Malexfaith: Whenever I play dinosaurs with my students, I am a Dilophosaurus. But I think I'd want to be a Chilesaurus.
Layra KPhoenixLover: Chaubrey is my main OTP. I just like to dabble in Mitchsen and TT. They're fun to play with.
Pixie1913: ...could be worse. Could be: It's a small world after all. It's a small world after all. It's a small world after all. It's a small, small world.
SunDanceQT: I never actually saw that movie, so I had to look up that quote. That's hilarious.

Arrhythmia

Love of mine, someday you will die,
But I'll be close behind,
And I'll follow you into the dark.
No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white.
Just our hands clasped so tight,
Waiting for the hint of a spark.
- Deathcab For Cutie

"Do you see a pen?" Chloe asks.

They're all just milling around in the dark, filling glasses with alcohol, and occasionally lighting up another joint. The tension grows so thick, it feels like Aubrey is swimming in it. She tries to think of something else to talk about – more she wants to say to Chloe if she never has the chance to say anything again.

"Beside the cash register?" Beca suggests as she looks around the general area.

Chloe takes their flashlight and steps away from them to check.

Panic constricts Aubrey's lungs the moment Chloe is no longer touching her. It keeps occurring to her that every second could be their last one. What if she never feels Chloe again? What if that was the last time Chloe was ever going to touch her? What if that was Aubrey's last time hearing her voice?

"What are we doing?" Beca asks in a low voice when she walks away, "What the fuck are we doing?"

Aubrey looks at her. She kind of wishes she felt high – and not still like she's running on adrenaline. Maybe she should be lighting up another joint. No one seems to be calming down though. They're all still on edge.

"We're just sitting here waiting for the next person to die," Beca answers her own question, "Even if we run, we're fucking screwed."

Aubrey reaches over the counter and takes her hand. She isn't sure if she's trying to comfort her or if she just needs to feel something now that Chloe isn't pressed up against her – even if that something is Beca.

"Be honest with me." Beca uses her other hand to brush some of the chips Aubrey crumbled out of the way. "Are you preparing to die here?"

Aubrey's heart falls into her stomach when she hears to words out loud. She rubs her face with her free hand to hide the fight to maintain her composure for a few seconds, and then she nods.

"I think we did everything we could," Beca says, "I think you did everything you could."

Aubrey sees what she's doing. She's trying to make sure Aubrey doesn't go out with guilt. There are a hundred things that Aubrey thinks she could have done differently had she known – refused to come, told Chloe the entire truth from the beginning, opened up about wanting to go home beyond just expressing it through anger. But, she didn't know. She takes a deep breath and takes in Beca's words. She did the best she could with what she had in the moment.

Chloe doesn't rejoin them after she finds her pen. Instead, she slides into a booth and grabs a napkin to write on.

"I think she knows, too," Beca says.

Chloe's hand shakes as she writes.

Aubrey stares at her.

If Aubrey were to walk over there, she has no doubt that Chloe would keep telling her they're going to be fine. It isn't denial, probably not even hope, Aubrey realizes. It's comfort – for Aubrey. She's stuffing down their reality in an attempt to lessen Aubrey's fear of it before it finally happens. Thats why they're reliving Aubrey's favorite memories - why Chloe told her exactly why she loves her. They're preparing to say goodbye. Another crack of thunder causes Aubrey to tighten her grip on Beca's hand. She's never been scared of storms, but she has also never particularly enjoyed them either – and, now, every loud sound takes her back to firing her gun at the deer.

Aubrey hopes it's fast when she dies – like a gunshot to the head so maybe she won't have to feel it for more than a fraction of a second. "Beca…" The process terrifies her – even more than the unknown. The actual act of dying, far more than being dead. "If it comes down to it…" She knows how much she's asking. "Don't let me suffer." She can't be that deer – lying there, horrified, waiting for it to be over. "Promise me."

"Aubrey…"

"Promise me." Aubrey can't put this kind of thing on Chloe. "Please, just do this one thing for me, Beca."

"Yeah," Beca concedes, "Yeah. If you'd do it for me too."

Aubrey nods. Every time she wished Beca was 'dead', all the times she wanted to 'kill' her… She never considered the reality of it. They were just words. "I'm going to go check on Chloe." She slides her hand away and stands up. What if it's Chloe suffering? She tries to push away the thought as she walks over to the booth.

Chloe quickly folds up her napkin, hiding what she's writing. But she isn't fast enough. Aubrey sees the top – the part that says 'Mom and Dad'. She's writing a letter. A goodbye letter. Aubrey knows it. "Hey."

Aubrey feels guilty for interrupting her. "Were there more pens?" she makes a quick excuse to be there.

Chloe nods. "There's a whole cup full."

Aubrey walks away from her, over to the cash register. It isn't a bad idea to write a letter – or at least something so she can be easily identified. She grabs a pen and a napkin, then stares at it. She has nothing to say to her parents, and she definitely doesn't want them to decide what happens to her. It's difficult to see to write without direct light, but no one is going to care about her penmanship after this. She writes her full name and her date of birth at the top, giving herself time to accept what she's about to do. Underneath, she writes, 'Noah and Julia Beale' followed by their address. She doesn't know their phone numbers, but that should be enough. And under that, she writes, 'Please, keep me with Chloe.' That's all she wants. She folds the napkin and places it in her pocket. She doesn't need a funeral or for her own parents to be contacted – she just wants to know she'll be with Chloe, wherever that is. Probably in Florida, not where Aubrey wants to be in Queens, but she won't know – she'll be dead.