Stacie woke up with the image of her girlfriend bleeding in her arms still burning in her mind, a screenshot of the nightmarish flashback that had plagued her dreams since she had fallen asleep. The young woman sucked in a shaky breath and threw her blankets off her herself. Her skin was covered with a cold sheen of sweat and Stacie pushed her damp hair back out of her face with both hands. She struggled to let a grip on herself and tried to force the events of the other night out of her mind desperately. But the memories of what had happened were still far too vivid and Stacie felt blindly around in her bed for her phone. When the increasingly hysteric girl finally found the small device, she hurried to unlock it and click on Jaiden's contact.
"Stacie? What's going on? It's like three in the morning," Jaiden's irritated voice filled the speaker and Stacie felt the knot in her stomach release a bit.
"Nothing, I'm sorry. I…I just needed to hear your voice." Stacie admitted.
"Are you okay?"
"I don't know, Jaiden. I can't stop thinking about what happened and I thought I was going to lose you." Stacie blurted out. She clenched her eyes shut, knowing that Jaiden was probably not going to want to talk about feelings in the early hours of the morning.
"You know I'm right here though, alright? Do you want to come over?" The offer caught Stacie off guard and she found herself nodding.
"Yeah. I'll be there in 10, okay?" She replied gratefully.
"Okay. I'll unlock the door, so just come in when you get here. I love you." Jaiden told her.
"I love you too." The older girl replied before getting out of bed. Stacie hurried to throw on a pair of sweats and grabbed her keys off of her dresser, rushing to get out of her dorm. She nearly ran down to her car in a pair of fleece moccasins, occasionally brushing past a few drunk students trying to get to their rooms.
What should have been a 10 minute drive was actually cut down to a clean seven minutes, due mostly to desperation and empty streets. Stacie shoved her keys into her pocket as she jogged into the building and up the familiar stairs to the Mitchell-Beale apartment. The dark haired girl quietly let herself through the door and tip-toed into the main space. She passed by Beca and Chloe's closed door and nearly had to restrain herself from bursting straight into Jaiden's room. Instead, the 20 year old knocked lightly and waited for the door to open. Within a few seconds, the knob turned and she squinted through the darkness to see Jaiden standing in front of her.
"Hey," The freshman spoke up softly. Stacie breathed out a held in sigh of relief and just barely caught herself from throwing her arms around the girl. Jaiden noticed her uncertainty and reached forward to take both of her hands. She pulled Stacie into her room slowly and shut the door behind them both.
"How're you feeling?" Stacie asked finally. She allowed Jaiden to lead her over to her messy bed and watched nervously as the injured girl slowly lowered herself back onto the pillows.
"Still a little buzzed from the painkillers I took before bed," Jaiden admitted. She patted the open space beside her and waited expectantly for Stacie to crawl in beside her. The taller girl took her cue and cautiously slid in next to her; afraid to jostle her too much. Jaiden once again picked up on Stacie's anxiety and rolled onto her good side so that she could wrap an arm around her. She immediately felt the brunette relax under her touch and sighed contently as she rested her head on Stacie's chest. "I'm really sorry about earlier."
"It's okay." Stacie responded.
"No, it really wasn't. I mean, I'm the one who put your life in danger and there I was, snapping at you." Jaiden said.
"You didn't put my life in danger, Jay."
"Well, he was there because of me." Jaiden pointed out quietly. Stacie began to draw slow patterns across the younger girl's back, careful to avoid the bandage on the exit wound. She had been afraid of how her lover was going to process what had happened, and the fact that she was leaning towards self –blame made Stacie nervous.
"Please don't. It was his fault and his fault only." Stacie assured her seriously.
"Whatever you want to believe." Jaiden huffed. She fell silent; listening to the sound of Stacie's heartbeat and the sound of her steady breathing. The slow moving fingertips across her back were beginning to lull her to sleep and she let her eyelids close after a few seconds of fighting it.
"Beca! Beca, wake up and look at this!" A very sore and very tired Beca Mitchell found herself staring straight into a phone screen after waking to the sound of her girlfriend's voice. She blinked a few times and focused on the image displayed in front of her, all the while feeling the various aches and pains in her limbs and torso flare up. A small smile played at her lips as she realized it was a picture of Jaiden and Stacie curled up in the other bedroom.
"I went in to check on her and found them like that. She must have come over in the middle of the night," Chloe beamed, pulling her phone back and staring at the picture again. Beca forced herself to sit up and moaned in pain as her injuries protested. The redhead beside the bed immediately put her hands on the smaller girl's back and her features were coated with concern.
"Are you okay? Do you want me to get you your meds? Or your crutches? Or maybe you should stay in bed all day-"
"Babe, I'm fine. And don't worry; I fully intend on keeping my ass attached to this mattress all day," Beca cut her off before Chloe could get too worked up. "But, I would appreciate it if you'd help me into the bathroom."
"Of course," Chloe nodded. With that, she gently scooped Beca up into her arms, avoiding the right side of her ribcage that she had already discovered was a sensitive spot. The older girl carried Beca into the bathroom with ease, stealing a quick kiss on the cheek as she walked, and then set her down gingerly right beside the toilet. Beca shooed her away as she balanced on one foot and used the towel rack for support, fully sure that she could at least manage to pee by herself.
"I'll be outside the door if you need anything," Chloe reminded her. Beca rolled her eyes and waited until she was finally alone to slowly sit down and go about her usual business. When she finally managed to hobble over to the sink, Beca caught a good look at herself for the first time in a few days. Her two black eyes had gotten even darker, and quite honestly, the brunette hardly recognized herself under all of the swelling and discoloration on her body. Beca tore her eyes away from the mirror and washed her hands quickly. She tapped on the door and Chloe opened it immediately.
"Come on, back to bed," Chloe wrapped an arm around Beca and helped her back over to their bed, where she laid down again stiffly. "I'm going to go out and make breakfast for everyone, okay? And then we're watching Netflix." The redhead told her. Beca couldn't help but smile adoringly as Chloe rushed out of the bedroom. However, the second the door closed behind her, the brunette grabbed her phone off of the nightstand and dialed her mother's number. Beca could feel her face grow hotter and hotter with every ring, and by the time the older woman picked up, she was ready to explode.
"Rebecca?"
"You fucking knew he was coming, didn't you?" Beca accused her immediately.
"Please don't use that tone with me. I had no idea where he was going to go."
"Bullshit. How could you put that piece of shit in front of your own daughter? I mean, I know you and I don't have anything, but you owed her. And you couldn't put her first."
"Don't you speak about Ted that way. I called your sister and if she would have had any common sense, she would have known where he was going."
"Are you seriously blaming her right now?" Beca shouted. She glanced towards the door quickly, hoping Chloe hadn't heard her, and lowered her voice a bit. "How the fuck can you live with yourself?"
"That man had his faults, but he loved me and he's gone now. All because of you two. He was just trying to straighten you out and look what you've done. Have a nice life Rebecca, because you are no daughter of mine." Beca's jaw dropped as the line went dead and she clenched her fist around the phone in a death grip. Their mom didn't even care. She didn't care that Jaiden could have died and it was all because her bastard of an ex-husband had put a bullet into her.
Too angry to continue to lie in bed, Beca slowly got onto her good foot and painfully hopped across the floor to her crutches. The brunette limped out of the bedroom, bracing herself for Chloe's disapproval, and was surprised to find her sister standing just outside her door.
"Hey, um, I was just about to knock." Jaiden explained sheepishly. Beca blinked away her shock and limped backwards enough so that the younger girl could slip past her. Giving the two of them some privacy, Beca shut the door behind her and hopped over to the bed. Jaiden sat down on the edge of it, favoring her side, and took in her sister's appearance silently. Beca looked rough, to say the least, and Jaiden couldn't help but feel at fault for it. Her sister had stood up to Ted to try and protect her. She had lunged at a man with a gun for her.
"Did you sleep okay?" Beca asked finally, breaking the silence. Jaiden was pulled out of her thoughts and she nodded. In truth, her sleep had been more of a light coma thanks to the prescription the hospital had set her up with.
"You?" Beca nodded in reply and sat down next to her. Jaiden was off and she knew it, but the older girl didn't have the confidence to actually call her out.
"I want you to wait a few days before going to classes, okay?" The older Mitchell changed the subject smoothly.
"Okay," Jaiden paused for a second. "I heard you talking to Mom. What did she say?" Beca's heart dropped at the realization and she debated her response for a few seconds. As far as she was concerned, Jaiden's mental state was probably on thin ice. Hearing that her own mother was more upset over Ted's death than the fact that he could have killed them wouldn't necessarily help that.
"You know she's a piece of shit, right?" Beca pointed out.
"Beca, what did she say?" Jaiden repeated herself stubbornly.
"She's pretty upset that he's dead, honestly." She admitted finally. Beca watched her sister nervously; trying to gauge her reaction, and found the younger girl's face blank and unreadable.
"Wow." Jaiden muttered finally. Beca frowned as she got to her feet and walked over to the door. "Look; Stacie already left for her morning classes, but if she comes back, can you just pretend we're not here?" Her voice changed slightly and if Beca would have been able to get back on her feet without whimpering, she would have.
"Jay? Come back, don't shut-" Beca was cut off by the door closing and she sighed in exasperation. "Don't shut me out." The brunette finished under her breath.
Uh oh. Angst is on its way. Don't forget to review and let me know what you'd like to see. Completely open to suggestions for the rest of the story!