A/N: Thank you so much for everyone's wonderful reviews! I look forward to continuing to hear your feedback, comments and suggestions! I'm sorry for the delay in updating; I just moved and don't have Internet set up yet. Yikes! But the new updates won't take so long, scout's honor! The title for this chapter comes from the song "Cassiopeia" by Sara Bareilles.

"All Alone in the Corner of the Night Sky"

It's nearly a week before Aubrey sees Chloe again. If Chloe is still making her daily visits to the bakery, Aubrey is long gone before the redhead comes walking through the door. She keeps making the cookies but that's the extent of the thought that Aubrey gives Chloe.

Until one Tuesday morning when Aubrey is walking out the door as Chloe is walking in. "Oh!" Chloe looks at her, her face brightening. Aubrey dips her head on reflex but realizes too late that her hair is still pulled away from her face. Which is now on display for everyone to see. "I was starting to think you were a figment of my imagination. Except for those awesome cookies."

Aubrey steps away from Chloe, quickly reaching up to take her hair down. She feels a little better when her hair covers the right side of her face. "Oh…I really just work overnight."

"When do you sleep?" Chloe questions. When Aubrey tells her, she looks surprised. "When do you do stuff? Like go out and see people? Isn't that weird? Or lonely? It's like the complete opposite of everyone in the world."

"Not if you're in Australia." Aubrey hears herself say.

Chloe smiles. "Yeah, I guess so. But we're not in Australia."

Aubrey shrugs. "Nope." Her conversational skills are definitely rusty. Not that she's ever really been good at making small talk with strangers. She feels like she'd never really outgrown that awkward teenager stage and the accident has just made everything worse.

"Do you want a cup of coffee?" Chloe questions, breezing right through the awkward silence. "Or tea? So you can actually sleep later."

"Don't you have to work?" Aubrey questions.

Chloe shakes her head. "Tuesday I have off. My kids….students," she corrects, "do some character building thing today."

"You're a teacher?" Aubrey asks.

"I teach music at Pine Elementary." Chloe replies. "Everyday but Tuesdays,"

Aubrey nods. Yeah, she can definitely see this bubbly redhead dealing with tone deaf kids.

"So yes on the coffee?" Chloe presses. "I'll treat."

"I really should get home…" Aubrey starts, glancing uncertainly toward the door. "I have to be back tonight…"

Chloe looks genuinely disappointed. "Do you ever get a day off?"

Aubrey nods. "I don't work weekends."

"Great! How 'bout Saturday? We can meet here for breakfast. If you're not sick of this place." Chloe smiles at her.

"Why?" Aubrey questions, unable for the life of her to figure out the answer.

"Because, you're always here and-"

"No, I mean why do you want to…" Aubrey is unsure of how to finish that question without sounding horribly pathetic. "I mean, you don't know me."

Chloe just smiles at her. "That's why." She tells the blonde. "Anyone who bakes as well as you do has to be awesome." Aubrey isn't sure how to respond so she just stays silent. "So, yeah? Breakfast Saturday?"

Before Aubrey can talk herself out of it, she nods. "Okay. Yeah, that sounds good."

"Great!" Chloe looks like she's been waiting for this moment her entire life and Aubrey still for the life of her can't figure out why. "See you then. Ten o'clock?"

Aubrey nods and with that, they go their separate ways. Aubrey has a dry erase calendar in her kitchen and she normally uses it solely to keep track of what recipes she's going to put into rotation or the occasional doctor visit but when she gets home she writes Breakfast With Chloe on the Saturday square.

When she gets off work Friday morning, Aubrey forces herself to stay awake like a normal person so she can actually go to bed at a decent hour that night. She does the grocery shopping and housecleaning and even reads outside on her back balcony to enjoy the sunshine. She's dead asleep by eight that night but it was a productive day as far as she's concerned.

Aubrey wakes up the following morning and feels refreshed and excited about meeting up with Chloe. As she showers, she runs through a list of conversation topics in her head in case there's a lag, though she feels pretty confident that Chloe will have plenty to talk about. As she brushes her wet hair away from her face, Aubrey forces herself to glance in the mirror, something she usually tries to avoid. Her scar runs jagged down the right side of her face, almost from temple to jaw. The skin is puckered in places from where the doctors had to pick glass out of her skin before stitching her back together after her head when through the passenger window. Even after three years, it's still red and ugly and noticeable but Aubrey tries to remind herself that it could be worse. After all, her father would probably be happy just to have a scar. Aubrey touches the scar lightly, wondering, not for the first time, what it looks like to other people. Most adults are far too polite to say anything but she's noticed their eyes flicking toward it instead of the rest of her face when they talk. Chloe has thus far seemed immune, which makes Aubrey smile just a little. But she still wears her hair down, just in case.

Gail looks surprised when Aubrey walks into the bakery. "You do know it's Saturday, right?" Aubrey rolls her eyes and nods. "Just can't stay away, huh?" She smiles at the blonde.

"I'm meeting someone." Aubrey tells Gail when she walks over to the counter. Gail grins at her and wags her eyebrows. "Not like that. Have you always been this insufferable?"

"Yes." Gail tells her frankly, handing over a coffee cup. "At least you finally noticed."

Chloe comes in fashionably late by ten minutes and somehow Aubrey is not surprised. She might not know the redhead all that well but she feels safe in making the assumption that punctuality is not her strong suit. They take their food to one of the wire tables outside because the day is bright and sunny and it just seems like a shame to be inside.

"So what made you start baking?" Chloe questions. "And who bakes for you when you have days off? I mean, this is good but it's not as good." She points to the muffin she's been nibbling on.

Aubrey smiles. "Her name is Beca. It's her temporary job while she's in culinary school."

Chloe waits a beat and then prompts, "So…?" Aubrey gives her a quizzical look. "How did you get into baking?"

Aubrey sighs, turning her head slightly to watch the cars and people that pass by. Chloe's is definitely a loaded question. No one knows the specifics of the accident aside from Gail and Aubrey feels like there's no way to explain herself without bringing up her father. Which is something she tries to avoid. "I…I always liked to bake. It just never seemed like the practical thing to do."

"So did you go to cooking school too?" Chloe questions. "I always wanted to become really good at cooking but…" She shrugs. "I'm great at using the microwave."

"I'm much better at baking than cooking." Aubrey assures her. "I eat a lot of takeout."

"A girl after my own heart." Chloe smiles. "You should teach me how to bake." Her eyes light up at the idea. "Oh that would be so fun! Can you teach me how to make bread? And those amazing snickerdoodle cookies?"

Aubrey finds herself smiling without really even being aware of it. Chloe's enthusiasm is something Aubrey has never really seen before. She'd describe her parents and brother as dogged and committed. Never enthusiastic. In the Posen household, you followed through on something because you had to, not necessarily because it was something you enjoyed. It's refreshing to see someone excited about something, especially something that Aubrey actually enjoys.

"I guess I could. All you need are the right ingredients. Do you have a bread maker or anything?" Aubrey questions.

Chloe pouts. "No. I'm a failure before I even start."

Aubrey laughs and shakes her head. "No, don't say that. You're only a failure if you never try." That was something her father was fond of saying. Of course, she doesn't tell Chloe the rest of the advice: if you don't succeed the first time, that makes you a failure too.

"That sounds like what I tell my kids." Chloe says. "Though they usually have no trouble trying something new, especially if they get to make a lot of noise."

"How long have you been teaching?" Aubrey questions.

This simple question leads to over an hour's worth of anecdotes about seven years of teaching elementary school children to sing and enjoy music. Just as she is with everything else, Chloe is enthusiastic about this and gestures wildly with her hands as she talks and even mimics the voices of her young students. Aubrey is more than happy to sit back and just listen to Chloe as she talks. The smiles and laughs come easy and she doesn't have to think or remind herself how to interact with other people. She just enjoys herself.

Sometimes Aubrey finds herself watching Chloe more than actually listening to the words that she says. Her smile is almost constantly in place but now that they're closer, Aubrey can see the touches of sadness in her eyes, the way that her excitement and cheer seem to stop short of actually making her eyes sparkle. She thinks about what Gail said, about Chloe being lonely and now it seems a little easier to believe.

Before they realize it, it's past noon and the sun is high in the sky, burning away the last wisps of clouds. Chloe lifts her face toward the sun and smiles. "I love spring time and being outside." She closes her eyes and hums contentedly. She reminds Aubrey of a sunflower.

"How do you stand it?" Chloe questions and Aubrey gives her a confused look, trying to follow her train of thought. "Working at night, sleeping all day. Sounds depressing."

Aubrey shrugs. "It's not so bad. It's better anyway, because of…" She gestures to the side of her face and the scar hidden away by her hair.

Chloe arches an eyebrow. "That?" She waves her hand dismissively. "I didn't even notice." Aubrey narrows her eyes slightly and Chloe back peddles. "I did notice. But I didn't care." She sounds so sincere that Aubrey almost believes her. "That seems like a dumb reason to hide away all the time."

Aubrey's never had anyone so directly question her and her choices before. Instead of letting her annoyance rise to the surface, she just sighs. "Tell that to my mother." She mumbles.

Chloe's eyes soften and Aubrey drops her gaze, looking down at her hands in order to avoid seeing the inevitable pity in Chloe's expression. Pity. She hates it more than anything. It's why she doesn't tell people about her father or show off her scar or discuss how she's been ostracized by her family for being ugly inside and out. Though, apparently, she's broken her own rule now and brought up one of those subjects that will inevitably lead to pity.

But Chloe doesn't use those dreaded I'm so sorry words that Aubrey hates so much. Instead she shakes her head. "Well, that's dumb. What about Harry Potter?"

This is definitely not what Aubrey was expecting. She looks at Chloe, her surprise etched on her face. Chloe smiles and nods. "Yeah, Harry Potter. You know, he had that scar on his forehead. It meant that he had survived something terrible."

Aubrey swallows as the thoughts come unbidden to her mind. Her father, angry and distracted. You've brought me nothing but disappointment. The brief snatches of memory that come after the accident: feeling her blood trickling down the side of her face as the paramedics loaded her onto the stretcher. Looking up at the sky and seeing Earth Two there, shining in the blackness. And, of course, waking up in the hospital and having a police officer tell her that her father was dead because her mother was no where around.

Aubrey tries to push these thoughts from her mind. "Yeah." Her voice is barely audible. Yep, she had survived. Some people might say that was the problem.

Chloe takes one look at Aubrey and instantly changes the subject. "Well, since you get so few days off, we should make the most of it." She declares. "We need to do things."

Aubrey arches an eyebrow. "What kind of things?" It's a little annoying how she can't help but crack a smile.

"Things you can't do when you're sleeping or working." Chloe gets a crazy grin on her face. "Oh my gosh. The aquarium! We have to go. It's not that far from here and they have new baby sea otters! Babies!" She practically jumps to her feet, grabbing her purse. "Let's go."

Aubrey gets up and lets Chloe tug her down the sidewalk. It would take more effort to come up with a reason not to go then to just follow her led. Plus, she hasn't been to the aquarium and she doesn't have anything else to do. Aubrey doesn't know why it's so hard to admit but she actually wants to go with Chloe. And so, she goes.


After that, everything just sort of falls into place. They have standing plans to get together for breakfast and "day time things" on Saturday and their plans usually carry over to Sunday, though Aubrey tries to get in a few hours of sleep since she needs to be at the bakery overnight. Aubrey also postpones going to bed Tuesday mornings so she can have a cup of tea with Chloe. Chloe still does most of the talking, going on about her family and her students and tales from her college years and even brief mentions of her romantic misadventures of the past but Aubrey finds it easy to jump in as long as the conversation doesn't shift toward her family or the accident.

Aubrey feels like being around Chloe is like being around spring itself. Maybe it's a dumb comparison but she feels like having Chloe around is like having her own personal sun; she's finally thawing out after three years of winter. Okay, yeah, she probably took that metaphor too far but you get her point. For the first time in a while, Aubrey finds herself looking forward to something other than baking and she starts wishing that she wasn't getting ready to go to into work when the rest of the world was finishing the day.

One Monday night, Aubrey is tying on her apron and heating up the ovens when she hears a knock on the glass doors. She leaves the kitchen, assuming that it's Stacie, one of the other employees who has a reputation for being scatter-brained and leaving her purse behind but she's surprised to find Chloe waiting on the other side. Chloe grins, waves and holds up a bag of takeout for Aubrey to see. She's not supposed to let anyone in after closing but Aubrey ushers Chloe instead anyway. "What are you doing?"

"Surprise!" Chloe says cheerfully. "I thought you might be hungry and want some company and since tomorrow is Tuesday, I thought I'd hang around. You still have to show me how to bake, remember? I mean, if that's okay. I don't want to get you in trouble by being here."

Aubrey weighs her options. She wouldn't mind Chloe's company but it's technically against the rules for her to be here. But a part of her thinks that Gail wouldn't mind since it's Chloe that she's breaking the rules for. "Not going to steal anything are you?"

"Nope. Scout's honor." Chloe smiles and crosses her heart.

Aubrey gives Chloe a quick tour around the kitchens and insists that the redhead start eating while she gets the dough ready to put in the oven for the first batch. But Chloe sets the food aside and comes to stand beside Aubrey. "I'm ready to learn." She beams up at Aubrey, rolling up her sleeves. "So teach away."

"Well, this will be a little different than cooking in your own kitchen." Aubrey laughs. "But I guess the concept is the same."

They start with the different loaves that the bakery sells to the people who hate chain grocery stores and they also get to work on the baguettes that Gail says they run out of by lunchtime no matter how many Aubrey makes. Aubrey finds that it's easier to talk to Chloe while her hands knead and roll the dough, shaping up the different loaves. She tells Chloe about how she used to go to her grandparents' house over the summer and how different her grandmother was from her own mother so that being away from home for weeks at a time was welcome reprieve. "My grandmother first taught me how to bake." Aubrey says as she kneads the dough into submission. "We used to bake all kinds of things and even try out our recipes. They didn't always turn out all that great but…." She shrugs.

Chloe smiles, following Aubrey's lead and kneading at the dough. Only instead of rolling the dough around and gently shaping it, she just starts pounding on it with a closed fist. Aubrey has to bite her tongue to keep herself from chiding Chloe for her rough treatment; it's going to be an ugly and shapeless loaf but Chloe seems to be enjoying herself so…. "That sounds like a lot of fun." Chloe remarks.

Aubrey nods. "It was. Which was exactly the problem, according to my parents. Baking was just a waste of time, even though it was something I really enjoyed." She shrugs. "I hadn't been doing much baking before I got my job here."

Chloe gives her dough another solid whack. "This is definitely not a waste of time. Talk about anger management." She hits the lump again.

Aubrey laughs but doesn't bother to agree with Chloe. She feels like it goes without saying that working at the Sunrise Bakery has been a cathartic experience and, in spite of the crazy schedule, she's never been happier.

Once they put the loaves in the over, they dig into the Thai takeout that Chloe brought. As they talk, the heavenly smells of baking bread fill the kitchen; even after three years of working at the bakery, the smell still makes Aubrey's mouth water and brings her back to her grandmother's kitchen.

The time seems to fly by, which is something that Aubrey has never been able to say before about the nighttime shifts. Chloe helps with baking the cupcakes, muffins and cookies; she's definitely not stingy when it comes to adding cinnamon and spice to the snickerdoodles. "They're better this way. Trust me." Chloe says when Aubrey gives her a look.

By the end of the night, Aubrey is exhausted, sweaty and happy. Chloe's eyelids are starting to droop and Aubrey gives her a gentle nudge. "You should go home and get some sleep. I can clean up here." She assures the other girl.

Chloe gives her a sleepy smile and hops off the counter she'd been perched on. "You need to clean yourself up. You've got flour on your face." She reaches up and brushes her thumb across Aubrey's cheek.

The gesture is quick and absent-minded but for some reason it sends a flash of electricity through Aubrey's body. Even after Chloe pulls her hand away, Aubrey can feel the ghost of her fingers against her skin and the imagined tingle that's been left behind. Maybe it's just the fact that it's been a long time since anyone has touched her or maybe it's the fact that Aubrey has been wondering for the past several weeks if the growing feelings she has for Chloe are genuine or just an effect of finally having someone pay attention to her, but whatever it is, it makes Aubrey feel electric.

Aubrey clears her throat, her mouth suddenly dry. "Well…you're not exactly clean yourself. I'm pretty sure you have flour in your hair."

"Sleep first, then shower." Chloe declares as she follows Aubrey to the door of the bakery. It's still dark outside; most of the world is still fast asleep. "This was so much fun, Aubrey. I think that I really have a calling as a baker."

Aubrey smirks. "Maybe with a little more practice…" Chloe sticks her tongue out at her. "Seriously. Thank you for coming. I…it was really nice of you."

Chloe smiles and reaches out to take Aubrey's hand, giving it a squeeze. "Of course. What are friends for?"

They part ways on the promise to see each other over the weekend and Aubrey locks the door and dedicates herself to making the kitchen shiny and new. She's just finished wiping down the counters when Gail comes in, looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed despite the early hour. She smiles at Aubrey but stops in the middle of her greeting, giving the blonde a suspicious glance. "What's up with you?"

Aubrey gives her a blank look. "Up with me?" She repeats.

Gail nods, setting her purse down in the office. "Yeah, you look different." She gives Aubrey the once over. "Happy."

Aubrey laughs and rolls her eyes. "You make it sound like that's a bad thing." She unties her apron and hangs it up.

"Wait…did you just…" Gail widens her eyes comically. "Oh my God, you did. You just laughed. Who are you and what have you done with Aubrey Posen?"

"Insufferable." Aubrey mutters, shaking her head. She purses her lips to hide a smile.

But she can't help it. She is happy. So what?

tbc.