Another very appropriate song that I feel I must bring to everyone's attention. I actually just downloaded this early Sunday, and after reading the lyrics I realized this would have been good for my take on this week's episode.

Yet again, it's crazy late because life kept getting in the way and I had this attempt going for another take on this ep-oneshot, but it justwasn't working out the way I wanted to, so instead of fighting with it some more I decided to put it on the backburner for the time being and start fresh. I'm so sorry for being late posting this but I had some major blocking issues and then I got distracted with this week's double-season finale (which caused me to "Aww!", growl, whine, and all-over freak out way too many times in only two hours).

But no worries! That's gonna be a fun one, but instead of being my usual oneshots I'm going to go back at some point, rework it, and then more than likely turn it into a multi-chaptered fic. I'm slightly afraid because I rarely commit to chaptered fics, so this may take some time. XD

Spoilers for Fool in the Rain (1.09).

$4$

I've got a thick tongue
Brimming with words that go unsung
Simmer then the burn for someone
A wrong one

- "Gonna Get Over You," by Sara Bareilles

The smell of something burning was what alerted him in the first place.

Auggie Anderson was good at several things, but one of the few he was only recently starting to appreciate was how well he understood Annie Walker. He was her handler, true, which meant he knew things about her most people weren't privy to, but there was a point where that stopped. Of course, with them it never actually stopped- or even showed signs of slowing down. And yet he knew her favorite vending machine snack (Peanut Butter Twix), her favorite movie when she was sick (The Italian Job- the remake with Mark Wahlberg because she had some weird kind thing for him), and her favorite breakfast snack swiped from her nieces whenever she was running late to work (Strawberry Poptarts).

Without really admitting as much to himself, he kept a running catalogue of all these little facts about her. He didn't like thinking about it, because it seemed like something no objective person would ever do, and he prided himself in always being as objective as possible when it came to his job. Except for that incident with Tash. And possibly the problem with Liza.

But other than that, he was always objective.

Regardless of the lies he kept feeding himself, he knew something was up when he walked into the DPD. There was no missing the smell of smoke, ash, and charred paper- in other words, fire.

"Is something burning?" he asked, turning his head to look around the room as though he'd actually be able to see anything. Some habits die hard.

There was the sound of scrambling, fabric scraping against fabric, metal shaking on the linoleum floor, and finally the unmistakable sound of a very feminine curse.

He couldn't see anything, but he knew it had to be amusing to watch. Hell, it was pretty amusing just to listen. "Annie, what are you doing over there?" he asked, letting his electronic cane lead him towards her desk.

"Nothing!" she said, but she sounded forced and the breezy tone she'd put on seemed more manic than anything.

Auggie inhaled, confirming to himself that there was something definitely burning in this room, and it was definitely near Annie. "What are you doing?" he repeated again, slowly. "I know something is burning."

She cursed again, and he had to grin because he loved it whenever she was flustered. He couldn't see the blush on her face, but it sounded endearing. "I didn't think anyone was going to come back to the building at this hour," she mumbled, but his honed ears picked up on it easy.

Truthfully, he hadn't really needed anything in the DPD- sure, he left his jacket here when he agreed to meet Liza at Allen's, but that wasn't anything he couldn't do without for the night. He had been hoping to spend some quality brooding time in his office, thinking over everything Arthur Campbell had told him and what this meant for the CIA. Not to mention what this meant for his job.

As much as he hated admitting it, everything that had happened with Liza had left him feeling… guilty. It was surprising, because it had taken him approximately three seconds to decide to work Liza Hearn for her leak, but after feeding her that bull Arthur had him memorize and her chewing him out at the bar, he needed some time alone.

He didn't particularly like Liza, she was a means to an end, but he heard the genuine hurt in her voice when she called him out on his carefully fabricated lie. He knew that, at the end of the day, this relationship was always destined to end this way, but that didn't stop a small amount of guilt from rearing it's ugly head.

He wasn't going to say any of this to Annie. She didn't like Liza, she didn't like what he was doing to Liza, and she really didn't want to know anything more about Liza than was absolutely necessary. He noticed the way her voice always got tight around the edges whenever someone so much as mentioned Liza Hearn, and he knew he was mostly at fault for that. He wasn't going to purposely upset her after all she'd been through the last month by bringing up Liza.

Auggie leaned against the edge of her desk, and whatever was burning was close to the ground. He could feel the slight rise in temperature near his leg, so he figured it was something in her metal garbage can by her desk. At least he hoped so. Otherwise she was starting a barbeque on the tiles, something he knew Joan would not find amusing.

"Watcha burning?" he tried again, offering a smile he knew other women found charming. "Smells like paper."

"Can you knock off the Saint Bernard nose for two seconds?" she said, but he heard the slight lilt at the end of the question and knew she was smiling. Even if she didn't want to smile.

"I burned Ben's note," she said, the words quiet enough that it took him a few seconds to realize he had heard right.

I burned Ben's note. There it was. Ben, as in Ben Mercer, as in the guy Auggie didn't know existed as anything other than the asshole that left Annie in Sri Lanka up until three weeks ago. As in the same Ben Mercer that turned out to be this major CIA player while Auggie had been busy in Tikrit. As in the major CIA player that went rogue and disappeared off the map for two years.

Right. That Ben.

If Liza had a tendency to raise Annie's blood pressure, Ben was Auggie's version of the same thing. It was true he had more than a strong loathing for Jai Wilcox, but Jai was just a smarmy son of a bitch. Ben had broken Annie's heart into a thousand pieces, and then had the gall to ask her for a favor. A favor that nearly caused her to nearly get thrown in jail.

He wanted his Gripmaster, something to use his hands so he wouldn't think about decking Ben Mercer. His hands were balled in fists, and he knew he was getting rapidly angry as the seconds ticked by, but he didn't let on. He knew how to keep his emotions in check.

"What caused the change of heart?" he said, tone even and relaxed. He tilted his head slightly, ever the good listener.

"It wasn't a change of heart so much as a realization," she said, and he heard a soft tapping- no doubt her short fingernails against the desk. "Ben put me through all kinds of hell, screwed with me some more, and I'm still hanging on to this stupid note he wrote to me two years ago. He could have told me what was going on, what he was doing in Sri Lanka, but he didn't. He just left me in the dust with the idiotic opinion that that would somehow keep me safe. I don't know. I… I don't think I'll ever be able to fully move on if I kept holding on to this letter."

Auggie's eyebrows shot up. "That's… mature of you," he said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "It's good that you realize you need to start moving on." Because it had been two years, and that was a long time. Especially for that jackass.

She chuckled, and he paused long enough to appreciate the sound. She hadn't been laughing much lately, which was a shame because he loved her laugh. "I doubt I'll be going out and dating any time soon, but at least I can say I'm improving. Kind of. Baby steps."

He smirked, and then nodded towards where the smell was wafting. "While this is admittedly a good baby step, I suggest putting that out with some water before you set off the DPD's ultra-sensitive fire alarms, Smokey the Bear."

He heard her smile once more, and then there was the unmistakable sound of a water bottle being uncapped and dumped on the garbage can. "Killjoy," she muttered, standing up. "C'mon, let's head back to Allen's. I feel like a couple of celebratory beers are in order."

"I couldn't agree more," Auggie grinned, happily offering the crook of his arm which she took. She was more tucked into his side than usual, which could have something to do with the beers she'd had earlier, or just their conversation. Either way, he wasn't going to complain with her grapefruit perfume under his nose and her soft body against his.

Ben Mercer didn't know what he was missing.

$4$

This took forever, even though there's not a hell of a lot here to show. I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense, but I really wanted to finish this before I started typing my ep-oneshot to the season finale (because I already have it half-finished in my notebook XD) so I decided to complete this now before my last class of the day and throw it up here, finally.

On the plus side, because there was just SO MUCH going on in the last two episodes, it should only take me a day (possibly even less) to post my final ep-oneshot. Wow. That sounds weird to say, but it's technically true. Not that it's gonna stop my writing in any way, shape, or form. On the plus side, now that the season is over, I think I may see if I can start a multi-chaptered fic. I don't know how that'll work, but my fingers are crossed. ;)