DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs.

A/N: I'm sorry for not having updated earlier, but I've been crazy busy and inspiration have been lacking. Anyway, here's an update. If you need to refresh what happened, please read previous chapters. But a short summary is that Lindsay's gone and no one knows where and Eyal is in Iraq to help Annie out. Eyal and Annie are now embarking upon The mission. So here goes!

Chapter 25
The Unsanctioned Op Pt. 1

Annie was nervous, today was the day. She knew that this wasn't the normal Op and even if Eyal would try and help out, there were still crucial parts that she had to do to mention that there was a lot of room for error. She listened intently, the house was quiet. She glanced at her watch, it was almost 5 A.M. and in a few minutes she knew that Nabila would wake up, go into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Then at 5.30 Malik usually joined her in the kitchen where they'd eat in silence. After breakfast Malik would do some of his homework while Nabila did some housework, and around seven Bashir would enter the kitchen, where he'd find his breakfast already laid out for him. Whenever Bashir turned up in the kitchen Nabila would leave the house, she probably went down to the market place to set up and at eight Malik usually left too. Bashir usually stayed at the house during the day, spending most of his time behind closed doors in his study.

When she'd arrived at the house last night for dinner, it had been quite pleasant and she'd understood that if Bashir was in a good mood, so was the rest of the family. After dinner Bashir had asked her to stay in the kitchen, Nabila had served them sweet tea and then left them. Annie had been on pins and needles waiting for Bashir to guide her through his elaborate plan at the old headquarters. She'd retreated to her room around 10 P.M. and immediately texted Eyal. Their text-based conversation had gone on for an hour, seeing as it was difficult to hatch a plan without speaking to each other about it. At the end she'd promised to try and meet up with him again the next day at the hotel.

She got dressed slowly, she was nervous but she knew that she to go through with this, this was her chance to get answers. A few minutes later she walked out of her room, carefully making her way down the corridor towards the front door. She figured that if Bashir asked her where she was heading, she'd tell him that she was nervous and needed to clear her head. But she didn't see him, the house was quiet, they were probably still sleeping. Bashir had told her that they'd head out after dinner, so she had time she thought as she started her walk towards the city center to find herself a cab.

An hour later, she knocked on Eyal's door.

"Good morning." He said with a smile as he stepped aside to let her inside. He was wearing a white robe and judging by his hair he'd just taken a shower. "How are you feeling?" he asked as he watched her settle down on the edge of the bed.

"I don't know." She admitted. "But I know what I have to do," she added sternly. He walked towards the armchair where his jeans were slung over the armrest. He picked them up and went into the bathroom, after a few minutes she began feeling restless and decided to stand up. Looking up she caught a glimpse of Eyal in his worn out jeans and bare upper body. She felt herself blush and immediately turned around and walked over to the window, it was sunny day, barely any clouds.

"You won't be alone," he said in a hush voice. She could feel his breath on her neck. At first she thought of shifting her body to the left so that he wouldn't be so close to her, but on second thought she wanted him close, she felt scared.

"I will be at first," she stated, with her back still turned against him.

"I know." He said, he laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. "But I checked, the car ride from Bashir's house to the headquarters doesn't take more than 15, 20 minutes tops. So I'll be there with you shortly and you said that he wanted you wired, right? So you might be able to stall a little and before you know it, I'll be by your side Neshama."

"Yes, he wants me wired just to make it look genuine, like he's actually on my side." She scoffed.

"We can use that to our advantage." He said, inching closer to her body. Both his hands were now resting on her shoulders. She turned around and looked into his dark, brown eyes. "It'll be okay, come here." He said and before she knew it she was in his arms.

A few minutes later they parted and they sat down at the little table in the corner of the room.

"Okay, let's go over it again," Eyal said. She nodded.

"You said that dinner was at 7 P.M., right?"

"Yes, we'll be done by eight." She replied.

"Okay. First off, you will spend the day with me and at 6 P.M. you'll take a cab from here so that you'll make that dinner. You'll take the cab to the city center and from there you'll walk to Bashir's house. I will-". He stopped for a second as he rose to his feet to grab a bag, he rummaged through it and found what he was looking for. "I will catch up with you through this, here," he said handing her a plastic card and on it was something that looked like a sticker, but she knew exactly what it was. "Put the tracking device on the inside of your phone or somewhere inconspicuous, so I'll be able to see where you're heading. I've rented a car, which is parked out front. I will leave in my car just a few minutes after your cab, I'll see to it that you reach the city center without any problems and then I'll give you a head start before I park the car where you suggested."

"Good," she said. "So you'll park the car and then keep in the vicinity of Bashir's house and when you see us leave in the van you'll scout his office for the file?" She double checked.

"Exactly. You said that the wife usually does some housework after dinner?"

"Yes, but she's mostly in the kitchen which isn't visible from the study. Also she keeps her distance from the study, I don't think that she's allowed near it." Annie clarified.

"So I'll go in through the back door, from the patio and make my way to the study?"

"Yes." She picked up a crumpled piece of paper from her jeans and handed it to him, it was a sketch of the layout of the house.

"What about the son?" He asked.

"Malik is usually in his room or in the kitchen doing his homework, I don't think that he'll be a problem." She explained.

"Good. As soon as I find the file, I'll take the car to the headquarters to help you. And yes, unfortunately you'll have to fend for yourself for a while, but I'll do my best to get there quickly..." his voice trailed off, he was trying to conceal his worry, she could tell. She appreciated that he cared about her.

"Yeah, I just hope there won't be a bomb in there or something that he sets off the second I enter the building," she said airing her darkest thoughts about this mission.

He frowned. "Annie, you can't think like that."

"I know," she scoffed.

"Do you remember the headquarters blueprint?" he asked, changing the topic. "Is there a way in that he won't be able to see from the van?"

"Yes, there's two entrances, the southern won't be visible from the van...but Eyal," she stopped unsure what to say.

"Annie, it's okay." He said reassuringly as he found her hand. "Do you think he'll have more men stationed outside?"

"I don't think so, he told me that it would be pretty deserted but that it's still a very sensitive mission, getting inside. But seeing as he, or Henry, wants me inside that building so badly he surely have men in there." She detected a wince crossing his features, but he kept his cool.

"I'll be quick at the house, it shouldn't be that hard I know enough Arabic to find the right file. I'll be there by your side and we'll get through it together." He said softly, their eyes met and he carefully traced the outer edge of her jawbone with his middle and index finger. She shivered.

"Do you have a weapon?" He then asked, catching her off guard.

"No," she managed.

"I figured," he said and again turned to the bag, after a few seconds he handed her a gun. She felt nervous as she took it in her hands. She wished that she could fast-forward this whole day.

"You know how to handle it?" He asked.

Annie knew that he was just double-checking, knowing that she was feeling insecure.

"Yes, it's a Walther PPK -.380 ACP. 9mm, six rounds." She replied.

He nodded.

She felt queasy as she remembered when she'd handled a gun just like this one before. Her first kill in Stockholm flashed before her eyes. She turned her gaze towards Eyal who was handling a Walther P99 -. 9mmx19, 15 rounds. It all felt surreal.

"How did you even manage?" she asked nodding towards the gun in his hand.

"Some things are better left unknown Neshama." He said with a smirk. "So what do you want to do now?" He asked in a voice that didn't reveal any worry or suggest that they were about to do something very dangerous in a few hours. She couldn't help but smile.

It was 2 A.M. and he was still wide awake. Joan had alerted the police about his theory about Lindsay going after Paul herself. He felt restless as he paced around his living room. He didn't know much about Lindsay, but something told him that she hadn't been forced to follow Paul, if she was missing it was due to her own will. But what if he was wrong? He ran a hand through his tousled hair, he was tired but his mind was reeling. After a few minutes he sank down on the couch and his thoughts drifted to Annie, he wondered where she was and he made a mental note to try and contact Henry Wilcox; maybe he knew something. He shook his head, he was still cautious about reaching out to Henry since he didn't know how he'd react to the fact that Annie had read him in - which would become obvious if he started to poke around - and he didn't want Henry to take his anger out on Annie. He sighed. When did my life become so complicated? He thought.

It was late he knew that, but for some reason he found his cell phone and dialed a number that he'd dialed a lot of times before.

"Auggie?" The voice on the other end sounded worried.

"I'm sorry, I know that it's late."

"It's okay, hold on." The voice was now only a whisper. It'd be 1 A.M. there, he thought, so he was probably just making sure that he wouldn't wake up Carly. "Hi, what's up?" Adam's voice sounded more awake now.

"Did I wake you?" He asked.

"Nah, I'd just fallen asleep I think. But don't worry. I'm glad to hear from you."

"Thanks." Just hearing his older brother's voice calmed him. "It's just...there's a lot going on and I don't know what to do, I feel so helpless."

"Do you want to talk about it, or just talk?" He asked gently.

He thought for a second, could he tell his brother anything of value? He quickly decided that Lindsay had to be off-limits for now, it was too sensitive and he had to follow protocol but the file...sure, it had to do with the CIA, but seeing as the file hadn't gotten to him through the proper channels, was it still protected by CIA protocol? He sighed.

"Hey, Auggie! It's okay." Adam said. "I know that there are things you can't talk about."

"I can tell you some things," he decided. "It seems as though my going blind wasn't really an accident." He blurted out, not bothering to sugar-coat it.

"What?! What do you mean?" He could hear that his brother was upset.

"It seems as though they sent me out there with faulty intel, maybe my boss even knew about it." He scoffed.

"So what you were set up?" The voice that returned was the voice of a lawyer and Auggie immediately felt cautious.

"No, well maybe, I don't know." He rushed. "It's complicated Adam, and even I don't know the whole story." His brother remained quiet and he knew that his brother was resisting the urge to give him a lot of legal advice.

"I'm...I'm sorry Auggie," he said sincerely.

"Thank you," he replied.

"God, that sucks and..." his voice trailed off. "Well, have you told Annie?"

Upon hearing her name, his heart constricted and he revealed to his brother how she'd told him about the file and ended his narrative with how he'd treated Annie that time, the last time he'd seen her.

"She'll understand," Adam said. "Of course you were upset."

"Yeah, I know and that's not it. Annie's probably beating herself up about it, probably thinking that she isn't good enough for me anymore, that she's betrayed me..." his voice trailed off as he now realized the pain he'd put her through.

"Just talk to her, I can tell that you still love her."

"I do."

They kept talking for a little while longer, Auggie asked about his niece and nephew and his sister-in-law. They even shared a few laughs before they hung up. When Auggie was back in bed it was already 3 A.M. but luckily he fell asleep quickly.

A/N: Seeing as my inspiration have been on the down low for a while, I'd really appreciate your comments on this! Do you want me to keep writing, are you guys still reading my Fic? Are you still enjoying it? Please review and let me know!