Too defeated to try and put up a fight, Michael did as she ordered and told them everything.

How he’d been pushing her the last month - which they knew. How he’d noticed her uncertainties and anxieties, but kept pushing anyway. How Sunday night he’d let himself be lulled into a false sense of security, thinking things had been going really well with them. How he’d thought her drunken affectionate openness had relaxed his guard, thinking she was more comfortable with him than she turned out to be. How he’d slept over - really without meaning to - without her permission. How upset she’d been when she’d realized he’d done so.

And the worst of it.

He stared at his hands rather than look at any of their faces, his guilt and helpless fury rising up again and making the cheese he’d just eaten feel like it was curdling in his stomach.

“I should have kept in better touch with her, I shouldn’t have just let her drift away like I did, I should -“

“Whoa, whoa,” Angel said, stopping his recitation of growing guilt. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her try to lean forward and then growl in annoyance when her ever-expanding belly didn’t let her. She waved her hands, trying to catch his attention, and, reluctantly, Michael looked up at her. Strangely, she looked more confused than anything else. “What do you mean you should have kept in touch with her?”

“When I left for college,” Michael explained, his shoulders hunching against the regret hounding him. “I should have kept in better touch with her. If I had, she would have never -“

“WHOA, hold up,” Angel said, a lot louder this time. “Are you saying you think it’s your fault she was raped?”

His mouth opened and closed. He looked at the others. Lexie looked aghast. Patrick and Adam were frowning in consternation, but neither of them were looking at him with anything like judgment or recrimination.

“I mean... If I’d kept in touch with her, she might not have fallen for Lawrence’s lines... I could have talked to her about him, I could have told her-“

“Stop. Stop right there.” Angel pointed her finger at him. “It is not your fault. Not in any way shape or form. Even if you had kept in touch with her, she might not have told you about what was going on with him, and she might not have listened to what you had to say. How can you even think that?”