A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Disclaimer: I on nothing.

Chapter 19: I must learn to be content

It was Sunday evening, and the Steele's still hadn't heard a thing.

The police had promised to keep them updated with any new information about Leila and Jack, but they hadn't heard anything new for hours. Ana felt restless, and judging by the way Kate was constantly tapping her foot against the floor and the way Ray and Carla would continually glance down at their phones waiting for any incoming calls, Ana wasn't alone.

"Do you think we should call the police station?" Kate asked after several minutes of silence. "Maybe they got some new information but forgot to tell us about it."

"Maybe," Ana said, glancing over at Ray to see what he thought.

"I called them two hours ago and they still didn't have any new information," Ray said. "I'll give it one more hour and then I'll try again."

"Okay," Ana agreed.

There was another few moments of silence as the four of them sat, waiting for something - anything - to happen.

Ray's phone suddenly buzzed with an incoming call, and the four of them were suddenly on high alert.

"Is it the police?" Kate asked urgently, getting to her feet. Ana did the same.

"No," Ray said, staring at the phone screen in disbelief. "It's Leila."

Ana and Kate looked at each other, eyes wide. Ana could feel her heart pounding wildly in her chest.

Ray quickly fumbled to answer the phone, hitting speaker. "Leila?"

There was a brief pause on the other end until Leila spoke in a quiet voice: "Hi Dad."

Kate covered her mouth with her hands while Ana's face broke out into an earsplitting grin. Carla and Ray both looked stunned and elated.

"Leila," Ray said, his voice quivering slightly. "Sweetheart, where are you? We've been worried sick about you."

"I'm at the bus station," Leila replied, her voice still rather quiet.

"You are?" Carla asked, looking surprised. "Which bus station, sweetie?"

"The one on 5th and Madison."

Kate gasped, and Ana looked at her with wide eyes. Neither of them could believe it - Leila was back in Portland!

"You're in the city?" Ray asked, his voice hopeful. "When we spoke to the police, they said you had driven across state lines into Nevada."

There was a brief silence on Leila's end. "Yeah, I was in Nevada," she admitted. "Jack and I were going to Las Vegas to… to get married, but he abandoned me at a motel. I used the last of my money to take a bus back to Portland, and now I'm here." She paused again. "If it's alright with you, I… I want to come home now."

Ray let out a breath before bowing his head, looking beyond relieved his youngest daughter hadn't gotten hitched.

"Of course you can come home, sweetheart. We're so glad you're back," Carla said into the phone, smiling tearfully. "Your father and I will come by to pick you up right now, okay?"

"Okay," Leila said.

"We love you sweetheart."

There was a brief silence on the other end. "I love you too," Leila said after a moment, sounding like she was holding back tears. She hung up the phone with a click.

Ana and Kate immediately moved toward each other and embraced, laughing with relief. Carla and Ray both clasped hands with each other, smiling widely with each other.

"Our baby's coming home," Carla said, bringing her other hand up to her mouth. "Oh my God, I'm so relieved!"

"Me too," Ray smiled, getting to his feet. "Come on, darling, let's go and get her."

"What should Ana and I do?" Kate asked as Carla went to grab her purse.

"You two stay here," Ray said. "One of you call the police station and let them know we found Leila so they can call off the search."

"I'll do that," Kate said quickly, pulling out her phone.

"Let us know when you're with her," Ana said to her parents as they made their way to the door.

"We will," Ray nodded. With that, he and Carla waved goodbye before heading out the front door.

Once they were gone, Ana clasped her hands together before bringing them up to her lips, closing her eyes in a silent prayer to God, hoping that her little sister was really back again.

It was over an hour later when Carla and Ray finally came home, and Ana and Kate immediately rushed to the front door the moment they heard it open. Their faces broke out into identical earsplitting grins when they saw Leila standing in front of them, wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans while holding a small duffel bag in her hand.

"Leila!" Ana and Kate said in unison before rushing forward and practically tackling their little sister in a big bear hug.

Leila let out a laugh before dropping her duffel bag at her feet and hugging her sisters back. The three of them just stood there for a few moments, holding each other tight, and Ray and Carla simply watched their three daughters reunite, smiling lovingly.

"I missed you guys," Leila admitted in a quiet voice, not attempting to pull away from the hug. Ana smiled sadly.

"We missed you too, Ladybug," she said sincerely. "Please don't scare us like that again."

"I won't," Leila said, and Ana heard her sniffle slightly. "I'm sorry for how I've been acting lately."

Ana and Kate didn't respond with words, but they both instinctively tightened their hold on her, wanting to comfort her through what was clearly a difficult thing she was working through.

"Do you want to tell us what happened?" Kate asked after a few moments. She finally pulled away to look Leila in the eye. "You said that Jack abandoned you at a motel?"

"Yeah," Leila nodded. "It was at a little rundown motel a couple hours outside of Las Vegas. I had some money on me, and I was able to catch an overnight bus back to Portland."

"So he just abandoned you in the middle of nowhere?" Kate asked, sounding angrier than Ana had ever heard her before. "What reason did he give for leaving you like that?"

Leila didn't say anything as she looked down at her feet, and Ana quickly spoke up. "It doesn't matter. She clearly doesn't want to talk about it," she said firmly, wrapping an arm around Leila's shoulders. "Let's not push her, okay?"

Kate softened slightly, looking guilty. "Right, of course. I'm sorry, Ladybug."

"Don't worry about it," Leila said, smiling softly at Kate. "Have you guys had dinner yet? I'm starving."

"We've all been too worried to eat," Ray said. "But now that you're back, how about we order a pizza?"

The girls all agreed, and Ana saw a genuine smile on Leila's face - the first one she'd seen in a very long time. Ana couldn't help but smile too as she and Kate helped Leila bring her things upstairs to her bedroom.

~/~

It was amazing how quickly things went back to normal in the Steele household once Leila came back. The cloud of worry that had fallen over the family for nearly 48 hours had finally lifted, and for the first time in what felt like forever, Ana felt like everything would be okay again.

Leila had gone through a noticeable change since she got back a couple days ago, much to everyone's relief. She was a lot less moody, and she began opening up about her feelings more to her parents and sisters. She still didn't really want to talk about what happened with Jack, which Ana understood. Leila was likely humiliated by that whole experience, but Ana knew she would talk about it once she was ready.

However, Ana couldn't help but have this nagging worry that Jack wasn't gone for good. What had caused him to just up and leave Leila like that? There must have been a reason, and until Ana knew for sure, she would always be concerned he would come back in some capacity to fuck up their lives again.

Ana was currently sitting at her desktop computer finishing up an email to one of her professors when she heard a light knock on her bedroom door.

"Hey," Leila opened the door and stepped inside. "Sorry, are you busy?"

"No, not at all," Ana said quickly, saving her draft before exiting out of her email. "What's up?"

"Nothing much. Mom and Dad are downstairs talking about whether or not they should take me to see a therapist," Leila grimaced, walking over the Ana's bed and sitting down. "Mariah and I are going to the movies a bit later, so I'm gonna hide out upstairs until then."

"Do you not want to go to a therapist?" Ana asked.

Leila shrugged. "I don't know. Really, I just want everything to go back to normal, and I feel like seeing a shrink would indicate something's wrong with me."

"Well, with everything that's happened with you over the last few months, therapy may not be a bad idea," Ana said fairly. "And if Mom and Dad want you to go, it's only because they love you and want what's best for you."

"Yeah," Leila said, gazing down at Ana's comforter and picking at a loose thread. "I know that now. I had thought that Jack wanted what was best for me too, but I realized everything he said to me was a bunch of bullshit."

Ana felt her breath hitch slightly at the mention of Jack, and she got up from her desk to go sit beside Leila on the bed. "If you don't mind me asking," she began hesitantly. "Did the two of you ever…?"

Leila went bright red, shaking her head. "No. We never went all the way, but we did do… some stuff… together. I only did it because I really thought I loved him, but at the same time I still wasn't totally comfortable having sex with him because I'm technically a minor. That's when he suggested we go to Vegas to get married." Leila let out a small sigh through her nose, looking down at the floor. "He said if we were husband and wife, we could finally be together for real and we wouldn't have to be ashamed of our relationship. And I was stupid enough to believe him… I guess I felt us running away together was romantic, like Romeo and Juliet."

Ana didn't say anything as Leila paused for a moment, and rage against Jack began to build inside of her. "So he convinced you to marry him, basically kidnapped you, drove you all the way to Nevada, and then just abandoned you at a motel? God, what a piece of shit."

Leila grimaced, looking down at her hands while she twisted her fingers on her lap. "Um… that's actually not the whole story."

Leila glanced up at Ana rather anxiously, and Ana frowned at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Jack didn't just up and leave me randomly," Leila explained. "I didn't tell you guys, but someone came to visit us at our motel and talked Jack into leaving me."

Ana raised her eyebrows in genuine surprise. "What? Why did you hide that from us?"

"Because the guy asked me not to tell anyone what he did," Leila explained.

Ana was baffled. "Who was the guy?"

"Christian."

Ana could only stare at Leila, blinking a couple times as she tried to absorb this information. "Christian?" she repeated after a moment, trying to confirm if she heard the right name. "Christian Grey?"

"Yeah," Leila nodded. "He flew down to Nevada on his private jet and tracked down me and Jack at our motel. The two of them got into an argument, and then Christian told Jack that if he left me, he would give him a penthouse apartment in New York. That's when Jack agreed to leave and Christian took me home on his private jet."

Ana gaped at her sister, still shocked by this information. "B-but… I thought you took a bus here," she stammered out.

Leila smiled a bit. "Yeah, he asked me to tell you guys that. He really didn't want anyone else to know what he'd done."

"But why?" Ana asked. Why on earth wouldn't he want anyone to know what he'd done for her sister?

Leila shrugged. "He said that he was overstepping his bounds by coming to that motel and that it wasn't appropriate for him to be there. But it seemed like he and Jack had a history and there was a lot of bad blood there."

Ana frowned to herself, remembering everything Christian had told her about Jack in his email. "Yeah, there is," she said quietly.

"Christian mentioned that he was with you when you found out I had run away," Leila said quietly after a moment. Ana looked at her, and she saw Leila was gazing up at her. "He said that you seemed really worried about me."

Though it felt strange that Christian had spoken to Leila about her, Ana gave a sincere smile. "I really was worried. I love you Ladybug, and I was so afraid something bad had happened to you."

Leila didn't say anything, though Ana could see her eyes filling up with tears. Ana immediately scooched over so she could pull Leila into her arms, and Leila immediately hugged her back; they were silent for a few moments as they held onto each other, basking in each other's warmth.

"…Do you mind not telling Mom and Dad what I just told you?" Leila muttered after she finally pulled away, wiping her eyes. "About Christian?"

"Sure," Ana agreed, but she couldn't help but gaze at her in some confusion. "If Christian asked you not to tell anyone, why did you tell me?"

Leila shrugged. "I just… thought you should know," she said evasively. "Christian didn't really say anything, but I could kind of tell… I don't think Jack was the only reason he came to Nevada." She bit her lip. "I just… I don't know. I figured you'd want to know, that's all."

Ana couldn't help but smile slightly, her heart pounding loudly in her chest. "Thank you for telling me."

Leila smiled up at her sister. "Anytime. And in return you can come downstairs with me and convince Mom and Dad I don't need a shrink."

Ana giggled, getting to her feet. "I can try, but no promises Ladybug."

"You suck," Leila teased, following her to the door.

A/N: So Ana knows about Christian helping Leila… what will she do with that information, I wonder? :)

If you liked this chapter, please review! Next up, a familiar face comes to town.