The next thing I remember is hearing my husband talking to me as if I were laying here awake and reading to me. I try to move or at least speak but absolutely no part of my body is responding. He kisses my forehead a lot and begs me to come back to him, but I can't tell him that I'm already here.
Finally, I'm able to open my eyes and I do and it is bright so I close them back up and as I slowly start to open them, I think of my kids and my eyes snap open and I try to sit up, but everything hurts and I wince, "Don't move, Ana. You're going to be sore for a while." I hear from my husband as he puts his hands on my shoulders and guides me to lay back down. Finally my eyes finds him and the tears start to fall. He leans down and he puts his face next to mine, his cheek up against mine. "Hush, baby. It's okay. You're going to be okay."
"The kids?" I ask in a hoarse voice. He lifts his head and kisses my forehead.
"The kids are great aside from the fact that they miss their Mommy." I half smile and nod.
"Sawyer? Prescott?"
He sighs. "Sawyer suffered a stab wound that narrowly missed his heart. He is still in a coma, but the doctors are optimistic that he will wake up sometime soon." I nod and he still looks concerned.
"What aren't you telling me, Christian? How's Prescott?"
"She didn't make it. I'm sorry, Ana. Her injury was much too severe." I start to cry again and he comforts me.
"What happened to Jack?"
"A neighbor heard him screaming for help and called 911. The cops came and placed him under arrest, but they called the ambulance for him because apparently someone beat the shit out of him." He eyes me speculatively.
I almost laugh until I'm reminded of the pain. "He deserved it. He is an awful man. He is the one who stabbed me back in Portland 9 years ago, Christian." He gasps.
"How do you know that?"
"He told me." He shakes his head as I see the anger building in him. I weakly lift my hand and take his in mine. Finally, he squeezes it. "Where is he, Christian?"
"He is in a nearby hospital handcuffed to a bed in a coma. I told them that if they brought him here that I would be tempted to finish the job."
I squeeze his hand and he squeezes it back again. He sets my hand back down on the bed and he kisses me sweetly. "We will be okay, Christian."
He looks into my eyes and smiles weakly. "We will."
He kisses me again and I put my hand weakly on the back of his neck and attempt to deepen it. "Whoa, tiger. Don't get ahead of yourself. Let's get the doctor in here to check you out and see when we can get you home to our children." He kisses me sweetly one more time as he lays my weak hand back down on the bed. I nod and he stands back up and leaves the room for only a minute and he comes straight back in. "She will be in shortly. She is right out there." I nod. He holds my hand and kisses it. "I'm so glad that you're back with me."
"I've been here the whole time, but I'm glad to be back awake." He looks at me questionably just as the doctor walks in. I turn to her and he does as well, but he keeps my hand in his.
"Glad to see you awake again after all of this time, Mrs. Grey." I furrow my brow.
"All of this time? How long have I been out?" I ask.
She glances at Christian. "You've been in a coma for 3 weeks, Mrs. Grey." I gasp.
I look to Christian. "I'm sorry that I forgot to tell you." I nod and look back to the doctor.
"When can I get out of here?" I ask her.
"You will be here for at least another couple weeks. Your muscles have weakened significantly since you have been immobile for so long. We will have physical therapy working with you, but I wouldn't advise you get out of bed just yet. You're injuries are still healing." She says.
"What if we can get her a physical therapist to work with her at home? I have a personal trainer who also specializes in physical rehabilitation." Christian interjects. "I know she'd probably start to feel better at home around our children so she can at least see them."
She looks at him and me, back and forth, as she appears to contemplate this. "We could make that work, but I advise that you also get a home nurse to keep an eye on her wounds and change her bandages."
"We can make that work." He says.
"Well let me check her wounds and then once you can provide proof that you will have physical therapy and a home nurse set up at home, we can get her out of here."
"Great. I will get right on that." He says. He kisses my forehead as he gets his phone out of his pocket. "I will be right back, baby." I half smile and nod and he leaves the room. The doctor checks my wounds and bandages and she details my many injuries for me and it provokes a new set of tears.
"Everything looks like it is healing well. Hopefully, we can get you out of here tomorrow if Mr. Grey can get that set up. You need to be on a clear liquid diet for another couple of weeks. I will have the nurse come give you a dose of pain medicine now if you want?"
"Yes, please." She smiles again.
"Okay. I will see you again in the morning and then hopefully we can get you home to your kids. Glad to see you doing better, Mrs. Grey."
I nod and she turns and leaves the room. The nurse comes back in a few minutes later and gives me a shot of pain medicine in my IV. I start to feel it immediately and my eyelids get heavy. I try to stay awake until Christian gets back and, luckily, he walks in just before my eyes are sealed shut. I look up at him weakly and half smile.
"Are you high on pain medicine, Mrs. Grey?"
I try to giggle, but it still hurts, obviously. "I might be." He chuckles and kisses me sweetly. "Go ahead and get some sleep, baby. Just make sure you don't slip back into a coma."
I shake my head and bite my lip to stifle a giggle. He kisses me again. "I will be right here, baby." I smile and nod and he pulls a chair back up to the bed and as soon as he grabs my hand again, I drift off to sleep.
I wake a few more times throughout the night and the nurses come in to give me more pain medicine whenever it is time. Christian stays right by my side and he talks to me during the times that I'm awake. I guess we will talk about what all happened whenever we get home.
When the doctor comes back in the next morning, Christian gives her the information that she requested and she released me to go home. Taylor brought me some clothes and got me dressed and after I signed the discharge paperwork, they brought a wheelchair and Christian put me into it, carefully as to avoid hurting me more than is necessary.
Once we get home, he carries me into the house and he takes me straight upstairs to our bedroom and he lays me on the bed. "I'm going to run you a bath and clean you before the nurse comes and tomorrow, Claude will come and start working with you after we get you reunited with the kids. Does that sound like a plan to you, Mrs. Grey?"
I smile brightly at the thought of seeing my kids and I reply, "Yes, sir." He grins and shakes his head at me. He kisses me sweetly and goes to run me a bath and he helps me back out of my clothes and he temporarily takes my bandages off for my bath and I start to cry and I see him fighting back tears as well.
"I have some cream that I can put on that after it gets mostly healed up to lessen the scarring."
I nod. "Thank you, Mr. Grey." He picks me up and carries me to the bathroom and lays me in the bathtub. He kneels down beside it and carefully washes me. He is so gentle with me. Once I'm clean, he gets me out and he takes a towel and carries me to bed and he carefully dries my body.
He puts a nightgown and panties on me and about that time, Gail knocks on our door to let us know that the nurse is here. He goes to get her and brings her to me. He stays in the room as she checks me out and puts some cream and new bandages on me. She shows Christian how to do it as well so, hopefully, we won't need her long. Once she is done, she says that she will be back tomorrow.
Christian sees her out and he comes back and asks me if I'm ready to see the kids yet. "YES!" I say excitedly with a huge smile on my face. He kisses me sweetly one more time.
"I will be right back with them." I nod and he leaves to get them.
Whenever he finally comes back in the room, holding Phoebe with his hand on Liam's shoulder, I see a huge smile on his beautiful little face and I smile back at both of them. Phoebe claps her hands together and has a huge smile on her cute little face as well. Liam climbs onto the bed and sits next to me. He tells me about school and says that he drew me a picture. Whenever he leaves to go get his picture, Christian brings Phoebe over. She has her chubby little arms outstretched for me. He sits her on the bed, close to me. She attempts to climb on me, but Christian stops her and she holds out her hands so I grab one and kiss it. "I missed you, princess." She giggles and she leans over and gives me a sloppy kiss on my cheek. Basically, she licked my face. It's so cute.
Whenever Liam returns, he sits beside Phoebe and he shows me his picture. It says 'Get Well Soon' in HIS handwriting. I start to cry, but quickly wipe away my tears. I thank him and he wraps his arms around my neck, careful not to hurt me, and he kisses me on the lips gently.
"Okay kids, Mommy needs some more medicine and then she needs to take a nap. Kiss her good night and we will bring you back to the nanny for now." Liam nods and Phoebe is happily blowing raspberries at me. I get one more kiss from both and then Christian picks up Phoebe and Liam gets off the bed. "I'll be right back, baby." I nod and he leaves the room.
Whenever he comes back alone, he has my medicine and a glass of water. He helps me to take it and then I take another drink of water. He puts the glass down and he pulls the blanket up over me. "Get some sleep, baby."
I furrow my brow. "Lay with me, Christian. I can tell that you haven't slept well in a while. You need some sleep, too."
He reluctantly nods and he walks around the bed and strips down to his boxers and climbs into bed with me. He gets as close to me as he can and he rubs my cheek softly and kisses me again. "Get some sleep, Mrs. Grey, and I will as well." I smile at him.
"Okay, wrap your arm around me gently. I need to feel your touch as I sleep again."
He looks at me, concerned. "I don't want to hurt you, Ana." He says.
I put my hand on the side of his face. "You won't baby. Just be gentle. I trust you."
He smiles at me and he finally relents and he carefully lays his arm across my stomach. It doesn't hurt at all. "I love you, Mrs. Grey. Get some sleep."
"I love you, too, Mr. Grey. You get some sleep, too." He kisses me one last time and then I close my eyes and drift off to sleep in the arms of my amazing, loving husband.
Over the last 4 weeks, my husband has been a dream helping me with everything. The nurse continued to come once a day and check my wounds and redress them. Christian started to take care of them after that. Claude started to come and work with me the day after I was released from the hospital. We did exercises from bed for the first week, but he started to help me to stand to do exercises after that. He has worked me as hard as he can without reinjuring myself. Christian supervised our sessions because he was making sure that Claude didn't do anything inappropriate with me. Claude was nothing but a gentleman, though.
We still have a to work together for at least a couple more weeks, but I can get around now with the assistance of Christian or a cane. I've been spending as much time as possible with my kids, although I still cannot pick up my daughter or play with them, except for what I can do from the sitting position. It's frustrating, but I know that it's part of my healing process.
Grace, Dad, and other members of the family have been dropping by to visit with us occasionally throughout the last 4 weeks. It has been a welcome distraction. I no longer need the pain medication because I feel more and more like myself every day.
Christian says that we still can't have sex until my doctor clears me for it. He even said that he asked her about it whenever we were still in the hospital.
Sawyer finally woke up from his coma 2 weeks ago and they allowed him to come home last week and his fiancé, Bianca, has been taking care of him.
Christian hasn't been back to work since the kidnapping and attack, but said that he will be going back soon since I'm getting better. It's been nice having him around, but I know he needs his work to keep him going. We still haven't discussed what happened with Jack, but I'm sure that it won't be long until we discuss it. I can tell from his expression that he feels guilty about it, but it isn't his fault at all.
I've also been seeing his therapist again and he's been helping me to cope with my thoughts and feelings. It has been significantly helpful.
Today, I am going to a follow-up with my surgeon and Christian is accompanying me. He helps me into the doctor's office with his arm around my waist. Once we get into a room, we wait for the doctor to come in. She checks me out and says that everything has healed nicely, but that I shouldn't partake in any strenuous activities yet for a little while. I asked her if I could have sex and she said I could but told me to avoid acrobatics, which made me giggle and Christian chuckled. I'm anxious to have my husband.
Whenever we arrive home, we spend time with our daughter since Liam is at school. Once she is down for a nap, my husband takes my hand and guides me to bed and he makes sweet love to me, careful not to hurt me. He kept asking if I was okay and I told him I was and to stop asking. It didn't last long, partly because it had been so long and partly because we knew our daughter's naps didn't always last too long. It was magnificent though. It feels great to finally have my husband fully again.
Once our breathing returns to normal, he helps me back downstairs and to the family room. He gets us some wine and he holds me against his shoulder and we drink some wine in a blissful silence, kissing occasionally.
Once Phoebe woke back up, I sat on the couch and Christian sat with Phoebe on the floor, playing with her. "Christian?"
He looks up at me. "Yeah?"
"Maybe you should start back at work. I can tell you miss it."
He sighs and looks back to Phoebe. "You're probably right, but I'll miss my family and getting to spend all this time with you. I want to be around to help keep you safe." I shake my head and manage to get down on the floor beside him and put my hand on the side of his face.
"We will be fine, baby. I've got to start back to work soon myself."
He looks back to me. "I thought you'd be fine when I went to New York, too, though." He says, fighting back tears. I kiss his forehead.
"You've had security upgraded. Jack is behind bars where he belongs. We are safe. Trust this."
He sighs. "Okay. You're right. I will start back Monday."
"I think it will be good for you. Lessen your hours if you want to spend more time with us. I will lessen mine as well if you do. I'm here with you every step of the way. I love you and I love our family."
He smiles and kisses me softly on the nose. "I love you and our family, too."
"Dada" we hear and we both look at Phoebe.
"What did you say, princess?" I ask.
"Dada." She says holding her hand up to him. I can feel the tears in my eyes and Christian picks her up and hugs her.
"Dada loves you, princess."
She giggles and keeps repeating 'Dada' as we continue to play with her. That is her first word. I start to feel sore on the ground so Christian helps me back onto the couch and kisses me softly. "Don't overdo it, baby. You heard the doctor."
I smile up at him. "Yes, sir." He grins back at me and winks and sits back down with Phoebe and plays with her. Whenever Liam gets home, he joins us and we all go out into the meadow and spend time together. I love days like this.