A/N

This is set fairly early in season 1, after Amanda asks Billy "Shouldn't I know how to hit?" in the episode 'Always look a gift horse in the mouth'
The idea to make a short fic out of that question came from npieen's fantastic 'Scotch Thoughts and Window Reflections' series. I said I'd love to see Billy make Lee teach Amanda how to hit, and npieen thought it would make a good story. So hopefully this turns out to be a good story :) fingers crossed

As usual - don't own SMK, Lee :( or Amanda

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"I want you to know that I really appreciate this Lee," Amanda repeated for the umpteenth time as Lee led her into to the gym on one of the lower levels of the Agency.

Lee turned to look at Amanda as they entered. "Amanda," he replied. Again. For the umpteenth time. "I told you, this was Billy's idea."

Amanda closed her eyes briefly before looking back. "Oh, I know that."

Lee nodded as he turned back into the gym.

"You've made that perfectly clear," she mumbled as she followed him over to a rack of equipment.

He handed her some light sparring gloves to try on for size. As he removed his sweatshirt he shook his head. "Shouldn't I know how to hit!"

"Lee," she began, looking into his eyes. "You know, you take all those years of training and experience you have for granted..."

"I do not!" Lee interrupted indignantly.

Shaking her head, Amanda tried to explain herself better. "What I mean to say is," she tried again. "You know how to protect yourself, you know what to do in an emergency or when someone's threatening you."

Lee nodded his agreement. "Of course I do."

"Right!" Amanda exclaimed. "I don't!" She waited for Lee to see her point.

"Amanda you're not an operative," he replied instead.

"I know that! But like I said to Mr. Melrose, our assignments have turned dangerous more often than not..."

"Amanda..."

"Lee, please let me finish," said Amanda, cutting off his argument. "You can't deny that we've run into our share of trouble together," she reasoned. "And you can't always be there to protect me..."

"Amanda..." He tried again, before being silenced by Amanda's raised hand.

"And I don't want you to have to always be worrying about me...because that could get you killed..." Amanda paused for a moment. "And I just don't think that I could handle that," she said softly.

Lee's expression softened at her admission.

Amanda was a bit embarrassed at her outburst, but she was determined to finish what she had to say. "And as a highly trained agent, Lee you have no idea how terrifying it can be to be confronted with all this stuff."

He started to see it from her point of view. And maybe it wasn't such a bad idea that she had a little hand to hand training after all, although he really hoped it wouldn't encourage her to put herself in more danger than she already did. Maybe this isn't such a good idea!

"Okay Amanda,"he conceded. "You've convinced me. Let's get on with it."

Amanda was just about to argue Lee's point when she realised what he had said. "I have?" She asked, amazed that he finally agreed with her on something.

"Yeah. Now let's get started," he said, glancing at his watch. "I have plans tonight."

"Of course you do," she mumbled as she put the gloves back to choose a smaller size.

Lee grabbed the gloves back off the rack. "No, these should be the right size for you," he insisted, reaching out to take hold of one of her hands, holding it up to examine it.

"They're way too big," Amanda argued, pulling her hand back from him, not really wanting him to be holding her hand when he had 'plans' tonight.

He pulled rolls of what looked like bandages from his bag. "You have to put these hand wraps on first," he explained. "So you need to leave a little extra room."

"Oh," Amanda replied, looking completely lost. "But I won't have these things on if I have to hit someone."

Lee smiled. "No, you won't," he agreed. "But if I'm going to teach you how to hit," he emphasised the word, his smile widening into a grin. "Then I don't want you hurting yourself by hitting me with your bare fist."

Amanda's eyes widened. "I'm going to be hitting you!?"

Lee laughed. "Yeah. And don't pretend you never thought about it," he joked, his smile fading as she didn't dispute it. He tossed her the hand wraps. "Put these on and I'll get some pads."

When he returned Amanda was still trying to wrap the first one around her hand. "Amaaanda!"

"Well I've never done this before!"

Sighing, Lee took the wraps from her. Looking around he pointed to a nearby bench. "Let's go sit over there and I'll help you with them."

Amanda nodded and moved over to the bench. "What?" She asked as Lee stood above her looking down.

"How am I supposed to do it like that?" He moved to straddle the bench next to her, indicating that she should do the same.

Amanda gave him her right hand and he began to wrap the cloth around it. She watched him as he bent towards her concentrating on his task.

He finished wrapping the first one and gave it a slap. "Feel anything?" He asked.

She felt plenty, but was sure that wasn't what he was asking about. "No."

"Good! Give me the other one."

She held out her left hand for him to repeat the process.

"You have really strong hands you know?" He commented not looking up.

"Oh well," Amanda replied feeling herself blush. "Wrangling two little boys every day..."

Lee finished tucking the end in. He repeated the slap with this hand. "Okay?"

Amanda nodded.

"Good," replied Lee as he stood and moved back to the equipment stand. "Now try these gloves again."

Amanda pulled on each glove, wrapping the velcro straps around her wrists. "They feel pretty good now," she admitted.

"See?" Asked Lee, a smug look on his face. "You shouldn't argue with your trainer!"

Amanda rolled her eyes as he turned his back to retrieve the pads.

"Okay," he said, raising the pads to his chest. "Let's see what you've got."

"You're not going to teach me any special secret agent moves?" She asked plaintively.

Lee dropped the pads back to his waist. "Not just yet no. I want to see what your natural movement is first...what your body is telling you to do, then I can best decide how to help you." He explained.

"Oh, that makes sense I guess," Amanda replied thoughtfully.

Lee smiled. "Your not my first you know Amanda."

Amanda cleared her throat hoping she wasn't blushing as much as she felt like she was. "That I'm sure of," she mumbled in reply.

Lee watched Amanda move around as she punched into the pads he was holding. He was surprised to see that she didn't have a bad natural technique. It would be a good starting place for their lessons. And once he got her comfortable with striking something hard so she wouldn't do herself more injury than an attacker, he would start with the defence. He threw a pad out towards her as she pulled a punch, striking her in the shoulder.

"Hey," she exclaimed rubbing her shoulder with her glove.

"The bad guy isn't just going to stand here and let you hit him you know," Lee reasoned.

"I know that!"

"So remember that a more important lesson than how to hit, is how to defend," Lee stressed.

"Then why didn't we start with that first?" Amanda asked, taking the pause in their training to go and get a bottle of water from her bag.

"Normally we would have," Lee replied, following her lead and grabbing some water for himself. "But you wanted to learn how to hit," he paused to take a long drink of water.

Amanda watched his throat work as he swallowed, drops of sweat running down the column of his neck as he tilted his head back. Behave Amanda! Concentrate on what he's trying to teach you...

Lee turned back to her. "And I knew you'd be too impatient to get to the hitting part to take proper notice of the defending part if we started there first."

Amanda looked down, knowing that he was right. "Yeah well..."

"Yeah well..." Lee replied, the corner of his mouth lifting a little as he pulled off the pads.

"Are we done already?" Amanda asked not able to hide the disappointment in her voice.

Lee smiled as he turned back to her. "No, we're not done already," he replied, amused by her obvious disappointment thinking they were finished their lesson. "I've seen how you move, now we're heading over to the bag so I can start to build on what you already have."

Amanda tossed her head. "You think I already have something?"

Lee nodded reluctantly. "What I saw wasn't too bad," he admitted. "But it needs some serious work," he added quickly at Amanda's beaming smile.

Amanda nodded. "You point and I'll punch coach!" She said as she practically bounded over to the punching bag.

Lee sighed shaking his head as he followed at a somewhat slower pace. I hope I have the stamina to keep up with Amanda King! At those words something else entirely popped into his head. He stopped in his tracks shaking his head to clear it. Where the hell had that come from?! That image had definitely unsettled him. He didn't think of Amanda in that way. She was a suburban mother of two with a mortgage and a station wagon. So far removed from being his type that she was practically on another planet. Lee put the strange occurrence down to his upcoming date that night with Adrienne, the French model. Now that is definitely my type, he reassured himself as he joined Amanda at the punching bag.

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more training to come in the next chapters. :) hopefully next chapter should be up very soon