A/N: Hi again all. Checking in now that Season 6 is underway. This is kind of a… non-canon companion to the season with AU elements, or something? I don't know exactly how that works. Call it wish fulfillment I guess. Anyway, this is stepping heavily into Jeff/Annie, because there hasn't been a lot of it so far, and that's a little sad. This chapter is going up a couple of days after 603 has aired – I'm about half way through another chapter set after that, and I'll probably be continuing this thing throughout the season.

So, before we start…

~SPOILERS AHEAD FOR 601/602~

You've been warned.

Obviously we all have a good idea what's going on with Annie, but Britta doesn't. So shhh, don't spoil it for her, and enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Community.


The sun was just beginning to set on Friday evening, and Britta found herself once again sitting down to watch a movie with Annie and Abed. When they'd announced roommate movie night on her first day, she'd assumed that it was some kind of special occasion deal. The fact that they had watched a movie every night so far, along with Abed's multiple midday viewings, seemed to disprove that theory.

Britta yawned loudly and stretched her neck. She'd learned that her two friends were not normal people when it came to sleep cycles. In her old apartment, she would crash anywhere between eleven and one, and wake up when she woke up. Not here. Annie had the lights out by ten, and started the day at six on the dot. Abed spent most of the night working on projects in his room, which was fine for Annie in her enclosed bedroom, but not so much for someone sleeping in the living room. Britta had barely slept fifteen hours in the last three days.

But if there was one thing Britta had learned the most over the past few days of living with Annie and Abed, it was that she was not a tidy person. She'd always known she was a little lazy with her housework, but who isn't, right? A few extra plates on the sink never hurt anyone.

Except for Annie, apparently, who was hard at work on today's third load of noodle-coated dishes. But hey, if Annie wanted to watch Mean Girls while wrist deep in soapy water, that was her business.

Britta grabbed a chip from the bowl in her lap as Janis talked Cady through the cafeteria seating. Apparently she also rustled chip packets too loudly, which had prompted Abed to pour all of her Let's onto the floor two days ago for interrupting Blade Runner's Tears in Rain speech – a mess that Annie had insisted on cleaning up right away, effectively ending that movie night. Now Britta ate out of the mixing bowl.

"Britta, I'm going to need that bowl before I'm done here." Annie called from the kitchen. "We're not leaving it dirty all night."

Britta made a face. "Yes mom," she muttered, offering some chips to Abed, who was eyeing her curiously.

"Have you been working on your expressions over the break?" he asked curiously, taking a handful. "Your face seems more emotive since we came back."

"Have you been working on your meta-ness?" she retorted. "You haven't made this many references to 'our show' since first year."

"It's a conscious effort. A lot's different this year, and we need to consolidate our roles in the group. I'm expecting something from Annie soon, or she's going to risk losing quirks to Frankie."

Annie placed another fork onto the drying rack. "No one's competing for quirks Abed," she said, "and if any of us were going to be worried about Frankie, it'd be you."

He tilted his head thoughtfully.

"Just ask Jeff, he's already referring to her as 'the new Abed'."

"When did he say that?" Britta asked Annie, walking the now empty bowl over to the kitchen.

"Oh, you know, during a meeting or something, probably."

"I guess I missed that. Was that on Monday?" Britta dropped the bowl into the sink, causing dirty water to splash over the already clean dishes.

Annie gave her a death stare. "Just for that, you can finish up the rest of this. I've got to get ready."

Britta rolled her eyes. When she'd discovered that the apartment had no dishwasher, she had immediately opted herself out of dishes duty entirely. It had left her with taking out the trash each night, but it was better than putting your hands into gross rubber gloves, shoving them into burning water, and touching slimy half-eaten noodles. Trust Annie to find a way to get her to have a turn anyw…

"Wait, you're going out? Where? Why?" She squinted suspiciously. "With who?" Now that she thought about it, Annie hadn't eaten anything earlier.

Annie shrugged innocently and pulled her gloves off, leaving them hanging from the side of the sink. "It's nothing really. Just catching up with some old friends from work."

"Friends that you 'catch up with' every week." Abed stated from his seat, his eyes fixed firmly on the TV screen.

Britta smirked as Annie muttered, "Thanks Abed," and walked to her bedroom, closing the door firmly behind her.

"So it's a date then, right? How long have you been seeing him? Is it serious? Did you sleep with him yet? Do we know him? Is that why it's a secret?"

She heard a draw opening and closing. "Britta, I'm not telling you anything, and pestering me won't help. This isn't like that Rich thing."

"Oh my god, is it Rich?! Jeff will hate that."

"NO! No. Nothing to do with Rich. He hasn't even been at Greendale since back when the Black River Ripper was still on the loose."

The door opened, and Annie emerged holding a bundle of clothes that were… hmm. Strangely casual for a date.

"Now, I'm going to have a shower, and then I'll be leaving. You and Abed will enjoy the movie, and you will not ask me anything else about where I'm going because I'm 24 and I don't have to explain myself."

With that she stepped around Britta and stormed into the bathroom.

Britta walked over and slumped into her seat next to Abed. "Sheesh, what's her problem?"

"Nothing really. She's just making a big scene to take your mind off finding out about her secret boyfriend."

She grabbed the control and hit pause, turning to face him. "So there is a secret boyfriend? Do you know who it is? Are you guys keeping secrets from me again?"

Abed sighed and turned away from the hilarious mid-speech expression frozen on Lindsay Lohan's face. "I know certain things, yes, but I'm under a strict oath that prevents me from telling you a lot of them. I can't answer anything until I check with Annie." His eyes flickered to the remote on the table between them, clearly impatient to restart the movie.

So Britta removed the batteries.

"Listen Abed. I know you don't like romantic plot lines, but gossip is a girl thing, okay? You know that as well as I do. We can start the movie again once I have the information I need."

Abed seemed to consider that, before reaching down underneath his seat and pulling out a second completely identical remote. "Always have a backup. As I said, let me speak to Annie first. We're straying close to the edge here, and I wouldn't want to reveal anything she doesn't want you to know."

"Fine. Play the stupid movie."

It was a good half an hour before Annie stepped back out of the bathroom wearing a pair of jeans and a pink sweater. She didn't even have any more makeup on than usual. Which was weird for a date, right?

Abed hopped up from his seat and quickly steered Annie to the corner, the two of them whispering and stealing quick glances at Britta. She couldn't make out much of it – something about 'Britta', 'questions', and 'Sunday'.

"Okay, I'm leaving now." Annie announced, heading for the front door as Abed returned to his seat. Abed waved a hand in acknowledgement, and restarted the movie.

Annie probably wouldn't answer any more questions, but hopefully Abed would in a minute, so Britta went with the second thing on her mind. "Oh, Annie – will you be back late? It's just, you'll probably wake me up walking straight past the couch into your room."

"I wouldn't worry about that." Annie replied with a quick smile, as she closed the door behind her.

"Abed. Abed. What did she mean by that?"

He seemed reluctant to pause the movie again. "She means that it won't be a problem."

Britta gave him the stoniest glare she could muster. "Abed, I will pull that disk out of the player and snap it in half right in front of you if you don't give me a real answer."

He paused the movie.

"When Annie goes out on Friday night, she usually isn't back until Sunday evening." He stared at her, as if waiting for a response.

Wow, so it was serious. Annie was spending whole weekends with this guy. And she hadn't taken a change of clothes with her, which meant everything she needed was at his place. Which is like halfway towards moving in. Probably. Britta didn't have a lot of experience with relationships reaching that level of commitment. And Annie hadn't told anyone? Well, except Abed. Did Jeff know too? Were they leaving Britta out again? This was raising even more questions.

"So… you said usually." She began cautiously. "How many weekends has this been going on for?"

"Since April twenty seventh last year."

"What?! For almost a whole year? That was like, the week after the whole Subway thing! Why didn't she tell me?"

"Well it was off-season." He said matter-of-factly. "We don't tend to share any developments during that time. I only found out because she lives here."

It was a little upsetting that Annie hadn't confided in her. With Shirley gone, they were supposed to be best girlfriends now. And girlfriends shared stuff like this. Probably.

"Okay, so… Did you two decide what questions I can ask?"

He shrugged. "You can ask whatever you want. But we decided what I can answer, yes."

"Do I know him?"

"Britta. We aren't playing twenty questions. I can't answer anything that will help you narrow down who the guy is. Annie was very specific on that. When she wants you to know who it is, she'll tell you."

Well, that was going to make this a little more difficult. Going through hair colors had been one of the pillars of Britta's strategy. But she was a psych major – words were her weapons, and as much as Abed acted like a robot, he could let information slip just as easily as anyone else.

"Does Jeff know who it is?"

"No. And that's actually something important. You can't tell him about this. At all. No hinting at what a wonderful weekend Annie must have had, no snide glances, nothing. When we're at group meetings, for all intents and purposes, Annie sat at home watching movies with us all weekend."

That made her feel a little better actually. Being the only one left out of a year-long conspiracy would have been almost as bad as finding out about her parents.

"So it's someone Jeff would disapprove of then?" She studied Abed closely. "No, wait, Jeff disapproves of anyone Annie dates. Never mind."

He continued to watch her. It was a little creepy.

"Is he tall? Oh, I can't ask that either…"

She had been hoping for some kind of reaction from Abed. Something on his face, anything she could use to judge the answers to questions she wasn't allowed to ask. But he was giving her nothing. He should really take up poker or something. In fact, she could probably take him to the casino this weekend. She could use a few thousand dollars to pay back her parents, and if he was… No, focus.

"It's serious, right? I mean, she's spending the whole weekend there, she obviously has clothes at his place…"

"Probably. It's been a year after all. And she never actually said it, but I think part of having you stay here was to get me used to you being here instead of her. I wouldn't be surprised if she's moved out of here by the end of the semester. I've heard her say 'I love you' over the phone, and they've definitely had a lot of sex, because when she comes home she usually…"

Britta pretty much tuned the rest of it out. Abed going on and on about how happy Annie was in her totally serious relationship wasn't something she needed to hear a lot of, and it didn't look like she'd be getting any more useful information out of him anyway. She was going to have to do some hands-on investigating.

"Okay! Thanks Abed," she interrupted, "that's all I needed to know. Let's get back to the movie."

He smiled and nodded, clearly happy to end that conversation.

Britta turned her head back the screen, only slightly paying attention to the film. She was going to find out who this guy was, trust between friends be damned. That boat had sailed when they'd befriended her parents. If Annie thought she could keep a secret from an overzealous former-anarchist psychologist, she had another thing coming.


"Britta's probably quizzing Abed right now you know." Annie called into the kitchen, curling up into her corner of the couch. "I bet he's having a great time."

"You think she'll be able to work it out?" Jeff replied, stirring the spaghetti. It wasn't the fanciest of meals, but it was part of the pattern they'd fallen into. He'd cook something on Friday (not because Annie couldn't cook; because Annie cooked for Abed, and now Britta, every night), and they'd grab some take-out on Saturday. Today happened to be Italian. The fact that they had a routine should have scared him. The whole thing was getting very domestic – it had been for months now. But he didn't mind at all.

"Not from anything Abed says. When he wants to keep a secret, he keeps it, and having both of us dress up and go with him to the midnight premiere of Star Wars is a pretty good motivation."

He spooned the food onto a pair of plates. "I still don't know how you got me to agree to that."

"Please, you would have been going anyway." She shot him a bright smile. That right there was how she'd gotten him to agree to it. He thought she'd been convincing before, but he had no resistance now that they were together. He didn't really mind that either.

"Oh, and don't worry about Britta saying anything," Annie continued, nodding her thanks as he handed her a plate and sat down next to her. "She's going to be under the impression that you have no idea about me dating anyone, and that it needs to be a secret."

He raised an eyebrow. "What, worried I might slip up? I can keep secrets just as well as Abed."

"Sure. Except if Britta brings up the fact that I'm dating someone, she's going to expect you to fly into a fit of jealousy, not just smile contentedly like you're doing right now."

He wiped the smile off his face, causing a smirk to form on hers. "Better safe than sorry I guess. But fit of jealously, really?"

It was Annie's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Okay, fine. Fit of jealousy it is. Now do you want to watch JAG, or do you want to keep talking about Britta?"

They'd discovered pretty early on that they both had a secret love for crime shows. Despite the clichés and the fairly obvious plots, something managed to keep both of them coming back for more. Their law and criminology interests probably had something to do with it. And between Jeff's box sets of Law & Order and JAG, Annie's NCIS and Sherlock, and Shirley's hundred and sixty six episodes of Bones, they would probably be set for the next few years.

Shirley's little gift to them had been unexpected to say the least, and Jeff was sure Britta would get a kick out of the story when they got around to telling her.

The going away party had been low key to avoid tipping off Abed. Shirley had agreed that it was in everyone's best interests not to tell him, but she'd insisted on recording a goodbye on video to show to him later anyway. They'd met up at Shirley's place about a month after the Subway incident to find Andre and the boys already there. The two of them hadn't fixed everything, but they were working on it for the sake of the kids, and with Shirley leaving for at least a few months, they'd all come out to join the farewell.

There weren't any adventures or escapades. They didn't play timeline-altering Yahtzee. It was just a bunch of friends eating and talking around a table, with Jeff and Annie trying to avoid tipping anyone off about what was, at that stage, a fairly new development in their relationship.

When it had come time for gifts, the group went first. Britta had actually managed to put some thought into her gift of Christmas-shaped cookie cutters, even if her minimum wage wasn't enough to afford anything more. Annie had gone all out with a 'history of the group' scrapbook. Calling it a scrapbook may have been selling it short though, considering the two hundred page length. It was closer to an encyclopedia. Of course Annie had roped Jeff into spending some of their nights helping her out with it, but they'd agreed that giving one gift between them might be a bit suspicious. In the end, Annie had chipped in for the complete season's 1-9 of Bones.

Shirley had chuckled when Jeff handed that over, explaining that Andre had just returned the files from her DVR earlier that day. Jeff had been a little put out at that – remembering something Shirley had said over four months ago was a big step in his gift giving. But Shirley loved it anyway, and once she'd cheered Jeff up, the party went back into full swing.

It was a few hours later, after Andre had taken the boys home to get them to bed, and Britta had just ducked out the door, when Shirley had approached Jeff and Annie. She had explained that she already knew what was going on – it didn't take a genius to work out who had been the reason for what in that lab. Jeff had braced himself for a lecture, but he was pleasantly surprised by a big hug. Apparently Shirley had been rooting for them for years now, and she was just happy it had happened before she had to leave. They'd talked for a while, and as they were leaving, Shirley had given them the portable hard drive with her recorded episodes on it, with the stipulation that they watch them together and think of her. Annie had teared up at that, and Jeff might have been a little choked up as well – at least he would have been if he wasn't sure that Shirley would be back. Because she would, eventually.

Jeff was broken from his reverie by Annie snuggling into his side. For such a small person, she sure could wolf down a meal. He shifted a little to get comfortable, and draped his arm around her shoulders. He'd never actually admit it to anyone, but just… this… was just as great as any of the stuff he'd done with any of his past flings. Not that sex with Annie wasn't great – it totally was. They'd spent most of their first week in bed, both of them playing out fantasies that had lain dormant for years. But you can't build an entire relationship on that alone, and thankfully they'd both found that all of the other stuff came pretty easily too.

It wasn't always perfect. They had fights just like any other couple. But it's hard to do any real damage when you're building off of five years of close friendship and definitive, scientific proof of love.

"So," Jeff said, breaking the comfortable silence between them. "Did you talk to Abed about you moving in here eventually?"

Annie sighed as the show continued in the background. "Not yet. I get close to asking him about it, and then he says something about how sad he is that Troy isn't in the apartment anymore. I'm starting to suspect he knows what I'm going to say, and he just wants to drag out my living there as long as possible."

"He'll get used to Britta eventually. I'm sure she'd love to take your room too." He paused. "We're going to have to tell her before then. You know, about us."

"Yeah. We just need to wait for the dust to settle from this whole parents thing. When she finds out that everyone except for her has known about this for almost a year, it's going to be hard enough without all of that hanging over her head."

They usually fit in a good four episodes a night, but they were back at Greendale now. That meant longer hours of work for Annie, and some actual hours for Jeff, so by the end of the second they had already started yawning periodically.

"Do you want to push through another one, or just call it a night?" Jeff asked.

Annie grinned mischievously. "What's the matter Winger, a little lethargic in your old age?"

He feigned offense, and then shrugged. "You know what, maybe I am Edison. I guess I'd better go straight to sleep them." he said, standing and heading slowly towards the bedroom.

"Oh no you don't. That would break our deal." Annie replied, pulling the disk from the player and putting the case back in its correct position. "If I remember correctly, you said, 'If we only get two nights together a week, you can bet we'll be making them count'. I think you owe me a little more than spaghetti and TV."

Jeff shook his head. "Out-lawyered again. You could probably give Harm a run for his money." He stepped over to her and kissed her lightly. "Well, I guess if I don't have a choice, then…"

She smiled as she pulled away a few inches. "Shut up, you love it."

He smiled back. "I do. Now," he began, gesturing towards the bedroom door, "Milady?"

"Milord."