When Auggie got back to the office, he checked in on Annie's mission. When he pulled up her file, he learned that things had taken a turn for the worse. "Extraction Pending."
He knew that he needed to take care of the pile of information on his desk, but he wasn't going to be able to focus on anything until he had the details of Annie's mission. He picked up his phone and was trying to decide if he should call Joan directly, or check with Barber first. Finally he decided to go down to the DPD himself.
"Auggie, surprised to see you down here." Joan greeted when he walked into the DPD.
"Well, I was in the neighborhood." Auggie replied.
"You heard about Annie, didn't you?"
"Just enough to know that things aren't going well. What's up?"
"Isn't this a bit below your paygrade now?" Joan asked.
"Joan, please. She's my friend."
"She and Stu were captured by the Belarussians." Joan explained.
"Oh my God, Joan have you had contact?"
"Jay is over there with an extraction team. She is in good hands. Don't worry about us."
"I will always worry about you." Auggie replied, truthfully. "Let me know if I can be of any help."
"I'll let you know when she's on her way home."
"Thanks, Joan."
It was three days later before Annie was rescued by Jay and his team. Jai's team had been waiting at the closest border crossing, not realizing that Annie would take the less predictable route, and was waiting in the Ukraine. Auggie hit his desk in frustration when he heard this. They should have known that she would take the less predictable route, since it was the way she was trained. It was the way they were all trained.
He called her encrypted voicemail. "Sorry to hear about your hiking adventure. I had a long talk with Reva about the necessity of unpredictability in the field. I guess all handlers can't have my fabulous mix of tech savvy and field experience. Stop by sometime when you are rested up."
...
Annie stayed in bed the first day after getting home, and watched every interview that Auggie had given. She recorded some of them while she was in Belarus, and while she recovered from that trip she downloaded the rest and watched him manipulate the press as though it were an asset.
She held her breath through the entire interview with Liza Hearn. She was one of only four or five people that knew of his relationship with Liza, so she was looking for the little signs, and they were there. Liza was openly flirting with him, he was more relaxed around her, and Annie was more than a little bit annoyed that Liza had spent more time with Auggie the past two weeks than she had.
...
Auggie had just gotten home, taken off his coat and tie and was sitting on the couch with a beer when there was a knock on the door. The press hadn't been waiting at his apartment this week, but he was still hesitant about visitors. "Who is it?" He shouted.
"Annie." Came the voice on the other side of the door.
Auggie jumped from the couch and rushed to the door.
"Hey," He said.
"Hey," She replied.
"What's up?" Auggie asked.
"You said to come by."
Auggie laughed. "I meant at work, but I'm glad you are here. Did anybody see you?"
"I started dating a guy on the first floor, so it wouldn't be suspicious."
Auggie's eyes grew wide, he lifted his eyebrows. "That works. I thought the older guy down there was gay, so is it the fourty-something divorcé?"
"Okay, you caught me. Next time I'll come dressed like a food delivery person. I'm sure you've had a few of those this past month."
"You didn't bring food?" Auggie asked.
"Didn't think about it. Do you want to go get something?"
"No, I'm fine. Grab a beer if you want one."
Auggie heard his refrigerator door open while he went back to his couch. "I saw your interviews." She stated.
"All of them?" He asked.
"It was that, or watch chic flicks all day yesterday. You go just fine with ice cream."
Auggie grinned. "How did I look?"
"You looked good. You looked like you out there, if that makes sense."
"Yeah." Auggie took a sip of his beer. "How was Belarus?"
Annie groaned. "Seriously - did Reva even go to The Farm?"
Auggie laughed. "We can't all be top of our class, Walker. It took time for me to learn how you would think, give Reva some time."
"Auggie, you didn't learn how I thought, you taught me how to think. If I give her time, I might end up dead."
Auggie turned toward her. "I hope not."
"I miss you."
"Likewise." He replied earnestly. They sat in comfortable silence for a moment.
"So in your interview with Liza, she totally wanted you."
"Yeah, I actually had to stop her from molesting me backstage. I had to read Audrey in on our history during the ride back to Langley."
"You looked like you wanted her." Annie replied, a little more quietly.
Auggie bit his lower lip and was silent for a moment. "I don't want Liza, but I've been so disconnected with my social circles that I guess it was nice to be around somebody familiar."
"You are so disconnected with us that you enjoyed being around Liza Hearn?" Annie asked.
"Hey, if you look past her career, there's a good person in Liza.
"Auggie, she has made a career out of ruining everything we stand for."
"Like I said, if you look past her career, she's a nice lady."
"You would know." Annie said. She sounded irritated.
Auggie moved his head and settled his eyes in her direction. "Are you jealous, Walker?"
"Humph," Annie exhaled. "I will not stoop to being jealous of Liza Hearn."
"You are!"
"I'm jealous that she gets to spend time with you, publicly. We'll never have that again."
"We'll work something out. My apartment is obviously no longer surrounded by the press."
"Yeah, but it would be too risky for me to come here often. And while it's great, it's not the same as Allen's."
"I'll definitely be back at Allen's. In the meantime, tell me about the Belarussian hospitality. Did you bring me back any vodka?"
...
Auggie felt more like himself the next morning. Annie had stayed for a couple of hours, and they caught up on as much as they could. He didn't realize how much of a hermit he had become, and the little bit of social activity had helped him re-center. He got more done that morning than in the past three days.
This good mood lasted until exactly two pm, when one of the CIA attorneys came to his office.
"Mister Anderson?"
"Yes."
"I need to speak with you for a moment."
"And you are?" Auggie asked, slightly perturbed at the disturbance.
"Josh Boal, general counsel."
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Auggie said in a saccharine tone.
"We have received notice from the press of a story to come out in the next few days. I'm not sure how big of a deal it will be, but it does go into your past a bit. Particularly, your love life."
Auggie sat back in his chair and placed his arms on the armrests. He took a deep breath and sighed. "Natasha?" He asked.
"They actually didn't go back that far."
"Okay," Auggie replied with a slight nod. "What do we do?"
"I have a copy of the article here, but only in print. We need to you read through, then meet with a few of us to determine how best to proceed."
"Yeah," Auggie replied, and held his hand out for the paper. He didn't hear Josh moving forward and started to become frustrated. "I can scan it in. Just give it to me."
"Sorry," Josh mumbled as he handed over the paper.
Auggie took the paper and put it into the scanner. While it worked, he asked Roger to cancel all his appointments for the afternoon.
A/N Sorry for the long delay on this one. This next chapter has not come together, even though I've been working on it for over a month now. We'll see how long it takes me to see how Auggie and the press handle the new subject of the CIA's ladies man. Tell me what you think so far, and maybe how you think Auggie will handle the press knowing about his love life.