I have no idea how these types of situations go when outside of court so I just wrote what I thought it might be like. I know this is a day late and that's only because I forgot to upload it yesterday. Sorry, busy day. I have a pinterest page so you guys should go check that out if you want some help trying to visualize my story. Happy reading.

-Midnightsun

Chapter 10

Christian's POV

It can't believe this is happening. I can't believe I am being accused of verbal abuse, I can't believe a law firm, a very expensive and successful law firm, has believed this bullshit and I can't believe they have decided to represent her.

And why did it have to be Anastasia Steele representing her? The woman I'm interested in.

'Interested in? More like obsessed with, Grey.' My inner self jeers
'Oh fuck off, I'm not in the mood.' I sneer

I read her background check and I've got to admit she is one interesting person. She is highly intelligent, graduating high school at 16 and getting a free ride to Harvard law, not that she needed it. Her mother is very well known in the real estate business and her father is ex-military and now owns a small chain carpentry stores. She was born and raised in Bellevue, quite closed to my parents house and it makes me wonder why we've never come across one another before. She graduated a 7 year course in three years. She must be a really hard worker and I can't help but admire her.

It also states that she had a younger brother, Jacob Steele, but he is deceased. It doesn't specify what happened to the boy, just that he died at 13 while Anastasia was 16. Welch said that he couldn't get anymore info on the brother. I wonder what happened there. Under relationships there is only an Adam Richardson that she was in a relationship with from 2007-2009. A college boyfriend, Ms Steele? I'm going to have to get a background check on this bastard too.

'Jealous, Grey?' My inner self questions. Oh for fucks sake.

Its said that when she was 7 years old her parents noticed that she could recall things that she shouldn't be able to and was learning things very quickly for her age. She went to a few specialists and they came to the conclusion that she has an eidetic having an eidetic memory is amazing and I'm sure she has benefited greatly, I can honestly thank god for not giving me that. I don't even want to think about how horrible it would be to remember in detail everything that the crack whores pimp did to me. I can just about get 4 hours of sleep now, I'm positive I wouldn't get any sleep at all if I was cursed with that type of memory.

Regardless of how stellar her check was, she is still representing Olivia Jenkins therefore she is currently in my bad books. It's Wednesday today and 2 GEH lawyers and I are meeting with Ms Jenkins and her lawyers to try and find an agreement and if this doesn't work then we're going to go to court.

"I don't understand why we are not taking Olivia Jenkins to court over her breaking the NDA" I state.

"It is stated in the NDA that if anything illegal or morally unjust occurs between the employee and yourself then they have the right to talk to the authorities about that matter and only that matter. If this clause was nonexistent then it would give bosses like you free reign to treat their employees anyway they want whether that be illegally or otherwise."Rasmussen replies.

"But she hasn't taken this to the authorities but to a law firm." I assert.

"You right, Sir. But at this point I think we should be thankful that she hasn't gone to the authorities. The press were more likely to get wind of the case if she had and Reed&Reed are a very private law firm that wouldn't expose you or their client unless it was a public case."

"Mr Grey we really can't have this case go to court so we're going to try and be as flexible and accommodating as possible." Eriksen interrupts.

"I understand that we need to keep this away from the press but we can't let her or my employees think it is okay to pull this shit and get away with it." I assert.

"If they have a solid case then we might have to. If this gets out then there will be all kinds coming out of the woodwork and claiming verbal and maybe physical assault." Clarifies Mr Rasmussen, the other lawyer. Damn, he's right.

"We'll see what their case is like and then we will decide on what to do."

"Yes, sir." They reply simultaneously.

"Sir, Olivia Jenkins, Paul Sefton and Anastasia Steele are here for you." Andreas voice flows through the intercom.
Let's get this show on the road.

"Send them in Andrea." I am currently seated in between Jenkins and Rasmussen on one side of the conference room table and am waiting for our 'guests' to enter.

Olivia Jenkins enters first wearing a pants suit. I never knew why she always wore pants suits but I do known that in 6 months I have never saw this woman wear a skirt or a dress. Strange.

Behind her a handsome African American man walks in wearing an Ocean blue Tom Ford suit with a white shirt and blue/polka polka dot tie. Impeccable taste.

The last to enter is the beautiful Anastasia. She is wearing a figure hugging blood red pencil dress with a deep slit at her chest, teasing me with her cleavage and small pockets bellow her hips. Her heels are sky-high suede black Louboutins and oh my god! She looks absolutely edible and eating her is exactly what I want to do right now. She is coming closer and I can't take my eyes of her tits, the part in her dress goes so low that it gives the illusion that one of her tits are going to pop out and I want to be watching when it happens. When she comes to a stop, I pull my eyes up from her body to her face where she has one eyebrow raised to the ceiling and a smirk playing on her lips. She did this on purpose.

Steele-1 Grey-0

Well played Mr Steele, well played.

I turn from her and look at everyone else. Ms Jenkins, Ms Steele and Mr Sefton are all standing behind their seats staring at me as are Eriksen and Rasmussen, who are also standing up. Dammit! They all must have witnessed me ogling the enticing Ms Steele.

'She made you look like a fool Grey, I think she deserves another point.' My inner self goads.
'Yeah yeah, I know. Now shut it!' I growl.

Steele-2 Grey-0

I rise to me feet and offer my had to Olivia."Ms Jenkins." My voice is cold and I'm positive everyone picked up on it.

"Mr Grey." Her handshake as well as her reply is feeble and damn, she looks scared. This is not good for my case.

I turn towards Anastasia and present my hand. "Ms Steele." She takes my hand and, like every time we've touched, a spark of electricity flows through me. Her eyes widen and she quickly withdraws her hand after a quick but firm shake.

"Mr Grey." She replies in an angelic voice that gives me tingles.

I reluctantly drag my eyes away from her and up to Paul Sefton, who is currently scowling at me. He is a tall man, almost the same height as me.

"Mr Grey." He practically snarls. Does this man know who I am?

"Mr Sefton." I icily reply. Grabbing my hand, he squeezes rather hard. Please. I return his grip twice as hard before he lets go. Don't fuck with me, Sefton.

We all take our seats. "Now that we are all here we should begin to try and come up with a compromise that is suitable and acceptable for both parties." Eriksen states.

"I agree and I don't believe it will be difficult considering that you are trying to avoid court at all costs." Anastasia replies. Is she fucking kidding me?

"Yes, we are going to try and avoid court Ms Steele but we will not be willing to accept outrageous terms." I rebuke, my voice filled with anger, partly because of her comment but mostly because she is the reason I have a hard on and can't do anything about it.

"Duly noted, Mr Grey." She smirks. Was she trying to get a rise out of me? "We would like to begin by saying we have an ample amount of evidence that support Ms Jenkins' claims including witness statements."

Witness statements? She has been talking to my employees?

"Can we view these statements, Ms Steele?" Rasmussen asks.

"Of course." She hands him a small binder and he begins to flick through it.

"All of these are anonymous, Ms Steele?" Rasmussen queries.

"Of course they are, Mr Rasmussen. In order to protect the jobs and possibly the safety of my witnesses" she looks pointedly at me as she states the last few words. "I have hidden their identities per their request." Does she believe that I am an abusive boss?

'Well verbal abuse claims have been filed against you.' My inner self chuckles sarcastically.
'Oh shut up, you.' I internally reply.

"We also have statements from employees and visitors to the building on Olivia Jenkins' incompetence and if you read the statements then I doubt you wouldn't agree that there have been several incidents where Mr Grey would have to raise his voice from time to time." Rasmussen says handing Paul Sefton a file.

"Your reasoning behind Ms Jenkins' claims are that she was a bad employee? I had no idea supposed incompetence warranted verbal abuse." Sefton spits. This guy sounds way too unprofessional to me. And speaking of unprofessional, Anastasia places her hand on Sefton's forearm and says what sounded like 'calm down' but I can't be too sure. I'm really starting to hate this guy.

'Has that got nothing to do with the fact that you're virtually obsessed with little Ms Steele and she's touching him?' My inner self goads.
'Haven't you got anywhere else to go?' I rebuke. 'I can stay right her all day.' He folds his arms behind his head while leaning back in a leather recliner and hitching his legs up on a coffee table so he can crossing one ankle over the other.

"I run a right ship around here, Mr Sefton." I snarl. "There have been several occasions where Ms Jenkins has 'screwed up' and I have been forced to bring her up on it. I was completely unaware that reprimanding a terrible employee was classed as verbal abuse." I retort. We continue to glare at one another and I've got to give it to the man, people usually cower under my glare after 20 seconds.

Anastasia clears her throat."These," she hands Eriksen several pieces of paper. " are print outs of emails my client sent to GEH's Human Resources department regarding Mr Grey's behavior towards her and these are the emails she received from said Human Resources department." She hands him another few pieces of paper.

"Note that my client contacted more than one of GEH's employees in hope of her gaining some help or for a complaint to be filed." I take the emails of Eriksen and she's right. Olivia emailed 4 of my Human Resources employees and none of them helped her but then again who would want to be the one that filed a complaint about their boss.

"Ms Steele, while Ms Jenkins did go to the Human Resources department to file a complaint, no complaint was filed therefore Mr Grey would have been completely unaware of Ms Jenkins' concerns." Eriksen asserts.

"And this is why she is suing the company and the department Mr Eriksen." Anastasia replies. Oh for fucks sake.

"What do you want Olivia? How much to make this go aw-" I am interrupted by a very angry sounding Anastasia.

"Mr Grey! I would very much appreciate it if you did not directly speak to my client but address her through me or my colleague, me Sefton." She seems pissed and fuck me, if she isn't the sexiest little thing I've ever seen.

"Are you fucking kiddi-" I begin to fume before Rasmussen cuts me off with a whisper.

"Sir, you need to calm down. We are trying to appease them, not anger them." I just nod but keep my scowl in place.

"As Mr Grey was stating," Rasmussen takes over. "What type of settlement are you after?"

"Due to the lack of help Ms Jenkins received, she was forced to resign and therefore she currently has no source of income."

"We are aware of this and are willing to offer $100,00 dollars for her troubles." I'm not going to lie, I was expecting him to offer much more.

"We are going to need some time to discuss this with our client." Paul Sefton states. I have noticed that his glare hasn't strayed from my face for more than 20 seconds at a time. Bastard.

"You can use this office to confer with Ms Jenkins." I state while standing up with Rasmussen and Eriksen. "We will be in the room next door, just notify my assistant Andrea when you're done and ready for our return." We turn and leave. I can't wait till this law suit bull shit is over.

0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0

Anastasia's POV

Christian Grey is a lot less difficult and disagreeable then I thought he'd be but then again I can see that he is holding back from saying what he's thinking. He, with his lawyers, has just left the room to allow is some time for consulting but not before checking me out again. I purposely wore this dress knowing it would drive him mad.

I'm pissed that Olivia omitted all the terrible incidents that occurred while she worked her. She is a terrible worker and I'm sure if she worked for me then she would have frequently found herself as the object of my raised voice. I can't say that I'm surprised that Christian Grey often went on a tirade given the amount of time Ms Jenkins spilt coffee on him or mixed up appointments. I'm quite shocked she lasted six months. I'm positive the three stooges would have been better employees than this woman.

Ms Jenkins has just been offered $100,000 for her troubles caused by GEH but I could tell from the shock in Christian's eyes that they were willing to give us more.

"So what do you think? Are you happy with what they offered?" Paul asks her, his eyes filled with anger. He is obviously not a fan of Christian Grey.

"It's a large sum of money, more than I expected and even though I do need money as I am now unemployed this is not the outcome I was hoping for." Olivia Jenkins replies.

"I agree that it is a large sum of money but they were clearly willing to pay more." Paul comments.

"That's not what I meant. Christian Grey is the boss of many. Now that I am gone he is most likely going to hire someone else to assist his PA. I want to be guaranteed that he won't treat anyone else the way I was treated." Olivia's determined speaks.

"I think I get what your trying to say," I reply. "You want this to be a wake up call to Christian Grey so he is aware that he can't treat his works this way. I think I have just the solution." A full blown grin breaks out on my face as I have a 'eureka moment"

"Well?…Come on Steele, we are on the edge of our seats here." Paul grins lazily. Smart ass.

"Group therapy. Christian Grey is under the impression that he is better than everyone so if he is signed up for 16 sessions with other people who aren't as prestigious or wealthy then he might come to the conclusion that he isn't better or more important. Just wealthier."

"That's brilliant." Olivia exclaims. "And it should be a strict but helpful group leader who will notice his problems and try to help him. Someone strong who he won't be able to intimidate." Olivia adds.

"I know just the person."Paul all but screams. "Daphne Reed."

"Oh My God! You genius. And I am positive she will take him on if we ask her too." I beam at Paul.

"Who is Daphne Reed?" Olivia asks, puzzled.

"Our boss' wife, she's 51 years old and a tough old bird that looks like she would very easily eat you for breakfast. She is someone who wouldn't find it hard to put Christian Grey in his place if need be." Paul explains.

"If her husband owns a law firm, what is she doing counseling psychology groups?"

"She's a retried psychologist who donates her time to help those in need but can't afford to get a paid psychologist. She can't dedicate her time to patients so she takes on her 'quick-fix patient' as she calls them." I clarify.

"This is a outstanding idea and it will most likely be beneficial to any employees of GEH that work closely to Mr Grey." Olivia is practically giddy with excitement and I just as exciting, almost unable to contain my glee of seeing Mr Grey's face when we give him our news.

We are all smiling at each other like we have just won the lottery. Good luck Grey, you're going to need it when you find out what we have in store for you.

I haven't had time to read this over so I apologize for any spelling mistajes or grammatical errors. Please review and look in my bio for the link to my pinterest page. Thanks for reading.

-Midnightsun xx