A/N: Disclaimer: Still don't own Pitch Perfect... etc etc, blah blah blah.

Long way 'round
Chapter 3

I heard a car door slam followed a moment later by a heavy banging on the door, "BECA!" Another series of rapid thumps, "BECA! You better be in there or so help me I'll…" Chloe trails off as I open the door, her fist raised to hammer my door again.

"Do you wanna come in?" I ask with a smirk. "Or would like to abuse my poor, innocent door for a bit longer?"

"When were you planning on tell me about this Beca?" She asks as she waves her hand around the lounge room, furniture in place but empty of all the photographs, knick-knacks and personal touches that make a house into a home.

I make a show of checking my watch before I reply, "in about an hour, when we sat down for lunch. So who ratted me out?"

"What makes you think anybody ratted you out? Maybe I just wanted to come over…"

"Seriously? I'm supposed to pick you up for lunch in forty-five minutes but you're trying to break my door down and threatening me with I don't know what if I'm not here. So spill…"

"Emily," She says, and I can hear the hurt in her voice. "She told me you had everything packed up and ready to leave like I should already know about it. When did you tell her Beca?"

"Last week. I had to get her used to working with Theo instead of me at the studio."

"Why is she working with Theo? Isn't he the guy you hired to help you do all the paperwork for Just Blurry?"

"Well yeah. He actually enjoys doing all the day-to-day management that I'm kinda terrible at. But he has got a great ear for music and he's been begging me for a chance to work on Emily's stuff for months."

Chloe fails to hide her laugh with a cough, my "management skills" are a bit of a running joke among the Bellas. There's a very good reason that Chloe and I were co-captains.

"Yeah laugh it up Red," I mutter with a half-hearted glare. "Anyway, I've got Theo handling the paperwork and producing for Emily, and I've got a bunch of people almost as talented as me working with my other artists, but I still need someone that I know I can count on to really run everything while I'm away. Keep the label on track and maybe find some new talent to keep things fresh. Basically to be my proxy, and since Aubrey tells me that you've been looking for a new job I thought you might be interested."

Chloe's just standing there now with her mouth hanging open.

"I'll admit the pay is not amazing compared to what some of the other labels out there offer, but it does come with a fully furnished house."

More silence. I think I've actually managed to shock Chloe speechless.

"Chloe? Chloe? Are you still with me here?"

I can see tears pooling in her eyes but she blinks them away and croaks out, "why?"

"Because that apartment you and 'Bree are sharing is barely big enough for one person," I begin but she cuts me off with an angry swipe of her hand.

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it! Why are you leaving Beca?"

I can see that I'm hurting her. She's trying to keep it locked down and not get hysterical but I can see it bubbling just below the surface, so I take her hands and lead her over to the lounge. She gets the hint and settles into the comfy black leather while I perch on the coffee table in front of her.

"I haven't slept in this house since that first week after the funeral." She stares at me in shock but I keep going before she can say anything. I need to get this out. I need her to understand.

"I keep trying, every week or two I come back here after work. I make dinner but can't eat it. I try to play with whatever project I'm working on but everything sounds wrong. Chloe, I haven't even been in the bedroom since before Jesse died. I just end up curled up here on the couch, sobbing, with The Breakfast Club on repeat until three in the morning.
So I spend my weekends with you and Bree, I get a few nights a month staying with Emily and Benji, then I stay the rest of the time at this little motel near the studio.
That's not living Chloe, it's barely even existing."

She pulls me onto the lounge beside her and wraps me in a hug, "I'm so sorry Beca, I didn't realise."

"This whole city is filled with memories for me, Chloe. And they're mostly good memories. But everywhere I go, everything I do, reminds me of Jesse. And that just hurts too much right now. It makes me want to shut down again, to push everyone away and stop feeling. And I can't do that. Do you remember I told you that Jesse had me make him a promise?" I wait until I feel her nod against my shoulder before continuing.

"That's what it was. I had to promise that I wouldn't lock my feelings away, that I wouldn't just hide behind my walls again. Jesse said that if I don't let myself feel sad then I won't be able to feel happy either."

For a few moments the only sound is Chloe sniffling quietly. But then I feel the tiniest of nods, "OK, so where are you off to? How long will you be gone?"

"I don't know. I promised Anna I'd go and spend a few days with them before I go. I haven't actually planned anything after that."

She redoubles her efforts to hug the life out of me and all I can do is squeeze back just as hard.

"It sounds like you're not planning to come back."

I pull back from the hug so I can see into her eyes and they are quickly filling with tears.

"You know, aside from the stuff I'm taking with me, there's only two things I haven't packed into storage."

She seems a bit confused by my tangent but she lets me pull her up off the couch and follows me into the kitchen. The bench tops are completely empty save for a hard drive and a brightly coloured gift box. I pick up the hard drive first and hold it up, "this is for you." I grab her hand and hold it palm up so I can press the shiny black case into her grasp.

"What's on it?" she asks, a bemused furrow on her brow as I close her fingers around the drive.

"Everything," I say as I let go. "Every mash-up, every ICCA arrangement, every work in progress. Every song I've written that I've never told anyone about. Every song or album or photograph or whatever that has ever inspired anything I have ever done. In a word; Me."

It feels like forever before I get any kind of reaction from Chloe. Then the tears overflow her eyes and she wraps me in a desperate, crushing hug.

"You can't do that to me, Beca," she sobs into my shoulder. "You can't just hand me a hard drive filled with music and say 'this is me' like it'll make up for never seeing you again."

"What? Wait... Chloe, hold up." I cut her off before she gets too hysterical. "It's not like I'm gonna vanish into thin air."

Her death grip of a hug doesn't loosen but the sobs trail off into hiccups, "you're not?"

"Have you heard of telephones? Text messaging? Skype?" I ask with a wry grin. I carefully peal her arms off me and point her towards the gift box, "maybe you should open that now."

Very slowly, as if she's afraid it'll explode, she unties the ribbon before carefully easing the lid to one side.
When she sees what's inside the box she drops the lid and screams. I'm pretty certain her doctors told her that her voice would never go that high again.

"Beca, these are…"

"Yep."

"And they're from…"

"Yep."

"I don't understand Beca."

I reach into the box and reverently lift my headphones out. My eyes lingering on the black casings and my fingers tracing the gold inlay inscriptions there.
Beca over the left ear and Wierdo over the right.

"Jesse gave me these just after he proposed," I say as I slip the headphones over Chloe's head and settle them around her neck. "He said the original plan was to hold them ransom in case I said no."

"Like that would've happened," Chloe says with a small grin. "I was there Beca, and I think he was more excited to give you these than he was to give you the ring. But why are you giving them to me?"

"Because these headphones are the most important thing in my world. Not the most important person, but they're the most important thing. I want you to look after them for me, because you understand exactly how much these headphones mean to me. And you know that I could never give them up."

"Beca…"

"Chloe," I reach up a hand to trail over the shiny black plastic, "these are my promise to you that I am coming back."

I'm pretty sure it's happy tears I can see swimming in her eyes this time. Chloe's signature megawatt smile is back in place and she pulls me into her embrace once more.

"You're the best friend I've ever had Chloe. You and the Bellas mean everything to me and I could never, ever abandon you guys."

"And you promise to stay in touch?" she asks with an uncertain smile.

"Yeah," I smile back and hold up three fingers. "Girl Scouts honour."

"Like you were ever a Girl Scout," Chloe says with a mock glare.

"Hey! Of course I was… For all of two weeks. Seriously though, I promise prompt replies to all text messages and voicemails, and I guarantee at least one skype call every week."

She holds out her right hand with the pinkie extended and neither of us can hold back a laugh as we make a "pinkie promise".

"So," she says as she wipes the last of the tears from her eyes. "What now?"

"Lunch now," I grab her hand and start dragging her up the hall. "There's a fantastic burger bar near Just Blurry and I want to see your face when you take that first bite."

"And then you'll go from there?"

"Well, I may have promised Theo that we'd come by and actually do the paperwork involved with putting you in charge. But after that, yeah."

She pulls me up short, "Wait, you were serious about that?"

I have to bite down on my instinctive smart-arse reply. Instead I take a deep breath and grab her other hand, "When I started Just Blurry I had my laptop and I had Emily. In the last four years it's become the fastest growing, and one of the most highly sought-after, independent music labels in the country. And there are precisely two people I would trust enough to look after it for me.

"One of them is you," I say and give her hands a quick squeeze."

I'm rewarded with a small but genuine smile, "and who's the other?"

"Well, let's just say he's… he's coming with me on the long way 'round."


A/N2: This is the final full chapter of Long way 'round so big thanks to those who have stuck it out and especially those who have reviewed (and/or will review this chapter). I do still have a short epilogue which is mostly finished and should be up some time over the weekend unless I go a little crazy and start expanding on it...
If you guys and gals enjoyed Long way 'round, please review and let me know what I did right. If you didn't enjoy it, please review and let me know what I did wrong. Feedback helps me improve.
Till next time...

A/N3: p.s. there are a few minor edits to chapters 1 and 2. Nothing that really affects the story, just me being nitpicky.