Amazing Part 14
"I love you," Annie stated softly but definitively as she sat down at a small table with Auggie to enjoy the lamb she worked so hard to unearth.
"Right back atchya, but what brought this on?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye, they weren't real free with the l word.
"I was just listening to the way Brett talks to Cathy, seriously, is this the 18th century?"
"He is a little pre-historic," Auggie smiled and continued eating.
"Remember my first few days," Annie stated quietly and vaguely to avoid eavesdropping.
"I am not likely to ever forget it. Seriously, full on dementia probably won't strip those days from my memory," he smiled and she pinched his cheek.
"When we figured out what was really going on and Joan and I went to the Smithsonian to take care of it, you said ' Go get'em girls' with a conviction that we could take care of it just fine on our own. You have always been so supportive of me, and I hope you know, now that we are more than colleagues, that that means so much to me," she squeezed his hand.
"My mother raised 5 sons, that alone would be enough to convince me women can do anything, but then I have had the honor of working and serving with some kick ass women over the past ten years. Now that we are, more than colleagues, I will never treat you differently Annie. I love how strong and how strong-willed you are, even if it frustrates me to no end some times," he squeezed back.
"Well I want you to know it is appreciated," she was blushing now.
"Duly noted," he smiled and leaned in to kiss her softly.
"Last call for chow folks, I encourage you to get a good night's sleep, the next few days are going to be mighty long," Gwen advised and with a wave she was gone.
Everyone wandered back to their rooms at Gwen's encouragement, but Annie was wide awake after her nap.
"I knew napping was a bad idea," she sighed as she changed into her pajamas.
"We could have sex," Auggie mentioned nonchalantly.
"You're putting that option on the table are you?" she laughed.
"Just saying, I don't think I've ever had sex in a castle," he appeared to be flipping through some sort of rolodex in his head.
"OK, how about you stop remembering all the times you had sex without me and we just do it now," she tugged him towards the bed.
***555***
The next morning came quick and Annie and Auggie opened their clue as they rubbed sleep out of their eyes.
"Australia," Annie said and the word was enough. There was no easy way to get to Australia, ever.
All the teams caught up at the airport and were split into 2 different bunches to get to Perth the next day, it was literally going to be an entire day and a half of airports and planes. Annie and Auggie were happy to be traveling with Danielle & Kendall, Brian & Gary, Mike & Rhonda and Emily & Rick, it was a nice crew.
Auggie had wandered off to the men's room as Annie flipped through a guide book and that is where Kendall found her.
"Cashew?" she offered the bag of nuts to Annie.
"Thanks," Annie smiled and took a couple.
"So, that castle was pretty cool," Kendall started.
"Yeah, it was a nice pit stop," Annie agreed.
"Strange though, the acoustics were really odd, I could hear all kinds of things going on last night," Kendall teased.
"Oh?" Annie tried to play dumb although the tips of her ears were burning.
"Mmmhmm," Kendall giggled.
"Oh God," Annie tipped her head back.
"Yeah, heard that a few times actually."
"I'm so embarrassed," Annie brought her hands to her burning cheeks.
"Are you kidding, nothing to be embarrassed about, I think we were the only ones who could hear you, we were in the room above you," Danielle chimed in when she realized what they were talking about.
"We were trying to be quiet," Annie assured just as Auggie returned.
"Hey Auggie," Kendall and Danielle greeted in unison.
"Hello Ladies, what's up?" he asked genially and all 3 of the women in front of him dissolved into hysterics.
***555***
After 3 planes, a taxi and a ferry Annie and Auggie and the rest of the teams from their flights wound up on Rottnest Island near Perth Australia in front of their most daunting piece of transportation yet.
"When's the last time you rode a bike?" Annie furrowed her brow.
"Are you serious?"
"Well, there is some good news, it is a tandem bike, so you don't have to navigate," she still sounded concerned.
"Oh, no problem," Auggie scoffed.
"Says the guy who doesn't need to navigate and weighs almost twice as much as I do," Annie might have been slightly crabby after the 9,000 mile trip.
"We got this," Auggie assured her and helped her lead one of the bikes away from the other teams.
Annie observed the other teams having trouble with the bikes as well, so she couldn't really blame it on Auggie, but it was tricky to get the rhythm right. Finally they got some momentum and managed to stay upright.
"See, what did I tell ya?" Auggie stated and Annie could hear the smile in his voice.
It was only a couple miles to the beach where their next challenge lie. Annie stayed alert and gave direction, but was simultaneously amazed at what they had accomplished together so far.
"OK, we are going to brake gently, glide to a stop and both tilt to the left," Annie instructed as they approached the parking area of the beach.
"Smells like we are in the right place," Auggie inhaled deeply the sea air.
"It is beautiful, so much blue," Annie commented as the other teams made their way to the parking area.
Annie read the clue, their choices: move a pile of 40 huge branches across the beach, raking the sand as they go or dive down and find 2 crayfish in traps on the ocean floor.
"I am kind of done with sand after Oman, if you follow the buoy line down do you think you could wrangle a crayfish? We each have to catch one," she asked.
"Sure, you get me to the marker I can grab the critter," Auggie assured her and they set off to the cabana to change.
"I'd like to stay here for the rest of the day," Annie mentioned as she grabbed masks, gloves and a net bag.
"Pretty simple task here folks, the buoys mark traps below, swim down grab a crayfish, each of you bring one in to the bucket and you get your next clue. Not all the traps will have crayfish and there might be other crustaceans down there, this is a crayfish," the instructor held up a lobster looking thing.
"Got it," Annie nodded.
They waded into the water and it was both warm and refreshing at the same time, the perfect ocean temperature. Annie dunked under the water to wet her hair before donning the mask.
"I feel ridiculous wearing the mask," Auggie lamented.
"You'll feel more ridiculous if you get salt water in your eyes," Annie replied.
Once they were geared up, Annie pointed Auggie to 12:00 and let him set out in front of her, they had a 50 yards or so to swim to get to the traps. Auggie kept a pretty straight course and they were there in no time. Brian & Gary and Kendall & Danielle were out with them in the water.
"Hang tight, I'll be right back," Annie instructed as Auggie tread water and she dived down to scope out the traps.
Annie did a quick perusal of the scene underwater, there were a few decent sized rocks, but other than that nothing Auggie could really hurt himself on and nothing too scary in the form of sea life.
"The traps are pretty deep, need to hold your breath for a bit, take them one at a time until you find something spiny. Watch out for rocks and coral, but otherwise it is a diver's paradise down there," Annie swam them to a buoy and Auggie took hold of the rope.
"Here goes nothing," he inhaled and he was under water before Annie could wish him luck.
TBC…