Reunion (And What Comes After)

Back With the Group

It had been almost two hours since Troy had come home. Two hours since the best friends were reunited. But there were still four people who had yet to see him since he got back. Britta had emerged from her and Annie's room about half an hour ago and told them they were meeting up with Jeff, Shirley, Chang, and the Dean at the frozen yogurt place at the Greendale Mall. Now, all four of them were piled into Annie's car on the way there. Annie was driving, with Britta in the passenger seat and Troy and Abed nestled together in the back.

They had voted that Annie should drive because Britta got horrible road rage (she was a bad driver and blamed the other people driving), Troy's license had expired, and Troy insisted that Abed sit next to him. They were still holding hands (Abed's fingers were falling asleep but he was terrified that if he let go, Troy would leave him again). They were talking about the episodes of Inspector Spacetime they had watched. Abed had the same feeling as earlier, of things being mostly right, but also slightly wrong. But he somehow felt lighter, as if Troy's return had lifted the weight of something he didn't even know he was carrying around with him from his shoulders.

"Abed?" Troy said, looking at him with a furrowed brow. He snapped back to reality. From the look on his best friend's face, Abed wondered how long Troy was trying to get his attention for. "Sorry," Abed said. "What is it?" Troy exhaled deeply. "You just weren't responding. I was worried."

Abed flinched internally. They had been back together two hours and already he was a burden on Troy again. He was jolted out of his spiral when Troy squeezed his hand and rested his head on Abed's shoulder. He yawned. "Maybe you were right," he murmured sleepily. "Maybe I am tired." Slowly, tentatively, Abed brought his hand up and began gently stroking Troy's hair.

"You can rest for a while," he whispered softly. "We'll be there soon."

In fact, it seemed too soon when they pulled up outside of Greendale Mall five minutes later. (he told himself it had nothing to do with the sleepy boy cuddled up next to him). He gently shook Troy's shoulder. "Hey," he said quietly. "We're here." Troy opened his eyes and smiled a sleepy smile up at Abed.

"Time to go?" he asked. "Yes, it's time to go." Abed said as Troy sat up off his shoulder and stretched. Abed opened the car door and they climbed out. Annie and Britta walked up ahead, holding hands just like Troy and Abed were. When they reached the frozen yogurt place, Shirley, the Dean, and Chang were already there. Abed assumed that Jeff, as always, was fashionably late. The three that were already there were sitting together at the largest circular table.

Shirley spotted them first. She jumped up from her seat and ran over to hug Troy. "That's nice." she whispered into his ear, squeezing him tightly. Chang and the Dean turned around to see what was going on and soon enough they hurried over too. A group hug formed, with Troy at the center. (Abed tried not to mind how their hands were pulled apart. He tried to just be happy for his friend, but it was difficult when his fingers still ached from how tightly he was holding on to Troy. And yet it still wasn't enough.)

The hug broke apart, but after a few minutes, Jeff walked in and of course they had to embrace as well. Almost five minutes later, they finally got to sit down. Abed sat on one side of Troy and Jeff was on the other. The Dean sat on the other side of Jeff and Annie, Britta, Shirley, and Chang sat on the opposite side of the table. "So, what happened?" Shirley finally asked. "When I left to take care of my father, I assumed you'd be home when I got back, but you weren't. We were all so worried about you." Troy laughed a little. "I haven't been up to much," he said, smiling slightly. "The trip just took longer than I expected." Annie gasped. "Troy, tell them what you told us. That is not 'haven't been up to much'."

Troy sighed. "Fine, I might have gotten kidnapped by pirates. But not for too long!" he said, raising his voice to be heard over the pandemonium that had just erupted from every member of the table. Shirley wasn't shouting so much as she was loudly guilt tripping.

"Oh, Troy, you should have thought about what would have happened to us if you had never come home!" and more in the same vein. Jeff was 'lawyering', as Abed called it, spewing logic about why everything ever is a bad idea and should never be done and what could be done about the horrible things that were inflicted upon you.

"We could sue them, make bank. Obviously you have a witness, Levar Burton. You didn't happen to get their names, did you?" The Dean was in full lecture mode, worse than with Shirley and Annie's failed April Fool's Day chase of Jeff.

"That was so irresponsible, Troy, you could have gotten hurt, or worse, you could have gotten lost, or killed!" As for Chang, well, Abed wasn't sure Chang had any clue what was going on. He seemed to be loudly saying the lyrics to some weird song.

"Give me some more, time in a dream, give me the hope-". It didn't take long for this all to become too much for Abed. He rose from his seat.

"Everyone stop!" He yelled, louder than any of the others. "I know he COULD have gotten hurt, but he didn't," his tone softened as he looked at Troy. "He didn't. He's fine. He came back to us." Suddenly, unexpectedly, Abed found himself blinking away tears. "He came back." Abed sat back down and without even asking, Troy put his arm around him. Abed leaned into his touch. That touch always felt so safe. Abed sat there, Troy's arm around him, until it was time to leave. When they had to go, Troy gently guided him back to the car, lacing their fingers together once more. The feeling persisted, of mostly rightness.

But also a hint of something wrong.