Thanksgiving

Chapter 24

Christian and I see Marcus, Sue, and Grayson to the door, Ray and the Taylors retire to their respective beds. I look at Christian, I can see the exhaustion on his face. He eyes me and my wheelchair curiously as he holds Phoebe in his arms. "Let me put her down, I'll be right back."

I give Phoebe a careful kiss – not wanting to wake her, and watch the two ascend the stairs to her room. The living room is quiet. The peace gives me time to reflect on the week's adventures. How can so much occur in such a short period of time? How can people behave the way they do? I am grateful that Christian will be able to develop a relationship with his newfound family, but I wonder what everyone else will think of them.

As my mind is recounting the day's events, I find myself rolling to the rear of the house where the glass doors open onto our patio that looks out over the meadow. I open the door, and roll out.  The cool November air hits my face, but feels good.

"What are you doing out here?" asks Christian from behind me, waking me from my thoughts.

"Just thinking," I say, as I feel his hands on my shoulders. I kiss the back of one and lean into it. "I love you, you know that, right? I don't know what I'd ever do without you in my life."

"You'll never have to worry, I'll be here. Always by your side." He leans down and gives the top of my head a kiss. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have a new family. You looked past Sue's dislike of you to make sure I had what I needed. You are a selfless woman, Mrs. Grey."

I smile at the compliment. "How are you with everything? Are you doing ok?"

"I think so. It will take some time getting used to this. It will be weird calling two men dad."

"You may want to talk that over with Carrick. He may have an opinion."

"You're right, I don't want anyone to get upset. I want to make everyone happy."

"Well, I know one person you make very happy – every day," I say with a sly grin.

Christian bends down and gives me a toe-curling kiss. "I love you Mrs. Grey."

When he stands up, I yawn. "Excuse me! I am tired!"

"I can't imagine why," he smirks. He steers me back into the house and turns down the hallway towards our offices. "Where are we going? I was just going to camp out on the couch."

"You'll see," he stops at my office, pushes the door open, and wheels me inside. "No wife of mine will sleep on the couch."

I'm stunned. My office has been converted into a makeshift bedroom. "I know it's not our master suite upstairs, but I figured you'd like to sleep in a real bed. I had Taylor move one of the spares in here."

I look around, my office furniture had been rearranged, but everything is still here including the two baby monitors keeping watch over my angels. I wipe a tear from my cheek. "You spoil me, Mr. Grey."

"No, I love you, Mrs. Grey. Now how about that sponge bath you promised me?"

"I'm not giving you a sponge bath," I say, teasingly.

He eyes me sideways and rolls me to the bathroom where all of my toiletries are laid out on the counter. "You can't get my cast wet," I say as I watch him fill the sink with water.

"Oh, that's not the part I'm aiming to get wet, Mrs. Grey."

The next morning, I wake to find myself alone in bed. Christian must have gone to work out. I look around and am reminded quickly that I'm in my office. There's a rose on Christian's pillow with my phone and a note. "When you're ready to wake up, call me. I love you. Xoxo" I smell the rose and pull myself to rest my back against the headboard. The clock says it's only seven o'clock and my babies are still sound asleep in their rooms. I frown thinking that I won't get to tuck them in for so long – what with not being able to get upstairs. I pick up my phone and see I missed a number of texts and a few phone calls. The coinciding voice mails are all family members asking about Phoebe. I send a group message to them all at once, "Phoebe is home, she is safe and fine. Thank you for your concern." If I were to call them all and repeat my story, I'd still be making phone calls through Christmas.