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A/N: Hey guys! I'm sorry for disappearing but, I am literally dying in bed with some bug! So you're getting an update but, I'm afraid I don't know when I'll be updating again. I really am sorry but, here's a little longer chapter to keep you going…
On another note, please like my author page on Facebook – Author Kirsty-Anne Still – I'm trying to gain a wider web presence for my original work and would love the support! Also, find me on Facebook as 'Klcm Fanfiction'…
Beauty and the Beast – Chapter Thirty-Three
"Decided where you want to go yet?" Christian asked as he sat on the bed, Ana now finally dressed, her parents signing her discharge papers.
Ana, after a long mental debate, nodded. She licked her lips to dampen them and she then spoke, "I want to go back to my apartment." Immediately she saw hurt wash into Christian's gaze but, she couldn't do things for him right now. She had to right by herself. "I just want to go home, Christian. And right now, your apartment just reminds me of everything I walked away from."
"It's here though," Christian stated as if it were that simple. "Didn't I bring it all back to you?"
"Yes," Ana breathed out and she could hear the octaves in Christian's voice wavering readying to explode. "But going back there reminds me of those moments before I left. Everything that happened, what I felt, what was said, what happened after." She could see his anger dissolving as she spot and she knew she couldn't let him beat her, she had to rise above it and tell him the truths of her tortured soul. "Just let me deal with this how I need to, please," Ana began to beg, her tone going taunt on her. "I didn't do it to make you angry, Christian, or be selfish. I want to go home because that is where I want to be. That's in my apartment that I share with Kate and my best memories there are of hiding away with you."
And there it was again, that one word that would be sticking around for a lot longer than he wanted – hiding. They had hid before with a simple reason but, now Ana would be hiding away with another reason and that would be to keep herself from anybody's naked eyes.
"It seems we're good at hiding," Christian spoke tenderly and exhaled heavily. He felt like such a disappointment to Ana. He had made her feel like the monster long before someone decided to transform her to make her think she really was one. He stayed off, deflated and then spoke quietly, "I kept you hidden for so long and now how can I force you out of that and into public?" He looked to her as she remained silent, "You'll never be my monster, Ana. I will never allow you to be that or feel that again. I did it once and I regret it. Every single moment of it, I hate. You're too beautiful to be my monster."
Ana gave him a small smile, "I know I'm not your monster." It was the truth. To her family, to Christian's, she didn't feel like a repugnant state. She felt like Ana but, on the outside of this room she felt like something unworthy of daylight. She felt like a volatile atrocity to society. With that aspect of her life, she had to rebuild and make herself believe she worthy of public display without feeling like she was the outcast.
"Good," he said and leaned in, his lips capturing her in a gentle touch. "I respect you staying at yours and Kate's place."
"But you're not happy with it," Ana spoke, finishing his forethought off and she gave a small, gentle grin. "I need to do what's right for me."
"I know," Christian breathed. He understood her wanting to be at her own home but, at Escala he had security. He had control. God, he felt more comfortable with looking after her to his best ability. However, now was not a time to execute his innate drives to live passed this. No, right now, was about Ana. She needed him by her side regardless and if he ever wanted her to realise he was deadly serious with his verbal battles then he needed to accept what she wanted and deal with it. "We'll go to your apartment," Christian told Ana and gave her a kiss before standing. "I guess we better take these down so we can put them up at yours."
Ana gave a smile at him, even though she was happy to be leaving she would never admit the absolute horror and detest that was rivalling in her stomach at the thought of leaving the hospital. However, she didn't want to live in the confines of this sterile room. She wanted comfort and warmth. She wanted time to rebuild and equal time to plan ahead.
As she watched Christian pull down the photos, she took them and placed them back into the box one by one, revelling in the memories. She just got sat and got lost until she heard the familiar sound of Kate approaching the room.
"Before we leave," Kate came into the room, all guns blazing, "I want to know what hell is going on with the skank Kaitlyn. Do I need to start sharpening my claws?"
Christian couldn't resist a laugh and nor could Ana apparently. "I'd say sharpen them ready but, put them away." Christian's tone was doused in so many conflicting emotions it was hard to work out if he was bemused, angry, content, whatever. It was hard to pinpoint. "She's no longer in the country so she isn't an immediate threat right now."
Ana could tell that was why Christian was less tense, why his shoulders weren't hunched with stress. The woman that was haunting them all was gone and so was the stress.
Rolling her eyes, Kate placed her arms across over her chest, "Well she's clearly getting away with it now but, I want to know where the hell she's hiding now," Kate's tone was snappy and biting. She wanted nothing more than to rip Kaitlyn to shreds because they all knew she was the culprit and she was living on bided time. "That bitch and I need to have words."
"She's gone," Christian sighed nonchalantly. "According to her bank accounts she's gone back to London," Christian spoke with clear disappointment that Kaitlyn had simply skipped the country. "I have my men watching her like a hawk both here via her internet trail and over in England. She isn't a risk to us right now."
"But she did this," Ana moaned in terror that Kaitlyn would never get punishment. "How does she get to just disappear and live her life like nothing happened?"
"Because she can with the amount of money her father supplies her with but, mark my word when I say the guilty always run. She just made herself look worse and the guilty always get caught in my eyes," Christian's words weren't futile when they were fuelled as heavily as they were right now. "I even intend to threaten her inheritance to get myself a confession if it comes to it." He could see the stress dissolving from Ana and he just smiled, "Now can you just smile for me and enjoy the fact that we are getting you home so that we can get life back on track?"
"You're right," Ana spoke up, realising that this was her opportunity to grab her life by the horns and control her destiny.
Sensing her doubtful attitude, Christian sat back down with her, "I know she is still a threat but, I can't do anything without fool hardy proof and I can't bear to leave you right now to go to London and hunt her down myself. Can you understand that?" Christian begged an answer from Ana and she nodded at him, "I am trying everything I can but, I don't want to leave you just now and I feel that either way I am just letting you down. If I go to London I leave you behind but, if I stay here I don't get the person behind this." Christian felt like he was stuck between a hard place and a rock whilst he fought his gut feeling and his heart's desires.
"She's not a threat right now and it's her word against mine. I know she did it but, for now I just want to leave here with you and my family and work on getting me to a place where I can defend myself completely," Ana began to battle Christian's issues. It made her feel good to be needed and useful. "Let's just go home, Christian."
Christian gave a smile and embraced Ana before he stood up and took the remaining photos down. He was going to find a place for these all over her apartment and his. He wasn't going to let memories die and he wasn't going to let her forget that new ones were on the horizon.
"Discharge papers have been signed," Carla said as she stepped into the room.
"But we have an issue," Taylor spoke up as he entered the room.
"What?" Christian asked sharply, wondering what on earth could have happened.
"All exits have been consumed," Taylor spoke unhappily, his entire face full of thunder. "Some nurse let the details leak and media have swarmed."
"I want her fired," Christian snarled, his voice deep and dark at the thought of someone being so inconsiderate. "What's the plan now?"
"We wait it out the best we can or we make a run for the car. I can have it brought as close to the exit with the least amount of press and we can get Ana out and in the car as quickly as possible," Taylor informed his boss, giving his best solution. "Otherwise we wait until they tire and we try again. From what I've surveyed they are here for a long wait."
"I want to go home," Ana spoke softly, just dropping her most thought out notion in all of this. "That's it. I just want to get out of here. Why can't they just leave us be?"
Taylor gave both Christian and Ana a sad smile, seeing his boss frozen with an inability to speak. "To them you're worth a mint, Ana. Simple as. You are, with or without scars, the woman that has had Christian Grey sitting vigil for nearly ten days. They won't leave until they've seen you."
"In simple terms, I'm just a massive dollar sign to them," she muttered back and ran her hands through her head contemplating what best to do right now. She noticed all of the solemn looks she was getting. She had to accept her newest fate – she was tabloids dream for more reasons that the obvious one.
"Yes," Christian broke his own silence. "I'm sorry for that, Ana."
"You didn't make them into vultures!" Ana exclaimed at Christian, hating him for even blaming himself, "They're the ones that should apologise. They need to respect privacy."
Christian chuckled loosely at that claim, "Privacy doesn't exist in their minds. We've created a media whirlwind and they want to know all about it. They will hunt every high and every low until they find their information, Ana and that wouldn't be the case if I wasn't so rich. If I were just a normal guy then you wouldn't have half of these problems following you."
"Are you trying to make me blame you?" Ana asked, her tone heating up as she realised what he was doing. "If so, stop! Stop it right now! It's not going to work on me. I don't blame you for anything. You can't help who you fall in love with and I don't care about what happened because the most important thing in my life is that I fell in love with one the best men I have ever met! Money, fame, power aside, I don't care for it. I won't ever care for it. I just care about you, Christian. That's it. I love you."
"If I ever doubted your love for me, Ana, that right there would have stopped it," Christian told her with such ease and happiness it was captivating. "God, you don't know how much I love you and I won't ever be able to tell you the extent all the time I know you love me the same way. There's no limit to us, baby, and I hope there never is."
"Can we stop with all the lovey dovey mushy crap and go home?" Kate asked, not sorry for cutting into the moment. "You can continue this when you have a room to get lost in." She winked at Ana and then looked to Taylor, "What's your game plan to get Ana out of the hospital?"
Taylor smirked, "I think we need bait."
"I don't like the sound of this," Christian spoke and stood up, turning to face his head body guard. "What bait do we have?"
"Ana's mother," Taylor approached his plan with poise. "They're very similar and I think if we could get a few bandages and hide her under a coat the press will swarm. Whilst they're doing so we can get Ana out and into the car without being seen. The car has blackout windows so no one will see her once she's in the car if they suspect anything."
Christian liked the plan but, he wasn't going to subject Ana to anything she wasn't comfortable. He looked to her, "What do you think?"
"I want to go home," Ana spoke up, "I'll do whatever it takes."
"What about Carla?" Christian asked looking over to Ana's mother. "Are you okay with this?"
"I'll do whatever to get Ana home," Carla told them, comfortable to go to this extreme right now.
"Get everyone briefed," Christian instructed Taylor and took on his dominating tone. "Talk to my mother as well. Carla's going to need to have identical bandages to really make them fall for this. I want Ana home within the hour."
"I'm on it," Taylor said leaving the room, grabbing his phone ready to put this plan into action.
"Right well we might as well take the stuff down to car," Ray stated as Christian finished taking the very last photo down and placed it in the box. "Is everything packed up, Annie?" Ray asked and Ana just nodded. He hated how distant she was with him and he knew it was because she was blaming herself. They hadn't had a moment alone for him to forgive her himself and he hated it. "Okay then, I'll take this down and I think we should all go and get ready to leave."
"Sounds good to me," Ana admitted because now she was dressed completely in her own day clothes and not pyjamas she just wanted to be home. It seemed that everyone agreed as the plan got set into motion a lot quicker than Ana could have expected.
Ana quickly found herself waiting at the back entrance to the hospital. Everyone getting ready to release the decoy bait before Ana could slip away unnoticed and unscathed. She didn't want to let go of her mother but, the moment she did she saw how quickly they were working on getting her home.
Grace quickly stepped in front of Ana once Carla was gone from the hospital waiting on Ana's turn to run with Christian and Sawyer. "Are you sure you're okay with this?" Grace asked as if she were sending her child off to school for the first time. Except, she was panicking about Ana going home. Even when Ana nodded, Grace was still panicking about sending Ana home too soon. "Right, well, I will be over later, okay?"
"Okay," Ana replied with a reassuring smile. She felt Christian step towards her and she lifted her hood up and wrapped Christian's hoodie around her frame. It was all she had time to do to get herself some form of protection.
"The car is parked a little further than we wanted it but, it was necessary to have this pan out," Sawyer informed them and then pressed his ear piece in, listening to Taylor. He then pulled away and looked at everyone with alert surprise, "We have to leave now!" Sawyer stated and between he and Christian they worked their way out of the hospital and towards the awaiting car.
The moment they got outside, Ana had to look as everyone little swarmed and invaded her mother's personal space. The sight was awful and she knew a thank you wasn't enough to give her mother for stepping up like this. She had created a perfect plan to get Ana out.
Or not.
"They gave us a decoy!" One of the media stated having noticed movement to his write. "Mr Grey who is it that's kept you in the hospital all this long?" He shot a question out, "Who's the woman you're protecting and what's your relationship status?"
"Is it truth that she's your wife?" Another one asked, assuming right away.
Christian chuckled, "No comment you fuckwit!" He wasn't giving them answers in this way. He wasn't going to sate their egos and inflate their pockets with his answers. They were going to have to try harder.
Seeing the car looming closer, Ana was thankful when it was only a few feet away from her but, she felt herself yanked away from Christian and Sawyer, the hood falling from the jacket, her bandages on full view and she felt like a feral animal. "Christian!" Ana cried out as flashes burst into her vision and the questions all merged into one long ramble and she felt overwhelmed. "Christian, please help me!"
"Who are you?" One person asked.
"What happened to you?" A dark haired male thrust his microphone at her.
Another took a photo of Ana, blinding her more with the flash, "Can we see what's under the bandages?"
Ana just stood lost in their need to know every angle and she could feel her nerves dispersing from her body and her knees were going weak and she could feel herself readying to just collapse. She didn't feel safe and she certainly wasn't okay with how people were viewing her right now. She was a bit of meant right now and that was the killer point to all of this.
"Fucking move or I'll make sure no one finds your bodies ever again!" Christian released his threats and knew that they would be shocked when he went through with them. "Fucking move!" He then used his strength and forced his way towards Ana as she stood bewildered and terrified. He hated seeing her look like this, looking so wild and ready to break down at the barricade of questions thrown at her. As he enclosed on her he took his jacket off, threw it around Ana and fought back to get her away from the vile attention.
Suddenly Ana was cloaked in darkness and she could feel it was Christian's arms that were around her. She did nothing but allow the arms to guard her forth and remove her from the situation. She didn't want to stay out in the open, she wanted this oblivion and she wanted to disappear. Disappear away from the questions hurled at her and Christian, away from their attention.
"Fuck off!" Christian bellowed at them, his teeth grinding together to stop them. "I will not be answering any questions when you're like a pack of animals! Take that for a world exclusive!" He shouted and got Ana to the awaiting Audi. He bundled her in before following her and was thankful when the doors closed the windows blacked out the gazers on the other side of the glass.
Gripping the blazer she brought it down, Ana found herself shaking in fear at what had just happened and she couldn't for the life her contemplate this type of life every single day. Suddenly the car roared to life and she only now noticed Taylor was in the driver's side, Sawyer beside him and Christian suddenly wrapping his arms around her and as she dissolved into tears.
She could hear him cooing her, soothing her cries but, she remained against his chest, just heaving and hiccupping, trying to calm down. She didn't want to let him go just yet and she refused to right up until Taylor announced they were finally at hers and Kate's apartment and even then letting him go was hesitant. She didn't want to be confronted with more press and paparazzi.
When she saw there were none, she was eager to get out and Christian clearly saw that and helped usher inside with very minimum response from outsiders. No one took a blind piece of notice of her as she walked into the lobby and waited for elevator and no one even so much as looked at her twice as she pulled her hood back up. She kept it in place right until she was able to unlock her apartment door. Walking into her apartment, Ana felt that safety net of emotions set in. Here she was home at last and feeling safe than ever.
"I'm glad we came here," Christian spoke up as he entered in. He, Ana, Sawyer and Taylor the first to arrive and he was pleased about that, "The press had no idea."
"It is a good thing," Ana whispered back, walking around her apartment to get familiar with it. It felt like she hadn't been here in years not days. "Erm," Ana ran her hand over her forehead, "Do you mind if I go and lie down?" She asked them, hoping none of them would mind much.
"I'll come with you," Christian quickly jumped in, willing to go in with her and he started to advance towards her.
"No," Ana quickly replied, her eyes wide and alert. "Please, I just want to go and lie down for a few minutes alone." She could see her decision hit Christian hard but, she just wanted to go and have a few minutes to take in this new turn in life. She needed to realise wholly she was finally home. She watched him back off and she was appreciative over it. "I'll come out when everyone gets here." She then walked into her bedroom, leaving Christian behind with his guards.
Shutting her door behind her, Ana leaned against it and exhaled deeply. This was supposed to be home sweet home, not a place to hide but, right now, she just wanted to be alone and just familiarise herself with this new chapter in her life.
She was home, and the outside world was waiting more than ever for her grand debut.