Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.

Cicero

The intel had been bad.

Joan swore that heads would roll, Arthur stormed up and down the halls and Jai threw himself into tracking down the source of the erroneous information. Auggie, meanwhile, hunkered down in Communications, did his job, and tried to forget the sound of Annie screaming when the mission had literally blown up in her face.

They were kept apprised of her condition during the extraction, Auggie automatically tuning out the medical jargon and instead concentrating on the tone: high pitched with a breathless quality was bad, abrupt, yelled bullet points meant things had gotten worse, a calm tone tinged with a touch of relief meant she was out of danger.

Danger being relative, that is.

It was four days before she was back on US soil and another week before she was out of ICU. Everyone at the DPD was kept informed of how she was doing and they even passed the hat around to collect money for flowers and a cute little teddy bear.

But, for Auggie, while being told Annie was on the road to recovery was nice, it wasn't the same as being able to hear her and know for himself that she was really doing all right. Luckily he already had a cover in place that would enable him to do just that; he had met Danielle when he covered for Annie and given Chloe's class that tour of the Smithsonian, and, not only that, if he wasn't mistaken, she rather liked him.

That Sunday he made his way to the hospital during visiting hours. It always amazed him how difficult hospitals were to navigate, the halls were a maze of seemingly random turns if one could not follow the brightly colored arrows and lines painted on the floor. Too often the Braille markings, when he could find it, was worn down to the point of being nearly unreadable. But, a little adversity never stopped him and Auggie, with judicious use of his winning smile and aw-shucks attitude, managed to find his way to the orthopedics wing and, after only one more wrong turn, Annie's room.

"Knock, knock?" he called quietly from the doorway. He hadn't heard voices, but he didn't want to interrupt anything or wake Annie by accident.

"Auggie!" Annie's voice had the slightly glazed tone to it that Auggie knew to be the result of pain killers, probably a morphine drip, based on the slight swish of tubing he also heard.

"Not disturbing you, am I?" he asked as he slowly made his way into the room.

"No, no, it's good to see you. I mean-"

"It's okay," he interrupted, he'd gotten over being bothered by that phrase a long time ago. "Chair?"

"On your left."

A few swipes of his cane and he located the chair and he sank into it gratefully, folding up the cane and stowing it at his side. "So, Danielle and the kids come by already today?"

"No, Michael had some work thing the whole family had to go to. Danielle wanted to skip it to be here, but he hasn't been there that long and it'd look bad if his wife didn't attend and well, frankly I was happy..." she trailed off and Auggie could tell she had that sheepish, embarrassed smile on her face she got when her brain caught up with her mouth a second too late.

"Speaking from personal experience, sometimes visitors can be more of an annoyance than a help," Auggie said.

"Can they ever!" Annie huffed, before quickly adding, "I don't mean that I want you to leave, it's just, a break from Danielle, well, it's more than welcome right about now."

Auggie laughed, "She getting a bit overwhelming?"

"Is she ever! She just doesn't understand. I mean, I work at the Smithsonian, what difference does a little limp make there? But, it does make a difference, if this second surgery isn't successful, or the PT doesn't do what they're hoping it will. Auggie, what am I going to do?"

Auggie leaned forward, reading out for the edge of the bed. Once he found it he patted up it until he located where he thought her hand would be. Careful of the IVs, he gently took her hand in his. "Breathe. Just breathe. There's no point in worrying about what might or might not be yet. Yes, you took a lot of shrapnel in the leg. Yes, you had numerous fractures as a result. And, yes, you have numerous surgeries and a lot of physical therapy to look forward to, but don't sell yourself, or those doctors of yours, short. Has anyone said you're not going to come through this just fine?"

"Well, no," Annie admitted, a little sulkily.

"Has anyone mentioned anything about getting your clearance or status revoked?" He began slowly stroking her hand with his thumb.

"No." Her tone was a little less belligerent.

"And tell me this. Have you ever not managed to do something after you've put your mind to it?"

She huffed in response. "No."

"Considering you are one of the most stubborn and determined women I have ever met, that doesn't surprise me."

"I am not stubborn," she protested.

"Yes, you are," he replied. "Admit it." He waggled a finger in her direction. "And no pouting about it, either."

"I wasn't pouting."

"Yes, you were." Auggie unfolded his cane. "But luckily, even pouting, you are beautiful." He brought her hand up to his mouth, giving it a quick kiss before he stood up. "Now, unfortunately, this Prince Charming must leave you now."

"Prince Charming?" She laughed. "Rather high opinion of yourself you have there, Anderson."

He grinned and held his hands out. "I only repeat what I hear."

"So, someone told you that I'm beautiful?"

Making his way to the door, he paused, turning briefly to say, "I figured that one out on my own. Rest up and get better, Annie. Work's boring without you there."

"Be back as soon as I can," she replied.

"I'm counting on it," he said as he headed out of the room and down the hall.