Ana's POV - Monday

Last night, once everyone had eaten and had been merrily chatting away for an hour or so, all I could think of was that I desperately needed sleep and Grace who had spent a lot of the night observing with a smile on her face, finally signalled to Christian that she wanted to speak to him in private and they walked off to his office. Having checked him over and suggesting that a bath and bed within the hour were her doctor's orders she then came out to announce that since it had been a long night the previous night and no-one had had much sleep that everyone should go home and leave us to recuperate.

The relief in Christian's eyes indicated that company was a strain despite the joyous nature of it all and since I was almost falling asleep despite trying to be a good host, I may have accepted her statement with a little too much enthusiasm as I hugged Kate and Ethan goodnight. Elliot took the opportunity to spin me around as he was allowed to do by Christian albeit still gently and still following a frown and a warning that I wasn't 100% healed.

Ray was smiling at me as he made the first move to actually leave, declaring that since it wasn't late, he'd head home and he went off to thank Gail for her hospitality and care the previous night before coming back and hugging me like his life depended on it. His relief and his joy at our survival and engagement all transferred to me in his hug and as I became tearful again, he whispered gently, "You have always been my pride and joy and I'm so glad you have found someone worthy of you, please let him look after you and please stay safe, both of you."

With Ray starting the exodus and Grace herding the rest of the family and friends out the door, the apartment was finally empty except for Dr Flynn and I looked at him and Christian saying, "Let's do this, she doesn't deserve to be told before finding out on the television or paper but there's no reason why I should sink to her level." Christian nodded and took my hand and together we hobbled towards his office, it was so obvious that he was in pain that I said, "I'm not making the call until you take some painkillers," and he snorted at me but detoured to do exactly that.

"Mother,…. Yes, it's Ana… who else would it be?" I asked exasperated, seriously, how delusional was she?

"Are you well?...No, I have no idea how long you are going to be in there….. WHAT? You want to get out to get high? Seriously?" and I couldn't keep the incredulity out of my voice as I turned and looked at Dr Flynn. Christian's hands on my waist were clenching quite tightly so I jiggled my body to make him realise and he apologised softly in my hair as he pulled me back against his body, him leaning against his desk, me between his legs.

"Yes, I am still with Christian,….. can you not call him that please? No, I am not ringing to flaunt anything,… Oh, you'd heard that we'd had an accident…. Oh…. Oh.. you wish I'd died, …."

Christian's hands tightened again and he hit the speaker button and as he did so she said, "Well I wish you'd both died to be exact so that I'd be out of this god forsaken place and hopefully he'd already given you enough stuff that would have transferred to me so I'd not have to worry about the future and I could be as high as I want to be."

My last shred of love for my mother died right about then as I put my hand over Christian's mouth, I could see he was about to explode and I shook my head, summoning the courage borne of years of her abuse and neglect, "Mother, you have just lost the right to call me your daughter, I know now that it wasn't the drugs talking all those years like I had been ready to believe as you have been drug free for nearly two months. You are pure evil and I really do not want anything further to do with you. I just want to let you know that Christian and I are engaged to be married and I will make sure that all wills and testaments indicate that you are never to receive a cent from any estate of mine. I'm sorry, so sorry, I rang you tonight so you wouldn't hear the news on the television and thinking that you may have been happy for me, that you had turned a corner but no, apparently not. Christian's intervention meant that you were taken out of custody but now, if the recommendation is that you be returned to custody, well, I wouldn't stand in the way. Goodbye!"

Forcibly pressing the off button and slamming the receiver down for good measure, I turned in Christian's arms to be engulfed in his hug but there were no tears, there was just a huge vacuum that sucked all the goodwill, love and positive energy from the previous few hours out of me, leaving me the empty shell I had always been before Christian came into my life.

I could sense that Christian was communicating with Dr Flynn in some way but I didn't care, "I'm fine, she's gone… ha, one less person to put on the guest list."

"Oh baby, it's ok to be upset, let it out," Christian said, unsure of how to deal with me but I was done.

"Goodnight Dr Flynn, I want to have a bath and go to bed," I said looking at him squarely and I saw the look pass between them.

"I will be a phone call away if I am needed, don't hesitate to call, whatever the time" was said more to Christian than to me but I nodded as did Christian, his eyes trained on me as if I was about to break, but no, Carla had done it one too many times now, her cutting words kept repeating in my brain and I just wanted to block them out.

"I'll see myself out," Dr Flynn said and did exactly that without waiting for us to move, fully understanding that we needed to be alone.

"Christian, I can walk, you did enough lifting of me yesterday" I said as Christian picked me up.

"Baby, you're not heavy and I promise, I will always be here to pick you up when you need me."

Laying me on the bed, Christian went to run the bath and I tried to blank my mind of the last few minutes, I wanted some sort of mind eraser and found my answer when he came back, his shirt partially off, undressing as he walked in. I couldn't help a small crooked smile as I reached for him, needing him and his goodness to replace the evil. Again he lifted me and I let my hands brush down his chest as he looked at me confused until a small smile started to play on his lips as he squeezed me tight and then put me standing on the bed.

Resting my feet on the edge of the bed, he performed some sort of magician's trick and my dress was lying on the floor somewhere behind him and he leaned forward to grab my bra with his teeth while his hands made short work of undoing it. As it released, he stood there like he'd made some sort of conquest, shaking the bra like a cat shakes a mouse, the grin on his face sending me into a fit of giggles. Dropping that, his mouth gently caressed what it had contained while his hands moved down to remove the last item of clothing , he continued to worship my body, pulling abruptly away, I had to leaned forward and unzip him but as I attempted to reciprocate, he shook his head.

"Bath time we both need it," left me pouting for a second but the lure of the beautifully scented bath especially when he gave me no option, picking me up by my legs and throwing me over his shoulder like a sack which allowed me to tickle him as he carried me in, took any decision making out of the equation and meant I had him wet and soapy in the bath which was immeasurably better.

We both slept like the dead last night after our relaxing bath, both our bodies sore and all the badness erased by gentle loving, the emotion spilling over until it was with pure exhaustion that we towelled each other off before curling up together and falling asleep. I've never felt safer or more loved than I felt last night, Christian attempting to fill every part of my psyche with love to push out the evil that had worked its way right to my bones.

Waking this morning, it isn't to my usual "Good morning Gorgeous", it is instead to an empty bed and lazily moving my hand over to his side of the bed, I can feel it is cold which means he's been gone for a while and a touch of unease settles on me.

Christian's POV - Monday

"Dad, I don't care what has to be done but I want Carla in jail with the others and I want her out of Ana's life forever. It was obvious last night to all of us that she isn't rehabilitated in the least, it seems like she has just been living there like a hotel and sucking the resources without actually making any changes… She's a fucking parasite, always has been and always will be…. If I pull the funding she's gone and back to prison, where she deserves to be. Ana doesn't deserve to be subjected to any more crap from her, I'm just worried about when all this is going to hit. Ana's been through so much, that last night was the final straw for me and I can't imagine what it did to her… I woke up at 3, I haven't done that in ages, well since Ana's been here and I didn't want to wake her so I've been up all night working."

I pause and Carrick prompts me and I have to admit, "Well yes and trying to figure out who the hell it was that nearly killed us and why, this fucking web is getting bigger and I can't figure out what all the links are but Elena has a lot of contacts and someone is determined to get me or us and I can't help but feel that she is behind it all."

I feel like shit, my past is catching up with me and in the worst possible way. How did my life go from perfect on Friday night, the best night of my life when Ana gave me everything, her heart, her body and her soul with a promise of forever, where our evening turned into heaven on earth with the morning on the yacht and our time on the beach. Even receiving Ray's approval sealed Saturday as pretty perfect and soaring up until the moment of the impact was beyond perfect, the best soaring I'd ever done as I was sharing it with the one person who makes me whole, makes me see things in a different light, seeing things through Ana's perspective makes everything new again.

So from perfect to a perfect hell, the crash, the survival which almost wasn't and while the homecoming was beautiful and everyone, including that dipshit Ethan not taking his hands or his eyes off my girl, was happy, that poor excuse for a human being, Carla, ruined it for Ana and cemented that there is something very wrong in my universe and I think it all revolves around Elena.

Having given as much instruction as I can to my dad, I call Welch, "Welch, how did whoever it was, know that I was soaring? Is there someone in our organisation that is a mole? Can you go through everyone with a fine tooth comb….. Yes, I know, we were up in the air for quite a while so it might have been possible to have a tracker on the glider and since I am the only one that uses that glider, I guess if it moves then it means I am in it. …. Or it could be someone at the airfield, yes, check every single person out that was there that day… No you don't need to check Joey…. Well, actually, you'd better include him, you know where I rescued him from a couple of years ago…. Maybe there's someone blackmailing him…Fuck, I hope not, he's really turned his life around…. No, it can't be, he is the one that found me… Yeah, you'd better….Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I hope it's not him. Whatever you do, get someone checking every single person that Carla has spoken to in that facility, see if there are any links. Someone is taking orders from somebody and I have absolutely no doubt that there is a link to Elena in there somewhere, she hates Ana and obviously she's not happy with me, it can't just be Hyde….. OK, I'll leave you to it."

Damn, it's late, I fully intended to go back and lay down with Ana and make sure I was there when she woke up and I turn away from the window I was staring out of as I talked and notice that Ana is standing in the doorway, ashen faced.

"You do think someone was trying to kill us," she stammers out, her beautiful blue eyes wide and full of pain, "And you think my mother has had some sort of part in it, she knew we were going to be dead, had already been making her plans?" her voice almost a whisper and I reach her as she starts shaking violently.

"Baby, no calm down, no…" but it's too late and I realise that Ana must have heard most of my conversation with Welch. Crushing her to me, I push the door shut and locking it, I carry her to the couch, stroking her hair and coaxing her to breathe, "Come on baby, breathe for me, don't let them break you, come on baby, you are stronger than them," invoking the "them" to encapsulate whoever this unseen enemy is. "Baby, you are stronger than my strongest men, please breathe for me," and I kiss her in the hope that I can short circuit her brain towards the more pleasurable side of life and stop the complete breakdown.

"Ana, I have the best men on the job and I think we're getting closer."

Finally she starts to breathe again and fires at me, "Well a fat lot of good that has been, they nearly killed us and the only time we were safe was when you whisked us away to the Sound," and she would continue but I interrupt.

"When we were at our house," I say, changing the tone slightly and she whips her eyes towards me. "Yes baby, I signed the final papers this morning, as of now, you are the proud owner of a house on The Sound."

It's a squeak as she tries to find her voice, "Hang on, I am the proud owner of a house on The Sound? I'm assuming that's in joint names…." And I smirk. "You can't give me a house like that." She says indignantly.

"I can and I have." Again I smirk. "And once we're married you'll have SIP too but it will be called Grey Publishing"

"WHAT?!" Her screech almost lifts the paintings off the wall, "What have you done? What do you mean? What….?" And I start to worry that the look on her face isn't one of gratitude which I thought it would be, in fact, she looks quite mad but at least she's breathing.

"I didn't even want to accept a chair from you when it made my life comfortable, what have you done?"

Yep, not how I thought she'd react but then, I hadn't thought through Ana reacting, I'd just thought of it as a personal and business decision, "I started the process of buying SIP when I realised how lax security was at SIP because I wanted to keep you safe," and she rolls her eyes at me making me growl, "Well, that was borne out wasn't it?" I only realise that was a low blow when she partially recoils from me. "I'm sorry Baby, I didn't mean to bring up that memory"

"Anyway, it's my wedding present to you, you will run Grey Publishing once we're married…" Oh, perhaps I should have kept that under my hat.

"WHAT?!" And she pulls right away from me. "Are you completely insane! How could I run a business? The most I've ever done is sell paint in a hardware store….. you can't do this to me, you are setting me up for failure…"

"Baby, calm down, I would never set you up for failure, I will be there to back you up and I will make sure you have the best people working for you…. You will always succeed baby, because you are a winner."

"No, just simply NO! I will work my way up and I will learn the business as I should, so that I can understand what everyone is doing, I know nothing, nothing! I made coffee more than doing anything else in the one week I did work before everything… everything…. happened.." and she starts sobbing and this time I know it's with frustration… at me as well as the horrid memory I have caused her to recall.

"I can't even work there now because any positive thing that happens to me will be "because I'm sleeping with the Boss" and not on my merits, I told you this before when you wanted me to work for you, I'll have idiots sucking up to me and the bright ones being suspicious of me and it will just ruin it all, I will just have to find another job. Or will you buy that out too?" She is so angry, sniffing through her tears, her voice breaking angrily and I decide that I need to keep quiet.

Nothing I say is going to be well received and despite her response being completely unexpected, when I think about it, I should have realised and thought it through better but then my brain is distracted by the fact that an angry Ana is super sexy. Her eyes are flashing, her cheeks are flushed, her breasts are heaving with each breath and when she tosses her hair I can't help but stand and put out my hands to her. Suspiciously she looks at them and I think she is going to petulantly put hers behind her back, just because she can but she eventually places them in mine.

Pulling her up towards me, I need to both calm her down and feel her fire. I move and cross her arms behind her back and lean forward and she closes her eyes while drawing a deep breath as she nears me, "Baby, I'm sorry, I just want the best for you, I love you, I need you and I want you to be happy," I say quietly as I kiss her, she whimpers in annoyance but relaxes against me, responding as only she can and it is me moaning as I release her hands and move mine up her arms until I am holding her head in my hands, her hair flowing over them and through my fingers.

My heart clenches when Ana finally pulls away and says, "I'm scared, I don't know if I can do any of this."