Deleted Scene

Sins of the Fathers

"Do you think that little boy will say anything?" Vincent asks Catherine, worried that the young Ellingsworth will expose him.

"If he does, do you think anyone will believe him? I was a grown woman and they didn't believe me 12 years ago."

Vincent thinks back to that day, when he first laid eyes on Catherine Chandler. She was afraid, but not of him and she was traumatized after just watching her Mother gunned down, but she had looked at him, like a person, even back then. He had wasted 10 years watching her from a distance. He was grateful every day that she had come back into his life, he wouldn't let anything take her away from him.

The jeep pulled up behind the gentleman's club, just as JT and Heather were coming out. Both looked stunned and when Heather saw Catherine, she looked like she was trying not to cry.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Catherine asked Heather.

Heather just looked up at JT who was staring at Vincent.

Vincent reached out with his beast senses and could not sense Liam nearby, but could smell blood.

"Where is my Dad?" Catherine asked as she pushed by JT to enter the back door.

Vincent hated when Catherine called Bob her "Dad". He knew he shouldn't, after all Bob was one of her last living family members, and the last family member that knew anything about Murfield or what had been done to him. But the man had nearly destroyed Vincent and even though he had found his way back to Catherine, he was not the same Vincent that he had been when Bob kidnapped him. But the one thing that hadn't changed and that would never change, was being there for Catherine. So Vincent buried his feelings about Bob and kept pace with Catherine as she entered the bar.

"Oh my God…Dad…..Dad" Catherine came around the corner taking in all the destruction and seeing Bob's lifeless body slumped up against the wall. She ran to him, afraid to touch him. She kneeled there in front of him, tears trailing down her face. Then Catherine surprised Vincent by crying, actually breaking down and really crying for him.

Vincent paused….shocked at how angry he was, but he once again buried those feelings and went to Catherine and placing his body right behind hers, placed his arms around her. She immediately turned into him and gripped him tight as she let go and let the tears fall. Vincent sat there on the floor and held her close rocking her back and forth.

After a few minutes, JT and Heather came back in, they both stood there unsure of how to help and what to say or do. JT began once again to pick up the broken pieces of his home. Heather helped him.

Heather offered to take Catherine home, Vincent didn't want to leave her, but JT needed to talk to him.

"I will be right behind you, this won't take long." Vincent said kissing Catherine on the forehead.

She placed her hand on the side of his face. "I am ok, Vincent, take your time and help JT. I will be waiting for you at home."

Vincent watched Catherine leave the room, he stared at the doorway for a minute after she had already gone through it. Turning back to JT he said.

"I am so sorry for all this buddy, we have got to find a new place to…." Vincent wasn't sure what to call what it was that they kept doing here.

JT waived Vincent off. "Please it's totally no big deal, I am used to it." JT stops picking up for a moment. "Vincent are you OK?"

"Whatta you mean? Of course I am ok."

JT knows Vincent better than just about anyone and knows better. "What do I mean? I mean you just watched Bob torture Liam like he tortured you, which had to bring back some horrific memories and then to top it off, you comfort Cat when Bob is killed by Liam, which is what you wanted to do last year until Cat shot you to keep you from killing Bob, so mission accomplished if you know what I mean. This must bring up some pretty heavy feelings. I get that you are pushing those down for Cat's sake, but come on, it's just us here man."

Vincent sat down heavily on the couch and put his head in his hands. He sat there for a few minutes. "No I am not OK, JT…..not by a long shot."

"Talk to me Vincent." JT sat down next to his friend.

Vincent sat up, tilted his head back and exhaled. "Watching Bob work on Liam brought some bad stuff up for me man….I really haven't dealt with all of it, you know? Everything is always so crazy around us and at first I just wanted to immerse myself in being back with Cat, I didn't want to think about what happened to me. Bob was locked up and that is where I kept everything related to him, locked up, but now…."

"Now you have to be there for Catherine, and because he sacrificed himself to save the Ellingworth's at her request, she is going to feel guilty…and he was the only parent she had left…..and even a bad parent can be better than no parent. Can I give you some advice big guy? Go talk to Catherine, you need to tell her what you went through at Bob's hands, she needs to understand exactly what he did to you. You both are going to have to find a way to put Bob to rest, only then can you move forward."

"Your right, as usual…..thanks for the pep talk, JT" Vincent hugged JT and left to find Catherine.

Tess opened the door before Vincent could put his key in the lock.

"Hey, how is she?" Vincent asked.

Tess smiled at Vincent, as always his every thought was for Catherine.

"She is ok, Vincent, she is actually worried about you….go on in, I am going to head to JT's and help with the cleanup."

He got a hug from Tess and told her that he and Catherine would be over in the morning to help with the cleanup.

Vincent set his keys on the entry table and hung up his coat by the door. Walking into the main room, he could see Catherine on the couch, a fire was burning in the fireplace and she was staring into the flames, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings. He should have known better, she could always sense when he was near.

"Hey", she whispered as he came into the room. She gestured with her palm on the seat beside her. "Are you OK?'

"Me? Sure, I'm fine."

"Vincent you're not fine…..fine is what I say when I am not fine."

He smiled. "I remember." He sat down next to her. He opened his arms and she came to him. They both sat there for a minute…quietly.

At the same time they both started talking.

"I am sorry…." Cat said at the same time Vincent asked "How are you feel…"

Vincent tightened his arms around Catherine, "You go first."

Catherine took a deep breathe. "I am sorry I fell apart back there, it hit me out of nowhere. I didn't expect to feel bad for him, but I do. I feel guilty for asking you to break him out and help with Liam. I feel guilty for making you watch, I can only imagine what that was like for you Vincent and I am so sorry."

"Hey, no guilt ok, It was my idea to get your Father out to erase Liam's memory. I am sorry that he is gone, that you might not get all the answers you need to all the questions you haven't thought to ask yet. Catherine, I hate Bob for what he did to me, and by extension, what that did to you. But we are together and we need to make peace with Bob and let him rest. He did horrible things, but I think he did them for what he thought were good reasons."

"I think that too, I need to forgive him for what he did to you….to us. He tried in the end to make amends, he seemed to realize and accept that we loved each other and that you wouldn't hurt me. But Vincent I need to know what happened to you. Seeing Bob with Liam today made me realize that we have not talked about what happened to you."

Vincent let go of Catherine and stood up, he ran his hands through his hair and started pacing.

"JT gave me some advice a little bit ago and told me to tell you what happened to me. I just….I just didn't want to scare you, I didn't want you to look at me like I was broken or damaged." Vincent looks down at Catherine.

Catherine stands up and goes to him. Placing her hands on either side of his face.

"Vincent I love you and no matter what I would never think that you are broken or damaged. I know how hard you fought last year to come back to me, even when I gave you every reason not to. But I have to know what he did to you, maybe it will help me understand how you could forget about me, help me understand what happened to you last year."

With those words, Vincent suddenly understood that while Catherine loved him and accepted him, she was still hurt by the one simple fact that he had not remembered her.

He sat down pulling her down with him. "What do you want to know?"

"What Bob did to Liam…." She couldn't call him Dad not when talking about him torturing Vincent….. "Is that what he did to you?"

Vincent inhaled deeply. "Yes and No. You saw how quick it worked with Liam, at least in terms of the Ellingsworth's. It took longer for me. For the first few days, I was kept in complete isolation and darkness. I would throw myself against the door and walls trying to get out of that room. I was so desperate to get back to you. I was out of my mind with how worried you must have been."

"The only time I wasn't fighting was when they drugged me. After a few days Bob starting talking to me, through the intercom of course. No one would come into that cell when I was awake. I don't even remember what he was saying, now, but it was just the sound of his voice going on and on. After a few days, I woke up after being drugged, strapped to a chair. I was awake, but drugged enough so that I couldn't beast out. Then it became more like you saw with Liam. Bob would inject me, I would seize, and sometimes vomit and he would talk to me. He told me I was a soldier, highly trained and special, that my country needed me. That I was the only one who could save people. Over and over again he repeated the process."

Vincent got up and paced again, he couldn't sit still. His beast wanted out to protect him, from the memories.

"I would think about you, during the small windows of time I had, between the torture and being drugged asleep. My mind was so muddled that sometimes I thought you were with me, I could feel you next to me. I could hear your voice. I would lay there on that floor, my body hurting, my stomach raw and I would feel better because you were there. I must have talked out loud to you, because at some point Bob started including you in his speeches. Besides telling me what a super soldier I was, he started describing you as someone who would prevent me from saving people. He painted you as the enemy. You were sent to distract me and prevent me from doing my job."

Vincent stopped pacing and sat back down. "It's funny he never used your name, he just described you physically and described the feelings you invoked in me. I wonder if he was afraid, I would hurt you if I came across you or if your name would undo my programming?"

"When you found me in that warehouse, after letting Zhao capture me, I still don't know what would have happened if JT and Gabe hadn't shot me. I was running for you, would I have stopped myself? Or would I have killed you? Just like Bob had said, there you were getting in the way, stopping me from doing my job. What scares me still to this day….Is I don't know….."

Catherine was speechless. Tears gathered in her eyes, and her throat ached. Every muscle in her body tensed up as Vincent spoke. She had been so focused on her pain last year that she had never given a thought to his. To what he went through. He had been hurt by every member of her family. How did they move past this? How could he look at her and not see her Mother and her Father?

"I know" Catherine put her palm on Vincent's chest right over his heart. "I know you would not have hurt me." At Vincent's skeptical look she continued. "That night you let Zhao go and saved me. You put me before the mission. I know Vincent…I know."

*To Be Continued….