Before his accident, Auggie hated being touched. He was not a hugger or a handshaker or a shoulder-patter or any of that. Outside the context of sex, he just wasn't into it. He wrestled in high school, but that was different. Maybe it was the fact that those sorts of things always made him feel a little too vulnerable. Four brothers and a military background left him a very nice, sterile space bubble, and that was how he liked it.

But in the dark, it's all about touch. Touch is what separates you from a smothering void. Groping along walls, bumping into furniture- these are the things that show you how rooms are laid out. Auggie had learned to gauge appearance in a whole new way: the severity of one's perfume, the height of the crook of their arm, their balance when they reached up for a kiss. People gave off these amazing auras of heat, a thing he didn't notice until he couldn't see them any more. People were the warmest things next to dogs. Touch connected him to things and people. It was a sense he'd always overlooked.

He rode in the back of a cab, inches away from his niece. She barely gave off any heat at all. She didn't say a word. He heard her fingers rub along the wrist that had been cuffed to the table, whimper ever so softly when a speed bump jostled her injured shoulder, but she seemed just barely alive.

He tilted his face to the cold window, rested his forehead on the glass. It was raining heavily outside, and he paid extra attention to the clip of the drops as the cab sped down the street. The interrogation had been awful, but Joan was right. His presence put the fear of God into Lucy. She was in. He offered to watch her, so to speak, until they could get to work tomorrow. Even though it was 5 a.m. and tomorrow was in five hours and his life was blurring into chunks of time rather than days, again.

They left the cab and went up to his place.

"Hey, listen, when we get in here, don't-"

"Move anything. Yeah."

He dropped his keys in the bowl and made sure the door shut tight behind him.

"Nice place," Lucy commented. "Minimalistic but chic. You have someone do this for you?"

"No, I just picked through Pottery Barn till I saw something I could recreate on a budget."

Lucy snorted a laugh. She got his sick sense of humor. She was one of the first people to laugh at a blind joke. Actually, she was probably the first person to laugh after his accident, period.

"Come on, I'll grab you something of mine so you can take a shower. We can get you something real to wear later."

She followed him to his closet. He grabbed her his smallest pair of pants and one of his shirts. She sucked in a breath reaching for them. "Motherfucker."

"What is it? You okay?"

"Yeah," she said in a voice that clearly wasn't. "It's just my shoulder."

"Can I see that?" He expected a snarky 'I don't know, can you?' but she didn't offer it.

"Yeah." She put his hand on the crook of her collarbone.

He felt the bandage, snaking down to the top of her armpit. "How bad was the wound?"

"It went straight through my arm," she said. "They pulled out the bullet and stitched me up- I guess it didn't get anything too important."

"But you're in a lot of pain?" he asked. Her silence wiggled the arm slightly. He guessed it was a nod. "I can't hear your head rattle."

"Sorry, yeah."

"You're breathing pretty rapidly, can you tell me if the skin is blue at all?"

"No," she said.

"Good. Okay, you're probably okay, I just wanted to make sure... Um. Shower's that way. I'll make you something to eat."

...

Annie wasn't sure what to make of any of this.

First, there was Auggie and his niece. Annie watched him burn up in the girl's presence, as if separated from her by a wall of fire. He wanted to reach her, but she wasn't letting him. Annie was no stranger to daddy issues, but this girl took the cake. They were meeting up again in a few hours. The hope was that Annie and some of the other Tech Ops guys could figure out where.

Annie tried to put herself in his place. What if it had been Katia or Chloe in Lucy's place? Annie would be a mess. But she also would've been in contact with Danielle by now. She guessed Auggie and his brother didn't have a particularly close relationship, and it made her sort of sad by association. Auggie was a good guy. She hated that he could be so alone. Because, at the end of the day, who did he have?

That was a question she didn't know the answer to. Lucy was giving her a piece of the picture, but she couldn't be sure. He had Parker once. He had friends all over the world, but was there anyone he didn't keep at an arm's length? Anyone who knew the whole story?

Annie wondered how many people were walking around only knowing half the story. She guessed there were probably too many to name. He called her his best friend, but she suspected she was still one of them.

...

"You made eggs," Lucy sounded a little more like herself. Auggie whirled around. He hadn't even heard her come in.

"I did. I thought we could talk a little bit before we head back to Langley."

Lucy filled two mugs with coffee before he could even get to it. "If you insist."

She put one of the mugs in his hand and made herself a plate. She'd been there for rehab, she'd seen him break more mugs and dishes than anyone. She was better at the blind guy ballet than anybody else on the planet. He'd forgotten.

"We haven't spoken in years, Luce," he blurted.

"I haven't really been in touch with the family," Lucy said in a choked voice, taking a seat at the counter. "I missed you a lot though."

"I missed you too, kid."

"So," she said between bites. "The CIA."

"Tech-Ops."

"So you're, like, the Man."

"Yes," Auggie chuckled into his coffee. "I am, like, the Man."

She laughed knowingly. "The nerdy, nerdy Man."

"How about you?"

"I failed out of college, I haven't called my dad in 6 months, I'm in CIA custody, and I am sporting the worst haircut since fifth grade." She listed her failures like they were groceries. She started to laugh because he did. "Stop it! My life is tragic."

Auggie shook his head. "Don't count yourself out yet, kid, you're young."

She sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't call you."

"You should've gotten me on the phone as soon as things started going downhill," Auggie took the tone of a disciplinarian. "I would've helped you and you know it."

"Well, you weren't really accessible..."

"I didn't even know you were at William and Mary, Luce. I would've been there in 5 minutes, on your doorstep, but you never came to me. Instead, you went to your professor."

"I just worried about you too much to ask you, okay?" she blurted.

He felt himself deflate. "Is that what this is?"

"Things changed after your accident. The roles reversed and I didn't want to burden you with my issues when you were dealing with your own."

"Sounds like you have been talking to your dad after all." This reeked of Eric. Auggie could never tell if Eric meant well or not. He worried himself sick, but he actively avoided the people he claimed to care about. The thought of Lucy carrying on her father's legacy made his blood boil.

"Listen, Uncle Auggie, you have this amazing place here and apparently a great job and that's so good. It's a lot better than I expected. I went to school in Virginia because I wanted to be close enough to some family, but I never wanted to bother you."

"Lucy, I promise you could never worry about me as much as I worry about you. Not ever." He made his way over to her, tracing along the edge of the counter until he was right next to her. He opened his arms, hoping she'd hug back. She collapsed into tears. He felt himself on the brink. "But you're here now. And you're safe. I promise."

Lucy sniffed, her hot tears working into the front of his shirt. Damn, she'd gotten tall. Time was a bastard.

When she finally spoke, her voice was soft. "Are you mad at me?"

Auggie rested his chin on top of her head, really thinking it over. "No."

"No?"

"You fell in love with the wrong person and, as a result, wound up getting arrested. Under normal circumstances, I would be highly disappointed. However, I am in no place to judge."

Lucy pulled away, suspicious. He knew the look she was giving him, even though he couldn't see it. He'd seen it enough before, to last him a lifetime. "What did you do?"

Auggie tilted his head back and sighed to the ceiling. "Take a seat, it's time I told you about the woman who will never be your Aunt Parker."