We're Doing What?
Chapter 2
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"I'm going to London!"
Beca had come into Chloe's room during the middle of the night, waking the woman from her sleep. She was yelling about going to London? Or so she thought.
"Becs," Chloe had said, her tone laced with sleep. "That's great, honestly, but it's the middle of the night,"
Beca had jumped on the older woman's bed, straddling her. "I know, but it's exciting!" she reasoned.
Chloe pushed the brunette off her, watching as she slid from her spot and landing on the floor with a thud. "That's not really a good enough reason," Chloe told her, propping herself on her elbow and looking down on her friend on the floor. "Can we discuss this in the morning?"
Beca was so hyped up on the fact she would be seeing the German woman again that even Chloe wouldn't be able to calm her down. She was love sick, and as adorable as it seemed, it really wasn't all that adorable at nearly one in the morning. "Please Beca, I know you're excited, but I'd really like to sleep,"
Beca sat on the floor, legs spread wide and arms flopped in front of her. She looked up at the ginger and pouted. "Fine," she said, removing her pout and glaring.
Chloe extended an arm so that Beca could pull herself to her feet. "See you in the morning," she farewelled.
As Beca reached the door, she turned back, pouting again and muttered, "It is morning," and then closed the door.
She moved her way out of Chloe's doorway, making sure to close the door behind her, and turning right down the hall to return to the office. She had flights to book, currency to change, work to email and a German woman to reply to.
Repositioning herself in her chair in front of the desk, she glanced back at the photo of the Bella's, smiling at it. They were the very reason that this was happening; the same reason she had this group of friends. She sighed, looking back to her computer screen and typing out a message to the blonde woman.
'I'm about to book flights. What time should I be arriving?'
Beca hit enter, assuming that the German had already booked her own.
'I'm booked on a British Airways, I land at 11:40am London time.'
Beca browsed the flights, there were nine per day out of LAX, but she wanted the best one to match up with Kommissar's landing time. Price was not a huge deal, she had money to spare, but that wasn't really anyone elses business.
'I have two options; United Airlines or Air New Zealand...'
Beca wasn't certain as to why a foreign airline would be operating soley between the United States and England, but who was she to question it? United Airlines would get her there an hour before the German arrived, or the Air New Zealand one would get her there only twenty minutes before hand.
'Go with Air New Zealand, better service, no over weight fees, cheaper for extra baggage, higher ranked than United Airlines. Both use 777-300's but Air New Zealand has dragon livery on one of them,'
'Once I've booked, I'm heading to bed. Goodnight.'
'Gute nacht, maus.'
Beca yawned. She had become sleepy as the excitement from the German's reply had started to wear off. She rubbed her eyes with her knuckles, attempting to keep her awake a little bit longer. She wasn't sure if it would work as she yawned again, her eyelids becoming heavy with every waking moment. Turning up the brightness on her computer in a further attempt to keep herself awake, she manouvered through the web page, looking at her different options when booking.
Quickly checking her bank balance, she decided that she would book herself into business class, because a ten and a half hour long overnight flight would mean she wanted sleep. And there was no way in hell that Beca would be able to sleep if she was stuck in cattle class; she'd attempted that as she and the Bella's had returned from Copehagen.
Sending a final message to the German, she shut off her computer and lazily walked down the hall, making a right turn into her bedroom and throwing herself onto her bed. She moaned loudly as her body sunk into the mattress beneath her and she reached around for the blankets she had thrown off earlier.
/
24th January, 13:02. USA.
"Beca!" came a yell from down the hallway.
"Yeah?" Beca yelled back, unpacking and repacking her suitcase for the sixth time that day.
Footsteps were heard coming down the hallway, nearing Beca's room. "Packed everything?" the red head asked, sticking her head through the door to check on her friend.
"I'm certain," Beca replied, turning to look at her with a nervous smile on her face.
"Good, let's get all this back into your suitcase, chuck those locks on it and get it into the car," Chloe suggested, leaving the brunette with her mess. She quickly yelled out in a teasing voice, "Don't want you missing that flight to London!"
"Yeah, yeah," Beca muttered under her breath as she put her items back into her suitcase for the, hopefully, final time that day.
Zipping it up and attaching security tags, she double checked her carry on. Literally taking only her laptop, headphones and her passport. Slinging the carryon over her shoulder she departed her room, suitcase in tow.
"Chlo?" Beca asked as she entered the living room, Chloe looked at her, curious as to what she had to say. "I feel scared. I've never travelled alone,"
Chloe smiled at her friend. "Remember that blonde woman on the other end?" Beca's face lit up. "You'll be meeting her soon enough,"
Beca took a deep breath, walking out the door that Chloe held open for her.
/
24th January, 14:48. USA.
Chloe had allowed plenty of time to travel through the streets of L.A, hoping that she could manage to get Beca out to the airport in time for her check in. On the drive out, she had watched the brunette fiddle with one of her rings; she was obviously nervous. Whether that was about the flight or about meeting the Kommissar in London, Chloe wasn't sure.
Beca had thanked the weather gods for the clear skies a light beeze. She hated flying and considering she'd never flown alone, she was even more nervous. Chloe had tried reassuring her as she checked in her luggage that everything was going to be okay, but Beca thought that this would just jinx everything.
"Stop thinking about everything so negatively," Chloe had told her, ending with a little giggle.
"But I can't!" Beca whined back like a child. "There are so many things that could go wrong with this whole trip, starting with the fact that my plane could fall out of the sky,"
"Over water; soft landing," Chloe joked, trying to humour her.
"Are you kidding? Falling from thirty-five thousand feet would still feel like hitting cement. Ever heard of a thing called terminal velocity?"
"Failed college," Chloe shrugged. "C'mon, lets go to Starbucks before you head through security,"
Yuck. Beca hated Starbucks but she followed behind Chloe anyway, taking a seat when the ginger went to order.
It was only a few moments before Chloe came and sat back down with her. "You really need to chill Beca,"
The brunette was fidgeting again and it caused her to be unaware that her friend was even talking to her. Chloe had reached out and touched Beca's hand, startling her. "Jesus!"
"I did try talking to you, but you kinda ignored me,"
"Sorry," Beca said, stilling her nervous movements for just a second before she started spinning the industrial piercing. "You know how I get when I fly,"
"Take your mind off it," Chloe suggested. "What are you gonna get up to in London?"
"Well, it would be kind of wrong to go to London and not go to Buckingham Palace," Beca dropped her hand from her ear and shrugged. "The London Eye, Tower of London," Beca started listing off things she could be doing in London in a few hours, and Chloe smiled as she listened to the brunette. She'd successfully taken her mind off her fear.
24th January, 16:20. USA.
"Air New Zealand and Star Alliance welcome passengers travelling on flight NZ2 to London Heathrow seated in business class and premium economy to board now,"
Beca drew in a deep breath, holding it for a while before exhaling. She stood from her spot at the gate, looking down at the seat to make sure she hadn't left any of her belongings, and retrieved her boarding pass and passport from a secure pocket inside of her bag. She remembered how Chloe had given her a lecture about not leaving such important documents inside of her bag, but Beca had brushed her off, assuring her that everything would be fine.
Walking over to the gate, she waited a short time before handing her documents over to be checked. The lady behind the counter was dressed in purple and had her hair pulled up in a tight bun. Beca wondered why on earth anyone would want to dress like that for work, it looked damned uncomfortable.
"Kia Ora, Miss Mitchell," she greeted Beca, and Beca made a mental note to find out what that even meant. "Everything is good. We hope you enjoy your flight,"
Beca gave a weak smile to the lady, keeping her mouth shut for fear that she might give away how nervous she was when it came to flying. Proceeding down the air bridge, she walked straight on the plane, being greeted with several more 'kia ora's' before showing her boarding pass to the in-flight manager and walking down one of the aisles to locate her seat.
"Eleven kay," she whispered to herself over and over as she looked on the overhead compartments to find her seat. "Ah, eleven kay,"
She felt a little less nervous now that she had found her seat. A relatively large curved booth in black and white awaited her. She was greatful she had a window seat as it meant that no one would be seated next to her. She wasn't sure about how she liked not siting facing forward, but only time would tell. Taking only her headphones out of her carry on, she stowed the bag in the overhead compartment. Well, attempting to. A flight attendent was soon on hand to assist the short woman in stowing her personal items.
Taking her seat and strapping herself in, she focussed on her in-flight entertainment. She was amused when the screen said "Kia Ora Beca Mitchell – Seat K11". She quickly pulled out her phone, wanting desperately to know what those words actually meant and in what language. Tapping out what she wanted, she discovered, like she had assumed, that it was a greeting and in the Maori language. She had no idea that language even existed but she rolled with it.
Opening up her Skype app, she quickly wrote out a message to the German woman, who would no doubt be asleep, but still, there was no harm in letting her know that she was on the flight bound for London and that they would be reunited in near on eleven hours.
Beca sighed, leaning back into her chair. She smiled, glad she booked business class, even more so when the same flight attendent who helped her with her bag returned.
"Could I get you a drink?" she offered.
And who was Beca to refuse a drink of something at nearly 5pm. "Sure, I'll take a burbon, please," Beca replied. At least it would be something to take the edge off the nerves that were now stirring in her again.
To Beca's surprise, her phone buzzed and as she glanced down, she smiled. Kommissar was awake and had replied to her.
'Have a safe flight, maus. I will see you shortly,'
'Hardly shortly. Still have 11 hours to go,'
'I will be sleeping through most of that time,'
'I will be trying to, too,'
'Surely your plane is nearly boarded now? You must go?'
'Yes. I think we are about to pull out,'
'Before you go, tell me, did you get the plane with the dragon?'
'Sadly not, but it is completely black.'
'Ah, it is the newest of their 777-300 fleet,'
'How do you know so much?'
'I like planes, anyway, little one, turn your phone off and enjoy the flight.'
This short conversation Beca had was enough to settle her again as the flight attendents armed their doors, showed their safety briefing, which Beca thought was awesome as it was themed, and pushed back from the gate.
/
25th January, 11:17. UK.
Beca had awoken from her relatively peaceful sleep as the captain had announced that they were beginning their final approach into London. Beca had carefully wiped the sleep out of her eyes, as to not smudge her eyeliner, and had leant forward to peer at the scenery out the plane window.
She noticed they were quite low to the ground and flipped the channel on her screen to show the flight path and estimated arrival time. Five or so minutes to go. She smiled to herself.
Beca had managed to survive a ten and a half hour long flight, overseas, by herself and the word proud didn't even cover how Beca felt. Never in a million years did she think that she would accomplish an international flight on her own.
The feeling of excitement totally overtook Beca's senses, even as a little bout of turbulance jolted the aircraft. The shaking in her hands was probably still nerves, but her mind was wandering. At this moment Kommissar would also be on her flight bound for London. She glanced at the clock on the screen which was now showing 11:23 and from memory the German was due to land at around 11:40. Beca wanted to squeal but quickly composed herself. That kind of behaviour was hardly the kind that happened in business class, but that couldn't stop the huge grin on her face.
She was a dork.
That much she knew.
/
25th January, 11:38. UK.
Beca had been one of the first to depart the plane and had almost raced through the skybridge, through initial customs and down to baggage claim. It didn't matter if the bags weren't there yet, she just felt like time was going faster if she did everything fast.
Of course, she had to be careful that it didn't look like she was hyped up on some kind of drug, not that she was, it was just some of the looks she was getting. She had immediately sent a text to Chloe telling her that she had arrived, but of course, it was still the middle of the night back home. Beca was thankful to have slept on her flight otherwise she was certain she would be suffering from the worst jetlag right now. She also made certain to send a message to Kommissar, who Beca knew wouldn't receive the message till she landed and connected to an international cell signal, but that wasn't going to stop her.
She waited around five minutes beside the conveyor belt, not bothering to grab a trolley for her bag as it had wheels. She thanked herself for business class again, because it gave her bag priority in leaving the aircraft. Watching as the black belt passed around it's loop, she watched as the bag started coming. One by one they were plucked off before she spotted hers. Grabbing it and pulling it off, she made her way though her final leg of security and ending up in the terminal building.
Beca cursed as she remembered that the German had told her that her flight was landing in terminal 5. She tried remembering the other instructions that the woman had given her. Panic rose in her chest before she quickly remembered. Bus or train. Both were free.
Taking her chances with the bus, she found the stop and jumped on. Hopefully it wouldn't take her too long to get to the terminal.
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25th January, 11:56. UK.
Beca had successfully managed to get herself from terminal 2 to terminal 5 and it looked like she was just in time. Kommissar's flight had landed 8 minutes late, meaning that she was probably still going through customs as the brunette waited.
Of course, Beca waited almost directly infront of the arrivals door, waiting for the German to walk through. She smiled as her mind continued calling her the 'German' considering most of the passengers that were about to walk through that door were German.
Passengers soon flooded out the door, Beca thinking she had caught a glimpse of the DSM woman, only to find out that it was just someone who looked very similar.
Continuing to watch, her mind had no doubt about it when she saw her German come through those doors. Part of her wanted to run up and hug the woman, but she figured that she was too cool for that (she had to retain her badass persona, even though it failed her on more than one occasion).
"Beca!" came the accented voice. God, how Beca had missed the sound of that; Skype calls just didn't do it justice.
Beca beamed, "Luisa!"
The Kommissar rounded the masses of people, waiting for their own friends or family, and walked straight up to Beca, taking her in a tight embrace. "I missed you, Maus," she told Beca.
"Skyping sucks," Beca told her and the pair giggled.
"I believe we had a hotel to find?" the blonde told her. Beca knew that there had already been a hotel booked and she was thankful it was. She could use a shower to freshen up.
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AN: I did so much research for this. I am so proud of it. I hope you enjoyed the chapter :) Feel free to leave a review. Anyone that resides in London should give me some tips :D
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