A/N: Wow guys - all your reactions to last chapter really made my head spin lol. Hope this one is to your satisfaction.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 8: Goodbye

Christian felt like he was in a daze as he followed his mother and grandparents out to the car to leave the hospital - his mind was swimming with everything Ana had said to him, and he was having a hard time fully comprehending it all. Grace, Mitchell and Odette all seemed to register his mood, and they didn't say anything as they all headed out to Mitchell's truck so they could go back to the house.

Ana had said she wanted to go back home to Boulder as soon as she was released from the hospital. After the injuries she had sustained, that was understandable, but the mere thought of her leaving early was surprisingly painful to Christian. Ana's presence these past few days had unwittingly brought light and happiness into his life, evoking feelings inside of him he had never felt before. He hated seeing her so broken and upset, and he wished more than anything he could make all her pain go away.

"She'll be alright, Christian," Grace said quietly to her son, and Christian looked over at her. "I got her room's phone number and extension from the nurse back in her ward, so we can call her tonight and see how she's doing. At the moment, though, I think she just wants to be alone."

Christian nodded silently, not saying anything as they all got into Mitchell's truck and drove off, heading down the snowy Aspen highway toward the house.

Honestly, Christian hadn't really wanted to go on an Aspen Christmas vacation with his entire family - in years past, he had simply worked through the holidays and sometimes exchanged presents with his parents and siblings over at the Grey Estate on Christmas Day. This year, however, his mother had suggested they go on a trip to Aspen with the whole family, and he'd felt obligated to say yes to her. Considering how much shit she and Carrick had put up with after finding out about his past with Elena and his alternative sexual lifestyle, they deserved something normal like a happy family vacation.

Christian thought back to the events of this past year, and couldn't help but reflect on them with a bit of melancholy. During the summer this past year, he had had a submissive named Leila Williams, who had very nearly ruined everything for him. Christian had figured out only a few weeks into their contract that she was completely crazy - she would follow him around the house, leave suggestive notes on his bedside cabinet, and address him by his first name in an attempt to elicit a reaction from him. At first Christian ignored her attempts to engage him, hoping their sessions in the playroom would bring her to heel, but barely two months had gone by before he had decided to end his contract with her, annoyed and frustrated by her relentless behavior.

However, him ending their contract only seemed to make matters worse: Leila became enraged that he would do such a thing to her, and in an act of revenge, she stalked him everywhere he went. Once or twice she even made a scene out in front of the GEH building while he was at work. When none of that worked, however, she pulled out the big guns - she found out where Christian's parents lived and visited them one evening. She bragged to them about everything she and Christian had done together, including how the two of them were introduced by Elena Lincoln and they were involved in the BDSM lifestyle.

Carrick and Grace had been confused and horrified by what Leila had told them, and it was probably one of the worst moments of Christian's life when he had to explain to them who Leila was and that everything she had said was true, right as the woman herself was being arrested by the police in front of their Bellevue estate.

Christian then explained to his parents that Elena had seduced him when he was fifteen years old, which was clearly the hardest for them to digest. They were angry and upset about the whole situation, but their support for their son never wavered, much to Christian's surprise and relief.

For months afterward, Carrick and Grace had insisted upon playing a more active role in Christian's life, lamenting how many years they missed out on due to Elena's influence over him. Christian went along with it, mostly because he was grateful his family hadn't completely turned their backs on him when they had learned of his proclivities. He honestly wanted to be the type of son his parents would be proud of, and so after the whole Leila debacle, he had all but given up his BDSM lifestyle and cut all contact from Elena Lincoln, realizing that her presence in his life had been nothing but toxic.

Now that it was Christmas-time, Grace had insisted they all spend a week in Aspen for the holidays. It was meant to be a fun relaxing getaway, and Christian agreed to it all, thinking that there was probably worse ways to spend a week away from the world.

As it turned out, Christian had found himself to be very much enjoying this vacation, but most of it was because of one Anastasia Steele.

Christian mindlessly gazed out the side window of his grandfather's truck, his thoughts drifting to Anastasia. He smiled to himself - he had first laid eyes on her several days ago, although it felt like much more time had passed at this point. He remembered following his mother over the threshold of the house before glancing up and laying eyes on the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Her long, wavy chestnut brown hair falling over her slim shoulders, her petite frame, and her large, clear blue doe eyes, which stared at him with surprise and wariness at his and his mother's sudden appearance. Despite Christian's immediate attraction to her, he realized that she probably wasn't supposed to be there, and he tried his best to tamp down his desire for her until he could figure out if she was an intruder or not.

Thankfully, she wasn't. As it turned out, Gail had hired her as a fill-in housekeeper for Mrs. Henderson - she was a recent college graduate, and she had been cleaning the house part-time for the past four months or so. Taylor had run a background check on Anastasia before hiring her, though he hadn't felt the need to inform Christian about her. Seeing as she was a temporary housekeeper for his out-of-state property, her employment shouldn't have really concerned him - however, Christian very much wished Taylor had said something. Never in a million years did Christian expect a girl like Anastasia to be working for him, and yet here she was, plain as day.

And now that she was here, he wanted to do everything in his power to ensure she stayed.

These past few days with her had been like a wonderful dream he never wanted to wake up from. He didn't think he would ever feel this way about a girl before, but the moment he laid eyes on Anastasia, he knew he wanted her any way he could have her. And he could tell by the way she looked at him - the way her cheeks blushed prettily when she smiled at him - that she wanted him too. The mere thought of that was deeply satisfying to Christian.

He smiled as he thought about his time with Ana so far - talking with her, laughing with her, going on hikes with her, dancing with her in the living room, and kissing her under the mistletoe. For a few wonderful days, he was able to enjoy himself like a normal, twenty-eight-year-old man in the company of a smart, sweet, beautiful young woman and try not to think about the fact that she would be leaving forever once Christmas was over with.

Actually she was leaving sooner now that she had been injured. Christian's heart plummeted at the thought.

This day just keeps getting better and better.

Mitchell finally pulled up to the house and parked in the driveway. Everyone got out and began making their way to the front door, and Christian's eyes couldn't help gravitating toward Ana's small beat-up blue Volkswagon Beetle parked next to all the other cars.

"Everything will work out, son," Mitchell said to Christian bracingly. Christian turned to look at him, and he clapped his hand on his shoulder. "I promise - situations like this always find a way of working themselves out."

Christian merely grimaced, not saying anything. He wanted to believe his grandfather's words, but at the moment he couldn't bring himself to.

They entered the house, and noticed some of the others laying out a large spread of food on the dining room table - there were platters of finger sandwiches and cold cuts, crackers and cheese slices, olives and prosciutto kebabs. Christian stared at all the food, a little surprised to see such a large spread.

"Oh hi guys," Eliza greeted them, coming out of the kitchen with another plate of prosciutto kebabs and setting them on the table. "Justin and I figured that since Ana's out of commission, and we didn't know if you guys would be back in time for dinner, we should just put out some finger foods for everyone to eat buffet-style. I hope that's alright."

Grace, who Christian knew had been planning to cook a nice meal for everyone with Ana's help, let out a resigned sigh. "Yes, I suppose that would be for the best, considering the circumstances. Thank you, Eliza - this all looks delicious."

Everyone went and got plates in the kitchen before moving along the dining table, filling up their plates with selections of the food laid out before them. Christian couldn't really say he had much of an appetite, but since skipping a meal was out of the question, he loaded up his plate like everyone else did and listened idly as Odette explained to the others what was going on with Ana's treatment.

Mia and Lily were standing at one end of the table with half-filled plates of food in their hands, talking to each other in hushed tones. No one could really make out what they were saying, but it sounded like they were arguing about something.

"…Hey, what's going on over there?" Grace interrupted, frowning over at her daughter and Lily. The two girls looked up.

"Nothing," Lily said immediately.

"I was just asking Lily why she didn't want to go with you guys to the hospital," Mia explained, shooting her friend a disdainful look. "I'd figured that since she was the one who had seen Ana fall, she could have given the doctors a more accurate account of what had happened."

"What's to tell? She fell down and hit her head," Lily shrugged. "The doctors don't need me to tell them that in order to treat her, so what did it matter?"

"It could have helped," Mia argued right back, glaring at her angrily. "Why are you being so stubborn about this?"

"I'm being stubborn…?!"

"Ladies," Odette piped up, stopping them. "Enough - Ana's being treated at the hospital as we speak, and she's going to be perfectly fine. You two can stop arguing, it's not going to solve anything."

"Yeah," Lily snapped at Mia, who rolled her eyes at her. "And don't tell me I wasn't being helpful! As soon as I saw Ana fall, I went into the house to get your mother - Ana would probably still be passed out in the snow if it wasn't for me!"

Lily immediately stalked away toward the living room, and Mia growled in frustration, stomping after her. There was a brief silence amongst everyone after they left.

"Well, Lily is being her usual enjoyable self today," Elliot scoffed, reaching over the table to grab a few kebabs to put on his plate. "I never understood what Mia ever saw in her."

Christian looked over at his father, who was gazing after Mia and Lily thoughtfully. "What's wrong, Dad?"

Carrick glanced over at Christian before shaking his head. "Nothing… just something Lily said."

Christian frowned. "What was it?"

Carrick sighed. "She said that as soon as she saw Ana fall outside, she went to go get Grace," he explained. "I'm just wondering why her first instinct was to go find someone else after seeing Ana fall. I know that if I saw someone wipe out on the ice, I would go out to make sure that person was okay before I went to get help. It's just odd that she did that, that's all."

Christian's frown deepened - now that he thought about it, why didn't Lily go and make sure Ana was okay before she went and got somebody? That should have been the natural order of events, and yet Lily insisted she had gone to get Grace right away.

Something isn't right.

Setting down his plate, Christian turned around and strode over to the staircase. Behind him, he heard Carrick set down his own plate of food and follow him.

"Christian? What's going on?" he asked, hurrying after Christian up the stairs.

"I think you're right - what Lily said doesn't really add up," Christian said to his father, not breaking his stride. "I have security tapes on every entrance of this property, and one of them probably recorded Ana slipping and falling. I want to see if what Lily said happened afterwards was true or not."

Christian entered his study with Carrick right behind him - Christian went to sit behind his computer and clicked on to the desktop program which allowed him to view the security tapes. Carrick walked over and stood behind him.

"I'm going to let slide the fact that you had a computer in here the whole time, son," he said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

Christian didn't say anything as the live security feed appeared onscreen. The screen was divided into four black-and-white boxes, each one showing the live feed of a different entrance of the house. Christian pointed at the top left one.

"That's the back patio," he explained. "That's where Ana slipped and fell."

He rewound the recording back a few hours, around the time he knew Ana had fallen. At around the one-thirty mark, he saw Ana step out onto the patio with Lester in her arms - she set him down and he immediately began running around in the snow. Ana stood watching him for a minute or so when Lily suddenly stepped out onto the patio and snuck up behind her. Lily then said something, and Ana turned around, seeing her standing there.

"Lily didn't mention this part…" Carrick muttered, frowning as he watched the video play out.

The security tapes had no sound, but judging from Lily and Ana's body language, it was clear they were having an argument of sorts. Lily seemed to be advancing upon Ana, shouting something at her, and Ana was backing away, looking scared. Lily suddenly reached forward and shoved Ana back, and Ana slipped and fell on what was clearly an ice patch. Christian saw her hit her head and her elbow hard on the ground, and a moment later she lay completely still, clearly unconscious. Lily only stared at Ana, backing away from her slowly, before suddenly turning around and running back into the house. There was about thirty seconds of nothing happening until Christian saw himself and Grace run out onto the patio to make sure Ana was okay.

Christian felt himself shaking, the anger and rage building up inside him almost overwhelming.

Fucking Lily - that goddamn, motherfucking, manipulative spoiled lying bitch!

She almost killed Ana!

Suddenly, Ana's decision to leave made perfect sense to Christian - she clearly didn't want to be in the same house as Lily anymore! And who could blame her? That fucking bitch had been nothing but condescending and rude to Ana throughout this whole trip, and now she had gone too fucking far.

"Christian…" Carrick said, placing his hand on his son's shoulder. Christian was too angry to pay his father any attention, however, and he leapt to his feet.

"That bitch is fucking dead," he growled angrily, storming out of his study with Carrick hot on his heels.

Downstairs in the living room, Mia and Lily seemed to be resuming their argument from earlier, shouting angrily at each other from across the room. The others were trying to intervene and stop the argument with little to no success, and it wasn't helped by Lester, who was running around the room and barking up a storm.

"ENOUGH!" Christian yelled at the top of his lungs, causing everyone's yelling and bickering to go silent. Even Lester had stopped barking.

Christian silently stalked across the room toward Lily, who cowered under his murderous gaze. She flinched as he grasped her tightly by her upper arm, tugging her hard. "Get out of my house," he hissed through clenched teeth, and she stared up at him with wide, scared eyes.

"Christian," Grace gasped, clearly shocked by his actions. The others remained silent, staring warily at him.

"Ana didn't slip and fall on the ice on accident," Christian growled, still glaring daggers at Lily. He felt a small amount of satisfaction upon seeing her eyes widen with panic. "Lily went outside and pushed her."

The others gasped.

"What?!" Eliza yelped.

"Holy shit," Elliot exclaimed, looking dumbfounded.

"Oh my God, I KNEW it!" Mia screeched angrily, turning her glare on Lily. "I KNEW you were hiding something! You pushed her?!"

"I-I… I didn't," Lily stammered, glancing wide-eyed between Christian and Mia. "Did… did Ana say something?"

Christian bristled. "No, but my security tapes did," he snapped, still grasping Lily tightly by the arm. She cringed. "It showed the whole damn thing! You really thought you could get away with injuring an innocent girl and sending her to the hospital!?"

"I… I don't… it-it was an accident!" Lily wailed, desperate tears filling her eyes. "I swear, I had just meant to push her back slightly - I didn't realize it was so icy out and that she would fall on her head!"

For several moments, nobody said anything. The silence was deafening.

"Oh my God," Grace shook her head, pressing a hand to her mouth.

"I can't believe this," Mitchell grumbled, glaring daggers at Lily.

"You have one hour to pack up all your things and get the hell out of my house," Christian hissed, and Lily gazed up at him in fear. "I don't care where the hell you go, but you are no longer welcome on my property. Get the fuck out of here."

His hard grip on her loosened as he finally pushed her roughly away, and Lily stumbled slightly. She turned around to gaze at the others, who were all staring at her with a mixture of anger and disgust.

"Mia?" Lily beseeched, clearly hoping for some help from her friend.

"You heard my brother," Mia growled at her, her arms crossed in front of her chest as she glared at her ex-friend. "Get the hell out of this house, you lowlife bitch."

Lily only stared at Mia for a few moments, clearly shocked by her words, before finally turning around and rushing away up the stairs. Christian heard her let out a strangled sob.

Mia walked over the the couch and planted herself down on it, suddenly burying her face in her hands and starting to cry in anger and frustration. Odette moved over to comfort her while everybody else began talking quietly with each other about what had just happened. Christian didn't say anything - he couldn't understand all the emotions raging around inside his head at the moment, and so he brought his hands up to run through his hair, tugging on the copper locks helplessly.

"Christian," Grace approached her son, gently reaching up and pulling his arms down; Christian let them drop uselessly by his sides. "I'm so sorry about this whole mess."

"I just don't understand," Christian said, frowning as he shook his head and looked back up at his mother. "Why didn't Ana say anything? She knew this whole time that Lily was the one who had hurt her, but she still went through with the lie. Why couldn't she tell us the truth?"

"I'm sure she wanted to," Grace said sympathetically. "But you have to see it from her perspective. We're her employers, and even though we've been friendly to her over these past few days, she's still basically a stranger to us. How would she know how we would react to her accusing Lily of hurting her? How would she know we wouldn't send her away?"

"We wouldn't have sent her away!" Christian insisted vehemently. "We would have listened to her! How could she not know how much we all care about her?"

"I know we do, dear," Grace said patiently. "And I can understand your anger. It's become very clear to all of us how much you and Ana have come to care about each other over these past few days. I'm sure that's what set off Lily in the first place and what made her confront Ana outside today."

Christian didn't say anything as he absorbed his mother's words. He could honestly say there was no one else he hated more right now than Lily - not only did she put Ana in the hospital, but she put lies in her head and made her doubt Christian's feelings for her. While he wished more than anything that Ana had been honest with him about her injuries, a small part of him could understand why she hid the truth, especially since Lily had made her feel so insecure about how he felt about her. Ana was going to leave tomorrow thinking that he, Christian, wanted nothing to do with her.

Well, not if I have anything to fucking say about it.

"We can't let Ana leave tomorrow, Mom," Christian insisted, turning his gaze back on his mother. "Not like this - it wouldn't be right."

"What do you suggest we do then?" Grace asked worriedly.

Christian frowned, his mind working hard trying to find a solution to this problem. A part of him wanted to just rush back to the hospital and tell her he knew the truth, tell her he knew what Lily had done to her. He wanted to tell her how he really felt… he glanced over toward the staircase, and an idea began to form in his mind.

"All of us will go to the hospital early tomorrow morning to visit Ana before she's released," Christian said firmly, turning back toward his mother. "Tell the others. I have a few phone calls to make beforehand."

Christian turned around to head toward the staircase, but Grace stopped him. "Christian - what are you planning, exactly?"

Christian looked at his mother, and he couldn't fight the small grin spreading on his face. "I'm going to bring her home."

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed that! If you did, please review.

I'm sad to say that the next chapter will be the last one :( But anyway, I hope to see you all there!