Chapter Fourteen

It was Joe who took Vincent to Catherine's side. Under cover of darkness, Vincent was taken to the safe location where Catherine had remained hidden under the tender care of Joe and the doctor. When Vincent swept into the room, he rushed to Catherine's bed and drew her lovingly in his arms. "It's true," he said in awe. "You're alive. Ohhh Catherine. My heart was so broken. I thought you were lost to me forever. I didn't know how- how I could live without you."

"I am so sorry, Vincent... that you had to go on thinking I was gone," she murmured with tears in her eyes. "But I had to remain hidden. The world had to think that Cathy Chandler had died. I feared that our connection; the bond that we shared for so long would lure you to me. You don't know how I feared for your safety."

"That connection has been severed," he said softly as he held her close against his chest. "On the night of our child's birth, I felt it calling to me again. But it wasn't OUR connection. It was our son's heart beating."

"Maybe our bond has manifested itself so now you have a special connection with our child," she said. "I am hoping that the bond you have to our son will lead you to him, so he can be rescued.'

"Catherine, I vow to you: I will rescue our son."

She squeezed his hand in hers as tears silently slid down her cheeks. She had held them back so long. She cried for their time apart from one another. She cried for her almost-death and the kidnapping of her newborn baby boy. She cried for all they had lost and all they wished to regain.

Tenderly, Vincent brushed away her warm, salty tears. "I will find him," he promised. "And the three of us will be together; a family."

"How will you find him?" Catherine questioned.

"I will open my heart and search for the gifts as you told me to do," Vincent stated.

Catherine returned to the memory of the night when Vincent was lamenting the loss of their bond. His memory was hazy and he had been so forlorn. She had told him to open up his arms and receive the new gifts that now awaited him.

"I tried to tell you that night that I was expecting our child," she said with a little smile. "But you were not yourself... well, not completely."

"I was struggling then to regain all my memories."

"Do you remember the night our son was conceived?"

"I remember everything. I love you, Catherine."

Suddenly he arose to his feet as though he were listening to some sound faraway in the great distance. "What is it?" Catherine asked urgently.

He could hear it! The incredible sound of their infant's heartbeat! Along with the blessed sound, he was bombarded with their child's feelings. Their baby boy needed him! The longing of the child for love and comfort caused Vincent's heart to ache with incredible sorrow.

"What's wrong?" Catherine asked anxiously.

~*~o~*~

At Gabriel's mansion, the little one was struggling to survive. Despite all the nurse's efforts to give him the nourishing formula from a bottle, he longed for his mother's tender touch and the soothing voice of his father. Gabriel hardly ever came to the nursery. If it wasn't for the nurse's, the baby would have been completely alone. The child's heart was beating frantically as the nurse was doing everything possible to keep him alive.

"Baby boy," she said to the child who had no name. "You need healing- healing I cannot give."

The child stared up at the nurse with bright blue eyes - the eyes of his father. His tiny body was so close to giving up, but he had powers beyond those of an ordinary baby. He used his incredible abilities to call out to his parent. Knowing his father had heard his calls of distress, the baby closed his tired eyes. Touching his tiny chest, the nurse was relieved to find that his heart was still beating. She feared that it was just a matter of hours before the baby died.