A/N: Since I have officially lost my mind and started a third story, I made up an update schedule, in order to be able to update all stories regularly. When I started this story, my plan was to end it with the wedding and an epilogue that would show Ana and Christian two years later, but there are too many loose ends to end it now, plus A&C are not really at the point were I could just end this story. So my new goal is to end this story between chapter 40 and 50. From now on I will update this story twice a week and my other stories once a week. If I have time or end a chapter with a big cliffhanger there will be bonus chapters...
Most of you wanted the morning of the wedding from Christian's POV ... so here it is ... enjoy!
The wedding part 1
Christian's POV
I wake up alone in my childhood bedroom and frown when I realise that I'm hugging Ana's pillow to me like it was her. I still have no idea why my mother insisted that we couldn't spend the night before the wedding together. Fuck, today I'm going to vow before our family, friends and God that I will spend the rest of my life with Ana and I have to start the day without her. That just doesn't make any sense at all. I heard my mom talk about tradition and no sex before the wedding. Yeah, even my dad laughed at her at that point.
I mean, she knows me and does really believe Ana and I would wait until the wedding. Of course, Ana kicked me under the table before I could say anything inappropriate, so I kept my mouth shut. She really found her ways to keep me from saying anything out of line. So, when ever I put my foot in my mouth I either get kicked or pinched and she even gave me a slap on the back of my head the other day. At first I was shocked that she would do that, but secretly I enjoy her attempts to discipline me and I have to admit, I wasn't even aware of how often I would say things that are rude or embarrassing, before Ana started her little punishments.
Though it is Elliot who gets the biggest kicks out of it. He busts my balls when ever he witnesses it happen and he also teased me when Sawyer returned with the pillow from Ana yesterday evening. He thinks I'm pussy whipped, but what he fails to understand is that I am thrilled that Ana cares enough about me, that she would think about things like that. Plus, I didn't have any nightmares last night, so it worked.
Once mom and Mia went to bed last night, Elliot, my dad and I set in the kitchen and had some drinks. They kept asking me if I was nervous, which I don't get. This is what I want, so why would I be nervous. Ana and I know what we want, so it's a done deal. After today, Ana is officially mine and there is nothing anyone could do about it. Well, almost. Her mother is still pouting like a fucking child and I won't put up with it. The moment I see her this morning, we will have a talk about her behavior.
I get that she is worried about her other daughter, but that doesn't give her the right to demand from Ana to put her life on a hold or ruin our wedding, by staying away to make a point. Honestly, I couldn't care less if she shows up or not, but I know it will break Ana's heart to marry without her mother watching her. So, Carla's pouting has to stop.
I get up and get dressed in some sweatpants and a t-shirt I have here for the rare occasions that I'm staying over. Since it's only six in the morning, I decide to take a run. Taylor follows me like every day and after the run I take a shower. I'm just dressed when I hear a knock at the door and my dad comes in.
"Good morning Christian."
"Hi dad, do you need something?"
"Yes, your mother asked me to check if you are up and take your phone." What the fuck?!
"Excuse me?" my dad rolls his eyes and smirks. "She doesn't want you and Ana to see or talk to each other until the wedding."
"Come on Dad, this is ridiculous, did you and Mom do that?"
"Your grandma believes so, what she doesn't know is that I went to Grace's home in the middle of the night and got into her room through the window." he snickers.
"Fuck Dad, why didn't you tell me yesterday, I could have snuck out and stayed with Ana!"
"Christian, while I know you are a fit and healthy young man, I don't think that you would be able to climb up all the way to Ana's bedroom."
Is he making fun of me? "Dad, I own the fucking penthouse, I could have used the damned elevator."
"Did it kill you to sleep here and make your mother happy?"
"No, fine, I guess for the fucked up shit I did in my past which got mom upset I owe her this" I know I'm sulking, but I get my phone and hand it to my dad.
"Tell mom to check my texts, Gail is sending me a message once Ana is awake and gets her surprise."
"Surprise?"
"Yes, I gave Luke a note for Ana and instructions for Gail, so she would arrange a nice breakfast in bed for Ana, when he came here with the pillow."
My nods and turns to leave, but then turns back around again. " You know son, I'm really proud of you. It is a joy to see you this happy, you deserve it. I love you." with that he leaves and I'm shocked. I can't remember the last time my dad said that out loud. He is the kind of guy that rarely talks about his feelings, so for him to tell me this is huge.
It also brings me back to the thought that is going through my mind for the last couple of days or so. I want a family. Even thinking it seems crazy, but I really want to have kids with Ana. Of course, we need to have at least 5 boys before we can have a girl, because heaven knows if our daughter would look like Ana, I would probably have to fight little fuckers off before she started to walk.
But fact is, I want kids. I don't know why this has become something I would think of, but it would be great to have a little guy running around our new home. And it's not like we had a reason to wait. We are both young and healthy, the money will never be a concern for us as we have more than we will ever need in our life. Hell, we could both stop doing anything for the rest of our lives and still had enough money to provide for generations of descendants.
I just have no idea how Ana is going to react to this. After all she is only 22 and with her project slowly developing, she might not want to have kids right now. That is why I decided to wait until after our honeymoon to talk to her about it. Talking about the honeymoon, I hope she enjoys my surprise.
Ana told me that as a kid she always dreamt of staying at her own island. That was before we even became a couple, but I liked the idea, so I bought one of the 17 private islands that belong to the Seychelles. At first I was leaning towards a Caribbean island, but they have hurricane season in october and so I looked for islands in the indian ocean and found out that one of the Seychelles islands was for sale. It's perfect, it already has a beachvilla built on it, I have hired staff and we can go there when ever we want.
That is another thing about my life, I really want to change. Since I started GEH I wasn't on vacation once. I worked every day no matter what, but now that I have Ana, I want to spend as much time as possible with her. I still love my job and will never be the kind of guy who sits at home all day, because lets face it, Ana would go nuts and drag me back to work after a month or so, but every once in a while I want to take a couple of days off, take Ana and go to our island.
If she says yes to having kids sooner, I will cut back my work hours anyway. I'm in the lucky position to do so and I want to see my kids grow up. Ros likes to travel for work, so she can do it more often, so I can stay in Seattle. Flynn thinks that I want all of this now, because I never thought I would have a wife or real home to come home to after work. This is one of rare occasions where I have to agree with him. If anyone had told me 6 months ago that I would fall in love and marry, I would have flipped him off and went my way. Never in a million years did I see this coming.
But Ana is like a force of nature, she came into my life and changed it forever. I have to smirk thinking about how we started and that she still gave me a chance is like a miracle. Honestly, I couldn't stand myself at that time, now, I'm one happy son of a bitch.
I walk downstairs in the kitchen where my family is already sitting, having breakfast together.
"Hey bro, getting nervous now?" I roll my eyes at Elliot. "No, but maybe I will if you all keep asking me." I sit down and pour myself a cup of coffee.
"You should be, if I were Ana, I would use that night alone to run for the hills." I know he is just teasing, but that thought actually makes me nervous. Damn, what if he is right, what if she used last night to think about us and decided that I'm a complete fuck up.
"Fuck, chill Christian, I was just kidding, damn I could watch all the color draining from your face." Elliot mutters, but I'm not really listening.
"Mom, I need my phone I need to call Ana" I look pleadingly at her, but from the look on her face, I know she is not going to give in and suddenly my phone rings with the ringtone I only use for Ana. Oh shit, is she going to call the wedding off?
I watch my mom leave and a minute later she returns. "What did she say mom?"
"Ana wants me to tell you that she loves you and can't wait to be your wife." she says and I release a breath I didn't know I was holding. Fucking Elliot, he really knows how to play my insecurities. I know he was just joking, but I can't see anything even remotely funny in the thought of Ana leaving me.
"Damn bro, you are so pussy whipped" Elliot laughs and I realise that I have the most goofy grin on my face.
"Elliot! First, watch your language and second stop teasing your brother, it's not nice and we don't want him any more nervous than he probably is right now."
"For fucks sake! I'm not nervous." I mutter in frustration. "Christian Grey, you will not speak that way while you are sitting at my table" my mom admonishes me. After being a mom of boys for 30 years, she should know that using foul language comes natural to us, but, bless her, she still tries. Damn, I might need to watch this if Ana agrees to have a baby soon. She will have my ass if our babies first word is fuck or something like that, though it would be funny as hell. Like father, like son.
"Sorry Mom" I mutter and hear Elliot mouth the word pussy to me, so I flip him off when my mom doesn't see it and Mia giggles.
"You two still act like teenagers, poor Kate and Ana" she laughs.
"Oh yes and you can say that because you are so grown up" I tease her and actually start to enjoy this breakfast, it's like old times when I still lived here, only now I don't feel like I don't fit in or don't deserve my family.
"Where are the Steele's mom?"
"Ray went for a run with Patrick and Carla is still upstairs, I tried to talk to her, but she won't listen." My mom looks not pleased at all and I'm sure I'm mirroring her expression. So, finish my breakfast and I'm just about to go upstairs when Taylor approaches me.
"Sir, we have a problem."
"What is going on?"
"The media, someone found out that there is something big going on here today. The Seattle Times already called PR to find out what is going on."
"Fuck, ok, tell PR that if anyone asks, we are having a family get together or something like that. How much security do we have here?"
"We have 32 people watching the estate as well as the CPO's that would make a complete security team of 45 persons."
"Good, if anyone tries to get pictures or anything deal with it. I don't want this day ruined by the fucking paparazzi, and no word to Ana, I don't want her to worry about this. If there are more issues I want to know immediately."
"Yes Sir" he leaves and I rub my hands through my hair. Fuck, I hope we can get through the day without having a media spectacle outside. I want this to be a happy day and I don't want to think back at my wedding day and only remember how the paparazzi annoyed the fuck out of me.
I take a deep breath and continue my way to the second floor where the guest rooms are. I knock at the door of the room Carla and Ray are staying in and after what feels like ages Carla opens the door.
"Carla we need to talk." I can tell from her stern look that she doesn't want to talk to me at all, but I stare her down until she takes a step back to let me in.
She sits down on the chair at the window, while I remain standing. "Carla, I don't know why you are punishing Ana, but you need to stop this now."
"I'm not punishing Ana" she huffs clearing offended, but I don't give a fuck. "Hell, if you don't! You told your own daughter that she is selfish, just because she doesn't want to put her life on hold for her sister. A sister who did nothing but hurting her for years."
"Jenny is sick, it is not her fault. I just want her to get better and if you two would wait with the wedding, Jenny would have something to look forward to." Carla says and starts to cry. Damn, I hate it when women cry.
"Carla, please. I understand that Jenny is sick, but it will take months or even years for her to get better. Do you want Ana to wait that long? Besides, right now Ana is the enemy for Jenny, she won't look forward to do anything with and much less so for Ana. I get that you want your daughter to get better, but right now you have one very sick and one very sad daughter. Ana might not show or say it, but it will break her heart if you don't show up at the wedding. You are her mother, so do the right thing."
"Do you think I don't want to be happy for Ana, but I feel so guilty. I am Jenny's mother too and I didn't realise that my child is sick, how can I be happy right now?" Ok, now I'm completely out of my depth. Comforting others is just nothing I had to do ever before.
"You should talk to John, I'm calling him now." she nods and I'm glad I can get out of the room. I guess John can do a much better job consoling her than I. So, I call him and he promises to be over here in 30 minutes. I'm just about to go downstairs when I see Kate coming up the stairs.
"Morning Kate."
"Hi Christian, have you seen Carla? I want to talk to her."
"Already done that, John is coming over, he is going to talk to her. Maybe he can convince her to attend the wedding."
"Good, damn I really wanted to chew her out. How can she act like that?"
"Don't ask me, well I have some calls to make." I walk past her, but she calls me back. So, I turn around and look at her. If she starts to give me some sort of lecture, I will let her have it. She is getting on my nerves for a while now. Fuck, I can't believe my brother is so in love with her. She is a ball crusher.
"I ... umm... I wanted to apologize. You know, I always gave you a heart time, but I was wrong. You are good for Ana, so, I hope we can act friendly around each other from now on."
"Ok, I guess we can try." I give her a rare smile turn around thinking that she didn't act like herself, but then she yells after me.
"But if you hurt her, I will cut your dick off and feed it to you" yup, that's more like her, I smirk to myself and continue to go downstairs to get my phone from my mom, who after small discussion hands it back over, so I can call PR and find out what is going on with the media. After that I have some other calls to do, which takes me over two hours total.
I have just finished my calls when my mother comes into the room. "You need to stay in here Christian, until I tell you otherwise."
"Why?"
"Because Ana has just arrive and I don't want you to see her. So, you have to stay in here until she is in Mia's room." I roll my eyes at my mom and walk to the window to at least get a look at my girl.
"Christian Grey, you will not peek out of the window, behave yourself, it's only five more hours." I want to say something, but I can tell my mom is stressed out, so I bite my tongue and restrain myself from looking out of the window. I want my mom to enjoy this day, so I let it go for now. Only five more hours and then it will be Ana and I together for the rest of our lives.
My mom leaves the room and John comes in. "Hello Christian, I hope I'm not interrupting you."
"No, it's ok John, have you talked to Carla."
"Yes, she is going to talk to Ana in a little while, but she will attending the wedding."
"Thank fuck for that. Listen John, I know you can't go into detail about what is going on with Ana's sister, but I need to know. What happens once she is better? I mean, do I need to have her watched? I'm afraid she will have another meltdown and hurt Ana."
"Christian, I can't say now what kind of progress Jennifer is going to make. You can not predict how a mental illness will play out, but still, she has a good chance to live a normal life. For now the facility she is in is the safest place for her. It will take a long while until she will be able to switch to an out-patient program, so don't worry about it now. When the time comes, I will have long conversations with her entire family, because Jenny won't be able to live alone, she needs some one to supervise her, so we can be sure that she is taking her medication and does not skip on her therapy sessions."
"Ok, but if you think she is a danger to Ana, I need to know it John. I can't take chances with Ana's safety and while her sister hasn't tried to harm her physically I'm not trusting her enough to give her the benefit of a doubt."
"I understand where you are coming from Christian and I can promise you that Jennifer won't leave the facility until we are convinced that she is no longer a danger to herself or others. If you don't trust her then trust me on this."
"Fine" I mutter, but make a mental note that I will have her sister watched no matter what. If she can proof to me that she is better, good, but I'm not giving her the chance to hurt Ana. Also, what if she turns against Patrick next. I really like Ana's brother, he is a great kid and I don't want him to become Jenny's next target, so if she goes back to live with her parents, there will be someone watching her.
"Good, I will leave now, I have to get home and change, there is a wedding I'm going to attend today" he winks and leaves. Well, less than five hours to go. Since I won't need long to get changed, I decide to work out in my Dad's gym. I already gave my mom the gift I have for Ana yesterday, so she will give it to her some time before the wedding starts.
Ana loves the movie Titanic, so I looked for a necklace that looked almost like the one the girl in the movie had and my mom has matching earrings, which she wants to lent to Ana, for another strange tradition, that goes with the wedding. I have no idea what it is about, but I have learned to just nod and act like I know exactly what all the women are talking about and funny enough my dad told me he did that too, when he was in the preparation of his wedding with mom, so I guess you could call it a guy thing.
After 45 minutes of work out, I'm in need of another shower, so I go upstairs and see my mom coming out of Mia's room.
"I have something for you Christian, Ana wanted me to give you this." my mom hands me a small gift box and I smile. Of course, Ana would think of something to buy for me and I wonder what it is. I rip the gift wrap off and open the small box. I actually gasp when I see it. It's a set of platinum cufflinks engraved with our first name initials and todays date. I'm speechless, but this is what Ana does, she always surprises me and this is really meaningful to me, as it will always remind me of our wedding day and I can take it with me at all time.
"She really loves you" my mom says and I nod. "She really does, it's hard to believe sometimes."
"You deserve to be this happy and loved, you both do. Now go shower, you don't want to get married all sweaty" My mom says smiling and I make my way to my childhood bedroom, while holding the cufflinks in my hand and smiling like an idiot.
Later it is time. I have no idea how the last couple of hours past by so quickly, but know I find myself standing at the altar with Patrick, Jose and Elliot, waiting for the wedding to start. Fuck, now I'm actually nervous.
"Stop fidgeting bro, now it's too late to run" Elliot whispers to me and I glare at him. Damn it, I just want to see Ana. Finally the music starts and first the flower girls and then first Kate and next Mia are walking down the aisle. For a moment the music stops and changes to 'I don't want to miss a thing' which is a favorite song of Ana and we both decided that it would be perfect for to walk down the aisle. I look anxiously to the end of the tent and then I see her.
For a moment I can't even breathe. Ana looks so beautiful and I can hear everyones gasps when she comes into the line of vision of the other guests, but my gaze is fixed on her and when she sees me, she looks up and smiles. I have to blink, because suddenly I feel tears in my eyes. She is really here, this is really happening. I'm going to marry the most amazing woman in the whole wide world.
Once they have reached us I step forward. "Take good care of her Christian, this girl means the world to me." Ray says and even he has tears in his eyes.
"I promise, I will make her happy each day, for the rest of our lives." he nods, shakes my hand and finally I take Ana's hand in mine. In this moment I know, if everything that has happened to me in my life was necessary to get me here, I would go through all of it again without hesitation, because being with Ana is worth it.
Next update will be up Tuesday or Wednesday. I will try to wrap the wedding up in the next chapter and then do one or two chapters of their honeymoon ... If you have time, please leave a review :-)
Sunny