Annie went silent. Auggie braced himself, preparing to follow her if she ran out of the restaurant. He heard her chair push back, and he started assembling his cane. "We can't talk about this here." Annie said as she offered him her arm.

Auggie silently complied and walked with her out of the restaurant.

When they were outside, Auggie opened up. "I want to start by saying that I was simply worried about you. I couldn't think of any good reason that you would have a file like that at your home - so I was curious."

"You could have said something," Annie replied.

"Sure. Hey, Annie - what was in that file I knocked over this morning?" Auggie asked, cheerfully.

Annie stopped walking and placed her hand on his chest. In a somewhat questioning voice she replied. "It was legal paperwork from Danielle."

"See? Here is our problem. I know that you are lying."

"Do you know the truth?"

Auggie sighed. "Not really."

"Auggie," she pleaded.

"Damnit, Annie." Auggie breathed heavily, his eyes darting around as he leaned on his cane. "That file stinks of Henry Wilcox!"

Annie went silent.

Auggie straightened up. "Why?" he asked quietly. "He has barely been out of prison for seventy two hours. Why do you have information from that scumbag?"

Annie stepped forward and put her hand on his shoulder. Auggie took a deep breath and focused his eyes on her. Then Annie snapped out of her stunned state. "Auggie," she began in a more demanding tone. "How do you know anything about what's in that file?"

"I told you, I could smell Wilcox all over it." He practically sneered when he said the name.

"Really, Auggie."

"Look, I was worried about you. I thought maybe you were still researching Khalid. Or that you had something from Eyal. Or that Danielle had sent you legal paperwork of some sort. It goes back to what I was trying to say earlier, Annie. I'm a spy. We have both been trained to question everything. I found the file, I was curious about what was inside, so I scanned a couple of pages."

"For my own good, right?" she said with a mocking tone.

"You've been doing a lot of research off the books lately. You know I'm behind you one hundred percent. I wanted to know what you were getting me into."

"Auggie, I don't know what pages you scanned, but you are already in this."

"Well then what difference does it make?"

Annie punched him lightly in frustration. "It changes everything." She replied.

"Annie, I don't know what all is in the file, but Henry Wilcox has been trying to make Arthur look bad since the day he retired and Arthur took over."

"Why do you think that is?"

"What do you mean?" Auggie asked.

Annie let out a sigh and touched the back of Auggie's arm. They walked back toward her car. "Think about this from a different angle. We have always accepted that Henry is a bad guy, right?"

"Because he is," Auggie replied.

"Why?"

"Because he ran so many dark ops," Auggie replied. "Annie, those ops put agents in danger, for reasons that never saw the light of day."

"Right, but they were effective."

"He was in charge before 2001, so I could argue otherwise."

"You and I both know that wasn't an intelligence failure, but an inter-agency coordination failure. The intelligence was good."

"Fine," Auggie sighed. "You are not going to convince me that Henry is a good guy."

"Maybe not good, but let's assume that he actually has the country's best interests at heart."

Auggie rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. "OK."

"So then there were reasons that he has done everything that he has done, perhaps Jai understood those reasons, and perhaps there is some value into looking in to the information that Henry has to offer."

Auggie was silent for a moment. "Everything he has contributed so far has been intent on destroying Joan and Arthur, Annie."

"I don't believe this is any different."

"Joan and Arthur are the good guys, Annie."

"Sometimes good guys get things wrong, Auggie."

"But this isn't just about one mistake."

"No," Annie replied. "This is about a lot of things, but it doesn't look good for Joan and Arthur."

"Annie, I wouldn't be here - I wouldn't have ever met you - without Joan and Arthur."

"Sure, because Arthur used me. He used me as bait."

"No, I meant that I wouldn't be working at the CIA at all." Auggie replied. "I'm here because Joan fought for me to be here."

They were standing next to Annie's car, and she cupped her hands on the sides of his face. "Auggie," she nearly cried as the words came out. "Joan wouldn't have had to fight for you, if Arthur hadn't authorized a faulty mission in Tikrit."

Auggie was silent. Annie moved her hands down his shoulders, along his arms, and took his hands in hers.

"Auggie, the information that Henry gave me, it has a lot of information about how we have been put at risk. I have to look into it, I have to assume that Henry Wilcox hasn't been working against Joan and Arthur based on spite for the past four years."

"Were you going to tell me?" Auggie asked.

"Not until I had to." Annie truthfully replied. "But I'm glad you know, now."

Auggie pulled her hands to his chest. "This isn't good."

"Is it ever?" Annie replied, moving closer to him.

Auggie laughed for a breath. "Not with you, Walker."

"Want to talk about something good?" she asked.

Auggie smiled, and before he could respond she met his lips.


A/N: Not a cliffhanger, and it could have been. I actually thought the story would end here, but then one of the characters took over and kept coming up with more plot. I hope that you are still interested enough to anxiously await the next chapter?