EPILOGUE

"Christian," she called after a moment of silence.

"Yeah?"

"Can you get me a pain killer?" She asked, her voice suddenly heavily laced with weariness.

"Are you in pain?" He asked, jumping out of his seat.

"Cramp," she explained.

He didn't know much about when it came to women and their mensural cycle, he only knew that it happened approximately every twenty-eight days. He had never seen a girl who would behave differently when they were on their periods, or perhaps it was because he didn't care and had expected his subs to sort themselves out; it was more likely the latter.

He came back with a cup of water and a pill. "You weren't like this all morning, what happened?"

"I had the pill before bed yesterday and then this morning in my heavy state of sleepiness. I forgot to eat one today at Kate's place earlier."

"Does this always happen?"

"You mean apart from my extremely irregular mensural cycle, does cramp always happen? Yeah, it does. It's always the worst on the first day and if I'm lucky I'll be good as new on the second day."

"Then what about your irregular cycle?"

"What about it? Other than the fact that I never have to worry about getting knocked-up and buy the stick to pee on, courtesy to the vasectomy, I am trying to find a doctor who can adjust my hormones a little."

"Try Dr Greene."

"Washington's best?" He nodded. "I can't get an appointment with her."

"I'll get one for you."

"Oh right! I forgot who you are. Yes, I'm glad that you're my boyfriend." She grinned. "Yes, please, can you get me an appointment?" She asked again, this time all jokes aside.

"Anything for you," he chuckled, actually finding his girlfriend cute and adorable at this moment. Notwithstanding, it was short-lived.

"Thank you! Love you, baby." She shot up from her seat and jumped into his lap.

"Have you ever thought of reversing your vasectomy?" He asked out of the blue.

"No, I mean if I want kids I wouldn't get a vasectomy in the first place. What's the point of getting it only to reverse it? Even a sex worker uses an IUD."

"How do you know about prostitutes?" He narrowed his eyes at her.

"I'm a regular visitor to Vegas." She shrugged but he was waiting for her to elaborate before jumping to conclusions. "For their casinos mostly, and also for other outdoor stuff, but it's hard for you to not run into sex workers if you're constantly in the casino, so it's inevitable for me to not have a conversation with them."

"And how did the talk of birth control came up?"

"It just did," she shrugged helplessly, "you're asking for too much here, Christian. I really don't remember a random conversation with a prostitute who I don't even remember the name of or their appearance."

He nodded accepting her words. "So you won't ever want kids?"

"Why are we even talking about this?" She asked, eyeing him with curiosity.

"We both have a vasectomy done when we were eighteen, I was just thinking if that was too much of a rash decision."

"Do you regret it?"

"Hell no," he thought back to the women that he had encountered who would fake their birth control proof with the intention of getting knocked-up by him to trap him.

"Then, what's possibly plaguing you? Do you want kids in the future?"

"Not in the near future, but I don't know."

"If you're thinking about building a family with me, Christian..."

"Oh don't get ahead of yourself." He kidded.

"No, I'm serious, Christian. I can see it in your eyes that you think I'm it for you."

For a moment he was unable to meet her eyes. No one, absolutely no one had been able to read him as clearly as she did; see him as transparent as she did.

"I need to warn you that I'm not a family-type of person. Sure, I can babysit. But, that's only for a set period of time, and it's short. I don't like kids in general, no matter how cute, small or adorable they are. It's not a responsibility that I'm willing to take, I think I told you that not long ago. I don't see myself ever having kids. While that may change in the distant future, but I just don't want to get your hopes up about building a family with me, because it ain't gonna happen in my mind."

"I don't want kids right now and I can't see myself being a father. So, I think we'll worry about the distant future when we get there. For the time being though, I'm just bothered about your vasectomy for some reason. I feel like you're depriving us another path. Like there are supposed to be two paths, but without vasectomies, we've cut off one already. Besides, my mom will be disappointed once she learns that Kate's pregnant and we're not even thinking about the future."

"You feel like you're being forced into something or following something without given a choice." He nodded in agreement, she completely understood what he was referring to, because for some time, some people who knew about her vasectomy had questioned her and placed doubt in her mind regarding her decision to get her tubes tied. She didn't regret it but for a short period of time, she had been thinking over and over about it, only to realize that she was stressing over nothing.

They were sitting in comfortable silence once again. She had moved to take up the entire couch in his study, her feet dangling off the arm rest and her head resting on the other since the chair was small.

"Do you always sit on sofas like that?"

"No," she replied with a dubious look, "of course I don't!"

"Just curious," he smirked.

"What do you peg me as?"

"I don't know, really. But, I can totally imagine you like that at some party." He shrugged, not truly meaning what he had accused her of. He knew she was relaxed and feeling at ease with him, so would show him her true form.

Her eyes surveyed his study, finding the conversation utterly pointless. "You have darts?" She bolted up from her seat, her eyes shining with child-like excitement. "You play? Any good?"

"No," he chuckled, standing up to setup the dart board. Admitting defeat before she could come up with some bets and he'd find himself signing away his entire asset.

"Really?" She laughed knowing he feared any competition or contest with her because she wouldn't challenge him if she wasn't confident that she'd win a hundred percent. "Okay, you work, and I'll play by myself." She decided, taking the darts from his hand and took a few steps back facing the board.

"Point to a place," she told him when she saw the he had no intention of working because he was in no mood of doing so. "Just do it," she repeated when he raised a doubtful eyebrow at her confidence.

He walked up to the board and pointed to the center of it.

"Lame," she commented. A dart flying toward it in high speed and pinning right into the spot where his finger occupied not a second ago.

"Jesus, Anastasia, are you trying to attach my finger to the board?"

"I could try."

"Can you just chill a little. I'm not completely convinced of your accuracy. I know you won't hurt me intentionally."

"Oh, okay," she nodded in understanding. "Point to another spot," she told him, and he did, this time, at the very edge around the two o'clock direction. It got there at precisely the point Christian had pointed to.

"Damn, you're good."

"I'm better at throwing thins than shooting with guns for some reason. Probably threw too much tantrum when I was a kid," she joked. They repeated the motions until she had the last one on the board. "Did you just made me write the letter G? You are so full of yourself." She kidded at his smug look upon seeing the shape her darts had formed. "Conceited," she said of him looking so proud of himself.

"You love me," he shrugged, not giving a damn about the world. "Hey, but the way," he said after re-taking a seat behind his desk, groaning at the email from Head of Public Relations, Sam, asking about the photographs and the gossip articles. He would deal with it later, release a statement or something. "You said there's a dance party at the Mile High Club tonight, right?" He looked away from his computer screen to see her nodding her head, a dainty stray of hair falling out from the back of her ear. "And, I promised to show you how to have fun, didn't I?"

"I still don't believe it one bit."

"I stand by my statement," he grinned, "you'll know what's it like to be served with the best cocktail of your life all night long."

"Now you're just bluffing," she called out thinking he was bullshitting.

"You'll see that I'm not," he argued back with as much patience as he had.

"Do you think you can fool me? Don't think I've never been a bartender before."

"Oh, I'm well aware of your plentiful life experiences. But," he paused dramatically, "I'm sure you've never had the full Christian Grey experience," he said cheekily. "Actually, don't sweat it, no one has."

"Someone's very cocky lately," she commented lightly.

"Only to impress my girl."

"Then, perhaps I should put this ring into good use tonight."

"You should. That's something I'm definitely witnessing."

"Good, because tonight's all on you!" She proclaimed and he rolled his eyes.

"It's my club," he deadpanned.

"Even better then," she clapped, showing her enthusiasm. "I look forward to spending your money tonight."

"Speaking of rings," he said, trying not to turn the atmosphere serious.

"What about them?"

"What do you think of these?" He asked, pulling out a pair of black rings. It was made out of zirconium, the band was black and there was a strip of turquoise around it.

"It's pretty," she had to admit that they weren't bad looking, because it certainly appeared better than those traditional shiny metal ones. The ones with a huge-ass rock on them from whatever cut and a shiny band. She just didn't like them, and she would probably break them somehow unintentionally.

"Do you like it?" He asked, holding the matching set in his palm.

"Where is this going?" She avoided the question and stared at him. "You lost the Monopoly game," she sat up, now understanding his intentions. "You lost it fair and square." She reminded him, "I've got the R8 now."

"I know, but if I'm honest, I'll feel much better and more secure if you wear it as a promise ring."

"You think I'd forget about the promise I made you?" She said, referring to the pact.

"It's not that," he hesitated, trying to organize his speech, "I don't like that ring on your finger but I know it is just a tool."

"So, it's your issue then," she concluded.

He looked at her and nodded slowly once, that was probably the best summary for the current situation.

"Okay," she said, sticking out her hand for him to put the ring on.

"What?" He gaped at her with a puzzled expression.

"You've convinced me. I'll wear it," she told him, "it's as simple as that. I may be stubborn but I'm not unreasonable." She elaborated, waiting for him to slide the ring on.

"That, I do agree." He muttered, sliding the ring on to her left middle finger. He, in return, offered his left hand for her to put the ring on.

"I just remembered something," she perked up suddenly as she slid the ring on to his hand. She didn't see too much into the meaning of the ring other than it being a reminder of their pact, but a part of her knew that Grey was staking his claim.

"What?" He decided not to comment on her lack of enthusiasm for their matching rings, he shouldn't expect it from a girl like her anyways.

"There's a Fit Expo in LA soon, and also a Tattoo Convention. I need to check the location of that."

"You want to go?"

"I always go. Never missed a single time since I first been there."

"Give me the details and I'll check with Andrea."

"So, are you willing to go?"

"If I'm not going, who will you go with?"

"Luke, we always attend those things. We met there. Besides, if Ethan has time, he'll join us. I've got a bunch of celebrity fitness trainers going with me to the Fit Expo, too. So, I really don't mind if you can't make it."

"I've never been to one."

"I know, you're probably only hearing about it for the first time, now."

"I am."

"I can take you," she offered. "If you go with me, I might be more tamed, at least in the Tattoo Convention." She chuckled, then proceeded to explain what she meant by that. "I tend to do dares with Luke and Ethan at the convention, and we'd tattoo each other whenever we lost a dare or a bet. So we'd get silly tattoos."

"That's crazy," he gaped.

"I know, which is why I've been doing everything to not lose, and so far, I haven't gotten a single silly ones. I've only got one tattoo and it's the one I got out of my own free will." She pointed to her arm with pride.

"What about the Fit Expo?"

"That's just fitness; you'll like it. Everyone there is muscular and a fitness freak. There are tons of equipments. Newly invented ones or the old ones. You'll meet all kinds of people. There are people who went just to meet muscular guys or guys who are trying to gain some muscles. Or women who are trying to lose some weight. You see all kinds there, but if you hangout with me, you'll be doing fitness all day and exercising. We basically surveys every station and tries practically everything. It'll be really fun." She gushed about the Expo from her memory.

"Who are those celebrity trainers?"

"Some are just people who host fitness programs, some are people who post their workouts on Instagram for their followers to follow and do. But, most are trainers of those Hollywood stars. You know, when there's an action movie, the actors and actresses in them would need to get into shape so they could pull the stunts that they'd pull in front of the camera?"

"Oh, them?"

"Yeah, them; they're really nice people in person, and some of them will even tell you stories of their clients. I know one who's trained Gal Gadot." He looked confused, "Wonder Woman." He shook his head. "Whatever, not important; I like her." She added, though it was completely unnecessary. "Anyway, she told me stories of how Gal would just surrender on instinct whenever someone tried to attack her. But, she also told me that Gal did Krav Maga. So, imagine my reaction when I saw her bloopers."

"Don't they have to sign like NDAs?"

"Not all clients require them to do so. Some, like rich fat business guys like you, well minus the fat part. They'd just hire a personal trainer and expect their weight to just drop. It was funny listening to their stories because most of them couldn't even complete one set of workout. It was very interesting to hear those trainers lament about their clients."

She was trying to get his interest up, but she knew she was kind of failing. Other than the fact that he was interested in the fitness component of the Fit Expo, he wasn't exactly thrilled about the social part. She could understand why, because she knew first hand that it could be exhausting to keep up with a group of people, especially when those people weren't exactly your closest buddies.

"Do I have to get a tattoo at that convention?"

"No, but you'll see all kinds. I know some artists there."

"I'll think about it."

"Don't feel like you're forced to go, Christian. I promise there'll be no funny business when I go to those things with the guys."

He still looked unconvinced but there was nothing she could do.

…

"Ana," Kate's hushed tone worried her.

"Are you okay?"

"Can I come over?"

"I'm at Christian's."

"Even better. Elliot wants to ambush Christian with a night out and I need a girls night in because I think…" she trailed off, and Anastasia could guess exactly what she was referring to. She glanced at Christian who was on his phone, typing furiously, she didn't know if it was an email or an argument with someone over text.

"Uh, yeah, you can come over, though I'm not sure about the night-in, Kate." She said hesitantly.

"So, it's not going to be an ambush anymore…"

"I think Christian doesn't have time to go out with Elliot tonight. We're both really busy. Maybe you can just tell Elliot to stay put. Christian needs to catch up on work and his COO is coming over to bring him up to date." She told her truthfully, and Kate could hear that Anastasia wasn't declining a chance to hangout, they really were busy.

"Okay, I'll come over then."

"I'll buzz you up, just text me when you get here. Or Elliot can give you the code or something." Anastasia said her goodbyes and hung up. "Kate's coming over," she told Christian.

He frowned. "Why?"

"She thinks she's pregnant."

"She's what?" He exclaimed nearly jumping up from his seat knocking over his desk.

"That's my guess, she's not being explicit enough. I don't know," she shrugged, "you can't tell anyone though, Christian," she warned. "Not even Elliot. I'll make sure Kate doesn't chicken out and tells him when she finds out." She told him. "I just don't want to keep anything from you, so I'll tell you now just to keep your anxiety from skyrocketing."

Despite that, Christian was still glaring at her, but Anastasia had no other choice but to shrug helplessly.

"Just trying to choose what's best…" she stood up and left the room only to have the door open up in her face. "Fuck!" She jumped back to avoid being hit, "jeez, chill, woman." She tutted at Ros who was standing on the other side staring at her. She couldn't help but laugh at Anastasia's reaction, she knew if it was anyone else, the girl would've bit her tongue to stop that comment from coming out.

"Hello to you, too, chica." Ros nudged her shoulder when she entered the room.

"Can you show Ana a picture of Gwen." Christian blurted out, suddenly remembering the conversation that was still in his mind from earlier.

"Sure, why?" She took out her phone after dropping everything on the chair that Anastasia was just sitting on.

"I think Ana knows her."

"Gwen probably knows a lot of people," Ros shrugged. "She likes to dance at the Mile High."

"Pole dancing?" Anastasia asked.

"Yeah," Ros nodded. "So you know her?"

Anastasia grinned and nodded. "She's hit on me the first time she met me, just like you."

"The both of you!" Christian exclaimed, sitting up straighter in his chair. "Sheesh, I need to look after my girl now." He glared at Ros then at Anastasia who's smirk only gotten wider.

"What's that saying? Wise mind think alike." Ros stuck her tongue out at her Boss and turned to Anastasia to show her the picture. "Is that her?"

"Yes! She's your wife?" Anastasia gaped, and Ros nodded proudly. "Do you know that she's meeting Luke later today to save another friend of mine's ass."

"She mentioned something about having to meet Luke for some photoshoot for a romance book cover, but I didn't really listen. I don't usually pay attention to that. She's done that before."

"For romance cover? I hate those photoshoots." Anastasia grimaced at those experiences.

"That's Gwen's thing, not yours," Ros agreed. "She's a seasonally employed worker, so she only works when there's a festival. She's like a festival manager."

"Those that organize big events?"

"Yeah, something like that." Ros nodded.

"Ah, cool. I'll leave you two to it then. I've gotta go meet my girl." She nodded at the two before leaving the office.

"She's a keeper, Grey."

"I heard that!" Anastasia shouted from somewhere not far.

"Stop eavesdropping," Christian yelled back. "Close the door, Ros." He instructed, Ros got up to shut it completely, blocking out all the noises.

"Okay, Stephen Morton."

…

The elevator's ring announced the arrival of Katherine Kavanagh.

"So, Grey lives here."

"Yeah, I call it the Ivory Tower." Anastasia replied, coming out of the kitchen with a bottle of water in her hands. She was going to drink it to herself, but that apparently set Kate off into panic mode.

"Oh my god, Ana," she rushed to her best friend grabbed her wrists, while the best friend was only trying to unscrew the cap so she could take a drink from it.

"You're late, I know, so you're suspecting that you're pregnant."

"I don't have any symptoms though."

"That's good, right? I mean, do you want to have a baby?"

"No," she almost yelled, "not right now at least. I'm not even sure if Elliot is the one."

"Oh," Anastasia replied calmly, "Kate, I'm thirsty." She told her friend as gently as possible. "It's for me, not you."

Kate loosened her grip on Anastasia's wrists, but she still looked worked up.

"I told Christian that you suspect that you're pregnant."

"Why the fuck would you do that, Ana?" Kate screamed. "You're going to betray me the minute you got a good dick to sit on."

"No!" Anastasia slammed the bottle down on to the table. "No, Kate, I told him because this is his house. I swore him to secrecy and I told him that you'd be the one to break whatever news to Elliot and he's going to keep his fucking mouth shut! And, at this moment, he's in a meeting with his second-in-command. I just needed you to know that. I am not betraying your trust, Kate."

Kate visibly relaxed, but her muscles were still tense.

"Shall we do it now?" Anastasia asked once Kate had calmed down a little bit more.

"I need a strong one."

"Kate, what if you really are pregnant?"

"I don't care."

"Kate, don't," Anastasia begged. "You'll regret that and you'll blame me for not stopping you, so I'm doing it now."

"I didn't even buy a test."

"Then we'll go do it now."

"There's a swarm of paparazzi out side being dealt with by the police, I don't think you're able to get out."

"Fine, then we'll send a security to do so."

Kate flushed. "No, I'll go get it."

"We'll get a woman to do it, okay? She won't say anything, besides, she works for Christian and Christian already knows what you're doing here." She tried to come up with a solution to appease her nerve-wrecking friend. "Please, Kate? I can't go out there, and you're certainly not in the right state of mind to do so."

Kate nodded reluctantly.

"Sit here and you can drink my water, but don't even think about touching a drop of alcohol." Anastasia warned before setting off to the security office to find Belinda. On her way, she thought better of it and went to Jason's quarter hoping Gail would be there.

"Gail?" She knocked on the door where Gail was sitting in the room knitting.

"Hey, Ana," she stood up and walked over giving her a quick hug. "Is everything okay?"

"Um… my friend, Kate, she thinks she's pregnant."

"Oh my," Gail's jaw dropped. "What can I do to help?"

"Can you and Belinda go to the drug store to get her a few tests, please? There are too many paps outside and Christian will throw a fit if I walk out."

"Oh my god, yes," she discarded her entire knitting set and went in search of Belinda who was supposedly in the security room with another guy that was on duty.

"Thank you so much, Gail!"

"Anything to help." She replied before disappearing down the hall, and Anastasia returned to the kitchen where she had left Kate.

"What did you tell Elliot?"

"I didn't tell him that I'm coming here. I just told him that I'm off to see you. He doesn't even know that you're with Christian. He thought you're probably in our apartment."

"Did you also tell him that we can't hangout tonight? Perhaps tomorrow night?"

"We'll see," Kate replied, looking down. "I really don't want to have a baby. I should've gotten a vasectomy like you did."

"Kate, no, you've always been more of a family person that I am. Hell, I've just got my head bitten off for getting that fucking vasectomy at the age of eighteen by Christian earlier."

"Why?"

"He thinks we're depriving him of a choice," Anastasia snorted with an eye roll.

"What, does he want kids?"

"Fuck no."

"Then why's he so unhappy about your vasectomy?"

"He just doesn't like to have his hands being forced. You've interviewed him, you should know." Anastasia said, she really didn't want to get into details with Kate of her relationship with her boyfriend, but anything to get Kate's mind off the test.

"I don't remember much about that interview, other than the fact that it got me into Seattle Times."

"I mean you got into USC's journalism, which was already something. Now, you've landed yourself an interview with Christian Grey, Seattle Times would be blind to reject your application."

"I hounded him for four years."

"Oh yeah, I think he's mentioned it to me."

"Like I knew that I needed to have something jaw-dropping or some kind of breaking news to get that spot in Seattle Times, and I came up blank. Then, he made his first billion and he made the news. I was so down at the time when he gave that press conference after becoming the youngest billionaire on the West Coast. I thought I had lost my chance because he's going to be interviewed by so many other people, and I need that project four years later."

"Then you found out that he doesn't do interviews."

"Yes, and I was determined to be the first one to get an interview out of him."

"He said you've been hounding his team for the longest time that they were forced to tell him about you."

"Wait, so he didn't know about it at first?"

"No, your requests were all being blocked by his team. Until like probably a year or so later that his team brought this up to him."

"Yeah, and he fucking rejected me personally."

Anastasia laughed, she could imagine the look on Christian's face when he saw the resume of some wannabe journalism majored student wanting to interview him.

"He can be so full of himself," Anastasia kidded. "He thinks he's the best but he keeps forgetting that he was in the same position as you when he first started it."

"Is that why he granted me that interview?"

"Heck no, I wish that man can have more empathy. But, no, he granted it because he admires your relentlessness. His words not mine," Anastasia added, "besides, I think he's right to give you a chance."

Kate sighed, feeling that the conversation was over, so she started a new one. "You're going to the dance party tonight, right?"

"Yeah, it's Christian's club." Anastasia felt some sort of pride when she said that it belonged to her boyfriend.

"Really?"

"Yeah, Sean just reminded me about it, so that's why I'm cancelling your invitation to a girls night."

"I'll ask if Elliot wants to go."

"Tell him that his little brother is going, and he'll definitely be there."

"Christian's going?"

Anastasia nodded. "Yup, he said he's going make my drinks for the entire night," she added with a giddy giggle.

"Damn, Steele, you really know how to pick 'em."

"What was your first impression of Christian when you interviewed him?"

"He was shrewd, calculating and manipulative. I wouldn't say he's cold because every businessman is when it comes to interviews or shit like that. They wouldn't want to give away too much. He does look powerful and has this natural dominance."

Anastasia couldn't help but laugh at the description. She had completely forgotten about the invitation to the music video that she and Christian had planned on making, but she had also convinced herself that they needed to do more planning and thinking before they tell anyone about it. She didn't believe that Christian's discussion with Jason about the filming locations were good enough, because she didn't think Christian could be bothered to put much thought into it. He probably just wanted to get it done, like all his other projects. And this, took the fun out of everything.

"I can't believe we're sitting here, in his house, judging my boyfriend like he's some random guy on the street."

"He's somewhat like an alpha-male," Kate concluded with a giggle.

"Really?" Anastasia stared at Kate with a straight face, but when the latter nodded furiously, she lost it.

Then, Kate added:"I think he's the kind of man that you need in your life."

Fin.

Special thanks to JB, Guest, SianJohn, Christian618, fundays, Cait4321, Onedirection2013, Munkeyfump20 and CTHEWOODS for sticking with me!

Laters, baby x

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