Beauty and the Beast

The Surprise

Written by: Edith L. Acker, and Steffennie

This is a combination work, between Steffennie (Walkingmiracle@aol.com) and
Edith (loislane2371@yahoo.com, or samanthacarter2371@kc.rr.com)

Disclaimer: We do not own Beauty and the Beast. They are the owners of the t.v. series. We are not making any money off of these stories, and wish not to infringe upon the creators. We are just doing this for fun.

Catherine is asleep, with Jacob on their bed when Vincent comes in. Vincent smiles at the sight before him. His son and wife are cuddled as close together as their unborn child will allow as she is now in her seventh month, and she is starting to really show. Vincent quietly grabs some clothes from the hutch and heads down to shower and when he comes back maybe they will be awake. He leaves and returns about 20 minutes later.

Catherine is reading to Jacob at his desk. She looks up, "Hi, sweetheart. How did it go today?"

"Fine."

Vincent leans down to kiss her and places his hand on her very swollen belly as he kisses the top of his son's head.

"I am glad all went well. I was thinking, with the baby coming we need a bigger place....I was...thinking maybe since you are known above, maybe we could find a place up above."

"Catherine, I'm not known by many Above because of the way that I look. It would still be dangerous for me to live Above." "Well, if you are still uncomfortable with it."

Vincent is glad that she drops it so quickly.

Later on that night Vincent is waiting in the bed for Catherine while she puts Jacob to bed. He picks up a book trying to block out the thoughts going through his mind. Maybe they should move above, since they would need more room after the baby was born.

Catherine lay's down next to him, snuggling up against him, "I like this. You are going to read to me tonight?"

"Actually, I think we should talk" Vincent said pulling her to him and setting the book down.

She kind of turns in his arms, and looks up, "About what?"

He places his hand on her huge belly and searches for the right words. "I think you were right earlier when you said that we will need a bigger place with this baby."

Catherine puts her hand on his, "Oh, what do you have in mind? So you are considering moving up above?"

"I think that we could move Above. It will still be dangerous, so we will have to be very cautious."

"Yes, we can be cautious, just trying to convince Father of this, is another problem."

"We'll worry about Father later."

"I am glad you are reconsidering this." "Catherine, this will mean that the windows stay closed in whatever room I am in and most likely so that we take no chances, they should stay closed."

"Yes, I understand."

"We can go on the balcony in the evening only and we have to be careful that we never open the door to people that we don't know if I'm anywhere in sight."

"I completely understand sweetheart. I love you."

"I love you, too. You should get some rest. I'll talk to Father tomorrow and we can have the children and everyone else help us start packing tomorrow. We could probably be moved Above by the beginning of next week. Is that soon enough?"

"I will rest. That sounds wonderful. Oh, yeah."

"It will give us time to settle in before the baby is born, right?

"Yes, we still have a month and a half."

Vincent helped Catherine scoot down, and under the blankets, and pulled her closer, to him. He put his hand on the baby and gently held her as they both drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Catherine wakes up still snuggling up against Vincent, sighing, against him, thinking he is the most wonderful man in the world.

He feels her move and hears her sigh. He opens his eyes and feels the baby move as he starts to move his hand.

"The Baby kicked."

He smiles as he remembers where they were when the baby moved for the 1st time. They were by the mirror pool watching the waterfall. They had had a picnic and Jacob was lying next to them asleep. Catherine had crawled into his lap and he had placed his hand on her barely visible belly and as they watched the waterfall, the baby moved. Catherine had gasped and he was amazed. He had never felt a baby move, so he couldn't believe it. It completely awed him and it made him realize that this was for real.

Catherine thinking of the way they are finally a family. Their wedding day, of how he looked, how they were finally together forever. Thinking of their kiss, she smiles, "You know Vincent, you are the most wonderful husband, and Father." Snuggling even closer to him, with her head buried in his chest.

Vincent is drawn back to reality from his memories when he hears her speaks. He looks down and smiles. He kisses her and says, "And you are the best mom and wife alive."

"What were you thinking about?"

"The day that I first felt the baby move. Do you remember it?"

"Yes, that was the most special moment to me. It felt good to feel the baby move."

"It was special to me because I was never there to feel Jacob move." Vincent looked very guilty and he wondered if he would ever be able to think of her pregnancy and the birth of their son, their first child, and not feel guilty.

Catherine was feeling his guilt. She got up on one elbow, and replied, "Honey, it wasn't your fault, please stop feeling guilty about my first pregnancy."

"I should have been there. I will never forgive myself for not being there when you needed me and for missing the birth of our son."

"But you weren't able to, I understand that. You should too." Vincent still feels ashamed, but can't talk about it anymore, because his son just leaped on the bed with them

Catherine sat up, taking Jacob into her hands. Jacob excitedly say's, "Mommy, Daddy. Gandpa want me to come get you for Breakfast."

Catherine replies, "Well, looks like we better get ready, and go to breakfast."

Vincent takes Jacob and tries to help Catherine get out of bed, which seems to get harder and harder the more the baby grows. Then he gets up and says, "You get dressed my love, and I'll take care of Jacob, and myself.''

Catherine finally gets up after a few tries, and replies, "I will get the hang of this. Okay." She gives Jacob, and Vincent both a kiss. "I love you both so much."

Vincent replies. "I love you too." He kisses her and rubs her belly and then picks up his son, and dresses him.

Catherine goes and picks out a beautiful flowery maternity dress, and puts it on. "I am ready."

Vincent sends Jacob to her to tie his shoes and finishes getting ready

Catherine ties his shoes. She looks up at her son, "You look handsome today."

Jacob smiled. "Thank you, Mommy."

Vincent comes out and says, "Everyone ready?"

Jacob comes up to Vincent. "Daddy carry me." Holding his hands up to Vincent.

Vincent picks him up, and helps Catherine stand up and they head for the Library. On the way there, he looks at her and says, "I think I'm going to talk to Father about our moving while we eat. What do you think?"

"I hope he takes it well."

"Me too. Maybe Mary can help us out, too."

"Good idea and I am sure she'll be there."

"Oh, yeah. I was thinking we should find a place that would have some kind of entrance to the tunnels."

"Why don't we move back into your old apartment, it's been staying empty as our get away house, so why not live there?"

"That's only a one bedroom apartment. That does sound good though."

"Catherine, what if we change the office into a bedroom, for the kids, and we can keep the baby with us until it outgrows the bassinet, and there will be a crib in Jacob's room for it then."

"Oh, that sounds good."

"Great, now that we settled that, we can have a good breakfast and then tell Father, were going above." Catherine a little nervous on telling Father says, "Yeah. I am a little bit nervous on telling Father, you know how overprotective he is."

"I know I can feel it. Don't be, you can just sit there, and hold our children, and I will tell him."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

They enter the library, and Jacob is squirming around like crazy so Vincent puts him down, and he runs to Father.

Catherine smiling," That is a site."

Father picks up Jacob. "Hello, sweetie. How is my little grandson?"

Jacob replies. "Fine, Gampa."

Vincent smiles, and pulls a chair out for Catherine, to sit in.

"So you guy's will probably need a bigger chamber, with the baby coming." Inquires Father.

Vincent looks at Catherine, as she sits down and turns back to Father, "Actually, I wanted to speak with you about that Father."

"Go ahead. What do you have in mind?"

Vincent feels Catherine trying to give him strength through the bond. "We are thinking that maybe we could move into Catherine's old apartment, and stay there."

Father gets up out of his chair. "You know how I feel about you going up above, now you want to move up there? I don't think so. You know what would happen to you, your children, and even to Catherine, if you were seen up there?"

Catherine slowly gets up, and replies, "Father, we will be careful. We have talked about this, and we have made plans. We are doing this." She looks up at Vincent.

Vincent goes on, "Father, we can do this, if we take a few simple precautions.

Father still a little skeptical, "What kind of precautions?"

"I'm sure that Catherine will agree to move back down here if there is any indication of danger, for any of us."

"Of course." Catherine replies.

Vincent continues, "We'll keep the curtains closed. I will never answer the phone. I will hide every time there is a knock on the door, at least until Catherine told me it was safe."

Father still upset by this. "What if you slip up, what will happen then?"

Vincent replies, "We won't slip up. We will be careful because we know that our lives depend on that caution."

Catherine is getting upset at Fathers accusations, and attitude, and replies roughly, "Father I have wanted to say this for many years now, and it is about time you listened."

Father starts to interrupt but Catherine interrupts him, "Father don't even start to say anything till I am finished. You have been way over protective of Vincent; it almost cost us getting together. If it wasn't for our love, we wouldn't be together today. You need to lay off. You need to let Vincent, and I live our lives." Catherine sits down, while Father is in shock. Vincent senses that she is getting upset, and he doesn't like that because of how far along her pregnancy is, so he sends her the message to calm down, through the bond. "Father, Catherine is right. I would never have found her and Jacob if I hadn't disobeyed you and went on a hunt to find them."

Father then replies, "I guess I have been over protective." Looking at Vincent," But that is cause I love you, Vincent. I don't want anything to happen to you."

Catherine answers, "Yeah, you love him, and I do too. But you over loved him. You need to break the apron strings. Need to let Vincent, and I live our own lives, with our children."

Vincent goes over to where Father is, and hugs him, and says, "Father, I love you, and would never hurt you. But I need to move on with my life, and Catherine and I think that this is the best thing that we can do for our family now. Do you understand?"

Father looks at his son, then at Catherine and Jacob, "I guess I knew this day had to come sometime or another. Okay, I guess I have no choice. Will I be able to come up and visit you?"

"Of course." Vincent reassures him.

Catherine wanting to get up, to hug him, but cant, replies, "Yes, you will always be welcome, to visit us. Just because we are moving up there, doesn't mean, you can't come to see your family."

Vincent assures him, "We would never keep your grandchildren from you."

Father then asks, "Okay, when will you be moving?" . Catherine answers, "Well, we would like to move in as soon as possible."

Vincent adds, ''We want to start packing today, and then we can move on Saturday."

"Okay we can have the tunnel dwellers help you move your stuff up there", replied Father.

"We will need help, since Catherine can't do a lot with her pregnancy, being so far along. Great." Father looks at Catherine with concern in his eyes, "Catherine you are only a month and a half from having this baby. I really don't think you ought to do anything."

"I will let her supervise, and she can move light things", replies Vincent, holding Catherine hands.

Father answered, "Okay, but be very careful."

Catherine gave him a hug, "I will be very careful. I don't want anything to happen to this little bundle of joy." She puts her hand on her stomach.

"Okay, so I guess we can get you started", answered Father.

Vincent goes to her, and helps her get up and then he picks Jacob, up and they head back to their chambers. He turns to Father, at the top of the stairs, and says, "We're going to get started and anyone else that comes we'll put to work." They leave.

A/N: So what did you think of that surprise? Good or bad? Was it what you were thinking it was? In the next chapter there is another surprise, but it's not as good as this chapter's. Just be prepared for the drama to start. Please read and review!!!!!!!!!!!!!