Christian's P.O.V:
The next couple of days passed by in a blur. I tried not to wreak havoc in the kids and Anna's lives as I wanted to see what their life was like here. I just wanted to know how they have been living for the last couple of years.
In these two days, I fully understood why Anna looked as exhausted as she did when I first saw her in Seattle. She is constantly on the move, between her job, taking care of the kids, the house and everything else; she barely has any time to breath let alone relax. After breakfast on the first day, Ted left to his job while Anna left to go to work and Katy went with her as she had missed her mom and didn't want to let go of her. I really wanted to see Anna's office and tried to talk her into letting me drive her there but she blatantly refused. "Christian, I know that you just want to be close to us, but this is not a joke. This is my job; it is enough with all the paparazzi and rumours. I really don't want to give them any more ammunition against me" she said stubbornly. "Anna, I am not trying to mess up your life or anything; I just want to be involved in your lives more." I looked down at Katy that was sitting next to her mom and said "Especially after being told that your office is nicer than mine by the little munchkin". Katy started laughing at that and said "Oh, yes mommy they don't have any place fun, it is all sad there". After that we had to tell Anna about the kids experience when they came to Grey House and that pissed Anna off. I had to tell her more than once that the issue was taken care of before she calmed down. Then she found out that her boss was the one taking care of Grey Publishing in her absence and flipped again "Christian, are you for real? Did you do that on purpose? I thought that we agreed after the divorce that you will leave us alone. Are you the reason I got my job? Did you seriously get involved in my career again? How dare you? Who do you think you are?" She started yelling and Katy looked scared just staring at Anna. "Ana calm down you are scaring Katy. I didn't interfere in your life, trust me if I did I would have been here years ago." That silenced her. "I had no idea that you were working in his company to be honest, until Katy saw him in my office and hugged him. So calm yourself down and stop accusing me of shit I didn't do".
"Ohh, Daddy said a bad word" Katy jumped up saying "you need to put a dollar in the dollar jar." She ran out of the room while I sat there confused. Until she came back and made me put a dollar in a weird jar. After that Ana dropped the topic and just took Katy and went to work while I met with Sawyer and Taylor to discuss security.
They were working on Ted's situation and Sawyer was liaising with the police department in Denver who were really helping. So, I spent the two days there just watching the kids live their lives from the side-lines. I spent a lot of time with Katy though as I picked her up from Anna's the first day. I was shocked to see the massive day care and play area that they have. It gave me an idea of doing something similar in Grey House for all the parents that have to leave their kids with babysitters or in day cares. I am sure having the kids so close to the parents really helps ease their worries and I was really glad Anna had this kind of support while juggling three kids on her own.
I tried to get involved in the kids lives as much as possible, but they were too independent for that. Only katy let me in so easily. The other two were really guarded, especially that I barely saw them Ted spent an unhealthy amount of time alone in his room, doing God knows what "Ana, is Ted always in his room like that? What does he do up there all this time?" I asked. "Actually, he used to spend a lot of time outside playing basketball but ever since the accident he spends a lot of time in his room. I try to get him out as much as possible, but for now I think that he is studying, he only has a couple of months left in school and I am sure going to college is stressful for him. He will come out when he feels like it, please don't invade his private space." She said, more like ordered.
On the third day Phoebe came back home for lunch, which apparently is unusual "Phoebe having lunch with us? What's the special occasion?" Ted asked sarcastically when she walked in "Well, I came here to say congratulations in person. I can't believe you got into MIT, who would have thought. Your nerdiness was useful after all." She said as she hugged him. "What? You got accepted into MIT? When did that happen? How come I didn't know about it?! I am so proud baby" Ana said jumping up from her seat and going to hug him. "Umm, I just found out yesterday! Who told you?" he asked Phoebe "Everyone is talking about it, the public school boy that got into Harvard, Yale and MIT. I can't believe I had to find out about it from others though. You owe me an explanation mister" She said. "Harvard? Yale? When were you planning on telling us Ted? When you are already in the dorms?" Ana said pissed off now. I stayed seated listening to their conversation, I had an idea on why he didn't mention it. "Mom, calm down!! It is not like I am going to go. It doesn't make any difference." He said as he moved away from both of them.
"What do you mean you are not going? Did you hit your head or something? When did you become this stupid?" Phoebe shrieked out while Ana said "you can finally become an MIT trained engineer why would you say no to that now? I know that you wanted to play basketball at Duke but with that being out of question I believe this is a great alternative Ted." "Mom, I..". "you nothing Ted. You are going to MIT, no excuses."
"But mom, with my scholarship gone, I..." "you nothing, I'll figure it out. This is my job to worry about these things not yours. You worry about school while I worry about everything else. I am the parent here not you." Ana said angrily. Yup, just what I thought he was worried about the fees, he is so considerate of his mom and siblings; it is amazing. I wanted to interject and say something now but he jumped up before I could "Mom, don't you think that you have enough to worry about. How about you pay the hospital fees first. I know that the transplant wasn't cheap and that you have enough on your plate. College is not that important, I can take classes in the community college if you want but do you know how freaking expensive MIT is? It is just not worth the trouble. "
I have never seen Anna angrier in my life "This is none of your business Ted. I am the parent here; not you. IT is not up to you to decide what is worth it and what's not. You did your part and got accepted now let me do mine. I am sure there are a couple of grants that you could apply to and a student loan could help as well." Is she serious, She must be joking right now. Enough is enough. "As your mom said; worrying about tuition is not your problem. It is our duty as parents to support you with this. Just choose whatever university you want and let me know. Everything will be arranged." He glared at me and said "I don't need your money, I told this once and I'll say it again you can't buy your way back into our lives." Ana went to say something but I cut him off "This is your mine, not mine. Whether I came back to your lives or not you would have had access to you trust fund the day you turned 18. So, you can pay for your college from it and would not need my money; however, I am more than happy to do it for you. If you are as smart as you are saying; then you would know that getting a degree now and investing your money in the future would be more lucrative for you. It is my job as a father to support you and support you I will whether you like or not." I stopped the whole conversation and turned to Phoebe "The same goes for your sisters. Both of them. I might have been away for the last 7 years but I never forgot you about you for a single day. I know the divorce was hard on both of you and that a lot changed. But the agreement we made stopped me from reaching out to you while you were minors; however, I always thought about you and your future. So both of you now all three of you have trust funds that you will get the day you turn 18. And anything you need before then just please let me know. I know that I have let you down a lot, all of you. But I want to be part of this family, my family. My mistakes caused irreparable damage on all of us but I am willing to do anything to try and make it up to you." I have never felt so helpless in my life, but these words needed to be said. The kids have to decide if they want to accept me into their lives or not; it is up to them. They were caught in the crossfire between me and Ana These last two days made me realize that they were the one's affected the most by the divorce. They felt that I abandoned them and that's not something any father would want his kids to feel like.
I was brought out of my thoughts when hands wrapped around me. I was shocked to see that it was Phoebe; so far she has been the one most hesitant to get close to me. From the day I saw her again I noticed the guarded look she had whenever she looked at me. So to feel her hands wrap around me like this, it literally might my heart stop for a second "Thank you for trying; I really appreciate it. The past is the past and there is nothing that we can do to change it. So let's learn from our mistakes and move on. This family deserves some happiness after all this shitty time." "Watch your language" a tear eyed Anna said a moment before Katy said "Shitty" which made as all burst out laughing.
I saw more than heard Anna whisper "Thank You" while the kids were all laughing at Katy's expense.