Annie POV

I walked into the large, almost overcrowded meal tent, the buzzing of voices making my ears rings. I quickly scanned the crowd of long tables and found Jai leaning towards a pretty, tan dark skinned woman.

As I approached them, I felt a smirk forming on my lips as I began to plan out my trick.

"-thank you Brenda, I try my best to keep in shape," he flirted, throwing her a charming smile.

I cleared my throat, "Jai, sweetie, I hope you aren't trying to run away from me again."

The woman, Brenda, looked up, slightly alarmed and then looked back at Jai with disgust and gathered her things, walking away to find another seat.

He sighed, "You caught me, darling, I'm sorry."

I gave him a small chuckle, "So what was your little note about?"

He tossed me his untouched apple, I quickly caught it, looking at him quizzically.

Suddenly, he leaned in, his lips brushing along my temple, making me instantly want to recoil.

"Eat your apple, wait ten seconds and meet me a little bit outside of the camp about ten yards away from our tent," he whispered in my ear, pressing a light kiss to my cheek.

I nodded and waved goodbye to him as he exited.

I chewed on my apple thoughtfully, counting out the seconds in my head.

1 . . . 2. . . 3 . . . 4 . . .

"So, you and Jai are together, huh?"

I turned, and watched as Parker took the empty seat that Jai had left open.

I laughed, "Not really, he just has a tendency to flirt and I have a tendency to be too nice."

She laughed back, "Well he isn't bad looking, I'll give you that one. Where did you guys work, again?"

I mentally flipped through my files, "Trans-America," I took another bite of my apple and looked at my watch, "Gosh, sorry, I should go and get a start on the mounting letters waiting for me. I kind of slept through most of the day yesterday. We should talk more sometime though!"

I quickly got up, finishing the last bite of my apple and tossing it into a nearby trash can.

"Nice meeting you!" I called over my shoulder and watched as she waved goodbye.

Auggie POV

"Auggie, over here!"

I followed Parker's voice, using my laser can to guide me to her. I took the empty seat next to her and smiled as she pushed something into my hand that resembled a banana.

"Good morning," I told her, giving her a small smile. The events of last night, of meeting Annie again after so long, were still running through my brain.

"Hey there, sleepy head! I didn't want to wake you since you seemed kind of tired out last night," I felt her small hand slip into mine and I squeezed It reassuringly.

"Thanks, so what's on the agenda today?"

"Well, I just heard from Brenda that Jai, one of your past co-workers, and Annie, his trainee, just might have some chemistry. You know him, right? Do you think it's possible?"

I froze, my hand wrapping around the banana tightly, almost to the point of choking the poor fruit. My blood began to boil, there was no way in hell Annie would fall for Jai's tricks, she is too smart for that.

Really? Or are you just afraid that she's replaced you?

That too, I thought.

"No," I stated firmly, "Absolutely not. Jai's a flirt but he would never actually settle down into a relationship."

She laughed, "Really? Because Brenda told me that when she was talking to him Annie came over and chewed him out for flirting with someone else. Even kissed her cheek a few times."

I choked on my breath, clearing my throat, I felt a slight flush rush up my neck and cheeks. Damn that cocky son of a bitch; he wouldn't hurt Annie like that, god dammit, he wouldn't! She wouldn't fall for him, she knows that he's just playing her like he plays everyone of those college girls back in DC . . . she does know that, right?

"Aug, what's wrong? You're flushed," I felt her hand slip from mine and laid it across my forehead, "Auggie you're burning up, are you ok?"

I nodded, "Yeah, guess I'm still not used to the air around here," I mumbled and stayed quiet throughout the rest of breakfast.

Even kissed her cheek a few times.

That line played over and over in my head; I pictured Jai with his dark features and Annie with her fair complexion and golden hair, together. It made my stomach turn and I laid the banana on the table, untouched, and walked out of the tent without another word.

Annie POV

I jogged over to wear Jai was talking quietly into his satellite phone, probably to Arthur or Joan.

"-yes, his name is Shariff Osamad. That's him, thanks Bill."

He ended the call and turned to see me coming towards him and opened his arms in an embrace.

"Welcome home, darling," he joked, giving me a wink.

I scoffed, "Cut the bull, Jai, you're taking the joke to a whole different level here. What did you need to see me about?"

"I got some brand new intel on our files handler, Shariff. He speaks Farsi and his brothers are part of some radical political change group. There were case files from the FBI that matched Shariff's description but every time they tried to find him, he would worm his way back to his brothers and left the FBI with a cold case."

"So where is this bastard?"

He shrugged, "I don't know, Annie, this is a big camp. But when we do find him, which could take days, in which case we'll just shake the info out of him and get him a hangar straight to the FBI. Less of a mess that way, well, for us, that is. After that, I just checked with Joan and she wants us to immediately depart, claiming that our services are needed else where and we'll begin our search for Abdul."

I sighed, "Not much of a plan here, Jai."

He nodded, "I know, I wish I could've gotten more intel but this is off book so it can't be passed on to the rest of tech ops except for a select few."

"So we'll just be taking off, and we won't be coming back?" I asked tentatively, already knowing the answer.

He paused in his examination of the sand underneath his feet and met my eyes.

"Annie, I know what you're getting at and the answer is that we have a job to do and Auggie isn't part of it. I need you to focus on this mission, Annie, because there are so many things that can go wrong but I need to know that your dedication won't be changing. If you can't do that, I'll call up one of our assets and get you on a plane back to Langley right now."

His tone was perfectly serious and calm, not even hinting on which option he preferred that I take.

"Jai I can do this, but what if Shariff is their way in to attack the Peace Corp?"

He sighed, "Annie, our mission is to get Abdul out and back with us to Langley, and this is just what I'm talking about! You're not dedicated, you're letting your feelings get in the way of the mission!"

"Well I'm sorry that I'm not a robot, Jai! He's my best friend, I can't just leave him here with the possibility that he might die!" I cried, advancing towards him so that we were nose to nose, well, nose to chest for me.

His brown eyes were almost black, burning with anger and aggravation.

We glared at each other for a few minutes, meeting at a stalemate, neither one backing down.

"Fine," he ground out, "I'll ask my source to check in on the group's plans. But this is the only time I'll be asking him for information on something that doesn't involve the mission, so you just used up your free card."

I crossed my arms over my chest and watched him dial, walking away from me to make the call.

So, despite it all, he's still your best friend.

I sighed, how could August Anderson, a man that left me for another woman, for four months without even trying to contact me, still be the one man that had all of my heart? Well, I shouldn't be surprised there, Ben managed it, didn't he?

Jai POV

"Sorry Bill, I just need another small favor. Does this political group we talked about earlier have any intentions of attacking the Peace Corps in Eritrea?"
My eyes scanned the plain desert landscape, watching as the wind blew little waves into the otherwise still sand.

"Hm, I don't see anything with a red flag but I'm being blindsided by their government so I can't tell you much about what they're going to be doing. Sorry Jai."

I sighed, "It's alright, Bill. Thank anyways."

I clipped the phone shut and turned back to Annie to see that her eyes had kind of a glazed look to them and her arms were folded so tightly across her chest that she looked as if to be sinking into her own skin and quickly disappearing.

"No word on their actions yet; Billy can't get me anything," I told her, walking back towards her.

My aggravation from a few minutes ago hadn't completely dissipated. I needed to know if she could handle this. I needed to know that she had my back.

All I got was a quick nod.

"Damn, Annie, so can you do this or not?"

She glared at me, "You don't even need to ask, Jai. You know I can."

With that said, she turned back towards the camp and I followed, mentally contemplating how long it would take for the hangar to get here and take her away; I wasn't sure that she could separate her feelings from her work right now.

Joan POV

"Come in," I called, quickly closing the manila folder just as Arthur walked in.

"Arthur, what brings you to my department?" I asked, leaning forwards.

"Joan, did you get Auggie's resignation yet?'

"No, what makes you think that he'll be resigning?"

We both knew why, I thought, I just hoped that he would change his mind.

"Well, it's been roughly four months now, right? He only has two weeks left of vacation time. If he planned to come back, wouldn't he have called?"

I couldn't argue with that logic.

"Give him time, Arthur," I whispered, and watched as he came closer, perching on the corner of my desk.

"Joan, I know he's a good leader and you think half the world of him, if not more, but the truth is that he isn't going to come back. So either pop him the question today or wait for two weeks and be even more disappointed."

He laid his hand on my shoulder and pressed a quick kiss to my lips, "I don't want to see you worrying about him anymore."

With that said, he left.

I sighed, feeling the weight of the world somehow increase on my shoulders as I picked up the phone, dialing Auggie's company phone. Thank god for satellites.

It rang twice, then three times, until finally . . .

"Hello?"

"Auggie, it's Joan, how are you?"

"Joan," I could detect the surprise in his voice, "wow, it's been a while. It's great here, hot, but otherwise great."

I kept my voice as the conversation progressed onto more personal subjects such as the work he was doing and how much he liked it.

"How are things back at the DPD?" He asked, I heard the voices in the background gradually fade away and assumed that he was going to somewhere more private.

"Busy," was my reply.

There was a light pause.

"Joan, how come I wasn't notified that Annie and Jai are here on assignment?"

I sighed, dammit, I didn't think they would be meeting up so soon.

"To be honest, Auggie," I began, dropping the bomb, "I don't know where your loyalties lie anymore; with the agency or with the Peace Corps. You weren't read in because it was need to know and frankly, you didn't. Now, the reason I called was to ask you this: you're vacation time is almost up, you have two more weeks left, to be precise; are you coming back to the agency? Or should I expect your resignation to be emailed?"