Author's note: This was a request from neshama, she wanted a fic surrounding that moment during Jai's service when Annie holds Auggie's hand. I have no idea if that was direction or these two incredibly charismatic actors, but it was a lovely little glimpse of them. Hope you enjoy neshama!
"You ready to head down?" Auggie asked quietly as he approached Annie's desk.
After everything that happened in Amsterdam, hell after the whole year, here was this man still by her side.
"If you're nodding you know I can't see you right?" he grinned a subdued version of her favorite expression.
"Just trying to get myself together. This could just as easily be a ceremony for me. Danielle getting a flag and a star," her voice was so quiet but Auggie heard every tremble of fear.
"Come here," Auggie tugged her to his side, his own mind on overdrive since they sat safely on the plane home.
She was right, it could have been her, killed in the same explosion that took Jai or shot on her kitchen floor. How many chances were they going to get to get things right between them? Auggie's breath actually caught in his throat.
Annie ran her hand up and down his back switching from "soothee" to "soother".
Auggie heard the distinct sound of Joan's door opening and 2 sets of footsteps indicating Joan and Arthur were on their way down. He turned his cheek against the crown of Annie's head and squeezed her once more before releasing her. She took a deep breath, and slid the hand that had been rubbing his back over his shoulder, up his neck and placed it warm and beating with life against his cheek.
"Let's do this," she whispered with a jagged voice, using the same hand to guide his hand to her arm.
They walked at a pace much slower than normal and while Annie hardly ever noticed Auggie's hand on her arm, today it was holding her together. It grounded her and kept her strong. If she allowed herself to go to the place she was a year ago, hopelessly in love with Auggie, that hand at her arm had always grounded her, had always tied her to him and vice versa.
She found them a couple of seats and didn't even flinch when Auggie kept his hand firmly on her arm, she needed it, needed him there, her thigh pressed against his on the tiny wooden chairs.
Arthur spoke and Annie heard the words, but mostly she saw the fireball that enveloped Jai and felt the bullets that hit her torso just months before. She could smell the burning metal of the car and the antiseptic of her hospital room. She felt her breath hitch; she didn't want to cry here, in front of all these people.
Auggie felt her body go tense and he slid his hand from her arm through the loop of her elbow and she reached up to squeeze it.
She was always amazed how this man who cannot see, can see her so clearly. He jokes about a fifth/sixth sense with her, but it is there. He knows when she is near and when she is in trouble and when she needs a hand to hold. Or he did until this year kind of fell apart.
Auggie spent the service berating himself internally for not being a better friend this year, so wrapped up in the Parker drama, which for all intents and purposes was borne out of a need to not be in love with Annie, when he really should have just fessed up his feelings for Annie over a year ago. When she slides her soft hand against his rough one he knows, even if she balks, even if she orders him out of her house, he is going to her tonight and they are talking this through. Too many close calls this year, too many chances.
The End