Beca groaned and attempted to bury her face further into the thin blanket wrapped around her pulled up knees, earphones uncharacteristically silent. The dull throbbing behind her temples was slowly but surely becoming stubbornly more pronounced with each passing minute. The circulating cold breeze of the air con and the constant whir of the plane engines were only adding to her hangover and with another 8 hours to go, it wasn't going to be going away any time soon. Amy was snoring loudly by her ear, neck pillow dangerously close to resting on Beca's shoulder, her eyes covered with a swiped hotel blindfold.
Chloe had booked the cheapest flights she could find and, due to their very public disgrace from the American acapella association which had left their sponsorship a little dry, the return flight had been scheduled for first thing in the morning after Worlds. Not being ones to pass up on an opportunity for a celebration however and still buzzed from their showcase, they had decided to take full advantage of Denmark's over 18 drinking age. Beca couldn't remember much after the second bar; there had been shots and dancing, emotional drunken toasts followed by more shots and possibly some impromptu karaoke. It had been Legacy stepping into the DJ booth, ripping the mic away and proclaiming how much she freakin' loved everyone to a Katy Perry song, that had prompted Beca into calling it a night. She and Jessica had braced the stumbling girl between them as they made their way back to the hotel, Emily's head lolling in the back of the cab while she sang odd parts of Flashlight to herself. After they had gently lowered Emily into one of the extra cot beds, tucking a blanket around her and placing a bucket next to her prone form, Beca had practically thrown herself into the double bed she would be sharing with Chloe and cocooned herself under the warmth of the covers. She was vaguely aware of the bed dipping at somepoint during the early hours of the morning as the redhead slipped in with a contented sigh. The comfortable silence had seemed to last for only a few seconds to Beca before she was suddenly dragged back into consciousness, practically falling out the bed by the redheads shrill shrieks at not hearing her alarm and that they were meant to have left for the airport almost an hour ago. Dazed, her limbs tangled in the bed sheets on the floor and still feeling drunk, Beca had met Emily's bleary bloodshot eyes from across the room, wincing at the commotion Chloe was unleashing on the adjoining room. Chloe and Ashley had been the only ones with the common sense to partially pack before the festival leaving everyone else's stuff strewn around as they had prepared for the concert. Five minutes into their frenzied packing which had mainly consisted of everyone throwing anything they could reach into a bag, the hotel room door had opened to reveal a dishevelled Stacie walking barefoot with her heels in her hand, smirk vanishing immediately when a bag was shoved into her hands accompanied by a snarled "PACK!"
It took the combined effort of all the girls to rouse the sleeping Tasmanian who had passed out in the bath tub wrapped in a large Australian flag, a flag which Beca had a vague recollection of Amy climbing up on the bar to pull off the wall and despite her argument that it was the 'flag of her people' had prompted them to be thrown out of the first bar. After a number of unsuccessful shouts and shakes, CR had finally taken matters into her own hands and had thrown an entire drinks cooler worth of water over Amy's head. Bags still partially unzipped, they had then all bodily crammed into the lift, Amy still dripping onto the floor and glaring at CR and Beca having no chance to brace herself before becoming crushed into the corner. They literally burst into reception, Flo tripping spectacularly into a hotel plant whilst Chloe sprinted to the desk and practically threw their room keys at the startled night manager as the others jogged to keep up with the redhead. By some miracle, and probably spurred on by Stacie's promise of exchanging her skype address with the taxi driver if they got to the airport quicker, they made it panting to the check in desk with five minutes to spare. It wasn't until Chloe handed over the groups travel documents, having chosen to keep them together for safe keeping (and due to a colourful history of the Bella's unruly tendencies) that they suddenly noticed that Lily was not with them. A tense fifteen minutes later, they had all managed to make it through passport control, Lily having been found within her own luggage and Amy narrowly avoiding the no fly list after she begrudgingly let security take her water bottle away. Once into duty free, Emily (whose complexion had been becoming more and more ashen since the turbulent cab journey) excused herself to walk rather quickly to the toilets, a weary CR following in her wake. The rest of the Bella's made their way towards the main plaza, collapsing in a heap under the departure board until their flight was called.
So, understandably, the majority of the plane journey home for most of the Bella's was spent in a dazed or passed out state. Before that happened however, they had once again, all come together as a group. As soon as the seatbelt sign had flashed off, Stacie had bounced out of her seat and up the aisle, returning shortly with several bottles of water and some pretzels. Jessica had asked Ashley to reach into her bag for her, pulling out some painkillers and passing them out to anyone who wanted one before she snuggled back into a surprisingly affectionate Lily. CR offered gum and Amy a small hip flask containing bourbon that had somehow made it passed security incase anyone fancied some "hair of the dog." Emily had continued to look pale throughout take off, a paper bag clutched in a trembling, vice like grip on the armrest next to Beca. Once in the air, her eyes had begun to become glassy and Beca had reached across the aisle to gently tap Chloe's shoulder, the red head pulling down her bindfold to take in the scene behind her and without a word of complaint, switched seats with Beca. Chloe had pushed the arm rest up between them and pulled the younger girl onto her lap, hands drawing comforting circles on her back until Emily stopped sniffling and her breathing evened out in sleep
And despite her tiredness, her pounding headache and the stress of the last twelve hours, Beca could honestly say that she was going to miss this.