Covert Affairs: Sisters

Friendship: Joan - Annie

Disclaimer: Don't own it at all, but the story stuck itself in my brain and I just had to write it. It begins in the season finale where Joan comes and sees Annie.

'How dare they?!' Annie thought as she slung her suitcase onto her bed in pure frustration.

Her blonde tresses were down around her shoulders, and her hazel eyes held a storm that was yet to be released. This storm had been brought to a boiling point ever since Joan and Arthur refused to let her go to Russia and seek her revenge against Lena. Rolling her sleeves up, Annie began to grab several outfits, at least a couple of weeks worth, and then she went to her safe; It was where she stashed several items such as her Russian passport and several thousands of dollars of Russian currency. As she closed her safe a knock on her door disturbed her thoughts and her brow crinkled in confusion as to who would be visiting her this late at night. What was further shocking as she returned to her bedroom from answering the caller, was that it was Joan Campbell herself.

"What I realized as I drove over," Joan began, sitting on the bed, her eagles eyes on Annie, "Was that you were not asking to go to Russia, you were telling us that you were going."

Stopping and looking at the older woman, Annie answered her, "I guess I was."

"Annie I know what it is like to loose some one in this line of work." Joan began, but Annie had already went back to packing, "All I ask is that you give me five minutes of your time please."

Annie paused, never hearing Joan using the word before, and it sounded foreign coming from the older woman. She took in Joan's form, and she looked tired and defeated. Those were two words that Annie would never associate with Joan Campbell, but they were the two that came to her mind right then.

"What do you want?" Annie asked, "Are you going to ask me to not go?"

"I could." Joan said, picking at an invisible speck of dirt on her jeans, "But I know that it would be futile on my part."

"So what do you have to say?" Annie asked, her temper flaring slightly.

"I want you to give me a week." Joan asked, standing and crossing the room to stand before the girl that she was closer to then most, "Please, I know that it seems harsh to make you wait a week, but Annie I will support you going if you give me a week."

"What?" Annie asked, confusion in her eyes; It was slowly replacing the pulsing storm that was there moments before.

"Annie." Joan said, her hands going to Annie's arms and holding her firmly, "You are a star operative, but you have been shot, you are still recuperating, and to be honest the other reasons I have are completely selfish."

"I can be replaced." Annie answered, her voice void of any emotion, "Isn't that the motto?"

"No you can't." Joan implored the younger girl, her hands going to cup Annie's face, "If you were to go off half cocked and we lost you, then I promise you that myself and Auggie would not be at the Agency."

Annie's brow furrowed even further, the confusion just radiating off of her in waves. Why was Joan telling her this, she had never expressed interest in Annie before except for doing her job or when she fucked up. Annie looked up at Joan's eyes and saw nothing but pure fear, fear for what Annie could presume was for herself and what she was planning to do.

"Why do you care?" Annie whispered, her own hands going to Joan's that were still on her face.

"You are like the little sister that I never had." Joan choked out, tears welling up, but she refused to let them fall, "I see so much of myself in you and I am scared for you."

It was too much. Annie could not hold back the tears that she had held back for so long. She screamed in frustration, anger, and grief as she collapsed, Joan holding onto her as she eased her down on the floor. Joan's arms went around Annie and held her firmly even when Annie used her fists to try and gain her freedom. She knew that this was coming, that everything had a peak and Annie had finally reached hers, and she thanked whatever god was out there that it was before she hopped onto a plane. Joan's own tears mingled with Annie's; She was crying for the girl in her arms, crying for the pain and fear and frustration that Annie had been going through and that only herself and Auggie had been privy to seeing. Joan wanted to bring Lena in and let Annie shoot her point blank, but that could only happen if Lena were to be extradited back to the US, and as she reached for her cell phone in her back pocket, she already had a plan forming in her head. After all, her and Annie both had some vacation time saved up, at least a month's worth. Hitting speed dial eight on her phone she waited until he picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Auggie answered groggily, "Joan you there?"

"Auggie are you still awake?" Joan asked, running her fingers through Annie's hair, trying to calm her, "I need a favor."

"Is Annie all right?" he asked, sleep gone from his voice.

"I am going to bring her to your place, and I want you to take care of her Auggie." Joan answered him as she helped the whimpering girl up and grab her suitcase, minus the Russian paraphernalia.

"Bring her home Joan." Auggie answered softly, "Get her home."

"Be there in five." Joan replied hanging up and settling Annie in the passenger seat of her BMW, "Hang on Annie I am getting you to him."

Auggie was sliding his door open as Joan was coming up the steps with Annie and her suitcase. His unseeing eyes trained on the sound and with a warning from Joan he braced himself as Annie flung herself at him, his arm automatically going around her to hold her firmly.

"I got you sweetheart, I got you and I am never letting go." he whispered as Joan set the suitcase inside the door.

"Auggie I am going to go, both you don't leave this apartment for a few days." Joan said, authority ringing in her voice.

It would be precisely a week later that Joan Campbell and Annie Walker deplaned in Russia together, two sisters on a mission, a mission to take out a spy that had caused so much pain and destruction. Later, after Lena was dead and both women were freed from the death trap that was a Russian prison, they would de plane in DC, where two men were anxiously awaiting their arrival.