Annie's flight from her mission in Chile was late, and she was exhausted. While she missed her boyfriend terribly, she missed her own bed more. Still, calling him was the first thing she did after landing.

"Will you be terribly upset if I go straight home?" She asked.

"Considering I won't be at work in the morning, yes." Auggie replied.

"Why won't you be at work in the morning?" Annie asked.

"Nothing major. Just an appointment."

"Auggie." Annie stated in a no-nonsense tone.

"Really. It's nothing to worry about. I'll be back at the office in time for lunch."

Annie didn't have the energy to beg the information out of him. "Okay. You would let me know if it were anything serious, right?"

"Maybe." It was as honest as he could manage. "But it's not anything serious."

"Fine. But I'm seeing your face at some point tomorrow."

"Definitely." Auggie replied. "Sweet dreams, dear."

Annie made a kissing noise into the phone and hung up.

...

The next morning, Auggie was tying his tie when he heard the knocking. He stopped and took a deep breath before heading to the door. "Annie?" He asked.

"Yep." The voice on the other side of the door replied.

Annie walked in, silently following Auggie to his closet where he reached for a vest. He was dressed conservatively in a plain white shirt, black tie, black vest, and dark grey pants. "I'm learning the downsides to dating a spy." Auggie stated as he buckled his belt.

"Court dates are public information. You could be dating a school teacher and she could find out what you were up to today."

"Only if she were snooping."

"You were less than forthcoming." Annie said, as if that should explain everything.

Auggie rolled his eyes. "It's no big deal."

"You could go to prison!" Annie replied.

"I won't go to prison." Auggie stated, calmly.

"You don't know that!"

"Yes I do." Auggie replied. "You really think I'm going into this less than prepared? I've had over six months." Auggie stopped and looked toward Annie. "I assume you are here to give me a ride to the courthouse?"

"Sure." She replied. After the mission she just had, Joan wouldn't argue with her taking a personal day. "Joan totally knows where you are, right?"

"Sometimes it sucks to work for a spy." Auggie replied.

"It didn't suck when Arthur bailed you out that night."

"Oh yes," Auggie replied emphatically. "That night sucked the most of them all. The last person I wanted around was Arthur Campbell. Do I look presentable?"

"Your clothes look fine. You might want to run a brush through your hair."

"Nah. I don't want to look too put-together. I intend to play the blind-card as much as possible." Auggie replied as he gathered his cane, bag, and keys.

"I can't believe that guy continued to press charges. Surely he doesn't want people to know he was beat up by a blind guy." Annie stated once they were in her car.

"He didn't press charges. In the case of assault, the District presses charges. He probably wants them to drop the case more than I do."

"I have to say that I was shocked this morning when I saw that you hadn't found a way out of this. Surely you know a guy you could call and make it all go away."

"Yep." Auggie replied. "But there are people with more connections than me, and Arthur really wanted to watch me squirm."

"Seriously? He is making you go in front of a judge because he's still pissed about this?"

"I don't think he's still pissed about the bar fight. I think he would have made nice, if I hadn't secretly visited Henry Wilcox, gone in his office and confronted him, or orchestrated with a Mossad agent to get you out of a Russian prison. Arthur is just trying to keep me in check."

"That's a tough job." Annie replied as she parked the car.

"You coming in with me?" Auggie asked as he put on a dark pair of sunglasses.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." Annie replied.

Inside the courthouse smelled a lot like the Metro Police department, a mix of humanity with less than enough cleaning solution. After going through the security screening Annie helped Auggie find the right courtroom, where his attorney met him and had a few private words.

"Lucky thing about being an Anderson is that I'm always at the top of the list. There's one case ahead of me today. We should be out of here in time for a mid-morning coffee." Auggie explained as he and Annie found a seat in the back of the room.

"Yep. If you aren't off getting fitted for a jumpsuit." Annie replied with a smile.

"Har." Auggie replied.

Annie noticed that he was fidgeting with his cane more than normal. She put her hand on his leg. "It's going to be ok." She whispered, close to his ear.

Her words seemed to calm him a little. "Yeah." He replied.

She moved her hand from his leg to his hand, threading her fingers through his.

The first case went by quickly. Mr. Adams was a repeat offender that the judge seemed to know well from his frequent court appearances.

"Next is August Anderson."

Auggie took a deep breath and slowly stood and assembled his cane. He exaggeratedly tapped it twice on the ground and slowly made his way to the front of the court. The security guards had made him remove his glasses, which only barely hindered his blind-man show.

The actual time in front of the judge went quickly. Auggie's attorney pled for leniency, and the judge agreed to a lesser charge and a hundred hours of community service. Auggie's attorney noted that the options for Auggie to complete community service were less plentiful than for most, so the community service time was dropped to fifty hours. Auggie smiled, thanked the judge, and was led out of the room by his attorney.

"Sorry I couldn't get you out of the service." His attorney was apologizing as Annie walked up.

"Well you kept my record pretty clean, and that's the important part." Auggie replied. "Thanks for your help."

"No problem. Stay out of trouble now, ok?"

"Yep." Auggie replied as he took Annie's arm.

Auggie heard the attorney walking away and turned toward Annie. "See, no jumpsuit."

"That wasn't even exciting." Annie replied.

Auggie grinned. "Celebrate at Allen's?"

"They aren't even open yet." Annie replied. "And that would be highly inappropriate, considering the circumstances. How about we celebrate at Starbucks?"

Auggie sighed melodramatically. "Fine" He practically whined as he took her arm. "But the coffee at my house is even better, and Joan isn't expecting us at work any time soon." He gently moved his fingers on her arm.

Annie practically purred in response as she led him to her car.

I vaguely remember somebody telling me long ago that people that have had significant training in hand-to-hand combat can be charged, even in a hand-to-hand fight, with assault with a deadly weapon. I'm sure Auggie falls in that category...