A/N: Thank you all for reviewing/following and (insert shocked gasp here) favoriting. I'm amazed at the response to my little story. Personally, EL James' jello-spined immature Ana irritated the f**k out of me, frequently straining the storyline far beyond the threshold of believability. I thought it much more likely that Ana would tell CG where to shove his ridiculous contract. (No offense meant to any practitioners of the lifestyle – I simply envisioned a far different, more probable scenario given these characters.)

To all the lovely reviewers requesting CG's viewpoint, I will try but am unsure about accurately portraying such a dark and anguished soul. Please let me know what you think. If the bad reviews outweigh the good, I will delete the offending addition, forever banishing it to the Digital Black Hole of Obscurity post-haste. Also, not certain I can take the story much farther; your thoughts & ideas are always welcome.

- CG -

Three days. Three fucking days and I'm STILL pissing blood! I flush and slowly shuffle back into my study hoping the auditor's forensic reports will take my mind off of this ceaseless throbbing ache. As I carefully settle in the chair and wrap my robe around me, there's a knock on the door.

"Mr. Grey?"

"Yes, Mrs. Jones?"

"It's time for more pain medication. I also have a fresh cool-water bag if you want."

"Just leave it on my desk." Thank fuck!

She quickly places the tray and retreats, softly closing the door behind her. I reach over and swallow the pills, irritated as I recall yet again the smirk my doctor tried to hide when I had to explain what happened. Somehow I don't think he bought my story of a kickboxing accident. Then he tells me no sex until the bruising heals up. No shit, Sherlock!

I pick up the rubber water bladder and gently apply it. FUCK, that's cold! But in moments it does seem to help a little. My entire front lower torso is tainted in shades of deep purple. Frequent applications of arnica cream haven't had any effect at all. Whoever thought such a petite little thing could kick like a damned kangaroo on steroids? That reminds me; I grab for the phone.

"Welch."

"I want a deep background check on Anastasia Steele. Find out where she learned martial arts and who she studied under, and I want it NOW!"

"Sir, there was no indication that she had any kind martial arts training."

"Then you've obviously MISSED SOMETHING! Dig deeper!"

I slammed down the receiver, again pissed off as my fingers carve furrows through my hair. The spreadsheets can't keep my mind from replaying the scene on an endless loop, my own personal horror movie.

She was trembling as she carefully read through the contract, her brow furrowed in concentration. Okay, I figured more than likely she'd be new to this, that was why I kept asking if she had questions and kept trying to explain the particulars. She would be required to stay here only on the weekends. I was willing to take things slow for her sake. The eating, sleeping and workout requirements were to safeguard her health. I expected some reticence on her part, anticipated some negotiation on the limits.

Never, NEVER, did I ever figure her reaction to be so extreme. The vile epithets from her sweet lips tore away my façade, exposed my depraved soul, and for the first time in my life made me feel guilty. But only for a moment as the anger erupted, burned brighter.. incandescent.. thermonuclear. My control snapped and seeing her bent to retrieve her purse I lashed out at that perfect round jean-clad ass. Likely she could still see the handprint when she got home. Then all I saw were stars, the bad kind, and it felt as if I were being disemboweled by a pack of wolves. Never have I felt such soul-rending pain. Even the memory had me panting again, and I could feel the fear-sweat starting, the nausea starting to boil.

I shakily drained the rest of the glass of water, flabbergasted at how I could have been so utterly wrong about her. All those little mannerisms of hers had fairly screamed submissive but that too was a mask – she is the very antithesis. Jeez, am I losing it? It's a point of pride that I read people so well, and a crucial tool in my business arsenal. How could I have been so wrong? Worse yet, what is it about her that still pulls at me even though she tried to pancake my junk? More furrows. Fuck! I'd better call Flynn before I lose my mind completely.

A few hours later, there was another knock on my study door, though this one less tentative. At my "Come in," Flynn wandered in. I caught the mild surprise as he took in my state of undress. I scowled at him, motioned to a chair in front of the desk.

"Well, Christian, how about telling me what was so damnably important that I had to rearrange my afternoon appointments and be summoned to your ivory tower? Our standing session was tomorrow morning. Wasn't that soon enough?"

I shut my laptop, faced him for a moment, then rested my elbows on the desk and leaned my head into my hands.

"I think I'm losing my mind."

"Care to explain?"

How do I begin to explain any of it, least of all these strange feelings going through me? The facts; yes, start with the facts. I took several minutes to give him the details of what had transpired with Ana, his eyes going wide and his frame giving a sympathetic male flinch when I got to the part of her vicious little ninja move.

"I'm really not sure what she said or did after that point. The pain… there are no words for that level of pain. Next thing I knew, Taylor tried to help me up and I think he got me into bed. He said something about Ana, maybe that she left, I don't know. Then it was morning."

"Did this happen last night?"

"No, three days ago. Dammit, it looks like I got a lapdance from a freakin' elephant. It fucking hurts. Still!"

"Bruised?"

"Half my torso and all of my equipment is a techicolor blackish purple. The doctor has me on meds for the pain, but even they don't completely take it away."

"Alright, so tell me Christian, why am I here? You met a girl, laid your cards on the table so to speak, and she wasn't interested. End of story. I admit I've not heard of anyone turning you down before, but by the same token you've always gotten established subs through Elena. Surely you had to allow for the possibility that this girl might not be interested in what you were proposing. So what's gotten you so upset? Is it her retaliatory kick?"

"No. In hindsight, I guess I can understand why she reacted like that. What's worrying me is that I didn't see it. I couldn't read her. I had absolutely no clue that she was anything other than what I took her to be. I saw that lithe body and long brown hair, noticed how her eyes would automatically drop to the floor, heard that soft voice that never teased or challenged, and I saw a sub. She appeared to be the textbook definition of a sub. How could I have read her so wrong? What the hell is happening to me?"

"Well, I'd say some people are better than others at keeping a mask in place. You, yourself have been rather brilliant at it for years. This also seems to be the situation with your Ana. Also, you anticipated that she would fulfill the role of a submissive for you. Perhaps your expectations simply got in the way of your making a more accurate assessment of her."

"Wait a minute, you said something about keeping a mask in place. Is that what you think she's doing?"

"Well, I hardly have any evidence one way or the other. Don't you do background checks on your potential liaisons? Didn't that show any indications that she might be hiding something?"

"No, there was nothing to contraindicate she was anything but what she appeared to be. I'm getting a deep level check run on her now, maybe that'll show something."

"Pardon? You're running another check on her AFTER she's shown she's not interested?"

"Hell yes! I want to know where she learned martial arts, find out where she trains. All of that SHOULD have been in the original report and there was no mention of it."

"Is that the only reason, to evaluate whether your security team missed something?"

I shake my head. Flynn always could cut to the heart of the matter. "No, and that's why I think

I've lost my mind."

"It would help if you told me what you're thinking."

That got him another glare, though it was no more effective than any other thrown his way.

"I can't explain it, not even to myself.How do I make sense of all these strange feelings I'm having? I can't even describe what they are! How can I be so crazy that even for all the extreme pain she caused, I still feel drawn to her? Flynn, what am I going to do?"

"You know how this works, Christian. I can't tell you what to do. What do you think you'd like to do? Or to put it another way, what would you like to have happen?"

"I want her back."

"Good, that's a concrete goal we can work with. But given what's transpired, why do you want her back?"

"There's just something about her, something that touches me on some elemental level that I can't even begin to understand or explain. It… she pulls at me in a way I've never felt before."

"And all of your other women, you've never had such feelings about them?"

"You know I haven't! They were trained submissives. They knew what their role was, they knew my expectations. We gave each other what we needed and that was that."

"All rather nice and tidy, I gather. So why not get another established submissive to get what you need?"

"I don't WANT another submissive! I want Ana!"

"I thought you wanted Ana to be your new submissive. Have I missed something?"

Crap, even blowing out a heavy breath hurt. Flynn is driving me fucking crazy today. What the hell is he driving at?

"I… I don't know what I want. Yes, I thought Ana could be my submissive. But that's obviously out the window."

"Let's step back for a moment and look at this from a different angle. I'm rather intrigued that you say Ana is so different from the others. Is it simply because she's had no training? That she doesn't know how to be a proper sub?"

"I suspect no amount of training would ever make her into, as you say, a proper sub. She doesn't have it in her. I saw the loathing in her eyes after she read the contract and confronted me. Flynn, other than Elena, it's the first time in my life a single look shocked me so much it had me taking a step backward."

"Interesting. You felt intimidated?"

"Yes."

"You feel Ana is a strong person then? Knows her mind?"

"Yes."

"And she's forthright, spoke her mind, wasn't cowed by you in any way, reacted rather impressively to defend herself, and yet you feel that you still want to be in her life."

"YES! How many damned times are we going to go over this?"

"Physically she reminds you of your birth mother, correct?"

"Yes, all of my subs match the type. You know this."

"And you mentioned Elena earlier, likened her to Ana when she intimidated you as well as caused you intense pain."

"Yes?"

Wait, where was he going with this? I wasn't sure the snakes now slithering in my gut were any better than the throbbing pain.

"But there's another component to Ana as well, isn't there? She knows her own mind, she's smart, she's brave considering she was willing to come here with you, a man she barely knows. Would you say she had feelings for you, do you think?"

"I think so. I know I felt this, this connection when we touched. By her reactions I'd say she felt the same way."

"So she felt, what, interest in you? Maybe cared for you? Perhaps even felt the beginnings of love for you?"

I just stared at him, the slithering more violent. Something about where he was going with this had me on edge.

"What are you implying?"

"Well, she looks like your birth mother, and caused you intense pain like Elena did. This strong-minded, smart, even caring aspect of Ana – does it remind you of anyone?"

The truth was a suckerpunch even more violent than Ana's kick, had me diving for the wastebasket barely in time to upchuck the snakes. The retching hurt like hell given all the prior damage to my gut. Wave after wave, bringing up little more than bile. In about a minute, it stopped and I gulped shattered breaths, still on my knees, trembling as I held the bin. As I came to my senses, I saw Flynn knelt beside me, offering me a bottle of water. I took it, rinsed my mouth, then swallowed a few sips hoping they'd stay down.

"Are you alright?"

"I.. I think so." I took another sip, swallowed carefully. But the snakes had been purged, at least for now. "Damn you, Flynn." I grumbled.

"Let's get you back in your chair."

He pulled himself up, held out his hand for me. Back in my chair, I leaned my head back, my mind aswirl at the revelation.

"Back to my question. Who else does Ana remind you of?"

"She's just like… like…"

The name caught in my throat, a magical talisman that if spoken was going to change everything.

"Say it, Christian. She's just like…"

"Grace."