Sorry for not adding to this story for a while, but I wanted to get one or two more chapter up before we lose net neutrality (thank you very much Republicans). Anyway, the kids are older in this one and one of them is experiencing depression and some other heavy stuff so trigger warning for those who struggle with that or self-harm. This idea struck me and I can't sleep so here we are.

In the years that followed the kids grew up and some of the Bellas even added more children to their families. Chloe now had a son Mitchell…much as Beca had begged her best friend not to name her son after her, Chloe would hear nothing of it after they named Johanna after her mother. Aubrey had one more child, another girl she and her husband name Elizabeth, which just gave Beca ammo to call her niece Lizzie which made Aubrey so frustrated since now Beca would constantly call her niece Izzie and Lizzie instead of their real names. For her part in all this, Beca and Louisa had one more child, another daughter they named Kristina, a name suggested by Louisa who told Beca the history of Queen Kristina of Sweden. The story had been one Louisa grew up with and from a German perspective she was not a revered figure (in fact they were battling each other as countries during her reign), but Louisa always admired the fact that she refused to marry because someone told her too, she never hid her preference for women and when she was truly unhappy she left her throne to her cousin and converted to Catholicism. Beca had a hard time arguing her wife's name suggestion and when their second daughter was born, Beca agreed that Kristina was a fitting name, for their youngest child was already willful and stubborn in the best possible ways.

The two older children all went to the same high school which meant that the three Bellas who stayed rooted in LA often ran carpool together, something Beca never would have imagined doing when they were in college. On this day, however, Beca was stuck in the studio trying to wrap and album, Luisa was sitting at the airport about to board a plane to go to a business meeting in Colorado and Chloe finishing her afterschool choir practice at the elementary school. All that to say, this left Aubrey to pick up her daughter and Johanna from their school, while Chloe would give the younger kids a ride home from school once she finished her practice. As Aubrey waited in the parking lot for the girls she tried to field a few emails from her office and just as she finished the passenger side door opened and her daughter jumped in, followed by Johanna getting into the backseat.

"Alright mom, let's hit it."

"So eager to leave school and here I thought you enjoyed school." Isabella rolled her eyes, something that did not go unnoticed by her mother as she put the car in drive.

"I do, that doesn't mean I like being there for longer than I have to on Friday afternoons." Aubrey glanced in the rearview mirror at her niece.

"What about you? Are you always so eager to leave school by the time Friday rolls around?"

When she heard no response she glanced back once more to see Johanna looking out the window and not at all engaged in this conversation.

"Johanna. Jojo, you still with us my love?" The 16 year old shook her head a little and refocused on her Aunt. "Sorry, yeah I just spaced out, you know, long week and it's finally Friday." The teenager tried to sound convincing, but Aubrey knew how the girls sounded when they were happy, angry, sad and every other emotion and the tone of voice Johanna used told Aubrey that something was wrong, but she couldn't address it while they drove so she had to wait. Aubrey and Beca agreed that Aubrey would keep her and Beca's children at her house until Beca got home from the studio. Johanna insisted she could babysit her brother and sister, but Beca didn't know how late she would be and she felt better knowing that Aubrey was watching her kids instead of asking her teenager to do the job.

Once home, Johanna and Isabella went up to her room to work on homework since both girls wanted to have a real weekend to do nothing but relax. Soon afterwards Chloe dropped off the younger kids so they were joined by their younger siblings who did their homework downstairs before putting a DVD in and settling in to watch it while Aubrey got dinner in the oven and went into her study to get some work done. Maybe an hour into her work Aubrey was hyper-focused on a brief she was working on for an upcoming case, but she heard a knock at the door and it shattered her concentration for a brief moment.

"Come in." The door opened and even though Aubrey's eyes never left the computer she saw her oldest daughter standing in the doorway, looking nervous, a look that made Aubrey save her work and turn her attention toward her daughter.

"What the matter honey?" Isabella looked like she was lost for words: a problem she never had before because after all, Aubrey was her mother. Her daughter's lack of words made Aubrey all the more worried.

She finally managed to speak and say, "we were working on homework and I…I guess I saw something I shouldn't have." Aubrey's eyebrows knit in confusion because her daughter was making no sense.

"What do you mean honey, saw what?" Isabella again struggled to find the right words to explain to her mother why her help was needed and in a huff she finally ducked into the hallway and grabbed her cousin into the doorway to stand beside her. Aubrey noticed right away that Johanna was looking at the floor, avoiding eye contact, but the tears streaming down her face caused her more concern.

"Johanna, honey what's going on? Why the tears? Did something happen at school?" Johanna shook her head no and Aubrey started running through the list of things that could possibly be going on in her head and the girls stood there in silence for a moment. Isabella finally broke the silence, "you need to tell her, she can help."

Johanna looked more frightened than before and Aubrey's mind went straight to the biggest issue she could think would cause this reaction.

"Honey, are you pregnant? Is that what this is all about?" Isabella scoffed at her mother's guess, "no she's not, Christ why do parents always guess it's that, other things go on in our lives too."

Aubrey pointed at her daughter and shot her a look, "do not take that tone with me and if it's not that then one of you better tell me what is wrong or I'm calling Beca to come home."

"Don't, please." Johanna snapped at her Aunt and Aubrey was surprised at the reaction and it told her that eventually she was in fact going to have to call Beca because something was seriously wrong.

"Ich brauche Hilfe." Johanna and her siblings were taught German by their mother as they grew up so they were all fluent in both English and German. Everyone in the Bella's circle learned baseline German because when Johanna or her siblings got upset they slipped into German, just like their mother does when she gets overwhelmed or flustered. So when Johanna finally blurted out the words 'I need help', Aubrey at least had something to go on.

"Ok monkey, I can help you, but you need to tell me what is wrong first, then I'll help however I can." Johanna eyed her Aunt and then looked to her cousin who nodded her head and gently pushed her cousin to step forward. Aubrey stood up and was now toe to toe with her niece and she pushed the girls long brown hair out of her face and saw the amount of tears along with some signs of sleep deprivation.

"Honey, please tell me what is wrong. I promise I won't get mad. Just let me help." Then Aubrey remembered what her daughter said…she had seen something she wasn't supposed to see.

"Johanna, can you show me what's wrong?" The teenager searched her Aunt's face for signs of anger, but she only saw signs of concern. Having no other option Johanna sighed heavily and began to roll up her long sleeve shirt. Aubrey was confused until she saw what her daughter had accidentally seen minutes before: scars that ran from her niece's wrist to her elbow. Johanna lasted exactly 5 second with her arm exposed before she completely started sobbing and fell into Aubrey's arms, continuing to cry. Aubrey was still shocked, but she had to handle this situation and for the time being she was going to have to handle it alone. Aubrey looked over to her daughter who had tears in her eyes too.

"Isabella, can you go keep your sister and your cousins occupied downstairs." The teenager nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her. Aubrey didn't know what to do first, but getting Johanna to calm down enough to talk to her was step one.

"Listen monkey, let's move into my bedroom so we can sit down ok?" Johanna held tight to her Aunt, but slowly moved with her so that they were walking into Aubrey's master bedroom. Aubrey sat down on the bed and pulled Johanna down with her and the teenager had continued to cry into her shoulder. Aubrey let her niece cry for a few minutes because if nothing else, she needed a few minutes to come up with a plan. Finally, Aubrey decided that she couldn't let her niece continue to sob uncontrollably without trying to soothe her somehow.

"Johanna, honey, I need you to breathe or you are going to hyperventilate. Just take a deep breath for me ok." The teenager tried to steady her breath and Aubrey carefully pulled her away from her body so she could get a look at her niece who's eyes were red from crying. Johanna took shaky breaths and was hiccupping in between tears and Aubrey tried to brush the tears from her eyes as they fell.

"Just keep breathing monkey, it's gonna be ok." The teenager looked around her and he eyes fell on the door. "Aubrey and Kristina are gonna wonder where I am. I should clean up and go check on them." Aubrey gently grabbed her niece's hand and pulled her back down to sit on the bed with her.

"Isabella can handle your brother and sister, right now I'm worried about you and you need to talk to me honey. When did this start?"

"About 4 months ago, give or take a few days." Aubrey felt terrible that in that time no one saw the changes that showed Johanna was suffering from something. Johanna had spent nights at her home in that time and Aubrey was kicking herself for not noticing when the teen would be quieter, wear long sleeve shirts when it was 70 outside or just generally not act like herself.

"Did something happen?" Johanna shrugged her shoulders. "Not really, I would just get overwhelmed with school, sports and other stuff. It made the anxiety go away. I felt better after I did it." Aubrey reached for the arm covered in scars and she carefully ran her fingers across them, taking notice that some of them couldn't be more than a few days old.

"Let's get these cleaned up ok?" Aubrey went to grab the first aid kit from her bathroom and when she returned Johanna quietly asked, "are you gonna tell my moms?" Aubrey looked at her niece and tried to offer a sympathetic smile.

"Monkey…you know I have to tell them. Something like this, it's dangerous and they need to know so they can help you and keep you safe."

"They're gonna be mad." Aubrey finished cleaning the cuts and was about to put the bandage on when she paused. "Honey, they aren't going to be mad. Scared and concerned, you bet, but not mad." Aubrey finished wrapping the arm in an ace bandage to keep everything in place and silence soon fell over the two of them and Aubrey felt the need to break it.

"Do you think you can tell me more about it? Talking about it might help you feel better." Johanna pulled her knees up to her chest and effectively blocked Aubrey out. Aubrey checked her watch and realized her husband would be home soon and hopefully he could help get the other kids out of the house while Aubrey dealt with Johanna.

"Monkey, you have to talk to someone, it's gonna be a challenge to get ahold of your moms so I need you to talk to somebody, even if it isn't me. Just tell me who you'll talk to and I will get them here." At that point, Aubrey would've found a way to bring literally anybody into her home to get the teen talking.

"Aunt Chloe." Aubrey breathed a sigh of relief because this was doable.

"Ok monkey, I'm gonna call her right now ok." Aubrey took out her phone and began to search her contacts for Chloe's number.

"You can leave me alone while you talk to her on the phone you know. I'm not going to kill myself in the 5 minutes it takes to call her." Johanna realized she might have said too much and Aubrey's face grew even paler than it had been before.

"Not a chance monkey, I'm staying right here with you. Just hang in there with me ok. We'll make this better." Aubrey's call finally clicked through and she heard Chloe's voice on the other end.

"Hey Bree…what's up?"

Before Chloe could finish her sentence Aubrey jumped in, "I need you to come over to my house, now."

"What why? Are the kids ok?" Aubrey took a deep breath. "Most of them are fine. All but one actually, that's why I'm calling."

"Who is hurt?"

"It is complicated, but your goddaughter is requesting your presence and you are the only one she'll talk to." Aubrey could hear Chloe rushing around.

"I'm packing up the kids now, what's wrong with Johanna that I needed to be called in?" Aubrey eyed her niece as she laid in a curled up position on her bed.

"I just finished bandaging up her arm Chloe."

"From what, did she get hurt at school?"

"No Chloe, she…she's been hurting herself…for months now. I just found out about 15 minutes ago and I have a house full of kids and one teenager I can't leave alone so I need some help and she wants you." Chloe stopped breathing for a split second, but snapped back to reality.

"I'll be there in 20 minutes. Have you called Beca yet?"

"No, she is my next call, but she may not answer so it maybe you and I on this for now."

"I'm on my way, just hang tight." Aubrey hung up the phone and sat on the opposite side of the bed and laid down so that she was facing her niece.

"Chloe is on her way."

"I'm sorry."

"For what monkey?"

"For not talking to you…I just can't."

"Hey, you don't have to be sorry, ok. Chloe is your godmother and even when you were a baby she was always the one to make you feel better. Today is no different." At that moment, Aubrey heard the front door open and shut and she knew Chloe was not that fast so she assumed that her husband was home. When he came upstairs he shot Aubrey a confused look that asked what the heck he had missed.

"I need you and Isabella to take the kids to go see a movie or dinner, something to by me a few hours. Chloe and I need to help Jojo out and then we gotta call Beca." James nodded and looked sad when Aubrey explained the situation to him, but he promised to take the kids somewhere for a while. When Chloe arrived with her kids, James and Isabella split up into two cars and everyone agreed to go to see a movie. Before they left, little Aubrey came upstairs, a few paces ahead of Chloe and wanted to know why his sister wasn't coming.

"Izzy said Johanna wasn't feeling well." Aubrey looked down at her godson and offered him a sad smile as she ushered him into the hallway, allowing Chloe to enter the bedroom.

"Johanna is gonna be fine buddy, I promise. We are gonna take really good care of her and then we'll call you mama and we'll get you guys home."

"But…what if she needs me?" Aubrey cursed exactly how much her godson was like her. He was exactly what Luisa had titled him when he was born…he was a Pitbull and that meant fiercely protecting his family and leaving his sister did not factor in to that mission.

"Listen buddy, I'm not going anywhere, your Aunt Chloe isn't going anywhere and your mama will be home soon so we are all going to take care of your sister ok?"

"Promise?" Aubrey eyed her godson and felt bad that he felt so much responsibility to protect at such a young age. "I promise." The 11 year old eyed his aunt carefully, but eventually went back downstairs to join his cousins and uncle. When Aubrey returned to the bedroom, Chloe was on the bed with Johanna curled into her side. Aubrey sat at the foot of the bed and put her hand on Johanna's leg to indicate that she was still there and the teenager seemed to finally relax and calm down now that everyone was gone save for her aunt and godmother.

"Alright honey, you have to talk to me about this so I can understand. Where did you get the idea that this is the way to handle things?"

"Girls at school do it. I see the scars when we change for gym. I talked to one of them about it and she told me what she uses. It kind of blew up from there." Chloe kept running her hand through Johanna's hair and she made eye contact with Aubrey, but let the teen kept talking.

"I didn't think it would feel the way it felt and that it would help me feel better."

"I take it your moms don't know."

Johanna shook her head no, "they've been so busy lately that I didn't want to bother them."

Aubrey jumped in, "hey monkey, your parents are never too busy to help you when you are hurting. If you told them you need help they would drop everything to do what they could."

"I know, but…I didn't know what to do. It was helping so why bother them?"

"Honey you deserve so much more than this. Hurting yourself isn't the answer love." Johanna snuggled more into Chloe and kept on crying and both older women decided to let her have her moment to cry out her fear and frustration before they tried to soother her more. Aubrey held up her phone to show Chloe that she was going to try and call Beca and the redhead nodded her approval.

"Monkey, I'm gonna call your mom and see if she can wrap things up at work early." Johanna just held onto Chloe and nodded her head in understanding. Aubrey stepped outside the bedroom and hit the buttons to call Beca's office. It took a few rings before the phone clicked though.

"Beca Mitchell's office, how can I help you?"

"Michelle. Its Aubrey, is Beca in her office, I really need to talk to her."

"You know what Aubrey, she has been in the studio since before lunch and I haven't seen her up here since this morning. Can I take a message for her for when she gets back to the office?"

"No, I really need to talk to her, I'll just call the studio number and pray she picks up that or her cell." Aubrey hung up with Beca's receptionist and tried Beca's cell number first, knowing full well that when she was in the recording studio she often had the phone on silent and since she was met with several rings and then Beca's voicemail she knew that was most likely the case. After leaving a quick message, Aubrey called the number she had for the recording studio hoping someone would answer. She had to call 6 times before someone finally answered the phone, clearly pissed by the phone ringing non-stop for the past 2 minutes.

"For Christ sake, what is it?"

"Is Beca Mitchell there? I need to speak with her."

"She's in the booth with the artist right now, she's gonna have to call you back."

"Listen dude, I don't know who you are and I don't care. I need you to grab Beca and tell her something is wrong with one of her kids and so help me God if you don't I will come down there and make sure Beca knows it was you that didn't tell her that her kid needed her." The man on the other end of the phone sighed and Aubrey could hear him shout down the hallway for someone to get Beca and that it was 'something about her kid'. Aubrey knew that if anyone told Beca that the kids needed her that she would come running, the question was how fast she would get to the phone. She didn't have to wonder long because soon Beca was on the other end of the phone panting like she ran a marathon.

"Aubrey, you are the only one scary enough to yell at any of my crew down here so I know its you. What's wrong? Which kid? Do I need to get to a hospital? What happened?"

"Beca, breathe. We are at my house, the younger kids are at the movies, Chloe and I are here with Johanna."

"Johanna? Why, what happened? Is she ok, is she hurt?"

"Beca…this is complicated. Just know she needs you to come home, like now."

"Duh dude, I'll leave after I hang up with you, but first you have to tell me what this is all about."

"Beca, this is not a conversation to have over the phone."

"Damn it Aubrey, just tell me." Aubrey sighed and knew there was no way around it: she had to tell Beca to get her to hang up the phone and come home.

"She has scars and cuts on her arm Beca. I bandaged them up, but some of them are pretty recent."

"Scars? Like someone has been hurting her?"

"In a sense. Beca, they were all self-inflicted." The line went silent except for Beca breathing and she finally found her words. "Self-inflicted? Aubrey, are you telling me my 16-year-old is cutting herself?"

"I'm sorry Beca, yes, that is what I am telling you."

"I'm gonna leave the studio now. I will for sure hit traffic, are you and Chloe ok with her until I can get to your place?"

"Beca you know she is perfectly safe here. I won't let anything happen to her and neither will Chloe."

"I know. I'm sorry. I just…don't know what to think right now." Aubrey felt bad for her friend because as tough as Beca was her voice was still breaking up at the news of her child suffering in such a way.

"Just get home safely and we will figure it out from there ok. Drive safe, she is with Chloe in my room and we aren't going anywhere so don't break traffic laws to get here."

"Tell her I'm on my way and that I love her."

"You know I will. I'll see you when you get here." Aubrey hung up the phone and returned to the bedroom to find Chloe standing at the foot of her bed watching a sleeping Johanna.

"What are we going to do Chloe?" The redhead shook her head.

"I have no idea. How'd Beca take it?"

"She is devastated and mad for not seeing it sooner. I could hear it in her voice that she is blaming herself for not seeing it before now."

"She spends time are all our houses, we could've noticed it too. She hid it well Bree."

"I don't think blaming anybody is gonna help her. It would just make her feel like she needs to punish herself and that will only make this worse."

"Did she say anything to you before I got here?"

"She said she needed help and when I called you she said that I didn't have to stay in the room with her because she wasn't going to kill herself while I was on the phone with you." Chloe rubbed her forehead and looked to Bree.

"Shit Bree, do we need to take her to the hospital?"

Aubrey shook her head, "I don't think she's suicidal Chloe, I think she's depressed and anxious, but Beca can make that call when she gets here."

"What do we do in the mean time?"

"We wait and we support her. She just needs to know that we aren't going to abandon her to fight this alone."

I hope people don't hate this, but it was an idea I had and wanted to get it out there. This story may have like two more chapters to it before I wrap it up and this story arch seemed like a good note to end on. If you have things you want to see for when Beca and Louisa come home just let me know.