It Was The Smartest Thing I Ever Did, Because Now You're Here (13/?)
Title: It Was The Smartest Thing I Ever Did, Because Now You're Here
Author: x_avecia_x
Rating: PG-13
Warning: A few sweary words, nothing too shocking.
Word Count: 2,721
Disclaimer: I do not own Community - although I would totally marry Dan Harmon then claim half in our (inevitable) divorce settlement - that is unless he concedes to my end game Jeff/Annie demands. If you recognize any of it, it isn't mine.
Summary: Annie and Jeff deal with the consequences of their attraction.
Author's Note: Well, this was sitting around for a while, all ready to go, and then...I forgot I had it finished until people started asking about an update. I seriously suck for that, I'm sorry. Now, this is probably a little bit of filler, though it does address what's going to happen when Annie leaves the hospital and whether she and Jeff are going to pick up where they left off living together. I hope you enjoy it.
Once again a massive thank you to jheaton for his beta-ing services. I couldn't do it without him (seriously, I wonder how I manage to miss so many ridiculously stupid things in my own writing!)
Now on with the show...
______
Annie woke up in her hospital bed and sighed heavily. Her sleep had been plagued by lots of tossing and turning; it wasn’t the most comfortable of beds, and her mind was overrun with thoughts of Aaron. It had been three days since she first laid eyes on her son in the flesh, but it hadn’t gotten any easier for her to see him lying in a NICU incubator instead of a crib.
It didn’t help that she was stuck in the hospital herself. The doctors had discovered that her blood was not clotting properly, and she was still in a great deal of discomfort from the surgery, so they had been in no apparent rush to discharge her. Annie had asked if the problem with the clotting had been the cause of her abruption (she had read up on all manner of problems she could encounter as an expectant mother, but it had not extended to identifying causes of abruptions), yet the doctor was unwilling to identify it for sure as the cause. Apparently abruptions could simply be spontaneous - a fact she did not find comforting in the slightest and would be following up with her own doctor as soon as she had the opportunity.
The more she thought about it, the more upset Annie was with herself for not going to the doctor that morning. She managed to convince herself that had she just gone to the hospital instead of ignoring the twinges of discomfort, she might have been able to prevent what happened.
Part of Annie was convinced the abruption was stress-related. -Another part was trying to remind her that the two weeks before Aaron’s birth had been the least stressful period of her pregnancy, but she ignored that nagging voice, shoving it to the back of her head. It didn’t take a genius to connect that lack of stress with the change in her relationship with Jeff, but over the past few days, anytime he’d even hinted about wanting to discuss their relationship, she’d managed to steer the conversation in another direction.
It wasn’t like she didn’t enjoy the feeling of closeness they’d developed, but she didn't think it necessarily meant anything; she figured those kinds of feelings were only natural now they were parents. Yet somehow she felt like putting a label on whatever their relationship was would only result in more pressure to work together for the sake of Aaron, and that was pressure she wasn’t sure could have a positive impact on either her or Jeff.
It wasn’t a conversation she could avoid forever; she knew Jeff wanted to know what was going to happen when she was well enough to be discharged, which her doctor had told her would likely in two days time, which considering the doctor had told her this the previous evening left her with little time to consider where she was going to stay when they let her leave tomorrow. But until that conversation happened, everything was up in the air.
She turned in her bed and jumped a little - the sight of Jeff asleep in the chair next to her was unexpected. He usually spent the night in the NICU family room, to be close to Aaron.
‘Jeff.’
He didn’t stir, and Annie wondered how on earth he could possibly sleep so soundly in that chair, which looked much more uncomfortable than her bed. She sat up a little and reached over to gently shake him.
‘Jeff.’ Annie patted his hand. He woke with a start, jerking awkwardly and somehow managing to slide off the chair and onto the floor, landing on his rear end. ‘Jeff, what are you doing in here? It’s not even 8am.’
Jeff took a moment to come to his senses before picking himself up off the floor.
‘Good morning to you too’ he grumbled, stretching as he spoke.
Annie stared at him, still waiting for an answer to her question.
‘I came down to see you last night, but you were asleep.’
Annie was confused.- ‘If I was asleep, why did you stay?’
Jeff smiled and sat on the edge of her bed. Annie felt a little flutter as he placed his hand atop hers.
‘Well, I have news and I wanted to tell you as soon as you woke up.’ Annie’s eyes widened in panic, but Jeff's smile widened as he continued. ‘Relax, ok? Last night after you left, I spoke with Aaron’s doctor...’
Annie had been practically chased out of the NICU by the nurse who had been tending to Aaron, with a gentle reminder that although she had gotten over the worst of her own condition, she’d had it on good authority from Annie’s own nurses that she still needed regular rest. She had tried to argue otherwise but when the orderly arrived to take Annie back to her room, Jeff had gently reminded her that nothing had changed, that he’d be just along the hall in the parents’ room and if anything happened he could be with Aaron within minutes. She wasn’t exactly happy about being told to leave, but it seemed there was little she could do to argue against the nurse.
Jeff told Annie that about an hour after she'd left, and just as he was about to retreat to the family room down the hall, Aaron’s doctor had arrived on his nightly rounds. Dr Hunter had apologized for not being able to speak to him earlier that evening, explaining that another baby had been born prematurely and had required his attention. (Jeff didn’t bother to mention that the other incubators positioned near Aaron in the NICU remained empty.)
‘...Aaron’s keeping his body temperature up, his lungs are developing and working much better. According to Dr Hunter, the improvement in his condition is like nothing he’s ever seen - he expects Aaron to be moved out of the NICU in the next few days, and if he continues to improve, we might be able to take him home in a week or so, give or take a day.’
Annie blinked, taking a moment or two to absorb the good news.
‘He’s well enough to be moved out of NICU? But he’s only ten days old. He was ten weeks early, shouldn’t he be in there for a few more weeks? I mean...’
Seeing that Annie was panicking and about to dissolve into despair, Jeff moved closer to her and tightened his grip on her hand.
‘This is a good thing. He’s getting better.’
She smiled half-heartedly. Her hesitation was more than a little obvious to Jeff.
‘Annie? Come on, talk to me. What’s wrong?’
‘The doctor told me I can go home tomorrow.’
Jeff tried not to read anything into her bad reaction to good news; it didn’t take a genius to understand she was worried about what would happen when she and Aaron left the hospital - which clearly was happening much sooner than she had anticipated. He’d tried on a couple of occasions to bring up the subject of their living situation with her, but each time she’d quickly swerved to avoid the conversation, and he wasn't going to reopen that can of worms right now. He figured that she would talk once she was ready, but patience wasn’t a virtue that came easily to him.
‘Do you feel well enough to be discharged?’
‘I guess...I mean, I should be turning cartwheels about being able to get out of this bed, right? But...they keep telling me I’ll recover much better once I’m at home and in a normal environment, but I don’t exactly have a home. And when have I ever found myself in a normal environment, Jeff? Nothing about this situation is normal.’ She looked down, feeling like the world’s worst mother.
He didn’t correct her, but instead brushed away the stray tear that ran down her cheek. If there was one thing he would be happy to never see again, it would be those damn tears.
‘Do I really need to ask you again?’
Jeff wasn’t specific, but Annie knew what he meant, and she knew there was no point in avoiding the conversation any longer.
‘You don’t need to ask. But I’m still not sure I’m ready to answer because I honestly don’t know what’s for the best.’
‘Annie, you can’t always know what’s for the best. You could study every day for the rest of your life, learn everything that other people say you need to live a normal life, quote-unquote, and you’re still going to make decisions that don’t work out. That's what's normal.’
‘But what if...’
‘No what ifs Annie. Look, I want you to listen to me when I tell you that I want you to come home with me tomorrow. It doesn’t have to mean anything you don’t want it to, but I was hoping you’d at least want to give this a try. Your home is with me. I mean, I thought that was what we were doing before Aaron showed up ten weeks early.’
Annie looked up to find Jeff staring intently at her. That voice she'd shoved to the back of her head rushed to the front, and she remembered just how good things had been before she was rushed to the hospital. It certainly didn’t feel like a bad decision when she recalled how it felt waking up in the morning with his arm around her, snoring softly into the crook of her neck.
‘I don’t want to rush anything Jeff. I’m nowhere near ready for that.’
Jeff nodded in acceptance.
‘I understand. I can move back onto the couch, it’s not a problem.’
‘No, that...that wasn’t what I meant. I’m not going to make you sleep on the couch, Jeff, I just... need a little time to recover, you know, physically.’
Jeff smirked. ‘Well, I’ll try not to be completely offended you think that’s the only reason I want you to come home with me. You could give me a little credit. Besides, once Aaron is well enough to come home, I can’t see us getting much time for...shenanigans.’
Annie blushed, but let him push a stray strand of hair behind her ear before leaning in to kiss her. She hesitated before pulling him closer, deepening the kiss.
‘What the...?!’
Annie and Jeff jerked apart to find Britta and Shirley standing in her room, flanked by Troy and Abed, all looking at them like a pair of monkeys in a zoo. Jeff was on his feet in an instant.
‘What in the hell are you doing here at 8 in the morning?!’
‘Us?’ Britta shot back. ‘Why did you have your tongue down Annie’s throat at 8 in the morning?’
Despite being clad in pyjamas that had seen better days, Annie pulled herself awkwardly off the bed and stood beside Jeff, lacing her fingers with his own. She could tell he was ready to deny everything to the group for her sake, despite being caught pretty much red-handed, so Annie took a deep breath before confronting the group and her own fears at the same time - she was nothing if not efficient.
‘Well, not that it’s any of your business, but Jeff and I are working through a few things. I mean, we do have a son together, it’s hardly a giant leap for mankind to think we might have a relationship with one another.’
‘Well, we knew that,’ Troy muttered. ‘Honestly, I don’t get why it took you two so long to realize it. I mean, it’s all we’ve talked about for the past two months when you haven’t been around.’
Shirley stepped forward as Britta turned to glower a little at Troy for over-sharing.
‘I think what Troy and Britta were trying to say was that while we’re all happy for you two finally realizing that a child should be brought up in a loving home by two parents as a family unit...’ The sweet, Christian housewife’s voice dropped into that menacing tone she usually reserved for Pierce. ‘...there’s a time and a place for playing tonsil hockey.’
‘Yeah, there is...’ agreed Jeff, looking more ready to lose the plot as each second ticked away, ‘...and one of them is in Annie’s private hospital room at 8 in the morning when nobody else is supposed to be around! I’ll ask again, why are you all here?!’
‘Pierce fell down his stairs this morning,’ Britta explained casually, trying and failing to not be visibly amused by Jeff’s frazzled state. ‘I guess you finally took yourself off his emergency contact list, huh? Or else you would have known that already. Anyway, I was, uh, staying over at Troy and Abed’s place when I got the call from the hospital...’
Annie gasped, her shock at hearing about Pierce, thus overpowering her curiosity about what exactly was going on between Abed, Britta and Troy.
‘Oh my God, Pierce fell down a flight of stairs? Is he alright?’
‘Relax, Annie. It was like five steps. He has a sprained wrist, but other than that...’
‘His doctor is Japanese, and Piece told him that if he tried any ‘Pearl Harbor crap’ there'd be consequences of nuclear proportions,’ Abed continued. ‘And he's already been threatened with several sexual harassment suits.’
‘So basically he’s fine,’ Troy added.
‘Once we checked in on Pierce, we thought we’d come say good morning,’ Shirley concluded. ‘I brought brownies!’
It was far too early to be force-fed brownies, and Jeff was growing more frustrated by the second at having been interrupted when finally making a breakthrough with Annie.
‘At 8am?! Aren’t there visiting times or something? Why on earth would you think Annie would be awake at this time of the morning for a random visit?!’
‘But Annie was awake.’
Jeff turned his attention to Abed and moved forward as if to confront him but quickly stepped back as Annie squeezed his hand and pulled him back towards her.
‘That’s not the point, Abed.’
Jeff couldn’t read the exact look on his friend’s face, but surmised it was possibly a look of confusion given that Abed wasn’t too big on giving away his emotions with facial expression.
‘Isn’t it? We came to visit Annie and you were both awake - unless you were making out in your sleep. But you jumped up too quickly for that.’
Jeff sighed and realized it was pointless to argue.
‘Look, guys, it’s pretty early, and...’
‘And we’re really happy you dropped by,’ Annie added, jumping in to stop Jeff from saying anything rash, ‘but maybe we could talk this over later. We’ll meet you for coffee in the cafeteria in a little bit. I’d like to see Pierce and make sure he’s ok.’
‘Well, I guess the brownies will keep...’ muttered Shirley as she and the others retreated out the door.
When the group had disappeared, Jeff pulled Annie into his arms, nestling her head snugly under his chin.
‘Seriously? Our friends have the worst timing in the world...ever.’
‘True, but we’d be lost without them, you know that.’
He murmured a muted hmm and pulled away to get a look at Annie, who looked exhausted but despite that seemed to look better than she had in days.
‘We didn’t really get to finish our conversation, did we?’
‘No, but I think we covered everything when you kissed me.’
He smirked and felt a little relief that they hadn’t taken another step forward just to take another two backwards.
‘So when you kissed me back, that was you agreeing to come home with me tomorrow?’
‘I...guess so.’
Jeff pulled Annie in to kiss her again, keeping one eye on the door just to make sure they had no more unwelcome interruptions. He didn’t really want to stop, but finally broke the kiss and stood up.
‘Come on, let’s go check on the kid.’
‘Jeff, that’s our son, you could at least say his name instead of calling him the kid.’
‘I was actually referring to Pierce. We’ll head up to the NICU to see Aaron once we’ve made sure Pierce isn’t writing checks to bribe the emergency room staff for prescription pain meds.’
Annie thought about it for a second before grabbing her wash-bag and heading, albeit slowly, to her bathroom.
‘You have a point, I’ll go get dressed.’
Author: x_avecia_x
Rating: PG-13
Warning: A few sweary words, nothing too shocking.
Word Count: 2,721
Disclaimer: I do not own Community - although I would totally marry Dan Harmon then claim half in our (inevitable) divorce settlement - that is unless he concedes to my end game Jeff/Annie demands. If you recognize any of it, it isn't mine.
Summary: Annie and Jeff deal with the consequences of their attraction.
Author's Note: Well, this was sitting around for a while, all ready to go, and then...I forgot I had it finished until people started asking about an update. I seriously suck for that, I'm sorry. Now, this is probably a little bit of filler, though it does address what's going to happen when Annie leaves the hospital and whether she and Jeff are going to pick up where they left off living together. I hope you enjoy it.
Once again a massive thank you to jheaton for his beta-ing services. I couldn't do it without him (seriously, I wonder how I manage to miss so many ridiculously stupid things in my own writing!)
Now on with the show...
______
Annie woke up in her hospital bed and sighed heavily. Her sleep had been plagued by lots of tossing and turning; it wasn’t the most comfortable of beds, and her mind was overrun with thoughts of Aaron. It had been three days since she first laid eyes on her son in the flesh, but it hadn’t gotten any easier for her to see him lying in a NICU incubator instead of a crib.
It didn’t help that she was stuck in the hospital herself. The doctors had discovered that her blood was not clotting properly, and she was still in a great deal of discomfort from the surgery, so they had been in no apparent rush to discharge her. Annie had asked if the problem with the clotting had been the cause of her abruption (she had read up on all manner of problems she could encounter as an expectant mother, but it had not extended to identifying causes of abruptions), yet the doctor was unwilling to identify it for sure as the cause. Apparently abruptions could simply be spontaneous - a fact she did not find comforting in the slightest and would be following up with her own doctor as soon as she had the opportunity.
The more she thought about it, the more upset Annie was with herself for not going to the doctor that morning. She managed to convince herself that had she just gone to the hospital instead of ignoring the twinges of discomfort, she might have been able to prevent what happened.
Part of Annie was convinced the abruption was stress-related. -Another part was trying to remind her that the two weeks before Aaron’s birth had been the least stressful period of her pregnancy, but she ignored that nagging voice, shoving it to the back of her head. It didn’t take a genius to connect that lack of stress with the change in her relationship with Jeff, but over the past few days, anytime he’d even hinted about wanting to discuss their relationship, she’d managed to steer the conversation in another direction.
It wasn’t like she didn’t enjoy the feeling of closeness they’d developed, but she didn't think it necessarily meant anything; she figured those kinds of feelings were only natural now they were parents. Yet somehow she felt like putting a label on whatever their relationship was would only result in more pressure to work together for the sake of Aaron, and that was pressure she wasn’t sure could have a positive impact on either her or Jeff.
It wasn’t a conversation she could avoid forever; she knew Jeff wanted to know what was going to happen when she was well enough to be discharged, which her doctor had told her would likely in two days time, which considering the doctor had told her this the previous evening left her with little time to consider where she was going to stay when they let her leave tomorrow. But until that conversation happened, everything was up in the air.
She turned in her bed and jumped a little - the sight of Jeff asleep in the chair next to her was unexpected. He usually spent the night in the NICU family room, to be close to Aaron.
‘Jeff.’
He didn’t stir, and Annie wondered how on earth he could possibly sleep so soundly in that chair, which looked much more uncomfortable than her bed. She sat up a little and reached over to gently shake him.
‘Jeff.’ Annie patted his hand. He woke with a start, jerking awkwardly and somehow managing to slide off the chair and onto the floor, landing on his rear end. ‘Jeff, what are you doing in here? It’s not even 8am.’
Jeff took a moment to come to his senses before picking himself up off the floor.
‘Good morning to you too’ he grumbled, stretching as he spoke.
Annie stared at him, still waiting for an answer to her question.
‘I came down to see you last night, but you were asleep.’
Annie was confused.- ‘If I was asleep, why did you stay?’
Jeff smiled and sat on the edge of her bed. Annie felt a little flutter as he placed his hand atop hers.
‘Well, I have news and I wanted to tell you as soon as you woke up.’ Annie’s eyes widened in panic, but Jeff's smile widened as he continued. ‘Relax, ok? Last night after you left, I spoke with Aaron’s doctor...’
Annie had been practically chased out of the NICU by the nurse who had been tending to Aaron, with a gentle reminder that although she had gotten over the worst of her own condition, she’d had it on good authority from Annie’s own nurses that she still needed regular rest. She had tried to argue otherwise but when the orderly arrived to take Annie back to her room, Jeff had gently reminded her that nothing had changed, that he’d be just along the hall in the parents’ room and if anything happened he could be with Aaron within minutes. She wasn’t exactly happy about being told to leave, but it seemed there was little she could do to argue against the nurse.
Jeff told Annie that about an hour after she'd left, and just as he was about to retreat to the family room down the hall, Aaron’s doctor had arrived on his nightly rounds. Dr Hunter had apologized for not being able to speak to him earlier that evening, explaining that another baby had been born prematurely and had required his attention. (Jeff didn’t bother to mention that the other incubators positioned near Aaron in the NICU remained empty.)
‘...Aaron’s keeping his body temperature up, his lungs are developing and working much better. According to Dr Hunter, the improvement in his condition is like nothing he’s ever seen - he expects Aaron to be moved out of the NICU in the next few days, and if he continues to improve, we might be able to take him home in a week or so, give or take a day.’
Annie blinked, taking a moment or two to absorb the good news.
‘He’s well enough to be moved out of NICU? But he’s only ten days old. He was ten weeks early, shouldn’t he be in there for a few more weeks? I mean...’
Seeing that Annie was panicking and about to dissolve into despair, Jeff moved closer to her and tightened his grip on her hand.
‘This is a good thing. He’s getting better.’
She smiled half-heartedly. Her hesitation was more than a little obvious to Jeff.
‘Annie? Come on, talk to me. What’s wrong?’
‘The doctor told me I can go home tomorrow.’
Jeff tried not to read anything into her bad reaction to good news; it didn’t take a genius to understand she was worried about what would happen when she and Aaron left the hospital - which clearly was happening much sooner than she had anticipated. He’d tried on a couple of occasions to bring up the subject of their living situation with her, but each time she’d quickly swerved to avoid the conversation, and he wasn't going to reopen that can of worms right now. He figured that she would talk once she was ready, but patience wasn’t a virtue that came easily to him.
‘Do you feel well enough to be discharged?’
‘I guess...I mean, I should be turning cartwheels about being able to get out of this bed, right? But...they keep telling me I’ll recover much better once I’m at home and in a normal environment, but I don’t exactly have a home. And when have I ever found myself in a normal environment, Jeff? Nothing about this situation is normal.’ She looked down, feeling like the world’s worst mother.
He didn’t correct her, but instead brushed away the stray tear that ran down her cheek. If there was one thing he would be happy to never see again, it would be those damn tears.
‘Do I really need to ask you again?’
Jeff wasn’t specific, but Annie knew what he meant, and she knew there was no point in avoiding the conversation any longer.
‘You don’t need to ask. But I’m still not sure I’m ready to answer because I honestly don’t know what’s for the best.’
‘Annie, you can’t always know what’s for the best. You could study every day for the rest of your life, learn everything that other people say you need to live a normal life, quote-unquote, and you’re still going to make decisions that don’t work out. That's what's normal.’
‘But what if...’
‘No what ifs Annie. Look, I want you to listen to me when I tell you that I want you to come home with me tomorrow. It doesn’t have to mean anything you don’t want it to, but I was hoping you’d at least want to give this a try. Your home is with me. I mean, I thought that was what we were doing before Aaron showed up ten weeks early.’
Annie looked up to find Jeff staring intently at her. That voice she'd shoved to the back of her head rushed to the front, and she remembered just how good things had been before she was rushed to the hospital. It certainly didn’t feel like a bad decision when she recalled how it felt waking up in the morning with his arm around her, snoring softly into the crook of her neck.
‘I don’t want to rush anything Jeff. I’m nowhere near ready for that.’
Jeff nodded in acceptance.
‘I understand. I can move back onto the couch, it’s not a problem.’
‘No, that...that wasn’t what I meant. I’m not going to make you sleep on the couch, Jeff, I just... need a little time to recover, you know, physically.’
Jeff smirked. ‘Well, I’ll try not to be completely offended you think that’s the only reason I want you to come home with me. You could give me a little credit. Besides, once Aaron is well enough to come home, I can’t see us getting much time for...shenanigans.’
Annie blushed, but let him push a stray strand of hair behind her ear before leaning in to kiss her. She hesitated before pulling him closer, deepening the kiss.
‘What the...?!’
Annie and Jeff jerked apart to find Britta and Shirley standing in her room, flanked by Troy and Abed, all looking at them like a pair of monkeys in a zoo. Jeff was on his feet in an instant.
‘What in the hell are you doing here at 8 in the morning?!’
‘Us?’ Britta shot back. ‘Why did you have your tongue down Annie’s throat at 8 in the morning?’
Despite being clad in pyjamas that had seen better days, Annie pulled herself awkwardly off the bed and stood beside Jeff, lacing her fingers with his own. She could tell he was ready to deny everything to the group for her sake, despite being caught pretty much red-handed, so Annie took a deep breath before confronting the group and her own fears at the same time - she was nothing if not efficient.
‘Well, not that it’s any of your business, but Jeff and I are working through a few things. I mean, we do have a son together, it’s hardly a giant leap for mankind to think we might have a relationship with one another.’
‘Well, we knew that,’ Troy muttered. ‘Honestly, I don’t get why it took you two so long to realize it. I mean, it’s all we’ve talked about for the past two months when you haven’t been around.’
Shirley stepped forward as Britta turned to glower a little at Troy for over-sharing.
‘I think what Troy and Britta were trying to say was that while we’re all happy for you two finally realizing that a child should be brought up in a loving home by two parents as a family unit...’ The sweet, Christian housewife’s voice dropped into that menacing tone she usually reserved for Pierce. ‘...there’s a time and a place for playing tonsil hockey.’
‘Yeah, there is...’ agreed Jeff, looking more ready to lose the plot as each second ticked away, ‘...and one of them is in Annie’s private hospital room at 8 in the morning when nobody else is supposed to be around! I’ll ask again, why are you all here?!’
‘Pierce fell down his stairs this morning,’ Britta explained casually, trying and failing to not be visibly amused by Jeff’s frazzled state. ‘I guess you finally took yourself off his emergency contact list, huh? Or else you would have known that already. Anyway, I was, uh, staying over at Troy and Abed’s place when I got the call from the hospital...’
Annie gasped, her shock at hearing about Pierce, thus overpowering her curiosity about what exactly was going on between Abed, Britta and Troy.
‘Oh my God, Pierce fell down a flight of stairs? Is he alright?’
‘Relax, Annie. It was like five steps. He has a sprained wrist, but other than that...’
‘His doctor is Japanese, and Piece told him that if he tried any ‘Pearl Harbor crap’ there'd be consequences of nuclear proportions,’ Abed continued. ‘And he's already been threatened with several sexual harassment suits.’
‘So basically he’s fine,’ Troy added.
‘Once we checked in on Pierce, we thought we’d come say good morning,’ Shirley concluded. ‘I brought brownies!’
It was far too early to be force-fed brownies, and Jeff was growing more frustrated by the second at having been interrupted when finally making a breakthrough with Annie.
‘At 8am?! Aren’t there visiting times or something? Why on earth would you think Annie would be awake at this time of the morning for a random visit?!’
‘But Annie was awake.’
Jeff turned his attention to Abed and moved forward as if to confront him but quickly stepped back as Annie squeezed his hand and pulled him back towards her.
‘That’s not the point, Abed.’
Jeff couldn’t read the exact look on his friend’s face, but surmised it was possibly a look of confusion given that Abed wasn’t too big on giving away his emotions with facial expression.
‘Isn’t it? We came to visit Annie and you were both awake - unless you were making out in your sleep. But you jumped up too quickly for that.’
Jeff sighed and realized it was pointless to argue.
‘Look, guys, it’s pretty early, and...’
‘And we’re really happy you dropped by,’ Annie added, jumping in to stop Jeff from saying anything rash, ‘but maybe we could talk this over later. We’ll meet you for coffee in the cafeteria in a little bit. I’d like to see Pierce and make sure he’s ok.’
‘Well, I guess the brownies will keep...’ muttered Shirley as she and the others retreated out the door.
When the group had disappeared, Jeff pulled Annie into his arms, nestling her head snugly under his chin.
‘Seriously? Our friends have the worst timing in the world...ever.’
‘True, but we’d be lost without them, you know that.’
He murmured a muted hmm and pulled away to get a look at Annie, who looked exhausted but despite that seemed to look better than she had in days.
‘We didn’t really get to finish our conversation, did we?’
‘No, but I think we covered everything when you kissed me.’
He smirked and felt a little relief that they hadn’t taken another step forward just to take another two backwards.
‘So when you kissed me back, that was you agreeing to come home with me tomorrow?’
‘I...guess so.’
Jeff pulled Annie in to kiss her again, keeping one eye on the door just to make sure they had no more unwelcome interruptions. He didn’t really want to stop, but finally broke the kiss and stood up.
‘Come on, let’s go check on the kid.’
‘Jeff, that’s our son, you could at least say his name instead of calling him the kid.’
‘I was actually referring to Pierce. We’ll head up to the NICU to see Aaron once we’ve made sure Pierce isn’t writing checks to bribe the emergency room staff for prescription pain meds.’
Annie thought about it for a second before grabbing her wash-bag and heading, albeit slowly, to her bathroom.
‘You have a point, I’ll go get dressed.’