Chapter 17

"What? Nance! Tom and I have never…! We wanted to wait until we were married!"

"Then who is the father?" Nancy asked, her eyes widening in shock.

"No one! I'm not pregnant! I mean I can't be! It's been almost two years since…" Catherine stopped and looked around at the tables close by and blushing lightly said, "Well you know."

"Then why do you have morning sickness?"

"First of all, it's after noon…so it can't be that and besides there's no way it could be. I'm sure it's just a bug," Catherine assured her.

"Well if I were you I would get one of those home tests…" Nancy trailed off, leaving anything more unsaid.

On her way home Catherine walked passed a drugstore and something in the tone of voice that Nancy had used caused her to stop and go in. She stood in front of the boxes of home pregnancy tests for quite some time trying to tell herself how ridiculous it would be to buy one when there was no possible way she could be pregnant, but when she left the store, Catherine carried a brown paper bag with one inside.

However, when she got home all she did was plunk it down on the coffee table in the living room. She did not need it! There it sat for several hours as she went about cleaning her apartment and fixing dinner.

As she put her left-overs away in the fridge, something made her reach out for the jar of pickles. She told herself it was silly, but she just couldn't stop feeling the need to test Nancy's theory.

The moment she opened the jar, her stomach rolled again and she ended up relieving herself of the dinner she had just eaten in the kitchen sink.

Now she was really afraid!

What in the world was going on?

She knew she couldn't be pregnant…and yet…

Catherine eyed the bag on her coffee table with accusation. As if some how its mere presence had something to do with this!

Reluctantly she walked to the table, picked up the bag, and headed to the bathroom. She just had to know.

Not an hour had gone by since Catherine had gone Above that she hadn't been in Vincent's thoughts. She even visited his dreams. He wondered how things were going for her Above. He worried about how the people she knew there would react to what had happened to her. But most of all his thoughts focused on when he might see her again. When would she come for the visit she had spoken about or had forgotten? There were times he could 'tune' the Bond between them to simple background noise, but others, when her feelings came through very clearly to him. He knew when she was worried about one of her surgeries, or when she was feeling lonely because she was keeping friends from seeing her scars, he could also feel her pleasure when she saw the outcome of the surgeries.

Today had been completely different. She had been sick twice. He had even felt his own stomach roll as hers had. There had feelings of worry, denial, disbelief, fear, anxiety, and for the last five minutes then had been an utter feeling of trepidation. Vincent had no idea what was causing all of these feelings, but he was truly becoming concerned.

He was actually thinking about going Above to see her when he felt Catherine gasp in shock through the Bond and then break down and start crying.

Vincent paused only a heartbeat to snatch up his cloak from the back of his chair before he was racing towards Catherine. His cloak was swung on as he ran and he didn't pause at all until he made the leap onto her balcony. Needing to get himself calm enough to face her, he took a deep breath before knocking on the French doors.

Catherine stared in horror at the blue + sign on the stick in her hand and her tears started to flow as thoughts race through her head.

To be continued….