Walls Fall Down

Disclaimer: The following is a work of fan-fiction. I claim no ownership over the characters therein. No copyright infringement intended.

8 months, 8 months that were for the most part the happiest 8 months of Beca's entire life. Every day for the past 8 months Beca got to wake up and call Chloe her girlfriend.

"Your girlfriend, I like the sound of that," the red head had said one sunny afternoon while they were out on a walk across campus. Beca had just asked if she would maybe, sort of kind of like to be an official couple, and while it had taken a few weeks of dates and dropping hints, Chloe was overjoyed that she finally asked. From then on Beca called Chloe her girlfriend whenever she got the chance.

"A glass of water for my girlfriend," Beca asked, one evening as the pairing were eating dinner. Plain rice, broccoli and chicken, again. It must have been the fourth time this week, but it was one of the few things Beca could actually cook without burning. The same non-blackened food was better than different types of burnt cuisine any day.

"Yes my love, water is good," Chloe gave the brunette a peck on the lips as she got up to get their drinks.

This was a typical night for Beca and Chloe. Beca shows up at her apartment every day after class, they take turns "cooking" for each other, they eat, and study and then Beca generally gets talked into watch some silly reality show Chloe is following. Aubrey shares the apartment with Chloe, but she keeps mostly to herself, only joining them if one of the dramas she enjoys happens to be on. She and Beca are cordial now, but not quite what she would call good friends.

"Come on Beca, she's my best friend, and she's a good person," Chloe pouts, "just give her a chance." For Chloe, Beca would do anything, so Beca gave the older woman a chance. They ate, talked and agreed to disagree about what constituted good music. It was enough to satisfy Chloe's desire for her best friend and her new girlfriend to resemble human beings, more so than antagonistic wild animals.

She doesn't want to rip the blonde's head off anymore, but they're not about to paint each other's nails and bust out Cosmo magazine together. That's more Chloe and Aubrey's thing, they still do the whole girly best friend thing whenever Beca isn't around. Its sweet really, that Chloe has someone, someone other than Beca who looks out for her, who cares about her. Aubrey's a good person Beca thinks, now she does anyway.

"Do you want anymore?" Beca asks, cleaning off her own plate and motioning to the still warm pot of rice on the stove.

"I think I'm good babe, is there anything you want to watch tonight?"

"Me?" Beca thought for a moment, "nope, whatever you want is fine. You know I only watch TV when I'm with you anyway."

"I've just never liked TV, and don't pull a Jesse on me and act like not liking TV is like not liking rainbows or some crap." Beca had said this early in their relationship, probably shortly after their status as official girlfriends was cemented. She had started to spend more and more time at Chloe's off campus apartment, and Chloe was curious as to why she never wanted to pick the show. TV had been one of Chloe's favourite past times for years, other than singing it was probably her favourite. She liked to read, but never really found the time. She liked getting really wrapped up in a story, and not putting the book down until she finished, but her schedule didn't allow for that. 1, maybe 2 hours a night of story all wrapped up neatly, Chloe could do that.

The red head flipped through the guide until she found what she was looking for. It was the night for the Bachelor, one of Chloe's guilty pleasure shows, or so she called it. Everything Chloe watched Beca would refer to as a guilty pleasure. If it were anyone else she would probably have some snark for them, but this was Chloe, this was the girl Beca would sit around and actually pay attention to the rose ceremony for.

"So, do you still want to go to the party tomorrow?" Chloe asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, its fine, I'll go."

"Are you sure? You seemed pretty annoyed about it earlier."

"It's fine, I'm sorry, it's just..."

"You don't like my co-workers, I know. They are kind of douchey," the red head admitted.

"Sorry," Beca put her head down.

Chloe wrapped her arm around the brunette, and pulled the blanket tighter around the pair. "I love you," she whispered into the other woman's chocolate brown locks. They always smelled of cucumber melon, the shampoo Beca had at her dorm, and the matching bottle Chloe bought for her own apartment for whenever Beca stayed over.

"I love you too, beautiful."

"I love you, beautiful." It was raining, and Beca was freezing the first time Chloe said these words to her. She had her arms wrapped around her and they were standing, just standing in the rain, kissing and standing actually. Chloe loved the rain, even when it was cold, she said it made her feel alive; so did Beca apparently, at least that what Chloe always said. "I love you too," the words tumbled out of Beca's mouth; she didn't realize she'd said them, but she knew she meant them. She wasn't sure when she fell in love with the girl with the cherry red hair, and shiny blue eyes who always smelled of lavender, but she had most definitely fallen, and hard.

The party was pretty lame, not that Beca expected anything more. Chloe's co-workers weren't exactly Beca's ideal friends, not that Beca had ideal friends, she didn't have very many friends to begin with. They talked about boring things, they laughed at stupid jokes, and they were very judgemental, and no the irony of calling other people judgemental while judging them was not lost on the girl. Still though, these parties were important to the company, important for Chloe's future and thus had to be important to Beca. Thankfully Aubrey was one of these co-workers though, and if Beca was thankful for Aubrey's presence, well, that speaks for itself.

"Don't look so excited," the blonde teased, taking a seat next to Beca on the couch.

"Sorry, its just…"

"You hate these fucking people, yeah I know, so do I."

Beca could do nothing but laugh at this admission. She was under the impression that Aubrey was one of these people, but if she hated them too, well she couldn't be that bad.

"I'm going to work in marketing, with Aubrey," she said, excited that she had finally figured out her future plans. The red head had majored in music and business at Barden, without a clue in the world as to what she wanted to do after. She always thought she might follow Aubrey into whatever she decided to do, but she was excited to find she actually wanted to and wouldn't just be doing it because. Marketing Beca thought, how boring, her feelings only confirmed the first time she met her beloved's co-workers. Still though, she accompanied her to every company function, and supported everything she did, just like Chloe had always done for her.

"These shots are disgusting," Aubrey spat, after six, or was it seven shots of who knows what.

"Maybe, but I can't really taste anything anymore," Beca laughed. She had always been prone to fits of giggles when she was drunk, much to Chloe's surprise.

"I always expected you to be a weepy or angry drunk," the red head confessed at one of the first parties they attended together. Beca wasn't much for parties, but she had been excited to attend this one as Chloe's girlfriend. A party was much better when you could tell the drunken frat boys you were not only uninterested, but unavailable. They ended up falling asleep in each other's arms, although in someone else's bedroom.

"How much have you had to drink?" Chloe asked, the anger that tinged her voice was obvious to Beca, even in her inebriated state.

"What's it to you? You've been over there chatting up Dingus, or Doofus or whatever his name is all night."

"Drew, and what the hell do you mean, what's it to me. Last I check you were my girlfriend, and I care about you, I just wanted to check on you, but whatever. I'll go back and talk to Dingus," the red head stormed off.

"Jesus Chloe, why the hell do you always need to know what I'm doing?" she spit it out before thinking, she just wanted to go out with her friends and they had been fighting out little things all week, the tension building more with every stupid comment. "Excuse me for caring," the hurt in her voice palpable, "I just want to make sure you're okay." Chloe always looked out for her, no matter what, even when Beca didn't care to look out for herself.

The walls were the faintest hint of blue, Beca recognized the colour, she recognized the door way, she recognized the bed but she didn't know how she had gotten there. It was Chloe's bed; if nothing else the lavender lingering on the pillow told her this. Chloe though, wasn't there, and Beca had no idea where she was. She didn't remember the rest of last night, she remembered fighting with Chloe and Chloe storming off in the opposite direction of her and Aubrey but that was it.

"Chloe, baby, are you here?" Beca called out into the apartment. If she was in Chloe's apartment, she assumed Chloe had brought her there.

"Beca?" Aubrey's door creaked open gently, and the blonde met Beca's dark blue eyes in the hallway.

"How did I get here, and do you know where Chloe is?"

"Umm, we took a cab, sometime around 4 am, and I honestly don't know, she wasn't with us last night. Sorry."

If Chloe wasn't with them when she left, maybe she stayed over at her co-worker's house. Beca was pretty sure it was that Drew fellow's house that the party was at. It wasn't as if she had his number though, I guess all she could do was check her phone and hope the red head had left her a message, or a text, or 20 texts, what? Beca thought she must be seriously hung over if her phone was showing 20 unread messages, 6 voicemails and 10 missed calls. What the hell?

"Beca, babe, you need to check your phone more often, I tried to call you 4 times before this," Chloe informed her. Beca almost never checked her phone, if she was with Chloe she didn't need to and when she wasn't, it usually meant she was in class or otherwise occupied. "I'm sorry, I'll try to check it more often, I'd hate to miss a chance to see you," she smiled, leaning in for a kiss. They were tangled up in blankets Chloe's bed, Beca having finally accepted an invitation to come over, after that 4th missed call. If picking up her phone meant getting this, Beca was going to pick up that phone come hell or high water.

Beca, seriously, pick up your damn phone from was the only text message Beca read before deciding to listen to the voice mails. "Beca, this is Chloe's dad, Jim…" the older man's voice broke, it reminded her so much of Chloe's when she was sad. "I uh, I really need to talk to you in person, please call me when you get this." He left his number, and he hung up, every time. What the hell was going on and how did Chloe's father get her number and why did he need to use it. Beca's head was pounding, her memory fuzzy but coming back to her.

"Beca, do whatever you want, I'm going home. I'm taking the car, give me your keys." Beca tossed the red head the keys to her Honda, they landed closer to her than to her target, but Chloe scooped them up and made her way out the door of her co-worker's house. "What the hell is her problem?" she turned to Aubrey. "She's upset; she'll cool off and unlike you she's sober so she'll be fine, just give her some time," Aubrey assured her. It was funny, Aubrey actually giving her good relationship advice. Beca was sure Aubrey quietly disapproved of their relationship, seeing Beca as not at all good enough for her friend, maybe though, maybe she was wrong.

When she made her way back out into the hallway, she could see Aubrey's tear stained cheeks, her pale eyes almost invisible behind the wall of water pouring out.

"Tell me you didn't call him back, tell me you're crying for some other reason, any other reason that her being hurt," Beca held back her own tears, wanting to believe Chloe's father would have any other reason to call her, any other reason than the worst reasons she could imagine.

Aubrey didn't say anything, her body sliding slowly down the wall next to her bedroom door. She couldn't bring herself to say it, she couldn't bring herself to tell the only person Chloe had every really loved that she was gone. The she was never coming back.

"We'll be friends forever, right Aubrey?" seven year old Chloe smiled brightly at the blonde sitting across from her in the tree house her father had built. "Forever and ever, we're best friends and best friends are friends forever." This was the only memory Aubrey's brain could muster at the moment. Her brain felt fractured into a million pieces, much like her heart, all she could feel was pain and this faint memory. A faint memory of one of a million days Aubrey and Chloe had spent together, laughing, talking, playing, and just being together. A day when Aubrey had actually been a good friend to Chloe and not one where she let her walk out the door of some strange house at 2 am, sad and angry. Stupid and guilty, two more things Aubrey's brain let her feel through the pain.

"How?" was all Beca could muster. How did the girl I love, or loved, or whatever, how did the only person I ever loved lose their life. That was what Beca actually wanted to say, but one word said enough, Aubrey could feel the rest.

"T-boned in an intersection on her way back here," the blonde started, repeating the same words Chloe's father had said to her minutes ago on the phone. "Instantly," she answered Beca's next question before she even said it.

Cry or scream, both, Beca didn't know what to do, so she did nothing. She sat on the floor across from Aubrey, both women saying and doing nothing. Moving didn't even seem possible anymore, or speech, or anything that remotely resembled proper human behaviour. Sitting, in shock, that was all Beca was capable of. Its not like there were anywhere to move to, or anyone to speak to. She didn't need to go to the hospital, the body would be long since identified by Chloe's parents, there was nothing there for her. Aubrey was in no state to speak, in just as much shock as Beca. So they sat, silently, waiting for nothing. With Chloe, Beca's walls had fallen down, but now her walls, her thoughts threatened to crush her, rising up and closing in on her.

"I'll miss you too much Chloe," the brunette pouted, she had to leave for semi-finals but was delaying the inevitable. "You'll only be gone for the weekend, and you'll be with the Bellas, you won't even notice I'm not there," Chloe placed a kiss on her forehead. "Of course I'll notice silly, I never want to be without you, not even for a moment."