"I love you."

It's days like these when Beca really wishes he was there.

It was three in the morning. Beca's been working on demos to give to her boss at Residual Heat, and all of them were awful. Everything she came up with sounded like shit, and with each try, she felt herself getting more and more frustrated.

It's been about three months since Jesse started school as USC. Beca will admit that adjusting to him not being there was a little hard. She would sometimes find herself halfway to the Trebles house in search of Jesse, only to realize that he was no longer there. It was weird not having him over every Friday night to watch movies with. It was weird not having him to vent to when she was fed up with the Bellas. It was weird not seeing his goofy face kiss her hello every day.

Of course, they talked as frequently as they could. It was just hard with their schedules, but especially with the time difference. There were far too many times where he'd try to FaceTime her in the middle of class because he had forgotten that he was three hours behind, or she'd try to call in the morning, only to realize that it was 4 AM in California.

So yeah, it was just another one of those extremely stressful days where she wanted to scream and hide under a rock to avoid living for the rest of her life.

Her heart sinks deeper and deeper with each ring, finally hitting rock bottom when she hears his voicemail and a beep. "Hey, it's me. You might not be able to hear this message, because it turns out I have nothing to say. That's music industry speak for 'I suck.'" Beca lets out a shuddery sigh, blinking back tears.

God dammit, here she is again with the crying.

"You're definitely asleep right now, text me when you're up." She hangs up just as Fat Amy scrambles up the stairs to their room, flushed in the face from running (at least, that's what Beca assumes).

Beca doesn't question where the Australian's been (or rather, who she's been with)

(...Bumper).

Instead, she lets her roommate comfort her with her butt confidence, and while she truly appreciates Fat Amy's help, Beca can't help but still feel a little down. It must've registered on her face, because Amy seems to notice immediately.

She scoots her bed beside Beca's, ignoring the brunette's confused look on her face. "Alright, Flatbutt. What else is bothering you? Don't you dare lie to me, either."

"Um, nothing," she tries, but apparently not very hard, because Amy pinches her hard on the arm. "Ow!"

"I said no lying."

"It's really nothing. I just miss Jesse, that's all."

Amy hums her sympathy. "It's been lonely without your man here."

"Yeah, but I'm glad he's off in LA. You know, living the dream and all," she says halfheartedly, staring blankly at the ceiling. "It's ironic how he's there and I'm here when just four years ago my only concern was to get to LA."

"I'm happy you stayed here, though. I don't know where I'd be without you, BM. Let Jesse do his thing and eventually everything will fall in line."

"Yeah..." Beca releases a puff of air from her cheeks. "I'm so proud of him, don't get me wrong. I just feel so selfish for saying that I wish he was here instead of there, especially at a time like this."

"Time like this?"

"You know, stressed all the time. Downfall of the Bellas, downfall of Beca Effin' Mitchell's music career, all that. He was really good at de-stressing me, you know?"

Fat Amy winks suggestively and thrusts her hips into the air. Beca sighs and buries her face into her pillow.

"Ah, man. You're not done having your little meltdown," Amy groans. "Was my butt confidence not enough? I've got jut confidence as well, plenty of it, I reckon."

"Jut?"

"The Obamas saw a lot of it. Got us banned from collegiate competition."

Beca wrinkles her nose. "Uh, I think I'm good."

"You know what you need, Flatbutt? A good smashing your back out."

"I'm not following?"

"Sex."

"Thanks for the offer, but I like dick."

"Crazy, so do I," Amy scoffs. "When are you seeing Jesse again?"

Beca sighs. "I think Worlds."

"Damn, that's months away. Why 'think?'" Amy's air quotes are sensed even in the darkness.

"He just got a job in LA and we're not sure if he'll be able to get away for a few weeks. I'm keeping my hopes low for now."

As it turns out, she was right to keep her hopes low.

"I'm so sorry, babe." Jesse says through the phone, clearly distressed by the way his voice cracked. "You know how much I want to be there. My boss is an asshole."

Beca bites her lip and folds her knees over her chest, curling into a ball on her bed. Even though she kept her hopes down low, she couldn't help but feel her heart break a little. She doesn't say anything for awhile, mostly because she has no idea what to say. It wasn't Jesse's fault, she knows that. She just wished that her life would just fall into line and actually go right for once, especially after the Bellas' performance at the old people event.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

"Yeah."

"You're mad."

She chews at her nails anxiously. "What? No," she starts, sighing because she knows what Jesse's face looks like right now. She couldn't see him, but she knew he was giving her a look of doubt. "Okay, I'm a little mad. At your boss."

"I'm so mad. There's nothing more than I want than to be there at Worlds, cheering you girls on in person. I really don't want to have to listen to John and Gail," he groans.

"Yeah."

"And I miss you," he says quietly. "I miss you so much."

"I miss you, too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"You're still visiting in July, right?"

"Wouldn't miss it," she pauses, waiting for her heart to stop trying to combust in her chest from beating so fast. She feels like crying again, just because her life was probably falling apart. She still hasn't produced something amazing for her boss, the Bellas keep falling, and now Jesse won't be able to make it to Copenhagen.

"I just really need you right now," she sighs, her voice wavering, feeling the waterworks come on. "It would really help if you were here."

(The amount of tears she has shed over the past year has truly been ridiculous.)

She hears Jesse softly coo into the speaker while she continued to try to hold it together. It wasn't really helping, considering the fact that what she really needed right now was his arms around her and his lips on her skin. He suggests Skype, which she accepts. She takes a moment to make sure her makeup wasn't streaking before accepting the video call, smiling weakly when she sees Jesse's face on her screen. Immediately, she thinks it's a mistake, because just seeing him made her chest physically hurt from longing.

"Tell me what's been happening, Bec," he begs, his eyes pained behind the screen. "Just let it all out."

So she does. She starts out a little angry, then a little sad. It's hard with him not being there in person, but by the time she ends her long-winded rant, she feels a lot better.

He plays her something he's been working on on the piano to comfort her, which definitely calms her down. It's gentle, yet it screams Jesse, and it makes her chest ache even more. By the time their three and a half Skype call finishes, she's pretty sure he's said "I'm so sorry, baby," sixty seven times.

Beca gets over it eventually. She accepts the fact that it was just going to be her girls and Benji at Worlds, maybe a month or so after she was hit with the news. What she was still grappling with, though, was how she was trying to distance herself away from Jesse.

She hates herself for it, but she figures that it's the best thing to do. She wasn't going to be relocating to LA any time soon with her surge of success at Residual Heat, and with Jesse still in school, it was going to be hard to keep up a relationship. She loves him enough to let him go, and she was finally accepting that.

It doesn't mean that it was getting easier, though. It definitely wasn't. It was hard getting rid of the things that reminded her of him, even if it was a slow process. Most of Jesse's things were in a box under her bed, with the exception of The Breakfast Club DVD she stole right before he left for California. Their phone calls were getting less and less frequent over the course of two months. Jesse's made dozens of new friends, and Beca's happy for him. He's pursuing his dream, and she was just pursuing hers.

Still, she has those lonely nights where she wished he was there to hold her.

(Anyways...)

She's just graduated with her a ca-people, and now she's on a plane to Copenhagen. She's sharing her plane cabin with Benji and Emily because she figures they were going to be the least annoying during the eleven hour flight. Turns out that she was right, and she spends the the majority of the plane ride asleep or watching the in-flight movies. She and Benji watch Star Wars together, and she lets Emily listen to some of the music she was working on. The flight is long, but it's not awful; it's just the way Beca likes it.

It's not until the day of the competition until she begins to panic. If she was being honest, she was totally feeling like the projectile-vomit era of Aubrey Posen, and by the looks of it, Aubrey had nothing to be stressing about compared to Beca right now. There were tens of thousands of people waiting, and it's just hit her that the Bellas' fate rests solely on whether they win or lose.

Holy shit, Beca thinks to herself. The Bellas could be no more if we lose.

Luckily, right on cue, Jesse gives her a call.

"BECAW!" he croons into the phone. "IT'S ALMOST TIME!"

"Hi to you too, weirdo," she muses, grinning at the energy he was emitting from the phone. "Wish you were here to experience it all."

"If only, right? Instead I'm making my room mate watch it live with me," he chuckles. "I miss you."

"Miss you too, dork." The smile on her face fades away, replaced by a half-frown and heavy sigh. "I'm so nervous, Jesse. The Bellas' future is at stake. If we fuck up, it'll be over. The end. Fin."

"You know I'm a firm believer of the saying 'Endings are the best part,' but even I know that no matter what's going to happen on that stage tonight, the Bellas will prevail. You always do," he says calmly, and Beca could just imagine the encouraging smile on his face. "You girls will rock it tonight, and you're going to win this whole thing. I made bets with everyone here."

"You're ridiculous."

"I'm an optimist, what can I say?"

"You're a ridiculous optimist."

"I'm your ridiculous optimist.

"Alright, enough. How much did you bet?"

He snickers. "A lot."

She groans. "Jesse!"

"Kidding. When do you get on stage?"

"Another few hours or so."

"I should probably leave you be, then. I'll talk to you later, after you're crowned world champion," he grins through the phone. "Good luck, Becs."

"Thanks, Jess."

Wow.

Wow.

That was a performance of a lifetime.

Emily's "Flashlight" was a hit, and along with the former Bellas and Benji's successful flashlight distributions, her final performance as a Barden Bella was truly the best yet. She's thinks she might be crying, she can't really tell with Fat Amy and Emily squishing her to death on stage. She was riding such a high, a mixture of relief, ecstasy, and adrenaline all jumbled together.

The Bellas totally have this win in the bag.

She thinks, nothing can get better than this.

Until she spots him in the crowd, waving an American flag around his back, yelling her name hysterically.

And suddenly, all she can hear is him screaming "YEAAAAAH!" Her face softens, the jumble of feelings dissolving at just the sight of Jesse. He's red in the face from yelling so much, and he looks absolutely ridiculous with all of his American flag clothing, but she doesn't care. He's there, in person, in Copenhagen.

She has everything now: her music career, her girls, and now her boyfriend.

She runs off stage with the rest of the girls and gives a joint speech with Amy and Chloe backstage, finally letting the tears fall as the girls huddled around each other for a group hug. Everything is tears and laughter, and Beca's so sure that nothing will ever top this moment.

It takes an hour until they're officially crowned world champions of a cappella. The girls stay on stage for pictures and autographs, and she's too busy absorbed in signing a young girl's shirt to realize that Jesse's standing right in front of her.

"Told you, endings are the best part," he yells smugly once she finishes, his hands deep in his shorts pockets.

She breaks out into an even bigger grin at the sight of him and runs straight for his arms, nearly knocking him over. He immediately holds her in his arms, letting her wrap her legs around his waist. She grips his neck for support, burying her face against his chest.

"Oh my God, oh my God," she breathes, the tears finding their way down her cheeks again. "Oh my God. You're... You're here. What happened to my 'no surprises' rule?"

He wipes away the streaks on her cheeks with his thumbs, sprinkling her with kisses. "Do you really think I'd let my asshole boss tell me what to do? I thought I'd break all the rules for once."

She laughs wholeheartedly, pressing her lips firmly against his, relishing the taste of him after six long months without him. When they finally let go, she releases her legs from his torso and stands firmly on the floor as her chest swells pathetically between them. "This is the best surprise ever. I can't believe you're here."

"You better aca-believe it."

"You're such a weirdo." She feels warm and cozy, and while it might just be the adrenaline, she knows it's a feeling she's never felt before. He's still holding her in his arms, and her head's tilted up to look at him. They don't say anything for awhile, they just grin goofily at each other, momentarily forgetting that they're in public. All that she was concerned about was the fact that Jesse was there, in person, looking at her like she was the only girl in the world. Everything about her life right now is perfect.

"I love you," she says after a newfound boost of confidence strikes her. She's not afraid anymore- nothing's holding her back.

Her heart is racing, in a good way. "I love you so fucking much, Jesse. Holy shit, that feels so good to say."

And it's true, she's never felt better. She's not sure what was holding her back, but she knows that it felt so much better finally saying it.

She swears she can hear fireworks going off in his brain when she sees his face register what she's just said. His smile stretches from ear to ear, and his eyes are bright and sparkling. "I love you, too, Beca."

Over the past four years, she's discovered a few things.

She loves the Bellas.

She loves Jesse.

And she loves her dad, for giving her everything she didn't believe she needed but gave it to her anyways.

Turns out, going to college was a great thing after all.

A/N-

Hooray, this fic is done! I've got an epilogue coming on the way, maybe I'll post it when I get to 30 reviews (wow, ambitious, no? :-P).

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, it was super cheesy but worth it, don't you think? :-) I mean, I'll admit that it's not my best work, but I'm churning things out for you guys. I love you all!

Thank you to everyone who's read this fic! I'll definitely be having more on the way, as I've got a ton of prompts waiting for me in my ask box. I'll be back soon xx