Chapter Four

"Don't worry Bec, I got this," Jesse said as he was helping Beca carry her bags into the train station. "Feed the cat, water the plants, get the mail. No biggie."

"Yeah, well that's what Amy said to us before Chlo and I left for her tour and when we got home all of our plants were dead, our mail box was stuffed, and she just poured the whole bag of cat food into the dish."

"I won't do any of those things, now come on, your train is almost here." Jesse began to walk through Union Station to the platform, Beca following with her portable DJ equipment, laptop, and self-proclaimed "man purse" in tow.

They arrived on the platform just as the train did, and it quickly emptied. Within a few moments the speaker was crackling and announcing that all rooms to Portland were boarding. "Well, that's me..." Beca said. She took her bag from Jesse and set it next to her.

Jesse opened his arms for a hug, and while Beca was often reluctant when it came to physical contact, she hugged him back. "Go get 'em tiger!"

Beca laughed and pulled away from her hug. She gave her best friend a high five, promised to call him, and boarded the train. A conductor handed her a card for her room at the far end of the next car.

She found her cabin after passing it twice and put her things inside. This train ride was almost thirty hours, and so she made herself comfortable. She immediately pulled out her DJ equipment and set up. She had a lot of work to do before she got to St. Paul if her plan was going to work. A conductor checked in and scanned her ticket and after that she got to work.

Beca dug through the thousands of music files on her computer before finding the cover she and Chloe did years ago of Titanium. They had done one at home, just for fun, but when it turned out quite good they decided to record it in the studio. Chloe's manager suggested they produce and release it, but Chloe refused, it was just for her and Beca. She opened up her mixing software and put the song in. She played around with it and when she found where she wanted the next song to transition in, she pulled it up in the computer: "I'm Gonna Be" by the Proclaimers. The DJ was planning on recording the song herself, so that it would be her vocals along with Chloe's on Titanium, but she needed to fit everything in first.

She had been messing around with her DJing program for almost three hours straight when there was a knock on her cabin door. She stood up, not realizing how much her legs needed to stretch and opened the door. "Yeah?"

"It's lunchtime, we have turkey, ham, or cheese sandwiches or a salad, your choice of dressing. And they all come with chips and a soda, water, or juice," the woman pushing a small trolley said, smiling at Beca.

"Oh, right, food. I'll just take the salad, that's fine." Beca was eager to get back to work, the mix still wasn't right, and she didn't need any distractions.

"Dressing?" the portly woman asked.

"Raspberry vinaigrette if you've got it," she said.

"Of course, here you are darling. And what kind of soda would you like?"

Oh god. Soda. Beca had an awful Diet Coke addiction, but Chloe told her she should stop drinking it, it was bad for her health. And as much as she was jonesing, she figured that if she wanted Chloe to marry her, she should probably do this one, stupid little thing for her. "Ginger ale?"

The woman outside Beca's cabin handed her a can of soda, a box with her salad, dressing, chips, and silverware. "Thanks," Beca smiled. She grabbed her food and noticed that the woman was giving her a strange look.

"I'm sorry, but you just look so familiar... Are you a musician?" she asked, clearly not wanting to invade Beca's privacy.

"Producer and DJ, I'm surprised you recognized me..." she said, smiling.

"Of course! I've seen you in magazines with that adorable little Chloe Beale!"

Beca laughed, of course someone would recognize her because of Chloe. The two kept their relationship relatively under wraps, but once the media found out, it was chaos for them for a few weeks. Neither of them were upset that people knew, for Beca just that they were bothering the couple.

"Yeah, she's my girlfriend," Beca said, rocking back and forth on her heels. She was getting restless being away from her mix this long and being so close to figuring out what was missing.

"How sweet, enjoy your trip dear, I'll be seeing you around seven for dinner, and you can always press this button if you want something off the trolley." And with that the woman walked away.

Beca ate her lunch and played around with her mix for a while. Eventually she got to a point where she knew she was just going to have to come back to it. So, even though she was on edge with what she was going to do, she unfolded her bed, grabbed her sleeping bag, and curled up for a nap.

Beca was woken by her phone, chirping the chorus of "No Diggity". She shook her head and dug through her sleeping bag for her cell, finding it right before it went to voicemail. "Hullo?" She was still in a post sleep stupor and didn't think to even check the caller ID.

"Hey babe, were you sleeping?" Chloe asked.

"Nope. I took a nap in my office earlier, I'm exhausted, phone just startled me" Beca said, hearing her girlfriend giggle on the other end of the phone.

"Awww, I miss you already," the redhead cooed, not caring how sappy she sounded.

"Miss you too. Where are you now? I'm on the subway, Amy is insisting that we go out for drinks tonight..." Beca was sure Chloe could hear the sounds of the train in the background and needed a cover story, it was the first thing she thought of, and she figured Chloe wouldn't call Amy to check on her.

"Oh boy, don't have another drinking contest with her, okay? And I'm somewhere in Montana I think... Not really sure, it kind of all looks the same," she said with a laugh.

Beca laughed, "I promise we will not have a drinking contest, and I'll take a cab home, don't worry. Damn, three days on a train and then a four hour drive? But hey, it'll be worth it, right? I mean you've been missing your family like crazy, I'm glad you're going."

"It definitely will and I haven't gone to see Andy on his birthday in years..." Chloe said.

It had taken Chloe a long time to tell Beca about her brother Andy, even though he was the reason she never flew. When Beca came to Chloe's parents house for the first time she took Beca to his grave. Her brother, just a few years older than she was, died in a plane crash, and no one in her family has flown since. It was at his grave that she finally told Beca and it felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders. After taking Beca there the redhead was sure that her brother would approve of her girlfriend. Andy had been her best friend growing up, and him dying the summer before her freshman year of college devastated her.

"Tell him hi for me?" Beca asked.

"Of course Becs," Chloe said, smiling into the phone.

"Love you, Red."

"Love you too Beca," Chloe hung up the phone and smiled, so glad to have Beca in her life.

As soon as Beca finished her call with Chloe she stood up and stretched. The guy at the store was right, those beds were quite uncomfortable. She got up to use the restroom and as soon as she sat back down and opened her laptop she got a call from Jesse.

"Tell me you love me," he laughed into the phone.

Beca scoffed and rolled her eyes, knowing full well that Jesse knew her well enough to know that she had done so. "Sureeee J, whatever you say."

"I found you a boom box, the guy is holding it for you until you get there," Jesse said.

"Awesome, thanks man." Beca quickly wrote down the address Jesse gave her and hung up. She did some googling and found out that it was just a few blocks from the train station. She could walk a few blocks in the Minnesota snow, right?

As soon as she found the address Jesse called her again. "Dude, what the hell is this cat's name? I'm here to feed it and I can't find it..."

Beca laughed, the cat's name was a running joke she and Chloe had. "Depends on who you're asking..."

"Well clearly I'm asking Chloe," Jesse joked.

"If you're asking Chloe his name is Tuxedo, but he goes by Tux." As Beca said this a dinner menu was slid under her door, she had half an hour to decide what to eat.

"And if I'm asking you?"

"Kevin."

"Kevin?" Jesse laughed, unsure if his best friend was serious or not.

"Yeah Kevin, Tuxedo is a stupid name for a cat. It's not a name it's an object of clothing... Although, uh, if you're trying to find him, call out for Tux... He won't respond to Kevin."

"Alright crazy, whatever you say..." Jesse laughed, called out for Tux and hung up the phone.

After dinner both of the rooms next to Beca's were unoccupied, the car was incredibly quiet- except for the usual train noise, but that could be edited out. She pulled out her mixing equipment and her favorite microphone and got it all set up. Since she knew how she wanted to mix the two songs, all she had to do was simply cut out the vocals by The Proclaimers and add her own. The DJ quickly had the track all set up and began to play it. Right on cue she began to sing:

"When I wake up, well, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the girl who wakes up next to you
When I go out, yeah, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the girl who goes along with you
If I get drunk, well, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the girl who gets drunk next to you
And if I haver, hey, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the girl who's havering to you..."

After a few recordings of the song Beca had one that she deemed acceptable for her proposal to Chloe and saved it to her computer. She was exhausted and needed nothing more than sleep, so she once again unfolded the bed and curled up in her sleeping bag.