Dave Matthews' voice filled the cafeteria, intoxicating Greendale students and professors alike. Annie stood beside Abed and felt the weight of impending doom slide from her chest. They had succeeded; Greendale would live to see another day and somewhere in her heart, Annie began to convince herself that that would be enough. A thousand things had happened in the past 5 hours, some bad and some good. The good had outweighed the bad, clearly, but all in all, Annie was beyond exhausted. She danced close to the rest of the group and allowed herself to glance at both Jeff and Britta. Maybe they would be happy together, maybe she could move on now. Annie knew better; they would be a terrible couple and she would always wonder, but if there was one thing that she knew to be true it was that holding on was doing her no favors. Her entire adult life she had been consumed with existing inside this semi-incestuous entanglement that had once been a study group.

Annie brought her friends into a quick group hug. "Thank you." She smiled at all of them. She spoke a little quieter and shared one final stolen glance with Jeff Winger. "You saved us." He looked back at her, almost withdrawn. Before another word could be said, Annie patted Abed on the shoulder and walked away. For the first time in years, Annie needed a nap.

She got home to the empty apartment and reached into the fridge and pulled out a beer. There was a rule in their apartment about touching each other's food and drinks, but considering that Abed rarely drank and he mostly kept it for guests, Annie was more than willing to risk a small amount of wrath. If she could survive today, there wasn't much else that could get to her. She sat in Troy's old recliner and chugged at first. After a minute, she slowed down into sipping and looked at the picture of her, Abed and Troy on the wall.

The year had taken its toll on her. Everything felt up in the air and juggled. They had lost Pierce, Troy had left and today their group's home had almost been taken from them. Even if no one else had noticed it, Annie had realized that slowly but surely their little Greendale family was getting smaller. She entertained the thought of being the next to move on. It wasn't that she was keen to abandon her friends, but someone would probably outgrow them soon, why not her? It seemed the natural order of things. She honestly should've been gone ages ago. Her whole purpose for coming to Greendale was to get back on track after rehab, to exceed in her studies and move on. These past few days she had felt an unhealthy attachment to the school, clinging to the ridiculous establishment because of all the precious memories it had to offer her.

Annie knew that it wasn't just the school and her friends that she was clinging to. That look in Jeff's eyes down at the bunker, in that blue and white collared shirt she loved so much, was enough to make her insecure in a way no one else had ever made her feel. She meant to properly encourage him to follow whatever actions he deemed necessary to be happy, but speaking to him like that, she felt so exposed. That wasn't a new feeling for Annie, she always felt naked around Jeff; she could hide from anyone else, but her attempt always seemed futile around him.

She finished her beer and kicked her flats off, toeing them into their little designated cubby near the front door. She tossed the glass bottle into the recycling bin and headed to the bathroom to draw a bath. Annie only stayed in the tepid water for ten minutes at most; feeling progressively drained and unable to delay her nap any longer, she dried off and pulled her hair into a tight damp bun.

The moment her head hit the pillow, she succumbed to slumber, dreaming of bunkers, a sentimental computer and a dashing figure in a blue and white collared dress shirt.


Jeff Winger quickly grew tired of the Dave Matthews' song. Part of him considered that his annoyance was coming from Annie's quickly disappearing figure, but he dismissed that thought almost immediately, because then that would mean what had just happened in the bunker was more than a fluke. He put off his irritation and grabbed tightly to his elation; no matter how it was done, the school was saved. They would live to be mediocre another day. He danced clumsily, along his friends. Britta and he laughed at the dissolving of their ludicrous engagement. Now that sanity reigned freely yet again, he couldn't believe he had ever considered the union in the first place. He loved Britta, undoubtedly, but no more than a friend, in fact he hadn't even looked at her sexually in years and if he had to be honest, he had never quite looked at her romantically. Simply the vision of being married to her actually gave him a frightful shiver.

The music ended eventually and there were several offers to countless after parties and celebrations; Jeff dismissed them all and knew that the cure for whatever he was feeling was a solitary glass of scotch on his leather couch in silence. On his exit of the cafeteria he received some pats on the back and a few vague compliments for his efforts, though few actually knew what happened in the bunker and none knew how that door came to fly open.

Jeff saved the day and should be content that he had brought relief to, well, dozens of people. He wasn't though, content that is. Not even a flicker for Britta; he had focused so hard on the others, begging any of them to be the key, he would have even been relieved if Abed had inspired the passion required to open the door, in spite of what kind of revelation that would mean. Deep in some part of him, he knew it would be Annie, which is why he left her for last, he had to put off the look and the subsequent realization, until desperation deemed necessary. The more glasses of scotch he poured, the less he could blow it all off as a coincidence. Much to his own dread, Jeff knew better and could only be honest about it when he was three sheets to the wind. Annie was…

Jeff wouldn't delude himself into thinking he knew how to properly finish that thought. It didn't matter; he had been shoving down his attraction to Annie for five years and feelings for her almost as long. Sometimes he amused himself in thinking that she was on a pedestal, far beyond his reach and then they would share a moment or a look and for a brief second in time he would assume that it was possible, something between them. She couldn't be on a pedestal if he could reach out and touch her and more often than not, it was what he craved to do; touch her, kiss her, and tell her that he's sorry he could never be what she needs or deserves, or just tell her anything beyond stating that it's all in her head. To put it simply, Jeff Winger was an ass of the acutest kind and now he felt like he was drowning in the smell of her and the smoothness of her skin or the way her hair once felt like satin in his hands, or the way her right hook could knock him senseless and that adorable look of determination she would get on her face when she channeled 'Formidable Annie' (as Jeff liked to call it), with one eyebrow raised and contemplatively biting her bottom lip, knowing that there was no solution she couldn't find, not Annie Edison, impossible or hopeless were words she refused to add into her vocabulary.

In summation, Annie Edison terrified Jeff Winger. Forget that they were friends and that he couldn't handle to lose her, ignore the pesky age difference that complicated things, silence the throbbing in his chest when he looked at her, if the world were to fall to a crushing hush, she would still be that ambitious, considerate, unstoppable, beautiful, inspiring go-getter, who didn't accept failure because she always saw it as opportunity in disguise. Annie was everything Jeff wanted to be, but always fell short of. That's why he liked that pedestal so much, but maybe that was the real problem. All this time, he had refused to admit any feelings for her and slowly but surely they had grown stronger. Maybe if he had chosen to not be a coward and acknowledged those feelings, at least to himself, then he could've moved on, instead of being where he was now. Hopelessly in l-… He couldn't finish the thought; some part of his head told him that there was a perversion in giving such a name to his indescribable feelings for Annie.

Jeff wanted to blame it all on the passion that was needed to open the door. One could claim that it was his attraction to Annie, his physical desire for her that opened the door, but he knew better. In that moment, he didn't think about how kissing her tasted or how fantastic her body felt flush against his; no, he thought of some damn innocent endearment that had started at the beginning of their friendship. He just thought of Annie, pedestal and all.

His phone buzzed and Jeff saw that he received a text from Britta.

'The party is still going on. Your a buzzkill for not joining. Way to Jeff the moment.'

-B

Despite his inner turmoil, Jeff couldn't suppress his chuckle. He didn't have the heart to tell Britta that it was far too late to replace their slang of 'Britta' with his name, or that she had used the incorrect 'you're' for that matter. His reply was short.

'Too tired, long day. Leave me be.'

-Winger

His ex-fiancé seemed unconvinced by his text and took it upon herself to call him. He groaned into the phone. "What?"

"Why don't you come have fun? The whole crew is here, well, minus Annie. Apparently, she's being as hermit-y as you are." Jeff pondered at that for a second before Britta continued. "Are you that torn up about the engagement?" She chuckled and the sound was so familiar that Jeff could almost smell the vodka on her breath through the phone. "I'm sorry, Winger. You're just not my type."

He sarcastically laughed. "And here, I thought I finally had a shot, now that I am filling out my application for the circus as we speak." Britta scoffed. "So what tickles your fancy more? Managing a ring toss booth or a shooting gallery? You know what, I bet if I fudge the application a bit or collect some kick ass references, I could probably work as a cotton-candy vendor or supervise the Ferris wheel. What do ya say, Pookie?" He slathered the final endearment with sickly sweet condescension.

"Maybe you could get a job as the bearded lady?" She said with a verbal pat on her own back.

"You know the entire bite of that insult consists of you implying that it is both demeaning and embarrassing to be called a woman."

"Crap!" He could practically hear Britta searching her intoxicated brain for a better comeback.

"Night, Pookie." He hung up quickly, not wanting to hear the inebriated stuttering's of a Miss Britta Perry any longer.

Before he could gather at his own motives, he began calling Annie, curious to answer the question of her own disappearance from the festivities. The phone rang three times and although Annie had just awoke from her nap, she didn't think twice before sending the call to voicemail and heading to the kitchen for another beer.

Jeff looked at his phone and saw that it wasn't even 9:30 yet, but he didn't want to exist for another minute, so he dragged his feet to bed. Before connecting his phone to the charger, he felt it buzz in his hand. His stomach lurched for a second, before he saw Britta's name. The text read:

'Maybe you could get a job as their contortionist, on account of you're head already being so far up you're ass.'

-B

Jeff couldn't help the bark of laughter that escaped him. That was actually a decent comeback, but part of the sting escaped at her misusing the correct 'your' yet again, only opposite this time. He had to think it was on purpose at this point, but then again it was Britta, so there was a very good chance that this amount of ineptitude was wholly genuine. However, the grammatical misstep had him convinced that she had received no help in drafting the insult and had oddly enough had him applauding the comeback, even if it was 10 minutes late.


Annie woke up in the middle of the night, after 30 minutes of tossing and turning, she let herself lie on her back and gather her resolve to officially wake up. She readjusted her pale pink tank top and pulled her laptop onto her bed. She turned her side lamp on and began drafting lists. After 10 minutes of that, there was nothing left to organize, so she checked her email.

Annie's breath caught in her throat as she noticed a reply from Colorado Bureau of Investigation regarding their paid internship program. She took two steady breaths and opened the message. If it wasn't 4 in the morning she would have hooted and hollered. Annie couldn't believe her luck; her application had been accepted.

Annie shuddered out a sigh of relief, she had been so afraid she would have to take up some crappy part-time job over the summer to save up some money and help with bills. She felt herself get swept up in the idea of making a change. Yesterday had caused her to finally gain some perspective on her life and where it was heading. She had spent so much time building a little life in Greendale and it was almost all over in second; something told her that it was a blessing in disguise, reminding her that she could delay growing up for only so long.

If she had to be honest, she had Jeff to thank for this change of heart. Maybe this was the first step. She began to draft another list; more like guidelines for what she needed to avoid. It was time to let herself want what she wanted and to not apologize for another second.