"Okay Em, you got this?"
The barely-still-a-teen smiled nervously and gave a hesitant nod.
"C'mon," Beca countered with her own smile - this one decidedly less nervous. "You just got off tour, remember? And it's only rehearsal."
"Sorry, I know," Emily replied with a slight shake of her head. "It's just that- I don't know, something about this stage just makes me feel like I'm sixteen again. Plus, she's, like, right there."
Beca turned to follow Emily's eye-line into the auditorium seating to see feared Idol judge and producer Aubrey Posen chatting with one of the production assistants.
Beca let out a small chuckle.
"I promise, she can't hurt you anymore," she said faux-seriously. "Seriously, we should run through this. You ready?"
Emily took a deep breath and gave Beca the go-ahead, and the producer passed the nod to the band. Coast started with guitar, and Emily moved downstage as the intro to her single played. She shook out of the chord of her microphone and started to sing.
You're the wave upon the ocean,
pounding rhythm and motion.
It's a full moon kind of night, yeah.
I don't wanna go home yet.
Beca watched for her entrance and slowly stepped up next to the young woman, bumping her shoulder and picking up the next stanza.
You can question my devotion.
Wear my heart on my shoulder.
Just relax and let the riptide pull you close!
The pair let out a joint cheer before running through the chorus - and even though Beca hadn't gone on tour with Emily, she obviously knew the words to the teen's new single.
Especially since she had produced the song, along with the rest of Emily's second album.
She was touched that Emily was okay with ending her tour at the series finale of American Idol's eighteenth season.
The fact that she wanted Beca to sing with her made the whole thing even cooler.
Emily turned to let Beca rap Anderson's part, but another voice picked up through the speakers. Emily's eyes widened in surprise, but Beca only shrugged, and the popstar swung around to see Stacie and CR walk onstage from the other side.
Stacie sang some melody as CR rapped - though, the song was briefly interrupted by a squealing hug-fest as Emily greeted her old friends - and the four S15 finalists worked the harmonies under the rest of the verse.
"You've gotten better!" Stacie shouted to Emily as the verse neared its end. The younger brunette adamantly brushed off the praise.
"It's amazing, isn't it?" Beca added with a wide grin.
"All thanks to you guys," Emily gushed. "Well, you and-"
"The rest of us?"
Beca watched Emily as she whipped her head around for the second time.
Almost all of the rest of the season 15 competitors, with Fat Amy at the lead, were crossing the stage from Beca's side. Emily screamed into the mic, and the band dropped out from under the sheer noise of the reunion.
Whoever wasn't closest to Emily continued to sing, and Beca rolled her eyes as the group picked up their a cappella ways and finished out the song.
"What are- why- why are you all here?!" Emily shouted as they finished the song, and the Australian snorted.
"What, and let you get all of the attention?" she asked incredulously. "Not a chance, giraffe legs."
"It's just so good to see you!"
"Well, thank Chloe," Beca jumped in. "I brought it up when you asked me to sing, but Chloe's the one that made it happen. She's going to meet us for dinner after her shift, and she'll definitely sing with us on Wednesday, but yeah, she was super bummed she missed this."
"Are you guys going to come to my show? Like, later in the week, after the finale?"
"We would not miss it," Flo replied.
"Especially if you've got other celebrities in VIP," Stacie added. "I've had my eye on that Bieber kid for years."
"I think he's happily married," Jessica said.
"Since when has that ever stopped Stacie?" Ashley shot back.
The women laughed - even Lily cracked a smile - and Beca felt a warmth bloom in her chest. They hadn't been all together since the finale of the show, what with their "real jobs" and everything. Beca knew she would be excited to see everyone, but she hadn't expected to feel so… full. She felt complete.
Well, almost.
"Excuse me? Ladies?"
Beca looked up to see Aubrey regarding the group with a judgmental glare.
"We're on a timetable," she went on. "We need a clean run of that, so let's take it from the top."
"Yeah, yeah," Fat Amy sighed. "Missed you too, ya old slag."
The ladies laughed as they started to reset, but Beca stayed in place, watching Posen. It took a moment, but as the other women retreated off the stage, Beca saw Posen's stern demeanor break as she smiled and shook her head.
Yeah, she thought happily. Posen's part of the fam too.
Beca was laughing at some truly salacious comment that CR made when someone started tapping against their glass.
And it was right next to her, so she heard it, of course, but no one else did, and so Chloe clinked her glass with her knife louder and louder until-
Beca reached over and put a hand on the cutlery.
"Hey!"
The back room of the restaurant quieted quickly, and the former American Idol contestants turned to Beca. She was reaching across her girlfriend, and she knew the redhead was positively beaming at her over her shoulder, so she dropped her hands and sat up.
"Chloe wants to say something," she said lamely. "So, uh. Listen."
"Thanks baby," Chloe replied, standing from her seat. She lifted her glass into the air.
"A toast!"
Beca nodded at her girlfriend, then at the other women as she lifted her own glass.
"To the most amazing group of women I have ever known."
Her eyes started to mist over with tears, and Beca reached up to take her hand.
"I would do anything to sing with you guys again," Chloe continued, and a few of the girls made sympathetic coos, but then Chloe smacked the table.
"Anything!"
Beca squeezed her hand and said simply, "Okay, champ."
Aubrey reached out across the table, and Chloe bent down to take her hand.
"We're going to, Chloe."
"Like, tomorrow," Stacie added.
But Chloe only looked more upset as she stood back up.
"I mean, really, I could just crap myself!"
Fat Amy cleared her throat.
"Haven't been out much, eh, strawberry tart?"
"She really hasn't," Beca sighed, then Chloe started again.
"What I mean, what I meant to say- just, home is where the heart is. But you guys are the homes that my heart lives in. I am inside of all of you. And it feels so good."
Beca laughed while the rest of the rest of the group groaned or muttered.
After more than three years with Chloe, she knew it was better to just roll with the punches. Besides, the carnival ride that was Chloe's occasional emotional roller coaster was fine. Better to ride it out than fight the flow.
Chloe kept going, and Beca glanced over the brim of her glass to watch Aubrey as she watched Chloe. She looked happier and more relaxed than Beca had ever seen her, and Beca knew that their still-budding friendship (along with Chloe finally living close by again) was at the root of the blonde's contentment.
No longer was she Posen: Temperamental Leader and Judge.
She was Bree - still fearsome, but balanced. Slightly less rigid.
Happy.
(And leaning into Stacie a little bit, that's interesting… which also explains why Stacie's been so quiet…)
The more Beca thought about it, by some weird quirk of the universe, Bree was really the only reason that Beca was even fulfilling her last season of her contract with American Idol.
Chloe continued to wax poetic as Beca felt her shoulders begin to tighten up with stress. This season had been an absolute shitshow. Their finalists - a blowhard named Bumper Allen, a terrifying German goddess named Mina that everyone just called Kommissar, and Ruby fucking Rose for some fucking reason - were driving Beca insane.
Bree was Beca's only source of stability and comfort - and the irony of that wasn't lost on her.
If she wasn't trying to reign Bumper in, she was avoiding Rose like the plague, or she was accidentally hitting on Kommissar for like the third time that day.
Chloe found it endearing, because of course she did, and because they were incredibly secure in their relationship. But the rest of the S15 group chat (which was still happening for some reason) and some of her Twitter followers were having fun making memes and laughing mercilessly at her awkwardness.
Thankfully, that wouldn't be the big story by the time the finale was over.
Emily's return would be big, and all of S15 coming back would be huge.
But all of that would be old news once word got out that Beca proposed.
She sucked in a big breath, holding the air in her lungs like she was taught in therapy, then let it go slowly, controlled. Instantly she felt her body relax.
She was going to propose tomorrow - after their performance, surrounded by the friends that were basically family (though she was secretly flying Chloe's parents out too) - and Chloe was going to say yes, and they were going to get married.
Married!
She never thought she'd do it after her parents split up, but it just made sense with Chloe.
She looked up at Chloe as the redhead (although it was more of an auburn now) finished up her speech. There was a non-zero amount of cautious laughter as Chloe said "cheers to fears, beers, and queers!" as they finally raised their glasses.
She clinked with Bree first, and the blonde nodded towards Chloe and winked.
Christ, Beca thought. Am I that obvious?
Wait, no, she actually knows.
Like, has been involved in the planning.
Phew.
"You know, you two have been together for a while," Katherine Junk said suddenly, making Beca's head spin. She turned next to Emily's mom (and, ya know, my actual friend and basically my surrogate mom) when the woman laid a hand on her arm. "Three years?"
She felt Chloe crowd her opposite shoulder.
"Totes easier now that we actually live in the same state," she said, and then she laughed. "We, like, reverse-U-haul'd. Lived together, LDR, then moved in together."
"Only we would do something that dumb," Beca laughed.
"Right? Gosh."
Beca glanced back at her girlfriend, leaning up to press a kiss to her cheek, and then smiled as she raised her glass to her lips.
"Any wedding bells in the near future?"
Beca choked on her drink, and immediately she felt Chloe's hand on her back, soothing her.
Maybe I am that obvious.
"We think we're going to, Beca just wants to get more established first," Chloe explained.
The conversation must have gotten loud enough to reach the ends of the table, because Beca heard Fat Amy guffaw.
"How much more 'establishin'' could ya do?" she joked. "What, 80 billion streams isn't enough?"
Beca was still trying to recover from her vodka/breathing fiasco, so she couldn't correct the Australian to say it was more like 8 million - at least, on the ones she produced. She felt Chloe lean forward to try to say something, but Flo got there first.
"You have worked with Lady ga-Ga and Dua Lipa as well," she said.
Again, Beca began to correct her, saying Sammy worked with them and Beca was just in the studio, but at that point, the rest of the table started chiming in.
"Lil Nas X-"
"Conan Gray-"
"Didn't you literally do the beat for Renegade?"
"You got CR a job, too!"
"Oh my god, the Renegade! You've made like a hundred TikTok sounds!" Emily added. "That one guy, what's his name?"
"Pimp-Lo - well, but his actual name is Moises," Chloe supplied earnestly, though her tone was starting to get defensive. "He's actually very sweet."
"Didn't he do Be Gone Thot! ?"
Beca reached behind her for Chloe's hand, which had gone from soothing pats to a claw-like grip on the back of her shirt, and pulled it to the table.
She looked at her girlfriend - her sweet, aggressively supportive, patient-but-not-so-patient girlfriend - and she smiled broadly. Chloe was already smiling - big surprise there - but as Beca grinned at her, she watched Chloe's expression morph into a different smile. It was softer, with a hint of a teasing frown to it. Her Beca smile. Her, "I'm going to love you forever" smile.
It'd been a good year.
For them, because Chloe had passed the NAVLE after finishing vet school, and for Beca too.
And she was so excited to make it even better.
Chloe leaned towards her, and Beca leaned in too, turning so her ear was right in front of Chloe's mouth.
"You look so hot when you're flustered."
Beca stifled her amusement, rolling her tongue over her lips as she shook her head. She ducked her chin into Chloe's shoulder.
"What are you gonna do about it?" she hummed.
Chloe's hand tightened in her grip, then let go, shifting forward to hide her arm as she slid her hand onto Beca's thigh instead.
Thankfully, the rest of the conversation had been hijacked by CR and how she was working with Katy Perry on her new music and upcoming tour plans. The rest of the group was too busy hounding the woman for details that they didn't hear Beca huff out a laugh as she drove her chin into the hollow of Chloe's shoulder.
The hand made its way over the top of her thigh, across, towards the seam on the inside of her leg, and Beca couldn't help it when she nipped lovingly at the tendon stretching across Chloe's muscular shoulder.
"Pardon me, if I could-"
Beca swung her head around quickly as the rest of the table stopped talking almost instantaneously.
She could feel the heat in her cheeks as she looked up, seeing their waitress posed precariously over the pair, leaning across Chloe to try to refill Beca's water.
She knew she was red, and her mouth fell open to say something - anything! Say one word in the English language! - but Chloe sighed loudly before she could think of anything.
"Sorry, ladies, it's been a long week," Chloe lamented. "We really haven't had any special, intimate time together. With me at the clinic, and Beca at the studio and the show, we've had to get creative on how we express our love to each other. Physically."
Words!
Any words at all!
Crouton!
Apartheid!
Balloon!
"And this morning, Beca woke me up by-"
"Dessert! We should get dessert!" Stacie jumped in, and relief cut through Beca as her eyes moved to the tall brunette. Stacie was grinning madly, and her eyes were twinkling, and was her hand under the table? On the thigh of one-
"Awh yeah, right," Amy said loudly, and Beca looked her way instead.
"Oi! How many you cheesecakes do you have?"
The table dissolved into laughter and shouting, and Beca could feel her girlfriend staring at her.
(After three years together, she knew what kind of stare that was. That was a, "I'm sorry but also meet me in the bathroom in two minutes" stare.)
She was about to start her typical lecture on the importance of privacy and discretion, (which would be followed by a refusal and ultimate reluctant acceptance of the redhead's indecent proposal,) when Katherine nudged her.
"I'm really happy for you," the older woman said. "Seriously. You've really come into yourself. I'm proud of this woman."
Beca's blush deepened as she scrunched her nose.
"I hated that," she pouted. "Don't do that, don't compliment me."
But Katherine only laughed and patted her forearm.
"I know, hon, I know."
What was the word Beca had used to describe this absolutely fucking bullshit that was S18? "Shitshow"?
Because this was more like "clusterfuck."
Or "shit circus."
"No no no, mic 2! Mic 2 with the piano- there! Jesus H Christ, it's like I'm the only one who actually knows what the fuck they're doing!" she whisper-shouted into her headset.
The young performer - a fan-favorite finalist from some earlier season, one that they hadn't gotten back in years - took a deep breath that was thankfully picked up by the correct microphone. He started to sing, and Beca sighed loudly.
"I'm guessing this means you're not re-upping your contract?"
Beca glanced away from the stage, further into the curtain wing, where Bree's voice came from. Beca laughed when she saw that Bree had changed into one of her tight-fitting, violent pink dresses reminiscent of what she wore years ago.
But then she remembered what Bree had just asked, and her laugh petered out.
"I dunno, dude," she sighed. "I wouldn't be anywhere without this show. But Khalid wants me back in the studio now that we're actually getting some traction, and I don't know if I can handle-"
Bree gave a sharp nod and waved her hands in a quick motion.
"Don't answer now," she said. "Think about it. We're able to give you some stability here. And you'll always be welcome."
Beca finally smiled at that, and then she checked the time. A longer time slot meant more to coordinate, but Rose had already sung Zombie, and Kommissar had already sung Muse, so after this it was just Bumper (John Mayer, the fucking prick) and then the S15 performance.
Commercial, announcement, final song.
(Kommissar was going to be so fucking smug.)
And then the green room, the proposal. She tapped her pocket for, like, the fiftieth time that evening, feeling the ring box.
Then the club, for old times sake.
Even though Emily was still only 19.
Did Stacie call Plaza to make sure she could get in?
"-but it's like my dad always said, 'Expect finite disappoint, and remember, there's always more where that came from."
Beca blinked out of her racing thoughts to see Bree looking at her sternly.
What were we talking about?
But then Bree grinned broadly, giggling as Beca rubbed her temples, mindful of her TV makeup and hair.
"I'm so sorry, Bree," she half laughed, half sobbed. "There's just so much going on."
"I know," Bree agreed. "I know, you're so busy. And you've got a lot on your mind. I really just came to tell you that Mr. and Mrs. Beale are already backstage."
Beca actually let herself smile at that one.
"And Chloe hasn't seen them?"
Bree shook her head, then added, "But I'm not sure how long that will last. She's a bloodhound with things like this. How did you manage to keep it from her this long?"
"Wasn't easy," Beca replied, but her thoughts were back on the show. The guy finished, and Bumper went out too early to say something to him - probably something disgusting and sexist, fuck!
Beca slammed the button on the side of her headset and barked out some orders, and both mics cut out while the crowd cheered for the performance.
And then Bumper shooed the other guy off and grabbed a guitar.
"He grabbed the wrong guitar- Lineset 1, not 3, and turn his mic back on please!"
Both the instrument and the mic picked up at the same time, and there wasn't feedback, thank fuck, but the guitar was way too quiet, and Beca didn't even have to say anything because Bumper did it for her.
"Hello? Turn this shit up!" he bellowed into the mic. "And you're supposed to be professionals at this?"
Beca was seething as the levels got adjusted, and Bumper offered a sarcastic "thanks" before he started to sing.
Of all songs, only an actual dick chooses 'Paper Doll', Beca thought ruefully.
"If you can handle this," Bree whispered. "I've got no doubt that you can handle Chloe forever."
Beca laughed loudly, eyes still on the stage.
"Don't forget that I have to actually propose first."
"You're going to propose!?"
Beca blanched as she turned around, throwing her headset off her head. Chloe was standing just behind Aubrey, smiling so wide that Beca thought she was about to pop her jaw off.
With the white flow-y short dress thing that she had on, Beca was sure that Chloe was glowing, and even in the little light that spilled off the stage, she could see tears forming in her girlfriend's eyes.
"Uh, ha, yeah!" Beca stuttered, trying to laugh, trying not to look so guilty and nervous. "We talked about it, babe. I, uh- I had to ask Posen permission. Ya know, for the future, when I ask. Later. Another time. Not now."
"Becs!" Chloe squealed. "That's literally so sweet!"
She nearly tackled Beca onto the stage, and if Beca hadn't convinced the wardrobe lady to sub sneakers for the heels with her black jumpsuit, Beca would've taken Chloe with her as they sprawled out on the side of the stage.
"Ah, oh my god," she muffled into the puffy sleeves. Vaguely, she heard Bumper wrapping up, cheering from the crowd, and she moved to push Chloe off of her.
"I gotta get this mic off and grab the other one Chlo, we're about to go on."
After one last squeeze, Chloe let her go, using her hands to dab the mascara under her eyes instead. Through her own nervous laughs, Bree reached forward to disconnect Beca's walkie and headset before handing her the handheld.
"You have my blessing," Bree said stiltedly. "You both do. I'll- I'll deny it that I ever said it, but you two are perfect together."
Chloe cried out again, throwing her hands over Bree instead this time, and over her shoulder, Beca and Bree had a beautiful silent screaming match.
What the fuck, dude! Beca hoped she conveyed.
Why do you think I whispered, you little idiot!? Bree seemed to scold her back.
With a helpless gesture, Beca tried to shrug it off. Tried and true host Jesse Swanson was onstage thanking Bumper and introducing Emily Junk, superstar sensation, just off her last tour, yada yada yada, she was almost caught!
Was Chloe just messing with her?
Did she know?
Did she feel the ring?
Beca tapped her pocket again, and the music started, vamping, looping, and Beca could see Emily in the wings on the other side of the stage.
She looked like she was about to cry too.
What the FUCK is going on!?
She felt Chloe tap her butt as she ran out to meet Emily on her mark. The crowd was screaming, only quieting slightly as the two sang through the verse together. Beca tried to focus - she hadn't performed on the show at all in the last two seasons - but Emily kept turning away from the crowd and holding her hand, giving the most doe-eyed looks.
Beca rolled her eyes, and the crowd laughed, and Emily laughed but again, why was she almost crying? And why was Beca almost crying?
This show! Beca thought as they went into the chorus, but she was laughing too. Laughing and crying and hugging this talented young woman, after all they'd been through.
How could I ever leave something this awesome?
And about to get more awesome, because Beca looked past Emily for CR and Stacie, knowing the crowd was going to love this, and-
And they weren't there.
The music for the verse started.
No vocals.
"Hah, what?" Beca said into her mic, then she moved it away.
She looked further upstage - maybe they were just using the second set of wings? - but no one was coming out.
"Emily, what-"
She looked back upstage to see that Emily literally sprinting to the wing.
Beca was fuming. Who had fucked this up? This whole show had been one mistake away from catastrophe, and they had one fucking song where she couldn't help call cues, and this happens?
A flash of fear hit her. She was twenty years old again, on this stage, vulnerable and alone and-
"Beca?"
It came through the speakers a second delayed, a second after the sound hit Beca's earpiece, and her actual ear, because it was right behind her.
Beca turned slowly, and there was Chloe.
With a Brittney-Spears-esque mic on her ear.
On one knee.
"Sorry I beat you to the punch."
Chloe reached into her dress - oh nice, it has pockets - and pulled out a black box.
She reached for Beca's hand.
The whole world went blurry for a second, and Beca wondered if she was having an episode or something, but then she realized it was the tears in her eyes.
The crowd was screaming, and Beca glanced out at them, laughing incredulously. They couldn't hear it, because her mic was hanging down by her hip, picking up the echo of Chloe's lilting laugh. Beca looked back down, then over Chloe, into the wing.
Bree, smiling with a touch of crazy eyes- she glanced down at Beca's mic, and Beca unconsciously thumbed it off. Stacie had her arms wrapped around Bree, and CR looked like she was crying into Amy's ample chest.
She could see others too - band members and stagehands - and she's guessing the wings behind her were also full.
But Beca stopped looking at any of them, eyes locking on her wonderful girlfriend.
Chloe was looking up at her with shining, hopeful eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. She was so bright in the stage lights that Beca literally had to shade her eyes. Beca fought off another laugh - or was it a sob? - because Chloe looked like she was barely holding it together.
"Will you marry me?"
The crowd exploded, and Beca felt herself nod, and then she mouthed, "yes," and she reached for her girlfriend - fiancé, holy fuck - but Chloe used their hands to hold Beca in place.
"I had a whole thing planned," Chloe started to speak again, and the crowd shushed themselves. "I was going to do a whole speech or whatever. I know you did too- I saw my mom backstage, and she spilled the beans because I've literally been talking about this for months and she helped pick out the ring- hold on, hold on."
Chloe looked down and took a quick deep breath, trying to regain her composure, and Beca couldn't help but loose a huffed, "oh Jesus Christ" and accompanying shrug.
The audience laughed again, and Beca momentarily remembered that they were there.
"Beca Mitchell," Chloe said seriously, and now she was really crying. They both were. "You are my best friend. These last three years have been the best years of my life. Your talent and drive continue to amaze me, and I can't imagine going through anything without you by my side."
Chloe's voice began to waver, and Beca used the hand that wasn't holding Chloe's to thumb a tear from her cheek, microphone precariously held in the other fingers. Chloe sniffed and cleared her throat.
"I knew from the day I met you that we were going to be in each others' lives forever," she sighed, and then she shook her head. She stood up abruptly, and Beca laughed as Chloe started to press on Beca's shoulders.
"Okay, okay, now your turn," Chloe said, and the audience laughed again. In a part of her brain that she could never quite turn off, Beca became dimly aware that it was almost time for a commercial, so instead of fighting her, Beca smirked and nodded, grabbing Chloe's hand again as she got on her knee.
"Chloe Marie Beale," she began, and Chloe whimpered. There were some shouts, and Beca glanced around Chloe to see Bree was gesturing to the microphone in her other hand.
Of fucking course, she thought, and then she sighed. She thumbed the microphone back on and brought it up to her mouth.
"Chloe Marie Beale," she repeated, and the crowd cooed. "We've got to go to commercial soon."
"Well then hurry up!"
Beca laughed with everyone else, dropping her head to her chest and thumping her microphone against the back of her skull. She looked up again at the ethereal, maddening and yet delightful woman in front of her and sighed.
"You were always one step ahead of me," she teased. "Why should this be an exception?"
She dropped Chloe's hand so she could reach down into her pocket - gasps from the crowd, and from Chloe - and she pulled out a white box that held Chloe's ring. She flipped open the top and held it out with one hand, continuing to hold the microphone with the other.
"I wasn't going to do this so publicly," she started to say, and Chloe giggled again. "-but I guess this only fits, seeing as they saw pretty much everything else."
She was stalling a little. Chloe had basically said everything that Beca was going to say, so Beca blanked and said the first things that came to her mind.
"I love you, and I want to keep loving you forever," she said. "You're my sunshine, and my idol, and my lifelong partner. Will you marry me?"
Chloe pretended to think about it as the crowd cheered, then she held a hand up to them, and they quieted again.
Her lips were pursed, eyes pulled into scrutinizing slits, but then she face bloomed open in a wide smile.
"I asked you first."
The crowd went nuts, and Beca turned off the mic again as she stood up, pulling Chloe into a kiss that, while passionate, could still be aired on television, and then Chloe pulled back.
"And now a word from our sponsors!" she shouted in a faux-host voice, but Jesse's voice cut her off.
"Hey that's my line!"
He came on from behind Beca and immediately started building up to commercial, but Beca and Chloe just laughed, floating to the background as they kissed. Chloe dipped Beca, and Beca was sure that the crowd was going to scream themselves hoarse.
"You said something, when we first met," Beca whispered against Chloe's lips.
"Oh yeah?" Chloe replied.
"About making our dreams into a reality together."
Chloe leaned her head back and laughed loudly. It didn't echo, so they cut her mic, thankfully.
"Sounds like me."
"We have about ten seconds before we get dog-piled by a bunch of women who love us, on national TV. This is my nightmare, not a dream," Beca laughed, and Chloe began to protest, but Beca cut her off with a kiss.
"You know how I told you that, back then, I had decided to do anything to get to LA? Well I realize that LA was just a stepping stone to meet you," she said hurriedly. She could see Bree barely holding Stacie back, and Beca could tell that Stacie was about to just go for it.
"You're my dream. You made it a reality, somehow. You made it happen. I love you."
"I love you t-"
Beca felt someone hit her back, then another, and then Stacie was around Chloe, and so was Bree. There was screaming and squealing and crying and hugging.
And for once, it didn't matter if they were in LA or Amsterdam or Timbuktu.
Because they were together.
Surprise! You thought I forgot about this, didn't you? Well I didn't, because I can't, it's impossible.
The song is not mine - it's Coast by Hailee Steinfeld and I fudged the timeline okay it's not the first time and it won't be the last.
I usually write in Dec-March ish, so new fic may be coming. Idk, the only one that's in my head is what if Chloe was Fletcher and Beca was her bassist because remember those TikTok's? Those were a lot.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Feels good to finally cap this beast.
Happy Sunday.