**I DO NOT OWN THIS SHOW OR THE CHARACTERS IN THE SHOW, I AM JUST BORROWING THEM**

Chapter 1 – Death


The day Catherine and Vincent met, they both had just been shipped out on their first mission in Pakistan. The nurses were celebrating Catherine's birthday, Heather's idea by the way, at a nearby pub from where they were stationed.

"Alright, settle down ladies...we have soldiers arriving soon." stated Heather, "Which a lot of them hot I may add."

"Heather!" Catherine said embarrassed. It was actually normal for Heather to be guy crazy.

"Oh, Cat. You need to lighten up a little. When was the last time you actually had a hot guy come into your life?"

"Not...too long...ago...and I am being light, thank you!"

Heather let out a laugh as she said, "You don't have a single hint of edge in your bones my dear sister."

Catherine huffed, "Yes I do! I'll prove it!" she said as she took Heather's shot of vodka and drank it, "See? I have edge in me."

"Not enough I'm afraid. How about you do a dare?"

All of the girls glared at Catherine waiting for an answer. "Fine!"

A car pool of army jeeps pulled up in front of the pub which began to turn the wheels in Heather's mind. She knew that the soldiers had arrived and she was gonna put Catherine up to something that none of them would forget.

"Okay...I dare you to kiss the first guy to walk thru the door."

The girls giggled and Catherine's jaw dropped. "What?!"

"You scared Cat?"

"No!"

"Then do it."

"Alright! Fine!"

At that moment, Captain Vincent Keller walked thru the door and Catherine walked up to him, grabbed him and kissed him. The girls began to cheer and Vincent looked at Catherine as he licked his bottom lip to savor the kiss.

Catherine got embarrassed and fled out the door...Vincent soon after her.

"Hey! Wait up!" he screamed chasing after Catherine. "Stop!"

She finally came to a halt and turned to face Vincent, "What?"

"Whoa, no need in getting hateful. I mean you are the one who kissed me randomly then ran off...what was that all about anyways?

"Stupid reason really...doesn't really matter."

He looked into her eyes and smiled as he said, "It matters to me."

Catherine rolled her eyes and smiled as she said, "I'm drunk right now and my sister dared me to do it because she doesn't think I have edge. So there...you happy now?"

He laughed.

"Stop laughing at me. It was all stupid and for fun...it won't happen again, okay?"

She turned to leave and found herself looking back at Vincent, who was still standing there, then continued walking to her car. As she opened the door to her car, Vincent ran up and closed it and asked, "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't say, actually."

"I know, but I wanted another reason to talk to you." he said sarcastically.

"Ha! Is that a line you have been practicing to pick up women?"

"No...I just thought that maybe a beautiful woman like yourself that kisses random guys in a dare would like to go out to dinner with me."

"No." she said with a laugh as she leaned up against the car.

He smiled and looked down then back up at Catherine as he sighed. He then nodded and turned around to leave when she shouted, "My name is Catherine..." he turned towards her and started to walk back as she continued, "...but everybody calls me Cat."

"Well, I'm not everybody...nice to meet you Catherine."

Months had passed and Vincent and Catherine had been dating for months now and instantly fell in love with each other. They were separated in the army of course, but it didn't stop them from being together. He always wrote her letters and she couldn't go a day without writing him back. They got engaged and planned to marry once Vincent was able to retire from the army, which wouldn't be long at all. In a week, they would be reunited again, back to their normal lives together.


Screams of the injured filled the Hospital Bunker. The number of deaths continued to rise and nurses scrammed all over the place to help wounded soldiers. A horrific scene to see and Catherine Chandler happened to be right in the middle of it with her mother and sister as the nurses who frantically tried to save lives. After the tragic incident of 9/11, everything about war had a whole new meaning to it. This surely was not how Catherine had pictured war, but how else could it of been pictured? War was not something easy to deal with, especially when you had a front row seat to the madness like Catherine did. The smell of gun powder and smoke became normal to her, and screaming? Well, she found that very hard to get used to. She clang to the dog tag that dangled around her neck with Vincent's name on it when she felt vulnerable to the madness. This was the first time Catherine ever seen such havoc like this and she would never forget it either.


Vincent pulled off his dog tags and removed one of the tags from the chain as he said, "I want you to take this, that way if something happens to me while I'm gone...I will always be with you no matter where you go."

He put the tag on another chain and put it on Catherine's neck as she responded, "Don't talk like that! Nothing will happen to you...or me for that matter. I too am being sent away Vincent, just to a different station."

"I know Catherine, but war has all the risks of being killed and honestly I could be killed. You are safer than I am out there...your in a safe Hospital Bunker, while I'm out in the middle of hell. Anything could happen, okay? I know its hard for you to think about but you need to be aware."

Catherine sighed as she took the tag into her her fingers and clung to it. She then took off her engagement ring and sat up in the bed to take off Vincent's chain from around his neck and she slipped the ring down onto the chain, "Promise me you will come back to me."

"I promise Catherine, one way or the other...I will find a way to come back to you...this ring will help show me the way back into your arms again."

They began kissing and Vincent laid them back on the bed as they prepared to make love for the last time before being being placed into separate camps.


Once back home, Catherine waited excitedly at the airstrip for Vincent. Finally the plane had landed her heart began to race. She missed him terribly and couldn't wait any longer to be in his arms again. She smiled as they began to exit the plane, and then JT, one of their best friends of the army, stepped out and looked at her...sadness in his eyes. Her smile had turned into a frown as JT turned to assist another soldier pull out a coffin with an American flag on top of it. She gasped and covered her mouth with both hands as soldiers stood in a salute stance as JT and Zach approached Catherine with Vincent's Captain hat. Tears fell down her face as she looked down at the hat then back up to JT and Zach, desperatly looking for answers or hoping that this was all just a dream.

JT then spoke, "I'm so sorry Catherine. He wanted you to have this if something happened to him."

"Tell me this isn't real...Zach?"

"I'm afraid it is true Miss Chandler. We hate that we had to come back to give you the bad news. But he was our best friend and we decided that it would be best us tell you than somebody else."

"What happened?" she asked.

The men looked at one another then back to Catherine, "He went inside a residence to make sure nobody was inside. Come to find out, there was a bomb inside Catherine. It blew up. We never found his body...we looked everywhere once the fire was out, but there was so much rubble and debris it made it difficult to do a search. Nobody could have survived the explosion of that bomb." said Zach.

Catherine clenched the hat against her chest as more tears fell down her face.

"We are truly sorry Cat. For what its worth, not a day went by that he didn't think about you. He talked about you all of the time. If you need anything at all, me and Zach are just a phone call away. You are our friend too." said JT.

Catherine burried her face into JT's shoulder and bursted into tears.


The day of the funeral was very difficult for Catherine. She stood in the background behind everyone instead of sitting with the family. It was too much bare. She pulled out a flask of liquor and tilted her head back as she drunk the last bit of it...Marie Keller, Vincent's mother took notice in this and approached Catherine, "I know this is hard dalring...it's not easy for me to bury all 3 of my sons within 5 years."

"I can't imagine what your going thru Mrs. Keller. But I can say that I truly loved Vincent, and he meant the world to me."

Marie nodded as she wrapped her arm around Catherine, "Honey, I can assure you that he was madly in love with you." Marie kissed Catherine's cheek as she continued, "You are a part of my family and we will get thru this...together. Please, don't be a stranger. Come see me anytime you'd like."

"Thank you Mrs. Keller, for everything...It was war that brought us together, and war ripped us apart."

One of the soldiers began to play Amazing Grace on the trumpet as 5 others prepared to do the Five Gun Salute.

The first shot, Catherine jumped...

Second, she cried...

Third & Fourth, she fell to her knees and Zach & JT approached her, trying to comfort her...

and on the Fifth time, she screamed out Vincent's name...


~5 Years Later – Greenville, NC~

Catherine POV

Throughout the years I have learned so much about life. 1.) Don't take it for granted.

2.) Cherish every moment, including the little things.

3.) Live it to the fullest because you never know when the Reaper is coming to knock on your door.

I still struggle to go on sometimes after Vincent's death...its just so hard to have life seem so perfect and right then turn to complete hell the next minute. I know he always told me to expect the worse with him out there in the middle of war, but I didn't expect it so suddenly.

I have handled it better throughout the years though...

Zach has been in my life more and more over the years and hes here for me now. We started dating a year ago, but I am fully taking things slow with him. Am I in love with him? No...Could I be in the future? Maybe... but not like I was with Vincent.

Oh, and I opened my very own floral shop down in town. I completely backed away from anything war related after Vincent's death. This business helped me get out of a very dark place after he died and I actually love it here. Zach is the sherrif here in town and JT married Tess Vargas, another one of the nurses back in the day that I worked with, and they moved to New York City. Vincent's mother passed away 2 months ago from a heart attack while in her yard cutting roses, and before you knew we had to bury another Keller. Things were hard for me, but slowly they were getting better...slowly.

I was getting ready to close the shop up for the night because I had just got word from Zach that JT and Tess would be coming to North Carolina to visit and that we was to meet them at the Waffle House for coffee. Zach would be here to pick me up soon and I was actually excited to see JT more than Tess. He was like a brother to me and has always been there for me, even when he moved he was my life line to call when I needed him.

After I swept and mopped it was time to take out the garbage then wait for Zach. When I opened the dumpster and went to lift up the garbage can to pour out the trash, Vincent's necklace snapped off my neck and fell to the ground. I slammed down the trash can and sputtered out a cuss word. I bent down to pick up the necklace and stood back up to only drop it again as I covered my mouth while I gasped in shock to see Vincent standing in front of me.


**Hey guys...i know this chapter was pretty boring and stuff, but I had to get the backstory (which is always going to be in italics) so you could understand the story line better . You as my fanfic fans will be the ones who decide if I continue or not lol. If I do continue, what do you think will happen? Post your answers in the review box. Love you all and thank you so much for your love and supprot with all of my stories! XOXO!**