Beca couldn't help but wear a proud smirk as she walked away from the police station, she caught sight of Jesse waiting for her at the benefits the steps and grinned wide. She still couldn't believe that she'd been arrested for breaking that window and that she'd been let out that night. Just enough mark on her growing badass lifestyle. Though after the debacle that was their Regionals performance, it was the only highlight of her night. Even the guys with sock puppets where more entertaining then the Bella's had been, in her option.

"Hey Hillary Swank in Million Dollar Baby," Jesse said with his easy smile as Beca reached him at the bottom of the steps. She gave a shrug and a motion of dusting off her Bella jacket shoulders,

"You just have to say "Million Dollar Baby." You don't have to reference the actress. I know who she is dude," Beca teased as they started to head towards the car park, where she assumed Jesse's vehicle was,

"I wanted to make sure you got it," he whined,

"Thanks for bailing me out," Beca said softly, feeling glad that she had Jesse as a best friend right then. But the boy stopped, twisting his hands together, his eyes down cast,

"I didn't," he said quietly, almost Lilly quiet. Beca frowned hard at him, and when he looked up and towards the car park, Beca followed his gaze and saw it land on her father. A very pissed off looking Dr Mitchell,

"Dude! You called my dad?! Why?! What the fuck!" Beca practically yelled the words, her body shaking with fury,

"They put you in handcuffs, Bec. It looked pretty serious-"

"That doesn't mean you call my Dad!" the brunette grumbled, cutting Jesse off. He dropped his eyes, feeling horrible, yet knowing he'd done the right thing, somehow,

"What, do you have another parent I don't know about?" He stopped himself then, knowing full well that was the wrong thing to say, Beca had briefly mentioned her alcoholic mother and he pure loathing of her, going ad far as to call her "The Incubator". "Why are you yelling at me? I'm the only one here," he said softly, trying to indicate his feeling through the tone of his voice. It didn't matter, with a loud huff and the sag of her shoulders, Beca replied sharply,

"I didn't ask you to be,"

"I was trying to help. I don't see your girlfriend here!" he snapped back, just as sharply, his eyes narrowing.

"I don't want your help. You're not my boyfriend! Gay remember!" she turned away from him and began stalking towards her father,

"Yeah, you've made that very clear," Jesse grumbled, trailing behind her.

"Dad, it's not a big deal-" Beca started as she reached her father, not meeting his eyes,

"It is a big deal. I get a call in the middle of the night telling me my only daughter got arrested for destruction of property!" her father practically roared at her. He looked dishevelled, his usual long coat thrown over what looked like pine striped pajamas. Beca grimaced as her father raised his voice, it was bad enough that they hadn't spoken since thanksgiving, and now stupid Jesse's had stupidly done the right thing and called her father,

"It was a misunderstanding. I was protecting my friends! Putting myself out there! "Making memories!" Beca stressed, quoting DR Mitchell with a dark look. Her father glared at her, moving around the car to the drivers side,

"If you think I'm paying for you to live in LA after you pull a stunt like this? Well, I'm not. Get in the car."

"Wait, don't you want to listen to what I have to say?" the shirt girl said defensively as her father opened the car door,

"Not tonight I don't." he said finally.

###

Aubrey was pacing so much that Chloe was damn sure she was going to wear a hole into the dorm room carpet. Across the room, from the pacing blonde, Chloe and all the Bella's, sat a very irritated looking Kimmy Jin, who kept shooting dark looks their way,

"If this stunt gets us kicked off the road to the semi finals, then she's out, I'm done with her cocky bullshit," Aubrey muttered, twisting her hands over and over.
"she didn't do it on purpose Bree. She was defending Amy!" Chloe piped up as Aubrey shot her the death glare, the blonde opened her mouth to reply when the dorm room door opened quietly. The short brunette stepped through, looking deflated and tired,

"Did they spray you with a hose?" Fat Amy asked, practicaly bouncing on the spot. She was sat besides Cynthia Rose, who in turn was sat next to Chloe on Beca's tiny bed. The bed that Beca and Chloe had sullied many times now, and that just made Chloe smirk, because noone knew, and it made it all the more special to Chloe. The red head had wanted to go get Beca from the station, she had enough cash to bail her out, but Jesse had stepped in, saying he'd do it and he'd get her home. Chloe knew she shouldn't have said yes, but with Aubrey practically crying on from the whole incident, Chloe had to get the Bella captain back to Barden.

"Find yourself a bitch?" Cynthia Rose teased as Beca hung up her jacket and smirked coyly. Chloe hoped to the aca-gods she hadn't. She didn't want to have to track down some probably drop dead gorgeous woman and fight for her girlfriends love.

"You waited up for me?" Beca finally spoke up, clearly touched by a the Bella's waiting in her room. Chloe couldn't help but beam, ignoring the rest of them as she stood, approaching Beca and enveloping her in tight hug,

"Of course we waited up for you," she purred into the brunettes ear, kissing just below the kobe, feeling Beca shiver against her, "it was kinda hot watching you punch a guy," she whispered, flicking her tounge against the shell of Beca's ear,

"They've been here for hours. It's a real inconvenience, Beca," Kimmy Jin hissed, intrupting the hug with a dark glare. Beca opened her mouth, trying to find words to shoot back Hut came up black as her room mate left abruptly. From behind Chloe came the short, sharp noise of the Bella pitch pipe and Beca rolled her eyes.

Aubrey looked livid, her hands where still twisting around, her eyes where frantic and her whole personal gave off an air of panic,

"I'm calling an emergency Bella meeting," the blonde declared as Beca prized herself away from her girlfriend and dropped down onto her desk chair, Chloe perching on the desk besides her.

"First up? Our score sheet revealed that The Sockappellas almost beat us. We need to bust our asses if we're going to make it to the Finals," Aubrey began to pace again,

"Or try a new approach," Beca muttered,

"Enough with that, Beca," Aubrey shot out, going to speak to the other Bella's, who where all focused on her,

"Wait, dude, just listen, the reason why we almost lost to sock puppets is because they took a risk. Being good isn't enough to win," the brunette reasoned, trying to please with Aubrey with her eyes,

"Beca's right. The Trebles never sing the same song twice," CR spoke up, backed up with murmurs from the other girls,

"The audience loves the Trebles. They barely tolerate us. Aubrey, we could seriously change the face of a cappella if you would just let me teach you my music!" Beca frowned to herself as she span around on the chair to face her desk set up, quickly the brunette flicked her MAC open and launched her most used programme, then she flicked on the keyboard and mixing deck, Chloe watched with amazement as her girlfriends hands and fingers worked quickly, it sent a sudden shudder over her body, remembering how nimble those fingers actually where.

"Look, I've been working on this arrangement..." Beca trailed doff as she began to hit keys, along with a few touched clicks and music started to fill the air, Chloe recognised it as Titanium mashed with 500 miles and she couldn't suppress her grin,

"I didn't know you had finished this one," Chloe said softly as Beca set the song to play without her aid. The brunettes face burst into a wide grin and a slight blush as she met the red heads eyes. From the bed all the Bella's where bobbing their heads, Jessica and Ashley had even started harmonising along with the beat.

Everyone was drawn away from the music suddenly as Aubrey snapped the MAC shut,
"Dude! What the fuck!" mbeca cried out, reaching out to stroke her precious laptop,

"You've caused enough distractions for one night. I have the pitch pipe, and I say we focus on the set list," the blonde said with a finalising tone, before she turned back to the rest of the Acapella girls, "From now on, we eat, sleep, and pee rehearsal. No more wasting our time with work, school, boyfriends or girlfriends. Last year we were the first all female group to get to the finals. I promise you that I'll get us back there again!" Aubrey flashed her pearly whites at the girls, even to Beca who had folded her arms against her chest, pouting hard,

"I don't know. Maybe Beca-" Chloe started to speak, intent on standing up for Beca and the a new sound, but Aubrey drew her fingers across her lips, 'zip it'. Chloe frowned and stopped talking, adverting her eyes from her friend, "Let's get started." the Bellas captain marched from the dorm room without a backwards glance to anyone.
Slowly and abit unsurly the rest of the Bellas trooped out, after Cynthia Rose stopped to marvel at Beca's music, "that really was awesome Beca, maybe she'll see the light soon," the other girl with soft reassuring eyes, before she waved goodbye and followed Fat Amy out of the room. That left Chloe and Beca alone.

"Why is that stick so firmly wedged up there?" Beca grumbled as she turned back to her desk, reopening her laptop to check nothing had broken or been deleted by Aubrey's sudden redness. Chloe sighed and rubbed her temples lightly,

"her dad is a hard ass, he's always drilled into her that she has to lead and be perfect and you know, it's imbedded in the system of her mind. She doesn't mean it, sometimes she can be quite fun," Chloe moved to lye on Becs bed. For a moment she was silent, then she laughed to herself, "There was this one senior party we went to inform freshman year and Bree got so wasted she stripped down to her pants and jumped into the pool, screaming that she was an aca-goddess," Chloe sighed and rolled onot her front so she was facing Beca, her head balanced on her hands as she watched the brunette tap away at her MAC,

"she still needs to lighten up," she grumbled, hanging her head slightly, "Well, I'mdefinitely staying another year now," Beca muttered, her hair hanging around her face, hiding what ever emotions her features would shoe. Chloe frowned hard,

"What happened?" she questioned, concerned. She knew that Beca was desperate to go to LA, but she was pretty sure they'd agreed that Beca would do another year at Barden then go at the end of that one, looked like Beca had still been changing her mind behind Chloe's back,

"Jesse called my dad to bail me out, he wasn't exactly happy about it. Said he wouldn't pay for LA at all now. So what other choice do I have? Stay on here as long as I can, get a job, start saving up, God knows the Incubator won't hell," Beca rubbed hard at her face, reclining back in the desk chair, huffing angrily. Chloe didn't know what to do,

"still, if it's any consolation, you where really bad ass tonight."