Christian's POV
Breakfast is served and Taylor indicates that he'd like to speak to me outside so we head out and he says that Mia is trying to contact me, well, that's just what I need and then I realise I do need to speak to her before she speaks to any other family members in case they tell her. Mia, although a force of nature and who sometimes presents as scatty is actually quite perceptive and I can't imagine that everyone is a bundle of fun this morning after what they heard last night. She'll figure out something is wrong and I need to be the one that tells her.
This brings me to another worrying thought about my mom, yesterday she was here by this time so why isn't she here yet? Is she avoiding me? She's had the night to think, she must hate me now. What did dad tell her last night/this morning when he made it home? What was the end result of the meeting? I don't really want to know, I want to stay in the bubble with Ana and just forget the rest of the world exists.
I turn on my phone and yes, it is a miracle, I have had it off all night and all morning and I groan at the sheer volume of missed calls and messages, it'll take me more than an hour to listen to or read them all.
I see numerous ones from Elena and skip them, I don't want to think about her let alone deal with her. Looking through I can see that Welch has been doing some more digging and that he has copied everyone on it so that means the legal team and John Flynn know it and it's not something I have to do anything about, the sooner the evil ones are put away, the better.
I have several missed calls from John Flynn and messages asking how I am going. I ask Taylor if he has spoken to John and he says, "He texted at 4am asking if you were ok, I told him you were sleeping and he said he would go home and do the same then and then he called at 7am and I said you were with Ana and he said, "Ok I'll speak to him later." So it sounds like it was a late night for them." I all but growl and say, "Well I hope they sorted something out, I guess I am going to have to go through all this shit instead of helping Ana, I am going to ring Ray and get him here, I actually want some answers from him as to Ana's life and I am sure he'd like to help."
A quick phone call later and Ray says he'll be down like a shot as he wants to be useful so I go in and Ana is just finishing up her breakfast. "Was it nice?" and she grimaces and shakes her head and then blushes and says "I preferred the chocolate cake". Didn't we all! "We'll see what we can do for tomorrow, perhaps Mrs Jones can prepare breakfast, what would you like? Pancakes would fit the criteria or is there something else you'd like" and she shyly says "I'm sorry, you're already paying for all this, I can't impose all my food as well" and I shake my head, "Rubbish, I don't care about the cost of getting you better, you need to get stronger and out of here, the least expensive thing I could do is provide breakfast, Mrs Jones is preparing breakfast for us anyway, she won't mind. What would you like with your pancakes? Bacon? Syrup? Both" and she replies "I think only syrup although I'd love the bacon, I don't think I am allowed it yet."
And she stops and looks at me "Christian we really need to talk today, I need to understand why you are doing this for me. You need to understand I don't usually have anyone do anything for me and I don't know why you're doing this, you are making me feel…." and her voice breaks and she looks like she is trying to control tears. My chest tightens as I watch her lips quiver and her eyes fill with tears and she quickly looks down and takes a deep breath, this action then causes her to gasp and lift her hand to her side. I feel it subconsciously as the pain courses across her face from the broken rib and the damaged lung and she lets out a shuddering breath, trying to breathe through the pain and I start to speak and she puts up her other hand to stop me and continues "You make me feel …. cherished" but she won't look at me and I can see the tears spill down her cheeks as she tries to hide her face.
I can't bear it, this beautiful person who deserves the world, who deserves to be cherished is breaking in front of me and I know how she feels, I have never felt like that and it hurts. I also know she isn't crying because of what I am doing but what others haven't done in the past and I can't fix the past but I can make sure she does feel it going forward. I desperately want to lift her into my lap and hug her but I can't with all her attachments so I move to her side, tilt her face up and gently wipe away the tears before placing as gentle a kiss as I can on her soft lips and then as I move my hands to her shoulders and just simply rub little circles, she leans in and hides her face on my shoulder and whispers "Sorry".
I whisper back "Please don't be, I understand and you deserve to be cherished, please accept what I can do for you so that you can do everything you ever wanted to do, you deserve it baby" and she shakes her head and I wonder what her confidence in herself is like, I am sure it is practically non-existent. Finally, the shuddering starts to subside and she calms down and leans back against her pillows leaving my arms to feel bereft, I tell her that Ray is coming to help with the physiotherapy as I have to work. "Thank you" she whispers and then completely unexpectedly, she leans forward and gives me a quick peck on the lips and then seems to realise what she has done and blushes and hides her face again. "Oh no you don't Missy, you can do better" I say laughing and she peeks out from under her hair and I take full advantage, kissing her slowly and deeply, it has to last me all day and I want her to remember exactly how I feel. Her hands move up to my hair and she holds on as she gives herself over to enjoying the kiss, just as she moans against my lips, I can't believe our luck or lack of it, as the door opens and we break apart. "Annie?" Shit, it's Ray.
Ana's POV
Oh shit, it's Ray!
"Hi Daddy" I say as brightly as possible, I don't want him to be mad at Christian when he makes me feel cherished, yes, that's the right word, that is exactly how I feel when he is here. No-one has ever made me feel like that, Ray made me feel safe, Carla made me feel like a waste of space and everyone else makes me feel like I am just useful to them. Kate likes having someone around to cook and clean and be the fill-in person because as soon as she is with someone, she doesn't bother with me. Jose likes me to fill in his photos and while I think he'd like to get a bit closer to me, his eyes always go to the prettiest thing in the room when we all go out and I have kept everyone else at bay because I am sick of being used.
He's looking between Christian and I and I watch his fists unfurl and his jaw unclench and finally he whispers like it's almost too much to talk "Hi Annie, how are you feeling? I see you're busy, do you want me to stay?" and he sounds hurt.
Ray's POV
Oh shit, he has his tongue down her throat, I'm going to kill him.
Hang on, she looks happy, that's it, that's what's different. Annie never looks happy, yes she smiles but her eyes never show it, she always looks empty. Here she is all broken and trussed up like a turkey but whenever this boy is in the room with her, she actually looks happy and every time he looks at her he looks like she's his reason for living although at this point he looks awfully guilty!
"Hi Annie, how are you feeling? I see you're busy, do you want me to stay?" I have to ask, if she really doesn't want me here, I can go but before I can say anymore her eyes fill with tears and I am horrified, the poor girl doesn't cry unless something is really affecting her anymore and I don't ever want to be the reason to make her cry. She has lived through more than any 21 year old should ever have to live through so I move over to her and say "Annie, its ok, I am not going anywhere unless you want me to, I want you happy" and my voice drops to a whisper just for her, "I'd do anything to see the smile on your face this boy brings you" and she sniffs and looks shyly over towards him and says "Thanks Daddy" and I am brought back to 2006 when I rescued her from that hospital and the horrors that Carla had allowed her to be subjected to without any care. She never did tell me what happened, she just said she wanted to come home with me and not even go back to the house so I took her home and dealt with the nightmares after it. I vowed then that I would never let anyone hurt her again.
I ask if Carla is coming in today and watch intrigued as the boy stiffens completely and the look of anger goes across his face, I like him even more and then Ana surprises me with "I'd rather not see mum at all, she's acting weirder than usual. Do you think she is back on something? How did she get here? I don't want her here" and she is getting more agitated so I look at Christian and he simply nods and explains "Ana, I organised my plane to bring her from Las Vegas because we didn't know if you were going to survive the first night, I can send her back or put her on a commercial flight, if you want her gone, she's gone." Christian says and looks at her like he only has to press the button and it will happen and given everything else that has happened, I think he just might have that sort of power. It really has me intrigued as to why he is here with Annie. It looks like love to me whether he realises it or not and I know love can make you do stupid things – Carla is a perfect example for me!
"Where is she now?" Ana asks and I watch Christian's face, the boy knows something and it isn't pleasant because I can see him thinking how he is going to say something and he says instead "What did you mean by "Do you think she is back on something?", does she have an addiction?" and it looks like Ana doesn't want to disclose the information but I don't care, I'm happy to take the rap for disclosing the information. "There were a number of years where she was abusing prescription and goodness what other drugs and she didn't look after Ana at all, I was away on military deployment and she managed to stay relatively clean on the short times I was home on break so I never knew and this one never told me." I realise that Ana is crushing my hand and I say "She was only 6 or 7 when it started wasn't it" and she says "It probably started when I was 5 but by the time I was 6 I had to learn to cook so that I could get some food, it was lucky there were chickens next door and old Mrs Donna Thomas liked to give me cookies whenever she saw me otherwise I probably would have starved" and the boy makes a strangled sound. Hmm, the eyes before he drops them and the clenched hands indicate that he has seen and or has lived something like this before… no wonder he strives to be successful now.
"Do you do drugs son?" and the look of revulsion that goes across his face is extremely telling "I have a zero policy on drugs in my businesses and I will not countenance anyone taking drugs" and then Ana pipes up with "but you keep wanting me to take them here" and looks at him and he just looks annoyed at her exactly as I feel "Different thing" he growls and she says "well, it's not, mom started with pain killers and then it went on from there until there were men coming in and out of the house, sorry Dad, and she was happy to chase anything or anyone across the country. In fact the way she was acting yesterday was similar to when we were with husband no3."
"Did you look after your mother?" he asks and she nods and says "Dad would send me money for my birthday to buy something for myself and if I managed to get to the mail before mom, I would save that up and buy staples like flour and butter and rice so that I could cook and the rest I would scrounge, I told you I could make up a dinner from scraps. Dad was always there at the beginning of the school year so I'd get a school uniform which meant that no-one found out. I kept to myself so I didn't have to invite anyone over and that gave me time to do everything that needed to be done at home. Dad never knew."
And I feel like shit and for some reason I need the boy to understand that " I can't believe that I never figured it out and it went on for a long time but when I was home, we went out to dinner, I would stock up the pantry and fridge and I always gave Ana some money because I felt bad that she didn't seem to have anything that the other girls had. She always seemed to have a lot of books but I didn't realise that she was borrowing them all. She always said she was happy with her books and her guitar" and that makes me ask "Do you want me to get your guitar?" and her face lights up. The boy notices and starts typing away on his phone and then we are interrupted by a knock on the door and the physiotherapist comes in, all smiles although she is about to impart torture on Annie.
Christian makes sure I am happy to stay to help as he has his empire to run and I am more than happy to be helping Annie out, finally I can do something useful, she looks a bit worn out about the discussion that we have just had.
Christian's POV
Fuck Fuck Fuck, Ana has been fending for herself since she was 5, she was so close to being in the same situation as myself. What has she seen? Carla has been doing drugs for a long time, a lot of her inattention now makes sense, not only is she selfish but she has been feeding a habit. What has Ana been subjected to? What issues does she have that we haven't got to because we haven't spoken about what's really important? Has she ever seen a therapist? She doesn't seem to have issues with men but I haven't seen her interacting with any males other than my family, John Flynn and Ray, God, have I been forcing myself on her? No, I am not used to interacting with girls other than my sister and the subs but I know when a kiss is returned and she is definitely returning them and today she kissed me.
She kissed me, she really is sweet but hang on, have I created a Stockholm Syndrome situation – she's in here because of me, she's trapped in the situation and I'm the one that saved her at the crash scene and have provided all of this. Now I'm the only one that's here so she's latching onto me because I saved her. That's it, finally all this makes sense, there's no way she'll want to have anything to do with me once she is better, she'll be gone once she can get out of here and has some sort of a life happening again, especially once she knows what everyone found out yesterday. Well, I am going to make sure she makes it to graduation and then starts the life she deserves and I'll just keep going with my fuckedup life, alone.