EPILOGUE.

APOV

I walked through the house from my bedroom, picking up the cloth on the way. Making my way towards the kitchen I passed the photos that lined the walls, photos that documented our journey. Some of my favourites being Christian and I on our wedding day, my Dad and I on that beautiful day and our children.

It's been over four years since Christian proposed, time moving quickly now. I always thought time was my enemy behind those walls, slowly dragging on as I felt there was never an end in sight. Now time is something I cherish, spending everyday with my family and being thankful for the life I have been given.

"Is it ready" I asked my husband, kissing his cheek.

"Yes, and the lips are always better than cheeks" Christian told me, kissing my lips before I could move.

"I agree."

"Here, you might be stepping into world war three" he laughed as I headed for the door that led to the deck, passing Elliot who was coming inside with two empty glasses.

"Are you all still arguing" I asked, seeing the happy faces before me, my girls all back together again.

"There is no arguing. Little Phoebe prefers her Aunt Ros more, don't you baby girl" she said, leaning down to kiss my daughter's forehead before she placed the bottle she had taken from me to her tiny lips.

"If you two can't decide who is feeding her, maybe it's Auntie Hannah's turn."

"Keep wishing sweetheart" Gwen laughed, taking my little girls hand into hers.

My girls all did their time and we were all waiting outside as each one was released. Gwen came out first, staying with Mia until Ros came out a month later. That was a fun reunion or it would've been had we not been ignored as she made a beeline for the little boy I cradled in my arms.

Finding out I was pregnant two days before my first wedding anniversary was emotional for us both. Christian and I had talked about wanting a family before we had walked down the aisle, letting nature take its course. Nature didn't seem to be in a rush for us but we got there eventually and Theodore Raymond Grey was born.

Hannah's release was another emotional one, for us not her. We had been worried leaving her on her own, not having Andrea either as she had already been released. She was fine though, spent time with Maggie more than anyone who had taken her under her wing just like we had done.

"You ok Dad" I called to him as he was down on the beach with Carrick.

"Everything's fine sweetheart" he shouted to me and I'm sure he was rolling his eyes.

I worry, I will always worry about him, especially with the bad cold he's just getting over.

"Yes, Mommy we making a bongy fire" Teddy shouted excitedly, happy to help his grandfathers.

"Do you need help with your bongy fire" Elliot asked him as he went down to the beach to join them and was quickly put to work.

Teddy was his Daddy's double, even down to being a teacher. Either that or he preferred to boss people around which he's doing to his uncle now.

We had, had our party on the beach once Hannah had been released, even Taylor and Gail came too. We had lit the bonfire, laughing, crying, it didn't matter as we were all back together again.

"Are you writing a sequel to your book" Grace asked me.

"No, my story, our stories have been told. Anything I write now will be about our lives now and I think that's a story that is just for us."

I was very proud of my book, especially when the first print had sold out and it started topping charts. Jim had asked me to sign the book when it first arrived in the store and he still has that copy on the shelf behind the counter. It had been emotional going through my journals to get the pieces that I wanted to write about. To read the words that had been unspoken because I was too afraid. That was the hardest time to write about, when I had first arrived at the prison. My fear at first meeting the girls who slowly broke down those walls. All the words that I was afraid to speak to them at the time because I had lost my voice, were there for the girls to read, and they did. They knew how much it meant that they had brought me into their group, how cared for and protected I felt. Without those girls, I know there is a chance that I wouldn't have survived.

Having Ros call me from the prison in tears had me breaking down. I was worried that they would hear what I had written second hand, that they would have to wait until they were released until they could read it but Warden Roach had decided that the library needed more books and my girls were the first to read it.

I think the only person who complained from in there was Morgan. I had changed her name but there was no doubt that she would know it was her I was writing about, it would teach her for being such a bitch.

Her, I don't think she ever read it, I'll be happy of that fact if she didn't. She had her say, had a staring role in my story but the book was mine and the words were not made for her. Her release should've been soon if she didn't take the easy way out. She was found hung by her bed sheet in her cell when she had barely served half her sentence. It was Jason who came and told me, not wanting me to hear by the press. I didn't cry, I didn't feel anything for that woman and I certainly didn't think about her on the day of her funeral. She had been dead to me long before that.

"Here you go Ana" Christian said, bringing me from my thoughts as he handed me my drink.

Breastfeeding Phoebe, I know there would be no alcohol in it, unlike everyone else's.

As I sipped my drink, wrapped in Christian's arms, my eyes followed Julie to her husband Pete who was on the beach. They had bumped into each other as she was coming out of a coffee shop in Seattle, covering them both in coffee in the process. They had laughed, introduced themselves as she apologised. Julie had called me, worried the day she was meeting him for dinner, knowing that she needed to tell him where she had spent much of the past few years. It wasn't the best thing to start your first date, especially when she just blurted it out when he had asked her to tell him something about herself. He had listened to her side, taken everything in and even kissed her cheek when he dropped her back home again. She had no idea if she would ever see him again. Two days later, she found him stood on her porch, soaked by the heavy rain with roses in his hand and they have been inseparable ever since.

"Mommy, can I have a drink please" Teddy said, running towards me.

"I think those hands need cleaning first" I laughed as he held his sandy hands up to my face.

I left Christian's arms and made my way inside, taking half the beach behind us it looked like. Washing Teddy's hands, I made him his drink.

"How is the fire going."

"Good, we lighting it soon" he said excitedly,

"Well you stay back when they do" I told him as he looked at me just like my Dad does. "Go" I said, ticking his little behind that had him running out the door.

"He gets faster every day" Mia told me as I stepped back outside again.

"Too fast sometimes. Speaking of fast how did that speed dating night you went to go."

"It was hilarious, I still can't believe I agreed to it. There were some hot men there though, you should've come."

"Excuse me" Christian said, wrapping his arm around me. "Mine."

"The whole planet knows that she's yours" Mia laughed. "I meant that there was a large meal as well. We always joked in prison that we would go anywhere as long as a free lunch was provided."

"God, I remember that" I laughed, thinking back to our many sloppy food conversations in prison.

We had joked when we got out of prison that if we couldn't get a job, we would turn up to anything that provided a free lunch. I think a speed dating party was taking it too far for a married woman though.

"I will let you enjoy them Mia. I'm happy to have all my meals with my husband."

I looked up to him, kissing his lips as they came down to mine.

"Ok, Mommy Daddy who wants her, she has happily left you a present" Gwen said, interrupting our kiss.

"I will take her" Hannah said, picking my baby girl up. "They want the good parts but panic at the others" she mumbled kissing Phoebe's forehead as she walked into the house.

"Did you meet anyone at this dating thing then" Ros asked Mia.

"I did, I have a proper date on Tuesday. I only went as the girls from work wanted to go but I have a date and they lucked out."

"See you're special" Kate smile.

"She's something" Ros mumbled, getting an apple thrown at her, to which she caught and started to eat.

"Why does this apple taste of sand" she said wiping her mouth.

"That's because Teddy was carrying it around earlier and kept dropping it on the beach" Mia said, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

We all laughed as we watched Ros make her way into the house, trying to wipe sand off her tongue on the way. She came back out about five minutes later, with the apple now clean to which she proceeded to eat.

"Taste better now" she smiled, making me giggle.

We watched the bonfire being lit, Teddy's hand firmly encased in his grandfathers. To say my Dad loves his grand babies as he calls them would be an understatement. The first time he had held either of them he cried. Dad had been worried when he was first diagnosed with cancer that he would never see me grow up. Now he has his grandchildren, he strives to make sure he enjoys every day, does everything he can to keep himself healthy. Sometimes a simple cold can catch up with him but thankfully he's been able to fight them off.

I walked down to the beach, taking my shoes off on the way before my feet hit the sand.

"Mommy look, we match" Teddy said, showing me his bare foot.

"I don't know who they get it from" Dad said.

"What" I asked.

"This love of being barefoot, even when the sand is cold."

"It's a freedom, to take a breath of air and feel free. Sounds silly but being in that place my memories of us on the beach were very vivid so that's what I

clung onto, what I wanted to do when I was free."

"You are free, Annie" he said, wrapping his arm around me as we watching the fire start to burn.

"It pops Mommy" Teddy said, getting down from Carrick's arms and stood at my side.

"Yes, the wood pops when it gets really hot. We better step back a bit more otherwise we will get hot feet" he took a few little steps back, his tiny feet next to mine.

I heard someone approaching, turning to see Kate had come to join us, holding my baby girl in her arms.

"You finally got a hold" I smiled.

"Yes, finally although she is sleeping now."

"She's comfy on her Auntie Kate."

I looked to my beautiful little girl, my double as far as my Dad is concerned, when I was her age.

"How are you doing yourself Mommy" I asked, patting her enlarged stomach.

"Ready to meet the little guy" she smiled, especially when Elliot came behind her and wrapped his arms around her bump and kissed his wife's head.

These two made me cry when they finally told us they were together. Friendship is all Kate could offer him for a long time and he was happy to wait. They became close, best friends doing most everything together, everything apart from visiting Lauren and Miles. That is something she did on her own for a long time, tending their graves every week, sometimes everyday because she needed to be close to them. The turning point in their friendship was when she asked him to go with her to the cemetery, introduced Elliot to her children and her children to him. He had seen photos of them, we all had. Those few photos she had on the cell wall were what got her through those years without them. Leaving the cemetery that day, he had taken her home and she had kissed him at the door, telling him she was ready if he still wanted her. I think they were both in tears that day, all of us girls certainly were as we just wanted to see her happy. Finding out she was pregnant, was another emotional time for the couple. It was what they both wanted but were too afraid to wish for. There is no doubt that all her children will be loved just the same, whether they're with us now or not.

"Auntie Kate, when is your phoebe being born" Teddy asked her.

"My Phoebe, oh you mean my baby" she asked, seeing his little nodding head.

"Well I actually have a little Teddy in my stomach, a little boy just like you."

"Really" he asked, inquisitive as ever. "Will he be called Teddy too."

"No, otherwise we would call your name and you would both come running. He will have his own name."

"When we decide on one" Elliot told us.

"We still have time, no rush" she smiled up to him, kissing his lips.

"Teddy" Ros called out, gesturing for him to go to her.

"Coming Auntie Rossy" he said, running back to the house, carefully climbing the steps.

"I love when he calls her that" Kate giggled.

"I know. Imagine anyone calling her Rossy in there, she would've had their head" I laughed.

I looked to the deck where Ros now had Teddy on her lap, sneaking him chocolate no doubt. Her and Gwen were the Aunts that got the children hyped up on sugar and then happily sent them home again.

I know they would've loved to have children of their own but adoption is out. Criminal records are a big no no when it comes to adopting so I think in a way they have adopted mine and I know when Kate and Eliot's little boy comes, there will be no difference there.

Ros and Gwen live not that far away now, having no real family back in Seattle where they were originally from. They wanted to be close to the people they loved so actually bought a place in between here and Montesano. That town, I think the girls like to torture as there was no doubt when they went for a look around that everyone knew who they were and that they had been in prison with me. I have no reason to go back there any more as Dad sold up and bought a place a bit further down the beach.

"I hope he's not going to be sick" Christian said, holding phoebe now.

"No, you know what they're like. Besides If they make him sick they will be getting a phone call to come and clean it up and you know what Ros is like with vomit."

"Yeah, pathetic" Hannah laughed.

"How's your new job going" Christian asked her.

"Really well."

"Do they know" I asked.

"Yes, my manager said that it was up to me if I wanted people to know. After leaving my last job the way I did with the prejudice that I received, I would rather not go through that again. They listened, they're only a small firm so there was not a lot of people to tell but they seem ok. One did ask if I knew you or your story."

"What did you tell them."

"I asked if they had read your book, most had. I just told them that I'm Hannah."

"You're a celeb now in your job" Gwen said as she came over and wrapped her arm around Hannah's shoulder.

"No, I'm just me, finally doing a real job that I like."

"I'm proud of you girl, we all are" Gwen told her.

"I'm proud of you all" Dad said when we were all back on the sand. "Proud that you all stuck together and so happy that my family has grown to encompass you all into it."

"Will you adopt us Ray" Ros teased, kissing my Dad's cheek which made him blush.

"I think I did that a long time ago, just don't have the paperwork to prove it."

"Don't worry Ray, we adopted you too" Gwen told him.

"Oh, Phoebe has been sick" I said, looking to my daughter as Christian tried to clean her up.

"It wasn't me, I didn't give her any" Ros said, holding her hands up.

"No Auntie Rossy, you gave it me all" Teddy told her, which made us all laugh.

"That was our secret" she said, picking him up and holding him over her head.

"It is, but I don't have secrets from Mommy and Daddy" he giggled.

"I will go and get her cleaned up" Christian said.

"It's ok, I will go and take her in, see if I can put her down in the crib. Make sure Teddy doesn't have any more chocolate" I told him as I took Phoebe from his arms.

I left them all around the bonfire, heading into the house. Phoebe was quickly changed again, falling asleep before I managed to get her into the crib. Taking the monitor with me, I headed into the laundry room, placing her clothes into the washer and turning it on. Nothing smells worse than baby sick, well apart from when Christian takes his shoes off after his jog down the beach. That even sends Teddy running for cover.

I looked out of the large glass windows and down to the beach. Gwen, Hannah and Teddy were paddling in the water and I could hear their laughter from here.

Stopping at the bookcase, I pulled my book down. I loved the cover so much, our hands all together in a never breaking circle. Bad Girls, the original title had been left behind because there was so much more to us all than that. The title we went with at Ros's insistence, I prefer so much more because every word of it is true.

The Little Mouse Who Found Her Voice.

A good girls fight to survive and be heard.

By

Anastasia Grey

I opened the cover seeing the title there again before turning to the next page to read what I had written.

To Christian, Thank you for giving me my perfect life, for helping me achieve my dream. Those footsteps we have taken in the sand together will stay with me forever.

To Dad, my constant supporter. You never gave up the fight for me to be heard, especially when no one wanted to listen.

And Ros, Gwen, Kate, Julie, Mia and Hannah, My girls. The bond we share will never be broken. You fought tirelessly to help me speak again and helped me find my voice once more.

To you all, you're my world, I love you.

Feeling myself get emotional again, I placed it back onto the shelf.

"Baby are you ok" Christian asked walking towards me.

"I am, I really am. I love you, have I told you that today."

"Only twenty times."

"Well, I need to say it twenty more. I love you so much Christian Grey."

"And I love you Ana Grey. You need to stop reading those words if they get you upset every time."

"No" I said as we walked back out onto the deck. "They're words that are the truth and they should be read."

He leaned down kissing my lips as I was wrapped in his arms. No amount of kisses were ever enough from this man.

"I love you Ana and our babies and that crazy lot down there."

I knew what he meant as we made our way back down to the beach, my shoes I had slipped on earlier left on the deck. Teddy ran over to us, jumping into our arms as we held him between us.

I had laughed and cried with these people here, smiled and been held when it was needed the most. However we came to be in this group didn't matter, we were here because we were meant to be together, we were here because we were a family.

The end xx

Thank you to every one who has joined me on this journey with these girls.

It's funny. When I wrote the summary for this story, I had gotten to chapter ten and there was no Christian yet as the girls stories had pulled me in. I went back to the start and started weaving his story through theirs.

Until next time, take care

Caroline