A/N: Sorry, this chapter comes a little late in the day but you know what they say... better late than never!

Corinne, What can I say that hasn't already been said? YOU ARE THE BEST BETA EVER! XX

o~O~o

Chapter 9

o~O~o

Five days.

Five days, eleven hours.

Five days, eleven hours and nineteen minutes.

That's how long it took for Beca to stop crying after Luke picked her up the day she got back from Oahu. He never left her side, calling in to request a few personal days from work before letting Sawyer know that Beca was too sick to come into the office.

Sawyer didn't question Luke's request that she take a few days away from the office seeing as she'd taken no real time off in ten months or so; he even went as far as to say that he thought something was 'off' the previous week as she hadn't seemed her usual workaholic self. Luke wasn't about to tell Sawyer what was going on with Beca and Jesse; that was for her to talk to him about if she chose to, not him but he was internally grateful that either Sawyer had heard the truth through the grapevine and was respectfully keeping the conversation off track or he genuinely cared enough about Beca to not question Luke's remark.

It was the afternoon of the fourth day when he pulled her out from under the blankets on his bed. He'd let her sleep for as long as she wanted to, worn out and fatigued from the trip where she'd only gotten three hours sleep a night but mentally and emotionally she was exhausted from dealing with the fall out with Jesse leaving the way he did. She'd only poked and picked at the food he'd put in front of her, collecting her favourite things from the market at the end of the street he lived on in an attempt to get her to eat.

She'd asked for popcorn and he'd called Aubrey to come and sit with her while he traipsed around to four stores before finding the brand that he knew she liked. It had taken him two hours but she was worth it. He'd popped the kernels in the microwavable bag, imagining that each pop was the sound of his fist hitting Jesse in the face. The image made him feel a little better. He'd poured the popcorn into a bowl and taken the warm snack to her, shaking her shoulder to wake her up. She'd looked up at him, confused before taking one piece and squashing it between her fingers, crumbling it up amongst the blankets on his bed. She refused to eat anymore, despite Luke chiding her. She'd glared at him and, knowing which battles were worth fighting with Beca, left her to it figuring he'd leave it another 24 hours before calling an intervention.

She'd not changed her clothes once since leaving Oahu and Luke was gently trying to encourage her into the shower, knowing he could at least have put her clothes in the wash if she'd only she'd take them off. She refused to answer her work phone and ignored the dings that signaled a new email coming through. In the back of her mind, she was aware that she was missing deadlines but she couldn't even begin to explain how much she didn't care as she curled her knees up to her chest.

"Beca, this has to stop." Luke eventually said. "You can't carry on like this. Sack up, dude."

"You don't understand." Beca said. "He just left."

"I know honey, I do get it. But sleeping in your own filth isn't helping. Either man the fuck up or go home."

Beca left an hour later while Luke was in the shower.

o~O~o

For a few days, she didn't answer his calls or text messages. He called Aubrey who said she'd heard from her Aunt Anne who had heard from Silvana that Beca was back at work in her home office but the smell from her study suggested she wasn't looking after herself very well.

Her parents had never seen her like this before and told Aubrey that they had been over to the house to see her but she had refused to speak with them. She was only leaving the house to go to work, if and when she wanted to and had completely isolated herself for everyone and everything. She canceled all of her social engagements choosing instead to hide in her bedroom watching sappy movies and crying her eyes out. After missing Sunday dinner, her parents started bringing dinner to her, only to have her sit at the table and stare at the plate of food she had no intention of eating, instead pushing her 'meat and taters' around the plate with a fork like it was poison. Her parents, in all of their infinite wisdom, even suggested that she get a puppy, like a puppy was going to help her get through the worst hurt she'd ever experienced. She couldn't get the thought out of her head that he'd just left without a fight.

She was finding it extremely difficult to get over the dark haired stranger she'd met almost eight months earlier. Jesse was a man that, by her own admission, she hardly knew. Yet, no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't make it through a single day without thinking of him, wondering what he was doing and if he missed her as much as she missed him. She tried drowning herself in what she considered work which helped for a while but she couldn't physically work twenty four hours a day and that sucked because work was the one place she could truly escape. She knew she was putting in a lacklustre performance and just going through the motions but she had gotten to the point where she was past caring.

Beca moped around, missing Jesse every single minute of every single day. She wasn't eating, she wasn't sleeping and she was losing weight she didn't have to lose. Luke was all but begging her to eat. He even resorted to bribing her with ice cream and Oreos if she's just take a bite of the soup he picked up from her favorite French cafe or her favorite grilled swiss and bacon sandwich with roasted tomatoes and spinach that he 'slaved over a hot stove' to make for her. Truth of the matter was that she wanted to eat but if she tried to ingest anything more than water or a few crackers she was an absolute vomiting mess. For the first time in her life she felt sorry for Aubrey. Not wanting to hurt Luke's feelings, she said she would get round to eating later before putting them away in the fridge and ushered him back towards the front door.

Being back at work, when she actually decided to go in, was both good and bad. At times it served as a much needed distraction from her personal woes but she was constantly in a pissy mood, she looked like shit, her clothes didn't fit and no one wanted to be around her. Her foul mood had successfully melted the polar ice caps Kimmy Jin and Lilly so lovingly created to decorate the reception area. Beca's newfound bitchiness made the girls look like they were contestants in a Little Miss Mary Sunshine competition.

Her work was starting to suffer which, in an industry as ruthless as the music business, could easily mean she'd be out of job and forgotten about in a week. Luke heard over the next few days that she was turning up at Warner but she was going in late, leaving early, missing appointments and team meetings. Kimmy Jin, Lilly and Amy were covering for her as best as they could but even their best wasn't good enough; she was off her game and they simply didn't have the skills to do what she did.

Sawyer eventually caught on to what was happening and he made it known that, despite him having a decent level of sympathy in the beginning, he'd run out of patience and he was now pissed. He was fed up waiting hours for answers and dealing with agitated sponsors and talent scouts who were calling asking why their schedules weren't being updated. Sawyer told Kimmy Jin that he was sick and tired of all the games and wanted Beca in his office like yesterday. Sawyer's parting words, as he left Beca's office to go and fix a small crisis were, "If I have to let her go then I'll make damn sure she never works in the music industry again."

Kimmy Jin immediately called Beca to see if she was coming into the office that day but got no answer. She was well aware that Beca had wandered out, unsupervised after lunch the day before and hadn't returned. Lilly had ventured into Beca's office late into the afternoon and noted that her laptop was turned off, but there was a mug full of coffee and a sandwich, uneaten in it's wrapper. As a last resort Kimmy Jin called Luke and told him what Sawyer had said and that if Beca didn't get her ass to the office pronto dente she was gonna find herself and her shit out on the curb.

Luke was pissed. He was annoyed at Jesse for screwing up her life over something that could have been easily avoided if he'd not been such a complete tool but he was also angry at Beca for acting the way she was. Despite it being completely unlike her, as her best friend, he couldn't allow it to carry on any longer.

Like her, his relationship had recently ended and he didn't have anyone to talk to about it. Normally, when anything went wrong in either one of their lives, they'd head out for the night, get drunk and end up somewhere for breakfast the next day. They've solve the issue, put it behind them and move on. Luke wasn't pissed that Beca had essentially ignored his breakup with Allie but he did want her to pull her head out of her ass.

Knowing he needed to get this sorted out, once and for all, he grabbed his keys and his cellphone, calling out to his assistant as he collected his jacket. "Flo, I have an appointment. If you need anything or something comes up, call my cell."

"Mr. Luke, what if Mr. Pastasauce and the Italian Mob want me to join their gang?"

"What? Flo, just... wait what?"

"You hear about it all the time on CNN. I cannot let the White Tiger into my dreams."

"Flo? White Tiger? I... I don't want to report you to corporate for smoking some wacky herb on company time. Is there something you need to tell me?"

"When I was nine years old, my brother tried to sell me for a chicken, so..."

"Explains everything." Luke muttered. "I need to go and deal with... look, I'll see you later."

Flo watched him leave before she mumbled under her breath, "Crazy white women and their dramas. It's not as if she has malaria."

o~O~o

When Luke arrived at Beca's house, Silvana was just leaving, carrying a basket of high grade cleaning products with her. She gave him a sad look. "Hi Mr. Luke." She said as she patted his shoulder and walked past.

"Silvana, how is she?" Luke asked, needing to know whether he needed to approach with caution or if he could pull out the big guns.

Silvana stopped on the step, placed her basket on the ground for a moment and turned around to face Luke. "Not good. I had to force her out of bed to change the sheets. She hasn't spoken to me in over two weeks now and all the food in the fridge has gone to waste. I had to throw most of it out. Mr. Luke, can I be honest with you?"

"Of course you can."

"I don't judge anyone and would never talk ill of Miss Beca but her personal hygiene is now getting to be a problem. I thought there was a problem with the drains but in fact, it was just coming from the master bedroom. I'm worried for her health."

"Shit!" Luke sighed. He had just spoken to Beca two days earlier and she seemed to be getting a little better despite the monosyllabic responses to his questions. He couldn't understand why she was like this with Jesse. She hadn't reacted as extremely with Ryan. Luke was determined she wasn't going to lose her job over the eyeliner sporting twat who had clearly fucked up her life.

"Is everything ok?" Silvana asked, watching his reaction as he ran through everything in his mind.

"No." He said honestly. "If she doesn't get her shit together, she's gonna lose her job."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"No, you have done more than enough. Deep cleaning the house from top to bottom and coordinating the repairs has been more than enough and I know deep down, Beca is grateful, even if she hasn't vocalized it. I'll take it from here." Luke told her as he turned to go in the house.

"I'm glad she has you." Silvana said, reaching out to pat his arm. "You are a good boy."

Luke nodded his response and stepped in through the front door. Pausing as he took in the fresh scent of the house and the shiny, sparkling surfaces, he called out to the housekeeper, "Oh and Silvana…"

"Yes, Mr. Luke."

"Thank you."

Silvana smiled and nodded before walking to her car. Her concern for Beca had been spot on but Beca couldn't seem to see that things weren't over. No matter how hard Silvana tried she couldn't make Beca believe that breakup was simply the start of something new. She failed to see why Beca couldn't find a nice young man like the one who was desperately trying to pull her out of the funk she'd gotten herself into.

Luke went straight to the kitchen as soon as he'd closed the front door, warmed a bowl of soup that he'd found in the fridge that smelled fresh and prepared a cup of English tea that he knew Beca would find pretentious but it might at least get her to talk to him. He took a deep breath before making his way upstairs to Beca's smelly girl cave. Without knocking, he walked in and placed the tray he'd been carrying on the floor. He walked over to the window, threw the curtains open, then opened the blinds flooding the room with light. He cracked the window open and gulped in a mouthful of fresh air.

"What the fuck?!" Beca screeched, her eyes burning from the sunlight.

"Get your smelly arse out of the fucking bed." Luke barked at her, turning around and pointing towards the door.

"Fuck you Luke." She said covering her face with her freshly laundered sheets and blankets that were already beginning to smell worse than a garbage truck.

Luke walked over to the bed he had helped her choose when she moved in and threw the covers back. Despite her giving him a glare that could melt polar ice caps, he scooped Beca up and, ignoring the yelps and wiggles, brought her into the ensuite bathroom.

"Put me down you asshole." She hissed at him.

"With pleasure, your Majesty." Luke said, opening the shower door with his foot. He threw her, fully clothed, into the shower and said, "Clean up... now! You smell worse than Lilly's weird tea and you're so sticky and sweaty, I don't think you've showered since Oahu." before turning on the faucet to allow the steady stream to hit her directly in the face. She squealed for a second before turning her face out of the water. Luke watched her relax for the first time in a couple of weeks as she stood getting drenched.

"Ok. Ok." She said quietly and Luke backed out of the shower, closing the door on her.

As Beca undressed, tossing her clothes over the top of the shower door for Luke to collect and throw into the hamper, she asked him why he was there. As he listened to the sound of her washing her hair, Luke grabbed a clean towel and told her that she was on her last leg with Sawyer. He was ready to kick her sorry ass to the curb and replace her with some guy named Dax.

"He can't do that." Beca said as she scrubbed her face, taking sixteen layers of grime off and instantly feeling lighter as she washed the memory of Jesse down the drain.

"He can and he will." Luke told her. "You haven't worked a full week since you got back from Oahu. He's sick of the excuses and bullshit."

"I'll go to work tomorrow." She told him as she rinsed the shampoo from her hair.

Luke chuckled. "No can do."

"Luke…"

"Beca, you're going to work today. Now finish up in the shower so you can eat and get dressed. I'll drive you."

Beca realized that she wasn't going to be able to continue to hide behind her excuses anymore. She had to put her big girl panties on and deal with the ramifications of her actions. She knew she was now in a funk for the sake of being in a funk rather than this being about Jesse. As Luke continued to talk to her, she knew he was calling her out on her shit rather than berating her for acting like a dick. She took a deep breath as she turned off the water and opened the shower door. Luke held an open towel out to her and wrapped her up in it.

"I'll be outside with your lunch and fresh clothes when you're ready." He said, backing out of the door. Reaching into her closet, he choose a simple pair of black pants and polo shirt that he thought would be appropriate. He was about to pull the shirt off the hanger when an arm snaked past his.

"Dude, I'm not going to Church." Beca said as she reached for an electric blue, v-neck shirt that she knew showed off her best assets well. She grinned at him as he shook his head playfully, just pleased to see a little bit of his friend returning.

As promised, Luke took her to work an hour later and waited in her office while Sawyer ripped her up one side and down the other. He wanted to hear what Sawyer had to say so braved running the gauntlet of Kimmy Jin and Lilly to have a sit and spin on Beca's office chair while he went through a few messages from Flo.

"Mr. Luke, I'm just checking, are you ok?"
"Yes Flo, I'm fine but I need you to email me the two files on my desk."
"The Italians have arrived and have taken me hostage."
"Flo, your arse had better be in that seat when I get back to the office."
"Mr. Luke, if they find my body in a deep ravine, all broken and bloodied beyond recognition, you should know I have a tattoo of your face on my ass."
"What the blazes Flo?"
"Well, it's not actually your face, it's a hamburger."
"What? I look like a hamburger? I'm confused."
"As you should be. You are not going to be 22 forever you know?"
"Flo. We need to talk."
"I am to be silenced by the Mob."
"Do you need to take the rest of the day off?"
"Headless chickens Mr. Luke."
"Flo, focus. Email me the files."
"Your shoes are made of cheese Mr. Luke."
"Cheese, what?"
"What cheese did the Mob use to hide the horse Mr. Luke?"
"I don't understand?"
"Mascarpone."
"Huh?"
"Mask a pony."
"I'm signing off now Flo. Email the files to me."
"What music does cheese listen to Mr. Luke? R and Brie."
"Mr. Luke? Are you there?"
"Mr. Luke?"
"Oh no! Did the mob get to you Mr. Luke? I gave them your address."
"Goodbye Mr. Luke, I already lived longer than I expected."

o~O~o

Meanwhile, Beca knocked on Sawyer's open door before walking in. "Hey, I heard you needed to see me." She said shyly.

"WOW! It lives!" Sawyer said jokingly, a joke Beca didn't seem to care for but managed to keep the eye rolling to herself. "Have a seat." He said motioning to the chair opposite him.

"What's up?" She asked.

"What's up?" Sawyer repeated. "Do you really have to ask? The best damn producer in LA is on my payroll and yet, I haven't seen her for days and all her assistants will tell me is that she's off making memories or something equally stupid. Care to explain?"

Beca looked down at her fingers. She was actually quite embarrassed to admit that she didn't have it all together. "I've been going through some... personal stuff."

"That's painfully obvious. Are you ok?"

"I've had better weeks."

"Wanna tell me something I don't already know?"

Beca sat in silence. There was nothing else she wanted to share with her boss at the moment. If she did, the lines between personal and professional would be blurred and right now, she just wanted to get her head down and get back in the game.

"Ok, you don't want to talk that's fine, but you're damn well gonna listen. First, you should know that my patience is like a toddler in a tiara… precious and short." Sawyer said as he sat up and steepled his fingers; the flash of an idea running across his face. Beca watched as he developed his plan.

"What am I listening to?" Beca asked as the uncomfortable silence filled the room for longer than was necessary.

"I'm thinking that perhaps you need to give Mr. Bucking Bronco a call?"

"Who?" Beca asked unsure of who or what her boss was talking about.

"Wow, you don't even know his name?"

"Sawyer, what are you tal-"

"-The young man who… uhh... gave you a lift in the elevator." Sawyer said and gulped down a smirk.

"What the hell?"

"Norman, Head of Security, was all for selling copies on the internet. You gave them quite the show that day. The audio was spec...tac...ular!"

"Sawyer!" Beca said, sitting up right as the memory of her last day in the office before leaving for Oahu flooded into her brain. "You are such a pig!"

"Judging by the way he was grunting, I'd say he was the pig."

"You're disgusting!"

"What's disgusting is that he only lasted thirty one seconds." Sawyer remarked, winking at Beca. "You deserve so much better than that."

"Yeah, well… if memory serves he lasted a little longer than that."

"Then perhaps you should give him a call? He might be the one to put a smile back on that pretty face of yours."

"I highly doubt that." Beca said, beginning to shut down in front of her boss.

"Ah." Sawyer answered in response to Beca looking at the floor. He leaned forward in his chair and lowered his voice. "I can arrange to have him killed you know."

"Erm, Sawyer?"

"Ok, maybe not. But we both know that Lilly could. She knows people." Sawyer deadpanned.

"Am I in trouble?"

"Nah." Sawyer laughed out. "I was kidding about Norman... well, sorta." He winked at her. "So, what are we going to do with you?"

"Nothing, I'm gonna get my head down and-"

"-I'm sending you on a retreat."

"A what? Wait, why?"

"A retreat. You and your entire team." Sawyer told her. "You're gonna learn to work as a team again. The past few weeks have been total bullshit and you know it. Your team has the potential to be the best in the industry but they can only be as great as their leader. And right now, you are as much use as a limp noodle."

"Sawy-"

"-No Beca. I'm tired of you not showing up for work or when you do decide to grace us with your presence, you leave early or hide. I'm tired of Kimmy Jin's incessant bitching and icy glares. I'm tired of Lilly's mumbling and weirdness and I'm really tired of Amy's unprofessional, ill timed jokes and inappropriate touching."

Beca gave him a weird look. "Inappropriate touching?"

"Yes. Amy came into my office the other day and touched my goose. She touched my golden goose Beca. It's rude. She can't just enter a man's office and touch his damn goose."

Beca was amazed that he was actually able to talk about something as ridiculous as Amy inappropriately touching his golden goose with a straight face. Beca looked around the office and saw the prized goose Sawyer was referring to. It looked fine but then again what did she know. "Ok, so maybe she shouldn't have swanned in and touched your… goose" Beca said trying to swallow a giggle, "I'll talk to her about it, but seriously, is a retreat really necessary?"

"Beca… either you go on this retreat or you pack your stuff. It's that simple. Any questions?" He said handing her a folder full of information about the retreat. Beca shook her head. "You're scheduled to leave tomorrow at 6am."

"Fine!" She huffed as she collected the folder. "Anything else?"

"It's been over three months since you brought anyone new on board? What's up with that?"

"That's not true. I signed... wait, I've forgotten the name."

"It was The Treblemakers, some weird college group that you said were the next big thing."

"No, wait, that can't be, that was months ago... oh." Beca said, thinking back.

"Exactly. Listen, I've got bosses to answer to as well."

"What do you mean?" Beca said, as she looked down at the paperwork in her hands.

"Need you to come up with the goods Mitchell." Sawyer said, shooting a glance down her shirt.

"Um, Sawyer?"

"You need to get some asses in the seats. Names in the books. Meat on the bones. Flower he-"

"-Got it!"

"No, seriously Beca. You've got two weeks."

"Before?"

"You're out."

"Beca out?"

"Yep."

"And you want me to waste time on a retreat?"

"Your team needs to reconnect. You need to find your sound again."

"Our sound?" Beca questioned. "We're not a band."

"Ok, fine you're right… but you do need to find a workable rhythm, some positive chi, feng shu-"

"-Ok, ok, ok…"

"You need to sign someone. Or that's it."

Beca nodded, unable to say anything as her contract was to fulfil a quota in a reasonable time. She held the retreat folder tightly in her hand and mock saluted Sawyer before walking out.

o~O~o

As promised, Luke was waiting in her office. While he fully expected her to be pissy when she got back, what he didn't expect was for her to fuming mad.

"Hey. How'd it go?" He asked gently, ignoring the last few messages from Flo on his phone.

"Basically, I was told that I need pull my head out of my ass because apparently my asshole is not a necklace."

"Nice!" Luke said, trying to stifle a laugh because the mental jpeg Beca had just painted was funny as fuck.

"If I don't sign a new act soon, I'm gonna be out of work too. Got any positions at Universal?" Since Luke was sitting in her chair, she sat on the opposite side of her desk. She tossed the folder across the desk. "And apparently, I'm going out of town tomorrow."

"What? Why?"

"My team and I are being sent on a team building retreat." Beca pouted. "I really don't have time for this shit but I don't have a fucking choice. It's either go on the retreat or pack my shit and get the fuck out."

"Team building huh?" Luke asked looking through the contents of the folder. "Do you think I could send Flo with you?"

"I don't see why not. If I'm going to spend the next couple of days surrounded by weirdos, what's one more, right?" Beca snarked. "I'll text Sawyer later on and tell him. Will you be joining us too?"

"What time do you leave tomorrow?"

"6 fucking o'clock in the morning!"

"Ok, wow! That's brutally early."

"Three days and two nights with a bunch of weirdos. This should be great!" Beca said rolling her eyes.

"Don't knock it til you try it." Luke told her playfully. "Where's everyone meeting up?"

"I was gonna tell the girls to come to my house tonight that way Bernie only has to make one stop in the morning." Beca told him. "She's more than welcome to join us tonight or in the morning."

"For Flo's safety as well as everyone else's, I should probably blindfold her and deliver her directly to you so she doesn't know where you live and won't be able to steal your chickens."

"What the fuck dude?"

"Don't question it. Just embrace it."