A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 16: Invasion

Soft… warm… content…

Christian slowly roused from his sleep. In addition to everything he was feeling, another strong emotion penetrated his heart when he realized Ana was sleeping soundly beside him, the two of them cuddled up together comfortably. They had fallen asleep very late last night, not bothering to get dressed as they spooned underneath Christian's warm down comforter. Christian had never been much of a cuddler, but with Ana he felt he could get used to this, especially since her hands on him didn't seem to bother him too much.

With last night being Ana's first time - as well as Christian's first foray into vanilla - this felt like the perfect place for them to be: falling asleep together in his bed, holding one another in a tight loving embrace.

The sky outside was still dark, and Christian idly wondered why he had woken up at this early hour when he suddenly heard the muffled ringing and vibration of a cell phone.

Christian slipped his arm off of Ana as he rolled over and propped himself up on his elbows, gazing around the dark room trying to figure out where the ringing came from. The phone rang again, and Christian realized it was coming from Ana's discarded pants that had been tossed onto the floor last night.

Someone's calling her at this hour?

"Ana," Christian whispered, moving over to gently place a hand on Ana's arm. "Ana, I think your phone's ringing."

Ana mumbled something incoherently before slowly waking up, her mussed-up bedhead and sleepy expression making her look adorable. "Mm… what's happening?"

"Your phone's ringing, baby," Christian explained. "I think it's over there on the floor."

Ana rubbed her eyes and frowned before sitting up straight. The phone rang again, and she got to her feet, heading over to where her pants were laying on the floor. She was still completely naked, but didn't seem to notice as she knelt down on the floor to pick up her phone.

"It's Kate," Ana said, staring blearily at the glowing screen of her phone with a frown on her face. She hit Answer before bringing her phone up to her ear. "Kate? Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Ana! Where are you? I've been calling for like fifteen minutes!" Kate's shrill voice could be heard quite clearly throughout the silent bedroom. "Why aren't you at the apartment? I've been worried sick!"

"I'm fine, Kate. I promise," Ana said assuredly, getting up and walking over to the nearby chaise lounge where Christian had tossed one of his button-down shirts. She picked it up with one hand and slipped it on to cover her nakedness. "I'll be back later this morning. Honestly, does this warrant a call at 4:30 in the morning?"

Christian glanced over at his bedside clock, and sure enough the digital readout said 4:32am.

"This isn't funny, Ana! Reggie and I came back from our date and we were expecting you to be in bed, but instead you're nowhere to be found. The whole apartment's been ransacked!"

Ana froze. "What?"

"We were robbed!" Kate shouted, and Christian could hear other people chattering in the background. "Reggie called the police, and now a bunch of cops are surrounding our building. I've been talking to the police officers trying to figure out what's been taken, and since you weren't here I thought something bad must've happened to you!"

"Oh my God," Ana said, alarmed. Christian sat up completely and pulled the blankets off of him, searching the floor for his boxer briefs. "Do you know what's been taken yet?"

"Not yet, but we're trying to figure it out," Kate said. "Where the hell are you?"

Ana avoided that question. "I can be there in twenty minutes. I'll let you know."

"Okay."

Ana hung up as she began searching the floor for her discarded clothes. Christian, with his boxer briefs on, got up and turned on a nearby lamp.

"I have to go," Ana said distractedly, picking up her panties and slipping them on. "Apparently our place has been robbed."

"I heard," Christian said, walking toward her. "Ana, it's Jack. It has to be."

"Why on earth would he rob my apartment?" Ana asked distractedly, taking off Christian's button-down before slipping her bra on and picking up her own shirt. "That makes no sense."

"It can't be a coincidence," Christian insisted. "We know something weird is going on with Hyde, and now suddenly your apartment gets ransacked while you're away? He's connected to this, I know it."

"You might be right," Ana said in a distressed voice, pulling on her pants. "But what else am I supposed to do? I have to meet up with Kate and see if anything's been stolen."

"You can't go by yourself," Christian said firmly, finding his own pants and pulling them on. "I'm coming with you."

"No you're not," Ana insisted, turning toward him. "There are going to be tons of cops there, Christian. It's not safe for you."

"I don't care," Christian snapped angrily. "It won't be safe for either of us, but I'm not letting you go by yourself."

"Taylor can come with me," Ana said, clearly trying to appease him. "And we can call Sawyer so he'll meet us there. I'll be perfectly safe without you, I promise Christian."

Christian still looked rather upset, and Ana walked up to him before slipping her arms around his waist. "It'll be okay. I won't stay for too long, and I'll be sure to text you once I'm there. I just don't want you to go there and risk getting in trouble with the cops, especially if they're all friends with Jack."

Christian let out a distressed sigh before pulling Ana into his arms, holding her tighter. "Promise me you'll stay with someone the whole time," he insisted, pressing his lips to her hair. "And call me immediately if you feel like something's off. I hate not being able to come with you."

"I'll be safe," Ana promised, pulling back to look up at him. "And I promise I won't stay there for too long. I'll come back here as soon as I can."

"You better," Christian said firmly, and Ana couldn't help but smile. She pushed herself up on her toes and pressed her lips against his. Christian immediately kissed her back, conveying his feelings for her the only way he could.

He hoped she wouldn't leave him in suspense for too long.

Blue and red flashing police lights practically blinded Ana as Taylor turned the car onto the street where her apartment building was. About five or six squad cars were parked along the street, with about half a dozen police officers milling around the area, checking the building perimeter or talking on their radios.

"Do you see your roommate anywhere?" Taylor asked, parking a short distance away. Ana squinted through the darkness and the flashing lights.

"I think that's her," she said, pointing ahead at a figure with blonde hair standing near a police car.

"I'll wait here and keep an eye on things," Taylor said, gazing out the front window toward the scene before them. "If you need anything, just let me know."

"Is Sawyer here yet?" Ana asked.

"He texted me saying he would be here when you and I arrived," Taylor explained. "He should be around here somewhere."

"Alright," Ana said, unbuckling her seatbelt. "See you in a bit."

Ana stepped out of the car, and headed over to where Kate was. The flashing lights and hubbub of people around her was louder than she initially thought, and she wondered if the neighbors had been woken up by all this.

Kate looked up as Ana approached, and her whole face lit up. "Ana," she grinned widely, and she rushed over before pulling her into a crushing hug. "I'm so glad you're here! Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay," Ana said, pulling away. "Are you okay? Do the police know what's been stolen from our apartment yet?"

"They're taking inventory of everything right now," Kate said, grabbing Ana's hand and pulling her toward the front door of their building. "Come on, I'll show you."

"Is it safe?" Ana asked nervously, her mind immediately straying to Jack. Could he still be in the area?

"Of course it is. The cops haven't found anything incriminating yet," Kate explained, skirting around the police tape and dragging Ana through the building's front door. "Everything is just kind of tossed around."

They entered through their open apartment door, which was crooked on its hinges, as if someone had forced their way in. Sure enough, the entire living room was trashed - all their shelves, tables, papers, books, and knick knacks had been tossed around the place, covering the whole floor. Two female police officers were standing in the kitchen and talking with one another, one of them scribbling something down on a notepad.

"Oh my God," Ana murmured, gazing around at everything with a shocked look on her face.

"It's like this in both of our rooms," Kate grimaced sadly, glancing around the place too. "I can't tell if anything's been taken yet, but my room doesn't seem to have anything missing. I'm not sure about your room though."

"Ms. Steele?"

One of the officers approached them, a Hispanic woman with her hair in a tight bun. "I'm Officer Ramirez. Have you been updated on the situation?"

"Oh, you mean that our apartment's been ransacked?" Kate said sarcastically. "Yeah I think she knows."

Officer Ramirez ignored her. "If you don't mind, Ms. Steele, could you take a look around the apartment and see if anything of yours is missing? If this really was a robbery, we need to be able to identify anything that might have been stolen."

"Of course," Ana said, looking around at the mess on the floor. "I'll go check in my room."

"I'm going to go check on Reggie," Kate said to Ana. "He's been talking to a police officer for the past twenty minutes or so. Let me know if you need anything."

"Alright," Ana said, and Kate turned and walked back out of the apartment as Ana headed into her bedroom.

Everything here was in disarray too. Her bookshelves had been pushed over and their contents strewn everywhere, her mattress and box spring had been pushed off of the frame, and the shirts hanging in her closet had been tossed everywhere. Ana felt sick gazing at everything - it was so violating, having someone come into her room without her knowledge and destroy all of her things.

And if this was Jack's doing, like she suspected, then there was more to worry about than just some missing items or broken bookshelves.

Ana sifted through her ravaged bedroom, trying to see if anything had been taken, but it appeared as if everything was still here. Even her laptop and television remained intact, though both were currently on the floor along with everything else. This was going to be a pain to clean up, that was for sure…

"Detective Sawyer. I didn't know you were working tonight."

Ana froze when she heard Officer Ramirez speak from the other room.

"I'm not, actually. Ms. Steele is a friend of mine, and when I found out she was robbed I wanted to make sure everything was alright."

Ana walked out of her room and into the living room, immediately noticing Sawyer standing in the doorway while Ramirez and her partner still stood near the kitchen. Ana couldn't help but feel a tad relieved.

"Sawyer," she said, and he looked at her before smiling in relief.

"Ana. Are you alright?" he asked concernedly, approaching her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just checking my room to make sure nothing was stolen," Ana said, turning around and heading back into her room; Sawyer followed her, and once they were out of earshot from the others, Ana began to whisper urgently:

"Sawyer, this was Jack. It has to be," she said quietly, glancing out the door with a nervous expression on her face. "Have you heard anything?"

"Not yet, but I think you might be right that this was likely Hyde's doing," Sawyer said in a low voice, glancing at the mess around the room. "But the question is why would he do something like this…"

"He was acting so strangely at work yesterday," Ana said, shaking her head. "It's like he's going unhinged or something."

"From what I can tell about Hyde, he's a smart guy," Sawyer said. "An evil sociopath, yeah, but still smart enough not to show his hand. It doesn't seem like causing random chaos and destruction is his MO. If he did do this, what's his angle?"

"If anything, it's to try to freak me out," Ana said. "I'm not going to let him get in my head, though. Thank God I was at Escala tonight, and Kate was out on a date. I don't want to think about what Jack would have done to either of us if we were here tonight."

"Don't try to dwell on it," Sawyer said, placing a comforting hand on Ana's shoulder. "Have you given a statement to Officer Ramirez yet?"

Ana shook her head. "No."

"Go and do that, but don't mention our suspicions about Jack. There's no evidence tying him to this yet, and I'm still trying to get the guys over at the FBI to take a look at his file."

Ana nodded. "Alright. I hate having to deal with this, but I suppose there's not much I can do about it yet."

Sawyer smirked. "That's the spirit," he said, and Ana gave a humorless chuckle. "Come on, let's go."

Ana and Sawyer spoke to Officer Ramirez for the next twenty minutes or so, neither of them mentioning Jack Hyde or the Elena Lincoln murder case. Ana hadn't been able to find anything missing, and since Kate hadn't been able to find anything missing either, Ramirez had to classify this crime as trespassing and vandalism: a minor offense that unfortunately didn't convey the seriousness of the situation.

Sawyer soon headed out of the apartment building to go find Taylor, and Ana followed after him, wanting to go find Kate. She was barely a dozen steps out of the apartment building when someone approached her:

"Ms. Steele?"

Ana turned and saw a female cop approaching her, a windbreaker over her uniform and a police cap on her head. In the darkness Ana couldn't quite make out her face, but her badge glinted in the blue and red lights of a nearby police car.

"Yes?" Ana asked.

"My partner and I found some discarded items over on the west side of the building," she said, pointing behind her toward the far end of the apartment building. "Some clothing, and what looks like a DVD player. Do you mind coming over and identifying them?"

Ana blinked, surprised. She hadn't remembered seeing anything missing, but she supposed there was so much chaos throughout the apartment, something must have slipped past her radar. "Sure."

Ana began to follow her toward the other side of the building, away from the people and the police cars parked along the street. As they moved further from the hubbub, Ana began to feel a bit odd… she remembered Christian's words about not going anywhere alone, and decided to speak up:

"You know, I think I should go grab my roommate Kate," Ana said, gesturing behind her. "She might be able to help identify some of the things you found."

"That won't be necessary, ma'am," the police officer said, barely glancing over her shoulder. She continued to walk forward, and Ana tried to keep up.

"I just really don't want the others to think I went wandering off by myself," Ana insisted. The cop didn't answer as she turned the corner of the building.

"Excuse me?" Ana asked, turning the corner as well.

She stopped. This area was just an empty lot where the dumpsters were stored, and not many people came back here. Ana immediately noticed there was nothing here, and that the female cop was just standing in the shadow of the building, not moving.

Frightened, Ana began to back away, ready to run full speed back to where the others were, but a pair of strong arms suddenly grabbed her from behind and wrapped around her body, pinning her arms to her chest.

Ana let out a scared yelp, instinctively kicking and struggling to free herself from his grasp. Even in her panicked state, she knew exactly what was happening, and her fear increased exponentially as a result.

The female cop walked toward them, and Ana was finally able to see Elizabeth's face in the glint of a flashing police car light. In her hand was a white cloth.

"HELP!" Ana screamed at the top of her lungs, but Elizabeth swiftly moved forward and pressed the cloth roughly over Ana's mouth, muffling her screams.

"Party's over, Miss Steele," Jack's low voice hissed in her ear. The world began to spin, and in a moment everything went black.

A/N: Please don't be mad at me :)

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