Summary: Auggie and Annie continue their conversation of the night before

Disclaimer: I do not own Covert Affiars, Auggie or Annie.

With Annie's arms still wrapped around his waist, Auggie turned back to making the pot of coffee. Once the coffee was in the filter basket and the coffee maker turned on, he turned his attention back to Annie. He inhaled deeply through his nose and slowly exhaled. "What's next?"

"I'm not sure," Annie whispered.

From the sound of her voice, Auggie could tell that she was looking up at him.

"After coffee I think I'd like something to eat," Annie remarked a heartbeat later; her tone playful.

Auggie stifled a grimace, but allowed his hands to slightly fist on the counter. "There's a neighborhood café just down the block. They make a mean omelet," he responded, while removing her arms from his waist. "My last girlfriend left a pair of jeans and a T-shirt in my closet. I think they might fit you. Unless of course you want to do the walk of shame," Auggie said with a wry smile; almost thankful that Annie was also ignoring the two ton elephant in the room. They would eventually have to discuss 'THIS', whatever 'THIS' was, but apparently not right now.

"I don't really want to do the walk of shame with you this morning, so I'm going to go see if I can find those jeans and the T-shirt you say are in your closet."

"They're on a hanger at the far left side. There's fresh towels in the basket on the first shelf of the armoire in the bath; might also be a bit of female shampoo and body wash in there, too." He heard bare feet padding back into the bedroom; then the rattle of hangars.

Half-an-hour later, after both had taken showers and dressed and downed at least one cup of coffee each, Auggie was offering Annie his elbow as they stepped out onto the sidewalk. A few minutes later they were settled in a booth of the café.

"Mornin' darlin'," the waitress mumbled as she brushed a mug of coffee against the back of Auggie's right hand.

"Mornin', yourself, Stella," Auggie responded good-naturedly. "I'll have my Saturday morning special. I think my friend would like to see a menu."

"No, I think I'll just have a ham and cheese omelet and dry wheat toast. And coffee."

"Okay, Hun. Be right back with your coffee." Stella padded off into the distance.

"So, you're such a regular here that they know what you want when you get here?" Annie asked with astonishment obvious in her tone.

"Yeah," Auggie remarked with equal measures of pride and embarrassment. "I've been coming here on weekends for a long time. Food's good, reasonably priced, the people here are friendly, and it's convenient." Auggie took a sip of his coffee and sighed with pleasure; his coffee was okay, but here it was just about perfect.

Clinks of porcelain on wood and Annie's mumbled "Thanks," told Auggie that Stella had been back with Annie's coffee and the cream pitcher. A few more clinks and the clang of metal on porcelain told him that Annie'd creamed and probably sugared her coffee. "What were you like before?"

"Huh? Before what? You'll have to be a little more specific," Auggie responded at a total loss to what Annie was referring.

"You don't remember our conversation at Allen's last night? Your monologue after I'd gotten enough liquid courage to tactlessly ask you about your blindness."

"Oh, that one."

"Yeah, that one. What were you like before your sight was taken from you?"

Auggie shook his head and quietly laughed to himself. "Leave it to you, Annie Walker, to cut straight to the heart of the matter. How much of my file have you read?"

"None of it. I got 'dinged' when I tried. I don't have high enough clearance to see your file."

"Ah, then I guess that I need to start at the beginning. I was the fifth, and last, child of Alfred and Abigail Anderson. Mom said that I was the easiest birth she'd had since I was the tiniest baby she'd delivered. She said that if I hadn't had the Anderson eyes, she might have thought they'd given her the wrong baby. I have four older brothers: Adam, Anthony, Alan, and Austin. See a pattern there?" A broad smile washed over his face.

He heard the clatter of dishes on the table and Stella's whispered, "Everything's just the way you like it, and arranged as usual."

Auggie inhaled deeply, savoring the aroma of applewood bacon, mushroom omelet, and sourdough toast. Before he could thank Stella she was gone.

"Looks and smells wonderful," Annie commented.

Auggie picked up his fork and dug in to his meal. He heard sounds of satisfaction from across the table.

Once his hunger was somewhat satisfied, August Anderson continued with his story. "I was always taller than my brothers at the same age, but way thinner. I was unceremoniously picked on by Adam from day one, or so I'm told. Mom said that I never really walked, but ran. Childhood was a mix of torment, sibling fights and parental love. Even though I never realized it at the time, I was smart; always got good grades. . I could always come up with a diabolical way to get back at my brothers. I liked to take electronic and mechanical things apart to see how they worked. Didn't always get them back together right in my earlier years, but got better at that as I aged. In high school I was a nerd, a geek if you will. The brothers all were football players. I ran track. They did okay, but I excelled, both at running fast and in academics. Glencoe was, is, an affluent suburb of Chicago so we never really wanted for the basics and received many of the luxuries in life. Us kids all got a generous allowance, which we supplemented with odd jobs in the community. I had a part-time job at a Radio Shack and used my employee discount to buy electronics and computer stuff.

"Even though I didn't really need it, I got a free-ride to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Can you guess what I studied?"

"Not really, but I would imagine maybe electrical engineering or computer science," Annie responded.

"Very good guess. I received my BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. For the heck of it, and to piss dad off a bit, I took ROTC and went active duty once I graduated. Wound up in Fort Bragg, North Carolina and joined Special Forces. From there on, most of my life is classified. I will tell you that I was on a covert mission when this," he waved his right hand in front of his face, "happened. I do not know if the mission continued afterwards or if it was a success."

"Why did you want to piss your father off?"

"He was Air Force. Didn't have much use for ground troops," Auggie replied and chuckled softly.

"How did your brothers turn out?"

"Adam's an Oncologist; he went to Northwestern, too. Tony and Austin are lawyers. Tony is an assistant prosecutor, and Austin practices tax law. He works for a Fortune 500 company. Alan; he's sort of the black sheep of the family. He joined the Marines right out of high school. He's career military."

"Why is career military considered a black sheep?"

"Well, Alan wasn't exactly the brightest of the Anderson boys and didn't go on to college, and he's an odd combination of ground and sea troop. Dad was disappointed with his career choice. We didn't know it at the time, but we were in Iraq at the same time on my last deployment there."

"When was the last time you were 'home'?"

"Just after I was released from rehab; it was a complete disaster. I couldn't get out of there soon enough; and I've not been back to Illinois since. One by one, they've come to visit me here, and behaved themselves, but everyone together at one time is more than I can handle – I don't want or need their pity or babying. I've adjusted to being blind, but they haven't."

"Ever think that you didn't stick around long enough for them to adjust you?"

"You're not the only one that's brought that up, but…" he paused and swallowed a sip of his coffee.

"But what?" Annie touched his left forearm gently, reassuringly.

"This is going to sound … silly … and out of character, but they scare and overwhelm me when they're all together."

"Enough about me," he said after a brief pause. "We have something else to talk about."

"We do? What?" Annie asked in surprise.

"Yes, we do. About last night?"

"What about last night. I had a good time. Didn't you?" Annie's voice was even and unemotional.

"A good time? Is that all it was?" Damn, Auggie thought. That was the last thing that he'd wanted. He'd totally screwed up in his lust.

"Can we say that last evening satisfied something for both of us?" Annie said in almost a whisper.

Auggie sighed softly. "I wasn't so drunk that I didn't realize what I was doing. To be honest, you sort of surprised me when you acquiesced to my less than subtle kiss. I expected you to pull away, if not give me a hard slap."

"I wasn't drunk either. I knew when you asked me to escort you to your door what you were up to; I didn't think you were all that drunk to need assistance. I've seen you leave Allen's much more inebriated; when we figuratively had to pour you into the cab. I went with you willingly; with my eyes wide open to where, and what you were leading me into. I was ready to jump back into the game again, and I wanted it to be with you. I was prepared to do my own sort of 'come hither to me' action if you hadn't made a move."

"What were you prepared to do?" Auggie asked in complete astonishment.

Annie leaned over the table and whispered, "I was going to place one of your hands on my ass, and the other under my shirt and on my breast. I knew my usual come hither look would have been wasted on you."

"You, Annie Walker, are full of surprises. But this discussion has not answered my question. Where DO we go from here?"

"Back to your apartment," Annie answered playfully, with a bit of a questioning inflection.

"ANNIE!"

"Yes, Auggie."

"This is NOT the kind of dance that I want to do with you this morning." Auggie was exasperated and he hoped that Annie realized it.

"Why does last night have to change our status? As far as I'm concerned, we're still best buddies who just satisfied a mutual hunger last night. It WAS more than a one-night-stand though. This could develop into something more, but I'm not ready for a committed relationship with anyone at this moment. But if it is to happen, I would like nothing more than for it to happen with you. Does that answer your question?"