"Hey, what up shawshank?" Fat Amy asks from the kitchen counter as she and Stacie sort out their mail.
"Hey Bec, Jesse called a few minutes ago asking for you. Why didn't you have your phone with you? He was asking where you were and sounded kind of tense." Emily informs her.
"What?! Em, why didn't you tell me sooner?" Beca asks as she briskly swipes the phone from Emily's hand.
As the phone rings, Beca goes to her room, slamming the bedroom door and begins tapping her nails against her desk.
"Hey Beca, how are you? The baby, is he or she okay?"
"The baby's fine. It was just a scare." Beca reassures him bitterly.
"Beca, I don't understand. Why are putting up walls again? Is it the hormones?"
"This isn't about the hormones." She snaps.
"Then what is it Beca? Why are you suddenly pushing me away?"
"Because Chloe actually cares.. Actually, never mind."
"No, you don't think I haven't noticed you've been neglecting me for your best friend lately?" He consults her.
"Whoa, what?!" Beca asks, taken by surprise.
"It feels like whenever we try to make a decision about what we want to do, you always base yours around your friendship with Chloe."
"Jesse, you're being ridiculous! It's totally irrational to move halfway across the country when we have a baby on the way and graduation! And I can't leave the Bella's, they're my friends. Don't you think it would be kinda a dirt move to leave them? To leave Chloe?"
"I can't believe you're being selfish! This opportunity is great for the both of us."
Beca angrily stumbles upon her words in her head, trying to find the right response to Jesse's accusation.
"I just don't think we are ready for something this big. I mean Jess, we're practically just kids ourselves! We're just starting out and obviously have no idea what we're doing, admit it!" Beca feels tears stinging the back of her eyes in frustration.
"Well then maybe 'we' were never really ready for this. Maybe I just need to stay here awhile."
"Or you could come home to your wife." She mumbles to herself.
"Beca?" He asks softly, now more calm, and wanting to reason with her.
"Fine," She sighs.
"I wish you the best with your new career. I hope you're happy there." She finishes, feeling guilty that her words came out like daggers even though they were meant with all sincerity.
"Becs, it's only temporary. But, I guess we'll see each other when i'm back." He promises.
"Yeah, if... But for now, Chloe and I will be fine raising 'our' inevitable baby." She whispers to herself as she throws her phone on the floor, walking to her bed and lying with her face under her pillow, hiding her stressed expression.
-XXX-
"My goodness Bec, you're bump is so cute!" Chloe says as she bends down, getting face level with it and puts her hands on each side of Beca's stomach, smiling.
Beca smiles sheepishly and takes a step back, unintentionally pushing the ginger off.
"Chloe," Beca says, trying not to sound annoyed, at the same time blushing furiously.
"Okay, okay, sorry. I'm just so happy for you Becs! And for Baby Bechloe."
Beca smiled, even though she wasn't quite sure how she felt yet towards the ginger's enthusiasm of helping her raise the baby. There was no doubt in Beca's mind that raising this baby with her best friend was an idea Beca was totally in love with, but she feared for her baby's future, without the presence of Jesse as a father figure.
"Baby Bechl...what?" Beca asks amused.
"Yeah, Beca and Chloe. The names are together as one, just like us. Beca, I couldn't ask to be closer to anyone as a best friend than I am to you. "
"Chloe you're crazy... and lucky you're that pretty."
Chloe looks down, trying to hide her remembering blush from Beca, who caught the glance anyway, and laughed at the inside joke they shared. Chloe takes Beca's hands in her and swings them side to side, in and out.
"You ready to go?" She asks, letting go of one hand and pulling Beca out of her room.
"Chloe," Beca groans.
"Beca, we have to go and be assured that everything is fine with the baby. And since Jesse isn't around, I feel that it is my responsibility to take care of you while he's out finding himself or whatever." Chloe persists.
"He's not coming back. And it's not your responsibility! I'm a grown woman." Beca insists.
"Who is too stubborn to admit when she needs help, even when she needs it most."
"Fine." Beca scowls as she waddles out of the room and down the stairs.
"Look how cute you look when you're starting to waddle." Chloe notes.
-XXX-
Beca had planned on telling the Bella's she was pregnant. She really had intended to. But after her appointment with Chloe she had been feeling off, especially with a decision regarding the life of her baby once again at hand.
Chloe sits at the counter on her laptop, booking the flight to the Bella's finals just five months away. Beca in her robe, shuffles into the kitchen, waddling slowly side to side, as if she was overcome by a sudden dizziness. Chloe looks away from her laptop and her face lights up at the sight of Beca making her way into the kitchen.
"Hey Bec, did you get some sleep?" Chloe asks, once again in her motherly tones.
"I don't know that I really can sleep when I have all this stuff flooding my mind." Beca moans.
"Aw Bec. It'll be alright, I promise. And whatever you decide, it'll be okay." Chloe consoles her, pulling her into a hug.
"Then I want to get the amniocentesis." She whispers.
"Okay," Chloe sighs, putting her hands on Beca's arms, then dropping them.
"But Beca, the risks." Chloe warns quietly, not to worry the other Bella's.
"Chloe, as selfish as it seems, I can't live these next five months knowing that something could be wrong with my baby."
"But what would knowing exactly what was wrong change? It definitely wouldn't change the fact that your baby could have a disability."
"I know but,"
"But nothing. I know that if anything happened to you and nothing could be done, that it wouldn't change how I felt about you. So why is this baby different than that? Or different than how we treat Emily like our daughter and something happen to her?"
"It wouldn't. But I just wanna be prepared." Beca sighs.
"And we will be. Go get some rest. We'll let the other Bella's in on what's happening later when we know."
Beca was unsure how she felt about saying no to the test and she really wanted to trust Chloe. But at the Doctor's office, when she had first heard the words, "We need to do a clearer test for disabilities." she had felt frightened at the thought and by the thought of a needle going in her stomach, drawing fluid from her baby, and the 1 in 300 risk of miscarriage on the line. But Chloe had looked at Beca and must have sensed her fear, because she took Beca's left hand in hers, and smiled up at the perfect baby moving inside of her best friend.
"The baby's kicking." Beca had whispered, smiling, and Chloe rest her hand on Beca's stomach as Beca guided it to the spot where she had felt the butterflies. But even after all that, Beca could still not convince herself that everything was alright with the baby.
-XXX-
Now a month had passed and everything at the amniocentesis seemed alright though the results weren't back, but Beca was still unsure of herself. A dull pain that had started at her naval early that afternoon, which eventually made its way to her lower right side, crippling her and rendered her helpless in an almost fetal position on her bed. Her face turned a ghostly white, a discoloring shade paler than Chloe's ginger skin in the summer.
"Becs, you're burning up." Chloe notes as she presses the back of her hand against Beca's forehead.
Becs groans and pushes her hands against her face, then rubs her eyes filled with a glossy, pained look in them.
Chloe returns with a wet, cold, cloth just wrung out enough so it was not soaking, but damp. She set the cloth behind Beca, wrapping it on the back of her neck, which Chloe noted was slick with sweat, a few beads sticking.
The cloth acted as if it was some trigger, as Beca loosened up and feet herself go limp at the feeling of coolness sending a comforting chill up her neck. It was then, when she was completely relaxed, that Beca felt herself roll involuntarily to the edge of the bed and hurl over, leaving Chloe as the unfortunate receiver of what was to come. Beca gagged, then shot bile from her mouth, making Beca feel as if she had no control over her body. Instant relief soon flooded over her.
Chloe who tended to usually be the first to freak over small situations, noticed once Beca was finished, that Beca had puked all over her shoes and vomit cornered the edges of Beca's mouth, and she calmly took the cool cloth and wiped the yellow substance from the small brunettes mouth, as tears were brought to Beca's gray, weary, eyes.
"Uhn..." She whines.
"It's okay, you're okay." Chloe whispers reassuringly to her.
"I feel like i'm dying." She groans over dramatically.
"That's why you need help." Chloe says, sitting her up, and Beca groans.
"It's just a stomach ache and fever." Beca insists.
"Yeah, but you're pregnant. Every little pill you take has to be checked. Even Tylenol."
Chloe stands Beca up and begins walking her to the living room to keep a better eye on her. Beca sways, and suddenly her knees buckle and her weight shifts from under her, causing Beca to lose balance and fall backward, but Chloe catches her, and throws Beca's arm around her shoulder.
"Here, put your arm around me." Chloe demands gently as she takes Beca's arm around her back.
Chloe moves Beca onto the couch and disappears into the kitchen, and from a distance Beca hears Chloe on the phone with her doctor, and the sound of the medicine cabinet creaking open. Pills clink against the bottle as Chloe shakes two into her hand and closes it back up, setting it into the cabinet.
"Here Becs, take these and stay sitting up. You'll feel better soon." Chloe instructs her, handing her the small pills and a glass of water.
"Is channel 32 alright?" Chloe asks as she clicks on the tv set.
"Whatever." Beca brushes it off, focusing on subsiding her pounding headache.
Chloe sits next to her on the couch and Beca leans over, resting her head on Chloe's lap, and Chloe willingly rests her hand on her back, as Beca lets herself fall limp into it.
Chloe quietly watches tv while she lets Beca rest on her lap, and Beca stares blankly, not really watching the tv, but staring straight above it. Suddenly her vision becomes hazy and she blinks. It temporarily turns back to normal but soon fades again, and visions of three tv's rather than one spin clockwise. Beca sits up suddenly, rubbing her eyes, and startles Chloe.
"Uhn." Beca moans,
"Beca,are you alright?" Chloe asks, looking over after hearing her friend's discomfort.
Beca leans over and sets her head in between her palms, then leans her head into her knees best she could, the pregnant belly protruding her from bending all the way over.
"No, I feel sick, and nauseas. I need to throw up again." She groans.
"Oh, okay! Here, grab my hand." Chloe outreaches her hand and pulls Beca up, but Beca stumbles on her feet, struggling to regain her balance.
Chloe throws Beca's arm around her neck, and her own around Beca's back, and walks her to the bathroom, where Beca collapses onto her knees and grips the sides of the seat and hurled over the bowl. Chloe was quick to grab her hair, scooping it back and grabbing the pony from her wrist to tie it into a low ponytail as Beca violently threw up into the bowl. When Beca was done, she leaned back against the closed door.
"Beca, are you sure you're okay?" Chloe consoles her.
"Chloe, i'm sure i'm…"
Beca froze, color leaving her face, as she felt her world spinning around her. She babbled nonsense as she tried to focus, but the pain in her stomach was only worsened by her violent episode of vomiting. Beca began to lean over, lying on her side in crippling pain as she felt Chloe's soft hands stroke her hair and her distant voice telling her that it was going to be okay only before everything went dark.
"Call somebody!" Chloe screamed in terror before realizing that they were the only two in the home at the time. Chloe was going to have to take over.