The Read In Part 2

Barber didn't say much else for the rest of the flight, he put on his noise cancelling headphones and tuned Auggie right out. Auggie listened to Mingus and tried to quell the warring feelings of guilt for lying to everyone for months and joy at the thought of seeing Annie after all this time.

As they cleared Customs in Lisbon Auggie told Eric to look for a guy with a sign that said: Walkerson Telecom.

"You guys are like Brangelina now?" Barber scoffed.

Auggie just smiled and followed Barber's lead. Sure enough Barber found a chauffeur with the exact sign Auggie told him to look for and he waved to the fellow who led them quietly to a waiting Town Car. The chauffeur opened the door and Barber gasped when he saw Annie sitting in the back.

Auggie was vibrating with the desire to touch her, but Barber appeared frozen in time.

"Good to see you Eric," Annie smiled and the man finally moved to get in, placing Auggie's hand on the roof of the vehicle to orient him.

"You too," Barber said quietly and took the seat opposite Annie in the luxury car.

Auggie ducked his head in and Annie reached for his elbow pulling him towards her and hugging him close as he maneuvered his legs into the car.

"Auggie," it was less of a word and more of an exhalation.

"Hey," he replied similarly, his head tucked in the crook of her neck, his lips finding her skin.

Neither of them wanted to let go, but both of them knew they were not alone.

"Sorry Eric," Annie said with a blush when she separated from Auggie.

She kept him close though, her hand on his knee, her shoulder touching his.

"So you two haven't seen each other for a while?"

"Since Annie went dark," Auggie admitted his hand finding hers on his knee.

"Wow, that must be hard. Not as hard as thinking you were dead, but hey," Barber blew out a frustrated breath.

"I'm sorry about that too, you have to know it was a last resort, an extreme measure I did not take lightly," she said sincerely and turned her hand under Auggie's lacing their fingers together.

Barber wasn't sure if she was apologizing to him or Auggie, but the two Operatives across from him looked simultaneously miserable and giddy.

"I'm sure I am not here to witness your reunion, so give me some more details on how we got to this point," Barber leaned back in the seat and listened to Annie recount the way she tracked Henry via Sana for a couple months and the asset she turned in Lisbon that brought them to today.

By the time Annie finished filling the guys in on the details of the mission they had reached her apartment. It wasn't much, but it actually had a decent sized bedroom and a small room Annie used as an office that had a futon in it for Barber. Annie and Auggie left Barber to unpack and settle in and headed to Annie's room.

As soon as Annie shut the door she threw herself into Auggie's arms.

"I didn't realize what seeing you again would do to me," she choked out.

Auggie held her close, matching his heart rate and his breathing to hers, trying to meld their bodies into one being. Finally she broke and pulled back enough to kiss him her tongue demanding entrance to his mouth.

"Mmmmm," he moaned and the vibration radiated from his body to hers and drove her mad.

She began walking them back towards her bed, her hands moving from the small of his back around to the buckle of his belt. Somewhere in the recesses of his desire-addled mind Auggie brought them back to reality.

"Annie, God, sorry, please, stop," every word sounded like a prayer or a plea.

She froze for a second fearing he didn't want her any more, despite the physical evidence she could catalog with her hands and lips. Auggie caught his breath before he said anything else.

"I want you so badly, I can barely breathe, but Barber is right next door and he is pissed enough at us, we can't leave him hanging while we have a quickie. And trust me, later, when I get you alone, I intend to be anything other than quick," he smiled and kissed her softly.

"Yeah," she nodded in agreement, "sorry, I got a little carried away there."

"Please don't apologize," he smiled warmly.

***555***

"Hey Barber, you hungry?" Annie poked her head into the room where Barber was booting up his computer.

He looked up with a face that said 'that was a stupid question' and Annie grinned, maybe the ice was melting a little.

"I'm going to grab some food from the restaurant down the street, there is beer in the fridge, you guys get comfortable," she announced and slipped through the door.

"Her hair is different," Barber said as he made his way to the fridge and got himself and Auggie a beer.

"It is?" Auggie said puzzled.

"Dark, used to be blonde," Barber shrugged as he popped the tops off the beers.

"Oh, it still feels the same," Auggie admitted realizing he had no real idea what Annie looked like.

"You've done a really good job of making us all think you were grieving," Barber said still hurt a little.

"I have been grieving though, not Annie's death, but her decision. I've been constantly worried and basically working 2 jobs for the past few months trying to help her and keep up appearances at Langley," Auggie was exhausted and frustrated and didn't want to have to placate Barber.

"But we thought she died," Barber clarified.

"And I am constantly worried she might, trust me that is worse," Auggie said with a sigh.

Suddenly he realized how different this go around was then when Helen "died". He mourned her certainly, but then he moved on with his life. This was a hellish limbo full of uncertainty.

"She was really happy to see you," Barber said quietly.

"Yeah?" Auggie knew this of course but it was interesting to hear another point of view.

"I have never seen a woman look at a man the way she looked at you. It was this perfect combination of love and admiration and longing, it was breath-taking man," Barber took a long pull off the beer.

"I think she is les guarded because I can't see her looks, she doesn't have to temper them," Auggie shrugged.

"Maybe, but I would kill to have a woman want me as much as she clearly wanted you in that car."

"We've gone through a lot to get to this point," Auggie accepted the cold bottle Barber brushed along his hand.

"Truth be told, she has always kind of looked at you like that."

"Seriously?" Auggie was shocked.

"As long as I can remember," Barber confirmed.

"Huh," Auggie catalogued that away for further investigation.

"Will she be able to come back?"

"Depends on how the whole thing ends, but most Operatives that do what Annie did either have to stay in the shadows or retire, if they survive," Auggie choked a little on the last word.

"I want to help you get her home," Barber sat down and patted Auggie on the arm.

TBC…