READERS: THIS IS A REWRITE OF THE STORY, NOT A NEW CHAPTER. EXPLANATION FOLLOWS IN THE AUTHORS NOTE.
This story was thrown together rather quickly. I'm currently vacationing in Barcelona, and the story came together after watching the episode. It was written and posted within a couple of hours. A review and a couple of PM's triggered this re-write.

Also; I've recieved a couple of PM's from readers that think it's a bad thing that Auggie is keeping Annie in the friendship zone, that he should have an epiphany of sorts and realize he loves her. It just doesn't work for me. His fiancé that he was deeply in love with just dumped him and I just don't see him getting into a relationship, other than friendship, with anyone right now. Auggie needs Annie as a friend, and maybe they'll eventually end up in a relationship? Who knows?

I don't want to delete the first version, so I'm leaving it and adding this re-write as a second chapter. The teasers for the next episode have triggered an idea for what might happen next, I might write it out and add another chapter to this tale. That is yet to be decided though, and probably won't happen until I get home next week. I don't want to spend my entire vacation in my hotel room, writing fan-fiction. ;o)

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

-A Shoulder To Cry On - version 2.0-

Annie just got back to her house when her phone started to ring. She looked at the screen, a withheld number. For a second she considered not picking it up but something told her to. For some reason she had a feeling it might have something to do with Auggie. He had sounded kind of off when he called her and asked her to have beers at Allen's with him at lunchtime. Not to mention that having beers at lunchtime was strange period. Auggie was supposed to be at work, not at Allen's, but at the time she'd been so preoccupied with the mission, Rossabi and Simon, that she hadn't really had a chance to think about it. She'd had to focus on the task at hand.

"Hello?"

"Annie, it's Augge. I need your help." He sounded terrible, almost like he'd been crying.

"Auggie, what's wrong? What's going on?" Annie's attention was immediately on high alert. Even though she'd been a bit heartbroken when she found out that Auggie was proposing to Parker he was still her best friend and confidante. Despite being in a serious relationship he'd never waivered the role and Annie wanted him to be happy.

"I've been arrested. I'm being released now. Could you please come pick me up and take me home? I really don't feel like dealing with a cabdriver."

All thoughts of Simon, Danielle, Lena's dismissal or anything else was wiped from Annie's head. This was Auggie, her best friend, and he obviously needed her. She wondered what on earth Auggie had done to get himself arrested. It was a phone call she'd never expected to get from Auggie. Before she could think about anything else she grabbed her bag and headed for her car.

An hour later they were both in Annie's car, on their way to Auggie's place. Auggie was slumped in the passenger seat with his head hanging, clutching a plastic bag with his personal belongings; iPhone, wallet, belt and cane, in his right hand. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was more of a mess than usual. He felt so embarrassed about the whole mess at Allen's and as much as part of him wanted no one to know about the incident he also needed the support of his best friend. He knew he had rough times ahead.

"Auggie, are you going to tell me what happened? Why you got arrested?" Annie didn't want to push it, but at the same time she wanted to know what the hell had happened.

Auggie sighed. He was tired, heartbroken, a hangover was starting to pound in the back of his head and he was hungry. He realized he hadn't had anything to eat since lunch the previous day.

"Long story," he sighed. "Can we talk about it over food at my place? I'm starving. Binge drinking on an empty stomach wasn't the best idea I've ever had."

"Okay, I'll call for a pizza delivery right now. It should arrive not long after we get there. Is that okay with you?"

"As long as it's food I don't care," Auggie replied. Annie called Domino's and ordered a large double pepperoni pizza, Auggie's favorite hangover-cure food. They rode the rest of the way to his apartment in silence.

"I guess I owe you an explanation," Auggie said after wolfing down a couple of slices of pizza. He felt a bit better after getting some food in his stomach and he just wanted to get the story off his chest.

"You don't owe me anything, but I can't help but wonder why you got arrested Auggie."

"Long story short is that Parker dumped me this morning, well last night really. I decided it was a good idea to drown my sorrows in beer and Patron and this asshole at Allen's pissed me off. I smashed a bottle on his head," Auggie stated flatly.

"You did what?" Annie's voice was laced with shock.

"It was a fucking stupid thing to do, I was just so damn emotional at the moment and this guy really pushed all the wrong buttons. I let my temper get away with me." Auggie raked a hand through his hair in frustration. He didn't look forward to facing Arthur in the morning, he knew he was in trouble. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"What happened with Parker?" Annie asked quietly. "You proposed, right?"

That question opened the floodgates and the full story tumbled out of Auggie. He couldn't keep it in any longer.

"Yeah, on the beach in Eritrea. She accepted, happily actually. Surprised me by going on about how many kids we'd have, a boy first and two girls. She was excited. She'd obviously been thinking about a future with me." His thoughts floated back to when Parker had said that they'd have a son first, a little Auggie that would be just like his dad. How he'd casually asked "Blind?" and Parker had replied "Amazing". It had truly been one of the happiest moments of his life. It had shown him that him being blind didn't matter to Parker. Just like it didn't matter to Annie.

"Oh, well that's good, right?" Annie replied. Auggie acted like he hadn't heard her answer and carried on with his story.

"A couple of hours later we were taken hostage. My training just kicked in as soon as those Somali pirates boarded the boat. I knew what to do, how I'd hopefully keep us safe and get us out of that clusterfuck. I stayed cool, managed to convince the pirates that Parker and Wade were a couple. I knew they weren't likely to separate them since Wade was the money source and I was fairly certain they wouldn't separate me from the others because I'm blind. Thankfully they caught what I was thinking and played along. The pirates seemed to buy the act." Auggie paused and swallowed the lump that was building in his throat before he went on. He also needed to gather his thoughts for a moment. Annie reached over and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"After a few hours they came to take us, one at a time, to the bathroom. They took Wade first, leaving Parker and me alone. She started questioning me about how I knew what to do and managed to stay so calm. My initial thought was to use my army training as an excuse, but since I'd planned on reading her in anyway I opted for the truth. Figured lying to her then would make the read in even harder. I told her I was CIA. She didn't take it well, she said she didn't trust me, didn't know who she was marrying. Under the circumstances we didn't have much time to talk and Wade was back not long after. After we were rescued I proposed to her again, on the airfield the chopper took us to. She accepted for the second time." Auggie paused to have a drink of his water and try to control the emotions that were threatening to take over. The drama in Africa was a few days behind him, but what he was about to tell Annie was still so raw. The wounds from Parker's breakup were still wide open.

"You told me yourself read-ins could be hard. You told me about your brother, remember? And you know what I went through with Danielle after reading her in. I understand why you went for the truth; and I agree that lying would've made the actual read in harder. But put yourself in Parker's place. Getting that kind of news from the man she just accepted to marry during a hostage situation must've been hard on her."

Auggie nodded. He'd been well aware that he'd taken one a hell of a chance when he decided to tell Parker the truth, but at the time it had seemed like the right decision.

"Anyway, things seemed to be fine between us as far as I could tell. We got back here the day before yesterday and yesterday morning I had a feeling something was wrong. She was watching me get dressed and ready for work and she asked me what I wanted to do for dinner that evening. I told her I'd probably be working late. I knew Arthur wasn't happy about my little vacation and I didn't want to piss him off further by leaving early," Auggie sighed, his voice trailing off a bit. Annie grabbed his hand again, but didn't say anything. "Well… I guess it kind of started when Parker asked me what I'd be working on. I didn't answer and after a few moments of silence she asked if she couldn't ask about that. I told her that she was free to ask, but I'd have to either lie or just ignore the question. It was obviously not the right answer. She said she just wouldn't ask. There was a catch in her voice; she obviously didn't like the answer. I tried to convince her that we'd work it out…we kissed… I had a feeling something wasn't right when I left for work, but I had a meeting with Arthur scheduled at 9 am, so I had to leave. He let out a heavy sigh and Annie squeezed his hand again.

"I ended up working beyond late yesterday. Arthur demanded that I had this big report on his desk by this morning and it was almost midnight when I got home. I was surprised that Parker was still up when I got home. She's usually the first of us to go to bed. Anyway… I bumped into what turned out to be Parker's suitcase. She broke up with me, said she didn't think that we didn't know each other well enough to get married. That we'd just been floating around in a bubble since we met. I pleaded with her, said we should talk about things. Got her to stay the night…" Auggie's voice trailed off again and tears started welling up in his eyes. Annie scooted over and wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

"When I woke up this morning she was already dressed and had a cab waiting for her. I heard it honking. She left before I was even out of bed. For obvious reasons I couldn't go after her…" Auggie's voice trailed off, the tears that had been building in his eyes started pouring down his cheeks. Annie moved to wrap her arms around him. He reciprocated the embrace and held on to her like his life depended on it.

After a few minutes he loosened his grip on her and pulled away.

"Could you do me a favor?" he asked, feeling slightly embarrassed about what he was about to ask Annie to do for him.

"Anything. What do you need?"

"Change the sheets on my bed? They probably smell like Parker's perfume and I can't bear to sleep in them. Clean sheets are on the left side of the walk in closet." He was perfectly capable of changing the sheets on his bed, but it did take some concentration on his part and he just didn't feel up for it at the moment. Annie was well aware of that and got up and headed for the bedroom.

"No problem. I can't do military corners like you though," she said with a small laugh.

"I think I'll live," Auggie said with a small, grateful smile. He might just have lost the woman he was madly in love with, but at least he still had Annie. He knew he could count on his best friend.

Annie couldn't help but think that Parker leaving might eventually mean that she could tell Auggie how she really felt about him, that maybe there was a chance for them getting together. She knew he needed time to heal and she would be there for him as a friend for as long as he needed it, but the little spark of hope that had been lit made her smile a little while she fluffed Auggie's pillows.

What do you think of the re-written version? Better than the original I hope?