A/N: lalala

Disclaimer: I do not own Covert Affairs

Chapter 11

A week later, Annie came to Auggie at 4:17 in the morning. Auggie was listening to the afternoon news, scoffing at the number of cats stuck in trees that the news channel deemed newsworthy (seriously, wasn't this number eight in the past three weeks?), when Annie interrupted his thoughts.

"Hi." She dropped onto his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, and invaded his space. He could smell her perfume, feel the tickle of her breathing against his face, moments before her lips met his in a sweet, electrifying kiss.

He kissed her back hungrily, not sure what she was kissing him for, but frankly, he didn't care. The past week, trying to keep his distance, trying to forget the attraction to her that followed him every second of the day, struggling with his inner demons over why it was such a bad idea to fall in love with Annie, anyway… it had been torture. This—Annie in his arms, knowing exactly how he felt—there was no way he'd say no to this.

His hands found his way up to her face, cupping it. Her cheeks were so soft. As he held her in his arms, he couldn't help thinking how completely, adorably perfect she was. He pulled her closer, tasting her more deeply. It was crazy—it was like he couldn't get enough of her. He whispered her name against her lips, and he instantly wondered how crazy she thought he was. He didn't think he'd ever called out a girl's name like that, not ever. But if Annie only knew how quickly, how hard, he'd fallen for her…

She pulled away slowly, shyly, hiding in his arms. Gah, he would give just about anything to be able to see her right now. She must be positively adorable. She touched her forehead to his, resting against him, regaining her breath, and Auggie stroked her cheek gently. "Hi."

She giggled. She twisted a little in his arms, glancing at the TV. "So, anything interesting in the news?"

He grinned back at her. "Nothing anywhere near as interesting as what's going on in here."

She snorted. "You need to work on your pick-up lines."

He just laughed, content to hold her in his arms. The silence lingered between them comfortably, and after a few moments, Annie slipped off his lap and onto the couch next to him. Snuggling against his side, after a few moments, she looked up at him. "Hey, Auggie?"

"Hmm?"

She pressed a soft kiss against his shoulder. "Why don't you tell her?"

He instantly knew what she was talking about. He still couldn't believe it'd been a week since he'd discovered how he felt about Annie, and he still hadn't done anything. Still, he didn't want to lose Annie as a friend, but what if a relationship between them did last beyond this op? What if a relationship between them could last forever? The thought kept nagging him, but the fear of hurting Annie kept him from saying anything.

"It's not that easy, Annie."

"Why not? Love is easy. People make it complicated. You love Annie. Annie loves being with you. If she's half the person that I am in your dreams, how could it possibly go wrong? You have to trust in something eventually."

But I can't trust myself. I'll break her heart. "I can't trust myself."

She reached up, stroking his cheek gently. "Then trust her. Trust Annie's love for you."

Trust Annie's love? The idea seemed foreign to him, but the idea that Annie could really, truly love him took his breath away. Could he really—could they really…

"Auggie!"

He stirred on his mattress, trying to orient himself. He recognized Annie's voice calling out to him. "Auggie! Wake up!"

He felt the sun shining on his face, and he could hear the birds singing in the nearby trees. The Manassas apartment. Only now he was in the master bedroom. "Annie?"

She grinned down at him. "Hey, sleepin' beauty."

Auggie groaned and rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?"

"Seven thirty."

He groaned again and sat up. "Why didn't you wake me earlier?" It was only Wednesday, and they had to be at the school in less than half an hour.

She just grinned again. "You looked like you needed it. I'm gonna go make you breakfast. I picked out some especially dapper clothes to balance out that lovely bedhead of yours."

Auggie just groaned again. Dreaming of Annie definitely had consequences.

Auggie was grinning like a fool as he ambled down the hallway of Mercy Christian Academy the next day. He knew he probably shouldn't be, but really, he couldn't help himself, and he wondered why he even tried to stop himself.

Annie filled him with so much joy and utter happiness that really, it was idiotic to try and hide it. Something like loving Annie was meant to be belted from the mountaintops, so that all could hear.

After all, all the world loves a lover.

He thought back to that morning, how he'd had to wake her in order to make it to their faculty meeting that started at seven thirty. She'd been curled up against the edge of the bed, fist curled up under her chin, as her loose blond tresses fell gently around her face. He ached at the thought of sharing that bed with her, waking up with her in his arms every morning. One of his hands rested on her hip, over the thick comforter, and the other reached out tentatively, caressing her cheek. He had been so tempted to lean in and kiss her awake. He had settled, instead, to whisper her name. "Annie?" She'd slowly woken under his touch, lifting her head off the pillow, swallowing sleepily, and then she'd whispered his name. "Auggie?"

Her voice had been so sweet, just groggy enough. How cute could she possibly be? The thought of waking up, hearing that every morning, nearly did him in. He leaned a few inches closer to her lips, tucking a few of her sunny tresses behind her ear, before he realized what he was doing. His eyes fluttered shut, trying to push away the reality, and he pushed to his feet, offering her a hand to help her to her feet. "C'mon. We have that meeting early today."

She nodded and yawned, accepting his offered hand.

Just the image of her in his mind, as he'd woken her, was enough to keep him grinning like a fool for a week straight. It didn't help that he was on his way to see her. Annie was like sweet fuel to his veins.

As he found the doorway to her classroom and propped his shoulder up against it, he stopped to listen. Mingus was softly playing, and Annie was humming along as she worked. From the sound of it, she was straightening out the desks and chairs.

He slowly grinned, until he realized he was doing it again. Groaning silently, he tried to school his face into a nonchalant look, but it ended up looking like he'd just swallowed a goldfish. If she could see him now, Auggie thought, she would surely laugh at him.

It was just after 11:00, and Annie's last morning French class had ended for the day about fifteen minutes ago. He cleared his throat loudly enough for her to hear, and she beamed up at him. "Auggie!"

He grinned in reply, pushing off of the doorjamb. "Hey." He ambled over to her, feeling his way through the aisles of desks. It was just easier, to feel his way, rather than worrying about tangling his cane in all the legs of the chairs and the desks. "Are you busy?"

She shrugged. "Not really. Just cleaning up. Why?"

He beckoned to her with a wave of his head. "C'mon. Ari wanted to show us something."

She nodded, heading back to her desk to put away her books for the moment. "Okay." A moment later, she was at his side, curling her fingers around his bicep. Grinning broadly at her, he reached over and patted her hand, his own hand lingering a few seconds longer than necessary. As she guided him out of the room, she reached the doorway and said, "Sooo… where are we going?"

His eyes twinkled as he glanced over at her. "Our special place."

They'd set up an old filing cabinet and a laptop in the old bomb shelter. The entrance was so inconspicuous that no one had even noticed it was in use part of the time by the group of students, and Perrot still hadn't been able to locate it, after months of looking. From the video surveillance Annie and Auggie had kept, they knew it was driving him crazy.

When they arrived at the bomb shelter, Ari was there, with the fifteen other students who were a part of the project. They were beaming ear-to-ear. "We did it!" they squealed, thrilled with themselves, as Ari grabbed one of Annie's arms and one of Auggie's and dragged them to the laptop. "Come see!" Aurélie insisted, pushing them into the two open swivel chairs in front of the laptop. Auggie's chair began to roll away, and Annie reached out to rein him back in.

Annie glanced from the kids to Auggie to the kids again. "How does it work?" she asked, studying the screen in front of her. Auggie had worked more with them on the programming, since that was his specialty, and she'd spent more time encouraging them, bringing them snacks, fueling their passion for the project.

Annie listened as several of the physics kids explained how it worked, and she watched as Auggie messed around with the program, guiding her around how everything worked. The laptop was not programmed for a blind person to use, so she had to work everything, but once they were finished, Auggie was beaming from ear to ear. He turned to Aurélie, and one of the physics boys, Isaiah, and high-fived them both. "Good job, guys."

They just beamed in pride.

"Okay. You guys need to package this up, so Mrs. Anderson and I can take it to the testing facility that we made arrangements with in January. Remember?"

They nodded, and Auggie evacuated his seat for Isaiah. Auggie reached for Annie's hand, pulling her to her feet. "Okay. Mrs. Anderson and I are going to get lunch for everybody. Do you think you can have it ready when we get back?"

The choruses of approval put a grin on Auggie's face as he tugged Annie out the door. They had done it.

Bill and Baptiste Perrot sat in Bill's Bentley, staring hard at August and Anaïs Anderson, walking along the sidewalk, arm in arm, laughing together.

Baptiste didn't know what the couple thought they were doing, but he didn't like it. Nothing good had come of the arrival of the Andersons. First, they'd swooped in, winning Aurélie's affections, distracting her from her work. When he'd first seen Aurélie relaxing in their apartment that day he hadn't been able to pick her up, he'd hoped he was just imagining things, but as the months passed by, his daughter spent more and more of her time with the Andersons. He was sure they were indoctrinating her. She came home with dreams of changing the world and doing good for people and not standing for injustice. He had known she had always been an optimist, a dreamer, but he'd never feared that one day, his daughter would be the one to give him up to the authorities.

Now, he wasn't so sure.

It had only gotten worse when the Andersons had become the faculty sponsors for Ari's brainchild-idea. Before they had taken over, he had been able to get the location of all the files from her, but now that they were in charge, the files and technology were nowhere to be found. Not on the school computers, not in any of the filing cabinets, not in any of the storage units at the school. It was as if the school project had completely vanished. He'd even had one of his men, Benoît, tail the couple—for a whole week. He'd found nothing.

Baptiste had to fight off a sneer as he watched them laugh and tease each other. Anaïs pushed up on her tiptoes and brushed an adorable kiss on her husband's cheek, and Baptiste growled.

They were adorable. Sickeningly, perfectly, despicably adorable. That was their problem. Somehow, they were thwarting his every move, and they looked too utterly perfect to be at fault for anything.

And now Bill was watching, and he could see how sickeningly adorable the two were, and there was no way he would buy Baptiste's story.

They all knew what that would mean. Baptiste cringed, thinking about Bill's tirade to come. Of course he wouldn't blame them. He would only see Baptiste blaming all the failures to steal the information on an adorable couple that seemed perfect on the outside.

Baptiste didn't even want to know what would happen if Bill made good on his promises.

As the Andersons climbed into the silver Honda Civic and drove away, Bill turned silver Honda Civic and drove away, Bill turned Baptiste, anger written across his face. "I thought you told me they were ruining the plan! …"

At exactly 3:41, Aurélie Perrot came running out of the school building, chasing after Annie's and Auggie's Honda Civic, waving her hands and screaming, "Wait, wait, stop!"

Annie saw her in the rearview mirror and slammed on the breaks, waiting for Ari to catch up. Annie rolled down the window. "What do you need, Ari?"

Ari gave them a hopeful look. "Can I come with you? Please?"

Annie glanced at Auggie, and then back to Aurélie. She knew she could never win. Auggie was way to tied to Aurélie as it was, and she was just so stinkin' hopeful.

Besides, it would be a lie to say that Aurélie hadn't stolen Annie's heart, as well.

Smiling softly, she nodded to the back seat. "Get in."

Squealing happily, she opened the back door and settled in, dropping her backpack next to her on the seat and buckling her seatbelt. As Annie pulled out of the parking lot, Aurélie leaned forward and noticed Auggie was holding Annie's hand, caressing it lightly and she grinned at them in the rearview mirror. "Awww," she cooed. "You guys are so cute together!"

It seemed to be a recurring theme for them. Aurélie said something similar every time she saw the two of them together.

Annie and Auggie both blushed and refused to look at each other. Auggie wasn't ready to let go of his worries, to believe that something between them could actually work, and last forever, and Annie—well, lately Auggie had been more affectionate (she didn't know that was even possible), and her dreams were back in full force. She wanted to love him, but she was afraid.

As Annie pulled out of the school parking lot and down the road, she slowly succumbed to the sweet, gentle, insistent pressure of Auggie's hand in hers. Unconsciously, she leaned into his gentle caress, smiling softly to herself, before she grazed her thumb lightly over the back of his hand, returning the sweet caress.

She hadn't even realized she'd done it, but when she did, she felt something slowly heal inside of her. Annie Walker was made to love Auggie Anderson, and trying to ignore that love was even worse than trying to hide it. Smiling to herself, she rested their entwined hands against Auggie's knee.

Though she wouldn't have been able to admit it (or even recognize it), all she wanted was to be closer to Auggie. The feel of the refined wool of his dress pants brushed against the back of her hand, and Auggie's strong fingers curled around hers protectively, clenching her hand affectionately. She squeezed back, loving the feel of his hand in hers, once again. It was a small gesture, but it meant the world.

Aurélie chattered to them the whole way to the testing facility, telling them about what kind of decorations the gymnasium would have, and what the party in April would entail, and how her homework was going, and how weird her dad had been acting lately. Annie just grinned as she listened. She could get used to this, spending a free afternoon with Auggie and Aurélie.

"Annie!"

Auggie's voice echoed through the apartment, and he scrambled around the coffee table and into his spot on the couch. Mentally, he went through his checklist of the things he'd had to do—pop the popcorn, check; queue the DVD, check; make sure the couch was cleared off from all the research he'd been doing all week, check.

Grinning, he repositioned himself in the corner of the couch, satisfied that he was ready.

He listened as Annie's padded footsteps made their way from the bedroom out to the living room area. They were muffled, almost as if she was dragging her feet, and when she spoke, her voice was heavy with weariness. "Aug? What'd you want?"

He flashed her his best charmer grin and patted the spot next to him on the couch. "Movie night. C'mon. It's gonna be awesome." He waggled his eyebrows knowingly, and Annie covered her mouth with her hand, trying to suppress her giggle.

Pushing his antics out of his mind, the worry of catching up on all her French grading before Spring Break nagged her again, she sighed and said, "Auggie, I can't. I have a ton of grading to do."

He reached his arm out, snagging her wrist lightly. "C'mon. You're frazzled. You need a break. Besides, I found your favorite movie…" he teased.

Her gaze flitted to the screen, noticing the opening credits for While You Were Sleeping. She hadn't seen the movie in a while, and she really did love it…

Sensing she was caving, he picked up the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table. "I made popcorn… your favorite kind…"

Sighing, she stepped over his legs, crossed at the ankles, and she plopped down on the couch next to him. She held her hands out. "Popcorn, please."

Grinning over at her, he handed her the bowl and pressed the play button the remote. It took her several minutes, but soon she relaxed, curling her legs up beneath her. Half an hour into the movie, she curled up against him, hugging his arm and resting her cheek on his shoulder. In a half-asleep stupor, she laughed and said, "Jack's brother looks like Arthur." She laughed again, into his shoulder. That one statement showed both how adorable and how exhausted she truly was, and it only made him love her more. He wished he could hold her, let her know everything would be okay.

Annie had had a hard week. Simon Henzel had attacked her nearly every day—when Auggie wasn't around to protect her, of course—and that had only added to the stress of dealing with midterm exams and grades. The grades were due Tuesday, the day Spring Break started, and Annie had been constantly worried and frazzled since the beginning of the week, when reality set in. Auggie was fairly certain he'd walked in on her while she was crying at least three times this week.

On top of all that, Auggie wondered if there wasn't more at stake. Annie usually took to a challenge like grabbing a bull by its horns, not like a deer caught in the headlights.

Auggie laughed at her joke, but pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her protectively. She was too close to sleep to even notice.

As she fell completely asleep, falling lax in his arms, her head slipped down and rested on his chest. Her silky blond hair dropped across his face, and he breathed in the subtle scent of her perfume and shampoo.

She smelled so good.

He reached up, brushing her hair out of both of their faces. He hesitated, his mouth only inches from her temple. He knew he shouldn't, but she was so close, and nothing felt more right. Leaning forward a few inches, he closed the distance between them. He kissed her temple gently, his lips lingering longer than was probably necessary, hoping she wouldn't wake. He slouched down farther into the couch, propping his socked feet up on the coffee table, as he cradled her more comfortably in his arms. His eyes fluttered shut slowly and his chin came to rest over Annie's head as he listened to the movie continue to play, and he drifted off to sleep, dreams of Annie and forever happiness in mind.

Annie woke to the feeling of Auggie's arms wrapping around her protectively after he lifted her off the couch. He lifted her so easily, as if he was used to doing this. Sleepily, she snuggled deeper into his arms and looked up into his eyes. "Auggie? Where are you taking me?"

He stared deep into her eyes for a moment before he leaned in, kissing her softly. "Shh. I'm just taking you back to bed, baby."

"Where was I?"

He chuckled at her sleepy question. "I think you fell asleep. Watching that movie again."

"While You Were Sleeping?"

His eyes twinkled back at her. "Yeah. You know, if you keep doing that, you'll fall asleep in front of one of Joan's briefings, and she'll have your head."

Annie blushed and buried her face in his chest. "Be nice. You're supposed to be my husband."

He grinned down at her as he maneuvered them awkwardly in their bedroom, pulling back the covers before he deposited her on her side of the bed. Pulling the covers back over her, he leaned down, kissing her good night. "I am your husband," he said, his eyes twinkling back at her merrily as he studied her, lying there. "I love you, baby."

Her head rolled sleepily in his direction as she watched him watching her. "Me, too."

"You love you, too?"

"Be nice…"

Auggie laughed as he walked around to his side of the bed, climbing in next to her. He wrapped his arm around her, burying his face in the crook between her shoulder and neck, and they slipped into sweet sleep…

A/N: NOTE: Before you freak out, that last scene WAS a dream. I couldn't figure out how to make it more obvious without destroying the beauty of it. They don't move that fast. Haha.

I'm in a huge hurry, so if there are editing errors, I just didn't have time to go through and check like I usually like do, but I wanted to post this straight away! Hopefully the content shines more than the grammatical errors. :)

Please leave a review and let me know what you think!