"What happened?" Ella asks as Christian barges in, holding his hand and cursing like a sailor. Shrugging her off, he heads straight for the freezer. He grabs a pack of frozen peas that he wraps in the towel hanging on the side of the counter. Pulling his chair out his sits with another wave of curses and places the homemade icepack on his aching hand.

"What happened? What's wrong with your hand?" Ella asks again, trying to grasp the sudden mood change in her son.

Christian grimaces as he tries moving his fingers. "I hit the car." He finally answers her truthfully as he can't make up an excuse for it.

"Now why would you do that?"

"The line was cut." Christian says quietly, knowing that Pandora's box is probably now opened, and Ella finding out about Anastasia an unavoidable fact.

Ella shakes her head, as if to get the pieces of the puzzle to click, but they don't.

"Could you start from the top? You're not making any sense."

"I've got a fucking headache, mom. And now my hand is busted." He grunts, trying to avoid answering her. "Pardon my French."

"Well, take an Advil, but just tell me what's going on, you're making me worried."

Sighing, he starts talking.

"I met this woman, Anastasia, at the conference. We agreed to call if we were in the same state... So it means she's somewhere in Washington state, not in California where she lives, and I've missed all her calls and then when I finally manage to call her back... The god damned line is cut." He leaves out all details, especially the fact that some man was with her at LAX and probably just now too.

"So she's a colleague? Or something more?"

There's no doubt in Ella's mind that the woman that called is much more than an acquaintance, but knowing him, she treads carefully.

"Something like that." He dodges the question.

"You think she could be something more? Because it seems you've been a new man since coming back from that conference. I haven't seen you so at ease since... Well you know."

Christian shrugs. "I don't know if it could be more. Honest to god I don't."

"But you'd want to?"

He meets his mother's inquisitive stare and nods.

"But it's complicated?" She asks.

"You have no idea." Christian rolls his eyes.

Finishing their breakfast in silence, Christian grinds his teeth as the pain in his hand increases. Wanting to prove to himself that he's fine, he grabs his coffee mug with the aching hand. While reaching for the mug is fine, lifting it is a whole other story. Luckily, the mug doesn't break when it falls, but nevertheless his coffee splashes all over Ella's crossword puzzle.

Few hours later, he's sitting on a lime green plastic seat, basking in the fluorescent light, hanging his head and staring at his worn Adidas superstars. He keeps his left hand, now neatly packaged in a blue cast, on his lap. Some old woman, wailing about her hurting stomach walks past him, and then a mother with her crying kid. After what feels like forever, a familiar face walks through the doors.

"Whoa... What the fuck Chris?" Elliot shouts, pushing his aviators off his eyes and squinting as the bright light hits his retinas. His hair is a mess, and there are dark bags under his eyes, his clothes are wrinkly and there's lipstick on his collar. By the looks of it, he has not been home last night.

"Tried to left hook the Audi. Turns out its hood is stronger." Christian says, standing up and showing off his cast to Elliot.

"What was wrong with it?"

"Fractured a metacarpal or something… Couldn't quite follow what the hell they were saying as they doped me up."

"Although I didn't mean your hand, thanks for the explanation to why you need me to take you home." Elliot glances over to the nurses' station, and winks to the redhead by the door.

"The meds should wear off in few hours so I can still drive to Seattle tonight." Christian ignores Elliot's blatant far distance flirting.

There's an unreasonably pretty and well-endowed nurse that walks past them and presses the button for the elevator as they get there. Elliot nudges Christian's shoulder and nods in her direction mouthing the letter F. Christian rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

"So what happened with the twins last night?" Christian asks, not caring that there are other people inside the elevator with them.

Elliot chuckles in response. "You'd better ask what didn't happen, and you'd get a shorter explanation... Going home to sleep, is definitely what didn't happen. How was that by the way? What the fuck is wrong with you? Your last night here and you bail on me before midnight? The twins were practically begging for a foursome. I had to work double hard because of you." The image of fucking one of the blondes while Elliot's doing the other flashes through Christian's head. He shudders.

"Damn you Elliot. You think I'd want to be looking at your hairy ass while… you know? Jeez, I'll never get that image from my head."

"Kiss my ass Christian. Oh wait, the pink twin did that already." Elliot bursts out in laughter.

"I should've taken a fucking taxi… I knew it." Christian mumbles, shaking his head with a smile on his lips.

The men exit the elevator on ground floor and walk past the lobby to the parking lot where Elliot has parked his Bimmer.

"Yeah yeah yeah… But you still didn't tell me why you tried to knock out your new car?"

Christian purses his lips and takes a breath or two before he says. "I called Anastasia."

"And?"

"She's in Washington, I think."

"You think?"

"Yeah. The call was cut short. And I couldn't reach her again."

"Damn."

"And there's more..." Christian tells Elliot about the mystery man.

Arriving at Ella's house, they have come to the conclusion that whatever it is Anastasia is doing with the old guy, is not to be in the way for Christian going after her. Trying to keep a positive attitude he grabs onto the thought that maybe she has dumped that guy already.

Ella is ecstatic, as she gets to eat lunch - take away from Luke's Pizza Joint - with the boys, and thus can spend a few more hours with her only son and his best friend. While Christian goes to double check that he has everything packed in his car, Elliot stays to finish his cup of coffee. As soon as the door shuts behind Christian's back, Ella turns to Elliot.

"Who's Anastasia?"

Elliot almost chokes on his coffee at Ella's direct inquisition.

"A woman?" Elliot attempts to make a joke, but receives an ice cold glare from Ella. Sighing he tells her, "He met her at the conference on the Caymans, and they hit it off..."

"This I know, what else is there?"

"Ok, I don't know how much more I can tell you. It's really complicated, I'm talking about a major clusterfuck, with heartache written all over it, but he can't stop thinking about her."

Ella wrings the napkin she was holding in her hands.

"He has been... Well, different since he came back. Almost back to his normal self... I thought, hoped, that he finally might have gotten over Mia."

"I know... Or I can guess, since I didn't know him before they fucked him over." Elliot strokes his chin, ignoring Ella's scowl at his language. He remembers the shell of a man Christian was, as he started working at Tech Inc., just months after his ex had taken off with his business partner, leaving him with an empty bank account and debts up to his neck. Christian has come a long way from then, Elliot thinks, as he sees his friend by his shiny new car, in the kitchen window. "But this mystery woman from paradise, man, she has gotten him tangled in her web. They haven't even spoken since the conference."

"She called this morning, you know? I picked up the call." Ella says, closing her mouth as the door rattles and Christian walks in.

Saying bye to Ella, Christian loads his thermos coffee cup and starts the drive to Seattle. Glancing in his rear view mirror, he sees her still standing on the porch, wiping her eyes and waving until he turns the corner and the light blue house disappears from view.

Heading towards the interstate, he sips his coffee, holding the steering wheel steady with his broken hand. Once the cup is again safely in the holder, he taps on the buttons on the steering wheel. His contact list is displayed and with a few taps, he has found the number he's searching for. Five seconds later the signal sound of the phone blares through the speakers and his heart speeds up a notch.

"Hello?" She answers, and a wave of excitement and relief floods over him.

"Hi Anastasia... It's Christian."

"Hey you."

"The call earlier got cut, I tried to call you again but your phone was out of reach." He says as he accelerates, and changes lanes. He's enjoying the purr of the engine almost as much as the sound of her voice.

"My.. Um... Battery died, sorry."

Not quite believing her, he lets her white lie slide. He wants to ask her about the man, and about the voice he heard in the last call, but he decides to play it cool.

"So I assume you're in Washington? Visiting someone?" He asks, hoping that it's for him.

"I'm in Washington state yes. I got relocated."

"Temporarily or permanent?"

"Too soon to say, it looks permanent, but you know, with life you never know..."

"Like a box of chocolates." He says with a smile. "You never know what you're gonna get." His own life has been filled with surprises, most of them bad, but his luck is bound to change, right?

She giggles. "A wise man that Forrest Gump."

"I think it was one of his mother's sayings." He replies trying to remember how the film set it up.

"Speaking of mothers... I spoke with yours this morning."

"Yeah... She told me you called."

"So you're moving?"

"Actually... I'm driving as we speak." For good measure he presses down the gas and flies past a few trucks on the interstate.

"Where to?" She asks.

"Seattle. Got a promotion, and will start at the new place tomorrow." He smiles as he tells her this. The thought of Tech HQ makes a swarm of butterflies flutter in the pit of his stomach.

"Wow! Congratulations. That's great Christian."

A silence falls between them. He desperately wants to ask her where she is, but he can't get the words out. If he knew, he'd drive there straight away.

"Have you ever thought about me?" She suddenly asks, her voice quiet and serious.

"Every single fucking day." He replies and hopes he didn't do the wrong thing in admitting it.

"But you never called. I thought..." Her voice trails off.

"I tried to, but I couldn't go through with it." He grips the wheel harder as the memory of her in that man's arms pops into his head.

"Why? Am I that scary?" She tries to joke, desperately clinging on to the hope that he really did want to call her.

"You know what. To answer that question I really need to be somewhere else than doing 80 down the highway with a busted hand."

"Oh... I understand. I think."

They both are silent for a moment, somehow just content with knowing that they have each other on the line.

"Well... You drive safe okay?"

"I will. I'll call you when I get settled... If you're not too far from Seattle, I'd really like to see you again. You know, take you out to eat or something."

"I'd like that." She sounds relieved, matching his feelings.

"Anastasia..." He starts, not even knowing what he wants to say. The options bounce inside his head: I miss you. I can't stop thinking about you. Where are you? Who is he? I need to see you again. But he says none.

"Yes?" She asks, her voice filled with hope.

"I'll talk to you soon."

He ends the call, his stomach now twisted into a tight knot. The torture of talking to her, but not seeing her, not getting any answers to his questions makes him yell out loud. He contemplates on stopping by the side of the road, just to get out of the car and scream and jump around like a madman, but he decides against it. Turning up the volume he lets the music drown his thoughts, and only faint images remain. Taking her to dinner, somewhere fancy, touching her again, running his fingers over her lips, the warmth of her breath before crashing his own onto hers. The need to feel her body against his again is much worse than it was before.

The rest of the way goes by in a blur, and as he pulls into the parking area of his new apartment building, the pain medication has stopped working and his hand is aching as hell. The newly built high-rise shines in the evening sun, but he ignores the sight. He grabs the bags he can with one hand, throwing the laptop bag onto his shoulder. Pressing the remote he watches the Audi's lights flicker as the doors are locked and the side mirrors fold in. He shakes his head and smiles, old rusty a faint memory by now.

He walks through the front door and excitement bubbles through his blood. The paint has hardly even dried, and some fine tuning is obviously still being done to the lights in the lobby. Taking the empty elevator up to the 19th floor, he breathes in the smells of the new building.

Getting to his apartment's door, he digs out the key he received a few days ago. His hands tremble as he pushes the key into the lock, suddenly afraid that the key will not fit. When the locks clicks, he lets out a breath. "Home sweet home." He says to himself, as he walks into the one bedroom apartment, fully furnished. The colors are light, the décor is in black and white.

Dropping his bags by the door, he goes to inspect the place. To his left, there's a bathroom with a tub. After that, there are sliding doors that are open, and he sees his new queen sized bed made with black and white sheets. He jumps onto his bed, landing on his back in the middle of pure luxury. For a moment he lays there just staring at the ceiling.

Continuing his tour he walks to the living room. The state of the art kitchen takes up a wall, but he hardly even notices it as he's awestruck by the view from his living room. The other two walls of his living room are floor to ceiling windows, and because the apartment is so high up, he can see the waters of Puget Sound shimmering between the other buildings.

Getting his phone from his pocket, he taps away a message to Ella. Still holding his phone, he sits on the couch, overlooking the city. He stares at it, his fingers sliding over the touch screen almost as if they have an own will. Closing his eyes, praying that this isn't a mistake, he presses dial.

"Hi, it's me."

AN: Thank you for reading! And here's an extra *mwah* for the reviewers!

H xx