Summary: Ana has a great part-time job housekeeping at a billionaire's second home in Aspen, but one day her boss and his whole family drop by for an unexpected Christmas vacation. What else can Ana do when they ask her to stick around cleaning during the week they're staying there? Looks like she's housekeeping for the Grey's this Christmas. AU CG/Ana HEA

Housekeeping for the Grey's

By Strawberry Pajamas

Chapter 1: Unexpected Guests

Ana couldn't help but be amazed at the beauty that surrounded her whenever she drove through the Rocky Mountains - today, the mountainous terrain was covered in a fresh coat of white snow, and the clear blue midday sky contrasted with the frigid December air enveloping everything like a freezing blanket. The heat was blasting on high inside her blue Volkswagen Beetle, but Ana still kept herself bundled up in her winter coat, fuzzy mittens and winter hat as she sped down Highway 18 toward her destination.

There was some excitable movement happening behind Ana in the backseat, and she couldn't help but giggle as she looked into the rearview mirror. "Calm down there, buddy. We're almost there."

Lester, Ana's German Shepherd puppy, yipped and barked happily, distracted by something that was happening outside. He put his front paws up on the base of the left side window while panting happily, excitedly watching the trees and mountains speed by them. Ana merely shook her head with a smile, turning her focus back on the road.

Once a month for the past four months or so, Ana would take a weekend to make this trip up to the mountains of Aspen from her home in Boulder. While the drive up was often pretty fun, since Ana would bring along Lester to keep her company, the road trip was actually meant for a temporary housekeeping job she was lucky enough to snag a few months back. Her weekday job was at an art studio in a small town outside Boulder, and her boss Martha happened to be good friends with a woman named Jillian Henderson, who was the housekeeper for some rich guy's second home in Aspen. Mrs. Henderson had unfortunately gotten into a nasty car accident about four months back, and she had some terrible injuries as a result, so she had left to go stay with some relatives out of state for her recovery.

Martha knew Ana was a trustworthy employee who needed a little extra money, and she had recommended Ana fill in for Mrs. Henderson while she recovered. Ana had immediately agreed, and after briefly talking over the phone with Gail Jones - Mrs. Henderson's employer and the rich guy's main housekeeper - Ana gave her her information and consented to a background check. Within a few days, she was cleared to work.

Ana now drove the three and a half hours across state to the beautiful mountainside mansion where nobody got to reside, but Ana had to keep clean nonetheless. That made the workload fairly easy, despite the gargantuan size of the house, meaning Ana had a lot of free time to play with her dog and paint some landscapes of the beautiful scenery around her whenever she stayed.

To an artistic introvert like Ana, these weekends were like heaven.

"We're here Lester," Ana said with a smile, turning into a long, winding uphill driveway through a large copse of trees. She drove along several twists and turns of the driveway before reaching a large cast iron gate with an electronic card reader. She opened her car window and swiped Mrs. Henderson's ID through the reader - the red light blinked green, and the gate slowly opened, allowing Ana to continue driving up toward the house.

Ana was someone who could definitely appreciate beauty, and she felt that there truly was no place more beautiful than this opulent mansion set in the side of a mountain outside Aspen. The house itself was over 4000 square feet and built with rustic cherry wood and granite stone foundation, and it had three floors with large floor-to-ceiling glass windows stretching across all stories - these windows were rather difficult to clean, Ana found, but the view it presented was totally worth it. The interior of the house was just as ornate as the exterior, with beautiful dark hardwood floors and bear fur rugs strewn throughout the expansive living room. Soft dark leather furniture, a large cobblestone fireplace and real cherry wood coffee tables filled the space, and the kitchen and dining room looked just as beautiful with deep red walls and dark wooden cabinets, tables and chairs. All the bedrooms upstairs were beautifully rustic as well with large, queen-sized beds with heavy quilt comforters, and ornate forest green drapes with tassels hanging over the windows. Whenever Ana stayed here for the weekends to clean, she would make sure to stay in the bedroom with the east-facing window so she could wake up with the view of the sun rising over the mountains.

Ana truly loved these weekends, almost as much as Lester did.

"Whoa, slow down buddy," Ana laughed after she had parked the car and opened the back door. Lester immediately bounded out, barking happily as he hopped into a nearby pile of snow, his dark fur immediately getting covered in white fluffy stuff. Ana pulled her overnight bag, a box of Lester's things and her art supplies out of the trunk, and whistled for Lester to follow her into the house. The puppy immediately bounded after her, shaking his fur out before rushing over the threshold.

Ana entered the living room, smiling as she looked out the window toward the view she had grown accustomed to over the past few visits. She set down Lester's things before walking across the dark room toward the sweeping staircase leading up to the other floors, and went to put her things away in her bedroom. She would be sure to set up her painting easel and canvas once she got the generator working and the lights on.

Still bundled up in her winter coat and hat, Ana went back downstairs and headed out the backdoor, where there was a large porch spanning across the entire south face of the house. Down the steps and around the corner near the side of the house was a large generator, and once she had powered it on, the automatic porch lights flickered on. Satisfied, Ana then hurried back inside so she could turn the furnace on and heat up the place before she would start cleaning.

Ana let Lester out to run around in the backyard, which thankfully had a fence surrounding the property, making Ana feel safe he wouldn't run off or leap off the mountain ledge. After watching him for a few minutes, she went back inside the house and walked into the kitchen, where a landline phone hung on the wall near the refrigerator.

Ana didn't often use landlines, but up here she was forced to considering how her cell phone had virtually no reception in the mountains. She picked up the phone and dialed a familiar number.

"…Hello?" a female voice answered after a couple rings.

"Hi Kate," Ana grinned, and Kate squealed from the other end.

"Oh my God, you made it! How was the drive up?" she asked excitedly.

"Beautiful, as usual - I can't wait to start painting some landscapes of this place," Ana said, gazing out toward the backyard. "The snowfall makes everything look so perfect and pristine."

"I'm so jealous. I can't believe you wouldn't let me take the drive up with you to Aspen," Kate said, pouting.

"Why? So you could invite a bunch of people to throw a big party in the house I'm being paid to take care of?" Ana asked humorously. "I think that would be counterintuitive to me keeping this job, Kate."

"Who cares? This is probably the last time you'll have to drive up there before Mrs. What's-Her-Name is working again anyway. Why not make it memorable?" Kate asked innocently, causing Ana to roll her eyes. "It really is a wasted opportunity, Steele."

"Too late Kavanagh - I'm already here and you're not," Ana grinned. "Besides, aren't your parents and Ethan coming tomorrow to visit you for Christmas?"

"Oh God, don't remind me," Kate said, and Ana could practically hear her rolling her eyes. "I think I'm going to try to clean the place up a little today before they come. When are you supposed to be back again?"

"Sometime Sunday night," Ana said, trying to think. "That's the 23rd, so the day before Christmas Eve."

"Oh perfect - I'll have a whole Saturday and most of Sunday to spend with my parents all by myself," Kate said sarcastically, and Ana laughed.

"Oh come on, they're not that bad - I'm excited to be spending Christmas with you guys," she grinned. She thought about her stepdad Ray up in Washington by himself though, and felt a small, painful clench in the pit of her stomach when she knew she wasn't able to spend Christmas with him this year. Neither of them had the time or the money in order to do so, therefore they were going to have to settle for Skyping each other on Christmas Day. Ana wasn't thrilled about doing that, but it was what it was, she supposed.

Ana suddenly heard an unfamiliar sound come from outside, and she frowned, trying to look out the window where Lester was playing out back. "Sorry Kate, I have to go. I think Lester's gotten into something."

"Oh, okay I'll let you go. Call me tomorrow?"

"Sure thing. Bye Kate," Ana said before hanging up and setting the phone back in its holster.

She walked out of the kitchen into the living room, and the noise came again - it sounded like it was coming from outside the front of the house this time, and Ana glanced at the door, frowning.

"Lester?" she called, wondering if he had run to the front yard.

But Lester's bark didn't answer her - instead, the sound of crunching footsteps in snow and faded voices talking came from outside the front door, and Ana froze, unsure of what to do. Were there people out there? Was it the neighbors, or were they trespassers? Should she call the police? She wasn't prepared for this - no one had ever come by while she was here before.

The front door opened, and Ana's heartbeat skyrocketed:

"…perfectly capable of taking care of everything while we're staying here, darling," A middle-aged woman was speaking to someone behind her as she stepped into the house - she wore a deep purple peacoat and fluffy white earmuffs, and she was pulling off her gloves as she walked into the house as if she owned the place.

She glanced up toward the ceiling with a frown on her face. "Why are all the lights on…?" She looked back down and stopped in her tracks when she noticed Ana standing in the middle of the living room. The look of surprise on her face Ana was sure mirrored her own.

"...Hello," the woman said after a moment, clearly baffled.

"Hi," Ana said hesitantly, unsure of what else to say.

"Who are you?" the woman asked. While she was clearly confused, her tone wasn't condescending or rude. "I thought the only other person who has access to this house was Mrs. Henderson."

Ana, realizing this woman probably owned the place, quickly opened her mouth to explain, but before she could someone else came through the front door - a tall man with copper-colored hair wearing a black peacoat and leather gloves. He carried two suitcases in his hands.

"Mother, whose car is parked out front?" he asked, but stopped once he saw Anastasia standing there. He halted in his tracks, staring at her in surprise.

"I believe it's this young lady's here, although I'm not sure who she is," the woman said, giving Ana a guarded look. "What's your name, dear?"

"Anastasia Steele," Ana said quickly. "I was hired by Gail Jones to fill in while Mrs. Henderson is on leave."

"Oh," the man said, looking over at Ana with a confused look on his face. "Gail never mentioned that to me. When did she hire you?"

"About four months ago," Ana answered. "Right after Mrs. Henderson had her accident. Mrs. Jones has all my information, if you want me to give her a call real quick and she could tell you…"

"I'll call her," the man said quickly, still gazing at Ana scrupulously and causing her to blush for some reason. "I'll get this all straightened out - excuse me."

He set down his suitcases and strode over to the kitchen where the landline phone was. Before Ana could say anything else, a flood of other people suddenly entered the house, chatting noisily amongst themselves:

"…Elliot, seriously that's not funny. Give me back my phone!" A young dark-haired woman in a fur-trimmed silver coat demanded as she followed a tall blonde guy in a puffy orange winter coat into the house.

"Why do you care if you have it? It's not like we have reception up here," the blonde guy named Elliot snickered, tossing the phone back to the young woman and making her fumble to catch it. "Nice catch, sis."

"Ugh, I hate you Elliot!" the young woman snapped, sounding whiny.

"Hey Mia, do you think we could hit the slopes today? I'm pretty sure I saw a cool one about a mile back," another girl said as she entered, her long blonde ringlets and black fur-trimmed winter coat looking very chic and fashionable. She was followed into the house by two other young men - one in a red and black coat with ski goggles on his head, the other in a green puffy winter coat and gloves. A third woman entered the house with short curly brown hair and a blue coat while carrying a little boy in a Spiderman jacket on her hip.

All of these new people entering the house made Ana suddenly very uncomfortable, and she wished fervently she could just disappear into the floorboards. Why on earth did she choose to drive up this weekend to infringe upon the owner's family vacation?

"We should hold off on doing anything until Grandma and Grandpa Trevelyan arrive and we've all unpacked our things," an older gentleman with graying hair came in last, wearing a coat and gloves similar to the copper haired man. "Grace, do you know when they're arriving?"

"Dad said he was about an hour behind us," the woman in the purple coat said, checking her watch. "Hopefully, they'll be here by one o'clock."

"Great, that should give us some time to settle in," the gray-haired man nodded.

With the noise and distraction of people talking all around Ana, she had almost forgotten about her dog out in the backyard. But Lester's excitement upon seeing so many new people through the window caused him to come right up to the patio door and start to bark happily at them. The noise he made finally seemed to draw the others' attention.

"Is that a dog?" the pretty blonde in a fur-trimmed coat frowned at Lester out on the patio.

"Aw, he's so cute!" the dark-haired woman squealed.

"…Wait, who are you?" the blonde guy in the puffy orange coat looked over at Ana, a confused frown on his face as he and the others finally noticed her. Everyone stopped to look at Ana, and she felt her face heating up in embarrassment.

"I…"

"This is Anastasia. She's been filling in as a housekeeper here for Mrs. Henderson for the past few months," the copper-haired guy appeared at Ana's side, and she felt inexplicably grateful for his interruption. "I wasn't aware she would be here since I wasn't informed about her, but I just spoke to Gail over the phone and got everything straightened out."

"Cool," the blonde guy said, turning to Ana and giving her a wide grin. He stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Anastasia - I'm Elliot."

"Nice to meet you," Ana smiled back, shaking his hand. "And please, call me Ana."

"Ana... that's very pretty," Elliot smiled.

"Ana, did you know we would be here this weekend?" the copper-haired man asked curiously, and Ana looked up at him, feeling her face go red for some reason.

"Oh, um - no I didn't," she said uncomfortably. "I drive up here one weekend a month to clean the house, and that was going to be this weekend. It's just a coincidence I'm here, and I'll be more than happy to leave right now so I won't infringe upon your vacation."

The copper haired man stared at Ana for a moment, an unreadable expression on his face, before turning to look at the woman in the purple coat. He seemed to be silently beseeching her of something, and she seemed to know what he was thinking since she gave him a commiserating look.

"No, Christian - we're not doing that," she said firmly. Ana glanced between them, confused.

"Why not? She's already here, and Gail can't come since she's about to leave for New York with Taylor today," the man named Christian argued back. "It would be perfect."

"It's Christmas, darling - don't you think she'd want to spend it with her family?" the woman asked pointedly, as if Ana wasn't standing right in front of them. "I already told you, I am perfectly capable of doing all the cooking and cleaning myself while we're staying here."

"It's your vacation too, Mother - you shouldn't have to do all that by yourself," Christian insisted. "Just let me ask, okay?"

Before his mother could argue again, the son turned to look at Ana again, his shrewd gray eyes boring into her own.

"Ana - since you're already here, how would you like to make a little extra money this Christmas?"

TO BE CONTINUED

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