A/N: This chapter is dedicated to mi amiga, Andy... for, um, reasons.

The announcement that they had triumphed at Worlds sent all of the Bellas, past and present, to a nearby bar to celebrate. With the legal drinking age in Copenhagen being only 16, even Legacy got her drink on (with her mother's express permission, of course).

"SWEET VICTORY NEVER TASTED SO GOOD!" Amy hollered, slamming down the now empty glass that had contained a beer she had just chugged in 6 seconds flat. Lily had timed her.

Stacie and Cynthia Rose cheered loudly as most of the rest of the girls clapped. Some of the older Bellas looked on in astonishment. Beca couldn't help but laugh.

Rolling her eyes at the pandemonium, Beca swallowed down the last mouthful of her fourth drink. She felt pretty certain that she'd never been more proud of this group of women than she was in this moment, and there was something sincerely comical about the juxtaposition of that feeling with the raucous festivities with which she was currently surrounded. The girls, of course, deserved to party. They had worked incredibly hard on pulling this off. This was a win they had truly earned, so Beca did her best to remain judgment-free and relish this time with her absolute favorite people on the planet.

At the same time, Beca was painfully aware that they were flying back to the States the next morning. She tried her best to enjoy herself, ignore the ticking of the clock, and made an unlikely promise to herself that she wouldn't be hung over and miserable on tomorrow's – a glance at her cell phone had her correcting herself, today's – flight. As a few of the older Bellas smartly began to disperse, Beca couldn't help but think they had the right idea. As the gathering died down and Beca internally debated whether or not she could rightfully leave as leader of this ragtag team, she noticed both Aubrey and Chloe staring at her from across the bar, where they were seated – perhaps a little too closely – in a corner booth. Beca looked away as soon as she made eye contact, shifting uncomfortably on her stool, but it didn't make much of a difference. She could feel their gaze on her.

So Beca decided that now was the perfect time to make her exit. She got down from her perch and made the rounds, bidding goodnight to the remaining women. Stacie whined as Amy slurred something mostly unintelligible about how this short stack of pancakes was always pooping on the party, but Beca held firm. She was exhausted – both physically and mentally. The day had made her weary and it was time to go. Her stomach clenched as she looked over once more to Chloe and Aubrey. They were the last remaining people she hadn't said good night to and, coward that she was, she opted to just give a nod of her head to the women who were already looking her way. Aubrey returned a soft smile and Chloe wiggled her fingers in a wave, grinning wildly. And with that Beca departed and began the short walk back to the hotel.

She had only made it one block when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out to see an incoming text from Chloe.

We're about to leave, too. We'd like the chance to explain ourselves. Come to Aubrey's room if you feel up to talking?

Beca's heart thumped loudly, then stopped altogether as she stared down at the device in her hand. Her mind went strangely blank as her grip tightened. She took a breath and the beat of her heart resumed – a little faster than before – as air rushed through her, thoughts suddenly flooding her mind all at once. She didn't want to do this. She was afraid to do this. But Beca knew she had to and so she fired back a quick response before continuing her walk back to the hotel.

Ok.

About fifteen minutes later, Beca found herself standing outside Aubrey's hotel room door. Her hand was poised to knock, but she couldn't bring herself to do it as she flashed back to the night before, remembering herself standing in exactly the same spot debating whether or not she should barge in unannounced and uninvited. That was a mistake that she could never take back, and a mistake she was paying for now.

Beca collected her thoughts, inhaling deeply before releasing the breath slowly. She knocked twice loudly, then took a step back and waited as patiently as she could, digging a nail sharply into the cuticle of her thumb. Beca heard the turn of the handle and saw the door begin to move in slow motion until Chloe was revealed in baby blue shorts and a white camisole, her hair hanging freely about her face.

"Beca. You came." Chloe sounded relieved as she made room for Beca to enter. Beca stepped into the room without a word. Aubrey was standing next to the bed and looked similarly ready for sleep in a matching satin, black and gold pajama set, her hair down uncharacteristically.

"I'm glad you came," Aubrey offered sweetly, gesturing for Beca to take a seat on the bed.

Beca met Aubrey's gaze with a cold, steely one. She folded her arms across her chest and jutted her hip out. She wanted to be sure it was known that she didn't want to be here. She wanted them to feel like this wasn't worth her time, even though Beca knew that it was, that she needed this conversation just as badly as they did.

"Yeah," Beca said, still not moving to sit. Much to her surprise, Beca watched as Aubrey sighed and softly sat on the edge of the bed, hands pressed between her knees as she stared down at the floor. Beca had never known Aubrey to take the weaker position willingly, to so readily hand over the power to someone else. It was startling, and surprising on a level that Beca couldn't even fully comprehend. But it pleased her to see, and forced an unwanted smirk on her face despite her furrowed brow.

"Look, we're sorry, Beca. We—" Aubrey looked up at her, "we haven't been completely honest with you."

"I'll say," Beca spat sardonically.

Chloe moved to join Aubrey on the bed. Beca watched their thighs brush as Chloe sat.

"Okay, we deserved that," Chloe said sadly.

"You deserve a lot more than that," Beca snarled.

Chloe's bright blue eyes suddenly toughened. She wasn't mad, but she was stern. It was a cautionary look. Beca had seen it a hundred times before. It was a plea for Beca to drop the histrionics and take this seriously. Beca had rarely – perhaps never – ignored that look before and though she desperately wanted to now, she knew Chloe was right. Beca was dragging this out, making this more painful than it needed to be. She recognized her total lack of respect was keeping this dialogue from being a productive one. While she certainly didn't care if she was disrespectful to the two women before her, she did want this to be over as quickly as possible, and so Beca huffed in response and looked back at them expectantly.

"This isn't what we intended," Aubrey began. Beca bit her tongue. "We didn't want you to find out this way."

She knew she shouldn't, but Beca couldn't help herself. "Find out what? That you two have been fucking for God even knows how long?! Or that you two are fucking liars and the world's biggest assholes?!"

Beca could see that her words stung and she felt almost proud of herself. Shameful as it was, Chloe and Aubrey had hurt her in a way she never would have thought possible, and yeah, she wanted them to feel that pain, too. She wanted them to feel as horrible as they were acting. They deserved to, and so Beca felt justified in her remarks.

"We're so sorry," Chloe echoed Aubrey's earlier words. Her voice was just as broken as it had been that afternoon, and the sound of it once again tugged at Beca's heart.

"We care about you, Beca."

Aubrey's voice, however, could never pull at her that way. So Beca plowed right through it. "Yeah, well, you have a really fucked up way of showing it."

Again she saw the ache her words inflicted, and this time Beca didn't feel so good about it. No, this time she started to feel awful, felt that heartache herself, and winced.

"Please, just," Chloe begged, "let us explain."

Beca took a moment to consider this, her gaze flashing between Chloe and Aubrey. They both looked sincere, and genuinely upset. She heaved a loud sigh. "Fine," she said, and sat at the foot of the bed, her back to the other women. She had to listen, but she certainly didn't have to look at them. Beca didn't even know if she could.

She heard Chloe take a deep breath. "Okay, well… I guess we should start with Aubrey and me… we're, uh… we're together… and we've been together for, well… for a while."

Pain pierced Beca's chest, actual, physical pain that lingered there as she continued to listen. She wanted to say something mean, something sarcastic, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. The aching of her chest overwhelmed her, and she couldn't be certain that her voice wouldn't come out splintered if she did attempt to speak. She swallowed hard, staring down at the hideous red carpet covering the hotel room floor.

"And so, at the retreat… when I said—"

Beca's voice surprised even herself. "How long?" she quietly asked.

Chloe was taken aback by the interruption. "What?"

"How long?" Beca asked, a little louder, more aggressively.

Chloe faltered. She started to say something, and then stopped. Aubrey stepped in, her voice gentle. "Three years."

The pain pulsed through Beca. This had been going on basically the whole time she knew them. Chloe hadn't told her; they hadn't told any of the Bellas. Betrayal stung, and Beca found herself blinking back tears. She shouldn't have asked. And yet, she was still glad that Aubrey told her. She said nothing.

There was a long silence as Chloe and Aubrey, presumably, waited for a response. Beca shut her eyes and tried to get control of herself. The silence only served to twist the pain deeper.

When Beca didn't reply, Chloe continued. "At the retreat, when I said I regretted not experimenting more, well… what I meant…" her words were cautious, carefully chosen and delicately delivered. "What I meant was us, the three of us."

A disturbing chill came over Beca as her stomach dropped. It was quickly replaced by a clammy sort of heat that prickled up the back of her neck as she felt beads of sweat form on her forehead. This thought had actually occurred to Beca a few times, but it seemed unreal, and totally impossible. It couldn't have been what Chloe had intended. So to hear Chloe express that it was, in fact, exactly what she had in mind, from the beginning, well… it was, at the very least, disconcerting. Beca felt like she was going to throw up.

Silence again. Beca hated it. She internally debated what she should say, how she should react. Should she just get up and leave right now? Her fingers gripped tightly around the edge of the mattress, her muscles tense, eye shut unbelievably tighter.

Her eyes snapped open as Aubrey began to speak, her voice melodic and smooth, as kind and sympathetic as before, but with a hint of something new… something suggestive. Beca recognized it. She sounded exactly the same way she had sounded on the phone when she was coaching her, as Jesse had said, convincing her that this was something that she wanted. And in spite of herself, she found her abs warming, and her face flushing, at the sound of it. "You see, Beca, Chloe… well, she's always had her eye on you, since your initiation night… since the shower… since the activities fair. This is something she's wanted from the very beginning."

Chloe cut in, her voice taking on a more bubbly form of seriousness, a more natural Chloe sound. There was nothing sensual about it, unlike Aubrey's. "But you were with Jesse," she said. "And that was okay. I respected that. But when you weren't anymore, well… We were so close to graduation. It was my last chance… to-to try to explain to you how I've felt all these years. I had to take that chance."

Beca felt her heart flutter at the revelation. Despite the pain she felt, she couldn't help but feel a bit giddy. Chloe did care about her, had cared about her this whole time… and maybe did love Beca, loved her in the way that Beca was only feeling more and more certain that she loved Chloe. She smiled a little to herself.

"We're sorry that we weren't more honest with you," Aubrey offered. "We should have been more up front about this. We know that now. But please understand that we didn't do this to hurt you. We care about you… deeply." Aubrey's voice took a low turn. "We want you with us."

Her head was still reeling. This was a lot to take in. There was a large part of her that still felt hurt by their lies, their omissions, their manipulation of her. It made Beca feel sick. But perhaps because she was a little bit drunk, or because she was coming off such a high after winning Worlds and saving the Bellas, there was a growing part of her that couldn't help but feel so… loved by these women. Their words reminded her that Chloe and Aubrey were, first and foremost, her friends and they'd never do anything to intentionally hurt her. It didn't exactly make her hurt any less, but it did, somehow, make her capable, she thought, of forgiveness.

Beca wasn't sure what to say. She had come to Aubrey's room angry. She fully expected to fight with these women, to make known that she had every intention of never pardoning them for the crimes they had so carelessly committed against her. She did not anticipate the swirl of emotions that she was currently feeling, this strange concoction of rage and understanding, pain and forgiveness, hatred and love, disgust and arousal.

It was dizzying. As Beca heard the sound of both women crawling toward her, positioning themselves on either side of her, a new feeling joined the mix: fear. It was the sort of fear one feels just before jumping off a high diving board, or when securing one's safety bar on a rollercoaster; a fear fueled by anxious excitement, but fear nevertheless.

This fear had made a statue of Beca. Except for her breathing – which was becoming increasingly heavy – Beca was completely still. On her right side, she felt Chloe's hot breath against her neck. It sent a shiver up her spine as she simultaneously felt Aubrey's against her left ear. She closed her eyes and focused on Aubrey's breath, but another sensation assailed her: the press of Chloe's lips against her shoulder. The kiss was tentative, but Beca soon felt another travel just a hair higher, followed by another, and another, until she felt the gentle touch of Chloe's lips against her bare neck.

Beca couldn't help but sigh. She relaxed into the feeling before she was surprised by the touch of a hand flat against her left thigh, a thumb softly sweeping back and forth. Her brain barely had time to register that the hand belonged to Aubrey before she felt Chloe's lips part against her neck, the girl's tongue hot and wet against her skin. Her left earlobe was ensnared by Aubrey's teeth, pulled lightly before sucking it into her mouth.

Then there was a palm pressing against her abdomen, just below her breasts, and another tightly gripping the hair at the back of her head. Beca was overcome by sensation. She found that she couldn't differentiate one touch from another. With eyes shut, she couldn't be sure who was touching her where. It was a truly indescribable feeling. All of the attention was more than a little pleasant. Alcohol from earlier had her brain rushing to catch up, but for the moment she could just enjoy this feeling, and enjoy it she did.

"You don't always have to be such a good girl, Beca." Aubrey's voice burned against her ear, but it was Chloe who moaned at the sound of it. The vibrations of that sound against her throat sent white heat to Beca's center as her stomach flipped from Aubrey's words. Desire washed over her, and Beca's body moved instinctively. She turned and grabbed Aubrey's face in both her hands, fusing their lips together. Aubrey gave a sharp inhale as Beca licked deeply into her mouth.

Chloe repositioned herself so that Beca was seated between her thighs. She could feel Chloe's chest against her shoulder blades as she nibbled at the back of her neck. Aubrey raised a hand, firmly pressing it against Beca's chest, as Chloe's arm snaked around her middle, fingers grazing the hem of her jean shorts. Beca groaned as those fingers danced dangerously lower, and Aubrey moved to kiss her jawline.

Then all at once, Beca's brain caught up with her. Panicked breathing accompanied the tensing of her muscles. "W-wait, stop" she said. It was quiet and not at all as confident as her frenzied brain intended it to be, but all hands were instantly off of her, both girls shifting their weight away from Beca.

"What's wrong?" Aubrey asked.

"Are you okay?" came Chloe's voice.

Beca swallowed hard. She felt tears forming. She couldn't do this. She tried to speak, but her voice failed her.

"Beca?" Chloe queried, sweet, concerned, and loving.

But all Beca could do was frantically shake her head.

"It's okay. It's going to be okay." It was Aubrey this time, her voice also soft and kind. Beca still hadn't gotten used to hearing that sound.

Fear had overwhelmed excitement. She couldn't go through with this. There was too much going on in her head right now. She couldn't let go. She couldn't give in. Beca recognized for the first time that she so desperately wanted to, but this just wasn't right. It didn't feel right to her.

Beca suddenly stood. "I can't. I'm sorry," she managed to mutter, without looking either woman in the eye. Then she headed for the door without looking back.

It was no surprise that Beca hardly slept that night, so occupied with trying to make any sense out of what had happened, about what she was feeling. Everything was jumbled, and by the time they left the hotel the next morning, she was still completely overwhelmed. Aubrey and Chloe were careful not to say anything to her on the group van ride to the airport. Beca kept her headphones on and pretended to sleep, trying to get ahold of herself. They were about to board their flight home. Beca was going to be trapped in the air with Chloe and Aubrey for the next 12 hours. 13, really, if you counted the connection they had to make in Amsterdam.

Once they arrived at the airport and were waiting at the gate, Beca realized her ticket had her seated next to Chloe, with Aubrey on the red head's other side. There was no way she could sit next to them for that long, but before Beca could really start to freak out about it, she realized that she could easily trade seats with another Bella. That's what she'd do, and that's what she'd do again when they landed in Amsterdam. It'd be okay.

So as the group boarded the plane, Beca followed closely behind Flo. "Hey, do you mind trading seats with me? I like to be next to a window," she lied.

"In my country, you're lucky if there is even one window in your entire home," said Flo, "but sure. You can have it."

In spite of the guilt trip, Flo acquiesced, taking Beca's seat in the center aisle next to Chloe. Beca popped her carry-on into the overheard compartment and slid into her seat, messenger bag in tow. She refused to look back at Chloe and Aubrey. Beca knew that she would find pain on their faces. She didn't need to see it firsthand. Beca knew she couldn't handle it if she did.

Beca was putting on her headphones when Lily sat down next to her. The girl whispered something about owning a collection of debris she had gathered from plane crashes. Or at least that's what Beca thought she said. She cranked up the volume, leaned her head against the window, closed her eyes and did her best not only to ignore Lily's comment, but to forget about everyone's existence entirely, including her own.

Almost as soon as she had settled herself, though, Beca's phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a good reminder to switch it to airplane mode – something she hadn't done yet – so she retrieved the device, noticing that the notification was a text from Stacie. She swiped right and opened the message.

What the hell was that?

Beca looked across the aisle to Stacie, seated between Amy and Cynthia Rose. She was looking back at Beca, suspicion written all over her face, and mouthed the same message, gesturing a little less than subtlety to the row of seats behind her, where Aubrey, Chloe, and Flo were now seated.

Beca shook her head and mouthed the word "nothing." With a wave of her hand, she resumed her position, but her phone vibrated almost instantly.

No way. Something happened. And you're telling me the second we land.

After staring down at the text a moment too long, Beca shut her phone off completely and tossed it into her bag. She wasn't in the mood for this right now, and she knew she wouldn't be in the mood for it later either. With any luck, the plane would crash somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic and she'd never have to think about this again.

A/N: As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave a review, or hit me up on Tumblr at v3ronica-summ3rs. Have a great weekend, nerds!