Rehearsal dinner time! I am going to give Ana more of a backbone in this chapter. I like it when she gets feisty! Let me know what you guys think. This chapter will hopefully clear up some of the mysteries and mishaps from the night before ;)

Chapter 29

Ana's POV

"Oh, wow," I breathe as we enter the ballroom.
"What do you think? Isn't it gorgeous?" Kate gushes.
"Its breathtaking!" I exclaim. "Plenty of room for dinner and dancing."
"Good," Kate smiles. "I'm not going to show you the gardens because I want it to be a surprise for the ceremony tomorrow. Its getting dark anyway," she tells me.
I nod. "Fair enough. How are you feeling?" I ask. Kate groans.
"Don't even get me started. I felt like complete shit this morning. Elliot too. At least we didn't do anything illegal at my party," she mutters.
"Yeah, do you know what the hell Elliot and Christian were up to last night?" I inquire.
She shrugs. "I have no clue. Elliot wouldn't tell me anything until he talked to Christian."
"Well, let's go see if they're ready to explain themselves," I say. Kate grins at me and loops her arm through mine as we head back upstairs.
We enter the banquet room to find it in complete chaos. Elliot is scowling in the corner, Carrick is red faced and fuming at Christian, who is holding his hands up in surrender. Mia is sniffling at the table opposite from Elliot, and Grace is struggling to contain a hysterical Teddy. The rest of the guests are milling about, shooting dirty looks at my screaming baby or trying to eavesdrop on Carrick and Christian's obvious argument. I freeze in the doorway.
"How long were we gone again?"
Kate shakes her head in disbelief. "Five minutes, maybe six? Jeez, what the hell is going on?"
"I have to go get Teddy," I mutter as Grace catches my eye and gives me a frantic look, as if to say, What are you waiting for? Come help me!

"Of course, go, go. I have to see what Elliot's all butthurt over." She salutes me with a smirk. "Good luck, soldier."

I roll my eyes and run over to Grace. "Grace, is he okay? What happened?"
"I don't know, I checked his diaper and he won't take a bottle. I think he's just cranky. Did he sleep well last night?" she asks. I feel my cheeks go red.
"I'm, uh...not sure, actually. Ray had him for the night." I don't mention that I was completely unaware of my son's whereabouts until this morning. "Here, I'll take him." She hands Teddy to me and I rub his back in an effort to comfort him. He quiets almost immediately. I smile at Grace.
"He just wanted his mom, didn't you Te-"
"Ana, dear, you have a massive bruise on your arm," Grace informs me suddenly.
"What?" I gasp. I shift Ted in my arms and try to twist and contort my limbs, looking for a dark spot. "I don't see anything."
"Its here on your elbow, look," Grace explains, adjusting my arm so I can see.
I gasp. There's a huge, purplish-black discoloration directly on my elbow. Its enormous.
"Oh my god, that is the ugliest thing I have ever seen!" I wail. "I must've gotten it when I fell last night. I can't believe Christian didn't notice this yet. Crap. Kate is gonna kill me if that comes out in the pictures."
"Does it hurt?" Grace asks me. She applies a small amount of pressure. I feel a dull pain shoot up my arm and wince a little.
"Just a bit," I tell her. "But I'm also on a lot of painkillers right now." Damn hangover, I think to myself.
She nods, about to say something when Christian and Carrick come storming over.

"Would you like to tell your mother what happened?" Carrick asks Christian in an icy tone.
"Not now, Dad," Christian hisses. "Not here."
"What's going on?" Grace demands, looking back and forth between them.
"Nothing, Mom," Christian mutters.
"That's not what Elliot told me," Carrick retorts.
"What is going on?" Grace repeats.
"We don't need to do this here-" Christian starts.

"Would you like to discuss it at the wedding tomorrow?" Carrick interrupts him.
"Christian, what's going on?" I turn to him.
He sighs exasperatedly. "Ana-"
"You WHAT?" I hear Kate gasp from across the room.
Oh no.

"Don't start with me now, Kate, after what happened at your party last night? Really? Are you kidding me right now?" Elliot yells.
"At least that wasn't illegal!" Kate shouts back.
"No, just slutty," Elliot mutters. I hear Kate gasp again as Elliot storms off. I put a hand to my mouth. The whole room has gone silent. Kate, wide eyes brimming with tears, glances nervously around the room before shooting Mia a nasty look and bolting out the door after Elliot.

"Oh my god," I whisper. All the guests are now staring at us. "Christian, do something!" I mutter.
Christian quickly grabs his glass of champagne off the table. "Thank you all for coming tonight, ladies and gentlemen. We will get started with the rehearsal in just a few minutes. Until then, there is an open bar for the next half hour, courtesy of Grey Enterprises. Please, enjoy!" He raises his glass as cheers break out. The chatter picks back up immediately. I hear Grace breathe a sigh of relief. Carrick is still scowling at Christian.
"Grace, Carrick, if you can excuse us for just one moment," I say with a tight-lipped smile. They nod reluctantly and I turn to my husband. "You, come with me, now," I mutter. He looks at me in surprise. I narrow my eyes. "Now."

"As you wish, Mrs. Grey," Christian replies.

I hurry over to where Stephanie is chatting with other members of the bridal party. "Hi girls!" I exclaim. "This is my son, Teddy. Steph, would you like to hold him for a few minutes?"
"Would I? Of course I would!" she squeals. "Omigosh, he is so cute! Wait, where are you going?" she asks as I am walking away.

"Oh, I just need to go check on some things for tomorrow. I'll be right back, promise! If you need help just ask Grace!" I say over my shoulder as I am now almost out of the room. Christian is trailing behind me.
"Why did you just give our baby to a woman I've never met before?"
I whirl around to face him. "Because we have a crisis going on here. That's Steph, she's great. Not the point. What the hell are you and Carrick arguing about? We need to find Kate and Elliot," I am rambling on as we walk briskly through the corridors. I round the corner and hear angry voices coming from the men's restroom.
"Oh, for Pete's sake," I moan as I push the door open.
"Ana!" Christian hisses. "You can't go in there!"
"Too bad," I mutter back. "You better get in here too, Grey. We all need to have a chat."
Christian sighs, glancing around warily, then quickly pushes me into the room. The voices halt suddenly.
"What are you guys doing here?" Kate demands. She has tear tracks glittering on her cheeks.
"Looking for you two," I tell her. "Everyone needs to calm down and someone needs to tell me what the hell happened last night." I look back and forth between Kate, Elliot, and Christian.

Christian sighs. "Last night, Elliot and I got pretty drunk, so we decided to go driving and ended up in this random neighborhood." He begins.
"Back up a second," I say. "You two were driving drunk?" I ask incredulously.
"That's only the beginning," Kate mutters.
"Kate, shut up for a second, okay?" I sigh. "What happened then?"
"We stole a bunch of people's mailboxes," Elliot mutters.
"What?!" I gape at him, then at Christian.
"It didn't start out that way!" Christian insists. "We were just spray painting them at first."
"So you were vandalizing people's property?!" I am flabbergasted right now.
"Ana, we were shitfaced. I don't even remember this happening. This is just what the police got from witnesses," Christian pleads with me.
"You mean the victims," Kate snorts.
"Kate, stop," I say. I turn back to the guys. "So how did you end up stealing them?"
"I had a bunch of tools in my truck from the site we've been working on downtown. And some lady came out of her house and started screaming at us to get off her property, and that now her yard was ruined cuz we messed up her mailbox. So we just took it out of the ground, and I guess I said something like, 'There, we fixed it for you.' And she got all pissy and called the cops. By the time they showed up we'd gotten about 10 of the neighbor's mailboxes to go with it." Elliot tells me.
I cover my face with my hands. "Oh my god. Are you sure?"
"Considering there were eleven mailboxes in the bed of my truck this morning...ya, I'm sure."
"Ugh! I cannot even believe you two!" I wail. "Especially you!" I say to Christian. "You guys could go to jail for this!"
"Don't worry, we paid them off. No one's going to jail, Ana," Christian tries to reassure me.
"That's not the point, Christian. This was really bad! I can't believe you two would have such poor judgment! I don't care how drunk you were!" I admonish them.
Elliot snorts. "Don't even get me started about poor judgement."
"Elliot!" Kate yells. "Stop it! I said I was sorry!"
"What are you two talking about?" Christian demands.
"Oh, nothing, just the fact that Kate made out with the stripper at her party."
"WHAT?!" Christian and I roar simultaneously.
"Yeah. It's on Mia's camera. She was showing me pictures of the party and accidentally 'forgot' to delete that one, I guess," Elliot says harshly.
"No one else kissed the stripper, did they, Ana?" Christian says menacingly.
I glare at him. "Are you kidding me right now? Of course I didn't do anything with the stripper. I didn't even touch him!" I turn back to Kate. "Are you serious right now, Kate?"
"I...I don't remember," Kate says tearfully.
"Catchphrase of the day, apparently," Christian mutters under his breath. I sigh.
"Christian, can you go get Mia. please? Tell her to bring her camera." I tell him.
"Alright," he says quietly. I turn back to Kate again.
"Kate...are you sure? Can you try to remember what was happening around you? What time it was, maybe?" I coax her. She shakes her head miserably.
"I have no idea," she whispers.. I hear Elliot groan angrily.
"Dammit, Kate, I can't believe you," he chastises.
"I can't believe you called me a slut!"
"I didn't call you a slut, I said it was slutty-"
"Oh, is there a difference? My bad."
"Would you stop? You could have told me you were hiring a stripper, you know."
"You didn't tell me you had one!"
"Yeah, I also didn't try to fuck mine."
"Are you sure? Apparently you were too drunk to remember anything last night."
"Shut up-"
"Guys! Just calm down for a second, okay? Please." I plead with them. There is an awkward silence. Soon I hear Mia and Christian coming down the hall. They enter the bathroom.
"Why are you all hanging out in the men's room?" Mia asks quizzically.
"My thoughts exactly," Christian mutters.
"Does that really even matter right now? Mia, let me see the picture," I say, holding my hand out for the camera. Mia hands it to me quietly. She gulps and glances at Kate.
"I'm really sorry, Kate," she whispers hoarsely.
Kate sighs. "Its fine. Its not your fault, its mine."
I find the picture on Mia's camera and whip out my cell phone.
"What are you doing?" Elliot mutters.
"Making sure I'm right….yep, they're exactly the same," I say, comparing the picture on my phone with the photo on Mia's camera screen.

"What are you talking about, Steele?" Kate asks miserably.
"The kiss. It was right after the stripper finished his routine. You were up on the stage and we were all taking pictures of you. He put his pants back on, pulled you out of the chair, gave you a peck on the lips, and left. That was it. See?" I hand her the camera and my phone.
"Oh...you're sure?" Kate asks hopefully, passing them to Elliot. He studies them closely.
I nod. "Positive. Elliot, you have nothing to worry about. It was completely innocent. Just having a little fun."
Elliot nods and puts the devices down with a sigh.
"Well I feel like an ass," he mutters.

Mia and I stifle a giggle.
"Kate, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have accused you of something so rash. And I shouldn't have used such an awful term. I was just so upset. Can you forgive me?" He takes her hand.
"Of course, El. It was my fault too. I shouldn't have been so drunk that I couldn't remember what happened. Its okay. I'm sorry too," she kisses him softly.
"Well, I can't really lecture you about sobriety," Elliot grins and Kate smacks him playfully. Phew. They are back to normal.
Christian checks his watch. "We have to get back," he says quickly. "I'm paying for about 50 people's unlimited booze right now. I'm not made of money, you know."
Kate, Elliot, Mia, and I burst out laughing. Christian chuckles along at his own joke and helps me off the floor. Mia, Kate and I check our makeup quickly in the mirror.
"I think it's time we get back there and celebrate, soon-to-be Mrs. Grey," I smile at her and smooth her hair down.
She winks. "I agree, currently-Mrs. Grey. But god, no alcohol this time."