Note: So this is a really short chapter and I apologize for that. This chapter will be mainly focused on what exactly is going on with Vincent. Thanks for reading!

I DO NOT OWN BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Chapter 21

Ring...Ring...Ring

Catherine leaned over on her side and picked up her phone.

"Chandler..." she said in a half awake voice. She cleared her throat and sat up. "Chandler." she said again in a more alive voice.

"Wakey, wakey partner." Tess said on the other end.

"Tess, you do know its like 5:30 AM right?" Catherine said putting her head back on her pillow.

Tess laughed. "It's 6 o'clock!"

Catherine sat up. "What?!"

"Yeah I was hoping you would be up so we could get a coffee before work but seeing as you sound only half awake..." Tess said.

Catherine shook her head and sat up. "No, no give me like ten minutes." she said as she put on her slippers.

"Ten minutes for Catherine Chandler?" Tess joked. "You sure that will be enough time?"

Catherine rolled her eyes. "Ten minutes."

Tess shrugged her shoulders. "Alright, I'll pick you up in ten."

Catherine hung up the phone and grabbed her bathrobe and clothes and headed into the bathroom. Ten minutes was going to be tight.

After about 5 minutes she walked out of the showers mentally cursing herself for not saying at least fifteen minutes. She rubbed the towel against her head an grabbed a hair brush that was sitting on her dresser.

"Look's like ten minutes will be enough." A familiar voice said behind her.

Catherine dropped the brush onto the floor and quickly spun around. "Vincent?" she asked confused.

"Hi." he said smiling from her reaction.

"Its 6 in the morning, what are you doing here?" Catherine asked picking up the brush.

Vincent looked over at her clock. "It's actually 6:10." Vincent said chuckling.

Catherine grew wide-eyed and looked at the clock behind her. 6:07

"Kidding." Vincent chuckled.

Catherine looked back around towards Vincent. "Not funny."

Vincent chuckled.

"What brings you by this early?" Catherine asked running the brush through her hair.

Vincent rubbed his hands together. "Well, I um..."

Catherine brushed slower trying to concentrate on what he was about to say.

"I need a favor." Vincent said holding his breath. He hated doing this.

Catherine turned around to face him "Sure, anything."

Vincent sighed. "Well I talked to J.T. a little bit more about the DNA mutations..."

Catherine sat next to him on her bed. "Vincent..."

"I think your co-worker is right. I'm becoming more animal." Vincent said looking at Catherine.

Catherine sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. "There is no guarantee that's what happening, you said yourself you're feeling better."

Vincent shook his head "I think-"

"CAAT!" Tess called banging on the door. "Ten minutes are up sleeping beauty!"

Catherine sighed. "I have to go but I'll see you later okay?" She put a hand up on his cheek. "I'll be home as soon as I can."

Vincent nodded regretting he even said anything.

"I have nothing planned for tonight and we can talk then okay?"

"Catherine Chandler!" Tess pounded harder on her apartment door.

"I have to go before Tess breaks my door." Catherine said laughing.

Vincent nodded.

Catherine got up off her bed and gave Vincent a quick peck on the cheek surprising him. "Bye."

She walked out of her bedroom trying to stop her blushing. "Coming!" she yelled.

That didn't stop Tess she pounded on the door once more.

"Tess I'm coming!" Catherine shouted. She quickly opened the door. "What do you think you're doing? My sister is still asleep not to mention the entire apartment building." She said in a whisper once she got out into the hall.

Tess shrugged her shoulders before they both heard a loud pounding noise coming from her neighbor's door. Tess gave Catherine a weird look.

"Get off my lawn you crazy kids!" an elderly man's voice yelled through the door.

Tess pointed to the door. "Who...?"

Catherine shook her head "Don't ask, let's just go."

Vincent made his way back to the warehouse. He was wondering if J.T. was right maybe it is nothing or just PTSD. Vincent was lost in thought as he made his way to the door and to his surprise it flung open.

"Where in god's name have you been?!" J.T. yelled stepping out of the door way to let Vincent in.

"I was visiting Catherine." Vincent said casually.

"At 6:30 in the morning?!"

Vincent shrugged. "Yeah." He was still thinking about his hallucinations so much that he didn't really notice how pissed J.T. was.

"Dude, 6:30 in the morning!" J.T. shouted following Vincent to the main part of the warehouse.

"Did she call you back yet?" Vincent asked still not fully listening.

"What?" J.T. asked caught off guard.

"Sarah." Vincent said opening the door to the living quarters. "Did she call you back?"

J.T. kept quite as he followed behind Vincent.

"Well?" Vincent asked turning around to face J.T.

"Um..." J.T. sighed. "No."

"Don't worry man, she'll come around." Vincent said sitting on the couch.

J.T. crossed his arms. "Vincent?"

Vincent looked up at J.T. who seemed a bit on edge. "Yeah?"

"I thought about your theory a bit more." J.T. swallowed.

Vincent didn't take his eyes off J.T. "And?"

J.T. let out a big breath and sat next to Vincent. "Well, if your DNA is in fact mutating..." J.T. stopped talking.

"Spit it out man!" Vincent said nervously.

"I think that even if there is the slightest possibility that that is what in fact is happening, then we need to find out more about it."

Vincent threw his arms in the air. "Thank you!" He exclaimed. "That's what I've been trying to tell you! And we need to find out soon because who knows how quickly this is happening."

J.T. didn't say anything.

Vincent noticed the expression on J.T.'s face. "There's more isn't there?"

J.T. slowly nodded. "Now I didn't test for this so it remains just a theory."

Vincent gave J.T. a strange look.

"Well, you think the Beast is somehow trying to over take you with guilt right?"

Vincent slowly nodded not sure where he was headed with this.

"If that's what's happening, from what we learned in the past it's not gunna stop until it get's what it wants." J.T. paused. "I hate to bring this up but think about it. When that man from Murifield tried to shoot you, you didn't just knock him out."

Vincent was a bit lost but allowed him to continue.

"The Beast didn't want him knocked out, it wanted him dead."

Vincent nodded.

"So to do that it killed him. The same thing happened when I was shot at."

Vincent held up a finger telling J.T. to hold on. "But I was me when that happened. I wasn't the Beast."

"You didn't necessarily have to shoot him." J.T said looking at Vincent.

"What? He was going to shoot you, if I didn't shoot him then you would be dead." Vincent said confused from J.T.'s logic.

"You just had to move him, or get his attention on something else." J.T. said.

Vincent gave J.T. a weird look. "I'm pretty sure he still would have shot you."

"Not my point. My point is, I think the Beast has more control over you than we think."

Vincent took a second to respond. "JT, I wasn't the Beast when I shot him. I shot him because he was going to shoot you."

J.T. took time to think that over.

"I think you're just confusing yourself." Vincent said with a bit of a chuckle trying to lighten up the mood.

J.T. shook his head. "No, just no." He got up from the couch and went over to his equipment.

"You don't have the right stuff J.T.!" Vincent called after him.

"Doesn't matter!" JT called back. "We're getting to the bottom of this!"

Vincent rolled his eyes and stood up to walk over towards his friend. "I'm asking Catherine to talk to Evan."

JT spun around to face Vincent. "Are you insane?"

Vincent didn't say anything.

"Look man, I know you're nervous. Trust me I am too. But risking having Evan get close to finding out about you?" JT shook his head. "No, to risky."

Vincent sighed. "JT, what if you do find what's going on but it's too late?"

"What do you mean to late?"

Vincent shrugged his shoulders. "Like what if by the time we do find out what's going on the Beast already became to powerful."

J.T. didn't say anything.

"J.T. I'm not going to live my life being a full-time Beast. I'm barely getting by part-time."

JT remained silent.

"If by chance I did become a beast forever, I wouldn't allow myself to be near you or Catherine. Hell, I don't even know if I could live with myself." Vincent sighed. "If we don't figure it out soon, the Beast will take over and who knows how many innocent people will lose their lives. I don't wanna live that way and I wont."

J.T. looked up at Vincent and let out a big sigh. "Alright, before we get to depressed here..." J.T. paused. "Let's find out what's really going on."

Vincent gave JT a stern look.

He sighed. "Let's find out what's really going on...and maybe birthday-boy can help us."

Woohoo Chapter 21, done!

So there wasn't really much going on here besides Vincent and JT talking about what the plan is with this whole DNA mutation stuff.

We haven't really seen Gabe or Evan around so what have they been up to? Two people trying to find Vincent working together? Hmm...

And what will happen when Vincent asks Catherine to try to get Evan's help. What effect will that have for Vincent's hiding? Will Evan get more suspicious? Plus wasn't Catherine going to tell Evan she didn't want to be involved? Oh boy... it's gunna be a bumpy ride...