Sis and I argue… a lot. Today's quarrel is over who ate the last cupcake, little did she know though that the culprit was dancing around in her pink tutu at our feet. I rarely get a day off and today the family took me out the lunch and coffee at the Beanery on Elm street. We were just exiting when the sirens rang. First responder trucks flashed by, "What's going on?" Katia looked up at me curiously. "I don't know, it's down there, let's go see what's going on." We all jogged down the street to see a crowd forming. I pushed through to the front, there had been an accident and my heart froze. Being dragged out of an upturned SUV was Auggie. I jumped over wreckage and helped bystanders to pull my friend out of the debris.

"Auggie! August can you hear me!" there was blood pouring out of a blow on the back of his head. A man in his forties put his hand on my shoulder "Do you know him?" I nodded, trying to stem flow of blood; my tears were obstructing my vision. He nodded as well "Here, lay him flat." The man took off his jacket and placed it under Auggie's head. Then he motioned for me to check my friend's pulse. I swallowed my tears and put and a hand to his chest and mouth I learned to do this on the farm, saves time and lives. His heart beat, albeit weakly under one hand but there was no breath on the other. CPR or Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is simple in theory; 30 chest compressions and 2 breaths then repeat until the person becomes responsive or until help arrives. That is the textbook knowledge given in books; it is so much different having to perform the maneuver on your best friend; trying desperately to get him to breathe. I held my lips on his for what seemed like a century before he gasped and coughed, but other than that he remained unresponsive. I held his hand between mine and pressed it to my chest.

Suddenly an MT came up and kneeled on Auggie's other side. He instructed me to help lift my friend onto the stretcher. I was about to follow him into the ambulance when the MT held out his arm in my path. "Ma'am I'm sorry, only family is allowed to accompany him." Before I could protest the man from before came up behind me "That's her husband in there." I looked at the man gratefully. "Is this true ma'am?" I nodded and glanced back to my family, Dani nodded for me to go, she knew Auggie well enough and liked him; she knew how much it would mean for me to go with him. I jumped into the ambulance firmly resuming my place at my 'husband's' side. The MT looked up at me from his work (he had unbuttoned Auggie's shirt and was disinfecting a tear in his side) "Did you perform CPR?" I nodded numbly, never taking my eyes off of Auggie's face. "You saved his life. I wouldn't have gotten there in time." The man then took off one of his gloves and handed me a handkerchief from his pocket. I gave him a puzzled glance, he smiled. "you don't want your husband to see your eyes all red and puffy, do you?" I thanked him and rubbed my face with the handkerchief. Then he handed me a damp cloth, "His fever will spike any second now after that trauma so please keep that on his face, I only have two hands." I did as instructed and ran the cool cloth over my friend's face, removing dirt and blood in the process; I don't think I've ever seen him so pale.

When we finally arrived at the hospital I was lead into a waiting room while my 'husband' was swarmed by doctors in surgery. I kind woman wearing Snoopy dog scrubs pulled up a stool in front of my chair and began to question me. "What is the patient's name?" "My husband's name is August Anderson." "His age?" "29" I'm not sure how I knew since he never told me but I knew more about him then I thought. "What is August's birthday Mrs….?" "Call me Annie, his birthday is May 23rd." She smiled at me "Annie, my job is to inform you of what is going on inside that room." She gestured to the white doors labeled SURGERY in big blue letters, "Right now your husband is being evaluated for any serious brain damage, broken bones, etcetera. Right now the only thing we know for certain is that he has a major concussion from the accident and might very well slip into a coma." I nodded "The CPR you performed without a doubt saved his life and made our job much easier. Now,.." she leaned forward taking my hands in a comforting fashion "I know that a coma may sound scary, but rest assured that it's just his body's way a fixing itself as painlessly as possible. Everything will be fine." Then she stood and walked over to a little girl 8 chairs down. Telling her that her mommy had a nasty bump but that the doctors were doing their best to fix her; I took the free moment to pull out my cell phone, Danielle answered on the first ring. "Annie! What's going on? Is Auggie going to be okay?" I sighed, "I'm not sure what's going on, he's in surgery right now; he still hasn't regained consciousness, they think that he might slip into a coma." I had to hold back tears not wanting to frighten her. "Do you want to talk about it?" "No, I have to call Auggie's friends and such." "Okay, sis call me if you need anything okay?"

I hung up and dialed Joan's number. No answer. "This is the cell phone Joan Campbell, I can't get to my phone right now, but if you leave your name, number, and a brief message I will get back to you as soon as I can." I hesitated and the beep sounded in my ear signaling for me to start my message "hey, Joan, it's Annie. Auggie has been in an accident, I'm waiting for him to come out of surgery now. He has a pretty bad concussion, and I'll call you if I hear anything else." I closed my phone and waited.

According to the clock it had been an hour and twelve minutes before a doctor came out of the room. I stood and waited for him to finish taking off his gloves before speaking to me. He looked up to me "Your husband has one cracked rib, a nasty bump on the head and a pretty serious concussion, we are keeping him here tonight for observation but I don't think that there is anything you need to worry about." I felt a wave of relief pour over me. He started to turn around "Doctor?" he stopped "Yes, Mrs. Anderson?" I blushed "Do you think I could stay with him tonight? I don't want him to be alone." He smiled kindly at me "Of course, I'll arrange for it immediately." I thanked him and he pointed me in the direction of Auggie's room.

Auggie looked like a mummy with an ace bandage wrapped around his head and gauze covering most of his arms and torso. I sat by him and called Dani to drop off my traveling bag since I was staying here. When she arrived Katia and Chloe ran in to give me a hug. "Oh God, Annie you look terrible!" she fussed over me a second before I waved her off. "I look better than he does." Nodding my head towards the unconscious Auggie, "I know. Is he going to be alright?" I smiled "The doctor said that they're keeping him here for observation since he hasn't woken up yet." Dani looked sympathetically at me and hugged me goodbye, her daughters followed suit. After Dani and Katia had left though, Little Chloe climbed onto the side of the bed and kissed Auggie on the cheek "feel better" I heard her whisper, before she ran off.

At about midnight I rested my head on his chest "You know Auggie, it's ridiculous just how important you are to me." He didn't respond, but I didn't expect him to either since he had been diagnosed comatose 3 hours ago. "Auggie, please wake up. Speak to me; tell me everything's going to be alright." I felt tears run down my cheeks, and buried my face in my arms, all the while laying on his chest. He let a deep groan and moved ever so slightly. I sat up still leaning close to him. "Auggie? Auggie can you hear me? Speak to me." He furrowed his brow and whispered "that line is so cliché." I scoffed a laugh tears pouring down my cheeks, I leaned over and kissed him then held his hand to my face. "What's going on? Why are you crying?" he sounded concerned. "I'm just happy that you're awake. You have no idea how scared I was; I thought that I was about to lose my best friend." I buried my head in his neck and hugged him. He held me for a moment before asking again "What happened?" I pulled back from him. "I was coming out of The Beanery on Elm Street when I saw a crowd gathering down the street. I jogged over and saw you being pulled out of an upturned SUV. I managed to help get you out but…" I let a sob loose and covered my mouth, his sightless eyes were still closed and he felt around for my hand which I gave to him, he stroked the back with his thumb "Take your time, I'm not going anywhere." I took a deep breath "You were bleeding and not breathing, Auggie I thought you were dead. Then when the ambulance arrived they almost wouldn't let me stay with you, but a man there told them that you and I were married so they let me stay, after that you were taken into surgery for almost 2 hours and 3 hours ago you slipped into a coma." I squeezed his hand "I was afraid that you weren't going to wake up."

He reached over with his other hand and stroked my face. "I'm not going anywhere. Wherever I was, I could hear you. You were the line that brought me back." I felt his hand shake as he said it, he had been scared to. "Annie is the lamp on?" "No." "Could you turn it on, please? I want you to be able to see me." He smiled that devilishly handsome smile. I turned on the lamp "Ow! What was that?" Auggie sounded distressed. "What?" I asked concerned. "My eyes hurt." I reached over and turned off the lamp "better?" "Yes, what did you do?" I stared at him "I turned off the lamp." He furrowed his brow. "Turn it on again." I did and he flinched "Auggie, open your eyes." I turned the shade so that he wasn't in direct light. He groaned as the light hit his brown eyes. "It hurts." I placed my hands on his face, "What hurts?" he smirked "It hurts that I can't even begin to comprehend how beautiful you are." It was my turn my brush tears off of his face. "Auggie? Can you see me?" He pulled my down to him and kissed me. "I don't understand, why can I see?"

"I think that I can explain that." Said a voice from the doors, the doctor from earlier stepped in the room. "What happened to me?" Auggie asked. "Your medical chart states that you lost your site due to an explosion when you were serving in Iraq. Correct?" Auggie nodded, the doctor smirked "Wrong! You were misdiagnosed!" Auggie's jaw dropped slightly "I'm pretty sure that I was blind, doctor." The doctor's grin grew wider (he loved giving good news) "Your symptoms were correctly diagnosed as blindness, but the cause was wrong!" He flipped a page in Auggie's file. "This says that you were thrown 20 feet from ground zero." Auggie nodded again "The head trauma you suffered was the cause; there was never any sensory damage! Merely sensory…" he paused to find the right word "misplacement. The impulses in your brain were still firing signals but not to the right place. So, when you got that bump on your head," Auggie touched the tender spot "everything got switched back to its normal position." My jaw had also dropped by the end of the speech.

Auggie turned to me "Annie, do you think you could step outside for a second? I want to ask the doctor something." I nodded and stepped out, closing the door behind me, but curious I leaned against the door and listened. First was Auggie's voice "So, on a scale from one to ten what were my chances of survival?" The doctor chuckled "She didn't have to leave the room for that did she?" I heard Auggie sigh "I've worried her enough already, I mean how long was I out?" "About 9 hours." "See? She's been worrying about me for nine hours. I don't want to see her cry again." The doctor grunted his understanding. "She's been so strong though. You asked me what your chances had been; honestly, if the ambulance had come to get you and brought you here you would have been dead before reaching the doors, but because of your wife Annie your chances jumped from 1 to an 9 almost immediately." Auggie waited a moment before replying.

"Why is that?" the doctor leaned forward on the rail at the foot of the bed "Annie was the first person on the scene. She dragged you from the overturned vehicle. She stopped the bleeding from your skull. She performed CPR on you and brought you back to the land of the living. She put you on the stretcher and into the ambulance. And it was she who waited by your side for 9 whole hours and waited for you to regain consciousness. That woman saved your life. She is no less than a guardian angel." I backed away from the door and took a deep breath 'did I really do all that? Well I suppose I did but I didn't care or notice, because I was worried about him…because…because I… I love him' that has to be the first time I thought that 'I love August Anderson' I wanted to ponder this thought further but the doctor opened to door at that time. "He would like to talk to you." I stepped in and looked shyly at Auggie who was studying me. "I've leave you two kids alone." And the door was closed firmly behind me. Auggie was propped up to sitting and was still staring at me intently, "Why?" he asked. I moved over to him and sat facing him on the bed. "'Why' what?" I answered "Why do all this for me? Doctor Daniels told me. You rescued me from the wreck, you revived me and then waited for me. I know you're my best friend but… why?" I let a tear roll down my cheek "Because it was just too hard to imagine a life without you. Because… because I… because I love you Auggie." Then he took my face in his hands and kissed me, one long passionate kiss on the lips. When he pulled away I rested my forehead on his as we breathed heavily on each other. "Annie?" he mumbled. "hmm?" he gave a deep throaty chuckle. "since everyone here seems to think so…" I pushed him back onto his pillows and looked him in the eyes "What is it?" he took my hand "Annie Walker?" I nodded "Will you marry me?" I felt my eyes widen before launching back on to him crushing my lips to his. When we broke he laughed "Is that a yes?" I laughed with him. "I wouldn't want it any other way." And we kissed again.

When I woke I was in Auggie's arms. Auggie my fiancée; it had a nice ring to it, but not as much as Auggie my husband, I definitely like that better. It was about 8 in the morning and I looked over to see the cause of my arousal. My phone was ringing ~'the dog days are over now, the dog days are done.'~ I fished it from my pocket and looked at the caller i.d. 'SMITHSONIAN' "Joan?" "Annie? I just got your message what's going on? Is Auggie alright?" At that moment Auggie stirred and tightened his hold on me before kissing the top of my head "Joan I think you should come see yourself." She said that she was on her way and hung up. "Was that Joan?" Auggie asked rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Yes, she'll be here soon." Auggie laughed "I think I'll play a little trick on her. Does she know that I'm sighted?" I shook my head "Oh, then this should be fun." I sighed at his immaturity and pecked his cheek. Before untangling myself from his grasp and sitting back in the chair at his bedside. "God, you're beautiful." I looked in my compact. "I'm a mess." He leaned over and kissed my nose "God, you're a beautiful mess."

Joan arrived less than ten minutes after calling. She sighed in relief when she saw Auggie "Thank God you're awake, How do you feel?" before he could answer Arthur and Jai entered behind her. Auggie was purposefully not focusing on anything, keeping up the illusion that he couldn't see. "Not well in some ways, but better than usual in others."Arthur put his hands in his pockets "Now what the Hell, is that suppose to mean?" Auggie smiled "Well, I have a bruise on my skull, one cracked rib, and some chunks of flesh missing on 5 places on my body. On the other hand though, Annie and I are engaged to be married, I woke up from my coma, and last but not least…" He looked straight at Arthur "that sir is a very ugly tie" Auggie shook his head "orange is just not your color." Jai's eyes got big and he leaned in front of Auggie and waved his hand in front of his face. "You know Jai that hand waving thing was annoying when I was blind and is even more irritating now that I'm sighted. Jai stumbled back and Arthur merely lifted his tie "You really don't like it?" "Blue looks much better on you." Joan looked about to comment but thought better of it; instead she just walked around the bed and gave him a hug. Arthur shrugged "Nothing ever surprises me anymore, so when's the wedding?" Auggie shrugged but I answered "July 13th" Auggie raised an eyebrow. "That's the day we met." He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "that's a good day."

Thank you for reading my first fanfic for Covert Affairs, I enjoyed writing it. For now this will remain a one-shot but if requested to I will try to continue it. It all depends on the feedback I get.

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