His eyes flicker between her eyes and her lips, and for a split second she considers just letting him kiss her. It isn't that she doesn't feel an attraction to him. It's that what she feels for him is overwhelming, and so she turns away.

Years later, when she's older and wiser, it will seem foolish to her that in that moment she didn't kiss him. They could have had more time together. They wouldn't have had to hurt each other. She wouldn't have gone out with Luke, and he wouldn't have shut a well-deserved door in her face.

Her friends of course took her side, saying that he wasn't good enough for her, that he had brought her only angst and pain so far since she had met him. But she was intensely private, and only shared what she couldn't hide from them. When you're eighteen, you don't exactly run into a lot of other people who know what it's like to instantly connect with someone, to know from the first moment that you meet that something is special about this relationship, this guy. If she had kept a journal like a typical girl, she would've written something innately cheesy like "I'm going to marry this guy," because honestly, that's what it felt like. But that wasn't Beca Mitchell's style. She was the funny girl, the sarcastic girl, the badass. She wasn't supposed to fall in love so easily, especially not with this movie nerd.

The reality of it is that he's the one who's too good for her. She's damaged, brought up by two people who fell out of love with each other, who never communicated, and who didn't teach her how to feel. Music becomes her only outlet. She understands the melodies, the lyrics, the bass lines. She can hear two notes of a song and identify it instantly. She can hear a song a few times and sing it all the way through. Music is how she learns to feel, and she attaches songs to every important memory in her life.

She knows Jesse understands this. He might be the only other person who does. And that's why she sings to him as an apology, to say he means everything to her, to tell him everything she's been so afraid to admit to herself, even. And later, when she finally tells him with words, she realizes that they really have become best friends and lovers. Still, they are as different as they are the same. She could sit in a completely dark room with nothing but her music for hours and be completely content. He could watch movies for days on end, movies he's seen a dozen times before, and be completely enraptured by them. He easily communicates his feelings, where she struggles, often trying to show him with actions rather than words.

When they fight, it can be explosive. When you put two exceptionally passionate people together, things are bound to get out of hand at times. They yell at each other, they scream and slam doors. They overreact usually. He's upset because she isn't affectionate enough. She wants him to get his head out of the clouds for a moment and help her with real life problems that he finds insignificant. He tells her to stop blaming her "lady troubles" on her unpredictable moods and often sour demeanor. She pushes him to do more, be more, because she thinks he's too talented not to try. He's more content to just sit at home with her and watch his movies. She always wants more.

She watches her friends get married, and sees how the woman generally controls the emotional aspect of the relationship, and the man doesn't communicate, but if anything in her relationship with Jesse these roles are reversed. It's as if other married couples she knows don't talk to each other, which always baffles her because they live in the same house and share the same bed. Chloe will be telling her a story about something important that happened at work, and her husband Tom will act as if he's never heard it before. Everyone around them seems so out of sync, and as time passes she realizes just how special what she has with Jesse is.

They're at a party with their college friends. It's been eleven years since they graduated Barden, and already some of them are divorced, and some are still single. She and Jesse have been married for over seven years, and have two children. They've been best friends for almost fifteen years on top of that. She loves how they can look across the room at each other, and with that one glance, they can speak volumes to each other. She loves how after the party she knows they'll discuss everything that happened in detail on their way home. She loves that every time she picks up her phone to text him, a message pops up from him in that instant. Their relationship plays out like a well-tuned piano, its intricate melodies in perfect harmony with the notes.

Of course, it isn't perfect all the time. Beca spends a great deal of time in her head, caught up in a new mix, tangling with her emotions, still sorting out how her family and the people around her make her feel. And even though she's light years better at it than when they first met, she still needs work.

One night after the kids have gone to bed, they're sitting in the living room together. He's watching a movie on cable, and she's fiddling around on her cell phone, disinterested as usual by the plot.

He makes a comment about the film, and when she doesn't respond he turns to look at her. "Beca?" he inquires, "What are you doing?"

"Just surfing the web," she replies.

"You weren't listening to me," he points out. "I thought you were going to watch this with me."

"I couldn't follow along," she says, "You always start movies in the middle that I haven't seen before and I don't know what's going on."

"I started this one from the beginning," he says, sighing, "You just don't pay attention."

"I was busy doing the dishes and getting the kids' lunches ready for tomorrow," she replies.

"You never pay attention," he adds.

She glances at the screen, where some alien character is using a very fake looking laser to blow off someone's head. "You want me to pay attention to this stupid movie?" she asks incredulously.

"You think all movies are stupid, but they're important to me. It's my job to score them, Beca. You know how passionate about them I am," he's trying to keep his tone even, and failing.

"Right, because you always pay attention to everything that is important to me," she replies sarcastically.

"What don't I pay attention to?" he demands.

"You just sat here and let me clean up dinner. Why is it that we both work full time and yet I end up doing all the cooking, cleaning, and domestic shit around here?" she spats back.

"Maybe it's because all I want to do after a long day's work is come home and not be nagged to death by my wife! Maybe I just want to sit on the couch and watch a movie with her!" he shouts.

"Don't wake up the kids, Jesse," she says, more calmly, "I want to relax too! But we're full time working parents, and maybe you need to get it through your head that that isn't in the cards for us right now."

"Whatever," he mumbles, waving her off and turning back to his precious movie.

She doesn't say anything, just goes quietly up the stairs and into their bedroom. She puts in her iPod headphones and lets the music calm her down as she gets ready for bed. When she awakes to her alarm the following morning, she isn't surprised to see his side of the bed empty. He often falls asleep on the couch watching something on television. She starts getting ready for work, and he eventually comes upstairs and joins her, but they don't speak to each other. She leaves for work while he drops the girls off at daycare, and for the first time in a long while, there's no communication between them for the entire day, not even a text message. After work, she picks up the girls and brings them home to start dinner. When Jesse arrives home, the couple keeps their interactions normal and cheerful in front of the children. As Beca switches off Melody's light and makes her trek down the stairs, she's surprised not to hear the normal sounds of the television on in the background.

Jesse is sitting in the dimly lit room, and he looks up at her as she enters. "You know, sometimes I just want to spend time with my wife," he says.

"I'm here," she replies, "I'm always here."

"You're here, but you're always doing something. And it's like since we had the kids, you don't know how to relax anymore. And I need that, Beca, I really do. I can't always be running around, doing things," he explains.

"I don't have much time to get things done, and they need doing. I can't just let the laundry pile up, or not food shop, or not clean, Jesse," she says adamantly, "And if you want me to relax more, you could help more."

"I do help," he says, "I'm always doing things with the girls. All I'm asking is for a few hours a week for just us. I miss you, Beca."

Her expression softens, "I'm right here," she whispers.

He holds out his hands, and she steps into his embrace. "I don't want you to think I don't appreciate all that you do for me, for our family," he tells her, "Because I do. But sometimes I just want us to be us, you know?"

She looks into his eyes, dark brown meeting silver blue, "We are us. We've always been us since the moment you sang to me from the back of your parents' car."

He smiles, leaning down to kiss her softly. "I love you, Beca Swanson."

"I love you too, Jesse Swanson," she replies, pushing him backwards so that he falls onto the sofa. She straddles his lap, her hands threading into his hair as she kisses him again with passion.

"You see," she breathes into his mouth, "I'd much rather spend my free time doing this than watching some lame-assed movie."

He laughs, moving his lips to her neck. "Ok, you're right," he moans as she grinds her hips onto his.

"Can I have that in writing?" she teases.

He flips her so that she's lying on her back as he hovers over her. "Don't get too cocky," he warns, before capturing her lips once more. "Your movication is ongoing, and don't you forget it," he adds.

"Why did I ever agree to marry you?" she says with a sigh, "It was like signing myself up for a lifetime of being bored by movies."

He stops in his ministrations to look at her, "You know you love it."

"I know I love you. I always have." she corrects, pulling his mouth back to hers.

And she always will.

A/N: The title is from MS MR's Hurricane.