Disclaimer: All characters belong to E. L. James

Ana

„This is not fair." I murmur as I pull my head from the toilet. I really thought this time I wouldn't have to go through this awful morning sickness, but three days ago it has started and I hate it. I would take swollen feet, an aching back and mood swings over vomiting any day.

„Come, let me help you up, baby." Christian says and lifts me to my fight, sits me down on the edge of the tub and flushes the toilet before handing me a glass of water. He has become better at this. Three days ago he was so freaked out when I started projectile vomiting that he called his mom who had to calm him down for twenty minutes.

Now he is as calm as it gets. „Do you want to lay down for a bit or do you need to stay here a bit longer?" He asks and kneels before me.

„I need to brush my teeth... why do I have to be sick... it's so gross." I whine and he smiles.

„All part of the deal, baby, but it will pass soon." He says and helps me up so I can brush my teeth before I go back to bed to lay down for a while in hopes the nausea is going to pass.

An hour later I hear noises in the hallway and voices, at first I think Christian is going to check on me, but the noises keep coming without him ever coming into our bedroom, so I get up and find the door to the room that is going to be the nursery for our baby open. I walk closer and can't help but smile when I find my Dad and Christian painting.

We have picked a color for the walls and carpet and even picked some furniture already, but I thought Christian was going to hire people to do this. Seeing him do it with the help of my Dad brings tears to my eyes.

„Hey, did we wake you up?"

„I was curious when I heard the noise, can I help?" I offer.

„No, you need to rest until you are nauseous anymore and once that is done you need to eat something. I don't want you to breathe in the fumes of the paint, it's not good for you, baby."

„Ok, are you staying for lunch, Dad?"

„Far be it from me to say no to a good meal, sweetheart. Now, let us do the work and you go get some rest, you look pale." My Dad says and since the smell of paint isn't helping my nausea I nod and leave them to it.

I just hope it's going to be better tonight because we promised Elliot to show up to watch the play at Ava's school and I know she will be disappointed if we miss it.

As for Elliot, he has been to Cadie's childhood home five times in the last two weeks but her parents are not allowing him in and since she doesn't have a schedule on which she leaves the house there is nothing he can do to see her until she is ready to see him.

I feel bad for him, he knows he fucked up and is desperate to make things right, but now it doesn't seem as though he will get the chance to do so anytime soon.

After one more hour my nausea has finally passed and so I get up, take a shower and get ready for the day. The men are still busy in the nursery, so I go down stairs where I find Gail and Arielle in the living room.

„Good morning, Ana. Do you feel better?"

„Yes, thank you, Gail. God, I just want this morning sickness thing to pass." I mutter and lift Arielle up.

„MAMA!" She exclaims grinning and I kiss her little face over and over to make her laugh. Just hearing her call me mama makes me so happy. For the longest time, she would just say Dada and I'm not ashamed to admit that I had become rather jealous because I wanted her to say mama or mommy too.

And since she started to say mama she has also added Gaga for Gail and Ta for Taylor to her repertoire, her favorite word, however, has become no. Lately, it's become one of my favorite things to watch Christian try to feed her foods she hasn't tried before. If she doesn't like it, she will not take another bite and no matter how often Christian tries to get her to try again she will tell him no accompanied by a huge smile.

Their little food arguments are so cute that I have filmed them on my phone a number of times and sent them to my Dad, Grace, Carrick, Elliot, Mia and Ethan who all love them too.

After I had breakfast I sit down in the living room to play with Arielle, when my phone rings.

„Hey, Elliot."

„Ana, you need to come to my place, now." He says sounding panicked.

„What is going on?"

„I fucked up, Ava's play is tonight and she doesn't have a costume." He says and I roll my eyes.

„What do you mean she doesn't have a costume?"

„I thought the school provides them... turns out they expect for the parents to fucking sew them. When Ava asked me for her costume I told her I have it... but Ana, I can't sew for shit. You don't want to see the monstrosity I have just created." He says and I start to laugh.

„Fine, I'll be there in thirty minutes." I giggle, hang up, ask Gail to watch Arielle for me and head upstairs.

„Hey baby, coming to check on us?" Christian asks and kisses me.

„Yes and no, I have to go out for an hour or two, Elliot didn't know he had to sew Ava's costume, now he is in full on panic mode."

„Can you sew?"

„Sure, it's not that hard, Sawyer is driving me, I'm not trusting myself behind the wheel right now in case I get sick again."

„Good, text we when you get there and before you leave."

„Aye aye, Captain." I smirk, kiss him wave at my Dad and leave. On my way to Elliot, I get some fabric since I know that Ava is going to be a fairy and then arrive at Elliot's house where he shows me what he has managed to create on his own and I try my hardest not to laugh.

„I know, fuck, it looked so easy when I watched that online tutorial and the worst part is Ava saw it two hours ago and since then she is in her room pouting. Please tell me you can fix this." He says and when I inspect it further and see that the thing has four holes for the arms but none for Ava's head I'm crying laughing.

„Well, that's not helping, sis." He mutters.

„Sorry, oh my god, can I keep this, this is too funny." I giggle and ask him to show me where Kate's old sewing machine is, so he brings me upstairs and I unpack the fabric I have gotten.

„Damn, you are a lifesaver, can I leave you here on your own. The new nanny is worth shit, so I have to cook and there is a pile of laundry I have to get through today."

„Why doesn't she cook?"

„Because I'm an asshole." He says bitterly.

„What?"

„Apparently, back when Kate hired a nanny her job description was to look after the children, no cooking, cleaning, or laundry included... Cadie just did all of that by herself... pretty sure she used her income to buy groceries." He says shamefaced and I decide to just say nothing at all. At least now he realizes all the things she has done to make his life easy and that he didn't see or appreciate at the time.

Once I have the fabric laid out I go to Ava's room and walk in after I've knocked.

„Aunty Ana!"

„Hi princess, I heard you are a little grumpy." I say with a smile and sit down next to her on her bed.

„Daddy forgot my costume." She says sadly.

„He didn't do it on purpose, sweetheart and you happen to have an aunt who is going to sew you a pretty cool fairy costume." I say to her and she looks up.

„Really?"

„Sure, how about we go and ask your Daddy for a measuring tape and then you can help me sew your costume."

„Ok." She says and so I take her hand we walk downstairs just when someone is at the door and Elliot walks into the kitchen carrying a small box.

„What's that?"

„I have no idea." He says, opens it and retrieves and beautiful fairy costume.

„Is it mine, is it mine?" Ava asks all excited and I step closer to look at it.

„Did you order a back up, Ana?" He asks me and I frown.

„No, and this isn't store-bought, Elliot. It's handmade and has no labels. Well, let's see if it fits." I mutter and put it on Ava. Looking at her it fits perfectly and I have to admit that it's way better than anything I could have made.

„Sweetheart, did you ask one of your friend's mommy to make a costume for you?" Elliot asks but Ava shakes her head, while I take the costume off her.

„Can I please go to my room, Daddy?"

„Sure." He says and I wait a second. „Come." I say and quietly follow her with Elliot.

„What are you doing?" Elliot whispers as we both peek into Ava's room.

„Following an instinct or do you think the dress just magically appeared." I whisper back and we watch Ava get her tablet from her shelf and then I frown.

„Ava is allowed to use Skype?" I ask him.

„No, I blocked everything on the fucking thing." He says and then I smile when I hear Ava talk.

„Did you make the costume for me, Cadie?"

„I sure did, do you like it, bug?" We both hear Cadie's voice and suddenly Jamie runs into Ava's room and waves at the tablet.

„Hey big guy, have you been good?"

„Me always good." He says and I pull Elliot back downstairs with me.

„Wait... I want to talk to her."

„Give her time, Elliot."

„Why, how are we supposed to figure this out when she is hiding from me?"

„You are going to figure everything out when the time is right, I know it's hard but you can't force her to talk to you or listen, she has to want to listen to you."

„I know... but I just miss her. I thought I could fix this in a few days, but now it has been almost a month."

„You know what they say, good things come to those who wait." I tell him because I believe that when Cadie is ready she will come back and listen to what he has to say.

Christian

„Thanks again for helping me out with the nursery... what do you think next one I can do on my own?" I smirk and hand him a beer.

„Unless my daughter wants to have twenty more kids, you'll need my help each time." He says with a raised brow and I laugh. It's true, I suck at painting and building furniture, but I'm still proud of what I have accomplished today. The nursery is almost ready and just needs to be personalized once we know if it is a girl or boy, but everything else is in place now.

„How is Ana dealing with everything?" Ray asks and I know he is referring to the fact that Kate's lawyers have requested for a conversation between Ana and Kate, which made me furious. I know Kate is trying to save her ass by showing remorse, but to me, that's not going to happen. I will not allow for my pregnant wife to come anywhere near that psychopath.

„She is ignoring their calls after she told them she wasn't going to see Kate other than during her trial and I don't even want her to go to that, but they might need her as a witness. My Dad is trying to get Ana out of that, because she can't even remember being pushed and there with Elliot testifying about Kate's general behavior as well as the shrink who has evaluated her and the tape of her confessing to trying to murder Ana and Arielle I don't see the point of her having to go through that."

„Me neither... Kate always rubbed me the wrong way... she reminded me of Ana's mom." He says and I get pissed even thinking about Carla. That old bitch has a way of making her fucking existence known at the most unacceptable times. She called four days ago complaining that Ana was calling her. When she has not contacted her once after they stopped talking shortly after Arielle was born and she had nothing better to do than to upset her daughter who was still at the hospital recovering from a near-death experience.

When I found Ana crying in our bedroom I had enough and called Carla back. I told her in no uncertain ways that my wife doesn't need or deserve a to have a mother like her and that she is not to contact us again. Of course, she tried to argue but I made it clear that I wouldn't allow for her to upset Ana again, just because Carla thinks that it is Ana's duty as a daughter to support her lazy ass.

The worst part about this is if Carla was actually interested in being a good mother and grandmother I could forget about her being lazy and just set her up with a house and credit card to use. As it is I won't give her a fucking penny. The bitch actually told me that I could pay her to stay away to which I ended the call. Sure, it was tempting to use my money to make her go away, but I know Ana would have been even more upset about that, so I decided against it.

If she tries to upset Ana again, however, I will have to find a way to shut her up. I want this to be happy time for Ana. Her last pregnancy was tainted by everything that happened and she was cheated out of having a normal delivery and taking care of her child by Kate trying to murder her. So, this time I want her to have the best pregnancy and delivery possible. Christ, I'm even looking into childbirth at home, because I know this is what she really wants to do, but doesn't want to bring because she knows I'm too worried about her all the time.

At this point, I can at least consider it as an option if we find the right midwife and my mom agrees to be here as well as Ana's doctor. I have done a lot of research, so I know that more and more women decide to give birth at home and I kind of like the thought, so I need to work on not freaking out about it before I bring it up again.

Later we are at Ava's preschool and have to wait for the play to begin.

„I'm going to find the bathroom real quick." I whisper to Ana and had out of the auditorium, find the restrooms and walk back, but I'm not quite in the auditorium when I think I see someone and walk over to the blonde girl.

„Cadie?" I ask and she turns around looking really uncomfortable.

„Um... hi, Mr. Grey... um... I ... I was just..."

„Here to see your little girl?" I ask smiling.

„I promised her to be here." She admits.

„Does Elliot know you are here?"

„No, please don't tell him, it's Ava's night, I don't want to ruin it for her." She begs and I sigh. Fuck, I know I should stay out of this, but I feel fucking bad for both of them and the kids.

„Look, it's none of my business, but he is sorry... he just needed way too long to understand what is going on with his feelings for you... maybe just listen to him, Cadie."

„Sometimes being sorry is just not enough... I know he has feelings for me, he is not that hard to read, but fact is that he is not over what happened with his ex-wife and I was stupid enough to let him treat me like shit when in reality he wanted to punish her. The play starts, please excuse me, Mr. Grey." She says and walks into the auditorium where I see her in the last row while I walk to Ana and sit down.

„What took you so long?" She whispers into my ear.

„Cadie is here, I tried to talk to her, it didn't go too well." I admit and she sighs but then Ava comes on stage and we all cheer for her.

I guess it will take more time for my brother to get his happily ever after and it makes me appreciate that have found mine with Ana even more...