She felt a bit light-headed. It probably had something to do with having not eaten anything all day, but that was necessary.
The blonde looked up from her book to scan the room. Spacious, with a nice view of the vast woodlands of upstate New York. While Ithaca was a foreign city to her, she felt at home. She had made sure of it. Elsa had brought Gerda, Kai with her. In addition, her personal physicians and surgical staff came with her to ensure she had the best care available in a more subtle place than NYC, where she could remain anonymous. She had brought a few things with her to keep her company during her stay; a couple books, her tablet and most importantly, her phone.
It seemed silly (possibly pathetic) to bring her phone with her at first. Gerda and Kai were to be with her at all times, after all. Though she was back on neutral terms with Joshua, she wasn't planning to contact him any time soon. There was only one reason why she had her phone.
Anna.
Elsa smiled at the thought of the redhead. Though it had been only a few days since they had spent time together, she missed the energetic photographer. And as much as Elsa wanted to see her, she had made the right decision in her mind.
"Miss?"
Gerda stood at the foot of her bed, arms folded carefully in front of her.
"It's time."
Elsa nodded, signaling the maid to open the door for the staff to come in. They gently placed a white blanket over her, and started pushing her bed down the hallway.
Anna picked at her food with her fork with her free arm serving as a headrest. Kristoff cleared his throat.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm just not that hungry." She rolled a meatball across her plate.
"Oh come on, since when do you pass up on free food?"
"Since when do you go out to eat?" She looked around the restaurant. "Speaking of which, are you sure you can even afford this place?"
"For the tenth time, yes. Now can you just humor me? I haven't seen you in a week and now you're all sad. What happened? She paid for rent and food, so what's the issue?"
The redhead sighed. "It's not about the money, Kristoff. I just... worry. Something wasn't right when she left."
"Something wasn't right?" Kristoff scoffed. "What are you a psychic? Look, the job's done, you got paid, and the Ice queen is gone. I'd call tha-"
"Don't. She's not the Ice queen."
"Okay okay, yeesh. You don't have to get so upset. All I'm saying is that you don't know her as well as you think you do."
"And I suppose you know her better? What are you, an expert?"
"Well no... But..." Kristoff scratched at his head. "Okay let me ask you this. Do you know how old she is?"
"Uhh... Older than me."
"What's her favorite food?"
"Tea?"
"Her favorite color?"
"Probably purple."
"When's her birthday?"
"Umm..." the redhead's brows furrowed. "Okay, so I don't know all this stupid stuff. So what?"
"So what? You're trying to tell me you guys are friends, yet you know nothing about her outside of her name. Friends tell friends things. Friends don't randomly disappear all of a sudden."
"She said-"
"I don't care what she said. You can't trust her Anna, you don't know her, I don't know her, no one really knows her. I don't want to see you get hurt."
"But-"
"No 'buts'. Anna, I've seen you get like this before, and every time I've seen you get hurt. You can't keep trusting strangers like this."
She put her fork down to fidget with her hands under the table. "I know. Sorry Kris, I know you're the one who always has to clean up the mess. But I can't help it, you know?"
Kristoff sighed. "Yeah yeah, I know. Now stop looking so sad, I'm done scolding you. Just... promise me you'll be careful, yeah?"
She gave him a small smile. "I'll try."
The operation room was smaller and much colder than she imagined it. The nurses stopped a few feet from the operating table.
"Miss, we need you to get onto the table. Can you walk?"
"Yes," she said quietly. As she sat up, she realized how much her hands were shaking. When she got on her feet, she had to clutch the bed to keep from falling over. The blonde slowly walked over to the table, trembling more with each step. When she was on the table, she looked up to the bright light above her.
"It's perfectly normal to feel nervous, we're giving you an anesthetic right now. I need to you to start counting backwards from ten, okay?"
The blonde nodded at the masked face. "Ten, nine, eight..."
The faces started to blur, and the only thing she could focus on was the light right above her. Slowly, her vision began to darken around the edges, eventually snuffing out all light.
"You sure you're okay?"
"Seriously Kris, I'm fine."
"You always say you're fine but you never are!"
"That's it!" Anna slammed her fists down on the table, knocking over her cup. "Kristoff, I'm not a child, and I don't need to be treated like one. When I say I'm fine, I'm fine. If I want to tell you otherwise, I will. I'm an adult, and I can make my own damn choices."
She noticed all the other tables had gone silent, watching the faceoff between them. "Well, I wasn't very hungry to begin with, so I think it's best if I leave. Thanks for lunch Kris, I'll see you around." She stormed out without waiting for a reply.
Stupid Kristoff. I don't need to be babied, I'm twenty-one for god's sake.
She muttered a few curse words under her breath, strides getting faster and longer with each breath. Suddenly, she was knocked off her feet, her momentum carrying her back a few feet where she met cold concrete.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" She cried, grimacing at the pain. When she looked up, her eyes met chocolate brown ones, hand extended towards her.
"I'm so sorry, are you alright?"
"Oh! Um, yeah I'm okay!" She took his hand. "I jus- ow!" she instantly flinched at the pain in her right ankle. "I think I twisted my ankle."
The man got down on his knee to inspect the damage. "Oh... Yeah that's swelling up already." He stood up and put her arm over his shoulders. "I'm so sorry, I should have been watching where I was going."
"No no, I'll be okay," she walked slowly beside him, trying to put as little weight on him as possible. She tripped and put all her weight down on her injured leg, crying out loudly. "I'm fine, I-woah!"
The man picked her up in his arms. She instinctively put her arms around his neck, too afraid to look him in the eyes as she felt her face reddening. "I'm Anna, by the way."
The man chuckled. "I guess this is as good a time as any. Nice to meet you Anna, I'm Hans."
A/N: I hope you enjoyed that chapter. This is the half-way mark of this story (plot-wise), thanks for sticking with me so far. Unfortunately I won't be releasing a chapter this Thursday to give me time to write some more, as well as other story purposes. The next chapter will be up on Saturday, and we will be back on the Mon/Thurs/Sat schedule.
Also I quickly want to thank my beta reader, cupcakes_please on reddit. He's been awesome, I couldn't have done this without his help.
As always comments and criticisms are always appreciated, I will see you all on Saturday!