Disclaimer: I own nothing but, my creative license to bend Fifty Shades into whatever I want! ;)

A/N: Thursday seems to come around a lot quicker than Monday! Now I know a few of you think it's dragging, but c'mon! It's been seven chapters! That's only three chapters per POV... I'm not going to make you wait until like chapter thirty to reunite them... I'm not that stupid... Stick it out and enjoy!

Thank you for the response as always!

A Heart Worth Fifty Shades – Chapter Seven

"Christian," Elena said as she entered, "Andrea said I could come in."

Pushing away his work he gave her smile, "I'm not getting far with this anyway." He watched her approach his desk, before sinking into one of the seats. Since she had taken a month out from this life, he had seen her come back in leaps and bounds. She took on her empire in her old manner but she had lost the stuck up side to it all.

Ana had shown her away to treat others and had given Elena a reason to love again.

Coming back, Elena sought a newer look. She revamped her image to look more her chronological age rather than her mental one. She had done a lot of soul searching and had found herself and a new man along the way. She had cut her hair, darkened the hue of blonde to look more natural and felt better for it.

"You look a little stressed out," Elena commented as she clasped her hands together on her lap. "Getting enough sleep?"

Christian shot her a look, "You know I haven't slept right since she left. Nothing changes that but her."

"You seem to be losing hope with her," Elena mentioned and gave him a sympathetic look. "None of us have given up hope. I didn't go through half of what she did and it took me to this point to get over it."

"I just feel like she saved herself," Christian mumbled and ran his hands through his over grown hair. "She doesn't need me now from what Elliot and Kate told me."

Giving a wayward grin as she remembered her saviour, "Jared saved me and once she's built the courage to get back to you, then she will and she'll get that breakthrough," Elena smiled at him confidently. It had taken meeting a man on her retreat to realise that she could be loved, after the Stephen ordeal and she finally saw a life forming with him. The plus side was that he was not younger than her, she was a perfectly normal woman in life with a man her age and for once she preferred it.

"He better be treating you well," Christian muttered and looked to her. If he didn't have Ana to care for, he would substitute Elena into the equation. He might not be romantically attracted to her, but he respected and loved her in ways no one would understand.

"Jared is picking me up later actually," She said and offered him an impish smile. "He's treating me perfectly fine so cut that worrying."

"I can't," He told her back curtly.

"Look," Elena said and sat up, leaning towards him. "Ana, she was in a dark place. Hell, your death killed her and I know you've relayed that statement with many that I'm about to iterate at you Christian, but she died that day you were classified as deceased. The Ana that came to me was not the girl I loathed. I cared about that Ana and I realise now, too late I might add, that I actually cared about the Ana that first met you. Jealousy just took over and eclipsed all of the good she was doing for you."

"It's been nearly four months," Christian breathed out his pain, "And still nothing." He felt lost without Ana but he carried on because everyone had such faith in him and in Ana. "I know this all killed her and she is working her way back to me, but I don't want to wait a lifetime."

"She surprised you a lot when you first met," Elena said as she understood Christian's standpoint. "Give her the benefit of the doubt to keep doing so." She then smiled at him, "Do you not think that maybe taking yourself away for a little while would help? Maybe a desert island somewhere off the Bermuda Triangle or maybe even buy yourself a planet?"

"You're really funny," Christian allowed a smile to brace his face. It was these little kicks that gave him faith to just take a deep breath and keep his loyalty to the love of his life alive. "I think lately I've just been so caught up in work that I haven't come up for much air."

"Really? You think?" Elena teased him and gave him a little head shake, "You know, taking a break, even for five or ten minutes wouldn't kill a deal. Sometimes powerful men like you need to accept defeat and take a walk."

"Not when you're a CEO," Christian retorted at her, "Plus, I don't feel powerful considering I can't go near anything BDSM anymore. That was what made me powerful."

"Who said you needed that to live though?" Elena asked and collected her things together, standing in the process. She shrugged, "In my eyes it's more a life choice than anything else. You, Christian Grey, made yourself strong and powerful. All of this, your little empire right here, you did that. BDSM didn't do that for you. It helped, but you don't need it for life. Keep some self belief because you are a powerful man to have survived everything."

Elena was speaking from truth, now BDSM wasn't a life she led, but allowed into the bedroom to make sex more fun. Ana had changed her way of thinking for the better and that required appreciation on so many levels.

"You sound just like Ana," Christian spoke to her, his tone softening with the memories.

Elena had to smile brightly at that. "She has a lasting impression," Elena allowed her smile to make way for her to smirk at him and a quick wink. "I am going to run. I just needed to check in on you, but listen to me, Christian. Don't run yourself into the ground and don't give up. Take a break, take time for you and the rest will happen."

Christian got lost in thought as he watched her leave.

Maybe Elena was right? Maybe.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A Heart Worth Fifty Shades -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Hours later, Christian found himself in a meeting – another huge deal underway – but yet he couldn't focus. Elena's previous meeting with him that day was playing on his mind. Had she seen or spoken to Ana without him knowing?

Suddenly he felt claustrophobic in his own office, the walls seemingly closing in and he had to get out. He had to run and for once he didn't care about the deal going. He had faith that Ros would solve it and do as appropriate but right now he needed to take a welcomed break.

"I need to go out for a walk," Christian suddenly broke and pinched the bridge of his nose. As he went to leave, he grabbed his coat from the hanger on the door before throwing it open and taking himself away from any formidable stressors.

As he left GEH and came into the open, he grabbed his cell from his pocket and dialled for Taylor knowing he was nearby and needed to know. If he didn't already. Taking a deep breath, he placed the phone to his ear and began to just walk.

"Taylor, I needed some air," Christian said the moment his guard answered the phone.

"Would you like company?" Taylor ask wary of how to proceed for the moment.

Christian almost uttered no, but then changed his mind, "As a friend, not my bodyguard."

"Very well. I'll catch you up," Taylor commented and got out of the Audi he had been in all day. "I'm not fair."

"Thank you, Taylor," Christian responded and closed the call off and then slide the phone and his hands into his pockets as he walked along, taking in the late November air. It was crisp and cool and it ushered a new sense of time moving onwards. Christian lavished how good it felt to feel this free.

It wasn't that he had forgotten about Ana, anything but that, but he found that waiting for her didn't seem a test of time. He morphed his loneliness into what he did best. He made money and lots of it. He wasn't the man that used to rake money in. Christian Grey was friends with everything. He was polite and didn't lose his temper when things went wrong.

Christian Grey remained the man his Ana had made him into and he would appreciate her for that life lesson alone if she never came back.

"This should have been our first Christmas," Christian commented as he sensed Taylor join his stride as he walked, "Funny how life takes over."

"There are many more Christmases to come," Taylor made the easy connotation but he knew that didn't salvage his friend's feelings. "As your friend, Christian, I have to admit that I like how you have dealt with this."

"Really?" Christian asked looking over his shoulder.

"Well you could have gone back to other women," Taylor made the suggestion and was about to spiel to Christian about the life he had before.

"I couldn't do that," Christian tore into Taylor's statement. "The idea of even touching another woman hurt me. I can't do that when I live with hope and I don't think that will stop until Ana tells me herself that she isn't coming back. That we're over."

Taylor remained silent in his march beside Christian. His friend needed to speak and be listened to rather than have words shoved at him and made to believe each and everyone.

"She spoke about fate," Christian gave a head nod as though to add confidence to his words. "I'll believe in fate."

"Finally," Taylor let slip and heard Christian laugh a little at his gracious sigh.

Thinking about destiny and how fate had given him Ana before and then showed him how to love her to his utmost ability before growing passed all of his issues, Christian got lost. He forgot about everyone around – after all Christian Grey barely walked anywhere – and wasn't looking where he was going, more or less with his mind cursed with thoughts he was looking anywhere other than a final destination.

It cost him as he walked into someone.

"Sorry!" He gasped as he watched the person fall to floor, their possessions doing the same. He felt awful instantly.

Looking down, Christian felt his heart bottom.

He couldn't move.