Chap 4

By the time Thursday night rolled around, Beca was almost pulling her hair out. Emily was determined to stay home with her mother, citing various ridiculous reasons ranging from Miss Abernathy sent home far too much homework ("Emily, you are in Kindergarten!" "It's never too early to set a good foundation!"), to Chloe promised to teach me to bake brownies ("I promised no such thing!" "Narc!"). It got to the stage where Beca was crying on the phone to Jesse as she attempted to pack Emily's weekender, while the girl was tearing the clothes from the bag.

"Seriously Becs, get Ryan on the phone and let him listen to how worked up Em is. Forcing her to go is just going to piss her off and she's too much like you to take that lying down."

"You think I haven't tried that, Jess? He just accused me of… Emily, please just cooperate! ("No!") Jesse, I'll call you back, I need to deal with… this…" Beca hung up the phone and tossed it onto the bed, before picking up the two sweaters that Emily had dumped on the carpet. "Emily, your dad…"

"I am not going! I just spent the whole weekend in Atlanta with him and his stinky girlfriend! He couldn't be bothered before so why should I be bothered now?" Emily yelled, her tiny voice cracking slightly.

Beca's shoulders dropped, so this is the problem. "Honey, c'mere." She held her arms out and pulled the sobbing girl to her chest. "That's not… Daddy's trying. He wants you and Anita to get along…"

"I don't wanna go! He doesn't want me, Momma!"

Beca couldn't help the tears that rolled down her cheeks. This was what she was worried about. Emily was hurting.

Emily's sobs were broken by tiny hiccups, "Don't make me go!"

"Emily, this will be the last time. I promise you this. If you don't want to visit after this weekend, I'm not going to force you… Please just…" Beca sighed as she was interrupted by the doorbell. She lifted Emily into her arms, trying to wipe her tears away with one hand. "Come on, lets go."

Emily tried to squirm out of her mothers arms, kicking and screaming, "I'm not going!"

"Em, hon, it's just the doorbell…" the screaming continued until Beca put her down. She bolted as fast as her tiny legs could carry her into the bedroom, slamming the door impressively.

Beca wiped her face as best she could as she walked the hallway to the front door. She opened the door with a sigh. Chloe was standing in front of her, two pizza boxes and Tupperware container in her arms. Beca stood back solemnly, knowing there was no way that her friend missed Emily's screams.

Chloe moved to the counter and deposited the containers, quickly pulling Beca in for a hug, "Let me go see if I can settle her down. Wash your face and get some plates out, ok?" Beca nodded and moved towards the sink. She heard Chloe tap softly on Emily's door. She wondered how Chloe knew that she was having a rough night, Probably Jesse.

In a strange twist of fate, or whatever, Jesse had recently started dating Chloe's best friend, after they reconnected at Chloe's café. It was an adorable story, at least Chloe seemed to think so, especially since her friend Aubrey had a rule against dating people from Jesse's a cappella group.

Beca was getting plates out of the cabinet when she heard a soft sniffle from behind her. She placed the plates on the countertop and turned around. Chloe was seated on the barstool and Emily was standing patiently, her bottom lip quivering as her body jolted with the dry sobs that were still wracking her tiny form. Beca kneeled down, and held her hand out.

Emily quickly grabbed it, "I'm sorry for screaming at you Momma. I just don't want to go. But I'll go, because dad is trying."

Beca looked up at Chloe who was looking pointedly in the opposite direction, probably with a smug look on her face. "Thank you, Emily. I guess I could've handled it a little better as well." She quickly hugged her daughter, squeezing her tightly, "Chloe bought pizza."

"Chloe's the best," Emily sniffed.

Beca chuckled, "Yeah she is…"

"Can I have two pieces?"

"You can have as much pizza as will fit in that little belly of yours," Beca answered. She stood up and grabbed the plates from the counter and handed them to Emily, "Plates on the coffee table, and cushions off couch. You know the drill, minion." Emily shuffled from the room leaving the two adults in a comfortable silence. Beca took three bottles of water from the fridge, and placed them on the counter, "Thank you."

"What for?" Chloe asked as she stacked the pizza boxes.

"Whatever you did in there. You heard her before you got inside. She was so angry at me and I had no idea how to fix it."

Chloe rounded the counter and wrapped Beca in another hug, "Oh Becs, she wasn't mad at you, babe. She was mad at the situation. Her tiny body isn't used to feeling that much negativity so she took it out on the only thing nearby."

"What are you? The baby whisperer?"

Chloe shrugged, "I've been there too. My dad wasn't around, so I took it out on mum. I was older than Emily, but I know what it's like, thinking your dad loves his job more than his family."

Beca looked up, "How'd you know?"

Chloe smirked, "Aubrey and Jesse were watching movies when you rang. She heard you crying and figured you'd need someone."

"Mom! Chloe! I can't read and we need to choose a movie!"

Beca laughed, "That's our cue. Thank you. You probably had better things to be doing tonight."

Chloe bumped Beca with her shoulder as she grabbed the pizza boxes, "Well, I was in the middle of ordering pizza so I could sit at home watching Game of Thrones with my twelve cats…"

"Nerd."

Friday morning found Beca, Chloe and Emily being woken rudely in a tangle of blankets and cushions by Chloe's alarm sounding at some ungodly hour. Emily growled and grabbed Chloe's phone off the table before reaching over her mom and dropping it on Chloe's stomach.

Beca whined as she rolled off Chloe, having somehow managed to curl into her friend's side sometime during the night. "Chlo what the fuck?"

"Mom," came Emily's hoarse reprimand.

Chloe, having finally managed a coherent thought, switched the alarm off and rolled over the top of Beca, dragging Emily over as she tried to escape Beca's grasp. "Gotta open the café at 6, Flo's already there baking so I have to go."

Emily groaned and climbed on top of her mother and wrapping herself around Chloe, "Don't go!"

"Honey, Chloe still needs to go home and get dressed and have a shower…"

"We have a shower and she can wear your clothes. Can't you stay for breakfast, Chloe? Please?"

Chloe turned her head to glance at Beca, "Mind if I borrow one of your least plaid shirts?"

Beca swatted her with a pillow, "Be careful or I'll make you do a walk of shame. Not everything I own is plaid."

Chloe laughed and let Emily move the pillow off her face, "Your mom is mean, Emily."

"She's just in a bad mood coz you woke her up early and she's gonna be alone for two days. Will you let her hang out with you when I'm gone?"

"Oh I suppose so," Chloe said, not letting on that she'd already organised for Stacie and Ashley to cover her weekend shifts so she could keep Beca company.

"How long have you got?" Beca asked, trying to budge Emily closer to Chloe so she could get up.

Chloe checked her phone, "Bout an hour."

Beca stretched out as much as she could with Emily's legs over her and Chloe's shoulder under her head, "Guys, up… Em, you wanna go jump in your shower and I'll get Chloe set for hers."

"Mom, Chloe's a big girl. She can shower on her own…"

So Ryan was actually on time to pick Emily up, which was a miracle considering his history. Emily, being the gracious little brat that she was, managed to keep civil, even though Beca could see the anger dancing across her features. Beca had to admit that she teared up a little. She hated it when Emily was away, it felt like a little piece of her heart was missing. As she left the airport, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.

Chloe Fricken Beale: Plans? :D

Beca scoffed, and punched out a reply, Hot date ;)

Beca chuckled as Chloe's message bubble kept showing up, either she was writing a novel or she'd been thrown by Beca's answer.

Chloe Fricken Beale: That's too bad… Me and my 12 cats are gonna hang out on the couch with Chinese and ice cream :P

Beca grinned, Date can wait…

Chloe Fricken Beale: I live above the café, so if you get lost I'm not helping.

The cab ride from the airport to the café was ridiculously long, punctuated by playful text messages from Chloe and the odd teasing message from Jesse. After paying the driver, Beca walked to the left of the café, as instructed in a previous message. She found the staircase easily, it certainly wasn't overly visible unless you were looking for it. There was a moment of panic when she hit the landing. What if Chloe really did have twelve cats? What if this was actually a DATE date and she didn't know?

Just knock on the damn door, Mitchell! Beca sucked a deep breath and knocked heavily. She barely had to wait, the door was pulled open less than a minute later.

"What? Were you waiting by the door?" Beca queried, a smug smirk fixed in place.

"Ah, no! I was just walking past. Possibly pacing," Chloe rambled out. She shook her head nervously and stepped to the side, "I don't actually have twelve cats."

"Oh thank god! I don't know whether I could handle that much baggage," Beca said.

"So are you gonna come in or just stand out there in the cold?"

Beca laughed and stepped in, "Shut up. So what are we doing if not playing with your cats?"

"Well, I vaguely remember you saying that you hate movies, but what would you do if I told you that I have recordings of Jesse singing a Cyndi Lauper medley?"

Beca grinned and dropped onto a couch, "Probably anything you asked. I'm just saying."

"And if it was inappropriate?" Chloe said, flicking the tv on.

"Define inappropriate?" Beca countered with a smirk.

"Touche."

By Sunday afternoon, Beca had only been by her house once to pick up some clean clothes. It seemed terribly empty when Emily wasn't stomping around practicing some new dance move she'd learned at that preppy, arts-school type kindergarten.

Saturday had consisted of a meeting with Chloe's BFF, Aubrey, a specialist divorce lawyer who had a talent for smoothing out messy custody cases. The meeting went well, Aubrey suggesting always having someone with her when she dealt with Ryan about Emily, after she chastised Beca for letting Ryan bully her into this weekend's trip. Chloe had decided to tag along to the airport to pick Emily up. ("Aubrey's orders!" "Don't you have twelve cats to go home to?")

It was a long wait. The plane was due to fly in around three pm, so to Beca and Chloe stopped in at a small café in the arrivals lounge. In hindsight it was probably a bad idea, Beca spent every other minute staring at the arrivals board, prolonging the wait. Chloe tried to take her mind off it, having uploaded a few of her videos of Jesse and Fat Amy in their a cappella glory onto her phone. The closer it got to three o'clock, the more the tremors in Beca's left hand showed.

"Come on Beca, look, the plane has landed, so it won't be too long now," Chloe said, she grabbed Beca's hand, hoping that it might stop the twitching as passengers began trickling out of the hall.

"I've got a bad feeling, Chlo. I don't know what it is…" Beca fell silent, blood draining from her face as the Arrivals board cleared the LA flight to the baggage area. "We should have seen them by now."

Chloe tightened her grip on Beca's hand, "Hey, maybe they just got lost in the crowd. You told Ryan you'd meet him here, so he's probably just grabbing Em's bags."

Beca nodded still scanning the crowd, she knew she was more likely to see Ryan than Emily so she kept watch. By four o'clock, Chloe could feel Beca panicking next to her, so in a hopeful attempt to calm her down, she stood up and said, "I'll be right back." Beca nodded and sat put, knowing that Chloe would easily find her way back.

Chloe made a beeline for the first security guard she could find. "Can I help you ma'am?"

"I'm not sure. My friend and I are here to pick up her daughter. She was supposed to be on the three o'clock flight from LA with her father, but we haven't seen either of them."

The guard looked around and pointed out the airline kiosk, which was thankfully out of Beca's line of sight. "I'll call ahead and let them know to expect you."

Twenty minutes of arguing, a tearful phone call to Aubrey and a lot of pacing later, Chloe made her way back the café. She took one look at Beca, whose hand was tapping out a rhythm on the tabletop, apparently to the annoyance of the patrons behind her, and steeled herself. This was not going to be a pleasant conversation.

"Becs?"

Beca stood up and shouldered her bag, "They're not here, are they?"

Chloe shook her head, "I just spoke to the airline, Emily and Ryan's tickets were both cancelled Friday night. I spoke to Bree, she said to get Ryan on the phone immediately and see if we can find out why they aren't here. If he doesn't answer, or he blocks your calls, we're cabbing it to Bree's."

Chloe watched Beca's face crumble, "Why is he doing this, Chloe? Why now?"

"I don't know, Becs. Dial the number."

Beca nodded, "Right. Dialling now." She pulled her phone out and dialled Ryan's number using the speakerphone. The number you have called is unreachable. Please check the number and try again. "Fuck."

Dial.

The number you have called is unreachable. Please check the number and try again…