Author's Note:

I'm glad to see that so many of you are just as excited about this story continuing as I am.

In the last chapter of How to Save a Life we learned a little bit more about Ana's past and her character. I will let you know that this story is AU aka 'alternate universe'. In fanfic code, that means they are very different from the original Trilogy. In this particular story, there is no Jack Hyde, Elena and Christian's situation is much different and some of the characters may not act how you would expect them to based on the books. Also, please note that the rating has changed to M due to later chapters (I mean this is Fifty Shades after all *wink wink*).

With 'How to Save a Life', Each chapter was based on (or accompanied by) a song. This time around, I will be using some of my favorite quotes from different forms.

Also, a lot of you mentioned Christian taking Ana to Aspen for a while but as Christian said in the last chapter, they won't hide anymore. Also, Ana's recovery is just starting and it's safer to stay home right now, I hope you all understand. What else would you like to see happen in this story? I am open to suggestions.

That being said..

Happy Reading

-Ari

Chapter 1

"Everybody asks why I started at the end and worked back to the beginning, the reason is simple, I couldn't understand the beginning until I had reached the end. There were too many pieces of the puzzle missing, too much you would never tell…"

Anastasia POV

"Why do you keep staring at me?" I ask jokingly. Christian got ready before me and has been watching me throughout this whole process. I now have everything on except for my wig.

"Well, your just so beautiful I can't help it." He smirks.

Swoon. Man, I love this man. He always knows exactly what to say. Admittedly, I'm really nervous right now. This is practically like starting a new life.

I remember riding by some of these things on my way to the hospital and thinking I might never see them again. Yes, nearly two months later, here I am sitting in the car with my husband and on the road to recovery.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"You know, if you keep that up you're going to actually have to carry pennies around." i smirk. "I'm just really glad to be out of there."

"I am too." He raises my hand that he is holding and kisses the finger with my rings on it. The ride to Escala, where Christian tells me he lives is bathed in a comfortable silence.

We're driving through downtown Seattle and as I'm looking up, I notice that we're going under one of the buildings.

"Are we here?"

"Yup. This is the underground car park. I own this bay so this is where all our vehicles are."

"You own all these cars?"

"No, we own all these cars."

"Wow." I say overwhelmed. There are at least like 15 cars here and I'm sure they're all really expensive. What have I gotten myself in to?

"You ready?" he looks at me with a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.

"Yeah.." I say trying to take it all in. I'm out of the hospital, in the car (that's being driven by security) with my husband in one of the various parking bays he owns and about to go to the new place I will call home.

Christian must sense my anxiety because he holds my hand and squeezes reassuringly. I give him a small nod and he signals for Taylor to open the doors.

We walk hand and hand to the elevator while Taylor unloads my bags. We step in to the elevator and I look back but it seems Taylor has disappeared.

"Staff elevators.." Christian states plainly.

"Oh.." Right he has staff.. well we have staff. I nod and step back in to the elevator to allow the doors to close. This might take some serious getting used to.

Once the doors close Christian hits some button that brings up a pad where he inputs a code. "I will give you all the codes you need to access the different places in here. They change frequently and when they do, Taylor will let you know."

I just nod my head a little overwhelmed. As the elevator cruises to a stop Christian looks over at me and smiles. "You ready?"

"Yeah." I say although it sadly came out about as confident as I feel which isn't much.

The elevator doors open to the foyer that I saw in the pictures. There's a beautiful bouquet of chamomile flowers in a face on top of the table. It's sweet that he remembered. I walk in to the main area and stop in my tracks. This place is completely different from what I remember it to be. The cold white that stood out in the pictures is now a soft cream on the walls. I walk further in to the area in a daze. Once I can see the kitchen I notice a cute backsplash that brings life to the place.

"Big improvements don't you think?" Ray says as he comes over to where I'm standing. I didn't even see him here at all which is weird. I wonder it he's been here the entire time.

"Hi daddy."

Ray uncharacteristically pulls me in to a hug. "I'm glad to see you home baby." he whispers. I can hear the emotion in his voice and it takes all my strength not to get choked up too.

"I'm glad to be out daddy."

"So what do you think of the place? Your husband there did it up real nice these past couple of days."

"I thought it looked different." I say looking over at Christian who has a shy smile on his face.

"I thought you've had enough time looking at white walls."

I laugh at his statement out of gratuity. I'm really touched that he would change this whole place around just for me. When we talked about it and he said he would talk to Elliot, I never imagined him doing this.

"So when do I get a tour?" I ask excitedly. If my short-term memory is anything like Dr. Hamburg described, I'll probably need a tour everyday for a while but I still want to see everything while I still have the energy.

"You kids have fun. I'm gonna go pick up breakfast. IHOP okay with you Annie?"

"Mmm, yes."

"I'll be back." He says stepping in to the elevator.

Well walk throughout the apartment. This place is even bigger than I originally thought. Besides the huge kitchen, dining area and living room, there's a TV room, four guest rooms, our master bedroom.. The list goes on and on not even including the security offices and the staff quarters. We're now walking down the hallway coming back from the last room on the second floor.

"So what do you think? Honestly. Anything you don't like we can get Elliot to change." He rushes out.

I walk up to him keeping my face as impassive as possible then I take his face in to my hands and stare right in his eyes and gives him a peck on the lips. "I love it because you did it for me."

He releases a breath that he was holding and gives a genuine smile. "I'm glad you like it. And I have one more room to show you." He says really excitedly. He pulls me along to a door at the top of the stairs that we passed. These doors are double doors - white with a beautiful pattern in the door. There's a lock with a very antique looking doorknob. He motions for me to open the door so I do.

"Uhmmm.. What is this?"

"This is your room. You can do whatever you want to it. I was going to make it a library at first but then I thought you should really just have a room for you.. I guess.."

"Oh.. Wow! Thank you! And a library sounds great. Oh! The possibilities!" I say getting excited. "-wait, what was this room before? What did you do, just get rid of whatever was in here for me? That's insane. There must've been something in here before." I say looking around at the large white room. The walls have a nice 'new paint' glossy type finish and the floors are a light wood, almost gray looking color.

"Yes," he starts scratching the back of this head, "I didn't really get rid- I just- it's hard to explain but what used to be in this room is-" he lets out a large breath "can we just discuss this another time?"

What the Hell just happened? And what used to be in this room? Is this how it's going to be?

"I'm back." I hear my dad yell from somewhere downstairs.

I walk past Christian and go downstairs without saying another word.

Trouble in paradise already?

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