My Fake Husband

A Pitch Perfect Story

Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own anything familiar.

Author's Note: Wow! So, of all the votes so far, it appears that you guys want Beca and Jesse to have a girl. You still have time to vote. I do not plan on revealing the sex of the baby until the next chapter, so you have time to continue voting! I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Beca woke with a start. She just had the worst dream in the world. It was awful. She found herself staring at Jesse's form, and it made her uncomfortable. She said she was able to forgive him the night before, but finding him in her bed freaked her out. She didn't know if she was able to forgive him that quickly; plus, she was completely embarrassed that she let him do what he did to her the night before. She hated that she succumbed to the hormones and her body's desires like that; she needed to keep boundaries between the two of them, because this wasn't a real relationship. If she were to let them keep doing what they started the night before, the line would get blurred; they would be friends (best friends) who had sex—isn't that essentially what a couple is? Essentially, the only difference between a couple in a relationship and friends are the fact that they had sex, right? She didn't want to be in a relationship with him, because this wasn't real; they were only married, because he needed to stay in the country. They were only going to be married for the next two years, and then it would be over. It would be complicated to figure out how to parent this baby separately, but they would learn.

Shit. Thinking of the baby made her think of her dream. She rolled onto her back and covered her face with her hands. Her bottom lip quivered, a sure sign that she was about to start crying. She pressed her fingers to her eyes, willing herself not to cry. She blew out a breath, trying to calm herself down. Oh, fuck. She needed to pee. She slid the covers back and did her best to climb out of the bed without disturbing him. She made her way into the bathroom, doing her business and washing her hands. She ran her brush through her hair, trying to comb out the tangles, before she threw it up into a messy bun on top of her head. She then brushed her teeth and washed her face, rubbing some moisturizer into the skin. When she was finished, she felt a little bit better, but she was still reeling from her dream. She made her way back into her room, torn between going back to bed (she was still so tired!) and going to get something to eat (she really wanted a baked potato—it was a weird craving, but she wanted a baked potato that was drenched in butter). She glanced between her bed and the door.

"Good morning," Jesse said sleepily from her bed. He sat up, rubbing a hand over his face. "You okay?" He must have noticed the conflicted look on her face. She hoped that she could pass it off as her internal debate between going to sleep or getting something to eat, and not what it was mainly from—between wanting to jumping him in bed or kicking him in the nuts for confusing the shit out of her.

"I'm exhausted, but I really want a baked potato. I can't decide if I want to go back to bed or go to the kitchen." He laughed, making her glare at him.

"Sorry, but a baked potato?" He asked through his chuckles. She crossed her arms, looking away from him.

"Shut up."

"Want me to make you a baked potato?" She didn't look at him, because she didn't want him to be nice at her like this. It was easier to hate him; it was easier to deal with just coexisting with him in this condo, because it meant that there was no confusion. She really wanted to say no, but she really wanted a baked potato. She finally nodded her head.

"I'm gonna get up anyway. If I went back to sleep now, I'd go back to the terrible dream I was having. Pregnancy dreams suck ass." She told him, walking over to her closet to slide her feet into her slippers. "Last week, I was dreaming about having a litter of puppies." She shook her head. "Seriously, I had five puppies—little yappy Pomeranians. They all started barking at once, and I was alone to deal with them all. It was insanity. I was so overwhelmed, but then they all licked my hand, and I felt better. It was the weirdest fucking dream I had ever had." He laughed, climbing out of the bed and walking over to her. He pressed a light kiss to her lips before dropping to his knees, lifting the shirt up. He was eye level with her stomach, and he brushed his fingers over her skin.

"Good morning, baby. How'd you sleep?" He said quietly, and she tried to ignore the way that her heart started pounding at the sight of him talking to their baby through her stomach. It was the kind of shit that made girls swoon, but she totally was not that kind of girl; the baby started kicking like crazy. He laid his ear against her stomach, like he was listening to the baby talk through her stomach. "Really? It was that good? Well, you're mommy is taking really good care of you." He said, pressing a kiss to her stomach, which made her want to jump him again. She blew out a breath as he stood up.

"You're an idiot."

"Why?"

"The baby can't hear anything yet. He or she just knows when someone is touching my stomach, probably because of my reaction." He smirked at her.

"And, you're reaction to me is the desire to climb me like a tree." She groaned, turning away from him.

"I hate you."

"No, you don't. I think the baby can hear me. He or she knows I'm the daddy." He wrapped his arms around her waist, laying his hands over her stomach. He pressed a kiss to her neck. "So, how much do you still want that baked potato?" She groaned, letting her head fall back on his shoulder as he sucked at the skin on her neck.

"Jesse, stop. I need to eat something. I'm starving."

"Okay, then we eat first." He backed away from her, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the room. She sighed in relief (and disappointment—what? After last night, she needed to have sex, like real sex.). "What did you dream about? You said you had a bad dream, right?" He stopped in the hall bathroom where he left his toothbrush and toiletries. He quickly brushed his teeth while she answered his question.

"Yeah, it was awful." She said. "I dreamed that I was in this weird, dark house—like something out of a horror movie. It was falling apart and dark and smelled like a damp, dusty basement. It was a mess, with broken furniture and dirt everywhere." When he was done brushing his teeth, he grabbed her hand again, leading her down the stairs. "I wasn't pregnant anymore. I was running around the house, hearing a crying baby, but I couldn't find it. Finally, I found this room behind a trap door, and I found the baby in a crib, crying. I picked it up and held it, and then it disintegrated in my arms." She said, sitting down at the kitchen table while he started preparing her a baked potato and a mug of tea. "I started crying, trying to scrape all of the ash together, hoping to put the baby back together again." She wiped at her cheeks. The next part of the dream was even worse.

"You're anxious that you're not gonna be a good mom?" Jesse asked as he set a mug of tea in front of Beca. He sat down on the chair next to her, laying his hand on her arm. "I'm telling you right now, Beca; you're gonna be an amazing mom. You're an amazing person, despite your parents and how they raised you, and you've been a pretty spectacular wife, minus the sex thing, which I totally plan on rectifying all in the name of helping you out with your increased sex drive due to the pregnancy. You're good at taking care of people, and you're gonna take really great care of this baby." She looked away from him, because as much as she would love to continue having sex with him—she needed to have sex—she couldn't do it. She was going to have to live with using a vibrator until she was too big to do it to herself.

"You were in my dream, too."

"Oh?"

"Not until the end. You came into the room, saw me trying to put all the ash of the baby back together, and you said that you were relieved, because now you could leave. Then, you left, and I was alone in this scary house with a pile of ash." She wrapped her arms around herself, because she didn't like to think about how that part of the dream was even worse than the part where the baby disintegrated in her arms (she knew that wasn't possible in real life; although, it was possible that the baby could die). Shit! Why did she think that? She started crying; stupid fucking hormones!

"Oh, Bec! You're crying! Don't cry. I'm not going anywhere." He wrapped his arms around her, pressing her against his chest.

"No, I just realized what the disintegration of the baby symbolized. What if the baby dies?" She pressed her face into his neck, digging her nails into his bare back as she hugged him back.

"The baby's not going to die, Beca."

"We didn't get amniocentesis done, because I wanted to talk to you about it. I was scared that it would cause a miscarriage, and then you didn't know, and I didn't want to make that decision my own. What if the baby has something wrong with it? What if it has Tay-Sachs? You're Jewish." He laughed, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Don't laugh at me!"

"Beca, are either one of your parents carriers for Tay-Sachs?" She shook her head.

"I don't think so."

"Then, we're probably good, even if I'm a carrier. I really don't think I am, though, but we can always get blood tests done to check ourselves out if it would make you feel better." She blew out a breath, sitting back. He wiped at her cheeks. "This baby is going to be fine, okay?"

"How can you be sure? What if it is sick or what if I drank too much when I didn't know I was pregnant? There are so many things that could go wrong."

"Yeah, there are, but this baby is going to be fine. Even if he or she has heart problems or is handicapped or any of that, I'm not going to love it any less, because it is our baby." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. He then rested his forehead against hers, laying his hands on her stomach. "This baby is going to know how much its parents love it every day." He kissed her then; it was light, not too much pressure. It was hesitant, like he didn't know if she would freak out over it, because it wasn't a kiss that had to do with sex, nor was it a kiss purely about comforting her. It was different, and it made her feel strange, because it did things to her heart and head. The baby was squirming in her stomach, reacting to her reaction. He pulled back, unsure. She swallowed before giving him a shy smile.

"Thank you for making me feel better." She said softly. He smiled back, pulling away from her.

"I think your baked potato is going to be done soon." He walked over to the oven, pulling the cookie sheet from it where he had put four baked potatoes. He wasn't sure how much she would want, and he might as well eat one or two himself. He warmed some butter in the microwave while he put the potatoes on a plate, cutting them open with a knife. When the butter was done warming, he put some on each on the potatoes, bringing the plate of potatoes and the butter plate to the table. She immediately reached for more butter, adding even more butter to one of the potatoes while he grabbed them forks to eat with. They began eating the potatoes, with him watching her as she practically inhaled her first one.

"This is so good." She said happily. He laughed, handing her a napkin to wipe the butter that dripped down her chin.

"I had a dream last night, too." He said as she started on her next potato. "It was a great dream."

"Lucky."

"Yeah, it wasn't as crazy as giving birth to a litter of puppies." He chuckled. "It was after you gave birth. You were sleeping in a hospital bed, and Brian came over to me, handing me the baby wrapped up in a light purple blanket. He smiled at me and said, 'Congratulations, it's exactly what you wanted.'"

"A purple blanket? You didn't dream what sex the baby was? What do you want to have?"

"That's just it, Beca. The baby was exactly what I wanted, because it was healthy and had all ten toes and fingers and perfect. It had brown hair on its head, and its eyes were blue, but I know that most babies are born with blue eyes anyway, so I don't know if that means that I want the baby to have blue eyes like you or if I was just subconsciously remembering that it is likely that the baby will have blue eyes after its born. It was perfect, but I didn't look to see what the sex of the baby was, because I didn't care. Whether it is a boy or a girl, I'm gonna be happy. The baby will be exactly what I want." She rolled her eyes, both at herself for tearing up again over what he said and at him because he was such a sappy asshole. "Hence, the purple blanket. Pink and blue make purple." She laughed, shaking her head.

"So, you really have no preference?"

"Nope. I'd be happy with either, because I'm into sports and music and movies and reading and all of that. No matter what our kid is into, I could probably find some way to get involved in it." Beca groaned, trying to keep the smile off of her face.

"I hate these stupid hormones."

"Why? You totally want to have your way with me right now, because you find it sexy that I'm talking about our baby." She stuck her tongue out at him, finishing off the last of her second potato.

"You're not allowed to take advantage of my increased sex drive anymore." She told him, pointing a finger at him as she started eating part of the third potato. He chuckled.

"I think the baby is trying to tell you that you're not eating enough." He told her as he watched her eat.

"I'm gonna blow up even more soon. We need to tell people."

"What if we throw a surprise party?"

"I was kidding about you singing Paul Anka, but I wasn't kidding about kicking you in the nuts if you were to sing that song to me." He rolled his eyes.

"No, I'm not going to sing that song to you." He shook his head, smiling. "But, we should throw a party, invite all of her friends and family, and then announce that we're pregnant."

"We're? I don't see your stomach being an incubator for a fetus, or your breasts getting huge and painful because they are starting to get ready for breast milk production, or any of the other crazy changes that are going on in my body. Oh, and you're not the one that is going to give birth, which I will equate to being like pushing a watermelon out of a hole about the size of a quarter. So, no, it is not 'we.'" He held his hands up.

"Sorry, you're right. You're the pregnant one." She nodded her head. "Anyways, we could announce it at the party."

"What are we going to do about baby stuff? People are going to ask about a nursery."

"Right, so we make my room into a nursery." She stared at him.

"Where will you sleep?"

"Well, considering I plan on rocking your world pretty much every night until this baby is born, and because I don't want to be far away from you if you need something, I will sleep in your room." Beca tried to control her breathing when Jesse said that, because it was a little too much, but he didn't seem to notice. "Then, we can figure out all of that after the baby is born." She stared at him. What did he mean by that? They needed to figure out where to put his bed. She figured that they could clear out some space in the basement, which wasn't that bad at all, since it was carpeted and had electricity and stuff. It just needed to be spruced up some. She had no plans of letting him stay in her bed for the next five-ish months until the baby was born.

"You're not sleeping in my bed."

"Oh, yes, I am. What if you need something in the middle of the night? What if you go into preterm labor? What if you get horny in the wee hours of the morning and need me to help you out?" She rolled her eyes at him. "Do you want to know the sex of the baby?"

"I don't know. It would be nice to know if it is a boy or a girl, but that doesn't really mean anything, though. I don't like pink, so if it was a girl, I don't really want to paint the room pink."

"Obviously, the nursery is going to be purple." She laughed. "Purple and yellow, or purple and green, or purple and orange—any of those would work. And, we could do a rabbit or bird theme—they are neutral animals." It was cute that he was so excited about the baby. It was making her feel a little better about all of this. When they divorced, the baby would still have a really loving, devoted father, even if his or her parents weren't together. They would have to figure out a custody arrangement, like one week at her place and the next at his? Or, would the baby stay with her for the majority of the time and with him for the rest of it? Or, would they do two weeks with him and two weeks with her? Or, what about monthly? "What's going through your head right now?"

"I'm just thinking ahead to custody things when we get divorced. The kid would still be really young, two and a half, so does that mean that he or she should stay with me more? Or would we do weekly tradeoffs? Biweekly? Monthly with weekends at the other parent's? We need to keep it as structured and stable as possible, because as a kid of divorce, I know how much it sucks, especially when it feels like neither parent really wants you there." She looked up at him when he didn't say anything. His brow was furrowed, his jaw tensed, and his hands were in fists on the table. "What?"

"I hate thinking about it." He said quietly. She frowned, not knowing what he meant. "I never intended to get divorce, you know? I planned on going into a marriage with the hopes that it would last forever, that we were soul mates or something cheesy like that. I certainly never intended to have a kid and then get divorced. I know that things don't always work out between two people, but I didn't want that for my family, you know?"

"Yeah, I know you didn't." She said quietly. He told her about his parents—how in love they were, how happy their family was. She didn't know what that was like, because her parents weren't happy for most of her childhood, and then they divorced. She never really saw what he had growing up, so she didn't get it, but she did understand why he was upset. Love and marriage and family were a huge deal to him. Their situation got a hell of a lot more complicated now that she was pregnant, because the divorce affected more than the two of them: it impacted the life of a baby. He or she would be a statistic—a child of divorced parents, who would never really know where he or she belonged. No true permanent home. While she knew that it would probably be better for the child to stay with one parent on a permanent basis but with the other parent for as much as possible, she couldn't do that to either one of them. Now that she had this baby inside of her, she didn't want it away from her anytime soon; she was sure that Jesse felt the same way, and it was going to be hard enough the times that they were apart from the baby. "We'll figure it out. Our baby will be okay."

"Yeah, we'll figure it out." He still looked disappointed.

"So, we can find out the sex of the baby at the ultrasound, hopefully."

"What if we surprised ourselves and everyone else at the party? Like, we plan the party, tell people you're pregnant, and since Brian will be there with Jessica, we can have him tell us what we're having then. Maybe we could do cupcakes for everyone else and then a little cake for us."

"We should have it written on the cake. Congrats, it's a…whatever." She bit her lip. "I really want cake now."

"Well, you just ate three potatoes."

"Yeah, I should eat something healthy." She stood up and went into the fridge, pulling out the sliced strawberries. She walked back to the table, grabbing a fresh fork along the way. She sat down again, stabbing the fruit with the fork, popping it into her mouth. "Yum."

"It's so weird to see you eat so much. Don't get me wrong, you were no dainty eater before, but you just ate three baked potatoes and now you're eating fruit." She shrugged.

"I just can't get fat." He looked at her like she was crazy. "A healthy amount of weight to gain during pregnancy is about twenty five pounds. I don't want to gain too much. It's not good for the baby." She said eating another strawberry. "But, I can feel like my body is craving more. I'm always hungry now, because the baby is taking so much of it."

"Then, keep eating, but make sure that you eat healthy things. Small amounts spread out throughout they day."

"You should read a baby book. We can share mine." She told him, eating another strawberry. He grabbed the fork from her to eat his own strawberry. She pouted and then grinned when he returned it to her.

"I would love to read the baby book. When do we get signed up for childbirth classes?"

"I've been looking for local ones. I only knew what my schedule allows, but now that you know about the baby—that it is yours—you're gonna go, too, right?"

"Of course. I'm also going to be in the room with you when you deliver."

"Nope."

"Yes."

"Nope."

"Yes! Beca, this is my baby, too. I've been up close and personal with what's between your legs already, so I think I can handle being around when you're giving birth."

"You know, this might work. Seeing me give birth might deter you from wanting to come near it ever again." She smiled as she ate another strawberry.

Jesse smirked, studying Beca's pleased expression. "I hate to break it to you, Becs, but that's pretty much the farthest thing from the truth. We already know that I'm attracted to you sexually, but it's like a caveman mentality right now—the idea of you having my baby only makes you more attractive. So, I'm definitely going to enjoy the next few months of getting to have sex with you, because of your pregnancy hormones." She swallowed, because, shit, that wasn't fair. She couldn't control her own desire to screw him from sunup to sundown when she knew that he wanted her just as much. She stabbed a strawberry rather forcefully.

"I said you can't take advantage of my hormones." She pouted.

"I want to take advantage of your hormones right now." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Not gonna happen, Romeo." She said, rolling her eyes.

"But, it will, Juliet. You'll see. You want this." He joked waving his hand up and down his body. She rolled her eyes again. "I'm gonna go get in the shower. I would offer you to join me, but I think we both know you're gonna say no. I recommend that you shower as well, because we're going out."

"Going where?"

"We're gonna go look at paint for the nursery. I want to get that painted as soon as possible so that we don't have to worry about paint fumes hurting the baby. Plus, I want to start looking at furniture and stuff. Oh, we should get registered at baby stores and such, which we can give out at the end of the party, since everyone is going to be invited to your baby shower. Oh, speaking of the party, we have to start planning that, too. So, time to get up, wifey. We gotta busy Saturday ahead of us."

Beca and Jesse first went to a baby store to get custom furniture. She knew that you start with the furniture first and then plan the decorations around that first instead of attempting to find something that matched the way that the room was painted or carpeted. They found a white wooden crib and changing table that she really liked. Once they ordered the furniture, which would be delivered after it was built in about a week or so, they then walked around the store, looking at the different décor and knickknacks. As they were walking around, debating what kind of theme they wanted the nursery to have, she found herself drawn to a series of different colored butterflies to hang on the wall. She had always been fascinated by butterflies. She ran her fingers over the large, wooden butterfly that was painted a dark purple. She noticed that it was painted similarly to bedding that she had seen in the bedding aisle, and she wondered if they were part of a set.

"Hey, Beca, look at this cute rabbit I found." He held up a light brown rabbit that was probably about the size that the baby would be when it was born, with long floppy ears and a pink embroidered nose. Its eyes and mouth was also embroidered on the face of the doll, making it chew- and suck-friendly for the baby or toddler. She smiled at the rabbit.

"It looks like Peter Rabbit. We have to get it." She told him, glancing back at the butterflies.

"You like the butterflies?" She nodded her head.

"They're not exactly unisex friendly in today's societal standards, so we don't have to get them." She ran her fingers over the dark purple butterfly one last time. "I really like the symbolism that butterflies can stand for—growth, transformation, reinvention, and the idea that one can go far in life once he or she has fully grown. Like a baby growing into an adult, you know? It starts out as the larvae, then the caterpillar, then the caterpillar goes into its cocoon, and after sometime, it breaks out as a beautiful butterfly that can fly away as far as it wants, but it generally stays close to the home it has known for its entire life." She shrugged her shoulders. "Unless it doesn't have a good home, and it needs to find somewhere safer, better." She grabbed the stuffed rabbit from his hands. "This is great. The baby will love it."

"We don't need to plan the entire nursery now. We don't know what we're having. We know that we want purple, and that is it. Once we find out the sex of the baby, we can come back here and finish planning what it looks like. I think it will be okay if I don't paint the nursery for another few weeks." She nodded her head. "For what it's worth, I really like the butterflies, too. If we're having a girl, I really want to do the butterflies. I would say that we could do the butterflies with a boy, too, but you know that people are going to be annoying about it. I honestly think that it would be cool to have a gay son—we'd never have to deal with teen pregnancy scares." She laughed, hugging the rabbit against her chest.

"You're an idiot." She laughed. They made their way towards the counter to buy the stuffed rabbit. Their first and only baby item, except the crib and changing table, purchased. They spent the rest of the day registering for baby items, like glass bottles, bottle warmers, cloth diapers and pins, rattles, stuffed animals, et cetera. They decided to purchase the bigger and more expensive items for themselves, such as stroller and breast pump.

"Didn't you have plans to breastfeed?"

"Yes, but I'm going to have to go back to work eventually after my maternity leave is up. I'm going to see about working from home as much as possible or only going back to work part-time after my maternity leave is finished, but if that doesn't work, then I'm going to have to pump and bottle feed her. I have to look at Wharton's maternity leave policies to see how long I'm home. I also have to start thinking about how long I want to breastfeed the baby for." She chewed on her bottom lip as they left the store.

Jesse grabbed Beca's hand and led her in the direction opposite of his car. "There is a diner nearby that we can go to for lunch. You're probably starving." She nodded her head, pressing a hand to her stomach.

"That is an understatement." He chuckled, interlacing their fingers as they walked in the direction of the diner. She tried to keep her breathing steady, because people smiled at them as they walked by, seeing the bag in her hands with the baby store's logo on it, the obvious swell of her belly beneath one of her more-fitted maternity shirts, and their attached hands. They looked like the perfect, happy, married couple. It made her feel a little uncomfortable to get so much attention, but she didn't want to release his hand, because it was warm and comforting.

That night, even though it was beyond difficult for her to say no to him (because, really, she wanted nothing more than to allow him to turn her entire body into a pile of jelly), she refused to have sex with him. She claimed that she was tired (which was true) and that she only wanted to go to sleep that night. He seemed a little disappointed, but he pulled her against his chest, saying that he should use him rather than the body pillow to get comfortable. Even though it felt strange for her, it also felt nice to be able to feel and hear his heart beating through the skin of his chest and to feel his warmth pressed against her. It was the first time she felt well-rested since discovering that she was pregnant, even more than the night before when she finally felt sexually satisfied for the first time since she discovered she was pregnant. She knew that she had to learn to deal with her sexual desire, because she didn't want their relationship to get any more complicated that it was. As hard as it would be to say no, it would be even harder on them if she were to say yes.

Author's Note: I don't plan for there to be any big blow up; in the author's note at the end of last chapter, I meant that Beca was going to shut down a little after letting her hormones take over when she was still kind of pissed at and hurt by Jesse. This is why she is kind of standoffish with him during this chapter—she feels confused by their relationship and how it is changing because of the baby. Next up is the big reveal not only to all of their friends but also of the baby's sex! I'm pretty excited for it. Even though I'm pretty sure that it will wind up being a girl, you guys still have time to keep voting! Let me know what you think of this chapter!

I wrote it when I should have been writing to papers for my classes! Yikes! Early morning tomorrow and lots of coffee for me!