- Part 1 -


Arrhythmia


Rise up and come out of where you hide;
We are gonna make it out of here alive.
Rise up and leave no one left behind.
Everybody save yourself tonight.
-Tommee Profitt, Xeah


Aubrey stops near the stairs, a sinking feeling forming in the pit of her stomach. Stacie and everyone surrounding her look completely lost. "We need to find Sophia and Donald before the sheriff finds us," she speaks the first words that come to her mind. "Did they say where they were going this morning?"

"No," Stacie answers, "I just assumed they were going to meet me for breakfast, and then all of that shit went down, and the phones aren't working, and - " She looks around gasping for air. "I checked everywhere!"

"You just gotta breathe for a second," Cynthia-Rose says calmly.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Stacie yells, "This is my daughter that is missing!"

"Okay." Chloe steps in between Stacie and Cynthia-Rose, wrapping Stacie in a one-armed hug. "We're gonna find her. We just need to think of where they could be."

"They're nowhere," Stacie insists, "I looked all over this hotel."

"What about the park?" Aubrey asks. Sophia had mentioned being at the park to her before. "Did you check the park?"

Stacie pauses then shakes her head.

"Good," Aubrey says with a confident nod, "Good, that's a start. We can go there."

"I thought I told y'all to stay the hell put," Mills hollers from the front entrance, and they all turn to look at him.

Aubrey steps up onto the first stair. "We have people missing." It's so much easier not to falter under his hard stare when Sophia is at the very forefront of her mind.

"I don't care what your excuse is." He jogs down the stairs and stops next to Aubrey, looking at the group, "I gave you an order – as a police officer. Your friends can figure out where they're supposed to be without the whole lot of you running all over this island."

"She is two!" Stacie exclaims.

Mill freezes. "What'd'you mean two?" He looks at Aubrey. "Two, like a baby? You got a missing baby? And not one of you said a damn thing in that church?"

"Yes, Sir." Aubrey nods. "We didn't know."

The anger in his expression fades into something that might better be described as urgency. "Ah, shit," he hisses and looks up the stairs at the entrance. "Alright, listen to me." He looks at the group again. "Find your kid and get back to the church," he says, "And if you don't find her, then you better come find me, understood?"

"I think this would be a good time to call in Seattle," Aubrey dares to say.

"Radios are out, Kid," Mills says, "It's just us here now, even if I did want to call them in. Either someone did something to the tower or there's a storm on the mainland, but there ain't no getting through."

Then they need to get on that boat. Aubrey pulls out a map and fumbles to unfold it, nearly tearing it in the process. She steps down the stair, not bothering to say anything else to Mills, and locates the park. "It looks like it's down a path just a few feet away."

"Y'all need to be careful out there," Mills say, "There's hunting traps and booby traps all over these woods."

Aubrey knows that much already. She folds up the map. "We should stick together and then split up again at the park," she says.

"Sounds like a plan." Cynthia-Rose slaps her shoulder as she walks by her, "Let's go."

Aubrey glances back to make sure that Chloe is following with Stacie then walks toward the path even faster than she walks down the streets of Manhattan.

"Maybe they're just having a great time at the park," Chloe tells Stacie, "They might not even know any of this is happening."

They file one right after the other down a foot trail across from The Candlewick with Aubrey in the lead. She wonders if anyone else finds it odd that the sheriff didn't put up a bigger fight, but she keeps her mouth shut, focused on keeping an eye out for bear traps.

"So when are you gonna tell us what you know?" Cynthia-Rose asks, following directly behind Aubrey, "What happened last night?"

"I don't think now is a good time to be talking about all this," Chloe says for her, "We really need to focus on finding Sophia."

"Chloe is right," Beca adds, "Last night isn't going to help us with right now."

Aubrey steps out into the clearing and looks around the deserted park. There are no signs anyone has been here all morning. The swings creak as they blow in the breeze and some ducks flap around in the lake – but the place is otherwise completely still. She moves out of the way so everyone can walk off the path and looks around at the surrounding woods and water.

"You said they would be here," Stacie accuses Chloe, who doesn't say anything in response, just releases her and steps away.

Lilly mumbles something.

"What?" Fat Amy asks.

Aubrey turns to watch her speak, trying to read her lips.

"We should search," Lilly mumbles, one of the only logical things Aubrey has ever heard her say.

"Why?" Stacie asks, "Look around, we can see the whole park. No one is here."

'Bodies' is probably the wrong word right now, but the woods or lake would be a good place to dump them.

"In case they dropped something," Chloe answers, "It would let us know they were here and we're on the right track."

"I think we oughta split into different teams," Cynthia-Rose says, "Stacie, Lilly, and Fat Amy go left. Beca and Chloe, you guys stay here and try to search the water. And Aubrey and I'll go right." She looks at Aubrey. "Unless you wanna mix up Chloe and Beca."

Aubrey can feel all eyes on her, and the corners of her lips twitch. This isn't about Chloe and Beca – she knows it as much as Cynthia-Rose knows it. This is completely about what she, Beca, and Chloe are hiding from the group. She shakes her head to protect her dignity in regards to Chloe and Beca anyway. "I'm sure they can figure out how to get along," she quips. It would be funnier if there wasn't currently so much tension between them.

"Be careful for traps," Aubrey says, scanning the group, "Watch your every step."

Chloe walks up beside her and places her hands on Aubrey's arm.

Aubrey looks at her and raises her eyebrows.

"You be safe, too," Chloe says. She stands up straight and presses her lips against Aubrey, bringing her mind back to the bathroom earlier this morning, before everything went to complete Hell. "I love you." She forces a smile and pats Aubrey's cheek. "Our cats love you, too. Both of them."

Both of them? Aubrey's cheeks turn a light shade of red as her blood pressure rises.

"I'm kidding," Chloe says with a light smirk, "There's only one. For now." She winks.

Aubrey stares at her and takes a few slow breaths, wondering how she can get away with calling animal control without Chloe panicking that 'her' cat must have been hit by a car or something. Despite The Bellas watching them, she pulls her into a tight hug, appreciating every annoying thing about her that drives her up a wall, and presses her lips against Chloe's ear. "I love you, too. Be safe in the water."

Chloe pulls back and peppers kisses on her cheek. "You please be careful."

Aubrey nods and steps back toward Cynthia-Rose. She tries to rest assured that if anything happens while she's in the woods, Beca will attack back. Had she known she and Chloe would be separated, she would have found a way to pass Beca the gun. "No one goes out of hearing range," she announces to all of them then turns to the right and walks toward the woods, glancing back once to check on Chloe (and Beca). She can still smell Chloe's hair when she breathes, and she subconsciously wraps her arms around Chloe's sweatshirt. Sam is riding along very securely in her pocket, but he provides little comfort.

She's starting to feel like every time she looks at Chloe, it might be the last time she ever sees her.

And nothing has ever made her feel so fucking scared.