Chapter Text
Chapter Seven
Day Seven
“Troy and Abed and Barry in the morning!” Troy and Abed sang out happily from the back patio.
“Lame,” Barry responded, rolling his eyes, trying not to let his smile break through.
Annie giggled, remembering the time when she, herself, lived and hung out with Troy and Abed all the time, hoping they would invite her to get involved with their playtime and fun. When the two of them had shown back up to the house, with Barry in tow, and told her that they were going to record an episode of “Troy & Abed In The Morning” and they wanted to include the twins and Shyla in the video, Annie had been a little wary. That morning the table had been tense, no one speaking. The only sound was that of forks and spoons scraping against plates and bowls, and the occasional slurp or sip from a cup, and one of the twins dropping their toddler sippy cups back onto the table. Annie still felt oddly vulnerable and emotionally raw, and if the way Jeff continued to look away from her was any indication, he felt the same. The twins followed Shyla’s lead, and as soon as the teenaged girl was done eating, so were they. Shyla helped clean them up and then told them they were going to go outside and work off breakfast. Annie hadn’t moved from her chair, she’d sat still, waiting for Jeff to say something… anything .
But her ex-husband, the man she still loved, had simply finished his cup of coffee, put his dishes in the dishwasher, and gone outside to kiss their daughters goodbye. He’d even given Shyla a hug goodbye and a kiss on the forehead. Watching how close Jeff had gotten with the older girl Annie felt her heart clench in her chest. He was such a great father. Annie had always loved watching him with their daughters, and now with Shyla. She wasn’t sure what Jeff’s intentions were with Shyla and Barry, but Annie hoped that he would want to and try to adopt the smart girl.
Whether Annie was with him or not.
Oh HaShem. Just the thought of it. Of their divorce being permanent. Of never being with him, ever again…
Annie wanted to cry again.
“Hey, Annie,” Troy’s voice pulled her out of her morose musings.
Annie cleared her throat, blinked away her tears, and turned her head to observe her dear friend. “Hey, Troy. What’s up?” She asked.
Troy shrugged and glanced over at Abed and Barry as they interviewed the twins about who was better Dora the Explorer or Powerpuff Girls . Annie and Troy both smiled before they returned their attention back to each other.
“So um… have you talked to Jeff about Barry and Shyla? You know, like what’s going to happen to them, after… everything?” Troy waved his hands around.
Annie shook her head. “No, not really. Jeff and I… um… we’re not really talking that much.”
Troy frowned. “But Abed said…”
Annie sighed. “Yeah, seems like Abed was right about the whole us having sex and it ruining everything… thing.”
Troy groaned and rolled his eyes. “Abed, I owe you Swedish Fish! You were right.”
Abed glanced up and pointed a finger gun at Troy. “I always am.”
Troy looked back at Annie and shrugged. “He usually is.”
Annie chuckled sadly. “Why are you asking? Is Barry causing problems?”
Troy’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “No! No. Of course not. Actually, he’s a great kid, and Abed and I were kinda thinking about trying to… um… adopt him.”
Annie’s eyes widened as well. “Really? You guys want to adopt him?”
Troy nodded. “Well, yeah. You know Abed and I always talked about having kids, but neither of us wanted to take the chance of finding a girl to sleep with in order to have one.”
Annie frowned. “You guys know you don’t have to…” At Troy’s look of confusion, she shook her head. “Nevermind. I’ll talk to Jeff… I guess. See what’s happening.”
“Thanks, Annie. I just figured that since Jeff is trying to adopt Shyla…”
Annie sat up fully and turned to Troy. “Jeff is trying to adopt Shyla?”
“Well… yeah. He told all of us in the group chat the other day.” Troy handed over his phone to Annie and she scrolled through the messages, swallowing back the sadness and tears as she realized that it was a group chat that didn’t include her. As a matter of fact there were multiple group chat messages, all split up between the members of the former study group, but all of the ones that included Jeff, didn’t have her in them, and vice versa.
But the one in question…
Shirley: Hello everyone on this blessed morning!
Britta: To early for the god stuff Shirley
Jeff: cant believe i am agreeing wit britta
Shirley: I am still praying for your godless souls, Britta and Jeff.
Troy: U guys? Abed and I r trying to watch IS.
Abed: It’s okay Troy. This is obviously a conversation the writers feel like we need to have to push the plot forward.
Jeff: abed this isnt a tv show.
Ian: Plz remove me from this group.
Britta: Don’t!!!! He’ll just aks me what we talk about
Frankie: Is there a purpose to this 7a.m. conversation?
Jeff: shirley
Shirley: I just wanted to check in with you, Jeffrey. How are you doing with Annie, the girls, and that darling, Shyla?
Jeff: good thinkin bout tryn to adopt shy
Abed: Hmm. Might be what the plot needs to bring you and Annie back together.
Troy: Ur a genius, Abed.
Jeff: ya so glad u thought of it abed
Vera: Jeff, you know I’ve got your back if you need anything, right?
Jeff: yea
Troy: Us 2
Jeff: thx buddy
Shirley: And you know my husband and I will be there to write letters of recommendation, or to pray for you. As a matter of fact, we’ll do both.
Britta: Ian & I to Jeff but we both think u shuld talk to Annie
Ian: Britta, private conversations between husband and wife.
Britta: Hush Ian I tell the group every thing they need me
Jeff: ugh britta u r the worst
Annie tried not to cry as she read the conversation, and the way the group was still the same even after all these years. Then she almost cried that Jeff had grown to the point where he was considering adopting Shyla, even without her input. Without her help.
Without her.
Had she miscalculated? Had she actually been wrong in thinking that filing for the divorce, getting the divorce, would help her and Jeffrey talk and work on their problems and eventually bring them back together?
Oh, sugar… she thought.
“Annie? Are you okay?” Troy asked, his face scrunched up slightly in concern.
Annie swallowed the lump in her throat and shook her head. “H-he uh… he didn’t tell me that he was trying to adopt Shyla.”
“No offense, Annie… but why would he?” Troy shrugged. “You basically told the guy that you didn’t want to be a part of his life anymore…”
Annie scoffed, her eyes widening. “I did not!”
“Um… Annie? Isn’t that what a divorce is? One person telling the other that they don’t want to be with them anymore and don’t want them to be in their life, a part of the decisions they make, don’t want to share money with them, or sleep with them anymore, and vicious versa?”
“It’s vice versa, and maybe that’s what other people mean, but it’s not what I wanted, what I want. I just…”
Abed spoke up then, his head tilted to the side. “What did you want, Annie? Because as someone who has watched a number of romcoms and romdrams, I can tell you that your actions, while dramatic, and kind of comedic in the way they went off the rails, were not romantic at all. Indeed, you’re kind of making yourself the villain in this story.”
Annie gasped and jerked her hand up to her chest, her lower lip trembling and her eyes blinking rapidly as tears filled her eyes. “I’m the villain?”
“Mommy is a Blowgon?” Alicia asked, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“No, Mommy! Don’t be a Blorgon!” Alanna cried, wrapping her arms around Shyla’s legs.
Annie was surprised when Alicia threw herself at her, as Alicia was definitely a “Daddy’s Girl.” She wrapped her arms around Alicia, and looked up at Abed. “I’m not a Blorgon, babies. I promise.”
Abed nodded, consideringly. “She’s right Aly and Anna. She’s not a Blorgon, she’s more like… Catwoman. She has a complicated relationship with Batman, she is only bad because something bad happened to her, and she’s not really evil, just… hurting.”
Alicia lifted her head from Annie’s chest and smacked her hands to her cheeks as she looked at her mother. “Oh noes! Mommy is huwt?” She threw her arms around Annie’s neck and squeezed her tightly. “I make you all bettuh.”
Annie sniffled as Alanna came to join her sister, and glanced up at Abed, who was still watching her intently. She mouthed “thank you” to him, even though it was his words which had initially set the girls off, but she knew that Abed saw the world through a very narrow-view lens. And though he and Troy hadn’t meant anything by their line of questioning, they’d still hit the nail on the head with what exactly was going on between Annie and Jeff.
While Annie had justified her actions when she’d first taken them. Thinking that her filing for divorce would make Jeff chase after her and they would confront the loss of their son, talk about the pills he’d found in her purse, talk about what they were feeling, their fears. That her filing for a finality to their relationship would instead bring them closer together. Heal them. Fix what was broken.
Instead, Jeff had seen her actions as her giving up on them. On him. On their family. He’d seen her as the villain that his father had always been. And instead of healing them, the legal action had broken them. Broken their family.
And after the events of the day before, she wasn’t sure they could ever be put back together again.
*** *** *** ***
Jeff frowned at the green bag in his hands. He grimaced as he thought about Shyla eating it, but the teenager had told him that she was “half-Vegan/half-detoxing carnivore”. Jeff had thought it was adorable. She wasn’t even old enough to drive, and yet, she was constantly making very big, very important decisions that were all geared to help make the world a better place. She was already a better person than he was, and she was thirty years younger than him.
“Ohh, a fellow vegan. Very sexy,” a husky voice said next to him, and Jeff glanced down to see a stunning light-brown skinned woman, with long, tight, red curls that hung to the middle of her back, wearing what looked like a soft brown beaded vest, with fringe that hung down to the middle of her thighs, a pair of short jean shorts, a tight Army green crop top, and a pair of high-top sneakers that were covered in graffiti looking up at him. He smirked at her obvious come-on and shook his head.
If only I were still Old Jeff, we’d be hooking up in the backseat of my car in five minutes.
“Oh this isn’t for me,” he said, holding up the package of MorningStar Spicy Black Bean Burgers . “They’re for my daughter… um… foster daughter…” He shook his head. “My daughter. She’s decided to be vegan.”
The beautiful stranger smiled at him. “Daughter? Foster daughter? Daughter?” She tilted her head to the side. “Which is it?”
Jeff chuckled. “Well, it’s not official just yet, you know, the courts are kind of…” He waved his hands through the air. The unknown woman laughed, and Jeff briefly wished he could see her smile, but he was thankful for the masks that they both wore. He had a few people in his home with health conditions…
“Aahh,” the woman nodded. “So you’re in the process of adopting her?”
Jeff nodded. “Yeah. I mean, she’s my foster daughter right now, and my twins, well they love having an older sister, you know?” He laughed softly as he thought about how he’d come home earlier, dropped off his briefcase, took off his tie, and went in search of the three girls, only to find them outside jumping hopscotch. Shy was helping Alicia, Barry was helping Alanna, Troy was cheering the two little girls on from the sidelines, and Abed was sitting as a referee, watching over them all. Jeff had been a little disappointed that Annie hadn’t been there, but he’d smelled dinner cooking in the kitchen and knew that must have been where she was. Of course, that was when he’d asked everyone if there was anything that they wanted, as he was going to go get groceries, and he’d ended up walking away with an extremely long grocery list.
“And I bet you’re a great daddy,” the woman said, touching his hand lightly.
A part of Jeff wanted to flirt back with her, but as he stared down at her fingers against the back of his hand, he frowned.
Her fingers are too long.
He wondered where that thought had come from, but then he realized that he was comparing her to Annie. He compared all women to his ex-wife. And they all came up wanting.
He wondered when the day would come when that wouldn’t be true anymore.
Gently, so as to not insult the woman, Jeff slowly pulled his hand away from her, and tossed the bag of vegan burgers into his shopping cart. He blushed slightly, and cleared his throat.
“So, um… you’re obviously vegan… anything you would recommend to help with my soon-to-be daughter’s transition into being a new vegan?” He asked, resting a hand on the cart’s handle.
The woman laughed. “Meaghan,” she said, holding out her hand.
“Jeff,” he answered and took her hand with his own, giving it a firm, but friendly shake.
“Well, Jeff, let me give you quick ‘ Shopping While Vegan ’ lesson,” she said.
Jeff nodded, and though he would deny it fervently years later, he pulled out the tiny notepad and pencil he always kept on him, and began to take notes.
*** *** *** ***
“Thank you, Jeff! Thank you!” Shyla’s lips spread wide with a happy grin as she threw her thin arms around him and hugged him tightly. They were standing in the middle of the kitchen putting away the groceries, the twins helping with all the items that went in the bottom of the refrigerator, or in the bottom cabinets (healthy snacks and juice bottles, all things Jeff didn’t mind them grabbing, especially since they needed someone else to open them). Annie was putting things away in the refrigerator as well, while Shyla had offered to put things away in the freezers and Jeff’s basement gym. Jeff had the cabinets.
It was all so blissfully domestic.
Which was why Jeff was so tense, sure that something, anything was about to go wrong. And soon.
He hugged Shyla back and when she dropped back down onto her feet, he narrowed his eyes playfully and leaned forward to whisper to her. “Did you take your pills?” He asked her.
Shyla’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Yes, Dad . I told you I would.” She gasped and covered her mouth. Jeff patted her head and chuckled.
“It’s okay. It’s kinda how I’ve been seeing myself when it comes to you since I met you.” He shrugged. He shook a finger at her though. “But did you take all of them, and not just the ones that aren’t ‘ chalky ’?” He asked, using the word she’d used to describe a few of the prescribed pills she had to take that she often “forgot” about. It was one of the reasons that Jeff asked her about them, three times a day. She had pills she had to take in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. And while she was good about taking the morning pills, the ones in the middle of the day she always had a problem with.
She glanced away and toed the floor silently. Jeff pointed out of the kitchen.
“ Shy ,” he warned. He looked down at Alanna and Alicia, who had become Shyla’s shadows, and were even now standing next to her, their mouths firmed into thin lines, their faces taking on mutinous expressions, as if they were ready to take him on. They saw themselves as Shyla’s protectors, and even though he knew it was the opposite of what they wanted, Jeff thought they were adorable.
“Okay, okay. I’m going,” Shyla huffed. She headed upstairs, Alanna and Alicia on her heels.
Jeff turned away from his girls, a fond smile on his face as he shook his head at their retreating forms, and found himself facing Annie… alone… for the first time since their big, emotional blowout.
“So um…” Annie cleared her throat. “How are you?”
Jeff rubbed the back of his neck. “Fine. A little… uh… ashamed by my actions yesterday.”
Annie shook her head. “No need to feel ashamed. You were just speaking your truth.” She smiled gently at him. “Nothing to be Zambia about… remember?”
Jeff chuckled. “Yeah.” He nodded, then looked around the kitchen for a moment before he returned his gaze back to her face. “We, uh… probably do need to talk, though. About everything…”
Annie nodded. “Yeah, definitely. Especially since Abed and Troy kind of showed me that—”
“MOMMY!”
“DADDY!”
“MOMMY!”
“DADDY! HELP!”
Jeff turned away from Annie and raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time, he ran towards their room but they weren’t there, then he stopped and listened for a moment.
“JEFF! IT’S SHYLA! CALL 9-1-1!” Annie’s heartbreaking scream reached his ears
Jeff’s heart stopped for a moment, then he ran down the hallway towards Shyla’s room, his hand already reaching into his pocket, yanking out his phone, and dialing the number for Emergency Services. He slid to a stop when he saw Annie, Alanna, and Alicia surrounding Shyla, whose body was on the floor. Annie was holding Shyla’s head, while Alanna and Alicia held her hands.
Oh god no. Not another one. I can’t lose another child. Please, god. Please.
Jeff handed the phone to Annie, gently slid Alanna to the other side of Shyla’s body next to Alicia, and began performing CPR.
“Come on, Shy. Come on,” he pleaded in between breaths pushed into her body. He pressed down on her chest to the rhythm of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s song “W.A.P.”, not thinking of the lyrics, since that would be inappropriate, only of the beat and rhythm. He continued, trying to block out the sounds of Annie and their twins crying. He could hear the ambulance’s siren pulling up to the house, and heard Troy’s emotional voice as he opened the door. Jeff hadn’t even known that Troy was aware of what was going on.
The paramedics came in, Annie shifted the twins away from Shyla’s prone form, and Jeff…
He ignored them all.
Come on, Shy. You’re supposed to be here to help me with the twins. You’re supposed to be my new daughter. I was going to take you shopping for your prom dress. And your first car. I was supposed to be there to take you to college when you get into Harvard, and cry when I have to leave you at the dorms. The girls love you. I know Annie loves you. I love you. Troy and Abed love you. Shirley loves you. She can’t wait to do your hair. Britta loves how fierce you are. Ian loves your strong spirit. So do Frankie and Vera. And what about Barry? He won’t be the same if you don’t make it. Come on, Shy. Come on. You’re supposed to call me Dad for the rest of my life. Please come on. I can’t lose another child. I can’t. I won’t.
“Mr. Winger?” A voice said to him. “You can stop now, we got her back. Mr. Winger?”
Jeff blinked and turned to look at the paramedics, who were now lifting Shyla onto a backboard, and then onto a stretcher. He looked around the room, everything slowly coming into focus. Annie and the girls were sniffling, but staring at him with concern. Troy and Abed were at the foot of Shyla’s bed, holding hands, with Troy comforting Barry. And Shyla…
Jeff looked back at her, and noticed her eyes moving slightly underneath her eyelids. He stumbled to his feet and rushed to her side.
“She’s okay?” He asked in a husky, raspy voice. It was then that he realized that tears were rolling down his cheeks.
“Well, we’ll have to take her to the hospital,” one of the paramedics said, looking up at Jeff with a sympathetic, kind smile. “But, she’s stable, yes.”
Jeff nodded.
“Is she allergic to anything?” The other paramedic said, a tall, broadly muscled, black man, with a gentle expression on his face. “We saw her bracelet that says she has pseudotumor cerebri, and is prone to strokes and seizures.” He glanced over at Annie when she gasped, before looking back at Jeff. “But does she have any allergies?”
Jeff swallowed, took a breath and nodded. “Yes. She’s allergic to penicillin, and for some reason she has an allergic reaction to ibuprofen. Oh and barium sulfate.”
The paramedic nodded, looking at Jeff with an impressed expression. “Anything else we should know before we take her over to D.U.?”
Jeff took a breath and nodded again. “She uh… the doctors just told her that she has an enlarged heart.”
The paramedics nodded again. They turned to leave the room, Jeff following behind them. When they got outside, they turned back to look at Jeff, and then around at everyone who was there, Jeff was unsurprised to hear four cars screeching to a halt in front of his house, the rest of his chosen family spilling from the vehicles and rushing up to him. The paramedics, however, looked beyond stunned.
“Umm… do you want to ride with her?” They asked Jeff.
He nodded then glanced over at Annie. He wanted to ask her to come with him, but, she was holding the girls.
“Jeff, Annie, you go. We’ll bring the girls,” Shirley told them, squeezing Jeff’s arm.
He swallowed back his tears and nodded again.
“Th-thank you, Shirley,” Annie breathed brokenly, then hurried after the paramedics, climbing inside and taking Shyla’s hand in hers, Jeff following after.
The doors closed behind them, and Jeff sat next to Annie on the bench seat, the paramedic working on Shyla. Annie held onto Shyla’s hand with her right one, and gripped Jeff’s right hand with her left. Jeff reached over to hold onto Shyla’s leg. Needing to hold onto some part of her, to be assured that she was still there. Still alive. Still with him.
“I had no idea,” Annie breathed.
Jeff swallowed and nodded. “Not a lot of people do. Just me, Shy, Barry, CPS… of course, her family knew when they were still alive. And CPS alerts the foster families ahead of time, but…” He shrugged.
“You’ve known her for a long time, haven’t you? I mean like… a long, long time.”
Jeff glanced away for a moment. “I met her during our fourth year. She was eight. She’d just lost her father, her mother, and her brother, within months of each other. She should have been angry and bitter. A problem child. But... Her foster mom was taking a couple of classes at Greendale, and you know… Shyla was reading an old school Batman comic book.” He chuckled. “We started to talk and debate about DC Comics versus Marvel.” He sniffed and shook his head. “I’ve been keeping my eye on her ever since. Especially because her foster mom at the time didn’t seem too interested. Whenever she went to a new family, or she ran from another group home, she would call me, or CPS would.”
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “She was one of the main reasons I suggested that we become foster parents.”
He saw Annie’s eyes widen and he nodded. “I mean, a lot of it was because of…” He trailed off, still not able to say his son’s name. “But the main reason was because I wanted to give Shy a permanent place. A family.” He lowered his head and let the tears fall from his eyes.
“I can’t lose her, Annie. I can’t lose another child. I can’t lose Shyla,” he whispered.
“And you won’t,” Annie promised, squeezing his hand, and laying her head on his shoulder.
*** *** *** ***
Shyla’s private room at Denver University Hospital was packed. Everyone was there. Jeff, Annie, Alanna, Alicia, Troy, Abed, Barry, Shirley, Detective Butcher, Jordan, Elijah, Britta, Ian, Frankie, Vera, and Craig, Shirley and Britta’s younger children were in the nursery. They were all sitting around the room, or leaning against the wall, Frankie and Vera having talked to and convinced the hospital administration to allow them all to stay inside the room if they all wore masks, gloves, and put on a freshly laundered pair of scrubs, putting their clothes into sealed bags. At any other time Jeff probably would have groaned and scoffed at the over-the-top safety measures that everyone was insisting on, but…
That was his kid lying there.
Shyla had briefly opened her eyes and smiled at him, her voice croaking as she said, “Don’t cry Dad.” Which of course had Jeff sobbing like a baby. Especially when her eyes closed again. But he was certain that she was still alive. For the last four hours he’d been asking every last medical person who stepped into the room if Shyla was okay.
And for the last four hours Annie hadn’t let go of his hand.
“Shyla can’t die,” Abed stated firmly, his voice sounding loud in the quiet hospital room, startling everyone out of the tense stupor they’d fallen into.
Jeff dragged his gaze away from Shyla’s face which had a nose cannula in it, and a tube down her throat, wires attached to her everywhere, over to Abed who leaned against the opposite wall in the corner. “What?” He asked.
“Shyla will be okay,” Abed said. “It’s obvious that the network brought her in to be another child for you and Annie, to be the sibling that Aly and Anna need. To help bring you and Annie back together, and to bring Barry into my and Troy’s life. Her purpose is too important to the plot. To the story for the writers to let her die now.”
Jeff growled, his body tensing as Annie placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Abed,” Annie’s voice was tight, though her tone was firm, yet soothing. It was something that only Annie seemed capable of pulling off when talking to Abed. “While the rest of us understand that you view the world through the lens of television and movies, you have to understand that the rest of us, just don’t. And in moments like this, filled with emotion and tension? It’s best for you to keep your thoughts regarding plots, writers, networks, and the “audience” to yourself. Otherwise,” she leaned forward and narrowed her eyes at him, “I will move out of the way and allow Jeff to unleash the angry father bear inside of him, on you.”
No one moved, then Abed nodded. “Sorry, Annie. Sorry, Jeff. I don’t usually feel emotions like other people but this time…” He shrugged. “I feel a knot in my stomach and a sort of helplessness that I am uncomfortable with. My use of entertainment vernacular is simply to find my way back to something familiar and predictable.”
No one spoke because they all felt the same thing, when Alanna’s voice pierced the silence.
“Daddy? Shyla wants to wake up,” she said.
Jeff blinked at Annie. “What sweetie?”
“Yah, Daddy. Shyla is weady to wake up,” Alicia agreed.
Jeff looked at Annie, then back at Shyla…
Just as her eyes flashed open, she inhaled sharply, and started to choke on the tube in her throat.
“Shyla!” He yelled, jumping up, holding Alicia and Alanna tightly. “Somebody get a doctor!”
There was chaos in the room as five different people raced out of the room, and some went to get water for Shyla, but Jeff glanced up and saw Abed standing up straight, his face showing an expression of smugness, which is what Jeff would have labeled it, if it was on anyone else’s face. Instead with it being Abed, Jeff knew it was simply Abed being reassured in things “following the script.”
So he nodded at Abed in thanks and understanding.
And Abed nodded back.