A/N: I have so much planned for this story; it's been hard not to get ahead of myself and focus on writing one chapter at a time. I do hope you'll like what I have in store, starting with this. It's got some more background on Beca and Chloe's lives and what they have been up to during their time apart. As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated, especially for a new story. Reviews, comments and messages always make me smile, and help me figure out what I'm doing as a writer.

It was a moment before either of the women digested the question and spoke up.

Chloe was the first one to speak, blurting out the first thing that came into her mind. "I married Tom."

"We should get married."

They were lying on her favourite blanket on the beach when he said it, completely out of the blue, shocking her thoroughly but not enough to render her speechless.

"Why?" She wasn't sure why she said it, but it seemed like the most appropriate thing to ask.

"You're smart, funny, kind, and beautiful, plus we have been together for four years, why not?"

"I didn't ask you why you like me, I asked why you want to marry me, those are different things."

It was true that they were different things, although a lot of the reasons overlapped for Tom. Her fiery red hair, her insanely deep blue eyes, her adorable smile, the way she always made him laugh, he liked her for all those reasons and then some.

"Well, we care about each other, we enjoy each other's company, we want the same things in life; we just work Chloe. It's easy with you, we make sense. That's why."

She couldn't really argue with that, being with Tom was easy and she did enjoy his company, and she cared about him more than anything in the world. Tom was her best friend, next to Aubrey anyway but the blonde hadn't offered her hand in marriage.

She rolled over closer to him on the blanket and pressed a sweet kiss to his lips. "Let's get married then."

Tom's smile was enough to force an even wider one on Chloe's lips, and the look in his eyes melted her.

"You'll need this then," he smirked, handing her a small velvet box.

"You bought me an engagement ring?"

"Naturally, you actually think I would ask you to marry me and then not give you a shiny object?"

Chloe laughed, giving him a playful punch to the shoulder. "It's gorgeous, thank you."

"I know diamonds are a girl's best friend, but when your girlfriend has such gorgeous blue eyes, sapphires are definitely the way to go."

"Agreed," she mumbled into his lips.

"Oh," was Beca's initial reaction, followed closely by "the shower guy?"

"Yes, the shower guy," Chloe laughed. She could still vividly remember that day in the shower. Tom had asked her afterwards what exactly she was doing breaking into "that aggressive but hot brunette's shower." He just laughed when she told him she had been trying to get Beca to try out for the Bellas. Tom was very familiar with her lack of personal boundaries, but he didn't really care, he liked that she was so friendly and open. When they met in freshman year it had been because Chloe randomly walked up to him as he walked across the quad, grabbed his sweater and said "cute, and the sweater is too."

At this point Chloe began rifling through her purse, Beca just watched and waited. After a minute or two she pulled out a small photo album and handed it to the other woman.

"Our kids," Chloe explained when she noticed the confused expression on Beca's face.

Beca stared down at the photos, and three smiling faces stared back at her. The oldest one, a tall red head who was the spitting image of her mother, the middle child a red headed boy with freckles and glasses and the smallest a brunette with light hair in pigtails. If Beca cared to admit it she would say the kids were absolutely adorable, how could they not be with their mother, and hey, shower guy wasn't so bad himself.

"Cute," Beca said, handing the album back to the other woman.

"Adrienne, Adley and Alyson," Chloe informed her, "they're eight, six and four. Tom thought two years between each kid would be perfect."

"Yeah," Beca didn't have much to add to the conversation about Chloe's children, or her husband. She shouldn't be surprised really that the red hair is married with a handful of kids. Chloe had talked to her a few times about her dreams for the future and kids were always at the forefront. She loved children, and she was probably an excellent mother.

"Aly, come here, let mommy fix your mittens, you don't want to get a cold do you?" Chloe said, picking up the small girl in her arms and kissing her on the forehead.

"No," the little girl agreed softly, "no sniffles."

"You ready to go tobogganing Aly cat?" Tom asked, as she and Chloe walked hand in hand down the steps to meet the rest of the family.

The little one smiled up at her dad, lifting her arms high in the air to signal to him that she wanted up in his arms. Tom lifted her into the air and onto his shoulders, making sure she held on tight to him.

"So, we'll do some tobogganing at the hill and then come back home and order pizza and make hot chocolate. How does that sound guys?"

"Awesome," the same response Chloe got anytime she asked Adley if he wanted pizza.

"With lots of mini-marshmallows?" Adrienne questioned.

"Of course, daddy picked some more up this morning especially for tonight. It's a special night."

"Why is it special mama?" Aly asked, looking down from her spot on her father's shoulders.

"Because we're spending it together."

"We spend almost every night together," her oldest daughter said curiously, raising an eyebrow.

"Which makes every night special, wouldn't you say?"

Tom just smiled, she may be a cheese ball but he loved that about her. The smiles on the faces of his children were enough to tell him that he wasn't the only one whose life was made that much happier thanks to Chloe's ever present zest for life.

"What about you?" Chloe asked, sensing the topic was worn out at least for the time being.

"What about me?"

Chloe laughed, nice to see Beca was still as evasive as ever. "Your life, what has been going on with you? How's Jesse?"

It wasn't like Chloe to regret her words, but she found that she was when she saw Beca's face fall.

"I didn't marry Jesse."

Beca was sitting in a back room at some church near Jesse's house in a big white dress, complete with lace and frills. It wasn't Beca's top pick for a dress, but her mother really seemed to like it and Jesse would too, if she actually plucked up the nerve to walk down the aisle.

Jesse stood there waiting for her, she was a few minutes late but this was Beca, he had never known the girl to be punctual so he wasn't worried. He beamed at his mother in the front row as Benji tried to give him a last minute pep talk. Jesse didn't need a pep talk though, he was sure, he had been sure about wanting to marry Beca for years. She was the reason it had taken them six years to finally get to this day.

"I'm coming…" Beca choked out when she heard a knock on the door, but she wasn't so sure that she actually was.

"Becs, it's dad, can I come in?"

"Umm, yeah," Beca wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hands.

"Here," her father said, handing her a kerchief from his pocket, "this will probably work better."

"This is supposed to be the happiest day of my life."

"It would be Beca, if you were sure. If this was what you really wanted, you'd be out there already, and those tears would be happy."

She hadn't always had the best relationship with her father, but he had certainly always been able to read her. Maybe she was transparent, or maybe he just knew her that well.

"I love Jesse."

Beca started, but her father stopped her. "It's me Becs, you don't have to pretend."

"I don't want to do this."

"I know."

"But he loves me."

"I know."

"I just…I wish I felt the same."

"I know."

Beca's father wrapped his arms around her tiny frame, patting her gently on the back.

"Beca, I'm telling you this because I love you and I want you to be happy. Don't do something you know you'll regret for the rest of your life because you feel obligated. That's never a good reason to do anything, and certainly not a good reason to get married. If this really isn't what you want, then leave. I'll take care of it."

He handed his daughter the keys to his car and pointed the way to the back door as he walked out of the room.

Jesse knew when he saw Beca's father walk down the aisle without her that it was over. She had left him again and this time, she wasn't coming back. Leaving someone at the altar was the ultimate in finality. It wasn't like the time they broke up because she wasn't ready for commitment, or the time they had argued about having kids, this was all of that and more; this said they weren't right for each other. Beca and Jesse had always wanted different things, no matter how much he wished her life plan matched his. He should have seen it coming, but even until the last moment, he wanted to believe it wasn't. Any illusion Jesse had about her loving him as much as he loved her was finally shattered. He ran down the aisle, passing Dr. Mitchell on his way without even as much as a glance. He just wanted to get out of there before the tears started falling, but it was already too late for that.

"Oh," Chloe's response was just as verbose as Beca's had been.

Beca offered a short explanation, "we got engaged a few years ago, but I never made it down the aisle."

"I'm sorry," Chloe offered, genuinely feeling sad for her former friend.

"Don't be, it wasn't meant to be. Jesse was like a romantic comedy, I've always been more of an unpredictable indie flick."

Chloe smiled; there was a truth in Beca's words that was refreshing. Beca had clearly matured a lot in the years since she and Chloe had last spoke. She had always been steadfast in her opinions, but now she had a certainty about herself that Chloe was glad to see.

The red head spent the rest of the evening chatting animatedly with all of the former Bellas, enthusiastically sharing the pictures of her kids with each one in turn. Beca discovered that most of the other Bellas also had kids. Aubrey told everyone about her British husband Simon and their twins, Cynthia-Rose shared a photograph of the child she and her partner had recently adopted, Jessica and Ashley each had two kids, Stacie had a newborn and even Lilly was pregnant. This left Fat Amy as the only other Bella besides Beca who remained childless. Amy said she thought all of their little munchkins were cute, but she wasn't interested in sleep deprivation, screaming or sticky fingers, although she did offer to babysit. Beca wasn't sure she agreed with the blonde entirely, but it was nice to have someone at the table that wasn't gushing about first steps, or teething.

When it got late, the women began clearing out, most of them with the explanation that they needed to get back to the aforementioned children. Beca was about to leave herself when Chloe caught up with her in the restaurant's entry way.

"I miss you," it rolled off the red head's tongue so easily, like she had been longing to say it for longer than just the four hours they had spent together tonight.

"I miss you too Chloe."

"We should catch up…again. Maybe somewhere quieter next time, and without the rest of the Bellas," Chloe suggested earnestly.

"Yeah…that would be, nice."

Chloe tapped her number into Beca's phone and hit save, taking the paper with Beca's number scrawled on it in her other hand.

"I'm living just outside of Atlanta by the way. Tom and I moved backed here just before Adrienne was born."

"Cool. I'm still living in Atlanta. I moved into a one bedroom after Jesse and I split up."

"Goodnight Beca."

"Goodnight Chloe," Beca said. She couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she walked back to her car. Even hearing that Chloe was married hadn't dampened Beca's excitement about seeing the other woman again. She was glad that Chloe was happy really, extremely happy if the look on her face when she talked about her children was any indication.

Chloe was smiling from ear to ear when she made her way back into the restaurant where Aubrey was waiting for her.

"Excited about seeing a certain brunette are we?"

"Maybe, and maybe a certain brunette gave me her number."

Aubrey looked almost offended at this, "after you spent all night talking about Tom and the kids?"

"She wants to catch up with an old friend, and we both know I'm in the middle of a divorce."

"She doesn't know that though, speaking of which, why didn't you tell her?"

"I didn't really have an opening to bring it up, besides, you know it's complicated. It's not like I'm divorcing some asshole. People don't really get it and I didn't want to get into it, not tonight."

"Fair enough," Aubrey said, dropping the subject completely.

Even Aubrey didn't fully comprehend the reasons behind Chloe and Tom's split, but like Chloe said, it's complicated. They were still living together, still taking care of their children together, still every bit the same family they were before Chloe had decided to leave Tom. She had her reasons, Aubrey knew that, but it was hard for her to understand exactly why Chloe would leave such a good guy.

It was after midnight when Chloe finally walked through the door to her house. She unlocked the door and crept in as quietly as possible. Her children would have fallen asleep hours ago, and as much as she wanted to see them she didn't want to wake them. When Chloe made her way through the house she noticed that a light was still on in the living room.

"You didn't have to wait up you know," Chloe said, offering a small smile to the man on the couch.

"I know, but the game was on and then I got really into my book and when I last looked up at the time, I figured you'd be home soon. How was your night?" Tom asked his wife.

Chloe took the seat next to him on the couch, adjusting the blanket he had on so it covered both of their legs. "It was nice. Mostly just women gushing about their little ones and you know how much I love that."

"Yeah," Tom smirked; he had been privy many times to Chloe talking people's ears off about their children.

"Speaking of little ones, how were ours tonight?"

"They were good. Aly was a little upset at bedtime that mama wasn't here to tuck her in, but I read her a second story and she settled down."

"Aww," Chloe pouted, "I missed them."

"You always do."

It was true, Chloe always did miss her kids when she went out, which admittedly wasn't very often. She was just as happy, maybe even more so staying in and watching a movie or playing a game with her family. She went out for coffee and shopping with Aubrey regularly but other than that, she was a bit of a homebody.

Beca threw her keys on the counter, listening as they scratched across the stone. She swore as she stubbed her toe on that damn cupboard…again. It was like every time she went for a glass of water she walked into that corner. She recovered, taking her water with her to her bedroom. It was late but she wasn't really ready to sleep. Her thoughts were still racing after the night's events. She had seen Chloe Beale again, or whatever her new last name was. She still couldn't wrap her head around seeing the other woman again, it had been ten years. Ten years and Beca still got butterflies when she saw her walk into a room. Ten years and Beca still wished it had been Chloe she kissed that night after the ICAA finals. Jesse had been right, Beca did push away anyone who might care about her, but it hadn't been him that she pushed the farthest away, it had been Chloe.

"You know, your eyes are really gorgeous," Chloe was leaning in far too close for Beca's comfort.

"I think that's my cue to make sure you're cut off," Beca laughed awkwardly.

"I'm not drunk Beca, I don't have to be drunk to compliment a beautiful woman."

"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Beca said pointedly, she would say anything at this point so that Chloe would move her lips more than a few inches from her own. This comment did it.

"Yes, and Tom would agree that your eyes are really gorgeous. In fact he does, that's what he noticed about you when we were in the shower."

"What a gentleman," Beca teased, she could breathe easier now that Chloe was at a safe distance. It's not that she didn't want her lips that close, or that she hated feeling her breath hot against her ear, it was that she was afraid to want her that close. Beca had opened herself up enough for one year but if Chloe had her way, Beca would be an open book and she couldn't risk that.

"I should go," Beca spoke up again after a few moments, "I uh, have a test in the morning." It wasn't really a lie; Beca did have a test but she may have over sold how much she actually cared about studying for it.

"Wouldn't want to keep you from your academics," the red head smirked, turning to walk away. "See you at Bellas practice tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."