Title: The Farm

Authors: Takada Saiko and Gabrielle Day

Disclaimer: Obviously, we own nothing

Setting: Here's where things get tricky. Because we're just a wee bit crazy, we decided to stick this multi-chapter, action-filled fic into a tiny bit of space in the middle of episode 9. You may have to stretch your imagination a bit, but Annie has just returned from her vacation, Auggie has already spoken to Liza, but has not gotten the information from her in return. Confused? Welcome to our world =D

A/N: Okay, Boundaries has been on a temp slow down just b/c I've been so busy. I'm volunteering in a big event tomorrow (sadly! will have to catch the epic season finale on Wed or Thurs via Hulu) and have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. This story is almost finished, but it'll take some editing up, so I should be able to post up chapters every other day or so, maybe every day if I'm really good. Hopefully by Wed or Thurs I'll be able to work some on Boundaries, but we'll see. Also, I've been working on some of my own stuff, so I'm going to do a little bit of self-promotion here if you don't mind: I have a short story involving my characters from my original novel The Liberty Pole up on DeviantArt, if you'd like to follow the homepage link I would love to hear what the people that read my fanfiction say about my original work. It's a short, 4 page one-shot that you don't have to have read the novel for, so please, if you enjoy my fanfiction, go check out my original stuff!

Also, Gabrielle Day (the co-author to this story) keeps telling me that she's working on a nice little Joan/Arthur piece that I have yet to actually see, but she's a wonderful author so keep a lookout for that sometime after the season finale!

I think that's it. Enjoy!

He really couldn't put the blame on anyone else but himself. He had wanted to go back into the field. He had promised Joan that, if she lent him and an agent or two over to the Farm as requested, he would find the problem in their tech department. He was, after all, the best at his job. They couldn't have seen it coming, even in hindsight he was sure of that.

Now he, Annie, and Jai were caught in the old tech lab with flames on every side of them. He could hear Annie calling over the raging noise. He tried to inch towards where her voice was coming from and as part of the framework of the building came falling in around him, Auggie Anderson thought, very briefly, that he should have just stayed away from this mission.

The Farm

"Joan, the situation is perfect! It's perfect, I'm perfect, the whole thing is..." Auggie insisted, fingers digging into Joan's upper arm as they walked briskly through the corridors.

"Let me guess, perfect? Auggie we've discussed this before. Field work is field work, whether it's in Finland or on the Farm. I would ask how you found out about this, but I'm not sure I want to know." she said firmly.

Auggie stopped their walk. "Wait, stop. We have ops to Finland? The girls there are so very attractive." At Joan's silence he coughed quietly. "Or so I've heard."

Joan swayed slightly as she moved to start walking again, but Auggie did not. She sighed. He wasn't going to give this up, and she knew it.

"You sent me in to DataTech," Auggie reminded her.

Joan snorted a laugh at that one. "First off, it was last resort. Natasha wouldn't have spoken to anyone else but you. Second: we saw how that turned out, didn't we?"

Auggie shot a very earnest look her direction. "I promise not to hop any trains out of country without notifying you fully first."

"Uh-huh," his boss responded with a sigh.

"This isn't the sort of thing you can do off location," Auggie reminded her.

"Who else would take with you?"

"Annie." Auggie said automatically. "She's recent enough to still be familiar with the setting, maybe even have some ins that someone else might not, plus I trust her being my eyes."

Joan arched a slender eyebrow and regarded her tech genius carefully. He was a master of concealing his expressions, but not always. Today he was on his game. "Auggie, just because it's our territory, so to speak, doesn't mean that it couldn't turn into a dangerous situation. If there is in fact someone on the inside leaking information, they may know just enough to make them especially dangerous."

"So I have a set of eyes with me," he answered with a shrug and with a tone that said it all made perfect sense.

Joan sighed heavily. She knew that sending Auggie in was her best option, even if she'd have to send his equipment with him. She thought she'd heard him talk about a laptop that he'd recently bought that was set up with a Braille readout and made a mental note to start it through clearances to be sent along. "Fine," she said at last. "You, Annie, and Jai."

For a brief second, Auggie didn't do such a good job concealing his expression. He lit up like a five year old on Christmas morning, complete with genuine snark-free smile. "Joan, that's..." His brain caught up and she smirked. The excitement dialed down into puzzlement, then confusion. "Wait, what? Jai? You said...you didn't say how many. Just that I couldn't go alone."

Joan patted his arm. "While Annie's busy being your eyes, you're going to need another set on everything else. Get them briefed and report to me." She turned and walked away, still smiling

"Yes ma'am," he managed and scuffled his way towards Annie's desk.

The green light caught her attention first. It always preceded some of her favorite moments of the day: Auggie and his ever present wit. She grinned until she looked up to his face. "What happened? You look like you're dog just died."

The tech officer leaned up against her desk and crossed his arms over his chest. "I think Joan really is pissed over the whole Tash thing."

"Aug, that was weeks ago. If she was going to do something she would have done it when we first got back, right?"

"No... I think she's been saving this one up." He sighed heavily. "You know the Farm bit that's been buzzing around?"

"Not really."

"Maybe just in the tech department... Anyway, I got it."

"That's great!"

"You're my eyes."

"Still not seeing the problem..."

"And Jai's along for the ride."

Annie's mouth curved into a silent "oh" before she smiled and tilted her head. "Well, as long as he's not along to be your sense of touch I think you just might be able to cope."

"Who's touching what?" the man in question asked, standing behind Annie's chair.

Auggie opened his mouth and Annie cut him off. "No one, nothing. No touching. We're going on an op with Auggie."

"I still have my sense of touch, thanks so much," Auggie deadpanned with a disturbed look.

"So, this just got awkward," Jai murmured. "Do I want to know what touching has to do with an op? And Joan's letting you out of the office already?"

"Har har," Auggie grumbled. "Yes, she's letting me out of the office. We're going down to York County."

"The Farm? What for?" Annie asked as she stood. Auggie motioned for them to follow and the three of them started towards his office.

Annie looped her arm through his as he spoke. "There's been a leak coming out and the folks at Camp Peary are asking for a couple of eyes and ears to come down and take a look."

"And that takes all three of us?" Jai asked.

"Annie is my point person on this. You get to come along and be the guard dog."

Jai smiled. "Rest assured that my bite is much worse than my bark."

"Good boy." Auggie said.

"Oh this'll be fun," Annie grumbled, looking between them. Auggie sat at his desk, his fingers flying over the keyboard and his Braille readout. A moment later he had two copies of a brief written out for them and in their hands. "We'll head out tomorrow morning. Be ready to be gone a week at most."

"You think that we'll have a handle on it by then?" Annie asked.

"I think that if we don't, they'll know we're looking by then and our presence there will be worthless," Auggie answered.

The conversation wound down and after a couple pointed glares from Joan the three of them dispersed to continue working. Annie found herself glancing back to Auggie's office until she felt Jai put a hand on her shoulder. She turned and smiled. "What's up?" she asked.

"How do you feel about lunch?" he asked.

"As a general rule I think it's a healthy part of a balanced day." She said with a grin.

"Well, in order to keep you healthy and balanced, would you like to grab lunch with me now?"

Annie nodded. "Sure, just let me finish an email." After Jai's back was turned, she glanced over at Auggie's office and bit her lip. She couldn't quite remember if Auggie had mentioned lunch earlier that morning or not. It certainly wasn't abnormal for them to grab a quick bite to eat, but he was going to be knee-deep in paperwork for the rest of the afternoon, preparing all of his information for the trip the next day. Finally, she stood with the decision that he probably wouldn't miss her either which way.

"You ready?" Jai asked with his usual smooth smile on his face.

"Yeah." She grabbed her purse, shot one more look at Auggie over her shoulder, and headed out with Jai.

Joan watched them go from the window in her office, face neutral. Arthur sat in one of her office chairs, arms crossed, head titled back towards the ceiling.

"I don't like it." he said for the third time.

Joan resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "It's just to the Farm, Arthur. Auggie will get in there, get the data, and they'll be home again before you know it."

"Annie's already proven to be quite a magnet for trouble, and Auggie certainly doesn't repel it."

"Is it that, or the fact that you don't think Ben Mercer can follow her there? That it's outside of that agenda?" Joan turned away from the window to look at her husband, no, she corrected herself, her boss. He was still looking at the ceiling. "If you think you can turn my entire team into a Ben Mercer show you are mistaken. There are actually more important things that come through this department than one rogue agent, Arthur. And who knows, maybe this information leak is linked with others we've been dealing with. The three of them are going in. I'll report to you when they're settled there."

Arthur gave an overdramatic sigh and stood. "Dinner tonight?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We'll see." Joan watched him leave, eyes following his steps until the door closed behind him. She wanted to trust him, really she did, but there were too many things that he wasn't telling her. She turned her attention back to the bullpen and frowned at the place where Annie and Jai had walked out. She knew that was Arthur's had him written all over it, and she knew that she didn't like it. Annie Walker had too much potential to be tossed around and used at every angle. She would be brilliant if they could just let her.

In his office, Auggie's agile fingers skimmed over data, storing away the vital bits and disregarding the rest. On the backburner, he tried not to let it bother him that he had been blown off by DPD's fair maiden for Jai the Jerk. After all, it was her loss if she passed up his excellent company and superior wit for fake and cheesy. He also tried not to let it bother him that he was beginning to hear some sincerity in the undertones of Jai's overtures.

Auggie figured he wasn't doing such a great job of not letting it bother him.

He placed a call to his friend Kyle who used to run technical operations for the Farm before being transferred into Langley.

"Revner," Kyle answered.

"How's the new desk job treating you?"

"Auggie Anderson," Kyle Revner laughed on the other end of the phone line. "What have I done to warrant a call from DPD tech ops?"

"The worst sort of trouble ever," Auggie answered lightly. "It's been a few years since I've stepped onto the Farm, so I was wondering if all the old faces are still around?"

"Why the sudden curiosity?" When silence met him Revner gave a low chuckle. "All right, all right. Yes, with a couple of exceptions. A couple of new ones around though. I think Cameron Jenkins was in your class, wasn't he? He took my spot when I transferred here."

"How do we feel about Cameron Jenkins?" Auggie asked, picking up his tension reliever and squeezing his fingers around it.

There was a pause from Revner. "We may feel a little bit of a draft." he said finally, carefully. "The weather hasn't ah...been as warm without you at the helm."

"He never was an overly friendly person," Auggie lamented, laying his head back against the back of his chair. He'd spent the following two years after his training at Ford Bragg back on the Farm teaching the newbies the ropes on tech ops. He had known the systems inside and out, hence the reason that Joan had little choice when the request came through. Also hence the request coming to the DPD instead of a different department. It was understood whom she would send. Who she was expected to send. "I guess I'd be expecting too much to hope for a warm reception if I were to pop in then, huh?"

"The term 'pissing match' comes to mind. Beware the smiling shark. Jenkins is nothing if not courteous, but he's freakishly territorial about the Farm being 'his' space. Not like it wasn't set up and served to him on a silver platter or anything." Kyle said. "It's the kind of visit right up there with family reunions and weddings of ex-girlfriends. Why would you want to pop in?"

"Who says I'm popping in?"

Revner chuckled. "Just be careful, Auggie. He's got a lot more power to play with than when you and I knew him. You go back there and you're on his turf, no matter what the pretense."

"It was my turf first." Auggie said with half a smile. "Thanks for the update. I'll catch you later."

"Sure thing. I'll swing by sometime, we can grab a drink."

Auggie signed off the call and drummed his fingers against his desk. He remembered Cameron Jenkins, but not as well as he would have liked. He was clever and ambitious, but greedy which was what made him vulnerable. And dangerous. At best, they could hope that Cameron had alienated everyone and if he were indeed their man, people would talk. At worst, he had one or two very close friends that would make it nigh impossible to get clear information.

Auggie grinned. He liked a challenge.

"So Auggie used to run tech ops at the Farm?" Annie asked as she and Jai sat at a small sandwich shop not far from their offices.

"Practically. He technically worked for Kyle Revner, but Revner let him have the reins most of the time from what I heard," Jai answered as he took a sip of his coffee. "I'm just surprised Joan's sending him in."

"Why? If he ran it, it seems like he'd know what to look for. He'd know what was out of place, right?"

Jai shrugged. "Maybe, but after the stunt he pulled a few weeks ago..."

"If Joan trusts him enough to put him on this case, shouldn't you?" Annie asked, feeling that the statement was perfectly logical as she took a bite out of her sandwich that the waiter had just placed before her

Jai watched her for a moment, as usual finding no sign of insincerity in her voice. "Maybe it isn't about the fact that she does trust him. Maybe this is about him proving that he can be trusted."

Annie lowered her sandwich, for a second her face twisting slightly with annoyance and defensiveness for her friend before she smoothed it away. "To prove that the CIA is still his priority," she murmured, thinking first about the pretty young Russian girl on the run before thinking about white shells laced together with a leather cord.

Jai frowned at the far away look she got. "To prove that the DPD is still his priority." He corrected softly.

Annie let her breath leave her nose in a half snort, half sigh. Finally she straightened her posture and looked Jai square in the face. "It is."

The man across from her shook his head and chuckled. "I wish there'd been a day that I could have been as trusting as you," he murmured softly, honestly.

She grinned and their strange flirtation continued until the meal was done.

By the time they returned Auggie was so tied up with his preparations that he hardly noticed. Annie had to knock on his office door to gain his attention. Auggie looked up from his work, eyes searching momentarily as they often did, as if they were expecting to focus in on something. He tugged his headset off. "We're going in under the pretense that we're setting up a whole new system for them to work with," he offered the last bit of information that had not been set into place. "How was lunch with Jai?"

Annie winced, grateful for a split second that Auggie couldn't see her guilty look. "Good." She said, nodding. "It was good. Have you been to Florentina? They have great sandwiches. If you haven't been, we'll have to go sometime." She realized she was rambling and stopped herself.

Auggie got that strange smile that she could never decipher. "And what if I have been there?"

"Well, you haven't been with me so we'll still have to go." Annie replied.

"As long as the guard dog doesn't come along."

"Oh, stop." Annie laughed.

"Woof, woof." Auggie said.

"Okay, now your bark is worst than your bite,"she laughed, not really thinking of Jai's earlier comment.

Auggie continued to smile, but it unnerved her a little. "You'd be surprised," he warned and turned back to his computer. "You think you might be able to drive tomorrow?"

"Sure, sounds plausible," she answered easily. "You want me to just pick you up at your apartment? And we can meet Jai here."

"Maybe we can just leave him here. Tell Joan we forgot him. Better yet, tell Joan that he didn't show and we had to leave without him." Auggie suggested.

Annie lifted an eyebrow. "Jai's the only person I know that's as crazy about punctuality as you are. I don't think Joan will buy it. Don't worry. We'll get there and you'll be so busy chasing down our guy that you won't even remember Jai's with us."

"Give me five minutes and I could make you forget Jai exists." Auggie muttered under his breath. Joan swept into his office halfway through Auggie's sentence, so the last part was lost on Annie.

She handed a stack of files to Annie. "These are the dossier's of the current crew in tech training there, plus what isn't classified about Cameron Jenkins. Your room and board has been arranged."

Annie bit her bottom lip. "Auggie and Jai are sharing a room?" she murmured, nearly laughing at the sick and twisted sense of humor that the Agency was portraying.

"What do you mean Jenkins has classified information?" Auggie asked, either ignoring or not having noticed Annie's statement. "The people that head up Camp Peary are the ones brining us in. They can't go classifying information and then expecting us to dig in and around everything."

"Camp Peary isn't the one who has had this information classified. This is information not relating to Jenkins' service there." Joan said evenly, but not without warning. "They understand that you're there under the guise of installing their new system, and Annie and Jai are there to assist you. However, it is slightly suspicious that someone known for being so well adjusted should need two assistances, so you also have the backup cover of Annie there to get some of the training she might have missed when we pulled her. Use that if you need to. How well did you know Jenkins, Auggie?"

Auggie leaned back in his chair, pulling at the memories of the man that he could capture. "We weren't friends. We finished up our training around the same time, so we were more competitors."

"I'm sure you'll find a way to get any information that you need out of him," Joan answered earnestly, patting his shoulder. "I want all of you out of here at five o'clock sharp. You'll be leaving bright and early."

"Yes, ma'am." Annie and Auggie said together.

Joan shook her head and slipped back out of the office. Annie also patted his shoulder. "I've got to do some other work before we head out. I'll swing by later."

Auggie nodded. "Sounds good. Bring coffee tomorrow if you want shotgun."

Anne grinned. "As if you wouldn't give me shotgun." she said as she left.

"Shotgun, driver's seat... " Auggie shrugged. "Just as long as we get there."

Annie laughed as she stepped out of his office and left him to the mountains of work that she knew he had to push through on short notice. Auggie tended to hate to leave his post. The only sure fire way to assure that he would was to offer him a field job. Joan had tried to force him into taking vacation before, and after a long and drawn out argument that nearly every other tech agents' feelings were stomped over, Auggie had convinced her that he was not willing to leave his area at the mercy of Barber or anyone else that might reek their version of chaos across it. He would make sure that all of his i's were dotted and t's were crossed, so to speak, so that he would not allow the somewhat sloppier tech op any chance of screwing up something he'd put his heart into.

After crossing everything off his priority list, which took him well past the dinner hour, Auggie found himself at Allen's before heading home for the night. He had the usual slew of adoring female flirters, but his heart wasn't in the pursuit. He sipped his beer carefully, keeping his ears open for any interesting conversations.

There was the usual college chatter that filled the early September night. Rumors of the supposed 'Spook' hangout hung often in the air and Auggie had to smile to himself. It had always been rumored but never proven. The owner was pretty sure that he could point out each CIA agent when they entered, but of course no one would fess up and therefore the bet was never really won.

Auggie sat alone - intentionally, as he hurried every young lady that attempted to fill the vacant seat away with a promise that he really was waiting on someone - until he heard the chair across from him scoot one final time. He set his beer down heavily and sighed. "You're going to make this difficult, aren't you?" asked the unexpected voice of Jai Wilcox.

Auggie took a long deliberate sip of his beer and gazed steadily in what he assumed to be Jai's general direction. This always unnerved people, although it wasn't as difficult as they imagined. With the loss of his sight, Auggie had learned to rely on his other senses as well as the technology at his disposal to tell him about the world and the people in it. Jai's breathing, the tapping of his finger on the table, the faint sensation of his body heat - all gave the agent away. "Make what difficult?" Auggie asked, attempting to sound as innocent as possible.

Even with all the training the Farm had had to offer, it wasn't entirely believable. Jai frowned, shifting in his chair. "Tomorrow."

"Do you have a complaint about the way it's set up?"

"Listen, Auggie, I know you've never been my biggest fan-"

"Or your father's," the slightly older agent assured him. "I always thought he was the picture of evil on earth, and that's me being nice."

Jai let out a half snort, half chuckle. "Listen, Auggie, I'm not-"

"You're not your father. I know." Auggie sipped at his beer again. "Your point?"

"Then this animosity is over Annie."

"Who said anything about Annie?" Damn. That was a bit too defensive

"You seem to be a logical man, Auggie. Most people don't dislike other people for no reason, or behave in an antagonistic fashion without a cause. I get that you don't like my father. If, by your own admission, you logically understand that I am not my father, then your dislike of me must stem from another reason. And that was just a touch defensive." Jai said, sipping from his own drink.

Auggie narrowed his eyes, wondering briefly if that would weird Jai out. A blank stare was normal from a blind guy. If he couldn't get them with the stare, the blind guy glare usually took people down a notch. "Maybe I just don't like your face." Auggie said.

"Do you even remember it?" Jai asked without missing a beat.

Auggie choked on his drink. It was strange, but very few people made direct reference to his blindness other than himself. Word had spread fast enough as to what had happened that he didn't need to relive the nightmare over and over again. Instead he just heard it in the form of whispers and phantoms of whispers around the office upon his return. It was as if the very mention of his injury would insult him. Jai had never been afraid to insult him. Auggie chuckled after a moment. "Touché," he murmured into his drink.

"You still haven't answered my question," Jai asserted.

"I don't recall you asking a question. You made an imperative statement that may or may not be true." Auggie returned.

"Is your animosity towards me in relation to Annie?" Jai asked, emphasizing the lift at the end of his question.

"No."

"Liar."

"Prove it."

"I have a townhouse in the Hamptons." Jai said.

"How nice for you. A gift from Daddy?"

Jai smiled tightly. "No. I don't like owing anything to him. Annie has agreed to weekend with me there after this case is finished."

The twist on Auggie's face, Jai knew, was only a tiny reflection of the emotion that had its flashpoint somewhere near his heart. To his credit, he schooled it in seconds, but it was enough. If Jai wasn't actually beginning to like her, he might have felt bad for telling Auggie. As it was, he didn't.

"Liar." Auggie said evenly.

Jai smiled again. "Prove it."

"I guess our training has paid off then," Auggie said as he sipped his beer. "I have ways of finding out."

"You have a lot of favors to pull, but not even you could get all of my records," Jai said with a haughty grin that reached his voice.

"We'll see about that." Auggie reached into his pocket and pulled his wallet out. After a moment he fished out a couple of folded bills and laid them out on the table. "I'm sure you'll make sure the nice lady gets these, right?" he asked, waving a hand at the money.

"Oh yes. Wouldn't want to tarnish your sterling reputation here at Allen's." Jai said. "Can I offer you a ride home?"

Auggie tilted his head and shook it slightly as he pulled out his laser. "God, no. I'm going to spend enough time with you all too soon. Don't be late tomorrow." Auggie said, and left with a wave. Too late, Jai found himself waving back.

A/N: We are review addicts, and we have to share, so please! Don't forget to review!