Note: Found some time to get a chapter in! Sorry about the mistakes. My computer is stupid and sometimes auto corrects the words. So in the beginning of the last chapter it said, 'Vincent could believe it.' but it was actually 'couldn't' I just wanted to apologize for that. Thanks for reading you guys are awesome!
I DO NOT OWN BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Chapter 26
Catherine called Joe since it was late morning and she had the day off from work. She thought about how today was the perfect day to have off since Evan would probably want to talk about Vincent and how he just showed up like he did.
"So you're sure nobody called last night reporting a car hitting a person?" Catherine asked Joe again just to be sure.
"I'm sure Chandler, no one but Evan." Joe said.
Catherine sighed.
"Why are you so interested? It's not even a case."
"I guess I just find it odd that if the person hit her by accident then wouldn't they call to get paramedics? People who are not guilty usually make an attempt to call."
Joe sighed into the phone. "I don't know Chandler. I guess we just have to wait and see."
Catherine nodded knowing there wasn't much they could do. "How's the girl?"
Joe didn't say anything.
"Joe?" Catherine asked.
"Unfortunately the young woman had some ribs that were against her lungs. One of the rib's punctured the lung and caused internal bleeding. The doctors are trying their best but they said to be prepared for the worst."
Catherine didn't respond.
"So my guess is, is that she won't make it." Joe said.
"I know you said we just have to wait and see but has anyone claimed the car yet?" Catherine asked.
"Not that I know of, why?"
"Just curious. I just think it wasn't an accident. I mean first, hit and run, then no one claims the car." Catherine said making it clear that she thought something was up.
"Well we have to wait 24-hours until we open a case so tomorrow we will look further into it okay?" Joe said.
Catherine nodded. "Alright. I understand." Catherine paused. "Oh and Joe?"
"Hmm." He said into the phone.
"Could me and Tess take this one? I need to get some extra hours in." she lied.
Joe thought about it for a second. "Alright I'll make a deal with you. If this becomes a case, you and Tess can take it. But if it doesn't, promise me you won't swan dive off the cliff like you did with the Judge Hanson case okay?"
"I promise Joe, thank you." Catherine hung up the phone and called Vincent.
Ring...Ring...Ring..Ri-
"Hello?" Vincent mumbled while he was still half asleep.
Catherine couldn't help but laugh at his morning voice even though it was around 11AM. "Well hello sleepy head."
Vincent chuckled. "What's up?"
"I talked to Joe." Catherine said with a smile on her face thinking about how adorable he sounded while he was still half asleep.
"Okay, want to stop by?" Vincent asked becoming more awake.
"Sure just give me ten minutes." Catherine said as she stood up off her couch.
"Sure that will be enough time?" Vincent laughed remembering what happened with Tess a few weeks ago.
Catherine laughed. "Yes Vincent." she hung up the phone and made her way to the warehouse.
Catherine made her way into the warehouse and went up to Vincent's level.
"Hi." she said as she walked in.
"Have a seat." Vincent said motioning to the table in the middle of the room.
Catherine sat down and Vincent joined her.
"So what did you find?" Vincent asked taking a seat.
"Well, the car still hasn't been claimed and there were no calls last night beside Evan reporting a hit person." Catherine said.
Vincent nodded. "What about the woman?"
Catherine took a deep breath and Vincent heard her heart beat increase as if she had to give bad news.
"It's okay you can tell me what happened." Vincent said wanting to know the answer even though he already had a pretty good guess himself.
"One of her ribs made its way into one of her lungs causing internal bleeding. I'm sorry Vincent, I truly am. I know you did everything you could do in order to save her."
"Only if I didn't stop the car on the way there..." Vincent said quietly not realizing Catherine heard what he said.
"What?" Catherine asked.
Vincent's head shot up to look at her. "Oh...I...um..." Vincent paused. "I hallucinated again, while um...driving the woman to the hospital..."
Before Vincent could finish Catherine blurted out, "Oh my god! What happened?"
"Everything was fine, nothing happened I just slammed on the brakes when I thought I saw someone crossing the road and I thought I was going to hit them." He left out the part where he saw Alex. He didn't want to cause further conversations.
Catherine suddenly stood up. "Okay that's it we have to figure this out!" she stormed over to the stairs but stopped when Vincent put a hand on her shoulder.
"Catherine...it's fine." Vincent said in a calm voice.
"No Vincent this is not fine! You could have crashed and who knows what could of happened."
Vincent looked into Catherine's eyes. "But I didn't. Everyone was fine. Evan just took a face-plant onto the floor but he was fine."
Catherine gave Vincent a weird look. "Evan fell on the floor?"
"Um...yeah..." Vincent said. "The woman woke up in the backseat so I told Evan to go back there to check on her and while he was struggling to get back there I slammed on the brakes causing him to fall down."
"Hm..." Catherine said. "Well Evan's a big boy I'm sure he can handle it." she joked.
Vincent didn't laugh he was to upset about the dying woman. "If I didn't stop though she might've made it."
Catherine put a hand on Vincent's cheek. "Vincent you're the one who got her to the hospital."
Vincent sighed. "Apparently not quick enough."
Catherine looked into his brown-eyes. "Vincent you did everything you could. You even risked having Evan figuring out who you are. You risked Evan finding out about you and I'm positive if that woman knew the whole story she would be forever thankful."
A small smile formed on Vincent's face causing Catherine to smile as well. "Thanks." he said in a small voice.
Catherine stood on her tippy toes and planted a small kiss on his cheek. "Now, let's talk about Lafferty."
Vincent nodded and they both made their way back to the table.
"So what exactly do you remember about her being taken away." Catherine asked holding Vincent's hands from across the table.
Vincent took a deep breath. "Well we were both sitting at a picnic table while drinking beers and I just remember gripping my beer bottle a bit to hard and it just exploded."
Catherine lightly chuckled to try to lighten up the mood a bit. "You broke your bottle?"
Vincent smiled and laughed. "Yeah..."
"Okay continue."
Vincent did what he was told and continued on with the story. "Well anyway, after I basically crushed my beer bottle with my own hand we started talking about how awesome it was being able to do all that stuff and how great we all felt and...that's what it happened..."
Catherine gave Vincent a concerned look and gave his hands a bit of a squeeze. "What happened?"
"Well, she blacked out and smashed the table in half. Then she started breathing really heavy and that's when they took her away and nobody saw her after that."
Catherine nodded saying she understood. "You said something about talking to my mom about it?"
Vincent slowly nodded. "Um..yeah. I saw your mom later that day when she came to ask how I was doing and I asked her about Lafferty and that's when she said everyone's body was reacting differently and some people just couldn't handle it. She didn't say Lafferty died but that's the impression I received. I asked her if she was okay and she never really answered my question she just said that once it was all over we could live happy and healthy lives with our families and explained why she joined..." Vincent stopped talking so he didn't have to continue.
"She told you why she joined?" Catherine asked.
"Yeah..." Vincent regretted that he even mentioned her mother.
"Do you remember what she said?" Catherine asked with a little bit of hope.
Vincent slowly nodded. "She said she joined Murifield in order to protect her daughters." After Vincent said that it felt like someone just threw a rock into his stomach.
Catherine nodded and whipped her eye.
"Catherine I'm so sorry I-" Vincent started out.
"No, Vincent it's fine." she managed to smile while whipping her eye again.
"Catherine..." Vincent said leaning closer to her.
She looked up at Vincent and smiled. "I promise it's okay."
Vincent forced a half-smile back but he still felt bad. "Do you want to get something to eat for lunch?" Vincent asked changing the subject.
Catherine smiled. "Sure. Do you need me to order anything? I'll buy."
Vincent shook his head. "I think we can work with the stuff JT bought at the grocery store. What do you like?"
Catherine shrugged her shoulders. "Doesn't matter but I have to warn you, I'm not the best cook."
Vincent chuckled. "I'm sure you're a great cook."
Catherine rolled her eyes. "Tell that to the last meal I tried to cook."
Vincent laughed and they both made their way down to the main level. He walked over to the fridge and opened it. "Hmm." he said looking through the selves. "It seems we are all out of eggs, milk and bacon."
Catherine smiled. "Yeah...sorry about that I promise I will buy you more."
Vincent looked over the door and smiled. "Only kidding." He pulled out some chicken and put it on the counter.
"Oh and thanks, you really saved my butt with the whole grocery thing." Catherine said.
Vincent smiled. "No problem."
"So what are you going to make with the chicken?" Catherine asked walking closer to Vincent.
"Well, what do you want?" Vincent asked. "chicken parmesan?" Vincent said refuring to her date with Gabe.
Catherine gave Vincent a weird look along with a smile. "I have a feeling that wasn't just random."
Vincent shrugged. "Not really." he said opening the chicken.
"How did you know I had chicken parmesan?" Catherine asked crossing her arms.
"Lucky guess?" Vincent said putting the chicken on a cutting board.
"You followed me." Catherine said smiling.
"Maybe." Vincent said casually not taking his eyes off the chicken.
"You followed me during dinner with Gabe." Catherine stated.
"Did I? I don't remember..." Vincent said trying to hide a smile.
"Why?" Catherine asked.
"I just wanted to make sure you were safe. I know you were around a bunch of people but still, you were out with someone you didn't really know and-" Vincent stopped when he felt Catherine wrap her arms around Vincent's back and gave him a small peck on the cheek. "Thank you." she whispered into his ear.
Vincent turned his head to look at her and smiled. "And just to let you know, he deserved the water thrown in his face."
Catherine laughed. "Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that."
Neither Vincent or Catherine took their eyes off each other. They continued to smile at one another until Catherine's phone rang. She jumped slightly and grabbed the phone out of her pocket.
"Chandler."
"Hi, Cat I just wanted to let you know we searched the car trying to find any information on the owner." Tess said.
"Oh?" Catherine asked looking back at Vincent who was cutting up the chicken. She knew he could hear everything. "What did you find?"
"Well, not much. Not even that much DNA. We only found two DNA samples. One by the name of Gregg Johnson, whose DNA was all over the car and another whose name is Lafferty Lawson whose DNA was only in the front of the car."
Catherine saw Vincent's head shoot up from cutting the chicken.
"So it is either Johnson or Lawson who hit the woman?" Catherine asked.
"Seems like it. I think Gregg Johnson is the owner so we will track him down later today telling him we have his car. We will also bring him in for a few questions." Tess said.
Catherine hated to ask this but knew it was necessary. "And Lafferty Lawson?"
"We will track her down too and bring her in as well." Tess said.
Catherine watched as Vincent gave her a concerned look. "Cat?"
"What? Yeah, sorry I'm just making lunch. Yeah sounds good, let me know if anything come's up okay?"
"Will do. I gotta go." Tess said.
"Bye." Catherine said hanging up the phone. She looked over at Vincent. "Gregg Johnson, does that name ring a bell?"
Vincent thought about it but couldn't come up with anything. "No, not really. Maybe Lafferty found she could trust and just was driving his car. You know, like I have you and JT." Vincent smiled.
Catherine smiled back. "Don't worry we will find her before the precinct can get to her." Catherine put a hand on Vincent's cheek. "I promise."
Glad I found some time to get this chapter together. I will try my best to update another one later tonight. So who do you guys think Gregg Johnson is? (yay came up with another name! haha) Is he important? If he knows Lafferty what will he say once he gets to the precinct? Is he close to Lafferty kind of like how JT is to Vincent? Do they even know each other? So many questions! Let me know what you think in the reviews! :)