Post Series. Auggie had left to travel the word with Natasha, and Annie had dove head first into work. This is how they got back to where they belong. Pure Walkerson. A huge thank you to Cory, for editing it for me.
He got up, and tried to assess the situation. He quietly listened for any sounds that would confirm that Annie was still around, and found none. She was gone. They have met, gotten drunk, fought and ended up in bed. He sat down on his bed, a wave of nausea hitting him hard, and cursed.
It took him almost double the time to get up, take a shower, get dressed and be ready to go to work. Not that he wanted to go to work. What he wanted was to stay in bed for the whole week, or at least until his headache was gone, and his mind felt a little less foggy. But there was a string of codes waiting to be broken at Langley, and Joan would not take kindly to a day off right now. Especially if she knew that Auggie had seen Annie the night before. And let's face it, there was nothing that happened concerning her agents that Joan didn't know about.
So he decided it was time to face his demons. He order a double espresso on his way to his desk, put on his headphones and discouraged small talk by furiously typing on his keyboard, and never took his eyes from the screen. Which meant nothing at all, since he couldn't see anything in front of him anyway. But it did the trick. Even Barber left him alone after he grunted a good morning as soon as Erik entered Tech Ops.
He spent most of the day holed up in his office, never leaving even to get some lunch. Joan had walked in front of the glass doors three times now, and Auggie still hadn't taken his eyes from the computer screen. She immediately knew something was not right. She tried to carefully approach her operative, and was stonewalled by the best of them. Well, it was time for some meddling, Joan decided. She had refrained from interfering with their dynamic, thinking to protect both of them. But enough was enough. She went back to her desk, and dialed McQuaid Security's phone number. If she didn't have an op to contract out to them she would create one.
A couple of hours later, Auggie was called into Joan's office. He hesitated briefly in the doorway, having recognized Ryan's voice, but schooled his features and came in. The awkward silence that followed told both Joan and Ryan everything they needed to know: something had happened between Annie and Auggie last night, and from the looks of it, it was nothing good. Well, there was nothing either of them could do about it right now. As much as Ryan wanted to protect Annie, to leave room for something to happen between them again, he knew it was not in his hands. True or not, Langley had called wanting an operative fluent in Russian, to cultivate a Russian asset who would be able to give them eyes and ears in the Russian embassy, since they had burned enough bridges there in the last couple of years. Ryan knew what Joan was looking for, and although he had other seasoned agents who spoke Russian, none of them was as good as Annie. Damn it, he had just given her a couple of days off, and he hated to bring her in again.
And, of course, they needed someone who had a lot of expertise in tracking and cloaking identities, who was familiar with the Russian network. Which meant that Annie's handler was an obvious choice. Well, Ryan would let Joan break the news to Annie; this was a hornet's nest he had no intention of touching. He had no desire at all to know what had happened between the two of them.
Annie avoided his eyes, even though that was totally unnecessary, and focused on the task at hand. She barely spoke, nodding once or twice just to let Joan and Calder know she was following them, took her files, and started to walk away. Auggie's hand on her arm stopped her cold. She took a deep breath and tried to smoothly retrieve her arm, but Auggie was having none of that.
"Hey, Walker, can we talk?" He said, as professional as possible, considering the circumstances. He was not fooled by Joan's games; he was not about to let a golden opportunity slip by. He wanted to give her some space, so she could work things out on her own, but he had made up his mind the other night. He knew that they had a lot of things to work through, but he knew what he wanted. He wanted her, and after having a taste, he was not about to let go.
He cornered her by Joan's door, after the briefing, determined to talk to her, and to smooth things over. He wished he did not wake up alone this morning. He wished Annie had stayed, so they could talk about them. But she had fled, and he was not going to make the same mistake again. They needed to talk, and he would follow her until she listened to him.
"I… Ah, I… There's … There's something I need to do right now." She said. She knew she faltered there in the beginning, but she recovered quickly. It would have worked, if she were not in a room full of spies. Fortunate for her, he wouldn't try to force her to talk to him in the middle of Langley. He would not make a scene. It was not his style.
"Sure, I can walk you out." He said, knowing that she could not refuse him a second time, not without raising suspicion. He could see she was rattled. She would never make a rooky mistake, like faltering in her speech, if she wasn't. His voice was soft, and his touch was very light on her arm, but even blind, his eyes carried the steel of his military training. A look that said he would not be denied.
"Really, Auggie, there's no need for you to walk me out. We can catch up later." She practically begged. She was beginning to sound too desperate, and both Joan and Calder were trying very hard not to notice it. A little more and she would be on the verge of a panic attack, and it would not be pretty. He must have sensed her panic, because he let go of her arm, and she slipped by him.
She managed to avoid him the whole day. Sure, she had an advantage, she could actually see him, which made avoiding him very, very easy. But he was not giving up. He would catch her later tonight. She would talk to him, he would make sure of that.
Annie was exhausted, after a day of working and dodging Auggie. She spent most of the day at the Agency, but she needed to swing by McQuaid's to retrieve some files before going home. Great, now she would need to avoid Ryan too. He was not stupid; he surely picked up some vibes between her and Auggie, and probably put two and two together. She took a deep breath and got inside her car. She needed this day to be over, like, right now. She had close to no sleep at all and a massive headache when she woke up this morning, which put her on a bad mood most of the day. She knew she needed to talk to Auggie, she just had no desire to do that today. She needed sleep to clear her head, and she needed a clearer head to be able to deal with Auggie.
She parked her car at McQuaid's Headquarters, and prayed that Ryan was already gone. She took the elevator instead of the stairs because even though she needed the exercise, she needed to get out as quickly as possible. She managed to get inside her office and get out with the files in less than a minute, but as soon as she closed the door, she bumped into Ryan.
"Annie. I thought you would be at Langley this next couple of days." He said. "I was just going to drop some papers on your desk, nothing that requires immediate attention." He looked everywhere but her eyes. "I, ah, I was just leaving."
"Ryan…"She started, but didn't know what to say to him. She didn't like this tension between them. Before she could think about something to say, he looked at her, and put his hand out, to stop her talking.
"It's okay Annie. I get it. We gave it a try, it didn't work out. It's water under the bridge. It's been water under the bridge for some time now." He said. They were, after all, over for quite some time, now. He should have had this conversation ages ago, but Auggie had never been an issue she openly discussed with him. He knew she was hurt by his leaving the agency, but until now, he hasn't seen the whole picture. "I always knew there was something between you two." He didn't sound angry. More like, resigned.
"Not when we were together." She rushed to tell him, "It was already over for a while, before I met you." She said softly.
"I know, Annie. I was not trying to imply that… Ah, hell. Look, I loved you, I offered you a life, a good life. But I always knew that there was something holding you back. After that rescue mission, I figured it out, and I… Ah… I asked you to marry me, because I was afraid of losing you. Maybe if I didn't, we'd still be together. But you have to know that I would have asked you anyway, eventually. I tried – we tried. It didn't work out."
"I loved you too, Ryan. I really did. Maybe not as much as I would like, but it was real to me too. We had something. Whatever happened between Auggie and I before we met, and whatever happens between Auggie and I now, well…" She tensed, she didn't want to make it right now, think about her and Auggie.
"I know, Annie. I get it." He smiled. "Take care of yourself". He said, and then he was gone, and she was free to go home.
The drive to her apartment was uneventful, but she was exhausted when she got home. The talk with Ryan was good, it was something she needed to do for some time now. It eased her heart a little bit, to know he understood, to know that things were okay between them. But it reminded her that she really needed to talk to Auggie too, and she was nowhere near ready to do that. She felt like a teenager, sneaking away while he was sleeping, like he was a mark, or a job she just did. But she couldn't face him yet. Her head had been full of tequila, and she had vowed to herself that she was not going to go there. But she did anyway. Stop thinking about it, she told herself. She would have a good night sleep, and avoid Auggie for a day or two, to gather her courage, and then she would talk to him.
She drove around her house twice, to make sure she was not being followed, parked her car in a secluded spot, checked her surroundings again, and came inside. She left the keys on the side table by the door and disabled the alarm. The silence was deafening. Frowning, she fumbled with her purse a little, as if she was looking for something, sighted, and put the purse in the sofa, seated on the end of her living room. She stretched a little, working her sore muscles, and quickly turned around, with a cold look in her brown eyes, her back to the wall, her pistol in her hands, aimed at his heart.
"Hello, Walker." Auggie said, amused. "Is the gun really necessary?"