I wanted to start by saying some of you guys are savage af. A lot of the reviews that I got on the last chapter and the one before that were so sweet and so helpful and for those, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, they're really inspiring. I got a few anonymous reviews and PMs that made my whole week they were so detailed and kind.

That said, I also got a lot of backlash. Reviews and PMs about how unhappy a lot of you are with the direction of this story and the lack of fluff. I didn't set out to upset any of my readers and I'm sorry if that's something that happened but it is an angst story. It's dramatic and fiction and things don't always play out the way that you expect them to. Stories of assault are layered and complicated and Beca's is no different, a pattern of abuse like that can cause some twists and turns. I think some of you might be pleased with the direction I took but the suspense is part of the story.

I am always open to constructive criticism, thoughts, ideas, concerns, always. But for future reference, please try to keep things on the respectful side.

Again, thank you so much to those of you who stuck with this story, you all mean the world to me. Happy reading!

As Chloe anxiously paced around her bedroom, desperate to plan her next move when she was disrupted by a gentle knock on her bedroom door.

"Any more of those circles and I think you're going to burn a hole in the floor," Aubrey teased, casually leaning against the doorframe.

Chloe looked up and met her best friend's eyes with a distressed look in her own.

"Chloe?" she asked, slightly frantically. "What's wrong, what happened?"

The blonde was no stranger to an emotional Chloe Beale but it was rare for her to see her roommate so…distraught. A wave of concern washed over her like a wave and instantly Aubrey was in big sister mode.

"Bree…" she whimpered. To her own horror, the ginger burst into tears that didn't seem like they would be stopping any time soon.

Immediately the blonde rushed to her side and pulled her into her arms. She traced comforting patterns into the back of her best friend in an effort to soothe her.

"Chlo please tell me what's wrong. I hate seeing you so upset," Aubrey urged gently.

"I'm gonna s-screw everything up for Beca," Chloe hiccupped, tears still pouring out. Her hands shook roughly as she attempted to return her best friend's consoling embrace.

"Shhh, Chlo breathe," Aubrey reminded her. She ran her fingers through the redhead's soft locks in, what she hoped, was a relaxing manner. "What do you mean you're going to screw things up for Beca?"

"T-there was a cop and he-" she managed to choke out. The inner war raging inside her was making Chloe sick to her stomach. But if there was one person whose advice she trust, it was Aubrey Posen.

Taking several deep breaths to calm herself down, Chloe squared her shoulders and retold the events of the police station to her best friend…

Beca paced back and forth for an hour in her room. She tried to do her homework, a valiant effort really, but to no avail. She couldn't get the other girl's squirrel-y behavior out of her head. Her hands were shaking and her heart was in her stomach. There were very few things that the brunette hated more than this feeling. Even if Chloe hadn't been acting strange, she did not want to be alone having just recalled her traumatic situation with Jesse. Yet another clue something was up with her girlfriend, Chloe would have never let be alone after something like this.

The feelings of anxiety were clawing up the inside of her heart and Beca knew she had to get out of her small room before she started climbing the walls. She shook herself out of her mental reverie, grabbed her keys, and left her room.

The noise of the door slamming startled Chloe so badly she quite literally jumped up from her seat. Thankfully the homework she'd be working on managed to stay on her desk but she'd ripped her headphones out of the laptop with the sudden movement. She turned around quickly, only to be met with the sight of her very angry girlfriend.

"Jesus Christ Beca, you scared me half to death," Chloe exhaled, her hand still over her racing heart.

"What the fuck happened in that room when I left Chloe?" Beca demanded. Her hands were on her hips and posture was stick straight, the picture of anger and confidence.

The ginger feigned confusion, hoping to buy herself some time.

"I told you, nothing happened. Langley wanted to pass on some information about campus support groups for victims of assault or stalking. There's also a bunch of counselors at the University and he wanted to give us some names."

Beca rolled her eyes and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. The shorter girl forced herself to calm down and take a deep breath as to avoid snapping at Chloe. Two deep breaths later she felt composed enough to trust her voice again.

"I don't need to study psychology to know that you're lying to me. Try again," she challenged. She finally looked down from the spot she'd chosen just above the Bellas captain's eye line so she wouldn't have to make direct eye contact while calling her out.

Chloe looked close to tears now and Beca felt the vast majority of her bravery crumble. Every part of her wanted to pull the taller girl into her arms and apologize for making her cry but she stomped down the dominant reflex in her mind to apologize and forced herself to wait for her girlfriend to respond.

"Beca…"

"Just tell me the truth," she pleaded. "Whatever it is, it's not that bad. I promise I won't get angry okay?"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Chloe disputed. She crossed her arms defensively and fought back hiccups.

Beca took a seat on Chloe's bed and steadied herself. "Do you remember when you first realized that I was holding something back from you? Something really serious?"

Chloe nodded, not trusting her voice.

"You told me that I could count on you, that you weren't going anywhere and you asked me to trust you, to trust us. And now I'm asking you to do the same thing."

The older girl sighed. She forgot sometimes how persuasive her girlfriend could be when she wanted to be. More than that, Beca was right. She had begged Beca to trust her and then almost ruined their relationship after the brunette had. Now it was her turn to take a leap of faith and hope that the DJ would make good on her promise.

"Okay," Chloe nodded.

Beca's face lit up, "Okay."

"I just wanted to offer my condolences about your friend there," Officer Langley said, leaning in casually and putting a – what he thought – was comforting hand on Chloe's upper arm and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Thanks," Chloe replied, deliberately keeping her answer short and awkward. The air in the room was quickly turning uncomfortable for her and while Chloe was no stranger to unwanted advances from infatuated boys, she didn't exactly have a protocol for how to ward off these flirtations when they came from the officer in charge of her girlfriend's assault case. After everything that she'd gone through to get Beca to report it, she wasn't willing to do anything to jeopardize their chances at getting the best results possible from the campus PD.

When it became clear that Chloe wasn't about to offer anything more for him to go off of, Langley cleared his throat and puffed out his chest.

"I wanted to offer you some information for Miss Michaels. A lot of the time-"

"It's Mitchell," Chloe cut him off, emphasizing her girlfriend's correct last time. "Her last name is Mitchell."

"Right," he drawled. "I wanted to offer you some information for Miss Mitchell about the services we offer to help support the victims of incidents like this."

The singer allowed the tension in her shoulders to ease very slightly. It was possible that she and Beca had read into things and this was just an overly helpful cop with wandering eyes.

The Officer, clearly misinterpreted Chloe's relaxed shoulders, and stepped closer to her, invading her personal space. The psych student's back was to the wall so her escape route would have to be very deliberate and not wanting to overreact, Chloe waited.

"And I wanted to offer you my services," he whispered in what he thought was a sly, seductive tone. Chloe, on the other hand, thought he sounded like a 12 year old trying to talk dirty for the first time.

Forcing herself to hold back a chuckle, Chloe responded in a normal volume voice, "I don't think I need counseling because of my friend's assault. Thanks though!"

She side stepped the Officer and made a move to walk towards the door when a beefy hand gently clamped around her wrist. Not painfully, but enough to prevent her from walking out.

"I think you misunderstood me," he said slowly, as if Chloe were stupid. "I want you to have my number and I want you to call me anytime, for any reason."

Chloe sighed as she thought of a way to let the man down gently. Telling him about her and Beca was definitely no longer an option because he absolutely seemed like the homophobic type, or at least would take it as a shot at his masculinity which was the last thing she wanted. She could tell him she had a boyfriend but that particular lie often made things more complicated. Chloe hated to hurt people's feelings when she was able to avoid it so she settled on something in-between.

"Officer Langley-"

"Taylor," he asserted with a yellow smile.

"Taylor," she agreed. "You seem like a really good guy but unfortunately I'm not exactly…available at the moment."

The blue eyed girl was actually quite proud of herself for how genuinely apologetic she had sounded.

"Oh," he pouted. "What does that mean? 'available?'"

"It means I can't have any kind of relationship beyond a professional one with you. It would be…disrespectful to someone else in my life."

Taylor grinned, "I'm not much of a snitch, despite what my job title would make you think. I won't tell if you won't."

The twinkle in his eyes suddenly became very unsettling to Chloe. Ordinarily, the senior wouldn't be this creeped out by some guy who wouldn't take no for an answer; it was nothing Chloe hadn't dealt with hundreds of times before. But ever since she had listened to Beca recount her horrible past to her, she looked at situations like this differently. She wondered exactly how many men had once said nearly the exact same thing to her girlfriend at one point or another.

"Taylor," she began gently. "Again, you seem so nice but really I'm committed to someone who I love much. It's complicated, but all you need to know is I can't be what you want me to be."

"Well," He bristled. "If you can't do what I want you to do, then maybe I can't do what your friend there wanted me to do."

A shock wave traveled through Chloe's body and her hands felt numb. Was this man seriously insinuating what she thought he was insinuating? She mess around with him or else he wouldn't do his goddamn job and file his goddamn police report?

"Excuse me?" she replied, dumbfounded.

"I think you heard me," he answered smugly. He ran a hand through his slicked back, greasy looking hair and pulled out his pocket-sized notepad. Clicking his pen, he wrote what was obviously his phone number down on one of the small sheets, folded it in half and handed it over to the beautiful girl in front of him.

"There's my number. Let's say we'll have dinner on Friday, get to know each other a little better." He stretched one arm up against the wall and leaned forward in what had to be the universal stance of a douche bag guy.

"Taylor I already told you, I can't-"

"And if we don't," He interrupted. "Then maybe I'll forget to file this report. Or, maybe, I'll get a little mixed up about the details. Maybe your friend has a huge crush on this guy. Maybe it's a game they play, who knows?"

Chloe was literally frozen with shock. She was sure that she looked stupid but her jaw was dropped open and her eyes were wide. She had assumed this kind of blackmail only ever happened in movies and yet here she was. The biggest surprise to her was that this seemingly harmless, dopy looking man could be so…devious. He had seemed so unintelligent but this was a scheme he had clearly practiced before.

She nodded numbly, accepting the paper and shoving it into the pocket of her dark blue jeans.

"Good, that's what I like to see. Text me details," he grinned widely. He stood up straight from his position looming over her against the wall and made for the door.

"Oh and I hope your friend Beth feels better. Some guys are just the worst," he called over his shoulder.

Chloe bit back the urge to correct him once again on messing up her girlfriend's name and instead let out an exhausted sigh.

Wow she was fucked.

Making her way to the lobby, she knew better than to share her interaction with Beca, who would without a doubt step back into the interview area, hunt Taylor down, and make her best effort to kick his ass. And Chloe had already seen her girlfriend's right hook, she had confidence she would be able to take the police officer in a fight. That said, her girlfriend did not need any more drama right now. She mentally coached herself to stick as close to the truth as possible with her story to keep from tripping herself up.

Blinking away the salt water that had begun to form in the corners of her blue eyes, Chloe steeled herself and rejoined her girlfriend in the lobby.

Beca looked up as she heard her approach, her stormy blue eyes were as enchanting as ever.

"What did Officer hard-on want?"

"Chloe…"

The brunette sounded devastated. "Why didn't you just tell me what happened?"

"I couldn't," Chloe reasoned, tears still lighting up her light blue eyes. "After e-everything it took to get you to report Jesse I c-couldn't be the one to screw it all up."

Beca shook her head slowly. She reached out a small hand and softly grasped Chloe's chin, lightly urging her head up so they could lock eyes. Obviously she was furious that someone would threaten her girlfriend and cause her so much distress. She wanted nothing more than to destroy Officer Langley but clearly anger was not what Chloe needed at the moment. She could explain things to Fat Amy or Lily later and get their help with destroying the man.

The senior was overwhelmed by the love and understanding she found circling her favorite pair of dark blue orbs. She had been expecting raised voices or maybe even tears or a storm-out. Any of those reactions would have been justified in her mind. Beca had been lied to countless times in the past and Chloe had promised her that she would not join the list of people who had been untruthful with the musical brunette and she had broken that promise. How many times did she answer with 'nothing' when Beca had begged her for the truth? And here her amazing girlfriend was, meeting her lies with compassion and gentleness.

"You could never be a screw-up. Ever," Beca promised. "There are things we can do. We can go to the real police, report Officer douche-face to his superiors. We're gonna be fine.

Chloe felt a huge weight lifting off of her shoulders. Maybe she didn't have a solution yet about how they were going to fix this but at least she and Beca were in this together. She stood up, pulling her brunette girlfriend with her and wrapped her in the tightest embrace she could manage. She planted an intimate kiss in Beca's hair, hoping the other girl could feel just how much she loved her.

"I love you so much Beca."

"I love you too, Beale."

Wow I think that was my longest chapter yet. So what did you think? Any guesses as to what's next? Let me know