Taylor

I take a while fetching food for Mr Grey. Gail is in pieces back at Escala and it takes a while to assure her that Ana is going to be fine.

'Gail,' I say quietly to her, 'Do you want to see her? I'm sure Mr Grey wouldn't mind.'

'No … no its ok. I'll see her when she gets back. I wouldn't feel comfortable about interrupting him right now.'

I nod at her. I understand entirely what she means.

I kiss her lightly on the lips and then leave, grabbing a dish of her Macaroni cheese on the way out.

On the way out I see what I missed before in my hurry to get to Gail and fetch the food. Sawyer is sitting on the floor of the garage, leaning against the Saab that he drove back here. His head is in his hands and he looks as bad as the boss does right now.

I look at my watch. It's midnight. A pang of sympathy goes through me as I watch him, but he doesn't even seem to know I'm here.

Quickly I place the foil wrapped dish on the passenger seat and move towards him.

'Luke?'

HE stands up immediately.

'Is she ok sir?' he asks in a lost voice. 'She isn't …'

I shake my head. 'She's not awake yet but she's going to be fine. You'd know that if you had your phone with you.'

He nods at me, and some of the tension leaves him. I hope that Mr Grey doesn't fire him. I know that he is more than capable of doing his job, but this is the kind of mistake that he tends not to overlook. Prescott is living proof of that fact.

'Are you coming to the hospital?' I ask and he shakes his head.

'I'm just going to stay here for a while.'

'Go on up to the apartment. Gail will do you something to eat.'

He nods at me, and I get into the car. I know that he will probably just sit back down again, but I feel really terrible for him. I know that he didn't fail in his job. He did exactly what he was supposed to so in the situation Ana put him in.

I'd like to be angry with her, but the cost of Sawyers job against the cost of Mia's life really is a no brainer. If only she'd told him what was going on then we could have handled things without all this drama.

I have never seen my boss lose it like this. The only time it's been close is that awful time when she left him. I know they went into the playroom, but I dread to think what happened in there. I know that whatever it was would have been voluntary. Even if I don't approve of what he does I know that he would never hurt her unless she told him it was ok. The whole of that day he just sat, absorbed in making the glider that she had given him. He had eaten, but sparingly, and hadn't moved from the sofa.

It was like he was living in a nightmare for those next few days. Only getting up to go to work, or go to bed. He didn't do anything much apart from eat and stare into space.

The day that we picked Ana up from SIP I nearly had a heart attack. She had lost a lot of weight. I knew she wouldn't eat much when I'd dropped her off at her apartment and she had fallen to pieces in the car, but she looked ill.

Now she really is ill, and the boss isn't functioning again.

'Please Ana,' I think, 'get better. We all need you to open your eyes.'

Ray

It is seven in the morning and finally the nurse has given me permission to go and see my daughter. I couldn't believe it when Elliott first came into my room and told me what had happened. I had been worrying already as when I had seen her the day before she seemed so upset. I hadn't imagined that she would have done something like this though. My sweet daughter had shot someone in the knee.

I am torn between pride that she can defend herself and horror that she would put herself in a situation that she would need to. When she wakes up I will be having some words with her.

The nurse wheels me to the elevator and soon I am in a room with my insensible daughter and her utterly shattered looking husband.

I move myself with some difficult so that I am closer to the bed and stare at her. It hurts to see her like this. So weak and vulnerable, and I am given a taste of what she must have felt five days ago after my accident.

'If you don't take her across your knee, I sure as hell will. What the hell was she thinking?'

I look at him, and am surprised to find him looking back at me with some amusement in his eyes.

'Trust me Ray,' he says, moving to look back at her, 'I might just do that.'

'Is the ass hole who did this too her dead? I heard that she shot him?'

'No, he's not. She shot him in the knee.' I wince. That is some serious pain she's inflicted there; not that he doesn't deserve it. 'He's in the hospital having the bullet removed, and possibly a few stitches to his face.

I look up at him, but at his dark expression decide not to ask. I don't need to know what Christian did to him.

We don't talk much for the next hour. Just sit with Ana, hoping that any second now she will open her eyes. But she doesn't. She just lies there, looking as though she could be dead.

When I am finally taken back to my room I am glad for it. I cannot bear to see my usually strong daughter like that.

Christian

I have never seen Ray so shaken before. It's a feeling I can relate to. When Taylor brought me something to eat from the apartment he told me what Elliot had told him. Carla had gone into a frenzy when she found out about Ana, sobbing and demanding that I send the plane if she still wasn't awake by Saturday. I would send the plan now if I hadn't sent Ros to Taiwan in my place.

'Oh Ana,' I say quietly, 'come back to me baby. Please. I need you so much.'

I brush my lips over her forehead and then realise that I am not alone in the room.

I turn round to find Detective marks regarding me with sympathy, but also with a steely glint in his eyes. Is he seriously here now? Isn't it obvious that Ana is not able to answer any of his questions.

'Detective, as you can see my wife is in no state to answer and of your questions.'

He smiles at me a little, and though he annoys me I realise that I quite like detective Marks. He doesn't put up with any bullshit, not even mine.

'She's a headstrong young woman Mr Grey.'

That's certainly one way of putting it.

'I wish she'd killed the fucker.'

'That would have meant more paper work for me Mr grey.'

Almost against my will I smile at that and he continues.

'Miss Morgan is singing like the proverbial canary. Hyde's a real twisted son of a bitch. He had a serious grudge against your father and you.'

He's not telling me anything I don't already know. I can understand why Elizabeth Morgan did what she did to a point. I don't want her to escape punishment but nor do I want her to suffer as much as Hyde will, and I will make sure that he does suffer.

'Is that fucker still in the hospital?' I spit out and his look turns into one of disgust.

'Yes Mr Grey. He's had the bullet removed and a number of other injuries on his face and stomach have been tended too as well,' He raises his eyebrows at me in a 'do you really want me to dig further into this' expression and I relent.

'I know that Mrs Grey may not be well enough to answer any questions for a while, and I just wanted to ask you to give me a call when she is.' He hands me a card and I take it from him. This time I won't fight him on this. I don't think that there is a more persistent man working for the Seattle police force than Marks.

Elizabeth

I am sitting in a simple dark room. It's a holding cell. I have been in and out of interrogation since I've been here, only getting six hours sleep. It's harder here at night. The other criminals in the adjoining cells are not so quiet. They bang on the doors, screaming to be let out. The sound of broken crying reaches me too. It feels as though my life is over, and it makes it harder to know that I am not the only one who feels like this.

Marks had some sympathy for me when I told him me story.

'We will probably be able to get you some leniency,' he told me, 'but not much. Mr Grey isn't going to go all out with you as he will for Mr Hyde, as he understands at least a part of why you did what you did. On the other hand you did aid and abet Mr Hyde in almost killing his wife and sister.'

'How long,' I ask quietly.

The answer was five years. Five years of my life in jail because of my stupid mistake. I deserve longer. I know I do, but I am grateful all the same.

Jack

I'm confused when I wake up. It takes me a while to realise that I must be in the hospital. That Grey bitch shot me in the leg. My face contorts and fuck it hurts. I try to move my hand to my face only to find that I am handcuffed to the bed.

I yell at the top of my voice, screaming at anyone who can hear to let me go. I strain against the handcuffs, causing them to dig in painfully.

'Mr Hyde.' Marks comes in, looking at me in disgust as he regards me coolly.

'Let me the fuck out of this.'

The asshole raises an eyebrow at me and laughs without any humour.

'I don't think so Mr Hyde. We are not letting you get away from us again.'

I glare at him, trying to put as much of my hatred as possible into that one venomous look. That fucker Grey and his family need to pay for what they've done to me. Even when we were children he was fucking things up for me.

He just walked around the house clutching that stupid blanket and that book 'Where is my mother.' Mrs … doted on him hand a foot.

'Do you want me to read the book again baby bird?' she's say. It was sickening. Just because he had the good looks and wouldn't speak he got all the attention. No one paid attention to the other boy with a harrowing past. I was too old for them to give me a second glance. I wasn't good enough for them.

When my stupid dad got himself killed he ruined my life. My mom couldn't deal with it. She wouldn't even try for me. She was pathetic. She never liked me, not even when my father was with her. I was always ignored, never the perfect son they had hoped for.

I remember the Greys coming to visit Christian. They never even looked at me. Not the way they looked at him. I didn't see what was so special about him. He was just another fucked up kid without parents. The day they came to take him away I asked her to take me with them.

'Oh Jack,' She'd said, looking upon me with pity, 'One day someone will come and get you, but we're not the right family for you.'

Easy for her to say when she's always been rich. Easy for her to say when she has the perfect family life.

Ever since then I've wanted revenge for not being the chosen boy. I hope I killed that bitch. I hope he's fucking suffering now.

'Did I kill her?' I ask with relish and Marks narrows his eyes at me.

'I don't think that's any of your business,' he says coldly, 'but thank you for asking. Now we have more evidence against you.'

He walks out of the room and I watch him leave; yet another person who looks down at me. Well I am a resourceful man Marks. We'll see if I can't make your life hell before long.

Sawyer

I do not know what to do with myself. One minute I am in Taylor's office, Gail next to me saying things I cannot bear to hear; telling me that this isn't my fault. The next minute I am back down in the garage, sitting hidden, leaning against Ana's car like I was when Taylor found me. I have eaten a sandwich since yesterday, and I honestly cannot manage anything more than that.

My head is killing me with thoughts of what I could have done better. I could have stayed with her when we returned to the apartment. I could have kept a close eye on her at the bank, of office was made of glass, I could have seen what she was doing through it if I'd really intended to. I should have recognised the dodge when it drove past me.

On top of all this guilt is the knowledge that I am going to lose my job. This is by far the best job I have ever had. Taylor, Ryan and Reynolds are all a joy to work with and Gail is possibly the nicest person I have ever met. Even the boss isn't too bad on days when he hasn't been overly stressed. Ana is a dream to work with most of the time, even though she gets frustrated that I am ordered to tail her wherever she goes.

I am sitting thinking all this over when once again I am discovered by T.

'Sawyer,' he says, in a serious tone which makes me sure that this is it. This is the moment that I lose my job.

'Sir.'

'I have spoken to Mr Grey.' I flinch a little, and shockingly he smiles at me, 'He is not going to fire you Luke. He also said that you have full permission to tell Mrs Grey off when she is well enough to hear it.'

I smile a little at that. Yes I definitely have some words for Ana. I am here to protect her and she should let me do my job.

Mia

When I wake up the light coming through the window dazzles me and for a moment I feel as though this is just any other day. Then the flood of memories assaults me and I sit bolt upright, making my head spin.

I remember feeling woozy on the exercise bike, being grabbed in the street, waking up in the back of the car but not knowing what was going on. I remember being tied to a drain pipe in the back room of the shop by Jack Hyde and him slapping me and laughing about how he was going to ruin Christian and kill me and Ana. And then I remember hearing Ana scream, a gunshot and then passing out at the thought that because I didn't want to go out with guards I had killed Ana.

I don't remember any of this very well. I couldn't say when or where it was and suddenly I am angry; angry at myself for being such a brat, Angry at Christian for being so god damn famous, Angry at Jack Hyde and Elizabeth Morgan for putting my family through hell.

Before I am even aware of what I'm going I'm standing up and my bedside lamp is in my hand, and I'm throwing it against a wall where it shatters. Then there is a CD in my hand and I'm throwing that too. This helps. I am so angry and in shock from what has happened that I need an outlet.

By the time my mother has come to the door my room is unrecognisable and I am still throwing anything I can find, trying to stop the feelings that are fighting to be free.

'Mia,' she yells, and grabs my arm. I go limp in her arms and suddenly I'm crying inconsolably in her arms. She murmurs things to me, whispering that it's over now. That I'm ok, that she will never let anything like that happen to me again.

And then Elliott is at the door, taking in the scene in front of him and his shoulders slump. My mother says something about going to see Christian, and I am transferred from her arms to my big brothers.

'Hey sissy,' he whispers as I sob into his T-shirt, 'Stop this.'

'I … can't…' I wail and hold myself more firmly to him while he strokes my hair, 'It's my fault.'

'Mia, of course it's not,' I give him a sceptical look and he relents a bit. 'Not completely anyway.'

I sniff but I think that the torrent of emotion has finally ebbed.

'I think that Ana is in just as much trouble as you are, more actually once you take Sawyer and Taylor into consideration.'

I stare at him. He's agreeing with me and it doesn't make me feel worse. For once I am being held accountable for my actions and it isn't a bad thing. I need to be brought to task for this.

'Is Ana ok?' I ask, 'Is she awake?'

He shakes his head but says nothing.

'Will she be ok?'

'Of course she will.' He says, laughing a little, 'Do you think Christian would let anything happen to her?'

I smile a little, but I'm still miserable.

'I remember what happened,' I say in a small voice and he pales as I tell him what I remember.

'Oh Mia,' He tightens his arms around me, 'Oh little sister you scared us to death.'

'I'm sorry, I mumble, and it's true.

When we break apart we both look around my room and I give a small sheepish laugh.

'I think I should start tidying this up.'

'I'll help you.'

By the time we have gotten all of the broken pieces of china and debris off the carpet John Flynn is standing at the door. Of course he is. Mom would have called him as soon as she heard the crashing.

'Mia,' he says kindly and walks into the room, giving Elliott a nod.

'I guess I should go,' Elliott says, kisses me on the cheek and walks out.

My session with Flynn is short, and by the end of it I feel better. I am going to try and not act quite so spoiled. I know that if I had just let someone come and keep an eye on me none of this would have happened. When he gets up to leave an hour later I hug him. He seems surprised but returns the hug warmly. The perks of knowing your shrink outside of his work hours.

'Be safe Mia,' He says as he goes to leave.

'Wait. Can I ask you something?'

'Of course.'

'Is Christian ok?' His face tenses a little, and from that I can tell that my brother has got to be in pretty bad shape over all of this.

'He will be Mia.' He says eventually and then leaves me sitting on the bed, thinking about my older brother, who now had new demons to contend with as well as the ones from his past. I want to see him, but apart from the fact that it would probably make him feel worse I doubt my parents are going to let my out the house again until I'm in my forties after this. At the age of twenty one I am, for all intents and purposes, grounded.

Grace

When I get to the hospital the familiar sounds of the everyday hustle and bustle are strangely soothing. Before I go and see my son I go to the one place on earth that calms me down. I go to the maternity ward.

There are seven babies there, all rosy cheeked and bright eyed rolling about in their little cubicles. I smile as I watch them, remembering Elliott and Mia when they were babies. I remember when Carrick and I discovered that we couldn't have children. Of course we had both been devastated but looking at the family we have now I am almost glad of it. Elliott, Christian and Mia are as much my children than any biological baby would have been.

I am sure that Elliott and Mia would have found other homes easily, as there were both so young when we adopted them, but god knows what would have happened to Christian.

When he first came to live with us he was nothing but skin and bones. He looked more like a boy of two than the four year old that he was, and silent. As soon as I saw him I wanted to take him home with me from there, and give him the love he so obviously needed. It hurt to see him in foster care for that first month after, but we visited at least three times a week, and Elliott was thrilled with him right away, even though he thought he was strange.

As we knew he would be he had trouble communicating with us at first. He hit Elliott whenever he thought he was laughing at him, and I would tell him off. It hurt to see him flinch when me or Carrick reprimanded him. I remember the way he would apologise to Elliott. He walked up to him and ducked his head, and Elliott would forgive him on the spot.

And then there was the day two years afterwards, when we had all but given up hope that he would start speaking when Mia arrived.

'Christian, Elliott,' I said proudly, placing baby Mia into a waiting Elliott's lap. Elliott was not overly thrilled at this new arrival, knowing from previous experience that she would mean a great deal of attention and less time for him. 'This is Mia.'

Mia gurgled and looked up at Elliott with big eyes that were dark even then. Soon he was asking to go and play, so I picked her up and cooed at her. My attention however was soon diverted away from her as a small unfamiliar voice sounded from Christian's chair.

'Mia' he said as though testing the word and then smiled a big genuinely smile at me, and I looked at Carrick who was staring at him open mouthed with shock. His eyes were glassy and he returned my look of wonder with one of his own.

Not seeming to notice that he had just sent me and his father into something of a tail spin he opened his arms to me, and without a word I placed my new baby into his lap. We watched in awe, trying desperately to stop myself from crying as he lets her gurgle at him, touch him on his small chest and shoulders without the slightest bit of discomfort.

I left them like that for longer than I would have with Elliott, relishing the fact that my little boy had just spoken.

'Christian.' I said eventually, 'I've got to take Mia to have her dinner now. Are you hungry too darling.'

He nodded at me, once again silent and for a second I felt a fleeting stab of disappointment before telling myself sternly that this would take time. He had just taken a big step on his road to recovery. A road I feared he would never reach the end of.

As I moved closer he hugged her close to him and I just heard him whisper in her ear.

'I love you Mia.'

Since then I have only had a few moments like that, but thanks to Ana they have been more frequent. My heart almost melted when I heard him sing for the first time, when we saw them after their honeymoon.

I have been standing here for a long time, lost in thoughts of my own children, and finally I tear myself away from the window and my memories of the past and make my way to my now grown up son and his wife

Christian looks exhausted. His hair sticks up, probably from the amount of time he's run his hands through it and he is still in the same clothes that he was wearing yesterday. I doubt he's left ana's side since he was first brought to her, and I can't blame him.

It takes him a long time to notice that I'm there, but when he does he gives me a weak, tired smile.

'Hi mom.'

'Hello darling, how are you holding up.'

He gives a non-committal shrug and turns away from me, to stare at Ana as though he can make her wake up through sheer will power alone. Not taking my eyes off him I move around to the end of the bed. He is so devoted to her, that it's strange to thing that just four months ago they didn't know each other at all.

Deciding not to delve any deeper into thoughts like that I decide to take a look at her chart. I read it quickly, not expecting to find anything out that I didn't already know that it takes me a minute to process what I've just read. I stare at my son in awe and then re-read it. Sure enough my eyes have no deceived me.

'Ana's pregnant' I say in a hushed voice, and he looked up at me surprised.

'How …. Oh.' He says realising what I've been reading. He nods at me and I cry out in delight. A grandchild. I am going to be a grandmother. How wonderful.

'Oh darling,' I exclaim; how long have you known. Couples usually wait twelve weeks to tell everyone' I am babbling, and I don't care. I am going to have a beautiful grandchild.

'Only a few days,' He sound so miserable that I take a step back from my own personal glee and really look at him.

'Out with it.' I say in a voice that he recognises easily as my 'I am your mother and you will tell me what's going on' voice.

He sighs deeply, as though he had been hoping that he could a voice this situation.

'The day all this…' He waves a hand at Ana, 'Happened we were arguing. Not talking to eachothr.

'What do you mean you weren't talking?' I say horrified. I have seen them together and I can't imagine that Ana would be angry with him for no reason. I know first-hand how infuriating my youngest son can be and I glare at him. 'What did you do?'

'Mom,' He tries to placate me but I am having none of it.

'Christian.,' I say all my words clearly, telling him clearly that I will not back off this subject, 'What did you do?'

And before my eyes my twenty eight year old son, who managed to take on the business world and find himself equal to it breaks down in from of me. He isn't a man who made his fortune; he is the little boy who came into the emergency room with the lost look on his face. This is what the real problem is. This is what is eating him up from the inside, making him look so defeated.

'I was so angry,' he forces out.

'Hey,' I put my hand in his hair to comfort him, like I used to when he was small and try to comfort him. 'Just tell me what happened from the beginning and I'll try to help.'

And he does. He tells me how he reacted when Ana told him that she was pregnant. He tells me that he walked out on her. I don't interrupt him, guessing that he has beaten himself up for this more times than he can count, and guessing that others have to. It wouldn't surprise me if even his staff had told him odd for it,.

And then I listen to what he did after he left her alone in the apartment. How he went to Flynn, but couldn't find him so instead walked until he bumped into Elena as her Salon. I feel my mouth flatten into a thin line as he keeps talking, telling me what was said, and how Elliott picked him up and took him home. And then he tells me about Ana finding a text from Elena while undressing him for bed that night. He anger and hurt the next morning.

I sit in stunned silence as he looks at me looking miserable and resigned to me reaction. When I finally manage to speak my voice is hushed, horrified.

'You told me you cut all ties,' I accuse and he lowers his gaze from mine in shame.

'I know, but seeing her finally put it all in perspective for me. You know with the child.'

I smile despite myself at the mention of this expected member of my family, but quickly am brought back into the present when he continues.

'For the first time I feel what we did … It was wrong.'

In the back of my mind the hallelujah chorus is playing and I take the hand that isn't holding Ana's into mine.

'What SHE did darling,' I emphasise the word, making him flinch, 'children will do that to you. Make you look at the world in a different light.'

'She finally got the message, and so did I. I hurt Ana.' The last part of his sentence is quiet and so filled with agony that my heart constricts for the man who will always be my little boy.

'We always hurt the ones we love Darling,' I soothe, once again moving my other hand to his hair, 'You'll have to tell her you're sorry, and mean it and give her time.'

'She said she was leaving me.' I snort at that and give him an incredulous look.

'Did you believe her?'

'At first yes.'

Of course he did. I roll my eyes at him, and he gives me a sheepish smile, the first smile I've seen since I walked into the room.

'Darling you always believe the worst of everyone, including yourself. You always have. Ana loves you very much and it's obvious that you love her.'

'She was mad at me,' he continues, back to being miserable, and I snort again. Of course she was mad at you, as she should have been.

'I'm sure she was. I'm pretty mad at you right now.' Mad? I'm furious with him. For such a bright man he can be phenomenally stupid at times. 'I think you can only be truly mad at someone you really love'

'I thought about it and she's shown me over and over how much she loves me, to the point of putting her own life at risk.'

I am back in the living room with a six year old Christian and baby Mia. My son is once again taking a huge step on his journey.

'Yes, she has darling.'

'Oh mom, why won't she wake up? I nearly lost her.'

And he breaks again, but not in a way I have ever seen from him before. For the first time in twenty four years my son has fallen into my arms, and is letting me hold him, in a way he never let me when he was a child. I make small circles on his back and run my hand through his hair as he sobs. For the second time today I am soothing a child of mine while they find themselves unequal to the task of dealing what has happened to him.

He finally stops crying, but doesn't try to move from my arms. Absentmindedly I continue to run my hands through his hair and smile at how far we've come in such a short time.

'It's taken twenty-four years for you to let my hold you like this.' I say gently.

I know mom. I'm glad we talked.'

'Me too darling,' putting every ounce of meaning that I can into those three words, 'I'm always here.'

And then my mind goes back an hour and I laugh, 'I can't believe I'm going to be a grandmother.'

He sits up and beams at me.

'I know the feeling,' he says sardonically and we both laugh, but not for long. It is impossible to forget that Ana is in front of us and after a full day and several more hours she is still not awake.

I leave at ten thirty, and Christian has fallen asleep in the chair. I move quietly out of the room, kissing him on the forehead as I go.

I'm sorry but I think flashbacks like this one with Christian and Mia will probably become more common, as I loved writing it.

This chapter took so long to write, but It's almost certainly my favourite one so far. I actually wrote it yesterday as I'm writing several so I have stuff to post on the days I don't have time to write

Thanks to everyone for your follows and favourites. You are all awesome. I'm sorry I am so bad at replying to them but they are appreciated :)