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Dare to Love Again Easter Special

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Christian's POV

Escala is busy with family activity today.

The twins are happy that Sophie has come from Vancouver for a visit during spring break and she will get to spend Easter here. The three of them are playing x-box much too loudly upstairs.

Ana and Gail are off shopping and I just know this place is about to be filled with every flower known to Spring and I can't wait to see it.

The Parents are on their way over. Mom is hosting her annual Easter egg hunt tomorrow and has miscounted the child to egg ratio by about two hundred eggs.

It's us to the rescue as we've all agreed to dye them up for her today. She asked if we could do it here since her house is filled with the chaos of getting everything decorated for tomorrow, so Kate and Mia are busy in the kitchen boiling eggs.

Elliot couldn't miss the chance to joke about their cooking skills and them not even being able to boil eggs before I pull him away for his own good. They were just about to throw egg on his face.

"So, how's this thing working out with Ana being here full time now," he asks me as we play pool in the first-floor playroom.

"Perfect," I tell him as I grab two beers. "I couldn't be happier."

"It shows," he tells me. "Well thank fuck she fits in with us."

"Aw come on El," I tell him.

"I'm serious, man," he tells me. "It's nice to come over here and chill without it turning into a big ass cat fight with Kate and Jess."

"But why do you think that is," I ask him, curious. I knew the family would like her, no doubt, but they have accepted her so easy. "Maybe it's because she knew Kate in college."

"Nope," he says swigging his beer, "because Mia's gung-ho for her too. It's because she gets our sense of humor. She's insane like the rest of us."

I laugh.

"Dad said you were fawning all over her the night that son of a bitch attacked her," Elliot tells me. "She's doing okay, right?"

I nod.

"Better than me," I tell him. "I'm still not convinced I wouldn't run him over if he crossed in front of my car."

"I wouldn't blame you," he tells me. "Hell, I'd even help you hide the body."

I can only imagine what he'd come up with on how to hide a dead body.

"What's up with Mia and this guy," I ask him.

"Hell, if I know," he shrugs. "She's never kept one away this long. I told Kate to whisper in her ear while they are all getting prettied up for Easter. Chicks always talk at those places."

"Or we'll just pay him a friendly little visit ourselves," I tell him.

He laughs nearly choking on his beer.

"I heard about Ana's dads making you shit bricks the night they popped up," Elliot says through gasps of air. "And exactly what you were doing when they showed up."

"Who told you," I ask him.

"Jose," he told me.

"Jesus Christ," I say. "Is nothing sacred around here?"

"Nope," he says cursing as he sinks the eight ball.

Ana's POV

"No way are you staying home, Gail," I say to her as we look through the florist's collection of fresh flowers. "You are coming with us to the beauty salon."

"I don't know, Ana," she says still unconvinced.

"Sophie is going and she would love for you to be there sharing the experience with her," I tell her. "Plus, Christian's already arranged it. Isn't that right, Taylor?"

"It is true, Sweetie," he tells her.

Sawyer and I eye each other. It's rare to hear Taylor talk like this.

"Okay," Gail finally agrees. "It does sound like fun."

"Yes," I tell her. "We are going to have a great time."

"I suppose I have to be there too," Sawyer says to me.

"Yup," I tell him. "That issss what you are refusing to be paid for."

"Ohhhh, she jokes now," he tells me. Gail and I laugh.

His face turns serious and we all whip our heads around to see what has put him on alert.

I see a smiling Sandy looking our way and getting ready to walk towards me.

"Sandy," I say when she approaches.

"Hey Ana," she says embracing me. "Hi Sawyer and everyone."

"Ma'am," Taylor, Gail, and Sawyer say in unison.

Sandy looks at me in question and I just shake my head.

"Shopping for Easter," she tells me as she eyes all the flowers.

"Absolutely," I tell her. "Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?"

"Not much," she says. "Probably just go to my parents for dinner."

"Why don't you come to an Easter egg hunt thing in Bellevue," I ask her. "Christian is dying to hang out with you again after you laid that right hook of yours on you know who."

She laughs.

"Okay sounds like fun," she says. "Can I bring Nate and his niece?"

"Great. Yeah sure you can," I tell her. "I'll text you the information."

"Alright, see you tomorrow," she tells me.

This is shaping up to be a pretty good Easter.

We make it back to Escala before Grace and Carrick arrive.

Gail and I start arranging our flowers in different sized vases that we sit all around the apartment. I use a less "girly" arrangement of dark and light blue hydrangeas for Christian's office.

I recruit Sophie and the twins to help me decorate the patio.

"Baby, the place looks great," Christian says as he comes out on the patio where we are placing a Peek-a-boo bird house against the far glass window.

"Thank you," I gush at him.

"A Bird house, huh," he says eyeing it suspiciously.

"We might see baby birds," Phoebe says excited.

"That's right," I tell her.

"Twenty stories up," Christian says, not believing it.

"Anything is possible at springtime," I lean in about to give him a kiss and stop short when I see three little pairs of eyes on us.

Christian chuckles.

"You guys go change into your play clothes," he tells them. "We are going to start dying eggs."

"YES," they all say and rush to change.

"Now for that kiss," he tells me once we are alone and I plant one on his lips.

"Save it for the bedroom," Elliot says as he comes out on the patio. "Time to dye some eggs."

"Why do they always send you to find us," Christian complains.

"Because I'll bug until you stop what you're doing," he says. "Come on Ana. Put some of your decorating skills on some of these old farts Kate and Mia boiled up."

"I've never heard eggs being described quite that way before Elliot," I tell him.

"You never had to sleep in the same room with him after he's eaten a few," Kate says, stepping out on the patio with us.

"And she's not exaggerating," Christian tells me.

Christian's POV

The table in the dining room has been extended and covered with a protective cloth. More boiled eggs than I ever want to see in my life are placed on the table with everything we need to dye them. The kids and Mia are already seated and waiting.

Taylor escorts mom and dad in. They give hugs all around before we all fill the remaining seats around the table.

"Thank you all so much for helping," mom tells us as she dips her eggs in the different shades of dye. "I can't believe I made such a mistake."

She is truly embarrassed about the egg debacle.

"She does the same thing every event," Dad tells us, snitching on mom. "It's always something she forgets. I don't understand it."

"It takes a lot to put events together," Mia comes to her defense.

"But it happens every, event every single year," Dad continues on, clearly perplexed. "I mean it happens Every. Single. Year."

"And so does your hemorrhoidal flare-ups, but you don't hear me throwing you under the bus," my mom tells him as she is now put out with his harping.

I watch Ana's face turn bright red as she tries not to laugh at the revelation and my mom's flash of temper. Mia doesn't have the same restraint as she is now cracking up.

"For crying out loud, Mom," Elliot groans as he sits next to her with a mouth full of boiled egg. "I'm trying to eat over here."

"Mia, I'm staying with you," Kate says eyeing Elliot from where she sits across the table from him. "Otherwise I'm going to suffocate from the methane and sulfur your brother is going to be letting rip from his behind tonight.

"No way, babe," Elliot says grabbing another egg, peeling it open, and dashing it with salt and pepper. "For better or worse, remember?"

"I didn't vow to endure your flatulence," she tells him.

Teddy and Phoebe sit immune to the banter at the table as they are used to it, but poor Sophie is wide eyed as she takes us all in. I shake my head hoping she doesn't report any of this back to her mother.

It took a better part of two hours but we are done dying all of the eggs and they have been carted off to Bellevue to be refrigerated.

Mom and Dad treats us all to dinner. No one wants to go out, so we just end up ordering pizza much to the kids delight.

At the end of the day, Ana and I are exhausted. It's way past the kid's bedtime, but we leave them to their slumber party in the media room and head off to bed ourselves.

"Hey, I forgot to tell you I ran into Sandy today," Ana says to me as we get into bed. "She's coming to the egg hunt tomorrow."

"Great, I can't wait to see her," I tell her. Anyone that smacks a bastard for messing with her friend is okay in my book.

"I can't wait to see you decked out in that white suit," she tells me.

I pretend to be asleep when she mentions the suit until she smacks me on my arm. I grab hold and tickle her.

Easter Sunday March 27, 2016

Christian's POV

"Hey bro," Elliot says as he comes into the great room. "You and Teddy Bear ready to head out?"

Not to be out done by the girls, the three of us are on our way to get haircuts.

"I only want a trim, Dad," Teddy tells me as we head to the elevator. "Michelle likes my hair long."

I stop mid-stride at his words. My legs simply will no longer move me forward.

"Sure thing, little man," Elliot says, not missing a beat as he pushes me along. "I like your hair long too."

I look down at my Teddy Bear and I just want to wrap him up in his little blue blanket and cradle him in the crook of my arm again.

Ana's POV

I sit between Kate and Phoebe with my hands and feet soaking in some type of warm great smelling water.

Gail and Grace are with the girls as they all are getting their hair styled.

"So, what's up with you and this guy, Mia," I hear Kate asks. I close my eyes and try to zone them out as I relax in my message chair.

"Nothing," she says. I can hear the shrug in her voice. "Just casual."

"Casual takes you to Paris with his family," Kate asks her.

"Casual with benefits," she says.

"Mia, your brothers would have a coronary if they heard you say that," Kate tells her. "Not to mention poor Carrick."

"I'm the same age as Ana you know," she tells her. "Why does everyone forget I'm grown and not twelve anymore?"

"Because you are the baby," Kate tells her. "When are you going to settle your grown ass down anyway?"

"No time soon," she says. "Why bother when all men do is cheat?"

That got my full attention and I open my eyes.

"Not all men, Mia," Kate tells her.

"Most men," she amends. "I don't get why they cheat. Why can't they just break up with the person?"

"Because they are disgusting selfish idiots who think way too much of themselves," Kate tells her.

"You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your Prince, Mia," I tell her.

"See, Ana gets it," she says.

"What," I say. "Wait, no, I didn't mean to…. I mean JUST…kiss."

"Someday my Prince will come," she agrees. "But in the meantime, just kissing is nice."

"Elliot had a dream about cheating on me once," Kate tells us.

"What happened," I ask her.

"He was banging her full in balls deep," she explains.

We gasp like it actually happened.

"Then the bitch turned into a vampire and bit his deceitful ass," she says. "She made a meal of him. He woke up screaming, checking his neck. That pretty much took care of any thoughts of cheating."

We have a laugh at poor Elliot's expense.

I'm done soaking, so I go over to choose nail polish.

"Ana, the lady said she can make my nails look like Easter eggs," Phoebe says coming over to me excited. "Can I get it?"

"That sounds great," I tell her, matching her excitement.

"Me too," Sophie asks Gail and she agrees.

"Why don't we all get something to celebrate Easter," Mia says and we agree to all get it done.

She goes with a beautiful mint green and yellow French manicure design while Kate does one in a pretty peach.

Gail gets pastel colors of pink, blue, and yellow with spring flowers on a few of the nails. Sophie gets a pink like her dress with cute little white daisies on the base of each nail.

I sit next to Phoebe as she gets her eggs painted on. Each one is a rainbow of polka dots and squiggly line designs that look just like decorated eggs.

I choose a design of coral pink and glittery gold for both my fingers and toes. I think it will go great with my sandals which are the same color.

Phoebe whispers to me that she's glad she's not a boy as Teddy can't get his nails painted like this. The mental image of his frowning face if he was here doing this right now makes me laugh. I tell Phoebe and she also finds it funny.

"Oh, they are just so precious together," I hear Grace say to Mia and I glance over to see them studying Phoebe and I. They quickly pretend to not be watching us as they catch me looking.

Grace even joins in the fun and has her nails painted a pretty purple with an Easter egg design on her ring fingers.

"I'm loving Phoebe's nails, baby," I hear Christian coming into the closet where I'm getting ready to go to the Grey's.

"That's good. I wasn't sure you'd like them painted, but she was just so excited about having Easter eggs on her hands I just didn't have the heart to say no," I tell him.

"No, its fine, baby, I trust your judgment when the kids are with you," he tells me, giving me a quick kiss and making me smile at him.

How's Teddy," I ask him.

"He'll wear the suit if he can wear his sneaker and take most of it off as soon as the pictures are taken," he tells me with a shake of his head.

"Sounds like a good deal to me," I say to him.

He watches me as I buckle my sandals to my ankle and I am happy to see that I was right about the toes matching.

I suddenly laugh at myself. When did I start caring about if my toes match my shoes? If Jose could see this now, he'd be so pleased with me.

I hear Christian growl from behind me when I take off my robe to stand in my underwear. I quickly slip on my dress before he gets any ideas and makes us late.

"Damn, baby, you are fucking hot," he says coming up behind me. He sweeps a lock of my curled hair to one side and kisses my bare shoulder as my coral knee length dress is strapless. "Mmmm you smell good."

The feel of his lips on my shoulder is shooting straight down to my private area. I try to move away from him but he holds me close.

"First the toes, then those damn panties, and now this dress," he tells me. "You look amazing in this dress. I think I am getting more out of this closet then you are. You're like a pretty sexy new gift I get to unwrap every day."

"I know the feeling," I tell him as I turn in his arms. I fix his shadow blue tie and smooth down his suit jacket. "Not every man can pull off this white suit you are wearing. You make it look easy."

"I wouldn't be caught dead with it on any other day," he confesses.

"Darn," I tell him. "But it really turns me on."

"Really," he says and I nod. "I'll try to remember that, baby."

Sounds are coming from the great room letting us know that everyone is there and ready to go.

We meet Anderson, the twins, and Sophie by the elevator.

True to form, Teddy is in his gray suit with sneakers. His brownish red hair is long but neatly trimmed. Phoebe is like a rainbow in her chiffon dress of bright pastel colors: yellow, pink, and green. While Sophie is in her fancy dress trimmed in vibrant pink with light pink flowers. She wanted to ride over with the twins, so she is with us as Gail and the security team have gone ahead.

All security, including Sawyer, is required to be there since it is such a large event and we are all most likely to go off in opposite directions.

During the drive, the girls are all about their dress, hair, and nails as they tell Christian and Teddy all about their morning at the salon and by the time we make it to Bellevue, poor Teddy is about ready to pull his hair out.

We thought we were early, but the place is already full of people. We find Grace inside and she greets us with a kiss looking amazing in her purple dress.

Everyone is quickly called into the sitting room to take pictures as all of The Greys are now present. Christian, the twins and I take ours together and I try to ease out of the family photo as I didn't want to intrude, but Grace subtly pulls me back in next to her.

Getting the official Easter business over and done with, we all go outside for some fun.

"Shit it looks like the Easter bunny had diarrhea out here," Christian tells me.

There are brightly colored eggs as far as the eye could see. Sophie, Phoebe, and a Teddy that is now without his jacket and tie, run off.

Elliot is right behind them as he is going to hit up all of the pastry and food stations Grace has set up along the grounds.

We make our way through the crowd stopping to talk to people that Christian knows.

David and Kelly wave to us as best they can while being dragged away by their kids.

We run into Ros with the cutest little baby I've ever seen and I know he must be Tyler.

"How cute are you," I say as he reaches for me and I quickly take him from her.

"Where's Gwen," Christian asks her. He is talking to Ros but he is making faces at an amused Tyler.

"Last I saw she was at the hot dog stand with your brother," she tells him.

Phoebe runs up with a huge brown bunny rabbit in her arms to say hello to Ros and Tyler. She begs Christian to let her keep it. He orders her to take it right back to the petting Zoo before it gets loose. She walks away disappointed, but does what she's told.

I spot Char, Derrick, and Jose sitting at a patio table and I take Ros over to them leaving Christian to play with cute little baby Tyler.

"Gurl, look at cutie pie you," Jose says as I sit down next to him.

We are soon joined by Kate and Mia.

"I think my blood sugar is rising just by looking at all the candy," Kate says.

"Well, it's going right to my butt," Mia says. "And that is a good thing."

"Amen, Sista," Jose says high fiving her.

An hour in we see Sandy and her date coming over to us with a pretty little girl about five years old.

"Christian told us you were over this way," she tells me as I get up to hug her. "He is knee deep in kids right now."

"That sounds like Christian," I say to her.

I introduce her to everyone and she introduces us to Nate and his niece Nia.

Of course Mia thinks it's cute that their names rhyme and they quickly become friends. She takes her over to get her basket so she can be in the egg hunt that's about to start.

Nate is a tall gorgeous guy that is just so what Sandy would go for, and I have to close everyone's mouths as they blatantly check him out. Even Ros is finding him pleasing to the eyes.

I smirk at Sandy as she clings to him like bad cologne. She smiles wide when I know she has read my mind about her needing to retract her claws.

We make room for them at the table, she sits down next to me, but Nate takes off in search of nachos when he sees one of the kids walking by with some.

Mia makes it back with Nia just in time for the announcement that the Easter egg hunt is about to get underway and we head over.

I spot the twins and Sophie. They are each partnered with a toddler to help them out finding eggs.

David and Kelly are each holding the hand of a two and four-year-old girl and boy that are spitting images of them.

Christian has little baby Tyler ready to carry him along so that he may get some eggs as well. Seeing him with that little baby makes my heart swell for him even more and I didn't think that was even still possible at this point.

The bell sounds and everyone takes off running.

"Oh my Gawd it's like the Hunger Games," Jose says as we watch the kids and their free for all for the eggs.

"What happens if they don't collect them all," Sandy asks.

"They never do," Kate says. "We'll be stepping in chocolate and melted jelly beans for the next few days."

"Ew," Char says.

"Look they even have big kids on the other side," Derrick says pointing in the opposite direction away from the toddlers.

Mia explained that the older kids are in search of the golden eggs as those are the ones that are worth money. Each has a number written on it anywhere from five to a hundred dollars and at the end they cash them all in. I would have loved to be a part of something like this when I was a kid. Just the thought of finding a golden money egg would have been exciting.

I see a lone little girl no more than three struggling to carry her basket along as she tries to get eggs, so I go out and help her. At the end of the lawn we sit on the grass and she shares her haul with me. We munch on jellybeans while we talk about the Easter bunny until her big sister comes to over to get her.

As the event comes to an official close, the Grey family gathers in Grace's private garden for Easter Dinner.

Phoebe already told me all about it.

She said it's like a giant tea party. I must say her description is spot on as the beautiful table settings and the elegant garden surrounding us gives off a fairytale feel. She makes a point to sit next to me as Sophie is sitting next to Gail. I spot Taylor still on guard glancing at his girls proudly.

"Didn't Taylor want to join Gail and Sophie," I whisper to Christian.

"He'd rather be dodging bullets in combat than to have to sit at this type of affair, Baby," Christian tells me and knowing Taylor, I have no doubt that is true.

Christian's POV

"You Greys really know how to celebrate holidays," Ana tells me as we make our way to our bedroom. "This was the best Easter ever."

I'm ecstatic that she enjoyed her first Grey holiday, but the way she says "you Greys" doesn't sound right to my ears. I would much rather hear her say "us Greys."

I quickly push that thought to the back burner of my head. No way in hell is she ready for that yet. I just barely got her to move in with us.

"Christian, where'd you go," she asks when she sees that I'm lost in thought. She sits on the bed undoing her sandals.

"Just thinking about today, baby," I tell her. I stand her up to unzip her dress and let it fall to a heap at her feet. "I've been thinking about undressing you since I saw you slip this on."

"I know the feeling," she says as she slips off my jacket and takes off my tie. She slowly unbuttons my shirt kissing a trail down my chest as she goes.

"Mmmm," I say to her.

"Down boy," she tells me. "We have young ears roaming around out there."

I groan, disappointed and she kisses me.

"Tomorrow," she says. "We'll have the whole place to ourselves and I'll let you have your way with me."

"Damn right, woman," I tell her, hitting her ass as she heads for the shower.

THE END

Happy Easter!

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