Last chapter! I know, it's about time, seeing as the season finale just aired (and I haven't seen it yet! Soooo busy! This weekend, I promise!). I really hope this turned out as well as I wanted it to, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I had fun writing this and I hope you had fun reading it. Enjoy!
"I believe you have some explaining to do, August Anderson."
Her voice broke through his fog of thoughts and he sat up straighter. It took him a second to recognize the voice.
"Annie?" His voice was eager, almost desperate. He instinctively sniffed the air, searching for a hint of that grapefruit perfume he's come to adore—because, sure enough, whenever he smelled that grapefruit scent he knew that she was there. He adored that perfume because he adored her. This time, however, the air was significantly devoid of grapefruit, and he kicked himself for not realizing it earlier. Of course—she wouldn't have brought the perfume with her to Switzerland, because she was supposed to be back later that day. She wasn't supposed to be stranded there for so long. He quickly composed himself and cleared his throat. "You're back."
He expected her to grab a chair and pull it over so she could sit next to him—like she usually did—but she didn't. Instead, he heard the distinct sounds of her toe tapping against the tile floor. He sensed the tension in her stance and was pretty sure her arms were folded across her chest too.
"Yeah, no thanks to you." She ignored the way his face fell, too angry to want to think about it. But as she remembered calling him and getting someone else, her voice softened as the feeling of abandonment welled up within her once more. "Where were you?"
Auggie looked up in her general direction and Annie felt her heart pull at the look of sorrow on his face. "I was forced to take a polygraph, to prove I'm not the Liza Hearn leak."
"What?"
She wasn't expecting that. In all the scenarios she'd come up with for why he wasn't there when she called, why he wasn't there to finish out the mission with her, that was not one of them. She'd thought maybe he went home to get some sleep. Maybe he'd stepped out to get some coffee and just hadn't come back. Maybe he'd just forgotten she was out there (okay, she knew that wasn't the case, but it's what her mind had come up with).
"Right after I lost contact with you, they pulled me away from my job to play twenty questions with a polygraph. It was all to satisfy Arthur Campbell's paranoia."
"That's why I found myself talking to Braithwaite from NCS instead of Auggie from DPD?"
His face twisted a bit more with guilt. "I'm so sorry about that. I told you I'd bring you home, that I'd be with you all the way. I told you you could trust me, and then I left you. I tried, Annie. I tried to get back to my post, but they wouldn't let me. They literally pulled me away from my desk right after I lost contact with you. They wouldn't let me try to re-establish it, or do anything that I was supposed to be doing to get you back. Figuring out who the leak is was more important to them. They made me break my promise to you, and I am so, incredibly sorry."
She was silent for a moment, and that hesitation broke Auggie's heart. He started to worry that she'd never want to work with him again after this. He cleared his throat to relieve the pressure. "Did you make it out okay? Are you alright?"
She didn't answer right away and he started to panic a little. Will she not even want to talk to me anymore? He couldn't handle that. He allowed himself to curse his blindness for not letting him see her, to see for himself if she was alright or not. From what he'd heard, she probably had a few marks on her, and he wanted to know how bad they were. If she didn't tell him he'd have no way of finding out.
After a few seconds he heard the sound of plastic wheels rolling across the floor and he felt the displacement of air as she sat next to him. "I've got a few stitches in my shoulder, courtesy of a piece of shrapnel, and Mossad decided to check the airbags in the car Eyal lifted for us. Other than that, I'm fine."
Auggie grimaced at the mental images her description generated, and he still wished he could see her to assess the damage himself. She was just the type of person to make light of her injuries, and after abandoning her in the field he wanted to make sure she wasn't going to suffer for anything that happened out there.
"So, our friendly Mossad operative didn't turn out to be a double agent after all."
Annie smiled a little. "No, but he did destroy my phone 'cause he thought that we were responsible for blowing the pass."
"When it was his guys all along."
"You know how these things go."
Auggie "stared" silently in her direction for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was low and intense. "I tried, Annie. I really did. I don't make light of my promises, and I did promise you I'd be with you till you got home. I went to Joan to try and get myself out of the polygraph, but it was out of her hands. I had absolutely no choice, and I hated them for it. I hated myself for it, for leaving you out there with no way home and no friendly voice in your ear. I should have done something more, I should have talked my way out of it—"
He was cut off by the sudden presence of two fingers on his lips.
"Shh. Auggie, I know. I get that now. Nobody told me what had happened here while I was gone, and I was angry. I had no idea why you weren't there when I called, and so my mind kept telling me all sorts of things, reasons why you were gone."
"What did your mind tell you?"
She hesitated.
"Annie, please. What did your mind tell you was more important to me than getting you home?"
She couldn't resist the pleading in his voice. "I don't know, silly stuff, like, maybe you'd stepped out for some coffee, or went home to sleep…"
She trailed off and Auggie reached out to grab her hands, finally finding them and holding them firmly in his grasp.
"Anne Walker, I want you to listen to me, and understand me, and never doubt it, okay?" She nodded even though he couldn't see it. "Nothing is ever more important to me than bringing operatives home safely. Nothing. Especially not when it's you out there, in the field, with the only true friendly being my voice in your ear. I'll have somebody else get me some coffee, and if I absolutely need to sleep—and I mean, I'm about to drop dead from exhaustion and couldn't possibly stay conscious any longer, or I'm ordered to go rest—if I absolutely have to go sleep I will have someone from my team keeping watch over you, and I'll have them wake me up as soon as you need me. Okay? I promise you this, and nothing, no one, not even Arthur Campbell or the President himself can make me break this promise to you, alright? Nothing. Do you understand me?"
His sightless eyes were fixed on her, his expression so sincere and intense that she found it difficult to breathe for a second. His grip on her hands was so firm, warm and secure that she squeezed them back in response. "I understand."
He relaxed a minute bit and waited a second more before releasing her hands and sitting back in his chair. He ran a hand through his hair and heard Annie pick something up off of his desk.
"What's this?"
He reached out his palm and she placed the Gripmaster in it.
"Ah. This is my way of getting rid of tension. I can't really pace anymore, and it sure beats punching something or throwing things."
"Why do you have it out now? Was the polygraph really that crazy?"
Auggie squeezed the device a couple times, just playing around with it. "Come on, Annie. Did none of what I've said tonight mean anything to you?"
Her eyes widened a little. "You were tense because of me?"
He chucked and shook his head in disbelief. "Yes, Annie. I had no idea how you were going to get home, when you were going to get home, and how'd you feel about me once you got home. I was afraid you'd hate me forever."
Annie's expression softened and she grabbed one of his hands. "I could never hate you, Auggie. Certainly not forever."
He squeezed her hand and interlaced their fingers. "Come on. Are you ready to go home?"
Annie nodded and then verbalized her answer. They grabbed their stuff and headed out the door. Once they hit the fresh evening air Annie paused and Auggie stopped beside her.
"Auggie?"
"Yeah?"
"I still trust you. I always will."
He couldn't help it. He reached up and placed his hands on her cheeks. With one swift motion, hoping his guessing skills were up to par, he swooped in and pressed his lips to hers. He heard Annie grunt in surprise, but after a second or two she was kissing him back.
He pulled away when he felt himself getting too lost in her kiss, and pressed his forehead to hers. They were both breathing heavily and Auggie felt his lips pull into a smile.
"You have no idea how much that means to me."