A/N: It was recently brought to my attention that Beca's eyes are dark blue rather than brown, so from here on out I'll refer to them as hazel, just to avoid confusion. Thanks for all the support! On with the show!
The girl groaned as she felt the slightest pressure on her shoulder. It was warm and gentle, but it didn't distract from the fact that someone was shaking her shoulder, disturbing her peaceful slumber. Her eyes opened slightly, and as she sat up Beca let out a small yawn. She scanned her surroundings, seeing she was still in Aubrey's car, but the location confused her. Everything was strange, and she'd never seen the place before, but after feeling Chloe's hand on her shoulder and seeing the caring look in her beautiful blue eyes Beca managed to calm down.
"Where are we?" the brunette asked drowsily, holding her crutch tightly, ready to get out of the car. She watched Chloe smile and shrug her shoulders, bouncing her red locks.
"Home," she replied, an incredibly large grin on her face. "Since the year is over you're going to be staying in the apartment with Aubrey and I."
With a smirk Beca looked at the blonde in the front seat. She noticed the way Aubrey shifted in her seat, not looking in the rear view mirror. A small laugh escaped the girl's throat as she leaned back in the seat, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Not happy about having me over, Aubrey?" Beca asked, raising her eyebrow in a teasing manner, earning an eye roll from the blonde.
"I'm just wondering how I'm going to survive having to spend an entire summer with you," she replied, shooting a smirk to the girl in the back seat. Beca simply shook her head and laughed, turning her gaze to Chloe.
"If I'm going to be living with you guys I'll have to get my stuff," Chloe's knowing smile put the brunette on edge, and she knew Chloe was far too happy about having her move in with them.
"We already got your stuff," Chloe replied, the brunette's jaw dropped open as the red head continued. "Well, the girls did, I was too busy visiting you in the hospital."
"You two just had this all planned out, didn't you?" the girl asked, smirking slightly, winking at Chloe.
"It was her idea," Aubrey said, sending a smirk the red head's way, "I told her we should just drop you off at the pound."
"Very funny," the brunette replied, smiling at the blush on Chloe's cheeks. Yet, as she turned her head, Beca wanted her to turn back. She wished she was able to make Chloe smile and blush that way, and hoped one day she would. However, the brunette was fairly certain it would never happen.
Chloe got out of the car first, holding the door for Beca as she put her crutch on the ground, helping to steady her broken leg. When she moved to stand, the crutch fell out from under her, almost sending her toppling to the ground. Luckily, the red head had caught her several inches above the ground, saving her yet another injury.
The girl wrapped her unbroken arm around Chloe's shoulders, managing to stand up straight. Yet, they simply stood in place, the girl's breathing was rapid from the surprise of the fall. She turned her gaze to Chloe, and a small smirk came to her lips.
"You do realize where your hand is, right?" she watched Chloe's eyes move to her hand, and she immediately pulled back, standing several feet away.
"I am so sorry!" Chloe exclaimed, but Beca couldn't help but keep smiling as the woman's blush turned a darker shade of red than it had been before. When the red head tilted her head to the side, obviously confused by the girl's smile, Beca thought she might die of how adorable she seemed.
"I never said I didn't like it," Beca winked, moving to be next to her once again. Chloe's relieved sigh brought yet another smile to the girl's lips, and she couldn't help but think about how happy Chloe made her.
It was like being in a different world. The red head brought so much joy into her life, and she wasn't even sure how Chloe was able to do it. Whenever she was around, Beca could escape from the world she lived in. She wasn't surrounded by people who didn't like her, who didn't even know her well enough to make that judgement. The red head was perfect in every way; it seemed impossible to find a single flaw about her.
She was drawn out of her thoughts with a small slap to the shoulder, but it only caused Beca to smile more. The girl was so focused on Chloe she barely noticed Aubrey out of the corner of her eye walking towards them.
"You are very lucky I like you," the older Bella said, nudging the girl in the side with her elbow.
"Now that you two are finished with your flirting, can we go inside now?" turning to see a very annoyed Aubrey, she couldn't help but notice the smirk the blonde was sending Chloe's way. Beca shrugged it off, still smiling.
"The girls are all waiting for you inside," Chloe said, helping Beca get up the steps with her crutch, seeing as they lived on the second floor of the apartment building.
The brunette simply replied with a nod, putting her walls up again. True, she was happy to be out of the hospital, but the girl knew it couldn't last. No happiness she ever had lasted, especially not something as special as spending time with Chloe. It was something private, something she'd never experienced with anyone else.
In truth, Beca wasn't happy, she rarely was. Not that she'd admit it to anyone else, not even Chloe. Her walls had been built so high and fortified so well around her heart the girl refused to allow anyone into it again. Then her thoughts turned to Chloe, the beautiful red head who somehow managed to sneak through her walls for a short while.
How had Chloe managed to get in? There were no cracks in her walls, no possible way for anyone to get in. Yet, she managed it. Beca was glad for the small time the woman had managed it, but it had to stop. She couldn't be hurt again, and she wouldn't be hurt again. Though, she had her doubts about the fact that Chloe would intend to upset her, the brunette was certain that somehow she would be hurt by Chloe, intentional or not.
"We're here!" Chloe said happily, drawing Beca from her thoughts. The raise of the red head's eyebrow caught her attention. "You okay?"
"Fine," the girl replied quickly, turning her head away. "You going to open the door or not?"
She saw Chloe's shock at her harsh tone, but the brunette couldn't help it. The frustration building within her for being so stupid as to let someone in was overwhelming. It was like she was being possessed by something, and that something was telling her it was okay to trust Chloe Beale. She knew it was wrong, it wasn't okay to trust anyone. The only person Beca could trust was herself, and she'd known that for a long time.
When Chloe finally opened the door she walked in, leaning on her crutch because the pain in her leg was beginning to flare up again. The girl knew she would have to take something, but it could wait. Gasps came from in the room as she walked in, and a forced smile came to her lips. All the Bellas were sitting on the couch, seemingly waiting for her to get back.
"Beca!" Fat Amy yelled, rushing as fast as she could over to the small brunette and pulling her into a crushing hug.
"Fat Amy," the girl groaned after a while, "You're crushing my broken arm."
"Sorry about that," the larger Bella said as she let go, putting her hands behind her back. "We're happy to have you back. Now we can have our party tonight!"
"Beca, did you see any hot guys at the hospital?" the shorter Bella wasn't surprised by the fact that Stacie had asked the question, and when she didn't answer the other brunette rose a questioning eyebrow.
"I don't know," Beca replied truthfully, "All the people who took care of me were female nurses and a particular red head."
Almost everyone's glance turned to Chloe, except for Beca. She was determined to keep herself as far away from the woman as possible, but seeing as they were currently living with each other it wan't going to happen. The other Bellas looked to her, small smiles on each of their faces, especially Fat Amy's.
"Okay," the short brunette said after several seconds of just watching them, "What's going on? Why are you all smiling like that?"
"You ruined the surprise, guys!" Aubrey yelled from behind her, walking inside and putting her hands on her hips as she looked at the other Bellas. "Could you not contain your smiles for five minutes?"
"No," Stacie replied, "because we know she's going to love it."
"I'm going to love what?" Beca asked, feeling ridiculous because she was being talked about while she was still in the room.
"You know we didn't visit you in the hospital, right?" Cynthia Rose asked, receiving an eye roll from Beca.
"Unless I was unconscious when you visited, then yes, I know," the girl replied sarcastically, earning a small laugh from most Bellas in the room, including Chloe and Aubrey.
"Well, that's because we were working," Fat Amy said, to which Beca raised her eyebrow.
"To say thank you for leading us to championship and as a get well soon present for your broken leg we-"
"You guys didn't have to get me anything," Beca interrupted Stacie, and earned an eyebrow raise from everyone in the room. "You guys deserve something as much as I do."
"You don't even know what it is yet," Stacie said, smirking at the shorter brunette. "And we're not taking it back. Besides, after you see it you won't want us to take it back."
The girl sighed at the more sensual of the Bella's, shrugging her shoulders as acceptance. Before Stacie could turn around, Beca put a hand on her shoulder.
"You didn't get me lingerie did you?" the shorter brunette asked, earning a shoulder slap from Stacie, all the while Beca had a smirk on her lips.
"You wish I got you lingerie," Stacie winked, stepping away from the couch, "but no."
"Check it out," Fat Amy said, moving everyone away from the desk that they had been hiding beside the couch.
On the desk was her computer and her head phones, but to say Beca was surprised would have been an understatement. There was entirely new, and very expensive DJ equipment on the desk. The brunette walked over to the desk and smiled.
"I've been saving money for this ever since I came to Barden," Beca said, turning to face the others. The smile on her face wasn't as big as the others thought it was going to be, but they didn't know Beca.
"Told you so," Stacie said, earning a small laugh from everyone in the room.
"Thanks, guys," the short brunette said, looking over at them. "This is probably the best gift I've ever gotten."
"Don't go sentimental on us, Beca, because there's one catch to the gift," Aubrey said, coming to stand at the front of the other Bellas.
"Someone come shield me. I think she's about to break my other leg," Beca said, smirking as all the other Bellas laughed, including Chloe.
"No," Aubrey said, silencing them, "You're going to have to make a mix for our party."
"How long do I have to do it?" Beca asked, rather glad that she'd be working on a mix.
"About three hours while the rest of us go get drinks and food," the brunette was about to ask why it would take that long, but honestly she didn't want to know.
"I'll stay here with Beca," Chloe said, making a lump form in Beca's throat. As the others left, Chloe looked over to Beca who had already sat at the desk and put her headphones over her ears. The sigh that escaped her was unheard by the brunette.
They had been getting along so well before they'd gotten back to the apartment. Was it Aubrey that was making her act this way? No, it couldn't have been, otherwise she wouldn't have been joking with the blonde as they were there. The red head was utterly confused, but tried not to let Beca know about it. After an hour and a half of simply pacing, watching TV, and drinking a soda Chloe couldn't take the silence anymore. She walked over to Beca with a chair and sat next to her, pulling the headphones away from the girl's ears.
"Are you mad at me?" she asked, tilting her head to the side and staring into the brunette's hazel eyes as they glimmered with confusion.
"Of course not," Beca replied, "Why would you think that?"
"You're sitting here and you haven't said a single word to me since we got here," Chloe said, huffing and shrugging her shoulders. "You were smiling in the car and now you've barely had a smile on your face at all. Did I do something wrong?"
She watched the girl's head turn away, and was very tempted to pull it back. Chloe didn't want to push her, because whatever Beca was hiding wouldn't come out by force, but she was patient.
"You haven't done anything wrong," Beca muttered, earning an eyebrow raise from Chloe who watched as the girl turned her head.
Both of them fell into silence, not knowing what to say to the other. The red head remembered the scars on Beca's back, wondering when she would ask the younger Bella about it, but quickly decided it wasn't the time. Sooner or later Chloe knew she would ask, but for the moment was content to just have the brunette's company.
"Can I listen to what you're doing?" she asked, tilting her head to the side and giving Beca a pleading look, knowing she couldn't refuse.
"Fine," the girl responded after a sigh, plugging in smaller earphones to the second audio jack on her computer and handing them to Chloe. The eager red head immediately put them in her ears and nodded her head as she listened to Beca put the tracks of the songs together.
The woman almost told Beca how amazing the song was, but knew the brunette wouldn't hear her with the headphones in. They were still silent, but with the music in Chloe's ears she could practically hear Beca's emotions with every note. The music was like the core of the girl's being, and seeing the look of pure concentration on her face was absolutely incredible.
Chloe scooted in her seat and leaned her head against Beca's shoulder. The girl tensed, but she didn't move, waiting to see if she would calm down. Eventually she did, and the red head smiled and moved closer to her, curling her body against the brunette's. Her ear was over the red head's left shoulder, so she was careful not to lean herself too harshly against her broken arm.
After taking one of her earphones out, the woman listened to the steady breathing of Beca's heart. A smile crossed her lips, and though she was certain the girl would deny it, out of the corner of her eye she saw Beca smile too.