Jeff stood under the entrance to Greendale, leaning heavily against a concrete support as he watched Britta, Pierce and Shirley all madly dash through the torrential downpour of rain.
By the time they reached their respective vehicles they were soaked and his feet remained firmly planted in place unwilling to make the treacherous journey. He wasn't like them. He wore one hundred percent pure blend cotton, dry clean only and there was no way his shirt would have made the trip unscathed.
So he stood stubbornly, watching as their headlights disappeared into the dark and hoping for a break in the relentless weather.
The minutes ticked over and he sighed glancing back towards the door. He knew Troy and Abed were still inside and the reason why swayed him to stay put, motivating him nearly as much as his love of ridiculously expensive clothing.
They were looking for Annie.
It was what he referred to as plan 'C', aka working the home angle. If anyone could get her back into the study group it was Troy and Abed... the only problem was he suspected they were spending more time in the dreamatorium running simulations than tackling the problem in real life. Which left him with a new plan and consequently a new chronological ordering system.
He called it plan 2.0 and it consisted of apologising.
Version 1.0 was to blind-side her with a Winger spectacular about the importance of trust and friendship. Under normal circumstances it would have been his preferred way to go but something shamefully close to fear kept him from engaging in the trademark tactic. He could manipulate the coldest toughest bastards in the business and was immune to all their tricks but Annie wielded something he hadn't faced in many opponents.
She was a genuinely good person.
They were in this mess because she was hell bent on helping someone else, seeing the good where the rest of them couldn't and even though he could turn the facts in his favour... doing it would make him feel like a down right asshole. There was only one way to come out of this with his sense of morality intact and that was by sucking it up, accepting her decision and apologising.
If he didn't then he was no better than... well, Pierce.
A shudder ran through him at the comparative which was fortunately disrupted by the sound of metal banging behind him. It echoed above the heavy rain and he turned to see Troy and Abed bustling through the door, tensing as Troy doubled over breathing heavily.
"We couldn't... she wasn't-" he rasped, turning his hand rapidly in the air, " we found... and-"
"We couldn't find Annie." Abed, who didn't seem at all phased by their run took over, "we went to the room where she and Rory were studying. They weren't there. But we did find this..."
He held up a fragmented piece of orange plastic, frowning at his own conclusion. The label was still partially visible spelling 'a-d-d-e-r' and he didn't need to be a forensic annalist to make the connection.
"There... were... desks-" Troy wheezed, still bracing over his knees as he glared at Abed, "what the... hell man?"
Abed tilted his head slightly, momentarily forgetting the drama to expand on the quirk in his physiology. "I don't know... one time at school I blew up two hundred and fifty balloons in a row. The gym teacher wanted me to stay behind after class to give me a special award but my dad showed up and took me home. He was really angry. I figured it was because I'd told someone about my secret power... the next day Mr Langley was fired. I guess he knew too much."
"Dude," Troy finally caught his breath, straightening and extending his fist, "that is... awesome!"
Abed returned the gesture, slapping his chest to cement the code between them. "Thanks."
"No-" Jeff protested, feeling a rise of anger at the absurdity, "Abed you probably have a serious condition which you should really get checked out and your gym teacher definitely doing twenty to life in prison right now... so can we please get back to Annie. You said she was gone?"
Abed filtered the information, agreeing to focus on the more pressing problem at hand. "A couple of desks were pushed over. We tried looking for her but realised how unlikely it would be for our characters to be central to this particular storyline. That's why we knew you had to still be here somewhere."
"Ok-" Jeff tried not to panic as the weight of the situation fell on his shoulders, "so you're telling me Annie's in there, alone... with a guy who's fully loaded on adderall?"
Abed tilted his head again reluctant to draw conclusions without solid facts, "we didn't actually see him take the pills but this arc does suggest a dramatic climax of that nature could occur."
"Oh for the love of-" Jeff pushed through the pair, abandoning the sentence as a jolt of anger spurred him back into the building. To hell with apologising. He knew, just knew something like this was going to happen... if she got hurt it was going to be her own damn fault!
He stopped, his anger quickly morphing into a wave of fear.
If she got hurt it wasn't going to matter whose fault it was... he would still wear the guilt, shoulder the regret and no amount of pure blend cotton shirts would help ease the burden. The knowledge was simply unacceptable. He couldn't loose two things he cared deeply about, he needed to find her.
If not for emotions pounding through his chest then at least for the sake of his wardrobe.