Title: So Many Moons

Author: Beth Pryor

Rating: K+

Summary: An expanded take on the scene between Annie and Auggie as they board the plane to Hong Kong at the end of 4.14. Canon, Annie/Auggie, spoilers for up to this episode. Likely a one-shot. Unless I feel inspired.

Disclaimer: Covert Affairs and its characters belong to the USA Network.

A/N: I've been woefully behind in catching up on this season and still haven't seen the end yet, so I also haven't been reading your work. I hope this hasn't been done a million times, or if it has, that this is a little bit of a different take.

The title is taken from "My My Love" by Joshua Radin, which served as one of my inspirations along with "Morning Song" by The Avett Brothers.

So Many Moons

Auggie is standing in the cabin as Annie boards the plane. "Hi." He's been waiting.

She moves past him. "Hi." There should be more to say, but brief and impersonal seems easier. Only, they aren't brief and impersonal, not even from day one. It's weird, and they both know it.

"Joan thought you could use a Tech out there," he tries. He feels the need to explain his presence on her mission.

She knows what he's doing, but he really doesn't have to. It's their mission – has been all along. "She told me," she says, thankful that Joan has done just that. She isn't sure how she might have reacted if she hadn't been expecting him.

"When she told you, you, um…" His voice sounds so unsure again, like the night before. She almost forgets that he's been on his own for the past few months. He doesn't know how hard she's been working to get back to him. Does he?

She tries to reassure him, although her words sounds a little tinny, almost constricted when they leave her mouth. "I know you've always got my back." She hopes they only sound that way to her because she knows her own doubts. She wants him to believe in her, believe in them. If there ever can be a "them" again.

"I do." There is more conviction in his voice, in his face, than anything since she told him about Helen. There's the slightest hint of a smile, too. She allows herself just a whisper of the good kind of hope.

But there is Helen. Actually, there isn't anymore, but they still can't seem to get away from Auggie's dead, then not dead, now truly dead wife. She reaches into her pocket "I, uh, took this the other night." She takes his hand and places the necklace in it. "I'm not entirely sure why." What is it with me and the jewelry he buys for other women, she thinks as their hands touch.

The chain slips through his fingers like liquid silver through a sieve. He pauses, like he doesn't know what to say again. "Thank you." He sits. "I was scared I'd lost you."

She's not sure that's it at all, but she goes along with him for now. "You know when I was scared?" she asks him. Because she still is scared. But even more, she is resolved to end this. She assumes he understands, and that's why he's here. In case she goes down in a blaze of glory. Or worse.

His brow furrows slightly. "When?"

"When I knocked on your door and you asked who it was. And I didn't know the answer."

He wants to tell her that she's the same person she was before Germany and that things will go back to normal as soon as they get back home, but he doesn't. He can't say anything because he can't quite convince himself that it might be true. He doesn't see how things can possibly be the same when they're both so different now, when everything is so different now. But he doesn't have to say anything.

Calder joins them, and the moment is lost. "We all good?" He asks, and the other two realize this question is rhetorical. There is no need to answer, but no. They are not.