Wow, thank you for all the positive feedback! I'm really glad someone enjoyed the chapter. I am afraid to say that this chapter will most likely prove disappointing, but I have to post it as it is. Otherwise it's unlikely I'll ever manage to get on with the story.

"I hope he's okay.." Shirley said seriously, as she looked at Jeff. When Troy had come back to the party to find Abed, and he was nowhere to be found, the drunken group had called Shirley – The only other member of the study group not present.

She didn't have much clue either, aside from having passed him on the way to her house. She hadn't really been able to guess what he was doing in that area, but it was Abed, so she hadn't worried too much.

Troy was sitting on a chair, hugging himself. He was weeping openly at Shirley's words. Shirley bit her lip and was about to say something, when Jeff interrupted.

"Guys, guys, don't worry. It wouldn't be the first time he's disappeared and refused to take his calls.. He's probably acting out some movie we've never even heard about!"

"Yeah, or he's gone home to our place and got lost in the Dreamatorium!" Annie added enthusiastically. Despite her enthusiasm, she kept clinging to Jeff's arm, as if for comfort.

Troy was slowly shaking his head.

"You don't understand. I upset him b-because of what I said.. He .. He wouldn't have come home, because he wouldn't know how he was supposed to.. act.. around me.." sniffed Troy. Not for the first time, Shirley wondered at the level of insight Troy could sometimes display.

Britta who'd been standing around awkwardly, sat down beside Troy. As if unsure what to do with her hands, she placed one on his lap, and the other on top of it. She looked to Shirley, as if needing confirmation that she was doing this the right way.

"Abed is basically a grown man – He can take care of himself.." Shirley said with a reassuring smile, feeling bad for having upset Troy with her earlier comment. Inwardly she wondered if Abed could truly be considered a grown man and if grown men could even be counted on to take care of themselves anyway. This time she didn't voice her opinion.

"I'll call again." Jeff stated, as he flipped his phone open.

He was usually not the type to let a phone ring more than five times, as it seemed unnecessarily desperate, but this time the phone had been ringing at least 10 times, when there finally was a click at the other end.

"Abed! The others are worried sick about you –"as he said this, there were several reassuring protests in the background, but Jeff continued, unfazed "-so you better come right back here to my apartment. Oh, and Troy isn't mad at you anymore!"

There was silence on the other end of the line for what seemed like a most awkward eternity. If it wasn't for the distant sound of music in the background, Jeff would've thought the line had died. For a moment he thought he might have found out how he would least like to spend that eternity in hell –in case it turned out he had been right to doubt the atheists.

"Abed?" he tried again, a little less secure. Everyone around him was looking at him and he phone.

"Abed, are you there?" Jeff tried again. This was starting to creep him out. If Abed was playing some trick on him, he was NOT going to take it lightly this time. (Though, in all honesty, he would probably be so relieved he'd forget to scold him anyway.)

After long moments of silence, Shirley got up from her seat.

"Give him to me!" she said sternly, and took the phone out of Jeff's hand. She pressed it eagerly to her ear and said sweetly: "Aabed? You there, hon? It's Shirley." There was silence for a bit longer, but she had the sensation of hearing ragged breathing. The worry rose from the bottom of her stomach towards her heart, making it beat ridiculously fast. She forced her smile not to falter. Then Abed was finally speaking, in a hoarse and broken voice:

"Shir..ley?" Shirley's smile fell, and with it, the whole temperature of the room seemed to fall a few degrees. Troy grabbed Britta's hand, holding it so tightly it actually hurt. Annie looked to Jeff, as if he would have the solution. Even Pierce, who had been faking sleep to avoid the situation so far, seemed to sense the atmosphere. He sat up slowly, for once not very keen on attracting any attention to himself.

"Yeah, it's me alright. Where are you, baby?" She couldn't help her mother-instincts from kicking into violent action at Abed's uncharacteristically small voice. Mirroring Jeff's thoughts, she decided that if he was playing an act on her - she'd definitely kill him.

"..Not.. sure. Near ..Longjohn pub..?" he answered.

"What does it look like?" Shirley asked, still hopelessly trying not to let her deep-rooted worry show through.

"..Dirt.. alley.. coin ..trash.. …" Shirley felt the worry in her chest turn to real horror, as her heart hammered against her chest. He might've been mugged or.. something worse.

"Okay, sweety. Can you stay where you are, then we'll come and find you, okay..?"

"Cool.." came the mumbled response from the other end.

"I'm gonna hang up now, is that okay?"

"Cool. Cool coo co.." She reluctantly hung up, and handed the phone back to Jeff. She didn't give anyone a chance to ask questions, before she started giving barking out orders.

"Britta, stay with Troy. And Annie, make sure Pierce doesn't do anything he'll regret. Jeff! We have to go find Abed, he's.. lost." She sent the man a meaningful glance at the word "lost" and hoped he understood why she wasn't intending on bringing the others. Troy and Annie instantly started protesting, while Britta seemed a little lost.

Pierce fell back on the floor, pretending to be passed out from drinks. It wasn't that he wasn't worried like the others, but he had no idea how to react to the situation. If it turned out to be a false alarm he wanted to be the one who could say "I never fell for it". And if the kid actually had gotten himself in some serious trouble, Pierce would certainly need time to figure out how to react to that. Lest he do anything stupid.

So in the end all except Pierce were cramped into Jeff's car. Shirley –as the only sober person onboard- was driving, while Jeff gave her the directions to the pub Abed had mentioned. (She was secretly quite aware of it's whereabouts, but thankful that Jeff kept up the act.)

Once there, she parked the car right beside a non-parking sign. Everyone scrambled out, and began looking for their friend. Shirley kept the group together, fearful some would get in trouble. They all searched in sober silence, the seriousness of the situation having dawned on every single one of them.

It was Shirley who saw him first. A figure laying on the ground, curled up on himself. She prayed to God and Jesus and Maria and all the saints she could remember, that it wasn't him, but as she approached the broken figure, it became ever more likely that it was.

"Abed?" She asked cautiously, taking a tentative step forward. Anytime now. Anytime she'd wake up from this nightmare.

"Abed! Are you okay..!?" Troy blurted out, as he pushed Shirley aside and ran to Abed's side. He fell to his knees beside his unresponsive friend. Once the light from Troy's cellphone illuminated Abed's form, Shirley couldn't help but gasp loudly. The state of his clothes and the bruises on his face and body confirmed her worst fears. Abed wasn't answering his friend, his eyes were closed and his breathing shallow.

In that moment, she knew this wasn't some dream.

Shirley stayed oddly calm through the whole thing, and as everyone around her panicked or cried she calmly entered the number every citizen knows by heart but no one ever hopes to use.

It wasn't before the ambulance came, and the paramedics carried their unresponsive friend to the ambulance, that she finally broke down. A few great sobs that shook her whole body. And that was it.

Only one could go with Abed in the ambulance, and Troy elected himself before anyone got to say anything. Shirley and Jeff had exchanged worried looks, but in the end there really wasn't much choice.

So Shirley got in the car with the others. And as she set out after the ambulance, she hoped and prayed that letting Troy go with his friend by himself had not been the cruelest thing she'd ever done –Far crueler, even, than making little Jeff Winger pee his pants..

Author's note: Whew. This was a terrible chapter for me to write. I actually wrote it back when I wrote the first chapter, but even then I realized it was far too bad. I'd even made Britta drunk out of her mind and Pierce passed out for real – Just to cut down the amount of characters. Which is just not okay – Not when that's the reason!

I realize that most still don't get much screentime, but to me this was a difficult chapter to flesh out, since there wasn't much to go on in the first place. And to be completely honest, I would've much rather jumped forward.

Still, I felt it was important for a sense of continuity and for the sake setting the tone of how the others might react..

Perhaps due to all this I had a real hard time getting a sense of fluency into the writing. I mean, it's always hard to write in a different language, but this time it seemed overly difficult. I apologize for any jarring errors there might be. :C