This one actually started out life as a deleted scene from Experimentation. I was toying with the idea of having Beca and Chloe attend the grad party Beca's dad throws for her as a couple to dissuade nosy relatives from asking Beca about her dating life. I decided that it didn't really fit within the story though and set it aside for possible future use. And now here we are! This is one I'd like to continue someday.

News of the mandatory family gathering reaches Beca via a voicemail from her father. A voicemail he'd left because his call had come before nine a.m. and there was no way Beca could muster the energy for a conversation at that hour of the morning. She does generally answer his calls these days, though. How far they've come in a year.

"Hi, Beca, it's dad. Just calling to let you know that the annual Mitchell family gathering is slated for two weeks from today. As I'm sure you recall from last year, this comes as part of the whole 'college to L.A. package' and you will be required to attend if you wish to complete the package in full. Talk to you later, love you!"

His tone had been cocky and playful and Beca had immediately been filled with a sense of dread.

These reunions, while filled with good intentions, were the very last thing in the entire realm of possible events and activities that she wanted to take part in.

Last year had been the only time it had been tolerable and that was because Jesse had been with her to fend off any and all questions about her dating life. Why is that always such a main focus for people? Why does her Aunt Margaret or Uncle Joe care if she has a boyfriend? Why is that even a thing people ask? Couldn't they just stick with questioning her about how school is going and leave it at that?

She's sulking in the kitchen eating cereal at four-thirty in the afternoon when Chloe finds her.

"Who peed in your Cornflakes?" Chloe asks, sipping from a paper take-out cup brandishing the logo for a coffee shop on the edge of campus.

Beca glances down at the soggy specks of food soaking in liquid and lets her spoon clatter against the side of the bowl.

"My dad." She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and pushes the bowl towards the center of the table. "It's family reunion time."

"Oh, fun!" Chloe's grin quickly fades at Beca's sour expression. "Not fun?"

Lifting her elbows onto the table, Beca drops her head into her hands with a groan.

"No, Chloe. Not fun. Awkward, embarrassing, unbearable." Sighing, Beca lifts her head to meet Chloe's gaze and drops her arms down onto the table. "I know this sounds like I'm just being anti-family again," she pauses, pursing her lips for a second, "and I am-" Chloe interrupts her with a laugh, "but it's also, like, not a complete and total exaggeration."

Sitting down at the table across from Beca, Chloe regards her with a genuinely curious expression.

"What's so bad about it?" Chloe asks and it makes Beca wonder about Chloe's home life. Makes her wonder how she grew up and if it was always happy families, because Beca doesn't get why a person wouldn't immediately understand why family reunions are so awful.

"It's never been fun. When I was a kid, my parents would always try to get me to play with my cousins, but the girls just wanted to play with dolls, which I so wasn't into, and all the boys wanted to do was pretend to be soldiers and kill each other. Also not really young Beca's thing."

"What was her thing?" Chloe cuts in, bright eyes wide and shining. And Beca knows she doesn't have to answer, that she could lie and probably get away with it.

She's not sure why she doesn't.

"You remember those kid scientist kits that came with, like, slides and cheaply made microscopes and stuff?" Chloe bobs her head at the question. "I was really into those. I could play for hours doing barely anything at all."

"I'm picturing an even smaller version of you in a lab coat and goggles," Chloe says with a grin that Beca rolls her eyes at, "and it's adorable."

"I was adorable," Beca confirms, a playfully teasing lilt to her tone. "But I think I found most things boring until I found music."

"Okay." Chloe draws the word out like she's considering something. "You're probably not going to have to play dolls or pretend-murder other children now, though."

"Please, I'd rather be doing those things."

"Wow. That bad?"

"I would rather go on a date with Bumper than go to this." The timber of Beca's voice is deadly serious and Chloe visibly winces at the thought. "Everyone just always asks me if I'm dating anyone and then when I tell them I'm not, they look at me like I'm a ninety year old spinster woman who only has room in her heart for her fourteen cats."

Chloe laughs, then covers her hand with her mouth and tries to push the giggles back down.

"Well, I'm sorry I can't be there to protect you." Chloe reaches across the table to cover Beca's hands with one of her own. Her thumb brushes across the knuckles of the hand below and Beca feels the motion tingling at the back of her neck.

"You should come with me," she hears herself say, before her brain has given any real thought to the matter. It catches up quickly, though. "Jesse was with me last year and I know there are going to be a ton of questions, and it'd just be really nice to have one person there who isn't asking me about 'that nice Jerry boy who was with you last time.'"

Chloe takes her hand back and looks thoughtfully at Beca before saying, "Well, why don't we go together?"

"Yeah, that," Beca pauses, straightens, and looks at Chloe with raised eyebrows. "That's what I'm asking. Are you not listening to me?"

"No, Beca." Chloe laughs, tucking red curls behind her ears. "I mean, I'll pose as your girlfriend. It'll avoid all those unwanted questions. It might also raise a few more but…." Chloe trails off with a shrug and a smile, and Beca can't quite believe the words that are coming out of her friend's mouth.

Or how this plan actually kind of appeals to her.

"What? No! We can't-"

"Why not? It'll be easy! We'll just show up holding hands and casually drop that we're dating into the conversation. You can relish the look of shock on your dad's face and avoid the whole spinster cat lady thing."

Shaking her head, Beca stands and carries her bowl to the kitchen sink. She sets it down in the basin and then turns to lean against it, eyebrows raised.

"And what happens a week from then when my dad asks how things are going because he can't not stick his nose into everything I do?" She doesn't move as she watches Chloe get to her feet and slowly approach.

"You tell him we broke up, but that we're still friends," Chloe steps right into Beca's personal space and winds her arms around her neck, pulling Beca in for a hug, "because you can't possibly imagine life without me."

Beca waits to roll her eyes until Chloe steps back to make sure she sees the action, but Chloe just runs her hands down Beca's arms and links their fingers together.

This, Beca thinks, is ridiculous and terribly ill advised. It's a terrible, juvenile idea, and there's no way Beca is agreeing to it. Contrary to the belief of some, she is actually a largely sane individual. Still, she can't deny that there are a certain amount of pros to this idea that she finds appealing.

Chloe's company.

Her dad's face.

Distant relatives getting off her back.

And if the tingling she's feeling in her upper body right now is anything to go by, holding Chloe's hand all evening wouldn't be terrible either.

But she can't. It's a horrible idea.

Chloe grins at her.

"Okay," Beca says.