Pairing: Jeff/Annie
Spoilers: Through the finale of Season 4, Jeff's graduation, and dinner with the group
Word Count: 4010
Rating: PG-13 (language)
Disclaimer: If I owned Community, you'd all probably absolutely hate it.
Author's Notes: I take liberties with character's motivations and thoughts...but that's kind of the name of the game if you're going to write fan fiction. I try as hard as I can to stay within the limits of the developed character though.

Dark halls.

That was all that ran through Annie Edison's mind as she and Jeff left the well-moonlit outdoors and went back into to the building that contained not only the library, but several classrooms, thus necessitating the halls they now walked through. Didn't most normal schools have a dedicated, separate library? Greendale's architecture was fairly screwy, and often confusing to those unused to it.

Didn't matter…Annie was fine with the dark halls. They matched her dark mood.

Truth be told, the fact that she was finally starting to feel some level of fatigue. It had been a long day, it was way past her typical bedtime, and the emotional ups and downs of everything that had happened during the graduation events, plus the added stress of whatever game Jeff was playing with her was beginning to wear on the always perky Annie. Still, she was curious enough to see where this ended up. She just hoped the end came soon.

She and Jeff walked side by side, but kept a respectable distance from each other. She still felt a fair amount of pain from her earlier humiliation. If it had been a first time for this sort of feeling when it came to interactions between them, and how she interpreted them vs. how he had to be, it might be a bit easier to get over and forgive. That wasn't the case. Over the past four years, Jeff had repeatedly thrown flirtatious vibes her way, and then as soon as he realized what he may be getting himself into, he'd back out, say it was a mistake, or it was misinterpreted, or anything he could to get the focus off of him.

That right there was the REAL Winger guarantee. He'd do what it took to make sure he came out of any sort of sticky situation scot-free. Annie had it from his mouth that the mixed signals were going to stop now. She realized that with every room they visited, with every event they recalled, Jeff was removing one of the obstacles that had been put between them…usually by him.

Annie wasn't going to lie though, getting rid of the mixed signals thing was probably one of the ones she was most excited about. She was tired of being constantly confused by his behavior.

Suddenly, in the middle of the hallway, Jeff stopped. Annie followed suit and gave Jeff an inquisitive look. "Jeff, I'm right here with you…you can keep moving."

He shrugged apathetically. "No where to go. We're here."

"The hall?! God, I can't wait to hear this one…"

Jeff couldn't contain himself. He shot her the smirk. Annie rolled her eyes, but Jeff was almost certain he caught a hint of a smile tugging at her lips…and if he wasn't mistaken, a bit of blush intruding in her cheeks. He still had it.

"Annie, do you remember the time I got kicked out of the group?"

"And then you went crazy and tried to axe murder a table? Little hard to forget, Jeff!"

Jeff had to acknowledge the craziness of that day, half nodding his head, half shaking it, resulting in an odd sort of bobble, as he cast his eyes up towards the ceiling, refusing to meet Annie's gaze after being confronted with one of his darker moments.

"Well, that day, I went to Professor Kane's office, and found a photo of Pierce and…" Jeff trailed off. This wasn't a memory that made him look good in the slightest. "You know what…that doesn't matter. What matters is, I ran into Chang, who proceeded to throw a ham at me, and dive into that vent over there."

With that, Jeff pointed at a vent on the lower part of the wall.

"I should have put the pieces together earlier…but that's when it clicked, how all the vents are interconnected. I know, duh-doy, right? Of course they're connected."

Annie was starting to get lost. Where did vents come into all this? "Jeff, what's the point? Why do we care about vents in the hallway?"

Jeff smiled down at her. His smile had a way of making her insides feel like they didn't belong there. It was disconcerting in an incredibly delightful way. She tried to shake it off, since she was determined not to let his charm sink through to her core, and allow him back in her good graces. She was mad, and with good reason!

"Open the vent, Annie."

Annie walked forward, and did as she was told, pulling the vent open cautiously, praying Annie's Bo…Troy's monkey didn't leap out at her. When nothing popped out, her eyes darted around the now exposed entry to the ventilation shaft, and then she saw it.

Sitting right in the middle of the bottom edge was a single purple pen. The exact type she favored.

Annie grabbed the pen, and held it up wordlessly, giving Jeff a questioning stare. Would she ever get past this lost feeling tonight? Feeling like a tourist on an outing that was supposedly 'for her,' was getting old…er.

"You don't get it?" Jeff raised his eyebrows at her.

"Jeff, first of all, we were in the study room when we lost the pen. Second, we already got the pen back."

Jeff nodded at her. "I'm guilty on both points there, Annie. Forgive me for reaching for this one a little, but we can't go back to the study room yet. Believe it or not, but tonight's events are at least loosely scripted. I'm trying to do something special for you here, and in this case, it requires kind of…forcing things to fit. You can be un-Annie, roll with it, and maybe have some fun, or you can be your normal uptight self, and complain that everything doesn't fit your rigid pattern."

Annie made her trademark noise of offense, letting Jeff know his prodding had hit home. Perfect…now she'd play along. Jeff was getting tired of holding the reins, and was looking forward to passing them over, or even sharing them, with Annie, but he had just a little further to go. This was the home stretch.

"So, Annie, do you remember the day we found the pen? Along with all the other crap that hairy menace stole from us?"

Annie wasn't one to be kept off balance for long, especially not after so many years of learning from Jeff how to be quicker on her feet.

"You mean the day we learned how you and Britta had been humping like rabbits for God only knows how long?" Annie went right on the attack. Jeff, on the other hand, was silently relieved. He had two issues to hit here, and this was certainly the one he wanted to resolve first.

"Yep. That'd be the day, sweetheart." Jeff agreed while giving her a wry grin. "How did it make you feel to hear that I'd been shacking up with Britta so regularly?"

Annie didn't miss a beat. "You already know how it felt, Jeff. I hated every second of it. When we left the room that day, we all gave you our 'blessing' to keep going with it, and it killed me to do it. I played it off as best I could, but it hurt! How could you do that with Britta so easily, and you could barely give me the time of day? And then, you kept getting my hopes up with all those long looks, and all the coy…stuff we had happening. You know…the 'Anni-"

Jeff interrupted before she could move into the second issue. "Annie, you obviously know since Britta and Troy got together, that at some point, she and I stopped out little arrangement. Did you know that it stopped that very day though? You all walked out, and she and I decided that it was done. Not even a last time to get it out of our system."

Annie looked at Jeff with concern and disbelief. She didn't feel doubt that his words were true, she just couldn't believe she was hearing them. Voluntarily giving up emotionless, attachment free, no-complications sex? That was totally not Jeff.

"Jeff, why would you do that? You formed the study group purely to get into Britta's pants. Once you'd gotten that…why give it up?"

Jeff slumped against the wall, and slowly lowered himself into a sitting position on one side of the vent, and lifted a hand to swing it closed. As he did so, Annie sat on the other side of the vent, facing him, rather than leaning against the wall. He looked introspective as he decided exactly how to express himself.

"Because it was a mistake from the get-go, Annie. Yeah, it's what I wanted when I made up the whole group…but I wasn't that same guy six months from then, let alone nearly two years!"

Jeff took a deep breath, and sighed it back out. "Look, Annie…I think it's pretty clear to everyone, especially Britta and myself, that we are TERRIBLE for each other. We're great friends, but that's it. Not friends with benefits, not girlfriend and boyfriend, just friends and even that, we can only take in limited doses. That's all we are, and that's all we'll ever be…from the day we found the stupid monkey stash forward."

Annie found herself nodding at Jeff's words. She knew she sounded harsh and more than a little cynical when the next words slipped out of her mouth.

"Yeah, it was pretty obvious to everyone else early on how bad you were. Why did you keep going with it if you knew it was such a bad idea?"

Jeff failed to meet her eyes, raising his eyebrows and speaking to the floor between his legs. "Well, Annie…for starters, we're both attractive people. Even though I don't want her, I can't deny that Britta is pretty good looking. And me…well, everyone knows I am." Annie caught herself smiling at this rather familiar declaration, and had to resist the temptation to twirl her hair.

"Also, I'm insanely self-destructive, if you hadn't noticed. My therapist keeps telling me that somewhere, buried deep within me, I have a part of me that hates myself, and wants me to be miserable. I didn't believe that myself, quite frankly, because I've always known how awesome I am…but just recently, I've had a chance to get to know this other side of me."

Jeff paused for a moment, and Annie's brows knotted together at this revelation. She was wholly caught up in his story, but hated the idea of Jeff having a part of him that didn't like himself. Even at her angriest, Annie still felt a strong affection towards him, and the idea that he didn't like himself almost felt like he was telling her she was wrong, yet again. His powerful self-esteem was one of the attractive qualities about him, and she didn't want him to lose that, no matter how much he changed.

"Anyway, this self-hating, self-destructive part of me is why I had emotionless sex with Britta, and all the other women I've been with over the years…it's why I'm so cynical all the time, it's why I avoid getting involved with anything I don't have to, and put forth the minimum effort when I do. It's why I kept everyone at an arm's length for so long. I'm trying to avoid caring about anyone or anything besides myself. It's a bad defense mechanism, and it's a good self-harm mechanism. I'm trying to keep myself from being hurt, and hurting myself all at the same time"

Jeff stood, and offered both hands down to Annie. Confused she took them, and Jeff pulled her up. He let his hands slide down her sides, to just above her hips.

"And my self-destructive tendencies are why for so damn long, I've given you mixed signals. By keeping you at a distance, I'm trying to keep from hurting you, and subconsciously, intentionally hurting myself. I hate myself enough that I'm terrified that if we get close, I may ruin the incredible, unique things that make you who you are."

Annie processed what Jeff was saying, and before he could continue, spoke up.

"So…wait, Jeff…are you saying that there is an 'Ann-" Jeff interjected before she could finish for the second time in minutes. It almost seemed like he was really determined to keep her from saying that particular phrase.

"Yeah, Annie…I'm saying there is an *sigh* 'Annie Of It All.' And if you ever breathe a word of this to anyone, I will deny using that phrase until the day I die."

Annie's face lit up. She'd gotten admissions of his feelings on different levels over the years, and even over the course of this evening, but hearing that she wasn't just a crazy schoolgirl with a crush reading too much into their looks and interactions was incredible. She felt vindicated, and she started laughing with joy. Happy tears began to spill out of her eyes and she grabbed Jeff's shirt in her fists, and pulled her face into his chest, just happy to be close to him.

Annie felt Jeff's arms wrap around her upper back, and euphoria rush through her body. She still had embarrassment and anger from what happened earlier…but she was sure she'd be able to forgive him. He'd finally realized that there was something there! She wasn't just being silly!

With her face pressed into his chest, Annie felt, as well as heard his next words.

"I mean, I really knew the whole time. I just couldn't say it."

What.

So, once again, Jeff had been playing it safe while Annie looked like a fool? He hadn't just realized his feelings recently, but had been lying this whole time? Again? Annie's tears began anew, but this time, they were far from happy. She felt that ball of anger she was working to dispose of rear its head again…and double in size. She let go of his shirt, and backed a step away from him, forcing him to release the hold his arms had on her shoulders.

"Jeff, I think I may hate you." For what seemed like the millionth time tonight to Jeff, tears were streaming down Annie's face. And of course, just like always, they were his own damn fault.

Somehow.

Honestly, Jeff had no possible explanation for how he had made Annie cry this time. He had thought that admitting that there WAS a whole "would they, might they" thing (or, as Annie had annoyingly, repeatedly, and as Jeff had to admit, slightly adorably insisted on referring to as 'the Annie Of It All') between them would make her happy…hopefully make up for some of the hurt she'd experienced tonight.

No such luck.

"Annie, I don't get it. Why would you decide you hate me when I've just admitted that yes, you and I have shared long looks, and stolen glances, and that there's been some crazy sexual tension between us? I think you'd be happy to finally be proven right!"

Annie looked at him, the look on her face seeming to communicate astonishment at his conclusions. Jeff waited a few moments to see if Annie would actually respond to him, when she suddenly lunged forward, planting both of her hands on his chest, and shoving him backwards as hard as she could. Jeff stumbled backwards, but mostly due to surprise than the force she imparted with her shove.

"You bastard!" Annie shouted at him. "How could you think that TWO fucking years after you humiliated me in front of the whole group, I'm just going to be completely satisfied that now, when it's convenient for you, you decide to admit to it. Not only that, but you say something stupid like 'I mean, I really knew the whole time. I just couldn't say it.' God! Will you ever cease to avoid thinking of anyone besides yourself?!"

"Hey!" Jeff decided if she could shout, he could too. And her attack was showing that she hadn't completely listened to him. Either that, or he'd explained badly…either way, he needed to take the situation back into his control. His outburst had caught her attention, and gained him the advantage. Time to run with it. "I'm sorry, kitten…did you think that maybe, just MAYBE, you should stop, and reconsider the different ways you have to interpret something someone else has said BEFORE you go getting all high and mighty, pissed off, and blowing up in someone else's face?"

By the time he'd finished his tirade, he'd bent down far enough that his eyes were level with hers. His face was red, and his veins were popping from shouting at the smaller woman. She wasn't taking it lying down though. She held his glare, and lowering her voice, let her tone get icy.

"Oh, you think I'm the one who needs to worry about how I interpret other people's words and actions? You're the man who just admitted that I was right, two plus goddamned years ago about interpreting your words and actions, which you denied then, now you say that back in the study room our sophomore year, you were LYING!"

How could he make her understand?

He was still fuming, racking his brain for the words that would drive in through her thick skull that this wasn't his fault, and she shouldn't be mad at him, but should be grateful to him for admitting it in the first place! In the moments he had to think, Jeff thought he saw something moving over Annie's shoulder, down the dark hall. Before he could wonder too much about it, or about his retort, Annie launched back into her assault on him.

"Jeff, are you really so vain and egotistical that you just assumed that I would be grateful to get your attention? Was I supposed to throw myself at your feet? Did you want me to swoon? I can work up a swoon real quick if it'll make you happy!"

Jeff couldn't let her take this route…she'd just get more and more worked up and he'd never get to explain to her why he couldn't tell her before now.

"I want to go home, Jeff."

Wait…this was really bad. "What do you mean, Annie? We're close to the end."

"No, Jeff. I'm done. Screw your games, screw your memory lane bullshit, and to hell with you, Winger. I'm going home."

This announcement hit Jeff right between the eyes and made him defocus his gaze off of Annie. This had the side effect of giving him a perfect thousand yard stare, driving him to look into the shadows down the hall, where moments previously, he'd thought he'd seen something he shouldn't. He now knew for a fact that he'd seen something. He froze.

"Annie…" he choked out.

"No, Jeff. You can't talk me out of this. Maybe we'll talk in a few days, or a few weeks, or a few months, and figure out how we'll resolve this one." Annie's voice sounded dull, defeated.

"Annie…" Jeff repeated. "Turn around slowly, and look where I'm looking."

Annie looked up at him, narrowing her eyes and slightly shaking her head, as if disbelieving what she was hearing…but then did as he told her. Within moments, she saw it too.

Whatever it was darted into the shallow indentation in the hall separating a classroom door from the main hallway, but remained mostly visible. It blended into the shadows nearly perfectly. Had they not seen it moving, they never would have noticed it.

"Jeff?" Annie spoke in a trembling voice "What is that? It's human sized…but it's definitely not human."

Jeff tried to sound as brave as possible for Annie, shifting his body so he was between her and…whatever it was. "No fucking clue, Annie." He started slowly backing up, hoping she'd take the visual cue from him. His arms were spread out and downward, as if to try to prevent anything from getting past him to her.

Jeff could feel himself drawing closer to Annie, and all his senses available while he wasn't looking at her told him she wasn't moving. He hissed out of the corner of his mouth. "Annie, get moving. Get to a door and run to your car and don't stop until you get home!"

Jeff kept slowly moving backwards, the shadow creature didn't move, but Jeff had the distinct feeling it was watching them. His journey was stopped when he backed into something soft and warm. Annie yelped at the contact.

"Annie…why aren't you running? Get going!"

Annie couldn't do anything more than make a frightened whimpering noise. Jeff tried to think of a plan, and as he slid around so he was standing by Annie's side, they both saw their unidentified intruder dash diagonally across the hall to another hallway/door indentation closer to their position, and resume watching.

Jeff made a decision, and acted. "Sorry Annie, I know you hate me now, and this is probably the last thing you want me to do…but if you aren't going to move on your own, then tough!"

With that, Jeff put an arm around her back, and leaning over, swept another at her knees, knocking her off her feet, and picking her up. Oddly enough, the first image that came to mind for him as he did this was the stereotypical vision of a groom carrying his bride across a threshold.

Jeff was no groom though, he was just a guy, holding a girl he'd driven to hate him as they ran from something they couldn't identify. He'd thought the school was abandoned for the break. He thought he'd give Annie the most romantic thing he was capable of, and see where it led their unusual friendship to once all was said and done. Instead, he was getting a break from being screamed at by her, only to run away, not from a relationship for once, but from something even less understandable.

As he began to run, he felt something hit his leg, and clatter against the floor. Annie was staring directly into his eyes, her fear nearly palpable.

Jeff briefly turned his head to see if there was any sign of their stalker. Sure enough, as soon as his back was turned, it had begun following them in a far more bold fashion.

Adrenaline coursed through his veins, and he panicked. They wouldn't make it to an outside door before that…whatever caught up with them. He didn't dare try to run past it…so it was time to take a third option.

He smiled, despite himself. Third options were lucky for him. Hadn't Annie been his third option when Slater and Britta were fighting over him?

Jeff turned a corner and dashed down the hall to a room he knew was unlocked and had the door open. He'd already been planning on visiting this room tonight. In fact, it was their next stop. He nudged the door more open with his foot so he wouldn't bang Annie's head on it opening it, and slipped the two of them inside. Once in, he set Annie down, closed the door as quietly as he could, the dust strip along the bottom creating a dragging sound as it moved. He turned on the lights, and looked down at Annie.

She was looking up at him, a mixture of terror, hurt and even gratitude in her eyes. Looking into her eyes, Jeff knew how badly he'd screwed up…not just tonight, but repeatedly over the last few years. He'd already known some of it, but not the true depth of it. He kept looking, and as he looked, he thought he could see the hurt dropping away, and being replaced with something else he was hesitant to put a name to.

Jeff and Annie looked into each other's eyes a few more moments…and then they weren't looking anywhere at all.

For the first time since running into each other outside the Tranny Dance, Jeff and Annie were kissing each other.

A/N: We're in the home stretch! By my count, as per the outline I drew up a while back...we've got 5 chapters to go, plus the epilogue, which is about the same size as the rest of the chapters, but really doesn't fit in as part of the main story. And I promise...I realize some crazy stuff happened here, but this isn't LOST. I WILL explain everything.

The first full paragraph is a bit of a poke at the Hogwarts-like nature of the GCC campus. I've made some descriptions in previous chapters based on the maps found on the Community wikia (which I believe are themselves taken from the Pillows and Blankets episode,) and then realized that the campus layout doesn't make any sense. All of the classes seem to be in the same building that the study room is in...which is the library. But then, there's all sorts of other buildings that would make sense for classes, and we've seen the group walking around outside from class to class... Basically, I think the rule is to give it the MST3K treatment; Repeat to yourself it's just a show, you should really just relax. Bottom line is, I think the campus 'layout' changes based on the demands of the episode.

As always, I'm available for questions and comments on my tumblr (daneblr,) I read and re-read every review that's left for me. They're like sweet, juicy sections of an orange. They refresh and rejuvenate me. Spoilers are given out freely for those who ask for them on my tumblr, because you may help me realize a crippling point I hadn't seen before. Please note, spoilers will always be posted behind a cut, to protect those who don't want to see them. I'm also considering doing a 'lessons learned' post on there after I'm done with this fic...because there's been quite a few, and I'm pretty sure this site isn't fond of non-fic stuff, even if it's related.

Next chapter should be up before too long, give me a few days.