Chapter 15
Summary: The gang says goodbye and a new chapter begins
Two days later and everything seemed calmer. Since it turned out there was no bona fide murder, a crime hadn't really been committed, exception being for the kidnapping of Dean Grassley and Audrey, of course, but the two of them no longer seemed that bothered about it after Pierce had some words with them. Shirley strongly suspected they had been well compensated, as suddenly the community college had a new robotics wing and Audrey was off on some acting scholarship to New York. So she had made her um hmms but then overall figured it wasn't her place and at least Abed and that girl were no longer doing whatever it was they had almost been doing.
No, Abed was with Troy now, as she realized was the way it should be. She began to reflect on the past two days.
After having their pie, Troy had spent the whole evening in the mansion living room regaling the gang with his sea adventures, Abed sitting rapt by his side. They had all gone back to the mansion after the diner, feeling the need to all spend more time together, Troy and Abed making a pillow and blanket fort in the living room around three am despite Shirley's urging for them to room with Jeff. They didn't listen to her at all, of course, and she didn't miss Jeff and Annie's googly eyes and then vanishing around the same time before everyone else headed up to bed.
Pierce decided to retire to some fancy downtown hotel where he had apparently been staying for the past month or so. Shirley was still baffled that not only was he alive but he had been following her around Atlanta and interacting with Devon as Custodian Bob. She made a mental note to have a good talking with him in the morning, as he had agreed to come over to the mansion for breakfast.
It was of course more than odd now that Devon openly had the use of his legs and therefore walked upstairs on his own, no need for the electronic conveyance that had normally taken him so long. Shirley had always marveled at his patience for the thing, and he reminded her that only up until recently he had actually needed to use it, and luckily his legs were still strong enough to take the steps due to his physical therapy. She insisted on accompanying him of course, not wanting him to fall and part of it was habit to be honest. They stopped at the entrance to his room.
Turning to her, he said with a sigh, "Hey, Bennett. It's been a day."
She nodded demurly, suddenly feeling a mixture of anxiety and excitement. She recalled their make out earlier and was eager for more and yet as she peered into Devon's room and spotted his bed, she was a little overwhelmed. This was all new. She was still technically married, and she didn't want to mess any of it up. Plus, with everyone else in the house, it clearly was not the time.
She replied with a slight smile, "It has. And I'm thinking I'll go to my quarters."
He seemed relieved, which she took that they were on the same page. He nodded back at her and stepped in closer, his hands now enveloping her waist. He placed his chin on the top of her head and inhaled for a moment.
"We're good though, right?"
"More than good," she mumbled into his chest.
"I don't wanna screw this up either, Bennett. Let's go on a date."
Her cheeks were now almost hurting from her growing smile, and she purred, "Yeees. I'd love it."
"Excellent."
She then lifted her head and they kissed. It was warm and familiar now, no urgency, and it felt right. They parted, holding onto their hands for a moment to linger, staring at each other in the dimly lit hallway, before they both knew they had to retire for the night. They let go, and Shirley made her way to her room.
Before getting there of course she took a detour and paused outside of Jeff's door. Against her better judgment perhaps, she leaned her head against it. She heard nothing and wasn't sure what that meant, for she could have sworn Annie was in there with him. With some befuddlement coupled with some sense of disappointment that surprised her, she started to turn away when she heard their voices.
"Is this weird, Annie?"
"No, of course not. Stop being like this. I told you, I think we're going about this the right way."
Shirley's eyes widened and yet she felt herself nudging her ear back to the wood of the door.
"I…look, I hate to admit this, but you've probably picked up on it by now anyway dammit…I don't really have any idea what I'm doing."
Annie sighed with exasperation.
"I'm serious. I may have a tendency to put on an air of false bravado." Jeff gulped before adding, "But I want to do this right with you, I really do."
"I know, sweetie."
There was silence for several beats, broken by Jeff's lowered voice.
"Sweetie? I get called sweetie now?" At the question there was a tinge of what seemed like hopefulness.
Annie replied softly, "Of course," before continuing in a more commanding tone, "And now you need me to show you how to do this."
"Okay, but let's just pretend I took the lead."
Shirley was aware of a mixture of giddiness and judgment battling it out in her soul. She was wondering what was becoming of her, now that she had caved into her own desires in admitting her feelings for Devon. She had no idea where their relationship would take her or how to make sense of it with anything else in her life, but she had to acknowledge to herself that since following her instinct this evening she was feeling more alive and happier than she had felt in years, perhaps ever.
But that didn't mean she had to listen to this nonsense. She reached toward the doorknob, half conscious that what she was about to do was motivated by her old self and they probably wouldn't ever speak to her again.
Suddenly, Annie's voice overtook her and she stilled.
"See? Isn't this nice? Just cuddling?"
Jeff sighed with contentment before responding, "Yeah, actually. Even without the sex, this is pretty good."
"I told you we should save that for when we're away from this place. As much as I love Shirley, I feel so weird with her here. Come back to DC with me for a few days and we'll have plenty of time for that."
"Right, and like you said we need to work on the cuddling."
"You're doing pretty great so far. I love your arms around me."
"I love you."
"Me too."
Shirley jerked away from the door, her face now hot with embarrassment at having heard Annie refer to her like that while also aware she had literally eavesdropped on something very intimate, more so that what she had actually expected to encounter. She chastised herself for having had the urge to barge in there, now fully recognizing that even if they had been about to do something physical that they were very much in love.
Love was love.
She smiled softly to herself and retired to her room.
X
"I'm gonna miss you, babe."
Abed held Audrey to him as she sniffled into his shoulder. Shirley couldn't help but notice his hand lingered a little as he swept it over her silky raven hair.
"You're going to be great, kid. Maybe Troy and I will come visit you in the Big Apple."
Audrey leaned back and grinned, her eyes lighting up. "Really? I'd love it!"
Troy nodded as she stepped over to them, taking a moment to shake her hand after she had disentangled from Abed.
"You did great, Audrey. Thanks for really making all this work. I couldn't have done it without you."
She gave a salute and they both laughed. Abed suddenly furrowed his brow.
"Wait, your name is actually Audrey?"
"Yes."
"Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool."
X
"I'd like to meet Frankie for real, honey."
Britta stilled from her packing of her suitcase and then mumbled, "Oh, I'm sure she'd like that. She's not the warmest person on the surface, but she has a good heart. She knows you're one of the original seven."
Shirley reached out and touched Britta's arm.
"Look at me, please."
Britta lifted her head and there was definitely more than a hint of trepidation, and Shirley suddenly felt her own shame at her past behavior. She steadied herself and then dove in.
"I love you, Britta. You know that, right?"
"Pshaw. Yeah."
"Then I love whomever you love." She paused and then added, "You understand?"
At this, Britta's lip began to quiver, and they stood in silence for what felt like more than a minute.
Shirley whispered, "Love is love."
X
Two days later, and the gang was back at the diner with plans to part ways once again. To return to their respective lives.
Shirley felt a pang of grief as she made eye contact with each of her friends as they sat around a large booth, the waitress generously filling up their coffee cups as she prepared their pie. Devon had stayed back at the mansion in order to give them some privacy and while she missed him she knew he'd be there for her soon and she needed to say some proper goodbyes.
There sat Annie and Jeff, all cozy but trying not to be too cozy in public. But Shirley knew, and it warmed her heart. Then Britta sat with Daniel in his carrier on her lap, casting Shirley a glance of gratitude and what she realized was a deepening of their precious friendship. Then Pierce, whom by now had filled them all in on his self-imposed exile in the Philippines and his plan to return to Greendale at Troy's insistence.
"You got to, man. Gilbert says the mansion is lonely without you, and plus that's just sad being out there even if we all kind of dislike you most of the time. But that's only because you're mean. But look at how fun you can be? That Custodian Bob performance was kick ass."
Everyone nodded in befuddled agreement with Troy, and Pierce puffed out his chest and scanned the group.
"Well, um…I supposed I could try to be more fun."
Jeff sighed, "Thank you, Pierce."
"Can I play DnD with you and Fatso Neil, Jeffrey?"
"Let's just ease back into things, shall we?"
And then there was Troy and Abed, the dynamic duo finally reunited. Shirley grinned over at them, catching Troy's eye and feeling his general relief at having returned back to his family.
"I missed you so much, Shirls."
"Me too, honey."
"And I miss your cooking. Dammit, but eating all those clams and coconuts really got to me after awhile, you know? Could you mail me some of that mac n cheese you made last night?"
"Of course. I'll send you a little something every week."
"You're the best."
Her eyes landed on Abed, who was staring at her in that way only he could.
"What is it, Abed?"
"This is goodbye, isn't it?"
"I'm afraid so. But I promise I'll visit soon. Sounds like you'll all be heading back to Greendale, and my kids are there, and while Andre and I need to figure some things out about custody, you know I can't be away from them or all of you for too long."
"That situation with your kids sounds like a mess," Abed stated matter-of-factly.
She cringed and Jeff, Britta and Annie shot him glares.
"I know. I have a lot to figure out."
"It's an unsatisfying narrative ending for this segment, and frankly I'm thinking that the basics of the plot should be revisited. Are you sure you and Andre had kids?"
Troy placed his hand over Abed's mouth and everyone shrieked in their own ways save Pierce who sat there eating his pie. Shirley closed her eyes and murmured a prayer, knowing Abed didn't have any other ways of really relating to the world and that's also why they loved him. She pushed down her bewilderment over what to do about her kids and opened her eyes to refocus on the goodbyes.
Troy removed his hand from Abed's mouth and Abed continued, "It's just that you and Harry could have a nicer ending is what I mean. I know you have kids, Shirley. It's just that if you didn't you wouldn't feel so guilty about staying here."
She nodded, and they all resumed eating their pie while swapping stories about Greendale. And Shirley was glad she had solved the latest case with the help of her friends.
X
X
About two hours later they figured they had all lingered enough, having taken long pauses between saying they all really needed to go and hugging and then repeating. Keeping track of everyone was almost impossible, with people coming and going from the room at various points to get more coffee or go to the restroom, it almost seemed like a party. It was hard, and it was painful, and being with these people also filled Shirley's heart in a way she had so much missed.
She was in the middle of one last squeeze filled hug with Britta when what she assumed was a real policeman ran into the diner and yelled.
"Fire at the Butcher Mansion! Fire!"
X
X
They all stood watching the flames, a slightly smoked yet physically fine Devon by Shirley's side. The mansion was burning to the ground, a rare swamp fire having taken it down in the middle of the morning. Luckily Devon had received an anonymous tip via phone call pointing to someone out for revenge on one of his former cases, and he had been able to grab some essentials and evacuate before the fire had completely overtaken the home.
Jeff could only manage, "Holy crap."
Devon nodded, "I'll say," as Shirley kept her arms around him and they all continued to stare in horror as another wall fell.
"I'm just so grateful that you're okay," Shirley cooed.
"Yeah." Devon gulped and then seemed to ponder something for a moment before adding, "It's crazy. There was that log mill fire in Twin Peaks near the end, wasn't there?"
Shirley smacked him on his arm before she pulled him in again, and she hissed, "Stop it with the tv nonsense. We're past that now."
Abed piped in, "This might lead us somewhere wonderful, Harry."
Annie groaned, "Abed, please."
"Your ratings were down. Shirley, I think your spin-off is getting canceled."
Epilogue
"Your stories didn't do justice to that campus of yours," Devon remarked dryly as he wiped some neon colored slime off his arm as he and Shirley made their way back to the car after an eventful few days of Ghostbusters.
"How was I supposed to know what was going to happen today?"
"We've been here five days."
"Oh really? Hmmm, let's get some dinner then because if it is Wednesday that means I get the boys later this evening."
"You know, Jordan needs to work on his algebra. If you let me help him, I'm sure we can get his grades up. But I know you always say I'm overstepping and I…"
He was interrupted as Shirley placed her index finger on his lips and stared up at him with remorse.
"I love you, and I love that you take an interest in my children. But we still need to go slow with them. They're getting used to you."
"Well, Ben and I do all right, don't we?"
She grinned and said, "Oh yes, he adores you. Keep that up with the magic tricks."
"And Elijah and I are cool, right?"
"He does seem to enjoy discussing the old cases and watching the crime documentaries with you."
"So…Jordan?"
"Stop trying to teach him and work on reaching him."
"Got it."
They took hands and stopped at the car where they took a moment to both instinctively look up at the stars on this cool night.
"I can't wait to show you the mountains of Greendale."
"You know I need a little more physical therapy before I can ski again, Bennett."
"I love that you call me Bennett."
"Yeah, well, habits die hard."
He leaned down and kissed her, which was all sweet and then their lips parted and Shirley mumbled, "Now we just have to get you to come around to Gary."
"Goddammit, Bennett!"
But she was undeterred as she smiled and watched him stammer. For she had everything she had ever wanted now. Her Greendale family was back together, her children were with her, and she had found love.
Love was love.
But Devon would have to like Gary or else.