A/N: I'm sorry in advance for this fic

Chloe usually doesn't come home from work this early, but Beca is coming home from her visit with her parents that day and there is no way in hell Chloe is missing an opportunity to greet her with the cheesiest, "it's just like a movie!" greeting Beca Mitchell has ever witnessed.

She breezes into their apartment, putting her bag and keys down before checking the landline to see if there are any voice messages left while she was gone. The screen reads (1) New voicemail(s) and she presses "play" before walking over to the kitchen to make herself lunch before she leaves for the airport.

Chloe smiles when she recognizes Beca's voice coming from the machine.

"Hey Chloe," she says, "So I'm on the cab on my way to the airport to get on my flight home now, and I just thought I'd call beforehand. I'll be back at around seven tonight. California's been awesome, a little too sunny for my liking—" Chloe giggles, knowing full well that Beca doesn't like the sun at all, "But the step-monster and dad were surprisingly okay, and I actually had a pretty good time seeing the family again. I miss you like crazy, though, and I can't wait to be home to see you again. I love you. Bye."

Chloe takes a bite out of the sandwich she just made and walks over to play the message again, going to the kitchen to clean it and then getting her stuff together to leave the apartment.

7:10PM

Beca's voice is still in her mind when she comes to the arrival gates, a daisy in one hand and David Guetta's newest album in the other. She checks her watch. 7:22PM. She looks around for any free spots in the waiting area and sits, pulling out her phone to play Angry Birds or something while she waits.

8:30PM

Chloe looks up at the arrival times of the different flights coming from Michigan. They were all supposed to have arrived right at 7:15. The daisy is starting to droop a little.

8:45PM

Chloe's phone starts to ring. She looks at the caller ID to see that it's Beca's father.

"Hi, Mr. Mitchell."

"Chloe…" his voice is hoarse and he sounds like he's just been crying. Chloe stands up straight very quickly, knocking over the David Guetta album. It felt like her heart is trying to shove itself up her throat.

"Mr. Mitchell?"

"Where are you right now, Chloe?"

"I'm at the airport waiting for Beca."

There is a long silence on the other line. She swears she can hear a sob somewhere in the background.

"Mr. Mitchell, where is Beca?"

Another sob in the background before his voice comes out in a another hoarse whisper. "I'm so sorry."

That's all Chloe really needs to hear before the deafening sound of her heart almost completely overtakes the rest of her hearing. She sways a little in her seat, closing her eyes.

"How?" She says in a whisper so quiet, she doubts he can hear.

He hears her."The taxi driver—the taxi got T-boned. There was nothing they could do."

Chloe drops the phone because her hands are numb and there is only a swirling black chaos in her mind before she's stumbling to the flight center. The daisy has lost a few of its petals.

"I need the next flight to Michigan."

She's gripping the armrests of the seat on the airplane so tightly, it hurts her fingers. She's trying not to remember why she's here. Why she's on a plane to Michigan. Why she had to book two weeks off of work. Why the engagement ring on her fourth finger makes her throat feel as if someone has stuck a burning hot knife down it whenever she looks at it.

She swallows, and the knife only disappears for a second before it's back in her throat. She can't breathe.

But she doesn't really try to, either.

By the time she arrives at the Mitchell's house, she's lost all the color in her cheeks. Mr. Mitchell figures he has never, ever seen her this bad before as he opens the door, and he hugs his daughter's fiancee for the first time.

The funeral is small. Chloe can barely even stand up to deliver her speech when her turn comes. Her knees are visibly quaking and she is pale and clammy. She still can't really breathe.

She had an entire, five-minute-long speech prepared for this moment, but she can barely speak because the knife is back and all she can think about is daisies and David Guetta and Beca and Beca is gone.

"I loved her." She presses her lips together to try to swallow the knife, but she can't. That's all she can say. Those three words. Her knees shake even harder than they were before she came up here. The podium is the only thing keeping her standing.

Next thing she knows, Beca's dad is barely holding her up, barely because he's crying too and everyone is crying and Chloe can barely take her watery eyes off of Beca's coffin.

Chloe decides to leave after only two days in the Mitchell household. She can't stand being there. She can't stand the sight of Beca's baby pictures, or even a more recent picture (probably from her trip here) framed in a new-looking frame above the fireplace.

She's holding up her camera on the beach and looking back at whoever took the picture, her dark blue eyes somehow looking amused and irritated at the same time. She's got her trademark smirk on her face. She's not wearing much makeup and she's wearing Chloe's old Barden University t-shirt. Chloe knows it's hers because she can see the little stain on the back from when they had a food fight in their kitchen baking cookies together.

Mr. Mitchell can probably understand why Chloe wants to leave so soon (he hates the picture too because it burns these huge holes in his chest), but he insists that she stays, anyway. She politely declines, and she takes the flight back home.

When she arrives, the apartment is the exact same as it was before, except a little dustier. She breathes in, hoping to maybe catch a small hint of Beca, but all she can feel is sadness and all she can taste is the ghost of Beca's lips against hers.

She throws her bag down and sinks into her couch. She looks over at the landline and suddenly remembers Beca's message. She knows she shouldn't but she does it anyways. She calmly presses "play."

"Hey Chloe, so I'm on the cab on my way to the airport to get on my flight home now, and I just thought I'd call beforehand…"

Chloe can't see because her eyes are filled with tears again, but she listens as closely as she can.

"I miss you like crazy, though, and I can't wait to be home to see you again. I love you. Bye."

Chloe's kneeling on the ground in front of the phone, her face buried in her hands.

She manages to choke out only a few words.

"Bye, Beca. I love you too."