Kailor: Hey, my loves! I'm so sorry for the hold up on this chapter. It's been a pretty hectic week, with Halloween and such. Happy Halloween, btw! Hope you all had a great one and hope you enjoy! Those of you missing the Bechloe moments, don't worry. They'll be back very soon and there will be little ones sprinkled throughout. In fact, I have a special surprise later on for you awesome nerds. ;) Hang on, loves, we're going to save Aubrey!
Chloe's optimistic. It's just how she's wired. She runs on light and positivity. She believes in the best possible outcome for everything. Sure, sometimes she gets a little scared, a little unsure. Moments of weakness. And, yes, Mickey makes her unsure. But she always swings back to optimistic. Everything will work out if she just keeps going. It's a mindset that got her through college, that moved her to New York all on her own, that kept her contacting Beca back when all she got in response were clipped messages and awkward phone calls. It's what has kept her mostly upright since she found out Aubrey was missing.
It's what has her reaching out to Beca and promising her a kiss. Because Dana is going get the FBI and they're going get Aubrey. So that's where Chloe's focus goes-straight to a happy ending. To Aubrey being home, the family being together again, and everything after that. Which, for her, is Beca. A kiss. A talk. Just a little thing, some plan for when all of this is over.
Something solid to hang onto.
Physically hanging onto this solid thing, though, proves to be a little difficult when Agent Callis pops up from behind the back seat, because Beca nearly climbs over the seat in front of them, ending up practically sitting on Emily and Jessica's shoulders.
"DUDE!" She shrieks, yanking at Chloe's arm, as if to pull her to safety as well. But, unlike Beca, Chloe had buckled up, so she just ends up being wrenched forward.
Agent Callis' deadpan face peers between the back headrests. "Chill out, Shortcake. I don't bite unless you pay me to."
Stacie gives a quiet, surprised, "Oh" to that and Chloe, ridiculously, tries not to laugh. Because they are on their way to where their friend has been kidnapped and there's an FBI agent hiding in the back of her aunt's van to-Wait.
"Why are you back there?" she asks just as Agent Callis decides to clamber over into the seat Beca had vacated, very nearly kicking Chloe in the head and pressing far closer to Cynthia Rose than she thinks is actually necessary.
Beca, left with nowhere to sit, and obviously embarrassed about trying to climb poor Emily, awkwardly shuffles around, so Chloe pulls her down into her lap and wraps her arms tight around her middle. She can see Beca's ears are bright red and when she speaks, her voice is a little too nonchalant. "So, uh," Beca clears her throat. "You here to chaperone us or what?"
"Hell no. Pull over. We're not going to the fish market." Agent Callis points to a supermarket parking lot up ahead. Amy pulls into it, after a quick glance back at them all, and parks near the exit. Once the van is off and everyone has twisted in their seats to look at her, Agent Callis nods. "Okay. Let's get real here. Nothing said in this vehicle goes any further, got it?"
Amy hums noncommittally. "And if it did by, like, accident? Would we be under arrest?"
"No," Agent Callis says, fixing her glare on the blonde. "I would just shoot you."
Amy nods. "Right. I was just asking for...Legacy's sake."
Eyes widening in panic, Emily rushes to reassure Agent Callis. "Whoa, no, I'm-I'm not going to tell anyone! Accidentally or otherwise! Totally a sealed vault here. Like, I never told anyone about my mom's nose job or anything!" A beat. "Shit, please don't shoot me."
"Okay, Chandler Bing, chill." Agent Callis holds up a hand. "D's pretty adamant that you guys don't know anything about what's going on here, but if she's wrong, I need to know now. Is your friend Aubrey involved? If so, we can talk deals or something, but-"
Chloe frowns. "Aunt Dana, you mean? What does she have to do with this? Is Aubrey involved in what?"
Agent Callis hesitates. "She said she'd talk to you before she sent you out. Guess she didn't have time." She huffs, crossing her arms. Her biceps strain against her suit jacket and Chloe catches Cynthia Rose's eyebrows lifting. "Okay, so. Don't freak out and do any-" she waves a hand about aimlessly and narrows her eyes at them. "Any girly squealing or anything. But Dana's an FBI agent. This is her case she's been working for over a year."
For a moment, there's no "girly squealing" and Agent Callis looks relieved. But then everyone except Beca and Chloe is launching into disbelieving gasps and protests. They've all known Aunt Dana since their freshman years at Barden. It was kind of a thing-meeting and being adopted into the Beale family. Bella tradition. Stacie's staring at her lap, brow furrowed. Jessica is adamantly pointing out all the reasons Aunt Dana can't be FBI. Fat Amy is assuring everyone that Aunt Dana once helped her fudge some paperwork for school, which was totally illegal and not FBI kind of stuff, right? Agent Callis sighs heavily.
But Chloe is looking at Beca, who is staring at her. Which makes sense. Beca doesn't know Aunt Dana that well. She would look to Chloe for some kind of confirmation that the girls are right. That this is crazy.
Chloe's just not sure it is.
Because Aunt Dana's never been very forthcoming with the particulars of her job as a travelling fitness instructor. Vague stories about meditation circles in Colorado, backpacking trips across Europe, or stints in Korea for "the cultural experience". She's always just been the wayward aunt-always off on some random adventure or another, turning up for a couple weeks at a time to tease Chloe and help Mamma after Chloe's dad died. And Chloe's never questioned it. Hell, she sort of strove to be like that when she was growing up-free and willing to go where the world took her. But now that she thinks about it, little things are suddenly lining up.
Her late night phone calls, her sudden departures, the heavy locks on her bedroom door when no one else in the house even shut their doors much. In fact, Chloe can't picture what her room looks like at all. Had she ever been inside? That's probably normal for most people, but not Chloe's family.
She's not saying she believes it, but...she doesn't not believe it.
And then a memory floats to the front of her mind from quite a few years back.
Aunt Dana on the front porch with Chloe's dad. They'd been playing poker on the little table, throwing chips at each other and both cheating their asses off. Chloe had been sitting a few chairs away from the sibling battle, doing her math homework for Mrs. Grinski-the worst 10th grade teacher in the world.
Her dad had just thrown down his cards, laughing as he lifted his leg under the table and kicked Aunt Dana's chair hard enough to tilt it back. She'd squeaked, arms flying out to catch herself before she fell back. "Jackie!"
He grabbed her cards from the table. With an indignant huff, he dropped them. "I knew you were bluffing!"
"Don't kill me because I'm better at lying than you are." Aunt Dana righted her chair and started gathering the cards to shuffle again while Chloe's dad bent down to pick up the ones that had fallen to the floor. Chloe watched them both, smiling. Aunt Dana flashed her a wink.
Her dad handed over the cards he'd picked up, coughing into his elbow a few times. "Yeah, yeah, good at lying, good for you. But I got all the good-looking genes, don't forget." He reached up, pushing back his mop of wild red hair and wiggling his eyebrows.
"Oh, little brother." Aunt Dana shuffled quickly, barely glancing at him. "At least you're good at lying to yourself."
He bounced a poker chip off her forehead.
Chloe had just stopped laughing long enough to focus on her math when her dad coughed again and said, "I'm glad you could make it this weekend."
"Duh." Aunt Dana dealt their hands out. "Nothing could keep me away."
"Not even your fancy new job at the-ow! I was joking!"
Chloe looked up in time to see Aunt Dana's leg lowering and her dad hissing, holding his shin.
"Jesus, you and Cory are made for each other. Neither of you can keep your trap shut," Aunt Dana muttered.
"You got a new job?" Chloe asked.
Her dad's nose was scrunched up as he rubbed his leg. Aunt Dana smiled wide, a Beale smile. "Yeah. It was supposed to be a surprise." She threw a glare at Chloe's dad, who stuck out his tongue in response. "I'm gonna be a travelling fitness instructor. So I get to go on lots of vacations and teach classes and stuff." She smirked, fanning herself with her cards dramatically. "You have to tell everyone you have the coolest aunt in the world now."
"I already do!"
Her dad snorted and Aunt Dana kicked him again, grinning.
Agent Callis' hand waving in front of her face brings her back to the conversation. "Beale? You in there?"
"What?" She blinks. The girls are all staring at her. "Yes, I'm here. I'm... Aunt Dana?"
Agent Callis sighs again and reaches into her suit jacket, pulling out her phone. She clicks around for a few seconds, then holds it up. And there's Aunt Dana, standing in front of a very official looking building, wearing a suit, her arm around Agent Callis, who's dressed in khakis and a gray t-shirt. Both of them have guns strapped to their hips. Both are smirking at the camera. "My last day at the academy," she says. "D stopped by to congratulate me. She was one of our trainers for a few weeks. We hit it off, became friends. Ended up working some cases together after."
It's a lot to wrap her mind around at once. Beca's hand lands on the back of her neck and squeezes lightly. It calms the strange floating feeling in her stomach a little, but doesn't completely make her feel like she isn't on a roller coaster that just hit a curve.
Agent Callis takes her phone back, checking the time before putting it away. "Okay, we don't have time for this, so here's a brief rundown. D got a tip that there was smuggling operation taking place up north, she went to Kommissar about it."
"Kommi-who?" Cynthia Rose said, leaning forward to meet Chloe's eyes, like maybe she knows.
"Agent Anderson. That's what we call her." Agent Callis rolls her dark eyes. "She's a massive bitch. But she's above us. D took her the tip she got and Kommissar just waved it off. Said she'd look into it, but never did. In fact, she's been pulling teams near where we think the smugglers have been working for all kinds of reasons. So D decided we can't trust her and called me. We've been looking into it alone. And her tip was right. We found out there's a group of wealthy dudes overseas that have been funding this smuggling gig. Rich dicks with too much time on their hands. We've followed a couple shipments around and found they're passing through small towns to avoid drawing too much attention, but we haven't been able to get close enough to get much physical evidence yet. We got a tip they might be around these parts the day before your friend went missing."
"And you think your Kommissar lady has something to do with them?" Cynthia Rose asks.
"We haven't ruled it out."
"What are they smuggling?" Stacie's confusion seems to have disappeared in the face of her curiosity.
Agent Callis shrugs. "All kinda stuff. But more recently, diamonds."
All eyes turn to Beca and Chloe feels her tense up in her lap. "Oh, dudes, don't look at me just because I knew a random fact about diamonds."
"What random fact?" Agent Callis glares Beca down and that does nothing to ease the tightness of the muscles Chloe has her hands pressed to.
But Beca glares right back. "Just that Belgium is a big place for diamonds, I don't know! That's all I know!"
Not looking entirely convinced, Agent Callis turns her glare on Chloe. "And Posen? What's she got to do with all this? Tell me now. Because we got information that says the smugglers are working from a warehouse clear across town. But Posen's got a ticket to Belgium, she disappears the day after we get a tip, and then your brother shows up out of nowhere after years, and says she's at the fish market. You see why we find this a little too...fishy."
Fat Amy snorts and everyone in the car glares at her. "Sorry. Inappropriate. Right."
Agent Callis huffs through her nose. "We have a couple agents going check out the fish market now, so we'll know soon enough if your friend is really there or not. But if she is and if she has something to do with the smugglers, you need to tell me. The only reason we're sitting here is so you guys can tell me what you know before they're dragging your buddy in by her handcuffs. It'll be better for her if we know now."
"There's nothing to tell!" Chloe says, and she's completely certain of that. Yes, Aubrey hadn't told her about the plane ticket, but there had to be an explanation. Aubrey Posen wasn't smuggling diamonds, that's for sure. She didn't even break the speed limit. And Mickey… Well, she believes him. Which makes no sense, really, but she does. He wouldn't lie about this. "Aubrey has nothing to do with any smuggling or-or-or anything! She's been kidnapped!"
"You're absolutely sure?"
"Yes!" She takes a quick breath, making sure her next words come out just as steady. "And if Mickey says she's there, she is."
Agent Callis takes a moment to make eye contact with each of them. "Okay. Fine. Then bring us back to the house. My agents should be in contact soon."
"Wait." Ashley holds up a hand. "We're not going to the fish market?"
"No, I just needed to talk to you all alone, without Kommissar looming over us. There are agents headed-"
"Lilly and Flo are on their way there already."
Agent Callis' eyes widen and she leans forward. Emily flinches back, though the agent doesn't seem to even notice her. "You sent civilians to a place where there may be potentially hostile kidnappers?"
"We thought you were sending civilians there!" Jessica says, hands up like she's surrendering under Agent Callis' fierce gaze.
"Well, call them! Stop them!"
Ashley nods, quickly lifting the phone to her ear. Everyone waits and Chloe's pretty sure no one is breathing. She knows Beca isn't. She can feel it.
Finally, Ashley pulls the phone away and hits a few buttons before lifting it again. Then she shakes her head. "Lilly isn't answering. Flo's is going straight to voicemail."
"Shit." Agent Callis pulls out her own phone. "I have to call my agents. Keep calling them." She dials quickly and whoever is on the other end picks up just as fast. "Jen? Jen, listen, there are two civilians en route to the fish market. I'll-"
"They're still not answering," Ashley says, voice shaking. The other girls have pulled out their phones and started calling as well.
Chloe can feel the panic rising in the car and it reminds her suddenly, stupidly, of their first performance together at one of the frat houses on campus. It had not gone as planned and Aubrey-kind of a tyrant back then-had not reacted well. The girls had all turned to Chloe once Aubrey was gone, looking for reassurance that is wasn't that bad, looking for her to say that they could get better. Looking for hope. So she puts down her own phone, Lilly's contact info still pulled up. "Girls!" Heads snap up and Beca jumps a little in her lap. "We need to stay calm. Ashley, Jessica. Keep trying to call them. Panicking will get us nowhere!"
She has a horrible sinking feeling the second Amy shifts around in her seat. They've been called a hive mind before, and she's always kind of laughed that off before. But when she sees Ashley settle back into her own seat, Emily pull her seatbelt tighter, and Stacie's long fingers grip the driver's seat headrest tight, she thinks maybe those people that called them a hive mind might have been right. Because she knows these girls and she knows exactly what's about to happen.
Somehow, Beca must too, because she wraps one arm around Chloe's shoulders and braces her other hand on the ceiling. Chloe catches her widening her eyes at Cynthia Rose and nodding subtly down. But before Chloe can figure out what they're trying to say, Amy speaks.
"You know what will get us somewhere…" And just like that, Amy cranks the engine and takes off out of the parking lot, throwing gravel.
Agent Callis, thrown sideways into Cynthia Rose, drops her phone and yells, "What the HELL?"
"We're going get our girls!" Amy takes a curve so fast that Jessica screams. A car horn blares and Chloe clutches Beca tighter to keep her from flying across the van. "Full offense, but we can't trust you FBI types. You said so yourself. These kidnappers have already got our captain, they can't have our tiny foreigners!"
"I'm pretty sure Lilly is from Nevada," Emily says. Chloe isn't sure anyone else hears her though, because everyone is busy bracing themselves as Amy nears an intersection with no visible intent of slowing down.
"Pull over!" Agent Callis' hand flies to her belt, but comes back empty. She pulls her suit jacket aside, glancing down. And that's when Chloe sees the gun in Cynthia Rose's hand. Pointed at the agent.
"Sorry, Agent Callis. But she's right. Our friends need help and we can't trust your people."
For a moment, the agent just glares down at the gun. Then she lunges forward. Cynthia Rose tenses-everyone tenses-but Agent Callis just grabs her phone from the floor and shoves it back into her jacket, seemingly barely fazed by the weapon pointed at her. "I guess that's fair. But don't come crying to me when you get arrested for kidnapping a federal agent. Your friends better be worth it." She crosses her arms again, settling back in her seat comfortably. Then she turns her gaze on Cynthia Rose, a smirk pulling at her lips. "And you can call me Mel."