Trust Issues

by ChiefPam

This is fanfic for Beauty & the Beast (2012). They own it, I don't, I'm just borrowing their toys. This is based loosely on spoilers for Season 2, and will no doubt be an alternate universe as soon as October 7th, 2013 gets here, but I needed the emotional fix.

Previously: Vincent has lost his memory, and didn't recognize Catherine when she found him. He was terrified that he would hurt her, but ended up beasting out and taking off with her into the woods, instead. He took her to an empty cabin and they both fell asleep.

He didn't know her name. He didn't know where they were, or quite what had happened. All he knew was that he didn't want to let her go. He settled back down on the floor, relaxing beside her. He recognized now that the rhythm he'd been hearing was her heartbeat. It was steady, slow, and somehow very comforting. It occurred to him that for once, the aching loneliness had disappeared.

Of course, it wouldn't – couldn't – last . He closed his eyes, hoping that she would sleep for a few more hours, to prolong this feeling as much as possible before he'd have to give it up. Listening to her heartbeat, he felt astonishingly peaceful.

Catherine woke slowly, aware that she was being held tenderly. But unlike most mornings, the feeling didn't fade away, and the events of the previous night flooded back. She had found him. The feeling of joy was only slightly muted by his memory loss. On the other hand, he was here, and he was holding her just like he used to. Well, there weren't usually this many clothes in the way. But he was here; they could manage the rest.

She rolled onto her back, and saw him watching her warily. She smiled, which seemed to confuse him. "Good morning."

He pulled away from her quickly, sitting up with his back to the couch. With a sigh, she followed him, missing his warmth. His body was stiff with tension, and she could detect amber flickers in his eyes.

"I, uh... I'm sorry," he said, in that deliciously deep voice.

"I'm not."

He was shooting anxious little glances sideways towards her, not quite meeting her eyes, then looking away. "I don't know exactly what happened last night, and I hope to God I didn't hurt you."

"You didn't."

"And I don't know where we are. I know you must be scared…" his voice slowed as he processed her responses and finally looked up enough to meet her eyes. "Why aren't you scared?"

She smiled at him, wishing she could kiss him, but she didn't think he was ready for that yet. "It's okay, Vincent. I could never be scared of you."

He seemed fascinated. "Why not?"

"Because I know you would never hurt me."

"You know me?"

She nodded. "Better than you do, apparently. What did Muirfield do to you?"

"Uhh…"

"Yeah, silly question. You can't remember. Well, let me start with the important parts. I'm Catherine, and I love you. They took you away from me three months ago." She faltered, her emotions overwhelming her as she remembered that awful night. "I missed you so much." She moved closer to him, and he responded by gathering her into a sideways hug. She sagged against him, trying to keep her composure.

"Catherine," he said quietly, as if testing it out. "Catherine."

Vincent held her in his arms. He didn't ever remember holding her – or anyone – like this, but it felt precisely right. "Who am I?"

She took a deep breath, not moving from his side. "You're Vincent Keller. You were a doctor, then you enlisted, and then Muirfield started experimenting on you."

That seemed roughly to match what they'd told him. "When?"

"Ten years ago."

That shocked him. "Ten years? I've been with Muirfield for ten years?"

"No, you've spent most of ten years hiding from Muirfield. They only caught up with you a few months ago. Oh, Vincent, I was so scared that they'd killed you."

He tightened his arms around her, instinctively trying to give her comfort. "They've been taking care of me. Training. Some experiments. So… you know about the monster?"

Her head came up and she glared at him, eyes a little watery. "You are not a monster, Vincent. They did this to you without your consent, they captured you, and they must have been planning to use you – if anyone's a monster, they are. Not you."

"But, last night…" He hesitated, unsure how to phrase it. "I, uh, wasn't myself."

"Yes, you were," she insisted. "You didn't remember me, but I think your other side did."

"You mean, the beast?"

"If that's what you want to call him, yeah. When you changed, you did what you always do, which is protect me."

"Catherine, I…" He frowned trying to remember. "Last night. There was an alarm, I heard shouts. I went to check it out and found you fighting with one of the guards. And then another guard ran in. I should have helped them. They expected me to help them. I expected me to help them." He couldn't remember their names, but he knew their faces. "Then I saw one of them aiming a gun at you, and I … transformed. I didn't fight it. But the next thing I knew, both those guards were dead on the floor. The monster had attacked them. I killed them." He let go of her and stood, facing away from her. "I'm dangerous, Catherine. I can't control it. I can't be trusted around people."

"Yes and no," she replied softly.

"What does that mean?"

She moved into his field of view, her eyes impossibly full of love and concern – for him! "You didn't kill randomly, Vincent. You never do. Those men? They were threatening me. Your instinct was to protect me, so you… eliminated the threat. I'm sorry I made that necessary, because I know you feel guilty. But those men were not your friends. They were lying to you, using you, and they would have killed me without blinking."

He looked down, considering that. He didn't want to think that he'd been living with the enemy, and it occurred to him that he only had Catherine's word for that. He couldn't think of anything in particular to disprove it, but he just couldn't take it on trust, either. How could he have lived there for two months and not seen any signs?

She certainly seemed to know him, though. Her responses to the creature spoke of long familiarity between them, and even to his enhanced senses she didn't seem the least bit afraid. He didn't have many personal memories to help him judge. If she were telling the truth, then everything he thought he knew about his life was in doubt.

"You don't have to believe me, Vincent," she said, and he looked up to see a sad smile on her face. "We'll get your memory back. They messed with it before, but JT has something that helps you break through the blocks. But," she rallied, taking a deep breath. "First we have to get to him. And regardless, we really ought to be leaving now."

"Why?"

"Well, you know I said that some part of you was remembering things? You know this cabin. We've been here before. Briefly."

He looked around with new interest. "We were?"

"Long story, not especially pleasant. Point is, Muirfield tried to kill us not too far from here, so it may occur to them to look for us in this area."

"They really tried to kill me?"

"More than once, yeah," she confirmed grimly. "Kidnapped you, too. You did not join them of your own free will. God knows what else they did, these past few months."

"Then they won't stop trying."

"Probably not." She looked around. "It's not like we have anything to pack, but we should at least tidy up a few things."

That occupied a few minutes. He looked out a window to see that the sun was well up, and there were woods in all directions. Then he looked at the road and realized something. "We don't have a car."

She smiled. "True. But we just have to walk far enough to get a cell signal, then we can call for a ride."

"But... how did we get here?"

"You carried me. Not sure how long. I think I fell asleep for a while."

He looked at her in wonder. "A monster was carrying you into the woods, and you fell asleep?"

"You were carrying me," she corrected him. She shrugged. "I trust you. I did ask you to stop at one point but you weren't interested and I didn't push it. I guess you were focused on getting us here as quickly as possible. When we did get here, you set me down on the couch, and then sort of collapsed onto the rug. That's when you changed back."

"So if I put you on the couch…" He glanced at the rug where they'd slept, not sure how to phrase this question.

"How did I end up on the floor?" She smiled. "Vincent, I've been sleeping alone for months. I wasn't going to pass up that chance."

He smiled slowly. "You know, I think you've convinced me."

"What? How?"

"There is no way I would have voluntarily moved to a Muirfield base in the middle of nowhere if I had been sleeping with you on anything close to a regular basis."

She laughed, and he couldn't help himself; he reached for her waist, gently tugging her closer to him. She looked up at him and raised a hand to caress his cheek. He closed his eyes briefly to savor the touch, but he was impatient for more. He lowered his head and slowly, deliberately, thoroughly kissed her.

She kissed back, making frantic little noises as she stroked his neck and held him tightly. She pushed against him and he groaned as pleasure pulsed through every nerve ending he had. Then he was exploring her mouth, laving open-mouthed kisses on her as she gave back as good as she got.

Her scent changed, intoxicating him further at the evidence of her desire. His body responded, and his inner beast did too; they both wanted to get as close to her as possible. He didn't transform but he thought he might be close.

He dragged her lips from hers. "Catherine." She responded to the loss of his mouth by exploring his throat instead, and her hands were moving purposefully towards his waist. "Catherine, stop." She actually whimpered, a soft little sound of need denied, and it almost pushed him over the edge again.

He called on all his hard-won self-control and gently pushed her a few inches away. "Catherine, we can't do this."

Her eyes opened wide in dismay, searching his face. Then she smiled. "Trust me. We can."

"Damn, that's good to know. But we can't do anything here. We have to get going, remember? Cabin, woods, Muirfield?"

He watched the realization and disappointment wash across her face. She leaned her head forward to rest it on his chest, and their embrace changed, and lost intensity, becoming more of a hug. A very friendly hug. She sighed. "You're right."

He chuckled, still elated at the knowledge that not only was he not destined to be alone, he had a girlfriend who was anxious to, ah, reconnect to him. "Why do I have the feeling that I'm not going to hear that admission ever again?"

She stepped back, laughing up at him, her nose scrunching adorably. "Clearly, your memory is returning."

"Mmm, clearly." He leaned forward to snatch one more swift kiss, then moved away before they could become lost again. "Let's get going."

"It took that long before we got to our first kiss? Really?" He leaned against the end of a picnic table, enjoying the chance to relax with her. Her friends – their friends – were supposed to come pick them up soon-ish. Catherine had told them very little, since it was an unsecured line, but they were coming anyway.

Catherine grinned at him. "It was worth the wait. But hey, it was your first real relationship in a decade, and you had some unique circumstances."

He raised an eyebrow. "Unique circumstances? That's what you'd call it?"

She ignored him. "However, if it makes you feel any better, we did not wait nearly that long before we, ah, got to the sleeping together part."

"Oh, yeah, you mentioned something about that. You'll have to tell me all about it – later, when we're not in public."

Catherine glanced around the little picnic area where they were standing. "Well, nobody seems to be here…"

He looked around carefully, using all his abilities. "That's because nobody is here." He gently tugged on her arm to pull her close, until she was standing between his stretched-out legs. "Have I told you that I think you're amazing? I was there on the base, convinced I'd be forever alone, and then you came crashing in. Seriously, how did you find me?"

She smiled a little. "Same way you always find me. I never stopped looking. Vincent, I love you to distraction – and my life just isn't worth living without you."

He just studied her face, amazed at her all over again. That someone – let alone someone as wonderful as Catherine – could find him worth that amount of dedicated effort was still hard to take in. "I sure didn't have much of one without you, either. I knew I was missing … something. I just didn't know it was you."

"Well," she told him gravely, her eyes dancing, "Now you do."

"Yes. I do." He leaned forward far enough to kiss her gently.

The sound of an approaching car caught his attention. He could hear voices from inside it. A man asked "Is that them?"

A woman answered. "From this angle I can't quite tell."

"Are they kissing?" The man seemed grouchy, for some reason.

"Yeah." The woman was finding it amusing.

"That's them."

The car grew closer, and he pulled back just a little. Catherine turned to look, and sighed. "I guess we've been rescued."

"Don't sound so disappointed," he laughed.

Catherine stepped a little away from him as the car cruised to a stop. A tall Latina stepped out of the passenger seat and quickly crossed the ground between them to give Cat a hug. "Way to go, Cat!" As she stepped back from the hug she grinned at Vincent. "Good to see you again, big guy."

So, that must be Tess. Only a few paces behind was a slightly chubby man who could only be JT. "Vincent, you're okay! I can't believe it."

"Yeah, about that," Cat started, only to be cut off by her partner.

"Could you please explain your text? 'Got him. Sort of' was not terribly enlightening and it's been driving me nuts. It looks to me like you got him, period."

"Well, there was one small hitch. They messed with his memories again." She glanced at JT. "He doesn't remember much beyond the past two months. I don't know if it was on purpose or a side effect, but when I got to him last night, he didn't remember any of us."

"What, so you kidnapped him?" Tess suggested.

"Yeah, good luck with that," JT muttered.

Cat grinned at them, then turned to look at Vincent. He knew, theoretically, that these people were his friends, but it was disconcerting all the same. "Um, turns out at least part of me remembered her," Vincent said, a little uncomfortable with referring to his differences. "At least, that's her theory. All I know is, there was a fight, my adrenaline surged, and then the next thing I knew, we were two counties away and she was sleeping in my arms."

JT grinned.

"Just sleeping," Cat clarified.

Tess chuckled. "Kind of a shame."

"Well, let's just say, I'm in a hurry to get home."

"And speaking of which," JT said, checking something on his phone, "Can we have this discussion in the car? I have a class to teach in three hours."

To be continued... review, please :)