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: Catherine has refreshed Vincent's memory, and they called Tess & JT to come pick them up. They were anxious to get back to Cat's place to reconnect.

JT dropped the other three off at Cat's apartment before heading off to teach. Catherine saw that Vincent was looking around, probably trying to assess if anything looked familiar. "No," she answered. "You didn't usually come through the door."

He raised an eyebrow at that, and she laughed. "I have a fire escape right outside my bedroom window. I always kept the window unlocked for you."

Tess chuckled. "Well, you know, I should really be going, so you two can… have some quality time."

Cat grinned. "You are the best friend, ever." She was having difficulty concentrating on much beyond getting Vincent all to herself, in her own apartment. From the heated looks he'd been giving her, his mind was moving in the same direction.

"Um, yeah, that'd be good," he agreed. "But come back later, okay? Dinner time? I want to talk to you and JT about something."

"Shouldn't be a problem. See ya."

Cat got her apartment door open, and reached out for Vincent's hand. "Come on in." He looked so darkly sexy and mysterious that she shivered happily. "You're all mine, now."

He followed her in. "I think I always was."

She just looked at him. "I love you so much." She reached up to kiss him, and they began a slow progress towards her bedroom, coats, shoes, and clothing being shed along the way. As they tumbled onto her bed, he pulled back for a second, eyes concerned, and pulsing amber. "Are you sure this is okay? I can't stand the thought of hurting you."

"You never have," she assured him, reaching up to caress his cheek. "And you've been getting better control of things, right? So don't worry."

He gazed down at her with such wonder and love in his eyes that she had to blink away a few tears. Then he settled down on top of her, began kissing her in earnest, and she lost track of the world completely.

JT and Tess came back over around time for dinner, and it became a celebration. There were still problems to deal with but, they could do that later, couldn't they? Catherine just wanted to enjoy a few more care-free hours. It had been an amazing day, being with Vincent constantly.

"Everybody done eating?" she asked, rising to remove the plates from the table.

"You don't need to do dishes now, do you?" Vincent smiled at her. "They're not important."

That sparked a memory, and she smirked at him. "That's what you think, Mr. Keller. It was a dirty dish that led me to you, in fact."

"This I've got to hear," he replied, and Tess and JT seemed equally confused.

"Tess, remember that first time we went to the warehouse? JT was doing a good job of pretending he didn't have a technically-dead roommate, but there were two dirty plates on the counter."

JT rolled his eyes. "All the precautions we took, and what gave us away was dirty dishes?"

"Well, it wasn't proof of anything," Cat replied, "But it bothered me. Which is why I came back the next morning, with a warrant."

"Yeah, I wondered why you executed that search without me. That bothered me."

"I didn't really have any idea what if anything I'd find, but I explored around, and found Vincent hiding upstairs. All because of a dirty dish."

He smiled slowly. "I may never do dishes again."

"No, no, it's okay, I've found you now. Twice."

"You're not getting out of it that easily, big guy," Tess chided. "If you're going to be sticking around, you'll have to help with the housework."

"Well, then, I guess I'll just have to man up and do dishes." He rose and helped her clear the table, sneaking a kiss in the kitchen.

"It figures." JT muttered quietly. "*Catherine* can get you to do dishes."

Vincent heard him easily from the other side of the room. "Catherine can get me to do almost anything, JT; you should know that by now."

"Why do you think I call her when I want you to do something?"

Vincent steered Catherine over to where the others were already sitting. "So, I need to talk to you guys about something."

Tess pulled a face. "That doesn't sound good."

Vincent considered how best to continue, looking at the friendly faces around him. These people were amazing and he never wanted to endanger them. He owed them... everything. "I've been trying to figure out Muirfield."

"What's to figure out?" JT demanded. "They're the bad guys. Did you not hear us earlier?"

"I heard, and I believe you. But the people on the base weren't like that." He'd been thinking about it, on and off, all day, and it still wasn't making sense. "I heard them talking about big changes they'd just gone through, and they were thinking of ways I could help. Don't you think it's possible they've changed?"

"No," they all said, nearly in unison.

"Look, you've told me about Muirfield, but you also told me that I had good instincts, and that I'm a good judge of character. You know I can tell if someone's lying, or afraid. And I'm telling you, I didn't get that back there. I know they kept me away from you, but think about it - you've, we've, gone to a lot of trouble to keep them from knowing about you. I must not have told them at first, and then I forgot."

Catherine shifted uneasily against him. "What are you suggesting?"

"I want to contact them."

"What? I just got you back!"

"I can call them. They won't know where I am. Or how much I know."

She frowned, and Tess shook her head. "Doesn't sound like a great idea, Vincent. If she lost you again, I don't think I could hold her together."

"She's not going to lose me," he promised softly. "Catherine, I am not going to disappear. I just want to make a phone call. You know how that dirty dish bugged you? This is bugging me. I have to figure it out."

She was still unconvinced, so he pulled out his hole card. "Catherine. You told me to trust you, and I do. You also told me to trust myself, my instincts. Now I'm asking you to trust me."

She paused for a few more long moments, staring at him, then her shoulders sagged. "Okay. I trust you. All of you. So if you think this is a good idea, then... you should do it."

"Thank you," he breathed, knowing how difficult this was for her. "I love you, Catherine. It's going to be okay."

"You sure this is the number?"

JT scowled at him. "Vincent, according to you, and Catherine, you were at the Pullen Industrial Park. They have only one tenant of record, and that is Ferguson Industries. This is their number. That's as close as I can get - they're not listed under 'evil lair comma Muirfield'."

"Okay, okay," Vincent held out a hand to ward off his friend's ire. It spoke a lot about their friendship that JT knew all about him, but wasn't scared to tick him off. "Thank you."

He dialed, aware that his friends and girlfriend were watching him; they'd promised to stay quiet to avoid giving away their identities and complicating the conversation. The phone rang once, then twice. Then a bored-sounding man picked up. "Ferguson Industries."

"Yeah. I need to talk to Shostak. This is Vincent Keller."

There was a sharp gasp on the other end of the line. "He'll be glad to hear from you - we were worried. You okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied warily. That was not how he'd expected that to go.

"Okay, putting you through."

There was a brief pause, then a familiar voice spoke. "Shostak here - Keller, is that really you?"

"Unless you know of some other escaped super-soldier."

"You're not escaped, you weren't a prisoner. You are, however, AWOL. Where the hell have you been?" The man sounded irritated, but not scared, which was interesting.

"Doing some investigating."

"You with that woman from last night?"

Vincent's eyes met Catherine's. "No. She got away, but I kept going. Did you figure out who she was?"

"Nobody's filed a criminal complaint yet, and the guards weren't able to give me a good description, low light and all."

"Oh yeah, the guards... sorry about that."

"Don't worry, you didn't kill them. Told you your control was improving."

Vincent breathed a sigh of relief at that news. "Good."

"Yeah, well, get yourself back here. We may have an assignment for you."

"Yeah, about that. Why should I trust you?"

Shostak took a long moment, then continued in a more cautious tone. "Damn. I told them this would backfire. You've found out something about your past, haven't you?"

"A few things."

"Then I'm sure you don't trust us." He sighed. "Hell, I wouldn't either, if I were you. I'm surprised you're even talking to me."

"What I've found out doesn't exactly match with my recent experience."

"Okay. So what do you want to know?"

"What changed?"

"Upper management. The previous psychopaths are in jail, and the organization is getting back to what it was supposed to be in the first place - an innovative way to protect this country. They screwed up. Some of us were appalled when it all came out."

"So how do I fit in?"

"You mean apart from the fact that you're a vet and we ruined your life? Vincent, the experiments they performed on you worked a lot better than they thought. You've survived this long without going crazy, and you were smart enough to hide for almost a decade. You've got amazing abilities, and this country could use those. We've talked about it, remember?"

"Is that why you erased my memory?"

"That was an accident, believe it or not. But my boss thought it'd be really useful. And it was. After that, we could treat you like a person, and you were a lot more cooperative."

"So now what?"

"Now..." He took a deep breath. "I'm going to try to talk you into working for us. You're Special Forces, Keller. You could be bloody useful in a lot of places. We're working with FBI, DHS, ATF, the whole alphabet soup."

"Black ops?"

"No. You'd be official. We've already done most of the paperwork; just need to get you in front of a judge to be legally alive again. And listen, they're willing to pay you. A lot. If I were you, I'd ask for millions. They'd probably be willing to go for that, because you're irreplaceable."

"That's ... hard to believe."

"Bottom line, we want you working with us. You're no good to us in a cage. And you could cause a lot of trouble for us, which would be a problem now that killing people isn't standard operating procedure anymore." He paused, but Vincent had no idea what to say to that.

"Think about it, Vincent. You could live anywhere you wanted - we wouldn't have to know where, even, just as long as we'd have a way to get in touch with you. There are a lot of options for assignments, your choice. Some of them have a lot of travel, some don't. Think about it, okay?"

"Yeah."

"If you have more questions, call me. Oh, and let me know where to send the legal forms so you can get yourself declared alive again."

"Okay," was all he could manage, and then Shostak hung up on him.

To be continued... so what do you think, are they on the level?