The Bellas do Thanksgiving and Beca has to make a speech.
"Beca come on!" Chloe shouted as she bounced an 18 month old Brittany on her hip. "We're going to be late."
"I'm hurrying. Anna is ready, and I'm almost done too," came the reply from somewhere upstairs.
Beca was in the master bedroom putting on the last bit of her makeup, and glancing in the mirror at her oldest daughter bouncing up and down on the bed. "Anna, why don't you go downstairs and go to your Mama and Bitty? You can show them your pretty hair."
"Kay," Anna replied, as she did a less than graceful dismount, and ran out of the room.
When Beca finished up and descended the stairs, she caught sight of her 3 favorite people in the world; her wife and 2 children.
Chloe was standing by the door in a dark royal blue dress with a white cardigan over top. She was holding Brittany, and Anna was standing impatiently by her side. Both Brittany and Anna were in matching outfits, wearing a black dress with a white bow and sash covered in sparkles. Beca rounded out the whole thing, with her deep purple blouse and black dress pants.
"Are you ready to go to Aubrey's?" Chloe asked, upon the arrival of Beca in the entryway. Jesse and Aubrey were hosting Thanksgiving this year, a fact that Beca was immensely thankful for.
The Mitchell's, the Swanson's and the Applebaum's all lived in LA, and would regularly get together, but it was only about once a year when the whole group could meet up. Because this year, the girls were unable to take their yearly trip to Barden, everyone was going to LA for the holidays. Everyone being all the original Bellas, plus their significant others and children.
The usual LA crew of Emily, Benji, Beca, Chloe, Anna and Brittany were all attending. Cynthia Rose was flying in from Maine with her wife Renay and their 4 year old daughter Ester. Fat Amy and Bumper were road tripping up from Tulsa, Oklahoma with their 7 year old son Bumper Junior. Jessica and Ashley were coming from Washington DC with their respective boyfriends, and Lily and Stacie who both lived in other parts of California were arriving solo. Flo wasn't able to get to America, but they would be Skyping with her in Guatemala later as well.
"Yup, lemme just grab the pie and we can go," Beca replied while she headed to the kitchen.
"Okay great. We need to get going if we're going to be on time."
"Why does it matter when we get there? It's 8 am. The food isn't served til 1pm anyway," Beca grumbled. "Besides, when have we ever been on time to things in the last 6 years?"
"A few times…" Chloe responded, racking her brain for a recent example of an all family outing where they were on time to the event. It was hard to come up with one. After adding Anna to their family, and especially after the birth of Brittany, the Mitchell clan was tardy to the party fairly often. It's not as if they didn't try, but getting places on time with 2 kids was tough. They did manage it, of course, but for the majority of the time, if they were traveling somewhere as a whole unit, they tended to arrive at the very last minute.
"So in other words, we should probably make an effort," Chloe said, having failed coming up with an answer, and taking that as a sign that they needed to work on their time management skills. "Besides, I promised Bree I'd help her cook. The Thanksgiving meal needs to be perfect this year. There's going to be so many more people than usual."
"The Bellas don't care. We're the same hot messes that we were when we were in college. We just have added to the mess by procreating," Beca began, before trailing off at Chloe's look.
"Beca, it's our family. Plus, some of the girls have traveled a long way to see you. Don't you want to spend as much time with them as possible?" Chloe scolded.
"Yeah I suppose. I do miss those awesome nerds," Beca conceded. "But know it's true though. Just be glad that this year we're not flying to Tampa to be with your family or Maine to be with mine," Beca added. "Our Barden family is all way more relaxed about that kind of shit than our actual relatives."
Silently agreeing, Chloe just shooed them out the door and towards the car. The usually short drive took over 45 minutes with the LA Thanksgiving traffic but they finally made it to Jesse and Aubrey's house.
While Beca unloaded the kids from the car, Chloe took the pie and rang the doorbell to the Swanson's home. Aubrey answered it quickly, while holding baby Sarah. Jesse and Aubrey had a baby about 1 year after Brittany was born. The 7 month old's eyes lit up at the sight of her ginger godmother and she stretched out her arms to be held. Chloe and Aubrey traded a pie for a baby and immediately started talking, even though they had seen each other for coffee last week.
"Where's your not so better half?" asked Aubrey as they walked into the kitchen so Aubrey could put the pie with the rest of the food she had begun preparing.
"She's getting the kids," Chloe replied. "She's probably mentally preparing herself for the chaos too."
Just then Beca walked in with Anna, while also keeping a close eye on Brittany who was toddling as fast as she could towards Aubrey. "What about chaos?" Beca asked, over hearing the last bit of their conversation.
"Oh, just about how this place will be a mad house in a few hours," Aubrey replied. "Thanks again for coming early to help out Chloe."
"Oh it's no problem at all!" Chloe said excitedly. "I'm so ready."
"Awesome, let's get started then. Beca, Jesse is in the basement. Will you please take Sarah down to him?" Aubrey asked.
"Sure. I'll take all 3 of them down to the kids' room," Beca responded, heading towards the stairs. Aubrey had converted one of the downstairs guest rooms into an area for Anna and Brittany (and for when any other kids came over) to store all the games, toys and puzzles and stuffed animals they kept there whenever the Swanson's babysat or they stayed the night. It was like walking into a F.A.O. Schwarz store.
As Beca and the girls went to the basement, they heard Chloe and Aubrey start banging around the kitchen to get some more food started.
"Hey Bec, Happy Thanksgiving!" Jesse greeted, while looking up from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that he was watching on TV. "Did you get kicked out of the kitchen too?"
"Hey dude," Beca answered, "No. I just didn't feel like being yelled at by Posen for being in the way this early in the morning. How are you?"
Before Jesse could reply, he was interrupted. "Hi Uncle Jesse!" Anna screeched, launching herself into Jesse's lap and giving him a big hug. "Look at my face!" she demanded, as she pulled her lip down and pointed to show Jesse where she wanted him to look.
Anna, who was 6, just lost her first tooth and loved nothing more than to go around and show people the hole in her mouth.
"Hey Banana," Jesse said, hugging her back. "That's so cool! Did the tooth fairy bring you any money? And hello to you too squirt," he added, poking Brittany in the tummy. Brittany just giggled and grabbed on to Jesse's leg. As Anna told Jesse about how the tooth fairy system worked, Beca went about getting Brittany situated on the floor while still trying not to drop Sarah. Having a bit of difficulty, she turned to her friend.
"I'm supposed to give you your spawn," Beca said, holding Sarah out so her father could grab her.
"That's a very nice thing to call your godchild," Jesse said sarcastically, as he extended his left arm to get Sara, while still balancing Anna on his lap.
"She's Chloe's goddaughter, but whatever. Can we watch the parade with you?" Beca said, ignoring Jesse's comment. "The kids all look interested."
"But you're married to her. So she's technically yours too," Jesse replied. "And sure, you can watch, but you can't comment on how stupid you think some of the parade is."
For the next 2 hours or so, Anna and Brittany watched the colorful balloons and floats in the parade, interspersed with dancing and musical performances. Sarah napped in her Rock-n-Play while Beca and Jesse talked about music and what ideas she had for new projects.
When the parade was over, Jesse flipped it over to the Vikings vs. Lions football pregame show. Anna and Brittany quickly grew bored of watching the adults talk on TV, so they went to play in their room. Beca and Jesse continued to talk and periodically checked in on the girls to make sure they hadn't killed each other.
As time passed by, Ester and Bumper Jr. both came downstairs to play with Anna and Brittany. Bumper plopped himself down next to Jesse on the couch to watch football, and was quickly joined by Jessica and Ashley's boyfriends. The men all started to talk sports and Beca took that as her cue to go upstairs. She looked at her watch and saw that it was a bit past 11am already.
Beca decided to head upstairs to see how everything was going, while Jesse and the rest of the males stayed downstairs with the kids. As she reached the top of the stairs she passed by Benji, the only other male in attendance who was not already in the basement.
"Hey Beca, I was just coming to find you. Emily wants to see you. She's got some more questions for you!" Benji and Emily were expecting their first child, and Emily was constantly consulting with Beca about various pregnancy related topics.
"Cool. I was just on my way up there right now. I can't believe how fast time went by," Beca said. "I'll bet Anna and Brittany will want to see everyone too. Let me go back downstairs and grab the girls and then I'll go say hi to everyone." Beca turned towards the stairwell and hollered down to the play room. "Anna, do you want to come say hello to all of your aunties?"
"Coming," was the quick reply. About 10 seconds later, Anna appeared at the bottom of the stairs with Brittany close behind her. "Sweetie, can you help Brit up the stairs please?" Beca asked, trying to avoid going back downstairs if she could help it.
"Uh huh," Anna said, as she grabbed Brittany's hand and began to basically drag her up the stairs.
"Gently please," Beca reminded.
"Oops. Sorry Bitty," Anna said looking at her little sister apologetically, while helping her up the stairs more carefully. The rest of the stairs were climbed without incident, and the 3 headed towards the main floor where all the Bellas were gathered.
Beca looked around and saw that the 2 rooms that people were mainly in were the kitchen and the living room. Peeking into the kitchen, she saw Chloe, Aubrey, Jessica, Ashley and Renay hard at work cooking. Not wanting to deal with all that crazy, she opted towards the living room, where Lily, Fat Amy, Stacie, Cynthia Rose, and Emily were seated. Upon seeing her aunts, Anna ran around the room greeting them all and passing out as many hugs as possible. Anna's lack of personal boundaries and love for physical displays of affection obviously did not come from Beca.
"Hey stranger, we were wondering when you'd come up," teased Stacie as she received her death squeeze from Anna.
"Yeah, Shortstack," Fat Amy said, "Did you really not want to see us that much?"
Lily shot Beca a look that said, "Tell the truth or I'll get it out a different way."
"Sorry. I just lost track of time. Jesse and I were talking about work and I didn't realize how late it had gotten," Beca explained, feeling a bit nervous. Even after all these years, she still found Lily to be a bit scary.
"It's fine," Emily consoled, sensing Beca's apprehension. "You're here now!"
"So how have you been B?" Cynthia Rose asked, as she allowed Brittany to squirm her way onto her lap.
"Good. Anna is loving school, thankfully, and Brit is doing fine at daycare. As for me, it's pretty much the same old stuff. You probably already know what Chloe's been up to," Beca said, knowing her wife was much better at socializing, or at the very least acknowledging someone's presence.
"Sounds like it's all good," Cynthia Rose said.
"Yeah, it is. How about you?"
The girls all caught up with one another for a few more hours until they heard a commanding yell from the kitchen.
"EVERYONE NEEDS TO PLEASE COME TO THE DINING ROOM IMMEDIATELY." Aubrey commanded, in the same voice Beca remembered from back in the day when Aubrey was in charge of the Bellas
Within 3 minutes, all 19 ½ people were gathered in the large dining room. There was a long table set up, and a shorter, smaller one connected to the end for the kids. It had been agreed upon that the adults would all take turns sitting at the kids table to make sure everything was okay.
As everyone went to sit down in their respective seats, Chloe snuck an arm around Beca's waist and gave her a light kiss.
"Hey," Chloe whispered softly. "Haven't seen you all morning. How were the girls?"
"They were fine," Beca responded. "Anna has been especially good today," she said, slightly amazed.
"I'm glad to hear that," Chloe answered, "Guess we'll be going to the store before we go home. I promised her that if she was good today, we'd stop and get a treat of her choice."
"You're bribing our kid for good behavior?" Beca said smirking.
"Don't ask like you don't."
"Fair point," Beca relented. "Let's go get our seats. We can talk about this later."
Once everyone was seated, Aubrey, who was sitting at the head of the table began to speak. "I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for making the trip out here for Thanksgiving. I'm so glad you were able to make it. Before we eat, I would like us all to go about the table and say something you're thankful for. I'm thankful for Sarah, Jesse and for the Bellas for bringing us all together. Chloe, Why don't you go next?"
"Sure!" Chloe beamed, excited to be chosen to start off the others. "I'm thankful for my superb job, my amazing family and for everyone who is present at the table right now. I love you all, and am incredibly blessed to know you."
"Excellent. Who's next?" Aubrey asked. One by one, everyone said what they were thankful for, even the kids. Beca stayed silent, hoping that by the time 18 people went, they would forget that she hadn't gone and just start eating. Beca was so busy thinking of something to say in case they did remember, that she didn't realize everyone else had finished and that it was indeed, her turn.
"I'm thankful that Jesse had to host this year and not me, and also for food. Especially since I didn't have to make it. Let's eat," Beca said, reaching for the mashed potatoes.
"Beca. Really?" Chloe chided.
"Ugh. You know I don't do feelings." Chloe shot Beca a glare, which caused Beca to continue.
"Okay fine. Umm. I'm thankful for Chloe, Anna and Brittany," Beca began. "And for all of you guys too I guess. Life would kinda suck without you weirdos in it, and I'm glad we could all get together. But seriously. This meal looks delicious, and it has been wonderful getting to see everyone today. I've enjoyed catching up on your lives in person, and not just through a screen. With that being said, I guess the main thing I'm thankful for is the fact that no matter how far away we all are now, or how long we may go without talking, I know you're always going to be there and that we're family forever. I love you awesome nerds," Beca finished sincerely.
When Beca stopped speaking, she looked around the table, and saw everyone staring at her. "So yeah. That's what I'm thankful for or whatever. Don't make it weird."
A/N: Thankful for all of you readers who have been so supportive of my work and took the time to read it. Happy Thanksgiving!
P.S. Just a little fangirl moment, but all the promos for Pitch Perfect 3 that Universal is putting out is seriously going to kill me. The music video. The boobs. The 'almost kiss'. BASICALLY EVERYTHING. Who's ready for December 22nd? I know I am.