All characters belong to E.L. James as do parts of their back stories. Some of the quotes belong to Nicholas Sparks due to the fact this is loosely based on The Notebook.

This chapter will be told from Christian's POV until the very end when you get Grace's POV. I've never done it before and you will only see her POV this one time because I felt it was the only way to end this chapter.

Read & Review please!

Chapter XX

Christian's POV

A constellation of tears on your lashes,

Burn everything you love then burn the ashes.

In the end everything collides.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see.

So light em up up up, light em up up up.

Light em up up up, I'm on fire.

Everything had led up to this point, this place. The Escala lobby.

The building is on lock down. Sam and Mia are standing terrified in the doorway with Jack pointing a gun to Sam's head while Mia is wearing a fucking bomb. Who the fuck is this guy that he can make a damn bomb. I'm watching them trying to talk to Jack, reason with him a little, while Jason and Luke are looking for a way to get the girls and take down Hyde with my help since I refuse to let them go at it alone. Across the lobby stands Steve with Ana, no gun or weapon he is counting on the fact that Sam is being threatened so she'll leave with him. The fact that her shirt is ripped and her there's blood running down her legs makes me want to strangle Steve with my bare hands over and over again. I'm not sure what happened since I haven't talked to her but I have a good idea. Aiden has eyes on her and is trying to talk her out of it. It's not working.

"You can't save them all Grey. Give it up and they go free, but you get the gist of what'll happen if you don't." Sam's face clenches in pain as he pushes the gun more into the back of her head.

"Not everyone. Not the one you're asking me to give up." I look back at Ana and my heart breaks when she takes one more step further away from me with Steve.

I can't help but think what got us here. What events led to this...this do or die moment.

-1 hour earlier-

"Yes but he's also dumb. Because now we know that they never left. They are somewhere here in Escala."

I saw red. They are here. They are on my turf and I can't find them. Ughhh I ball my hands in fists and pace the windows that give me the best view of Seattle. This used to be MY castle, MY place to feel safe, MY place to keep the people I loved safe. I try to slow my breathing but I can't. I haven't felt this anger since I was a teenager. I stop pacing when I get to the table by the piano and see a picture of Ana and I. It was taken here at the penthouse. We were 'wrestling'. I was letting her win. She had me on the floor and was sitting on my stomach and I had my arms around her and pulled her down so I could kiss her neck. We didn't know Aiden was standing with a camera and caught that moment with a picture. For that one moment we were those two carefree teenagers. Now those fuckers have her and who knows what is happening to her. Red. My vision is red again and I don't think before I start punching. Each glass window is now shattered at my feet. My knuckles are bleeding but I don't fucking care. I turn around and look at Jason.

"I want the damn blueprints of this building NOW!"

I turn to Luke. "I want you and Prescott and my father to search EVERY and I mean EVERY damn apartment in this building. Call in Elliott and Chris if you have to. JUST DO IT NOW!"

They all move in a hurry. Grace comes up to me and puts her hand on my shoulder but I shrug her off. "Don't mom. Just don't!" I instantly feel bad for snapping at her but when I look at her eyes I know she understands.

Jason came back and thank fuck he has the blueprints. He lays them down on the piano and I walk over to them. While we are mapping out the possible places they could be and the closest escape points from those places my phone chimes again letting me know I have a text. I pull it out and it's from Hyde.

It's a picture of Ana sitting next to Steve with a laptop on her legs. Told you she was watching. I'll be in touch soon.

No less than a minute later my phone rings and I immediately pick it up.

"Hyde." I answer the phone with fake politeness.

"Grey. Tell me how is the weather up there? It's quite breezy isn't it?"

I growl. "Shut the fuck up. What do you want?"

He chuckles. "That is a loaded question. I guess for starters for your muscle to stop trying to trace this call because he won't be able to." I look around my apartment as Jason stops typing on his computer and unplugs the wires to trace the call. "Good. Now I just want you to watch." I'm confused by what he's saying. Watch what? It's at that moment I see the hallways of Escala on my TV and my father, brother, Luke, and Prescott going from apartment to apartment. "Watch as every door they knock on shows up with a dead end. Watch how you cannot find the one person who means everything to you. And watch how your world will crumble in ashes in just a matter of an hour. I better go check on Ana I left her with Steve and well who knows what could be happening now."

Before I can answer he hangs up. The fucker just wants me to sit here and watch TV. Hell no! I'm going to find him and I'm going to get Ana out of there. Then what I do is debatable. There are so many possibilities but unfortunately most of those would send me to prison and that is the one thing I don't want. My phone rings again but this time it's Barney. What the hell is he doing calling me now?

"Barney. What's going on?"

"Ok Christian something is going on. I just stopped someone from hacking into the GEH servers and transferring all your money and accounts to somewhere in Aruba."

NO! Watch my world crumble at my feet, he's trying to take my company. "I know who it is. It's Jack Hyde."

"Um...Christian we have a problem. The servers are crashing."

"I'll fix it Barney. Do what you can there and I'll do what I can here."

I run to my study and log onto every GEH server. I can't get on. I am suddenly pushed out of the way and Aiden goes to typing on my computer at what seems like an inhuman rate of speed. I can't follow what he's going but from what's happening on the computer screen it seems like a war of wills or something. Finally Aiden screams "TAKE THAT BITCH!" at my computer and slams his hands on my desk.

"What just happened?" I ask him questioningly.

"First I tried to reroute him to a bogus server but he kept finding backdoors back to GEH. Finally I just sent him a virus that probably shut down everything of his. I forsee a lot of headaches in Jack Hyde's future." He laughs and I join in with him.

"CHRISTIAN!"

Grace. I run at full speed back to the living room when Grace screams for me. My first thought is that he found a way in the penthouse and it hurting her. It's not until I look at the TV and see what she sees that part of my world breaks off and crumbles. Mia. I sprint out the door and down every fucking flight of stairs to the lobby where Mia is just standing in the front doorway holding a cell phone in one hand and has on a trench coat. I'm just about within arms reach of her when I'm pulled back and land on the floor next to Jason.

"What the hell Jason?!"

"Don't move Christian. She's in trouble."

That's when I really look at her. She's trembling and fighting tears. My Mia. She tries to be strong but she's just a girl who needs to be protected. I promised when we were kids that I'd protect her, even now after everything I still want to protect my little sister. I don't care if she and Elliott left me alone 10 years ago if he harms one hair on her head I will rip him to shreds.

"Like I said Grey watch it crumble."

-Present-

My head is pounding. There's too much. I know I can't save them all. I know that if I give Hyde what he wants that he'll just want more. I know if I refuse then I'll look like a dick who won't do everything to save those he loves. Also if I refuse I'll let her down, I'll let Ana down, and that...that is something I can't do. I can't let down my Ana. I know what I'll do.

"Jack you want to know what it's like to be a Grey? What it's like to be me?"

"What are you getting at Christian? You surrendering so easily?"

I shake my head. "No. Just hear me out. Being a Grey isn't easy. Being a Grey means you have Seattle's best pediatrician and best lawyer as parents and living up to that is hard to do believe me. Being a Grey means that you protect your family no matter what not put homemade bombs on them and order them into an apartment building. Being a Grey means finding that one person who is your other half and protecting them with all you have." I have his complete attention now. He doesn't notice that Jason and I are taking steps forward with each sentence. "Being a Grey means that you can have everything you want if you just work at it a little, make a plan, stick to it, and never give up." I reach Mia with Jason and he pulls some wires and tells me the bomb is deactivated. I push Mia behind me and she runs straight into my fathers arms. I turn back to face Jack and he has a murderous look in his eyes.

"You shouldn't have done that Grey."

He grabs Sam and makes his way out of the front door and into a car. I hear Ana scream Sam's name as Steve pushes her toward the garage. I try to go to her but I hear screams and I am pulled the other way towards the front by Jason. Once outside I see what the screaming was about, random apartments all over Escala and blowing up. Escala is imploding. I look around to make sure all my family got out. Jason, Grace, Carrick, Mia, Elliott, Luke, Prescott..."Where's Aiden and Leila?"

Everyone looks around but no one sees them. I search through the crowd of people on the street. I can't find them. It hits me then that he must have gone after Ana. I make my way around the building and look around the parking garage. The KIA is missing and so is my car. I try and figure out where they've gone but I can't find anything. No no no this cannot be happening. I go back to the front and now Elliott is missing.

"Where'd Elliott go?"

"He took off after Sam and Hyde. Your mother took Mia to the hospital she thinks she went into shock. How are you holding up son?"

"I need to find Ana, Aiden, and Leila. I can't let Hyde or Steve hurt them. I can't." I start shaking and I don't know why I can't stop. I keep repeating those two sentences over and over. I don't realize my father and Jason leading me to a car until I'm in it and my father is driving. I barely remember Jason saying something about how he and Luke would stay with Prescott and find out what really happened and see if Aiden or anyone shows up.

The only thing I can think is that with Hyde out there, there is no telling what his next move is.

Grace's POV

I took Mia to the hospital because she was shaking a mumbling incoherent sentences. Her eyes were like a deer in the headlights and she was going into shock. They've taken care of her and she's now resting in my office on the couch. I'm surprised when one of the ER nurses comes in and tells me they need my help in the ER because they have four people coming in from a car wreck. It sounds pretty bad, they inform me they almost lost one person twice on the way in. Nothing could have prepared me for what I see when I walk in the ER.

On the bed to my right being rushed to Trauma 1 is Ana who is holding her stomach screaming like she's in so much pain.

On my right is Aiden being wheeled to Trauma 4 who doesn't look like he's responding at all.

Behind them are Leila and Steve both being wheeled in and both are concious and Leila seems to be yelling some colorful words at Steve. They are taken to different rooms but Leila doesn't stop her cursing and I'm sure you can hear it well into the waiting room on the other side of the ER.

I walk into Steve's room first and he's find except for some broken bones in his hand. I inform the nurse to get security in here and call the cops as I give him a brief rundown of what happened.

Next I go to Leila's room and other than a few scratches she seems okay though now that I am here she can't stop telling to go to Aiden and Ana. "It was an accident Grace I swear. Aiden tried to swerve and so did Steve. Ana and Aidens sides collided and took the worst of it all. Please Grace. Please!" I nod and leave to check on them.

I go into Aiden's room and see the nurses and a doctor working on him. They have the crash cart and the flat line keeps echoing throughout the room. I get closer to him and have to fight back tears. He's lost so much blood I can tell. There's got to be some internal injuries and that's when I pick up his chart. Broken rib piercing right lung, internal bleeding near stomach, broken leg due to steering column collapse...I can't reach anymore. I hear them call it and a piece of my heart breaks because I know from the whole list of injuries he probably bled out on the way here and there was nothing anyone could do.

I walk across the hall and hear Ana's sobs from her room. I enter cautiously and see her OB/GYN sitting with her about to do an ultrasound. She asks me to stay so I take her hand and stay with her as Dr. Green preforms the ultrasound. Ana doesn't seem to have any life threatening injuries that I can see. It's only when she lifts her shirt that I see the marks. The seat belt must have dug into her stomach and she has some bruises like someone punched her repeatedly. "Ana. I'm sorry, you lost one of them that's what the bleeding is from. Where did the bruises come from Ana?"

One of them? Ana was having twins? Did she tell anyone? Does Christian know? I notice that she doesn't answer Dr. Green's question. She shuts down. She grabs her pillow and curls up into the fetal position and cries. I try my best to comfort her but I know I'm not the one she needs. If she's going to get over the loss of a child she's going to need Christian. She falls asleep after a few minutes of heavy crying.

Yet, as if summoned from my thoughts one of the nurses comes in and tells me Christian and Carrick are waiting in my office for me. As I walk down the hall the only questions I have going through my head is how to tell my baby boy that he lost his best friend and one of his children all in the same day and how is he going to get over this so he can help Ana?

I don't have long to think because before I know it I open the door to my office and three sets of eyes meet mine and neither of us knows what to say. After a few minutes the silence is broken when Carrick asks a question.

"Grace...what's wrong? They said you were in the ER...what's wrong?"

I take a deep breath and prepare to tell them just who is in the ER.