That Same Niceish Hotel in New York | Sunday Morning

[defenderofdesmoines]

So, it turned out that you couldn't just deliver a big, dramatic, speech and end it with a mic drop about your own sexual assault without -- weirdly! -- most of your friends wanting to check that you were okay.

Sounds fake, right?

In any case, Annie had received a text from Rey today that she hadn't headed back to Fandom just yet, and thus, she'd made a few arrangements.

First and foremost, she had called down to the front desk with some basic sizing information, and within an hour, a discreet employee had appeared at the door with clothes for both herself and Diego (and then had left with an absolutely massive tip, since Annie had added to it when he'd given her a second look, just to be safe.)

With that taken care of, Diego had headed out on a run just to get out of the room for a little while (since he wasn't the one with the famous face running around dropping truth bombs on television), and Annie ordered basically half of the room service menu for brunch while waiting for Rey.

Clearly the cure for her hangover, amongst her other less physical ailments, was pancakes.

[for she who is mentioned, but also open for phone calls or boyfriend or whatever, too! eta: warning for discussion of sexual assault in the Rey thread!]

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[thatwaslucky]

Annie had had a lot of people around her last night and Rey really hadn't wanted to overwhelm her, especially since the day after could bring on a whole new set of emotions. So there she was Sunday morning, knocking on the door to check in.

[defenderofdesmoines]

And that knock either meant food or Rey, so Annie was pretty quick to answer.

"Hi," she said with a smile, stepping aside to let Rey in (and peeking out into the hallway to make sure she wasn't being trailed by paparazzi or whatever.)

[thatwaslucky]

"Hi," Rey said, stepping inside. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Nope, Diego went for a run and I just ordered so much food from room service," Annie told her, shutting the door. "I kind of figured everyone headed back to Fandom last night."

Which meant she was really, really touched that Rey had stayed, and it showed.

[thatwaslucky]

"As far as I know, everyone did," Rey said. "I wanted to check in in person if I could."

And if Annie wasn't up for it then that would have been fine, too.

"How are you doing?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm okay," Annie told her, almost automatically. And it was actually a lot more true now than it would have been last night, though she did also still amend, "Okayish."

She considered what she wanted to say for a second longer, and then just decided she was going to go ahead and hug Rey rather than try to elaborate for right now.

And hey, unlike last time, she probably wouldn't start crying. (Annie was genuinely unsure if she had enough water in her body still to produce that many tears, anyway. Like it seemed maybe physically impossible at this point.)

[thatwaslucky]

"We'll take okayish," Rey said, hugging her back tightly. "I'm sorry this happened."

[grenadesandohana]

Steve had decided that given everything, Annie probably hadn't wanted to have a tall, dark-haired swimmer anywhere near her yesterday, but he also didn't want to give her the impression that he wasn't concerned about her.

(And of the pair of them, Danny was better with the emotional stuff, so he'd let him do what he clearly did better first.)

But still. Had to check, and so he here was texting like a non-old person: Hanging in there?

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything," Annie told her, holding on tightly. It felt so much better now that she'd opened the floodgates a little and told people what was wrong, but it had been hard getting here, too. "And that I've been acting weird."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie smiled when she saw Steve's text, because while she probably would have been fine (please, Steve was so unlike that asshole), she also had been really touched at his and Danny's divide-and-comfort approach.

Doing okay she sent back, following it up with a swift, As long as we don't turn on the TV, at least.

She had been on every channel last night. Like, even the Weather Channel.

[thatwaslucky]

"Do not apologize for that," Rey told her. "You don't have to say anything you don't want to. Or are ready to, or whatever."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I just like, didn't know how to tell anyone," Annie admitted, pulling back after a minute. "Like, I wanted to, but I kept getting stuck. And then yesterday I just -- the lying all kind of got to me."

[thatwaslucky]

"I can't blame you. Yesterday was a lot, even before the speech."

Like, Rey could only imagine what finally set it off but there seemed to be options.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"And like, they just wanted me to keep going about how great it all was, and I couldn't anymore."

Annie wasn't even sure what had set her off. Just the speech itself, really, and how she was expected to recite this bullshit when she'd spent her day staring at bigotry and being told to lie about her virginity, all for a company that seemed willing to put her through anything to make money.

"I should've told someone sooner," she added, signing.

[thatwaslucky]

"He shouldn't have done it. It's not about what you should or shouldn't have done," Rey told her.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah," Annie agreed reluctantly. "And I'm getting better about it, but, like -- I still kind of blame myself, and that made it hard to talk about."

Rey had actually gotten more of the story than anyone else until it had all come out with Summer, and Annie was working on it, but the freezing had made it all -- embarrassing. Like she was some kind of helpless victim, instead of a literal hero.

[thatwaslucky]

"You did nothing wrong," Rey told her. "You didn't ask for it, you didn't have control over your reaction, no one worth talking to is going to blame you for it."

Other people would, of course, but those were the people not worth talking to.

[grenadesandohana]

There hasn't been anything worth watching since they cancelled that detective show set in Hawaii in the '80s, Steve sent back. You're missing nothing.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That helps," Annie admitted. "And like, I'm probably going to get in trouble for all that, but -- like, Rey, there is no way I'm the first woman he's done that to, so at least...it's like, out there, you know?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I know. At the very least you may have put an outright stop to it." At least everyone would know going in now.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie was shocked that Steve liked that show. Just shocked.

heard you were there for Diego last night. Thank you.♥️

Because seriously, Annie was well aware that people had wanted to comfort her, and she understood why, but she was very grateful that there had been people around for Diego, too.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It wasn't just --" Again, Annie was sort of at a loss to how to not put things crudely, but she soldiered on. "It wasn't just, like, he propositioned me. Like, he did, and I rejected him, and then he turned it into a threat instead."

So hey, guess what: the guy who you already knew was a scumbag? Was even scummier.

[grenadesandohana]

Cool cars and explosions! What was not to love?

Of course. Drinks and stupid movies with laughable fight scenes at our place when you're back on the island?

[thatwaslucky]

"What kind of threat?" Rey asked slowly.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer knew she was kind of in a unique position that weekend as probably the only person (Annie probably included in that) not caught completely off-guard by the events of yesterday, and if she was fully honest with herself, she did not know what to do with that, if she should even do anything, but it felt kind of weird not doing anything even though she was pretty sure Annie was probably more than a little overwhelmed with fallout at the moment.

But she'd thought about it. A lot. And then wrote out a text, especially since a text would be, you know, super cas and no pressure.

hey. Super proud of you. You're more of a hero right now than any of those assholes could ever even dream of being.

I know it goes without saying, but if you need anything at all, hit me up. U got this, grl. ❤❤❤