I'm back! So I've started grad school (it's complicated to explain) but it's online and I do it on my own time, so it's great.

I really hope you guys are enjoying this story, there are chapters I get less feedback and it bums me out a little bit

Anyway, I hope you like this!

During the next few days, Beca would try and go talk to Chloe every single opportunity she had, which, a while later, she noticed were nonexistent. The redhead never seemed to be in her room, even after she had classes. After rehearsal, she'd run off to class before anyone else, not even giving a chance for anyone to talk to her. Beca tried to catch up to her before she left but she was wearing earbuds and pretty much jogging out of there.

After two weeks of trying, Beca was miserable and desperate to the point of thinking about giving up. She was sitting in her room, wondering where Chloe could be, it was almost nighttime and the redhead was supposed to come home for dinner but it had been two weeks since she hadn't. She would come home after everyone was asleep and leave before anyone was up. Beca had tried talking to her before classes only to learn that.

"Beca?" Aubrey knocked on the door. The girl looked at her and the blonde noticed just how desperate and scared the little brunette was.

"Come in," Beca said.

"Listen, I know you said you wanted to be the one to tell Chloe about your past, but she won't let you near her," Aubrey said.

"Thanks for saying, captain obvious," Beca said.

"What I mean is, I think I know where she might be," Aubrey said. "She'll listen to me, let me talk to her, let me tell her."

Beca thought about it. That would take away the pain of reliving it - again. That could actually help her mental health, she hadn't thought about that part.

"Okay," Beca said.

"Okay," Aubrey said. "Thank you."

"Thank you," Beca said.

Aubrey nodded and left, trying to get a hold of Chloe. The redhead sometimes stayed in the auditorium but not for too long, she often hung out in the old empty pool where there were few people and since summer was approaching, she opted for the pool. Which was the second place Aubrey looked.

"Chloe," Aubrey called, getting close to her.

"Hey," Chloe sat against a wall as she took out one of her earbuds.

"When are you coming home?" Aubrey said, sitting down next to her.

"Did you kick Beca out yet?"

Aubrey sighed.

"No,"

"Then not so soon,"

"Chloe, I gotta tell you something and I need you to listen," Aubrey said. "There's a reason Beca did what she did. It's not because she's simply a bitch or heartless or whatever you say."

Chloe remained quiet but Aubrey could see she wasn't buying it.

"Beca's birth name is Brianna Johnson," Aubrey said slowly and waited for Chloe's reaction, which was a scoff.

"Yeah right," Chloe said.

"It's true, all the scars she has, all the marks, they're from back then," Aubrey said. "She attacked us because Stacie's bat sent her into a flashback, it's very common amongst victims of torture. That's what happened the day she attacked me."

Chloe was quiet and her look changed into a serious one.

"The headaches too," Aubrey said.

Chloe thought about; Beca's mom did say Beca was born in California.

"She said her father sometimes used baseball bats, a 2x4 piece of wood, even a burning iron tool from the fireplace," Aubrey said, looking into Chloe's eyes. "That's why she snaps sometimes. She never meant to hurt us, especially you. You should see her, Chlo, she looks lost, I've never seen her like this. She really likes you,"

Chloe's face was unreadable, she stared at Aubrey long after she'd finished and didn't say or do anything. When she looked down, she broke down in tears, covering her face with her hands and crying loudly. Aubrey put her arm around her and comforted her.

"Aubrey, I feel so bad," she said.

"It's alright, you didn't know,"

"No," Chloe said before looking up at her. "At the camp one day, we were talking about the.. Well Beca's case! Oh my God, we talked about it all the time in front of her!"

Aubrey felt guilty about that, too, she'd never thought about it until Chloe pointed it out.

"And that day, Stacie and Amy were wondering what happened to Brianna and Beca said she was probably dead because, and I'm quoting Bree, if that had been her, she'd rather die than live it with," Chloe said.

Aubrey took a deep breath and tried to hold back the images of a young Beca locked up in a room, all bruised up.

"Let's go talk to her," Aubrey said.

Chloe got up and she was much faster than Aubrey to get to their house. While some of the girls were getting dinner ready, Aubrey let Chloe go to Beca's room and talk to her by herself.

The redhead all but ran to Beca and Fat Amy's room, which was only being occupied by the brunette, who was taking a nap, but woke up when she heard someone come in.

"Chloe!" she was surprised by seeing the redhead crying.

Chloe started crying again and ran to the brunette, hugging her. Beca hugged her tight but didn't cry. She let Chloe cry against her for a while until she calmed down and pulled apart.

"I'm so sorry, Aubrey told me," Chloe said.

"Yeah," Beca said, looking down.

"So when you were talking about your issues, that's what you meant?" Chloe said.

"Yeah," Beca said. "I was going to tell you eventually but.."

"I understand," Chloe said with a nod. "I'm so sorry you ever had to go through that and that we talked about your case all the time."

"That's okay," Beca said.

"So the scars on your back.."

"From back then. Actually, from the day I was rescued," Beca said. "David used an iron tool from the fireplace to beat and burn me, which prompted the neighbors to call the police. I was barely alive when they came."

"Holy crap," Chloe said, fighting back more tears.

"And the foot was something similar, I saw you staring and I thought Stacie might've told you she'd seen it," Beca said. "It was a 2x4 with a nail, it punctured and broke my foot. Gave me a nasty infection, I thought I was going to die."

"You don't have to tell me," Chloe said, grabbing her hands. "I know it's painful to relive it."

"It's okay, I want to tell you a few things," Beca said.

"Can I ask you one thing, then?" Chloe asked carefully.

"Yeah,"

"What were some of the worst times?" she asked.

"You know that's hard to answer, every moment until I was 8 was bad. They once hung me by my wrists for hours until I was a few inches from the ground, they used to burn me all over," Beca said.

Chloe shut her eyes tight and wiped her tears.

"Thanks for telling me," Chloe finally said after a while. "I'm so sorry."

"You didn't know," Beca said. Chloe hugged her again and Beca was thankful, she melted into the embrace and the redhead could tell she felt safe.

"You will never go through that again," Chloe said.

"Thanks," Beca said before pulling apart.

"So do you still feel like going on a date?" Chloe asked, managing a smile.

"Absolutely," Beca smiled back. "Not today though, right?"

"No," Chloe chuckled.

"Listen, I know this might sound.. Weird but.. Can you sleep with me tonight? Not for sexual reasons, I feel safer if I have someone to hold," Beca said.

"Oh you wanna cuddle?" Chloe looked excited.

"Yeah," Beca blushed.

"Oh I totes want to!" Chloe said. "You look so cute when you're shy."

Chloe kissed Beca's pink cheek and the brunette only blushed harder.

oO0Oo

It wasn't long before all the girls knew of Beca's past and the brunette was okay with that. They respected her pain by not asking her too many questions and not treating her too differently, which she actually really liked. She'd been afraid they would treat with kid gloves or something but little had changed. Sure, they were much more understanding to her outbursts and they way they talked to her if they were mad at her for something but Beca could live with that.

After telling Chloe about her past of abuse and torture, it didn't come as a surprise when she started having nightmares. They weren't too serious, but she did wake up crying or screaming, but Chloe was always there to calm her down, which helped out a lot.

Chloe, on the other hand, had no idea how she missed all the signals. Or Fat Amy, for that matter. The amount of times Beca woke up screaming in the middle of the night were alarming to say the least. Her explanation was the fact that she had to relive her past so many times and that made her nightmares come back.

One night, the brunette wanted some time to study, she'd been getting less sleep and was worried about her grades. Fat Amy was allowing her to use their bedroom all by herself, she was studying in the library, probably.

Chloe was studying on the dining room table with the rest of the Bellas, pretty much like the day Beca had a flashback. Stacie had just made coffee, so Chloe put her pen down and took a deep breath before getting up to get herself another cup of coffee when Jessica came downstairs, looking alarmed.

"Chlo, I think you should go check on Beca, I heard a scream," she said.

Chloe immediately put down her cup and rushed downstairs. She started hearing Beca screaming as she came closer to her room. She ran up the stairs leading to her room and saw her asleep, screaming her lungs out, grasping the bedspread.

The redhead sat down and carefully and gently tried to wake her up. She'd done this enough times to know Beca was pretty unpredictable when she had a nightmare. She had actually hit Chloe in the face once by accident as she was waking up, she'd run off to the bathroom and she'd started crying in Chloe's arms.

"Beca, it's okay, you're dreaming," Chloe spoke softly.

Beca slowly stopped screaming and, much to Chloe's surprise, jolted awake. She took in her surroundings and breathed heavily.

"It's okay, you were having a bad dream," Chloe said, grabbing her hand, making Beca look down at their hands. "Are you okay?"

Beca looked into her eyes for a second and frowned.

"Fuck off, dude!" she said before storming off.

Chloe sighed, breathing and counting to ten before going back downstairs where the other girls were.

"Is she okay?" Jessica asked.

"She's fine," Chloe said. "I think she's taking a shower."

"Oh good," Jessica said.

"Those nightmares are so frequent lately," Stacie said. "She didn't used to have those, did she?"

"She's been reliving her past since we came back from camp," Chloe explained.

"Have you gotten any sleep at all, Chlo?" Jessica asked.

"A little," Chloe said.

Chloe poured her coffee she hadn't had the chance to do before and sat back down in her seat. She didn't get a chance to read for 10 minutes when Beca came out of the shower and down the stairs calling her. She had wet hair and puffy eyes, obviously from crying.

The smaller girl quietly walked through the house closer to Chloe, sniffing and wiping her nose with the back of her hand before tapping Chloe's shoulder.

"Whoa, Becs, you okay?" Chloe asked, finally seeing her since she first came in.

"Yeah, can I talk to you for a second?" she asked quietly, trying to avoid the eyes of the other Bellas.

"Your shoulders are all scratched!" Stacie said.

Beca looked at her then back at Chloe.

"Please?" she asked.

"Sure," Chloe got up and followed Beca to her room, closing the door. "Are you okay?" she asked when she turned around.

"Listen, I'm so sorry about before, you know I never meant to lash out-" Beca started before Chloe cut her off.

"Beca, don't worry, I know that," Chloe said, calming her down. "I'm not mad at you."

Beca let out a breath Chloe imagined she'd been holding. She ran her thumb over Beca's knuckles and laid eyes on her shoulders and upper arms, which were covered in scratches.

"What happened there?" she asked worriedly.

Beca looked at herself as if she'd forgotten what Chloe was talking about.

"Oh, that," she sighed. "I'm so tired, Chloe."

Beca hung her head and started crying again, her shoulders began shaking lightly.

"I can't take this anymore," she covered her face with her palms.

Chloe wrapped her arms around the smaller brunette and allowed her to cry. It didn't surprise her when the younger woman wrapped one of her arms around the redhead's neck and pulled her closer.

"I know I have no idea what it felt like to go through what you went through," Chloe began. "But it's okay, we'll get through this together."

Beca kept crying for a while before she slowly calmed down, but didn't let go of Chloe.

"You know, I had an idea," Chloe said.

"Mm?" Beca hummed against her neck. Chloe could feel her right side all wet from her tears. She had her eyes and nose against her, her right hand was now holding the back of the redhead's neck and the way Beca hummed against her sent a not unwelcomed sensation down her spine.

"How about we take a night off? Take a break from the studies?" Chloe asked.

"And do what?" Beca asked, still against the redhead's neck.

"How about we go on that date we talked about?" Chloe asked and she could feel the smaller girl smile against her neck.

"I'd like that," she said.

"Oh yeah?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah," Beca said. "Thanks, Chlo."

Chloe could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand up when she felt Beca's fingers start to massage her.

"You have no idea how much this means to me," she said.

Chloe smiled despite the feelings the brunette was unknowingly giving her.

"You're very welcome," Chloe said, trying to ignore the goosebumps. She shut her eyes and enjoyed the treatment but when she visibly shivered, Beca stopped.

"You okay there?" Chloe could feel her smirk as she continued.

"Oh, I'm good," Chloe said.

Beca snickered.

"What about you, are you gonna live on my neck now?" Chloe asked.

Beca instead just nodded and snuggled even closer, her hand moving to grab Chloe's neck in a more sensual way, her thumb was close to her earlobe. The redhead actually had to shut her eyes when she felt the soft touch of Beca's lips against her neck. She had to fight herself not to make a noise but it got hard to do so when the brunette's lips started teasing her by lightly sucking on her neck. Chloe bit her lip hard when she felt the girl's tongue slowly move up her neck, up her jawline and she closed her eyes when she felt her breath close to her, expecting a kiss, but suddenly the warm presence was gone.

"I need to dry my hair and get ready, then," Beca said, going down the stairs. "I'll be ready at 7!"

Chloe was left confused and not at all dry. She took a few seconds to realize the brunette was not coming back and she got up to go to her own room to get ready.

A shower was in order after the whole neck thing and Chloe decided to wear a dress and wedges, put on simple makeup and get her hair ready. When she checked her watch, it was almost 7 and she had no idea where she was taking Beca.

As Chloe went downstairs to the living room, she saw Beca talking to some of the other Bellas as she waited for Chloe. She had a shirt that was open in the back and dark blue skinny jeans. Her boots weren't combat boots and they had some silver hoops and a small heel, making the girl a few inches shorter than Chloe. She looked simply gorgeous and the smile she shot Chloe when she spotted her almost caused the redhead to fall down the rest of the stairs.

Oh shit, she was crushing hard.