The next day at work, I decide to have lunch with Jessica. We've been extra busy lately, so we want some girl time.
"What do you want to eat?"
"Pizza" I reply. "I want pizza."
"Yeah screw the diet I'm on, I want pizza too." We walk to the pizzeria near by, and take a seat. She offers to order for me.
"So what's up? How was your birthday dinner yesterday?" She asks.
"It was fun, apparently Phoebe has a boyfriend and Christian convinced her she doesn't need him." Jessica breaks out into laughter, making me giggle.
"That must have been a priceless reaction."
"Oh it was," I reply. "It was too funny. The kids gave me more charms for my bracelet and Christian gave me diamond necklace. Diamond! Like I'm afraid to wear it!"
"Still not use to the glam?"
"No." I say honestly. "It's just too much to ever get used to. I know he does it to spoil me, to give me all I ever dreamed of. But actually having it all, it's a lot to sink in."
"I get that," she smiles. "You'll get use to it."
"He also talked to me about taking a break, a long break. Like a year or two, or more." I say quietly. "I said no. Half is the reason is because I've always been so productive doing something, the other half is because I know people will talk and speculate. I don't need rumors popping up left and right."
"People will always talk Ana. That's something that shouldn't stop you, people are vile and rude and will do anything to get a story. As for always doing something, he's right you need a break. If I had the pleasure of taking a year or two off from my career I'd do it in a heart beat. Especially since Julianna is still my baby and I'd like to see her grow up before she starts kindergarten next year. People make this whole stay at home moms something bad. As if she's some lazy creature doing nothing. What they don't know is that being a mother is one of the toughest jobs out there." I nod in agreement. "Don't think about too much, you're over thinking. If it's something you really don't feel comfortable with, then don't do it. But I you're over thinking it because you feel guilty for wanting it then stop. You should never feel guilty, any parent, man or woman, deserves a break at one point. And out of all the people I know you're one of them who deserves it the most."
I sit back and think about what she has said. I want it, I do. But.. I don't know I'm torn. Christian is giving me something I wish I had years ago when I first had Phoebe. After lunch, and girl time with Jessica, we head back to work. I make a detour to Christian's office though.
"Andrea, is he in there." I asks.
"Yeah, he's a little stressed though. Maybe you can calm him down." I nod and head right in. He has his head down, looks ready to explode. "Baby?"
"Ana?" He looks up. "What are you doing here?"
"Can't a girl visit her husband?"
"You have work to do." Yep, he's mad.
"I know, but I just wanted to talk really quick."
"About?" He looks back down to his work.
"What we talked about last night."
"I don't have time, Anastasia."
"Okay.." I sigh. "Why are you stressed, what's up?" I walk over to massage his shoulder and he relaxes a bit under my touch.
"Just a lot of shit on my plate."
"Anything I can help with?" I asks.
"No, just go back to work."
"Fine. I'll see you later." Before I walk out he grabs my hand and pulls me down for a deep kiss. "Now that's more like it." I whisper.
"I love you. Now go down, I'll pick you up at 5."
"I love you too." I walk away and hope he's able to come to a solution with whatever problem he's having. Stress angers him and seeing him angry, bothers me.
CPOV
What a fucking day.
First, and important meeting gets canceled because the asshole decided to go on a vacation. His loss, if shit goes down with our deal, he'll be the one paying.
Then, I find out I have a traitor in my company. Feeding others inside information. Taylor came back to me with a name, just thinking of how to handle this fucking situation.
I didn't mean to be so cold towards Ana, but I'm angry and the last thing I want to do is take it out on her. She wanted to talk about last night, I'm thinking she's thought it over. But in the state I am right now, I don't want to have that conversation. She deserves my full attention and not any attitude. So I made her go back down to work.
Apparently the asshole didn't come to work today, so I had people call him in. Telling him I had some information to share. Of course the bastard would happily come in for that.
So by 4:30 he's here. Smiling likes smug bastard, if he only knew what was coming his way.
"Mr. Davidson, have a seat." I offer.
"Mr. Grey, I do have to say, I was surprised to hear you want to talk to me."
"This will be short, I have some information you might like to hear."
"Oh?" He smirks. "About?"
I open up my desk drawer and slap a folder in front of him. He reaches over and opens it, reads it, and turns pale.
"Now tell me, how long do you think it would be before someone found out?"
Nothing.
"Can't speak?"
"Mr. Grey.. I.." He starts.
"You think you can fool me? In my company? I have better employees than the FBI. My tech people can trace anything and will be able to find anything you hid and sent. My security team will be able to find everything about you, or should I say has found everything about you. You've been sending and getting information for other companies. And you honestly thought you wouldn't get caught?"
Silent.
"Talk! You son of a bitch, fucking talk. Do you honestly think being quiet is going to help you? Since the moment you walked in that door, you've been doomed."
"I.. Can explain.." He tried to speak but he doesn't have anything to say.
"As if you can actually make the situation better.. I am no fool. You have ruined the trust with me and this company and I will go to great lengths to make you pay for what you've done. I will ruin you, after I'm done here no one will ever want to hire you. My team will make sure of it."
I look him right into his eyes, and he's ready to burst.
Bring it on, bastard.
APOV
I'm done with work for the day, just waiting for Christian to come down. A knock on my door startles me a bit but I compose my self and say "come in."
"Surprise mommy!" Phoebe says. "We came to pick you up. And daddy!"
"Hi mom." Teddy says.
"Well what a lovely surprise." I smile. "How about we go up and get daddy?"
"Ok!" They agree. "Come on Luke let's gooooo!" Phoebe grabs his hand dragging him to the elevator.
Once we reach his floor, Andrea looks our way with a worried expression. I immediately worry.
"Is Christian in there?" I ask
"Yes," she answers. "Taylor just went in.. I don't think it's a good idea-"
She's cut off by the noise coming from his office. There's yelling and then we hear something break. The kids look around wondering what's that so I take the opportunity to talk a bit louder. "Andrea take the kids downstairs. Now." I smile at them and Andrea takes their hands. Luke looks ready to run in but doesn't want to make a scene in front of them.
"There's cookies in the cafeteria!" She says making the kids squeal with joy. The moment they are out of site, Luke and I rush into Christian's office. I stay by the door as the scene in front of me makes me stop.
"You son of a bitch, you don't know how heartless and cold I can get. Ruthless even. Talk about my wife and kids again, and you'll get much worse coming your way." Christian is on top of some guy, holding him down. It looks like both of them got some punches on each other. Taylor is trying to pull Christian back, but he obviously needs help. Luke rushes over, pushing him off and holding him back, while Taylor gets a hold of the other guy. "Taylor I want him out, now. I want my lawyer contacted and I want surveillance on him. He better not try something stupid because he'll be fucking dead."
"Christian!" I call out.
"Don't you ever, fucking ever bring up my family. Understood. You have no idea the lengths a father and husband will go to protect what's his." Christian tells the guy, then Taylor walks out with him after I move away from the door. Luke finally lets go of him and Christian settles back on the desk.
"Luke, take the kids home. Tell them we got busy." He nods and leaves us alone.
I slowly walk up to him, not knowing if he's still angry. I'm not afraid, I just know to give him so space.
"Christian, your lip is cut. You're bleeding." I take tissues out of my bag, and rush over to clean him up.
"Why are the kids here?"
"They came to surprise us with Luke. They're in the cafeteria with Andrea. What happened?" I ask.
He sighs and begins to explain the situation with that guy. Getting an understanding of the situation, but still lost on what got him with rage.
"But why are you so angry? What did he say? Did he bring us up or something?"
"Yeah. He started getting mad at how 'cold' I was being towards him. Then he brought you and the kids up. I won't go into details, but he disrespected my family. And no one, I mean no one, talks shit about my family. I will do whatever to defend and protect what's mine."
"I know, baby, I know." I kiss his cheek. "Thank you for defending us, but let's forget about the douche. We'll leave in a few, I just want you to relax. At home, later on tonight I'll give you a massage, I can tell you're still stressed and if you're good.. I'll give you a happy ending." I smirk.
"Mrs. Grey, you're very inappropriate." He joked.
"Mr. Grey, I'm trying to drift your thoughts away to something else because I hate seeing you upset." I smile. "Now.. I want you to wrap your arms around me and just hold me."
"That I can do.." And he does. He hold me close, give me a kiss on the cheek. "We need to talk though, you said you wanted to earlier."
"Yeah, but maybe tomorrow. Today has been intense for you."
"Alright. Tomorrow."
}-{
The next day arrives and I'm up rather early. Last night, I made a list of things to get done by the end of this week, before officially taking a break.
I've come to realize, I just felt guilty about being able to have this opportunity most women dream about. A decision that most would frown upon because a woman should always have a career.
Screw everyone, I'm taking this break and I'll be talking to Christian about it before he goes to work. He had hired a replacement for my maternity leave, but I'm sure now things would change and he has to make those changes happen fast.
I'm already dressed, so I decided to make breakfast and then go wake up the kids for school. I gave the morning off to Gail.
"Phoebe, come on. Time for school. You better be awake by the time I come back from Teddy's room."
Teddy isn't hard to wake up, in fact, he's already awake by the time I get to his room. Like today. I walk into his room and turn on the shower for him while I head back to Phoebe to help my lazy monster get ready for school.
Christian wakes up and helps with Teddy but seems surprised to see me all ready for work.
"Up early?" He asks and I nod.
"Breakfast is ready, bring teddy down when he's down." I say and he nods.
Half an hour later the kids are dressed and eating breakfast. Today they head to school early so Luke should be coming in to take them to school.
Twenty minutes later, the kids are gone and Christian comes down to eat breakfast. "The kids already left?"
"Yeah, just missed them ." I answer.
"Damn, didn't get to tell them to have a good day." A small smile form on my face, he never fails to tell the kids to have a good day unless he's running late or still getting ready. "Why were you up so early?"
"I felt fully rested. And I thought we should talk now."
"Okay," he nods. "Start."
"I'll take the break." He looks at me with a curious glance. "I thought about it and realized I just felt guilty for having this. You know.. I've worked hard the last few years and I've seen how cruel people can be to stay at home moms that have husbands who work their asses off, I just didn't want to be part of the gossip. I want to be able to stay home and see Aleah all day and not rush home to spend time with her, something you're going to be doing. So I felt bad you know. Because I wish we could both just step back and enjoy this."
"You don't have to worry about that. I'm making changes to my schedule after Aleah is born, though I'm starting on this changed now. I'm always home by five, but 35% of the time I'm always coming home late. After the new year, anything after five will be handled by Ros. She's COO so I'm passing some of my work over to her, the only one I trust to do the right choice. No more staying late, no more late night video meetings, no more. After five it's family time and they won't hear from me until the next day. As for business trips, I'll only attend the ones I'm really needed, Ros will be taking over that mostly. Weekend trips to GEH will be minimized. I'm a family man, and I want to start acting like one."
"Oh, Christian," I smile. "That's great!"
"It is, and if you actually want to take that break then hell, go for it. Stay home, relax, take a breather. Think about your future, career wise. You're still young, figure things out. Mom is also looking for new people to join her committee for the Coping Together Ball, you can always help with that."
"Yeah, that sounds good." I smile. "You know I love you right?"
"As much as I love you. So do you really want this because I'll have to start acting on changes today. When do you plan on stepping back?"
"End of this week."
"Great." He smiles. "That will be enough time."
"Christian, thank you. You know.. For everything you've done for me and Phoebe."
"Never thank me, I'm just doing what any man would do for the people he loves."