Jeff tried to think it would all work out. Comparing himself to Caesar in the first week should have set a good tone. Combined with Annie's usual dark magic that made him believe in lame, impossible things - for a second at the most - it gave him a safe little bubble. For about a week.

Then it got harder to find himself among ancient Greek philosophers, Queen Elizabeth times, and half the other stupid history times. Even if he could have focused to do it, and the other stuff Annie told him, he was just too exhausted for it to stick.

Jeff knew that was ridiculous, even for him. He had only one class every day, so he should have been more rested than usual. But this was a real class, which wasn't helpful enough. It also didn't help that the group's adventures wrecked the rest of his free time, even more than ever.

Now Troy and Britta were starting adventures as a real couple for more than a few weeks, which caused too much chaos to keep track of. Now Abed was actually finding a new 'friend' in that Rachel girl, which didn't seem so bad - but that first impression she made by being shocked that he and Annie weren't a couple was too much.

On top of that, Pierce decided at the very last second to return this semester. First it was too heartbreaking for Jeff to focus, then he felt guilty about it after their bonding last semester - and that was 10 times more earth shattering.

Then they got around to finding out the truth about "Kevin" and that was...too traumatizing and stupid to dreg up.

In any case, they were so overstuffed with madness in such a limited time, it was too much for Jeff to clean up and be a real student. The others knew how to keep that balance by now, and Annie sure knew how - although she was looking overworked lately, even for her. Yet Jeff wasn't at the level of a slightly off her game Annie, and never would be.

But the papers, studying and more overblown than usual antics Just. Kept. Coming. And there was still no guarantee Jeff would pass at the end. Then he'd be doomed to another year of this rapidly declining saga, although he would have been quite happy to end it after four years.

Five years was just overkill – and he could just hear Abed's taunting voice when he thought about six years. This was supposed to end much earlier, when Jeff was on top. Yet here he was, dragging it out even more and erasing any greatness he still had left. Why couldn't he have just quit while he still had a legacy and a real future to protect?

Of course Jeff knew why. And of course it made him mad that he couldn't be mad about it - not without being a monster. That hardly helped him get through each week any better, but there it was.

Annie told him he didn't have to hold back with her, just to make her feel better. As such, Jeff just praised her a little less and made some mild pokes at her studying. But what the old Jeff wanted to do was something far harsher.

The more he had to go through this rotten semester he never should have started – and the more the chances for another semester got better – the more Jeff wanted to take it out on someone. Yet there was only one real target other than himself. No matter if she was a legitimate target or not.

For all of that, Jeff didn't want her to be. Not when she actually taught him something that stuck. Not when she made him laugh during a study break. Not when she looked more worn out with every Friday night. Not when she still took a more active role in their adventures, or helped stop the great Troy/Britta vs Abed/Rachel curtain war of spring break 2013, or started to get mere A-'s.

And the memories of how this all started – and how Annie ended it on the Cornwallis front – played no small part in holding Jeff back too. They reminded him why this was worth it, and why this would never be tolerable with anyone other than her.

Nevertheless, even they could only do so much.

There were now three weeks left until the final that would settle Jeff's fate. He was on the borderline of passing again, albeit on the right side of it this time for now. As encouraging as Annie made that sound, it still meant Jeff would have to cram more than usual to finish the job.

Yet Jeff had already suffered through 12 weeks of cramming, time consuming adventures, and other Greendale nonsense he never should have been part of. Now his only reward was three much more worse weeks, with no guarantee that they'd be the last three weeks. How was he supposed to suffer through that in silence, just for Annie?

He'd already done more than enough just for Annie – if anyone asked Jeff except his exhausted brain.

But that brain still had enough power to point out that it had nothing on Annie's.

As terrible as this was for Jeff, Annie's experience had to be 10 times worse. He didn't hear the other classmates blame her and not Cornwallis for this mess – which was why they were still alive – but he could sense it. He saw her put a brave face over her less than perfect grades, although he knew they were killing her. He saw her nearly nod off in a class for the first time in history.

And yet here she was, trying to actually teach him. As unteachable as Jeff was, Annie kept coming back every Friday, putting aside her own problems, and powering through just for him.

As much cause as she might have to give up, she never did. Why start now after three-and-a-half years?

Against all logic, Annie just never gave up on him. Surely that made her too naive to live, which is exactly what Jeff would have thought two years ago. But by now, this couldn't be her seeing things that weren't there. She knew exactly what he was and how...deficient he was in some areas. Yet regardless, she kept trying.

She kept accepting his problems, working around them and making this nonsense...semi-fun every few weeks. And despite the setbacks, she kept believing in him.

She kept building him up without overpraising him and his ego, and she kept coming back. Who did any of that for Jeff in his whole life? Who else did he know with the capacity for that?

It was almost enough to make him think...well, if it was possible, he might...

Well, if he could do...that, who else could he do it for?

Who else if not for someone that got herself get foot rubbed for Jeff's grade...then came forward and ruined it anyway? And put him here because of it?

All that devotion, faith and love - like – and that was what it got her and him? Well...that made sense, now that Jeff thought more clearly.

Of course it did. That's what doing that crap always did. She should have figured that out long ago - and he should have made her. At least a lot more than he did.

And look where he was now because of it, when he should have been clearing guilty people and banging women around the block right this second. When he should have been happy doing only that. When he should have still been happy thinking about that stuff at all!

"Come on, Jeff, you know this!" Annie interrupted his thinking. "You know where Robert E. Lee went wrong, because that's where Pierce would have gone wrong. This should be easy for you."

It should be, but it wasn't. And that alone showed why it never would be. There were only so many times Jeff could stand to remember that, and that was just about the last one.

To make that statement, he closed his textbooks and put them away, choosing to just sit on the couch in silence. "Jeff, study break's not for another 10 minutes," Annie tried to rub in.

"What's 10 more minutes going to do?" Jeff said with some of his old snark.

"It might help you remember the Civil War better. If it's part of the final, you might really need it," Annie said.

"I'll watch the movies like Abed does. It works for him," Jeff offered.

"Yes, but as we all know, none of us are Abed," Annie exclaimed. "The only thing that'll work for us is actual studying."

"Works for you. And as we all know, I'm not you. I think it's time you got that through your head," Jeff got bitter sooner than he wanted. But there was no coming back from that now.

"Jeff, you're telling me things I already know. I'm trying to teach you things you don't know, and need to know. Which sounds more productive to you?" Annie tried to keep calm.

"None of the above. Which is what I should be doing. And I'd be doing it if it wasn't for..." Jeff still had the sense to avoid finishing. As if that hid it any better from Annie.

"For what?" she pressed anyway. "Go on, Jeff, finish it. What are you blaming for this?"

"Who! It's who - I mean, you!" Jeff couldn't stop from saying. "I'm wasting away every Friday night, and still wasting away in Greendale, because of you!"

Annie gave her trademark gasp, but there was more of an edge to it this time. It sounded more angry and betrayed before it got sad. But before the sadness could throw Jeff off like usual, Annie clenched her jaw and said, "You really want us to blame people instead of studying? Are you sure you want to do that with me?"

"If it's not studying, I'm good. Some of us in the real world like doing other things. Some of us accept that people don't want to do other things," Jeff explained. "And some of us leave well enough alone instead of getting foot rubbed for someone else's grades. What kind of sick person does that? That's what you'd be hearing from all of Greendale if it wasn't for me, so that's really all I owe you!"

If that made Annie look ready to cry, as it might have at any other time, Jeff would have taken it all back by now. Instead, she was boiling over enough herself to up the ante.

"Actually, there's one more thing you owe me. An explanation for why the hell you were failing to begin with! What kind of person goes to all that effort to leave early, then shows none of it when it really counts? Only Jeff Winger, that's who! You're the second biggest reason this all happened, and look where we both are now!" Annie let out.

"We both are? Oh, you're as bad off as me because you don't have A's? Newsflash, neither does most of the world! Come join us once in a while, it won't kill you! The water's fine, as long as your pathological former comrades don't screw us over!" Jeff exploded.

"Where do you think you'd be without us? I mean, me?" Annie responded. "If I never knew you were failing, you'd have failed anyway. Then you'd be exactly where you are now, only without me trying to bail you out again! Then you'd really be screwed!"

"I wasn't screwed until you came along. I was happy. I liked who I was until you tried to fix me into hating it!" Jeff accused. "You manipulated me into trying, and it still didn't help me. Just like I always knew it didn't. I knew that all along, and you can't make me forget it forever."

"I wasn't...well, not anymore I'm not!" Annie sputtered, then recovered a little. "Jeff, what the hell are you doing? I know I'm trying to save you and do it right this time."

"I don't need saving. I never wanted saving! I'm Jeff Winger, why should I want that?" Jeff regressed. "I'm not the student or man you're trying to model me into, and I never will be! Why don't you ever accept that and let me live my life, the way I've loved living it? Why ruin the only way that's ever worked for me, and ever will work?"

"This isn't about...whatever the hell you're talking about. It's about your grade, and getting you out of Greendale. At least it's supposed to be," Annie reminded. "It's what you've wanted for four whole years. It's what I accepted a lot later than I should have! It's what I went through hell trying to save! Twice! Now I'm helping you, even when it's tearing me apart for so many reasons, and you yell at me?"

"I didn't want any of it, don't you get it?" Jeff kept insisting.

"Yes you did! God, it was your idea, remember? All this studying you hate so much was your idea, not mine!" Annie recalled.

"Like I had any choice after you did...that stuff! Like you ever leave me any choice. You'd rather fill my head with delusions and fantasies that'll never happen. Me being a good student, me ever escaping Greendale, me being anything other than who I am? We've proven none of it will ever happen, so get it out of your head! And let me get it out of mine while I still have some self-respect!" Jeff demanded.

As Annie struggled with her next counter argument, she realized a few things from Jeff's last rant. "Where did 'I'm not anything other than who I am' come from?" she asked.

"It's the truth. If you'd remember that yourself, maybe I'd stop forgetting it," Jeff accused.

"I make you forget it?" Annie followed up with, her voice and face getting softer again.

"Something does," Jeff admitted. "I don't like trying at things. But here I am trying and it's still not enough. I don't like questioning who I am and who I want to be, but I keep doing it and it sucks. Even when I do things I don't want to do because of it, it blows up in my face. Then I go back to who I really am after a week or two anyway, so it's even more pointless."

Annie had no reply to Jeff for the first time in minutes, so he just went on. "It's been like that for four years. So I should know by now. Every time I'm something I'm not, it screws me over. That should tell me to stop doing things that make me fail, make me lame or just make me...not me."

Annie was ready to speak again, yet Jeff wasn't ready to stop. "I don't want to stop being me. If I wasn't...me, I'd have been ruined and broken long before Greendale broke me. It's too late to fix that. I can't be what you need me to be, and trying makes it worse. I don't want it, I shouldn't want it, I suck at it, so let me stop. I don't want it."

"Jeff..." Annie said, her voice more gentle than in this whole conversation. Yet that only made it worse for Jeff.

"I said I don't want it!" he proclaimed, before grabbing his textbook and symbolically slamming it to the floor. Somehow, that snapped him out of it a bit, as he noted, "Wow, that was kind of stupid."

"I wouldn't use those words," Annie said, fighting through her worry to try and extend this lighter moment. She even thought she saw a flicker of a smile from Jeff, then it disappeared.

But it didn't transform into a frown again. It was like something more...shell shocked.

"I just yelled I didn't want it, like I was in an Abed or Rachel parody. That should have made me stop wanting it. But..." he trailed off before looking at Annie.

"What did I do now?" she asked to get ahead of the crisis.

"Nothing. You didn't Disney me, trick me or do something Jeff-crazy. I just looked at you, you tried to make a joke...and you didn't run away when I got nuts," Jeff recalled. "That's all it took to calm me down...it was just seeing you. I know how stupid it all is, but you..."

Annie dared to get closer to Jeff as he kneeled down, then looked at her right at eye level. "I put you ahead of graduating. I put up with studying for you, and you didn't even make me. You don't force me to try...not on purpose. Not all the time anymore."

"Is that...telling you something?" Annie tried to ask calmly.

"Just crazy things. If they are crazy," Jeff revealed. "Nutty stuff like...I want to do things for you, even when you don't force me. Or stuff like...all this nonsense might be good if it makes you proud of me and makes you feel better. That I want people to be proud of me, even if it doesn't boost my ego. Or just..."

He then laughed bitterly and fondly at the same time and finished, "Here's the really crazy theory. What if I can't get you out of my system? Why else would I do all this stuff that's...not supposed to be me?"

"Do you think you're obsessed, like I was? Like I..." Annie shakily said, not wanting to consider how she might have ended that.

"That's not you. Not deep down. But me..." Jeff couldn't finish either.

Instead of using words, Jeff kept going by standing straight up and reaching for Annie's face. When he touched her cheek, Annie took a deep breath, then frowned as if she was fighting off something. But Jeff looked like he was done fighting.

At least that's how it looked then.

In one second, he leaned his face closer to hers. In the next, he turned it and his body to the right, walking out of his own apartment without missing a beat or thinking a conscious thought.

But he wasn't the only one who couldn't think right now. He was just the only one who could move or leave his apartment.