Disclaimer: Covert Affairs isn't mine but I wouldn't mind having an Auggie Anderson (or a Christopher Gorham for that matter) of my very own.
Rating:T
Pairing: Auggie/Annie
Summary: Auggie must confront his true feelings for Annie when a mission goes awry.
First ever Covert Affairs fic. Please review!
Spoilers: None (I don't think)
Timeline: Between Southbound Suarez and No Quarter
Annie ducked behind a marble column in the hotel lobby for cover as gunfire rang out all around her. Auggie's voice was faint through her communication link, like a whisper in her ear, even though back at his desk at Domestic Protection Division headquarters he was probably shouting.
"Talk to me, Annie! What's happening? Annie!"
Auggie felt helpless as he stared sightlessly at the monitors in front of him and waited impatiently for her reply. He held his breath, until it finally came.
"I've been made. They must've followed me from the club."
Annie's voice was just above a whisper as she stood up from her crouch for a quick look over her shoulder.
"How many?"
Before Annie respond could there was another explosion of gunfire.
"Annie!"
Once again the communication link was filled with an unbearable silence. Auggie pushed a couple of keys on his computer.
"This is Anderson in tech ops. I'm requesting immediate extraction for Agent Walker. I need a team en route to her location right now."
Auggie switched his communication link back to Annie's channel.
After a few agonizing seconds, Annie's voice came through the link. "There were three of them…Can you get me out of here?"
"Already on it. Hang in there, Annie. We're going to get you home."
"Tell Joan, I've got the hard drive but…"
Auggie noticed that her voice was even softer than before, as though she was struggling to catch her breath, almost as if…
She's been shot. He should have realized it sooner. There was a faint wheezing sound every time she spoke. The bullet must have struck her in the upper body if it was causing her respiratory distress.
"Annie, are you shot?"
"Yeah…it's not that bad. I can make it to the extraction point."
"No, Annie don't move. Stay right where you are. They'll come to you. Just hold on."
"What's the status on the extraction team for Walker?" Auggie shouted impatiently.
The reply came through static. "We're on the move, about five minutes out."
"She's may not have five minutes…" Auggie whispered, as he rubbed a hand across his black field of vision in frustration.
He pushed the button on the phone and dialed his boss, Joan Campbell's office. "Annie got the intel from Tijuana."
"Okay, so what's the problem Auggie?"
"She was followed by three of the cartel's gunmen…she was shot."
"Did you send in an extraction team?" Joan asked calmly.
"They're five minutes out."
"You've done your job. Stay in communication with Annie until they arrive."
Joan's tone brooked no argument. A few seconds later, she hung up.
Auggie wasted no time re-establishing contact with Annie.
"How ya doing Annie?"
He could hear her gritting her teeth as she replied, "Fantastic. Getting shot is a blast. You should try it."
Auggie chuckled, "Glad to hear you're keeping your sense of humor. Team's on its way. Just hang in there, Annie. I promise we'll get you home."
There was a long pause and for a moment Auggie thought that he'd lost communication with Annie. And then she spoke, her voice tailing off as she began to lose consciousness.
"Hey Auggie? You still there?"
"I'm right here, Annie."
"If I don't make it out of here…"
"Don't talk like that Annie. The team's on the way."
The truth was that the team should've been there by now. But he wasn't about to tell Annie that. He didn't want her to panic any more than she was already beginning to.
"I know Auggie but I need to say this. If I don't make it out of here, I want you to be the one to tell Danielle, Michael, and the girls what happened to me. I want you to tell them the truth. Don't give them the agency's company line. If I die, I want my family to be proud of me."
Auggie felt a lump of emotion suddenly forming in his throat and he wiped the tears from his sightless eyes with the back of his hand.
"Oh Annie…" He whispered softly. "They are proud of you. You don't have to tell them you work for the CIA to make them proud of you."
"I know. I just need you to promise me, you'll tell them the truth if I don't come home."
"Annie, you know I can't. It's against protocol."
"Auggie, please promise me."
After a moment Auggie whispered, "I promise."
"Thank you, Auggie." Annie replied and gave a weak laugh. "Since when have you ever given a damn about protocol anyway?"
"You've got a point."
There was another pause and Auggie dropped all humor from his tone before he asked. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I've just been shot."
"You know that's not what I meant. Are you bleeding?"
"Not as much anymore. I made a tourniquet out of my evening wrap…Do you think the CIA will reimburse me? It was a gift from my sister. I can't remember the designer though."
Good girl, Annie.
He didn't want to think about how much blood she'd lost before she'd made the tourniquet.
"I'll put a request on Joan's desk right away. Better yet, you can do it yourself, when you get home."
"If I make it home…"
Auggie shoved all the thoughts of Annie not returning home into the deepest, darkest recesses of his mind in the same place where he kept his memories of the war in Iraq and the bomb that took his sight.
Annie's absence from DPD would be palpable.
He wouldn't be able to make it through the day without the staccato beat of her kitten heels, or the delicious fruity scent of her Jo Malone perfume.
"Listen to me, Annie. We're going to get you home I promise."
"I know…You're so good to me, Auggie. But you could've told me that it gets this cold here this time of year."
Cold? In Mexico…in the middle of August? The only logical explanation was that she was going into shock. Where the hell was the damn extraction team?
"I'm sorry I'll be sure to check the weather report for all your mission destinations from now on."
"Thanks Auggie…I'm so tired…Wake me up, when the team comes to get me okay?"
"No, Annie. You have to stay awake! Stay with me, Annie! Annie!
Seconds later, another voice came through Auggie's headset. "The extraction team is on the ground. Agent Walker is secure but she's wounded and in need of medical assistance. We'll get her to a Langley approved U.S. medical facility within the hour."
Auggie tore off his headset in frustration.
If he'd just been in the field with her. He could've kept her conscious…Done chest compressions or CPR…something. Instead he was stuck behind his desk at DPD.
Don't you die on me, Annie Walker! Not now…Not like this… Not before I get the chance to tell you that I love you!
Auggie headed straight to Joan's office to give her an update, since there was nothing that he could do for Annie until the extraction team brought her back. And he wouldn't forget to ask Joan about purchasing that new evening wrap for her.
Fin