**I DO NOT OWN THE SHOW OR ITS CHARACTERS, ONLY BORROWING THEM**

**WOW! I am so glad that yal loved the last chapter. And trust me, you did NOT cry alone... I had tears in my eyes near the end of writing the chapter... I have come up with several ways that I could take this story and I think by the end, you all will see what the moral of this story is all about. A lot of you already know lol. Thank you all again for your undying support!**

Chapter 11 – Scorned

Come morning, Catherine stretched to an empty bed. She jumped up and saw a folded note sitting near the window. As she threw the covers off of her, she slipped on her robe and as she tied it shut, she sat on the frame of the window as she read,

You are so beautiful when your sleeping... Gone to get breakfast with Tyler and Sophia...Be back in 5!

- Vincent

She smiled as she fanned the note in her hand and prepared to shower for the new day. As she laid her towels down onto the sink, she suddenly felt light headed so she grabbed the sink to keep herself from falling. Once she gained her balance back, she shook her head and proceeded to turn on the water so that she could take her a bath instead. Once the water was adjusted, she stood to look at her reflection, as she always did.

Suddenly, she fell to the floor, cringing in pain from her stomach. She crawled her way back into the bedroom until she made it to the nightstand and she grabbed her medicine and phone. She struggled to stand from being so weak but finally made it to her feet.

Oh how she knew that this had everything to do with the cancer and in her mind she pleaded with God to give her more time with her family.

Finally, she grabbed a glass and got water from the sink to take her medication and then she slid down the door to the floor crying in fear that her family would possibly find her dead.

But Dr. Forbes said that it had stopped spreading... How could this be happening so suddenly?

Maybe it is just a spell she was going through and possibly she wasn't going to die after-all.

All that she knew was that she was in pain and a large amount of it...

Vincent, Tyler and Sophia left the diner with a couple of bags of food. He had a bad feeling that something was wrong so he tried to rush to get back home.

Once on the road, he started dialing Catherine's number... but only got the voice mail.

He hit the redial button to try to call again... again he received the voice mail. He started speeding up a little because he began worrying... He continued to try to reach her by phone and each time he received the voice mail, it made him that much more terrified of what he would be walking into once he returned home.

Catherine could hear her phone ringing but had lost all strength to get it from the sink. In all honesty she had already started to feel better but she couldn't shake the dizziness that clung to her. She knew that if she didn't move away from the door, Vincent wouldn't be able to get in to her, even if there was hope for her to live.

She grabbed the sink, using it as leverage to pull herself up. It took every bit of energy she had inside of her and she was trying to sit on the toilet until Vincent got there... Instead, she fell into the garden tub, hitting her head and she passed out inside of the water.

Vincent knew something was deadly wrong... It took everything in him to not speed faster. He had to think of the kids' safety too, not just Catherine's at home.

As he pulled into the driveway, he turned towrds the kids and said, "Stay here. I'll be right back, okay? Now don't move out of this vehicle..." and he jumped out of the SUV and ran for dear life.

The door burst open, "Catherine?"

She wasn't in the living room so he checked in the kitchen and den, "Catherine? Are you here?"

No answer again... he ran up the stairs quickly then checked all of the rooms, their bedroom lastly, "CATHERINE! Where are you?"

Finally he opened the door to the bathroom and saw his wife inside of the water. He jumped into the bathtub and lifted her limp yet blue body out of the water. He carried her to the bed and laid her down as he proceeded mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

He pulled out his phone and dialed 911 as he put it on speaker and tossed the phone beside them. He continued doing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth as he heard the voice from the phone say," 911 What is your emergency?"

"My wife..." he cried hysterically as he continued to try to save her, "I found her in the tub and she was turning blue... Please you gotta send some one... PLEASE! You gotta save her...Catherine wake up!"

"Sir, Please we are doing everything we can. An ambulance is on the way... Can you tell me where you are in the house now?"

"The bedroom... Catherine please! I'm sorry...I'M SORRY!" he shouted as he continued to do chest compressions.

Suddenly she jumped up gasping for air as she clenched her chest and throat, "Vincent?" she said with a cracked voice from dehydration and he pulled her into his arms and kissed her head as he rocked her, "I thought that I had lost you." he said, tears spilling from his eyes as he kissed her head again.

She clung to him and thanked God that it was all just a scare... She honestly thought that she was dead.

"Mommy?!" Tyler said screaming and crying. He knew something was wrong when he saw the ambulance pull up outside and Sophia was right behind him.

He ran into his mothers arms and cried, "Mommy are you sick?"

"Yes baby, mommy was sick and needed a doctor and daddy called one for me is all. I will be fine darling so dry them tears, alright?" she said as she rocked Tyler in her arms. She looked up at Vincent and lipped, "Please don't tell him about the cancer." and she kissed Tyler on the head.

Hours had passed and Catherine stood in her hospital room, gazing out of the window.

"You should be laying down resting." Vincent said from behind her causing her to jump slightly.

She walked over to the bed and sat down, "Vincent, really... I'm fine. It was just a momentarily thing is all."

He sighed as he pulled her hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles, "I will believe that when Dr. Forbes gets here. But for now, you need to lay down and rest. You hit your head pretty hard."

She half-way smiled as she gazed at her husband. Was this all just a dream? It had seemed like it was only yesterday that he wanted a divorce and now hes taking care of her...

God she loves him...

She laid back into the bed and he kissed her forehead, "I love you."

"I love you too..." she said as he claimed her lips.

They stopped when they heard a throat clear and saw Dr. Forbes standing in the door frame.

"Good morning Catherine... and I assume that this is your husband?" the Dr. said as he opened up her file.

She nodded as Vincent webbed his fingers with hers, waiting for the doctor to just slam them both with bad news.

"Mrs. Keller..."

"Catherine, please." she corrected the doctor again.

"Sorry, Catherine... From the looks of the tests and the scans results, your cancer has spread to your kidneys. Now, it has just begun... so there is a possibility that since it had detached from the original source, it will die out on its own... the cancer I mean." the Dr. stated.

Catherine looked at Vincent, then back to the doctor, "So the medicine didn't help any?"

"I'm afraid not... But we are receiving some stronger medications tomorrow if you would like to try them?" Dr. Forbes said as he stared at the couple, waiting for an answer.

Catherine was tempted to try it but she was just so tired...too tired to continue this struggle... She knew that she had put up a great fight for quite a while now, but she has had enough... She was tired of consuming more poison to treat poison.

She looked at Vincent once more, gazing into his eyes for answers... she finally shut her eyes and sighed as she thought about Tyler. He needs his mother though, she thought and she said, "Of course. I'm willing to try anything if it gives my boys hope." she said as she rubbed Vincent's face lovingly. He kissed her palm then braided his fingers with hers again.

The Doctor wrote down in her file then looked back up as he closed it, "Alright then. I want to keep you here at least over night..."

"No... I can't stay... My sister is on her honey moon and I told her I would watch my niece..." Catherine stated.

Vincent sighed hard and looked at the doctor, "Can you give us a minute? Please?"

Dr. Forbes nodded in agreement and left. Once the door was closed, Vincent ran his hand through his hair, "You needn't to worry about the kids. I can take care of them by myself. Besides, you need some quiet time to just relax anyways."

"And where are the kids now?" she asked crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"I had mom come to the hospital and get them while I'm here with you..." it became quiet momentarily and Catherine sighed as Vincent continued, "Look, I know I don't deserve 'father-of-year award'... but I do know how to take care of a child. Even you know that to be true. Tyler and I get along great, and Sophia loves her some Uncle V... I promise honey, everything will be fine at home. What you need to do is worry about you and your health and come morning, I'll be back to take you home..." he kissed her forehead, then her lips.

Catherine couldn't believe how much he had changed so suddenly. She wasn't completely over how he had done her, but she loved him a little more each day.

"Alright... fine. Tell Tyler I love him and not to worry. His mommy will be fine." she said as she pulled Vincent down for another kiss.

Vincent stood and grabbed his coat off of the chair that sat next to the bed and he headed towards the door. He turned to face her, looking at her one more time before leaving, "I love you Catherine."

"I love you too Vincent."

They smiled at each other then Vincent left. Catherine sighed as she attempted to get comfortable there.

Come morning, Vincent made breakfast for the kids. The doorbell rang, "Just a minute!" he shouted as he sat plates of pancakes down in front of each child.

As he walked to the door, he sucked each finger to get the syrup off of them... then when he opened the door, Gabriella stood before him, "What in the hell are you doing here?" he asked as he looked behind him making sure that the kids didn't see anything before closing the door behind him as he stepped out.

"I came to see you lover." she said as she placed a kiss on his lips. He pulled back instantly, "You need to leave... Now!" he said harshly.

Gabriella crossed her arms, "Why? Why should I have to leave when it is her who should leave. I have been nothing but good to you! And this is how I get treated? How dare you!"

"Gabriella, I told you already but obviously you didn't quite get the picture... I am done with you and there is nothing more you can do or say about it. Now if you will excuse me, I have children to tend to." and he started walking away.

She grabbed his wrist pulling him back as she said, "You can't just do this to me... I don't deserve this!"

He jerked his wrist away from her, "Stop acting like I cheated on you! You mean nothing to me...NOTHING! Now go home, or I will have you removed from the property." and with that he walked back inside, shut and locked the door, and left a very highly scorned woman at his front door.

She started banging on the door crying and screaming, "Vincent... you animal! If you think that this will be our last encounter, your deadly mistaking! Nobody does Gabriella Cortez this way... NOBODY!" she banged on the door a few more times as she screamed in frustration. When she turned to leave, she noticed a few neighbors were outside staring at her. She started walking for her car when she saw that the nosey people were still staring, "What the HELL are you people looking at?!" she screamed at them.

Vincent looked out the window to make sure that she had left...and once she was gone he sighed and prepared to return to Catherine.

To Be Continued...

**I know i said War of Love would be updated first, but I'm suffering writers block with it as of right now lol. Just so everybody knows, there will be a huge fast forward sequence from this chapter to about 2-3 weeks later in the next chapter. It will also be a Christmas chapter as well ;) Okay, so what did yal think? Too boring? Sorry if it was my darlings! Love you all!**