A/N: Hi all, this is my first CA fic, just a little oneshot that started poking me in the brain a week or two ago, and refused to stop till I wrote it down. It feels a little dissociated to me, but that's just how some of my oneshots come out. I hope you like it anyway. I rated this T, but there is one F-bomb in there, so be warned.

Reviews are love, please take a moment and let me know if you liked this (or if you think I should stop mangling the characters we all love so much). Concrit is welcome and always appreciated.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, these characters are not mine, I just like to play with them. Please don't sue me.

Inevitable

Captain August Anderson woke slowly, stifling a groan as he processed the throbbing headache pulsing from his temples to the base of his skull. He kept his eyes closed, dreading the glare of light that would undoubtedly cause the pain to spike. What the hell had happened? This was worse than any hangover he could remember, and he was pretty sure he hadn't been drinking last night. Breathing slowly, he began to register observations about his environment. He was laying on his back on a relatively soft surface, but it didn't feel like his bunk. He could hear the beeping of monitors, and soft voices murmuring around him. He could smell antiseptic and latex. Seemed to add up to the base hospital. How the hell had he wound up here? Trying to will away the ache in his head, he became aware of the assorted other painful areas over his body. His arm and legs felt stiff and sore. When he took a deep breath, there was a twinge in his left side that spoke of bruised or broken ribs. He tried to put together the memory of what had happened. Bits and pieces started to float back to him.

The mission, the humvee, the dead dog, the explosion. His unit.

It hit him in a rush. They had all been right at the center of the blast. Had any of them survived? Were they here with him? Headache be damned, he tried to open his eyes, to take stock of things; but it seemed that he was unable to. Lifting a hand to his face, he expected to feel gauze wrapped around his eyes; but there were only a few bandages taped to his cheek, his forehead, his neck. He tried again to open his eyes, and though the world stayed dark, his fingertips felt the fluttering of his eyelashes. He blinked, and he felt the flutter again, but the world was still black around him. He felt his pulse quicken. Something was wrong. Was it the middle of the night? He should still be able to see the lights of the monitors. His stomach clenched and his chest tightened. His breathing got shallow as his lungs felt constricted by the fear that was welling up inside of him. He focused all his energy, all his concentration, on his eyes, willing them to detect some light.

Auggie was so intent on trying to get his eyes to see, that he didn't notice the nurse approaching him. So when a hand landed on his shoulder and a friendly feminine voice bid him good morning, he nearly jumped out of his skin. He couldn't hold in the tiny yelp that she startled out of him. His eyes opened wide, desperately searching, scanning, trying to see who was there with him, trying to see ANYTHING.

"What's going on?" The words were out of his mouth before he had a chance to school the fear out of his voice. There was a pause before the voice responded to him.

"You're back on base, captain. What's the last thing you remember?" Auggie took a breath to try and steady his voice before he spoke again. First things first.

"Explosion. Where's the rest of my unit? Are they ok? And why the fuck can't I see?" Auggie decided he'd forgive himself for the desperation that had wormed back into his tone.

"You can't see?" The puzzled tone made his stomach drop. The medical professionals should know what was going on. "I just came on shift, let me go get the doctor, ok?"

Something was wrong. His friends were dead, and he was blind. Auggie had never been a pessimist (in fact, usually quite the opposite), but he couldn't ignore the twisting in his gut that told him that things were about as wrong as they could be. He closed his eyes and pretended for a moment that the darkness was his own choice. He forced himself to take even, steady breaths, his pulse dropped closer to it's usual tempo, and he could again attend to the environment through his working senses. Shortly, he heard the slight squeak of shoes on floor, and he did not jump when the doctor spoke from next to his shoulder.

"Nurse Trapper tells me you're finally awake, Captain Anderson." Auggie opened his eyes, though it made no difference to him. "She also tells me you say you can't see anything." Suddenly, Auggie didn't want to talk about it, didn't want to think about it, and sure as hell didn't want the doctor to examine him and say that it was permanent.

"Where's my squad?"

"Your CO is on his way here now to talk about that. In the meantime, let's worry about your vision," the doctor said, not missing a beat.

"So they're dead," Auggie said. It wasn't a question, and the doctor didn't try to respond, just went back to the medical problem at hand. The doctor said nothing for a moment, though Auggie heard the rustling of clothes and figured the man was probably shining a pen light into his eyes.

"Can you see anything? Any light, or shadows?" Auggie sighed. No escaping the inevitable.

"Nothing. Black."

Auggie Anderson woke slowly, stifling a yawn as he stretched out his limbs. He kept his eyes closed as he turned to his left side, resting his forehead against the warm body sleeping there. He heard the rhythmic breathing of his bed-partner, and smelled the barest hint of yesterday's grapefruit perfume that still clung to her neck. Even through the early-morning fuzziness of his brain, he remembered well the events of last night.

The bar, the ride home, the discussion, the sex. Annie.

Annie was here with him, and he felt better than he had in years. His mind wandered, and he could still feel the ghosts of her touches on his cheek, his forehead, his neck. He smiled as he let himself drift through the heady memories. Annie was a take-charge kind of woman, and she was no different in the bedroom. As they had shed clothing and stumbled towards the bed, their passion had turned into a game of one-upsmanship. As if every bit of pleasure he gave her was a challenge that she needed to rise to, to make him feel even better. Never one to back down, he would, of course, then take it to the next level. In the end, Auggie would call it a tie, knowing that both of them had won.

Annie stirred in her sleep, bringing Auggie momentarily back to the present, warm, comfortable. And then his mind wandered back again. He went back over the content of their conversation last night; how they had come to count on each other for so many things, big and small. How each recognized that the other was attractive, in so many ways beyond appearance. How they always seemed to reach out to one another, how much they had come to trust each other in a life where trust was a precious commodity indeed. They had become indispensable to each other almost without realizing it. They had grown inexorably closer as weeks and months and years had gone by. Friendship, trust, attraction, love, passion, all leading them to only one destination.

And there was no escaping the inevitable.

fin