Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up its taken me ages to get this chapter and be happy with it, I rewrote it about twenty times before I finally became happy with the direction of this chapter and what I wanted to have in it. I had it going in another direction and had it about other things but in the end, I still wasn't 100% happy with many full rewrites and partial rewrites. But I am pleased I kept working away on it. AS I'm now happy with how it went.

I hope you all enjoy it, I haven't forgotten about this story I will be finishing it it will just take time to get done, as I won't be posting a chapter I am not 100% happy with, regardless of how long between postings. I want to be happy with it.

5 pm

Christian arrives at Ana's office and knocks on the door before entering.

"You okay baby?" He asks as he looks at her, he sees her drained face.

"Yea, have you heard from Taylor and Sawyer at all?" she askes him as she packs up what she needs to take home with her for the evening. She knows why he is here, and for once she has no issues stopping mid-way through something to get the hell out of her office.

"Taylor is outside waiting for us. Sawyer, I have spoken to him, I reminded him that Hannah is covered by his medical insurance policy that we have for him and that if there are any costs to tell the hospital to bill me directly and we will pay for it. I told him to ring once he knows what is going on." Christian says as he watches Ana pack up everything she needs. He helps her put her coat on before they both leave the office.

On the ride home Christian and Ana, ride in silence, though they are holding on to the hands of each other as if they don't they may lose each other somehow. Prescott is riding in the front with Taylor.

As they enter the apartment Christian mobile goes off.

"Grey speaking."

"Hang on I'll put you on speakerphone Sawyer." The group hears from him.

"You're on speaker now. How is Hannah?" He asks everyone can hear the worry in his voice as he askes how Hannah is doing.

"She is in surgery, it's her appendix they think, so they rushed her in for emergency surgery. I have asked them to run a toxic panel as well as checking for any poisons just in case. One of the doctors wasn't going to do it, but when I said I work for the Grey's and then your mother turned up ED, to look at a child, with her help they agreed to running every test under the sun. The blood results will take time to get the results back."

"When will she be out of surgery?" Ana asks him.

"I'm not sure, to be honest, they said it be at least an hour in surgery, if not longer. She went in about fifteen minutes ago."
"Okay well once you know more and she is out please let us know, and if she needs anything please let me know and tell her not to rush back to work to take all the time she needs to recover," Ana says back to him, not caring what Christian wants to say, she wants to look after her friend right now.

"Take all the time you need Sawyer, Taylor is back and we have Prescott on Ana now so do not worry about work. Just look after Hannah." Christian says to him, and Taylor nods and gets the message that Luke is now off the clock for as long as need. Though he also understands that this could be someone trying to get at Ana. He moves off to his office, and Prescott follows him.

Ana walks into the kitchen where Gail is working on dinner.

"Mmm Gail that smells divine."

"Hope you don't mind Sophie asked me to cook this for dinner tonight."
"No, not at all, it smells yummy. What is it?"

"She loves my homemade Sticky Chinese chicken, as well as my honey sesame chicken. She didn't really want any veges but we came to a compromise so there is roast vegetable wedges with some herbs on them in the oven. I can do something else for you guys if you want something different."
"No, we will eat what Sophie wants, she got to feel that it is okay to make meal suggestions and that we will eat it too. We do eat all together. How did things go today?"

"Judge has Carrick doing a few more things before we go to court. Sophie was real good, and brave. She has her own legal counsel court-appointed of course. Her mother isn't happy at all. She is upset, she is very worried about being taken away from us, as well as being taken away from her mother."

"That would upset any little girl. Did her mother spend any time with her today?"
"No, we did say she could, but she isn't happy that we will only allow it with supervision. The judge agrees with this fully, with the stuff we gave him in regards to her. Carrick said she is going to fight that as well."

"So this isn't going to be over as easily as we think then?"

"Sadly, no and it's Sophie that has to suffer through all of this as well. I feel for that child more, she is the one that is going to suffer from all of this, from this being delayed."

Ana doesn't say anything back to Gail, she knows there really isn't anything she can say that will be of help, she understands where Gail is coming from as she remembers what she went through with her mother, even though she was older she still struggled with what her mother put her through. As Ana sits on the barstool, watching Gail cook dinner she feels a pair of arms warm around her from behind.

"You okay?" he askes her, he can tell something is up.

"Yeah sorry, was thinking. After talking with Gail it got me thinking about what my mother put me through, wasn't good thoughts at all. Anyway, I'm going to go get changed." Ana says to him as she gets up places a kiss on his lips then heads off.

FLASHBACK

"Ana get your butt in here now," Carla yells out to Ana

"Mum I'm trying to do my homework."

"That can wait Ana I need you to do the washing and cook dinner for us all I have to go out."

"But mum this assignment is due tomorrow I need to pass, or I fail."

"School is a waste of time, Ana just do your chores, or you'll be suffering more than just failing school."

"I want to go live with Ray."

"You can't go live with him, you belong to me and not him."

"At least he cares about me more than you do." Ana snaps at her mother, she then gets a slap across the face.

"Shut your mouth, and if you ever say that to me again you'll be locked in your room with no food," Carla says as she walks out of the house. Yelling to her to not ring anyone or have anyone over or she is in even more trouble.

Ana thinks back to other times when her mother would abuse her with words, and demand her to do jobs that her mother should be doing for her.

Ana is brought out of her thoughts by Christian wrapping his arms around her.

"Baby, you okay?" He askes worry in his voice as he gently wipes the tears off Ana's face.

"Sorry was thinking back to the shit Carla put me through when I was a kid. What Sophie's mother is doing just reminds me of the shit mine put me through. The only difference is I was older so could understand more, but at least she is out of her mother's care and in better care. But still, I just hope her mother doesn't do the mind games on her that mine did on me." Ana says to him as she leans into his embrace.

"I've got you, baby." He says as she then turns and just lets the tears flow, down as he hotels her close to his body, he moves and lays the two of them down on their bed.

Ten minutes later, Ana has fallen asleep in Christian's arms. He gets up off the bed and picks up his mobile, and then rings his father.

"Dad." Carricks hears through the phone.

"You okay son?"

"Tired, I'm ringing about Carla."

"Yea," Carrick says he thinks he knows what he is calling about.

"Ana isn't coping os well with what Carla is doing as well as with dealing with Taylor's court hearing. I think she needs mum to come around and talk to her, be there for her. She is letting me be there but I think mum would be better for her. Also, I can't have Carla causing more trauma to her, cause if she is, I want her to have no contact with us."

"You sure about that son."

"I am sure, I will run it past Ana but I am pretty sure she will feel the same. Carla more times than not causes Ana undue stress and worry. Carla only ever thinks about herself and how things feel for her. She doesn't think about Ana and how she feels at all. Carla rang the night we all were at your place after the news broke. She insulted Ana over the phone. Told her she should have thought of her, and that she had a right to know what is going on in Ana's life as well as have a say in it. She even tried to get us to pay for her to come to visit and be put up in the best hotel in town. Ana said no to her, and stood her ground with her. She finally has gotten the courage to stand up to her mother. I was thinking that is properly why Carla is doing what she is doing. Ana has cut her off so she is doing whatever she can to get money. We all know she only thinks about money."

"You are true there, Ray was wondering why Carla had done what she has done. It is good to know that Ana has finally stood up to her. Once I hear from your mother I will let her know that she needs to stop by and see Ana, I know she is still at work dealing with an urgent child neglect case."

"Sounds like mum."

"It sure does son, it sure does."

Two hours later

Christian is working in his office on some paperwork, Ana is with Grace in the bedroom. Taylor walks in to talk to the office and sits down in the chair in front of the desk.

"Luke rung. Hannah is going to make a full recovery it was her appendix. It had ruptured, I told him to take as much time as he needed. He said the doctors have said Hannah will require two weeks off work and I told him he is to stay home. He also said so far her blood's so far have come back clean of drugs, but there are still further tests to come back. So it looks like this was just a freak medical event. And not related to security issues."

"That is bloody good to hear, that it's not a security issue," Christian says as he leans back in his chair and places his hands behind his head.

"Yea, as I was worried it was with everything else going on, now is the perfect time to attack in a way. With me busy with the custody battle, and the IRS investigating you. Taking Luke out basically takes our main team out of action and doing it on a day when I'm in court, is a good day to attack. It's made me go over a few things, I'm employing a past Army buddy to come help us out. This today showed an issue I hadn't even thought about."

"You can't think of everything Jason."

"Yes, I should. I'm head of security, I should be making sure there aren't loopholes like this don't happen, and when issues do happen there should be plans in place to cover things. The only good thing was Ana thinking as she did. And you both being at work in secure buildings. Had it been anywhere else it could have been a big nightmare."

"Yes Ana did think well, I was surprised when she rang and told me what she had already done, though I had no idea Hannah was Luke's partner."

"I knew he had one, she is listed on his files, including where she works. I just never put two and two together. They've known each other since they were kids. She never causes any issues for Luke in regards to work. She seems to understand his work and what it can be like. I never hear him complain about her moaning about the hours he has to pull at times or the days even weeks away. They do share an apartment."

"The good ones aren't easy to find."

"No, they sure aren't, thank god we have been lucky so far."

"We have been extremely lucky."