freshoffthefarm | [AU] ... from the 'meet at a different time' meme

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[AU] ... from the 'meet at a different time' meme

After two years at the Agency, Annie's job hadn't gotten any better (or worse). Sure, it had it's downsides - namely, being shot at (or being shot), but the biggest one had to be the Agency parking lot.

She could never, ever find a parking spot.

Of course, the morning that she'd gotten up early and proceeded to spill coffee on her first outfit, had to jump start her car and then fill a tire with air? She managed to get behind the chatty son-of-a-bitch in the compensation car at the guard shack. She sat there, plotting the ways to key his car without actually getting caught and then he'd moved on.

Smiling at the guys in the shack, she showed her ID, waited until they'd looked under her cars with mirrors, and then picked up the pace on the way to the agent parking lot.

It just wasn't her morning.

The short cut she took through the visitor lot took her right past the spots in front for all the diplomats and the Agency hotshots. She didn't see Mr. Compensation trying to adjust his parking until she'd plowed into his rear bumper.

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"I know. I was being honest."

He was going to leave staying or not entirely up to Annie. He'd made the offer.

She looked at him for a long moment and then nodded. "I'll stay."

Picking at what was left of her dinner, she didn't look at him when she said, "How honest?" She meant in terms of his mother.

"One hundred percent."

Clay put his plate back on the coffee table, the remainder of his dinner forgotten.

After he'd put his plate down, she felt kind of bad that she'd made something obviously not up to his usual standards and gave him an apologetic look.

"Sorry about that," she murmured, setting her plate down next to his again. "I'd make a horrible housewife."

"Don't apologize. I liked it."

He turned on the couch to face her a little more, "Just decided to pay more attention to you."

"Nine days was a long time." Not nearly as long as six months, but then those six months hadn't been filled with worry about him as well as herself. "Wasn't too forward coming straight here instead of just calling?"

"No, not at all."

"Okay," she said with a quick nod of her head. "I just didn't want you to answer the door with a gun or something."

She was obviously kidding.

"The gun is on the bookshelf." He said it very matter of fact, "If you didn't call I might have."

"Oh." She turned her head super-not-casually to look at the bookshelf and then nodded slowly. "I'll remember that. Always call. Got it."

"I didn't mean to scare you."

He paused thinking the best way to phrase this, "I've been a Company Man so long I don't know who and who does not know who I am. I don't want to chance anything I don't have to."

"Not scared, just cautious and prepared, which I'm getting is a good thing around you. And as long as you're safe, I feel better about it."

Her smile was back and she slid her hand into his before getting comfortable against his shoulder. "How do you spend your evenings when you're not out?"

"I usually read, maybe have a glass of wine. Nothing too exciting."

Now that Annie was here though, he figured it would be a much more exciting evening than what he was accustomed to.

"Reading and wine." She gazed at him as she thought about his nighttime activities and then nodded. "It suits you. Jazz plays on the radio, I'm sure, while you fit the stereotype of James Bond."

She settled even further against him, her mental image likely far more entertaining than anything that was probably true.

Clay just smiled, "No, I like classical more than Jazz." He wondered if she'd be shocked to find the amount of rock music in his collection.

"I do have that Aston Martin and drink the occasional martini though."

Annie felt a swell of emotion at his admission and was quiet for a long moment before she lifted her head to look at him. Her eyes lingered on his before she leaned over to kiss him softly.

"There's something I want to say," something she was unaware she'd already said, "but I don't want to scare you or freak you out or... if it's too soon..."

She'd probably already given herself away.

"Annie, I don't think anything you'd say would scare me off."

She did say she loved him already. What else could there possibly be?

It was the being aware that she'd said it part that was eluding her.

Propping her elbow on the back of the couch, she couldn't help the blush that filled her cheeks when she spoke again. She did manage to keep herself from looking at her lap, though her free hand played with a loose string on the hem of her shirt.

"I'm falling in love with you."

"I know, you said that this morning before I went to work." Clay smiled though before holding Annie's hand that was playing with the loose string, "I love you too."

He'd always been a little quick to throw that phrase around in relationships, though unlike Mac he was sure Annie meant it.

"I did?" The way he responded as if he firmly expected it and it was kind of a given and then said that he loved her too... it took a huge weight off her shoulders and she grinned at him, squeezing his hand. "Oh."

Suddenly, she felt a little giddy and leaned over to kiss him, dropping his hand so she could cup his face with both of hers.

Clay returned her kiss, wondering if this meant she was going to stay another night.

"You don't remember?"

"I was really exhausted when I got in, I must have slept right through you leaving," she admitted.

The fact that her subconscious has confessed her love before she'd meant to had to have meant something, right? "I guess even my not-quite=awake self knew it was time to tell you how I felt."

"I guess so and I didn't mind you sleeping in, it looked like you needed it."

He wondered how much she slept during the mission, and hoped that too little sleep while working in the field wasn't normal for her.

"It was a long mission," she confessed as she settled against him again, her hand sliding into his. And though she'd been contemplating leaving, she found herself not wanting to now.

For one, it was probably considered bad form to leave after confessing your love for someone. For another, now that she had, she simply didn't want to go.

She just didn't know how he felt about her staying another night.

Clay did say he was in no rush to throw her out. As long as she was comfortable staying another night, he was comfortable having her stay another night.

"Sometimes they are. Even the short ones feel long a lot of the time."

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