Chapter Text
Since she was little, Beca Mitchell had always loved music. For as long as she could remember, music had been the only constant thing in her life. Her parents had gotten a divorce way too long after they should’ve gotten one so she has one too many memories of her earbuds stuck into her ears until it hurt as she listened to her playlists on repeat to cover up the sound of yelling adults.
The more she grew up, the more she understood that life was much easier when she had her headphones on. She didn’t have to hear the chatter of loud students, she didn’t have to talk to anyone she didn’t like and more importantly, she could hear her own thoughts sung to her, making her feel less alone.
Music was her safe place and from the moment she made that first disastrous mix of two songs she liked together (that mix was so bad, it made Jake’s mix of Let it go from Frozen and the Spider-Man theme song sound good), she knew she was going to figure out a way to make her whole life revolve around it.
Her dad had always been against her moving to LA instead of going to college. Given, she first brought up the idea in her freshman year of high school but the important thing is that her mind never shifted and she worked hard to make her parents understand she was serious about her dream. When her senior year arrived, she started to make plans that sent her dad into a rage, the college professor in him refusing to have a daughter that wouldn’t continue her studies after high school.
Unfortunately for him, Beca had stopped caring about him a long time ago (about the time he moved across the country to join the woman he cheated on her mother with) and his words didn’t mean a lot to Beca when April was actually impressed by her daughter’s determination and let her move to Los Angeles at 18.
It was hard. Hard as fuck, actually but Beca made it work because she still only had one thing on her mind that she would never shift from: music. Making music was the goal and she knew she had the talent to make a career out of it. So she found a job in the tiniest studio ever but she was doing what she always wanted and she went from there until she found Atlantis Records and settled down.
Then Jake happened and that brought a new symphony into Beca’s life. One that sounded like the Toy Story soundtrack or a superhero’s theme song but she liked it nonetheless. Her song gave her a new purpose, one that made her extend her heart a little bit more so she could have a place for him and music.
Music producer by day, mother by… day and night and everything in between, Beca found peace in her comfort zone. One that could never be disturbed because things were perfect the way they were.
Well, so she thought until Chloe Beale came into her life.
And Chloe Beale brought more than a symphony into her life, she brought an entire orchestra. She brought a melodic laughter, violins practically playing when she smiled but with no instruments, because it all came from her mouth.
Beca took some time to get her shit together regarding Chloe but she thinks she did a pretty good job since she managed to convince this wonderful woman to marry her a few years ago. They’re making their music together now, always living their lives on the same rhythm, the one that they invented together without even thinking about it.
She was brought back to reality when her phone buzzed, signaling a notification and she realized she was still very much at work right now and she was the only one not on her computer working hard on finishing the album that’s supposed to come out in a week. CR was in front of her, obviously frustrated since her eyebrows were knitted together and she was clicking hard on her keyboard.
Beca looked everywhere making sure no one noticed she had just spent a long time in the depths of her mind for no reason and she grabbed her phone to see who texted her.
She smiled when she saw it was actually a tweet from Snoop Dog, who she managed to create a weirdly good bond with when she worked on his latest album, even going as far as singing with him on one track.
She opened the notification to read the full tweet : Need to be in the studio again. @djmitch Where you at?”
She snorted, typing out a quick reply that told him he could text her anytime to set up a date and just as she was about to press send, a voice nearly startled out of her seat.
“Mitchell!”
She pressed her phone to her chest, looking extremely guilty and she felt her colleagues’ eyes on her as Allen tilted his head to indicate he wanted her to join him in his office. She cleared her throat awkwardly, wondering if she was about to be yelled at by her boss for the first time in her 11 years at Atlantis Records.
“Good luck,” she heard Cynthia-Rose say to mock her as she walked towards the office and Beca just ignored her, gulping when Allen told her to close the door behind her. She decided to get a head start to avoid yelling and words came out of her mouth all at once.
“I didn’t mean to be on my phone, I swear I was about to start working. I’m just a bit distracted. Parker, my dog, figured out that we have food on the counters and now he tries to grab it and eat it and he’s really big so he can reach it and it’s just this big mess and I had to clean it all up and--
Allen pulled a confused face, stopping her with a move with his hands. “What on God’s green earth are you talking about?”
Beca froze and just sat down in front of him swiftly, seeing an out. “Nothing. Nevermind. Do you need something from me?”
“Yes,” he nodded, leaning back in his chair comfortably. “You’ve been here what-- 10 years , Beca?”
“11, sir.”
God, she was getting old.
“Right. You're good, kid. You’re really good.”
She blushed, not expecting the compliment. Still, she wondered what she was here for. “Thank you.”
“I’m going on a cruise in June. My wife and I have always dreamed of taking a vacation in the Caribbean islands.”
Beca paused, wondering why they were suddenly talking about a vacation that he was going to take 3 weeks from now.
“O-Okay,” she answered, unsure.
“It’s a 3 month cruise,” he continued, caressing his gray beard. “After that, me and the wife are thinking of settling down in San Diego. We always loved that city.”
“Wait-- what?” Beca instantly replied. Settling down? In San Diego? What about Atlantis Records? Was she losing her job or something?
Like he could feel her anxiety spike up, he opened one of the drawers of his desk and Beca watched avidly as he took a set of keys only to throw it at her. She made a move to grab them too late and they hit her on the chest before hitting the ground. The smile fell from Allen’s face.
“Oh-”
“Yeah- I’m- I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay.”
“I’m not good at catching--”
“It’s okay, just--” Allen let out a breath, clearly irked that his momentum had to break because of Beca’s embarrassing lack of skills. “Just grab them, Beca.”
She quickly nodded, bending down to grab them. She inspected them for half a second, wondering what was the message between this exchange. Allen looked laid back, completely comfortable with what was happening and she hoped whatever was going to come out of his mouth was going to make her feel the same way.
“These are the keys to your new office.”
She looked at them before going back to Allen, not saying a word. Was she… transferring to a new studio?
He chuckled as if he could read her mind, “this one.”
Huh?
“You’re giving me… your office?” she said, slowly. He let out a laugh, obviously amused at Beca’s confusion.
“I’m giving you more than that. I’m giving you my job.”
She nearly choked on her spit, wondering if she was about to see him burst out laughing because this was all some kind of prank. But Allen’s face remained calm, a content smile sporting on his face indicating he was at peace with what he was saying.
“I-- I don’t understand,” Beca admitted and he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk.
“I’m getting old, Mitch. I wanna be with my wife. I did what I had to do, now you gotta do what you gotta do.”
“And that is… running this place?” she said, trying to make sense of this situation.
Sure, she had become pretty important to Allen over the last eleven years, aiding him in all sorts of important business decisions since he trusted her judgment but never in a million years would she have ever imagined actually becoming the boss of Atlantis Records.
He looked behind her where Amy could be seen trying to show a dance move to CR that Beca knew she called “mermaid dancing”. Beca rolled her eyes and turned back when Allen answered her.
“You think I trust any of these idiots with this job? My studio is the best so I’m making sure it’s in the hands of the best.”
She blushed, ducking her head down. Even after years of being with Chloe, she was still pretty awkward with compliments and she was never sure how to take them. She was unbelievably grateful for her boss’ words, though and she actually couldn’t believe this moment was actually happening. She had never thought her career would get this far, all she wanted was to make music and she was still thankful she got lucky enough to be able to make a living out of it.
“I built this place from the ground up,” Allen continued, his face suddenly serious and Beca subconsciously straightened up. “You better not disappoint me.”
“No,” Beca hurried to say. “I won’t, sir.”
“In a dream world I would’ve trained you for a couple of months, shown you everything that I know. It’s a lot of work, Mitch. But I don’t. I wasn’t planning on not coming back after my vacation but things changed and here we are, ” he said. He looked in deep thought but Beca didn’t want to press further out of respect. “So we’ll have to make do with the time we have left and I’ll leave you with this manual I put together quickly that explains the gist of it.”
She immediately felt a spike of anxiety rush through her at the words. She was going to be busier than she ever has been and more important than she has ever been. This was big, really big. Since she was little, she had always dreamed of living her life surrounded by music and not only did that happen, she was now going to become the boss of said music.
She quickly swallowed it, years of repressing her emotions granting her the possibility to never let that stress show on her face in front of Allen. She wanted to show him that after 11 years at this studio, she knew the ins and outs of it and she was more than ready to prove herself worthy of this promotion.
“I’m more than ready,” she answered with assurance and he smiled, pleased by her response.
“Great. Because we’re starting now.”
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Beca swung the front door open and kicked it closed behind her, putting her car keys on the hook and her shoes at the bottom of the stairs like she did every night. It was a routine she had gotten into since they moved into the house, and as soon as Chloe noticed she always left the same gap for Beca’s shoes to fit between hers and Jake’s. The house was quieter than usual so she figured both of them must be busy.
Their son had been spending a lot of extra time cooped up in his room recently, playing video games with friends from school and just being a typical 13 year old. As much as the pair wanted to spend quality time with him, it would be hypocritical for Beca to intervene seeing as she spent the majority of her adolescence in her own bedroom with her headphones on.
So she let him be and hoped that he still knew they would always be there if he needed them and that there was still a little bit of him that liked being called ‘Jakey’ even though he complained about it now.
Parker came trotting up to her, stretching and yawning as though he had just woken up, but his tail was wagging nonetheless. She smiled, feeling glad to be home after a long day.
Yes, it was gratifying for Allen to start training her the day he announced she was going to replace him and she was excited to keep taking notes on how everything worked but man, did it take a lot of energy trying to remember all of this. All she wanted was to have a quiet evening with her wife with a beer in her hands.
“Hey buddy,” she whispered as she crouched down and scratched behind his ear where he liked it, before following him through to the living room.
“Hello Mrs Mitchell,” Beca said smoothly as soon as she saw her wife sprawled out on the couch, watching some stupid reality TV show.
Chloe’s face lit up as soon as she saw her and she sat up sharply, turning the TV down a few notches. Chloe always seemed excited to see her when she got home from work as though they had been apart for weeks on end. It was nice, she liked that that never went away with the years.
“Hi baby,” Chloe said with a smile, her hands sliding around Beca’s waist and placing a chaste kiss on her lips.
“How was school?” Beca said as they separated so she could go to the fridge.
“Good!” Chloe said just as enthusiastic about her job as she was the day she started. “The 2nd graders are definitely going to steal the show in June. Oh and I’m thinking of starting a school choir! Wouldn’t that be awesome?”
“That’d be amazing,” she answered her wife with a smile before asking her what she wanted to do with the choir. Chloe told Beca all of her ideas as the latter took some vegetables and dip so she could have a light snack before starting dinner.
Chloe’s eyes were sparkling the way they always did whenever she was talking about her job. The passion she had for those little kids was something that she was never going to understand but she would never get tired of hearing it. She always loved hearing Chloe talk about her day and she knew Chloe had just as much interest in Beca’s day which is why the moment she came home at night was always a moment Beca enjoyed.
It was a moment for the two of them to talk, to enjoy that time together that proved that they supported each other no matter what. Which is why Beca encouraged Chloe’s newfound passion for art that she discovered this summer which led to the walls of the house quickly filling up with paintings that Chloe had made.
“How was your day?” Chloe finished by saying after she was done and Beca froze for half a second with a carrot mid-air. For a moment, she had forgotten that her work life had completely changed today.
Now she knew her wife. She knew Chloe would completely flip out but Beca didn't wanna make a huge deal out of what had happened. Besides, she wasn't sure she’d even had a chance to process it herself yet. She had basically spent the last decade of her life working for this moment, dedicating most of her time to melodies and symphonies as though they ran through her veins.
It was always obvious she was Allen’s favourite because most kids who took internships at record labels thought it would be no work and all play, meeting celebrities and recording songs and being on the front page of magazines. The reality of the job was totally different (although Beca could admit she had done all three of those things) and a lot of the time everybody spent hours on computers, filing invoices and planning appointments. Beca was one of the few staff members that actually did their job; she had put in countless extra hours over the years and could tell Allen was grateful for her skills.
“Just a typical day,” she started, leaning on the counter with a cucumber in her hand and a bowl of dip in the other. “Amy managed to delete three pages of a track we had finished for an album and one of the new employees passed out when Katy Perry’s PA called up. Oh and I got promoted to boss.”
She took a bite of her cucumber and watched Chloe’s nose scrunch with a laugh.
“How has Amy not been fired yet, she--”
Her eyes widened when she realized Amy was most definitely not the most important part of that sentence. The producer just watched her, biting her lip to hide the smile that was threatening to creep onto her face.
“Beca, what the fuck did you just say?”
The word fuck almost startled Beca. She had known the teacher for quite a few years now and Chloe was one of the only humans that Beca knew that rarely cursed, nevermind the F-bomb. Chloe always said it was because she didn’t want to get used to saying them and then drop one in class but Beca knew it was because Chloe felt cursing was just mean and she didn’t have time for mean things.
She finally let herself grin, a wave of relief crashing in her stomach when she realized that saying it to her wife was going to make it that much more real.
“Allen’s retiring. He said he wants to go to the Caribbeans with his wife or some shit so he gave me the keys. He gave them to me, Chlo,” she announced calmly as she grabbed the keys from one of the pockets of her blazer and dangled them in front of surprised ocean blue eyes.
She had said it as nonchalantly as possible but she knew that no matter how much she’d like to avoid a big fuss, Chloe being the person that she was, would freak out. Like Beca predicted, her wife let out the loudest squeal she had ever heard (except maybe for the time she saw a baby koala at the zoo) and jumped to her feet.
“Beca this is insane! You’re insane! Why are you not excited? Oh my god!”
Clearly the fuss the redhead was making was pretty damn loud because Beca heard footsteps running down the stairs and then Jake skidded into the living room in nothing but socks and shorts, a towel hung around his neck.
“What’s happening?” He asked, rubbing his long wet hair with the towel as his eyes flicked between Beca and Chloe, a confused look on his face.
“Your mom is literally the most dramatic person ever, that is what's happening.” Beca muttered as she put her coffee down, tucking her feet underneath her body.
“Rebeca Mitchell stop acting cool!” Chloe scolded, frowning at the producer, “This is huge news!”
Beca wasn’t sure she had ever heard Chloe use her full name like that before. She knew this was a huge deal but she had spent her whole life keeping herself to herself- all of her achievements felt personal, the biggest she would ever celebrate would be sitting in front of the TV with a few beers. As soon as Chloe came into her life everything became a celebration. The redhead felt as though being alive and breathing was reason enough to celebrate, Beca couldn't count the number of times she had come home with a cake or a tray of donuts for no apparent reason.
This was different, however. She understood that being humble was a good trait, but sometimes it was necessary to share your achievements.
“I suppose it is.”
“Will somebody please tell me what the fuss is all about?” Jake pleaded, letting out an exasperated sigh.
“I got promoted,” Beca started, taking a deep breath, “I’m taking over Atlantis Records, my guy.”
Jake’s face lit up just like Chloe’s had and he threw himself at Beca, his long arms immediately enveloping her in a hug. He was almost taller than her by now, growing up at a dangerously fast pace. Sometimes she missed when he was small enough to fit on her lap.
“Mom, that's amazing! I’m so proud of you!” He exclaimed in her ear, a genuine grin on his face as soon as he pulled away.
Beca and Chloe had raised him with constant praise and taught him how to love himself and be proud of his abilities and when this began to translate into how he treated others around him, Beca almost burst with pride. Her boy had grown up around music since being in the womb and he was well aware of how much it meant to Beca. Even Allen had grown rather fond of him despite the amount of times she had to leave early to pick him up from school on time.
“Thanks guys,” allowing herself to let the excitement show on her face. “I suppose this means I’ll be picking up a lot more hours and I'll be home pretty late most evenings for a while. Are you okay with that?”
She wanted her family's approval before she sorted anything out properly, because those two humans meant more to her than anything. Maybe even music. Maybe. Chloe worked hard for them, often doing the laundry and cooking dinner after work and she didn’t want the teacher to feel as though everything was on her shoulders because that wasn't how things worked- they were a team.
“Totes! Are you kidding? This is your dream come true Becs.” Chloe replied, softer this time as she sat back down beside her wife.
“Yeah mom. We’ll be right here when you get home.” Jake added.
This felt like a turning point in Beca’s life and although she had been waiting for it forever, her anxiety was overshadowing her excitement. What if she wasn't good enough? Allen had been in the business since before she was even born, he had years of experience and had built his empire on hard work.
She didn’t know if she was capable of upholding the studio, especially with all of the interns to deal with. It was a lot to think about but she was excited regardless.