Chapter 36

December 14th 2014

Apov

"Christian I need to fly Steele Grey up to the cabin today. The Johnson's just called me and there is an issue with the cabin's plumbing." I'm calling him at work while I am throwing things into Lilly's diaper bag. I grab my father's journal to take it back to the cabin with me. I want to leave it there as it has so many secrets he used when he was on missions. He did leave me some tips and advice that I instilled in my brain.

"What do you mean issue? I don't feel comfortable with you flying and I'm not there. Ana, you are 15 weeks pregnant is it safe?"

"Yes, I called Dr. Greene and she said it is perfectly safe. Reynolds and Ryan are logging the flight plan as we speak. Lilly is coming with us and we should be back at Sea-Tac by six if you want to meet us there. I want to get ahead of this cold front before it hits."

"Yes, I will meet you two there and I am taking my girls out to dinner tonight. I love you baby and be safe, text me when you take off and land."

"Will do and let Barney know so he can monitor the alarms on the cabin, love you more"

"Impossible baby". He says his normal ending as we hang up. I head to the elevator with my bag and with Lilly holding her doll.

"Ready Mrs. Grey?" Reynolds asks

"Yes, we need to get going as there seems to be a cold front coming in. We should make it back here in time though if the plumber doesn't take too long. If so we will stay the night at the cabin."

"Yes, ma'am Ryan is getting the car ready; Taylor and Barney know of the plans so we are all set."

I put on my new wool coat and gloves Christian bought me and help Lilly with hers.

I know the threats have been coming in left and right, and people have been getting cleared left and right. I hope all is settled by Christmas as we are supposed to move into our house in two days over the weekend. I sure hope I'm home tonight to watch my Thursday night lineup as it is the winter finale. We were supposed to move in last week but there was a delay with some last minute electrical wiring. A house that big I wasn't surprised. Santa has all the presents bought and they are being stored at the new house. Christian is so excited to play Santa this year.

I went all out with the presents this year I felt so bad. However, the giving man that Christian is had over 10,000 toys delivered to children's hospital, and the homeless shelters. It was all done anomalously as we didn't want the media making a big deal about it. I cannot wait till he sees the gifts I got him. I got him one big present and a bunch of smaller meaningful gifts.

"Mrs. Grey we are here."

"Thank you, Reynolds, and Ryan, Mrs. Johnson will have lunch waiting for us when we get there. The plumber is fixing the issue as there was a pipe that burst somehow in the garage, it should be fixed by the time we arrive there."

We climb in and I make sure Lilly is tight and secure with Ryan in the back with her. I make sure I use my special harness that basically cradles my abdomen and get strapped in. All preflight checks go smoothly and we are in the air. Sixty minutes later I land in the hanger and Mr. Johnson is there waiting and helps to secure it while we make our way inside.

"Morning Mrs. Grey this is Robert Fleck the plumber, he was actually telling me what the issue is. I'll take Lilly into the kitchen for lunch." She takes her with her as Lilly is chatting away. The speech therapist is doing wonders with her. Reynolds and Ryan are by my side listening as well.

"Mrs. Grey nice to meet you." He holds his hand out to shake and I quickly shake it. I have been working on touch therapy and it has been slowly helping. It only burns a little but the memories don't make it last.

"Yes, so what is the issue?"

"Well your main water valve, which is your main water pipe is frozen and cracked. It essentially has to be replaced as well as all the plumbing. It is all outdated and has severe corrosion. I also recommend having the outside of the pipes insulated so this won't happen again."

"Ok but can this be fixed today and how much?" I ask as I pull out my phone to call Christian.

"Yes, I can have my crew here in an hour and have it fixed by this evening. The cost is going to run you about $27,000."

"Let me call my husband and let him know." I grab my phone and before I even swipe his name he's calling me.

"Hey handsome we landed about five minutes ago, I forgot to text you I'm sorry."

"That's ok baby but you scared me. What's going on?" I fill him in and he's okay with it and lets me know that Reynolds brother is a plumber and he would step in if we were being overcharged.

"I will write a check, Mrs. Johnson is making lunch and then we will head back. We should land a little earlier than expected."

"Sounds great I'm actually done for the day, I need to head to the store to pick up an order I placed. However, she has been extremely naughty this year so I may have to keep it longer." I gasp and clench my legs. "Baby stop biting your lip and clenching your thighs; you know I'm right."

"Yes, ok you are I will see you in a couple hours." I all but pant at him as he chuckles at me.

"Ok make sure you let me know when you take off, this weather coming in is going to be bad baby. Gail is at the grocery store stocking up as they are saying it may be a blizzard. I am closing Grey House early to let everyone get home safely."

"I will I promise see you in about three hours."

"Yes, you will baby" I hang up and put the phone back in my purse as I grab the checkbook out and write a check as he calls his crew in. I need to call Barney to let the security system down.

"How is my god daughter doing today?"

"Great, I'm at the cabin and the plumbing is needing to be replaced and fixed. He has crew coming in so the security system needs to be shut off."

"I'll turn it off, but the sensors and video systems will still be running. You need to leave in the next half hour or stay the night. This front is going to be nasty. They are saying it may be a blizzard."

"It hardly ever snows in Seattle so if that is the case then yes we need to hurry. I will send you a text when we take off." I throw my phone in the purse in silent and see my father's journal as I pull it out.

"Reynolds, you and Ryan go eat really quick I'm going to run this upstairs. We need to leave in thirty to get ahead of the weather."

"Yes, ma'am and I'll have her make you a quick plate and get Lilly ready to go for you."

I run upstairs and as I throw the book in my locked hitch something pops out of it that I didn't see before. I open the book and see a quick journal entry with credit card. I read it and almost lose my breakfast thinking of how my father could be this man. How he sliced someone's throats with this credit card that has a razor blade attached to it. I figured someone's life or their family's life is in danger you do what you have to do. According to this journal entry he was kidnapped and was about to be executed, so he cut himself free and faked being tied down. He overtook his kidnapper and escaped. I place the card in my back pocket as I don't have my purse on me and run downstairs to eat.

I inhale my soup and sandwich and fasten my coat, put my hands and gloves on.

"Thank you, Mrs. Johnson, we need to head out and get home before his weather hits. Make sure you two stay the night as the weather will hit bad after Mr. Fleck and his crew leave."

"We will ma'am and have a safe flight."

I radio in and text Christian and Barney. I put my phone on silent and in my bag. I see that I do have my gun in my hidden compartment that no one knows about.

"Taking off now love you see you in a couple hours."

"Be safe baby and I will see you at home. Your landing is the last they are allowing to land then the airport is going to be shut down. They won't let us in to wait. It's still safe to fly right now as long as the front doesn't shift anymore."

I raise us up and as we are flying you can see the front and the snow clouds coming in. For the first time flying I feel nervous. Forty minutes into the flight the control panel starts flashing and I see that one of the engines is smoking. Oh, my god what is happening it's saying the engines aren't getting any fuel. There is plenty of fuel I don't understand.

"Mrs. Grey what's happening?" I look to Reynolds whose eyes are staring at me in what I think is fear.

"Well the engines aren't getting any fuel, which doesn't make sense. They filled it at Sea-Tac beg we left. I think the fuel is freezing which is almost impossible. We need to radio it in now as I don't think we are going to make it to Seattle."

I radio it in as I start to descend, if the second engine goes that way I can hopefully land smoothly. My dad taught me all sorts of scenarios and landing with engine failure was one of them. I remember being in the air and he would cut the engines and teach me how to prepare for a crash landing. Granted it was all in flight simulators but you work with what you got.

The joystick goes stiff and hard and yep just what I thought the other engine starts to smoke. We are descending and fast.

"Hang on boys and Ryan please hold onto Lilly's head we are going to crash."

I am somehow able to whip her around as I feel my shoulder pop with excruciating pain. Holding this joystick with no power behind it is a bitch. We are spinning like we are on an amusement ride.

"HOLD ON HERE WE GO IM SORRY GUYS"

All I can see is dirt and leaf's flying all over as I see the blades hitting into the dirt. I hear metal crunching and the biggest bang as we all jerk into our seats as the helicopter lands onto my side and I hit my head hard into the window.

"Mrs. Grey can you hear me?" I open my eyes and Reynolds has somehow climbed through the wreckage and standing on the broken window trying to wake me up.

"Yes, oh my god is Lilly ok are you two ok?"

"We are all fine, she is in a little shelter Ryan found keeping her warm. He is trying our phones but getting no signal. Ok can you move your arms and legs?"

"Yes, it's just my left shoulder and left side of the head. Can you help me out please? I can't lift my left arm so I won't be able to pull myself out. There should be a satellite phone in the one of the storage compartments."

"Yes, I think you dislocated your shoulder, let's get you out and in the shelter with Lilly." He pulls me out as I scream in pain.

"Jesus Christ Reynolds this hurts" I tell him as I stand to my feet and start crying. I don't know if it's from pain, adrenaline, or fear. I have to be strong for Lilly so we can get home to Christian. Reynolds is looking for the satellite phone as I pull my bag out. I look into it and see that I don't have a signal on my phones including the burner phone. I make sure to leave them both on and check to make sure I have my diamond studs in and both my engagement ring and wedding ring on. I make sure to include all the secret items in my bag in case this was not an accident and my gut is saying that it's not. I have a feeling that this helicopter was manipulated with.

The only thing I can think of is that the fuel lines somehow froze. With the temperature dropping it could make since, but I know daddy had them insulated and the fuel should have additives to prevent this from happening.

"Mrs. Grey I found the satellite phone, I also found this emergency box of supplies. This should hold us until we get a signal on one of our phones. The satellite phone isn't working because of the cold front coming in. Someone would have to walk to get a signal.

"No with the weather coming it could kill us. We will just have to ration the food and water. Air control should know our location so it shouldn't be long. Anyway, the helicopter has a tracker that Barney installed so they should be able to track our location. It was installed last week and no one should know about it, we were an hour outside Seattle so it should only be a couple hours."

"Ok and let's hope in the meantime we can get through on the phones." He says as we walk into the little cabin that looks like it was abandoned. Thankfully there is a fireplace that Ryan has started and brought in a bunch of wood. Lilly comes running to me and I kneel and hug her so tight to me."

"Mama my elly hurt." We've noticed that her stomach hurts when she becomes nervous.

"It's ok sweetheart daddy will save us. Mommy is here let's go color in your coloring book." I pull it out and she sits and starts to color as we begin to wait.

Two hours later and still no signal but the satellite phone lights up. I reach for it and as soon as I dial in the number for Christian the door busts open.

"Grey". I hear Christian's strangled voice, as I know he has been crying. I slide it into my jacket I'm wearing so he can trace it and hear what's going on

"Sawyer" I ask him as he raises his gun and shoots and hits both Ryan and Reynolds before they can even think and they collapse to the floor covered in blood. I hold Lilly to me and turn her face into my legs so she can't see what's going on.