A/N: Thank you all for your continued love and support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter ?

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 28: Making Plans

The traffic in Midtown was as it typically was: a noisy, honking standstill. Ana and Christian both knew that trying to rush anywhere in a car in this city was pretty much impossible, but it was still frustrating as hell when they hit bumper-to-bumper traffic nearly the entire way to The Plaza. The sun had just started to set when they had left Christian's apartment, and by the time they finally reached the hotel, the sky had become a dark inky blue and the twinkling lights of the city illuminated around them.

Neither Christian nor Ana said a word as they finally pulled up to the front of the hotel. There weren't many spots available, and Christian ended up double parking near the front doors.

"Christian, we probably shouldn't park here," Ana said worriedly as she followed him out of the car. At that moment, a nearby valet spotted them and angrily approached.

"Excuse me!" the guy snapped. "You can't park here – !"

Without a word, Christian pulled out his wallet and took out a one-hundred dollar bill. He handed that as well as his keys to the valet, who stood there speechless. "Thanks man."

Christian hurried past the valet toward the front doors of The Plaza, and Ana shot the guy an apologetic look before following him. "Christian, maybe you should call your dad first. We don't even know what their room number is."

"We'll ask the front desk," Christian said firmly over his shoulder. He was clearly on a mission, and Ana didn't want to deter him. Truthfully, she was also very curious to know what was going on with Carrick: was he really hiding an illness from his kids, and was that the reason why he had decided to retire within the next few years? That would certainly make a lot of sense, but Ana knew that Christian needed to hear the truth from his father.

They were just about to walk through the front doors when they heard a familiar voice several yards away:

"Christian?"

Christian and Ana both turned to see Grace and Carrick standing on the curb, looking at the two of them in concern. They were standing about fifteen feet away, partially obscured by the pedestrians walking along the busy New York sidewalk. The same black town car they had gotten into the other day was parked on the curb, and their security guy Taylor was packing multiple suitcases into the trunk. It was clear they had just checked out of the hotel and were getting ready to leave the city.

Christian and Ana hurried over.

"Guys," Christian said as soon as they approached, and they stopped in front of them. "You're leaving already?"

"Yes – sorry, darling, I was going to text you from the car," Grace said to him apologetically. "Some of the GEH executives need to fly out to China in the morning, and since we took the private jet here, we need to get it back to Seattle so Stephen can refuel."

"Oh," Christian said, absorbing that information. "Well… why can't Stephen just fly the jet back tonight and you two just take a later commercial flight? You've done that before."

Grace and Carrick both hesitated a moment, glancing at each other. "We came to New York to see you, Christian," Carrick said, looking at his son. "I've said my piece and I didn't see a need to stick around since you clearly weren't receptive to what I was saying. We need to get the jet back to Seattle anyway, so I figured we wouldn't waste a trip back home."

Christian clenched his jaw, glaring at his father. "So that's the real reason you're going home early?" he asked, his skeptical voice clipped with anger. "It doesn't have anything to do with the heart condition you're apparently hiding from all of us?"

A heavy silence reigned over them all as Carrick and Christian simply stared at each other. Taylor, who had been loading up the trunk with suitcases, froze in the middle of pushing one of the suitcases into the trunk.

Carrick's expression remained stoic and unreadable as he stared at his son. It almost looked like he was assessing him. "What are you talking about?" he asked, though the expression on his face told Ana he had a decent idea of what his son knew.

"I was video chatting with Elliot tonight," Christian explained. "He said the three of you went out for lunch last week, and he happened to spot a pill bottle in your pocket, Dad. He said it looked like beta blockers… was he wrong?"

Silence stretched between them for another moment or two, and Ana couldn't tear her eyes away from Grace and Carrick. A resigned expression had fallen over Grace's face as she closed her eyes and bowed her head slightly. She then placed a gentle hand on her husband's arm. "Darling, you might as well tell him."

"There's nothing to tell… that's why I didn't want to bother the kids with it," Carrick said firmly, not meeting his wife's eyes as he turned away. "I… had a mild cardiac event a little over a month ago, Christian, alright? The doctor who treated me prescribed me beta blockers to ensure this sort of thing doesn't happen again, and he cleared me to work two weeks ago. I feel perfectly fine now, so there's no need to stay on the subject."

His last statement didn't seem to register with Christian, who suddenly turned away from his parents and stalked down the sidewalk for several yards before stopping. Ana watched in concern as he placed his hands on his hips, looking down at his feet before bringing a hand up to scrub over his face. Ana could tell he was truly upset by what his father had said, and she wished more than anything she could reach out and hug him.

"This is why you're retiring," Christian stated after a moment, finally turning around to look at his father, his eyes oddly bright. "It's for health reasons, isn't it? Does anyone at GEH know? Do the investors know?"

"They haven't been informed yet about my retirement," Carrick said firmly. "They don't need to know yet. It's not as if I'm about to keel over and die at this very moment – there's time for us to get our affairs sorted out before we tell anyone."

"You don't know that!" Christian snapped, his voice rising in anger. "You're only 59, Dad, and you had a goddamn heart attack! Don't tell me that you didn't become scared for your life after that little 'episode' because I know that's bullshit. You wouldn't be retiring if you weren't scared."

There was a heavy silence between the four of them. "It wasn't just his decision, darling," Grace said in a quiet yet steady voice, her eyes focused on her son. "I care about GEH, but I care about your father more. He puts so much of himself into the company that I don't want him to lose sight of what's most important: that his health and well-being need to come first. I want him to do a better job managing his stress levels, and so while he was in the hospital, we discussed our options. I said that I wanted him to consider pulling away from GEH soon, and he said he agreed."

"Really?" Christian glared at his mother. "And did this conversation happen before or after you guys decided to hide Dad's major medical emergency from his kids?"

"I told her not to tell you guys," Carrick insisted angrily, and Christian went silent. "She wanted to call you right away when it happened, but I asked her not to. She was angry at me for wanting to hide this, but I insisted, so don't put this on her."

Christian looked too dumbfounded to speak for a moment or two. "Why would you do that? You really didn't think your own kids would want to know that you had a fucking heart attack…?!"

"No, I didn't!" Carrick snapped, the anger and hurt in his eyes more apparent than ever. "Our family had been in tatters ever since you and Elliot had quit and left GEH. You had moved across the goddamn country and refused to speak a word to me, and Elliot pretty much abandoned his position to start an entirely different career path I had no idea he had even wanted. My sons were gone and I had clearly failed both as a boss and as a father… so no, I didn't think you guys wanted to know what was going on."

His angry outburst was met with silence, and Ana could almost hear her own heart beating loudly in her chest. She couldn't help but feel sorry for Carrick in this moment: despite how rude and antagonistic he had been since he first arrived in New York, it was clear he cared about his family and was hurting quite a bit from Christian's absence in the past few months. Ana instinctively glanced over at Christian, who was trying to school his features, but an undeniable look of pain crossed over his face as he looked at his father.

"I wasn't speaking to you because I didn't think you wanted to hear from me," Christian confessed after a moment. "The way we'd left things when I told you I was leaving GEH… you were so angry, I figured once I left I would have pretty much burned the bridge of any relationship you and I could've potentially had. If I knew you were open to talking to me again, I would have at least considered it."

"I said a lot of things that day I'm not proud of," Carrick said, regret clouding his voice. "I was angry, but more so at myself than at you. I think about that day a lot, and I wish I could have handled myself better. I'm sorry, son."

Christian swallowed, and Ana could tell he was trying to hold back his emotions as he looked down at his feet. She moved over and placed a hand on his arm, silently letting him know she was there for him.

Christian finally looked back up at his dad. "I could have handled myself better that day too," he confessed, a small catch in his voice as he cleared his throat. "But… I wish you would've at least told me about your health issues."

Carrick's face fell into something unreadable. "Christian…"

"Elliot and Mia apparently didn't know either. How do you think that makes us feel?" Christian asked sincerely, the hurt in his voice apparent. "You could have died, and the last thing I ever said to you would have been that I hated being your son."

Carrick blanched slightly at his words. "Christian, I…"

"I would've had to live with that for the rest of my life!" Christian insisted, moving out of Ana's reach as he began to pace along the sidewalk, clearly agitated. "Is that why you didn't tell me? You wanted to pretend like it didn't happen so everything could go back to the way it was?"

"No, Christian, that's not…"

"You said that you wish you could have handled yourself better during our last argument in Seattle, but you didn't think to try to handle this situation better? You were hiding important information from us about your health! How would you feel if you found out I had almost died and you didn't find out till –"

Christian's words were suddenly cut off, however, when Carrick had stepped forward and pulled his son into a hug. Christian froze, and Grace and Ana could only stare at the two men as they seemed unable to move for several lingering moments. Carrick still had his arms wrapped around Christian, however, and Christian didn't seem to know how to react as he simply stood there. It was obvious Carrick had never really done this before, and Christian clearly didn't know how to react.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Christian slowly hugged his father back. He slid his arms around Carrick's torso, and Carrick's eyes squeezed shut as his arms tightened around his son. Ana instinctively brought a hand to her chest, her heart pounding as she watched the two of them.

"You're right, son," Carrick admitted quietly. "After what happened to me, I was afraid that you and your siblings wouldn't care. I was being a coward, and I'm sorry."

"...I'm sorry too," Christian said quietly after a moment, his voice sincere. "You're not a coward though, Dad, and you didn't fail me as a boss or as a father. I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for you."

Grace made a small sound, and the others looked over at her to see she had been quietly crying, a shaky hand pressed to her lips. Christian immediately let go of his father so he could hug his mother, who let out a sob as she embraced him.

"Oh, sweetheart," Grace said, tears running down her face as she smiled against Christian's shoulder. "I knew that the two of you just needed to talk things out. I'm so sorry we didn't tell you what had happened."

"It's okay, Mom. I'm glad you guys are here right now."

Grace and Christian continued to hold each other, and Carrick finally turned to look at Ana. "Maybe we could start again," he offered her, and he held out his hand for her to shake. "Hi, I'm Carrick Grey, Christian's father. You must be Ana."

Ana let out a watery laugh before taking her hand in her own. "Yes, I am. It's very nice to meet you Carrick."

The two of them smiled at each other before looking back over at Grace and Christian, who were smiling over at the two of them. Ana felt a tear or two slip down her cheeks, and she quietly wiped them away.

Seeing Christian reconnect with his family like this moved her more than she could possibly say. She know that Christian leaving his family behind in Seattle had affected him more than he wanted to let on, and he deserved to have a good relationship with his parents again. This felt like a wonderful start to the healing process.

Right now, Ana didn't want to think about what this meant for Christian's future in New York or his relationship with her. She just wanted to be here in this moment with him.

A/N: And the Grey family is reunited :')

Sorry this chapter was a bit shorter, but let me know your thoughts! Next chapter, Ana and Christian have a serious conversation about their future.