Thank you for the amazing feedback on chapter 1. So glad so many of you liked it! :o)
Here's the second chapter - hope you like that too. I've written it from Auggie's POV - but we also get more insight into Annie's thoughts.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Annie, Auggie or Covert Affairs.
-2-
Auggie woke up with a start. Annie was tossing and turning on the opposite side of the bed, mumbling some incoherent words. It was obvious that she was having a nightmare. After a moment's hesitation he scooted closer and found her shoulder with his hand.
"Annie, wake up," he said softly, trying not to startle her. A few moments later he heard her inhale sharply.
"Auggie…I'm sorry…did I wake you?"
"It's okay, c'mere," he said as he pulled her closer to him. She hesitated for a second before she settled in with her back against her stomach and allowed him to wrap his arm around her. Auggie felt her relax and soon she drifted off to sleep.
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Auggie savored having Annie in his arms again. Just as he remembered they fit together perfectly; like two pieces of a puzzle. It felt right and oh-so-wrong at the same time. Before they'd gone to bed he'd repeated his offer to take the couch, but Annie had firmly declined and insisted that his king size bed was plenty big enough for the both of them. When they'd gone to bed they'd deliberately left plenty of space between them. He knew Annie had been through a lot over the past few months and they hadn't been easy for him either. It hadn't been too hard to put on the act of the grieving boyfriend, he'd missed Annie a lot and he hated that he didn't have any way to contact her. The uncertainty had been hard to deal with and he was upset with Annie for not reading him in on her plans. The grief he'd experienced over the days between the shooting in Frankfurt and Calder's read in had brought Auggie to a state of mind he hadn't experienced since the early days after the explosion that had taken his sight. When Calder had finally read him in he'd been relieved to find out that Annie was alive, but also upset that he'd allowed her to go dark with only one-way communication.
Annie slept through most of the first week after she arrived back in DC. She was completely exhausted both physically and emotionally from everything she had been through over the past few months and all the uncertainties in her life were overwhelming. After a couple of days she started to get up in the morning to have coffee with Auggie before he left for work. Some days he managed to persuade her to eat a bowl of cereal or yoghurt, but it worried him that she didn't eat much. She felt leaner than he remembered and he had a feeling that she hadn't eaten much lately. He wished he could take a few days off, but the debriefs after Hong Kong were still ongoing and everyone involved had been firmly informed that any requests for time off would be denied until the process was completed.
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It was early evening by the time Auggie was dismissed from his last meeting on Friday. He called his car service as made his way down to his desk in the basement IT-department to switch the laser cane with his white cane. He was pleasantly surprised when the car service was waiting for him when he came out of the building 10 minutes later. Once he was settled in the passenger seat he pulled out his cellphone and dialed his landline number. He wasn't surprised when he got his answering machine.
"Annie, it's me. Please pick up." After a few beats of silence he was about to hang up when she picked up the phone.
"Hey, I just came out of the shower," she said, sounding a bit out of breath. "On your way home?"
"Yeah, I just got into the car, so I'm about half an hour out. What do you want to do for dinner? I can pick up some takeout on the way."
"I'm actually a bit hungry. How do you feel about Thai?"
"If you're game I'm game. Green curry with chicken?"
"You know me too well."
"Call in the order and I'll pick it up, okay?"
"Will do. I'll set the table. See you soon," Annie replied before she ended the call.
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Little over an hour later they had finished their dinner and Auggie was pleased that Annie's appetite seemed to be coming back.
"Have you thought about what you want to do? Are you still set on resigning when you meet with Calder on Monday?" Auggie asked as he handed Annie a mug of coffee and sat down in the armchair across from where she was curled up on the couch. She took it from him and cradled it in her hands.
"I don't know. I mean…I didn't really let myself believe that I'd ever be back…"
"But you made it. You took down Henry, Annie."
"I know, but I just feel like I don't know who I am anymore…" Annie's voice trailed off and she had a sip of her coffee before she carried on. "And I definitely don't know if I want to stay with the Agency after everything that's happened. Maybe it's time to move on and do something else. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable to work for a company that presented me with an award for killing someone."
"Henry Wilcox was a traitor, Annie. And he was behind so much shit. I think killing him was the only way to stop him. He managed to weasel his way out of jail after being sentenced for treason once. I wouldn't have put it past him to do it again."
"But still…to present me an award for killing him. And a promotion; a place on some sort of an elite team…"
"Wow! Calder offered you a spot on one of the deep cover teams?"
"Yeah. He said that I've done such a good job since going dark and he wants me to keep working deep cover."
"It's a great opportunity. Only the best of the best are offered spots on these teams."
"It's not for me Auggie. That's the one thing I'm certain about after these past few months. I need my friends and family. I can't live like that. I just can't."
"I get that. I have a feeling there's more to it though…"
"It's not only about these past few months… Last year was hard too...Lena shot Simon and me…I almost died and then I spent weeks in a Russian prison…" Annie's voice rose. "And when I got back from Russia wasn't allowed any time to decompress, I was sent right into the Khalid mission… I just don't know if I can go through something like that again. And if I go back to work as a field operative there's always a risk…"
To be continued...
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