A/N: I just want to thank everyone who has been following this story and leaving reviews. I've been trying to respond to people individually but there are a lot of guest reviews, so thank you. I appreciate all the feedback, and I'm glad people on the whole have been enjoying the story. This story is first and foremost about Chloe and her life and relationships, which is why it includes a lot of backstory and Tom. For everyone reading though know that from here on out this story will focus a lot more heavily on Beca and Chloe's relationship, and how Chloe moves on from her marriage with her. I hope you will continue to enjoy the story, and do feel free to send me your thoughts in a review or comment or in a Tumblr message (shesamarshmallow). You guys are awesome and enjoy!

"I'm going to keep sitting here until I know you're okay. I hope you know that. I'm not leaving you."

Beca had been trying to talk to the red head through the bathroom door for over an hour but had received only sobs in response. The brunette hadn't budged from her spot, sitting straight up against the hard wooden door. She was beginning to grow uncomfortable, her legs long since having grown tired of their crossed position. It didn't matter to Beca though; she was going to stay there, as long as it took. There was no way she was leaving Chloe's house and leaving her alone and upset. That would be the easy thing to do, to leave and come back some time when Chloe had sorted her emotions out but Beca wasn't taking the easy route this time. The old Beca, the Beca from ten years ago, she would have run by now. Dealing with other people's emotions, their feelings had never really been her style. Beca had always run away from feelings, but now, she was ready to confront them head on; even if that meant sitting on the cold, hard floor for hours.

"You got all of my favourite candy and snacks," Beca mused excitedly, glancing down at the contents of Chloe's bag.

"Of course I did, what's a girl's night without snacks."

"Fair enough," Beca laughed, pulling the large bag of twizzlers out from under the popcorn.

Chloe just stared at her as she ripped the red candy apart with her teeth. She couldn't help but smile seeing how happy Beca seemed. She remembered how much the younger girl loved the twisty candy after a night out at the movies. Beca pouted when she saw that the theatre was out of her favourite treat. She mumbled something about being dragged out to a movie and there not even being any good candy. Chloe found her pout ridiculously adorable and assured her that she'd find her some twizzlers after the film. Sure enough once the film ended Chloe drove the two of them to a nearby convenience store and purchased Beca not one but two packages of the soft, gooey red candy. The way her face lit up at the sight of the candy made Chloe almost giddy herself. She longed to see Beca that happy all the time; she longed to make her that happy.

"Why are you staring at me?" Beca asked curiously.

"No reason, I just…you look happy."

The confusion must have been evident on Beca's face, because Chloe spoke up again to clarify moments later.

"The candy, it always makes you happy to have twizzlers."

"Oh," Beca laughed, "yeah I just really like them. My dad and I always shared twizzlers when I was growing up. I guess they remind me of him."

"That's sweet."

Beca just shrugged. She had opened up, but mere seconds later she was closing herself down again. It was like she felt she had revealed too much of herself and needed to stop. She couldn't let Chloe any closer than she already was.

"Beca, can we talk?" Chloe spoke up as the sun began to lower and night fall was upon them.

They had gotten lost in Beca's mixes, dancing around the living room, and just generally enjoying each other's company. Chloe didn't even notice the darkness creeping up, until she realized she had something she wanted to say before night's end.

"Sure, about what?"

As soon as Chloe had uttered "about us," Beca began roughly shoving things into her bag.

"I have to go actually, I have to meet Jesse early in the morning and umm, I have a paper to write."

It was a Friday night; Chloe knew there was no way Beca was leaving to write a paper. She sighed, knowing that trying to push the issue would just push Beca and her further apart. She could deal with them just being friends, with Beca being unwilling to realize there was something more between them but she couldn't deal with losing her friend. Beca was stubborn and closed off; pushing her to talk wouldn't do any good. If Beca was unwilling to talk about her feelings, nothing Chloe could do or say was going to change that. Beca was Beca, and Chloe would just have to deal with everything that entailed, including not being able to confess her feelings.

"If you don't want to talk, I understand. Can you just come out here though? I don't want you to be alone."

Beca's voice was coloured with worry, even Chloe could tell that through the sound of her own sobs. Her tone was sombre, she was trying to avoid pleading with her girlfriend but she couldn't help it. Even if Chloe couldn't use her words yet, she just wanted to hold her, to tell her that everything is going to be okay.

It was a few more minutes before Beca heard the bathroom's door lock click open. She stood up immediately and moved out of the way. When Chloe exited the bathroom her face was stained with the past hour's endless stream of tears. Her eyes were red and puffy and the hurt in them was so evident. It broke Beca's heart to see her like this. More so it hurt to know that her words had set the red head off. If she had just been able to keep her feelings to herself like she always had in the past maybe they could have avoided this whole mess. She looked at her girlfriend sympathetically, watching and waiting for her to make another move. If they were going to talk or do anything, it had to be on Chloe's terms.

Beca was surprised when Chloe moved toward her first and wrapped her arms around her. She hadn't expected it, but it was a pleasant surprise if anything. In the last hour she had longed to hold Chloe in her arms, to give her a reassuring pat on the back, or a kiss to the cheek. Now she was on the receiving end of this comforting affection. Chloe kissed Beca gently on the lips and moved her arms down to entwine their hands. She walked with Beca hand in hand toward the couch. No words had been uttered yet but their interaction was comfortable, sweet really.

"I'm sorry," Chloe said once they were seated back on the couch.

"You don't have to apologize. I should have thought more about your situation before I said it. I just, I was wrapped up in the moment and I felt it. I just wanted to tell you how much I care about it, but those words slipped out. I mean them, and I don't take them back, but I should have thought about the timing. That is why you're upset right?"

Chloe nodded, "I just have a lot of conflicting feelings I guess. I walked away from a relationship where I wasn't in love with the other person but it was so much more than that. I didn't feel for him romantically but I did love him in so many other ways, I mean, I still do. He's been my world for so many years, he's the father of my children and he means a lot to me. Leaving him has been hard and I guess I haven't really properly addressed my feelings about our split. I care about you Beca, I do and I know in my heart I'm doing the right thing, but it's too early for those words, for me. I don't want you to feel like you have to hide your feelings though. I promise to try not to run away and cry again if you tell me how you feel."

"I would appreciate that," Beca said with a light hearted laugh.

"Can we go to sleep now?" Chloe asked tentatively. She had kind of ruined their date but she hoped Beca would still want to stay with her.

"Of course we can."

As they walked into the bedroom Chloe could see the look of concern on her girlfriend's face. She jumped in to answer all of her unasked questions before they even reached the bed.

"This is the spare bedroom," Chloe began explaining, "not the master. I'm planning on getting a new bed for myself for in there though, I just…I haven't yet."

She knew the master bedroom; the bedroom she had shared with Tom for the last nine years was not the place for her and Beca to spend the night. Instead she made up the spare bedroom for the two of them. In theory the bed in the master bedroom would be a lot more comfortable; in their situation though Chloe was sure that this one would be the better choice.

Hearing this sent a wave of relief through Beca's whole body, she hadn't realized it before but the thought had made her uncomfortable. It seemed like an invasion of privacy to her to come into their house and sleep in their bedroom, even if Tom and Chloe were broken up. She climbed into the spare bed next to the red head and instinctively put her arm around her. It comforted the other woman immensely to feel Beca's arm around her waist, her other hand tangled in her fiery locks. Beca kissed Chloe sweetly on the lips, just a small gesture to remind her that she was there with her, for her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Beca asked as she lay face to face with Chloe, the red head smiling brightly at her.

"Talk about what?" Chloe asked, genuinely curious about what Beca was referring to.

"You said you have a lot of feelings you haven't dealt with. I just wanted to know if maybe you wanted to talk to me about them. I understand if you don't want to, or can't. I just thought I'd offer."

"That's sweet," Chloe smiled giving Beca a peck on the lips. "Actually, I wouldn't mind talking about it."

"Back there you said that you know you're doing the right thing. How do you know? I mean Tom's a good guy right, and you said you love him in a lot of ways. How did you know it was the right thing to leave him; the right thing to be with me instead?"

Beca had asked only one question but to Chloe it seemed like she had asked hundreds. It was such a loaded question.

"You can't force yourself to love someone, no matter how good they are, no matter how much you want to. There have been so many times over the years where I wished I could just love Tom. I wished I could feel about Tom the way I had always…" Chloe stopped herself before she said the next words. She was nervous about continuing.

She took a deep breath. "I wished I could feel about Tom the way I always felt about you. I knew what it was like to really love someone, and I just didn't feel that for Tom. He was, he is the best man I know, but he's not the man for me."

Beca nodded in understanding at this revelation. She knew exactly what Chloe meant when she said that. She had felt the same way about Jesse. Jesse was amazing; he was so sweet and so good to her. He was a great guy and he would have treated her well and given her a picture perfect life. When it came down to it though, she didn't love him. He didn't make her feel the way she knew she would when she was actually in love. It was in this moment she felt even more connected to Chloe; to know that they had felt the same way and had experienced the same things brought her comfort. To know that Chloe shared in every moment of despair and doubt she had ever had over the end of her relationship with Jesse, it made her feel understood. She nuzzled her head into Chloe's neck as the red head cleared her throat to continue.

"As much as I hated not being able to be with someone I really loved, I hated even more that I was denying Tom the opportunity to be with someone who really loved him. Every day, every week, every month that I spent with him when I knew we shouldn't be together was another moment I was denying him the love he truly deserves. Tom is a great guy and he deserves real love, that's how I know I made the right decision no matter how much it hurts sometimes."

Chloe was in tears after everything she had said. It wasn't often that she talked openly and honestly about her feelings for Tom, and it meant a lot to her to have someone who really wanted to listen. Even more so, it meant a lot to her that she had told someone who she felt actually understood. In the same way Beca now felt understood, so did Chloe. It was hard for other people, for Aubrey, for her parents, for her other friends to really get why she was leaving her husband, but Beca got it. It comforted her even more to know that Beca would still have understood her feelings even if they weren't together. Even if Beca was just a friend, even if she didn't benefit from the collapse of Chloe's marriage she would get how Chloe felt and that felt good.

Beca adjusted her head and leaned up to press a kiss to Chloe's forehead.

"I'm sorry if you're hurting."

"You have nothing to be sorry about Beca. You're putting me back together again."

"I love you," Beca said again.

This time Chloe didn't cringe or recoil, she didn't run or cry. She just held onto Beca tighter and breathed a content sigh. She couldn't respond yet with her own affirmation of love but Beca knew she felt it. They relaxed in each other's arms and quickly drifted off to sleep. It wasn't until the bright light of the morning drifted through the part in the room's curtains that Beca opened her eyes again. As she stirred awake she stared to the left of her, grateful to be so incredibly lucky. Ten years ago she had missed out on the opportunity to be with Chloe but now they were making up for lost time. Beca lay still in the red head's arms, content. She was happy just to be there with her, they didn't have to do or say anything and Beca felt complete, like this part of her had been missing for so long and she had finally found it.

Chloe only stirred a few minutes later when both of them heard what sounded like someone bounding around the house. Beca tensed momentarily, wondering if maybe someone had broken into Chloe's place. She hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary prior, but it really did sound like someone was walking around outside the bedroom door.

"Chloe?" they heard a voice call out.

Beca breathed a sigh of relief when she gathered from Chloe's calm expression that it was a familiar voice.

"In here," she called back without hesitation.

It was less than a minute later when Beca saw Tom walk into the spare bedroom. She was going to give the man a friendly smile but thought better of it when she saw the forlorn expression on his face.

"Sorry," he said, "I didn't know you had company. I actually just came by to look for Adley's dinosaur, he forgot it. The kids are at the park with my parents."

They could both hear that he was choking back tears as he spoke. Their presence, together in the room had taken him by surprise. Chloe now regretted calling for him and wished she'd just gone out to the living room to meet him. She could have avoided their awkward encounter and spared him the pain she knew he was now feeling. It was one thing for Tom to know that she was dating Beca but it was another thing entirely for him to see them together. On the whole he had been fairly supportive of her relationship, watching the kids when they went out on dates and never offering a negative comment about her choice. Once he had even made a quip about Chloe's obviously excellent taste in attractive brunettes. Today though his pain over his wife's new relationship was written all over his face.

Chloe could see the tears start to fall as he quickly turned to exit the room. She bolted up to chase after him. When she caught up to him he was sitting on the living room couch in tears, clutching the toy dinosaur he had come to retrieve tightly.

"Tom," Chloe started.

"Don't."

"Tom, I'm sorry."

"For what?" Tom snapped, "you finally got what you always wanted right."

"Tom you know that's not true."

"It's not, huh? I don't need your pity Chloe. You don't have to pretend you ever actually loved me the way I loved you. You don't have to pretend you care about my feelings."

The anger in his voice was palpable. He had been so calm for the entirety of their separation, it shouldn't have been a shock really that he had finally had enough. Chloe wanted to respond sympathetically, she wanted to comfort him but something overtook her. She felt angry too; angry that after all these years he would say something like that to her, angry that he would dare accuse her of not caring about him.

"Tell me Tom, tell me that I was the love of your life and that that's why you married me and not because it was easier than finding another girl; a girl who you didn't know was hopelessly in love with her friend. Tell me that we were ever anything more than bros who also happened to sleep together. Honestly, can you tell me that? Don't pretend like you never knew Tom, don't pretend like I blindsided you."

She was yelling even though she didn't mean to be. She and Tom had never fought over their split, not yet and not like this.

"Bros?" Tom repeated incredulously. "Chloe I don't think I ever had children with any of my other 'bros.' You can try and tell me that I didn't really love you to make yourself feel better but that doesn't change the fact that I did. You may have just always loved me as a friend Chloe, but I actually did fall in love with you. Even if I knew how you felt about Beca I guess I hoped that maybe one day you would actually fall in love with me too. Some days it even felt like you had. Sometimes when you kissed me it almost felt like you meant it."

Chloe now looked sad, her anger having dissipated after Tom's emotional confession. She couldn't stay mad at him, especially when what he said was true. Chloe could pretend they were always just friends but she knew deep down that he loved her in the way she wished she loved him back. She knew that he married her hoping that their connection was strong enough to get them through anything. Deep down, she knew he thought that maybe one day she'd be in love with him and everything would be okay. That day never came though, and it was her fault for staying with him so long, not his. He had always loved her.

"Tom, I've said a lot of crap but I want you to know that I will never regret one minute of our lives together. We may have been lying to ourselves about some things over the years, and ignoring things that shouldn't have been ignored, but our life together was still great. We have 3 incredibly beautiful children together and nothing can change that, and I wouldn't want to."

In that instant Tom wrapped his arms around his soon to be ex-wife, hugging her tight. No more words were exchanged in that moment. All they did was hold each other and they knew that somehow everything would be okay.

"Promise me you'll move on and find someone who loves you more than anything in the world?"

"I'll try. I just hope there's someone out there who will look at me the way you've always looked at Beca."

"You will. Any girl would be crazy not to fall deeply and madly in love with you Tom Riley. I'm just crazy about another girl is all."

Tom nodded in understanding and offered Chloe a small smile. Standing up from the couch he accepted one last hug from her.

"I guess I'll get this dinosaur back to Adley."

"Tell my babies I said hi. See you tomorrow."

"Bye Chloe," Tom waved as he exited the house.

Beca, who had heard everything from the next room, came out to meet Chloe when Tom had finally left. She wrapped her arms around Chloe from behind, smiling when the other woman turned around to kiss her.

"You've always loved me?" Beca said. It was half a question, half a statement.

"I've always loved you," Chloe confirmed.

Her conversation with Tom had given her a sense of closure. She felt more able to express her feelings now that she had cleared the air with him. Everything was so much less confusing with the truth out in the open. Chloe didn't regret her time spent with Tom, but in all her years with Tom she never loved him in the way she had fallen for Beca. She hoped now they would all be able to move in a new direction in life and move on.