Chapter 4

Tuesday - April 12th

Workday. Morning around eleven o' clock.

You have 15 new messages from Unknown Number.

Beca's phone on the table announced loudly. Chloe watched as the other girl picked up the phone, grunted in annoyance at whatever was on screen before switching it off. She then turned to Chloe.

"Sorry about that, it's my dad," she said. "Can't seem to leave me alone."

"It must be urgent if he left you 15 messages."

Beca didn't look too worried.

"He's been trying to reach me for the past few weeks. Must've found out I moved here." She said it with a certain distaste.

"You don't like your dad?" Chloe asked. She was curious. Why would Beca not have her father as a named contact in her phone? Why would she ignore him?

"Nope," the brunette replied quickly.

Chloe wanted to pry, desperately. Beca had revealed little about herself so far. She seemed to be far more content just listening. Getting her to open up would be a challenge, the redhead was almost sure of it. The girl was interesting, not what she had expected at all. There was an innocence to her. She hid it behind a hard as nails exterior, one that seemed to crumble immediately when she had met Chloe. Beca had no problem standing up to authority figures, her confidence seemed to flare out of her whenever she did. But the first simple interaction between the two co-workers had turned her into a quivering mess.

"You wanna talk about it?" Chloe was a little ashamed that her question was the best she could come up with. At least she left it open for Beca to refuse. The last thing she needed was for the progress in their relationship to take a step back.

"It's boring."

"Let me be the judge of that," Chloe countered.

Beca seemed to brace herself. She took a deep breath and took a sip of her coffee. "You really want to know?"

"Yes!" Chloe said loudly, somewhat exasperated.

"Why?"

The question confused the redhead to an extent. She had expected pushback certainly but she hadn't been prepared for this. She knew the answer to the question but would being blunt about it help the situation?

"I want to get to know you."

"Because?"

She needed to be honest to a certain extent, Beca clearly didn't think she actually considered her well-being. "Because I'm your friend," she said slowly. "You don't seem overjoyed about your dad and I'd like to know why. Believe it or not Beca, but I do care about you."

Beca smiled, she looked appreciative of Chloe's words.

"It really is boring, my dad left when I was around thirteen. My mom had caught him cheating with a much younger woman. She had been willing to forgive him. At first he seemed to have realized his mistake and for about two weeks, it looked like things were returning to normal. Next thing you know, he doesn't come home from work one day." Another sip of coffee. "A couple of years ago, he must have found out where I was and started trying to contact me."

"He never really believed in me. Must have been a surprise to find out I made it through college. Now he wants to come back into my life. I'm just glad to be away from all of that," she finished, her focus on the computer monitor.

Chloe had suspected that Beca's aversion to her father was more than just a need for space. Beca had already given him a chance to make things right and he had abused it. It showed remarkable strength to completely let him go. It explained her hardened personality.

"I won in a sense. I showed him I could make it without him. I've got my degree, a place to live in a thriving city and a job with further options."

Chloe grinned. "You're awesome, you know that," she said. The brunette turned to face her, looking surprised at her declaration. "You realized that dwelling on your father wasn't going to bring you any joy so you eliminated him from your life and got on with it. It's really admirable." Chloe was beaming.

"What's your family like?" Beca asked. Redirecting the conversation back to Chloe to hide her embarrassment.

"Why do you want to know?" Chloe was grinning now. Her question elicited a knowing smile from the brunette.

"I see what you mean now."

Chloe was more than happy to share though. Beca actually listened.

"Well, let's see. They're good people, just..." she paused. " They and the people around me had no real goals. They were content where they were and didn't have any ambition to do something else, go somewhere new, try something different. My hometown was a draining place to grow up in. I kinda had to get away too."

She didn't really have anyone to vocalize this to. Her parents were confused when she had told them. Some of her friends told her she was moving away because she thought she was better than them. Not the case at all. The look in Beca's eyes showed she had understood.

"It still gets lonely sometimes doesn't it?" Beca asked.

"Yeah," Chloe sighed. She looked at her friend. The brunette's eyes, again causing the redhead to be a little mesmerized. "You're making it better though." She hadn't intended the words to come out like they did. It sounded far more intimate than she had expected, not that it wasn't true.

The brunette's smile allayed her doubt. Those normally saddened sapphire eyes looked hopeful.

"You too."

They returned to work, both quiet. No further words needed to be exchanged. Chloe had managed to get Beca to share her thoughts. More than that, she had found someone to share her own thoughts with and the positive feeling she had gotten from it was unexpected.

She inadvertently moved her chair closer to Beca. Her leg found its way to the younger girl's again. This time, it was purposeful and the brunette accommodated her cozily. The contact sent ripples through her. It was just nice to be close to someone, share their warmth. She and Beca were connecting, finding comfort in each other.

Her hand found its way to Beca's on the table. The pen in the other girl's hand was removed, the thought of asking not even being considered. Fingers slowly slipped into the spaces before interlocking. The clasp became a little firmer. Work had stopped. She could feel the muscles in the brunette's hand relax their way down the arm, her touch becoming lighter yet still holding tightly.

Beca made her happy.

Wednesday - April 13th

Beca was sure she missed something. Was it some type of national holiday? Someone must have died. Martin Luther King Day had already passed and she wouldn't even be in the office if it was. Plus it would be strange for it to be associated with Martin Luther King. Perhaps a recent death? She was never really good at keeping up with current events, The Daily Show notwithstanding. When was pride month? That was June, wasn't it? It couldn't be that then.

Chloe had come in this morning and placed a small teddy bear between their two computers. That had been five minutes ago and while the redhead had gone off to another part of the office, Beca had stared at it in confusion. The bear was a shade of white similar to alabaster with large black patches. One covered its eyes, there was a large round one on its chest slightly off center. In its hand, a trombone glued on poorly. It didn't even look like it was holding it.

The redhead returned moments later. She casually sat down and began working again, a small smile was flashed Beca's way. The brunette continued to stare between her and the bear.

When no explanation came from the older girl, Beca bit.

"What's with the bear?" she asked, poking it in the stomach gently.

"Our desk is kinda plain. Thought it would brighten things up a little," Chloe said. Their desk was rather dull. Beca didn't have anything she wanted to keep near her. She didn't need a photo of her mother to remember her. It was surprising that someone like Chloe didn't have a mess of personal things cluttering their desk though. "Plus, I thought we could hug it when we were sad."

"Because we're both still six?"

Chloe seemed to take actual offense. "No, because it's adorable and soft and squidgy and snuggly." Beca gave her a deadpan expression.

"You're setting woman back at least a hundred years, you know."

"That's perhaps a little dramatic," the redhead replied. She then placed the bear back on the desk, much closer to Beca. "We still need to name it. I was thinking Mr. Fuzzles."

"I'm going to reiterate my comment about you being six here," Beca said. Chloe looked somewhat disappointed. "Also Mr. Fuzzles is kinda generic, don't you think?"

"Do you have any ideas then?" The questioned seemed genuine.

Beca contemplated for a moment before smiling. "How about Apophis?"

"That's kinda cute in a strange sort of way. We could call him Apo as a nickname." She then looked suspiciously at the brunette. "What does it mean?"

"Oh, Apophis? He's an ancient Greek deity who embodied chaos. There was an asteroid several years ago that was named after him because if it had hit the earth, it would have cause considerable damage" No response came from the Chloe, only a stare. "What? I thought it was fitting. Look what it's done to our work schedule."

Chloe had chosen to completely ignore her and move forward with name finding. "Emily's a nice name," she suggested.

Beca shot her down promptly, shaking her head. "Nah, doesn't fit. We should save that for when we have to name something important."

"Yeah, it's too human sounding for a bear. Besides. I don't think this is a girl," Chloe acknowledged. She started fiddling with the plastic trombone. "He's a musician so we should give him a fancy name, possible something European sounding."

"Bad Trombonist?" Beca proposed.

Chloe frowned. "You're very mean to a cute bear who has done nothing to you."

"No, it's an ironic name. He's actually a great trombonist," the brunette corrected. She then attempted to get back to work by turning to her screen.

"I don't want to have to explain the name every time someone asks."

Beca started typing. "You're assuming people are going to." She stopped typing, took the bear from the other girl and placed it back on the desk. "Now, back to work."

"You know, if you're going to keep disrespecting my bear, I'm not going to let you hug it," the older girl threatened.

"Should my apology come in the form of a letter? Where would I mail it to? Does our bear have email?"

Chloe picked up the bear once again, ignoring Beca's suggestion and began talking to it directly. "You're mommy is suffering from postpartum depression. She'll come around eventually."

"That thing is not my child!"

The redhead placed her fingers over the bear's ears. "Don't fight in front of our baby, Beca," she warned.

"You're the other mother-" the shorter girl stopped mid-sentence. "You know what, I'm done talking about this." Turning again, she attempted to start work again.

"If you don't want to be a part of our child's life, that's fine. I'll take care of her on my own."

The brunette couldn't help but smile at that. Smiling turned to giggles and the redhead started to join in.

Beca turned to the redhead "Look, if I promise to love the bear with all my heart." She placed her hand on her heart. "Could we get back to work?"

Chloe nodded. She placed the bear back in between the computers. "There you go Bad Trombonist. You hang out there."

Work began again and continued mostly uninterrupted. Chloe's suggestion of introducing a companion to their desktop friend who had now become their lonely desktop friend was answered with a glare. Further bear discussion had stopped indefinitely.

A week passed. Despite being told they were two of the best workers in the department, work slowed down compared to the first week. Beca blamed this on Chloe who would spend inordinate amounts of time talking to her. Chloe countered by stating that if Beca didn't want to talk, she didn't have to respond. Unfortunately, Beca secretly enjoyed the discussion no matter how inane it was. One minute Chloe would be talking about her feelings on the representation of women in film, a serious topic. She would make strong arguments and be rather convincing. The next, she would be telling her about how adorable the cat she had walked past had been.

Thursday - April 21st

"I thought we were doing pretty well here," Beca said.

"We were." And they had been. Unfortunately, the client had changed their specification yesterday and the email server had decided to go down on the same day. This lead to the pair building on the wrong specification.

"So we finish tomorrow?"

"If only. The deadline for this is tomorrow. It was an error on our end we need to make up for it."

Beca groaned. They had been working on this for the best part of the week and it was about to go up in flames. It wasn't even their fault. IT were to blame, for not informing staff about the email issues. The client was to blame, for changing the requirements a day before the deadline. Now she was going to be stuck in the office even longer. They had skipped lunch for this dammit!

"Isn't there a rule about the client not being allowed to make changes close to the deadline?" the brunette asked.

"There should be, but our company statement and guarantee has kinda taken that away from us."

Beca was confused by what Chloe was currently doing, which was packing away their work. The work that she had just said needed completing.

"What are you doing?"

"Putting our work into my bag," she replied as though the reason was completely obvious. The brunette just stared at her in confusion.

"So that we can work on it at my apartment."

"Why not here?"

"Office closes at 6, its 5:47 now. We're already working overtime as it is."

The two of them made their way to Chloe's house in her car. Beca felt the need to tell Chloe just how annoying this whole situation was in as many ways as she could. The redhead spent the whole journey silent, smiling at her.

"Don't you care that we're forced to work longer?" Beca finally asked

Still smiling, Chloe replied, "Oh I do. It's incredibly frustrating and we've had to throw away a good week of work."

"Then why are you smiling?"

"I like seeing you angry, you talk way more."

Beca decided to shut up for the rest of the journey and just sit there grumpily which only made the smile on the redhead's face grow.

Chloe's apartment was neat. That was the first thing that Beca noted. Everything was in its right place, not a speck of dust on any surface. Thematically, it was what Beca expected from Chloe. There was a fluffy purple rug in the center of her main room where a beige couch sat. The walls were a calming shade of lilac. Her miniature kitchen was open plan leading out into the living room area. A small shelf stuffed rather precariously with books, all novels from a quick glance, was placed in the side of the room. What looked to be her work desk was by the window and the view of the park from the fourth floor was magnificent.

Chloe handed Beca her bag. "You get our work set up, I'll get us something to eat. It might make you less cranky," she said, a giggle following.

"I'm glad you're getting some joy out of this," Beca grumbled.

The mistake took several hours to correct. Not being on company hours meant that they could get far more distracted. First, they spent some time falling down a YouTube hole. Beca showed Chloe the bad rap cover songs she normally watches. The redhead seemed to like them so Beca didn't reveal that she thought they were absolutely terrible.

The rest of the night was a mix of relaxing music, tea and quiet work. Both dressed down, taking off their shoes, blazers, and belts. It was a warmer day so Chloe opened a window to allow a little bit of the breeze into the room. Its fragrance reminding the brunette of the park.

Beca should have hated having to work so far into the day but it wasn't that bad. Work hadn't been detestable ever since her new job and she knew it had little to do with the actual content of the work.

Throughout the night, the toll of the project began to show in Chloe. The day looked to be getting to her far more than the brunette. Signs of her tiredness came in waves. At first, she would need some things being repeated, the words going in her ear and just coming out the other. Soon after, her eyelids began to droop. She started resting her head against the desk, Beca's shoulder and her hands. The tea wasn't helping.

Beca, who was used to long nights working on her music and suffered from mild insomnia didn't have as much of a problem. She found it delightful to watch the normally active redhead become a tired little puppy.

"I think it's time I headed home," Beca said, the work having finally been completed and Chloe's exhaustion reaching a critical level.

The redhead's eyes snapped open suddenly as she glanced at the clock. "Oh, Christ! It's eleven o'clock already."

Beca started getting ready to leave, slipping her shoes on and getting her blazer.

"You can stay here if you'd like."

Beca stopped. It was tempting, she lived much farther away than the redhead from work.

"You sure?"

"In fact, I insist," the redhead said firmly.

Beca could see that despite her exhaustion, Chloe wasn't going to let her go without a fight.

"I'll be gone as soon as possible."

"Beca, it's like we're not even friends sometimes. I want you to stay. It isn't an inconvenience because friends aren't an inconvenience. Not only are you going to stay, you are going to have breakfast with me," she warned. She sounded irritated which should make the brunette feel somewhat guilty but it only made her want to laugh. Even when Chloe was annoyed with Beca, she couldn't help but be nice.

"Then it's settled. I'll get the bed ready, it should be more than enough room for both of us," she said.

"Oh no! I'm not sharing a bed. We're not that close yet." Beca immediately regretted her words. Chloe's face fell for a split second and the brunette had seen it easily. "Sorry, it's just, I'm not fully comfortable sharing a bed with anyone, not just you."

"It's okay, I can come on a little strong sometimes." Great now she's blaming herself.

Chloe quickly excused herself to fetch blankets and a pillow for Beca, who was currently trying to collect her thoughts into a cohesive form so she could properly apologize to the other girl. The idea of sharing the bed had shaken her a little. She had to go and say something which sounded rather hurtful as it replayed in her mind. She didn't even really mean it. Chloe was perhaps the closest friend she ever had. The fact that no other name came up in a quick search through her life confirmed it.

Chloe came back moments later, blankets in tow. She still seemed hurt, not fully looking at the other girl.

"Chlo?"

"Yeah." Short response, attempting to sound a little peppy.

"I'm really sorry about what I said-"

"No, it's fi-"

"Please let me finish," Beca begged. Chloe nodded for her to continue. "I said something without thinking earlier. The reason I chose to stay is because I like spending time with you. I worry sometimes that you just put up with me. It's irrational but it still nags at me."

Chloe was finally looking at her again. Her eyes softening slightly.

"You're my closest friend Chlo. Actually, if we discount my dead mother, you're the closest I've ever gotten to another person." Beca gazed at the redhead in front of her, trying to determine her feelings. "I find myself thinking that perhaps I'm coming on a little strong now that I've found someone who likes spending time with me, asking about my life, seeming to actually care."

"I worry that when I tell you things like this, you'll push me away. Because I'm not used to having someone like you around."

Beca felt arms wrap around her, pulling her closer to the other girl. She was pushed down, more like tackled, against the couch, Chloe landing on top of her. "You idiot," came the reply from the redhead, muffled from talking into her neck.

The older girl lifted her head up. She was grinning. "If you keep saying things like this, you won't be able to keep me away," she said before returning to her spot in Beca's neck.

Moments later, another muffled sentence came from Chloe. "Our first fight went pretty well."

"This was a fight?"

"Yes! I was distraught for a whole five minutes while I was fetching you blankets. It felt like my heart had been torn out and eaten in front of me," she joked.

"Gross."

Beca liked Chloe's hugs. They were no holds barred, spontaneous affairs that allowed the redhead to drench her emotion all over the victim. It was like being caught in the web of the sweetest spider.

Eventually, Beca attempted to shift herself from the other girl, feeling like she was overextending her welcome. Apparently not.

"Would you hold still for a second?! I'm trying to take as much advantage out of your guilt as I can."

Beca didn't have a response, choosing to relax into it. She might as well enjoy it if the other girl didn't want to let go either. The small sigh that escaped the redhead's lips gave her a pleasant tickle on her neck.

"Beca, the reason I was happy to share the bed with you is because I trust you." the older girl said. "It's not something I offer to everyone, not even to my other friends."

Despite their heart to heart, the pair figured that Beca sleeping on the couch would be for the best, at least for now. Chloe was still reluctant about it and made sure to check that the brunette was comfortable about ten times too many before Beca had to force her to go to bed.

Soon enough, the sound of a light snore could be heard coming from the bedroom. Beca had yet to fall asleep, her thoughts scattering in her head. Usually, this meant another night struggling to get to sleep. However, tonight was different. Even though she was in a room that was not her own, laying on a couch and not sleeping, she was content.

Knowing that there was someone nearby, who wanted her there.

Thanks for reading.

Broke 50 followers after posting the third chapter! I've been really happy with the response this fic has gotten.

Thanks to pineappletini, BrittannaSendrick47, until its gone and UnicornBitch for their reviews. I'd also like to thank the guest on my other fic who reviewed this one along with that one.

Finally, thanks to everyone for favoriting and following the fic.

The cover art for this specific chapter is posted on my tumblr