Chloe lays Lucy down in her bed and crawls in next to her. Lucy's vice grip tightens on her sweater. She hasn't seen her face but she knows exactly what it looks like right now; which is why she isn't forcing her to look up. She can't bear to see the tears rolling down her bright red cheeks, or the painful frown, pulling down the sides of her mouth. She kisses her hair again and says, quietly,

"It's okay, Lucy. You're okay."

She lets out another, breathless, sob; slowly wearing herself out. She's already exhausted from the school day, and the hour and a half of panic. Every ounce of energy has been drained from her completely.

"I was alone."

"You're never alone, sweet girl."

"I was today. And I was that day with Gardner."

"I know today must have been really scary, but honey, he can't get to you anymore. Beca just lost track of time. You're okay now."

Lucy doesn't say anything else. She doesn't know what she would say, even if she could. All of her thoughts are swirling around in her brain but she's too tired to try and make them stop. Eventually her breathing evens out and her grip on Chloe's sweater loosens. Once she's sure she's asleep, Chloe gently untangles herself, and slips out of the bed.

Beca is sitting on one of the island stools, chewing on her thumbnail. Her knee is bouncing erratically, and the look on her face makes it clear that her brain is moving just as fast.

"Beca."

Her eyes flicker over to Chloe's but the rest of her body stays the way it was. Chloe stands on the opposite side of the island and crosses her arms over her chest. The look on her face makes it clear that she's pissed.

"Beca."

"What?"

"What do you mean what? What the hell happened?"

Beca hesitates. She knows the explanation is only going to make Chloe more angry. She knows that the only outcome of this conversation is an argument.

"I lost track of time."

"For an hour and a half? What was so important at work that you couldn't call and say you'd be late? You told her you'd be there at five, you should have been there at five."

"You really want to go there with me right now?"

It's a slap to the face. They both expect Chloe to tear up but it only adds more fuel to her fire.

"I was twenty minutes late, you were an hour and a half late, that's a big difference."

"Yeah, the last time. What about tonight? I find it really hard to believe she didn't call you too."

"I was watching Bella and my phone died."

"Couldn't charge it?"

"Stop trying to turn this around on me. I wasn't the one who said they would pick her up and the fact that you're even trying to make me feel bad about this is really immature."

"Great. So now I'm irresponsible and immature."

Chloe feels anger bubble up higher in her chest, working its way up to her throat; she's afraid she is going to burst with something even more hurtful. She takes a deep breath and tries to keep perspective.

"I know you're stressed out right now but there's no excuses for what happened tonight. And don't think I can't smell the alcohol on your breath."

Beca crosses her arms over her chest and forces her eyes to look into Chloe's.

"Are you finished?"

"Excuse me? This isn't something you can just shrug off. You want to know how serious this is, I think Lucy's face said it all."

"God, Chloe, that's enough. You think I don't already hate myself for making her feel like that? This morning she was so happy and now she's, she's…"

Beca lets out her own sob. She wraps her arms around her stomach and bites her lower lip to keep herself together. When she speaks again, it's driven and hard and everything Beca usually isn't.

"I made a mistake; a big, huge, stupid mistake. And I can't fix it, I can't go back and make it not happen. So please, stop making me feel worse."

"I wasn't trying to make you feel worse."

"No? Then what were you trying to do?"

"I was trying to make you realize that this isn't about you, or about me. This is about Lucy."

"I know that." Beca spits back, she uses every ounce of willpower left in her body to keep herself from yelling, "My whole life is about that kid now."

Chloe waits. Beca's tone and body language hasn't changed, so she isn't sure how to take that.

"My entire world is that little girl. I would rather chew off my own arm than do something to hurt her. But I'm twenty-seven years old with a twelve year old daughter, a job that keeps asking more from me, a wedding to plan, and that damn dog. I don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to do with all of that if I'm expected to never make mistakes."

"No one's saying you can't make mistakes."

"It sure feels like you are."

They keep their spots. Their words hang in the air between them creating an impenetrable wall of anger and hurt. Neither of them know what to do next. Neither want to concede, but neither want to stay angry. If this were any other kid, any other situation, this argument probably wouldn't be happening; but as always, they are reminded that they aren't just anyone else. They're trapped in an increasingly difficult and complicated situation. They need each other to stay afloat. Beca knows she needs to reach out to her life preserver; she needs to reach out to Chloe.

"I was out with Anderson."

"Out drinking."

"Yeah. He was helping me with my new songs and we just, lost track of time, which is a luxury I realize I don't really have anymore."

"I'm sorry I got so angry. It was pretty hypocritical. I just hate seeing her like that."

"I know. Me too. I'm sorry I tried to blame you. I'm just so mad at myself. She's been hurt so many times, and usually we're the ones to make it better. I hate, more than anything, that I caused it this time. I wish all of the shitty stuff that's happened to her didn't leave such deep scars."

Beca walks around the island and opens her arms. Chloe walks into them, wrapping her arms around her waist. She rests her chin on Beca's shoulder and sighs; it's long and slow.

"She'll get past it and those scars will just be stories she tells one day."

"I think that might be worse."

Lucy wakes up in the middle of the night. She startles when she realizes she's not alone in her bed. Chloe is sleeping next to her. She has her hand resting on Lucy's stomach with her other arm curled under her head. Lucy stretches her legs out and lets out an involuntary squeak. Chloe stirs, but she doesn't wake up.

The events of earlier come back to her like a bad dream. She shivers under her covers as she thinks about the look in Chloe's eyes when she walked through the door, while she remembers the sound of Beca's voice when she rushed into the school. Things like this never happened back in Georgia. She wonders if it's the city that's so different, or if Beca and Chloe will just never be able to make her fit into their life.

Beca takes an extra long shower the next morning. The warm water spraying her in the face forces her to close her eyes; something she didn't do much of all night. Her insides are clenched tight, and her throat is sore. She feels like she could vomit when the image of Lucy's broken little features enters her mind.

She opens her eyes and turns the water off. Once she's dressed she walks to the kitchen. She's surprised when she sees Lucy at the table, already dressed; she assumed that getting her to school today would be a struggle but one look at the expression on her face and it's clear she can't get out of there fast enough. She dumps her dishes into the sink and grabs her backpack.

"Good morning, Lucy." Beca says, testing the waters, unsurprised when there's no answer.

"Good morning, baby." Chloe says, leaning over from her spot in front of the coffeemaker to kiss her head. "I'm gonna bring her to school. Have a good day at work, okay?"

"I'll try."

She looks over to Lucy, staring at her phone, turned as far away from them as she can.

"Have a good day, Scout. I'll see you tonight."

As soon as the last sentence leaves her mouth, Lucy looks up with a hurt in her eyes so deep it leaves Beca breathless. They walk out the door, leaving Beca alone. She gathers herself to get out the door because if she doesn't leave now, Chloe will come back to a heap on the floor.

Chloe walks, with Lucy right behind her, almost the entire way to school. There's no conversation, no jokes, or giggling, like there usually is. It's cold, and windy, and Chloe wishes they were both back at home, tucked safely into bed. She wishes she could go back and make yesterday never happen.

"Luce, look at me," She says when they stop in front of the school, "you're gonna have to forgive her at some point."

"Why?"

"Because she just made a mistake. We're all allowed to make mistakes."

"So, my feelings don't matter?"

"I'm not saying that."

"Feels like you are." Lucy crosses her arms over her chest and sets her face in a way that looks just like her father.

"Your feelings matter. They do. And I'm sorry if we've made it seem like they don't. When you get home today we're all going to sit down and talk, alright?"

Lucy doesn't answer. She doesn't nod or even look at Chloe. She just walks, slowly, toward the main entrance of the school. Chloe watches her go. She feels like she's failed, like Beca has failed, and she isn't sure how their conversation will go; but she knows it needs to happen. She knows that they need to try and fix it before it's too late.

"Should I take it as a hint that you keep trying to run out of bars away from me?" Anderson asks, from his chair in the conference room the next morning.

Beca looks, and feels, like shit. She pushes her sunglasses up onto her head, and takes her own seat across from him. He recognizes the look on her face, but he doesn't want to be the one to point it out.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I told Lucy I would pick her up from school and kind of, well I forgot. It wasn't a great night."

"I'm sorry, that's tough. Is everything okay now?"

She shrugs, "She's still pretty pissed at me. She wouldn't even talk to me this morning."

She looks, almost, like she could cry. Anderson shifts in his chair, suddenly very uncomfortable. He says the first thing that comes to his mind,

"She'll get over it. Kids are like that."

"Know a lot about kids, do you?" She asks, doing her best to give him a smirk. It doesn't work.

"Kids in general? Not a thing. But I have hung out with Lucy, and I can tell she's tough as nails. And she loves you a whole lot." He shrugs, "Siblings fight sometimes."

"We aren't really like most siblings."

"That's true. But still, everything turned out fine. She'll forgive you in a couple days."

"I hope so."

Chloe sighs, watching Lucy's defeated body language, as she walks through the main entrance of the school. She's already so small, with her shoulders slumped and head hanging down, she's even smaller. Chloe wishes she could explain it all to her. She wishes she could say why Daniel and Sheila died, why Gardner did what he did, and why she's feeling all of those big, scary feelings; but it would be impossible since she doesn't know herself.

Chloe feels her own shoulders slump, but she manages to keep her head up. She walks back to their apartment, just as her phone starts to ring.

"Hi Mom."

"Hi baby, how are you doing?"

Nora's smooth and caring voice envelops Chloe. It moves around her in a way that allows her muscles to ease into a more comfortable position and she feels the lingering headache in the back of her skull dissipate just slightly. She even smiles.

"I'm okay. How are things there?"

"Well, they're…" There's a pause. A search for the proper wording. "They're improving. Your father is at least speaking to me again. So I guess that's something."

Chloe will never understand her father's anger. Despite the fact that she was angry with Fletcher at first too, she had good reason; at least that's what she keeps saying to herself when the guilt creeps back up. Her father is angry for anger's sake and she can't seem to forgive him for that; and neither can Fletcher.

"He still hasn't gotten over himself yet?"

"Chloe."

"What, mom? There are other, much bigger, issues out there in the world that he could be focusing his anger at. Instead, he decides to pout like a toddler."

"I'm not sure that's fair."

"What's fair anyway?"

Nora sighs, "You've got me there. Now, are you going to tell me what's got you so upset? Because I don't think all of this is just about your father."

Chloe isn't sure she wants to say. She doesn't want to admit that they aren't handling things as well as they could be.

"I don't know. Just wedding planning stress."

"I don't envy you. I'd offer to help you but I'm not sure that would be a good thing. Our wedding was a total disaster."

Foreshadowing? Chloe wonders to herself but quickly pushes her thoughts aside. She knows that's not fair. Instead she says,

"I remember those stories. I should probably get going, Mom. But I'll call you later this week."

"Okay, my love. I'll speak to you soon. Try to have a good day."

"I will. I love you."

"I love you the most."

As soon as the line goes dead she lets out a hefty exhale. She pushes her hair back and pulls at the roots. It's going to be another long day.

Lucy walks down the hallway and straight to her locker without even looking up. She's still fuming from the morning. Just seeing Beca's face caused a flood of fear and anger into her chest. She tries to shake it off but then she catches a glimpse of Poppy and Matteo, chatting happily, on the other end of the hallway. Her stomach clenches even tighter, it almost makes it hard to walk. She pushes her backpack into her locker; it barely fits with the extra stuff she grabbed this morning shoved inside.

"Hey Peach, I brought all that stuff you told me to. Are you finally going to tell me what's going on?"

"We're running away."

"What?" Lincoln asks, a little chuckle escapes with her words but a concerned expression takes over her features. "You're kidding."

Lucy shakes her head, "Nope, you ever been to Georgia?"

Beca is sitting at work. She hasn't been able to get much done. All she's thought about is Lucy, and Chloe, and what tonight is going to be like. She's run through a million and one ways she could make it up to Lucy but none of them feel good enough. She thinks about what Chloe said, about how Lucy will, someday, move past this.

It sparks something in her; something like hope or, well, she isn't quite sure. But whatever it is, it makes her pick up her pen and start writing.

Chloe walks up to the school and stands in her usual spot. She watches the herd of children leaving the building, bundled in their coats, ready to get home. She waits, longer than usual; Lucy is always one of the first kids out of the building but today she's nowhere to be seen. The outpour of kids turns to a light trickle until no one is left. Chloe taps Lucy's contact in her phone and waits for it to ring; which it does, for a while, until she gets her voicemail.

Her heart starts beating faster. She looks around the entire area, as far as she can see, but Lucy is nowhere to be found. She looks for Lincoln's tall, lanky, build, but she doesn't see her either. She calls Lucy two more times before her breathing starts to quicken and she has to force her eyes to focus. She notices Poppy coming out of the building with her father a few minutes later.

"Poppy," She calls out.

She knows it's a long shot but she has to ask. Dean Weaver gives her an inquisitive look but doesn't say a word to greet her.

"Hi Chloe." Poppy says, in a shy, almost ashamed, tone.

"Have you seen Lucy anywhere?"

Poppy looks up to her father, as if she's asking permission to answer. He gives a curt nod, but it's clear he is judging her.

"She left right after final bell. I saw her and Lincoln leave out the side door."

"Where were they going?"

"I have no idea. I'm sorry."

"No," Chloe says, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, "no, thank you."

She rushes off without another word. She lifts her phone to her ear again, this time an answer is almost immediate.

"Hi Chlo, I can't really talk right-"

"Lucy's gone."