It's a super nice day out, and yet I'm inside, on the computer, typing away. Boy, I must really like you guys or something. :)

-O-

Chapter 2

Always Picking on the Blind Guy

Annie had always disliked hospital rooms. Okay, maybe not always, but ever since her brush with death in Guam, she'd hated the confined feeling of the rooms. She also resented this particular hospital for letting a certain newly re-instated operative slip away unnoticed.

Fortunately, their current charge wasn't going anywhere soon, even if he'd wanted to. And he did want to.

"I'm fine," Jai said again, reaching for his glass of water and wincing when the movement pulled against his stitches.

"Oh, yeah, of course," Annie smirked at him as she reached over and handed him the glass. Jai had taken two bullets to the shoulder and lost an incredible amount of blood on the helicopter ride to the hospital, despite the emergency responders' bandages. He was not leaving the hospital any time soon.

Jai glared at her.

"Don't worry, the doctors said you should be good to go in about a month," Annie got up from her perch on the end of his bed and walked towards the door, smirking.

"A month?" Jai spluttered.

-O-

"How many times do I have to tell you, a blind guy works here!" Auggie's frustrated shout could be heard from the other side of the room. Annie looked up from her computer screen just in time to see a flustered Serrano – Joseph Serrano, he was Jai's fill-in – fleeing in the opposite direction.

"Annie?" Auggie's frustration waned momentarily as he called her over. She stood and walked over, her heels clicking on the tiled floor. "I'm not asking for help," Auggie claimed the minute he sensed her presence.

"No, of course not."

Auggie's desk was littered with papers, and the computer had been pushed to the side several feet. The desk itself had been pushed to the left, and Auggie was currently leaning against it, rubbing his side and pursing his lips.

"I swear, it's like Joan purposely chooses the most incompetent new recruits just to torment me," Auggie shook his head, listening as Annie attempted to re-rearrange his workspace.

"Maybe it's Arthur. I heard he's not too happy about your-"

"Chickening out?" Auggie interrupted. "Go ahead, say it. You know you want to. I, Auggie Anderson, chickened out," Auggie said it seriously, but he was grinning.

"I was going to say your decision to remain anonymous," the desk shifted, and Auggie guessed she had just taken a seat on it.

He shrugged. "What can I say? I'd take the smell of your perfume over a supposedly amazing view any day. And besides, I'm sure Arthur's already found another toy to play with."

Annie didn't miss the hint of bitterness in Auggie's voice. Arthur hadn't been happy with Auggie's choice, but he'd been awfully quick about getting Auggie's old position and desk with the DPD back. For Auggie, who'd been amazed and flattered beyond words with Arthur's initial offer, the rapid re-installation had been like a slap to the face. A slap to the face of a blind guy.

"Maybe he'll get Serrano out of your hair," Annie suggested jokingly.

Auggie sighed. "We're all doomed," he made his way to his chair and sat down. "Do me a favor and don't tell Joan I said that."

"I won't tell if you won't."

"Annie," Joan stuck his head in the open doorway. "Briefing in five. Hey, Auggie."

"Hey J- no, okay. Bye," Auggie rolled his eyes. The head of the DPD hadn't even waited for a response.

"See you later, Auggie," Annie got up to leave.

"Annie?" Auggie called her back as she reached the door. She stopped. "Thanks."

-O-

Annie was growing impatient as she sat at the conference table in the briefing room. Joan had been talking about the complete failure that had been the Ecuador pick-up operation for the past ten minutes, and she still wasn't getting to her point. No that she needed to. Everybody in the room already knew what had happened. Someone inside the agency had been behind the attack. It was the only possible explanation, no one outside of the agency knew about the operation.

The pilot and co-pilot had been in intensive care for several days. The pilot had died just that morning, and the co-pilot was still unresponsive. There would be no answers from them any time soon. Jai and Annie had already told all they could about the attack – hooked up to a polygraph, of course. The entire DPD was being subjected to polygraphs.

But now, as Annie sat in the uncomfortably hard swivel chair listening to Joan go on and on, she had to wonder – what had been the reason for the attack? She still didn't know who the pick-up had been, Joan still hadn't disclosed that information, but from what she had gathered he wasn't important enough to require a full-out assault on two operatives to aid his escape. He'd even warned them that the plane fire could have been sabotage – which it had turned out to be. If he was planning on using that sabotage to his advantage, why warn them about it? Unless he hadn't been the reason for the attack.

As soon as the briefing was over, Annie made a beeline for Auggie's desk. "Hey, Auggie, what can you tell me about the pilot – Auggie?" She stopped when she saw the desk was empty. "Hey," she turned to the person at the next closest desk – a face she'd only seen in passing. "Do you know where Auggie went?"

The man shrugged. "He said something about coffee."

Sure enough, Auggie was in line at the coffee shop, and from the look on his face as he spoke with the woman in front of him, he was enjoying the wait.

Annie walked over and slipped her arm through his.

"Annie," Auggie sounded slightly miffed at his now-lost opportunity.

"Can I help you?" They'd reached the front of the line.

"The usual," Auggie replied automatically, his attention focused on the operative still leaning on his arm. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Annie shrugged innocently.

Auggie scoffed. "You didn't come all the way down here for coffee. Not after the two cups you had this morning at the hospital. Thank you," he closed his hand around the cup of coffee that the barista had passed across the counter to him and let Annie direct him to a table. "So, what's on your mind?"

"What did you manage to dig up the pilot and co-pilot?" Annie asked the minute they'd taken a seat.

"Nothing. They graduated from flight school in the middle of their class – they were in the same class. This was there first flight in the field."

"So no reason they'd want to stop the CIA from taking the pick-up into our custody?"

Auggie chuckled and took a sip of his coffee. "Annie, I know no more about the nature of the pick-up than you, and if I did-"

"If you did, you wouldn't be authorized to tell me," Annie finished. Sometimes – a lot of the time – she hated being the rookie. "And what if this had nothing to do with the pick-up? Any reason they'd want to take out two operatives?"

"My, my, you certainly have a high opinion of yourself," Auggie smirked. "My guess is they were two rookies fresh out of flight school who didn't see the harm in taking on a side job."

"And by side job, you mean-"

"I mean someone paid them."

"Someone in the agency?"

Auggie didn't answer.

-O-

Auggie was just not having a good day. As if having his work space completely screwed up wasn't bad enough, now his driver hadn't shown up. So he was resigned to walking all the way to the nearest bus stop. He'd taken the route before, so he wasn't a complete stranger to the different obstacles that he'd have to avoid, but he still would have preferred the car service. Sure, it may have been the easy way out, but after the day he'd had, he didn't care.

Of course, it was just his luck that he had to run into possibly the most dimwitted person in the city, which he realized the moment he ran into the solid wall of flesh.

"Hey, dude, watch where you're going!" the man, an all-brawn-and-no-brains type of guys by the sound of him, protested loudly.

"You're right, that's my bad," Auggie snapped, shoving his walking cane in the man's general direction. "I must be blind."

Auggie could hear the man huffing some form of speech. He wasn't going to stick around and decipher it. But the man had other ideas, as his sudden strong grip on Auggie's shoulder suggested.

"Don't. Touch. Me," Auggie gritted his teeth. He could feel the tension in the man's hand as he prepared to launch his assault. He assumed Auggie was some helpless blind guy who would easily fall victim to his strength and sight. His mistake.

Auggie spun and swung his cane against the man's skull with so much force that the man stumbled backwards, losing his grip on Auggie's shoulder. With luck, he'd been knocked out. Either way, he wasn't going to bother Auggie again. Shaking his shoulders to straighten his jacket, Auggie continued down the sidewalk.

He didn't expect the blow to the back of his head, or the sudden dizziness that came with it. His knees wobbled and gave out, as his eyes fluttered closed.