"Annie?" This time, the knock was soft. Good. Earlier, she had worried that he was going to break down the door. "Annie, I'm really sorry about that. I don't know what I was thinking." He paused, giving her a chance to say something that she chose not to take. "Can you come out of there? I'm ready to talk now, and we really should take a look at your head to make sure you're all right."

Annie sat on the floor, her knees tucked to her chest, her back against the cabinets. She had been in the same position for hours, and getting up, finally leaving this room sounded so tempting. Still, she knew better. "I don't want to stay with you tonight."

He sighed. "You realize you don't have anywhere else to stay, right? I'm not shelling out another hundred and thirty bucks so you can sleep in a different room. There's two beds. If you really want to, you can sleep in the other one."

"Just leave me alone, Alec." Her head still hurt, but after almost an hour looking over it with her hand mirror and the larger vanity mirror, she was convinced it wasn't cut. There wasn't much she could do about the bruise that was developing there or the ones in the shape of Alec's fingertips on her arm. She would figure those out later. Right now, she needed to focus on not adding another bruise to her collection. "Can you pass in my cell phone?" She hadn't thought to grab it before she had fled in here.

"No, you can come out and get it yourself."

"Alec, please." She couldn't stand the note of pleading that had crept into her voice.

"Why do you want it? So you can call Finnick?"

"I want it because it's mine and it's pretty boring in here." Actually, she wanted it to take pictures of her bruises before they faded and to text her parents about what had happened, but he didn't need to know that. Maybe a super lighthearted approach to this would work. "Come on, you know how bad my Candy Crush addiction is. I can't go cold turkey like this." It would have been more convincing if her voice hadn't cracked halfway through.

"When you're ready to act like an adult and come out of there, you can have your phone. Until then, I think you can go without it."

She stayed awake and locked in that bathroom the entire night. Thankfully, there were no spider sightings, though Annie did spot a couple of little black ants. She didn't kill them until one decided to climb on her. There were limits on how far she would allow that whole 'live and let live' thing go. By three o'clock, she was hungry. By seven, she was starving. It didn't matter that she hadn't eaten breakfast before nine in the last week, or that dinner last night had been enormous. It got to the point where she seriously considered eating the Altoids she'd found in one of the drawers of the vanity even though the tin was open and she'd found one of the ants in that drawer.

Tired, hungry, and cranky as could be, she emerged only when the cleaning lady came in. Thank God Alec had never remembered to use the 'do not disturb' sign in his life. It had bitten them in the ass that time they went to Cabo over spring break, but today, it was her saving grace. She smiled sweetly at the woman and hurried out of the room before Alec could say anything. Free continental breakfast had never sounded better.

Edit that. Free continental breakfast had never sounded or tasted better. Who cared if the coffee had a weird consistency or the fruit had obviously been sitting out for way too long? She had food, and she wasn't in fetal position in a bathroom, and she had time to sit and really think hard about things. A few people gave her dirty looks for wearing her pajamas to breakfast, but hey, nobody here was paying for a five-star experience. You kind of had to expect some trailer trash behavior at this establishment.

Getting home shouldn't be too bad. She could stay down here or in the lobby until it was time to go to the airport. There'd be the taxi ride to the airport, sure, but she could handle twenty minutes in a car with him. If someone else was there, he wouldn't dare bring up what had happened last night. How rude would it be to sit in the front with the driver instead of in the back? She could get changed at the airport. Yeah, she would feel bad about taking the handicapped stall, but she would make sure to hurry, and this was an emergency. Then there'd be the flights, which thankfully, they hadn't been willing to pay the extra thirty dollars to sit together on, and Johanna would pick them up at the airport to take them home. Okay, yeah, this seemed totally doable. She could one hundred percent manage this.

Annie thought about getting seconds on the coffee, but by that time, she was awake and put together enough to have rediscovered her standards.

"The hell happened to you?" Annie shook her head at Johanna, hoping she would take the hint, but since when had subtlety ever worked on Jo? "C'mon, let me see it." Her fingers were surprisingly gentle as she traced the obvious bump that had developed on the back of her head. "Damn, girl. That's not even a goose egg. That's a fucking dragon egg. How did you manage that? Fall off the Space Needle or something?"

"She tripped backwards on the stairs," Alec supplied. Oh, so he had come up with something. That really shouldn't surprise her. Annie nodded weakly and gave Jo the least convincing fake smile ever. "You should've been there, Johanna. It was scary as it was happening, but I think we'll both be able to look at it and laugh someday." He reached up towards the front seat to take Annie's hand, but she crossed her arms in front of her chest to stop him.

Johanna looked between the two of them. "Oh yeah, head injuries are so effing funny. Did you see that Will Smith movie about concussions? I don't remember what it was called, but everybody was saying it was the comedy of the season."

"Jo, please stop." She rubbed her temples.

"Got a headache? I guess I'd be surprised if you didn't. There's Advil in the glove compartment if you need some."

The car was silent for a coupe minutes before Alec spoke up. "Hey, thanks for picking us up. We really appreciate it."

"No problem. How was the trip? Find somewhere for next semester?" Oh no, she was going to cry just thinking about it. No, Annie wouldn't let him see her visibly upset. She refused to give him that satisfaction. He'd apologized again and again on their way home, any time they were out of earshot of another person, and so far, she had managed to keep calm and composed and give him a very thorough silent treatment. She'd be damned if she broke down not even a mile and a half away from his apartment. Five minutes tops until they dropped him off. She could keep it together for five more minutes. She just needed to tune him out and pretend like he didn't exist.

Five minutes was three hundred seconds, and in that time she could count to a hundred eleven and a half times. Annie didn't think she'd ever need to know that, but at least today wasn't a total waste. She waved at Alec as he got out of the car. The entire car bounced when he closed the trunk. Once he was at the door to his building, Jo turned to her. "So, how did you actually get that bump?" From the look on her face, it was clear she already had a hypothesis, and a good one at that.

"Um…" Annie started.

"I know how it happened, and it wasn't an accidental fall down the stairs. I just want to hear you say it."

"Okay, he pushed me against the wall." The confession was out, it just made her want to keep going. "I just happened to go head to a little jut-out corner on the wall."

Johanna paused, and Annie worried about what she was thinking. About to call her out for lying, tell her that a nice, polite guy like Alec would never lay a hand on a woman… "Well, as far as I can see, we have two options."

"Wait, what?"

"Well, we could go straight to the emergency room. You really ought to have that thing looked at." Okay, yes, good thoughts, but Annie was going to hold out until she heard the other option. "Or, y'know, it's a weekend, so I figured that since I had some free time, I'd spend some time at the batting cage." Ah, she liked where this was headed. "I've still got a couple baseball bats in the back of my car."

But assault charges existed, and Annie would really like to keep that stupid speeding ticket as the only thing on her criminal record. "Let's do the hospital first. Give me a rain check on beating the crap out of him?"

"Well now, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"