Title: We're Far Beyond Repair
Genre: Television
Series: Community
Characters: Annie Edison, Jeff Winger
Spoilers: 2x9-"Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design"
Rating: PG-13 (mentions of drug use and romantic entanglements)
Summary: Annie falls off the wagon and Jeff is desperately trying to catch her.
Author's Note: Don't ask me where this came from, I'm not sure. It's very dark and serious compared to the actual show, so...*shrugs*
He gave her a ride home after their study group disbanded for the night, another few hours spent sparsely revisiting text books and liberally sprinkled with entertaining anecdotes of varying flavors (from Pierce's offensive to Shirley's preachy to Abed's startling accurate metaphorical allusions). It didn't matter to him that she only lived on the edge of campus, a short ten minute walk from the library, because Jeff Winger was full of good intentions that night and sometimes even the road to Hell still needed to be traveled.
He parked his car without saying a word, and though she babbled on about innocuous subjects ranging from whether Shirley was really pregnant to the hypocrisy of animal-rights-activist Britta buying herself a new pair of leather boots just last week, but she didn't ask why he followed her into her dorm. Jeff didn't know whether to take that as a good sign or a bad sign (or a sign of anything at all), but he was grateful for the small reprieve that allowed him to gather his thoughts.
Annie searched through her massive backpack for her door keys and Jeff hovered behind her, his eyes scanned the hallway for prying eyes and as usual found only blissful ignorance in the shadows. If her closest friends could remain ignorant to the problem for so long then what hope did her busy neighbors have of catching a clue?
She finally got her door open and disappeared into the darkened room without bothering to invite him in after her. She expected that he'd follow, Jeff concluded, and since she wasn't wrong he did so without thinking overly about it. She dropped her bag to the floor just beside her desk with a loud thump and flipped on the lamp beside her bed with a small movement. She turned to stare at him with serious eyes, her irreverent cheerful babble abruptly stifled by the sudden tension that convalesced with the shutting of the door.
Jeff leaned against the wall just inside her room, vain enough that he knew how attractive the pose made him, but worried enough about her that the motion was automatic and not deliberate. Once again he found that his charm and way with words had abandoned him and the idle thought occurred to him that it was clearly something about Greendale that stripped him of his innate defense. He'd went years without facing a situation where his skills abandoned him, but since enrolling it'd happened a number of times (and quite often around Annie).
"Annie-" He started, his hands released and reaching from where they'd folded across his chest as he found the words to press his point, the reason he'd come her, but she didn't let him finish. In two strides she was at his side, her arms (thin and trembling) vise-like around his waist as she pushed herself into his body, her lips locking on his with the accuracy of a military grade weapon.
His conscious mind went the way of his smooth-talk and disappeared into the night and his arms instinctively lifted her the few inches that she struggled to keep closed between them. She tasted like lemons, crisp and clean, and Jeff remembered that she was fond of lemon cough drops, even when she wasn't sick. It didn't matter that they'd only kissed a handful of times, he knew the feel of her against him and it was a familiar burn in his stomach that he craved. For a few minutes it wasn't about the bigger picture, wasn't about fixing what was wrong, or pretending that whatever was between them was something to be stifled and repressed. He was a selfish and greedy man, neither attributes were things he'd ever denied, and when it came to Annie he didn't want to deny it. Peer pressure was a terrible thing and if he didn't think that he'd miss their study group he'd damn the consequences and take what he wanted as he always had.
Annie made a noise in the back of her throat, a small gasp for breath as she shifted closer, her small feet treading on the tops of his shoes, her slight weight a soft reminder that this wasn't why he came here. Jeff jerked his head back and found himself staring at her face, taking in the swollen red lips and her doe-eyes glazed over with need. He didn't unwrap his arms from around her waist, the overlapping limbs locked together so tightly that he was surprised she could still breathe. She was so small in his arms, her little bird bones so light that she might as well have been made of air, but she vibrated with energy that felt almost solid as she gazed back at him.
He cleared his throat as he swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat, and spoke in a low voice that was husky with emotions better left not given description. "I read that Adderall increases libido as well as focus, but I think I'd prefer to think that you'd only have thrown yourself at me."
She stiffened immediately, and she was suddenly a very real presence in his arms. Annie pushed at his chest, trying to move away but he refused to let her go. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Sure, you do. You've been awake since six, and it's going on midnight and you're showing no signs of slowing down. You've been doing this for almost a month, and don't deny it, Abed took notes. He didn't realize the why, but it's pretty clear to me. Where are they?"
"I think you should leave, Jeff. Clearly you've misinterpreted the situation and clearer heads will prevail in the morn-"
He couldn't help himself, not when her cheeks were still flushed from their kisses but her eyes were so coolly dismissing him. He shook her gently, shifting to hold her arms stiffly. "Don't lie to me, Annie. Where are the pills?"
She didn't answer, but something behind her eyes shut down. Her heart-warming naiveté was nowhere in evidence as she stood there, and in that moment he didn't see the young woman he'd spent so much of his energy struggling to stay away from. For that moment she was somber and serious and he felt closer to her than he ever had before. It was a connection that came out of nowhere and he wasn't prepared to deal with it so with a shrug Jeff released her and felt the smallest amount of shame when she stumbled back as far from him as her small dorm room would allow.
Jeff spotted her bag beside the desk and knelt beside it, pulling it open roughly and forcing his fingers into the shadows within. Annie gaped at him and he ignored her reaction, continuing his search with a single-minded ruthlessness that had won him many a court case. "Jeff, this is a violation. We're friends and my word should be more than enough to correct your wrong conclusions."
She shifted closer, reaching as if to take the bag from his grip, and with nary a reply he ignored her attempts to stop him. The minutes grew longer the more he explored her bag, and he wondered briefly who would want so many pockets in which to hide things (answering himself with a snide thought that the answer was clearly someone with something to hide). Annie reached around himself desperately, her shorter arms incapable of getting around his body enough to retrieve her bag, her movements growing more frantic as he narrowed his search. She was speaking, words both cajoling and threatening, but he ignored them because they meant nothing. She lied easily, excuses forming readily on her lips, but Jeff knew the truth for what it was and would prove it before this altercation was through.
His fingers closed around a smooth column of plastic, the soft rattle of pills inside a startling finish to his investigation. Annie hadn't heard the noise, but her words stopped when he froze under her hands, his body taut with tension. His arm slid from the shadows of her bag and the small bottle was revealed to the sparse light of her room and Annie shook against his back. He straightened and examined the bottle, noting that the prescription label had been partially peeled away so that there was no name on it, but "Adderall XR" was very clearly printed near the bottom.
"Where'd you get it, Annie?" Jeff asked, his voice low but intense. With the evidence so clearly in hand he didn't need her confession anymore, though he'd wanted her to confide in him willingly at first. Perhaps this was better, perhaps forcing the truth from her was more harsh, but his need for the truth dissipated as the need to punish someone grew. He'd always felt protective of her, the sweet girl with big eyes that had already seen too much, but knowing that someone had helped taint her once more only made that instinct scream louder.
"I was studying for the Spanish 110 finale just before Christmas break, and I ran into..." she hesitated, her voice trailing off before she started speaking again, quieter this time, "...I ran into someone I kinda knew. He'd seen me at the library studying all the time, and he offered to help. I thought he meant like studying with me, but then he came back the next day with that."
"Who was it?"
"I don't think he knew that I'd had, um, have a problem with it. I didn't tell him, I just put it in my bag and told myself I'd throw it away when I left the library, but then he was gone and it was almost midnight and I was tired and I still couldn't get the conjugations and modifiers right and the test was the next day. So I took one and that was going to be it, just one for one all-nighter, but then I had a big test in philosophy and I hate how wishy-washy the answers are because I like concrete black and white answers but no, the professor wants us to interpret the material in our own ways and I've always had trouble looking for underlying themes, especially when half the material is translated from Ancient Greek and is practically poetry. Can't we just keep this between us, Jeff? I promise I won't touch it again, I'll go back to A.A. Meetings, and I won't do it again, just don't tell anyone, please?" She'd gone from babbling to pleading, her face pressed just between his shoulder blades and her fingers clenched in the thin material of his shirt. "I couldn't take it again, everyone looking at me differently and whispering, and Annie Adderall walking the halls of Greendale, I can't do it. Please don't make me."
Jeff couldn't deny Annie under the best of circumstances, and here in the worst he was just as weak to her as ever. He turned and she moved to curl into his chest and he wrapped an arm around her waist again, the strength of it hard steel against her shaking form. His free hand held the pill bottle still, the soft rattle echoing in the room as he tapped it against his leg. "You tell me who gave it to you, and we'll keep this to ourselves. I'll take you to meetings off campus where no one will see, but if I think you've started again I will put you in rehab myself, Annie."
She nodded into the niche of his shoulder, sighing shakily and unconsciously digging her nails into his side. "It was Dr. Rich. He, umm, filled the prescription under one of his patient's names but he gave it to me. I know you hate him, already, but please don't do anything, Jeff. You'll just get into trouble, and don't do it for me. You'll get expelled and I need you here. Please, don't."
Jeff decided that if Annie took his silence for an acquiesce then he'd let her believe that, but he'd be damned if Dr. Potterywood would get away with this. He'd hated the man before, but this was a line that should never have been crossed. Their little pissing contests had been contemptuous spats compared to the Hell that Jeff was already plotting to rain down on the good doctor. If Jeff played his cards correctly, he'd not only be rid of Dr. Rich but the only schooling Rich would be getting would be prison yard style.
"Get your jacket," Jeff told her, easing his hold on her so she could step back.
"Where are we going?" She asked, though she was already doing as he said.
"We're getting rid of these," he rattled the bottle in the air demonstratively, "and then we're finding an Addicts Anonymous meeting."
"It's past midnight, Jeff," Annie protested. Her faced was pale now, her eyes dark and too wide in her face.
"Addiction doesn't have a timetable, Annie. There's always a meeting somewhere. Or at least that's what it says on the website," Jeff noted as he opened her door and gestured for her to exit first. Once in the hall he waited for her to lock the door before sliding his arm around her waist, a movement he didn't purposely do but felt comfortably natural by that point in the evening.
When Annie next spoke they were beside his car, and he wasn't looking at her but was attempting to find the keyhole in the dark. "I know you're doing this because you're the father of the group and you feel responsible for us and all that, but...thanks, Jeff."
For a second he wanted to let her believe that it was a paternal care that had made him seek her out tonight, but if he could force the truth from her then it was unfair to not concede the same from himself. He opened the car door and waited until she'd slid into the passenger seat before speaking. "The last thing I would ever feel for you is fatherly." He shut the door before she could react and felt her eyes on him as he rounded the car and took the driver's seat.
They drove through the campus silently, the streetlights sliding through the car rhythmically as they transitioned from school to city streets. Annie pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them pensively, and said nothing when he reached over and linked his fingers with hers.
Review, please.