This is my first attempt on an AU story.

Auggie lost his sight not long ago and is struggling to adjust to his new world. He finds a job at Trusted Translations and meets Annie Walker, translator and world traveller.

The start is a bit short, but I do have quite a few ideas for this story IF you wanna read them.

AN 2: I've updated the 1st chapter after some suggestions from a couple of my faithful readers. I'm working on the 2nd chapter now.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs or the characters. Annie and Auggie belong to the USA Network and of course Piper Perabo and Christopher Gorham.

Chapter 1

Thursday, March 11th 2010

After more than two months of searching for a job August "Auggie" Anderson was loosing his patience. He'd lost his eyesight while serving in Iraq, being career military was no longer an option and he had to get himself a civilian job. He'd finished his rehab at the Hines VA hospital almost three months earlier and after spending a few weeks with his family in Glencoe, Illionis he'd returned to his apartment in Washington DC. His parents had tried to persuade him to move back to their house, but at the age of 33 moving in with his parents was not an option he was willing to consider at the moment. DC had been his base for the past few years, he had friends there (well, at least he thought he did, he wasn't sure at the moment, it seemed like the white cane drove them away) and he felt a need to prove to both himself and his family that he was capable of living independently despite his disability. It was what he had worked for through four hard months of rehab.

At the moment he was living off his small military pension and his trust fund, but he really needed a job, a real income, soon. He had his degree in Computer Science; he'd worked as a software developer before rejoining the Army and being deployed to Iraq and hoped to be able to make a living within that field. At the moment it seemed very unlikely, apparently a blind guy wasn't a very attractive employee. He'd just received his 23rd rejection (not that he was counting…) and he'd lost count of the number of applications he'd never received any kind of feedback on. Although loneliness had never been part of his personality, growing up with four older brothers he actually liked solitude and quiet; it was a rare treat during his childhood years, he was beginning to feel lonely. He missed his friends, having co-workers and a social life. He was also starting to get restless from spending the days writing applications and surfing the internet, looking for jobs. With a sigh he headed over to the kitchen and retrieved a shot glass from the upper cabinet. He was about to do some damage to his stash of Patron when his landline phone started ringing, caller unknown.

"Anderson," he replied apprehensively.

"August Anderson? This is Jeffrey McCarthy from Trusted Translations. You've applied for the position as Technical Support here, correct?"

"Yes, I have."

"Can you make it here for an interview tomorrow at 1 pm?"

"No problem sir."

"I'll see you then. Have a good night Mr. Anderson."

"Thank you sir. See you tomorrow."

Auggie smiled as he hung up the phone. He had an interview. Usually he got a letter or email of rejection without being interviewed. That Mr. McCarthy was taking the time to meet him gave him some hope.

Monday, March 22nd 2010

In Georgetown Anne Catherine "Annie" Walker was in her sisters guesthouse, getting ready to go back to work. She'd taken six months off work to travel around Europe and had just returned a couple of days ago. She wished she could keep travelling, but her savings were pretty much spent and her she needed to get back to work. Hopefully she'd be able to save up enough to go on another adventure within the next couple of years. The travels were essential in keeping her language skills sharp, being a linguist, fluent in six languages. They were also far more exciting than her desk job at Trusted Translations. Sure, she liked that she made a living of her language skills, but she wasn't a huge fan of being chained to a desk and computer. Still, a small part of her looked forward to getting back to the office, she liked her co-workers and they always had fun together.

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In the Tech Support office at Trusted Translations Auggie was busy updating a server. He'd started working there the previous Wednesday and so far he liked the job. Some tasks seemed a bit mundane, but he was doing something useful again and more important; he was getting paid for it. It was good to get out of the apartment. His employer had been very accommodating to his special needs and they'd set him up with a fast computer, tricked out with top of the line screen reading software, refreshable Braille display, document reader and headphones. He'd taken money out of his trust fund to buy himself the same for his personal laptop a few months back and he knew how pricey it was. There were several challenges to starting a new job when blind, he struggled with finding his way around the office building, he had the route from the entrance to the elevator and from the elevator to his office down pat, but that was it, the maze of corridors was disorienting. Hopefully he'd get to know some co-workers well enough to ask them to show him around soon. As he finished up the server update the Tech Support line started ringing.

"Tech Support, Auggie Anderson speaking."

"Hi, Annie Walker here. May I speak to John please?"

"Sorry, John quit, you'll have to settle for me. How may I help you?"

"Oh, well my laptop just froze for the third time today, there's gotta be something wrong. I've restarted it, but it just keeps happening."

"Bring it to the office and I'll take a look at it, so to speak."

"Huh?" Annie was confused, what did he mean by his last line? "Can't you come here? John always did."

Auggie fought back a sigh. She'd obviously not read the memo he'd sent out when he started, explaining that because of his disability he needed the staff to bring their computers to his office, so he could dock them with his computer and access them through it.

"I'm sorry, I can't. Didn't you get my memo?" He instantly regretted his somewhat clipped tone.

"I just got back from a six month leave and I haven't had time to read all my email yet. My boss I gave me this urgent translation that I'm now far behind on because of this damn computer crashing. Why?" Annie asked, slightly irritated. What was up with this new guy? Was he to lazy to get off his ass?

"I'm blind and I need some special aides to work a computer. That's why I need you to bring it here." Auggie explained, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Oh, sorry...uh…I'll bring it right over." Annie felt mortified as she hung up the phone. She'd seen the memo from an 'Anderson, August – Tech Support' in her inbox, but she'd figured it was just some gibberish about not downloading viruses or something and deleted it. She closed the laptop, removed it from the docking station on her desk, tucked it under her arm and headed for the Tech Support office.

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A light knock on the doorjamb got Auggie's attention. He stood from his chair and he turned towards the door. "May I help you?"

"I just called about my laptop crashing, you told me to bring it over," Annie said tentatively, trying not to stare at the man in front of her, staring was rude, especially at a blind person. Auggie was nothing like the geek she expected. He was wearing a pair of well fitting dark jeans and a light gray fitted shirt that revealed his muscular build. She noticed his surprisingly expressive, though slightly unfocused, chocolate brown eyes and shaggy brown hair. He was without a doubt very handsome and definitely not your average computer geek like his predecessor had been.

"Annie Walker, right?" Auggie flashed her a bright smile and held out his right hand in her direction. She grasped it firmly.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't read your memo Mr. Anderson," she said apologetically.

"I'm Auggie and it's not a problem. Now, give me your laptop and let me see if can find out what the problem is," he said and held out his hand. Annie held out the laptop in his direction, then, realizing he couldn't see it, she lightly brushed it against the back of his outstretched hand. He grabbed it with a smile and placed it on a docking station next to a monitor and a keyboard sitting on top of a purple platform with lots of buttons and what looked like Braille cells on it. He grabbed a pair of high-end earphones off his the desk and put them on. Annie watched as he worked, mesmerized at how fluently he seemed to work without seeing. A few minutes later he pulled the headphones so they hung around his neck and turned his chair in her direction.

"This will take a while to sort out, sorry. I'll email the document you were working on to you and you can work on one of the computers in the training room for now. I'll do my best to fix it by the end of the day, but no promises." Auggie flashed her a bright smile and hoped she wouldn't be too mad at him. For some reason people seemed to be a bit short tempered when he didn't have an instant fix for their computers.

"Damn, oh well…it's not your fault. Guess I'll head to the training room then. You'll call me when it's ready?"

"Well, since you won't be at your desk it won't be much use to call. Do you have a Skype account?"

"Yeah, username is 'a_walker'."

"Be sure to accept a my request then, 'auggie.a', and I'll Skype you when I'm done. Ok?"

"Yep, thanks Auggie. See you…oh sorry…" Annie broke off mid-sentence, feeling more than slightly awkward by her choice of words.

"Don't worry. I use words like that all the time myself. It's just awkward if people watch what they say around me in fear of offending me." Auggie smiled and winked at her as she left his office. He had a feeling that he wanted to get to know Annie Walker.

So, what do you think? Like? Dislike? Push the button and 'REVIEW' :)
As long as it's constructive I appreciate it!
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