I was going to apologize for this being delayed, but I have something else to say instead. It is not okay to tell an author to update a fic, or even leave a review that says "please update soon." Most of you guys are pretty good about everything, but adding pressure to an author - an author who is doing this for free - is not okay. You may not view it as something that's not a big deal, and normally it isn't, but it is adding pressure to something that, for me at least, is supposed to be a stress releasing activity. So please don't add pressure to something that's supposed to be pleasurable. It takes the fun out of writing and makes me start to resent it.
That being said, next week's update might be delayed as well, since finals are starting up. Patience is key here, I'll update when I finish the next chapter and have time to edit and review it.
"Has Chloe been acting strangely lately, or is it just me?"
Aubrey looks up from reading the score sheet while they wait for the final results and eyes the redhead. Chloe quickly looks away seeing both Stacie and Aubrey eyeing her and quickly strikes up a conversation with Cynthia Rose. "Yeah," Aubrey replies with a sigh, turning her attention back to the judge's comments.
"Did I do something?" Stacie frowns.
It's been three weeks that they've been back at Barden, and ever since that first rehearsal back, Chloe has been side eying Stacie and Aubrey whenever they hang out together, and all but avoiding Stacie completely.
A few days earlier she had walked into her dorm room to find Chloe chilling out on Beca's bed, waiting for the brunette to return from her internship at the radio station. When she saw it was Stacie instead, she quickly got twitchy and weird (for her), and made up some lame excuse before rushing out of the room.
Since then Stacie hasn't spoken to Chloe at all. It hurts a little that Chloe is avoiding her. She doesn't know what she did, or even if she did anything, but she wishes Chloe would just tell her so she can fix it. She misses her friend, and she really needs someone to counter Beca's negativity before she snaps and actually smacks her best friend.
She looks back to Aubrey, wondering what's taking so long to answer. Aubrey's glaring at Chloe's distracted form, a light blush on her cheeks and glassy eyes, as if reliving a memory, and Stacie is immediately put on alert.
"You know why she's acting so weird," she says confidently. She figures, between everything that she and Aubrey have bonded over and been through, that Aubrey would be at her side and willing to open up to her. So she's shocked when Aubrey all but snaps at her.
"Stacie," Aubrey huffs out her name, "I am trying to read the comments. I don't have time for this."
At Aubrey's harsh tone, Stacie jumps back slightly, hurt making its way across her face. Now she's sure that Aubrey knows exactly what she did, and she's pretty sure that whatever Chloe's been weird about, Aubrey's being weird about it too.
She quickly rearranged her features when Aubrey looks up apologetically, mouth open as if to apologize, but Stacie quickly waves her off before she can say anything.
"You're right," she ignores the tightness in her throat and the weight in her chest at Aubrey's chastising. "Sorry, I'll leave you alone."
She turns away from Aubrey, her chest tight with some emotion she can't actually name. She thinks it's a mixture between anxiety at pissing Aubrey off, guilt at pressing Aubrey's buttons, a little anger at being snapped at, and something else. Some sort of heavy feeling that was similar to the feeling that she got when she first read her soulmate's note all those years ago. Hurt, perhaps.
Which, Stacie realizes, is probably why it hurts so much to be snapped at by Aubrey. It's not the same as losing her soulmate, obviously, as that sort of catastrophic combustion of a relationship can really only happen once in a lifetime. It's more that losing Aubrey as a friend, even for as short of a time that she's known her, would lead to something akin, albeit to a lesser degree, of the hurt she felt four years ago. She figured that she would never feel as strongly as she feels for Aubrey, without her soulmate. That's the whole point of soulmates to begin with, she believes. To have that deep, all-knowing connection with someone else. And she thinks she has that with Aubrey, so she doesn't ever want to do anything that would make the blonde upset with her; and Aubrey's opinion and friendship matters to her more than a lot of things. She hasn't known her long, it is true, but she holds their friendship to the same level, if not slightly higher, than her and Beca's friendship.
And she can't even rationalize to herself why that is.
"Stacie wait," Aubrey calls softly, grabbing the brunette's wrist to prevent her from leaving. "I'm sorry," she says.
Stacie turns toward her, trying not to let the hurt show on her face. She's not quite sure she succeeds, because Aubrey's guilty expressions turns to one almost like heartbreak. "I am sorry for snapping at you."
Stacie looks away and shrugs. She doesn't want to speak because if she did she's sure that Aubrey would be able to hear the tears in her voice.
Aubrey pulls her closer and pulls her into a hug, which Stacie immediately returns. The contact is more than any apology Aubrey could offer with words, and immediately soothes Stacie's pain and angst. She's not even embarrassed that she returned the hug so quickly, since she knows that there's no use in fighting these feelings. She has tried long enough.
"She's been weird for me too," Aubrey says, pulling back slightly. She keeps close to Stacie, her hands resting lightly on her shoulders, and Stacie revels in the contact. It's soothing and comforting and she knows that if she and Aubrey ever fought, they should always end it with a hug. Or sex, but Stacie doesn't think that's on the table right now.
"Do you know why?" Stacie asks, furrowing her eyebrows. She doesn't like the idea of Chloe being upset with them both.
Aubrey shakes her head. "She was teasing me about something then got this weird look on her face. I don't know what's up."
Stacie accepts the answer. Obviously neither she or Aubrey know what is going through Chloe's mind and there's no point in pushing it.
Deciding to change the topic, Stacie nods her head at the score sheet in Aubrey's hand. "How'd we do?"
Aubrey grimaces, and Stacie can't help her fond smile as she leans back against the wall and looks down. "There were a few slip ups on choreography, and they said we sounded a little pitchy. They say good things about Amy's solo, but then point out the bad things. They apparently did not like her ripping her shirt open."
Stacie shrugs. She didn't see what the big deal was. Amy was obviously having fun, and the audience was right there along with her, when Stacie knows that before Amy's solo, they weren't reactive to them at all.
She says nothing, though, and together they stand against the wall until the scores are called out, and the Bellas take home second place. Stacie's pretty happy with the results. Why wouldn't she be? In her first competition second place is a very good starting point. She now knows what to expect when they go out on stage and she can see what they want.
It's a learning experience if Stacie's ever seen one, and she hopes that Aubrey, whom the others have reverted to calling the Aca-Nazi behind her back, sees it that way too. Of course with a quick look over her shoulder that hope is quickly erased when she sees Aubrey frowning at the other teams score sheets.
Well, at least Chloe seems pleased.
Stacie turns back around, falling back from Beca and Amy and settling in beside Cynthia Rose. They're quiet though, not finding a need to say anything besides a casual "hey."
They turn a corner and head down into the foyer of the theater, when Aubrey calls for them to stop, warily looking at the Trebles getting themselves into trouble with a bunch of older aca-dudes.
Beca's friend, Jesse, is trying to back away from where one of them, a smaller egg-shaped man, is trying to physically engage him. She glances down to Beca, who is getting fidgety and is repeatedly clenching her hands into fists. Stacie knows from multiple experiences that Beca doesn't take kindly to people picking on her friends, and she shifts forward, stretching to place a hand on Beca's shoulder and keep her in place.
"Ladies, don't engage," Aubrey warns from above them, probably seeing Stacie have to physically calm Beca and Amy psyching herself up. "Just ignore them."
"I've wrestled crocodiles and dingoes simultaneously," Amy says, starting to bounce in place, as if warming up for exercise.
The foyer seems to get quiet and very loud all at once, and over the noise, it's easy for Stacie to pick up on Jesse's voice.
"I don't want to hit you, man," he says as he backs away, holding one hand up, trying to calm the Tonehanger.
The idiot follows him though, not letting up, and says, "I just need to feel something."
Jesse's starting to seriously look worried and glances to his teammates, more than half of which are engaged in a verbal sparring match. His eyes shift frantically, looking for help, and Stacie can feel Beca tense under her hand when Jesse meets the shorter brunette's eyes.
Beca nods minutely, and gingerly takes Stacie's hand off her shoulder. "I'm just gonna…" She doesn't finish her sentence, and instead walks confidently towards her friend.
"Twenty bucks says that guy pees himself," Cynthia Rose says from beside Stacie, eyes glued on the action.
Stacie just rolls her eyes and looks behind her for help from Chloe or Aubrey.
Chloe's eyes are glued to Beca's figure, forehead creased with worry. Her bright blue eyes shift between Beca, and Jesse and the Tonehanger, never settling for long.
Aubrey on the other hand, is biting her lip in what looks like barely concealed excitement. Her eyes brighten when the Tonehanger starts to go after Beca. Stacie has just enough time to turn back and see Beca throw a left-hook at the guy, and see the guy drop.
Stacie shifts uncomfortably, imagining that hitting the egghead must've hurt, but secretly a little pleased with Beca.
Since Chloe's arrival into Beca's everyday life, she's been much calmer than she was in high school. She didn't argue as much with other people, and hasn't gotten into a single scuffle that was more than play. All things considered, five months was great for Beca's self control. And really, Stacie can't even blame her for taking action. She probably would have too, if somebody were harassing her friends.
Now though, the egghead is getting back up and asking for more, which only seems to rile Fat Amy up, as she runs toward him screeching "Unleash the fat power!"
It's not pretty, to say the least.
Stacie shifts to go try to break it up, knowing as she does that when Beca gets defensive, it's hard to calm her down, but a soft grip on her bicep stops her. She looks up and meets Aubrey's concerned expression.
"Don't go over there," the blonde cautions her. Stacie frowns, getting defensive. It isn't like she can't take care of herself. She knows she has more muscle on her than Beca does and can easily defend herself from that guy. But after a more careful examination of Aubrey's expression, Stacie picks up on the smaller cues – her slightly furrowed brow, her bottom lip just barely drawn between her teeth, and flicker of protectiveness that Stacie can just barely make out in the set of Aubrey's jaw and the minute tightening of her eyes – and she knows that Aubrey is just worried about her.
"Somebody's got to help her," she tries to reason with Aubrey. She doesn't know that she's always had Beca's back when it came to fights. She wasn't around and only knew of them when most of the fights took place, so there's really no way she can convey to Aubrey how hard it is for her to sit back and watch Beca get herself into trouble. Which is of course exactly what happens next.
Aubrey opens her mouth, her frown just a touch deeper, but before she can get a word out, there's a crash followed by a sudden, shocked silence.
Stacie whips around to see Beca standing alone, Amy quickly – for her – running away down the hall, and a broken window. Beca meets Stacie's eyes, and Stacie quickly breaks free of Aubrey's grasp, lighter now with all the commotion, and makes her way to Beca.
"Are you okay?" She asks quickly, as she reaches Beca. A quick glance at the window reveals a police officer making his way over. Even if she wanted to, Stacie isn't sure Beca could get away at this point. "Fuck," she breathes out instead, standing tall by Beca's side.
Chloe rushes to Beca's other side, pulling her into a tight embrace. She watches the officer warily, and tightens her hold, as if she can protect Beca from anything the cop tries just by being there.
They watch as the cop examines the broken window and picks up the ruined trophy. "All right," he says, stepping through the new doorway, glass crunching under his feet. "Who wants to explain what happened here?"
There's a moment of silence from everyone still in the foyer, that's only broken by Aubrey, as she steps up next to Stacie.
"It's a misunderstanding, officer," she starts. "We were just getting ready to leave when we walked in on a confrontation between the Treblemakers," she gestures to where the three Trebles remain frozen, "and the Tonehangers."
The officer nods and grabs his notepad and begins to take notes. Aubrey keeps explaining, eloquently and confidently, and Stacie is almost positive that Aubrey has had practice talking down authority figures. She notices though, the tension at her shoulders, the subtle clenching of her jaw, and knows that Aubrey is not happy with this situation at all. Though Stacie doesn't know if it's due to the fact that it has happened at all, or whether it has to do with the authority figure itself that's stressing Aubrey out.
The officer turns to Beca next and takes her statement. Beca meekly explains, probably because she doesn't see a way out of getting in trouble, that she was only trying to help her friends and that with the force in which the trophy was yanked away from her, she really couldn't hold on to it.
When the officer moves to Jesse for his statement, Chloe pulls Beca into a hug. Seeing that Beca's being taken care of, Stacie turns to Aubrey, and places a comforting hand at her back, gently rubbing circular motions, trying to relieve the tension.
"You okay?" She asks her quietly, searching for any sign of an impending breakdown in Aubrey's steel exterior.
She sees Aubrey swallow harshly, but the blonde nods and moves closer into Stacie's space. Stacie takes advantage of the blonde's proximity and gathers her into a soft but strong hug, offering any support she can. She doesn't know why Aubrey's reacting so strongly, but she knows that at the very least, she can be right there with her.
After a few minutes, the police officer comes back around and Aubrey pulls away, Stacie reluctantly releasing her to face to officer again.
"All right ladies, it seems like your story checks out," he tells them, putting his notebook back in his pocket. "Unfortunately, I still have to take you in," he motions to Beca. "Someone has to be responsible for the window and since the person who you say is partially responsible is not here, there has to be consequences."
Beca tenses, her face getting pink in outrage. A sharp look from Chloe stops any outburst she has, and she swallows her words, instead clenching her hands into fists and shaking her head in slow anger.
"Will this show up on her record?" Aubrey asks, and Stacie turns to look at Aubrey. Her expression is hard and steady, letting the determination show through. Stacie thinks, as she watches the police officer meets her gaze, seeming bored and disinterested until he notices that she doesn't falter, doesn't blink, that Aubrey would make one hell of a lawyer one day if she wanted to be. Nobody would dare argue with her.
"No ma'am," the officer answers. "Not unless the school wishes to press charges over the broken glass."
Aubrey nods. "Beca and I will accompany you to the police station." She turns to Chloe next, the officer not arguing. "Take the girls back to school. We'll be back as soon as this is over."
Chloe nods and turns to round up the girls, sending Jessica and Ashley away to hunt Amy down. Stacie, however, doesn't move. Instead, she studies Aubrey, taking in her tense posture and straight back.
"Aubrey," Stacie says, taking a step closer and putting her hand lightly on Aubrey's forearm. She can feel the tensed muscles underneath and gently rubs her hand in a soothing gesture. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you? It wouldn't be the first time I've talked Beca out of trouble."
Aubrey meets her pleading gaze steadily, and takes a deep breath. Stacie can almost see the tension release, though almost nothing in Aubrey's posture changed.
She smiles softly at Stacie. "I'm just going to clear this up. We'll be back shortly." Stacie's expression doesn't change, and Aubrey adds in a softer tone, "Really Stace, we'll be okay."
Stacie nods slowly. She isn't happy about leaving Beca and Aubrey, but she has confidence in Aubrey's abilities to clear up the issue.
"Stacie, let's go!" Chloe calls from the opposite hall. With one last look, and a nod from Aubrey, Stacie follows.
She's nervous and distracted the entire ride home. The other girls, barring Chloe, are joking around and laughing, seemingly unperturbed over the entire incident. Amy isn't even acting like she feels guilty about almost getting Beca arrested.
When they arrive back at campus, Stacie's completely done with the girls. She doesn't even stick around to wait for Chloe as they get off the bus, instead choosing to march directly back towards her room and wait for her best friend to come back.
She thinks she vaguely hears someone call her name, but she doesn't stop or slow down. Throughout the entire ride home, and a little before, she has been getting increasingly agitated. The nerves, worry, and irritation with Chloe and her fellow teammates, building to a point where she thinks she's going to explode. She's irritated with Chloe for being uncharacteristically cold towards her. She knows also, that whatever is going on with Chloe, it will only take a little while, and probably a bit more frustration on Stacie's part, before everything comes to a head and Chloe spills whatever it is that has been bothering her.
When she finally gets back to her room, she sits on her bed and breathes. This isn't how she'd expected her evening to go at all. She's worried about Beca, absolutely, but she knows Aubrey will make sure nothing really bad happens to her.
No, it's not really Beca she's worried about, she assures herself, it's Aubrey. She knows the blonde is capable, she knows the blonde is sure and strong. What she doesn't know is why the blonde was so tense, why, when she thinks back, she was swallowing so heavily. She's not sure if it has to do with authority in general for Aubrey, or if that's just how she handles tough situations, but Stacie knows it's Aubrey who needs the support right now, and not Beca.
Stacie stands and makes her way over to the window, checking the sky. The cloudless night seems clear, the basic constellations shining through despite the light pollution. It's not the best conditions, but she knows staring into the heavens is the best bet at calming her nerves and grounding herself, since she's sure she has to wait at least a few hours for Beca and Aubrey to return.
She steps back from the window and pulls her telescope out from her closet. It's not her best telescope, just something she made in high school when she was bored, but it works. It works well enough that it got her a trip to the White House senior year of high school and a national award. She's pretty proud of it, though the quality is somewhat lacking compared to her high resolution telescope. It's comforting to her nonetheless, and she eagerly sets it up and aims it at the sky.
She fiddles with it for a while, until she can just barely make out a nebula. She adjusts some dials and checks her coordinate journal before going back and staring at the bright colors.
Right before she gets the image clear, there's a soft, timid knock at her door, pulling her out of her concentration. She huffs and rights herself, turning the telescope off and throwing a light blanket over it to keep it clean.
"Come in," she calls, turning her back to the telescope and facing the door. She crosses her arms in front of her as the door opens to reveal a redhead and the rest of the Bellas behind her.
"Hey," Chloe says, glancing around the room and avoiding Stacie's hard gaze. "The girls were wondering if we could all wait in here for Beca and Aubrey to get back…" She trails off when she sees Stacie's expression hasn't changed.
Stacie sweeps her stare over the other girls, who all look hopeful and fairly happy, and nods her consent. She's not really in the mood for other people, but she can't fault them all for being here for Beca.
"Yeah, come in," Stacie gestures to her room. "Don't touch Beca's things or I'll kick you out," she warns them.
She moves to her bed and sits, pulling out a file and smoothing the edges of her nails to hide her annoyance. The girls seem to pick up on her mood and mercifully leave her be, instead turning to Chloe for entertainment.
It's not that long, probably only an hour or so, before Beca is walking in the door, Aubrey following closely behind.
"You guys waited up for me?" Beca asks, a small but genuine smile threatening to break out.
"Of course we did," Chloe says, standing from her seat at Beca's desk and walking across to room to embrace the younger girl. The other Bellas look away, trying to give them their moment privacy.
Stacie's eyes, however, are still glued to the blonde still standing in the doorway. Aubrey looks tired, the events of the day have obviously been wearing at her, and Stacie wants nothing more than to pull her to her bed and lie down with her. Instead, she walks slowly, almost cautiously, towards Aubrey and pulls her into a tight, but comforting embrace that is almost immediately returned.
She doesn't want to pressure Aubrey into revealing anything or pressuring her into doing something she isn't comfortable with, so she doesn't question why speaking to the police officer and going to the station with Beca is such a big deal. She doesn't feel as if she needs to know. She can already read Aubrey well enough to know that she doesn't want to talk about it, and Stacie knows that pressuring Aubrey to do something she isn't comfortable with will only lead to an argument.
"You okay?" She asks instead, pulling away from Aubrey almost completely. She runs her hands down Aubrey's arms, keeping contact the entire time, leaving the only place they are still touching their intertwined hands.
Aubrey studies her for a moment. Not long enough for the other girls to become suspicious between their interactions, if they aren't already, but long enough that Stacie knows that Aubrey isn't going to lie to her or blow her off.
"I've been better," Aubrey says, her voice quiet enough that the other girls have no chance of hearing anything.
"So what's happening now?" Ashley breaks the quiet of the room. Stacie turns around to face her completely, and everyone's attention shifts to the blonde next to her.
"Right," Aubrey says, seeming to mentally shake herself and get to a topic. "The score cards revealed that the Sockapellas almost beat us." Her gaze shifts to Amy and settles, her voice taking on a certain hardness to it. "Amy, you need to do the routine exactly as we rehearsed, okay?"
Amy nods and looks down sheepishly, but it's Beca whose voice rings out next.
"No, we need to be different. The Sockapellas are interesting. We put the judges to sleep." There's a tired tone to Beca's voice that makes Stacie think that they've had this conversation before, and recently. "If you would just let me arrange a set…"
"We stick to tradition," Aubrey all but snaps. "I'm the captain and I say we do the routine as rehearsed."
"Aubrey, maybe she's got a point," Chloe says. Her voice is quiet but there's a strength in there that is usually absent in the face of an argument. If anybody hates confrontation, it's Chloe.
"Yeah, the Trebles never sing anything twice, and the audience loves them," Cynthia Rose says, sitting up straighter.
"I can even do an arrangement of songs written by, and performed by women," Beca insists, moving to her laptop to pull up her music library.
The other girls start to nod and speak up in agreement. Stacie can't help but cast a nervous glance towards Aubrey, seeing the blonde steeling herself for another verbal smack-down.
"That is enough!" Her voice rings through the room, and everybody falls silent. "There will be no more of this puerile behavior. We will sing the songs in our set list now, and that is the last I want to hear of it." Some of the girls meekly nod, while others remain silent.
"Now," Aubrey says, trying to pull herself and everyone back together. "It is late and I suggest we all head back to our rooms to get some sleep. We will have rehearsal tomorrow afternoon, as per usual."
A few groans and scoffs sound, but everyone quietly gets up to leave, filing out the door swiftly, lest they incur more of Aubrey's wrath. That left just Beca and Chloe, and Aubrey and Stacie in the room, each pair standing at different ends as if readying themselves for a duel.
"Aubrey," Stacie says, her voice soft and quiet in the room, but just enough of a disturbance to break the staring match going on between the two captains.
Aubrey turns to her and her gaze softens, turns almost affectionate. She reads Stacie quickly, and sighs, putting a hand to her temple and massaging it. "You want me to change the set list too."
"At least listen to some of the suggestions," Stacie says with a shrug. "You don't have to change it if you don't feel comfortable, but at least listening to some of Beca's mashups might give you a better idea of what we can do. We could win, Aubrey." Her eyes are pleading, and Aubrey looks so tired that she doesn't want to bring up an argument that would only further rile the senior up. But Aubrey needs to know and Stacie has a feeling that if Chloe tried suggesting the change, the redhead would only be shot down harder.
There's a long pause before Aubrey lets out a world weary sigh and turns to Beca. "You have two weeks," she says to everybody's shock. "Two weeks to bring me three different arrangements that works for all of our voices and are doable."
Beca nods enthusiastically and Stacie can see that she's trying to keep a smile back.
Chloe squeals and throws her arms around Beca in congratulations. "This calls for a celebration!"
"Chloe it's nearly two AM," Stacie points out.
"No no, I know," she says, shaking her head. "We should have a Bellas' sleep over!"
"Chloe," this time it's Aubrey that tries to talk her down.
"It'll be great. A bonding experience!" Chloe claps in excitement. Stacie can start to feel some of Chloe's enthusiasm rubbing off on her and she knows that it could be a really great opportunity for the group to bond.
"I actually think it would be kind of fun," Beca chimes in.
Aubrey sighs and turns toward Stacie. "You agree with them?"
Biting her lip against her smile, she nods. Aubrey's head falls back with a sigh and Stacie can't contain her smile any longer. This sleepover has the chance to change everything.