My first Covert Affairs story! Okay my first Covert Affairs story that I am allowing to see the light of day. Anyway. I started watching this show and Joan quickly became my favorite character and Joan/Arthur my favorite couple. So this is just a little story that follows the season finale and focus on them. The title comes from the show's tradition of naming episodes after Led Zeppelin Songs.

Disclaimer: I do not own Covert Affairs

Spoilers: When the Levee Breaks, Fool in the Rain, Pilot

"Joan," Arthur said as she walked into his office.

"Yes," Joan replied as she took a seat in front of his desk.

"We need to talk," he told her, leaning back in his chair.

"That sounds ominous," she told him with a smile.

Arthur shook his head. "Joan," he started.

"I am not going to rethink taking your job," she interrupted him, "So you can save your breath." Arthur closed his mouth. "Thought so," Joan commented.

"I just…" he started again, "This is going to involve me one way or another. I don't have a choice, but you do."

"Yes," she replied firmly, "And I made my choice. Twenty-five years ago I made the choice that anything that involve you involve me too. Why are we still discussing this?"

"What if this goes wrong?" he asked her.

"Then we both lose our jobs," she told him without hesitation, "So be it."

"I'm never going to talk you out of this am I?" Arthur asked her torn between annoyance and pride.

"Arthur," she replied walking around his desk and perching on it the way she usually did when they were talking, "I am not letting you go down without fighting right alongside you to prevent it. What kind of wife would I be if I just sat back and watched?

"A wife with a sense of self-preservation," he muttered to himself, but she heard him.

"We work for the CIA," Joan reminded him, "If either one of us had a sense of self-preservation we would have quit years ago."

"Touché," he replied with a smile. There was a pause in which neither of them spoke.

"Why do you want me not to do this?" she asked him as he met her steady gaze.

"I just don't want you to get hurt," he answered honestly, "What kind of husband would I be if I let that happened?"

Joan was touched by his concern and a soft smile played across her lips as she told him. "An intelligent husband," she half-joked, "Who knows that telling his wife to hang back and play it safe is a fools errand."

Arthur smiled and held his hands up. "Alright," he told her. "I will stop trying to keep you out of this."

"Good," she told him.

"I just think you should really think before you risk your career," he told her.

"And he yet he doesn't quit," she commented. "Look at me Arthur," Joan told him, "I care about the job, and I care about the agency. You know that. But none of that is more important to you and our marriage. No matter what I may have said or done in the past six months that indicates otherwise, you are the most important thing to me. End of story."

Arthur had no words to say to that. Instead he stood up and pulled his wife into his arms. Joan reacted instantly by wrapping her arms around his neck. She took comfort from the familiarity of his touch.

Their relationship over the last six months had been less than wonderful. They were both to blame for it. She had accused him of cheating and thrown him out of their bedroom. He had continued to drift away and alienate her. However none of that mattered anymore.

She had forgiven him and was pretty sure that he had forgiven her. They were back on the same side again because she was not lying when she had told him he was more important to her than anything else in the world. That had been true for the twenty-five years she had know him, and that would be true the day she died.

"What did I do to deserve a wife like you?" he asked her quietly.

"I don't know," she returned hiding a smirk, "You must have really annoyed someone."

"That is not what I meant," he told her, "And you know it."

"Maybe," she replied almost playfully as she looked up at him. Arthur did not bother with words. He just kissed her. It was short but sweet and when they broke apart, she rewarded him with a radiant smile.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and the two of them broke apart. Joan grimaced. "Who is it?" Arthur called.

"Auggie," the person on the other side of the door called.

"Come in," Arthur told him, "But it better be pretty damn important." Joan had turned to face the door, but made no move to move away from her husband who had an arm around her waist.

The door opened and Auggie entered the office. "Arthur," he greeted him with a false warmth.

"Auggie," Arthur told him sharply, "What did you come here to tell me?"

"I talked to Liza today," Auggie replied calmly.

"Do we have to have this conversation now?" Arthur asked having a decent idea where this conversation was going and really did not want it to go there with Joan listening.

"Yes," Auggie said after a moment of consideration, "I think we do. You played me. I gave Liza the false lead, I lied to Joan when she asked me about it, and I got Liza to hold off that article for 72 hours because you told me it affected missions on the ground. You owe me one."

Arthur did not respond to Auggie. Instead he turned his head sideways to look at Joan, who had folded her arms across her chest and was looking at him.

"And what exactly did you lie to me about?" Joan asked Auggie without taking her eyes off her husband.

"Oh," Auggie replied, "Hello, Joan. I didn't know you were there."

"Obviously," Joan replied her tone no longer light.

"I told him to do it," Arthur admitted, "He was in a relationship with Liza Heran so I told him to give her a false lead. Only seventeen people in the world know it is fake, so if she came back to Auggie immediately we would know that out leak was one of those seventeen."

"And did she?" Joan asked looking at Auggie this time.

"Yes," he replied.

"And you saw the need to keep this from me?" Joan asked her husband calmly. She was still trying to decide whether she was mad at him or not.

"If it blows up," Arthur told her, "It will take anyone involved down with it. I didn't want you on that list." There was a long silence.

"I'm going to leave now," Auggie muttered making his way to the door. When neither of the other two said anything to stop him, he stepped out and closed the door.

"I was trying to protect you," Arthur told her honestly.

"I don't need to be protected," she insisted looking at her husband.

"Maybe you don't," he agreed meeting her gaze, "But I am always going to protect you."

Joan shook her head. She was finding it difficult to be very mad at him right now, and so she let it go. "What did I ever do to deserve a husband like you?" she asked taking a step closer.

"I don't know," he told her, "But you must have really annoyed someone." Joan just smiled at that.

Did you like it? Please tell me. I would love to know what you thought because I think it came out pretty nice.