"Come on, come on." Beca muttered under her breath as she came to another red light. The brunette did a quick glance towards the other lanes of the intersection and floored it through just in time to avoid a red sedan. Heart pounding in her chest from the close call, Beca glanced at the GPS that hung on the windshield. According to the time on the bottom of the screen, she was only two minutes away from the hospital. She took a quick right and relaxed a bit as she saw the looming set of buildings at the end of the long road. With the speed limit being the last thing on her mind, Beca pressed the pedal harder and zoomed past another car. Finally whipping into the parking lot, she screeched to a halt in the first spot she could find outside of the emergency entrance.
Beca hopped out of her car and booked it through the automatic doors. She stumbled to a halt at the nurses' desk and started to scribble her name on the visitors' sign in sheet.
"Who're you here for, honey?" The middle aged woman behind the counter asked.
"Beale. I'm here for Chloe Beale." She panted out. The nurse began to scan her sheet and paused as she found the young woman's name.
"She's being treated in room 203. Your friend is in there with her." The nurse provided. Beca, too worried to even think to thank her, whirled around and scanned the room numbers frantically. Finding the 200's, she narrowly dodged a team of doctors before bursting through the door.
"Chloe," Beca murmured, taking in the scene before her. The redhead's eyes were closed and an oxygen tube hung over her ears and down around to her nose. She had been changed into a blue hospital gown, out of the top of which three wires came out and connected to a beeping heart monitor. The final touch for Beca to start crying was the IV pumping fluids into her arm. Jaiden, who had been watching the scene unfold quietly from the chair to the side of the bed, yawned tiredly and sat up.
"Please don't. I already had to deal with her crying and I really don't have the energy for this." She requested. Beca sniffed and wiped away the few stray tears rolling down her face.
"I'm sorry. Thank you so much for keeping her safe." Beca thanked her in an attempt to compose herself and stepped the rest of the way into the room. Jaiden stood up from her chair and settled for the one on the opposite side so that her sister could hold Chloe's extended hand. Despite her initial discomfort at the request, she had given in when Chloe had to go through having her stomach pumped.
"You need to work on things with her, Becs." The older Mitchell sister looked up from her girlfriend at the use of her nickname. It had been several years since Jaiden had referred to her affectionately and the small action certainly did not go unnoticed by her.
"I know. This is all my fault." Beca murmured quietly.
"Yeah. I know I'm not one to talk, but let her in a little. Talk to her about your shit. She feels like you don't even love her enough to trust her. And then when she found out you had told Jesse about us, um, our situation, I think it made her feel less special." Jaiden hesitated for a moment before continuing. "She came onto me tonight, Beca."
"What?" Beca's eyes widened at the revelation.
"Don't be mad at her. I mean, obviously she was wasted and trying to convince herself that you don't love her. It wasn't a serious thing." Jaiden defended the now sleeping girl immediately. Her sister seemed to calm down and sank back into her guilt. Beca noticed as Jaiden attempted to suppress another yawn and glanced at the clock on the wall.
"You can go back to campus if you want. I'm sorry you even had to do this." Beca apologized once again, hoping that this wouldn't be something that the younger girl would use against them in the future.
"Can't. I rode here in the ambulance. It's not a big deal though; I'll just skip my morning classes." Jaiden shrugged indifferently. She settled in her chair sideways, with her feet dangling over one arm and her head resting against the other. Beca bit her bottom lip uncertainly, not wanting Jaiden to have to stay at the hospital for the whole night.
"Are you sure? I could call Dad and-"
"Don't even say that. You know I don't talk to him." Jaiden interrupted in annoyance. Her defensive response elicited small murmur from Chloe. The redhead shifted in her bed and Beca immediately turned her attention from Jaiden to her. Clutching her hand tighter, the brunette waited anxiously as Chloe's eyes fluttered open and found her's.
"I feel awful." Her voice was hoarse and still slurred, showing that she still had quite a lot of alcohol in her system.
"God, Chlo, I'm so sorry. I love you so much. I do." Beca murmured, lifting Chloe's hand up so that she could kiss the back of it gently.
"Then why…why don't you tell me things?" Jaiden shot her sister a warning look as Chloe asked the question pitifully. She didn't want to have to interject just to keep her from screwing things up any further. Beca clenched her jaw and stared down at her hand, which was intertwined with the redhead's.
"I don't know, Chloe. I don't tell anybody 'things'. It has nothing to do with you though. Like completely nothing. And I know you were upset that Jesse knew about my family situation, but I swear it doesn't mean anything." Beca held Chloe's hand tighter, willing her words to break through the alcohol barrier between the two of them. She felt her girlfriend's grip tighten on her in response and her eyes opened a little more.
"Please stop shutting me out." Chloe pleaded softly. Her face contorted into an expression of sadness that broke the smaller girl's heart.
"Okay. I won't anymore. I love you," Beca's breath hitched in her throat. "I'm sorry."
"Lay down with me." Chloe weakly pulled Beca's arm and the smaller girl stood up immediately. She carefully climbed into the hospital bed and settled down beside her girlfriend, ignoring the stale stench of intoxication that rolled off of her.
"I'm heading down to the cafeteria. Do you want a coffee or something?" Jaiden stood up from her chair and pulled her phone out of her pocket. The 18 year old popped one headphone in her ear and waited for her sister's reply at the door.
"Yeah, a coffee would be great. Are you sure you don't want me to call someone to come and get you?" The older Mitchell asked uncertainly. She momentarily broke eye contact with Jaiden as Chloe shifted closer to her in the bed and threw an arm across her torso.
"I'm fine, and it's late anyways. I'll be back in a little bit." Jaiden waved the offer off and put her other headphone in. The halls of the hospital were practically empty by this time of night and the freshman wandered through them for a while before finding her way to the cafeteria. A stand with several pots of coffee caught her attention and she walked tiredly over to it.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Those have been sitting there for a good two hours and might actually put you in our ER." Jaiden jumped at the voice behind her and came face to face with a middle aged doctor. She pulled one of her headphones out of her ear in order to hear him better. The man smiled at her and then nodded over towards a row of vending machines.
"At this time of night, you're better off grabbing one of the cold ones." He advised wisely. Jaiden nodded, trying to be polite and ignore the fact that he had a terribly close resemblance to her stop father.
"Thank you." She half whispered, hurrying over to the machines. Relief flooded over her as she heard his footsteps heading away from her, out of the nearly empty cafeteria. Her hands shook as she struggled to pull a few bills out of her wallet and put them into the beverage machine's slot. "Come on, you know damn well that wasn't him" She thought to herself desperately. The teenager loathed the hold he still had over her, even from where he was rotting in jail. It was something she hid, and something she hid well.
After getting two iced Starbucks drinks and two packs of powdered donuts, something she remembered as being one of Beca's favorites, Jaiden started back towards Chloe's room. She continued to try to talk herself back down as she walked, while simultaneously praying she wouldn't cross paths with the doctor again.
Beca looked up as her sister came back into the hospital room. She could tell by the look on the younger girl's face that something had unsettled her. Jaiden tossed her a package of donuts and set a glass bottle of coffee down on the bedside table before sitting back in her chair. Beca couldn't help but notice that one of her headphones was out again and took the opportunity to talk before she could put it back in.
"You alright?" She asked cautiously. Chloe had fallen back asleep shortly after Jaiden was gone and Beca was hoping that she'd be able to sleep through the night, until most of the alcohol had left her system.
"Fine." Jaiden mumbled in response. "I didn't know what to get you, so I hope those are okay." She changed the subject quickly and glanced towards the snack package in her older sister's hands.
"I still love these things, if that's what you're subtly trying to figure out." Jaiden blushed a bit at her sister's inept observation and busied herself opening her coffee. The cap opened with a quiet "pop" and she found herself wishing she had just bitten the bullet and gone for a Redbull instead.
"You got me." She admitted. Beca smirked, flattered that her sister still remembered the tiny detail, and opened the donuts as quietly as she could. Fortunately, Chloe didn't so much as stir.
"Are you sure you're alright? You look a little, um, upset or something." Jaiden sighed and drank her coffee silently.
"I'm good. Just tired, that's all." She lied again, hoping her sister would drop the subject. To her disdain, Beca did and immediately moved on to a worse one.
"Can we talk about everything?" The small brunette asked hopefully. While Jaiden was gone, she had been planning a way to get her younger sister to let them talk out some of the bad blood between them. If she showed more of an effort and let onto how much she wanted Jaiden's forgiveness, Chloe would see it and no doubt feel better about the situation. Not to mention Beca was completely past the point of worrying about seeming desperate in front of her sister. That much was obviously clear to the younger girl now.
"What do you want to talk about?" She relented reluctantly.
"At the courthouse that day, why did you volunteer to go with Mom? Especially when you knew what he was like?" The aspiring DJ searched Jaiden's face for any hint of an answer. By the look on the younger girl's face, Beca could tell she was remembering the day of the custody trial.
"It's not fair, how they can just split us up like this. I wish I could change it." Beca huffed angrily. She and her sister were sitting outside of their hometown courthouse. The two of them had escaped their newly divorced parents as soon as custody was anointed to each of them, effectively splitting the siblings between them.
"I know. I'll still see you at school though." Jaiden replied optimistically. If there was one thing she hated, it was seeing her older sister close to tears. Beca didn't cry practically ever, and seeing it was like seeing a whole different side of her.
"It's not the same. They didn't even listen to us when we said we wanted to stay together." Beca brought her knees up closer to her chest on the courthouse stairs and stared out at the people walking by on the sidewalk. Her small hands balled up into fists as she attempted not to let on how upset she was to her younger sibling.
"Living with Dad will be okay though. He'll probably give you whatever you want if you guilt trip him." Jaiden noted wisely. She watched as Beca smirked at her, letting up the tension a little bit, and looked over towards her.
"Yeah, well, you'll get away with anything with Mom. Especially now that she has that loser to occupy her." Beca replied, trying to incorporate that same optimism into her voice as her sister had. Jaiden noticed the attempt and appreciated it.
"Beca! Come on, let's get going." The two of them were interrupted by the sound of their father's voice behind them. They turned around to see him stepping down the stairs towards them. Both girls shared a regretting glance as they stood. Beca pulled her younger sister into a tight hug and rubbed her back comfortingly. Jaiden had outgrown her last year, leaving her the "little big sister", but Beca still felt a fiercely protective side towards the younger girl.
"Call me." She reminded Jaiden quietly. The taller of the two nodded as their father finally reached them.
"I'll see you whenever I can. I'm so sorry this had to happen, Jay." Dr. Mitchell pulled his youngest daughter into a one sided embrace. Jaiden remained stiff in his arms, not trying to mask the bitterness she held towards him.
"Don't call me that." She muttered, pulling out of the hug. Dr. Mitchell grimaced sadly as he let her go. When he turned to Beca, he realized that she was just about as hostile as her younger sister. She was staring at him coldly and didn't say a word before she started walking towards the car.
"Because I didn't want you to have to deal with him instead. And I didn't know how bad it was going to be." Jaiden admitted finally. She watched her sister's face fall with realization and immediately regretted her response.
"That's not fair. I should have been the one protecting you." Beca whispered. Jaiden could see the older girl was overcome with guilt again. Fighting the pity that was building up from the look on Beca's face, Jaiden turned her attention back to her coffee and mindlessly began to read the ingredient list.
"Well, you didn't and it's over, so." The statement came out harsher than she had intended and Jaiden could practically feel the older girl wince from across the room.
"I'm sorry." Beca's voice cracked on the second word and she bit her bottom lip, not wanting to fall apart in front of her sister again. She was still supposed to be the strong one and she was still failing at it. And it was beginning to become clearer and clearer why Jaiden wasn't forgiving her.
"I didn't mean it like that, Becs. I just meant that, you know, all of that is done and there's no use talking about it." Jaiden half apologized. Her sister looked up at the second use of her nickname and felt the lump in her throat subside slightly. Not wanting the conversation to continue any further, Jaiden continued before her sister could. "I'm going to get some sleep and you probably should too."
Beca nodded at the younger girl's suggestion and glanced down at the sleeping redhead on her shoulder. Carefully shifting so that she could pull Chloe's blanket up over herself, the brunette eventually got settled in next to her. Jaiden got up once that she saw that she was settled and hit the light dimmer on the wall behind the bed before returning to her chair and sitting in it sideways again.
"Goodnight. I love you." Beca ventured bravely. She tensed in anticipation for Jaiden's reply, if she would even give one. The teenager shot her a sideways glance before popping her headphones in.
"I know you do."
I hope you all like this longer chapter! Let me know what you think and what you'd like to see. I'm going to start to incorporate more from the Mitchell's past and other bits of drama, but I'm still entirely open to suggestions!