DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs.

A/N: Okay, here goes - chapter 4. I hope that you don't think it's all going too fast, the updates I mean. If so, then let me know. It's difficult juggling so many different timezones and I want it to be good for all of you. Also, let me know what you think about this chapter :). Love to all of you reviewers/followers/those who have added my Fic as a favorite. It means a lot!

Chapter 4
Therapeutic

She'd gotten home pretty late last night; she rubbed her eyes as she sat up in bed. Her head was aching slightly; maybe that third beer had been a bad idea. As she made her way towards the bathroom – hoping that a shower would make her feel better – she thought back to the night before. Talking about Danielle had been great and Auggie had been both supportive and understanding, then Auggie had told her about his return to Iraq and what he'd done. She had been really amazed and touched when she'd heard about the episode at Doctor Street, him giving that little boy his Purple Heart medal, it was so sweet. Even though the night had been fun and she had really missed sitting down with Auggie like that, on her way home she couldn't really shake the whole Vanessa thing even though it made her feel ridiculous. She had known from the start, when they first met, that he was a ladies guy, a stud. She had just been bothered about it and she knew exactly why…she just didn't know what to do with it.

And the fact that Auggie had told her that he was done looking for women, what had he meant by that? Had that been his way of telling her that he wanted a serious relationship?

She felt even more disoriented after the shower, so she decided that a strong cup of coffee might cure what ailed her, she headed towards the kitchen.

As she sat by the counter, silence around her, she thought back to her own relationships. There had been Jake in junior high, which hadn't been all that serious and they'd never had sex. Basically it had been one of those relationships that gave him status, like she was a price to be paraded around. Then in college, she'd met Tony, a great guy and they had gone out for a year before she'd caught him in bed with another woman…and then, there was Ben Mercer, she didn't even know what they had shared really and then, Simon…she realized that her track record wasn't the best. And of course she'd had a couple of dating experience too...she thought about Auggie's history, or what she knew of it anyway, he'd never seemed interested in a serious relationship until all of a sudden he'd told her about proposing to Parker at the hotel room in Barcelona, what had changed? And had he been ready for it? Okay, Annie, you're getting ahead of yourselfshe reasoned, Auggie wasn't proposing, all he wanted to do was date her for all she knew and maybe that would be okay. She knew that she really liked him; it wasn't love, or was it? But it was something great and real, that she was sure of.

"Walker!" she heard his voice coming up from behind her as she approached the elevators. She turned around and could feel herself grin.

"Morning Auggie," she offered.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, smirking at her as they waited for the elevators together.

"Good. You?" she reciprocated, not sure what to say. How could she possibly explain everything to him?

"Very good, it's Friday tomorrow," he said matter-of-factly.

She looked at him, searching for a clue.

"Okay…?" she tried.

"Our date?" he said, suddenly looking a little uncertain, "or maybe you're bailing on me?"

"No, of course not," she said reassuringly, "I just wasn't sure if that was still on, considering you dropping by my place."

"I know I did that, I just couldn't…wait," he said sounding shy, "but I meant what I said Annie, I want to talk more properly about…everything."

The elevators slid open and they stepped onto the DPD floor where there was a lot of movement.

"Sounds good," she said feeling butterflies forming in her stomach.

"Eight still good?" he asked.

"Yes, absolutely," she quickly calculated when she needed to head back home in order to be able to change out of her work-clothes and get ready.

"Aren't you coming?" he asked, as he was holding the door into the office space open.

"No, I have that therapist appointment today," she said.

"Oh, right." He stepped towards her, "you'll do fine Walker. You always do."

"Thank you," she said as she realized how nice it was to hear him say that.

Auggie settled down at his desk, starting up his equipment, considering that the place was quiet he guessed that Barber would come in later; after all he'd had a long day yesterday. He brushed a hand through his hair as he waited; he needed to check that Lindsay had confirmed her landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

"Auggie!" he could hear Joan stepping into tech-op.

"Hi," he greeted.

"How did it go with Agent Hanson last night?" she asked.

"It went well in the end, I'm glad Barber's on my team, it's always good to have a pair of eyes," he said and smiled.

"Good, what's the status now?"

"I was just about to check if she confirmed her landing at Reagan."

"Great, when she gets in tell her to come see me, I need a report soon."

"Absolutely," before she headed out he remembered something, "And Joan?"

"Yes Auggie?" she turned in the door opening.

"Lindsay did a hell of a job." He told her the main details and he could hear the appreciation in Joan's voice as she queried about further information. As Joan left he put on his headphones and started with an encryption that he'd set aside for way too long, but more pressing matters always had a way to surface whenever he was about to start.

Annie was sitting in a little waiting room; it felt kind of odd to see art on the walls here, considering Langley wasn't famous for its interior design. All this to make people feel safer, and all it did was to point out the oddity of it all.

"Anne Walker," a golden blond man stepped opened the black wooden door in front of her.

Her eyes shot up, the man standing in front of him wasn't anything like what she'd expected a therapist at Langley to look like. And he didn't look anything like the therapists she remembered from her past. She followed him into his office; it was nice, sober but also a little personal. One of the walls were adorned with books and picture frames portraying him in different countries. He motioned for her to take a seat in one of the couches, as she settled in, he sat down opposite her.

"So," he begun, "Anne, are you comfortable, do you want something to drink?"

"Um, no, thank you." She said feeling puzzled; this didn't feel like a normal session. "And please call me Annie," she stated.

"Of course," he said respectfully. "Annie, I've talked with your superior, Joan Campbell and she also showed me your file and let me just tell you, you're a fighter Annie."

"Oh, thank you..." she said, still feeling puzzled by his friendliness.

"Considering what you've gone through, I'm surprised we haven't met until now," he said with a smile. "I thought we'd start with Lena Smith, if that's okay with you?"

She swallowed hard, but knew that she had to do this, if not because she needed to talk about it, so in order to get cleared for duty.

"Well, I started working for Lena after everything happened to Jai," she cringed at the memory, "I got reassigned and at first I didn't like it but then…I enjoyed my freedom." She started, uncertain were to really begin.

"What do you mean when you say freedom?" he asked, his blue eyes piercing into hers.

"Well, I felt more autonomous, like she actually listened." He nodded for her to continue. "I felt independent and it was great. My first mission regarded a Russian born Englishman called Simon Fischer." As she told the story, it was like she was telling someone else's and it was now that she realized just what she'd actually been through and it was quite overwhelming to say the least.

"So, when Simon slit the throat of his handler, how did you feel?" he asked.

"It felt weird…but I guess that's when I realized that I liked him, for real and that he might actually feel the same way."

As she kept telling her story to him, she felt that it was a nice feeling to unload properly; she hadn't told anyone all these details before. She had to admit that this man was very comforting and something about him made her feel safe.

"So you killed Lena?"

The bluntness of his statement kind of took her by surprise, but in a way she liked that he told it as it was.

"Yes…" she said, uncertain of the reaction this might cause. But none came; he just smiled and nodded for her to continue. She told him about the Russian prison and their treatment of her there. He seemed so unfazed, but she knew that he probably heard a lot of war stories being told in here and immediately she felt stupid for being there, what did she have to recover from really? It wasn't like she'd turned blind like Auggie.

"So Eyal Levin, Mossad agent, came to your rescue?"

"Yes, my co-worker and handler, August Anderson helped with the extraction and they had a protocol and everything for communicating." She smiled as she thought about the whole episode. She then went on to talk about Joan and the whole Khalid debacle.

"Alright Annie, we've done a lot of progress. I'm proud of you."

"Um…am I done," she queried carefully, she didn't want to seem too rude.

"Well, I have one last question…about Jai Wilcox?"

At the sound of his name, she cringed, even though they hadn't been all that close she'd liked him a lot and she knew that he'd trusted her and whatever he'd wanted to tell her that day at Vesta…"what about him?" she said, sounding a little harsher than she'd intended.

"How do you feel about it?" he said calmly, ignoring her harshness.

"How do I feel about it? Like crap. Honestly, all of this…that we've talked about, I feel crap about it all and I know that I won't be able to forget it anytime soon. But I also know that I don't want to forget it, it'll make me a better agent if I acknowledge it all. I'll learn from my mistakes and I honestly think that going back into the field will do me good."

He nodded, quiet at first. "Actually Annie, that was a good answer, it shows maturity. A lot of people come in here expecting just to be cleared and try to ignore all their pain. But you're not doing that. I don't see why you can't go back into the field soon, but I'd like you to keep in touch so that I can monitor your progress as we go, alright? Why don't we start by seeing each other every other week, to start with?

"Okay," she said, feeling relieved, she was going back into the field and so what if that meant that she had to return to this office once every other week! Besides, this man was nice and she had to admit that it had actually done her good to talk about all of this.

"I'll let Joan know about our arrangement but it's still up to her what kind of missions you'll get sent on," he smiled brightly as he rose from his armchair.

"Of course," she said smiling back as they shook hands.

"It was nice to meet you Annie Walker; I've actually heard your name in these halls."

She could feel herself blush and nodded before she headed out feeling refreshed. She thought about the upcoming date and felt really glad about it for the first time, the thought of Auggie's previous love interests were gone.

"August?" said a female voice from the glass doors.

He turned towards the right direction and smiled. He could hear Barber stand up to greet the woman who just entered.

"How did you do that?" Barber asked incredulously.

"You mean my stunt outside the window?" Auggie could hear the smirk in her voice. "Actually I'm a former gymnast, I competed when I was younger," she clarified.

Auggie whistled and smiled in the direction of her voice.

"Hi, Lindsay, welcome home," he said greeting her.

"Thanks, and guys thank you so much for your help last night."

"It's our job," Auggie said with a wink.

"Yeah, I know but I usually don't end up in situations like that and you two handled it like pros! Which I guess you are" she chuckled, but you could clearly make out the admiration that had laced her sentence.

"We on the other hand end up in situations like that more frequently than you might think," he said with a smirk.

"Yeah, especially when Walker's out in the field," Barber added.

Even though Auggie felt a little defensive for a second, he knew that Eric was right, Annie usually ended up in situations like that, but it wasn't because she was stupid, rather the opposite and because she was stubborn and cared about people, it was one of the traits he liked…actually loved about her.

"Well, I'm gonna leave you guys to it." Lindsay said as she turned her heels.

"By the way, Lindsay, Joan stopped by earlier and asked you to swing by your office and I told her about your gallant efforts last night."

"Oh, August, you shouldn't have!" she said a giggle slipping out.

"Don't thank me yet, she needs your report too," he added. Another giggle from her and she was gone.

"She's really hot," Barber said as soon as the door closed.

"Great Barber," he said with a scoff.

"What? Do I need to remind you of the people you've slept with in this department Auggie?" Barber countered.

"Fair enough," he said and laughed. But then his thoughts turned to Annie. Fortunately the people he'd slept with within the department were women with whom he'd ended things on mutual terms so hopefully episodes like the one with Vanessa would never happen here. He felt a little ashamed about his past all of sudden, something he'd never felt before, he just didn't want Annie to get repulsed by his past because he wanted to be with her and no one else. He hoped that things were going well for her at the therapist's office.

"Barber, will you let me know when Annie gets back?"

"Sure thing," Barber mumbled, typing away at his keyboard at the same time, not looking up.