From the first instant he sees her, he realizes that she is someone he wants to get to know better.
Sure, he is attracted to her. She is beautiful, even with that amazingly scary ear spike. But then he acts like his usual dorky self, who most girls think is charming, or at least smile at him, and she just narrows her eyes in something that resembles a scowl. And he can't help it, he's intrigued.
It starts out as a game to him, a challenge to get her to smile or laugh. And he can see that over time, she is starting to enjoy his company, even if she won't admit it to anyone. He learns that she's sarcastic, and witty, and smart, and passionate. But she's holding something back, which makes her even more fascinating to him.
On the day of the a cappella auditions, he is shocked when she turns up, and then sings that soulful, simple song using beats she makes with a plastic cup, and he is in awe of her. Her voice is so innocent, so pure, so unlike the Beca Mitchell he has grown to know over the last few weeks.
He doesn't end up remembering much about Hood Night, only that he shamelessly flirted with her, telling her they were going to end up having aca-children together. Only this time, his flirting earns him a smile and a playful shove. She smiles at him again a few weeks later when he's holding up record albums in front of his face in a desperate attempt to get her to laugh. But damn Luke interrupts them, showing off his tattoos and six-pack abs, and she doesn't hide the blush that spreads across her cheeks as she looks at Luke.
He doesn't give up. He plans ahead, packing his bag with a candle, snacks, and his favorite movies, and goes to the place on the quad where he knows she sits. And when he finds out she doesn't like movies, he's even more determined to know this mystery girl.
She's quiet at the riff-off at first, standing in the back of the Bellas, barely participating. But then out of nowhere she starts rapping to Blackstreet, and he's blown away by her for what feels like the hundredth time. She sways her hips and looks directly at him through hooded eyes, and he finally acknowledges to himself how much he wants her.
They hang out all the time, and talk, and work together at the radio station. He visits her room often, and she his. They are friends. One night she shares her music with him, and he puts on his favorite movie for her. And when he notices that she's watching him instead of the movie, his heart starts pounding with hope that maybe she wants him back. He moves in to kiss her, only to have her pull away abruptly.
When she punches out the Tonehanger for him, he's floored. She's adorably tiny, but so fierce, and when he meets her outside of the jail she balls her fists and teasingly punches him a few times, and he loves it. But the moment is ruined when she sees he called her father because he was worried about her.
She's not at the radio station anymore when he is. They don't really talk anymore, and he misses her. He nearly goes through the ceiling when he hears Luke ask her out, shaking his head in disbelief that he is nowhere near where he wants to be with her after all that they've gone through this year.
"I don't need your help, ok? Can you back off?"
He's done. He can't deal with this anymore. Caring about her is exhausting, and he can't do it if he's going to get nothing in return but hurt. She calls him several times, leaving him messages, but he doesn't allow himself to forgive her. Even when she shows up at his door to apologize to him for yelling at him, he knows she just doesn't get it. He's open and honest and giving, and he can't be with someone who is constantly going to fight that. He closes the door on their relationship, or whatever it was that they had together.
"Hey," he hears from behind as he's waiting to go on stage at the finals. "Good luck," she tells him, a look of uncertainty on her face. He returns the sentiment, but there's so much more he wants to say to her.
Instead, he pours all of that emotion into his performance. He can feel her watching him, which only adds to the fire. After, when the Bellas are called to the stage he can barely muster up the energy to watch her, because it hurts.
When the first few notes of his song, their song, start playing, he dares to look up at the stage, only to see that she's the one who's singing. Slowly, it dawns on him that this isn't just a performance, she's singing to him. Her eyes are locked on his as she asks him "As you walk on by, will you call my name?" And he nods, because he knows he will. Her answering smile takes his breath away, because she's never looked so happy to him before.
Her lips are on his before he even knows what's happening. He's wanted her for so long, and now here she is, kissing him in front of all these people after serenading him on stage. His impulse is to carry her somewhere private and kiss her until he can't breathe, but his feet stay rooted in that row of seats instead.
And slowly, she lets him into her heart. He knows it isn't easy for her, and he tries his hardest not to push. But always, he wonders if he's the one who loves more in the relationship. If he hadn't fallen first, would she have even noticed him?
He's the romantic one. He's the one to come after her after their separation after college. He's the one to propose. He's the one to encourage her to have children. He's the one who is constantly trying to get her to feel more, to express more, to be more. And it isn't that she doesn't reciprocate, she does. But he's always first.
Melody is born in early June. It's after Mother's Day but before Father's Day. He and Beca aren't ones for celebrating holidays with lavish gifts, cards, or grand gestures. She thinks that cards bought from a store are a waste of money, because someone else wrote them. She tells him that there's no point in buying each other gifts from their joint account because it's like buying something for yourself, and they need the money for Melody now.
She's barely sleeping, and Melody is only a few weeks old when his first Father's Day rolls around. He wakes to an empty bed, figuring she must be tending to the baby in the nursery. He glances over at the clock on his nightstand and instead finds his laptop sitting there open, a DVD sitting in a case placed over the keyboard. The note attached to it reads: "Watch me."
He puts the DVD in and loads it up. The laptop screen goes black, and then he hears her voice, speaking in an overly dramatic, movie trailer tone.
"In a world where sleep is a distant memory…"
An image of Melody crying in the middle of the night appears on the screen.
"When spit-up and diapers become a way of life…"
The picture changes to him attempting to change Melody's diaper in the hospital, the pair of them laughing as he fumbles nervously with the sticky tabs.
"And singing to yourself is the only way to block out the incessant screaming…"
Melody, screaming at the top of her lungs in her bassinet while he hovers over her, singing a soothing lullaby.
"Only one man exists who can save them…"
The video of him holding Melody for the first time right after her birth plays, followed by a few seconds of film from their wedding of the moment they share their first kiss as husband and wife.
The screen goes black, and the word Daddy appears in white block letters. The image changes to her, rocking Melody in the glider in her room. She leans over the infant and whispers, "We are the luckiest girls in the world, you and me, because Daddy loves us so, so much. And he's never going to leave us. And even though Mommy spent a lot of her life being afraid, you won't have to, baby girl."
It fades to black once more, and her voice says, "A man who had overcome many obstacles…"
A picture of them taken during freshman year appears where he's smiling and she's crossing her arms across her chest protectively. A group photo of the Bellas during the time they weren't speaking, her in the back row not smiling.
"And decided to risk it all for the one he loves…"
Them kissing at their first ICCA finals. A picture of him sleeping in her bed the night he came to Los Angeles for her. A photo from the day they celebrated his big promotion at work.
And then the image turns back into her sitting on their bed, in the very spot he's in now.
She looks right into the camera and says, "I know I've made things difficult, but hopefully interesting. I hope you know that even though I fight it, and I'm stubborn, I really do love you with every part of my being. You're the most amazing person I've ever met, and I knew it as soon as I met you. Normal people don't sing to strangers on the sidewalk, weirdo." She smiles before continuing, "And now you're the most wonderful father on top of that. Every time I see you with our daughter, I fall in love with you all over again."
The screen goes black again, and her trailer voice says, "Jesse Swanson is…the best husband and father in the world."
A slideshow of photos begins. They're pictures from the last few weeks. Melody's first bath, her ride home from the hospital, all of the precious moments of her life so far. Then the credits start to roll.
Cast
Daddy Jesse Swanson
Mommy Beca Swanson
Aca-baby Melody Swanson
Directed and Produced by
Beca Swanson
Original Screenplay Written by
Mr. & Mrs. Jesse Swanson
(because it was inevitable)
He has tears in his eyes as the film ends. "Happy Father's Day," he hears coming from behind him, and he turns to see his wife standing there holding their newborn daughter.
"Bec," he whispers, "Thank you."
"Thank you," she replies softly, kissing their baby's head before turning her face up to kiss her husband.
All he knows is, living with Beca sure beats living without her.