Two hours and one Twitter dispute later, Jeff finds Abed in the men’s room staring at his reflection vacantly. The white naval jacket skims his fingertips, and he’s rolled up the trousers and… Jeff closes his eyes and sighs heavily. He was a lawyer dammit, a lawyer! And now…

“Abed. Give me the uniform.”

Abed turns and tilts his head. “Why?”

“Don’t you want my help?”

“I’m intrigued by your motivations.” His eyes narrow to slits. “Is this because I’ll be kissing Annie?”

“No one mentioned anything about kissing!” His heart drops to his feet and shit…he probably shouldn’t have said that.

Abed hums in response, unblinking in his focus and Jeff wonders how someone can say so much without saying anything at all.

“Listen, I just can’t bear this uniform to look as bad as it does on you. I mean really, Abed?” He points at Abed’s scruffy trainers and Inspector Spacetime socks.

“Hmm. You have a point.” He unbuttons the jacket and hands it to Jeff as if it’s a prize. “Do me proud, Jeff.”

Ten minutes later Jeff fastens the last gold button as Abed settles the hat on his head. He catches sight of himself in the mirror. He feels like an idiot and he’s slightly – okay, more than slightly – annoyed that his hairstyle will be ruined under this cap but hot damn he looks amazing. Seriously, is there nothing he can’t pull off?

“So, what now?”

Abed’s eyes widen obsessively, a trace of excitement blanching his features. “Now we shoot the scene. I want you to walk in, lift Annie and walk back out. Think passion, romance. Can you do that?”

“Oh, I’m sure I can manage.”

Abed studies his face impassively. “I’m pleased you’re doing this Jeff. Even though it’s not for me, I can deal with that; whatever gets the job done.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Abed.”

“And they say I’m delusional.”

They head to the technology workshop and Jeff waits outside while Abed sets up his camera with Pavel. Surrounded by female extras, Annie waits restlessly, now dressed in jeans and a checked shirt, hair stuffed under a flat-cap. Jeff feels skittish and doesn’t know what to do with his arms. He can feel his heart pulsating in his fingertips.

“We’re ready, Jeff.” Abed’s head appears around the door, voice dropping to a whisper. “Action.”

Jeff inhales exhales heavily and strides through the classroom, focus intent on the wide eyed brunette, standing motionless and open mouthed. His lips twitch upwards as she swallows and he burns under the intensity of her gaze as it trails his body enticingly. She might as well be salivating. This was so worth it.

The extras start to clap and Jeff isn’t sure if they’re supposed to do that but he doesn’t care, not with the way Annie is looking at him. She squeaks delightedly when he lifts her into his arms effortlessly, all muscles and machismo in his determination. Her flat-cap falls, hair tumbling around shoulders in a static crackle and whisper of strawberry shampoo. The animalistic growl bubbles up from deep within his chest as he leans in close, mouths a breath apart.

“What are you doing?” Her voice is low, throaty…aroused.

“I’m trying to kiss you. It’s allowed. I guess you forgot to mention that.”

Her eyes widen. “I wasn’t going to kiss…wait, you’re not jealous of Abed?”

In response he kisses her hard; lips possessive, punishing because she’s his and she didn’t tell him she’d have to kiss Abed and no, never gonna happen. Annie sinks into him and the kiss deepens intensely and doesn’t stop, even though they’re out in the hallway and Abed distantly shouts “cut!”

Abed insists on five more takes. Annie looks at him with increasing hunger, fingers clutching his shoulders with a fevered desperation; mewls and moans and breathy whimpers that only he can hear. Jeff has to wonder why he didn’t want to do this in the first place and where the hell can he buy this uniform.

                                                                                            ~

That night in the cafeteria, the disco ball sparkles from the ceiling and the walls are speckled with red hearts and twinkling lights. Jeff has to admit, it doesn’t look too bad. For Greendale.

The music is so loud he can feel it through his shoes and as Abed’s re-enactments play silently on loop on a giant screen, Jeff is surprised by how many of their graduating class helped out. Even Leonard pitched in but…is Grumpy Old Men a romance?

Jeff stands beside the refreshment table, watching his friends laugh and dance raggedly. The smile hits him as slowly as the realization that this really is their last Valentine’s dance and yeah okay, maybe that means something.

At that moment, Annie wanders through the crowd and immediately her eyes meet his with a flash of something that makes his blood fire. Wearing that naval uniform was the best decision he ever made because he is so getting laid tonight.

She moves towards him slowly, teasingly, as if it’s some kind of show and he watches eagerly. He trails the length of her greedily and swallows a growl at the sight of her red heels. Jeff needs to see her walk around his bedroom with nothing but them on. Now. He’s thinking of their exit plan when Annie comes to a halt, eyes twinkling, lips playing with a glossy smirk and holy crap he wants her so damn much it’s ridiculous.

“Hot date tonight?”

She shrugs one shoulder. “I have plans.”

“Should I be worried?”

“Hmm. I’m taking my date to see the new Die Hard movie.”

“Because nothing says romance more than Bruce Willis shooting bad guys.”

“Maybe it does!” She bounces lightly on foot. “You can hold my hand and it’s…dark in the theatre.”

He smiles teasingly. “Were you planning on doing dirty things to me in the movie theatre?”

She flushes the reddest Jeff has ever seen. Oh shit, she totally was. “Maybe.”

“You liked the uniform didn’t you? Wait, let me rephrase that. You liked me in the uniform.”

“Yes.” She chews her lip sultrily and holds his gaze so long he feels breathless. “But that’s it! No more inflating your ego. We won’t get you out of the door and the movie starts at 9pm.”

He treads closer. “We don’t have to see Die Hard tonight. It’s Valentine’s Day. Don’t you want to do something, I don’t know, romantic? I was going to take you to dinner. That dress deserves a fancy restaurant, not nachos at the multiplex.”

Annie flushes demurely as her hands skim the bodice of her red flowered black dress. She glances over her shoulder, fleetingly, before toying with the cuff of his jacket. “I wore this dress for you, regardless of where we go.” Jeff stands taller at that. “And I don’t need you to do that, Jeff. What you did earlier was the most romantic thing anyone has done for me.”

“What, carried you under the watchful eye of Abed?”

“It wasn’t so much that, although I enjoyed it, probably too much if Britta had any say in the matter.” They both chuckle. “It was the fact that you put aside your own embarrassment and did it, for me. I didn’t expect that.”

He shrugs, hands planted in pockets, scuffing his shoes against the floor. “Yeah, well, I’m your boyfriend. That’s what we do isn’t it?”

“Jeff!” Her eyes widen to whites. “You just said boyfriend. This is…this is a Kodak moment!”

He chuckles embarrassedly as Leonard ambles past, chewing on a straw. “Whipped.”

“Shut up, Leonard! I heard about your adult diapers!”

                                                                                            ~

A week later Jeff sits in arrivals of Denver International Airport. It’s Saturday – one of the busiest travel days – and it’s twenty minutes of nameless faces before he spies Annie; a weekend bag on one shoulder, wearing his paintball hoodie. The sight of her in his clothes does things to him he can’t explain.

Annie trails the terminal with narrowed eyes, waving excitedly when she sees him and Jeff feels a frisson of anticipation for all the hours they have at their disposal.

He wanders over, smile reflecting hers, and just like every movie cliché Abed ever warned him about, Annie jumps at him with a squeak, linking hands behind his neck. He should care about this – public displays of affection always turned his stomach – but her body is thrust close, hot sweet and scented, and his palm settles over her fleshy curves, lips meeting hot and wet and…mine mine mine. Annie melts against him all too readily; her breathy moans tumble and shoot to his groin. Jeff tears himself away; getting hard in an airport terminal is kind of gross.

As Annie slides back to her feet, he trails a palm along her cheek. “Hey gorgeous.”

She flushes and smiles wide, eyes twinkling. “Hi handsome.”

“Well, now that we’ve stated all the facts…” He smirks as she rolls her eyes. “My place or lunch first?”

“Lunch, definitely lunch. Plane food sucks.” He snatches her weekend bag and she weaves their fingers together, cautiously at first, thumb brushing his. He looks down at their linked hands, heart kicking hard. In their effort to be discreet they don’t do it often, in public, and it still surprises him how much he likes it. “I missed you.”

He meets her coy smile. “I can’t blame you. I’d miss me too. I mean, look at me.”

“Jeff!” She shakes her head dramatically. “Still majoring in Ego 101.”

“What can I say? It’s an easy class.” He chuckles and squeezes her hand tightly, hoping the gesture tells her everything he still has trouble saying, although he’s working on it; she was gone for two days and he genuinely didn’t know what to do with himself. He was one day away from hugging his pillow. Pathetic.

As they exit the terminal Annie shivers at the blast of cold air and tucks herself under his arm, pressing closer to his heat. It’s a brief walk to the short term parking lot but it’s not until they reach his car that she turns to him inquiringly.

“Don’t you want to know how it went?”

“Come on, it’s cold.”

Jeff shoves her bag on the backseat and holds opens the passenger door. Annie frowns but settles in the seat, watching him climb inside and fiddle with the heat settings. For the first time in a month the silence is awkward and this is not how Jeff anticipated this day going.

He doesn’t even have to look at her; he’s memorized the pinch of her frown, the pout of glossed lips. He knows what’s coming and the thought makes him gun the engine hard.

The snap of the seatbelt never sounded so loud. “O-kay, well the interview was a lot harder than the others but I didn’t expect anything less, I mean, it’s Stanford!”

Jeff reverses out of the car space. “Uh-huh.”

“And the campus was beautiful.” There’s a brief pause filled with radio noise and the distant screech of tires. “And I met this really hot guy who asked me out and I said yes.”

“What?” The car lurches to a halt.

“Oh, so you are listening?”

He exhales heavily. “Annie, don’t joke about things like that, not when I’m driving the Lexus. Seriously.”

“Seriously? I’m trying to be serious Jeff, and tell you about my interview but you don’t seem to care.”

He sighs. “I do care.” Maybe a little too much.

They’re startled by a beeping horn.

Jeff checks his rear-view mirror. “Look, can we talk about this once I’m out of this goddamn parking lot?” He shifts into gear, whacking the steering wheel when he takes a wrong turn. “Oh for the…it’s like they don’t want you to leave! Short term my ass!”

“Jeff.”

“We might have to send out an SOS soon. What the hell!”

“Jeff.”

He breaks sharply. “And what is this tool doing? Don’t back out of the space when I’m trying to drive past you douchebag!” He beeps the horn, twice. “Watch the Lexus!”

“JEFF!”

Jeff snaps to a pair of unimpressed blues. “What?”

“Take a right and exit first left.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. Oh.” The silence between them is unnerving until they’re on the freeway. “Do you want to tell me why you’re behaving like this? And don’t tell me it’s road rage. You’ve not acted like that before.”

“Do we have to talk about this now? Can’t we just go have lunch and then spend the day together? I’d really like to get you naked at some point.”

His heart sinks when she doesn’t laugh. Dammit, she’s not going to let this one go.

“No. We talk about this first. If not, just take me home.”

Jeff clenches his jaw against the myriad of emotions at her resolute tone; proud, annoyed and kind of turned on. “Oh, so you’re guilt-tripping me into talking now?”

“No. I’m just letting you know that we have to talk things through now that we’re in a relationship, Jeff. I don’t want to sit around wondering what’s bothering you when we can just discuss it and move on.”

He sighs. “Annie, I don’t want to talk about this because…ugh…” he switches off the radio, plunging the car into silence. She watches him expectantly. “I just don’t want to hear about you going to Stanford.”

“Why not?”

“Oh, come on! You’re not stupid. I’m going to miss you. There. Happy now?”

Annie caresses his thigh softly. “Jeff, I don’t even know if I’ll get an offer to -”

Jeff scoffs bitterly. “Of course you will.”

“I don’t know for sure and I haven’t decided if that’s even where I want to go. Then there’s the question of financial aid. There’s so much to consider before anything happens. It’s months away.”

“Yeah, so that’s why I don’t want to hear about it now. Okay?”

“Jeff…”

“What, Annie? I don’t deal with things unless I have to. I compartmentalize. You know this about me. This is nothing new.”

She sighs wearily. “I know but just because you don’t want to deal with them, doesn’t mean they no longer exist.”

“Wrong. They exist when I want them to. That’s the great thing about compartmentalizing.”

Annie makes a throaty noise of frustration. “Oh, you’re insufferable sometimes!”

Jeff tightens his grip on the steering wheel. “Why, because I don’t want you to go to Stanford which is two fucking states away? Because I actually want you around?” He shakes his head in disbelief. “I don’t get women sometimes. I really don’t.”

He always thought he was a connoisseur of women. He was wrong.

“Oh, Jeff…” Her voice is soft and threaded with regret. “I -”

“How would you feel if I went out of state to a new law firm?” He glances at her fleetingly to see her staring at her lap. “I mean, it’s a possibility so how would you feel? Huh?”

“I wouldn’t want you to go.”

“Exactly. Because you’re just as selfish as I am.”

She gasps. “Don’t you think this is hard on me too? It’s difficult enough making decisions that affect my own life but now I’ve got another person to think about. I didn’t expect this.”

“Well, neither did I. But here we are, Annie.” Jeff scoffs. “And now the day is ruined. Great, just great.”

“It’s only ruined if we let it.” She touches the scruff of his jaw with gentle fingers. “We can still get it back on track.”

“No. I think it’s best if I just take you home.”

She snatches her hand away. “What, so you can get drunk by yourself to drown out your feelings? No way, mister. Not happening.”

“Annie, I’m driving and I can take you anywhere I want, including your apartment building.”

“True. But that doesn’t mean I’ll get out. I’ll stay in here all day if I have to.”

“Psssh. You weigh nothing. I’ll lift you out, leave you on the sidewalk and drive away.”

“You wouldn’t do that so don’t even bother pretending.” She snaps her spine upright, head high against the headrest. “We’re going to lunch and we’re going to enjoy ourselves and then we’re going back to yours to have lots of angry sex!”

“Annie!” Jeff very nearly loses control of the wheel; a car beeps as it zooms past.

“Or we can skip lunch and just have the angry sex. Your call.”

In the silence he swallows hard, pulse erratic, blood gushing noisily. “Well, I’m still mad about this.”

“Me too!”

“Well, there’s only one option then!”

“I couldn’t agree more!”

Jeff glances at Annie’s heaving chest and floors the accelerator.

                                                                                            ~

Later, Jeff sits on his couch with Annie astride him, head resting on his shoulder. They’re both naked, breath heavy, boneless and beat, and Jeff can barely find the energy to stroke Annie’s thighs, but he does because he Can’t. Stop. Touching. Her.

Her breath tickles his neck as it evens out, breasts rising against his chest, her skin cooling rapidly; she shivers. Jeff kisses the naked curve of her shoulder once, twice, and grips her backside as he stands. Annie tightens thighs around his waist and he carries her into the bedroom, giggling as he throws her on the mattress.

Once they’re both settled under the covers, Annie captures his lips with a gentle lingering kiss; full of the sweetness that was missing earlier when all that mattered was hunger and frantic need.

Jeff reluctantly pulls away. “Go on, say it. I know you want to.”

She grins wide. “I told you so.”

He chuckles. “Yes. You were right. The day wasn’t ruined.”

“See?” She giggles and rubs his nose softly with her own. No one has ever done that to him before. He’s used to the butterflies now. They just won’t leave.

Oh god, he’ll be writing sonnets next.

“So what do you want to do for the rest of the day?” He traces the arch of her neck softly, fingertips lingering at her fluttering pulse.

“I want to stay here, like this, with you.” She sighs contentedly, snuggling into his side. “I’ve got to go home tonight so let’s make the most of it.”

“Can’t you just stay here?”

“I want to but the guys are expecting me home.”

Jeff frowns. “I thought Sundays were your day spent together. It’s Saturday, Annie. Sat-ur-day.”

“But how do I explain where I’ve been if they know my flight landed today? I’ve only just got away with it by saying I’m not arriving until tonight. Abed insisted on knowing the flight number so I had to Google late flights and everything. I feel like I should be working in espionage.”

Jeff laughs hard, pulling Annie’s body flush against his. “I think Abed already knows about us.”

“Really?”

“Uh, yeah. Something he said on Valentine’s Day. And remember what he said in the car all those months ago? He thought we were dating when we weren’t. Now that we are…”

Annie idly traces circles on his chest. “You don’t think we were…kind of…dating back then?”

“What?”

“Well, we spent all that time together…”

“But you were dating other people.”

She rolls her eyes. “I had one date with Blake and even that ended with me eating pizza and watching Family Guy…with you. I even… I bought that purple dress with you in mind.” She presses her face into his chest.

Jeff can’t stop the grin crinkling the corners of his eyes. “I know, at least, I hoped you did.”

She snaps her gaze to his, mouth aghast. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Annie, come on. You were the one who wanted to forget our kiss.”

“That was before our kiss, Jeff, and if you must know I didn’t want to forget about it.” She rolls onto her back, staring at the ceiling. “I was pre-empting you telling me it was a mistake.”

Jeff presses up on one elbow to gaze down at her. “I didn’t think it was a mistake.”

For a few moments of heavy silence, Annie stares intently, eyes wide. “Do you realize how much time we’ve wasted? If only we just said how we really felt!”

He strokes her cheek, thumb brushing her lower lip. “That’d be too easy though, wouldn’t it?”

“I suppose.” She palms the back of his neck and Jeff growls when her nails scrape his scalp insistently. She hooks her thigh around his waist, briefly, before her foot trails enticingly up and down the length of his leg in soft soothing strokes; a path of tingling heat. His blood fires rapidly as their lips meet.

Minutes pass in a haze of languid kisses and searching hands, hot breaths and contented hums. Jeff begrudgingly pulls away and clears his throat.

“Tell me, now that we’re talking about this; did you dress like a nurse to torment me or did you genuinely not realize the effect you’d have?”

She bites her lip and eyes the ceiling. “I’m like Victoria. I’m allowed my secrets.”

Jeff chuckles and showers her face with his appreciation, kissing her cheek, jaw, temple, the corner of her mouth. When he finally looks at her again, her eyes are closed, almost dreamy and blissful and his heart kicks wild. He brings one of her hands to his forehead. “Do you feel that?”

Her eyes snap open. “What?”

“I have a temperature. Maybe we should play Doctors and Nurses for real this time.”

Annie giggles. “I don’t have the outfit on me, Jeff.”

He pulls her thigh back around his waist, sliding his palm teasingly from knee to hip, relishing the taut hot flesh. “Never mind. You wouldn’t have been wearing it long anyway.”

                                                                                            ~

A/N: In case you didn’t get the references: “Take me to bed or lose me forever!” is a cheesy quote from the movie Top Gun. Also Jeff and Annie are dressed like characters from An Officer and a Gentleman. If you haven’t seen the movie, I refer you to the image on tvtropes.org. I think we’d all agree that Joel McHale would rock that outfit! 

Part 9