As they exited the courtroom, Beca found her steps more sluggish, her physical energy zapped by the emotional rollercoaster ride she had just been through. She was silently regretting not using her wheelchair. Chloe could see that it was taking everything in her fiancée to navigate walking with her prosthetics and the crutches, so she walked by Beca's side, her own arm looped through Beca's, softly grasping her bicep to steady her and if needed, to offer support should the former solider feel herself stumbling.

Rounding the corner, Chloe suddenly found herself ambushed by an irate Miranda Walp, her husband mildly trying to hold her back, though little effort was being exerted.

"This is all your fault. The day my son met you was the day his life was ruined," she snarled, as she stepped closer getting in Chloe's face.

"You were never good enough for him. You're nothing but a cheap whore…."

Whack

The whole place stood in silence as the sound reverberated around the hall, Miranda Walp stumbling into the wall in shock, hand resting over her reddened, stinging cheek, one Aubrey Posen standing over her.

"If you ever so much as speak to her again, I'll sue your ass for defamation of character. And with the win/lose ratio with Walps and court cases currently not in your favour I would think twice about retaliating."

Miranda Walp stuttered over her breaths gazing back and forth between the women and her husband before she stormed off, leaving nothing but dust in her tracks. As Aubrey turned around, she was met with Chloe's shocked face before all the women burst into laughter.

"Damn Aubrey I didn't know you had it in you," Beca said and Aubrey just shook her head.

"That woman has been the biggest, most condescending, pain in my ass for too long. It felt so good to finally do that." Aubrey beamed, genuinely chuffed with herself.

Chloe smiled at her best friend, reaching out and stroking her forearm.

"Thanks Bree," Chloe said.

Beca glanced between the two women, her thighs quivering a little the longer they were stood around.

"Hey, not to break up this sweet moment, but could we continue this back at the hotel? I really need a break from these crutches. Everything aches," Beca whimpered as she adjusted the way her arm was resting on the crutch.

Both women snapped out of their moment and agreed, making their way to the elevator and back to their SUV.

A little over half an hour later, Beca was entering her room, mumbling about needing a soak in the bathtub as she perched herself on the foot of the bed. Chloe placed Beca's jacket and hat on one of the chairs and then gestured with her thumb towards the adjoining door to her room.

"I'll leave you to it," she said making to leave only for Beca to call after her, halting her from making any further progress.

"Hey, you don't have to go," Beca said, rubbing at her aching thighs, "I mean, you're gonna have to see this mess in all its glory at some stage, might as well be now before we're married."

Chloe took a deep breath and glanced down at the floor her brow furrowed as she shook her head at what her fiancée had said.

"I don't want you to be uncomfortable. I want you to be open with me when you're ready, not because you feel obligated to before we get married. I can wait," Chloe sighed.

"I know," Beca whispered, gaze lowering to the floor, "but I don't know if I can get married if I'm not completely open with you. My body, it's not like it was before."

Chloe sighed, she hated this part of Beca's recovery, the part that made her feel so vulnerable and scared. To witness her insecurities over something that she feared other people would ridicule her for. Having been at the hospital upon Beca's return, Chloe was acutely aware that the body she had been familiar with before, was no longer there.

What was to be found instead was a canvas that illustrated horrific trauma. Chloe knew this, she had been preparing herself for the day when Beca would be comfortable enough opening up to her. She had discussed it at length with her therapist about how best to approach it.

The last thing Chloe ever wanted was for Beca to feel like she was repulsed or intimidated by her physical appearance because to Chloe, Beca was still the most beautiful woman in the world to her. All of the components that made her fall in love with the brunette in their initial interactions were still there, and the parts that had captured Chloe's heart had only been magnified upon her return.

Beca was still the same quick witted, intelligent, loyal, courageous stubborn soldier she had always been. Her body may have changed but those core elements were still there, still relatively unchanged. That was all that mattered to Chloe. When she looked at Beca, she still saw the woman she was so deeply in love with.

Approaching the foot of the bed, Chloe stooped down onto her haunches and placed her hands on Beca's thighs, gently caressing them as she gained the other woman's attention.

"Hey, I need you to do something for me okay," Chloe said softly, finally catching Beca's eye as the woman gave her a meek nod of the head.

"I need you to listen to what I'm about to say, really listen, cause I'm only going to say this once," Chloe elaborated as she removed her hands from Beca's thighs and gripped the other womans' instead.

"I'm not gonna lie and say that I won't be affected by what I see because I love you too much for it not to resonate with me in some way," Chloe said, following her therapists' advice to just be open, "and I'm gonna be honest, I don't know how I'm going to react."

Beca swallowed thickly at this, trying to be patient and hear Chloe out before she settled on which emotion swirling around in the pit of her stomach was the one she should settle on. Then Chloe was squeezing her hands.

"But I want you to know that, whatever it may be, it's not repulsion or anything close. It's not anger or discomfort, it's love. All love, 100% unconditional love. And yeah, I might cry, I might even get a little overwhelmed, but it's only because I can't stand the thought of you in pain, and those scars are gonna be a physical visual of what you've been through," Chloe elaborated, pulling herself closer to Beca so that she was now nestled between the woman's thighs, hands coming up to rest against her chest.

"I hate thinking about what you've been through, because it hurts so bad knowing there's nothing I can do to erase that or make it go away. I hate the fact that I wasn't there for you and that you had to go through that alone," Chloe began to whimper, eyes welling with tears.

"The thought of what those animals did to you makes me sick to my stomach, but not you, never you Bec's. I love you and nothing you show me could ever change that."

At those words Beca brought her hands up and cupped the sides of Chloe's soft slender neck, thumbs stroking the skin there as she lowered her head so that it was nestled against Chloe's, absorbing the love and care she found in her presence. Her tears now freely rolling down her cheeks.

"I want you to see me, all of me," Beca finally whispered.

Chloe didn't respond, just simply nodded her head and leaned up to kiss Beca, silently communicating that everything would be okay.

"I'm gonna go run a bath and grab a change of clothes. You get set up and I'll come back in a little bit. Take all the time you need," Chloe said, giving Beca one last kiss before standing up and heading for the ensuite.

By the time she came back out of the bathroom, Beca had already pulled over her wheelchair and removed her prosthetics and was half undressed as Chloe smiled at her and retreated to her own room.

Gathering up her own comfies to change into, Chloe took a moment to collect herself, taking a couple of deep relaxing breaths before tying her hair up in a loose bun. She wiped away her make up and washed her face with a cleanser to remove any stubborn residue. She wasn't planning on washing her hair so knew that her face would be relatively untouched by the water. It also allowed her time to slow down so Beca could ready herself for the bath.

By the time she finally entered Beca's room in a white fluffy robe courtesy of the hotel, the brunette was nowhere to be found, the only clue of her whereabouts being the adjacent bathroom door. Chloe deposited her clothes on the end of the bed and then slowly walked up to the door, one hand resting on the handle, the other gently knocking.

"Come in," Beca called from the other side.

Chloe carefully pushed over the door and slipped inside, the steam from the hot water having already filled the space. Beca's chair was parked right by the bathtub, empty save for a towel she had spread across it for when she was finished.

As Chloe stepped further into the room, she noticed Beca sitting upright at the far end of the bathtub right where the glass partition that had covered half the length of the bathtub was positioned for those opting to use it as a shower. Somehow, probably through sheer upper body strength, the former soldier had managed to climb in on her own, though the pool of water by the edge of the tub indicated it wasn't without its struggles.

Chloe slipped off her rob and hung it on the back of the bathroom door before making her way over, carefully dipping her toe in to test it before climbing in and immersing herself in the warm soapy water. Once she was settled, Beca gazed at her for a long moment before she found the courage to slowly move herself up the bath, using the handrails for support.

Once she was close enough, Chloe reached out her hand, indicating that it was okay, and Beca took it, allowing herself to be pulled closer to the redhead before finally, she began to angle herself sideways so that she could turn around.

Chloe had been honest when she said she wasn't sure what to expect, and the audible gasp clearly gave way to this as Beca was now fully facing forward, her back now on full display to the woman behind her.

She wasn't sure what Chloe's reaction would be and as she felt fingertips begin to trace the scars on her back, she held her breath, not sure what would happen next.

Chloe had to blink a couple of times to clear the tears that blurred her vision, her fingers gently ghosting over silvery lines and angrier scars that protruded from Beca's back. There was barely a patch of skin untainted by trauma. Some scars created cross markings from where she had been repeatedly abused and whipped and she could make out the haphazard edges of scars that hadn't healed properly.

Beca was about ready to pass out from holding her breath when suddenly, she felt the faintest sensation of a pair of lips pressing against the nape of her neck before they began to press against the her shoulders and along her back. The she felt two arms sneak around her waist, hand coming up to stroke her sides and across her stomach, lovingly caressing the surgical scars that lay there.

Then, a chin came to rest in the crook of Beca's neck as the arms around her waste hugged her close, Chloe's front now resting snug against Beca's back, holding her tight against her.

"I love you," Chloe whispered, "all of you."

As if a weight had been lifted, Beca felt herself release the deepest breath she'd expelled in years. She placed her hands around the arms wrapped around her waist and gripped them tightly, willing them to stay there, and Chloe's arms flexed in reassurance that they weren't going anywhere.

An hour later, with the water now lukewarm and their skin nicely shrivelled, the women found themselves lazing on Beca's bed, empty room service dishes discarded on a tray by their feet, Chloe now snuggled up in Beca's arms, a reverse of the redheads' earlier position as the one offering comfort.

"Thank you," Chloe mumbled, as her finger softly traced the valley of Beca's chest between her breasts displayed to her by the lowcut v neck t-shirt the woman was wearing.

Beca leaned down and kissed the top of her head.

"For what?" Beca asked as she stroked her hand up and down Chloe's arm.

"For trusting me," Chloe replied dropping her hand to wrap around Beca's midsection, hugging her tight, Beca reciprocating.

"Thank you for being my safe space," Beca said, pressing a kiss to Chloe's forehead, "I love you."

Their little bubble was interrupted by the sound of a knock on the door. Chloe untangled herself from Beca's arms indicating she would get it and crossed the room, opening the door. Beca couldn't make out the full exchange but Chloe appeared a moment later with a letter in hand addressed to Beca.

"This was left at reception for you, they said it was urgent," Chloe explained as she climbed onto the bed and handed the letter to Beca.

The brunette took it from Chloe and eyed it suspiciously for a moment, before she caught sight of the official White House seal.

Flipping it over, she opened it carefully and extracted the neatly folded letter, which carried the Presidential Seal. As Beca read the contents of the hand written letter, her eyes widened and her mouth sat agape. Chloe watched her curiously, sitting up straight against the headboard.

"Bec, what is it?" she asked as Beca's eyes scanned the letter again to make sure she had read it right.

"The letter, it's um, it's from the President," Beca said, Chloe's eyes almost bulging out of her head at the reveal of the sender of the letter. Beca glanced towards Chloe, lifting the letter.

"He wrote to me to personally thank me for my service," Beca said and Chloe's face broke into a soft smile and then Beca was shaking her head indicating that she wasn't finished.

"Chloe, they're awarding me the Medal of Honour."

Chloe's mouth dropped open at this, bopping up and down as she tried to find words to speak. The Medal of Honour was the highest and most distinguished award bestowed upon those in recognition of their service. Those who sacrificed everything for their country. It was a huge honour, one so few were privileged to receive.

Still unable to find words, Chloe settled for doing the only thing she could do in that moment, she kissed the love of her life. Her very own American hero.