This is one of my new favorite works. I'll admit, Annie's a little OOC, but other than that, it's pretty good! I liked writing it, and I hope you like reading too!
Enjoy!
Auggie was sitting in his office when his ears pricked at the sound. He turned down his speakers and cocked his head slightly to the left to hear better. The sound was peculiar but similar to something he knew he'd heard before. A split second later, Auggie placed it, but he was only more baffled.
It was the familiar sound of fast-paced footsteps. But something was missing with the sound. It wasn't a click-clack sound of stilettos. It wasn't getting any closer. In fact, it sounded more like a flat, shuffling sound, and the sound was headed toward the bullpen.
Curious, Auggie got up and walked toward the bullpen. He followed the sound of the footsteps even farther right before he noticed a slight humming sound. It was like the person in front of him was singing softly. It was a sad, slow sounding tune.
When he was walking, Auggie hadn't realized that he'd walked straight through the bullpen and right to Annie's desk. When he finally did notice, it was little bit too late.
"Auggie? What are you doing?" she asked, surprised since she hadn't heard him.
"Annie? What happened?" he asked, just as surprised.
"What are you talking about Auggie? I didn't get your coffee and suddenly you can come and attack me for it?" Annie snapped.
Auggie winced slightly at Annie's bitterness. "No that's not what I meant. I was just surprised. I-I mean- well...it's just that-," but Annie cut him off.
"If you wanted me to swing by, you could've just said so, you know. It's not my fault that you're being an overly-sensitive SOB," Annie said angrily.
Auggie, getting quickly fed up by Annie's attitude, pulled her quickly into his office, shut the door and closed the blinds.
Auggie took her by the hands and plopped her down in his chair.
"Okay Walker. What is wrong with you?" he asked. Auggie knew he was being aggressive, almost like an interrogator, but he didn't really care at this point.
Annie was so quiet. "Let me go Anderson," she said with an ever present stab of ice in her voice.
"Annie! What the hell is wrong with you? You're being a pain. You won't smile, you won't tell me what's wrong, and you look like you're about kill someone,"
Auggie said angrily. His voice was rising, and his grip was tightening ever so slightly on her hands. But apparently it wasn't strong enough, because what happened next shocked both Auggie and Annie herself.
Annie twisted her hand out of Auggie's grasp quickly and slapped him across the face. HARD. So hard, in fact, she left a red imprint of her hand on his face.
"Ow! What the hell was that?" he asked, now yelling.
"I told you to let go of me, Auggie! Now let me get my work done so I can go home," Annie exclaimed, also yelling.
"Not until you tell me what's wrong and stop hitting me! What did I do wrong?
Why are you mad at me?"
His question was only met by silence for about a minute.
Then all he felt in his hands was shaking. Auggie slowly moved his hands up her arms and up to Annie's shoulders. He had found the base of the shaking.
"Annie? Annie? What happened?" he said, suddenly comforting his operative.
Annie was beginning to cry so hard that she couldn't answer him. She just sat on the swiveling chair, sobbing her eyes out.
Auggie didn't say anything. He just pulled her up slowly from the chair and brought her in close. He felt her clutching his shirt and her tears soaking through the material. "Shh shh shh. It's okay, Annie. It's okay."
Annie sobbed for about ten minutes. When she finally stopped, she noticed she was sitting in Auggie's lap in his chair. She sniffled a good many times before she was breathing normally again. Taking a deep breath and remembering what she'd done, Annie looked up to her best friend and whispered so meekly that it was barely audible, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. But I want to know what happened to you. Why did you yell, and ignore me, and slap me across the face?" Auggie asked, a grin in his voice.
"I'm sorry about that. Really, Aug, I am. It was just me letting it out," the blond operative said.
"I understand, Walker. Believe it or not, we've all lost our cool at some time," he admitted.
"Oh yeah. When was that? You're cool with everything 99% of the time," Annie contradicted, half skeptical, half, sarcastic.
Auggie took a deep breath, as if to steady himself, before he started talking.
"Do you remember me telling you how I started back at the Agency almost immediately after rehab? I remember right after my accident, I was so freaking confused. More than I was when I started. And I was back here, so it wasn't any better. I had to adjust, and I did get annoyed. I took a few swings and shouts at my friends, my family, all the people who tried to help me," he confessed.
"But my question is: What happened to you to make you snap?"
Annie lowered her head and grasped Auggie's hands in hers. "Ben was waiting for me last night. Outside my sister's house, after I left the Tavern."
"What? He showed up at your house? What happened? Why didn't you call me? I could've kicked that Baltimore Colt's ass for what he's done to you," Auggie said, getting angry all over again.
"Auggie! It was time I really confronted him. I had to come clean with Ben,"
Annie explained.
"No. Annie, you should have called me. I could've helped you. Even if I didn't paralyze him, he deserved to know there was someone who cares about you more than he apparently did in Sri Lanka," Auggie told his best friend.
"I know Aug. But I wanted to deal with it myself. He asked me to run away with him. He wanted to go back to Sri Lanka and finish what we started. Trust me
Auggie, I rejected him- no I shot him down. I knew what was best for me this time. My guard wasn't down, and after he left, he'd told me to remember the fun we'd had. And that he'd-," but Annie stopped abruptly.
"He'd what?" Auggie asked again.
"He was gonna come back for me. He asked me to think about it."
"And are you going to?"
Annie shot him a look. "Eye roll. Dirty look."
"Good… But what's with the flats and the slow, depressed humming? And you're not wearing perfume, either."
"I just didn't feel up to it. I barely got any sleep last night. I just wasn't thinking about it."
"And the humming? Sounded a little slow, and it wasn't Mingus. What song was it?"
"Almost Lover by A Fine Frenzy. My sister's favorite. Reminded me of what happened with Ben. Felt right to sing it. It made me feel better."
"Annie, I'm so sorry about what happened to you. But if he comes back again, you need to call me. Understood?" the tech asked, firmly.
Annie nodded. "Yeah Auggie. I understand…Thank you for that."
"No prob." He kissed her forehead gently.
A few minutes passed until Annie said, "You might wanna get ice for that. I know you were Special Forces, but that's gonna hurt like hell in the morning, trust me," Annie giggled slightly.
"Yeah, it's been about twenty minutes and it's still feeling like you just slapped me," Auggie admitted, slightly in pain.
The tech opened the blinds only to hear his friend double over laughing. "You're kidding me right?" she asked through her laughs.
"Annie? What do you see?" he asked, confused.
"Um. Jai, Stu, and three of your tech minions had their ears pressed to the glass!" she laughed.
"What?"
"Yeah. Now I know why you're on the edge of killing your tech dudes half the time!"
"Yeah, well after I make sure your slap doesn't turn into a bruise, Jai's up first," Auggie growled.
She laughed, looped her arm through Auggie's, and walked through the DPD to find some ice.
So did you like it? It was kinda angsty, but oh well. The muse took its own course, while I was on vaca (again).
PLEASE REVIEW!