Okay, so this is my first Covert Affairs... obviously.

Disclaimer: I do not own Covert Affairs, though I wish I did.

Her day started out normal, ha, as if anything was ever normal in the CIA. But, in Annie's mind, if nothing got shot or blown up, it was probably as normal than anything was going to get around here. But that normal day was just getting started, filled mostly with mindless paperwork that Auggie somehow managed to make lively just by sitting on the edge of her desk like he was now. Now, it was 3:30 and her normal day was about to end. Because in the CIA, you can never just have something simple and easy.

She laughed and shook her head as Auggie made yet another joke at poor Jai Wilcox' expense. He was supposed to be doing something else, but as usual he'd found himself being drawn to her like a moth to a flame. He could never understand why being around her could be so wonderful and so painful, but that was a thought for another time. Instead, he turned his attention to the particularly annoying sound of Jai's voice as he once again graced them with his presence.

Then something happened that almost never happened for Annie Walker, being so new to the Agency. Her phone rang. She stared at the cellphone that sat on her desk as if she'd never seen it before, trying to figure out who would be calling her and about what. Auggie reached out to find her, his fingers brushing her shoulder with a confused smile on his face. "Aren't you going to get that?"

His voice broke through her daze and she grabbed it with a collected sigh. "Acquisitions, Annie Walker." The person on the phone identified themself as a secretary at her nieces' school and the warning bells in the back of her head went off.

Auggie listened casually (what? Being blind just happened to give him awesome hearing) to both sides of the conversation, frowned when he heard Annie get up to walk away but he didn't move to stop her. She kept talking and now he could only hear her side of the conversation. He could hear her voice shift to concern as she asked question after question. He managed to put the pieces together well enough. Her sister hadn't picked the girls up from school and she wasn't answering her phone. Neither was her husband.

When he heard the phone snap shut he smiled sympathetically in her direction before she could say anythin. "Go, I'll talk to Joan."

"Thanks." She smiled for his benefit even if he couldn't see her. Grabbing her purse and giving his shoulder a quick squeeze, she practically ran out.

Annie:

So maybe she was panicking, she told herself as she got in the car and drove away, but that didn't stop her mind from building all these scenarios about why her sister wasn't answering. A car accident, a mugging, anything but what would be the truth. Before she knew it she was at the school and it was easy enough to play the cool aunt and take them out for ice cream as long as it put off the questions to which she had no answers (like where was mommy?). After a half an hour with the girls, smiling and acting as if nothing was wrong came naturally as they were both wonderful girls.

Once they finally got home it was almost easy to believe that maybe there was a reasonable explanation. She started Sarah and Ellen on their homework and emailed Auggie, simply to thank him for covering for her. The girls kept her pretty busy playing video games until she finally claimed it was time for her to get dinner on the table. She wasn't the best cook, but she could make something simple when the need arose.

She was about halfway done browning the meat for their dinner when Ellen (the oldest) came running into the kitchen. She had the biggest smile on her face and held a thick manilla envelope. "The really nice man in the brown truck said this was for you."

Annie took it from her with a forced smile. Something wasn't right.

Auggie:

Against his better judgment, he didn't insist on going with Annie when she left, although he probably could have gotten her to not panic like he knew she would. He didn't go, because he needed to be here, and she needed him to cover for let her run out, the sound of her heels fading quickly as he got up and went the other direction, to Joan.

It seemed Joan had a similar idea. "Auggie, where's Annie?" He heard her match his pace, but didn't give her his default smile.

"Is something wrong?" He asked, he could hear the tension in her voice and his concern for Annie doubled. "Joan, why do I sense that Annie's in some kind of trouble?"

"Because you worry about her like a mother hen." Joan smiled, touched his arm out of habit. After Annie had shown up a little over a year ago she'd found herself including Auggie even more than she had before (and that was a lot already), and found herself getting oddly comfortable treating him like a friend rather than simply a subordinate. "You're going to want to talk to her, Annie's file got flagged. Nothing serious, but she'll want you."

"Joan..." He started to ask her to just spit out whatever was bothering her.

"It's not my place." She stopped as he kept walking, now with pretty much no direction. "Talk to her, Auggie, after you finish whatever you're supposed to be doing."

"Right." He laughed as he went back to his desk and returned to the work he'd put off because he had better things to do. Those things being talking to Annie, teasing Annie, and harassing Jai just to hear Annie's laugh. Not that he minded so much, the codes his team was working on were nothing more than smoke, nothing but chatter to distract them from something bigger. Whatever it was had the seventh floor itchy.

It was five before he could pull away long enough to even check his email. He slipped his headphones on, opened the one the computer told him was from Annie. "Auggie." Her voice spoke to him. God, he loved being a master of technology. He'd long since programmed his computer to read the emails in the voice of the sender. "Thought I'd just say thank you for covering for me. My sister still hasn't been heard from but I'm not too worried. I gotta go though, my nieces are threatening a riot if I don't play Spyro with them before dinner. You know how they can be. Bye. Annie."

He smiled at that, yes, he remembered quite well. He'd done Annie the favor of "dropping by" on several occasions and in the process had spent several hours with the family at the Zoo. The girls, while slightly insane, were hard to say no to, especially for Annie.

Then, he'd grown surprisingly fond of them as well. He wondered what Annie would think if he got someone to drive him over to her house and hung out for a couple of hours. She'd probably laugh at him, seeing through the excuse he'd give before leaning into him affectionately. He didn't know how she managed it, but she never made him feel like she pitied him. In fact, sometimes it seemed like she forgot he was blind altogether. It was a welcome relief, and something he'd never take for granted.

"Auggie." Joan's voice reached his ears before he realized he still had his headphones on. He pulled them off and made a sound of acknowledgment. "Annie's not in any kind of trouble, but the police were called early this morning at her sister's house for a domestic dispute. It's the fifth time, so her file was flagged because both her sister and brother-in-law have been sentenced to a month in the DC jail."

"Joan, why are you tell..." He started to ask in that confused tone he rarely had to use. Then again, today was turning out to be a really weird day.

"Because I chose to... and I like you guys too much for my own good." He knew she shrugged, he could practically hear it. It was a very un-Joan gesture, then again, it was a very un-Joan thing to say. "Anyway, go on and get out of here. Tell Annie I'm here for her."

He didn't need to be told twice, he was up and looking for a ride.