Can't Stand Losing You Act 3

"Hey," Auggie slipped his earpiece in and reclined back on the couch.

"Hey," Annie replied as she started the car.

"How'd it go on your end?"

"Fine. Ryan is fine, Joan is intrigued. You?"

"I am still breathing and have all of my limbs," he chuckled.

"Tash is volatile, but she cares about you Auggie, she would never physically harm you," Annie left it open for interpretation if Tash would cause any other harm.

"She wasn't entirely shocked."

"Mmmm, neither was Ryan. Or Joan. Apparently we're not such good spies after all," she teased.

"You want to come over?"

"More than anything, but I have to pack and put a few things in order for the trip."

"Anything else from Danielle?"

"Just that email I sent you, she's willing to meet us at a restaurant and hear us out. Auggie this is either going to be really good or really bad."

"We'll get through it either way," he promised.

"I'll be there bright and early to pick you up."

"I'll be ready. Try to get some sleep Walker," Auggie hung up without saying good-bye.

***555***

"Want me to shower first?" Auggie asked as Annie paced the lovely San Francisco hotel room.

"Sure. I'm going to go get a couple glasses of wine from the lobby reception," Annie came up with something to do to try and distract herself from dinner.

"OK, but save one for me, showing up drunk to meet Danielle might be a bad idea," Auggie grinned and headed to the bathroom.

When Annie returned with 2 glasses of wine and some snacks she was instantly assaulted by the smell of pine emanating from the bathroom. Auggie had left the door open, something he always did that was either a sign of his comfort around her or his forgetting that he was the only one who was blind.

The pine smell was like a balm to Annie's soul, a missing piece she had forgotten about until just now. Her olfactory memories washed over her and left her feeling more relaxed than she had been since they landed.

"Wine's here," she called cheerfully.

"Be right out," Auggie replied.

Annie arranged the snack on a side table in the living area of the room and was distracted wiping up a bit of spilled wine, not realizing Auggie was in the room until he was almost right behind her. In a towel. Warm and wet and smelling of pine.

"Oh, hi," Annie said flustered.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," Auggie replied, his voice low and deep.

"I didn't, umm, I didn't hear you," Annie stumbled on her words.

Annie had seen Auggie just recently without his shirt on, it was a moment of necessity though, a moment of stress and fear and pain. Now, here he was in their hotel room, mostly healed and looking very good.

"Sorry," he repeated, his voice softer.

"No it's….fine. Do you want a drink?" she asked as she cleared her own suddenly dry throat.

"Sure," he tilted his head to one side, his eyes cast up through his dark lashes and the long column of his neck beckoned to her.

She had kissed him yesterday, in her small kitchen, but the need to repeat the action was too great. She picked up the glass of wine and then put it down again.

"I need….can I?...Auggie," his name a breath on her lips as she crossed just a few feet of hotel carpet and pulled him in to a kiss.

"Better than wine," Auggie declared when she broke away for a breath.

It was a quick breath and she recaptured his lips, his hands pulling her soft cashmere covered torso against the silk of his skin. Annie wanted nothing more than to pull off her own clothes and wrap herself in Auggie's warmth completely, but luckily Auggie held a small rational part of his brain intact.

"Annie…." He managed between deep sweet kisses. "Annie…" he nearly lost his resolve as her cool fingers moved along the rolled edge of the towel at his waist.

"We shouldn't do this…." he fought out the words against every desire he had.

Annie froze in his arms, he felt her go stiff.

"I mean right now, we shouldn't do this right now. We're meeting Danielle in just over an hour. I don't want to rush," he kissed along her jaw and whispered the final word in her ear sending a shiver to her toes.

She nodded, words not coming to mind, and stepped back just a bit to appreciate his wet swollen lips from a different angle.

"Yeah," she finally managed and stepped back entirely and retrieved the wine.

Auggie took his wine and sipped it. Annie carried hers with her.

"I'm going to go take a cold shower now, you should probably be wearing clothes when I come out," she laughed over her shoulder.

"Yes Dear," he grinned and finished the wine.

***555***

"Do I look OK?" Auggie asked as he brushed his bangs into the messy chaos he preferred for his hair.

"You have never asked me that question. Are you planning to hit on my sister?" Annie arched an eyebrow at him.

"No, I don't mean that. I mean, my face, the injuries. I don't want to scare Danielle. I know the swelling has gone down and the cuts are healed, but do I look normal?"

"You still have some color in your bruises, not nearly as vivid as they were, your cuts are pretty much hidden by your bangs," Annie re-mussed his bangs for good measure. "You look beautiful."

"OK," he dropped his head embarrassed by the word.

"Of course, I am a terrible judge. I thought you looked beautiful dirty and bloody coming out of that hellhole in Grozny. I thought you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and I have seen actual Faberge Eggs," Annie had to joke to keep from crying.

"Well Danielle might haul off and whack me when she sees me anyway, so I may have some new bruises before dinner is over," Auggie cringed.

"Danielle loves you."

"Maybe once, but while you made the choice to go dark, I was the one who lied to her. On more than one occasion."

"I'm sorry you had to do that," Annie held one of his hands in both of hers and squeezed.

"We both have a lot of things to be sorry for Annie."

"I know. We'll get past them," she squeezed again.

"And so will you and Danielle," Auggie squeezed back.

"Nice segue Mr. Anderson. Now, how do I look?" she asked as she put his hand on her hip.

***555***

The restaurant wasn't very crowded and Annie and Auggie arrived early to stake out a spot at the bar. A good spy always wanted eyes on the scene first. Annie led them to a couple bar stools and ordered more wine.

Auggie could feel Annie's knee bouncing and found it easily, stilling it with his hand, allowing his thumb to rub along the inside of her knee, the friction of stockings and his callused thumb got Annie's attention.

"I'm OK," she promised.

Just as she finished her glass of wine Annie saw her.

"She's here."

"How does she look?" Auggie asked, now at attention.

"Wonderful," Annie whispered.

"Has she seen us yet?"

"No, she's looking at her phone, she's early."

"Should we go over there?"

"She'll find us, it's better if she comes to us, less ambushy."

Auggie just nodded, Annie was going into mission mode, but that wasn't all bad. Just then Danielle looked up from her phone and scanned the restaurant. As soon as she saw Annie their eyes locked.

"She found us," Annie murmured and Auggie stood, his hand warm on her back.

Danielle was seemingly frozen for a moment, 30 seconds maybe and then she began to move across the room, her eyes never leaving Annie until she was right there in front of her, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her close. Auggie allowed Annie to be pulled away from his touch, a small smile on his face. When Danielle let go both women had tears in their eyes.

"This was a mistake," Danielle stuttered.

"No," Annie shook her head vehemently.

"No, no, not coming to see you, but doing this publicly. There is no way I am getting through this without making a scene," Danielle dabbed at her already smudged mascara.

"Let's go back to the hotel, we can get room service," Auggie suggested and Danielle finally looked away from Annie.

"Auggie, my god I didn't even see you," she shook her head.

"That makes two of us," he quipped.

"But it marks the first time someone has not noticed Auggie in a room," Annie joined in.

"This is too much," Danielle sighed.

TBC