A/N: I hadn't really thought I'd finish this chapter tonight, but I did anyway, thanks to all the inspiration from Finlaure13's twitter account. But yey for more Walkerson!

Thank you for the continuous support from all y'all out there who bother to read this. I hope you find time to drop by the review section after you read this chapter. It's always so heartwarming to know that you're enjoying reading this fic as much as I'm enjoying the creation process of it.

Oh and I forgot this last chapter, because it's so convenient to do so: Covert Affairs isn't mine. But the ideas here all are. Yeah? YEAH. Have fun!

Chapter 8

Ever since his husband was confined in the hospital, Amanda Anderson had rarely ever left her husband. The first time that she did had been when Auggie had pleaded for her to go home. Today was the second- upon Aaron's assurances that he would watch over his father, she had headed home to freshen up.

She was preparing some food to bring back to the hospital when he found her youngest son at the porch, nursing a mug of coffee. He was pacing, his free hand on the porch railings. Amanda sighed. With the way he moved now, you wouldn't even recognize that he was blind. The sight put her at ease- the last time he had seen him, he hadn't been quite so adjusted with his situation. But then, that had been so many years ago. So many years stood between then and now, and truth be told, she knew very little of what was going on in Auggie's life. He'd always been such an independent child. Amanda was glad he still could be- for a second back then after Auggie's return from Tikrit, she thought it couldn't be possible.

She walked to the porch with a bag of goodies for James and took a second to watch her son through the screen door. It was a second too long.

"Mom?" he asked, as he stood from the porch railings he'd sat down on for a brief moment. She took the right hand he had extended as he headed the direction of the door. Auggie pulled her into a hug. "Didn't know you were here,"

"Aaron said he'd keep watch," she responded. "He's still off the clock."

"I'm glad you're coming home more often," Auggie said as he reclaimed his mug of coffee from the railings. It was empty. Amanda took it from him to return to the kitchen, but Auggie reached for her hand. "Sit with me first."

They took a seat on the wick sofa set up right beside the screen door and stayed there for a while, silent together. Today, there was no awkwardness. That in itself made Auggie want to laugh. He'd always gotten along with his father more before because he couldn't stand the way his mother smothered him. At this very moment however, he didn't mind it. He truly missed his mother.

"How are you?" she asked so simply. So quickly, Auggie had wanted to tell her everything. It was one thing her mother had in common with Annie: they were the people he always felt compelled to spill his guts out. He'd chucked it off as motherly instinct before, but after meeting Annie- he realized it must be a special skill. But he felt the exhaustion in waves from his mother, and he couldn't burden her more with his own issues. He was a grown man. He could deal with them on his own.

"Ok, I guess. Exhausted, but who am I to tell you that?" he chuckled.

"You disappear for so many years and all I get is an okay? Come on, August, there's got to be more to that. It's obvious that so much has changed," Amanda pried. "I'm your mother, not your third grade girlfriend."

"Yeah, sounds like a response I'd give Cathy,"

"Don't change the subject, Anderson #5!" Amanda joked with a pinch to Auggie's arm. He feigned hurt and laughed.

"Guilty as charged," Auggie said before trying to compose himself. Where would he start? Where could he start?

"Work's been pretty difficult, actually the past few years." It felt like a proper way to begin. "It started out okay when I was there, but we got stuck in deeper shit- sorry, mom- when we changed management."

"You're still working for-"

"I was."

"Was?"

Auggie sighed. The Agency was never something that came as easy discussion with his parents, even after he'd read them in after Tikrit. Now, leaving was going to be just as sensitive a topic as being part of it- hell, even returning to it.

"Please don't tell dad," he found his mom's hand on the couch as he bowed his head. "I quit the agency a few months ago."

"And where did that take you?"

"Around. I thought I'd find something outside that I'd never find inside."

"You thought wrong." Amanda could read him like a book. He could read him like no one else ever could. Well, maybe except Annie.

"At first it was freedom, a family- love."

"There always has to be a girl in the mix." Auggie laughed at his mother's comment.

"But I realized I had it all there." He continued anyway. He thought back to Annie- he needed to call her. "She was there,"

"So you're going back?" Amanda asked. It was a moot point. She knew the answer. His son and the CIA seemed almost too perfect for each other. She didn't need to know every detail upon which he operated on. She just knew.

"I don't know yet," he replied. "But I'd like to keep that option open."

"So I don't get to tell James?"

"Please?" he pleaded. He fiddled with his mom's fingers in his hand. "I know you know how important this is to me."

Amanda extricated his hands from Auggies grip and raised them to his son's cheek. She smiled. She didn't know the battles that Auggie had had to face the past few years, but what mattered was that he was here, now, before her. Scarred from the battles, maybe, but still absolutely, stunningly alive before her. Alive- living.

"One day, you are going to introduce me to this woman who got you to quit all your playboy habits and has taught you to love," she said. Auggie nodded into his mother's hand and took it with his own.

"Soon."

He hadn't realized soon maybe sooner than he actually thought.

He'd been talking to hi 14 year old nephew Harvey when his phone rang. He'd excused himself and headed to the room he was staying in to answer the call.

"Hey there, stranger." It was Annie. Auggie literally felt the knots on his shoulders unravel at the sound of her voice. He hadn't realized truly how much he'd missed her until that very moment. "I miss you." He laughed at Annie's echo of his own sentiments.

"I miss you, too." He said as he removed his shoes and lay down on his bed. He felt like such a highschooler doing it- especially in this very room where he'd grown up in. To be honest, he didn't care. He'd be highschool, college and forever in love with Annie Walker. "How're you?"

"Finished my first assignment," she said. She thought to divulge more, but Auggie caught her before she could.

"Need to know, Annie." He warned her. He wasn't part of that fragment of her life anymore, and until he made a decision, he would respect that.

"This is turning out more difficult than I thought," Annie said. Auggie chuckled and assured her as much as he could.

"We'll get through it." They'd been through so much more. After Henry Wilcox and Belenko, he just knew life couldn't throw any more absurd curve balls that would ever throw them off kilter. What could be bigger than that?

"I should be asking you that question though. How are you? Your dad?"

"Dad's very sick. He's got cancer, Annie." Auggie hadn't noticed how long it had actually taken him to tell her that bit of information.

"Oh, god." Eloquent, Annie thought. There was so little to say, but she'd never know why she picked that. "Are you ok?"

"We're… getting by."

"You're not answering my question."

"I miss you."

"You are an asshole," she called him out on his deflection tactics, but if anything, it answered her question. He wasn't as ok as he was letting out to be. Actually, he hadn't said it out loud, and that was enough for her to come up to that conclusion. "You're going to pay for those deflection tactics, Anderson."

"For you, anything, Walker." He chuckled, relieved that she'd let it go. He couldn't ever lie to her.

"Great. You'll meet me in Chicago tomorrow then. I'll text you the details, babe. I love you!"

She dropped the line quicker than lightning, afraid he'd find a way to protest. Auggie shook his head as he pulled his phone away from his ear and chuckled.

He was way in too deep with Annie Walker.