Our past, Our present, Our future.

Disclaimer: I don't own, you don't own em yada yada yada yada ya.

(No seriously I don't anything..)

Summary: A flashback in time.. to when Gil and Catherine first met,

and the events that led them to where they are today.

It's be done before..but I'm doing it again! (heheh)

Chapter 10

"I can't believe you just moved to Vegas? Just like that?" Gil asked closing the yearbook.

Catherine pulled away from his embrace " Yeah, I did." she whispered " You left, and my mom was on my case all the time, my sister was moving out. She was going to leave me there with my mom and loser boyfriends. I had no one. With Eddie I had a way out."

"Did you ever consider going home or not going at all? I mean you're first thought?"

Catherine raised an eyebrow " You mean of Vegas?" she paused " Well considering all the things I had been through that past year, coming to Vegas was a really big thing. I thought that if I got away from everything, I would be able to forget you and I could concentrate on Eddie and our future. At first it was great but it didn't take Eddie long to screw everything up."

FLASHBACK

Catherine unlocked the door to their one bedroom apartment and disgustedly looked around her. It was the third time this week that she had come home from working a double shift at the diner to find Eddie passed out on the floor.

"Eddie?" she bent down and tried to wake him " Eddie!" she shrieked " Get up!"

Eddie moaned and rolled over " Cathy? Sweetie what time is it?"

Catherine stood up and glared down at him " Sweetie?" she replied sarcastically " Eddie I have been working so much overtime and everyday I've come home to find that you have done nothing all day!"

Eddie sat up " Baby I was calling around all day trying to find another studio."

Catherine scoffed " Eddie right now you don't need another studio, you just need a job.I'm nineteen years old Eddie I'm not going to keep supporting you and paying all the bills because you can't keep a job. And your too lazy to find one."

Eddie tried standing but fell back to the ground " I don't need this shit right now!" he snapped " I've been trying and you don't know what it's like. People just give in to you, you can get whatever you want!"

Catherine frowned "What are you even talking about.?" she replied as she began picking up the empty beer bottles. " I don't get treated any different then anyone else at the diner, I had to go through the same hiring process that anybody else had to go through so don't give me that crap."

"Yeah right" he mumbled " I see the way you're boss looks at you."

"Whatever Eddie just get up and do something!" She replied angrily as she headed toward the bedroom.

Once inside she slammed the door behind her and plopped down on the bed. As she sat there in the dimly it room she wondered how things had gotten so bad, so fast.

She looked around and anger welled inside her. It had been almost a year since she had left her home and since Gil had left her, it had been nine months since Eddie lost his job at the music studio. A short lived success. And eight months since she was forced to work double, sometimes even triple the shifts that she normally would have worked just so they would be able to live in this one bedroom hell hole.

Catherine fell back on the bed as a tear rolled down her cheek. All she wanted to do was go back home. But she wouldn't be able to deal with her mother. Not without Gil.

END OF FLASHBACK

"It was hard, Eddie lost his job just a fast as he had gotten it and before I knew it I was the only one making any money. I hated my job at the diner, my boss was a pervert but I couldn't live on the street and I couldn't go home. So what else did I have. Eddie was no help" she paused " At all. I was working twelve hour days in that dump and I would come home and he would be passed out , the apartment would be a mess, and I had no energy left in me but I cleaned up and by the time I got any sleep it was time to wake up for work. It was so hard, but I did what I had to do. "

"I'm sorry it was that hard, I never realized Eddie had lost his job that soon."

"Yeah well" she replied " It was a long time before he got another decent one. little things came and went he was so stubborn and he wouldn't just take any job it had to be in the music business. I worked in the diner for two years. We lived in the crap house for two years. I hated it. Then one night, he comes home and tells me he has found a job. Little did I know it wasn't a job for him."

FLASHBACK

Catherine pulled the plug from the bath tub and headed toward the bedroom. It had been almost three weeks since she had, had a day off from work and she was making the best of it. Eddie had taken off after yet another argument but this time she wasn't going to let it get to her. She worked to hard the past few weeks to let him get to her.

As she slipped into her night shirt she rested back on the bed and closed her eyes. It was only a minute later that she sat up and walked over the her dresser. After digging through the bottom drawer she found what she was looking for . " State Universities." she whispered flipping through the book. She quickly came to the page for universities in Las Vegas and read though the courses that were offered. Her next step was to call the admissions office so she could get forms to apply. Catherine had decided she was going to go to school.

Eddie came home around midnight , he stumbled toward the bedroom knocking down anything remotely near his path.

"CATHERINE!" he screamed thrusting open the bedroom door " WAKE UP!" he fell next to her.

"Eddie?" she rubbed her eyes " Eddie I'm sleeping what do you want?"

Eddie pulled her up " Come on" he smiled kissing her hard "I have some good news."

Catherine pulled away and looked at her clock " Eddie it's three in the morning and I have to get up for work and six. Can't it wait?"

Eddie pulled her once more " Catherine it's important. And you're not at the diner anymore, I went to have a chat with you're boss I told him you quit."

Catherine sighed and climbed off the bed " What?" she snapped she was wide awake now " You're...impossible I needed that job what are we going to do now?"

"Relax baby" he smiled " I found a job."

" Sometime I wond..." Catherine stopped in mid sentence " You found a job?"

Eddie nodded " Yeah come one our ride is waiting."

Catherine threw on her jeans and a tank top and grabbed her jacket

" Where are we going?" she asked as they climbed in to the cab

Eddie didn't reply and the whole ride was silent.

A half an hour later the two pulled up to a neon lit building " French Palace?" she read off the sign as they climbed out of the car. " What is this place?"

Eddie smiled and grabbed her arm " Come on, let's meet your new boss."

Once inside Catherine knew exactly what this place was. She looked around as the rowdy men in the crowd hooted and hollered at the naked dancing women on stage.

"Eddie what the hell are we doing here?" she yelled so he could hear over the noise as he pulled her toward a back room.

"Eddie " she ripped out of his grip " Talk to me! what's going on?"

Eddie stopped and grabbed her again " Not now damn it!" he scolded her "Just shut up and listen."

Catherine sighed and followed him in to a back office.

"Eddie!" the bouncer greeted him " Back so soon?" " The large man opened the door and let Eddie and Catherine inside the office

"Willows!" the man spun around in his chair "I see you came through on your promise let's see what you brought."

Eddie motioned toward Catherine who was still a little confused.

"Hi" he man smiled " I'm frank.." he reached out his hand " What's your name sweetheart?"

Catherine glared at Eddie and then back at the man. " I'm Catherine." she replied coldly but didn't take his hand

"Okay" Frank sat back down " Well I see Eddie didn't lie you're quite the catch. What are you measurements?"

Catherine raised her eyebrow " Excuse me?"

"You know your measurements, chest waist..your measurements"

Catherine shook her head " You must be confused sir, I don't what's going on here."

"Oh" Frank sat back in his chair " Eddie here never told you?"

She turned to Eddie " told me what?"

"You got a job here..but I had to see you first and I am pleased, I know my guys will just love you."

"You're guys?" she mimicked him

"My customers" he smiled " you're young and hot and they like that.I say you're what 21?"

Catherine shook her head " Yeah. " she turned to Eddie " Can I talk to you in private?"

Frank nodded " Don't leave, I have to go out and see what's happening anyway, you two stay here and chat."

Eddie was taking a seat as Frank left the room.

"What the hell were you thinking? " she whispered her tone telling him she was pissed " Why would tell him that I would work here? This is a strip club if you hadn't noticed."

Eddie stretched his arms and rested them on the back of his head " I know, and it's great money and a great opportunity. While I am getting back on my feet with the music you can make more then enough money and we won't have any worries and you won't have your boss ogle you all day."

Catherine scoffed " Yeah because I'd rather have hundreds of drunken men ogle me instead of one guy who would occasionally make a comment. Great idea Eddie you really prove that you care about me."

Eddie sat up " I thought I was helping us!"

"How! she snapped " By being my pimp?"

"I'm not pimping you out Cath, your gonna dance."

"Right." she sat down " And when he wants more then that from me. Are you going to be there to back me up?"

Eddie nodded " I told him already strictly dancing nothing more. no extras."

"Eddie I don't think I want to do this. I don't want to take my clothes off in front of drunk and horny men, it's not me."

Eddie sighed " I thought I was helping us here! It's clear to me that you don't want us to get ahead. I screwed up Cath and now I am trying to fix it. Think of the money we can save and then we can get our home and get married and have a family. I love you and I am only doing this for that reason."

Catherine nodded " I know. I love you too.. I just." she paused thinking of how much going to University would cost her. " Okay." she replied dropping her head " I'll do it."

Eddie smiled and hugged her and called Frank back into the office.

"Frank" he excitedly approached the man " Cath, wants to start asap."

Frank nodded "Okay Eddie, If you'll just give us a few minutes."

Eddie nodded and left the room

Frank smiled " My dear you are going to be a great addition to my club. We'll set you up for a trial run. how is Monday night?"

Catherine nodded " Okay" she replied "Monday but I must tell with all due respect sir that if I work here it can't be every night. I'm looking to go back to school. I haven't gotten a schedule or anything it was just something I decided to do so you would have to work around it" she paused " Or I can't work here."

Frank nodded " I like that, You know what you want and you're not afraid to get it. That's fine. We can work around it."

Catherine smiled and left the office. Eddie was waiting for her near the entrance with his arm around another women.

"Eddie!" Catherine approached him a little enraged that he would have his arm around another women with her steps away.

Eddie turned around and so did the women beside him. " Cathy?"

Catherine looked at the women "Steph?" she whispered as tears came to her " Om my..what are you doing here?"

Stephanie hugged her " I work here. Oh, I missed you so much Cath. I'm sorry I left the way that I did, I was so confused my parents split up and I just lost it. I never meant to blame you for anything. I just hope we can still be friends"

Catherine nodded and hugged her tight "You'll always be one of best friends" she replied

END OF FLASH BACK

Gil smiled " It's nice that you didn't have to feel alone anymore. That you had you're best friend back."

Catherine nodded " It was nice, and she was one of my best friends, but you and I were even closer then Steph and I were."

"Well I'm glad her.." he paused and changed the subject "So I assume when you applied for school you got in right away?"

Catherine nodded " Yeah they were pretty impressed with my transcripts. Eddie however wasn't, he freaked out told me I was selfish" she paused taking Gil's hand in hers " I really didn't want the job at first. But then I realized if I wanted to go to school and be a somebody then that job was my ticket. . I had to focus hard on the good stuff. When Eddie found out I was going back to school he lost it everything was falling apart. The money was disappearing and Eddie was drinking alot more then usual. We would fight all the time and I got to he point where I wanted to give up on all of it."

FLASHBACK

Catherine had been working at the French Palace for over three month now and was counting down the days to when she would start her courses. Today in particular was her day off and she was coming home from the orientation where she had to pick up forms and her text books for her courses.

She came home and rested her things on the kitchen table and headed to the fridge to start dinner when she heard his booming voice behind her.

"Where the hell have you been?"

Catherine spun around " Jeez Eddie you scared the crap out of me calm down!"

Eddie glared at her " I asked you a question!"

Catherine nodded " And I heard you .. I was at orientation."

"What the hell is that? Orientation for what?"

Catherine pointed to her books " I told you three weeks ago I wanted to go back to school, you knew it was coming."

Eddie shook his head " NO! I told you that you were not wasting the money on that crap!"

Catherine slammed down the potato peeler in her hand " I can spend MY money on whatever I want" she snapped back " I'm the only one here who makes any and if I want to spend it on school then I will."

Eddie charged at her in one blink and grabbed her shoulders " You want to disrespect me some more? Like I don't have a say in the matter!"

Catherine wriggled out of his grip " You don't! I'm doing this for me, it has nothing to do with you!" She then went to the table to grab her books, when he grabbed her hair and pulled her back.

When Catherine hit the ground he could see the instant look of fright in her eyes. " You won't talk to me like that!" he demanded " You will not disrespect me!"

He pulled her to her feet in one yank. " I went to the bank today to get some money. They told me I wasn't authorized on the account."

Catherine tried to pull away " There's two accounts I gave you money, I gave you half of the pay cheque if you spent it then that's it! The other half paid for bills and .."

"And where is the rest" he screamed in her face

"I needed it for a deposit. University cost money you know!"

Eddie shook his head and slapped her " No..you wont do this to me you wont waste our money on that. Do you understand me?" he yelled as he began to shake her " Your a selfish little bitch." he sneered hitting her again letting her drop to the floor once more. He then grabbed her purse " Why do you make me did this? Why do you get me upset?"

"Eddie" she sat up to be greeted by a searing pain in her shoulder " Eddie that's grocery money, we need to eat!"

"Shut up" he fired back " you could stand to lose a few pounds anyway!" he took the last hundred dollar bill from her purse "I have to get out of here, you get me so upset when you act this way!" he blamed her " You better learn your place real quick!" he grabbed her key and left the apartment.

Catherine rested back on the floor to afraid to move. She wasn't sure how long he had been gone for but she was still paralyzed with fear when he came back.

Eddie sat next to her and helped her up " I'm so sorry baby." he whispered " But I worry about you. I just want to protect you and I am so stressed. This wont happen again I promise." He hugged her and kissed her forehead as she cried in to his chest " I love you...I love you"

tbc