Title: Duck and Cover

Author: Beth Pryor

Rating: T

Summary: What started as Sunday afternoon thought from Auggie has taken on a life of its own. Implies Auggie/Annie relationship post Season 3. Auggie's family and Joan will feature. Originally inspired by The Lumineers "Stubborn Love" playing at the end of Episode 3.02, but also taking cues from The Band Perry's "End of Time."

Disclaimer: Covert Affairs and its characters belong to the USA Network.

A/N: I entered the first part of this into the "I Write Like" Analyzer and it gave me William Shakespeare. Go figure. I usually get Stephen King.


Chapter 1

Before Annie. After Annie. That's how he now found himself dividing his life into sections. It hadn't always been that way. There had been other, bigger events in his life. Obviously. But somehow the significance of other things faded, paled in comparison to the light she brought his life.

He tried not to think about how much anguish he could have spared them both after Barcelona if he'd just taken her into his arms in the safe house and kissed the shit out of her. What if they'd both followed Joan out of the terminal at Dulles that day and had driven to a B&B in West Virginia for the weekend? But no. He'd gone to find Parker and she'd fallen for Simon.

Fallen. That word seemed about right. Maybe they both needed to hit rock bottom before they could find one another? Prison, jail – Russian and Metro alike would fit most people's description of rock bottom.

Then there was Amsterdam. Auggie nearly missed coming to her rescue, but he made it. Just in time to help her rescue Eyal. Just in time to hear her smile as she embraced another man. He'd heard her smile like that at Ben. Until Ben left her; then she stopped smiling. He thought he could make her smile like that forever if she'd let him. God knows they'd caused each other enough sleepless nights over the years. It would be a relief to know the she was sleeping on the other side of the bed, if for nothing other than peace of mind.

Right. Peace of mind. That was all he was looking for. Auggie laughed out loud in his empty apartment. Piece of ass plus a piece of her heart equals peace of mind? He'd never been a fan of word problems, especially stupid ones that relied on cheesy homophones.

This Sunday morning with Annie at an out-of-town conference for her Smithsonian cover left him with entirely too much time to think. Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals had gone into overtime, and this time the Bruins had sneaked one past his Blackhawks. He'd spent most of the morning in bed nursing his hockey hangover. Meet The Press had been over for hours before he roused himself for a shower. As he toweled off, he sought an activity to fill the rest of his day and quiet his racing mind. Undoubtedly something was going on around town, but he didn't feel like navigating. He'd spent Saturday at the office and had actually made it to the bottom of his inbox for once. Groceries had been delivered on Thursday, so he really didn't even need to go out for food.

He welcomed his phone's chirping on the bedside table alerting him that he had a voicemail. He hadn't heard it ring, but he'd been playing it loud in the bathroom. No one really needed to know that it had been the new Justin Timberlake album. He didn't have to listen to top shelf jazz all the time. He tapped the screen and the phone informed him the message came from his brother Brendan. Auggie listened to the request to call back when he had the chance. He instructed the phone to redial the number, and a few seconds later, Brendan answered.

"Auggie!" His brother answered with more excitement that Auggie had expected from the short message.

"What's up, Bren?"

"Not a whole lot today. What do you have going on this week?"

"Um, work I guess. Nothing too important, though." Auggie had read Brendan and his wife Dana in on the fact that he wasn't just a software engineer a couple of Christmases ago. "Why? What do you need?"

"I got Game 5 tickets. The company has a box and nobody in the Front Office could go. One of the marketing guys had them, but his kid broke his elbow or something yesterday and he just called to see if I wanted them."

"Wow. That's great. You and the boys will have a good time." Auggie wasn't sure how this news impacted him.

"No, Aug. That's why I'm calling. The boys are at lacrosse camp. Don't even ask about that one. Now apparently I'm going to have to pay for them to go to Duke or UVA or Johns Hopkins or something instead of living off the NHL money."

Auggie laughed. Brendan's 15-year-old twin sons had always been talented athletes, and hockey had been by far their best sport. Brendan and Dana often joked about the boys becoming professional athletes and taking care of them, but they obviously wanted their kids to be happy.

Brendan continued. "I was calling to see if you can come out next weekend for the game. I mean, I totally understand if you can't, and I'm sure I'd be able to find someone else who'd want to go, but I wanted to ask you first."

Auggie closed his eyes as he sat down on the bed. "I'd love to Brendan. Let me check on a few things, but if there's any way I can swing it, I will. Can I call you back in a few hours?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Take your time. I could ask Troy on Saturday afternoon and he'd say yes I'm sure," Brendan said, indicating their older brother's love of the Blackhawks and getting away from his wife's weekend "Honey Do" lists.

Both brothers laughed before Auggie spoke. "I'm sure you're right about that. Somehow Leah always lets him come back home after he bails on her big plans, though."

"Yeah, don't let him fool you. He was off on Friday and spent the past two days making a stone path to her meditation garden or whatever she calls that thing in the backyard with the koi pond. The dog always eats the fish. It's a mess."

Auggie laughed again. He remembered the love in Troy's eyes when he'd announced to his brothers that he was going to ask Leah to marry him. Auggie heard that same devotion in his brother's voice when he talked about his wife of more than 10 years or their three kids to this very day.

They talked for a few more minutes before Auggie begged off the phone to try to arrange a trip home. He'd visited for about two days over Christmas, but he loved the idea of spending the weekend with Brendan, the brother with whom he had the closest relationship and with Dana who had been a classmate and close friend of Auggie's all through school.

He tugged on a t-shirt a pair of sweat pants before ambling toward the office and taking a look over his schedule. His fingers skimmed over the keyboard as the agenda scrolled beneath them. As he had remembered, nothing too important or pressing appeared. He searched for a flight out and found options on Thursday and Friday. He didn't want to wear out his welcome, but he was starting to think like a long weekend was just what he needed.

His next task was to call Joan. It could have waited until tomorrow, but dollars to doughnuts, she'd be at the office. He rang through to her direct number. She answered on the second ring.

"I thought I might see you here today," was her greeting.

"I got through everything yesterday. That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about, though."

"Oh?"

"My brother called and asked me to come out next weekend. I think I'm going to make a few days of it, if you can spare me."

Other than his yearly jaunt to Istanbul, he never asked for time off. She had to have him removed from the building in 2009 when he had H1N1. Joan wished he'd get away more often.

"Sure. We'll figure it out. Stu and Barber are around, and I can rustle up someone from Tech Ops if we need to." They would be able to function without him, but Joan also knew that he needed to be needed.

"You're sure?"

"Of course. You need some Midwest recharging and maybe some space from us."

"Us?"

"Oh, you know, to whomever that applies."

"Are you really going to make this the time that we talk about this? On the phone?"

"We could grab a bite. I could meet you somewhere?"

"Joan," he started to protest the entire conversation.

"I know, I know," she stopped him. "Arthur's golfing with some members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Corker and Kaine, I think. Maybe somebody from the NSA, too. That's going to be a long day."

Auggie was glad he didn't have to be a part of that foursome. He considered Joan's offer. "I actually haven't eaten anything yet. And it is what, 2:30?"

"Almost 3, actually. Where do you want to meet?"

"What are you in the mood for?"

"It's a gorgeous day. Something outside. Maybe that Belgian café on Florida?"

"Why don't you meet me here and we'll decide. You can park in my spot. It's open."

"I'll be there in about an hour."

TBC