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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Annie took a deep breath at the same time he did and then turned to face him. "I heard that."

It made her feel a little better that she wasn't the only one that was a little terrified of seeing Porter Webb and telling her what they'd done. Even at fifty, the man still had to answer to his mother in some things and she actually found it a little endearing.

"I don't think she even knows that," Annie said. "But that would be fantastic. Really."

"She's going to be upset that she wasn't there, I know it." Hopefully, that will be all she was upset about. Clay didn't think the wedding would upset her, neither would his choice of bride. Not being able to be there and make it an event, that would be the problem.

If Danielle got her wish and got a party though, it could all be fine for everyone. "Maybe this'll work out for the best for more than two of us."

"I want your mother to be happy, so whatever it takes? I'll do it." Even if it meant dressing up for whoever for whatever kind of event that Porter wanted. Especially if it was going to help Danielle.

Taking a breath, she looked at him again. "Plus, doing this tonight means that I'll get to sleep in on Sunday."

"She's going to be happy." Even if he had to convince her that everything was going to be okay.

"Back to our Sunday routine almost immediately," He said it with a smile. Clay missed his lazy Sundays with Annie. It was a hole in his week that he hadn't quite managed to fill just yet. Now, he didn't have to.

"I've missed it," she admitted quietly in the dark. "Even just lounging on the couch while you read the paper... it was always just comforting. Being there with you."

Her throat closed up and she let go of his hand to push her hair back, but she didn't take it again. "It was a hard nine months, Clay. I missed you. All of you."

"I missed you too."

Over the past nine months he realized how much of Annie was in his life every day. From the nightstand in his bedroom to the honey in his kitchen. All her things that she'd returned to him where still in his spare closet except for her gray shoes. Those were in his.

"You brought a lot of good into my life. I wasn't sure how to function without it."

If they kept talking, Annie wasn't going to be in any condition to see his mother.

"We should stop. I don't want to cry right now." It was an admittance of how much she was affected by him and the things he said to her. "I want to see your mom and go home. Well, back to your place. I mean-- you know what I mean."

"You can call it home, I don't mind. You have a key now."

The last thing he wanted to do was make Annie cry, even if it was just from being generally emotional. Instead, he took her hand back for as much of the rest of the drive to his mother's house as he could.

She thought of it as home, she really did. She had before, too, but now wasn't the time to revisit that particular argument, either.

As they pulled into Porter's driveway, she felt her blood pressure rise. As a trained operative, Annie knew she shouldn't be nearly as apprehensive as she was, yet the woman's approval meant quite a bit to her.

"Round two," she said as she opened the door, wondering if they should have called first.

"It'll be fine." The assurance was meant for both of them.

Clay headed up the walk to the stairs and rang the bell. Harrison greeted them both then ushered them into the living room while he went to get Porter from outside in the back. Clay turned to Annie and said quietly, "At least you won't have to see the expression on her face when she finds out you're here."

Edited 2012-07-21 23:11 (UTC)

"What do you-- Oh. Because Harrison just told her," Annie said quietly against his shoulder as she'd turned her head to keep her voice down.

Granted, that did make it a little easier, but she kept the smile to herself as she leaned up to kiss him quickly. "I love you, you know that, right?"

"I know. I love you too."

The differences in their families had never been more obvious to Clay than right at that second. Annie pretty much just went into her sister's house and here they were waiting for his mother.

Porter appeared a few minutes later, all trace of whatever surprise that may have been on her face now gone. She greeted both her son and Annie with a hug, "This is a nice surprise." Porter sat and waited for her son to tell her why exactly he'd appeared unannounced at her doorstep.

"We have something we needed to tell you," for once his nerves got to him. It wasn't easy to tell her this at all. One more deep breath then he decided to take Annie's approach and rip the band-aid off all at once, "Annie and I got married."

That was a good sign, no screaming nothing. "In Las Vegas."

Porter blinked once, "You married the woman you left nine months ago in Las Vegas?" Clay nodded. Porter still thought Clay and Annie's relationship failing was her son's fault. Her gaze then fell to Annie's hand, "And she deserved something bigger than that." It was commentary on his treatment of her.

Clay swallowed almost audibly. It was out there, and his mother didn't seem too upset. Another beat, then Porter smiled, genuinely, at Annie, "Welcome to the family, Annie."

It shouldn't have been funny - and it wasn't, not really - but Porter Webb's entire non-reaction to the news while Annie felt the man next to her tense incredibly was pretty funny, at least to her.

None of it showed on her face, though and the only visible reaction she had was to blink when Porter said she'd deserved something bigger. Bigger? Clearly, the woman was unaware just how much money was sitting on Annie's hand. That or she didn't care.

Whatever it was, Annie squeezed Clay's hand reassuringly and said, just as sweetly and with her own very genuine smile, "Thank you, Mrs. Webb."

Clay let go of a breath he wasn't sure he was holding when Annie squeezed his hand. It was over with and now they can both sleep easier for the rest of the week. Everyone who needed to know now knows.

Porter spoke next her question directed at Annie, "When are you having a reception?"

Yes, now they could sleep easy and--

"What?" Annie blinked again and looked at Clay for the help she was so obviously not going to get. "We hadn't decided on a date, yet. We were hoping you might have some suggestions, actually."

There. Now Clay had something to talk about with his mother on Sunday.

"The only thing we have mostly picked out is a caterer," and before Porter could say she had one Webb made sure to mention that said caterer was Annie's sister. "The rest of it you and I can talk about on Sunday."

Porter wouldn't let Annie get out of all this completely free of decisions but for now she seemed happy with that. They made small talk for a little while longer before Webb announced he and Annie planned to go out to a late dinner and headed back to the car.

Annie did manage to show Porter their photo and her dress, which covered that little problem, and once they were back out in the car, she took a deep breath.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" She looked at Webb with a smile, hoping he wasn't going to be too upset with her for throwing him under the bus.

"She is eventually going to come to you for input and she never listens to my requests to not have caviar." He meant, 'Please tell my mother we don't want caviar as a couple.' That was the battle he was going to let Annie fight.

"I wonder if we can talk her into Manderly." With that, he headed back to his condo. Fully aware that they should both eat dinner.

"I'll tell her that we're not fan of caviar," Annie assured him with a pat to his leg, emphasis on the 'we're'. "That you're a much bigger fan of crab."

She slid her hand into his and squeezed lightly. "I also don't need a bigger ring. I like this one just fine."

"Thank you," Clay said with a smile. "The comment about the ring was more directed at me, since I treated you so badly." In case Annie couldn't guess, Porter was on her side during those nine months they were apart and fully supported the fact that Annie had a right to think Clay was an ass.

"My mother can be extremely passive aggressive when she wants to be."

"I figured it was a not-so-subtle jab, but I wasn't going to presume," she said with a little laugh. "She was really not happy with you when we broke up, I see that now."

She could just imagine the way Porter and Clay had had it out after that incident and she wondered if... "Did you ever try and defend your decision to end it to her?"

"I did. She didn't accept my justification at all." It was not a good four weeks of not speaking to Porter. "Basically, she came out and said I was an ass and no amount of justification was going to change that. There was never going to be a convenient time to have children and things weren't going to always work out the way I wanted them to. I needed to grow up and deal with it."

"And yet, you never came back and said anything to me. I'm surprised you and your mother talked at all during those nine months. She seems like the kind of woman who really knows how to hold a grudge. Also the kind of woman who really wants grandkids."

Annie's smile was small and kind of hidden in the dark, but she tried not to sound smug. It was nice to know that someone had been on her side.

"Both actually."

Which meant if Annie did decide to continue working, Grandma Porter would happily babysit.

"It didn't help that she also liked you, moreso than Sarah or anyone else."

"That's because Sarah broke your heart, not the other way around. If you'd crushed her the way you'd done it to me, then I'm sure your mother would have taken offense," Annie said, trying to assure him that his mother would have been upset at any appalling behavior. "I mean, I thought she liked Sarah."

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