"Chloe, are you seeing someone else?" Beca repeated, her pulse racing as she watched Chloe swallow thickly, eyes shut against the onslaught of tears threatening to spill over. Chloe shook her head.

"No I'm not…. I was…. God dammit," Chloe cried as she got swept up in her emotions. Beca watched her with furrowed brows, hands now resting on the wheels of her wheelchair trying to supress her frustration but she couldn't help the sinking feeling in her stomach.

Chloe rubbed at her eyes and exhaled a deep breath as she tried to collect herself. Dropping her hands to her knees she glanced up at Beca and her heart broke at the sight of the woman in front of her who looked so desperately lost and confused.

"Bec's before I tell you this, I need you to know that I love you so much. More than I've ever loved anyone in my life and if I'd known then what I know now I never would've made the choices I made," Chloe said, staring deep into Beca's eyes, trying to convey the depth of her love and devotion to her, hoping it would someone be enough to soften the blow of what she was about to reveal. Beca just swallowed around the lump in her throat and stared back at Chloe, face void of emotion.

"Just tell me," Beca said, her tone even as Chloe puffed out a breath.

Unable to look Beca in the eye Chloe lowered her gaze to her lap where her hands lay clasped together and puffed out a breath.

"After they told me that you were de….that you were gone," Chloe started, cutting herself off from using the word dead to save herself from the added stress of remembering the pain she felt at that time.

"I was so lost I felt like I couldn't breathe," Chloe cried as she lifted her head toward the ceiling, eyes closed as her memoires took her back to that time, to the suffocating feelings that consumed her, as tears tracked their way down her cheeks. And Beca just watched, waiting for what was to come.

"I couldn't get out of bed, couldn't work. Our family, our friends, they tried so hard to get me back on my feet but I just, I couldn't. It hurt too much living without you," Chloe finally found the courage to open her eyes and look Beca in the eye, her cerulean blues illuminated by the redness that surrounded them.

"After a couple of months…." Chloe trailed off at this knowing that what was about to come out of her mouth next, would be the verbal equivalent of lobbing a hand grenade, and she braced herself.

"Chicago….he um….he showed up at our door," Chloe's voice cracked as the lump in her throat seemed to rise higher, stifling the words as they left her mouth.

In that moment she heard an intake of breath and looked up to see Beca's mouth open, chest rising up and down as if the breath she was inhaling was trying to push something down, something Chloe could only imagine was close to white hot rage.

"He, he told me how sorry he was, how he tried to save you but there was nothing they could do," Chloe's voice broke at this as the mental image of that moment crept back into her mind, the devastation, the pain, everything she had felt rushing back to the surface, no longer able to fight back the tears.

"He said that, that he felt it was just duty to look out of me, take care of me because you couldn't," Chloe explained.

As Beca listened to what she was being told, her jaw clenched, her entire body growing hot as she pictured the moment that Chicago betrayed her. The bomb going off, the SUV truck flying into the air and landing on it's roof, Beca and several of her comrades trapped inside as Chicago wrangled himself free and gazed back at the wreckage.

She could still feel the heat from the desert sun scorching her skin. Could still hear the battle cry of the enemy racing towards them in in the distance as Beca lay trapped inside the vehicle pleading with Chicago to do something.

And then she recalled the moment that he reached into the truck in what she thought was his attempt to free her, only to have him reach into her pocket and pull out the letter Beca kept stashed in the leg of her cargo pants, a last letter to home, to Chloe, just in case. Could vividly picture the moment he stashed it in his own pocket and then, raised his rifle into the air and shot blindly into the sky, emptying the cartridge of bullets as he looked her right in the eye.

As the enemy truck in the distance grew closer, Chicago gave Beca one last look, and then ran, ran as fast as he could, ran knowing that the enemy would rather capture the many, than take out one. That was the last time Beca had ever laid eyes on Chicago Walp and every day that she was held captive she prayed that he was suffering somewhere.

"He told me that he had moved to the city, and that if there was anything I needed that he would be there for me. That soldiers take care of their family," Chloe cried.

Beca couldn't listen to this, she couldn't sit through the full version of events she needed to know the truth, the truth she wasn't sure she was ready to hear.

"Did you sleep with him?" she cut in, stopping Chloe in her tracks, the redhead stunned into silence by the sheer abruptness of Beca's question. She hesitated for a moment.

"Bec's I….," before she could form a coherent response Beca cut her off.

"Yes or no, did you sleep with him?" she asked again, this time her voice was louder, sharper.

Chloe's face fell as she swallowed around the word rising up, knowing the devastation it was about to cause.

"Yes," she whispered, and in that moment, she could literally see the word hammering away at Beca's heart, splintering it and creating new cracks and crevices.

Beca's eyes shut as the redheads' response landed like a knife to the chest. It felt like the air had left the room as she struggled against the rising tide of emotions clawing their way to the surface. She couldn't navigate the conflict within her, the anger, the hurt, the betrayal. Some part of her brain knew logically that Chicago should be the target of her feelings, but the other part of her brain, couldn't rationalise this.

Because even though Chloe had been duped, it still felt like a betrayal.

"How long….how long were you together?" Beca just about managed to get out as she forced herself through teary eyes to look at Chloe.

"We were engaged….." Chloe whispered, and in that moment, Beca's eyes landed on the ring sitting on Chloe's ring finger. The one she had proposed with, and she felt deceived.

"All this time…. All this time you've been wearing that ring. Letting me believe that even after two years, you had kept it on. That you had been wearing it all this time," Beca cried, face scrunched up in anger. Chloe tried to reach out to Beca but she wheeled herself back, she couldn't bear to be touch by her.

"Bec's it's not like that. When I found out what Chicago had done I ended it. I never wanted him, I wanted you," Chloe cried and Beca glared at her.

"When Chloe? When did you end it? After the proposal? The day I came back? When?" Beca shouted. She was angry, she knew she was angry and she knew she was allowing that anger to drive the conversation but she couldn't stop herself. She was hurting, worse than any hurt levelled at her in Afghanistan.

And Chloe could see it, she could see the pain that Beca was warring with inside, she could recognise it in her eyes. In that moment she knew she couldn't sugar coat or soften the blow. That nothing she said would make this easier or hurt any less. The only thing she could do, was be honest.

"The day before the wedding."

That was it, the five words that caused a crack right down the centre of their world. Five words that lingered in the air between them creating more uncertainty than they had ever felt before.

"Get out."

Chloe glanced up as the words pierced the silence and her face fell.

"Bec's please, lets just talk about this. There's so much I need to explain…I…," before Chloe could finish her pleading Beca cut her off.

"Get out…get out…GET OUT!" Beca shouted, nostrils flared, her face red, chest heaving as she finally became overwhelmed by everything she was feeling.

Chloe jumped back in shock at the outburst, but seeing that Beca was distressed, she fought against every instinct in her body that told her to stay and grabbed her bag, exiting the room swiftly. Once she was gone, Beca found herself rattling, body shaking with adrenaline.

In a moment of complete and utter black out rage she placed her hands under the table in front of her and flipped it over with all the power she possessed in her upper body. The coffee cups smashed to the ground and spilled everywhere, the long since forgotten granola and apple slice scattered on the floor in a mess.

Outside in the corridor, Chloe stood with her back to the wall, hand covering her mouth as she tried to smother the sound of her own sobs. From down the corridor, Aubrey spotted the redhead and dashed the hundred metres that separated them to her friend, hands reaching out and grasping her by the upper arms.

"Oh my God, Chloe, wants wrong?" Aubrey asked as one hand came up to comb through her hair. Sorrowful eyes gazed up at her and said just two words.

"She knows…."