Chapter 12
Beca was sweating by the time she arrived at the cabin. Despite the fact that Chloe had taken the form of a small wolf, it still took effort to run the entire way back. It didn't help that it was a million degrees outside and she had to keep an eye on the way she was handling the baby animal. She almost wished they hadn't resolved the issue with her heightened senses.
Beca let out a breath, carefully placing Chloe in the grass in front of the cabin. "I'm not sure what to get," she told the woman, frowning in frustration. Big puppy eyes turned to her. And in the next moment, one that would go into Beca's top ten 'things she didn't want to experience ever', Chloe shifted into a human at a painstakingly slow speed.
Chloe gasped once the transformation was complete. Her eyebrows were scrunched together as the wound no doubt burned with having been stretched. Beca sat back helplessly, eager to run and get whatever the woman needed despite the exertion she put herself through. "Water and sterile bandages," Chloe said once the worst of it had passed. As a result of the shifting, the wound had started bleeding again. "And a phone."
"We don't have any service here, but there's a town a few miles to the south. Hold on." Beca raced inside the cabin, gathering clothing, a water bottle, and the first aid kit as she went. Only when she'd dropped the necessities near Chloe did she notice the smile playing on her lips. "What?" she asked, not bothering with being self-conscious as she reached to open the water bottle.
"You're kinda badass right now," Chloe said with a hint of admiration. She took the offered bottle and began to clean the fresh wound to the best of her ability.
Beca rolled her eyes. "If one of us qualifies as badass, I think it'd be you." She watched with a barely concealed grimace as Chloe took out sterile gauze and proceeded to stop the bleeding. "With your medical knowledge and stuff," she said, vaguely gesturing to the work she was doing.
Chloe breathed a laugh, casually brushing off the compliment. "Yeah, it's gonna need stitches." She looked up at Beca, who was still sitting at the ready, visibly tense. She lifted a hand and touched Beca's cheek with her fingertips. They came back damp with sweat. "Help me dress?" she asked softly.
Beca nodded, ducking her head to hide the blush that was no doubt creeping up her neck at the reverent touch.
It wasn't long before they were both presentable and ready to start the hike towards civilization. "Uh," Beca started, watching Chloe pick up an appropriate stick to walk with from the forest floor. "Do you need me to, like, carry you?"
Chloe looked up in surprise, then shot her a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine with this," she answered, holding up the makeshift crutch.
"If you say so," Beca said hesitantly. Of course, that didn't stop her from carrying the backpack or watching the woman extra closely on their way to the town, helping her wherever needed. They spoke to pass the time - and more importantly, to keep Chloe's mind off the pain - and Beca learned that Maura had taught Chloe a thing or two about first aid. She also learned that Maura's mate was a detective. Beca wasn't sure if she was supposed to be intimidated by this information.
It took longer than necessary, but eventually they reached the edge of town. An elderly couple they met in the street were more than happy to send them on their way to the local (and only) doctor once they spotted the bloodied bandages.
The doctor was hard to find, because everything in town was just so darned informal. Eventually, they spotted a nearly overgrown sign that indicated the doctor's house. He was old and kind, just like the rest of town, and had the tendency to make horrible puns with the most intense pokerface ever. Beca wondered if they were going to be kidnapped and sacrificed to some obscure God when the doctor sent them on their way, refusing payment or any type of insurance. That was the only reason she could think of for them to be so darned nice. Heck, they were even recommended a bed and breakfast near the edge of town. If that didn't spell out "we sacrifice the young ones", she didn't know what did. Thankfully, the B&B was slightly overpriced, calming Beca's paranoia.
"Is it just me or is everyone in town kinda old and creepy?" Beca asked. She helped Chloe over the threshold before putting the backpack away, her shoulders aching with relief.
Chloe laughed quietly, hopping over to the bed to sit down on it. "Only you would think kindness is creepy."
Beca puffed out her cheeks and dropped herself onto the bed. Pouting at the ceiling, she mumbled, "They were old though."
"Come here, you dummy."
Beca opened her eyes, not quite having realized she'd closed them in the first place. Chloe patted her lap to indicate where Beca should sit. The woman sat up, but other than that wasn't quite sure what else to do. Chloe, noticing the indecision, smiled as she tugged Beca into straddling her lap.
Well, that was new.
"Are you trying to seduce me?" Beca asked, shooting Chloe a playfully suspicious look. All the while, she tried to find a place to put her hands as inconspicuously as possible.
Chloe's smile widened, and Beca found herself thinking that it was way too innocent-looking for what she was doing. Her hands skimmed her waist, instilling a false sense of security, before they slithered into Beca's back pockets, eagerly palming the flesh they found there. "You're totally getting the hang of it," Chloe said proudly.
"Well, at least that's more subtle than getting me to change back into a human," Beca remarked dryly. Finally deciding that what the hell, she wrapped her arms around Chloe's shoulders.
Chloe looked up at Beca from under her eyelashes. "Are you comfortable?"
Beca nodded. "Yeah, this is... kinda nice."
Beca's easy smile faltered somewhat as she watched Chloe raise her face to hers, and proceeded to rub their noses together as if they were still in their animal form. She could almost hear Chloe say that she kinda really liked her.
Beca couldn't help notice that her stomach fluttered in anticipation. She relaxed into Chloe's ministrations and returned them with a small exploration of her own. Occasionally, she searched out her lips for a lazy kiss, simply because there was no resisting. Her fingers hesitantly found their way into Chloe's hair, tugging at thick strands and pressing into the tense muscles of her neck.
"You don't have to do anything you don't want to," Chloe said against her cheek, placing a kiss there.
"Are you kidding?" Beca said with a laugh, thinking back to what Chloe pulled in the middle of the night. "This is totally okay."
And Beca had to admit, she only felt a small part of brain kick into reverse when she thought about the position she and Chloe were in, that she was sitting on Chloe's lap so intimately. And that Chloe had her hands in her pockets. And then on her skin. On the bare skin of her back.
Oh man.
She suppressed her instinct to pull back. If she was completely honest with herself, she didn't really want to anyway. It was just so hard to overcome the knee jerk reaction.
She noticed that Chloe was subtly tugging at her hips and Beca answered by reaching forward and letting herself being pulled further into the embrace. She reveled in the feel of just holding Chloe, allowing their lips to slide together languidly. It was great and both perfect and not enough, but she felt surprisingly nervous about progressing any further than this.
The thoughts were swiftly interrupted by a loud bang sounding overhead, however, and Beca yelped as the ceiling lamp came crashing to the floor beside the bed, asthma-inducing amounts of dust following leisurely in its wake.
Beca, having crawled hastily backwards as if found at a crime scene with a knife screaming bloody murder in her hands, looked wide-eyed at Chloe, who was alternating ogling the lamp, now shattered across the floor, and looking bemusedly at Beca. She didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.
"What the hell," Beca croaked, coughing as if on reflex, "was that?"
Through the ceiling, they heard the muffled voice of a man shouting profanities and his wife shrieking in indignation.
A few seconds passed in which they stared at each other, then Chloe broke out in laughter. Having twisted her leg in her hysteria, she seemed to be torn between laughing and wincing in pain, which contorted her face into a sort of grimace and, in turn, made Beca laugh as well.
Beca caught her eye once they settled down. "Are you okay?" she asked, still feeling amusement tugging at her.
Chloe nodded, wiping imaginary dust from her cheek. "Yeah."
Beca eyed the lamp, shaking her head at their reactions. They were such a pair.
Like 1/4th of this was written by my beta, NatsuMeiyo (and of course, heavily edited by myself). I think she helped write this because I'm hella sick at the moment. Or maybe she likes Bechloe more than she let's on, heh.
Ezri Dax; Well, consider your request fulfilled!
HurriCADE; I guess you will! 8D Technically, the baby wolf isn't her true form. I'm gonna have to explain that in a later chapter, but it's a special skill, yeah. Points for noticing!
Perv!Guest; What is your definition of lemon? I've seen that term everywhere and everyone means something else by it. But yeah, totally trying to see what I'm comfortable with and what's hella boring for me to write. So far, so good!
Hi I'm new; Well dang, you made me blush. Then again, that may be my temperature.
