A/N: Here's my new story! Hope you all enjoy :)

Summary: Life is quiet in the small town of Easton, Washington. Here resides single mom Ana Steele, her son Ted, her father Ray, and their family-owned carpentry shop Steele Woodworking. Their lives are good, until a GEH-owned company sets up shop in the middle of town and disrupts the status quo - and changes Ana's life. AU OOC

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Hills and Valleys

By Strawberry Pajamas

Chapter 1: Welcome to Easton

Even for small towns, Easton was considered miniscule by most people's standards. With only about 400 year-long residents, this little mountain town was often passed by travelers taking road trips along the interstate from Seattle to Spokane. The mountainous terrain often made this area a bit treacherous too, meaning the average person wouldn't find themselves wandering around this land without any provisions, or at least some sort of previous experience navigating the Cascade Mountains.

Yet the people of Easton lived a quiet, simple life, running their town the way they wanted to. The residents owned most of the businesses in town, everything from the local shops and retail stores to the transit station where cargo was unloaded and picked up from passing trains.

This particular mid-May morning was seasonably warm and sunny, and the main road that cut through town was mostly empty except for one lone bicyclist - a young woman with a small child-sized trailer attached to the back of her bike that had a little boy inside.

The woman riding the bike had long, chestnut-colored hair, pulled back in a ponytail underneath her helmet, and it flew back in the wind as she pedaled down the street. She had a very lithe and slender figure, showcased by the white tank top, dark wash skinny jeans, and tennis shoes she wore. Her face beneath the bike helmet was small and heart-shaped, with beautiful, clear blue eyes and a makeup-free complexion, with a few freckles spattered along her nose and cheeks.

She turned her bike and trailer into the parking lot of a small supermarket before stopping near the rusty rack by the front doors. She stood up and took off her helmet before kneeling down in front of the trailer.

"Hey buddy," she smiled, unzipping the front flap and seeing the grinning face of her four-year-old son wearing a green bike helmet. "Ready to shop with Mommy?"

"Yah!" he said happily. Ted was wearing his favorite blue Power Rangers shirt to match his cute little blue jeans, and his guileless green eyes gazed up at his mother with his usual eagerness and excitement. Ana unbuckled his bike helmet from his head, revealing his tousled light blonde hair, before helping him out of the trailer. Hoisting him up on her hip, Ana turned and headed into the supermarket.

A bell tinkled somewhere inside the building as the front door opened, and the woman behind the counter looked up from her magazine to see who had come in. She smiled upon noticing Ana and Ted.

"Hi guys," she said brightly. "How goes it this morning?"

"Hi, Phyllis. We're doing well," Ana smiled at her, walking over to the shopping carts and pulling one out. "How's business today?"

"Pretty quiet, as usual - Rodney and his boy were in earlier," Phyllis said, shaking her head with an indulgent smile. "I swear, those two clear out my whole supply of frozen beef and charcoal every time they come in."

"Well, on the plus side, their barbeques are pretty good," Ana pointed out, and Phyllis laughed.

"That's true."

Ana placed Ted in the front seat of their shopping cart before pushing it down the aisle. Since it was still pretty early in the morning and this town was so small, the food mart was empty as Ana shopped for her groceries. She picked out a loaf of bread, some milk, apples, oranges, crackers, pasta, and a few other things before bringing it all to Phyllis to ring up.

"Here you go, Ana - it's good seeing you guys again," Phyllis smiled at her after bagging up her groceries into two paper bags. "Say hi to Ray for me."

"Will do. Bye Phyllis," Ana smiled before picking up the bags and heading out of the store, lingering a little so that Ted could keep up behind her.

"I'm gonna put these bags in with you, okay sweetheart?" Ana said, placing the two grocery bags in the child trailer before buckling Ted in. He obediently wrapped his little arms around each bag and held them tightly to his body, grinning proudly. Ana chuckled at him.

"Good job buddy."

Ana clipped her helmet on her head before getting back on her bike. Part of her wished she could have taken the truck to the grocery store today (that way at least she could get more than just a few bags of food) but her father had to use the truck for a new shipment of lumber he was bringing into the shop today. Ana didn't really mind biking out to the supermarket with her son, though - it was only a half-mile trip, and the mountains visible in the distance made the route very scenic and beautiful.

Ana pedaled down the main road, where several shops, retail stores, and local diners stood. She smiled and waved at a familiar SUV passing by the opposite direction - the Schmidt's were a nice older couple who lived a few houses down from the Steele's, and they would often babysit Ted if Ray and Ana were unavailable. In a town this size, anyone who lived close by were practically considered family.

Ana now turned left down the side road leading to Lake Easton; this particular road was on a grassy knoll overlooking a wide valley which turned into a forest of evergreen trees in the distance. Usually the valley was an empty expanse of unused land next to the highway, but Ana was surprised to see several semi-trucks and flatbeds pulling up and parking along the side of the road, some even parking directly on the grass.

Ana stopped her bike and watched curiously as some worker men exited the trucks and gathered together in a group, conversing with each other while gazing around at the land they were parked on. Two other workers pulled a small wooden pylon sign out the back of their pickup truck and planted it in the ground beside the road. It was too far in the distance for Ana to read, but she recognized it as a jobsite sign marking a future building that was going to be there.

"What that, Mommy?" Ted asked her from inside the trailer.

"It's nothing, sweetie," Ana said distractedly, still gazing down at all the trucks stationed in the valley. Easton was a small town, and word traveled fast whenever a new construction project happened - Ana hadn't heard a word about this particular project, though. She wondered what was going on.

Grimacing slightly to herself, Ana continued to bike down the road toward her house, which stood about a quarter mile away from the valley. She and her father owned a two-story lodge on the edge of Lake Easton overlooking the mountains - right beside their home was a slightly smaller building made in the same style of their house which was Steele Woodworking, their family-owned carpentry shop.

Ana pedaled up the driveway and noticed her dad's pickup truck parked outside by the garage with large planks of mahogany wood loaded in the back. Ray walked out the front door with his work gloves and jacket on just as Ana pulled up the driveway on her bike.

"Hey guys," Ray grinned as his daughter and grandson. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were running errands this morning - I only needed the truck for one trip today."

"That's okay, Ted and I got to have a little bike ride this morning," Ana smiled, getting off her bicycle and removing her helmet. "Is this the whole shipment of wood you got?"

"Yup, this'll be enough for that 10-person dining table project," Ray said proudly, patting his hand on one of the pieces of dark brown wood. "Should take us about a week to finish though."

"And the chairs?" Ana knelt down in front of the trailer and unzipped the front, helping Ted out. "Usually those come along with a dining table, Dad."

"Apparently this customer is getting their chairs custom-upholstered by another company," Ray shrugged. "They just want us to do the table. Less work for us at least."

"Well, that's a relief," Ana grinned, picking up the bags of groceries in both arms.

"C'mere champ," Ray walked over and picked up Ted in his arms, swinging him up over his head and making him giggle happily.

"Be careful Dad," Ana said warningly, walking toward the front door, and Ray followed with Ted now perched on his hip. "You know how I feel about roughhousing."

"Your mom's a spoilsport, bud," Ray said conspiratorily to Ted, who snickered again.

"Shut up and help me with the groceries please," Ana grinned, walking into the kitchen and setting her bags on the counter. "And I wanted to talk to you about something, Dad."

"Sure - shoot," Ray said, bringing Ted in the living room where his toys were before walking back over to his daughter.

"Did you hear about something happening in the valley behind our house?" Ana asked, unloading the milk and eggs and putting them in the fridge. "Like a new construction or something?"

"No, I don't think so," Ray shook his head. "I saw a few trucks near there earlier, but I figured they were just passing through."

"Well I just passed by the valley on my way home and those trucks were parking right on the grass, and then I saw some construction people putting up a jobsite sign."

Ray paused, frowning at his daughter. "A new business is being built there?"

"Looks like it."

Ray still frowned thoughtfully. "Huh," she said after a moment. "I hadn't heard anything about that. D'you think Clayton would have approved this?"

Ana gave him a skeptical look. The mayor of Easton, Mr. Clayton, was an older gentleman who cared a great deal about preserving the land here in town. Large commercial businesses very rarely were allowed to construct their headquarters in Easton because of this.

"Think this might be some out-of-town business building on our land?" Ray asked what Ana was thinking, and she nodded.

"I'm afraid it might be. I think we should bring this to Clayton directly," Ana stated. "It could be a zoning issue, and if that's the case, this construction would be in violation of the law."

"I'll call him right now," Ray nodded, and he headed over to the landline phone. "We'll get to the bottom of this."

Ana continued to put away the groceries, thinking about the construction site. She didn't know what was being built there, but she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that, whatever it was going to be, it would not end well for their town.

Seattle

"Mr. Grey?"

Christian Grey looked up from his computer to see his office door opening and his assistant Andrea peek inside.

"Yes Andrea?" Christian said, turning back to his computer. A potential new acquisition in the Midwest was being hashed out today, and Christian was juggling about a million things at the moment. He didn't have time for interruptions.

"I just got an update from your brother about Luxury Country Homes - you said you wanted to see it when it came in?" Andrea held up the file folder in her hand for him to see.

"Oh, yes," Christian said quickly, turning away from his computer and giving Andrea his full attention. He had been waiting to hear an update on LCH for a couple weeks now - it was a brand new architectural firm he and his brother Elliot had started, in addition to Elliot's commercial architectural company. The two of them were going to manage it together as a subsidiary of GEH - they were currently in the early stages of planning a storefront location outside Seattle, in an area where ideally Elliot's crew would be building the custom homes.

"Well, Mr. Grey finally found a patch of land to build the new LCH headquarters - a valley in the Cascade Mountains a couple hours outside Seattle near the interstate," Andrea said, walking toward Christian while opening the folder. "He says construction should take about three weeks to a month, give or take, and he faxed over the papers and permits he got for everything for you to review."

"Excellent," Christian took the papers from Andrea, glancing over them. "Any outstanding issues?"

"None that he found," Andrea shook her head. "He asked for you to look over the papers, though, just in case he missed something."

"Will do. Thanks Andrea," Christian said, and Andrea nodded before leaving his office.

Christian knew that looking over LCH's papers was just a formality - he and Elliot knew exactly what they were doing, and this new construction would be done within a few weeks' time. LCH could begin building houses out in the mountains for their clients, and GEH would get a sizable portion of the profits.

This whole construction would be smooth sailing from beginning to end. Christian had nothing to worry about, he was sure.

TO BE CONTINUED

**IMPORTANT NOTE** Easton, Washington is an actual town in the Cascade Mountains, but this story will just be a fictionalized representation of it.

If you liked the story so far, please review! To get teasers and updates, make sure you follow me on Facebook - my username is Straw Paj :)