Christian's POV

"Mr. Grey!"

Oh, good…it must be morning.

I open my eyes to see that I'm still lying in the hospital bed. Ana is still snuggled in my arms and one side of my face is resting on top of her head. It's just like how we fell asleep last night, but only without the very angry nurse standing at the end of the mattress.

"I know, I know." I slur. My voice is thick with sleep and I have to shake my head a couple of times before I untangle myself from Ana and swing over to slip on my shoes.

"Miss Steele is not in any condition to be doing this kind of activity. She needs to rest properly and-"

"Oh, Susan." We both look over at the same time to see my mother walk into the room. "Let the two of them be. Christian is not going to hurt Ana by any means." As she says this I see her sneak a glance at me. The other nurse just gives a sigh and goes over to check Ana's vitals on the monitors behind her.

"Is there anything…wrong with her?" I quietly ask the nurse. Ana is still sleeping on the bed.

The nurse looks away from the monitors and back to me. "Her weight is an issue at the moment. She admitted that she can't remember the last time she ate and that has been causing some problems. She needs basic vitamins and nutrients. But, as far as I can tell everything else seems to be in check. I mean, she still has cuts and bruised, but that will all heal in the matter of days." She even offers me a slight smile.

I look over at Ana. Her face is relaxed with sleep and her arms are wound tightly against herself. My poor little Ana. She needs to eat. She's too thin. She's still as beautiful as ever, but her body is taking a toll on itself. The nurse walks away and my mother comes over to stand next to where I'm sitting on the foot of the bed.

"I'm assuming you two made up?" She asks softly, knowing that Ana is still asleep.

"We talked," I say. "But we still have a lot more talking and figuring stuff out to do."

My mother nods. "Just take it slow. And when was the last time you took a shower?"

I ponder her question for a moment before I run my hand over my stubble. "I honestly can't remember right now."

She sighs. "Go home, take a shower and get a change of clothes. Ana will still be sleeping by the time you get back."

"No." I automatically say. "I'm not going to leave her. I'll get Taylor to grab me some clothes and I'll just get cleaned up here."

So, that's what I do. I call Taylor over as Escala, I sent him home last night, and ask him for a change of clothes as well as my razor. Ana is still asleep by the time I'm all showered and freshly shaved. It's already noon and she's still sleeping. Hell, this is probably the most sleep that she's gotten in months. I make my way over to the bed and lay down next to her this time. Her eyelids flutter slightly and a pained moan comes out of her mouth. I'm instantly alarmed and start to reach for the nurse's button, but once she starts talking I freeze.

"Christian," She moans. "Stay with me…" Her voice trails off at the end. Her one arm comes out to reach for me across the bed and lands on my chest. I grab it and hold it in one of my hands. I've never wanted to kiss her pouty lips so badly. Would she care if I did? Maybe I should wait until she wakes up and we talk some more. I hold her hand and lean my face down toward hers. My lips press softly against her forehead, then her little nose, and then her bruised cheeks.

"I'm not leaving you." I say quietly into her ear.

As I drop her hand against the bedspread and begin to lean back, Ana is suddenly awake. Her body swings upright and she starts to grab at the air with her arms. "Christian!" She screams. Her wide eyes are panning the entire room looking for me. Her hair is all tangled over her shoulder and her hospital nightgown fell to slip a little ways past her collarbone.

"Ana, I'm right here." I reassure her. I slide over to sit a little closer and wrap my arms around her shoulders while pulling her gown up the rest of the way. "I just got up to shower and change real quick." I say.

Her body relaxes. She pulls out of my grasp and peers up at me through bright blue eyes. "Oh, okay. I thought you were gone. I thought I just dreamt it all."

I sigh. "No, I didn't leave you, baby." I smile down at her. She smiles back, but it's a sleepy smile. She moves back across the bed to grab the cup of water the nurse left along with the pills. With one swallow she downs the tablets and sets the cup back down.

"Are you in a lot of pain?" I'm worried that I must have done something last night to hurt her somehow. Maybe I squeezed her too hard or something.

She looks over at me and then starts to crawl her way back over the bed. I raise my eyebrows as she proceeds to swing her legs over mine and sit directly on my lap. Without thinking, I put one arm around her waist and use the other to rub soothing strokes up her outer arm.

"I'm perfect." She simply says. "And Christian," She seems hesitant to continue. "Thank you. For everything."

The sincerity in her voice makes my own crack. "You don't have to thank me for anything, baby."

The look that she gave me at that moment made everything up to this point worth it. She let out a low sigh, a content sigh at that, and shoved her head deep into my chest. "I'm ready to talk more now." She whispers. "That is, if you're ready."

"I'm always ready, Ana. But, we should get you checked out by the nurses first. I don't want you to hurt." I look down to see her response.

"Christian, I'm fine. A little bruised and battered, but other than that I'm okay now," she says thing, but yet all I can see are the dark spots that scatter all around her neck and lead further down underneath her clothing. Not to mention that half her face is swollen and tender. I can only imagine what damage her mental being is in right now.

I'm going to kill the motherfuckers that did this.

I was about to reject Ana's statement, when the door swings open and two beefy looking officers walk in. They're wearing matching blue uniforms and each carry a pad of paper in their hands.

"Miss Steele. I'm Officer Smith," The taller, darker looking one speaks first. "And this is Officer Randal." He motions to the smaller, blonde man. "We need to ask you a few questions if that's all right with you."

I stand up as the pair make their way over to where Ana is sitting on the bed. They can't be serious about asking her questions right now. She's too weak and emotionally wrecked to think about what happened only hours ago.

"I don't think that's a good idea, officers. Miss Steele is still recovering from her attack." I speak directly to them.

"Mr. Grey, we need to gather all the information we can about this attack." Randal says. "We've had issues with this gang of men before and we need to make sure nothing like this ever happens again." He looks over at Ana. She's scared. I can see that in her weary facial expression. She sits up to lean back against the headboard and pulls the white sheets up to her chin.

"I'll answer all of your questions." She says to the two Officers. "As long as Christian can stay in her with me while you do it."

She looks over at me with a pleading expression. What does she think I'll do? Leave so she can fend for herself? I walk over to the bed once again and sit at Ana's side. As a protector should be doing.

"Fair enough. We'd like to hear his side as well."

They come to stand in front of the bed. "Miss Steele, can you just start by telling us what happened. From beginning to end." They get their paper and pens ready.

"Well," Ana starts. "I left the city for a little bit. I just needed to get away from some…emotional drama." She stares straight off into space and I swallow hard. "I ended up at a cheap motel somewhere outside of Seattle. I ran out of alcohol one day, so I was walking to the store to get some and that's when I found the guys that-" She stopped for a moment. I took her hand in mine and ran circles around it.

"Okay, Miss Steele." Smith says. "Can you describe where they took you?"

"You already have them anyway. Why don't you just go and interrogate them?" I snap out without even realizing it. I don't like them asking her these questions. She needs to heal from this.

"Believe me, Mr. Grey, we would if we could." What is that supposed to mean? "But, we only have two of our kidnappers in custody right now and they're refusing to talk no matter what we throw at them." I can feel the confusion spread all over my face.

What?

Ana chimes in. "Only two?" She whispers brokenly. "But there was three of them." She says. "Three men were running after me. Not just two. Where did the other one go?" She rushes out.

The two officers look at each other nervously. My gut clenches with the information they're about to spill out.

"Well, that's the thing," Smith takes over. "Apparently the third man got away somehow and his other two members aren't telling us where he is at all."

I feel as if I've been bashes upside the head.

He got away? How could that have happened?

Ana starts gasping next to me. She's clenching the sheets so tight that her knuckles turn the same shade of white. "He's still out there? What if he comes back for me? He could find me again. Oh, my God why me?" She looks over at me. "Christian, what if-"

"Unfortunately we have some even worse news," The officer says. "These three men are a part of a well-known gang in the surrounding area. They've caused our city so much destruction. We need to find the third man before he rounds up other members and tries to do something stupid."

There's an entire gang full of these men. If three of them could do all of this to Ana, then just imagine what they all could do to her…

Ana begins sobbing uncontrollably. Her face is soon flushed with tears and the salt water finds its way onto the bed. I reach over and pull her into my chest. She buries her face in my shoulder and just continues to cry harder. Once she starts shaking that's my cue to dismiss our company for the day.

"This is going to have to wait until another time." I tell the officers over
Ana. I'm smoothing her hair away from her face just trying to give her as much comfort as I possibly can in this situation.

"We understand." They say. "Just let us know when the time is right. We'll be in touch." They open the door and walk out into the hallway.

Ana is still shaking like a leaf and water continues to flow from her eyes.

"Ana," I draw her name of softly. "You're all right. I'm here. I've got you." I whisper into her hair. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you, okay?"

I feel her shake her head back and forth. "Christian, they'll find me again" She sobs. "I know they will." More sobs. "I don't have anywhere to go. No friends. No family. I just can't do it anymore." She murmurs into my shoulder.

"Oh, Ana, you couldn't be any more delirious." I say into her ear. "You have me, remember. You always have and you always will."

Her cries have slowed down to tiny sniffles. She loosens herself away and looks at me with her wide, bloodshot eyes.

"Ana, you stay with me until we can get this fucking mess settled and but behind us, all right?" I tell her straightforward. "Either you can stay with me at Escala, or I can buy you a new apartment and I move in. It's your choice, but wherever you go, Taylor and I will go. Understand?" I know I'm being a little too stern with her right now, but I love this woman too much to even put her in harms way again. I look at her and wait for an answer.

She gazes at me for a while before nodding her answer. "Okay," She whispers. "I'll move in with you."

Relief floods every part of my body. I pull her into a tight, but gentle hug. "Okay, then," I say into her neck. "We'll try to leave tomorrow morning."