DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. All rights to the Pitch Perfect creators.

Chapter 14
Red Pee

Treatment two was a lot less worrisome, especially with the first treatment as almost like a reference that gave the mothers something to turn to during the two and half hours at the center.

The only difference was that Rory seemed to take a grey tinge this time, which made Chloe worry until Lucy actually sat with the redhead and gave her all of the descriptions of what Rory could look like during her treatments.

After this treatment the first full cycle would be completed, being somewhat of a relief to Beca and Chloe that aside from the aggressive symptoms on the three days after, Rory was not all too different from herself.

"Mama, I like this one," Rory said, pointing to the picture of Halsey with a buzz cut.

Another part of the second treatment was the warning of hair starting to thin and fall by this point. Chloe and Beca decided the night before that it would be best to probably get Rory to choose a style of short hair that would make the thinning and falling of hair to be easier and less traumatizing. They printed various images of celebrities with short hair, ranging from pixie cuts to straight up shaved heads that left no more than half an inch of hair.

"That looks very pretty, baby," Chloe said, offering the little girl to take a sip of the smoothie they brought from home. The toddler took a long sip as she continued to shift through the papers, making Beca laugh at the multi-tasking.

"Monkey, you're going to get a brain freeze."

Beca was right when Rory released the straw and made a face that showed how cold her head was now.

"Can we cut it today?" Rory questioned once her brain freeze passed. She handed Beca the page with the haircut she wanted and waited for a response.

"Sure, I don't see why not," Beca agreed, knowing that Rory would be sluggish today but not much else while the following days would be more of a battle to do anything except sleep and stay in a curled up ball.

"The family wants to come over. Should we do that tonight or after the side effects settle?" Chloe asked, looking up from her phone that came to life with texts from the Bella's family.

"Maybe after. I'd say like next Wednesday since that's when Rory was back to her normal self last time but maybe they can join us for Halloween on Tuesday."

"Mama, can I have more?" Rory pointed to the cup her mama held.

"Sure. Can you help her?" Chloe asked Beca, offering her wife the cup so she could explain the plan to everyone else.

"Yup. Here little dude, have some smoothie."

Rory took a sip and once more brought a brain freeze onto herself before she shook it off and looked around the room.

"I have to go the bathroom," She said, pointing to the family restroom at the other end of the room.

"Okay, I'll take you," Beca said, putting the smoothie on the table by the chair and fixing Rory's fuzzy socks over her feet as well as her little uggs before helping her off the chair and onto the floor. "Let me just get the pole."

Beca had to unplug the small heart monitor that was attached to the wall and wrap it up carefully before pushing the whole thing behind her daughter who headed straight for the washroom, the Dacarbazine and saline obviously pushing themselves through her system quickly and making her have to pee.

"Is it gonna be red again?" Rory asked, taking a weird liking to the fact that her pee could be a different colour thanks to her first push of drugs at the start of the treatment.

"I guess we'll have to see," Beca said, helping her child get onto the toilet.

After she finished and both washed their hands, Beca opened the door and once more pushed the IV pole/heart monitor back in the direction of Rory's chair.

"Mama, I peed red!" Rory cheered, earning a few chuckles from nearby parents. Today Rory was the youngest patient, everyone else ranging between the ages 12-18. The little one seemed to be entertaining in the saddened atmosphere.

"You weirdo," Beca laughed while Chloe placed the little girl on the chair.

"Does that make you happy, monkey butt?" Chloe asked, taking off the ugg boots so Rory could curl up her legs again.

"Yup! It looks cool."

Both mothers laughed despite themselves. They were happy that even in this rather depressing place that was full of sick people, Rory was able to find something good and hold onto it with her child like joy. Red pee was entertaining.

~.~.~

The day after chemo was now a bad day for Rory. Unlike two weeks ago when the symptoms held off until day two, the morning the child woke up she was nauseous and dizzy beyond belief.

Beca managed to get her work sent to her home studio, where she spent the majority of the time with Rory asleep on the large soft beanbag at the corner and Chloe on the couch, trying to find different solutions to help their child during these days. Beca worked on the softer songs and liked how Rory was eased back to sleep by the gentle beats each time she stirred.

The two women ate lunch in the recording studio, watched Moana with Rory when she woke up around 4, and even managed to get a jello cup into the sick girl that contained the evening round of medication.

Now it was dinner time and Chloe decided on making chicken noodle soup, taking extra care in the cleaning of the ingredients, which made the job an hour longer than normal.

She had read that raw foods had to be properly washed, and cooked in order to give to Rory, otherwise the child could get sick from the bacteria that clings.

"It's been boiling for nearly two hours, Chlo. I'm sure it's clean for her to eat," Beca said, holding Rory in her arms as the child koala bear hugged her.

"I don't want her getting sick," The red head argued, stirring the soup again.

"She won't. She's taking all of this medication to help with that. Why do we have to have this conversation every time we make her food?"

"I don't know. You keep bringing it up," Chloe bit back, her tone harsher than normal. The stress was certainly catching up.

"Because I don't see a reason for you to slave over dinner for nearly three hours when she won't even eat five bites of it."

"I have to Beca!"

Rory whimpered at the loud conversation, her head already hurting due to the chemo.

"I'm sorry, baby," Chloe said, instantly feeling bad as she approached her wife and daughter. "Beca, can we talk about this later?"

Beca knew their argument wasn't over, but for the sake of Rory it was paused until further notice.

"Fine. Can she eat now? It's getting late and brushing her teeth is not an easy task."

"Okay," The red head relented, going to turn off the stove. She served three bowls of soup and placed them on the table, blowing on Rory's for a few minutes until it was cool enough to eat.

"I'm not hungry," Rory whispered, sitting on her chair and wiping her heavy eyes. Charlie nudged her thigh as always, but she didn't respond to him.

"Please eat some of it. Mama worked hard on making it," Beca said, giving her wife the benefit of the doubt. She couldn't deny that Chloe was doing this all for the sake of their sick daughter.

"You can just eat some of the broth, babygirl," Chloe said, taking the child's plastic spoon and scooping some liquid onto it before putting it by Rory's mouth.

The little girl sipped it, and did so with the next eight spoonful's before shaking her head as a sign that she was done.

By then Beca had managed to eat her food, while Chloe hadn't taken a bite of her own.

"Let's go get ready for bed," Chloe said, moving to stand up.

"Just wait a minute. I'll start the dishes and you can finish eating," Beca said, getting up from the table and grabbing her bowl. She left Rory's in case the girl gave it another bite of two.

The brunette took her time putting her dish in the dishwasher and packing the extra soup to put in the fridge. Once everything was clean she took away Rory's dish and then took the bowl and spoon Chloe gave her, having finally gotten a chance to eat her dinner.

The table was sprayed with disinfectant and thoroughly wiped by Chloe before all three moved upstairs to the bathroom, where Rory began to throw a fit knowing what was about to happen next.

"No teeth," the child said, shaking her head as she weakly fought the hold Chloe had on her as they sat on the closed toilet. Beca got the soft bristle toothbrush ready and sat before her wife and kid holding Rory's face in one hand while asking her to let her brush her teeth.

"No, they hurt," Rory cried, shaking her head again.

"I'll be very careful," Beca promised, offering the brush a little closer.

"Rory, babe, mommy needs to clean your teeth, otherwise the bad taste won't go away."

The chemo always left a bad taste in Rory's mouth, but it also made it ache severely.

"No," Rory sobbed, her mouth staying open with her cries. Beca hated that she had to do this, but in the state her child was in she began to clean her teeth, making the cries louder and the struggle even harder.

Rory was squirming and trying to push the toothbrush out with her tongue, Beca kept repeating how sorry she was as she got all teeth covered in the white toothpaste that quickly turned to foam.

Finally, she finished, which allowed Chloe to move Rory to the sink to clean her mouth.

"No more," the small redhead begged, as she rinsed her mouth and watched Beca wash the brush.

"No more, baby. I'm sorry. It's done," Beca said, taking the girl from Chloe and holding her close as the sobs lightened and then ceased.

"I hate that we have to do that," Chloe sighed, knowing that the restraining of their kid for many different things was certainly scaring on both ends.

"You and me both," Beca said, bouncing from one foot to the other before Rory finally conked out and feel asleep gripping the hair on her neck.

"So, should we get her on her bed or ours?"

"Her bed, we need to talk," Beca said, not forgetting their previous spat in the kitchen.

They settled Rory on her bed and set up the nightlight in the hallway before retiring to their room with Charlie who instantly curled up in his dog bed.

"I'm sorry about freaking out in the kitchen," Chloe sighed as she plopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Beca began to kick off her pants and pull off her shirt as she replied.

"Don't be sorry. You're trying to protect her. I know that. It's just hard seeing you slave over everything in this house now that she's sick. I mean you wipe down her toys every day. Even if she didn't touch them you wipe them down. It's scary seeing you like that."

"I have to do that stuff, though. She is susceptible to infections, and illnesses because the chemo weakens her immune system."

"Weakens," Beca said, trying to remind her wife of that crucial fact. "It doesn't get rid of it entirely. She can play with her toys and she can eat food that hasn't been boiled for three hours-"

"But I don't want to let her!" Chloe demanded, sitting up to stare at her wife who was halfway dressed in her pajamas. "Everything is so scary now that she's sick. I don't want there to be a reason that she catches a cold. I don't want there to be a reason that she eats a carrot piece that had traces of bacteria on it. I don't want her to be sick."

Chloe broke down. Her body curling forward as she sobbed into her knees.

Beca dropped the pants she was ready to put on and crawled onto the bed, instantly pulling the redhead into her arms.

"I've got you," she mumbled, her own tears falling as the weight of everything came crashing down.

"I don't want to be worried but I am. I will be until she is cancer free. This is really scary and I don't want to lose her," Chloe explained, wiping under her eyes.

"I know it is and I don't want to lose her either. But I'm going to tell you the same thing you told me before Rory was born. Holding her is like holding the stars and the planets in your hands and she'll grow up always wanting to be a big girl and do things larger than herself and we will be there to hold her hand each step of the way. This is much larger than she is but we're going to be there holding her hands because that's our job. We have to be brave for her because right now her body is a scary place. I appreciate everything you do to keep her safe, but I want you to remember that she doesn't need a mama who is too busy cleaning the house. She needs a mama who will hold her close and kiss the owies even if that doesn't take them away. We need to be there for her in every way possible."

"I get it," Chloe agreed, sitting up straighter and reaching to clean Beca's cheeks. "I have to do what I can to make everything around Rory better."

"Exactly. And I'll help you. We can spilt chores, and search up the best ways to care for a child like Rory. We'll do it all."

"Okay."

Beca nodded and pressed a kiss onto her wife's lips, wrapping her back up into a warm embrace. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Like, Comment, Follow :)

Valentina