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."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Clay's first stop that morning was personnel to pick up the requisite forms for one employee marrying another, then headed up to his office ready to start his day. Everything was going as expected until his desk phone rang.

He looked at the name on the caller ID, and took a deep breath. Joan Campbell. This was it.

"Good morning, Joan," he tried to be as cheerful as possible.
"Good morning, Clayton." She knew, it was in her voice and Joan didn't let him get a word in edgewise, "Annie came to see me this morning."
"Did she?" Clay decided to play stupid.
"You finally did it, didn't you? You poached my agent." Clay could hear the slightest tinge of humor in her voice.
"That's a way to put it, yes." He smiled despite himself.
"Congratulations."
"Thank you."

Short sweet and to the point. Much different than what he expected. They'd have to have at least a small reception for those that had been a party to their whole relationship. It was the right thing to do.

At 11, Clay made his way down to the Starbucks in the food court, and waited for Annie.

Annie approached at 11:03, having finished up a few extra things and saw Clay immediately. For nine months, the two of them hadn't appeared in the cafeteria at the same time and now they were not only doing just that but being friendly at the same time.

People were already looking, namely their barista.

"Hi," she said as she came up in front of him.

"Hi," he said getting in line with Annie, "Joan took that surprisingly well."

He figured he'd get that out of the way early.

"Did she? Because she was a little stern with me in the beginning. I got a congratulations, though."

She looked back at him and held out her hand. "Should I?"

"She accused me of poaching you, but I think she's happy." He smiled at Annie then the Barista before ordering their coffee, "We should really have a small party for everyone."

When he noticed what she meant by holding out her hand he smiled again, "If you're ready for all the questions, I'd love you too."

"She told me that I'd married my supervisor, but I reminded her that we weren't exactly in the same chain of command. I might have also reminded her that she and Arthur were and that was kind of the end of the conversation."

Annie tipped the Barista well and then took her coffee to a table. With her hand under the table, she slid on her rings and then, as casually as possible, used her left hand to drink her coffee. "I don't think anyone will notice. Do you?"

Of course they would. People were still staring.

Clay smiled, "In her defense, she did marry him before he was her direct superior. That happened later, not too much later but later."

"Because they're so unassuming." He bought them to be noticed. There was so much about their lives that they had to keep quiet, something a little flashy wasn't inappropriate in Webb's view.

Clay realized his was much less likely to be noticed unless he was in the company of Annie and her rings.

"Oh, yes. Completely inconspicuous," Annie said dryly. She looked down at his hand and then up at him. "You wore yours. Weren't you afraid someone was going to ask?"

She was a little worried that maybe he was upset with her for not wearing them to begin with.

"If they did, they did." There was no being upset with her or anything else in his voice. "And mine is harder to notice."

Clay took a sip of his coffee, "Women usually get the more difficult questions when someone asks about the wedding. People usually want to know about the dress, the venue, all that stuff. They assume men don't pay attention or care."

"Exactly." Annie wasn't looking forward to answering the questions. "I'll just tell them it was a private ceremony and we're having a reception for our closest friends?"

It was a nice way to make sure that some people would feel left out.

"You'll get to see the dress again, too."

"That's fine." And since they were both still covert employees it also made sense.

"I can't wait to see that dress again."

"You should have said something," Annie told with a quick smile. "I'd have packed it in my overnight bag and worn it for you tonight."

She was flirting in the most obvious manner she could think of and then she caught a glimpse of his watch. "Oh! I have to get back upstairs."

"It's alright. I can wait." Another sip of his coffee. Clay really did want to sit and talk with Annie he did not have an ulterior motive of handcuffs or honey.

That didn't stop him from giving her the smile of his that she liked so much. "I'll see you tonight."

Standing, Annie placed the hand with all her rings on his shoulder as she passed him by and then gave him a tender kiss on his cheek.

"See you tonight." Then, without looking at anyone in particular, she headed for the elevator.

He wasn't wrong. The first comment came in the elevator, from a woman who worked in the DPD with Annie. When she did a double-take, Annie knew the question wasn't long in coming. As the elevator dinged, the woman asked, "Is that an engagement ring?"

Annie took in her shocked look and awed tone and gave her a sweet smile. "Nope. It's a wedding ring."

Then she headed for her desk.

When Webb returned to his office, Trish let him know that Arthur was waiting for him. Clay just nodded, he didn't need the grief Joan didn't give him coming from her husband.

Clay entered and Arthur stood from the chair he was sitting in and shut the door. That usually meant they were discussing something for their ears only. Instead, Arthur poured them both some of his bottle of black label.

"Congratulations."

The conversation wandered from there for the next twenty minutes or so and they both found themselves asking when they became fascinated with younger blonde women who were better at their jobs than either one of their husbands could ever be.

Sometimes he could be modest.

Quiet chaos reigned for the next fifteen minutes in the DPD. Annie maintained a serene look as she typed, ignoring the steady looks she was getting and the people who passed by her desk as nonchalantly as possible. She didn't hide a thing, but when Joan came out to look over her underlings and saw what was going on, Annie felt a moment's panic.

Joan spoke loudly. "Yes, Agent Walker and Director Webb are married. Any further discussion is to be saved for lunch periods. Congratulations, our new Agent Webb."

Turning, she went back into her office and the chatter began anew, this time without any need to be kept quiet. Annie grinned at her computer screen and went back to work.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful for Webb on the seventh floor though it did go by on the slow side. Clay attributed most of that to looking forward to spending the evening with Annie.

At five to six, he headed down to the DPD to pick up his wife. He couldn't take another minute in the office anymore and doubted she could either.

His wife had spent the rest of the afternoon fielding congratulations from various co-workers, and when she realized that someone was going to go tell Auggie, she'd pushed back from her chair and gone to talk to him.

"I hear congratulations are in order, Walker," he said, leaning back in his chair.

Annie winced. "I was going to tell you..."

"No offense taken," he told her with a grin. "So, how is married life treating you?"

She went on to tell him what she knew of her arrangement with Webb, and how things were going to go as far as she knew them before slinking back to her desk. When five o'clock rolled around, she was still firmly entranced in her work when Clay's shadow fell across her desk.

Looking up, she blinked. "Hey."

"Hey," Clay said with a smile, "Busy?"

If she was, he'd go back upstairs and try to concentrate on something work related without much success. If not he'd be perfectly happy to get out of the building and get to his condo faster.

"Just finishing up," she said, turning back toward the computer and typing a couple words.

As she did so, she kept talking. "You know, every time you came down here when we were dating, people would stare." Glancing up at him as she logged out, she grinned. "What do you think is going to happen if you come in here now?"

Yes, the office was emptying, but people were still looking.

"Probably a lot of the same. I promise not to make a scene." He spoke quietly, just for Annie to hear.

Clay stood by Annie's desk with a self satisfied smile on his face.

"Do you want me to come back later?"

"You make a scene just walking into a room. Any room," she told him, grinning at her computer screen as she finished up. She could hear the self satisfaction in him, she didn't even have to look.

With a few last keystrokes, the computer started to shut down and she turned in her chair to look at him. How she'd gone nine months without looking at that in the afternoons, she didn't know, but it made her smile. "I'm ready now."

"Alright," he said as he stood from where he was leaning against her desk, "I can give you a ride to your car, if you'd like."

"I'm perfectly capable of walking to my car. In the lowly agent lot," she told him as she gathered her things from the lower drawer in her desk before standing.

She took his hand, though, as they walked to the elevator, carefully Not Looking at anyone else. Once inside, she looked up at him. "Admit it. You did that on purpose."

"You still know me really well."

He held her hand all the way through the lobby and out of the door. His spot was three or four rows back from the doorway. Much closer than Annie's, but he'd figure he'd offer anyway, "Are you sure you don't want that ride?"

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