For Kate

[a_capella_boy]

Ever since Jesse had spent the small amount of money he had earned coming up with a commercial jingle on DJ equipment for Beca, he browsed pawn shops regularly looking at guitars. That's what he had been intending to buy when he got Beca's equipment (something he had no intention of letting Beca know) and while he didn't regret his decision, he really missed having a guitar.

He really needed some sort of job, because otherwise it was going to take forever to save up for something like a guitar, even one from a pawn shop.

"I'm going to go a little Wayne's World right now," Jesse announced, glancing around the mostly empty pawn shop. "Is that okay? I mean... okay, yeah, I think it's okay."

Turning back to the guitar, Jesse uttered those immortal words.

"It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine. Wow, okay, that felt a little bit dramatic there. Did that feel a bit dramatic to you?" he asked, turning to face the random person walking by.

Comments

[a_capella_boy]

"I don't know," Jesse admitted. That was a question that he was glad that he didn't have to answer. Beca didn't even have to answer it since they weren't official when she had showed up.

"Maybe think about how long he'd want you to wait before moving on and how long you'd want him to wait before moving on and find some sort of common ground?"

[everyonetakes]

"Ugh," she said, throwing up her free hand -- the one not holding the flamingo under her arm -- and rolled her eyes. "No wonder I stayed single for so long. This shit is the worst. There are always rules, but then the rules are never hard or fast and you have to use your better judgment. I don't have any of that! All my judgment is usually pretty terrible."

[a_capella_boy]

"Also, what happens if you move on and he comes here, but only from a time when you guys have been together for years and raised several dogs together?" Jesse asked. Potentially, he and Beca could have arrived from conflicting times and that would have been rough. Not as rough as what Kate might experience of course.

[everyonetakes]

"Ugh, yes, exactly," she answered, although she didn't know if she and Harry ever would have made it that far. Even when she was happy, Kate wasn't sure she was capable of being with one person for the rest of her life. Her parents had been good at it, but it had been fucking hard by the looks of it and they'd spent a lot of their time unhappy. "So, see? Complicated."

[a_capella_boy]

"I guess you just do your best and hope your toddler from an alternate universe doesn't show up," Jesse said with a shrug. He was pretty sure that at least one point in everyone's life where they made the sort of choice that would end up with them having a child.

"Or that it does if you want a kid without the whole nine months of carrying a parasite thing."

[everyonetakes]

"No," Kate said, looking horrified. "No, no, no, no, no. Definitely no toddlers ever. Do I look like the sort of person who can handle a kid? I can barely handle myself most of the time." A child was not something that had ever been on her list of things to do. "My toddler from an alternate universe can just stay in that alternate universe."

[a_capella_boy]

"See? Now in perspective you've only lost a boyfriend. Compared to potential children showing up, that's not so bad, right?"

It was probably a horrible way to offer comfort, but Jesse thought it did put things in perspective. It also made him wonder if he was going to end up with any alternate reality children or something.

[everyonetakes]

"I guess not," Kate answered, nose wrinkling a little. The logic wasn't something she was totally down with, but that wasn't Jesse's fault and he sort of had a point. Besides, it was probably better for Harry that she wasn't around anyway. She sort of sucked as a girlfriend.

"The same could be said for you," she realized. "Maybe you have alternate universe babies."

[a_capella_boy]

"Oh man, that would freak Beca out majorly," Jesse said with a bit of a laugh. In reality, it was a seriously scary thought, but it's not like he could do anything about it, so he might as well laugh at the idea, because there were definitely some scary aspects.

"But I mean, there's just as good a chance they'd arrive here as an adult, right?"

[everyonetakes]

"Okay, we need to stop talking about this, it's freaking me out. What if our adult children are here already? What if I'm your adult daughter and I don't even know it?" she asked, even though that was impossible, because she knew exactly who her father was.

[a_capella_boy]

"What if the Beatles showed up?" Jesse asked, more than happy to steer the conversation around potential kids and whether or not Kate might be one of his. He supposed she could be but just couldn't tell him or something.

"All four of them. Alive and in their prime. And Beethoven, who joins as the fifth member? That could happen."

[everyonetakes]

"Or, you know, you could get even weirder and come up with fictional musicians," she said, because she'd spent long enough dating Harry Potter to know it was more than possible. "I don't actually know any fictional musicians, but I bet there's a bunch of fictional Beatles that could show up and play with the real ones."

[a_capella_boy]

"Spinal Tap could come here," Jesse said, freezing in his tracks for a moment as he considered that. That would be amazing. For at least a week, then it would probably get mundane and ridiculous, but for a while it would be amazing.

"Any fictional band ever could show up here."

[everyonetakes]

"And you know what'll happen?" Kate asked, turning so she could look at Jesse. "Not one single person you want to be here will actually show up. That's just how these places work."

Not that she was bitter or anything. She just missed Marshall and her parents so much. She missed Effy and Hermione. She missed Harry.

[a_capella_boy]

"I hope not, because that means my girlfriend didn't actually want me to show up here," Jesse said. That was a weird thing though, because was it a good thing or bad thing to want someone you care about be here.

"Although to be honest, if my best friend from home shows up I'll probably be both ecstatic and guilty."

[everyonetakes]

"Why?" she asked, knowing if Effy showed up, she'd be thrilled. Before the island, she'd never really had a best friend and although one of the people she would have considered a best friend was here, he didn't even know her, so that didn't count anymore.

[a_capella_boy]

"Because he'll be separated from all of his friends and family," Jesse said. As much as he'd like Benji to be here, he didn't want his friend to be sad and, you know, trapped in another dimension.

"Although if anyone from Star Wars is here, he'd ditch his family in a second to be here."

[everyonetakes]

"Everyone here is separated from all their friends and family," she pointed out. "It's not like you're responsible for that." Being away from her family sucked, but she'd hate if anyone actually felt guilty over it, especially about being happy to see her. If Marshall showed up here, she wouldn't feel guilty for a second.

[a_capella_boy]

"I don't know, it would feel a little about taking pleasure in their misfortune. Or maybe that's just me thinking about it way too hard," Jesse admitted. While he wasn't necessarily the deepest guy around, sometimes he could latch on to an idea and not let it go.

"I should probably just be happy to see someone I know."

[everyonetakes]

"That's just you thinking about it way too hard," Kate agreed. "If someone was happy to see you, would you immediately think they were taking pleasure in your misfortune? No. At least, I really hope not, because you seem like a cool guy and that would just kinda kill all that."

[a_capella_boy]

"Of course not. Because like everyone, I assume I'm a far more horrible person than the average person out there," Jesse said. When she put it like that though, he had to concede the point.

"But you've got me. If Benji shows up, it's just straight up jubilation."

[everyonetakes]

"Yeah, it'd be pretty great if my brother showed up," she said, thinking of Marshall. "I mean, I'm not counting on it or anything, because as soon as you want something like that to happen, that only means it never ever will, but it'd still be pretty awesome to see him again."

She and Marshall had been close for so long that it was still weird to think about how long they'd been apart now. It felt like forever.

[a_capella_boy]

"How old is your brother?" Jesse asked. He assumed he would have to be older, Jesse couldn't imagine someone hoping a little kid would show up here, away from their parents. Maybe a twin?

"I'm an only child so a college roommate is the closest thing I've had to a brother."

[everyonetakes]

"Well, who knows, given how this weird time shit works," she answered. Because Marshall could show up here and still be fourteen. Or he could come from the middle of his island time and be sixteen. Or he could show up from her future and she didn't even want to think about that.

"I mean, normally he's a year younger than me, so he'd be eighteen now," she said.

[a_capella_boy]

"Do you think he'd like it here?" Jesse asked. He was surprised by how many people trapped here had made a decent life of things. Some of them were actually really happy. If pressed, Jesse would probably say he didn't mind it here.

"Sometimes I think Benji would actually choose to come here if he could."