A/N: Please don't tar-and-feather me! I know almost everybody that has remained on the CA fandom is pretty much strictly A&A, but I seriously LOVE Jai, too! He deserves more love. :*( This is set (hopefully obviously) right after Annie confronts Jai in the season finale, when Auggie is giving Annie his number. :)
I promise I'm working on Dreamer, too—I hope to have a chapter up sometime next week, after all the weekend homework dies down. :) Besides, my birthday's Sunday, and much as I love you… there is no way I'm posting on my birthday. Sorry, folks. :)
Disclaimer: I owneth not Covert Affairs.
He had blown it.
He knew it, and that was the worst part.
He watched her, as she stood close to Auggie, eyes firing, as they shared another secret. It seemed they were always sharing secrets.
He still couldn't believe that Arthur was sending Annie into the field, with Ben Mercer, of all people.
Jai wasn't exactly a saint, but he had enough sense to know that nothing about that scenario would end well. His blood fired through his veins, just thinking about Annie, so vulnerable.
He had always been the good guy, the loyal one, fiercely committed to his country, so when Arthur had instructed him to get close to Annie Walker, he had. No questions asked. He knew a lot more than most of them probably thought, but he would do anything to prove he was nothing like his father. The only things Henry Wilcox and Jai Wilcox shared in common were a surname and a handful of genes. Nothing else.
He had never intended to fall for Annie—after all, the whole agency knew what happened the last time he had been impulsive in his romantic life. He had been fresh off the Farm, and he'd fallen for an asset in Uzbekistan, of all places. When she'd died at the hand of a vicious bioterrorist, he'd vowed off impulsive relationships forever. They never ended well.
With Annie—with Annie it had been impossible not to notice her. She was gorgeous—no one would deny that—but her doe-like brown eyes and shady history left her just vulnerable enough. She was funny and sweet and smart… how was it possible not to fall for her? He had seen what Ben had done to her.
Ben was a pig.
But then again, so was he.
He couldn't believe he'd thought that the truth would never come out, that he might've had a chance at forever with her. He was a coward. An idiot.
She crossed the DPD bullpen and slipped into her desk, right across from his. Had Joan done this to torture him? Knowing it could never work out between them? Somehow, he knew it wasn't Joan that had done this to him, though. Maybe it was fate, instead. Fate had a way of coming back and biting him in the butt.
He tried to offer her a hopeful smile, but she didn't even look in his direction. Crap.
Reaching for his phone, he typed in a quick message, hitting the SEND button.
I'm sorry.
It took everything in him to turn his attention back to the report he was supposed to be typing up for Joan and Arthur. Something about a short mission he'd recently returned from. His heart was not in it.
A moment later, he felt the dull thud of a shoe hitting the bottom of his dress shoe, half a moment before his phone buzzed against his hip.
Maybe I'll forgive you. :)
A slow smile crept up his face as he risked a glance at her. Despite her sadness, her worry, the way he knew she was overwhelmed by everything that was happening today, she smiled, softly, with just a little bit of hope.
Maybe everything would be okay.
A/N: Review, please!