Disclaimer: I do not own Covert Affairs...I could only BE so fortunate as to create such fabulous characters!
Author's Note: Hope you're still along for the ride! The first three chapters were meant to set the stage. Thank you again to everyone who reviewed – whether signed or unsigned. It means a lot to know that you're following and you enjoy it. Constructive feedback always welcome! :) Without further ado...Chapter 4.
Song: Laura Jansen – Use Somebody (cover of Kings of Leon – it works as well, but this version is softer).
Chapter 4: Use Somebody
Now...
The chaotic movement of reality sometimes hits a point where you need to stop, stand back, listen, smell, feel and look at the world around you to really see its pure unadulterated beauty. The notion that the glass is half full is what allowed Captain Anderson to work through the trials and tribulations of his disability shortly after arriving at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center four years ago. LRMC is the largest American hospital outside of the United States providing tertiary care for over 250,000 U.S. Military personnel and their families. That it served as evacuation and treatment center for all injured servicemen and women, contractors, and coalition forces serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pacific Command, Africa Command, Central Command, and European Command was a factoid that Auggie Anderson knew firsthand. He'd spent weeks in these very facilities after his injury talking to specialist after specialist to discuss the permanence of his sight loss. No one ever agreed on a diagnosis and for his part, Auggie presumed worst case scenario and made the best of it. He wouldn't allow one incident to define his life. So, it was with great unease that he found himself standing in the middle of a busy hallway, his hands touching the cold tile that hinted at its post-World War II construction. The smell of antiseptic, dampness, and death rounded every corner until it nearly overpowered him.
"Auggie?" the tentative and quiet voice of Joan Campbell roused him from his stupor.
Auggie raised his head slowly, his eyes shining with unshed tears, and swallowed the lump in his throat as memories of four years ago flashed through his mind's eye, "Joan? Is that you?"
He felt her soft hand on his forearm, the look of concern on her face lost on him, "We should talk, Auggie."
Auggie frowned as a look of panic flashed across his face, his body rigid, "Joan, is she-"
"What?" Joan recoiled for a moment and then quickly squeezed his arm as she realized how her words must have been taken, "No! No! She's stable."
"Take me to her?" his voice was small, his nerves coming through with his small request.
She regarded him carefully, searching for any sign that he would not be mentally strong enough to handle what was to come, "Ok."
Auggie released the breath he was holding and gently took Joan's arm, "Thank you."
Joan nodded tersely as she began to lead him down the long, narrow hallway, "You need to know what you're walking into, Auggie. She was hurt badly. Shrapnel tore into her right side puncturing her lung causing hemorrhaging. The bleeding was nearly fatal. The doctors estimate that she lost nearly 40% of her total circulating blood volume and she received a transfusion at Bagram. It took nearly four hours to stabilize her. She coded three times in Afghanistan and once here upon arrival nearly eight hours ago. After a six hour surgery they placed her in the ICU. She was lucid for five minutes. She asked for you. Then she fell into a coma. They say with trauma like this it is to be expected. Erring on the side of caution, they have her on oxygen and hooked to a variety of IVs and monitors. I need to know that you can hold it together. We will discuss your extra curricular activities in Montreal, but I know you need to see her. There are two chairs next to her bed. I'll walk you to the one closest to her – about 10 steps from the door. You'll hear the machines the second you walk in."
Auggie's face remained impassive throughout Joan's monologue, digesting the information she provided as he would in any other briefing. He went through the motions of nodding his head while on the inside he registered words like coded and coma that caused his blood to run cold. He paused at the door, his hand reaching out to touch the room number written in braille, and turned his head towards Joan. She gently squeezed his elbow in a show of support but then uncharacteristically pulled him into a tight embrace.
"You can not do that again, Auggie!" she whispered in his ear, her voice urgent and filled with veiled anger, "You are going to be the death of me, August Anderson."
Auggie took in a deep breath and nodded slowly, "I lost myself, Joan."
Joan pulled away, keeping him at arms length, and searched his face, "We'll talk after you see her. You need to see for yourself that she's alive."
He felt his breath catch in his throat as the low, steady beat of the heart monitor caught his ear and he had to fight the instinct to turn on his heel and walk the other way. Walking into this room would make every, single emotion he'd felt in the last sixteen hours bubble to the surface and there would be no way to stop it from happening. His carefully constructed walls would crumble to the ground spectacularly.
"There is a chair ten paces ahead of you on your left. The bed is directly in front of you. From the edge of the bed to your right about three paces is the bathroom," Joan explained as she helped him put one foot in front of the other, "There's a metal railing protecting her from rolling out of bed. I'm going to put your hand on it, Auggie."
Auggie felt the cold metal against his palm and he realized in that moment that his throat felt as though he'd swallowed a cup of sand. He stared straight ahead, imagining the scene in front of him. He remembered visiting men wounded in battle in this hospital before his accident. He tried not to imagine what her soft skin would look like in that condition. With shaky fingers he reached out a hand and then stopped himself a few inches from Annie's face. Joan, sensing his indecision, reached out to place her hand on top of his and gave him a gentle squeeze.
"I need to see her," he whispered, a single tear sliding down his cheek the moment Joan ghosted her hand over his.
Squeezing his hand she slowly raised it to the top of Annie's head then slowly followed the lines of the woman's face as she described what she was seeing to the man next to her, "She has a bandage around her forehead. They tell me she experienced a blunt force trauma to the head at some point. Luckily there was no brain swelling. The MRI was clean. Her left cheek has a soft bruise, it's purple but it will heal in time. She has a plastic oxygen mask here. She is taking soft breaths. You can see the puffs of condensation as she exhales. Her neck and shoulders are unharmed as were both arms. There is a monitor on her index finger, so be careful."
Auggie felt his fingertips ghost over Annie's and then felt Joan's hand bring them together, "Thank you Joan."
She placed a firm hand on his shoulder, her heart breaking for the young man beside her, "I need to check in with Arthur. I'll be back soon. If you need anything there is a call button to your left next to the bed."
Auggie nodded, his hand feeling out to his left for the chair he knew to be there, and then slowly sank into its uncomfortable seat. Lowering his head to the cool railing next to him he allowed himself a moment to grieve for the situation before him. Annie was a strong woman. She had made it this far, hadn't she? Doctors say that comatose patients can still hear people around them and some patients upon awakening remember much of what was said.
"Annie," he cleared his throat, his voice raw from disuse as he gently stroked the back of her hand, "It's Auggie. I'm here Annie."
Her heart rate remained steady, the monitor never wavering from the cadence set upon his arrival. He sighed as he squeezed her hand and rose to his feet again, this time leaning over to kiss her forehead lightly.
"I love you too, Annie Walker," he whispered in her ear, breathing in her scent.
Auggie returned to his seat, ran a hand through his hair, and leaned his head against the wall, "I kicked Jai's ass, by the way. You missed a rather epic take down, if I do say so myself. Everyone underestimates the blind guy. Of course I'm more proud of kicking Mercer's ass. That guy is legend, but you already know that. I'm sure you're wondering why I was involved in a fight and I bet you'll read me the riot act when you wake up. The thing is, Annie...when I thought you were dead...I was lost. I left Langley. Went to New York. Montreal. I was planning on hopping a plane to Doha then to Kuala Lampur with the intent to kill Ben Mercer. Oh, I know. Stupid plan. After all, I've never been to Kuala Lampur. Ironically, Ben came to me and so did Jai. They got in a couple of good punches. My jaw is still sore from Mercer's right hook, but in the end we realized we'd been played."
"I can see the wheels turning, man," Jai immediately reached out for the dark haired man, his hand firmly on the other's shoulder, "I heard the transmission myself-"
"And you are so incredibly trustworthy," Ben scoffed as he folded his arms across his chest, a smirk on his lips.
"Not helping!" Jai growled as he raised an eyebrow at his former operative, "Auggie, listen to me. I know you want to tear Ben apart – believe me I empathize. Right now we have more pressing matters."
"Why did you do it Mercer?" Auggie asked, his voice laced with anguish as he tried in vain to break Jai's solid grip on his shoulder, "I thought she meant something to you!"
Mercer frowned, his eyes sparking dangerously once again, "What exactly are you accusing me of Anderson? You send me a cryptic note about meeting you in Montreal and I hear through back channels that Annie is dead-"
"Wait!" Jai held up his hand and turned to Mercer, his eyes flashing as Auggie tried to throw off his hand once again, "Stop! Something isn't right!"
Auggie frowned as he finally shook Jai's hand from his shoulder, tapping his cane on the floor and straightening his sweater, "I didn't invite you to Montreal, Mercer. Just like he didn't send the intel requesting Annie meet him in Afghanistan."
Ben laughed deeply at the man's words, "Afghanistan? Annie? My Annie? Why would I do that? Are you insane?"
"Well, I wasn't exactly read in on the Op until the very end," Auggie grumbled and turned to the sound of Ben's voice glaring sufficiently.
"The intel was triple checked," Jai explained as he pinched the bridge of his nose, he was rapidly feeling the effects of being pummeled, "Even I couldn't deny it's authenticity. There were things in there that only you and Annie knew about, Ben. It's why she went."
"What was so damned important?" Ben asked quietly, his emotions carefully reigned in as he stared down his former handler.
"An alleged terror cell. One poised to take down all of the terror cells in Afghanistan," Jai responded frankly with a shrug of his shoulders.
Ben turned on Auggie in that moment, "You! You allowed this to happen? You know that I could never get close enough to a cell to infiltrate it no matter how good I am-"
Auggie squared his shoulders, his jaw set, "As I said. I wasn't read in on the op until it was in play and too far gone. As soon as I was read in I knew it was a set up."
"But why?" Jai asked as he threw his hands up in frustration, the pieces of the puzzle just didn't want to fit together into a perfect picture."
"So, you didn't send me a message?" Mercer raised an eyebrow as he looked to Auggie for confirmation.
"I sent you a message," Auggie responded with a wry smile, "I believe I called you a coward. Of course, it could have said that I made dinner reservations at 8:00 for all I remember. It's been a adventurous sixteen hours and standard Malay isn't exactly my forte."
Mercer chuckled despite himself and pulled out a slip of paper from his jacket, "This came yesterday. I arrived in New York and then received a second message, this time via encrypted cell phone, telling me to meet you here."
Auggie tensed momentarily, a hand raised to silence both men, and it was then he heard the sound. Pushing Jai against the wall, earning him a swift shot to the shoulder, Auggie watched as a bullet ricocheted off the floor and down the hall. Mercer, seeing the shot dove to the ground and reached under his right pant leg for his own weapon. It was then all hell broke loose.
"You were in a gun fight at Pierre-Elliott- Trudeau?" a mumbled whisper filled the room followed by a soft chuckle, "Auggie Anderson you have some explaining to do."
"Annie?" Auggie called out as he raised his head from the metal railing, tears in his eyes, and reached for the call button, "Annie!"
"You're here." she squeezed his hand lightly, a small smile playing at her lips as her hand reached for her oxygen mask, pulling it away so she could talk.
Auggie smiled for the first time he could remember and chuckled, "Flights are cheap this time of year. Government discount and all that."
The door opened slowly to reveal a tall man dressed in green scrubs holding a clipboard, "Welcome back Miss Walker. My name is Dr. Latham and I've been monitoring your recovery since you arrived."
Annie took in a deep breath, her eyes glancing over to Auggie and she blinked slowly, "Auggie you look terrible."
Laughing he leaned over the railing and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, "You wound me, Annie."
"Miss Walker, how much do you remember?" Dr. Latham asked, smiling at the easy banter between the two.
Annie took in a deep, steadying breath and closed her eyes as she tried to form a picture in her mind of the last thing she remembered. Her fingers twitched as she remembered the feel of the M-4 in her hands, the cold steel and raw power that the weapon represented. She remembered how her eyes softened as she watched the interaction between the men in Ranger Team 4, recalling the conversation she and Auggie had shared a few months prior about how he'd become blinded. Then she felt the terror as she found herself in the middle of a war zone. She'd seen people die before. In her line of work that was inevitable, but to see it done with such brutality was more than she could handle. The first explosion rocked her to the core, imagining how Auggie must have felt in those final moments before the world went dark. It was in that moment that she realized just how much he meant to her and how lucky she was to have him in her life.
Hearing her heart rate increase through the tiny beeps on the monitor, Auggie squeezed her hand reassuringly, "It's gonna be ok, Annie. You're ok."
Annie closed her eyes at the contact and avoided the question completely as she tried to slow the adrenaline flowing through her body, "How long have I been here?"
Dr. Latham cocked his head to one side as he regarded the interaction between the two and wondered what the young woman was hiding from the man by her side. He wondered if Miss Walker felt uncomfortable relaying mission details to him considering she wasn't aware of his status or his clearance.
"You've been here a little over thirty six hours," Dr. Latham responded as he wrote down some information on the chart as he began to look at the readouts on the various monitors around the room.
"Where exactly is here?" she asked quietly, her eyes suddenly becoming heavy as her short exertion took its toll.
" Landstuhl Regional Medical Center," Latham responded as he placed the clipboard under his arm, "Rest Miss Walker. We'll discuss your memory after you've rested sufficiently."
"Will you stay?" she turned to Auggie, her eyes closing on their own volition.
"I'll be here," he told her firmly gently cupped her face with his other hand.
Annie sighed and then allowed her body to be pulled under, relishing the safety she felt with her best friend by her side. Her mind was swimming with thoughts and images, but she was in no position to act on them. She felt her eyes sting with tears, but before a single drop could escape she felt herself drifting into oblivion. Auggie knew the moment she drifted off to sleep, not because the monitor's incessant beeping told him so but because he could feel the soft puffs of air against the hand that rested near her cheek. He also knew her well enough to know that she was keeping something from him. She'd avoided the question about what she remembered and he had to wonder if the trauma might have affected her short-term recall. Auggie Anderson knew one thing for certain: Now that Annie Walker was alive and well, he'd be damned if he allowed her to be hurt again.