Stacie started to understand Aubrey's warning about her new work conditions and its demands the first time she woke up to an empty bed and a handwritten note explaining she'd received a call demanding her presence across the country to prep for a meeting early Monday morning, and apologizing for leaving the Bella house without waking her first. Despite her best efforts, and the fact that she had known Aubrey had done her best to even make it to Georgia for the weekend, a mere two weeks after her last visit, it was hard not to feel bad to wake up that way on a Sunday morning. She felt equally bad when she found out from Beca that Aubrey had been leaving just as Beca had been coming home from her midnight shift at the radio station, meaning Aubrey had barely slept before she'd left.

Luckily, it was a Sunday, and whoever had summoned Aubrey was kind enough to let their employees take time off to prepare for the morning meeting ahead.

"Where are you right now?" Stacie asked, seated on the couch in the living room with some of the other Bellas doing their homework around her, while she watched Jessica and Chloe by the dining room table, looking over the music for their backup set for semifinals.

"I don't know." Aubrey sighed. "Somewhere in Nevada."

"Vegas?"

"I wish. Somewhere off-Vegas, actually."

Stacie smiled wryly. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"I don't think I'd have the energy for that, even if I were inclined to." Aubrey replied. "I'm really sorry about just leaving."

"Why didn't you wake me?"

Aubrey sighed softly. "We'd just fallen asleep when the phone call came in. I didn't want to wake you."

"Why do they need you there on a Sunday, anyway?" Stacie asked. "Couldn't this have been done by phone, or email, or, I don't know, Friday?"

"Baby, I wish I knew. But they call, I answer. I get a flight itinerary, I fly. It's kind of how it works."

"They say jump, you ask how high?"

"I actually have to jump, but you get the idea."

"Your job sucks."

"I know."

Stacie paused, and asked, "You came to visit me with business clothes in your bag?"

"It's kind of a necessity at this point," Aubrey admitted.

Stacie frowned. "Have you slept?"

"What's sleep?" Aubrey laughed wryly. It was said in a joking manner, and she tried to make light of it, but she honestly had hated being jolted awake at an ungodly hour of morning to be told she needed to take a flight out west to be part of a meeting she hadn't even known existed until they had called her in.

Stacie quirked an eyebrow, curious, but she knew Aubrey wasn't going to be forthcoming in discussing office matters. "How long will you be there?"

"Uh, Tuesday? I don't know. Until the deal's finalized, I guess."

Stacie pouted. "I miss you already."

"You just saw me."

"I know, but I had plans for this weekend." Stacie grumbled.

"Yeah?"

"Mostly sex," - Stacie was cut off by the Bellas around her collectively groaning and protesting, joking about the offense to their sensibilities, and she glared at them - "but there were some other stuff, too."

"Trust me, I would have preferred to stay there than be here." Aubrey assured her. There was a pause, and then asked, "Was Chloe okay with us just locking her out of the room last night?"

"It was locking her out or having her walk in, I think she preferred being locked out and taking the couch."

"You owe me!" Chloe called out to her.

Stacie ignored her, continuing to address Aubrey. "So, semis are coming up…"

Aubrey hummed. "Where are the semifinals going to be held this year?"

"Funny you should ask. It's going to be in Atlanta, and if you play your cards right, I can get you a ticket." Stacie lowered her voice, "And rumor has it that the girl giving you the ticket? Pretty awesome in bed."

Aubrey laughed. "I will have you know, young lady, I have a girlfriend that I love very much."

"Yeah?"

"And she's pretty hot, so."

"Hot or not, can she make you c—"

"Stacie!" Came the round of exclamatory protest around her, cutting her off, and Stacie pouted at her friends.

"Get a room!" Fat Amy told her.

"I'll see what I can do." Aubrey told Stacie with a sigh. "Send me details, I'll clear my calendar."

"Awesome." Stacie breathed. "Take care of yourself."

"I'm trying." Aubrey assured her, exhaustion seeping into her voice. "I love you."

Stacie blushed, because she honestly still wasn't used to that kind of easy, heartfelt declarations, and smiled as she returned, "I love you too."

"Awww." The Bellas cooed, making Stacie glare at them as she hung up.

Stacie shook her head at her friends in fond exasperation, even as a part of her worried about Aubrey. After all, from the very first time they had spent the night together, Aubrey made it a point to wake Stacie up if she was leaving. Note or not, Aubrey always made sure she told Stacie where she was going, and that Stacie wouldn't wake up to an empty bed wondering where Aubrey was.

And that concern was nothing compared to her worry over Aubrey's well-being; she knew Aubrey's job was a highly-demanding, highly-stressful job, but she hadn't considered the possibility that because she now traveled less meant that when she did, it would be to high-stakes meetings that required planning meetings and briefings on weekends. And Aubrey had always been weary of her job, often declared it tiring, but she'd never actually said, or agreed out loud, that it sucked.

"Hey."

Stacie turned, and saw Beca leaning over the back of the couch, concern written all over her features.

"Are you okay?" Beca asked softly.

Stacie forced a weak smile. "Yeah. I'm fine."

Beca's gaze flickered briefly to the phone in Stacie's hand, and asked, "Aubrey?"

"Nevada."

Beca frowned. "Vegas?"

"Off-Vegas."

"There's more to Nevada than Vegas?" Beca asked, confused.

"I know, right?" Stacie smiled at her friend. "Hey, would you mind if I asked Aubrey to come over for semis?"

Beca's brow furrowed. "Why would I mind?"

"I don't know. She might have… opinions, on our set." Stacie hedged. She doubted Aubrey would actually say anything even if she did, but she wanted to get Beca on her side first.

Beca frowned, worried. "What's wrong with our set?"

"Nothing!" Stacie said hurriedly. "I just… I want to make sure you'll be okay with it."

"If this is about that thing from Valentine's, I apologized." Beca said quickly. She had cornered Aubrey on her way out that time, and it had actually been more of a mumbled apology that Aubrey just sighed and waved off; but they had been somewhat more civil the last time Aubrey had been in town. Beca figured that she and Aubrey had an understanding: they didn't do heart-to-hearts or long-winded confessions.

"Yeah, I know, I mean more like, as former captain and everything."

"You know?" Beca asked, surprised.

Stacie frowned at her. "Yeah, she told me."

Beca blinked. Okay, so clearly Aubrey and Stacie really did do more than just make out at every given opportunity and actually talked. She shuddered, suddenly remembering the image of the two of them going at it in the kitchen, and shook her head in an attempt to clear the visual away. "No, yeah, it's fine. It's cool. She's stricter with the breakdowns anyway, that might actually help."

"Cool." Stacie smiled. "Thanks, Beca."

Beca smiled back, but it faded as she asked, "What's in Nevada?"

The thing was, Stacie actually had no idea. Because Aubrey's job was riddled with confidentiality clauses and she made it a point not to burden Stacie with details about her job, especially since Stacie, having been exposed to a little of Aubrey's corporate world, would understand at least part of what her job entailed.

It didn't help that they had already fallen into the very thing Stacie had been wary of, that she was a girl waiting for a phone call. The daily text messages, for obvious reasons, didn't quite have the same impact and resonance of actually having a conversation, of hearing Aubrey's voice.

Stacie was in the kitchen working on her homework in the early hours of morning when she decided to try and send a message to Aubrey.

The phone call came in a second later.

"Why are you still awake?" Aubrey asked.

"Why are you?" Stacie returned.

Aubrey sighed. "I have to finish a report before I have to take a flight in a few hours."

"Babe." Stacie said, in mild reprimand.

"I know." Aubrey exhaled. "So what's your excuse?"

"Homework."

"I miss homework." Aubrey mused wistfully. There was a pause on Aubrey's end before she asked, "How are you? How are rehearsals for the semis?"

"I'm okay. I thought this chapter would be easier, but I think I've figured it out." Stacie admitted. "And we're going to crush it at the semis, so you better make plans for when the Bellas get to New York."

Aubrey chuckled softly. "Yeah? Anything in particular I should be planning there, Anastasia?"

Stacie wanted to play coy, maybe even tease Aubrey a little about the possibilities of the two of them in New York, but all she could say was, "I just want to see you."

"You're seeing me in a few weeks." Aubrey reminded.

"Yeah, but for how long? At least if you're in New York when we're there for the finals you can pretend you have an ear infection and can't fly." Stacie pointed out.

"Sounds like a plan."

"I know how much you love plans."

"Yeah." Aubrey was quiet for a moment, before she broached, "How do you feel about San José del Cabo?"

"Is that like Cabo San Lucas?"

"It's like the next town."

Stacie smiled. "Spring break?"

"Are you in?"

"Hell yeah, I'm in. Are you sure you can take that time off?"

"I have a ton of overtime I can use as vacation time. And I already told them, so they've been warned."

Stacie grinned. "Just you and me?"

"And a bunch of tourists, but hopefully they'll mostly be in Cabo San Lucas instead."

"Aubrey?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are they making you travel so late?"

"Actually they're making me travel early." Aubrey corrected. "And it's so that I'll be there first thing, I can do what needs to be done and be back in New York by end of day." She chuckled dryly. "But it could be worse: once we had to fly out to start the business day in California, troubleshoot in Texas, and be in Florida for an evening seminar. That was a really crappy day."

Despite herself, Stacie had to smile, because she knew exactly what was driving Aubrey and why she didn't balk at the insane demands her job wanted from her. "You love it."

"I like getting things done, yeah." Aubrey admitted. She fell silent, before quietly adding, "But it doesn't always feel like that."

Stacie grumbled, "You need an assistant."

"I'm Head Office Bitch, Stacie." Aubrey reminded gently. "I am the assistant."

"You know that's not what that title means, right?"

"It applies anyway."

"I'm sorry, baby."

"Yeah." Aubrey conceded. She sighed again. "I have to finish this thing, but I'll call you tomorrow?"

"Okay." Stacie answered, although she was pretty sure she would be waiting for a phone call that wasn't going to come, replaced instead with a late-night text message wishing her good night. "Text me when your plane lands?"

"You'll be in class."

"Text me anyway."

"Then I will." Aubrey replied. "Get some sleep, Stacie."

"You too, Bree." Stacie returned. "I love you."

"Love you too."

They hadn't meant to, but the phone call set a pattern in their relationship, the two of them trading text messages and playing phone tag between them, having more of a relationship with each other's voice mail than with each other. Stacie was deep in rehearsals, preparing up to two different sets in case their competition at semifinals somehow managed set similar to their own, while Aubrey was busy with work.

Stacie was just grateful the Bellas all liked each other and Beca and Chloe were a formidable partnership as their co-captains, because one Tuesday morning, disaster struck.

Beca paced the length of their living room while the rest of the Bellas gathered around Jessica's laptop, watching a video of a recent performance by their semifinal rival from Nashville, and Stacie had to admit, it didn't look good.

"They have four sets that use three of the songs we already have." Beca muttered to herself, but loudly enough for her teammates to hear.

"Maybe they won't use any of those sets." Fat Amy offered.

"They have it on their arsenal and didn't use it at their quarters," Chloe reminded. "They're gonna use one of them."

Beca wrung her hands, because there was only one clear solution, but she wasn't sure if they had enough time for her to create the mix to her standards, break it down, rehearse it, and create choreography for it. "We have to work with this."

"What, we're going to have three sets?" Cynthia Rose asked dryly.

"Yes." Both Beca and Chloe declared.

The Bellas all glanced at each other, wary.

"It's insane." Stacie told Aubrey later that night, when Aubrey called after a day of exchanged text messages.

"It's playing it safe." Aubrey corrected. "If their sets with those songs really are as good as you say they are, they really won't miss the opportunity to show it off in competition."

Stacie frowned. "You think so?"

"It's what I would do." Aubrey admitted. After a pause, she added, "If, you know, I had a set I didn't just borrow from the captain before me who drilled into me how much I screwed up a set that would have won her the championship."

"Bree."

"But originality counts for so much in the judging. Unless you go first, you're going to need backups."

Stacie made a face. "I guess."

"But I actually didn't call you to talk about semifinals." Aubrey told her. She took a deep breath. "I'm going to North Carolina this weekend, I would like it if you could come and meet me there."

Stacie wrinkled her brow at the somewhat formality of the invitation. "North Carolina?"

"Yes."

"What's in North Carolina?"

"Um, me?" Aubrey asked, suddenly hesitant with the less-than-enthused reception to her invitation.

"Aubrey, I can't just skip rehearsal if the reason I'm giving is to see you."

Aubrey exhaled. "I have a meeting on Friday afternoon and Monday morning, so I have to stay for the weekend."

"You're still doing meetings?"

"Yeah," Aubrey groaned. "The newly-appointed liaison between Oversight and our regional clients has been having problems with the communication thread. And because I had so much face time with our clients, I have to formally introduce her to them so they know I have her back."

"Oh."

"So? Raleigh? There's a country fair just a little up north I think you'll like."

Stacie frowned, confused. "What about me spells 'country fair'?"

"Okay, it's a beer and barbecue tour," Aubrey amended. "I'll even promise to not say a word if you use a fake ID. Just, please?"

Stacie glanced over to the other side of her room, at the mess that was Chloe's bed, which was still empty despite the late hour because she and Cynthia Rose were working with Beca to come up with a new shortlist of songs for their new set. "I don't know, Aubrey, we have to get our sets down so we can concentrate on learning the new one."

"Stacie."

"I'll try, okay? But I can't promise anything."

"Even just for one day?"

"Aubrey, I can't flake out on the Bellas when we might be screwed for semis." Stacie reminded. "You understand that, don't you?"

"I do. I know, I do, I get it. But I'm asking you for this one thing, Stacie."

"And I said I'll try."

The answer when it came was an abrupt, "Yeah."

"Aubrey." Stacie tried to cajole a warmer response, but she knew Aubrey wasn't going to hear it. "I promise I'll try, okay?"

She could practically imagine just how badly Aubrey was being forced to respond in a genial tone, but she definitely heard the defeated, "Please try."

Stacie hated the team from Nashville. "I'll call you."

"Okay." Aubrey sighed, and her voice was remarkably gentler when she added, "I love you."

Stacie nodded, even though she knew Aubrey couldn't see her, and hoped her words conveyed just how much she meant them. "I love you too."

And let it not be said that Stacie wasn't pulling her weight in the relationship, as she hounded Beca into coming up with a decent mix in the days that followed, hoping they had a working idea of what their backup-to-their-backup set would involve, since she could start coming up with ideas for choreography if they had a rough version of Beca's set list.

Beca groaned, dropping her head onto her laptop's keyboard, when she saw Stacie heading up the steps to the loft she shared with Fat Amy. "I don't have anything yet!"

"You have less than a week!"

"I know!" Beca shot back. "I know everyone thinks I'm really good at this and I work on these mixes all the time, but I don't just pull them out of my ass, Stacie."

"I hope so, because I'm never borrowing another one of your flash drives if that's the case." Stacie sat down on Fat Amy's bed and looked at Beca. "Will we be ready by semis?"

"We're good with one set, and you almost have choreography down with Plan B, so we need this one and depending how semis go, we might have two sets ready for finals."

Stacie exhaled. "Aubrey wants me to see her in Carolina this weekend."

Beca paused, and winced. "Stacie…"

"I've barely seen her in weeks, Beca."

"According to Chloe, and the way you locked her out a few weeks ago—"

"You know what I mean. She was barely here before she suddenly had to leave last time."

"Yeah, but…" Beca sighed. "Talk to Chloe. If she thinks we're okay for the weekend, you can go. But honestly…"

Stacie knew what Beca wasn't willing to say. "We're running behind."

"Just a little."

Stacie smiled grimly, and nodded in resignation.

Beca wanted to say something reassuring, but she knew Stacie had only approached her to try and attain some kind of approval to leave straight from the Bellas' captain. As much as Beca wanted to tell her friend to go and see Aubrey, having seen the decline in Stacie's spirits in the weeks since Aubrey left for Nevada, she knew they couldn't afford to miss a single day of rehearsal from that point forward. "I'm sorry, Stacie."