Christian was working in his office when he heard Sawyer and Jess return from her school, and heard the raised voices that he knew was an argument.

He had put Harry down for a nap only a little while before and he stood up, moving out to the main room, where they were having an argument.

Jess's hair was in a long plait that had partially come out and she had a scratch mark down her cheek 'Luke, just fuck off it's not your problem alright?'. He looked furious and threw the keys onto the counter top angrily 'actually it is Jess, in case you've forgotten my job is to protect you and look after you, and that includes getting into a cat fight with another girl!'.

At that point, Christian stepped in 'Cat fight? Explain yourself Jess'. She looked up, eyes dark and she shook her head 'it's nothing, doesn't matter'.

Christian looked down at his daughter 'let me decide on that. Luke, what happened?'.

He sighed, running a hand though his messy blonde hair 'Some girl made a comment about Jess's mum, she went mental, pulled her hair and slapped her, the girl scratched her and I had to drag them apart like fighting dogs or something'.

Luke glanced at his watch and Christian nodded 'you can go, have a good evening'. He nodded and left, not saying a word to either of them. Luke had asked for the evening off as he had a date later and wanted to be able to get ready in time without being side-tracked by the usual Grey family drama.

Jess looked at Christian with an apologetic look 'sorry… I just flipped. She was being a stupid bitch anyway, needs to stay out of my business'.

Jess looked defeated, fiddling with her bracelet idly as she sat down heavily on a seat at the counter

'What is the point anymore, I mean really?'. Christian looked confused 'what are you talking about?'. She sighed 'these exams... I'll probably scrape a pass, but I'm not exactly getting into Harvard am I… what is the fucking point?'.

Christian gave her a sad smile 'Jess, we don't know what is going to happen-'.

She looked up, eyes dark 'No, we do. I'll scrape an average mark at best. I haven't applied to any Universities'. He looked surprised 'but you said-'.

'Yes Christian, I know what I said, but I didn't… I'd rather not try, than try and fail'. Christian looked lost for words 'Jess, you can't just throw things away like this'.

She shook her head with a sigh 'Christian, I've got a little boy and only a year ago I was stripping and hadn't been to school in months, I'm not going to be going off to any University and frankly I don't want to... what's the point in going there for several years to just waste my time and end up with a degree in something when I don't even know what I want to do with my life?'.

Christian had to half agree with her 'look, I understand what you're saying Jess, but what are you actually planning to do with your life, have you put any thought into it?'.

She looked exhausted 'not now, Christian, can we do this later or something?'. He half nodded and sat down on the seat opposite her 'Fine, but I'm not going to ignore this forever. Now, what's going on with Caleb, you haven't seen each other for about two weeks now, you've been in a mood since then as well, what's the issue?'.

She swallowed, tapping her fingers on the counter top, looking away slightly 'I… he said he loves me, when we were at the Charity thing…. I didn't say it back and now it's awkward… we're just sort of stuck in this moment… He said it and I sort of nodded and said 'thanks', that's not really what he was looking for… I don't know what to say to him'.

Christian blinked in surprise 'you didn't say it back? Hmmm, can I ask why not? I mean, I was under the impression that you'd have jumped at the chance to say it back to him…?'.

She shrugged 'I can't, we're just too different. He's from this filthy rich family who are lovely but still –filthy rich. He is getting straight A's and is probably going to somewhere brilliant on a sports scholarship, and I'm probably going to just stay in Seattle till I die, get a desk job somewhere, get an apartment and just live as a single mum for the rest of mu fucking life'.

Christian looked surprised 'what's brought this on? Jess, when you turn 18 we're not going to just leave you to look after yourself, Ana and I are your parents, it doesn't matter what happens, we can talk about it when Ana gets back okay?'.

She shrugged and Christian came around the counter top, looking at her kindly 'don't worry Jess, we're here, alright?'. She half nodded and he hugged her tightly, kissing her hair lightly 'you'll be fine, we all will'.

As he pulled back, Christian saw the sad look in his daughters eyes as she stood, wordlessly leaving the main room, Christian hearing the sound of Harry's bedroom door opening and closing down the corridor.

Christian knew that he should leave Jess for a while, she had clearly worked herself up and wasn't thinking straight, so he gave her some space and went to his office to finish up some work.

In Harry's room the toddler was asleep in his bed, not even stirring as she came into the room and closed the door behind herself. Jess was sitting with her back against the door, holding her son's teddy tightly to her as she drew her knees up and cried into the brown teddy, trying to remain as quiet as possible.

Of course, Christian and Ana didn't know the half of what was really going on with their daughter.