The next day the seventh precinct of Barden's police department was as busy as usual. Uniformed officers escorted criminals and suspects in and out of the large room while detectives sat at their desks, pouring over reports and witness testimonies in the pursuit of justice.

Beca sat at her own desk, tucked away in the corner. She didn't mind being away from the action, if anything she enjoyed it. The solitude meant less distractions, less distractions meant she closed cases faster and if she closed this particular case then she could go back to real detective work. After dropping off the hidden camera at the forensic lab the detective started working through Beale's phone records, with permission of course. She was hoping to find some anomaly in the records that would suggest there was something else going on than a crazy stalker.

The lipstick cam was too high end and expensive for some run of the mill criminal, especially if this was their first time offense. Unfortunately Beale's phone records weren't bearing any fruit. They were mostly calls to her mother, with a few calls to her other actor friends thrown in occasionally. This was starting to look like a dead end so Beca pulled her headphones out, pausing her playlist and looking up from her laptop for the first time in hours.

She was just in time to see Jesse approaching her desk. He looked nervous, maybe even a little apprehensive. There wasn't much to do other than gesture for him to come over. Beca didn't really hold anything against Jesse, she could be a little bullheaded when it came to taking down criminals. She was prone to charging head first into dangerous situations which, occasionally, led to her being shot.

"Hey," Jesse mumbled.

"Hey," She answered back.

"How's the leg?"

"It's fine."

"Good," he shifted his weight from foot to foot. "That's good."

There was an awkward silence as they both just looked at each other.

"You know I hate small talk Jesse. Just spit it out." Beca looked up at her former partner who was rubbing the back of his head. A nervous habit that always led to him losing at poker.

"Okay," He straightened his spine and looked her in the eye. "I just wanted you to know it wasn't my idea to change partners. Captain said they needed someone to train Benji."

"And you don't want to get shot."

"And I don't want to get shot."

"It's fine Jesse." Beca sighed through her nose and rubbed her temple. "You lasted way longer than the last guy."

Jesse laughed a little at that. "I'm also sorry that you got stuck with a protective duty."

"That's not your fault." She looked back at her computer and saw that she had an email from their lab tech who was testing the camera. "I think Abernathy just wanted to punish me for the extra insurance claims." She stood up, holding out her hand for Jesse to shake.

He took it, squeezing her hand in a solid grip before releasing her. "Do you think I could still work on some cases with you? You're one of the best detectives I've ever met and Benji could learn a lot from you."

Beca's smile turned into a mischievous smirk. "Sure you can." She grabbed a stack of folders from her desk and shoved it into his arms. "That's a list of possible suspects slash friends of Chloe Beale. Go through them and get back to me with anything out of the ordinary."

He looked a little shocked at the number of folders before looking back up at her in surprise. "Wait, did you say Chloe Beale?"

"Yup," She grabbed her leather jacket from the back of her chair and her pistol from the top drawer of her desk. "I got to get to the lab. Check back in at sixteen hundred?"

"Um, yeah sure that works." Jesse watched as she rushed past him. As she exited the room he seemed to realize that she had just dumped a whole lot of grunt work on him. "I guess I deserved that."

Beca almost made it out of the bullpen without anyone else catching her. She was literally a step away from the elevator when she heard her captain call out to her.

"Mitchell!" Abernathy stormed out of her office, hand on her hips and glaring at her detective. "Where the hell do you think you're going!?"

"I got an email from the lab." Beca glanced around and saw that everyone in the room was staring at her. "I was going to-"

"No you're not." The captain strode forward, getting into Beca's space. "I told you, you are on protective duty. So I don't want to hear about you going anywhere except back to Miss Beale's apartment. Is that understood?"

Beca ground her teeth together to keep herself from saying anything she might regret. "But if I don't investigate who's going to?"

"You can investigate by keeping an eye on Miss Beale." She leaned in closer, a knowing smirk on her lips. "Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll try again."


Chloe was busy trying to bring order back to her apartment. Her first step, installing a new lock.

The problem was that she was not the handiest person in the world. Her mother had loads of stories of when she was in the girl scouts, plus about a dozen frayed lanyards, a few lopsided picture frames and a very wobbly stool. So for the past fifteen minutes she had been staring at the instructions for her new deadbolt. On her kitchen counter was the guts of the lock, along with a screwdriver and some duct tape.

"You'll have to replace the door frame before the lock will work." Chloe nearly jumped out of her own skin at the sound of someone else in her apartment. Ever since the incident she had been a little jumpy. She looked up to see the detective from yesterday, who was looking over the frame while running a hand over the splintered wood.

"Oh," Chloe looked back at the instructions. "Right, that would make sense." There was an awkward silence while the two refused to talk to each other. Chloe was a little miffed at the brisk and dismissive attitude Beca had displayed yesterday and Beca was still fuming over her captain forcing her to be there.

"You might just want to talk to your landlord." Beca suggested before walking further into the room. "It's really his job to do this."

"I tried that." Chloe ran her fingers through her hair. "He said something about being too busy and 'he'll get to it when he get's to it'." She got up from her spot to get a beer from the fridge. "You want a beer?"

"Can't." Beca tapped her badge with a finger. "I'm on duty."

"Right." Chloe popped the cap off her bottle. "So how's my case going? Get anything from that camera?"

"Don't know." The detective leaned against the counter top. "I was about to head down to the forensic lab to see what they found out but my boss thought my time was better spent here, with you."

"Oh," Chloe was a little surprised at that. On the one hand she was glad that the police were taking her protection so seriously. On the other hand, she kinda wanted them to focus on the investigation. She didn't like having this anxiety hanging over her, every creek of the building or someone shutting their door on the floor above set her nerves on edge.

Her gaze shifted back to the detective, who was trying to subtly rub her thigh. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, workplace injury." Beca stopped rubbing her injury. "It's fine. Not the first time, won't be the last."

"Okay." Chloe got the feeling that Detective Mitchell wasn't being completely honest. She had always been a good judge of character and Beca seemed like the kind of person who was head strong and didn't like sharing responsibility. Of course most detectives were probably like that but Beca had a certain look in her eye, like she was expecting a challenge and was more than ready to accept.

"So," Chloe tried once again to break the awkward tension. "Is there anything else you guys are looking into?"

The detective gave her a weary look, "We've got some feelers out. But given the suddenness of the crime and your popularity it might be a little hard to track down a viable suspect."

"What do you mean by suddenness?" Chloe found herself being intrigued by the detective's process.

"You said that you haven't noticed anyone following you?" Chloe nodded her head. "Well you also haven't received any threatening letters or anything like that on social media." Beca cracked a few knuckles on her left hand . "That combined with the quality of the camera I found makes me think that you don't have a stalker." She looked up at the ceiling, thinking through the problem. "But that leaves the question of why. Why would someone break into your apartment just to trash it and leave a camera?"

Chloe shewed on her lip, a habit she had when she was thinking hard. "Could someone have had a psychotic break or something?"

Beca shook her head. "A crazy person wouldn't have bothered with the camera. Have you made any enemies recently?"

"Eh," Chloe shrugged her shoulder. "In my line of work everyone's your enemy. Any time I get a part some other actress is cursing my very existence. All the public ever sees is the glamour and shine that comes from the industry but behind the scenes everything is very cutthroat."

"Huh," Beca's face scrunched up as she thought about that. "Any chance that a rival actress would try something like this?"

"I doubt it. The last time I auditioned for a role was three years ago." Chloe's eyes widened in concern. "Do you thing someone can hold onto a grudge that long?"

Beca scoffed. "I know I can," She said under her breath. Louder she said. "If the death threats I get people I put in prison are anything to go by then yes. But my guess is that's not what's happening here."

Chloe let out a long breath, thinking about what to do now. "So that camera really is the best clue we have?"

"Yup."

"And you can't go check on that because your boss told you to stay with me?" Chloe asked. She could feel the beginnings of a plan, and with it her optimism returned.

"Pretty much."

"So what if I went down to this fancy lab of yours?" Chloe smiled a smug grin. "Then you'd have to go with me."

Beca looked at the actress with a new found respect. She hadn't expected something so devious from the peppy redhead. "I guess I would, wouldn't I." She stood up from the counter before moving to the door. "I got one stop first before we head there."

"Okay," Chloe grabbed her jacket from the coat rack by the door. "Where's that?"

"Your landlord's apartment."


If the precinct was busy then the lab was utter chaos but Barden was lucky enough to actually have a dedicated crime lab. Even if the forensic scientists were underpaid, the equipment was outdated and there was usually too much evidence to process at any given time, it really did help since the Barden police didn't have to send their evidence to a far away lab.

Beca made her way through the various computers and science equipment. There was an adjunct lab that was used explicitly for high profile cases like hers, something that Beca thought was a little elitist but hey, if it meant she got fingerprints and DNA processed faster then what the heck. She pushed open the double doors and took a deep breath. The scientist in charge of this lab could be a little much, something that the antisocial detective was not looking forward to.

"Oh my God Beca!" A tall woman in a lab coat came rushing around a table and nearly tackled her in a hug. Despite the very loud complaint coming from the detective. "How's the hottest detective in Barden doing? I heard you got shot again."

"I'm fine Stacie." Beca tried to wiggle out of the scientist's grip. Unfortunately, Stacie had the height advantage and she wasn't a criminal so Beca couldn't technically use force...stupid ethics. "Let me go, please."

Stacie held on for another couple of seconds before releasing her angry captive. "Sorry Becs, you're just so huggable."

"Four years in the air and six years as a cop," Beca glared at her tall friend. "The last thing I am is huggable."

"Say whatever you want Becs, it won't change anyone's mind. And don't worry, you're totally doable too." There was a quiet giggle from behind Beca and that's when Stacie seemed to finally notice that the detective wasn't alone. Her eyes widened into saucers as she recognized the trademark red hair. "Oh my God. You're Chloe Beale."

Chloe smiled at the shock on the other woman's face. It was something she was used to, being a celebrity. She held out a friendly hand, "Hi, nice to meet you."

That seemed to knock Stacie back to the present. She took the actresses' hand and adopted her best flirtatious smile. "Stacie Conrad and the pleasure's all mind." She turned her gaze back to the detective. "You could have told me you were working with a celebrity."

Beca crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "You didn't need to know."

"When it's someone on my list I definitely need to know." Stacie let go of Chloe's hand to cross her own arms.

"Stacie, everyone's on your list." The detective clearly wasn't impressed by this conversations turn.

Chloe just stood there, looking between the two with a very confused expression. "What list?"

"Celebrities I want to sleep with." Stacie said it so easily that it took a second for Chloe to register what was said.

When she did it made her burst out laughing. "Oh, you and I are going to get along great. And don't worry, I have a list too."

"Really?" Stacie's eyes lit up. "Did you actually get to hook up with Chicago? He looked so damn good in those shirtless scenes."

"No we're just friends." Chloe leaned in and whispered just loud enough for Beca to hear. "I didn't mind the view though."

"Can we get back to work." Beca was definitely not amused with how the conversation had gone wildly off topic.

Her comment just made Stacie laugh, "Relax Becs. I know you don't like it but some people actually enjoy socializing."

"Would you please just tell us what you've found." Beca pushed past the scientist over to the lab. Stacie's special status meant that she had all the best equipment, high end computers, fancy lab tools like a mass spectrometer, and her own ballistic range in the corner for bullet identification. What Beca was most interested in right now was the computer that had wires running from it to the small camera that was laying on the desk.

"All right fine," Stacie stood next to Beca and woke up her computer with a wiggle of the mouse. Chloe Stood right behind them, fascinated by what was happening. "I couldn't find any prints on the camera itself, so no luck there."

"Not a big surprise." Beca said. "We didn't find any unusual prints in the apartment, means he was probably wearing gloves." Which was another point in the 'not a crazy person' column.

"But," Stacie held up a finger for dramatic effect. "While most cameras this size operate via the internet, this particular one has a short playback feature." She typed away on her keyboard until a video play popped up on the monitor.

"You actually got the guy on tape?" Chloe asked, astounded.

"Yep," Stacie sounded proud of herself. "This is a G-S84 spy came. You can pick them up at just about any hardware store with a decent home security department."

"How'd you get the video?" Beca asked.

"The camera is supposed to be set up with Bluetooth," Stacie explained. "But, there's a small bit of memory that gets stored inside the device before it gets sent to the web and gone forever. And, luckily for you, it seems like whoever planted the camera hasn't accessed it yet meaning the bit of recording that happened when they turned it on is still there."

She pushed play on the video and they all watched the screen. It was black for a couple seconds before whoever was holding the camera pulled back and they could see his face. There wasn't much, his hair was covered by a beanie and his mouth was covered by a mask. But, there was just enough of his face visible to see that the suspect had dark skin and dark brown eyes.

"Do you recognize him?" Beca turned to Chloe who was staring at the picture intently.

"It's kinda hard to tell from that picture." Chloe leaned back. "But it's definitely the guy that ran past me in the hallway."

Stacie hit a few keys on her keyboard, zooming in on the picture. "Well if you find him we can match his eyes, they're just as good as fingerprints."

"It's kinda hard to see with the lighting." Beca studied the video closely. "Is he Indian?"

"That's what I would guess." Stacie agreed, also scrutinizing the man in the picture. "Although, with that mask covering his features I can't be one hundred percent sure."

They both turned to the actress. "You know anyone like that?" Beca asked.

Chloe just shook her head. "He kinda looks familiar but there's a lot of different people on set every day."

"Stacie," Beca looked back at the scientist. "Can you trace the signal?"

"Not really." Stacie typed a few commands into the computer. "Like I said, the camera hasn't been connected to yet. But if anyone does I'll have their location in under a minute." She gave the other women a confident wink.

"Thanks Stacie." Beca held up her phone. "We've got to go, but you know how to reach me."

"So soon?"

"Yup." Beca was practically out the door. "Thanks again."

She made a beeline for the exit, desperate to escape before Stacie could make the situation even more awkward. The familiar creepy feeling that came with a visit to Stacie inched up her spine. Beca prided herself on being able to read just about anyone, a skill that was immeasurably helpful in her line of work, but Stacie somehow always managed to get under her skin. Her theory was that Stacie's need to constantly make everything sexual stemmed from some sort of attention deficiency in her childhood.

"Have to say, I had you all wrong." Chloe's voice brought her back to the present. They were standing outside the lab building, moving towards Beca's car that was parked a block away. "Kinda thought you were the super serious, unshakable, hard nosed cop that nothing got to." Beca could hear the laughter in Chloe's voice. "And yet all it takes is a pretty girl flirting with you and suddenly you become a blushing mess."

"I do not." They made it to the car, which Beca unlocked with her key.

Chloe smiled at how the detective ran away from the subject. She wasn't that bad at reading people either, after years of being an actress one tends to pick up on facial cues and body language. She slid into the car, slightly amused at the way the detective wouldn't meet her gaze. Deciding to take it easy on the detective, Chloe opted for a change in conversation. "So what was that about being shot again?"

"What?" Beca pulled out into traffic, trying to pay more attention to the road than her passenger.

"Stacie said you'd been shot again." Chloe gestured to Beca's calf. "Is that the 'work place accident' you were talking about?"

They drove a few blocks in silence before Beca begrudgingly answered. "Yes."

Chloe's eyes widened as she stared at the detective. "Why aren't you in the hospital?"

"I'm fine," Beca stopped at a red light. "It's just a flesh wound. Barely even a scrape."

"Okay..." Chloe stared out the windshield while she thought over her next question. "Is it okay for me to ask what happened?"

"No." Beca practically stabbed the button to turn on the radio, effectively ending the conversation.

"Oh," Well this was awkward. "All right then." Chloe turned to look out her window. She had kinda hoped that the ice was thinning between them, but clearly the detective was still frosty. Honestly, it just made Chloe want to try harder. She had always been a people person, wanting to be friends with everyone even to the point of badgering the other person. One time in high school there was a boy in her drama club that glared at everyone and mostly kept to himself. Long story short they ended up going to homecoming together.

And now there was this mysterious detective, practically radiating the 'don't touch me vibe' and Chloe was more than up to the challenge. Someone might as well have held a stake in front of a hungry lion.

She ended up just humming along to the song on the radio, thinking about the dramatic shift her life had taken. It was certainly more exciting than waiting around for her agent to call. A thought started to form in Chloe's mind, she looked at the detective with a more critical eye. If it wasn't for the fact that she was five foot tall Beca would make the perfect action hero...intriguing.

They pulled into the precinct's parking lot, with Beca pulling in close to the door. After getting out of the car, Beca led the way inside and up to the fourth floor. The noise startled Chloe for a second, it was much louder than she had expected. It was also kinda creepy, as soon as they entered several heads turned and stared at her. There was one guy in particular that looked like a meth addict, and he was giving her the grossest look she'd ever gotten.

"Just ignore them." Beca must have sensed her unease.

"Kind of hard not to." Chloe kept her eyes on the detective, but could still feel the eyes of the room on her.

The detective just shrugged. "You get used to it after a while."

Beca led them across the room to an incredibly cluttered desk that was tucked into a corner. The desk was littered with a bunch of folders, some open some not. The computer that sat on one corner was old, box monitor old, with a coffee mug sitting on top of it. There was a picture frame sitting in the corner that the folders were obscuring. The thing that stood out the most though was the model fighter jet that sat on a stand front and center, right next to the name tag that read 'Detective Mitchell.'

"Take a seat," Using her foot, Beca dragged a rolling computer chair to the side of her desk. "We're going to be here for a bit."

It was interesting, watching the detective work. She seemed to fall into a trance, moving with robotic-like efficiency as she plucked folders, seemingly at random, from her desk. It was a little awkward just sitting there, but Chloe knew it was probably better not to interrupt. So instead she scanned the room. Taking in the hustle and bustle of a police precinct. The closest Chloe had ever come to a run in with the law was back in high school when she and some of her friends might have gotten a little tipsy one weekend, luckily no one had been driving and the cop had been pretty easy going. Something told her that if Beca had been that cop she wouldn't have gotten off so easily.

"Hey," A bright eyed young man walked up to Beca's desk holding yet another folder. He stopped a few steps short when he made eye contact with Chloe. "Whoa. You're Chloe Beale."

Chloe immediately slipped into celebrity mode, putting on her famous smile before standing and offering her hand to the star struck officer. "High, nice to meet you..."

"Swanson," The detective grabbed her hand and shook it vigorously. "Detective Jesse Swanson."

"A pleasure." Chloe sat back down while Jesse tried to regain his faculties.

"Do you have something Jesse?" Beca looked a little miffed. Clearly she didn't like to be kept waiting.

"Oh yeah," Jesse managed to pull his eyes off Chloe and back to the task at hand. "Benji and I canvased Miss Beale's apartment complex but none of the neighbors heard anything until the perp went running out of the building."

Beca leaned back in her chair and let out an annoyed sigh. "Perfect."

Another man with a boyish face sidled up to the two detectives, looking considerably more nervous than Jesse. "Um, hello Detective Mitchell."

Beca looked side eyed the kid before looking back at Jesse. "This the boot they assigned you?"

"Yeah," Jesse scratched the back of his head before gesturing to the newcomer. "Beca this is Benjamin Applebaum. Benji this is Beca, but you obviously already know that."

"I just have to say it's an honor working with you Detective Mitchell." Benji held out a hand for Beca to shake. She took it tentatively, more than a little put off by Benji's enthusiasm.

"Thanks," She let go of the junior detective's hand before taking the folder from her old partner. "So if you guys didn't find anything on the canvas then what's this?"

"That is actually Benji's handiwork." Jesse looked at his new friend with a raised eyebrow, waiting for Benji to stop being star struck.

"Right," Benji wrung his hands together. Chloe got the feeling he really wasn't used to this much attention. "When we couldn't find anything on any of Miss Beale's associates." He gave Chloe a quick nod. "I thought it might be a good idea to look into negative situations adjacent to Miss Beale."

"Okay," Chloe stopped Benji before he got any further. "Can you guys stop referring to me as 'Miss Beale'. Especially when I'm sitting right here."

Jesse and Benji shared an embarrassed look while Beca just rolled her eyes. "Continuing."

"Um, anyway." Benji gestured to the folder in Beca's hand which she opened. "We went over some instances where someone working on the same project as you might have cause for revenge."

"Really?" Chloe looked at the folder, it wasn't exactly small. "I've pissed off that many people?"

"Oh no." Jesse shook his head. "These are just people who have been fired or something like that from the movies you've worked on."

"Oh," That seemed reasonable. "Okay." Chloe slouched back in her chair, satisfied that no one hated her.

"Well that's something to start with." Beca powered up her computer. "Stacie got something from the camera I found. There's a couple seconds where you can see the intruder's face." She pulled up her email and was happy to see that Stacie had already emailed the video. After stopping the video at the mark where they could see the guy's face. "Does anyone in the folder match this guy's description?"

Jesse leaned in closer, "Is he middle eastern?"

"We kinda thought he might be Indian." Chloe chimed in, not wanting to be left out of the conversation.

"Well, if he is Indian." Benji grabbed the folder and flipped over a few pages. "There's this guy, Donald Kumar. Does he look familiar?" He asked the actress.

"Yeah," Chloe took the folder. "He was a hair stylist for season one of 'Love in the Apocalypse'." A vague memory surfaced to the front of her mind. "This was four years ago but I think he got fired for stealing scripts."

"Aha!" Jesse suddenly proclaimed. "Corporate espionage." The other three just stared at him like he was crazy. "What this kinda stuff happens all the time. Studios will send moles to work and steal info from competitors."

Chloe pointed a finger at him. "He's actually not that far off. There have been a couple of times where security was called and escorted some of the crew off of different projects I've worked on. I don't know about 'all the time' but it does happen."

"Well it's a better lead than what we had." Beca said while pulling out her phone. "I'll send this picture over to Stacie to see if she can match him to the guy in the video." Her phone flashed as she took the picture. "There. Now I say we head over to this guy's apartment and ask him some questions. Jesse, I want you and your boot to go over his financials. See if he's come into any money recently"

"Aye aye." Jesse saluted before grabbing Benji's shoulder. "Come on. I'll introduce you to the wonderful world of paper trails."

Beca stood up from her desk, taping her hips to make sure her gun and badge were in their place. She looked at Chloe with a raised eyebrow, "Don't suppose I can convince you to go home."

"Are you kidding?" Chloe jumped out of her chair with a wide grin. "This is getting exciting!"