This is loosely based on a prompt from Hypnotoad76/claymay83, and is also based on Superstorm Sandy, my own experience in being without power for almost five nights because of it, and on spoilers and speculation about Jeff and Annie in S4, so spoiler phobes may want to be careful.

Monday, Jan. 7, 2013

Day One

Jeff didn't exactly spring into action when Superstorm Shirley was due to strike. Some of it was because it would involve doing things, of course. Some of it was because Shirley strictly forbid the hundreds of jokes he'd crafted about her superstorm namesake.

But he was mainly tired. Tired from this last brutal semester – and Thanksgiving in general, even now. Tired from the latest holiday madness, tired from the latest Britta madness, tired of thinking about the…..finality of the next semester, and tired of just thinking at all.

With Britta, Troy and Abed already gone on a week-long vacation/Oscar nomination parody shoot, and Pierce, Shirley and Annie probably barricaded in their homes, this was as good a time to relax as Jeff would get.

Of course, Annie was always the direct opposite of relaxed. This time, she showed Jeff by coming to his apartment and asking for spare heaters, flashlights, candles and power cords.

Since Troy and Abed couldn't bug her until Friday, Annie had plenty of time to watch storm coverage and prepare within an inch of her life. She'd already bought more than enough supplies, and had already checked to see that Pierce and Shirley were prepared too. She just needed to see if Jeff could lend some backup backup supplies before she went home – but when she saw he didn't even have backup supplies, she got worried.

Eventually, Annie stopped asking if Jeff had learned anything from 'Revolution' – other than how wrong critics and Britta were to hate Charlie. After thanking every God imaginable that Britta wasn't here to start that argument again, Jeff told Annie he'd be fine and this storm would be nothing. Even if it snowed like Hell or knocked out power for an hour or two, he'd live through it. To Annie's credit, she didn't gasp too loudly when he used that term.

Still, Annie ran through all the weather reports she'd studied for the last few days – which had helped make up for a lack of schoolwork to study during winter break. Yet Jeff kept assuring her nothing would happen to him or anyone else in the group. Before long, Annie resigned herself and took comfort in knowing that she'd be okay.

And then Jeff opened the floodgates by asking, "So, you are gonna be okay?"

It wasn't the question itself, so much as how Jeff hadn't asked her anything like that in a while. In fact, once he started to think about it – while Annie was rambling with her actual answer – he realized this was the longest time they'd spent together in months. Maybe since they got expelled.

He vaguely remembered hearing and even seeing some things Annie had been up to. A few of them even sounded quite serious – like battles with Annie Kim, thinking about changing her major, and rethinking her entire post-Greendale career.

But in between all his dad stuff, his near-freedom from Greendale, his final reckoning with his Britta-feelings and his uncertain life in general, Jeff just hadn't paid attention to Annie's 'character arc,' to use an Abed-term. In fact, he couldn't remember Annie paying attention to his own arc either.

He couldn't even remember the last one-on-one adventure they'd had together – if they'd had any this semester. And they probably hadn't.

When that hit him, and when Annie started to leave, he blurted out, "So you're really okay? Not just with this, but…..life in general?"

Even if they hadn't really talked in months, Annie would have thought that was weird coming from Jeff. But for some reason, she felt enough relief to answer, "I'm fine, Jeff. I could be better, of course, but I'm starting to feel okay with that. It took a lot just to get that much, so I'm counting my blessings."

"Really? So how'd you count those?" Jeff asked before he knew what he was saying.

He hadn't blurted stuff like that to Annie in a while – stuff that implied he wanted to hear her talk more. Stuff he'd never imply to anyone else, even his other friends. He hadn't done any 'implying' with Annie in ages – yet after a minute of talking to her, he was slipping into the habit all over again.

Fortunately, Annie spoke before Jeff could lose himself in that train of thought. "Jeff, you must have seen….or at least heard, how I got those blessings," she said with a somewhat sad pause in the middle. Like it hit her just how little time they'd spent together lately – and how she was trying not to let it bother her in front of him.

Yet despite her efforts, it made Jeff more than bothered. Which in turn put him in full 'blurt out things I'd never say to anyone but Annie' mode. Like he was slipping on an old, familiar, neglected coat that still made him feel…..surprisingly warm.

To mark the occasion, he said, "Yeah, I have an idea. But if I heard it from you, I'd probably catch layers I missed the first time."

He pretended he slipped into Abed-speak in case Annie missed him – and pretended that something about that didn't bother him. Whatever he was pretending, however, Annie didn't seem to notice.

While she had every intention of getting home to beat the storm, it took her just a few minutes to forget about it. It wasn't hard after seeing Jeff pay attention to her again, remembering how rarely he did that when someone else was talking – and remembering how special she felt when she brought that rare focus out of him. Even though she was telling some rough stories about her recent struggles, it didn't feel that rough when she shared them with him.

For his part, Jeff didn't have much to say. He was busy trying not to feel guilty about missing everything Annie went through. Yet when they touched on the big, personal things Jeff went through this semester, Annie really tried hard not to pry. After all, she knew better than most how touchy parent issues could be.

Although she didn't have a front-row seat to Jeff's Thanksgiving reunion with his dad – or his other big ordeals lately – she knew it wasn't her place to pry. She admitted it seemed to be Britta's place, since she had been his shrink through all of it – and even said it with no jealousy in her voice.

Jeff didn't instantly open up about all he'd been through, or about Britta's part in it. But he did give Annie some of his perspective on what she already knew about. He even opened up on one or two things he hadn't planned on telling her as well.

She got him to say this stuff without even trying. Like it hadn't been months since they last had a real conversation. And something about that made Jeff….regretful.

However, when they shared their perspective on the funny parts of Christmas and New Years, Jeff felt something akin to relief that they were here now.

Then a weird thought went through Jeff's head for a moment. It almost sounded like "I missed her."

It was silly for a number of reasons. And yet that phrase went through Jeff's brain again while she was laughing, and it didn't seem….as silly.

"I missed her." That time, he almost muttered it to himself. Maybe he actually did, judging by how Annie stopped laughing and was looking at his mouth. And not in the 'I wish he'd let me kiss that mouth' way. Which was good. Yes, it was.

And that brought back a lot of old, confusing feelings he hadn't felt in a while. But it almost felt…..comforting to feel them again.

Then the comfort of electricity was taken away to balance it out.

Jeff and Annie were already speechless before the power went out. So they had no real reactions while they were sitting in the dark – or when the power came back five seconds later. Jeff nearly had a joke ready to mock the storm, but then it went and turned the power off again.

It didn't come back on five seconds later this time. In fact, it didn't come back on after 55 seconds either. At that point, Annie sprung into action and asked to see Jeff's phone. Jeff sighed in irrational relief that it still had power, until Annie saw they'd been talking for well over an hour. More than enough time for the storm to already get here.

Annie rushed out of the dark apartment to find out for sure, with Jeff barely remembering to put his coat on before following her. By the time he got to the front door of the building, Annie was shivering outside and was struggling to come back in. Jeff got her inside and could see a blizzard of snow coming down outside, with startlingly high winds blowing for good measure.

It was clear that power was out in the entire building, and probably everywhere else in town. What's more, there was no way anyone would be safe driving in this weather, least of all Annie. This meant she had no choice but to stay here – with Jeff, in his dark apartment, away from all her provisions, blankets and cocoa.

When they got back in, Jeff let Annie freak out for a few minutes before he dared to calm her down. He succeeded just enough so he could concentrate on finding a flashlight and candles. Nevertheless, he assured Annie that they wouldn't need them for long.

Then he became much less reassuring when his phone ran out of power.

In his lack of preparing, he forgot to do the one thing he normally did without fail – recharge his phone today. Now not only had it lost power, there were no working outlets to charge it back up. And there might not be for an hour. Or two. Or maybe even three Godless, phone-less hours. Hell, if Shirley's Satan really existed, he might put it up to four hours just for sick kicks!

Now this was officially a waking nightmare. So much so that Jeff had no idea what to do, except rush to bed and try to sleep it off.

He just forgot to say anything to Annie first. Or think about how she'd have to stay the night. Or think about her having to sleep on that damned couch – if not other places. Or think about how she'd yell at him in the morning, if he was lucky, for keeping her here instead of letting her beat out the storm.

Or think about how she'd have been all alone at her place if he didn't. Either that, or she would have been on the road right when the storm hit. Then what if the storm had…..taken her off the road?

If Jeff wasn't already forcing himself to go to sleep until the power came back on, he was now.

And since Annie just wanted to sleep until it was over too – so much that she wouldn't risk getting into a long, dark argument about sleeping in Jeff's bed – she plopped on the couch and was way ahead of him.

As tempting as it was to barge in there, sleep somewhere comfy and order Jeff not to say a word about it, she wasn't quite brave enough to. Not with the storm here, not with the power out, and not after they finally had a nice talk that she didn't want to spoil. Albeit a talk that kept Annie from going home and being prepared – and being alone too.

Whether that was a blessing in disguise or not, it was still too early in this storm front to tell.