A/N 1: Once again I don't own any of the characters (they belong to the genius that is Dan Harmon) besides the OC's of Emilio, Paul & Sarah Edison who are of my creation
A/N 2: I've had this idea inside my head for awhile now, basically this story takes place a few months after Love Music And Philosophy 101 and Annie's father comes back to town to set things right with Annie and her brother along with meeting Jeff…
Lessons In Familial Forgiveness
A Community fan fic
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Chapter 1 Unexpected Visits and First Impressions
Friday night 9:20pm
Abed and Rachel were in the bedroom/blanket fort when Abed had heard a knock at the door against his girlfriend's advice he had went to see who was on the other side of the door. What he got was a man in his early 50's at about 5'8 wearing a gray business suit his brown hair neatly combed he looked somewhat familiar.
"Can I help you?"
"Would you happen to know an Annie Edison or Jeff Winger?"
"I might depends on who is asking because if you're someone from Jeff's old law-firm then the response I have been given is to tell you that Jeff wishes you all nothing but the best and that he won't be coming back anytime soon."
"I'm not from Mr. Winger's law-firm I'm—"
"You're Annie's father in which that case the response I've been given in case you or Mrs. Edison arrived is to slam the door in your face."
Just as Abed was about to do so Annie's father jammed his foot between the door. With a look of desperation and sadness clearly Mr. Edison was intent on seeing Annie.
"Why are you here?" Abed asked after getting acquainted with Annie's father Paul who had just returned back to town after 12 years of being divorced to his ex-wife clearly it had taken a toll on him.
"I'm pretty sure you know I wasn't the best father or husband I was always out of town for most of my marriage because of my job and when things started getting rocky I ran away giving custody of Annie and Anthony to her." Paul began explaining as neither Abed nor Rachel knew where he was going
"I made the mistake of not fighting for my marriage or children and I just want the shot of setting it right with my little girl and son."
"That's really sweet of you Paul, but Annie will be staying with her boyfriend Jeff for this week and next week if you want you can take the couch or Annie's room." Rachel said while looking at her boyfriend who stared blankly at the man sitting across from him
"You can have Annie's room Troy's bedroom is off limits until he comes back from his boat trip with Levar Burton. We'll go over the apartment rules tomorrow morning until then goodnight and make sure that if you have any concerns please let me or Rachel know."
"What about my bags? They're in my car." Paul asked
"I'll be getting them right now." Abed said as Paul threw him the keys which he immediately caught with his hand
"So does this mean you'll be helping me?"
"Yes I'll get the rest of our study group tomorrow and we can discuss what to do next." Abed said as he muttered something about a redemption story
"Good night Paul."
"Goodnight Abed, goodnight Rachel."
As Paul took a look around Annie's bedroom he saw that she still had her stuffed animals noticing a particular one that he gave Annie on her eighth birthday it was a pink poodle he had remembered that day vividly as the beginning of the arguments between himself and Annie's mother.
December 1998
"Daddy!" yelled the young Annie Edison as her father had just come back from a long business trip and had recently made it back to Colorado in time for his daughter's eighth birthday.
"How have you been princess?"
"Good."
"Have you been doing everything mom tells you to do?"
The young Annie had nodded in response to her father
"Good girl….you know I got you a gift for your birthday?"
"REALLY!?"The young Annie had yelled out only for Paul to remind her to use her inside voice
"I got this while at the airport and I instantly thought of you just close your eyes first." She did as she was told as Paul retrieved the present for his little girl.
"Can I open my eyes now?"
"In a minute princess just give me one more second."
"Now?"
"Almost…." Finally getting the stuffed animal out of his suitcase "alright Ann open up your eyes."
"Okay daddy." As she opened up her eyes excited to see the stuffed animal that was looking directly at her.
"Do you like it?"
Annie nodded
"I'm going to call him Pink Pete!"
"Alright honey how about you go upstairs to your room while I go talk to mommy okay?"
Annie did as she was told playing with her new friend.
"Do you really need to give our daughter all those stuffed animals?" Sarah Edison immediately said instead of greeting her husband
"What's wrong with Ann playing with some stuffed animals? Besides they're the only friends she has because you won't let her play with the other kids."
"I don't think they are beneficial to her education and she'll have all the time in the world to socialize when she's in college."
"She's just a little girl let her unwind every once in awhile."
"I won't she needs to focus on her education first and foremost so she can get into an Ivy League school."
"Ivy League really? I'm all for Annie getting into a good school, but let her have some fun along the way."
"Why? When it'll only make her slack off from her studies and end up wasting her time when she could be doing something useful."
"It won't! I don't get why you have such a problem with letting Annie have fun."
"I just want the best for her."
"And the best is what? Make her into a prudish, always uptight and pompous I don't want that for my little girl."
"Like you care you're always out on your business trips to even know what's going on at home."
"At least I put food on this family's table!"
"You're not the one raising two children while your husband sells pharmaceuticals and is probably having an affair with some blonde bimbo who he met in Tuscon!"
"You know I would never cheat on you, why are you acting like this?!"
It was the first argument of many between the couple and over time things got worse they always tried to hide their arguments from their children and present a united front to their friends and neighbors of course the inevitable would happen which would set course for future events…
Present
Paul had set back down the stuffed dog thinking about all that Annie had went through in the past few years, how much he had failed in his duties as a father he hoped he could talk to her and Anthony to at least reconnect with them and be some kind of family.
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Saturday morning
When Paul awoke he was greeted to see some new faces a young Hispanic male who was wearing sweatpants, a black Nike sweater with the hoodie up and a pair of red leather work-boots, sitting next to him was a blonde woman who looked extremely tired and almost seemed like she had no idea what was going on she was wearing a gray and white sweater with jeans and tennis shoes. Next to them was a man in his early 40's sporting a longsleeved shirt from the Gap and jeans he was staring at Paul with a menacing glare he assumed this was Jeff Winger and presumably from the look on his face he wasn't pleased to see him.
"YOU BASTARD" Were the first words from Jeff's mouth as he was about to attack Paul when Abed and the young man cut him off.
"Not the time brother." The young man spoke up who seemed to be Jeff's voice of reason
"He abandoned Annie, you know that Emilio."
"I know Jeff, but let's hear him out."
"I didn't abandon—"Paul was interrupted by Emilio whose face changed into a violent glare
"Was I speaking to you? No so sit your ass down until spoken to." Paul understood as Emilio told Jeff to calm down pulling him aside.
"Look I'm just going to go on a limb and say from what Annie has told us you and her mom did a really crappy job raising her and her brother." Britta was now wide awake currently trying to "analyze" Paul.
"I know I wasn't the best example of a father for Annie and Anthony, but I really want to be in their lives and make it up to them if you would just hear me out." Paul asked from the group who still weren't sold on him "please all I'm asking for you all is to at least give me a shot."
"I don't trust you." Jeff was again the first to speak still with the menacing stare "you've been out of Annie's life since she was a little girl leaving her with a woman who managed to make her feel like she was less than human who abandoned her when she needed help and all of a sudden you show up out of the blue and expect us to like you, sorry but no thanks you don't deserve to call yourself a father let alone a man."
"I know and it's something I live with everyday, but when Annie had gone to rehab I assumed she didn't want to see me, plus her mother decided to hold back certain information when it came to Annie needing help."
"Oh so it's your ex-wife's fault for everything." Jeff had slightly calmed down though was still confrontational towards his girlfriend's dad.
"Well….it's both our faults and I'll admit I should have done a better job of reaching out to Ann."
"See that's the thing we're not entirely sold that how do we know that you really care about reuniting with Annie and her brother? How do we know you aren't trying to outdo your ex-wife? That this isn't one big game for you?" Britta spoke trying to be the levelheaded person in the room as Paul sighed
"Because Sarah doesn't know I'm in town yet."
"Still means we don't trust you." Jeff included still harboring an unknown grudge against Paul who by now thought there was no way he was going to ever get to know him aside from what he heard from Abed and Rachel.
"I took the coward's way out I know that now all I want is to atone for my past mistakes."
"I believe you because you seem like a good person and want to do what's right, but if you're lying then I'll let Jeff kick your ass." Emilio said coldly meanwhile Abed and Rachel were whispering to each other about the situation at hand possibly.
"Thanks for the faith…."Paul was happy yet scared that Annie had such protective friends and a boyfriend who by the looks of it would defend her honor at the drop of a hat.
"You're welcome."
Jeff grumbled another threat as Britta told him to wait in the Lexus.
"You'll have to excuse Jeff he was abandoned by his father when he was younger and takes it really hard when he sees that Annie practically went through the same ordeal as him."
"It's fine I don't blame him he's a better man than me plus he reminds me when I was dating Sarah."
"How was your ex-wife prior to you guys divorcing from what we know things were pretty bad when you two were married?" Britta asked
"We first met in High School I was a junior and she was a sophomore of course we were from two different environments she came from a more upscale background while I was your average blue collar type."
"It's the classic Romeo and Juliet scenario." Abed said after remaining quiet throughout most of this exchange before letting Paul continue his story
"Well I wouldn't say it was like that, but more of I was captain of the basketball team and she was the nerdy bookworm who tutored me. Eventually we ended up dating much to the dismay from both of our families…."
"So it's safe to assume your relationship was always rocky." Rachel had said as Paul shook his head
"At first everything was perfect actually! It was after we graduated from Riverside I was taking classes at City College for healthcare administration while Sarah's parents paid for her to go to the University of Denver. Though there was a slight bump in the road for the both of us."
"What was it?" Emilio said leaning in from his seat curiosity now peaking
"Sarah got pregnant with Annie."
There was a long silence from the group members as they connected the dots in their heads internally.
"So Annie was a mistake?" Britta said only for Abed of all people to tell her that she should be respectful of boundaries
"She was more of a happy accident I remember the day she was born was the day that changed forever changed my life I still have the picture from when I first held her of course I had a lot more hair then and thought the mullet was 'cool'." Paul had taken out a picture from his wallet and showed the group as there was a collective "awwwwwww"
"Man you weren't lying when you said you had a funky ass mullet, but anyway do you have some extra pictures?" Emilio liked Paul he seemed like a cool guy who while he screwed the pooch the first go-around seriously wanted to redeem himself. He just needed to convince Jeff and possibly Annie (though he was completely unsure of how to contact her brother Anthony and was unsure if he still lived with Mrs. Edison.) While Emilio was thinking Abed began talking
"So far you seem like a good guy you can stay here as long as you like or when Troy moves back in whichever happens first..." Abed retreated back into the blanket fort as Rachel went into the bathroom to take a shower.
"I'll admit I'm naturally skeptical because Annie is like a little sister to me so if you do anything to hurt her I will personally see to it that you have a bad life." Britta threatened while Emilio was more tact.
"I want to trust you so I will for now…I'll see what I can do maybe I can try to convince Jeff to play nice and see how we can organize a little family reunion cool?" Emilio stretched out his hand only for Paul to pull in and hug him
"That…would be excellent." He started hearing sniffles Emilio could see where Annie got her sensitive side from. Paul had thanked everyone for hearing him out as Britta and Emilio headed out of Casa De Annbed.
"I can't believe you're actually trusting him….look I know you've been with the group for a couple of months, but still this is Annie's dad the guy who left her all alone with her bitch of a mom." Britta stepped in front of her younger friend hoping to get a reaction
"I see the good in people Britta sure he might have screwed up enormously, but from the interaction we had so far he seems like a cool guy we can talk about this later I worry Jeff might have destroyed the Impala.
When they arrived outside of the apartment they saw Jeff yelling at the top of his lungs punching the dashboard. Britta knocked on the passenger window as Jeff had quickly changed his attitude.
"Before you say anything I have every right to be angry Britta he doesn't deserve to be in Annie's life."
"Is this about your dad Jeff? I thought you got over it."
"I am, but just seeing him set something off inside me."
"You're redirecting your anger from your dad to Annie's because there are still some underlying issues that you're not addressing."
"I am completely fine Britta I just hate people who run out from their kids."
"Why don't you just talk to him? You might actually like him."
"I'll probably kill him." Jeff deadpanned
Britta rolled her eyes before entering into the car as Emilio started the Impala putting on some black wrap around shades before readying himself to drive off.
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Abed looked out the window seeing Emilio's car drive he turned to Paul.
"That honestly could have gone better." The older man had said "though it's good to see that Annie has a boyfriend who truly loves her and would fight for her honor."
"He'll eventually warm up to you he just has to realize you're not his dad and that your intentions are good."
"Thanks Abed for being so hospitable I sincerely mean it."
"You're welcome now if you're ready I'd like to go over the house rules for guests and or family members."
"I don't have anywhere else to be."
"Cool, cool-cool-cool."
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And that's the end of chapter 1 hope you stick around for this fic as always I appreciate the love and support. Peace
