So first- thank you to everyone who reviewed etc! It meant a lot.
Second- I bow down to anyone who does those fics that follow episodes exactly, because I was only picking four or five scenes out of every episode and it took forever!
Thirdly- Who watched Doctor Who on Saturday!? I can't wait for xmas... :-)
Please tell me what you think!? X
Joan insulted Annie the first time she met her. She wasn't lying when she said Annie could pass for a high class escort- her little sister was beautiful. She looked just like their mum. Joan had almost had a heart attack when she opened the file and saw the photo staring up at her. While the boss in her exasperated at the younger woman, the sister in her smirked as she got into trouble on her first day.
"She's causing quite a stir, and she's only been here twenty four hours." Arthur had commented later that night. Joan had made a small noise of agreement, her lips twisting a little.
She didn't find it nearly as funny the next day.
"Shots fired at the address of Helen Newman." Joan felt her stomach flip. She pushed down her emotions, put her head into ice-queen mode and asked something about response times, heard the agents' confirmation at her question.
"Why couldn't it have been in DC; their cops are so much slower." She sighed, hoping the feeling she had that Annie was ok was right and that a slow response time would be better.
"For gods' sake Annie." She muttered when she was alone in her office, touching the locket that rested in her pocket. "Second day on the job and you're already causing more trouble than the rest of the operatives put together."
She'd felt like screaming yesterday when Arthur had told her his plan with Annie and Ben Mercer. But his assurances that she wouldn't be in danger settled her, and although she resolved to keep an eye on the situation she went back to pretending Annie was just another operative.
Joan found herself strangely confused on how to act around Annie. The younger woman unsettled her, and the emotions she felt when she saw her threatened to overwhelm her. And so, she maintained the ice-queen facade and tossed insults and jibes.
The mask slipped a bit when Arthur turned on the news a few weeks later and they watched the report on the bomb Annie had been caught up in.
"It was just a simple brush-pass." She felt a shiver of horror snake up her spine.
"Just tell me we didn't pull her from the farm before she learnt how to go to ground." Arthur glanced at her. She met his eyes; saw her worry reflected in his, although for different reasons. They both raced into the office and Joan made her way to Auggie's office as fast as she could.
"What's the word on Annie?" she demanded.
"On route to the Turk. Clear head and wits about her." He paced slightly as she breathed a tiny sigh of relief.
"Good. And the package?" she remembered she was the boss. Auggie hesitated.
"She had to drop it." Joan stared at him and inwardly sighed. Arthur was going to have a fit.
An hour later and she strode from Arthur's office furious, cussing mentally and trying to work out how to extract Annie simultaneously. She veered off her course to visit Auggie- he normally had an idea in these situations. She had a bad feeling that this journey might be a recurrence when it came to Annie.
Another few days, and this time she poked her head around Arthur's office door with a proud smirk.
"She got him." delight rushed through her. Arthur lowered his paper, surprised.
"She's good." He raised his eyebrow slightly, a tiny smile hinted at on his lips. Joan walked further into the room when she saw he wasn't busy, her smile playing across her lips. "You know, she reminds me of someone."
"Oh yeah? Yourself?"
"You." he grinned at her. She smiled widely at him, blushing slightly at the compliment. She leaned into the chair and went back into work mode, remembering McCauley's requests.
Hours later, and Joan stood confused in Arthur's office, staring at him as she tried to make sense of what he was saying. "What's going on?"
"Just set up the ops team." Joan stood where he left her, heart beating fast. What was he doing? If he had some side mission going that was going to get Annie hurt, she'd shoot him in the kneecap herself. Hurt ran through her at her husband's refusal to tell her anything- employee or not, he could at least give her a heads up on why she was sending her people into an illegal takedown.
Once she'd set it up, she hurried back to Auggie.
"Do we have eyes?" she asked.
"Just ears. Shipyard's CCTV is locked off- it can't give us the coverage we need. But our team's moving in right now." Joan inwardly sighed, but audio was betting than nothing.
"We've got a report of unidentified persons on the scene. The description sounds like Annie and Jai." His voice rose in surprise, and Joan couldn't stop a hint of an amused smirk from showing through her annoyance. Of course they were.
"What are they doing there?"
"Team leader says there's a third, and he's armed." Auggie related. Joan's face dropped.
"That must be McCauley." She realised. They listened intently until Arthur walked in, wanting to know what was happening. Joan watched him unhappily, still angry at him and didn't answer. After a few beats, Auggie stepped up and relayed the information.
Joan's stomach somersaulted as the call of shot fired went out. Her fist clenched on Auggie's chair as Arthur raised his voice angrily. A second passed, then two.
"Hassan's down." Auggie said, a tremor of relief in his own voice. Joan silently gasped in a lungful of air, relief coursing through her that Annie was ok. Beside her Arthur was still yelling, but she tuned out, concentrating on the information they did have and wondering why Annie and Jai were even there. She might actually strangle Annie this time.
The next week, and she was in the same position.
"So they frame her, then get rid of her. Make it look like an accident or a suicide." Jai raised his eyebrows.
"I sent Annie to the rowing club; she's bringing her in right now." Joan felt her heartbeat speed up. Why was it always Annie? Jai began to speed walk the other way, then paused.
"You're telling me to call in backup right?" he checked. Joan widened her eyes at him.
"This is the moment you choose to appreciate the chain of command?" she asked, exasperated. She looked at him pointedly when he didn't move. "Go."
They got Annie back safe and sound, but then just weeks later Joan became preoccupied with Auggie and Natasha, and so didn't pay Annie as much attention. Of course, the younger woman had a startling ability to cause trouble, and somehow persuaded Jai to fly to Toronto instead of Montréal. But she was right; Auggie was found and the software was safe. Joan couldn't quite decide whether she wanted to hit the younger man or not, but equally she couldn't help but be a little admiring of his actions.
Things were quiet for another few weeks, and then Annie got arrested by the FBI. Joan felt sick as she walked though the corridors, mind churning with reasons and explanations that still didn't give her an answer to why.
"I've just heard."
"Huh?" Arthur falling into step beside her snapped her out of her reverie.
"Where is she, the bureau's got her?"
"Yes." She felt a shot of irritation run through her. "See, this is what happens Arthur. You put Annie in harms way, she gets harmed."
"Was Mercer involved? Do I need to organise an ops team?" Arthur asked, ignoring what she'd said. She looked at him, angry.
"I have an operative in federal custody. One who's lucky to be alive. We can talk about you, and your agenda, when I get her back here safely." She turned her back to him and walked away. A small part of her wondered how Arthur would act if he knew who Annie was to her, but she pushed it into the mental column of 'probably don't want to know'.
Now time to put her lawyer head on.
She walked into the interrogation room, her irritation at the smug FBI agent vanishing as she laid eyes on Annie. She looked terrible- pale with puffy eyes and ruffled hair. She looked up without moving her head, surprise crossing her face when she saw who it was.
"I said I was your lawyer." Joan answered her unasked question as she sat gracefully onto the chair.
"Did they buy it?" Annie sounded doubtful. Joan desperately wanted to comfort her, but knew that doing so wouldn't help, so instead plastered on a mask and pinned her with a look.
"No. but you might as well treat me like one because it's going to be the same advice. You're sitting in a federal detention facility Annie- why?"
Annie stammered. "I... I…I didn't shoot-"
"A blank out denial isn't going to get you anywhere with them or with me. I'm looking for a detailed, moment by moment explanation." She hardened her voice, pushing her own feelings about Annie down and trying to remember she was just an operative.
"I've been trying to work it through…" said Annie slowly.
"Right, so you're confused, maybe in shock?" she felt a flash of sympathy as she waited until Annie nodded hesitantly. She'd been in this position herself more than a few times. "I understand. So let's just work though it together. Take a deep breath, and start at the beginning."
Joan narrowed her eyes as she listened to Annie's explanation. She hadn't been made head of the DPD for nothing. She backtracked, trying to catch Annie out in her lies. She gave a cold smile when Annie hesitated.
"The only reason you hesitated is because you're trying to handle me. You do that, and you lose Annie, because I am much, much better at this than you. Just answer- what did she say?"
"It was a money exchange. For schematics for a Russian missile guidance system." Annie shut down her emotions, although not very well, mused Joan.
"If the Russians were the sellers, who were the Turks? Who was it that overbid for the Cole painting?" Annie was already shaking her head.
"She didn't say."
"She didn't say? Really? After being such a fountain of information." Joan said sarcastically. Annie ducked her head.
"Sophie Jacklin was a CIA asset- she had been for six years. Did she bother- after all that- telling you why she didn't contact her regular handler?" Joan was getting annoyed.
"No ma'am."
"Did she tell you who her first handler was?" she challenged.
"No ma'am, she didn't." Annie's tone, however, suggested otherwise. Joan picked up her phone when it rang, pointedly not giving away what the call was about. This, she thought, was worse than dealing with Rosie when she was in a bad mood.
"What exactly were you searching for in the agency database?" she
"Art comps. Activity from the auction house." She peeked at Joan to see if she was buying it.
"I don't believe you." Joan told her frankly. "I don't believe a single thing you've told me. And as far as the feds our there are concerned, you work for the Smithsonian. Do you know what that means?" she waited a beat. "That mean's that you are a citizen ripe for prosecution. That means you are responsible for four bodies. So unless you start opening up, unless you start telling me that absolute truth, I am going to hand you out to dry, Annie. Believe me, I will." It tore her to say it, but she didn't let it show, meeting Annie's eyes as the younger woman judged how truthful she was being. "Tell me about Ben Mercer.
"How much did you not disclose about Mercer during your initial with us?" Joan threw at her.
"Why are you so interested in Ben?" Annie threw right back.
"Because he is in this up to his eyeballs." Joan emphasised.
"And is that why I was recruited by the agency?"
"Have you seen him?" Joan had to congratulate Annie in evading her questions so far, but this one threw her. "Have you seen him!?"
"Yes." Annie admitted.
Joan sighed as she entered the room yet again a little while later with the information from Jai, slamming the door of the interrogation room behind her.
"No more games Annie. If there's a weapons plan in play, you need to tell me everything you know." She leaned forward. "Who's the buyer?"
No answer.
"Believe me, whatever you think you know, it is not the whole truth. Ben Mercer is a liar, who abandoned the agency. You need to make a choice right now Annie, because this is it. Right now. The name of the buyer, or I will leave you here to be prosecuted." Annie looked torn, ducking her head as Joan stared at her.
She wasn't sure what she'd do if Annie didn't tell her.
Annie was only a few months in, yet she'd driven Joan to madness. After their shouting match in her office, Joan looked at her indecisively. She didn't want to fire her, but if it had been any other operative…
Decision made and Annie punished, Joan hoped that was going to be the last of it. Of course, this was Annie and it was never that simple. It was amusing to hear Annie defending herself after going out with Rossabi, but Joan figured it did her good.
"Go home. Go home and stay home for the rest of the night. Please?" Joan knew that was a waste of breathe, so as soon as Annie had gone she stepped from her office again. "JAI!"
When she walked into her office later that night and saw Arthur standing there, the girly part of her desperately wanted to walk into his arms, to hide from everything she'd had to do and say today. But she didn't. Instead she gave a spiel about Ben Mercer, and stayed a distance away from her husband.
When had her marriage turned into this?
"We're not using Annie as bait any more." She told him. Because letting Annie almost get shot was too far.
"It's not your call. As long as Annie works for us Mercer is going to be keeping tabs on her. She's in this whether she wants to be or not." Joan turned away from him, grief rising in her that once again, she wasn't able to protect her baby sister. "See you at home?" Arthur asked. She didn't answer.
1980
"Daddy! Why are you picking us up?!" Rosie ran into her fathers arms, and he swung her up into the air, pressing a kiss to her cheek while Joan trailed behind.
"Oh, that's lovely. No hello, how was your day, just a 'why are you here?'" He joked as he set her on the floor and swept Joan into a hug.
"Hi daddy." She pressed a kiss to his cheek.
"Hi beautiful. How was school?" He carefully manoeuvred a sleeping Dani's pram out of the gates while Rosie and Joan skipped beside him.
"It was good. Miss Smithson says we're going to the zoo next week! I have a letter for you to sign in my bag." Joan told him.
"Sure thing. What about you, princess, how was your day?"
"It was cool. We leant about space!" Rosie bounced up and down as she babbled on. "Daddy Where's mama?" She asked suddenly.
"She at the hospital, sweetheart. The baby decided he or she wanted to come out today." He told them. Both girls squealed excitedly.
"He's coming today?" Rosie grinned.
"Or she!" Joan reminded her. Rose shook her head obstinately.
"Nope. It's a boy- I already have a little sister."
"So we have one vote for a boy, what about you Joanie? Sister or brother?" Jack McKenzie asked.
"Sister." Joan answered without a pause.
She got her wish when a few hours later, they piled into their mothers hospital room, Dani and Rosie both asleep on their father's shoulder.
"Come and meet your sister, Joanie." her mother encouraged."Her name is Annie."
Joan perched on the bed, peering into the pile of blankets.
"Hi Annie." She whispered.
"What do you think Joanie? It's your job to look after her." Her father kissed her head, having deposited the sleeping girls onto chairs.
"I can do that." Joan murmured, smiling as Annie gripped her fingers and opened her brown eyes to stare up at her. "I can do that."
Present day
Thankfully, by the time she and Annie were alone together again the week after, both of them had cooled down some.
"Annie. Annie!" she repeated, walking up behind the younger blonde with a frown. She saw her jerk slightly before she looked around.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." She apologised.
"What are you working on at this hour?" Joan asked, tipping her head a little in concern. The concern grew as she heard Annie's explanation, and on a whim she offered her a few days off, remembering her own months after the farm. At Annie's refusal, she asked the question she'd been wanting to since she saw her at her desk.
"Wanna talk about the note?" she offered. Annie blinked.
"What note?" she attempted. Joan looked at her pointedly.
"The note that our tech division spent six man hours analysing this week…?" Annie looked down, before reaching and bringing the note out of the drawer and handing it to Joan.
"Ben Mercer left me that in Sri Lanka in lieu of saying goodbye. I could tell you a lot about it." She gave a humourless laugh as anger leaked into her tone. "The paper is point-oh-nine millimetres thick, it's made of ground wood pulp, manufactured in Urdu-Pudesh. And the handwriting tells me that the strong T bars and horizontal pressure indicate perseverance- even stubbornness. The only thing I can't tell you about that note? Is what the hell it means."
"Sometimes we have to accept that, and move on." Joan handed the note back, carefully hiding the sympathy in her gaze. Annie nodded.
"You're probably right. That's probably a good idea." Joan smiled at her, not buying her act for a second but willing to let it go for now. Annie turned back to her desk, allowing Joan to watch her for a small moment before walking away.
"Arthur!" she hissed as her husband kept talking in their counselling session the next. "Arthur!" she slid her eyes sideways towards their counsellor and raised her eyebrows, resisting the urge to giggle as realisation dawned on him.
"Sorry Theo, what's your clearance level?"
A minute later Theo had been relegated to the couch outside while she and Arthur continued to argue about Annie.
"Well, sometimes fate intervenes." Arthur headed back towards his desk.
"What do you mean?" she enquired suspiciously, her frown deepening as he explained the situation.
"You're on the couch tonight mister." She told him as she walked out from his office, spotting Theo sitting awkwardly where they'd left him.
"I'd look for a new line of work if I you." She said, not even bothering to slow down as she walked past.
"He's in over his head already, and he's just playing ski-ball with my sister." Annie told her down the phone after Joan explained their current plan.
"He's playing ski-ball with your sister?" Joan repeated. Then remembered that actually, she probably shouldn't be that surprised.
She ended the call a few minutes later, leaving Annie explicate instructions and sighing at her hard headedness. She really was too nice for her own good.
"Annie, you did what you could under challenging circumstances. Now go enjoy your vacation." Joan attempted to comfort the younger agent, but knew she couldn't be overly obvious about it.
"Thank you Joan."
Joan nodded although Annie couldn't see it and hung up.
One well-meaning but interfering sister later, Joan sat in the conference room with Jai while Annie tried to figure out what was going on.
"Alright Annie, we're already on with the Canadian authorities, just stand down and stay the hell out of it! Is that understood?"
Silence.
"Annie, have I made myself understood?!" Joan's voice rose.
"Yeah." She hung up. Joan was pretty sure she'd just been lied to.
Another couple of weeks and Annie was in London.
"Do nothing until they get there. Nothing." Joan emphasised.
"Yes ma'am." Annie hung up, and Joan sighed, exchanging another glance with Arthur. For a spy, Annie was terrible at deceit.
Joan felt terrible as she walked through the awards ceremony in search of her younger sister another few weeks later. Ben Mercer had broken Annie's heart, and now he was toying with it.
"Annie?" the woman turned from where she was talking to Auggie, curiosity written on her face. "Can you come with me please?"
Joan really didn't want to do this.
She watched Annie worriedly as the younger woman closed her eyes against the image of Ben.
"You don't have to stay here Annie." She offered gently. "We can fact-check his story with the transcript later."
Annie shook her head. "No. I wanna be here."
Joan watched her throughout Ben's interview, saw her flinch and wince at some of the questions and answers. A tiny part of her longed to order Annie out, to use her position to try and protect her but she knew it wouldn't work. Annie needed to see this, and having her hate Joan wouldn't help anything.
Arthur walked in, and Joan felt her emotions freeze over again. It was sad, she reflected, that her own husband bought out this reaction in her. There was a time when Arthur was the only one who could make her lose control of her emotions.
"Thank you Annie. We need to discuss matters above your clearance." Joan told her, not unkindly. A part of her was relieved that she had an excuse to send her out. Annie inclined her head and left, leaving Joan and Arthur together.
Arthur's plan twenty minutes later left an uncomfortable sick feeling in her stomach.
"We'll be putting her in danger- she's not ready." Joan protested against her husbands plan.
"Oh I think she is."
"She's never been involved in something as emotional as that!"
"And we have to trade on that emotion! Mercer feels something for Annie, he'll listen to her. Annie goes. It's the only way." He disagreed. Joan crossed her arms as she looked at him coldly. "Bring her in here."
Joan explained what they wanted to Annie, glaring pointedly at Arthur when he became too abrupt and cold. Confusion was evident in his eyes but she didn't care- it was his fault she was having to send Annie on this mission anyway.
Her predictions were proved correct just a day later Ben had done a disappearing act and left Annie and Jai waiting for him an hour before they were due to be on a plane. She waited tensely for news of Annie and Jai, and felt her heart stop when she heard the call that someone had gone down. When Jai informed them that it was Ben, she felt relief course through her, saw the same relief in Auggie's eyes.
That night, she curled up beside Arthur in bed, thankful that her marriage was steadier than it had been but sick in the knowledge that Annie was going to get her heart broken again.
"You can't help her." Arthur whispered suddenly into the darkness. She stiffened, but said nothing. "Mercer is never going to settle down in one place long enough for them to have anything substantial, but Annie won't accept that until she's far enough away to be objective. All you can do is be there for the fallout."
"You're probably right." Whispered Joan after a while. His fingers interlaced themselves through hers as his breathing deepened and steadied. Be there for the fallout- how could she do that?
