Despite her reservations regarding Aubrey and her continuing work with a certain redheaded liaison, Stacie couldn't dwell on it for very long, as she found her time occupied with rehearsals and completing school requirements leading to their finals, and consciously avoiding every and any suggestion to work once more as a summer intern - even one from her last summer job, because, well, because apparently they were no longer a subsidiary and had been bought into the monolithic group of companies that was Aubrey's employer.

When she'd asked Aubrey about it, the girl just sighed and replied that it had been an 11th hour acquisition, one that was well above her pay grade and hadn't been consulted on.

Besides, Aubrey wasn't likely to be on a self-imposed exile in Philadelphia for two summers in a row, and Stacie was hedging her bets that Aubrey would want her around for the summer, at least the few weeks after the Bellas' presumptive ICCA tour.

But while possible employment was the least of Stacie's concerns, the same couldn't be said for Denise, who pulled her aside one day and asked for a favor.

Stacie frowned. "You want to work for Aubrey?"

Which was weird, because she was pretty sure Denise was legitimately frightened of Aubrey.

"Not for Aubrey," Denise quickly corrected. "But maybe she knows of job openings? Or stuff?"

Aubrey probably did, since moving people through the corporate hierarchy was supposed to be her main job description.

And then Stacie realized why Denise was asking for a job recommendation from Aubrey. "You're graduating."

Denise nodded. "If I pass my finals, yeah."

Stacie grinned, and hugged her friend. "That's awesome! Why haven't you told everyone?"

At that, some of Denise's joy seemed to fade, and she admitted, "Chloe."

"Chloe?" Stacie echoed blankly. Chloe, after all, was a shining beacon of light in their group of Bellas; there was no real rhyme or reason why Denise would be hesitant to share something as joyous as her impending graduation.

"She gets weird when graduation comes up," Denise confided.

That was true, and Stacie couldn't refute the assertion. Stacie had noticed the same thing regarding her roommate, and was already worrying about whether talking to Aubrey about her suspicions was the right thing to do, or a recipe for disaster.

"But I figure, if I have a job lined up, she can't get too mad, right?" Denise mused hopefully.

And to be fair, it had worked for Aubrey when she'd graduated and had effectively bailed out on each one of the plans she and Chloe had made for that summer.

Of course, Chloe hadn't been graduating at the time, and Aubrey had taken the job as her own version of a petty rebellion against Chloe, so Stacie couldn't really be sure either way.

"So you'll talk to Aubrey, right?" Denise prompted.

"Yeah," Stacie nodded. "But why don't you just ask her?"

Denise gave her a bewildered look, and let out a short, sharp bark of laughter. "Right. Because she doesn't scare me at all."

"Please don't call my girlfriend scary."

Denise smiled knowingly at Stacie. "Only because I know Aubrey's scary mode kind of turns you on."

"She's so hot when she yells," Stacie conceded.

Denise laughed. "Didn't need to know that about the two of you, but okay."

Stacie rolled her eyes. "And you should tell the girls."

"I will." Denise promised. "I'm just hoping to do it after the ICCAs."

"Denise!"

"Chloe has a scary mode, too, you know." Denise told her. "And she doesn't like me nearly as much as she likes Aubrey."

Stacie conceded that point. But knowing that someone else had noticed Chloe's odd behavior at the topic of graduation gave the issue more relevance, and Stacie knew she needed to bring it up with Aubrey, hopefully to avoid the same confrontation they'd had earlier in the year when both Stacie and Chloe had neglected to tell Aubrey about Chloe's continued undergraduate studies.

And Denise's request.

Denise's request could be sent by text message, but the Chloe issue required a more delicate approach, and Stacie thought that would be so much easier to do if Aubrey Posen answered her phone like a normal person.

"Aubrey Posen's phone."

"Hey, are you busy?"

"I'm at work, so yeah."

"Oh." Stacie deflated, and checked the time to confirm her suspicions. "It's eight PM. Where are you?"

"I can't tell you that, and I think you know what that means when I'm also stuck at work, so this is nothing new."

Stacie frowned at the exasperated tone in Aubrey's voice. "Want to talk about it?"

"Yes, but I can't." Aubrey admitted.

So it was bad. "That bad?"

"If I don't do my job, it can only get worse," Aubrey replied. "But I could really use a break. What's up?"

Well, she wasn't telling Aubrey about Chloe now. "Has Denise called you?"

"Why would Denise call me?"

"She's asking if you could set her up with a job."

Aubrey paused, and hazarded, "Because…?"

"She's graduating." Stacie reminded.

"Sociology?"

"Social Work." Stacie corrected.

"Why?" Aubrey expressed, before she caught herself and amended, "I mean, oh." Aubrey let out a breath. "I guess I can do that. It won't be anything glamorous, but it'll be a job. Tell her to send me her resume."

"You can do that?" Stacie asked curiously. She knew Aubrey was kind of hot stuff, but she had sorely underestimated Aubrey's position.

"I'm in Operations, I can do that." Aubrey replied. "I can hook you up with a job."

"I'm into other forms of hooking with you."

Aubrey paused. "Uh…"

Stacie rolled her eyes at herself. "That didn't sound right to me, either." She smiled faintly. "But since I've mentioned it…"

"Are you offering?"

"Are you buying?"

"Why are you still implying you can be bought?" Aubrey asked curiously, but there was a lightness to her voice.

"I don't know!" Stacie exclaimed, laughing.

"I'm concerned."

"Me too, a little." Stacie admitted. "But when are you gonna be free again?"

"About a week from never." Aubrey groaned. "Someone high up in Ops up and left, and even with non-competes and non-disclosures, we're kind of scrambling after him. And that's on top of stuff we have to do anyway. But at least I'm not the one in charge of finding his replacement."

"Aw, baby, I'm sorry."

"Me too." Stacie could almost imagine the patented Posen pout on Aubrey's lips. "I hate that guy."

"Me too." Stacie agreed. "You want me to come over?"

"Yes." Aubrey sighed. "But I'll be in meetings this weekend."

"Why does your job suck," Stacie complained. "Next?"

"Same story."

Stacie whined. "You're lucky you're so hot, because the hunter has needs, Aubrey."

Aubrey laughed. "I love you too, but you need to tell him to chill."

"I would, but I have needs, too."

"Well, you need to chill, too."

Stacie pouted. "But I want to see you."

"I know, me too," Aubrey sighed. "But that's not looking likely anytime soon."

Stacie sighed as well. "This is not going to work in the long run."

"I know." Aubrey agreed. "But we'll have New York."

"That's in forever." Stacie whined. "And then there'll be a tour; and then who knows. What if I decide to start an internship somewhere and hook up with some other former Bella captain I hardcore crushed on and who I slept with on her graduation?"

"That's just a risk we'll have to take," Aubrey deadpanned. "And I'd hope you're not going to sleep with Chloe just to make that happen."

Well, that was as good an opening as any. "About that…"

"Please don't have sex with Chloe ever." Aubrey requested dryly.

"But she's here," Stacie teased, amused at Aubrey's possible deliberate misunderstanding of her segue.

"Remember how I said I'll never touch you again if you had sex with a Treble?" Aubrey reminded.

"Yes…"

"That also applies to Bellas." Aubrey informed her.

"But if we play by those rules, then I shouldn't be dating you either," Stacie pointed out.

"I'm an exception."

"You are, but you drive a hard bargain, Aubrey Posen," Stacie drawled.

"You think this is hard? I watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy and I'm going to watch The Hobbit with you," Aubrey returned. "That's hard."

Which reminded her: "Yeah, we really should have watched Smaug last Christmas."

"Smaug?"

"The sequel."

"There's a sequel?"

"Yes, baby, and I know there's only one book, and there are already so many differences between the books and movies, but-"

"Sex. Which we may never have again."

Stacie laughed, gamely allowing her rant to be interrupted. "Fine. But you know you're going to have to watch the trilogy anyway, right?"

"There are three Hobbit movies?" If incredulity could sound like a whine, Aubrey was able to accomplish it.

"The third one comes out this Christmas."

There was a definite whine in response to that information. "Maybe we won't spend Christmas together this year."

Stacie shrugged, because despite Aubrey's assertions, they both knew Aubrey was going to end up watching all three Hobbit movies eventually. "And I'm expecting a lot of sex for this current drought, Aubrey."

"It's barely been a month," Aubrey noted.

"It's the bad kind of orgasm denial, and I'm not pleased." And if Stacie had ever thought the words 'orgasm denial' would ever be a part of any relationship she was in, she did not expect it would be in this context.

But at least her girlfriend knew she wasn't just making idle complaints.

"I promise to make it up to you." Aubrey assured her.

Stacie let out an exaggerated sigh of resignation. "Fine. But take care of yourself, won't you? I'd like to call you one day and have the reason why you can't talk be because you're out with friends."

"I'll try."

And the part Stacie hated, but couldn't tell Aubrey, was that they both knew trying was the most Aubrey could promise when it came to taking better care for herself.

Before they hung up, however, Aubrey had to ask: "Are there really three Hobbit movies?"

"Yes. Stop pouting."

Stacie, however, did not follow her own instruction, as the following days found her calls and texts to Aubrey left unanswered until late at night with apologies, and she found herself pouting more than usual when she realized Aubrey seemed to avoid making any kind of promise whenever Stacie asked about when they could next see each other.

Especially since the text replies started coming in at a later time each time, and once Aubrey missed a day entirely and just sent a reply in the morning.

It was a cause for concern.

But Stacie wasn't being invited over, nor was she in the position to be read in on what Aubrey was working on, so all she could really do was focus on her schoolwork and rehearsals, and hope for the best.

Because she's made the same mistake before, thinking the worst about Aubrey when she was really just doing her job, and as it had become increasingly clear over the tenure of their relationship, Aubrey's dedication to her job – or to anything she had set her mind to focus on – was unrivaled.

As Beca liked to half-heartedly joke, she was still traumatized from their days of being under an ICCAs-obsessed Aubrey Posen.

So Stacie takes the delayed text responses and unanswered calls; the fact that practically everybody but her girlfriend replies or comments on her social media posts.

And it's a random Wednesday afternoon when she catches Flo watching the news feed on her laptop, supposedly doing homework, but the girl was staring at her laptop, riveted.

"What's going on?" Stacie asked, only to be ignored by Flo but answered by Fat Amy, who was reading a textbook in the living room.

"She's been watching that for hours now," Fat Amy started. "It involves a hostile takeover, job losses, and somehow stock prices are up."

Stacie frowned. "What?"

Flo pointed at the screen. "ELA gave their P&L last week, which everyone knew wasn't great, but in America an 'OK' is good enough, and were going to announce job cuts today, with new possible investors, but this morning B&L announced they were going to buy the majority and take over."

"Which is bad for everyone not with BL." Fat Amy added.

Stacie frowned, and glanced at the screen. The company acronyms didn't really help, since she didn't really follow the stock market so she didn't know what any of those were, but something nagged at her, as if the names sounded familiar.

And then the location where the press conference, being given by the ELA and B&L spokespeople, was being held flashed across the screen.

They had made the Bellas put together three separate sets at the last minute and gave rise to the Country Music Awards, but now Stacie truly resented the city: Nashville.

She immediately started dialing Aubrey's phone, but she wasn't exactly surprised to hear the busy tone.

Fat Amy noticed her sudden agitation. "What's wrong?"

Stacie pointed at Flo's laptop. "Aubrey's involved in that."

Flo's eyes widened. "Yikes."

"What do you mean?" Fat Amy asked, concerned.

"I mean," Stacie frowned, as her internet call wasn't being pushed through and her messages weren't even being delivered, and looked up at Fat Amy. "I know she's worked with B&L before, and I'm pretty sure ELA is a client. Job cuts are kind of her thing, and- Yes! Hello?"

"Today, of all days?"

"Aubrey?"

"No, because if you're calling for the reason we know you're calling, you would know Aubrey's busy right now."

Stacie frowned. "Kathryn?"

"Fires, Anastasia. Business fires. We're handling it."

"Why do you have Aubrey's phone?"

"Because she's one more call away from throwing it out the window." Kathryn reported. "Look, she can't talk right now – we're not even supposed to, anyway – but I'll make sure she knows you called."

"But—" But Kathryn had already hung up, leaving Stacie confused, frustrated, and just a little seething. "Bitch hung up on me."

"Who?" Fat Amy queried.

"Kathryn." Stacie muttered. At Fat Amy's confused look, she elaborated, "Red hair, this tall, flirts with my girlfriend."

"Ohhh," both Flo and Fat Amy nodded in understanding.

"We don't like her," Fat Amy recalled.

"We really don't," Stacie agreed. Especially if that redheaded liaison was with Aubrey during a time of intense frustration when she could be confided in and not Stacie.

Aubrey didn't call back, only sending a text message later that night about how she won't be free to call or text Stacie for the next few days.

At least there was an 'I love you. New York, I promise.' tacked on, so Stacie knew not all of Aubrey's contacts were sent the same thing.

And she loves the Bellas, who all offer to go to her classes or get her homework if she needs to go to Aubrey, but Stacie couldn't exactly just leave to do that. Because Nashville was clearly off-limits. A phone call to Dan the next day revealed that, yes, Aubrey probably did help orchestrate the takeover and buy-out, but once the deal was done – and since jobs weren't cut as expected, Aubrey probably wouldn't be there anymore. But she wasn't in New York.

And she wasn't in Atlanta, either, so Stacie just had no idea where her girlfriend could be.

Chloe could only offer, "She might go home."

But Aubrey didn't call South Carolina, the place where she grew up, as home anymore. Even if Stacie knew Aubrey's mom and grandparents lived in North Carolina, she didn't have an address.

Sleep didn't come easily, but school was tiring and rehearsals were in full swing, so getting a phone call in the middle of the night just wasn't Stacie's favorite thing.

But she knew of only one person who would call at odd hours of night.

Stacie quickly answered, "Aubrey?"

"Guess again, Annie."

Stacie hated her, so much. "Kathryn."

"Aubrey hasn't called you?"

If this woman was calling to rub it in, Stacie would not be held accountable for her actions. "Are you calling this late just to be mean, or are you really just terrible?"

Ignoring the question, Kathryn responded, "Write this down."

"Why—"

But Kathryn just started dictating a series of numbers, directions, and names, making Stacie scramble for pen and paper – thankfully, she was a college student, so she had plenty of those lying around – and ended up with a weird collection of symbols.

"What is this?"

"Directions. And an address. You're welcome."