The silence that followed Stacie hanging up on her phone was one of the longest, most intense and awkward silences that Stacie had ever been a part of. Beca and Chloe hadn't been part of the phone conversation, but Chloe knew Aubrey well enough to know how she would have responded to the things Stacie had said, and Beca knew enough about the situation at large to fill out the blanks herself.

Still, though, she had to ask. Beca glanced at Chloe, and then at Stacie, and then shook her head. "What just happened?"

Chloe glanced at her briefly but returned her focus on Stacie, slowly reaching out to take her phone back from Stacie. Initially meeting resistance, Stacie finally relaxed her grip to let Chloe reclaim her phone.

Chloe checked the screen, confirming that the previous phone call had ended, and glanced up at Stacie. "Stacie—"

"I know." Stacie cut her off as gently as she could, her voice as soft as possible. She knew. She knew both she and Aubrey hadn't handled that phone conversation well, but she knew she was the one who had turned what had been a slowly-deteriorating conversation into a complete disaster. And she wasn't willing to talk about it just yet.

Beca furrowed her brow. "I'm sure if you just called and—"

"No." Both Chloe and Stacie said sharply at the same time, making them glance briefly at each other, while Beca frowned at the two of them.

Stacie fell silent, leaving Chloe to explain.

Chloe sighed. "Aubrey has two responses to pressure: to self-destruct, or to pretend she doesn't care. Calling back puts her on the defensive. Nothing good will come out of calling Aubrey now."

"But…" Beca began, but didn't really know how to continue. Based on what she'd heard from Stacie's side of the call, things hadn't been as rosy between her two friends as she had assumed it to be. Then again, she'd seen Aubrey's face when the older girl had left for Nevada weeks ago, and she hadn't been able to stay long enough to watch rehearsals when she had briefly visited last Monday.

And belatedly realized why Aubrey and Stacie had tried to keep their relationship as private as possible, because this was the very kind of thing they had been hoping to avoid questions about.

"Do you want to—"

"I think I'll just sleep for a bit," Stacie interrupted quietly as she avoided the sympathetic gazes of her friends and made a show of fluffing up her pillow in preparation.

Beca and Chloe glanced at each other in concern, until Beca nodded. "Okay. If you need to—"

"I don't think so." Stacie said firmly. Because, really, what was there to talk about? The only person she could really talk to about her relationship was Aubrey, and that wasn't really an option at the moment.

Beca sighed, but nodded in resignation, knowing better than to push, and turned towards the door.

"Beca?" Stacie called after her.

"Yeah?"

"I guess you were right to be worried."

Beca cringed, but acknowledged the veiled accusation. She knew there had been a point in which she hadn't reacted very well when the revelation of Aubrey and Stacie's relationship had come to be, and she had made some hasty judgments on their relationship, primarily based on their secrecy. She hadn't known the depth of the relationship, or the effort that had been involved in even getting to the point that there had been something to tell, and now that she had just witnessed its very own meltdown, she felt guilty for having put that upon her friends. She nodded briefly at Stacie, and then left the room.

Chloe watched Beca leave, closing the door behind her. She turned back to Stacie, who was gazing at her thoughtfully, and braced herself for what she was sure could only be an onslaught of accusation, since she had been the most judgmental, the most reluctant, the most withdrawn over the relationship Stacie had with Aubrey, and just mere moments earlier, hadn't been the most supportive of either one in fixing the strain that the events from the night before had caused. Stacie had already called her out on it minutes ago; she wouldn't blame Stacie if there were more.

"I really love her, you know." Stacie finally said.

Chloe's brow knit in confusion. "I know."

"No, you don't." Stacie corrected. She hugged her pillow to her chest. "You don't really trust me, not on this. Not with her."

Chloe looked away. She couldn't exactly deny that. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I get it. She's one of the most important people in your life." Stacie assured her. "I just don't understand why."

Chloe's gaze swung back to her. "Isn't it obvious?"

This time, it was Stacie's turn to look confused.

"You were literally just fighting about it." Chloe reminded.

"I don't understand." Stacie admitted.

"You can have anyone you want, Stacie. And you have." Chloe pointed out. "I watched for a year while you bragged about and paraded your conquests in front of her and she never said a word. And I know you're not that same freshman who enjoyed her sexual encounters casual and sometimes-not-so-clean, but I know the depth of her feelings for you. Sometimes I'm not really sure that you do."

Stacie slumped. "I love her."

"I know you think you do—"

"No." Stacie glared at her. "I love her. Like the kind you read about in bad romance novels. It wouldn't suck the way it does that she's never around if I'm just in it for—"

"The sex?" Chloe finished for her. She quirked an eyebrow. "You can't blame me for being protective of her, Stacie. I listened to you and the girls make fun of her last year. I listened to you joke about how you would have liked to have 'banged the stress out' of her. You've made no secret of the fact that you had a crush, but you weren't exactly thinking of her with pure intentions, either."

Stacie sighed, and nodded her acquiescence. Chloe had a point, and she would be lying to try and argue otherwise. Prior to that summer, she had always referred to Aubrey as "the one who got away", somewhat jokingly with the Bellas, and cited Aubrey as the only person in Barden she'd set her sights on but for a myriad of reasons hadn't been able to snare. The Bellas had all watched her and Aubrey toe the line between being overly friendly and outright flirting the year prior, and as far as everyone knew, nothing had ever come of it. When Aubrey had graduated, the Bellas hadn't let Stacie live down her erstwhile crush, and she'd responded with responses typically expected of her. She had also gone along with everyone's jokes of how much more fun rehearsals were without their tyrannical former leader around. She should have known that just because Chloe had smiled along, she had meant it when she had tried to tell the Bellas to stop and remind them of the amount of pressure Aubrey was constantly under; ICCA redemption had been just one more thing she had been stressed about.

"I don't know if you believe me, but I swear I really do love her, Chloe." Stacie insisted.

"You just accused her of cheating on you." Chloe reminded.

"If you knew—"

"No." Chloe interrupted, shaking her head. "No." She repeated firmly, before elaborating: "I know there are things I don't know about her anymore, we don't talk like we used to and we're not the first people we call anymore. I know that. I know there are a lot of things she isn't telling me, and I have my own secrets, too, but I know Aubrey. She doesn't cheat on people she loves. And I know she loves you."

Stacie looked down, letting Chloe's words make their impact, and for the first time since she'd first heard the name Kathryn pass Aubrey's lips, admitted, "I know she wouldn't cheat." Because Aubrey had told Stacie her biggest relationship failures, the way they all ended in a stalemate, some based on Aubrey's actions or inaction, but not a single one of her stories had ever included her cheating. She had been cheated on, true, and she had broken up with people when she believed something better had come along, but she had never strayed.

Stacie hugged her pillow closer to her chest, the deep, ragged breath she took quickly dissolving into a quiet sob. "This wasn't supposed to happen."

Chloe sighed, and moved from her bed and across the gap to sit beside Stacie on her own bed. She wrapped an arm around Stacie's shoulders. "What?"

"We knew how things could go wrong. We knew. We didn't really start the relationship for a long time because of it." Stacie confided. "We do stupid things, both of us. She was supposed to try harder. I was supposed to know better."

"It's a rough patch," Chloe attempted to soothe.

"No," Stacie shook her head. "This is more than that."

A chill went through Chloe at the seemingly fatalistic words of her friend, but still she tried. "You guys love each other. You'll be fine."

Stacie shook her head. "Not after what I said."

Chloe bit her lip, because that last point of contention between Stacie and Aubrey was definitely not something that could easily be remedied. She knew, and she knew Stacie knew as well as she did that if there was anything you don't say to Aubrey Posen, it was that she wasn't good enough. "I'm sure she knows you didn't mean it."

Through her tears, Stacie still managed to chuckle wryly. "Even if that was true – and I'm not sure it is – I don't know how I'm going to get her to talk to me again."

"She will. Just give her time." Chloe reassured her. "But you'll have to figure out what you're going to say to her when she does."

Stacie looked at her. "What makes you so sure?"

"Because I've seen the way she looks at you." Chloe said simply. And it was true: despite her own reservations, the fact that she hadn't known what Stacie's intentions really were or if Aubrey was merely fulfilling the fantasy of dating Stacie without the full-time commitment Aubrey had always failed at, it had been easy to see that when they were together, they were completely enamored of each other. She smiled weakly at Stacie. "She loves you. She's just not someone who makes that easy."

Stacie rested her head on Chloe's shoulder. "I really was just dancing, you know."

Chloe sighed, and glanced over at her bed where her phone lay, eerily silent. "I know."

They stayed like that for a while, until Chloe realized Stacie's soft sobs had slowed to slow, even breaths, and she took a moment to acknowledge the fact that it was ironically the sudden deterioration of Stacie and Aubrey's relationship for her to come to terms with the fact that her current roommate was dating her former roommate and best friend. She still had her reservations, don't get her wrong, she knew both women well enough to know just how badly things could go and the ways they could both screw up – she was a little ashamed to say that she had seen the current state of their relationship coming – but Chloe also knew she had never seen Aubrey as happy as she had been with Stacie, or Stacie so enthralled by the person she was with.

And she had been through a lot of Aubrey's relationships with other people, and had seen Stacie with a lot of people.

Chloe maneuvered Stacie to lie on the bed, but when she tried to move away, Stacie's arms tightened their hold on her, and she was given little choice but to lay down beside Stacie and sighed. She reached over for her phone, ready to send Aubrey a message, but instead saw a new unread message from the woman herself, and briefly closed her eyes to brace herself for what she would read.

This is on me. I'm sorry.

Chloe sighed, and typed out her response: Fix this.

She has to want me to.

Chloe frowned at the response, but going by what she'd heard of the conversation and her in-depth knowledge of Aubrey Posen?

Aubrey was giving Stacie an out.

Chloe sighed, and pressed the heel of her right hand against her brow, grimacing, because of course Aubrey just had to make things that much harder.

What Stacie didn't quite understand was Aubrey's instruction for her to 'figure out' what she wanted. Because she thought it was obvious that she wanted Aubrey, and she wanted Aubrey to be around, at least like the way she once had been, able to see Stacie often and answered calls and messages in a timely manner. She understood it wasn't possible for Aubrey to be at her beck and call, and honestly she didn't really want that, she just wanted to spend more time with the girl. And they had played phone tag before, but Stacie hadn't always wondered how many days it would take for Aubrey to call her back. Phone messages back then weren't monosyllabic, they were usually flirty; and sometimes had even been downright dirty.

So she wanted her girlfriend back, but she knew for that to happen it would be at the expense of Aubrey's career.

She knew how much Aubrey's job meant to her, openly admitting that it had been the one thing she's really had since she had graduated from Barden. It had given her direction, focus; when she'd felt her life spinning out of control, Aubrey had her job. Stacie wasn't sure where she fit in all of that, but she knew she ranked high enough on Aubrey's list of priorities.

Aubrey had stretched the rules of ethics when she'd decided to date an intern in one of her company's subsidiaries, because it had been Stacie. Aubrey took assignments great and small in the greater southeastern United States, because it provided her opportunities to see Stacie.

Aubrey had moved meetings around so that she could come to Georgia and tell Stacie she loved her.

And Stacie loved her.

She just didn't know if she could stand the same crushing disappointment she had felt when she realized Aubrey hadn't made it to semifinals.

Which, ironically, was the concern Chloe had way back in February when she had proposed Galentine's Weekend, because she couldn't trust someone who could make Stacie's heart vacillate like a pendulum between extreme joy and that kind of hurt.

The week after their ICCA semifinals was a virtual Barden Bella wasteland, since they were supposed to be riding the high of their victory, especially with Spring Break officially starting later that week, and Stacie could appreciate her friends and teammates for doing their best to distract her and keep her spirits buoyed during that time, but it was in the quiet moments when she was alone that she couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen to her supposed trip to San José del Cabo given she and Aubrey weren't talking.

Especially given that according to Chloe, Aubrey had gone to England that week.

So it was bad enough she had given the ultimatum to Stacie not to call her until she made up her mind, but she wasn't even going to be in the position to answer the call.

"This is depressing." Fat Amy declared, barging into Stacie and Chloe's room, immediately followed by Beca and the rest of the Bellas. Chloe, who had been watching something on her laptop, pulled off her headphones at the same time Stacie saved her homework on her own laptop and closed it.

Chloe looked at the girls gathered in her room. "What's going on?"

"I am so sick of Stacie being lovelorn for our former Captain Tightpants!" Fat Amy exclaimed. "We're all avoiding the subject, and it's dragging us all down."

Stacie sighed. "I'm sor-"

"No, don't be sorry!" Fat Amy quickly cut her off. "We're here for you. In very uncomfortable ways. But we just made it back to the ICCA Finals, you guys! We should be celebrating!"

Chloe still looked confused. "I still don't know what you're talking about."

"You'll like this." Beca promised Chloe. She turned to Fat Amy. "Amy, maybe you should," she indicated rushing along.

Fat Amy didn't look so sure. "A good reveal should be drawn out, and savored, and—we're going to Coachella, aca-bitches!"

While the girls who had invaded the room cheered, both Chloe and Stacie didn't look so convinced.

"That's, like, this weekend." Chloe noted. There was no way anyone could score tickets for ten people on such short notice.

"Yeah, it turns out that if you're super-loaded with lots of money and can basically buy anything you put your mind to it, money can buy happiness." Fat Amy replied.

Chloe furrowed her brow.

"Amy's loaded and she bought all of us tickets for the first weekend and a hotel suite for the whole week." Jessica translated to Chloe.

"Oh!" Chloe's expression brightened, a little more enthused this time around. "Awes."

"So?" Beca prodded Stacie, who still remained unconvinced. "What do you say, Stacie?"

"I don't know," Stacie hedged. She motioned to her laptop. "I have a whole bunch of homework to do, and—"

"Wah, wah, don't be a chill killer, Conrad." Fat Amy shook her head. "We've even cleared it with the Trebles, they're cool if we throw them their celebratory party when we get back."

"Yeah, the change of scenery might do you good," Denise suggested.

"And if you don't want to party, you can still be there and enjoy the music." Ashley added.

"If you don't go Beca said she won't either, and she needs to find new music or the other teams can use our songs and we'll have to prepare three sets again." Flo pointed out, to which almost everyone looked at Stacie with alarm.

Stacie shot a glance at Beca, who looked at her teammates with a look of betrayal. "You guys all keep saying my mixes have to play to what's popular, it's not my fault everyone thinks the same thing."

Stacie couldn't help but smile, and laughed softly. "Okay."

"What's that?" Fat Amy prompted.

Stacie's laugh grew. "Yes! Okay. Let's go. Let's Barden Bella-Spring Break all over that party."

"Yes!" Fat Amy exclaimed, and pounced on Stacie on her bed. "You won't regret this!"