Agenda
Disclaimer: I do not own Covert Affairs
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Annie stormed through the DPD, all but growling at anyone that dared step in her way.
Every agent, both green and seasoned, recognized the look on her face. She was out for blood.
With her hand on the door to the Technical Operations department, she took a deep breath in a last attempt to calm herself. When that failed, she settled on abruptly sliding the door open and shut behind her.
"Annie Walker, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
She said nothing for a moment. Then, "We're friends, aren't we, Auggie?"
He sensed the strain in her voice, and turned his chair to face her. "Yes, Of course we are."
"I can trust you, right? Trust you not to hide things from me?"
He tense then. It was a loaded question if he'd ever heard one. Either she had done something that would get them into trouble, or she had discovered his recent op. Barber's earlier warning of her approaching black aura made him suspect the latter.
Her next words confirmed. "I ran into Blake the other night. You remember him right? The last in a string of guys who suddenly don't want anything to do with me? Over a few drinks he finally clued me in."
Shit. He closed his eyes. This wasn't going to be pretty. "Guys? Can we have the room?" He waited until his fellow tech operatives were gone before standing up. "Feel free to hit me after I explain." He could hear her seething. "It's the job of every handler to know enough about their operatives' personal lives to do an assessment on their fitness for an assignment. If an operative is physically, mentally or emotional compromised, there is a danger of compromising the mission and putting lives at risk." He winced at how clinical and impersonal it sounded. "You're usually pretty good at checking your baggage at the door and getting the job done."
"Wait a second. Is that what you do every time I vent to you or confide in you about something? An assessment? See if I'm capable of completing a mission because I'm pissed at my sister?" Annie didn't know if she could feel any more betrayed.
"When you're too shaken up because some asshole pushes you around that you get shot or worse—"
It made her angry that he'd bring up the encounter with a belligerent drunk she'd ran into on an op. "I can take care of myself, Auggie."
"I know you can. But do you think I can send you to places like Juarez, Mexico after you've been put through an emotional blender? Again?" He cited the mission that she had passed on after losing Ben. "It's my job to keep you safe. I am your handler because I'll do whatever it takes to keep you, every part of you, from coming home in a box."
"What does interfering in a perfectly healthy relationship have to do with keeping me safe? Blake is a farm boy from Kansas who works as a corporate accountant for a respectable company. What right did you have?"
"Blake Cross is no threat to national security," He said grudgingly. The guy didn't have so much as a parking ticket. "Clean record, pays his taxes, no serious vices."
"So, really it wasn't an agency issues, but an Auggie issue. It's not like I was going to pull out a Close and Continuing, but this guy was perfect." He'd done a background check, of course he did. Not only was it an invasion of her privacy, but it stung that he didn't trust her. "Do I need to point out how many questionable dalliances you've had? I don't need your approval, Auggie. You're my handler, not my father. You have five seconds to tell me the truth or I'm going to request to be reassigned."
She was dead serious. He sighed. Time to come clean. "I bugged his phone." He could feel his ears redden at her surprised gasp. What he had done was beyond the responsibilities of a handler and borderline jealous husband. "Call me the psychotically overprotective friend. Ready to beat him up if there was even a hint he was cheating."
She smiled a little, her anger slowly abating. She really couldn't stay mad at him. "And?"
"He had several flirtationships, but it wouldn't have stayed there. I know his type. He was promoted and planning to move to the company office in Japan. He had no intention of breaking it off with you or committing to anything. He called you his DC girl."
She let out an affronted huff. She knew the type too. Had a girl in each city to hook up with during each "business trip". She couldn't believe she didn't see it. "So, instead of telling me about it, you decided to use your CIA issued toys for evil?"
"What would I have said? Annie, your boyfriend is a tool. I know, because I've ran unsanctioned surveillance on him?"
"It feels like you don't trust me."
"That's not it at all." He said, earnest and adamant. "You have the best instincts I've seen since Joan. It's just…I can't seem to help it that I cross lines for you."
There was a pause. Him, trying to infer how angry she still was, and her trying to decide how she felt about this Big Brother syndrome he seemed to have going.
"Did you really threaten to virally destroy his company, and post him on the international fugitive shoot-on-sight list?"
"Meh, all I did was sit him down and have a firm man-to-man talk with him. He wisely decided to give you the clean break you deserve."
She made a humming sound of thoughtfulness. "And do you intend to continue covert surveillance on any future interests I might have?"
"As your handler, no. As your overprotective best friend, I'll try harder to restrain myself, but I make no promises. If it makes you feel better, you now have clearance to check on any of the suspicious dalliances I might have."
"Provided, I have their real name, of course."
She sighed. If it weren't for the fact that she knew him, almost as well as she knew herself, she might've at least stayed madder longer. She bopped him gently on the head. "If I don't tell you about a guy I'm seeing, chances are its not serious. Save the big brother act for when I at least introduce you."
"Dully noted." She hipchecked him and walked out, not seeing the relieved look on his face.
While he was glad she didn't take his slight manipulations too badly, he wasn't ready to admit that Blake Cross was hardly the first of her beaus he'd put a bead on, or likely the last. And while he did play the handler card to poke into her love life, his motives were not as unselfish as he tried to make them seem. One day, he'd make his move, and until then he'd make sure no one stood in his way.
The End