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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"And if I wanted that, I would have been married a long time ago." Clay was being just as honest as Annie.

"I don't care that you don't cook, getting shot at all the time bothers me, as far as a coffee addiction goes there are worse things."

Then he smiled, "I want someone who understands all of this. Someone who understands that sometimes, no matter how much I may want to, I can't share everything. I don't want the stereotypical housewife. I want someone who's happy with her life and someone who makes me feel better about my own. I hate to break it to you Annie, but that's you."

His smile continued, "And if they're our kids, they'll be perfect for us."

"Why weren't you married a long time ago? I never understood that, what with you being you. Charming, smart, well-off..."

She sighed and pushed her hands through her hair. "I love you, I've loved you almost from the first moment I met you and I've missed you from the second I walked out of your office. I want this to work and I'm afraid that it's not going to."

Her honesty was reaching all kinds of highs.

"I'm a spy. I lie for a living." It was simple, to the point, and one hundred percent true.

When Annie said she was afraid it wasn't going to work his response came automatically, "What can I do to make you feel better about everything?"

He wasn't sure if there was anything he could do, but he was willing to try anything Annie thought he'd help.

"I'm not sure." Honesty was continuing. "Don't be so quick to dismiss telling me what I can do. What you want from me. What kinds of things make you happiest and what doesn't. I want a marriage, Clay, not a dictatorship... in either direction."

She sighed. "And I do want kids."

"I think I want girls I don't know how I'd handle boys."

It wasn't the first thing he planned on saying but it's what came out first. As far as Annie's other points were concerned, he decided to chip away at them.

"That's fair. What you can and can't do, is up to you, not me."

"I want both," she said with a small smile on her face. "Little boys that can be just like you with their perfect hair and manners and suits that they can then go play in the mud in."

She didn't know it, but the visual had made the smile on her face grow as she'd imagined it. "I think you'd be so protective of any girls we had, threatening their boyfriends and just... being their 'daddy'. You'd be so whipped." Likely by all the women in his life.

When Clay saw that smile, he wondered for what felt like the hundredth time since he'd broken up with her nine months ago, how he could have let her go. "What if they don't like perfect hair and suits? What if they like...football?"

Endless kid football games almost made him shudder.

Sorry, Clayton. Your disgust at the thought of football is apparent and it makes Annie's smile turn into light laughter.

"Would it really be that bad? You wouldn't have to coach and I'm sure you'd be the only man in your position at the Agency leaving early for games," she teased. The younger agents, sure, but Clay really would be sixty when their sons would be playing football.

Clay hadn't actually done the math when thinking about their future family other than he'd be much older than he should be to be the father of adolescent boys.

"I'm not really a football fan, that's all." It might all be moot anyway. They could just have girls.

"I know you're not, which means that we should start with getting season tickets to the Redskins." She wasn't serious, but he wouldn't know it by looking at her. "The girls... I can't imagine how you're going to spoil them. I'm going to put my foot down and say no ponies."

STILL teasing and he still wouldn't know.

Clay had no idea Annie was teasing, "Then they can't go riding with Dad. I'm going to have to disagree with that one."

He was going to spoil them, he had no doubt at all.

"Your stable thing doesn't have horses to... rent or whatever?" Annie had no idea how riding horses really went. It wasn't her area of expertise. "I mean, really. I don't have a horse. What if I wanted to go riding with you and your mom?"

"You're welcome to. They have horses adults can use. Horses for children are a little harder to come by. That's all."

He had no idea Annie would even be interested in riding with them on Sundays. Clay'd love to have her, in fact, it might be a good environment to break the news to his mother.

"We could tell her on Sunday."

That's what she got for harassing him and teasing him. At the suggestion that she actually be present when he told his mother, Annie's mouth dropped open and she lost a little of the color in her face.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

As much as it scared him the sooner they told his mother the better. The longer they waited the angrier she'd be at him and he didn't want to go through another month of not speaking to his mother.

"You're officially her daughter-in-law. I'm sure she'll be thrilled."

"I'm fairly certain that your mother is one of those mothers that operates on the idea that there is no woman out there that's good enough for her darling son. The fact that we got married in Vegas will only enforce the belief that I'm some kind of siren harlot that did something awful to you. Add in the rings and the fact that I'm twenty years younger than you are and it won't matter how much she thought she liked me before. Clay, the woman will dislike me. I'm going to be hated amongst all her friends, your friends..."

Annie had a legitimate fear that that section of his life was something she'd never fit into.

"The only awful things you do to me are in the privacy of our bedroom and none of them are things I talk about with my mother and I don't think a single one is particularly awful. In fact, I like them, a lot."

After his remark he did his best to be comforting, "No one is going to hate you, least of all my mother. I told her I loved you. It's not something I say often. She knows I was serious about it. Everything is going to be fine."

He was making jokes. He was making jokes about their sex life while she was trying to talk about his mother and she was going to actually hyperventilate on the couch.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "Then we can tell her on Sunday. Together." Then something dawned on her. "Won't she be surprised to even see us together?"

"Shocked I think." It was true enough. When he'd told his mother about the fight, she assumed Annie wouldn't ever come back. A safe assumption since Webb was being a complete ass and refused to apologize.

"My mother likes you, Annie. I think she'll be more upset that she wasn't there than anything else."

"I'll take your word for it," Annie said, slumping against the back of the couch and catching sight of her wine glass. "Who does a girl have to kiss to get a refill around here?"

It was a mock pout and she grabbed the glass before holding it out.

"I'm falling down on the job." Clay stood and took both of their glasses back into the kitchen and returned a short time later with both refilled. Then he returned to his place on the couch.

"When should we tell Danielle?"

They'd told work and they were going to tell his mother--

"Now." She turned her head to look at him quickly and then took another very large drink from the wine he'd just given her. "Right now. Let's just go over there, knock on the door and tell her. Let's go."

Dinner would keep he supposed and Annie seemed to believe in ripping the band-aid off all at once when it came to dealing with her sister. Maybe it was just better to do it now. Porter would be angry she wasn't there, Danielle would be angry they waited to tell her.

"Let's go." Nerves? He could hide them. A quick detour back into the kitchen and a deep breath later he was all set to drive to Georgetown.

Annie waited impatiently while he fixed dinner and when he joined her in the living room again, she had her hand on the door.

"You're driving."

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

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