30. Showdown in the Dean’s Office

"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Bastian said from Tania's left.

"I know it isn't," Desmond muttered from her right.

"This should have happened weeks ago." She pushed the door leading to Dr. Ng's office open and blinked at the crowd of women shouting at his assistant. It had probably been too much to hope the protesters outside were the only ones. "I should have made it happen at the beginning of the semester."

With her Daddies in tow, she pushed her way through the crowd until she reached the desk. The crowd noise died to near silence when she said, "Tell Dr. Ng that Titania Andersen is here to see him, and that he doesn't get to refuse to talk to me this time."

The assistant glanced up, then quickly averted his eyes from the purple and red bruises on her face. "Um, yeah. Give me a minute."

He reached for the phone, then shook his head, and handed her a key from his desk drawer. "Actually no. I'm not giving him any warning. Go on in and give him hell."

She smiled as much as her swollen face would allow, then said, "Thanks. I appreciate it. Also, you might want to escape before the traffic around campus gets much worse."

"Yeah, thanks for the tip."

Bastian took the key from her and quickly unlocked the door, and without giving Dr. Ng a chance to protest, they went inside. Desmond closed the door behind them and locked it before anyone could follow them.

Dr. Ng stood behind his desk and glared at her. "What is the meaning of this, Ms. Andersen? I don't recall?—"

"We're going to have that talk you've been ignoring for weeks," she interrupted. "And this time, you're going to listen to me."

"Fine." Dr. Ng scowled at her Daddies and folded his arms over his chest. "Who are they?"

Unwilling to let Dr. Ng focus on something that wasn't her, Tania didn't look at Bastian or Desmond. "They're my?—"

"We're Ms. Andersen's personal security detail," Desmond replied.

"Which she needs because of your negligence," Bastian added. "Don't worry about us. Ms. Andersen requires your attention now."

When her Daddies insisted on coming into Dr. Ng's office with her, she'd been afraid they'd take over the meeting and not let her say what she needed to. Her heart swelled and she blinked back a tear at the proof they were willing to let her deal with Dr. Ng on her own.

Well, mostly. They still got weird about leaving her alone—not that she blamed them after what Dr. Pappas had done to her.

"Ms. Andersen…" He sat behind his desk and rubbed his forehead. "You've created quite the scene."

Wow. Talk about screwed up. Is he really implying this mess is my fault?

Not in this lifetime.

"With all due respect, sir. I didn't start this."

"Have you looked outside?" he asked, scowling at her. "I'd certainly call the whole of the female population of this university shouting outside my office a scene."

"Oh, it's a scene, all right." Ready to drop a few truth bombs on his head, she sat, then crossed her legs, and leaned back in her chair. "But you started it, and you're leaving the mess for me to clean up."

"I beg your pardon." He drew himself up and twitched his nose like she smelled offensive. "How do you justify saying that?"

"You obviously haven't bothered to read them, but there's a reason your name is on those signs," she snapped. "I came to you three times, begging for help. I told you what Dr. Pappas was doing. My classmates reported him too, and despite the university's anti-fraternization policy, you did nothing. You let him keep threatening me, you let him assault me, and you still don't believe you did anything wrong."

A small part of her cringed at what she was saying, but she squashed it. The shy girl who was too afraid to speak up was well and truly gone.

"I did speak with him, but as you well know, Dr. Pappas has tenure. My hands were tied."

"Considering he decided to assault the daughter of a decorated police officer and is now breathing through a tube after I caved his head in with a cast iron skillet, I'm thinking Dr. Pappas better be unemployed by now. Aside from that, his tenure shouldn't have mattered. Your inaction put the women in this department at risk, and it's disingenuous to assume there wouldn't be fallout."

She leaned forward and put her hands on the arms of her chair. "In fact, I'd bet I'm not the first student he's hurt. I'm just the first one who made him stop."

"Be that as it may, he's made many valuable contributions to this university."

"Let me guess. He offered you a citation on the work he was going to steal from me during a graduate program I didn't want and couldn't afford. Speaking of which, he told me he submitted an application for grad school on my behalf. You might as well shred it. Even if I decide to attend grad school at a later date, it won't be here."

"Well…" He coughed uncomfortably. "That is to say?—"

"It's all publish or perish, am I right? It must be so annoying when undergrads decide they don't want to be bullied into compliance." She laughed bitterly and shook her head. "How many of those contributions were actually his?"

He looked away and kept silent, letting her know her supposition had been correct.

Tania heard a soft, angry murmur from one of her Daddies and pointed at the jagged cut decorating her temple. "I'm thinking you'd have kept trying to brush his behavior under the rug if he hadn't decided assault and kidnapping was the solution to his problems. Sadly for you, that meant your negligence made the news."

"Well, that was unfortunate, of course, but I'm sure you don't wish to create so much trouble."

Dr. Ng said the words in a flat, irritated tone as if everything was her fault, and not once did he react to the bruising on her face. It was as if he was completely nonchalant about the abuse she'd suffered.

Close your mouth and open your legs…

"Actually, I wish I could create more trouble, and I really wish I'd done it when the harassment started." She met his eyes and didn't blink. "You can keep thinking it's my fault if it helps you sleep at night, but don't expect me to lie for you and tell those people everything was just a big misunderstanding when they can't even trust a department head to keep them safe."

"Well…" He stood and went to the window. "I suppose it will please you to know I've been asked to retire."

"It does, but you're still not going to apologize, are you?" When he didn't reply, she rolled her eyes and got to her feet. "Forget it. You're not worth it."

The crowd went silent when she exited the office. Her Daddies took up positions on either side of her to walk her through the crowd. To her surprise, she saw most of her classmates huddling by the door. The only one missing was Theo.

Before she could take more than a few steps, someone asked, "What's going to happen to Dr. Ng?"

As if that one voice started a chain reaction, questions flew until she lifted her hand for silence. Unfortunately, Tania couldn't stop the phones being held up to record her, but maybe it was better that way.

Maybe whatever words she came up with would help other people.

"Dr. Ng has been asked to retire. I don't know the details or when it will happen." Tania took a deep, cleansing breath then looked at her Daddies and smiled. "I appreciate all of you for the support you've shown me, and I want to tell you a few things."

Bastian nodded encouragingly, and Desmond gave her a fist pump. God, she loved them. Finding two protective and supportive Daddies hadn't been on Tania's bingo card for her senior year of college, but she couldn't imagine her life without them anymore.

She just needed to tell them so.

"Margaret Atwood was once quoted as saying men are afraid women will laugh at them, and women are afraid men will kill them. Margaret was right, but it's so wrong."

She gazed at the young women surrounding her, taking in their fear and anger, then pitched her voice to carry over the crowd noise. "For anyone who doesn't know the story. Dr. Marinos Pappas began propositioning me a week after the semester started. He wanted me to be his graduate assistant with sexual benefits. When I told him I wasn't interested in grad school or a relationship, he threatened to falsify my grade and his scoring on my senior project unless I complied."

Tania paused, waiting for the angry murmurs to die down.

"I, along with my male classmates, went to Dr. Ng to report his behavior on multiple occasions. Our complaints were ignored. In fact, Dr. Ng just blamed me for causing problems."

"No fucking way!" someone shouted. "What a tool."

She laughed and nodded. "That's one way to put it, but you know what? If he'd just listened in the first place, I'd have gone about my business. It took Dr. Pappas assaulting me to make him pay attention, and he's still blaming me for what happened."

Her Daddies crowded close to protect her from the angry crowd, but she wasn't worried. They were pissed at her words—not her—and they weren't about to shoot the messenger.

"However, I will say I made some mistakes. I should have gone above Dr. Ng's head the first time he didn't listen to my complaint. I should have shouted it from the rooftops, gone on the news, or did something to make my voice heard before the situation escalated into physical violence."

She smiled wryly. "Society teaches women to be silent and not make waves, lest those men afraid of being mocked harm us. I even justified my decision to stay quiet and told myself I'd be okay once I graduated, but I shouldn't have to justify shit—not to myself or anyone else."

The women surrounding her nodded and looked at their feet but listened with rapt attention.

"My challenge to you, and to everyone watching the videos you're recording is to speak."

"What should we say?" someone asked.

"Well, people will call you weak if you don't speak up, and a bitch if you do. If they're going to call us bitches, then let us be bitches together. My advice to you is to speak your truth and your rage when you can."

When someone whistled, she smiled sadly and held up her hand. "Unfortunately, it's not always safe to do that, so get yourself to a secure location first. Bullies get power from our silence, and we get power by working together and letting our voices be heard. We need to support each other, believe each other, and believe women when they speak. Men need to listen when a woman says ‘no.'"

A slow clap sounded from beside her, followed by a second. Tania blinked and smiled as she watched her Daddies put their hands together for her. The crowd joined in, the applause and shouted encouragement deafening.

"One more thing. Men, we need you too. We need you to speak up when you see this happening to the women around you. Not just your girlfriends or moms or daughters or sisters, but your classmates, your acquaintances, the strangers you see on the street. Be like my classmates, who took it upon themselves to report him and then took it a step further by using themselves as a barrier between me and Dr. Pappas. Women cannot be the solution on our own because we are not the problem."

When the applause died down, she took a deep breath and smiled. "Anyway, thanks for letting me vent, but I need to bounce."

* * *