Disclaimer: I own nothing but my ideas and creative license.

A/N: Update time! Thank you for the reviews and support! Now here you'll find out what's wrong with Ana and you can see how right or wrong you are =)

Fifty Degrees of Love – Chapter Sixteen

"Why is he even here?" Kate whispered to her husband as she watched Christian pacing on the other side of the room. They had been in the same waiting room of the third floor of the hospital waiting on news of Ana since they arrive over two hours ago. Elliot had taken to Kate's side when Christian had pushed him away. Grace had warned not to ring anyone else for now until they knew what they were dealing with and ideally, she would have preferred Christian not even called Kate or Elliot until they knew. The stress was far too much for Ana clearly and overbearing her would just make her health worse not better. "He can barely stand her and now his mister panicky."

Elliot looked to Kate and sighed, shrugged, gave up all in one, "I don't know what's going on with him but, I'm worried about him."

"He should be worried about feeling my foot up his ass soon," Kate admonished as she kept her eyes on him for a moment too long. "I just want him to wake the hell up."

"Babe, calm down," Elliot soothed tryingly but, he could see that Kate, like everyone else was just a influx of emotions that were colliding and attacking one another. "You need to understand that he isn't acting like this by choice. Like mom said, he's still suffering from whatever that hit did to him. I know I'm angry at him but, I have to take a breath and remember that attack changed him and we don't know when or if he's coming back."

"You're right. Sorry. I feel for him I do but, it doesn't forgive his attitude," Kate commented and sighed. "And there's one thing I can say and really mean regarding him," Kate replied and felt bad at her attitude as she watched Christian on his own, "I actually just miss the old Christian."

"We all do," Elliot said and planted a kiss to Kate's temple and gazed on at his brother's distant behaviour. "Believe me, we all do."

He could feel eyes on him, but Christian was trying in vain to ignore them. He knew he was a bad guy here. In everyone's eyes he was and he accepted that fate. After what he had done to Ana in the apartment over the pregnancy tests, he deserved disowning.

Christian felt the wetness hit his top lip and, out of human habit, wiped it with the back of his hand. As he pulled away to drop his hand, he saw the redness and swore. Quickly he searched his pockets for a handkerchief and couldn't prevent the taste of blood seeping into his mouth.

"Fuck," He said as he found one and quickly unravelled it and put the expensive cotton to his face. The rush of blood was making him feel a little lightheaded but he remained standing.

"You've done this before," Elliot ran to his brother's aid and guided him to a seat. "When you came back after the crash you had some syndrome and got nose bleeds too often to count."

Christian sunk into his seat and leaned forward at his brother's command.

"Pinch the bridge of your nose," He advised and sat back knowing how his brother hated the idea of touch. "It seems you're still having side effects again."

"Great," Christian muttered nonchalantly and just remained leaning forward, one hand on his nose, the other holding the cloth under his nose. He had t look up a little and ask his brother, "I hear congratulations are in order?"

"Yeah," Elliot grinned, "That's why Kate left. Ana forced her to come and tell me." Elliot couldn't stop the smile that just took over his face, he was like a man held on cloud 9 and he wasn't desperate for an escape. "She was coming back when you rang me."

"Sorry for killing the mood," Christian dryly spoke through the handkerchief and realised Ana was right all along. "I didn't know who to call once I got here. I didn't know who would answer my call. I didn't know what to do."

"You got her here that was right move number one, bro," Elliot soothed Christian. "I would have stopped anything to be here. Kate especially. We need to be here."

Christian shook his head, trying to understand but he couldn't, his head was pounding as if a truck was driving into and backing up to just push the pedal down and pound into his head again and he felt like a failure. All the money and wealth he had around him and he felt like the biggest loser ever. "The old Christian wouldn't have let her get this ill would he?" Christian asked, his tone emotionless, his eyes wide with lost. "I would never have let her collapse in front of me would I?"

"I won't paint this up for you, Christian, because you wouldn't have done that. You never did." Elliot let out a nervous laugh and leaned forward to lean on his knees, "I remember this one time, Ana had slipped down some steps at work and busted her ankle up. You wouldn't let her walk on it until the doctor said it was okay. You drove Ana crazy but you kept telling her that every time you carried her into Escala it was like your wedding night all over again." Elliot looked over his shoulder to Christian, "You did things to the extreme but, you never once made Ana feel like it was because you didn't trust her. She knew everything you did was out of love. That was why you were always so happy."

"I want to be him," Christian began to sob then. He, Christian Grey, hot headed CEO was sitting crying over a woman he was completely horrible to and now he wanted to be the man she loved. "She loves him so much and I can't help but feel left out."

"You feel something for her don't you?" Elliot decided to bite the bullet.

Christian nodded and mouthed an affirmative, "She says she loves me but, I know it's him she loves. The Christian she built a life with that is. She doesn't love me."

"The way she looks at you tells me otherwise," Elliot squished his panic with the truth. An outsiders insight was always much more powerful after all. "That girl is still very much in love with this Christian that's here. I think that girl just counts her lucky stars that hit didn't kill you like mom said it should have. You're a walking miracle so I think it's time you look at it like this, bro – You could have died and not have a second chance with one of the most amazing women I know. You could have just died outright and left her to be miserable."

"She is miserable though which shows I've lost her," Christian muttered and sunk his head into hands. He could hear his brother talking sense but it just seemed like Ana would never love him as much as that earlier Christian.

"Listen," Elliot warned harshly, "The misery she has now can be changed and it can disappear but, had you die," Elliot shook his head, "I don't want to see that now. I've seen her lose you before and she cut us all out. She didn't think she had a place with us without you around. She didn't eat, sleep, nothing in the time you were missing and looking back, I remember when the news announced the man hunt for you was over and she was left all alone on the sidelines. I never want to have to see that as we all have the one we love most with us." Elliot watched Christian try to digest everything all at once, "She still has you," Elliot told Christian, "Do what's right and open your eyes to everything. It might open more of you than you realise."

"I just want to love her right," Christian almost made that sound like a desperate plea.

"You will," Elliot confirmed and then took his brother in his arms.

Falling against his brother he took a moment of weakness before he sat up and just self soothed himself. He didn't deserve comfort not when he had bullied and cussed a woman that had done nothing wrong except given him love.

"Hey," Grace called out as she walked up the corridor towards the three waiting in the waiting room. Everyone standing, Kate coming straight from her spot, Elliot and Christian's private moment gone, "Come with me," She told them and turned to go back towards Ana's room a little. She pointed into a room to where Ana was sleeping and turned to face them all, "I thought you might like to see her."

"Is she okay?" Kate asked, just wanting to bolt towards Ana's room and sit with her best friend. "You were gone ages, Grace."

"She's had a lot of tests done that's why. I didn't want to leave her," Grace commented and let her shoulders slump for a moment, "We found out what was wrong but, Ana needed multiple tests done to evaluate her current state of health. It's exhausted her."

"What's wrong with her?" Christian asked, immediately standing up to confront his mom for answers. "Is she going to be okay?"

Grace sighed, she knew the severity of this wouldn't at first be registered, "She has a severe UTI still but, she's also got kidney stones in her right kidney and from the sheer size of them alone I'd say she's been suffering with them for weeks. So right now, I can't predict what the outcome is going to be." The fear began to climb the walls around them and she knew she had to carry on. "We've just got to keep an eye on her that's all and with her electrolytes being well off so we're trying to get those to balance but, with her right kidney suffering right now she needs a little help with this. She'll feel better once those start to equal out. She's on an IV drip and the doctor gave her some morphine to help settle the pain. We need to get her hydrated again and working on the infections in her system."

"So what happens now?" Elliot asked, deciding to be the big brother. "Once her electrolytes balance is equal do we take her home?"

Shaking her head, Grace spoke solemnly, "It's not that easy. We need to try and break the stones down and get them to disperse enough for her to get them out of her system. She's on the medication to help with that but, we have to wait." Grace only saw the worry she was making everyone feel but there was no way of avoiding, "She might have to have surgery yet," Grace alerted them and she saw the worry begin to cover their expressions. "We're not passed that option just yet."

"Surgery?" Christian gasped, praying that Ana wouldn't need to go through that.

"Please tell me that's final point of call," Kate near enough begged, her eyes beginning to water, her gaze flicking between Ana's sleeping form and Grace.

"If her body doesn't break them up and absorb them or release them from her kidneys in her urine then surgery is the only way to make sure that Ana gets better." Grace gave a weak smile, "With today's technology, she'll be in and out with barely any scaring." She inhaled a positive breath and stood up straighter, "Ana would hate us for all moping around outside her hospital room. She's going to be fine in a couple of days. For now she just needs us all to keep her mood up."

"Mom's right," Elliot jumped in, "Let's go and wait for that little lady to wake up and we can look after her."

"Bully her more like," Kate commented as they began the short walk.

Christian didn't speak a word to no one. He just followed. As they walked down the corridor, Christian felt out of the moment. Everything felt surreal; he felt like he was plunged into water and the words became deformed and distorted.

"We need to get the others here," He just about heard Kate comment. "She'll go ballistic if we don't," She continued, her hand firmly fixed into Elliot's hand.

"We will, Baby," He then heard his brother speak and the nickname struck him hard.

As everyone took a place around Ana, Christian froze at the sight of her. This wasn't his place anymore. He didn't deserve to be with Ana when he had caused her so much stress and upset. She didn't want to divorce him and the inner masochist in her made her strong and for the most part resilient.

Now, seeing her reduced to her weakest, Christian was running scared.

He just didn't want to lose her in any way.