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 thanks for Cony, for editing this for me! :)

They saw each other again after almost two years. Before Auggie left with Natasha, they had created a protocol in order to keep somewhat in touch, or if they ever needed each other's help. It was not a "get-out-of-jail" card with a phone number, or a Russian pet site looking for a long lost collie. But it was protocol. And Auggie kept his eyes open, so to speak, waiting for any sign of Annie. That night, when she told him that she knew what she wanted, he was sure she meant the Agency. He couldn't imagine Annie not working for the CIA. But she surprised him, blind-sided him was more accurate, even though he'd been blind for years.

He called Joan as soon as he and Natasha arrived in France, to check in, and she told him that Annie declined her proposal. She was staying with McQuaid Security; but she would be more than happy to talk to Ryan about putting together a task force, which she would most likely be part of, contracted out to the CIA. That way, she would have the best of both worlds: she would get to make the world a better place, having access to a lot more resources and money, and have a lot more freedom than if she stayed with the agency. She would be able to make a real difference, with a lot less red tape.

After that first contact, he called Joan on a regular basis, sometimes fishing for some news about Annie, sometimes just to check in. They never really mentioned Annie, but he called all the same. Joan had a lot to say about a lot of things, but what she didn't tell him was that Annie never got to be Mrs. Annie McQuaid. Joan was meddling, but she felt that, since Auggie was trying to make things work with Natasha, he didn't need that particular distraction. She was positive that, if he knew Annie turned Ryan down, he'd wonder if he was part of the reason she declined, if she still had feelings for him. Joan knew his former operatives too well. It was a need-to-know situation, and she didn't feel that Auggie needed to know. Not right now anyway. She always ended the call asking him to check in from time to time, knowing how much danger and problems used to follow the both of them, and left him to his own devices.

He was happy for quite a while. They went through most of the European countries, even some East European ones. They ventured too close to Russia once, but Auggie didn't want to go there. It reminded him of Annie too much. Then, a few problems started to appear. Of course Natasha tired of being his sighted guide. Living with her – or with anybody if he was being truthful - on a more permanent base would never be easy, but he gave a genuine try. Deep inside, he knew that Natasha tired easily of being in the same place for more than a couple of weeks, of leaving things in the same place every single day. At first, seeing the world with her sounded like a great idea, but after a solid 18 months he was tired of never getting to get his bearings. He needed constancy, order and predictability. And Natasha needed chaos, thrived in chaos. He couldn't get his bearings amidst chaos. So, she went off to Amsterdam, and Auggie returned to the States, to his old life, his old job.

He missed Annie like crazy those 18 months, but not like this. While travelling, time passed in a different rhythm, and he would go weeks without thinking of her until something would catch his attention. But not when he was stateside. Here, he couldn't go more than 5 minutes without thinking of her. Being in the Agency and not working with Annie was weird, and he had had enough of it. He knew about the task force, because really, when did "need-to-know" stopped him from finding out anything. Especially something related to Annie, but he was yet to be able to work with her in the past year. He had yet to hear from her too, in these months he was back at the Agency. They hadn't talked in two years, since he left her apartment. He had left innumerous messages in her voice mail, and it looked like the few ones she returned were always carefully constructed, always made in times when he was unavailable. It was beginning to feel like a cat and mouse game, and he wasn't sure who was chasing whom.

Annie had left her apartment that day with an idea. She hated that she would have to deceive Ryan for some time to get it done, but she couldn't see any other way to achieve it. She wanted to keep working with him, for him, but she didn't want to get married. Not now, anyway. Maybe never. And she felt that, if she were to break things up, he'd never let her be a part of this company. So she stayed. She said that she wasn't interested in marriage. That her life was not conductive with porch swings and white picket fences, but she had no problems with their relationship staying as it was. It was light and fun, the sex was great, and they were a great team. Why tempt fate? She refused to be compromised by a relationship, like she told Auggie when she came back in. She would keep her life centered on her job, she would avoid romantic entanglements, and that's how her life was going to go from now on. She knew that in a way, she really loved Ryan, because he saw her for what she was, but she didn't consider their relationship a real romantic entanglement. She didn't lose herself in him like she did before. She didn't love him like that, not like Auggie.

She thought that eventually, Ryan would tire of waiting for her and just give up. It took a while, but it happened. He proposed three times, and on the last one, he made it clear that she needed to let him go, if she never intended to be with him forever. So she did. They broke up, but stayed in good terms. Ryan understood that losing Annie in his personal life was bad enough; he didn't want to lose her in a professional capacity too. She was too good an operative for him to lose her entirely. So he kept her on his team, but barely saw her. She was always on a mission, in some part of the world. It was funny that Auggie was the one who wanted to see the world, and Annie was the one who got to do that, never staying too long anywhere.

So it was not that weird, with Joan's resolution that Auggie didn't need to know, and Annie spending most of her time abroad, that he didn't have the faintest idea that they were both single, and both trying to pretend that they didn't have feelings for each other. Auggie's excuse was that he thought Annie was happy with McQuaid; and Annie's excuse was that she believed she had lost her chance long ago. She pushed him away, and he first fell for Helen's wiles, and then Natasha's. It didn't matter that Natasha was currently in Germany and Auggie was back at his desk at Langley. She still felt she had lost him to her.

But it's been two years, and he had prepared that damn protocol. She couldn't ignore it. She did her best to avoid seeing him, working with him, but to break a protocol like that was like rubbing in both their faces that the 5 years together (and the last two apart) meant nothing. So there she was, waiting by the reflecting pool at the National Mall, shortly after returning from her last mission.

According to Auggie's protocol, no matter where they were after two years, they would meet in DC, at the National Mall, by the reflecting pool. Two years was the limit. They both knew that, if they needed each other's help, they would end up easily tracking each other down. Their friendship was solid, even in the worst of times their friendship was solid enough. Even after Helen, their friendship was solid. It got Annie through the whole Wilcox issue: She still remembered, albeit with a large dose of guilt, the trip he made to Hong Kong to help her. That damn "dinner", the way he clung to her that night, after making love for the last time. She was still ashamed today, of how much she needed him that night. Of how much she needed his touch, his fire, to remember she was still alive. She still felt guilty for not being strong enough to escape him, to resist him; felt even guiltier for not being strong enough to be with him. If she were honest with herself, the guilt started when she let Helen drive a wedge between them. She didn't know what was worst: knowing that she was gullible enough to believe Helen and break up with Auggie, or knowing that Helen then used that wedge to sleep with him, even after knowing where his heart – and hers-– lied. Or if she felt guiltier knowing that Helen died in her place. She had come a long way from there, but she knew she had hurt him a lot in the process. She knew their real ending began when she decided to go dark, and fake her death. That hurt him even more than that night in Hong Kong, taking only bits and pieces of what he was offering her. Then she plunged the knife in his chest vanishing for 4 months after killing Henry, instead of getting on that boat for the agreed extraction.

To Auggie, the last drop had been the fact that she went to Eyal for help instead of him, when she discovered her heart disease: she lied to him, evaded him, hid things from him, then asked for his help to cover it up when he discovered it. None of that hurt him all that much, compared to learning that she stayed with Eyal during those 4 months. Not only because she needed his help. She stayed with him, hell, probably shared his bed too. That was the nail in the proverbial coffin of their relationship. She could have come to him, and she chose Eyal.

Both of them knew, since Amsterdam, that Eyal had feelings for her: Auggie might be blind, but he was not stupid. Neither was Eyal, as far as Auggie's assessment of the man went… There was no way in hell he would have stayed away from Annie those four months, no man would.

Still, when she came back from the cold, after her name was cleared, and she was not deemed a traitor, a rogue agent, they were able to start restoring their friendship. He thought that they were on the right track, that everything would be back to normal with them. Well, their version of normal. Then Ryan happened. And Auggie finally came to terms with the fact that Annie would never be his again. They had a brief moment, in Argentina, when he thought that they still had a chance. She came for him, rescued him, saved his life, and helped him save the last man from his Unit that was still alive. When she was undressing, him, inside that church, looking for tracking devices, the lines seemed to blur again. But she was with McQuaid, so nothing happened, and soon after he left the Agency to follow Natasha around the world, with the firm belief that Annie would no later accept Ryan's proposal, and he didn't want to be there to watch it.

So Annie got back from Syria, to meet Auggie at the reflecting pool. She heard rumors that he was back with the Agency a couple of months ago, but she still hadn't seen nor heard from him. She had dinner with Ryan and a couple of the guys last night, after she checked in, but she was afraid to talk about Auggie. Instead, she made small talk, and avoided the looks Ryan gave her all night. It was the first time that Annie came back and asked for a few days off, and although he was happy to give her however many days she needed, he still found it odd. She arrived earlier at the agreed location, being too restless to stay at home. It's been two years, and she missed him. She didn't want to confront her feelings, didn't want to revisit them. She didn't want to admit to herself the mistakes she made regarding her heart. He was in the past, and there was no reason to drag it back up. They would meet, and exchange pleasantries, get a beer, reminiscence old times, old memories, and she would be back on a mission after a couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks. Nothing would change.

Seeing him was a shock she did not expect. It took her all her willpower not to reach for a dose of her heart medication, when she felt her heart constrict, and she couldn't take a deep breath to save her life. Soon, though, she noticed that it was not a heart episode, it was not a panic attack: it was just her body's reaction to seeing him after so much time. Thank God he was blind, because she felt like the worst covert operative at the moment. Her every emotion could be read in her eyes. Her feelings were all in disarray, making a mockery of her training. She needed to get it together before he came too near her, embraced her, touched her… otherwise, she would lose it. She took a deep breath, tried to calm her aching heart, schooled her features, and met him with a smile that did not reach her eyes.

Auggie sensed her before he "saw" her. He too was having trouble controlling his reaction to meeting Annie again. He thought about her all day, the minutes taking double the usual time to pass. He could barely pay attention to his duties, he needed Barber to take his place as one of his operative's handler, because he just couldn't focus on the task at hand. It took all his special forces training, all his refined spy craft to keep his body under control, and his head on the game, as he was assaulted with Annie Walker's signature perfume. He kept himself in check, swallowed hard before pulling her to her feet and embracing her, unable to avoid taking a deep breath and lost himself in her scent. It has been too damn long.

"I missed you, Helvetica". He said, hoping she would not notice the slight quiver in his voice.