Chapter Text
Moonlight spilled generously through the twisted branches of the Bristlecone Pine trees, illuminating an isolated log cabin in a small clearing. The wind sang an eery soundtrack to complete the mood. If Abed were here, he would've said it was the perfect setting for a horror movie. In fact, he had said that over and over after learning the location of Annie's trip. His commentary oscillated rapidly between whimsical musings and fearful warnings, until it was hard to tell the difference. Annie had cheerfully assured him that it was only a week and she would be fine, though she agreed to take the list he produced of horror movie tropes and ways to avoid being murdered. Abed knew his tropes, of course, but he'd read her wrong. She wasn't going to be the victim.
The victim, of course, had dismissed any notion, fantastical or otherwise, that his reality could fit any fictional genre. Hickey had gruffly told Abed to stop bothering him with “that nonsense”. Abed didn't argue. There was no point. It wouldn't stop him being who he was, even if he had to be stiflingly quiet about it with some people. Annie just smiled sweetly while seething silently. She was so sick of this bitter husk of a man. Just because he was lonely and miserable, probably largely due to his own actions, he seemed to think it was okay to drag everyone else down with him. To take every attempt they made at connecting with him, and throw it back in their faces with nothing but contempt. It was finally time for him to learn about consequences.
It had been easy to get him out here. When she'd come to him with an innovative plan for a special hands-on forensics project, asking only for his supervision on a field trip, he'd agreed without the slightest bit of scrutiny. Because despite his unpleasant and apathetic attitude to his job, there was something he knew very well. Something everyone knew very well. Annie Edison was an excellent student. She was gifted as well as dedicated. And she knew forensics inside out. She knew the human body and how it responded to various conditions. She knew the motivations and psychology associated with criminal behaviour. She knew the methods used for investigating, and she knew their weaknesses. Her project was going to go brilliantly.
So that's how she ended up with her professor handcuffed to a chair. That part was easy as well. She had been a little scared that he'd overpower her, but she'd done it quickly, before he could really react. He was old and slow and far too sure of himself. She was agile and stronger than she looked. And she had planned ahead. With a satisfied sigh, she stood back and smiled approvingly at her handiwork.
“What the hell d'you think you're playing at?” her handiwork groaned. “Is this some kind of practical joke?”
“You'd like that, wouldn't you?” Annie spat, channelling what she'd pictured when told about Evil Annie from the Darkest Timeline. She was cool, collected, but full of fire. Fuelled by rage, but not controlled by it.
The glorified pig looked bewildered. “Not really, I'd like you to stop whatever this crap is. Uncuff me now!”
“Is that what Abed said to you?” She bit back, fixing him with a steady gaze.
The rotten grape started to sneer. “Is that what this is about? Your crazy friend? He put you up to this? Some sort of weird game so he can play revenge or something?"
“He doesn't know anything about this,” Annie replied evenly.”And it's not a game.”
He scoffed. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in? I am a teacher-”
“But it's okay for you to do that to a student?!” Annie exclaimed, anger rising.
The supreme hypocrite sighed. “Look, I don't know what he told you, but I was just trying to teach him-”
“Consequences, right,” she cut him off. “Because you think somehow that he's never faced those before. That he's never been punished. That we walk on eggshells around him.” She kept a straight face as she quoted him directly. “Oh, Abed, he's so imaginative, so magical. Everybody hide their hamburgers. If Abed sees a hamburger, we'll all travel in time. Let's eat cookies and ice cream and dress in pajamas in the middle of the day.”
The fart in the shape of a person stared at her, nonplussed.
“Abed has a very good memory,” Annie said. “You know what happens when people say things like that to him? Do you have any idea how long that'll stick in his head? How much time he spends ruminating over things like that, which have been done and said to him over and over all throughout his life? There's so much, I know there's a lot I don't even know about, because fortunately for you, he forgives more than he forgets.” She paused for effect, fists clenched. “Unfortunately for you, I don't. Not anymore.”
She remembered the night vividly. He had come home still in his Kickpuncher costume, but without the gleam in his eyes she'd grown to recognise from seeing him get excited about movies so often. She had feared this. Things just weren't going to be the same without Troy. Still, she put on her best smile and asked him how the movie went.
He was silent for several excruciating seconds before saying in a completely flat tone,
“I didn't go.”
Her heart sank. “Oh, Abed,” she said sympathetically. “Why, what did you do instead?” She didn't want to say it unless he chose to talk about it. What came next was very much not what she expected.
“I got into an argument with Hickey and he handcuffed me to a filing cabinet.” He said this, again, completely flatly. Like he was describing the weather. If Annie didn't know him so well, she might have thought he wasn't distressed at all.
She stared at him in disbelief. “I'm sorry, what?!”
Abed shrugged, his blank gaze trained on something, or maybe nothing, in the distance. “I was trying to show him my Kickpuncher costume, and I accidentally sprayed foam on his work. He made me miss my movie. Said it was to teach me consequences.”
Annie was horrified. She'd known Professor Hickey to be tough and even rude, but this went beyond that. She took a deep breath, and gestured to the spot on the couch next to her.
“Come on and sit down, let's talk about this. I'm not sure I understand.”
He described the incident to her in devastating detail, all while showing no emotion in his face or voice, and without meeting her eyes once. She showed enough emotion for two, though. By the time he got to recounting Hickey's mocking monologue, she was wiping tears from her eyes. Abed quietly handed her a tissue. She touched his hand tentatively, and he interlocked their fingers. His grip was tight and desperate, betraying a fear he hadn't expressed in any other way.
“Abed,” she said gently. “You know none of that is true, right? That's not how you are, that's not how people see you. Not the people who really know you.”
Abed looked up, though still not directly in her eyes.
“Isn't it though?”
She shook her head insistently.
“But you've said something like that before,” he said, pointing a finger upwards. “He's fine, he always will be. People bend over backwards to cater to him.” The imitation of her voice from two years ago was as accurate as if she'd just said it. There was nothing mocking or accusatory in it that she could detect, simply a factual recollection.
Annie sighed, ashamed of her past words. “I don't think that anymore. I was confused and annoyed, and I felt like you were insulting my intelligence.”
Abed's eyebrows knotted together. “I never meant to insult your intelligence, I just meant that it was different from mine.”
“I know that now,” Annie said, flashing what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “But I didn't understand you at first.”
“But that's the thing, nobody does,” he replied matter-of-factly. “And how can I expect them to? It's always been like this. If everyone has the same impression of me, it must be true on some level.”
“Abed, no, you're...you try so hard all the time. The things you need help with, they might look extreme from outside sometimes, but you can't help it. We're just meeting you halfway. It's not your fault that some people won't even try to do that.”
“But I'm selfish and inconsiderate,” Abed argued, his voice cracking. “And I'm emotionless,” he said emotionally.
“No, you're not!” Annie insisted. “Who told you that?”
“Everyone! Everyone says that all the time!” He wasn't shouting, but his voice was suddenly urgent. “Even the study group. They call me a robot, a computer...the only person who never did that is...” He trailed off, his eyes welling up with tears. Annie squeezed his hand.
“Even you've said it,” he continued, abandoning the previous thought. “At Pierce's will reading, you asked me if I even cared about people.”
She frowned at him. “Abed, I was really hurt by that catfishing thing. I would've said that to anyone who did that to me, you can't hold that against me.”
“I'm not holding it against you. I'm holding it against me.” Abed was staring into space again. “I do things like that. I hurt people.”
Annie scoffed. “So you're sometimes selfish and inconsiderate. Welcome to the club! It's called being human. I'm pretty messed up too. I drugged you guys!” Abed's mouth twitched at that. Annie wasn't sure if it was a smile or a frown. “And yeah, maybe sometimes you forget to consider other people's feelings, but that doesn't mean you don't care about them! A person who didn't care wouldn't be doing this right now!”
Abed looked back at her face. Good, it seemed like she was getting through to him.
“And it certainly doesn't mean you deserve to be handcuffed to a filing cabinet! That's abuse, and it's illegal! You need to report him.”
“No,” Abed said quickly, looking her right in the eye this time.
“Abed, I know it's difficult, but I can help you if you want. But he can't get away with something like this. I mean, what if he does that to other people too?”
Abed gave her that painfully direct look, like he was analysing things about her she couldn't even see.
“Annie, have you ever been stopped by the police when you weren't doing anything suspicious? When you were just walking home or something?”
“No...why, have you?” she responded, dreading the answer.
“Of course I have, I look like...TerroristBot 3000.” he frowned thoughtfully. “And a couple of times when it happened, they thought I was on drugs.”
Annie shrank down in her seat. “I didn't even get stopped by the police when I was actually on drugs.” She thought about the mitigating power of her white skin and her big blue eyes and her ability to manipulate her body language.
Abed just nodded knowingly. “The point is, for people like me, reporting crimes isn't safe. Between me and an old white professor and ex-cop, whose side do you think they'll take?”
“Well, what about the Dean though? Maybe it doesn't have to go to the police, but the Dean could help deal with Hickey.”
“The Dean has called me “special” to my face, and he's called me a psycho before. The Dean covered up Chang's attempt to blow up the school. The Dean hired a guy who was kicked out of Oxford for sexual harassment, and gave tenure to someone who drinks on the job and constantly hits on Britta.”
“You mean Duncan or Jeff?” Annie asked with a half smile, although it wasn't funny. After an awkward silence, she continued, "Well, yes, he's not always the best, but...” Her voice came out more high-pitched than she planned. “I don't think he'd want you to get hurt though.”
“I don't think he would particularly,” Abed agreed. “But I do think he'd just let it happen if that was easier for Greendale.”
Annie didn't have an argument for that. “Well...I still think you should try, but it's your choice, of course,” she relented. “I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to.”
“Thanks, Annie,” he said, squeezing her hand as she laid her head on his shoulder. “And by the way? I am sorry about the catfishing.”
“I know,” she said. “I'm sorry about the drugging.”
“Annie? Annie? Hello?”
Annie was shaken back to the present moment by her victim's cries. Well, annoyed grunts.
“What?” she said with a start.
“You started saying all that weird crap about not forgiving like you were some kind of villain in one of your weirdo friend's movies, and then you just stood there staring into space like you were doing some sort of flashback or whatever,” he summed up, clearly mystified. “Tell me, is whatever's wrong with him spreading or something?”
Annie shook her head in disbelief. “Wow, all this and you're still shamelessly insulting him? You know, if you'd ever given him the slightest chance you could know why he's like that, and what he's already been through for it. What we've been through together. But you don't deserve to know. You don't care. “Teach him consequences”, screw you! He's constantly trying to learn from his mistakes, not like you.”
“So what's your plan here then?” he snarled. “Just keep me cuffed here until I say I'm sorry?”
She smirked. “No, that ship has sailed. You're never gonna change.”
“Well...what, then? You gotta let me out eventually!”
“No. I don't,” she replied curtly. “We're scheduled to be here for a week. The average person can only survive for three days without water. Add age and any health problems to that, you might go even sooner. I can definitely be rid of you before anyone gets suspicious.” She stated this plan with a detached air, not a hint of doubt or shame.
The doomed man stared at her, eyes wide. Good. He was learning fear.
“Are you out of your mind?” he yelled.
Annie giggled, as if he had just told her a very funny and completely innocent joke.
A. Edison's Project Journal
Day 1
Subject is secured and in stable condition. Typical agitated affect somewhat heightened by circumstances.