Auggie knew a relationship with Annie would be anything but typical, but he did hope for at least 24 hours of bliss before the reality of their lives kicked in.

Instead, Henry Wilcox was the pillow talk of their first morning together in bed. While he was enjoying the feel of the morning sun on his face and her body against his, she (figuratively) blindsided him with the news. Thus was their lives.

By the second day of their relationship, he had been shot, and Annie almost suffered the same fate.

Auggie had waited months to take the leap in their relationship. Now that they had moved to whatever they had become, there was no peace.

It tore at him like nothing in his life had ever managed to tear him before. While he was attracted to her own strength and independence, he wanted to be able to protect her. He couldn't protect her if he didn't know she was taking risks. He couldn't protect her if he wasn't allowed to share what he knew. He couldn't protect her when every other day they were applying tequila to their wounds.

It wasn't in his nature to dwell on his sadness. He had brought Annie down with him the night before. She was worried, and that was enough to snap him out of his self-pity. While the relationship of his dreams wasn't without outside conflict, it was surviving. Less than a week in, that already felt like a major accomplishment.

So when Annie showed up at his door, shaken and scared, he did what he could to make it better. He listened, theorized, comforted, fed her tequila and made her laugh. Then he kissed her and truly tended to her wounds.

"Can you check the police scanners again?" Annie asked.

"No." Auggie replied.

"Why not?"

"Because you will drive yourself crazy. Even if they do find Seth tonight, they wouldn't have reason to come looking for you. And if they did-which is unlikely-they wouldn't start by looking here." Auggie held her hands between his while he explained.

Annie thought a moment. "If Langley were investigating me, would they call you?"

"Depends on their suspicions, but I think so. We haven't filed that Close and Continuing yet, so there's no record of... This." He pulled her hand to his mouth and applied a gentle kiss.

"Speaking from experience, somebody's going to notice that." Auggie said as he pulled his lips away from her hand.

"I was in a car accident. It's understandable that I would be banged up." She replied.

Auggie nodded and pulled her toward the bed, where they sat.

"Can they revoke a C&C?" Annie asked.

Auggie grinned. "Like if one of us got burned? Probably. Would be a nice loophole if they couldn't."

"I could be arrested tomorrow." She said.

"But you won't." He replied.

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do." He gently ghosted his fingers along her body, trying to determine the extent if her injuries. "We will stay in front of this."

Annie pulled him down and wrapped herself around him. "Thank you."

"I told you that you have me."

She didn't respond, deep in thought with her head resting on his chest. He could feel her eyelashes with each blink and doubted if either of them would sleep.

"Other than wondering if we can share a prison cell, what's going in in there?" He said, running his fingers along her face.

She laughed, and turned her head to give him a quick kiss on the chest. But she didn't answer.

"If you respond to all my cheesy jokes with a kiss, I'm going to turn into the most obnoxious man on the planet."

"I was just thinking how nice it would be to run away, with you." She sighed. "Then I remembered how those ideas end."

Auggie nodded. "You'll get through this. We will get through this."

"It's just hard to see that from right here."

"If I go for the obvious blind joke will you skip to the part where you take your clothes off?"

Annie sat up, straddled him, and skipped directly to that part of the evening.

She let him control the moment. She trusted him, she needed him, and more than anything she needed to be reminded of what he could do with his very capable hands. Later, as she fell asleep in his arms, she felt more confident and prepared for whatever the next day would bring.