Disclaimer: I don't claim or own any of the characters from Beauty and the Beast that I mentioned; they are all owned by the CW.

(Chapter 1)

Even if it was still daylighted out, Vincent knew he was taking a big chance on being here at the hospital. That he shouldn't be here, but he needed to check on Catherine. Her safety and well-being were more important than him getting exposed right now. He thought of how hard it was for him to transform back to himself after coming home last night. He missed Catherine's touch, the way she would caress his cheek while talking to him. If he weren't such a jackass and left her at her father's wedding; she wouldn't be here. She would be at her place or her work. Safe and alive. He never felt so helpless like he did last night, pulling her almost lifeless body out of that wrecked car and holding her close to him. It wasn't that long ago that they were dancing that close together. He had embraced her, feeling her small beautiful frame close to him, smelling her sweet jasmine scent, and hearing her heartbeat. He was tempted to kiss her and tell her how he felt about her. By that time, the dance was over, and she dragged his ass outside to avoid him being seen. He would have told her how he felt outdoors in the pavilion, but that didn't go as planned either. Thanks to her bringing up the conversation about his DNA changing and him taking a risk being there. Like he was taking being here.

As Vincent waited for the right time to visit her, he saw Catherine's sister Heather leave one of the rooms to head home. Then made his move, he was lucky enough to find a storage supply room unlocked with a lab coat and a surgeon's mask inside. So he could quickly put it on over top of his jacket and then the face cover to add to his doctor persona. He also promptly grabbed the charts from the nurses' station, then waited a couple of minutes before heading out towards Catherine's room. He made sure nobody saw him as he entered her hospital room. He heard her just getting off the phone with her partner Tess and step inside, drawing the curtains around them so no one could see them.

"Vincent." Catherine greeted him with a smile as she watched him enter the room and pull the mask from his face. She was happy to see him, but he needed to be careful with all the stuff going on. "What if someone sees you?"

"Playing doctor is kinda my thing." He smiled while approaching. "Besides, I, uh..." he hesitated, sitting down on the side of the hospital bed and continued. "I needed to see you." He had and he needed to after almost losing her. If only he had answered his damn phone, nothing would have happened to her.

"Thank you. My nurse told me about that procedure you did." Catherine smiled at him again."Yeah, uh, about that..." Vincent started to say, but she cut him off.

"The amazing roadside save." Catherine interrupted him with another smile.

"Catherine, uh..." Vincent tried again, she needed to know the truth. He wished it could have been him that performed the procedure and not the other guy.

"Vincent, I'm alive because of you."

"It wasn't me. It was, uh, it was Evan, actually. I, uh, I just ripped the car door off, I got you out, and I wanted to stay, uh, to help. But, I just..." Vincent paused as he stumbled over his words. For a second, he tried to gather his emotions from that horrible night. "I couldn't, you know, get back to... being me. And, uh, Evan pulled up, so I had to make a choice. He was your best option." He told her.

"You still saved my life." Catherine gave him a grateful look. "If you hadn't got me out of that car, Evan never would have gotten to me in time," Catherine explained.

"Well, if he hadn't shown up, though, then what?" Vincent pressed his lips together. He didn't want to think about that right now. "Sure, I can pull a car door off, but you needed a doctor and... I couldn't help you, you know." His voice was saddened, and he paused again."Vincent..."

"In that moment, all I could do was... watch you slip away." Vincent's voice was thick with emotion as he took her small hand in his and held it. He was trying to fight back the tears. "You know, I thought that I lost you." He continued as he started to run his thumb over the back of hers. He didn't know what he would have done if something had happened to her. He probably would have blamed himself for leaving her at her father's wedding.

"You didn't lose me. I'm right here." Catherine gave him a reassuring smile before looking down at their hands and squeezing his. She added. "And... I accept all of what you are. That's what I was coming to tell you. Even though your DNA is changing, that doesn't have to change things between us."

"You know you say that now, but just wait until I sprout whiskers and a tail." Vincent joked, trying to lighten the mood and make her feel better.

"Very funny."

"Uh..If... I didn't leave you at your father's wedding alone; nothing would have happened to you." Vincent's voice was sad with guilt as his head was down while talking to her and his eyes were moist. He continued to run his thumb across her knuckles. He enjoyed the physical contact, her soft, warm skin against his rough hands.

"Vincent..." Catherine wanted to tell him. "It's over now; stop blaming yourself. I'm alive, thanks to you." She grasped his hand again, and they looked at each other for a moment letting their gaze linger. Her phone beeped with an incoming text. It was Evan, letting her know he was on his way.

"Um..." Vincent was about to say, but when he glanced at the florescent light that hung over the top of her hospital bed. He had to squeeze his eyes shut for a second as his eyes started hurting for some reason, and his vision was turning a reddish color.

"It's Evan. He's on his way up." Catherine remarked sadly, she looked up from her phone. She wished Vincent could stay longer, but knowing the circumstances, he couldn't.

"You know if I could stay, I would," Vincent told her while sliding off the side of the hospital bed and stood. He leaned over the bed and kissed the top of her forehead before letting go of her hand.

"I know you would." Catherine smiled at him as he was about to leave.

"Uh..." Vincent turned to leave but remembered something. "You should probably know that Evan might have seen me on the road last night.""Okay. Bye."

Vincent said his goodbye before pulling up his surgeon's mask to cover half his face and left her room. As he walked alongside one of the hospital's wing sections towards the stairs heading down, he spotted Evan walking past with a bouquet in hand. He sighed silently, he knew Catherine didn't have any feelings for the guy, but Vincent couldn't shake this feeling he had. That Evan was trying to win her over for his 'own' selfish needs. Evan had to know that she wasn't interested in him, surely.


Even though at first, Vincent didn't want to be around her, mainly because of Muirfield hunting him. Now he was glad to have Catherine in his life; he'd grown to understand why she kept asking, because besides being a cop and she needed peace. Then there was her ability to help calm him when he wasn't himself. It drew him closer towards her like a magnet. Like she wasn't afraid of him when he wasn't himself. He was so relieved to know that Catherine was okay and alive. He needed to tell her how he felt about her the next time he saw her, or there might not be the next time. Vincent should have followed the advice that JT's gave him a few days, telling her how he felt about her, but he was afraid of all the blackout issues. He was so distracted thinking about Catherine that he pulled his mask down, relieving his face as he made his way down the hospital steps. He then heard a familiar voice calling his name. "Vincent! Vincent! Vincent Keller!"

Vincent then saw her, and he stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the stairs. What the hell is she doing here? He had to hide before she could figure out if it was 'really' him or not. Of all the people to show up here, it had to be her, his ex-fiancée, Alex Salter. He quickly made his way down the steps and quickly hid behind one of the pillars, breathing heavily. He closed his eyes, trying to calm his breathing. His heart was pounding against his rib cage like it was going to explode. He had to get his ass out of there before someone else saw him. He took a deep breath and pulled the mask back over his face before peeking around the pillar. He was relieved to notice Alex had disappeared.


"Cocky grin, a bit of a swagger, flowers... Someone's feeling good about themselves." Catherine commented, watching as Evan entered her hospital room carrying a bouquet smiling ridiculously at her.

"Just thinking about how much you owe me for saving your life."

"Didn't I just save your life? Wasn't that you a couple of weeks ago... psycho subway killer?" Catherine joked as she remembered that it was actually Vincent that saved him, but Evan didn't need to know that part.

"Yeah, the statute of limitations on that expired days ago," Evan replied.

"Did it? Thank you."

"I couldn't lose you," Evan told her. He still had the same feelings he did when he kissed her in the photo booth on her birthday.

"You know, if I could make six figures a year doing that, I would not be in a basement cutting open dead people." Catherine ridiculed him as she was trying to get her mind off the pain in her shoulder. Adding. "And, the way that you pulled me out of Heather's car..."

"Pulled you out?" Evan inquired, raising an eyebrow at her. It must be the medicine that has her thinking like that. And continued. "No, I just bravely slammed on the brakes, so I didn't flatten you."

"So, I was... already on the roadway when you found me?" Catherine then realized that it must have been difficult for Vincent to take her out of the wrecked car and placed her on the ground in his 'other' state. Not to be able to do anything to save her.

"Yeah, you must have crawled out before you lost consciousness." Evan assumed and then added. "You did lose a hell of a lot of blood."

"So, I guess I'm a living, breathing miracle." Catherine gave a half-smile.

"You are to me," Evan said seriously as he wanted to tell her about the creature he saw cradling her in its arms, but pushed it aside for now. He wasn't about to cloud her with another problem right now, she needed to recover first.

Catherine has seen the sincerity on his face, it was hard for him to watch his coworker half dying before his eyes. She knew Evan had feelings for her, but the feeling for him wasn't mutual. As she was about to reply, the nurse that had come by earlier reappeared and she seemed nervous as she entered the room.

"Could I...?" The nurse started to interrupt.

"Yeah, of course, um, do your thing." Evan politely excused himself as he didn't want to interfere with nurse duties. "Uh, I'll check back with you later." He said while heading out of the room.


"Okay. Uh, it's not something wrong with my X-ray, is it?" Catherine asked with concern in her voice. She watched as the nurse kept flexing her fingers, curling and uncurling them. She had never seen a nurse so broken apart about a patient before. Unless it was something serious.

"Oh, no. No, no. Everything's... everything's fine with you." Alex's voice sounded nervous as she began pacing. "Um, weird question: The doctor that came here earlier, do you know him?""I don't know which doctor you're talking about."

"He's tall, um, he was wearing a lab coat, had a scar on his face." Alex tried to explain as she ran her finger down the right side of her face to indicate the scar. "Another nurse saw him walk out of your room."

"Uh, yeah, a doctor did come in here to check my chart. I didn't recognize him though." Catherine lied. She didn't like where this was going, how could Vincent be so careless to get himself caught. "Why?"

Alex sighed. "Still cool to over-share?"

"Always," Catherine said, feeling a little hesitant in knowing the answer."I know this is going to...sound crazy, but..." Alex babbled on as she took a seat on the empty hospital bed next to hers before continuing. "the doctor I saw is supposed to be dead. It was Vincent Keller."

"Oh." Catherine paused trying to figure out what to say. "Maybe it was someone that resembled him." So the only believable excuse she could come up with was. "You know what they say, everyone has a twin in the world."

"You know, you're right. You're right. He's been dead over nine years." Alex agreed as she stood up from the bed. "He...he would have come back to me if it was him, right?"

"Of course." Catherine forced a smile while watching the nurse leave the room. She then reached for her phone and texted Vincent about not coming back.

Catherine briefly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. What the hell was he thinking about getting himself caught? Letting someone see, especially someone who knows him, and she can tell by how Alex reacted to seeing him. She must have been significant to him, someone close, memorable, and that worried her.


"Hey," JT greeted Vincent as he was coming back from visiting Catherine at the hospital. "So how's Cat doing?"

"She is fine. Uh...I just wished I could have uh...done something better, you know." Vincent replied, pulling the hood down from his jacket.

"Come on V don't beat yourself up for that."

"I should have been the one saving her, not Evan," Vincent complained, clenching his jaw tightly as he took off his jacket.

"You did what you could, considering the circumstances," JT told him as he went back to flip through some of the notes he wrote down.

"Yeah." Vincent let out a sigh.

"Hey, I've been thinking, maybe you're mutating DNA could be another evolutionary step," JT remarked as he stood up and continued to look through the notes; adding. "Like, a-a new 'manimal' ability breaking through. Anything physical changing?"

"I don't know, man, I guess. My eyes have been playing up on me." Vincent replied, taking off his jacket and placing it on one of the chairs. He didn't 'care about that right now. He had other problems surfacing, like an ex-fiancée showing up and at the same hospital where Catherine was and seeing him.

"Probably just allergies, but who knows," JT suggested as he continued to go through the research papers that he had on the subject. "We can't really predict how you'll evolve. Maybe you'll change genders like a clownfish." he taunted and turned to Vincent who wasn't amused by it. "Come on, that was a joke."

"Yeah..." Vincent scoffed as he gave a lopsided grin. He tried to figure out how to tell him who he saw at the hospital.

"What?"

"I saw Alex today," Vincent revealed. He wasn't sure how to tell him that she'd also seen him without freaking out JT.

"Alex Salter?" JT's eyes widened and his jaw dropped open in shock. It was a long ass time since either one of them saw Vincent's old fiancee.

"Yeah, I didn't talk to her, I just, I ran, you know." Vincent's voice was weakened as he pressed his lips tight. "Like I did ten years ago."

"You have to stop beating yourself up for that too, man," JT emphasized as he came up to him and placed his hand on his shoulder for support.

"You know, I never got to say goodbye and...I never even reached out when I got back." Vincent stammered, shoving his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. He felt a bit ashamed of how he'd ended things with Alex.

"And you had a damn good reason. Muirfield was hunting you. They still are. If they found you anywhere near her, they'd-" JT began, but Vincent got the idea.

"No, you're right, you're right. I never wanted her involved in any of this." Vincent admitted as he nodded his head in agreement and then hesitated.

"There's more, isn't there?" JT question when he saw the concerned look on his face.

"Mm-hmm."

"What?"

"She uh...She might have seen me." Vincent stammered.

"What? What do you mean she might have seen you?" JT questioned him again as he raised an eyebrow at him. He didn't like the sound of where this conversation was going.

"Well, while I was heading down the steps of the hospital, I pulled the surgeon's mask down...and that's when Alex saw me," Vincent explained to JT.

"Vincent, I thought you were going to be careful."

"I was, but..." Vincent hesitated to try to find an easier way to say it."But What? What happened dude?"

"She uh...called my name out," Vincent answered, regretfully. How can he be so careless?"What?! Seriously, dude what the hell?" JT complained, throwing his hands up in the air and asked. "What were you thinking?"

"I don't know man...I didn't think she was going to be there, okay." Vincent shared, running his hand through his hair in frustration.

"That's not the point V. Muirfield could have seen you and then what?" JT pointed out as he grabbed one of the books he was researching that he took from his office.

"I know, I screwed up man," Vincent admitted shamelessly.

"Look, dude, I wasn't thrilled when you broke the rules with Cat seeing you the first time, but Alex..."

"I know man, but I didn't mean it to happen." Vincent tried to explain. "How was I supposed to know she was going to be at the same hospital where Catherine was?"

"Even so you could have waited until you left the building to take the mask off."

"Yeah," Vincent replied and thought for a moment. He'll have to face her now and tell her the reason he never reached out to her. "I...I'll just tell her what I should have told her years ago."

"Yeah, and what's that?"

"That she needs to move on and forget about me," Vincent answered as he thought about the conversation that he and Catherine had early.

JT scoffed. "Yeah, good luck with that. You know how Alex is, it's not going to be that easy with her."

"Yeah, I know." Vincent sighed again. He remembered how hard it was for her when he enlisted. She wasn't very enthusiastic about him leaving. "All I can do is try, you know."

JT already could see this not ending well especially when it involves Alex. "Well, since you're busy trying to get yourself exposed..."

"JT," Vincent warned him.

"Look, I'll be visiting Sarah, since she is an earth sciences professor, with emphasis on evolution," JT told him as he shoved one of the books into his bag. "I thought I might hit her up with some veiled mutation questions."

"Okay," Vincent mumbled in a low voice. He joked trying to change the subject. "Hey, just remember to, uh, make sure I'm not turning into a female clownfish, okay?"

"Or are you? With the way you've been acting lately." JT snickered while heading for the door."Funny," Vincent called after him as JT left the warehouse to attend his classes. He needed to figure out his next move. He needed to check up on Catherine again, but first, he needed to see Alex and tell her what he should have told her years ago.

Just then his phone in his back pocket started to vibrate and buzz indicating there was a text message. He pulled out his phone and flipped it open. It was from Catherine telling him not to come back to the hospital and that it wasn't safe. He let out a breath, grabbed his sweat jacket with the hood, and headed out the door. Hopefully, Evan didn't make a move on her. Or questioned her about him. He needed to see her still, even if it meant for him getting exposed. It's a risk he's willing to take.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: My take on season 1 episode 'Seeing Red' there were some scenes I had issues with. So I've changed it around a little and added a few scenes myself.