The day after Donald's party, Jesse woke up mildly hungover. If it were to him, he wouldn't have gotten up until much later but Amber had a plane to catch quite early in the morning so he woke up with her.

"You feeling alright?" Jesse asked Amber who he heard puke while showering when she joined him in the kitchen.

She nodded, "I shouldn't have gotten trashed last night."

Jesse sat down to eat his cereal and watched Amber fetch herself a glass of water.

"You should eat something," he told her as she sipped her glass of water. "I'll get you some painkillers."

"Thanks." He heard her say as he got up and went to look for the painkillers.

When he came back, Amber was in the process of toasting some bread. "Here." He placed the painkillers on the counter and resumed eating.

The silence in the room was definitely awkward, which made sense: They had just broken up because she had feelings for someone else.

"Jesse," Amber called.

He looked up from his cereal and met her gaze. "Shouldn't we talk?"

"About what?" he countered with a question.

She shrugged, "About us? About how you're feeling? About what you're gonna do next?"

He scratched his head, sitting up. "I could be in denial but I really feel fine about us breaking up."

His words took her by surprise, "Why do you think you feel this way?"

Jesse looked down at his bowl, thinking. "I don't know." He paused. "I wanna say the distance made it easier in a sense?" He looked up. "Like, you're not around and we haven't been really talking that much, it already felt like we've broken up."

"I know what you mean." Amber nodded and walked the short distance between them. "I also thought it was the distance that made us drift apart at first." She rested her arms against the counter. "It took me a while before I really figured out what was going on." She sighed. "I distanced myself once it hit me that I was emotionally cheating on you with Nat."

"It really sucked once you've stopped hanging out with her, didn't it?" he asked, rubbing his face, all too familiar with what she just told him.

"Yup. And, instead of completely cutting her off I asked you if we could open our relationship to get her out of my system because I was in complete denial." She shook her head. "God, I'm a selfish asshole," she murmured.

"Hey, don't say that," he was quick to say. "I can only imagine how confusing it all was. You did what you thought was right." He paused for a second. "I'm not better than you, Amber. I've been emotionally cheating on you, too," he admitted to her and to himself.

He didn't even realize that what was going on between him and Beca was emotional cheating until Amber mentioned it and he felt like a complete idiot for not realizing sooner.

"Yeah, I kinda figured." She smiled tightly. "We should have had this talk months ago," Amber said, patting his arm.

"Yeah," he agreed, chuckling humorlessly, and got up to wash the bowl he ate in.

"What are you gonna do about Beca?" Amber asked, bringing her toasted bread to her mouth.

"I don't know." He shrugged. "She made it very clear last night that she wants nothing to do with me anymore."

"Is that really what she said or is your understanding of it?" she mumbled, chewing.

Jesse frowned tilting his head to look at his ex-girlfriend.

"Come on, Jesse, I'm trying to help here. Stop looking at me like that and answer the question."

"I'm paraphrasing here but she told me that we both know that it won't work, that she doesn't want to spend a whole year to get over me, and that we can't be friends."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like wanting nothing to do with you," Amber opinionated. "Beca doesn't want to hook up while you two are friends but that doesn't automatically mean she doesn't want you in her life," she told him, reaching to open the fridge and pull the orange juice jug.

"Good God, when did you get this dense?" Amber wondered, noting the very confused look on his face, as she closed the fridge with her hip.

"That can't be it, no," he shook his head. "She doesn't want to date."

"Did she say that herself or are you yet again putting words in her mouth?" Amber deadpanned.

Jesse rubbed the back of his neck, "You seriously think I should ask her out?"

"You do wanna be with her, right?" she was asking as she filled a glass of orange juice.

"I guess." He shrugged. "I mean, I am attracted to her."

"No." Amber shook her head as she returned the jug to the fridge. "You either have feelings for her and wanna be with her or you don't." She sighed, noting the very thoughtful look on his face. "Just give yourself some time to reflect on your actions and feelings. Give her time to reflect as well."

"Thanks, Amber," Jesse smiled. "I really appreciate this."

"Of course, man." She smiled back before looking at her cellphone. "My uber is almost here," she announced.

"I'll go get your suitcase," Jesse figured.

Jesse spent the rest of the day, thinking about the conversation he had with Amber. She made a lot of good points and he knew he should do exactly what she recommended.

He should sit on it until he figured out the nature of his feelings towards Beca.

However, he couldn't stop himself from going to Beca's apartment to talk. He wanted to know if she really meant what Amber thought she did. There was a very good chance it would blow up in his face and he knew that. But what's the worst that could happen? Beca already ended their friendship.

Sucking in a deep, Jesse knocked on the door then stepped back.

"Hi," he greeted and immediately frowned when he got a good a look at her. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Grandma had a heart attack," she let him know, wiping her nose with the palm of her hand as she went back inside the apartment.

"Oh my god, is she okay now?" He followed her inside and locked the door.

"I don't know." She paced to her bedroom. "All I know is that she had a heart attack and that she's at the hospital."

"You're flying there right now," he figured, stopping in front of her bedroom.

"I would if there were any fucking flights," she replied as she zipped her suitcase.

Christmas was a few days away so he wasn't surprised that she couldn't find a flight.

"So, what are you gonna do? Take the bus?"

"If I find one yeah." She placed her suitcase on the floor and looked around her before she grabbed a pair of shoes to wear. "I haven't checked yet."

"Beca, there are snowstorms going on the road to Michigan. Are you sure the bus would be safe?"

"I don't really care. I just want to get home as soon as I possible. I'll hitch a fucking ride if I have to."

"You're flying there a few days. Can't you just wait?"

"I can't." She shook her head. "I can't just sit and do nothing. What if she's gone before I get even there?" she sniffled and quickly wiped her cheeks.

"Don't say that."

"It's possible." She shrugged. "She's seventy-eight-years-old, Jesse."

She had her mind set on going to Michigan and there was no way he was going to change her mind. Jesse, however, couldn't let her travel when she was an emotional wreck.

"I'm coming with you," he told her as she was getting up, having worn her shoes.

"What?" she frowned.

"I'm coming with you to Michigan. I'll borrow Sarah's car and we can take turns at driving."

"Jesse, no, you're not doing that."

"Beca, please, don't fight me on this. I can't just let you travel between states in poor weather on your own." He shrugged. "Besides, we'd definitely get there before the bus."

She ran her fingers through her hair then nodded, "fine." She exhaled. "Thank you."

"Grab your passport, we might have to cross the border," he told her, already thinking of the roads they were going to take to get to her hometown as soon as possible.

"Okay, I will," she said as he was pulling his phone his pocket to call his sister.

They got to her grandmother's house around 3:15 am. And, even though they spent 10 hours in a car together, they barely talked about anything.

Beca was worried about her grandmother and the last thing she'd probably want to talk about was what happened at Donald's party. Jesse kept his mouth shut and decided it could wait until they were back in New York. She needed a friend at the moment, and he wasn't going to let her down.

He parked in the driveway and turned off the engine while rubbing his tired eyes. Beca stepped out of the vehicle and used her cellphone as a flashlight to look for the key that her distant cousin, who was living with her grandmother, left her in the mailbox to let herself in.

Jesse got their suitcases from the trunk and tried to make as little noise as possible as he got into the house. He really didn't want to startle the teenager who was all by himself in the house.

Jesse unzipped his hoodie while looking around once inside, stretching and wincing at the pain he felt. He was going to wake up with a sore back and he was not looking forward to that.

"I got it," he said when Beca reached for her suitcase. He then picked up both of their suitcases and headed to the staircase, following her.

"Um, you can have this room," she said, unlocking the door and reaching to flip the light switch. "The bathroom is over there," she told him, gesturing at the bathroom at the end of the hall.

"Okay."

In the car, he couldn't really see her face because it was dark the whole time they were on the road. Standing in front of her and really getting a good look at her, Jesse could truly see how drained she was. Beca wasn't one to wear her heart on her sleeves but it was the rare occasion that he could see all of her emotions on her face. And, it pained him to see her like that.

He wanted to pull her in a hug and tell that everything was going to be okay even though he did know that. He just wanted to comfort her because he could not stand there and do nothing.

"Beca," a sleepy voice said, gaining Beca and Jesse's attention. The voice belonged to Beca's teenage cousin.

"Eric, hey," Beca softly greeted, making her way to the boy. "Did we wake you up?" she asked.

He shook his head, "I set up an alarm clock," he informed as he was wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug.

"How are you holding up?" she wondered, pulling away.

Eric shrugged. "You?"

"I'm okay." Beca cupped his cheek with one hand while running her fingers through his mused hair. "You should go back to bed. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Okay," he yawned, rubbing his eyes.

"This is my friend Jesse," she said, using the hand she was cupping Eric's face with to gesture at Jesse.

"Hi," Jesse smiled curtly and was met with a curt nod from the sleepy boy. "Nice meeting you, Eric," he added.

"You, too," Eric mumbled while scratching his head.

As the teenager began making his way back to his room, Jesse attempted to stretch again.

"Here," Beca mumbled, unzipping her backpack and looking through it. "Should help with the pain a little," she held painkillers tablet his way.

"Thanks." He accepted it, touched that even her current restless state she noticed that he was in physical pain. "Your back doing okay?" he wondered.

"I don't know yet," she sighed. "I'll get back to you on it tomorrow."

The next day, Jesse willed himself to get up when his alarm went off. His back just as expected really hurt. He tried to stretch whenever they made a pit-stop so the pain could have been worse. He showered and got dressed before he went downstairs.

The smell of brewed coffee hit him as he got closer to the kitchen.

"Morning," Jesse greeted, looking between Beca who was leaning against the counter with what he assumed was a mug of coffee and Eric who was sitting on a stool eating cereal.

"Morning," Eric echoed.

"How's your back?" Beca asked as she straightened.

"Worse than I thought. You?"

"Not too bad actually," she let him know.

"Lucky," he sighed.

"Coffee?"

"Yeah."

Beca set her own mug of coffee on the counter and walked over to the cupboard to grab one for him that she handed him and let him do the rest himself.

"So, when do visiting hours start?" Jesse wondered as he was adding sugar to his coffee.

"Ten am. But I'm going to head to the hospital early to talk to the doctor first."

Jesse nodded in response then checked the time on his watch to see that it was barely 8 am.

Beca was very anxious on the drive to the hospital. Jesse was pretty sure it was the most anxious he'd ever seen her. She was also very tired from the trip they made. He doubted she had any sleep the night before judging by the excessive yawning.

"What did he say?" Jesse asked, handing Beca a cup of coffee, as he eyed the doctor that was walking away.

He wanted to be there when she spoke to the doctor because she was barely holding it together: he genuinely doubted she wouldn't take any bad news well.

"She won't need surgery," she informed, sounding very relieved. "But they need to keep her for a couple more days before she can go home."

"That's great!" Jesse beamed.

"Yeah," she agreed, running her fingers through her hair. "Well, she's still at risk of heart failure 'cause she's old and needs to be looked after and like take her meds on time and come back for follow-ups—"

"—Beca," Jesse interrupted, placing a hand on her shoulder. "She's fine. Stop thinking about what could go wrong and focus on the fact that she's alive and well enough that surgery isn't required."

She blew a breath, nodding. "You're right."

"Need a power hug?" he asked, meeting her gaze and smiling a little when she shot him a look of disbelief. "I think you really need a power hug." He extended the hand that he was holding her shoulder with and wrapped it around her, gently pulling her into his embrace.

She leaned into him while loosely wrapping her arm around his waist and resting her head against his chest.

He could feel her relax a little when he rubbed her back and wouldn't have minded if they hugged for a bit longer. He knew she needed a hug but didn't realize how badly he needed one, too.

It brought him a sense of serenity that he did not know how to explain.

"Thanks," she mumbled, pulling away.

Instead of using his words, he just smiled at her tightly then watched her make her way to her grandmother's room and stood in the doorway as Beca stepped inside.

"Beca," the elder gleefully said.

"Hey, nana," Beca greeted, keeping the tone of her voice casual in front of her grandmother.

It was truly amazing how she could easily put up a front in mere seconds.

"When did you get here?" Ella wondered, following Beca with her eyes.

"I got here as soon as I heard that your heart's being a dick," Beca deadpanned and earned a light chuckle from her grandmother.

"And, you brought a friend with you," Ella noted as her eyes fell on Jesse.

"Yeah," Beca nodded, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Nana, this is Jesse." She gestured at him. "Jesse, my grandmother." She gestured back at her grandmother.

"Nice meeting, ma'am," he smiled curtly.

"You, too, Jesse," she smiled back weakly.

"You know what I think triggered the heart attack?" Ella asked Beca.

"The doctor said it's your blood pressure," Beca mumbled.

"Well, yes, that." She nodded. "But what do you think caused the increase in my blood pressure?"

"You forgot to take your meds?" Beca guessed.

Ella shook her head. "It's the fact I haven't gotten us a tree yet," she deadpanned and earned a chuckle from her granddaughter. "It's very hard to find the perfect tree. Very stressful."

"I bet it is," Beca said in amusement. "But we don't need a perfect tree. We need you," she muttered, the front she had put on cracking for a second. "So, please be careful and take your meds on time or I will have dad daily call to remind you to take 'em," Beca continued in a playful tone to which the grandmother grimaced.

"As long as you take over buying our Christmas tree, I'll be fine," Ella assured, reaching for Beca's hand. "There's definitely no need to involve your father."

"Okay," Beca replied. "I'll go later today," Beca figured.

"Oh, I can take care of that for you," Jesse offered. "I can text Beca pictures of the trees and you can help pick it," he told Ella.

"That's actually a good idea," Ella said. "What do you think, Becs?" She tilted her head to look at Beca who hadn't voiced her opinion.

"Yeah, but you don't have to do it right now, Jesse."

"I want to." He shrugged.

Jesse initially planned to go to the tree farm and get it over as soon as he offered to do it but Beca suggested he'd wait until Eric finished school for the day and take him with him.

So, Jesse hung around at the hospital and got to know Ella a bit more—he was already fond of her just from the way Beca talked about her and having finally met her, he liked her even more— until he had to go pick Eric up from the school and then head to the tree farm that Ella told him to go to.

"Wouldn't it be more practical to get a plastic one that we'd pull out for Christmas instead of having to get an actual tree every year?" Eric asked as he and Jesse walked around the farm.

"Yes, that would in fact be way more practical." Jesse gently grabbed inside of a branch and pulled his hand toward himself to check if the needles were secure. "But this is a Christmas tradition and traditions are meant to be upheld." He sighed when several needles fell down and continued walking.

"Traditions are just peer-pressure from dead people," Eric noted.

"That's a very accurate way to describe traditions," Jesse said, impressed with what Eric just told him.

"Thanks." Eric smiled tightly, meeting Jesse's gaze briefly.

"This one isn't too bad, though." Jesse shrugged. "There's no harm in maintaining the tradition of getting a tree for Christmas."

"It's bad for the environment," Eric pointed out.

"That would be the case if these trees were cut down from some wild forest," Jesse said in response. "These ones are crops grown on farms... Not that different from lettuce or corn when you think about it."

Eric nodded in response. "I stand corrected."

"You're not that big of a fan of Christmas, are you?" Jesse guessed, stopping by a decent looking tree that he hoped would be fresh enough to take home.

"I don't dislike Christmas." He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his coat. "It's just that I don't really get it."

"I grew in a Jewish household so I never really got the fuss over Christmas either," Jesse said in response. "One thing I know about Christmas is that it's a lot of fun when you're with the right people." Jesse cleaned his hands after he was done checking if the tree was in decent shape before he pulled his phone from his pocket to text Beca a picture of it.

'Buy it' Beca texted back a few seconds later.

"Alright, looks like we got ourselves a tree!" Jesse beamed.

"Cool," Eric mumbled.

They had some help from the staff at the farm loading the tree on the car and managed to tied it tightly by themselves despite not having a roof rack.

"It's kinda tilted," Eric was saying as Jesse made sure it was still and wouldn't fall once he started driving.

"It's fine," Jesse assured, scratching his head. "Come on, let's get this tree home."

"Aren't we gonna pick up Beca from the hospital?"

"She said she'd take a taxi home," Jesse replied.

"Oh. Okay." Eric nodded, climbed into the car's passenger seat.

"Wanna go see Ella?" he figured. "Is that why you asked?"

"Yeah," Eric confirmed. "It's fine, though. It's getting late anyway. I'll drop by to see her tomorrow."

"No, no, we can go there. Visiting hours don't end until eight pm. There's still time." He turned on the engine to get the heat going.

"Thanks," Eric quietly said and took off his beanie.

"Of course, bud." Jesse smiled at him then buckled his seat belt. "You were gonna go there after school but tagged along to the tree farm so that I wouldn't do it alone. This is the least I can do."

"Well, Beca asked nicely," Eric informed him. "Couldn't say no to her."

"I understand." Jesse nodded. "Beca will probably get me to help her cover up a murder one day just because of her good manners," he joked earning a chuckle from the boy.

They listened to the radio for the rest of the ride in comfortable silence.

"You alright?" Jesse asked noticing the uneasy look on Eric's face as he was turning off the engine of the car, having reached the hospital.

Eric nodded and wore his beanie. Feeling Jesse's gaze on him, he tilted his head. "Grandma is gonna okay, right?" he asked.

"Doctor said she won't need surgery which is good news," Jesse said in response. He didn't want to lie and say yes because it wasn't the case. She was still at risk but there was no need to freak out the teenager. "She's gonna be home in time for Christmas. They're just keeping her at the hospital to be safe," he added reassuringly. "She's gonna need you to remind her to take her meds on time, bud, but she's gonna be okay." He patted Eric's shoulder.

"I'm gonna go to college next year and she's gonna be all alone. What if she has another heart attack then? She could die." He scratched his temple. "I guess I could post-pone going to college or like go to one that's close to her house that way I could commute."

"She was living alone before you moved in," Jesse said as if to remind him. "It's not your responsibility to worry about her." He paused. "Dr. Mitchell and Beca will figure things out, okay?"

"Yeah, but I wanna help." He shrugged. "I owe her that much."

"No, you don't," Jesse sighed. "What you owe her is to keep living your life and go to a college of your choice." He paused. "Do you think Ella would be okay with you making your life choices around her?"

Eric shook his head.

"Thought so, too," Jesse mumbled. "Look, all that matters right now is that she's okay. So, focus on that, alright?"

"Yeah," Eric reluctantly nodded in agreement.

Beca fell asleep on the drive back to her grandmother's house, which made sense given the fact that she barely had any sleep and was less worried about her grandmother having talked to the doctor and spent the whole day with her.

Eric was first out of the car, rushing to use to the bathroom. The sound of the car door opening then closing woke Beca up.

"Hey, wait," she said when Jesse undid the seat belt and was about to get out of the car.

He looked at her expectantly and watched her rub her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, confusing him. "I overacted when we made out and ended our friendship like it meant nothing." She shook her head. "Yet you drove with me to Michigan. Like, who the fuck does that? You didn't have to." She shrugged. "You didn't have to come. You didn't have to go to the hospital with me so that I wouldn't get bad news by myself. You didn't have to go buy us a Christmas tree so that I wouldn't have to do it myself."

Jesse wanted to tell her that he did what any good friend would do but when he thought about it, he realized that that wasn't the case. He wouldn't have done what he did for her without a second thought for anyone else. He wouldn't have done any of what he did for her for someone that he didn't care so deeply about.

It really went beyond friendship and he could see that through his actions.

He loved her.

The realization filled him with a sense of calmness similar to the one he felt when they hugged earlier at the hospital and it brought a smile to his face.

"You're the greatest friend anyone could wish for and I'm so grateful that I have you," Beca said, interrupting his train of thoughts.

"I don't think you overacted. I crossed some boundaries and you reacted accordingly." He shrugged, grateful for the dimness in the car. He wasn't sure if he was hiding what he came to realize well enough.

He came to terms with his feelings towards her but that didn't mean he was going to blurt it out... not when she was expressing her remorse for ending their friendship.

"We just need to set healthy friendship boundaries and stick to them," he added, subtly testing the waters.

He wanted to believe that she wanted more than a friendship just like Amber said but there was no way of telling really. He knew he had to directly ask her and he was going to eventually, just not tonight. It had been a long day and the timing wasn't right anyway. No one would want to hear a love confession in the middle of a family emergency.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Healthy boundaries." She nodded. "So, basically not making out?" she deadpanned.

"Yup," Jesse affirmed, watching her lean against her seat and blow a breath.

"What?" he asked, frowning a little.

"Nothing," she shook her head. "Come on, let's get the tree inside and order some food. I'm starving." Beca then unlocked the door and exited the car.

AN: Sorry took me a while to post. Haven't been feeling well mentally. Nothing I wrote felt good enough. This chapter doesn't feel good enough but I leave you to be the judge. Next chapter will be the final one, I think. I don't know I might end up splitting it into two chapters, I haven't finished it yet.

Thank you all for taking a few minutes of your day to read this story :)

side note: I apologize for any weird typos. I'm dyslexic and I can't will myself to proofread. I mean I'm sure as hell the entire story is filled with typos but I usually try harder at weeding out my mistakes.