"Hi!" Aubrey said in surprise, as Beca knocked on the door.
Immediately, Aubrey knew something was up. Beca Mitchell didn't ever knock; she marched into the house (usually calling obnoxiously loud and crude greetings towards her brother). So for her to knock, something drastic must have happened.
(Because knocking meant avoiding something, and she was a great avoider.)
"What, no kids?"
"No, no, Jesse's got them engaged in a very dramatic game of hide and seek".
"Is everything okay?" she checked.
"Um… I need to talk to you".
Aubrey ushered her inside. "Beca, what happened? You look like you've seen a ghost! You're not gonna throw up, are you?"
(She felt like she was going to throw up.)
"Aubrey, I need your advice".
(Beca didn't come to Aubrey looking for advice. She went to Chloe or Lily or Cynthia Rose or Stacie, or, if it was drastic enough, Fat Amy. She had never once approached Aubrey for advice because she knew that Aubrey lived with her brother and Michael had supersonic hearing when it came to his baby sister.)
"About?" the blonde raised an eyebrow.
"Is Michael home?"
(Sweet Jesus, she was pregnant. She was pregnant and had bypassed Chloe to talk to her.)
"No".
"Good". She took a deep breath, collapsing on a chair. "When we bought the house, we signed it together. The house is under Rebeca Mitchell and Luke Ryerson. Now, Luke left and essentially abandoned his entire family, but the house is technically still under his name. Because we weren't married we didn't do any of the legal things- but if I wanted to sell the house, I'd need him to sign his half of the house to me, right?"
(Holy shit, Aubrey was so not expecting that.)
"What?" Aubrey ran her hand through her hair. "You're selling the house?"
"Is that all you got?" Beca bellowed, viciously slamming her fist against the table. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she put her head on the table.
"Hold on, hold on. You want to sell the house, and half is still in Luke's name". Aubrey took a deep breath. "I know you're not gonna want to hear this, Becs, but-"
"I have to talk to Luke".
Aubrey nodded, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry".
When she finally lifted her head off the table, her cheeks were pink and streaked with tears.
"Fuck".
It took Jesse a good part of two hours to get what was clearly bothering her out of her, once the kids were asleep. But finally, she broke. She broke down into noisy sobs, collapsing into Jesse's chest and freaking the fuck out of him.
(Who was this woman and what had she done to his Beca? His Beca didn't cry. She shut down, but she didn't cry.)
"He owns the house; he owns half the fucking house!" Beca wailed into Jesse's chest.
Jesse felt all the colour run from his face.
"Fuck".
"Beca?" a little voice said.
"Mmm?" she murmured, struggling to open her eyes. More importantly, she struggled to pick the voice. She knew it wasn't Rosie's or Courtney's or Natalie's- se didn't know who it was.
"Beca?" the little voice said again.
"Yeah?" she opened one eye to find Brody standing inches away from her face, and she jumped, stirring Jesse beside her. "Brody!"
He leant on the bed and she moved over slightly to invite him up onto the mattress. Wrapping her arm around him to keep him from falling off, she looked at him curiously. "Why aren't you asleep?"
"Why are you sad?" he said instead.
"What? I'm not sad!"
"Yeah, I heard you talking to Daddy. You were sad and that made me sad".
Beca's heart broke a little at the innocence of the little boy that had weaselled his way deep into her heart. "Oh, buddy. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to make you sad".
"And Daddy was angry. Beca, are you and Daddy still gonna live together?"
"We are", she assured him. "Brody, we didn't have a fight, you don't need to be worried about that. I just got some bad news, but it's going to be okay. I have you and your brothers and the girls. And your daddy".
"Beca?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you still gonna be my new mummy?"
She frantically blinked away tears, and she squeezed him a little tighter. "Of course I am, Brody".
Jesse smiled sleepily, hearing their exchange. He wrapped his arm a little tighter around Beca, grinning even wider when she moved closer towards him, giving Brody more room in the bed. He snuggled against her sleepily and she kissed the top of his head.
(He had never had the opportunity to do that with Katherine. And with Jesse, it just wasn't the same.)
"I love you", Brody whispered sleepily.
"I love you too". Beca kissed the top of his head, cradling the little boy gently. "I love you too".
Beca hadn't spoken to Luke since he left. They spoke the day after Beca threw her engagement ring at his head, but he had nothing to say.
There was no explanation. There was no apology.
Nothing.
Their mutual friends, however, hadn't hanged. So when Beca knew she had to contact him, she went straight to Kyle.
"Are you sure?" he said, furrowing his eyebrows. "If I remember correctly, the last time you two talked it didn't end too well".
"I need to talk to him, Kyle", she said desperately, and he gave her his number.
"Becs, be careful".
She didn't want to see him. She didn't even want to talk to him.
But she needed the house to be signed to her name.
"Hello?"
His British accent- something that had drawn her in when she was eighteen- wasn't as strong as she remembered. Or maybe she was just hearing it differently.
Time changes everything.
"Hello?"
"Luke", she said hoarsely, and she was almost able to see his jaw drop.
"Becky?" he gasped in surprise. "Why are you calling me?"
"Beca".
(He was the only one to ever call her Becky, the only one she would allow. But now that name made her feel ill, it disgusted her.)
"Beca", he corrected. "Why are you calling?"
"I need you to sign the house to me".
"What?"
"The house. I'm selling it but it's in your name as well. I can't sell it without your consent".
Luke was the kind of person; Beca knew it, that would make her sweat it out. He would consider everything and then, only then, even consider signing those forms.
"Why?"
"I'm selling the house", she repeated. "We need a bigger house. I need a bigger house".
"How are the girls? They'd be so big now".
She bristled with anger, his statement being too much for her to bear. "How are the girls?" she shrieked. "Luke, you're their father! You shouldn't have to ask that! Did you know that Rosie cried every night for six months after you left? And that she waited on the front steps every day for you to come home? And after that, she refused to talk about you. Natalie doesn't remember what you were like, and Courtney- my baby girl didn't even get a chance!"
"Becky, I'm sorry".
"Beca", she snapped. "It's Beca. You're their father, Luke. You could have at least called! That's all that Rosie wanted, to make sure that you remembered her! You never called once, you didn't send presents for Christmas or their birthdays- all Rosie wanted was a card from her father. You didn't even do that".
"Beca, I'm sorry", he said desperately. "I tried, but we were so young! It terrified me. Suddenly I was twenty five and had three kids and a mortgage!"
"You cheated on me long before Natalie was even born", she said, trying to keep her voice steady. "Rosie wasn't even two years old when I was pregnant with Natalie. She was four when you left. You have no idea how much that little girl loved you, she worshipped you. You hurt Rosie, you hurt Natalie and you hurt me". She took a deep breath. "You might be their father, but you aren't their daddy".
"What do you mean?" Luke's voice sounded strangely hollow. "You've found yourself someone else, have you?"
"What did you expect me to do, spend the rest of my life crying over you? I had three children to clothe, feed, RAISE- I had a life to live, Luke. Jesse does everything and more for my kids".
"Our kids".
"No, my kids. That ship sailed when that engagement ring came off".
"What, so you're forbidding me from seeing my own children?" he bristled.
"It's been almost four years and you haven't made the slightest effort! I bet you don't even realise that their birthdays are coming up".
(He realised. Rosie's birthday, March fifteenth. Natalie's birthday, April first- explaining her love for jokes and all things alike. And Courtney's birthday, May eleventh.)
"I never asked for child support. I never demanded that you share custardy of them. All I'm asking is that you sign the papers to tell me that the house is mine. God knows you haven't put anything towards it in years".
They had been young, dumb and in love. But people fell in and out of love all the time. They had acted quickly and maybe that was the problem.
Beca had believed that she and Luke were soul mates. She had believed that right up until she had caught him, in their bed, with another woman.
That night, her entire world came crashing down and she swore she'd never love another person again. Luke had broken her. But Jesse, piece by piece, had put her back together.
The love they shared was different. She had Luke had had the classic college romance. She was sure they were going to become those sweethearts (as cliché as it was, and she hated it) that people were jealous of at reunions. They were going to grow old together, raising their daughters and watching as their daughters raised their grandchildren.
But she and Jesse had so much more than that. They didn't have the traditional relationship, and that was what Beca loved.
She had fallen for the nerd in the bar, and she had fallen hard.
It scared her, but not nearly as much as the thought of losing him did.
"How are the kids?" Luke said instead, choosing to ignore her question.
"They're fine".
They were more than fine. Her kids were thriving, they were everything and more. Beca didn't understand how someone as imperfect as her could produce such perfect daughters.
"Does Rosie still ask about me?"
"Not anymore. She's accepted the fact that the man she called daddy isn't coming back. She's accepted that Jesse is a father and so much more to her. He does everything for them. If you come back, then he's going to be the one putting the pieces of her broken heart back together". She shook her head, trying to keep her voice steady.
(She failed to mention that she put her whole heart into those boys, she loved them equally as much as her own daughters.)
(It stung, knowing that someone else was doing his job. He had been the one to tuck Rosie into bed, to read her stories, to kiss her bumps and bruises. But he had royally fucked up. And Beca didn't want him in their lives.)
Rosie had said that she missed Luke. And while Beca didn't really know how to comfort her eldest daughter (who's walls were so, so similar to the ones Beca put up), she knew the pain that she felt. Because she too knew what it was like to have a father walk out on her. Luke had broken Rosie the night that he left.
But Jesse, like he had done with Beca, put those pieces back together. Rosie's whole face lit up when he used his nicknames on them, because that was the kind of thing a father did.
A daddy did.
"I never denied you access to those girls", she reminded him. "You could have seen them".
"I know". His voice was quiet, and just as Beca was going to ask him again, he spoke up. "Send me the papers, Beca".
"What?"
She didn't quite believe it. This was the same guy who had pestered her until she reluctantly gave in to going on a date with him, the one who was so persistent with everything. It was what she loved and hated about him.
"I'll sign the papers. Those girls deserve to be happy".
She hated what he had done to her.
But she didn't hate him, as much as it pained her to think it. He had given her the three most precious things in her life, and she thanked God every day that she had them.
"Thank you, Luke".
When she got off the phone, she burst into sobs, long, happy sobs that racked her entire body.
The house was hers.
The house was going on the market.
And they were going to begin their new life together. The eight of them.
Jesse held her tight, and she buried her head in his shoulder. "That's it. It's done. Its over".
"We're getting our own house", he said happily, running his fingers through her loose curls. "Bedrooms and a playroom for the kids, a big bedroom for us… room to get a puppy…"
The opportunities were endless.
(When Aubrey saw the 'for sale' sign being hammered into the front lawn of her sister in law's house two weeks later, she pulled over and cried happy tears.)