Chapter 10

Catherine made her way to Vincent's Music Chamber, and like she knew he would be, Little Vincent sat on floor, his back against the wall. The chamber was bare, not like the one she was used to, that Vincent had filled with rugs, pillows and blankets, most likely just for her comfort.

"Hey, what's up, Buddy?" Catherine asked, coming to sit by him. From here, she could hear music playing, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. So like Vincent.

"Sorry I ran off," Little Vincent said sheepishly. "I guess when I saw him, I panicked."

"I understand," she said, putting an arm around him. "This is all a little scary isn't it?"

Little Vincent shrugged one shoulder. "Not, scary really, just..."

"Freaky?"

"Freaky," he agreed. "That and..."

"And what? Tell me."

Little Vincent looked up at her, his big, blue eyes sad and shiny with unshed tears. "When I saw him, I realized, somehow you've got to figure out how to get home, and then you'll leave."

Catherine squeezed his shoulders tight. She had worried already about getting too attached to him, knowing she would have to leave soon, but she hadn't even thought about him missing her. She should have thought of that, now what? "I know, I know," she said. "I'm really gonna miss you too."

"But you'll still have him, and your new baby."

"And you'll still have Father! And Mary, and Devin, and Pascal, and..."

"Okay, okay!" he said, holding up a hand to her mouth. "I get it already! But I'll still miss you!"

Catherine made to bite his hand, which he pulled away, making a shrieking noise, that with his already breaking voice, came out in a quack, making them both dissolve into laughter. "Just remember," she said. "You'll see me again, someday!"

"Remember," he said, tilting his head to one side. "Will I remember you once you're gone? Will you remember me?"

"Well of course I'll..." she paused. "Actually, I don't know, I don't even know how any of this happened, I don't even know if..." Catherine's breath caught. "if I can get home!"

"Well, if you can't, you can always stay here!" Lil' Vincent exclaimed, with that kind of innocence you can only find in a child.

Catherine squeezed his shoulders again. The music came to an end, and the audience cheered, as another piece picked up. Catherine leaned her head on the wall, and closed her eyes to better listen to the music.

Little Vincent looked up at her. "How did you know how to come here? The only person who knows about this place is Father, and that's only because he thinks he needs to know where I am every waking second. Not even Devin knows."

"Because I take her here."

Catherine and Lil' Vincent looked up to see the grown Vincent standing at the entrance to the Music Chamber. Cathy stood at his side, craning her neck into the chamber and staring up at the grate overhead, enthralled. "Wow, where are we?" she asked, voice full of awe.

Lil' Vincent fixed his eyes on her, and found he couldn't take them off. Never had he seen such a pretty girl, not even Lisa was as pretty, although he could never tell her that! "We're under the concert stage," he said, surprised he could even speak. "In Central Park."

"Really?" Cathy said, looking at him for the first time. "My parents have taken me to concerts here for as long as I can remember! And I never knew this was here!"

"My first reaction exactly," Catherine said with a chuckle, smiling up at Vincent.

Cathy smiled shyly at Catherine and hopped over her legs to sit on the other side of Lil' Vincent. "Hi!" she said brightly.

Lil' Vincent couldn't think of anything to say, never, never had he met someone for the first time, and they not display any signs of shock, or fear, or even acknowledgment of his differences. This girl greeted him like he was any other boy. "Hi," he said, his voice breaking into a squeak. Catherine giggled, covering her mouth, but somehow Lil' Vincent knew she wasn't teasing him, and he laughed with her.

Vincent came and sat silently next to Catherine, putting an arm around her. "Now who does she remind me of?" he whispered in her ear.

Catherine giggled, matching the girl beside her. "I don't know," she said sarcastically.

The children looked at the adults. Lil' Vincent smiled at his older counterpart. "Hi," he said uncertainly.

"Hi," Vincent said. "You know, I ran into Devin on the way here, and boy, was he surprised. The first thing he said once the shock wore off was, "Dang, you got TALL!""

Lil' Vincent laughed. "When will that happen?"

"Soon enough, believe me, and when it does, no one will ever tease you again!"

"Ever?!"

Vincent sighed. "Well, perhaps Devin still will."

Catherine laughed. "Puh-lease, Devin still calls you Sir Meows-a-lot!"

"Sir Meows-a-lot?" Cathy squealed, and Catherine regretted she had said it when Lil' Vincent lowered his eyes.

"Hey," Vincent said. "Try not to let names like that bother you, they don't bother me anymore! Catherine has showed me at it's okay that I'm different."

"Yeah," Catherine said putting a hand on Vincent's chest. "I actually prefer the way he looks. I wouldn't change him for the world!"

"Really?" Lil' Vincent said.

"Sir Meows-a-lot isn't that bad of a name," Cathy said. "I've been called worse, try Rich Brat!" The adult Catherine had to groan at that. "Besides," Cathy flashed the very beginnings of a flirtatious smile. "You look like a knight in shining armor to me!"

Vincent couldn't resist elbowing Catherine gently in the ribs, as she shot him a sheepish grin. Lil' Vincent ducked his head, covering his face with his long golden hair, but no one missed the shy smile play across his face.

Vincent sighed. He was enjoying this time with these children, and hated to see in come to an end, but it was getting late. "Cathy, it's is getting dark out, your father is very worried about you, we need to get you home." Cathy frowned.

"He's right," Catherine said. "I'm sure daddy's worried sick. Why did you run away, anyway?"

"Shouldn't you know?" Cathy said glumly.

"No, I don't, I don't remember ever running away."

Cathy slumped her shoulders against the wall. "Ever since mommy died, daddy doesn't smile anymore, and he doesn't talk much either. We moved out of the house and into an apartment, we got all new furniture, not the ones my mommy liked so much. It's like he's trying to forget her. But I don't wanna forget! I want to remember Mommy always! I want the paintings she loved on the walls, I want to play Go-Fish like she liked to do," Cathy curled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, ducking her head down between them. "I want to wear the dress she made me!"

"Oh sweetie," Catherine said softly, making to stand up to sit beside her, but Lil' Vincent caught on and immediately jumped up to sit on Cathy's other side. Catherine scooted over to put an arm around the little girl. "I know it's hard, I remember when Dad was like that, and it hurt. But you know what? I promise it doesn't last long, this is just his way of grieving. He'll realize soon, that he doesn't really want to forget either, but sometimes it's just too hard to keep certain things in the house that remind a person so much of the one they've lost. Do you want me to tell you what I did?" Cathy raised her tear-streaked face and nodded. "I talked to Dad about it, it was hard for him, and for me, but it was something we needed to do. After that, he hung some of Mom's favorite paintings in my room, and we started playing Go-Fish once a week."

Cathy smiled. "Maybe I should do that."

Catherine smiled back. "Believe me, it works."

Cathy dried her tears, quickly switching from sad to rather perky, as Catherine knew had been a quirk she had unfortunately grown out of. "So how come, if you remember all that, you don't remember running away?"

Catherine shrugged. "I don't know, I don't remember him either." she nodded in Lil' Vincent's direction.

Cathy turned to Lil' Vincent, who had taken her hand a minute ago while she was crying, she glanced at it, and he quickly snatched it away. She only grinned and snatched it back, thumping their joined hands against the ground in a silly way, making him grin back, showing his sparkling, razor-sharp teeth.

Catherine and Vincent exchanged a fond glance. "Cathy..." Vincent said.

Cathy swung her head around, eyes wide. "Just a few more minutes? Please, please, please, please, pleeeease?"

"Yeah!" Lil' Vincent said. "Please?"

"A few," Vincent said, trying to make his voice sound stern, not succeeding.

"Push-over!" Catherine teased. Vincent shrugged.

"Catherine!" Lil' Vincent exclaimed, making both Catherine and Cathy turn. "Did you tell him the news yet? Did you?!"

Catherine laughed, charmed by his enthusiasm. "Not yet, I haven't really had the chance!"

Vincent looked at her, slightly concerned, mostly infected by Lil' Vincent's excitement. "What news? Tell me."

Catherine bit her lower lip. "Well, I was going to tell you in private, I'm not sure how you're going to take this."

Now Vincent was concerned. "What?"

"Come on, tell him!" Vincent pleaded.

"Yeah! I wanna know!" Cathy yelled too loudly, causing them all to shush her. Luckily the music was still playing.

Catherine turned slightly so she was facing him, and took his hands in her own. "Vincent, darling, while I was here, Peter wanted to examine me a bit, he told me he just wanted to be sure that, however this happened, it didn't cause me harm, but I think he just wanted to be sure I'm human," Cathy and Lil' Vincent giggled, Catherine turned around to playfully hush them, and turned back to Vincent. "He took a blood sample, and came back with some...interesting news."

"What?" Vincent asked anxiously, nearly rising from the ground in anticipation and worry, at times like this he was usually pacing. He fought the urge to do that now.

Catherine placed a palm on his downy cheek. "Vincent, we're going to have a baby."

For several, very long minutes, Vincent didn't speak, he simply sat there, frozen. Lil' Vincent and Cathy got up and came around to crouch down in front of them, to be able to watch better.

"Vincent?" Catherine said nervously.

"A baby?" Vincent whispered. "You and I are going to be...parents?"

Catherine nodded and tried to smile, but her expression was pained and tears threatened to spill. "I know we didn't plan this...but..."

"Are you...happy...about it?" Vincent asked, his voice still low and raspy.

Catherine nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak anymore, he was crushing her.

"Aren't you?" Lil' Vincent asked. "I am, and so is Catherine, you should have seen the way she jumped all around when Peter told her!"

Vincent looked at the two children crouched in front of him, both eyeing him with concern. He worried about many things when it came to the subject of children; uppermost, he worried that the child would look like him. Vincent's eyes traveled to his younger self. What did he see? Was what he saw ugly? No, not ugly at all, in fact, if Vincent could say so himself, the child was beautiful. Would having a child like this boy be so bad? Vincent then looked at little Cathy, the girl who had so easily stolen his heart, and wrapped him so tightly around that little finger. He imagined perhaps having a daughter, even if she looked like him, she would have part of Catherine in her too, and would maybe be like her. He realized then, how much he truly wanted a child, how much more since he met Cathy, and suddenly, the chamber wasn't big enough to contain his joy.

Vincent looked at Catherine with the biggest, goofiest smile she had ever seen, and with a whoop of excitement that was so unlike him, he jumped to his feet, pulling her with him. Catherine was too surprised at first to react, but as Vincent wrapped her in his arms, laughing loudly, and lifted her off her feet, spinning her all around, she gave in to a fit of laughter and pure, unadulterated joy.

Lil' Vincent and Cathy cheered and jumped up and down, hugging one another, then broke out into fits of giggles as Vincent captured Catherine's mouth in a passionate kiss.

"Oh, Catherine, I am so happy!" Vincent said.

"I was worried for a second!" Catherine said, eyes still moist with tears, but now they were tears of joy.

"I'm sorry," Vincent said. "I was just so surprised, but I can't believe it! We're going to have a child! This is wonderful!"

"I can't agree more!" Catherine said.

The children were still jumping and squealing, and Catherine and Vincent had to stop them when they heard the music above their heads stop, and people begin to leave.

Lil' Vincent wrapped his arms around Catherine's waist, and she broke from Vincent to wrap her arms around him, hugging tightly and leaning her head on top of his. Vincent hoisted Cathy, who was still unable to cease giggling, up into his arms and planted a kiss in her hair, which she turned to return to his cheek.

"We should go," Vincent said.

"Yeah, I don't want my daddy to worry anymore," Cathy said. "And I miss him, too."

As they turned to leave, Lil' Vincent caught sight of something small and shiny in the corner. "Hey, what's that?" he asked, releasing Catherine's hand and running to pick up the object.

"Let me see!" Cathy exclaimed, wiggling to make Vincent put her down. She darted over to Lil' Vincent. "Wow, what is it? Is it a camera?"

"Probably someone dropped it down here," Vincent said. "I hope they haven't lost any important pictures, perhaps we should have someone turn it in to a lost and found."

"Wait a second," Catherine said, taking the small, silver camera and turning it around in her hands. "This looks like my camera!"

"Yours?" Vincent asked. "How can you be sure?"

Catherine looked up at him, face full of confusion. "Vincent, they didn't make cameras like this in 1967!"

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "But how..."

"Take a picture!" Cathy squealed, throwing an arm around Lil' Vincent. "Take one of us!" Lil' Vincent looked at her uncertainly, but followed her example and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as well.

Catherine shrugged and aimed the camera. Vincent put and hand on it. "Catherine, you can't..."

"Come on, Vincent," Catherine said, shaking off his hand. "One picture won't hurt, I learned how to develop film in collage, I could always buy the stuff and do it myself, no one will ever see it!"

"Very well," Vincent said, removing his hand.

Catherine smiled. "You really are going to be an indulgent father, aren't you?"

Vincent smiled back. "Yes, but don't worry, I will still always indulge you too!"

"We're waiting!" Cathy exclaimed impatiently. "Smile Vincent!"

When big Vincent grinned wide and goofy at them, both kids broke out into an uproar, Lil' Vincent nearly tipping over, pulling Cathy with him, as their arms were still looped around each other's shoulders.

Catherine raised the camera to her face. "Say Cheese!"

The dark room was suddenly bathed in blinding white light, as the echoes of "Cheese!" bounced off the walls.