What goes on behind the words (is there pity for the plain girl)

Panic.

TW: panic attacks

"Aut?" Reece called her name, tentatively. She didn't respond and her tremors increased. Reece immediately jumped into action, standing in front of her, kneeling with his hands in front of him, actions coming to him with the ease of it he had done them his whole life. Marjorie inwardly wondered if he did. "Aut! It's Reece, we're in yours and Marjorie's office, you're safe, you're not at that house anymore and that monster can't touch you." Discreetly, he motioned for the others to give them space. On the one hand, he needed others to know how to help Autumn when she had a panic attack (they weren't as rare as she'd like to make them out to be) but he also wanted to preserve Autumn's dignity and stop her from facing the embarrassment of people seeing her at her weakest. Practicality won and he mouthed at the others to stay in the room but stay quiet. Just then Autumn sprung up and started backing into a corner, her eyes still trained on something only she could see. Her face was red and her eyes were watery but she refused to allow tears to fall. She slid down the wall and brought her knees up to curl into a ball. Reece approached her, staying in her line of sight and sat down next to her, letting her take the initiative. The others watched cautiously, worry painted on their faces. After what felt like an eternity of rapid breaths and violent shaking, Autumn rested her head on Reece's shoulder, allowing him to risk putting his arm around her cautiously. He needed Autumn to lead otherwise things would get exponentially worse.

"I don't know what's happening." Autumn eventually whispered. In the silence of the office, her voice was heard by everyone.

Reece tightened his hold on her. "Yes, you do. You know that you can't suppress it." He was firm but not unkind. Repressing panic attacks was so damaging to a person, Reece didn't know how long she had been doing it and how she had coped all this time.

"I don't know why it's happening. It's so pathetic. I'm so pathetic." her voice carried such a degree of self-disgust that everyone flinched.

"No, you're not. And this isn't your fault."

And Autumn broke.

No one knew how long they watched the sobbing woman, who still didn't make a sound. She curled into Reece's chest and drenched his sweatshirt as he held on to his baby sister, his own tears falling onto her head. It seemed like an eternity before the tears stopped streaming, letting the only sound in the room be soft sniffling. Even then, Reece didn't let go until eventually, Autumn started to pull away.

The others watched as Autumn visibly closed up, her face clear of any emotion and her posture rigid. Impatiently, she grabbed a tissue from the box on her desk and wiped away the tears that stained her face as well as excess mascara.

"I apologise that you had to witness that. If we could all just forget this happened now?" she glared at everyone, who also had tear stains on their faces.

"Aut," Reece began but was quickly silenced by a swift kick to the shins. "I hope you're satisfied with your interrogation Marjorie, because we are not going to be doing that again." He swept out of the room, blowing Marjorie a quick kiss to show he wasn't actually angry with her. Charlotte threw one last sympathetic look at Autumn before leaving as well. Winter opened his mouth as if to say something but thought against it and hurried out in silence.