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A/N: Surprise early update ;) Might get you another update today!

You lot just wow me! I love how much you love this! It means a lot to me! I hope you enjoy what's to unravel for our pair!

Beauty and the Beast – Chapter Six

When Ana woke up she wished she hadn't. She lay for a moment, waiting on her vision to clear some and she saw the empty doorway. Immediately she wondered to herself if Christian had been a figment of her imagination. He felt real; her emotions towards him felt real, Grace felt real but, a part of her felt like she had dreamt him.

Thinking about Christian, Ana felt her heart rate gallop as his face filled her mind. Taking a deep breath she could feel the discomfort over her chest, the tightness in her neck and she didn't even acknowledge the feeling up the left side of her face.

Her eyes watered again but, she let them fall to the entrance of her room. As life continued on outside her door, she realised that right by her hand was a control and she could only guess that if need be, that would be her a nurse's attention. She'd never been to hospital before in her life. She hardly got sick, never had a health complaint and was lucky to never have to visit family in hospital. Now here she was – damaged, weak and broken hearted. She had no idea about how they worked, or what was in store. TV programmes didn't teach you everything.

God, she wanted to know the ins and outs of everything. She wanted to know how the doctor's had saved her life, how well they had fixed her. She needed to know how on this hell would last.

The last thought on her mind was her family. She didn't want people to see her. She didn't want people who knew her to look at her and have that look in their eyes as they remembered her before all of this. How could she cope with pity? She was barely able to keep herself from breaking down; she didn't want to have to stop her family from doing so.

Taking in all of the stimulus around her as her body began to level out all of the analgesics in her blood, Ana knew that her escape, if she had the energy, was not going to be pretty. From just sense and feeling she could feel the amount of wires on her, the amount of tubes swirling from her body. She hated it all. And as much as he knew she should rest, she was plagued by the attempts to try and battle off the demonic voices.

She needed to distract herself from herself.

She could tell morning was breaking. Even in her sterile, artificially lit room it was still so obvious outside the door of her room that a new day had dawned. She tried to repress the moments of the attack, the moments of her argument with Christian. She remembered waking up the day before to thousands of kisses. She remembered the nights they had played in bed for hours before racing to get a midnight snack. She imagined the amount of movie nights they had indulged. She remembered how many times he would kiss her with every chance he had.

However, it was no good. She had to know the how severe this was for her. Every memory she strived for ended up with searing pain and her hands coated with her own blood.

That was it for her. She had to evaluate the damage to her body before she could face anything else.

She rose her hand up slowly and only a few inches from the top of her bed. Immediately she noticed the backs of her hands were covered with white gauze and tape, the left one worse than the right. Dropping her gaze, and focussing on her left side, she saw plasters stuck up her forearm and an IV slotted into her arm just below her elbow joint. The veins sticking out revoltingly against her even paler skin and that alone – pain aside and bandages forgotten – she knew this was bad. Trailing her eyes over the tubing, she found herself looking up to a bag of clear fluids. Slowly moving her head to the other side, she saw a bag full of red and she immediately dropped her eyes as if she had seen something she was told she couldn't.

Squeezing her eyes shut didn't allow for her to think this was any less of a grave situation that it really was. She was trapped in here consciousness and unconsciousness and the reality revolving around her was her reality.

"You shouldn't be doing anything strenuous. Physically or mentally," Grace's voice suddenly popped into Ana's hearing. Grace offered her a smile as she came into the room, approaching the bed and grabbing Ana's chart to check it over. Satisfied for the moment, Grace put the chart away and took a perch on Ana's bed. Grace hated to be like any other doctor. She hated how formal some were when they stood no further than the end of their patient's bed to discuss with them. Grace enjoyed being personal and friendly and this time around it was beyond different. This time her patient was her son's most beloved possession. The sense of responsibility was greatly exacerbated right about now. "How are you feeling, sweetheart?"

Ana didn't answer the question. Actually she avoided it with pleasure. "You're Christian's mom," Ana spoke with a whisper. "I recognise you now from all the photos I've seen. I never thought I would meet you." She could see there was hesitancies lining every shade of Grace's eyes. "And if I did, I never expected it to be this way," Ana felt the tears slip down the curve of her cheeks. All she could see how alone she was in all this. How she was scared to let Christian near her for fear all he would see was an actual abomination that needed hiding away from the rest of the world.

Hell, even if Christian banished her from his life, any man that even gave her a chance would do the same.

"I felt safe with you last night," Ana admitted, "I know why now." Ana just felt overwhelmed by the presence of Christian's mother. "You probably hate being my doctor." Ana didn't dare look to Grace as she spoke, "You probably hate me and you have every right to. He didn't tell you about me and I didn't want him to. You probably think I made your son into a liar."

"I don't think that for a moment," Grace spoke and took Ana's hand in hers, careful of the cuts. She gave a small smile and her eyes watered as Ana finally looked to her, "I know why you did it. Christian told me all about it after we had to sedate you. I hope, when you're stronger, you can tell me why yourself."

"What's the point?" Ana asked, her voice so thick with grief that Ana felt consumed. "Why would I tell you why we hid it when after he sees me he won't want me? Christian is so deserving of actual perfection it kills me."

"To him you are perfect," Grace told Ana back, giving her hand a light reassuring squeeze.

"I don't feel like it," Ana whimpered and her chest heaved a few times at the thought. "I did before but, now I just feel like I'm nothing." Ana's breathing was heavily, wheezing almost in the barricade of her chest and she looked to Grace with terror in her eyes. "I feel trapped," Ana suddenly changed the subject as she looked from Grace to the IV in her right arm pumping her veins with blood.

"You will for the time being," Grace spoke with an apologetic tone. "We had to get your blood level back up. I think soon you'll be removed from that IV and only be left with this one," she pointed to the one in Ana's opposite arm, "And then you'll need that to keep you hydrated and give us easier access to keep you pain as minimal as possible."

"And then there's the catheter," Ana grumbled unhappily. Even that made her cry and she hated how freely it hit. "I just want to disappear."

"I understand that, Ana, but you need to let us get you better," Grace soothed Ana and it felt good to see her react positively. "We are here to aid your recovery and support you through everything, Ana. You aren't alone. Especially from my side of this."

Ana nodded but, from the way her nostrils suddenly flared, and the way her lips began to tremble, "Can you get me a mirror?"

"Ana," Grace pressed back, her voice light and stained with worry. "I don't think that would be a wise idea. You're weak right now and you don't need this. It can wait."

"I need to do this." Ana closed her eyes, took in a comforting breath before releasing her newest fear free, "I need to see what I'm left with." She had to see what mess she was left with. She had to evaluate if she could survive being a beast for the rest of her life.

"I agree you do need to do it but, Ana you suffered a great deal and you're only just out of surgery. I think you need rest before you do this," Grace tried to be the voice of reason. She wanted Ana to rest and recoup a little before she took on her own reflection and experienced everyone seeing her for the first time. However, Grace couldn't deny the amount of sheer defiance that Ana was staring at her with. Regardless of her extensive medical knowledge, Ana's volatile mentality was fuelling her to a dangerous end. "Can you not just wait?"

"No," Ana bit back honestly. "I just want to see what she did to me."

"Okay," Grace relented with a sigh. She got up and left the room. She went to the nurses' station to see if they had a hand mirror and she was pleased when they did. It meant that she could get this moment over and done with reasonably quick.

She knew this wouldn't be pretty.

Going back in, Grace passed the mirror over and then sat next to Ana. She reached up to Ana's face, before looking Ana directly in the eyes. "Ready?" Grace asked as she peeled a little of the tape back, Ana's hand that was holding the mirror shaking violently.

"Yes," Ana whispered back so delicately there was barely any noise there.

Grace peeled away the square band-aid, leaving the bottom bit stuck so she could easily flip it back up to hide it away. She watched Ana choke on a sob, putting her hand to her mouth in horror. There, on Ana's left cheek was a deep, sickeningly raw strike. Even though the cosmetic surgeon had worked his hardest to make this wound need the least amount of work, post-op would make anyone run scared.

Ana had enough pretty quickly and allowed the mirror to fall. She felt Grace covered her cheek up but she had already seen the devastation to her face. "I'm ugly," Ana dissolved into her grief and she hated how vain she sounded. She had always doubted her beauty and Christian had helped her work her issues out. She was the most beautiful person to him and she felt it, knew it, lived it.

Now it felt like none of that mattered. Ana felt like a part of her life had just died a horrible death.

Knowing this emotional downfall would weigh heavily on Ana, Grace needed to talk her down from the sensitive ledge she was beginning to reside on. She needed to calm her and get her to rest. "Can you just listen to me for a moment," Grace asked, pulling away from Ana to give them a little distance. "Can you do that for me for just two seconds?" She watched Ana just stare at her, the shock of her injuries gathering more and more on her face, "Can you just listen to me?"

"Yes," Ana told her slowly, feeing her sobs now cutting her breathing short.

"Christian is here for you," Grace started to tell, moving the mirror away from Ana. "I've just been told he's out there crying right now because he feels like he brought this upon you. He feels like this is his fault and he feels to blame for the fact that you'll never know how much he loves you. He feels unworthy of your love because of how he treated you."

"But I do love him," Ana breathed out the truth and knew she would mean that until the day she died.

"Shh, I know," Grace shushed Ana and continued, "What matters right now is that you both are in the same place for the same reason. He feels you don't love him now because of this and you feel like he doesn't love you and never can. You are both caught up in the middle of this." Grace took a deep breath, "You need to realise that there is more than just you affected in this."

"Just not right now," Ana whispered back lightly, not ready to face more truths than she had.

Grace nodded, "No, not right now. We'll do it when you're ready, sweetie." She saw Ana settle more but, she also knew that given the chance, Ana would run forever. That wouldn't be happening.

And if there was another thing Grace knew, it was that the chat she just had would be used later on Christian.