The next morning was substantially more awkward than Chloe had anticipated. The ending of their night together had made her feel so close to her girlfriend that she naively expected that feeling of intimacy to extend into this morning but when she woke up Beca was no longer in their bed. The ginger stretched and threw on her longue jacket before trotting into her living room to find her brunette girlfriend sitting across from her blonde roommate. The pair was talking quietly over matching mugs of warm coffee.

"Morning Becs, Bree," she acknowledged. "I didn't hear you get up babe?"

"Yeah, sorry," Beca said, clearing her throat awkwardly. "I just couldn't sleep anymore and wanted some water but Bree was here and I was tempted by coffee."

Her voice was scratchy, like it hadn't been used in a while and the blonde gave her a questioning look. They'd just been talking and the alt girl had sounded perfectly normal, but then again they'd been basically whispering to ensure they didn't wake Chloe.

Chloe smiled, her heart was warmed by the sight of her two favorite people sitting in the kitchen together, like this was a regular occurrence. If the older girl had her way, this would become a regular occurrence. The uneasy feeling that had been bubbling in her stomach since she woke up, rolled over, and saw her girlfriend gone did not dissipate and she wasn't quite sure why. On the one hand, of course she wanted to talk to Beca alone, especially in light of what happened the night, but they'd dealt with any seemingly urgent conversation.

"I was just going over rehearsal material with Beca for Monday," Aubrey offered helpfully. She could most definitely sense the tension in the room and hoped to ease it. The blonde knew better than to ask the younger girl any direct questions and she could always get the answers from her best friend later anyway.

"I'm not sure that Beca will be back to practice by Monday," Chloe asserted calmly. She helped herself to the coffee still in the pot and deliberately kept her back to her company. She was mildly irritated that it seemed her girlfriend was attempting to circumvent her wishes by not telling Aubrey about her throat.

"Why wouldn't Beca be at practice?" The captain questioned.

The brunette opened her mouth to answer her but Chloe spun around, coffee in hand, and cut her off.

"Because Jesse attacked her last night at the radio station."

Beca shot out of her seat instantly and stared at her girlfriend murderously.

"What the fuck Chloe? Why would you tell her that?"

Now that Beca's hair was no longer cloaking her neck, the blonde was free to see the purple bruises that were blatant and menacing-looking.

Aubrey let out a dramatic gasp. "Oh my God Beca Jesse did this? How? When?"

Beca completely ignored Aubrey's inquisition entirely and wrapped her arms defensively around herself.

"It's obvious that you weren't going to mention it and she has a right to know Beca, she's your friend," The ginger explained, she took a step closer to the table but made no move to touch her agitated partner.

"And that gives you the right to tell her? Just because you think that she has a right to know?" she challenged.

"Guys!" Aubrey shouted, getting the attention of both girls. "What happened at the radio station with Jesse last night?"

Beca huffed indignantly and refused to make eye contact. Chloe calmly turned to her best friend and softened her stance.

"I went to visit Beca last night during her shift, to explain," she gave the blonde a meaningful look knowing she'd understand the reference to their conversation about Beca. "When I got there Jesse had his hand around Beca's neck choking her in place and he was groping hard enough to leave bruises her all while shoving his tongue down her throat."

Aubrey covered her mouth with her hands in horror. Her eyes drifted between her co-captain and her friend in disbelief.

"Oh my God that's horrible. What are you going to do?" The questioned was directed at Beca but her eyes never left Chloe's baby blues.

"Call the police, mostly likely," she answered seriously.

"What!" The brunette snapped. "I never agreed to that Chloe."

"It's not up for debate," she retorted. "This is about your safety and I can't leave that to chance. He slapped you at Bellas practice in front of everyone and now he's assaulting you at work. This needs to stop."

Beca was visibly fuming; her hands were curled up into fists at her sides and she was aggressively grinding her teeth together.

"I agree," Aubrey nodded. "We can't allow this to escalate any further."

"We?" Beca questioned incredulously. "I'm sorry – did I miss the part where Jesse assaulted the two of you as well?"

"Beca," Chloe sighed. "This is-"

"Don't 'Beca' me, Chloe," the brunette growled, cutting her off. "I told you I'm not going to the police."

"And I told you, I'm not taking a poll," she replied, remaining infuriatingly composed.

Seeing that Beca was possibly about to lose it, Aubrey took it upon herself to deescalate the argument.

"Relax, ladies," she soothed. "Beca, I agree with Chloe. You absolutely need to go to the police and with those bruises on your throat and the scratchiness of your voice; you do not need to be practicing with us until those heal."

The DJ's eyes were alight with fire. Chloe had been so understanding with her last night, they'd been so on the same page and this morning it was like they were living on separate planets.

"Whatever. I have to get back to my dorm and do homework," the short girl all but snarled.

"Beca wait," Chloe reached out for her hand but her girlfriend stepped back. "We have more to talk about."

"Yeah, well, it can wait until after I'm done with my stupid philosophy paper," she argued.

Chloe, sensing that if she pushed now nothing good would come from the interaction, nodded disappointedly. "I'll drive you home."

"I'm good, I want to walk," she argued.

"With psycho Jesse out there stalking you?" The ginger scoffed. "Not a chance. I'll get my keys."

With that, Chloe left the kitchen to get shoes, her wallet, and keys.

"Chloe is just trying to look out for you, you know?" Aubrey offered gently.

"I knew you'd be on her side," Beca muttered petulantly.

Aubrey groaned, "There are no sides Beca. Jesse is dangerous and this…incident has no doubt triggered her overprotective instincts. Humor her and let her drive you home."

The younger girl nodded moodily but said nothing.

"Seriously though, you should really think about going to the police. Chloe might be overprotective sometimes but she's rarely wrong, especially about this kind of thing."

Before Beca had a chance to respond, her girlfriend reentered the living room and jingled the keys.

The tall blonde gave her fellow Bella a sympathetic smile and nodded her goodbye.

Rolling her eyes, the dj stomped past the redhead looking annoyed and walked out the front door.

"Drive safe," The captain called her to roommate.

"Love you Bree!"

And with that the couple was gone.

The drive to Baker hall is only about 10 minutes with traffic and they'd already spent 7 of them in complete silence.

"Seriously you're not going to say anything to me?" Chloe asked.

Beca – who had previously been lost in a thought staring out the window - expected her to sound angry or irritated with her but instead she sounded wounded and instantly the brunette felt guilt wash over her.

"I don't know what to say," she offered neutrally.

Chloe swallowed harshly but didn't reply.

"I don't want to go to the police Chloe I meant that," she said quietly. "He's not worth it."

"I understand that Beca but I need you to trust me when I say that this is only going to get worse and I can't sit by and watch this guy torture you."

"He's harml-"

"Don't you dare try to tell me that Jesse Swanson is harmless," Chloe seethed, her hands squeezing the steering wheel in anger. "He stalks you, harasses you all over campus, declares his undying love for you regularly and you think he is harmless! Beca if I hadn't gotten to the radio station when I did last night he might have raped you."

The younger girl was taken aback by the amount of pure rage in Chloe's voice. She knew that her girlfriend was wound up over what happened but she didn't anticipate this level of anger. While it was a well known fact that the Bellas captain was an emotional person, it was usually bubbliness and at worst, sadness; the brunette hardly ever saw Chloe get genuinely mad and she had to admit, it was kind of scary.

"I'm sorry Chlo," she softened. "I didn't mean to upset you." She reached out and covered one of the taller girl's hands with her own.

The older girl took a calming breath and nodded. The couple road in silence for a few more minutes and then it struck the smaller girl that they should definitely be at her dorm by now. She snapped out of her thoughts and observed her surroundings only to realize that they weren't anywhere near her dorm and were headed to the outskirts of campus.

"Um Chloe did I miss something?" she asked.

Silence.

"Seriously what's happening? Are we getting food or something?"

Again, Beca was met with silence.

"Chloe you're starting to freak me out, say something!" Beca shouted. Her nerves had cranked up into hyper drive and she was full on starting to panic. This situation was startlingly similar to all the times she'd be taken without her permission and thoroughly abused by her multitude of guardians. Somewhere in her mind she was aware of the fact that she was sitting in the car with her girlfriend, hundreds of miles from any of the predators from her past but her heart rate refused to slow and her lungs wouldn't stop seizing.

Chloe's clear blue eyes widened at the sudden, on-set reaction from her girlfriend. She quickly pulled into the parking lot, put the car in park and cut the engine. Every molecule in her body wanted to freak out watching her girlfriend's sudden panic attack. She forced herself to calm down; otherwise she'd be useless to the other girl.

Unstrapping her seatbelt, she leaned over and made a move to unstrap her girlfriend's as well in case it was constricting her but as soon as her arm reached over the console and moved to undo the other girl's she was met with a violent flinch and wide eyes.

Chloe held her hands up in a defensive gesture and leaned back to her side of the car.

"Beca," she soothed. "I need you to calm down and breathe." She got no response from Beca, who was clearly not in the same car as her.

She reached out again, slower this time, and picked up one of Beca's hands in her own. Predictably, the other girl flinched away again but Chloe held on and pressed the smaller girl's hand against her own heart. She breathed as deeply as possible to exaggerate her air intake.

"Just breathe Becs. Just like me," she hummed. Beca was a person that didn't, couldn't, trust words so Chloe tried to reach her the only way she knew how, through music. She hummed Just the Way You Are softly. It was much more complicated than it sounds, humming a song while keeping her breathing steady enough to try and calm the other girl.

Slowly but surely, she could see some of the tension slip out of the brunette's shoulders and she slowly appeared to relax.

Eventually Beca's dark blue eyes cleared and Chloe could see the comprehension reappear in them.

"Hey there, welcome back to the land of the living," The redhead joked.

"Chloe?" Beca asked, clearing her throat. Her voice was scratchy and her recently bruised body certainly didn't appreciate the beating she'd just given her lungs in addition to everything else. "Where are we?"

Chloe winced, she'd been hoping Beca wouldn't lead with that question and she didn't see a way out of answering it.

"Beca…I brought you here because I love you and this is the right thing to do. I hope you realize that someday."

The brunette's head snapped up. "What does that mean?"

Glancing around urgently, it occurred to the alt girl immediately that her girlfriend brought them to the police station, against her wishes.

"Hear me out," the ginger pleaded. She saw the wheels turning in Beca's head and she wanted to speak before the sting of betrayal deafened her. "I don't want to force you. God knows enough people in your life have made you do things without giving you a choice and I don't want to be added to that list. But I'm walking into that police station and reporting what Jesse did, with or without you."

She reached out and took Beca's other hand and held both of them tightly in her own.

"I'm not willing to take any chances when it comes to your safety. I'm sorry if you're mad and I promise we can talk about it later if you want to but we need to do this and we need to do it right now."

The brunette seemed to be absorbing the singer's words but her dark blue orbs revealed no emotion.

"Say something, please."

Hello friends, long time no see. For those of you who aren't in college yet, trust me when I say it's more time consuming than you could ever imagine. For those of you also in school, I'm sure you feel my pain. So Chloe's kinda harsh in this chapter right? I'm kinda proud of her though, Beca definitely needs to report Jesse to the cops. Let's just hope she's not too mad with our girl when she's done.

Please let me know how you're feeling about this story! I always love suggestions and constructive criticism.

I've started the next chapter so that hopefully it'll be easier to jump back in when I have some time to write again and hopefully it won't take an entire year (just kidding) (sort of?)

For those of you who read my ~other stories~ I have the next chapter of Price but it needs some editing so be on the lookout for that soon.

Love you all and thanks for sticking with me!