Title: It's All Downhill From Here
Chapter: 2
AN: Don't own it. Never will.
"Jeff slow down, you're hurting my arm!"
"We need to put as much distance between them and us as we can."
"I think you're overreacting Jeff. It's just the Dean and Pierce. They mean well, they just don't always show it appropriately."
"Yeah that's it. Oh here is our room." He opened the door to a modest looking hotel room with two twin beds. Annie giggled. "What's so funny?"
"We will be like those married couples on old TV shows. Same room separate beds."
Jeff shifted uncomfortably at the mention of marriage. He didn't want to exam the feelings that the thought of marriage brought up when in reference to himself and Annie. It was an awkward fizzy feeling in the pit of his stomach. So he chose to ignore it.
"How bout we try to find something to eat?"
Annie smiled and looked into his eyes, "Alright."
The fuzzy feeling intensified. Maybe he would have been better off sharing a room with the Dean.
"I can't reach the zipper."
"Here let me get it for you." Abed wiggled the zipper, "It's stuck. Arms up."
After some struggling and flailing, Troy was freed from his jacket.
"Whew! I was starting to get hot." His shirt was soaked through with sweat. "What's the plan?"
"I have an idea. But we need to go back to the space bus and get the luggage."
"Do I need to put my coat back on?"
"I don't recall a premise of someone being trapped in an avalanche on the way to the car. Usually it happens when they are on the slopes and someone screams and the reverberations cause the avalanche. So I think we are good as long as we are quiet."
"Got it! Ninja mode activated." The duo darted down the hallway to the lobby. Occasionally they would tippy toe from one door jamb to another. They stopped behind a large potted plant in the lobby and peered through the leaves.
"Do you see the Garrett body snatcher?"
"Negative Inspector. Lobby is clear." They raced through the lobby and out into the cool Colorado air. The space bus sat unlocked as the two boys through open the door.
"Brrr… It's colder out here than I thought."
"Let's just grab all the bags and get back in side."
Abed leaned in to grab and then abruptly stood back up. "Do you hear that?"
"Was it a Bigfoot call? Please say it was a Bigfoot call." Troy made a praying motion with his hands as he looked into the sky.
"No. Rustling."
"Oh sounds mysterious."
"It will add to the suspense." Abed stood starring off into the distance for several seconds.
"Awesome." They reached down and grabbed the multitude of bags.
"Shirley? You- who? Shirley?" Britta wandered down the hall way looking for her temporary roommate. She supposed she should feel badly for abandoning Annie with the Dean, Jeff and Pierce, but she didn't. So what if Jeff and Annie made goo goo eyes at each other. It's not like she was jealous. The only reason she had a knot in her stomach was because she was afraid of how Shirley would react to the news of precious Annie sharing a room with a man. Not because she was jealous. Besides she had Troy to make eyes at. Well when he wasn't making eyes at Abed.
During her internal musings she ran into Shirley, literally.
"Oomph."
"Oh my!"
"Shirley, where have you been?"
"I've been trying to find the bathroom. All I've found so far are long hallways with creepy paintings. It feels like they are watching me."
"Don't be ridiculous Shirley. Paintings can't watch you. This isn't a Scooby Doo episode. If anyone is watching you it's that creepy hotel clerk Abner."
Shirley frowned, "Thank you for those reassuring words."
"No problem. I've got the key to our room so you can use the restroom and then we can go find some food. Hopefully they have vegetarian fare."
"Sssh… Do you hear that?"
Britta stopped and tilted her head slightly. "It sounds like heavy breathing."
"Mm-hmm."
"I hope Abner didn't hear the creepy comment… I don't want to be murdered in my sleep." Britta whispered. In a much louder voice, "This place is beautiful! And that front desk clerk seems WONDERFUL! So handsome and stylish. Not at all serial killer like!"
Shirley nodded her head in agreement. "Brit-ta, may we please go to our room and deadbolt the door?"
"I say we push something heavy against the door too."
"Agreed."
"Soooo… You sell wet wipes for a living?"
"Yep. So you dean for a living?"
"Yep." They two men looked at each other uncomfortably for a minute.
"Well I'm going to go see if there is a hot tub in this place. Maybe I can talk one of the sexy mama's in this hizzouse into soaking with me. This one time, me and Beverly D'Angelo were on vacation in Europe and we got in to a hot tub and…"
"As lovely as that sounds I am beat. I'm just going to head to our room. Toodles!"
"Jeff, I don't care about food any more. Plus we are lost. Let's just go find our bags and go back to the room."
"No we aren't. We are just momentarily displaced. But alright, I'll go get our bags and you can go to the room. Which bag is yours?"
"The pink one."
"Of course it is." Jeff slowly found his way back into the lobby. Thankfully someone else had brought the other bags in. They sat in a pile in the middle of the lobby. Jeff found his bag first. The zipper was open and the contents in the bag had been messed with. Jeff frowned, "Dean…"
Jeff hurriedly grabbed the pink bag also and stormed off down the corridor while mentally cataloguing what he had brought in his bag. If he'd taken the time to look he would have noticed the other baggage looked rifled through as well.
Annie was having an existential crisis as she walked back to their room. THEIR ROOM! As in her, Annie Edison, and him, Jeffery Winger. Alone, in one room, for a whole ski weekend together. It sounded so romantic in theory. She could pretend to get hurt and he would carry back to the room and they'd cuddle by the fire.
Or she could slip into something scandalous and surprise him as he came out of the shower. In reality, her acting ability was pretty horrible. Troy bought her appendix bursting story, but that was Troy. She had gotten better during her conspiracy theory ruse but she had a feeling Jeff would know.
Secondly, she didn't have anything scandalous to wear. She brought practical things to keep her warm while skiing. And her fuzzy Tinkerbell pajamas because they were warm and soft.
"Oh no! Jeff is going to see me in Tinkerbell pjs! Now I will be reduced back to child status." She flopped down onto one of the beds and tried not to cry. Her life was officially over. As she laid there wallowing in despair she heard the doorknob start to jiggle.
"Who's there?" The knob jiggled some more and Annie gingerly got off the bed. Thanks to her prior state of panic, the logical part of her brain had shut down. Who could be trying to get into the room? A transient? A serial killer? A transient serial killer who had a preference for petite brunettes named Annie and stole their organs?
Louder and slightly strangled, "Who's there?"
"Seriously Annie open the door! I don't have a key."
Sighing in relief Annie opened the door to let Jeff in. He dumped the pink bad on the bed closest to him and entered the bathroom. It sounded like it Jeff had dumped the contents of his bag into the sink and was muttering to himself.
Taking a deep breath, Annie turned away from the bathroom entrance and looked down at her bag. Maybe she could change really quickly and get under the covers and Jeff would be none the wiser. Then she set the alarm early and run to the bathroom before Jeff woke up. Brilliant! Now all she needed to do was unzip the bag and grab her pajamas.
"Eep!"
"Well nothing is missing, just displaced…." Jeff's voice trailed off as Annie twirled around. She was holding a black negligee. Annie's eyes dropped down and her face burned as the blood rushed to her cheeks.
"It's not mine!"
Jeff coughed, "Annie possession is nine tenths of the law. I'd say that is yours."
"No I swear it isn't! The bag looks like mine but it definitely isn't mine. The stuff in that is not mine. Besides my bag has a sparkly heart sticker on the tag and this one doesn't." Annie said triumphantly as her logical mind started to work again.
"Who else would have a pink bag and a negligee?"
"The dean!" The two said simultaneously.
"Well we should probably take it back to him and get my bag back."
"Or we could dig through it and have endless blackmail material."
"Jeff! That's an invasion of privacy. Would you want Dean Pelton going through your personal possessions?"
"I think he already has. But I guess you are right. Who knows what he has in that thing if you found a negligee right off the bat. I might be emotionally scarred for life."
"True, he probably had an elaborate seduction planned for this weekend." Annie giggled as Jeff's face paled at the suggestion. "But I still need to get my bag. Do you think he has it?"
"Probably. He's probably trying on your clothing right now."
Annie's nose wrinkled. "I hope not. Do you know what room he is in?"
"No! I bet you could go ask that creepy front desk clerk though. Or just randomly knock on doors until you find him."
"I don't want to go out there by myself."
"Well then I guess you are stuck here because I'm taking a shower."
"Hmmm… I guess I can sleep in my clothes."
Jeff sighed and reached into his bag. He withdrew a t-shirt and tossed it to her. "Here you can wear this tonight. Do you want to use the bathroom first and then I can shower?"
Annie's faced pinkened as she held his shirt in her hands. "Thanks. I'll just…" She motioned towards the bathroom and hurried inside. Once the door was closed, she leaned against it and let out the breath she had been holding. This was going to be harder than she thought. Annie methodically took off her makeup and pulled her hair into a pony tail. She undressed and held Jeff's shirt in her hands. Tentatively she raised the shirt to her nose and sniffed.
"Mmmm… Smells nice." Feeling embarrassed by what she had just done she pulled on the shirt. It came to the top of her thighs. It wasn't completely indecent but it was still more skin than Annie was used to bearing.
"Alright Annie. You can do this." She swung open the door and hurried to her bed without making eye contact with her new roomie. "Bathroom is free."
Jeff caught sight of Annie's long legs as she hustled to the bed. She looked breathtaking without any makeup and in his shirt.
"Uh… yeah thanks." He was going to need a long shower now. Preferably a cold one.
The shower did not solve Jeff's problem the way he had hoped, so he had to take the problem into his own hands. Thoughts of Annie in his shirt lead to a quick resolution. He stepped out of the shower and changed into his signature stripey boxers.
"Alright Jeff, you can do this." He opened the bathroom door to a darkened room. He stumbled once on the way to his bed. "Damn it."
"Are you alright?"
"Oh yeah! Just forgot where my bag was."
"Oh." Jeff settled in to the opposite bed.
"Well goodnight."
"Goodnight."
The two lay perfectly still in separate beds as thoughts of the other danced through their minds. Sleep was a long time coming for either one.
AN: Hope you are enjoying this.
Who else wants to know what the Dean had in his bag? At first I was going to have them rifle through it but couldn't think of what all I'd want in it.
Next chapter will start in the morning with everyone. Reviews are welcome! Thanks!