A/N: Salut! :) I figured I should start saying hello in French, instead of Spanish, since there's more of a French influence in this than Spanish… Anywhoo. Hi. :)

I was planning to add this in my author's note for the last chapter, but I kinda forgot. As I was rushing out the door and all. :) Auggie's whole "super duper model" thing was inspired by the finale of an adorable little show that got canceled way too early last summer (100 Questions)—well, at least, I thought so. Haha. Anyway, so one of the girls in that show kept calling supermodels "super duper models" and I thought it was awesome… and though it's pretty out of character for Auggie, I loved the idea of Auggie calling Annie his super duper model. So I included it. :) I figured you might want the backstory. :)

Also, this last scene for this chapter is inspired by a little scene in a book from one of my favorite series of all time, The O'Malley Series, by Dee Henderson. I kinda had to steal it. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Covert Affairs, or The O'Malley Series, and I never have owned 100 Questions… :)

Chapter 14

Felix sauntered into tech ops mid Tuesday morning. "Hey, boys," he called out, watching with a smirk as they all scrambled around, blacking out screens and hiding files. "What's up in tech ops today?"

"The boys" scowled at him. Joan had given explicit orders to not give anything up to Felix Williams. For field operatives, it might not have been such an arduous task to hide everything from a seventh-floor spook, but it wasn't so easy for the technical support. "Don't you have anything better to do with your time?" Bowman called out, squinting and scowling at Felix at the same time.

If he didn't feel so bad for them, that they were the worst at hiding anything ever, he would have chuckled. Despite himself, he let one chuckle out. "Relax, boys, relax! I'm not here to cause any trouble, honest. Arthur just sent me to apologize if it seemed like I was interrupting, eavesdropping, earlier this month. Didn't mean any harm…"

"If you're looking for someone to apologize to, you should look for Joan," Stu said seriously, his arms crossed over his chest. "Go."

Felix held his hands up in defense. "I'm going, I'm going… Relax!"

They all stared at him when he remained glued to his spot on the floor in the middle of tech ops. "Well… are you gonna leave?" Barber demanded, sending him a look that said You're the dumbest, craziest, weirdest spook I've ever met in my life…

Felix jumped in his spot on the floor, as if he had forgotten completely that he was supposed to be leaving. "Oh, righto! Sorry, fellas." He reached behind his back, and took a few steps toward Elsa, sitting at her computer, trying to ignore him. With a flourish, he held a single red rose out to her, bowing low. "Milady." He offered her his best charmer grin, but she only sent him a confused scowl. He winked at her jovially, and with that, Felix Williams was gone.

As Barber, Stu, Bowman, Elsa, and the three other tech ops employees present that day stared at each other in Felix's wake, they couldn't help but come to the same conclusion Joan Campbell had come to only a week earlier: either Felix Williams was insane, or he was up to something.

Annie glanced up at Auggie with a grin as they walked down the hallway, their clasped hands swinging between them softly. It was moments like these when Annie truly appreciated what she had with Auggie—they had transformed from best friends to in-love oh-so-easily (Okay, minus the whole four months of trying to hide that she was in love with Auggie, but that shouldn't count, right? After all, they were still best friends… and undercover as a married couple. Not all things were easy.), and she loved these moments when they didn't have to say anything or pretend to be anyone. They were just together, in love, and that was perfect.

When they reached the door to the physics lab, Auggie stopped her with a gentle tug and turned her to face him. Reaching up, his hand connected with her cheek, and he leaned in, kissing her sweetly, with just enough passion to make her heart sing. When he pulled away, caressing her cheek lightly, she grinned back at him. "What was that for?"

He shrugged, but he was grinning back at her. He pulled her against his side. "Because I love you," he whispered, tugging her into the room.

Okay, so she really loved his spontaneous kisses and declarations of love, too.

She found an extra seat for Auggie, and they both sat at the teacher's desk. Annie surveyed the room. All fifteen students were present.

Aurélie skipped up to them and said, "Mrs. Anderson, do you mind if I start with an announcement?"

Annie smiled over at Aurélie. "It's fine, sweetie. I think it's 3:30 already, anyway, so go ahead."

Aurélie turned around and cleared her throat expectantly, staring down her fellow students. "Excuse me," she called, and slowly they all quieted down and turned their attention to her. "I have an announcement to make. I just talked to Mr. Hunter at Verity Technology, and he said that they have only one test left to perform on the project, but everything so far has gone very well, and they haven't faced any glitches that need work yet!"

The room burst into applause, and Ari beamed back at them proudly and took her seat.

Annie pulled a notebook and a pen out of the bag she'd had slung over her shoulder. "Okay, so the purpose of this week's meeting is to start deciding what we want to do for the event next month. It will be a Sunday evening, starting at 6:00. We already sent out invitations in January, and people from governments and organizations like the CIA and Scotland Yard and the FBI and Homeland Security are already promising to come. A lot of very important people will be here. The school has budgeted us $5,000 for the evening, so we're going to have to be careful where we spend our money. Is there any ideas you'd like to see at the party?"

For the next hour, the students and Annie and Auggie bounced between elegant and suitable for their attendees and fitting within their budget and something high school students should be expected to come up with. Finally, they settled on finger foods from around the world. One of the student's parents owned a little high-class, exotic restaurant, Zany Delights (in honor, of course, of their son Zane), and they were willing to help prepare the food, with the help of their chefs and the students. Since the students were hosting the event, no alcohol would be served, but Aurélie was practically a smoothie expert, and offered to create an elegant, refined smoothie that would fit well with the food offered for the event. Crêpes with strawberries or nutella, tiramisu, fresh fruit, and homemade ice cream would be offered for desert.

Tables would be covered with white silk table cloths, and jasmine and freesias in vases filled with opaque marbles would garnish each table.

As Annie and Auggie watched the students file out of the room at 4:30, chattering about the party, the upcoming gymnastics show, and what movies were coming out this weekend, she couldn't help but smile. When she'd first gone into this mission, she'd expected the awkwardness between her and Auggie that there had been for the first four months, and she'd expected to catch a bad guy, and she'd expected for the mission to go for months on end. She hadn't expected to enjoy being a teacher, and she most definitely hadn't expected to fall in love with these fifteen students who were changing the way the world worked forever.

Adele Francisco was studying the computer screen in front of her at Verity Technology when it began beeping in front of her furiously. Her eyes widened. They'd been testing the technology Annie and Auggie Anderson had brought them two weeks ago—and were in the final phases of research before the technology would be approved—but they had just finished today's testing. It had been finished for nearly two hours now. So why was it beeping now?

She studied the screen for a moment, ready to write it off as a glitch, when the satellite world image began zeroing in on Europe. She reached over, yanking hard on her partner's dress shirt sleeve. Ethan had his headphones in his ears—was probably listening to Gwyneth Paltrow again, like he always did—and he was drumming his fingers absentmindedly on the countertop.

When he didn't respond, she tapped his arm and shook it insistently, shouting, "Ethan!"

Finally, he got the picture and pulled one of the headphones out of his ears. "What, Addy?"

Okay. Maybe she deserved that. She was known around Verity as the overzealous, easily excited newbie. But this wasn't making a mountain of a molehill. This was something. She knew it.

She insistently gestured at the screen. "Look!"

Ethan's eyes widened as the screen narrowed to northern Europe, numbers computing and trailing down the left side of the computer screen. "Is that—" he whispered, his voice dropping off in awe.

"There's a bomb." Saying it made it too real. Adele Francisco was a science analyst, not someone who battled bombs. What in the world was she supposed to do with this? "There's a bomb! Oh, you've got to be kidding me, there's really a bomb!" She sucked in quick, nervous breaths. "Ethan, there's a bomb, there's a bomb, it's a real, live bomb…"

Ethan reached out and gripped her shoulders, shaking them. "Addy! Addy! ADELE!"

Ethan never called her Adele. She trembled a little as she replied. "Wh-what?"

"Relax. Deep breaths. Deep breaths…"

She'd started to, really, she thought she was, when the numbers on the left half of the screen stopped, and the words "Bomb Detonated" flashed across the picture of Europe, and Adele didn't know she could be so afraid.

As she stared at the blinking screen, fear for those people gripping her heart, all she could manage to think was God, let there not be any people in that building…

"Joan." Jai didn't even wait for Joan to look up from her computer screen. "Joan, turn on the news."

She usually would have met such an order with a steely gaze and an "Absolutely not", especially coming from Jai, but he held a seriousness in his voice that she didn't question. She glanced up at him quickly as she reached for the remote control, flipping to the closest news channel.

She stopped cold when she saw the footage of a burning building. The words Bill Strikes Europe Again scrolled across the bottom of the screen, and the reporter was saying, "…you know, Tess, Europe has been expecting Bill's next attack, but no one was expecting Amsterdam to be hit…"

She turned to Jai. "Amsterdam?" Why hadn't they known about this?

Jai's expression was bleak. "Yeah. That's not all." He spun a newspaper onto her desk, folded over to a page with a small paragraph circled.

Though she'd made a point of learning four languages in their entireties, and the most important words and phrases of several others, German had never been her strong suit. "What does it say?"

"America, welcome to Europe's world in one month. Kindest regards, Bill," Jai quoted, anger flashing in his eyes.

As Joan reached for her telephone, she said tersely, not bothering to look up at Jai, "Gather everyone in the conference room. Meeting in fifteen."

Before she could dial the number for Arthur's office, Jai was already out the door. Despite the grimness of the situation, Joan grinned, just a little.

There was a reason she'd liked Jai enough to keep him in the DPD these past three years.

Annie glanced into the gymnasium and stilled when she saw Auggie bouncing a basketball to Aurélie. She'd been looking for him, all over the school. It was four o'clock, and school was out for the weekend. Usually, that meant they left school early, but when Annie had dropped by the library nearly half an hour ago, the library's lights were off, the door was locked, and Auggie was nowhere in sight. After she'd searched out his favorite haunts—and hers, in case he had gone in search of her—she'd started to check every random room she could think of, which was how she'd found herself here. What was Auggie doing in the gym? And how could he possibly figure out how to get the ball in the basketball net?

Upon further inspection, Annie discovered that they had attached some sort of buzzer to the hoop. Aurélie coached him to better aim toward the net, but most of Auggie's success was due to some (apparently amazing) basketball skills Auggie had acquired long ago.

Annie leaned against the door, smiling as she watched him. She loved to watch him interact with Aurélie—it was a completely different side of him that she'd never seen before last December.

After watching them for a few minutes, she slipped into the gym and closed the door behind her. She curled up next to Aurélie's backpack and Auggie's keys and sweatshirt, deposited on the bleachers. Usually she would have just asked him if he was almost ready to go, but it was Aurélie, and Auggie was adorable with Aurélie. Besides, she was sleepy, and maybe she could catch a quick nap while they practiced. She tucked his sweatshirt under her head, turning and burying her nose in the soft fabric. It smelled just like Auggie—strong, masculine, musky.

Ari bounced the ball back to Auggie, and he caught it, tucking it under his arm as he turned toward the bleachers, where Annie was. "Hey, baby."

She grinned back at him. "Hi." She yawned. "I'm protecting your stuff for you."

He gave her a sweet, intimate grin—the one he only flashed at her—and winked before he turned back towards the basketball court and shot the ball through the hoop. "Okay," he teased. "Save it from the bad guys."

As Aurélie and Auggie returned to their practice, Annie slowly fell asleep, dreaming, once again, about Auggie and happily-ever-after.

An hour later, Aurélie guided Auggie over to where Annie lay on the bleachers. "She's sleeping," Aurélie whispered. She began to giggle. "Mr. Anderson, did you know your wife makes kissy faces in her sleep?"

Auggie bit back a snicker. "No, I didn't… Ari, can you lead me to her?"

She tugged on his arm, pulling him down so he was crouching next to Annie. "Her head's right… here," she said, placing his hand on the bleacher just a few inches in front of her face. "I'm gonna go change in the locker room. I'll be back in about ten minutes, okay?"

Auggie nodded and waited for the sound of Aurélie's retreating footsteps. When he didn't hear them anymore, he turned back to Annie, stroking her cheek softly, and whispered, "Annie… hey, baby, c'mon. It's time to wake up."

When she made that adorable sound that was a mix between a sleepy grunt and a prolonged yawn, he grinned. She was awake. She always made that noise every time she woke up. "Hey, baby."

She rubbed her eyes and stared back at him. "Hi."

He stroked her cheek once more and leaned in, capturing her lips in a sweet, slow kiss. She kissed him back, hesitantly at first, but when he went to pull away, she reached out, wrapping her arm around his neck, tugging him back to her. Grinning, he obliged and deepened the kiss. She tasted like blueberries and crème. Her fingers tangled themselves into his hair, and she tugged him closer still, moaning softly into his mouth.

When she pulled away, breathing heavily, she buried her face in his chest. He grinned, rubbing her back gently. After a few moments, she looked up at him, and he cupped her cheek, caressing it lightly with his thumb, before he leaned forward, kissing her forehead gently. "Sometimes you astound me, Annie Walker," he whispered, a gentle, teasing smile lighting his face.

She grinned back at him, sitting up slowly. "Yeah, well, you take my breath away, so I think we're just about even."

He warmed at her words and was about to say something equally witty and sweet when he heard his sweatshirt being moved around. "Are you wearing my sweatshirt?"

She beamed up at him and kissed him quickly. "Yep." She spun to her feet, pocketing his keys, and reached down, pulling him up to his feet.

Before she could ask if he was ready, Ari appeared in the doorway and hollered across the gym, "Are you too love birds ready to go yet?" She tapped her foot and sent them a teasing grin. Annie turned to Auggie with a question on her face.

"Oh, yeah," he said sheepishly, shrugging. "We're taking Ari home."

Annie rolled her eyes and laughed, tugging on Auggie's hand, already wrapped protectively around her own. "Okay, okay, c'mon. It's not like I don't have any French exams to grade or anything…" she teased.

As they walked toward the main entrance for the gym, Auggie bumped Annie's shoulder and gave her a mysterious grin. "So, I hear you make kissy faces in your sleep."

Annie's eyes widened. "What, no…"

"Shhh," Auggie laughed, pressing a kiss to her temple. "Just makes you more perfect, that's all."

The three of them ascended the stairs, and when they reached the main entrance to the gym, Annie noticed a certain familiar dark-haired, dark-skinned friend of theirs. "Hey, Jai."

He grinned over at her. "Hey, Annie, Auggie."

Auggie nodded to him silently, and Jai said, "Oh, by the way, Annie, I have a message for you from Joanna."

Joanna? Who was Jo—then it clicked. Just like they referred to Danielle as Elle in public, Joan was Joanna. "Oh?" Annie said. She handed the car keys to Auggie. "Here—you and Ari go on ahead to the car. I'll be right there."

Aurélie ushered Auggie toward the parking lot, and Annie turned to Jai. Frowning, she said, "So, what does Joanna want?"

He shook his head. "Not here. Joanna's coming over for dinner, though. You and Auggie should come."

"I think we can make it," Annie said, checking the hall around her for guests. "We just have to drop off Ari first."

Jai nodded. "Did you hear about the explosion in Amsterdam?"

She nodded. "Yeah." She glanced down the hallway again. "One of the analysts from Verity Technology picked up the explosion just before it went off."

Jai's eyes widened in surprise, and Annie nodded. "Yeah. Tell Viv and Joanna that we'll be there soon. And say hi to the girls for me."

Jai grinned at the thought of his girls. "Will do. We'll see you in a little bit."

Annie nodded and walked out the door. In some ways, she couldn't wait for this mission to be over. This was getting out of control.

A/N: Review, please!