A/N: This one isn't like the other date ones, it's a little long, but it's kinda worth it. I started to write it and it just continued in another direction and I went with it. Happy Reading :)

Aubrey was fed up. She never admitted that she was fed up because that meant admitting that you had done something wrong and that was something a Posen never did, but she was admitting it. Her boss had annoyed her, her colleagues had annoyed her and she had annoyed herself. She knew that she was being kept busy by work and that Stacie was also being involved in work meetings and new product launches and they had a little less time of each other, they had even not had their usual film night this week which mad Aubrey feel like she had lost a sense of order in her life. She just needed to get home and cuddle up to Stacie. As soon she got in her car to drive home in the rush hour traffic, it only made her more infuriated, there was a queue as long as her eyes could see and she really didn't want to be in it, she knew that Stacie would be at home waiting for her, so while at a standstill in the endless queue of traffic she sent Stacie a quick text.

Aubrey:I'm stuck in traffic, I don't know when I'll be home. Love you

A few minutes later her phone chimed with the sound of Stacie's ringtone, she waited until she wasn't going to move for a while to read it.

Stacie:Okay. I've got a meeting with my area manager until 5, so I'll race you home! Don't forget we're skyping Chloe and Beca later. Love you too.

Aubrey:Bet you get there before me.

Stacie:Don't be so sure :)

She was constantly moving forward a couple of feet only to sit in the endless queue. After what felt like hours it started to move at a steady pace without stopping, she had never been more relieved to see her exit in her life, not even that time when she was in the car when Beca was driving. She finally got to the parking garage where she left the car after a journey that lasted two hours when it should have only taken 45 minutes. She walked up the stairs, got to their apartment door and put her bags down to look for her keys in her handbag. After a few tries of rummaging around in her bag she started to get annoyed.

"Stupid bloody thing!" She kicked the front door and winced in pain, causing her to drop her hand bag and fall against the door clutching at her injured foot and leaning against the door frame for support. She blinked a couple of times to try and ward off the tears and muttered a few swear words that even Beca would be proud of, none of this reduced her anger and annoyance though. She heard the door open and felt Stacie's hands grab her upper arms.

"Bree. What happened? Are you okay?" She felt Stacie pull her into a hug that she so desperately needed. As soon as Stacie saw that Aubrey was about to cry she hugged her like there was no tomorrow with one hand round her waist and one behind her head. Aubrey released her foot from her grasp and moved her arms to around Stacie's waist, her head was safely tucked under Stacie's chin and she felt herself begin to cry. She didn't want to leave her girlfriend's grasp as it would mean she would not be able to stop the tears that she had so far successfully kept back.

"We don't have to talk about it." Stacie was running her fingers slowly through Aubrey's hair to get the older woman to calm down. "We can just sit on the sofa and just cry it off if you want" She felt her girlfriend's breathing steady. "We don't have to Skype Chloe and Beca, I can text them and tell them we'll do it tomorrow night"

"I just want to be with you" She muttered "No Skype date"

"Okay, I'll text them"

"Would you tell them I'm sorry"

"Of course" She gave the distressed blonde a gentle squeeze "Now should we go inside rather than stand out her all evening. You can have a nice bath and I'll make us some dinner"

"Okay."

"Now you go inside and I'll get your bags"

They slowly but gradually moved out of the embrace that they were both trapped in much to Aubrey's dismay. Stacie gave Aubrey a smile but only received a weak one back, whatever Aubrey was worried and stressed about had clearly broken her. She picked up Aubrey's bags and followed her girlfriend into their apartment, she kicked the door shut and put the bags down. She walked up to her girlfriend who had just moved to between their kitchen and living room and took her hand and intertwined their fingers, she stood in front of her, studying her face. Her eyes were red and puffy from where they had been holding back the flood of tears that inevitably would be shed later on, her usual perkiness and determination was no longer etched on her face and when Stacie received a look from the blonde she saw defeat, which is a look that is very rarely seen in her eyes.

"C'mon. Let's get you sorted out" Stacie started walking towards their bedroom with Aubrey trailing behind. "What did you want to eat? I'll make it while you wash" She sat Aubrey down on their bed while she went to run her a bath, she received no answer from Aubrey. Stacie put in her favourite bubble bath and waited for it to fill up enough so that it wouldn't overflow. She walked back into their bedroom to find that Aubrey was standing by their dresser taking off her make-up, she had discarded her work attire and thrown on Stacie's fluffy dressing gown.

"Have you thought about what food you would like?" She moved towards a bare faced Aubrey and put her hands on her shoulders, pulling her closer. "If you eat something it will make you feel better"

"Can we have breakfast for dinner? I know it sounds weird, but when I was upset when I was little it's what I always had" She slowly looked up at her girlfriend.

"Of course we can, bacon and omelettes it is then." This was Aubrey's preferred breakfast and was eaten at any opportunity possible, it had also become Stacie's favourite breakfast. "Your bath is waiting" She gave Aubrey a quick kiss on the lips and moved towards the door. "I'll have it ready for when you finish"

"Thank you Stace"

"It's no problem"

"No seriously, I probably would have just stayed outside if you weren't here with me. I love you"

"I love you too, now go and get in that bath before it gets cold"

An hour later they were sat on their sofa with their food cooked and eaten they pushed all thoughts of work to the backs of their minds and not have to worry about it until Monday. They could finally relax and make up for the movie night that they missed, Aubrey had picked the film and they were currently laying down with a blanket half across them. Stacie's arm was resting on Aubrey's shoulder while Aubrey's head was comfortably resting on Stacie's chest, rising and falling with every breath Stacie took. She liked laying like this, she could make out the beats of Stacie's heart, especially when the film made her jump or when there was a sad moment in the film. It was coming up to a tear jerking moment and Aubrey knew that once she started to cry she wouldn't be able to stop, she had only just returned her eyes to normal after the near crying earlier, but she knew they would become teary again soon. The film on the screen paused and Aubrey looked up at Stacie. Their DVD player was always skipping out and they really needed to get a new one. Stacie saw an opportunity to ask Aubrey the question she had been dreading.

"Bree, do you wanna talk about earlier?" Stacie asked delicately

"No, not really"

"Are you sure? Because it might be better to get it out in the open" Stacie was being very careful, she knew what happened with the door and didn't want a repeat of it, she was only trying to help Aubrey and she couldn't do that unless she knew what was wrong.

"What if I don't want it out in the open?" She snapped back at Stacie, she sat up to face her girlfriend, removing herself from their embrace, tears threatened an appearance again and she pushed them back in favour of a lump in her throat, Stacie couldn't see that. "What if I need to deal with it myself?"

"I'm trying to help" Stacie moved to hold her hand but Aubrey just took it away and out of reach from Stacie's grasp. This made Aubrey feel bad, after all she was only trying to understand what made her like this but this was something she needed time on.

"Well don't!" She got up and moved round to the back of the sofa towards the kitchen, she could feel tears starting to surface and the lump in her throat was still there, she tried to push them down, she only needed to hold the tears off until she could get out of Stacie's sight. She poured herself a glass of water and composed herself before speaking again. "I'm going to bed. I'm too tired to deal with this all now."

Stacie remained sat on the sofa, she respected that sometime it took her girlfriend a little longer to out her feelings and that she needed time to think, but she thought that they could work it out together, after all that was the first time she had ever see Aubrey like that. She felt bad for pushing for Aubrey to tell her why she was feeling like that, she probably doesn't even know herself. She was meant to be a supportive girlfriend, not someone who just keeps pushing and pushing. Aubrey needed time to think, so Stacie gave her exactly that.

"I'm telling you she completely freaked out. She stormed off and went to bed, by the time I went up there she had fallen asleep" After Aubrey's meltdown yesterday she texted Chloe, if there was anyone who knew more about the blonde than Stacie did, it was her. Aubrey had gone out, she left a note saying she had to run a few errands and she wouldn't be back until later, this gave Stacie the whole day to do something, she really felt bad for pushing Aubrey to tell her about what was wrong, she needed to deal with it in her own way. She was currently on the phone to a more than helpful Chloe who was telling her about the one and only time that this had happened before.

"She was like this last time it happened. I think she got annoyed at her dresser and kicked that."

"Was it because she was stressed? I mean she was in her senior year and she was trying to win the ICCAs." She had been questioning Chloe about this for the last hour or so, she needed as much information as possible if she was going to go about correcting this the right way.

"She put a gigantic amount of pressure on herself last time and it lasted three days. She didn't even say Aca-Scuse me when Beca called her set list lame" She paused for a brief moment before continuing "And it was the time when she knew that she liked you"

"What!" Stacie screeched down the phone

"Oh snap, I shouldn't have said that. I'm so sorry Stace. I thought she would have told you."

"Told me what?"

"Remember when we got kicked out of the ICCA's and then we had spring break and we like all went our separate ways"

"Yeah. What are you trying to tell me Chloe?"

"Well as we were no longer in the running and our practices would like no longer be happening she was texting me while I was in the hospital saying that she had liked you for a while and she wanted to see if you liked her too. And as she was no longer the captain of the Bella's I pointed out that it wouldn't be as awkward if you two did date. So she was going to ask you out but then she got a phone call saying that we got back in it, she didn't know what to do as she had her heart set on asking you out, not winning for once, and when that came back into the picture she completely melted down. She couldn't choose."

"She was going to ask me out?" Stacie never knew this, she didn't even know that Aubrey had this dilemma.

"Yeah, she was. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I thought she would have told you."

"When she was telling you all of this did she say what she was doing? Like date wise?"

"Yeah, she had it all planned out"

"Typical Aubrey. Now tell all, I haven't got much time"

Aubrey had been out the whole day, the note she left Stacie was partly true, she did have errands to run. But that wouldn't take the whole day. She needed to see someone and now was the perfect time to do it. She gave them a quick text to see if they were available.

Aubrey:Hey Chlo, are you busy?

Chloe:Nope I'm just out shopping. Is something wrong?

Aubrey:Stacie and I argued.

Chloe:Oh Bree, do you want to meet somewhere for coffee and talk about it?

Aubrey:Please, how about the usual place?

Chloe:Of course, usual place it is then. See you soon!

Aubrey knew that she shouldn't have snapped at Stacie, she knew that it wasn't Stacie's fault she'd snapped it was her own, she just wanted to help and Aubrey just shut her out. She didn't want a repeat of what happened last time, those three days were hell, she had no motivation to do anything, she missed three days of studying, she only ate when people were around to avoid suspicion and even then it was very little. Although one thing remained constant, Stacie, last time she knew she liked her and then the perfect opportunity cropped up and she didn't take it, but she still got Stacie. Stacie was always there and she never left her, even when she snapped at her or she was under pressure at work, she was there. Last night she was there. Stacie was Aubrey's constant, and that was never going to change.

While she was driving to meet Chloe she was thinking of ways to tell Stacie all of this, but it didn't sound the same in her head and she was sure that it wouldn't come across the same, she would stumble on the words and they would just have the opposite effect. The only person who knew how she felt and could actually put it into words was Chloe, that's why she text her. She needed help.

She saw the redhead before she spotted her herself, the curls of her hair stood out from everyone else, which made her easy to find in a rush or a crisis, and this was one of those times. She walked up to her to be greeted by a massive and warming hug.

"You sounded kind of desperate when you text me. What happened?" when they pulled away from their hug a look of concern was etched on Chloe's face.

"It happened again" Of course Chloe knew what Aubrey meant, the phone call from Stacie this morning and the events of their last year at Barden meant that she knew what she was going through, but she didn't know why.

"C'mon. Let's go and sit down and talk about it." She led her best friend inside and they sat down and ordered their drinks and Chloe waited for Aubrey to tell her what happened. They had light conversation but she could tell that Aubrey wasn't interested. The sat in silence for seconds until Aubrey inhaled a sharp breath and started to speak.

"I had a phone call from my mum yesterday morning." Aubrey paused and looked down at her drink, she swirled it round a couple of times before continuing "They want to meet Stacie."

"Is that what you were annoyed and stressed about yesterday?" Chloe responded, she didn't want to let Aubrey know that she had spoken to Stacie.

"Mainly, work was stressing me out too. But the thing is they know I'm in a relationship with someone, but I've never given them a name or a picture of us. I've always found an excuse to not talk about it with them" She looked down at her cup again, swirling the remains of her coffee, waiting for Chloe to say something, anything. Aubrey knew that it was silly to not tell her parents that she was with Stacie, she just didn't know how they would react to such matters.

"So I take it that you haven't told your parents that you are in a relationship with a woman then?" Chloe knew that Aubrey didn't have the closest bond with her parents, not like Chloe and her parents anyway.

"I want to, it was never the right time. I decided that I was going to do it a couple of times but them my mum was sick and there was always something else wrong when I went to do it, they didn't need that added to their problems anyway." She sniffled slightly and Chloe put her hand on top of Aubrey's.

"You are going to have to tell them eventually Bree" She gave Aubrey's hand a gentle but reassuring squeeze.

"They're coming to stay next weekend. That's why they called. I didn't know if Stacie even wanted to meet my parents, and then my mum mentioned how she wanted to meet him while she was staying and I couldn't tell her. They're going to be so disappointed."

"They are not going to be disappointed, you're their daughter, their only daughter. They may be a little shocked at first, mine and Beca's were, but that doesn't mean they love you any less." She dug a tissue out of her bag for Aubrey, seeing her best friend like this made her a little teary as well. "Have you even talked to Stacie about this?"

"No, that's why I snapped at her last night, I really didn't meant to. I thought I could come up with some excuse for them not to come and stay, I was trying to do it all on my own."

"You need to talk to Stacie, she can help you through it. She's told her parents about you, so she knows what it's like"

"I feel really bad about last night" Aubrey muttered

"Well go and make it right then, I bet Stace is worried"

Aubrey stood up and hugged her best friend. "Thank you Chlo"

"It's no problem, now please go and see your girlfriend!"

With that Aubrey left the coffee shop and pulled out her phone to send Stacie a text before she got in the car.

Aubrey:Stacie, I'm so sorry that I snapped at you last night. I'm coming home, see you in 20 minutes. Love you

Stacie:Love you too :)

Stacie only had twenty minutes to get everything exactly the way she wanted it, the coffee table in their living room had been moved into a corner so that a picnic blanket and several pillows could be put onto the floor as a make shift picnic area, it was far too late and cold to be sat outside, they would just spend the whole evening shivering and that was not so appealing. She had found out from Chloe that Aubrey had wanted to take her on a picnic date as the outside was one of Aubrey's favourite places and Stacie wanted to recreate that as much as possible. She had laid out two of their picnic blankets and positioned some of their pillows against the sofa so that they could lean up against it, she had got some of Aubrey's favourite snacks, sweet flavoured popcorn, the cheese biscuits she nearly always had in the cupboard and two bottles of cherryade. She hoped that she would be ready to talk about what happened and she wasn't going to push it this time, if she wanted to talk about it, it was on Aubrey's terms, not hers. But whatever it is she will be there for Aubrey no matter what. As soon as she heard Aubrey's key in the lock she jumped up and grabbed the flowers she had brought earlier in the day, a bunch of roses, she knew it was a little cliché but she couldn't help it, they just looked so nice and perfect for Aubrey.

"Hey" Stacie walked over to a slightly disheartened Aubrey and hugged her, she had to put the flowers down as they made things awkward. She wrapped her arms around Aubrey the same as she did when she found her outside their door, one hand curled in her hair and one rubbing patterns on the small of her back. She felt Aubrey's arms move to around her waist.

"I'm sorry I was a bitch yesterday. I really didn't mean what I said."

"I know you didn't, you were just upset, we all say stuff we don't mean when we're upset." They broke away from their embrace and looked at each other, Aubrey's eyes looked tired and puffy from all the emotions and a tear begin to roll down her cheek, Stacie brought a hand up to her cheek and wiped away the stray tear that fell from her eye. They were lost in each other's eyes for several moments until Aubrey couldn't help but plant a long kiss onto Stacie's lips, when she kissed her it gave Aubrey the feeling of being weightless, nothing else mattered in that moment and Stacie made everything better. Aubrey slowly pulled away from their kiss and rested their foreheads together.

"We need to talk about last night. It's nothing you did, I promise"

"C'mon then, I got some of your favourite snacks and drink." She moved her head away from Aubrey to gesture at the make shift picnic area in their living room. "Oh and I got you these" She picked up the flowers she dropped when she hugged Aubrey and handed them to her.

"Thank you, they're beautiful."

"Just like you" Stacie smirked as she moved round her girlfriend to close the front door

"What did I do in a previous life to deserve you?" Aubrey put the flowers in the sink with some water, she could sort them out later, something else needed her attention first. She turned round to see Stacie sat on a pile of pillows in a space where their coffee table used to be. "What's this?"

"Well, Chloe told me how you wanted to ask me on a date when we were no longer in the running for the ICCA's and that you had planned a picnic date, but you never got to do it. So now I'm doing it for you, and I thought it might cheer you up" Stacie looked over at Aubrey who had a beaming smile on her face. Aubrey moved to sit next to Stacie on the blanket.

"You really did think of everything, even the food." Aubrey looked down at her lap where her hands were bunched into a ball. She needed to talk to Stacie about this, but she didn't know how.

"Hey, it's okay." Stacie's placed her hand on one of Aubrey's and gave it a gentle squeeze. "If you want to tell me something just take your time" Stacie could see that she was nervous.

"Um okay" Aubrey lifted her head up and looked at Stacie. "Right. I had a phone call from my mum a couple of days ago and um her and my father want to come and visit."

"Okay, do you not want them to visit then?"

"No I do. It's just that they kinda don't know about you." Aubrey looked at Stacie and saw a slightly confused look on the younger woman's face. "They know that I am in a relationship but they don't know that I'm with a woman. I've never sent them a picture or anything of us." Aubrey looked back down at her hands and waited a few seconds before continuing "Every time I wanted to tell them about us they always had something else going on, it was never the right time. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you"

"Is this why you were stressed yesterday?" Stacie questioned

"Yeah. I thought I could handle it on my own, but I can't. I tried to stop them from coming, but they've already booked their plane tickets"

"When are they arriving?"

"Friday morning"

"Well then we have just under a week to think of an excuse that will not freak your parents out and that they will believe"

"Wait, aren't you mad that I didn't tell you?"

"Nope."

"Why?"

"Because you are my girlfriend and I love you" Stacie linked their hands and looked at Aubrey "And we will get through this, no matter what your parents think. And you were there when I told my mum and dad and I was very thankful for that. Just tell me if there is something you are worrying about please, you scared me yesterday"

"I love you, you're the best girlfriend ever" Aubrey felt another tear roll down her cheek

"Let's hope your parents think so" Stacie gave Aubrey a smirk and a wink. "Now can we please eat some of this food, I am slightly hungry"

They spent the rest of the evening laying on the picnic blanket talking about the potential disaster they could have with Aubrey's parents. They lay there completely content with one another, feeling much better after they had talked it out, Aubrey was feeling like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders and she knew that she could always talk to Stacie about anything, just like she will with her parents.

After all, Stacie is Aubrey's constant.