A/N The Alexandria storyline gave me the idea for this, so I decided to give it a shot.

Story Rated T for swearing, mentions of rape and violence.

LISTEN

Spring came, looked for and sudden. The sun was spun out, bright, behind the clouds; it filtered in through the window softly, giving the video a sepia quality - catching the tiny particles of dust floating in the air.

A female voice floats in from somewhere off-screen. The words are heavy with significance. "He's gone."

The subject of the video, perched tensely on the brink of a pillowy chintz armchair, does not give an indication they have heard. In fact, they aren't looking at the camera - or the person behind it - they're looking out of the window, over the quiet streets to the thick walls guarding them.

"I'm sorry for what happened Vanessa," the woman behind the camera continues. There's a rustling sound, as if she's leaning forward in her chair. "Truly."

"Well it happened, okay?" The other woman - girl - says bluntly, suddenly twisting to look at the camera. She must be eighteen or nineteen; extraordinary, because her entire being seems to crackle with angry, violent electricity. Uncaring. Ruthless. It expands from her like a monster, rubbing its thousand ribs against the ground, spreading its shadowy wings.

"It did, but I could have prevented it...if I'd just listened to you."

"You did listen to me. You're very good at listening Deanna. You listened to me every single time I came to you -" the girl called Vanessa arches a single eyebrow, perfectly calculated to communicate the utmost disparagement. "You just didn't believe me."

"You're angry." This was too much a statement of fact to merit a reply or an elaboration, so they both fall silent. After a while Vanessa speaks again:

"How far out is he?" she demands, abruptly.

"Aaron and the others dropped him off with a days supply of food. No gun -a good few miles out from here."

"I meant specifically."

"He's not going to come back, Vanessa," said the woman behind the camera softly. "No one like him will ever get in here again."

"Unless Aaron lets them in again."

"Aaron feels terrible as it is. Don't make this harder for him by blaming him."

The sun goes behind a cloud. Peeks out again. A shadow slowly slides across the room.

"I do blame him," Vanessa says coldly and emphatically, like a preschool teacher explaining something to an uncomprehending student. "I blame you, Deanna. I blame this stupid town, because none of you idiots believed me."

"Vanessa -"

"HE WAS STARING YOU IN THE FACE! SMILING! FRIEDNLY! YOU ALL WERE ALL SO FUCKING CONVINCED BY HIM!" There's a sound of breaking glass as Vanessa stands abruptly, knocking something off a table. "FUCK YOU!"

"Vanessa-"

But she's already out of the room. The dust motes in the air are writhing and contorting from her sudden movement, like she's left a barely perceptible hurricane in her wake. The woman behind the camera sighs and there's a click of a sound recorder.

"My first formal interview with Vanessa Morgan after she was...raped by Tony Garcia. Tony is now being driven out of Alexandria as I speak by Aaron, Nicholas and my son, Aiden. We have left him a day's supply of food and no weapons. Aaron assures me he does not have the necessary skills to survive and will not return -" Here, the woman hesitates. The video captures her shadow crossing the far wall and then she appears in the footage briefly as she checks up and down the hallway before closing the door to the room carefully. She moves back behind the camera. "I have noted that Vanessa is...more volatile than even she used to be. As this video has illustrated she is an angry and hostile young woman...Note to self, re-listen to character profile constructed on Vanessa..." Again the woman called Deanna hesitates. The room on the video is now perfectly still, as if Vanessa had never been there at all. "I foresee problems ahead where Vanessa is concerned."