Chapter 26

The detective's question whirled around Ana's brain and as the words started to process, she paled dramatically. As she lurched over one side of the bed, Flynn was already at her side with a garbage pail in hand as Christian reacted instinctively to keep her from falling by wrapping one arm around her waist, the other pulling her hair back as she started to wretch and vomit into the pail. With worried eyes Christian looked over to Flynn who just quietly shook his head, unsure of the cause of Ana's sudden bout of stomach distress.

After a few moments, she stopped and Christian got her settled on back on the bed as Flynn looked at the detective's and Carrick: "I need to cheek her in private. I can't be sure that this… incident wasn't from the stress of being questioned," he told them quietly as they headed towards the door. Realizing that they were leaving, Ana fought weakly against Christian, who was helping her to rinse her mouth. "What if Hyde was the threat?" she asked weakly.

"What threat?" Monroe asked as Phillips looked at her in surprise and stated: "you didn't mention a threat before."

"It wasn't to Ana or me. Mutual friends. I was doing business with him- well both of them, but he was who told me- and she's friends with Ana. We cut his trip short to Seattle and I went back to NY with him," Christian explained.

Monroe contemplated that for a moment before he asked: "you do that for all business associates facing a 'threat?'"

"No. I found out someone was looking into who was paying Ray's medical bills. It turns out it was a friend of Ana's and another business associate of mine- but I needed to know why he was looking into the bills in the first place to make sure he wasn't going to use Ana to get to me," he responded tersely as he wiped his hands with hand sanitizer. "He's the one who suggested I go to the club to find out information on Ana- they apparently wanted to make me work to find her."

"Names?"

"Gideon Cross was the one looking into the bills. Alex Wren and Jennifer Kent is the couple."

"And you two didn't know about the others' connection to them?" Phillips asked.

"They didn't know we dated. When Gideon told me he couldn't get pass the security the person paying had in place I figured it was Christian and when Jen said Alex was in Seattle I thought maybe he'd be meeting Christian but…" Ana started to explain, then cringed.

"Baby what is it?" Christian immediately asked when he saw the pain cross her face.

"My head…" she whimpered.

"All right, that's it. Out. Everyone- even you Christian," Flynn demanded.

"But…" Ana tried to protest, only for Flynn to cut her off: "I can handle Grey, think I can't hold my own against your protest?" he said in his lilting voice, which had softened slightly when he turned his attention back to Ana.

Sighing, Christian leaned down and kissed her forehead: "I'll just be outside Baby. I promise I'm not going anywhere…"

"'kay…" she muttered as she closed her eyes again, causing Christian to frown over to Flynn who mouthed: I'll take care of her, as he walked him out the door.

Once he had made sure the door closed as softly as possible he made his way back to the bed and sat on the edge, noting that Ana moaned slightly at the motion. "OK, we're going to do this quick and easy. I ask you answer- truthfully not how you think I want you to answer. I'm not Grey and I'm not your other doctors. You are not pulling the I-can-handle-the-pain-stress-et-al game with me, Ana," he told her. "How much pain?"

"6"

"Only your head?"

"Head's not too bad. Six is an average…" she admitted than paused as she tried to gather the words to explain what she was feeling: "there's some tingling in my legs and feet, but it hurts. It's like pins and needles only they're sharp and hot."

"OK," he said considering her explanation, then asked: "How many of us were you seeing in here before?"

"You all with two or three shadows/blurred figures of you."

"Movement?"

"It feels like everything is spinning. I know I'm lying down, but it feels like I'm tilting and am going to fall forward."

"Nausea any better with your eyes closed?"

"No… almost worse."

"Anxiety?"

"7 maybe 8."

"Before you were questioned?"

"6."

"Mood?"

"I don't know… I can't… I can't focus right now… my thoughts are starting to get jumbled and… I wish I could get up and pace… move… do something! I felt calmer when Christian was here… even when we were talking about us and the past or future…" she started to babble.

"Ana, I need you to breathe. I'm going to lead you through a relaxation exercise and then I'm going to get Christian and talk to your doctors. So… breathe in two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four… and out two, three, four. Now again…."

As soon as the door to Ana's room closed behind him, Christian spun around, cursed and punched the wall with the hand he had been favoring all morning to try to relieve some of the pent up aggression he was feeling. Flinching slightly as the movement in his peripheral vision, Taylor rolled his eyes.

"That how you hurt that hand, Grey? Punching walls?" Phillips asked.

"You insinuating something?" Christian asked as he shook his hand out.

"Well, Hyde did make an accusation against you before he was killed- by a man who had gotten a call placed from the offices of your family's charity- Coping Together isn't it?" he pressed.

"You have any idea how many people have access to the phones at Coping Together?" Carrick jumped in. "Because I for one don't. There are differing number of volunteers on a daily basis not to mention those getting help- many of who make calls to family members who are incarcerated," he finished, noting that Christian had gotten deathly quiet. "You believe that piece of slime? That I attacked him. Did you not just see that woman in there? The real victim in this?" Christian asked in an eerily calm voice.

"Just asking how you hurt your hand," Phillips shrugged.

"It wasn't a wall, it was three- four counting that one," Damien said from off to the side. "The one outside the club when he couldn't go in the ambulance, the waiting room when he was having trouble getting answers, a bathroom wall after seeing Ana the first time, then that one."

"You sure are forthcoming, Orlando."

"Nothing to hide. Besides, although he tried to get to Hyde he didn't. Two of us were holding him back."

"So the damage was all the 'good Samaritan' who caught him?"

"Didn't say that… took two former Marines to make sure he didn't make contact with Hyde. Doesn't mean that there weren't elbows and other body parts thrown in the may lay by the three of us that might have made contact," Damien smirked. "We were after all trying to protect Mr. Hyde and his civil rights."

"Why are you here?" Phillips spit out.

"Work… Grey hired me to be Ms. Steele's CPO."

"With that?" Phillips asked as he looked to Damien's prosthetic.

"Something tells me he's more dangerous with that than you are without," Taylor muttered as his cell phone rang. Looking quickly at it he looked over to the new hire: "I need to take this. Take my position for now and I'll fill you in on what you need to know after this is handled," he said before heading down the hall slightly while Damien did as he was told.

"You really hire him?" Monroe asked.

"He came highly recommended and Ana feels safe with him, so yes. Besides he wouldn't be the first wounded vet I have working security," Christian responded with a shrug wondering what the hell the big deal was. OK, so the wounded vets working security with this guy's type of injury mostly worked desk duty, but Taylor felt he could do the job and he knew it would be his neck if anything happened to Ana because her CPO was incompetent.

"You spoke of a threat, would you mind looking at some pictures. See if you recognize the people in them?" Monroe asked as he pulled out his phone and started to access an e-mail attachment he had been sent.

"Sure."

Monroe handed him the phone and Christian looked quietly at the pictures he scrolled through. "Anything?"

"I recognized all but two of the women and one man. They're the people we were talking about. Alex and his head of security, Tank, as well as his fiancé and business partner, Jennifer. Then Gideon Cross," Christian admitted as Taylor came back muttering curses. "Taylor, see if you can make out anything on these people…"

Taylor rolled his eyes as he looked at the pictures, having Monroe pause at two: "I'm guessing the Boss identified Alex Wren, Jen Kent, and their head of security, Tank as well as Gideon Cross. The other, dark hair woman, must be Cross's fiancé Eva- his body man, Angus is in the background. She's usually with him or her best friend, or boss- the guy most be one of them. Other woman-" he paused as he pulled something up on his own phone: "Lisa Ward- author and fiancé of Tank," he said as he turned his phone to Monroe to show him the ad the blonde had done for the book series she had rereleased and was turning into a movie. "Gideon called to say there might be a connection- someone told Kate Kavanagh that Ana was hurt and she's on her way here with Carla Adams-or whatever the hell her current last name is."

"Shit," Carrick muttered. "Kate and Carla, that's a shitstorm waiting to happen. You're going to have to make sure that they can't get into see Ana. I'll have my office send over the paperwork to reinforce that stance."

"How the hell did she find out?" Christian asked.

"We don't know. Ethan went to Cross to see if he could/would contact us. He knew you wouldn't take his calls and figured Mr. Grey wouldn't either. Since he knew Gideon and Eva were friends with Ana he went to them."

"So, we now know Hyde was in NY and following Ms. Steele and her friends there since we have pictures he had of her as well. The question still remains how did he know she had come here," Monroe mused.

"Especially since she came earlier than expected," Damien told them, then at the detective's look clarified. "She wasn't supposed to be here till this weekend."

"I talked to Tank after Gideon. He said that since he and Alex were flying back early it was decided to see if Stark could fly her out earlier. They figured that since it was someone else flying her out and they weren't in town it would be harder for people to track her."

"Was she afraid of something we're not aware of?" Monroe asked.

"Not that we can figure out," Taylor admitted looking to Damien who shrugged: "she was happy to be getting a new start… you know, if Hyde was following her he could've been able to track her via her father… he was transferred to a long term care facility near here…"

"So we have the how…" Monroe said. "But why? She wasn't one of the women he attacked…"

"She fought him off," Taylor admitted automatically.

"What? When? Why wasn't I told?" Christian demanded.

"You were working late that night. I found her about ready to collapse outside of the building. She begged me not to tell, and not telling you was the only way I could get her to agree to a CPO. I got her to go to Roach, who was planning on transferring her to another position as soon as it opened and she refused to report it further because she didn't want there to be rumors about why and then how she got the transfer- which Elizabeth Morgan spent time trying to block. She said there were people there longer who should've been considered first," Taylor explained.

"So only you knew?" Monroe said before Christian could comment.

"I explained to Sawyer why he was called in that night. I believe she explained to Ms. Cavanaugh why she was so upset and that didn't go well. Elliot Grey was there- he knew because he overheard."

"Do anything about it?"

"Not that I know about," Taylor said quickly, only Carrick and Christian noting that it was a quicker reply than it should have been as Flynn came out of the room.

"How is she?" Christian asked.

"In pain and anxious," Flynn remarked. "She didn't want you to know how bad she was feeling- and before you say anything remember that is part of her diagnosis. From what she said I believe she had a mild panic attack, which is not surprising given all she had been through. I do want to talk to her doctors to confer with them and make sure that the paralysis she is having is due to the injuries she sustained."

"What do you mean by that? Of course it is!"

"I just want to rule out conversion disorder."

"What's that?" Phillips asked.

"Easy way to explain it is that her body's tolerance for stress or anxiety is here," he said raising his right hand to his eyebrow line. "But her levels are here," he continued raising his left hand to over his head. "Her body has to find a way to deal with it. Some people have paralysis or blindness other's convulsions."

"So she really isn't…"

"No. She is, but the cause isn't neurological," Flynn cut the detective off as Grace approached and Christian turned towards the wall, Taylor acted instinctively grabbing his boss's hand before he could finish throwing his punch, causing him to curse.

Once his hand was free, Grace took it in and shook her head: "Christian Trevelyan Grey, have you been punching walls again? My goodness you haven't done that since you were a teenager. Go and get that hand checked out this instant!"

"Mom, I'm fine," he grumbled as he opened and closed it. "Besides I promised Ana I'd stay with her."

"I'm going to order a sedative for her, especially since I'm sure the doctors are going to have tests for her once I'm done with my consultation," Flynn tried to mediate.

"But I promised…" Christian all but whined.

"I'll sit with her," Grace volunteered.

"Mom…"

"Christian you will get that hand checked out. Taylor will go get some sleep after he introduces me to the new member of your security team. Once those items have been completed you may come back to be with Ana. Besides, you won't be able to stay with her when the tests are being done, as a doctor I will. So get over it!"

"Yes ma'am," Christian muttered as Flynn walked off to the nurse's station to find out about talking to Ana's doctors and the detectives looked unsure what to do.

Carrick only shrugged as he put a hand on his son's shoulder: "common I'll go with you and make those calls. While you're getting that hand checked out I'll make sure that Kate and Carla aren't a bother to Ana."

"Well there's a combination," Grace muttered as her husband and son walked off. "Gentlemen?" she directed at the detectives who shrugged and said sheepish goodbyes before she turned to Taylor: "Well…"