The first thing an agent does when given a new mission is to try and asses the situation. I knew that I was laying on something soft, and that my head was resting on something hard. I tried to open my eyes. Black, still only black. I briefly wondered if this is what Auggie felt like when he woke up in the morning.

"Annie? Annie? You need to wake up. Agent Singermann is here and he needs to look you over." Joan's voice rang out softly in the room we were in and I tried to open my eyes once more. Light poured in and I quickly shut my eyes again. "Annie." I slowly opened my eyes again only to find Auggie leaning over my form. From his angle, I surmised that the hard surface my head had been resting on were his legs. I would never tell him, but his face was covered in worry. More worry than I had ever seen on his face before. Looking closely I could make out the slight red of his eyes and the tears that had, probably not long ago, clung to his lashes. The sight made my heart hurt the the memory of why I was currently on the couch. Because I lost control after the phone call...

I slowly looked to my right. The window that separated Joan's office from the rest of the DPD was crowded by people who had stayed late and were obviously wondering what was going on. Joan must have noticed what I was looking at because she turned around to face the crowd and shooed the agents away.

"I am going to start handing out assignments to the Yukon, people. Scatter." the group outside the window quickly dispersed and Joan turned back to me.

"Annie? How are you feeling?" Joan, ever the proficient CIA employee, still sounded like my boss; but a slight shift in her voice sounded her concern. She may look hard, but when something was wrong with her agents, she turned into a mother bear. I tried to sit up but a pounding in my head halted my efforts and I laid my head back on Auggie's legs.

"I feel like I've been hit with a sledge hammer," I lightly rubbed my head in an effort to ease the pain. "Did I hit my head?"

"Once you blacked out you started to fall faster than I was anticipating. Sorry." Auggie had a worried look on his face as he apologized. I smiled and grabbed one of his hands that had been on my shoulder and squeezed.

"Thanks anyway, Auggie." I turned to look at Joan again and this time saw the man that was standing next to her. He looked to be in his sixties with smile lines around his mouth and a head full of ginger hair that had almost turned completely gray. One of the only men in the CIA to look like he should be standing being the counter at a mom and pop toy store instead of checking in on downed operatives.

"Agent Walker,"He spoke as he walked towards me, "My name is Agent Singermann. Joan asked me to come and take a look at you. We just want to make sure that everything is in fine working order." He knelt down next to the couch and produced a small flashlight from his pocket. "Can you sit up so I can check your pupil dilation?"

I slowly pulled myself into a sitting position, wincing only slightly at the pain the movement caused.

"Auggie?" I asked as Agent Singermann finished with my eyes and moved to take my blood pressure, "What did the hospital say about the girls?" I stared straight ahead, unable to focus my eyes on anything.

"Katia has only a couple of scratches on her. Maybe a bruise or two. Chloe..." He stopped and seemed to be pulling himself together a little bit. "Her left leg is broken along with some ribs. She was unconscious when they got to the scene. Katia was awake the entire time. They had to give her something to help her get to sleep."

I felt my heart constrict painfully. The thought of being my niece and what she must have been going through while waiting for someone to come and help her family had me closing my eyes to try and gain some control over my emotions.

"Okay. Agent Walker, it looks like your collapse was caused by a combination of your low blood sugar and the hyperventilation you went into with the shock of your phone call." Agent Singermann handed me an apple and a juice box before picking up his tools and standing. "Joan tells me that you need to get to GW as soon as possible. But once you are there, I want you to sit down and rest. Drink the juice, eat the apple. Try to eat an actual meal when you get there. Other than a large headache and possibly a pain behind the eyes, I declare that you are physically healthy to return to active duty." And with that, Agent Singermann briskly walked from the room, leaving me with Joan and Auggie.

"Joan, I-" I stopped and swallowed before slowly standing. "I am the only relative that the girls have in town at the moment. I'm going to need a couple of days off work-" Joan walked up to me and put her hand on my shoulder.

"Annie. I have already contacted HR about your company issued bereavement leave. I'm sending Auggie with you to George Washington. We'll talk when you get back." Joan looked back at Auggie, who was standing just behind me, before looking me in the eyes. Her face softened. "Go and make sure that when those girls wake up, you are in the room. This is going to be very hard for them."

The walls of the Children's Ward at GW hospital were covered in brightly lit construction paper portraying sunny hills and children running around with smiles on their faces. Brightly colored floor tiles littered the walkway in front of me. I felt Auggie squeeze my arm.

At the fork in the hallway laid the nurses station, and after a quick conversation with the nurse behind the computer, Auggie and I were standing at the door of the girls' room. A large window looked out over the District. In the bed closest to where Auggie and I stood, where I expected to find one of my young nieces, the bed covers were heavily rumpled and pushed to the foot of the bed and my niece was gone. I looked to the next bed, and saw Chloe and Katia, cuddled up together. Chloe was on her back, leg raised in the air and covered in a cast while Katia was clearly holding onto her sister tightly. Both were asleep.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Auggie piped up at my side.

"Yeah." I led Auggie into the room and sat him down in on the chairs next to the window sighing as I took the seat next to him.

"How's your head?" Auggie asked.

"I still have some pain, but most of it is gone now." Auggie shifted in his seat, reaching for something in his vest pocket before pulling out a travel pack of Aspirin, then he bent and pulled a bottle of water out of his backpack. I let out a small chuckle. "I forgot that you used to be a boy scout. Always be prepared." Auggie smiled and handed me the supplies which I took with gratitude.

"It's better coming from me than from the hospital. They charge four dollars a packet."

"And how is it that you know how much they cost?" I opened the package and swallowed the pills, chasing them down with a mouthful of water.

"I had a lot of headaches when I woke up in the hospital after the accident." The room turned silent. After several minutes Auggie spoke again. "Do you know if the hospital called Moira?"

"I-uh... I should go check. Will you be okay waiting here?" Auggie nodded.

Back at the nurses station several of the nurses were standing around in a circle.

"-And they found there wasn't a Tern left un-stoned!" Laughter filled the air as one of the more matronly looking nurses finished her joke. The nurse who had helped me earlier was nowhere in site and I waited patiently for one of the nurses to notice I was there.

"Excuse me?" I barley recognized my voice it was so small. The nurse who had told the joke noticed me and hurried over.

"I am so sorry darlin'. What can I help you with?" Her slight southern accent added to her cheerful demeanor.

"My nieces are in room 315,"A look of sadness washed over the happy nurses face, telling me that they new exactly what had happened, "And I was wondering who else was on my sisters contact information?"

The nurse looked down at her computer. "One moment." she typed a little and then looked back up at me. "Looks like you and a Richard Brooks were the only ones listed on your sisters emergency contact card. Was there supposed to be someone else listed?"

"No, thank you." I started to turn when her voice made me stop.

"All of us here were real sorry to hear that those angels lost both of their parents in one night. We just want you to know that we are all prayin' for you." I smiled and thanked the nurse before turning towards the waiting area. I had a phone call to make.

I dialed my mothers phone number and waited several rings for her to answer.

"Annie, I haven't heard from you in seven months and you choose to call me in the middle of the Bachelor. You have always had the worst timing. This better be good." I waiting a second before answering. What was I supposed to say to that. Thanks Mom, I miss you too?

"I have to tell you something mom." I kept my voice low, hoping she would notice that now was not the time to lecture me about my inability to call at a time that was convenient, but her voice turned sour.

"You better not be stuck in some third world country jail. I will tell them to keep you this time."

"Mom...Danielle, Michael, and the girls were in a car accident. I'm at George Washington Hospital. You need to come to DC." I told her in a rush. I head her suck in a large breath. Her next words quivered.

"Is everyone okay?" She asked.

"Excuse me, miss?" An orderly caught my attention and gestured for me to head towards the elevators, "No cell phones in the hospital, please." I nodded my head as I moved to the elevators.

"Mom-" I stopped to keep my voice from shaking. Somehow, telling someone else what had happened was making it all the more real. I was having trouble keeping back the tears. "Danielle and Michael both died in the accident."

"I'm on my way." The line went dead.

I meandered back towards the girl's room and silently took my seat next to Auggie.

"Moira is on her way. I have ten hours, tops, before she comes marching into Washington with saddles blazing." I let my head fall onto Auggie's shoulder.

"How are you holding up?" He asked, feeling for the remote and turning the tv off.

"Sorry, I'm just exhausted. It's been such a long day." I could feel Auggie's cheeks move against the top of my head and I knew he was smiling a sad smile.

"Shock will do that to a person."

I sighed. "That's never happened to me before Auggie. I just, I couldn't breath anymore. My lungs just wouldn't let me... and I panicked." I looked up at his face from my place on his shoulder. "Has that ever happened to you? From what I hear you were one of the best field agents that the agency had ever seen." Auggie bit his lip in deep thought. As he mused over his answer, I took the opportunity to study his face.

I guess most people would think that you would have all the time in the world to look at a blind person. But Auggie always seemed to know when I was looking at him for long periods of time. There was just something about Auggie's face that was begging me to stare. I had seen some handsome men before, so Auggie was nothing new. Since we had first started working together I had come to notice that wrinkles and worry lines etching their way onto his face, setting in deeper than the ones his age allowed. I guess with an operative like me working with him and being his best friend, it was bound to happen.

Joan had told me that despite the worry lines, Auggie was happier than she had seen him since his accident. I was giving him a link to the outside like no other operative had and providing endless amusement in the process.

Auggie's brown eyes were something of a mystery to me. There were times while talking that I would almost swear that he knew where I was and was looking right at me. I would notice his eyes darting around the room searching for the direction that the sound of my heals were coming from. His eyes still illustrated all the habits of a sighted man.

Auggie shifted slightly and let go of his lip.

"Bogota, Columbia. Three years before the accident. I was supposed to secure a safe house where the agency was going to be placing a drug cartel contact that we had turned. There were complications... The man and his three children were taken out before I could even blink. They almost took me off of field work. Almost..." Auggie smiled slightly before letting his head drop onto mine and he placed a slight kiss on the side of my head. I relaxed. And sometime after midnight, Auggie and I had finally fallen asleep sharing memories that we had about Danielle and Michael.

I was roused from a deep sleep by a small hand shaking my shoulder.

"Aunt Annie?" I opened my eyes and came face to face with Katia. I sat up straight, rousing Auggie when the weight of my head was no longer felt.

Katia was soon in my lap, her arms circling around my neck and holding on tightly. Soft sobbing noises could be heard coming from the vicinity of her face. I folded my arms around her and squeezed, cooing soothing sounds to try and comfort her.

"They said that Mom and Dad aren't coming back. Mom told me that everything was going to be okay. Dad was just asleep, but we were going to be okay. Who's going to take care of us now?" I could feel the ache in my chest from earlier. These girls were supposed to feel safe, play dress up, and they had the right to have their parents while growing up. They shouldn't have to worry about who would take care of them.

"Katia, do you really think your Aunt Annie or I wouldn't take care of you?" Auggie slowly brushed one of his hands through Katia's hair as he too soothed her. "You need to get back to sleep Katia." Auggie and I started to rise at the same time but the girl in my arms tightened her hold and she caught Auggie's arm.

"I want to stay with you."

"How about I take you back to your bed and lay down with you Katia, and if you want, I am sure that Auggie will let you hold his hand while you sleep?" I was suddenly thankful for my training that required me to think of conflict resolution quickly.

After Katia had nodded her consent to our new plan, I laid the her on her own bed, and after explaining to the terrified girl that I would return once I had moved Auggie's chair to between the beds so that he could hold her hand and Chloe's if she woke up, we were all set. My arm draped over the little girl; Her hand holding tightly to Auggie's as she fell asleep.