A/N: I need a beta and not just someone to help me with my spelling and grammar. I need someone to be held accountable to and who will feel confident enough to give me suggestions if they have them. If anyone would like to take that up just let me know! I would be eternally grateful.

So I know this post is late but HEY! It was only two weeks this time.
I've got to kick things into gear and get a lot more done.
I need to move on.

Pool partay as requested! Next chapter up soon, please R&R it's excellent motivation!

Disclaimer: I do not own Covert Affairs, though I am excited about Auggie getting arrested :}

'Your lips are red,
My face is red from reading your red lips.
My hands are black,
My hands are black inside this downtown taxi cab.
This cities red,
This cities red from riding us into the ground.
This cities black,
This cities black from all the ashes in downtown.
Ashes in downtown, ashes in downtown.'

-Your Lips Are Red, St. Vincent

Your Lips Are Red

Until that moment, Annie hadn't been aware that she was capable of purring like a jungle cat but, with Auggie's strong body pulling her in close and the feel of his rippling six pack against her stomach, there was just no other noise in the world that summed up how she was feeling at the moment. Sure, it probably wasn't helping that she'd already had two beers and her blood was rushing faster than her heart could pump it, but she was enjoying herself, so who the hell cared? They were in the hot tub at the time and Auggie's water slick hands were exploring the small of her back, his mouth pressed against hers, his knee parting her thighs-

"Auggie," she giggled. "What's gotten into you?"

"Whatever's in this cup," he pulled away, grinning wolfishly, "Seriously though, it's good, you should try some."

"August Anderson, are you trying to get me drunk," she smirked, putting her hand on his chest and pushing him back with little effort.

"Never," he exclaimed unconvincingly. "-Is it working?"

With a laugh, Annie plucked the cup out of his hands and sniffed it, her nose wrinkling with the potency of it. Though she didn't have much experience with it herself, there was no doubt in her mind that the majority of it was vodka and the rest was probably cranberry juice. Very little cranberry juice.

"Smells like vodka," she said, putting it in the cup holder behind her.

"Oh damn," he pouted, "I'm going to have a god awful hangover later."

"Who made this," she asked before kissing his mouth, his lips were so red, his cheeks flushed. He was irresistible in that moment.

"Corrine," he said when they came up for air, promptly pulling her back in and making her skin prickle with goosebumps that had nothing to do with the cold.

As they kissed, Annie vaguely heard the other people around her; people playing crazy games in the pool, the rock speakers pumping out music at a volume that wouldn't wake the neighbors, teenagers giggling as they scampered from place to place, trying to avoid the cold's cruel grasp. When they parted, their lips made a smacking sound like they'd been vacuum-sealed, it set them both to laughing.

"Mind if we join you," Jamie asked through nearly chattering teeth, tugging behind him a shivering Clare.

"Where've you two been," Auggie asked with a grin, his speech smeared. "I hear the pool house is nice and cozy."

"We were playing a round of frozen chicken, but once Clare's lips started getting blue we decided to get out," Jamie said, helping Clare into the hot tub before hopping in himself. "And dude, how much have you had to drink?"

With sober movements, Jamie snapped his fingers near Auggie's left ear and it took the latter several moments to locate it, he scowled at his younger brother, sloppily batting away the annoyance. Annie couldn't help but giggle and she noticed that Clare couldn't either.

"Don't do that," Auggie grumbled, "It's rude."

Jamie just shook his head.

Several times Annie found herself staring at Clare's chest, the girl's breasts spilling over her navy blue bra like spilled milk. Clare's blue eyes caught Annie's and she blushed her pale pink as Annie gave an apologetic smile. No wonder the girl always wore oversized sweaters. Secretly, Annie was jealous.

"Oh man," Jamie said suddenly, capturing Annie's attention.

Following his line of sight gave her a clear view of what was going on. Just a few hundred feet away, in her lacey bra and panties, Corrine was fooling around. But that wasn't what had Annie staring in shock, it was who she was fooling with that had Annie's eyes wide as lollipops. Jai Wilcox had her pressed up against the wall of the pool house, Corrine's slender leg slithering around his naked torso, her full-lipped mouth sucking at the skin of his neck. Damn.

"God," Clare breathed, her slightly blue lips forming a perfect 'O'.

"What, what is it," Auggie asked, frustration creep-crawling into his voice, "Would someone fill me in?"

"It's nothing," Jamie said quickly, Annie catching the worried look on his face.

"Don't do that to me, Jamie," Auggie frowned. He wasn't angry, he was hurt.

"Jai is fooling around with Corrine," Annie said softly, watching Clare as she stared at them with what seemed like fascination.

Before he even spoke, Annie could feel the tension rolling off of Auggie's body, the muscles in his jaw clenching. He was only halfway out of the hot tub and Jamie was already beside him with a firm hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Take me over there," Auggie said sternly, Jamie shook his head and Auggie pushed past him, "Fine! I'll go myself!"

"Auggie," Annie said, tumbling out of the hot tub to aide Jamie in calming her boyfriend, "Calm down, you're drunk and overreacting."

"Stay out of this Annie," he grumbled. "Hey Wilcox!"

Jai's head snapped around to see Auggie and he sighed, dragging himself off of a confused looking Corrine. But something about her eyes changed when she saw Auggie approaching them like a dooming storm cloud, something like success. It made Annie's blood boil.

"Auggie," Jai smiled, his teeth looking too white against his dark skin and the deep colors of night, "How's it going-"

"Can it, Wilcox," Auggie growled. Jamie grabbed his arm to stop him from walking smack into the other boy, Annie knew that it wouldn't have happened were he not so inebriated.

Wishing that she herself was less inebriated, she sucked in her lip. All she could do was watch the whole disaster happen. It seemed that an air of tension fell over the entire area, the gate holding it in like a bomb about to explode. After a quick glance around the pool, Annie saw that nearly everyone was watching things play out, the only one who took any action was Conrad, who looked just as murderous as Auggie.

"What do you think you're doing with her," Auggie growled.

"If you could see you wouldn't be asking that," Jai chuckled darkly.

Auggie made to grab him but Conrad caught his shoulder and held him back, he shrugged the touch off roughly and took another step towards Jai, so close that his nose was only inches from the other boy's face. Stu arrived then, standing close but keeping quiet. It was strange the way that everyone watched, hungrily. Like this was a long time coming.

"You jackass, you keep your filthy hands away from her or I swear I'll-"

"You'll what?" Jai scoffed, getting angry. "Feel for my face? Besides, it's not like I made her do anything- she asked for it-"

"You bastard," Conrad growled, "That's my girlfriend!"

Before anyone could do anything about it, Auggie was all over Jai, his fist successfully 'feeling' Jai's nose with a terrible crack. Annie's hands flew to her mouth as she watched and in a few more movements Jai was beneath Auggie on the ice hard ground.

"Auggie," Jamie yelled, but before he could pull his brother away from the fray, Jai had flipped him over and hit Auggie hard in the mouth.

"Stop it," Corrine yelled, looking truly horrified. Clearly this hadn't been part of her plan.

That was the only swing Jai got in before Stu and Conrad pulled him off Auggie, Conrad throwing him hard against the wall. It was clear in his countenance that it took everything Conrad had not to beat Jai's face in even more than Auggie already had. Corrine flitted over to him, her eyes huge. Timidly she reached out to him and when he pushed her away her tears spilled. It was the first time Annie had ever seen Corrine cry.

"Conrad," she said softly, "Conrad I'm so sorry- I don't know what I was thinking!"

"Stop it, Corrine," Conrad yelled, after a measured breath he spoke more quietly, "I'm so sick of your damn games, Cory. I will not be your bitch anymore."

As he walked away, Corrine stood in shock, her eyes fixed on his back as he snatched his clothes from the ground and jumped the fence by the pool house. A new wave of tears rolled down her face and Annie's subconscious was warring over whether to sympathize with Corrine or hate her. Without even a backwards glance, Corrine grabbed a blanket and disappeared.

Everyone was watching with wide eyes, all previous activity ceased. It was so quiet that they could actually hear the crickets in the background. Suddenly, the rock speakers started blaring Ke$ha, making everyone jump, and Clare came out of the pool house with orange juice in one hand and a bottle of Vodka in the other. She was visibly shivering and clearly uncomfortable.

"O-okay everyone," she called, her teeth chattering, "Show's over, but who wants a screwdriver?"

There were several loud cheers and some hushing after that but every eye was now on the tiny voluptuous girl.

"You alright," Jamie asked as Auggie stiffly picked himself up off the ground. His lip was bleeding, split on the left side. "You look like hell."

"That bastard," Auggie mumbled, wiping the blood off his mouth with his forearm, it made Annie wince but she was still impressed by how quickly Auggie took Jai to the ground. It was sort of… hot.

oOo

From the moment Auggie's fist connected with Jai's face, he knew that he shouldn't have done it. Not that he felt badly about it. No, he certainly didn't feel remorse. He'd wanted to deck Jai since they'd been in middle school but he knew that the repercussions could be serious and he could only hope that there wouldn't be any charges pressed. Although, he couldn't imagine that Jai would suffer the blow to his pride when the police – or worse, his father – found out that he'd been decked by a blind guy. The thought brought a satisfying – albeit painful – smile to his face.

"What are you grinning about," Annie asked as she pressed an icepack into his hand.

Though he'd dried off, gotten dressed and stubbornly accepted the blanket that Clare found for him, his shoulder and back still felt like a midget was sitting behind him with a bag of knives. It hurt just to bring the ice to his mouth. He hadn't been in this much pain in nearly a year and he wished he had his dilaudid on hand.

"Hey, are you okay," she asked softly, her fingers whisper soft on his leg.

"It's the cold," he grinned, "It messes with my back and with the water- not one of my better ideas."

Old at eighteen.

"So which one wins," she asked impishly, "Getting wet and cold or drunkenly attacking Jai?"

"Mm. I'd have to say it's a tossup," he chuckled.

The alcohol was slowly wearing off but the aftermath was starting to set in. It had been a few hours too and he knew that everyone should start picking up before the workers began their morning routines and the parents figured out that their teenagers weren't in bed.

"What I did was pretty stupid, wasn't it," he wasn't sure why he needed Annie to justify his actions but he did.

"Well, I don't usually condone violence," Annie started thoughtfully, "But he shouldn't have said those things to you, it was demeaning and tactless and as far as what he did with Corrine- well, they're both to blame for that."

That last sentence was softer, like she didn't want to make him angry and admittedly, it did. There was something about Corrine that he just had to defend. He had been her champion since they'd met – even more so after Chris passed - and even though he was perfectly aware of it, he couldn't seem to shake it. He took a deep breath and nodded slowly, she was right, of course.

"I have to say though," she said, the smile in her voice, clear as day, "I was pretty impressed."

"If I could kiss you right now, I would," he grinned before the cut on his lip reminded him that it wasn't such a great idea.

Her mouth pressed softly against his cheek and he felt his chest swell. The way she touched him, he just couldn't get enough and he was positive that he never would.

"So tell me," she said softly near his ear, her breath still smelled faintly like beer and something sweeter and all he could think about was catching her mouth with his and breathing her in, "Where did you learn how to do that?"

"Wresting-" he mumbled before finding lips with his and ignoring the pain that surged between his shoulders as he pulled her onto his lap, her soft, small body fitting perfectly with his, "Since middle school."

"My dad used to wrestle," she said brightly, suddenly pulling away, "Speaking of, I need to talk to you about something."

Damn. Inwardly he groaned, he would have been perfectly happy sharing heated kisses with his girlfriend in the dark cover of night, each of them still slightly intoxicated but alive with the action of just moments ago, the blood had already fled his brain to migrate south. But of course, that wasn't going to happen. Just his luck.

"And what's that," he managed.

"I need you to meet my parents," she said all at once, "You see, I had to tell my parents about the whole concert thing and I really want to go and all but they were arguing about whether or not it would be a good idea and dad was saying that he doesn't know you and he hasn't met any of you and my mom stood up for you and then he said he'd have to meet you and what not and so I told him that you would. Oh and my sister also wants to meet you, do you know that she's getting married? She just blurted it out at the table and-"

"Annie-" Auggie sighed, she did this sometimes, just sort of exploded with everything she'd been thinking about throughout the day, "Just slow down, yea?"

"Right, sorry," she giggled softly.

"Okay, so I need to meet your father… today," he smirked, "And your sister's getting married?"

"Yes and yes," she said, he could feel her body rock as she nodded assertively. "Although this-" she said, gently drawing her finger over his mouth- "May bring up some undesirable questions."

"Eh, don't worry about it, I can always just say I walked into something," he chuckled, catching her hand and trailing kisses up her arm, "When should I come over?"

"I was thinking about brunch perhaps, my sister wants to cook-"

"Is this the sister who makes the amazing cookies," he interrupted, his stomach grumbling with the thought of it.

"Yes," she laughed, "That sister, so it'll be sort of like a breakfast- well it will be breakfast but in the afternoon. So, what do you think?"

"I think it sounds perfect," he said, pulling her in for another kiss.

He wished he could take her home with him, for some reason he just wanted her close; to feel her breathing beside him, her hair tickling his neck, her skin pressed against his. But with his brother sleeping in his room and a dozen other people scattered throughout the house, not to mention that he would be meeting her father in a few hours, it just didn't seem like a possibility. Friday, though, Friday he would have her next to him.

Jamie's boots sounded against the pavement and he reluctantly pulled away, resting his head against hers with his eyes closed. It seemed that no matter what was going on in the background, Annie had a way of calming him down. The things Jai said, they hurt but what Corrine had done- that was worse.

"You ready to go, Augs," Jamie asked and he could hear Clare's footsteps following behind. "I still gotta take Clare home."

"I'll take Clare home," Annie offered, hopping up out of Auggie's lap, it sent a jolt through his back. "That way you two can get back and I'll have someone to help me get out of this maze of a neighborhood. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure," Clare all but whispered. Every time she spoke, Auggie thought she was miles away even if she was right beside him.

"Okay then," Jamie said, there was a kissing sound and Auggie rolled his eyes. "I'll see you on Friday."

"Bye, Auggie," Annie called, "I'll see you around one?"

"See you then," he waved, doing his best not to wince outwardly.

As the girls' footsteps retreated, Jamie's got closer. Auggie reached out for a hand up, hoping that the girls were out of sight. It was humiliating and he hadn't needed a hand up in a long time, he hated needing help, especially from his younger brother. This wasn't the natural order of things. As Jamie pulled him up, he sucked in a breath of air, trying to ignore the fire that ignited in his nerves, he'd forgotten how this felt.

"So tell me, old man," Jamie said, he was always in a mood like this after he'd spent a night with Clare, "What are you and Annie up to tomorrow at one?"

"I," Auggie began dramatically, "Get to meet Annie Walker's father."

"Aw, man," Jamie laughed, "You're totally screwed."

A/N: Thanks for reading!
Penny for your thoughts?