A/N - A bit of a short chapter for the mid week update but I hope you enjoy nevertheless. Thank you again for all the support.
As always, thank you to my beta, I honestly couldn't do this without you!
Happy Wednesday to you all!
.oOo. Chapter Twenty One .oOo.
message from beca.m, to luke.b – 12.47 – You got time for lunch?
message from luke.b, to becky.m – 12.54 – That depends!
message from beca.m, to luke.b – 12.56 – On?
message from luke.b, to becky.m – 12.57 – What the offer is…
message from beca.m, to luke.b – 12.59 – Oh, I'm buying.
message from luke.b, to becky.m – 13.00 – So the meeting with the lawyers went well?
message from beca.m, to luke.b – 13.02 – Not exactly. Bailed before that started.
message from luke.b, to becky.m – 13.03 – What happened?
message from beca.m, to luke.b – 13.04 – Lunch, and I'll tell you.
message from luke.b, to becky.m – 13.05 – Where?
.oOo.
Beca was sitting in a booth at the back of a small café near to Universal's main office, studying the menu when Luke arrived ten minutes later.
"You okay?" He asked, looking down at her for a couple of seconds before he took a seat on the faded leatherette bench opposite.
"Yup, I'm fine. What's good here?" She said, with an amused twist to her mouth. They had a lot of 'business lunches' here.
"Well, that depends."
"On?"
"If you are going to continue reading the menu upside down…" He mirthed as he pulled his wallet and phone from his back pocket, laying it all on the table next to the napkin dispenser.
"Huh? How about that?" Beca said, rotating the menu and trying to hide her slightly pinking face.
"Mate, you aren't subtle at the best of times but…" Luke tapped the top of the menu. "… even you can't read upside down. That's Amy's trick, remember? At least, she tries to do it, something about being Tasmanian, I don't know, and fails every time."
"How do you know? I might have skills you don't know about."
"That, I don't doubt. So enough with avoiding the issue. What happened?"
"Don't you want to order first?"
"You already know what you are having as you order the exact same thing every time we come in here. I'm having a cheeseburger, as usual."
"Oh, well… um, what about drinks."
"You'll have a water, like you do every time and I'll have a coke. Like I do, every time."
"What if the waitress-"
"-Stop stalling Mitchell and spit it out." Luke playfully growled.
"Okay, okay, you win. But this wasn't my fault, this time."
"Uh huh."
"No really. Chloe is the one who left suddenly." Beca explained.
"Why?"
"I dunno."
"Seriously?" Luke's face said he wasn't sure if he should believe her.
"Seriously… we were talking and then she had this weird like lightbulb thing happen and she apologised, and left."
"And you didn't try to catch up with her?"
"Yeah, but she was gazelle like."
"Gazelle?" Luke raised an eyebrow in Beca's direction.
"Yeah, she was outta the room like a gazelle. Like fast moving."
"What were you two talking about when she left?"
"All sorts. I mean, she brought some pictures of Jessie for me." Beca explained.
"That was kind."
"Yeah… yeah, it was." Beca grimaced a little. "I may have acted like a bit of a dick."
"You acted like your normal self then."
"Fuck you Bryant."
"You wish Mitchell." Luke smirked, nodding to the waitress who usually served them when they came in. He mouthed, 'the usual' and she gave him a thumbs up before scribbling in her pad. "So, tell me, why'd you act like a dick?"
.oOo.
"So, it wasn't totally my fault." Beca said, concluding the story.
"Hmm." Luke said, wiping his mouth on a paper napkin. He balled it up in his hands before aiming it at Beca's forehead, bouncing it neatly off of her hairline with predictable ease.
"Quit doing that!" She said, reaching out for the paper ball and throwing it back at him, missing him completely and just avoiding the patron behind him as it rolled onto the floor.
"Okay, you've got two ways that this can go, yes?"
"Right."
"Or left." Luke mirthed but dropped his half smile when Beca looked confused. "You can either call Chloe and apologise to her, tell her you were acting out of character and you were overwhelmed by it all and you'd like to try again or you can simply collect Jessie and Alex once a fortnight… sorry, every two weeks from a mutually agreed pick up point and live your life that way."
"I don't like either of those options."
"That's not my problem." Luke said, reaching over towards Beca's plate and taking one of her leftover French fries.
"That's not helpful."
"I can't tell you what to do."
"But what would you do, if this was you in my situation."
"Honestly?" Luke asked.
"Yeah."
"I'd be doing everything I can to secure access to my kid in the most stress free way possible. As I said, you've got two ways of going about this and it's a real take it or lump it choice." Luke said, stealing two more fries.
"So, I either back down or-"
"-What are you backing down over?"
"How nice I have to be to her."
"That's up to you anyway, regardless of how this decision of yours goes. You can be friendly and still keep to the two-week visits until the girls are older and they can either choose to spend more time with you or not at all. You can petition for more time with the courts or speak with Chloe and David and see if it's mutually agreeable to get more time with them. You could also be your usually cranky self and just pick up the girls at the end of Chloe's driveway and stick two fingers up as you drive off."
"I may have said something like that to her earlier."
"Why am I not surprised?" Luke winked, pinching another fry. "You can be whatever you need to be with Chloe. You can be your moody self, or you can actually show the part of you that only a few of us usually get to see."
"Which is?"
"The Beca you try to hide so you don't get hurt. Underneath all the eyeliner and the snark and the 'I'm going to cut you if you stand too close to me' attitude is someone who's been through the darker side of life and been through the mill but will wake up extra early on someone's birthday and take all their saved pennies and go and buy them a birthday muffin from their favourite bakery. Someone who'd sit up all night just to make sure their piece of work was done properly and text and call if someone is unwell, even if you just say, 'are you dead yet?'. You try to hide it, but deep down, you are a really good person."
"Yeah, well, Jesse taught me well." Beca said, shrugging off the compliment.
"He did. He showed you love and compassion and how to live life to the fullest. He gave you an amazing gift before he left us."
"And I lost that gift."
"You didn't lose it Beca. You haven't let him down, like you keep on saying. You got a judge with a bad attitude and took the facts as they were on paper. Chloe isn't the better parent just because she can take the girls to baton twirling lessons and dress them up in tutu's at a moment's notice. Jessie can already tie her own shoes, she makes her own bed, she's really polite and friendly and she sees how hard you work every day to give her the best life possible. True, she wasn't about to get everything handed to her on a plate like some other people might but that's not real life anyway. This whole situation is out of control for everyone. We're all hurting here. We've all lost Jessie. I know my feelings don't compare to yours, but it's unlikely I'll see her again. And Amy feels the same way. You get an hour every two weeks. We don't. But we can't make you do anything different than what we are doing at the moment."
"Thanks Luke."
"For what?"
"For loving Jessie."
"Her parents are amazing people and my two best friends." Luke smiled, stretching over the table to retrieve another one of Beca's fries.
"But that's where you're wrong!" Beca said, swatting his hand away from her plate.
"How?" He said, immediately wondering.
"Her parents are Chloe and David. Alex is Jesse and I's daughter."
Luke blinked a couple of times.
"Sorry." He said quietly. "I forget she's not actually yours."
"It's okay. So I need a favour from you."
"Sure."
"I need you to tell me what to do here."
"Beca, I can't."
"Please?"
Luke sighed and looked over at his friend.
"Please Luke. My mind is all over the place at the moment. I don't know what to do. I want my daughter to have the best life. I mean, I don't know why I acted that way in front of Chloe today. It wasn't my intention to be like that. I think she just caught me off guard. She was actually really nervous and it was sweet of her to bring me the photos of Jessie. She has been trying to reach out, to talk to me, and I've been ignoring her messages. I guess she really did feel the only way to talk to me was face to face. It's just every time I look at her, I feel something."
"In what way?"
"I think it's just the memory of the day I gave birth to my daughter and my connection to Chloe, I dunno. It's weird. Like a flutter in my belly and my heart beats a little faster."
"I think Chloe reaching out to you makes you feel strange as well."
"How do you mean?"
"Because you aren't used to people wanting to be your friend." Luke said, matter of factly, staring her down.
"I've got you. And Amy. For all her weirdness, she's pretty loyal."
"Two friends Beca does not make-"
"-Oh, like you can talk! You don't have many friends either."
"But we're not talking about me. And I have plenty of friends."
"So you think because she's trying to get to know me, I'm… what?"
"In your words, 'freaked out' by it. You've been so busy building up these walls around you that you can't see there are people waiting on the other side to get to know you."
"I'm not freaked out. Just don't see the point."
"In what way?"
"Making friends. You and Amy are different. But eventually, everyone just leaves so why waste all your time and energy in developing something that isn't going to last?"
"Is that why you won't date anyone?"
"I've dated people."
"When?"
"At times." Beca smirked and Luke shook his head at her. "So, come on, what advice are you going to charm me with?"
"I'm not."
"Luke!"
"I can't give you advice Beca because I don't know myself. I've only met Chloe and David once. I thought they were nice people. David seemed all right until he started interrogating you and Chloe seemed like a genuinely nice person. You come from opposite sides of the track to each other and I honestly don't know what to suggest to you. What do you think you should do?"
"I don't know either. It's like half of me wants to hear what she has to say and half of me wants to tell them both to go to hell. She's got the perfect house and the perfect family and the perfect job and she's successful and friendly and nice and sociable and she's beautiful, I mean really beautiful. She's everything I'm not. And I guess I'm too angry to want to talk to her. I mean, what are we going to talk about?"
"Well, you could start by just talking about the children." Luke suggested, his hand snaking out across the table once more to steal the last remaining fry on Beca's plate.
"I guess so. I mean, she did tell me that Jessie was struggling to sleep at night."
"She's reaching out for help. I hope you told her the trick."
"I may have told her she had to figure it out herself."
"And what does that achieve?" Luke asked.
"Momentary satisfaction. But then I felt guilty."
"So who won?"
"No one I guess."
"And the point of doing it then…?" Luke asked, signalling to the waitress for the check. He stared at Beca for the longest time until she began to grow uncomfortable under his gaze.
"Okay, you're making sense. Which I hate."
Luke smiled and held his hand out as the waitress came over with the folder containing their check. As soon as he laid it on the table, and leaned over to collect his wallet, Beca's hand shot out and picked it up.
"Lunch is on me."
"No, I got it."
"Luke, please. It's a small gesture in comparison to you helping me out all the time."
"You sure?"
"Yes. I really don't know what I'd do without you sometimes and I can get you a cheeseburger these days. Got more money in my bank account at the moment than I've ever had. Just don't have a kid to spend it on."
"Well, talk to Chloe, as I said. Maybe the two of you can work something out."
"Yeah, maybe."
"Whoa, was that an almost positive response?" Luke smirked.
"I mean, yeah. I got what you were saying. I was acting like a dick so I'll speak with her, okay?"
Luke just grinned.
.oOo.
message from beca.m, to chloe.m – 14.39 – Hi, it's Beca. Which you prob already know cos my name is on the text, right? Just wanted to talk to you about today. You around?
message from beca.m, to chloe.m – 14.59 – So, yeah, I'm sorry for what I said. Okay?
message from beca.m, to chloe.m – 15.06 – And for acting like a dick.
message from beca.m, to chloe.m – 15.17 – I'm not good on text. Can you call me if you're free?
message from beca.m, to chloe.m – 18.31 – I know you're prob in the middle of bedtime. Call me after?
message from beca.m, to chloe.m – 19.58 – Is Jessie okay? If she's still awake, I can help you get her to sleep.
message from chloe.m, to aubrey.p – 20.01 – She's sent 6 texts. When do I respond? X
message from aubrey.p, to chloe.m – 20.04 – When you haven't had a few glasses of wine.
message from chloe.m, to aubrey.p – 20.06 – What's that got to do with anything? X
message from aubrey.p, to chloe.m – 20.09 – Anything more than three glasses and you'll be asking her to move in with you.
message from chloe.m, to aubrey.p – 20.10 – OMG, what a great idea! She could have the pool house. X
message from aubrey.p, to chloe.m – 20.12 – Thank you for confirming my reason for why you won't be responding tonight. Go to bed.
message from beca.m, to luke.b – 20.47 – Tried to message C but no response. Why isn't she responding?
message from luke.b, to beca.m – 21.12 – She might be busy x
message from beca.m, to luke.b – 21.14 – Too busy to answer a text?
message from luke.b, to beca.m – 21.15 – Did you really just say that? x
message from beca.m, to luke.b – 21.19 – What?
message from luke.b, to beca.m – 21.22 – Remind me how long you took to respond to one of her messages or calls? x
message from beca.m, to luke.b – 21.29 – Okay wise ass
message from beca.m, to luke.b – 21.53 – What if something is wrong with Jessie? What if she's hurt and C's taken her to the ER?
message from luke.b, to beca.m – 21.55 – Chloe would tell you.
message from beca.m, to chloe.m – 22.06 – Hope everything is okay. Night
message from chloe.m, to aubrey.p – 22.06 – She's just sent me another one. X
message from aubrey.p, to chloe.m – 22.12 – Goodnight Chloe.
message from beca.m, to chloe.m – 07.14 – Hey, how did Jessie sleep last night?
message from beca.m, to chloe.m – 09.28 – Is Jessie okay?
message from beca.m, to chloe.m – 10.33 – Why are you ignoring me?
Beca slammed her phone down on her desk and huffed. She spun her chair around and faced Luke, who twisted his head to look over in her direction.
"You can't be mad because she's ignoring your texts." He said before Beca had a chance to say anything. "You did the same thing to her."
"That was different."
"How?!"
"Jessie wasn't living with her then."
"She might be busy Beca. There's three little ones there now." Luke held up three fingers to emphasise his point.
"Thanks for reminding me."
"I can't help you with this."
"I bet Chloe has that twitchy blonde on her side."
"Who?"
"Audrey or something. I dunno what her friend is called."
"Maybe if you made an effort to learn people's names properly?"
"You're no help." Beca said, standing from her chair. "Well, fine, if she's going to be like that, I won't bother either."
"You know…" Luke said, trying not to laugh. "… that snark would be a lot more assertive if you weren't checking your phone every second!"
.oOo.
From: Chloe unicornsrule4ever
Sent: June 29 14.04
To: Rebecca Mitchell djmitchmatch
Subject: Mediation
"Dear Miss Mitchell,
Thank you for meeting with me yesterday. I apologise that something came up and I had to leave. Thank you for your text messages. Jessie is quite well.
Upon seeking advice, I think it best that we engage a mediator to help us learn how to communicate with each other in a civil manner, for the sake of the girls going forward. With your agreement, I will confirm an appointment I have tentatively booked for Monday morning at 10am, with two representatives from a firm which has come highly recommended. They are not psychologists and offer no legal advice and are simply there to aid the conversation and steer it in the right direction.
If you are agreeable to attend, I've taken the liberty of attaching their site address and small company mission statement for you to read through.
If you are not agreeable, you can simply disregard this email.
Regards,
Chloe Mitchem-Beale"
.oOo.
"Who the fuck does she think she is?"
"What now?" Luke asked, continuing to stare at the screen in front of him. He'd spend the last few hours trying to ignore Beca as she stomped her way around the office. While he wasn't enjoying seeing his friend suffer, he knew it was teaching her a valuable lesson.
"She wants to go to mediation."
"How's Jessie?"
"Huh?"
"Did 'she' say how Jessie was?" Luke asked.
"Jessie is…" Beca paused to read the email again. "… quite well."
"Okay, good."
"Did you hear what I said?"
"All I'm hearing from you is you being petulant."
"Petulant?"
"Yes, Chloe is offering to meet you and-"
"-So she gets the upper hand in this yet again."
"Beca! Stop! Just stop, okay! You are not going to get anywhere if you continually negate every attempt to get through this. Even if…" Luke put his hand up as Beca opened her mouth to protest, essentially cutting her off. "… you don't agree with it, she's trying here. Go to the mediation. Sit and talk with her. And stop hating her. It's not doing you any good. And suck it up, quit being a bitch about or you'll never see Jessie, or Alex without any stress again."
"Geez, dude, take a pill or something. Relax, all right?"
"Just... get get back to work." Luke tried to hide his eye twitch at the serious look on Beca's face.
"Yes sir!"
Luke smirked as he turned his head around, knowing Beca would eventually be the death of him.
.oOo.
A/N - Next chapter is Chloe and Beca meeting up again... fingers crossed it'll go better than last time!
Have a great week everyone :)