Well, here y'all go. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It was pretty fun to write, even if it is a pretty depressing issue on hand.

Chloe could feel a ball of anger forming in her stomach as her mind started processing what Beca had shown her. She too had dated Stacie and while she knew it shouldn't cross her miss, the redhead couldn't help but be thankful that Stacie wasn't like that with her. The thought quickly fled her mind and went back to being frustrated. Chloe tried making eye contact with Beca, but the short girl avoided her gaze. She watched as Beca lowered her sleeve and started turning away. Reflex told Chloe to grab Beca, but logic told the girl it was a dumb idea. But still, Chloe wanted to say something, anything, but words failed her over and over. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She repeated the process, and again failed. The ginger could feel her brain reaching for words, it was as if someone asked her the meaning to life. There was nothing she could say that would make Beca feel any different. Chloe knew that and she was sure Beca did too. So instead of words of comfort, Chloe decided to go for words of question. This time she didn't need to overwork her brain to form a sentence. By the time she felt the light bulb go off in her head, five minutes had passed from the initial revealing. At this point it almost felt like saying anything at all would be pointless, but Chloe wanted an answer. She walked around to face her short date and opened her mouth. "Why?" The word croaked out of her mouth as if was the first thing she had said in days.

Beca's navy eyes shot a glance of pain to Chloe's. She had only talked about it in exact words once before with Jesse. Since then it had stayed a dark secret that was to be shared with no one for over a year. Beca knew that silence was over and she was going to have to explain everything. "I will tell you, but not here." She was trying to buy time to think about what to say, there was so much, where would she even begin?

She received a simple nod in return. While Chloe was itching to know what was going on, she had to agree that their forest location wasn't the best spot. So the two went to gather the remainder from their earlier snack and set off to Chloe's car.

As they made their slow trip down the trail Chloe's mind started wandering. Even though she knew the story would be dark, she was eager to finally know the details of this twisted relationship her ex had with Beca. She knew this would be that missing puzzle piece that she wanted to find oh so badly.

When they arrived at the car, Beca slid into the passenger seat. "My apartment. I will tell you there."

Giving another nod, Chloe shoved her keys in this ignition. Inside she was dying to know what was to be said. And have to wait even longer was going to drive her insane.

After the long quiet drive back, the two girls arrived at Beca's apartment. Chloe found a seat on Beca's couch, and Beca sat on the floor so she could be level with Em.

Taking a deep breath, the brunette let her final thoughts gather in her had. There was a lot to be said and she knew once she started, she wasn't going to shut up. Beca started speaking softly, too soft for Chloe to hear. She knew this, but it was intentional. She was scared of talking about it. She could feel her hands trembling, but after regaining her composure, Beca saw Chloe had been watching intently, ready to hear what was to be said. Just rip it off like a band aid. That was all she had to think before the words started flowing out. "The signs were there from the beginning, I just didn't notice. I really had fallen head of heels for her. Stacie just has that effect, you know that." Chloe was surprised that Beca said that, but she didn't show it. "We actually started dating before I joined the fire department, we also decided to take our EMT class together. That's when Jesse finally met her, because I just wanted to hide her from him, Jesse can get very embarrassing. And I'm telling you this because when you asked how we knew Stacie, I said from EMT class and it wasn't a total lie." Beca was trying to rush her words, she decided to just cut to the chase. "I know this is going to sound cliche and so mushy, but remember, it's not. All of this disaster started with a kiss."

Beca walked down the hallway of Stacie's apartment building, her right hand was intertwined with the tall brunette's left. The short girl was all smiles as they approached the familiar blue door of the place Stacie called home. The two had just come back from a late night movie date. "That was a really great movie."

Stacie turned her head to Beca and nodded. "Yeah, I liked the part where you started crying." The girl's green eyes lit up and she let out a small chuckle before unlocking her door.

"Hey! I wasn't crying, my eyes got dry and they were watering up because of that!"

"Yeah right!" The tall girl walked through her apartment door and turned back to the other girl. "Wanna come in?"

Beca kicked her foot onto the carpeted floor, gesturing she was bummed out. It showed in her voice as well. "I would love to…" Her voice trailed off but soon came back, "...but I can't. I have a job interview at eight in the morning and it is," she looked down at her left wrist, "one right now. I need to get some sleep." Taking a step closer to her dark haired girlfriend, Beca frowned. "I'm sorry. Maybe tomorrow?"

Stacie shook her head fiercely. She pulled Beca close to her and muttered into the girl's ear "well what if I don't want to wait until tomorrow?"

The short girl sighed, she could feel Stacie's soft lips gently touching her. To counter the girl, she turned her head and kissed the lips that were just talking to her. After pulling away, Beca attempted to apologize for leaving, but she was pulled in again by Stacie. Beca hesitated and tried pulling away, she really did have to go, but the more she tried to pull from the grip of the tall girl, the tighter Stacie held onto Beca's arm. It felt as if a python was latched onto her arm, trying to take any life from it.

"Ow, Stacie, I have to go."

Trying to tug Beca into her apartment, Stacie gave a small grin. "No you don't! I want you to stay." Before she could get a protest, Stacie yanked Beca into the room, causing the girl to trip and fall, bringing the taller brunette down with her.

Beca felt frustration building inside of her, but soon Stacie had pinned her to the ground and gave her the sweetest smile. Any anger at that point was wiped away, replaced by joy to be so close to such an amazing girl.

Beca took a break from the story and stood up to grab a glass of water. Chloe waited patiently for her to return so she could hear more. After coming back, Beca set a glass on the table in front of Chloe and kept another for herself. Settling back onto the floor, the brunette spoke up.

"At the time I didn't think much about it, I mean she wanted me to stay, and I didn't think the pain was on purpose, she was didn't know her own strength. And like I said, I was totally into her. I know, it's lame."

The ginger sitting across from her finally broke her silence. "No it's not! And if I didn't know anymore on the situation, I'd say that you sounded like some adorable puppy."

"Anyway, things were going great after that, I mean I missed the interview the next day, but Stacie had been really sweet after that. Two months later is when it started going bad again."

Beca stormed out of Stacie's kitchen and headed straight for the door, Stacie was at her heels following behind. Without warning, the blue eyed girl stopped and whipped herself around to face the other girl. "I'm sorry, I think I have to go." She didn't bother hiding the bitter tone. "Call me when you've cooled off."

"No!" Stacie almost screamed the words, anger turned her emerald eyes from beautiful gems to a horrid sight. She went for one of Beca's wrists but the short girl pulled away before Stacie could get a good grasp. This action just furthered the anger in Stacie, and as a return she swung her right arm forward. It made contact with Beca's left eye with great enough force to made the short girl lose her balance. As she crashed to the floor, there was a loud 'thud'. Immediately, Stacie dropped to the ground and helped Beca up. "I'm sorry! I'm so so so sorry. Babe, I'm sorry." While her words gave this illusion of sorrow, Stacie's tone was bleak and showed no remorse.

Looking up, Beca covered her left side of her face with her hand. "What the hell was that!" She wasn't as angry was she was terrified.

"I'm sorry! I don't know where it came from! Here, let me get ice." Stacie jumped up and turned to get ice, but was stopped.

"No." Beca slowly got to her feet and placed her hand on the door. "I'm just going to leave. Bye Stacie." She opened the door and hurried out before she could hear anymore on the matter.

…

The next day Beca had been making breakfast when she heard a knock on the door. Curious, she went over and slowly opened the door. It revealed a very guilty looking Stacie holding a bouquet of flowers. The girl made her way in before she could get a response.

"These are for you." She held the flowers out and waited for the shorter girl to take them. There was a hesitation before the flowers were grabbed from her hands. "Look, I'm really sorry Beca, I don't know what that was, or where that came from, please forgive me."

Beca grimaced. A few flowers wasn't going to make what happened go away, and the black eye she had wasn't going to go away quickly either.

"Now look, I get it, you're mad, but I have a special day planned. First, we are going to go that cafe on 5th street that you love so much. After that we are going to the music store you always love going to, and then we are going to out to the lake and have lunch on a boat. After that though… well that's a surprise." Stacie winked and gave a confident smile.

"Thanks, but I already have breakfast cooking." As if on cue, the smoke detector in the apartment went off. Turning around, Beca saw the pan she was cooking bacon on had caught on flames. Giving out a little yelp, she ran over and threw the pan from the stove to her sink and turned the water on. For a minute the flames got worse, but soon died down. Coughing, Beca realized that her hand was in pain, the handle on the pan was scorching hot. She started waving her hand in the air, as if she was trying to shake off the pain. "Well, I had breakfast until you came in." She spat the words out, and regretted it instantly. Sighing, Beca turned back to Stacie. "Look, okay, I'll go will you today." After all she still had feelings for the girl, one mistake wasn't going to kill her.

Beca took a sip from her water and sighed. It made her head ache thinking about the toxic relationship. "It was the same pattern, every time Stacie hurt me, she'd be sweet for the next week. And I kept brushing it off. At the time no blood had been drawn, but by the end of that year that changed. First the verbal abuse started, it was her tactic. Bring me down, make me feel like a piece of shit. That no one else would want to be around me, then she would justify the physical pain by saying I was lucky. Looking back on it, I know everything was wrong, but at the time, it just didn't seem like it. Stacie had joined the fire department near her apartment, I honestly don't know why, but she did. I wanted to get out of the yuckiness I was feeling, so I joined the one that was closer to me. I thought maybe helping others would help me gain a sense of self. Maybe people would see me as a better person than I thought they had. And at first, Stacie was supportive. At first."

"Beca, you piece of shit, why didn't you tell me you were signing up for the fire class? I would have taken it with you." Stacie walked into Beca's bedroom and while her voice sounded sweet, the short girl knew what was about to go down.

"I'm sorry Stacie! I'm sorry darling. It was a last minute decision, Jesse wanted to take it together! I'm sorry." Beca got out of her bed and started creeping towards her bathroom door.

Her plan was foiled though, and Stacie jumped in front of the door and shoved Beca back. The short girl took a few uneasy steps back before falling onto her bed. "Don't you fucking lie to me!" Stacie walked over to the bed and grabbed both of Beca's wrists. "You are a piece of shit you know that? You're lucky to have me. Without me, where do you think you'd be? No where probably. No friends, no life. Jesse only wants to hang out with you because he feels pity for you! Stop screwing up! You barely even have me, and let me tell you, you're going to miss me when I'm gone."

The words cut into Beca's brain like a dagger. She had heard similar words before, but it never failed to hurt. She could feel the tears swelling in her eyes and soon they were falling down the side of her face.

"Oh stop your crying you fucking baby!" Stacie growled the words and climbed onto the bed, pinning her right knee into Beca's abdomen. At the same time, she pressed her nails deeper into Beca's wrists, deep enough to cut Beca's skin. She started moving her hands up long the pale girl's arm. Leaving a crimson colored trail behind. Without warning she eased up and pulled off of Beca. Her entire demeanor changed and she kindly stated "I will let you take the class, but you have to do something for me tonight." And without anymore words, the green eyed girl turned and walked out of the room leaving Beca alone with her thoughts, pain, and tears.

Beca stopped talking, and took a deep breath. She felt as if she was about to break down just talking about that pain. Tears started rolling down her face, but she ignored them. She ran her casted arm along her left arm. Chloe's eyes watched as she did this, the redhead never noticed the scars that ran along the girl's arm. Standing up, Chloe walked over to Beca and wiped the girls eyes. There was a lot more to the story, but Chloe could see Beca was not fit to say anymore for the day.

"You're okay Beca, she's not here. I'm not going to hurt you. That's in the past." Chloe frowned. She couldn't believe this was the same Stacie Conrad that she had dated. Chloe only got a small nod as an answer. Sitting on her knees, Chloe finally did what she had wanted to do since before even hearing the story, she opened her arms and hugged Beca.

The short girl didn't complain, she actually found comfort in the warmth the girl had. Not caring anymore, Beca rested her head against Chloe's arm and let herself whimper until she fell asleep.