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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"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.

"I sincerely hope there isn't enough alcohol in the world to make you spend that much money ever on a whim," she said as they approached the front of the security line. She set the dress down and then the rest of her luggage to go through, before sliding out of her shoes.

Settling for a pat down, she saw the agent eye her hand and she gave Clay a look. She couldn't ever wear them, of that she was sure. They had to figure something out because there was just no way to stay married, was there? Not stay married and continue with the Agency.

"I don't think there is," he said before stepping through the body scanner then collecting their things at the end of the x-ray machine. "I was looking at those rings for about a month and a half before we broke up."

He shouldered his and Annie's bags before handing her the dress, "It wasn't exactly a spur of the moment purchase, I guess."

"Wait, what?" Annie gathered the dress in her arms and followed him to the terminal, her stride finally matching his.

It had taken her a second to process what he'd said and when she did, it dawned on her that he'd just admitted to looking at engagement rings before they'd broken up. Which meant that-- "You were planning on asking me to marry you?"

"I was, yeah."

He kept walking toward the gate after his admission. They had a lot to talk about, from what was said on the night they broke up, to that state dinner, to how they were going to keep the fact that they eloped in Vegas under wraps.

Annie stopped talking after that admission, not sure what exactly she could say except to start a yelling match. And she was damn close. He'd wanted to marry her and then he'd broken up with her?

Now she was wearing almost forty grand on her hand, he had a wedding ring on, she was carrying a wedding dress and he hadn't filed their annulment papers. He was damn lucky she was a covert operative.

It was now, at an airport gate twenty five hundred miles away, or never. Not the best environment to have this discussion but it had to happen.

"I was terrified. Twenty years of a career with the State Department, and you learn to trust no one but yourself. Now I was involved with you, and I trusted you and was willing to keep trusting you, unconditionally? Terrifying."

It wasn't a good explanation for why he did what he did but it was there, "I pushed you away, and I'm sorry."

It wasn't enough, not nearly enough. It couldn't be enough. Not now, not after everything that had happened. She just stared at him.

"We can't do this here." Of course, there was nowhere else. Her voice was a hoarse whisper when she continued, "Why didn't you file the paperwork, Clay?"

"It's not the best place." He'd agree with her there. Clay would much rather be doing this somewhere private. When Annie asked about the paperwork he was honest, "I couldn't get over the feeling that I was happy marrying you. I didn't want to lose that."

No matter how it happened or what their issues were, he could almost swear that he was beyond happy to be the one that married Annie.

Edited 2012-07-10 05:13 (UTC)

"Yeah. Me, too." She could be honest, as well.

Annie's frustration showed when she started to pace in their little corner of the airport. Dropping the dress down on a chair, she sighed and pushed a hand through her hair. "What are we going to do about this? I mean, we can't go back and say we eloped in Vegas, can we?"

Could they?

"We could, but then we'd probably have a barrage of psych evals and drug tests."

He sighed and started thinking, "Or we could just decide to give it another shot. Everyone else would assume it just took a natural course." Then of course they'd be lying about what number anniversary they'd have for the rest of their lives.

Admitting it might just be better.

"Not if we didn't tell them we were drunk," she said, sliding him a look. "If we tell them we did it sober, then there'll be no need for testing or psych evals."

She shook her head and turned to look out the window at the planes. This was a gigantic mess. "Maybe we should get the annulment. Would save you a lot of trouble and grief for marrying a junior agent."

Her eyes widened and she looked back at him. "And anything you're going to hear from your mother."

"My Mother."

Now his panic set in. Everything about marrying a junior agent didn't matter. How The Agency was going to handle it meant nothing. What his mother thought was the first thing on his mind.

"We're going to have to get married again. It's going to have to be an event."

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

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