Forgiveness

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from The Invisible and I'm not making any money from this fic.

Summary: An AU of the ending of The Invisible. Annie gets shot, but she receives medical attention in time – and has to deal with the consequences of what happened

Warning(s): Spanking; spoilers for the entire movie of The Invisible; mentions of violence; AU

Author's Note: The Invisible is one of the few sad-ending movies that I actually think ended the right way. But I wanted to explore what might happen if Annie had survived. If you don't know the plot of The Invisible, you can find it on Wikipedia

When Annie came to, she almost couldn't breathe because of the pain. She kept her eyes closed, wondering why she was still alive. She'd expected – almost wanted – to die.

It would have been better if she could go back to sleep, but her side hurt too much, so she decided she might as well open her eyes. It wasn't like she expected anyone to be in the room. Even if her dad and his wife knew about what happened, they wouldn't come and see her.

You are so broken.

Annie winced as Nick's words echoed through her head. She turned her head to one side, half-expecting to see a policeman waiting for her to wake up so that he could arrest her. Instead, she was surprised to see Nick sitting in a chair next to her. There were still bruises on his face, but he looked better than he had the last time she'd seen him. He was also fast asleep – or seemed to be.

Wincing slightly, Annie started to push herself up – but she stopped when she felt the slight tugging on her arm. Looking down, she saw that there was a needle stuck in her arm, which was attached to an IV.

As if he had heard her move, Nick stirred. His eyes opened; and he turned to look at her. "You're awake." Was that relief in his tone?

Annie leaned back slightly. "What are you doing here?" She tried to make her tone aggressive – or at least firm – but was horrified to find that she merely sounded weak. She'd already lowered all of her defences with Nick. It looked like she wasn't going to be able to rebuild them.

"I was waiting for you to wake up." Nick looked into her eyes; and reached out a hand to push some of her hair back. "How are you feeling?"

Annie closed her eyes. Why was he being so nice to her, after what she'd done? "When are the police going to come?" she whispered, ignoring his question.

"They're not. I told them I wasn't going to press charges. You saved me, Annie."

Annie was glad of her eyes being closed, since that hid the tears which threatened to fall. She didn't want to cry. She hated crying. But Nick had succeeded in getting to her. She'd not seen him before – and it was only now that she was realising how much she'd been missing.

"I have to go and tell the doctor you're awake."

Annie nodded; and opened her eyes to see him head over to the door, limping slightly. "Nick," she said softly; hesitantly. "You were right. I am broken." She wanted – needed – to make him understand.

Nick turned round to look at her, and there was something in his face that she didn't recognise; but which made her breath catch in her throat. "I know," he replied quietly, before leaving the room.

Annie didn't say anything as the doctor poked and prodded her. She simply nodded and shook her head if the question called for it, ignoring those which required more detail.

"I need the details of how to contact your parents," the doctor said, once he'd finished his examination.

When Annie merely looked away, not answering, Nick spoke. "I've already talked to them. They can't get here right now – but if you let me know about her condition, I can pass a message on to them."

The doctor glanced at Annie and then at Nick. "Can we talk outside for a moment?"

Nick looked at Annie. "You gonna be all right?" When she nodded, he followed the doctor out of the room.

Annie knew that her dad and his wife wouldn't care about her being in the hospital. Victor would – but even if Nick had spoken to her dad, he probably wouldn't have told Victor about it.

When she glanced through the still-open door, Annie noticed that Nick and the doctor seemed to be deep in discussion. She wondered if there were complications – which she would have deserved anyway. A part of her felt like she should be punished for what she'd done. She should have died – but for whatever reason, she hadn't; she'd lived.

But she had to deal with what she'd done; and that wasn't going to be easy.

"What about Marcus?" Annie had waited until she'd been discharged before suggesting that she and Nick go to the forest where she'd nearly killed him. It had also taken her that long to be able to ask about Marcus.

"Well, they managed to get him medical attention in time," Nick answered, walking next to her. "But he's in prison now. Apparently, by hiding my body, he committed a felony." Nick watched her closely. "What about the court case?"

"They postponed it until next week." Annie paused as they got to the place where everything had changed, and turned to Nick. "I want you to hit me."

Nick looked searchingly into her eyes. "Come here," he said at last, backing towards a large rock and seating himself on it. When Annie moved over to him, he reached up and took her hat off, letting her hair fall down.

When Nick took her coat off, Annie felt almost naked before him. She didn't fight as he drew her closer and eased her trousers down. Without a word from him, she leaned across his knees, placing both hands on the rock for support. Though she trembled slightly when he pulled her knickers down, she didn't protest.

The first smack took her by surprise. Her breath caught in her throat as Nick continued smacking her bare bottom. She'd never been spanked before – but she felt like she deserved it. She was willing to take whatever Nick wanted to dish out; and it felt like the terrible sense of guilt was finally leaving her.

Nick paused in the spanking. Annie was breathing heavily, but wasn't near tears yet. "You can carry on," she whispered, keeping her head down.

"I meant what I said in the canteen," Nick said. "But I could have picked a better time to say it. I can understand why you would think that I was the one who turned you in."

"Please... don't," Annie whispered.

"If I didn't think you needed this, I wouldn't be doing it," Nick continued, as if he hadn't heard her. "I forgive you, Annie... I forgave you the moment you went to retrieve my body. But I think you need this so that you can feel absolved; so that you're able to forgive yourself." He resumed the spanking, speaking as he did so. "I fell for you hard when I was out of my body, Annie... I love you."

Annie choked back a sob. But, as the spanking continued, she couldn't fight the tears. Finally, she lowered her head and just gave in. It took her a while to realise that the spanking had stopped – though her bottom still hurt. Slowly, she pushed herself up off his lap.

Nick slipped his arms around her and held her close. "I love you," he said again.

"I love you too..."