Author's Note: Another chapter for my lovely readers! I know you want more Catherine and Vincent but that will come soon! This story won't be ending for a loooooooooooong time because there is a lot to write about. I am predicting that this story might be forty to fifty chapters long, which will include a great ending and a reason why Vincent and Catherine deserve to be together.

Meanwhile, enjoy this chapter! :D

"Please... he...lp... me..." a mysterious voice groaned, "So...mmmmme... thiiii...ng iiiissss... chan...g...ing... in...ssssside..."

Catherine noticed that the man was slowly moving his head upwards in order to have his eyes meet the other pair that was staring right at him. It looked like he was trying really hard to get her attention.

The tactic worked as the woman noticed. Catherine moved back at once to a reasonable distance as she was able to see the man's face for the first time. Once she locked her beautiful green eyes on his, her face changed to express one feeling; pure shock. She gasped at what she saw and carelessly dropped the phone that she held in her grasp. Those hands instinctively came up and over her mouth as she could say the only thing that popped into her mind once meeting those eyes.

"Vincent..."

The man heard the name escape from the beautiful woman kneeling in front of him. It seemed that Catherine uttering that name caused the man to remember something from his past, perhaps a memory of him and her together. As he was groaning and gasping for air, he whispered a long-forgotten name on his lips.

"Catherine..."

The scene quickly changed as Catherine saw that his appearance changed with gnarly claws coming out from his distorted, discolored fingers that had patches of what seemed to be fine hair in various places. His face also displayed the same type of discoloration as it was also altered a bit; disfigured with non-natural colors, various enlarged blood veins spreading across, and skin abnormalities starting to form. The creature's eyelids fluttered open to reveal his piercing yellow eyes, signaling that he was no longer a man but a beast with no pity for humanity.

"Vincent, it's ok! I am here, your Catherine. You seemed to remember me," Catherine's voice echoed with a calm and soothe rationale as she approached the transforming figure. She tried to put a hand on his broad shoulders to soothe him and see if he could transform. In truth, the result was the complete opposite.

Before she knew it, this newly transformed Vincent started to attack her. The man-beast didn't make any eye contact as his claws swipe across the woman's abdomen hard. She noticed that pain from the attack was immediate as the stingy feeling of bare flesh being exposed to the crisp night air started to overtake her consciousness. She looked down to see that he had left a series of deep cuts that began to bleed out a dark liquid. However, the brunette didn't have much time to assess the injuries as the creature continued his blitz, now striking her face with the same set of fierce claws, causing the same effects. Suffering from the shock and onset of severe pain, Catherine took notice at what was the beast's intentions of trying to thrust his claws into her chest to create deep puncture wounds at the last minute. The injured woman haphazardly placed her arms around her chest and twisted her body in hopes that the most vital region of her body would be spared from the attack. However, she noticed it didn't completely defend her from the attack as the beast was able thrust his paws into the upper left side of her belly, just mere inches from her lungs, creating a burning sensation throughout that region.

Catherine fell down as her fresh wounds caused the agonizing pain to throbbed throughout her body. Her breathing became shallow as she was losing lots of blood and conscious. She saw that her beloved Vincent was moving closer to the injured woman as he licked his augmented incisors.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, VINCENT!"

Catherine screamed as she abruptly sat up in her hospital bed. It was only a dream!, she concluded as she panted wildly after experiencing the surreal nightmare. It took her a couple moments to calm down since the dream was deeply vivid, almost like she actually experienced the events. Once she was assuaged, she noticed that she was in an unusual place. She looked around to see that the room was bare with a few pieces of furniture and white walls with one or two pictures. The brunette also noticed there was a lot of machinery behind her, constantly beeping to indicate her heartbeat.

Wait a minute! How did she end up in a hospital?

In the midst of her deep thoughts, the woman didn't notice that a group of people hastily rushed into the room. The group, which was composed of Tess, Heather, and J.T., stopped by the side of her bed.

"Cat, you are awake! How are you?" Tess asked in the hopes that everything was alright.

The woman in the bed turned her eyes towards her friend, responding lightly, "I think I am ok. I feel lightheaded and weak at the same time like I lost a lot of energy or something." She took a minute or two to survey her body by lifting the covers slightly up. The dark brown haired woman noticed that her entire abdomen was bandaged up tightly. Thank god that it was the only region she could see that was covered in bandages. However, why only that region? Her face started to pale at the "what happened" scenarios that were running through her head.

"Thank god you are finally awake," her sister meekly cheered as the chirper young woman carefully gave her bigger sister the most awkward hug you could give to a seriously injured patient, "The doctors were unsure when you would be able to wake up after all the injures you obtained and the surgeries you had to go through."

Catherine's eyes shot up at the mention of "surgeries" as her face started to turn grim. "What do you mean "surgeries"?," the injured woman sternly questioned her sister, "Did I get shot by a bullet?"

"No, you didn't, Cat." Tess spoke up quickly and quietly, "It was much worse. We don't know a lot of details as the person who reported the accident left before the paramedics could reach you. However, you were pretty badly injured as the doctors said that you had near fatal puncture wounds near your lungs. Also, there were some pretty deep lacerations running across your abdomen region. The doctor said that you were lucky that someone noticed your condition right away. If the medics came to the scene couple of minutes later than they did, you probably would be dead."

She closed her eyes to try to the remember the events of last night. Once closed, memories started to flash throughout the thin layers of her inner eye lids. Different memories flashed by.

A seemly tall man with earth-colored clothing crotched down to the ground, holding himself tightly as if he was in immense pain.

Bending down to see if the man was ok.

Looking at his face and noticing the familiarity in his eyes.

Vincent.

Cold sweat began to run down along the edge of Catherine's face. The first person to notice that something was disturbing the woman, who was scared by these haunting memories, was the one person who hadn't said anything yet; J.T. The plump science professor sported a worrisome look as he asked, "Cat, are you ok? Are you recalling the events of last night? Can you tell us about them?"

She didn't have a chance to answer J.T.'s questions as the group was interrupted by a captivating voice from the doorway. "Cat, I am sorry that I am late. I had to send some officers to the crime scene of where your attack happened to see if they could get any evidence. On top of that, I had to file a bunch of paperwork and talk to various members of the department about your case," the good-looking ADA informed her as he came closer to the other side of her bed, carrying a bouquet of gorgeous red roses in his right hand. He continued on, "I came as soon as I was freed from my obligations. How are you doing? How long have you been up?" He reached up and took a hold of the only other hand that wasn't occupied.

Catherine stared at his hand on hers with a puzzled expression. Scratch that, she was speechless at the sudden amount of tender care and worrying that the injured lady was receiving from a former enemy.

I guess he is trying to show he has become a changed man. But, why is he overly affectionate? Did he really need forgiveness that badly?

Someone cleared their throat that broke Cat from her thoughts. "I am sorry to disturb this touching scene," a tall man with short chocolate-colored hair spoke as he stood by the doorway, "I see that you are awake Ms. Chandler. My name is Dr. Jonathan Brown and I am the doctor who has been assigned to assist you in your recovery. I was wondering if I could examine and talk to you alone for a short while." Dr. Brown turned to face the group with a glare to give them the notice that his request was very serious.

Her perky little sister was the first person in the group to respond to the request, "Right, right. I leave you to be with the doctor. I will be outside if you need anything. Just call, but be careful with the limited strength you have, and I will be there, I mean here." Heather reconfirmed her promise and her devotion to her bigger sister by placing a light kiss on the top of Cat's head. Although her statement was a tad annoying, the rest of the group agreed with it. Tess placed a kiss on her best friend's face right after Heather as J.T. just gave a light pat on her left shoulder.

The group began to file out of the room sans Gabe. Catherine noticed the suave law official was trying to find a spot to place the red roses in between all the gifts and well wishes she received from loved ones and co-workers. One of the gifts that stuck out was an enormous yet beautiful bouquet that had pink peonies, powerful proteas, red and yellow yarrows, and bold black eye susans. It was an odd mixture yet magnificent. Sensing that Catherine was in love with the wild arrangement, the black haired ADA dumped the roses into the same vase as the others. At least maybe she could fall in love with his roses and maybe with him...

...However, that was a dream that may never come true. At that thought, Gabe snapped back to reality and turned to face the beautiful woman laying in the bed, placing both his hands on top of her tiny ones. He began to speak, wishing that his words would reassure her.

"Catherine, I will always have your back. Abilities or no abilities, I will always protect you if you willing to let me in. I care deeply for you ever since that day you rescue me. Will you let me protect you?"

Gabe asked in hushed tones so the doctor checking her vital signals on the nearby computers and monitors wouldn't hear anything he was saying. The woman just nodded slightly, confused at what he was asking and what he really wanted. She only mouthed one word to him: "Sure".

That one word, even if it was tiny, made Gabe's heart skip a beat. The ends of his mouth were raised upwards into a bright smile. He was happy and thankful that hopefully, she was going to let him into his heart.

The doctor noticed the hundred watt smile on the guy's face as he was leaving and turned to Catherine to tease her a bit. "He must be your boyfriend. I haven't seen so much love and devotion from one guy before. You must be a lucky girl." He laughed a little as he started to check the bandages on her face and abdomen. Catherine just rolled her eyes and sighed, "Har har, very funny. I would be his girlfriend if the world was ending. He is only my boss at work, nothing too special."

"You never know," the doctor continued the amusing conversation while finishing up his observations, "One of the doctors that works on the floor below us is now married to a wonderful nurse. They first hated each other, dreading every minute they spent working together. But, somehow, something clicked that made them want each other. It's kind of weird. Love makes you do funny things.

But enough of the romantic storytelling at New York General, how are you feeling? Do you feel any pain or abnormalities? Can you move a bit?"

Catherine started to move her body little by little, first by trying to sit up with the support of her upper arms and back. She hissed as her abandon started to hurt once she started to move her body upwards. However, she ignored it as she successfully sat up and moved her arms and legs. She continued to experiment on her current body strength and condition.

"I feel fine, I think. I am a bit stiff, weak, and in pain, especially in the abdomen region. However, I believe that it will be gone as soon as I get out of this bed and return to work. How soon will that be?" Catherine secretly hoped that she could return to work as soon as tomorrow. The brunette had a mission to find out about that blonde-haired creature she ran into yesterday. That thing might know where Vincent is!

The doctor recorded the final bits of his observation into her medical charts before responding. "I don't know how to really to tell you this, so I am going to try to tell you the truth," he announced, scratching the back of his head to relieve the anxiety that was building up, "I think it's best if you stayed here in in-patient for a week or so. The injuries you obtained were very serious, requiring you to be in the operating room for over two hours."

The long-haired beauty was shocked at the doctor's assessment. "Wait, wait, wait. Can I ask what happened to me? Everything about last night is still a blur to me."

The doctor nodded, taking a hand mirror from a nearby shelf and sitting down in one of the chairs that sparsely decorated the room. "You were involved in a near-fatal accident with something I can't really describe. When you came in by ambulance to the emergency operating room, you were covered in mass amounts of blood and scratches that were too enormous to be caused by an ordinary animal living in New York City," he explained while lifting the mirror up to show her scanty bandage-covered face and the abdominal region," The meds and the team of doctors who worked on your recovery also noticed that there were a series of deep punctures near your lungs. Whoever attacked you missed a critical part of your lungs region by a few inches. If you weren't found in the park by that good samaritan at the time he or she did, you might be dead now as the shock of losing so much blood and those wounds near your lungs made your systems began to shut down. You are very lucky."

Scratches?

Enormous?

An animal living in New York City?

These words screamed inside Catherine's head while the doctor told about her wounds and miracle rescue. Couldn't it be? No way! The beautiful brunette silently recalled the dream she had before waking up. A dream of her encountering a man who turned into a beast, attacking her on a sidewalk. Her face began to turn pale and her hands shook at the thought that Vincent, of anyone who could do such a thing, was the one who attacked her.