She gave her self one week. 7 days. 168 hours. 10,080 minutes. She tried to rest and regroup. Most of her resting was spent in a not so comfortable hospital chair. Her regrouping was consumed by worrying about Ryan, so all round it was a fail.
Wednesday, one week after, she slept in her apartment for the first time. She drank coffee, and as she checked the mail, she regrouped. It was 8.30 am.
Ms. Morten,
Rent is one week late. Please pay the rent and the corresponding $50 late fee, or else I may have to ask you to move. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions (656) 458-2398
Thank you,
Julia Smith.
She knew this was the sign telling her that her time here was up, so she threw the letter on the table, and set her brain on auto mode. The only 4 outfits she actually owned she threw in the large black duffel bag she had had since the night she became Jessica Mathews, shoes on the right, clothes on the left, like always. The small box of memorabila she had recently obtained from a CIA evidence box that contained family pictures from when she was a child, pictures of her nieces, her and Ben, her and Simon, and the bracelet Ben had gave her, that she somehow managed to keep up with over the last 5 years, went in the far right corner of the bag next to black combat boots.
She had one small carry on suitcase that her toliteres went in. A zipper on the front that her laptop slide perfectly into. She gathered her only few other belongs: A coffee mug, some earbuds, and some workout gloves.
She grabbed 3 of her nitrate medications from her nightstand and threw them in the inside pocket of her purse. Her gun went in the waistband of her pants and her extra ammo in the side pocket of her purse. Her right hand snagged the leather jacket off of the coat rack and she hastily put it on stuffing her nitrate medication in the pocket, and leaving the apartments keys on the bar.
Packing was always the easiest part of leaving. It was 8:46 am.
She didn't know where to go. She thought about visiting Ryan in the hospital, but he was probably still asleep; he had only briefly woken up for minutes at a time, but so far the doctors were confident he would make a good recovery.
She jotted a goodbye note for Ryan explaining she just needed to be out of DC. She went by his place to borrow some cash, so she could get out of town, hoping he wouldnt care to much.
Arthur met her at a fountain in a park twenty minutes later. She updated him vaugley of her plan. She saw his forehead crease with worry. Then it softened and he reached in to hug her.
He pulled back and took her arms in his hands, "Be careful, and you have to update me. If I go more than 72 hours without an update then I'm going to worry, and look into it."
She nodded in agreement, and walked away as Arthur called, "Walker," She turned around looking at him expectantly, "You have to come back home, I actually have a suprise waiting for you when you get back."
She smiled and said, "I'll be back," it may just not be alive.
As she walked through the crowd toward her vechile she didn't see Arthur behind her, pulling out his phone; already calling in a favor to help back her up. Suprisingly Eyal Lavins number was quite simple to find.
"Good morning sleepy head," The young blonde woman stretched her naked body over his, reaching for her clothes as she had twice this week, "Just let me know if I can help you out again."
"umm..hmm," He murmured reaching up and tracing her bare stomach as she found her bra, "Work starts in about an hour, so I have to get ready, but I'll be sure to call after if I'm feeling stressed."
The woman he had met at that preppy bar gathered her things and left him to get ready quickly, as work actually began in about thirty minutes.
Auggies mind got off track as he wandered if Annie was by Ryans bedside, or if she'd given up on him too and ran away again.
No matter how many women he was with he couldn't get her out of his mind. He was through with her on the outside, not even really friends with her anymore, but on the inside he longed to have his charismatic, and humorous Annie back.
Damn.. he needed to called the car service. Today was going to be a bad day, he could already tell.
"Hey honey," Arthur said three days later as he sat with Joan on the couch. The past few weeks had been hard compared to earlier months, but it still wasn't the worst she had been through, and the past few days had been like a blessing for Joan. She could see Arthur was still stressed. She figured it was probably just getting things back on track with McQuaid Security since he was pretty much the boss around there for now.
"We need to talk," He decided to start since Mack wasnt in the room at the moment..
"What is it?" Joan put the magazine down and was serious in a nanosecond she knew something had to be wrong, "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing," He jumped in quickly, "I just can't keep anything from you. After the past few blissful months I would hate for something like this to come between us, ecspecially since its made a barrier before."
Joans pursed her lips, "So many things are running through my head right now. Please just spit it out already."
"Annie's reporting to me. Not like I'm her handler. I'm just a resource if needed and I want her to know that someones there if she needs to talk. I don't want her out there alone. I called Eyal to; hes going to be with her. I just had to let you know," There he had it out.
"I'm not really very supportive of her actions as of late, but thank you for being there for her she needs that."
"You really care about her don't you?"
"Yeah," She sighed a deep breath she had been holding, "I used to try to be her mentor. But she bypassed me in experience when she 'died'. I'm not saying shes better because she definately wounded, but I have no idea how to give her direction anymore. Its not like she wants to be told what to do."
"Shes her own person its just how she is. She cares about you to, though. She actually asked how you were when I talked to her yesterday. I could be wrong, but I think all of this inablity to take orders comes from her childhood."
"hmm," Joan stretched her legs down the couch over Arthur and grabbed her magazine, "How so?"
"You know her father was a solider and she didn't have the best childhood either. She grew up as a solider, soliders are taught to follow orders. I think when she grew up she slowly came out of her solider lifestyle and into this person that was free, " He shrugged, "Maybe not. I have not really put to much thought behind it, its just a theory."
"It makes sense," Joan assured him, "It really does. I've never quite thought about it that way. Lots of young kids that are abused are never the same they thrash back."
Arthur nodded at the same time the baby monitor went off.
"I'll get it," Arthur stood up and was on the way out the door when Joan called after him.
"I love you!"
"I love you to, honey," He smiled life was good even with Annie in it.