A/N: So, I hope you enjoy this chapter, thanks as always for reading :D
And thank you for the lovely reviews! I love hearing your opinions :D
And as always, a massive thank you to iamacrepe for her amazing help and support with the story!
Have a wonderful day!
It was only the next day when Beca received a text message from her father.
Dad: You have an appointment with Dr Abigail Griffin on Friday at 9am. She will contact your previous specialist and get your files transferred.
After that first appointment with Dr Griffin, Beca found herself to be feeling both relief and dread. Relief for having taken the first step to getting better, and dread for what was to happen in between the now and the 'getting better' – blood tests and a colonoscopy. The blood tests were just an inconvenience, but easy enough to deal with. The colonoscopy on the other hand, was more troubling. It was definitely something Beca would be unable to hide from her housemates whilst she was doing the preparation and having to go into hospital. And what's more, Dr Griffin had scheduled Beca's colonoscopy for the following Friday, a day when there was a Bellas rehearsal scheduled.
There was no doubt about it, Beca would not be staying in the Bellas' House for the few days around this appointment. So, as soon as she left the doctor's office, the DJ called her dad and informed him of her situation. Of course, Dr Mitchell immediately suggested Beca stay with him during that time, especially seeing as she needed someone to officially sign her out of hospital and keep an eye on her after the anaesthetic. Surprisingly, Beca agreed straight away. But then again, she had no choice if she wanted to stay under the radar with the Bellas. Beca would just have to figure out what to tell them about where she was and more importantly, why she, a co-captain, was skipping a rehearsal.
Feeling a little freaked out about the whole situation, Beca went home, hoping to calm down with a nice hot shower. She had to remind herself not to allow herself to get too stressed about this, or anything, because that would only make her symptoms worse. But it wasn't easy having to hide everything from her friends, and in a way, deal with this thing on her own. Though she had her father and Jesse as her support – and she was forever grateful for this – it was difficult having no one else to confide in about her condition; none of her Bella sisters to support her; none of the people she lived with. What was even more difficult was having to experience all the symptoms and pretend like nothing was happening, when she lived with bunch of other girls. Hiding the pain. Hiding (well trying to) the exhaustion. Hiding the medications. Hiding how she truly felt.
Stepping out of the bathroom, Beca sighed in relief, feeling much more relaxed and having come up with a plan of what to tell the Bellas about her coming absence. Hearing Chloe downstairs humming, the brunette decided now was the perfect time to inform her fellow co-captain of her plans.
"Hey Chlo." She announced herself to the redhead whose back was turned to her.
Chloe turned around, happily surprised to see that Beca had joined her in the room. Usually at this time Beca would be studying hard for her classes: she had devoted specific times on certain days for hard-core studying.
"Hey Becs, not studying today?"
"Uh, no. Thought I'd have a day off instead. I'll just go to my afternoon class and skip the studying."
Chloe nodded. "Fair enough." The older girl was currently unpacking the groceries she had just brought home from the store. It seemed that this duty had fallen into the hands of the senior member of the group, as she was the most organised when it came to food and cooking.
"You know you left early this morning. I'm surprised you were even awake at that hour!" She joked, knowing of Beca's love of sleep. It had become a joke amongst the whole group, innocent enough. However, it was Beca's Crohn's disease that was the cause of her need to sleep more than the others.
Beca's eyes fell to the ground for a moment as her expression turned solemn. But half a second later, she was back to normal and responding to her friend. "Yeah, I know. I wanted to get an early start on my study, but it clearly didn't last very long. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something."
At this, Chloe paused, looking up from what she was doing and giving her full attention to the brunette. She put an encouraging expression on her face in the hopes that it would help Beca's willingness to talk, whatever it may be about.
"Shoot."
"Okay, so my mom is having a family gathering back home to catch up, and I haven't seen her in ages. The only thing is, it is next week, and I'll be gone from Thursday to Saturday, which means missing out on rehearsals on Friday."
"Oh, okay."
"Is it okay if I leave you to run rehearsals with Aubrey just this once? Sorry for the bad timing, but it was the only time mom could get off work."
Chloe smile warmly in reassurance. "Yeah of course. Go ahead. You deserve the break. I'll handle Aubrey if she makes a fuss about it."
"You sure?"
"Absolutely! Don't worry about it Becs."
Beca smiled back ever so gratefully. "Thank you so much." To the surprise of both girls, Beca then reached over and embraced Chloe in a hug.
"Aww. Now I feel all warm and fuzzy." The redhead giggled as she returned the embrace. "You've gone soft, DJ."
Beca immediately pulled back, scowling good-humouredly. "Have not!"
When the day finally came for Beca to begin the preparation for her scope, she was all set up in her Dad's house, with her laptop and mixing equipment ready to counter the boredom that would inevitably come.
She had just begun to drink the horrible prep solution when her phone lit up, with a message from Jesse.
Jesse: Hey Becaw! How's it going?
Beca: *rolls eyes* I have to drink heaps of this disgusting, vile, puke-worthy liquid. And then I get to look forward to having said liquid force everything out the other end. How do you think it's going?
Jesse: Keeping up the good spirits I see
Beca: Bite me.
Jesse: Do you want someone to keep you company? Maybe it will help pass the time better?
Beca: Thanks for the thought, but no thanks. I won't be great company to anyone right now. Have fun with your classes
Jesse: I hope it's not too horrible for you today. Let me know how everything goes tomorrow.
Beca: Thanks dude. I will. And there had better be no surprise visits from you.
Jesse: No, I value my life. But if you need anything, let me know. I'll see you later.
It didn't take long before the prep drink did its job, and soon enough Beca found herself being driven to the hospital the next morning, ready for her scope.
When she finally came to, a few hours later, Beca was feeling quite out of it still. It was like everything was going in slow motion and she couldn't keep her eyes open long enough to focus in on anything.
"Hey. How are you feeling?" Beca turned her head to find her father sitting in a chair beside her bed.
"Mhmm. Tired." She managed to reply.
"You will be able to go home soon and then you can sleep all you want." Came the voice of Dr Griffin, now standing at the end of her bed, smiling softly at her patient.
Fortunately, as the moments went by, Beca began to feel more and more alert to the world.
"Awesome." She still lacked some enthusiasm, as evident by the yawn that followed.
The doctor and her father both chuckled at this, before Dr Griffin got down to business.
"So Beca, everything looks okay at this stage, there is some inflammation throughout your digestive tract, which is expected based on your symptoms, and I would like to meet with you next week to discuss treatment options. Any questions?" She handed a card with the details of Beca's next appointment to the girl.
"Nope."
"Okay then, I will see you next week. I want you to take it easy for the next few days."
Beca found herself sleeping away the rest of the day, her body worn out by the whole ordeal, which was to be expected. Though her stomach was empty, she skipped dinner. The DJ was feeling quite sore and sensitive, from being prodded and poked from the inside. Before she went to sleep for the night though, she made sure to message Jesse to reassure him that everything had gone well.
The next day would be interesting, when she returned to the chaos that was the Bellas' House.
When Beca walked in the door that next day, happy to be home – even though she had only been ten minutes away – she was ambushed by her friends. Fat Amy was the first to reach her, and she wrapped the tiny brunette up in a bone-crushing hug.
"Ahhh!"
"Beca! We missed you. Rehearsals sucked without you! Aubrey made us do vertical running!"
It took a moment for the shock of being ambushed to die down, and for Beca to register that she was in pain. An 'ow' escaped her lips before she could stop herself. She was still a little sore in her stomach.
Amy pulled back. "What's wrong? What did they do to you over there?"
"Huh? Oh nothing's wrong, you give some monster hugs though Amy!"
"Oops, maybe I was too enthusiastic." Fat Amy now had a guilty look working its way over her face.
In their usual joking fashion, Beca responded to this by holding up her hand with thumb and pointer finger a couple millimetres apart. "Tiny bit, yeah."
As Beca moved further into the house, she was greeted by all the other girls, each one giving her a welcoming hug. One person however held back, seemingly reserved about the situation.
When the DJ reached Chloe, they walked up to their room together, the redhead helping carry her bags up the stairs.
"Hey Becs."
"Hey Chlo."
"How was the family gathering?"
Internally, the brunette cringed, realising she would once again have to lie to her best friend.
"It was okay. Exhausting though. I feel like I could sleep for a month."
Chloe chuckled.
They had now made it into their bedroom, and the two set Beca's bags down on her bed.
"Well, we missed you. If you didn't figure it out from your welcome party just now." She was grinning.
"I was only gone for two and a half days. There was no time to miss me." Beca smiled back.
Chloe moved over to give her a warm and gentle hug. "We still missed you."
Beca leaned into the embrace. "Me too. I'm glad I'm home."
Later that night, Chloe and Stacie were sitting in the kitchen downstairs, enjoying a midnight snack. Some of the girls had cooked up a delicious lasagne for lunch, and both Chloe and Stacie had the same thought on their minds when they stayed up late, chatting: I'm hungry.
As they sat there in a comfortable silence, a thought popped into the redhead's mind.
"Stacie?"
Stacie had a mouthful of food as she attempted a response. "Mpfhmm?"
"Have you noticed anything different about Beca?"
Stacie swallowed. "What do you mean?"
Chloe thought for a moment on how to explain her question. There were just a handful of things that Beca had said or done which seemed a little off. And Stacie, being the med student, would perhaps have noticed in more detail.
"I don't know exactly, but she is always tired, and she seems to be avoiding eating sometimes. I just get the feeling she is hiding something."
"Well, for one she just got back from a full-on few days with her family, so that would be enough to tire anyone out. And she probably ate a lot while she was there too." Stacie's initial response was one without much thought, as she explained away Chloe's immediate reasons for being suspicious of her roommate.
Chloe shook her head. "No, I'm talking about all the other times she skips dinner or spends heaps of time in the bathroom, or acts suspicious. Last week I got home in the afternoon and she was already in bed asleep."
Now Stacie was paying attention. Her mind went back to the morning when she questioned Beca herself about why she was sick after their 'bonding night', and then to the scar she saw. But, she remembered, the DJ had been very reluctant to admit to the scar, and she probably wouldn't appreciate it at all if Stacie were to tell Chloe about it behind her back. Perhaps she would just have to question Beca directly again about whatever it was she was hiding.
Coming to the decision to not entertain Chloe's suspicion, for the benefit of Beca's privacy, Stacie shrugged it off again.
"You know, I haven't noticed anything in particular. Don't you think Beca would tell you if there was something going on with her?"
Chloe frowned. "I guess so." She didn't sound convinced. But she didn't have to, because her mind was torn out of its track by the sound of footsteps making their way down the stairs. Both girls remained quiet, until the small figure of the Bella in question made its appearance in the doorway to the kitchen.
"Beca, hey." Stacie spoke up, smiling.
"Hi. What are you guys doing up at this hour?" Beca rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she woke up properly.
Chloe motioned towards the large container, still full of food, on the table. "Midnight snack. Help yourself, surely you must be hungry?"
Beca hesitated, thinking about her stomach. It was still feeling a little iffy.
"No, not really. I'll pass."
This did nothing to ease the suspicion in Chloe's, and now Stacie's mind. Beca hadn't eaten a single thing since she arrived back home. And both girls in front of her knew it. The DJ had been resting upstairs since she returned home, and had slept through lunch time.
What they were not aware of, was the small meal that Beca had tried to eat for breakfast, before she returned home. And the discomfort it brought with it.
"Are you sure? It really is delicious."
Beca moved towards the cupboard this time, speaking as she went. "Yeah, I'm sure. I just came to get a glass of water. I'm going back to bed now."
"Oh okay, sleep tight."
"Yeah, we will see you in the morning." Both girls had small smiles on their faces, though neither one really felt reassured.
"Good night." Beca gave a small but warm smile as she bid them good night and returned to her bed.
The second she was gone though, a very meaningful look was shared between the two remaining occupants of the room.
...
Soon enough, the day came for Beca to go back and see Dr Griffin to follow up on her results. Going under the pretence of leaving early for work at the radio station, she managed to escape any suspicion as she left the house.
This didn't last long.
As Beca came out of the doctor's office after her appointment, she found herself face to face with none other than Stacie.
They both remained silent for a moment as each Bella came to conclusions on why the other was there.
Beca felt like she could have slammed her own head on a desk for not realising that she could run into her friend here. She had listened when Stacie bounded around the house excitedly telling anyone and everyone that she had been accepted into a volunteer program at a clinic in the medical school hospital on campus. And yet for some reason it had never occurred to Beca that the clinic she would be visiting would be the one that Stacie volunteered at.
Stacie's thoughts were running in a direct line, following the evidence in front of her: Beca... Visiting the doctor... Said doctor being a specialist in treating certain digestive diseases... Beca showing symptoms earlier in the term... Skipping lunch... Alcohol making her run to the bathroom... Sleeping lots... The surgery that lead to the scar. It all made sense now.
Oh shit. Beca has Crohn's disease.
"Beca," she began to say, but before she could go anywhere with it, the girl in question had fled the scene.