The Other Path ~ Season 1
By Thomas Mc

Authors Notes :

This work is a sequel to 'The Road Not Taken'. It is a look at the first season of 'Beauty and The Beast', as seen from an 'Alternate Universe' in which Vincent and Catherine first met when they were still children.

After I finished 'The Road Not Taken' I thought I was finished with that particular story line but I received many messages requesting more and wanting to know how the altered reality affected the two television seasons. Eventually my mind started taking side trips to this 'Alternate Universe' and this little experiment is the result.

This work is a new experimental idea and is set up so that each Chapter represents a weekly episode from the TV show. Therefore each chapter is a complete stand alone story. Because of the nature of this work the updates will be fairly irregular but since each chapter is a separate episode you will not be left hanging between chapters by cliffhangers (probably).

Prologue : The road Not Taken

~ Author's Note: If you have already read
my story 'The Road Not Taken' then you may
wish to skip this Prologue and Episode 1 since
they only a rehash events from that story. ~

~ o ~

It all started on an unseasonably warm day in the middle of December. It was less than a year since ten year old Catherine's mother had died and she was still feeling the loss very keenly. Her father, Charles Chandler, had intended to spend the day working at home but then, looking down at his daughter's sad features, he decided to change his plans for the day and took her to Central Park to take advantage of the warm day and cheer her up.

(This single decision completely changed the course of their lives in ways that Charles could never have imagined.)

~ o ~

While at the park, Catherine become involved in a game of freeze tag with several other children. During the game one of the children fell and skinned himself. The sight of the boy's mother soothing her child of his hurt had been too much for Catherine to bear and she had run off, crying, into the park. She eventually became lost and had taken shelter in a large concrete storm drain pipe to escape the rapidly cooling wind and her own despair. In that storm drain she met a shadowy figure, named Vincent, that would not allow her to see what he looked like. For a couple of months the two children continued to meet occasionally in that same storm drain. Vincent always stayed in the shadows and wouldn't let Catherine see his face. They talked and he helped her to deal with her grief while she helped him deal with the loss of his best friend. Catherine's father knew about her mysterious friend from the park but he had assumed that it was an imaginary friend that Catherine had created to help her deal with her grief.

Eventually Catherine talked Vincent into letting her see his face. She was amazed at what she saw and told him that he was a lion-man and looked 'cool'. Three weeks later on a foggy overcast day Catherine talked Vincent into coming out into a very secluded and sheltered culvert to play. They spent most the day playing together and Catherine was enjoying herself so much that she forgot about lunch with her father. Becoming very worried about his daughter's continued absence, Charles and his oldest friend, Doctor Peter Alcott had gone into the park looking for her. They both stumbled across Catherine and Vincent playing together in their little culvert at the same time that Jacob Wells came to the surface looking for Vincent.

Charles learned that Peter already knew about Vincent but not about the friendship between Catherine and Vincent. He met Jacob that day and learned about the tunnels. Charles and Jacob became very close friends as Vincent and Catherine's friendship deepened. Catherine and her father became regular fixtures down in the tunnels and did many good things for the tunnel inhabitants - especially for the children of the tunnels. They even began a custom of yearly trips out to the Chandler's Connecticut lake house each Fall and Spring for all of the tunnel children (including Vincent). It had all been Catherine's idea.

By the time Catherine began College, she and Vincent had become lovers and were planning to get married. Their respective parents knew of the bond that had formed between Catherine and Vincent as children and had resigned themselves to the inevitable. By the time Catherine and Vincent were married Charles and Jacob had not only accepted the relationship but actually welcomed it. After overhearing a classmate's stories of her vacation in the Australian outback, Catherine located Devin and got him to come back to New York. Catherine and Charles helped facilitate the reconciliation between Devin and Jacob. Though he still followed the wild goose, Devin often returned to visit Jacob and Vincent. Catherine joined the DA office one year after her graduation from law school.

There were several other developments during the ten years after Catherine and Vincent meet. Catherine discovered that Mitch had killed the father of Joe Maxwell and was responsible for his banishment from the tunnels and his eventual capture. During a sleepover birthday party Catherine's two best friends, Nancy and Rebecca found out about Vincent. In college Catherine showed no interest in Steven Bass and he went to prison after attempting to rape her. This led to Jenny finding out about Vincent. In law school Catherine befriends Joe Maxwell and they became close friends. Joe discovered that Catherine was secretly married to a very mysterious person named Vincent. Catherine recognized Roley when he was arrested on drug charges and she got him to open up about what his brother did to Roley's music teacher. Roley went into a drug rehab program and his brother was charged with the death of the music teacher and dealing drugs.

This led to the brother's drug supplier and that turned into the discovery of the corruption of DA John Moreno and finally to the downfall of Gabriel and his organization. Joe finally met Vincent face-to-face when he saved Joe and Catherine from Gabriel's hitman, Snow. Later, during the capture of Gabriel, Judge Sanders and Detective Henderson also learned about Vincent's existence and were able to accept him.

Just before the beginning of Episode 1 Jacob and Peter witnessed Charles have an unusual weak spell and insisted that he get tested. The tests discover an aneurysm in his brain that would have eventually burst and killed him. The aneurysm was repaired saving Charles from the specter of a premature death.

Continued in Episode 1

'Beauty and the Beast' and its characters are owned by Witt-Thomas Productions and Republic Pictures. No infringement on copyrights is intended. This story is presented merely for the enjoyment of fans. Original concepts and story elements may be used by other authors as long as appropriate credit is given.