Title: Next Tuesday

Show: Covert Affairs

Summary: Sequel to A Typical Tuesday. Now that Eyal is working for the DPD, he and Annie deal with the changes in their professional and personal relationships.

Spoilers: Everything through episode 3.14 – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Pairings: Annie/Eyal (eventually), Annie/Auggie friendship

Rating: T

Disclaimer: blah blah… don't own anything… blah blah… don't make any money… blah

A/N: I never write sequels, but yesterday while I was driving into the hospital to check on a patient at 1am the bunnies attacked and would not be denied. This is going to be multi-chapter and I've already got at least 5 story chapters planned out. And btw… last night's episode… one word – SQUEE!

Once again as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us once more.
Someday soon we all will be together
If the Fates allow
Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow.
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Frank Sinatra

Eyal's first few weeks at the CIA had consisted entirely of paperwork, briefings, and desk work. To everyone in the department, it appeared that he tolerated the informal probation and the typical office hazing exceptionally well. Annie, however, knew better. Eyal hadn't spent this much time behind a desk in the last decade, and no matter what he said, she knew it was killing him to not be in the field. She knew because she was feeling it too.

Being shackled to a desk-bound partner hadn't been bad at first, given the timing. It was the first time since joining the Agency that she got to spend the whole holiday season at home. It could only have been better if it hadn't also been the first Christmas that her family was thousands of miles away. They made the best of it though, and through the wonders of Skype, she still got to see her nieces light up as they opened the presents she had sent them. Annie had set up a small fake tree in the corner of her living room, mainly so that the girls could see that Aunt Annie was having just as merry of a Christmas as they were. After all the presents were opened and the girls had darted off to play with their new haul of toys, Danielle and Annie took a few minutes to catch up. Things with Michael were going well, and marriage counseling really seemed to be helping. Chloe had her first crush on a boy in her class and Katia had made straight A's on her first report card from the new school. Annie promised to come visit soon when things settled at work. Maybe she could take the girls to Disneyland over their spring break. It was then that Danielle caught sight of a small package still neatly wrapped under the tree behind Annie.

"Are you going to tell me who that extra present is for? The fact that you haven't already makes me assume it's something scandalous." Danielle joked with her sister.

"It's nothing." Annie attempted to deflect just a little too abruptly.

"It's for a man isn't it?" Danielle interrogated.

Annie realized that she was never very good at lying to her sister. "Yes. But not the way you think."

"I don't know. Exchanging Christmas presents seems pretty serious."

"He's not a boyfriend. He's my new partner at work. He's new to town and he gave up a lot to take this job. I just wanted to do something nice for him. And he's Jewish, so it's not really even a Christmas present."

"I'm not sure I buy it." Danielle contemplated. "I still think he sounds like a boyfriend."

As Annie rolled her eyes at her sister a familiar accented male voice spoke from inches behind her ear, "What's this about a boyfriend?"

Annie nearly leapt a foot in the air. "Damnit Eyal!" She spun on him. "How did you get in here?"

He held up a basic lock pick. "You really should get a better security system."

"And you should learn to knock like a normal person."

"Normal is over-rated." He grinned at her, his face still only inches from hers.

Then Danielle's voice emanated from the laptop on the coffee table. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that this is the new… partner?"

Eyal butted in front of the webcam and smiled charmingly. "And you must be Annie's sister, Danielle. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. Annie has spoken about you often. The family resemblance is striking, both of you are such beautiful women."

Danielle blushed and absent mindedly tucked a lock of hair back behind her ear. "And why is this the first I'm hearing about you…"

Annie shoved Eyal aside and commandeered the focus of the webcam. "Because he's not going to be my partner for long at this rate." A glare at said partner accompanied the statement.

"Oh I don't know Annie. I think you should keep this one around." She raised her eyebrows suggestively."

Annie could feel the redness creeping across her face. "Good bye Danielle." She said firmly to the computer as she flipped the laptop closed, ending the embarrassing conversation.

"I think she liked me." Eyal smiled triumphantly.

She was not about to dignify his comment with a response. "What are you doing here Eyal?"

"It's Christmas, and since Auggie's off visiting his family, and it's the first time your family isn't here with you, I imagined that you wouldn't want to spend the holiday alone."

"That's…" her anger at his intrusion deflated somewhat, "…actually kind of sweet." She smiled at him genuinely.

"And I wanted to give you this." He produced a small flat rectangular box from his back pocket and held it out to her with a smile.

She looked at him skeptically as she took it from him and cautiously opened it. Inside was a beautiful antiqued silver chain. "It's lovely." She whispered as she ran her fingers along the length of intricate interlocking links.

"I figured that if you were going to continue to wear that key Fischer's sister gave you when we're out in the field, you should have something a bit sturdier to keep it on." The soft smile on his lips was sincere and without a trace of judgment. "I noticed you having trouble with the clasp the other day." He added somewhat bashfully.

She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "It's perfect."

He returned the embrace. "Come on, this is me we're talking about. Like you expected anything less?"

She laughed and pulled back from him. She quickly turned her back to him and pulled her hair to one side. Without having to say what she wanted, he gently reached up and unclasped the old chain fastened around her neck, lifted the necklace forward and dangled it in front of her. She took it from him, slid the old chain out of the key, and replaced it with the new one. Eyal then took the ends from her and carefully refastened it behind her neck. Her fingers instantly went to it and gently slid along the metal. He rested his hands on her shoulders briefly, "Let's see how it looks."

She turned and faced him. She was so transfixed by the simple elegance of the material that she didn't realize that he was staring at her face instead of the necklace when he added, "Beautiful."

It was only then that she looked up and met his eyes. "Thank you Eyal."

"Merry Christmas Annie."

"Oh, that reminds me." She broke their stare to dash over towards the Christmas tree in the corner and grab the small box still wrapped underneath it. "I know we missed Hanukkah, but I figured better late than never." She held the simply wrapped package out to him.

He carefully dissected the wrappings and lifted the lid off of the box. His eyes widened at the contents.

"I hope you like it. I mean, what do you get the spy that has everything?" She smiled as he lifted the Sig Sauer 228 9mm from the box and examined it.

He silently and deftly handled the pistol with the ease and familiarity that other men breathe. He checked the clip and the chamber first before taking the grip in his hand and evaluating the weight and balance of the piece. He lined up the sights and the tried out the laser guided sight before spinning it 90 degrees on his trigger finger and returning it to the box. "This is a magnificent weapon." He looked back and forth from the box to her face. "But it's too much." He attempted to push the box back towards her.

She held up her hands and took a step back. "Oh no. You're keeping it." She smiled at him. "If it makes you feel better, you can consider that my motives might not have been entirely altruistic. I know you were just cleared to carry at work. If you're going to have my back in the field, it might as well be with the best possible backup."

He gently sat the box down on the counter, closed the space between them, and pulled her into his arms. "Neshema, you never stop amazing me."

"I know." She smiled against his chest.

He waited just a little longer than he should have before dropping his arms and stepping back from the embrace. His eyes strayed to his new gun sitting on the counter. When he looked back at Annie, the only way she could describe his facial expression was that it looked like, well… a kid on Christmas day. "Do you think there are any shooting ranges open today?"

She shrugged. "This is America… more than likely."

After calling around for a bit they finally found an indoor range that was open. They spent most of the afternoon playing with his new toy. He finally convinced her to make one round a friendly competition by volunteering to be blindfolded. Annie was no poor marksman herself, but even blindfolded at 15 yards he still emptied the entire clip into a 3 inch spread center mass in under 8 seconds. They called it a tie.

Afterwards, they picked up some Chinese take-out and went back to her place, where they spent the evening huddled together on the couch watching A Christmas Story, eating sweet and sour chicken, and drinking some egg nog that Eyal had insisted on making from scratch. Annie had learned long ago to never turn down anything he offered to cook, and the thick, spiced, rum-laden concoction proved to be no exception.

She sat with her head resting groggily against his shoulder and her left hand absent-mindedly playing with the chain around her neck as the movie ended and one of the traditional clay-mation children's movies began. She couldn't help but muse that it was only a week ago when she had been forced to accept that she would never see the man sitting next to her again. Instead he had risen from the proverbial ashes and ingrained himself even deeper into her life. She had always enjoyed working with him in the past when their paths would occasionally cross, but she had worried that the flirtations and innuendo that defined their personal and working relationship from before would become less exhilarating and more annoying with constant exposure. It had only been a week so far, but Annie had been pleasantly surprised to find that they were getting along better than ever. The combination of deep thoughts and warm liquor soon found Annie unable to stifle a yawn.

"I think that's my cue to leave." Eyal looked over at her and noticed her drooping eyelids.

"I'm fine. You don't have to." She had enjoyed his company throughout the day and she wasn't sure that she was ready for the comfort of their easy companionship to end quite yet. It was only eight o'clock.

"We have work tomorrow."

Annie watched as a light dusting of snow had started to fall outside her window. The sight suddenly made her feel chilled. She pulled the throw that had been over her legs up slightly higher and snuggled more deeply into Eyal's side. "But it's snowing outside and you're warm."

He wasn't sure quite how much of what she was saying was coming from her, and how much was coming from the nog. The day had gone better than he had ever imagined, and he didn't want to do something stupid now and ruin it all. That meant leaving soon, because the way she was snuggling against him was having a very detrimental effect on what little self-restraint he still possessed. "And I promise to be just as warm when I see you at work tomorrow in…" He checked his watch, "…less than twelve hours." Her only response was to pout at him, so he added, "You do remember work don't you? It's the place with the polygraphs and all the people that still aren't entirely convinced I'm not trying to exploit you."

"Fine." She somehow managed to both pout and smile at him simultaneously as she stood up.

They both made their way towards her front door and he stopped and collected his things. He clipped the new gun in its holster to his belt and pulled his leather jacket on. "Merry Christmas Neshema." He hugged her sweetly one more time and chastely kissed the top of her head, then he ducked out the door.

Annie ran the necklace through her fingers again and smiled to herself as she turned off the lights in the apartment and got into bed.

A/N: Next time on Covert Affairs: Next Tuesday – It's New Year's Eve and Annie's plans fall through on short notice. Who can she call on to help her ring in the New Year? :)