Hi Doc, I love your one shots and fics. Have you one were Beca is pregnant?
Jesse Swanson couldn’t exactly say right now that he was ‘living the dream’. Seven months ago he’d broken up with his girlfriend of five years, his rent on his apartment in LA had been hiked up without any warning from his landlord, and the show he’d been trying to get transferred to Broadway had gone the complete opposite direction and had folded the moment it’s final small performance in LA had ended.
So here he was, sat outside a New York coffee shop, sipping a latte, when suddenly someone caught his eye. Someone who took him completely by surprise.
“Beca!” he blurted loudly, mostly sounding stunned than pleased. The woman he’d called out to - who had already walked past him by a couple of paces - stopped and turned on the spot, her expression contorting into confusion to see him rising from the table to greet her politely.
“Jesse. Wow. Wha-what’re you doing here??”
Jesse’s eyes immediately fell down Beca’s body, loitering in particular around her pregnant belly. He watched her hand smooth protectively over it.
“I uh...” he began, pausing while he tried to organise his thoughts. His attention snapped back up to his ex-girlfriend who still looked at him in shock, “...I was in the neighbourhood.”
“Yeah I can see that.” Beca replied with a mildly amused tone, “I just wondered why you were in my neighbourhood.”
Ah. Shit. Okay so Jesse remembered that this had been Beca’s favourite coffee shop to go to back when they’d been dating. And yes perhaps a tiny part of him had been low-key hoping he’d bump into her if he hung around long enough. But he never in a million years imagined she’d be pregnant when he did.
“I um...there’s...I’m auditioning for a part in a broadway show round the corner.” he motioned at his cup of coffee sat on the table beside him, “Thought I’d grab a coffee first.”
“Broadway huh?” Beca replied and Jesse enjoyed how impressed she looked. This wasn’t going as awkwardly as he feared. He’d be lying if he didn’t admit he’d envisioned how this interaction might go one day.
“What about you?” he eventually said, motioning to Beca stomach, “I see you’re expecting.”
“Oh! This?” Beca paused, looking down at her pregnant belly, and Jesse was surprised to see a soft smile sweep onto her face. “Yeah.”
Jesse swallowed loudly. Beca. Pregnant. The woman who flat out told him time and time again that she didn’t even know if she wanted children. That she wasn’t really maternal enough for that.
“It’s not mine is it?” he blurted, not for a moment thinking through what he was saying. Because they’d been broken up long enough for Beca to have had plenty of sexual partners after him. He couldn’t even be sure how far along she was. She was a petite woman after all.
“Wha-?” Beca scoffed, a confused look on her face, and Jesse could feel his cheeks flushing in embarrassment.
“It’s just-” he attempted, but Beca’s palms shot up towards him, wanting to stop his train of though.
“-Dude, I dunno how messed up your math is, but we haven’t seen each other in like five years.”
Her voice was as amused and confused as her facial expression, which only assisted Jesse’s embarrassment further.
“Right. Yeah. Sorry.” He mumbled, his hand reaching round to scratch the back of his head. God he was an idiot. And his eyes drifted back down to the bump awkwardly, this time noticing that Beca’s left hand sported an engagement and wedding ring while she smoothed her palm across her bump, “So you’re having a kid after all.”
“Come on Jesse,” Beca replied in an exasperated tone, “don’t do this.”
Jesse’s eyes shot back up to Beca’s, innocently looking back at her while she looked unimpressed. “Do what? I’m not doing anything.”
“Why is it such a surprise to you that I’ve finally found someone who I love and who gets me and who I’ve finally settled down with?”
Her brow was furrowed and suddenly Jesse remembered exactly why he’d broken up with her in the first place. Beca was difficult, stubborn, quick to jump to conclusions, defensive, and rarely cared about what other people wanted - just like she hadn’t cared one bit that he’d always wanted to live in LA and had hoped that she would live there with him too. Beca had turned her back on him and had taken a job in New York without even consulting him or checking that it was even what he wanted her to do.
“Look I think it’s great you’ve finally found a husband and you’re having a baby with him...” his sentence petered off as he watched Beca’s mouth flicker to an amused smirk.
“You haven’t heard huh.” she said gently, and this time it was Jesse’s turn to furrow his brow.
He watched as Beca pointed to her pregnant belly with a smile.
The furrowed brow shot up to Jesse’s hairline as he took a step backwards in shock. Wow. Even Jesse had to admit he hadn’t ever expected Beca to come out with that.
“Chl-...oh wow.” was all he could muster while Beca nodded proudly.
“Yeah. Yeah it took a while but-”
“-Man, I knew she meant a lot to you Beca, but wow, being a surrogate for her and her husband?” Jesse paused, looking sincerely at his ex-girlfriend, almost seeing her in a different light, “That’s pretty amazing stuff.”
Jesse was so overcome by the whole situation that he failed to see Beca’s smile drop, and her brow furrow once again.
“I...” Beca was a little lost for words but somehow powered through, “...I really don’t think you’re aware of the situation here.”
Jesse hesitated. Was it more complicated than that? He had to admit, he didn’t really know anything about surrogacy so...perhaps instead Beca had fallen pregnant accidentally and didn’t want to baby so was planning on giving it to Chloe and her husband inste-
“Dude I’m married to Chloe.” Beca revealed with a grin on her face, “Her egg’s in my body and we’ve made a baby from it with a donor’s sperm.”
Jesse felt the colour drain from his face. Beca was gay?! She was married to Chloe???
“Do you need me to elaborate further or-?”
“-No. No, I’ve got it.” Jesse quickly interrupted, suddenly feeling hot around the collar. “You’re uh...” he changed his tone as swiftly as possible, making it bright and optimistic. Unfortunately it sounded forced: “...So you’re gay!”
Beca noticeably grimaced at the announcement and Jesse couldn’t understand why. He was being kind. Positive. Supportive.
“Hey I’m trying to be nice here-”
“-I didn’t ask you to be!” Beca snapped, and Jesse was reminded of the way his ex used to be in college. So often defensive. Pushing him away whenever she felt he was being ‘too much’ or getting ‘too close’.
“Jesse you broke my heart!” Beca burst, now very clearly angry, as though she could finally say the words that had built up within her over the past five years, “You broke up with me over text, then blocked me on every possible social media format, then you had the fucking audacity to tell everyone that we knew that you’d tried to make me see reason and that I was the one to blame!”
Jesse felt his stomach churning. Yeah, he’d been a real dick back then. And he wasn’t proud of it. Nor was he proud of the sight of tears building in Beca’s eyes as she frowned at him.
“So no, I don’t want you to try to be nice, okay?” There was poison in Beca’s tone as she sniffed loudly, and Jesse cleared his throat awkwardly as Beca added in a hurt voice, “You left me in pieces, and Chloe was the only person around to help put me back together. She’s never tried to change me. She’s never insisted that her dreams are my dreams. She’s supported me no matter what. Being in love with her feels right, and being loved by her is what makes me feel like I belong somewhere. Like I have a home. I never felt that from you or like that when I was with you.”
The sound of someone else speaking Beca’s name had Jesse’s blood run cold, his brain already filled with his ex-girlfriend’s words. And to his dismay, he saw Chloe dash into view, the redhead gently taking hold of Beca’s arms.
“Babe what’s going on?” Chloe mumbled in a gentle voice.
Jesse watched as Beca looked past her wife, up at him. And his body filled with dread when he saw Chloe turn to see who her wife was looking at, the death-glare from the redhead becoming almost too much for the man to bear.