[C] Lightyears

✈twenty-four✈

They were back at New York a day after Christmas. They were all exhausted from the festivities that happened on Christmas Eve at Claire's garage.

As Rachel was going inside her office, she bumped into Elysse.

"Uh...uhm...s-s-sorry," Elysse stuttered. She was surprised upon seeing Rachel.

"Oh, it's okay," she said and left.

Wolf was just passing by when he saw Rachel walking towards him.

"W-who was that?" she asked.

"Oh, that's Elysse Smith from KDES, our newest addition to the WLAC family," Wolf happily answered.

Soon enough, they were surrounded by the squad.

"Are you serious? I mean, she's one of the toughest names in the industry," Lynn exclaimed.

"Yeah. But she got into an argument with the president after the president denied allegations that he assaulted her," Wolf had a sad tone saying that.

"Oh, I feel sorry for her. Luckily, she got out and found a new home—found us," Sara said.

"Come on, guys. Let's comfort her," Jamie muttered and they all went to her office at the 7th floor.

They surrounded Elysse as soon as they got inside her office.

"Who....who are you?" she asked hesitantly.

"A squad. A big squad," Chloe answers. "Welcome to the WLAC family! I'm Chloe, by the way."

"I'm Lynn, nice to meet you," she said.

"Hi, I'm Sara. Pleased to meet you," Sara jumped in.

"Hi, I'm Anderson. Nice to meet you," he said, shaking hands with her.

And everybody introduced themselves and went to the cafeteria.

"It's Anderson's treat today!" Jamie shouted.

Elysse was still hesitating when she came to the cafeteria for the first time with them.

Elysse Athena Smith is KDES' former chief political correspondent, but as said earlier, she resigned after the network's president, Frank Horner, denied allegations that he assaulted her.

It just happened recently in the president's house in Michigan. She was about to go home that night until the president told her to go have a drink with her. But it turned even worse when the president drugged her and raped her inside his house in the said state.

"What's scary is that he's our president and he's doing absurd things to me," Elysse said.

"Sorry for asking this, but can you please do an interview for Lighthearted Talks?" Rachel asked.

"W-what do you mean?" she responded.

"Hearing this, you mustn't keep all of this inside. You must vent out your feelings, and I think this is the best way to say what you feel," Rachel answered.

"Don't worry, all of us will be here. And I'll do the interview myself. So, you don't have to worry."

"Are you sure about this?" Elysse asked.

"Yeah, I'm definitely sure. I'll interview you, and my friend lawyer will be here, so you don't have to worry."

"But I'm scared..." Elysse went emotional afterwards. Rachel later hugs her.

"That's why we'll do this," Rachel said. "It's for you to speak out, vent out your feelings."

"I'll think about it," she said.

"Well, you must. It will be a very hard decision."

She left the cafeteria and went back to her office.

What should I do? It's so scary...

The next day, she had decided to do the interview. But I feel a little bit of regret, Elysse thought.

They did the interview in Elysse's house in Manhattan. Jamie, Jessica, Candice and Michael were all there. The boys will film the whole process, while the girls will do the editing and sequencing. Anderson was also present.

"Are you feeling nervous?" Rachel asked her.

"Yeah, it's my first time to be interviewed," Elysse answered.

"Well, it's also my first time to do an interview for my own show," Rachel said.