Hero?

50

"Damon, if you would please?" Ana asks and Damon starts or rather continues the evaluation by having them strip down. He goes among them asking his questions, occasionally touching one. Once he's done with them he tells them to go ahead and get dressed.

Once Damon's done with their evaluation Ana sends them over to the food and drinks. She tells them that they can have whatever they want but they have to eat and drink slowly or they'll get sick. Some didn't heed her words and they were escorted out of the tents to lose the contents of their stomachs away from the others.

Damon finishes with those that had been abused and goes over to the second group of females and works on his evaluation there. Ana pays close attention to his reactions here. He hides it well but Ana can tell when he finds the girl or rather woman. He continues on with the evaluation having learned from last time. 

Once he's done he goes over to Ana and confers with her about what he finds. About  a dozen or so of the girls had been trained as dancers and that will have to be seen in order to be part of the evaluation. Ana nods her head, all this is to be expected.

"You faltered for just a bit Damon. Do you know one of the girls?" Ana already knows the answer to this question. Many of her questions are tests rather than seeking for knowledge.

"Yes. She was my girlfriend, we were together until about a month before I first met you. The day she told me that she was pregnant there was an accident. I was told that she was killed."

Pleased at his honesty, "Do you want to know the truth or do you want to talk to her?"

Damon looks at her confused, wouldn't he get the truth if he talks to her? Ana clears up his confusion. She hands him a book with a marked page, "If you want the truth turn to the marked page. After the dancing finish the evaluations and if you wish I'll let you talk to her."

Ana isn't sure what will happen after this. If Damon listen to the lies of the girl then she'll leave and never return. If he believes Ana, then perhaps she'll come back. She doesn't think that will happen though. When Damon had talked about his past with her before she left, he seemed to be pretty choked up about this girl. Ana knows her to be a lying two bit whore, but Damon? Well, it's hard to believe bad things about the one you love. She doesn't doubt that he loved her.

Damon takes the book the same time as he orders the girls that can dance to go to the area set up for dancing. 

Ana prepares herself for the coming ordeal. She avoids strip bars, not because of the nudity but because she can't stand how impossible the dancers are. She always gets a near undeniable urge to go up and show them all how it's done. She won't deny herself here, today. She knows that Shawn and Damon both hate it when she does, but she can't let the challenge go.

It takes less than five minutes for her to have enough. She gets up and as she does so she notices that some of Phoenix's men hold their hands out for money from other's of both Phoenix and Hawk. She smirks, she hopes they get a lot. If Damon finds out he'll be furious, she's not going to say anything though. She likes the fact that some of them know her that well. Even if they were betting on how long it would take her to stop the other dancers.

The reason why she had Spider's men return to the cells was so all the men could watch and not worry over unoathed and restrained men.

By the time she was done all the female slaves were staring at her with wide eyes of awe. They all had forgotten whatever fear they had of her previously.

"That, ladies is how you dance. If you would like, I will teach you otherwise don't ever say that you've been trained to dance." Ana had taught all her dancers how to properly dance. She has far larger crowds in her strip joints than Damon has in his due to that fact.

Damon meets her at the back of the tent by the food. He's looking at the marked page with tears in his eyes. "You've read this?"

"Yes."

"It wasn't mine?" Damon cries out in pain although he manages to keep it to a whisper.

"No. I'm sorry, Damon. She cheated on you all during your time together." Ana isn't sure what to do or say, she's never had a boyfriend let alone someone that she loved like Damon loved Katia.

"Your part is done, would you like to be alone now or would you like to talk to her?" Ana has noticed that Katia keeps looking at Damon before turning away any time he might look at her.

"I want to hear what she has to say, if you don't mind?"

Ana shakes her head. "I'll be some time going over plans with the now ex slaves. Take as much time as you wish."

Damon thanks her and motions Calum over. Calum had seen Katia and had recognized her so when Damon asked for him to bring her to his study Calum only nods then goes over to her as Damon heads inside struggling with the information that he read. There was no reason for it to have been falsified. Spider would have no reason to believe Damon would ever read it.

When Calum goes over to where Katia is standing she stiffens. She knows Calum and suspects that he's here to take her to Damon.

"For a dead woman you look remarkably alive." Katia isn't prepared for those words.

"Dead?" She looks at him puzzled.

Calum smirks, "You mean you didn't know? How long have you been enslaved, Katia? Six years more or less correct?"

"Yes, close to seven years since I last saw you or Damon." Katia responds in a whisper.

"How do you think your disappearance was explained without a huge fuss? If you weren't thought dead you couldn't remain this close to your home town. You shouldn't have any way. Come on, Damon wants to talk to you."

Katia is still in a state of shock, "But, I don't have permission to leave." Katia tries to delay the inevitable.

"If Ana hadn't given Damon permission he wouldn't have told me to take you to his study." Calum tired of waiting for her to come willingly grabs her arm and starts pulling her towards the tent entrance. Katia finds herself doing her best just trying to keep up with him and not be dragged inside.