Annie bit her lip nervously as she turned to look at Jeff pressing at buttons on his phone in growing frustration. She wasn't looking forward to telling him they were stuck in Indiana, away from all their friends, for New Years. The unexpected snow had grounded all flights, and now they were stuck in the Fort Wayne International Airport.

"Jeff…" she said carefully as she approached him.

He looked up at her, and she hoped she wasn't imagining how his shoulders seemed to lose just a bit of tension when he saw her. "This airport smells like a hospital. Doesn't this airport smell like a hospital? It kind of looks like a hospital, too. Is this some sort of weird airport-slash-hospital, like the KFC/Wendy's that we have in Greendale?"

"Jeff, it does not… okay, it kind of does look like a hospital," Annie conceded before moving onto the important stuff. "Listen, I have some bad news, but I don't want you to freak out."

"You realize now that I'm pretty much guaranteed to freak out, right?"

She took a deep breath, bracing herself for the explosion. "All the flights are grounded because of the storm. There's no way to fly out to Greendale tonight."

Jeff's jaw tensed as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His eyes remained closed for several moments and Annie was growing worried that she had broken him.

But then his eyes opened, he took another breath, and looked her in the eye. "Okay."

"O….kay?"

"Yes, okay."

"Seriously?"

"Well, no, it's not remotely okay, but I realize this isn't your fault and I don't want to take it out on you."

"Wow, how… completely unlike you."

"Really? I just calmed myself down specifically so that I wouldn't yell at you and you want to say that to me? Really?"

"You're right, I'm sorry."

"Okay, I guess we can just get a taxi to a hotel," Jeff said, trying to really push his anger down. He knew that Annie was as upset and frustrated as he was about the situation. He didn't want to make her feel guilty as well. He would have arrived in Greendale from his mother's in Orlando hours ago, but Annie had called in tears from her father's in Ohio and Jeff had flown there to get her first. Then the blizzards started and they were diverted to Fort Wayne, where they were now stuck for the foreseeable future. He knew if he blew up at her over the situation (which he didn't blame her for AT ALL. He would have saved her from her father's a million times without question, whether it got them stuck in Indiana or Iceland) she would start to blame herself, and her didn't want that.

They wandered over to the information kiosk where a young blonde looked about as excited to be working at the airport on New Year's Eve as they were to be stuck there. "Hi!" Annie chirped. "We were wondering if you could tell us how we could get a cab to a hotel."

Without a word, the girl handed them a flier with a phone number to a taxi company. "Thanks!" Annie said brightly, though she got no response.

She dialed the number while Jeff stood by, tapping his foot impatiently. "Hi!" she said when someone finally answered. "We're stuck at the airport, and we were wondering if we could get a cab to a hotel…. Okay, well how much would that be?"

Jeff watched as Annie paled and then said a quiet, "No, thank you anyway," into the phone. She then looked up at him with sad eyes.
"Well, how much was it?"

She told him.

"WHAT KIND OF A CITY IS THIS?!"

—

"This place is disturbingly quiet," Jeff noted as he picked at the salad Annie had grabbed for him from the coffee shop before it had closed. "No airport should be this quiet."

Annie shrugged. "We were flying late on New Years Eve. I imagine most people were flying earlier in the day."

"No, I think it's this city. I think there's something wrong with it."

Annie gave Jeff a look. "Really? You think something is wrong with the city because there are hardly any people in the airport on New Year's Eve after a blizzard?"

"I'm just saying, this place is weird."

"Uh-huh."

He watched her as she ate her own salad, perusing one of the "Visit Fort Wayne" tourist packets she had grabbed from the information kiosk.

"This place doesn't actually seem so bad," she said. "It has one of the biggest zoos in the region, there's a big mall, lots of theater."

"Yeah, sounds exciting," he responded unenthusiastically.

"Well, it's better than Greendale."

"Because that's hard."

She rolled her eyes and turned back from the pamphlet. He knew exactly what she was doing. It was what she always did. Diving into studying and research to avoid thinking about her problems. Back home she had her books and schoolwork, but stuck in the Fort Wayne International Airport, all she had were pamphlets and fliers. If she kept it up, she would be the foremost expert on Fort Wayne, Indiana by morning.

Jeff didn't know exactly what had happened with her father. She was such a mess when she called him, and after she had calmed down enough to the point that he could understand her, she wouldn't tell him what was actually wrong.

"I'm sorry, really. I shouldn't have called, I was just upset, and-"

"What happened?"

"Nothing, it's just… It's nothing."

"Annie."

"Really, Jeff, I shouldn't have-"

"I'm coming to get you."

"Jeff! No! You don't have to!"

"I'm changing my flight and I'm coming to get you."

"…okay."

He had texted her when he landed in Cleveland and when he got to her dad's house she was sitting outside, waiting for him. She had clearly not wanted to talk about it, so he'd just let it go. But now that they were stuck all night in this horror movie in the making, he could tell that it was eating at her, and he knew if it was him she would never let him just stew in misery.

"Annie."

"Hmmm?"

"What happened?"

She froze, he whole body tensing. Without looking away from the pamphlet, she said, "I told you, I overreacted. It was no big deal."

Jeff reached over and took the pamphlet out of Annie's hand, replacing it with his own hand. "Annie."

She sighed deeply, looking at their joined hands. "It seemed like everything was great. We did dinner, presents. And then he told me that his girlfriend is pregnant."

"Okay…"

"And that he doesn't want me around the baby because he thinks I'll be a bad influence."

"You're kidding."

She shook her head.

Jeff was seething inside. All the anger he had at being stuck in Horror Movie Airport in the middle of Indiana was nothing compared to the anger he felt right now. "Well, it's a good thing you didn't tell me what happened over the phone."

"Why?"

"If I knew what he had said to you when I picked you up, I would have gone into the house and beat the shit out of him."

"Jeff!"

"What? He would have deserved it."

"It's not like he doesn't have a point."

"He doesn't." He could tell she didn't believe him by the way she wouldn't look at him. "Annie, hedoesn't."

"I am a drug addict who ruined her future."

"No, what you are is an incredibly strong woman who overcame addiction by herself and worked hard to get her life back on track. Annie, you're the best influence."

Jeff pulled Annie toward him, wrapping his arms around her as she buried her face in his chest.

"Just look at me. Without your influence, I'd probably still be that lying, manipulating asshole I was when we first me."

"That's really sweet, Jeff. But it was the group that did that, not me."

He nodded. "Maybe." He pulled away slightly and placed a hand on Annie's cheek so that she'd look up at him. "But you're the only one that I want to be better for."

He didn't try to tell her that she shouldn't be worried about what her dad thinks. It was true, her dad was in idiot and she absolutely shouldn't care about what he thought of her, but Jeff knew that didn't matter. He knew that no matter how terrible she might logically know her father was, it would never stop her from wanting him his approval, from being hurt by his rejection. Jeff understood that better than anybody.

"I wish he could see you the way that I see you."

A tear rolled down Annie's cheek, but she was smiling, so Jeff figured it was probably a good tear. She leaned in and place a brief, sweet kiss to his lips that left him tingling. "Happy new year, Jeff."

"Happy new year, Annie."