No sooner had Evan left when Alex returned, carrying supplies Vincent would need to care for Catherine throughout the night. Her eyes took in the wrinkled condition of Vincent's lab coat, but she wisely kept any comments to herself. She knew enough about him from having grown up together that if she ever had a prayer of getting him back, she'd have to be the peppy, sweet Alex he remembered, not a jealous shrew.

"So here's pretty much everything you should need for tonight," she told him, stating the obvious with a smile that seemed less than genuine. Vincent could tell something was the matter with her by the way she struggled to keep herself from hyperventilating. He had a pretty good idea what was bothering her, but he wasn't going to discuss it with her. He'd made his position about where his affections lay pretty clear to her. She was just going to have to deal with it. Maybe seeing him with Catherine would be the catalyst to finally convince her to move on with her life.

Stroking Cat's hair and focusing all his attention on her, he simply said "thanks" in response to Alex's comment. He could feel her stare and realized she hadn't set anything down. Lifting his head, he looked over at her, while still maintaining contact with Catherine in a manner that was clearly possessive. "Is there something else?" he asked Alex. It was a simple enough question, but she didn't miss the underlying message he was intentionally conveying to her. She was overstepping her bounds with him, and was consequently being dismissed.

Setting down the tray of supplies with a firm thud she said, "No, not a thing," then turned and stormed out of the room. On the other side of the door she leaned back against it with her eyes closed and silently cursed her inability to remain unaffected by him. As long as he knew he was getting to her, he would realize that she hadn't let go. Her only hope of getting him back was to make him think she didn't care anymore. Maybe then he'd come to his senses. She pushed herself away from the door and headed for the lobby to meet Tess. It had been a hellish day and she just wanted to go home.

Catherine looked up at Vincent. "I think I'm picking up that Alex still has feelings for you."

Vincent smiled, and she loved how the corners of his eyes crinkled when he did. "You don't have to be empathic to figure that out, you know." He chuckled. "But in all seriousness, she thinks she still has feelings for me. But what she really has feelings for is a ghost – the memory of who I used to be. You and I both know that I'm not that man anymore. Alex will never understand or believe it though. Not unless she sees the beast inside me. And-" he forestalled her impending objection, "she never will. I realize that, you don't have to worry. I'm just saying – short of that, it might be pretty hard to shake her belief that we are never going to be together again."

Smoothing the blankets over her legs, Catherine avoided looking into his eyes. "Yeah well… maybe there is a way to send her the message and put some distance between you…" Vincent sat on the edge of her bed and cupped her face with his hand, hooking his thumb under her chin.

"Tell me what's on your mind, Catherine. Is this about the plan JT said you came up with? Hey… stop avoiding looking at me. I won't bite you. Well, not much anyway. And I promise if I do you'll beg me to do it again," he teased. To his pleasure, she blushed a pretty shade of deep pink, and he could hear her heart race a little faster. With a grin, he made a mental note that the idea of loving nibbles was a turn-on to her. The unbidden thought that he'd have to be careful it was him and not the beast doing the biting stole some of the joy of the moment from him, but he carefully schooled his expression to not give away his sudden anxiety.

"Yeah, this is about the idea I had," she finally responded. "Well, actually, Evan was the one to suggest it. You know, I have some sick leave coming and I need recuperation time. And with this witch hunt Joe has going to catch the vigilante, it might be good for you to get away…" She let the thought hang in the air.

"So you were thinking maybe we should go away somewhere? Maybe get a little R&R and keep a low profile for a while?"

"Yeah, kind of – you aren't mad?"

Vincent chuckled. "Let me get this straight. You're offering me a romantic getaway with the woman of my dreams and you think this would make me mad because-?"

"I don't know!" Catherine was feeling seriously flustered. The woman of his dreams? Did he really see her that way? "I guess I just figured you could have left New York any time you wanted to, but you chose to stay here. There must have been a reason that you remained right where your enemy knew you were all this time." She looked down so he wouldn't be able to see her vulnerability in her eyes. "I was worried you might be angry for me wanting to take you away from whatever it was."

Vincent was amazed to discover that she still didn't understand him after all that had transpired between them in the last couple of days. "Oh Catherine," he breathed with such love and warmth it actually gave her goosebumps. "Don't you realize yet that you are the reason I never left New York?"

Her head snapped up and her gaze met his in total surprise. "Me? But that doesn't make any sense. I mean, we've only known each other for a few months…"

"Do you remember me telling you that when I saw you in the woods that night, that everything changed for me?" Catherine nodded her head silently. "Well there was more to it than that. I mean, I just didn't tell you the extent of how things changed. I – I guess I didn't want to scare you or creep you out or something."

Cat reached out and took his hand. She knew he had a lot of secrets and could see why he would feel he might scare Alex. But what could be worse than the things they'd already dealt with together? "Tell me, Vincent. No secrets, remember?"

He looked into her eyes and what she saw in his took her breath away. There was such intensity there – and she could feel the undercurrent of passion humming through him. She was starting to suspect that not only wouldn't she be freaked out by his response, she was probably going to like his tortured confession. "Catherine, the first time I saw you in the woods I… God, this is so hard to explain. Heaven knows, I've tried to forget it for the last 9 years, to convince myself it never happened… I could say it was love at first sight but that seems so trite and not at all adequate for what I felt. It was like I knew you clear to my bones. Like I sensed that you were going to be really important to me. I know, that probably sounds crazy…"

"Not at all," she answered, her voice like a gentle, soothing sigh. "I'll be honest, I was terrified at first, when I heard what you did to those men. You never knew it, but I'd hit my head when I fell and my vision was so blurry, I didn't see any of what happened. When I heard you walk toward me, I expected the worst. But you just stood over me, watching me, and I could hear your breathing become more even, less harsh as you did. That's when I felt the gentleness in you, Vincent. I told you once I knew that night that you would never hurt me. But it was more than that. It was something I couldn't understand or put a name to, but I felt connected to you in some strange way that I've never felt with any other human being before. And yet everyone kept trying to convince me you were some sort of wild animal. But I knew what I heard, I knew what I felt… and I just couldn't reconcile that with what other people were trying to convince me had happened. Because after the horror of seeing my mom murdered and listening to you… do what you did to those men? Common sense would say I should have been terrified out of my mind; yet after the initial shock of it all, the only thing I felt wassafe. Part of me almost wanted you to gather me up in your arms and take me somewhere far from the horror of what had just happened. I just wanted you to hold me until it didn't hurt anymore." She looked away, feeling uncomfortably vulnerable all of a sudden."Kinda dumb, huh?"

"No, it wasn't dumb," he reassured her. "I think your empathic abilities must have started to awaken that night. Because the truth is, I was fighting a war inside myself to keep from doing just that. I wanted to lift you in my arms and hold you close and take you somewhere that I knew was safe and we could be alone. But I was terrified that you would be repulsed by my… disfigurement. And the thought of that was really painful to me. So I decided to watch you from a distance and pretend that someday we could meet and fall in love and be normal. I guess I was living in a fantasy world, wasn't I?"

His self-disgust was evident. But Catherine wasn't about to let him succumb to it. "Maybe you were," she agreed. Reaching up, she placed her hand against his cheek. "But this? This is no fantasy, Vincent. We may not be 'normal' – whatever that is. We did meet, though, and fall in love. Two out of three is pretty good, don't you think?" Her smile was warm and loving, and drew Vincent like a bee to honey. When she tugged ever so gently, urging him to bend closer to her, he took the hint and lowered himself to meld his lips with hers. Kissing her was like flying into the sun; it burned hot and warmed all the cold places within him where he'd been hiding for the last 10 years.

Her passion was like a beacon, lighting the way home for him – and that home was found in the safety of her embrace. Even as he fell deeper under her spell, he marveled at how she had managed to completely upend the dynamics of their relationship. For the last 9 years he had been the strong one, watching over her and swooping in to rescue her when she was vulnerable to danger. But now, he had to acknowledge that he was the vulnerable one; not to physical danger, but emotionally. For 10 long years he had seen himself as an abomination against nature, a freakish monster. Never did he expect he would ever be able to let down his guard with anyone except JT, and certainly not with a woman. No… with this woman. Because if he was honest with himself, the night he first laid eyes on her all other women had ceased to exist for him.

Vincent broke their kiss, but his lips continued to hover just a hair's breadth above her own. "Before I met you, I never dreamed it was possible to love someone this much," he confessed. His warm breath fanned over her face and she inhaled deeply, as if drawing his very life force inside herself. Being with him, loving him and being loved by him made her feel like a completely different person. Like all her life she'd been asleep, and suddenly awakened to who she truly was meant to be; not just as an empath, but as a woman. Oh yes, the thought of having this man alone somewhere for an extended period of time was very appealing. She lifted her face ever so slightly in order to brush her lips against his.

"I know what you mean," she whispered. "I love you so much it scares me a little. But in an exciting way that makes me feel so alive," she rushed on to add before he could worry. "I've never been a clingy, needy type of woman, I think you know that, right?"

Vincent's eyes softened as he smiled in response. "Clingy is the last word I would use to describe you." He chuckled.

She was all seriousness when she asked, "Then why is it that when I'm not with you, I feel like I can't breathe? Why all I can live for is the next moment I get to be with you again?"

Leaning down he gave her a slow, tender kiss before answering. "Maybe because you're sensing how I feel. Because that's exactly what it feels like. Or maybe… maybe it's because we are destined to be together. All I know is that what we have? It's beyond normal. It's so intense, but I wouldn't want it any other way. It's almost like… after all the horrible things that have happened to both of us, we're being rewarded with something rare and beautiful. I for one am not going to question it. I'm just counting my blessings." He teased the tip of her nose with his, before capturing her lips in a fiery kiss. When they broke apart, they were both breathless. Vincent leaned his forehead against hers, just to maintain some sort of contact with her.

"I want you so much," she told him, her voice soft as if she were afraid of breaking some spell they were under.

"Oh God, Catherine… the thought of being with you – making love to you? You have no idea how much I want that. But I'm so afraid I could hurt you. I'd never forgive myself-"

Catherine stopped his tortured words with a finger against his lips. "We'll take it slow, one step at a time. I know you don't have it in you to hurt me. It will be fine." So much love radiated from her eyes as she smiled up at him, he found himself wanting to believe her words. But he had so many doubts…

"Catherine, even if I don't hurt you, chances are it won't be me you're making love with. You do realize that, right? Especially with how intense our feelings for each other are, there's no way it's not going to trigger my change. That little empathic teasing session we had going on yesterday had started to trigger it. Actually being with you and touching you, tasting you? It's going to send me over the edge, no question about it."

Reaching up, she lightly combed his hair back from his face with her fingers. "Do you really think I hadn't thought of that?" she asked, but there was no censure in her voice. "Vincent, you have to stop thinking of yourself as two separate people. When you change – you are still there. I see it so clearly. Your compassion, your sense of justice… and your love for me. How could I ever fear you?"

Vincent pulled away and sat upright on the edge of the bed. "I fear me. Don't you get it? We are going into uncharted territory here. I have no idea how my body will react to this kind of… stimulation. I know something will happen, though, thanks to our brief exploration with that aspect of our relationship. But how far it will go? I have no idea. And what if prolonged… arousal brings about changes we've not even seen yet? What if part of my new genetic makeup is DNA from some species that instinctively does… something weird or dangerous while mating? God, the more I think about it the more terrified I become."

"Then stop thinking about it," she urged. "Seriously, Vincent, you're thinking about it too much. And isn't this something we should just feel? I think if we focus on how much we love each other everything will work out in the end. So please, stop worrying, okay?"

"I'll try, but I can't make any promises. You are too precious to me, Catherine. I just can't take unnecessary chances with you."

Catherine chuckled. "Well from where I sit, this is a very necessary chance." She smiled broadly, her eyes twinkling, and when his eyes widened in surprise at the suggestive nature of her comment she laughed. It was a warm sound, full of joy and hope, and he knew for certain that she wasn't laughing at him. "Ok, so realistically – when can I get out of this damned hospital?"

"Well now that we have a plan, I'm going to see if Alex will release you tomorrow. I can take care of you wherever we happen to land – did you have an idea about where you wanted to go?" He hadn't even thought that far yet, but perhaps she had.

"Oh, I have a couple ideas," she revealed with an air of mystery. "But we can talk about it tomorrow. If we're going to be making a trip, we need our rest." She bit her lip, a sign that she was nervous about asking him something.

"What is it, Catherine?" he asked, his voice low and gentle.

"Well, it's just there's only one bed in here, but I want you to get a good rest…" The look she gave him spoke volumes.

"Do you think that's a good idea? I mean, with your shoulder and all?"

Her voice was husky when she replied, "Oh, I think it's a very good idea. But seriously, I just want you to hold me. Nothing more. I want something a little more… isolated and romantic for our first time. After a long hot shower. A hospital bed just isn't doing it for me." She laughed.

"Well okay," he said with a theatrical sigh. "But you better not try to take advantage of me in the night, or I'll have to tell the officer outside the door that you are sexually harassing me on the job." Catherine giggled, and he grinned like an idiot in return. Nothing made him happier than to see her smile. He got up and went to the door and locked it, before coming to lie down beside her. If he was going to let his guard down enough to doze off he needed the lock to slow down any potential intruders and offset any delayed response he might have.