Chapter 7: Covert Missions
Summary: More than one person has a secret
Annie twirled around the kitchen, humming to herself as she mixed the pancake batter. She knew she was perhaps being a little silly, but she was feeling relatively carefree at the present moment, it being summer without the pressures of homework or studying, and having the Friday off of work so that she had plenty of time to get things ready for Sophie's birthday party tomorrow. She smiled as she recalled Dean Pelton's understanding about her needing the time, and despite Jeff's protests, she felt justified in inviting him to the party. He really was a sweet person and she was hoping Jeff would someday be able to acknowledge that fully.
She was glad also that Jeff wasn't working today, as it would just make things that much easier. All three of them would go see Lauren in the morning of course, but then he had already planned to keep Sophie busy that afternoon while she took care of some last minute details and Skyped with her father.
She paused in her mixing efforts as she began to envision how the call might go, in all of its awkwardness. She was barely aware of the way she had begun stabbing the batter.
"Mama, take it easy."
She abruptly turned toward Sophie, who was sitting in a booster seat at the counter. She had been scribbling away in her coloring book while Annie was making breakfast, satisfied with a few banana slices to tide her over. Annie stared at her incredulously as she slowly placed the bowl down. She stepped toward her.
"Sweetie, what did you just say to me?"
Without looking up from her coloring, Sophie replied, "Take it easy, Mama."
Annie laughed. "What does that mean?"
Sophie lifted her head and made eye contact with Annie. Her little blue eyes twinkling, she said, "You up….set. Take it easy. Like Swek."
Sophie then nodded as if this was the most obvious statement in the world and resumed her activities. Annie raised her brows and placed a hand near her mouth in befuddlement as she continued to watch her daughter. She was still holding this position when Jeff swooped around the corner, fresh from his shower and smelling like pine. Although the sight of his naked chest may have briefly distracted her - images came to mind from last night after she had yanked him off the couch and into the bedroom - she shook herself back to the present moment.
As Jeff leaned over to smack a kiss on Sophie's head, his eyes went to Annie's, and he paused.
"Are you okay?"
She nodded, still staring at Sophie in thought. Jeff frowned but then went ahead with his kiss.
"Our daughter told me to take it easy."
He looked up with a quizzical stare.
Annie nodded, a baffled smirk on her face. "She did. She said I was upset and should be like Swek. What on earth is she talking about?"
Perking up her ears, Sophie fixed her gaze on Jeff. With a frustrated grunt and emphatic gesticulation, she explained, "Like Swek. We watch Swek, Daddy. Und Swek take it easy. Und he geen und he hab don-key." After a brief pause she added, "Und I dwaw dis for baby." She then nodded to herself and looked down once more to resume her scribbles.
Annie cast Jeff a judgmental look and watched as he shirked slightly, carefully maneuvering himself around her so that he could grab a box of Cheerios from the cabinet above her head.
She steeled herself, resisting being distracted by his torso grazing against her. "We're having pancakes. No cereal today."
"Oh, um." He paused for a moment before turning away from her and opening the fridge.
"Jeff."
"Hm?"
"Did you let her watch Shrek?"
He stood and closed the door, pivoting back so that he was leaning against the fridge. At her intense gaze, he let out a sigh.
"Yes, I did." He looked up to study the ceiling.
Annie placed her hand on her hip and paused, slightly irritated that he seemed to be falling into avoidance mode. She usually observed this when he was around his mother, and the fact that he was doing it with her was unnerving.
"So you just let her watch movies all day?"
He resumed looking at her but she could have sworn she detected an implied eye roll in his tone.
"No, of course not. But she really wanted to watch it, and I thought it would be okay for her to see something like that every once in awhile. I don't just plop her down all day in front of the tv. You know that. But sometimes it's just easier to keep her happy for a little while so I can quickly get something done."
She squinted at him briefly but then softened her gaze. She glanced over at Sophie who was singing to herself while continuing to color and then turned back to Jeff. She bit her lip.
"I'm sorry. That was unfair of me."
"Yeah, well. It's okay."
Against perhaps her better judgment, she couldn't resist asking, "Is that an appropriate movie for her, though?"
He groaned as pulled out the coffee maker.
She took a step toward him and persisted, "I just want to know."
While scooping the grounds into the filter, he replied testily, "I did my research. I even asked Britta, and she said she thought it was fine. Or fyne, actually."
Annie tilted her head and stepped closer. "You asked Britta?"
Intent on his work with the coffee, he replied, "Yeah. She may be full of nonsense most of the time, but if you dig deep enough, there's usually a kernel of truth and dare I say wisdom in there somewhere. And she'd been ranting about kids' movies so I got her on the topic of the green ogre."
"Swek is geen. He an o-gar."
Jeff glanced over at Sophie and smirked. "That's right, munchkin. And he was funny, right?"
"Yah. He sooo funny. Mama, he so funny. I lub him so much."
Jeff chuckled and exchanged a knowing look with Annie.
"That's nice, sweetie."
"Baby watch Swek wid me?"
"No, sweetie. Baby Elizabeth is too little to watch tv."
"Oh."
At Sophie's mild dejection, Annie silently mouthed an apology to Jeff, who responded with a quick kiss before pressing start on the coffee maker and dashing back toward the bedroom.
X
As he faced his wardrobe options in the closet, he counted himself lucky Annie hadn't been too inquisitive about why he had been talking to Britta. Of course, it was all completely innocent; he hadn't yet gotten up the nerve to broach the subject of the proposal anyway, so there was nothing to cover up. He had attempted to follow Ian's advice and get Britta's thoughts, but after managing to bring up the fact that Annie liked purple he had been thrown off by Britta's unsolicited exclamations about the assumed gender of colors and had chickened out. He had safely maneuvered the conversation into asking for advice about movie choices for Sophie, and that was that.
He knew he'd try again though. It was simple; ask Britta what Annie would want. Despite her protests about weddings and proposals and such, he knew Britta Perry possessed an uncanny ability to put together the perfect setting. He'd have to swear her to secrecy of course and perhaps bribe her in some way, but he was hoping that part of her would be eager to help him give Annie the perfect day.
He heard his phone beep once again and glanced at the text from his mother. Raising his brows in surprise, he began to text back, knowing that if his mother was stooping to admitting she in fact knew how to text, it must be important.
About a minute later, he picked up the phone and cradled it near his shoulder as he perused his button-down tops. He wanted to pick a good shade of blue to compliment Sophie's overalls so that they had a nice haircut picture.
"Oh, I'm so glad we finally have a chance to talk, dear. I was worried when you didn't return my call yesterday."
"Mom, I'm sorry. Things were a little crazy. I didn't even remember you had called until I was almost passed out on the couch, and then I figured it was too late."
"Everything okay, dear?"
He continued to scan his shirts, selecting one and frowning before putting it back.
"Yeah. It was just one of those days. But what about you? It didn't sound like an emergency, and we'll see you tomorrow at the party, right? You are still coming or is that what you wanted to talk about?"
There was a pause on the other end.
"Mom?"
"Of course I'm coming, dear. I wouldn't miss it for the world. I'm very happy you've included me this year when you celebrate with your friends."
"Then what's the problem?"
He detected another slight pause, frowning as he waited.
"Annie may have mentioned I volunteered to work on party favors. She sent me the guest list a couple weeks ago, but I merely skimmed it for the count and didn't really look at it until yesterday. I wanted to double check the number of children and ages, and although I remembered from my conversation with Annie, I don't always trust my memory, so I…"
-"Mom, I have to get the munchkin to a haircut. Can we please speed this up?"
He lifted a shirt and smiled to himself in satisfaction.
There was a mild huff on the other end. "Sorry, dear. The list. Am I to understand there will be a number of adults in attendance? Annie's mother, some of the Greendale faculty…"
-"Yes. And I'm sorry if it's awkward with Rachel, but Annie really wants her there and I was counting on Nancy to run interference between the two of you, but she unexpectedly had her baby yesterday, so unfortunately she can't be a buffer."
He began to unbutton the shirt to free it from the hanger as he added, "My advice would be to disengage yourself from her as much as possible and push her off on Pierce. He's the one hosting, and I'll be sure to point him out. If that fails, enlist Ian. He can probably use her for a case study on some sort of personality disorder."
"What's this about Nancy having her baby? Is everyone okay?"
He replaced the hanger and began an attempt to pull on the shirt while still cradling the phone. He explained, "Yeah. She had a little girl. Everyone's good, baby's small but fine. Sophie had lots to say after meeting her. She's very excited."
"Oh, that's good news. Although I'm disappointed I won't get to meet Nancy and her husband, please give them my congratulations."
"Will do."
There was an ever-so-slight shift in tone as she said, "But about the list. Really, this is most awkward and I probably should have mentioned this before, but I just want you to be aware that I've met one of your Greendale guests. Ian introduced us a little while ago, and I didn't think to mention it, as I didn't think you two even knew each other. And while he may be a bit strange…"
-"Christ. You met the Dean? Why on earth would Ian subject you to that? And why in hell is this the first time I'm hearing about this?"
"Not the Dean, dear. Buzz."
X
Annie didn't know what had come over Jeff. He had emerged from the bedroom, dressed in a dark blue button down and the jeans he had been wearing earlier, but his hair was slightly askew and he looked preoccupied. She watched him with curiosity as he sat down to the breakfast table and proceeded to tuck in Sophie's bib.
"I'm sorry if I was being crazy, Jeff. It's fine if you had her watch a movie."
He shrugged, but the perplexed expression on his face remained as he began to cut up Sophie's pancake into bite-sized pieces.
She took a deep breath and pressed on, "I didn't mean to undermine your ability to make decisions with her. We're a team, and I trust your judgment. I think I was just worried about talking to my dad this afternoon. Again, I'm sorry."
He looked up and smiled slightly at her, his eyes softening. "I get it. I'm not upset about that."
"Then what's wrong?"
He let out a long sigh and stared up at the ceiling. She waited for him to respond, making sure Sophie had her sippy cup by her side so that he had plenty of time to think. She wasn't sure what he was going to say, but it disturbed her that he seemed very serious all of a sudden.
Finally, he met her gaze.
"I just talked to my mom. Apparently, and I have no idea what this means, but she knows Buzz Hickey. She wanted us to know before they met at the party tomorrow."
Annie eyes widened in disbelief.
He nodded, pursing his lips slightly as he scooped a pancake onto his plate.
"You aren't serious."
"Oh, I am. She told me Ian introduced them a little while ago, and she considers him a friend."
"A friend?" Annie arched a brow, a rising urgency to know more bubbling inside her.
He grimaced. "She insists Ian made the introduction under the guise that Professor Hickey is handy and my mom needed some painting and repairs done around her house. So she hired him to do some work."
They stared at each other in knowing silence for several moments, during which Jeff's work on Sophie's pancakes was forgotten. Sophie frowned in annoyance and waited for him to turn back on.
Finally, Annie managed with a slight tremble, "She would have told us if she had a boyfriend."
He winced and shook his head. "Maybe, but she doesn't like to talk to me about stuff like that. And frankly, I don't really want to know."
Annie tilted her head in thought.
Sophie looked back and forth between them and frowned once again. She then reached out and touched Jeff's hand, and he roused and to her relief resumed cutting up the pancakes.
Jeff added, "She says she already talked to Professor Hickey, and he was thinking about not coming to the party. She said he told you 'maybe'. You told me he was a 'yes'."
Annie sighed, still attempting to take all of the information in. "You know how he is. I figured a 'maybe' was as close as I was going to get to a 'yes'." She paused for a moment and then added, "But you know, this now explains why he was so strange about it. He seemed uncomfortable."
Jeff finished cutting up the pancakes and placed the knife down near his plate. He handed a purple plastic fork to a gleeful Sophie.
"Well, he is your professor."
"Not anymore. I took his class last semester. I just like to talk to him about career guidance. And he's wonderful with Sophie."
Jeff picked up his cup of coffee and took a long sip, appearing to think something through. Finally, he said, "He didn't tell you about my mom. Why is that?"
Annie shrugged. As she was about to scoop a pancake onto her plate, she stilled and said abruptly, "I invited him a couple weeks ago, so it's really odd that your mom had to find out from my list, isn't it? He must not have told her."
She looked over at Jeff and waited for his reaction.
He frowned and took another sip of coffee. "Hmmm… maybe he mentions it to her only after she pounces on him about it. But yes, something doesn't add up."
Realizing their endless pondering was fruitless, she said, "We can't really speculate. "We just need to talk to both of them about it."
"Christ."
Widening her eyes, she explained, "If they didn't tell us, there must be a good reason. They're both good people."
Jeff studied his pancakes for a few moments. "The only reason I can think of why neither one of them said anything to us is because something was going on between them and they broke up. And this would explain his reaction to seeing me that day at the yam trial. He told me later I now felt real to him. God, I'm so stupid."
"No! I can't believe that they were dating!"
"Why can't you believe it?"
"Because they're like my surrogate parents."
He cocked his head, watching as her shocked face turned a bright shade of dark pink.
"Oh my god. They're my surrogate parents."
"It's good you finally admitted that."
Before Annie could collect herself enough to respond, Sophie swallowed a big piece of pancake and declared, "Buzz buzz! Hee-keey! Like bub-bub-bee. But nooo bub-bub-bee is bee bee! Und gamma! I miss gamma! I wanna go see her!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Conversations had stalled as they hauled Sophie off to her haircut, both simmering in their respective thoughts about the parents situation. Jeff reflected on the fact that he and his mother had an implicit understanding through the years that they did not inquire into each other's respective love lives. On one occasion he had broached the subject, but she had steadfastly assured him that she had no interest in getting remarried or having a steady boyfriend. She had maintained she was happy on her own. But he always knew. She dated. He never met any of them, but still.
Buzz Hickey?
He couldn't picture it at all. The gruffness, the strangeness, the not-so-subtle allusions to him being capable of inflicting great damage.
He tensed and was almost startled to feel Annie's hand on his thigh. He turned to see her smiling nervously at him as they awaited Lauren, Sophie nearby twirling herself in circles while singing something about a donkey.
As Annie studied his face, she said softly, "Everything will be okay. We'll get to the bottom of this."
His leg subtly shifted, and she was also aware that his facial muscles tightened. They tended to do that when he began agonizing over something. She braced herself for a potential few hours of him drifting in and out.
"Is he dangerous?"
Annie raised her brows. "Who? Professor Hickey?"
"Yes. I've heard rumors he makes reference to methods of torture. And something about being in the war."
Jeff stared off at Sophie, but Annie was pretty sure he wasn't really looking at her. His mind was elsewhere.
She sighed. "He's not serious when he says those things."
Continuing his far off gaze, Jeff said in a lower voice, "He used to be a police detective. He probably knows how to injure people."
She turned even more toward him and grabbed his hand. With pleading eyes, she said, "He would never hurt anyone."
He resumed eye contact with her, his expression serious as he lowered his voice to an almost whisper, "How do you know?"
She whispered back, "Well, I am sure if he ever did, he had a very good reason. But what I mean is I don't believe for a moment he would hurt me, Sophie, or your mother."
"I can't have her around someone who will hurt her."
"He's not your father."
"That's right. He's not. And I have some things I'm going to say to my mom about that."
"Jeff."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The next day they arrived early to the Hawthorne Estate and settled in to arranging things for the party while Sophie hung out with Anthony in the backyard. Annie had insisted that Anthony come separately from their mother so that Sophie could have some alone time with him. Rachel had bristled a little at this but then agreed to the arraignment.
As Annie peaked out the back kitchen window to watch Sophie and her brother outline pictures with colored chalk on the backyard concrete path, she mused how perfect the day was. It was Sophie's third birthday, and she and Jeff and woken Sophie up that morning with birthday greetings and special Mickey Mouse pancakes with lots of syrup. Almost all of her loved ones would be together today to help celebrate. Jeff was setting up streamers, Pierce and surprisingly Gilbert were hauling cases of soda and beer from the back freezer, and Britta had arrived early with the cake, fresh from a bakery Shirley had recommended.
She turned from washing her hands at the sink and smiled at Britta, who was in the middle of tweaking one of Annie's origami lions. She giggled as she observed Britta frown and then transform the paper creature into something more resembling an animal.
Britta looked up. "What?"
"You're really good at stuff like this."
"Stuff?"
"Party planning."
Britta scowled as she grabbed another wilted origami creature. "Yeah, well, as we've discussed, it's an unfortunate curse."
"Thank you." Annie continued to smile over at Britta, waiting for her to look up.
When she did, Britta softened her expression with a shrug.
"I just want her to have a great birthday."
"Awww…"
Jeff rounded the corner, a roll of streamers wound over his right arm. At the sight of Britta, he appeared slightly flustered and then seemed to recover as he said in a nonchalant tone, "Hey there, I can take that cake and put it in on the side table over there." He cocked his head toward the back room.
Britta shrugged. "I want it on the record that before Jeff Winger touched it, it was in perfect condition."
"Oh, duly noted. But, err, would you mind helping me? I really don't want to drop it."
Annie stepped over and said, "I can help you. Britta did so much in bringing it over here."
He shook his head and shooed her away. "No, um, Britta can help me. Let's not undermine her self-confidence."
Annie furrowed her brow but watched as they proceeded to each grab an end of the cake and carry it out of the room.
As they placed the cake in its designated spot, he said in a hushed voice, "Hey, could we grab coffee sometime this week? I wanted to run something by you to get ideas about something."
Her curiosity aroused, Britta squinted at him. "Run what by me?"
He cast a glance back at the kitchen and then said, "I'll explain later. But this has to be a secret; just you and me, and please don't mention anything to Annie."
She opened her mouth to speak but then stopped as they heard squeals and Anthony chased Sophie into the room, Ruffles on his heals. Britta bent down and scooped Ruffles up as Sophie buried her face into Jeff's legs. Anthony came to a halt at the sight of Jeff and instantly stopped laughing.
Britta nuzzled the dog. "You brought Ruffles here?"
Jeff patted Sophie on the head. "Yeah, well, Pierce said she could hang out in the fenced in area back there."
Anthony stood awkwardly to the side. Appearing to briefly look at Jeff, he then stepped closer to Britta and regarded the dog as he said, "Sorry, she kept barking so I let her out."
"I lub you, Daddy. I lub you so much. I lub you more dan Swek. Bud I lub Swek a lot."
Jeff hunched down and hoisted Sophie up to his side. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I love you too, munchkin. Happy Birthday."
"Yay!"
"How old are you?"
"I Fee."
He smirked at her and then cast Britta and Anthony a knowing look.
"How old are you? Remember, we practiced this."
Sophie appeared to think for a moment on this, and then her eyes widening in realization, she responded, "I twee."
"Good job." Jeff smiled smugly and gave her another kiss on the cheek, which elicited giggles.
At that moment, Annie padded into the room, aww-ing at the sight of Sophie in Jeff's arms. She walked over to them, and Jeff instantly placed his free arm around her shoulder, pulling her in. Annie made an exaggerated excited face to Sophie, who responded in kind.
Britta watched the interplay and then looked back at Ruffles in her arms. With a resigned sigh, she walked over and handed her to Annie. She then stepped back and nodded, an unreadable expression on her face.
"You guys are sickeningly cute with your dog and kid."
"Awww, thanks, Britta."
Jeff pulled Annie and Ruffles in a little closer, feeling the warmth arise in his chest. It was moments like these, when everything seemed just right, that he felt the unfamiliar sense of being at peace. Britta was right. They were sickeningly cute.
He remarked, "We do our best. It takes practice, doesn't it, munchkin?"
"I twee."
He chuckled and gave her another kiss, his gaze then falling on Anthony, who remained next to Britta. The kid's eyes were on Annie, and he looked like he was going to either punch someone or cry. Suddenly, Anthony's eyes met his, and the expression changed.
Yup, definitely punch someone.
It was then they heard the sound of Elijah and Jordan stomping from the front hallway, shouting something about who was going to get the most cake.
Annie smiled broadly as she exclaimed, "The party's about to get started!"
