We Should Tell Them (5/5)

[korruptjustice]

The Group Finds Out

"Aren't we a sorry bunch? Seriously, none of us could get a date for New Year's?" Britta teased the rest of the group as she stepped off the elevator and saw Shirley, Pierce, Troy, and Abed standing in the hallway outside Jeff's (and Annie's, she had to remind herself) apartment. Of course, the rest of them didn't know that yet. With the exception of Abed, everyone else thought it was only Jeff's place, which made the fact that he was hosting a New Year's Eve party for the study group there unusual, to say the least. He had always avoided having any group events at his apartment in the past. The others were still wondering what brought on the unexpected change of heart, not knowing it was Annie who had decided that a New Year's Eve party in their apartment was the perfect time and place to come clean to the group about their hidden relationship, and had emailed the invitations from Jeff's account. Britta had arrived early in order to get Abed alone and ask him how exactly they should play it when Jeff and Annie made the big reveal, but apparently the mystery of Jeff's apartment was enough for the rest of the group to get there even earlier than her.

"Speak for yourself. Andre's coming later. There was a problem with the babysitter, so he's watching the kids until the replacement can get there in a couple hours. He said there was no point in both of us missing the start of the party."

"And I would have had a date with me," Pierce said, "but the invitation was very specific about his apartment having a strict "No escorts" policy, so I had to cancel." Britta decided to ignore Pierce, like always, and instead turned towards Troy and Abed.

"Abed, what about you? Aren't you seeing that girl from your film class?"

"We actually broke up a little while ago. It wasn't really working out between us. We were completely incompatible."

"Dude, I keep telling you, not everyone is as big a fan of the 9th Inspector as you are." Troy said, shaking his head at his friend.

"No, it wasn't that…she'd never even heard of Inspector Spacetime."

"Oh…what a freak. You are way too good for her, man." The two did their signature handshake.

"Well, what about you Troy?" Shirley asked. He seemed reluctant to speak, and stared down at his shoes for a few moments, before finally answering while continuing to avoid eye contact.

"Uh…there is this girl in one of my classes that I'm really into, but I'm not really sure where we're at. She may just want to be friends." Britta nodded.

"Yeah, I'm in pretty much the exact same boat."

"Ha! I knew you were a lesbian!" Britta sighed in frustration.

"Pierce, I meant with a guy in my class!" He snorted.

"Yeah right." Shirley didn't like the look Britta was giving Pierce and decided it would be best to change the subject.

"What about Jeff and Annie?"

"What about Jeff and Annie?" Britta hoped that didn't sound as defensive out loud as it did in her head. She was about one second away from a full blown panic attack when Shirley spoke again.

"Does anyone know if either of them are bringing anyone tonight?" Britta fought back a smirk and glanced over at Abed. As usual, his expression gave nothing away, but she's pretty sure she can see a tiny glimmer in his eye, and knows he's appreciative of the situation. Britta's chose her words carefully. She felt guilty enough not sharing what she had learned with the rest of the group, but she could handle a lie of omission; she refused to resort to outright lying.

"I'm pretty sure no one from outside the group will be here."

"Where is Annie, anyway? It's not like her to be the last to show up, and the invitation did ask for all of us to arrive together." Britta felt the panic creeping back, and tried to think of an excuse that wouldn't arouse suspicion, but her brain was refusing to cooperate. It seemed more intent on expressing its disbelief at how hard she was trying to hide Jeff and Annie's relationship until they got the chance to break the news themselves. Fortunately Abed was able to jump in while her brain was frozen.

"She sent me a text earlier. Jeff asked for her help in setting up for the party, so she should already be here." Britta didn't know if Annie had given him that excuse earlier or if he had just come up with it right now, but she wouldn't be surprised either way. Jeff and Annie wouldn't have been able to keep them a secret for so long if they weren't careful to cover all their bases. And for whatever reason, Abed had taken it upon himself to cover for them on the rare occasions that they did slip up. Now that Britta knew what was going on, she was kind of mad at herself for never noticing it before because the signs, however subtle, were definitely there. But apparently Abed was a master of distraction and misdirection when the occasion called for it, and whenever Jeff and Annie acted in a way that even hinted they something more than friends, Abed would run interference, pulling the group's attention towards himself with pop culture references or a keen insight into the group dynamics currently in play. She had to grudgingly admit that it was a little bit brilliant, and more than a little bit scary that he could keep the group in the dark so easily, but at the moment she was just grateful that everyone was no longer questioning where Annie was. She figured it was time to move it along and get this whole thing over with.

"Well, if Annie's already here, then no point waiting any longer. Someone knock on the door." Shirley was the closest one to the door, but she didn't knock, instead turning towards Britta.

"Wait, its only 6:40. The invitation told us to arrive at 7:00. It's not polite to arrive before the time on the invitation."

"Shirley, I'm not standing in the hallway for another 20 minutes. If you were so worried about being punctual, why did you show up so early anyway?" Shirley huffed indignantly.

"For your information, I wanted to give myself extra time in case I had trouble finding the place. Unlike the rest of you, I've never here before."

"Hey, I've only been over here a couple of times; once to work on a school project and once when…" Britta trailed off, realizing what a bad idea it would be to end that sentence with …I helped Annie move in. Luckily Pierce was quick to jump in and finish for her in his usual crude style.

"…you and Jeff were doing it?"

"Ugh, shut up, Pierce! And for your information, no, we never "did it" in his apartment. We never hung out in his apartment at all." The sudden bitterness in her voice surprised her. She had never really considered that before; the fact that she and Jeff had slept together for nearly a year and not once had he invited her to his place, but asked Annie to move in after dating for only a few months. It wasn't jealousy. Not really, anyway. She had no desire for a relationship with Jeff, then or now, and even if she had it never could have worked between them. But the fact that he so obviously connected with Annie better than he ever had with her…it stung a little, she wasn't going to lie. She wondered if that might have subconsciously been part of the reason she freaked when she found out Jeff and Annie were moving in together.

"Abed and I used to be over here every couple of weeks to watch movies and play video games, but it just kind of stopped about halfway through the summer. He kept saying he was busy, but he wouldn't say with what." The group turned to look at Britta, who pulled herself out of her self-analytical tail spin (and seriously, she became a psychology major to analyze other people, not herself) to stare back defensively.

"What?"

"Well, the last time Jeff was hiding something it was the fact that he and you were sleeping together."

"Yeah, that's definitely not it this time, Shirley."

"Well, maybe he's seeing someone else then. Remember, he tried to hide it when he was dating Professor Slater, too. Oh! Maybe it's that cute brunette from Biology!"

Yes, but not the one you're thinking of. Britta nearly laughed out loud at that. Now would be a very good time to change the subject before there was any more speculation about whether Jeff had a secret girlfriend and who she could be. As much as she thought Jeff and Annie might deserve it for keeping it a secret for so long, it wouldn't be fair to have the whole thing blow up in their faces right when they were finally about to tell the group themselves. "Shirley, just knock already. I'm not waiting another 15 minutes." When it looked like she was going to protest again Britta leaned past her and loudly knocked on the door herself, ignoring Shirley's glare.

Britta was just about to knock again when the door finally swung open. Annie stood there, her face slightly flushed look as she ran a hand over her hair, trying to smooth it back into place. Behind her, Jeff was slightly more composed, but he seemed to be short of breath and his hair looked a little more mussed than its usual carefully styled bedhead look.

"Oh, you guys are here early. We were just…finishing getting ready. For the party. That Jeff asked me to help him set up for. Come in!" Abed just shook his head sadly, while Britta barely suppressed a groan of disgust at what she had undoubtedly interrupted. The rest of the group seemed oblivious to anything wrong though, and they all filed into the apartment. Britta was seriously starting to wonder exactly what it would take for the rest of the group to catch on, but reminded herself that she'd been equally clueless until she had literally walked in on it. She was only seeing it now because she knew what to look for.

Shirley wasn't sure what she had expected Jeff's apartment to look like, but it certainly wasn't this. She had pictured his place as having a kind of modern décor, empty and cold, with stylish but uncomfortable furniture and lacking in any personal touches like photographs. Instead, she found the spacious apartment surprisingly warm and cozy. The furniture was a little worn down, but very comfortable looking, and the entire place had a lived-in feeling that made the whole place feel oddly inviting. She was most surprised by all the photos hanging on the walls, though. She knew that he wasn't close to any of his family, so it wasn't a shock to see that he didn't have any pictures of them hanging up. What he did have though, were pictures of the study group. Oh, that's nice, she thought, looking at a photo of the entire group together. The next photo was one of just Jeff and Annie, as was the one after that. In fact, almost all of the ones that didn't feature the entire group were of just Jeff and Annie. And she couldn't be sure but some of them looked like they hadn't been taken at Greendale. She was just about to ask Jeff about them when Troy came back into the room.

"Jeff, you realize that is an ungodly amount of hair and skin products in your bathroom, right? I mean, I know we joke about that sometimes, but damn, there's enough stuff in there for like, three people. And some of them are surprisingly girly." Jeff sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He could already feel a stress headache coming on. Better get this over with.

"Yeah, about that…before the rest of you start poking around and invading my privacy any more than you already have, there's something I should tell you. I know that I said that we were having this party at my apartment. Well, that's not…entirely true." He paused, unable to force the words out of his mouth to explain what was going on. Annie slid over to stand next to him. They didn't have to say a word to each other; he just gently laced his fingers with hers and held her hand at his side as she spoke.

"It's actually our place." Jeff felt like all of the oxygen had left the room as he looked at the faces surrounding him. Troy looked like he was going to faint…or cry…maybe both. Britta was trying to fake a look of surprise, but she wasn't exactly known for her acting ability, and it was coming off more as indigestion. Abed, of course, looked the same as always. So did Pierce for that matter, but Pierce's default setting seemed to be 'vaguely confused', so Jeff couldn't decide if he was in shock or just hadn't heard him. But Shirley was the one he was most focused on. Her brow was furrowed, and her eyes were darting back and forth between Jeff's face, Annie's face, and their hands, which were still entwined. The silence dragged on; Jeff realized that it was only a few seconds in reality but it felt like eternity.

"Say what now?" Shirley's face had settled into some weird mixture of confusion and something unrecognizable that was not particularly reassuring. At all. Still, she wasn't advancing on him with a Bible or blunt object in hand, so Jeff decided to delay their backup plan of locking himself in the bedroom while Annie tried to talk Shirley into not killing him. For now, anyway.

"Jeff and I are living together. And we have been for over a month." Troy's eyes lit up.

"Oh, that explains the second toothbrush in there! I thought that was kind of strange, even for Jeff."

"Annie, I'm so glad that you're not living over Dildopolis anymore. That neighborhood was so unsafe and I always worried about you…but this isn't a roommate situation is it? 'Cause I'm pretty sure this ain't a two bedroom apartment."

"No, Shirley, it's not a two bedroom apartment, and no, it's not a roommate situation. Jeff and I have actually been seeing each other - romantically - for a while now." Shirley let out a small "oh" at Annie's frank admittance, but she didn't seem as surprised as Jeff expected, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"I thought there was something weird going on between the two of you! You were acting all buddy-buddy at the beginning of the summer, then all of a sudden you were completely ignoring each other. I just didn't expect…I thought maybe you two had kissed and were going through that whole awkward "Pretend it never happened and avoid each other at all costs" stage…again." She looked around the shared apartment. "But I never expected this." Shirley's voice was still eerily calm. Jeff had expected shouting, and threats of violence, and maybe even actual violence if things didn't go well. He was beginning to think he would have preferred it that way to whatever this was. At least he'd been prepared for angry Shirley. He had no idea how to respond now. He wasn't sure if she was in shock, if she was okay with it, or if she had just decided there were too many witnesses right now and was planning something for later, but it made him nervous.

"Actually, we did. But fortunately we - well, she - handled it much better than we usually do." Annie laughed and rolled her eyes and Jeff pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. Annie looked up at him and grinned before turning back to Shirley.

"So we talked about what we both wanted, and I convinced Jeff to ask me out on a date."

"So…how long has this been going on?" For the first time, Jeff could hear the emotion in Shirley's voice. But it wasn't anger; it was disappointment. Well, that had been expected. He knew that there was no way that Shirley was going to approve of their relationship. Not without some serious effort by Annie anyway. Still, if Annie could convince him that the two of them dating was a good idea, he knew she could convince anyone.

"Six months next week." Jeff said. The disappointment was now showing clearly on Shirley's face, and Annie quickly jumped in to try and explain.

"We should have said something before now, but at first we wanted to make sure that this was going to work before we told anyone, and then it was just going so well that we kept putting it off because we weren't sure how everyone would react, and then we were just waiting for the right time to tell you, but things kept coming up and it never seemed like a good time." She looked at Shirley with her Disney eyes brimming with tears, but Shirley didn't say anything. Instead, she went and sat down on the couch, away from Annie. The room fell quiet once again. This time, it was Pierce who broke the silence.

"Well, I wish you would have told us sooner, but I can certainly understand why you would choose to wait. Oh, and before I forget - Jeff, Annie, these are for you. A housewarming gift." For the first time, Jeff noticed that Pierce had not come empty handed. He held a gift bag in his hand, which he now reached into. To Jeff he handed a bottle of what looked like very expensive scotch with a card attached to it; Annie's gift was small and rectangular, covered in wrapping paper. Jeff scoffed.

"Come on, Pierce, there's no way you could have known about…holy crap the card actually says 'Happy Housewarming, Jeff and Annie!'" He handed the card over to Annie, who gasped when she read it, then let out a big 'Awww'. Jeff turned back towards Pierce. "Okay, I'm impressed. How the hell did you know?"

"Jeff, please. I've been married seven times. I may never have been very good at keeping a relationship together, but that doesn't mean I can't see two people falling in love practically right in front of my eyes."

"Okay, I can sort of buy that; but that doesn't explain how you knew about us living together. You didn't hire that private detective again and have him follow us around, did you?"

"Like that was even necessary. You guys weren't as careful as you thought, especially when you were leaving campus. Did you really think no one would notice that you were always coming to and from here, instead of heading the other way towards Annie's apartment? Once or twice I could see, but every day, to and from Greendale? If she wasn't living with you, she was spending almost all of her time here. So I checked Annie's old apartment and found out she had moved."

"And you didn't say anything?"

"I thought about it, but relationships can be hard even without added outside pressure. As long as you didn't hide it forever, I wasn't going to force it."

"Well, thank you. And thanks for this." Jeff held up the bottle Pierce had given him. "25-year-old scotch? This is the good stuff." Pierce let out a small chuckle.

"Please. That makes "the good stuff" taste like stale hobo urine in comparison. This is something you drink only on the most special of occasions, understood? I'm talking births, funerals…that sort of thing, you know? I expect to share a drink with both of you at your wedding."

Jeff was thankful he hadn't poured himself a drink, 'cause he was pretty sure it would have been sprayed all over the living room, and that would have been a horrible waste of really good scotch. He briefly wondered whether Abed would applaud the use of a spit-take to make the situation more sitcom-like, or if he would deride it as an overused cliché. Then he realized he kind of had more important things to focus on right now.

"Whoa, Pierce, we've only lived together for a month! Annie and I haven't talked about anything like that yet!" Annie had already been turning red from Pierce's comment. She blushed even more and practically stared a hole straight through the floor when Jeff spoke, but couldn't hide the hint of a smile on her face from him. It made her look both adorable and sexy as hell (then again, Jeff thought she always looked adorable and sexy as hell), but he couldn't figure out what he said that made her react like that. He glanced around the room, but saw no reaction from any of his friends, although he's certain Abed knew, whatever it was. He ran through what he said in his head again. Annie and I haven't talked about anything like that…yet.

Yet. Where the fuck did that come from? But even as he thought it, Jeff knew exactly where that word had come from. He and Annie may not have talked about it, but they had been dating for almost six months, living together for over a month, and Jeff didn't see that ending anytime soon. More important, he didn't want it to end anytime soon. Or at all. In fact, he really couldn't see himself not spending the rest of his life with her; he didn't even care that it made him feel like an overemotional sap for admitting that to himself. And more importantly, he knew Annie felt the same way.

All of this had probably been building in his subconscious for weeks now, but the sudden realization as it forced its way to the front of his mind left him feeling more than a little thunderstruck. He thought of the day Annie had moved in, when Abed had begun spinning his soap opera theories and had mentioned the possibility of Britta or Annie being pregnant. The mere thought of Britta being pregnant had been one of the most terrifying things he'd ever experienced in his life. Not just that it was Britta, although that certainly didn't help. He'd never wanted to settle down and have children; he was worried that there was too much of his father inside of him, that he would simply prove incapable of the task at hand.

But that terror, that fear that made his throat close up and his stomach twist itself into a knot - it wasn't present when Abed had mentioned Annie being pregnant. At the time he had had more pressing matters to focus on, and the strange feeling had been quickly forgotten in the ensuing chaos. That same feeling had returned, larger than ever, while he had been at the jewelers buying Annie the silver butterfly necklace she was currently wearing for her Christmas/Hanukah present (he refused to call it Chrismukkah, no matter how many times she tried to force him to watch The O.C.), when his eyes had glanced over a display of engagement rings. He refused to acknowledge exactly what those feelings meant, but his subconscious had known. Happiness. But not the regular, everyday kind of happiness. This was the pure, uncut stuff. The kind you would do anything for, as long as it meant you got to experience it every day for the rest of your life. The kind you got addicted to.

"Annie, why don't you open your gift now?" Annie eagerly tore into the package Pierce had given her. She gasped once she had the wrapping paper off.

"Pierce, they're beautiful." Annie beamed at him. The package contained a set of ornate silver picture frames, obviously antique. Pierce smiled softly.

"They belonged to my mother. I figured Jeff wasn't much for photos, and I knew you would have a bunch that you wanted to hang up, so I thought these might look a little nicer than the frames you had." Annie thanked Pierce with a hug, then turned towards Shirley, who was still sitting on the couch.

"Shirley, you still haven't really said what you think. Will you please at least talk about it? We get that your upset, but we really didn't know how to let everyone know without turning it into some big thing, so we thought it would be better to wait a little while, and we totally didn't mean to hide it for so long and…just please don't be mad at us!"

"I'm not mad!" Shirley snapped as she stood up from the couch and turned towards Jeff and Annie.

"…Are you sure? 'Cause you sound kinda mad." Jeff asked, then grunted as Annie dug an elbow into his side.

"Well, maybe a little. But mostly I'm disappointed…in the fact that you felt like you had to hide this from us, and I'm guessing me in particular. Both of you are my friends, and I want the two of you to be happy."

"And we are, but Shirley, you're really okay with this?"

"If I said no, would it change anything?"

"No." Annie and Jeff said together.

"Good. I won't lie and say that I don't have reservations about the age difference, but Annie, you're a grown woman. You can make your own decisions, and I trust your judgment. And as for the living together in sin aspect…" she frowned. "I don't like it, but, well, you are both technically Hellbound already, anyway. If this means I just have to work a little bit harder to get both of you into Heaven, then so be it." She grinned in excitement. "Besides, with the two of you together I'm pretty sure I only have to get one of you on the right path, and the other should follow easily enough. It'll be like a two-for-one!" Jeff just shook his head at her reasoning, while Annie put a hand over her mouth to hide a giggle. Shirley got serious again and stared Jeff down with her Angry Mom Face.

"And Jeff, I'm assuming you're serious about this since you've moved in together, but if you're playing with her, if you hurt her in any way, I want you to know that I will break both of your legs, drive you out to the middle of the desert, and leave you there." Jeff swallowed nervously.

"Well, that's…terrifying. How very Christian of you. But I don't think you have anything to worry about, Shirley. Since Pierce already knew about us, I'm assuming he already has someone on retainer to kill me if I ever hurt Annie."

"Jeff, I would never have you killed. Not when I could use all my time and money, of which I have a considerable amount, to absolutely break you in ways you can't even begin to imagine if you hurt her. Seriously, I will shatter your entire world to the point that when I'm through with you, you'll drive a sledgehammer over to Shirley's home yourself."

"Have our friends always been this creepy and I just never noticed before?" Annie rubbed his back in sympathy.

"Well, look on the bright side. All you have to do is keep me happy and you won't have anything to worry about."

"Lucky me, seeing as I was already planning on doing that anyway." He leaned down and kissed her lightly, just pressing his lips softly against hers.

"Ooh, that's nice! Uh…Britta, you've been awfully quiet about this whole thing. I expected you to have more of a reaction to all of this." Britta, who had been trying not to gag at the frankly disgusting levels of cuteness from the couple, looked at Shirley like a deer frozen in the headlights.

"Oh…I guess I'm still a little stunned from the whole thing, ya know? I'm not really sure how I feel. I think I might be in shock."

"She was furious…when she found out a month ago." Britta glared at Annie. Jeff she could have expected that from, but Annie?

"You haven't completely forgiven me for the "old enough to be your father" comment, have you?" Annie didn't say anything, just smirked, but the meaning was unmistakable. Now we're even. Jeff couldn't believe that Annie would throw Britta under the bus like that. It was…incredibly hot. He couldn't help it; he really liked devious Annie. It was probably a good thing she wasn't like that very often; if she was, he was pretty sure they would never leave their apartment.

"You knew about this for a month and you didn't tell me?"

"Hey, Abed knew way before I ever did!" Britta said defensively. Everyone turned towards Abed, who simply nodded.

"That's true."

"Wait, so was I the only one who had absolutely no clue about any of this?" Troy asked.

"Yes!" Everyone said. Troy's face fell and tears started to form in his eyes.

"Man, I never know what's going on!" Abed placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him while Shirley started scolding Britta for keeping such a juicy piece of gossip to herself for so long, and the party eventually settled into as close to normalcy as any study group event could hope to achieve. And at midnight, when Annie pulled Jeff into a passionate, knee-buckling kiss (with the other members of the group looking on in varying degrees of discomfort), Jeff couldn't help but think that as great as the old year had been, the new one would be even better.