A/N: So this is the end! I really hope you've enjoyed this fic, and I hope you like the ending.
Thank you to everyone who stuck with me through it, especially those who continue to review. I can't thank you all enough.
I've had a bit of a shit time of it these past two months, and I'm just grateful that I have friends and support in this fandom :)
Also, happy new year!
I do not own Pitch Perfect or any of its characters
Beca woke up, opening her eyes slowly. Her body was still aching. She felt like something was crushing her chest, but she couldn't make out anything in the darkness of her room.
It had been a dream, she told herself. Just a dream.
Chloe hadn't come into her room that night. Hadn't kissed her. Hadn't whispered apologies between kisses. Hadn't said she loved her.
"Your heart's beating really fast," Chloe mumbled. The weight on Beca's chest lifted as she heard Chloe shift on the bed beside her.
Beca let out a shaky laugh and sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"What is it?" Chloe asked, flicking on her bedside lamp.
"I thought..." Beca began before shaking her head. "I thought maybe I'd dreamed it. You coming back."
Chloe smiled before tucking a strand of hair behind Beca's ear. "This is real," she said, kissing her again.
Beca pulled her into a hug and held her as tightly as she dared. She closed her eyes and breathed her in.
She felt Chloe gripping her back, Beca's shirt fisted in her hands.
Eventually Beca lay back down, still holding onto the redhead.
"I've missed you so much," Beca said softly, her hand tracing patterns across Chloe's shoulder as they lay together.
Chloe's head was resting on Beca's chest and she closed her eyes, listening to the brunette's heartbeat.
"I missed you too," Chloe said, sleepily. She kept waiting for the fear to return and grip her again, but for now the gentleness of Beca was keeping it at bay. "This has been like, the hardest, scariest, weirdest few weeks of my life."
"Tell me about it," Beca said. "I watched you..." She screwed her eyes up as the memory resurfaced. "I watched you die. Like... Like you fucking died in my arms. It was the most painful thing that's ever happened to me. Then... Then the next thing I know, I wake up and Stacie's there, and she tells me what they're doing to you and it's like getting shot again. And then the whole thing with Boston... But all of that was nothing compared to what you went through."
"Don't downplay what you've been through, Becs," Chloe said. Beca felt herself tear up at hearing Chloe call her that. "And I'm sorry that I pushed you away."
"Don't apologise. You don't need to apologise to anyone. But you do need to promise me something," Beca said.
"What is it?"
"I need you to promise to tell me if things start getting too much," Beca said.
"What do you mean?" Chloe asked, sitting up.
"If you start feeling scared again, or overwhelmed, or anything, I want you to tell me. I don't want you to just pretend that every thing's going to be okay. Because it's not. You're gonna hit speed bumps, but I want to be there for you when that happens. If you need space, if I freak you out, if you need anything, you tell me, okay?"
"Okay," Chloe said, smiling softly as she kissed Beca again. "You're amazing, you know that?"
"Pretty sure that's you," Beca said, tucking a strand of hair behind Chloe's ear. "I love you."
"I love you too."
"Say it again," Beca said, smiling as her eyes scanned every inch of Chloe's face.
Chloe smiled too. "I love you. And I'm so thankful that you waited for me."
"I'm just thankful that you came back."
After spending the night together, Beca and Chloe joined the rest of the Bellas for breakfast the next morning, leaving Beca's room hand in hand. The other Bellas smiled but didn't comment.
Beca made them coffee while Chloe took a seat on one of the sofas.
"Everything okay then?" Aubrey asked, as Stacie stood to join Beca in their kitchen.
"Every thing's great," Chloe said, feeling happy for the first time in weeks. "We know things aren't going to go straight back to normal, but we're ready to face what comes together."
"I asked her to promise me that if she started feeling afraid or anything again, to tell me so I can help," Beca said, having a similar conversation with Stacie while they made coffee.
"That's great Becs," Stacie said. "I knew she'd come round."
"Yeah," Beca said, smiling. "Thanks."
"What for?" Stacie asked.
"I have a feeling you and the others helped her along the way," Beca said, smiling up at her sister.
"We just gave her a nudge, that's all," Stacie said. "She came back to you because she loves you."
The girls returned to the group and sat beside their girlfriends. Beca's hand went immediately into Chloe's, and the redhead smiled as she squeezed it.
"Okay, after breakfast I need you all to get ready and head to the main briefing room. Higgins wants to meet with us and the rest of the soldiers and squadron leaders," Aubrey said, smiling slightly as she felt Stacie's hand rest on the small of her back.
"How come?" Fat Amy asked.
"Probably wants to let us know what they found on the ship," Aubrey said. "And also explain the whole Boston being an asshole traitor to those who don't know the full story."
"So are they going to replace him?" Chloe asked.
"Eventually," Aubrey said. "But he wasn't the only one trying to bargain his way to safety, so they'll probably save those kinds of decisions until we're definitely safe."
"Do you think we are safe?" Cynthia-Rose asked, voicing the question they were all too afraid to ask.
"I think we're safer now than we were," Stacie said. "Thanks to Beca exposing Boston and all."
"We still have half the galaxy onto us," Beca said. "Boston was just a drop in the ocean."
"Yeah, but now we actually know about it. We aren't going to get snuck up on," Fat Amy said.
"How many more of us are gonna die fighting this war?" Beca asked, sadly. "We don't have the numbers to hold them off."
"Don't worry about that now," Chloe said, squeezing Beca's hand. "Let's hear what Higgins has to say first."
They were all sitting in the same room where Higgins had once informed them that they would be going into battle. The memory of the event was hanging heavy in the room.
Eventually, Higgins held up his hand, silencing the muttered conversations.
"Thank you all for coming," he said. "I appreciate that the past few weeks have been confusing, and many of us have lost friends and loved ones."
Beca's hand tightened around Chloe's.
Aubrey's did the same around Stacie's.
"I wanted to clear up some things before I got to the real reason I called this meeting," he said. "As you know, Commander Boston was arrested over a week ago, along with several other people, for conspiring with other species to destroy Terram. Now, you may not know that earlier in the week, these individuals killed themselves in their cells. It seems they had been issued poison by whoever their leader was in case they were caught out. However, thanks to the brave efforts of a soldier in the Blue squadron, we have an audio recording of Boston's confession. This, combined with evidence we found on their ship, was enough to let us know that Terram is in danger. We cannot stay in this galaxy."
Muttering began breaking out around the room.
"What does this mean?" Chloe whispered to Beca.
"I don't know," Beca said, gripping Chloe's hand again.
"What this means," Boston said, raising his hand again. "Is that we have two choices. The first is to find another galaxy to live in. However, the chances of doing this successfully are slim. We would likely end up in the vicinity of more hostile aliens. And as we have not yet explored other galaxies, we don't know whether the space will be habitable. So that leaves us with choice number two," he said, pausing as he scanned the room before him. "Choice number two, is to return to Earth."
If the muttering was loud before, it was nothing to what erupted now.
"It has been 100 years," Higgins said, loudly. "The atmosphere should be livable again. The plan will be to send most of you all down first to make at least a large section of it habitable. Then the civilians will join with whoever stayed behind. Terram will remain in the Earth's orbit while the planet is made safe. Any soldiers on Earth will be able to easily evacuate to Terram if things go wrong. I know this is dangerous," he said, looking at the worried faces looking back at him. "But we have no choice."
"When do we go?" A voice from the crowd asked.
"We start the journey in the next few weeks. We hope to be sending the first soldiers down in around six months time," Higgins said. "If you have any other questions, direct them to your commanders. If you no longer have a commander, come and find me. Soldiers dismissed."
Sitting back in their dorm, the Bellas weren't saying much.
"I just don't know how I feel about this," Aubrey said after a long silence. "We don't know what condition Earth's in. We don't know what lives on there now."
"It's scary," Chloe said. "But the thought of living on a planet, like our ancestors did, is kind of exciting."
"Yeah," Stacie said, "it is."
That night, Chloe and Beca were lying together in Beca's bed again.
"What do you think will happen?" Chloe asked playing with Beca's hair.
"I don't know," Beca said. "But as long as we're together, it doesn't seem so scary."
"And we're going to be together forever, right?" Chloe asked, shifting her position so she could kiss Beca softly.
"Of course," Beca replied. "Until the end."
Six Months Later
The Bellas stood in the ship's loading bay, with several other teams from their squadron, waiting for their smaller transport ships to be ready.
They were about to make the short journey to Earth.
Scouts had been down their and deemed the planet safe enough to begin building on.
The tension and apprehension in the air was palpable.
"We can do this," Stacie said, her new dog-tags hanging around her neck.
"Yeah," Beca replied. "Okay Bellas, are we ready?"
"Yes Sergeant," they replied in unison.
"Commander Posen, we await your instructions," Beca said to the blonde who was now in charge of the entire blue squadron.
Aubrey looked at Beca, the new leader of the Bellas. And at Stacie, who was her second in command.
"Okay," Aubrey said, moving so she stood with her squadron. Close to her old team. She was still a Bella at heart. Her hand found Stacie's. "Let's do this."
They boarded their ship, and headed for Earth.
They looked out of the window and watched Terram shrink into the distance.
"Together until the end, right?" Chloe asked Beca as their home got smaller and smaller.
"Until the end," Beca repeated, squeezing her girlfriend's hand.
The End