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A/N: Second update for the day... enjoy! I am now off to bed and the cliffhangers are coming out of the woodwork ;)

Thank you for the reviews... Enjoy!

Beauty and the Beast – Chapter Fourteen

Ana had barely spoken since her chat with Flynn and she didn't dare now she was moved out of the ICU. At first they had tried to put her in a room with another patient but, all she had done was gone one a frenzied rampage. She saw the moment she was pushed into the room the way the person and her family looked at Ana and she couldn't cope with the gawping stares. It had been enough for Grace to intervene and demand answers as to why Ana was in a shared room and not a private one like the one requested. Ana was separated from society. People and Ana just weren't working anymore. Strangers and Ana just didn't mingle well.

And now as she sat with Christian she wondered where everyone was. She hadn't seen her parents, hadn't even heard about Mia and Kate. Grace was gone and she felt like her life was slipping through her hands like grains of sand.

Soon she would find the palms of her hands empty and neglected.

She turned to Christian as he sat with his head stuck in his Blackberry for the umpteenth time and she wondered why he just put himself through sitting here when he could be productive. "Shouldn't you be at work?" Ana asked Christian as he sat typing furiously at his phone. "I'm sure all that typing would be made easier if you weren't here."

Christian calmed his typing, slowing it as he began to look at her, giving her all of his attention. "No but, my stress levels would be through the roof if I wasn't. Why would I be at work when all I would be doing is worrying about you?"

"Because you own a business," Ana told him only stating the bare obvious at him. "It doesn't run itself."

"My place is here," Christian fought back. He trusted Sawyer to protect Ana if he were to go to work but, he didn't trust himself to leave her. He was out for blood – Kaitlyn's blood. Plus, he didn't know her whereabouts seeing as she was last listed as in England at work but, now she was taunting him over Ana's attack.

"I'm not going anywhere," Ana mumbled at him. "Everyone else has left me so why won't you?"

Christian ran a hand over his face, he couldn't tell her what everyone was doing because she wouldn't understand and she would say they were only pitying her. "I'm not ready to leave just yet okay? I don't feel ready to leave right now."

"Maybe you should," Ana grumbled at him as she turned her attention away. "Then you wouldn't be glued to that thing." She hated herself for feeling second best to a phone, to his work, to whatever was going on in that tiny screen. Her mind was vicious right now but, she fell captive to it too often. Right now it was telling her he moved on and she believed the malicious tone in her head. Why wouldn't he look elsewhere? No one wanted a damaged girl. Men wanted perfection and she didn't fit the criteria any longer.

George knocked on the door, breaking the tension in the room, tearing Ana from the demons in her. "I'm here to look at your wounds," he said as he came in a little bit, a kit of everything he would need in his hands. Christian knew him as Ana's main surgeon but, Ana was more consumed with Grace leading her care that he knew she would shut down a little at this doctor being here.

"Okay," Ana responded and felt a little disheartened that it wasn't Grace. "Where's Grace? Why isn't she doing this?"

"She had other important matters to take care of whilst on shift," the doctor said with a short smile. "She'll be back when she has the chance to."

"Okay," Ana replied in the similar quietness she had used before. She didn't say anything else as the doctor began his work and she was only supported by Christian slipping his hand into hers and she just grabbed it and clung to it as if it were her only life line.

Ana didn't say a word as the doctor began to peel the bandage covering her cheek away. She felt him press around it, trying the stitches, seeing if there was tenderness and Ana had to wince a few times. She closed her eyes as he began to clean it up to cover it with yet another white woven gauze. She felt him remove the one around her neck, the air circling her throat, hitting upon the cut and she just closed her eyes tighter and waited for it to be over.

"How does your neck feel?" George asked as he grabbed her chart only seeing Ana shrug indifferently. "I'm concerned because the damage to it isn't healing as fast as I'd like it to and I fear we're looking at an infection there," he told her as he jotted down on the chart before setting it down and going to check Ana's chest wounds.

"This infection," Christian began, his voice heating up, "how does that happen? I demanded top care for Ana so how the fuck does she even risk an infection?" He wasn't happy that more pain was being inflicted upon Ana when she didn't deserve any of it. "I want an explanation."

"Infections can be caused for so many reasons it's hard to pinpoint an origin. All we can do is find out if we are dealing with one and administer antibiotics," George told them jumping right to the point of the matter. "Other than that I would say rest."

"Rest did her a lot of fucking good already didn't it?" Christian sniped at the doctor unimpressed knowing he was going to be contacting his mother the moment he could.

"Christian," Ana spoke up, her voice calming him immediately. "Stop it. We can't avoid these things." She wished she could believe that but, she wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the fact that she reached her breaking point over their sheltered relationship.

"We could have!" He said as he stood up and paced beside her bed.

"Now is not the time for this," George began to say, trying to kill Christian's mood but, he didn't know how Christian worked so he was only going to hit a brick wall. "We'll get some bloods ran and we'll go from there but, we're looking at a prolonged recovery with the healing process being so slow anyway," George alerted them and even though he was trying to be comforting, he didn't have Grace's way with issuing news. "I'll leave you to it."

Ana watched him leave but, she didn't feel happier. She found that George didn't have the same effect as Grace and he only made her feel worse. So not only was she going to feel weaker she was going to feel crappier and lower than she was already. Great, just what she needed.

"It's just another obstacle," Christian pointed out trying to satisfy his mind and Ana's.

"Yeah just another one," Ana grumbled and withdrew from the room. She sunk a little into her mind and just closed off and it seemed that Christian accepted that behaviour from her now. He just didn't try to push her to talk anymore and she knew he was growing bored already. She could feel he was and it was like torture to be a witness. When she went quiet he went quiet and yet he made no attempt to soothe her properly not like he used to.

He barely kissed her, only held her hand and he never tried to apologise wholly for that night. She could see the guilt on him, how could she not when it was laced into the grey of his eyes? However, he just appeared to be closing off from her and she was terrified that she was watching their finale. She knew what a relationship ending felt like as much as Christian and she wasn't a fool to deny it was happening.

She was being realistic and she was accepting their future for what it was going to be.

Nonexistent.

There was total silence in the room when Christian's phone vibrated in his pocket. Ana watched as he pulled it from his pocket and read what was now on the screen and even he couldn't hide the expression on his face or the growl that released itself from between his clenched jaw bones.

"Who's that?" Ana asked him, finally making movement to look at him.

"It's no one, baby," Christian deflected his answer. "I've got to discuss something with Taylor and Sawyer," Christian took a stand, straightening up. "Will you be okay in here alone whilst I discuss with them?"

"I guess," she whispered at him and just let him go. How could she tell him no she wasn't okay with him leaving her and how could she just be okay with his reaction to a message coming through on his phone? Simple, she couldn't but, she let him go and do what he needed while she did what she did best lately – remain silent.

Ana took a gulp and hated this. There was so many uncertainties in the air that she wanted to scream at them all. Literally bellow from the pit of her stomach and scare them all to leave and never come back again.

Why had Christian left the room she had no idea but, she needed to. She didn't want to be kept out of the loop and have more secrets mounting. Secrets had done enough damage to last a lifetime.

Pulling herself from the bed and onto her feet, Ana finally realised just how weak she still was and now she was forcing herself to move more she felt how her body reacted. How each of the wounds pulled and screamed but, curiosity got the better of her. She sat still for a moment, gathering her bearings with each fresh beat of her heart and then looked at the IV still connected to the bag of fluid that hung above her head. She pulled the tubing out and the slipped out of the bed enough that her feet were flat to the cold floor. She was thankful she didn't have to deal with a catheter anymore!

Shaking she pressed down and stood up fully before going over the steps Christian had made. Going to the door, she hid enough to be out of the way but, she used the door for support. Then she just listened to what was now top secret.

"I don't love her," Christian said to Taylor and Sawyer as they stood grouped together. "I never fucking loved her enough. God," he groaned out, "I don't love her enough for it to end up like this. How do I end it now?"

Taylor and Sawyer remained silent.

"Tell me how to fucking end this now?" Christian asked and put his hands onto his head, clawing at his hair with his anger. "How do I end this before we get any deeper than we are? How do I fucking cut all ties to her now?"

"I don't know, Sir," Taylor spoke up. "But I am sure we can sort this out quickly and efficiently. That's how we handle everything. It'll be no different this time."

"I need it done soon," Christian commented with a darkening tone. "I need it done now!" He began to shout as the tension began to rise. "I want her locked up and out of my sight," Christian snarled in utter frustration like he was trapped and agitated. "No one should ever have to look at her. I don't want her within even an inch of my life anymore. I'm done. I want to move on."

Ana felt her knees weaken and she felt her heart snapping off into pieces.

Her only conclusion was that he was discussing her. Who else would all those sentences revolve around?

He didn't want her. He-He didn't want her out in public. He wanted her hidden and locked away like an untamed animal. Her head was screaming at her, torturing her senseless and as she stood there dazed and even more heartbroken, Ana decided to find the perfect escape.

It would be her perfect escape from life.