Chapter 1

Beca

Ugh. Why the hell were there so many movie soundtracks in a radio station? She snuck a glance over at Jesse, who was whistling unashamedly as he stacked CDs. Sure. No doubt his heart exploded with little rose petals of joy every time he saw the Sound of Music tucked away on one of the shelves. Where was she even supposed to file this thing? There wasn't an artist (or anything that indicated it belonged in a radio station) shown on the cover and how was she meant to know if you file The Unbearable Lightness of Being under 'T' for 'The' or 'U' for 'Unbearable'?. The latter is definitely where she would file this day; she was stuck here with bloody Snow White (no one is meant to 'whistle while they work') when she could otherwise be mixing, or not doing cardio.

Actually, now she thought about it, for the first time in God knows who long, Beca didn't feel like doing anything involving a computer screen, her splitting headache had seen to that. She hadn't even been drunk last night, yet she was rewarded with a shooting pain in her skull which rivalled any hangover. Shoving the offending CD randomly onto a shelf, Beca pushed her trademark heavy duty headphones onto her head) and selected a track that didn't make her want to slit her throat, unlike Jesse's inane whistling. In retrospect, loud music probably wasn't the best idea given the searing pain in her head and, taking the sharp increase in intensity as confirmation, quickly pulled them off, slamming them down on the counter, breathing heavily.

Jesse

Had Beca not had her eyes tightly squeezed shut, she would have noticed Jesse look up at the noise, shock quickly turning into concern at Beca's appearance. She was facing away from him, one hand on the counter, leaning heavily down on it, the other at her head. His whistling had now ceased and, without it, her loud gasps filled the air, reverberating around the room. A feeling of uneasiness settled in his stomach; Beca was so concerned with putting on this badass persona-something had to be really wrong. Just as Jesse opened his mouth to ask if she was OK, Beca's arm suddenly gave way and she plummeted to the ground, landing with a sickening thud. Shock flooded through him, quickly followed by fear as he rushed towards her. Just as he'd reached Beca's side, she began to shake violently; every inch of her body was in spasm, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. He could deal with her fainting, but what the hell was he supposed to do with a fitting Beca? Jesse scrambled up and bolted to the door, yanking it open.

"Help! Jesus, somebody, anybody!" he yelled out to the surprisingly under-populated quad. Clearly his voice hadn't rung out as loudly as he'd hoped when only a few people in close proximity turned towards him, none of them looking particularly concerned. A sharp tugging on his arm spun him round to the left and he was met with a tall redhead who he vaguely remembered being in the Bellas, Chloe or something?

"What is it? What's wrong?" Her blue eyes filled with concern as they drifted towards the radio station, "is it Beca?". In answer he grabbed her arm and turned back towards the radio station with her right behind him, hurrying towards Beca who was still shaking violently. The girl, Chloe (?) rushed towards her, arranging her limbs in what Jesse knew to be the recovery position and elevating her head slightly.

Damn. The recovery position. Why the hell didn't I think of that?

"What happened?" She asked, directing her question at Jesse, yet her attention never leaving Beca's still trembling form.

"Uh…Um… I don't know, I heard this crash and I looked up and she… she was standing funny, like in pain you know? Then she just went down and started doing that," he gestured wildly at Beca to make his point.

"Did you phone an ambulance? Or her dad?". He hadn't , he'd just panicked and ran for help.

"No…I don't think she would want her dad, she went crazy at me after the whole 'calling him to bail her out thing'." Wow, was that only last week? That seemed ages ago now. "And I didn't think to call an ambulance," he added.

"Maybe you should. And her dad too, he needs to know about this." Jesse nodded his head in agreement and pulled out his mobile, dialling 911.

Chloe

Out of the corner of her eye, Chloe saw the guy (Jesse was it?) dial for an ambulance and was aware of him speaking, just on the edge of her hearing. Her focus was on Beca. Several times throughout her medical course she had questioned why she chose it, but today, she had never been more grateful for her decision. Chloe wasn't entirely sure how long Beca had been fitting for (she guessed a few minutes) but the intensity of her seizure didn't appear to be lessening. At all. She gently lifted Beca's hand into her own and rubbed small soothing circles on the back of it, whispering reassurances into her ear.

"The ambulance is on its way." Jesse's voice cut through Chloe's thoughts.

"Ok, well that's good…listen, I'm going to phone her dad." He opened his mouth to protest but Chloe got there first. "I know what you're going to say, but this could be something really serious…he needs to know." She took his silence as confirmation and slipped Beca's phone out of her pocket. Locked. Password required. Shit. Why did Beca have to be so…Beca? "Do you know her password by any chance?".

Jesse looked surprised. "No…uh…she wouldn't tell me something like that... She's not even talking to me…" His voice trailed off.

"Well she didn't tell me either so we're screwed!" Annoyance at the frustration of the situation and Jesse's lack of answers led Chloe into a furious silence. This wasn't like her. She was normally so bubbly and taking everything in her stride but this…this couldn't happen. Beca was going to be fine, right? Pushing that unpleasant question from her mind, she focused on trying to formulate a way of getting hold of Beca's dad. She could phone Aubrey, but what could she do? Plus she was in her Comparative Literature class. Wait. Wasn't that the class Beca's dad taught? Praying silently, she hit speedial and prayed Aubrey would actually have her phone on.

Voicemail. Damn.

She could hear sirens in the distance, definitely a good sign; Chloe had no idea how to stop this seizure and was slightly panicking that it wasn't relenting. Were they meant to last this long? Her phone buzzed and Chloe rushed to answer it, Aubrey's voice filling her ear as soon as she hit the button.

"Aca-scuse me?! Why on earth were you phoning me in the middle of a lecture?! It was so embarrassing Chloe! Everyone around me turned to stare and Professor Mitchell was clearly irritated with me. I haven't been this humiliated since last years' ICCAS, I had to make up some lame excuse about need-"

"Aubrey!" Chloe all but shouted to drag her out of her rant, and making Jesse jump in the process. "Would you just listen? I'm at the radio station, Beca's having a seizure, the ambulance is on its way but you need to tell her dad." Silence. "OK?"

"Right…Um…Ok right, her dad Ok I'm on it…Chloe…uh…is she alright?" It was Aubrey's shaky tone of voice and lack of her usual confidence more than anything that caused the barely supressed fear to well up inside Chloe and tears to spring to her eyes.

"I don't know Bree, just get him here please." She choked out.

"I will." There was a brief pause. "It's going to be Ok Chloe."

"Yeah…um…I gotta go," Chloe hung up, a silent tear sliding down her cheek.

Aubrey

Fear flooded through Aubrey. Beca was going to be OK right? She wasn't particularly fond of her but Chloe cared enough about her for the both of them, and she didn't really know Chloe would handle it if anything…happened. She had a habit of getting attached to people and for whatever reason, Beca more so than others. Taking a moment to compose herself and ensure that she was not about to decorate the floor with her breakfast, Aubrey took a deep breath and headed back into the lecture hall. Professor Mitchell paused as she entered, eyes showing a hint of annoyance and indicating that she should sit down rather sharpish. Better do this quickly.

"Professor Mitchell, could I have a word with you outside please?" her voice rang far more confident than she felt, cutting through the silence.

"I'm kind of in the middle of a lecture here," he gestured towards the board, then towards the sea of students, as if she hadn't been among them not 5 minutes ago.

"Sir this is really important," she paused, considering how much to give away in a room full of students, "it's about Beca." His eyes widened and quickly made his excuses, hurrying out of the hall with Aubrey.

"What about her? What's happened? Has she been arrested again?"

"No sir, she's had a seizure, you need to come to the radio station." He froze.

"Ok, right, um…let's go." He gestured for her to lead the way and they hurried down to the radio station which was only a short walk away, but seemed to take far longer with Professor Mitchell's extensive questioning and Aubrey's short replies since, in reality, she didn't know anything.

An ambulance was parked outside the radio station when they arrived and a gathering of nosey students had formed around it to locate the source of the drama, chatting loudly.

"Don't you all have something better to be doing?!" Professor Mitchell's authoritative voice cut through the hubbub and the students quickly dispersed, looking sheepish. He jogged to the door and yanked it open, a paramedic visible through the window, talking to that Jesse kid from the Treblemakers. Aubrey hung back, feeling awkward, as her role had been fulfilled and felt certain that Beca wouldn't really want her there, nor did she particularly want to be and it wasn't like she could do anything to help. But, having said that, she didn't really feel she could just go, Chloe was going to be shaken up and her lecture was now non-existent, so Aubrey leant against a nearby brick wall and waited.

She didn't have to wait long, however, when the door opened and the paramedics walked out, followed by Beca, leaning heavily on Chloe looking utterly shaken and, for the first time since Aubrey had met her, scared. Chloe had one arm wrapped tightly around Beca's and in turn had brought Beca's arm around her waist, thus preventing her from falling over and making the short walk to the ambulance possible. One of the paramedics opened the back doors and told Beca there was room for 1 person to come with her, to which Professor Mitchell instantly replied that he wanted to. In an instant, Beca's expression changed to one of incredulity and anger which, despite everything, managed to reassure Aubrey as it was far more…Beca, angry and defensive.

"Bit late to pretend you care now isn't it Dad?" A look of hurt crosses his face and looked as if he were to make an equally angry retort when Chloe jumped in.

"How about I go with you Beca?" A look of surprise cuts across Beca's face before she hesitantly nodded her assent and allowed Chloe to help her into the ambulance and onto the gurney, Chloe sitting beside her. Just before the paramedic closed the door, Aubrey saw Beca reach for her hand, Chloe allowing herself a small smile.