A/N Welcome to all the new readers who just joined and story alerted :) Great to have you on board!

Stella Celeste Taylor - Short answer: Pride and Fear. Long answer: keep reading ;)

Chapter 14

Auggie was walked down the quiet suburban street hand in hand with Annie. It was a beautiful sunny day, a slight breeze blowing to keep the temperature comfortably cool instead of unbearably hot. The trees on either side of the street were the perfect color of green after the rain they had had the day before. Her hand fit so perfectly in his, he might never let it go again. She was gorgeous, her deep purple dress clinging to her body in all the right places as she smiled up at him in delight. He couldn't quite remember what they had been talking about as she looked at him from beneath those long, graceful eyelashes. Just looking at her smile emptied his mind of everything except her. She was perfect, and she was his.

He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the forehead before throwing all caution to the wind and yanking her towards him to kiss her properly. He closed his eyes and breathed in her gentle grapefruit scent as he wrapped his arms around her back, holding her tightly. His whole world was wrapped up in his arms. Suddenly he felt the air change. He was still holding Annie but the ground beneath them had turned sandy, the breeze no longer cooling.

Now the wind merely brought hot, scathing, sandy air, forcing his eyes closed again as the sand tried to tear his skin to shreds. He tried to look around, but could see nothing but swirling red sand. Feeling his way through the heat he made contact with what felt like a wall and quickly pulled Annie between it and him. He could hear yelling in the background, and recognized the voices as the men in his unit, asking him for orders.

He needed to figure out what was going on, and he clearly didn't have a lot of time. He tried to open his eyes agin, this time he could see a vague green-brown shape in the distance. A tank? Did it belong to his team? No. He would know about it if it was his. But his men were all surrounding the tank. Was he supposed to be over there with him? He told Annie to stay against the wall, hoping it would provide enough protection to keep her safe and he ran over to join the rest of his team.

Before he could reach the tank Auggie suddenly heard screaming, felt himself flying through the air, heat engulfing his body, burning, tearing, unbearable heat. He heard Annie yelling his name..she had followed him? He had told her to stay by the wall, but he couldn't do anything now. He hit the ground with a heavy THUD, swimming in and out of consciousness, all he could make out were vague shapes before his vision went from blurry to black.

He was only out for a few seconds. When he regained consciousness, or something similar, he was still surrounded by black but the screaming had stopped. Everything was silent around him.

"Annie?" He called out quietly, not wanting to alert his enemies to his presence. But when he didn't get a response he called out louder,

"ANNIE?" Still nothing. Frantically now he got on his belly and started crawling trying to feel around for her, she had been right behind him. He felt his fingers touch skin, found fragments of Annie's silk dress, now melted to her, felt for her arm, no pulse. Why was there no pulse?

"ANNIE? Wake up, breathe, talk to me, do SOMETHING?"

"Annie!" Auggie woke up yelling her name. He sat up in his bed sweating profusely, his breathing ragged and unsteady. He groaned and flopped back down on his mattress. It was just another nightmare. It was the same every time. Things would be fine until he let Annie get close to him. It was his fault she got hurt. His fault she died. He had vowed never to let her get close enough to him to end up like that in real life.

As the head of the Office of Congressional Affairs he received intel of death threats and terrorists plots targeting towards him every day. All the countries with tense political relations to the states had him on their list of high priority targets. Kidnapping him and holding him for ransom would be a major feat for any of them, especially if they wanted to get any of their own political prisoners back. He would be a highly valuable bartering tool.

By extension, anyone who he was seen to care about would be seen as a possible way to trap him. While he could maintain a friendship with Annie, both privately, and now publicly with her cover, he could not let it be known that she meant any more to him than any of the other girls on his roster. It would be putting her in danger and he could not live with himself if she got hurt because of him. He felt his watch, 1am.

His heart was still beating out of his chest. He knew it was just a dream, but part of him would not be able to get back to sleep until he knew Annie was safe. He picked up his phone and pressed 1 on his speed dial.

"Hello?" She sounded groggy, and surprised to hear from him. Which made sense given that they hadn't had a real conversation since that rooftop confrontation weeks ago.

"Annie? Sorry to wake you up, but...are you okay?" Dumb question. He hadn't spoken to her in weeks and that was his greeting.

"What do you mean Auggie? Okay in what way? I'm not lying in bed crying myself to sleep over you if that's what you're implying." From surprised to angry in 2.5 seconds. He should probably have expected that.

"No, that's not what I meant. I meant physically, are you safe?" He buried his head in his hands, God, hearing her voice while he was in such a vulnerable state was killing him.

"Auggie, I'm fine. But its 1am and I'm a little surprised to hear from you. Are YOU okay?" She sounded concerned now. That would make sense, there was no reasonable excuse for him to be calling her at this time of the morning if everything was fine.

"Uh. Yeah. I'm okay, sorry for waking you up, I'm just gonna go and let you get back to sleep." Bumbling fool. That was going to be his new name for himself. What had he been thinking, calling Annie at this hour of the night. But at least she was safe. That was what he needed to know.

"Auggie, you don't sound fine. You sound like you've been crying. Do you want me to come over?" No. No, she needed to stay at home, in bed, safe.

"No Annie, it was just a nightmare, just wanted to make sure you were safe. And now I know. And feel like an idiot for waking you up over a scary dream." He laughed self deprecatingly.

"Okay. Well sleep well Aug." Amazing...she didn't sound angry at all anymore. Just exhausted and sad. He felt his heart contract at the pain in her voice. Clearly for all her flirting with Brighton, she hadn't yet healed from the damage he had done to her when he pushed her away. He shouldn't have called her, he had promised Joan he wouldn't keep giving her emotional whiplash. He couldn't be with her and he needed to let her move on. He knew that when he was thinking straight, but that nightmare had sent him into full blown panic mode.

He could still hear Annie breathing on the other end of the phone line, apparently she had fallen asleep again without hanging up. He kept the phone next to his ear and closed his eyes, the sound of her calm breathing finally lulling him into a sense of safety as he also drifted off to sleep.