A/N: Hello everybody!
There are just a few things I want to cover. First of all, if you just now discovered Dreamer, I'm glad you're here, and I hope you enjoy the ride! This is probably my favorite fanfic ever, so I'm glad it's been so well received. I hope you enjoy it, too. (You should also probably know that I live off of reviews. So. Seriously. Please. Review. :))))) Secondly, if you were reading this before, but are confused because there are less chapters—it's true. I got rid of half of it, because I wasn't thrilled. I'm in the process of editing and reposting and such. Hopefully, we'll be up to date by the end of next week. :) Thirdly, this was started in January. I had all intentions of having this done by now, so no, spoilers for season 2 will most likely not be included. If it fits, I might, but so far there are no spoilers for season 2. Mainly because I wasn't expecting Ben to live. :/
Lastly, my internship is taking me away from home until the end of next week (starting tomorrow afternoon), which is why I wanted to get this updated now. There won't be any updates next week, but I hope to edit the next 2-4 chapters with me, and hopefully I can edit that while I'm not working for my internship. Hopefully, that also means that Dreamer will start picking up some speed. :)
Sorry for the enormous A/N! Okay, that's all for now. :)
Disclaimer: I owneth not Covert Affairs, but I do owneth a love for Shakespearean English. :]
Chapter 5
Annie woke to the sight of Auggie's head hanging down over hers. Frowning, she looked around, slowly recognizing the apartment surrounding them. Oh, yeahhh… but why was she on the floor of the living room?
She scooted away so she didn't conk heads with Auggie when she sat up, and she rubbed her eyes. How had she gotten on the living room floor? She distinctly remembered going to bed in the master bedroom the night before.
She sat up slowly, and groaned. No one should sleep on a hard floor, even if it is carpeted. She reached back and tried to massage her left shoulder and neck, which had taken the brunt of her weight, but it didn't yield much comfort. She rolled her shoulders a few times, wanting to curse her stupidity.
She only had to look at Auggie to see how she'd ended up on the hard, cold, unyielding floor instead of remaining safely in the warm, comfortable king-sized bed.
Annie hugged her legs to her chest as she watched Auggie sleep. He looked so peaceful, so at ease. She reached out and ran her fingers through his unruly hair. She loved him too much for her own good.
She pushed herself to her feet and found the eggs in the refrigerator. It was almost nine, and Auggie would be up soon. As she pulled out the frying pan and the vegetable oil, she added one more thing to her list of things to do today. Buy a mattress for Auggie. It would take time out of the myriad of other things she had to do to be ready for this mission, but it was a small price she'd have to pay if she wanted to be able to get a full night's sleep without interruptions—and sleepwalking.
She scrambled some eggs and made hash browns for the both of them, and sat down with the French 1 textbook Vivian and Jai had brought over the night before. She didn't have a lot of time to be ready for tomorrow.
Annie slipped her hand into Auggie's just before the entered the glass double-doors of the local mattress store. Auggie turned to look at her as they stepped into the building. "Annie, where are we?"
She laughed. "I felt bad that you had to sleep on the couch when I got the whole bed to myself. So I figured we should get you a mattress, before we have to be at the school everyday, and all you do is complain to the kids about how you've been relegated to the couch."
He laughed. "Annie, would I do that?"
She rolled her eyes. "Probably." She surveyed the store. "Oh, and none of those fancy TempurPedic mattresses or whatever they're called. I'm not made of cash."
He laughed and looked over at her fondly. "You mean we're not made of cash. It's coming from our bank account, remember?"
She blushed. "Oh, yeah." Sometimes it was hard to remember that she and Auggie were supposed to be married, that they were supposed to be even closer than they already were. It would take some adjusting.
For the next forty-five minutes, she followed Auggie around as he hopped from mattress to mattress, testing out each one. She was pretty sure his goal was to do something outrageous to each mattress—flopping in the most unusual ways, and landing in the strangest positions. She couldn't help laughing at his antics.
While he was resting on one mattress, he pretended to be asleep, fake snoring for nearly twenty minutes straight (not adorable, normal snoring—loud, obnoxious, disturbing snoring), until one of the store's employees came over and tried to wake him up. Annie stood at a distance, silently snickering, while the employee shook Auggie's shoulder, bending over him. Auggie ignored him for a few minutes, and then his eyes popped open, and he stared straight ahead, right into the employee's eyes, and screamed.
The employee tripped over himself in his attempt to scramble away, and Annie rolled her eyes as she walked back over to him. "What's the matter with you?" she demanded, pulling him off the mattress. "They're probably going to kick us out of here, and then were are we going to get you a mattress?"
He just shrugged and grinned.
"Was it worth it?"
His eyes twinkled, but he didn't say anything.
When they reached the next mattress, Auggie reached for her hand, intertwining her fingers with his, and he grinned at her. "Ready?"
"Ready for what?"
His eyes twinkled as his eyes locked with hers. "To flop."
She groaned. "Auggie…"
He caressed her hand with his thumb gently. "C'mon. For me?"
When he looked at her with those chocolate eyes like that, there was no way she could say no. "Fine. One time."
They flopped back onto the bed, and Auggie laughed. Annie just groaned. She was sure she'd done something not-good to her neck.
Auggie pushed himself farther onto the bed, curling up on his side, and Annie followed suit, watching him lay there. "So what's the vote on this one?" she said, settling into the mattress. This one was almost more comfortable than her mattress back at the apartment. She tried to focus on the topic at hand, but it was downright distracting, sharing a bed with Auggie, only a foot away, as he caressed her arm absentmindedly.
He shrugged. "I dunno. What do you think?"
"I think you should hurry up and decide, so I can go eat supper."
He pushed himself to his feet and helped her stand. "Okay."
"Okay?"
He nodded and Annie got the attention of one of the employees.
As they walked out of the store, an employee following with the mattress, Annie leaned a few inches closer to Auggie and asked, "Was it worth it?"
"Was what worth it?"
She glanced at the employee behind them, still giving Annie and Auggie strange looks. "Making all the employees think you're a crazy man with that stunt back there."
He gave her an innocent look. "What, the snoring?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, bright guy, the snoring."
He shrugged and gave her another grin, his eyes twinkling. "Everybody loves a blind guy."
Annie just groaned as she unlocked the car for Auggie to climb in. Sometimes, he was too incorrigible.
Annie took in the surroundings of the park just around the corner from hers and Auggie's apartment as she walked down the street. Her hand was tucked in his, and she loved the way he caressed the back of her hand gently with his thumb. It felt natural, as if it was something they'd done a thousand times before.
The park was decorated with white Christmas lights and soft Christmas music filled the block. People were milling around, dressed in warm coats and scarves and gloves, laughing and drinking hot cocoa. A display was set up with a backdrop that displayed the world of Whoville, and someone looked like he was about to step up to the podium and begin to read.
"So, Annie," Auggie whispered, his head turned toward her, "are you ready to be Mrs. Anderson?"
His eyes were twinkling, and a grin threatened to explode off his face. Undercover work was Auggie's drug. He was getting his dream, and Annie could tell that nothing in the world meant more to him, than being able to be here, tangibly saving his country, once again. The fact that they were doing it together was only a bonus.
Standing there, at the fringe of the park in Manassas, standing by Auggie's side, she couldn't help but catch the fervor. Undercover with Auggie. They could do this.
She grinned and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Yeah, Aug, I'm ready."
They walked around the edge of the park for several minutes, testing each other on their covers. To anyone else, it sounded like any young couple trying to get to know each other. Auggie would provide statements, and Annie would tell him if the statement was true or false.
"You broke your elbow in third grade, trying to kiss a boy. His name was Rossabi Nikolivamos."
She would stare at him when he came up with something that outrageous, roll her eyes, and then laugh. "False. But I did break my arm when I was in third grade. Next question."
"Your sister shaved your head when you were three years old."
She laughed out loud. "True."
He turned to look at her. "True?"
She laughed again. "True. Elle wasn't a very nice sister."
Auggie almost asked her who Elle was, and then he remembered—in order to protect Dani, Michael, and the girls, they'd changed her name to Gabrielle, but Annie called her Elle. It would take some getting used to to hear "Elle" all the time instead of "Dani."
They continued on in this fashion for a while, quizzing each other, teasing, laughing, while someone disguised as Cindy Lou Who's father read the story of the Grinch. As the story drew to a close, the music started up again, and people filled the dance floor that had been set up. Young couples, little children, grandparents, and everyone in between danced to the sound of Jingle Bells and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, and Annie stared after them wistfully. They looked so happy, so content, so free. Like nothing could harm them.
She tugged Auggie to a stop, still watching them, lost in her thoughts. When Auggie bumped her shoulder with his, she turned to him. He was holding a hand out to her. "May I have this dance?"
She grinned slowly as she placed her hand in his. "How did you know?"
He chuckled. "There are just some things I know, Annie Anderson," he said, his eyes twinkling. He let her lead them to the dance floor set up in the middle of the park, and the first chords of Last Christmas filled the air.
Annie wrapped her arms around his neck, and rested her head on his shoulder. Auggie wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as they danced in cadence to the music.
Dancing with Auggie was nice. She had known, ever since she met Auggie, that he would always be the one to protect her. But dancing with Auggie—he held her close, shielded her from the other dancers—there was something special about it. Then he started singing to her, in a soft, sweetly intimate baritone. She could tell he didn't sing to just anyone. So when the song changed, his voice dropped off, and he blushed adorably, she pushed up onto her tiptoes and brushed a sweet kiss against his lips. "Thank you, Auggie."
She slipped back into his embrace and smiled into his shoulder as they danced into the night.
A/N: Please review!