine and Vincent and clearly did not understand the character of Catherine Chandler as we fans understood her after S1. I have watched every episode multiple times and some of the actions of V and C just felt off to me. So to get through this LONG hiatus, I find myself rewriting some aspects of the episodes that did not ring true for me, sometimes it's just a quick one shot and other times the story continues. So come along as I re-write Recipe for Disaster, which I felt should be a Recipe for REUNION.
Chapter 1
"Did I call to late?"
Vincent is trying to be quiet as to not wake up Tori.
Catherine takes the phone into the bedroom as she replies.
"No, just hosting a cooking party what's up?"
Vincent smiles to himself, with most if not all, of his memories back, he can't ever remember Catherine being a big cook.
"Cooking huh, how's it going?'
There is laughter in his voice. Catherine is taken back a bit, she has not heard him this way in a long while.
"Be nice, I can cook…you never…"
She stops because she was going to say, he never complained before because they were busy doing other things. It was so easy to slide back into her feelings for him when he was teasing her. But he was with Tori now and she had to let go.
"Sorry, I called, because I was looking through Rebecca's journal and I think I have an idea, she describes the place she is looking for as a dudgeon and she gives some landmarks, maybe we could find a map from that time period and see if we can track her movements."
"A Dungeon in NY? Talk about a needle in a haystack…"
An alarm goes off and Catherine quickly hangs up telling Vincent that they can talk later.
Vincent's is shocked at his first reaction which is to race over there….then he realizes she doesn't need him like that anymore. His second reaction is to smile again at the thought of her racing around her kitchen, smoke pouring from her oven….. Then he tenses up as he senses Tori come down the stairs.
In that moment Vincent recognizes the difference in his feelings for Catherine versus Tori. He has a moment of regret and then bolsters himself to deal with Tori.
"Let me guess, it was Catherine."
Vincent resigned to her jealousy admits that it was. He argues with Tori that Catherine is trying to help them find the gem and get Dana off their trail. He tells her that Catherine is putting herself a great risk to help them. Tori is not buying it a bit.
"Catherine is helping you Vincent, not us!"
Vincent hangs his head, wishing it were true.
"Look I'm sorry, what do you want me to say?"
Tori worried about losing Vincent says.
"Tell me you don't still think about her, tell me you don't want to be back with her."
"Tori she is just trying to help, all I want is to find the gem and get Agent Landon off our backs."
As Vincent heads back upstairs, Tori realizes that Vincent did not answer her questions.
Vincent doesn't know what he wants and that is the problem. When he talks with Catherine, it's so easy and all the old feelings come rushing back, but they are mixed with guilt for not trusting her and going after her Father on his own and how he turned to Tori after Catherine shot him. He carried a lot anger at everyone and at Catherine for so long, but after she was held hostage, and they worked together, it was so easy and now that anger is gone. What is left is something else.
Vincent can feel that there will be a reckoning soon, things cannot continue on the path they are on. This path does not feel right to Vincent anymore, Tori does not feel right, this is not his true path, but he can't see a way back.
Vincent and Tori are late to JT's party celebrating his grant. As they enter, Vincent makes a beeline for Catherine, Gabe and Tess. Tori senses his heart race, when he sees Catherine.
"Sorry we are late, what did we miss?"
Catherine looks happy to see them and compliments Tori on her dress.
"Nothing we are just waiting on JT."
Vincent turns to Gabe and starts talking about the gem and the dudgeon. Which of course is the first Tori is hearing about it. She can't believe that Vincent has been talking to everyone about the gem and had not mentioned anything about it to her. Although to be honest she doesn't really care about it. She just doesn't like the idea of Vincent spending any more time with these people. She feels alone and outside of the tight knit group.
JT arrives and hugs everyone, included an awkward hug with Tori. That is the final straw for her and she excuses herself.
Vincent takes off after her, clearly annoyed and Catherine watches him leave, feeling sorry for him. He does not seem happy at all.
"Tori what is going on?"
Tori turns on Vincent.
"Why don't you tell me…..Oh I know because you don't share anything with me, even though this gem has just as much to do with me as it does them, even more so since it obviously fits into the collar that I own."
Tori is right and Vincent can't really explain why he has not shared any of this with her.
"I'm sorry…."
Tori cuts him off.
"You keep saying that Vincent, but you're not really. Remember I can hear your heartbeat and I can sense how you feel about Catherine. Why don't you just admit it?"
Vincent stands there, head down trying to think of what to say to her. He does not want to hurt her and he feels responsible for her, she has no one else.
"Tori, this is hard for me to explain, but this doesn't feel right anymore, I am not sure if it ever really felt right. I was so angry at Catherine's Dad for destroying my life and taking away my memories, that for a while I didn't FEEL anything! Your effect on me only made that worse, when I am around you it changes everything. The way I think, the way I feel, but it's not right, this is not who I am.
Tori stands there, and can sense that Vincent is telling the truth.
"Vincent that is not my fault, I can't control the effect I have on you, I need you and don't want to lose you. You are all I have."
"I know that Tori and I think that is part of the problem. I can't be everything for you. What is going on with me and between us, is not real. You are holding on to me because you are afraid and I….."
Tori's knows she shouldn't push him that she won't like the answer but she can't help it.
"You what Vincent….what is it."
"I still love Catherine….the more time I spend with her looking for this gem, I can feel the old me wanting to surface, and I want to do the right thing for you, but this is not who I am."
He knows he has said this before, but.
"I'm sorry, I think you need to find someplace else to stay until I can figure out what is going on."
As Vincent heads back inside JT's, Tori knows what Vincent really means. He means so he can get away from her and find his way back to Catherine.
JT is just on his way out.
"Hey where you going?"
JT with a huge smile on his face.
"Going to check out my new lab, wanna come?"
Vincent explains that he has stuff to do and will catch up with JT later.
Vincent approaches the bar and his heart begins to race when he sees Catherine talking to Gabe and Tess. As he approaches Catherine sees him coming, smiles at him and asks if he is ok.
"Not really, things are kind of a mess."
Everyone is headed back to the precinct to start working, but Catherine stays to talk to Vincent.
"What's the matter?" Catherine asks concern for him written so clearly on her face.
Vincent is taken aback by how open she seems to him, after all that he has done. But that is the Catherine he remembers, she never stops caring for those she loves or loved in his case. He thinks about telling her everything is fine, but decides to trust the truth.
"I broke things off with Tori, lately everything has just felt wrong, being around her doesn't just amplify my powers, it affects everything about me, how I think and feel and I know it's not real. I feel responsible for her and she is just afraid to be alone."
Vincent takes a huge risk and tells Catherine even more.
"I think it's you."
Catherine looks surprised.
"Me!"
"Yes the more time I spend with you, the less time I spend with Tori and I can feel the difference, when I am with you guys I feel normal, when I am with her, it's like I am not in my own skin."
Catherine can see Vincent's struggle, but his betrayal is too recent and her heart is too tender to really hear what he is saying. So she does what she does best, focus on the work and not her emotions.
"I'm sorry Vincent, why don't you head back to your boat and grab Rebecca's files and meet all of us back at the precinct and we will see if we can follow Rebecca's trail."
Catherine leaves. Vincent closes his eyes as she walks away. He is standing there the pain he is feeling on his face, he make no attempt to hide it. What he doesn't see is Catherine looking back at him over her shoulder and the way her expressions softens as it recognizes the pain he is in, it mirrors the pain she has been feeling for months.
JT meanwhile has gotten himself in some trouble. Poor guy, he did not win a grant, what he did win was a one way trip to a dudgeon, one already currently occupied. He wakes up to see a very unkempt bushy faced guy in a cage talking to himself. JT is shackled to the floor and his arm is wrapped up, at some point he had been wounded.
"Well I wondered when you were going to wake up."
The man a tall distinguished looking gentleman all decked out in a suit enters the room and explains to JT that he wants him to create a serum to make beasts. JT tries unsuccessfully not to cooperate, and offers up his life instead, but the gentleman. A Mr. Tony Barnes, threatens to shoot the guy in the cage and JT quickly gives in.
Vincent meanwhile returns home to find Tori has moved her stuff out. (Thankfully) but Agent Landon is sitting in his living room, demanding to know what he knows about the gem. She also tells him that she knows there is something different about him, but she knows he is a good man. She asks him to trust her and he does. Showing her HOW different he really is. They are talking about the gem when Catherine shows up at the boat.
"Vincent, have you seen JT?"
"No, isn't he at his lab?"
Catherine's phone beeps, she reads the text coming through.
"No and he is not at the Gentleman's club either. Gabe and Tess are there and there is no sign of him. We all got an email and I think JT has been kidnapped."
Vincent shoots to his feet.
"What? What do they want?"
Catherine showing him the email says.
"You…Whoever sent this knows about Beasts, Vincent, but they don't know WHO any beasts are or the email would not have been sent to everyone."
Vincent is in a panic.
"I have to find him, I have to save him."
Catherine grabs Vincent's arm.
"You can rush in there, it's obviously a trap."
Vincent is angry.
"Hell yes it's a trap, they want a beast and I am a beast, for God's sake Catherine, JT thinks he won a grant, I can't just sit here and let them hurt him."
Agent Landon adds.
"But why would they want you if they didn't think they could control you, you said the gem had properties that could suppress your Beast side, and you can't just walk in there."
"Watch me."
Catherine stands her ground and Vincent growls at her.
"You are not going into this alone, Vincent…Don't you growl at me, I am not afraid of you….You track JT, I will come along as back up and WE will come up with a plan to get JT once we know where he is."
She turns to Dana.
"Can you head to the precinct with Rebecca's file and help narrow down our search, I will stay in contact with you via phone."
She turned back to Vincent.
"Let's go!"
Just as they reach the door, Vincent's cell rings…..its Tori.
"Tori I can't talk right now, JT has been kidnapped and Catherine and I are headed out to find him."
Tori explains that she can help, she saw JT leave the Gentleman's Club and can track him, but once again Vincent blows her off.
Tori believes this is her chance to show Vincent that he needs her. She heads to the Gentleman's Club to track JT.
Meanwhile, Vincent has to follow the trail that Barnes has left for him and it takes him longer to find JT than it does Tori, who is able to track JT directly.
JT is close to mixing the final ingredients into the test tube when Tori bursts in, he is so glad to see her, he gives her a real hug this time. As she goes to free his leg chain she is shot with a tranq dart.
Barnes puts the gem around Tori's neck and takes her to her own cell. There he collects her blood….all of it.
Barnes delivers the blood to JT and tells him to add it to the serum.
JT does and the blood red serum is ready to be tested.
Catherine and Vincent are tracking JT across town. Catherine is on the phone with Dana who is describing a warehouse with a smoke stack, once the trail leads them there Vincent wants to rush in alone.
"Vincent we have to go in together."
But there is no way that Vincent is risking Catherine's life on top of JT's.
"I can blur in there and grab JT and be out before you know it. You will slow me down in there. I am sorry Catherine, wait here for Tess and JT, if I am not out in 10 min with JT then when you have back up come and get me. I will not have you put yourself at risk for me."
He blurs away before she can argue with him.
She looks down at her watch.
"The clock is ticking Keller…."
"JT…..JT"
JT lifts his head, hearing Vincent call his name is the sweetest sound he has heard today.
"In here…hurry."
Vincent comes through the doorway and there is a man hug to end all man hugs.
"Are you OK? Vincent asks. "Who is this?' Vincent approaches the cage holding the bushy faced prisoner.
"Some dude that has been down here a lot longer than me! And I am fine, but they have Tori!"
Vincent rips the door off of the prisoner's cell.
"Tori?"
JT now understands that Vincent did not send her to rescue him.
"Yes, Tori she burst in here and then got shot with a tranq gun. I don't know where she is."
Vincent tells JT to get out and find Catherine, who is waiting outside, he will be right out once he gets Tori.
"Do not let Catherine come in here." He yells as he takes off deeper into the dungeon.
Vincent finds Tori, she is still alive, but barely. He can sense that her heart beat is fading.
"Tori, hey Tori can you hear me, It's Vincent."
He rips the IV line out of her arm, he touches her forehead.
She responds, moving her head towards the sound of his voice.
"Vincent?"
"Yeah Tori it's me, I am going to get you out of here, we need to get you to the hospital."
He tries to pick her up, but she cries out in pain.
"It's too late, Vincent, I am sorry."
Vincent can hear her heart stutter, it is struggling to beat with the little bit of blood left in her body. He grabs her hands. They are ice cold. Not even his beast could blur away fast enough to get Tori to the hospital in time.
"Tori, I am sorry, I should have protected you." His voice broke.
Tori was struggling to stay with him. It was important that he not blame himself for this, even in the short time she has known him, she knows he feels things deeply. He did the best he could, given how messed up everything is.
"Vincent it is ok, I screwed this up, not you. You don't belong here in the darkness, Vincent, you belong in the light… you belong with Catherine."
Tori felt a weight being lifted off of her, as she smiled at Vincent, his face being the last thing she saw before everything went black.
The door slammed shut and Tony Barnes was smiling at Vincent.
JT and a scruffy looking guy came running out of the building.
"JT!" Catherine grabbed him in a hug. "Where is Vincent?"
"Still inside, looking for Tori."
"Tori?"
"She came to rescue me, but got caught instead."
Catherine's hand instinctively went to her gun as she started for the building.
"Catherine, wait! Vincent did not want you going in after him."
She turned back to JT and glared at him. He looked chastised and waived his hands.
"Go ahead, I will wait here for Tess and Gabe."
Catherine took off into the building. She could hear Vincent roaring and the sound of him slamming against something.
As she turned the corner she saw Vincent in a cage and a man pointing a gun at him. Catherine did not hesitate, she pulled her weapon and fired. The man dropped to the floor and she could see Vincent step back thinking he had been shot. He quickly returned to his human self as she ran to open the door.
Catherine stopped as she unbolted the cell door and saw Tori, pale and unmoving on a slab. She looked at Vincent as he turned and called Tori's name.
"Tori?...Tori?" Vincent checked for a pulse even though he could tell she was dead. He felt so bad, he was responsible for her and he let her down. He let everyone down. He hung his head and put his hand on Tori's head. "I'm sorry" He whispered….
Catherine, feeling like she was intruding on a private moment, left Vincent along to mourn.
Tess and Gabe showed up along with an ambulance to transport Tori's body and their unknown prisoner to the hospital.
Vincent still had not come out, worried about him, Catherine went to find him. She found him alone in the cell, he was staring at the ceiling and a set of claw marks.
Vincent senses Catherine's approach, it shocks him, now that Tori is dead, his head is clear and his heart, while heavy with guilt over what has happened is also clear.
"Are you ok?" Catherine asks the questions although she already knows the answer.
"No, she was just trying to help, she never should have been here."
Catherine placed her hand on Vincent's arm.
"She did help, if she had not been here, Barnes would have gotten to you and you would not have saved JT. Her death means something Vincent. Don't take that away from her."
"She wasn't trying to be a hero, she was trying to fix things between us. She did not deserve what happened to her."
"Vincent you did not ask her to come here, you are not responsible for this."
Vincent looked at Catherine, all his old feelings for her are flooding to the surface, yet he knows this is not the time or the place.
"This is why I pushed you away at first, bad things happen around me and people get hurt. I was so afraid that something like this would happen to you. I don't think I could handle that. You gave me a choice Catherine and I made the wrong one. I turned my back on my humanity and I took Tori down this path and it killed her. I am dangerous." He turned to look at the claw marks. "Just like him."
Catherine's heart ached for Vincent, all she wanted to do was throw her arms around him and comfort him, but the time for them had passed.
"How do you know Rebecca didn't save him?"
He looked at her.
"How do you know she didn't die trying?"
They stared at each other, each one wanting to comfort the other one, but both unsure of how…..
Gabe showed up and told Vincent that he would try to contain what had happened here. Vincent thanked him and took off. The pain from Tori's death and this distance from Catherine tearing at his insides.
Catherine watched Vincent leave, her heart aching for him. She wanted to race after him, but he needed time and space to grieve Tori.
"Do you want to be alone?" Gabe asked her.
Catherine looking after Vincent said.
"No but I don't seem to have much choice." She headed out to find Tess leaving Gabe standing there alone.
JT knocks on Vincent's door. Vincent answers in his bathrobe, looking like crap. JT holds up the scotch he has brought with him.
"You look like you could use a drink."
Vincent opens the door wider and gestures JT inside.
"I am not very good company right now JT."
JT looks at his friend, he can tell Vincent is grieving, he just wonders exactly what or who he is grieving for.
"Well it doesn't matter, because you saved my life, so now all I can do to repay you is save yours, but since that is highly unlikely, this will have to do." He says, holding up the bottle of 18 yr. old single malt.
Vincent plops down on his chair as JT get the glasses and they argue a bit about who is the most responsible for all the bad stuff that has happened. JT pours Vincent a shot and swallowing hard says.
"Actually I am the one who started all this."
Vincent's head snaps up, he can sense how upset JT is right now, his heart is racing.
"I am the one who volunteered you for Murfield….with the hopes of keeping you safe in battle, but that is not how things turned out….. obviously." JT swallows nervously again, not sure how Vincent is going to take this news.
Vincent stares at JT for a long hard minute, his eyes are moist.
"You're right you win"
Vincent lifts his glass and drains the scotch and holds it up for a refill.
JT looking relieved, fills it up.
"Glad that is settled." He says softly
Vincent slams back the second shot and lets JT off the hook.
"You may have given them my name JT, but I am the one who said yes to the experiment, they and by default, you did not force me into anything. Tori on the other hand, she didn't ask for what she was….she was born that way. She just never learned to live with it…..maybe that is just not possible."
"Of course it is Vincent, you have, you are…..What about all the people you have saved? Tess and Catherine and me, my God, Catherine would have died 10 years ago without you, so you get credit for all the people she has saved as well!"
Vincent offered JT a slight smile, and that was all the encouragement that he needed. JT stood up and raised his glass.
"To Tori, may she find the peace she deserves, she saved my life and I will be forever grateful,"
Vincent touched at his best friends words also stood up and raised his glass.
"To Tori"
As the amount of scotch he had consumed hit him, Vincent sat back down heavily. He rubbed his face and smiled at JT.
JT with a big ole grin on his face said.
"Looks just like old times, me and you buddy."
Vincent deadpans right back.
"You are not living here."
oe dHow