A/N: As always, thank you so much for all the support! I can't reiterate enough how much it means. I split this chapter into two parts because I wanted to put so many events in it that it would have been over 12,000 words long. Which I know you probably wouldn't mind, but I thought it was a bit much. For the bunks, I'm using the same layout from "Orange is the New Black" because they work and I wanted them to be open. This chapter has a lot of background in it, some needed lead up to the next two (and final) chapters. With that being said, I hope you enjoy it!
Oh! And don't worry becs, no matter who winds up protecting Chloe there will be some sexiness. ;)
Chapter 7(part1): Clumsy Encounters
The rest of the day Beca was extremely protective, her actions bordering on possessive. When Chloe sat down with Beca for breakfast she was sure to keep the foot between them that she had worked several weeks to reduce from two feet, but the brunette was apparently having none of it. The smaller woman nonchalantly slid closer, leaving no more than an inch between them, before grabbing Chloe's hand and lightly squeezing it. Their hands stayed linked under the table perched on top of Beca's knee the rest of the meal. The redhead, who thrived on physical contact, definitely wasn't complaining and just thought it was due to the recent establishment of their not so platonic relationship. Which was definitely part of it, but then she noticed the brunette was making a point to give a death glare to anyone who so much as looked at the redhead for more than two seconds. Then Beca also decided to help her empty her tray, lightly taking it from the redhead's hands before escorting her to the trash can, never letting their bodies stray more than an inch from each other.
Her actions carried over to when they sat down in a different room or moved down the hallways, minus the hand holding due to the presence of guards, much to the redhead's disappointment. Beca made up for it by pressing her thigh flat against the Chloe's while sitting together or lightly brushing shoulders with her as they walked. Beca was her own personal guard whenever Chloe had to go to the bathroom, pretending to fix herself in the sink mirror while the taller woman did whatever it was she had to do. Hand holding was back again though at lunch and everything else that had accompanied it at breakfast.
Really Chloe was okay with it because she had asked the brunette to protect her, but at the time she didn't fully realize what it would entail. Honestly a few of the brunette's actions were bothering her. Chloe was an independent woman after all. She could empty her own tray and, although the taller woman knew it was a good idea, she would have preferred to go to the bathroom on her own. She hadn't realized that Beca, being the head badass, would basically have to take her as her own prison wife. Which basically made Chloe Beca's property from the viewpoint of other inmates. She was starting to feel like Beca was her own personal guard dog who was doing everything short of peeing on her to mark that the redhead belonged to her. So when Beca decided to move up the little chat planned to take place in her bunk from evening to after lunch, Chloe felt relieved.
There were five different sleeping blocks. Most of them were fairly segregated according to race to prevent racial fighting. Chloe had often pondered why she had never seen the brunette before the day they met in the library, figuring she was in the "White" section, where Chloe's bunk was. After seeing how easy it was to miss the brunette the first day she wanted to find her after the library meeting, the redhead just chalked it up to Beca being that stealthy. She never thought much of the reasoning after that and had no reason to once they actually started spending time together. After all Beca came off as someone who needed a few hours to herself and Chloe figured the brunette had the right to not be bothered in the few hours leading up to going to bed. Besides the redhead pretty much had her all to herself the rest of the time. So she was mildly surprised when she found Beca leading her to what was called the "international" dorm area. It was an area that held people that did not quite fit into the category of White, Asian, Black, or Latino. Other times they put people in the dorm who seemed to get along with all races when there was over flow from another or if an inmate had special needs. It was known for being fairly quiet and extremely peaceful. Its diversity created more of a community or family environment that was seen outside of the dorm amongst those that slept there.
When they finally arrived at Beca's bunk, Chloe didn't know what she was expecting, but it was and wasn't what she expected from the brunette. Overall Beca's bunk was exactly like hers. Two beds on opposite walls from each other, two little end table cupboards to store personal affects, a small shelf with hooks above each bed and half walls separating one room of two bunks from the next. The redhead took the time to exam each component of the brunette's side of the room. The side table holding several books of sheet music and a few leather bound journals. The small shelf and hooks held the expected items, Beca's shower caddy sitting on the shelf and her extra clothes hanging from the hooks.
It was the half wall that Beca's bed was pushed against that caught the redhead's attention, giving her a look at what the brunette held dear. The wall was mainly plastered with pictures of mixing equipment. Some of the equipment Chloe didn't recognize, but she was able to pick out a turn table, control boards, and what looked like a very expensive pair of headphones. Surrounding the pictures of DJ-ing equipment were music sheets. Some of them where blank while others had the notes of a song written on the scales in varying colors of marker. The sheets that had notes in more than one color had the names of two or more songs written at the top in, what the redhead assumed was, the corresponding note color.
There were two pictures at the very bottom of visible wall by the pillow end of the bed, that were easily missed if someone were to briefly scan the wall. One was of a man and a woman both hugging a girl that was about 10 years old, all in winter gear. The girl in the picture looked almost exactly like the brunette that was hovering at Chloe's back as she looked around. She even had a bit of the brunette's signature smirk, surrounded by the cheeseball smiles of her parents. The second photo had the same man from the first picture, now older with more wrinkles creasing his face, and a blonde haired brown eyed woman who was not in the first picture. In place of 10 year old Beca was a sandy blonde haired boy who was about 5 years old sitting in the man's lap. All of them were dressed in ugly Christmas sweaters with smiles, equal to those found in the first picture, plastered on their faces. The second picture had a crease that cut off the woman in the photo from the man and boy, looking like it had been folded several times to hide her.
As Chloe took in the first picture again, marveling at the similarities between the woman in the photo and her present day Beca, the brunette plopped down on the foot end of the bed. Chloe soon followed, laying her head in the brunette's lap once she was situated into a cross legged position. The smaller girl immediately started running her fingers through copper locks.
"This is where I go when I don't want to be found." Fell lightly from the brunette's mouth after a few minutes of silence. Chloe smiled adoringly at the brunette taking in her words, knowing Beca was basically telling her where to find her if she were to disappear again. "It's always quite here and hardly anyone is in here until it's time to go to bed. If anyone is here they are usually asleep. Sometimes on Fridays a group of us will play cards or dominos, but besides that it is pretty much always like this." The brunette paused as if to let the current silence of the dorm encompass them before continuing, "It allows me to clear my mind and connect all the songs that are in my head into something tangible. Music is what keeps me sane... It's my safe space."
There was suddenly a certain amount of vulnerability in Bec's eyes. Chloe knew what she said next was important. It would dictate how the rest of afternoon would go and, more specifically, how the talk they came there for would go. The redhead slipped her hand into the brunette's free one and laced their fingers together before saying anything.
"That's how I feel about dance. It's like I'll hear a bit of music and all the suddenly my body is just reacting to it. Then there is nothing else but the feeling of my muscles stretching and pulling and the music in my ears. It's… freeing. I can get almost the same high off of singing when I harmonize with someone. It's the feeling of connecting and becoming a part of something bigger. Something… I can't quite explain." Chloe trailed off in wonder.
Apparently what the redhead said was the right thing because Beca was smiling down at her with a look of understanding before stealing a quick, but tender kiss from the redhead's lips. Chloe had wanted more, chasing the smaller woman's lips with closed eyes after they had left hers. When the redhead opened her eyes she was met by a suddenly serious looking Beca.
"I think you should sit up for the next bit. At least if you still want to have that conversation I promised you." Beca tried to smile in jest at the end, but it kind of fell flat.
Chloe followed the brunette's directions, untangling herself from the smaller woman before sitting up and facing Beca at the other end of the bed, mirroring her sitting position.
Beca took a deep breath before starting, "Sooo…I don't know exactly how to, um, start this."
Chloe thought for a moment. "Well did you mean what you said? About really liking me? And wanting to kiss me for a while?" Her questions made her feel like they were in high school, but it was a way of clarifying Beca's feelings for her and a logical staring point.
"Yes." The brunette stated firmly.
"Well then why won't you agree to protect me?" She couldn't help the pain that filled her voice at she stated the question.
"Because I can't actually help you." That first statement hurt. She was worth caring about, but not worth protecting. It was okay if she got beat up every day. Chloe had to close her eyes to stop the tears she felt prickling at the edges from falling. "I can't actually- I-I can't fight anyone. Not all the people needed." Beca whispered the last part, sounding defeated.
When Chloe opened her eyes, her tears starting to turn into anger, she found the brunette before her staring glumly at her shoe as she played with the laces.
"Beca! You took down 15 people in less than 10 minutes in front of probably half the prison. How can you say you can't fight all the people that are after me?"
"It was an accident." The smaller woman before her spoke so low that Chloe wasn't sure she had heard her correctly.
"What?"
The brunette curled up into herself, pulling her knees up into her chest and wrapping her arms tightly around her shins, looking even smaller than normal.
"It was an accident." Beca told her thighs in a slightly louder tone, her voice breaking at the end.
"Wait, so you took out 15 people by…. Accident?"
Chloe knit her brows together in confusion. Dark blue eyes full of tears met hers. One by one the tears fell and ran down the brunette's face, ghosting over cheeks before falling from the woman's chin or jaw line.
"I really suck at dancing. I'm like a colossal disaster. All limbs and no… um… rhythm. It's really embarrassing." Beca tried to wipe the tears from her face, but more seemed to spring up. She suddenly became interested in playing with her shoe laces again before she continued. "The first time it happened I was just trying to uh ah… fit in. I had been here for about a week and everyone was celebrating an inmate's release. I think her name was Trish or something. Anyway… everyone was ah dancing and I was just going to stay for the music. Which really kind of sucked. I-I spent like 5 minutes trying to… hyping myself up to, you know, dance. By the time I convinced myself everyone was in a uh crowd. Not that stupid juvenile circle. I thought it'd be… um safe. I'd be-I'd blend in. So I started and uh… wasn't, not in the least bit… it was a disaster. I lost my footing. Then I tried to… I tried to fix it, but I just slap-punched a bunch of people. I-I just kept moving hoping-hoping no one would notice. I finally stopped when the song was over. Everyone was just… um staring at me. Really embarrassing. I couldn't help myself… I laughed. I have this… tendency- a knack really, of fucking everything up." The brunette ran her hands roughly through her hair. "So I was just like, wow Beca way to fuck it up again. Way to do the one thing you're good at…"
Chloe had shifted closer to the brunette as she got to the end of her story. At the finishing line, the redhead felt a strong tug at her heart and an immense bubbling of sadness. She quickly took the smaller woman into her arms and hugged her close. Chloe rubbed the woman's back as sobs racked her body. When the sobs seemed to subside and the brunette's body loosened to allow the redhead to pull her closer, Chloe put her hands on either side of Beca's face to bring her eyes to her's. The redhead gently wiped the tears from the brunette's cheeks using the end of her sleeve as she spoke.
"Becs, you are not a screw up. Okay? You are actually one of the most amazing women I have ever met and you've seen how social I am. I've met a lot of people. You are far more interesting, caring, and smart than almost all of them. And I'm not just saying that because I've seen you naked, twice now, and had the great pleasure of kissing you." Beca smiled slightly at that. "Got it?" Beca nodded in the affirmative.
"Good." Chloe almost whispered, lightly stroking the brunette's jaw before capturing her lips in a long soft kiss. Once the kiss broke, Beca settled further into Chloe's embrace and nuzzled into her neck, letting out a content sigh. The redhead continued to rub the brunette's back weaving soothing patterns as her hand traveled from the base of the brunette's back to her shoulder blades, where she added a little more pressure, and back again.
"Do you know why I'm in prison?" Chloe asked as she rested her head on top of the brunette's. Beca shook her head no. "My parents were getting tired of me living at home. I was a super senior in college. So by the time I had graduated they had already been ready for me to be set up and a part of the work force two years prior. So they didn't really like the fact I spent another 3 years at home, but I wanted to open my own dance studio and it took time to save the money for a space. I finally had it all saved up and was ready to move out. I totes intended to too." Chloe sounded wistful. "I just wanted to adopt a dog so I would have a furry friend to come home to every night. I went to a local pound because I wanted to take in a dog that maybe wouldn't normally be adopted. Anyway, the woman there let it slip that most of the dogs there are put down when she went to get the paper work ready for me to finalize my adoption. I don't know why, but as I stood there surrounded by all the dogs waiting, I had the sudden urge to free them all. So that's sort of what I did." The redhead laughs at herself. "I took 20 or 30 dogs with me and put them all in my car. Technically I stole them. The lady at the pound called the cops. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't continued driving when I saw the sirens… and if some of the breeds I took weren't as valuable as they turned out to be. They eventually pulled me over though and you pretty much know the rest. It's kind of funny really. The redheaded dog napper with a heard of dogs in her car. I have no idea what I was thinking. I got a few letters from animal activist groups. They were very supportive. My parents not so much. That's why my commissary is so low." Beca placed a kiss at the base of Chloe's neck as a form of comfort. "They just saw the irresponsible Chloe that failed Russian Literature for the second time." The redhead let out a long exasperated sigh.
Beca perked up a bit, pulling lightly away from the redhead so she could meet her eyes.
"Well Chlo, I think you just proved you're the bigger sap."
After a moment of hesitation, the comment had the intended effect, resulting in a smile falling into place on the redhead's lips.
"Naaah! You totes have it in the bag. Becs you were going to sing 'Lean on Me' to try and get me to open up to you. Not to mention your little public display earlier today telling everyone I was yours." Chloe poked Beca's side playfully, smiling brighter when the other woman squirmed. "Also do you remember your little freak out moment this morning when you kissed me. Don't think I forgot about that time you missed your mouth brushing your teeth or the way you look at me. You are the queen of saps."
"First of all, I didn't have many options when it came to songs to pick from. I told you that. On your second point, I was clearly protecting you. The thing about the kiss was not sappy. I was being considerate, a gentile lady. As for the brushing my teeth thing, pretty sure that never happened. Dude, I think you imagined it."
"Whatever you say, but you know I wasn't asleep the whole time you were franticly flipping through books of music sheets yesterday. Okay, you have a point about the kiss." Beca began to smirk. "It wasn't sappy it was extremely sweet." Her smirk instantly dropped into a scowl. "As for the 'brushing your teeth thing', as you put, it totally happened. I'm going to tell my grandchildren about it. Beca Mitchell, the biggest badass in prison, secretly had the hots for their grandma and she turned out to be the sweetest most caring sap out there."
Chloe smiled in triumphant as Beca's cheeks tinged red and she grumbled. The redhead wrapped her arms around the brunette's neck, beaming, slightly rocking them.
"You know when you do that I just think its adorable, boarding on cute. Sometimes I just can't decide." The redhead felt her smile growing more as Beca's cheeks became a deeper red and she sputtered to come up with a comeback. Chloe put her out of her misery with a kiss full of adoration that blossomed into something a little needier. They sat in silence for a few minutes, letting the red in Beca's cheeks die down and the fizzle in Chloe's nerves from the kiss fade.
"So, what happened the second time?" Beca paused for a moment before realizing what Chloe was asking. She resituated herself, so that she was facing Chloe, their hands interlocked in her lap.
"Oh, that one was actually planned. Amy black mailed me into doing it. A lot of people were talking about her and Bumper. They were threatening to go to the higher ups about them to try and reduce their sentences. I took care of it by knocking out 10 inmates. I was just lucky someone was being released." She srugged.
Chloe interrupted, "Wait, you know Amy? As in Fat Amy?"
"Yeah, we go way back. She's actually the reason I am in here aaaand she is also my roommate." The brunette motioned to the opposite bunk. The redhead had no idea how she missed the clear homage to Australia complete with flag and dingoes. The rest of the wall was plastered with muscular men in cutoffs flexing. "They made us bunk together because I'm not really social, if you hadn't noticed. They thought it would be good for me." The brunette shrugs. "Beats being put with someone strange who hovers over you while you sleep. With my anti-social tendencies and her Australian background they naturally put us in the 'New World'. That's what we call our dorm."
"Oh…"
"Yeah, why do you think I recommended you talk to her about protecting you?"
Chloe just sheepishly looked away.
"You never talked to her did you?"
"Nooo…"
The brunette laughed, "I should have known. She never mentioned you."
"What do you mean?"
"Dude, I think it's pretty obvious by now I had a crush on you. She would have never let me hear the end of it. Especially if she ever found out the snickers bar you gave her was the one I had been guarding like a hawk from her for a week. She might not have agreed to fight everyone that has it out for you, but she would have trailed you and 'accidently' pushed anyone out of the way who tried to bother you. That is once you dropped my name. Or once she realized you were the redhead I was interested in. Like I said, we go way back. She owes me."
"You didn't tell me you knew her though."
"Truuuuue, but I dunno. I thought you'd eventually talk to her. After all, after me, she is the best pick. Unless you want to try talking to Lily, but she doesn't… really… talk." Beca's face scrunched up, perplexed, at the conclusion.
"I always just figured I would never be able to pay her. So why bother." Chloe shrugged.
"You probably could have flirted another few candy bars out of me. My commissary is pretty well stocked, thanks to Amy. You could have used me as a cash cow."
"Well I pretty much figured you liked me after I talked to you in the library, but I would have never thought to exploit you in that way. Sure, I'll admit I tried to be friend you in hopes of you changing your mind about protecting me, but about 80% of that was me also finding you extremely attractive."
"Chlo, that's not really complimentary. 80% of you wanting to be my friend was you wanting in my pants and the other 20% was you using my nonexistent muscle. That's not exactly how you are supposed to go about wooing a girl. Most importantly, how did you know I was into you?"
Chloe laughed at the brunette's opening statements. "You really shouldn't be complaining now." The redhead squeezed Beca's hands, emphasizing their less than platonic relationship. "Besides, I can't help the fact that you are exactly what I look for in a woman." The redhead threw in a wink, instantaneously causing the brunette to blush. "Oh and that was easy. I wasn't positive at first. I was pretty sure that the way you reacted was mainly due to nerves. You were obviously flustered at certain points. The snickers pretty much sealed it. Then I talked to Aubrey about it and she confirmed. Apparently you weren't so subtle about your ogling."
The brunette seemed to sneer at Aubrey's name, but Chloe just ignored it.
"So how did Amy get you put in prison? Sex scandal?" The redhead half quipped, given Amy's seemingly endless string of men.
Beca smirked coyly, "No, believe it or not. I'll try and summarize it." She sighed before beginning. "Basically I was DJ-ing at a beach party. Amy came to support me. We've know each other since we both tried joining a club in college for Deaf Jews that was represented as DJs." Chloe gave her a strange look. Beca just ran her hand through her hair in embarrassment. "Different story. Anyway, I was mixing when Amy got into a fight with this big muscle guy. I saw his friend approaching from behind. I ran to punch the guy about to attack her from behind. Apparently their girlfriends called the cops. Amy was being pulled off the guy she was hitting by one cop, as I was walking back to my booth. Someone must have pointed me out because one cop decided to grab me from behind, thinking I was fleeing." Beca exhaled annoyed again. "Being my usual klutzy self, my foot slipped when I was grabbed, causing my head to collide with the police officer's nose, breaking it. I would have only mildly panicked if Amy wasn't yelling bloody murder behind me." The brunette rolled her eyes. "So I thought it was the guys that we had been fighting that grabbed us. I wound up flailing around because of it. My foot connected with the officer's crouch. When he went down I went with him, both of our weight landing fully on his arm, breaking it. I stopped fighting the guy once I saw he was a cop. He was pretty pissed though, especially when he had to hall me into the station in front of his colleges in his state. They all gave him crap about a small thing my size busting him up while I didn't have a single mark on me. Then I sort of… mouthed off in court. So…yeah. Here I am!"
"Wait… if that's what happened how was Amy able to blackmail you into dance fighting for her and Bumper?"
"Well, my dad was pissed. He gave me a full ride to college, but I wanted to go to L.A. to DJ. I was kind of a brat about the whole thing. I failed a lot of classes and was late to them when I showed up. I've always been the screw up. So he figured I fucked up again. He's had to bail me out of a lot of situations when I was younger. I was pretty rebellious as a teenager. Did a lot of illegal pranks and trespassed a lot. Amy talked to him and told him it was all her fault. He eased up on me after that and agreed to pay for my commissary, instead of taking it out of my DJ-ing account he cosigned for. Amy threatened to take back what she said, basically stripping me of my commissary, if I didn't help."
"Wow…"
"Yeah..."
"I understand why Aubrey suggested Amy also, now."
"Posen suggested her too, then. I'm surprised." The brunette scoffed.
"Well she suggested you too."
"It's just-it's control freak Posen. I'm surprised she wouldn't just handle it herself. Afraid someone else would screw it up."
The redhead hit her in the shoulder. "Ow!"
"That's my best friend you are talking about."
"Geesh sorry I didn't know. Abuse much." Beca dramatically rubbed her shoulder as she groveled.
"It's okay, She doesn't seem to like you much either." Chloe looked up at Beca expectantly.
The smaller woman rolled her eyes in annoyance, but a small smile gave away the jest behind the action.
"It's not surprising. Once I gained my 'status' she decided to introduce herself and told me about her whole team building camp. She apparently thought since I was at the top I could 'unite' the prisoners." Beca scoffed at the idea. "I really wasn't interested. So I told her her camp was stupid and an idiotic idea. Then a few weeks later she had refused to use a ladder to replace a light while working in electrical. She spouted off some nonsense about ladders representing the rungs of hierarchy. I made fun of her for it. After that she told pretty much everyone I was a bitch and spread a few tasteless rumors. Apparently I have crabs." The brunette severely frowned.
Chloe chuckled. "Yeah, Aubrey is pretty sensitive about ladders and her camp was like her baby."
"What? Like a phobia?"
"No" The redhead sighed, "I probably shouldn't be telling you this. At her camp she had these big net traps. So if a member of a group walked off a trail they were dependent on their group members to get them down and they couldn't just run away from their problems. She had a strict no ladder policy because they 'represent a social hierarchy that's counterproductive' to the camp. Her words. Someone miss set some of the nets so that some of the people on retreat wound up hanging upside down by one foot in the air, outside of the net. Aubrey refused to get a ladder, convinced they could work through it and it was completely safe. Let's just say they didn't agree with her and it wasn't as safe as she thought. People got seriously injured. Aubrey took all the blame so the camp could stay open."
Beca looked at her in mild shock, her jaw slack. "Wow… she really is crazy."
Chloe just glared at the brunette, clearly not amused. The smaller woman was quick to cower under her glare and apologize.
"You should really be thanking her. If she hadn't told me about big ol' Badass Beca Mitchell I would have never met you." The redhead quirked an eyebrow at the woman before her.
"I'm sure we would have eventually met."
"Really?" Chloe asked incredulously. "When where you planning on talking to me?"
"You see these things take time and…" The redhead just looked at her expectantly a smirk forming at the edge of her mouth, clearly not buying the brunette's bullshit. "Okay so maybe Posen helped a little- tiny bit. Just don't tell her I told you that." The brunette's eyes went wide at the end, mildly afraid.
The redhead beamed at Beca before surging forward and capturing her lips in a tender kiss. Chloe pulled back so their lips were just a breath away.
"You're such a dork."
"Nope!" Beca stated popping the 'p'. "Total badass."
"You're really going to go with that." Chloe playfully challenged.
"It's true."
"I can think of several examp-"
The brunette cut her off by reconnecting their lips again. Chloe immediately responded, pushing their bodies closer together, as her chest rose and a wave of heat crashed through her body ending in her southern regions. The pressure built as a wave of electricity ran through her, the brunette lightly tugging at her bottom lip, as hands slipped into copper locks and pulled lightly. Beca pressed one last soft kiss against her lips before pulling back. Chloe was left suspended in midair, eyes slightly foggy with lust. Beca laughed lightly before pulling them down onto the bed and Chloe into her side, wrapping her arm around Chloe and tangling their legs together. The taller woman was quick to shift so her head was situated just below the brunette's chin on her collar bone and laced one of their hands together before resting their interlocked hands just above Beca's hip. Safely tucked into the smaller woman's side, she didn't really care what she was going to say before, not that she could remember it.
Once they had been comfortably laying wrapped up in the other for a few minutes, Chloe asked the most important question of the afternoon. "What are we going to do about my situation?"
