A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and support! Here's the next chapter for you.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 9: Future Plans
"You've got to eat up, Lucia."
Christian helped Lucia scoop up the spoonful of oatmeal into her mouth, but most of it seemed to just glob onto her chin and smear over most of her face. Christian smiled slightly to himself as he grabbed a napkin and wiped her face clean. "What am I going to do with you, silly girl?"
Lucia grinned and giggled in response. She then babbled something that sounded like "Da-da."
Christian smiled widely at her. He never thought he could feel so happy from a little child calling him that. "Lucia, can you say Daddy?"
Lucia giggled and looked down at her hands, smiling bashfully. "Daddy."
Christian beamed, feeling a strong affection for her deep in his chest. "Good job. Now can you say Mommy?"
Lucia looked up and smiled widely, lifting her hand and reaching toward something behind Christian. "Mommy!" she said excitedly, her eyes lighting up joyfully.
Christian looked over his shoulder and smiled when he saw Ana approaching them from the stairs leading up to the bedroom. She gazed at Lucia lovingly.
"Good morning, sweetheart," she said fondly, moving forward and pressing a kiss to Lucia's forehead. "And how are you today?"
Lucia didn't answer - she had become distracted by the bowl of oatmeal in front of her as she tried to flip it over and dump the contents of it onto the table. Christian managed to catch it before she made a mess, however.
"Nice catch," Ana giggled, moving over to the fridge. "Maybe we should try to feed her something a little less messy? I could cut up a banana or something."
"No, that's okay," Christian said, picking up the spoon again. "We can manage. Also, Gail's stopping by in a minute to get Lucia ready for the day."
Ana nodded, and after a moment walked back over to the breakfast bar with a mug of tea in her hands. "That reminds me… I wanted to have a word with you about me taking a sabbatical from Grey Publishing at some point in the near future?"
Christian nodded, remembering her mentioning that. "Have you made a decision yet?"
Ana bit her lip before nodding as well. "Yeah, actually, I think I am going to take a leave of absence from work. At least for a little awhile."
Christian pressed his lips together in a grimace. "I thought you might."
Ana raised her eyebrows. "You're disappointed in me?"
"Of course not," Christian said quickly. "I just want you to be happy, baby, and I want to be sure that taking a sabbatical from your dream job is something that will make you happy."
Ana softened slightly before smiling. "I am happy, Christian. I love my job, but I would also love to stay home and take care of Lucia. Both are equally important to me, but right now I feel Lucia needs me more than my job does. And I know I want to be there for her despite everything."
Christian smiled at her, reassured. "Then you have my support, baby."
Ana smiled before leaning over and pressing her lips against Christian's in a sweet kiss. "Thank you, sweetie."
Christian smiled as she pulled away. Before he could say anything else, however, Gail walked into the kitchen to get Lucia dressed and ready for the day. Lucia, thankfully having become much more accustomed to Gail's presence within the past week or so, went happily.
Once alone, Ana turned to Christian, looking a bit apprehensive about something once again. "I know I just brought up taking a sabbatical from work, but there's actually something else I wanted to talk to you about too…"
Christian turned to face her expectantly. "Okay. What is it?"
Ana glanced down at her mug of tea before looking back up at Christian, as if steeling herself to say something. "I went into your study last night to drop off some mail onto your desk, and your browser was open… and it was on a site talking about adoption laws in the state of Washington."
Christian blinked, feeling his heart catch in his throat. Shit, he had completely forgotten about the little impromptu research he had done last night regarding Lucia - he hadn't meant Ana to see that, at least not yet. Was she angry? He honestly couldn't tell at the moment.
"…Oh," he said, unsure of what else to say to that.
"I'm not angry at you," Ana said quickly, as if she understood what he was thinking. "And I'm not saying that I would never consider adopting Lucia in the future at some point… I just feel like it's something you and I need to talk about if you're already considering it as an option."
"I'm not," Christian said quickly. "I mean, not really… I was just working on my computer and I just randomly decided to look up adoption laws in Washington. It wasn't premeditated or anything, I was just…" Christian hesitated for a moment before shrugging, shaking his head. "I don't know what I was thinking."
Ana hesitated for a moment too. "So… do you - and it's completely fine if you don't - but do you honestly ever see yourself being Lucia's father someday?"
Christian thought about his answer for a moment - did he see himself as being Lucia's father someday? He cared a lot about her, that was for sure, but the idea of suddenly having the permanent responsibility of a young child was a daunting one. Could he actually do it?
After a few seconds, Christian shook his head. "I don't know," he said sincerely. "I mean, before I met you, I had never even considered being a father. It wasn't even within the realm of possibility for me. After we got married, though, I kind of started thinking about kids, but only in the abstract. I figured you and I would have children at some point in our lives, but they would always be… you know… ours."
Ana nodded, understanding. "That's sort of how I felt at first too. But ever since Lucia came into our lives…" she shook her head, smiling slightly to herself. "She calls us 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' and I feel like she's already ours. Y'know?"
Christian chuckled, smiling softly. "Yeah, I do."
A comfortable silence fell between them for several moments, until finally Ana spoke up again: "It's probably too early to do anything major in regards to Lucia's adoption right now, but I just wanted to discuss it with you so I know where your head's at regarding it."
Christian couldn't help but smile amusedly. "Baby, I don't even know where my head's at regarding it."
Ana laughed understandingly. "You're considering it as a possibility sometime in the future, as am I. I know that the longer we take care of Lucia and more comfortable we get in these parenting roles, the better we'll understand how we'll want to proceed with the whole situation."
Christian nodded slowly, thinking about what she said. "Yeah, I think that accurately sums it up." He suddenly smiled. "It's sort of like in the business world… we're doing an evaluation on a potential merger."
Ana giggled. "Whatever your business brain wants to call it, that's fine. But are you okay with that?"
"Absolutely," Christian leaned over and kissed Ana on the lips. "There's no rush - let's just enjoy being Lucia's foster parents for the time being."
Ana nodded and smiled, satisfied. "Sounds good."
The two of them continued to chat for a few minutes after that - Christian talked about some projects he was working on while Ana speculated what she would have to get done before taking her leave of absence. After a moment, Christian remembered something:
"Oh, I almost forgot - Gia Matteo finally sent over her plans for our new house on the Sound," he said. Ana's face immediately lit up.
"Oh, that's great! Did she make any new additions to the original model?"
"Not really. She took your suggestion and added some French doors to the balcony in the master bedroom, and she also added a few more windows in the north wing, but aside from that it's all pretty much the same."
"That's good," Ana nodded, satisfied. "I'd hoped she didn't change too much. So when do you think Elliot's construction team can get started on the renovations?"
"Well, first we have to meet with Gia and approve her changes, then we can start with the actual renovations."
Ana's face fell slightly. "Couldn't we just approve them over email or something?"
Christian raised an eyebrow, amused. "You don't like talking to Gia?"
"No," Ana pouted. "She flirts with you in front of me. It's annoying."
Christian couldn't help but chuckle. "Are you jealous, Mrs. Grey?"
Ana still pretended to pout, though she fought to keep the smile from tugging at the corners of her lips. "Maybe."
Christian beamed widely, inordinately pleased his wife felt so possessive of him. He stood up from his chair at the breakfast bar and cupped Ana's face in his hands. "Why, I had no idea I had married such a green-eyed monster, Mrs. Grey," he said teasingly, brushing his thumbs along her cheeks before leaning in and pecking her on the lips. "I'll remember that in the future."
"You better," Ana quipped, and Christian laughed.
"Oh I will. And I think it goes without saying you have absolutely nothing to worry about, baby." He leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers, smiling lovingly. "I will only ever have eyes for you."
Ana smiled happily back. "Ditto, Mr. Grey."
The next few days were rather busy for the Greys, most especially for Ana. She had begun the process of taking a leave of absence from Grey Publishing, meaning she had a lot of loose ends to tie up before she went. First things first, she needed to determine who was going to run the day-to-day operations in her place - it was a difficult decision, but she eventually decided on one of her top senior editors, Mel Sherwood. Mel was an older woman who had only had a couple years' experience in the publishing industry, but Ana felt she was definitely more than qualified to take over as acquisitions editor and creative head of Grey Publishing in her place.
Ana needed to stay late nights at the office in order to train Mel on how to run everything, meaning that most nights Christian would get back home to Escala before Ana would, which was a first for them. Christian didn't mind, though - while he did miss his wife, he would usually get to spend his time after work with Lucia, who was always thrilled to see him at the end of the day no matter what.
Being with her never failed to warm his heart.
It was the third night this week that Ana stayed late at the office, and Christian was currently sitting on the couch in the great room with his laptop perched on his knees, diligently checking his emails and replying to the necessary ones. Lucia was playing with her toys behind him near his grand piano, and Christian could hear her playing with some of them (the hard plastic ones, at least) by tossing them against the hardwood floors. As long as Lucia didn't hurt herself doing it, Christian found that he didn't have a problem with her being a little noisy.
Christian continued to work on his computer; just as he was about to email back his head of financials about in-house budget cuts, his computer suddenly dinged with a new email from his brother:
From: Elliot Grey
To: Christian Grey
RE: Police station
Hey Christian,
Dad finally set up a meeting with that Credd guy at the police station near 12th Street. If you and your security guys still wanted to come, it'll be this coming Tuesday at 10:30 am.
Let me know. Thanks again, man.
Christian was glad to finally hear from Elliot, since he had been wondering when he and Carrick would set up a day to head over to the police station. Christian quickly emailed Elliot back telling him he would be at the police station bright and early with Taylor and Sawyer on Tuesday morning.
While Christian didn't exactly relish the idea of going into the bad part of town, he was willing to stick it out for Elliot. Hell, if Lucia could survive in the Jungle for four years, he could managed half a day, right?
Just as he was thinking this, he heard a loud clunk from behind him, and a moment later, the unmistakable plunking of his piano keys being hit in a discordant sound. Christian turned around to see that Lucia had managed to climb up on his piano bench and had pushed open the lid, pressing her little fingers on the lower keys as if curious as to what they sounded like.
"Hey," Christian quickly set aside his laptop and jumped to his feet, hurrying toward Lucia. "Lucia - get down from there!"
His main concern was for Lucia's safety - he didn't want her to accidentally hurt herself after having climbed up onto the piano bench. However, his scolding tone must have frightened Lucia, for she immediately snatched her hand away from the piano keys as if they had burned her. She then began scooting away from Christian, a fearful look in her eyes as if afraid he was about to punish her for breaking some rule.
The look in her eyes made Christian's heart break.
"Sweetheart," he said gently, reaching down and picking her up in his arms. Her tiny arms immediately went around his neck. "It's okay… I'm not angry, I promise."
Lucia didn't seem reassured, for her large brown eyes still gazed at him with trepidation and fear. Christian could actually feel her shivering in his arms - he immediately understood it wasn't him she was afraid of, but it was residual fear that had been ingrained in her from when she was abused. Christian's heart broke for her all over again.
Only a couple months ago I didn't even think I had a heart…
Christian gazed down at Lucia before glancing down at the piano, which still had it's lid up. He suddenly had an idea.
"Come here, Lucia," he said, hoisting her up higher onto his hip before sitting down on the piano bench. "Wanna see the piano?"
Lucia didn't respond - she simply gazed down at the instrument as if enraptured by it, and when Christian brought his hand up to play a couple notes, her eyes followed his fingers as if hypnotized by them. Christian smiled as he played a scale of five notes.
"Do you want to try, Lucia?" Christian picked up Lucia's little hand and placed her fingers on the keys. She didn't move, so Christian gently pressed her finger onto each note, producing a sound.
"There, you see?" Christian let go of her hand and pressed middle C with his index finger. "You wanna try? Just use your finger and hit the note, like this."
Lucia blinked for a moment before tentatively bringing her finger down and lightly pressing middle C, barely making a sound. Christian beamed with pride.
"Great job, Lucia!" he said happily, wrapping his arms around her torso and hugging her tightly. She giggled in response. "Let's try it again now…"
He pressed middle C with his index finger again, and Lucia did the same right after, clearly more confident since she hit the note a bit harder this time. She turned and smiled happily up at Christian when she did, and Christian couldn't help but laugh.
"You're doing great, sweetheart."
Christian hit middle C again, but then hit D right after, wondering if Lucia would follow his lead. Sure enough, when he brought his hand down, she immediately brought up her tiny index finger and confidently hit middle C followed by D. Christian was astounded.
Wow, she really learns fast.
"Alright, Lucia - let's try something a little tougher." Christian said, bringing his hand up to the piano again. He hit middle C, then D, then E before going back down the three-note scale with D and middle C again.
Clearly wanting to face this challenge head-on, Lucia brought her finger up to the keys again and hit middle C, D, and E in quick succession. She hesitated a moment, however, unsure of where her finger was supposed to go, but after a second or two, hit D again before going back to middle C.
Christian could only stare at her in complete shock - he hadn't expected Lucia to do that at all! A four-year-old child doing a three-note scale like that on her first try? He himself hadn't been able to do that until the age of six! This girl had a gift, Christian could already tell.
With the right training, she could grow up to be a goddamn prodigy!
"That was amazing, sweetheart!" Christian praised excitedly, hugging Lucia around the waist again, and she giggled happily. Christian didn't think she fully appreciated her musical gift as of yet, but hopefully at some point, she would be able to use her talent to the best of her ability.
And right now, Christian wanted to be the one to teach her.
Ana had come home from work a couple minutes ago, but she hadn't announced her presence just yet. She just stood in the doorway of the great room, leaning against the door frame and smiling as she watched her husband teach Lucia how to play the various notes on his piano. It was honestly one of the most adorable things she had ever seen, and she was glad she got to be a witness to it.
Ana thought back to the conversation she and Christian had a few days ago, about possibly adopting Lucia in the near future. While she could barely admit it to herself right now, she honestly hoped she would one day become a part of their little family if it meant more sweet moments like this.
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed that! If you did, please review!
Also, I have a little Christmas surprise in the works for you guys, which I plan to finish within the next couple weeks or so. Stay tuned for that!
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