Epilogue XXXXVI – Telling the Family
The lake house was heaving with Beale's, all taking their seats at the large table in the back yard. From Sue and Jerry Beale, to Beca and Chloe Beale, to all three of Chloe's brothers, their respective wives, and their respective children. It was 'a full house' as Sue so fondly put it.
The midday sunshine poured down on them, a welcomed sign that Summer was fast approaching – the family's favourite time of year. And there was a light breeze in the air that drew the freshness from a nearby meadow across the land that The Beale's owned.
Chloe sat in complete contentment as she looked around the table. Her mother was busy serving up homemade macaroni while her father handed out chilled beers to those who had asked for them. Her sisters in law were trying to wrangle her younger nephews and youngest niece into their respective chairs. Her brothers were chatting and laughing away together in jovial tones while passing out the full plates of food their mother handed out to them. Eva – Chloe's eldest niece – sat to Chloe's left, scrolling through Instagram like a zombie with her headphones on, as most teens did. And to Chloe's right sat her wife, Beca remaining quiet, clearly anxiously awaiting the woman to announce to the family their news.
Chloe slipped her hand onto Beca's thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze, and she watched as her wife turned to look at her. Chloe gave her a wink and Beca seemed to let out a light sigh through her nose, a soft smile sweeping across her face. It had been ten days since they'd found out Chloe was pregnant. A long ten days. And they'd told nobody. Not even Aubrey and Stacie – who were their best and closest friends.
No, Beca and Chloe Beale had wanted their family to be the first to know. The Beale's needed to be the first people they told. It was only right.
Once Chloe had assessed that her family were suitably settled with food in front of them, she took a deep breath and gently tapped her glass of orange juice with her fork. Sixteen pairs of eyes turned to look at her, and had she not known each and every person before her so well, Chloe would've felt nervous. But she wasn't. She was excited. Because another baby in the family was always welcomed heartily. And her being the youngest of her generation in this family would undoubtedly make everyone feel extra thrilled.
"A toast." Chloe said with a bright smile, picking up her glass of orange juice and watching as each member of her family followed her action. All - save for Beca - looked curiously at the redhead. But they needn't have been curious for long.
"Here's to another baby in the family." Chloe added, her smile broadening when looks of pleasant surprise wiped across all the adults faces. As expected, shrill squeals and firm cheers could be heard as each Beale before Beca and Chloe began asking similar questions at the same time.
"Oh my God, are you pregnant?"
"You're pregnant?!"
"Ahh another Beale to add to the fold? That's awesome!"
"How did it happen?"
Chloe heard her wife letting out a chuckle as the family began rising to their feet to congratulate the two of them, and as they did both women confirmed that yes, Chloe was pregnant. Chloe received the tightest hug from her mother, who was busy crying hard, clearly thrilled that her baby girl – her only daughter – was expecting a baby. Beca, meanwhile, received a huge bear-hug from Jerry Beale, who told her how thrilled he was for the two of them.
When they'd all finally settled again – tears wiped from the cheeks of the women, and tears shining in the eyes of Chloe's father – Beca and Chloe were finally able to explain the facts. They sat together, hand in hand with beaming smiles on their faces.
"So we decided about a year ago?" Beca began, looking to her wife for confirmation and Chloe nodded gently, "Yeah, a year ago, that we'd look into IVF. So we did."
"And we knew the reality that couples going down the IVF route usually have to endure years of rounds of the treatment in the hopes of getting pregnant-" Chloe continued, speaking to her family, but glancing at Beca from time to time to acknowledge her contribution to their shared story.
"Right," Beca agreed with a nod, "so neither of us were expecting Chloe to fall pregnant first time around."
"Definitely not." Chloe said with a huge smile on her face, looking into her wife's eyes while Beca looked at her lovingly. "But I did!"
"But you did." Beca replied in a calm content tone, squeezing Chloe's hand gently.
"So when are you due?" Laura – their sister in law – piped up, and both Beca and Chloe turned to the family before them.
"November." The two wives said in unison and the Beale's all rose their eyebrows. This would be the first Beale born into the family in winter – a cluster of Beale birthdays all taking place in and around July. It would be refreshing to be able to celebrate a birthday in November, particularly a child's.
"Well then." Jerry bellowed in a hearty tone, raising his respective beer bottle up as he beamed over at his only daughter proudly, "This news definitely requires a toast!" And Chloe and Beca joined the rest of the family in raising their own drinks, broad smiles on their faces as Jerry announced, "To the next Beale baby! May it grow as safely and as strongly as all previous Beale babies before it."
And The Beale's all echoed, "To the next Beale baby!"
Chloe watched as her family leant in to clink their respective vessels of drink, noting the way her brothers looked to Beca proudly. And Chloe just knew that this reaction from The Beale's would mean as much to Beca as it did to her. Because neither of them could guarantee how Beca's father would take the news…
Beca sat uncomfortably at the kitchen island of her father's house on the Barden University campus. In the four years that she'd been in a relationship with Chloe, they'd never been to her father's house. It had partially been because Beca had never felt overly comfortable visiting her father's. But mostly it had been due to the fact that Cal Mitchell hadn't overly approved of his only daughter's relationship with another woman.
Yes, a couple of years ago at Beca and Chloe's wedding, Dr Mitchell had finally given Beca his blessing to marry her best friend (though Beca had been doing so anyway). With his apologies for the way he'd acted and with her forgiveness, Beca was able to forge a new, healthier relationship with her father. Now they spoke once every month, just to check in.
That still didn't make Beca feel any less nervous now that she and her wife were here. This place held far too many bad teenage memories for her to 'feel at home'.
"So, is there anything new happening in your lives?" Cal Mitchell asked while he and his wife busied themselves with the washing up. Beca glanced nervously at Chloe. It had been three weeks since they'd told The Beale's their good news. And two weeks since Beca had attempted to tell her father the first time around, over the phone. Two weeks since Beca had bottled it and hadn't ended up telling him. Something Chloe had told her off for. Because the longer they kept it from The Mitchell's, the longer they were having to keep it from The Bella's – both women having agreed that it was only fair that their respective parents were told first.
"Um, nothing much." Beca said in as casual a voice as she could muster. She immediately regretted her choice of words, receiving a silent glare from her wife. She knew that telling Cal and Sheila was almost as important to Chloe as it had been to tell Jerry and Sue. Beca knew that. But for some reason telling her father the biggest news that the Mitchell family would've ever had since Beca's birth, had the brunette feeling more nervous than she'd ever felt before.
"You need to tell them!" Chloe mouthed with a frown, and Beca's eyebrows rose innocently.
"I know!" Beca mouthed back.
"So just tell them!" Chloe mouthed, her face oozing frustration.
"I will! Just…not now!"
Beca and Chloe quickly turned away from each other, softening their expressions as Sheila moved over to the island to place a mug of coffee and a mug of herbal tea down for the two women. Beca and Chloe smiled politely, taking their respective hot drinks. Then, as Shelia turned back to her husband to continue the drying up, the two Beale's turned back to one another.
"If you don't tell them, I will." Chloe threatened silently. Beca's mouth dropped open.
"You wouldn't!"
"I would!"
There was a pause between their mouthed conversation, the two women looking into one another's eyes: Chloe defiant; Beca trying to work out if her wife was bluffing or not.
Then suddenly Beca panicked when she saw Chloe turn to look at Cal and Sheila Mitchell, opening her mouth and taking a breath as if about to announce something. So the brunette quickly snapped to her feet, her stool scraping loudly as she burst in a panicked tone:
"We're having a baby!" The kitchen fell silent, and Beca's heart raced with nerves as her father and step-mother turned slowly to look at her and Chloe. "It's due in November. You're…you're gonna be grandparents."
The older couple looked shocked. And Beca's stomach sank. Shit. They were disappointed. Unhappy. They really were going to cut all ties now. And while the Beca of old wouldn't have cared one bit, the Beca of now had actually been enjoying a slightly stronger relationship with her father and step-mother.
But to her surprise, broad smiles spread across the faces of her parents, and Beca watched as her father strode over to her with her arms out stretched.
"Beca that's fantastic news!"
Beca was stunned as she felt her father wrap his arms around her petite body, and hug her tight. She wasn't used to this sort of affection from him. But as she looked over to her wife, who was watching her with a broad smile on her face while Sheila hugged her, Beca found herself relaxing a little. Her father was happy. And immediately upon finding out! There was no having to give him time to let it all sink in. None of him 'blowing things out of proportion' and getting angry. No 'having to leave it to Sheila to gradually calm him down until he could see through the negativity'.
So, ever so slowly, Beca wrapped her arms around her father's waist and allowed a smile to grace her face. This was good. This was great. And a huge wave of relief rushed over her body. Her baby was going to be loved unconditionally by every member of it's family.
To her mild amusement, her father quickly released the hug and hold her out at arms length by her shoulders, looking down at her stomach with a huge grin on his face.
"I can't believe you're pregnant!" he gushed.
Beca hesitated. Oh, right…she hadn't actually told him that it was her wife who was pregnant.
"Oh. No, Dad. I'm not the one that's pregnant." Beca explained, turning to look from Cal's confused expression, over to Chloe who now stood by her side, Shelia still holding an arm around the redhead's shoulders with a curious expression on her face. "Chloe's pregnant, but with my egg, so…she's technically carrying my baby."
The kitchen fell silent again and for a moment – due to the flicker of hesitation on her parent's face – Beca feared that the happiness would be short lived. That suddenly her father would get annoyed for some reason. It was just how her father had always been. Easily annoyed.
Surprising her for a second time, however, Beca watched as her father's face lit up, "Well a baby's a baby!" and he turned to Chloe to give her a tight hug. The brunette saw the surprised expression on her wife's face at the sudden affection – Cal having never been much for affection before, not least of all towards Chloe – and Beca then realised a hand was smoothing across her back.
"Congratulations, Beca." Shelia said in a thrilled tone, causing a warmth of happiness to rush over her body while her step mother gently coaxed her into a safe hug, "You're going to make wonderful mothers."
"And you're gonna make awesome Grandparents." Beca replied before she realised what she was really saying. She saw the way her father and step mother shared a smile, and it occurred to her that what she'd said was probably one of the nicest things she'd ever said to both of them.
And as Beca and Chloe were released from their respective hugs, they held hands, squeezing excitably as they beamed at Beca's parents. This really was a bonus to such wonderful news – knowing that both sets of their parents were as excited and presumably very supportive of this modern way of creating a family.
Thank you so much for the continued reviews and for still following this fic even when (just like the title) it's essentially two years on since I started writing it! I still have stories to tell for this couple, their family, and The Bellas within this Universe so it's definitely not ending any time soon! :)