Disclaimer: I have a cat and a room full of books. Almost everything else belongs to someone else. Recognisable characters, TV shows, movies, etc belong to their creators (in some cases otherwise known as god), producers, directors, etc.
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People You Know.
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Five People Annie Met in College, But Are on Danielle's Christmas Card List
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1. Grayson Fischer.
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Annie didn't lose her virginity until she was in college.
Living on military bases, where everyone knew who her father was, made for limited opportunities. Especially since he made a point of finding out the age of consent for every state or country he was stationed in. And made sure everyone else on base knew it as well.
So Grayson Fischer had been her first.
Gray had been a physics geek, studying structural engineering on a football scholarship, and had wanted to build better space stations.
He wasn't a virgin, but hadn't had much experience, and it had happened as Danielle had told her it probably would.
They'd both been a bit tipsy and had tried to be quiet so not to wake Gray's 'passed out drunk' roommate and it was over before Annie had gotten anywhere close to an orgasm. But Grey's apologetic embarrassment had helped to take the edge off of her frustration.
Afterwards... strangely... it hadn't been weird at all.
They hadn't shared any classes, lived in the same building, or gone to all the same parties, so the decision to hang out had to be a mutual thing.
He'd been the guy Annie called when she wanted to go out late and didn't want to be hit on or walk back to the dorms by herself.
She'd been the girl Gray called when he needed an emergency plus one or to help even out the numbers in a group.
And she was the friend who helped pack all his things into her tiny car to drive across three states after his mother's unexpected death and he'd been the only one left to look after his younger brothers and sister.
She was the one to walk him into a recruitment office and drop her father's name just enough to figure out a plan that meant he could finish his degree and get paid to do it.
After college, Grey had sent Annie's Christmas and birthday cards, letters telling her how his siblings are doing in school and how he's started a poker night so that when his little sister starts dating there'll be a bunch of army guys in the house, ready to scare the poor kid shitless; and invitations to various events, to Danielle to be passed along to her sister.
Danielle had added Gray to her own Christmas card list and sent him letters and Annie's postcards.
He did a tour of Iraq after his youngest brother finished high school. And Danielle's letters and Annie's post cards had been more regular than his siblings' emails. The guys in his had unit appreciated them too, especially when Danielle started adding a few of Annie's photos.
(He'd had to steal back one of the ones of Annie in a bikini from one of the Special Forces guys.)
Gray got sent home missing a foot after an encounter with an IED.
He counts himself lucky.
One of the Special Forces guys lost his sight.
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2. Miko Reynolds.
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Miko Reynolds faked a dog allergy so she could switch study partners and work with Annie.
Annie had been about to do the same to get away from Dan, who barely had a grasp on the English language, let alone any other.
They'd both had an older sister, the beginnings of an expensive shoe collection, and the urge to see how far they could get with what was in their pockets.
(One weekend, Miko had gotten to Laurence, Kansas, while Annie had had to call Danielle for the money for the plane ticket back from Anchorage, Alaska.)
Miko covered for Annie when she was driving Grayson home.
And Annie covered for Miko when she was having the 'I appear quite sober, even when shit-faced drunk' tattoo lasered off her arse.
Miko picked up a math course her third year in, finally deciding she wanted to be a cryptologist (fully aware that she could end up the night manager of McDonald's instead), and had driven everyone a little nuts leaving coded messages everywhere that they hadn't been able to figure out.
After college, Miko got as far as Japan, working at an American bank, dealing with password encryptions and security codes.
And she'd been ready with an open door, a shoulder to lean on, and 'you gain weight just by looking at it' chocolate ice cream, when Annie needed a place to crash after leaving Sri Lanka.
Miko had dragged Annie off to see the apricot blossoms, on picnics, on shopping sprees, to see the cherry blossoms, and to go club-hopping so that Annie could soak up her eighth (or was it ninth?) language.
When Annie left, Miko sent Jai an encoded message.
Mercer gone three weeks, Walker has no information.
Possible recruitment candidate, re: language skills.
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3. Anthony Valetti.
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Tony had met Annie through Gray, who he'd met playing pick-up games of whatever everyone else had been playing between classes.
Annie had seen right through Tony's flirting and had called him an incorrigible romantic.
He'd brought leftovers from his family's restaurant to study sessions, introduced Annie to his Italian-speaking great-grandmother, conned everyone into working at the restaurant for more leftovers during the Christmas and New Year rushes, and tried to set Annie up on blind dates with his cousins.
Annie had taught him how to dance, set him up on blind dates, helped him learn lines during his short-lived 'I'm going to be an actor' phase, and had taken him to the hospital when he'd broken his arm doing something... stupid.
She'd also gone down to the police station to pick him up, after he'd gotten caught doing something... stupider.
After college, Tony spent a year substitute teaching, made sure that Gray was a confident cook, and eventually wandered into a job at the school Chloe and Katia were attending and had promptly made all the other mothers jealous by only flirting with Danielle.
The recipes that Annie sends, written in her neatest, tiniest hand writing on the backs of postcards, get carefully pinned to the corkboard in his kitchen.
When his great-grandmother sees Annie and Auggie having lunch at the restaurant, Tony reminds Danielle that the restaurant is a wonderful space for wedding receptions and that his great-grandmother was never wrong about these things.
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4. Caroline McKenna.
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Caroline had met Annie by bumping into her in the cafeteria and spilling lasagne, a large soda, and a bowl of half-melted ice cream down her front.
Annie, ignoring Caroline's attempts to apologise, had tipped the remainder of the bowl of ice cream on Caroline's head and declared them even.
Annie had instigated black-and-white movie marathons, 3 AM pizza runs, and 'Mini-golf Saturdays'.
Caroline had cajoled (threatened) everyone out of bed to go jogging at 5 AM, started picnic study sessions, and kept a drawer full of chocolate ready for bad break-ups.
She'd gone with Annie to visit Gray during summer vacations and had given his little sister her phone number and email address, just in case she'd needed to talk.
When Caroline got married, Annie hadn't been able to make it, but had sent a blue scarf of the finest silk Caroline had ever seen as a pre-wedding present. And it had been the perfect thing to pin to her hair when the dry cleaners lost the veil.
Caroline only half-listens to Rossabi's rant about the case he's working on until he gets to the part where the blonde call girl snuck into the morgue with a blind man.
It sounds exactly like something Annie would do.
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5. Bobbi Sinclair.
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Bobbi 'Call me Roberta and you will die painfully' Sinclair hadn't seen Annie Walker since college and is surprised to see her come into the emergency department, holding up a man 12 or 15 years older than herself and claiming that he was her husband.
(She'd had always expected that Annie would elope to somewhere with a warm sunny beach, but Danielle would have gloated about it in her Christmas card.)
Bobbi's even more surprised when Annie says her name is Caroline Reynolds. Which means that 1. Annie's seen her, 2. She's in trouble, and 3. Would rather the police weren't involved.
But it's easy enough to put Tony Reynolds paperwork to the bottom of the pile.
And almost too easy to eavesdrop on the call Annie makes to someone named Auggie, telling him about Tony (whose real name is Eyal) being in the same city and that they both got shot at for a reason neither of them are sure about.
Tony's (Eyal's) call goes pretty much the same, except he was saying it in Hebrew.
Bobbi reminds herself to send her grandfather something nice for pushing her to learn more than just what she needed for her Bat Mitzvah.
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One safe house for a couple of days - $250.
Clothes and food for a couple of days - $200.
The look on a friend's face when she realises you're her contact—priceless.
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No lapse of time or distance of place can lessen the friendship of those who are truly persuaded of each other's worth. - Robert Southey
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Thank you to AwesomeQueenoftheLab :), for being a wonderful beta