It had been almost two months since the day Ana had agreed to start therapy. At first, she had met with John Flynn but it hadn't been the right fit for her. She had felt uncomfortable discussing what had happened to her with a man, so he had recommended her to a female colleague of his and with her, Ana had felt comfortable enough to open up. It hadn't been easy, for the first couple of appointments she had been a crying mess every time she had tried to put into words what had been done to her.

Still, she had continued to go to her appointments twice a week and with each time it had gotten easier. Especially because her therapist, Lauren, never pushed the topic allowing her to decide if she wanted to talk about it or just discuss her day or other things that were on her mind.

She hated to admit it but Christian had been right, she had been hiding from herself too. All this time when she had thought she had moved on from what Jack had done to her she had just pushed the memories back which had resulted in her breakdown the second she had allowed for them to come up.

Now, she was trying to learn how to live with her past and not ignore it. She knew she still had a long way to go but now she was also hopeful that one day she could be happy again and not scared of what she was feeling.

As for Christian, they had silently agreed to take things slow and date platonically. She had realized that she couldn't just continue where they had left things off because both of them had changed so much in the time that had passed. And it wasn't fair of her to expect Christian to be her boyfriend again when she had no idea if she was ready to be a girlfriend. She wanted to believe that being intimate with him would still be as wonderful for her as it had been before but the truth was that she had no idea how she would react or feel when it actually came to it which was another reason why she needed to work on herself first before she could actually work on getting back together with Christian.

On this day, however, things had gotten a bit complicated. The evening before they had gone to dinner with Elliot and Kate. Because she had to work late she had met them outside the restaurant and what none of them had realized was that someone had taken pictures of them. They were all innocent enough just showing her hugging Christian before she kissed his cheek but some of the media outlets had decided to use those pictures to depict her as Christian's new girlfriend.

Neither of them was upset about it they just didn't want to be haunted by the media from now on because everyone was trying to get a picture of them together to confirm what wasn't yet the truth.

„Ana, I'm leaving now if you don't need me anymore." She heard the voice of her assistant Hunter and looked up from her desk. He for sure was not what most people would expect as the assistant of an executive. Hunter Callahan had tattoos all over his body, most prominent by the sleeves on his arms and the neck tattoo that wasn't fully covered by the shirt he was wearing today. He had spiky hair and countless piercings. Everyone thought Ana had lost her mind when she had hired him a month ago after her previous assistant had to go into a very early maternity leave due to complications, but Ana had seen past his looks and instead had seen his passion for the written word. He didn't know, but she had read every short story he had posted online and knew that one day this kid would make it very far in the book world so having him work for her was an insurance for her that one day when he was confident enough in his work he would sign with Cross Publishing.

„It's ok, I'll be leaving soon too. Enjoy your weekend." She said and he smiled before he left while she was going through some paperwork and then finally got up too. She was almost out of the door when her phone buzzed with an incoming text. She took it and froze when she read: it:

*I told you not to tell Grey... you have 24 hours to leave or this will go viral*

She could barely breathe as she opened the attachment and then dropped her phone when it revealed part of the tape she thought was gone for good after she had burned the SD card. Before she could even react she had to throw up and then sank to the floor. This couldn't be right...surely this was just a nightmare and she would wake up soon. Only she didn't... this was really happening and her first instinct was to run.

So, she got out of her office, into the garage and then drove home all the while praying that she was still sound asleep in her bed at home and dreaming. When she finally arrived at her apartment she ran into her closet grabbed a duffle bag and just as she was about to pack she stopped herself. Her running had gotten her into this position in the first place had she gone to the police right away things could have been very different by now and then she thought of Christian and she just couldn't do it.

Christian had just gotten out of the shower and changed into something more comfortable before dinner when Taylor knocked on his bedroom door.

„Yes?"

„Sir, Miss Steele is coming up."

„Thank you, I will be there in a second." He said pleasantly surprised that Ana had decided to stop by since they had not made plans to see each other tonight. He was just hoping she wasn't upset over the pictures of them that had gotten viral over the past few hours.

When she stepped out of the elevator just as he reached the vestibule his smile died instantly. She looked ashen-faced, her eyes wide and she just ran into his arms and held on to him.

„Ana, what is wrong?" He asked and watched as she got her phone from her pocket and handed it to him. He looked at it and his eyes widened when he read the text, he didn't even think about opening the attached video file because he knew what it was, it was written all over Ana's face.

„I don't know what to do... how is this possible... who would do this?" She asked and he pulled her into his arms again.

„Taylor!" He snapped and handed his chief of security the phone.

„Fucking hell... I'm going to contact Cross's security."

„I want to know who sent this text before the day is over... if even a second of this gets leaked online I will not be held responsible for what I am going to do to whoever uploaded it. Find them, Taylor!" He hissed before he picked Ana up in his arms and carried her into the open living area where he sat down on the couch with her.

„It's alright, Ana. We'll find whoever did this."

„I wanted to run again." She whispered barely audible.

„What made you stop?" He asked softly.

„Running started all of this... I should have reported Jack right away... and I couldn't do this to you again. I'm so sorry, Christian... I never wanted to embarrass you like this... if this tape gets leaked..."

„Stop." He said between gritted teeth and she looked at him surprised by his anger.

„Ana I'm going to say this just once. You have done nothing wrong and I will destroy anyone who dares to upload this video. I don't give a fuck what people will think because I know what is happening to you in this tape no matter how it is edited. Do you hear me this is not embarrassing me... the only person who should be embarrassed as hell is whoever is behind this and above that they should be scared shitless because I will fucking end them." He said sternly.

„I just don't understand why this is happening." Ana murmured, she was past the point of crying, she just felt numb thinking that soon every single person in her life would see what Jack had done to her. How would she ever be able to go back to work, look at her parents and friends... but above that, how would she ever be able to be with Christian knowing that if he was ever to see just a glimpse of the tape those pictures would be burnt into his mind and would most likely come back up every time they would be together.

Christian had asked Gail to sit with Ana while had called first Cross and then his father to fill them in. They only had a little less than 24 hours to figure this out and he had a really bad feeling about this. Hyde was dead, so that didn't leave them with too many options as to who had gotten their hands on the tape.

It could be someone who worked with Hyde which would be bad because they had nothing to go on or, and he hoped to hell it wasn't the case, it was an inside job. Because that left only the people who had known about the tape and had come in contact with it meaning Cross, his chief of security and the two men who helped him find it. Other than that only Ana and Christian himself had been in the same room as the SD card.

Obviously, Ana wouldn't do this to herself and he knew he didn't send her that disgusting text, so that left Cross and his security. Since he didn't believe Cross was capable of doing something so despicable to Ana that only left his security. He didn't know them but it seemed far-fetched as they had absolutely nothing from doing this to her.

Because Ana was so upset he had also called Kate and asked her to stop by which she agreed to immediately. He was relieved that Ana had come to him this time but he wasn't sure she was stable enough to get through this without giving into the temptation of running which sadly seemed to be a deep-rooted instinct of hers. So, it was better for her to have as much emotional support as possible in this situation. For a moment he thought about contacting her parents, but he knew that Ana hadn't told them yet and her mother was on a cruise so it would take way too long for her to get here.

„Sir?"

„Any news Taylor?"

„Not so far, the number was blocked, Barney is coming over to see what he can do, maybe something about the attached file is trackable."

„I don't want him to watch it."

„He won't, Sir. I already told him that this is a very sensitive matter and that he cannot watch what is on the file, he said that makes it harder to search for clues but he has a programme that can go over it without him actually having to watch it."

„Good, I don't want anyone to see Ana like that. My Dad advised to go to the police, but I won't until we are left with no other option." He said. It wasn't that he didn't believe the police could be of help but they would insist on questioning Ana and looking at the tape and he wasn't sure she was strong enough just yet to get through this. Plus, he knew his team was capable of getting this situation under control.

In the early morning not just Kate and Elliot, as well as his parents, but also Mia and Gideon had gathered at Escala. Barney had been able to find some kind of information through the text and video file but needed more time to gather more information, while they were all trying to keep Ana distracted from what was going on.

They had just convinced her to have breakfast with them when suddenly every single phone from the people gathered at the dining table went off at the same time. They all looked at each other because it seemed to be too much of a coincidence.

„Let me look, ok Ana?" Kate asked and Ana slowly nodded while Kate opened the text which happened to be a video message and closed it immediately.

„Who does this... who is sick enough to torture another person like this?" Kate hissed and got up to hug Ana just as Taylor walked in.

„Ana... your father is on the phone he just received a video message." He said visibly uncomfortable and Ana just got up and ran from the table with Kate, Gideon and Christian running after her as she ran onto the balcony gasping for air.

„Kate please talk to her Dad, we got this." Christian said reassuring as he pulled Ana into his arms.

„I can't do this... what am I supposed to tell my Dad... I just don't understand." She whispered.

„Kate will explain it to him, Ana... do you want me to call your therapist?"

„No, I can't talk to anyone right now... can I please lay down for a while?"

„Sure, come you can rest in my bedroom. Gideon, please arrange for Ana's Dad to come here as soon as possible and try to figure out who else received this god damn video... this has to end right now." Christian said looking at Cross who nodded after giving Ana's shoulder a light squeeze while Christian carried her into his bedroom and helped her to lay down before he sat in the armchair in the corner to stay with her until she was sleep.

He knew only one thing, whoever had done this should better hope to be as far away as possible when he found out because he would first kill the mother fucker and ask questions later...