So, I tried to put the song "Feels So Close" by Calvin Harris on a constant loop at home and showed my hubby the video of Damon sauntering over to Elena so that he could recreate the scene, but when he did it, I didn't have the same feelings as I imagined. In fact, he looked like he was limping. Or had a cramp. In his crotch.

So, I am beyond happy that the first 3 chapters of AWW surpassed the review count for the first 3 chapters of Separate Beds, so I'm on cloud nine for that. Then I compare myself to other authors who probably get up to 3 times as much just by posting a "Hey" as a chapter update and I'm bummed again. Note to self: just stop comparing myself to others. I am my own person. I can't compare apples to watermelons. Good point, right? I thought so! So, the credit goes to all you fantastic readers and reviewers!

A Woman's Worth: Chapter Four

Damon's POV

"I hope I'm not here to watch you two getting freaky on the desk or anything kinky like that," I commented teasingly as I sat on an armchair normally reserved for family of patients who were there to receive some bad news. I was in a familiar doctor's office, impossibly neat, impeccably clean and I have never felt more at home there than anywhere else in the world. I had a tiny bit of an OCD problem; a borderline germaphobe which was ironic since I'd been spending so much time in a hospital.

I crossed my legs and stretched out to a comfortable position because it appeared as if I was going to be there for a while. I felt as if I was facing the Spanish Inquisition, the way they were staring down at me. By 'they', I meant the IT couple of Mystic Falls General. No, I didn't mean Taylor Kinney and Lady Gaga, although I found myself wondering what he lovingly calls her in private. Gaga? Lady? And what was their 'ship' name? Tayga? Or Gaylor?

Back to the issue at hand, the IT couple I was referring to was Ric and Meredith, both on their feet side-by-side, leaning their perky behinds against the edge of her desk facing me, arms crossed and wearing completely conflicting expressions. Hers was mostly amused and curious while his was one of disapproval and puzzlement. Or was that his usual constipated look?

"All right, either you tell me why you hauled me in here like a misbehaved punk sent to see the school principal or I'll start to assume that you haven't done number two since you woke up with that pained look on your face right now." I had to give Ric an ultimatum or I'd spend the whole afternoon away from Elena when I could be in her room, beating her at Monopoly yet again.

I had to suppress a chuckle at the thought of her frowning in concentration whenever she rolled the dice, trying –and failing – to avoid my vast properties with numerous hotels across the board. For a girl in college and a whole semester on a management course, she was utterly rubbish in handling investments and finances. I usually had her beat in an hour, tops. Sometimes, a little over but that was only because she kept landing herself in jail, and had to roll doubles to get out because I held all the get-out-of-jail-free cards. That girl had the worst luck in Monopoly.

Perhaps we'd try playing Twister for a change. My lips pursed thoughtfully as I imagined the various positions our bodies could contort into and how much touching would be involved in the silly but yet intriguing game that required extreme proximity. It certainly made for an interesting version of foreplay. Random x-rated images appeared unbidden into my head but I stifled them immediately. It was wrong. She wasn't some chick I picked up at a bar and brought back home for a…. no, I couldn't even bring myself to finish the thought. Elena was my charge. That's all she was going to be. Unless…

"Mer told me what you did, Damon. What were you thinking?" Ric's voice brought me back from my troubling thoughts, and so I shifted my attention back to my best friend, who seemed concerned for some reason. I searched through my brain for a clue to what he was accusing me of, but I came up empty. I hadn't purposely flirted with his girlfriend for ages, and I had not been hanging out at his apartment, eating all his food or hiding all his alcohol for the fun of it. I had been such a good boy lately, it was astounding and to be honest, a little out of character! Oh, perhaps it was because I was hanging around the hospital so much lately with Elena that I hardly found the time to even attempt to get on Ric's nerves and he felt ignored. Damn needy high maintenance best friend!

"Fine, I get it, you missed me," I said, throwing my hands up in defeat. "I know I haven't been around much lately and you're feeling disregarded, but I promise I'll make time for you…starting tomorrow," I added, thinking that Elena would be discharged by then and back at home with the devil reincarnate. Until then, I'd spend every waking moment trying to convince her that black and blue weren't flattering colors on her perfectly tanned skin.

Seeing that I had less than twenty-two hours until discharge, I flashed a warm smile at the still puzzled-looking man and stood up to leave, but was halted in mid-action. "Sit your ass back down!" barked Ric. Okay, that actually hurt my feelings. He hadn't raised his voice at me since the last time I stole his TV remote control to watch anything else except for Castle, which he absolutely had to watch, all the while cheering on his favorite onscreen couple, Caskett. Sorry, but I had to roll my eyes at that. "This isn't about you being MIA for the past week – which we'll definitely talk about later – but about you giving presents to your case!"

I stared at him in confusion, my mouth gaping slightly at his accusation. Wait, did he want a present too? Was that what all the fuss was about? Jeez, talk about being melodramatic! Honestly, sometimes I swear that Meredith's much less of a girl than Ric!

"Actually, I said a present, as in singular. Just the one; a teddy bear," Mer grinned broadly at me as she announced the nature of my gift. The traitor! She seemed to be awfully gleeful about it too, which was weird because she normally wasn't a morning person. I've stayed over at Ric's apartment enough times to make that conclusion.

"So I gave Elena a stuffed toy to cheer her up, so what? I gave a Raggedy Ann doll to Anna," I countered with a shrug, not exactly seeing a point to this good-cop, bad-cop routine of theirs. You'd think that I gave my loaded gun to Elena, judging from the disapproval radiating off of him. Also, I was about to argue that Elena was not just a case, but a bright young lady who was stronger than anyone had given her credit for. Elena was…more.

"That's different! She's six!" Ric burst out before I could open my mouth.

"How is that different?" I asked, perplexed as to why he was making such a big deal out of a toy. "Is there an age limit for when a person is ineligible to receive a toy? It's okay to give one to a six year old child, but not to an adult? That's an ageism, Ric."

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Mer trying to hold back her laughter at our 'couple's fight' apparently about a soft toy, out of all things I've ever done, the worst of them mostly witnessed by my buddy.

"Look, I'm not discriminating against anyone and this isn't about a toy, either. It's about you, acting in a professional capacity when dealing with your cases, and giving a cuddly little bear to an attractive woman who is currently under your care is not professional," he explained in a quieter tone. "Don't even get me started on the fact that you've been spending most of your time here with her and refusing to leave the room when her doctor," he stressed, his head gesturing towards a sheepish Meredith, "asks you to. You're not supposed to be that involved with a case, you know that better than I do!"

"Elena's not a case!" I exclaimed defensively, somehow irritated that he kept referring to her as one. "She's been through Hell and back, Ric, so before you judge her to be simply one of the many victims of abuse, maybe you should spend some time getting to know her and try not to melt into her deep pools of browns filled with such pain and horror! She's barely an adult and already she'd lost so much, starting with her parents' death! She's so strong, much stronger than anyone I've ever met, you have no idea."

Shaking his head, Ric refused to back down from his viewpoint. "Everyone has back stories, Damon, everyone. Sure, Elena's story is heartbreaking, but so were many others before her and there will be more after her. It's your job to make sure that they get the help they need and for them to know where to go if they need help in the future, regardless of their background. You're not supposed to hold their hand everyday and play board games with them!"

At this point, I was shooting deathly glares at the mole who came in the form of a petite brunette wearing a white lab coat. Pity there was no doctor-case-handler confidentiality agreement I could sue her over for completely selling me out! Besides, I didn't realize that she was keeping such a close watch on my activities with Elena. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have held hands with my charge that much, or you know, hugged her in plain view of the entire pediatric wing, but she needed me.

"All right, I'll give you that point, but in my defense, Elena was distressed and somehow I'd earned her trust enough that she felt comforted by my presence, so I guess my time spent with her paid off in the end," I conceded, but not before sending my point across in a final attempt. "But I get it, Ric. No more presents and games." Ha! I didn't mention anything about continuing to hold hands with her, if she needed me to. Only if she needed me to , I reminded myself sternly.

To my amazement, Meredith agreed with me. "It's true, you know. Elena's much calmer when Damon's around and he even got her to smile and laugh at times, despite the circumstances that required her admittance into the hospital anyway. I think in some way, Damon being here actually speeds up her healing process because she's more relaxed and actually, him spending so much time with her during the day actually tired her out so she was able to sleep peacefully throughout the night without interruption. The nurses told me that her nightmares had also lessened significantly, so that's great," she told Ric, but I only focused on the part that I didn't know before.

"What? She's been having nightmares? About Lockwood?" I wondered aloud, now even more concerned about her psychological health, knowing that she was going to be living with him again. In the same house, on the same bed, behind closed doors where he could do goodness knows what else to her again without my knowledge. I didn't like it one bit.

"I would assume so, but I can't be sure. Didn't she tell you about them?"

I shook my head mutely, more than eager now for this whole discussion to be over so that I could be at Elena's side, hoping that I would be able to change her mind from returning to Lockwood. She could probably stay with Blondie in the mean time, while I try to find a place for her elsewhere. Yes, that would have worked, except it didn't, as Meredith's next words send my world crashing to a standstill, and then exploding into pieces.

"Well, there's nothing any of us can do now…Elena's getting discharged today, so I have to prepare her discharge papers right now," she said, before making her way around her desk to sink into her chair, unaware that I had completely frozen in mine.

"Today? Today? I thought it was supposed to be tomorrow! What happened?" I screeched loudly, oblivious that my voice had gone several octaves higher than usual. I had counted on having just enough time to try to convince her to walk away from Lockwood, only to find out now that I didn't. All I had was an hour, two at the most before I risked losing her forever. No, I didn't mean it like that. I meant that the next time I see her, she could be unconscious or worse, dead. My heart pinched sharply at the thought. Yeah, that was what I meant when I said that I could lose her. Of course it was.

"Elena asked me if she could go home earlier as she didn't want to burden Mason with unnecessary medical bills. She didn't have insurance, so he's paying every single cent out of his own pocket. I suppose she didn't want to further impose on him, financially," Meredith explained distractedly as she sifted through Elena's patient file.

Time was ticking and I had to go. Pronto.

I shot right out of my chair before Ric could stop me. "And why am I finding out about this now?" I muttered as I reached the closed door, my hand gripping the knob to turn it. Before that, I had to address one more thing to Ric. "If you had any doubts at all about Elena, that right there is why I have to help her. That's the kind of person she is; considering the feelings and the wallet of the very man who sent her here in the first place. That's why I needed her to trust me, so that she'll realize that she doesn't need him, that she has someone who cares about her, and that she has help if she needs it. I'm all she has left," I threw that parting shot over my shoulders and left the room, closing the door behind me.

Before the door could fully close however, I heard something Ric said that shook me to my very core. "Our boy is so whipped, can you tell? He's so completely blinded by protecting Elena that he can't see the fact that she's extremely vulnerable right now and that's why she's clinging onto him. Whether she knows it or not, she'll be comparing Damon to Lockwood, one causing her pain and the other supporting her emotionally through it. She'll lean heavily on Damon to pull her through this time, but she'll go back to her boyfriend in the end because she still loves him. The victims always do. If he had not allowed himself to get too emotionally invested in this case, then he would have seen it coming. It's a classic rookie mistake and he should have realized that. I'm just worried that he'll get hurt in the process when he realizes that he can't save her, you know? Not if she doesn't want to be saved, even by him. Damon has got to take a step back and establish a line that he shouldn't cross with her or he's going to let his heart get in the way of his own rescue mission."

Shit. For once, Ric was right. Still…. shit.

I made my way back the familiar route to Elena's room in deep thought about what I had overheard and didn't even realize that I was already halfway inside the room until I saw a scene that would forever be seared inside my brain, and not in a good way.

Lockwood was there. With Elena. Kissing Elena. Kissing a topless Elena, an Elena who had on a pair of skintight jeans that hugged all her womanly curves and a black camisole, one that accentuated her best assets other than her eyes and hair. That was all she was wearing. I would rather find her in that shapeless dreary hospital gown I had grown accustomed to seeing her in than the regular clothes that further enhanced her attractiveness by one thousand fold. Belatedly, I realized that she had a cardigan half-worn around her wrists, so she must have been in the midst of getting dressed before that monster interrupted her with an attack on her lips!

Briefly, I considered a hand-to-hand combat; the satisfaction of seeing Lockwood's shocked expression before I tore his face out with my bare hands would have been worth it, but I reigned in my rage at finding him that way with my charge. I had to respect Elena's privacy – I know, a little too late for that, but let's just assume that I had learnt my lesson at not crossing invisible lines – so, I hastily retreated back out into the hallway and closed the door behind me softly, relieved that I managed it without gaining the attention of the couple within.

I tried to walk away, really, I did, but I found myself rapping my knuckles a tad too hard against the cold glass of her door, alerting them that it was time for their lips to part. Far apart. I heard some scuffling sounds and a masculine chuckle and then her muffled admonishment, followed by a soft "Come in."

I responded immediately, pushing the door open and made sure that it stayed wide open before I marched in, hoping that my face was arranged in a cool and nonchalant expression as supposed to the growling, snarling one with a mouthful of fangs I imagined in my head. "Oh great, Lockwood, you're here," I heard myself saying in a fake pleasant voice that sounded hollow even to my own ears. "Dr. Fell wants to see you in her office to discuss about Elena's follow-up schedule and get the discharged paper processed."

Okay, maybe I lied a little to get Lockwood out of the way, but it must be what he was expecting to hear, because he just nodded his acknowledgement and turned his attention back to Elena, telling her that he would be right back. He flicked an annoyed gaze at my direction before he headed out to locate Mer's office. Gosh, I hoped that he wouldn't walk in to find a freaky-deaky kinky session on her desk rather than the professional one I just left behind. I made a mental note to ask Ric about it some other time.

Knowing that I only had a small window of time left to spend with Elena, I hurried over to her, noting with relief that she was fully covered now, cardigan in place and lips free of a monster attached. "Hey, do you want to go for a walk?" I asked, keeping my hands clasped tightly behind me to refrain from holding it out for her to take it.

"A walk? I thought I'm getting discharged now," she seemed to be confused over my invitation.

"It's just a quick walk around the grounds. Besides, the discharge procedure is going to take a while. Lockwood still have to collect your prescription from the Pharmacy and then meet with the Accounts Department to settle your bills," I declared, hoping that my explanation was logical enough to convince her.

"Outside?! With sun, wind, trees, grass and oxygen?" she clarified with an excited gleam in her eyes. She hadn't been out of the hospital since she had been admitted, so I was certain the idea of being able to soak up some rays and breathe in some fresh air would be appealing to her. "Let's go!"

Together, we made our way to the ground level after leaving word at the nurse station, and Elena's demeanor was noticeably more cheerful as soon as we were out in the open. I watched closely as she kicked her sandals off and twirled around on the grassy patch, her expression childlike and carefree. With the sun shining down against her cascading brown locks, a gentle breeze blowing through them, the sight of her radiant smile prompted my next question.

"Elena, I know you've decided to go home with Lockwood, but can you at least think about staying with Blo – with Caroline first?" A part of me instantly regretted saying anything the moment her face fell, the joviality erased from her features, but it was my only chance to change her mind. I had to try, for the sake of my sanity and for what could possibly be her life; I had to be the voice of reason especially after being in a bubble of avoidance the previous week.

She hesitated at first and then raised carefully emotionless eyes to mine, and I braced myself to listen to her denial of the situation. "Damon, he's my boyfriend and I….I-I love him. He's not the monster you and Care make him out to be, you know?" she paused as if searching for the right words to convince me not to worry over her. "He loves me and whatever happened between us, it wasn't on purpose and it wasn't an everyday occurrence. He promised to try to work on his anger issues, and I promised that I'd be there to support him, and that's exactly what I'll do. Please, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I can take care of myself," her half-hearted not-quite-reassuring smile did nothing to quell my concern for her, so despite my recent undertake to maintain a level of professionalism, my survival instincts got the better of me. Or rather, my survival instincts for her got the better of me.

I took both of us by surprise when I suddenly swirled her around and slammed her hard against my chest, her back to me and my arms criss-crossed over hers, locking her wrists in my tight grip. She stood frozen for a moment, her head turning to the side to gaze up at me, her eyes wide with bewilderment. As I gazed right back at her, I couldn't help but to notice how close our heads were, next to each other, our parted lips mere inches apart. It would be too easy to lean down and take what was being offered as she remained unmoving in my arms, but I forced myself to remember that there was a reason for our bodies' proximity. It got a whole of a lot tougher to remind myself of that when her eyes shifted down to my lips momentarily and then her pink tongue slipped out to wet her own.

Damn Ric and his imaginary uncross-able lines!

"Fight, Elena!" my command sounded more gruff than I intended.

"Wh-what?" she asked, surprised at my request.

"I'm not hugging you; I'm attacking you, so fight me off!" I instructed, and then I found myself in the depths of hell when she started squirming, her body writhing provocatively against the entire length of my body, soft versus hard. No prizes for guessing which one I was. "Don't be afraid to hurt me. Just try your best to push me away," I bit out, mentally cursing myself for my bright idea, especially when she doubled her efforts to struggle out of my grasp.

"I can't…you're too strong," she gasped and grunted while her arms twisted and turned under mine.

Desperate to break my concentration on how her wriggling body felt against mine, I glanced around us to find curious glances from other patients and visitors who seemed unsure whether to rush to the defense of a poor helpless girl being attacked by a ridiculously handsome guy in broad daylight and in the middle of a hospital ground.

"Elena, people are about to call the cops on me, so I suggest you try to find my weakness so that y-" I warned, but she unexpectedly slumped back against me, her head lolling on my shoulder with her eyes closed.

"My chest…I can't breathe," she muttered breathlessly, sending me into a panic mode as I hurriedly released her and set her down on the ground. Her eyes popped open and the next thing I know, she was on her feet and smiling broadly down at me, her expression triumphant. "Haha, I did it! I found your weakness! I made you let go!" she announced in a sing-song voice, looking mighty pleased with herself at her trick. Okay, I was reluctantly impressed with her quick thinking, but then again, I always thought that she was a smart woman, but not when it came to staying in an abusive relationship. Also, it was disturbing how she instinctively knew that she was my weakness. Had I been so damn obvious that the whole world could see it?

"Not fair, you cheated!" I whined and pouted, hoping that she wouldn't notice the direction my thoughts had taken, along with my body's reaction to our…umm…rubbing motions. "You tricked me into letting you go!"

"Errmmm, yeah, because you cheated first by taking me by surprise!" she argued back, looking very much like a rebellious teenager.

"Yeah, as if an attacker would warn you first before he grabbed you. It's called the element of surprise!" Cue eye-rolling.

To my surprise, she gave me her own version of an eye-roll that could rival my own as she declared, "Yes, and instead of fighting a losing battle, I feigned being hurt and made you let go, so I won! Besides, I knew that you wouldn't hurt me." Her last admission rang true and we both knew it. Of course I would never hurt her, not intentionally and not accidentally, either.

"You're really okay, though?" I asked, wondering if her shortness of breath was real or if she was that good an actress. To my relief, she nodded and grinned.

"Can you teach me some other tricks? A self-defense tutorial of some sort?" she added eagerly as she came to stand right in front of me. I considered for a second and then decided that if she insisted to go home with Lockwood, she might as well learn how to defend herself. At least that would give her a fighting chance to get away since he was much bigger than even me. I had muscles, but they're the lean kind of muscles; didn't mean I couldn't take him in a fight, though.

I grabbed one of her hands and placed it on my chest, pressing her palm flat over my thin shirt before moving it lower. "Do you feel this? There's a lump right in the intersection where my two rib cage meets, can you feel that?" She nodded wordlessly, all traces of humor gone from her expression. She seemed to be distracted by the fact that her hands were touching my body and it took every ounce of control I had left to focus on the lesson. "That's where my solar plexus is located. It's a cluster of nerve cells and tissues, extremely sensitive and if properly targeted and hit with a certain force, you can incapacitate your attacker and send him to his knees. Not only will he be in great pain, but you'll also temporary stop his breathing as his lungs spasm. Hit it hard enough and at a forty-five degree angle with your knuckles and it's lights out for a couple of minutes, giving you time to run, got it?"

Elena nodded again and then repeated, "Hit hard at forty-five degree angle with my knuckles, got it. You mean like this?" Before I could see it coming, her small fist connected right smack in the pit of my stomach and I was seeing stars. I felt like one of those cartoon characters that got hit by a ton of weight only to wake up with a few Tweety Birds flying around its head in circles. I was on the floor, in massive amount of pain and unable to breathe. My mouth gaped open to suck in oxygen but there was nothing. I experienced a moment of panic at the thought of dying in such a manner before I could save Elena who was leaning over me, worried out of her mind.

"Oh God, Damon! Is this a trick? Please be joking! I-Ididn't mean to hit you so hard, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed anxiously, her hands cold against my skin as she grabbed my head to rest on her lap. "What do I do? What do I do? Help! Help! He can't breathe!" she screamed to strangers around her but no one came, at least none that I could see from my peripheral vision. I was also too busy freaking out over the lack of oxygen in my system.

"I-I need to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation! Oh God, I have to-to, oh hell!" she muttered to herself and then I watched helplessly as she took a deep breath before her head descended to mine. I shook my head and prayed to all the gods in the universe that she wouldn't go through with it; I didn't know if I was able to handle it if I felt her lips wrapped around mine, and also, it wouldn't work anyway. My lungs couldn't expand, so it wouldn't help one bit. I knew enough about a blow to the solar plexus from reading about it on the Internet to expect it to be over soon. In theory, my lungs would spasm for about a minute or two, though it certainly felt much longer than that in reality, and then I would be able to breathe normally again. The aim was just to be alive until then.

Just as her lips grazed mine, I managed to draw in a much-needed breath, so I hastily pushed her aside so that I could sit up and gulped in air, coughing as I did. Vaguely, I felt her arms wrapped around my shoulders and cuddled my head against her chest, her heartbeat racing under that black camisole of hers. "Thank God, oh thank God!" she kept repeating and then in a matter of minutes, I had all my faculties back in working condition.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I mumbled into her chest and forced my head up to look into her fearful and tear-filled eyes. Great, now I made her cry!

"Elena!" an angry masculine voice reached us from afar, and simultaneously, we both straightened up and turned towards the sound. A scowling Mason Lockwood was marching over to us, no doubt having witnessed our almost embrace on the ground. "I've been looking all over for you! The nurses told me where you might be. What's going on?" his upset gaze sliding suspiciously from hers to mine and back again.

Elena jumped guiltily to her feet and after a moment's hesitation, reached out to pull me to mine and then brushed dirt off my shirt as a result of my unplanned roll on the floor. "Damon was just showing me how to throw a punch and then I did it to him but suddenly he couldn't breathe and I was so scared that I had killed him! Then he could breathe again and that's when you showed up," she explained, averting her eyes from mine as she edited her story to seem completely innocent. I didn't contradict her because I was still recovering from the whole ordeal and also reeling from our almost-kiss that shouldn't have happened in the first place.

"Well, come on then! You're discharged and we still need to go back to your room to collect your stuff," the monster informed her and tugged at her hand back towards the building without even so much as a 'I'm-sorry-you-almost-died' glance at me. I watched them go with a heavy heart, studying Elena's back as she struggled against his firm grip on her upper arm as she was being pulled along. Then she turned back to me, her sad and helpless eyes meeting and holding mine all the way until they disappeared into the lift lobby, leaving me staring at a blank wall.

Ric was absolutely right; I had let myself get too close to Elena. I cared more than I wanted to admit and it's scaring the hell out of me judging by my reaction to her being gone. I felt the now familiar feeling of breathlessness but this time, it was accompanied by a painful twist of my heart. In some ways, this sensation that I was experiencing was much worse than being punched repeatedly on my solar plexus. I would take that a dozen times over with a smile on my face rather than the powerless feeling of being unable to play the hero to my heroine.

I had no choice. I had to let her go. The villain had won the battle this round, but there was no way that I was going to let him win this war. I just prayed that by the time I see her again, it won't be too late. I wasn't about to bury another body, not if I can help it.

Almost as an automatic response to her absence, I lifted a finger to trace my upper lip, the part where her lips touched mine earlier. It was still tingling.

Elena's POV

I wasn't ready to leave yet.

I was ready to leave the hospital, but I was nowhere near ready to leave Damon. Especially after he just barely recovered from my unforeseen attack. I didn't mean to hurt him, and I certainly didn't expect that I even could hurt him. He seemed so heartbroken when Mason was pulling me away from the garden, as if he was unwilling to let me go. I knew he was worried about me, but I didn't want him to be. You spend an entire week with someone on a daily basis, for hours at a time and you begin to notice things about them.

I could tell that there was more to the story of Damon's desire to protect abuse victims. It went deeper than that. Every time I looked into his pale blue eyes, I could tell that he genuinely cared about what happens to me, and his protectiveness wasn't about him doing his job as a social worker. No, it went beyond that. It was as if he made it his personal mission to make sure that I didn't go through what I went through with Mason before I ended up in the hospital. Sure, Damon usually clowned around me and Caroline and sometimes Dr. Fell too, but underneath his sarcastic, snarky sense of humor, there was a hint of sadness and pain that ran deep inside him and it was what I saw in his eyes when Mason tugged me along behind him.

I wanted more time to dig deeper and see if he would share his story with me, since I sensed that he didn't just become a social worker to help abuse victims. He had a past, a dark one perhaps and it was why he wanted to save people like myself and Anna.

Anna, the six-year old little girl with the face of an angel and the life of a living hell. I had to see her again before I left the hospital, so I told Mason that I had someone I had to say goodbye to, and to my surprise, he insisted on going with me. I knew that he was unhappy about my newfound friendship with Damon and probably thought that I wanted to see him again, therefore he seemed genuinely shocked when I led him over to the pediatric wing.

We entered the same cheerful and brightly colored room and found Anna on her bed this time with her ginger-head doll right beside her. I motioned for Mason to wait by the low round table we were seated around the last time as I made my way to her bed. My heart squeezed painfully again at the thought of anyone sick enough to harm an innocent child like Anna.

Her blue-green eyes flew open when I approached her side, and she simply laid there staring at me for a long while, as if she was trying to place my face among the people she'd met. I was relieved beyond belief when she smiled a little, a sign that she recognized me and was permitting me to stay.

"Hi Anna," I breathed out softly so as not to scare her off. "I came to tell you that I'm going home now. My doctor discharged me so I don't need to stay here any longer. But don't worry, I'll come back to visit you often, okay?" Not surprisingly, she didn't even give an indication that she had heard me, let alone responded, but I still hoped anyway.

Anna hid half her face behind her doll, preferring to instead peek up at me with one eye but then she unexpectedly turned to look at Mason who seemed impatient to leave. She turned right back to me expectantly and I instinctively knew what her unspoken question was. She was wondering who Mason was.

"That's Mason. He's my boyfriend and I'm going home with him. Can you wave a hello to him?" She shifted her attention back to him and just when I thought that she would shout out a 'Hello' to Mason, she hid her face behind the doll again, a tiny frown on her face.

"Elena, will you hurry up? You're wasting your time with her! She's not even going to respond to you," Mason spoke, not even bothering to lower his voice to avoid being heard by the little girl. "Just quickly say your goodbyes and I'll wait for you at the car, 'kay?" As soon as he was out of the room, I visibly relaxed and I think, so did Anna.

"He's right, we do have to go, but I wanted to give you a goodbye hug before that. Will that be okay, Anna?" I asked gently, and stretched my arms wide, indicating that she should close the distance and put her arms around me. She did even better; she placed her doll in my embrace, and to be honest, it was very adorable when she did, but then she embraced her doll instead, effectively hugging me too in the process. I almost whooped with joy but what happened after that shocked me so much that it rendered me speechless.

"Mason, bad man," Anna whispered as she detached herself from me and went back to closing her eyes as she lied back down on her bed. All I could do was to stare at her, unable to believe my ears. She spoke! She finally spoke! Damon told me that she hadn't spoken at all since her attack, but here she was, speaking! To me, of all people!

I was too busy being distracted to really take note of what she just said about Mason, but in hindsight, I wished that I had heed her warning.

I should have listened to the six-year old girl who broke her silence to warn me against the man who would later break me.

Thanks, Kristi (tukct81) for doing an awesome job as my beta and friend. Her story "Neverending Progress" is ending (despite the title, go figure!) and it's a wonderful story. Also to Sana for being my publicist by promoting this story on her tumblr. I never knew that a water container could hold advertisements! Shout out to Kelsey for being online again! I'm also waving "HI" to Carol, my go-to nurse and K for sharing her personal story with me!

As for my other regular readers/reviewers: "I Feel So Close to You Right Now, It's A Force Field" :D Thank you for reviewing :P