Beca smiled as she woke up to Jesse kissing her up her spine. She had the most wonderful dream of Jesse proposing and when she finally woke up, she could not help grinning. The weight of that absolutely stunning ruby ring felt real on her hand. So it was not a dream after all. She stretched herself before wrapping her arms around a bare-chested Jesse.

"Mmm... good morning," she said. "So it wasn't a dream then, last night? Or a nightmare."

She could feel him chuckling away, his chest vibrating.

"Nope. I' m afraid you are stuck with me, babe," he said, continuing to kiss along her shoulder now.

Beca frowned. "Why are you so sweaty?"

"Yeah, I went for a run just now."

"What?"

"You were asleep, Beca. So I thought I nipped out for a run before you wake up."

He stopped his kissing for a minute and hovered over her. He looked down a little concerned now. "Are you having second thoughts, Beca? 'cause if you are, I can wait until you are ready for this."

"No," she said, smiling up at him. "I think I've waited long enough."

"You?" Jesse said, with a laugh. "Do you know how long I had that ring in my pocket? I've been wanting to ask you to marry me since Paris. How many times I tried asking you and kept getting interrupted?"

"I've waited 7 years, Jesse," she said, her eyes soft. "Although I have to admit I didn't know I wanted you to ask me."

Jesse laughed, his eyes equally soft as he looked at her. "I can't quite believe this. Having you here with me, wanting to marry me. I must have done something saintly in my previous life," he said.

"And I must have done something really bad to end up with a movie nerd in this life," she grumbled.

"Hey! For some, that is a blessing," he said in mock hurt. She didn't say anything except to smile up at him and then kissed him on his neck. She then ran her tongue along his neck slowly and he shuddered.

"Mmm.. you taste salty," she said.

Jesse grinned. "Do you want to take a shower with me?"

Beca looked at him speculatively.

"Mmm no, I quite like the taste of you like this." And with that, she pressed herself up to him and bite his neck the way he liked it, just in case he did not get what she was asking for.

"Wow!"

Jesse could not even say that. He was still trying to catch his breath. He then turned and smiled at the tousled and shell-shocked Beca next to him. The sex just now was indeed mind-blowing. His legs still felt like jelly.

"Mr. Swanson, keep doing that and I will never, ever regret saying yes."

"Challenge accepted," Jesse said. "So... are you ready to tell everyone?"

Beca shut her eyes. "Do we have to? Arrghhh.. you know how the girls will be like."

"It's up to you."

Beca opened her eyes. OK, I can do this. I've faced worst things than a bunch of Bellas - she steeled herself. "Alright. How are we going to tell them?"

Jesse just took his phone, linked hands with hers on top, showing the engagement ring and took a picture. He uploaded it on his Instagram and Facebook with a simple "She said yes!"

"Nice," Beca said. She looked at him a little unsure. "Do you mind if I call Luke? He's like the nearest I got to family now and I want him to be the first to know."

She thought of her dad at that point and had to bite her lip to still that upwelling of sadness. Jesse knew what she was feeling and immediately hug her tight. "Becs, I don't know whether I should tell you this," he started. "But you know, when we were in the hospital with your dad..."

Beca looked at him now.

"Well, you went out for a drink and I actually asked your dad for his blessings. I told him I wanted to ask you to marry me. And he said yes."

If she had managed to stop her tears then, she could not do it now. She hugged Jesse tight and cried. Jesse just held her, not knowing whether he had done the right thing mentioning this. When her tears subsided, she said, "Thanks Jesse. That was wonderful. You have no idea what that meant to me."

It was true. Somehow knowing that made her felt a little better, like her dad would have known that this happiness was coming to her and it comforted her. She hugged him tight - he was just so perfect. Why did it take her so long to be at this place? They just held each other for a while, just enjoying this feeling of closeness, this feeling of completeness between them.

"OK, why don't you call Luke now? I'm going to take a shower," Jesse said, finally removing himself from her embrace and walking to the bathroom.

"Hey Becs.." Luke's voice sounded distracted.

"Hi Luke," Beca replied, noting the distraction in his voice. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine. Shit hit the fan here a little."

"What happened?"

"Agent Matthews' job in Venice. Not good. She was doing fine and then was ambushed."

"What? Is she hurt?"

"Not badly. And she admitted she actually shot herself in the foot; literally speaking. She wasn't attacked. Someone else got in and lifted the package from her."

"When was this?"

"About 45 minutes, an hour ago."

"What? Why didn't you call me? I could have done something."

"No, it was too quick. The other agency was just too damn quick."

Beca hissed. "It's the Oracle again, isn't it?"

Luke just hummed his agreement, grimly. " I knew Matthews was wrong for the job. I should have known. Look, never mind about that. Why did you call me?"

"What? Oh! " Beca said, coming back to earth. "Jesse asked me to marry him. And I say yes."

Luke went silent. His day just got progressively worse.

"Becs, that's great news. I'm really happy for you guys."

"A little more enthusiasm will be good."

"Umm... I have a situation here, Becs. And the Controller is at my throat. I'll be more enthusiastic when I see you soon."

"Oh, sorry, Luke."

"Hey, I'm really happy for you," Luke said softly. "I'm sure you will be very happy with Jesse."

"We need to talk. When can I tell him about all this?"

"Come back home and we'll talk."

"Thanks. Love you."

"I love you, Beca," Luke replied softly.

When she put down the phone, she was a little thoughtful. And then both her phone and Jesse's phone started to ring incessantly.

Jesse let himself into the other room of their suite, smiling at the picture of Beca trying to ward off the expected phone calls from her Bellas. No doubt one after another had rung asking her every minute detail of the proposal that happened last night. He could see her rolling her eyes, wringing her hands and pushing her hair back from her face, exasperated yet patiently trying to field question after question.

"Yes, Aubrey...if I want to use the Plaza, I'll get in there quick."

"No, Amy, there were no kangaroos involved.."

"Yes, Chloe, it was very romantic."

"No, Stacie, I didn't get my hunter tattoed with his initials."

He grinned at the last one. He wouldn't mind that at all actually, except the healing time would mean no sex for at least two weeks and that, he'll mind. He didn't have that many calls to field. Just a few texts of "Cool bro", an excited Benji and that was about it. He had to ring his parents, of course.

"Yes, Dad. I finally did it. You don't have to do it for me…. Mooommm, no talk of grandchildren yet please… We haven't even set a date yet…. Yes, Kate, you can ask Beca whether you can be a bridesmaid…"

He glanced at Beca again. She was still busy fielding calls and now looked utterly defeated, lying down on the bed, still talking on the phone. He dialled another number.

"Hey Charlotte… I guess you've heard from my mom… Thank you. Yeah, we are very happy." He listened while Charlotte rattled on. "OK. We are fine with that. That job went well… so any messages for me?"

"You have two at the usual channel, Jesse."

"Thanks for that, Charlotte."

He rang off. He made sure the door was shut before he dialled another number.

"Please enter your userid," a robotic female voice prompted.

He pressed a few buttons on his phone.

"Please enter your pass code."

He entered a series of complicated code that he had memorised by heart.

"At the tone, please say your voice verification code."

Taking a deep breath, he said in a particular cadence, "This is the Oracle."

"Verification complete. You have two messages."

A/N Yes, Jesse is the Oracle. Last chapter folks. Stay tuned for the sequel.

I like to give my thanks for all of you who had favourited, followed and reviewed. Special thanks to Gossiplips, JessicaYip and Bellabear from Chapter 1. A big shout out to Cajunqueen who I had been bouncing out ideas with. And to Anaeira, thank you so much. So many others who had kindly reviewed (Curlingiron, I'm looking at you!).

And for those who had followed right from the beginning when I posted this in November. Lily887787, dancinginthesun and smilecozupretty, thank you for being the first to follow this fic.

Also to all who had asked why Beca did not tell him already (!?). It would be a short story if she had. I never could imagine it will have 29K views! And thank you to those who had bear through my smutty chapters with great tolerance :)

I have a small bit of threat. An excerpt for the sequel right below as an epilogue/teaser of sorts.

Love y'all.

Epilogue

She counted every beat of her heart. Time was running out. One corridor let to another and she sped down every one of them, searching. This has to be it - she cursed - this better be it. The door was locked and she kicked it down. None of the usual finesse of breaking in that she was good at. It was time for brutal force.

The door gave way with a loud clang that echoed down that dank corridor. And she finally found him. Chained like an animal in another dark corridor. She had to stifle her scream, biting it down. Now was not the time.

Beca ran to the prostrate figure. She knelt down and put her hands on his head, lifting it up. His eyes slowly opened, feeling the gentleness of her touch and slowly focussed. She could see the pain and the despair in them. His handsome face, now covered in grime, criss-crossed with cuts, his lips dry and cracked. He was breathing irregularly. Thank god, he was still breathing.

"What have they done to you?" she whispered.

"Beca..." he said, confusedly.

"I'm here now," she said, trying to keep her tears at bay. Now was not the time for this.

"You are here..." he whispered. Then panic set in his eyes and he tried speaking again, his throat dry. "No.. you shouldn't be here. It's a trap. Run, Beca."

"I've come to get you. I won't leave you here."

"No..."

Quickly, she freed his hands and feet from the shackles that kept him chained to the wall. He felt thin, wasted almost. His torso marked with red whipping marks that made Beca sucked her breath. She ran her hands gently over the marks and he gasped in pain. Wherever you are, Camilla, I will hunt you down - she vowed.

Now was not the time but she let his blonde head, hair matted with blood and sweat, rest momentarily on her shoulder, her arms around him. His breath came out in hard, painful rasps and she had to keep her tears at bay. She had never ever seen her rock so down and so helpless like this. Luke had always been in control, had always been the one protecting her. Seeing him like this was tearing at her.

She heard the footsteps approaching them too late. She could not reach her gun in time. She could only reached her knife.

She turned her head towards the sound of the footsteps.

"Jesse.." she said his name in a quiet sigh, full of regret.

He was standing over them, gun in hand, his face cold and expressionless. Whatever hurt, whatever betrayal he felt; none was seen. He just raised his gun and fired two shots.