WOW! The reception for this story truly blew me away. I hadn't expected it at all. I've tried to respond to all of the reviews, but I know I've missed a few - sorry about that. THANK YOU for each and every review, follow and favorite alert - the muse loves them all. :o)

Here's the second chapter. Not much "action" - mostly conversation between A&A.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Annie, Auggie or Covert Affairs. Just love the characters and can't wait for season 4 to start!

-Chapter 2-

"Hey Annie, do you have any plans this evening?" Auggie asked Annie as their second week of classes was coming to an end. They were in one of the group rooms in the library, wrapping up on their Creative Writing assignment. It was due the following Monday.

"No, not really. Figured I could go down to the Tavern and have a few beers or something," Annie said with a shrug. "Why?"

"Well, I thought we could celebrate completing our first assignment together."

"And just how did you want to celebrate?" His tone was slightly teasing and a smile was evident in her voice.

"Dinner at my place and maybe a few drinks at the Tavern later. Or if you don't feel like going out we can just hang out and watch a movie or something." Auggie felt a bit nervous and he hoped Annie didn't read more into his invitation than it was. He had no intentions beyond becoming her friend; at least not for the time being. This was one of the times Auggie missed his sight; it would've been much easier if he'd been able to read Annie's body language. To his relief her response came quickly in a normal, happy tone.

"Sounds nice Auggie. Didn't really think of you as a foodie though."

Auggie ducked his head self-consciously and he carefully considered his reply before he decided to go with the truth.

"I'm not. Mom helps me with my grocery shopping and when she came over yesterday she brought me a dish of her homemade lasagna. It just needs 15 to 20 minutes in the oven and it's ready to serve. It's too much for me to finish on my own."

"A home cooked meal? My mouth is watering already."

As Annie was walking down the street towards Auggie's apartment she was feeling both excited and a little bit nervous. This would be the first time she and Auggie really spent time together outside of studying together and a couple of lunches. The first two weeks of the semester had been busy for both of them and Annie was happy that they finally had an opportunity to get to know each other better. She'd been intrigued by Auggie from day one and over the past couple of weeks he'd told her little bits and pieces from that had only caused her interest getting to know him to be piqued further. She was a bit surprised when she reached the address Auggie had given her; it was a well-kept, modern five-story apartment building that looked much nicer than she'd expected.

A couple of minutes later she exited the elevator on the 3rd floor and headed down the hall to apartment B4. She rang the doorbell and a few moments later Auggie's voice came through the door.

"Who is it?"

"Annie."

The door slid open, revealing Auggie dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a black tailored shirt, a broad smile gracing his features. The sight brought a smile to her face; she thought Auggie was pretty good looking and now he'd obviously dressed up. At school he usually wore comfortably worn jeans and t-shirts or Henley shirts, so this was definitely a step up.

"Hi Auggie, you clean up nicely," Annie said with a smile.

"Um..thanks Annie. Come on in," he said as he stepped back and allowed her to enter. Her jaw dropped as she entered his spacious loft; it was bigger than she expected and the furniture was miles ahead of what she'd expected to find in a student's apartment.

"Wow, nice place you've got here!" Annie exclaimed as she slipped off her shoes and placed them next to the wall beside the door.

"Thanks. Can't take much credit for it, Mom and my sister in-law took care of the décor. It's not like it matters much to me." Annie noticed that Auggie looked a bit nervous

"They did a great job Auggie. It's very nice; I have to admit I'm a bit jealous. I wish I could afford to get an off campus apartment."

"If it wasn't for this," Auggie gestured to his eyes. "I wouldn't be able to afford it either. Are you hungry? The oven is warm, but I didn't want to put the lasagna in until you got here."

Auggie's statement puzzled Annie; she didn't understand why his blindness made it possible for him to afford a loft in a nice part of town, but she buried the urge to ask and filed the question away for now. Maybe she'd ask him after they'd gotten to know each other better.

"I'm a bit hungry, so go ahead. Let me know if I can help with anything."

"I've got it," Auggie said as he walked over to the fridge and opened the door. He quickly located a 6-pack and pulled out two beers. "Want a beer?"

"Thanks Auggie," Annie said, grabbing the beer from him. She leaned against the island in Auggie's kitchen and watched as he put the lasagna in the oven and set a timer with Braille markings before he grabbed his beer and turned toward her. Annie was amazed at how freely he moved around in his apartment. It was almost like he could see.

"I made a salad to go with it as well, I hope that's okay," Auggie said as he took a sip of his beer and leaned against the counter across from Annie.

"Sounds perfect," Annie said with a smile in her voice.

The thing Auggie had been most curious about since he met Annie was why she'd chosen to transfer from Georgetown to North Shore for her senior year; as far as he knew she had no connection to the area. After they'd eaten and cleared away the dishes they settled down on his couch, each with a beer in hand. Auggie decided to be bold and ask her about it.

"Annie, can I ask you something?" he started. He inwardly cringed at how unsure he came across as.

"Sure," she answered lightly. "Ask away!"

"Why did you transfer to North Shore? It's a decent school, but Georgetown is in a different league. Do you have family in the area?"

"It's sort of a long and messy story," Annie sighed.

"Listen, you don't have to answer me if you don't want to. I didn't mean to pry."

"Hey, it's okay," Annie said in a reassuring tone. "I don't have any family in the area. I actually grew up as an army brat, lived in 10 states and several countries before I graduated high school. My parents are divorced; Mom lives in Atlanta with her new husband and Dad lives in San Francisco. I have some family scattered around the country, but since we moved around so much I'm not really close to any of them. The only person in my family I'm really close to is my older sister, Danielle. Her and her husband and their daughters actually moved to Georgetown last year, I lived in her guesthouse before I moved up here." Annie paused for a second to gather her thoughts. "During my sophomore year at Georgetown I met a guy. He was a first year student at Georgetown Law and we got together pretty fast. We dated for about a year; I broke it off because he was so damn jealous. Possessive really. Whenever I went out with my friends he'd show up with a buddy. In the beginning I thought it was coincidental, but it didn't take me long to figure out that he was watching me. I had a few male friends and he just couldn't tolerate it. My sister made me realize that I shouldn't put up with it and convinced me to break up with him. Unfortunately that only made it worse; he was pretty much stalking me. Since he wasn't about to change schools I decided to get away from him; hopefully get a fresh start somewhere else."

"That's so wrong," Auggie exclaimed before he could stop himself. Although he didn't know Annie very well it pissed him off that she had to move away from her sister and friends to get away from him.

"What?" Annie sounded puzzled.

"That you had to move halfway across the country to get away from him. Did you report him to the police?"

"He never did anything beyond following me around; keeping an eye on what I was doing. While we were still together we had some nasty arguments, but it was never physical. He never caused a scene in public or anything like that, so there was nothing the police could do."

"Ah, I see. He sounds like a real psycho and I think you deserve much better than him."

"Thanks Auggie. Part of me regret that I didn't stand my ground and stay in DC; I miss my friends and my sister and her family." Auggie heard the sadness in Annie's voice and held his right hand out toward where Annie was sitting. A moment later she slid her hand into it and he closed his fingers around it, squeezing it gently.

"Just know that you have at least one friend here, okay? We might not know each other very well, but I'm here if you need it."

"Thanks Auggie. I definitely need a friend," Annie said with a smile in her voice as squeezed his hand back.

After sitting in comfortable silence for a while Annie decided it was her turn to ask Auggie a question.

"Hey Auggie, I guess it's my turn to ask you a question."

"I guess so," he said with a small smile. "What do you want to know?"

"Have you always been blind?"

Auggie shook his head. "No."

When he didn't say anything else Annie felt like she'd overstepped.

"I didn't mean to pry, I totally understand if you don't want to talk about it."

"It's fine. It's just…well…I've never really had to talk about it. My family and friends knows what happened and I haven't really met many new people lately." Auggie hung his head self-consciously, and then he carried on. "About three and a half years ago a buddy of mine and I was heading home for the weekend. He was driving. A truck hit the car on the driver's side. My friend died on the scene of the accident; I broke my left arm, left ankle and femur and sustained a bad head injury. The arm and leg is back to 100% now. Unfortunately there was nothing that could be done to fix my eyes, the accident left me permanently blind."

Annie didn't know what to say so she grasped Auggie's hand again and squeezed it.

"I was in the hospital for a while, and then I went on to rehab, took a while since I had to get my arm and leg healed and functioning; and then I moved on to learn to live without being able to see. When I'd been in rehab for about six months and had gotten the hang of the basics I moved into my parents' house. The instructors from rehab come over to the house several times a week, to teach me Braille, how to use a computer, orientation and mobility and some other stuff. I started taking classes online as part of the rehab training. Started out with one class and as I got the hang of things I added more classes. Still took me about two and a half years to finish a year and a half of studies, but this spring I finally completed my junior year."

Annie watched as Auggie reached for his beer bottle and took a swig of beer before he placed it back on the table and leaned back against the couch again.

"Anyway, I figured I'd keep taking online classes for my senior year as well, but my parents had different plans for me. Told me I needed to rejoin the real world and get on with my life. I wasn't thrilled about the idea, but I realized Mom had a point; I can't spend the rest of my life behind my computer in my old room at Mom and Dad's house," Auggie chuckled lightly at the end of the sentence. Annie gently elbowed his upper arm.

"You'd probably get sick of each other and living with your folks at age 50 is considered a bit weird. Definitely not a hit with the ladies," she teased.

"I guess you have a point there," Auggie said with a laugh. "And now I'm kind of glad they pushed me to move out and helped me get this place. I guess I just needed a kick in the ass."

"We all do from time to time," Annie said empathetically. "If my sister hadn't sat me down for a serious talk a few months ago I would probably still be in Georgetown, still dating Ben and putting up with his shit."

"I guess we should toast to our families giving us a kick in the ass then," Auggie suggested, holding out his beer bottle in Annie's direction. She clinked her bottle with his and they both took hefty swigs of their bottles.

They ended up spending the rest of the evening at Auggie's place; listening to his big collection of jazz music, chatting and drinking beer. He'd been pleasantly surprised when he found out that Annie shared his love for jazz – he rarely met people their age that liked that genre – and he had a feeling Annie felt the same way. It had been well past midnight when Annie left and headed back to her dorm room.

Please leave me a review and let me know what you think.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to upload the next chapter, because I have a busy week ahead; includes several long days at work and a long weekend in Copenhagen with my boyfriend Thursday to Sunday. I've been dating my buddy that inspired 'To Live Again' since December and this will be our first weekend away together. I don't think I'll have much time to write. We'll just have to wait and see how cooperative the muse is. :o)