"I'm not…mad," Beca cleared her throat. "Well, actually that's a lie. I am mad that you're trying to force this on me. It's not fair."
Chloe breathed a sigh of relief at how well her firecracker girlfriend was taking the news. She'd fully expected a blow up of some kind or to be completely shut out after the brunette realized where she had taken them.
"I know that," Chloe assured her. "But I am not willing to wait around for Jesse to attack you again. By the time you realize that he's a serious threat it might be too late for the police to do anything."
"It's still my call Chloe and you're making it for me," she argued.
"Beca, I am doing this because I love you and I need you to be safe. No other reason. This way Jesse will at least be on the police's radar and they can order you some kind of protection detail or something. A restraining order at the very least," she offered.
"Yeah because Barden PD is the epitome of top notch protection," Beca quipped.
"They're better than nothing Becs," she reasoned.
The brunette nodded, realizing that this was a battle she would not win. She had no doubt that Chloe was 100% serious about storming into the police station with or without her and this would probably go more smoothly if she accompanied her girlfriend to make sure that she didn't go off on the cops.
"Let's just get this over with okay?" she huffed.
Not giving the Bellas captain a chance to respond, she slipped out of the car and slammed the door shut behind her. Her ribs still felt like they were on fire from her panic attack and weren't happy with her sudden movement but she forced herself to keep from wincing; she certainly didn't need to give Chloe any more ammunition to get fired up over something concerning her.
Feeling victorious, the redhead followed her girl out of the car, careful to lock it behind her. She caught up to her short girlfriend despite her speed-walking in just a few quick strides. She considered taking Beca's hand and God did she want to, but she thought better of it because A. her girlfriend wasn't exactly thrilled with her at the moment and B. the police didn't need any reason to dislike her or Beca. She probably should've mentioned to Beca prior to their entering the station that she thought it would be a better idea to not mention the true nature of their relationship. On the off chance that anyone in the police station was homophobic, better not to give them any reason to take their complaint less seriously.
As the couple approached the counter, the secretary glanced up and gave them a once over.
"How can I help you ladies?" she asked, sounding bored.
"We need to report an assault," Chloe lead, cutting Beca off before she got the chance to downplay the incident.
The woman's eyes widened. She couldn't have been more than 25 years old and Chloe guessed that she was most likely a fellow student at Barden.
"I'll get one of the detectives right away," she said, scuffling out of her seat and into the back room.
Beca sighed, letting Chloe know exactly how dissatisfied she was with the way that the current situation was playing out.
"You didn't have to say it like that," she mumbled.
"What was I supposed to call it?" The ginger challenged. "Would you have preferred if I reported an attempted rape?"
Immediately Beca's cheeks flushed with embarrassment and irritation but she said nothing.
Almost instantly Chloe felt badly, this was obviously very hard on the brunette and her attitude certainly wasn't helping to put the other girl at ease. As they waited for the young woman to return with an officer, it occurred to the senior that Beca probably felt uneasy in police stations in general, given her past. For all intents and purposes, Beca should have reported a number of men and women for abusing her in the past. Because of their fear tactics, the DJ had been conditioned not trust police and not ever to tell adults about her situations. And now Chloe was all but demanding that she go against every survival instinct she'd ever been taught and reach out for help.
A booming voice reverberated through the lobby of the police station and right away Chloe noticed that Beca was beginning to shrink into herself. Her shoulders hunched and her back tensed.
"Ladies, I understand you're here to report an assault?" He affirmed.
The lobby wasn't exactly filled with other students but even Chloe was annoyed that the man didn't even attempt to keep him voice down.
"Yes Sir, we are," the taller girl asserted.
He nodded deeply, "Come with me to one of the interview rooms and I'll take your statement."
The two college students followed the tall man in blue back to a grey interview room with an obvious one-way mirror. Beca felt uncomfortable and her skin crawled just sitting in the station but she forced herself to swallow her feelings of discomfort.
The man's nametag read Officer Taylor Lamberly and he pulled out a notepad and a manila folder with a form that read 'official statement' in the title line.
"Can I get your names for the record?" he asked, not looking up from the form.
"Beca Mitchell and Chloe Beale," the latter answered.
Officer nodded but said nothing. Beca noticed that he was chewing gum and for some reason it made her dislike him even more.
Finally, he looked up and stared right into Chloe's bright eyes.
"Can you take me through what happened?" he asked.
"Oh, I'm not the victim," she clarified. Beca flinched violently at Chloe's term of choice.
The man looked slightly disappointed to have to look away from the ginger but nevertheless his eyes drifted over to the other girl.
"Then can you take me through what happened?"
Chloe opened her mouth and began to explain the first incident when Jesse came to the auditorium but before she could finish even the first sentence, the Officer cut her off.
"I'm sorry Miss Beale, I don't mean to be rude but I need to hear what happened from Miss Mitchell here," he said apologetically.
No part of Beca was surprised by the officer's request but she was still disappointed that Chloe couldn't do the talking for her considering she didn't want to be there in the first place.
"There's a boy on campus who has been following me around campus kind of," she began, keeping her eyes glued to the table. "He works with me, at the Barden radio station and we were friends up until a few weeks ago. I- he."
Chloe reached under the table and held her girlfriend's hand tightly in her own as a show of support. It had been hard enough for the younger girl to recount her past abuse to her in the privacy of her own apartment and now just a few days later she was asking Beca to do something similar with a complete stranger in a depressingly grey interrogation room.
Beca took a deep breath to calm her nerves and drew strength from her girlfriend's show of support.
"He showed up at one of my a capella practices. He was returning some warm up sheet music and he became…irate."
"Irate?" the officer questioned. "What do you mean by that?"
"He was agitated, his face was turning red and I saw him ball his hands into fists," the brunette clarified.
"And what set him off?"
"The a capella rivalry is always intense at this point in the competition season," Chloe jumped in. "Some pranks usually happen but Jesse was upset that Beca wasn't spending a lot of time with him anymore."
If Beca was confused or surprised by Chloe's half-truth it didn't show on her face as she nodded along with her explanation.
"Jesse came in and we argued about how busy I'd been lately. He has something of a crush on me and he's been asking me out. I've told him a few times that I wasn't interested in anything more than friendship but he wasn't hearing it. I told him he wasn't being reasonable and to stop acting like an ass," she shuffled uncomfortably. "He uh, he slapped me after that."
The officer nodded along and kept writing notes. "Is that the only incident of assault?"
Beca hesitated for a beat and Chloe prepared to jump in if her girlfriend faltered.
"No," she answered quietly. "We're here because he cornered me during my shift at the radio station last night. He declared his undying love for me and ranted about how destined to be we were. I knew I was in trouble because he had this crazed look in his eyes. He pushed me up against a wall and held me there by the throat. His other hand was groping my breasts and he pretty aggressively shoved his tongue down my throat."
The Officer wrote madly to try and write all the facts down without forgetting any.
Chloe was past concerned; she was shocked by how easily Beca was recounting Jesse's abuse. When she'd told her about her violent past, the younger girl had broken down and sobbed and the ginger acted accordingly, by comforting her girlfriend. She wasn't sure how exactly to help this closed off, seemingly emotionless girl currently sitting next to her. She made a mental note to ask Aubrey for her opinion when she got back home.
"And you're sure that you haven't done or said anything to give this Jesse the impression that you were interested in a relationship with him?"
Chloe immediately saw red.
"How dare you imply that -"
"I'm sure," Beca cut Chloe off quickly, squeezing her hand tightly under the table. "I've consistently told Jesse I wasn't interested in him romantically.
The officer ignored Chloe's outburst and finally looked up from his paper.
"Well, thank you for coming forward. Now I'm going to file this report and if you'd like, I can start the paperwork for a restraining order. We can order than he stay at least 500 feet away from you at all times. If you're still coworkers, you'll need to work that out with your boss."
The brunette nodded. As unhappy as she was to be there in the first place, she relaxed slightly at the news that she may be able to get a restraining order out of this. The small girl was confident that once Luke was aware of the situation he'd be more than happy to fire the other boy.
Officer Lamberly stood, pausing once again to give Chloe a hungry once over. "I'm going to type up this statement and then I'll bring it back for you to sign. Once my supervisor processes and files the paperwork, we'll get started on this restraining order."
Beca glared at him, very aware of his growing interest in her girlfriend. Normally it wouldn't bother her because Chloe was a generally overly affectionate girl and made it very clear that she was a happily taken woman. However for whatever reason, it was clear to the brunette that the other girl wanted to keep the nature of their relationship secret and she was compelled to go along with it.
Once Officer Lamberly had left the room, a silence fell over the couple.
"I think Officer Lamberly is going to ask for more than a signature from you once this is over," Beca snarked, sarcastically emphasizing his title.
"I wouldn't know, it's hard to notice when you're dating the most beautiful girl on the planet. Kinda makes you blind to the advances of horny cops," Chloe responded smoothly. She was still confused by her girlfriend's subdued nature. It was difficult for her to get a read on Beca's emotions and that made her nervous; she couldn't tell exactly how pissed the other girl was going to be with her and she was anxious to find out. All things considered, the interaction had gone relatively well but she knew Beca would still be upset that she forced her hand to such a degree.
The couple didn't have to wait long before the Officer returned to their room. He passed out two separate pieces of paper, Beca's statement and a corroboration form for the other girl. The brunette scanned the form to ensure Lamberly had accurately recounted her version of events. Nodding when she finished, she signed the form and slid it across the table to the Officer. Chloe too signed the form and passed it over.
"Thanks again for your time today ladies. I'll give you a call when I get the papers through." He offered sincerely.
The couple stood and collected their jackets; as they prepared to leave the room, Lamberly's brown eyes zeroed in on the taller girl.
"Miss Beale if I could just borrow you for a quick second?" he asked gently.
The Bellas exchanged confused and skeptical looks.
"What do you need to talk to Chloe for?" Beca questioned slowly.
"It'll just take a minute I promise. Miss Mitchell you can wait in the lobby and fill out a contact information form so that I have your number to call when I get to the restraining order." Neither girl missed that he had been addressing Chloe even though Beca had asked the question.
The young DJ realized that she had been dismissed and was slightly miffed by it but compliantly exited the room and filled out a contact form with the same girl from the front desk.
True to his word, the Officer only kept Chloe back for about 5 minutes. The ginger reentered the lobby and joined her girlfriend in the seating area but did not sit down.
"What did Officer hard-on want?" Beca asked with an eye roll.
Chloe chuckled at the brunette's nickname for the man and reached out playfully and pulled the other girl to her feet.
"Nothing, just forms and stuff. Let's get out of here."
As much as the shorter girl wanted to accept her girlfriend's answer, she couldn't help but notice how anxiety seemed to dance in the ginger's eyes and the way she had answered just a little bit too quickly. As the couple exited the building and walked about towards the car, Beca tried once more.
"Seriously, he just wanted to talk about the forms?"
"Yup," Chloe affirmed, unlocking the vehicle.
"Then why would he ask me to wait in the lobby?"
"Uh he mentioned some victim support group thing and he didn't want to make you uncomfortable," she answered.
Beca nodded, accepting the answer and choosing to trust her girlfriend. Or at least that's what she told herself, the uneasy feeling in her stomach didn't dissipate. "If you're sure," she added absently.
Chloe seemed to twitch under the scrutiny of her girlfriend's eyes in a way that Beca had never seen her do before.
The ginger would normally insist that she and Beca talk through the argument that they'd had over going to the police but she was also mindful of her girlfriend's school work so she dropped her off at her dorm room like she'd promised to do earlier. They parted with a chaste kiss to the shorter girl's confusion.
Chloe drove herself home distractedly, she almost ran over at least 3 pedestrians. She ascended the stairs up to her and Aubrey's apartment, closed the front door behind her and leaned against.
"Oh God what did I do," she whispered to herself.
oooo a cliffhanger! any guesses as to what Chloe did?
See I told you guys it wouldn't be another year, didn't I?
I apologize if this isn't exactly what happens when you give the police a statement but it seems close enough.
ALSO I love everyone who reviewed! A lot of them were super detailed and so sweet and just really inspiring, so thank you!