Disclaimer: I don't own Auggie, or Annie, or Covert Affairs.

A/N Please let me know what you think, good or bad :)

Annie knocked on the door of Auggie's apartment.

"It's open," came Auggie's voice from inside. He sounded miserable. Something was definitely wrong. Annie turned the handle and walked into the pitch black apartment.

"Any lights in this place? I realize that some of us don't need them but I'm really one of those girls who likes to keep the lights on." Her voice had a slight teasing quality, but she soon realized Auggie was not in the mood for their usual lighthearted banter.

"Left-hand side of the door." Auggie's words were short and clipped. When she hit the light switch she turned to see him gazing in her general direction despondently. There were dark shadows under his eyes as if he had not slept in days and he had clearly not shaved in a while either judging by the darker areas on his face. The glimmer of humor his eyes usually held were missing entirely, replaced by a cold, bitter, anger. She hoped that anger was not directed at her. She hesitated for a minute before closing the door behind her and taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch from Auggie. Usually she felt completely comfortable around him but this was a side of her best friend she had not seen before and she did not know how to predict his actions.

"Auggie...whats wrong?" Her question hung in the air for a while as Auggie tried to decide how to respond. Usually he wouldn't unburden these sort of feelings and thoughts on anyone but it was Annie – if anyone could accept whatever he threw at them, it was her. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Lifting his head from his hands he turned to her and laughed. Not his usual lighthearted chuckle, this was a hard and angry laugh. It scared her.

"Everything! My whole life! This was not what I wanted it to be. And there is nothing I can do to change that! No matter how hard I work people like you and Jai are always going to be the ones who get the exciting field work handed to them on a silver platter and I'm stuck behind a desk trying to imagine what it would be like to feel that rush of adrenaline again. I'm trapped Annie. Trapped in a body which has turned against me and refuses to work. Trapped in a position that was never what I had dreamed of spending my life doing. Trapped in the walls at Langley doing the same insipid things each day, researching and handling other people while they get to live the life I wanted. And I'm sick of it. I can't do this anymore." By the end of his speech Auggie was standing in the middle of the room, body turned towards her, yelling. Annie flinched at the frustration in his voice, and his open jealousy of the experiences and field work her and Jai were able to do cut her personally as she felt his anger at least partially directed at her. But he was her best friend and he needed her. She stood up and put her hand on his arm.

"Auggie. You are the best handler any field agent could ever dream of. I know its not what you had wanted to do but we couldn't do our jobs without you. I need you when I'm out there, having your voice in my ear is the only way I can convince myself to keep going when op's go wrong. You are the best at what you do and everyone respects you for it." Auggie threw her hand off his arm. Although part of him wanted nothing more than to pull her closer.

"It's not enough. Not anymore. I want to be out there in the field protecting you, not sitting in the air-conditioned office drinking coffee talking to you while guys like Jai storm in and rescue you. You're my best friend and if anything ever happened to you it would be completely my own fault for not being there. I hate being so useless. I hate that you're out there doing field work and I'm grounded like a rebellious teenager. I have to sneak out of Langley and go behind Joan's back just to get any action. I don't want to do this anymore. I just want to quit my job and go do something fun with my life that does not involve earpieces."

He dragged her out of bed in the middle of the night to tell her he was leaving her? Annie felt her own hurt feelings begin to rise. After the way Ben had treated her there was no way another guy was going to get away with abandoning her.

"Seriously Auggie, pull yourself together and stop throwing a pity party. I'm SORRY you can't have the life you had imagined, but just for the record, things aren't so easy for the rest of us either. You're being selfish. I need you when I'm out on the field but hey, apparently that's not enough for you. I'm not enough for you. So why on earth did you call me in the middle of the night saying you didn't want to be alone when all you want is clearly to push away anyone who could possibly make you feel less lonely? I'm your best friend, I'm not your therapist. Stop using me as your emotional punching bag. I'm going home."

Annie stormed out the door leaving a furious and bewildered Auggie standing in his living room wondering what had just happened. His already hurting emotions combined with the beer in his system and he yelled after her,

"Fine, be that way, I just wanted some sympathy but I guess that's too much to ask for from my best friend. In fact, you know what, screw you, you were only pulled from the farm because you could pass for a call girl anyway. I'll just find someone else more willing to comfort me." He heard Annie's footsteps stop in the hallway, heard her gasp in shock at the words he had just thrown at her so carelessly, then her patented kitten heels clicked quickly and angrily to the elevator as she left his building without saying another word to him.