Dear God, I Hope This Works

The car pulled to a stop in a dimly lit hospital parking lot. Stacie had barely put the car in park before I opened the door and sprinted inside, only to realize I had no idea where the hell I was going and waited impatiently for Stacie to catch up.

She led me upstairs, down bland white corridors that smelled of bleach and ammonia, past hobbling patients and crying families waiting for news of their loved ones. She stopped outside the door I assumed was to Chloe's room, and all of the sudden I was afraid. Terrified. Inside that room was Shrodinger's cat. Until I opened that door I could imagine Chloe was behind it smiling and laughing. I could imagine her singing with the Bellas that no doubt were in there with her, waiting for the doctor to come in and send her home. But until I opened that door, Chloe could also be gone. The fear from that final thought forced me to yank open the door and wanting to sink immediately to me knees seeing the condition my bubbly redhead was in. I stumbled over to her bedside and gently lifted her hand to my face, nuzzling it and kissing her palm.

"Oh God, Chloe," I whispered through the sobs shaking my body. The Bellas had all gone silent when I arrived, and moved out of the way. I didn't notice them at all. "You look like shit sweetie." I kept holding her hand in my own, and used my other hand to gently trace the contours of her battered face. "You can't leave me. Do you understand? I lost you once, and I can't do it again. I just can't. So you are not allowed to leave me."

To no one's surprise, Chloe didn't respond. I turned to Aubrey, knowing I would get the clearest and most concise answer from her. "What happened? What's wrong with her?"

As Aubrey relayed the story, and chronicled her injuries, I followed along with my eyes, placing a small kiss at every spot that was mentioned. "There, all better now right Chlo?" Looking at the girl lying motionless in the bed next to me, beautiful despite her condition, I had the sudden urge to sing the song Chloe and I would sing to each other like fools, and I grinned at the memory.

"Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars
In other words, hold my hand
In other words, baby, kiss me"

I hadn't noticed until then, but the Bellas had begun harmonizing with me. And it was heartbreakingly beautiful.

"Fill my heart with song
And let me sing for ever more
You are all I long for
All I worship and adore
In other words, please be true
In other words, I love you

Fill my heart with song
Let me sing for ever more
You are all I long for
All I worship and adore
In other words, please be true
In other words, in other words
I love you"

A faint pressure where I still held her hand brought a genuine smile to my face as hopeful tears rolled from my eyes. I turned to look at the Bellas arrayed around us. "She's going to be okay."

"You're looking better today Chlo. How are you feeling?" I asked the redhead lying in bed in front of me. I continued talking as if I'd actually received an answer. "Well, I'm not the only one who's noticed, ya know. Aubrey told me just this afternoon how you're looking much healthier lately." I paused as though waiting for a reply before I continued talking. "I know she hasn't been around as much lately. But she's been kind of busy. I don't know if she's told you, probably not knowing Aubrey, but she has a new someone in her life. They've been dating for the last month, since shortly after your accident in fact, and it looks pretty serious."

I smirked to myself. Serious indeed. I've never seen Stacie smitten before. It was so out of character that I was still having trouble adjusting. But the change has been good.

"Alright, hold your horses. I won't keep you in suspense anymore. It's Stacie. Aubrey and Stacie, can you believe it? Your best friend is dating my best friend. As soon as you wake up we'll be forced to go on awkward double dates with those two weirdos." The truth is, I would love nothing more in the world. Because even an awkward double date was still a date with this gorgeous ginger angel lying in front of me. And she was gorgeous. All of her superficial injuries had healed in the last month and a half. Cuts and bruises slowly faded until you'd never know they'd been there in the first place. Her bones were mostly healed as well.

It was that pesky brain injury that kept us in this hospital room. The damned coma that me coming back, day after day, night after night, spending as much time in this room as I could before I'd inevitably have to leave to eat, or shower, or sleep. I hadn't gone back to school yet. And my dad was being super supportive by funding my little sabbatical.

"I made you another mix. It's full of songs I'm almost positive you've never heard. It took a lot of research because you're a damned music junkie, but I think it was worth it. I wish I could see your reaction to it when you hear it." I pulled out my laptop and set it next to her on the bed, pressing play.

I was always surprised when I had an emotional reaction to my own music. But sitting here listening to this mix I'd sunk hours into making for Chloe and seeing no reaction whatsoever from the redhead, I cried.

With the song still playing, tears in my yes, I left the hospital room and propped myself against the wall outside the door.

I was surprised when I heard a throat clearing next to me, so I turned and met the saddened eyes of Chloe's little brother Billy. We'd bonded over our shared misery, and it was almost like it was before. Like he was the little brother I'd never had.

"Hey Billy."

"Hey Beca. How is she?"

How many times have I heard that question over the last six weeks? How I've come to hate it. I couldn't completely keep the grimace off of my face when I answered. "She looks better." How many times have I answered it the same way? Because it was true, every day she looked better than the day before. That didn't mean, however, that she was any closer to waking up.

Billy visibly grimaced at the answer the same way I'd grimaced at the question. He hated this as much as I did. "Beca…" he started and trailed off averting his eyes, looking pained. He chewed his lip for a moment while I waited for him to say whatever it was he wanted to say. Finally, he looked back at me with tears in his eyes. "I overheard my parents. They are talking about removing her feeding tube."

I felt like I'd been punch in the gut and gasped audibly for a breath. "No!" I wheezed out. "No, they can't!" Even though I knew, as her parents, they absolutely could. I knew it didn't look great. I knew that most patients didn't wake up after two weeks, and if they did they would most likely have some kind of disability. But this was Chloe, and no one was going to take Chloe away from me again. "They won't. I'll wake her up." I looked at Billy with a fire in my eyes he hadn't seen before, and he began to look at me with something I hadn't seen in about a month. Hope.

"Okay, does everyone have this?" I asked the assembled Bellas outside the hospital doors. We'd gone over the plan repeatedly for the last couple of days, rehearsing it over and over again until it was perfect. But we were out of time. This was it. Her parents had scheduled the removal of her feeding tube. It would be removed in a couple of hours. It was now or never.

Aubrey answered for them. "Beca, we got this. I don't know where you came up with this plan, but it feels right? You know?" Aubrey smiled warmly at me and reached for my hands. "She'll wake up Beca. How can she not? She has an epic love story to conclude."

"I told you shortly after we met that I would help you get the girl. So what are we waiting for B Mitch? Let's go get her." Stacie said, and winked at me. I met the eyes of each Bella in turn, and found them all smiling the same hopeful smile.

"I think she's had enough of a beauty rest, don't you? Let's go wake sleeping beauty," I smirked at them, and turned to enter the hospital.

Patients, nurses, doctors, they all looked at us curiously as we trooped past them to Chloe's room. The plan was simple. Chloe loved music. All kinds of music. But there were certain songs that she couldn't help but to sing along to, no matter what. We were going to sing them all to her. And we weren't going to stop until she was singing with us.

And if that plan failed, we would continue on to plan B. Because while there were certain songs that Chloe couldn't help but sing along to, there were also certain songs that she couldn't help but to turn off immediately, groaning in frustration. All it would take is the first verse of 'Barbie Girl' before my gorgeous ginger sat up in bed and started throwing things at us until we shut up.

We gathered around her bed, taking in her peaceful expression and healthy glow. The steady beeping of her heart monitor almost soothing, reassuring us of the fact that she was still with us. I steadied my nerves, taking a deep breath, and mentally ran through the entire planned set list. I knew the girls arrayed around me would not give up. We were prepared to sing through the entire two hour long program I'd developed.

I pulled the pitch pipe from the pocket of my blue jeans, took another moment to gaze at the face of the angel before me, and blew into it. "1, 2, 3…"

It was soothing. She could just lay there forever with the sounds washing over her like a warm flowing river. The familiarity was a balm. A comforting touch in the void. She didn't have to reach for it, she didn't have to fight for it; it was just there. Brushing against her mind with the softest of touches.

She basked in it. Like a lazy summer day, a cool breeze, gooseflesh pimpling her skin and the sun warming her flesh.

She wanted to swim towards it. To get closer, allow the warmth to seep deeper into her bones. She wanted to reach out and touch it, grasp it in her fingers and drape it over herself like a blanket. So that's what she tried to do. She tried to reach out and grab it, but it was ephemeral. It slipped through her fingers like sand. So she let it go. Contented herself with the warmth, and basked in it.

It wasn't working. I looked at the heart monitor and saw no change, but after staring intently at Chloe for so long and seeing no reaction whatsoever, I wasn't surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised.

I signaled the end of the current song and bit my lip. We'd been singing for over an hour, it was time for a change. I looked around at the Bellas and confirmed what they were all thinking. "Plan B. Let's do this." The girls all grinned, this was going to be fun.

The warmth was gone, and she missed it. What replaced it was the same, but not. A warm summer day, but with bees stinging your skin. A cold sweet tea under a blistering sun, but so sweet it gave you a stomach ache.

She wanted it to stop. This was wrong. This was a bandaid she wanted to rip from her skin and toss in the garbage. This was fingernails on a chalkboard, fork scraping a plate, cat yowling in the middle of the night kind of pain. And it was pissing her off.

She clawed towards the god awfulness she was being assaulted with. She felt like she was crawling through Jello, but she fought through it. Something, or someone, was going to die today for forcing this unpleasantness upon her.

The closer to the surface she got, the louder and more painful the noise became. But it only pissed her off more.

She was aching all over. Her head felt like it wanted to split in half. She had to clench her eyes because the light beyond them was far too bright. Through a thoroughly unused and raspy throat, she hissed, "Shut…up…"

A/N She's awake. Yay! We're almost done here. Next, and last, chapter is written. I'll probably post it on Friday. Starting to think about my next project. It won't be in this fandom I don't think. If you guys have any suggestions about which fandom it should be, let me know.