Five hours later Aubrey was on the ground in L.A. Stacie had text her the name of the hospital and the GPS on her phone was now giving her directions, through the audio system on her rental car.
During all of her travel time, she had thought about the conversation she had had with Beca and then with Stacie. The truth was, she had finally decided, that while there was a tiny part of her that desperately hoped that Chloe had managed to come back from the grave, she didn't believe it.
She didn't think that her friends were lying to her, but she did think that maybe they were confused. The thought had occurred to her that maybe a drifter that looked very similar to Chloe had wandered into Beca's house after the quake and that's who they found. It wouldn't have surprised her a bit if Beca, in her, still, relatively fragile state, had simply seen a close resemblance and run with it.
Aubrey heard the GPS say "You have arrived at your destination" and looked up to see the giant hospital looming over her. She quickly found the entrance to the parking garage, found a spot and made her way into the hospital lobby, shooting a quick text to Stacie as she walked in.
Beca, Stacie and Chloe were playing hangman.
When Beca and Stacie had first taken up their post in front of the glass wall that separated them from Chloe, there had been a tense few minutes where Beca had tried to figure out a way to communicate with the redhead.
She first tried signing, which was met with Chloe shrugging and shaking her head. She then tried pressing her face almost up against the glass and mouthing words, quickly finding out that Chloe was as bad at reading lips as she was at reading sign. Beca frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, squinching her face in concentration as she tried to find a solution to the communication issue.
As thoughts passed through her head, each one getting rejected. She had a brief thought that she was kind of sad, that all of the ink that had covered Chloe's body seemed to be gone. She spared another quick thought to all the green sticky notes that lined the walls of their house and to how their written story might be gone, but at least they would be able to continue it where they left off, when the solution made itself clear.
Beca sent Stacie down to the gift shop to buy out every last notebook they had in stock, and a few pens. Stacie came back with the bag of note pads, right as a nurse was getting ready to put on the protective gear that anyone entering Chloe's room had to wear, and it didn't take much convincing for her to take a few of the pads in.
Beca watched Chloe's face light up as the nurse handed her the note pads and explained why Beca had sent them in.
They had tried having written conversations at first, but that quickly proved to be far too time consuming and frustrating with three people. So when Stacie suggested hangman they all jumped on it.
They were halfway through the current round, which Chloe was winning, when Stacie felt her phone buzz in her pocket. As She pulled it out and looked down to see Aubrey's name on the waiting notification, she realized that she had been having so much fun, and had been so absorbed in the game, she had actually forgotten that one of the people she was playing with, was for all intents and purposes undead. Stacie shook her head to clear the disturbingly amusing thought and clicked her messaging app, bringing up Bree's text, it said simply "I'm here."
"Bree's here, I gotta run down and get her." She said quickly to Beca.
Beca nodded and flipped to a new page in her notebook. She wrote Bree is here. Stacie is going down to get her.' And watched as Chloe's face lit up at the prospect of seeing her best friend.
Aubrey stood in the hospital lobby with her arms crossed over her chest, tapping her foot. She wasn't really feeling as impatient as she looked to be. She was just worried about her friends and had no idea what she was actually walking into.
Stacie had sworn up and down that Beca was fine, that she hadn't relapsed, but there was still a pretty large part of Aubrey's mind that told her, that was the only logical explanation.
Aubrey looked up just in time to see Stacie striding towards her from a bank of elevators on the other side of the lobby. Aubrey started walking as well, and the two old friends met near the middle of the cavernous room, with a warm embrace. After a moment Aubrey pulled back and looked at Stacie, her expression changing from warm to serious, in an instant.
"Stace, can you please tell me what's actually going on now?"
Stacie sighed. As thankful as she was, that Aubrey was here to help deal with things, she still wanted to kidney punch Beca for bringing her in the way she did.
"Bree, I know this is all very confusing, but everything I told you on the phone is the truth. Come on, I'll show you."
Aubrey gave a tense nod and followed Stacie back toward the bank of elevators she had just come from.
Beca and Chloe were finding written conversations to be a bit easier with just two people, and they were both in unspoken agreement that keeping the conversation light would be the best idea. They talked about what kind of house the label would put them in next, and how they would furnish it. They also talked about things they would do, once Chloe got released.
They were just deciding where they would go for Cheeseburgers on the way home, when Beca heard the unmistakable sound of Aubrey's heels clicking on the hard tile floor and turned toward the noise.
It wasn't that Aubrey walked any harder than most people, it was more the way she walked that made it distinct. It was almost like you could actually hear the purpose in her steps.
Beca turned back a moment later and was met with a puzzled look from Chloe. She quickly wrote 'Bree is on her way over here.' And held it up to the window.
'How do you know?' Chloe wrote back.
'I can hear her walking.'
Chloe laughed and Beca didn't need a written confirmation to know that Chloe had made the same observation about Aubrey and the way she walks.
"It just doesn't make sense." Aubrey said as she and Stacie stepped off the elevator.
"I know it doesn't Bree. It doesn't make any sense at all, but it's the truth."
"You said that 'Chloe'," Aubrey made air quotes with her fingers around her name, "was all covered with ink right?"
"Yeah."
"OK, then isn't it possible that it was just someone who looked like Chloe and maybe Beca just got confused, or just wanted it to be Chloe so bad, that she convinced herself it was?"
"No Bree it's not possible. Not only is Chloe a very unique looking person, but she spoke to us. It was her voice coming out of her face, talking about memories that only she would have. It's really her, Bree, I can't tell you how, only that it is."
Stacie had stopped. They were standing in front of the observation room that held Chloe, but Aubrey was so engrossed in their conversation she hadn't yet noticed.
"Stace, this whole thing is just insane."
"Bree?"
"What?"
"Turn around."
Aubrey did as she was asked, and came face to face with Chloe, who had gotten out of her hospital bed and was standing directly in front of the window with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face.
Aubrey's legs gave out, and she would have hit the floor, if not for Stacie and Beca's quick reflexes. They grabbed her and gently helped her over to the chair, that Beca had been sitting in moments before.
Chloe followed them and kneeled on the ground in front of the chair Aubrey was sitting in and put her hand flat on the glass.
Aubrey sat for a moment staring at the redhead that she thought she'd never see again, and then gently put her hand on the glass, on top of where Chloe's hand was, on the other side.
"Is it really you?" The blonde asked quietly. When she was met with a puzzled look from Chloe. She looked up at Beca.
"She can't hear you through the glass and is apparently really bad at reading lips. We've been using these." Beca said gently as she handed Aubrey the notepad.
Aubrey accepted it with shaking hands and quickly wrote.
'Is it really you Chlo?'
Chloe nodded and then held up the response she had written.
'It's me Bree.'
"But how?" Aubrey said aloud, before remembering that Chloe couldn't hear her and writing it out.
'I don't know. I don't remember anything between eight months ago and waking up under the door in my bedroom earlier today.'
'Are you ok? How do you feel?'
'I feel fine, no different than I did eight months ago. I keep telling the doctors that, but they said this was something they'd never seen before and they needed to take some precautions.'
'I never thought I'd see you again. I missed you so much Chlo.' As Aubrey held up the last note, the tears that had been stinging the backs of her eyes finally began to fall.
When Beca and Stacie, who had been standing back by the nurse's station to give the two old friends a few minutes to catch up, heard Aubrey start to cry, they both rushed over and put their arms around her.
With a quick glance up at Chloe, Beca could see the tears running down her cheeks as well. She wanted nothing more than to go running into the room and hold Chloe as tight as she could for as long as she could, but she knew that would just get her thrown out of the hospital. So Beca did the only thing she could, she kept one arm around Aubrey and put her free hand up on the glass and tried to show Chloe with her eyes alone, just how much she was loved.