All Over The World.
Annie Walker never made it to the U.S. carrier group in the South China sea.
They did not realize their ghost was in the wind again until they received communication from the carrier stating that she had missed her scheduled arrival by several hours. The boat carrying her was not responding to any attempts at making contact, and the burner phone she had on her was disconnected. Langley was in an uproar. The sudden turn of events created a whole new set of doubts for those in charge, a fire fueled by the fallout of Henry Wilcox's unscrupulous exploits during the preceding months before his demise, and Annie's renegade involvement in finally taking him off the game board. After pulling so many strings to bring her in from the cold, to bring her home, Annie Walker had disappeared all over again.
Except this time no one knew where she was.
After weeks of living in the hellish confines of IT, It felt strange to be back in his office.
He sat in his chair, the sounds of DPD squad room chatter and whirring computers the background noise for his cluttered thoughts. His right hand rested on his cane as it sat atop his desk. He had taken it out earlier, intending to go somewhere, yet he found himself unable to move, and instead lingered in undecided contemplation. He had been sitting there for a while now, ever since Calder had come down from the seventh floor to deliver the news, existing in a semi-frozen state of shock.
Annie was missing.
He ran his hand over his face, the circles under his eyes proof that he had not slept in days. He had arrived in D.C. around the same time Annie should have been boarding the carrier. She never ceased to amaze him, but in hind sight what she chose to do did not surprise him. He wanted to kick himself for not realizing sooner; the writing had been on the wall from the moment she called him after killing Henry. Detached, distant, changed. Psychological instability was to be expected. There was no way you could do what Annie had done - sacrificing everything, faking your own death - and come out completely unscathed.
It was her emotional capacity that made her better than all the other agents — allowing her to hold together the unraveling threads of her life during her pursuit of Henry, a piece of her past to cling to in a world where she no longer recognized who she was. She had proven time and time again that when emotions run high, she could act upon them, tackling the task at hand without so much as a question. Unwavering, resolute, determined.
This time emotions had her running in the opposite direction.
Upon further investigation the asset responsible for ferrying her from Hong Kong to the carrier revealed that Annie had convinced him to drop her off on the coast of Taiwan, near Taoyuan. It was assumed that she had arranged for some sort of transport off the island, seeing as the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport was the closest in the area. She was nothing if not resourceful, and incredibly good at covering her tracks, because there was no proof - photographic, video, or otherwise - that revealed she had been in the area.
He rapped his fingers against the glass of his desk alongside his cane, jaw locked, pensive. Part of him was tempted to fall into a state of panic. It would be easy to start demanding that Calder assemble a team to hunt her down, find her before she did something dangerous, or before something dangerous found her, but Auggie knew better. If Annie wanted to be found, she would not have run in the first place. There was no sense in sending the CIA on a wild goose chase they were doomed to fail.
"What are you doing, Annie?" The words are more of a muttered prayer than an actual question, and Auggie can only hope that time would answer it.
However, wild goose chases and impossible odds be damned, however, August Anderson had never backed down from a challenge before. More importantly he had never backed down from a challenge when it concerned Annie. He was not about to start now. His expression changed, brightened, and he removed his hand from his cane again and reached into his pocket for his cellphone. A few quick maneuvers of his fingers and he had it pressed to his ear, waiting while it began to ring.
It was a long shot, but he had always been a gambling man. The line connected and his heart jumped in his chest.
"Danielle." He smiled, shifting the phone to his left hand before grabbing his cane and standing up. "Hey- no, no everything is fine. Actually, I'm going to be in the area tomorrow- Yeah, I thought California would be a nice change of scenery. Well, you know what I mean."
Danielle laughed, and Auggie took a deep breath, bracing himself.
"Listen, I need to talk to you. It's about Annie."
"Annie is alive?"
Danielle stared at Auggie Anderson in wide eyed, opened mouth disbelief. For months she had mourned the loss of her baby sister, attempted to accept the fact that Annie's job would prevent them from ever knowing what really happened to her. She still had not come to terms with the fact that every morning she woke up, she had to realize that Annie was no longer there.
But now the same man who had called her to tell her Annie was dead just months before was in her house, sitting in her living room, on her couch, entirely convinced that she had risen from the grave. She can only stare at him, almost as if she had seen Annie's ghost herself. Had Auggie been in love with her? Was he so distraught over Annie that he had lost his mind entirely? What the hell had possessed him to fly all the way to San Francisco? And was she supposed to say?
"Danielle?"
She jumped, the sound of Auggie's voice reminding her that she was not alone with her thoughts, and that he could not see her facial expressions to understand the process of shock she was trying to work her way through- with little success.
"What kind of awful, ridiculous trick is this?" She asked, pale faced and faint feeling, and she imagined her brain spinning inside her head. "Auggie, this isn't funny, I know that this is hard-"
"Danielle, it's not a joke-"
"I understand that she was special to you Auggie, she was special to me too, she was my sister!"
"Danielle-"
"Believe me, I know better than anyone how difficult this is, if you need help, I will try and do whatever I can-"
"Danielle!"
She jumped, taken aback by the blatant irritation Auggie projected from where he sat, hands clasped in vexation, leaned forward over her coffee table from his seat on the couch. Thankful that he could not see her clearly disgruntled expression, Danielle sat up in her seat on the recliner across from him, arms folded across her chest, frown securely in place.
"I'm sorry," Auggie apologized, "I'm sorry for everything, but this isn't a joke. I can't tell you exactly what happened-" Danielle rolled her eyes; typical spies, always talking in circles and never telling the entire story. "- But Annie is alive, and I need your help to find her."
Danielle remained quiet, eyes narrowed as she watched Auggie, who waited for her response with a somewhat anxious look on his face. She would never be able to get used to living with the lies, the fake outs, the double standards that seemed to be a daily part of living as a secret agent. And Danielle could not help but wonder how they did live with themselves. How could they go on, everyday creating one more story, one more fabrication, knowing that at some point the truth would be so convoluted no one would be able to recognize it anymore?
Surely Annie was not alive. It seemed impossible, preposterous, but the look on Auggie's face, and the conviction in his words told a completely different story. She tried to wrap her head around it, tried to remind herself to breathe. Nothing Auggie said made any sense using rational, reasonable logic. But then again, when had anything involving Annie after she joined the CIA made sense? Realization hit Danielle like a wrecking ball.
"Oh God." She leaned back against the recliner, looking even more like she had seen a ghost than before. "Oh God!"
"There is so much I wish I could explain." Auggie was conflicted, the look on his face pained. "But the sooner we find Annie, the sooner she can do that herself."
"She's alive." Danielle repeated the statement as if it would make more sense saying the words out loud. As if she could make herself believe it.
"She's alive." Auggie affirmed, reaching for his cane off the coffee table where he had set it earlier, moving it to his lap. "I don't know where she is, or what she is looking for, but that's why I'm here; you know her best."
"I-" Danielle falters, overwhelmed, trying to hold back tears. She immediately thought of Annie's post card, her final farewell, not really a farewell at all. "Auggie, I have no idea where she could be. So much has changed. She isn't the same person anymore."
"That's exactly why I came to you." His declaration was made in all seriousness and Danielle wiped her eyes where the tears started to well at the corners, not understanding what he was getting at. Her entire world had been turned upside down in a matter of mere minutes, and now she was left scrambling to put the pieces back together. She was not made to handle these high pressure, volatile situations. Not like Annie. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, but to little avail.
"I don't think I'm following." She whispered, her words a shell of weary uncertainty.
"You're right, Annie isn't the same person anymore. Things have changed." Auggie smiled, a gesture that surprised Danielle given the gravity of the situation. "But that person she used to be, that's who Annie is looking for. That is why you can help me."
Athens was beautiful at sunset. The city was surrounded by hills and mountains, a view that it was famous for. A clear sky stretched as far as the eye could see above the surrounding cityscape, endless and lit up by the brilliant reds and dying yellows of the fading sunlight. The Flisvos marina in Paleo Faliro, just six miles from Athen's city center, was a picture of pure serenity. Boats were docked and packed side by side, the water lapping softly at the hulls, gulls calling from above as they floated along on the wind.
The sound of footsteps along the dock was the only noise that disrupted the peace. A solitary woman walked tranquilly down through a line of smaller boats, a colorful Hijab draping her face and resting across the shoulders of her ivory colored, long sleeved blouse. Her feet, in sandals, disappeared and reappeared from beneath her long skirt with each step, the garment the same bright color as the fabric that shaded her eyes from the evening sun. The apparel was not entirely uncommon for a woman in Greece, so no one paid her any immediate mind
She stopped at a boat near the end of the line. It was a fishing boat, more specifically a forty foot mariner ketch, immaculate and well cared for. Glancing back down the dock and finding she was alone, the woman deftly stepped aboard. She caught a glimpse of the name along the starboard side, the shiny black vinyl gleaming against the reflection of the water.
The Flying Lavin.
She smiled, pausing amidship on the deck and removing the Hijab from her head, long, dark waves of hair spilling down around her face and shoulders. She then made her way to the bridge, hands coming to rest along the lithe body of the steering wheel. She considered it for a moment, expression bittersweet as her grip tightened reflexively, eyes closed with a sigh.
"Sorry, Eyal. I owe you one."
AN: Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this. Think of this as me trying to entertain myself until the season 5 premier this summer. Think of it as our very own AU season 5 premiere. I miss Danielle, and I miss Eyal, so I figured why not bring them back?! Let me know whatcha think in the reviews, stay tuned for more. Guess where the title came from? ;)