Chapter 18
"And what about Jenny?!" Catherine demanded.
"With me out of the equation she doesn't need to make a choice any longer, she can have Devin," Joe said sadly.
Looking up at her he continued, "You should go Cath, I need to call my mother and give her the happy news."
Catherine got up almost in a daze. She couldn't believe that Joe was actually going to marry someone he didn't love, baby or not. She left his office and headed to her desk wondering what to do next.
After staring blindly at the file in front of her for quite some time and not seeing anything but a blur of print on the page she got up to get a cup of coffee. Catherine had finished half the cup before she remembered how jittery coffee made the baby. She knew she would pay for the mistake later that night when the caffeine infused baby would not let her sleep.
But that was the least of the problems weighing on her mind. While she considered Joe a friend, he was not in the same league as Jenny, whom Catherine felt she had known all of her life, even if they hadn't met until college. They had become such good friends so easily it was as if they had grown up together. However, right now her main concern was how Jenny was going to handle finding out Joe was getting married to a woman he had gotten pregnant!
She was on her way home that evening still thinking about the 'Joe situation' when she nearly double over as she walked along the street. Catherine felt a crushing pain on her shoulders that nearly dropped her to her knees. Quickly on the heels of this pain was fear that was almost as deep as the terror she had experienced the night of her attack.
As people on the street started to gather around the beautiful stooped over pregnant woman, Catherine suddenly realized the pain and fear were not hers. She was able to slowly stand up straight with the help of a man who had stopped to check on her. Catherine gave him a wan smile and some lame excuse about having peppers at lunch that didn't agree with the baby. All the while she was dealing with the fact that the only other explanation for what she had felt was the Bond she shared with Vincent and that meant he was injured and afraid.
Rushing as fast as she could to Mr. Lee's tea shop, which was her usual access point to the tunnels when she left work. She hurried by him, calling out for him to phone Dr. Peter Alcott and send him Below as quickly as possible. She raced into the back room and down the stairs to the basement access. Catherine knew she needed to get to Vincent as fast as possible.
When she was at last in the tunnels she stopped to take a breath. Whatever had caused the rush of pain in her shoulders had subsided, but she could tell that Vincent was still feeling it. However, it was not that which had made her slow down. The rushing she had done since she was able to move had caused a stitch in her side and it seemed the baby was not happy about it either. The little dickens was kicking up a storm.
Oddly, as she started to move again, Catherine realized that the tunnels were strangely barren and quiet. She hadn't seen a soul since arriving and come to think of it, there were no sounds on the pipes either. What in the world was going on!?
As she walked as quickly as she could towards the central hub, Catherine felt her shoulders burning with pain. It would ease for a moment and then the urge to cry out was back again.
No one was around and this was more than strange. Never had she seen the tunnels so empty. She was becoming very worried and just about to panic, when she heard Peter's name tapped out on the pipes. Moments later she saw Samantha coming running down the passageway. "Samantha, what is going on?!" she demanded, stopping the child.
To be continued…..