Hero?

18

They are coming back from the restaurant when their driver slams on the brakes. Confusion reigns as the sound of an explosion fights with the sounds of the screeching of metal against metal and the breaking of glass.

Damon lifts his head and feels the place where he hit it on the seat in front of him. His hand comes away sticky and red. "Is everyone okay?" Slowly everyone answers him except Ana.

He turns to his side and what he sees horrifies him. "Shit! Call 911. Ana! Ana!" Ana is pierced by metal in three places on her right side. With shaky hands he checks to see if she is even still alive. The metal pierces all the way to the seat pinning her there.

He has to take a calming breath to calm his shakiness. Once he does so he feels a pulse, but with the amount of blood loss it won't be there for long.

"Sir?" Calum asks turning from his seat in the front to look at the scene of horror in the back.

"She's alive, but I don't know for how long."

"Emergency services are on their way. The operator says that it will be about ten to fifteen minutes." Tony states from the drivers seat. He holds a cloth to his own bleeding head.

"What the hell happened, Tony?" Damon demands.

"I don't know. Everything was fine then the car ahead of us, or maybe two ahead of us, blew a tire or something that made it lose control. I tried to stop but, well you can see how well that worked." Tony says wincing at the pain in his head as he makes his report.

"Is anybody else injured other than minor injuries?"

"Just minor injuries for the rest of us." Damon nods at their response but keeps his focus on trying to slow the blood loss Ana is suffering. She just got out of the damn hospital she doesn't need to go back into it. Damon doesn't even want to think about the alternative.

It takes the firemen some time to free Ana from the seat so that they can get her to the hospital. Trying to keep her alive the paramedics started her on a blood transfusion while the firemen worked on freeing her.

As soon as she was free they loaded her up in the ambulance and Damon climbed in with them. They tried to stop him, but he insisted since he is her guardian they allow it.

The doctor's rush her into surgery as soon as she gets there and several hours later they finish. Damon stands when he sees him.

"Are you Ana Young's father?" The doctor is confused at how young the father is.

"No, she's an orphan. I'm her guardian, Damon Phoenix." Damon says offering his hand to shake.

The doctor takes it as Damon says almost frantically, "How is she?"

The doctor sighs, "We managed to stop the bleeding and repair the damage, but she's lost so much blood...if she makes it through the night she has an excellent chance of making a full recovery. What happened?"

"We were driving down the road when one of the other cars lost control. A massive pile up happened. My driver managed to avoid the worst of it, but the metal flew into the vehicle and pinned Ana to the seat." The pile up killed five other people driving that road. Damon just hopes that Ana won't be the sixth.

"I've gone over her medical history, that girl is a fighter, she won't go down easily. I fully expect her to make it through the night, Mr. Phoenix. Have you had your head wound looked at?"

"Yes," Damen tries to smile. "I wouldn't let them stitch it so they glued it together." The surgeon nods thoughtfully. 

"I'll be by in the afternoon to check up on her. Try to get some sleep if you can." The doctor says before leaving.

"Thank you doctor, I'll try." Damon doesn't think he'll be getting much sleep though, not until Ana wakes up and tells him that she wants out of the hospital.

"Damon?" Ana says opening her eyes. 

There is a rustling sound of cloth moving against cloth. "Yes, Little One?" Damon is quick to move back to her side. He had gotten up to look out of the window a short time earlier.

"What's going on?" Ana says in a slurred voice and a wince as she moves her side.

"Let me help you," Damon goes to her and helps her sit up.

"There was a car accident on our way home last night. You were pinned by a large piece of metal, that pierced you in three places. That piece pinned you to your seat. Once we got to the hospital you were in surgery for hours." Damon caresses her cheek pushing the hair off her face at the same time.

"That's why I hurt so much?" Ana is glad Damon doesn't try to hide things from her like this.

"Yes, and you'll be sore for a very long time, I'm afraid." Damon says sadly. He never likes to see Ana hurt. That there was nothing he could do, this time, to stop it from happening angers him.

"I'm going to be okay though right?" Ana asks anxiously.

"Of course you are Little One. And later on if you wish I'll pay to have plastic surgery done to fix the scars." Damon assures her. The scars are ugly and nasty.

"What are you talking about, Damon?" Ana asks innocently.

"You now have six freshly minted scars. Three on the front that are huge and ugly and three on the back that are just as ugly but not as big."

"Oh." Ana looks at Damon with tear filled eyes, "So I'm ugly now?"

Damon looks stricken that she would think something like that. "NO! That's not what I meant Little One." Damon lets out a sigh and runs his hands through his hair. "I'm making a mess of this. You're still the beautiful you, Ana, it's just now you have some war wounds. People will ask questions about it."

"Yes, they will. It surprises me that you told her so bluntly, Mr. Phoenix." The surgeon says coming in to check on his youngest patient.

"Damon is bluntness personified. I like that about him, he doesn't hide things from me just because I might not like it. It's part of why I feel safe with him." Ana says to the stranger that had come into her room.

Ana looks over to Damon, "This is the doctor that saved your life last night. He can answer any medical questions you have." Ana loses her look of confusion and looks at the doctor with an intelligence that shocks him.

"What kind of damage and will any of it affect my future?" Ana demands.

"Best tell her what she wants to know, she doesn't like it when people hide things from her. Especially when it affects her directly."

So the doctor spends more than just the few quick minutes he had planned so that he could give her a detailed listing of her injuries and what it will mean for her now and in the future.

"The scars are war wounds of a sort. They won't impact you in your daily living unless you had planned on going into modeling or something like that. But, they are rather large and as you grow so too will they. You might want to think seriously about taking your guardian up on his offer of plastic surgery. It will reduce the scarring significantly, perhaps they can take it away completely." He gives her a reassuring smile and leaves.

"Damon, one thing I noticed, he didn't tell me when I can get the hell out of this place." Ana says thoughtfully after the doctor closes the door behind him.

"I noticed the same thing, Little One. Perhaps he doesn't know yet. We'll see what the regular doctor says when he comes to check on you tonight. Okay?" Damon smiles for the first time since the accident happened the night before. Ana will be alright now.