Sorry I didn't get any chapters uploaded yesterday. Real-life pulled me away from my house all day so I never got a chance. I'll be posting up through chapter 25 today. Also, please stop by my website, craftyrivers dot com and check out my original novel Dreamland Café. Chapters 1-3 are posted there. As always, thank you for reading and thank you for reviewing!

Chapter 19

Christian PoV

Everything hurt. My shoulder most of all. I absently pushed the button in my hand for more morphine. I had sworn to never succumb to drugs, but I couldn't help it. The pain was too unbearable. Where was Anastasia?

I opened my eyes and there she was. With the lamp behind her, she glowed. She was an ethereal being and just the mere sight of her melted away all my pain. "Anastasia," I breathe. "You came back for me."

"I'll always be here for you Christian," she assured me. "I love you so much." When she kissed my temple, I leaned my face upwards, puckering my lips. At her giggle, I warmed inside from the roots of my hair to my toes. She kissed me fiercely; I felt actual anger in her kiss. "Do you have any idea how furious I am with you?"

And so it began. We argued for quite some time over who was more stubborn and idiotic when it came to the Jack Hyde situation. I admitted, albeit to myself, that my plan wasn't all that well thought out, and Ana's was slightly better. Though I'd never say that out loud. She was still within a dangerous distance of a mad man with bombs, guns and a grenade.

Then the ball was dropped. My mother asked me about Elena. More specifically, she asked about what we did when I was a teenager. A feeling of distrust flitted across me and I glared at Ana. My mother was quick to tell me that Ana was not at fault, that Elena had admitted it. Well then I felt sheepish for the fleeting thought. I squeezed Ana's hand, forgiving her and asking for her forgiveness in return.

"What did Elena say?" I asked.

"Never mind what Elena said, Christian. I want to hear it from you," my mother replied. Oh shit.

"Well, if you recall, I went to work for Elena and Linc when I was a teenager. One day she brought me a glass of lemonade when I was out in the sun working really hard. I made some off-hand possibly inappropriate comment and she slapped me. It was the first time anyone had touched me in I couldn't remember how long, and I certainly hadn't been hit since before…

"It was angering and refreshing and terrifying all at the same time. Then she kissed me. She showed me a world where I could expunge the anger that was brewing beneath the surface. And for the next six years, I was her submissive, she the Dominant. I let her punish me and then we'd have sex." My mother began wailing. I decided to go ahead and tell her everything. "I know now that it was very, very wrong mother. I didn't at the time. I knew enough to never tell anyone, but that was more so because I knew she'd punish me severely if I did. After she taught me everything she knew, I transitioned from being a submissive to being the Dominant. And then for the next six years, it worked for me." Ana squeezed my hand. "Well, I thought it was working."

"So you're telling me that you haven't been celibate all these years?" my mother asked.

I smiled. "No mom, I haven't. I hardly thought you'd be interested that my personal life included that. So I never mentioned it, and I never brought any of the women to meet you. They weren't girlfriends, mother. They were submissives. I had no emotional connection with any of them, and that may seem horrible of me, but it was the way I operated. I couldn't handle the emotions that were within me, so I didn't let anyone get close to me. And then Ana came along and she threw my world out of orbit.

"I began feeling again. More than just anger. I felt happiness, sadness, joy, and utter elation. This woman has changed me irrevocably. In less than two weeks, she's got me wrapped around her little finger, and thinking of the future. Of marriage and so forth. I haven't asked her yet, but I'm definitely going to."

"Christian," Ana whispered. I looked up at her and she had tears in her eyes. At my worried expression, she shook her head. "They're happy tears, baby."

"Is there anything else you want to know, Mom? Dad?" I asked them.

"No, son," my dad replied. "I think we know more than we ever thought we would before. My question is, do you wish to press charges against Elena? I sure as hell want to."

"Well, given that she's been harassing my girlfriend at length, I'm not against it at this point," I replied.

"Well, as a physician," my mother added. "I'm required by law to report it. Even though it happened some time ago, I have to." I nodded my understanding.

My parents left the room, leaving me with my one and only. "I meant it, you know." I told her.

"Meant what?"

"Wanting to marry you," I said. "Marriage was never anything that registered on my radar until you entered my life."

"Mine either," she agreed. "I want to hold you right now. I want to wrap my arms around you."

I scooted over as far as I could without hurting my arm. "Then climb in, baby."

"Won't I get in trouble?" she asked.

"Not if I tell them I need you here. You're my therapy, Ana. You're the one that's going to get me through this injury. Every touch and kiss from you is a healing balm on my body. I'll be out of these bandages and back in bed with you, making sweet love with you for days on end, in no time."

"Don't get me all riled up when we can't do anything about it," she teased. She climbed into the small hospital bed with me and wrapped her arm around my torso. Resting her head on my chest, I pulled her tight against me with my free arm and stroked her back.

"How are you doing, Ana?" I asked her.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? I'm not the one that got shot today."

"Yes, but you did something today that can change a person irreparably."

"I killed Jack Hyde," she said. "I know I did. And I have to rationalize that he deserved it, and that he would have gotten the death penalty if the police had intervened before I did. And that's if they didn't shoot him first. And I'm a pacifist, Christian. I'm not a fighter, until someone threatens someone I love. Then I'm fierce and lethal. He had my brother and sister wearing enough C-4 to take out half of Seattle, and you were in the building. That was enough to set me on a murderous rampage."

"They said you pulled the arrow out of his neck and stabbed him through the eye with it. Is that true?" Elliot asked popping his head into the room. That was news. She did what?

"Yes, that's true," Ana admitted. I tried to imagine her doing it and the imagery was coming up short. He deserved cruel and unusual torture for sure, but it was hard to picture my Ana doing that.

"That's awesome!" Elliot exclaimed. "You just became my hero! And don't get too rough with him in that bed, little sis. I'm not sure he can take your wild ways." I grabbed a nearby empty cup and threw it at him. He ducked it expertly and then scampered out of the room. Elliot had no idea about my own wild ways, let alone Ana's. And it was going to stay that way.

Ana settled herself against me and we fell asleep in each other's arms. I awoke to the nurse arguing with a very distraught Ana. She was apologizing profusely for crawling into my bed, assuring the nurse that I wanted her there. "She's right," I said. "I feel better with her in my arms. I don't even need the morphine when she's with me."

"Just don't jostle him too much," the nurse admonished. "Mr. Grey. Your breakfast is here," she added gesturing to the tray on the rolling table. I nodded my thanks and Ana carefully climbed off of me.

She lifted the cover on the plate and grimaced at it. "I can do better than that," she said. Her phone was out of her pocket and at her ear and within minutes, Reynolds came strolling through the door carrying bags of food from Constantine's. Yum.

"You're a good man, Reynolds," I told him as I dug into one of the bags. He nodded at me and ducked out of the room to hang out with Taylor. Ana told me they'd become friends.

As we ate, Ana seemed a little distant. I could tell there were a million things running through her mind. When I asked her about it, she said she was just processing everything that happened. I remembered the last time she told me she had to process, she ended up leaving me for a night, nearly killing herself by exercising too much, sent me in a panic that she was going to break up with me, and then ended up telling me she loved me by making alphabet pancakes.

As much as I loved the way she expressed her feelings, I didn't want her going anywhere. "You're not going to leave me again, are you?" I asked.

"What? No. Of course not. Why on earth would you think that?"

"Well you're acting all distant and you say you need to process what happened. The last time you did this, you spent the night away from me and it nearly tore me apart, worrying that you weren't ever going to come back to me."

"Christian, baby, I'm not leaving you. I have no intention to do so. I'm sorry if what I said made you think otherwise. I had to process you and me at that time, and I needed time away from you to do that. Right now I'm not processing our relationship. Just what all has happened in the past few days.

"My rapist comes into town demanding revenge; I find out I have a biological grandmother and that she's the very woman who molested you as a kid. Then Hyde makes an attempt to blow up my building, assaults my sister, shoots you, and I killed him. It's a lot. A whole lot." It still seemed like there was something she was holding back from me.

"You can tell me, baby. I can take it." She looked at me confused. "I can tell there's something you're not saying. What is it?"

"Um, well, Hyde made a reference to tag teaming me and my sister. And it is disturbing." She answered. That wasn't it. Well, I was sure that it did bother her, but it wasn't what was keeping her so distant. There was something else that she was keeping to herself. I decided not to press her on it, but she needed to tell me eventually. I wouldn't have something come between us.

Ana PoV

Okay, so Christian knew I was hiding something. I wasn't exactly hiding it; I just didn't know how to best tell him that the man who raped me also provided half the genes in his DNA. It wasn't something I could just bring up over tea and crumpets. "Hey babe, by the way… remember that guy I killed? Yeah the rapist that shot you and wanted to blow up half of Seattle using my brother and sister as ground zero… well guess what I found out? He's also your dad! Small world, right?" Yeah, no. That would not go over so well.

I was glad that he told his parents about the Troll. She and Hyde could have shared a cell in prison. Before long the doctor came in and told Christian that he needed to stay a couple more nights, to ensure the surgery didn't have any complications. Then he'd be on bed rest for at least a week before he could consider going back to work in any capacity. I knew he'd have a big problem with that.

After visiting hours were over, I was yanked out of the hospital by my family. They wouldn't let me stay with Christian, no matter how hard I begged. He even said he wanted me there, but I was ordered to my room like a twelve-year-old child, and only allowed to return during visiting hours again the next day.

In the meantime, I met with Flynn. He came right to my house, sat in my living room while I stared at the wall.

"Ana, you've been through one hell of a trauma. You need to talk about it," he told me.

"I did. With Christian," I answered. "I don't need to speak about anything to anyone. I'm fine." Even I knew he could tell I was lying.

"That's simply not true, Ana, and you know it. This therapy is required by law now, you know. You killed a man. Even though it was categorized as self-defense, I know you had an emotional connection with the man. You killed him deliberately. And we need to discuss the ramifications of that action."

"Ramifications? You say it like I made a sour business deal and have to deal with the fall out. He raped me, Flynn. He assaulted my sister, wrapped her and my brother in bombs for god's sake. He was deranged. When I talked to him on the phone, he kept going on about reuniting his family."

"He considered you a daughter?" Flynn asked, confused.

"No, he considered me his personal property, like a sex-slave and Christian his…." I trailed off realizing I was about to let the cat out of the bag. But not to Flynn. Flynn didn't need to know that.

"Considered Christian his what, Ana?"

"Nothing. Never mind. He didn't say anything other than that Christian was his competition and talked about whose dick was bigger," I lied.

"Is that so?" he asked. I ran through the conversation I had with Hyde on the phone, trying to find any other detail I could use.

"He said he wanted to share me with Christian."

"That has to be disturbing, Ana. How did you respond to that?"

"I was concentrating on not throwing up," I answered honestly.

"Understandable," he replied.

I scoffed. "Look Flynn, I don't need you here. I don't want you here. All I want is to be at the hospital with Christian." At this he invoked the full on house-arrest. I wasn't allowed out of the house at all. I couldn't visit Christian, I couldn't call the hospital, I couldn't do anything.

"You need to learn to be independent, Ana."

"What the fuck are you talking about? I've been independent my whole life!"

"You've been damaged your whole life. Something about your relationship with Christian has changed you. For the better for the most part, but you are completely dependent upon him. And he upon you. When I'm not here with you, I'm at the hospital with him, Ana. He's pining for you in just the same way."

"Then wouldn't it make sense to give us both what we need? We need each other. He's like air to me, I can't survive without him."

"And that's exactly what I mean, Ana. You two need to learn to be self-sufficient. It's not healthy to be so attached to him."

I tried to get past him, but he anticipated my move and soon had me pinned to the wall behind him. "Flynn, if you don't back away from me right now, I swear to god I will break your neck," I hissed. He backed up slightly and I slid out from the wall. "You have no fucking clue what you're talking about. You have no idea what it's really like to come from where I came from, where Christian came from. To overcome all of that and find love."

"Ana!" I heard Christian's voice on the other side of the door. What was he doing out of the hospital? Flynn tried to stop me again, but I kneed him in the groin, sending him sprawling onto the floor, and ran for the door. I threw the door open and soon he was in my arms. His right arm was in a sling and crushed between us, but we couldn't get close enough to each other. "They were keeping us apart," he whispered once we calmed down. He pressed his forehead to mine. "Why did they do that?"

He stared down at Flynn, who was curled up in the fetal position on the floor, sobbing softly. "What did you do to him?"

"I kneed him in the balls," I said. "Flynn thinks we need to learn to be self-sufficient. Able to be away from each other. I was going crazy without you, baby." Now that he was in my arms, I could see how crazy I truly was getting. For the last few days I hadn't been eating, sleeping or doing much of anything aside from trying to find a way to get out of the house and to the hospital.

"Were you discharged already?" I asked him.

"No," he replied. "I escaped. I imagine they'll be coming after me with strait jackets in a while."

"They'll have to get through me first." I flex my arms under his hands.

"You've lost weight," he admonishes staring at my slightly thinner frame. I shrugged and told him I had no appetite whatsoever. "I couldn't eat without you either," he said. I nodded my agreement. The hospital obviously made him eat some food, as he hadn't lost any noticeable weight. "Shall we eat?" I nodded again and we headed into the kitchen.

"I called Taylor on the way here," he said. "I'm having everything at Escala packed up and brought here. I want to live with you, baby. Is that okay?"

"Yes. Yes. Yes," I said, kissing his dear face in between each word. Perhaps it was too soon. Perhaps it was a bad idea. But I didn't care. I wanted nothing more than to spend every moment of the rest of my life with this man.