Chapter Two
Christian's POV
I wake with a start. My body is drenched in sweat. I had a nightmare. I can't remember the last time I had a nightmare. I look over and I see that Ana is gone. Where is she? I feel my heart start to race. I jump out of bed and run to the bathroom. She's not in here either. I check the rest of our suite, but there is no sign of Ana. I run back to the bedroom, and call Taylor.
"Taylor, Ana is missing." About 15 seconds later, I hear a knock on the door. I look over at the clock, it's almost 4AM, why is he awake at this hour. I open the door and he is standing there with Sawyer and Reese.
"She didn't call one of you to let you know where she was going?" I'm pacing back and forth, running my hands through my hair trying to rein in some control, but I can't. Ana is missing. My Ana. My beloved. My stomach starts to twist in knots the more I think about what might've happened to her.
"No sir, We haven't received any kind of notification about Mrs. Grey." Taylor says, and I can hear the trepidation in his voice. He is scared for her too, and I think he's a little embarrassed. As he should be, why the fuck did we bring the security with us if they weren't going to look after her. Rage builds in me more and more.
"Well my wife is somewhere all by herself, without me or any security, in a strange city, 8 months pregnant, without any protection. So get your ass outside and start looking for her." I am barely able to keep it together. I haven't yelled at Taylor in a long time. I know this isn't his fault. I mean, Ana snuck off. I know sometimes when she couldn't sleep, she would go for a walk outside in the meadow, but usually only few minutes, she's been gone since I woke up, and that was 20 minutes ago, who knows how long she has been gone. That girl needs a good spanking right about now. I shake the idea from my head. No. I don't want to spank her. I want her safe, here with me. I run into the bedroom and put on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. I quickly put on my socks, shoes, and I grab my leather jacket and head downstairs with Taylor.
Taylor and I have been driving around for a while, but no sign of Ana. Where could she be? Where would Ana go? And an idea hits me.
"Go to the Trevi Fountain, now."
"Yes, sir." Taylor nods as he presses on the gas of our little italian car. I don't like it. I feel like a clown in this car. As we pull up near the fountain, I see some kind of big commotion right next to the fountain. It looks like all the people are surrounding something. Or someone? I sprint from the car to the group of people. I shove my way through to the center where I see three women. One woman is on her cell phone, calling the police, or I guess in this case it's the polizia. The other woman is taking off her jacket to put underneath the third woman's head. The third woman is unconscious on the ground. The third woman, lying on the ground, with a cut on the side of her head, and bruises on her body is my wife. I fall to my knees.
"Ana!" I can hear my voice hitch in the back of my throat. I take her hand and put it to my face.
"What happened to her?" I turn to the two women sitting next to her. The woman on the phone with the police doesn't answer me, I turn to the other woman sitting there.
"è stata aggredita!" Attacked? What the fuck?
"Da chi?" I ask her who attacked her.
"Non lo so , è scappato!" She tells me that he ran away and that she didn't get a good look at the man who did this to my wife.
"Grazie per il tuo aiuto!" I say and take Ana in my arms. The ambulance shows up just as I pick up Ana. I want to take her to the hospital myself, but they insist I put her in the ambulance. They try to take her from me to put inside, but I won't let them. Nobody is touching my Ana but me. I take her and lay her down on the gurney in the ambulance. I strap her in tight to make sure she's safe and secure.
"Oh Ana, please, please don't do this to me. Come back to me. I love you." I whisper so that if she was conscious, only she could hear me.
We've been at the hospital for over six hours, and Ana still hasn't woken up yet. And every time I think the Doctor is going to come in with some news, all he says is that they have some more tests to run. I have no idea if she is going to be okay. If our little blip is going to be okay. I take my hand and put it on her belly, sprawling my fingers across, stroking blip gently. I lean over and put my lips to Ana's belly.
"Please don't leave me Phoebe, I haven't even met you yet." I kiss Ana's belly.
I jerk my head back in surprise. Phoebe just kicked me. Yes Phoebe Grey just kicked me right in the mouth. My heart starts pounding. Phoebe! She's okay? I'm about to run out and grab the Doctor when I feel a cool hand on my arm pulling me back. I turn around, and Ana is smiling at me.
"Ana!" She's awake! She's alive!
"Hello, my love." She says stroking my hand. And for the first time since this morning, I am able to take a deep, relaxed breath.
Ana is sitting on the bed, dressed in her regular clothes. She is having her blood pressure taken one more time before we go. The doctor has finally finished running all of their tests, and has reassured me and Ana that she and our little Phoebe to be are going to just fine, but that Ana should take it easy, and be on bedrest for at least the next week and a half. Yeah, good luck getting her to follow that rule. My memory flashes back to the last time Ana had just gotten out of the hospital. For fuck's sake, the woman wanted to go back to work the next day. Ana isn't a big fan of lying around feeling sorry for herself, she likes to push her limits. As do I, but in situations like this, I wish she would just do as she's told and rest.
"You hear that Ana? The Doctor says bedrest." I say to her as I squeeze her hand while we're walking out of the ER.
"Yeah, yeah." She teases. I stop her in the middle of the parking lot of the hospital. Taking her in my arms and pressing her and blip up against me. Looking down into her big bright blue eyes, I get lost in her gaze. I could've lost this woman. Again! I need to keep her safe.
"Ana, I'm serious. You nearly died for the third time now." She looks at me as if I've grown three heads.
"Once when that fucker Hyde kidnapped you, once when you had Teddy, and this is the third time you have put your life in danger because of the stupid, careless decisions you make. Why the fuck didn't you wake me up? I would've gone with you, or at least taken Taylor with you." I try my best to calm my anger. I don't want to put her through any more shit. She's been through enough. She looks up at me with an apologetic gaze, begging me for forgiveness.
"I couldn't sleep, and I just wanted to go for a little walk by myself. It was five minutes, I didn't think I needed an escort. I'm sorry sweetie, I never meant to scare you." She touches my cheek, and I lean my head into her hand.
"Ana, I am not letting you out of my sight until my daughter is born." I say with complete and total resolution. Ana's mouth drops open, she looks mad.
"Christian, this baby isn't due for another month, I am not going to stay imprisoned at the house for the next month, I'll go insane! I have to go back to work, we have 3 new books coming out next month and I haven't even finished my final edits. I have to go back to work."
I take her hand and walk towards the car. I am not arguing with her about this in the parking lot of an Italian hospital.
July 26, 2013
Ana's POV
I have been laying in our Hotel bed for the past 2 days. Christian won't let me go anywhere. Even when I get up to go to the bathroom, I have to tell him to keep out and to let me pee by myself. Honestly what does he think is going to happen? I get swallowed alive by the toilet? When I come back to bed, I see Christian laying on the bed. In a tux. Why the hell is he wearing a tux? On the chair next to my side of the bed, I see a beautiful black dress laid out for me. It the top part of it is sexy, it has black lace with nude lining, and it has a light pink ribbon that wraps around my upper ribs, and then bottom part of the dress is just black, and goes just above my knees.
"What is this for?" I hold the dress up to myself, getting an idea of how it will look.
"Did you forget?" Christian asks, raising an eyebrow at me. Forget? Forget what?
"Uhh…" I'm at a loss. Christian gets up off the bed, walks over to me, takes my left hand in his, and holds it to his lips kissing my wedding and engagement rings. Oh yeah.
"Oh." I grin up at him. The whole reason we came here. Today is our Anniversary.
Christian has taken me to a new restaurant called Bella's. It's just outside of the city, away from the hussle and bussle. It's a very small quiet restaurant with barely anyone in it. When I first see how deserted it is, I can't help but wonder how good the food here is. Doesn't seem very popular.
Christian and I are sitting across from each other. We have finished the most delicious dinner and are enjoying real authentic espresso. It is delicious. It took me a while to get used to it, Christian always liked it, he loves strong coffee. He takes my hand and caresses it.
"I love you so." He whispers. And I feel water prick the corners of my eyes. I get up out of my chair and move around the table to sit on his lap. I wrap my arms around him and hold him close to me.
"Christian, I don't think I can put into words how much I love you." He buries his nose in my hair and gently squeezes me. But something is uncomfortable. There is something in the inside pocket of his jacket.
"Oh, I almost forgot." I lean back bewildered as he reaches into his jacket pocket. He takes out a black leather box that says "Marco Bicego" on it and puts it on the table. I beam at him. I open the box and I find a beautiful gold bracelet with a a little diamond ball attached to it. He takes the bracelet from me and puts it around my right wrist.
"It's gorgeous! Thank you Christian!" I squeel throwing my arms around him.
"I'll give you your gift when we get back to the hotel." He looks intrigued, and I know he is desperate to see what crazy present I have for him this time.
Christian's POV
I'm sitting on our hotel bed waiting for Ana who has snuck off to get my gift. I can't possibly think of what it is. She gave me the greatest gift of all when she married me, not to mention our beautiful baby boy and soon to be baby girl. I don't deserve anything else. My heart starts pounding as soon as I see her. She sits down across from me on the bed and puts lays out a manila envelope that is labeled "To my beloved-Happy Anniversary." I look at the envelope for a moment. Wondering could possibly be inside.
"Open it!" She is very insistent. I open the envelope and the first thing I see is a picture of the most beautiful boat I have ever seen in my life. On the side of the boat it says "The First." Stapled to the picture, there is paperwork and a deed stating that "The First" belongs to me. She got me a fucking boat?
"You got me a boat?!" I can't believe it.
"Nooo…" Ana says, teasing me. I look at her, bewildered.
"I had one built. Just for you." She built me a fucking boat. When I look at the picture again, I look closer at the name. "The First." And it suddenly dawns on me why she chose that name. We were each other's first for pretty much everything. I look up at her again and she is smiling at me, eyes bright with excitement.
"Keep looking…" I look inside the envelope and there is more paperwork. The next piece of paper I pull out is a copy of Ana's birth plan for Phoebe, on the plan it says that Ana is going to have a caesarean. Thank God. This is something Ana and I have been fighting over ever since Teddy was born. She wanted to do it the natural way, but I didn't want to risk her safety. We got into some pretty nasty spats over it too. But looking at this now, I take a deep relaxed breath. This is an amazing gift. The gift of her safety, that's all I need. I'm about to launch myself at her but she anticipates my plan.
"Oh no, there's still one more thing." She teases pointing to the envelope. There is one more thing at the bottom of the envelope, but it's not paper, I reach in and I feel some kind of soft, silk fabric. It's a tie. A new grey tie to add to my collection. I grin. I like it. Ana knows my style.
When I look up Ana is gazing at me, and I can see all of the love that I have for her reflected in her eyes. She holds out her wrists in front of me.
"So Mr. Grey, are we going to celebrate our anniversary or what?" I don't tie her hands together, grabbing her I kiss her so passionately, Ana looks like she is about to pass out, I feel the same. I lay down on my back, bringing her with me so she is on top of me.
"Thank you Ana." I kiss her again.
"Christian, I'd do anything for you. You know that." She kisses my nose.
"For being mine…for letting me lay here with you. My wife." And she leans down, kissing me with everything she has. I roll over so that I am now on top of her. I slowly unzip her dress and untie the pink ribbon around is wearing nothing but a lace black bra. What? No panties?
"Were you not wearing panties all night?" She puts her hand over her mouth, giggling like a schoolgirl. It's hot, but what if someone had seen her. I don't like her doing that without telling me.
"Mrs. Grey, that is very naughty." I take the tie laying beside us on the bed, and tie her hands to the bed frame.
"You wanna play? Let's play." I make quick work of clothes. When I look over at her, she is gazing at me with hunger and desire. And I slowly sink into her. My wife. The mother of my children. My Anastasia.
July 27, 013
Teddy squeals with childish delight. Before we have even pulled in, Teddy runs out with Mrs. Jones. Jumping and clapping for joy. Before I even turn the car off, Ana leaps out of the car and runs over to Teddy, picking him up and holding him close to her. I see her eyes start to water.
"Oh, my baby boy. I've missed you so." She smothers him with kisses, holding on for dear life. As soon as I park the car, I run straight over to Teddy.
"Don't hog my pride and joy." I say to Ana, reaching for Teddy. She moves away from me.
"No, I don't want to let go of my baby." Teddy let's go, and reaches his arms out to me. Ana reluctantly hands him over to me. I snuggle him, my hand stroking his soft hair.
"Daddy!" He wraps his arms around me and hugs me tight.
"Hey there big man!" I take him in my hands and toss him in the air. I do it again. And again. Teddy squeals. I love that sound. He love it when I toss him in the air. It's our favorite game.
"Christian, be careful!" Ana however hates it. Even though I've been doing it for over a year, it still scares her.
"Uh-oh, daddy made mommy mad." I whisper in Teddy's ear making an "uh-oh" face. Teddy giggles. Ana scowls at me and goes inside.
August 18th, 2013
Ana is in surgery, I can't go in. The door is locked. I hear her screaming, little Phoebe is on the way, but I'm missing it. No! I bang on the doors harder. I can't miss my daughter's birth. I hear Ana screaming my name, but I can't get to her.
"Christian!"
"Ana!"
"Christian it's time!" The doors begin to fade, but I can still hear her voice.
"Christian hurry it's time!" And then all I see is black.
"Christian!" And I wake with a jolt. I'm covered in sweat, panting, my heart is pounding. I feel Ana's hand on my arm.
"Christian it's time, we have to go!" I look over and I see her other hand on her belly. Holy shit! Our daughter! It's time...