Notes: So Auggie has been taken, we will obviously see what happens to him over the next few weeks, but here is something I would like to see as an end to Season 5 and beginning of Season 6….we're getting a Season 6, right?
Those of you used to my happy Walkerson fics may not recognize this, but I am currently completely unconvinced Walkerson is fixable….
***555***
"Auggie?" Millie asked tentatively.
"Yep," he answered curtly and continued typing a mile a minute.
"DCS is looking for you," she said and scurried off before he had a chance to snap at her.
Auggie sighed, finished up his sentence and shut down his workstation. He took his cane and headed up to the 7th floor.
"He asked for me," Auggie announced himself hoping Calder's assistant was outside the office.
"Go right in," the young man instructed.
"Auggie," Calder stood when Auggie entered the room.
"Calder. Joan," Auggie turned toward the scent of Joan's perfume.
"Still don't enjoy that trick," Joan smiled and Auggie shrugged.
"We called you in to tell you you will be receiving the Intelligence Medal of Merit, congratulations."
"All I did was get kidnapped, you should ship that over to McQuaid. On second thought, he has enough money, I'll take it," Auggie frowned.
"You went through hell, you didn't break and you collected enough intel to lead Annie and McQuaid to Belenko's front door, gift wrapped him. Take the award, take the money and be proud of your service," Calder said kindly.
"OK, but I want something else too," Auggie began.
"Name it," Calder sat.
"An exit package."
"Auggie," Joan sighed.
"I'm done Joan, I have served my country faithfully and well at great personal cost and I am done."
"Maybe you just need some time," Joan began not willing to lose Auggie without a fight.
"I've had time, I had this same conversation with you 7 years ago. Yes, I have survived again, but when do I stop surviving and start living. I am on the short slope to 40 Joan, I need to have a life."
"There are plenty of positions here that would allow you a life," Calder began.
"I don't want any of those jobs," Auggie shook his head. "I want out."
***555***
3 Months Later
Annie looked at the phone and saw Arthur's name on the display.
"Hey, what's up?" she asked as she continued to type.
"Can you swing by my office before you leave?"
"Sure, be there in a few," Annie hung up and finished her debrief document.
Arthur requesting her presence was not unusual both Annie and Arthur had risen in the ranks at McQuaid in the aftermath of the Belenko mission.
Annie knocked and Arthur called her in and asked her to shut the door.
"Annie, I know you and Joan aren't really on speaking terms right now and I am not getting in the middle of that, but she asked me to ask if you had talked to Auggie lately."
"No, I haven't seen him since after you know, got swept up in the next mission and then I felt kind of bad about not reaching out. I figured he would call when he wanted to talk…wait, why doesn't Joan know how Auggie is?" Annie realized suddenly.
"Auggie left the agency Annie, 3 months ago. He didn't tell you," the last statement was not a question as Arthur realized his two former operatives were more broken than he thought.
"What?" Annie looked up shocked.
"He took an exit package, right after the Belenko mission."
"And no one has heard from him? Is he OK?" Annie's mind raced back to what Auggie had been through before they found him.
"Well, apparently no one knows," Arthur sighed, his own guilt over Auggie evident as well.
"I'll reach out, swing by there on my way home, see what's up. Let Joan know I will check on him," Annie offered knowing Joan could not from her position in the agency.
"Thanks Annie," Arthur smiled.
***555***
Annie pulled up outside Auggie's building and found a parking spot. She took her time entering the building, a flood of memories of times past walking these halls. She took the stairs two at a time and built up her courage as she approached the metal door to unit B7.
She knocked and waited several minutes and hearing nothing took out her lock pick and went to work. She had the door open easily and gasped as she slid it back.
Annie instantly knew this was no longer Auggie's loft. His sleek modern aesthetic that was as much his design perspective as it was the necessity of his blind life was gone and replaced with a very kitschy busy collection of girlie things that looked like a college grad met a hoarder and moved into Auggie's apartment. She slid the door closed quietly and went to the kitchen island.
Sure enough a pile of mail indicated the new resident was named Kendal Harrison and she had a subscription to Shape, a cable bill and catalogs for various clothing retailers. Annie sighed.
She got out of the apartment without being spotted and made her way back to the lobby.
"Annie?" the landlady who had directed Annie to Auggie in his Corvette years before was updating the bulletin board in the lobby, posting information on recycling pick-ups.
"Mrs. Watson," Annie smiled.
"What brings you back here? Didn't think I would see you after Auggie moved out," the older lady smiled.
"When exactly was that?" Annie asked.
"Oh, close to 3 months ago now, you didn't know?"
"No, we hadn't, I've been busy," Annie shrugged lamely.
"I was sad to see him go, he was such a nice boy."
"Did he tell you where he was going?"
"No, he paid out the termination clause on his lease, thanked me and was gone in a matter of days."
"Did he give you a forwarding address for mail or anything?"
"He did. I shouldn't really share that…."
"It is really important," Annie smiled her sweetest smile.
"Well, I know how important you were to him," the woman smiled back.
She returned a minute later with a printed email from Auggie, Annie read it looking for any clues and her heart dropped when she saw the forwarding address was a dead drop address she knew was a dead end.
TBC…