Chapter Text
Beca tiptoed up the stairs of her house, quietly creeping into the bedroom she shared with her wife, being careful not to wake her. As soon as she closed the door behind her though, there was movement in the bed.
“Becs?” Chloe mumbled tiredly and sat up in the bed to look at the small brunette.
“Hey, sorry I’m late, Tyler kept me in,” Beca apologised as she changed into boxer shorts and an old Barden shirt.
Chloe turned to look at the clock on her bedside table and deadpanned, “wow, you are really late. Again.”
“I know, and I’m sorry,” Beca sighed, kissing her wife as she crawled into bed.
“Don’t say sorry to me, say sorry to the little girl in the next room who asks why her mom isn’t there to tuck her into bed,” Chloe said, and guilt forms in Beca’s gut.
“I’m trying, Chlo.”
“You’ve been saying that for months and nothing has changed,” Chloe sighed, curling into her wife under the comforter. Beca wrapped an arm around her waist and pressed a kiss into the top of her head.
“Work is just crazy right now, but it’s going to settle down soon and I promise I’ll be here for dinner every night like I used to be.”
“I hope so, because I miss my wife,” Chloe said through a yawn.
“I haven’t gone anywhere Chlo, I’m still here and I’m still Beca,” She said and she heard Chloe let out a sigh.
“Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it,” Chloe said, her voice thick with sleep and Beca knew her wife was barely awake. Beca kissed the top of Chloe’s head again, whispering an “I’m sorry” before drifting off to sleep.
It was only a few hours later when Chloe woke up to the sound of her daughter’s cries in the next room. The two-year-old usually slept through the nights now so they didn’t have a baby monitor anymore but between Chloe being a light sleeper and having some killer mother instincts, the redhead was usually awake at the slightest whimpers. She crawled out of bed and padded into her daughter’s, and the two-year-old was sitting in her crib with her stuffed bunny cuddled in the crook of her neck.
“Mia?” Chloe asked, but was only met with a sniff from her daughter. She walked closer to the crib and the toddler looked up at her, her bright blue eyes full of tears and her cheeks were red from all the crying. Chloe pouted as she picked the girl up and placed her on her hip.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” She asked her daughter, brushing a few strawberry blonde curls out of the girl’s eyes.
“Bad dream,” the toddler sniffed, her hands gripping her mother’s shirt.
“What was it about Mia?” Chloe asked, wiping a few tears from her daughter’s cheeks.
“Mama gone and not come back,” Mia cried, and Chloe felt her heart break.
“That’s not real life sweetie, Mama is right here,” Chloe said and carried her daughter into the next room and flicked the lamp on beside the bed. Mia reached for her other mom when she saw her in the bed, and Chloe set the toddler down on their bed.
“Mama?” Mia spoke quietly as she poked the back of Beca’s neck softly, and Beca rolled over to face her daughter.
“Hey bubs,” Beca smiled, pressing a kiss into the side of Mia’s head.
“She had a bad dream, she wants her mom,” Chloe said as she lied back down, facing the pair.
“Oh Mia, everything’s okay now,” Beca pulled the little girl into her arms, and Mia curled into her, “See, nothing bad is going to happen now.”
It didn’t take long for Beca and Mia to fall back asleep and Chloe watched them with a small smile. She missed Beca, and she knows her daughter misses her more. The little girl straight up worships the earth Beca walks on, and it hurts Chloe to hear her daughter ask her where her mom is all day, and get constantly disappointed when she isn’t there to read her a story before bed or give her a bath after dinner. Chloe knows that Beca loves her family, and she knows that Beca is trying to keep a balance between her family and her music, but Beca’s name is starting to get out there and she’s getting so caught up in it. Chloe sighed and shifted closer to her wife and daughter, smiling at the soft snores escaping Beca’s mouth and the perfect ‘O’ formed on her daughter’s lips as she fell back asleep.
Chloe frowned when she woke up the next morning as saw that it was 10AM already, but grinned when she heard a very loud squeal from her daughter echo through the house. Mia was going through a phase where anything funny warranted a squeal, and her mother’s thought it was the cutest damn thing on the planet. Chloe crawled out of bed and walked down the stairs and could smell burning from the kitchen. Beca burns water, but that doesn’t stop the girl from trying. Chloe smiled when she saw Beca tickling their daughter’s sides before placing Mia on the kitchen counter. Mia grinned up at Beca, before letting out a little squeal when she saw Chloe step into the room.
“Good morning, pretty lady,” Chloe cooed, kissing her daughters rosy cheek.
“Hi mommy,” Mia said, giggling when Chloe softly tickled her tummy. Chloe kissed her wife quickly, mumbling a good morning before beginning to make herself a coffee.
“So Mia and I began cooking bacon and eggs, but our child makes a terrible cook and burned all the bacon,” Beca teased, poking her tongue out at the toddler.
“Blame it on the innocent,” Chloe scoffed, bopping her daughter’s nose earning a giggle. Beca’s phone began to ring, and she excused herself before walking into the other room. Chloe’s smile dropped, and she took Mia from the counter and placed her on her hip, cuddling her close to her chest. She kissed the top of her daughter’s head just as Beca walked back into the room with a guilty look on her face.
“That was work, they need me in today for some finishing touches,” Beca said shyly, placing her phone on the kitchen counter.
“Becs it’s Saturday, Saturday is our family day,” Chloe said, placing Mia on the floor and telling her to go play with her toys in the living room before looking back at her wife with cold eyes.
“I know, and I’m sorry but you know how Tyler is,” Beca said.
“Yeah, because you say that every time you bail on us,” Chloe rolled her eyes.
“Bail on you?” Beca said, her voice growing angry.
“You’re always being called into work and cancel on plans, that’s called bailing Beca,” Chloe said, glaring at her wife.
“Chloe I’m not bailing on you guys, I love you both and you know that.”
“Sometimes it feels like you don’t,” Chloe said, so quiet she wasn’t sure if Beca heard it until she saw her wife’s eyes widened.
“What do you mean?” Beca asked, her voice laced with hurt. Just as Chloe opened her mouth to speak, Beca’s phone rang again. Beca hesitated for a few moments before her eyes left her wife’s watery ones and she answered the phone. Chloe shook her head and walked out of the room.
“Hey bug, let’s go to Aunt Aubrey’s house,” Chloe said to her daughter who was on the floor playing with her toys, and Chloe picked her up and placed her on her hip.
“Ames?” Mia asked.
“Yeah sweetie, to see baby James,” Chloe nodded, kissing the side of her daughter’s head as she began to walk up the stairs.
Chloe was changing Mia into a pair of tights when Beca walked in, her laptop bag slung over her shoulder.
“That was work, I really need to get going,” Beca said as she stood awkwardly in the doorway, watching her Chloe change Mia without even acknowledging her wife her wife's presence. Mia, oblivious to what was happening between her mothers, waved goodbye to her Mama. Beca smiled softly at her, moving towards the toddler and kissing the top of her head.
“Bye little punk, I love you,” Beca said, tickling her daughter’s tummy softly.
“Love you,” Mia said sweetly.
Beca looked at Chloe, who was now tying the laces on Mia’s converse (one of three pairs she owned, courtesy of Beca). Beca sighed, kissing her wife’s cheek and letting out a quick goodbye before leaving the room, and Chloe let the tears she was holding in fall when she heard the front door close.
“Mommy sad?” Mia asked when she heard her mom sniff.
“Yeah baby girl,” Chloe said softly, kissing her daughter’s cheek as she picked her up from the changing table and cuddled her close to her chest. Chloe sat down on the rocker in the corner of Mia’s room, cuddling her in a way she did when Mia was a little baby. They stayed like that for a while, Mia curled up into her mother and Chloe softly rocking in the chair whilst trying to stop herself from crying. Chloe looked at the photo frames on Mia’s dresser, and smiled at all the memories.
One photo was taken the day Mia was born, an exhausted Chloe holding Mia on her chest with Beca curled into her side, smiling down at their daughter with her thumb wrapped in Mia’s tiny hand. The photo beside it was taken when Mia was eight-months-old, the little girl surrounded by all the Bellas at a reunion, Fat Amy holding her in the air like Simba and Chloe could hear her daughter’s cackles as she remembers that moment. The third photo was on Mia’s first birthday, the two mothers at Mia’s side grinning up at the camera, while Mia’s face was scrunched up and she had tears filling her eyes, frightened from all the cheering that was going on after her moms had blown the candles out moments before the photo was snapped. The last photo had been taken six months ago on Mia’s second birthday, Mia dressed as a fairy in Beca’s arms, and Chloe cuddled into Beca’s other side laughing so hard her eyes were screwed shut. That photo was taken only a few weeks before everything started getting bad, and Chloe can’t remember being that happy.
Chloe stood up, grabbing Mia’s diaper bag and walking into the car garage, buckling Mia into her car seat. When Chloe pulled into Aubrey and Stacie’s house, she looked in the revision mirror to see Mia passed out in her seat. Chloe carried her inside, greeting Aubrey at the door before putting Mia down in one of the guest bedrooms and setting the diaper bag at the foot of the bed. Chloe crept downstairs, into the living room where Stacie and Aubrey were sitting on the couch. Aubrey and Stacie had gotten together two years after Stacie left Barden, getting married after a year and then James was bought into the world a year later.
“Hey Chlo,” Stacie said with their 5-month-old in her arms.
“Chloe, how are things with Beca?” Aubrey asked as Chloe sat down in the recliner in front of them.
Chloe sighed. “It doesn’t even feel like a marriage anymore. I don’t really know what to do anymore.”
“I know you’re trying to keep it together for Mia, but it’s soon going to destroy you,” Aubrey said as she reached across and placed her hand on Chloe’s knee, “You need to think about your happiness too.”
“I’m just so worried for Mia, she’s old enough now that she’s starting to understand what is happening. I don’t know how much longer I can watch her get her hopes up about her mom coming home for dinner, and not even making it home in time to tuck her into bed most nights. Mia adores Beca, but Beca isn’t even home to give her a bath.” Chloe’s voice cracked, and she dropped her head into her hands. Chloe used her sleeve as a tissue when she wiped her nose, and Aubrey cringed as she handed Chloe a box of tissues.
“I think what Beca really needs is a reality check,” Stacie said. “I get it, Beca is working and trying to get her name out, but this is excessive. Family always comes before work, and Beca needs to make an effort for her family. I love Beca, and I know Beca’s intentions aren’t to hurt you or Mia but she’s becoming blind because she’s finally making it out into the music world.”
Chloe’s eyes widened. “A reality check? Like break up with her?”
“Maybe,” Stacie shrugged, “but maybe even just staying here for a few nights or taking a break.”
“I can’t do that. It’ll confuse Mia, and destroy Beca,” Chloe said with a shake of her head.
“She needs to know you’re not dealing with this bullshit Chloe, and she needs to realise that she could lose you,” Aubrey reasoned.
“It’ll ruin her, Beca will never trust me again. She’ll think I don’t love her anymore, and I don’t think she’ll recover from that.”
“Are you kidding me Chloe, Beca loves you with every fibre inside of her. You guys have been together since her sophomore year of college for God’s sake, she won’t give up on you that easily. Beca will see what she’s missing, what she’s fucked up, and she will fight for you until she’s in her grave,” Aubrey said, moving to sit next to Chloe on the couch, pulling her best friend into her side.
“If we didn’t have Mia, maybe I would. I can’t put her through that when she’s so little,” Chloe said.
“Chloe, I understand that and I hear you. But Mia needs her moms to be happy, and she doesn’t need to see her mom constantly letting her down,” Stacie said. Chloe chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to hold in a sob, but was unsuccessful.
“Oh Chlo,” Aubrey sighed, pulling the redhead even closer to her. They stayed like that for a while, Chloe curled into Aubrey’s side as she let everything go. Chloe had always been the happy one, smiling and bouncing for everybody. She held everything together to keep her wife and daughter at ease, and it was nice to finally really cry.
The sound of crying crackled through the baby monitor Chloe had stolen from James’s nursery and bought into the living room with her, and Aubrey immediately stood up.
“I’ll go get her,” Aubrey offered, but Chloe put a hand on her arm.
“Thank you, but I’ll go see her, I want to have a talk to her,” Chloe said, standing up and walking towards the guest room Mia was in. Chloe opened the door and saw Mia’s small body sitting up in the bed, her hair dishevelled in a way that Beca’s always was when she wakes up.
“Hey, sleepy head,” Chloe cooed, scooping her daughter into her arms, placing a giant kiss onto the little girl’s cheek. Chloe sat down on the edge of the bed, sitting Mia in her lap so that the toddler was leaning back against her mother.
“Do you want to sleep in a nice hotel with Mommy tonight?” Chloe asked softly, her chin resting on the top of her daughter’s head.
“Mama?” Mia asked, her voice husky from her nap.
“No Mama bug, just Mia and Mommy,” Chloe said. Mia just nodded, seemingly content with spending a night out with her mom, oblivious to the real reason behind all of this. Chloe kissed the top of the girl’s head and stood up, carrying her daughter downstairs. Aubrey looked up from James and smiled at her best friend, who gave her a weak nod.
“Mia and I are going to have a girls night at a hotel tonight. We’re even going to get some take out, huh baby girl,” Chloe looked down at her daughter with a smile, tickling Mia’s side and the toddler giggled.
Chloe looked back at her best friends. “Thank you for everything today, you guys are the best and I love you. I’m gonna take the little one home so we can get out bags packed.”
“Have a good time, God knows you need it,” said Stacie, and she stood up to give Chloe a hug, “Bye bye Mia.”
Stacie kissed Mia’s cheek, and the toddler waved at the tall brunette. Stacie took James from Aubrey, so that her wife could walk Chloe out to her car.
“I’m proud of you Chlo,” Aubrey said, hugging her best friend once Chloe strapped Mia into her car seat.
“Thank you for giving me the courage to do this, even if it’s only one night,” Chloe said as she pulled away from the blonde’s hug.
“Bye little miss, have a good time with your Mommy,” Aubrey said to Mia, kissing the toddler on the top of her head.
“Bye Aunt Aubey,” Mia said, giving her godmother a huge smile. Aubrey closed the car door, giving Chloe one last hug before the redhead slid into the driver’s seat.
“Bye Chloe, don’t stress,” Aubrey said as Chloe pulled out of the driveway.
“You ready for a fun night out with your Mommy?” Chloe asked Mia as she looked at her daughter in the revision mirror when she reached a red light. The little girl grinned at her mother, poking her tongue out slightly.
“Do you miss Mama?” Chloe asked Mia.
“Yeah, to moon,” Mia said, and Chloe’s smiled faltered.
“Yeah bug, I miss Mama to the moon and back too.”