The Sound of You Chapter 4

CPOV

1201, 1202, 1203 & 1204. One thousand and four ceiling tiles are in my hospital room.

I'd done exactly what my mother told me to do while she was gone and I'd literally counted the tiles in my ceiling. In fact I'd done it twice just to be sure that my count was accurate.

"By the time you've done that, I'll be back with an update Christian, so just be patient," she'd said with that teasing glint in her eye. She knew that I'd take her playful instructions seriously and actually do it.

As a child she had told me similar things like this to help me pass the time as I waited for things that I really wanted. Patience has never been a virtue of mine and I was no different now that I was an adult. But she wasn't back and I was about ready to climb from this bed and go hunting for my long-lost mother myself. If it hadn't of been for my damned bruised ribs and broken leg, I would have been out of this god forsaken hospital bed and going to find her on my own. But as it was, taking a deep breath was hard to do much less sitting up and walking about on those death-traps-waiting-to-happen crutches.

I had crutches once when I was a teen after having dislocated my kneecap while playing football with Elliott one Thanksgiving and while on them, nearly broke my neck. I just couldn't get the timing of step, swing, step, swing or was it swing, step, swing, step. Elliott convinced me that it would be easier if I just walked with them like your normal steps would be and after the third time of losing my balance and falling on my ass, and Elliott laughing his off in the meantime, I determined I would never get up on a pair of them again. Thus I was stuck here in this surprisingly mildly comfortable hospital bed counting ceiling tiles, waiting for my mother to come back with news of the angel that stayed with me during one of the scariest times of my life.

If I close my eyes I can still see the concrete slab just above our heads that had crushed the roofs of the cars around us but had yet to fall further crushing us. I remember looking up and noticing a crack in the slab and praying as time ticked by that the crack didn't get bigger and eventually cave in on us. It was only the occasional movement of my silent companion that would draw my attention from my concern over the cracked slab.

The blueness of her beautiful eyes coupled with the shyness of her smile that she'd cast my way as she held my hand to her chest was enough to hypnotize any man into obedience. Occasionally, my fingertips would brush a loose wave of hair that had fallen over her shoulder leaving me wishing I could run my fingers through it, enjoying the feel as it cascaded across my skin.

She never said anything to me the entire time we were trapped, which seemed a bit odd but even stranger than that was the fact that I didn't mind that we didn't fill the time with empty chatter. I just enjoyed my time looking at her and being close to her. She seemed like the type of person that said a million words with a look rather than having to say them.

I was truly worried about her, especially after asking Taylor about her and him not having a clue about who I was talking about. Come to find out after we arrived at the hospital that Taylor had a, bordering on severe, concussion from the blast and didn't have any memory of the morning's events beyond us rushing out the door this morning. He had been set up in a hospital room next door to mine about 15 minutes ago for observation and CAT scans. Upon hearing about the explosion and our injuries Taylor's wife Gale, and my live in housekeeper, had come bearing comforts of home for both of us. She was flitting back and forth between both of our rooms trying to tend to both of us at the same time. I could tell that she was torn from doing what she felt was her job in caring for me and taking care of her husband. I finally put her out of her misery by gently telling her that if she made another trip over here within the hour to ask me if I needed anything more, that I'd dock her a month's pay. My playful attempt to tell her that family was more important than her employer was met with a frown and a gentle reminder that she considered me family as well. With that, she gently tucked my blanket in around my feet and told me to text her if I should need her in the meantime, but that she would check on me again in an hour.

So here I lay, in the hospital bed, with nothing but my thoughts and the gentle humming of machines around me to fill my time until my mother came back with news about the mystery woman that disappeared on me after we were pulled from the rubble of the parking garage.

Upon arriving at the hospital, my mother was a mess. She met me at the emergency bay doors, but since I was her son, the hospital wouldn't allow her to work on me. So instead she stayed by my side as nurses and Dr. Reed, the resident E.R doctor, checked me over. But my mother can never truly cut off the doctor side of her and so she was constantly asking questions, reading the notes in my chart and giving feedback even though she was not under my care.

It actually felt really nice to have my mom take care of me. There was a time when I was younger that I really struggled to allow my mother to care for me in the ways that she wanted and so for me to allow her to worry over me made her feel better.

I was just about to call for Gail to come help me with the water cup when I heard a noise just outside my door. The voices were muffled, but I could easily tell that one was my mother's.

"Finally," I sighed as I called out to her.

"Darling, I'll be just another minute. I promise."

My exasperation levels were reaching all new highs at this point. I wanted to know what she had found. She was supposed to go find out the news about the girl I was with. I wanted to know what had happened to her and if she had been hurt too. Why did seconds feel like hours suddenly?

Just as I was about to call her again the door to my room slowly swung open and in rolled the blue-eyed angel that had been haunting my thoughts.

With bruised ribs my breathing was labored already but it seemed like I stopped breathing when I looked into her eyes. She was real and she was right here in front of me, coming ever closer. It was like a movie scene where the most important moment moves in slow motion so that you notice every detail.

She was wearing hospital scrubs, which made sense because her hair was still damp from what I assumed was a shower she must have been allowed to take after arriving here.

I myself still felt a bit grungy because I couldn't move enough to take a real bath yet and concrete dust seemed to cake most of my skin. The nursing staff had cleaned me up the best they could but suddenly I felt a bit self-conscious of how I looked.

Her soft hands that I remembered so well as they held mine, were wrapped in gauze, twisting together nervously. She must have hurt them more than I realized as she dug out the hole in the rubble for our rescuers to find us.

I found that her baby blue eyes were openly staring at me as much as I was her, taking in my ragged appearance.

I could feel her taking an inventory of me as she looked me over from head to toe. Right now I looked nothing like the well put together CEO that I normally did, with my high priced suits and well-coiffed hair. Now, I had enough grit in my hair that I could probably pave a small driveway and I had more bandages covering areas of my body that I must rival that of The Mummy.

It was in that moment that I finally took a breath, ready to introduce myself to my angel when she turned to my mother and started motioning rapidly with her hands all the while only moving her lips and not actually speaking.

I didn't understand. What was going on?

"Mom?" I asked, wanting her to look at me but she was watching the girl.

I soon realized that the girl was using sign language to speak to my mom. I knew that mom knew how to sign. She had learned it as part of her pediatric rotation so that she would be able to speak to patients that couldn't hear.

Oh god, is that what was wrong with my angel? Could she not hear?

"Mom!" I raised my voice this time to get her attention back on me. She motioned to me to hold on a moment as she answered the girl's question.

By this time my heart monitor began to alarm as I frantically tried to get my mother's attention to tell me what happened to my angel.

"Is she deaf, Mom?"

"Did she get hurt in the accident? Is that why she can't hear?"

Oh god! If she got hurt that badly during the accident no wonder she never answered me while we were trapped. I was so concerned about some bruised ribs that would eventually heal and her whole life was changing from sound to silence.

As I continued to have my small panic attack my nurse rushed into the room to check what had happened to cause my BP monitor to skyrocket.

"Mr. Grey, you've got to calm down," the nurse gently instructed me, adjusting some settings as she went.

My mom had come around to the other side of my bed and taken my hand into hers as she softly attempted to calm me. "Sweetheart, calm down. It's alright. I promise you, everything is alright. You've got to calm down so that I can explain."

"Calm down," I gasped as I tried to breathe through the pain in my ribs.

How could I calm down when the one person who had been with me through the second scariest moment in my life was deaf as a result of it?

My mind started going a million miles a minute of how to fix this.

Could I fix this?

Specialists. I'd make sure she would get the best specialists in the world. I'd fly them in from anywhere across the globe to fix this for her. She was there for me and I vowed I'd be there for her, no matter what.

A sheen of sweat had broken out across my forehead as the nurse injected something into my IV line.

"Darling, please. Breathe for me. Slowly. In. Out. In. Out." My mother's voice and whatever the nurse had injected into my IV was slowly taking its toll on me and I could feel my heart rate begin to settle. The nurse backed away as the alarm was canceled on the monitor.

My head was swimming with the forced easing of my emotions through my IV and I was finding it hard to focus. But that all changed in a moment as small delicate fingers slid under mine, pulling me close to their owner. All of my focus changed in that moment to the beautiful blue eyes that stared at me, pooled with tears just brimming to fall.

APOV

Sitting outside of Christian's hospital room I was suddenly nervous to meet him. Dr. Grace still had not answered me when I asked her if her son knew that I was deaf or not.

For those not used to working with the deaf it can come as quite a shock and surprise to them. He had already had enough of that for today and I didn't want to cause him extra turmoil.

"He won't care, Ana. He just wants to get to know the beautiful angel that stayed with him when he was so scared," she signed as she continued to explain that Christian needed an angel in his life and that he wouldn't care if I could hear him or not.

She was about to explain further about something from his past when she exasperatedly opened his door and stuck her head in. He must have heard us outside and called out to her as she closed the door and turned back to me with a smile.

"He is anxious to meet you."

"Let me bring you in, and I'll explain everything to him. Okay?," she signed.

As Dr. Grace wheeled me into Christian's room I couldn't help it as my eyes easily found his. They were the same as I remembered, grey like the sea during a storm.

I don't remember when I stopped breathing, but I do remember the moment his smile bloomed on his face. No one's ever looked at me like that before. He looked both overjoyed and relieved to see me, which I relished. I hoped that those feelings would still be there after Dr. Grace explained everything to him.

Turning to her I signed that I wanted to move closer to him before she said anything so that we could explain my deafness to him together. It didn't occur to me that in my asking of the question, I was also telling him that I was deaf myself and that I would shock him so deeply.

Suddenly everyone was moving quickly. Grace rushed to his side, the nurse came in from the station outside, Christian was struggling in his bed and I was trying my best to take it all in to figure out what was going on.

I could just barely make out some of what Christian was saying, that I had been hurt in the blast and lost my hearing there. He was freaking out because he thought I had been hurt and that I had lost my hearing as a result of it.

It broke my heart to see him panicking in such a manner so I did the only thing I could do at that moment and I slowly rolled myself to the empty side of his bed.

Men's hands rarely ever feel exactly as you'd imagine them to feel. Some are rough and callused, well-worn from working all day and others are softer to the touch. Not feminine feeling by any means, but almost as though you could feel the tenderness they hold even while holding tightly to your own. Christian's fingers wrapped securely around mine as I brought his hand towards me, wrapping my other around his.

Turning to me, his eyes searched mine for answers and it broke my heart to see pain and worry in his as he stared back at me. I could feel my eyes start to tear up as I searched for what to say to him to clear-up this misunderstanding.

Being a bit self-conscious about my voice I don't often openly speak, but I felt I had no choice at that moment because Christian needed to understand.

"Christian, I didn't lose my hearing because of the accident. I have been deaf for some time. It's okay, really."

GPOV

Christian hardly ever had panic attacks anymore. His therapy over the years had pretty much eliminated them, but when he did have one it tended to come on full force. So this current one he was experiencing was breaking my heart to see because it could so easily be resolved if I could just get him to focus for a moment and to hear my voice.

The Librium that the nurse had injected into his IV was taking its toll slowly and I could tell that he was slowly calming down, but what seemed to settle him the most was the moment her hand touched his.

Even in medicine you see things that can only be explained as miracles because there is just medical explanation for them. Watching the two of them as they focused on one another was just that. Christian's heart monitor slowed down to slightly above normal, his chest was rising and falling in a normal breathing pattern and was finally calm all while staring intently at the young woman at his side.

I felt like an intruder of a very intimate moment right then and I wanted to allow them some privacy, but I knew I still owed Christian an explanation of what was going on.

"Darling," I said, trying to get him gain his attention for a moment so that I could further explain what Ana had said.

It was like he was afraid to turn his head away from her because if he lost sight of her she'd disappear but he did eventually turn to look at me. His grip however never wavered in his anchoring himself to her through their mutual touch.

"Darling this is Anastasia Steele, or Ana as she likes to be called." It didn't seem fair for me to carry on my conversation without Ana being able to know what I was saying. Although she had told me she read lips very well, I still tried to carry on my signing for her sake as I spoke to my son.

I tried to explain this to him as gently as possible so that I didn't bring on yet another panic attack like the last one. "Sweetheart, Ana is deaf. She's been deaf since a very young age. The only injury that she sustained during the explosion were to her hands, so try to be gentle."

His eyes darted back to Ana's and then down to her bandaged hands that he had a death grip on. With a small whimper you could see his fingers relax a bit as he watched her face to see if she registered any pain because of his actions. Seeing none he turned back to me waiting for more information.

"You apparently took the brunt of the blow because you were in front of Ana when the gas main exploded near the parking garage. The first responders said that it leveled three houses, thankfully all unoccupied at the time, as well as damaging a good portion of the underground garage below SIP where you had parked."

You could almost see the gears twirling in Christian's head as he took in what I was saying, but his attention kept going back to the young woman at his side.

It was then that my pager decided to go off and I knew that I needed to answer it. Excusing myself from them both I quickly stepped outside to the nurse's station. When I came back in, they were both exactly as I had left them, both staring deeply into one another's eyes, neither one saying anything to the other. It was like that scene out of Tarzan where he stares into Jane's eyes and you feel yourself getting caught up in their moment.

"Ana, Christian, I'm needed down in the E.R.," I quickly signed. "There was an accident on the interstate and two small children are being brought in that need my attention." I could tell they were both listening but neither made any move to change their current placement.

"Ana, do you want to stay here or do you want me to take you back to your room?"

They say that when you lose a sense that your others heighten to make up for the difference. A person that has lost their hearing often can say a great deal with just a look and by the look Ana was casting towards Christian there was no mistaking what she was asking him with her expression.

"Stay with me," Christian breathed out softly to Ana as he stared deeply into her eyes.

I was quickly realizing that I would no longer be needed for them to be able to talk and get to know one another. Just to be on the safe side I grabbed the small white board that was mounted on the wall for nurses to write notes to one another during shift changes about patients and handed it to Christian.

"Ana can read lips very well, but just in case." I motioned towards the white board. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

As I stepped quietly from the room, I left instructions at the nurse's station that no one was to bother them unless something happened so that they could have time to talk. My mother's intuition told me that we would be seeing a great deal of Ana Steele in the days to come.

Author's Note: There actually was a gas main explosion in Seattle in March when I started writing this story that took down several homes. I thought it worked out pretty well with the story. Now whether or not that explosion was accidental or not….you'll just have to wait and see.