AN/ Okay then guys - All those reviews means I'm all warmed up now! The snow is finally beginning to clear, so much so that my mum has been shopping. The amount of biscuits I've eaten has gone a long way to writing the next chapter. I'll post it as soon as I get ten reviews on this one.

I got those seven review pretty quick so here you go...

"Waiting till the demons come, wait for us to see them run in our direction.

Now they're staring at us through the trees; got us falling to our knees to teach us a lesson.

So tell me, did you ever really love me? Did you ever really want me?

Now that I see you clearer, I wonder was I ever really happy?

Didn't get the chance to ask me, now that I see you clearer

Was it just smoke and mirrors? Was it just smoke and mirrors?"

Being with Chloe in that coffee shop felt so impossibly good to Beca. They were both sat, in a comfortable silence, drinking their mugs of coffee, totally at ease with one another. It was almost as if nothing had changed, as if these last three months had never happened.

Chloe felt like that too. Sitting in the chair, cradling the mug of coffee in her hands, she truly felt like the girl she was before. That made her feel both happy and angry. Sure, she was happy because she was with Beca, and Beca was actually there, instead of at some far off part of the country. But, she couldn't help thinking that, really, nothing had changed. Selfishly, she couldn't move past that notion. If nothing had changed, things would only go back to how they were before.

And Chloe knew that she couldn't live like that, not again; not when she had everything to lose.

Thankfully, Beca couldn't tell exactly what Chloe was thinking, but it wasn't hard to notice how preoccupied the girl opposite her had suddenly become.

"Penny for your thoughts," Beca said, smiling at Chloe.

"They're worth far more than that," Chloe said seriously, still deep in thoughts.

Beca picked up on the edge to Chloe's voice as she spoke, the tension behind it, the way she was quite blunt in her language. She wasn't as bubbly as she was in the car. There was something wrong with the girl, but Beca couldn't quite tell what.

"Seriously Chlo, are you okay?" Beca asked, focusing on the two blue eyes in front of her, trying to capture their attention.

"Yeah I'm fine Becs," Chloe assured her, shaking the thoughts out of her head. She couldn't think like that, not now anyway.

"As long as you're sure," Beca replied, her voice losing the singsong, light-hearted manner it had before. She clearly wasn't convinced.

There was a long pause between the two of them as both tried to come up with something to say. But this wasn't like before, it wasn't relaxed, it was awkward, leaving Beca feeling like she was massively intruding on Chloe's thoughts.

"So," Chloe began hastily, desperate to bring an end to the silence between them, "Demi Lovato's new album…"

"Yeah, that's my latest project."

"Any hints about what we can expect from it?"

"It's different," Beca stated distractedly, "Very different from anything we've attempted before."

"In what way?"

"It's like a musical polaroid of where we've been at these last three months."
Intrigued, Chloe nodded, silently asking her to continue.

Beca breathed, "Okay, erm, there's a lot more power ballads than before. We wrote most of the songs together, and they have so much more emotion in them before any of her songs did before. There's quite a few she's wrote from other people's perspectives, my own included."

Chloe noticed the way Beca looked sheepish when Beca said about her own feelings being used in the music. She opened her mouth and said, "And you're not sure about having your own emotions being out there for the world to see?"

"It's quite exciting actually, relieving even. It helps, doing the music. It's a distraction, and I've needed plenty of them lately."

"You're usually so secretive with your emotions…" Chloe deadpanned.

"Yeah, I don't do talking about my feelings. But you can't just drink them away," Beca said pointedly, "And it hurts too much having them all bottled up inside you. So, music production became my emotional outlet…"

"Oh," Chloe answered, unsure of how to react to that. The regret in Beca's eyes told her more than her words ever would. Chloe would be willing to bet any amount of money that at least one of the songs on that album was about herself, or at least about their relationship. She also realised something else; the music would probably reveal a lot about how Beca had felt over the last three months, something that had crossed Chloe's mind every day.

There was a long pause again, as both tried to digest what Beca had just said.

Chloe then added, "So which song is your favourite?"

Beca looked thoughtful, and sat for a minute thinking them all through. After some careful consideration, she revealed "It's got to be 'Smoke and Mirrors', because the words and music in it are all mine. It might be Demi's voice singing it, but the rest of it is all Beca Mitchell."

Chloe saw the passion, the fire, in Beca's eyes as she spoke. Suddenly she found herself wondering what the song was about, if it was about them, and was desperate to hear it.

At seeing the curious look on Chloe's face, Beca smiled softly and pulled the Macbook out of her bag. Chloe raised an eyebrow as Beca turned it on, logged in, and scrolled through a long list of – what Chloe presumed to be – song titles. Those only heightened Chloe's curiosity, and she wanted to know what was going on in them, especially the ones titled 'Only Forever,' 'Concentrate,' and 'Lonely.'

After what seemed like an infinite list of tracks, Beca had finally found the one she was looking for. She pulled two pairs of Beats headphones out of her bag, handing a pair to Chloe. Putting them over her ears, she motioned for Chloe to do the same. Suddenly, the hustle and bustle of the coffee shop became little more than a dull buzz in the background.

Looking at Chloe nervously, Beca hit the spacebar, causing the song to start playing. Chloe briefly noticed that she'd skipped the first several bars, but quickly became absorbed in the vocals.

"Waiting till the demons come, wait for us to see them run in our direction.

Now they're staring at us through the trees, got us falling to our knees to teach us a lesson.

So tell me, did you ever really love me? Did you ever really want me?

Now that I see you clearer, I wonder, was I ever really happy?

Didn't get the chance to ask me, now that I see you clearer,

Was it just smoke and mirrors? Was it just smoke and mirrors?"

Beca slammed the space bar as the chorus ended to stop the track, turning to look at Chloe, who had tears silently falling down her face. Beca was glad she hadn't cried at the song this time, because she normally did. Sure, her vision was slightly blurry, but she hadn't let any tears fall.

This was the song she'd written the day she'd come back from New York to find an empty house and a ring in an envelope. It was the song where she held nothing back. It was the song fuelled by emotion, flooded with grief, anger and heartbreak. It was the song where Beca tried to put into words exactly how broken she felt.

Chloe knew that without Beca even saying it. She knew exactly what this song was about, even if Beca wouldn't admit it. Beca had been right, in what she'd said before playing the song, that aside from the vocals, the whole track was Beca Mitchell. She could tell that much from the words, the rhythm, the simple chords of the piano that provided the only backing music. It was raw, powerful and genuine. It was -

"It was everything I tried to say to you after we broke up but couldn't," Beca said, finishing Chloe's mental sentence.

"Did you really feel like everything we had wasn't real?" Chloe said, her voice hollow.

"I don't know Chlo, I just felt like everything came out of nowhere. Like, one minute, we were going to get married and life happily ever after, yet the next, you were distant and angry, and everything fell apart."
"It was falling apart for a while before I left you that letter Beca."
"But you never said it was, or gave me any idea."

"I tried to make you see Beca, I tried so, so hard, but you were never there to catch a hint."

"You know I couldn't not do the stuff I had to for work, Chlo –"

"I did, and I thought I was okay with that, but I wasn't. I thought I could deal with that stuff, I thought it would only be for a couple of years, and that we'd get through it. I at least thought you'd be able to make it home every once in a while Beca, or even just call."

"Chlo-"

"Beca, I got tired of being the girl you left behind while you went to pursue bigger and better things."

That felt like a massive kick in the stomach to Beca. Why couldn't Chloe see that everything she did, she did for her? Why couldn't Chloe see that it was what it would take to make their dreams come true?

But then it hit her: music production wasn't Chloe's dream – it was Beca's. She thought back to that night the Bella's had spent by the campfire at Fallen Leaves during their senior year. She remembered how Chloe said she wanted to teach underprivileged kids dance or dance exotically ("whichever pays better") in front of the others, but then told Beca that her dream was to stay with Beca forever, and would follow Beca to wherever she wanted to go.

Chloe didn't hesitate to move to L.A with Beca, and was fully prepared to build a new life together. She didn't need everything she knew – she just needed the brunette she was in love with, because that was more than enough for her. She listened to every interview Beca did on the radio, watched every time Beca appeared alongside an artist on television – no matter what insane hour they were at. She attended every launch party, every award ceremony, and every single event where Beca needed her rock. She supported everything Beca wanted, and did everything Beca wanted to do, despite Beca always missing the things important to her.

Beca realised how selfish she had been to Chloe. She remembered how crushed her girlfriend was when she had to miss out on Chloe's graduation from vet school to fly out to Texas for an artist. She remembered Chloe's face when she had to leave the Bella's trip to Florida a week early because she was needed in London for the Brits. She remembered the hollow voice Chloe had spoken in that night on the phone when she had missed their anniversary.

She realised how for work, she had dropped everything to do what they wanted her to do. She dropped everything without any thought, because all of this was the way to make her dream come true. And in amongst the things she dropped, there was the girl she loved the most, letting Beca do what she needed to because all she wanted was for her girlfriend to be happy.

She realised how, for at least the last year of their relationship, Chloe's life had been built on an unstable foundation of broken promises. And Chloe, like any other person, had finally reached her limit.

Suddenly, Beca felt ashamed about showing Chloe 'Smoke and Mirrors,' because if anyone deserved to feel like that was their side of the story, it was definitely Chloe. She saw in Chloe's glassy eyes how that song summed everything up, and it killed Beca inside.

"I should have taken you with me Chlo," Beca said, her voice hoarse.

"You shouldn't have left me behind Beca."
"I'm sorry Chlo"

"You know what Becs, what you said last night was true. Sorry really doesn't change anything."

Beca felt another pang as Chloe used her own words against her. She couldn't believe how this date had turned from being practically perfect to a complete wreck. She felt like she had crashed and burned, and as if nobody was going to save her from the flames.

"I thought we were going to try and fix things Chlo, to try and get back to what we had before…"

"I wanted to be happy again Beca, and I know that being with you makes me happy, but I can't go back to how things used to be. It was just as unhealthy as how these last three months have been."
"But, I thought you wanted to go back to before, why would you come if you didn't want me, and our old lives back?"

"Stupidly, I thought that things might have changed. I thought that, given the fact you had made an effort to see me, to actually talk to me, that you might have become less, I don't know, obsessed with work. I thought we could get back together, but that we could fix our relationship to be less one-sided Beca. I thought wrong."

"Chlo, we can, we will-"

"Beca I can't do any more broken promises right now. I want you back, desperately, but I want you to make sure you're prepared for that."
"Chlo-"

"Call me when you have time in your life for us, Beca."

With that, Chloe gently placed her coffee mug on the table, and grabbed her bag. Silently, she got up and walked out of the coffee shop, leaving Beca alone, sitting stunned as she literally watched the girl she loved walk out of her life.

She didn't know what hurt most. Whether it was Chloe leaving again, or knowing that there was only her to blame.

Hanging her head in shame, Beca knew that she couldn't let the two of them live with broken hearts again. She needed Chloe in her live, and – even if Chloe wouldn't admit it – she needed Beca.

And the only way Beca and Chloe could ever be together again? There was only one solution to this.

Beca realised that she needed to change.

She put her laptop and headphones back into her bag, leaving the coffee shop to find her car. Arriving at the Range Rover, she turned the key and went to drive home.

Beca wasn't broken this time around; she was determined to set things right.

Being friends wasn't an option.

Being lovers wouldn't work right now.

But it would work eventually, Beca thought as she pulled up outside her house. It had to work.

It had to work, because Beca knew that she and Chloe were meant to be.

There couldn't be any more smoke and mirrors in Chloe's life.

Beca was going to make that certain.

AN/ Poor Beca, the course of true love never does run smooth...

As always, thank you so much for reading this. Don't forget to review if you want the next chapter quick :D