Hi guys! Here is the song for the chapter. I have loved this band forever now but I feel like this song perfectly sums Annalise and her grandmother's relationship.

I hope you enjoy!

Darla

The next day I found myself sitting at my desk sorting through all my emails quickly. The only motivation I had was to finish up then look at the photos that I took the day before. Finally, after countless emails sent, I had an empty mail box. I smiled, happy with my job then pulled the photos  from my purse to looked at them with a clear mind.

There had to be something more that I was missing. I knew there were clues before me but I couldn't see them. Time moved on and after a while, I felt myself fall into despair. I had spend hours looking at the photos and I was coming up empty handed. I started to think that maybe I was crazy, maybe there wasn't anything and I was just wasting my time at this bank.

I ran my hands through my hair, causing it to fall out of the loose bun I put it in earlier that morning. I was loosing my mind looking at this expecting something different to come out of them. That though suddenly flew out of my mind when my eyes stopped on a shadow in the corner of one of the photos. I squinted as I tried to get a better look. The more I stared at it the more it looked like a man, a man I knew, maybe if only I could.....

"Hey," Auggie said from behind me.

The sound of his voice caused me to jump from my seat and my pictures went flying to the ground.

"Oh I'm sorry, I should have coughed," Auggie said as he got on the ground to help me pick up pictures.

"No it's ok. I'm the one that's jumpy," I said and got down on my hands and knees as well to clean up the mess.

Auggie looked at one of the photos. "Why does this say new beginning?" he asked as he held a picture of the bank's sign.

"That's what it means?" I asked, now things were starting to make sense. MIA was a new beginning. They wanted the CIA to crumble and when they did, MIA would rise from the ashes.

"Yeah, novus suscipio means new beginning in Greek."

"You speak Geek, I mean Greek?" I asked a I quickly corrected myself in amazement.

He laughed easily then said, "I yes not only do I speak Greek but I also speak geek."

"That's not what I meant," I said folding my arms against my chest.

He smiled. "I'm giving you a hard time. But anyhow, I do, just a bit. Why where you looking at these photos?" he asked as he picked up another photo and looked at it.

I looked around us carefully. Even though we were in a privet place, talking about MIA here wasn't safe. But I felt like he needed to know, we were dating. I didn't want to keep secrets in our relationship, like Toby and I had. If he stabbed me in the back like Toby, at least I would know that he wasn't worth it. "It's a long story, can I tell you after work?"

"You mean on our date?" he asked with a wink.

I nodded, for our first official date, this would be romantic. "Yeah? At 5:00, we can leave right after work."

"Sure," he said as he handed me the rest of the photos.

I took them and put them back into my purse under my desk, away from prying eyes. "So what were you coming to talk to me about?"

"You're grandmother needs to talk to you. I said I would get you because that gave me an excuse to get away from work and see you," he said and smiled.

I laughed at him and his side angles. I knew him well enough to know that he would do anything to kill two birds with one stone. "So you're her new messenger boy?"

"Yeah, pretty much," he said and shrugged. "Hey are you ok?" He asked as I stood up from my desk.

I nodded as I held back a frown. I wasn't ok. I jumped after every sound, I slept with the lights on in the hall way. MIA was still out there and they were watching me. I knew it was only time until they came after me again. It didn't help that the CIA didn't believe me. MIA would come and get me and no one would even notice. "Yeah. I'm fine," I said, brushing him off.

He frowned, not looking my response. "I expect you to tell me about it on our date."

I nodded with a small smile. "Of course."

He sighed and wrapped his arms around me, bringing me into a tight embrace.

I could have melted in his arms. His touch, his affection, this is what I have been missing all my life. In his arms I felt safe, enough, loved and he didn't even need to say those words to me. I knew it because I saw it in his brown eyes. Auggie would do anything for me. He always would.

He smiled as he pulled out of the embrace then kissed me on the cheek. "I'll see you later," Auggie said then walked away.

As soon as he was gone, I longed for his touch again. I wanted him right beside me, not across the office floor.

"You got it bad..." Mara chuckled at me as she looked at me from over her cubical wall.

I looked at Mara and frowned lightly. "Yeah, I kind of do." I admitted.

"I knew you would," Mara shrugged then went back to typing.

<>

With that, I left my cubical and Mara then walked into my grandmother's large office. I found her looking at her computer screen, once again, not noticing that I walked in. I frowned. I felt like I would always be invisible to her. The only time she gave me attention was when I was attacked. Was I that much of a failure? "So what do you need me for?"

She looked up at me then pushed up the glasses. "We're done sweeping your house," she said in her calm voice her cold eyes looking right into mine.

I nodded. That didn't mean I felt safe there but that meant she expected me to go back to living there. I didn't feel safe there, but she would understand. "Cool. Well is that it?" I asked as I started to turn back around to walk out of her office.

"Annalise, no. we found a couple bugs. CIA issued bugs."

I frowned as I felt my blood go cold. I didn't have to be a Sherlock Holmes to figure out where this conversation as going. "What are you saying," I said as I turned to face her again.

"I'm saying that the CIA is big, maybe someone gave orders to bug your house."

"But they need a reason to do that."

"Maybe they had one."

My frown deepened. I shook with anger. After everything that I did for this agency and for my grandmother, she was always going to pick them over me. I sold my soul to them and they couldn't see that. I would do nothing to hurt this agency.

"You've been doing some side work I've noticed. You went to that bank yesterday," she said her hard eyes piercing my very sole. If this was anyone else they would have broke down by now but I lived with her. I was use to her cold looks.

I shook my head at her. How did she know I was at the bank? She was keeping tabs on me. She didn't trust me. She thought her own daughter was the enemy. "How did you know, grandma, I- I –I can explain," I started to stutter, starting to break down in front of her. I knew that there was nothing I could say that could sway her mind. I was already labeled as a criminal.

"Ok I'm waiting," she said with a straight face.

I searched my head for a good thing to tell her but nothing came up. She already thought MIA didn't exist. What more could I say? I'm looking into the company that doesn't exist off record. I would sound like I've gone off my rocker. "I've been looking... into my... parent's death," I prayed that was a good enough lie to fool her.

Suddenly her cold look was crushed. Sometimes I forgot that she, like me, lost someone. She lost her son, my father. And like me, she wasn't over it. She probably never would be. When my father died, something in her broke, she never talked about it but I knew that she was still crushed. There was regret in her eyes every time I talked about him, it was like she wanted to take something back. "Annalise, you can't keep living in the past. Move on," she said half heartedly.

I shrugged. "It's hard though," I said, going on with my lie.

"I know it's hard, but it's necessary."

I nodded.

For a minute we were both silent. Unwilling to speak our emotions to each other. Finally Gram spoke up, "onto more issues'. I've noticed that you've been spending a lot of time with August."

I nodded. She had eyes everywhere, just like MIA. "Yeah, I have," I said shyly. I wonder what she would say about this, I wasn't going to tell her about us for a while. Auggie wasn't her favorite person in the world and I know she wouldn't approve.

"I think Carter's a better match for you. August's a hard worker but I don't want you to drag him through mud as well. At least Carter could handle it," she said bluntly with her hands on her hips.

Her words were like a slap to the face. She did think I was a failure. Auggie was wrong, I wasn't her favorite. She just wanted me to fade out of existence. I shrunk under her words as I felt my eyes well up with tears. I was the problem, I would always be the problem. "And you want Carter to go down?" All I felt a coldness and tension in this room.

"I know August has bigger and better things up the road."

"Is that why you tried to keep him away from me? Is that why you didn't approve of our friendship? You always saw me as a failure didn't you?!" I shouted, as I couldn't control my thoughts from flying out of my mouth. I couldn't stop the tears from falling down my face. I needed to get out, I couldn't breathe. I turned my back to her and started to leave.

"I'm not done talking to you," she said strictly.

I shook my head at the door. I wasn't going to put myself through this any longer. I gave her my all, didn't she see that? I would bend over backwards for her but she didn't care. "Well, I'm done talking with you," I said and slammed the door on the way out.

For a second, I felt empowered. I never talked to her like that before. Then I realized what I had done. She would write this in a report. This would fuel her fire against me. Maybe there was no redemption from this. I was already gone too far off the edge in her book.

Not thinking about where my feet were taking me, I found myself in Auggie's office. I shut the door to his office behind me and wiped the tears from my face.

He looked at me then frowned instantly. He pulled off his headphones and ran over to me in one fluid motion. He wrapped me up into his arms and for a second I felt whole again.

"I hate her," I said into his shoulder.

"You don't mean that," Auggie said softly.

"No, I do. I hate her. She'll never see me as more then a failure. She hates my life choices and she doesn't take me seriously. I hate her."

"You hate her right now, there's a difference. You can't hate family."

I shook my head at him as I pulled myself out of his embrace. "I don't think she sees me as family," I whispered. As painful of a thought it was, I couldn't help but think that it was true.

Auggie shook his head at me as if I was dead wrong. "You know, when I got to Carter's house, your grandmother was a nervous wreck. She kept on saying she was afraid she was loosing you."

I frowned as I wiped a tear from my cheek. "Then why does she push me away?"

He shrugged. "Maybe she doesn't know how to pull you in."

I shook my head at him. He was wrong. "I'm a disappointment to her."

Auggie, seeing that he could talk any more sense into me, brought me into a hug again. "You'll see, things will change."

Minutes went by in the solitude of his office and I was able to pull myself together. Then before I knew it, I was back at my desk as if nothing had happened. I filed paperwork until it was almost time to leave. Right when I was about to shut down my computer, the screen turned black and said, "Don't blame her."

I had no idea how he knew but he had to be talking about my grandmother. I was starting to believe everyone knew everything about my life. I frowned at the screen. This B26 is starting to know more about my life then I wanted to share and it was worrisome.

"I want you to go on another side mission. In the next week you're going to London with Mara and Auggie. Go to the MIA bank, but not thought the front door. I'll give you a folder later. Keep your eyes out for that." with that the computer shut down.

I just sat there in shock. He knew about my fight and future missions.  Who was this B26? This one question I was dying to find out.

"Hey Annalise." Auggie said walking into the cubical with a smile. "Are you ready to go?"

I nodded at him. "Yeah let's go," I said as I grabbed my purse.

In a matter of 30 minutes, we found ourselves at a restaurant. As we waited for it to come out, Auggie spoke up. "Ok, tell me about the pictures."

I nodded. I rehearsed in my mind what I was going to say. I sat on my hands to stop from shaking as fear took hold of me. My mouth became dry and I was suddenly lost for words. I wasn't sure if I could tell him. I was so afraid that he would leave once he knew. I needed him so much in my life, I couldn't have that.

"Start at the beginning."

I tried to swallow. Just start there and take baby steps. I could do this. I took a deep breath then dove into details about Toby and MIA. I told him about B26 and about the bank. I took the photos out of my purse and let him look over them again.

Finally after our food was out and getting cold right beside us he said, "I'm in. I want to help."

"Are you sure, if you join there is no going back." Once he signed his name with us it would be forever tainted. MIA would be after him too. If we failed this assignment from B26, we would be killed by MIA, that I was sure of.

He nodded, confidently. "I'm sure, Annalise. I want to help. I'm here to support you. Plus I wouldn't want to miss the action. Another Plus is I could possibly find that sucker that stabbed me."

Suddenly I was back to that day. Fabien was looking at me with that sick smile on his face. I looked over and saw Auggie bleeding out in front of me. I turned to look at Toby for help who was across the room. He looked like he was in agony but he didn't move. With that action, he stabbed me just like Auggie. My heart was racing.

"Earth to Annalise," Auggie said as he grabbed a hold of my hand.

I shook my head to clear it. "Oh sorry, I just was thinking."

He frowned at me as if reading my thoughts. "You've been doing that a lot recently."

I nodded. I couldn't stop it.

"I hope you know that I will never betray you like Toby did."

I nodded. I believed him.

There was silence. Finally it was broken by Auggie. "It's ok. Well, do I need to sign my life away on some paper?" he asked jokingly.

I frowned. He was taking this a little too lightly for my taste. "This is unofficial. Don't tell anyone about this. I told Toby and you know how that turned out. I told even Gram and she thinks I'm insane."

"Is that what she called you in for? About MIA"

I frowned with a nod. I didn't want to relive the conversation again.

"Every thing will be alright Annalise," he said as if he knew it was the truth. He lightly squeezed my hand.