Bayley groaned groggily, moaning as her eyes slowly reopened, squinting against the light shining down in her eyes.
"She's awake. Bayley? Bay, can you hear me?"
Sasha.
Bayley turned her head away from the doctor shining a flashlight in her eyes, her eyes focusing on her distraught friend sitting next to her.
"Welcome back," smiled Sasha, reaching out to touch her cheek.
Bayley frowned, taking a deep breath. "What happened?" she muttered, trying to sit up. Sasha helped ease her into a sitting position, brushing the stray hair from her eyes. "You collapsed, baby girl. You've been out for about ten minutes."
Bayley moaned again, leaning heavily against Sasha. "I feel dizzy," she whispered, Sasha nodding slightly, wrapping her arms around her waist.
"It's because you're not eating, Bayley, and you're not sleeping like you should be. Honey, I know that you are upset. I know you are hurting deep down inside of you and it's painful to think about it, but baby, you need to start taking care of your body and your mind."
Bayley turned away from Sasha, closing her eyes. She hated who she had become. She hated the crying. She hated feeling weak and pathetic. She hated that Batista had taken every last piece of her and left her with this shell of the person she had once been.
"Hey, look who's awake."
Bayley looked up at the sound of Hunter's voice entering the room, letting out a shaky breath as he approached the medical bench she was currently sitting up on, Stephanie following closely behind.
Bayley curled herself back into Sasha's arm, her friend sighing as she shared a glance with her bosses.
"Welcome back, Bayley," said Stephanie softly, sitting down next to Bayley, who struggled to maintain eye contact with her.
"I'm sorry," whispered Bayley, her voice barely above a whisper and nobody would have even heard her had they not been sitting right next to her.
Hunter sighed, wanting to reach out to the distraught superstar, but deciding against it as she already seemed skittish enough around he and his wife.
"Bayley, you are not well. You've lost way too much weight in only two weeks and you look like you haven't been sleeping much either. The doctors are saying you passed out from exhaustion….and I'm guessing possibly malnutrition…..what is going on with you?"
She was trapped. She had no way out. She had to say something. She couldn't keep putting herself through this. She didn't want to relive the nightmare that had been plaguing her for two weeks. She just wanted it all to end….but it wouldn't. It wouldn't end if she just kept it bottled up inside of her like she had been. She needed to release it. She needed to let it go. She needed to start helping herself…..as much as it terrified her to try. She couldn't keep putting her friends through this nightmare too. It wasn't their nightmare to live.
Bayley glanced up at Sasha, who offered her a reassuring smile, but refusing to let her out of this. She needed this. She needed to get the time off and she needed to start taking care of herself. If she could survive with Sasha doing it all for her, she would, but that wasn't possible.
"It happened at SummerSlam...a-af-after the show," whispered Bayley, squeezing her eyes shut, the images flashing through her mind. Tears began to leak from her closed eyes, but she refused to stop. She had to get this out.
"He….I stayed later...I...I shouldn't have...I...I should have gone back to the hotel with Sasha...I….
"This was not your fault, Bayley," said Sasha, cutting her off before she took any of the blame away from the man who deserved it all. She knew Bayley needed to tell her story, but she refused to allow her friend to continue blaming herself.
Especially when Sasha was already partly blaming herself for not staying with her in the first place. A guilt that hadn't left the pit of her stomach in two weeks.
"What was it, Bayley? What happened?" asked Stephanie gently, her voice filled with concern.
"I said no! I said no! I tried to get away. He- He- He wouldn't l-l-let me!" cried Bayley, starting to sob as she tried desperately to get the words out, but couldn't. She couldn't bring herself to say the words. She couldn't bring herself to say out loud that he had….
And Sasha wondered if she had ever said the words out loud. Or if they had just been saying it for her….
Sasha realized that the latter was true. Bayley had never actually said the words out loud. She had never said she was raped. The first time it had been Becky who asked her. She had never actually said the word to them.
And now she was about to force Bayley to tell it to her bosses clearly when she wasn't ready….
Bayley wrapped her arms around her legs, crying into pants. Sasha couldn't do it. She couldn't force Bayley to do this. She wasn't ready. She needed more time.
"Please don't make her say it," whispered Sasha, caving in….again. Thankful that Bayley couldn't hear her over her tears. Stephanie and Hunter both had tears in their eyes as they watched Bayley continuing to cry, not needing to hear the word to know what had happened to her that night.
Stephanie just nodded, at a loss for words. She wanted to know who. Who would do this to someone? She wasn't naive. Of course it happened. It happened every day. But the thought of it happening at an arena after hours to one of her female talents…. It made her feel physically sick to her stomach.
"Take her home, Sasha. That's what she needs right now, and we can give that to her. And you as well. I don't want her to be alone and I know that you and Charlotte and Becky will take good care of her for the time being….until she's ready to come back…" said Hunter, pulling Sasha aside.
"Hunter, you don't….you don't need to do that. I mean, yes, she needs time off, and I appreciate you giving it to me as well, but I know how hard it will be on you guys if you lose all four of us…." said Sasha, thankful that he was offering, because Lord knew she caved too easily when it came to Bayley, but knowing the offer would be a huge hardship on the company. "I don't even know when she'll be ready to come back…."
"You let us worry about that, okay? Nobody should ever go through what she went through…we'll call you if anything changes and you call us if she needs anything. Even if it's help finding someone in Austin for her to talk to, if she's ready for that…." said Stephanie, Sasha nodding slightly.
"Thanks, Steph. And Hunter. That...that means a lot to me and it's gonna help her a lot still having us around," said Sasha, Hunter nodding, offering Sasha a hug.
"Just take care of her, okay?" he stated, Sasha nodding. "Always."
"Sash?" questioned Stephanie, Sasha turning back around to face the older woman.
"Who did it?"
Sasha closed her eyes. She knew she really shouldn't tell them that, that was Bayley's story to tell. But a part of her….a part of her was selfish and wanted to tell.
If only because everything she wasn't capable of doing to him, of everything she had dreamed endlessly for the last two weeks of doing, were all things that Stephanie and Hunter could do to him.
And she wanted him to suffer.
She wanted him to feel it.
She wanted him to be as miserable, as broken, and in as much pain as, if not more pain than, Bayley herself was currently in.
She never wanted him to see daylight again.
She never wanted to see him on TV again.
Hunter looked at Bayley as another daughter. Sasha knew it, because he looked at her the same way. She knew that the second that name escaped her lips, it would be over for him. Everything would be gone.
And Sasha wanted that more than anything else in the world right now.
She glanced over at Bayley, chewing on her bottom lip as she listened to her friend continue to cry, knowing the long road she still had ahead of her.
And knowing that she and Charlotte and Becky would make sure that she came out of this alive and hopefully, maybe, someday in the future, she would be somewhat of the person she was three weeks ago.
But she never wanted him to have that same opportunity.
She glanced back at Hunter and Stephanie, licking her lips before letting out a deep sigh, knowing what she had to do in order to get some kind of justice for Bayley, whether this was what she would do or not. The old saying ask for forgiveness later.
"Batista."