4: The Story
"Good Morning, Miss Mitchell," He greeted her with that warm, beautiful smile he knew she secretly loved. Beca groaned,
"Ugh, what's so good about it?" She turned away from the door and went to lay back down on her daybed. Jesse made his way and practically jumped over her.
"Today's the first day back at the radio station, babe." He wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and hugged her tight.
"But it's too early,"
"Becs, it's like 10:30,"
"Like I said, it's too early," she mumbled into her pillow.
"C'mon, the sooner we go, the sooner we could leave. We still gotta break in the desk for the new school year," he grinned and poked her waist. Even in her sleep state, Beca managed to laugh at her goofy boyfriend.
"Y'know, if there was an award for World's Cheesiest Couple, it would definitely go to you guys," Kamila had gotten back from her run and saw her brother and her roommate's position. Beca suddenly felt embarrassed and tried to quickly get up, but unfortunately, Jesse's bigger frame seemed to stop her from moving. Jesse just laughed and moved to sit on the edge of her bed.
"Good morning, Kammy," He teased his sister.
"Morning to you too, JJ." She teased back, sitting on the edge of her bed, taking off her Nikes.
"Mmm, touche, sis." Jesse raised an imaginary glass.
"JJ?" Beca asked while putting on a hoodie. Jesse scrunched his nose, not ever wanting to hear his girlfriend call him that name.
"It was the name I called Jesse when I couldn't quite pronounce my s's yet. JJ kind of stuck and I've called him that just until two years ago," Kamila smirked.
Beca raised her brow, "hmm.. JJ. I kind like it," She bent down to kiss his cheek.
Jesse glared at his sister, "alright, you two clowns," he got up to make his way to the door, "Becs, we better get going. Intern shows up in an hour and.. um we still haven't.. prepared." Beca got his clue and quickly grabbed her bag.
"See you at rehearsals, Kamz!" And just like that, the two lovebirds disappeared. Kamila just shook her head at them and laughed.
"Hey, Becs?" He started, while zipping up his pants,
"Yeah?" She responded, while fixing up her oh so noticeable sex hair.
"Thanks,"
She laughed, "For what? For the sex?" She grinned at him, expression quite hilarious.
"Ha, no.." He made his way to her body, sitting on the edge of the very well known desk, and placed his hands on her was it. "No, for Kamila. You've helped her a ton. Y'know she doesn't have the best self confidence about her voice and all she's ever done and loved was basketball,"
Beca raised her arms to wrap them around his neck, absentmindedly playing with his hair, "It's no problem, Jess. She's your sister. And you know what? I think she's starting to grow on me," she smiled at her boyfriend, and Jesse couldn't help but just fall more in love with this woman in his arms.
"She just been through a lot of shit," he nervously chuckled, "she's... my only sister and I try to do my best to always be there for her, and I'm just glad and thankful that you are, too." He gave her her favorite smile and left a kiss on the tip of her nose before making his way to the booth. While doing so, Beca still hasn't moved from her spot on the desk. What was it that madeJesse become so soft and more protective than usual? When it came to Kamila, she noticed he seemed to change in his demeanor. She didn't want to be rude about it and blatantly ask him, but how else would she find out? She jumped off the desk and inhaled deeply. As she got to the booth, she just leaned against the doorframe, watching the man she has grown to love. He introduced a song to the listeners before turning around to his girlfriend. Still secretly jumping for joy every time he thinks of the term. He smiled at her while slipping his hand into his pockets, "Penny for your thoughts, Miss Mitchell?" She simply smiled at him and bit her lip. Now or never, right?
"What you mentioned.. back there.. about Kamila going through a lot? What exactly did she go through? I mean, if you don't mind me asking." She nervously bit her bottom lip, a habit Jesse has grown to love. He just smiled at her, at the thought of her being nervous to ask him a personal question. He sighed and sat down on their office chair and patted his lap, wanting the comfort of her body close to his. She approached him, sat on his lap and draped her arm over his shoulder. Jesse cleared his throat before beginning a story he promised himself not to tell anyone.
"About four years ago, Kamila, my older brother, Ian and I got into really bad accident," at the mention of the word, both Jesse and Beca tightened their hold on each other. Sensing this to be a touchy subject, Beca already regretted even asking. "We were hit by some drunk driver in a tow truck. My brother and I got lucky with a couple of bruises and scratches. Ian had less of the impact since we were hit on the right side and he was driving. I crushed my arm, but not anything too drastic. I only had a cast for six weeks. But um, since we were hit a little more close to the rear end, Kamila got hit the hardest," he choked, remembering one of the most tragic moments of his life. "Kamz sat behind me and uh, she was hurt.. really bad," he paused and turned his gaze from the floor to her face, "She fell into a coma for a month, and thankfully still had all her memory in tact once she woke up. I was scared that everything I saw in movies were true., that memory loss was always the outcome after a coma." A tear managed to slow down Jesse's face. Beca simply wiped away his tear with her thumb. Jesse smacked his lips together, trying to refrain from the rest of his tears breaking loose, and continued his story. "For a year and a half, the process for her to heal was just difficult to watch. She'd constantly break down alone in her room, she has PTSD so there were numerous factors in her daily life that sent her spiraling down. She managed to push away everything that cared for her and loved her. She'd simply just shut us out, like we weren't there," boy did that sound like someone Beca knew, "she never wanted to talk or she'd never leave her room, unless it was for her basketball," Jesse chuckled at his sister's choice of sport. "Nobody else in the Swanson family played basketball, except for her and I. She told me once that I inspired for her to try out when she was in 6th grade," he smiled and so did Beca. "But she never told us her game schedule because like I said, she pushed us all away and kept us away," he moved his right arm away from Beca's waist and took out his wallet. Behind his credit cards and I.D, he took out a picture of Kamila out on the basketball court, getting ready to shoot a free-throw. He handed the picture to Beca and she let out a small smile.
"Hm, something tells me you found out her game schedule," she chuckled.
"Yup. What kind of a big brother would I be? I'd even film some of her games. But this picture," he tapped it and looked at his girlfriend while she still admired the photo, "it's one of my favorites. Wanna know why?"
Beca responded with a smile and he continued, "Well, every basketball player has their own special ritual when it comes to shooting a free-throw. Kamila's' ritual, she'd bounce the ball twice, roll it in her hands, and would secretly smile at it, that's when I took the pic. The moment I saw her smile during that game, it was the first time she ever did since the accident," already mentally hating what he was about to say, Jesse looked down at the ground again, "It was the first time that I didn't cause her pain,"
Beca frowned at him, "Wait, Jesse, what do you mean?" Beca was now confused and turned her head to face the man she adored, "What do you mean pain you cause?:
Jesse sighed, "It was.. my idea.. to leave the house that night. I had gotten tickets to see the Black Eyed Peas with my first ever paycheck. It was also the last day of school so we were all kind of just high on life. We wanted to go and celebrate the start of summer but my parents thought it was a bad idea since the concert was at ten and Kamila was only fourteen. They thought it was irresponsible to leave a fourteen year old with a sixteen year old and a nineteen year old. But Ian really wanted to go and so did I since the tickets were nonrefundable. As soon as we were about to sneak out, Kamila caught up with us, begging to come along. She begged and begged and of course I gave in." Jesse dropped his face into both his hands and sighed, "If I hadn't given in, none of it would have happened. I wouldn't have caused her so much pain, I wouldn't have caused her her PTSD, her-"
"Hey, her hey," Beca immediately cut him off, sliding down to kneel in front of him, "look at me, please?" After running his hand down his face, he looked at his girlfriend, "The accident.. was not your fault. It was that asshole who decided to drink and drive. The come she slipped into?" She shook her head to emphasize, "Not your fault either, baby. Trust me, dealing with guilt is not a good thing when you shouldn't be feeling guilty at all. You once told me that everything happens for a reason, right?" He nodded at her while she ran her hand through his hair and cradled his face into both of her hands, "So, it is not your fault. It happened, it's in the past."
"Becs, sometimes the past comes to haunt you. And it haunts me every time I look at her face. She has panic attacks, every time she starts to feel like she's being closed in, like she's in between two walls and they're coming at her a mile a minute. Whenever she gets anxious or feels like something is wrong and her emotions start to run high, she tends to lose all oxygen in her body and the flood gates bust open. She becomes vulnerable and in pain and all that can help her, is if I'm there holding her. For three years, I was there. I'd practically be sleeping outside her bedroom door because I know she'll wake up from a nightmare, gasping for air, and I'll be right there to hold her and wait for her to settle down," Beca smiled at the thought of Jesse always being the caretaker. She'd always appreciated him taking care of her when she has her moments but never knew the deep roots of his tendency to care for others.
The door to the station opened and a young man entered, "Hello?" Beca got up and kissed the top of Jesse's head, "I'll deal with the guy and you can just.. sit and relax." She made her way out of the booth and went to deal with the new intern.
A/N: Phew. I make it a goal to reach 2k words a chapter, but this actually has more than that so I split it into two parts. Hopefully there are still some of you that would still like to read this story. I know it's been months and trust me I could give you an endless amount of excuses but none of them will make up for the feeling of wanting a Jeca fic to be updated already. Trust me, I know that feeling all too well. There hasn't been enough Jeca stories out there and there are so many good ones that just take forever to update and my poor Jeca heart starts to weaken and weaken by the day. Anyways, I hope this will make up for my absence. And if not- hopefully the second part of the chapter will. Please let me know what you think and I'm also open to dumb ideas. (If you know where that's from, I'll give you a cookie)
