A/N: So here it is! This is the final chapter of this fic.
I'm really proud of this fic, and I want to thank everyone who's commented.
I think this might be my last big fic for the foreseeable future, but I'm really glad to have gone out on this one. A much as I loved writing it, it was a lot of work and a lot of late nights, and a lot of doubting myself, and it hasn't gotten a very big response. I know we shouldn't write for the validation, but I really need that validation haha.
I'm not quitting writing fanfic all together - I honestly don't think I could do that - but I'm probably going to just be writing one-shot kinda things from now on and posting them on Tumblr. I might post them on here, but I don't have plans to do that at the moment. Feel free to send me prompts, my username is Massivedrickhead.
I'm also part of the Pitch Perfect Fandom Drive which I really recommend you check out if you haven't already, search ppfandomdrive on Tumblr
Anyway, here's the epilogue, I hope you like it
One year later.
"Babe?" Beca called, carrying her laptop and headphones into the living room.
"Hmm?" Chloe responded, not looking up from the piles of paper that were cluttering the coffee table. She was chewing on the end of a pen as she rifled through the multitude of revision notes in front of her. A huge stack of veterinary books was occupying the side of the sofa that was usually reserved for Beca.
"Never mind," Beca said with a laugh. "I can come back later."
"No, what is it?" Chloe said, tearing her eyes away from her school work.
"Are you sure? I don't wanna interrupt your flow," Beca said.
"You got something for me?" Chloe said, her voice brighter as she saw the laptop in Beca's hands.
"Uh yeah, I think this sucks, can you give it a listen?" Beca asked, looking for a place to put her laptop.
"Try again," Chloe said, clearing away some of the papers.
"Sorry," Beca said. "I think this might be something good? Can you listen to it?"
"That's better," Chloe said, smiling. She held out her hands for the headphones, and Beca handed them over.
Chloe listened, and her smile grew wider with each second. "Is this your voice?" She asked, practically shouting as she pointed at the headphones.
"Yeah," Beca said, feeling that familiar rush of embarrassment she always got these days when anyone heard her sing. "Theo said he wanted more of it in my stuff."
"Theo's smart," Chloe said. "You should listen to Theo."
"So?" Beca asked, as the song ended, and Chloe pulled off the headphones.
"Baby, it's amazing. But you know that, right? You don't need me to tell you that that's amazing," Chloe said.
"Of course I do," Beca said, letting out a small laugh of relief. "Your opinion matters to me more than anyone's."
Chloe shook her head, but smiled. "It's brilliant. You're brilliant."
Beca grinned. "I love you," she said. "How's revision going?"
"Not… terrible," Chloe said, looking back down at her mess of papers. "There's this one topic I can't find." She sighed, sitting back on the sofa. "I need to organise my shit."
"Are you hungry?" Beca asked.
"Yeah," Chloe said. "What time is it?"
"Like 1 pm," Beca said. "I'll go make us some lunch, you start organising. I can give you hand after we've eaten."
"You don't have to," Chloe said, smiling.
"Your test is in a few days," Beca said. "I'm not letting my girlfriend flunk out of veterinary school because she couldn't keep her notes organised."
Chloe rolled her eyes but grinned anyway.
"Be back in five," Beca said, kissing the top of Chloe's head.
She walked into their kitchen, and started preparing some sandwiches, grinning when she heard Chloe's triumphant shout of "Ah ha! Found you!"
Moving in with Chloe had been a big step, but it felt right, and Beca hadn't regretted it for a second.
They had stayed in Barden, because that's where Chloe's support system was, and she wasn't ready to be without them yet.
Beca still wasn't in love with her home town, she'd had a few unpleasant run-ins with her mom, but she didn't find the town quite so claustrophobic anymore.
Her new job as a junior producer at ATL Records kept her busy, and it meant she got to escape Barden to the nearby bigger city every day.
Coming home to Chloe every day made it even better.
It wasn't always plain sailing. They both still had bad days.
Chloe found that Beca would spiral if she ever got negative feedback at work, or if she ever had any kind of creative block. She would start doubting her talent, and would close in on herself. Becoming uncommunicative and frustrated. Some days she still found it hard getting out of bed.
On those occasions, Chloe would take them for a drive to Barden lake and they would go for a walk along the hiking trail. Chloe would remind Beca of how talented she was, and how loved she was. She'd remind Beca that she wasn't a failure. That she'd never been a failure.
Chloe still got her bad days too. Beca knew what her triggers were, and she knew how to talk Chloe down from a panic attack.
If Chloe was craving a drink, or if she'd had a bad call at Support Line, she knew how to distract her. She knew how to keep Chloe out of her own head.
And she knew how to walk away when she needed to. It was rare that she needed to, but she knew it was an option. She would go for a walk around the neighbourhood, or drive to pick them up some dinner, and when she got back she'd let Chloe apologise, and they'd carry on with their day.
They still had their bad days, but those days were becoming less and less frequent.
They both still saw Stacie regularly, and Chloe was still on medication.
They were both still sober. It had been just over a year for Beca, and four years for Chloe.
Beca carried their lunch into the living room, smiling at the sight of Chloe hunched over her revision again, her bottom lip held between her teeth, a groove between her eyebrows she only got when she was really concentrating.
"Quit staring," Chloe said, trying not to smile.
"Quit looking so cute," Beca said.
Chloe laughed, and accepted the plate of food Beca was handing her.
"The song," Beca asked, biting her lip as she sat down beside Chloe, "did you really like it?"
Chloe smiled and nodded. "It was brilliant."
It astounded her that Beca couldn't see her talent the way that Chloe saw it. The way that everyone saw it.
She would tell her a thousand times a day, if she had to.
"Do you not think it was too lo-"
She was cut off by Chloe throwing a potato chip at her head.
"… Okay…"
"Sorry, what were you gonna say?" Chloe asked, innocently.
"The song," Beca said, warily. "It's too-"
Chloe threw another chip.
"Too good? I agree, it's too good. You're gonna make all the other artists mad when you win every Grammy," Chloe said, holding a third chip in her hand. "Did you have something you wanted to add? Anything else to say about the song?"
Beca smiled and shook her head.
"Thought so," Chloe said, smiling as she popped the chip into her mouth.
"You're such a weirdo," Beca said, laughing.
"Correction," Chloe said. "I'm your weirdo."
Beca laughed. "You're my…" She trailed off and shook her head.
"Your what?"
"I was gonna say something lame."
"That's never stopped you before," Chloe said.
"Wow. Rude."
"Tell me or I start throwing chips again."
"You're my everything, Chloe. You're my rock. My guiding light," Beca said.
Chloe was quiet for a minute while she watched Beca. Beca would do this sometimes. Say these wonderfully beautiful things to her, as if Chloe should already know them. As if it was obvious.
"I'm using up the speech I wrote for when I propose," Beca said, returning to her sandwich. "Try and act surprised the next time I say it."
"What makes you think you get to propose?" Chloe asked.
"If you propose to me, I'll just propose louder," Beca said.
"You think you can out propose me?"
"I know I can."
"Oh, it's on," Chloe said, wondering if she was supposed to feel scared. Or freaked out.
She thought about the ring she had stashed in their spare room, and she just felt relief. Relief in knowing that Beca would say yes. Relief in knowing that she wasn't scared.
Loving Beca was the easiest thing she'd ever done.
The End.