Fic: Criminology 101 (7/?)
Fandom: Community
Title: Criminology 101
Character/Pairing(s): Jeff/Annie
Rating: PG
Summary: Mafia AU. Annie gets her introduction into Greendale's crime world, in the hopes that she can finally bag Troy Barnes. Meanwhile, Jeff tries to keep things running smoothly while Pierce is busy, and he has no time for silly schoolgirls and their tight sweaters.
Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Community.
Warnings: some violence, and mentions of drugs.
A/N - First, sorry it's so short, but I'm setting it up for big things so ... yeah. Second, I know nothing about how this whole prison business works, so ignore anything that sounds wrong. Third, lol it's been forever. Sorry. Let's just pretend it's still January, and I uploaded this on time.
Part 1 // Part 2a/2b / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6
In a way, Jeff had a point about weapons making the killer. Their weapons said a lot about them. It was like they corresponded with their personalities.
Britta was a bomb girl; Explosive and destructive. She burned everything to the ground and left no one in her wake.
Troy liked baseball bats and his fists; Strong, obviously. He seemed simple, but he could pound away at some one until they were just a mess of muscle and bone.
Abed liked to carry a variety. A revolver, because it was a classic; A sub-machine gun because it was fast; A shotgun because it was effective; And a rifle, because he could observe from afar, and still nail his victims right in the head. No matter where he was or what kind of job he was doing, he blended right in.
Jeff carried a handgun. It was a pretty common one too; A semi-automatic used by armed forces in over fifty countries. It was concise and it didn't mess around, just like Jeff.
Which meant Annie was a knife; sharp and thorough. And it all made perfect sense to her.
Jeff drove them up to the northern part of Greendale, in Laybourne's area. Annie knew this place was surrounded by Laybourne's men, doing their business at every corner, but Jeff and Abed didn't seem too worried about it. They weren't there to get into a gang-fight, they had specific men in mind.
“All the associates go to the same club every Wednesday for poker,” Abed told Jeff from the passenger seat. “We go in there right now and we'll have all our eggs in one basket. One of them will have testified, and if not, they'll at least know who it was.”
“Great work, Abed,” Jeff said.
“Are we finishing them all?” Abed asks.
“Of course. We need to send Laybourne a message remember?” Jeff said.
“But Pierce -”
“Let me worry about Pierce,” Jeff assured him.
“You're already worrying about everything else,” Abed reminded him.
“You're not gonna get in trouble for this, are you?” Annie asked.
Jeff stayed silent.
“I don't want to get you into trouble.”
“You won't!” Jeff exclaimed. “Now, both of you drop it. You're acting like pansies.”
Silence filled the car. Then Abed asked, “So all of them?”
“Leave some for Britta. She'll give me another speech about slave labour if I let all her hard work be in vain,” Jeff said.
He turned a sharp corner into an empty back-alley. He stopped the car in front of a large metal door, with green paint chipping away from it. He turned to face Abed, and the two nodded to each other in understanding. Abed clambered out of the car, and Jeff turned to face Annie.
“You ready for this?”
“As I'll ever be,” She said.
Jeff nodded. “Follow my lead. Don't stab anyone unless I tell you to.” And then he pushed the door open, and climbed out too.
They went through the green door, and climbed up three flights of stairs before arriving at their destination. Abed went through first.
The door led them to an empty hall. The walls were gray and dirty, and there was stained, old-fashioned carpet running along the floor. At the end of the hall was a giant, tough-looking bouncer, and behind him another door. The three of them walked up the hallway, and Abed nodded silently at the bouncer, widening his eyes. The bouncer merely blinked back at him, then opened the door, standing back to let the three of them through.
Inside was a table, with eight men surrounding it, laughing heartily and throwing chips to the middle. When they saw Jeff and Abed walk through they all reached into their pockets.
“I wouldn't do that,” Abed said quickly, pulling a detonator out of his jacket, and holding up the machine gun in warning. The bouncer came in behind them, and another bouncer came in through another door, holding machine guns and pointing them at the table.
“What the hell's going on here?” A guy with a cowboy hat, and blonde hair asked. He was rather attractive, with dimples and nice eyes.
Jeff cocked his head at the table, keeping his hands safely in the pockets of his suit.
“My name's Jeff Winger,” He said. “You've probably heard of me.”
“I haven't,” The blonde guy said in a southern accent.
Jeff's face took on a stony expression. Bad move, Annie thought. If this guy wanted to get out alive, he really needed to be playing on Jeff's ego right now.
“I work for Pierce Hawthorne,” Jeff said stiffly.
The blonde nodded. “Oh. What are you doing on our turf?”
“One of you testified against one of my men. I want to know who,” Jeff said.
“Your men?” Some one else spoke up. He was rather large, wearing glasses, and looked extremely out of place with the rest of these mobsters. “I thought you were all Pierce Hawthorne's people.”
“Garrett has a point. Is your man or Hawthorne's?” The blonde said, trying to rile Jeff up.
Jeff glared at him. “If one of you doesn't admit to it, I'm gonna use you, to teach my dear friend, Annie, how to effectively kill some one,” Jeff said. He gestured for Annie to step up beside him.
“Her?” Blondie scoffed. “She couldn't kill a snail if she stepped on it.” He directed his attention to Annie. “What are you doing here, sweetheart? You don't belong in these parts of town.”
“I belong wherever I want!” Annie snapped at him, angrily.
He smirked. “Oh. Feisty. Why don't you come over here, so Black Rider can have a better look at you.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “That's it,” He said. He pulled his gun out of it's holster and took one clean shot at the blonde who called himself Black Rider, getting him right on the forehead. Black Rider fell limply out of his chair.
“If anyone else wants to die today feel free to test my patience further,” Jeff said out to the room. “Now, tell me who testified against Troy Barnes, or she will kill you all, one by one.”
“We don't know what you're talking about,” One of the men said calmly.
“I'm not afraid of some girl,” the kid with the glasses said. Jeff quirked an eyebrow at him.
“Well aren't you a brave little soldier,” Jeff told the kid sarcastically. “What's your name?”
“Garrett.”
“Annie why don't you step over to Garrett,” Jeff told her, giving her a cheeky smile.
Annie did as she was told, giving Garrett the most vicious glare she could muster.
Jeff stepped up next to her smiling mischievously at the guy sitting next to Garrett.
“I don't have a knife,” Jeff began. “But I suppose if you stab where I shoot, it won't make much of a difference when he's dead.” And then, Jeff grabbed the guy by the hair and stuck a bullet right in his neck. Blood shot out and splattered in the face of some of the men sitting across the table.
Jeff gave Annie an encouraging smile. “Your turn.” His voice was low and dangerous.
Garrett had the brains to actually look frightened of her now. He tried to hide it but Annie could see it in his eyes. She liked knowing she was the one causing that look.
“This is embarrassing,” She said to him. “Now everyone will know you were murdered by a girl.” She stuck the knife through his neck, right where Jeff had demonstrated on the other guy. Garrett choked, and blood poured down the front of his checkered shirt.
The guys sitting around the table began to panic. Only one of them was relaxed, in fact, he looked rather bored with the whole scene.
“That was good,” Jeff said to Annie. “You forgot to pack the right punch. See you wanna make them jerk back, that's how you know you've done a good job. Like this,” He said, then he shot the next guy to his right without warning. He smiled politely at the remaining men, as if he was trying to teach Annie how to play guitar rather than kill some one.
Annie nodded, smiling now. She couldn't help herself. She felt giddy, and she was actually having quite a bit of fun.
“Like this?” She asked, stepping up to the man next to Garrett. His eyes shone up at her in fear, as she stuck the knife into his chest, pushing it around a bit so it had impact. Blood fell from the man's mouth, and when Annie pulled the dripping knife out, the man's body fell forward. Dead.
“Close,” Jeff noted.
He walked over to her and then smiled at the man sitting nearest to them. He turned to look at Annie, clearly enjoying this little game they'd somehow started.
“I'll show you,” Jeff said. His voice was low and heavy. He put his gun back in his holster, and pulled her by the waist, in front of the man. Jeff stood behind her, positioning himself the way he used to do whenever they went to the shooting range, only this time he was much, much closer. He his left hand, lightly on her hip, and held her wrist with his right.
“You see, what you're doing is this,” He breathed into her ear, his voice barely above a whisper. He guided her hand that was holding the knife, and forced it into the man's chest. The man bit his lip, trying to keep himself from screaming. “Just because you're using a knife, doesn't mean you stop trying to aim,” He instructed. He pulled her hand and the knife away. “So you don't want to do this,” He said, stabbing the man again, a little lower than before. “Or this.” He moved the knife out and then lowered it to the man's stomach. Annie could see the red staining the man's shirt. His eyes were beginning to roll backwards.
“What do I want to do then?” Annie asked, swallowing down a nervous gulp. She could feel his breath on her neck. She could even feel his heart, racing just as fast as hers; enjoying this just as much as she was. She felt herself flush.
Jeff's hand traveled up from her wrist and wrapped around her fist, with the knife was caught between them. Annie risked a glance at his face, and he smiled softly at her, right from over her shoulder.
“You do this,” He said gently, and then drove the knife right through the man's heart as hard as he could.
Annie let out an exhilarated breath, and giggled.
“This is ridiculous,” One of the guys muttered. “We ain't telling you who testified. You can murder us and flirt with your girlfriend all you want, but no one's telling you nothing.”
Jeff straightened up, pulling away from Annie. “That was a double negative,” He told the guy, like he felt sorry for him. Then shot him three times in the chest. The guy, like the rest, fell to the floor and his death.
There were two men left sitting around the poker table. One looked twitchy, and the other still looked calm and collected.
“You boys gonna talk?” Jeff asked them.
The men shared looks.
“I can tell you the man you're looking for,” The calm one said.
“Garrity, no!” The other exclaimed.
“Garrity?” Abed asked. “Sean Garrity?”
Garrity nodded.
Abed smiled slightly. “You're the one they call Professor Professorson. I'm a big fan,” Abed admitted. Jeff frowned at him in amusement.
“Garrity, don't tell him anything. They're not gonna let you out of here. Laybourne's gonna -”
“Somebody shut him up,” Jeff groaned.
“I got it,” Annie said happily then skipped her way over to the twitchy guy.
“Y- You're pathological,” The guy stammered.
Annie beamed. “That's flattering, but I'd say I'm more … psycho.” She gave him the widest grin she could and then slit his throat from left to right, with ease. The man gurgled and flopped forward, letting his blood spill over the poker chips and playing cards.
Jeff smiled proudly at her, and turned back to Garrity.
“I want to live,” Garrity said simply. “I have a family I need to take care of, and I have no beef with you. It's just business.”
“Who testified?” Jeff asked darkly.
“The guy you're looking for is Craig Pelton. He's Laybourne's underboss.”
“I know who he is,” Jeff spat. “You know, he's put me through a lot of legal work I don't have the time for. In fact, I'm pretty sure all of you here have.”
“It's just business,” Garrity repeated.
“You're right, it is,” Jeff told him. He nodded to Abed who raised his eyebrows back as some form of silent communication.
“Thank you for your help,” Jeff said to Garrity. Then the gestured for Annie to follow him and Abed. And the three of them left with the bouncers.
“You're gonna let him live?” Annie asked. As they got themselves back into the car.
“Of course not,” Jeff told her as he pulled out of the alleyway. “I told you, we have to leave some one for Britta.”
When they were two blocks away from the building, Jeff stopped the car and gave Abed a meaningful look. Abed nodded and pulled the detonator from his pocket, setting it off.
The explosion still sounded pretty loud from two block away and Annie could see the ash filling up the sky, and tiny bits of debris falling around Jeff's car.
“That went well,” Abed said.
“Mhm,” Jeff agreed. He turned to Abed with a serious expression. “I want you to send some money to Garrity's family.”
Abed looked like he wanted to question him, but thought better of it.
“Once that's done I need you to find everything you can on Pelton. We need to get him before Laybourne can think of a way to get us.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Abed said.
Jeff turned to face Annie and smiled. “You were great.”
“Was I?”
“Of course. You saw those guys; they were terrified of you.”
Annie blushed. “I was just doing what you said.”
“And you were fantastic at it,” Jeff insisted. “I'm proud of you.”
“Thanks,” Annie said.
Jeff didn't turn around right away, choosing instead to let their stare linger or a little longer. If Abed took note of it, he didn't say anything, cleaning his unused gun instead.
Jeff finally turned to face the front, and started up the car again.
“Pretty soon you'll be doing this all on your own,” He called back to her, smiling at her through the rear-view mirror.
Annie sure hoped so. This was probably the most fun thing she'd ever done. Plus, she didn't throw up this time around.
XXX
Jeff had a problem.
Well, no. That was an understatement. Jeff had many problems. Everything in his life came with some sort of problem. And over half of them were connected to Pierce or Laybourne somehow. But this particular problem was the one he thought about the most.
It was Annie. Of course. Because his life was a high school drama now.
He could live with her getting under his skin. He may not know how to deal with it, but he always had the option of just not dealing with it, before. But now, she wasn't just under his skin, she was everywhere. In every damn thought he had, every hour of every day. Always, always Annie.
He didn't know what it was that made him so sappy. He just wanted to see her smile, and he sort of hated himself for it.
And then he wanted to kiss her, and didn't hate himself quite as much as society told him he should. He didn't care that she was young, and naïve, and probably didn't have a full idea of what she'd gotten herself into. Those were all things he could fix with time and work. But it was more than that now. There were actual feelings involved.
Jeff cared about her, and that was a mistake, because Jeff wasn't supposed to care about anything. That's what made him so good at what he did, his lack of emotions towards anyone other than himself.
And okay, fine. He cared about Abed, and Troy, and Britta, and Shirley, and even Pierce when he wasn't being an asshole. But he didn't care about them the way he cared about Annie. He cared about her in a dangerous way. A way that could be used against him, and would probably work.
He was a danger to her, and she was a danger to his work. And right now, work was priority numero uno. He had to beat Pierce. He had to take over, and win, and actually like being a part of the Greendale underworld again. If Annie got mixed in the middle of that, who knew what would happen. Everything could go to crap.
Or everything would be even better. Annie was skilled. If anyone could make his project succeed it was her. And Jeff wanted her around.
He wanted her, but he didn't want to want her. It was too confusing and conflicting and he had no idea how to solve all of this.
And then there were those fleeting moments, where she'd give him a bright, sweet smile. Her blue eyes would sparkle with this thing he could never place. No one ever looked at him like that. He didn't want anyone to ever look at him like that, except her.
It was really inconvenient.
Yep. Jeff had a big problem.
XXX
Life was going great for Annie.
She spent most of her time in the mansion, hanging out with Abed. They played video games and watched movies, and pulled crazy shenanigans whenever they had the time. Abed seemed rather lonely with Troy in prison, but he still tried to have fun whenever he could. Annie used to think it was strange that he could be so childish and do what he did, but it made sense now. Being childish kept him sane, because if he didn't have movies and games to turn to, what was he? Just a cold-blooded killer. And for what? Money? He didn't care about that.
He didn't do this for the reward that came with it, he did it because something in his brain told him this was what mattered. And sometimes he needed to step out of the man who thought crime was everything in the world, and step into the man who wanted to watch twelve episodes of Inspector Spacetime in one day. It made sense to Annie now.
When Abed wasn't around, Annie hung around with Britta. After their little talk, Britta seemed to be warming up to Annie. She still didn't understand Annie the way she wanted to, and Annie had a feeling that was frustrating her, but it was only because they were so different. And it didn't matter how different they were, deep down, they were more alike than anything.
Britta had seen the world, but didn't understand it. Annie understood everything, but had little experience. They could learn from each other. Britta saw that now, so she let Annie hang around. She taught Annie a few things about bombs, though Annie didn't have much interest in them. She mostly told Annie how to disarm them, in case she was ever caught in a situation like that.
Britta felt like the big sister Annie never had. In fact, they all felt like family. Annie found herself liking this new family more and more, with every new thing she learned from them.
And then there was Jeff.
Jeff was like family too, but also so much more than that. She had feelings for him, and it was so much more than what she had felt for Troy. Troy had been a schoolgirl fantasy she could never achieve, Jeff wasn't that. He was attainable. Annie caught him watching her sometimes. It wasn't just her, it couldn't be.
Jeff felt it too. He just acted like he didn't which was infuriating most of the time. She tried to edge him on sometimes. She'd smile for a little longer than she should, and let her hand linger on his arm, but nothing worked.
It didn't help that his actions constantly contradicted the respectable distance he tried to keep between them. He'd smile politely and pat her on the head. But he'd never let her kill completely on her own; he'd always be there when they'd go to kill some pointless mook, and he'd step in close enough that she could smell his aftershave. It was very confusing.
She wanted to confront him about it - had even convinced herself she would a couple of times - but whenever she tried, he was always busy somehow. Troy's case was taking a toll on him, just as Abed had suspected it would. Jeff would spend hours late at night, running over information to find a way out for Troy. He was a good lawyer but he couldn't make evidence in Troy's favour appear out of thin air.
It didn't help that Pelton had gone into hiding after he found out Jeff was after him. Abed was still keeping up with contacts, looking for him, but it seemed Pelton's presence in the world was growing smaller and smaller. He was good at keeping himself undercover.
If the stress of Troy's case and Pelton's disappearance wasn't keeping Jeff busy and distracted, it was Pierce. Pierce had also found out about Jeff and Abed's little attack on Laybourne's men, and wasn't happy about it. He'd stopped by the mansion and yelled at Jeff and Abed for a little under two hours. They both kept him out of the dark about Annie's participation in the little attack, probably for her own good.
All of this was mounting on Jeff, and whenever Annie saw him, he was usually buried in paperwork, yelling back at Pierce over the phone, or snoring on the couch from lack of sleep. The only time he ever seemed relaxed was when he took her out to teach her about killing, and even that was strained because he'd get too close then step away and act distant for the rest of the day.
Despite all the confusion and tension in the Hawthorne mansion, Annie still loved every second she spent in it. These people were her family, and she loved each and every one of them. She was happy and relaxed, and nothing ever really bothered her anymore.
And then Annie's birthday rolled around, and after almost two years of absence, her father finally called.
Title: Criminology 101
Character/Pairing(s): Jeff/Annie
Rating: PG
Summary: Mafia AU. Annie gets her introduction into Greendale's crime world, in the hopes that she can finally bag Troy Barnes. Meanwhile, Jeff tries to keep things running smoothly while Pierce is busy, and he has no time for silly schoolgirls and their tight sweaters.
Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Community.
Warnings: some violence, and mentions of drugs.
A/N - First, sorry it's so short, but I'm setting it up for big things so ... yeah. Second, I know nothing about how this whole prison business works, so ignore anything that sounds wrong. Third, lol it's been forever. Sorry. Let's just pretend it's still January, and I uploaded this on time.
Part 1 // Part 2a/2b / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6
In a way, Jeff had a point about weapons making the killer. Their weapons said a lot about them. It was like they corresponded with their personalities.
Britta was a bomb girl; Explosive and destructive. She burned everything to the ground and left no one in her wake.
Troy liked baseball bats and his fists; Strong, obviously. He seemed simple, but he could pound away at some one until they were just a mess of muscle and bone.
Abed liked to carry a variety. A revolver, because it was a classic; A sub-machine gun because it was fast; A shotgun because it was effective; And a rifle, because he could observe from afar, and still nail his victims right in the head. No matter where he was or what kind of job he was doing, he blended right in.
Jeff carried a handgun. It was a pretty common one too; A semi-automatic used by armed forces in over fifty countries. It was concise and it didn't mess around, just like Jeff.
Which meant Annie was a knife; sharp and thorough. And it all made perfect sense to her.
Jeff drove them up to the northern part of Greendale, in Laybourne's area. Annie knew this place was surrounded by Laybourne's men, doing their business at every corner, but Jeff and Abed didn't seem too worried about it. They weren't there to get into a gang-fight, they had specific men in mind.
“All the associates go to the same club every Wednesday for poker,” Abed told Jeff from the passenger seat. “We go in there right now and we'll have all our eggs in one basket. One of them will have testified, and if not, they'll at least know who it was.”
“Great work, Abed,” Jeff said.
“Are we finishing them all?” Abed asks.
“Of course. We need to send Laybourne a message remember?” Jeff said.
“But Pierce -”
“Let me worry about Pierce,” Jeff assured him.
“You're already worrying about everything else,” Abed reminded him.
“You're not gonna get in trouble for this, are you?” Annie asked.
Jeff stayed silent.
“I don't want to get you into trouble.”
“You won't!” Jeff exclaimed. “Now, both of you drop it. You're acting like pansies.”
Silence filled the car. Then Abed asked, “So all of them?”
“Leave some for Britta. She'll give me another speech about slave labour if I let all her hard work be in vain,” Jeff said.
He turned a sharp corner into an empty back-alley. He stopped the car in front of a large metal door, with green paint chipping away from it. He turned to face Abed, and the two nodded to each other in understanding. Abed clambered out of the car, and Jeff turned to face Annie.
“You ready for this?”
“As I'll ever be,” She said.
Jeff nodded. “Follow my lead. Don't stab anyone unless I tell you to.” And then he pushed the door open, and climbed out too.
They went through the green door, and climbed up three flights of stairs before arriving at their destination. Abed went through first.
The door led them to an empty hall. The walls were gray and dirty, and there was stained, old-fashioned carpet running along the floor. At the end of the hall was a giant, tough-looking bouncer, and behind him another door. The three of them walked up the hallway, and Abed nodded silently at the bouncer, widening his eyes. The bouncer merely blinked back at him, then opened the door, standing back to let the three of them through.
Inside was a table, with eight men surrounding it, laughing heartily and throwing chips to the middle. When they saw Jeff and Abed walk through they all reached into their pockets.
“I wouldn't do that,” Abed said quickly, pulling a detonator out of his jacket, and holding up the machine gun in warning. The bouncer came in behind them, and another bouncer came in through another door, holding machine guns and pointing them at the table.
“What the hell's going on here?” A guy with a cowboy hat, and blonde hair asked. He was rather attractive, with dimples and nice eyes.
Jeff cocked his head at the table, keeping his hands safely in the pockets of his suit.
“My name's Jeff Winger,” He said. “You've probably heard of me.”
“I haven't,” The blonde guy said in a southern accent.
Jeff's face took on a stony expression. Bad move, Annie thought. If this guy wanted to get out alive, he really needed to be playing on Jeff's ego right now.
“I work for Pierce Hawthorne,” Jeff said stiffly.
The blonde nodded. “Oh. What are you doing on our turf?”
“One of you testified against one of my men. I want to know who,” Jeff said.
“Your men?” Some one else spoke up. He was rather large, wearing glasses, and looked extremely out of place with the rest of these mobsters. “I thought you were all Pierce Hawthorne's people.”
“Garrett has a point. Is your man or Hawthorne's?” The blonde said, trying to rile Jeff up.
Jeff glared at him. “If one of you doesn't admit to it, I'm gonna use you, to teach my dear friend, Annie, how to effectively kill some one,” Jeff said. He gestured for Annie to step up beside him.
“Her?” Blondie scoffed. “She couldn't kill a snail if she stepped on it.” He directed his attention to Annie. “What are you doing here, sweetheart? You don't belong in these parts of town.”
“I belong wherever I want!” Annie snapped at him, angrily.
He smirked. “Oh. Feisty. Why don't you come over here, so Black Rider can have a better look at you.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “That's it,” He said. He pulled his gun out of it's holster and took one clean shot at the blonde who called himself Black Rider, getting him right on the forehead. Black Rider fell limply out of his chair.
“If anyone else wants to die today feel free to test my patience further,” Jeff said out to the room. “Now, tell me who testified against Troy Barnes, or she will kill you all, one by one.”
“We don't know what you're talking about,” One of the men said calmly.
“I'm not afraid of some girl,” the kid with the glasses said. Jeff quirked an eyebrow at him.
“Well aren't you a brave little soldier,” Jeff told the kid sarcastically. “What's your name?”
“Garrett.”
“Annie why don't you step over to Garrett,” Jeff told her, giving her a cheeky smile.
Annie did as she was told, giving Garrett the most vicious glare she could muster.
Jeff stepped up next to her smiling mischievously at the guy sitting next to Garrett.
“I don't have a knife,” Jeff began. “But I suppose if you stab where I shoot, it won't make much of a difference when he's dead.” And then, Jeff grabbed the guy by the hair and stuck a bullet right in his neck. Blood shot out and splattered in the face of some of the men sitting across the table.
Jeff gave Annie an encouraging smile. “Your turn.” His voice was low and dangerous.
Garrett had the brains to actually look frightened of her now. He tried to hide it but Annie could see it in his eyes. She liked knowing she was the one causing that look.
“This is embarrassing,” She said to him. “Now everyone will know you were murdered by a girl.” She stuck the knife through his neck, right where Jeff had demonstrated on the other guy. Garrett choked, and blood poured down the front of his checkered shirt.
The guys sitting around the table began to panic. Only one of them was relaxed, in fact, he looked rather bored with the whole scene.
“That was good,” Jeff said to Annie. “You forgot to pack the right punch. See you wanna make them jerk back, that's how you know you've done a good job. Like this,” He said, then he shot the next guy to his right without warning. He smiled politely at the remaining men, as if he was trying to teach Annie how to play guitar rather than kill some one.
Annie nodded, smiling now. She couldn't help herself. She felt giddy, and she was actually having quite a bit of fun.
“Like this?” She asked, stepping up to the man next to Garrett. His eyes shone up at her in fear, as she stuck the knife into his chest, pushing it around a bit so it had impact. Blood fell from the man's mouth, and when Annie pulled the dripping knife out, the man's body fell forward. Dead.
“Close,” Jeff noted.
He walked over to her and then smiled at the man sitting nearest to them. He turned to look at Annie, clearly enjoying this little game they'd somehow started.
“I'll show you,” Jeff said. His voice was low and heavy. He put his gun back in his holster, and pulled her by the waist, in front of the man. Jeff stood behind her, positioning himself the way he used to do whenever they went to the shooting range, only this time he was much, much closer. He his left hand, lightly on her hip, and held her wrist with his right.
“You see, what you're doing is this,” He breathed into her ear, his voice barely above a whisper. He guided her hand that was holding the knife, and forced it into the man's chest. The man bit his lip, trying to keep himself from screaming. “Just because you're using a knife, doesn't mean you stop trying to aim,” He instructed. He pulled her hand and the knife away. “So you don't want to do this,” He said, stabbing the man again, a little lower than before. “Or this.” He moved the knife out and then lowered it to the man's stomach. Annie could see the red staining the man's shirt. His eyes were beginning to roll backwards.
“What do I want to do then?” Annie asked, swallowing down a nervous gulp. She could feel his breath on her neck. She could even feel his heart, racing just as fast as hers; enjoying this just as much as she was. She felt herself flush.
Jeff's hand traveled up from her wrist and wrapped around her fist, with the knife was caught between them. Annie risked a glance at his face, and he smiled softly at her, right from over her shoulder.
“You do this,” He said gently, and then drove the knife right through the man's heart as hard as he could.
Annie let out an exhilarated breath, and giggled.
“This is ridiculous,” One of the guys muttered. “We ain't telling you who testified. You can murder us and flirt with your girlfriend all you want, but no one's telling you nothing.”
Jeff straightened up, pulling away from Annie. “That was a double negative,” He told the guy, like he felt sorry for him. Then shot him three times in the chest. The guy, like the rest, fell to the floor and his death.
There were two men left sitting around the poker table. One looked twitchy, and the other still looked calm and collected.
“You boys gonna talk?” Jeff asked them.
The men shared looks.
“I can tell you the man you're looking for,” The calm one said.
“Garrity, no!” The other exclaimed.
“Garrity?” Abed asked. “Sean Garrity?”
Garrity nodded.
Abed smiled slightly. “You're the one they call Professor Professorson. I'm a big fan,” Abed admitted. Jeff frowned at him in amusement.
“Garrity, don't tell him anything. They're not gonna let you out of here. Laybourne's gonna -”
“Somebody shut him up,” Jeff groaned.
“I got it,” Annie said happily then skipped her way over to the twitchy guy.
“Y- You're pathological,” The guy stammered.
Annie beamed. “That's flattering, but I'd say I'm more … psycho.” She gave him the widest grin she could and then slit his throat from left to right, with ease. The man gurgled and flopped forward, letting his blood spill over the poker chips and playing cards.
Jeff smiled proudly at her, and turned back to Garrity.
“I want to live,” Garrity said simply. “I have a family I need to take care of, and I have no beef with you. It's just business.”
“Who testified?” Jeff asked darkly.
“The guy you're looking for is Craig Pelton. He's Laybourne's underboss.”
“I know who he is,” Jeff spat. “You know, he's put me through a lot of legal work I don't have the time for. In fact, I'm pretty sure all of you here have.”
“It's just business,” Garrity repeated.
“You're right, it is,” Jeff told him. He nodded to Abed who raised his eyebrows back as some form of silent communication.
“Thank you for your help,” Jeff said to Garrity. Then the gestured for Annie to follow him and Abed. And the three of them left with the bouncers.
“You're gonna let him live?” Annie asked. As they got themselves back into the car.
“Of course not,” Jeff told her as he pulled out of the alleyway. “I told you, we have to leave some one for Britta.”
When they were two blocks away from the building, Jeff stopped the car and gave Abed a meaningful look. Abed nodded and pulled the detonator from his pocket, setting it off.
The explosion still sounded pretty loud from two block away and Annie could see the ash filling up the sky, and tiny bits of debris falling around Jeff's car.
“That went well,” Abed said.
“Mhm,” Jeff agreed. He turned to Abed with a serious expression. “I want you to send some money to Garrity's family.”
Abed looked like he wanted to question him, but thought better of it.
“Once that's done I need you to find everything you can on Pelton. We need to get him before Laybourne can think of a way to get us.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Abed said.
Jeff turned to face Annie and smiled. “You were great.”
“Was I?”
“Of course. You saw those guys; they were terrified of you.”
Annie blushed. “I was just doing what you said.”
“And you were fantastic at it,” Jeff insisted. “I'm proud of you.”
“Thanks,” Annie said.
Jeff didn't turn around right away, choosing instead to let their stare linger or a little longer. If Abed took note of it, he didn't say anything, cleaning his unused gun instead.
Jeff finally turned to face the front, and started up the car again.
“Pretty soon you'll be doing this all on your own,” He called back to her, smiling at her through the rear-view mirror.
Annie sure hoped so. This was probably the most fun thing she'd ever done. Plus, she didn't throw up this time around.
XXX
Jeff had a problem.
Well, no. That was an understatement. Jeff had many problems. Everything in his life came with some sort of problem. And over half of them were connected to Pierce or Laybourne somehow. But this particular problem was the one he thought about the most.
It was Annie. Of course. Because his life was a high school drama now.
He could live with her getting under his skin. He may not know how to deal with it, but he always had the option of just not dealing with it, before. But now, she wasn't just under his skin, she was everywhere. In every damn thought he had, every hour of every day. Always, always Annie.
He didn't know what it was that made him so sappy. He just wanted to see her smile, and he sort of hated himself for it.
And then he wanted to kiss her, and didn't hate himself quite as much as society told him he should. He didn't care that she was young, and naïve, and probably didn't have a full idea of what she'd gotten herself into. Those were all things he could fix with time and work. But it was more than that now. There were actual feelings involved.
Jeff cared about her, and that was a mistake, because Jeff wasn't supposed to care about anything. That's what made him so good at what he did, his lack of emotions towards anyone other than himself.
And okay, fine. He cared about Abed, and Troy, and Britta, and Shirley, and even Pierce when he wasn't being an asshole. But he didn't care about them the way he cared about Annie. He cared about her in a dangerous way. A way that could be used against him, and would probably work.
He was a danger to her, and she was a danger to his work. And right now, work was priority numero uno. He had to beat Pierce. He had to take over, and win, and actually like being a part of the Greendale underworld again. If Annie got mixed in the middle of that, who knew what would happen. Everything could go to crap.
Or everything would be even better. Annie was skilled. If anyone could make his project succeed it was her. And Jeff wanted her around.
He wanted her, but he didn't want to want her. It was too confusing and conflicting and he had no idea how to solve all of this.
And then there were those fleeting moments, where she'd give him a bright, sweet smile. Her blue eyes would sparkle with this thing he could never place. No one ever looked at him like that. He didn't want anyone to ever look at him like that, except her.
It was really inconvenient.
Yep. Jeff had a big problem.
XXX
Life was going great for Annie.
She spent most of her time in the mansion, hanging out with Abed. They played video games and watched movies, and pulled crazy shenanigans whenever they had the time. Abed seemed rather lonely with Troy in prison, but he still tried to have fun whenever he could. Annie used to think it was strange that he could be so childish and do what he did, but it made sense now. Being childish kept him sane, because if he didn't have movies and games to turn to, what was he? Just a cold-blooded killer. And for what? Money? He didn't care about that.
He didn't do this for the reward that came with it, he did it because something in his brain told him this was what mattered. And sometimes he needed to step out of the man who thought crime was everything in the world, and step into the man who wanted to watch twelve episodes of Inspector Spacetime in one day. It made sense to Annie now.
When Abed wasn't around, Annie hung around with Britta. After their little talk, Britta seemed to be warming up to Annie. She still didn't understand Annie the way she wanted to, and Annie had a feeling that was frustrating her, but it was only because they were so different. And it didn't matter how different they were, deep down, they were more alike than anything.
Britta had seen the world, but didn't understand it. Annie understood everything, but had little experience. They could learn from each other. Britta saw that now, so she let Annie hang around. She taught Annie a few things about bombs, though Annie didn't have much interest in them. She mostly told Annie how to disarm them, in case she was ever caught in a situation like that.
Britta felt like the big sister Annie never had. In fact, they all felt like family. Annie found herself liking this new family more and more, with every new thing she learned from them.
And then there was Jeff.
Jeff was like family too, but also so much more than that. She had feelings for him, and it was so much more than what she had felt for Troy. Troy had been a schoolgirl fantasy she could never achieve, Jeff wasn't that. He was attainable. Annie caught him watching her sometimes. It wasn't just her, it couldn't be.
Jeff felt it too. He just acted like he didn't which was infuriating most of the time. She tried to edge him on sometimes. She'd smile for a little longer than she should, and let her hand linger on his arm, but nothing worked.
It didn't help that his actions constantly contradicted the respectable distance he tried to keep between them. He'd smile politely and pat her on the head. But he'd never let her kill completely on her own; he'd always be there when they'd go to kill some pointless mook, and he'd step in close enough that she could smell his aftershave. It was very confusing.
She wanted to confront him about it - had even convinced herself she would a couple of times - but whenever she tried, he was always busy somehow. Troy's case was taking a toll on him, just as Abed had suspected it would. Jeff would spend hours late at night, running over information to find a way out for Troy. He was a good lawyer but he couldn't make evidence in Troy's favour appear out of thin air.
It didn't help that Pelton had gone into hiding after he found out Jeff was after him. Abed was still keeping up with contacts, looking for him, but it seemed Pelton's presence in the world was growing smaller and smaller. He was good at keeping himself undercover.
If the stress of Troy's case and Pelton's disappearance wasn't keeping Jeff busy and distracted, it was Pierce. Pierce had also found out about Jeff and Abed's little attack on Laybourne's men, and wasn't happy about it. He'd stopped by the mansion and yelled at Jeff and Abed for a little under two hours. They both kept him out of the dark about Annie's participation in the little attack, probably for her own good.
All of this was mounting on Jeff, and whenever Annie saw him, he was usually buried in paperwork, yelling back at Pierce over the phone, or snoring on the couch from lack of sleep. The only time he ever seemed relaxed was when he took her out to teach her about killing, and even that was strained because he'd get too close then step away and act distant for the rest of the day.
Despite all the confusion and tension in the Hawthorne mansion, Annie still loved every second she spent in it. These people were her family, and she loved each and every one of them. She was happy and relaxed, and nothing ever really bothered her anymore.
And then Annie's birthday rolled around, and after almost two years of absence, her father finally called.