A/N: Alright, another chapter out Although I'm not really happy with it The first part of it went so much better in my head but when I got it down on paper, not so much. Also, not the best stopping point but I really didn't know where it would be..so that's where I stopped for this chapter. Oh well, in the immortal words of Farmer Hoggett, "That'll do, pig. That'll do."
No beta, all mistakes are mine.
Disclaimer: No owning of Pitch Perfect or PP2 here, nothing to see. Just keep walking.
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The next two months flew by and before the girls knew it, Thanksgiving was around the corner. Emily had worked her schedule around so that all of her classes were in the morning (go figure, it was easier to find open classes at 8 a.m. than at 2 p.m., not that Emily minded the early classes) so she would have the afternoon free for studio work (for the first month) and/or Bellas practices (when she wasn't in the studio). Beca started spending almost all of time at the studio, working through Emily's tracks when Emily was there and splitting time between Emily's tracks and some new projects that Michael had given her (but he stressed that Emily's project was of the top priority). It was one of these projects that almost caused some issues between the two girls.
Emily smiled as she walked the three blocks from the bus stop to Residual Heat. Her last two classes had been cancelled and she was hoping that if she got into the studio early today that Beca would let them go home early because she was in serious need of some Beca time. Dealing with having to live with either the new Bellas or Chloe and Aubrey was not always the most productive for their alone time, especially since the new Bellas were all a little awestruck with Beca. The thought of some alone time with Beca brought a small smile to her face.
Her thoughts came crashing to a halt when she happened to look through the window of the little bistro she was passing and saw Beca sitting there laughing at something the willowy blonde she was with obviously said. She had to stop and do a double take to make sure it was Beca, but it was definitely her, with her hand reaching out to gently touch the top of the other girl's hand, giving it a squeeze before pulling back.
Emily stood there dumbstruck for a minute. Her mind was reeling, should she go in and say something, should she ignore it. She opted for going in. She walked up to the table, "Hey Beca, I thought you were going to be in the studio today?"
Beca looked a little startled to see Emily, but stood up quickly with a smile and guiding Emily next to her by her arm and turning her towards the blonde, "Susie, this is Emily, the artist I told you about. We're going to be finishing up the last track on her first album today, or at least I hope we can get it finished today."
When Beca didn't appear to want to say more, Emily gave her a little frown to which Beca gave her a confused look. Finally Emily said with a hurt tone, "About that Beca, can I talk to you for a minute? In private?"
Beca gave her another puzzled look, her eyebrows crinkling together in confusion before responding, "Sure."
She turned to Susie with an, "Excuse us, we'll be right back," before guiding Emily outside with a hand on her elbow.
When they were outside and away from the bistro window she brought them to a stop and turned her girlfriend around, only to find tears welling in the younger girl's eyes. Her thumb quickly reached up to brush the offending moisture away only to have her hand pushed roughly away, "I know we've never defined what we are, but I thought you'd at least let me know if you were going to date other people."
Beca stuttered out, "Haven't defined what we are?"
Emily felt the first tears fall, trailing down her cheeks as she nodded at the smaller girl before Beca enveloped her in a hug, one hand rubbing soothingly up and down her back, "Shhh, I'm not seeing other people baby. I promise."
Emily gripped Beca's shirt tightly, the fabric bunching in her fist as she whispered, "You're not?"
Beca pushed her back slightly to look in her eyes, this time managing to wipe away a few tears, "And I thought we defined things the day after our first date, when we told Chloe and Aubrey we were girlfriends? I mean last time I checked I thought that meant something like being exclusive or something. And what about the fact that we've spent an entire three days apart since June, and that was only because you wanted to go home and I had to work."
Emily shrugged shyly, "I thought maybe that was just you being, well you, with Chloe and that maybe you were getting bored with me."
Beca leaned up and kissed her, "I wouldn't joke about that, even with Chloe and I'm definitely not bored with you. Besides, I love you Emily Junk, why would I want to be with anyone else?"
Beca looked up and saw more tears shining in Emily's eyes, this time happy tears as the taller girl worried at her bottom lip with her teeth, "You love me?"
Beca reached up and brushed the tears away again with a soft smile on her lips, "Yes Ems, I love you."
Emily sighed as she leaned down and softly kissed Beca's soft lips before resting her forehead against Beca's, "I love you too Beca." After a moment of just enjoying each other in their own little bubble as people went by going about their day, Emily pulled back, "Sorry about that, I just saw you with Susie and you introduced me as an artist rather than your girlfriend and I thought, well you know what I thought. Sorry."
Beca smiled up at her, "Shhh, apparently I haven't been clear enough about how I feel about you. It looks like we both have some things to work on. So what are you doing here? I didn't think we were working until this afternoon?"
Emily smiled, "Well I thought I'd surprise you. Surprise! My last two classes were cancelled and I thought that maybe we could get into the studio a little early today and then maybe sneak away and do something, just the two of us. And my mind was on that when I saw you with Susie, and we all know how that went. Who is she by the way?"
Beca smirked, happy so see her girlfriend rambling again, "That's Susie Sommerfeld. Apparently she's an up and coming artist and the studio wants me to work with her on a couple of demos." She nudged Emily with her elbow, "It appears someone is impressing the big wigs at the studio and bringing me along for the ride."
Emily turned Beca around, linking their arms as she guided them back towards the bistro, "I think it's the other way around, so we'll just have to agree to disagree. Now let's get back to your meeting."
Emily unlinked their arms when they got to the door and was surprised when Beca reached down and took her hand, entwining their fingers together as they approached the table. She stood to the side and motioned for Emily to take the seat further back before sitting next to her, linking their fingers again, "Sorry about that Susie, there was just some confusion about our scheduling."
Susie smirked conspiratorially at Emily, "Don't worry, it's guys only for me."
Emily blushed before stuttering out, "Go-od to know."
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It actually took them another week to finish up the last few tracks, pushing them into the money that Beca had set aside for extra studio time. But when they were finished, they had thirteen songs to work with (plus the Bellas extra track) for the album. Then the final polishing work began. Beca and Michael sat down together and narrowed the list from thirteen to ten and put them in the order they thought would work best. Then Beca brought a rough version of the proposed album to Emily to listen to (along with the three tracks that didn't make the cut). After Emily approved of the album tracks and order (she only made one change in the order), then Beca and Michael got down to doing the final work on each track. They only had to bring Emily in a couple of times during final production to rework some small changes.
Christmas break came and went, the girls spending the holiday with Emily's family before coming back early to finish working on the album (and spend some time without eight other girls running around the Bella house). The studio dropped the first single, 'Flashlight', at the beginning of February. Emily's parents had come down on the day before it was released and Beca had Stacie Skype the first time it was played on the local New York station that morning for everyone. Beca couldn't help smiling as she watched Emily bouncing up and down as her song played through the computer speakers. After the song finished and Beca (and Emily) said goodbye to Stacie, Emily's mom pulled her daughter into a tight hug, whispering how proud she was of her before opening her arm to pull Beca in with them.
The single ended up topping out at number six in iTunes sales during the third week after it was released. Beca wondered if Lily had anything to do with that, but nah, she couldn't really do that. Could she? The song slowly climbed the charts though, topping out at number fourteen. The studio was pleased with the first release but thought that it could have done better if there had been more publicity to go along with the release (someone, somewhere probably got their ass chewed out for not thinking of this sooner). So, they wanted Emily to do a publicity 'tour' for the release of the second single off of the album. Emily didn't want to miss too much school (because she still was worried that this was only a dream and things would come crashing down sooner rather than later) so they worked out a deal for her to do it over her Spring Break and to have Beca appear with her.
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Beca stood there staring at the itinerary for their publicity 'tour'. When she didn't move for a minute, Emily walked over and placed her hand on Beca's arm, "Is everything alright?"
Beca just kind of shook her head and handed the itinerary sheet to Emily. Emily frowned as she took the paper, wondering what had her girlfriend speechless. Then she realized why Beca was so stunned. How were they going to do all of this in a week?
Then Beca finally spoke, "Did you see all of the shows they have us on Ems?" Emily nodded. Beca smiled, a huge smile, "Emily you are going to be so famous after this. They have you on just about every show out there."
Emily grinned and nodded, "The release is going to be Monday night on Jimmy Fallon, oh my God. I'm going to be on Jimmy Fallon!"
Apparently the studio had been right in their initial assessment, between the Bellas winning the World A Capella championship, the YouTube popularity of their performance and of course, 'Muffgate' playing a small role, Emily's debut wasn't relegated to the late, late circuit like most unknown artists. The two girls went over the rest of the itinerary, Fallon on Monday then a red eye flight to Los Angeles where they'd spend the next three days. They had Ellen and Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday, Conan on Wednesday and James Corden on Thursday before another red eye flight back to New York to finish off with the concert series on the Today Show. They also had some meetings with some representatives from the label in New York on Monday and in Los Angeles on Thursday before the tapings for those days.
The next few afternoons were spent on the phone ironing out some of the details of their appearances. Emily freaked out a little when the people from Jimmy Fallon wanted to do a cover of 'Flashlight' in a classroom instruments segment before she sung the new release. Then it was Beca's turn to fangirl out when they were asked to do a carpool karaoke segment with James Corden. Emily gave the smaller girl a light shove when she hit mute and raised an eyebrow at Beca, "So much for the badass image."
Beca pushed her right back, "Shut up, carpool karaoke is so cool."
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Wednesday morning of the tour, Emily woke to a very eager brunette shaking her. She pulled her pillow over her head as she mumbled, "Go away."
Beca grabbed the pillow and yanked it off of the younger girl, "Come on Ems, up and at 'em. Where is that morning person that's always up and eager to go before me?"
Emily pulled the covers over her head, "I left her in Atlanta."
Beca laughed as she pulled the covers back down, sitting next to her girlfriend holding a cup of coffee for her, "Come on, get up. It's 9:00 already and I have a surprise for you, but we have to get going by ten if we are going to make it in time for the taping later."
Emily squinted one eye open, "What kind of surprise?"
Beca laughed, holding the cup of coffee out for her to see, "It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you."
Emily huffed, "Fine."
She sat up and took the coffee from her girlfriend. After taking a few sips she set it down on the nightstand and stretched. She caught Beca staring at her stretching out of the corner of her eye so she decided to have a little fun. She slipped out of bed, walking slowly to the bathroom with her hips swaying a little more than normal. As she walked, she slipped her nightshirt over her head, letting it drop to the floor. She stopped in the doorway to the bathroom, leaning against the door frame with her back to Beca and slid her panties down her legs. She held them up with one finger as she looked back over her shoulder to see Beca just sitting there staring, her mouth slightly open. Emily dropped the panties as she closed the door behind her, starting the shower.
Emily came back out of the bathroom with her towel wrapped around her to find a couple of muffins and a glass of juice waiting for her on the small table in their room. She broke off a piece of one of the muffins and had felt arms wrap around her waist as she popped it into her mouth. Beca kissed the back of her shoulder before nipping lightly on it, "You are so mean baby, doing that to me when we are on such a tight schedule."
Emily turned and kissed Beca on the nose, "Payback for not telling me what you have planned."
Beca smirked and gave her a playful slap on the ass, "Wow, a few talk show appearances and you're a diva already."
Emily raised her eyebrow as she looked at Beca, "Oh, you want to see diva, do you?"
Beca quickly pulled her into a kiss before trying to back her way out of the situation, "No, no. I was just kidding Ems."
Emily wrapped her arms back around the smaller girl, pulling her back into the kiss. When she finally pulled back she smiled, "I know baby. Now, how should I dress?"
Beca moved her hands in the air up and down her body, "Well, this is what I'm wearing. So casual and something that you don't mind getting a little dirty…maybe."
They finished getting ready and managed to make it down to the lobby a few minutes before their Uber arrived. The two girls chatted a bit and made some small talk with the driver during the ride to the waterfront. When they got out and Emily saw the sign for the 'Whale Watching' tour she turned to Beca, gripping the smaller girl's forearm tightly, "Whale watching? You're taking me whale watching?"
Beca smirked at the excited puppy next to her and just nodded. She wiggled her finger in her ear and scolded Emily after the girl jumped up and down and squealed, "What have we said about squealing in Beca's ear?" The smile on her face took any sting that might have been there out of the statement. Beca just shook her head and then slipped her hand into Emily's, leading her out to the boat that was about to head out into the harbor.
They were about twenty minutes into the tour when the boat slowed a little and the guide came over the PA system indicating they should look to the starboard side of the boat (with an added, "that's to the left for all the land lovers out there"). The girls were already close to the rail, so when the announcement came on, they quickly moved to the side of the boat, peering down at the water. Beca smiled as she alternated between watching Emily and the pod of dolphins swimming alongside the boat, their lithe bodies arching through the air as they easily kept pace with the boat. After watching for a few minutes, Emily turned back to Beca and Beca noticed the tears dripping down Emily's cheeks. She slowly reached out and brushed a tear away with her thumb, "Shhh, baby, why the tears?"
Beca was surprised by how much love she saw in Emily's eyes as the younger girl answered, "They're so beautiful Beca. Thank you for this. Thank you for everything." Then she pulled Beca in for a soft kiss before wrapping her arms around the smaller girl and resting her head on Beca's shoulder for a moment before turning back to the water, watching the dolphins continue to pace the boat.
Beca had gotten the studio to send a car for their return trip to ensure that the two girls wouldn't be late for their afternoon taping. As they drove back to their hotel, Emily continued an almost non-stop monolog about their boat ride, "I can't believe Gray whales can breach that many times in a row. And did you see how close the water came to splashing us when that one whale lob-tailed us? Of course you saw it, you were there. Do you think we can come back during the summer sometime? I'd really like to see the Blue whales too. Maybe next time, I mean if there is a next time, we might see some Orcas. I really wish we would have seen some of those today, it would have made it even more perfect." Beca just sat there, holding Emily's hand and nodding or agreeing when required, soaking in the feeling of just being with Emily when she was being, well, Emily.
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A/N: I'll bet you can guess where the dolphin scene idea came from….
