Chapter 58: Becoming Isaac Grey (Christian's POV)

"I need to know," Ken said once the ladies were out of the room. "How much control are you wanting to have? I mean specifically of the mental health services that you're going to be funding. Do you want a say on who we hire, for example?"

"No, I don't need that," I answered truthfully. "I would appreciate being kept informed, but I don't have time to be on your board of governors, so I don't expect to make any decisions for you."

Ken nodded pensively as he rubbed his chin. "I was already planning on quarterly reports for our stakeholders."

I responded, "I'd prefer to hear a little more often if possible. It doesn't have to be every week, but maybe once a month? If it's something I'm going to continue to invest in, I'd like to have a good idea of what's going on at any given time, but I don't need details. I don't expect to know any confidential information about the kids you're rescuing. I do expect you'll take every precaution to protect them. I just want to know in general what you're doing."

"I can report more often," Ken assured me. "As long as, like you said, I don't have to include too many details. I hate writing long reports, and so does Raina. It's one of the reasons we want to do our own thing. It's just so damn tedious, and it takes time away from more important things. But I get that you want to be kept informed. We believe in transparency when it comes to how we operate. So yeah, I get it."

I started to say, "I wouldn't expect…"

At that moment, our conversation was interrupted by the sound of gunshots. Holy fuck! Ken and I both rose to our feet and rushed to the door, where Taylor stopped me immediately. "It's not secure yet, sir," he told me quickly and forcefully.

"Where's Ana?" I asked as I panicked. "And where did the shots come from?"

"Clear!" Wesson's voice rang out, so we ran as fast as we could towards him… to the ladies' room. My heart was in my throat, knowing that my Ana was in there, where the shots had come from. Where the fuck was her security?

The entire restaurant was absolute chaos, so it took longer than it should have to get to the door of the ladies' room. And there… I witnessed the most gruesome scene. No, not as bad as finding Ana in my playroom after Hyde's attack, but just nearly. There was blood, broken glass, and puke everywhere! My eyes found Ana quickly, and she appeared to be uninjured, thank God! She was being helped up off the floor by Perez. Prescott's body lay next to her, where Wesson was checking her vitals. Was she dead?

"Ana!" I cried as I ran towards her.

"Christian!" She fell into my arms, crying. "I'm OK! I'm not hurt at all! Isaac covered me. He protected me. I didn't even see it happen. I just heard it."

Only now that she was safe in my arms did I look around at the gory mess. There was a body on the floor, but the face was unrecognizable. It appeared he'd been shot at close range, and there was blood all over the wall behind where he'd been standing. Other than Prescott, that was the only body on the floor. Ken was in one corner holding Raina, who was crying hysterically. And in another corner, Kelly was wiping Isaac's face with what appeared to be a wet paper towel. He made eye contact with me, and I noticed that he appeared to have been crying but was working hard to control it.

"Christian, I need…" Before Ana could finish her thought, she leaned over and threw up on the floor. Without letting go of her, I grabbed a paper towel and wet it. We were close enough to the sinks that I could do so without moving us. I wiped her face. Thankfully, she'd had the foresight to put her hair up in her business bun.

"Let's get you out of here," I told her gently once I'd wiped the vomit from her mouth.

"Has someone called 911?" Ana asked as we left the ladies' room and emerged into the still chaotic restaurant.

I didn't need to answer her question because the police and paramedics arrived the next moment. It took a few minutes for the police to clear the restaurant of everyone except those who had been involved. Ana and I sat down at an empty table and waited. I knew the police would want to question her, and I also wanted to make sure she was checked over by a paramedic. She was shaken but uninjured. Her main concern was the smell of her breath after throwing up. I got her a ginger ale and some mints from the bar, and that seemed to calm her down a bit.

It took a few minutes for the police to come to us because their first priority was the crime scene, if that's what it was… The ladies' room, where there were two bodies on the floor. Isaac and Kelly came out and sat down at our table. Isaac was visibly shaking, so I stood up, removed my jacket, and put it over his shoulders. I had a lot of questions I wanted answered, but I was very uncharacteristically patient, knowing that Ana and Isaac were both still in shock.

A moment later, a uniformed police officer pulled up a chair and sat down between Isaac and Ana.

"I'm Officer Hayes, and I'd like to ask a few questions if that's OK."

Ana nodded. "Yes, that's OK."

"Did any of you witness… what happened here?" he asked.

Ana replied, "I was in the restroom when the shooting happened. I didn't see him actually get shot because Isaac here was sheltering me. He protected me. But I know what happened."

"OK, you're Anastasia Steele, correct?" the officer asked. When Ana nodded, he turned to Isaac and asked, "And what is your name?"

"Isaac Horowitz," he answered. "The son of the rat bastard whose dead body is in there. Joseph Horowitz."

"Joseph Horowitz!?" I exclaimed. "What the fuck was Joseph fucking Horowitz doing in the ladies' room of the Mile High Club?"

"He was there for Raina," Ana answered calmly. "I think he must have already been hiding in there when we went in. I think he must have snuck up on Sam. I don't know what he did to her. I didn't hear anything, but I was throwing up. Raina was helping me. When we came out of the stall, we saw Sam passed out on the floor. And then we heard his voice. He was there to kill Raina. I tried talking to him, to convince him that he couldn't get away with killing her, but he said he knew he was going to leave here in a body bag, and he wasn't going to be the only one. I'm sorry, Isaac…"

"No, don't do that," Isaac told Ana. "I don't need pity. I hated him, and I'm not sad he's dead. It's just… shocking."

"Were you in there when… your father was shot?" Officer Hayes asked Isaac sympathetically.

Isaac answered, "Don't call him my father. He was never a father to me. But, yeah, I saw it. I was sitting right over there with Kelly when I thought I saw him. It was just a glimpse, and I thought I was seeing things because I knew he was hiding from the FBI, so I wouldn't expect to see him at the Mile High Club. But then… again, I wasn't sure I'd really seen what I thought I saw… but I thought I saw some guy that looked like him headed to the restrooms. Then, not long after that, I saw Ana and her friend go to the restrooms. And I just felt… something's not right here. I told Kelly that I needed to just check on something, and that if I wasn't back in a minute, to call 911."

"That was the reason I was already on the 911 call when the shots rang out," Kelly explained. "I didn't know what to tell the dispatchers at first, just that I thought there might be a crime in progress at the Mile High Club. But when the shots happened… it was loud enough for the dispatcher to hear. They sent you guys right away. I couldn't tell them anything because I didn't know what was happening, just that there were gunshots. I was scared. I knew Isaac was in there, and I thought… When I saw that other people were headed that way, I felt it was safe enough for me to go, too."

"OK, I'll come back to that," the officer told Kelly. "Who are you?"

"My name's Kelly Kramer. I'm Christian Grey's cousin, just visiting from Michigan."

I nodded at Kelly. The world didn't know anything about my birth family yet, but she'd just opened the door for questions, if her statement got out. I needed to be prepared for that, on top of everything else. But I wasn't angry with her. She was proud to be my cousin, and that made me happy.

The officer asked Isaac, "Can you tell me what happened when you first went to the room where you thought the person you saw may have gone?"

Isaac answered, "When I entered the hallway where the restrooms are, I saw Nick Perez. He's Ana's CPO, and he was waiting outside the ladies' room for her. I told him what I suspected, and that I just wanted to peak my head in the door and make sure they were OK. He said he hadn't heard anything suspicious, but we both cracked the door open far enough to see that my fears were… well-founded, to say the least. Nick wanted to charge in there with his gun blazing at first, but I warned him that he could get them all killed if he did that. That's when he came up with the idea of me distracting him. I knew I could do it… because Joseph knew me and would be surprised to see me. So that's what I did. The funny thing… no, not funny at all… I'd imagined confronting him. I wanted to say so much to him. He's the one who killed my mom, and I know it, but you guys will never be able to prove it. It doesn't matter now. Anyway… I had to remain calm because Ana and her friend were in there, and Joseph had his gun pointed at Ana's friend's head. I spoke as calmly as I could and moved to stand between him and Ana. I knew I couldn't save them both, and the other girl was probably going to get shot, but I needed to protect Ana if I could."

"Thank you, Isaac," Ana told him softly. Her voice was full of unshed tears, and damn it all if I didn't want to cry myself.

Isaac ignored Ana and continued, "Nick's plan worked. He was able to sneak in without Joseph seeing him and get behind him. I knew he was going to shoot him, so I got ready to protect Ana as best I could. Nick announced himself and told Joseph to put down his gun. Joseph refused, and I think he would have shot the girl and then Nick. His gun did discharge, but only after he was already falling. That's why the mirror got hit, why there's broken mirror everywhere. Nick shot him first, and then he shot the mirror as he was falling. I didn't see him get his head blown off. I'd turned to shelter Ana by then. I just saw it afterwards."

Damn, that was hard, listening to Isaac speak so bluntly about witnessing his own father "get his head blown off." He wasn't exaggerating either. I'd seen the body.

"Where's Perez?" I asked, mainly as a distraction. I hadn't seen where he'd gone after helping Ana up off the floor. I knew he wouldn't have gone far.

Isaac answered, "He's right over there." He pointed to a table on the other side of the room where Perez was currently being questioned by another officer. I was happy to see one of my lawyers sitting there, along with Taylor. I'm not sure how the lawyer had known the right time to show up. Maybe she'd already been dining here today. I was glad the lawyer and Taylor were both sitting with Perez. If anybody was charged with anything today, it would be him, since he'd killed a man. But he did it to save their lives, so I felt sure they'd let him go. But it was good he wasn't talking to the police without legal representation.

There wasn't much more that Isaac or Ana needed to tell the officer. Once the interrogation was over, I made sure Ana was checked over by a paramedic. Her blood pressure was a little high, but not so much that they thought it was cause for alarm. Nevertheless, I made a mental note to make an appointment with Dr. Greene as soon as we were finished here. Isaac also got checked by the paramedics, but he was physically fine. He just needed a few extra sessions with Flynn.

Prescott wasn't dead, just knocked out, probably with chloroform. The ambulance did take her to the hospital, but they kept her mainly for observation. Her vitals were OK, so they expected she'd make a complete recovery. That was a good thing because Wesson was beside himself. He asked to accompany her to the hospital, which I agreed to. We were down two CPOs now, and we still weren't sure what was going to happen with Nick. Taylor made some calls to bring in a couple of our covert people to stand in as temporary CPOs. We weren't going to leave here with only Taylor protecting us. We'd wait for extra security to arrive.

Meanwhile, Raina had been examined and treated by the paramedics. She had a few cuts from the broken mirror, since she'd been standing near it when it was shot, but she wasn't seriously hurt. She was a nervous wreck, though. The police tried to question her, too, but she wasn't really able to communicate much. Ken got her out of there as quickly as he could, which I agreed was the best. We could go look at that office suite another day. Raina was going for an emergency session with her therapist, which Ken had arranged before they left. No doubt, this trauma would take some time for her to get through, but she was leaving alive, not seriously injured. Thank fuck for that.

An hour or so later, Ana and I were on our way home, taking Isaac and Kelly with us, when we got the call that Perez wasn't being held, but he needed to stay in town, and Taylor said we'd need to put him on administrative leave until the police completely cleared him. The police were still investigating, but they would probably rule the shooting as self defense. In the process, Perez had earned a few points with me, and once he was able to return to work, I thought he was probably best to keep as Ana's CPO until Luke Sawyer returned. I might even grow to tolerate him as my own CPO after that. He'd succeeded in saving Ana's life today, and Raina's as well, so he had my approval for the time being.

"The police never asked me to finish my story," Kelly complained as we were driving home. "I guess it was obvious what happened after the shooting. By the time I got to the ladies' room, Isaac was puking."

"Kelly, they don't really need to know all that," Isaac told her embarrassedly.

"I puked, too," Ana said with a shrug. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"Yeah, but you're pregnant," Isaac reminded her. "And… I wanted him dead. I should be happy, now. You realize… he was the only thing stopping Carrick and Grace from adopting me. Apparently, he still had parental rights that he refused to give up. Why the fuck would he even have parental rights? He was never a parent to me. Anyway, now that he's dead, they can adopt me. They don't have to wait for a judge to terminate his rights."

"That's great, Isaac," I told him. "We'll officially be brothers. I like that."

Isaac almost smiled. "Yeah, me too. But I'm still not like you."

"No, you're going to actually graduate from Harvard," I responded.

And I knew he would. I wasn't the least bit offended by his snarky comment, and I considered it a positive thing that he already felt like ribbing me after everything he'd experienced today. Even if he hated his father, it must have been extremely traumatic to witness his death. Isaac was the least violent person I knew, but now he'd witnessed two deaths by gunshots in a very short time. But he was already able to make jokes about being my brother. He really was resilient.

Mom and Dad were already waiting for us at our home when we arrived. Mom was holding Christina, but she put her down and immediately came to Isaac when we walked in. She embraced him, and he finally felt free to sob on her shoulder. I quickly moved the rest of us into the family room so Isaac and Mom could have some time to themselves. Kelly went to her guest room where she said she was going to call her mom and tell her what happened. I expected Aunt Rachel would want her to fly home as soon as possible.

Dad told me, "John Flynn said he could come by after 6. I told him we'd still be here. Is that OK?"

"Yeah, Dad, that's fine," I agreed. "That's good, actually. They can use my office."

Ana was wiped out, so I sent her to bed. It was Christina's nap time, and Ana said it would be therapeutic for her to nap with Christina, so I gave both my girls a kiss on the forehead and sent them off to bed. I told Ana I was going to call Dr. Greene and make an appointment just as a precaution, which she readily agreed to before taking Christina upstairs. Dr. Greene agreed to see Ana a couple of days later, which was fine. In my gut, I knew Ana was OK after today's event, but we just wanted to make sure.

Once I got off the phone with Dr. Greene, I filled Dad in on everything that had just happened at the Mile High Club. He felt confident that Perez wouldn't be charged and that we would only need to keep him on administrative leave for a few days before the police cleared him of any wrongdoing. Dad, like me, was very concerned about Isaac and how the death of his birth father was affecting him emotionally and mentally, whether Isaac wanted to admit it or not.

For this reason, we scheduled daily one-hour sessions between Isaac and Flynn for the next two weeks. This was helpful also because Kelly had to return to Michigan, so Isaac was missing her while also grieving… if that's what you could call it. Well, he was still grieving for his mom, but I'm not sure you'd call it that for Joseph Horowitz. He was clearly disturbed by his death, as were all of us who saw his dead body in the ladies' room of the Mile High Club. I needed a few sessions of my own with Flynn, especially considering how close Ana had also come to getting hurt.

As expected, Ana's check-up with Dr. Greene went fine. Her blood pressure was normal by then, and Dr. Greene thought it had probably been high because of the stress of all that had happened that day. She wasn't concerned at all. We got to hear the babies' heartbeats and see how much they'd grown, which made both of our days. We had two healthy boys growing in there, and I could hardly wait to meet them. Well, we didn't know for certain yet that they were boys, but Ana was certain enough. Really, I didn't mind one way or another. But in my head, I was already thinking of them as Teddy and Tommy, the nicknames we'd decided on together.

Ana was also continuing her own sessions with Dr. Patel, who was still making house calls. Over the next two weeks, they had half a dozen sessions or so. Ana's morning sickness improved, but she had new nightmares. Nevertheless, she insisted on working from home. She wanted her old employees to know she was still alive and kicking, but she was happy not to have the full load she'd had before. Instead, she focused on building the Christian and Anastasia Grey Foundation, beginning with hiring a CEO and hand selecting members of our board of directors. Ana and I would be co-chairs of this board. We had agreed to publicly launch our foundation in early March, after our wedding and subsequent honeymoon.

For the first few days after the incident at the Mile High Club, Ken didn't return my calls. Finally, I heard from him, that he had taken Raina to the cabin he owned near Lake Tahoe. He apologized for the delay in returning my calls, but he said that the time away had been necessary and beneficial for Raina. She was going to be OK, he said. She'd been scared out of her mind when that gun had been held to her head, but now that a few days had passed, she was determined not to let the fear of something like that happening again stop her from fighting to free other girls like herself. They were determined to move forward and wanted to finish our business as soon as they returned to town. Ken suggested that we also get together to discuss more about how to adapt kimbaku for Ana. Since I believed it could be therapeutic for her, I agreed.

I also encouraged Ken to hire a CPO for himself and especially for Raina. He'd already been thinking about it before Joseph Horowitz almost killed Raina, and now, he was resigned to the reality that they had to do it, even though he didn't like the idea of having somebody following them around constantly. I told him they'd get used to it, and I knew they would. If I could get used to it, anybody could.

A couple of weeks later, I was working in my office at Ismintis-Grey when I was visited by all three of my siblings. Yes, I had three siblings now, and I was happy about that. Even though Isaac hadn't grown up with us, he was one of us now, and we all loved and accepted him as one of the Grey clan.

First, Elliot came bearing our favorite sandwiches from the deli around the corner. As we ate lunch, he filled me in on their collaring ceremony, which they'd postponed a couple of times but finally gone ahead with. He and Kate had known after Ana's attack that we wouldn't be able to attend. At first, they hadn't wanted to do it without us, but it was important to them, and I knew we'd never be able to attend, so I'd encouraged both of them to go ahead without us. I didn't regret not attending, except that it would have meant a lot to Elliot. But he knew I had his back, and he also knew that Ana and I would never be able to be around that shit again. It was OK.

Elliot and I also talked about our plans for welcoming Isaac into the family, since his adoption would be finalized this week. We planned a Grey siblings' night out, a quadruple date with our significant others. I needed to decide all of the details for security reasons, which Elliot was fine with. Well, Isaac wouldn't have a significant other, since Kelly was back in Michigan, but the rest of us were either married or engaged. Isaac insisted that he and Kelly weren't dating, that they were just friends, but I wasn't convinced. They were young, though, so time would tell.

Later in the afternoon, Mia and Leo came by to hand deliver a copy of their signed lease for their French cafe, and to give me a box of macaroons that they'd baked that morning. It was official that they would open the second week of February, and they would call their cafe "Cafe Violette," which had been Leo's mom's name. They already had a logo, which incorporated a violet flower. I liked it. I also liked the ideas they shared for their grand opening. I had no doubts that they were going to be successful. I filled Mia in on the plans for Isaac's night out, which she and Leo wholeheartedly agreed to.

A few minutes after Mia and Leo left, Isaac himself stopped by. My new brother. So much had changed since that morning a couple of months ago when I'd asked him to have a private chat in my car outside the library where he was going for a school project. My life had already been changing then because of Ana, but it changed so much more afterwards, after I learned about Christina's existence. Isaac's life was completely different now, too. Elena Lincoln was dead, and so was Brenda, Isaac's mom. And so was Joseph Horowitz. Isaac still had so much to recover from, yet here he was, with a big smile on his face.

"You're not going to believe this!" he told me as he came in and sat down across from me.

I gave him my undivided attention. "What's that?"

"OK, so I already knew I'd been accepted. At Harvard. But… I got a scholarship! I mean, I applied for it… months ago, but the competition was so high, I didn't think I'd have a chance. They looked not only at your academic record but also at community service, essays you have to write, and a whole fucking list of shit. I knew I had a good resume, but I thought there would be too many other people who were more impressive than me. But I did it! And… it's a FULL scholarship! I mean… do you know how rare that is? Holy shit! A full scholarship to Harvard!"

"My God, Isaac, that's amazing. Congratulations! We need to celebrate," I told him sincerely.

"We're already celebrating me becoming Isaac Grey. I can't tell you how happy I am to change my name. I can finally be free from Horowitz and be a Grey. I can hardly wait."

"Well, little brother, we're going to be celebrating both of those things this week. And you know…. I was waiting for your high school graduation to buy you a car, but I think that's a perfect way to congratulate you for the Harvard scholarship. I mean, you've got to go to Harvard in style. Do you have a car preference?"

Isaac's eyes were wide and unbelieving as he stared at me. "Are you serious right now?"

"Absolutely," I assured him.

"Any car? You'll buy me my dream car? Really?" He was sounding hopeful but still uncertain.

"Really, as long as it's a safe, reliable car," I agreed.

"A BMW?" he pressed, his eyes getting wide again.

I nodded. "Which series?" I asked.

"Well, it's my first car, and I'm still in high school. Just a Series 2 makes sense for now. I mean… holy shit, are you really going to buy me a BMW?"

"Do you want a coupe or a convertible?" I asked.

His eyes popped. "You'd buy me a BMW convertible? For real?"

"For real," I answered. I loved seeing the excitement on his face. He deserved this, and he was going to get it, as soon as I could order it and get it delivered.

"Holy shit," he repeated. "This is the best day of my life!"