freshoffthefarm | [MEME] -- #5, the AU from Hell

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[MEME] -- #5, the AU from Hell

[From here, as requested by

fakes]
--

It was an op in Vegas, which was so weird since most of her domestic ops stayed in the DC Metro area, and Annie had done her job well. The extra babysitting had been extra annoying (when wasn't it?), but he'd come along to visit an old friend... or so he'd said.

She hadn't seen hide or hair of him during her mission, but when she went to have a drink in the bar at their hotel late the night before they were supposed to leave, she found him sitting in a dark corner. When didn't he sit in dark corners, really, but she rolled her eyes and put a smile on her face to join him.

Their breakup and subsequent dealings had been difficult, and after that State Dinner, she'd gone out of her way to keep her distance from him as much as possible. That didn't mean they couldn't enjoy a drink or two (or seven) while in Vegas.

Unfortunately--

When Annie woke to the pounding in her head, she almost couldn't open her eyes. When she finally managed, she ignored the immense nausea she felt and peered at the walls in the hotel room she was in. She hadn't been given this nice of a room, not on the Agency's dime, no. This was something else. Turning, she caught sight of a man's head and her eyes widened, causing the pounding to pick up and she clenched her eyes shut again with a groan.

Clapping both hands, right over left, on her head, she felt something heavy and lifted them again almost immediately. Seeing the wedding ring set on her left hand, she gasped.

"Oh, my God."

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"You don't have to apologize for anything," he was about to end his thought when she reached back into the closet to get the dress, "except for your t-shirt." He was trying to keep the humor in the whole situation.

When he saw the dress, his jaw almost hit the floor, "That dress is beautiful...and I hate that I don't remember you in it."

He silently hoped there would be a photo somewhere.

"I'm hoping it was a gift from the chapel that's responsible," she told him wryly as she looked at him. "Don't worry, I'll change before we get on the plane."

When he admired the dress, she couldn't resist smiling at it and hoping there was a photo somewhere, too. To be honest, if she were alone, she probably would have put it on, just to see how she looked in it. She smoothed her hand over the fabric and then turned back to the closet to look for a garment bag. "If I knew where it came from, I'd try to take it back. I'm sure it was expensive, too."

She didn't want to admit she'd seen the casino receipt.

"It probably was, considering the rings." Clay took one last look at the dress, "I don't know. If that dress came out of it, there are worse things."

He packed with little effort, and put his Harvard ring on his other hand. Since they were married, under whatever set of circumstances they became married, he'd still wear the wedding ring.

Calling down to the front desk, Annie gave her name for starters and was rewarded with, "Mrs. Webb! Good morning."

Annie cut off the overly cheerful woman before she got too far. "No, Walker. I'm calling to find out if I've checked out--"

The woman returned the favor and cut her off as well. "You checked out when you returned early this morning, Mrs. Webb. Everything's been taken care of. Will there be anything else?"

Annie took a breath, thought better of it and shook her head even though the woman couldn't see it. "No. Thank you."

Hanging up, she turned to Webb. "I, uh, checked out when we got back early this morning. They're very happy for us, apparently."

The rest of her packing took two minutes and she went to the mini-bar for a water bottle. It was the first thing she'd done that she had absolutely no guilt about. Downing half the bottle in one drink, she looked at him. "We should hurry."

He could hear the exuberance of the person at the front desk. From the sound of it, he and Annie were probably very happy after their nuptials and it's not like Annie couldn't be noticed in that dress. More things he kept to himself.

Clay checked his watch after zipping his suitcase, "You're right."

Annie's mind was where Clay's was and she wondered what he was thinking. If he was as torn on their wedding as she was. She couldn't help but remember just how he'd felt about their future just a few months previous and she didn't want to discuss it in depth now.

Reaching for the dress in it's bag, her purse and her suitcase, she took a deep breath. "I'm ready if you are."

"I'm all set." However the question, 'Do you really want to do this?' was on the tip of his tongue. What he'd said a few months ago was also in the forefront of his mind, but so was the fact that he'd been looking at that wedding ring set six weeks prior to their fall out. Apparently winning three hands of cards made him bold.

Clay led the way to the door of the hotel room, they just needed to get to the courthouse and the airport in the next three hours. It shouldn't be that hard, right?

In the elevator, Annie stood by herself, her head down as she contemplated the best way to ask the questions she had. For the time being, she thought it best if she didn't say anything at all.

At the lobby, she said, "If we take a cab, it shouldn't be that long, right? The courthouse should just be a few papers to fill out and then we can get to the airport. It's not far and that's still an hour, right?"

And an annulment would keep his fortune intact.

Clay said nothing on the trip down from the room to the lobby and kept his eyes fixed on the doors. He felt anything he said would cause this to become much more complicated than it needed to be. They weren't the first or the last couple looking for an annulment withing 24 hours. Annie might be the first who happened to be wearing thirty-eight thousand dollars worth of diamonds on her finger though.

When she mentioned the cab it snapped him out of his silence but he didn't sound too thrilled with his answer, "We should have everything taken care of, buy that first class upgrade, and still have plenty of time to make it to the plane."

The fact that he wasn't happy didn't go unnoticed and her miserable went up another notch.

"I know you're not happy, but can you fake it since these people obviously thought we were six hours ago?" She put her best smile on her face, unaware it was the one he loved so much just before turning to face the lady at the front desk. Sliding her room key across the counter, she said, "We're checking out. Thank you so much."

The lady checked a few things, comped the water Annie drank and wished them well.

And there was that smile, his favorite Annie-Smile. He was almost 100% positive that Annie thought he wasn't happy because they were married, which wasn't entirely the case.

Clay did his best to fake his happiness that this was the last time they'd be called Mr. & Mrs. Webb.

The doorman hailed a cab for them, Clay was the one who told him their destination was the courthouse.

Sitting quietly with her purse in her lap, she enjoyed the air conditioning in the cab on the ride to the courthouse. Idly, she played with the ring on her finger with her right hand, and finally she turned to Clay.

"I saw the casino receipt. I think we might be able to find a pawn shop before we leave, too," she said quietly so the cab driver couldn't hear her. Even saying it made her feel a little sick to her stomach.

"I'd rather you keep them than do that," he answered just as quietly. "I'm not looking to get anything I spent back."

Drunk or not those were the rings he thought Annie should have, even if it's for just a few days.

Annie's head popped up when he said that and she looked at him with wide eyes. "What about when this is all over. Surely, you'll want them back...?"

Her tone ticked up at the end questioningly since she thought maybe he'd give them to someone else, someone he'd marry eventually. As soon as she thought it, she thought that she supposed that maybe it was a little tacky to recycle wedding rings, but thirty-eight thousand dollars? He couldn't want to just throw that away.

"Fifteen-eighty," the cab driver said as he pulled up to the curb, and Annie reached into her purse for a twenty.

Clay stuck by his original decision, "I'd rather you keep them. If you need to sell them you can do that. Just sell them, don't pawn them."

She'd get more money that way. The way he looked at it, he bought them for Annie, they were hers, thirty-eight thousand dollars or not.

He did, however, let her pay for the cab and told the driver to wait, "I'll get the one to the airport."

All the more determined to make sure that nothing happened to the rings he'd bought for her, Annie fisted her hand tightly and nodded. "I'll remember that."

There was no way she was ever going to sell them. She made the decision right then that it wouldn't have mattered if the world was ending and she was destitute on the street. The last thing she'd own would be the rings currently on her left hand.

Inside, they spoke quietly to the clerk, who handed them a packet of papers. Annie scanned them quickly and pulled a pen out of her purse. "I'll fill out my part, then you can do your part? It's a joint filing, so no one has to actually declare fault."

"Alright."

Clay still wasn't particularly happy that this was going on, but again, this was the best thing to do. All he needed to do was keep telling himself that.

As he sat watching Annie fill out her forms, he couldn't help but wonder if she was doing the same thing he was, convincing herself that this was the best thing to do. They both knew they still loved each other, they'd said as much.

It's not a divorce. It's not a divorce. It just never happened. It never happened, that's all.

Except it had happened. It'd happened and she couldn't remember it and she wanted to. She was desperately afraid that all she was going to take away from this was a beautiful dress and beautiful rings and an even bigger broken heart.

Sliding the papers over to Clay, she cleared her throat and set the pen down. "Easy peasy."

He just nodded, and his first thought was, nothing like this was easy. Neither one of them, drunk or not, would just get married. This wasn't a joke. About half way through the form, he just stopped for a second and looked over at Annie. He was doing this because being married to him could be detrimental to her career. That was his story and he was sticking to it.

The nagging feeling that he liked calling her Mrs. Webb the night before? He was just going to ignore that and sign the document.

She'd been staring off into the distance when he looked at her and she quickly looked back at him to flash him a quick smile. It probably came off as encouraging enough to sign the papers.

Once he was done, she gathered her purse and stood again. The less she thought about what they were doing, the better off she'd be. The less she thought about being Mrs. Webb, the better she was. The less she thought about being Clay's wife, the better life was.

Yes.

"Ready?"

"Yeah." There was a note of sadness in his voice. There had to be a reason he bought her those rings, that dress, and signed that marriage licence and he didn't think it was alcohol. He had to think it was a good idea.

Regardless, he stood, forms in hand and stood in line to hand them back in. The trash can near the counter was just taunting them.

"I'm gonna go wait in the cab," she said. She just couldn't wait in line to see someone bring down a stamp on her marriage. It seemed so counter to what she'd wanted for a year and a half. How drunk could she have been, really? She'd tossed back vodka with the Belorussians like it was nothing and then run through nine miles of forest to escape recapture at one point. This couldn't have been anything like that. Obviously, she'd wanted to be married to Clay.

This was ridiculous.

Without waiting for an answer, she turned and exited the building. Standing in the sunshine, she resisted the urge to give in to tears. Instead, she got into the cab and sighed.

Clay counted to thirty, turned on his heel and followed Annie out, annulment forms in hand. This was insane. Neither of them could have been that drunk. It was almost an impossibility.

He got into the back seat next to Annie forms on his lap and told the cabbie to take them to McCarren International Airport. He just hoped they could hold off on all of the questions until they were waiting for the plane and could sit and talk.

Because she hadn't looked at him when he got into the cab, she didn't notice right away that the forms were still on his lap. Several minutes passed before she did look, first at his face, then down. Her eyes got wide again, then she blinked several times, then turned to look out the window again.

She wasn't quite sure how to describe the feeling in her stomach, but it might have been hope. Or fear. She wasn't sure which.

When the cab arrived at the airport, she waited while Clay paid, then stepped out of the car. Pulling her suitcase from the trunk without waiting for the cabbie, she then lifted her dress, too. Security was going to be interesting.

Clay tucked the paperwork into his carry-on. "I wouldn't have bought those rings if I didn't expect you to wear them. I didn't have enough alcohol to buy those on a whim."

Where would they go from here? They had six hours to come up with a plan. He made sure to get Annie that first class upgrade.

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