Chapter Text
Angela sits in Nate’s office confused and concerned.
She knows that she’s done nothing to warrant a conversation with HR, that this is probably asking about her comfort in a future video, but it’s hard to not be anxious sitting in this chair.
Nate smiles reassuringly at her, holding a Rubik's cube out for her to fidget with. He’s a neutral, but as the head of HR, he has lots of training on littles in the workplace and is all around a kind man.
“You’ve done nothing wrong, Angela,” he assures her as she grabs the cube, “Someone listed you as a reference on an application to work here and I wanted to speak to you about it.” he explains.
Angela blinks at him. Nobody she knows has asked her for a reference or told her that they’re applying to work at Smosh. She tells him exactly that and he hums, looking over at his computer.
“Sorry for bothering you then.” he replies easily, “He has a solid resume, but if he’s lying about his connection to you, we don’t want him here.”
“What’s his name?” she asks curiously, “Maybe I know him and he just forgot to mention it to me.” she adds, not wanting to ruin the chances of one of her friends getting hired if they simply had a lapse in memory.
He clicks back onto the file, “Jacob Davis.” he answers and Angela looks at him with wide eyes, frozen in fear.
“Angela?” he asks gently, but she doesn’t answer, simply staring unseeingly at him.
Not knowing what to do he quickly navigates to her file for help, “Angie?” he tries, but that also doesn’t work.
Checking the call sheet he sighs and pulls out his phone, searching for the contact and hoping that she answers.
“Hello?” answers Amanda curiously, wondering why HR would be calling her on her day off.
“I need you to speak to Angela.” he tells her, skipping pleasantries, “You’re on speaker phone.”
“Angela?” she says gently, “Can you hear me?”
Her eyes snap to the phone, but she doesn’t answer, so Amanda keeps talking, “I’m at the store, but I’m leaving to come to you right now.” she tells her, “I’ll be there as fast as I can, baby.”
A sob racks through her body as she pulls her knees up to her chest, snapping out of being frozen and after fighting it as long as she could, dropping.
“Is Chanse there today?” she quickly asks Nate, audibly out of breath as she rushes to her car.
He checks the calls sheet again, “No Chanse,” he tells her, “Trevor, Angela, Arasha, Courtney, Olivia, and Shayne,” he lists quickly, assuming her next question.
“Shayne or Courtney might be able to help calm her down while I’m on my way,” she tells him, her heart breaking as Angela continues to sob.
Using the most successful method she has, she begins to sing Angela’s lullaby.
Nate places his phone at the edge of his desk, as close to her as possible as he sticks his head out of his office.
“Someone get Shayne or Courtney here for me, urgently,” he says, trying to not sound as freaked out as he is, before quickly closing his door again and returning to his seat.
Angela continues to cry as Amanda sings. She doesn’t respond to the singing, her head now resting on her knees as she carefully rocks back and forth.
Amanda has looped through the song twice when both Shayne and Courtney skid to a stop outside the office. Before they can knock, Nate quickly opens the door, gesturing the two towards the still sobbing little.
“Amanda’s on my phone, I’m gonna give you guys space.” he whispers before sliding out of his office, leaving the couple alone with Angela.
The two look at each other, whispering with each other quickly to try to decide what to do, with them deciding to send the less frightening of the two first.
Courtney slowly approaches her, pulling the extra chair away from the little before sitting down.
“Hi Angie,” they say gently, loud enough to be heard over the crying.
Not wanting to overstimulate the little, Amanda stops singing, letting Courtney try to calm her.
Angela doesn’t react, but they continue, “You’re safe, cutie,” they continue, “We’re at work, It’s just you, me, and Shay in the room. And your mama is on the phone. We all love you so much.”
She lifts her head slightly to let her eyes lock into Courtney’s, and takes an unsteady, labored breath.
“There you are.” they coo, “Hi baby,”
Angela continues to take shaky, uneven breaths as she attempts to stop sobbing, digging her finger nails into her legs.
“You don’t wanna hurt yourself,” they murmur, “That's gotta hurt your legs,”
The little doesn't respond, nor does she react when Shayne walks closer and sits on the ground beside Courtney.
“How about we all breathe together?” He suggests, taking a deep breath and gesturing to Courtney to copy him.
The two begin taking deep breaths and Amanda starts quietly singing again, the three working together in an attempt to calm her down.
Her breathing slowly evens out as tears continue to stream down her face, “Can you move your hands, Angie?” he asks gently, “That’s gotta hurt,” he says, gesturing to her nails.
She doesn’t respond or move her hands, but her rocking slows as her eyes jump between the two in front of her and the phone.
“Do you hear your mama?” they ask, “Your mama’s on her way, but Court and Shay are here. We’ve got you, baby.”
Angela sniffles as she lifts her head, letting her legs fall to the floor, moving her hands to dig her nails into her arms.
‘Mama’ she signs hesitantly, looking at the door.
“Your mama will be here soon,” Shayne promises, “She’s driving as fast as she can”
“Mama’s here,” Amanda adds quickly, “Mama is on her way and will be there so soon.” she promises.
The little whines, looking around the room before focusing on Shayne, ‘Help’ she signs, wiping at her face with her sleeve.
“What do you need help with, bud?” he asks, watching as she slowly gets frustrated trying to communicate, “Can you try showing me?” he suggests.
Angela tilts her head slightly as she thinks, grabbing a piece of paper off of the desk and pointing at it, moving her finger to point at different places.
Shayne looks to Courtney to see if they understand, but they don’t.
“What’s she doing?” Amanda asks, “I’m almost there.” she adds quickly before he can answer.
“She’s pointing at random parts of a piece of paper,” he explains, and Amanda immediately hums in understanding.
“AAC.” she says, “I downloaded an app on her phone for her and she’s been adding to it.”
“Do you have your phone, Angie?” he asks and she signs ‘no’
“Is it still in the cart?” Courtney asks, standing as she shrugs, “I’ll go look,” they tell her, heading out of the office to look.
Angela drops the paper, and hesitantly holds her arms out to Shayne.
“I’ve gotcha,” he murmurs, stealing Courtney’s chair and pulling her into her lap.
She rests her ear against his chest, reaching lazily for the phone as she blinks sleepily.
“How about we put mama on Shay’s phone,” he tells her, not wanting to get snot on Nate’s phone.
“I’m parking,” Amanda tells him, “I’ll be there in a minute. Are you still in Nate’s office?”
“We are, but I think we should steal one of the empty ones,” he answers, “Once Courtney comes back at least,”
‘Mama, mama, mama, mama,’ Angela signs repeatedly, reaching for the phone again.
Shayne picks up the phone and holds it closer to her, “There’s mama,” he murmurs, “She’s almost here.”
“Mama’s walking to the building,” she says, audibly rushing towards it, “I’m almost there.”
Courtney slips back into the room with Angela’s phone and a little over a minute later, Amanda rushes in.
Tears well in Angela’s eyes again as she reaches for Amanda who immediately picks her up.
“Mama’s got you,” she murmurs as she starts swaying the little as she walks back and forth across the room, quietly humming as she rubs her back.
It takes a while, but Amanda manages to lull the little to sleep in her arms, her face buried in her neck as Amanda stops her pacing, turning to the couple.
“Thank you so much,” she says quietly, taking Angela’s phone from Courtney as they hold it towards her.
“Barnes said you can have the smaller meeting room,” Shayne tells her as he stands, “We left a shoot, so we need to go back. Call again if you need anything.”
“We love you both,” Courtney adds as they head towards the door, “I’ll let Nate know his office is his again,”
Amanda smiles softly at them as they leave, following them out but turning the other way to walk into the smallest meeting room, a small room with a desk, three office chairs, and an armchair in the corner.
She sits down, lying Angela against her chest as she texts Nate,
Amanda: What happened?
I never asked
It takes a few minutes for him to read it and answer, probably taking him a minute to get back to his office.
Nate Smosh HR: I’m telling you as you are the official caregiver of a little who dropped in my office
I called her into my office to ask about someone who listed her as a reference to apply here
She said no one had asked her about it, but reacted to the name
Jacob Davis
“Fuck.” Amanda swears to herself, switching her text thread to Chanse.
Mandy: Jacob Davis?
He answers almost instantly
Chanse: what did that bastard do now?
ill kill him
Mandy: He applied to work here
Chanse: im gonna kill him
lucky i wont do anything without ang
Mandy: She’s not going to be ok
Chanse: ik
but she has us
Amanda looks over her phone at her little girl sleeping against her. Angela’s eyebrows are pinched slightly and her face is still red with tears, but she’s safe.
All Amanda can hope is that this doesn’t set them back too far.
Because they will get through this,
Together