Disclaimer: I don't own Covert Affairs or Parker would've died in frickin' Sudan before she broke Auggie's heart!

Prompt #20: Frantic - "I'm not losing you, Annie Walker! Not today, and not ever!"

Words: 1,215

Auggie didn't learn about it by any CIA-standard conventional means. He had to hear it from a report passing over the OSP desk about one of Lena Smith's missions going bat-sh*t wrong, losing two agents and having a third on the run from hostile foreign agents. Even for Annie Walker's record for unexplained and unexpected surprises on the job, this was a whole other level of bad news.

He wasn't sure what pissed him off more - the fact that nobody told him that Annie was in danger, or the fact that Lena told nobody that Annie was in danger.

Well, since he was doing Arthur's sneaky dirty work in the OSP, Auggie figured that it was time to cash in whatever major favors the DCS owed him for being his sniffer-dog. So he was able to march right into Lena's hidey-hole, commandeer a seat and Annie's hard line, and say with as much glib as a winded person could say, "You know Walker, you really ought to let me know you're in trouble sooner. That way I can plan your rescue in a cooler and more timely fashion."

"Auggie!" came the breathless relief-soaked sigh.

"How's Paris?"

"Loud and - Wait, how'd you know - "

He chuckled. "Don't you know? I have you LoJacked, Annie dear."

"Bullshit."

"Fine, I'm just awesome like that." The customary opening jokes concluded, Auggie quickly got down to business. "Give me a sit rep, Annie. What's going on over there?"

"Agents Harper and Eiger are dead; the meet place blew up while I was securing the package." There was the sound of a revving engine. "I've got Eiger's Porsche 911 for transportation. Driving south." She sounded winded, but all right. "You got some way of saving my bacon, Auggie?"

"Don't I always?" Auggie quipped. "Okay, can you head for the airport? We can pull a charter plane to get you out in an hour."

"I can try."

"All right, Annie. Lemme know when you get there."

"Will do - no no no NO!"

"Annie? Annie, what's wrong?"

"There's a roadblock already in place! Shit - shit, the brakes are jammed, Auggie! I can't stop the car!"

"Bail out, now!" he shouted, leaping to his feet. "Annie, get out of there!"

"AUGGIE - AHHHHHHHH!" There was a terrific crash through the line, then the call dissolved into static.

"Annie? Annie, talk to me!" Auggie ordered desperately, pleadingly, before yelling to the general silent public, "Someone get eyes on the crash! Cameras, newscast, anything! What's going on?"

He heard Lena barking orders and people jumping into action. While the office whirled around him like a twister, Auggie was in the eye of the storm trying to break through white noise to reach his favorite operative. His best friend. His Annie.

"Annie." White noise. "Annie, come on." White noise. "Annie, answer me!"

"Oh my God," came a breathy gasp behind him. Female. Unfamiliar. "Sir, it's...it's..."

"What? What is it?" he asked. Once again he cursed his need to rely on others' eyes. "What's going on?"

"We have eyes on the wreckage."

The wreckage. Not the car, or Annie.

A hand rested on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Anderson. She's gone."

She's gone. She's gone. She's gone.

The white noise was all he heard after that.

Someone brought him to his old office in the DPD after that. At least, that's where Auggie regained his sense of surroundings. Finding the nearest wall, he turned to press his back against the support as he slid to the ground. It was cool in the room and the sounds of the DPD were muffled, meaning the door was shut and the lights off.

Auggie didn't care where he was. He was still in shock.

Annie - his Annie - was gone.

Burning heap of twisted metal...no possible way she survived... The words hit his brain dully, like rocks thrown against a brick wall just shy of the window. The local authorities were saying that it was an accident. Whatever the package was, it had burned up with the car. The mission was scrapped.

And Auggie was left in his old office with a ragged, gaping hole in his soul that would never heal clean.

He could count on one hand how many times he's cried in his life. Growing up the youngest of brothers makes you real tough real fast, and when coupled with Army, SERE, and CIA training, that toughness becomes near impenetrability. But not even years of conditioning could stem the hot, salty drops that cascaded from Auggie's sightless eyes.

They did, however, help keep the act silent. So while he mourned the loss of his best friend, he never uttered a sound.

After a solid hour of tears that left his eyes scratchy and his throat raw, Auggie was suddenly aware of a vibrating sensation at his hip. His hand moved from shielding his eyes to sliding down to his pocket.

The ringtone kicked in. A ringtone that Auggie never thought he'd ever hear. He snapped it open and answered in record time. "Hello?"

"H...Hey, Auggie," panted the one voice he'd never thought he'd hear again. She sounded out of breath and in pain, but wonderfully alive. "Sorry, had to lie low til I got cleaned up...I'm at a cafe twenty blocks from the accident. Are you alone?"

He knew he should've responded better, but his relief mixed with his rage and made him explode. "Dammit Annie, what the hell? Do you have any idea the hell what you've just put me through? I thought you were dead, dammit!" His voice cracked twice but he kept going. "I hear you scream, your car goes up in flames and I think you're dead, and the first thing you ask me when you make a collect call back from the dead is "Are you alone?" Are you serious?"

"Auggie!" Annie almost shouted. "Calm down! I'm okay. Look, the meet place was a last-second change, and when we got there, the place lit up like the Fourth of July. We were set up."

Auggie quickly slipped back into Overprotective Handler Mode. "You think there's a leak?"

"There has to be." In the background someone spoke to Annie in French, to which she responded in turn. "I didn't know who else to trust, so I dug out my get-out-of-jail-free card." Her voice grew sheepish. "Sorry about being so late. I had to tend my wounds and wrap my leg."

"You aren't hurt that bad, are you?" he asked, concerned.

"No, but I could really use that cool and timely rescue right about now."

"Don't worry," Auggie said, already getting up and heading for Joan's office. "I'm scrambling the rescue team right now."

"Joan?"

"Damn straight. You hang tight and stay with me, all right? You don't hang up until you're on the plane home to me, you hear me, Annie?"

He could practically hear her smile. "I hear you, Auggie. Bring me home."

This actually had me scared for Annie. Too scared to end at the fake crash. Reason why it's so long.

Review please!