The only thing that works like clockwork in Greendale is that nothing works like clockwork. One week's madcap adventure usually has nothing to do with the next week's, as the tone, brand of insanity and genre always changes each time out. Only a select few things are consistent week in and week out – but that still doesn't mean Greendale residents can't be consistent outside of campus.

No matter what happened during a given week in the last two months, Jeff Winger and Annie Edison wound up meeting together at the end of it. Every Saturday night, they came down to Jeff's favorite bar to eat and talk, with Jeff covering a moderate amount of drinking. It occasionally helped unburden the tension of the past week as well – which made sense, since the original purpose of this arrangement was to unburden some other deep tension.

The arrangement was made necessary a little more than two months ago, when Jeff met his last one-night stand in that very bar. But unfortunately, Jeff had to tangle with her for more than one night. Not only was the woman in question Annie's estranged mother, Carol Edison, the night inspired her to come to Greendale and unfold a master plan to make Annie leave Greendale forever. Thanks to blackmail, Jeff's cowardice and Carol's psychological torture, it nearly worked – and it would have if Annie's tremendous strength of will and character didn't make her resist Carol even after the truth came out.

She even had enough left to come over every Saturday to the same bar where Jeff hooked up with her mother. It was designed to help them both get over the scars that Carol left them, which they would have to do if they could ever be together. Oh, and perhaps this should have led off with the fact that Jeff and Annie had been dancing around their feelings for each other for the past two years, before Carol even got her claws into both of them.

In many ways the strategy had worked, as Jeff and Annie actually were able to have fun during their Saturdays out. After all, leaving aside all of their issues and the new ones that Carol created, they were still friends. In fact, as Jeff confessed days after Carol left, Annie was his best friend – and that aspect of their relationship had only strengthened in the last several weeks. Their actual friendship was stronger than ever as they found new ways to enjoy each other's company – but the prospect of them being something more than best friends was still tricky.

No matter how much fun they had, or how Jeff enjoyed himself more on these platonic quasi-dates than he did with the vast majority of his one-nighters….the reasons for these platonic quasi-dates still hovered over them. They never talked about it out loud, and they were relieved that their platonic fun did cut down on their "unresolved sexual tension" moments. Yet neither one of them wanted to be the first to talk about it and bring it all to the surface – which was usually more Jeff's specialty than Annie's, although she was probably all caught up to him by now.

The fact remained that Jeff hooked up with Annie's mother in this bar, after pushing Annie away from hooking up with him for almost two years. And it remained that the chain reaction which followed severed any remaining ties between Annie and her mother, while tainting Jeff in some part of her mind forever. Perhaps those tainted thoughts were fading away, but they couldn't possibly be gone.

It got particularly awkward one month after Jeff and Carol's tryst, as both Jeff and Annie were afraid that Carol would be back at the bar for her "allotted monthly hook up" that Saturday. They had to spend their outing in the most secluded part of the bar there was, which did work in keeping them away from Carol – if it fact she had shown up. But it took another Saturday for Jeff and Annie to get their momentum back and have their fun again.

Luckily the group didn't notice anything between them either way in Greendale during the week. After good weekends, they could have noticed how Jeff and Annie were happier than usual, or how they were down after their rough weekend. But those two went through so many ups and downs that the group was used to it by now, and they usually had more unusual things to worry about.

It was also fortunate that Annie had her cover story of studying every Saturday night, so that roommates Troy and Abed didn't know about her outings with Jeff. No one in the group could know, since it would raise too many questions and suspicions. The least of which would be their assumptions that they were finally sleeping together and/or that Jeff was corrupting Annie. The most of which would be them finding out that their Saturdays started right after Carol's visit to Greendale, and then guessing why that was.

Abed was the only one that knew about Jeff and Carol, since Jeff told him in a moment of desperation during her visit. Fortunately, he kept that and his likely correct assumptions about what happened next to himself. Jeff certainly wasn't going to bring it up to him and risk Britta, Shirley, Troy and Pierce finding out anything. They didn't know all the sickening Jeff/Annie/Carol details, and they must never know – it was uneasy enough that Jeff and Annie knew anyway.

However, Jeff suspected that he was more ready to get over the hump.

Jeff had finally admitted to himself what he felt about Annie after that fateful week. If he had admitted it the day before he met Carol, Annie would have jumped at the chance to be with him then and there. But instead, he was waiting patiently for Annie to rebuild her romantic trust and feelings for him. Of course, having weekly outings with Annie that didn't include kissing and…..other activities was getting harder along the way. In fact, since he hadn't had any kisses or any sex in over two months, it was a torture that Jeff hadn't experienced in quite a long time.

The still potent jerky side of Jeff wanted to put an end to it whether Annie was ready for it or not. But the Annie-inspired conscience side of Jeff was willing him to wait for Annie to give permission, or at least some kind of sign that she had fallen for him again. It also allowed Jeff to enjoy being with a woman without sex or making out on the table, which was already easier to do with Annie than it was with any other female. Yet it also raised the possibility that maybe Annie was waiting for a sign from Jeff; something that would show he was ready to commit to her.

With that in mind, Jeff began to devise a plan for this coming Saturday. Instead of going back to the bar, he wanted to book them at the finest restaurant he could find. He would spring it on Annie as a surprise that night, disguising it as a test to see if they could spend Saturdays together outside of that bar now. And if they passed the test with flying colors after Jeff told Annie how he felt, and how he'd known how he felt for two months….so much the better.

Once the idea stuck in his brain that Wednesday, Jeff went straight home to his apartment and started to research restaurants. In fact, he even made the supreme sacrifice of turning his cell phone off, so that he couldn't be disturbed. After finding the right place, he even worked on the first draft of the greatest Winger speech of his career – the final draft of which would be unveiled to Annie on Saturday night.

To his credit, Jeff focused on these tasks for 40 minutes before his cell phone itch finally became too much. Figuring he owed himself a treat after his good work, he turned the phone back on – to be greeted with an icon that said he had 12 missed calls. Two each were from the other members of the group – including Annie.

Jeff scrolled down to the bottom to see that Annie left the first missed call, about five minutes after he turned his phone off. He was growing more confused by the time he played the call – then his brain completely froze when he turned it on and heard Annie sniffling.

"Jeff….I need you, Britta, Shirley and Pierce to get here, please," Annie's broken voice said. "My…my dad is dead…."

By the time Jeff finished his mad run and drive to Annie, Troy and Abed's apartment 14 minutes later, Annie was already surrounded by the other members of the group.

"Jeff, where have you…..never mind, I don't need anything else to upset me right now…." Annie managed to state before she broke back into tears once again. She closed her eyes from the tears, then heard Jeff run right over and felt him hug her. She didn't see the glares the rest of the group gave Jeff, but at the least, they didn't say anything and start some kind of argument.

Annie was relieved to see how hard the others were trying to help make things easier, even though they were ill-equipped at this sort of crisis. Troy and Abed were obviously the first to hear about it, once they saw her starting to cry 50 minutes ago when she got the call. They did their best to comfort her and try to use their own words instead of inspiring movie speeches, which at least helped her to call Jeff, Britta, Shirley and Pierce. When they arrived, Britta strained to choose her words and topics carefully for once, Shirley refrained from asking about where Annie's father would spend his afterlife, and even Pierce gave out a hug and kept himself from plugging his cult's afterlife teachings.

Jeff's absence broke the winning streak until now, but Annie couldn't let herself dwell on it. Instead, she explained to him exactly what she had explained to everyone else already. She got the call from her father's sister/Annie's aunt, who explained he had died of a heart attack the previous day. The funeral would be held this Saturday at her father's Episcopalian church.

Annie had already told Jeff about how things stood with her and her dad during their Saturdays together. But she had filled in the group tonight about how she and her father barely spoke after rehab, and hadn't spoken for almost two-and-a-half years. In fact, the last time they talked was the week after she got into the study group, back when she didn't know enough about Jeff or the others to discuss them with him.

They stayed estranged after that, since he had already left the Edisons when Annie was 13. Plus, one of the few things he still agreed with Carol on was that Annie had made a mistake going to rehab. However, since he had moved out years earlier, he didn't get the chance to be as pushy with his objections as Carol had been. But he hardly offered to let Annie live with him or visit him, and didn't seem to want anything to do with her after rehab either.

Yet a small part of Annie had hoped that maybe someday, his heart would thaw and he would seek to reconcile with his daughter. This made his death hit harder than it should have, considering that he hadn't reached out to her in years. Nevertheless, Annie had a slim hope that someday at least one of her parents would be willing to see her again, since her mother was now out of the question….

And with that, Annie's spirit took one more crushing hit. "Oh my God….my mother…." was all she could say out of nowhere at first. "On Saturday I…..she…." Although the group was often borderline incompetent at understanding each other, they still understood what Annie was implying now. When Annie went to the funeral, she would not only say goodbye to her estranged father, but would also see her even more estranged mother just two months after she never wanted to see her again.

"Okay, well…..maybe she won't show up!" Britta offered. "I mean, they've been divorced for years, and she'd probably burst into flames at an Episcopalian church anyway!" Britta was clearly biting her tongue so as not to segway into a religion rant, which both Annie and Shirley appreciated. But Annie then figured she should speak before Shirley got in religious comments of her own.

"It doesn't matter that they were divorced, it'll still look bad if she doesn't show. And you know my mother values looking good to everyone….well, most people, above all else," Annie lamented.

"All right then, so it's settled. We all have to get up very early and be the first ones there. Maybe we can hide among the other guests if she arrives late, or at least find a good secluded place to sit," Annie was shocked to hear Jeff say. She was then almost as shocked to see the rest of the group nodding along.

"Wait, you're talking about going to the funeral?" Annie got out. "You wouldn't….I mean, you didn't know him! And I don't think he would have liked you that much more than Mom did!"

"Well, you need some family to be there with you, don't you?" Troy actually asked. Sometimes Annie did forget that Troy said things which weren't related to Abed, mispronounced words or some other weird observation. Even now, this was a little inaccurate, since there were actual family members that would appreciate seeing Annie there. Yet having her other family volunteer so readily to back them up was still overwhelming.

"Britta, you'd really let yourself go into a church?" Annie asked. "Well, um…..heck, if your mom won't really burst into flames, I guess I won't either," Britta answered, and now Shirley was very visibly biting her tongue to keep quiet. Once Annie was certain she succeeded, she turned to Jeff. "Jeff? Can you stand being in a church and….being near other things too?"

Behind Annie's back, Abed was having a moment of realization about the prospect of Jeff seeing Carol again. Luckily no one else saw it, and that Jeff conveyed for him to stay perfectly quiet without Annie detecting it. After completing that mental telepathy, Jeff focused back on Annie and reassured, "I don't think even she would try anything at your dad's funeral. You got her to be done with you last time, so what would she have to gain this time? If she forgets that….we'll just have to remind her. I mean, when it doesn't ruin services or anything."

Annie would have gone deeper into asking Jeff if it would really be okay for them to both see her again; but she couldn't without explaining why that was necessary. The last thing she wanted was to make the group suspect anything, especially when they were going above and beyond for her without a second thought. By focusing on that, a few happy tears escaped Annie's eyes for the first time in an hour, which was her way of accepting their offer.

In between the remaining happy and sad tears that evening, Annie helped work out a plan for their trip. The funeral would be Saturday morning starting at 10 a.m., and it would take about a half hour to get to the church from here. As such, everyone would have to get up between 6:30 and 7, meet up here by 7:30 and then get to the church at around 8 a.m. Hopefully that would beat every other guest to the punch and delay any awkward reunions for a while; although it would likely speed up Annie's reunion with her father's dead body. But they would have to cross that obstacle when they came to it.

For the next two days, the group did the bare minimum to get through the usual Greendale adventures. Since this didn't seem to be a designated week for spoofing a movie or genre, it was easier to get through it and brush it aside. After school, the group made their road trip preparations, booked hotel rooms for overnight on Saturday and got themselves outfits for the occasion. It was an adventure to find a black dress for Britta, yet Annie and Shirley managed to survive it.

On Saturday morning, Jeff, Britta, Shirley and Pierce managed to get up early and drive over to Troy, Annie and Abed's apartment building. Once they saw them emerge and gave Annie the expected awkward greetings, they waited for Annie to get in her car and lead them to the church. She drove Troy and Abed, struggling with the fact that they weren't playing any games or doing impersonations in the back seat. Despite how the group was going overboard not to be douchey or wacky at a time like this – and doing much better than when Carol visited Greendale – it was almost more stressful that they weren't being wacky.

Nonetheless, Annie endured the silence until she arrived at the church parking lot. There were a few other cars there, but they likely belonged to priests and church officials. No other guests or family members seemed to be there yet, just as they hoped for. The others drove behind Annie into the parking lot and easily found spots to stop in.

Before the friends all met in the middle, they had to step aside to let another approaching car through and park in front of them. When Annie took a closer look at that car after it parked, she was too deflated to even warn the group about it. But when they noticed her standing still and then saw who came out of the car, they soon got their explanation.

They were indeed the first ones here; but someone else had the exact same strategy that they did. Because of that, the group only beat Carol Edison here by a few seconds. Now since both them and Carol had tried to get here first and avoid confronting each other, they would be all alone together until the other mourners filed in many minutes from now.

Annie's friends huddled close to her and tried to think of any ideas to get out of it, yet Annie sighed and signaled that it was okay; even though it wasn't. There was no way around this now, and the only thing left to do was go in and try to focus on why they were really here.

With that, Annie closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths and pushed her hands down to calm herself and get ready. Because of that, she couldn't see how Carol was doing the exact same thing, or how Troy and Abed had noticed and were straining not to point it out; or how Jeff was trying to discreetly cover up how he noticed and was disturbed to do so.

When those charades were finished, Annie finally took a step forward and started walking towards the church and her mother. Carol Edison didn't start walking, as she waited for the group to get to her. Once they did, Annie stopped and brought herself to look right at her mother for the first time since she cut her off. "Mom," Annie said with a measured speed.

"Jeffrey. Annie," Carol answered, and Annie tried not to think about why she said Jeff's name first. But when Carol took notice of the rest of the group, she didn't even say anything as she tried to contain a disapproving groan at them. Jeff did notice and responded with "Caroline," feeling like secretly needling her with how he and Annie had mocked her through Annie's alter ego, Caroline Decker.

But since Carol had a deeper frown and a more audible groan for that, Annie wondered if it really was that big of a secret.

At the least, the pleasantries were over and Carol joined the group in walking towards the church. She and Annie led the way, with Carol staring straight ahead and Annie only occasionally glancing at her. Jeff stayed closed behind, ready to do…..something or other at a moment's notice if needed, or even if it only looked like he was needed. But he stared straight ahead as well, not wanting to risk thinking anything if he saw both Annie and Carol from behind.

It took just a few seconds for them to arrive at the church's closed front door. Yet no one knew who should be the first to open it and let the others in, until Carol finally walked over to do the job.

"Shall we, then?" Carol asked as she held the door open for the others. Annie just responded by leading them inside, stifling an out-of-habit "thank you" in her throat. In any case, she needed her throat clear for the next several tough tasks that now lay ahead inside.