Enjoy x

From: Caleb McManus

To: Jess Grey

I know this is a really, really bad time for you J, I just want to know that both you and Harry are okay.

Please, you both mean too much to me

C

Caleb didn't get a reply and sat looking at his phone every few minutes for the next two days. His father and sister had both been very understanding of the situation and knew his head was all over the place.

They didn't know what to say to him but simply being there was enough for him, making the situation a tiny bit more bare able.

Jess was a different story however. The only thing she wanted in the world was her son back, and had shouted at Christian for over an hour once John had left. It was only when she made a comment about leaving to go and get him herself that he had given in.

She had become so quiet and introverted that he spent all of his time terrified that he would go into her room and see her gone again.

She was by no means better or back to her old self, but physically and medically she was healing, but she was exceptionally quiet and spent a lot of time clearly very deep in thought.

She was clearly feeling lost, and whilst she hadn't gone near alcohol again since the incident a few days before, they were all aware of how little she had eaten since coming back from the hospital.

Christian was in the middle of his worst nightmare, his daughter had become as messed up, troubled and angry as he had been, and now she wasn't eating properly, which was his biggest pet hate.

Ana was quieter, watching Jess from a distance and seeing the small steps of progress she was making and not pushing her as much as Christian was, agreeing that Harry should come back.

Carrick was the one to bring him back, and Harry was clearly ecstatic to see his mother, running at full pelt to her.

Ana breathed a sigh of relief at seeing Jess's response to her sons return.

She immediately knelt down on the floor in time for Harry to launch himself at her and hug her as she wrapped her arms around her son.

Jess held him like that for several minutes before pulling back and kissing him on the fire head 'I've missed you so much munchkin'

Harry simply smiled, too young to understand the sadness in his mothers eyes

'Miss you too mummy'

Ana was helping out with Harry a lot more than usual in the days immediately following him coming home.

She didn't want to be constantly looking over her daughters shoulder, but wanted to make sure she was okay with him.

Whilst Jess was still fairly quiet and not very talkative, Harry being back had a good effect on her and she was brilliant with him.

Christian had arranged for Jess to see John Flynn in some capacity every day for a few weeks, and it was clear that they had made a breakthrough.

Flynn couldn't tell Christian or Ana any details of course but they weren't discussing only the miscarriage. What Jess had been through before becoming a member of the Grey family was far, far worse than Flynn had realised, and he knew that Jess had spent nearly a year with them trying to hide the truth from them.

As much as John wanted to tell Ana and Christian he was ethically and legally not allowed to, no matter how much it might have helped the situation. John had slowly begun to realise over a few sessions just why Jess was inherently so fragile, but there wasn't a lot he could do about it.

On the Friday afternoon after Harry came back Ana was reading a story to the toddler after Jess had given him a bath and got him ready for bed.

Leaving the two in the nursery room, Jess made her way over to the Study where Christian was looking with some confusion at the screen in front of him, looking up at the sound of her voice.

'Dad?'

'Hmm?'

He glanced over at her, seeing that she had visibly lost a little bit of weight from her already slim frame, Jess was wearing a pair of slightly loose grey skinny jeans and a big black hoody, her hair tied up and her face still pale.

'I just wanted to say... I uh, well... I- thank you'

Christian blinked 'for what?'

'For being there for me'

'Jessica, I'm your father, that's my job'

She half nodded, leaning against the doorframe 'I want you to know that this doesn't change anything, I still want you to marry Ana if that's still your plan?'

He nodded 'of course. Now isn't the time though Jess'

'I think it's what we need to be honest'

Christian watched as she turned away and left, heading back to Harry's room.

The next morning Jess came out and saw Ana clearing away her breakfast and Jose sitting at the breakfast bar talking to her and drinking a coffee.

She'd met Jose a few times and they got on well enough, and he turned and gave her a smile 'morning, you've just missed some of your Mum's famous pancakes and bacon Jess'

She smiled slightly, sitting up on one of the barstools next to him 'Hey, yeah I'm not really hungry to be honest'

Ana looked over from the sink 'you want some coffee?'

Jess nodded and Ana poured her a cup 'Jose's dropping off a picture for mine and your Dad's bedroom'

Ana turned around to keep washing up and Jess glanced down at the black book on the surface between them and Jose smiled 'it's what I show prospective clients, it's smaller versions of my photos'

Jose passed her the book and saw Jess's genuine reaction of amazement and intrigue at the images, looking at them intently before turning to the next ones.

A lot of people faked interest but he could see that Jess's was genuine

'You like photography?'

'I dunno, I never gave it much thought but these are amazing... '

'Do you know what you want to do with your life Jess?'

She shook her head, looking over the pictures still and Jose shrugged 'I'm doing some more shots this weekend, you can tag along if you want?'

Ana smiled a little, taking a sip of her drink, glad that Jess was showing some type of interest in something.

On the other side of town Christian was having a session with John Flynn, though he could tell the psychiatrist was distracted. Christian asked if he was okay but John shook his head, waving off the question, battling with what he knew he couldn't do but needed to do.

John truly believed that Jess was a ticking time bomb before she did something drastic or ran away again, the things that were going on in her head were far worse than Christian or Ana knew, but he couldn't say anything, and jsut had to sit back and hope that his worst fears weren't realized.

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