Spoilers: Anything up to and including the season three finale, 'Introduction to Finality'. In fact, several of the scenes in that episode's final montage will find their way into this story as I provide my own events that lead up to them.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. If I had any claim on Community, Abed would be all mine.

A/N: This is the very final segment of this story. I'd like to thank everyone who read and reviewed over the course of the story. You guys are awesome! I would also like to let you all know that I will be starting a new Annie/Abed story. I'm not sure how soon I'll have the first chapter posted, but I'd definitely love everyone to check it out once it's up. As always, I'd like to thank my reviewers: Lucy36, phantomcat97, chairlampdesk, Tenten32321, Jade, The Alternative Source, The Poet's Muse, serotonic, tnelson123, uscchr, Kid in a Corner, Anonymous (I have received a shocking number of requests to write a Troy/Britta fic, but currently have no plans to because I don't have any ideas for one), Mr. High-and-Almighty, MC-Aitlyn, gedankenzug, MarchesaLace, XcrazyrandomhappenstanceX, and MorganEnjoysFanfiction. You guys and my other reviewers throughout the length of the story kept me going even when my inspiration was at its lowest point. Please read and review! Thanks!

Chapter Thirteen: Epilogue

Saturday, November 16, 2013, 7:05 AM

"If I can't have a hashbrown, neither can anyone else!" Annie declared, glaring at her friends before focusing on Pierce. "Seriously. Take it outside."

Grumbling under his breath about bitchy women, the older man left the hospital room, a McDonald's bag clutched in his hand. As the aroma of the fried potato disappeared, Annie sighed in relief. She was hungry, but her doctor kept telling her that she couldn't eat. Even though she had read several websites in her preparation that said eating was perfectly fine as long as she stuck to light foods.

Of course, what her doctor overlooked was that Annie had a lot of friends helping her through her labor.

"Britta, guard the door. Jeff, hand me my apple sauce," Annie directed her friends.

The instant he handed her the small plastic container and disposable spoon, Annie dug into the strawberry applesauce that she had packed in her overnight bag. She was glad that she had brought the snack. After seven hours of labor that had gotten intense enough to come to the hospital in the middle of the night, she needed the energy. Plus, she had read that eating something light might even decrease how long her labor lasted.

While she ate her applesauce and enjoyed the effects of her epidural, Annie stared around at her friends. Britta was at the door, as instructed, keeping an eye out for Annie's Nazi of a doctor. Jeff was sitting in one of the chairs next to her bed, playing games on his phone whenever he wasn't idly flipping through the channels on the TV. The chair next to him was empty since Pierce had been banished into the hallway for tempting Annie with food that she couldn't eat. By far the most interesting sight was that of Troy and Abed. Her boyfriend was in a chair on the other side of the bed, completely catatonic, with Troy leaning over and whispering to him in an effort to pull him out of it. She had known that he didn't like doctors or medical procedures, but she hadn't realized how freaked out he would get over the epidural. He had been out of it for a good two hours and Annie hadn't been able to bring him back. She just really hoped that Troy would get him alert again before she actually gave birth.

"When are we supposed to call Shirley again?" Britta asked.

"When I hit six centimeters. If that doesn't happen soon, though, she'll get here before we have to call because she said she'd stop by as soon as she got the boys fed and settled in with their cartoons to make things easier on Andre," Annie explained, scraping her spoon around the plastic.

She cast a worried glance at Abed. She was really starting to fear that he wouldn't come around before it was time to deliver.

"Jeff."

He ignored her, attention on his phone.

"Jeff," she called his name again, poking him in the arm.

He looked over at her. "What?"

"Can you come around and see if you can get Abed alert again?" she wheedled. "Please?"

Although he made a face at her, he heaved himself out of his chair and circled the bed. She smiled to herself.

Her relationship with Jeff had remained distant for a couple of months after she told her story. However, they had patched everything up over the summer when his half-sister had run away from home and landed on his doorstep. When her mom had asked him to talk to her about her problems because she hadn't had any luck getting through to the girl, Jeff had panicked. He had broken down in the face of the hormonal and angry teenage girl and come to Annie for help, because, as he put it, Britta would probably advocate casual drug use to relax her and Shirley would suggest that she turn to Jesus.

Annie had spent some time with the two of them only to learn that the sixteen year-old was angry because her mom wouldn't sign the consent form to let her marry her boyfriend, who, Annie quickly figured out, she only wanted to marry because he made her feel loved. And, well, that was a problem that Annie could help with since she had spent the majority of her life wanting to be loved. By the time Alyssa went home, she was feeling a little better about herself and the prospect of her future. Plus, Annie had given the girl her phone number just in case she ever needed someone a little older to talk to who wasn't Jeff or her mom. The incident had healed her friendship with Jeff. Abed, who had been pleased with the development, had pointed out that uniting in the face of a crisis was a common method of mending fractured relationships on TV.

"Abed, Annie needs you," Jeff said in his best Winger speech voice. "Sure, it's tough watching her in pain and we know you don't like doctors, but if you make her go through this alone, you'll never forgive yourself. You're supposed to be the rock that she leans on because eventually they're going to kick the rest of us out of here. But you're the baby's dad, so you can stay and help her through this painful process. And at the end of it, you'll have the baby that you've been talking about nonstop for the last eight months until we all missed the days when everything you said centered around TV and movies."

Annie snickered about that. Abed had grown quite obsessed with preparing for the baby. She had known that he was a planner, but she still didn't think that they needed to decide on what method they were going to use for potty-training or which baby food to try first yet. She was thrilled that he was so focused on being a good dad, but she did hope that he would mellow out once the baby was home and they hadn't killed it within the first couple of days.

"If you don't wake up and tape your baby's birth, then I will," Troy announced when Abed didn't respond to Jeff's speech. "And that means I'll see Annie's no-no parts."

"No."

The sound of Abed's voice made Annie smile. Apparently he wasn't anymore thrilled with that idea than any other guy would be. Not that Annie would have let Troy tape her anyway. She wasn't all that happy with Abed taping the birth, partly because she didn't want to be on camera but mostly because she wanted him holding her hand when the time arrived.

ooooo

Saturday, November 16, 2013, 10:23 AM

Abed was moving around the room with his camera focused on Annie, who was holding Britta's hand since her epidural was either wearing off or her contractions had simply gotten much, much worse. After she came out of yet another contraction, she glared at her boyfriend.

"Why must you tape me again?" she asked, letting go of Britta's hand.

"Anyone want to trade me spots?" Annie heard her ask as she rubbed her hand with a pained grimace.

"No," Jeff responded, not taking his eyes off his phone.

Ignoring the other two, Abed answered, "It is a common practice to take film of a child's birth."

"Don't worry, Annie. You're good on film," Shirley, who had arrived an hour ago, said in a gentle tone.

Annie groaned when she remembered watching Abed's movie with the group. It had been horribly embarrassing watching herself on screen and listening to the comments of her friends. The dance scene and the sex scene were by far the worst parts though, since both Pierce and Jeff had been pretty free with the inappropriate comments. At least Abed had received an A, which had made her humiliation worth it.

"I was acting then," she pointed out. "And I wasn't in a hospital gown with no makeup and my hair piled on top of my head, sweating and groaning in pain as I try to push a tiny human out of me."

Another wave of pain washed over her, and she grabbed blindly for Britta's hand. Panting, she prayed for the pain to end quickly. Once it finally did, she let go of Britta.

"Seriously," Britta said loudly. "It's someone else's turn to hold her hand through her contractions. I need my hand and she's going to break it if no one switches me places."

"Well you just make it sound so appealing," Jeff snarked. "Alyssa wants a picture after you have the baby."

"I'll do it," Troy announced, talking over Jeff.

While Britta and Troy traded places, Annie scowled at Jeff.

"Are you texting her? Isn't she supposed to be at work right now?"

He nodded. "She's in the drive-through. I told her I'd keep her updated on how you're doing."

"I don't care. Tell her to do her job and to text you on break," Annie commanded. "She'll get in trouble if they catch her on her phone while she's clocked in."

Jeff grimaced. "You sound like such a mom already," he grumbled. "Fine. But I'm only listening to you because you have that scary pregnant woman in labor strength going on right now."

She grinned but it turned into a whimper as another contraction started. Reaching over, she took Troy's hand and squeezed.

"Ow! Annie! Ow, ow, ow!" he cried, trying to wrench his hand from hers.

As the pain ended, she let go of him.

"I'm so sorry!" she apologized. "I'm so very sorry, Troy!"

"It's okay," he said, tears in his eye. "But I don't think I can hold your hand."

While he tried to pass the position off to someone else, Annie's doctor and a nurse entered the room.

"How are we doing, Annie?" Dr. Greenwell asked.

She scowled. "I'm having a baby and my epidural has worn off. How do you think I'm doing?"

"Annie!" Shirley chastised.

"It's okay," the nurse, Tricia, said easily. "We work with Annie; we know that she's normally much more pleasant."

Annie would growl at Tricia, but she was actually one of Annie's favorite people at the hospital. Three months ago Annie was hired into a reception position down in the emergency room. She was responsible for checking in the patients that came in on their own. It was a fairly decent position that made use of her organizational skills and allowed her to socialize with the people in the hospital. Plus, it paid well, better than Shirley's sandwich shop had, and that was a very good thing given that Troy and Britta had moved out of apartment 303 to get their own place and make room for the baby.

"Everyone out," the doctor instructed. "I have to check how far along Annie is."

While everyone else walked out, Abed moved closer to the doctor.

"Abed," Annie complained. "Do not tape this part."

"It's important documentation of your progress," he stated emotionlessly.

Sighing in frustration, Annie quieted down and let the doctor do her job while Abed filmed. He had decided months ago that he was going to film the baby's birth, and she had agreed to let him. She hadn't realized how annoying it would be to have him focused on the camera when she wanted to hold his hand, not Britta's, not Troy's. She wanted to hold Abed's in this painful, scary situation. However, filming was part of who he was and he didn't get to do it as often now that he was learning how to manage his dad's restaurant, so she didn't want to say anything.

"Well, it's no wonder that your pain has spiked. You're seven centimeters, Annie. That means you're moving into the last labor stage. If everything proceeds smoothly, you'll be holding your baby soon," Dr. Greenwell explained, lowering the cover and stepping back. "I'll be back every few minutes to check on your progress. If you feel the urge to push, fight it and use your call button. This is very important, Annie: no pushing before I tell you to. If you ignore this instruction, you could accidentally complicate the delivery."

With those final instructions, Dr. Greenwell and Tricia left the room. Slightly frightened, Annie made sure that she could easily reach the call button. The thought of delivery was scary enough without complications.

"Look who decided to join us."

At the sound of Britta's strained voice, Annie looked over to the door and her returning friends. The blonde's face was tense and she was clearly gritting her teeth. That meant only one thing.

Abed's father had arrived.

Gubi Nadir had been surprisingly accepting of Annie in spite of the fact that she was both Jewish and American. She genuinely liked the man, and it was nice to have a parental figure in her life again other than just Pierce. In fact, outside of religion, there was only one point that they disagreed on.

Marriage.

Gubi had been pushing for her and Abed to get married since they told him about the baby. While Abed hadn't said anything to him in response, Annie had flatly refused to get married simply because she was pregnant. She had made it obvious that she would only marry Abed in the future if he truly wanted her for more than the baby. She had been especially clear that she wouldn't accept any proposals during the pregnancy. That didn't stop Gubi from pushing, and it didn't help that he had found a co-conspirator in Shirley, who was hoping for the same thing.

The truth was, Annie now knew that she did want to marry Abed. Maybe they had only officially been together since February, but they were already past the one-year anniversary of their first real kiss. Either way, time didn't matter to Annie. Even with their occasional miscommunications, she knew that she'd never be as happy with anyone else. She hadn't mentioned it to Abed, though, because she didn't want to feel like she had trapped him into marriage.

"Hello, Gubi," she greeted the older man when he stepped around Jeff.

"How are you doing, Annie?" he asked in his accented voice.

She grimaced. "Having a baby, so you know, lots of pain."

"You should go hold her hand," Britta suggested innocently.

Annie rolled her eyes. Gubi and Britta still did not like each other. She thought that he was chauvinistic since he kept advocating for Annie and Abed's marriage, and he thought that she had loose morals since she never intended to get married. They clashed on so many levels that it didn't surprise Annie at all that they fought any time they were within five feet of each other.

"Not today, you two!" Annie admonished seconds before the worst contraction yet gripped her.

ooooo

Saturday, November 16, 2013, 10:47 AM

Annie felt the distinct urge to push when the contraction hit. Following her doctor's instructions, she immediately hit the call button. After a few minutes, confirmation that Annie was dilated ten centimeters, and a flurry of activity to clear the room and prep for delivery, only Annie, Abed, Dr. Greenwell, and a couple of nurses that Annie was familiar with from work were left. As the doctor positioned herself between Annie's legs, Abed took up a position at the doctor's shoulder, aiming his camera at Annie's bared lower half.

"Okay, Annie, I want you to push on the next contraction," Dr. Greenwell instructed.

Annie scowled. "No, I don't think so."

"I know it's scary, Annie, and I know you're in a lot of pain, but you're so close to holding your baby," the other woman reassured her. "I just need you to push."

"No," Annie repeated stubbornly.

When the next contraction wracked her, she had the incredibly strong urge to push, but she held strong and fought against it.

"Annie, you need to push," the doctor repeated sternly. "Your baby is ready to come out. If you don't push, you could complicate things."

"I can't do this alone," Annie broke down, glancing over Dr. Greenwell at Abed who was focused on his camera. "I need you to hold my hand, Abed."

He lowered the camera and met her gaze. "But I need to document the birth. That's what they do in movies and on TV."

Annie's response was postponed by another contraction. Once it finished, she sent him her best murderous look. Normally she would use the Disney eyes, but her patience was pretty non-existent by this point.

"Abed Nadir, you put that freaking camera down and get over here and hold my hand while I deliver your child, or I swear to God that we will be grandparents before you have sex again," she threatened.

When he moved to the head of the bed and set the camera down in the chair that he had earlier gone catatonic in, Annie smiled briefly.

He clasped her hand as a wave of pain rippled through her, and Annie finally focused on pushing.

ooooo

Saturday, November 16, 2013, 11:56 AM

"She's so cute, you two," Britta cooed, staring down at the baby in Annie's arms. "And she has so much hair."

Annie smiled and looked down at the tiny girl in her arms. She was so perfect. She had ten toes, ten fingers, and a surprising mop of silky black hair. Annie hoped that meant that she had inherited her daddy's hair. Her skin was quite pink from the birthing process, but Dr. Greenwell had assured Annie that would go away and she would settle into her eventual skin color. Her eyes were big and blue, and she was staring up quietly, as if she was already on her best behavior to meet her very extended family.

"Have you picked a name yet?" Shirley asked, reaching out to stroke the baby's hair with one finger.

"Yeah," Troy chipped in. "You need to pick a really good name for her. Something strong like Rogue or Batgirl."

"Okay. If we ever have kids, not that I'm saying that will ever happen, but if it somehow does, you will not be naming them," Britta declared, her nose wrinkled at his choice in names.

"I think we should name her Emma," Abed stated.

Annie sighed. "We already discussed this, Abed. We are not Ross and Rachel."

He tilted his head in consideration, although his eyes were still fixed on their daughter as they had been from the first time he held her.

"You're right," he finally agreed. "We're more like Chandler and Monica, so we should name her Erica."

"Abed, I think what Annie's trying to say is that this is real life and that is your daughter. You should pick a name that means something to the two of you," Jeff finally spoke up, eyeing the baby cautiously as if he expected her to attack if he took his eyes off of her for a second.

"You should pick a nice Islamic name," Gubi volunteered his opinion. "That would help her feel connected to her heritage."

Britta scoffed. "That's only one half of her heritage. Her other half is Jewish. Maybe they should pick a classic Jewish name."

"They should pick a normal American name," Pierce contributed rather racistly. "One that won't get her made fun of for being a terrorist or a Jew."

"Pierce!" the study group yelled as Gubi stared at the other man in open disbelief.

"This is the closest thing to a dad you have, Annie?" he questioned, his tone baffled. "And you're going to let him near the baby?"

"He gets a little less racist every year," she defended.

Since Pierce had covered all of her medical bills without asking for anything in return, Annie felt the need to protect him. She knew that their pseudo father-daughter relationship seemed strange to most people, but Pierce had been unfailingly supportive of her when her own parents still hadn't contacted her. Not that she had tried to contact them, either.

"I have a half-black brother, black friends, and Abed as a friend, too," Pierce pointed out, his tone a little offended. "I'm learning."

"We've gotten way off topic," Shirley pointed out. "What names have you considered?"

Annie and Abed had decided to be surprised by the baby's sex. In doing so, they had considered several different names for both genders. However, none of the names seemed right now that she was holding the baby in her arms.

"Sarah," Abed announced suddenly.

Annie smiled as she looked up and met his eyes. Sarah. The name of her character in his movie. If she hadn't helped him film it, they may never have fallen in love nor had a baby. They probably would have just continued on as good friends, her ending up with Jeff and Abed still with Robin. She really liked the idea of naming their daughter after one of the characters that had brought them together.

"Sarah," she agreed. "Sarah Rose."

Abed nodded. "Sarah Rose Edison."

"Sarah Rose Nadir," she corrected him softly. "I want her to have your last name."

She saw the love shining in his eyes with that declaration.

"It's a lovely name," Shirley declared to a round of nods.

Troy shifted closer to the bed, pushing Britta to the side. His movement grabbed Annie's attention, and she grinned when she saw his anxious expression. She was pretty sure she knew exactly what he wanted.

"Yes, Troy?" she asked, her tired tone laced with amusement.

"Can I hold my niece now?" he burst out eagerly.

Laughing outright, Annie nodded and shifted the baby into his waiting arms.

ooooo

Saturday, November 16, 2013, 2:34 PM

Abed stared down at the baby he was holding. It wasn't logical. She was so tiny; she shouldn't inspire more fear in him than all of the Blorgons that Inspector Spacetime ever fought combined. However, Abed suspected that even Batman would fear her.

The reason, he decided as he walked over to the window, was that she was helpless. All superheroes protected the weak, but they rarely had to interact with them. Babies were outside of their normal scope of existence.

Also illogical was the fact that Abed would already give his life for Sarah's. He was able to identify that as a symptom of love. But that didn't make sense because he didn't know Sarah, so how could he already love her? He was highly confused, even more so than emotions usually left him. He had only just met her, but he loved her.

Annie kept telling him that he would be a good dad, but he still wasn't sure. He didn't have experience with babies; the closest he had ever come to one was Ben and Shirley had never let him babysit. The corners of his mouth turned down ever so slightly. Sarah couldn't even talk. How was he supposed to interact with her if all he could rely on were his facial expressions? He didn't possess variety in those. Remembering that Annie used to ask him to talk to her stomach when Sarah was kicking because she said it calmed the baby down, he wondered if the sound of his voice was more important than his words, even lacking inflection.

Sarah was staring up at him with dark blue eyes, her face scrunched a little and Abed worried that she was going to cry. If she cried, that would wake up Annie who had finally fallen asleep once everyone left. He didn't want her disturbed because he knew that she was really tired. Having a baby had been a lot of work for her; Hollywood made it seem easier than it was. Lost, Abed just started talking.

"The best associate that Inspector Spacetime ever had was Constable Reggie. Your mom will tell you that Geneva was the best, but she's only saying that because that's who she plays in the simulations. Batman is a self-made superhero. He doesn't have superpowers, so he has to work hard to defeat the bad guys. You can learn a lot of good things from him."

He watched as Sarah's eyelids started to lower. Was she going to sleep?

"The weirdest season finale on Friends was season eight. In it, Rachel gave birth to Ross's baby. Through a series of unrealistic events, the episode ended with Rachel accepting an accidental proposal from Joey. Something like that wouldn't normally happen in real life. I left your mom's engagement ring at home just in case, though. I didn't want Jeff accidentally proposing," he explained, lowering his voice to a whisper as his daughter's eyes stayed closed.

Abed wasn't sure how to propose to Annie. She had been open about the fact that she didn't want to get married simply because of the baby. He didn't know how to make her believe that when he proposed, it was because he wanted to be with her. He had run the scenarios several times since he bought the ring, but he still hadn't come up with anything. Not even a grand gesture taken from a movie would work because he knew that Annie would be suspicious about his motivations.

Abed still wasn't good with expressing emotion, even so many months after telling her he loved her. He didn't think that Annie would think it was very romantic if he told her that she was the part of his routine that he would miss the most, the part that he would never voluntarily change. That was a far cry from the romance of Chandler's proposal to Monica. He was starting to wonder if he should ask Troy for help. He would probably know how to ask Annie in a way that would make her feel loved.

Turning away from the window, Abed carried Sarah to the portable bassinet next to Annie's bed. After he placed her inside, he looked at Annie, who was fast asleep on the edge of the bed. The sight of her reinforced his determination to marry her. He had figured out how to win her over by acting like a hero, after all. He just needed to run through all of the proposal scenarios again. He had to have missed something the first time around. Hesitating momentarily because he wasn't sure it was socially acceptable, he climbed into the open space next to her in the bed. After carefully wrapping his arms around her, he brushed his lips across her forehead.

He drifted to sleep with a very rare smile on his face.