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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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."

His reaction made her stomach drop and what he said caused her mouth to drop open.

"What? No." She shook her head. "We can't do that. Your mother'll have to understand that we... we can't. Right?" She'd understand.

"Between my mother and your sister, we aren't going to get out of this without at least a reception." Annie had to know that, right?

This was all more complicated than he thought, maybe filing the annulment would have been easier.

"Oh, please. Danielle'll be so excited for us, she won't know what to do with herself. She was so disappointed when things didn't work between us and after she got over the wanting to kick your ass," Annie shrugged and shook her head. "A reception is one thing, but an entire ceremony? You're mother is going to die when she sees THIS!"

Annie held up her hand. "I can't imagine what's going to happen when she realizes there was no pre-nup. We could get away with telling the State Department about how sober we were, but your mother? No."

"I don't know if she would mind the lack of a pre-nup. Most of the family money is in a trust, independent of my money."

Clay honestly didn't think Annie was going to give him too many issues over his money if they break up, but just in case, "If she's concerned we can always draw up a post-nup."

His money was the least of his concerns at the moment.

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

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