Disclaimer: Here's the standard disclaimer you are all used to seeing: I do not own the characters of Beauty and the Beast. No copyright infringement is intended.

This story is based off the episode "Seeing Red" and is my own spin on it. I've taken Alex out of the picture because I'm not a fan. Hope you enjoy it!

I'm pretty sure no one ever said that getting shot was a piece of cake, and if they did I'd beg to differ.

I've spent the past two weeks lying in this hospital bed being poked and questioned to no end about how I feel and if it hurts. What do they think? A bullet burned its way into my chest, through my lung and out my back. Yeah. It fucking hurts.

Then there are the flashbacks that plague my mind almost every night. My mind doesn't try to change the outcome; it just forces me to relive it. It all fades to black soon after the bullet hit me because I don't know what happened after that, well, aside from what Evan told me, and based on what he said he had to do to me, I'm glad that's where my nightmare cuts out.

I sucked in a ragged breath as I stared out the window, wishing that I was out there instead of in here. Sitting around watching TV all day gets old real quick and I've had my fill.

"What's up, partner?" Tess asks as she strides into the room, stealing my attention from my view of the city.

"Hey."

She stops at the side of my bed, shoulders slumping. "Okay, what's wrong?"

I close my eyes for only a few seconds as I try to get into a more comfortable position. "I want to get out of here. I want my bed, I want a shower and I want my comfy couch. I want to get better in my own place." I couldn't hide the pain I was in, my grimace giving me away.

Tess tilted her head, "Cat. Two weeks ago you almost…died." I saw the tears in her eyes as she said it, something I've never seen from her before.

"Tess." I reached out and touched her hand.

She moved it away and started to pace. "I should have been there for you. You're my partner. While it might not be part of my written job description, it's my job to keep you safe."

I shook my head, "No. You can't blame yourself. Neither one of us could have known what was going to happen that night."

"But maybe if I had kept tabs on that crazy bitch I could have stopped her and…"

"Stop," I said softly. "It happened. Neither one of us is to blame and we'll get through it." I shifted a little, wincing at the throbbing pain that seemed to consume my right side. "What you can do is get me the hell out of here."

She smiled at me, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "You're crazy, you know that?"

"Stir crazy. I can't lie here another minute."

Sighing heavily, she walked over to the side of my bed, "Let me talk to your doctor and see what I can do. NO promises, got it?"

"Got it. Thank you."

Reaching over, she rubbed my arm. "No problem, partner."

As she left the room I closed my eyes for a few minutes. They were still giving me pain meds that sucked the energy right out of me. I need them but I don't want them, if that makes any sense.

"Catherine?" a gravelly voice calls out to me.

My eyes immediately opened and I rolled my head towards the sound. "Vincent?"

He was standing there a good distance away from my bed. "Hi."

"Where've you been?" Part of me was glad to see him but the other part was angry. In the whole two weeks I'd been here he hadn't come to see me even once.

He took a few steps forward. "I can only stay a minute, I saw Tess go down the hallway."

"You didn't answer my question."

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "I couldn't face you."

I watched him as he got closer, his eyes breaking contact with mine.

"I couldn't help you that night. I…I wanted to but I couldn't control myself and get it together. Evan showed up and I had no choice but to….leave you."

"Vincent, I know…"

"You were dying, Catherine. I know the damage made by the path of that bullet and there was nothing I could do."

Great. Now I had both Tess AND Vincent feeling guilty about what happened.

"Vincent, did Evan see you?"

His eyes latched onto mine, "Yes."

Shit.

He walked to the doorway and looked to see if anyone was coming before coming back into the room. "Look, I better get going before someone sees me here. I just wanted to check on you to make sure you were okay."

"Okay," I said quietly.

"I'll try to come by again soon." A small smile spread across his face.

I nodded and forced myself to return one of my own. Evan hadn't mentioned anything to me about seeing Vincent. I began to wonder if Vincent was wrong. Then I began to hope he was.