It was supposed to be a Bellas captains meeting, for Beca to become initiated with the responsibilities she now held as the Barden Bellas' captain, including the student organization activities she would have to attend as representative of the Bellas. Which, honestly, she thought was an exaggeration, since she never once heard of Aubrey or Chloe attending any meetings whatsoever. And even though she still thought being named captain was unnecessary — Jessica, for one, seemed to have better working knowledge of a cappella than she did, and Denise was an incoming junior, so she technically had seniority by virtue of age — but Aubrey and Chloe had made the decision, and Beca figured she could just hand over the reins when the new school year started and the two would never have to know.

Beca arrived at the gym that served as their rehearsal space, and frowned in confusion when she found it locked. Seriously, those two decided to haze her now?

"You're late."

Beca turned, and saw Aubrey leaning against a nearby tree, a thick binder peeking out from the book bag Aubrey had slung over her shoulder. "Uh, yeah." She pointed at the closed gym doors. "Did you forget the key, or–?"

"We're not using the gym today."

"Okay…?" Beca frowned. "So where are we going?"

"Come along." Aubrey ignored her question, and pushing away from her post, walked back to the direction Beca had just come from. Beca groaned in exasperation, and followed.

She was pretty sure Aubrey was taking large strides just to annoy her. "Uh, so where's Chloe?"

"Chloe's not coming." Aubrey said curtly, as they turned right at one of the main avenues in campus, and approached the coffee cart near the arts building. She smiled at the server and placed an order, in easily the most polite and friendly tone of voice Beca had ever heard from the blonde. Aubrey turned to her. "Do you want coffee?"

"Sure." Beca shrugged. It was the middle of the afternoon in the early days of summer — in Georgia — but she was going to need something to occupy her hands and mouth, if she had to spend time with Aubrey. Worst case, she could throw the cup at the blonde's head. She turned to the server. "Black."

The silence that followed was awkward, the two of them not bothering with small talk, as they stood waiting for their cups of coffee. When it was served, Beca reached for her pockets when Aubrey cut her off by paying for both their cups to the man. Then they continued on their way.

Beca hesitated, and took a sip from her cup. She had to admit, it wasn't nearly as bad as she expected, and it was a great improvement from the usual sludge around campus. To break the icy silence, she brokered, "this is good."

"Yeah, Pete knows how to brew a great cup." Aubrey agreed, far more friendlier in tone than when they had met at the gym, sipping her own cold drink. "It's a major detour to the Business and Economics building, but worth it."

Beca glanced at her. "You're a business major?"

"And Economics." Aubrey confirmed. She led them through a narrow path between the arts and media buildings and through a partially-neglected garden, momentarily worrying Beca that Aubrey was leading her to her certain doom, but they eventually emerged at the part of campus that Beca recognized as the student organizations' residences.

Beca glanced behind her at where they had passed, which was disguised from this side with the leaf covering of several large plants. "A shortcut."

Aubrey hummed.

Beca frowned at Aubrey. "That's always been there?"

"Most people think the garden's locked up, but they removed the gate some time ago." Aubrey told her, continuing to walk along the sidewalk.

"And you know about it how?"

Aubrey glanced at her. "I've been here for four years. I wasn't always just in the library or gym, you know."

No, Beca wouldn't know, because that's all Aubrey ever portrayed her life as: academics, and the Bellas. None of them even knew if Aubrey dated.

They continued walking, finally ending up on a quiet corner of the line of fraternity and sorority houses, at a white house with a dark blue roof and window shutters, a large B in familiar script on the front. It looked well-kept, if a little abandoned, and Beca revisited her "certain doom" theory. She slowed her steps as Aubrey walked up the front lawn, which had probably seen better days, and needed better upkeep.

"What is this?"

"What does it look like?"

Beca's gaze fell on the encircled B at the front of the house, and frowned. "I don't get it."

Aubrey glanced up at the house, and turned to Beca. "Did you think the Treblemakers are the only a cappella group with a house?"

"Sort of, yeah."

Aubrey sighed, because she was probably to blame for that misconception. "The Bellas have a house."

"And we haven't used it the whole year because—?"

"Because administration threatened to take it away from us if we failed to make it to the finals, and I didn't want to give something and fail and have it taken away." Aubrey explained. "You all hated me enough."

"We didn't hate you." Beca said quickly.

Aubrey gave her a skeptical glance.

"I mean, you weren't our best friend, or anything, but it's not like we actively wished you dead." Beca said in reassurance. She frowned, realizing that what she'd said wasn't actually too convincing. "Can we go back to the part where the Bellas have a house?"

Aubrey nodded, and motioned for Beca to join her at the front door. As Beca approached, Aubrey found the keys to the door, and opened it.

Beca frowned at the lack of mustiness. "It's clean."

"I've been paying the gardener to air it out sometimes, and make sure jerk-faced frat boys haven't been using it as their boudoir." Aubrey explained, handing the keys to Beca. "I guess these are yours now." She stepped into the house, and turned to face Beca as the younger girl walked into the entryway.

"There are five bedrooms, and a third floor loft that you can use for whatever purpose. Furnished kitchen, fireplace, three bathrooms: first floor, second floor, master bedroom."

Beca decided that if being a future candidate for Forbes' Most Powerful Women list didn't pan out, Aubrey had a future in real estate. "Why is there a master bedroom?"

"Usually for the Bellas captain, but some captains have shared the room previously, so it's really up to you." Aubrey informed her.

"Did you ever live here?" Beca asked curiously.

Aubrey shook her head. "We used to have greater numbers, until Alice became our captain last year, and even if technically, they had the space, she hated me — and by extension Chloe — with a passion, and we knew moving in would have been a death wish."

"And this year?"

Aubrey sighed. "After pukegate, I didn't deserve to stay here. And Chloe wouldn't move in without me, and then administration told me they could take it away, so we just…" Aubrey let her voice trail off.

Beca paused. "Where is Chloe? Shouldn't she be here for this, too?"

Aubrey glanced at her. "No."

Beca stiffened at the iciness in Aubrey's tone, something she'd never heard when related to Chloe.

"The basement is… suspect, I've been told, but I had an exterminator check it out so there shouldn't be anything living down there." Aubrey continued, as if she hadn't just cut down the very topic of Chloe.

Beca hesitated, trying to decide on whether or not to push, and took a deep breath, gathering every bit of bravery she had. "Why isn't Chloe here?"

"I don't know, Beca, as I was saying–"

"Aubrey." Beca interrupted.

"I don't really want to talk about it, especially with you."

Beca acknowledged that point, but: "I know we've never gotten along, but I'm asking, as a friend, and as someone who actually cares: What's wrong?"

"Can we please just finish this?"

"Aubrey."

Aubrey shook her head, her expression impossible for Beca to read, before she turned on her heel and marched off to the kitchen. After a moment's hesitation, Beca slowly followed the older Bella into the adjacent room, where Aubrey was standing by the kitchen island, the binder on the counter in front of her while she had both arms out, hands flat on the surface, as if holding herself up. When Beca entered the room, her head snapped up, and she focused on the smaller girl.

"Chloe's not graduating."

Beca stopped, confused. "What? Why?"

"I don't know why!" Aubrey snapped, as if that was the crux of the matter. "She won't talk to me, I can't talk to her without wanting to force the issue, and now we live together without even saying more than polite phrases at a time."

"Take it easy," Beca suggested, holding her hands out in a calming gesture. "Why won't she talk to you?"

"Because she knows how I'm reacting to it." Aubrey laughed bitterly. "Because it's not like we made all these elaborate plans on what we were gonna do after we graduate."

"Not to be a pain, but you can still do all those things."

"That's not the point."

No, Beca didn't think so. Aubrey was a stickler for plans, and from what she could tell, really only counted Chloe as her friend. And Chloe had withstood a whole year of Aubrey's particular brand of psychosis, and they had all seen how she stood by Aubrey, no matter what. But she also wasn't afraid to confront the blonde if she felt like she had no other choice. The fact that Chloe was avoiding Aubrey and avoiding the issue spoke of something greater than Beca could understand.

Beca fidgeted, because she had no idea what to tell Aubrey.

Aubrey sighed, and pushed the binder across the island in Beca's direction. "Everything you need to know is here. The by-laws, the rules governing the Bellas' status as a student organization, the rules and regulations of maintaining independent status from school administration — so they won't ever get to dictate song choices — and the list of sponsors and bank accounts for every Bella need."

"Bank accounts?" Beca repeated.

Aubrey nodded wearily. "Bella alumni set up funding, in case someone needs emergency money for tuition or an accident, or whatever."

"Like bail?" Beca asked pointedly, still sore about the fact that Jesse had called her father to bail her out when she'd gotten arrested after Regionals.

Aubrey at least had the decency to look apologetic. "We have to answer to alumni what happens to the money, and I didn't want to have to explain bail money." She shrugged. "We really try not to touch it, so you'll still need to come up with fundraising ideas. You can't take corporate sponsorship, or else you'll be recognized as professional, and be disqualified from collegiate a cappella, and the school will have to disband the Barden Bellas, so I know it'll get tempting, but don't do it."

Beca flipped through the pages of the binder with trepidation. She paused at a page. "The ICCAs have a national tour?"

Aubrey winced. She'd forgotten about that. "You'll need to talk to Donald about that. He organizes the tour for the Treblemakers, so he'll know more about it than anything in that binder. I've already given Gail your number, she should be in touch soon."

Beca looked up at her. "What about you?"

Aubrey looked confused. "What about me?"

"Dude, just because you're graduating doesn't mean you stop being a part of the group."

"In this case it does." Aubrey corrected. "I got a job offer, a few weeks ago. I'm starting a week after graduation."

Beca stopped, recognizing that moment for what it was. It wasn't just Aubrey turning the reins over to the new Bellas captain, or discussing Beca's new responsibilities as head of the Bellas or the new Bellas household.

Aubrey was saying goodbye, and she was only saying it to Beca. Like she had deliberately chosen that moment to part company with the Bellas, and there were only two of them present for it. And whatever was going on between her and Chloe was bad enough that she hadn't thought to include Chloe in the proceedings.

"You can't just leave." Beca argued. "You have to at least give the rest of us the opportunity to say goodbye."

"I'm graduating. It's not like my departure is breaking news." Aubrey pointed out.

"That's not the point."

"Beca." Aubrey sighed tiredly. "I got closure at the ICCAs. I won with my friends, with Chloe beside me, and we won it over the Treblemakers. It's fine." When she saw that Beca looked torn on whether or not to concede defeat, and undecided on how the rest of the Barden Bellas were going to react, Aubrey took a moment, and glanced around the kitchen.

She used to spend a lot of time in this house, back when she had been a freshman, the captain at the time had been a font of information regarding the Bellas, and she had found a rapt audience in Aubrey. They used to discuss song selections here, and it had been here that the older Bellas had taught Aubrey the fundamentals of how to break down a song into its individual parts and make it come together as an a cappella number. When those girls had graduated, the next two sets of senior Bella members had been more into their cliques, especially the group led by Alice, and whatever desire Aubrey may have ever had about living in the Bella house had faded since. Now, however, she glanced around the kitchen and paused, reminiscing and partly regretting never have lived in it. Her gaze fell upon one corner of the kitchen cabinets, and after a moment's hesitation, walked over to one of the lower shelves, pulled the door open and pulled out a cart, pulling it all the way out.

At the very end, taped against the wood panel, dusty and old, was a dark bottle.

"Dude." Beca stared at Aubrey. "That's magical."

"You might get that farewell party for me, after all." Aubrey noted. She picked up the bottle, and examined it. She lifted an eyebrow. "You should probably call the others."

Beca was confused, but for once in her Barden Bellas life, she actually did what Aubrey told her to.

Aubrey placed the bottle on the island counter, and when she found a moist towelette from her bag, used it to wipe the dust from the bottle.

"How did you know there was booze in there?" Beca asked, intrigued. And was there more booze around the house, because that would be awesome.

"The Bellas captain when we were freshmen used to tell us about this one captain, who was determined that one day the Bellas were going to win collegiate a cappella. She was the one who got the Bellas qualified for the ICCAs — I think it was called something else at the time — who put together the chart and game plan on how to win… despite the obvious handicap of lacking a good bass sound." Aubrey related. "Anyway. She was so sure that the Bellas could win, and supposedly, she bought this bottle of champagne, which they were going to open when they won."

Beca glanced at the bottle, at the label that made it known it wasn't champagne.

"They didn't win." Aubrey pointed out. "And after losing in the semifinals, they drank the champagne just to get rid of the reminder of how they didn't make it to the finals." She turned, and motioned for Beca to follow her. Opening a cupboard, she handed Beca several shot glasses, then taking a few more on her own, carried them to the sink to wash. "Wash these."

Beca resented the command, but did it anyway, even as she wondered why a sorority house had shot glasses.

"Over the next few… days, maybe weeks, she read articles on how and why all-female a cappella groups can't win, and she bought a bottle of malt whiskey, something that ages." Aubrey continued. "She knew it was an uphill battle, but she had this goal, and she had this plan, and she figured, maybe it won't happen during her captaincy, but she had this belief that it could happen, and that the Bellas could do it."

"This is a story they just tell incoming freshmen Bellas?" Beca asked.

Aubrey shook her head. "No, Laura was like an encyclopedia of Bellas knowledge. She knew its origins and history, the myths and legends of the Bellas that came before. Her mom was a Bella, too. She was literally a Bella Legacy." She sat down at the counter, and regarded the bottle. "To be honest, a lot of us thought it was a myth, an urban legend. When we made the finals last year, Alice was determined to find this bottle."

"So how did you know it was there?" Beca motioned to the cart where the bottle had been taped onto.

"It seemed like the obvious place." Aubrey admitted. "It would have required knowledge of how a kitchen works, and Alice was notorious for not doing her share of the chores."

"Okay, that Alice sounds like a bitch, why didn't you just impeach her?" Beca asked.

Aubrey gave her a look. "Because you respect the choice of the captains that came before you. That's the rule. They obviously saw something in her that made her worthy of leading the Bellas, and we had to abide by that decision."

"Even if she didn't like you? Or Chloe?" Beca questioned. "And, really? Who doesn't like Chloe? Did this Alice girl kick puppies in her free time?"

Aubrey shrugged. She really had nothing to say in Alice's defense.

"And just listening to you talk about her is making my skin crawl, how could you have taken that for an entire year?" Beca asked.

"Because you decide to do a better job." Aubrey sighed. "A lot of the Bellas quit before we even reached the semifinals last year. At the end, the only ones left who weren't going to graduate were me and Chloe, and…" She glanced away, deep in thought, before she turned back to Beca. "You have to understand: not everyone was like Alice. But teams take on the character of their leaders, and Chloe and I weren't immune to that. But we knew we could be better." She laughed wryly. "At least Chloe held up her side of that agreement."

"You weren't so bad." Beca offered feebly. Off Aubrey's skeptical glance, Beca acquiesced, "I mean, we all know it could actually have been worse, you know? We're all still passing our subjects, and we're all still here, so you didn't drive us into dropping out." She opened her mouth to say something more, thought the better of it, and fell silent, bringing the washed shot glasses to the island.

Aubrey tilted her head to the side, and regarded the smaller girl thoughtfully.

Something about this girl had irked her all year long, and for all her posturing and dismissive attitude towards the freshman, Aubrey knew exactly why she had been so reluctant to listen to Beca.

Because Beca understood music in a way Aubrey never really could, and probably never would. Aubrey could break down a song into its individual parts, and put them back together, but Beca could take a piece of music and turn it into something else. Some would even argue that she could turn it into something better. But to acknowledge that fact, to bring attention to it, would have given the freshman free reign to do what she wanted with the Bellas, and for a long time Aubrey didn't trust that Beca was with the Bellas for the long haul: how could she trust something as important as the Bellas to someone who always seemed to have one foot out the door?

But even after Aubrey had driven her away, forced her out of the Bellas, Beca had come back.

Not quite groveling and begging, but the fact of the matter was that Beca had chosen to come back, and had chosen to stay.

"You're going to have to be better, you know."

Beca looked confused.

"When you're captain." Aubrey reiterated. "You're champions now, the team to beat. It'll be easy to screw up. Maybe you'll get complacent, or one or all of you will start thinking the way I did, that it's all about the finals, and forget you have to go through all the earlier rounds first. Or you'll set higher and higher goals for yourselves that you'll forget what's important." She gave Beca a weak smile. "You're the captain now, Beca. Whatever it is you think that makes you good at this, at being a Bella? You'll have to be even better. And you can't screw up."

Beca looked up at the blonde, and when their eyes met, she nodded.

She didn't know how, but she had the feeling that Aubrey had given her that speech with the specific intent of reminding Beca that she was handing over care of the Bellas to Beca. Not Denise, not Jessica, not any of the other girls who made up their ragtag group of friends. Aubrey was trusting her with the Bellas legacy.

Aubrey glanced at her watch, frowned at the utter tardiness of the Barden Bellas, and opened the bottle. She poured out two shots, and handed one to Beca.

Beca took the glass, and sniffed the drink, almost recoiling at the strength of the alcohol. Her eyes widened. "That's strong."

Aubrey smiled — a sinister smile that Beca didn't like, didn't trust, and didn't know Aubrey was even capable of — and raised her glass. "To the Bellas that have come before."

Beca winced, already feeling the burn that she hadn't even drank yet. "Bellas for life."

They finished the shot, Beca shaking her head at the drink that went straight to her system, nearly gagging at the unfamiliar burn. She frowned at Aubrey, who had barely reacted. "Are you a machine?"

Aubrey grinned. "I'm from the South, Beca. Consumption tolerance is a real thing."

Beca groaned, even as she pushed her glass back towards Aubrey. "I take it back. I think I hate you again."