Futuristic Philosophies and Family-Planning
They all stare at Abed after his revelation, Jeff and Britta share one of their "parent" looks, Annie looks a little ruffled and nervous, but also intrigued.
"You know…" She wonders and then asks, "How can you know what's going to happen with us in the future?"
"I don't know. It's just a theory. I can't tell the future," Abed explains. "But like I've said before, all of your actions are so conventional that I can predict what will happen once we leave Greendale. None of it is definite, so don't worry."
But it's clear they're all worried. The last time Abed predicted something, it all came true. Britta made Troy cry, Jeff kissed Annie, and Shirley definitely got chased by the werewolf. Shirley quivers. "Well what did you see? Are Andre and I going to get remarried? Am I going to have another baby? Am I going to die?"
"Shirley, those are really specific questions. There's no way Abed could know all of that in advance," Annie tells Shirley, but her eyes widen and squeals elatedly when she realizes she wants in on this excitement too. "Am I going to get a 4.0? Will I graduate at the top of the class? Ooh! Will any of my… romantic prospects be… fulfilled?"
Her eyes dart between Troy and Jeff before coming to rest on Abed himself. She looks away when they make eye contact, blushing furiously. They all send her conspicuous glances. Troy looks like he considers this for a moment before shaking his head. "Are we ever going to learn how LOST ended?"
"You guys are being ridiculous," Britta says, opening her Biology textbook and flipping open to their assigned reading. "These are just Abed's ideas. He's not a psychic."
"I know they're just his 'ideas'," Annie responds. "But last time he had an 'idea,' Pierce broke his leg right after Abed said he would."
Britta considers this. "Okay, spill Abed."
"Hm. Well we should start with the most obvious and that's Pierce," Abed says monotonously. "He's going to come back to the group whether you guys want him to or not. He'll be reluctant, he may even want you to beg, but he'll come back."
"Good! I kind of miss him," Annie sighs. "We want him back."
"Correction, you want him back," Jeff comments, barely looking up from his phone.
"Yeah, because I'm the only one who actually cares about him!" Annie insists. "If you guys just gave an inch-"
"He'd take a mile," Jeff shoots her down. "What's up with Shirley? She looks like she's going to have a coronary waiting over there."
Shirley nods. "I've got to know!"
"Relax Shirley," Abed holds up his hands. "Your life only gets better from here on out. You and Andre will remarry and you don't have to tell anyone at your church about getting a divorce in the first place."
"Oh sweet baby Jesus, thank you." Shirley sighs in relief.
"Shirley, you don't need Abed to tell you that," Troy says. "Make it happen for yourself."
"That was inspiring, Troy," Britta smiles and he smiles back. Jeff frowns.
"Speaking of making things happen for themselves," Abed points out. "That screenplay we're going to write, Troy, is not only going to be published, but turned into a full length movie someday."
Troy grins. "So awesome."
"Isn't that more of a dream more than what's definitely going to happen in the future?" Britta asks, trying to be gentle. Troy's face falls slightly anyway.
"Dreams can come true, Britta," Abed tells her, unfaltering. "Just because you've never had one of your own, doesn't mean that it won't happen."
She stares at him and Annie clears her throat, trying to diffuse the tension. "What about me? Are any of the things I mentioned going to happen?"
"Well, it's hard to say if you'll graduate at the top of the class, not knowing everyone's study habits," Abed explains. "But I venture to guess you'll get pretty close. As for the relationship status…"
He trails off and glances in a triangular fashion towards Britta, Jeff, and then finally back towards Annie. "I figure you and Jeff will give it a try. You have too much underlying, unresolved tension otherwise. But I don't see it working out."
Annie looks somewhat disappointed. "Why not?"
"It's a matter of perspective," Abed says, gesturing towards Jeff and Britta, who are watching him with matched, horrified expressions. "But as much as they don't want to admit it, Jeff and Britta are pretty much made for each other. Their corresponding egotistical and self-deprecating personalities make them ultimately undesirable to anyone but each other. I can see them getting married in maybe five years, following years of repressing their feelings for one another- like Ross and Rachel, or Jesse and Becky, or Zack and Kelly, or-"
"We got it," Jeff growls, his attention finally won.
Britta looks just as horrified. "I'm not getting married. Least of all to him!"
Abed shrugs. "Whatever. I can't tell the future. It's just what I think will happen."
But Jeff and Britta aren't appeased in the slightest.
It turns out, Pierce does rejoin the group late that October. He does it exactly the way Abed said he would; he drops hints that he would like to rejoin but doesn't ask. He wants them to come to him, to plead, to grovel. Annie asks him straight out one day if he'd like to come back and Pierce tells her he would, as a favor to the group because he knows they must be missing him. Annie says nothing, just hugs him and welcomes him back. He's everything he used to be- racist, homophobic, and sexist for a start- but the group's rhythm is back.
Britta looks nervous as Abed welcomes him back to the group, but Jeff shakes it off, turning back to his cell phone. "Whatever. This doesn't prove anything."
But later that day, Andre stops by campus and stops all of the activity in the cafeteria to propose remarriage to Shirley. She shrieks excitedly and of course says yes, Jeff and Britta share terrified glances as Abed smiles nonchalantly.
To prove a point, Jeff does everything in her power to avoid Britta and decides to give his relationship with Annie a try.
This actually further proves Abed's predictions, but he feels there is no need to point out this irony.
Anyway, the two begin to date and Annie seems to be over the moon. He's all she talks about when he's not around, she makes the doe eyes and cutesy faces at him all throughout study group, and if people thought she was using her "I love rainbows" voice over Rich, forget about it. Now it's more like, "I love rainbows and unicorns and kittens and the world is absolutely perfect, isn't it?" No one seems to mind that the two are dating; Shirley finds it a bit obscene at first, but notices how happy it makes Annie and lets it go. Pierce makes crude comments, but that isn't abnormal from his usual behavior. Troy and Britta share a mutual confusion, but say nothing. And Abed? Well, Abed is glowing.
"Britta? Will you come with me this afternoon to the bridal shop?" Shirley asks one afternoon. "I need your opinion on the bridesmaids' dresses."
But Britta's distracted, somewhat by Troy's previous question and mostly by Jeff and Annie, who are walking out of the study room. Holding hands. Holding hands! Troy and Shirley both look at her expectantly and for a second she's not even sure what either of them asked. Troy just shrugs and walks out after the happy couple, but Shirley's face softens as she says, "Brit-ta? You're not okay with this, are you?"
"No, no I am. It's fine," She says unconvincingly, posing the blame falsely on something else. "I just… Troy, he… I think he just asked me out."
Okay, so that's not exactly what happened. Troy had approached her at the end of study group and they shared their mutual distaste for the Jeff and Annie relationship. Then he had gotten all awkward and suggested that maybe the two of them should do something, you know, to throw them off their track and piss them off. Britta was thrown off her track, actually, when he asked that, and Troy had backtracked, only to point out Annie's previous crush on him and whatever extent of feeling Britta had for Jeff. She had pointed out she didn't have feelings for Jeff.
Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to convince either of them that was true.
"This is why we don't work," Annie sighs in frustration a few weeks later. She and Jeff have been arguing for an hour- something she and Jeff never do. "We're two completely different people! Complete opposites! We have nothing in common and I don't know why we thought… I don't know why we thought that wouldn't be a problem."
"I'm surprised we lasted this long, actually," Jeff says cynically. "What the fuck were we thinking?"
"I don't know," Annie glances down, her brown hair framing her delicate face like a curtain. "I really liked you and I thought… Maybe… I don't know."
"I like you too," Jeff tells her. "But maybe not in the right way."
Annie chuckles a little, her eyes meeting his again. "It is kind of creepy, isn't it? I mean, I was born in 1990 and you…"
"…I was in ninth grade," Jeff finishes and then grimaces. "That's… not right."
"No," She laughs again. "I liked it a lot better when you were just my friend."
"Me too," Jeff agrees and then opens his arms to her. "Friends?"
"Friends," She agrees and they hug it out.
Annie gathers her things and turns to leave, pausing in the doorway with a smile. "I guess Abed was right, huh?"
"Sure," Jeff agrees and as a panicked afterthought, adds, "But Britta and I are not getting married."
Annie's face changes, but Jeff doesn't know how to read it. She shrugs. "It's something to think about."
Jeff frowns as she leaves and mutters, "Trust me, it's all I've been thinking about."
The weekend before Shirley's wedding, a publishing agency contacts Troy and Abed about their screenplay.
On Monday, it's all the two can talk about. Annie engages in the conversation playfully and Shirley congratulates the two, with Pierce chiming in about wanting a role when it's made into a full-length feature film. Britta feels like she's in a waking nightmare. She turns to Jeff who is not engaging in the madness and asks, "Why is Abed right about everything?"
"Guy's super genie or something. I don't know." He responds nonchalantly. "There will come a day when he's wrong. There's a first for everything."
"I didn't know we were that predictable," Britta comments, glancing around and Jeff smirks.
"Well you are, at least," Jeff smirks. "Let me guess, this morning you ate that weird vegan oatmeal and had a glass of that disgusting soymilk you're obsessed with. Then you fed your cats, made sure they were together so they could both see it, and then got dressed in your usual black, noncommittal get-up."
Britta opens her mouth to reply but realizes he's hit the nail right on the head. "What, are you stalking me now?"
He chuckles. "Hey, you sleep with someone for a year straight; you pick up on their habits."
"Well, you're not that unpredictable yourself," Britta points out. "To make it look like you didn't care, you didn't respond to Shirley's wedding invitation until yesterday. And I bet you still don't have a plus-one."
Jeff frowns. "So? Neither do you."
She crosses her arms over her chest. "So?"
"So," Jeff rolls his eyes. "You wanna go together?"
"I don't know," Britta says even though she does, really. She does know and she does want to go with him. Why can't she say that?
"Come on, it'll be fun," Jeff convinces her. "I'll wear a tie to match your dress and everything."
She scrunches her nose. "Like prom?"
"Just like prom," He teases. "And then we'll get drunk off the open bar and hook up in the bathroom."
"Ew," Britta says, even though it wouldn't be the first time that's happened. Troy's 21st birthday, anyone? Or Halloween? Or- well, yeah, you get it.
"I'm taking that as a yes," Jeff grins. "I'll pick you up at five."
Turns out, he's punctual, and he pulls up to the curb outside her apartment complex at five o'clock on the dot. She's wearing red which is, despite popular belief, her favorite color. Jeff compliments her appearance and opens the car door for her, which she both likes and dislikes. She's confused by this "new" Jeff; the one that's hung up his douche-ness for the night and has not made one snarky comment in the few minutes they've been riding together. Instead, he says, "You look amazing tonight."
"Thank you," She says quietly. "But you can stop acting weird. I liked you the way you were."
"You don't like the new me?" He asks. "It's Jeffrey the Gentleman."
Britta shoots him an odd look. "No, he's fine. I'm just saying normal Jeff was fine too."
He chuckles and they pull into the parking lot of the Baptist church, meeting up with Troy, Annie, and Abed right outside the doors. Pierce catches up a moment later and together, the study group takes their seats and watches Shirley remarry her love. Elijah and Jordan share custody of the ring bearer pillow and a relative pushes Ben down the aisle in an ornate pram. The ceremony is beautiful and Annie cries, citing that weddings have been super emotional for her ever since her parents split up. Britta knows the feeling and when she turns to Jeff, she knows he does to.
At the reception, Britta's pretty much destined to catch the bouquet and so when she does, she awkwardly accepts it and sits down. Jeff teases her for an hour. But later on, he's standing beside Troy, Abed and Pierce as Andre chucks Shirley's garter into the crowd. Jeff tries to back away, but Abed and Troy take a step behind him and drag Pierce along with them so Jeff wins by default. Britta teases him even longer. He mocks her pathetic teasing attempt and grabs her hand as the rest of the guests begin to fill the dance floor.
"What are you doing?" She asks him cautiously, but doesn't pull back.
"Relax, Guarded One," Jeff tells her, wrapping his arms around her waist. "We're dancing. It's what people do at these things."
"Fine, I can play this game," Britta says confidently, placing her arms around his neck and pulling herself closer. "This doesn't mean Abed was right. We're still not getting married."
"Who said anything about getting married?" Jeff asks, his arms lowering. "We're just dancing."
"Right."
"Good," He breathes. But here's the thing about Jeff- he's a man. A man with needs. And even if his mind is trying to forget his year of intercourse with Britta, his body doesn't want him to. Besides, she looks so amazing in this dress and her body is literally flush up against his. He smiles at her genuinely and she smiles back, seemingly much more relaxed, and then he kisses her. It's light and quick, as if he's asking for permission, as if he's afraid someone will see, as if he's afraid it will push them over the edge.
But when they pull away, the look on Britta's face says it all.
"God, I missed you," She gets out and he barely has time to return the sentiment before they're kissing again, much more intense and much more like they usually would, like the kiss on the quad or at the end of paintball. They're kissing like they're long lost lovers, reunited after a lifetime apart. They're drowning in the kiss and each other; tongues sliding, hands roaming, and eyes blissfully closed, so of course they're completely oblivious to the hundreds of stares they're attracting. Annie watches from afar and it's bittersweet, really. Troy nudges her and asks if she's alright and she nods.
"Yeah, it's just, you know…" Annie smiles. "I saw that coming, you know?"
"Who didn't?" Troy responds and then holds his hand out toward her. "You wanna dance?"
"Sure," She grins, taking his hand gleefully. "I'd love to."
So maybe Abed does have some kind of psychic ability, or maybe the actions of the group really are that predictable, but either way, Jeff and Britta decide to give their relationship a shot. For realsies this time.
And on graduation day, they announce they're getting married.
Everyone seems excited about the news- but none of them are surprised, least of all Abed, who grins at the couple with a knowing look in his eyes. "See? Predictable as can be. Congratulations. You two deserve it."
Jeff and Britta smile at him and truly mean it when they say, "Thanks Abed… I see your value, now."
He smiles. "That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me."
They get married a year later- so there Abed, not five years- and the ceremony they're planning is so not them. In fact, it is literally not them- the second they mentioned they were getting married, their mothers took over. Britta's mother wants lavish and expensive, Jeff's mother wants big and gaudy, and the two, surprisingly, get along great. However, in the midst of all their planning- 500, no, 800 guests! Chicken? No, lobster! Lilies for centerpieces? No, no, let's have roses! - Jeff and Britta start to forget whose wedding this actually is.
Late one night, they're lying in bed, Britta half-asleep and Jeff playing with her hair, when he says, "Let's get married now."
"Mm," Britta mumbles. "Okay. I do."
She yawns and closes her eyes but Jeff is on a roll with his new idea. "No, I'm serious. You don't want a big ceremony, I don't want a big ceremony. Basically their making this wedding about them and it's ours, right?"
"Sure," She murmurs.
"Let's get the study group together, drive to Vegas and get married there," Jeff sits up, dragging Britta with him so she awakens and listens to his plan. She groans but says nothing. "Seriously, let's do it. Right now. If we start now, they'll never suspect it and we can get there… Probably by late afternoon."
"You're insane," Britta rubs her eyes blearily. "You're honestly thinking of driving eleven hours just so we can get married?"
"No," Jeff disagrees. "I'm honestly planning on driving eleven hours so we can get married our way."
Britta smiles because that's how Jeff is. He's all or nothing and she loves that. "Alright. Let's do it!"
Everyone's in on their plan- except their parents, for obvious reasons- and Jeff and Britta pack their wedding attire before picking up Troy and Abed, Shirley driving Annie and Pierce in her van as she tags along behind them. Shirley complains to the couple that this way of getting married is absolutely sacrilegious and what was wrong with a nice wedding in a church with a reception, food, and family? They ignore her and choose Shalimar Wedding Chapel, deciding against the Elvis wedding, much to Abed's disappointment. To their parents, this was the exact opposite of what a wedding should be. To Shirley, this was a heretical excuse for matrimony.
But to Jeff and Britta, it's just them and it's absolutely perfect.
Months later, Jeff's back at the law firm and Britta's got a great job at a non-for-profit, which is just what she's always wanted. She's helping people and she's working with the people she's helping, so she's keeping busy. So busy, in fact, that she doesn't realize for five whole weeks that she hasn't gotten her period. She goes about her life until someone at work complains about horrible cramps and when Britta goes to relate, she realizes she hasn't had to deal with those in a while. And why is that…? Oh shit.
For some insane reason, pregnancy isn't her first thought. Annie mentions it and that's when she realizes it. She and Jeff are going to be parents. That thought freaks her the hell out because honestly, should they be? I mean, they're not normal people; they don't do normal things and they don't say normal things… How is this child going to be normal? And what would Jeff say? I mean, they hadn't ever really talked about having kids. She's wanted them at various points in her life, but she just expected it wouldn't happen.
As suspected, he's in complete shock when she tells him. "A baby… Like, a baby?"
"No, an elephant. I thought it would be easier," Britta says sarcastically.
"Hilarious," He quips back. "I don't… I don't know how to be a father. I've never had one."
"Wing it," Britta advises. "It's in your name, after all."
He laughs. "That was horrible."
"Okay! I've never been good at jokes!" She defends herself and he agrees. "I think we can figure it out, though. We make a good team."
"We do," Jeff nods. "We can do this, then, right?"
Britta smiles. "We don't have a choice."
So it turns out this birth thing? No fucking joke. It hurts far, far worse than Shirley made it seem all those years ago. Britta honestly feels like she's dying. She's this close to cutting her stomach open herself and yanking this kid out, because honestly, the alternative? Doesn't sound too appealing to her right now. She's sweating, she's starving, and she'd dead-exhausted, but she's not even fully dilated yet and she's ready for this all to be over.
"Are you okay?" Jeff asks her when her contraction subsides. He glances at the hand that she's crushing like a vice, but says nothing. "That looked really bad."
She glares at him. "No, it felt good. It felt really good. I can't wait until the next one!"
He stares back. "I don't appreciate your tone."
"I don't appreciate what you did to me!" She growls. "You just wait. Just wait until I can get you back!"
"How are you going to get me back?" He laughs and her glare deepens. "What could possibly hurt worse than this?"
"I don't know," She bites back. "But I'm sure I can think of some shit!"
Jeff rolls his eyes but doesn't get a moment to comment, because another contraction sears through Britta like wildfire and she nearly breaks Jeff's hand in response to it. "Oh my God, I cannot do this. I need the drugs. I'm going to die."
"What happened to being 'natural'?" Jeff asks, using air-quotes and everything.
But Britta honestly looks like she's going to cry and it kind of kills him seeing her like this. "Please, please get me drugs. If you love me at all, you will get me something to get rid of this pain!"
"Okay, I'll see what I can do." He promises and leaves the room. He and the nurse nearly collide in the hallway. "Oh, perfect timing, actually. We're gonna need some drugs."
The nurse is a fifty-year-old woman with no personality and she just stares back at him. "I'm assuming you mean the epidural? I can't administer that now."
Jeff panics. "Why not?"
"Because it's too late," She says as if Jeff's supposed to know that. "Once a woman is past five centimeters, I can no longer call for an anesthesiologist. And I'm sorry, but your wife was at nine last time I checked."
"Well that's going to be a problem," Jeff mutters as they both reenter the room. He stands at Britta's bedside again and says, "Sorry, Charlie. Looks like you're going au natural."
Britta actually looks scared. "Wait, what? Why?"
"It's too late," The nurse answers. "Well, it's much too late now. You're at ten; we're going to start pushing soon. Let me get the doctor."
Now her fear turns to anxiety. "No, I'm not ready! I cannot do this!"
"You're going to have to," The doctor tells her, strapping on a fresh set of rubber gloves and securing a medical sheet over her legs. "This little baby's on its way!"
"No! No, no, no. I can't do this. Oh my God," Britta leans back against the pillows, looking away from where the doctor was setting up his station. "No. I can't do this. I can't!"
At first Jeff thought she was just complaining (I mean, come on. This is Britta, for goodness sake). But now he realizes she is literally freaking out and he's watching her deconstruct. He grabs the hand he's closest to and yanks her back to a sitting position, winning her attention. "Britta, you can do this. It's okay."
"No I can't," She shakes her head, looking at him through panic-stricken eyes. "I can't do this. I can't do anything."
"Of course you can!" Jeff disagrees. "You can do anything! Remember that first year of Greendale when you quit smoking? You stuck to that! You helped Annie realize that her infatuation with Troy was unhealthy, you helped Shirley through her divorce with Andre, you raised money for the oil spill… even though it was unconventional. You saved my ass during paintball and you and Shirley more or less saved the school's ass too."
"You delivered Shirley's baby," Jeff lists. "You helped her pick out everything that had to do with her wedding. You sat through hours of the Saw movies just because Abed asked you to. You didn't get mad at me or Annie just because we started seeing each other."
"That's what you think," She replies and Jeff smiles.
"See? Do you see how amazing you are?" Jeff questions but she doesn't respond. "Britta, this is nothing. You're going to knock this out of the park just like everything else."
"It hurts," She whines. "It hurts so bad."
"I know and I'm not going to deny that. It's going to hurt," He tells her and then offers his hand again. "Squeeze away. Maybe you'll break it; that can be your way of getting back at me."
"You could only be so lucky," She jokes and he grins.
"You can do this," He affirms again. "I believe in you."
And because he does, she does it. She doesn't do it soundlessly; she screams like a banshee and just about breaks his hand in half and tells him if he ever wants another kid, he can have it. He tries to ignore her. Thankfully, the baby was just as anxious to make her arrival as Britta was to get her out. She's born at three in the afternoon, on the dot, and weighs just over eight pounds. As expected, she has sharp facial features and deep blue eyes and is born screaming. But the second she's in her mother's arms, she's silent.
They name her Allison Mackenzie and all is right with the world again.
Allison is possibly the most perfect baby either of them has ever encountered. She starts sleeping through the night after only a month of being home. She cries only when she needs something (which, actually, is most of the time), and she's just so cute! Their first year and a half with Allison is absolute perfection. They're starting to feel like a family; they do family things like going to the park on the weekends, going on walks, and going grocery shopping all together. They even have a routine; Britta works later in the morning than Jeff does, so she brings Allison to daycare before she goes to work herself and then he picks her up in the evening. Everything is going well- something they never expected.
And as usual, something happens to screw up that plan.
She's playing with 18-month-old Allison on an unusually warm Saturday in December, when all of a sudden, she's hit with an intense wave of nausea. She just makes it to the bathroom before she vomits once, twice, three times. Good God, what did she eat?
Jeff, Allison on his hip, is in the doorway a moment later, offering her a glass of water which she takes gratefully. "Damn. You okay?"
"Yeah," She sighs. "I don't know where that came from."
"Me either," He agrees. "You haven't puked like that since…"
Jeff trails off and they both look at Allison. She looks at both of her parents before saying, "Uh oh!"
Britta smiles wearily. "Yeah. Uh-oh."
"What about Giselle?"
"Ew! Are you kidding me?"
"It sounded pretty."
"It sounds awful."
They find themselves pregnant again, with Britta trying not to remember how painful it was the last time and Jeff praying for a boy this time so he won't be outnumbered because he already has two Brittas, he doesn't need three. They have the entire study group over for dinner that night and Jeff and Britta are tossing names back and forth, since they only have about three months left. Britta's finishing up their dinner, when Jeff comes up with a name himself.
"What do you think of Harley?"
"You're joking, right?" Britta eyes him. "We're not having a motorcycle!"
"Oh! You guys found out the gender?" Annie asks, tickling Allison's belly, who giggles excitedly.
"No," Jeff tells her. "But we already agreed on a boy's name. So we better have a boy."
Of course, nothing ever goes accordingly for Jeff and Britta, and they end up having another girl.
Staring at their newborn daughter, Britta pushes the dark locks of hair off of her forehead and asks, "How about Marissa? Marissa Rose?"
"I think," Jeff says, giving both his wife and his daughter a kiss. "That sounds perfect."
Two years later, life is still going great. Jeff has the day off, so he's currently making Marissa some lunch while she bounces excitedly in her high chair shrieking, "Hungry Daddy!" A few moments later, with the two of them eating happily together, the door to their house opens and Jeff can hear Britta trying to wrestle Allison's rain gear off while she talks and hops around animatedly about her day at pre-school. She runs into the kitchen and immediately up to her father.
"Daddy!" She exclaims and he greets her just as excitedly, kissing her cheek. "Our class got a bunny today! He's name's Hopper and he's brown with white spots and he ate a whole carrot today! And we couldn't play outside because it was raining, raining, raining, so we watched a movie! And ya know what we watched? We watched The Cat in the Hat! And then Miss Sarah read us a book that teached us all about the ABCs!"
"Holy crap," Jeff says, glancing over at Britta, who's laughing at the preschooler's excitement. "That sounds like a hectic day, Allie. You had fun, though?"
"Yeah," Allison agrees, stealing a carrot from Marissa's tray, who shrieks at her sister. "Rissa, I'm hungry!"
"Baby, I'll get you some lunch," Britta chuckles as the four-year-old nods and climbs into her own chair, sticking her thumb in her mouth and lying her head down on the table.
"So nothing new at Stepping Stones Pre-School today?" Jeff asks Britta as she spreads some organic peanut butter onto a slice of bread.
"Actually," Britta grins. "Allie, tell Daddy about Joshua."
Jeff turns towards his daughter who says, without taking her thumb out of her mouth, "Josh has two mommies, Daddy."
Jeff smirks and again glances over at his wife. "Two mommies, huh? Is one of them Paige?"
"I just think it's great," Britta says. "I'm glad they're making it work."
Jeff eyes her. "You just want to be their friend."
"Yeah, Jeff, because this is a million years ago and all I want is to become friends with a lesbian couple," She rolls her eyes, placing the two sandwich halves together and adding a few carrot slices and grapes. "They're nice women. I wish the others wouldn't judge them."
"You've got a good heart, Britta Perry," Jeff chuckles. "By the way, I'd hold that sandwich, if I were you."
"Why?"
He motions towards the end of the table, where Allison is fast asleep, and then towards the highchair, where Marissa has fallen asleep as well. Britta laughs, shaking her head and putting the sandwich in the refrigerator for later. Jeff stands, caging her body against the countertop. "We have two sleeping kids…"
"That we do," Britta agrees, kissing him.
"I'll get one, you get the other," Jeff suggests. "And then… the bedroom?"
"I'll be there," She grins. "I get Allison!"
"I get Alli- damn it!"
Britta grins victoriously, heading over towards the sleeping preschooler as Jeff tries to gingerly un-strap their youngest daughter from the high chair. It was a known fact that Marissa was an extremely light sleeper and if you did wake her up, good luck trying to get her back to sleep! He glances over at Britta, who's cradling Allison carefully and grinning. "Hurry. You're so slow!"
Jeff scowls. "Yeah, yeah…"
Two months later, Britta's checking the mail, Marissa perched on her hip and Allison trailing behind her, when she notices a letter addressed to her and Jeff in fancy scroll. She lets them back into their house, placing Marissa down and watching her and Allison run off to play. Deciding against waiting for Jeff, she opens it and removes the embossed invitation, her lap immediately filled with a pile of confetti. It's an invitation to Annie's wedding and she is immediately filled with nostalgia.
Little Annie's growing up; they all are. When Jeff comes home a few hours later, Britta immediately says, "Annie's getting married."
"What? Did she even tell us she was engaged?"
"I don't remember," Britta answers. "But probably."
"We've been a little busy lately," He chuckles, sitting next to her on the couch.
Britta bites her lip. "And we're about to get a little busier."
Jeff shoots her a glance. "What?"
Instead of answering, she goes into the playroom and returns with Marissa. "Riss, show Daddy your shirt."
"Look Daddy!" She shrieks and runs over to him.
Jeff pulls her onto his lap, takes in her t-shirt and chuckles. "Wow Rissa, you're wearing Allie's old shirt! Looks good!"
Britta rolls her eyes. "Read the shirt, you doofus."
He does and his eyes widen. "Big Sister?"
Britta grins. "Surprise."
So their family will grow and they'll learn and thrive and everything will and won't go according to plan.
Because, after all, isn't Abed always right about everything?
