My dear little broccolis💚💚💚

💚Sweetie, Let Me Give You The Daddy💚

"The best investment I ever made, was when I lost fifty million dollars and met the love of my life as a result of that."

‼️Rated M - {Out Of Characters/All Human/Alternate Universe}‼️

‼️Romance/Angst/Drama/Lemons‼️

‼️AS/CG/The Greys/The Steeles/José Rodriguez/Grace Grey‼️

💚Now, in case it wasn't clear, this will be a Christian POV story. and I know you will want Ana's PoV, but it will just be Christian.

💚 READ & REVIEW, DON'T BE A SILENT READER 💚

Chapter 2: Ruby & Glenfiddich: (4,0 K)

As the door closed behind him, Christian stood frozen, drinking in the sight of the woman he loved and hadn't seen in five years. She seemed to look the same but there were a few things that he immediately noticed about her. She was still as classy as she had been before, perched on her heels to make her look taller than she was, but she wasn't wearing any makeup. Even though Christian had noticed in the past that Ana was a rather natural girl when it came to makeup, she still always had mascara on, and some eyeliner which always made her blue eyes pop a bit more. In fact, it was that exact trick of eyeliner that caught his attention in the first place, making him notice everything about the beauty of her sapphires, noticing the difference of shades that gleamed in her eyes.

Her hair seemed longer, though he couldn't be sure since it was braided in a Dutch braid. And though he knew he had no rights to even think about it, he hoped that no other man had had the privilege of seeing her with her hair down. It was something ridiculous, and in fact, he had always expected her to rebuff him when he would point it out, but he liked the idea of seeing a side of her that the rest of the world didn't get to see. Especially when seeing her with her hair free made her so much more radiant than she already was.

But those tiny details weren't what Christian really paid attention to. What he noticed was how drained she looked. Even though it looked like she had gained a few kilos, her cheeks were hollow, and her eyes had dark circles under them; the mirth he had loved so much was no longer dancing in them.

He waited a whole minute for her to say something but when she kept silent, looking at him with her beautiful and insightful blue eyes, he finally broke the silence by clearing his throat and saying, "Shouldn't it be the other way around? I should've been the one surprising you for your birthday."

Ana didn't say anything, standing straight with her eyes still on him, analysing every single one of his moves.

"It's good to see you," he continued, trying to find the right words to not make her flee. Finally, she had come to him, and there was no way he was going to let her escape once again.

"I missed you," he added, feeling that Ana was expecting him to say something, but not the words he was blabbering like an idiot. "How are you doing?"

"You never read the letter I sent you for Christmas, did you?"

When he came back to his penthouse after spending two days with his parents for Christmas, there was a pile of mail waiting for him on his desk. He opened the letters one by one, all the while promising himself to not go over his parents for Christmas ever again. His mother had been all over his case, trying to get him to move on when she knew he didn't want to. Angela was proof enough.

Grace had even gone as far as to give him a list of therapists she knew would help and be discreet, especially when dealing with alcohol addiction. She was insistent on it not being healthy for him to keep drinking for business occasions, but Christian knew he couldn't stop drinking when talking business. There were too many times when he had closed a deal with a glass of whiskey or a bottle of wine. It would appear suspicious if he suddenly stopped doing so.

It was only when he got to the last letter that he realised that there was something odd about this one. It wasn't a brown one containing important papers, nor a newspaper, but a faint pink with handwritten destination and recipient. At first, he thought it was a trick of his imagination, but looking twice at his address, he recognised Ana's handwriting.

He turned the envelop and looked at her name, with her British address. He stared at the pink envelope, not sure of what to do. Ana had his number, so anything she wanted to tell him, she could call or text him. And the last time they talked on the phone, she told him that she wanted nothing from him but closure.

His first instincts were to call her. But it was probably too early in London time for him to call her. Several times, he turned the envelope around in his hand, debatingif he should open it or not. Did he really want the closure that this letter was bringing? He knew that his mother would push him to open it and get on with it, as she kept on telling him.

After staring at the pink envelope for an indefinite amount of time, he got up and went to the kitchen to fetch himself a bottle of whiskey. His mother had told him to get rid of all the alcohol in his place, but he had dismissed the idea and had never been happier that he hadn't poured it all down the drain. He went back to his office, the pink letter still on his desk and poured himself a glass of Glenfiddich, his hand automatically reaching for the drawer where he kept the ring he had bought for Ana.

Glass after glass, he finished the bottle, contemplating how perfect his life could have turned out if things hadn't turned so sour. He would have brought Ana back to the Eiffel Tower and proposed to her in the restaurant looking over Paris. She would have a big rock on her finger, showing to the world that he was the lucky bastard who got her. Instead, he was in his office, looking at a ring that would never be of any use to him, drinking away his sorrows whilst Ana's closure stayed hidden in her pink letter.

Though he couldn't really recall what happened that night, he knew that he never did open the letter because it was still sealed. The letter was still safe in his desk in his penthouse, in the same drawer where he had kept the ring. And he knew he never called her because the first thing he did when he woke up in the morning was check his call history.

Ana sighed, her face not showing what she was thinking, but from what he had learned about her body language over the two years they had been together, he knew that she had just decided something. He started panicking, wondering if she was going to say she should leave and not talk with him as they should, but instead she told him, stuttering and looking down at her shoes, "I didn't mean to barge in on you like that."

He locked his jaw, finally understanding why she had come. He had seen this demeanour so many times and had always prided himself that it had not been from family members. This was how his employees acted when they wanted money, a raise or some advance in their payment because of some unpredicted event.

He would have given anything he owned to never have Ana ask him for money, but this was how their relationship started. Sure, she never asked for money, and never counted how much he had paid her in front of him, but at the end of the day, she was just like the rest of them. Human.

"How much do you need?"

She snapped her head up, glaring at him and looking as if he had just insulted her. He saw her close her eyes and breathe in deep as if to calm herself before she started explaining. "That's not what I want. It's not why I came here. I'm here because ... well, I don't have a choice. You're my only option..."

Christian worriedly looked at her, the distance between them becoming more and more bothersome to him. Before he could try to get to her, she burst out, "I would need part of your liver."

"Are you ill?" he inquired, finally taking a step to get closer to her. She shook her head, walking away from his desk so there would still be space between them. He stopped in his tracks, repressing the hurt he felt at this obvious way she was trying to keep her distance from him.

"No. I'm fine. I'm okay. I just ... I have a young daughter and she's the one who's ill." She stopped for a second and took another deep breath. Christian realised that it was the first time he had seen her so vulnerable.

"She has liver failure, and she needs a donor. I'm not compatible and neither is Jose. I remember your mother saying that you are AB negative that one Christmas she showed me your baby pictures and…" She paused, visibly distressed by the topic. "She's on the waiting list but the doctors have made it clear that she wouldn't make it through the wait." Another pause and she raised her eyes to look straight at him again. "What I came here to ask you is to save my baby's life."

Though he knew that his first thought should go to Ana's daughter and how helpless Ana must be feeling at this moment, all he could think of was that Ana got her kid after all. This was the reason he took so long to tell her how he felt, why he didn't try as hard as he could have after she stopped their relationship: because he knew that in the end, he couldn't give her what she really wanted in life.

But still, selfishly, he had hoped she would change her mind, especially after she started working so much with Raymond, and she would realize that the two of them were better off without children.

"I know you might think I have no right asking you this, and I know how you feel about kids in general, but I can't wait for that transplant and watch my daughter die. I refuse to do so. And — "

He held his hand up to stop her rambling and used the phone on his desk to buzz Andrea so she would come in the room. His PA almost waltzed in, all smiles and happy, but her smile dropped as soon as she saw the distance between her boss and the brunette.

When he had still been in a relationship with Ana, Andrea had mentioned on several occasions that he was a much easier and nicer boss to work for. That, and the fact that he used to spend so much time in New York with Ana, had given her a chance at a real social life.

Now he was working her around the clock, no longer having Ana over his shoulder scolding him when he contacted his PA when he was abroad with very little regard for the time difference. But the fact was that Andrea was excellent at her job, and he knew he never had to repeat himself with her, or even explain things. She often anticipated his needs without him to having to think about them, and she would always make his schedule flow smoothly. In fact, he dreaded the day she was going to get married and ask for a week off for her honeymoon.

"Call Taylor and tell him we're taking the jet to New York. Call Ros as well to let her know that I'm coming then postpone all my meetings for today. I'll call you in the afternoon to reschedule them."

"What about you video conference with Mr Khan? It's in an hour and a half."

"I'll call him from the plane."

Andrea nodded and left, though she quickly glanced at Ana who hadn't moved, her brows knotted with worry. As soon as they were alone again, she turned her head to Christian, shaking it as she told him, "You don't have to come to New York. I just need you to go to the doctor to do some tests. You might not be compatible."

"You said we have the same blood type."

"There are additional tests to do. This is a liver transplant. The doctors need to be sure yours is … healthy."

She looked him straight in the eyes, condemnation in hers, and he knew straight away that she was aware of the problem he had had with alcohol in the past. But that was years ago and except for that Christmas when he got her letter, he had never touched a bottle again if it wasn't for business.

"I'm not an alcoholic, Anastasia. I haven't had a single drop of alcohol in a month. Don't you want to know if I can help you as soon as possible?" His words came out a bit harsher than he had intended them to, but he hated that she could think so little of him.

She nodded, not arguing with him, and walked towards the door without adding anything else. He followed her, though they stayed silent for the whole elevator ride to the lobby, and as they were waiting for Taylor to pick them up, he finally asked the question that had been burning his lips,

"What about the father?"

Christian kept his eyes on the people passing by, though he saw from the corner of his eye that she slightly shook her head, her lips pressed into a line and explained, "He's not around. You know, some men just don't want to get involved."

He didn't say anything, fully aware that he was one of those men.

When Taylor pulled up in front of them to drive them to his jet, Christian asked about her life in London. "I heard you stayed in London a year longer than necessary."

"Yes. We liked it there, but at one point I was missing my friends, and I wanted my daughter to see where I grew up. It's the only past she'll ever get, and I wanted to make sure she would get it."

Christian looked at her as she was watching out the window, remembering how this was something that seemed so important to Ana, and yet she never tried to find it. He did. He had hired a PI to look through her past and find her biological parents, but it wasn't successful. She was just another orphan found in front of a hospital when she was barely a couple of days old.

He didn't even know if she knew it herself since she never told him anything about it. But in all honesty, he was pretty sure that Ana didn't like her life in Philadelphia. Though the sourest memory she had was of her last family, she had told him on a couple of occasions that her childhood even before the Millers was far from ideal.

For a moment, they stayed in awkward silence, Ana still looking out the window, until she turned her head to look at him, her ocean eyes saying what she was about to say before she even opened her mouth,

"Thank you so much for doing this, Christian. I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to help my child."

"This isn't utterly selfless," he honestly told her. "I still have feelings for you, Ana. And I'm not going to make the same mistake twice. Of course, I don't mind helping someone in need, but I won't lie and pretend that I'm not over the moon that you thought of me. Or that the father is no longer in the picture."

For a microsecond, she scrutinised his soul before giving him a forced, polite smile, and looking back through the window,

"I'm sorry about how things ended, Christian. I really am. I know that I was angry, and I didn't let you speak your truth. And maybe I should have been more forthcoming as well, and not let my past mistakes influence my decisions back then. But things are different now."

.~°~. .~°~. .~°~.

They didn't talk much in the plane either, mostly because Christian first had his videoconference with Mr Khan, and then was busy working, catching up what he was missing for traveling. For the first time since they traveled together, Ana mostly slept through the whole journey, though he was sure it was because she had been so worried about her kid that she hadn't even taken time to rest.

Shortly before landing, Christian closed his laptop and really looked at Ana as she was still sleeping. There was nothing he wanted more at that moment than to go next to her and take her in his arms, but as she said, things had changed. Even if the father was not around, she had a kid now, and she was going to do what Elliott had done for his children: she was going to prioritise her child. And she was certainly not going to get back with a guy who couldn't spare a minute for a kid.

This grand gesture he just did of putting his day on hold was more a subtle statement he made for her rather than something he would regularly do. He put her first because he knew, now, that this was what she would have wanted him to do when she called him four years ago.

For a few minutes, he just appreciated seeing her sleeping in his presence. He noticed an ugly bracelet made of macaroni that her daughter had probably made for her, as well as a necklace that he had never seen on her before. He secretly hoped that there was no romantic attachment to this necklace, fully aware that the absence of the kid's father didn't mean the absence of a lover in Ana's life.

She stirred and slowly woke up as they landed. They didn't speak much on their way to the hospital because he was on the phone with Ros, syncing his schedule to hers and seeing what he could get out of being in New York once he would have done the tests necessary for Ana. She received a couple of phone calls that she diverted into text conversations, clearly not keen on having him listen to what she had to say.

When they arrived at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, Christian followed Ana, keeping to himself his questions on how she could afford such a place for her daughter. After all, maybe Raymond had great health insurance in his firm. The two of them barely had to wait before a doctor came in, smiling at Ana as he informed them, "Mr Rodriguez informed us that you were coming, so I stayed a bit longer to do the tests as soon as possible. If I can give you that peace of mind, maybe you'll sleep for once."

Ana politely smiled to the doctor, and sat by the door whilst the man in white ushered Christian into his office and asked him as he sat by his desk,

"So, Mr Grey, do you know why you're here?"

"It's just a test for now, right?"

"Yes. Miss Steele mentioned that you might have had some inclination towards some substances in the past, so we will start with CT and MRI scans. Depending on those results, we'll move on to further tests. I can get you scheduled for Thursday. How does it work for you?"

Christian clenched his jaw, once again reminded of how low Ana thought of him. She clearly thought that he was an alcoholic. And though Elliott never said anything, Christian knew it was probably because his brother had told the brunette. It was perhaps how Elliott had managed to get Ana to promise to come visit on his birthday.

He listened to the doctor explain the risks of the operation, and how vital it was for Ana's child whilst he was taking some of his blood. He also told him that once they had the results of the tests, he would have to follow a certain diet to increase their chances, and that he should abstain from any intake of alcohol from now on until he was fully recovered from the surgery.

Half an hour later, Christian was dismissed by Dr Cohen and left the room. Ana was still by the door, and anxiously asked, "Do you want to meet her?"

"Who?"

"My daughter."

In all honesty, he didn't really want to do it. He still had a lot to do, and he didn't fancy meeting the person who most likely ruined this chance of Ana and him being anything more than casual. But he knew that if he wanted to win Ana back, he had to do everything the way she wanted. Her kid was now the most important thing in her world, and if he wanted Ana to include him in her world once again, he would have to handle adding the child to his life, somehow.

So he just nodded and followed her as she walked through the wards. As soon as she opened the door, there was a happy scream and Ana rushed to the bed, hugging her daughter. Christian stayed by the door, just nodding at Jose who had gotten up from the bed to give the mother and daughter some space.

The kid looked ill, despite her big smile. Her skin was sickly, yellowish, and she was alarmingly skinny. But other than that, he could see Ana in the girl. They shared the same eyes and hair colour. They were even styled the same way, which he understood was done on purpose when the little girl marvelled that Ana's braid was still intact like hers.

In face shape, they looked nothing alike. But Christian put that on the fact that the little girl still had her baby face, whereas Ana had a very well-defined bone-structure, with high cheekbones.

It took him a moment to understand what was unusual between mother and daughter: they were both speaking Spanish, but what was even more surprising was the fact that the little girl quickly switched to English when Ana introduced him, "This is Christian. He's going to try and help you."

"Ana …" Jose said with a warning tone, but whatever he had wanted to tell her was interrupted by the little girl who was completely oblivious of the tension between the two best friends and happily explained, "Gabby said I will be allowed to go home if I eat all my food tonight."

Ana smiled to her daughter, promising to celebrate with a stuffed toy, and Christian looked at the bed where the kid was, seeing many stuffed teddy bears already and thinking that she didn't necessarily need another one.

He glanced at Jose, who was paying no attention to him, and just as he tried to figure out a polite way to leave them alone the nurse with the name tag Gabriella came in and asked to speak to Ana. He decided to wait for her to come back before telling her he would go.

He stayed by the door, leaning against the doorframe as Jose replaced Ana by the little girl's bed as the child asked in Spanish,

"Tío Jose, podemos ir al cine, mañana?" (Uncle Jose, can we go to the movies tomorrow?)

"No lo creo, Grace. Primero, tienes que ser más fuerte." (I don't think so, Grace. First, you have to be stronger.")

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.~°~. .~°~. .~°~.

💚Your thoughts and opinions are always welcomed💚

💚 So, finally, we get the second chapter. Hope you'll like it, let me know.

💚So yes, Ana had her kid, but as I said, she did not show any signs of being pregnant when she saw Elliott eight months after her birthday.

💚What do you think Ana in this chapter? and Christian?

💚What do you think of Ana's assumptions towards Christian's alcoholism?

💚 I'm always curious about your favourite part, and what you think will happen next, so let me know.

💚 E L James owns the names of the characters from the Fifty Shades franchise, Everything else is mine (including the mistakes and grammar errors).

Love, Mina 💚💚💚