A/N Chapter 10! Hope you enjoy :)

This chapter's song is 'Go Solo' by Tom Rosenthal.

Beca never got a chance to say goodbye to Chloe before she left for New York. Chloe fell asleep after having a few tests run to see how she was doing, and didn't wake up until the next day, by which time Beca had already left for the airport.

Chloe was devastated – she became annoyed at how weak she was, wishing she'd had the energy to talk to Beca one more time before she left. Aubrey tried to convince Chloe that it wasn't her fault, that she couldn't help it, but that only made things worse.

The morning after Beca had left Chloe still wasn't allowed to take the oxygen mask off her face, which was a relatively small problem but Chloe became so frustrated with being in hospital and being hooked up to so many machines that she tried to rip out some of the tubes going into her stomach.

Aubrey was awoken from her light sleep when Chloe's monitors started beeping noisily and more rapidly. Aubrey jumped up to find Chloe, semi-conscious, holding her hand against her side; Chloe's oxygen mask hung round her chin, as if the redhead had yet again tried to take it off. Aubrey gently prized Chloe's hand away from her stomach to find Chloe's tubes hanging half-out and blood trickling down her side and soaking the bedsheets. Aubrey could see that Chloe was losing consciousness, and so pressed the emergency button for the nurse, assuming that Chloe's beeping machines hadn't caught the attention of any of the hospital staff members.

A couple of nurses and a doctor rushed in, pushing Aubrey to the side and blocking Chloe from view. One of the nurses asked Aubrey to leave the room, and though reluctant, Aubrey obliged, not wanting to get in the way of the doctors.

Aubrey sat on the row of chairs outside Chloe room in the ICU and took the opportunity to call Chloe's brother, Sammy. Aubrey had been keeping in contact with Chloe's family through Sammy on Chloe's request. Unfortunately, Chloe's family lived Canada after Chloe's dad had got a job there, and hadn't yet had the chance to come down and visit the sick redhead, but they frequently facetimed and Sammy texted Aubrey every day to get updates on Chloe's condition. Aubrey was well acquainted with Sammy – in high school, when Aubrey would go back to Chloe's after school when the family still lived in the states, Sammy would often be friendly; he had the same boundless joy as his sister

"Hey Aubrey, what's up?" Came Sammy's voice after a couple of rings.

"Nothing really, I just thought I'd let you know how Chloe was." Aubrey said, feeling guilty for not having told him about Chloe's pneumonia yet.

"Oh yeah? Is everything okay?"

"Well, I should have told you a couple of days ago, but Chloe developed pneumonia; she's in the ICU. She's stable and everything, its not really her physical health I'm updating you on." Aubrey said, Sammy listened, not saying much as Aubrey explained what she meant. "Basically Beca, you know Beca?"

Sam mumbled a yes in reply.

"Yeah well Beca has had to go to New York for 3 weeks. Obviously it's normal a friend going away for a while but me and a friend think Beca and Chloe are more than friends. And Beca going away is really affecting Chloe. Chloe never got to say goodbye to Beca, because she was unconscious for ages, and that's really frustrating her. Chloe's been pushing herself to hard to get better and it's just causing set back after set back. The doctors where hoping to move her out the ICU today but she ripped her tubes out so she's probably going to need a small surgery to fix that and they ran some tests on her while she was asleep… her cancer's not getting any better. She's had months of chemo, but it's not making a difference, Sam." Aubrey's voice broke and tears started streaming down her cheeks. "I can see Chloe trying to hide her pain for me and Beca, but I worry that this cancer will beat her. She's fighting, I can see she is, but I can also see a part of her that thinks it might be easier to give up. Beca is really her only motive to keep fighting, and I just feel so powerless. It's terrifying seeing her like this – weak and tired in a hospital bed with barely the strength to even move her arms. She's not the Chloe I know – she's trying to be the Chloe I know, she tries to be happy and bubbly as she normally is, but's it not the same."

Sammy let Aubrey vent to him, knowing how hard it was for the blonde. She often called him in this state, tired and in tears, needing to vent and cry after spending hours trying to look put together and in control. Sammy knew that Aubrey was trying to stay strong for Chloe, but it resulted in this: Aubrey becoming utterly overwhelmed and worried and needing someone to cry to. Sammy was happy to be this person, it made him feel useful. He felt awful, staying in Canada to study whilst Chloe and her friends were dealing with this, but he had his finals soon and his and Chloe's parents had a lot going on at work – none of them were able to go down and help.

Sammy tried his best to console Aubrey, he'd become an expert at it recently. He didn't tell her that it was going to be okay, that everything would work out – instead he assured her that it wasn't over yet, that Chloe still had so much to give and that she would keep fighting – they all would.

Eventually, Aubrey got a hold of herself and wiped away the tears sliding down her face. She thanked Sammy for being there and told him that she would call him and update him on anything regarding Chloe's health. Sammy thanked Aubrey and reminded her that he was always here to talk if she needed him. Eventually they bid their goodbyes and hung up, both taking deep, resolved sighs as they but the phone down. By the time Aubrey finished on the phone, the doctors had taken Chloe from her room to have her tubes put back in and so Aubrey decided to go back to Chloe's apartment for a bit to shower and actually cook herself a meal.

Fat Amy was home when she got there, and Aubrey found herself thankful that the big blonde was there, not sure how she would cope with being alone in the flat with Chloe's medication scattered everywhere and some of Beca's music equipment discarded around the house.

"They're perfect for each other, aren't they?" Amy said as the two blondes sat on the sofa eating pasta. Aubrey nodded, smiling at the reminder that Chloe and Beca had finally got together after all the time they'd spent secretly pining for each other.

"Mmm, although sometimes I wish they would get a room. They still haven't told me their together, but they do such a bad job of hiding it – at the hospital all they seem to do is gaze into each other's eyes."

"I guess I was wrong when I said Cynthia Rose was the only gay Bella." Amy joked. Aubrey laughed, feeling lighter than she had in a while. She wanted to be with Chloe, but spending so much time in the hospital wasn't doing Aubrey any good and so it was nice to spend a bit of time away from it with someone like Amy, who never failed to make her laugh.

When Beca finally got to her hotel room after travelling to New York and then getting a taxi through the city, she was beyond tired but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep without talking to Chloe.

She grabbed her phone from one of her bags in the corner of the room and plopped herself down on the big king-sized bed in the middle of the room.

Chloe didn't answer the first time Beca called, but Beca rang back immediately and eventually Chloe picked up.

Chloe was still in hospital – Beca could hear the machines beeping in the background, and she was still in the ICU because there where no other patients or people around because Beca couldn't hear them. Chloe was the first to speak and Beca nearly chocked when she heard her voice, not realising how much she had missed the sweet ring of it till now.

Beca didn't really know how it happened – she and Chloe had been talking about Beca's journey and first experience in first class – when suddenly their conversation became more heated.

"I just want this to be over." Chloe stated sadly, her voice tight with emotion. Anger roiled in Beca's gut at the weakness of Chloe's words.

"You're not giving up." Beca stated more than asked, her words stiff as she tried to conceal her anger at Chloe's defeated attitude.

"No, I just can't be bothered, Beca. This whole thing – cancer, hospital, now pneumonia – I don't know how much more I can take," Chloe said, clearly not sensing how disappointed Beca was that Chloe seemed to be giving up.

"You don't think you're the only person that's suffering as a result of this whole ordeal?" Beca asked, not now able to hide her anger as words spilled out of her mouth in a torrent of rage and disappointment. "Every day, Chloe, I have to watch you struggle. I try and help you, but you never accept that you need help, and now your talking like you're giving up. I nearly lost my job Chloe. I nearly had a heart attack when I found out you'd collapsed at home and I have a constant head ache because of how much I worry about you. I'm fighting for you, I'm suffering for you but all you can do in return is give up? How is that fair, Chloe?"

Chloe didn't know what to say. She was taken aback and hurt by Beca's words and anger started building in her own words as she eventually said.

"I'm not giving up Beca, I assure you." She said, almost sarcastically. "But I think, as a cancer patient, I'm maybe entitled to a few tired, defeated words every now and then. Sorry if I can't be as positive as you want me to be all the time and sorry that I'm causing you a 'constant headache', it definitely wasn't my intention. I get that you're suffering Beca, I really wish you didn't have to see me like this or get mixed up in this whole ordeal but since you are mixed up in it, I can only ask that you don't guilt trip me and preach about how much you're suffering." Chloe cried, her angry words causing her to cough weakly.

Beca ignored the coughs – not able to her exasperated words. "I just want to help you, Chloe! But every time I try help you tell me not to treat you like a sick person, or you tell me that you're fine and now you're telling me that you're suffering, what am I supposed to do?"

"Beca, I can't talk about this now. We should call tomorrow when we're both more level headed. Just… in the future, please remind yourself that you're not the one dealing with cancer, I am. I don't know how to feel, I don't know how to act and I can usually talk to you about it but clearly you don't want to hear about it now so… I'll call you tomorrow." And with that, Chloe hung up.

Beca didn't sleep that night, she just kept going over her and Chloes' fight in her head, thinking about the things she wished she hadn't said, and the things she wished Chloe hadn't said.

When Beca got up the next morning, she immediately checked her phone, hoping there would be a messed call or text from Chloe, but there was nothing.

Beca spent the entire first day of her big trip in New York wishing she could be back in Atlanta with Chloe. Beca just wanted to apologise to Chloe, and hold her tight so that the redhead would tell her everything was going to be okay. Because at that moment, Beca really wasn't sure whether anything was going to be okay.

'They say it's a matter of time,

A thousand days and the sun won't shine,

Before I come back to you…'