The Voice
Chapter 8
Pairing: Beca/Chloe
Rating: T
Songs Used: Coaches Medley
Cups - Anna Kendrick
Payphone - Maroon 5
Paralyzed - Against the Current
Boys Round Here - Blake Shelton
See You Again - Wiz Khalifa Ft. Charlie Puth / Cover performed by Against The Current
It was a few days after their initial meetup at the DJ's personal studio setup. Beca had been teaching Chloe how to create new and unique covers, by helping her to transpose or even flat out rewrite the music to songs she wanted to sing. Beca had spent the entire afternoon teaching Chloe the basics of the theory behind what she wanted the redhead to do. But she left a lot of it up to Chloe to pursue of her own. Of course the brunette DJ would be there if Chloe had questions or needed a little push, but Beca knew that Chloe was driven and motivated. She didn't want to be too overbearing and not let Chloe have her space.
Not to mention the fact she did have other team members to give her attention to, Pharrell could only do so much for her. She was the coach, he was the celebrity advisor. He had done her a solid when he agreed to cover for her when she spent the entire day with Chloe. Which she had to admit was one of the best days of her life. The more she learned about the redhead, the more she liked her. Chloe was a very energetic, bubbly, and enthusiastic individual. Normally Beca would be turned off by the overly peppy personality the redhead had, but she didn't it mind it much on Chloe. To be mean or rude to Chloe was like kicking a puppy, you just didn't do it unless you wanted bad karma for the rest of your life.
She really did consider Chloe a friend, which was odd for Beca, because the DJ had so few people she could call true friends, and it usually took months for someone to earn the title. She hadn't even known Chloe that long and already she was friends with the perky redhead. But if she was honest with herself, she didn't really care too much.
The day after her private session with Chloe, she returned to set to resume coaching the rest of her team. She took note of who she wanted to pair together in the Knockout rounds. She had a number of very strong singers on her team, but she wanted to come up with pairings that would truly challenge them. She didn't expect her team members to be perfect, she just wanted to see who would put more work and soul into it. She wanted to know who really wanted to be here, and who was only here because they might get a record deal.
She was currently in between sessions, and just chatting with Pharrell when her fellow artist brought up a topic that she really wanted to stay away from with him.
"So, how was your session with Chloe?" Beca glared at him as he gave her a knowing look. "C'mon Beca, I know you. It was a big deal to bring her to your studio to do stuff that you could easily do here. What excuse did you give her anyways?" Beca sighed, knowing her friend wouldn't let this go.
"I told her that my studio had some equipment that we didn't have here." Pharrell just laughed.
"Seriously Beca, she bought that? You might be a professional DJ, but honestly.. A show like this not having all the equipment you need to coach. She must really like you if she took that excuse. Or really wanted to get some alone time with you." Pharrell wiggled his eyebrows suggestively before Beca hit him on the chest.
"It's so not like that. She doesn't like me like that." Beca said.
"But you want her to? And I don't see you denying that you like her." Beca shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Doesn't matter what I feel, she's a contestant, I can't. Even if I wanted to." Beca added on at the end, as if it made it better.
"Sounds like your trying to convince yourself of that dude." Beca just huffed.
"Whatever man." Beca waved him off.
"Look Becs, I only want to see you happy. She does that, be it in a friend capacity or something more. She really does like you. You should see her face when you talk to her, it's like she's a young kid at Christmas who just got the exact thing they asked for." Beca raised an eyebrow and Pharrell just raised his hands in defense.
"That is one of the cheesiest comparisons I've ever heard you make." The artist just shrugged. And Beca shook her head before standing up. "I'm going to go get a coffee, you want one?" Pharrell shook his head.
"Is 'getting a coffee' code for 'going to find Chloe?'" Beca gave him the stink eye before flipping him off and leaving the studio. As she headed for the break room, she got lost in thought. Was Pharrell right? Did she really like Chloe as more than just a friend? Beca shook her head of that thought. Of course she didn't. She couldn't afford to be feeling like that. Chloe was a contestant and she was a coach; it would almost be as bad as a teacher and student relationship.
Almost, but not quite. Her brain said to her. But no, she couldn't do that to Chloe. She knew that if there was a more than friendly relationship between them, it could kill the redhead's career. Sure she was good, and in Beca's mind, that's what mattered. But to the rest of the industry, appearance and connections were just as important. If people were to know that Chloe was sleeping with a judge on The Voice that would probably put her name in the toilet. People would think that Chloe had slept her way to winning. Which wouldn't be true of course. Beca judged everyone the same when it came to music, even people she had a intimate relationship with. That fact had been the cause of more than one relationships of hers to fall through.
Beca was so deep in thought that she didn't realize that she was about to run into another person, before she was nearly on top of them. Pulled out of her thoughts, she immediately when to apologize to the other person, before noticing the mane of red hair and bright blue eyes in front of her.
"Oh hey Chloe. Sorry, wasn't paying attention to where I was going." Beca said to the redhead.
"It's okay Beca! I was just heading back. Stacie and I decided to practice a bit together." Beca nodded. She was glad that the redhead was making friends with her fellow contestants.
"That's cool. I was just going to get myself a coffee before my next coaching session. Hey, are you free to meet me at my studio tomorrow?" Chloe nodded.
"Yeah, what time did you have in mind?" Beca mentally tried to figure out if she had anything important to do tomorrow, mentally groaning when she realized that she had a coaches rehearsal for a song they would be performing for the Knockout rounds.
"I've got a coaches thing in the morning but if you want to come to the set in the morning, we could leave after I'm done?" Chloe nodded in agreement.
"Sure, sounds great!" Chloe wrapped her arms around Beca, hugging the shorter woman before almost skipping off to where she was heading in the first place. Beca just shook her head, chuckling at the redhead's exuberance.
Beca stood on stage, waiting for Aubrey to finish with her rant about whatever the hell she was on about now, looking bored. "Beca, are you even listening to me?"
The DJ just shook her head as Aubrey fumed. "Look Aubrey, sorry if I don't perform your song perfectly every time. But it was your choice for me to do yours, I could have easily done Adam or Blake's songs." The coaches were practicing for what would normally be the premier medley, where each of the coaches performed a part of someone else's hit song. But because both Beca and Aubrey were unable to prepare for it before the premier, they were going to do it at Knockouts instead. It was a popular performance by the coaches, and they didn't want to skimp out because two of the coaches had other performance commitments prior to the show. "Sometimes I wonder if you wanted me to do your song, just so you could get back at me for all the times I irritated you in college." You could almost see the steam come out of Aubrey's ears at the mention of their college years.
"I thought we both agreed to not bring up college again Beca." The DJ just shrugged. But before Aubrey could rip into her further, Adam stepped in.
"Look, I don't know what happened between you two, but seriously, leave it out of rehearsals, please?"
Beca rolled her eyes, but nodded in agreement. "I will if she will."
Aubrey sighed and agreed as well.
"Good, now can we please get back to it?" Adam asked the two females.
"Okay, take it from the top again."
Blake was starting off, and funnily enough he was performing Beca's song, Cups. It sounded kind of odd, coming from the country singer, but that was the point of the medley.
I've got my ticket for the long way 'round
Two bottle whiskey for the way
And I sure would like some sweet company
And I'm leaving tomorrow. What d'you say?
Blake's voice would always have that hint of country in it, but that's what made performing a pop song entertaining. It took something that everyone had heard before and turned it on its head.
When I'm gone, when I'm gone
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone
You're gonna miss me by my hair
You're gonna miss me everywhere, oh
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone
Beca had to admit she was glad that Blake had agreed to do the song. She knew Aubrey would never do it, even if she wanted the blonde to sing it, and Adam, well.. It was the best thing ever to hear him sing a country song. Beca didn't want to get in the way of that. As the music for Beca's song faded out, Adam's song came on, which Aubrey was going to perform.
I'm at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change I spent on you
Where have the times gone? Baby, it's all wrong
Where are the plans we made for two?
It was an interesting change of beat and pace between the two songs, but Beca being the master at mixing she was, managed to make it work. Aubrey's pop-country voice managed to go pretty well with the track, and Aubrey being Aubrey worked her ass off to make her version of the song sound as close to the original as possible.
Yeah, I, I know it's hard to remember
The people we used to be...
It's even harder to picture,
That you're not here next to me
You say it's too late to make it,
But is it too late to try?
And in our time that you wasted
All of our bridges burned down
Beca knew that Aubrey had a great voice, she couldn't deny that. She might have her differences with the blonde, but they had always been a good pair in the music department, bar Aubrey's controlling nature and Beca's natural reaction to push the other woman's buttons.
I've wasted my nights,
You turned out the lights
Now I'm paralyzed.
Still stuck in that time
When we called it love
But even the sun sets in paradise
I'm at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change I spent on you
Where have the times gone? Baby, it's all wrong
Where are the plans we made for two?
Blake began signing with Aubrey at the chorus and while you might think their voices wouldn't compliment each other, you'd be wrong. Both singers had a country influence in their voices, making it easier to harmonize than most would think.
Beca's part was up next however, and the brunette just wanted to make it through the entire set before Aubrey decided someone didn't do something up to her standards.
It feels like I'm paralyzed, and I can't
escape from the prison I'm living in.
I'm naming the voices in my head
They keep on telling me to give in
This was a little bit of a rock vibe than Beca usually heard from Aubrey, but she was glad the blonde hadn't tried to pick something that Beca would be completely unsuited to sing. Beca had to at least thank Aubrey for that little savings grace.
But it's making me stronger
Fight a little longer
I'm gonna bring me back to life
And I won't be paralyzed
Adam was harmonizing with her on this song, and with both artists being a little more alternative rock, with some pop flair in their music, it made it natural to sing together.
For the last song, Adam was up, and Beca had to laugh at the fact that Adam Levine would be singing a country song; written by Blake Shelton no less. Adam, with the help of Beca and input from Blake had rewritten the music a little bit to fit it in with the medley.
Yeah the boys 'round here
Drinking that ice cold beer
Talkin' 'bout girls, talkin' 'bout trucks
Runnin' them red dirt roads out, kicking up dust
Adam was taking a smaller bit of the medley, and the other three coaches suspected it was because he didn't really on record that he sang even a little country. He even insisted that the other three sang with him for the latter half of the chorus.
The boys 'round here
Sending up a prayer to the man upstairs
Backwoods legit, don't take no shit
Chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco, spit
All four coaches agreed that they were done for the day after that performance. Even Aubrey couldn't find anything to nitpick, so they were going to go their separate ways. Beca was eager to get away, one because she just wanted to be away from Aubrey and two because she wanted to go find the redheaded singer that she had been thinking about for the last few days.
Beca wandered around until she finally found Chloe in a private studio, deep in thought, staring at her laptop screen. Beca gently knocked on the doorframe and Chloe looked up, giving Beca a large grin when she saw who it was.
"Hey Becs! How did your rehearsal go?" Beca groaned. Chloe took that as a 'not so good' sign and just gave her a sympathetic smile. "Well, I'm sure it sounds good regardless, you're all such great singers. You ready to go?" Beca nodded as she watched Chloe pack up her laptop and grab her jacket.
The two walked out to the parking lot where Beca had parked her Lexus. Chloe admired the car as the two got in and Beca started the engine. "You've got a really nice car." Beca just shrugged.
"When you're a multi-Grammy winner, you can afford some of the nicer things in life I guess." Chloe laughed, but couldn't help but feel a bit envious. Not exactly because of Beca's wealth, partially that was it she guessed, but mostly because she was able to be so nonchalant about it. Chloe wasn't the worst off, but there had been some hard times in between gigs when she was barely making rent on her small apartment. "Anyways, enough about my nice car, what were you so deep in thought about earlier, if you don't mind me asking?" Chloe shook her head to indicate she didn't mind sharing.
"I was just working on rewriting the music to a song. I have it halfway done, but wanted to see what you thought of it." Chloe said nervously. She had been rewriting Wiz Khalifa's song See You Again. It was harder than she originally thought, because she had to basically rewrite all of the rap parts so she could sing it, but she had managed to struggle through it and thought she did a decent job at it.
"Yeah sure, it's a piano arrangement?" Chloe nodded. "Cool, so you want to play it for me when we get to the studio?"
"Yeah, I'd like your take on it." Beca was kind of excited to hear what Chloe had managed to put together. She kind of just threw Chloe into this without much help and she wanted to hear what the talented redhead had done.
Beca pulled up to her reserved parking space in front of the building and the two headed straight for the recording studio. While Beca went to go fiddle with the recording equipment in case she decided to use them that day, Chloe set up her laptop on the piano, as she had composed the new music electronically. Then she sat down on the bench and warmed up her fingers, playing a few scales.
The DJ wandered over and sat down next to Chloe, again the redhead noticing how close the two were sitting and a slight blush crept up her neck. Beca looked at her expectantly.
"Whenever you're ready." Chloe took a deep breath. 'Here goes nothing,' she thought.
It's been a long day without you, my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
We've come a long way from where we began
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again
Beca was very surprised at Chloe's choice of song. She knew the redhead wasn't well versed at rap, so picking a Wiz Khalifa song was a little shocking. But she had faith that Chloe could pull this off, so she just continued to listen.
Damn, who knew?
All the planes we flew
Good things we've been through
That I'll be standing right here talking to you
'Bout another path
I know we loved to hit the road and laugh
But something told me that it wouldn't last
Had to switch up
Look at things different, see the bigger picture
Those were the days
Hard work forever pays
Now I see you in a better place (see you in a better place)
Uh
How can we not talk about family when family's all that we got?
Everything I went through you were standing there by my side
And now you gon' be with me for the last ride
Beca's eyebrows shot up. She was seriously impressed with Chloe's rewriting of the rap section of the song. She had managed to set it to a rock-ish pace and feel, and keep some of the driving force behind the section had it been rapped. But it wasn't rap, Chloe was singing the section. Beca hadn't expected this, and she was proud of Chloe.
It's been a long day without you, my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again (I see you again)
We've come a long way (yeah, we came a long way) from where we began (you know we started)
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I'll see you again (let me tell you)
When I'll see you again
Bringing herself out of her initial surprise, Beca decided to harmonize with Chloe. And as she did, the redhead turned to Beca and give her an excited smile. It warmed Beca's heart to know that she caused the joy in the other singer's eyes. After the chorus, CHloe stopped playing and looked at Beca shyly.
"So, what did you think?"
"That was great Chloe! Seriously, I'm impressed. I didn't really know what to expect, but that certainly wasn't it. Are you sure you've never done this before?" Chloe giggled and shook her head. She had never written a song, nevermind a rap section to a singing part, but her chest still swelled at Beca's obvious pride at what Chloe had produced.
"Nope." She replied, popping the 'p.'
"Well, it doesn't show. You think you'd let me produce a track of this, between us of course." Chloe's eyes widened. Beca wanted to record her? Was she dreaming? Chloe nodded vigorously in agreement and then threw her arms tightly around the brunette sitting on the piano bench next to her. The DJ laughed. "I'll take that as a yes."
"A thousand times yes!" Chloe squealed excitedly.
"Good, because this is seriously amazing, I'd love to hear it professionally recorded. So, do you have the entire song done? Or just this part?"
"I only have this part concretely done. I've been working on the rest, and I have a general idea of how it'll go, but it's not all done yet." Chloe replied, mind still reeling that she was going to get to record, even a personal track with Beca.
"Well, tell you what, let me help you with the rest today, and if you want to come to the studio sometime this weekend we can record it?" Chloe squealed again and Beca just laughed at Chloe's excitement. Although deep down Beca was over the moon that she'd get to spend recording time with the talented artist. And she hoped that she'd spend more time with the redhead in the studio.
That being said, the two started to pour over what Chloe had already written and work together to make it a masterpiece.
A/N: Okay, hi. Not entirely sure where this chapter came from, but I figured it was time to update. Hopefully there's enough Bechloe fluff to keep ya'll satisfied. It was a fairly entertaining chapter to write, as well as slightly longer than normal, but hey. That's alright!
I noticed, as well as some other people noticed, some inconsistencies and whatever in the last chapter. Well, I'm blaming that on my sleep deprived brain when I wrote it. It was around 3 AM when I uploaded and I guess my mind thought 3 hours was a reasonable amount of time. Oh well, what's done it done. I don't think it's that large of a deal, just thought I'd acknowledge it, and then leave it at that.
So I was watching some Behind the Scenes clips of The Voice and realized that some of the things I've been writing haven't been entirely accurate, and while I said I've never watched The Voice I still want to make it accurate as I can. So once again, if some of the procedures and stuff aren't 100% correct, forgive me. There's a lot of fluff stuff that happens behind the scenes that I haven't written, but since the story is focused on Beca and Chloe, I guess I don't really see a huge need to write all that in.
Whatever, I'm seeming to get pretty much all positive feedback on the story, so I'm not going to worry about it too much. I'm just glad you guys are enjoying the story. It gives me motivation to write a new chapter every few days, every week max if I'm busy with school or other such nonsense.
Chloe's 'rewritten' version is based off the cover performed by Against the Current, if you want to look that up on YouTube and listen to it.
Thanks for all the support on the story. All mistakes and inconsistencies are my own. Review if you choose. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
A Charmed Vampire
