Chloe could feel the tension radiating through Beca's body and transferring to hers by their bound hands. Just before rounding the corner that would lead to the living room, Chloe gave Beca's hand a gentle squeeze and added a playful wink for good measure.

"They aren't going to bite, I promise."

Beca puffed out a breath and nodded, squaring her shoulders a little bit. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

The conversation abruptly stopped when they walked into the main room, and Chloe was glad she had decided to put on some background music that successfully prevented an awkward silence.

"Guys, this is Beca," Chloe announced with a smile, tugging slightly on the brunette's hand before letting go. "Beca, you know Stacie and Tom. That's Aubrey and Cynthia-Rose."

"Yeah, I remember from the video."

"You didn't show her the one where I puked, did you?" Aubrey immediately asked, a deep frown etched in her face.

Of course that would be her main concern.

Beca raised an eyebrow at that, while Chloe waved Aubrey off.

"Of course not!"

She then waved her hand towards Tom's co-worker and his wife.

"And this is Will and his wife Monica."

Beca gave a general, awkward wave and Chloe was at loss at what to say, so she clapped her hands together and announced dinner time, motioning for everyone to sit down.

"Bree, give me a hand in the kitchen?"

The blonde followed Chloe inside the kitchen and found herself pulled by the arm into the corner.

"Okay, if work things come up, please don't mention that you run a rehab center?"

Aubrey gave her a curious look.

"Why ever not?"

"It's complicated. I'll explain later."

Chloe handed Aubrey the potato and vegetable dish while she took care of the cut-up turkey and sauce. They set everything down on the table and Chloe looked up to see that the only vacant seat left at the large table was next to Beca. Judging from Stacie and Tom's sheepish looks, the redhead knew some meddling had taken place while she was in the kitchen.

She couldn't say she wasn't happy with the table setting though, and sat down next to the shorter woman, who offered her a small smile.

Dishes were passed around over meaningless chatter until everyone was served, and Chloe raised her glass of wine, waiting for everyone to mirror her action before speaking.

"I'm not going to make a big speech because the food is getting cold and I worked my ass off today while Tom watched the Christmas parade," she shot her roommate a non-threatening glare while he at least had the decency to take the accusation without complaining. Chloe then smiled warmly at everyone. "I just wanted to say that I'm very happy to be spending this Christmas Eve with my closest friends. So! Without further ado, bon appetit!"

Conversation flowed easily over dinner, jumping from family, to work to sports. Beca seemed to have trouble loosening up, which was understandable as she only knew Chloe.

Chloe's eyes flickered to Beca after a while and noticed she hadn't even taken a sip of her wine.

"Sorry, I didn't ask," she started, voice quieter than the chatter surrounding them. "Did you want a beer, maybe?"

"No, wine is fine, don't worry," Beca told her.

Chloe's mind nearly short-circuited when the brunette's hand moved to her leg and gave it a light squeeze.

"I promise I'm having fun. What you cooked is delicious."

"Thanks," Chloe choked out, trying to hide her disappointment when Beca's hand slid away, back to her own lap. She took a sip of her iced water to try and cool herself down, but she knew it would be useless as long as Beca was next to her. She decided she needed to join back into the main conversation to avoid being drawn to do stuff with Beca that weren't friend-material.

"How's music making going, CR?" Chloe jumped in at the first pause in conversation and saw Beca perk up in the corner of her eye.

"It's going awesome. Long days but amazing artists to work with."

"You're a music producer?"

The question came from Beca, the first time she spoke up of the evening so far and Chloe sat back, glad that her plan worked.

"Yeah, I've got a label downtown. Opened it up last year after working for Red Bedroom Records for the last eight years."

Beca's eyes widened comically and a true smile broke onto her face.

"That's amazing."

"You into music?" Cynthia-Rose asked, and Chloe watched as Beca shrugged.

"A little bit."

"What do you mean, a little bit?" Chloe scoffed in astonishment, turning to Cynthia-Rose a second later. "She's amazing. Writes her own songs and everything."

"Chloe," Beca gritted out through locked teeth, face catching fire while everyone else chuckled at her embarrassed state.

"What?" Chloe questioned with a laugh. "It's true!"

"What kind of music are we talking about?"

Chloe straightened up in curiosity, glad that Cynthia-Rose was interested to know more. Another conversation had started across the table between Aubre and the couple, while Stacie and Tom were shamelessly flirting in between bites.

"Acoustic guitar, mostly. I used to mix, too, but I don't have the equipment to do it anymore."

"That's it!" Cynthia-Rose's outburst made everybody's heads turn to her as she slapped her hand over the table. "I knew you were familiar. You're DJ Titanium!"

If that was even possible, Beca's face turned a deeper shade of red, and she fastened her gaze on her lap. Chloe watched on, utterly confused, as was everyone around the table, save for Cynthia-Rose and maybe Stacie, who had her mouth shaped in an O.

"Um, yeah, that's me. Well, it used to be me. I don't play gigs anymore."

Beca cleared her throat, still avoiding eye-contact, and reached out to grab her glass of water as Chloe kept her gaze on her, unable to form words as the new piece of information toyed with her mind. Beca was a DJ?

"Girl, your beat is insane!" Cynthia-Rose resumed, oblivious to Beca's unwillingness to talk about it. "I remember catching your sound at a few different clubs and telling myself I wish our label would sign you. I used to tell my friends you would win a Grammy someday."

Beca choked on her sip and sputtered a little bit.

"I'm, I mean I wasn't that good."

The past tense used by Beca made it clear she didn't believe in herself anymore, which was a shame if you asked Chloe. From what she had heard, Beca was fantastic.

"I would trust CR's opinion," Stacie piped in from the end of the table. "Several of her artists have Grammy's under their belt, now."

"But then you dropped off the face of the earth. Did you just stop altogether?" Cynthia-Rose wondered, both eyebrows raised to her hairline, shoulders slumping in disappointment, Chloe guessed. "What happened? Bad label management?"

"No, um…" Beca trailed off, and Chloe bit on the inside of her lip to keep from telling Cynthia-Rose to drop it as she could tell from Beca's body language that she didn't want to talk about this anymore. "Just life, I guess. I fell out of the circle."

"Oh," Cynthia-Rose nodded, and Chloe was glad she didn't pry further. "Are you still doing something music-related now?"

"Um, no," Beca's head shook quickly before she pushed her chair back, hesitantly meeting everyone's eye. "Excuse me."

Chloe sat back, following Beca's figure until she rounded the corner leading to the bathroom.

"Shit, did I say something wrong?" Cynthia-Rose grimaced, eyes on Chloe.

"Nah, don't worry. She just has a heavy past," Chloe cleared her throat, noticing everyone's plate was empty and probably had been for a while. "Come on people, there's still plenty of turkey and potatoes left here, help yourselves!"

As soon as everyone fell into easy conversation once more, Chloe discreetly walked away towards the bathroom. Jazz was sitting in front of it, scratching the wood with his paw and whining every so often. Chloe knocked lightly.

"Beca?" she called out gently, hand resting on the door. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

There was a definite waver in Beca's voice that told Chloe she wasn't fine, but Chloe stood back.

"I'll be right out."

"Take your time," Chloe said through the door. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Just as Chloe was about to leave her some privacy, a click indicated the door was unlocked. When the door didn't open afterwards, Chloe took it as an invitation to come in. She hesitated, and turned back around, wrapping her hand around the knob. She opened it just wide enough to slide through the gap, allowing Jazz to do so as well, and sat next to Beca, back resting against the bathtub. Her dog laid down on the other side of his owner, resting his nose against Beca's thigh.

"Sorry, I…" Beca reached out to thread her fingers through Jazz's fur. It seemed soothing to her. "I got overwhelmed."

"It's okay," Chloe murmured, reaching out for Beca's hand to give it a light squeeze. After another beat of hesitation, she eventually laced their fingers together, upper-body relaxing when Beca didn't show any desire to pull away. "So, a DJ, huh? Were you planning on staying anonymous all this time?"

"Yeah," Beca replied with a shrug. "I guess it never came up."

Beca paused, as if replaying Chloe's words in her brain.

"You knew me?"

"I knew of you. Cynthia-Rose and Stacie were pretty hooked on your sound and told me about it countless times. I never got to see one of your gigs, though. Or hear any of your tracks because they didn't air on the radio, right?"

"No, I was independent. After my mom's death, I dropped out of school and started to make music instead of just mixing already existing songs. It worked very well for a while, until the addiction made it too difficult to get up in the morning or get up at all for that matter," Beca shrugged again, looking down at her lap. "I missed a lot of gigs and eventually no club owner trusted me anymore and I was soon out of a job. But it didn't really matter to me at this point, I think I was too far gone to even care."

Chloe nodded and squeezed Beca's fingers, encouraging her to continue.

"I got kicked out of my apartment because I couldn't pay rent. And the addiction had become so important that I sold my equipment to buy more and it was a never-ending circle from then on."

"I'm sorry."

Beca let out a quiet, humorless laugh.

"Why? This is all on me."

"I'm sorry drugs were your only way out. That you had nobody else to turn to," Chloe stated softly. She chewed on her bottom lip as she hesitated, wondering how to ask this without backing Beca up in a corner. She had wanted to ask her when Beca came by the hospital a few days ago but felt they were still in a rocky spot. "Can I ask you a question?"

To her surprise, Beca didn't show any objection. "Sure."

"The other day when I brought you back here during the storm, I helped you undress and I couldn't help but notice bruises on your stomach."

"Oh."

"I just want to make sure you're not in danger, Beca. Are thoses bruises from a fight or from something health related?"

"From a fight," Beca answered without hesitating a beat. "You know when I told you I had bad experiences with shelters?" Chloe nodded, taking a deep breath to somewhat steady herself for what was coming next. "Well, the first night of the storm, I tried to sleep in one because it was really bad out there. I had had some altercations already with this girl from the streets and she was there, and she wasn't happy to see me on her 'territory'. Anyway, it started with words and quickly evolved in blows and well, she had friends with her, so... yeah."

"Beca," Chloe's voice was so small as she gripped Beca's hand harder. "They beat you up?"

Beca shrugged, as if it was customary. "It wasn't that bad. You should have seen them," Chloe wanted to smile at Beca's attempt to joke but she couldn't find it within herself to do so. "They stole my phone, too. That was that night. Otherwise, maybe I would have called you, I don't know."

Chloe cleared her throat to keep it stirred from overwhelming emotion. "And that girl is she... is she going to be a problem?"

"No," Beca assured instantly. "I can handle it. As long as I don't step over her toes, I'll be fine. I just... I don't trust shelters anymore."

"Understandable," Chloe replied quietly, her mind unable to stay away from vivid images of Beca being beaten up. She shook her head to try and get rid of it, and wracked her brain for a change of subject as an awkward silence loomed over them. "I wish I could have seen you mix."

"I still have some of my mixes, if you want," Beca said exactly what Chloe had hoped for. Grey eyes flickered to hers and only then did Chloe realize how close they really were. "They haven't been played to anyone in close to five years but… you're different. You get music and I would really like it if you listened to them."

Chloe hoped Beca couldn't hear how loud her heart was thumping in her chest, nearly threatening to beat out of it. She was glad to have gained back some sense of trust from the brunette after their ordeal a couple days ago.

"I'd be honored to listen to them."

"Cool," Beca gave her a smile, and Chloe watched, as if time had slowed down, as Beca's eyes flickered down to her mouth. She unconsciously licked her lips for what she thought was about to come and leaned in to meet Beca in the middle when-

"Chloe!" Stacie's voice made them spring apart. It sounded like she was right up against the door and Chloe had the sudden, strong desire to make her shut up and go away so she could go back to almost be kissing Beca. "Where's your computer!? Believe it or not, Tom has never seen Aubrey puke at the ICCA's! I thought it would go well with the Christmas spirit."

"Ugh," Chloe mumbled, throwing Beca an apologetic look as she rose to her feet, dropping Beca's hand in the process.

She pulled the door open perhaps a bit too harshly and spotted Stacie leaning against the opposite wall sheepishly.

"Sorry, did I interrupt something?"

Beca replied before Chloe would even process the question, having followed Chloe out. Her expression was unreadable.

"No."

Stacie cocked an eyebrow at that, maybe more at Chloe's disappointed expression than at Beca's answer.

"Hey Chloe," Stacie spoke up when the video of the ICCA's had got around, much to Aubrey's dismay. Chloe looked up from her plate. "Did you ever call the girl that found you cute? She asked me about you the other night. Again."

Chloe narrowed her eyes dangerously. She knew exactly what Stacie was doing. She felt her skin get warmer by the second, and Beca's gaze on the side of her face didn't help one bit in that department.

"Um, no."

"What girl?" Cynthia-Rose asked.

Stacie acknowledged Cynthia-Rose briefly, but cut her eyes back to Chloe and Beca, as if to gauge each of their reactions. "Her name's Tina. She's a friend of Steve's."

"Oooh, the tall brunette with the sleeve tatt?"

Upon Stacie's nod Cynthia-Rose hummed in approval, turning to look at Chloe.

"Yeah, she's hot. Why in the world would you pass that, Beale?"

"I'm guessing she has a secret girlfriend," Stacie stage-whispered when Chloe didn't say anything right away, cupping her hand around her mouth.

The redhead rolled her eyes, wondering if it was too early to kick them out.

"You're not back with Rachel, are you?" Aubrey asked with a frown, and Chloe sighed. "You could do much better than that, Chloe."

"Enough," she warned, glaring at her three friends. "I don't have a secret girlfriend. I'm good. Can we stop talking about my love life? Please?"

As her friends half-heartedly apologized, Beca's eyes remained on Chloe but the younger woman didn't say anything. Chloe met her eyes briefly, without being able to gauge the brunette's reaction. It wasn't the way she wanted to tell Beca about her exclusive attraction to women.

Dessert came around quickly, and Beca announced shortly after coffee that she had better get going. Chloe understood; they were about to exchange gifts and the brunette probably felt it would be awkward if she was there.

"I'll walk you out," Chloe told Beca as she grabbed an envelope from the drawer of the cabinet by the door. They walked to the door and Chloe stopped in the hallway, Beca turning to her.

"Thank you for inviting me," she said softly, burying her hands into her pockets. "I had a good time."

Chloe wasn't sure if she was saying that just to be polite or if she meant it. She went for the first option.

"I'm glad you came," Chloe echoed her words from earlier, though she was confused by Beca's mixed signals. "I got you something."

"Chloe…."

"It's not much, and it's Christmas. Everyone should have gifts for Christmas."

She reached inside the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out the envelope before handing it to Beca. The younger woman took it between her fingers and flipped it over, taking its contents out.

"Chloe," Beca repeated, brows furrowed when she looked up. "I can't accept this."

"Of course you can!" Chloe insisted with a bright smile. "A friend of mine knows the manager so it didn't cost that much anyway."

Beca eventually mirrored her smile, glancing back down at the tickets in her hands as if it was a treasure. Her vision was misty when she glanced back up.

"I haven't been to a game in a very long time."

Chloe smiled.

"Well, there are two tickets, so you can take Benji with you, if he likes baseball, that is."

"Can we go together?" Beca asked instead, unleashing a bunch of pleasant feelings in Chloe's stomach.

"Sure. But I don't know much about baseball, so you'll have to teach me."

"That can be arranged." Beca said cheekily, the low tone of her voice making Chloe's cheeks flush slightly. "Actually, I know a place for that. It will probably be closed tomorrow, since it's Christmas day, but we can go on Thursday. What's your shift like?"

Chloe tried not to grin too widely at Beca initiating something.

"I think I'm done by six P.M."

"Perfect. I'll meet you at the hospital?"

Chloe hummed.

"You aren't going to tell me where we're going?"

"Nope." Beca threw a wink in there and Chloe was positive she would flatline soon as a spike of lust made its way to her core, leaving her extremities tingling pleasantly. Beca surely knew she was flirting, and from the conversation that took place at the table not long ago, she was also probably aware it wouldn't be regarded as aimless flirting. "Oh, I got you something, too."

"Beca!"

"I would say it's not much, but I don't think our standards are the same. So this is definitely not much."

The brunette reached inside her backpack and retrieved a messily wrapped package. Chloe took it between her hands before tearing it open. The material she unfurled was soft underneath her digits and made of blue yarn.

"Did you make this?" she asked in surprise, eyeing the precise knitting of the scarf closely.

"Yeah. I know it doesn't look like it, but I enjoy knitting."

"It's beautiful."

"The, um, the color reminded me of your eyes." Beca pried it back from Chloe's hands gently and took a step closer. "Let me?"

Chloe nodded, a bit too speechless to give Beca a verbal agreement. Her breathing got stuck somewhere in her throat as Beca draped it over the back of Chloe's neck and gave it few loops, pulling away slightly to admire her handywork.

She tutted with a satisfied nod.

"Suits you."

Chloe didn't really think twice about it and pulled Beca into a warm hug before she could resist. Beca let out a laugh and soon Chloe felt her arms around her waist, tugging her slightly closer until they were almost flush against each other.

"Thank you," Chloe breathed out against Beca's neck. "I love it."

Beca parted, and Chloe reluctantly let her.

"You're welcome. I'm glad."

She slipped something in Chloe's palm, a USB stick.

"Those are some of my mixes, whenever you want to listen to them."

"Thanks. I'll see you on Thursday, then?" Beca nodded and Chloe fought against the urge to ask her to stay. Knowing Beca would spend the night in precarious conditions in the cold made her wary. "Be careful out there, alright?"

"I will, Red."

"How long has she been using?"

Chloe paused her actions, sponge freezing over the plate she was washing. Aubrey had insisted to stay and help Chloe, something about catching up as the blonde wasn't in the city often.

"What?"

"That Beca girl," Chloe didn't like the tone in Aubrey's voice one bit. "She's an addict, I can tell."

Chloe would have told Aubrey to change careers if she wasn't able to tell if someone was on drugs or not. Still, she wished Aubrey wouldn't be so cold about it.

"Do you talk about all drug addicts this way behind their backs?" Chloe asked, finally abandoning the dishes to turn to Aubrey, who had been storing the leftover food into containers at the kitchen table. "Because it's a bit unsettling given the fact that you help them on a daily basis."

"Okay, ouch," Aubrey let out with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry if I'm cold about it. I can tell you like her and I guess I'm just being protective."

"Yeah, well, I'm handling it perfectly well, thank you for your concern."

"Why are you so bitter about it?" Aubrey asked gently, approaching the redhead.

Chloe ran a hand through her hair in frustration, not caring if it got wet from her soapy hand.

"I wanna help her, but she doesn't want my help. And we almost kissed today, at least I think we did and I want to be with her, I really do," Chloe sighed, letting her hand drop by her side. "We just live on two different planets. She doesn't think she's worthy enough or some shit like that, when I know how kind and considerate she can be."

"Do you know how she uses? Like, is it often, a lot at the time?"

Chloe shook her head.

"She told me she knew how much to take to handle the pain. And she seems to know what she's doing. I've never seen her drowsy or overly disconnected from the real world, expect for the handful of times where she needed a fix."

Aubrey hummed as Chloe added,

"I don't think the drugs make her different from her true self."

"Then she must have everything under control, and that's probably why she doesn't think she needs help. She's comfortable with her use and doesn't realize what's wrong about it."

Chloe buried her face in her hands and released a groan. She felt as if she was stuck on a rollercoaster of emotions, going in loops without being able to step down.

"What do I do, Bree? She's completely turned my life upside down and I can't imagine it without her in it anymore."

If Aubrey was surprised, she hid it well. The blonde pursed her lips, seemingly taking her time to find the right words.

"Ask yourself if you're ready to abandon your better judgement to be with her. Ask yourself if you're strong enough for the tough road ahead. Addicts tend to fend very well by themselves and rarely have or want any steadiness in their lives," Aubrey laid a hand on Chloe's shoulder. "I know you and I'm not sure this is the kind of relationship where you'll find happiness. I may be wrong of course as I've only seen Beca a few hours but… that's my opinion on it. Maybe you should take a step back? I'm afraid you might get hurt."

Chloe knew Aubrey was partly right. But she also knew she was too far gone to even consider taking that step back.

This story will be four more chapters to this story, plus an epilogue. I'm very excited for you guys to read the next few chapters. Next update will be on Friday. Thoughts are always appreciated!