Chloe's life after college had a slow start. She had finally graduated after seven years, but she was still not convinced about her next steps. Faced with a shortage of options, she took a job teaching music at a downtown youth centre. The director of the centre warned her that she'd be dealing with troubled teens who were struggling at school and at home. Most of them had been forced to join the program to avoid worse options. She was undeterred, she would work hard and stay positive and she really believed she might be able to inspire some of the kids to love music like she did. But she soon learned that her positive attitude couldn't overcome everything. The facilities were lacking, and she taught a very small number of very uninspired kids. Some of them were kind enough to tell her not to waste her time and energy on them.

Sometimes she felt a lonely in those first few months. Her college friends had either moved away or they couldn't find enough free time in their increasingly busy professional lives to meet with her. Most of the teachers at the school were a bit older and not interested in socializing after work. They seemed like a cynical group, who perhaps had regretted their career choice, so she didn't see any of them as potential friends.

She wasn't interested in joining another A Capella group outside college. She didn't want to be among the ranks of those lame, aging A Capella singers, turning up outside college competitions, desperate to perform but too old to compete. Plus no other group would ever do, not after the Barden Bellas.

She had tried to keep in touch with the Bellas and especially Beca. But the phone calls and messages between them were becoming more and more infrequent. Over time she started to find conversations with Beca difficult, when Beca was so excited about her blossoming career, while she was still feeling lost and stuck in a job going nowhere. She was genuinely happy for Beca and her success, but she knew that their paths and their lives were just going in different directions. At least, at that moment they were.

Six months into the job Chloe was feeling desperate. Something needed to change or she would have to quit. Something did change - the centre lost its funding for the music program. The director delivered the news to Chloe as an apology, and in compensation he offered to tee up a part time role for her through his contacts at the adult education centre nearby. She accepted; it would give her time to figure out what to do next. She started assisting and teaching classes in the creative arts department, but they were so short staffed that she could do almost whatever she put her hand up for. Paying adult proved to be a more rewarding student group to teach. Just like at the youth centre, her new colleagues seemed to be stuck in a rut professionally, but Chloe was inspired. She knew she couldn't stay there long term and allow the same to happen to her. She now knew what she was supposed to do next - go back to college.

oOoOo

Life in LA was good, according to Beca Mitchell. She was employed by Arrow Records, a reasonably well-known studio, where she got to learn from and work with some talented music producers. Her employers promised her a bright future in the music business, but she'd have to work hard for it. Long hours and weekend work were standard, but she felt lucky to have this opportunity and she wasn't going to waste it. She knew she was letting her career control her life, but for now that's what she had to do. Friendships and relationships were going to have to suffer for a while until she established herself in the industry. In reality they had already suffered in the short time she had been in LA.

She and Chloe sent messages and spoke on the phone regularly after graduation, but her busy work life had started taking over. The last time they spoke she had noticed that Chloe wasn't like her usual bubbly self. She had tried to reassure Chloe; reminding her that she was confident, smart, and good with people. Teaching was the perfect profession for her. But Chloe hadn't agreed. Beca didn't know how to talk to this unfamiliar Chloe - Chloe with a negative attitude.

One month without contact became two. Beca would sometimes see a missed call or message from Chloe but she never found the time, or never made the time, to return them. Her work was taking all her time and energy. She probably needed to take a break after almost a year of working solidly.

Beca was trudging through her building towards her apartment after another twelve hour day at work when she noticed the overflow from her mailbox. She often forgot to collect it for a few days when she was overworked. She collected a few bills, some junk mail and an oversized envelope with a hand written address. She threw the rest of the mail in her bag and turned this more interesting letter over. She instantly recognised the big blue B symbol on the back; the Barden Bellas. Inside the envelope was a wedding invitation.

Cynthia Rose had hand written "Beca Mitchell" but she had scribbled over the printed "plus one" on the invitation, and written "Jesse" inside a heart shape instead. Beca groaned. She would have to explain the end of her relationship with Jesse when she arrived at the wedding with someone else, or alone. And it was going to be a hassle to get to Maine from LA just for a weekend, but she didn't think twice about accepting. She was really excited to see all the Bellas again.

oOo

Beca made the journey to Maine alone. Chloe was the first to noticed Jesse's absence, or at least the first to comment on it.

"Where's Jesse?" she asked while she was crushing Beca to her in a huge hug. The recent estrangement between them was apparently forgotten.

Beca wanted to get this part over quickly and not drag the party down with a breakup story.

"The relationship just came to an end," Beca said, "it worked in college but now things are different, we are older, we want different things." She hadn't talked to anyone about Jesse after they ended things. Now she was speaking too fast and prattling on. 'It ran its course, you know, but we are still friends. We work better as friends. We're cool. It's cool. Really."

It was true that they had agreed to be friends, but she had never called him again. She suspected that it had all been her doing; that she hadn't been able to make it work. She let someone in and then pushed him away. She told him, and herself, that her career had to take priority for now, but maybe that was that just a convenient escape from the commitment.

"Well these things happen," Chloe said, "Ok, let get some drinks ladies."

oOo

After a short wedding ceremony, the former Bellas gravitated together at the reception. They all needed the downtime away from the stress and realities of their lives after college, and being a Bella's reunion was a bonus. They talked about how their lives had changed in the year since they had seen each other. Beca was reluctant to add to the conversation. What could she say? 'I worked, and I broke up with Jesse.'

Chloe, on the other hand, was eager to share the details of her plans to return to study. There it was - Chloe's old sparkle. It was capturing Beca's full attention while Chloe gushed about the graduate courses and new cities she was researching. Beca wanted to ask if any of the colleges out west were near the top of the list, but she kept quiet.

As the evening progressed, and the quantity of drinks increased, they reminisced about some of the events from their times together as Bellas; from initiation night to the amazing finale on stage in Copenhagen.

When Chloe was dispatched to the bar for the next round of drinks, Cynthia Rose confided, "You know, when Chloe made us go on that retreat at Aubrey's place in the woods before worlds, I thought were definitely finished, there was no way it would help us, I was sure we would only end up fighting even more."

"Yeah, I thought it was a terrible idea too, I expected someone was going to be murdered. Probably Chloe. Probably murdered by Beca. Beca, you were so testy that day," Amy said.

"I know," Beca replied. "I really regretted what I said to Chloe then, to all of you. And I never told Chloe that she was right. It was a good call bringing us there. I should have been more open to her ideas."

"Yeah, you should," Chloe said with a wink as she arrived back with a tray loaded with beers and shots.

oOo

They danced and drank for a few more hours until the music stopped. It was only midnight, but they didn't have the same stamina as when they were at Barden. And since they all had to travel the next day, they all sensibly opted for sleep and avoiding a worse hangover.

They let the function room and crammed into the tiny elevator to get to their hotel rooms.

"Which floors ladies?" Amy asked.

There were shouts of "3", "6", "4" and "7".

Amy pressed all the required buttons. At each floor where the elevator stopped there were extended goodbyes for the departing Bellas, even though everyone was staying in town until late the next day. On the sixth floor Beca and Chloe both got out.

After the elevator doors closed, they walked together in silence down the 6th floor corridor. Beca stopped at her door. "Ok, this is me, 608."

Beca put her keycard in the door and paused before opening it. She turned to Chloe, who had also stopped and was now watching Beca.

"OK, so, 'night Chloe. See you tomorrow morning."

"Let me see your room I bet it's nicer than mine." Chloe was a little drunk, and a natural flirt. She gently pushed Beca through her own door and followed behind her.

"Come on in then, I guess," Beca said.

Chloe was already inside the room. She sat on the bed, leaned back on her elbows and looked around to appraise the room.

"I think my room is bigger but you've got a balcony. Nice.

"Ok, Becs, you find us something from the mini bar, I'm going to check out the balcony."

Beca wasn't sure what was happening but she silently complied. It was great to spend time in Chloe's company again. She chose two miniature bottles of vodka and poured them. She looked out to the balcony where Chloe was now leaning right over the railing and belting out 'Titanium'. Beca brought the drinks over but waited inside the balcony door, letting Chloe sing on a little longer. Chloe was a fun drunk. Beca enjoyed watching her being goofy, plus she would have a good story to tell the Bellas at lunch tomorrow. Beca could enjoy Chloe's humiliation for a change. Then again, sober Chloe probably wouldn't see anything embarrassing about her behaviour right now. She waited a few more moments before realising she had spent a little too long looking up and down her friend's body. She squeezed her eyes shut for a few seconds then stepped out onto the balcony to get Chloe's attention with the drinks.

Chloe was leaning over the thin railing on the balcony. She had kicked off her shoes and only her toes were barely touching the ground. Beca was suddenly alarmed, it looked unsafe. She moved quickly to guide Chloe back to safety but they ended up in an awkward embrace, with Beca balancing the drinks that were still in her hands.

"Careful Chloe, I don't want to have to explain to the police how a woman in a pretty dress fell from my hotel balcony in the middle of the night."

Beca started to release her arms but Chloe remained standing very close to her. Beca took a step back and handed one of the drinks to Chloe. She broke their eye contact to look to the glass in her hand and take a sip from it. She looked back to Chloe. Chloe slowly took her glass to her lips and drank about half the measure, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on Beca's the whole time.

Beca had a pretty good idea what was happening now. Chloe stepped forward, further into Beca's space. She leaned in closer, and whispered something about a good time to deal with lingering regrets. Beca couldn't focus on her words, only on the feeling of Chloe's warm breath on her neck. Without thinking, her hands moved to Chloe's hips. Chloe let her lips trail a little along Beca's skin as she pulled away. She turned slowly and deliberately, and walked through the balcony door, back inside the room. As Beca stared after her, Chloe put the half empty glass of vodka on the bedside table. Still with her back to Beca she began to unzip her dress.

Oh screw it, Beca thought, and she followed after Chloe.

oOo

Beca reasoned that she needed this; her bed had been such a lonely place since Jesse left. She was allowed to let her usual strong instincts for self preservation to lapse this one time. And Chloe had hook ups like this all the time in college. Chloe would know how to take the awkwardness out of the morning after, if there was any. To Beca's slightly alcohol addled brain, it was just a zipless fuck.

Afterwards, the sound of their laboured breathing filled the room. Beca stared at the ceiling, unsure how to restart a conversation with Chloe.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting my night to finish up like this," Chloe said, before the silence got too weird.

"Oh my God," Beca said, "You were throwing yourself at me all night. This is exactly where you planned to be." Joking about Chloe's libido allowed the easy conversation, even if it meant lying. Chloe had flirted with her all night, the same as she had since day one of their friendship. But until they were on the balcony earlier, Beca had never seen Chloe cross that line, past innocent teasing to such a wanton behaviour. Beca hadn't seen it coming, and she reacted in an uncharacteristically impulsive way. But now she was a little buzzed in her post coital haze and trying to ignore the niggling feeling of having made a mistake.

They laughed lightly, both still looking at the ceiling. Then they fell silent. Beca turned to lie on her side facing away from Chloe.

"I really gotta get some sleep now, 'night Chlo," she said, though it took her a while to stop thinking and fall asleep.

Chloe adjusted her position in the bed too and hummed back at her, clearly she was planning to stay until morning. The air between them didn't seem strained but it wasn't intimate either. It would have to wait until the morning to assess what this had done to their friendship.