Disclaimer: I don't own Community. A/N at bottom.

Chapter 2

A full 24 hours had passed before Annie woke up again. She came to in a haze, briefly noting the weight on her side before being blinded by the brightness of everything around her. The room slowly came into focus and she recognized it as a hospital room. Her arms felt like lead as she lifted them to inspect her bandaged hands and her attempt to sit up resulted in a sharp discomfort around her stomach. Her head was spinning before it all came rushing back to her.

"Oh God," she cried out, breaking into sobs. She folded up her legs and brought them to her chest, determined to make herself as small as possible. Movement to her left caught her attention, and she turned to see Jeff Winger looking up at her with the most vulnerable but hopeful look on his face she had ever seen.

"Annie, thank God." He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, tucked his head into her shoulder, and joined her in crying. He was quiet, likely trying to at least pretend to be strong, but the dampness in the crook of her neck gave him away. She forcefully expelled the grief from her body in the form of tears, crying with abandon, and with every gasping sob, she felt herself grow lighter. Together they swayed back and forth until the crying slowed and their breathing approached normal. He quickly wiped his eyes before he looked at her again, but the signs were still there. They smiled at each other, and Annie fell back on her pillow with a sigh.

"Jeff? What the hell happened?" He smiled softly as he produced a tissue and began dabbing away the wetness on her face.

"We don't know. We were hoping you could answer that for us." She looked confused.

"We?"

"Gang's all here, Milady," he said with a smile. "Should I let them know you're awake?" She nodded and watched him stick his head out the door.

"She's awake, but you guys have to go easy on her, okay?" She could barely hear him say. Muffled tones of agreement reached her ears and she watched as her friends made their way into her small room.

"Hey guys." Her voice was timid, and she cringed as it cracked. It didn't seem to matter. As soon as she had spoken Shirley had burst into tears.

"Oh Annie, I'm so glad you're okay! I've been praying for you non-stop since it happened, and I know you don't care much for that, but I just wanted you to be alright!" Shirley leaned down to hug her, and Annie patted her back. She was glad she got to start with Shirley. Shirley was easy, and her warm, soft hug made her even lighter.

"Thank you for praying for me, Shirley. I know you do it because you care. I'm sorry I made you worry."

"I'm just glad you're okay," she sniffled, backing away from the bed to let Pierce step forward. His eyes were strained, as if he too had been crying, but he didn't let on.

"Well, Big Boobs, you surprised us all with that one!" The group protested but Annie couldn't help but laugh.

"Gotta keep you on your toes, Pierce," she said with a smile. He leaned down and gently held one of her injured hands in his own.

"You know if you need anything, you can come to me. You're like a daughter to me, Annie." Annie felt the tears building as she whispered out her thanks at the sincere, heartfelt offer from the normally obscene, guarded man. He dropped her hand and stepped aside as Abed moved forward.

"That was dark."

"I know, Abed. I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"I thought that the evil versions of ourselves had crossed over from the darkest timeline."

"Uh, what?"

"The darkest timeline. The one that was created at our housewarming party when Jeff rolled the die. I've encountered Evil Abed before, but I thought maybe Evil Annie had crossed over too. I could see the timeline getting darker. But now you're alive, so I guess they're gone."

"Alive? You thought I was going to die?" She looked around the room at the solemnly nodding faces of her friends and began to tear up. "I'm so sorry, you guys."

"It's okay, Annie. What are friends for?"

"Other than being attacked by other crazy friends experiencing manic paranoia and a complete disconnect with reality? I don't know," Annie laughed. Abed smiled as he backed away, and Annie's gaze fell on Britta. Her arm was in a sling, and Annie couldn't help but feel the guilt punch her deep in the gut.

"Britta, I am so—"

"Don't even say it, Annie. It's not your fault. I know that. I'm just sorry you had to go through all this." Britta leaned over and hugged Annie with her good arm. "Besides, it's not like it's broken. It's just a sprain. I'll be better in no time." Annie whispered her thanks and then searched the group again.

"Where's Troy?" The group parted to reveal him hiding behind Abed and Pierce. He looked up at her and he looked, well, the best word for it would be destroyed. "Troy, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" He asked in a disbelieving tone. "What's wrong? Annie, you almost died! I watched you go through everything you went through yesterday, and it was awful. My heart was breaking for you. And then I remembered that you had gone through this before. Except last time, no one was there to help you. Last time I just stood and laughed like the biggest jerk in the world while you were going through all of that. I'm just—I'm so sorry." Annie's lips quivered as she held out her arms to him. He made his way to her slowly, and she wrapped them around him as tightly as she could, wishing with all her might that she could transmit good feelings via hugs.

"Troy, we were both a lot younger, and a lot stupider. We've gotten to know each other now, and I think you know that I love you." Two people in the room seemed to stiffen, but Annie continued. "You're like a brother to me, you and Abed. You're fun and always there, and we care about each other. I don't hold what happened back then against you, I promise I don't. I just hope you don't hold it against yourself either." When Troy pulled away from the hug, he was not crying (as predicted), but smiling.

"I love you too," he said quietly.

Annie turned to Jeff last and cupped his cheek in her hand. Her words to him were simple but sufficient.

"Thank you," she said looking earnestly into his eyes. He smiled back.

"Any time, Milady."

With Annie's well-being established and the good feelings that were currently floating in the room, it was only natural that Britta Britta'd it.

"Annie," she began softly, "I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but now's as good a time as any." Jeff sighed, and the air grew heavy with tension. Each study group member tried not to fidget, but their forced nonchalance was only made more obvious.

"Annie, we're here for you. We're your friends and just want the best for you. So we have to know—do you have any other pills?" Britta's tone was serious but her expression kind, but Annie knew things were about to get ugly.

"What?"

"The pills, Annie. We found the ones in your bag. Just tell us if there are any more maybe hidden in your apartment or a drawer in the study room?"

"But I never took any pills." She could tell Britta was skeptical but doing her best to seem unaffected.

"Annie, you had an Adderall overdose. The doctors confirmed it, and we found the pills in your bag. Now is the time to come clean, and we can start getting you better."

"I appreciate what you are trying to do, Britta, but I'm telling you, I never took any Adderall. I mean, I've been killing myself this past week with debate prep and the history paper, but it's nothing I haven't faced before. I promise you I haven't been taking them." Britta frowned.

"So the Adderall mysteriously appeared in your bloodstream and in your bag?"

"You don't have to believe me, Britta, but it's the truth." Her tone had turned biting, and Jeff reached over to calm her.

"Easy there, Annie, we're on your side." His attempts to placate her were working, but he couldn't resist throwing a pointed look Britta's way. "Do you have any idea how those pills would have gotten into your bag?"

"Where were they?"

"They were in the aspirin bottle, the one you kept taking pills from throughout the day," Abed said, tossing the bottle in question into her lap. She stared at the bottle unblinking, eyes wide as saucers. Jeff considered intervening when she popped off the lid, dumped a pill into her hand, and held it up to her eyes. Britta made a move to get the medicine away from her, but Jeff waved her off. Annie scrutinized the pill, inspecting every etching, and upon finding what she wanted to know, dropped it back in the bottle, sealed the lid, and tossed it back to Abed. She fell back on her pillow with a sigh.

"Those pills are Adderall alright. I must have been taking those all week. How could I not have noticed?"

"Annie," Britta began in what she thought was a therapist voice, "are you saying you didn't know you were taking Adderall?"

"I really didn't. I wouldn't go back down that road voluntarily, you know I wouldn't. Not after everything I lost last time. I bought this bottle at the drug store. I don't know how or why there is Adderall in it, but this is the first I'm learning of it."

"Didn't you notice that the pills were shaped differently? Or any side effects?"

"I've been so tired, Britta. And the headaches…taking these every 4 hours on the dot became second nature. I didn't even have to think about it. I never had any problems until yesterday."

"Annie, if you're saying that's what happened, we believe you. Abed said you hadn't shown any signs of using, but then yesterday…well, why don't you walk us through what you did yesterday including when you took those pills." She gave Jeff a slightly suspicious glance but decided to play along.

"Okay, well I woke up around 5:30 and took some aspirin first thing. I went running for a little while. I got back to the apartment at 6:30 and jumped in the shower. I dried my hair, straightened it, got dressed, put on makeup…ummm…made breakfast for the boys—"

"It was really good too," Troy chimed in. Annie squared her shoulders and smiled like she was pleased with herself, a sign she was hopefully getting back to normal.

"After that I drove to school and got there around 8:15. I stopped and picked up a mocha from Java Hut, then met Jeff to watch Simmons. Let's see, after that, we went to the study room to work on the paper, but then I realized I'd left my bag in the gym. I ran back and found Simmons messing with my stuff, so I grabbed it from him and returned to the study room. We worked through the paper, and I took some more around 9:30. Then I had Intro to Forensics. We watched an episode of CSI and the professor pointed out all the inaccuracies," she related with a giggle. "Then I had chemistry. We spent the entire class reviewing for our next test. I had free time until we met up for lunch, so I did some studying in the library. We ate lunch, I took some more pills, and then we split for afternoon classes. After that, I had my medical ethics class followed by administration of justice. Both were just lectures. I took lots of notes, but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary."

"You mean these notes?" Troy asked holding up her notebook, pages open to the previous day's entries.

"Yeah." She took a closer look when she realized that there was nothing but scribbling. Her copious notes were completely illegible, crammed and looped and rushed to the point that she couldn't tell where one class's notes ended and the next one's begun. "I didn't even realize," she admitted. "I was actually really proud of myself at the time, for powering through the tiredness and the headache to focus on my work." Britta's face was carefully blank. Pierce grabbed the notebook to get a look for himself.

"I don't see what the problem is here. Her handwriting's better than mine." This did nothing to assuage her worries, and from the far off look in her eyes, it was clear she was back to trying to remember the previous day.

"Well, after that, I got in some more studying before we met to finish up the history paper. I took another couple pills around 5:30. After that it was I guess it wasn't long before things got bad." She looked down at her hands and studied the pattern of the wrapped bandages as she mulled things over.

"Annie," Britta began again, "I know this is hard, but—"

"I'm not lying!" she screamed. The disturbance caused a nurse to poke her head in, but after assurances that everything was fine, she reluctantly moved on. Annie sighed and decided to stop counting the number of pitying glances Britta was throwing her way. Instead she turned to look at Jeff who in turn was looking at Abed.

"Abed," he began, "what do you know?" Though his face was as stoic as ever, he was clearly thinking very hard.

"Annie's telling the truth." He stated flatly. Britta huffed and rolled her eyes but otherwise stayed quiet.

"What's your theory?" Jeff asked. An almost imperceptible change crossed Abed's face as he switched into detective mode.

"Annie, you said you've been taking the aspirin all week?"

"Yeah, I've been having awful headaches."

"But yesterday was the first day you exhibited symptoms of Adderall use. In fact, your continued tiredness for most of this week could almost be considered proof that you hadn't taken any before yesterday, accidentally or otherwise."

"I guess."

"Annie, you said you left your bag in the gym, correct?"

"Yes."

"You said Simmons was messing with your things. What if he wasn't looking for debate notes? What if that was a cover story for the real crime?"

"And what's that?"

"That having been around Greendale long enough to observe certain habits, he knew you were tired and had been taking pain relievers. Maybe he knew you wouldn't look at the pills closely before taking them, maybe he expected that even if you did notice, you'd either give in to temptation, get in trouble for having them, or just plain freak out. It's my conclusion that whatever the intended effects, Jeremy Simmons switched out your aspirin for Adderall." Annie shook her head.

"Simmons is a jerk, but I can't imagine he'd go that far. I mean, sure he was going through my things and called me Annie Adderall again, and had lost to us twice already, and… oh my God." She gripped the sheets tightly as she considered the implications.

"I'll kill him." What she had expected to be Jeff's initial response turned out to be Troy's instead.

"Troy, calm down."

"Calm down? You want me to calm down? You could have died Annie! You almost did! And now you're lying here, cut up, and having to relive one of the worst days of your life because of him! I don't care what happens so long as he pays!" Troy was prepared to storm out of the room, but Abed's arm reached out to stop him.

"You can't go to him. We don't have any proof."

"What if they dusted the pill bottle for fingerprints? Maybe he or his lackey left some. And can't they tell from blood work that she took a lot all at once and it hadn't built up over time? And you, and I'm sure others, saw him near your stuff. Surely—"

"Jeff, you know better. Annie's handled that bottle extensively since he would have touched it. Not to mention me and several others. The likelihood that there would be any usable prints left is very low. It wouldn't hurt to get it done anyway along with the blood work you mentioned, if it's even possible. But that's not enough to go on. All that evidence is circumstantial. We'll need an eye witness, video evidence or a confession to make anything stick." He sighed and nodded, returning his focus to the hand gently cradling Annie's. As the group sat in silence, Annie's mind worked at a mile a minute. There was a solution, she knew it! She just had to think this through. She was working out the details in her mind, everything was falling into place, when she realized the group sending her oddly apprehensive looks.

"Is there such a thing as an OD aftershock?" Troy asked Abed.

"I've not come across it in my studies. Maybe this is the first?"

"What are you guys talking about?"

"You just sort of seemed somewhere else for a little while, Annie," Britta told her, remaining as reserved as possible. "It just concerned us a bit."

"Oh," Annie responded quietly before a smile split her face and she started laughing. It was her usual laugh, complete with what Abed described as pig-like snorts. "Sorry guys," she apologized as she saw the worried looks overtake their faces again. "It's just—I have a plan."

A/N: Thanks to robert3A-SN, Alina, shippersgonnaship and Gloxinia for the reviews on the first chapter! After doing the research on Adderall dosages (and filling my search history with things like "how to drug someone" and "fatal dosage of Adderall" which will surely never come back to haunt me), I decided to go with the method mentioned above. The amount Annie took would qualify as an overdose by any standards, but the threshold for fatality is a lot higher. The next chapter is the big climax and will go up Sunday night. Think of the scene at the end of an 80s movie. Thank you so much for reading and please continue reviewing!