A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 15: The Proposal

Um… what?

Ana could not have heard Christian correctly. She blinked several times before involuntarily blushing, her heart pounding a furious tattoo against her chest. Did Christian seriously just ask her to marry him in an effort to get her away from Jack? Was he being serious? She hoped he had a proper explanation for this proposal, because this just felt too ridiculous to be her reality.

"Are you…?" Ana began, but then stopped, not sure what she wanted to ask. "What did you ask me?"

"I asked 'what if we got married?'" Christian said, as if it was a perfectly logical solution to her situation. "I mean, we wouldn't actually get married. Let me explain."

Ana was still a little bit in shock, but she couldn't help but feel an immediate sense of relief when he said that. Her shoulders dropped slightly as she let out a breath. "Yes, please do," she said, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. Her legs felt weak as her heart continued to beat at a frenzied pace.

"We would make it seem like we were eloping," Christian said, moving to sit beside her on the bed. Ana looked at him. "Jack is obviously keeping tabs on me, and is likely going to follow me around wherever I go to see if you're with me. He's also probably looking into my phone and financial records to see if there's any proof I'm in contact with you. Since I know you probably don't want to be hiding from him forever, what if we did the opposite? We could essentially put on a show for him. We would make it seem like we were a couple. If he sees you and I walking around together in public – perhaps going into city hall together to obtain a marriage license – don't you think that would bother him quite a bit?"

Ana grimaced, not hating the idea of pissing off Jack in such a manner. But there was still a lot she wanted to know about this plan. "Yeah, but what would marrying you… or pretending to marry you, rather… actually accomplish? Other than just pissing off Jack."

"It would accomplish finally drawing him out and showing his hand," Christian explained. "That asshole is obsessed with you, but he's trying his best to lay low so he can have the upper hand and possibly still save face in front of his bosses. He's not going to give up until he has you back under his control, but I'm not going to let that happen. If he thinks you're marrying someone else – namely me – he'll think he lost that control and it'll drive him crazy. He'll do whatever he can to stop the 'wedding' and potentially incriminate himself."

"But what if he doesn't try to stop us?" Ana couldn't help but ask.

Christian shrugged. "Then we'll all have a nice little fake wedding together with just you, me, and my family. If Hyde doesn't take the bait, then we'll figure something else out."

Ana was warming up to the idea a bit more, though she still felt unsure. "And you and I wouldn't actually get married?"

"No, we wouldn't," Christian reassured her. "I'm not going to force that kind of commitment on you if you're not ready, Ana. But we would still have to make it look as convincing as possible. We would need to get a real marriage license from city hall, and probably rent out a small venue somewhere to hold the fake wedding. And it wouldn't be too extravagant since it's so short notice. I hope that's alright."

"That's not a problem," Ana said quickly. "Honestly, I don't want you guys to make a huge fuss. I already feel bad enough staying here with your parents and not being able to pay them back for their hospitality. I don't want you guys spending too much money on me."

"Ana, stop it," Christian said firmly, though his voice wasn't harsh. "We're happy to help you however we can, and we don't expect any payment from you in return. Why don't we run this idea by my parents and see what they think? We wouldn't be able to pull this off if they're not on board with it."

Ana immediately felt nervous at the fact that they were going to present this idea to his family. She didn't really know why, though. It wasn't like this was a real marriage, right? "Okay, we can ask. But maybe you can try to present the idea to them in a better way than you did to me? I don't want them to have a heart attack like I almost did."

Christian gave a rather embarrassed smile, though there was a twinkle of amusement in his gray eyes. "Sorry."

Ana smirked back before nudging him with her elbow. "Sure you are."

~/~

Christian walked beside Ana as the two of them made their way downstairs, mentally gearing himself up to tell his parents about this harebrained scheme he'd come up with. Honestly, Christian had had no idea how Ana would react to his suggestion that they get 'fake married', but he was relieved she was at least receptive to it. It had been a spur-of-the-moment suggestion, but to him it felt like the absolute right decision. Even if it didn't end up working at all, he would be in a better position to protect Ana at the very least.

They now walked into the kitchen area, and Christian immediately noticed that Mia and his grandparents were there along with Grace and Carrick. All of them were standing together, talking quietly, and they looked over at Ana and Christian walking in.

"Ana! Oh my God, Mom and Dad were just telling us what you guys found out," Mia said immediately, hurrying over to Ana and clutching her hand. "Your boyfriend actually has a secret fiancé?! That absolute fucking prick! I swear, I'm gonna punch him in the balls if I ever meet him face-to-face!"

"Mia," Mrs. Grey chided her daughter's aggressiveness, but Ana gave her a small smile.

"Thanks Mia. As long as I get to go first," she said in a dry tone that made Christian grin. Mia made a sympathetic sound before pulling Ana into a tight hug, and Ana hugged her back.

"Were you guys out somewhere?" Christian asked, glancing over at his grandparents.

"We stopped by Kate and Elliot's new place," Theo explained. "We got back a few minutes ago, and Grace was just telling us what you guys found out about Jack."

"Ana and I were actually just discussing it upstairs," Christian said, and Mia finally released Ana to look at her brother. "We were talking about ways we could expose Hyde's abuse, and we were thinking… what if Ana and I pretended to get married?"

A protracted silence hung in the air around them for several moments as Christian waited for their reaction. Just as he had expected, they were all shocked into silence.

"Married?" Theo finally asked, looking flabbergasted.

"Oh my god, that's so romantic!" Mia squealed, clasping her hands together.

"He said 'pretended to' get married," Margaret corrected them. "Pay attention."

"I don't know what to say, son. Can you explain what you mean?" Carrick asked, frowning.

Christian began to explain to everyone what their plan was, as well as the reasoning for it, and they all listened. He couldn't help but notice that Ana avoided the other's gazes as she looked down at her hands, her cheeks blazing red. Christian understood her awkwardness – while his plan didn't suggest she and him actually get married, it still sort of felt like he was telling his family they were intending to elope. It was certainly a strange situation.

" …I suppose that could work," Theo said after Christian was done speaking. "As long as it's all fake, I don't see the harm. And Jack most certainly seems like the jealous type."

"We'd have to really make it seem convincing," Carrick said seriously, putting his hands on his hips as he frowned in thought. "We wouldn't want Hyde catching on that it's a fake wedding. You'd need to be obvious about it, but also not go too over the top in case he realizes it's all fake."

"I was thinking Ana and I could go to city hall tomorrow to get a marriage license," Christian said. "We wouldn't make a big show of it, but we would make it obvious to Jack what we were doing in case he was following me."

"That's not a bad idea," Carrick agreed.

"So you would want this fake wedding to happen soon, then?" Grace asked, and Christian nodded.

"The sooner the better, I think. If we hold off for too long, I'm afraid Jack will have more opportunities to try to get to Ana. I think it would be best if we did this quickly and somewhat quietly."

"Well, that wouldn't give us much time to plan, but I think we can figure something out," Margaret said, looking over at Grace. "We'd need to find a venue, preferably a place that serves food, and also get some decorations. Ana would need a dress, of course, but we could probably find something cute and affordable that's off the rack."

"We'd also need someone to play the officiant," Christian pointed out. "Someone who would pretend they were marrying us, but they wouldn't actually have the authority."

"Ooh, I can do it!" Mia said, her hand shooting up in the air as if she were an excited student hoping to be called on by the teacher. "I can totally play the part! Let me do it, Chris – please please, pretty please?"

"As long as you're not a real wedding officiant, I don't have a problem with it," Christian said, amused at his little sister's excitement. Mia squealed, clapping her hands together.

"We could also bring on Elliot and Kate to help with the ceremony since they're coming back tomorrow," Grace pointed out. "We'd have to fill them in on everything that's happened in the past few days, but I'm sure they'd understand."

"Kate might be understanding, but you know Lelliot's gonna tease Christian to death about being too scared to actually tie the knot," Mia giggled. "Twenty bucks says he makes a joke about that."

"I'm sorry, dear," Margaret turned to Ana, who looked up at her. "Everyone here is planning this fake wedding for you, but you should be involved in it too. Is there anything you want to include in the ceremony? Perhaps a friend or someone you want to invite?"

Ana blinked in what almost seemed like surprise. "Oh… um, no," she said quietly. "That's okay. I-I think whatever you guys want will be fine."

She didn't meet anyone's eyes as she said that, and Christian couldn't help but feel his heart break slightly. Ana was clearly still feeling unsure about this whole fake wedding idea, and Christian wished more than anything that he could ease her fears.

"Well, what about those friends you mentioned you had back in college?" Theo pointed out to Ana. "Maybe you want to reach out to them? I'm sure they'd be happy to see you."

"I don't think so," Ana said, biting her lip. "I haven't spoken to Jose, Lacey, or Steph in years. I pretty much iced them out after I got together with Jack, and I doubt they'd want to hear from me again."

"I'm sure that's not true, dear," Grace said compassionately, walking over to place a hand on Ana's shoulder. "They might be upset, but their anger would be directed at Jack, not you. If you explain to them why you had lost contact with them, I have no doubt that they would support you one hundred percent."

Ana didn't say anything for a moment, though Christian could see tears filling her beautiful blue eyes as she looked at Grace. "How do you know that?" she asked brokenly, her voice cracking with emotion as a tear slid down her cheek.

"Oh honey," Grace said sadly, pulling Ana into a hug, and Ana hugged her back. Christian's heart clenched painfully, and he automatically took a step forward so he could comfort her too. Carrick met his eyes, however, and shook his head slightly, indicating he shouldn't intervene. Christian stopped, though reluctantly.

"Darling, I know this whole situation has been very difficult for you," Grace said quietly. "And I know that you probably still feel uncomfortable allowing others to be there for you in your time of need. You're still struggling to trust people, especially after what you went through with Jack, but just know that there are more people than you think who are willing to help. All you have to do is let them."

Ana didn't respond as she kept her face buried in Grace's shoulder, and the others remained silent as they watched the two women embrace. Unable to stand it any longer, Christian walked over and placed his hand on Ana's back, wanting to offer her just a little bit of additional comfort. She finally brought her face up to look at Christian with tear-filled eyes, and she offered him a wobbly smile.

"I'm okay. I promise," she said, releasing Grace before wiping her eyes. "I just didn't realize until now how much I missed my old college friends. I think I will reach out to them and see if they would like to come."

"I'm glad to hear that," Christian said sincerely, happy to see that Ana seemed to be okay. "So does that mean you're officially on board with this whole 'fake wedding' plan?"

Ana let out a watery giggle. "Yeah, I suppose I am. I mean, how could I refuse after you offered me such a romantic proposal?"

The others laughed as Christian smiled in amusement. "I'll make it up to you, I promise," he said sincerely, placing a hand on his heart.

"Good," Ana smirked at him.

"Well, I guess it's settled then," Carrick said, clasping his hands together as if readying himself. "We've got ourselves a fake wedding to plan!"

A/N: Looks like Ana's finally been convinced ;) If you enjoyed this chapter, please review!

FYI: I'm going to be taking a small break next week, so don't expect another update until March 8. Thank you all for understanding!

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