Chapter 20 – The Confession

*5 months ago*

As soon as Chloe started talking about Beca again, Aubrey knew she was going to have to say something eventually. The guilt has been swallowing her whole the closer the two get. Chloe is so unbearably happy and in love and Aubrey wants nothing more than to be happy for her. She just needs to say her piece first, knowing Chloe though, this isn't going to be easy.

The second Aubrey told Beca to get in her car and drive away that day, she had a sinking feeling. Aubrey wasn't too sure why, but all she did know was that she did not want anything ruining that special day for her best friend. It all made sense when they got together. She hadn't meant to hurt Chloe. Aubrey can see how much Beca means to the red head, she never felt that way about Chicago, not for a moment.

Aubrey has been sitting on the sofa waiting nervously for Chloe to get home from work. Stacie has been hovering over her all afternoon, assuring her everything will be ok. She's the only other person besides herself that knows what happened that day.

After what feels like forever, she sees Chloe's car pull into the driveway. Her heart rate picks up when she hears keys jingling outside the front door.

"Hey Chlo," Aubrey greets the red head as normally as she can, cursing herself for the way her voice is wavering already.

Instead of heading upstairs to put her stuff away and change out of her scrubs, she heads into the living room, "Hey Bree, have a good day off?"

"Can we talk, when you're ready?" Aubrey's not sure she even heard what her best friend asked her, too nervous to do anything but blurt it all out.

Chloe gives her a weird look, she probably is wondering why the blonde is so squirrely, "Sure, we can talk now."

Aubrey scoots over to make room and Chloe sits down next to her, "So I have something I need to tell you."

"Ok…" Chloe says tentatively, "you're worrying me Aubrey."

Aubrey can't handle looking into those trusting blue eyes right now, so her gaze drops to her hands lying in her lap, "On your wedding day, I didn't tell you, but Beca showed up."

She can sense the Chloe tensing up next to her, "She was there? What happened, how do you know?"

"I had gone outside for some fresh air and I saw her drive up," Aubrey takes a deep breath before continuing, "she looked rough, like she'd been driving for a while, she clearly wasn't there just to be at the wedding, so I talked to her."

The two sit in silence for a moment while Aubrey collects her thoughts. She can't bear to look up at Chloe's face, scared of what she'll see, but she can see her hands which are balled up into tight fists.

"She wanted to see you, she was going to tell you…" Aubrey's voice is quivering, and she pauses before saying the rest, "she was going to tell you she was in love with you. I told her to go home."

"What?" Chloe says in disbelief, trying to process the blonde's words.

"I was only trying to protect you Chloe, I swear," Aubrey pleads, finally looking at Chloe and she wishes she hadn't, "If I had known how you felt I would have never told her to go."

Hot, angry tears are rolling down her best friend's face, "Maybe that wasn't your place to decide! You should have let her see me!"

"I know, I'm so sorry Chloe," Aubrey is crying now too, "I didn't want her to ruin your wedding day…"

"I was still in love with her!" Chloe barks, standing up, she throws her hands in the air, "All those wasted years…oh my god."

Aubrey knows she's just processing everything, but she can't remember the last time Chloe was this angry. It might have been back in their senior year of college when Chloe finally stood up to her over Aubrey's "Bella dictatorship".

"I'm so sorry," Aubrey says weakly, there's not much more she can do. All she can do is hope that Chloe comes around and doesn't stay mad at her.

"I just need to go to Beca's right now," Chloe turns away from her quickly, grabbing her bag from the floor to leave, "I'm hoping you'll watch my son."

Aubrey nods, "Of course Chlo."

Her best friend storms back out the front door and Aubrey lets the dam break. Tears start flowing and she feels Stacie's arms wrap around her. That was harder than she thought.

Chloe flies out of her car and up to Beca's front door. She hadn't even checked if the brunette is home, Chloe just prays that she is. Luckily, the door opens to reveal a pleasantly confused Beca, who frowns the moment she sees Chloe's tears.

"Chlo, what's wrong?"

Chloe steps inside, the door shutting behind her, "Why didn't you ever tell me you showed up at my wedding?"

Realization washes over Beca's face, "Aubrey told you?"

The red head nods, tears still staining her cheeks.

"What's done is done, I couldn't go back and change it," Beca says carefully, "I didn't think it would matter."

"We could have been together so much sooner," Chloe croaks, her heart breaking.

Beca pulls her into her arms, trying to comfort her tense, crying girlfriend, "I know, but that's not what was meant to be I guess."

"I'm just so mad at her," she's just so overcome with feeling, she can't even think straight.

"You know she was just trying to protect you right?" Beca says quietly, her hands rubbing soft circles on her back.

"How was that protecting me?" Chloe doesn't mean to say it as harshly as she did, but Beca tenses at her tone.

Beca pulls away from her and takes her hand, "Let's go sit down, come on."

Chloe let's her girlfriend pull her down onto the sofa in her living room, the younger woman's arms quickly enveloping her. Beca doesn't say anything, just lets her cry it out. They stay wrapped up on the sofa for quite a while, until Chloe has no more tears to cry.

She feels Beca's fingers on her face, attempting to wipe away some of the moisture, "I know you might not want to hear this, but I think what Aubrey did was the right thing."

Chloe sniffles, sitting up slightly to look at her, "Why?"

"Neither of us would have been in a good place for this back then," Beca looks deep in thought, "it would have been so much harder, you would have had to dump Chicago on your wedding day. We were living on opposite sides of the country. Not to mention, I was basically clinically insane that day, I had driven for almost two days straight."

"But we would have made it work," she knows they would have; this is worth it.

"Of course we would have, but she was trying to protect you, when have you ever known Aubrey to do something that would purposely hurt you?"

Shit. Of course, she's right. Aubrey is such a constant in her life, she's Chloe's biggest supporter.

"I know, you're right," Chloe admits, wiping more of the wayward tears off her face.

"Another thing to think about," Beca takes her hand in hers, lacing their fingers together tightly, "we wouldn't have Amelia or Christopher right now if we had gotten together back then."

It hits Chloe like a ton of bricks, of course they wouldn't have their kids, and she can't imagine her life without those two little ones, "Oh my god, Becs, we wouldn't have them."

Beca shakes her head, "Nope, we wouldn't. Everything happens for a reason Chlo."

"Ugh why do you have to make so much sense?" Chloe jokes, suddenly feeling better about everything.

"It's a gift and a curse," Beca smirks.

"What if we wouldn't have found our way back to each other?" Choe can't help but wonder.

"You know our crazy friends would have eventually pushed us back together, they hated us being apart as much as we did," the Bellas really didn't like the awkward split, Beca is probably right again.

Silence sweeps over them, Beca still holding onto her tightly. Chloe feels safe and protected, and most important so very loved. She has Beca now, what's done is done. Maybe she shouldn't have lashed out at Aubrey as hard as she did.

"Thanks Becs," Chloe mumbles into the brunette's shoulder.

"No problem, you know I'm always here for you," Beca kisses the top of her head lightly.

"I know I should go home and talk to Aubrey, but can I just stay here tonight?" Chloe doesn't think she can handle it right now, she still needs to cool off a bit.

"Of course," Beca doesn't even think twice about it.

The next morning Chloe wakes up confused, she's not in her room. She feels an arm draped around her midsection, Beca's arm. Everything about yesterday comes rushing back. Chloe slowly pushes her girlfriend's arm off her and slowly sits up. She's in a pair of Beca's pajama pants and tank top, since she angrily drove here in her scrubs last night.

"Hey, morning," Beca rolls over to look at her, her voice scratchy from sleep.

"Morning," Chloe, replies with a yawn.

"You work today?" Beca grabs her phone off the nightstand to check it.

"Shit. Yea I do, what time is it?" she forgot to set an alarm, she really hopes she didn't oversleep.

"It's 7," she replies lazily, scrolling through something on her phone.

Relief washes over her, she should be there at 8 but her first patient isn't until 9.

Still she better get going, "Ok, I'm going to shower and get going. Can I borrow some clothes?"

"Of course baby, take whatever you need," Beca says, throwing her phone down and rolling back into her pillow, she's probably going to be asleep again by the time Chloe is ready.

Chloe gets ready as fast as she can. She's sure she looks a little off, but it'll work, she'll probably end up changing into scrubs later in the day anyways. There's not a lot of glamour when you're a vet. Beca is sleeping when she makes her way back into the bedroom, so she walks over to the bed and places a kiss on her head before heading out to her car.

It was a pretty boring, normal day at work, which didn't help in keeping Chloe's thoughts away from Aubrey. She can hardly wait to get home and talk to her best friend. Her head is clear today, there are no hard feelings. Aubrey must still be feeling awful and she wants nothing more than to assure the blonde that it's all ok.

Chloe waits impatiently outside Christopher's school, wanting to get home as quickly as she can. It feels like forever before she sees bouncing red curls and a smiling freckled face run up to the car. Chloe gets out and gets her son situated in the back. He talks excitedly about recess and lunch, and the art project they started that afternoon. Chloe tries so hard to pay attention to him but her mind wanders back to Aubrey.

When they finally make it back home, to Chloe's relief, Aubrey's car is in the driveway. Christopher flies out of the car and into the house, she follows behind taking her time. Aubrey is nowhere to be seen when she walks through the door. Chloe checks the kitchen, the backyard, the office and then heads upstairs.

She pauses briefly outside the door to Aubrey and Stacie's bedroom, what if Aubrey is mad at her now?

Chloe knocks lightly on the door, "Bree, you in there?"

The door opens slowly, revealing a sad looking Aubrey.

Her expression changes entirely when she sees it's Chloe, the blonde throws her arms around her pulling her tightly into her body, "You scared the crap out of me! I thought you died in a ditch or something! You didn't tell me where you were!"

Chloe pulls away sheepishly, she really should have let Aubrey know she was staying at Beca's last night, "I'm sorry, I should have told you."

"I finally called Beca this morning and thank god, she said you left her house this morning for work," Aubrey is looking at her sternly now.

"Bree, I'm so sorry, for that and for everything. I shouldn't have blown up on you," Chloe tries to convey how sincere she is with her tone, "you were only thinking of me, none of that matters anymore. I have Beca now, and I have you and Christopher, and that's all that matters."

Aubrey's face softens now, she looks relieved, "I was so worried you were going to hate me for it, for a long time. I'm so sorry I kept her from you Chlo."

Chloe shakes her head dismissively, "I could never hate you, it's ok Bree, plus Beca made a good point last night, I wouldn't have Christopher or Amelia if we had gotten together back then."

"That's true, and they're both pretty great," Aubrey smiles, voice shaky with pent up nerves and emotion.

"Yea they are," Chloe pulls the blonde into another tight hug, "thank you for always watching out for me, for always having my back. I don't deserve a friend as good as you."

"I do it cause I love you, you're my family," Aubrey says quietly, hugging the red head back.

"I love you too Bree, I couldn't ask for a better family."

They stand in the doorway to Aubrey's bedroom hugging and Chloe's world falls in to place again. She'll never be able to ex Aubrey out of her life, no matter how bad she screws up and she hopes that her best friend feels the same about her. They are family and for that Chloe is forever grateful.