Hum Hallelujah

summary: Four times Tori gets married to the wrong person, one time she gets it right.
disclaimer: Victorious isn't mine.

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one

Right after Tori graduates high school, she runs away to Vegas with Danny – well, technically, they drive there in his old, beat up Volvo, but they still leave with nothing but a note saying that they aren't going to answer any calls.

(Beck calls. Six times. Leaves seventeen text messages and one voicemail: Don't do anything stupid.)

On the third day, Danny turns to her, face illuminated by the bright lights, eyes glowing.

"Do you want to get married?" He asks over the noise of people on the streets.

And Tori, young and naïve and stupid, immediately says, "Hell yes!"

They say their I do's on top of a roof. The "priest" smells like grease and weed and Tori crinkles her nose while Danny mutters his vows, but they kiss anyways, proving to themselves more than anyone that they can be forever.

Three weeks later, Tori files for a divorce.

(Surprisingly, the priest was legitimate. Go figure.)

two

She meets her next boyfriend when she's twenty at her aunt's wedding. His name is George Nathanial Waters and his father owns a vinery or something, which she associates with money, which somehow magically makes her panties disappear (and three hours after the wedding they're in a high-class hotel with their legs tangled together under the sheets).

They date for two months and he takes her to so many social events that she loses the ability to keep track of which one is for what. She just follows George wherever he goes, and she looks like a trophy wife when they're not even married.

He rectifies that with a golden ring with like, a million diamonds in it, and she says yes, mostly because he's got money and she really wants that ring on her finger, like, now.

Five months later she finds him at the kitchen table, drinking a morning cup of coffee with some blonde bimbo who is wearing her nice, fluffy, white robe. He quotes some cliché, overused line from a Lifetime movie and Tori leaves.

(She calls Beck and cries for hours. He never hangs up, never stops listening, not even when Tori can hear Jade yelling at him in the background to get the hell off the phone.)

When the divorce goes through, she gets one hundred-fifty thousand dollars, which is just fine and dandy with her.

three

Her acting career kicks off when she's twenty-three; she stars in four different movies and plays minor characters in five others. She guest stars on television shows, and on her eleventh movie she co-stars with a man named Bradley Johnson.

He's nice. Clean-cut, well-endowed, and a little cocky. And he definitely likes Tori, a lot.

"You are the most beautiful girl I've ever had the pleasure of working with."

She scoffs, rolls her eyes, hides a smile, "And you're the most obnoxious guy I've had the displeasure of working with."

"Hard to get. I like." Bradley wiggles his eyebrows.

Tori kind of wants to punch him.

"I bet you're good in bed, too."

All. The. Time.

So when they get married onscreen for their movie, it takes a lot of effort for Tori to say I do and act like she at least kind of means it.

(Beck co-stars in her next movie, and he's her favorite pretend love interest by far.)

four

André calls her up out of the blue on her twenty-fifth birthday and asks her out for coffee.

They end up making out in the backseat of his car.

"I'm in love with you, Tor," he murmurs, his lips hot against her neck, his eyes clouded with desire, lust, need, "I love you." The whisper is lost against her; she closes her eyes, thinks she can love him without any consequences.

"I love you, too. I love you." She kisses him, hard, trying to make herself believe it.

She thinks it's horrible to say that she marries André out of pity, but that's what it comes down to. Pity. Hopelessness.

They invite Beck, Cat, Jade, and Robbie, and they sit in the front row and smile, waiting for the perfect love story to unfold.

(It never happens. Tori never walks down the aisle.)

Beck finds her in his apartment, curled up in her white wedding dress at the foot of his bed, watching television. He sits down beside her and slings and arm over her shoulders, pulling her close to him, his eyes on the screen.

"Why?" He asks. She doesn't have an answer, so she blinks back tears and shakes her head.

"I just did," she mutters, collapsing into his arms, crying, "I just…I don't know, Beck."

"I think you just suck at commitment," he mutters into her hair, a ghost of a smile appearing on his lips.

"I think so, too," she agrees, uttering a sound that's somewhere between a sob and a laugh. "He's going to hate me."

five

"I want to marry you."

Beck is on one knee in front of her, a gold ring in his hand, looking at her with serious, brown eyes. Tori blinks, closes her mouth, opens it again.

"A-Are you sure?" She asks after a full minute of silence. He nods, standing up and taking her hand. "You know I'm not so good with the marrying thing." She gazes at him, worry dotting the specks of darker brown in her eyes, her lips still parted slightly in shock.

"Well, it's different this time," Beck says, grinning. He leans forward to kiss her; it's short, too short, and she leans up for more when he pulls back, "Because you actually love me."

Tori's eyes brighten, and she tugs the ring out of his hand and slips it over her ring finger, likes how simple it is, how simple they are.

"So, is that a yes?" Beck asks, placing his hands on her hips and pulling her to him, against him, two puzzle pieces fitting together.

"Definitely a yes."

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a/n: Dedicated to my lovely Katie Lynn (DramaticStarlet). Sorry it sucks though. At least Tori and Beck happen at the end? Idek. Thank you all for reading! :)