37A?\N: Long chapter ahead. Sorry for the wait! Been really busy the past week. And no i haven't given up on this story no worries! Thanks for the kind reviews!
"Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck" Beca curses to herself as she walks back to the house. Correction, attempt to walk back. Her head is pounding, her vision blurry, and a sharp pain from her ribs and leg can be felt in every step she takes. She had planned it well, she'll reach the house before the sun rises at 5 as no Bella is awake that early. But at the speed she's walking, she's afraid that by the time she drags herself back someone (Aubrey) is awake.
Her shoulder is bleeding as a puddle of blood seeps through her hoodie. She's sticky and smelly and all she wants is to wash the smell of them off her. The cheers of the unruly crowd is still echoing in her head and her ears are ringing. All she wants to do now is to close her eyes and rest . She's so so tired . Yet as she feels the brown package of cash hidden in her front pocket of the hoodie, a new surge of determination rushes through her as she drags herself slowly back to the house.
Back at the household, tension is so thick that you can cut it with a knife. Chloe had called for an emergency Bella's meeting and had been sitting there waiting and waiting since she had found Beca gone. All the Bella's hadn't slept since. It has been 5 hours and there was no sign of Beca, and Chloe was fuming.
Amy thinks that actual smoke is coming out of Chloe's red hot hair and it scares her, given that she's never seen Chloe this angry.
Everyone say there in worry and fear. Of where the hell Beca was. What Chloe would do. And Aubrey looked 2 seconds away from releasing her puke gate.
CR finally breaks the silence, apologizing over and over and over again. Clearly depressed, she takes all responsibility and fault for it. Even offering to leave the Bella's. At that, a pillow from nowhere smacks CR In the head.
"Hey! Who did that!"
Amy whistles into the air.
Smack! Another one hits CR in the head. "Hey! Stop it!" And another and another.
"We'll stop when YOU stop saying stupid things!"
"I was being serious here!" Smack!
"Hey wrong person! Aim better!"
Smack!
"HEY!l An indignant voice from Aubrey.
Smack!
"OWWWW! That hurt!"
"Oh sorry Chloe"
SMACK!
"Oooops!" Chloe giggles. "SORRY Aubrey"
SMACK!
"Damn you Stacie!"
Smack smack smack smack!
"Get back here Emily!"
Smack!
Beca finally reaches the front door. Exhaustion almost taking over as she collapses at the steps. Pulling herself up, she forces herself to open the door quietly in order to quickly sneak up to her room before any of the Bella's wake up. Yet, what she saw was not the empty living room she expected but a whole bunch of Bella's in their goddamn pajamas having a pillow fight. If it wasn't for her blood loss, Beca swears that there were actual feathers floating around in the air around them.
Blinking, she questions herself if she is actually alive. Maybe I'm dead. Maybe I died there and this is all a dream. Maybe he hit my head too hard and not I'm hallucinating. Oh god oh god what's happening?
While Beca has her own mini panic attack at the door, the Bella's slowly stop their fight, realizing who was finally standing in their doorway.
They all watch with bated breath to see if Chloe will blow up at her, and Chloe dearly wants to.
As expected, Chloe blows up. All righteous redhead fury in her pajamas as she hops off the sofa and marches towards Beca. Her eyes turn hard at that instance and her knuckles turn white from how hard she is gripping her pillow. Unexpectedly, she smacks Beca with the pillow. Hard. Pinning her down (easily) in the process.
'Where have you been, Beca?!' Chloe cries, in between each blow that drives her back down. She has Beca's legs half pinned between her thighs, so she can't get up. Her worry anger and frustration let loose throughly the pillow. 'You had me worried sick, you jerk!'
'Fucking hell, Chlo,' Beca puffs, her own voice surprising her as she tries to get to her knees, 'you're stronger than you – ow!' Chloe raises the pillow and unceremoniously hit her on the head with it.
Multiple times.
Beca thinks she's dying. Literally, death by pillow assault. What a way to die. Well death by Chloe has gotta be a way better way than dying in that damn place, she cynically thinks.
Dammit her ribs might be broken given the trouble she has breathing and if Chloe doesn't stop soon she might really just stop breathing altogether. Her leg slowly goes numb under Chloe and her vision starts to fade, her earlier injuries clearly coming into play. The fucking dude weighed 255 pounds and was 6'4" and Beca just knew that those bastards would have taken this chance to get revenge on her. Maybe even kill her on the spot if they could. Just one ne punch from him cracked her ribs, judging from the jeering , they were out for blood. Yet she won. She fucking won by smashing his head to the idiot only had muscles and nothing else. It was like a game between a mouse and an elephant. But urghhh her ribs. Can't believe she let that amateur land a punch on her.
Sparing a glance backward to Stacie, she subtly attempts for a cry for help with her eyes and her clenched fist.
Stacie, God bless her med school brain clearly noticed something wrong with Beca and called Amy to pull Chloe off her. Pulling Beca up , she jokes
"Damn Chloe you tryna kill your girlfriend?" helping to divert the attention away from Beca.
Thankfully, Stacie's attempt works and the Bella's miss the way Beca stumbles , only to be held up by Stacie. They missed the way she winces as she was pulled up, missed how the sleeves of her hoodie starts dripping with blood as she shoves her arm into the pockets of her hoodie, preventing her blood from dripping to the floor.
Stacie clearly notices all of it and hence sent an emergency signal to Amy. They've always been well trained in going behind their captain's backs. Teamwork, they were good at that.
"Ginger packs a punch! Hey did you know back in Australia that was the same way I wrestled with the crocodiles? It was aca- amazing they- "
Stacie uses this time to pull Beca into her room which is thankfully on the first floor and locks it, blocking any attempt of anyone entering.
In her room, Stacie pulls our her first aid kid. Silently working as Beca's eyes slowly closes. "Becs stay with me. It's not time for bed yet" Stacie tells her as she holds her face in her hands, looking into her eyes for any sign of drug use or hints of her injury. Yep a concussion, Stacie confirms her suspicions as she helps undress Beca, only for her to hiss out in pain. Stacie sighs, her eyes widening in shock when she sees it stained with blood.
"Damn , that was ... Was one of my faveeee hoodies" Beca breaks the silence, her body swaying to the side as she tries to get her words out.
"What happened" Stacie demands, all seriousness in her. Her best friend, her sister is bleeding out on her bed and she has no time for jokes right now.
"They played dirty. Had a dagger up his sleeves. " she mumbles, eyes almost closing again.
Stacie knew her past. Parts of it. She was the only one Beca was comfortable with telling. Stacie understood her without judging, Stacie was her go to person everytime she felt particularly haunted. Stacie was literally her soul sister who would do anything to protect her from her own demons. Her relationship with Chloe and Aubrey on the other hand was still vulnerable and she's not willing to risk it. They'll leave her, look at her different, Gawd she doesn't know but everytime she tried telling them bits and pieces she could never bring herself to get past it.
"You went there?! Of all places Beca! You should have told me! " Stacie scolds her as she stitches her stab wound, putting years of practice into place.
"Can't believe you went back there.." She nags under her breath.
"It was the only way Stace-"
"We could have helped! All of us! Together we can come up with the money! You didn't need to go back there "
"15k Stace...15." Beca's uninjured arm attempts to reach out to her, only for it to swipe at air. "We would never be able to get that kind of money. I knew what you were thinking... I'm neverrrr... Never going to let , let that happen" Beca grits out as she tries her hardest to converse with Stacie.
"You could have died there Beca. Died! Fuck you left that life and you went back!"
"What was I suppose to do? I-" Beca blinks. And stops. Reaching out again for Stacie. At that, Stacie's anger visible deflates, anger morphing into doctor mode.
"I'm seeing 2 of you... And everything hurts. Chloe hit me reaaaalllly hard." Beca whines.
"Oh shush you, you can handle getting beat up for money and you can't handle a pillow from THE Chloe Beale?" Stacie tells her as she finally goes to hold Beca's hand. A sign of her forgiveness.
"Hold still I need to bandage your ribs. Also you might have a slight concussion and I'm ordering bed rest for the week" Stacie adds sternly.
Yet, Stacie knows the look that Beca is giving her.
"Oh no young lady you are NOT going back there I will tie you to this bed if I have to!"
"I'm not-t-t!" Beca appeases her, a foolish grin on her face ,only serving to increase her suspicions. Stacie lets it slide, making a mental note to herself to send a group message (sans the Capts of course) to help keep Beca in bed.
As Stacie is done assessing her cuts and bruises, she remains there and hovers , as if afraid Beca might disappear from her side.
"Hey, You're worrying too much, that's Aubrey's job" Beca attempts to joke.
Stacie doesn't respond but instead bites her lips, regarding Beca with an inscrutable expression. You arch an eyebrow, and she puts up her hand hesitantly.
'What?"
'Well,' she says, sounding unsure, 'it's just a thought, but have you ever thought that maybe you should just tell them-'
'Nope,' Beca interrupts her, popping the "p" with how aggressively blunt your response is. She's not ready to open up to them and she knows it. "I'm... I'm not ready.." Beca tells Stacie, a sudden vulnerability overtaking her.
"Oh Becs" Stacie murmurs and goes forward to hug Beca gently, making sure not to touch any of her bruises. Slowly, Beca's breath evens out, her exhaustion quickly taking over as she falls asleep on Stacie's shoulder.
After Stacie tucks Beca in and double checks all her wounds, she sends each member of the Bella's except the girlfriends to keep a lookout for Beca.
"New rule. Do NOT let Beca out of your sights. She is on house arrest as of now"
Locking her phone, she prays to God, any God out there that would listen to her that Beca will stay remain in bed. With a concussion and all that Stacie can't allow her to go back ever again. So she prays. Prays as hard as she can that someone will catch Beca in her attempt to sneak out. Anyone .
It. Doesn't. Work.
Her prayers went unheard. Of fucking course.
Stacie checks her phone's live feed of her room. Her self made CCTV placed in her room certainly helped in situations like these. Oh hell yea she was a genius.
It was just past midnight and the Bella's had spent the entire day trying to comfort an upset and angry Posen and Beale while simultaneously preventing any attempts of them getting to Beca. Stacie had lied her way through and put her foot down as Beca's personal appointed doctor that no one was to enter and disturb Beca.
Yet, she she checked her live feed of her room, as she did every hour since, Beca was gone. In shock, Stacie switched the feed to the bathroom (Yes she had a camera in her bathroom as well don't ask.) Beca wasn't there either. How did she...? Stacie thinks angrily to herself. Beca has been out cold the whole damn day. How...? And all the Bella's were crowded in the living room comforting the upset Aubrey and Chloe. It was literally impossible to get past them out the door.
That sneaky little bitch! Stacie glares at her phone, already thinking of at least a hundred ways to murder Beca in her sleep.
"Beca's gone. That bitch" Stacie texts them in their private group chat.
TheName'sFatAmy - Whaaaaaat? How do you know that?
StacieLovesSx- Cameras in my room
CrazyYoungsters- WHY do you have cameras in your room
LilySpeaks- ...
FlashlightEmily- Where would Beca go?
StacieLovesSx- you don't wanna know. Anyways distract them! I gotta go get Beca back before she kills herself.
CrazyYoungsters- I'm coming with you. This is my mess I started this.
StacieLovesSx- NO
TheName'sFatAmy- I'll go with you to get shawshank back. And help punch the lights out of whoever did this! No one messes with my shawshank!
StacieLovesSx- NO we can't let them know.
FlashlightEmily- Erm guys...
FlashlightEmily- a lil help here...
StaxcieLovesSx- Not the time Kiddo, anyways, Amy and lily, help me escape. Make sure Chloe and Aubrey DO NOT find out. Knock them out if you need to.
LilySpeaks- I have a hammer in my back pocket
TheName'sFatAmy- lily...never change.. And aye! Leave it to me!
FlashlightEmily- SURE GREAT IDEA! WHY DONT WE TIE THEM UP IN A CHAIR AS WELL AND LOCK THEM UP IN FHE BASEMENT SINCE EVERYONES KEEPING THINGS FROM THEM! SOUNDS PERFECT. COUP D'ÉTAT ? I HAVE A BETTER PLAN HOW BOUT IT? YOU GUYS ARE DEAD TO ME! DEAD! WAIT TILL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU! ON BECA FIRST THEN ON YOU! HOW BOUT THAT! BRILLIANT PLAN!
What...? All the Bella's think as they finally look up from their phones only to be faced with Aubrey's death glare and a Chloe whose face is as red as her hair while a scared Emily sits as far away from them as possible.
"Uh oh."