Disclaimer: Yeah, I still don't own anything than the obvious.

Chapter 2 - Bad Day

"Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile, and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down, and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day"

Bad Day, Daniel Powder

Beca didn't understand how her son's brain worked, she didn't understand how he could explain to his older sister her chemistry homework when she could barely explain algebra to the girl. She may not understand how her son's brain worked, but she knew that at a drop of a hat, she would be there by his side through everything - she'd do the same for Emily. Her father questioned how she could just do that for two kids that weren't even biologically related to her in anyway and she always just shrugged because just because Emily and Peyton Mitchell were not biologically related to her doesn't mean that they weren't her kids. Just because they were biologically related to only Chloe doesn't mean that they weren't the ones that came to her after a bad day or when they needed to be cuddled and held.

Earlier on in Beca and Chloe's marriage, they found out that the music producer couldn't get pregnant. And after a short grieving period the two talked about expanding their family and using Chloe as their source of doing so. Almost a year later, the two welcome Emily into the world and two years later that wanted to complete their family with a little sibling for Emily to have and almost a year after that, they welcomed Peyton into the world. Throughout the two pregnancies, Chloe assured Beca that DNA would never be an issue for the kids. That she was still her baby mama and even though the music producer cringes her nose after hearing that, she always felt loved by Chloe and in return their children. When Emily was about 12, Peyton 10, they explained to them that situation in the best way you could for two preadolescent kids. The two children knew that no matter what their mama loved them and will always love them. She was protective especially when it came to the two not-so-little humans that were her children, so when she heard that her son was being bullied it took a lot of convincing on Chloe's part for her not to call Aubrey and chastise her for not looking out for the boy. It took even more convincing from Chloe that she wouldn't bring it up during their weekly double date with Aubrey and Stacie.

"I don't understand why you're perfectly okay with this, Chlo." The music producer said putting on and tying her shoes. "Our boy is being bullied and you don't think we should be talking to his headmaster about this?"

Chloe came out of the bathroom where she was freshening up her makeup and said, "From my conversation the other day with Stacie, she has no idea. Honestly, I think that Peyton should be in college right now. He's not being challenged enough."

"We've talked about this, Chloe." Beca said. "He's too young." They had talked about it when he was 12 and not being challenged in middle school academics, but that was three years ago and clearly Beca wasn't grasping that concept.

"He's 15, he could graduate and go to community college next semester, and then see what he wants to do. I'm not saying that he should move out and go to college because I'm not even ready for Emily to do that next fall. I'm just saying that I think his time at Heritage Prep is up." She said as she sat down next to Beca. "He's not being challenged enough." Chloe then stood up and pulled Beca up with her, "Let's go have dinner with our friends and on Monday we'll go as parents to talk to our child's headmaster about his lack of being challenged and being bullied, okay?"

Beca sighed, knowing her wife was right, "Okay, I'm sorry I'm just protective when it comes to this kind of stuff." Beca said.

"I know," Chloe said kissing her softly. "Let's go."

Beca was nursing a beer as they waited for Aubrey and Stacie. She wasn't a fan of double dates, but Chloe always made it worth her while. Tonight Beca's mind couldn't get off of Peyton. She knew that she somewhat, inadvertently told her wife that she wouldn't bring it up, but it's what's plaguing her mind. So when the other couple showed up, she chose to be quiet.

"Hey!" Aubrey said holding Stacie's hand as they walked to their usual table.

The redhead jumped up, "Hey Bree," Chloe said getting up to greet them. Beca slowly following her giving Stacie a hug first.

"Hey Beca," Aubrey said giving the music producer a hug. Noticing how tense the brunette in her arm was. She knew that Beca had warmed up to hugs and physical touch in general since she started dating Chloe back at Barden, but this was new and somewhat unwelcome. The two were past the days of not getting along, they considered each other best friends, one of the godmothers of their children, "You alright, Bec?"

Beca still hugged her back when she said, "Hm? Oh yeah. Just a long day." She looked over to her wife who had a worried expression on her face as the other couple slid into the booth causing the other two to do the same.

"How's Danny Stevens album coming?" Aubrey asked to make light conversation. "Obviously good if you had a long day."

Beca smiled and shrugged, "It'll be out just before Christmas." She said. "We're pushing it hard."

Aubrey smiled back and said, "It's nice to see you passionate about your craft. Definitely have come a long way from that girl who used a cup for her Bella audition."

Beca smiled back as a way of saying thank you, before placing her arm around Chloe as the waiter put Aubrey and Stacie's usual drink in front of them. Chloe placed her head on Beca's shoulder as she and Aubrey talked about their weeks with Stacie interjecting every once and awhile. Beca still on her stance to be quiet.

"Are you sure you're okay, Bec?" Stacie finally asked halfway through their food. "I don't think I've ever heard you this quiet before."

Beca nodded her head, "Totally fine." She said. "Just a long day."

Chloe placed her hand on her wife's thigh and whispered, "are you sure?" in her ear. Beca just nodded. Her mind was going a million miles an hour and she didn't want to ruin a perfectly good evening. Chloe squeezed her thigh and kissed her cheek, "So, what's the plans for the Conrad-Posen household this weekend?" Chloe asked taking the attention off of Beca.

"Noah has a football fundraiser and David has a soccer tournament." Stacie said. "So, sports. What about the Mitchell household?" She asked making Beca roll her eyes.

"Emily has a date with Alex," Chloe said gesturing to why Beca was rolling her eyes. "And I think Peyton is just going to probably hang around the house."

Aubrey sat up a little, clearing her throat, she had been waiting all night for the right time to say what she was about to say, "Speaking of Peyton, I want to say now that I apologize for not keeping a better eye on him. Stace told me what you two talked about Monday morning."

"Bree," Chloe tried, "it's okay."

Aubrey shook her head, "No, no it's not. I make jokes about how he should be in college already, but he shouldn't be shoved in lockers and having Emily, Noah, and David covering for him to us." She said making both Beca and Chloe's eyes go wide, "We asked them and you know David can't lie to save his life." Stacie started gently rubbing Aubrey's back, "I'm sorry."

Beca finally took a deep breath and reached across the table and grabbed Aubrey's hand, "You're the headmaster of 1,000 k-12 students, we don't expect you to just keep an eye out for our boy. We get it, but Chloe and I are talking about letting him finish the semester and then put him in a community college for awhile. He's not being challenged enough as it is."

Aubrey still looked extremely guilty, "Bree," Chloe said, "we don't blame you at all."

"Is it why you've been quiet all night?" Aubrey asked Beca.

"Partly, the other part is, I really did have a long day. I was in the studio at 4:30 this morning with Danny. I'm the only producer that he'll work with." Beca answered honestly. She squeezed Aubrey's hand again before saying, "Stop beating yourself up. It's really okay."

"I promise to keep somewhat of an eye on him for the rest of the semester," Aubrey said. "He's my godson, I want to know that he's okay."

Beca smiled at Aubrey and nodded her, hearing where she was coming from, she would do the same for Noah and David. The music producer squeezed the headmaster's hand again before letting go.

That following Monday, Aubrey stuck to her word, so when she saw her two kids and Emily helping him out of a locker, she immediately began kicking herself again. Before she reached the four kids, she took a deep breath and then said to her youngest, "Why aren't you in class?"

David looked horrified at his blonde mother, "This has always our thing. We have a group text all four of us." He said. "It takes all of us to get him through this."

"It's true, Headmaster Conrad-Posen," Emily said using a voice that she only uses with the woman when they're together on campus. "We run as a unit. All four of us. Especially when it comes to Peyton."

Aubrey looked at the boy who was cradling his arm in his hand, curled into his big sisters side, the sister challenging years of being Beca's daughter. She then asked Peyton softly, "Peyton honey, who did this to you?" He curled further into Emily. "Whoever did this to you deserves punishment. I need you to be honest with me."

Peyton was quiet for a moment, it's not what he wanted. He never told his sister and his cousins who always did it to him. They always intimidated every single person who looked at him wrong. Then when he finally spoke up he wasn't expecting everyone's reaction, "A-Alex Daniels and two other seniors that I don't really know." He heard everyone gasp, especially Emily. She always vented to the boy about her brother being bullied. She never expected him to be the bully.

"Did he ever say why?" Aubrey asked. He was quiet for a moment biting his lip. "Peyton..."

He took a deep breath, "He said that I took too much of both of my moms' attention and that Emily was feeling left out and that I deserved it." He said timid.

Anger rose in Emily, so she said, "He hangs around Kyle Bradford and Nick Richards, so it was probably them." The three Conrad-Posen's stared at her with confused eyes. "What?"

Noah cleared his throat, "You are aware that you just ratted out your boyfriend and his friends, right?" The football player knew the boy was bad news when Emily started dating him, but he never said anything to the girl, allowing her to figure it out for herself.

Emily's shoulders tensed and her jaw tightened, "I'm aware." She spat out. "He won't be my boyfriend by the time lunch is over though."

Peyton tensed a little, "Em, no. You don't have to do that." He said softly. He really didn't want to be the reason why his big sister lost what, or rather who made her happy. I don't want you to hate me. He was actually trying to say.

Emily kissed his head, "You are more important than a stupid boy. You're going to be my brother for the rest of my life. Who knows how long he and I could've lasted." She said.

"Okay, this is what's going to happen," Aubrey said, "you," she pointed at David, "get back to class." He nodded hearing the sternness in her voice. "You," she said to Emily, "go deal with your thing with Alex before I call him into my office with his friends," the girl nodded. "And you," she said to Noah, "help me get Peyton to the nurse. We need to make sure that his arm isn't broken." She added seeing that the boy was still cradling his right arm in his left hand.

"Mama?" Noah said as Peyton was swaying a little, losing his balance, "Help."

"I got you," Aubrey said to Peyton. "You two go do what I just told you to do," she said to Emily and David. "You go get the nurse," she said to Noah. All three kids doing what they were told. She cradled the boy in her arms. She knew it was probably be embarrassing, but she needed the boy's attention, "Peyton honey," she said leaning against the lockers, "I got you. Just breathe." The boy was going into a panic attack, something that she wasn't expecting. "I got you honey. I got you."

Noah returned five minutes later with the nurse and the nurse and luckily Aubrey had gotten him to calm down a little bit. When they explained the situation and the nurse checked the boy over and said that a doctor would be needed. Aubrey took a deep breath and got the boy to the standing position, this time panic attack free, he walked into the administration building where he waited for one of his moms to pick him up and take him to Stacie. He, Emily, David, and Noah were the only four non-underprivileged kids that Chloe and Stacie saw. Noah and David seeing Chloe and Emily and Peyton seeing Stacie. When Beca all, but came running into the administration building, she saw her baby boy sitting in the chair with ice on his arm, hiding his face in his hand. Aubrey was paged when Beca arrived, the music producer demanding an answer. Aubrey calmly explained the situation and asked Beca to take a deep breath.

When Beca reached the parking lot of Chloe and Stacie's medical office, she took a deep breath, "You go in, Aunt Stacie's expecting you," Beca said, "Tell her and your mom that I'll be in there in a moment." He nodded his head before leaving the car and walking into the office. Beca sat in the car for awhile and just started to cry. She knew that she didn't have a good feeling about Alex, she didn't know why at the time, but she just knew that something was off about the boy. Emily had been dating Alex for a little over a year and she never felt good about him. And she always beat herself up because she never wanted to be that kind of parent who hated their child's significant other.

She must've been sitting out there for awhile because she heard the door open and when she looked over she saw Chloe get in. Beca then looked out the windshield and stared at the building, "You were right," Chloe suddenly said. "About Alex."

Beca took a shaky deep breath and then shakily said, "I didn't want to be right though." Chloe took her wife's hand that was still placed on the shift gear and brought it up to her mouth to gently kiss the music producer's hand. "Do we pay more attention to him than we do Emily?" She asked her wife.

The doctor took a deep breath, "I don't know to be honest, does Emily appear to be feeling this way?" She asked. "I know we spend a lot of time with him, but that's only because even when he was dating Katie, he pretty much always stayed at the house."

Beca started playing with Chloe's wedding ring, it was something that she did when she was nervous while holding the doctor's hand, "I dunno really." Beca mumbled trying to hold back tears. "I mean, she's always pretty vocal when she wants something. She's definitely not shy when it comes to those kinds of things."

"I think we should talk to her tonight and see what she's thinking and how she's feeling, but right now, we have a son, that even though he is a child of a doctor and his doctor also happens to be one of his godmothers, is terrified of doctors by himself and I have other patients to see, so can you come in with me please?" Chloe asked. Beca smiled and took in her wife's appearance, she was wearing a black skirt and a white button up with her white coat on. She always found her wife attractive, but there's something about Doctor Chloe Mitchell that was more of a turn on for her.

"Okay, Dr. Mitchell." She said seductively beginning to place kisses down her neck.

"Wasn't your dad, Dr. Mitchell too?" Chloe asked trying to get her wife, also terrified of doctors, into the doctor's office in front of them.

"Yeah okay," Beca said unbuckling her seatbelt and opening the door, "moment ruined." Chloe chuckled as she was getting out of the car following her wife into the office.

"Your boyfriend fractured your brother's arm." Beca said sitting next to Emily on the couch that night.

"Ex boyfriend." Emily corrected her mother as she curled into her side. "You were right about him."

Beca sighed, it's not that she wanted to be right about Alex, but she was and she didn't know what to do about it. She sees the heartbroken look on her daughter's face and suddenly her 17 year old has suddenly become that 7 year old that all she ever wanted to do was cuddle into the music producer and watch Disney movies because nothing could've made the then 7 year old happy.

"I didn't want to right," Beca said. "I never want to be right with that kind of stuff."

Emily cuddled further into her and said, "He's my brother. And that comes before a boy that in retrospect was a complete asshat." She said. "It was always about him, never about what I wanted. I thought I loved him, but I guess I was wrong."

Beca kissed the top of the girl's head and she then started what she came into the room to talk about, she and Chloe had agreed that maybe one of them should talk to her and the other should be upstairs cuddling with Peyton. Beca cuddled with Peyton for the rest of the afternoon while Chloe was at work, so the redhead took over when shegot home and Chloe would never admit it, but Emily did better with Beca. It's not something she's jealous about because Peyton seems to warm up to her a lot more, but Beca could get inside Emily's head better and that's what this conversation called for.

"Aunt Bree told us what he said to him that he takes too much of both my and your mom's attention and that you were feeling left out. Is it true? Do you feel that way?" She asked softly.

Emily took a deep breath, there was a point and time that she did feel that way. It was about a year before when a lot of Peyton's social anxiety and anxiety in general arose to a higher level, but they found a balance after that. Sure, her brother did get a lot of their parents' attention, but it's something she's learned to deal with over the years because she knew that her brother did need a little extra attention, it's not easy being him. She vented to Alex about it because he understood, he was the middle child of three. He was either being compared to his older brother's success or being ignored for his younger sister's needs - she thought her venting would stay between the two of them.

She curled as far into Beca as she could and said, "About a year ago, when all of his anxieties turned up about ten notches, yeah, I did. And I learned that he does need you and Mom more, but I also learned to voice what I needed and sometimes I felt bad because you two would be cuddling on the couch taking a breath from being a parent, I just didn't want to be a bother. I don't feel that way anymore though."

"There's no taking a breath or even a break in parenting," Beca said softly, beginning to play with the girl's hair. "Your mom and I are always here for you. I'm sorry that you felt that way even if you don't feel that way now. Sometimes your mom and I forget that you need to check in with you. You were always our extraverted little girl, sometimes we forget you have down days too. I know your mom is the same way and sometimes I forget to check in to see if she's not putting on an act for the three of us and the world."

"I love you Mama." Emily said. "Thank you for always being there for us."

Beca kissed her head, "I love you too baby girl." She said. "What are we watching?" She asked changing the subject.

"I dunno really, haven't been paying attention much." She answered handing her mother the control, "You choose."

Chloe was upstairs holding Peyton as he slept, she was humming quietly, and running her fingers through his hair. She hadn't seen him this peaceful in awhile and she smiled at the fact that it was in her arms that he could relax. She remembers holding him in her arms for the first time. She had been in labor for more than 24 hours and all she thought about during the delivery was how much she couldn't wait to hold her son in her arms and when she did, she had Beca sitting next to her with tears in her eyes looking down at the boy with complete love and adoration. The boy in her arms now seemed so worried about life, so broken, and she didn't know what to do. He stirred and woke up and saw Chloe staring down at her, he stretched, and hid under his arm, mumbling, "creeper" as he snuggled further in her.

"How are you feeling baby?" She asked as he sat up a little.

"Really sore." He said. "But other than that, okay."

"I know it's not what you want to hear, but Mama and I would feel better if you stayed home tomorrow or well go to the studio with Mama. We'll have Emily pick up your homework for you." She said.

Peyton nodded, "Alright." He said not fighting it.

"We also think that after this semester is over that your time at Heritage Prep is over." She said. "Mama said that there's a good community college near the studio that you can take classes in until you figure out what you wanna do."

"Mama's okay with this?" He asked knowing that she wasn't just three years earlier.

"Why do you think she chose the school closest to Mitchell Records?" Chloe asked with a small smile.

"Ooh," he said with a laugh. "I guess you're right. Are you okay with it?"

"Mama and I got into a huge argument about it three years ago because we were on opposite ends of the situation. So of course." She said.

"I don't wanna be the reason why you two argue." He mumbled burying his face into Chloe's lap. He loved cuddling with either mother, but when he cuddles with Chloe, it's like coming home. Chloe loved holding her children and loved it when they willingly cuddled closer to her.

"Married couples argue. It's the sad fact of life. At the end of the day, we still love each other and that's what matters." Chloe assured the boy. The two cuddled together until Beca came in and said that takeout was ordered and delivered. And then the family of four snuggled close together on the couch watching sports highlights because that's what Peyton wanted. Being a family was the two mothers' top priority that night. And a family they were, shutting out the majority of the outside world. Peyton between Beca and Chloe and Emily sprawled out across all three of them, her head in Beca's lap and her legs in Chloe's. This was the way they liked to be a family after bad days.

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