Annie woke 30 minutes before her alarm and knew she wasn't getting back to sleep, despite the painfully early time. She wasn't ready to get out of bed though so she turned towards the source of warmth and comfort in her life.

Auggie was asleep on his back so it was easy to maneuver into his arms and he responded instantly, his warm hands wrapping around her waist and his nose finding a spot behind her ear. She tried to will herself to sleep, but her mind was going much too fast. Her heart was pounding in her chest and it must have woken him.

"Can't sleep?" he asked concerned.

"Thinking," she answered quietly hoping he would get some more sleep.

"Dangerous endeavor," he smiled.

"Just reviewing my cover in my head."

"Go ahead, I know it by heart, try it out," he encouraged.

"My name is Karina Petrovna Lubchenko, born in Krasnador on October 31, 1983. Moved to Minnesota with my mother Lara and 2 brothers Lev and Alyosha when I was 11 in 1994. Our father stayed behind for work, he visited often, but resided in Moscow. Alyosha died in 2000 in a car accident, Lev is married with 2 kids in Baltimore, Mother is in a nursing home in Virginia. Father died last week and I have his will and safety deposit box key to retrieve his belongings," she recited.

"This is text book," Auggie had vetted the real Karina himself, she knew her father was a double agent and suspected the Russians knew too, she was certain there was intel in the safety deposit box, but was too scared to retrieve it.

"I know, my Russian is as good as Karina's, I look like her we have all her paperwork, it'll be fine," she didn't sound convinced though.

"Is this about this mission or is this about the idea of going back to Moscow?" Auggie asked sincerely, his lips against her ear his hands rubbing warm circles on her back and hip.

"Yeah," was all she said, he was right and he knew it.

"It'll be OK, I will be in your ear the whole time this time," he assured her.

"You were last time too. You were the only thing I could focus on that brought me any relief, any solace. I could hear your voice telling me I could survive."

"You have no idea how glad that makes me," he squeezed her a little more.

"I don't want to feel this way about Moscow, I love Moscow. Maybe this will be a good way for me to get back there, a fairly easy case with minimal risk," she was talking herself into it.

"That's my girl," he grinned and leaned down to kiss her.

Kissing Auggie was like potato chips, once you started it was very hard to stop and soon enough the alarm went off.

"Go back to sleep," she cooed as she slipped out of the bed and headed to the shower.

When she was dressed and her bag double checked she got her cover docs from the safe and glanced back at Auggie. His hair was a mess and he had a night's worth of stubble, he was too irresistible to walk away from. She snuck over for one more kiss.

He clearly wasn't asleep though as he tugged her closer and deepened the kiss. Her hands slipped around to his bare back and the next thing she knew he rolled her underneath him.

"I have to go," she whined.

"Just one more minute," he remembered the last time she was in Russia too after all.

"OK, but your sexiness is a threat to national security," she teased.

"I am so telling Barber that later," he bragged and kissed her once more before releasing her.

Just as she was walking out of the room she saw her perfume bottle on the dresser and gave herself a quick spritz.

"That's just mean," Auggie commented.

"Huh?"

"Leaving me in bed all hot and bothered surrounded by Jo Malone Grapefruit," he rolled towards her pillow in mock defeat.

"Didn't want you to forget me while I was gone," she laughed as she walked away.

The mission went exactly as planned, but on the last day Annie asked if Auggie could bump her flight a couple hours. It was an easy switch and Auggie didn't ask why, but sure enough a call came in on his personal line.

"Auggie Anderson," he answered.

"Privet," she replied in Russian.

"You OK?" he asked quietly.

"Better than OK, ask me where I am?"

"Where are you Miss Walker?" he played along.

"In the middle of Red Square, St. Basil's in front of me and I am OK. I remember everything I loved about this city, the people, the architecture, the music, the food, the electricity of it all. I love Moscow Auggie, thank you for giving me the time to remember why," her voice was so reverent it made his heart swell.

"The food? Really? You have an unnatural affection for beets don't you?" he had to add some humor or he might actually cry.

"I am making you borscht this weekend, you will come around."

"With enough vodka maybe," he smiled.

"See you in the morning," and she was gone swallowed up by the teeming crowd of Red Square.

The End