fic: Time Desk Returns
Title: Time Desk Returns (8/8)
Author: Supercapo
Rating: PG-13 (for swears)
Word count: 5,803
Disclaimer: If I had a time desk I'd go and replace Dan Harmon as the creator of Community.
Spoilers: through season 3
“Abed?”
“Troy?”
Troy climbed out of the jungle gym of piled desks; around him, faint wasps of smoke pricked at his nose and splotches of paint dotted the hallways. He cast his eyes around until he spotted Abed, crawling out from the remnants of the trampoline, and sporting a makeshift paintball utility belt.
“Is it over?”
“It’s only been a few hours,” Abed said. “It took all night in 2010, but the initial rush is over. By now factions are likely breaking out.”
“Okay,” Troy breathed and holstered his paintball pistol. “Remember when we used to think that paintball was cool?”
Abed cracked his neck to one side then stifled a yawn. “Anytime a gimmick is overused it becomes boring. Luckily for everyone but us, this is a novel concept.”
Troy nodded and surveyed the quad. Only a few hours earlier, students danced and swayed to the sweet sounds of Daybreak, now they could be heard in the distant halls shooting each other with paint and screaming at each other. When they arrived in the time desk that morning, the school had looked peaceful, warm, fresh out of the box even. Now… they’d trashed the place.
“I hope all of this was worth it,” Troy muttered.
“If it fixes the future, it will be,” Abed said. “We should try and find Annie’s parents to be sure though.”
The pair gave each other quick nods before drawing their pistols and holding them at the ready. Together they stalked across the quad, careful to step over or around anything that might make a noise. School officials had been quick to make sure anybody that got hit with paint went home, though surprisingly, they hadn’t put an end to the game altogether.
Greendale’s hallways faired even worse than the quad. Paint on the walls, floor, and ceiling . Troy figured that by now, he should be used to such sights, but they never failed to run a shiver up his spine that was equal parts terrified and awesome.
Of course he did find it a bit strange that he didn’t find it strange to see people covered in paint pellets while wearing leg warmers and headbands. Apparently with some people, that sort of thing never went out of fashion. It was Greendale after all, something’s never changed.
Luckily, the met little resistance, with the student population whittled down to the few survivors who would win, seeing other students was a rarity. However, at one point they stumbled across Greendale’s current dean, covered in paint and looking more than a little drunk. He emphatically told them that ‘never again would priority registration be allowed!” before he passed out. Troy and Abed just accepted it as one of those crazy time travel things. Somehow they weren’t too worried that Dean Pelton would disregard whatever past edicts were made for their first paintball war.
They neared the library and immediately the two quieted their steps. The sound of voices echoed on the halls, what sounded almost like an argument. They exchanged glances and nodded. Arguing was probably a sure sign of their quarry. And it also meant that their paintball plan had failed.
They turned the corner to find Annie’s parents, in the computer lab that would one day be the study room. They stood there, covered in paint and readjusting their clothes. Troy and Abed exchanged glances but didn’t have much time to react otherwise as the pair continued their squabbling.
“Yeah I don’t care if it was amazing!” Leah said. “You’re not that good a shot!”
“Really?” David threw his arms out. “Well that’s not what you were saying when you had your tongue in my mouth!”
“Good thing we’re still broken up!” Leah said. “Or I’d have to dump you again!”
“Not if I dumped your ass first! In fact I think we should get together next week just so we can see who dumps who first!”
“You’re on!”
The couple stormed off and Troy made to follow them but Abed shook his head and fumbled in his pocket until he retrieved the photo. He then nudged Troy and passed it to him. Troy grinned at the picture. The study group was there. All of them. Britta and Shirley had reappeared entirely and they all looked as happy as they’d ever been. They’d done it, they’d fixed the future.
“Let’s go,” Abed whispered.
“But how?” Troy said.
“You’re asking me how emotions work?” Abed raised a brow. “All I know is that it did and I’m taking it.”
They managed to get away unseen, even after Troy tripped over a broken skateboard someone had left in the hall. Leah and David were apparently too occupied shouting at each other to notice. Once they got back the quad they did a victorious buddy handshake, followed by a round of relieved laughter.
“I can’t believe it!” Troy let out a sigh. “I can’t believe we pulled it off!”
“This is just like that time the Inspector fought the Blorgon invasion of 2389x.”
“Yeah!” Troy jabbed a finger his direction. “It was just like that! Oh man! We should go back to the time desk so we can track the other guys down!”
“No need,” Abed nodded toward the door as Annie, Jeff, and Pierce walked through the door.
“Oh good… wait is that the Dean?” Troy narrowed his eyes at the short bald man behind them.
Abed frowned and rubbed his chin and Troy rubbed his eyes. Sure enough the dean followed right behind Pierce, half dressed like Madonna. They didn’t bother exchanging looks, instead noticing the Annie’s somber expression, or the way that Jeff kept glancing over to her.
Annie spotted them first and broke out into an all out sprint their direction. Panic welled up from Troy’s feet to his spine the closer she got. He’d just seen her mom tackle her dad and almost beat him up. He knew in that respect, the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.
Luckily she went for Abed, digging her fingertips into his shoulders as she huffed and puffed her words. “Parents… my parents…”
“It’s okay Annie,” Abed said. “Your parents are fine.”
“Better than fine,” Troy clapped her on the arm. “We did it. We fixed the future! Your parents are broken up exactly the way they need to be.”
“Thank god!” Annie reached over and hugged Troy then Abed. “You don’t know how much I needed to hear that. Oh my god! Thank you so much!”
“No worries, Annie,” Troy grinned. “That’s what we do. Fix crazy time things… speaking of… what the hell is the dean doing here!?”
“Okay, ouch!” the dean called over to them, obviously overhearing.
Annie’s lip pressed into a fine line as she glanced back at her group. “He was hiding under the time desk when we took off. It brought him along with us.”
“That’s impossible,” Abed’s eyes narrowed. “That should have killed him The time vortex would have scattered his atoms across time itself.”
“Well it didn’t,” Annie said. “He’s here isn’t he?”
“I guess,” Abed frowned as the dean and the rest of them neared.
“Hey at least you guys got Pierce back,” Troy eyed the old man. “You almost pulled a Biff Tannon on us didn’t you.”
“Eat me,” Pierce said. “It would have worked. At least now I know it was your guy’s fault I landed in jail in ’85. I missed a very important date because of that and my wife left me. I hope you’re happy!”
“If you want,” the dean patted Pierce on the arm. “I could go and bail the younger you out.”
“No!” Annie snapped at him. “We are going back to the time desk and we are getting the hell out of here!”
“Okay okay!” the dean held his hands up. “Just trying to be helpful.”
“So did it work,” Jeff finally spoke. Troy glanced at him and found his eyes drawn to how torn and dirty his clothes were. “Annie’s parents? What the hell did you guys do the place?”
“First ever Tranny Dance/Paintball war,” Troy said. “But we got it taken care of. The future is-”
Abed jerked suddenly, stopping the words from Troy’s mouth as flailed and clawed at his pocket. He ripped the photo out and Troy’s jaw dropped at seeing it. The thin piece of paper glowed red hot; Abed dropped it just as it burst into flames and toppled to the ground in a smoldering heap.
“What did you do!?” Troy looked to his best friend.
“It wasn’t me it…” his eyes suddenly went to Jeff. “What did you do?”
………………
Alarms blared when they opened the hatch to the time desk. Abed leaped in first, followed by Troy and then the dean. Annie prodded Pierce until he stumbled down the hatch, she couldn’t help but glare at him the entire way down. It was his fault after all. They would have been on Relaxus Prime if he hadn’t come in.
Finally she stood alone with Jeff. Alone for the first time since the Penguin Palace.
Down in the time desk she could hear Troy and Abed yelling orders and things crashing. Her stomach sank as she thought about what might greet them down there. Instead of looking at the spiral staircase she turned her attention to Jeff’s hands of all things. She couldn’t help but wince when she saw them. Red, swollen, and puffy, they bore every appearance of what they’d done barely an hour ago.
“Are they okay?” she said and he pulled his eyes to hers, as if he’d been looking far away.
“What?”
“Your hands? Are they okay?”
“I’m…” Jeff curled his fingers but they only got halfway to his palm before they shook and he let out a pained grunt. “They’ll be fine.”
“No they won’t,” Annie gently took his hand and held it in front of her face. “Jeff your fingers could be broken.”
“I’ll be fine,” Jeff pulled his hand away.
“Jeff…”
“Annie can we just go?” he moved toward the desk. “I… we need to go. I want to get the hell away from this place… time! Whatever.”
“Jeff you heard what Abed said after you told him what happened… this is bad…”
“Of course it’s bad Annie,” he shook his head. “But I would do it again in an instant! That bastard… he… you were there! He was all over you! With me standing there the entire time!”
“I’m not saying that he didn’t maybe deserve it,” Annie said. “But Jeff… I… you were terrifying like that. Even when you beat up Pierce at the hospital you weren’t that scary.”
Jeff sighed. “Okay well that part I am sorry about. I… Annie I don’t know how else you expected me to react.”
“Like a sane human being?” Annie snapped. “Jeff, you once tried to stop me from stopping my younger self from crashing through a plate glass window.”
“No Annie, you stopped me from stopping you,” he said. “And it all worked out didn’t it? I’m sorry I freaked you out but I can’t go back and change things… I think…”
Annie rubbed her forehead and glanced at the spiral stairs. “Well at least I know why you have so many issues. You must have been really scared when that happened to you as a kid.”
“Yeah…”
“And I got to see you as a kid! You were super cute, not sure what happened between then and now though…”
“Um…”
“Do you remember me at all? Probably not considering what happened, though it really might explain a lot--”
“I don’t know Annie, my memories of that day are really fuzzy. It was pretty traumatic.”
“Aw,” Annie frowned a bit. “I guess it all worked out then. Maybe you’ll remember more later?”
“Maybe,” Jeff shrugged and stepped closer. “Annie… when I was in jail… I was thinking about time travel and you and--”
“Guys!” Troy yelled from inside the time desk. “You have to get in here now!”
Slowly, Jeff nodded and slung his legs into the hatch. He kept his eyes on her with every step that he took until he saw that she was following. Annie took a few steps down then stopped just before she was all the way in. She cast her eyes around the world of 1985 and felt her stomach sink and her breath catch in her throat.
Maybe it was because the storage room was dark and dank, but Annie felt herself shaking. She clasped the hatch and then clapped it shut, putting all of her muscle into fastening the latch as firmly as she could. Once done she practically ran down the stairs before stopping at the bottom.
If it sounded bad from outside, actually seeing it was far worse. Red lights faded on and off in a slow rhythmic pattern, bathing the control room in a warning light. Sparks splashed out from the consoles and bulkheads while Abed and Troy ran themselves ragged around the central control panel. Each time they threw a switch or mashed a button, some other warning light would come on or a new alarm would blare.
Pierce and Jeff stood off to the side, watching them work, while the dean pumped a lever that jutted out of one panel. Annie finally nodded determinedly and charged into the fray.
“Abed what’s going on? What can I do?”
“The relative temporal regulator is fried,” Abed clicked on several buttons before moving onto another console and winding some sort of wheel. “If we can’t get it re-modulated in the next few minutes we could looking at a complete relative temporal collapse or even a localized quantum paradoxical event!”
“What the hell does any of that mean!?” Pierce said and for once he didn’t look like the only one who was confused.
“It means that we’ve mangled the timeline!” Abed said. “Ordinarily the regulator protects us from temporal shifts in history. It folds any new events we might cause in the past into the fabric of reality. Or at least it does when it’s working or when we don’t cause too big of changes!”
“But we didn’t cause any big changes! None of us are important enough to affect the future in any significant way. Right? It’s not like we stopped Lincoln from being assassinated or something.”
“That’s not the problem,” Abed said. “Our personal history has changed. We left too big of a wrinkle in our own past. And that wrinkle is us! Our own memories, and bodies weren’t folded into the new timeline we’re anomalies that the regulator can’t compensate for in its current state. It’s too overwhelmed!”
Annie shook her head, she barely followed any of that but she got the point. Something really bad was happening and some sort of regulator needed to be fixed. She grabbed onto Abed’s arm so she could get his full attention.
“Tell me what to do!”
“That control panel, with the knobs,” Abed motioned to his left. “Rotate them until the light in front of it flashes green.”
Annie nodded and went to work. Troy scooched past her a couple of times carrying various tools and items to help fix the regulator. All the while she did her best not to pay attention to what else went on around her and focus on her given task. Rotate knobs until green light. She had no clue what that would even mean once accomplished, she just kept her eyes fixed on the light, that way she didn’t have time to panic on what might happen.
All at once her light went green, the time desk lurched and Abed let out a yelp. Annie kept her hands on the knobs but leaned over so she could see him. He held a cable in his hands that sparked at the middle where he’d fused them together. He clapped his hands and ran to the panel next to her.
“We have lift off!” Troy said from the other side.
“Lift off?” Jeff looked around. “Is that what happened?”
“I’m trying to get us back to our time,” Abed said typing away furiously at the keyboard in front of him. “But I have to synch us up with the new modified timeline.”
“And if you can’t?” the dean said.
Abed looked up from the controls and over at his friends. “The time desk gets ripped apart and we die.”
“Oh,” Jeff huffed. “Is that all? You don’t have a plan b?”
“The only other way would be to try and pull the paradox, the wrinkle, out of the timeline. Then the temporal regulator would be able to compensate and fold us back in.”
“But Abed,” Annie looked up from her console. “We’re the wrinkles.”
“Coming up on 2012,” Abed said. “Everyone grab onto something, this is going to be a bumpy ride!”
Annie didn’t have time to ask any questions as floor and walls around them shuddered and jolted; and it was all she could do to latch onto the railing just in front of her console. Behind her she heard Jeff grunt and suddenly he was by her side, grabbing onto the rail alongside her. Another jolt and he winced.
“Jeff, go hang onto something you can wrap your arms around you--” she started but the room flung itself sideways and she lost her footing, banging her knee against the floor before she could right herself.
“Just wanna be close to you Annie,” Jeff said, managing a smile through his obvious pain. “In case something--”
The time desk rumbled and groaned and then tossed them back and forth. The lights above flickered wildly and steam shot out a nearby canister and the dean screamed at the top of his lungs. The shaking grew constant now and Annie struggled to stay on her feet. All around them the walls groaned and shuddered.
“Abed!” Jeff yelled over the growing racket of the time desk shaking itself apart. “Abed tell me it’s working!”
Another hard jolt came. Annie found herself knocked to the ground and straining to catch her breath. Jeff’s hand fumbled for hers and he grimaced as he dragged her hand back to the railing. She latched on just as another jolt came and the time desk roared around them like thunder.
Then a large crack spiked from the ceiling, down the wall. A sudden rush of wind blew past them as if the time desk were an airplane with a window open, rapidly losing pressure. Annie’s hair whipped around her as her eyes fixed on the bluish white light coming out of the crack.
“Abed!” the dean called.
“It’s… it’s not working!” Abed said. “I can’t… I don’t…”
The time desk rocked back and forth, nearly jarring them from their secure positions.
“Ay-bed you have to do something!” Pierce cried.
“We’re shaking apart!” Abed shouted as another crack formed and the pull toward the outside grew. “The decent into our timeline is too steep! I…”
“Take us back to ’85!” the dean yelled. “Reverse course!”
“It’s--” Abed started but they couldn’t hear him as another crash shook them. “I don’t know what to do!”
Then Annie felt Jeff’s hand on hers, even as another crack smashed all the way down to the floor with what seemed the force of an earthquake. Debris flew at them for half a second before being sucked out into the time vortex outside. Annie gripped Jeff’s hand as tightly as she could, trying not to touch his fingers at all.
Another crash and they were spinning. Troy lost his grip and flew toward the cracks. The dean caught him by the ankle before he could get clear, but the momentum and sudden stop slammed him against the floor and the dean lost his grip. Troy screamed as he was whipped into the air before the wind flung against the spiral staircase like a ragdoll. The dean screamed and Annie tried to cover her mouth, before she realized she had to keep hanging on.
“Troy!” Annie shouted, but the young man dangled on the staircase lifelessly.
The time desk rocked again, but they managed to stay on their feet and Troy, tangled as he was in the staircase, stayed put as well. His limbs hung over the rails and steps, contorted like a bird that had struck a window.
“I think… I think he’s dead! Oh god! He’s dead!” the dean called.
“No!” Abed looked ready to let go of the controls and try to get to his best friend. “Troy!”
“Abed!” Jeff shouted, but Abed didn’t hear him. Even standing right next to him Annie almost didn’t hear him. Her eyes remained fixed on Troy’s limp body. “Abed listen to me!”
“Someone take the controls!” Abed cried tears actually streamed down his face.
“Abed! Dammit look at me!”
The young man finally pulled his attention from his fallen friend and looked to Jeff.
“Plan b right?”
Abed didn’t answer, he merely blinked at Jeff as if he wasn’t sure what he heard. Then he took a deep breath and nodded, his face returning to normal. Or as close as he could get it.
“Plan b!” Jeff shouted. “Is there any other way!? Abed tell me there’s another way!”
“Jeff… I don’t… I don’t know! Troy just…”
“Jeff…” Annie gripped his hand tighter, forgetting about his fingers entirely. “Jeff what do you think you’re--”
“I’m the paradox Annie,” Jeff said and the desk shook and cracked more. The wind current grew stronger than ever. “I beat up my father in front of myself! I’m the contradiction in the timeline.”
“No you’re not!” Annie’s eyes widened as she fully realized what he planned on doing. She forced out everything, the time desk, the noise, the fact that Troy was dead. Everything so she could focus on him. “You said you remembered me! You said you remembered it! It’s not a paradox if you remember it!”
“Annie,” he shook his head. “I lied. I really, really wish you were there when I was a scared 8 year old, but you weren’t.”
“Jeff! Just stop! Stop and think! You don’t even… you’re Jeff Winger! You don’t do things like this! You don’t sacrifice yourself! Be selfish! You’re selfish!”
“You’re just as selfish as I am…” Jeff fired his lopsided grin, as if congratulating himself on being clever, even given what was about to happen. “…you’re just not as good at it yet.”
He let go of the railing with one hand.
“Jeff! Jeff stop!”
“I’m doing what I’ve always done Annie,” he said. “I’m protecting you… figures it would be the last thing I’d do… always were my favorite…”
Annie latched onto his shirt collar and he took the opportunity to press his lips against hers before letting go with his other hand. Annie held him tight, but the fabric dragged against her fingertips coming loose.
In spite of this his eyes caught hers and he smiled. He actually smiled that damn Jeff Winger smile with the crinkles at his eyes!
“Jeff… don’t…” tears pricked at her eyes.
“Milady,” he said, before ripping his arm free of hers.
For half a second it seemed like he wasn’t moving. He was just staring at her suspended in space. Then the air currents took him. Annie knew she was screaming but she couldn’t hear anything. She tried to grab at him but she felt Abed’s strong arm around her waist. She tried to fight, to claw at Abed’s arm, but then Jeff hit the wall right next to a crack with an audible thud. The wall shuddered just slightly before giving way entirely and pulling him into the light.
The time desk spun all the harder and the light poured in through the cracks. The time vortex roared like a famished beast and Annie’s head pounded. The light shot at her eyes and she clamped her eyes shut before everything went topsy turvey and she blacked out, even as she held her hands out to where Jeff had been.
……………………….
He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. After a few breathes he realized there was no more pain. Not only no more pain, but no more shaking, no more time whirlwind and no more alarms. The time desk… it had restored itself somehow! And more importantly, he was alive! Alive and lying on the stairs for some reason.
Troy sat up, his head pounded but he took that for a good sign! The last thing he remembered was smacking his head on the floor when the dean grabbed him. Then maybe flying again? He couldn’t be sure, it was all blurry.
With shaky hands and feet he climbed down the stairs. And that’s when he realized that the time desk wasn’t as silent as he thought when he first woke up. Sure there were the typical thrumming of the engines and the random timey noises. But something else as well.
He came into view of the control room. Perfectly in tact, but there, on the floor by the central console were his friends. Pierce and the Dean stood next to the railing, right next to Annie and Abed, who were kneeling on the floor in each other’s arms. That sound he had heard was Annie sobbing.
That’s when he realized that someone was missing. There was supposed to be someone else in the room! Who was it? Who was it? Why couldn’t he remember? Someone tall and… His eyes widened when it suddenly hit him.
“Where’s Jeff?” he called out.
Pierce, the Dean, and Abed all turned to him with shocked expressions on their faces. Annie remained buried on Abed’s shoulder. Before Troy knew what was happening, Pierce and the Dean rushed to him and were hugging him. Troy fumbled to get away, these were two of the last people he wanted hugs from.
“Guy’s what happened?” Troy said. “Where’s Jeff?”
The dean sniffled and looked away as did Pierce. Troy pushed past them and moved over to Annie and Abed. His best friend reached out with his free hand and gripped Troy’s arm as tightly as he could, tight enough that it almost hurt.
“He…” Annie’s voice came between her sobs. “He’s dead.”
“No…” Abed shook his head, looking like he may cry to. “He’s not dead. He never existed.”
“W...what?” Troy said. “What do you mean he never existed? I can remember him! We can all remember him!”
“Because we’re in the time desk, and the temporal regulator is working again. But he never existed!”
Now Annie pulled away, and Troy pulled his lips tightly at seeing her eyes, wet and puffy with tears. “Don’t you say that Abed! Troy’s right! I remember him too! If he didn’t exist then how did the study group form? That was his idea! He organized it to get with Britta!”
“Wait… wasn’t that Rich?” Pierce said.
“Yeah,” Troy nodded. “Rich formed the study group… wait… no it was Jeff… I remember it both ways.”
“The temporal regulator folded us into the new time stream. The study group had to exist, but since there was no Jeff, events changed just enough that they still happened to us, just without him.”
“But… Jeff and I won the debate competition! We chased Professor Professorson… Garrity through the blanket fort! Dean, you remember! The fake conspiracy theory class!”
“Of course I do Annie,” the dean said. “You and Jeff tricked me because I made a secret conspiracy with Britta… no wait… Jeff…”
The dean furrowed his brows like he was straining to sort out which memories were which. Troy thought back to the first blanket fort and sure enough he remembered Annie and Britta chasing Professor Garrity through fluffy town. His head buzzed and he frowned.
“But which memories are real Abed?” he said. “The ones with Jeff or without him?”
“They’re both real,” Abed said. “They’re real to us. But to everyone outside of this time desk, they never happened. At least as far as Jeff is concerned.”
“No.” Annie stood up. “No! I don’t accept that! The Time Desk is fixed. We can go back to 1985 and stop him from beating up his dad. Or stop Pierce from running off!”
“We can’t,” Abed shook his head. “That would cause even more wrinkles in our timelines. Jeff sacrificed himself and it eased enough pressure off the temporal regulator to allow it to fix us. It can’t take anymore and I don’t know how to repair it. I’m not Inspector Spacetime, I only know how to really operate this thing and do some emergency work like we did earlier.”
“So that’s it?” Annie paced, her face flushing with anger and grief. “We just leave the time desk and live our lives like he was never a part of them!? Like he didn’t matter?”
“Of course he mattered,” Abed said. “Jeff was the first person to see my value. It matters a lot to me. The time he sat with me on a tabletop like Sixteen Candles and ate chicken fingers, only Jeff could appreciate that. And that’s while I’ll remember him even though nobody else does. That’s the only way to honor him.”
“Yeah,” Troy nodded. “I think… I think you’re right.”
Annie pressed her lips tightly together and gripped a nearby railing. Her breaths came in short spurts as she tried to fight back another wave of tears. Troy found himself blinking them back as well. What had happened to Jeff was just sinking in but he couldn’t stand seeing Annie like this.
“Come on Annie,” he held a hand out to her. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I…” She looked around helplessly, as if trying to find anything that might bring Jeff back. “Troy…”
“It’s going to be okay Annie,” he pulled her into his arms. “As long as we remember Jeff… even a little, he’s still going to be there right? That’s what they say isn’t it?”
Annie sniffed and hugged him tighter. Troy took one last look at the time desk before heading to the spiral staircase. Hopefully for the last time. That was another thing about Jeff he would always remember and now agree with. Time travel sucked.
They made their way up the spiral staircase and out the hatch; Pierce and the Dean first, followed by Troy and Annie and finally Abed, who locked it firmly behind them. Once they were all out and standing in the storage room they had nothing left but to look at each other.
“Annie,” the dean said, his voice cracking slightly. “I’m really sorry.”
“I…” Annie muttered. “It’s okay Dean…”
“We’ve arrived a few hours after we left,” Abed said. “That means Britta and Shirley will probably be wondering where we are.”
“Oh God,” Troy said. “I’m just not sure what to do.”
“We have to act like nothing happened,” Abed said. “They’ll think we’re crazy. Can we do that?”
“I think so,” Pierce said solemnly. “Annie… if you need a ride home, if you don’t want to… you know…”
Annie wiped her eyes and sniffed. “I… I can handle it.”
“You sure?” Troy gave her a squeeze. “We can make an excuse for you…”
“I’m sure!” she snapped. “Let’s go!”
As soon as they left the storage room, the dean split, headed to his office, leaving the four study group members together. None of them spoke a word but they hung close to one another. Much sooner than any of them wanted they caught sight of the study room. Britta and Shirley sat in their usual places chatting enthusiastically to each other.
Troy glanced at Annie and frowned when he realized that he couldn’t read her. Her face remained straight and emotionless, even more than Abed’s! Why did that worry him? He couldn’t quite tell. Had she ever taken an acting class?
Just a few yards from the room the dean reappeared and offered Annie some make up to cover up the blemishes from crying. She quietly thanked him and motioned for the others to go ahead without her. Reluctantly they did as she said and soon they were walking into the study room.
“There you guys are!” Britta stood and grinned widely at Troy. He felt a lump forming in his throat but he swallowed it back down. But that didn’t stop him from stepping around Abed and running to Britta, taking her in his arms and hugging her fiercely.
“Um… does anyone have a hug for me?” he vaguely heard Shirley say.
“Abed hug Shirley,” Troy said as he breathed in the fresh scent of Britta’s shampoo.
“Troy?” Britta finally said. “Everything alright?”
Troy pulled away, matching her eyes with his. “I think it will be.”
“O…kay…” Britta raised a brow.
Troy nodded and took his seat besides Pierce.
“Where’s An-nie?” Shirley said.
“She was just with us,” Troy said.
“She’s powdering her lady parts,” Pierce said.
“Pierce!” they all shouted in unison.
A moment later Annie whisked in the room, with a fresh coat of make up and a smile that Troy knew was fake. Still she did her best to sell it, patting Shirley on the shoulder and saying hi to everyone before taking her spot and pulling out her books.
“Should we get started?” she said, flipping through a notebook.
“Well we can’t yet,” Britta said. “Aren’t we missing someone?”
Annie froze mid page turn and stared at Britta. Troy’s pulse quickened as he swore he saw a quick flutter of Annie’s eyelashes. His own eyes went to the empty chair right next to Britta, the exact spot that Annie looked.
“Oh he just texted me,” Shirley said. “He should be here any--”
The door opened and Rich marched in with that broad, perfect smile of his. “Sorry I’m late everyone! I was busy teaching a girl scout troop how to make the perfect vase. You guys remember when we took pottery together right?”
Rich strolled up to the table and plopped himself down, right in Jeff’s chair. Abed flinched and Troy felt his fingertips press against the table top. He knew it wouldn’t make sense to anybody but seeing Rich… right where Jeff was supposed to be. It just wasn’t…
“Oh my god Annie!” Britta interrupted his thoughts. “You’re crying! What’s wrong?”
Like a dam breaking Annie burst into sobs and just as quickly Shirley collected her in her arms. Pulling her into a deep embrace and rubbing her back. Tears dripped down Troy’s face as Abed stood to help get Annie out of here.
“It will be okay pumpkin,” Shirley said. “It will be okay.”
“I know,” Troy muttered and forced himself to take a deep breath. “I just kinda wish it would be right now.”