A/N: This is a filler of sorts. But I needed to split it up from chapter 12 so that one wasn't too long.
Anyway, enjoy :) And as always, iamacrepe is awesome :D Thanks to everyone for reading and following and reviewing :)
When Beca arrived home that evening after her shift at the radio station, she immediately found Chloe in the kitchen, cooking dinner.
"Hey Beca." The redhead greeted, ever so happy as usual.
Beca gave a small wave as she entered the kitchen. "Hi."
"I had the radio on earlier, your set was aca-awesome!"
Beca smiled gratefully. "Thanks Chlo, I'm glad you liked it." Some of those songs I mixed for you.
"Hey is Stacie around? I need to talk to her about something."
Chloe's expression immediately changed, into one of almost disappointment, mixed with suspicion.
"Ah, no I don't think she's back yet. I think she has a night class around this time."
"Oh yeah." Beca seemed deep in thought. "Well I'm going to go work on some mixes upstairs."
Chloe nodded. "See you at dinner?" She was hoping the answer would be 'yes', as she thought about the possibility of Beca not eating lunch earlier that day.
Beca hesitated, before agreeing, thinking it would be a good idea to get some nutrition into her. And she was feeling good tonight, so hopefully the Crohn's wouldn't play up.
"Yeah. I'll see you in a bit." And with that, she left, climbing the stairs to their bedroom.
The DJ settled on her bed with her laptop and headphones in one ear, leaving the other open to listen out for Stacie's return, as she fiddled with her music software.
It wasn't long before Beca heard the soft sound of footsteps climbing the stairs to join her in the room. A moment later, Stacie's head popped up into Beca's sight.
"Ready to do this?"
Beca raised her eyebrows, questioningly. "Do I have a choice?"
Stacie gave a thumbs up. "Good attitude!"
Beca reluctantly stood up from her bed, and opened her forbidden drawer, pulling out four pen-shaped medicine injectors.
As she did so, Stacie spoke up, wanting to further discuss the shorter girl's illness.
"So Beca, I was doing some research on Crohn's during my lecture."
Beca raised a single eyebrow at this in a teasing way, "Tsk tsk, not paying attention in a lecture, you should be ashamed of yourself." She joked. Yup, there's nothing wrong with Beca. Sarcasm still intact.
Stacie rolled her eyes.
"And what exactly did you find out?" Beca was curious where this was going.
"Actually I have a question for you."
Beca didn't respond, so Stacie continued.
"Your scar, you said you had a resection, right?"
Beca nodded. "Yeah I did. Near the end of senior year at high school."
"Did the surgery put you into remission?"
"Yeah. It lasted over a year. Longest remission I've ever had. That surgery took out the part of my intestine that was affected by the Crohn's." She was very grateful for the surgery, as it left her symptom-free for so long. Something she had only dreamed of in the years of suffering beforehand. Obviously, surgery wasn't the first choice for treatment; there was always the hope that medication could control the disease. But in cases where there was too much damage, or nothing else was effective, it became the best option.
Stacie nodded her head as the pieces fit together in her mind a little better now.
"And now you are flaring up –" She was cut off as Beca finished the sentence for her, knowing where her friend was going with it.
"Now I am flaring up in another part of my intestine."
"I see, that makes more sense now."
"Yeah, so let's get this over and done with." Beca handed the medicine pens along with an instruction booklet over to her friend. Stacie agreed, and began to read the instructions, just for reference.
"Alright, so we have to stab you with four of these, yes?" She recalled from her research and her time volunteering.
Beca nodded. The first time, she had to have four doses, which meant four injections. But then she would only have two doses at the next treatment day, which was two weeks later, and finally only one injection every two weeks after that.
Stacie prepared the first injection pen, showing Beca as she went. "Where would you like it?"
"Let's go with the thigh. I'm not letting you anywhere near my butt." Beca pointed seriously at Stacie.
"Okay then, here goes." Stacie stuck the needle in and waited the ten seconds for the medicine to completely empty into Beca's thigh tissue.
"Fuuuuck! Dude that stings like hell!" Beca winced, feeling the sting as the drug spread from the site of injection.
Stacie raised her eyebrows, concerned. "Sorry Bec, it does that. I thought it'd be better if I didn't warn you about the sting beforehand. Otherwise you wouldn't have let me do it."
Beca gave Stacie a pointed look, almost glaring at her tall friend. But then she realised she was right.
"Yeah okay. Next one, and then I'll try doing the one after that."
Three injections and a string of swearing later, and they were finished.
Beca rubbed both her thighs in pain, as the leftover sting gradually faded.
"Well, thanks for that I guess. Though I'm not sure if I should be thanking you for causing me so much pain." Beca half-glared at Stacie, all in good humour.
Stacie laughed. "My pleasure." But then she reconsidered her wording. "Well, not really. I didn't actually want to hurt you, believe it or not. How are you feeling?"
Beca thought for a moment. "No different. Should I be feeling anything in particular?" She knew there were possible side effects, as with all medications.
"No. It is different for each person. Some people get headaches or feel nauseous or tired after their injections, so just watch out for that. It might happen to you, or it might not. And it might take a while before the Humira begins to work, and you start to feel better."
Beca nodded, storing the information directly into her memory, in a box labelled 'Important shit'.
"We should probably go downstairs now, Chloe said dinner would be ready soon."
Beca's eyes widened. "You spoke to Chloe?"
Stacie immediately understood where Beca was going with her question. "Yes, but I didn't say anything about this." – she indicated to the empty Humira pens on the bench – "Don't worry Beca, I know how to keep a secret." She reassured her friend.
Beca nodded. "Thank you."
Back downstairs, Chloe had seen Stacie go upstairs, and heard further footsteps as the tall brunette presumably ascended the stairs to hers and Beca's room. The redhead had watched on in suspicion, wondering what was going on between the two. They had been spending more time together recently, and it didn't sit right with Chloe.
Forget about it. It's none of your business Chloe. She told herself, as she turned to chat with Jessica, who had joined her in the kitchen to help with the cooking.
By the time they were finished preparing the meal, all of the girls had made their way downstairs into the dining room, helping set the table and pour drinks and what-not.
Beca was glad to be feeling hungry and well enough to eat her dinner without major concerns over her stomach, and she wasn't the only one. Both Stacie and Chloe smiled internally as the DJ ate her dinner without much reservation. Beca was lucky that she was still able to eat some meals without it affecting her stomach.
Soon enough though, Beca began to feel a deep feeling of exhaustion flood through her body. Apparently she wasn't immune to the side effects of the Humira. Stacie, sitting across from her at the table, picked up on the sudden change in Beca's appearance, and started clearing empty plates from the table, hoping to push all the girls to get up so Beca could make her escape.
It worked, and the group slowly spread out around the house, some washing up, others going to study, others moving towards the lounge room to watch a movie.
Fortunately for Beca, Chloe got caught up in the bustle of movement, and was whisked away to the lounge room before she could argue.
So the short brunette made her way up to her bedroom unnoticed, and once there, she swallowed her pills, and slid into bed, too tired to do anything else.
When Chloe eventually made it upstairs to go to bed, she found her roommate fast asleep in bed.