Disclaimer: none of these characters belong to me; they belong to Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Bros to whom I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to take them out for a spin and bit of light humour.

A Love Lessons story: stories which revolve around the theme of Lee trying to figure out what this "normal" thing is.

Lee really wanted to finish these case notes and get them out of the way but he also knew it was getting late. He stretched wearily, glanced at his watch and whistled soundlessly – past midnight already.

Amanda had drifted through the room fifteen minutes earlier, shadows under her eyes, exhausted from a week recertifying at Station One and he'd sent her to bed, promising that he wouldn't be far behind.

"Promises, promises," she'd mocked him gently, softening it with a kiss on the top of his head. "I know you better than that. You get whatever it is that needs doing, done and I'll type it up for you tomorrow." She gave an enormous yawn and stretched. "But in the meantime, the bed is calling my name."

"Go to bed and go to sleep," he'd instructed her. "Don't wait up – I don't know how long this will take me."

"I won't," she'd said, or at least that's what it sounded like she'd said, since she was yawning again.

"Promises, promises," he repeated her jibe back to her. "I know you better than that."

She'd given a knowing chuckle, dropped another kiss on his temple and headed upstairs.

He really had meant to only be a few minutes but it had taken longer than he'd thought to get even this far. He stared at the paperwork again, debating. Amanda would never know if he stayed up a bit longer to finish; she was probably sound asleep already.

"Who am I kidding?" he asked the empty room. "No, she's not."

Married life had been eye-opening in many ways, but actually settling into 'normal' life had been even more so. It had taken him a while to get used to the give-and-take of sharing living space with so many people but they'd made it easy for him. Like Amanda, her family had simply opened up and absorbed him without question. If it taken a little while for him to figure out the rhythm of family life, no one had teased him about it. The boys may have tested the limits of how many of their chores they could try and palm off on him, but they didn't realize just how long he'd been watching them through the kitchen window so they didn't get away with much. Amanda had watched the little by-plays between her menfolk with a smile, never interfering and letting him get his bearings on his own. She'd never asked him directly to do anything around the house, just leaving him to figure out what needed to be done.

She had definitely never asked for his help when Dotty had begun speculating about moving out now that Amanda was married again and the boys were older. He hadn't told her that he'd taken his mother-in-law out for lunch and begged her to reconsider, making Dotty tear up a bit by explaining how much it meant to him to have a mother figure back in his life and then making her laugh by pointing out all the ways he was still too unskilled to be left unsupervised at the mercy of her grandsons. All Amanda knew for certain was that Dotty had stopped fretting and that her mother and Lee had formed a bond that made everyone happy.

No, Amanda had definitely never interfered with any of the adjustments to life on Maplewood Drive, content to let him find his own way. In fact, she'd been so careful to do so that it taken him a very long time indeed to realize how she'd lovingly begun a stealth campaign of her own, a kind of house training as it were, on the ways and means of mutual care. To be honest, he wasn't even certain she was doing it on purpose – it was just so much in her nature to look after people that she might not even be aware that she was making those little accommodations. She didn't mean to make it impossible for him not to do the things she wanted, that was the funny thing; it was just that once he was aware of each of the little things she was doing for him, it made him want to do the same for her. He often thought his uncle should have studied her methods of soft discipline - the soft smiles, the tiny nudges, the loving looks; all in all, it was the most comfortable tyranny he could have imagined.

All of which was why he glanced up at the ceiling and sighed, knowing what he'd find upstairs, despite her promises. Without another thought, he swept his notes into his briefcase and locked it. Slipping upstairs, he pushed open the bedroom door and laughed softly as he confirmed his suspicions.

Amanda was curled up in bed, but the lights were still on, and she lifted her head off the pillow the moment he walked in.

"I knew it. You said you were going to sleep but here you are, waiting up for me," he teased her, as he began to strip off his clothes and drop them in the hamper.

"I did go to sleep. I just woke up when you came in," she defended herself, smiling as she enjoyed the view before he disappeared to brush his teeth.

"No you didn't," he mocked her, leaning out to point an accusing finger in her direction. "You told me yourself you can't sleep with the lights on. You just like to guilt me into not staying up late by leaving them on for me when you know I know that."

She chuckled but didn't deny it, waiting for him to reappear to respond. "Well, you told me yourself you don't like dark spaces."

"Correction," he answered, sliding into the bed. "I don't like dark spaces without you in them." He reached back and turned off the bedside lamp before pulling her into his arms. "See? It's dark and I'm in my happy place."

Amanda curled into his body with a contented purring noise. "Good. That makes it my happy place too," she said sleepily, already drifting off as she added, "I love you."

"I love you too," He felt her slip almost immediately into boneless sleep before chuckling into her hair and whispering, "Even if you are my own domestic tyrant."