For those of you reading Operation- Not Expected, I apologize for there not being a chapter this week. For those of you who read 12 Days of Pitchmas, I finally did it! Here is the one-shot of Emily's confession to Stacie. Parts of this were inspired by both pinkpastels and Alexis Knapp herself.

12 Days- Emily's Confession

Emily Junk watches with bated breath as Chloe and Beca get into a taxi. She had told the small brunette that she was going back to work, but she decided that today is the day. Today's the day she needs to confess everything she's been hiding. How can she tell Beca to talk to Chloe when she can't do the same thing?

As soon as the taxi is out of sight, the songwriter exits her own Audi Coupe and walks back into the hospital. I'll be home soon, she texts Benji, then puts the phone back in her pocket. She isn't entirely sure if he'll respond right now, but just in case he does, she doesn't want to see it yet.

Inside the building, Stacie Conrad notices the young woman right away. The doctor can tell she's nervous; the way she keeps biting her bottom lip and is tapping random beats on her thigh with her fingertips is a tell-tale sign. Immediately, she wants to wrap the legacy in a hug, but she has never seen her like this, and she doesn't want to scare her off.

Instead, she ops for, "Emily!"

Emily freezes when she hears her name being called. Yes, this is why she's here, but she thought she'd have a minute to compose herself before walking up to Stacie. Now, she has no choice.

"Hey Stace." She calls back, then takes a deep breath before walking over to her. She almost gives the doctor a hug, but the nerves get the best of her, and she settles for an awkward wave instead.

Once she's up closer, Stacie notices the way her brow is furrowed, almost as if she's concentrating really hard on something. She doesn't call attention to it, however, when she says, "I thought you went to work?"

"I, uh…" She stutters, unsure what to say. Stacie takes that as a sign and backtracks.

"It's ok that you're here, I was just a litt

le shocked."

Emily lets out a breath of air she wasn't aware she was holding. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Stacie forces out a laugh to reassure the younger woman, and she takes it as a win when she chuckles back. A small win, but a win nonetheless.

Emily forces out another small laugh. "Just because." She can feel herself freezing up, and it doesn't help when she feels her phone vibrate in her pocket.

Ignoring the way Emily's face pales at the sound of a phone notification, Stacie says, "so I'm on lunch break, wanna get a bite?"

Lunch, the young woman thinks to herself. I can do lunch. "Sure." Her smile becomes a little more genuine at the true happiness on the doctor's face.

"Awesome." They walk out through the throng of chaos inside the lobby, and Stacie holds the door open for Emily. Due to being behind her, she misses the small blush that appears on the brunette's cheeks. "What sounds good?"

Emily shrugs as she leads Stacie to her car- she's known from experience with all of the Bellas that her ride is the first choice whenever she's around. After a scary experience where Fat Amy almost drove off a cliff, though, she doesn't let anyone drive it.

"Anything, really. I haven't eaten yet."

"Why didn't you eat breakfast?" Stacie inquires as she gets into the passenger side. Both women are unaware that they're both thinking about the almost accident at the same time.

Emily shrugs- it's probably safe to share this bit of information now, and it's a safe subject to start with. "I had to get Beca to the hospital as soon as I could." After a pause, she adds, "I knew how Beca felt about Chloe the entire time."

To her surprise, Stacie just laughs. "I knew how Chloe felt the whole time, even though she herself didn't."

"Really?"

Stacie can't help but find Emily's surprise endearing. "Everyone thinks Aubrey and Beca were her two best friends, but we had a lot of late-night talks." Before she can stop herself, she adds, "we had a friends with benefits thing."

Emily's eyes widen wider than they've ever been before at this. "Oh my gosh. That's…" She trails off. "Gross."

Stacie laughs again, unable to hold it back. "We made it work. She helped me realize that I was- and am- in love with Aubrey."

At the mention of Aubrey Posen, Emily winces. She loves Bree like a sister, but it still hurts to hear about their marriage, and to see them together. It raises a lot of what ifs that she wishes she could ignore. "Oh."

The older woman immediately sees her face fall, but she misinterprets it- well, sort of. "Is everything ok with you and Benji?"

Emily keeps her eyes directly on the road as she drives towards Big Boy. This is it, her subconscious screams at her. Just do it! What's the worst that could happen?

I don't know, losing one of the best things that has ever happened to you? Another voice says, and she shakes her head at herself, almost as if she's clearing the voices from her head.

Stacie watches Emily seemingly argue with herself, and she gets more worried by the second. Emily has never hesitated to gush about her husband, so this is new territory. Instead of saying anything, she waits for her to make up her mind- if she's learnt anything from being married to Aubrey these past two years, it's that people shouldn't be pushed. Especially when they're already uncomfortable.

"We're sort of going through some stuff." The songwriter finally admits right as she pulls into the parking lot of Big Boy. She quickly gets out of the car, and is grateful when Stacie follows behind her silently.

Stacie waits until they're situated at a table before continuing the conversation. "What type of stuff?"

Emily opens her mouth to answer, but nothing comes out. She barely feels the pressure of Stacie's hand on hers, but her brain doesn't recognize or acknowledge it. It feels as if she's in a tank full of sharks, and if she moves the wrong way, she'll be eaten. Like, if she just manages to stay perfectly still for long enough, she'll be fine.

Stacie immediately recognizes that the songwriter is having a panic attack, and she kneels down in front of her, taking both of her hands in hers carefully. "Em, listen to the sound of my voice. Can you do that?" When she gets a small nod in response, she continues. "Listen to me. You're here with me at Big Boy. We're getting some lunch. Nothing can hurt you here, ok? I'm here for you." She lifts her hand up and wipes the tears from the young woman's cheek.

Emily doesn't even realize she's crying until she feels Stacie wipe a tear off her face. Her eyes focus on the bright blue ones in front of her, and she blinks rapidly in response to the doctor's reassuring smile.

"There we go. Focus on my voice, ok?" Slowly, Stacie stands up, but never releases her hands until she's fully up. Once she's straightened, she pulls Emily up with her into a hug. The songwriter immediately hugs back, and both women simultaneously let out sighs of relief. "Better?"

This time, when Emily looks at her again, her cheeks are red with embarrassment. "I don't know what just happened, I am so sorry-"

The older brunette cuts her off. "Don't you dare apologize. You had a panic attack, that's nothing to apologize for." Her soft smile never fades, although she's really worried on the inside. She almost brings up Aubrey's almost frequent panic attacks, but decides against it.

"Thank you." They both sit down, and even then, Stacie doesn't release her hand. "You're amazing." She whispers to the doctor, then freezes with shock. She hadn't meant to say that. At all.

Stacie's smile just widens, as she doesn't know yet where this is going. "You're pretty amazing yourself, Legacy."

Before she can stop herself, the younger woman says, "not like you are though." When all Stacie does is blink in surprise, she adds, "you're always so carefree. You don't care what people think of you, but you're always there when people need you. I admired you in college, and-" she stops to take a breath. "And I still do. My mom was so overprotective of me, being with you was like a breath of fresh air."

Stacie's heart swells with pride, but she can't stop herself from thinking how different things would be if she had known this back in college. "You're wrong about one thing."

Emily's heart skips a beat as she says, "what?"

Before Stacie can respond, a waiter walks up to the pair of women. "What would you ladies like today?"

Internally, Stacie groans at the interruption, but Emily looks grateful for it, so she says, "I'll take a hot chocolate and some chocolate buttermilk pancakes."

He nods and turns to Emily. "And you, ma'am?"

Emily stifles a giggle when the young man winks at her. He's obviously only seventeen at the oldest, but she finds it rather adorable. "Same, please."

Stacie can't help but grin at the exchange between the two- this is the happiest she's seen Emily all day, and it's a relief to know that, whatever is bothering the young woman, it isn't bad enough to permanently scar her.

With another nod and wink at Emily, the kid walks away, and both Emily and Stacie burst out laughing. "He was so into you!"

"I know!" Emily exclaims back. "Nice to know I still got it."

"Hell yeah you do! I don't blame him for checking you out." The doctor revels in the way the songwriter blushes, but the smile doesn't fall from her face.

She wishes they could stay in this easy bubble forever, but she knows they can't. "So what did I have wrong?" She honestly is curious. She always will be curious when it comes to Stacie Conrad.

With a much more serious expression, the older brunette says, "you said I don't care what other people think. That wasn't true." Emily only stares at her in confusion, so she continues. "I acted like a slut because everyone I knew thought I would be, even my own parents. So I did it anyway, knowing that, if they thought it about me, at least it'd be true this time. Getting away from my family was the best thing I ever did." With a sigh, she adds, "I've never told anyone this, not even Aubrey, but I started smoking weed at eleven years old. My brothers and I don't even talk anymore. Once I had a mind of my own, they disappeared from my life."

It takes a minute for Emily to process this, but once she does, she swears she falls more in love with the woman in front of her than she ever thought possible. "What changed your mind about… everything?"

Stacie smiles- this is a lot easier to answer. "Bella."

This wasn't the answer Emily was expecting, but it makes sense. She doesn't even need her to explain it- she gets it. Having Jamie truly was the best thing that ever happened to her. "That makes sense."

"Despite not knowing who the father is, I don't regret it at all." Her grin widens even farther at the thought of her three year old wonder. She never considered being a mom, but now that she is, she can't imagine not being one.

"I don't regret Jamie either." Emily hedges. She hopes Stacie will catch on and ask about what she's trying to get to, because she knows she can't say it herself.

Stacie indeed does see where she's getting at. "What do you regret, Em?"

With a deep breath, Emily says, "I regret not telling you this sooner." Both women freeze as they wait for Emily to say what it is she's been needing to say. "I-"

"Here you are." The waiter comes back and sets their hot chocolates in front of them. The poor kid doesn't even notice the obvious tension and annoyance at his sudden arrival. "Would you like anything else?"

With as polite of a voice as she can manage, Stacie says, "that's all, thank you."

"Ok." The young man walks away, and the doctor slowly turns her attention back to Emily. "You were saying?"

Once again, Emily freezes. She had been so ready to say it, but that one small distraction was all it took for her to crawl back into the part of her brain telling her to keep her mouth shut.

Recognizing that the songwriter is once again shutting down, the doctor squeezes her hand. "It's ok. You can talk to me."

"I love you." She blurts out. She looks away as she keeps talking, because she knows that, if she continues to look at her, she'll freeze again. "I've been in love with you since aca-initiation night my freshman year at Barden. You were there for me, even when everyone else wanted to strangle me." With a nervous laugh, she looks back at Stacie. "Do you remember the day after the riff-off?"

Stacie blinks, shocked at the sudden change of direction in the conversation. "Yeah. Chloe was mad about you singing Flashlight."

"You told her it was the best improvisation you had ever heard." Emily laughs again, starting to feel a little more confident. While she can tell the doctor is surprised, she doesn't look like she's going to yell at her or take off. "I just knew that I would never love anyone the way I love you. You were like an escape for me. An escape from the reality I didn't want to face."

Without really meaning to, Stacie's smile falters, and Emily freezes as well. The doctor rushes to say, "I never wanted to be an escape from reality." She doesn't even give the brunette the time to say anything. "This generation of people all believe in pushing things off and avoiding the inevitable in life. I just wish I could save some of the rapidly dying culture that is embracing life versus avoiding it."

All Emily can do for almost a minute is blink in shock. Here she thought she had Stacie all figured out, but she now knows how wrong she was. "I really hope you don't consider me as one of those judgy people."

The doctor once again takes the younger woman's hands in hers. "No, Em, I don't."

Emily looks away to take a bite of her pancakes. It kills her to pull her hands out of Stacie's warm ones, but she does so anyway. "Really?"

"Please look at me." Stacie says softly, and she doesn't continue until the young woman does so. "I don't consider you a 'judgy' person. You're the sweetest, most trusting person I know."

"What about your wife?" The songwriter asks in an uncharacteristically bitter tone. At this moment, though, Stacie can't say she's shocked.

"Well… you know Aubrey."

"Yeah, I do." Emily sighs and looks away again. "Where does this leave us?"

"Nothing is changing, if that's what you're wondering." She pauses, then clarifies at the confused look on her face. "We'll still be friends. We're family. But Aubrey is my wife. No past feelings I may have had for you can change that."

She slightly hopes Emily won't catch on to the hint, but of course the younger woman does. "You used to have feelings for me?"

After taking a particularly large gulp of hot chocolate, Stacie nods. "Back in college. Before I fell in love with Bree." She isn't sure if it's the right thing to say, but she goes on and says, "it was because of her that I got over you."

Emily's heart is beating a million miles a minute, and this time it isn't from fear. Oddly enough, just hearing those words come out of the doctor's mouth is almost enough for her.

Stacie can tell there's something the younger woman wants to say, but is holding back. This time, though, she's too curious to worry about pushing her. "What are you thinking?"

Figuring she's already told the older brunette the worst of it, Emily takes a deep breath and whispers, "I wish I would have missed you when I had the chance."

Stacie's heart is pounding in her chest for the first time in this conversation. Out of all the things she thought the songwriter might say, this was not it. She doesn't even think, though, before saying, "Then kiss me."

Emily freezes- of course she wants to take Stacie's offer and do it, but what about Aubrey and Benji? They're both married with families. She has a loving husband who, although things are already weird with them, doesn't deserve this. She can't do this to Aubrey either, which leads her to wonder how Stacie can even offer it.

Stacie, on the other hand, has no clue why she just said what she did, but she wants to do everything possible for Emily to feel better. If she's being honest, she looks up to Emily as well- she just won't admit that right now.

"What about-?"

"Aubrey will understand. If Benji really loves you, then he will too."

Before Emily even registers what she's doing, her face is mere inches away from Stacie's. She can feel the doctor's breath on her face, and her own breathing becomes more frantic as she tries to slow her rapidly beating heart. "I want to."

"Then do it." Stacie doesn't back away, she just looks the brunette right in the eyes. She hopes the look on her face is one of reassurement, but she can't really be sure.

It feels like a million years to Emily that the two women just stare into each other's eyes. Her eyes search the doctor's, looking for the slightest hint of uncertainty, but she finds nothing there other than acceptance.

At the same time Emily is looking for hesitation in Stacie, the doctor searches Emily's for any hint of fear. She too finds nothing there.

Neither woman is sure who makes the first move, but the next thing they know, their lips are brushing against each others. One of them deepens the kiss- probably Emily- by leaning forward even closer. To Emily, she can easily say this is the best kiss she has ever had. Her kisses with Benji don't even compare to the intensity of this kiss.

As much as she would like to, Stacie can't hide the fact from herself that she feels something. It's almost a ghost of what she used to feel back in college. Even after, though, she knows it doesn't compare to what she has with Aubrey. She knows it's going to break the younger woman's heart, but she can't betray her wife any more than she already has.

When they pull away, Emily once again searches Stacie's eyes- but this time, she looks for regret.

"Let's go." She eventually says, and Stacie blinks in shock.

"What are you thinking?" She asks, and Emily shakes her head.

"I honestly don't know, Stace. I feel a lot of things, things I shouldn't feel. Can I have some time to think about this?"

"Of course." The doctor readily agrees, and the songwriter lets out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks."

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"Benji, I'm home!" Emily calls out once she walks into her house

"In the kitchen." He answers, and she makes her way over to him. He's sitting at the table, simultaneously feeding Jamie some cheerios and reading a Star Wars book.

"Hey you!" She walks over to Jamie and plants a kiss to his forehead, then turns to her husband. "Can we talk?"

Benji sighs and sets his book down. This isn't a conversation he wants to have; he can already tell he's losing his wife. He just can't keep fighting anymore; it's killing him. "Sure."

Emily can hear the pain in his voice, and it chips left a piece of her own heart to know she caused it.

Once they're in the living room, she says, "There's no easy way for me to say this, so I'm just going to tell you. I kissed Stacie."

If Benji thought he had been hurt before, it was nothing compared to this. "And?"

"It was amazing." She hangs her head, unable to even look at her husband, who's very obviously in a lot of pain right now. "Benji, I'm so sorry."

"Don't." His voice cracks, and his wife looks back up at him. "Don't apologize for something you aren't sorry for." Because he truly doesn't know what else to say, he grabs his coat and walks out of the house, leaving Emily standing in the living room alone. She stares at the door for a full five minutes before pulling out her phone and calling the one person she knows she can talk to.

Beca picks up almost immediately. "Hey Em, what's up?"

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On the other side of town, Aubrey can tell right away that something is wrong with her wife. From the moment she walks into their house, she seemingly avoids Aubrey. The lawyer knows that, whatever it is, they'll figure it out, but it still hurts to see the love of her life acting like this.

It isn't until they're doing dishes together after dinner that the doctor says anything. "I got lunch with Emily today."

Aubrey can tell this is what's bothering her, but she doesn't know why. "How is she?"

"We kissed." The brunette blurts out, and Aubrey stares at her in shock. "I didn't feel anything. Well, a ghost of something, maybe, but it didn't mean anything to me. She told me she was in love with me, and I told her to kiss me. I don't know why I did it, and I'm so sorry."

"It meant absolutely nothing to you?" Aubrey asks softly, and the doctor nods.

"Absolutely nothing. I love you."

The blonde pulls her wife in for a hug, who immediately relaxes under her touch. "I love you too. We'll be ok. We are ok."

She's not entirely happy that someone else is in love with her wife, but this is Emily Junk they're talking about. Her sister. She knows she wouldn't do anything to disrupt their marriage, so she isn't that worried.

Stacie grins into Aubrey's shoulder. She really has found her soulmate, and she's better than she could have asked for.

Both women know that they're going to have to have a more in-depth conversation about this in the future, but for now, they're perfectly content just holding each other.

A/N: I hope it lived up to your guys' expectations! Let me know in a review or PM! Love you awesome nerds.