Christian's POV – 13 July 2011

From the highest of highs, I managed to successfully negotiate for the Taiwanese shipyard and will be able to save so many jobs that were looking certain to be lost and I can't wait to get home to celebrate with my beautiful girl. She was so worried when we left and I hope those delicious minutes I spent with her in the meeting room loving her were enough to sustain her while we have been away, they certainly have put a smile on my face every time I think about her.

To the lowest of lows, my world drops out from under me when I hear that my angel mother and the completely innocent Gail have been kidnapped and damaged in some way as both are awaiting transfer to the hospital but worse is to come when I am told that Ana has been allowed to go in as a hostage to 'salvage' the situation. How could my security team not come up with a better solution?

Then I find out that the Elena and Jack Hyde are both obviously out of jail when neither should have been released and how is it that no-one knew and that they are the ones that have orchestrated this kidnap and ransom plot but I don't believe that they are acting alone, there is a puppet master, there has to be.

Just as my beautiful girl somehow does the job of my security team, immobilising and taking the gun from the person threatening her and I can see it all finishing without too much collateral damage, my first thought is to run to her, to make sure she's ok but as I start doing so, my world stops.

Appearing out of the shadows is my nemesis and suddenly it all makes sense and all the threads come together.

Lincoln!

Of course, he didn't like being cuckolded by a twenty-one year old and having beaten Elena to a pulp, had waited all these years for his revenge on me. Strangely as he lifts his gun, I feel no panic, I feel nothing other than disdain for this disgusting creature whose red nose and shaking hands confirm what my nose is smelling, even from a distance.

As he screams at me and raises his gun, aiming it towards my head, the noise is deafening and he crumples to the ground, his gun sailing out of his hand and the police and my security team converge from everywhere.

It is only then that I see Ana dropping the gun she was holding, recoiling from it as if it is poison and backing away looking devastated and I run to her, catching her as she crumples into tears, I only just make out her words, "I couldn't let him shoot you so I shot him."

"Baby, there were four shots, even if you did shoot him, you didn't kill him, Taylor hit him in the chest, you were shooting from the side. You didn't kill him." Pulling her into me I try to fold her into me as close as is possible, to give her the comfort she needs. Despite my dislike of guns, if it had been her that pulled the lethal trigger, I couldn't have been prouder but it's obvious that just like she said, she can defend herself and those she loves, both with the judo moves and a gun but she only uses either if she has to, not because she wants to, so personally I hope we can prove she missed him so that it isn't on her conscience.

Slowly Ana's breathing calms and she manages to say, "I'm so glad you're back, I've never been so scared of my life," then she pauses and I know she is harking back to another time when there was no-one to save her when she says, "At least I knew Sawyer was here and hopefully I'd be saved, that was the only thing that kept my feet moving forward. Oh Christian, they are evil! I just want to get away from here." While her breathing has calmed, her shaking hasn't stopped and I wonder if the nightmares will be worse after this incident, I won't be surprised if they are and I certainly wouldn't blame her.

"Baby, we'll know in a minute if we can leave," I start to say and just then Officer Lisa Maxwell finishes directing the other police officers and comes over, the smile hovering around her lips like she wants to smile but knows that officially she shouldn't.

"We are going to need to take some statements but I'll come to you later, Mr Grey, your security team managed to land all three shots as body shots from the angles I could see but you young lady, if you'd like a job with the police force, I'd take you. Your shot actually disarmed him, with your shot you hit the gun right out of his hand and if the men hadn't been so gung-ho, Lincoln would be alive and you'd still have saved Mr Grey."

Looking at Ana and realising her distress she pats her on the hand and says, "Don't stress dear, you didn't kill him, the shot that got him was from a different size gun, his death is not on you, although it's not a loss to the world and you would have done a good thing if you'd shot him." And with that Lisa Maxwell saunters off and I am completely intrigued with what she knows but don't have time to think about that as we need to get to the hospital, I need to see that Grace and Gail are ok.

Taylor on seeing Lincoln dead, raced to the ambulance and was allowed inside to be with Gail so has already left the scene. Sawyer takes the wheel of our vehicle and we start on our way to the hospital, I still haven't spoken to Sawyer and he looks uneasy with me, as does Welch who is in the front passenger seat. I'll have to decide in the cold light of all the evidence what consequences there are going to be for Welch and Sawyer putting Ana at such risk, yes, it all turned out fine but at what cost to Ana?

Just as I am about to say something Ana hesitantly starts talking, shaking her head as if to loosen a memory, "I hope Gail is ok, she was so brave, she gave us so many clues as to what had happened so that I knew I was walking into something bad and Welch was able to come up with a plan."

I grunt, still unimpressed that Ana was used in the plan at all and Welch addresses me with a nod to Ana, "As I said earlier and Ana you wouldn't know about, I called Gail to try and distract Hyde as Ana walked up and she bravely shouted that she and Grace had been kidnapped, I think that was when he hit her because I heard it through the phone but up until that point we were just imagining what had happened. I think what she did actually changed what they were intending to do and upset their plans somewhat, it seems as though they didn't think through all their actions and it made it easier to get them."

Welch then explains that because Gail had outed their actual situation, when Elizabeth parked the van, Jack had gone to move it to quickly transfer Gail and Grace, this had given the security team time to overpower Jack as he stepped out of the van and the opportunity when Elena came out to see what was keeping him, to capture her as well. In the end, that had been the easiest part of the process and then the police were able to re-arrest them and allow access for the ambulance for Grace and Gail that Welch had already called.

Personally, I wish that Hyde and Elena and everyone else that seemed to be in their thrall could be dropped off somewhere in the middle of Antarctica, as far away as possible from us and left to their own devices there. I never ever want to see any of them again and we have to figure out why they were both out of jail, what strings had they managed to pull or how was it that they were both out and what the links were with all these other people.

As we reach the hospital, realising that there are still so many parts of this story that I don't know, Welch then says that he still trying to contact Ryan and Mia, the last he'd heard was that she was going hiking and my heart clenches, the obvious one for kidnapping was Mia, why has no-one heard from her but then it is too late to do anything as we have arrived at the hospital and I desperately want to see that my mother is fine and that Gail will be ok and I put Mia out of my mind for the moment.

We reach the room and as we walk in, I see a shattered Taylor leaning over a still unconscious Gail, knowing that I'd be a wreck if something similar had happened to Ana and I hold her close to me, to reassure both of us as Ana looks as shattered as I feel. Taylor is stroking Gail's hand and steadfastly not looking at us so I lean over, clasping his shoulder and say "Thank you" behind him and he nods, touching my hand in acknowledgement.

A few quiet words by Grace to Taylor and she rises and I pull her into my arms, I can't stop the tears as they start rolling down my face, the realisation that I could have lost the two women that mean the most to me is starting to sink in and then Grace gently steers Ana and I out of the room so that we can talk.

"I'm ok Christian, darling, they did nothing to me other than tie me up. I can't say how brave Gail was, she was outstanding and the only reason we are all alive right now. I think she's going to be ok, there is a contusion but her vital signs are all good and she should be out of the coma soon and hopefully home without any damage in no time at all. I do think she deserves a holiday or something though, I'm sure you can arrange that for both of them, poor Taylor. Oh, I have authorised whatever treatment Gail requires and asked that it be put on your account."

"Thank you," is all I manage, I want the best of medical attention for Gail, not just for myself but for Taylor's sake, if anything happens to Gail, I doubt that Taylor will recover. Once she is released I shall ensure that Taylor and Gail have as much time off as they want, I never once considered Gail at risk and twice in the last two months she has been at the mercy of crazy people and that is not within her job description at all.

I wish I knew exactly what happened and I ask my mother to start at the beginning because it appears to have started with her CPO being overpowered and she gasps and says she'll find out what's happened to him as she'd forgotten all about him with all the kerfuffle. Her explanation of the sequence events is that after seeing him looked to initially, she'd gone to her car and that was when she was taken, trussed and brought to Escala and unfortunately made to make the call that tricked Gail into going down to the garage.

As we speak my unease grows as to Mia's whereabouts, my mother had been conscious of the risk and had been taken, what about Mia who was actively trying to avoid protection, fortuitously Welch receives a call from Ryan saying that they've just come back into range from their hike and asking what all the big fuss is about. My first inclination is to fire him for his jauntiness and for not staying within range given the current concerns but resist and am simply glad that one woman that means something to me hasn't been traumatised by this horrid day.

Ana pipes up to ask that Mia be informed that their plans for tonight are cancelled and I cock my eyebrow and she waves her hand to say she'll explain later and I continue listening to Grace's account of what happened. Welch looks distinctly uncomfortable at all the breaches that managed to occur and while Lincoln had obviously been planning this for a while, how did it all fall into place so easily for him?

Carrick arrives and takes Grace into his arms, his concern writ large on his face and she finally lets go and cries into his shoulder, I know how she feels, the relief after the abject terror is almost overwhelming and I pull Ana closer and worry that Ana hasn't completely released and wonder when and where that fall out will occur and how extreme it will be.

It is Carrick that finally sheds light on the legal situation and how Hyde was released, the paperwork for his release on bail was finalised this morning with bail being paid by an unknown person. I have no doubt it was Lincoln, paying it so that Hyde could do his dirty work, there is no explanation as to why our legal team wasn't informed and it will be something Carrick will chase up tomorrow.

We all want to know the answer when Grace looks at him and says, "Darling, do you know who Jennifer is? She looks like Elena."

Carrick shakes his head with a confused look, not even knowing that there was a Jennifer in play and Ana looks at me funny when she says, "She looks and sounds like Elena and when I asked who she was, she cackled and said she was your second." As she says that she scrunches up her nose and it hits me like a wall, I know exactly who Jennifer is and the bile rises in my throat as the long suppressed memory returns and I groan.

"Oh my fucked up past, sorry Mom, is never going to leave me alone is it? I know who Jennifer is, Jennifer is Elena's sister. She, umm, Elena brought her in for a scene one day, very early in our.. umm.. relationship, whatever you want to call it. Argh….. she "shared" me with her, she was the second person I ever had s… never mind." I hate that my past is coming back to bite me and I can't look at anyone out of embarrassment and Ana simply pats me on the arm.

"It's ok," she whispers, "It explains why she was so vile."

"I don't understand how Elena was out and why Jennifer was there," I say in confusion and it is Carrick that pipes up.

"New information just coming through….hang on a tick…" and he consults his phone messages before continuing, "Jennifer Bowen was recently transferred to that prison as the chief warden, so she and Elena have had plenty of time to plot and for information to be carried in and out. She simply filled out the paperwork for Elena's release, it seems that they have been the masters of counterfeiting signatures left, right and centre, all the paper work was filed and acted upon today and because it wasn't through official channels, our legal team was not notified."

And then the final piece of the puzzle comes through from Barney as we are still sitting there in Grace's office, "Boss, I finally managed to access Kay Bestie's computer and it appears that both she and Elizabeth Morgan had been in relationships of sorts with Jack Hyde, violent hateful relationships, he had blackmail material on both of them that he only began using when Ana started and he could see your wealth as something he could use them to get at. He also appears to have played on Kay's fear that she was going to be replaced by Ana, building up hate towards her even while in prison, so she was convinced that Ana would take her position and that she had to be "eradicated"."

My skin crawls as Barney continues, "The messages indicate that Kay convinced her sister that they would equally share in the money once she'd removed Jack and Elizabeth from the picture, I don't think she knew about Elena. She was to be meeting the van and "getting rid" of Jack and Elizabeth, just so you know, the police have been informed and she has been arrested."

I can't believe how sordid a mess it has all become, Jack Hyde, really, a good for nothing with a personal vendetta against me has managed to manipulate and use three women while also being simply a pawn in Lincoln's grand scheme of retribution against me. Elena too, willing to be a party to Lincoln's actions to exact revenge on me or Ana, that I'm not entirely sure about but I know that Ana wouldn't have been spared once Elena had the money. Now it seems that Elizabeth Morgan and Kay Bestie, who had barely known Ana for a second were willing to sacrifice her because of me and in doing so happily hurt Gail and trussed up my mother like an animal.

It all comes back to me, it is all my fault, everything evil always comes back to me.

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Author's Note:
If, in March last year when I started writing, someone had told me to write 300,000 words, I would have said it was impossible and baulked at the task but here we are, one year and more than that many words later, thank you for reading all of them so far, thank you for your reviews, faves and follows.
Thank you so much everyone for your support, it is very much appreciated.

This story will continue, it is not finished, I am just busy for work and business for the next two weeks so I do not see any updates in this time, I hope the four quick updates over the last week will sustain you until I am able to write again.

Thank you.