Hi Folks! Thank you for the review and the following on this BATB story. I started writing this thinking it was going to be all fluff and no plot but it has now turned into something else. Something I hope will be worthy of what these characters are capable. I find developing Vincent and Catherine's children a bit challenging. I hope you like the effort so far. Please R&R if so moved. Love -Carebearmaxi.
A Wonderful Real Dream
Chapter 2 – Getting in Touch
As Vincent, Jr., had promised, he was able to contact his twin sibling, Caroline. She was living Above in the dorms and sometimes accessed their mother's apartment which was a subway trek from the college. V.J. was able to get a message to her by way of their eldest brother, Jacob, who said he would track her down by her schedule. She had deliberately not taken any literature classes but as requirement Caroline took required and general English electives which did not encompass literature. Of all their children, Caroline was the last person to read any type of poetry, prose, or other type literature thinking that no real knowledge came from books like that.
V.J. had left a message with Jacob for their sister to meet him at the drainage tunnel inside right after her last class which was around 3:00 pm. He knew she would come because Caroline always took care of him and was always there if he needed her. She had told him when they were little that she would always come if he contacted her. She took her responsibility has the older twin very seriously. If her father had contacted her, she would have come as well. However, if their mother had contacted her, she would put it off and never send word why she was not coming to meet her. V.J. thought it had to do with Above.
Caroline breezed in wearing her expensive torn jeans and blue short pea coat carrying her backpack of books. Her long blonde hair was down and thrown behind her as she walked.
"Caroline!" V.J. greeted in his deep voice sounding almost like his revered father. She stepped into his arms giving him a hug.
Caroline hugged her brother back and said, "I know what this is about, but I can't come to the party. I don't care what mom said. I have something more important to take care of."
"Mom is going to come up and find you. You do know that, don't you?"
"I have something that I have to do. What time is the party again?"
V.J. hung his head. He had no idea how she retained anything. How she was going to be a lawyer with all that she had to remember was beyond him. V.J. knew himself to be a scholar but it did not mean that he had a memory like their father.
"It's at 7 pm sharp. Everybody else is coming."
"Of course, they're coming! This is Vincent and Catherine! I think the Tunnels would collapse without their presence!" Caroline exclaimed sarcastically. She was so sick of being part of that extension of the Wells family. She suddenly remembered that when she was about five she had petitioned to live with Uncle Devin and his family.
"You don't mean that. Think of dad. He will really miss you," V.J. said playing on her heartstrings since he knew that Caroline loved Vincent very, very much.
Caroline stood in front of her brother who was now as tall as their father and shifted position from one foot to the other. She took a quick spin around the vestibule and then smacking her lips she came to a halt back in front of V.J.
"All right. I will be there, but I don't guarantee that I will be at 7. I suppose Mary-Margaret needs help preparing this party since I knew she was the one that instigated it?"
"Yes, she does. She would love to see you. So would your nieces and nephew," V.J. agreed.
"We'll see. I'll be there as soon as I can," Caroline agreed. She then kissed her brother and left through the tunnel that led through to Central Park.
Caroline went straight back to school. She could not wait until she could leave the Tunnels permanently but that would not be until she actually graduated from law school and became an associate in some law firm. It's not that Caroline was ashamed of where and how she grew up but it was the secrecy issue she could not take. Although ingrained from childhood, she totally understood the necessary secrecy; however, it just annoyed her.
She just wanted the same chance to fly without having the heavy burden of keeping part of her family under cover. In other words, Caroline wanted to forget her family.
The only problem was that Caroline did love her family. She loved her brothers, her sister, and especially her father. If her father knew of her desire to forget about where she came from it would break his heart, and her mother took a very staunch position on anyone ever hurting Vincent. She was almost over protective to a point. Catherine did tell her that it was just a remnant from their past but still a very real issue among the Tunnel Family and Helpers.
Caroline understood. She just did not like it very much; hence, her refusal to go to the party tonight. She may make an appearance, but she was not staying long. Sometimes to Caroline, when she was enveloped into her family's bosom, she felt suffocated almost claustrophobic and not able to breathe again until she emerged Above.
Meanwhile, Catherine decided to give her husband his anniversary gift early. She had a serious one and a funny one. Vincent always had a good sense of humor, so she thought the funny one would be right up his alley.
"Vincent!"
"Yes, Catherine," he said as he emerged from the small adjoining bathing chamber.
"I have what I want you to wear tonight for our party," Catherine said with a chuckle in her voice.
He advanced warily knowing by the look on his wife's face and the tone of her voice that something was afoot.
Catherine turned to look at him. She held a huge black T-shirt in her hands.
"What is this?"
"Just a little funny gift I thought you might appeal to your sense of humor," Catherine said handing him the shirt.
Vincent turned it around and on the black cotton was printed in colorful characters:
30 years together which in time is
360 months; 1,560 weeks, 26,200 hours and 1,576,800 seconds….
AND WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
LOVE – YOUR WIFE
Vincent looked it over and stared at Catherine with a question.
"How do you want me to wear this, Catherine?"
"Under your top shirt, over your top shirt, I don't know…however you want," Catherine stated wondering why he was hesitating.
"Something wrong with it?"
Vincent immediately shook his head.
"No, of course not. It's just not the usual type of clothing I wear."
"Yes, I know," Catherine said moving forward. "That's why I thought you would like it."
Vincent smiled at his wife and walked back to the bathing chamber.
"You don't have to wear it, you know," Catherine called disappointed that he was not more enthusiastic about the funny gift.
She did not hear anything come from Vincent.
After a minute or two, she called him again and said, "I'm going to the Great Hall to see if I can help our daughter with the preparations. If I know our Mary-Margaret, she has all three children helping."
Vincent emerged for a moment still dressed in his bathrobe. He nodded to Catherine as she turned and left the chamber.
Catherine found her daughter in the Great Hall flying around preparing food with the other cooks and having her husband and children hang homemade decorations. One daughter, Tessa, was helping her father hang a decorative hand painted paper banner that read "CONGRATULATIONS ON 30 YEARS - VINCENT AND CATHERINE".
Mark called out to his daughter, "Got it, Tessa, honey?"
The seven-year-old strawberry blonde girl said, "I got it daddy." Mark continued hanging the banner and when he was done he turned Tessa around and pointed at Catherine.
"Look who's here."
"Grandma!" Tessa ran right into Catherine's arms. Catherine squeezed her and looked down into blue eyes that resembled her husband's.
"Where's your mom? I wanted to see if I could help," Catherine said coming down to Tessa's height so she could look her in the eye.
"She's with William in the kitchen. I don't think she needs help. She shooed me and daddy out here to help hang stuff."
All of a sudden two other small children ran into Catherine calling her Grandma. Edward Mark, Mary and Mark's youngest at 4 almost knocked Catherine completely on her butt with the force of his hug. Melanie, the middle child at 5 1/2 hung back but called loudly to her grandmother nonetheless.
"Hey, you guys, don't knock Grandmom on the floor. It's her and Grandpop's special day!" Mary-Margaret said as she ventured from the kitchen wiping her hands with a towel.
Catherine rose and kissed her daughter on the cheek.
"Mother," Mary-Margaret said in a sarcastic tone. "What are you doing here? You're not due here for hours with dad unless you dropped him off in the Chamber of the Winds.
"I came here, dear daughter, to see if I can help with the preparations. V.J. was meeting your sister at the Drainage Tunnel to see if she will for sure be coming. He hasn't come back with his report yet."
Mary stroked the dark head of her son as she spoke with her mother. "Well, we are all good here. Aren't we love?" Mary called to her husband who was now hanging lights around the "star" places at the table.
"We're good," Mark responded. He blew a dark curly hair out of his vision as he responded.
Mary bent down to her three kids and said, "Give Grandma a kiss and tell her to go have fun with Grandpop until around 7:00 pm."
Catherine hugged her family and waved to the others trapped in the kitchen and then went on her way back to her and Vincent's chamber.
When she returned to the chamber, Vincent's back was to her. He was sitting in one of his oversized antique chairs reading a book. It looked like he was still wearing his bathrobe. That was until she saw him as she came around to face him in the chair.
Vincent looked up at her with a smile and he nearly burst into loud laughter as he watched Catherine's reaction to what he was wearing.
Catherine smiled and then laughed really loud covering her mouth.
"It fits...sort of," Vincent said loudly laughing himself with deep guffaws.
"Well, you are a big man. I forgot cotton runs small," Catherine said as she saw her husband wearing the anniversary gift on his massive chest. He had one of his thermal Henley's underneath. Even without the extra shirt, the T-shirt was stretched beyond belief so as to make the characters almost unreadable.
All of a sudden, Catherine's smile became serious. She walked forward and put her knee between Vincent's as he sat on the chair.
"I am thinking that, perhaps, this gift looks better framed than on you."
She reached out to the hem of the shirt and started to roll it up finally with Vincent's help they pulled it off over his head.
"I like this much better," he said as he threw the gift on the bed and pulled Catherine to his lap. They kissed and Vincent almost purred he was so contented.
"I got thrown out of the Great Hall by our daughter," Catherine purred back in a deep smoky voice as she played with the buttons on Vincent's thermal shirt. "She told me to go have fun with "Grandpop".
They both smiled as Catherine and he were thinking the same. That their behavior especially this day did not resemble your typical grandparents.
"I think that was a wonderful idea," Vincent said. He rose and being sure he placed his cloak on his shoulders and another overshirt to guard against the chill of the Tunnels took Catherine's hand as they began to exit their chamber.
"Let's take a walk to the Chamber of the Falls."
Catherine smiled her acquiescence and took Vincent's arm laying her head against it temporarily.
Confirming she had her watch so they would return in time to dress for the party, Vincent and Catherine celebrated in another pleasant way. A thing they did even before they had gotten married. They took a long walk to one of their favorite places Below.
