Throughout the entire time Annie was hunting down Ishkoff she'd never imagined she'd be back sitting in Auggie's apartment, chilling back with a cold one and a pizza. It seemed almost other worldly as she took in the setting in front of her – like she was living a distant memory rather than experiencing the present. Annie lifted the slice of pizza towards her and softly inhaled, a soft sigh escaping as the flavours of melted cheese and mixed herbs assaulted her senses.

"What?"

Annie looked up to find a curious smile and puzzled expression on Auggie's face as she realised he'd heard her. She laughed softly and looked down at her pizza, "I just hadn't realised how much I missed American Pizza."

His eyes softened, but his mouth was set in a grim line. "You'd never came back until now?"

It wasn't an accusation, more of a statement of fact. However it still panged Annie's heart as it reminded her that she'd left Auggie, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, she'd known that she had intended to leave him for good. During the week they'd spent together in the office, Annie had been waiting for Auggie to treat her as she should have been treated, the way Joan treated her; with a cold distance and only speaking to her when it was required for the assignment. She kept waiting for Auggie to realise that what she'd done was too irreparable to fix. That she was no longer the Annie she was back then. She'd tried to distance herself from him since her first night back. She only spoke to him at work, she only regurgitated the information from her past when it was most necessary, and she tried with her utmost abilities to shut everyone out. Too much damage had already been done. Sympathy was no longer a privilege she had.
But no matter what she tried to do, she'd find herself unconsciously drawn to him, like a moth to flame. She'd study him working at his desk, memorising his movements – both when he was concentrated on something, or when he was stretching back to rest – or simply gravitating towards him and always remaining in the same room with him. She'd come to realise that if she was going to carry out her original plan, she would finally lose August for good.

"I never believed I'd come back here, no." She decided the truth was better than a lie. She'd already lied too much for him to bear. No matter what they'd said to each other, they never went into detail about what she'd been through, and Annie didn't know if it was because he couldn't handle it, or if she couldn't. She wouldn't be able to succeed in retelling the version of events with detached emotion in front of Auggie. Joan was a different story – that was for information purposes. But with Auggie, she could tell that he would be listening to her words to understand how she felt, her emotions behind everything, and how to overcome it all. And if she opened up one hole to glimpse, the whole dam would break.

He'd never asked to hear about what had happened. He'd accepted the snippets of information that she'd given Joan and the rest of the C.I.A. but had never prodded for further information. He was probably attempting to let her share her story when she was ready. More than anything she wanted Auggie to understand, wanted him to know everything. But the betrayal she witnessed on his face the night she came back was a constant warning every time she went to speak about it all. She wouldn't dare lose him a second time. And his judgement was the only thing she cared about.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" Auggie's soft voice jarred her from her thoughts. Was he able to mind read?

"Auggie, what I've done... you wouldn't want to know." She couldn't look at him. Even though he was blind, she'd always felt as though he could read her as an open book and see into every corner of her soul.

"I know some things. I'm still here aren't I?" He was referring to how the DPD had access to the information on the take-outs she'd done on Ishkoff's men. During the time Annie spent adrift, Auggie had been tracking each of her kills and analysing each of them.

Annie visibly shuddered knowing that Auggie knew of all the deaths she'd committed. The pizza suddenly felt heavy and cold in her hand so she lowered it to the plate in front of her. "I know you know how many people I've killed and the basis of how I've done each of them, but Auggie... As much as I relive it most nights in my dreams, I don't know if I'm ready to talk about it."

His hand landed on her knee in comfort. She rested her hand over his and squeezed it, half to know that he was physically right there with her and the other half just simply to touch him. He flipped his hand over, so they were palm to palm, and his fingers began tracing the faint scar lines from the explosion. He turned to face her front on and held out his other hand for her other one. Placing both hands in his, his fingers roamed with the gentlest touches, following along every defect the explosion had marred into her skin. Each of her scars, the one of her legs, hands and arms were permanent features reminding her that because of her failure to illuminate one man in the first place, her family had suffered the consequences. They were her visible humiliation that would stay with her forever after failing her family.

She tried gently to pull her hands out from his grasp but he held tight, "Auggie..."

He lifted her hands towards his face and pressed feather light kisses to each of the scars. "I'd kiss every one of them if you'd let me find them. But if you're anything like I was after I lost my unit, you want to keep your battle wounds to yourself.

"These aren't battle wounds. They're only a reminder that I failed my family because I didn't kill Ishkoff in the first place. I did nothing but bring their deaths looming to their front door. At least you did everything you could to save you're unit... I did nothing."

"If you had taken that shot in the first place, you wouldn't have survived, remember? He had two other-

"But my family would have! Don't you understand, Auggie? My job, my choices killed my sister and her family. I have to live with that."

His hand reached up and squeezed her arm, "But you will live."

Her head looked away from his urgent expression, "...and that is my punishment."

A soft sigh escaped through his lips, "I've been where you've been, Annie. When I lost my Unit, there was nothing keeping me tethered to this place. My sight was gone, the men I'd considered brothers were all gone, but I was still living. I- I hit rough patches, as everyone would... but Annie, I came back from this. Remember when I found the man responsible? I tried the exact same thing as you have. I wanted revenge."

Annie closed her eyes, knowing where he was going with this.

"It was you who talked me through it."

"I didn't know back then what I know now." Annie whispered.

"You made me realise that killing him would not be what my men would've wanted. That murdering him in cold blood would have made me feel good, but it wouldn't satisfy or justify anything."

"I found them burnt to ashes!" Her raged and frustration had reached its peak. His calm resolve that all would be right in the world if she let her revenge go was only building her walls higher, reminding herself that only she knew what was just, and what deserved revenge in this situation. "You lost your sight as soon as the blast went off," She knew she shouldn't be speaking to him this way when he was only trying to help her, but the rage and pain was always present these days – just waiting to swallow her whole. "But I was conscious the entire time. You want to know what I remember from my ordeal? I remember being flown backwards in my apartment by a ball of fire. I remember pushing off the debris of my family home from me and walking through rubble to see my sister and her family completely barbequed!"

The rage was consuming her entirely as she leapt up abruptly from the couch, "Do you know how it feels to see the person responsible for their deaths sitting no more than two feet from me, smiling?" Her voice had gone shrill and panicked as the words kept flowing from her mouth. "Words cannot describe how hard it was to let him live! To walk away! I-I"

Her breaths were becoming too shallow and her lungs weren't getting enough air. Her heart was beating erratically, her entire body softly convulsing from the overwhelming realisations of everything. "I-I... Cant. Breath."

The next moment she was pulled into strong arms and lowered back down to the couch. A soft soothing voice gradually calming her, gently stroking her back. "Just breathe, Annie."

"They're gone, Auggie. They're really gone." The tears raced down her face as sobs wrenched from deep within her, the realisation slowly succumbing her.

"I'm here, Annie." His hold was iron secure as pulled her back with him into the couch, letting her tears stain his shirt.

"Joan, I think I have something."

Joan put the documents she was sifting through down and walked over to Stu's computer. Besides her betrayal she felt from Annie's choices to go rogue and how she'd lied to them all, Joan had spent every waking minute trying to detect Ishkoff's network and where he might be holding the information he claimed to have on each of her agents. As much as she told herself she was doing this for the protection of her agents and the C.I.A., what had happened to Annie to cause her to go AWOL was still her number one motivator. She saw so much of her own fire in Annie when she'd hired her, that seeing the damage it had caused her top agent from what Ishkoff had pulled off was enough to hit home with Joan.

"What have you got, Stu?"

"I've been trying to access his secure computer data-base that Jai located in his hotel in Venice. I haven't come across anything full proof, but I have accessed his emails. Look at these."

Stu connected his screen to the large room screen at the front of the office as Joan strolled up and looked at the list of emails in front of her. As he opened up each one of the emails, Joan realised these were how his contacts in the various terrorist organisations were communicating with him. And, as more emails began popping up on the screen she noted the attitude in the emails turning from inquiries, to demands and then into threats.

"He's failed to fulfil his end on these deals for the past few months. His buyers aren't looking to happy." A small smile touched Joan's lips as she realised that as Annie had been tracking down each of his group members, Ishkoff's fear had taken control and he'd began to loose control of his operation. Now that it was only him left, he had nothing to support him. If he was let back out into the world she didn't doubt that each of these organisations that were threatening him would be after him in a heart beat. It was a hunch - and a slight one at that - but Joan realised that one of the reasons Ishkoff wasn't delivering his promises was because one of the members Annie had gotten to, had been his information consult and manufacturer.

The sent items where only proof of his paranoia of Annie with threatening emails being sent to different people telling them that he wouldn't deliver if they're men didn't immediately cease threatening the lives of his operatives.

"I don't know if we'd say you've struck gold here, Stu. But it's enough to know that we now have leverage on our prisoner."

Next chapter should be posted soon.
This story is almost complete. Only a few to go then hopefully it will wrapped up.
Thank you all for your kind reviews. Let me know what you think of this please. :)