AN: Mild smut ahead. Enjoy. (smut writing's not really my thing but I felt it was necessary in this longer story, so that's why it's present but brief.)

[Beca]

The next few days passed by in a blur, each much the same as the other. Chloe stayed every night, and every night I woke up crying. The thing was, that even over this short space of 3 or 4 days, I began to notice that her continual presence was having an effect on my nightmares. On the fourth night, I slipped quietly into consciousness, and immediately turned over to face the sleeping redhead. No tears stained the pillow. I hadn't woken up screaming or crying, instead calmly and now I felt okay. I felt happy. I stroked her face tenderly, and fell back asleep in minutes. She was so excited when she woke.

"Beca! You didn't wake me up last night!" I nodded, beaming.

"I know, when I woke up I wasn't crying or screaming, it was really gentle. And I felt okay." She hugged me tight, and I felt so happy.

The aching of my arms ceased in this time too, leaving me feeling like I could finally leave my habit behind me.

Rehearsals were tough as always, and Aubrey was quick to notice my bruised face and restricted movement on the day after Jesse lashed out at me.

"Beca, a word?" She took me to the side, much like she had done on that first rehearsal. The other girls were jogging around the hall, but threw anxious glances as I winced and made my way slowly over to the head Bella.

"What happened?" She enquired brusquely.

"It's fine Aubrey, I'll be healed up in a few days and able to dance again, okay?" I retorted, grumpy because of the steady ache of both bruises and eager to get this encounter over with. She placed a hand awkwardly on my shoulder.

"No, Beca, I'm asking because... Because I'm worried about you." I looked into her eyes, shocked. She rolled hers back at me, withdrawing her arm. "I'm not a total ice queen you know." I laughed.

"Could'a had me fooled." She just quirked an eyebrow.

"So what happened?" I sighed, and gave in.

"Okay, just promise not to flip out. Jesse-" I didn't get to go any further.

"Beca?" Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear. He was stood in the doorway, waving anxiously at me. I stared at him.

"Jesse, what are you doing here?" I asked, and Aubrey turned to glare at him.

"This is a treble-free zone Jesse." She barked, marching up to him. He backed away slightly, hands raised.

"I-I just need to talk to Beca..." He mumbled, shooting me a forlorn look. I sighed and began to make my way over. Before I could make it two steps, Chloe was at my elbow.

"I'm coming with you." she whispered into my ear, her breath causing rapid shivers down my spine. I didn't argue, knowing that she was determined and wouldn't change her mind. And so, with promises to Aubrey that we'd be back in under 10 minutes, the three of us piled out into the corridor. Chloe stood close by my side, arms folded tightly, and Jesse hovered a metre or so away, fiddling with his watch nervously. I was the one who broke the silence.

"So what do you want Jesse?" He glanced up, meeting my eyes.

"I wanted to apologise. What I did was... So out of order, and I'm really sorry Beca. I hope you know that I'd never hit you when in my right mind." He shuffled his feet.

"I know. It's fine, just promise not to do that again, okay?" He nodded quickly, giving me a fleeting smile.

"I'm actually glad that you and Chloe have each other Beca," he continued, shyly looking at us both together. "She's right for you."

"Thanks." I acknowledged, before turning and walking back into the hall.

"That went better than I anticipated." Chloe smiled as we made our way back over to the other Bellas. Aubrey noticed our approach, and launched into a rousing speech about the importance of proper choriography, which I ignored most of. One of the many plus sides of dating Chloe was that she was co-captain of the Bellas and helped me with my dancing every night so that I could keep up. Soon after we were dismissed, and Chloe and I decided to make a trip to the coffee shop again for some well-deserved snuggles and warm cinnamon beverages.

We carried on in the same fashion for a while, slowly becoming as close and inseparable as before, and on my part, better. My nightmares became less frequent, only occurring a couple of nights a week, and when I woke up silently, Chloe was always there. The stability of her presence was doing wonders for me. I began to open up again, and really appreciate my friends in the Bellas. A few weeks later we headed off to compete in the first stage of the ICCAs, reigonals. We performed an old 'traditional' Bellas song that Aubrey had been driving us to learn from day one, 'I saw the Sign'. It was a dull number compared to the trebles' exciting rendition of 'Right Round', which earned them first place. Still, we came second which meant advancing to the semis, and I had to admit that Chloe's solos left me stunned. She was one of the few Bellas who actually made the drab air-hostess-like uniform look good - in fact, more than good, she looked sexy in her tight business skirt, low cut shirt and Bellas scarf. She threw me a wink as we walked off stage, and I worked to hide the blush creeping into my cheeks. Fat Amy saw the exchange and nudged me conspiratorially.

"Red looks pretty smokin' tonight, eh shorty?" I nodded meekly, all too guilty of watching Chloe's retreating figure ahead of me, her hips swaying as if she knew I was looking. Amy laughed, following my gaze.

The Trebles had left the hall before us, and were now in the foyer, apparently about to fight a middle-aged acapella group. Bumper was making some lame excuse about tearing a quad when one of the guys started laying into Jesse, trying to make him hit him with the trophy that he was holding. We were all standing by the entrance now, watching the events unfolding. Fat Amy was contemplating joining the fray, despite warning glares from Chloe and Aubrey.

"I've wrestled crocodiles and dingoes simultaneously." She protested, as Chloe shook her head sternly. The guy harassing Jesse was getting more and more persistent, and I decided to intervene. After all, despite the fact that I still had the remnants of a black eye because of him, I felt sorry for the normally peaceful Treble.

"I'm just gonna check on him..." I mumbled, beginning to pick my way through the crowd and towards Jesse. The guy was on his knees, begging Jesse to punch him.

"Hey, come on man, he's not gonna do it. Leave it." I stated blankly, grabbing Jesse's elbow in an attempt to steer him away. The guy now leapt forward, grabbing my ankle.

"I need to feel something!" He cried, and I spun back, angry. I steeled myself, and thought, 'screw it.' My left hook hit him square in the jaw, and he reeled back.

"That was FANTASTIC!" He moaned, clutching his face. A collective gasp went up, and I glanced up to see Chloe looking horrified as well as deeply concerned. She was now trying to reign in Fat Amy, but it was too late and she ran over, joining in the 'fight'. As she tried to wrestle the trophy from me to hit the guy, she obliged in giving him a hefty kick to the groin, causing him to fall back for a second time.

"Amy!" I shrieked, and tried to twist the trophy from her grip.

"FEEL THE FAT POWER!" She yelled, and at that moment a section of the trophy broke away in my hands, leaving the rest of it to hurtle through the massive glass panel to our left, shattering it completely. The whole room stopped, and the crowd of onlookers quickly dispersed, leaving me standing there holding part of the trophy, a cop who had seen the glass break from the street now making his way towards me. Amy ran off down the corridor along with the trebles and most of the Bellas. I noticed Chloe pushing her way towards me, only to be held back by Aubrey.

"I have to go help Beca!" She was saying, trying to break free from Aubrey's strong grip.

"You have to help me get the Bellas home. I can't have one of my captains getting in trouble as well, it's bad enough that she's going to be arrested whilst in uniform." Aubrey retorted. They were still bickering as the officer placed handcuffs on me roughly, charging me with destruction of public property. Chloe called out to me as I was lead away.

"I'll follow in a taxi Beca!" I nodded glumly, and watched her run out onto the street after me, hailing a taxi and instructing it to tail the police car. At the station, I was thrown into a small cell, still wearing the tight handcuffs. I sighed, and settled back against the cold concrete wall. It was going to be a long night.

[Chloe]

I ran into the police station, frantically making straight for the front desk.

"I'm here to bail out Beca Mitchell." I said in as level a tone as I could manage whilst I tried to control my erratic breathing. The receptionist gave me a questioning look, handing me a form attached to a clipboard and a pen.

"She's literally only just come in; we're still logging her into the system, so you'll have to wait about 45-60 minutes until you can collect her. The charge will be $100." I gulped, but nodded and made my way back over to the waiting area, where I sat and filled out the form. Luckily I knew most of Beca's personal information, and I handed it back shortly after receiving it.

"Is it okay if I just run to an ATM to take out the money?" I enquired nervously. The receptionist nodded, then pointed to an alcove further down the hall.

"We have one here that you can use." I thanked her, and went to withdraw the money. It wasn't backbreaking, but with student living costs being what they were I still wasn't too happy to part with $100 of my savings. Still, it was worth it to save Beca a night or two in the cells, and I handed it over to the receptionist without hesitation. She filed it and gestured that I take a seat.

"You've still got half an hour to wait, miss." I sat back down reluctantly, and pulled out my phone. I had 3 missed calls from Aubrey. I dialed her number and stepped outside, pressing the phone to my ear. She picked up after a single ring.

"Chloe? Where are you? Is she out yet?" I sighed.

"No, Bree, I just filled out the form and paid the bail money, now I just have to wait like 20 minutes for them to release her. Then we'll be on our way back." I hear muttering in the background and figured that she was still with the other girls.

"Okay, well look, I've got our scoresheet and called an emergency Bella meeting. We're in Beca's room right now, so hurry back." She hung up, and I run my hands through my hair in exasperation. Beca always joked and complained about how uptight and strict Aubrey was, and for the most part it didn't bother me, but lately I'd been noticing the tension between us more than ever. I realised that she probably still felt as though her friendship with me was threatened by Beca, but I didn't know how to tackle that. I wandered back inside, and after about 20 minutes of waiting, a burly police officer came out from a back room, leading a tired looking Beca. I ran over and wrapped her into a warm embrace, thanking the policeman and turning to lead her outside. Her jacket had been lost somewhere along the way, and she shivered in the cold night air. I pulled her out of the light and hugged her again, this time also pressing kisses into her neck.

She moaned slightly, and pushed closer into my body.

"You sure know how to warm a girl up." she mumbled, arching her neck. I grinned, and let my lips travel back to meet hers. After a particularly intense kiss, I pulled back, smiling.

"Come on criminal, the others are back at your place waiting for us." She raised an eyebrow.

"They're in my room? Waiting for us? Kimmy Jin is going to stop that nice phase then." she laughed, slipping her hand into mine as we walked back over to the street.

"Yeah, Aubrey got the score sheet from tonight and apparently an emergency meeting is required." I shrugged, spotting another taxi and calling it over.

x

The girls cheered when we entered Beca's room, and she smiled.

"I can't believe you guys waited up for me," she grinned. Kimmy Jin, who was sitting on her side of the room, got up and turned to glare at her.

"They've been here for hours. It's a real inconvenience Beca." she narrowed her eyes and exited briskly.

"God, why didn't she do that an hour ago." groaned Stacie from her seat on the bed. The other girls nodded.

"Yeah, congrats on the awesome roommate shawshank." Fat Amy evidently had a new nickname for Beca, and I laughed because knowing her hate for films, she probably wouldn't get the reference. Aubrey now stood, clapping her hands firmly.

"Right! As you all know, I have the scoresheet from tonight, and it turns out that the Socapellas almost beat us. Amy," She turned to the sheepish looking Australian, who had added some rather... surprising moves of her own into the performance, which included ripping off her shirt at the end, much to Aubrey's horror.

"You need to do it exactly as we rehearsed it, okay? No more surprises." she said the word with a sort of dismissive distaste, as though the very idea of fun spontaneity made her feel ill. Beca chimed in now.

"But we should be taking risks! It's not enough to be good, we need to be different."

"Yeah, the Trebles never sing the same song twice." Cynthia-rose added, and there was a general murmur of agreement from the other girls. I nodded firmly, giving Beca my support.

"And this is coming from the girl who got herself arrested for taking risks? Pardon me if I don't follow the advice of some alt-girl with her mad-lib beats because she's never even been all the way through a competition." Aubrey shot back coldly. The tension in the room increased dramatically, and Lily whispered something unintelligible. Aubrey clapped her hands again and dismissed the rest of the girls, who exited quickly to avoid her icy glare. As she swept out dramatically, she turned back to give Beca and I a last gloating look.

"See you two at practice tomorrow. 8am. Sharp." The door slammed behind her. I cast an anxious look at Beca, who fell onto the bed groaning, covering her eyes with her arm.

"God, she hates me." I sighed, and sat beside her.

"I think she hates us all right now." She took her arm away and looked up at me, noticing my miserable expression. She sat up quickly.

"Oh Chloe, I'm so sorry." She wrapped her arms tightly around me and hugged me for a moment. I kissed her cheek, eliciting a small smile.

"Come on, let's get these uncomfortable uniforms off." I chuckled, detangling myself from her arms and standing. She grinned, and raised an eyebrow.

"Aw, but you look so sexy in that uniform Chlo." she flirted, and I blushed, shrugging off my jacket and beginning to undo my shirt. She rose and moved to stand in front of me, brushing my hands away and taking on the task of removing my shirt herself.

"On second thoughts, I would rather see you out of it..." I bit my lip, helping her to remove first her jacket and then her shirt. We both stepped out of our skirts and heels, falling back onto the bed in a deep kiss wearing nothing but underwear. I traced my hands over her lacy black bra, feeling her shiver at my touch. She was lying on top of me, pinning me down, and she moved her mouth to my neck now, trailing kisses up and down the tender skin. I moaned softly and pulled her closer into me, reaching to grip tightly at her back, lightly scratching her as the kisses increased in intensity. I suddenly undid the clasp of her bra at the same time as I thrust my hips upwards to meet hers, causing her to gasp into my neck and lean up enough for me to pull the garment out from between our burning bodies. She grinned, and relieved me of mine. We lay even closer together now, the feeling of skin on skin sending a tingling sensation towards the pit of my stomach.

"Beca..." I whispered, biting at her earlobe, causing her to writhe and gasp. She moved 'til her head was hovering above my stomach now, her hands on my breasts, her mouth leaving kisses all across the exposed flesh, stopping barely short of the top of my knickers. She grabbed the hem in her mouth teasingly, flashing me a wink as she began to pull them slowly down to my knees, shuffling back as she did so. It was achingly slow, and as I tangled my hands in her hair, she knew that I was silently begging her for it. I felt her shallow breath painting itself across the inside of my thighs as she moved back up, as slowly as before. She left a few choice kisses on the way up, her lips grazing the skin as she reached my core. I moaned a little louder now.

"Beca..." She placed one, gentle kiss at her destination, continuing to tease me.

"Tell me you want it." She grinned, her hot breath enough to send me writhing with anticipation.

"I want it Beca. I want you." She leant forward again, this time relenting. I felt her tongue swirling tenderly across the sensitive skin, slowly and lightly at first, building in intensity until she suddenly darted inside of me, causing me to gasp loudly. I felt her smile against me, and she increased her pace, eventually adding her fingers to the mix. I thrust my hips up to meet her and she bit playfully at my bundle of nerves. I moaned and pushed her head closer, one hand still tangled in her dark locks. We could both sense that I was coming close to the edge, and she kept up her pace, varying the pressure to stimulate fresh excitement. Finally, I came undone with a loud scream that she leapt up to silence with her own mouth pressed to mine, her fingers still gently easing me down from my high. I sighed into her mouth, then smirked and flipped her onto her back so that I was straddling her waist now.

"Your turn." I grinned.

x

[Beca]

When I woke in the morning, it was to a loud cough from my roommate. I groaned and rubbed my eyes, glancing at the clock, which showed that it was 10am. Shit. I looked over to Kimmy Jin now, who was just raising an eyebrow at me as she packed her bag full of textbooks, and I suddenly noticed that Chloe and I were lying together in the bed, fully naked. Thankfully we'd ended up under the covers at some point in the night, but it didn't stop the blush that spread across my whole face.

"I..I-" Kimmy Jin just shrugged, and left. I let my head fall back into the pillow, and was drifting off again when I noticed the sound of a phone vibrating from the floor. Under the pile of clothes from last night, Chloe's phone was buzzing wildly, indicating a call from Aubrey.

"I guess she noticed our lateness then..." I remarked, to no one in particular, as I reached over to silence it. She could wait.

Chloe woke me up again an hour or so later, shrieking about oversleeping.

"Yeah, I woke up a while back but you looked so peaceful and hot lying there, I thought I'd just leave it, we're dead already." I smirked, pulling her into another dazzling kiss. She returned it for a moment before shoving me off playfully.

"Beca this is serious! Do you have any idea how angry she's going to be?!" I nodded, imaging the scene and shuddering. She batted at my arm, and began to pick out some clothes from my drawer to wear back to her dorm. I pulled on some jeans and a shirt, and realised that I was due at the station in 20 minutes.

"Aubrey will be back in our dorm now anyway, so I'll just go and speak to her there." Chloe decided, giving me a lingering kiss as we parted. I sighed, and felt the ache of separation almost instantly as I made my way slowly to the station. When I got there, Luke was cheerful, and we talked a lot about mixes and he promised to listen to the one I gave him when he got home. As I was leaving, he became serious.

"Beca, about Jesse... are you sure you're okay? He's not still bugging you or anything is he?" I shook my head quickly.

"No, he came and apologised actually, he felt pretty bad about it all." Luke quirked an eyebrow.

"So he should." I tilted my head in agreement.

"Do you think... I know this weird, and he does annoy me so much, but could you offer him his job back? I never got why he wanted it in the first place, but I feel really bad about it." I stumbled over my words, noticing the incredulous look that Luke gave me.

"Look, Beca, you're a lovely person and I respect that, but I can't risk something like that happening again. It's best for you both if you keep as much distance between you as possible." I sighed and nodded, thankful that he understood where I was coming from at least.

"See ya." I called as I left, and I faintly heard him respond over the clattering of coffee mugs and the steady beat of the laid back reggae track echoing over the monitors. I smiled at the comfortable routine that my life was falling into. I had Chloe by my side most of the day, her vibrant red curls and piercing blue eyes bouncing across my vision in a way that made me feel incredibly anchored. Her hands were what grounded me, always meeting mine at just the right moments, always keeping me here, keeping me safe. I had Chloe and I had the Bellas, and as ridiculous and grueling as it was, I loved it. The other girls were my friends, and they were wonderful. They accepted me wholly, and I loved them for it. Then I had the radio station, Luke and my mixes. This little corner of my life was ever-present, ever-expanding, and now the faint scent of stale cigarettes and strong coffee that surrounded the station and DJ provided a feeling of comfort too. I had come to enjoy my monotonous job stacking CDs, not only because it gave me time to myself to simply think, but it was so painfully consistent and reliable that again, it made me feel safe. I couldn't recall feeling so happy in my own little world, and I was so thankful that somehow Chloe had barreled back into my life and triggered it all off.

She tucked me in at night but she set me free. The old me was restored by her side, and it was obvious to me now that she was all I ever wanted, all I ever needed.

AN: Not gonna leave this chapter hanging in the interest of maintaining my reputation for quick updates (And i don't want the chapters to be TOO long!) so there will be more to come, look forward to the next chapter in the not to distant future :)