Chapter eighteen

The phone call Christian had placed to his mother earlier this afternoon went as well as could be expected. He'd called to let her know that they could expect two more to dinner. Grace had sounded very excited at first – he so rarely brings anyone. Excitement had been replaced by shock when he'd told her who it was.

His mother was rarely one to be rendered speechless. But when Christian told her who he was bringing the other end of the line went dead silent. Except for the imaginary noise he was hearing from his mother's brain scrambling to find something appropriate to say. In hindsight he could have prepared his parents better, but he'd been reluctant to say anything before he and Ana knew how things would go with Sara. And now he's eager instead - he wants everyone to know Ana and him are together again.

Anyway, Grace and Carrick will be very happy about Anastasia being back in the Grey family given time. Meanwhile they will treat her impeccably, the perfect hosts that they are, not to mention dote upon Sara.

When Ana left Christian his parents had been confused and heart-broken along with him. She was after all on the verge of being canonized by his family. Eventually Christian had told Grace why Ana left – he had to; his mother wouldn't leave him alone about it. That didn't go in his favor. Grace hadn't only lost a beloved potential daughter-in-law, but suddenly any future grand-children from her youngest son, since it turned out he had driven the love of his life away for refusing to see himself as a father someday.

For several weeks she hadn't spoken to him. Not that he had cared in the least at the time; he'd been lost in his own grief and self-pity. Then, finally noticing how Christian had completely shut down, she'd switched to worried-mother-hyper drive instead. For a year, no less, until he slowly had reached some sort of equilibrium and started being able to face his family again.

Grace and Carrick had probably expected Christian to fall in love again given time, now that Ana had "fixed" him. He'd known better though and accepted it. He wasn't even interested in finding out if he was capable of loving anybody else. There would always only ever be one person for him, whether she was with him or not.

And, sweet fuck, now she is. Anastasia is his again. And he will fucking worship the ground she walks on until the day he dies.

The phone on is desk rings and he glances at it. Shit, it's Mia. Obviously news travel fast, but he can't deal with her now. He's about to pick Ana and Sara up in forty-five minutes and he needs to change. Grace will make sure Mia gets the full update on how the evening went, no doubt.

Walking from the study to the bedroom he looks around the apartment – the sparsely furnished big room, the Seattle skyline outside the huge windows, the investment pieces on the white walls. It's strange, but it's as if he's seeing it all for the first time. To his surprise he doesn't like it very much. It's as if he hasn't really paid attention to where he lives the past years.

Before he met Ana the apartment had been his refuge and after her leaving it was just … somewhere he ate and slept – or tried to sleep. Now it feels wrong; this apartment is not him anymore. Ana's house comes to mind; several would fit in his apartment, yet it's so much more comfortable than this … shell. Maybe it's time to start looking for something else, if not overdue.

While he's changing his phone rings again and it's Mia, again. Christian hasn't talked to her for nearly two months – although he's been preoccupied his little sister has been worse; at least he's tried to reach her a couple of times. But right now there's no time to do all the necessary explaining, and Mia will want to know the whole story. Not that he will tell her everything; he's not a confider, but she'll try to make him talk all the same and that will take time.

…. …. ….

Despite Christian's reassurances that everything will go smoothly, Ana's terribly nervous when they arrive at Bellevue. Kate, Elliot and the kids will be here as well, but they belong and have for many years. The last time Ana was here she belonged too – now she's an outsider. The feeling is unsettling – how everything can be just as it was then, but still totally different. She's always felt like a traitor when it comes to the Grey family and she never thought she would see them again, let alone visit their house.

Ana is glad Sara is with them, it puts a little less focus on herself, knowing how much particularly Grace loves kids.

When the three of them get out of the car and walk towards the entrance, Ana's fidgeting with her shoulder bag, straightening her dress and her hair, and coughing. Both Christian and Sara seem to sense how unsettled she is and both of them grab her hands.

When Grace and Carrick open the front door to greet them – the occasion seems to call for it – that's what they see. Christian, Ana and Sara holding hands, with Ana in the middle.

Grace wobbles slightly and grabs her husbands arm for support. What happens next is unexpected, but reminds Ana very much of the first time she visited this house. Grace quickly walks out to meet them and gives Ana a long, hard hug.

"My dear, dear girl," she whispers in her ear. "It's so good to see you."

Letting go, she takes Ana's face in her hands and gives her a big smile. It looks very sincere, so Ana reciprocates, just now realizing how much she's missed Christian's family. And with her own mother gone now, being hugged by Grace is comforting.

Next Grace hugs Sara, warmly welcoming her to Bellevue. As she takes Sara's hand to show her where the other kids are playing, she turns and gives Christian a look which is so full of motherly love it actually makes him avert his eyes shyly. But he's smiling.

Carrick acts like Ana's never left, giving her a hug and kisses both her cheeks. He shakes Sara's hand and introduces himself as Ella and Jamie's famous grandpa. He doesn't say why he's famous.

…. …. ….

It's a nice, relaxed dinner and Ana finds she's enjoying herself in the bosom of the Grey family. She gets to answer inquiries on where she lives and works, as well as on Ray's health. They seem to know that her mother past, maybe through Kate or Christian. But that's all, and she and Sara are not given more attention than anybody else around the table. Ana is grateful.

The happiest person in the room is Christian by far, who looks like he just won first prize. He and Ana are seated with Sara in between them and a lot of Christian's attention is directed at her daughter during dinner, although his eyes seek Ana's constantly, making sure she's comfortable. Her daughter and Christian have animated discussions about everything and nothing which gives Ana a fuzzy feeling, located somewhere in her chest.

It's a balmy evening and they all move outside after finishing dinner. Ana and Kate sit in a corner on the patio and catch up a bit; they haven't seen each other for a couple of months and Kate is dying to know what's going on. She seems happy enough for them and claims Elliot is ecstatic for his brother. They even joke that their kids could call themselves cousins now.

Christian has gone inside to Grace's study to check emails and voice messages since he always shuts off his phone during family dinners. He's only been gone ten minutes when he comes back, a grim look on his face. Ana looks at him questioningly, but he ignores her and walks over to Grace, Carrick and Elliot and sits down.

Christian´s news cannot be good; Ana sees how Grace puts her hand over her mouth and Carrick runs his fingers through his hair – just like his son does when stressed. Elliot is the most expressive, letting out a loud "Fuck!"

They all scramble out of their chairs at the same time, having agreed on something it seems. Christian comes over to Ana and Kate, while the others go in to the house.

"Time to go home," he states in his most bossy-Christian manner. "I'll tell you what's going on in the car, now I have some calls to make. We leave in five minutes."

Five minutes. Ana better get started on getting Sara to come, that can sometimes take considerably longer if she's having fun. With a knot of worry in her stomach, she goes to get Sara. Kate comes, probably as worried as Ana but seemingly mostly upset that her husband didn't come directly to her to say what's happening.

When they find the kids it turns out there are sleep-over plans being made again and Kate quickly agrees to Sara staying at their place.

"I'll take it from here," Kate says grumpily. "Go check what's up with the Greys, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Ana silently wonders if this is common behavior from the Greys, since Kate seems to take it almost personally. She gives her friend and all the kids hugs all around, Sara gets a kiss goodnight.

Driving back to the city, Christian finally omits what's going on. Apparently, Mia's husband has been arrested for insider trading and Mia taken in for questioning. His sister is scared witless, but claims she has no idea what's going on. Christian has already called his lawyers telling them to get Mia the best representation possible in Sydney and Taylor is taking Grace and Carrick to the airport.

"Aren't you going as well?" Ana asks, slightly ashamed over hoping he's staying here. Being selfish while Mia's husband's in custody. Nice, Anastasia.

"No, I can do more to help Mia from here than I could from Sydney. She'll have my parents' company."

Christian's knuckles are whitening from how hard he's grabbing the steering wheel and he's driving fast. Not towards Ana's neighborhood; maybe he's forgetting. She hesitates to remind him though; he must be worried sick, but looks and sounds furious.

Barely containing his anger, Christian says Mia's husband has always been a fuck-up. "I've bailed him out from disastrous business ventures more times than I care to count, Mia only knows about half of it. For some fucking reason she loves him, or thinks she does."

No wonder he's furious. And as always, he's finding reasons to blame himself. Although not saying it out loud Ana can sense it. Not sure what to say at the moment, she puts her hand on the back of his neck and gently caresses the hair line, twirling his soft hair between her fingers.

It helps, Christian visibly relaxes. "Do you mind coming back to Escala with me? If you want Taylor can take you home, but although I'll probably spend the evening on the phone I would love it if you could stay with me." Now his tone is softer and Ana loves the way he chooses not to shut her out, but instead include her in the family emergency.

"Of course I'm staying, Christian." It'll be her first night at Escala since they've been back together. It's about time.

He gently squeezes her knee appreciatively. "Thank you, baby."

The rest of the drive is dedicated to calling people enjoying their weekend and having them get to work on finding out as much as possible about the latest ventures of Craig Brent and whether Mrs. Brent's name is anywhere to be found in the vicinity of those ventures.

"You don't think Mia could be involved, do you?" Ana asks once Christian's made the last call. She finds it hard to believe, but then again she hasn't known Mia for a long time.

"No, not intentionally." He shakes his head. "I've warned her so many times never to sign anything Craig asks her to without consulting me first. And it has happened a few times – him trying to put questionable assets in her name. I've told her not to sign and she hasn't as far as I know, but that piece of shit is a smooth talker." Christian clenches his teeth as they enter the garage at Escala.

"That's not what worries me the most. Since Mia is his wife and Craig is the main contributor of the household," he almost spits the last words out, "it's normal she would sign some papers now and then. I doubt she'd be held accountable for that."

Christian parks the car and turns to Ana while taking her hands in his, squeezing them. When he talks his voice is dark with emotion.

"But I can't stand the thought that my little nieces might grow up with their father in prison. And still, prison might be right where he belongs. I'm not that familiar with Australian law, but if they're keeping him in custody they probably have pretty good reasons."

Ana sees the little boy that used to be Christian in front of her. This is a sore spot for him, absentee parents. But this scenario is still very far from what he had to endure as a child.

"Hey," she says softly, locking his gray eyes with her own, making sure he keeps looking at her. "I assume Mia is a good mother to her girls?" Christian nods, he seems to think so.

"That's the most important thing. And these kids have Grace and Carrick and you and Elliot, the list goes on. And maybe family on Craig's side too. They have so much love around them and they're still small. If he goes to prison, he will still have time to be a father to them when he's served his sentence. I'm not saying it won't affect them, but they will have lots of love and support. The girls will be fine, you all will make sure of it."

Christian nods slowly and she can see the determination growing in is his eyes. Of course he will make sure of it.