Journal of Annie Edison, Thursday, November 1, 2012

I called a truce with Shirley today. For one thing, it turns out that before one of us can be Valedictorian, it turns out that Leonard of all people is currently holding that spot. If either of us wants to win, Leonard needs to go down first. And second, I had been jealous about the fact that Jeff has been spending so much time over at her house with her family. I know they are friends, and go out for lunch together fairly often, but I was jealous that Jeff would choose to go to her house, even offer to help take care of Jordan, Elijah, and Ben, while at the same time it feels like he is starting to avoid me. But yesterday I finally asked when I gave him a ride, and he explained. Turns out that the reason he is going there so often, especially after he just moved into a nice new condo, is that Dean Pelton moved in next door, and Jeff has been avoiding him. The dean is a nice person, but he does seem a bit obsessed with Jeff at times, so I can see why Jeff doesn't spend much time at his new home.

Speaking of yesterday and rides, Halloween was nothing like I expected (hoped); almost a disaster in fact. For one thing, the couples costume Jeff offered to do with me was more about wanting some sexy eye-candy to go along with his boxer costume. He did look good in it, I admit, though I am not sure why he got nice new robes and shorts but used a pair of gloves that were old and kind of ratty. But it got worse from there. We had to deal with Pierce's prank and then paranoia, when it turns out Gilbert was just staying at the house and Pierce completely forgot. Jeff asking me for a ride had to do with him assuming that I would be his designated driver. Then he spent most the time at Pierce's being sarcastic and even being deliberately mean to people, even me. Finally, he ended up softening somewhat, like he usually does, just in time to decide to skip the party and go home.

It also didn't help that later that night, Pierce asked me about why Jeff decided duck out early, and then reminded me of his suspicions that Annie Kim is trying to seduce him. I had kind of forgotten about that until he reminded me. If he is right, I still don't understand why. I don't get why she is even interested in Jeff. I remember her asking if he was my father or lover at one point. Even if she changed her mind, I can't imagine he would respond. On the other hand, with the way he has been acting recently, if she throws herself at him, I don't know if he would turn her down.

Sometimes I wonder what I see in Jeff, especially when it feels like he is intentionally pushing me away. I do like the New Jeff thing he is trying though, and this teaching thing. It's good for him, and something to be proud of, when he puts the effort into it. At the same time, it feels like he is trying to treat me like a child again, the way he used to avoid dealing with his feelings about me. Jeff's actions aren't making much sense and are making it hard to see how we fit together. While it is fun to imagine or pretend what it would be like to be with him, to imagine something like being Mrs. Winger, that's all just made up crush stuff. Like being Mrs. Efron. It's fun, but not real, and I need to move past that; to think of how Jeff actually is, not who I want him to be. I can't just force him to become just like fantasy Jeff. That wouldn't be fair to him or me.

Maybe I don't know what love really is (Thanks, Mother, for that. At least I've reached the point where I can blame you without feeling too guilty) or if I love Jeff or if he loves me. I know he is attracted to me, and he has a great body and voice, and I can imagine his hands touching me... but is that love or just lust? It's easy to see why other girls would sleep with him, but I don't want to be just another conquest, or I might have tried to force the issue long ago. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had tried to go further after that kiss the first year, but over thinking that night is something I did too much as it is.

It's all so complicated. Back in high school, I thought I would be in a relationship with a good Jewish boy (or in my dreams, Troy) by now and finishing up a degree at some prestigious college. Shows what I knew then. I wouldn't give up Greendale and my friends for anything, but what about the thing I have with Jeff? Is he someone I really want? He is egotistical, selfish, older, and can be gross at times. He can be curt, rude, shallow, and sometimes a buzzkill, and has said and done things that really hurt me, even made me feel like he broke my heart on occasion. Is that someone I can really see myself with?

He is nothing like Brent on Facebook. Brent is nice, handsome in his profile picture, and is willing to listen, even when I get sappy, while Jeff tends to tune me out or shut me down when I do that. Brent is even an Olympic hopeful, though he may just be saying that to impress me. Do they even have pole-vaulting in the Olympics? I normally just watch the winter ones. But it's nice to have someone to open up to and actually admits to being interested in me. Just messaging with him is enough to put me in a good mood when I wake up in the morning. It's like having a perfect imaginary boyfriend who is actually real. On the other hand, I don't really feel any sort of connection with Brent. There is something missing with him, to the point where I can't really picture myself as Mrs. Underjaw.

Jeff would never be a perfect boyfriend, but even with his flaws, Jeff has plenty of redeeming qualities. Deep down, he is a good person. Once you get past the ego, he's funny, handsome, and when he actually invests in something instead of being lazy or "too cool" he can be magnificent. When things are going wrong, he seems to know just what to say to make things better, and I know he cares about me. He has said so himself, and when it really matters, he is there for me, standing up for me, pushing me to be a better person like I try to push him to do the right thing. He is also the most willing to put up with my crazy times, or rein me in when I go too far. And even when we argue or when he says or does something stupid or mean, I still feel safe. He may hurt my feelings, sometimes badly, but no matter what, he looks out for me. It's a feeling I don't think I have ever had before, even from my parents when I was a little girl. He would do that for any of us who count him as a friend, but with me, it feels deeper. Jeff may not say I am his favorite like Pierce does, or that there is anything more than "platonic" between us, but it feels like if it came down to a choice between me and the rest of the group, he would choose me.

I'm not a little girl who needs to be loved to be happy; I am a strong confident woman now. It's taken me a while to realize that, and is sometimes hard to remember. I need to stop pining, as Britta would tease, and do something about it. I've had a few dates here and there, and even a hook-up that was fun but ultimately unsatisfying. But with all of our history, I want to finally find out what is between myself and Jeff. So far every time I try to confront Jeff about my or his feelings, he runs away or tries to deflect or push me away. If we do work together, in a romantic sense, I need to start acting more like an equal, and stop letting him make all the decisions about us. Stop letting his denial be a roadblock.

Of course, I have to figure out a way to do that without just forcing the issue. When I do, things tend to get awkward and he tries to deny everything. He occasionally does open up and let people in, but those are rare occasions and usually on his terms. Britta can get him to admit to things sometimes, and while she claims it's because of her psychology training, it's because those two get competitive with each other and will escalate the stakes without really thinking. They can also be a lot alike, and were...together...for a while, so she does have some genuine insight into his mind. It's harder for me, as I don't have the same kind of connection with him that she does.

Jeff will open up to me, or maybe we mutually open up at times, but it always seems to be in the middle of some adventure or investigation or scheme. During private moments when the two of us are alone, he will let his guard down and let me see some of what he is feeling. Unfortunately, the hijinks tend to take over, so while we have fun, nothing really gets said or resolved. Maybe if we did something that was just the two of us where we can just spend time together alone without any pressure or expectations or hijinx, and especially no people barging in on those precious moments. Hmm. I have no idea if he likes to ski, but if he does, maybe we could do that? I haven't been skiing myself for a while either, and it would be nice to go again.

Normally, the little adventures just sort of happen, and I can't really think of a reason why we would end up traveling to a ski lodge together. I'll have to think about it. If I can't find some excuse, I can always just woman up and ask him if he wants to go. I'm tired of not knowing, and it's long past time I take charge of my own life. I did it when I went to rehab, when I moved out, and my family cut me off, and I can do it now. Just relax, be loosey-goosey, make some moves and see if he responds. If we are meant to be together and in love, it will happen. If not, I want to find out finally so I can move on, and at least stop obsessing about it in my diary. It's long past time I stopped letting this uncertainty dominate my emotions.

At least I can keep myself distracted with schoolwork. I know it's past add-drop period, but if I can convince the professors to agree, the Dean is willing to let me transfer from the medical administration to the criminology department classes I want to take. It will be a lot of work to catch up, but I'm already ahead in my law classes, and I know I can do it.

Monday.

Jeff closed the door and instantly noticed something different about his apartment. His leather chair had been dragged to the middle of the living room, with the back facing the door. "Abed, that chair doesn't spin you know."

The chair jerked as the occupant tried it anyways, then creaked as he gave up and just stood up. "I'm working with what I'm given here, Jeff. You didn't have a desk I could sit at and put my feet up on," he complained. It wasn't Abed.

"Cash?" Jeff asked incredulously. It was his old partner, Mark, from when he was still working as a lawyer at Hamish, Hamish, and Hamlin.

"Tango!" he replied, throwing his arms out for a hug. Jeff returned it absently. He was getting far too used to other men wanting to give him hugs.

"What are you doing here?" Jeff asked, "And how did you get in?"

"I wanted to talk to you, and figured it would be best to do it in person. And your neighbor let me in with his key," Mark replied easily.

Jeff waved him to a seat on the couch as he dragged the chair back to it's rightful place and sat down in it himself. "It's been a while," Jeff started, then his brain caught up with him. "Wait. My neighbor let you in? With a key? Which neighbor?" he asked suspiciously.

Mark shrugged. "Thin, bald, glasses, kind of looked like Moby."

"Pelton has my key? How?" Jeff started pacing, with Mark looking on confused. "When did he make a copy? Has be been in here when I'm gone? Or worse, when I'm here?"

"Do you want to get a restraining order?" Mark asked, trying to be helpful. It broke Jeff out of his train of thought.

"Huh? Restraining order? No, he's not that bad. And he is the Dean of Greendale, where I'm going and working, so it would cause a lot of inconveniences," Jeff explained.

"Ah. Well, I do have some scary cop friends who could talk to him if you like," he offered. Jeff shook his head.

"No, Pelton is annoying, but harmless. I'll just change my lock again." Finally he calmed down enough to sit down. "So, why did you want to talk with your disbarred ex-partner?"

"Well, to be frank, I was wondering what your plans were for once you graduate and get reinstated." He leaned back to give Jeff a moment.

"I hadn't quite thought that far ahead yet, to be honest. Originally, my plan was to get a quick degree and go back to working at Hamish like I used to."

"Only Alan has gone power mad now that he is partner, and is pissed that you stole Hawthorne out from under him." Mark finished the thought for him.

"Yeah, there is that little snag. He's still holding a grudge?" Jeff took the moment to get up and pour himself a drink, and offered one to his guest.

"Normally, I'd say yes, but I'm on the clock," Mark demurred.

"That never stopped us before," Jeff pointed out with a grin.

"True, good times, good times. But it's different now. With Alan in charge and the Old Man dead, things are a lot different than they used to be."

"Huh. Now I kind of regret pushing Alan up the ladder. I figured between that and knowing that he was the one to rat me out would be worth quite a bit when the time came."

"That was him? I mean we all knew that you faked your way in, but you were so good I didn't think anyone cared." Mark wondered.

"Nope, he sent in an e-mail to the bar pointing out my credentials."

"I knew he was a weasel, but that was low." Mark said with a grimace.

"Well, it's not all bad. The new friends basically make up for my sentence at Greendale."

"I suppose," Mark ventured. "The point is, me and a few others are tired of the new regime, and are going to start our own firm. We want you on board." Jeff barely avoided choking on his drink.

"What? You do realize that in the past few years, the highest profile cases I have argued involved a cheat sheet and a yam!" he pointed out.

"So? I was your partner, and I know how good you are. And while you may not done any defense work lately, you have been doing the work for Hawthorne for the last few months. Don't look so surprised, I know your handiwork, even if some other lawyer is rubber-stamping things. That's the other reason we want you on board. Bringing Hawthorne on as a client would really help jump-start things." Jeff didn't say anything, instead taking a sip and mulling it over. Mark took his hesitation for reluctance. "Want a raise? Done. Hell, you can even be partner if you like."

Jeff shook his head. "Could I get some time to think it over? To be honest, I'm not really sure I want to go back to doing what I used to anymore."

"Really?" the other man asked.

"Getting scumbags off the hook doesn't have the same appeal as it used to." He had a certain wide eyed brunette to thank for that.

"So what are you going to do?" Mark asked, "Try to set up for yourself, only defend good people, help the helpless?"

"The idea does have some appeal," Jeff noted.

"Unless you want to make a decent living. Remember what they taught at law school? Oh, wait, you wouldn't, would you?" The jibe was good-natured still, and both men chuckled. "Well, if you want to make a difference, you go into prosecution or try to become a judge. People go into defense for the money, and sleazeballs with loose pocketbooks are the best clients."

"You may have a point," Jeff agreed amiably. "Still, I just don't know yet."

"No problem, Tango. I'll just leave you to mull it over, and when you decide, be sure to let me know," Mark said, handing over a business card. Jeff took it and watched as his old partner exited. He set the card down on the counter and poured himself another glass. Taking a large sip, the fiery liquid burned a trail down the back of his tongue as he stared at it. It was an amazing offer, the answer to so many problems. But if he took it, his friends would be disappointed in him, and Jeff had a feeling that he would be ashamed of himself too. Still, the card taunted him with a possible future, one that would merit consideration.

Tuesday.

Jeff sighed as the opening riff to Basket Case by Green Day drifted up from his phone. "What is it, Britta?" he answered.

"I need a favor." She said quickly.

"Hello to you too," Jeff responded acerbically.

Surprisingly, she backed down. "Sorry, I'm still not used to having a phone that doesn't bill me by the minute."

"Or explode,"

"That too," she admitted. "Big corporations can be evil, but I can see what is so appealing to the masses. Anyways, I need a favor," she continued.

"What sort of favor?" Jeff asked cautiously as he flopped into a chair.

"Nothing major," she soothed, "If it was something that required effort, I would have had Annie ask you instead." Jeff glared at the phone. "I just need the Dean to let me make an announcement about a collection I am setting up for the victims in New York."

"You mean the hurricane? And why not ask him yourself?" Jeff wondered.

"Please. I'm 'the worst,' but if you ask, Pelton would do pretty much anything." Jeff sat uncomfortably for a moment as the parallel between Britta considering using Annie to ask Jeff, and using Jeff to ask the Dean sank in.

"So all you want from me is to talk him into letting you Inconveniently Truth everyone over the PA?" he asked suspiciously.

"That's it, I promise. And I'm even willing to call it even for helping you with your Daddy issues so far." Britta informed him. Jeff's voice hardened instantly.

"I told you not to get involved in that," he snapped. Jeff sat forward and looked at his counter, deciding now merited a drink.

"Have you called him yet?" Britta continued to needle.

"No, and why should I tell you if I did? I made a mistake even telling you I had his number." He juggled the phone so he could hold it between his shoulder and ear, freeing up his hands to pour a larger than usual glass of alcohol.

"I'm just trying to help, sheesh. No need to bite my head off," Britta complained.

"If you really want to help, you can forget everything about this. I'll talk to the Dean."

"Are you sure you don't want some support?" her voice had softened and Jeff reminded himself that she probably did have good intentions in mind. Her skill, on the other hand was rather lacking.

"I've dealt with this on my own for more than twenty years," he informed her. "And I can continue to deal with him without yours or anyone's help."

"Have you really dealt with it, though?" she asked. Jeff clicked the phone off before she could continue. He would have slammed it had it been the land-line. Annoyed, he sank back down into a chair and threw back the glass in a large gulp. Too large a gulp in fact. He coughed as it burned his throat and lungs rather than giving a pleasant warmth. At least the immediate problem of hacking up scotch that had decided to take the wrong route gave an immediate distraction from thinking about his father.

Wednesday.

Jeff awoke with a pounding headache, not improved by the pounding on his front door. He didn't have a class today, either taking one or teaching one, so he had planned to simply sleep off last night's game of "call William Winger or get drunk." It had not been a fair contest. He threw on a robe and padded his way to the door, hoping it was not Pelton. Dean or not, if it was him pounding on the door, he would throttle the man.

Jeff wrenched the door open with a snarl to find Ian Duncan on the other side. "I was sleeping!" Jeff accused.

"Fun fact. Did you know that ants hibernate inside buildings when the weather gets cold?" Duncan asked, throwing Jeff off.

"Huh?"

"Also, ants are one of the few species capable of forming up armies and invading the territory of other species." He continued.

"Thank you, Animal Planet," Jeff snapped. "Why are you here?"

Duncan held up a duffel bag and a bottle of Makers Mark. "Can I come in? I bear gifts." Jeff sighed and stepped out of the doorway. "Short version is I need a place to stay for a couple of days."

"Care to give me the slightly longer version?" Jeff asked.

"Sure. I may have had a teensy accident the other day, trying to put away my stash of drink in the utility room while drunk as a Dutchman, and dropped a case of rum. Not a bottle, a full case, that I had been saving for a special occasion, like the next time Britta is single. Well it turns out that ants seem to like rum, and a day or two later, they overran the utility room with the rest of my hidden bottles, and were advancing into some of the downstairs apartments. Needless to say, the super is having the place fumigated, so I'm homeless for a few days while the little buggers are gassed." Jeff tried not to laugh. It was so typically Duncan.

"So why did you decide that I was the best place to crash?" he asked.

"Well, I would have just stayed with my mother, but she is ailing, and I've already put in my quota of dutiful son time for the month. Plus, she has a strict 'no alcohol in the house' policy so it's just not practical."

"Fine, you can crash on the couch for a few days." Duncan frowned.

"This nice giant apartment compared to your old one, and you don't have a guest room?"

"I don't usually have guests who stay the night," Jeff pointed out. "And it means I have space for a real exercise room."

"And most the guests you have who are staying the night are sharing your bed, am I right?" Duncan said with a sly grin and an elbow to the side. Jeff nodded in agreement, though in truth he hadn't done anything like that in a while, since well before he moved into this new apartment. Though Kim had hinted that she would be willing, Jeff wasn't sure. It even felt weird having Ian congratulate him for non-existent conquests. The urge to add new trophies to his collection had not been on his mind for a while now. Fortunately none of this thoughts made it to his face, and Duncan elbowed him again.

"You can have the couch," Jeff repeated. At least he considered Ian to be a friend, compared to when he had Chang for a roommate. No way this could end up worse than that.

Thursday.

"You know, we can have lunch at places that aren't Senor Kevin's," Jeff pointed out to the woman sitting across from him.

"What's wrong with eating here?" Shirley asked around a bite of her enchilada.

"Not wrong, just...don't you want to try other places occasionally? Other restaurants?"

"Why would I?" she responded. "I normally have home cooked or meals from the sandwich shop, so having Mexican is out of the usual for me. And the food's cheap. Some of us have three kids to clothe and feed you know," she pointed out. Jeff gave up. Sometimes it felt like none of his friends were willing to go out of their food comfort zone. Half simply couldn't afford to, and the other half were content to eat at the same three places all the time. It had been a long time since he had been able to go out on the town and try some place he had never heard of. It was one of the things Jeff missed about his pre-Greendale life.

They ate in silence for a few minutes before Shirley spoke again. "I heard you are letting Duncan stay over at your place." Seemed that the rumor mill worked as fast as usual.

"Yeah, his place is being fumigated, and he needed somewhere to stay."

"That's nice." she cooed. "You're being a good Samaritan to someone in need." Sometimes, given her past, Jeff wondered if Shirley really believed all those empty platitudes, or just wore them like a cloak to keep her true persona in check. Deep down, she was a lot more Old Testament than New.

"It's nothing major, just letting him crash on the couch for a few days," he shrugged off the praise anyways and poked at his tamale again.

"Are you still going to be able to look after the kids this weekend? I've been looking forward to my trip with Andre to the hot springs for a while now, and the hotel deposit is non-refundable," Shirley pointed out sweetly.

"No need to guilt trip me. I said I'd do it, didn't I? It's Duncan, so I'm not worried about him trying to saw off table legs or anything. I may have to lock the liquor cabinet, but he should be fine for a day or two. I have Netflix that he can use. Maybe he can even find out why some of the settings keep changing."

"Yes, that is annoying. Someone keeps upvoting Hellraiser on mine," Shirley told him. "You sure someone else isn't using it? Sometimes I find weird movies and shows that Andre picked out."

"I haven't given anyone else the password," Jeff protested.

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out. And at least it is just Netflix, and not something truly important. Speaking of important, have you had time to look over the franchise proposal for the restaurant?"

Jeff tried not to cough and spray rice across the table. He barely succeeded, but nearly choked as a result. After a moment to recover and a sip of water, he glowered at Shirley. "That was a terrible segue, you know that."

"Well, you have been avoiding the question," she countered.

"That's because like I told you before, business law isn't my area of expertise. I did stuff like DUIs and personal injury claims where what mattered was convincing a jury to do what I wanted them to. Business law is all paperwork and filing and red tape," Jeff tried to explain.

"So what you are saying is that you don't feel like doing a little hard work?" Shirley accused in her low, threatening tone. Jeff found himself on the defensive.

"No, it's not that, it's just I don't want to make a mistake that ruins you because I filed some form incorrectly. I know a couple guys who specialize in this stuff who owe me a favor or two. I could have one of them take a look at things," he offered.

"Jeffery, you know the reason Pierce and I agreed to make you the legal representative for the business is that we trust you, and not the sleazy types you used to work for!" Her voice was back to syrupy sweet. Jeff gave up.

"Fine, I'll read through it this weekend," he said, defeated as Shirley beamed at him.

Friday.

"Interim Professor Winger to the Dean's office, Interim Professor Winger to the Dean's office!"

Jeff started as the message echoed through the storage room that he sometimes used as a hideout. With Duncan still crashed at his place, he found that he needed somewhere he could have a bit of peaceful alone-time, with no-one bothering him. But the dean had still managed to invade this temporary haven. With a groan, he stood up, brushing off the dust that marred his clothes, and answered the summons. Hopefully it was something stupid and minor, rather than another disaster only Jeff and friends seemed able to fix.

Walking down the hall to the administration area, a cluster of students were huddled around individuals hawking the various Greendale papers. "Ass Crack Bandit Strikes again!" one shouted. "Crime wave hits campus!" another countered. Jeff just ignored them, skirting the mob. It seemed like every year or so rumors spread about the Bandit. Annie had made it one of her goals to hunt the Bandit down, and collected everything she could in a glittery binder. Jeff had helped her a few times when she asked, but generally thought the whole thing was overblown. Hopefully it wasn't what the dean wanted to see him about.

Jeff barely stepped into the administration office when Pelton pounced. "Jeffery, I'm so glad to see you!" Jeff deftly dodged a hug and shared a glance with Nicole, the secretary, who rolled her eyes at her boss's antics.

"Well, you did page the entire campus looking for me," he grumbled. Pelton just waved him into his inner office and Jeff reluctantly followed.

"I'm going to tell it to you straight, Jeffery. I have good news and less good news."

"You mean bad news."

"Well, not exactly. Calling it bad news would be a little bit negative, and that doesn't seem fair."

Jeff crossed his arms and glared. "OK, bad news first."

"It's not bad, bad, it's just a little awkward..."

"Dean!"

"Fine, fine. It turns out that the budget for paying you as a consultant to teach a class has dried up, so we really can't afford to pay you what we were..."

"What!" Jeff shouted in dismay. "I'm not getting paid?"

"No, no, I didn't say that. It's just that Greendale can't afford to pay you as a consultant. That brings us to the good news. I know that your degree is in education."

"What, have you been snooping in my email again?" Jeff groused.

"No, you declared your major last year. It's in your school transcripts. I haven't been in your mail for weeks now." That was less than comforting. "But it's good news in that means we can hire you on as an official professor, and call it an internship until you graduate."

"You pay your teachers like minimum wage here!"

"Well, it's better than not being able to pay you at all isn't it?" Pelton soothed. "And you would get the use of an office, and vouchers for courses here, and discounts at the Greendale Mall, including Yoghurtsburgh."

Jeff winced. The extreme drop in income would hurt, but there really wasn't anything he could do about it. And admittedly, he was getting some satisfaction out of teaching, more than he expected he would when he first agreed to sub.

"Additionally, we could use you to teach another class if you were willing." Pelton took his sullen silence as grounds to continue. "Greendale is expanding it's legal department, and you would be perfect to teach a class or two, having been a big shot lawyer and all."

"You do realize that the entire reason I am here in the first place is that I got caught with a fake degree, right?" Jeff pointed out. "I was a great lawyer, but the actual law didn't tend to factor into it," he admitted.

"Well, Greendale has a quota of degrees we have to meet each year, and the state isn't too picky on the specifics. And expanding our legal department will open us up for more state funding."

"You want me to help you make this place into more of a diploma mill than it already is?" Jeff protested.

"Let's face it, Jeffrey. You may see that as a negative, but this is the only place where a lot of our students even have a chance to get a degree. And the extra money may be the only thing standing between this place getting shut down, or being able to finally remove the asbestos from the library. And if you agree to teach the extra classes, I can bump your pay rate up a bit, maybe even scrounge up a signing bonus of some sort."

A knock at the door precluded any reply. An elderly man walked in, bald with a lined face and white beard. "Hey, Pelton! When are you going to drop off the checks? The sharks are circling in the lounge!"

"Right, right. I have them right here!" The dean pulled a fistful of envelopes out of the rawer and stood up. "Professor Hickey, this is Jeff. He may be joining the faculty, and if he does, he will be sharing an office with you." Hickey just raised an eyebrow and the dean handed him one of the envelopes and left. Hickey turned to gaze at Jeff.

"Jeff huh? You must be the new kid that people have been talking about." Jeff stood up. The old man looked like he rivaled Pierce in age, but Jeff was not as young as "kid" made him sound. In fact Jeff was not as young as he would like to be, or even admitted to being. Still, there was no reason to be impolite.

"Jeff Winger. I've been filling in for public speaking until I can get out of here," he introduced himself and held out a hand.

The old man gave a gruff laugh and shook his hand. "Buzz Hickey, criminology. And I used to think like you do. Temporary job, hah! That's what I said when I started."

"And how long ago was that?" Jeff wondered hesitantly.

"Somewhere around 14 years ago at this point. Used to be a cop, started doing this when that fell through, and here I still am." When he put it like that, maybe taking Mark up on his offer wasn't such a bad idea after all. "Come on, let me show you the office. You seem alright, so I don't mind sharing. And I can show you some of the ropes." Wordlessly Jeff followed the man out of the office and down the hall. Before long Hickey was pushing open a door and Jeff followed him into the surprisingly spacious room. It was rather spartan, with a fake plant, a cheap shelf, what looked like a case of MREs, and a bulletin board with old newspaper clippings and some sketches of a deformed animal stuck to one wall.

"Homey," Jeff couldn't help but snark.

"I'm not the interior decorator type," Hickey shot back and Jeff grinned. "That would be your side. Desk, chair, lamp, shelf. Nothing exciting, but at least the desk and chair both come from the 70's, when this place was Greendale Computery College with real funding under Borchart, so they are high end for the time and have held up. If you do move in, I'll help you out some, but don't expect any warm fuzzies. This place is a zoo, and not the petting kind. Now if you'll excuse me, I plan to take a long lunch and cash this, maybe see if I an afford all my pills this month."

The old man left Jeff to stare at the office furniture. Was this his fate? Destined to suffer as a washed up teacher at a sixth rate community college? His previous career as a lawyer may not have been the most ethical thing ever, but surely this was karmic overkill on the punishment. He sat down in the chair at his hypothetical future desk and spun it in circles a few times. It was a pretty nice chair, he had to admit.

Going back to being a lawyer had been his only goal when he enrolled, his dream, his driving force. But now this place had corrupted him, she had corrupted him, and now thoughts of his old life had lost much of the luster. He didn't plan on throwing away Mark's card anytime soon though.

Jeff rolled the idea of continuing to teach for another semester over in his head. The pay sucked, but it was still pay, and the few checks he had gotten so far had allowed him to build up enough reserve that he would not be broke for a while. Plus the commute was easy when he was already coming here for his remaining classes. He could keep doing it while he laid the groundwork for his return to law, either with Mark, or hopefully on his own. No reason not to right? He could leave Greendale anytime. Just because Hickey had never left didn't mean Jeff was destined to follow in his footsteps. Maybe he should track down Pelton and see what sort of signing bonus the dean was thinking of.

Saturday.

Jeff sat on the couch and stared again at the much crumpled paper in his hand. The digits were burned into his memory by now, and he had punched them into the phone at least a dozen times already, but had yet to work up the courage to finally hit call. Until now. After watching a hokey Spy Kids movie (though it did have Jessica Alba so it wasn't all bad) Jordan and Elijah were in their room playing on their X-box, the occasional youthful shout of glee or annoyance drifting out. Toddler Ben was down for a nap, and Jeff had a few minutes alone with the phone.

He had put a lot of thought into this. He wasn't sure what to expect from talking to his father for the first time in the years since he simply left. Calling while watching after Shirley's children meant that he would have to keep collected (he had accidentally taught Jordan a profanity before, and he did not want a repeat of Shirley's wrath over that little incident) and would not be able to retreat behind the shield of alcohol. At the same time, looking after the children provided a ready-made excuse to end the conversation at any point.

There was an eternity between each ring. Somewhere between forever and three rings, the receiver at the other end was picked up. "Hello?" asked a surprisingly young voice. It didn't match his memories of a rather gruff tone, and he released the nervous breath he had been holding.

"I'm sorry, I think I have the wrong number," Jeff apologized to the voice. "I was looking for a William Winger." All that anxiety over calling a number that wasn't even the right one!

"Which one?" the voice asked. Jeff froze.

"What do you mean, which one?" he replied dumbly.

"My dad and I both live here, and we are both William Wingers, but I normally go by Willy or Junior," the voice explained earnestly.

"Is your father William James Winger?" Jeff asked suspiciously.

"That's him! I guess you are looking for him?" Willy asked.

"Yeah, I am. Or I was," Jeff muttered, dazed.

"Should I tell him you called? And who is this?"

Jeff clicked the call end button instead of replying. What the hell? What the hell! The phone dropped from his limp hand, but fortunately landed on the couch rather than the hard floor. Dad had another kid? One he apparently still lived with, and hadn't run out on? What the hell!

His memories of William raced through his head. Being left at the zoo. Drunken rants. The occasional beating, followed by profuse apologies and gifts of action figures. Those toys and a shared love of boxing were among the few memories Jeff was still fond of. Eventually the way his father had spent more and more time away from home, until one day he just didn't come back and is mother filed for divorce.

Jeff just sat for a moment in a haze of shock. He had to remind himself to breathe. As a child, he had imagined all sorts of reasons that his father had left, all sorts of explanations. He imagined that his father really loved them, and that he was actually a spy who had to leave in order to protect them. He imagined that his father was a drifter, unable to stay in one place too long, like characters in old westerns. For a few months while on a sci-fi kick he had even considered the idea that his father was an alien who had to return home. Unlike most kids who went through a divorce, he had never blamed himself for his father leaving, and his mother had heaped praise and love on him, so he never considered it a broken home. Still, the time was a (re)formative one for him- a bad experience with a bully that turned out to be Shirley in one of those quirks of fate led him to latch onto his mother's divorce lawyer as a role model, setting him on the path that ended with him here.

Here was not that bad a place. Jeff may have traded a lucrative but shallow career as a lawyer for the joke that was Greendale, but he had people who loved him and he in return, including one that he was actively sacrificing his own happiness to guarantee hers. But this new information, that his father had basically tried again to have a family and seemingly succeeded this time... What did that make Jeff and his mother? A failure of a family? Not good enough? A test run to be discarded for a real family?

Ben crying snapped him out of his funk. Jeff choked down the bile burning the back of his throat and cursed his own brilliance. Now was the perfect time to down an entire fifth of scotch, but instead he had to go and most likely change a wet diaper. With no other alternative at the moment, he merely balled up his emotions and locked them away in the box deep inside, the one kept at bay by aloofness, sarcasm, and a narcissistic focus on his physical appearance. He would deal with it later. Right now he was still responsible for three children. Focus on that, and ignore the rest.

Sunday.

It was nearly 9:30 PM, three hours later than she had promised, when Shirley and Andre finally made it home to find Jeff asleep in their armchair. The kids were in bed, and thanks to having watched Avengers earlier with Jordan and Elijah, Jeff had been in the middle of a dream starring himself as Iron Man and Annie as Captain America fighting Loki, who was actually his father, thanks to dream logic. he two had apologized profusely, but their body language and the glow about them didn't look all that apologetic. Jeff couldn't really begrudge them some time to spend together, as the work at the sandwich shop have been putting a strain on their renewed relationship. If he hadn't offered to watch their kids from time to time (which also let him escape his own place and annoying neighbor), he could easily imagine the two souring again.

Still, he wasn't going to admit as much, so he extracted a promise for catering for a sports party of his choosing, and a temporary extension of the deadline for him to decide on Thanksgiving plans. He didn't want to have to decide yet whether to spend the holiday alone, or suffer through the awkwardness of the typical Bennett holiday experience. The day hadn't exactly been bad, but it had been long and exhausting, following up on a rough week. He could feel the throb of a tension headache, a more frequent event recently, even if he didn't start having them at age nine. Maybe it would help to talk to someone. There was no way he was going to call his therapist and rack up off-clock charges in addition to the normal semi-obscene rates, but fortunately there was one other person he trusted enough to open up to and was nice enough to listen even this late at night. He dialed the number labeled "guru" in his contacts.

It took a few rings, but then a groggy voice answered. "Jeff? I haven't heard from you in a while."

"Sorry for calling you so late, Rich, but I just needed someone to talk to about this week I've been having." Jeff was glad there was no one in the car to scold him about talking on the phone and driving. It was odd. Despite initially hating Rich Stephenson on sight, after he had turned down Annie's interest in him, Jeff had relaxed around the man and even went to him for advice. They had bonded over mutual stories of parental problems, and while they weren't exactly friends, Rich had somehow gone from a rival to perhaps the one person Jeff was able to open up to about everything, including his childhood issues or the situation with Annie.

"Late? Right, time zones. It's actually a tad after six AM here, so you just woke me up a bit earlier than usual."

"Six AM? Where are you?" Jeff wondered.

"I'm in Paris for the doctor exchange program I told you about last time we talked. Six months at Hôtel-Dieu de Paris teaching some of the new methods and devices for treating trauma patients."

Jeff shook his head, despite the other man not being able to see it. "Sorry, I forgot about that completely. And in the interest of honesty, I gave up on the basket weaving thing a few months back."

"That's OK. I suppose it's just not your thing." Neither was pottery, or gardening, but Jeff had given both a try as well under Rich's tutelage. "I have a few minutes to talk before I have to be up and going, so what's going on?"

"It's just been a rougher week than normal," Jeff sighed. "I'm already busy with classes, and now teaching a class for Pelton, and all the little things that usually just annoy me have been piling up."

"You're teaching a class?" Rich asked. "How are you liking it?"

"Well, I was standing in for a public speaking professor who got fired, but I just signed a deal to teach a couple of intro law classes next semester. It's a lot more work than I really care for, but it's also not miserable, and there are a few students I have some hope for."

"That's good to hear. You do well as a guide and leader, it's nice to see you putting those skills to good use. But what is the real reason you called?"

"What do you mean?" Even when he was willing to confide in someone like Rich or his therapist, Jeff still had difficulty actually opening up. Fortunately, by now, the people he talked to understood.

"I know you are willing to talk to me, and trust me Jeff, but you don't call me at what I assume is ten at night there after three months of not calling just because of a stressful week."

"I called my dad," Jeff admitted.

"I see. How did that go?" Rich had heard plenty from Jeff over the past couple years about his long deadbeat father, just as Jeff knew quite a bit about Rich's perfectionist, unpleasable mother.

"I...didn't actually talk to him. It turns out he has another son. He left my mom and me, and now I have a half brother, someone he cares about enough to stick around for." Unable to take the time to fully consider the implications before, Jeff spent the next twenty minutes muddling through the tempest of anger, disappointment, and confusion the revelation had inspired. Rich didn't interrupt, merely listening to his tirade. Finally Jeff wound down.

"What do you plan to do?" Rich asked softly.

"I don't know. I'm still processing it. I haven't even actually talked to him yet, that was all the result of a thirty second phone call with the half-brother I apparently have now." Jeff took a deep breath and a bit of the tension eased from his neck and shoulders. "It took me long enough to call in the first place, it's going to take some time to figure out my next step. I should probably talk to my mom though, bring her up to speed."

"Sounds like a good idea," Rich agreed.

There was silence on the line for a few moments. "I know it isn't much, but thanks for letting me vent. I should let you go get ready for surgery or class or whatever you have planned."

"Wait. I have a question. How is Annie doing?" Rich asked.

"Annie? She's fine. Why?" After everything to do with his father, the question seemed like a non-sequitor.

"You may have called to talk about your father and what happened, but I know the two of you. And no matter what you call about, you always at least mention her, except this time."

Jeff was too emotionally wrung out to bother denying or evading. "Things are kind of awkward right now," he admitted. He paused and then asked softly, "how did you do it?"

"How did I do what?"

"When she asked you out, how did you say no to Annie, yet she still thinks you are a great person?"

"I just explained that she was too young for me, and that I wasn't interested in her that way."

Jeff snorted. "Not interested in Annie? That's hard to believe."

"She's a great girl, but she just really isn't my type," Rich explained. "And I know the real reason she was asking me was to make you jealous. I didn't want to get caught in the middle like that. Why? Did she ask you out?"

"No, and I don't intend to let her. I've been trying to push her away, and wanted to know how you did it without hurting her," Jeff admitted.

"What? Why would you do that? You've told me how you feel about her." Rich sounded confused, and Jeff couldn't blame him. "Is this decision recent? Did something happen, you meet someone else?"

"No, my feelings haven't changed. The problem is that I can't give her what she wants, and it's time for her to accept that. We've been dancing around each other for a while now, it's long past time she moved on."

"Can't give her what? Rich asked. "You care about her more than you admit. So what is it you think you can't give her?"

"I can't give her a relationship. I'd only end up hurting her in the end, and she deserves someone who won't do that to her. Someone better than me."

"Is this because of what you discovered about your father?"

"Of course not! I've been thinking about this for a while now, long before yesterday!" Jeff snarled. "But it certainly confirms that she deserves better than a Winger!"

"Don't be an idiot," Rich snapped, startling Jeff. It was the first time he had heard the doctor ever shout. "Why do you assume that you will hurt her? You aren't him! You haven't even talked to the man in what, twenty-five years? Imagining that you will turn out like him is idiotic. What's more, it sounds to me like an excuse. You say you don't want to hurt her, but maybe you are the one who is scared of the idea of a relationship."

"Maybe I am!" Jeff shot back. "But maybe I know myself pretty well, and though I am trying, I'm not a nice guy like you are. And I'd rather push Annie away or even lose her than get her hopes up and then crush them when I turn out to be my father's son and abandon her to have a kid with someone else! I don't think I could live with hurting her like that!"

"You really imagine the worst of yourself, Rich said sadly. "But think about this: even now, you are hurting her." Rich pointed out softly. "What right do you have to be the person who decides what she 'deserves?' Shouldn't she be able to make decisions about what she wants or deserves, what she is willing to risk?"

"Better a little hurt now, that she can heal from, than something worse later that she can't," Jeff said, gritting his teeth. The same was true for him as well. "I should let you go, get ready for your day." He may be running away from the conversation, but it was better than admitting that Rich might be right.

"Fine, Jeff. But I'll still be here if you need to talk about it."

"Right. Au revoir!" Jeff clicked off the phone and threw it in the passenger seat where it bounced and landed on the floor. The headache and tension were worse than before.

Monday.

"No, Troy, while I agree that Kari is hot, I do not want to watch a Mythbusters marathon with you guys," Jeff shook his head.

"Why not?" the younger man protested, as the two walked across a campus glittering with a light dusting of snow. "You haven't come over to just hang out in a long time. We could play Call of Duty again, like old times!" he tried to cajole.

"I stopped hanging out with you and Abed after you said Britta told horror stories about me, and you couldn't deal with knowing certain things," Jeff clarified, slightly bitterly. "And Battlefield is a better game anyways."

"How about Halo then? The new one just came out on Tuesday. Didn't you hear?" Troy tried again.

"I missed it. Kind of busy between class, Britta asking for a favor, and voting. And now I still have to deal with taking classes, teaching a class, and a temporary roommate who is rapidly wearing out his welcome. Beating up profanity spewing pre-teens on X-Box live is not my idea of a relaxing day. And why are you so persistent, now, all of the sudden?" Jeff wondered.

"Well, if you came over to play, we could invite Pavel again and have four players. We used to ask Annie, but last time we let her play online, she got our account suspended for a week for yelling at some kid when she got competitive. So she's not allowed to play on our X-Box Live anymore."

"How about Britta?" Jeff tried, as he warily eyed the group of septuagenarians and octogenarians who were scraping the meager drifts of snow into projectiles. Garrett was already shivering from several direct hits by the elders playing in the show.

"No, not Britta. She's still moping about forgetting to vote, even though the black guy beat the old white guy anyways. And you know what she says about the games we play."

"Did you ask Molly yet? She is over there a lot as it is." Jeff pointed out.

"No. She says that Abed and I get too intense when we play video games. When she comes over, she's mainly doing either girlfriendy things with Abed or having Annie help her study. It works out, the two girls get along well, and she can kind of buffer between Annie and Abed when I am not there. Lets me hang out with Britta and not have to break up arguments about salmon vs buttered noodles." Troy's voice sped up to kind of gloss over the later sentences. Jeff knew things weren't always happy rainbows and kittens between the three roommates, but none of them really brought it up if they could help it.

"Speaking of arguments, have you figured out why Molly and Britta don't get along? I heard about yours and Abed's attempt at a double date."

"I don't have a clue," Troy said helplessly. "We don't want to just come out and ask why they don't like each other, but it makes things awkward sometimes. Me and Abed are besties, and the saying is 'bros before hos' after all, but this whole girlfriend thing is complicated enough for both of us without the two of them fighting for no apparent reason."

Jeff was about to answer when a snowball whizzed past his head, far too close for comfort. The perpetrator was Leonard, as he would have guessed. Waving a finger at Troy in a sign for one minute, Jeff scooped up a handful of snow and shaped it into a deadly projectile of snow and shards of ice. He lined up his aim and threw it, hoping for a direct hit on Leonard's balding head, where it would drip cold water down into the man's collar.

It made it barely half the distance between them before dipping and crashing to earth with a small piff sound. Leonard simply laughed. "Hah! My mother can throw better than you, Winger!"

"Shut up, Leonard! You fought for the wrong Korea!" Jeff shot back. The old man didn't reply, only bending down to scoop up another handful of snow. Jeff grabbed Troy's arm and hurried them away, putting more distance between them and the cadre of white-hairs who had started to fixate on the pair as potential new targets now that Garrett had made his way sniffling indoors. His own hands were cold from trying to make a snowball without gloves, so he wrapped them around his coffee cup. His Keurig was proving to be well worth the hassle and expense, and was actually cheaper than daily trips to Starbucks or the old Hot and Brown. And had even served him well recently when dealing with Shirley's kids. If he could get the temperamental little coffee maker to bow to his will, children were easy. Once they were clear of the line of fire and his hands free from the danger of frostbite, he returned his attention to the conversation with Troy.

"Maybe I could just ask Britta myself," Jeff offered. "She does owe me for letting her do that announcement."

"Would you?" Troy latched onto the idea almost desperately. "It might help make things make more sense."

"What things make more sense?" Jeff wondered. Troy looked uncomfortable then pointed behind him.

"Is that Pierce following us with a pair of binoculars?" he asked in a blatant attempt to change the topic.

"Yes, he's been following me around for a few days now. His dragon-flier got shot down by a snowball last week, so he's been spying on me in person for some reason. Apparently he thinks that he can blend in with a crowd looking like he walked out of an Old Navy commercial."

"Why is he spying on you?"

"Not a clue. It's just one of the many annoyances I have had to deal with recently." Jeff shook his head in disgust. "And speaking of, don't change the subject. What's going on that doesn't make sense? Did you have a fight with Britta or something?"

"Why? Of course not! Did she say something? Did we have a fight and I not know about it? What did she say?" Troy clutched the sleeves of Jeff's jacket.

"Nothing," Jeff said, prying Troy's hands off of him. "But judging by the way you are acting, there is something going on. What's wrong?" Normally he was pretty hands off when it came to Troy and Britta, but it was best to try to defuse any potential problems before they grew. When Troy and Abed got into a fight, the entire campus tended to get involved in things like massive pillow fights that resulted in certain other people ignoring his texts. Conflicts between himself and Britta tended to result in nastier, more personal confrontations that saw other people getting hurt. Jeff'd rather not find out which direction a potential Troy/Britta fight or breakup would skew.

Troy took a deep breath. "I don't know. It's just that me and Britta have been together for a little while now, but it still doesn't feel real. We had our six month anniversary a few weeks back, and neither of us remembered until Annie asked if we did anything special for it, which we didn't. We're friends, and hang out more than we used to, and sleep together fairly often, but it doesn't feel like we are actually an 'us.' I like her, and don't want to see her get hurt because I have no idea what I am doing as a boyfriend. This is the first serious relationship I have been in, while she has been in a few, so she might have different expectations that I don't know about. I just don't know," he sighed. "I wish this whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing came more naturally, made more sense." He glanced over at Jeff. "I'd ask you for more advice, but since you and Britta used to...well it feels odd to talk to you about her." Jeff nodded.

"I can see that. I could tell you a few things that might help, but we never really did the whole emotional relationship side of things."

"No, you never did, not with Britta at least," said Troy, with a calculating glint in his eye that suddenly made him appear far wiser than a moment before. "It's something that I'll have to figure out, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Just take it easy and don't try to force things. Don't worry about Britta's previous relationships. Even including myself, she hasn't had the best track record of picking guys to go out with. This thing with you is probably the healthiest relationship she has ever been in. So don't over-think it. There isn't any sort of relationship checklist or guidelines you need to follow, despite what Abed may think. Just do what makes the two of you happy. Anyways, want to change the subject?" Jeff asked the younger man.

"Sure." The glint was back. "Annie thinks you're avoiding her," Troy stated without inflection. Jeff tried not to cough, or react at all at the comment.

"Really?" he replied, stalling for time to catch his mental footing. "Why does she think that?"

"Because you have kinda been avoiding her. You two used to hang out, do those little adventures together, but not the last few weeks." Damn. It was true, he had been minimizing the time spent alone with Annie, or even near Annie in general, so his own resolve in forcing her to move on did not falter. It was hard enough with Annie suddenly seeming more intent on spending time with him just as he was trying for the opposite. He couldn't give into the bulldog determination she had decided to turn on him, the ambition that made her such a strong person. He had to remain aloof, prevent the two of them into falling into their natural state of connection. Avoid any of their adventures where they bonded without the open acknowledgement of the romantic undercurrent. And once her new determination wore out and she did finally take the hint and find someone better for her, the distance would dull the pain and the natural jealousy at whoever ended up receiving and openly reciprocating her boundless affection. Talking with Rich made him feel a lot guiltier about it, but Jeff was still set in his determination. Unfortunately, Jeff hadn't planned for the others to notice, much less call him out on it.

"Why would I be avoiding Annie?" he tried to turn the question around. It partially worked.

"I don't know," Troy admitted. "And she doesn't either. Her latest theory is that you are still mad at her for that lecture she gave you about being a proper teacher."

"Huh? Oh, that. No, I'm not mad at her." Jeff may have whined about hating her after she gave him a stack of books on teaching, but that was mainly for show. Plus, after skimming through some of them, he had found some useful advice and tips.

"Are you sure? She's getting worried about you, and been acting a bit odd herself. Annie's been pushing herself even harder than usual, so it seems like there is something she hasn't told us about. If Abed understands why, he hasn't shared it with me. Personally, I think it's because of something you did or said to her. You tend to be the only one who can put her in this kind of funk. What's going on?" Troy asked.

"It's complicated," Jeff bit out, with as much hint of 'drop it' as he could fit into two words without biting his friend's head off in the process.

"Complicated like me and Britta?"

Yes. "No."

"Right." Troy nodded. "Something for you to figure out on your own?"

"Something like that," Jeff agreed.

"Should I tell Annie that?" he asked. Jeff shook his head. Troy was too earnest, and would probably say something that would just make Annie try harder to dig the truth out of him.

"That would just make things even more complicated. Let me handle this."

"Will you talk to Britta about Molly and let me know what she says?" Troy wheedled.

"Fine, sure, whatever. Can we just drop this?" Jeff nearly begged.

"Deal. And if you need advice from me, you know where to find me. I owe you one."

Tuesday.

Jeff avoided looking up at the knock on his office door. He was coming to fear the sound of a hand rapping on imitation wood. Nothing good seemed to come of it. It was always some overeager student with a question, another professor looking in on the new neighbor, or Pelton trying to entice him to commit to the teaching position next semester. And it was always for Jeff, never the gruff criminology professor who shared the office. At least that had provided a hidden bonus to the situation- Jeff had been able to quietly convince Hickey to let Annie transfer into his class and the other classes she had wanted, all without her knowing. Eventually that meant that she would be coming to this office to pester Hickey with questions and suggestions, meaning one less place he could hide from her, but the trade off of her getting to take the classes she was really enthusiastic about was worth it.

Still, when the noise repeated, Jeff resigned himself to the fact that this was currently his office, he was temporarily (hopefully) an instructor, and these were the posted office hours, a tradition that Annie had made clear to him was to be observed if he wanted to take teaching seriously. "Come in!"

"Hi, Jeff." The soft voice forced him to look up and do a double take at the brunette standing there.

"Michelle? What...where?" he tried to ask. After the night of the Tranny Dance, the one where both she and Britta and both declared their love for him, a night burned into his memory because of the third option he had chosen, Michelle Slater had simply disappeared. Jeff swallowed and took a deep breath, taking a moment to regain his cool poise. "Have a seat." he waved at the chair across from his desk. "What happened to you?" he wondered.

Michelle smiled and took the seat. She glanced at the bowl of what Jeff only assumed were pistachios, but refrained from eating any. A good choice, they had been on the desk before Jeff got it. "I know I disappeared after that night, and I'm sorry. My sister got into a car accident, so I have been out in Seattle taking care of her and her niece while she went through rehab," Slater explained.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jeff offered, not quite sure how to respond.

"It's alright. Susan is finally able to work again, so I'm moving back here, where all my friends and my house are. I was just in to talk to the dean about getting my job back here."

Jeff shook his head in disbelief. "I can see moving back here. But wanting to come back to work here? You've been here before. The gym teacher is a drug dealer, the fire exits don't actually lead outside, and until recently, the dean bought most of his wardrobe from the women's' section of the costume store!"

Slater smiled at his vehemence. "You really haven't changed, have you, Jeff," she said softly, with an appraising look. He wasn't sure if she meant it as a compliment or not. Also, he wasn't sure if he wanted her to be right or not. He had grown as a person since coming here and meeting…the group, right? "I had some other reasons to come back to work here." Again with the speculative look. "So how is Britta?"

"Britta?" the topic change caught Jeff flatfooted, but Michelle had managed to do that to him. Her ability to keep up with him in wit, and the fact she was quite hot, were the main reasons he had been attracted to her in the first place. "Britta's fine. Studying psychology now."

"No wedding ring yet, though?"

"Huh?"

She pointed at his hand. "No wedding ring."

"Why would I have a wedding ring?" Jeff looked at his hand, confused.

"Well, I figured that when I had to leave suddenly, that she would have 'won' by default. And it's been a few years, so I figured that by now…" Slater trailed off.

Suddenly it clicked and Jeff laughed. "Oh, no. No, no, no." From the perspective of someone who didn't know the other details of that night, he could see where her conclusion came from. "Britta and I aren't together. Still friends though. And married? The only way she and I would end up married would be either a drunken mistake in Vegas or if everything in life was falling apart around us. Besides, she and Troy are together now."

"Really?"

"Yes. For a few months now. They are having the usual ups and downs of a couple, which compared to the craziness that happens here on a daily basis makes them relatively boring, but they seem like a good fit." Michelle gave him a look like he had completely missed her point. Her next question confirmed that he had.

"What about you? Anyone special in your life right now, if not Britta?"

Jeff gulped. "It's complicated," he replied a bit too quickly. He had been using that phrase far too often recently. On the other hand. however trite, it had the benefit of being true. He currently had two different Annies in his life right now, one he cared about deeply but was pushing away, and the other who he was spending time with on mostly-platonic dates. Neither were currently options for real romance, partially due to the woman sitting across from him.

Jeff's first love had been Nora, who he met shortly after he cheated his was into passing the Bar. They had gotten along like a house on fire, and he had even gotten to like her young son, but then things started getting too serious and Jeff had left, which he still felt guilty about. A series of one night stands and casual flings later, and Slater had been the next person who he had invested in a real relationship with. But despite watching Glee, she had still dumped him. After that, Jeff decided not to get deeply involved anymore. The thing with Britta had been an emotionally barren friends with benefits arrangement, and despite their mutual attraction, he had long held Annie at arms length. He was simply unable to be in a meaningful relationship, and apparently it was genetic.

Evidently Michelle saw the flicker of emotions cross his face. "Complicated?" she repeated gently.

"Yeah, complicated." What an understatement.

She stood up without rancor. "Well, I won't push. But if you are interested in grabbing a coffee, you know where to find me."

"I do?"

"Pelton gave me my old office back," she smirked.

"Right." Jeff nodded as she left. He leaned back in his chair, and wobbled as the piece of furniture wobbled and threatened to tip over backwards. He threw his arm out and caught himself before the treacherous chair took him down. It was a sign that life really was out to get him.

Jeff sighed and opened the bottom drawer of the desk, the one with a lock. Inside was his collection of childhood G.I. Joe toys he had dug out and then stashed for when he got bored playing words with friends with random strangers. Hidden behind them was a bottle of whiskey, Hickey's "officewarming" gift. Jeff quickly downed a shot, daring life to throw something else at him in the hour before his next class.

Wednesday.

The knocking at his door should have been a surprise, but at this point, it really wasn't. He just could not catch a break to be alone and regroup. At least Duncan had been able to go back to his own apartment on Monday. He was a friend, but Jeff was glad to have avoided hearing the Englishman's thoughts or advice on the surprise return of Michelle.

Jeff pulled the door open and caught Abed in the middle of 'shave and a haircut.' The other man was carrying a backpack, not a duffel bag, but Jeff turned around anyways and left the door open for Abed to enter. "Couch is yours if you need it," he told him over his shoulder, "make yourself at home."

Abed wandered in, shutting the door behind him, and sat down. "Thank you. I'm not staying, I'm just hiding out."

"Hiding out? From who? This isn't some movie homage thing is it? Troy going to come knocking on my door as you fell through the bathroom window?" Jeff called as he loaded a cup into the Keurig.

"No, this is real. I'm hiding from Annie, and Molly," he admitted.

"So how does that lead to you coming here?" Jeff wondered.

"Well, they are both mad at me, and I figured this was the safest place to lay low for a few hours while they calm down. Molly doesn't know where you live, and Annie isn't going to come here unless you invite her," Abed reasoned. Jeff merely snorted. He may be right about Molly, but he didn't know Annie as well as he thought. When she was truly determined, things like hiding places or men's bathrooms weren't going to stop her. And while she wasn't quite to that point at the moment, Jeff himself was having a harder and harder time avoiding her. Sufficiently motivated, there was no reason she would not show up on his doorstep here to confront anyone inside. Jeff glanced around at the spartan feel of the room. She'd probably bring stuff to decorate the place a bit in the process.

"Why are they both ticked off? Same reason or different reasons?" he asked the younger man.

"Different reasons. Molly it is a relationship thing, Annie it is a roommate thing. But then both teamed up against me." Jeff snorted at the thought of the two much shorter girls forcing Abed to flee his own apartment.

"So you expect them to calm down and you can just go back later, all is forgiven? Do you understand women at all?" Jeff shook his head.

"Well, Annie finally took Pierce up on that shopping spree offer and took Molly with her, so a trip to the mall should make things better for them, right?" Abed said hopefully. Jeff winced.

"You do realize that real relationships are not going to follow the same cues as the ones in say a romantic comedy or a sitcom, right?"

"Well Troy and Britta seem to, and I've been advising Troy based on that assumption." Abed protested. Well, that explained a few things. "And you've been following the tropes of a romantic dramedy with..." Jeff cut him off.

"Real relationships don't have convenient script-writers to make everything work out in the end!"

Abed stared at him blankly for a moment, then rolled his eyes. "I know that life is not a television show. But the tropes that make up movies and shows are grounded in a real life basis."

"Just...just... never mind." Jeff sighed. "So those two are at the mall, shopping on Pierce's bankroll," Pierce had made Annie the offer for Christmas last year, but she had never accepted it, preferring to stand on her own. Jeff was somewhat curious about what made her finally change her mind. "So what was this fight about?"

"You're not going to try to stay aloof and involved until I coax you into listening to what happened and reluctantly offering me advice?"

Jeff shook his head. "Nope. I'm going to go get my coffee, and you are going to tell me exactly how you managed to piss off both the most loving and the most easygoing girl at Greendale, and then we will come up with a way to hopefully fix it before someone gets arrested or part of the school burns down." AS he wandered into the kitchen to match deeds to words, he grumbled under his breath about the burden of being the sane member of the group and how that meant he was stuck cleaning up the others' problems. If Abed overheard, he was tactful enough for once to not comment. Jeff added a splash to make the coffee at least mildly Irish and sat down. "All right, go ahead. What did you do to Annie?" After all, he knew her far, far better than Molly, so it should be easier to solve that part of the equation first. Get the angry friend and roommate out of the way before dealing with the angry girlfriend, which was likely to be more complex.

"I know why Annie is annoyed with me," Abed admitted, "but what I don't get is how strongly she reacted." Jeff waved for him to go on. "We had one of our usual little fights."

"Usual little fights?" Jeff repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Mainly roommate things. Stop borrowing my DVDs and not returning them. What to have for dinner. Who is going to clean the bathroom. Stop taking my stuffed animals to block out scenes, I can't sleep without them. Who keeps changing the thermostat. Things like that. They tend to be minor, and either blow over quickly, or Troy steps in and mediates."

"But Troy has been gone more because of his AC repair god thing, and because he has been spending time with Britta who doesn't get along with Molly," Jeff reasoned, "so he wasn't there to step in this time."

"Right. And Annie has been more tense this last month or two, and she just switched classes and has to catch up, and is under more stress than normal, if you haven't noticed." Abed's expression made it clear that he knew that Jeff had noticed. His next comment was equally pointed. "Normally you are around and can get her to calm down or relax a little, but you've been avoiding her, resulting in the opposite." Did he and Troy coordinate on this? Double-teaming was so their style. Jeff merely started impassively and ignored the barb. He did have a point though. Jeff was only trying to get Annie to move on from him, not to stress her out or lose her as a friend.

She tended to get offended whenever he pointed out she was being high-strung, but she also would admit he was right. He leaned back in consideration. "I suppose I can talk to her about taking a break here and there," he conceded. "Her trip to the mall is a good start. And if Troy gets back this evening, you may be good on that front. The trick will be to get her to blow off some steam more than just the once, especially when she is so invested in catching up in her transfer classes." Abed nodded and looked pleased. Maybe Jeff could negotiate Annie into taking more and longer breaks in exchange for access to the teacher's edition criminology textbooks. Hickey certainly wouldn't mind, they were just collecting dust in their shared office. "What was this particular fight about anyways?" Jeff wondered.

"Oh. Annie has been making breakfast recently, and normally she makes pancakes, which I like, but today she made waffles instead. We had a disagreement."

Jeff rolled his eyes and shoved down treacherous thoughts of Annie making breakfast for him or vice versa. "So basically you threw a temper tantrum over waffles," he said acidly.

"Breakfast is important to me!" Abed defended. Jeff vowed that if it happened again, he was taking Annie's side, and Abed was on his own.

"So barring Annie deciding to make eggs tomorrow or maybe cereal, god forbid, that should be sorted for now. So why is your girlfriend mad?"

Abed winced. "I know exactly why she is mad, I just don't know what to do about it."

"Care to enlighten the rest of the class?" Jeff demanded, though with a smirk. As an official professor at Greendale (but not for too long), he was looking forward to having a chance to use that particular phrase un-ironically.

"You know about coat-check girl, right?" Abed asked.

"I vaguely recall you mentioning the name once or twice."

"She's the girl who runs the coat check at the last couple Greendale dances. Kind of cute, wears glasses, kind of a Hollywod-nerd vibe to her." Abed explained as if it would really help.

"We don't have a coat check set up for the dances here," Jeff frowned. "If we did, that would have made my life a bit easier a few times. Pelton is so cheap that he still gets MREs for catering. And you're telling me he's been hiring a coat check girl and I haven't noticed?"

"Hmm. Well that makes her just a tad more mysterious. Anyways, she's run into me a few times around the campus, mainly just says hi, but I noticed that Molly gets rather quiet and frowny whenever she sees coat check girl, so I was thinking she is jealous for some reason. And I've found that incidents of major jealousy are often triggers for emotional outbursts that afterwards lead to closer relationships and better understanding."

"So you ran into coat check girl and flirted with her to intentionally make Molly jealous?" Jeff finished the story with a groan.

"Well, Molly didn't react at the time, but now she won't talk to me. I was expecting her to confront me, call me out on it or something. I'm off script here, and not sure how to proceed."

Jeff shook his head in disbelief. Abed was getting better at the whole 'relating to other humans' thing, but he still had a tendency to fall back onto a worldview that life was all a movie and followed certain rules.

"Abed, last I checked, you haven't even kissed this girl yet, and you decide to make her jealous by flirting with another girl? She's probably thinking that you aren't all that serious about a relationship, that you are just toying with her. You do it to your friends as well, and while it is annoying as hell when you try to manipulate us, we know you well enough that you sometimes just can't help it. But Molly doesn't know you like we do, so you may have really screwed the pooch." Abed sagged at the blunt pronouncement. "I don't know her all that well myself, so I don't have any advice about her. I think your best bet would be to simply tell her what you were thinking, that you were trying to make her jealous, and apologize for being an idiot and trying to manipulate her."

"You don't have some sort of uplifting speech to at least make me feel better?" Abed asked hopefully.

"No," Jeff replied bluntly. "You pretty much brought this on yourself in both cases. I know you expected me to be able to do more, but I really can't fix this for you. We all give you a lot of leeway, but sometimes you just need to own up to the consequences of toying with other people. Feel free to hang out here until you are done hiding, but if you pull something like this again, I'm going to be taking the girls' side. Now if you will excuse me, I have speech drafts to critique."

Jeff left Abed to sit in the living room, and tried to ignore the voice in his head that said pushing Annie away instead of telling her why they couldn't be together was not far removed from the way Abed tried to manipulate people for his own benefit. He shook it off and tried not to cringe as he read the opening to Garrett's draft.

Thursday.

By now, Jeff associated the soft rapping of fingers against a door as a harbinger of doom. Still, it couldn't be much worse than reading Pierce's paean to the classic barbershop he used weekly. It wasn't actually a bad speech, but it was the same spiel as Pierce had used multiple times to invite Jeff to go with him. "Come in!" he said and looked up, dropping the paper onto the desk. Again it was a brunette, but Jeff relaxed a tad when it turned out to be the least problematic of the bunch.

"Do you have a few minutes?" asked Molly hesitantly. She was dressed casually as always, in jeans and another of her apparently endless supply of pony shirts. She tried to look relaxed and casual, but there was tension in her face.

"Sure, what do you need?" Jeff replied, then glanced over to Hickey who was berating someone on the other end of the line. In less than a week, Jeff had learned enough about the old man's health issues and relationships to his sons to fill a lifetime. "Actually, why don't we take a walk," he offered, and Molly nodded in agreement.

Annie normally had enough energy to keep up with him at full stride, but Jeff had long since learned to slow his pace so she did not have to hurry. It was therefore trivial to adjust to the even shorter Molly so she was not forced to jog to stay next to him. He had also found a handy loop of hallways through the faculty area that tended to remain empty or nearly so, a fact he took advantage of when he got bored of sitting at his new desk and had to stretch his legs, or for the occasional walk and talk like now. He let Molly set the pace, but steered them around the first corner of the loop.

"I was wondering if you could give me some advice," she opened. Given his house guest yesterday, it wasn't unexpected.

"Advice about class, or advice about Abed?" he replied, and she looked up at him as though surprised. She rallied quickly though.

"Mainly about Abed," she admitted. "But I also have a couple questions for you, if you are willing," she added.

"Let me guess. coat check girl fiasco?" he prodded. Jeff had learned early to stay clear of the love lives of his friends, and Abed deserved what he had caused, but Molly was a good kid, and she was slowly worming her way into his circle of friends.

"How did you...her told you didn't he. Of course he told you," she muttered.

"Yep. He spent most of yesterday on my couch, hiding," Jeff admitted cheerfully. It wasn't exactly throwing the other man under the bus since Molly didn't know where Jeff lived, but it still felt satisfying.

"So what did he tell you?" she asked.

"That you two are having a fight. He noticed that you don't like this coat check girl person, so he intentionally flirted with her to make you jealous, hoping you would confront him and you two could have a 'moment,' but you are apparently ignoring him and he doesn't know what to do." Jeff refrained from editorializing during the succinct summary.

Molly easily caught the most pertinent detail. "He did this on purpose?" she repeated, annoyed. "Why? I don't get it!" It really should be Abed here explaining this himself, but the man seemed constitutionally unable to approach things like a normal person, and it would probably help if Molly was forewarned before Abed pulled whatever stunt he was undoubtedly planning in his attempt to apologize.

"He really can't help it You know that he isn't exactly normal, though to be fair that's kind of a given for coming to Greendale. In addition to his mix of neuroses like non-digital clocks or Nicholas Cage, he tends to treat the world like it is a show that he is watching, and expects people and events to turn out like they do on TV. A lot of the time he is right, and can make spooky good predictions, but when things don't turn out the way he wants or he tries to manipulate things to fit his expectations, he can be a real pain in the ass. Half the time he doesn't even realize he is doing it, either."

Molly considered for a few minutes and a full lap before asking, "So what does that really mean?"

"It means he likes you, but is an idiot," Jeff summed up. Molly pressed her lips together then looked up at him.

"So what do you suggest I do?" she asked plaintively. How exactly had Jeff become the go-to guy for relationship advice? He couldn't even sort himself out, yet people expected him to know the answer for their own problems. It also didn't help that she was less than half his age. Three years of familiarity had mostly eliminated the generation gap with his friends, but there were still moments here and there. Molly didn't even have the hard earned college experience that everyone else had acquired, she was newcomer in pretty much every sense.

"I really can't tell you what to do about this," Jeff admitted. "You're going to have to figure out what you want. I know you and Abed have been hanging out a lot, and that he likes you, but this is not the first time he has had a crazy burst of chemistry with a girl, and they didn't all lead anywhere. If you decide to back off, he'll be a little hurt, but will heal quickly. So what matters is what you decide."

Jeff envied Abed for that ability to keep going. While he may have gone through a lot of crap because of his oddities, the other man had a surprising resilience. Jeff himself did not. His old wounds didn't really heal, merely scarred over. It also made him afraid to risk new wounds, while Abed merely bounced back after a few days with his next pop culture obsession.

Molly seemed to be mulling things over as they completed another lap. Finally she spoke. "I like Abed. We haven't exactly progressed very far into a romantic relationship, I mean we have not even kissed yet, but I don't think I'm ready to give up after one fight. I don't like being manipulated, but he is rather sweet, and from the way you explained it, he wasn't being malicious. Would it help if I told him I don't like having my emotions toyed with?" Jeff just shrugged.

"Couldn't hurt. We've been telling him that for years now, and he is getting better about it, but he still does it to us from time to time. It's just something we have to deal with being his friend."

"I'll make it clear," she repeated firmly. "So do you think I should just talk to him?" Jeff chuckled.

"No, that's too normal for Abed. You may as well pick your favorite over the top apology scene from a movie and mention it to him. He'll appreciate the gesture, and you'll get some entertainment out of it. And then tell him what he has to do to earn your forgiveness."

Suddenly she wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "Thanks, Jeff." He lightly pried her off.

"Sheesh, pip, let go. Want to ruin my street cred here?" he grumbled.

"As a student or a professor?" she wondered as she returned to a more modest distance.

"Either? Both?" He had long given up worrying about damage to his reputation, he was at Greendale after all. But it was a well ingrained habit. He waved a finger at Molly. "You're welcome for this little pow-wow, but from here on, you're on your own with Abed. I'm no Hitch."

"True. Will Smith is black," she pointed out.

"But I can still pull off a suit just as well," he bragged.

She gave him an appraising look, then shook her head. "Nope," Molly said with a giggle. It was amazing how quickly the girl had become comfortable around him, nominally her professor. From embarrassed stutters to now willing to tease him right back. She was making progress towards being an honorary member of the study group. But not entirely without friction.

"So what's the deal with you and Britta?" Jeff asked her, curious. Conversational transitions were for the weak.

"What do you mean? We aren't fighting."

"No, I know. But the two of you seem to go out of your way to avoid being in the same room as each other. I'm curious why," Jeff admitted. With everything else going on, it would be nice to solve at least one mystery.

"Does it matter? Just because she is your friend and Abed's friend doesn't automatically mean we have to be friends does it?" She was getting defensive, so there had to be something interesting going on.

"No, but Troy and Abed are nearly joined at the head, and Britta and Troy are dating, so it makes things complicated if you and Britta hate one another," Jeff pointed out.

"Wait, Britta and Troy are together? Seriously?"

"Yep," he said with a smirk. "Something like six months now."

"How did I miss that?" Molly muttered to herself. "That would certainly explain why she is at the apartment so often. So much for being observant. Uncle Owen will never let me live this down if he finds out."

"Well, those two aren't exactly the most demonstrative...or exciting...couple, so no need to feel bad about not noticing. Especially when you and Britta are rarely in the same place long enough to even sit down. Nice attempt at a dodge by the way, but you still haven't told me why you two don't get along."

"I really can't explain it," Molly said a little helplessly. "She just rubs me the wrong way. Before you started teaching the class, I've run into her a few times in the halls, library, cafeteria, and every time, she was just...I don't know." Ironically, Britta with her somewhat better than he was willing to admit to her face grasp of psychology may be able to work out what the problem was. Jeff found himself just parroting things from his own therapist.

"What exactly bugs you about Britta? Anything specific?" he asked, and she frowned in consideration. Abed and possibly Britta were going to owe him for doing this, but at least their meandering laps through the halls was burning off calories in the process. Finally, she seemed to settle on something solid.

"I just can't stand that hypocritical jaded hipster persona she puts on around campus."

"Hypocritical jaded hipster persona?" Jeff repeated, amused at the phrasing.

"I mean she's always taking on these causes and lecturing people, but she doesn't really do anything, just makes a lot of noise and congratulates herself on doing a good deed when nothing is changed or fixed! Like that ridiculous announcement about a collection for the New York hurricane, but she couldn't even be bothered to put out so much as a cardboard box for donations, much less have a plan to actually get it to New York." Jeff kept his face impassive, not revealing his own role in that little announcement. "And don't get me started on the various snotty remarks she makes to people in the cafeteria about 'meat is murder,' when she wanders around wearing a leather jacket!"

"True," he agreed, but she kept going, the floodgates open now, waving her arms wildly for emphasis.

"And while I may not be the most devout Catholic of all time, and I'm fine with the fact that people have other faiths or even none at all, but it's just offensive when she goes around saying that God is just a lie to keep the sheep in line, or that the Church is all just a big scam!"

Jeff wasn't going to touch that one. The Study Group may be quite religiously diverse, but they had long since evolved into a state of mutual apathy about each other's choices of beliefs. The occasional snipes about trips to Hell, or explanations of what exactly Neo-classical Reform Judo-Buddhism whatever actually was were generally just glossed over by the others.

"Then there is her whole 'all government is evil' platform, and how the oppressed people should stand up for themselves. My dad's a firefighter, and Uncle Owen is a cop, and they aren't the ones smashing up things or lighting fires!" She was almost shaking with emotion now. "What about visiting all those other countries, living all those places that she brings up at the drop of the hat? Does going to Kenya for a few weeks suddenly make you more special than everyone else?" Molly demanded.

She had a point there. Britta did bring up the places she had lived in arguments fairly often, but like comments about religion Jeff and the others tended to simply brush it off. Of course he himself had never left the state of Colorado, despite an attempt to join Real World Seattle. He still didn't know where Annie had dug up that tape, how she even knew about it in the first place, or where she had it stashed away now. He glanced over to see that Molly had run out of steam and was taking a series of deep breaths.

"You're right," he told her. "She is also shrill, pushy, a buzzkill, and way too hooked on Freudian analysis. But have you really given her a chance, just sat down and talked to her? I mean you may be normal, but you're here at Greendale so the jury is still out on that, but none of us here are exactly well-balanced social creatures. You may not want to judge her based on the face she puts up in public. She's a lot better person than you give her credit for."

"I find that a little hard to believe," Molly admitted.

"Yeah, she has her rough edges. But we all do. Pierce is about two generations out of sync with the rest of us. Abed probably has Aspergers, and definitely has boundary issues at times. I'm awesome, but I can admit that I'm also a lazy narcissist. And you get along with the three of us, or are at least cordial with Pierce, so why not give Britta the same benefit of the doubt?"

"I'll think about it," she finally agreed.

"Good. Abed and Troy both love the idea of a double date," Jeff told her with a smirk. She groaned.

"I haven't even talked to him about this coat check girl thing yet. Isn't that kind of taking me for granted?" Molly asked.

"Nah. They've been planning for a double date for years now. This would just be the first time they had a chance."

"Maybe I could let Abed sweat a bit while I consider talking to Britta," she said with an evil glint in her eye.

"Feel free. You're the one trying to date him, I'm not going to second guess you."

"So is it my turn again?" she asked.

"Your turn for what?"

"Well I asked you for personal information and advice, then you asked me for personal information and gave advice, so now do I get to ask you again?"

"Maybe?" Jeff replied hesitantly.

"OK then," she chirped. It was amazing how quickly the girl could bounce between moods when she wanted. She had the emotional agility of a ping pong ball. Combined with her openness, her relationship with Abed probably said something about the idea that opposites attract. "What's going on with you and Annie?" she asked. Shit! Was there some sort of conspiracy?

"What?" he responded in a slightly strangled tone.

"Oh, right. I meant Annie K. I'm still used to having to specify." Jeff calmed down at that. Far less of an emotional minefield. "She's been wondering about you, since you haven't really talked to her outside of class in a couple weeks now. She said you never answered when she asked about dinner the other day either."

"It's fine," Jeff said. "I'm not giving her the cold shoulder or anything, it's just that what we were doing, are doing, is casual at best, and I've had a lot going on recently."

"Sure. And she knows you're not looking for something serious either, so don't worry that she's pining over you or anything like that. She doesn't do pining or moping, just goes for what she wants," Molly said with a smile. "She told me that the main reason she enjoys going out with you is because it's a quote 'escape from the insanity that is Greendale, where I can pretend I still have a normal life.'" Jeff grinned.

"Yeah, she makes a good point. I feel the same way sometimes. I like some of the people here, in fact I'd say all my friends are here, but sometimes it's nice to get out and remember there is a real world outside of this place."

"Maybe if you have so much going on, a break to visit the real world as you call it might help?" Molly suggested.

"I'll think about it. Speaking of breaks, how was your mall adventure yesterday?"

"It was a blast! I never really did the whole hang out at the mall with friends thing in high school, and I don't have any friends here that do that sort of thing. Annie K likes to budget and pick out exactly what she wants to buy before even going into a store, and I get the impression that Annie E is like that too, but yesterday she was in a bad mood when she answered the phone when I called. We got to grumbling together, and then out of the blue Annie E asked if I wanted to go to the mall with her, as she had to get out of the apartment and had a shopping spree offer she was finally going to cash in."

Jeff let the chatter flow through him. normally he tuned it out entirely, but the story involved Annie, and living vicariously through a trip to the mall with her was like a peaceful interlude in the crap-fest that life had decided to throw his way recently.

"Neither of us wanted to take advantage of the spree offer, but I had some spending money of my own, so it's not like I was going to be left out if I saw something I liked. So we just wandered the stores and agreed not to let Abed or Brent or anyone get us down." Wait. Who was Brent? She kept going though before he could voice the question.

"We ended up finding quite a few things we liked, actually. Annie had me basically help her pick out part of a new wardrobe- slacks and blazers and more professional looking blouses. And Hot Topic had some shirts that I liked, and American Eagle was having a sale so we both picked out some jeans and some leggings/yoga pants. And we peeked in the Love Hut and saw a few nice things that looked fun to wear even if they were really skimpy. It was kind of weird going in there, but Annie said that it was like a tenth as skeevy as the place she used to live over, so I guess it was OK even though they also had things like toys and flimsy handcuffs and oh my Lord I'm still I'm talking out loud aren't I?" Molly's stream of words jerked to a halt with a mortified gasp and blush as she realized what she was saying and to whom. Jeff, meanwhile, was doing his best not to consider the mental images generated by the revelation that Annie had been shopping in a lingerie and adult store, so he let Molly off the hook fairly easily.

"So it sounds like you had a fun day then?" She nodded, the crimson fading from her cheeks at his willingness to let her pretend she hadn't said what she did. A moment to regain composure and she was off again.

"Yeah, we had fun. We even did a couple songs at the karaoke place. Singing 'Kiss From a Rose' was a little odd, but she said it was like a tradition for the group." Jeff gave a pained grin. Yes, Annie deserved that jibe since he had skipped out on helping her move, but he still preferred to pretend that day had never happened, twitter feed or no. "I'm curious about something though. I get along with Annie K, and so far it seems like Annie E has a similar personality, but they don't seem to like each other for some reason. Any idea why that is?" Molly wondered. "Is it politics? Because Annie K voted for Romney, while I assume that since Annie E has a stuffed animal named Hillary Rodham Kitten that she didn't." Jeff smiled internally, as the memory of her hugging the stuffed cat during a movie night was able to block out the lingering thoughts of her modeling purchases from the Love Hut.

"I'm sure it doesn't help, but I don't think that's the main reason. I used to think Kim was just Annie's evil twin, and that was all there was to it, but when I finally got to know her, I realized there is more to her than I'd assumed," he said a bit pointedly. "Really, it comes down to the fact that they are rather similar. They are both incredibly smart and driven people who have overcome setbacks in their lives. It's a case of two people who may be a bit too much alike getting competitive with each other." Kind of like him and Britta, in fact.

"Do you think they will ever get along? I've been friends with Annie K for a while now, but Annie E is nice, and I'd rather not be stuck in the middle of the two of them." Jeff merely raised an eyebrow. "Fine, fine, I get it. This is just like the thing with me and Britta, I should make nice, blah blah, blah. I'll make an effort," Molly promised. "But what about the Annies?"

"Hard to say. I mean Britta and I are honestly in sort of the same boat. We have rather similar personalities, and butt heads surprisingly often over even little things, but we also have a group of mutual friends to act as a sort of buffer or call us out. Annie and Kim don't have that sort of support, so they don't have any reason to get along."

"They have the two of us now," Molly pointed out.

"Yeah...well I haven't exactly admitted to anyone that I have been spending time with Kim. You know about it, and Abed probably knows or at least suspects, and I mean it's not a secret, but I also haven't told anyone," Jeff admitted sheepishly.

Molly gave him a disgusted look. "What, is it embarrassing to be going out with her for some reason?"

"No, no, it's just that like I said, it's not really anything serious, and telling people about it would make it... well feel more serious than it is." She threw her hands up in the air in annoyance.

"What is it about guys that have to make things complicated on purpose?" she demanded. "You're afraid of people knowing because it might put a label on things. Abed would rather make me jealous than just kiss me like a normal person. Brent calls out Annie E on how much she talks about you, causing those two to get into a fight. What is wrong with your gender?" Jeff just let her aggravation flow over him, but one thing stuck out among her rant.

"You've mentioned him a couple times now, but who is this Brent person?" he asked. Molly looked at him in confusion, but slid right through the seeming change of subject as easily as she was wont to.

"Brent? He's Annie E's Facebook boyfriend. You didn't know about him? She's only mentioned him here and there to me, but I figured you were a lot closer and that she would have told you about him by now." Her voice faded out as though dampened by the show outside. The rest of her explanation passed him by, with only a single word making its searing way into his brain. She had a boyfriend? Already? Jeff knew that that would be the eventual result when she got over him and moved on, but he was staggered by both how quickly it had happened, and how much it hurt. His mouth tasted both bitter and like ash, his gut both empty and filled with lead. Ice skittered along veins, and nerves tensed in a fight or flight reaction to the news, the entire time his face frozen into a non-expressive mask.

What was strange though was that the main thing he was feeling was not anger, or envy, or jealousy. It was sorrow at the lost opportunity. It was deeply conflicting. He was proud of Annie, who was taking charge of her life with her dive into forensics and criminology and apparently finding acceptance that Jeff was not capable of a relationship. At the same time, there was a feeling of unfinished business, of loose ends. Despite his denials, despite the fact that this was for the best, the fact that he loved Annie Edison had finally crystallized and broken through the locks he had used to keep those feelings buried deep inside. Not love he felt for a friend, or a family member, but the sort of love where she brought happiness and laughter and a feeling of completeness to his life. The idea that he was never going to get to tell her how he really felt, never get a chance to see if she felt the same way about him, see if they could make a future together was a tragedy. It wasn't unexpected, but part of him raged at the suddenness that those hopes, those potential futures were cruelly snatched away, stories unwritten.

In the long run, he probably would have ruined things anyways, driving her away and feeling as bad as he did now, but worse due to the fact that he would have hurt Annie in the process, but that was little consolation and did nothing to silence the voice that needled him with the idea that his predictions of relationship doom was letting his fears rule, that things could just as easily work out, and didn't he deserve a chance to be happy himself? Apparently too late now, either way. Life royally fucking sucked.

Jeff sagged against the wall in despair, while Molly spun to face him. She looked like she was ready to make an attempt to catch him if he continued succumbing to gravity, but he caught himself. The girl was half his size, if he truly collapsed, all she would likely manage would be to be crushed by his falling form. Points for spirit though.

"Are you OK, Jeff?" she asked with concern etched on her face.

"Just a cramp," he lied easily. "Maybe should have stretched before we did all these laps." She didn't look entirely convinced, so he slowly knelt down and started rubbing his calf to sell the bit.

"Are you sure you're OK? It looked more like you were about to pass out than just a cramp. Want me to help you to the clinic?"

"NO!" he snapped, causing her to take an involuntary step back. He grimaced, no longer fit for human companionship right now. "Don't you have a class starting soon?" he hinted.

"It's not for another twenty minutes," she argued.

"Well, go on, I'll be fine. Just going to take a couple minutes to work it out then I'll head back to my office where I can sit down and relax it." In fact he had no such plans. He didn't have any more speech classes to run today, and there was no way he was going to sit through the droning of Professor Cornwallis halfheartedly imparting history as seen by a former member of the British Empire. No, what he was going to do was go to his car, find the nearest liquor store, and buy more of the one thing that would keep him going despite the latest cosmic kick to the gut. And by keep going he meant drink enough to put even Duncan down and hope not to remember any of the past day- week- month- life when he came to.

If it was anyone else they would have been able to see right through his bullshit, but Molly was both young and inexperienced with his talent in manipulating people, so with one last hesitant look that he answered with a firm nod, she left him massaging his calf. Jeff waited several seconds after she turned a corner in case she doubled back for some reason, then stood up and strode purposefully towards his car.

Friday.

At least time the knocking at the door was something he had been expecting, even if it syncopated with the pounding in his head in a truly unpleasant way. What was interesting was that it had taken even this long. He had turned his phone off on the way to the liquor store yesterday, not wanting to hear from any of his friends, but he hadn't expected it to be nearly twenty-four hours later before one of them came to see what was going on with his out of character self imposed cellular isolation. Jeff wasn't fishing for attention, in fact he was hoping the person at the door would go away and leave him be, but still the long delay irked him all the same.

The knocking stopped, and he sighed in relief as the rate of thumping in his head cut in half. His normal remedies had proven no match for the amount of alcohol he had finished off, and he was at the point of considering mixing up one of the remedies Britta or even Duncan had tried to teach him over the years. The only thing stopping him from going down that route is the fear that if he mixed anything else with the fifth of Scotch still poisoning his system that he would end up in the hospital or something.

The sound of the lock turning had him looking around at the mess he had made and the impression it would give to any visitors, but attempting to stand was far too difficult a proposition just now. He was helpless against the coming pity and scorn that was about to be directed at him.

The door opened, and Jeff managed to crane his head enough off the couch to see who it was, and got a surprise.

"Pierce? How did you unlock the door?"

"With a key, obviously. I asked the Dean for it," the old man closed the door behind him and relocked it.

"God damn it, I knew I forgot to do something. I was gonna change that lock." Jeff moaned in annoyance.

"You look terrible," Pierce informed him bluntly. Huh. It must really look bad if Pierce was speaking like an adult, and also refraining from making gay jokes about Pelton having a key to his place.

"Did the group elect you to be their spokesperson, or did it come down to drawing straws?" Jeff tried to snark, but it came out as a miserable croak.

"Actually, I don't think anyone knows you are here, drunk off your ass, except for me." The criticism stung, but not as much as the idea that none of his other friends had even noticed he hadn't showed up today.

"Class?" he asked Pierce.

"Well, we wondered where you were for History yesterday and today, especially since you were the one who pushed us all into taking it, but it's not the first time you've ever skipped a class. Your speech class, I told them you came down with something and filled in for you." Jeff managed an eyebrow at that. "I've taken it enough times to know what I was talking about. A few people gave me funny looks when I said you were sick, but otherwise it went fine. And I just repeated the 'you were sick' excuse for the group in History class today."

"That was...surprisingly thoughtful, well planned, and mature," Jeff admitted.

"I know you all think I am old and out of touch and just hanging out at Greendale while I circle the drain," Pierce said quietly. Jeff didn't say anything. After the favor the old man had just done for him, it would not be right to try to lie and deny it. "And you're right," he continued, taking a seat in a chair and leaning forwards. "I am old, and my better days are behind me, and I can't keep up with that the kids these days are even saying, much less doing. And while we don't always see eye to eye, and sometimes we give each other grief or don't respect each other the way we should, you and the others have let me stick around, despite the mistakes I have made. And I appreciate that."

Jeff was able to roll over onto his back and shimmy his way to set his head on the armrest, the closest he could do to sitting up. "You may make things difficult sometimes," and tended to remind Jeff of what he feared he was becoming still, despite his best efforts, "but you are a friend." That sounded less trite in his head. "Is this a sudden revelation? Is that speech why you are sitting in my living room after covering for me?" Pierce just chuckled.

"Heh. Classic Winger sarcasm. You just can't help yourself, can you? But I can see you are still hammered, so I'll let it slide. No, I'm here because I consider you a friend as well, and I can see something is clearly wrong."

"What gave it away?" Jeff gestured to the room, which was not a disaster, but far more a mess than he usually left it, and then to himself, with matted hair, bloodshot eyes, and skin that had not seen attention in nearly a day, which normally would have him desperate for a facial scrub. "Was it my pretty face?"

"Keep trying, you'll get your mojo back, don't worry. No. I may be old, but I've been watching you, and seen the signs of trouble. This little bender of yours just happens to confirm it."

"So is that why you've been following me around, pretending to be James Bond?" Jeff snapped. His patience was fraying, and it would be nice if the old man would get to the point and leave him to suffer in peace.

"I may not be a master spy, but like Sean Connery, I've only gotten better, and more attractive to the ladies as I've aged. But I've seen enough to see that you are troubled, and I know what it is." Pierce finished with a dramatic flourish.

"Oh really? Do tell. This should be entertaining." As usual, Pierce's likable moment was quickly being washed away by his normal personality.

"You my friend, are having troubles of the heart," he concluded. Damn. Well, he may be right, but admitting such would be a mistake. Not only would it encourage Pierce's spycraft in the future, but Jeff didn't want anyone involved. Both Troy and Abed were already nosing around, and it was hard enough to keep them at bay without Pierce sticking his oar it. At least the dynamic duo had a sense of discretion.

"What makes you say that?" It was sad how Jeff Winger, master orator who could convince a jury that wrong was in fact right, continued to be reduced to stalling for time.

"Please, Jeff. This is me you are talking to. I've been married and divorced seven times, and had plenty of other trysts besides. I've forgotten more about romance and heartbreak than you will ever know." A bit dramatic perhaps, but true. It was startling easy to forget that the old man who acted like a needy toddler had in fact accrued quite a bit of life experience in his many years. "And I've been watching you for years now. You aren't nearly as subtle or discreet as you think you are. So I know it has to do with..." If Pierce said her name, that would be it. There would be no stopping him, the others would weigh in, and the whole thing would collapse around Jeff. So he decided on the lesser of the two evils.

"Actually, I have been having a hard time lately, but it's not about a woman," he interrupted glibly. Pierce sat back, skipping the obvious gay jibe, letting Jeff talk instead. "I found my Dad," he admitted quietly. Pierce didn't say anything, instead letting Jeff take his time. Over the years, Jeff had made it clear to the old man what a sensitive topic his disappeared dad was, most clearly with a beating over a prank gone wrong and a rant that had turned Pierce's own father's fake heart attack into a real one.

"How long have you been looking for him?" Pierce asked curiously.

"Since the end of last year, after the trial you and Shirley had."

"Huh. So my actions there triggered an epiphany for you?"

"And also got me blacklisted by Alan when you fired him from representing you, ending my consulting work that represented my paycheck at the time," Jeff pointed out mildly. The loss of income had hurt, but Alan was a douche, so it came out about even in the end. "It was surprisingly easy to find him too. I'd looked in the past, but nothing. Now, a couple days with the internet and there he was."

"So you found him months ago. Is that why you've been moody all summer?"

"That, and the no income thing. That was getting old quick."

"Well, what did you say to him? You've had some pretty strong opinions on fathers in the past, so I imagine something epic, right?"

"Actually, I still haven't talked to him yet," Jeff admitted. "Actually, speaking of talking, why am I talking to you about this?"

Pierce shrugged. "I would say it's because you are finally accepting my role as your wise elder, but we both know that's not true. You need to talk to someone though, and I'm here right now. Let it out, before it builds up inside and you waste another good bottle of scotch on a binge you won't remember, or do something worse next time." Jeff sulked for a few minutes before giving in and continuing.

"I had his number, and found out where he lives now. Colorado Springs, in fact. I was thinking somewhere a lot further away, like New Jersey, or Florida, or London or something like that. Nope. He's a few hours drive south. Well that was a big step, after all these years, and I was going to hang onto it until I was good and ready to call him, if ever."

"So what made you change your mind?"

"I made a mistake and told Britta. Not intentionally, just blurted it out during an argument on Halloween. During the Scooby Doo episode you put all of us through in that monstrosity you live in." Pierce looked hurt at the description of his mansion, but the place was rather ridiculous.

"And Brittles has been on your case about it ever since?" the old man guessed.

"Yep. I mean she liked to needle me about father issues before, but now it's gone up to eleven. so I called him." Jeff glossed over the fact that the call had happened almost a week ago. If Pierce wanted to assume that it was yesterday, and thus the reason for his current state, good.

"I take it that the call didn't go well?"

"Well, technically, the call to my father didn't go at all. Apparently he has a new son, William junior, who answered the phone. I kind of hung up on him when I found out who he was," Jeff grumbled, shifting to make himself a tad more comfortable.

"So you have a step-brother that you didn't know about?" Pierce was nearly as surprised as Jeff had been. Jeff just nodded in response. "Well, don't be too hard on him. I've had enough experience with step-children and step siblings to know that they don't always have a lot of say in things, so don't blame him."

"I'll keep it in mind," Jeff said acidly. "I'll leave him be. In fact, I may call it quits while I'm ahead. I've moved on, he's clearly moved on, call it square."

"You should talk to him, Jeff. Face him like a man!" Pierce urged.

"Why?" Jeff demanded. "I am doing just fine without talking to him, and he seems to be doing fine as well, even has a new son to replace me even!"

"If you were doing 'just fine' we wouldn't be sitting here, having this conversation. And you wouldn't have told me any of this at all if it wasn't eating away at you."

"What do I even say to him? What if I can't face him?" Jeff asked softly.

"Don't give me that crap! You can talk to the man! Talking is your strength!" Pierce asserted.

"Is that enough though?"

"Please. You're the strongest person I know. You may not be as wise or as successful with the ladies as me, but you have always been stronger than I am. Not just physically either, but I suppose the buff look is what the other men like these days…"

"Pierce!" Jeff shouted and then winced at the noise.

"The point is, you are stronger than I am. I was never able to stand up to my own father until he was safely dead and buried. You got right in his face and told him things he needed to be told, but I never could. My only regret is that I didn't, couldn't say those things to him myself. I still feel better that someone did though." He paused, making sure Jeff was paying attention. "I know you hate to admit it, but there are a lot of similarities between us, and I also know that you are afraid of turning into me. I've lived a pretty good life, but there are things I would have changed if I could, so I can understand not wanting to make the same mistakes I did. One of those mistakes was never standing up to my father until it was too late. He made me who I am, and overshadowed me my entire life. Your father disappeared, but that still defined who you became, and you are still letting him influence who you are. You stood up for me against a father you had never met. You can stand up for yourself against your own father, and stop defining yourself by his standards."

Jeff lay in silence and looked at Pierce with a new modicum of respect. Jeff had merely brought up his father to prevent him from guessing his Annie issues, but Pierce had managed to make quite a bit of sense during their little chat. Who knew that he could be that profound deep down? The old man had just pulled off a Winger speech to boot! "I'll think about it," Jeff offered.

"Good. That's a start," Pierce said as he stood up.

"I can't make any promises," Jeff warned as the old man started for the door.

"You don't need to. It would be for you, not for me. I'll leave you to mull it over, or get drunk again, or whatever you decide. I'd try to make it to class Monday though, or you may get more visitors."

"I've had too many visitors already, bringing too many complications already," Jeff said. Pierce opened the door to leave. "Oh, Pierce! Thank you," he said sincerely. "And keep the key. I'd rather you had it than the Dean." The old man just nodded, and shut the door behind him as he left. Jeff made a mental note that the unexpected thoughtfulness and insight ought to be rewarded. Maybe he would take Pierce up on that invitation to the barber shop he raves about, the one he has been trying to convince Jeff to visit with him.

As the lock clicked shut, Jeff reached for his phone, flipping it back on to see the messages he had missed. Disappointingly it was a small number.

*Abed- Jeff: Did you talk to Molly? She's still not really talking to me. You weren't in Speech today. Pierce told us you were sick, but you didn't show any signs of coming down with anything, though Molly did say to tell you that she's sorry she didn't make you go to the clinic yesterday. Are you OK?

*Shirley- Jeff: Are you feeling all right? I can bring you over some soup if you like.

*Troy- Jeff: You need to play the new Call of Duty! It's awesome! Abed and I skipped History today to get back to playing it early. If you are sick, I guess we don't want you to give us your nasty germs, so come over and play when you're done being sick!

*Britta- Jeff: 'Sick' huh? I've gone to class while I was worse than just 'sick!' And missing two days in a row? Really? Are you not able to hold your drink anymore?

*Annie- All: I've put the notes for History class up at the usual Google Docs account. Those of you who missed class because of 'sickness' or 'other reasons' should REALLY read them thoroughly.

While he was still temporarily uncertain where Annie was concerned, he pictured her with her annoyed frown on her face she used whenever someone took academics less than seriously. It was probably a good thing that Abed and Troy both seemed to have skipped today's class, providing him with a smokescreen for her displeasure.

Hopefully by the time Monday rolled around he would be able to bury his feelings again and keep going as merely friends. It would be a while before he could move on like she had, even if that had been his intent, the hollow feeling in his heart would be a long time in scarring over. That mission sadly accomplished, he could move on to dealing with his father like Pierce had urged.

He tried to sit up, as this was not a call he wanted to make laying on the couch. Too bad that while his thoughts were clearer now, his body was still suffering. Maybe he would give it another twelve or eighteen hours to let his head and liver clear a bit more.

Saturday.

It wasn't a full recovery yet, but another nights sleep, a long shower, and a carb heavy breakfast made up for by several hours of strenuous crunches and pushups had Jeff feeling rather better, despite a dream where he had been chained to a desk grading papers, forced to watch Annie giggling away with Urkel, while his friends threw rice for them. At least the dream reminded him about the backlog of work he still had to grade, and he spent a further few hours doing that. He found himself giving Garret bonus points out of pity before realizing that it was just displacement activity (Britta was getting a lot better about getting the terms right these days). Still, he found himself watching the pony cartoon Molly seemed to be a fan of, trying to figure out the appeal of the high pitched pink pony. He smiled a few times, but he must be truly desperate if he was watching a girls cartoon to avoid making the phone call he promised himself he would today Giving up, he flipped the TV off and picked up his phone.

Actually, phone calls, plural. If he was going to talk to one parent, he may as well talk to the other. Jeff started punching in his mother's number from memory. While the entry for 'Mommy' that had irked Britta was long gone, Jeff never put her number in his contacts. It made him marginally less guilty feeling when looking at his missed calls list to see the number than to see 'Mom' listed a bunch of times.

This time at least, he got the number in, pressed call, and listened for the ringtone on the other side. She picked up on the third ring. "Jeffrey? What's wrong?" she asked, concern in her voice.

"Nothing's wrong, Mom, why do you assume that?" he replied, exasperated. Well, not wrong wrong. OK, so maybe something was wrong. But that wasn't the point.

"If nothing is wrong, then why else are you calling me out of the blue?" she pointed out. She had him there. While Jeff loved his mother, he wasn't the most communicative son.

"OK, fine, yes, I needed to talk to you. But it's nothing you should be worried about. But I wanted to let you know."

"Did you get a girl pregnant? Are you getting married to that Britta girl, or the Annie you always mention when you call?" The latter suggestion stabbed at him, but he ignored it.

"No, Mom. Nothing to do with a girl. It's actually about Dad," he told her simply.

"What about him?"

"I found him. He's in Colorado Springs."

"Really? That's nice for him, I guess," she said, not sounding very impressed.

"He lives with his son," Jeff said with a note of anger.

"Really? that's nice," she repeated. Her tone sounded exactly the same as Shirley. It meant she was not exactly pleased, but still trying to be polite. Jeff didn't plan to be so nice.

"It's not nice, Mom! He replaced us! He replaced you, and replaced me, like we don't even matter!" he nearly shouted into the phone.

"Jeffrey!" his mother scolded him. "I know you are still angry that he left. But we both know why it happened. William was charming, and funny, and handsome, but I knew that he wasn't the commitment type. Then you came along to our surprise, and we got married. And the only reason he stuck around as long as he did was because he was afraid of your grandfather. He tried, but he wasn't cut out to be a father, your father. I was sad when we finally got divorced, but mainly because of how it affected you. But I don't hold a grudge against him, not anymore. Even the worst fights don't compare to the fact that he gave me you."

"But he replaced us!" Jeff said plaintively.

"I doubt it, dear. It may feel like it, but do you really think that after everything that happened, William suddenly changed and decided he wanted a family after all? I'm sure there's a story there, but it doesn't really matter. I've moved on, and you've grown up to be a son I am proud of, whether he was here or not."

"You still think that, despite everything I have done?" he asked.

"Well, I may not have been thrilled with all your decisions, but I always loved you. And now you have a group of friends, and even seem to be interested in a nice girl. I'm still hoping for grandchildren someday," she told him with her mother's prerogative.

"You'll probably have to keep waiting on that front," he said sadly. "It's been a rough few months. But I have a new job, at least temporarily, as a teacher at Greendale."

They chatted for a while longer about his becoming a teacher, and the latest highlights of her head nursing job. Jeff even made promises he actually intended to keep about calling more often, or at least not ducking her calls before hanging up.

Talking to her had a fortifying effect on Jeff. She had taken the news about William far better than he himself had, and her almost serenity about the news helped calm him before making the second phone call to a parent of the day.

Again, he punched in the number that had been burned into his brain. Again he waited through the eternity between each ring. But this time the voice was older and gruffer than his step brother's had been, so for the first time in decades, he was going to speak to his father.

"Hello?" the word was normal enough, and Jeff tamped down on his nerves.

"Is this William Winger, Senior I guess?" His voice was remarkably level.

"Speaking. Who is this?"

"It's Jeff. Jeff Winger. Your son," he answered simply, and waited to see how the man would react.

"Jeffrey? Huh. It's been ages! I hope you're still doing well. Last I heard, you were a rather impressive lawyer! What can I do for you?" William sounded as if the last few decades had never happened.

"I um, well, a lot has happened in the past few...decades."

"Tell me about it," William laughed. "I'm sorry for what happened, but I was never that great a father, and it was for the best," he said frankly. "But you seem to have gotten by pretty well." His blasé attitude had Jeff off balance.

"What about William Junior?" Jeff asked the first question that came to mind. Fortunately, his father seemed to know exactly what he was trying to ask. Apparently his quick wit and easygoing manner was genetic.

"I didn't expect him to come along, and his mother died when he was young, so I've been looking after him ever since," William explained simply. There were a ton of other questions, but the simple explanation managed to disarm yet more of Jeff's resentment upon finding out about his step-brother. "I expect you have plenty more questions for me," he chuckled, reading Jeff's mind.

"Duh-doy," Jeff said reflexively.

"How about this. I'm not sure if you have Thanksgiving plans or not, but it's just going to be me and Willy here, with plenty of food. If you are interested, you could stop by, have a bite, maybe watch the game." Charm seemed to be genetic as well, and Jeff found himself far more inclined to talk to the man than he had before. Everything seemed so much more casual than he had imagined this conversation going.

"I think that might be possible," Jeff agreed.

"Good! I assume that if you found my number you have my address as well?"

"Yeah, I have it."

"OK then! I suppose that means I'll see you Thursday?" William concluded.

"Thursday works. I'll give you a call when I'm on my way down," Jeff agreed, and hung up.

Well that was certainly easy. And anticlimactic.

Sunday.

He was in the middle of grading yet more stupid papers when Basket Case started playing. Momentarily glad of the distraction, he picked up the phone let Wendy's paper fall to the desk where it slumped to the floor. "Hello Britta."

"You sound remarkably healthy," she replied, not missing a beat. "I guess you slept off being 'sick.'" He could hear the air quotes in her voice.

"Is it your turn to check in on me? I'm clearly not dead," he riposted.

"Kind of. But the main reason was to see if you were up for hanging out at the bar for a while," she offered. Jeff contemplated it.

"I'm actually grading stuff right now..." he said as a lame excuse. It wouldn't take much to convince him to leave them be in favor of going out for a few hours.

"Aww, Annie would be so proud of you!" she said half mockingly. The mention of her name was enough to bring back memories of why he had gotten so drunk the first time around, and made Britta's offer suddenly far more tempting. "Come on! We haven't just gone out to drink in forever!" she wheedled.

"There's a ton of reasons for that," he reminded her.

"True, but I'm borrrrred! Troy and Abed have been glued to the X-Box since Thursday, and Annie vetoed the idea of a girl's night out. So no one will go with me. And I don't want to go on my own because dumb guys will assume I'm there to hook up and keep hitting on me." She had graduated to straight up whining, which told Jeff she was truly desperate.

"Why not ask Duncan? I'm sure he'd love to go," he suggested with a smile.

"Eww, no. He's your friend, not really mine, and I know he wants to sleep with me, defeating the purpose of having someone to beard for me."

"How about a fake beard then, someone like Page?" he teased.

"Are any of you ever going to let me live that down?" Britta complained.

"Nope."

"Ugh. Look, are you going to come with me or not?" Jeff sighed.

"Sure. I'll drive. I don't plan to have a repeat performance anytime soon, so I'm not going to drink all that much. I'll keep you company though, ward off all the evil men who will be stricken dumb by your wit and beauty."

"I'll ignore that since you agreed to come and are offering to drive. We going to the Red Door?" Britta asked.

"You mean L Street," Jeff shot back.

"I mean shut up!" was her lame comeback. "You're the reason that Troy refuses to go back there!"

"You're equally to blame! Especially when the place is really called the Ballroom."

"Fine, whatever. You coming over to get me?" she asked with a huff.

"Yeah, give me twenty," he said, hanging up.

It was in fact closer to forty minutes by the time Jeff got to her apartment. If he was going to go out in public he had an image to maintain, and even an abbreviated wardrobe change and hair adjustment could only be rushed so much. She climbed in the car, and they fell into a light chat about their days, with Jeff griping about spelling and grammar mistakes that a fourth grader ought to know better, and Britta grumbling about how she had even offered to play Call of Duty with Troy, only to be turned down. Outside, the sun was setting on the melting slush and snow that had for a few days made downtown Greendale look far cleaner than it really was.

It didn't take long to arrive at the bar, and finding a booth had been simple, though Britta had huffed as the bouncer carefully inspected her ID to make sure it wasn't a fake. Jeff joined her for a round of shots to start, but then nursed his own drink as Britta downed several.

"So what really happened the other day?" Britta asked after finishing another shot.

"Is that why you asked me out here, to try to get me alone and drunk enough to answer questions?" Jeff asked, annoyed.

"No, not exactly. Well, I did, but I was also telling the truth about being bored. It's so bad this weekend that I've caught up on all my work, and even tried reading one of Troy's repair manuals. There was just nothing to do at the casa. Not even Molly there to glower at me even!"

"About that," Jeff started. "I talked to Molly about this whole not-talking thing the two of you seem to have."

"What about it?" Britta asked. "I've got nothing against her, not really. She just gives off vibes of 'I don't like you,' and tends to be brusque when we do talk, so I stay clear of her. It makes things odd sometimes, but I don't see the need to have any sort of confrontation, especially since she is going out with Abed."

"In fairness, a lot of the girls at Greendale don't like you." Jeff pointed out.

"Well, screw them," Britta said, and punctuated her statement with a gulp of vodka. "I'm not going to compromise my beliefs or principles just to make them like me. If they don't approve of the fact that I care about human rights, or political scandals more than I do about cheerleading or the latest issue of Cosmo, too bad!"

"Yeah, yeah, we all know. But do you think you could tone down the whole 'rebel with too many causes' thing when she comes to talk to you?" he asked. "Because it makes you seem more abrasive than you really are."

"What do you mean?" Britta asked, offended.

"I mean Abed asked me to try to sort out the thing with you and Molly, so I talked with her. Now I'm talking with you. Then the two of you talk to each other like civilized people and become best friends so Troy and Abed can have their double date," his voice didn't hide the annoyance at being put in the middle of the entire situation.

Britta gave an annoyed huff. "Like I said, I don't have any problem with her, she has a problem with me!"

"That's because she only really knows you from running into you in halls and the cafeteria. And the Christmas pageant last year," Jeff pointed out.

"Well, that Glee club fiasco left everyone looking bad," she grumbled. A mental image of Annie in a Santa costume popped into mind, but Jeff ruthlessly quashed it.

"Just, be nice to her when she comes to talk to you. Let her know the real you, the Britta who just wants to help people and make the world a better place, even if she can't quite figure out how."

"Hey!" she protested. "Raising awareness is important!"

"And try to avoid anything about religion. You and I both know it's basically a crock, but Molly takes it seriously. Like Shirley, but less judgey and less preachy."

"Fine," she agreed sulkily. "And what o I get in return for this favor?"

"Favor?" Jeff asked. "This isn't a favor. Well, not for me. You should be asking Abed and/or your Troyfriend. I'm just the messenger."

"Well I'm just the messenger for the Truth!" Britta crowed. Clearly she was reaching her drink limit. Jeff himself was a little buzzed as well. With the mess that he had been dealing with recently, he was almost tempted to see if she was up for a quicky, like old times. With their mutual state of inebriation, she would probably be amenable. And sleeping with her had been one of the few goals he originally set out to do that Jeff had actually achieved since coming to Greendale, so the thought was oddly comforting, like a lusty security blanket. But she was with Troy, and they were both his friend. He wouldn't do that to either of them, and the entire concept of an affair or cheating had never appealed to Jeff.

"Here's another truth bomb for you! You need to just man up already and talk to your dad!" Temptation gone.

"I already did!" Jeff snapped, and Britta's head whipped around to stare at him. "I'm meeting him for Thanksgiving in fact!" Damn, this is how he got into trouble in the first place. Couldn't keep his damn mouth shut around Britta.

"You are? Really? That's a major breakthrough! What did he say? What did you say?" Her desire to use him as a psychology guinea pig was obvious. Jeff fell back to a now well worn tactic. A diversion.

"Did you know Slater is back?" He asked, changing the subject. Fortunately the decoy worked far better than it usually did when Britta was sober. There was a grim humor in the fact that Jeff had enough problems going on that he could get out of talking about one by using another as a decoy.

"Slater? Who is Slater? Ohhhhh. That Slater. Ooh, I hate her! Why is she back? She made a pass at you, didn't she! Well she can't have you!"

Jeff sat back as Britta continued to vent her feelings about the long missing other woman. He could only hope that tomorrow she wouldn't remember what he had blurted out about his father, but she had a trick memory for things like that. The best he could hope for would be a few days of peace, maybe long enough to actually meet the man, before Britta butted her way into the situation.

Monday.

Jeff sat in the darkened office with his eyes shut, on the edge of dozing but still awake. At least last night he had been careful enough that the headache was a mild one. The overhead lights were out, and the only light provided by a desk lamp. It was currently silent, with Hickey gone. Last Jeff had seen the professor, he was still in the teacher's lounge discussing the latest episode of the Graham Norton Show with Cornwallis and Duncan. It had gotten too British for Jeff, so he ducked out and retreated here.

At this point doors being knocked on haunted his dreams, so it took him a moment to realize the sound was real, and not a sigh he had drifted over the line into a nap. "Come in," he called, keeping his eyes closed in a vain attempt to delay the next blow to come.

"I hope you are feeling better Jeff," a female voice told him, back dropped by the sound of the voices owner sitting down in one of the other chairs. He cracked one eye open to confirm that his ears weren't deceiving him, and that it was in fact Annie Kim. He closed it again and made a wavy so-so gesture in response. "I know you have been stressed out recently, and then Pierce said you were sick a few days ago, so I wanted to see if you were ok." The note of concern was touching, but Jeff's defenses were still up. Concerned friends were half his problem right now.

"I've been better," he admitted. "Things have been kind of hectic recently. Sorry I missed class last week, and that I've been sort of brushing you off outside of class. I've just had a lot to deal with." He finally opened his eyes to see her expression. Her face was pretty much blank, with a faint smile and a hint of concern in her eyes.

"No need to apologize," she said after a moment. "I know that while we have sort of been going out, it's mainly for the experience. I don't really have any sort of expectations of you, so you don't have to worry about offending me. And I'm not going to press you on what is wrong unless you want to tell me." Molly had mentioned the same thing, but it was nice to have it confirmed, and he slumped in his chair slightly and relaxed a bit.

"So you're just here to check on me? Thanks." She nodded, then looked hesitant.

"Actually, that's only mostly the reason I came by. I know I said I don't have any expectations, and that's true, but still..." she trailed off, as though waiting for his permission to continue. He waved a hand for her to finish. "I was offered a couple tickets to see a show at the Ellie in Denver on Friday, and wanted to know if you wanted to go with me." She averted her eyes and blushed slightly. "And maybe make a weekend of it?"

Jeff hesitated. On one hand, he had mentioned his enjoyment of opera, inherited from his mother. And it had been a long time since he had enjoyed what else she seemed to be offering. He waited for his mind to drag up the usual objections. But not this time. Everyone else in the group was essentially in a couple now, so couldn't begrudge him the opportunity. Even Annie, whose opinion on the topic mattered most, had moved on. Concerns about his own suitability as a boyfriend, much less anything more, were moot because neither he nor Kim were looking for an emotional relationship, at least not right now. In fact, the normal ball of emotions locked up inside that spawned those objections was curiously absent. His mass of concern, caring, occasional jealousy, and love for Annie was currently hollow, an empty place where they had been temporarily torn out by surprise and by Brent, whoever he was. And his decades old anger, sadness, and curiosity about his father were subdued by the fact that he would be meeting the man in person in three days. If it went well, Annie Kim's offer would be like a celebration. If it went poorly, with would be a handy distraction.

Either way, it would be something to look forwards to, something to keep his mind off the swirling cavern where his emotions normally resided, the one that now had his thoughts going around and around in circles. While he had indeed changed since meeting his friends here at Greendale, he had never lost his appreciation for opera, good food, and young attractive female companionship. And all the normal restraints and reservations on partaking in them, especially the latter, had just been kicked out from under him. Jeff made his decision.

"Pick you up Friday at 5?" he offered. The girl sitting across from him just smiled.

Author's Note: This is the little chapter that kept growing. It would be tempting to split it in two, but I keep the same point of view in the same chapter, and there was not really a good place to split this one. As usual, I'm taking the elements and characters I like from seasons 4 and 5 and putting them into this AU Season 4, plus a bunch of other fun references here and there. Not beta'd, so any mistakes are mine, and if they are pointed out, I'll fix them when I get a chance.

Is it strange that when I go back to read previous chapters to try to avoid any continuity or characterization gaffes, I really don't remember writing them? Though I suppose it would help if I wrote more than one chapter a season... I'm also resisting the urge to go back and clean up and lengthen the earlier chapters.

Next chapter will be rather shorter. This one just grew into a monster while writing. And while it may take a while at my glacial pace of updating this story, I'm not on NBC so I don't plan on cancelling it before things like the Jeff and Annie relationship have a chance to see resolution.