Auggie sat at his desk, frowning off into the distance, his fingertips skimming the brail readout on his specially designed keyboard. When the phone rang, he took a slow, even breath then answered it calmly. "Walker? Land safely?"

"Stupid turbulence, I've spilt orange juice on my blouse!" She burst out indignantly. "I didn't bring a change of clothes because I don't plan on being here that long and now I'm going to have to either do this hand off in a sticky blouse, or try and buy something in an airport boutique."

"So, 'safely' is a relative term then?" Auggie half laughed. "I am not going to come over all maudlin and mushy, but it's almost home-time and I'm not exactly looking forward to heading out of here without you."

"You could be a little more mushy than that you know."

"Not on a work line I can't, did you know there was a betting pool on us?" He asked in mock indignation.

"What is the world coming to? In that case, you can remain reserved and manly, but only until I get home."

"Agreed. Make the exchange and be home soon. I miss you already." He said it jokingly, but with no suggestion in his voice that he didn't mean every word.

Annie smiled, "I miss you too... I'll be back before you know it. Sleep well." As she was closing the phone, a voice startled her;

"I ah, got you a replacement blouse... dusky ivory, brings out your eyes..."

Annie clutched the phone in her fist and hoped to God Auggie hadn't heard the voice before it had snapped shut. She turned and met the speaker's eyes, attempting to keep her face calm. "Tom, this is Ben, Ben, this is Tom. Nice of you to meet us at the airport. You want to give me the package so we can be on the next flight home?"

"It's not here... ran into a small problem." He held up the blouse, "go change and then we can get out of here."

Annie glared at him for a moment, then snatched the blouse and shrugged off her jacket which she handed to Tom, ignoring Ben's waiting hand. "I'll be right back." She leaned in close to Tom, "Don't let him talk you into doing anything, don't even buy a soda, just wait for me, OK?"

Tom nodded nervously and clutched her jacket tightly.

While she was gone, Ben said nothing, but always seemed to be looking at Tom's face from the corner of his eye. Soon, the smaller man was sweating and fidgeting nervously. By the time Annie returned he'd decided that he didn't like this Ben Mercer, he didn't like fieldwork, and he didn't like travelling in general.

"Lets move." Ben gestured towards the exit. Being a domestic terminal, security wasn't overly pushy and they were out and into a waiting taxi within minutes. "I've got a room at the Arlington, we'll have to wait until morning to pick up your present, but with a little luck, you can be out of here by lunch time."

"How hard would it have been to just have it at the airport Ben?"

Ben coughed a little and glanced at the driver then back at Annie. "You're being a touch ungrateful Annie. Just roll with it. One night in a nice hotel isn't going to kill you, or your nervous travelling companion."

Back in the DPD, Auggie had startled as the phone clicked off. 'I ah, got you a...' He stood immediately and made his way to Joan's office. "Why didn't you tell me that Ben Mercer was was the contact in Arizona?" He asked without preamble. Joan slowly put her pen down and folded her hands in front of her on the desk. "You know they're history, this could affect the outcome of the mission! Did she know?"

"Are you really concerned about the outcome of a pass off on American soil...? Or are you more worried about whether or not Annie knew, and didn't tell you?" Joan asked.

"Great thing about being a smart guy, I can think about more than one thing at once. Are you going to answer the question?" He was leaning on the desk, his mouth set in a grim line.

"You've been touchy to the point of insubordination where Annie is concerned before..." Joan pointed out.

"So she knew..." He turned and plonked himself down into one of her chairs. "She knew, and she didn't say..."

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to." He rubbed at his forehead almost aggressively. "Why wouldn't she have said..."

"Because I might have given her the impression it'd be better not to."

"What?"

"Auggie... whatever you might believe, I like Annie. I like you together, you're a great team and I believe you'll do great things here..."

"So why would you do this? You had to know that,"

"Because it has to be resolved." Joan cut him off. "Ben Mercer is a great agent, a great patriot it turns out, and the romantic pinnacle of Annie's life. You want her carrying him around so he can jump out of her subconscious every time you have a fight? And you will fight, you're too strong willed and stubborn both of you, to never butt heads." She came around her desk and put a hand on his shoulder. "You want her to sort this out Auggie, I promise. If you think this feels bad, think how it'd feel a year from now, after you'd argued..."

"I hate this."

"I know," Joan said, "but five minutes ago you would have told me you trusted Annie more than anyone else in the world. You need to decide if that's true or not."

The hotel seemed nice enough, and Tom seemed distracted by the girls in bikini's by the pool as Ben ushered them through the lobby. Annie concentrated on keeping her shoulders relaxed, her posture loose and ready. The fact that her phone hadn't rung again in half an hour suggested Auggie hadn't heard anything, but a nagging worry ate at her stomach that he had in fact heard, maybe he was angry? Maybe she should call and explain, but explain what exactly? She wanted to face him with answers, not a pathetic string of 'I don't know's.

She watched Ben's back and tried to sort through how she felt. For all that their romance was brief, she still felt that it was one of the most significant events in her life to date. The broad expanse of his back seemed so familiar to her that surely she'd been looking at it for years? A life time? That back, and all it implied, had been at the centre of her tumultuous approach to relationships for the past three years and one way or another, that was going to have to stop.

"I wasn't expecting there to be three of us, so someone's going to have to take the couch," Ben said as he pushed open the door to their room. "Either that or two of us can bunk up..."

Tom's eyes bugged out of his head a little and Annie glared at Ben. "I'll take the couch." She said firmly. "Now, why don't you have the package on you?"

"I was being followed yesterday and I didn't like the idea of toteing it around. I made a hand-off to a member of my team, who put it in a prearranged place. We hang out here, comfortably, for a a night, and tomorrow we split. You go get the package and go home, I'll lead whom ever's got eyes on me a merry chase down into Mexico."

"You're cleared to cross the border?" She asked as the put her jacket over the back of the couch.

"That word doesn't really have much meaning for me anymore." Ben said as he sat at the small table in the kitchen.

"What, border?"

"No, 'cleared'. There are limits on my operations, not directives..."

"So you're black ops now. Completely off the books." Annie shook her head. "That must work well for you..."

"Annie..." He stood and started to cross the room towards her but she held up her hands to keep him at bay. "I wanted to contact you."

"But you didn't... you never do." She backed away. "At least have the courage to admit that you weighed up what was important in your life and I didn't come out top of the list."

"That's not fair, Annie. Everything I've done,"

"Oh please! I'm with the agency now Ben, you could have worked something out. Whatever you might want me to believe, Arthur and Joan aren't wildly unreasonable people. You could have taken a different position... you could have stayed..."

"Is that what you want?" He asked, looking at her steadily. "Are you asking me to come back to D.C?"

Annie swallowed hard and lifted her chin defiantly. "No, I'm not. But I would have..."

For just a moment, Ben looked striken. He opened his mouth to say something, but Tom, who had sunk down onto the couch, coughed uncomfortably and Ben changed his mind.