Benjamin Applebaum didn't handle crying girls well. So when Beca burst through the doors of the Treblehouse, tears streaming down her cheeks, he almost fell off the couch.

"Hey Bec", he said uncertainly, as she threw herself down beside him. She flung her arms around his neck and he awkwardly patted her back, unsure how to react. Beca Mitchell didn't cry, and when she did, she certainly didn't come running to him (she usually ran away from him, that was the kind of relationship they had). She sobbed into his shoulder, and he patted the back of her head, unsure what to do.

"Hey Jesse?" he called uncertainly up the stairs. "Jess! Are you home?"

"No!" Beca whipped her head up so fast she almost gave him a concussion, pulling back from her friend. "Jesse's not here- I can't tell Jesse- not yet- I don't know!"

"Jesse's not here", Donald yelled from the kitchen, sticking his head into the living room. "Well... it looks like you've got this all under control Benjamin. I'm going to the library. Always nice to see you Beca. Take care, guys".

She wept for another few minutes, thoroughly soaking Benji's neck and making him tremendously uncomfortable, before voicing her thoughts.

"I need you to drive me to a pharmacy".

"Are you sick?"

"No". She swallowed hard, scrubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand. "But my period is late. I need to buy a pregnancy test".

Benji stared at her with wide eyes, before she stood up and threw his shoes at him.

"Let's go".

The two rode in silence to the pharmacy, Beca choosing to leave Benji in the car while she scurried inside.

There were so many.

Why were they so many?

So after what felt like an eternity, she grabbed the cheapest box and the most expensive box, laying them down on the counter so the pictures wouldn't show. The young woman behind the counter gave her a sympathetic look as she fumbled with her change, before sprinting back out to where Benji was waiting.

"Where are we going now?" he wanted to know, the first words either of them had uttered since her confession.

"Home, I guess. To the Treblehouse". She swallowed hard. "To find out my future".

She wouldn't let him come upstairs while she peed on the sticks. But the moment her pants were back on and a timer had been set, she invited him into the bathroom, squeezing his hand nervously.

("Did you wash your hands?" "Yes I fucking washed my hands Benji and is this really what matters right now? We're waiting to find out if I've fucked up my future or not".)

"Oh, shit shit shit shit", she mumbled as she glanced nervously at the two pregnancy tests on the bathroom counter. "Fuck- sorry Benji- I know swearing isn't helping. But fuck! I can't be pregnant!"

"You might not be pregnant?" he offered carefully. "Like, um, I thought girls could be- could be late- I mean I don't know too much about... about all of that, but-"

"I know there's dozens of reasons why my period might be late", she continued, ignoring the red flooding to Benji's cheeks (as much fun as it was to watch Benji stutter over women problems, she needed to set him straight). "So I can't be pregnant! Right Benj?"

He squeezed her hand in response, looking down at their feet.

"We need to clean this bathroom", she said after a solid thirty second silence, making Benji jump.

"What?"

"We need to clean the bathroom, because if those sticks are positive this is where I live now". She bit her bottom lip nervously. "Or I could run away!"

"What?"

"I'm going to run away. You and me, we're gonna run away. Away from Jesse and the Bellas and the family who are going to- oh fuck I'm going to have to tell my parents!" she almost wept. "Oh, I want my mum".

"Beca-"

"I want my mum- I need my mum!"

He'd never seen her like that before. The Beca Mitchell that he knew was a badass and she was tough and she didn't cry, not even on the very worst days. She was the strongest person he knew- but even the strongest people needed their mum sometimes.

"It's going to be okay". He squeezed her hand gently.

"How am I gonna tell Jesse?" she almost shrieked. "How am I gonna drop that bomb? Just be like 'oh hey I'm gonna be a mum', how the fuck is that going to go down?"

"Hey!" Benji almost barked. "He wants kids!"

"When he's in his thirties! We are nineteen!"

"So? So it just happened a little earlier than expected! He'll be excited! This is Jesse! Hasn't he been talking about aca-children for like a year now?"

"Don't say that Benji".

"Sorry".

"Don't tell Jesse, about this afternoon".

"I won't", he assured her. "I won't tell anyone".

She flung her arms around him, squeezing him tight. "Thank you Benji".

The timer on her phone interrupted their hug, and they stared at each other, horrified.

"Here we go", she mumbled, letting go of Benji and moving over to the counter. She turned the sticks over, staring, making sure she was reading them correctly.

"So, what does it say?" Benji wanted to know, and she held them out to him.

"Positive", he whispered, and she burst into noisy tears.

"Are you sure?"

"Did you do it right?" he checked, and she stared at him.

"How do you pee on a stick the wrong way? Is there a wrong way to pee on a stick? Because if there is friend be sure to tell me!"

"I don't know!" he snatched up the box, scanning his eyes over the instructions (they were very specific and made him very uncomfortable).

"Beca?"

"What?" she stared down at the sticks in her hand, trying to take it all in. Two pink lines. The giant 'POSITIVE' glowing back at her. How was she supposed to take care of a baby when she could barely take care of herself?

"You're gonna have a baby", he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I'm going to have a baby", she wailed, running down the hall, throwing herself onto Jesse's bed and crying into the pillow, still holding the two pregnancy tests.

Benji awkwardly sat on the edge of the bed, patting her shoulder.

"What are we gonna do?" Benji wanted to know, as Beca collapsed onto Jesse's bed.

She stared at him, tears glistening in her eyes and spilling down her cheeks. "You aren't the father, you know that right?"

"Of course", Benji said quickly, nodding. "I meant what are you gonna do?"

"I've got to tell Jesse that's what's I've got to do".

"He's going to be really excited", Benji offered in consolation. "Jesse's gonna be thrilled. He wants an aca-baby. With you. He wants an aca-baby with you".

"Yeah but when we're like thirty, not nineteen!" she bawled into the pillow. "We've already had this conversation Benji and its not helping!"

"He'll still be excited!" he protested, still awkwardly patting her back. "He wants aca-children and he's got the aca-girl and his drunken hood night prediction came true, so I guess that's pretty cool. And you're gonna be a great mum Beca, that kid is going to be so smart and talented and very pretty". He blushed. "Its gonna be pretty lucky, with you two as its parents. And me as its favourite uncle. I'm gonna be a really cool uncle. Yeah, I'm totally gonna be the cool uncle".

"You really think he's gonna be excited?"

Benji nodded, trying not to show his hurt when she chose to ignore his favourite uncle comment. "Yep".

"Don't tell him, okay?" she checked.

"I won't", he promised. "Oh God no, I won't tell him. I won't tell anyone. My lips are sealed. No one's gonna find out from me".

"Benji, shut up". She leaned against him and he patted her back gently.

"Do you want me to get you anything?"

"No thank you Benji". She sighed heavily, before lying back down on the pillow and wriggling under the blankets. "I think I'll just hide up here for a while until Jesse gets home... work out how to tell him and all".

"Okay". He nodded carefully. "Well I'll be downstairs then I guess".

"Benj?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you". She looked down at the chipped nail polish on her fingernails. "This baby is gonna be pretty lucky to have you as its favourite uncle".

He beamed, a ridiculous ear to ear smile that Beca had only ever seen once before and in any other situation, she would have laughed.

But she didn't have any energy left to laugh, so she simply put her head back down on Jesse's pillow and closed her eyes.

"Good night Beca", Benji said quietly, closing the door.

"Hey", Jesse said, pushing open the door of the Treblehouse and setting his backpack down. "Hey Benji".

"You need to talk to Beca", he said immediately.

"Is everything okay?" Jesse said suspiciously. "Benji?"

"You need to talk to Beca", he repeated. "She's asleep in your bed. I need to go to the library".

"Benji-"

"Talk to Beca!" and he scurried out the front door.

"That boy is so weird", he mumbled, chuckling a little. "Bec?"

Opening the door to their bedroom, he found Beca curled in a ball on his bed, in the same position Benji had left her an hour earlier. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was even. He grinned at the peaceful expression on her face- she hadn't been sleeping well since aca-initiation night, and it was clear that she needed the rest.

"Sleep tight sweet girl", he whispered softly, draping the blankets lightly over her. At the touch Beca stirred and Jesse froze, hoping that she'd go back to sleep.

"Hey nerd", she murmured, and it was then that Jesse noticed her red eyes and slightly puffy cheeks.

Beca Mitchell didn't cry. So when she did, there was something really wrong.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he said in concern, plonking himself down beside her. She propped herself up on her elbow so she was facing him, yawning a little.

"How was class?" she said instead.

"What's wrong?" he repeated.

"Nothing".

"Bec, you've been crying. What happened?"

"I've just had a really shitty day-"

"No you haven't, a shitty day doesn't make you cry", he objected (a shitty day made her yell at the people she cared about, but he wasn't about to bring that up). "What's happening? You don't cry Bec, you're not a crier. What's going on?"

"Nothing". She turned away from him, burying herself back under the covers.

"Beca", he said softly, lying down beside her. "Don't shut me out, what's happened?"

He put an arm around her, drawing patterns on her back.

"You know how I've been really sick?" she said suddenly, and Jesse gasped. "Well I asked Benji to take me to the pharmacy today-"

"Oh my God, what is it?"

(Trust Jesse to jump to the worst possible conclusions. Honestly, she could pass him off as a Bella the way he did that.)

"Jesse, I'm having a baby". She swallowed hard, waiting for the explosion.

"Excuse me?" he said calmly.

"Please don't make me repeat it", she mumbled, extracting her balled fist from underneath the blankets (she had to change the sheets, that was disgusting) and showing him the two tests she hadn't let go of. "Ummm... I don't really know how... well, I'm not that... it's positive".

He was silent, taking it all in, and Beca hiccupped.

"Please say something", she whimpered.

"We're going to have a baby?" he said quietly.

"Mmm hmm". She bit her bottom lip hard. "what are we gonna do?"

She didn't know what she wanted to do. She hadn't had the chance to think about it properly, not with Benji and her breakdown.

"what do you want to do?" he checked.

He knew what he wanted. It wasn't what he was expecting, but he wanted to have a baby with her. Granted, he had thought that day would come when they were in their thirties or something, but sometimes life threw curveballs. It was a fucking big curveball, but one he was willing to take on.

It was a choice they had to make together, but it was Beca's body that had to carry that baby.

"What do you want to do?" she countered.

(she hated it when he answered her question with a question, and there she was doing the exact same thing.)

"Hey there little bean!" Jesse said, lifting Beca's shirt up to reveal a flat, ivory tummy. "I'm your daddy! I'm gonna be a daddy!" he pressed a noisy kiss to her pale skin, making her squirm. "We're having a baby! I'm your daddy!"

"Oh my God you're so weird". She rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help the grin creeping onto her face. "Are we having a baby?"

"We're gonna have an aca-baby!"

"Shhhhh!"

"You're having my baby! What a lovely way to say how much you love me!"

"Oh my God, stop!"

He didn't stop. Instead of stopping, he did the exact opposite. He streamed the song to the downstairs TV, blasting through the entire house. He whirled her down the stairs, spinning her around and holding her tight, and dipping into one of the most passion filled embraces Beca had ever been in.

"You're having my baby", he whispered, and Bec felt herself falling in love all over again.