APOV

Madzie had been unsure about the idea of meeting Christian family, until he mentioned Ava would be there, because Mia has been watching her while Kate and Elliot are on their honeymoon.

So here I am inwardly panicking as I get ready for the dinner. I know they all probably hate me, especially after I ran out of the wedding. I wouldn't blame them. I'm still surprised Christian hasn't yelled at me yet.

"all done princess." I smile as I finish curling her hair like mine like she had asked. She'd chosen her favourite dress which had a sparkly black top and a big pink ribbon bow at the waist and a flowing pink skirt. Christian had told her she didn't need to dress up, but she was insistent, so Christian's been sitting patiently in the living room while Madzie and I dressed in my room. "Why don't you go show daddy, while I grab my purse." I smile at her.

"Ok mommy." Madzie smiles and heads out of the room. I grab my purse, check myself in the mirror one last time and take a few steadying breaths. Here it goes. You can do this. For Madzie.

CPOV

"Daddy I'm ready." Madzie calls as she runs towards where I'm sitting on the sofa checking emails, trying to keep my mind from wandering to later when Ana and I talk.

"You look beautiful princess." I smile as I see her, and Madzie giggles and blushes, she looks so much like Ana with her hair flowing down her back in curls. I hope she never wants to cut that beautiful hair. I saw movement out the corner of my eye as I watched Madzie twirl in her dress.

Fuck! My dick went instantly hard at the sight of Ana in her burgundy dress that hugged her body perfectly, showing off all her stunning curves and long legs. She had her hair down just like Madzie.

"You look stunning." I breathe feeling very uncomfortable with my dick pressing against the hard fabric of my jeans. Ana smiles blushing and I'm grateful she walks ahead to the door with Madzie giving my time to adjust myself, though seeing Ana from behind in this dress still turned me on. Get a grip Grey! You're going to dinner with your fucking family. I sigh and tried to focus on dinner.

I walk Ana and Madzie into my apartment, the smell of delicious food hitting us as we walk in. I can see Madzie looking around shyly but as soon as we get to the lounge area and she sees movement she hides behind Ana's legs. I glance at Ana and she looks just as nervous, I just want to wrap them both in my arms and hold them close; but I know I can't, not with Ana at least.

"Hey princess." I say as I crouch down next to her, conscious of how close I am to Ana's beautiful legs, god I'd love to run my hand up them kissing as I went. Focus Grey! "there's no need to be scared princess," I smile at her, "Everyone here already loves you I promise." I tuck her hair behind her ear as she looks at me worriedly. "they can't wait to meet you." I smile and kiss her head finally getting a little smile.

"Christian." Mom chimes as I stand, making Madzie hide behind Ana again, as mom comes out of the kitchen still wiping her hands on a towel, followed closely by dad and Mia. Here it goes.

"hey mom." I smile as she pulls me into a hug.

"Ana!" mom gushes as she pulls Ana into a hug clearly surprising Ana and I suddenly feel a little hand grab my leg. I can't help but smile as I look down at Madzie, and stroke her hair trying to calm her.

"everyone this is Madalynn." I smile proudly looking from Madzie to where Mom, Dad and Mia were now all standing watching Madzie with fascination. I crouch down next to Madzie, "Princess this is Grandma, Grandpa and your Auntie Mia." I say pointing to each in turn.

"It's nice to meet to Madalynn." Dad smiles holding out his hand. Madzie looks at it for a few seconds then you see her stand taller as she steps forward to take it

"Everyone calls me Madzie." She says quietly as she shakes his hand making me laugh. My brave girl.

"definitely your mother's daughter." Carrick smiles glancing at Ana making Ana and Madzie blush and my heart swell.

"Hello Madzie." Mom smiles at her, "I love your dress."

"It's so pretty." Mia chimes in. I grab Madzie's hand and twirl her making her giggle just as crying floods into the room from the baby monitor.

"And that would be Ava." I smile at Madzie making her giggle again.

"I'll get her." Mia smiles as she rushes off towards the bedrooms.

"dinner will be ready in about 10 minutes." Mom smiled as we walked to the lounge area. Ana sits in the chair furthest from the sofa that my parents sat on, she was still nervous. Madzie stood close to her looking around.

"Did you want a glass of Wine?" I smile at Ana trying to think of a way to get her to relax, she nods smiling shyly. "Did you want a drink princess?"

"Yes please." Madzie chimes still looking around trying to take everything in.

"I'll help you, I need to check on dinner anyway." Mom smiles following me into the kitchen.

"it smells delicious mom." I smile as I grab a bottle of wine, Mom grabs several glasses

"So, have you and Ana talked?" trying to act like she didn't just completely change the subject. And here's the real reason she followed me in here.

"Not yet, we're going to talk tonight" I sigh

"I hope so son, she needs to know what's happened."

I just nod and carry on pouring everyone a drink, while mom made some juice for Madzie and Ava. I carry the tray with all the drinks into the lounge while mom sorts dinner. I place it on the coffee table, I hand Madzie and my dad there's, before grabbing mine and Ana's wine. I sit on the arm of Ana's chair as she takes a large gulp, making me smile, just as Mia comes in carrying Ava

"But where's Auntie Kate?" Madzie asks as Mia puts Ava down on the floor near some toys.

"Kate is on her Honeymoon with Elliot" Ana smiled at Madzie,

"What's a honeymoon?" Madzie asks curiously making everyone smile.

"It's a special vacation that you go on after you get married." Ana explained

"Oh! But why didn't they take Ava? It's not very nice to go on vacation and not take their baby." Madzie babbles making Mia laugh and me laugh.

"a honeymoon is only for grownups." I add looking at Ana trying to find the right words. She smiles gratefully at me.

"Oh, that's no fun." Madzie chimes making me laugh again.

"actually." I say quietly. I know Madzie didn't hear, but Ana did, and she elbows me, making me laugh again.

"Dinner's ready." Mom calls

"come on Ava." Mia calls as everyone stands.

"Mommy looks! Ava's walking" she gasps excitedly as she sees Ava walk to Mia

"I know she's getting big now." Ana smiles lovingly at Madzie.

Madzie runs after Mia and Ava climbing into the chair next to Ava's highchair making Ava smile at her. My precious girl. I held out the chair next to Madzie for Ana making her smile shyly at me, but it goes straight to my dick when she bites her bottom lip.

"So, have you had a good day Madzie?" Mom smiles as we all dig into the food. Madzie nods

"It was my best friend's birthday party. He's four like me." she smiles as she puts four fingers up. "his mommy just had a baby brother. He's so tiny. I got to hold him when mommy and I went to see him when he came home from the hospital. He's zero. Oliver says he cries a lot." Madzie babbles without stopping.

"she's a mini Mia." Carrick laughs making us all laugh and Madzie smile.

"Oliver is your best friend?" Grace smiles trying to make sense of everything Madzie had said.

"Uh huh." Madzie nods with a mouthful of food, before taking a sip of her drink. "I like your house. It's big." Madzie says looking around the dining room. If she thinks this is big, wait until she sees Escala.

"Thank you, sweetie, but this isn't my home. It's Christian's" Grace smiled at Madzie

"Grandma, Grandpa and Mia live in Seattle with me." I smile at her and she frowns, oh no. "I stay here when I come and see you princess, but I work and live in Seattle." I try to explain, not wanting her to get upset like last time. I notice everyone had stopped eating to watch, the only noise coming from Ava bashing her spoon on her tray.

"You not staying here?" Madzie asks and she sounds sad.

"Munchkin, when you go to school and I go to work, Christian will go back to Seattle to his work, but when you have no school he'll come and spend time with you. Like he did today." Ana says soothingly to Madzie and I could kiss her for trying to help.

"And I'll call you every day after school, so you can tell me everything you've done." I add, I know I'm adding this for me just as much as for her, I don't think I'll be able to go a day without seeing or talking to her now I've finally met her, let alone a week.

Everyone sits in silence watching Madzie.

"Ok." She suddenly says and takes a mouthful of food and I let out the breath I didn't realise I was holding and I see Ana do the same.

"grandpa lives in Seattle." Madzie suddenly says as if nothing had just happened, then frowns and looks at Dad.

"Mommy I have three grandpas?" she asks looking at Ana.

"Three?" I ask frowning.

"I have Grandpa Ray he lives in Seattle, and Grandpa Bob and he lives with Grandma and now…" Madzie says, stopping when she looks at Dad curiously who smiles at her.

"Yeah princess you do." Ana smiles as she strokes Madzie's hair. "You're a very lucky girl." Which makes Madzie giggle

"so, I hear you like to sing and dance Madzie." Mia smiles at her

"yep." Madzie smiles popping the 'p' "I do ballet." She adds as she eats another mouthful just as Ava throws a piece of food off her tray and it lands next to Madzie's plate.

"No silly, eat it." Madzie laughs at Ava making Ava smile at her and everyone laugh

"so, how's work going Ana?" dad asks kindly and I feel Ana tense as the focus has turned on to her.

APOV

"It's going good, we have a few books being released next week and then a couple of book tours coming up."

"how do you manage to do tours with Madzie?" Mia asks curiously.

"It depends on who the client is and where the tour takes them. I can mostly get someone else at work to do them now I'm editor, but when I can't I take Madzie with me and my mom comes along to watch her, and on the odd occasion my friend Becca and I will do the tour together, so we would take it in turns to watch the kids…Becca is Oliver's mom." I say as I take a sip of wine

"I can't imagine doing it on my own, just watching Ava these few days has been hard enough and that was without work." Mia sighs as she tries to get Ava to eat something. My stomach twists at Mia's words and I feel Christian stiffen next to me. He keeps placing his leg against mine and my stomach flutters every time.

"It definitely wasn't easy Madzie would constantly catch chest infections, or croup especially in winter but when she hit about 11 months old was when things took turn for the worse." I stroked Madzie's hair as I remembered the first time it happened. Madzie smiled happily at me.

"Why what happened?" Mia asked after I didn't say anything for a few moments.

"Wh…When Madzie would get herself worked up, she'd pass out and start turning blue."

"What?" Christian suddenly tenses panic clear in his voice, making Madzie look at him.

"She's fine now, she's not passed out in nearly a year." I quickly say to him,

"What was wrong?" Mia askes but I'm looking at the panic on Christian's face as he watches Madzie who was playing peek -a- boo with Ava.

"nothing they can find, she had all the tests and they all came back clear."

"What tests?" Christian suddenly asks looking at me.

"She had blood tests, an EKG to check her heart and an EEG to check for seizures." I feel him grab my hand under the table. I don't pull away I just squeeze back, "They didn't find anything wrong." I say trying to calm him a bit, I know exactly how he feels, I've been going through it for years, every time Madzie cried I would panic she'd end up in hospital again. To see her limp and blue is the scariest thing in my life.

"Breath holding attack." Grace says looking from Madzie to me, and I nod.

"What's that?" Carrick asks looking between Grace and me.

"It's where the baby unintentionally holds their breath when they get upset, frustrated or hurt and they end up passing out because of it." Grace explains, "How long would she be out?" she asks me.

I glance at Christian before I answer. "Most of the time only a few seconds, but a few times just over a minute, those times she was taken in for oxygen and checks." He squeezes my hand tighter.

"did they give her anything for it?" Grace asks.

"They put her on inhalers to help with her airways. And just monitoring them, but she hasn't had one thankfully for I think just under a year now." I look at Madzie who has Ava giggling and silently pray it stays that way.

"I need something stronger." Christian breathes as he downs the last of his wine and Grace gives him a pointed stare. What's that about? Christian sighs runs his hand through his hair and heads to the kitchen and comes back a few minutes later with a bottle of wine and refills all our drinks.

After dinner had finished we all headed back into the lounge and talked happily together while Madzie and Ava played happily with the toys. Christian sat on the arm of my chair again, his arm stretched across the back, even though there was space on the sofa.

I hope your all still enjoying the story so far.

The long awaited talk is Next chapter and will be up soon x