AN: Sorry for the mistakes. I don't have the usual time to dedicate to editing. I'm going for a new procedure tomorrow on my head and wanted to get this out before I left as I don't know when I will be home or how I would feel. Thanks. CJ.

ANA

I walk into a packed conference room and stand behind the chair I'm meant to occupy. I don't want to sit as several people are standing and I don't want to look up at them. "If you haven't realized that this department has gone to the dogs then you really need to consider another form of employment." Since no one looks surprised by my blunt statement I take it as a sign they all knew. "Good, because it's clean up time," I say looking around the room.

"The days of nine to five or eight hour work days are over. As of tomorrow, I expect everyone in at seven, and the earliest anyone leaves is at seven. There are no exceptions, I don't care if some aspect of your personal life will be affected." There are murmurs of disapproval, which I expected.

"Some of us have children and…"

"I don't give a fuck." I bark. "I pull out a large pile of papers and slam it on the table. "That swipe card you all have, the one you use before entering these legal offices just also happen to time stamp your arrival and departure. I just learned that today, here I thought it was just for security." All of a sudden the haughty looks and deadly glares turn to discomfort and fear. "Some of you come in at lunch spend a couple of hours and leave. With the exception of a handful of people, the rest of you took advantage of Markham's personal crisis. I was going to authorize finance to pay you the overtime, but I've changed my mind. Finance is going to calculate the hours you all owe, and you pay it back working the additional four hours. Some of you will be giving up your Saturdays for the foreseeable future." They all look at me in shock but say nothing. "If you decide to resign because of this, be prepared to pay back the money you owe. You will all be receiving emails with a list of things to be done. You will use the additional four hours to get them done. Make no mistake about it every single minute owed will be paid."

GEH doesn't have a clocking-in system, those swipe cards are primarily for security purposes, but it is also used to monitor employee working hours. Markham was meant to sign off on the hours at the end of every month after he'd checked them, but he didn't bother checking the hours in the last year. They took advantage of the faith he placed in them to work the hours outlined in their contracts. If things weren't so dire, I would fire most of these people.

Claire places a cup of coffee on my desk with a wry smile. She was the one that told me about the swipe card system. "Thank you," I say taking a sip of my coffee. She is one of three people who didn't take advantage of Markham's distraction... if anything she worked more hours. I had a word with her and the two others and since they didn't mind working the extra hours no one else had a leg to stand on. They are the only three getting paid for it, in truth I was never going to pay the others for hours they have already being paid for.

"Now, let's start with our worst offender," I say getting to my feet my cup of coffee in hand. When I walk out of my office, I see everyone with their heads down working, and I smile to myself. Welcome to life working under Anastasia Rose Steele, if they thought Markham was a taskmaster they haven't seen anything yet. "Michael Wood," I say entering the filing room.

"Yes." He says turning his attention to me.

"Mr. Wood, I believe your job here is to transfer all these files to the computer for digital storage."

"Yes, Miss Steele." He rubs the light sheen of sweat off his forehead with his sleeve.

"You have been here for almost six months, and yet from what I could see, there were only nineteen files in the system. How long does it take to transfer one file?"

"Erm… it… erm… depends on the size." He mumbles.

"Right," I say putting down my cup of coffee. I walk over to one of the cabinets and grab the largest file I can find." Claire, please time me." I say with a smile as I see Mr. Wood gulp. I carefully stack the papers into the machine making sure I straighten out any folded edges. I hit double sided as some of the papers have wording on both sides. I hit black then a couple more buttons as the instructional manual on the wall above the machine instructs. The papers start disappearing into the machine one at a time coming out in a neat pile at the bottom. "Okay, what else." I murmur to no one in particular. I sit behind the monitor and again the instructions are pretty straightforward. The system asks you where you want to save the new scans. You simply open a new folder name it and hit save, and the new scans are saved to that folder. I sit back, pick up my cup of coffee and start a game of solitaire which I finish in under a minute, and I have to say I'm proud of myself as I'm shit at the game. I lose the second game, and before I can start a third, the machine is done.

"Eight minutes and forty-four seconds," Claire says glaring at Mr. Wood.

"Let's just round that up to ten minutes… no, let's round it up to half an hour. You have been here for over five months and in that time had you managed ten files a day, which is fifty files a week, two hundred a month. What I mean is you should be done by now Mr. Wood… that is if you had bothered to spend more than an hour here each workday. You, in the short time you've been here compared to everyone else, owe the most hours. You have until the end of the week to finish digitizing these files then we will find some use for you until your hours are paid up. You will also be here at seven in the morning and be leaving at seven in the evening every Saturday. After your hours are paid up you will no longer be an employee of GEH." He stares at me in disbelief.

"But… I…"

"How are you surprised by this?" I'm now staring at him in disbelief.

"If you are going to fire him, then you might just as well fire everyone else in this department," Hyde interjects.

"I don't recall asking for your opinion nor do I want it. Unless I ask for it keep it to yourself." I bark. "If my firing him bothers you so much you can follow him out the door," I add as he glares at me. "Keep glaring at me, and you will find yourself out the door. How in God's name did you not notice that half the time there was no staff around here? My bad… how could you since you weren't here either. Make no mistake I am your boss, and when I ask you to jump, you say how high Miss Steele."

"Mr. Woods get back to your job because if at the end of the week you are not done I will fire you and you will then find yourself in a significant amount of debt to GEH."

I needed a fucking break, and since I missed lunch, I head out with Sawyer in tow. I take a walk around downtown Seattle and find a few places I can grab lunch. I head for a deli and grab a sandwich. I take a seat and nibble on it, all of a sudden I'm not hungry but force myself to eat because I need the energy. "You know something Rachel, you are full of shit." A woman says loudly as she and two others walk in. "You weren't the only one in the lobby when Grey kissed her. Enough people saw it, so your bullshit story about Grey giving her the job because she's his girlfriend is bull. We all know she didn't even know he was the Christian Grey. Everyone saw her look surprised when she found out." The woman says with an eye roll.

"Yeah, and what about him giving her the head of legal job on the first day?" Rachel says smugly.

"From what I heard Grey begged her to take the job. You were the one who said Hyde was letting everyone run riot while Markham had his head occupied with his dying wife. We all know your boss is an asshole and hating the fact that Grey's girlfriend has the job he wanted."

"Also I heard she's only staying because of her personal relationship with the boss. If anyone is taking advantage it's Grey not her, and if I were you, Rachel, I'd be careful what I say and whom you say it to. We all know you'd like to get on your knees and…"

"Cindy, we are in public." The other woman chastises.

"It doesn't change the fact that Rachel here is jealous beyond words." She says with a giggle.

"Well, forcing everyone to work twelve hours a day is just barbaric and frankly, the woman is just a bitch." Rachel moans.

"Well, you can always resign." They turn their attention to me, and Rachel looks horrified. "Far be it from me to force you to work for a barbaric bitch," I say with no malice.

"Miss Steele… I…"

"Everyone seems to be lost for words around me today." I sit back with a smile waiting for the apology that is sure to leave her lips because she got caught.

"I would apologize, but we both know it will be because you caught me. I wasn't exactly going to walk into your office later and tell you I called you a bitch." Strangely, I respect her for it.

"And it's the only reason you are keeping your job. I ever hear you gossiping about me again, and you are done. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." She mumbles.

CHRISTIAN

"As far as I'm concerned the heads are responsible for their subordinates. These people are meant to stand in when we are not there, and instead, they took advantage." Before my meeting with Ana this afternoon I was willing to let the clean up I undertook be the end of it. Now, I'm wondering what stops this shit from happening again.

"So what do you want to do?" Roz asks.

"With the exception of finance and HR fire every department head. Find me a headhunter, GEH will be implementing the biggest executive recruitment drive since it's inception." I say before calling for Andrea.

"Yes, Mr. Grey."

"I want the heads in my office now, except for finance and HR." I run my fingers through my hair.

"Did you get the paperwork Ana sent over?" I nod.

"The days of us thinking that someone once doing their job means they are always doing so are over." Ana in a few hours sent over a preliminary audit of the legal department and the results were abysmal.

"I also think we should fire Hyde." I look at Roz, and she shakes her head.

"Are you going to tell Ana she should fire Hyde?" She asks.

"I don't think I have to... I'm sure she will bring it up, and I will wholly support the idea." Frankly, whatever she wants for that department is hers.

"Sir, the heads are here," Andrea says.

"Can you all hear me?" I ask surprising Roz. After a brief hesitation, there are murmurs of yeses.

"Good, you are all fired, clear out your offices and security will escort you out." Roz looks at me with a smile while I send Taylor and Welch a quick text.

"Well, I better get on to that headhunter." I hear a lot of shouting when Roz opens the door, but it's quickly drowned out when the door shuts.

In my office earlier talking to Ana, I felt like I wasn't me. Since dad's accident I felt had lost something, and I couldn't figure it out until just now. I had lost the drive I had for GEH, I had lost a part of me to guilt. It ate me up for so long it was all I felt, all I felt until Ana came along, and the tide started to turn. Now the soft approach I took three months ago when I came back and found the place in a mess no longer appeals to the man I was before the accident. This afternoon standing in front of my girlfriend while she looked at me as though I couldn't run a food stall jumped started my mojo.

I spend the rest of the day having meetings with every department informing them of upcoming changes. I have hired an auditing team to run a thorough audit of every department. Ana doesn't have time for an in-depth audit of legal so she welcomed it, wish I could say that for the other departments. It's my company, and I will run it how I see fit, if they don't like it they know where the door is, and I made that clear.

By the time I'm done it's near on seven, I'm not exactly in a hurry to go home. Escala doesn't feel like home it never did, but I feel that now more than ever.

Knowing Ana is still in the building I decide to see her before heading back to the penthouse.

"Ana." She looks up at me and with deep sigh sits back in her chair. Her desk is covered in files and paperwork, and so is the floor. When did she have time for that audit? I know this is not what she signed up for, but fuck am I grateful she's here. I know part of the reason she's still is because we have a personal relationship.

"There are twenty-seven patents that need to be filed… out of that number, sixteen of them were sent back from the patent and trademark office because the information was incomplete. Three were not granted because… let's just say I'm back to working twelve hours a day when I thought those were over." She mumbles.

"I fired all but two of the department heads," I say sitting on the chair opposite her desk as her sofa is under siege from paperwork. "We are actively recruiting new executives."

"And does that include a head of legal?" she asks eyeing me over the mountain of papers. Oh, she is not going to like this.

"Currently… no…"

"Mr. Grey…" Fuck. "I didn't apply for this position, and I understand in the interim you need me to step up, but I am not the head of legal and I don't want the job." She barks.

"It is prudent to let you finish what you started."

"I started because I had no choice, find a replacement. When you have someone, I will give them a comprehensive report when they arrive. I don't want this job."

"Okay, I will let Roz know. I saw Hyde when I came in… I would have thought you would have fired him."

"I'm not firing Hyde."

"Ana, Hyde goes, that man let this department fall apart because he was scheming to get a job he wasn't qualified for. I bark."

"If you want to fire Hyde then you go do it because I'm not firing him. Tell me something Mr. Grey…. who is going to sort through the mountain of work on his desk? You want two new employees still trying to figure out how things work around here running your legal department? You might not want to hear this, but guess what I need him. I can't clean this mess up on my own and why the fuck should I. Are you going to come down here sit behind his desk and write patents and file them? You have products about to be rolled out and guess what, you don't have approved patents for. This mess… a lot of it is down to him so why the fuck shouldn't he clean it up. If there is nothing else, I have a lot of work to get back to. Goodnight Mr. Grey." I'm being dismissed in my own building.

Just before midnight, I give up any attempts at trying to sleep. For two weeks I have had Ana's warm body next to mine, her soft snoring tickling my ears, her warm breath on my skin and her I feel so alone without her. You would have thought she has been a part of my life for years not a mere couple of weeks. Worse, I hate this penthouse with a passion. I realized today since Ana and I left here the morning after the Coping Together gala I haven't been back here. Taylor brought me what I needed when I asked for it, so I had no reason to come back here. I throw the duvet off me with such force it ends up on the floor. I make my way to the kitchen and grab a bottle of whiskey, but quickly put it back down, as come morning I will regret it.

I went my whole life thinking I didn't need anybody. I refused to rely on anyone because then they can't let you down. Now, I am desperate for it, I am desperate for love, desperate for life, to laugh, to cry, to feel hurt… "Here I thought I would be disturbing you." I whirl around and find Ana standing there. I didn't hear her, and she's wearing heels… fuck, I really was in my head.

"What are you doing here?" I ask surprised. I was under the impression she was going home after work.

"I realized with the long days at work in front of me for the month or so, it would be far more prudent to stay here. I'd rather five to ten-minute commute than the forty minute commute from mine." She says, and I notice the traveling case behind her. "Is that okay?" As if she needs to ask.

"That is perfectly fine," I say with a small smile, internally, I am doing cartwheels. I was bemoaning my lack of stability without her, and there she is.

"Excellent, and the way I feel about those morons I work with... your cock will certainly help alleviate the stress." She quips.

"Oh, so all I'm good for is my housing location and my cock." I counter.

"Of course not, your fingers and tongues I'm sure will be of good use as well." She says with a giggle failing to keep a straight face.

"So Hyde…" I ask.

"Oh yeah, fucker fell for it hook, line and sinker." She says with a laugh. "The minute you left he slithered into my office thanking me for having his back and I should know he had mine hundred and ten percent." She scoffs.

"You were right, you can't fire him right now not until at least most of this mess is sorted out, but you can't have him sabotaging you as well." When she approached me with the idea, I wasn't sure at first, but right now we need Hyde doing his job like never before instead of sabotaging her efforts."

"I still don't trust him, and I want a camera in his office and some sort of monitoring software on his computer."

"I'll get Barney on it tomorrow, I'm sure he will have it done by the weekend. I still can't convince you to stay on as the head of legal?" I know I'm pushing my luck, but Roz thinks she can do it better than anyone we can get.

"No." She says kicking her heels off.

"Okay," I mumble. She pulls a couple of pins out of her hair, and it unfurls down her back.

"Oh tomorrow, if you can come down sometime in the afternoon just to walk around and then give Hyde a warning… you know threaten his job and blacklisting him if he misses a punctuation mark on a document." She says swiftly unbuttoning her shirt and shrugs out of it.

"I can do that," I mumble as she unzips her skirt and shimmies out of it. My eyes are glued to her black and red lace bra, panties and stockings.

"Take a picture, it will last longer." She teases.

"Let me get my phone."

"I'm joking." She says, but when she sees my disappointment, she waves me on.

"Why not? You'd think you'd never seen a woman in her bra and panties before.

"Panties… yes, this combination, never. I only ever had the subs wearing underwear and nothing else. I've never watched a woman get undressed. I mean I'm hard just watching you get undress." I admit.

"I'm sure you did in the last couple of weeks." I shake my head in answer.

"Can you put your heels back on?" She throws her head back laughing at my request but does it all the same.

I'm twenty-eight years old, and I have never seen a woman undress, aside from pictures never seen one in her underwear set because I didn't allow it. Until a few days ago never seen a woman's underwear drawer. That is a sad realization. Elena Lincoln I am not done making you suffer.