A/N: So this fic was not going to have a second chapter and I can guarantee that it won't have anything beyond this, but after rewatching the show this past week, I really felt drawn to the idea of a follow-up chapter from Annie's POV. Hope y'all enjoy.

Since returning home for vacation, Annie had been unable to shut off her body's natural urge to rise early, and that morning was no different. She blinked awake to the utter darkness of an unfamiliar bedroom, and it was the smell that told her where she was, a good ten seconds before her memory caught up.

She found it oddly reassuring that, however else he had changed, Jeff still smelled exactly as she remembered.

She had no clue where her phone was, and she didn't want to rummage around for it for fear of disturbing Jeff, but she was willing to chance a guess that it was a bit after 6:30 based on the slight hint of light peeking in through the blinds.

Beside her, Jeff snored softly. Years ago, this would have been a source of great vindication for Annie—she'd always been convinced that he must snore, and he'd always denied it.

Now, though, it just made her feel… sad, mostly. She couldn't shake the feeling that something had ended.

It wasn't that Annie had always assumed that she would sleep with Jeff someday. Maybe she did while they were at Greendale, but she left for the Academy knowing full well that she'd closed that chapter of her life.

And it stayed closed, it really did, but there was always a part of her…

She'd return home for holidays and she'd imagine that they'd run into each other, and in those daydreams, they always fell into bed. It wasn't an active expectation or even much of a passive longing, but she held onto the image in a way that she didn't hold onto much.

But Annie's imagination had not covered the part that came next. So much so that she didn't really know what should come next, even though she certainly should have figured it out before going over to his apartment.

She didn't notice that Jeff's snoring had dissipated until, in a low, gruff voice, he mumbled, "I forgot how loud your thoughts are."

Annie continued to stare at the ceiling because Jeff was lying on his back, too, and she didn't know how vulnerable he was going to be. No matter how good she'd gotten at reading him, she'd never known quite how vulnerable he was going to be. "Sorry. You should go back to sleep."

"I'm not tired." Jeff hesitated. "I could make you breakfast."

"I'm not hungry."

This was true, because Annie usually didn't eat a full breakfast until after working out in the morning. But there was a part of her, too, that didn't want Jeff to get up and make her breakfast because she knew it would catapult time forward and in seconds, she would be leaving, she would be back in Quantico, she would be past this, and she didn't want to be.

Not yet.

"How do we always end up this way?" she breathed.

"What way?" he asked, and Annie couldn't blame him for sounding genuinely bewildered.

She squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled deeply. "Trying to freeze time. That's… that's what it always was between us."

From the corner of her eye, she saw Jeff turn his head to look at her, and the rest of his body followed. But she was too scared to look at his expression as he said, "I'm not trying to freeze time."

"What?"

Hadn't it always been about that? About Jeff's longing to stay young. About Annie's longing to feel safe enough somewhere that she could allow herself to stand still.

"I'm trying to feel every second that's ticking by."

Annie swallowed. "Oh." She considered this for a few moments before asking, "Why?"

"Because this is a once in a lifetime thing – don't try to tell me I'm wrong," he chided as Annie opened her mouth to interrupt. "I feel like if I'm willing it to stand still, I'll miss it for what it actually is, I guess."

"Which is what?" Annie whispered.

"Something very complicated."

They both allowed those words to hang in the air for some time until Annie exhaled slowly and rolled onto her side to face Jeff, allowing herself to meet his eye.

"I'm turning 30 on Saturday," she told him.

"How does that feel?"

Annie sighed. "Completely unremarkable. But it… it's gotten me thinking."

Jeff raised his eyebrows. "Dangerous as it sounds?"

She scoffed and punched his chest lightly with her fist. Allowed her skin to linger against his for one heavy moment. "No. I just…" She swallowed. "Right before I left Greendale, Frankie told me that by the time I hit 30, I'd be glad nothing ever happened between you and me."

"Oh." Jeff's eyes widened.

"Yeah, it was pretty harsh," Annie said, offering him a gentle smile. "She was kind of right, though, in a way."

Annie paused, but either Jeff thought she was going to go on, or he didn't know what to say, because he just blinked at her wordlessly.

"I didn't date at Greendale after Vaughan left. I mean, I wanted to date Rich, but let's be real, my crush on him had a lot to do with the fact that he was a more well-adjusted version of you."

"Nice to hear you say it," Jeff said, smirking.

"Whatever," she scoffed and rolled her eyes, but she continued to smile warmly. "My point is that it didn't matter how many times we said nothing would happen between us, because I left the option open anyway. Part of me didn't ever want to see that door fully close."

Jeff's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "Okay. But what does that have to do with what Frankie said?"

"I mean, let's be honest, you would have been an awful first adult boyfriend. Especially the way you… the way you used to be."

That, right there, was the real clincher. Annie imagined this Jeff strolling into their Spanish class all those years ago – this Jeff who had no dishonorable intentions when she walked through his door, this Jeff who approached sex with the express intention of making her happy – and she knew that a relationship between them would have been a fling, but God, would it have been a good one.

"But I'm a good late 20s last hurrah," he murmured. He didn't sound hurt, exactly, but there was an emptiness in his tone that gutted Annie to her core.

"No, that's not exactly how I'd put it."

Jeff hummed. "Alright, how would you put it?"

"You're just…" Her heart beat rapidly in her chest as she traced over everything that had ever happened between them, all in the span of a second. "Something very complicated."

"Touché," he whispered.

Silence fell between them again, but they continued to look at each other. Thin lines of light were beginning to spread across the bed and across Jeff's face, but he did not shut his eyes or move an inch.

Annie nearly didn't say the words that came out of her mouth next, but she blurted out the offer before she could convince herself against it. "Speaking of Saturday… We're going out for drinks. You should come."

"We?"

"Yeah, y'know… Britta, Shirley, Abed, Troy… to celebrate my birthday and Troy's homecoming. I wasn't sure whether to invite you after I found out…"

After she found out that Jeff didn't keep in touch with anyone else from their study group, not really. Not beyond obligatory happy birthday texts. Annie had told herself, when they ran into each other, that she would ask why, but now, it felt unreasonable.

"But you should come," she said lamely. "I think they'd all love to see you."

"Annie—"

He stopped abruptly when she reached up and rested her hand on his jaw, lingering there.

"Jeff," Annie retorted, her tone low and kind and, she supposed, as reassuring as she intended, because his features softened. "What makes that so different from this? Couldn't seeing them also just be about… how did you put it? Feeling every second that ticks by."

In that moment, Jeff looked more like the man she used to know than he had since she'd run into him at the grocery store. He looked torn and nearly ready to close himself off to her and Annie half-expected his next words to be, "No, now please leave."

But instead, he said, "It's easier for all of you. You have somewhere else to go, but for me…" Jeff squeezed his eyes shut and sighed. "Annie, this, right here, is the first time in years that I haven't felt like I'm standing still. And you're going to leave and it will be hard, but I will deal with it. Just don't… don't ask me to look at how fast they're moving, too."

Annie brushed her thumb along his cheek and imagined the old Jeff making some excuse about why he couldn't show. She would have fought with that Jeff.

Not this Jeff, whose eyes were still closed so that he didn't have to look at her.

She leaned over and kissed him, soft and slow and neither of them deepened the kiss, but she lingered so that he could feel every second of it. And then she climbed out of bed.

"Let me know if you change your mind," she told him as she picked up her clothes and dressed.

Frankly, Annie did not expect a response, but Jeff gave her one anyway. "Tell them that Greendale misses them."

Annie nearly crawled back into bed with him at these words. She imagined herself staying with him all day, staying past her vacation time, staying forever.

Maybe she hadn't changed as much as she thought she had.