WE’LL WALK TOGETHER

by ChicagoTunnelKid

Vincent slowly recuperated after his capture. The drugs the professor used took a while to entirely clear his system; plus, the lingering effects his psyche suffered from being imprisoned and inspected would take longer. And there was the loss of Catherine. That nearly killed him before he was captured; it surely hastened and deepened the impact incarceration had upon him.

Yet, it was Catherine who found him, rescued him, and brought him back to the tunnels, to home. By all rights, she should have been in Providence. She stayed to find him, and found herself along the way. He couldn’t ask her to stay when she came to him that night. He knew the words she wanted to hear from him. But he could not, would not say them. He would not have her sacrifice her life for him. Walking away from her that night was the hardest thing he had done. And the cost – well, carelessness nearly led to his death.

He barely could believe it was Catherine who came for him. And she stayed with him that evening, reading to him, and letting him know obliquely through the words of the poem that she was not leaving. He hadn’t the courage to ask. The lost opportunity for her haunted him. But he felt no regrets in her. So he would have to learn to let it go.

She was so beautiful in he candlelight in his chamber as she read to him. She looked at him as she read the last passage. He had looked back, recognizing what she was reading, and knowing what it meant. His heart rejoiced as her words washed over him. She was staying. She was staying for him.

A week past and Vincent went to meet Catherine at her threshold. Father questioned the wisdom of such a walk, but Vincent assured him he was ready. He was more than ready to see Catherine again. His walk had a lightness to it that reflected his heart – she stayed for him. Words were always nice to hear, but actions spoke volumes. She stayed when she could have left him for a future that would have been very different from her life here in the city, and Below, with him. He could not easily brush off this decision as he so often could brush off her words. He meant something to her – enough to stay and see where it would go. He owed her, somehow, for such a declaration that she had given him. He still could not say how much he loved her. He did not wish to bind her to him, as her options would be severely curtailed in his opinion.

She started down the ladder and stood in the halo of light. His breath caught. She walked into his arms and hugged him tightly. They separated to begin the walk to the hub. He asked about her day as they walked, or more precisely, ambled along the path. A few times they were out of sync and bumped shoulders. The next time that happened, Vincent slipped his hand over hers, and they continued, hand in hand, along the way.

Both were smiling; Catherine wrapped her hand a little more snugly in his, and savored the feeling of his hand, and his action of taking hers; Vincent smiled as he felt Catherine’s pleasure, heightened by his own. Such a small thing, taking another’s hand in yours, he thought. Perhaps in that small way, he answered her decision to stay. From now on, we’ll walk together.