"Over the summer, I decided it's time to whip this place into shape. I'm gonna be a mean, lean, deaning machine!"

The dean paused for breath. "And it's just as well I did! Because it's shocking what admin errors slip through when nobody's watching -" He paused to pull some papers out of his suit jacket. For example I have here the printouts of Mr Winger's, Miss Perry's and Miss Edison's applications and they all have the same address! " He paused dramatically. "I assure you I will take this up with our IT department. Now, if you can give me your correct addresses Jeffrey -" he smiled creepily at Jeff as he rested a hand on the other man's shoulder.

"There is no mistake." Jeff said as he removed the dean's hand. "Annie, Britta and I are sharing an apartment."

Everybody cried out at once.

"Jeffrey, how could you?" Shirley sounded intensely disappointed.

"Cool!" Troy sound like a man in awe.

"Plot twist." Abed was suddenly focusing all his attention on the head of the table.

"Okay, first of all. Shirley -" Jeff paused suddenly. "No. First of all - don't you have some deaning to do?" He said to the dean. "Somewhere else?" he added when it became clear the little man wasn't moving.

The dean sniffed a little, then was distracted by a noise coming from the air vents. "What is that?"

"It's probably the monkey that lives in the vents." Troy said in a 'duh, isn't it obvious?' tone of voice. "I named him 'Annie's boobs', after Annie's boobs."

Annie humphed slightly with disdain at this.

"See, this is the kind of national lampoonery that is coming to an end this year - Homie don't dean this!" the dean said as he turned on a heel and marched out of the room as though he was grateful for an excuse to leave that didn't amount to the new, action-oriented dean having been dismissed by one of his own students.

Jeff chuckled ostentatiously. "What is it with that guy, hey?" He pointed a thumb over his shoulder in the direction the dean had departed.

Shirley wasn't having any of it. "Don't think you can deflect us with your smooth words boy, we know you too well by now."

Fine." Jeff turned towards probably the easiest member of the group to deal with. "Troy, there's nothing cool about college friends sharing an apartment - it happens all the time. Heck, less than five minutes ago you and Abed announced you were sharing!"

Troy nodded slightly as though satisfied.

Shirley wasn't. She focused her best death glare on him. "Just what are you doing living in sin with an innocent young woman and Britta?"

"Hey!" Britta yelled in shocked outrage, though she slumped into silence as Shirley focused the death glare onto her.

"Uuuuurr…" Annie was trying to say something but only squeaks came out.

By the time Shirley turned her attention back to him Jeff had fixed a smug smirk to his face. "Be logical Shirley. This is much more proper than me living with just one of them - this way, even if I was tempted to try something with one of them the other would act as a chaperone and call me out on it. 'Stuff'-" he made an air quotes gesture. "Is actually much less likely to happen this way."

Shirley still looked unhappy, but it was the look of someone who wanted to find a flaw in Jeff's logic but who couldn't.

Abed was less reticent. "Unless you're sleeping with both of them." He said to more cries from around the table.

Jeff paused for breath as the outrage subsided a little. "Abed," he said sternly. "I thought our show was supposed to be a family friendly sitcom, not a porno?"

There were more cries of outrage from round the table. Jeff and Abed ignored them as they stared each other down. Abed ended it first, nodding in acceptance as he failed to find anything other than defiant assertiveness in Jeff's expression.

"How did this happen?" He asked instead. "You guys were hardly speaking at the end of last year."

The table went quiet as everyone turned to face Jeff. "I've grown enough over the last two years," he said with a small smile on his face. "To realise last year ended on a bad note and apologies were needed if I didn't want my nose broken on the first day back." He grinned ruefully at Annie, who blushed and smiled.

"So I set something up to talk things through, and after they'd both apologised to me-" he paused, a big smirk on his face as Annie and Britta simultaneously yelled objections. "And we'd cleared the air, we reminded ourselves that we're friends and enjoyed hanging out." This time the three of them exchanged a small smile.

"So, one day about half way through summer Annie was complaining about how creepy her landlord was getting and Britta was saying she wished her landlord was a creep as that would give her an option that allowed her to eat and keep a roof over her head."

Britta scowled and sunk down into her seat.

"So I suddenly thought - one three bedroom apartment is cheaper than three one bedroom apartments, Annie would get to live in a safe neighbourhood and Britta would get to live in the sort of place where landlords require someone with an actual credit score on the lease." He pointed to himself as though it wasn't obvious. "It took a while, but they soon came round," Annie was nodding, Britta had sat back up in her seat.

"But what about-" Shirley still looked unhappy.

"We have two bathrooms Shirley," Jeff said firmly. "I have one, they share the other. Nobody is accidentally walking in on each other naked."

There was a moment of silence. Jeff let out a small sigh. "Good. Now, unless anybody has any other questions about our living arrangements?" Troy raised a hand. "No? good." Troy lowered it again, an embarrassed expression on his face. "We all have classes to go to, places to be. See you in biology." Jeff added firmly as he packed his books away and got up from the table. Britta and Annie followed him while the other three left out of the study room's side entrance. Abed threw one last quizzical look at the girls disappearing in Jeff's slipstream.

XXXXXX

"That was close," Annie said softly as the three of them walked out into the quad.

"Yeah," Britta said. "Who'd have thought it'd be the dean that ratted us out?"

"Actually, this is good." Jeff sighed in relief. "The fact we're sharing an apartment is out there now. So long as we don't give anything away by the way we act it'll become the new normal and they'll forget all about it."

"You mean, like -" Annie smiled and blushed as she looked at the other two.

"Yeah, like that." Britta smiled fondly back at her.

"Britta and I can keep a secret," Jeff said, very seriously. "But are you okay with it, Annie?"

Annie looked doubtful for a moment then nodded decisively. "Yes. Yes, I can. I just don't like lying to our friends." She said sadly.

"Look at it this way," Britta said as she supportively patted Annie on the arm. "If they found out, Shirley would never forgive us and Troy and Abed just wouldn't stop asking questions."

"And if Pierce were here…" Jeff said. They all shuddered slightly at that. "This way, everybody's happy." Annie hesitated for a second, then nodded in agreement.

"We really do have to get to Women's Studies," Britta said as she closed in for a hug. "See you later Jeff."

"Bye, babes." Jeff said with a happy grin on his face as Annie hugged him and separated.

"We have got to find something better for you to call us." Britta said, a mock grimace on her face.

"I like it," Annie said, a happy smile on hers.

Jeff watched his girlfriends chatting happily as they walked away, a contented smile on his face. He waved back when they briefly turned to wave at him. I really am the luckiest guy in the world, he thought.

XXXXXX

"I'm ba-" Pierce stopped as he saw the empty study room. "Huh, where is everybody?"