~Authors note~

So this is officially my first fic. I got this idea on a long bus ride home and wrote most of it in the postie-note app on my iPhone. Its a follow up to the wildly amusing exchange they had in episode 2x09 told through Danielle's third person POV and then switches to Auggie's a third of the way through and then back to Danielle again. Enjoy!

Protecting Our Nations Art

Danielle stood in Annie's previously occupied guest house, looking around the empty shell of a room that her sister left behind. She wondered if she did the right thing. She replayed Annie's confession over in her mind;

"I'm a covert officer for the Central intelligence Agency"

The scene replayed vividly, the contents of which, still stung even after two days. Looking back the expression on her face and the hesitation in her voice made it all the more worse in Danielle's opinion, as if she knew how much it would hurt her. She had been mulling it over in the last 42 hours and the swell of anger, frustration, and hurt that overwhelmed her initially was now starting to reveal a layer of curiosity. There were just too many questions she had, but her pride was too damaged at the moment to even begin to think of asking her younger sibling. Not that she was expecting anything less than vague explanations anyway.

Looking out the bay window innocently at her two young daughters playing, a thought suddenly sprang to her attention and an idea presented itself. Her mind reeling, she gathered herself and exited the small room quickly.

She had a plan.

As she made her way through the doors of the Smithsonian she smiled to herself at the cleverness of her plan. She may not be as savvy at manipulation as her sister, but she was still proud of herself for thinking of it. Knowing she couldn't just waltz right into Langley and demand the answers she desperately wanted to know, she thought of the next best thing; Annie's partner in crime and therefor, guilty by proxy: Auggie Anderson.

She had no idea what his role was, just that he was part of it- and judging by their last conversation together,he was clearly having a good time screwing with her in retrospect.

She thought today that by repeating the acts of a couple weeks ago, there was a pretty good chance she would land on his radar. Again. This time, blind or not, she was gonna grill this man for all he's worth.

It turns out that deliberately making a scene in front of the acquisitions department of the museum was a lot more fun than she was expecting it to be. For a brief moment she thought maybe this was the appeal for Annie of working as an undercover agent.

One frazzled secretary later, she had gotten her way and was now waiting patiently for a 'representative of the division' to assist her in her query. She didn't think for a moment that that person would be anyone other than one August Anderson: field trip- tour guide extraordinaire.

Sure enough 20 minutes later, in strolled 'Mr. Fix-it' himself.

A part of her chuckled at the man, the other part wanted to interrogate the living hell out of him.

"Auggie Anderson. Annie's...boss." she said purposely dripping with as much insincerity as possible.

"Ah Danielle. Is there something I can help you with today?" He had picked up on the negative tone of her voice almost immediately, but was still trying to be as diplomatic as possible.

She stood there glaring at the man, delivering him one fiercely pointed look that she knew was most likely completely lost him, if he was indeed actually blind- Or maybe this was just part of some warped game, and this was one of his many personas. As her brain began trailing off and running in paranoid circles, his voice broke her out of that bizarre train of thought.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Can we talk?" her voice intentionally direct and impatient at the same time.

"Of course."

Throwing caution to the wind- and in this case; manners, Danielle grabbed his arm without even the slightest of warnings and begun tugging him forward. Auggie appeared to be less than thrilled by this development but kept quiet as she led him out the door and towards her car. She knew she had to get him completely alone for him to spill even the slightest of details and she figured her car was probably the best bet.

As they approached, she got out her keyring and unlocked the door, opening it for her guest. She watched him take stock of the door frame before entering and then crossed over to her side and climbed in. Now sitting in complete and undoubtedly awkward silence she thought of what she was going to say next, until her train of thought was once again interrupted.

"So no coffee then?"

She let out a snort of frustration as she wondered if he ever took anything too seriously.

"For future reference, you should probably ask first before grab-"

"shut up!" she snapped and then instantly regretted it.

"I'm sorry, did I do something to offend you?"

"Yes actually, you did," she paused studying his genuinely puzzled facial expression. She knew where to take this now "Art that is under attack from funding cutters. Really?"

A dawning realization crossed the young mans face. He let out a small chuckle and shook his head slightly "Annie Walker. You actually did it." he murmured to himself. He could feel her eyes trying to bore him a third eyeball so he looked in her general direction and addressed her "She told you."

"Wow, I'm actually shocked you didn't already know that seeing as how you seem to know much more about my sister than I apparently do. Are you like her guardian watchdog or something?"

"I'm her handler, among other things," he nodded. "I think you know I can't tell you specifically what that entails, but trust that I'm always looking out for your sister...so to speak."

Auggie sat waiting for the next question to come. It didn't. These long awkward silences were beginning to make him feel uncomfortable but he kept his emotions in check by telling himself give her time. She's just working through it. You've been here before. He'd figured out her game immediately after she'd called him out on his wildly amusing story and he figured she thought of him as the 'weak link' she could easily exploit. This time it was her voice that broke him out of his train of thought.

"I just...I just don't get...understand any of this," her voice was stripped of all the fire it had before, leaving only defeat it its wake.

He felt genuinely sorry for her. It reminded him of his similar situation a year and a half ago, and he thought that that might be an easier angle to approach, rather than evading outright everything she wanted to know. Gathering his words carefully he pressed on;

"Danielle, I'm going to tell you something that not even Annie knows the specifics of," he kept his voice soft and even as he continued "after I got hurt my family was kept in the dark about a lot that happened and what caused it. When they finally got a chance to see me, they were so overwhelmed that they didn't even notice the gaping holes in my cover story...well, except for my one older brother. He was the only one who noticed, but kept quiet about it until a couple months down the line when I guess he thought it wouldn't be too rude to ask. He cornered me one night and laid everything he knew out allowing me the chance to explain myself. He had been dead-on in his assumptions of the situation, and knowing him, I knew he could be trusted so..." he stopped to let out a deep breath and shrugged, "I told him."

"And...how did he handle it?" she sounded genuinely interested and choked at the same time.

"He was furious. He knocked over what I thought was a chair, stormed out, and didn't talk to me again until a few weeks later." He let out a small laugh. Looking back now it was easy to find his reaction mildly humorous.

"I... I kicked Annie out of her guesthouse. I told her I didn't want her near the kids in her line of work..." there was a slight pause and Auggie could hear the regret practically oozing out of her "...but the truth is, I was just to disgusted with her to let her stay."

That hit him hard. He knew how close the two of them were and for her to do that she must have been furious. He swallowed and turned to face her, eyes cast as close as he could possibly predict them to be and continued;

"Danielle..." he figured using her name again made what he was about to say sound more personal "the reason I told you my story was because I wanted you to see that as much as I love my family, the less that they know about what I do for a living the better. Its safer that way. Knowing to much about someone in this line of work can put you in direct danger- or worse; make you a bargaining chip for the enemy. The only reason I risked telling my brother was because he had already connected the dots himself. Annie didn't withhold the truth from you because she thought you couldn't be trusted, she did it because she thought it was keeping you and your family safe."

"but-"

"She loves you Danielle." he cut in before she continue "She came to me about this first. I told her in limited detail about how I read in my brother. You should of heard how worked up and scared she sounded when she was trying to decide what to do. She didn't want to lie to you anymore, but she was afraid- afraid that it might drive the two of you apart, and the danger it might one day land you in."

"Do you think I made a mistake?" her voice was soaked in guilt and regret.

"I think you did what you thought was best for your family and that's never a bad thing. However, I think you might want to look at it from Annie's perspective to see where she was coming from. I can't tell you some of things I know you want to know, but I can tell you she's one hell of a field agent that I'm proud to say I work with, and I think if you knew, you'd be honored to have as a sister." he paused getting his barrings straight and reaching for the door "now, its late and I have somewhere I need to be so if you'll excuse-"

"Do you want me to give you a ride? Its really no problem,"

"No. I'm fine, I'm sure you have a lot to think about at the moment so I'll leave you to it" after he got out he turned and leaned on the window, flashing her his trademark charming smile "besides, I have my ways. Some things have to remain a mystery." With a final wink he turned and left the car.

Danielle watched him unfold his cane and begin to follow the curve of the sidewalk back towards the building they left. The mother in her scolded herself for allowing him to do so alone, but she reminded herself that he had got there by himself so he obviously knew his way around the Smithsonian at least. She turned back to the steering wheel once he was out of her line of vision, rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath and let what he said sink in. He was right. After a couple minutes of silence and introspection she got her phone out of purse and dialed a number she knew by heart. Listening to the dial tone she had made her choice.

Finally a voice picked up on the other end

"Danielle, hello?"

She smiled into the phone.

"Hi Annie. We need to talk."