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

[freshoffthefarm]

[From here, as requested by fakesIt 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

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[freshoffthefarm]

The next morning, Annie opened her safe to get her reports and eyed her rings. She supposed that Joan may want proof, so Annie picked them up and took those and the marriage certificate and tucked them into her purse

[freshoffthefarm]

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.

[fakes_death]

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.

[freshoffthefarm]

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."

[fakes_death]

"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.

[freshoffthefarm]

"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.

[fakes_death]

"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?"

[freshoffthefarm]

"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."

[fakes_death]

"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."

[freshoffthefarm]

"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."

[fakes_death]

"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?"

[freshoffthefarm]

"I will always know you really well, Director Webb," Annie told him as she stopped next to his car.

Giving him a lingering kiss, she pulled back and patted the center of his chest. "I'll walk. If I get a ride because I'm feeling lazy, then I'd always get a ride. Next thing you know, we'd be commuting and then what?"

She winked and started off toward her car.

[fakes_death]

"People would start to think we're married or something," Clay said before opening his own car doors.

As Annie started off to her car, he headed out to his condo. Her walk might give him a few minutes to start dinner and straighten up before she got there.

[freshoffthefarm]

"We can't have that," she teased as she practically skipped around a car a few lanes down.

It took her a few extra minutes to get to his condo, but once she was there, she knocked and waited patiently. When he opened the door, she looked around the doorframe and then at him. "Does that mean I get a key now?"

[fakes_death]

"I guess it does." He hadn't thought about giving her a key but she had a point. They were married and his was the public residence.

"It's in my safe," Clay said before turning on his heel and heading back to his their bedroom. A few seconds later he produced an extra key to the condo, "I need to teach you the alarm codes again too."

[freshoffthefarm]

"Clay."

She didn't stop him from going to get the key, but she didn't move into the condo any further than she already had, except to set her purse down and shrug out of her jacket. Left in her work suit, she looked around and saw that nothing else had changed and it brought a small smile to her lips. He always was so steady.

When he came back into the room, she said, "You know we don't have to do this all right away, right? We're not required to live together right now. I was only teasing."

More than anything, she didn't want him to be uncomfortable.