"Chloe, for serious! Are you even listening to me?" Aubrey screams at Chloe in the middle of practice, for being off-key and refusing instructions.
"Aubrey, stop! I have something I need to tell everyone." The mood of the group suddenly became very dark and serious, all the Bellas listening intently. "I have acoustic neuroma."
"Bumper has an acoustic new aroma for his guitar." Everybody furrows their brows at Fat Amy, seemingly not understanding Chloe correctly.
"No, acoustic neuroma. It's a disease that causes for a non-cancerous tumor to grow on the nerve that's responsible for hearing." Aubrey gasps and suddenly all the girls are pulling into one big group hug.
"Chloe, you have our support. But if you can't hear yourself sing anymore, I can't give you the solo." Aubrey was relentless and nothing would stand in the way of her winning this year.
"I know. Which is why I think Beca should take my solo!" Chloe looked around the group to find said girl, but she disappeared. Chloe knew Beca would be the type to run from hardship and didn't expect her to join in the group hug, but she couldn't hide her disappointment when she found that Beca had just abandoned her upon hearing the news.
It's been several weeks since Chloe's completely lost her hearing. She's been taking lessons at the hospital to learn sign language and is quite fluent, now. All the Bellas have invested in white boards to be able to communicate with Chloe, who is no longer part of the group but is there everyday to support her girls.
Beca has been the one to take most care of her, though she will never talk to Chloe. She will bring her water and smile and walk her to class, but she never picked up a white board and whenever Chloe wrote to her, Beca would ignore it.
Chloe was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, if she hadn't lost her hearing, Beca would have fallen for her. Chloe has come to love Beca and how caring she is. She can't hear Beca's mixes anymore, but Beca spent several hundred dollars on a large amplifier to plug her laptop into and play her mixes for Chloe like that. Chloe would feel the vibrations of the songs and the different beats and tempos matching together, able to feel how talented Beca really was.
Chloe was hopelessly in love with Beca, and Beca hasn't spoken to her since she told the Bellas she was losing her hearing.
The Bellas won the ICCA Championships this year. Everybody is celebrating and, although Chloe couldn't hear how well her girls did, she knew they kicked ass. The Bellas were heading back to Aubrey's apartment to continue the celebration, but Beca pulled Chloe away and took her to her dorm instead. There stood Beca's amplifier, her laptop, and a flash drive in her hand.
Beca sat Chloe down on the bed and went to working on her laptop. She plugged in the flash drive and when the video finished loading, Chloe saw it was a video of the performance from just before. Beca turned the bass up on the video and took Chloe's hand, placing it on the amp.
When the video finished, Chloe was crying because nobody had ever been so thoughtful as Beca had been. Chloe was just about to hug Beca when the brunette got up and started writing something on a piece of paper:
"I haven't been talking to you because I wanted to surprise you. When you told us about your acoustic neuroma, I ran out and went looking for somewhere that I could take lessons for sign language. I'm still not that good at it but there's one thing I learned that I will always sign for you."
Chloe read the paper and looked up at Beca who had tears in her eyes. First pointing to herself, then crossing her arms over her chest, then pointing to Chloe, Beca signed: "I love you."
