Auggie was finished with his shower, but wasn't ready to step out into the CIA locker room. He didn't have many days like this, but there were times when the limits of his life seemed to box him in with giant invisible road blocks in every direction.
Annie was on a mission. It was almost the worst kind of mission, as far as Auggie was concerned. It was long, far away, and required very little help from him. This was the third morning he had woken up without her. Considering how new their relationship was, it shouldn't be a big deal to wake up alone. They slept apart frequently. But for some reason, her absence was felt more this time than the others.
He got ready by his usual routine, drinking two cups of coffee before the ride-share came to pick him up. He was picking up his cane, badge, and wallet, when he accidentally pushed his badge off the tray, behind the couch. He didn't even have a clue how it happened - the tray where he kept these items had raised edges, just for this reason. But he clearly heard it hit the floor, and it definitely wasn't on the tray anymore. He pushed the couch forward and reached across the ground to find the badge.
He found a dime, an old thumb drive, and lots of dust, but his badge, which was necessary to get into the building at Langley, eluded him. His phone rang, the ride-share driver was wondering why he wasn't at the curb. He was about to tell them to go on when he ran his hand up the back of the shelf and found the badge, caught on the back of the ledge. He stood up quickly, and after running into the displaced furniture he rushed to the van.
Auggie enjoyed breaking codes. There was a thrill in having unintelligible letters and numbers suddenly turn into data, which turned into information, which turned into missions. The thing was, sometimes there were days upon days where between him and that thrill was simply a bunch of unintelligible letters and numbers. There was no thrill, only frustration. Boring, mind-numbing frustration. This was Auggie's third consecutive code that involved this sort of frustration - mindless hacking for days on end. The first two codes hadn't even led to any fun results, just clarification of stuff the CIA already knew, and a new pile of letters and numbers in Auggie's in-box.
So after crawling on the floor to find his badge, Auggie rushed to a job which, at the moment, was boring him to death. Even reviewing the latest in the Department of Science and Technology's creations didn't ease his boredom. He needed real action, even if it was just in his ear piece. But that would mean that Annie was in danger, and he wasn't going to wish for that.
Instead of eating lunch, Auggie went to the gym. He didn't need to release frustration on the heavy bag this time, he needed the exertion of stretching his legs. His brother had been out of town for the past few weeks, and while Annie was fit, he couldn't really stretch his legs when running with her. Even at her fastest, Annie was no match for his tall frame. The treadmill, something he avoided like the plague before he lost his sight, was his only option.
The treadmills at Langley weren't set up for blind use, but all treadmills were pretty much the same. He found one with a working emergency cord, stood on the conveyer belt, and started pushing buttons. Once, he had Stu come to the gym and help him label one of the treadmills, but a month later that one was traded out for a newer model, and Auggie just didn't care enough to continue to label the equipment. He had no idea what incline or speed he was jogging, but all he knew was that it felt as good as a treadmill would feel, and as he got his bearings, he could make it go faster.
He did make it go faster, and soon his muscles were aching with the stretch. His legs were also aching from running into the front of the machine. There was a careful balance to run all-out without one leg falling off the back or one hitting the front. The experience ended up being as frustrating as it was exhilarating. After almost falling off, and disconnecting the emergency cord, for the fourth time, Auggie decided he would just get back to work and get his thrill at Allen's at the end of the day. Maybe he could talk Eric into letting him play darts.
As the joke bounced inside Auggie's head it provided him no relief. Darts used to be a tame way to spend the evening.
When Auggie climbing into the shower, a group of male voices walked into the locker room. As they changed into their workout clothes, they talked about their latest missions. The group of field operatives were in the gym to spar with each other. From what Auggie heard over the water flowing, they were nothing compared to the agent he once was.
So he stood in the shower and took deep breaths, knowing that he couldn't change the life he had been given. He could only make the most of it, even if that meant having to go back to his desk and sit alone with a string of letters and numbers for another week. Excitement would come, eventually.
A/N: This drivel is brought to you by the love/hate relationship I have with my own job at the moment.