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 *tomorrow* (yippee!) but I needed the emotional fix.

Previously: The Entity Formerly Known as Muirfield wants to put together a counter-terrorism task force, starring Vincent as "the guy from Homeland Security", who would be working with the NYPD, as represented by Catherine Chandler. Obviously they know or suspect *something* about Cat & Vincent's relationship, but how much? Also, JT helped Vincent recover his memories. So our fearsome foursome were trying to figure out how to react to the offers.

"Chandler!"

Cat heard her name called from across the room as soon as she entered the precinct. She looked over to see her boss scowling at her. "Be right there," she called, going by her desk long enough to drop her bag, then joined Reynolds in his office. She'd wanted to talk to him, but hadn't expected him to be this anxious about it. It was probably a good thing, considering the point she wanted to make.

"Good morning," she greeted him.

"Morning. So, are you in?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "The counter-terrorism taskforce? Yeah, you know, that sounds really interesting. I'm assuming that the promotion comes with a raise?"

"It'll be about a ten percent raise. Along with twenty percent more headaches, but that's life." He nodded, watching her curiously. "Glad you decided to go for it. Yesterday, you didn't seem too enthused."

"I didn't say I would go for it." She shrugged. "You took me by surprise. And then all that talk about dating the DHS guy... that was weird." She paused, then continued deliberately, "Could be considered sexual harassment."

He looked displeased. "Sorry."

"Yeah, well, the DHS guy had better not get any ideas." She frowned. "I'm a professional, not a perk."

Reynolds almost looked confused now. Good. "Of course. If he gives you any attitude, you let me know."

"Okay, if that's clear, then I guess I'm in."

"There are, ah, some things you need to know about him, if you're going to be working together."

"Like what?"

"Top secret things; I can't tell you yet because he's not officially on board yet, and so you don't need to know yet. But you will need to know. Once he's on board, I'll fill you in."

Cat raised a doubtful eyebrow. "Okay, if you say so. Oh, and I already know that I'm going to ask Vargas to join the team; she's been my partner for years." And it would probably do Tess good to get away from all the reminders of Joe.

"I thought you might. That's fine; I'll approve the transfer."

"Great. Anything else, or can I get back to work?" She moved slightly towards the door, doing her very best bored and busy cop face. "Just let me know when you want to brief me on this mysterious guy."

He stared at her looking faintly suspicious. "I'll do that. Dismissed."

Cat nodded and left his office, returning to her desk and her partner. "Tess, can I talk to you?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"Let's grab a conference room."

"I think three is open."

"I've got an interesting offer for you."

Tess followed her into the conference room and carefully closed the door. "So?"

"I told him I'm in. But that the DHS guy had better not get any ideas."

Tess snickered. "It's okay, I hear he has a girlfriend already."

Cat grinned. Tess had joined the three of them for breakfast this morning, and was up to date on all fronts. "Well, I think I got Reynolds a little off balance, anyway, so that makes me feel better. You sure you want to come with us? You might be safer staying here."

"Cat, I'm your partner. If I stay here people are going to ask why. And if this does turn out to be a trap, you'll need me. Anyway, we can always fake a break-up later if we have to."

"Right. Well, I appreciate it."

"Hey, I didn't prop you up for three months in order to see you ditch me and go off to an exciting new job all by yourself."

Cat laughed. "Fair enough. Come along and see what your propping-up has made possible."

"Shostak."

"Hey, it's Vincent."

"Keller! Good to hear from you. Have you decided?"

Vincent paused. They'd discussed this over breakfast, the plan was in motion, and it was too late to change his mind, but it still wasn't easy to say. He swallowed. "Yeah. I'll do it."

"Excellent." Stostak sounded satisfied, though not surprised. "Thanks for taking the chance on us."

"Me, working for Muirfield. The world has clearly gone insane."

Shostak chuckled. "It'll be alright. So, practical stuff – we need to get you declared alive again; that'll only take a few minutes at a courthouse. They do have your fingerprints on file, don't they?"

Vincent grinned. "I'm pretty sure that they do, yeah." Otherwise, Catherine never would have found him.

"Good. So after we take care of that, we'll rush through a passport for you, for ID. Oh, and pay you for the past three months at the base. So you'll have cash on hand pretty quickly. Anything else you want us to do, let us know, okay?"

"Um, sure." This was a little overwhelming, but he'd manage. With a little help from his friends.

It was scarcely half an hour later when Reynolds called Cat into his office again. "Wanted to let you know that he's in. Have a seat. This is going to take some time."

"Okay, so what do I need to know?"

"I suppose I should start about twenty years ago…" Reynolds walked her through a basic history of Muirfield. In his telling, the scientists started out wanting to make people better, but got lost along the way. He covered the Afghanistan experiments accurately, as far as she could tell, and did not shy away from confessing Muirfield's decision to kill all the altered soldiers.

"That's… really appalling," she finally commented, when he ran down. "But what does it have to do with my new job?"

"Well, you see, they didn't quite kill all the soldiers. One survived, and they ended up training him."

Catherine tried to look confused, instead of pissed off that he'd skipped over ten years of hiding and attempted murders. "I thought you said they were uncontrollable."

"Most of them were, but this guy was the exception. Really quite remarkable control. When necessary, he actually transforms… well, let me show you." He drew out two pictures and tossed the first one across the desk. "This is how he normally looks."

She reached out to pull the picture closer; it was a candid shot of Vincent in an army-type setting, taken not too long ago. He'd been sitting on a cot, looking around impassively. Or at least others would see it that way; she could tell he'd been feeling lonely and her heart ached for him. "Okay."

"But when the adrenaline kicks in, he transforms, into… well, this."

The second picture came across the desk, and she cautiously reached for it. Again, the background was vaguely military, some sort of large room. Vincent seemed to be fully transformed, prowling around. She was dying to study him this way; she'd never had a picture to look at, and when he was transformed she'd always needed to focus on the crisis at hand. Which, really, was happening again now, all things considered.

She stiffened, eyes narrowing. "Wait, that… I've seen him before!"

Reynolds watched her closely, not showing any surprise. "Really. When?"

She grabbed the photo and pulled it closer. "A couple of months ago."

Across the street, Vincent kept watch on the precinct building. He'd seen Catherine enter her boss's office twenty minutes ago. He tried to focus, to overhear, but it was impossible with all the other conversations going on in and around the building. Tess kept glancing over at the closed office door, and once glanced out the window with a secretive smile. He knew she couldn't see him, but he appreciated the moral support. They'd come a long way since she'd shot him.

The office door opened, riveting both their attentions. Catherine walked across the floor to Tess, speaking a few words, then walked right to the window. She looked down at the street, away from him, but she was smiling and made a "thumbs up" gesture against her stomach, carefully shielded from the view of anyone other than him.

He relaxed slightly as she returned to her desk.

A few minutes later, Reynolds left his office, and then the building. Vincent followed. The man walked to the park and pulled out a phone. Vincent got as close as he dared without being seen, and tuned in.

He heard the ringing on the other end of the line until someone answered.

"Shostak. What's up?"

There it was; that was the link. Just as they'd suspected.

"Chandler is in, and didn't freak out at the picture. Says she's seen him before."

"I thought you said he knew her?"

"Yeah, I thought so, too, but according to her, they'd barely met before we grabbed him."

Vincent growled softly at the reminder but controlled himself. This might be working.

"Okay," Shostak said, "But she definitely saw the beast – he was all creatured out. What did she think about that?"

"Well, first time she saw him, he was busy saving her life, so she was inclined to think well of him. And then after the helicopter stunt, she says she felt sorry for him, that she owed him something. Said it turned into a project. She didn't say she found him on the base, but that must have been her."

"That's it? Damn. You believe her?"

"She was vague on the details, but maybe."

Good. Vincent was willing to try working with them, but he was not comfortable letting them know exactly how important Catherine and he were to each other. Not yet. They didn't need to be *that* vulnerable.

"You're too suspicious. Anyway, that's close enough for our purposes. They're both going for it, so the task force can be a reality – we'd have a much tougher time convincing any other cop to work with him."

"No kidding. They'll have fun recruiting their team." Reynolds sounded grimly amused. "Who wants to work for a boss who can literally tear you to pieces?"

"He could, but he won't," Shostak replied confidently. "And now we have Chandler to vouch for him."

"He'd better not hurt any of my people."

"He won't. I've studied Keller. He'll be a great asset. And I think I've got a job for him – for them – so let's hurry up and get this started."

"Fine. What's the job?"

"We've been hearing chatter about a terror group in Brooklyn…"

The conversation from there on was work-related and Vincent listened with only half an ear. What he'd just heard was reassuring. He'd keep spying on them from time to time, but at least Shostak seemed to be firmly on his side.

So, this really wasn't a trap. Or if it was, it was insanely complicated. Hard to believe, but… he could come out of the shadows, actually have a semi-normal life. If this continued to be on the level, if it started to look safe, then he and Catherine could start openly dating. If not, well, they would be ready to run.

Reynolds didn't fully trust them, and that went both ways; they didn't trust him much, either. But it looked like there'd be enough mutual trust and respect to allow them all to work together. That would do, for now.

The next morning, Catherine arrived at the restaurant for a getting-to-know-you brunch with Vincent and his boss. She looked around as she entered, spotting Vincent sitting to one side, obviously not too comfortable with being out in public yet. He didn't seem to be with anyone official, but just in case… she crossed the the hostess stand. "I'm here to join friends - Shostak, party of three?"

She checked her notes. "He's not here yet, but the other member of your party is right over there." Catherine looked where she pointed, and saw that Vincent had stood and was moving forward. She left the hostess station and met him halfway.

"Detective Chandler?" he asked, in a voice that was trying not to laugh. "I heard you asking about my boss."

She smiled. "Yeah. So then I guess … you're Vincent Keller." Despite herself, she couldn't help smirking just a little. "You look pretty good for a dead guy."

His eyes glinted. "Oh, I'm not dead anymore. Went in front of a judge this morning."

"Great."

"Keller!" An older man entered the room. He wasn't in uniform but his face and bearing screamed 'military'. "And you must be Detective Chandler. I'm Colonel George Shostak, Specialist Keller's commanding officer."

She held out a cool hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"And you," he replied, with a firm handshake. "I see you two have met."

"Yeah, you could say that," Vincent commented, deadpan.

Catherine looked down and choked back a laugh.

"Good, good. Let's eat, shall we? You two partners need to get better acquainted."

Epilog

The nights were the best. Their days were busy, settling into their new jobs. Tess was working with them, of course, and they'd talked about putting JT on retainer. The work was unpredictable, but overall, life was good.

The evenings were great. They had actual dates in public sometimes, and Vincent's control had not yet slipped. Still, more often, they stayed home, eating in, curling up on the couch, or hanging out on the fire escape for old times' sake.

But at night, when they were lying together in their bed, and there was no reason not to dream about a whole lifetime together... that was the best.

THE END

A/N Thanks for reading! :) I hope this feels like a satisfactory ending; there's lots more I could do with it, and I might still, but with S2 starting tomorrow... but if there's anything you want to see me cover, well, let me know in a review!

Also! I am now on Twitter! ChiefPam. I'd appreciate a follower or two :) and I'll happily follow back.

Thanks, Beasties!