How long is always?

5 years

According to Beca's grandpa, Always only lasted five years.

To be fair to the old man, it wasn't really within his control, but then again, he shouldn't have made a promise he knew he wouldn't be able to keep.

~~~~

When Beca was passed off to her dad when she was only eight days old, her father was also looking after his pregnant girlfriend and his elderly father, Greg Mitchell (baby Beca's grandpa) at the same time. 

~~~~

Greg heard the faint sound of crying from outside. For a minute, he thought it was the pregnant girlfriend crying over the baby again (her real name was Cindy but he preferred calling her the pregnant girlfriend). This wasn't a rare occurrence - she seemed to be in that stage of pregnancy where everything seemed to upset her, most of all her own boyfriend, mainly for no reason at all. 

He eased himself out of his armchair and slowly made his way across the hallway to see what was the matter. The pregnant girlfriend was sitting at the kitchen island stuffing her face with gherkins. She also seemed to be at that stage of pregnancy where she had the weirdest cravings ever. Due to the mass amount of gherkins stuffed in her mouth, Greg knew it wasn't her that had been crying. 

There it was again. He turned around and made his way, painstakingly slowly, towards the front door, turned the handle and pulled it open, surprised to see no one there. He heard the sound again and looked down to see a small baby, around eight days old, lying on the doorstep. 

She came only with the clothes she was wearing and a small note saying:

John, 

Her name's Rebeca.

Rachel.

John's ex- wife Rachel had hardly been one with words.

He heard the sound of shouting coming from inside. His son and the pregnant girlfriend were arguing (again). He picked up the small bundle and held her close to his chest. He bent his neck down towards her little pink ear and whispered,

"Looks like you're stuck with me now. Don't worry. I'll always protect you."

Unfortunately for Greg and baby Beca, this Always didn't last forever.

~~~~

When Rebeca Mitchell was five years old, her grandpa died. After battling with cancer for over seven years, the illness consumed his body and he was gone. 

The day her dad and Cindy came to the school to collect her, she instantly knew something was wrong. They had never done that before, always being way too busy with her half brother James to pay attention to her.

She knew what had happened from the moment they entered the classroom.

"Come on Rebeca, stop crying." Her dad complained as they walked across the school parking lot to his car.

Rebeca felt the anger boiling up inside her, but stopped crying anyway.

"Get in the car."

She stood still.

"Rebeca." He warned.

"Don't call me that." She mumbled. Only her grandpa had ever called her by her full name. Everyone else had called her Becky, which she hated, but was still better than being reminded of her grandpa.

"Sorry?" He asked, not having heard what she said.

"Don't call me Rebeca. Only he called me that."

"Oh I'm sorry, what would your highness like to be called instead? Hmmm?"

"Beca. Just Beca"

~~~~

The day her grandpa died, Rebeca died too. The sweet, smiling young girl was instead taken over by Beca, the quiet girl who mourned her grandpa.