A/N: Here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy :)

This chapter's song is 'Rubik's Cube' by Athlete.

Beca and Chloe had a week of blissful peace before their lives both suddenly seemed to fall apart.

For that one week, Beca was allowed to work shorter hours at work because of her recent trip to New York, and so she was able to spend every afternoon and evening of that week with Chloe. The pair would go on walks together, try cooking new things (though everything seemed to end up and odd slop of food on a plate) and every night they would watch a different film. Beca started coming round to the idea of movies because she realised that they were actually quite good when she bothered to watch them all the way through. To Beca, that week in the middle of spring couldn't have been more peaceful. Chloe had a different view.

There was no denying that Chloe loved being able to spend so much time with Beca – it was great to have some alone time with her in the afternoons until Amy got home, and having Beca home meant she wasn't left alone for most of the day like she usually was when Beca had to work full time. Chloe loved being in Beca's company, but since Beca rarely let Chloe out of her sights when she was home, it made it very difficult for Chloe to hide her pain. Over the course of that week, the pain and fatigue in Chloe's body only got worse and worse – if that was even possible. She really tried her best to conceal her suffering from Beca, not wanting to burden the brunette with her troubles, but it became increasingly harder as time went on. Chloe and Beca would be lying on the sofa together watching a film, but Chloe wouldn't be able to hear it over the ringing in her ears, and the pounding of her head. She and Beca would be baking, but Chloe wouldn't be able to stand up for more than a couple of minutes without being overcome by waves of dizziness and nausea.

But still, Chloe enjoyed and cherished her time with Beca, not taking a single second of it for granted. Beca took great care of Chloe without making the redhead feel like an invalid, and made the most of the time she was freely able to take off work, knowing her boss would tighten up her hours again the next week. At the weekend, the pains shooting through Chloe's body subsided long enough for her to enjoy a meet up with the other Bellas in the nice park near the flat. The other Bellas were shocked at how different Chloe looked – she was so much paler, thinner, weaker than the last time saw her – but they didn't say anything, knowing that it would only make Chloe and Beca feel worse.

It surprised the Bellas just how close Chloe and Beca had grown – sure, the group had been rooting for the two of them to get together since forever, and so they had been thrilled when the pair had announced that they were officially together at the start of their meet up – but Chloe and Beca had grown close in a way that you only could when you had been through something incredibly hard together. They seemed to communicate without speaking to each other, and they predicted each other's movements, anticipating what the other was about to do and accommodating for it with their own answering movements. Of course, Chloe was oblivious to how happy the Bellas where to see the pair together even as the Bellas kept saying how cute her and Beca were over and over, but Beca couldn't ignore it. She was grateful that the Bellas accepted her and Chloe as a couple but she couldn't help but feel awkward as the other Bellas commented on her relationship and sexuality. She loved the Bellas but they could be a tad overbearing especially when it came to personal matters.

Unfortunately, that blissful week came to a shuddering, sudden end when Chloe developed a fever. One night, she had a high temperature, the next she was back in hospital, relying on machines to keep her alive.

The doctors had said right at the beginning of Chloe's treatment that because of her illness, she could get ill very easily and quickly, but Beca had not expected anything like this. Chloe had become so ill over night that the doctors wouldn't even let Beca into Chloe's room, because the redhead needed to be completely isolated so she didn't get any more ill.

Beca didn't know what to do with herself. She exactly how she did last time Chloe had been in the ICU; confused, worried, lonely and at a complete loss as to what to do with herself. None of the doctors would really tell her what was going on – they all just made it very clear that Chloe was dangerously ill and that she would need to stay in isolation until she was stable.

Beca's work started breathing down her neck again as she refused to leave the hospital to go to work, because she didn't want anything to happen whilst she was away. Her boss called her every morning for 3 days asking her to come in and each time Beca just had to refuse, saying she really couldn't leave Chloe. Each phone call was worse and worse, with her boss becoming more and more annoying and coming closer and closer to letting her go, even after the success of the New York trip.

Basically, in the space of a few days, Beca felt she lost complete control over her life. She couldn't talk to Chloe, or even enter the same room as her, Aubrey was back at work and only free to talk in the evenings and Chloe's family were all too busy or stressed to come down to see her – which Beca thought was unbelievable but chose not to challenge it.

Beca would spend all day sat on the chairs outside Chloe's room, wishing with all her heart that she could be sat beside the redhead, breathing in her faint smell of fresh daisies and holding her soft, gentle hand.

Finally, after a week of being in isolation, Chloe was taken out of the room and taken to a ward on the ICU where Beca was able to sit by her. Chloe still didn't wake up because of all the medication entering her body through intravenous, but it comforted Beca to be able to feel Chloe's warm skin and know that she was still here, she was still living.

The doctors took Chloe's admittance to hospital as an opportunity to run some tests and see how Chloe's treatment was going and whether her cancer was getting any better. Beca went with Chloe for all the tests, though most of the time wasn't allowed in any of the rooms, and Chloe was unconscious anyway so Beca's presence didn't make much of a difference, but it comforted Beca to be able to feel the redhead under her fingers. Beca simply didn't want to let Chloe go.

It was growing dark one evening, Beca had just got off the phone to her boss who had again threatened to fire her if she didn't start coming to work again, when Chloe finally stirred. Beca tried to push all thoughts of her boss and job out of her head as Chloe furrowed her eyebrows and took a few deep, ragged breaths, slowly opening her dazed, crystal eyes. Beca smiled at Chloe, but didn't remove the oxygen mask from around Chloe's face, not wanting to compromise Chloe's condition.

"I love you." Beca just said quietly, picking up Chloe's hand and pressing it gently to her lips. Chloe smiled weakly at Beca, her eyes full of love and hope as she drifted back into a peaceful sleep.

Beca went into the work the next day, much to the joy of her boss and began to start feeling much more in control of her life before she arrived back at the hospital to find Chloe awake and sitting up right in her bed. Before her stood a grave looking doctor with a clipboard in his hand and beside him stood a kindly nurse who had also looked after Chloe the last time she had been in the ICU.

The doctor waited for Beca to sit down in her usual seat beside Chloe before he started talking.

"As you two know, we took this opportunity of you, Chloe, being in hospital to run some tests and assess you condition. Well, we just got the test results back, and we need to discuss them with you."

Butterflies burst out in a frenzy in Beca's stomach as she watched the doctor's lips, waiting with great anticipation for his next words.

"Your cancer, Chloe… has developed faster than we anticipated. We knew that your kind of cancer was a cancer that could develop very quickly, but we thought that the chemotherapy may slow down this development and even rid your body of the cancer. Unfortunately, the chemotherapy hasn't worked for you. Your cancer is at stage 4. Chloe, I'm so sorry to tell you this, but you are terminal."

The doctor's last word clanged through Beca's head, playing over and over, the echo of it making Beca feel sick to her stomach. Terminal. Chloe was terminal.

Chloe: the kindest, happiest, sweetest person Beca knew was terminal. Chloe was going to die, and there was nothing anyone could do to prevent it.

'The world is too heavy,

Too big for my shoulders;

Come take the weight off me now.

1000s of answers,

To one simple question;

Come take the weight off me now…'