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

A/N: I think first of I need to send everyone a whole load of love for sticking up for in reviews and still supporting my story after some guest reviewer decided to 'trash' all over my work. To say it hurt is an understatement but, to those that stood up for me, THANK YOU! =)

Now enjoy...

Fifty Degrees of Love – Chapter Seventeen

"Oh God, Ana," Elena sparked up, her eyes watering as she came into the room. "What the hell happened?" She asked, her voice taut with concern as she took to Ana's side and was shocked at the state Ana now was in. She looked so much weaker than before, with dark circles under eyes and she suddenly looked gaunt and emaciated. It was like the bed was swallowing her whole and as if medical intervention was making her sicker.

"I collapsed at home and woke up here," Ana replied to Elena and tried to sound better than she was capable of but it seemed that her body was just on an increasing decline. "Christian apparently brought me in."

"Where the hell is he?" Elena all but hissed as she scanned the room. "I swear that bastard will pay for not being here."

Ana grabbed Elena's hand, "He doesn't have to be forced here." She could see the same fire burning in Elena's eyes that torched the entire of Kate's face but, Ana was in no mood for the fighting when she felt like her body was unable to hold on armour. "He's lost right now. I can't be there to try and help him and I don't want to be doing that from a hospital bed."

"You aren't giving up are you?" Elena asked as she perched herself on the edge of the bed, her attention solely on Ana.

"No," Ana shook her head, "I'm just tired."

"Do you blame her?" Kate jumped in suddenly, "She's had everything with Christian to deal with, work on top of that and now she's got this. I hate that it took you collapsing for you to see how severe this was, Ana. I hate that it took you so long to realise how ill you are."

"I know," Ana grumbled. She felt awful as it was and that was more guilt that illness and she didn't want to deal with more guilt tumbled onto her.

"Why wouldn't you just let Grace bring you in?" Elena questioned, trying to think of a hundred and one reasons why Ana wouldn't even anticipate how much better the hospital option was.

"We've gotten this out her already," Kate jumped in, still unhappy with Ana's excuse. "It's not a great one."

"Well entertain me," Elena spoke and turned to face Ana with a questioning stance. "What is it?"

"I didn't want to admit I was this ill," Ana admitted dryly and tried not to give Elena eye contact.

"And?" Elena pressed knowing that Ana wasn't done quite yet.

"It wasn't that bad. I just felt ill and the pain wasn't constant," Ana spoke and held her side as she pushed up a little and shifted to get comfortable. "I didn't know I was this ill with stupid kidney stones."

"Not really stupid when you were told there's already damage to your kidney," Elliot jumped in, taking a stand and going to the end of Ana's bed. "Next time you're ill, I'm not even listening to you. I'm going to drag you here and not let them discharge you until they've ran every test possible."

"Great," Ana mused unhappily at the thought. "Let's just realise I didn't think I would be this ill."

"None of us did," Grace commented as she came in and gave them all a smile. "How you feeling now, Sweetie?"

Ana gave a grin, "Worse," she muttered sarcastically. There was no point in lying now was there? She had to admit that since that argument she felt like everything was getting far too much. And all she could think about was what Christian had been saying to her. She didn't know why but, she couldn't understand him and she wanted to. She wanted to have him here with her holding her hand because admittedly she was terrified.

"I'm not surprised with how sick we let you get. I swear to God, I will never listen to your hard headedness," Grace scolded and felt her voice going tight as she thought about it. "You're losing every right."

"You sound like Elliot," Ana pointed out wryly and gave a sarcastically deprecating smirk at her brother in-law. "I feel like my freedom is being stolen from me."

"Oh it is," Elliot quipped and grinned widely, tossing a wink at Ana who rolled her eyes.

"Grace, what's going on with Ana now?" Elena asked, wanting nothing more than to be back at Escala like they were this morning.

Beginning to shake her head, Grace looked to Ana with a face full of seriousness, "Ana's there's no change in the stones size only that they've moved and are causing an obstruction in your urinary tract. They are just too large for us to wait and use any of the options we laid out before us. It's too late. There's only one other option now," Grace went to speak but Ana spoke over her.

"Surgery?" Ana asked and swallowed her fear as Kate grabbed her hand as Grace nodded.

"I was so hoping it wouldn't get to this, Ana but, I can assure you that you will be in minimal pain and most probably be out of here in a few days if all is well at the end of this," Grace replied, quite grateful for her medical knowledge so she knew the risks and complications that were at the end of this procedure. "I think your doctor's thinking about performing a less invasive procedure that will leave you with a tiny incision mark on your back. You'll still be stuck in here a few days but, your pain should be gone immediately."

"Whatever, I just want to be home," Ana told Grace honestly, not telling them her fears. One of her fears was because of her husband finally cheating on her and the other revolving around the prospect of surgery. It always seemed to bring on a darker dawn.

Ana gulped, she had to do this without Christian.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Fifty Degrees of Love -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Christian sat on the floor looking at a life that he had no memory of. He was happy in the snap shots of life. He was completely and whole heartedly devoted to Ana, his wife and what looked to be his best friend.

This was a form of torture in itself.

He wanted to give so much to be that man and feel what was frozen and immortalised and he couldn't for the life of him drum up one ounce of emotion that remotely linked in with the happy people living in a world gone past.

"I just spoke with Grace," Was all he said to get Christian's attention and he saw the man look up, his body rigid with need to know. "It seems that Ana needs surgery now. She's getting worse and the medication made no changes and the delay only made it less optional to opt for the modern way of breaking the stones down. Apparently she should be home in a few days after monitoring for any complications."

"That easy?" Christian asked shocked, "And so soon after?"

"She's having less invasive surgery according to your mother so she won't be opened up," Taylor relayed the information he was given. "I guess it's a silver lining to what's wrong with Ana." Taylor noticed Christian's look grow ever more solemn, there was no CEO or monster here. He wasn't laying in wait. "Want to talk about whatever's on your mind?"

Christian thought about it for a moment, "I keep remembering having sex with Ana the other night. I told her it was a mistake. It wasn't," Christian mumbled softly and lifted his eyes up. "For the first time I felt like a woman really needed me in bed, that she really wanted me and that it wasn't just a hard fuck and that was it."

"Oh believe me, she really wanted you. God, you two should have burnt out years ago but, you're still going strong," Taylor quipped with a light chuckle lining his tone "The amount of times you two have been caught in the past is scary. I just wish you remembered them and were still embarrassed."

"Elena's birthday," Christian muttered under his breath and placed a hand onto his head. "You caught us, didn't you?" He saw Taylor nod and another sharp pain bolted through Christian's head and ignited a new memory. "Christmas," he murmured softly.

"Are you sure about?"

"As sure as I was about coming back to you," Ana's sweet, delicate tone talked back at him and even though Christian was well aware of Taylor's presence and of the fact this wasn't real, he wanted to revel in the moment. He knew that grin she was giving him, that look of want, he knew it! "I'm sorry the cast isn't sexy."

He looked down at her arm and remembered the scar her arm harboured. The sketched in damage from Stephen breaking her arm! God, Christian felt alive with remembrance. And without meaning to his lips began to speak for him, "Looking at the rest of you, I really don't give a fuck."

"Give a fuck," Ana murmured seductively at him, finding that nothing stopped him wanting her. "Give a fuck to me," She continued and saw his eyes lighten up. Christian felt the throb in his body. He felt a need for a woman's body for more than anything else.

The moment his hands touched her he was shocked back to the room he was in. It was the same place but Ana wasn't here, Taylor was. There was stillness in the dead like something had died and he didn't understand how much electricity he felt as a result of Ana.

She was his livewire and he had treated her as if she was something that needed scraping off of the bottom of his shoe.

He now felt the fever pitch she set upon him and he felt his chest cease at the thought of her. He never wanted to hit her or command her because for once he was given something more divine. Something lifelong. Something he needed to survive.

"Do you remember?" Taylor broke into the moment. He had been trying to get Christian's attention but it only seemed like he was now getting it.

"I don't remember it all, I just remember the first time me and Ana had sex after she came back," His face scrunched up as he tried remember more but it was all a haze. The most prominent thing he remember was her cast on one arm and a red bow on the other. Another bolt of memory shone through and he felt overwhelmed, "I think it was Christmas."

Taylor grinned, "You got caught by everyone turning up that day."

"No one's told me that, Jason. No one's told that!" Christian was almost a buzz of excitement at the claim. The thought made him feel like a weight lifted. He felt like there was a way to be the man everyone loved him being. He wanted to be the Christian he envied.

"That's good. It's a start," Taylor could see this was a breakthrough; this was the start of getting life back.

"Jason?" Christian asked up, finding it wrong to call him Taylor all of a sudden. "I don't remember a lot but it's weird since bringing Leila back here I don't have the urge to gain control over a woman. My urge is barely there and that's scaring me. Jason, I don't understand a thing I'm feeling and I'm terrified."

"Don't be," Jason told his friend, "Go with it because once you've experienced that you'll understand what is it that made you love Ana." Taylor stood up then, his pains still causing him havoc, "Want to come with me to the hospital?"

"I want to stay here a little while more," Christian replied and looked at the photos. He had seen Ana already in that hospital bed, swallowed by the seriousness of the situation and Christian wondered if he could be what she needed right now.

He didn't even know if he could be what he needed for himself right now.

"I'll wait a little while," Taylor commented and watched as Christian began to thumb through a wad of the photos, inspecting them, trying to track them on a timeline that didn't quite exist right now. He left and knew Christian was slowly finding his way back to them.

Feeling an even sharper pain in his head, Christian just gave up for the moment and curled up with the photos of his happier life a reach away.