Beca instantly closed her dropped jaw as her girlfriend came in through the door, and took a deep breath. This cannot be happening right now. She forced out a smile. "Hey Kristen, glad you could find me."
Chloe turned around to see who this 'Kristen' girl was. As she turned around, she practically threw a temper tantrum. The taller girl had long brunette hair, green eyes, and, begrudgingly, Chloe noticed the woman had a good body, too. "Hi, I'm Dr. Beale, I'll be stitching up Beca today," Chloe said to Kristen, forcing a smile out worse than Beca had.
Kristen smiled politely and walked over to sit on a chair near where Beca sat on the bed. "So what caused this…" Chloe faltered slightly as she saw Kristen instantly reach over and grab Beca's uninjured hand. The redhead cleared her throat, "incident?"
Beca stared at the ground, not daring to make eye contact with the girl. Kristen looked over curiously at her girlfriend, and decided to speak up when the shorter girl still had not. "She tripped and tried to catch herself on a desk, but there was a glass cup there. She broke the glass into her hand."
Chloe registered what Kristen had said, but had not taken her eyes off of Beca. She tried to study the woman, as if she could learn everything about her from the past three years strictly from nonverbal scrutiny. "Is this true, Beca?"
Beca's head slightly lifted as she heard the redhead's sweet voice say her name for this first time in so long. "Yeah, that's it. Do you think we could do this already? I'm bleeding through this stupid gauze."
Chloe's medical instinct kicked in and she nodded, ignoring the standoffish behavior of Beca. The redhead put on a pair of gloves and then carefully unwound the gauze around Beca's right palm. The blood became more and more apparent, when finally the gauze came all the way off. The side of Beca's hand was torn open, about a good inch and a half, and the skin started turning blue at the edges where they disconnected. Luckily though, it had stopped bleeding by this point…mostly.
Beca stared at her own hand with interest. Blue skin? Great, a bigger reason to be referred to as a Smurf. However, the taller brunette was less fascinated and more…nauseous. Kristen closed her eyes tightly and accidently put more pressure on Beca's uninjured hand.
The DJ noticed and looked over at her friend, ignoring Chloe's close proximity on her right. "Are you okay, babe?" Beca asked, sincere concern evident. The redhead's ears pricked up at the use of the pet name, but she continued inspecting the wound, not wanting to mess anything up on her first solo medical assignment.
Kristen forced out a smile, not opening her eyes. "F-fine…just, uh, not so good…with b-blood." She opened her eyes slightly to look at Beca, and could have sworn she saw the redheaded doctor smirking.
Beca squeezed her hand in Kristen's slightly. "Go wait for me out in the waiting room, and I'll be right there, okay?"
Kristen began to protest but Beca leaned forward without letting her hand slip from Chloe's grasp. "It'll be fine," Beca reassured. Whether she said that to reassure her girlfriend or herself, even Beca wasn't too sure.
Kristen nodded, and leaned over to give Beca a quick kiss. "Stay strong, DJ," Kristen said playfully.
Beca genuinely smiled for the first time in the hospital. Chloe took notice of this. "Always," Beca replied, trying to convince herself to stay strong for a countless amount of other reasons.
Kristen got up and left, leaving the two girls alone in the room. It suddenly seemed a lot smaller to the young DJ. She said nothing.
"Well, you cut your hand pretty deep, but it looks like there wasn't any permanent damage," Chloe stated after a few moments of silence once Kristen left the room. "You're lucky, about a millimeter deeper, and that hand could have been seriously messed up for the rest of your life. Unfortunately though, since it was cut on glass, I need to give you tetanus shot and make sure the wound won't get infected. Then I can start stitching it up once it's numbed. Sound good?"
Beca stared at the door where her girlfriend just exited. She nodded.
Chloe sighed, frustrated with the lack of communication from the younger girl. "At least it wasn't your dominant hand," Chloe muttered as she began getting together the supplies from the cabinets.
Beca's head snapped up, staring at the back of Chloe. Her eyes drifted tracing the outline of the woman Beca once thought might have been her soul mate. "What?" Beca asked.
Surprised by hearing Beca's voice, Chloe turned around, looking at Beca, making contact with the DJ's dark blue eyes. "You're left handed, aren't you?"
Beca nodded slowly as Chloe came over to sit down next to her hand. "How did you remember that?" Beca asked curiously.
Chloe looked up as she took the cap off of the needle to give Beca her shot. "You're hard to forget, Beca Mitchell." A moment of silence passed between the two, both girls still looking at each other.
Chloe cleared her throat and looked away, blushing very slightly at being caught up with seeing the brunette again. "Okay, Beca, this is going to hurt."
Before Beca could register what the redhead had said, Chloe stuck the large needle into Beca's wound. "Motherfucker," Beca hissed out, gripping the bed she sat on with her non injured hand. The pain was immediate and hurt worse than actually breaking the glass with her hand.
Chloe quickly added the other minor shot that would numb Beca's hand, and then sat, waiting for the numbing effect to kick in.
"How are you a doctor already?" Beca asked, deciding the crushing silence was worse than awkward small talk.
Chloe half smiled, mostly because Beca was making the effort to talk. "I'm not, really. I'm still in med school, but the program offers summer internships to the top of the class."
"Great, a clumsy med student is taking care of me," Beca replied, her sarcasm coming through as playful.
Chloe smiled genuinely at the way the brunette was acting, and seeing Chloe's grin immediately spurred the DJ's stomach to twist in knots as butterflies travelled throughout her. "I'll try not to do that much permanent damage," Chloe joked.
Beca, however, heard an entirely different message transfer through that sentence. "Too late," Beca replied sardonically. Chloe picked up on this shift from playful to bitter instantly.
"I'm not the one that left," Chloe muttered quietly, beginning to shove the needle through Beca's skin to begin stitching it up. She hadn't meant to say it out loud, or for Beca to hear it, but of course both events occurred.
"I'm not the one that used the other one for sex," Beca spat back, raising her voice.
"It's not like I was taking advantage of you; I'm pretty sure you wanted it too," Chloe immediately countered.
"Yeah because I wanted to date you, which clearly wasn't what you wanted by what I heard that day at rehearsal. Did you always share with the other Bella's how you continuously kept leading me on?"
"You don't even know what I wanted," Chloe shot back, offended Beca thought so lowly of her back then.
"Really? Because I got a pretty clear picture when you were yelling how I meant nothing to you," Beca practically shouted. "Ow, bitch, be careful!" She hissed as Chloe pulled hard on the stitch in Beca's hand.
"Don't call me a bitch," Chloe replied sharply. The redhead looked down at the stitches she was making in Beca's hand. "Sorry," she muttered lowly after a brief pause. Their emotions were clearly getting the better of both of them at the moment, and Chloe did not want to give Beca any medical reason to hate her.
The two fell in a tense and awkward silence. Beca looked down at Chloe's gloved hands as the final stitch was being knotted together. The brunette's eyes flickered to the watch on Chloe's wrist.
"I want my watch back," Beca stated monotonously.
Chloe took of her gloves, satisfied with the work she accomplished on Beca's hand. Her eyes met with Beca's as the shorter girl spoke up and Chloe gave her a confused look. "What are you talking about?"
"That watch on your wrist – it's mine. My great grandfather gave it to me."
Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Then you didn't take very good care of it; the screen was cracked and I found it on the grass at Barden."
Beca felt red creep up her face as she remembered chucking one of her most treasured possessions out that window. "I was upset," Beca mumbled. It didn't take a genius for Chloe to figure out when the younger girl had probably gotten rid of the watch. A day before you left my life.
The redhead sat for a moment in deep thought, scrunching her eyebrows together. The brunette noticed this and felt the corner of her lips tug upward. That's a cute habit.
Before Beca could process her thought completely, Chloe stood up suddenly. "I'll tell you what Beca. If you go out to lunch with me, then I'll give you back the watch."
The brunette looked at the redhead incredulously. "What? Are you out of your mind?"
"I'm serious. You aren't getting this watch back unless you make plans with me to meet for lunch." The redhead crossed her arms and stared challengingly at the brunette.
Beca huffed in frustration. There are a million reasons why I should not even consider this. Beca's eyes flickered to the watch adorning Chloe's wrist. There may be one reason why I should though… The brunette bit her lip as she considered her options.
Chloe felt her intense stare soften as her eyes glanced to Beca's lips. I wonder if she's still a good kisser…Chloe began to internally chastise herself for this line of thinking when she heard a small sound come from the DJ.
"What was that?"
Beca dramatically sighed, her shoulder's slouching. "I said 'okay, I'll go to lunch with you'. Happy?"
The redhead grinned. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I am."
Beca looked up at Chloe and found her grin to be infectious. Against her own want, the brunette offered her own small smile in return. Chloe was internally ecstatic at seeing Beca smiling at her again.
"Alright," Chloe said, clearing her throat and returning to a more stoic appearance. "So, here are some general instructions on how to properly take care of your hand." The redhead quickly pulled out a pen and scribbled something on the top right hand corner of the paper before handing it over to Beca. "And there is my number, so you can text or call me so we can plan our lunch meeting. Sound good?"
The brunette looked briefly at the paper, her eyes mostly focusing on the numbers Chloe had just written.
Beca looked up and smiled crookedly, standing up from the bed. "Sounds good." The shorter girl stood in front of Chloe, admiring the features of the perky intern. "Thank you, Dr. Beale," Beca stated, attempting to be serious. The brunette stuck out her hand for a handshake.
Chloe giggled, but tried to suppress her laugh as she grabbed the smaller girl's uninjured hand. "Anytime Miss Mitchell," the redhead replied in a flirty tone.
The two both appreciated the feeling of another once more, but neither said anything out loud. They merely smiled at one another. Beca was the first to break contact as she remembered Kristen was right outside waiting for her.
"Alright, well I better let Kristen know I'm okay. I'll text you, though," the shorter girl reassured.
Chloe's smile faltered at the mention of Beca's 'friend' but she made no comment on it and nodded. As the brunette turned to leave, Chloe quickly remembered a pressing question on her mind. "Oh, wait – Beca!"
The DJ turned around and gave Chloe a curious look. "Why does the watch countdown automatically? What's the reason behind it?" Why did it go off when you came back?
Beca was quiet for a moment. "I'll tell you some other time, okay? Not now, though."
Chloe huffed with mild frustration, but relented. "You will tell me though?" The redhead asked hopefully.
Beca smirked slightly. Her eyes trailed over the redhead, wondering if Chloe was still meant to be her soul mate. Beca wondered if she could even handle Chloe still being her soul mate. The brunette had a lot to think about, and decided to choose her next words carefully.
"Eventually, yes. I'll tell you what the countdown means."
A/N: Alright so some interaction between Beca and Chloe, and there is more to come. Feel free to give me some feedback and review, and thank you to everyone who's supporting me out there! You guys rock and I appreciate it all! Until next time!