AN: So close to the end now I can almost taste it!

Chapter Twenty-Five

C - I miss you.

A – I miss you more.

C – Impossible

A – Totally Possible. But got to get back to work, the boss is watching.

C – Go work baby, talk later.

Ana popped her phone into her drawer and let out another large yawn. While she'd slept well with Gail on the couch, she hadn't had anywhere near enough sleep last night and it was showing. Hannah, her colleague had brought her more coffee over than usual and she was barely able to keep her eyes open on the manuscript in front of her. Texting Christian was a welcome distraction but at the end of the day, she didn't want to appear as though she was slacking.

She loved her job. Hannah and she worked closely together, comparing manuscripts, often reading the others and making additional notes, and their direct line manager Elizabeth was supportive of them too, always giving them positive feedback and helping them improve. Ana could never have imagined this was what her life would become, but thanks to Christian, she was settled, financially stable, and very happy.

"Ana… come in here a sec." Elizabeth smiled from her office door. Ana practically jumped out of her seat and headed over to the office. "Shut the door." Elizabeth said softly and Ana quickly did as she was asked, she had the overwhelming feeling she was in trouble.

"Is everything ok?" She asked standing awkwardly in the middle of the floor while Elizabeth sank into her leather desk chair.

"Of course, take a seat." She smiled a genuine and friendly smile at Ana which did little to relax her as she took the old leather chair opposite her. "I bought you in here because, to be honest Ana, I don't think your mind is here today and you look exhausted. Is everything ok?" Ana grimaced, she didn't think she looked that bad, she'd made an effort as always, was dressed tidy but she just couldn't stop yawning.

"I'm ok." Ana replied but the tilt of Elizbeth's dark head and the narrowing of her eyes said she wasn't buying it. "I had a rough night."

"Everything ok at home?" Elizabeth asked, she knew nothing of her employee's personal life but she tried to be a caring boss, if something was off with her staff and she knew it she felt responsible to help.

"Yeah… my boyfriend is away and I couldn't really sleep without him there." Ana admitted bashfully, she wouldn't give any details but felt it only right that she explain herself to her boss, at the end of the day when she wasn't at her best she knew she was letting the team down.

"Listen, I get that." Elizabeth laughed lightly. "But to be honest, I can see you can't focus on the words on the pages in front of you and it took you over half an hour to reply to that email earlier and all you said was - yes thank you. Why don't you take that manuscript home with you, get some rest, read it when you feel up to it and then tomorrow is a new day?"

"I can't Elizabeth…" Elizabeth's hand went up to stop her.

"Working from home is perfectly ok when there is a need to be flexible, you'll still get paid." Elizabeth reassured. "Please, honestly, you'll probably get more done at home at your own pace today than sitting there with blurry pages. Do me a favour, go home and rest."

"Ok." Ana knew there was no point arguing, Elizabeth was offering her a very reasonable proposal and she'd be stupid not to take it. "Thank you, Elizabeth and I'll be back on my A-game tomorrow." Ana got to her feet and Elizabeth quickly followed.

"Ana you've been an asset since you've walked through that door, you get more done than any other assistant in this place. Keep it up and you'll be promoted to junior editor before you know it but not if you're falling asleep at your desk. Get your stuff, go home, rest. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Thank you." Ana blushed shyly before heading for the door, she truly did work for an awesome company, she'd known that since the moment she'd had the job but this truly was the icing on the cake.

She text Luke to let him know she needed collecting early, packed up her things, and headed out to the front to wait. She'd get through this manuscript later, but a snooze in front of the TV and maybe a hot relaxing bath wouldn't go amiss right now. She'd speak with Christian later, that would put her mind at ease too.

Junior editor, now that was something Ana loved the sound of. Truth was, she was practically doing the job already because they were short-staffed, so as well as vetting the manuscripts she'd support with the editing of the first chapter to give the editors a chance to see the level of editing needed before they'd really dig into a manuscript and decide to commit to it. She was saving them a lot of time and energy doing that but she had to admit she loved it, she loved her job and going to work and she couldn't imagine ever doing anything else.

Luke took Ana back to Escala and Mrs Jones was busy pottering away in the kitchen when she made it up to the penthouse.

"You're home?"

"Boss could see I was too tired to function, told me to work from home." Ana explained as she plonked herself down on the barstool. "Fair play to her, she didn't even tell me off for not working, just told me to get some rest!"

"That's fantastic, I hope you take her advice." Gail teased.

"You should get some rest too, you can't have been comfy on the couch all night."

"I went back to bed after you left this morning and had a couple of hours. I don't want to sleep too much or I won't sleep tonight." Gail laughed but Ana was glad she'd gone back to bed, it would have been unfair on her to work all day otherwise.

"I want to go to sleep but I have had so much coffee today that even though my eyes feel heavy and I can't stop yawning…" She paused to yawn as if the word itself had triggered it. "I am buzzing, so I'm going to explore the castle a bit." She signalled the apartment.

She'd planned on exploring after work tonight. Christian had shown her around of course but she didn't feel comfortable enough yet to go into whichever room she wanted to whenever she pleased. It sometimes just felt like she was intruding. The only places she went was the bedroom, the great room, the kitchen, and the library but she knew there were a games room and a gym and she had been dying to try the two out!

As she made her way upstairs, passed the guest room and down the corridor, her eye caught a door she didn't know what was behind it. At first she thought it was best not to have a nosy in there, if it was somewhere she could go, then Christian would have shown it to her. However, she'd been shown every single other room in the apartment. Unable to resist, she went for the gold handle and gently turned it, but the catch didn't release. It was locked! Ana chuckled, well she would just have to remain intrigued then because she couldn't find out what was in there.

She headed into the gym first. She'd never been in a proper gym in her life so had nothing to compare this room too. There was a running machine and a bike machine, then what she thought was a rowing machine. They were all clearly very high tech and Ana couldn't resist clicking buttons to see what would happen. She jumped out of her skin when the treadmill burst into life and she pressed as many buttons as she could till it went off. As much as she fancied trying it out, she realised she would have to wait until Christian was home until she could be shown how to use them properly.

"Ana…" Luke's voice in the doorway made her jump, people seemed to like sneaking up on her today.

"What is it?" Ana asked knowing something was going on for Luke to come and find her like this.

"You need to see the news." He said and Ana's heart immediately began thumping hard in her chest.

"Is Christian ok?" She asked and Luke nodded before signalling the way out of the room to her. "Luke what's going on?" She asked her voice trembling and giving away that she was already on edge.

"It looks like the press has got hold of the fact that Annie-Rose has been found, they've also made the connection to you. Ana I'm sorry, I didn't know…" Ana stopped him just as they got to the great room and Gail was stood looking at the TV.

She hurried to Gail's side and the older woman immediately wrapped an arm around her shaking shoulders while turning the volume up for Ana.

"Annie-Rose was just four years old when she was involved in a road traffic incident which killed her mother and seriously harmed the driver of the other vehicle, when the police arrived on scene there was no sign of the little girl. They searched for weeks but not a single trace of her was ever found. Now we learn that the near eighteen-year missing person is case close and Annie-Rose happens to be none other than the girlfriend of CEO of Grey Enterprise Holdings Christian Grey. This is a breaking news story and we'll bring you more when we have it."

Holy shit. Ana couldn't believe it. There were pictures of her as a child followed by pictures of her with Christian, she'd never seen anyone taking their photo so how on earth had they caught them like this? Ana closed her eyes and shook her head, holy shit this was not good.

"Ana come and sit down." Gail said and Ana allowed the older woman to lead her to the couch as she was in such a state of shock she didn't know what else to do or say. Why did this have to happen? Why did it have to happen now when Christian wasn't here?

"He's going to hate me." Ana choked as Gail wrapped a blanket around her shivering shoulders.

"What? Who sweetie?" Gail asked.

"Christian… he's going to hate me, hate this." She signalled the TV with her head. "He likes his privacy, he told me that himself…"

"Now, now, I'm sure Christian suspected this could happen, I'm sure he'd thought about it. Don't be surprised if a press release comes out of GEH before you even speak with him." Gail said gently and Ana sighed, there was no way he'd prepared for this because he would have told her if he thought this would happen.

"We go live now to the Montesano Police Department where Chief Lloyd will be giving a press statement any minute now. Michaela what can you tell us about this breaking news story today that Annie-Rose Steele has been found alive in Seattle?" The picture went from a news studio to live scenes outside the police department in Montesano, Ana could see the florist in the background where they had collected flowers for the grave, they'd been so close to the very spot they were now talking about her and there were dozens of reporters there too. How could this be such big news?

"Thanks, Joseph, so as you know Little Annie-Rose disappeared into thin air from Montesano after being in a road traffic accident, it was a huge news story at the time but she was never located and was believed to have been trafficked possibly out of the state or out of the country. Fast forward nearly eighteen years and an announcement was sent out today from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children to all the media outlets stating that the case was now closed with a positive result, meaning she had been found alive and well. Now it didn't take a lot of digging for the connection to be made to Ana Rose Steele; a recent graduate of Washington University and an Assistant at Seattle Independent Publishing. The young woman has been frequently seen with Christian Grey, the CEO billionaire bachelor of Grey Enterprises Holdings, and only recently photographs of the pair holding and hands and kissing had been circulated amongst his admirers on social media." Michaela, a gorgeous, put together caramel-skinned reporter with a perfectly smooth bob and harlot red nails explained into a microphone as they waited for the Police Chief to come and make a statement. Ana couldn't believe everything that was being said, how did they find out these things, who had been photographing her and Christian? A million and one thoughts rushed around her mind and she threw the blanket off her shoulders before marching to the window to look out at Seattle.

"Ana…"

"Please leave me alone." Ana said quietly to Gail, she didn't mean to be rude but she didn't want to talk right now, she was trying her best not to get upset but she couldn't help it. Christian was going to freak out.

Ana didn't know how long she stood there looking at Seattle trying to figure out what to do about this. Part of her wanted to run but she had nowhere to run too, another part of her wanted to climb into bed and hide but that wouldn't help either.

The ding of the elevator drew her out of her thoughts and she turned just as a frazzled looking Grace and Carrick came hurrying into the great room.

"Ana!" Grace called, relief flooding her face as she hurried over and wrapped the young woman in her arms. "We were so worried about you."

"What? Why?" Ana asked.

"Sweetheart Christian has been trying to call you like crazy." Grace said and Ana looked at Carrick who nodded to confirm.

"I left my phone in my bag when I got home from work." She said glancing at the sideboard where her bag was. "I'm fine though."

"You don't look fine." Grace said hugging her again and Ana fought her tears as she accepted the motherly comfort. "Come on, let's get a hot cup of tea, Mia and Elliot will be here shortly."

"Mia and Elliot are coming?" Ana asked as she allowed Grace to lead her over to the couch.

"Yes, after all this broke, we realised we needed to band together as a family. Christian is on his way, until he gets home, we'll be here with you." Grace explained before hurrying towards the kitchen. Ana couldn't stop the tears now. Carrick gently took a seat on the coffee table opposite her and gently placed his hand over hers which she'd cupped together on her lap. It was the fact that Grace had said that the family was getting together that was bringing Ana to tears. She didn't have to deal with this alone because she had a family.

"Are you ok?" Carrick asked pulling a hanky out of his pocket and passing it to Ana. She looked up at the TV where they had started re-showing the clip of the police chief speaking earlier.

"We can confirm that earlier this month after a tip-off, an officer from Montesano PD made contact with a woman who we believed may have been Annie-Rose Steele, after making inquiries and running a DNA test we received a positive match we were able to close the case with a confirmed, positive outcome. After all these years, we at Montesano PD are grateful to have been given closure on what has haunted most of us all these years. It was an extraordinary story. Annie-Rose is now taking time with her family and friends to come to terms with the news and we are continuing to liaise with her family here in Montesano. While we can celebrate, good news here, we have to remember that this was a tragic case and that a child and her family have lost eighteen long years. Please respect their privacy at this time. Thank you."

Grace knocked the mute button on the TV just as reporters were asking questions, as Gail bought the tea tray through. Ana shook her head, they didn't have a clue what eighteen years lost had done to her. She had been trafficked as a sex slave, had spent three years being tortured for other people's pleasure before she had been shipped around to just be abused again and again. It was being hailed as the good news story of the year but it wasn't good news, all finding out her truth had done was caused her to have more questions than she'd ever had before, and forced her to confront her past.

Elliot and Mia arrived and came over to sit with all of them on the couch. Ana was trying to appear as cool as a cucumber but she was failing miserably. Every time she breathed, she shivered and there shots now coming from outside the apartment building showing that the press had gathered there hoping to get a glimpse of her or Christian. It was incredible frightening.

"I don't understand what the big deal is." Ana whispered out of the blue making everyone around her jump at the sound of her voice.

"What do you mean sweetie?" Grace asked taking her hand which was very clammy.

"Well, I get it I've been missing eighteen years but that's it, why are they so bothered about Christian?"

"Ana, Christian is a billionaire, he's been the most prominent bachelor in the state all these years, him having a girlfriend is a big deal, him having a girlfriend who has been a missing person for eighteen years is a huge deal." Mia replied in her usual loud and overexcited way. Ana just glanced at Grace who gave her a stiff smile. Grace was beginning to realise Ana had no clue what Christian's position was, what he meant, and what he was worth, and she fell in love with the young woman just a little bit more.

It was a little bit over an hour later when the elevator dinged and everyone stood as Christian came rushing into the apartment.

"Ana." He breathed as he finally lay eyes on her and she slowly shuffled away from the family until she had a free run to go to him. He captured her in his arms as the stress of everything that had happened hit her and the tears came hard and fast. Christian just held her, kissed her head, and reminded her how much he loved her by whispering sweet nothings in her ear. It had been a long flight, not knowing what was going on back at home.

The family just watched the scene, a beautiful reunion filled with sadness at everything that had unfolded in the last few hours. Grace turned back to the TV, which was once again muted but still replaying the story.

"Let me get you to bed. I heard you had a long night." Christian whispered. Ana nodded, she was beyond exhausted and it was really hitting her now Christian was with her and she was able to once again feel truly safe.

He nodded towards his mother and she understood, they would wait, Christian needed to take care of Ana first. He took her to the bedroom and helped her into her pyjamas, it was clear she was too exhausted to even function. There was no point even trying to have a conversation with her, but he was just glad he was here, looking at her. When he got the call to say the story had broken he'd tried to call her, to reassure her, when he hadn't been able to get through he'd honestly thought the worse and that she'd ran. Thank heavens he had Wifi on the plane or he would have gone out of his mind, thankfully Sawyer told Taylor that Ana was in the apartment with Mrs Jones and that his family was on the way to them. Otherwise, he didn't know how he would have coped on the way home.

His family, his incredible family. They dropped everything when they were told what was going on and rushed to Ana's side. He couldn't ever thank them enough for that. Ana was his world and the thought that she would be alone dealing with this while he was trying to get back from New York had been devastating. Of course, he knew she wasn't truly alone, Taylor had told him what had happened with Ana and Mrs Jones last night, how Ana had a nightmare and went to play the violin and how Mrs Jones had comforted her. He truly had the best staff in the world and they'd all be getting a healthy Christmas bonus this year.

Once Ana was tucked up in bed, he ran his fingers through her hair until she fell asleep, it didn't take long and once he was sure she wouldn't wake when he moved, he headed out to the great room where the family continued to wait for him.

"How is she?" Grace asked standing to meet him as he walked tiredly towards them.

"Ok." He said just as Gail bought him a coffee. "Thanks Gail." He said and Gail only just managed not to smile at the fact he called her by her first name, she had no memory of him ever doing that. "She's flat out. Didn't say a word the entire time, what did she say while you guys were here?"

"Not much son." Carrick replied encouraging him to take a seat. "I think she was more worried about you than herself."

"Worried about him? Yeah Christian, your girlfriend doesn't understand why the press is interested in you."

"What?" Christian glared at Mia, what the hell was she going on about? Ana knew why the press would care right? He was sure she would understand.

"Christian, sweetheart, Ana doesn't understand who you are." Grace said taking a seat beside him. "I don't think she has any idea who you truly are in the world, you're just the man who saved her and she fell in love with… Ana doesn't get it." His mouth popped open in a little 'o' as his mother's words fell on him. He was pretty sure Ana understood, after all he'd bought her expensive things and paid off her debts and she knew that was a lot of money, he'd taken her on the helicopter and on The Grace, surely she understood that most people didn't have that luxury.

"She knows I'm rich." Christian said with a shrug.

"Yes but I don't think she quite realises how wealthy, what that means for you, your privacy, and so on. You need to get her to understand Christian or it may come as a bit of a shock." Grace explained because she was worried Ana would totally freak out when she truly understood it. Christian nodded, he would get her to understand, but first he had to deal with the fall out from this story being made public.

"I'm going to take her to Grey House tomorrow, we need to speak with the media team, release a statement from us both and I want her to have a hand in deciding what is said." Christian said and Grace smiled, her son was being incredibly thoughtful, he hated the media and she expected threats of lawsuits before she heard him talking about press releases. "Listen, thank you for coming to her tonight… I was so scared she was here alone…"

"Christian, she's family." Carrick said trying not to snap at his son for not thinking they'd come. "Despite barely knowing her, we know what she means to you, we know what you mean to her… so she's family."

"Thank you." Christian choked, his father was making him emotional, which was generally outside of his character.

"We should go, you look like you just want to crawl into bed bro." Elliot said getting to his feet. Christian nodded, he was worried Ana would have more nightmares and he wanted to be there if she did.

"Get some rest sweetheart, and when you think Ana is up for it, let me know we can all have dinner."

"Thanks Mom." Christian kissed his family goodbye before dragging his ass back to the bedroom, things had worked out despite how wrong they had all gone, now he just needed to support Ana and get through this next hurdle, and they would, together.