WHILE I LIVE, YOU LIVE ~ PART 2

by Jessica Rupe/JessicaLynne

The day would end a lot differently than it began.

Catherine Chandler had been found alive. John Moreno had been arrested by the New York State Attorney General. Joe Maxwell had not only been reinstated at his job but the Governor had appointed him as interim District Attorney. And Elliott Burch was beyond frustrated. Cleon had done everything he could in the search for Catherine’s son and found nothing. So Elliott had tried to contact Joe, but making a simple phone call to the DA’s office wasn’t easy in the wake of everything that had happened. So Elliott had gone to visit Joe in person.

As Elliott walked into the DA bullpen, it was a madhouse. Joe had found out a lot more than he and Cleon had, thanks to Joe hiring Diana Bennett. A raid was being planned on the Staten Island mansion where Catherine and Vincent’s newborn son was being held by the crime kingpin who had bought out Moreno and kidnapped Catherine. Gabriel.

Vincent was the one who had approached Elliott and asked Elliot for help finding his and Catherine’s son. At first Elliott had been shocked by Vincent’s appearance, then the news that Catherine was alive and had given birth to Vincent’s son. But hearing the love that Vincent felt for Catherine in every word Vincent spoke, Elliott now understood why Catherine had said there was no possibility of him having any relationship with her, and Elliott had slowly come to accept that he had never stood a chance against Vincent Wells.

Everyone was working together to bring the baby boy home. Elliott eagerly joined in the raid planning after Joe updated him. Sending a note to Peter Alcott via the bike messenger Benny, Joe had been keeping Catherine up to date on what was being done to find her son. Catherine had been updating everyone Below.

All too soon, it was time to head to Staten Island. At the same time, Vincent was racing through the tunnels under Manhattan. Catherine and Father rode in a Helper’s cab. They would wait outside the mansion gates with Vincent hidden out of sight while Joe and the NYPD would go inside and find their baby. Catherine had the gun she had loaned Father when the outsiders had raided the tunnels returned to her, so she had asked Benny to take it to Joe. Poetic justice, she had said.

The raid was over in a matter of hours, though it seemed like forever to both Catherine and Vincent. Joe, along with Diana Bennett and Greg Hughes, had found Gabriel right as Gabriel was about to smother the baby in his crib with a pillow. Joe shot Gabriel in the heart using Catherine’s gun after telling him Catherine was alive and waiting for her son. Diana was the one who brought the baby boy to his mother. The joy on Catherine’s face as she held her son for the first time made it worth it for Diana. It really was nice to have that victory.

Gabriel’s henchmen were all arrested. The trial lasted for several months. During the testimonies, the doctor who had injected Catherine with the sedative had said in his defense that he had not wanted to violate the Hippocratic Oath by killing Catherine, so he had secretly labeled the sedative as morphine in order to make Catherine look like she had died, while instead she had fallen asleep. All of them were found guilty of kidnapping. Everyone except the doctor was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. The doctor was given a slightly lighter sentence because of his compassion for Catherine and the baby, and would be allowed the possibility of parole after time had been served. His medical license was permanently revoked, and he was banned from being able to practice medicine ever again.

EPILOGUE

Several weeks later, Joe, Elliott, and Diana each received a handwritten invitation to meet Catherine at Peter Alcott’s. Arriving at Peter’s brownstone they were all shocked when Peter took the trio to his basement. He told them about the tunnel community and that they had been invited to a special ceremony and celebration as a thank you for finding Catherine and Vincent’s son. Arriving in Father’s library, they were astonished to see so many people living under the city.

The ceremony was very sweet. The baby was named Jacob Charles Chandler Wells. Catherine and Vincent then faced each other and joined their hands as Jacob Wells Sr. spoke the words that united Vincent Wells and Catherine Chandler as husband and wife. There wasn’t a dry eye in the chamber as both ceremonies concluded.