Prompt: "I'm so sorry..."

A/N: Ok, so you know me well enough to know that I much prefer writing fluff than angst, but this one kinda snuck up on me! Trigger warning for a suicide attempt, my Friends.

Chloe was beginning to think she might never smile again. Beca was still missing. She hadn't shown up for a Bella rehearsal one Monday night two months ago and that was it. There had been no word from her since and the police had no leads. Beca had simply vanished.

Things were awful. Every day was a struggle, but Chloe kept up her daily phone calls to the police and her video entreaties on the Barden University blog site. She and Beca's dad were spending nights and weekends driving around looking for her, and Chloe's grades had started to tank, but she didn't care, not when her wife of only a year, was gone.

It had been a long day made even longer since the redhead had had to stay late at the library to finish an overdue paper she owed her not-very-understanding Russian lit professor. She'd dropped the finished product in his mailbox and was now walking tiredly toward the Bella House.

Lost in thought as she was, it took a while for the full force of the itch between her shoulder blades to really register and she suddenly felt like someone was following her. Chloe reached into her purse for her pepper spray, holding it in her hand with calm determination. Then she whirled around, canister raised to find… no one there.

"Jesus," she murmured, running a trembling hand over her face and shaking her head. "What the hell is wrong with me?" The redhead put her fear down to the darkness of the section of the path she was on, and she was about to put her pepper spray away when the itch started again. It made her turn around again and she gasped as she saw a lone figure standing in the sidewalk, blocking her way home.

"You have to stop looking for me, Chloe." The figure was dressed in skinny jeans, Converse sneakers and an oversized hoodie, face obscured in the darkness. "I'm sorry but… you have to let me go."

Chloe's hand flew to her mouth. "Beca!" she exclaimed. "Oh my God!" But as she moved toward her wife, Beca took several steps backward, holding up her hands.

"No, Chlo," she said, voice raspy. "Don't. Please."

"Bec…"

"Just let me go. Be happy and have a good life."

And then she was gone like she'd never even been there. Chloe dropped to her knees and screamed.

Xx

Chloe wasn't ok. Six months after that night, she was hardly eating, barely sleeping and when she did manage to close her eyes, she was jolted awake by nightmares of Beca telling her to let her go. She felt like she was being tormented and her life was falling apart. She'd failed the year but couldn't bring herself to leave Barden so she re-enrolled for another senior year, her third, not really caring if she passed it or not. She started drinking heavily, prompting her friends to organize a panicked intervention where she'd promised to ease up with a fake smile.

Chloe thanked them, hugged them each in turn, then went to her room, got drunker than she'd ever been before and took a whole bottle of pills, hoping to never wake up again.

Xx

Chloe's head was aching. The room was dim, but the beeping of the heart monitor attached to her was loud in the small space. She hazily realized she was in a hospital but couldn't really remember what had happened to put her there. Then she realized someone was holding her hand in the darkness. Someone whose skin was soft but cold.

"What did you do, Chlo?" a voice she knew as well as her own murmured.

"Beca?" she whispered, and the hand immediately pulled away. "Wait! Don't go please." The small figure at the door froze and then eyes filled with fire looked over its shoulder. Chloe gasped, her hand moving to her mouth.

"I don't want you to see me like this," Beca said. "But I... I had to come... I had to make sure..." She trailed off and then slowly turned to walk back to the bed, taking a seat again. "I know you must have so many questions."

Chloe laughed bitterly. "I have one," she replied. "Why did you leave me?"

Beca looked up from under her hood. Her eyes were back to their normal dark blue. "I had no choice."

The redhead shook her head. "That doesn't make me feel any better, Beca," she said, angry now. "I'm your wife."

"I know." Beca got up again and moved to stand closer to the bed. "But I need you to let me go, Chloe. I need you to move on with your life and find someone to be happy with."

"I'm happy with you," Chloe responded, crying fitfully. "I don't want you to go again."

"And I was happy with you," the brunette replied. She pulled her hood down and smiled just a tad. "The happiest I've ever been in my life. I need you to believe me, Chloe."

"I can't live without you," the redhead said, voice small. "I don't want to."

Beca shook her head. "You have to because... I'm... I'm not myself anymore and..."

Just then, they heard footsteps pass by the door and Beca's demeanor changed instantly. The fire was back in her eyes and when she looked at Chloe, the redhead gasped in fear as she saw the fangs bared at her.

"It's ok," she said then. "They're not coming in here."

Beca slowly relaxed and bobbed her head in a nod. "I'm sorry," she said. "I... I can't always control... that."

"What are you, Becs?" Chloe voice wasn't shaking and that surprised even herself. Maybe the surrealness of the whole thing hadn't hit her yet. "Are... are you a...?"

The dark head nodded again. "The night I went missing, I was taken against my will and when I woke up, I was ravenous for blood. I somehow managed to force myself to go away... to slake my thirst before I did something I regretted.

"Slake? Are we suddenly living in the eighteenth century or something?" Chloe's teasing tone was so out of place in the seriousness of the situation that Beca just blinked for a moment. But then she grinned, and her fangs retracted. "Neat party trick," the redhead went on.

"Chloe, this is serious," Beca admonished but she was still smiling. "I'm a vampire, for fuck's sake!"

The redhead nodded. "I'm pretty sure I'm in this hospital because of how serious this all is, Beca." The anger was back, and she blew out a long breath. "Who did this to you?"

"I can't say the name of my sire," the brunette replied. "But you don't know her anyway."

"Do you… are you… with her?" Tears filled Chloe's eyes again. "Is our marriage over?"

Beca moved back to the bed and shook her head. "My heart doesn't beat anymore, Chloe, but it still belongs to you."

"Then stay with me!" the older woman exclaimed. "Don't destroy us, Beca! Don't leave me a widow at twenty-four!"

But Beca shook her head sadly and walked slowly backward to the door, blood-red tears creeping down her face. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I can no longer give you the life you deserve. I love you, Chloe, and I always will."

And then she was gone.