A/N: We are nearing the end. Hope you guys are still with me ;)
Beca now knew what Chloe meant when she said hockey was her life. Chloe seemed to slowly go crazy. Since she couldn't play, she resorted to other tasks within the team. She helped Aubrey with training the girls, watched recordings of other teams and assisted the coaches wherever she could. They had two more games in the regular season before the playoffs would start and they needed to beat both teams in order to get the home advantage.
Without Chloe the team was at a loss. They just didn't have enough strong midfielders to compensate for missing one of the most important players on the team. Aubrey tried to coach best she could, but nothing seemed to work. They were lucky their first opponent they faced weren't too strong, so their individual skills were enough to score some goals early on, but their opponents adjusted well in the second half. Barden's defense was a mess. Long passes through midfield were allowed too often and they faced a lot of circle penetrations. Cynthia-Rose was their saviour in the end, but this game was way too close for their likings.
After the game Aubrey didn't seem like herself. They had had bad games before, she had been mad before, but she wasn't yelling at anyone currently. The blonde silently packed her bags as quickly as she could and made her way to the showers. Beca walked up to her girlfriend to give her a kiss.
"Is everything OK with Aubrey, she isn't yelling at me, it's scary," Beca said. Chloe looked in the direction Aubrey had walked.
"I know, but I think she just needs some space right now. I will try to talk to her later."
Beca nodded and followed her team to the showers. She wanted to help, but feared that anything she said would put Aubrey even more on edge. She didn't want to do that to the blonde. She had actually grown to tolerate, maybe even like the girl.
Beca was the last out of the showers and walked back towards the canteen where all the girls were sitting. On her way over she heard a weird noise, so instead of taking a right turn, she made a left turn towards the sound. There, behind the changing rooms, she saw Aubrey standing hunched over with one hand resting on the wall. She was breathing heavily, so Beca ran over. She put her hand on Aubrey's back and tried to rub it soothingly.
"Thanks Chloe," Aubrey said before looking up. When she did and saw brown hair instead of red, her eyes grew wide. "Oh, it's you, I'm sorry. You really don't need to be here, I'm fine."
"You don't seem fine," Beca responded. "I'm not just going to leave you, you're my teammate, so I look out for you, remember?"
Before Aubrey could respond, she had to face to ground again, because she started dry heaving. Beca started rubbing her back again. She wasn't good at comforting or talking, but she wasn't going to leave Aubrey alone either.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she tried. Aubrey shook her head slightly while still leaning against the building. She was still not breathing at a normal pace and her face was pale. Aubrey told her that she was fine, but Beca wasn't buying it.
"Aubrey, you're clearly not fine, just talk to me. I know I'm not your favorite person in the world, but we need to work together to win this thing. We have got three more weeks to prepare and win the championship."
At the mention of the championship Aubrey turned even more pale. She stared at Beca and didn't say anything or move even a single muscle. She then closed her eyes and started breathing in a pattern. Slowly the colour returned to her face and her breathing slowed down a bit.
"Do you really think we can still win," she asked in a voice uncharacteristically small for her.
Beca nodded. "Of course we can, we just need to approach some things differently. We can't keep using the same strategy and hope that we can compensate for Chloe's absence. We need to look at everybody's strengths and make them work for us. We need to assess the opponent's weak points and hit them where it hurts. If we do that, I have no doubt that we can win this thing."
Aubrey now managed to stand up straight. She looked thoughtful for a second. "Would you want to help me?"
Beca nodded and offered Aubrey her bottle of water. The blonde took it and while she took a sip, Beca heard footsteps behind her. She turned around to see wet red curls rushing past her to Aubrey.
"Bree, are you okay? I couldn't find you and I know how you get stressed. Do you need anything, water, a hug?"
Aubrey shook her head and told Chloe that she was fine. She had water and was already starting to feel better. She returned the bottle to Beca who told her that she could keep it. Chloe turned towards her girlfriend with big eyes.
"Oh, I interrupted a bonding moment, didn't I? I'm so sorry, please ignore me," she said before starting to walk of.
"Chloe, we were not having a bonding moment, come back here," Beca said with a smile. Her girlfriend was just the cutest when she tried to get Aubrey and Beca to be friends. Chloe returned to her side and slid her hand and Beca's.
"So, what is going on here then?" she asked.
"Beca is going to help us make up a plan to win the championship, so she's coming over tonight and we are not going to rest until we have the perfect plan," Aubrey responded. Although these details were new to Beca, she had planned to come over anyway, so she nodded. Chloe lunged forward and hugged her friend before turning back to Beca and hugging her as well.
"Let's go back inside, before the team gets all worried," Beca suggested as she took her girlfriend's hand.
Beca spent the time she had before she was supposed to go over to Chloe's looking at old games from the Olympics. She knew most of these games inside out and had watched them repeatedly, but she had always watched them for pleasure, now she was watching them with a purpose. She even made notes on interesting plays she saw that they could use.
Armed with her notes and her laptop she arrived at the apartment. Chloe greeted her with a kiss and let her in. Aubrey was already sitting on the couch with a bowl of salad in her lap and drinking some kind of green liquid. Beca grimaced at the sight of the chunks in her glass.
"Don't worry, Chloe ordered pizza for you, you don't need to drink this," Aubrey said while pointing at the pizza box on the counter. Beca mouthed a thank you to Chloe as she went over to get a slice. She then settled on the couch with all her stuff spread on the table.
As Beca started explaining different strategies she wanted to try out, she noticed that Aubrey wasn't as open to her suggestions as she made it out to be after the game earlier. Every option was shot down immediately by the blonde. After a while Beca couldn't handle it anymore. She had tried to be patient, explain everything, address Aubrey's concerns, she even had notes, which means she was serious. She shut her laptop and gathered her stuff.
"If you don't want my help, you shouldn't have invited me over. Seriously Aubrey, what is your problem?" she said agitated. Chloe stood up as well and tried to sooth her and get her to sit down again. But Beca was not paying attention to her girlfriend, she was looking at the blonde. Aubrey looked like she was about to throw up and needed all her concentration to keep herself together.
Suddenly she snapped out of it. "I'm sorry, okay? It's not easy for me to give up control or to listen to some tiny, annoying person with ear monstrosities lecture me on how to run my team. I need to win this and I need to know for sure that whatever we are going to do is going to work, so yes, I have my reservations."
"Well, I can't guarantee that anything will work, but I know for sure it's better than doing what we are doing right now. We need to try new things and hope that they will work. If that is not good enough for you, I'm sorry, I can't give you anything."
At this Aubrey nodded. "I can try new things, please don't leave."
Beca nodded and sat back down. As soon as she started talking again she noticed a change in Aubrey's attitude. The blonde was actually trying to contribute instead of shoot ideas down. She had some valid concern, but between the three of them they managed to come up with some pretty good plays they could use.
Aubrey called the coaches and organized a meeting for the next day. They would present their plans to them and with their approval they could try some of the plays in the next practice. If everything would go well, Aubrey would organize a team meeting to bring the girls up to speed and they would be set for their last game before the championships.
While Aubrey was in the other room talking on the phone, Chloe snuggled into Beca's side. "You made notes. I have never seen you with notes, not even from you lectures"
"Yeah, well, I figured I would need that to convince Aubrey I was serious," Beca replied. She kissed the top of Chloe's head and gathered the notes in her lap with the hand that was not wrapped around her girlfriend.
"I like this side of you. I know you want people to think you are all badass and that you don't care about anything, but honestly, there is not a moment I have actually been convinced that you did not care. I mean, even though you claim you don't care about lectures, you still go and you study and you pass your tests. Thank you for caring about Aubrey and about the team."
Aubrey returned to the room. "We meet them tomorrow an hour before practice. Would that work for you, Beca?"
Beca looked at Aubrey in surprise. "You want me to come? Isn't this a captains and coaches kind of occasion?"
"Well, since it is mostly your plan, I think we could make an exception and make you co-captain as well, right Chloe?"
Chloe nodded and hugged her girlfriend tightly. Beca looked at Aubrey over Chloe's shoulder and gave her an encouraging nod. They could do this. If Beca and Aubrey managed to work together, anything was possible.