“I love you, Catherine.” Vincent whispered against her throat and Catherine truly believed him.

“I love you too, Vincent.” Young as she was she wanted to mother him. Give him the love he had never known, show him what it was to have the love of a mother, and at that thought remembered her own. Peeking out over his shoulder where she laved kisses, she gazed at the rocking chair where her mother had spent so many hours reading to her or rocking her to sleep, and she could almost imagine she sat there now. Smiling, despite what her daughter was up to, Caroline was smiling and so happy that her daughter had found her prince and would have the happy life that she had wished for her.

“I love you too, mother.” Catherine mouthed without uttering a sound, “He is everything, isn’t he? Thank you for finding him for me.”

His hands sought out the places he had only ever imagined and with her warm fingers Catherine grasped his seeping erection closer to her body. “Vincent, I need you. I need you so much.” She told him as a swirling vortex opened up somewhere in the lower pit of her belly and seemed that nothing would fill the longing that stemmed from there. At her words they half tumbled half drew one another down to the bed, and in an act as ageless as time slipped into the position that would enable them to become as one.

Poised above her, his eyes searching the honeyed green depths of hers Vincent begged entry into her intensely beautiful body and with one nod of her head he plunged deeply where stars went on forever.

Nothing compared to the rapture that he felt at being joined to another for the first time in his life, and as Catherine manoeuvred her body so that he might sink deeper still, he began the timeless motion that would bring them both exquisite pleasure.

“Oh God, oh God, Vincent its beautiful…” He felt Catherine kiss his face, his neck, his throat, but he could not speak, as words were snatched away from him the moment the rapture of entering her body had exploded around him. This was bliss, this was perfection personified…this was heaven itself…Finally, “Oh Catherine, Catherine…I love you so much.” The words gushed from him as his body climaxed deep inside her and she clung to him, heart racing her own body pulled along with his, shaken fuelled whisked away to a paradise from where she never wanted to leave.

Slowly, slowly normality returned and they came to rest still locked together, “Marry me.” Vincent husked, “marry me, dear sweet Catherine, because I love you so much.”

Yet, strangely enough rather than fill her heart with joy, the proposal terrified Catherine. As suddenly she saw herself having to give up the life that she loved for one with him deep in the bowels of the earth, far beneath the city she knew as home, to live in tunnels void of sunlight and void of the very many things she still intended to do with her life.

Sadly, he watched her shake her head, knowing the refusal was there from her heart and her eyes even before the words left her lips, “I can’t Vincent. I’m sorry, but I can’t.” And in that moment all his dreams that had so recently flown to infinity and back as he’d loved her sunk into a well as deep as the abyss never to return. He wished he could take back the proposal, wished with all his heart, just like he’d wished he hadn’t reached out for Lisa that time, just like he wished he hadn’t been so presumptuous then he wished he hadn’t been so presumptions now. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Forget that I asked.” He begged knowing even as he spoke that things between them were changing. He was losing her he could feel her slipping away from him. He hated himself for spoiling what they had just shared by blurting out something like that without first giving it some forethought.

Of course, she wouldn’t marry him. She had her whole life to live, a life apart from his and a college to attend and a future in law to take up at her father’s firm. How could he have expected that she would give it all up for him? He’d been a fool to expect so much.

Pulling away from her, the simple act of his body leaving the warmth of hers was almost too much. It was tragic, for he was certain he would never enter her again. “Forgive me.” He begged sorrow flowing through him when she did not reply or try to prevent him from leaving her bed. He stood looking over her a moment more, but she had turned away from him and though he could feel her heart slowly breaking he was unable to do anything about it. His too was breaking and he was lost to his own sorrow.

He left the room quietly, making his way in the dark toward the couch in the centre of the room, and there tugging on a few items of clothing he sank himself uncomfortably beneath the blanket placed there for him and closed his eyes, but he could not sleep. For he had assumed too much of the one he’d loved and was so ashamed. Even so, the stillness of the night and the essence of Catherine that still lingered upon his body eventually soothed him and he slept, a deep dreamless sleep that by morning would help him to decide what he ought to do. He’d set Catherine free.

“I take it you’re peeved about something that the rain has prevented from taking place?” He asked setting aside his pen from where he had been writing at his desk.

“Its not just the rain…its…its…” She sought for the right word.

“Everything?” He offered.

Catherine grinned, “Yes everything. If only life were simple. If only I didn’t have so many options to choose from.”

“Ode to the rich girl.” Her father chuckled, “You should be so lucky.”

“I know, a bitch aren’t I? I have everything yet want none of it. Daddy, why is life so hollow?”

“It depends what your goals are, and whether they are attainable. What is it that you want from life exactly?”

“Truly?”

He nodded, “Yes truly.”

“Even if you are disappointed in me.”

“Even then. I only want your happiness Cathy, and at the end of the day you are your mother’s daughter as much as you are mine.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because as much as I’d like you to follow in my footsteps and take up corporal law and take on this firm when I’m too old and decrepit to manage it myself, I have a feeling that you want to do the complete opposite. In fact I believe that you would like to follow in your mother’s footsteps.”

“And that is?” Catherine laughed out loud enjoying every moment of the debate.

“Simply put to be someone’s wife and someone’s mother.”

He’d hit the nail on the head, but rather than agree Catherine grew silent. He watched the many expressions chase across her face until finally she told him, “Huh but that’s the sixty four thousand dollar problem isn’t it. Where do I find someone to propose to me?”

“A beautiful young woman like you should be fighting them off.” He sounded surprised that no one had asked her.

“Oh I’m fighting them off all right!” She shrieked with laughter causing him to join her, “But they want what I don’t want to give and what I want is the last thought on their mind. Daddy, am I set to be an old maid all my life?”

He laughed, “Cathy you’re nineteen almost twenty, you have years ahead of you yet.”

“Not if I want to enjoy my children while I’m young and fit enough to do so.” She laughed. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have refused the opportunity when I had the chance.” She mused almost to herself.

“Someone asked you to marry them? When? Who?” Charles was exceedingly interested.

“Vincent.”

“Vincent! The one and the same Vincent?”

“Yes, that Vincent.”

“You never told me.”

“I never told anyone.”

“Is that why the two of you split up? You never wrote to him again after you brought him home from the cabin did you?”

“Well yes actually I did, but he never replied.”

“Well I can’t say I blame him, you probably hurt his pride. Though why he assumed you would marry him in the first place beats me.”

Catherine swallowed convulsively before explaining, “We became lovers.”

“Lovers! You and Vincent? Do you mean you kissed? Catherine that isn’t being lovers!” Charles grinned.

“Daddy I know what it means to be lovers, and no we didn’t just kiss, we went beyond that.”

“He made love to you!” Charles was stunned, “And I didn’t know!”

“Like I said, no one knew.” She sounded so sad that despite all he had heard Charles’s heart went out to her and if he admitted it to Vincent also.

“Did he hurt you?” He had to ask.

“No, Daddy he’s just a man, there are still similarities.” She grinned mischievously and he joined her.

“You sound as though you wish you and he were still together.” He told her.

“There have been times when I wished for nothing more, but I always found something else to occupy my mind. But just lately dad, he’s all I ever think about. I still love him you know.”

Charles nodded, he’d have to be blind not to see that. Her face was radiant when she spoke of Vincent. In fact, the few times she had spoken in the past, he had assumed that that was so. Only Catherine hadn’t seen it then, or so he’d supposed. Perhaps she was just a good actress.

“Why don’t you go and see him?” He ventured gently.

“And what ask him to propose again? He might even have met someone else by now.”

“Still you could visit the tunnels, it wouldn’t hurt. He might be pleased to see you.”

“I don’t doubt that daddy, but he might be just polite, it would be awkward. If I had some way of knowing beforehand how he felt it would help. But I don’t know who to ask.”

“Peter might help?”

“The same Peter who is spending three months in Canada right now? Dad, I don’t want to wait three months!”

“You’ve waited two years.”

“Well it’s enough already. Daddy, I want to see Vincent now. I need to see him now!” She sounded so desperate that Charles wished he could help. A plan began to build in his mind.

“I’ll make some enquiries, someone must know him. Leave it with me.”

“Oh dad, you’d do that? Oh thank you. How long do you think it will take?”

“I don’t know honey, I’ll get onto it today if you like, but didn’t you say that you were going to be staying over at Nancy’s this week?”

“Yes, but there’s been a change of plans, I’m only going for the one night now, I’ll be back by Friday.”

“Well I’ll try to have something for you by then. Now, enough of this, I expect you are hungry? You’ve been out all day and there is a casserole in the microwave. I’ll be along shortly to join you, perhaps you’d butter some rolls while you’re waiting for me?”

Catherine nodded and leaving her seat went over to kiss her father’s cheek, “You know.” She told him, “When I came in here, it was as if a huge storm was brewing around me, it felt ominous and imminent, but now it’s as if all those clouds have completely gone. Thank you dad, I love you.”

“And I love you too, honey.” He hugged her then watched her leave the room feeling a little anxious that he had deceived her. For he knew exactly how to get a hold of Vincent, and he wasted no time the moment she closed the door behind her. Come what may, he’d do his utmost to get those two back together. Any fool could see how much she loved him he just hoped that Vincent still felt the same way about her.

“A message for you Vincent.” Father had waited until the History class was finished before he hobbled into the chamber and handed his son the note that had arrived an hour earlier. “And how was the class today? Did they grasp the concept that you put before them?”

“Yes Father, thank you for helping me with the assignment, I hadn’t exactly looked at it in that light before. I’m certain your teaching skills were wasted when you lived above.”

“Wasted or not, I am only too glad that they are of help here. We are building quite a utopia are we not? Some of the children will go out and make a better world for those up top by what they learn here, of that I am certain.”

“Yes Father, but the credit should still go to you. However before your head is too big to pass through that door I will keep further impressions to myself.”

Father chuckled, “Your message Vincent?” He reminded him pointing to the note with his cane that Vincent seemed to have forgotten all about. “It might be important.”

Vincent turned the note over in his hand, he didn’t recognise the handwriting of his name upon it but it did seem vaguely familiar. “I’ll read it in my chamber. Don’t worry if I need to discuss it with you I will know where to find you.” He grinned knowing that his father would have given anything to know what it said and whom it was from, but would never pry, well not directly.

Father chuckled, “I’ll leave you to it then.” And he hobbled back the way he had come almost disappointed that he would have to wait a while longer. Vincent received so few notes, and any that did come his way were almost certainly attaining to trouble or something exciting.

Back at his chamber Vincent took the note to his desk, and there sliding open the envelope with the knife on his desk used for that very purpose, he pulled from it a single sheet of paper, and read first, “Dear Vincent.” Before skipping the content to see whom it was from, “Sincerely Charles Chandler.”

His heart hammering Vincent began to read back from the beginning with relish wondering for what possible reason Charles Chandler had written to him after all this time.

Answering the knock at the door, Charles knew who it would be at this hour, but it was still a surprise to see him standing beneath the porch clothed in his usual cloak and hood.

“Vincent! Thank you for coming.”

“You wanted to see me, is something wrong?” He peered over Charles shoulder into the dimly lit room beyond and marvelled that this man had thought to put him first. Dimming the stark overhead lights to a mere shimmer and placing the odd welcoming candle around the room so that he might feel at home.

“Come in, Vincent. Yes I wanted to speak with you, and no nothing is wrong, so you can relax.”

Intrigued, Vincent stepped inside the house, automatically remembering the last time he’d been there and though two years ago, it was as clear to him as if it were but yesterday.

“Can I take your cloak?” Charles asked, ushering the younger man into his sitting room.

“No, if you do not mind?” Vincent replied, and Charles remembered that Vincent seldom removed it while above. Though they may seem safe, the younger man was always alert and ready to flee at a moment’s notice.

“I’m not expecting anyone and Catherine is away for the night, but as you wish. Please take a seat. Can I get you some tea?” Vincent shook his head and preferred to stand. He felt uneasy Charles was making too much of small talk, not coming to the point.

“Why did you ask me to come?” He demanded to know surprising Charles. Vincent sounded worried.

“Its nothing wrong, I told you, but I have something I need to know. Well that’s not strictly true. Vincent, please sit down. I would prefer it.” The younger man was such an impressive figure that he appeared to dominate the room, leaving Charles feeling nervous.

Reluctantly sitting, Vincent waited, knowing now that Charles at ease would begin to tell him why he had asked him to his home that night, and while Catherine was away too.

“Recently, I have come to learn that two years ago you asked Catherine to marry you.” Charles began and Vincent jumped back to his feet to begin pacing the room.

“Yes I asked her, and I’m sorry. I should never have presumed that I knew her well enough to ask. Please forgive me and if its any consolation know that I learned from that mistake, never to get that close to another woman ever again.”

“No Vincent, you don’t understand, I’m not condemning you for asking my daughter to marry you, quite the opposite in fact. Look please sit back down, I’d like to talk to you man to man.”

Surprised Vincent did as asked and again waited for Charles to speak.

“I know you see yourself as different, but believe me Vincent I would be proud to have you as a son-in-law. After all you saved my daughter’s life twice didn’t you?” Before Vincent could reply, Charles went on, “Oh I know that shouldn’t make her indebted to marry you, but believe me when I tell you Vincent, that my daughter still loves you.”

At this, Vincent gasped and did find it hard to believe. “I felt sure that she would have forgotten me by now.” He whispered.

“How could she ever forget you?” Charles asked with a chuckle, “however if you won’t take my word for it surely you can tell how she feels about you through the connection that you two share?”

“No. Since the day I last saw Catherine I have kept that connection closed.”

“You can do that?” Charles sounded amazed. “Oh but you shouldn’t have. Can you open it now? I’m sure you will find that Catherine is thinking about you.”

Vincent wasn’t so sure, and he still wasn’t certain why Charles had asked him here this night. Just to talk over what might have been? But his note had sounded so anxious, it had to be more than that.

“Vincent if I asked you, would you see Catherine again?”

Surprised by the question Vincent simply replied, “Why?”

“Because she is ready to settle down and because I am certain that if you asked her to marry you again she would not refuse you a second time. So, would you see her? That is assuming you have not found someone else?”

“No, there is no-one else, as I explained earlier I would never be so presumptuous again. But how can you be sure that this is what Catherine wants?”

“Because I have discussed it with her, only yesterday in fact. Vincent she still loves you and she is ready to live life with you down in that world of yours.”

His heart beginning to open and blossom for the first time in two years Vincent had to know, “And how would that affect you?”

“Me? Why whatever makes Catherine happy I’m okay with. But that’s not what you asked is it?” Vincent shook his head. “Thought not. You want to know how I’d feel about her marrying you? Well as I said a few moments ago, I’d be proud to have you as my son in law, and not just because I can see what a good protector you would be for my daughter.” He grinned, “Vincent you are a wonderful man, you’re kind, gentle…no, no…you are…” he added when Vincent tried to deny it. “You are gentle, and you love Catherine do you not?”

“Always.”

“Then that’s all there is to it really isn’t it, you love her and she loves you and I think a lot of you too. I’ll accept whatever the two of you decide but whatever it is I hope it will make the both of you happy.”

“Thank you Charles. I promise I will love Catherine until my last breath, and if she will have me I would be only too willing to propose to her again. But please know this that I have to be certain. I will open the connection that binds us and I will decide if this is truly what her heart longs for. And if I have doubts I will see her again, and we will take up our relationship from where we left off, and see what develops from there. Not until I am certain will I propose again. Please try to understand. Its not that I don’t want her as my wife.”

“I understand, you are afraid of another rebuff. I’m sure you wouldn’t get another one, but I do understand your principles. So what do you think, will tomorrow at midnight in the park be convenient to you? I will bring her myself in the car.”

“Surely if Catherine is genuine she will bring herself.”

“Yes, I know, but she too has received a rebuff. You did not reply to her letters Vincent, and she is afraid that you would not show up.”

Vincent nodded and understood. “Yes you are right. Tomorrow at midnight in the park then it is. I’ll be waiting.”

“Thank you Vincent, now how about that tea? Will you join me in a cup, tell me how your father is?”

“I’d like that, thank you.” Vincent smiled and Charles warmed to that smile. His daughter was one lucky young lady and he knew without a doubt that if she let him, Vincent had the ability to make her very happy and her mother would be so proud of her.

The beeper on the car alarm sounded twelve times and Catherine looked at her father sitting alongside her in the car. Her eyes seemed to say, ‘this is it, dad’ but she said nothing out loud.

They’d been waiting in the park a good half hour, Charles deciding that if she was going to change her mind she could do so in the time leading up to midnight. But rather than grow anxious she had chatted with him about the new life awaiting her, and of her plans to visit at every opportunity, both she and Vincent together.

“It is time, honey. Do you want me to come with you?” Charles searched his daughter’s eyes for clues.

“No. You’ve done enough already, thank you, Daddy. But do you really think he’ll be waiting?” She had asked the same question a hundred times that day and Charles smiled, “I’m sure of it.” He told her. “I think he would have sent word had he of changed his mind.”

“Yes.” Catherine drew in and exhaled a deep breath, “Oh well then here goes nothing.” She leaned forward and opened the door with her right hand while squeezing one of his with her left, “Wait for me will you just in case?”

“I’ll drive passed the entrance on my way out honk and wait a full minute. If you don’t come out I’ll know you’ve gone inside with him, will that be okay?”

“Yes. Right then…here I go.” She smiled nervously though he could tell it was an excited kind of nervousness. She had been like a cat on hot bricks all day and had gone through her wardrobe a thousand times choosing something suitable to wear and bagging the rest to take below. Now tugging at her suitcase she pulled it out from behind her seat and bid him farewell with a kiss to his cheek.

“Take care honey, and be well.”

“I will dad, try not to worry. Vincent will look after me.”

“I know he will, honey.”

He watched her close the door of the vehicle with a slight but firm click and then through the windshield watched his only child walk out across the silvery grass wet with dew, her feet leaving emerald footprints behind her and as she neared the storm drain, he saw a figure emerge from within. A figure cloaked and hooded, but one that lowered his hood as she came close. And with his heart in his mouth Charles waited and he hoped and he prayed that all would go well for these two young people and that his daughter would have the happy life he and her mother had always wished for her to find.

“Vincent!”

“Catherine.” Vincent greeted this woman that he had dreamed of every night for the last two years with a little apprehension. He had opened the connection that he shared with her as promised but her emotions had been so jumbled these past twenty four hours that he had not been sure of anything.

“Its so good to see you, Vincent.” Catherine told him stepping closer. Her heart raced with anticipation.

“As it is you, Catherine.” His matched hers for every beat.

“I love you. Vincent, I have never stopped loving you.”

“Oh Catherine!”

Tears gathered and fell from Charles’s eyes as he watched the pair embrace and kiss for the first time in his life. And he marvelled at his daughter’s courage and ability to see beyond the obvious and look to the man within. For Vincent truly was a wonderful man.

“Forgive me Vincent, “Catherine breathed as they broke apart, “Forgive me for doubting. What we have is worth everything.”

“Everything.” Vincent reiterated, “Catherine, I love you so much.” And then from within the folds of his cloak Charles watched Vincent extract something, something small, and hand it to Catherine. It was a box and she opened it and found nestled on a square of sapphire velvet a ring with a cluster of rose quartz and a crystal in its centre. The rose quartz had worked for Lydia and Vincent hoped it would bless Catherine with his children too.

“Something from my world.” Vincent explained, then he bent down on one knee and Charles felt the hot tears fall more rapidly as he realised Vincent’s intention.

“Catherine, I would be honoured if you would marry me.” He asked, his heart hammering painfully and hoping he had not assumed her feelings a second time.

Not lingering at all with her answer Catherine’s whole face lit up as she replied, “I would love to marry you, Vincent.” And she held out the ring so that he might slip it onto the third finger of her left hand. It was a little big but Vincent knew that Mouse could alter that for her. And then Charles watched his only daughter walk hand in hand with the man that she loved toward the entrance to her new world, where both turned and waved to him, before disappearing inside. And Charles sat there a long time before he started the engine for home. He was happy and sad and closed one chapter of his life as another one opened but he was eager to start on it imagining all the joys to come.

“Be well Catherine,” he spoke aloud as he drove his car by the entrance to the storm drain, “I know you’ll be happy.” For with Vincent, Charles knew that his daughter would always be protected. Not only from mad men but also from any other calamity that might occur in the world. Her life would be simple but she would have everything and more importantly, as she lived in the haven beneath the city streets where both of them had found protection, Charles knew that he would no longer need to worry about his daughter, where she was, what she was doing, or whether she was safe. For he knew that from now on, his beautiful daughter would always be safe…safe in the arms of that wonderfully unique man…Vincent, Catherine’s safe place from the storm.