Chapter 2- Chloe

"Hey Chloe…" Chloe walked through the room, slowly making her way to Beca. Beca smile as brightly as she could at Chloe.

"Hey… Long time no see?"

"Beca!" Chloe launched herself into Beca, hugging her tightly. Beca winced a little.

"Chlo, ouch." Chloe pulled back and sat down in the chair next to Beca and grabbed her hand, squeezing tightly. Beca looked at her, surprised by Chloe's appearance. She looked a little worse for wear.

"Chloe are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Since when do you have glasses? They look cute on you."

"Since I was a kid…"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I wear contacts."

"Beca… what… what is it?"

"I… may or may not be sick." Chloe laughed at Beca's antics.

"Alright, and what may or may not you be sick with?"

"Type 1 Diabetes?"

"What?" Beca's head dropped. She hates when Chloe's sad like this. Especially because today she's the cause of it.

"Look, its nothing serious. I'm fine."

"I know what it is Beca. It's definitely serious! Are they sure?" Beca laughed sadly at that.

"Well, I mean, I'm not sure they can be wrong about this one." Chloe looked confused.

"Chlo, I've had it for a long time."

"What do you mean?"

"I… was diagnosed when I was 2."

"You… you hid it from me?" Beca shrunk into herself, gripping Chloe's hand tighter to make sure she wasn't just having a nightmare.

"Why would you hide this Beca? This is serious! We could have killed you!" Beca sighed heavily, pulling her hand out of Chloe's to rub her forehead and take her glasses of. She pinched the bridge of her nose.

"No, you couldn't have. I had it under control. I always checked before and after practice. I know what I'm doing."

"Beca… Why didn't you tell me? There were so many times at practice that I could see you didn't feel well. You pushed yourself too hard, we pushed you too hard! We could have let you slow down Beca we-"

"Stop. Please." Beca was on the brink of tears. This is why she hates telling people. They always want her to slow down, to take it easy. She just wants to be normal.

"This is why I don't tell people. I don't want to slow down. I don't want to sit out. I don't want to be treated like I'm fucking dying all the time! I hate this. I hate the way people treat me like I can't take care of myself. I just want to be normal. I want to be treated like everyone else. I want to do the things everyone else does." Beca swallowed thickly, fighting back her tears.

"But sometimes you can't Beca. There are limitations. I know how sick this can make you. You, physically, cannot do everything healthy people can. Your body isn't as strong as everyone else's. Sometimes you need to slow down. And I understand that you don't want to, but sometimes you have to. If you push yourself too hard you end up here."

"Yeah well I don't want to slow down. I've been slowing down my whole life. I've had my whole life ruined by this. I guess I already got what I wanted. I got one year, I guess that's enough." Beca looked out the window of her room, thinking about how she won't be with the Bellas anymore. Running through every horrible scenario there could be.

"Got one year of what?" When Beca spoke, she turned to face Chloe and smiled.

"Friends."

"What do you mean you got one year?"

"I got one year of having friends. That's more than I've ever had, I guess it's enough."

"What are you talking about Beca?"

"I never have friends for very long. No one ever stays." Beca turned back to face the window, knowing that if she kept looking at Chloe that she would cry.

"What do you mean no one ever stays? Why not?"

"Because I'm more trouble than I'm worth." Beca smiled sadly at Chloe again. "No one in my life stays after I have an incident, I don't expect anything different now. I got one year of having friends, and being treated as if I was normal. That's more than I could ask for."

"Oh my god." Chloe stood up and hugged Beca again. "Don't ever say anything like that again. You are worth it. My god, please never say that again." Beca buried her head in Chloe's shoulder, trying to hide her tears, while hugging her tightly with her one good arm, letting the other one remain by her side. Beca let one strangled sob out. Chloe tightened her grip on her.

"I'm here Beca. I'm right here. I'm not going to leave." Beca was full on crying into Chloe's shoulder, gripping the front of her shirt with her hand pulling her closer.

"Please don't leave me. Please don't leave Chloe. I can't lose you too. I can't lose you."

"Shh. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving." It took about 10 minutes to get Beca to calm down.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. Scoot over." Beca moved over, and Chloe sat down next to her and grabbed her hand.

"My mom…" Chloe looked over at Beca as she spoke.

"When I was diagnosed, my mom left. Apparently, she couldn't deal with a defective kid, so she left us. Sheila, step-monster, she isn't bad or anything, but she wasn't around until the end of high school." Beca took a shuddering breath and looked over at Chloe as she kept talking. For some reason she felt completely comfortable talking to Chloe about all this. Probably because I like totally love her.

"In high school, I had a group of friends. There were 5 of us. Halfway through the first semester, I had an incident. I didn't eat breakfast that morning and dropped low. The nurse on campus gave me the glucagon and I was fine, but my friends… weren't exactly my friends after it happened. They said they were scared of me. I've always kinda been alone. That's why I never tell people. That's why I never told you guys. I finally had friends, and I was being treated normally, and I couldn't risk losing that. But… all good things come to an end right?"

"You think that because you're sick that we aren't going to be friends anymore?"

"It's what always happens. Everyone in my life has left me because of it. I got bullied because of it. I'm used to it honestly. And I don't really blame anyone for leaving."

"Beca that's ridiculous. You can't honestly believe that I would stop being friends with you because you're sick." Beca dropped Chloe's gaze in favor of anything else.

"Do you?"

"Like I said, it always happens. People never stay."

"I'm not people. I'm not going to leave because you're sick, that's stupid. You can't control that. And I can promise you that the other Bellas aren't going to either."

"I'm sorry…"

"Sorry for what? I told you to stop apologizing Becs." Chloe nudged Beca's stomach gently, connecting with Beca's pump. It was light enough that it didn't hurt, but Chloe definitely realized that she hit something that wasn't skin.

"What was that?" Beca just pulled her shirt up to show Chloe.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry! I didn't hurt you did I?" Beca chuckled lightly at how easily worried Chloe could get.

"No. It's fine."

"How did I never see that before?"

"I'm good at hiding things. I'm sorry Chlo."

"For what? And stop apologizing!"

"I'm sorry I never told you…"

"Hey, none of that. I get it. Well, I get that you had reasons why you did it. I'm more mad at myself for never realizing. I can't imagine how hard that must have been. That explains why your eating habits were always so strange."

"Yeah. Hard to deliver insulin properly when I eat out, and a lot of foods are hard to deliver for." Beca yawned halfway through her sentence.

"You're probably tired. Get some sleep okay? I'll be right here." Beca laid down and Chloe wrapped her arm around Beca. Beca took that as a good sign and nestled into Chloe's side.

"Hey Chloe?"

"Yeah?"

"Would… would you sing for me? Til I fall asleep?" Chloe smiled brightly at Beca.

"Course." Beca draped her arm with the IV gently over Chloe's stomach and put her head on Chloe's chest, feeling immediately relaxed in the comfort of Chloe's arms. It just felt so right to her. I wonder if Chloe thinks it feels right? What am I gonna do when she graduates? Beca's thoughts were drowned out by Chloe's soft singing above her. Beca fell asleep to Chloe's voice with one thought running through her mind. God I love her.

"I'm bulletproof

Nothing to lose

Fire away, fire away

Ricochet you take your aim

Fire away, fire away

You shoot me down

But I won't fall

I am titanium

Shot me down

But I wont fall

I am titanium"

Beca jerked awake. She looked around and noticed she was alone, and that it was 12:30 am. She fell asleep with Chloe around 3 or so. She felt the tears on her face and wiped then violently.

"Stupid, stupid dream. Fuck you mom." Beca muttered under her breath as she grabbed her phone and glasses. She wasn't going to go back to sleep, she knew she would just have another nightmare anyway. She always has the same nightmares while she's in the hospital. Images of her mom, who she never even knew, walking away from her while she cries and begs her to stay. Beca's only ever seen her mother's face in pictures, but those dreams were always so vivid, it was as if Beca had watched her mother leave first hand. She skimmed through the texts with the Bellas, glad that neither Aubrey or Chloe had said anything in the group text. Am I going to have to tell the rest of the Bellas? Beca noticed she had a text from Chloe, just between the two of them. It read

"You were sleeping really soundly so I didn't wake you. When you get up text me 3 Chlo"

Beca smiled to herself, hoping that that heart meant more than it did. She thought about texting Chloe, but immediately decided not to. She wasn't going to be selfish and wake Chloe up when she has class tomorrow. What she didn't know was that across town, Chloe was sitting up staring at her phone, and saw that Beca had just read her text.

C-"Hey stranger ;)"

B- "Shouldn't you be sleeping? You have class tomorrow. :P"

C- "Couldn't sleep. What about you?"

B- "Just woke up. Didn't sleep well. L"

C- "Aw, why not?"

B- "Nightmares. The usual."

C- "What are they about?"

B- "My mom. I always have them when I'm in here. Not sure why but… eh."

C- "Becs are you going to tell the Bellas?"

B- "Tell them what?"

C- "About your Diabetes." Beca sighed and thought for a moment.

B- "I guess I don't have much choice. I kinda had seizures in front of everyone. Maybe when I'm out…"

C- "I could help you? Make it easier?"

B- "That'd be great, thanks Chlo. Shit, it's really late, or early. I'll let you go, you have your Russian Lit class at 8 right?"

C- "I do, but I'm not going."

B- "Oh yes you are. Aubrey told me you've been skipping. You go to bed, and get your butt to class in the morning."

C- "Fiiiiine. I'll stop by after Russian Lit, okay? Night Becs 3"

B- "Night Chlo, see you tomorrow."

Beca laid back down, clutching the phone to her chest. She had been talking to Chloe for half an hour and was already feeling the sleep coming on. She didn't want to sleep, she knew she would have those nightmares again, but she felt like this time, she just might not. Beca put her glasses and phone back on the table and for the first time ever, she slept peacefully in her hospital bed.

Beca woke up to the sound of the door quietly being closed and heels clicking on the floor towards her. She slowly opened her eyes, her face breaking out into a smile at the sight. Beca wiped the sleep from her eyes.

"Hi."

"I'm sorry did I wake you?" Chloe sat down in the chair next to Beca's bed, taking her hand in hers.

"Yeah, but it's ok. How was Russian Lit?"

"Alright. You know how I am with that class." Chloe's nose scrunched up at her distaste for her class.

"I know how you feel." Angie walked in with Beca's breakfast and smiled a greeting at both of them.

"Let me know when you finish eating alright?"

"Of course." Beca's breakfast was the usual, Rice Krispies and a banana. Chloe stood up and made the cereal for Beca while she grabbed her glasses. Beca made a face at Chloe.

"What?"

"I could have done that."

"With one hand?"

"You'd be surprised what years of practice does for 'one hand.' Chlo."

"Yeah, well, when I'm here I'll be doing it for you so get over it." Beca sighed as she sat up and started eating her cereal. Beca finished eating and buzzed for a nurse.

"All done Beca?"

"Yep." Angie handed Beca a capped syringe and waited patiently. Beca lifted up her shirt and gave herself the injection in her stomach. She capped the needle and handed it back to Angie. Angie threw the needle in the sharps box and cleaned up Beca's breakfast.

"Thanks Angie."

"No problem sweetie. Be back later." As Angie left, she winked at Chloe.

"So, what do you usually do while you're in here?"

"Not much. Watch TV and sleep usually. Stress about all the work I have to do when I'm out. I should be out tomorrow I think." Chloe grabbed the TV remote and turned on the Food Network, then unceremoniously climbed in next to Beca. Beca rested her head on Chloe's shoulder, and before she fell asleep again murmured something in her sleepy haze. Something she wouldn't have said in any other situation, for the sake of her sanity and her friendship. Not to mention her fear of commitment.

"Thanks Chlo. Love you."