Ana's POV

I wake up in the morning way too early but I know I have to go to work. I notice the bed is empty but choose not to get worried. He either went to work or he's working out or eating breakfast. I make my way to the bathroom and start the shower. I strip and step inside. I have to wash yesterday off me. Ethan is a hot mess and by that I mean losing his damn mind.

I stand in the stream of water for a while and decide I better at least wash myself instead of just standing here lost in thought. After I get washed I stand there a while longer just thinking. I hear Christian calling me and I remain silent. I'm just gonna let the water take everything away from me. Next thing I know, there's a pair of arms wrapped around my waist. "How long have you been here? You're getting pruny."

"A while. I should have opted for a bath but this feels so good."

He slides his hand down to my delicate folds. "always so wet Ana. " I just smile. Wetter now with that sexy voice of yours Grey. "Hands on the tile Miss Steele."

I do as I'm told. He lifts my right leg and puts it on the bench along the side of the shower. Next thing I know, he is deep inside me. I gasp.

"Okay?"

"Yes. Move please."

He begins to thrust wildly holding onto my waist to keep me where he wants me. "Oh Ana. You feel so good."

He begins to pick up the pace, each time going faster and harder. I feel it coming. "Don't stop."

He keeps going, "Cum for me Ana."

I detonate around him like an explosion of awesomeness.

He follows me after just 2 more strokes. "Fuck! Ana!!!"

I lean my head against the cool tile until Christian pulls me down into his lap. "We should probably get out Ana. You've been in here over an hour."

"Mmm.. yea. I gotta get ready for work. Help me out? My legs are jelly. I don't want to fall."

I scoot forward and he stands up and offers me a hand. I take it and stand. He helps wrap me in a towel and puts one around his waist. He walks me to the closet and starts getting dressed while I do the same. After I'm dressed for work, I venture into the kitchen. I'm greeted with a smiling Christian talking to Miss Avery.

"Good morning you two. What's for breakfast."

"Bacon and pancakes Mom." Avery says.

"Mmm.. I'll have what you're having Miss Grey."

I find my breakfast already plated in the warmer. I carry it to the breakfast bar. As soon as I take my first bite I feel baby kicks. "ooh" I take Christian's hand and place it on my belly. "wait for it."

Another kick and Christian gets the look of amazement on his face. "Baby kicking?" He asks and I nod.

I finish eating and Christian holds his left hand on my belly with eating with the other hand. He feels it again and smiles again. "This is amazing." He gives me a chaste kiss.

We finish our breakfast this way. When they stop kicking Christian grows concerned. "They stopped."

"They don't always kick Christian. No woman would ever sleep with non stop baby kicking."

"Mm fair enough. I gotta run. I'll take Avery to school on my way." I give them a kiss.

"See you both later." I offer a smile. "This is so… domestic." I giggle.

He laughs. "If someone told me I'd be here a year ago I probably would've laughed them out of the room."

"Well another kiss then?" he gives me another sweet kiss.

I race after them and get to them at the door. " I don't know why I said goodbye. I need to leave too."

"I figured as much."

We ride together and drop off Avery at school and we each go to our jobs.

After a long and thankfully uneventful day of work, Sawyer takes me home.

Sawyer has become a good friend over the months I've been here. He confided in me that he is gay. His parents rejected him and that's why he works a job with such seemingly endless hours. I don't think Christian knows he is gay but it's not my story to tell to him.

When I arrive home, Luke and I are laughing. I walk in and find Christian and Avery playing the piano together. Some beautiful classical piece.

I walk over behind Christian and put my arms around his shoulders and rest my chin on his head and just watch them play.

"How was your day Ana?"

"Pretty good. I signed a new author today."

"That's great. He turns his head and I lean down and kiss his lips softly." They stop playing and he spins around and pulls me onto his lap.

"I love you Ana. You know that right?" oh no. Nothing like that ends well.

"Of course I know that. I love you too."

He sighs.. another bad sign. "Elena's trial is coming up and we have to testify." I freeze and feel the bile rising and run to the bathroom and vomit. I feel him grab my hair and hold it while I puke.

"I don't want to see her again."

"I know. Neither do I and we never will have to see her again after this."

I nod. "I hate that woman. She's fucked me up."

"Me too. I wish I could undo everything she's done to hurt us."

I sigh. "We should go spend time with Avery and distract ourselves from this nonsense."

"Come. I'll help you up. We will go to the zoo."

4 weeks later – 22 weeks pregnant

Today we have to testify against Elena and tell them how she assaulted me because she wanted Christian to herself and she saw me and my daughter as a threat.

We've kept ourselves busy the last 4 weeks but at night come night terrors. It's like Christian and I take turns having nightmares about one crazy bitch. We comfort each other after we wake the other up. We both have seen Dr. Flynn a lot the last couple of weeks. Hopefully after we face her today the nightmares will subside. Flynn says confronting our "demons" will help bring our minds peace. We shall see.

Avery is spending the day with Grace but the rest of the family and my Dad have come to be supportive.

I'm the first to testify. Carrick has helped to prepare me for what they are likely to ask and informed me how defense will try to rile me up to disprove my testimony.

When they call me, I walk into the courtroom with wobbly knees and I see her, dressed in a business suit trying to look like a good person. She's failing in my eyes.

First, the prosecutor asks me details about what happened and I recount the events of that day. I tearfully repeat everything that happened on that horrible day from Reynolds kidnapping me to her whipping me and hanging me from some thing coming off her ceiling and caning me including Taylor, Sawyer and Christian rescuing me.

The defense gets up to cross examine me and asks me what I did to provoke her and claimed that I had attacked her and said it was my word against hers. I was getting pissed but remained calm remembering what Carrick had told me about this. I continued to answer their questions truthfully and let them attempt to berate me and ruin my credibility. Finally it was over and I glared at her and she cackled. She laughed such an evil laugh. The one I've heard repeatedly. "You did not break me Elena. You will not break me." Is all I say as I walked out of the courtroom. I rush to the restroom to puke and realize Kate came in after me to hold my hair back because they called Christian up next so he couldn't comfort me.

"Kate she is a horrible person. The stuff she did to me… between us, she did that stuff to him for 6 years starting when he was 15. And worse even."

"Good God. Well hopefully she gets everything she deserves."

"One can hope."

After Christian testifies he comes out and brings me into a bear hug instantly. "it's over now. Let's go home."

We went home and just spent the day holding each other until I fell asleep. I'm not sure if he fell asleep because he wasn't with me when I woke up. I went in search of him and found him at the piano playing a melancholy tune that tugged at my heartstrings. He only plays sad music when something is bothering him and I know what's bothering him so I slide onto the bench beside him and wrap my arms around his waist and lay my head on his shoulder.

"Reliving that day… I thought she was going to kill you Ana. I tried to bargain for my own life. She hurt you Ana. I can't live with someone else hurting you. I'm bad for you. I'm dangerous. You should run away." I reach up and lightly slap him. He looked at me stunned.

"Shut the fuck up and listen to me. I'm not going anywhere. She's deranged. Taylor and Sawyer saved us. We are both fine. It hurt, yes. But we.." I signal my hand between us, "survived. You are not responsible for every deranged person that crosses our paths. We will deal with it together. We lost 10 years together. Do you wanna go back to that now, knowing you have a daughter here? Do you?"

He shakes his head and pulls me onto his lap. "I never want to see a day without you and Avery in my life again. You two and.." he runs my belly, " these two are my whole life. I may not be their father but I will be a father figure to them as much as you allow and someday we will get married and have a lot more babies. Will you marry me Ana? Not today or next week, or even this year but whenever you're ready will you marry me?"

I look at him and smile, " Yes Yes Christian. I will marry you someday."

He kisses me deeply and picks me up and sits me down on the couch. "wait here." He runs up the stairs and comes back with a tiny box and kneels in front of me. "let me do this right. Ana will you do me the extraordinary honor of being my wife?"

"I smile as tears roll down my cheeks, "Yes! Yes yes yes!!" he takes my left hand and slides the giant rock onto my finger. "Jesus Christian, it's huge!"

"Only the best for you baby!!"

I wrap my arms around his neck and sit on his lap. "Take me to bed and love me Christian."

He picks me up and carries me to bed kissing me the whole way and makes love to me until we cum gloriously and then makes love to me again and again.

I wake up in the morning and smell breakfast being made. I hold up my hand and glare at the rock on my finger and touch it with my other hand and just stare at it smiling. "It is beautiful like you Anastasia." I look up and see my future husband standing in the doorway. "Gail made breakfast. Get up and get ready and we will eat and pick up Avery and go to work and bring her to school. We all got to sleep in today but it's time to get moving woman."

I stand up, butt naked except for this ring on my finger and kiss and hug him. "Yes sir."

He gives me a smile and kisses me again and then smacks me on the butt making me squeal. "Get ready wench." I giggle and go to take my shower and get dressed. I come out and start eating breakfast when the babies start kicking up a storm. I place Christian's hand on my stomach and he rubs every time they kick. "calm down kiddos. Mommy's a tiny person. You're gonna make her fall over if you kick too hard." I laugh loud. He leans down and kisses my belly. "I love you both, your big sister and you Mommy with all my heart. I will always take care of and protect you all."

My heart constricts as he kisses my belly again so I pull his head up and kiss him with all the love I have for him. I pull back. "we love you too Daddy." He pulls me in for a hug and holds me tight. "Don't ever let us go Christian."

"Never. But we should get going." I smile and kiss his face again and he kisses my nose and we take off to get Avery and we go to work and school.

People at work complimented me on my ring and congratulated me all day long. No one actually knows I'm marrying our boss.

After the day is done I'm actually thankful because I'm kinda tired of being congratulated. Sawyer brings me home and tells me about this guy he met that works in my building. I share my thoughts that I'm genuinely happy for him.

When I get home, my 2 favorite people are playing music again and I just lean against the wall and listen for a little bit watching. After a little bit, they haven't noticed me so I decide to go take a bath because this music is so relaxing. I sneak upstairs and start the bath water and add the jasmine scented bath oil and strip and climb in. I lay my head back on the side of the bath and just relax. I am so relaxed I don't notice someone enter the bathroom until they speak, "you comfortable?"

"Very. I would ask you to join me but the water is starting to get cold." I open my eyes and see him eyeing my stomach in awe. "You okay?"

"I'm better than okay baby. I have a family because of you." He leans over and kisses me on my nose and then kisses my belly.

"Mmm.. we're very lucky. Mostly that my best friend happened to marry your goofy brother. How she puts up with that goofiness 24/7 is beyond me but I guess they are even because he has to put up with bitchy Kate."

He laughs. "Yeah. I think we would've found each other eventually either way. How long can 2 people live in the same city and not find each other? Apparently 10 years is the answer."

I raise my eyebrows. "help me out?" I pull the plug and sit up.

He helps me out of the tub and wraps me in a towel. He holds my hand and walks me to the closet. "put on something comfortable. We're going to hang out in the meadow today."

I put on yoga pants and a tank top and grab a blanket and a book and head out to the meadow to find my family there. I walk out into the meadow and lay the blanket down and sit down on it and pull out my book and lay on my side and read.

After a little while my future husband sits down beside me and runs his finger through my hair and massages my scalp. "Please don't stop." I say with my eyes closed. "mmm… God I love you."

"I love you too."

"Even though I'm as big as a house?"

He chuckles. "you're not as big as a house baby. You're beautiful body is changing to accommodate the growth of 2 babies and it is a beautiful thing."

I rub my stomach. "I'm trying to think of names. What do you think of Theodore Raymond and Phoebe Grace?"

"They're beautiful names baby. My grandpas name is Theodore. We can call him Teddy. Teddy and Phoebe. It's great."

"Teddy and Phoebe. I would like to be married before they are born so they have the same last name as me and you and Avery."

"We can arrange that. Oh. We got to tell our families yet." I sit up.

"Shit. I got to call my parents. We can tell yours at dinner sometime soon."

"I talked to your father a while back and asked permission and he was pretty quick to give it to me."

"You did?"

I nod. "He said I have his blessing but if I hurt you he said he has no qualms about putting a bullet in me."

I fall over and laugh so hard it hurts. "Oh I love my Daddy. Can you bring me my phone so I can call him and Mom?"

"I'll be right back."

Avery approaches and rubs my tummy. "Hold your hand right there." The baby kicks and I see the surprised look on her face. "That was Teddy." I move her hand over. A kick, "and that was Phoebe."

"Oh Teddy and Phoebe, stop kicking Mommy before you hurt her." I giggle.

"It doesn't hurt baby."

"Okay. I'm gonna lay by you Mom."

"Okay. I got to call Papa Ray and Gammy in a minute. I'm gonna marry your Dad is that okay?"

She perks up and smiles. "I told you at the wedding that I wanted you to so yes Mommy!" she hugs me and I put a kiss on her head.

Christian brings me my phone and I stand up and walk down towards the dock and sit on the end and roll my pants legs up and dangle my feet in the water and call my Mom first. I want to talk to Dad last in case she ruins my mood.

"Ana!"

"Mom. I need to talk to you. Do you have a minute?"

"Sure, what did you want to talk about?"

"I'm getting married again Mom to Avery's father."

"Ana, are you?"

"Yes I'm 22 weeks pregnant with Ethan's baby but he left me because he'd been cheating on me for 3 years and he doesn't want anything to do with the babies. That's not the point or the reason though."

"Oh dear. Why am I just now hearing about this. All I knew was that you were getting divorced."

"I'm sorry Mom. We've been divorced a while now. I'm marrying Christian now."

"Christian who?"

"Avery's father, Christian Grey."

She audibly gasps. "Christian Grey the billionaire?"

"Yes Mom. But again, not the point. I don't care about the money."

"I'm so happy for you honey." Sure. Now that she knows he is rich. Ugh.

"I've got to call Dad. I love you."

"I love you too honey."

I hang up frustrated at my mother.

I dial my Dad.

"Annie?"

"Daddy! I'm getting married."

"Oh Annie. It's about time."

"Thank you Daddy. Mom didn't react positively until she found out who I was marrying." I scoff.

"That sounds like Carla. Well I am happy for you because I know from the last 10 years that you love that boy and it doesn't matter to you if he only had a bag of nickels to his name. You know Carla always looks at the money."

I sigh, " I know Daddy. Avery's birthday is this week and I'm planning a party next weekend."

"I'll be there with bells on baby girl. I wouldn't miss it."

"I can't wait to see you Daddy. We plan to get married before Teddy and Phoebe are born."

"I could still kick Kavanagh's ass for how he treated you."

"So could I daddy. I've gotta go but we will talk soon."

I hang up and stand up and walk back up to the blanket where Avery has her guitar out playing something for Christian. I sit back down. "Christian, you know Avery turns 10 this week right?"

He looks at me. "I… I do now."

"I'm sorry I should've reminded you sooner. I just assumed you knew. Avery can you go in the house and get me a water please?"

"Okay Mom."

When she walks away I continue, "I'm planning a party this weekend. Dad will be coming in."

"That sounds good. What did your parents say?"

I sigh. "Dad was happy like I knew he would be. My mother was being skeptical.. UNTIL I told her who I was marrying. Then she was excited. Mom has always been into marrying whomever had more money so it just pisses me off that she still thinks I'm anything like that."

"I'm sorry baby. It will be okay."

"Yeah, I'm not new to the unsupportive mother bit. That's why I'm so close to Daddy. Especially after what happened with husband #3… she didn't believe me Christian."

"What happened with husband #3 Ana?"

I shake my head. "We will discuss that later. Avery will be back out shortly."

He nods. I know he wants to know now but I don't need Avery hearing. I don't want to even talk about it at all but he told me his demons, I have to tell him mine.

After Avery brings back a water, it starts getting chilly so we decide to go in. After supper, we put Avery to bed. We go ahead and plan to tell Christian's family next time we see them which may be this weekend about the engagement.

"So, husband #3?"

I take a deep breath. "Mom cheated on Ray with #3. I was 14 at the time. She left Ray and made me go with her. I was mad. I wanted to stay with Daddy. She made me anyways. I cried and begged to go home. She told me no way. #3 started being abusive to Mom first but she blew it off for the paycheck that he got. He started telling me I was fat and ugly and that no one would ever love me. He slapped me a few times." I take another deep breath and blow it out. "First time, I was taking a shower and he walked in and just watched me. I tried to leave but he made me let him watch or he would go beat my Mom so I showered and cried the whole time. I tried to tell my Mom but she said I was lying because I wanted to go back to Ray. Then he started coming in at night when my Mom was out doing God knows what… touching me. I cried. I screamed but no one could hear because we were alone in a big house. I called Daddy crying every time this happened begging to go home but he said the same thing. He couldn't help me no matter how much he wanted to because he didn't have rights." I pause and get a drink and start again. "every time he came in the touching got worse. Then he made me touch him. It was so gross I was disgusted. He came on my face and chest. One time he forced it into my mouth." I shudder at the memory. "every single time I called Daddy crying harder. He knew something was wrong and he finally agreed to come get me. He told me to stay safe until he got to me. The next night, he was about to rape me and I was screaming naked under him when Ray came in and threw him off me and beat the shit out of him and called the cops. Mom showed up before the cops got there swearing I made it all up just so I could go home with Daddy. I wish I was lying." I start to cry and Christian holds me tight but I can feel how tense and angry he is so I put my arms around him.

"That son of a bitch!! Is he still in jail?"

"You would have to ask my Dad. I don't want to even think his name much less search for it. After that, my father taught me self-defense and taught me how to use a gun. I have a license to carry. I have a gun. I probably should've told you that. It is locked up. I haven't carried it in a while. Sometimes I wish I did. You know a few cases it would've came in handy."

"I'm sorry baby. I don't mind about the gun as long as you're safe and keep it away from our babies."

"Can we go to bed now. That was exhausting."

"Yes, baby."

We go to bed after we get into our night clothes and he just holds me. "I'm so sorry baby." Is the last thing I hear before I drift off to sleep.