The Morning After This...

[freshoffthefarm]

Annie had left her shoes in Webb's car and, as soon as she'd walked into the DPD, had been told that she was due to leave on a flight to Madrid. Knowing that Webb wasn't in his office yet, she left him a voice mail and prepared to leave.

It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to him, but she was still feeling a little awkward about the previous

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[fakes_death]

To say that Webb was surprised that Annie didn't stop by before she left or call his cell phone to say goodbye was surprising to say the least. He tried to get a line on DPD's water cooler gossip but he didn't have much luck. For the rest of the day he was just out of sorts.

During the rest of Annie's time away, he began to doubt pretty much everything about them. He knew that children were out of the question but did that mean they suddenly had nothing to talk about or to talk to each other at all?

When his desk phone rang, he answered without looking, "Webb."

[freshoffthefarm]

"Hey."

Her voice was quiet, but not nearly as intimate sounding as she usually was when she called up to his office in the middle of the day. Part of it was because of the way she'd left, and part of it was because she'd just spent seven hours on a plane. Another big factor in her return was measuring how he was taking her exit.

Since she hadn't said goodbye before she'd left, she wasn't sure if he was angry. "I'm back."

[fakes_death]

Clay was more miffed than angry, "I barely knew you left."

[freshoffthefarm]

"I know, I'm sorry." She sounded contrite, remorseful. "It happened so fast, you weren't in your office yet--" Her voice trailed off and she sighed. "And I wasn't sure how things had ended the night before, and I didn't want to take that with me as a distraction."

Now THAT he had to understand, right?

[freshoffthefarm]

Annie got out of the office on time, drove home without incident and then picked up the guest house with no problems. Seeing her sister wasn't an issue, either, and then she told Danielle that she needed two plates: one for her and one for Clay. Perhaps Danielle picked up on the undertones of Annie's request, because she didn't ask any questions or make a fuss.

Once she'd changed into her relaxing clothes, she pulled out a book and waited for Webb.

[fakes_death]

At exactly six thirty five PM, Clay knocked on the door of Annie's guest house, bearing a bottle of wine and two cheap wine glasses. He briefly thought of sticking to plastic made him cringe.

He hoped this wasn't going to be as awkward as lunch earlier in the day.

[freshoffthefarm]

"Come in!" Annie called out as she stood and set the book back on the shelf before moving toward the door to help him with whatever he'd brought with him.

Taking the glasses, she shut the door behind him and smiled. "The food is at Danielle's. She did something fun with chicken and rice and..." She shrugged. "It's supposed to be pretty good. If you want to get comfortable, I'll go get it."

[fakes_death]

"Alright." He set his bag, that was slung over his shoulder on the floor near Annie's closet, then took off his suit jacket and vest, draping them over the couch.

"Danielle's cooking is usually really good."