"Do you want me to call him?" asked Barney after spending ten minutes watching Amanda stare at the phone, chewing her cuticle.

"No, I should do it," she answered. "It's my responsibility – after all, Lee's my- partner," she finished lamely.

Barney grinned and pulled her hand away from her mouth, holding it so that they could both see the sparkling diamond ring and gold wedding band. "Partner, hmm?"

"We were going to tell you," said Amanda, all in a rush. "Lee was talking about it right before…"

"He didn't need to tell me anything," said Barney. "I could hear it in his voice when he called me about coming to visit. The way he talked about you…" He gave a low chuckle. "And the Colonel too. He called me just after he met you a few years back. He said Lee had found the perfect girl but he just didn't know it yet." He squeezed her hand and smiled. "Guess he figured it out, huh?"

"Yeah," Amanda smiled back at him. "I guess we both did." She took in a deep breath and pulled the phone toward her, then dialed the number Barney had written out for her. Before she could even bolster her courage, a familiar voice answered.

"Clayton."

"Colonel Clayton? It's Amanda. Amanda… King… Well, Sir, I'm afraid I'm not very good… there's been an accident. Lee's been hurt." She closed her eyes as Lee's uncle began barking questions at her, and felt Barney drop an arm around her shoulders. "Yes Sir, I think you should come, Sir… No Sir, we're in California…"

Her voice dropped away and Barney reached to take the phone from her. "Bob? It's Barney. Yes, we're all here in Las Palmas... You need to get out here – Lee's in a bad way." He glanced at Amanda. "We don't know yet, but they're hopeful… No, it wasn't work, it was an accident. It was all my fault."

"No, it wasn't!" said Amanda fiercely. "It was the fault of that man who shot him!"

"Yes, you heard that right, Bob," Barney sighed into the phone. "Can you come? … Good. Come to the apartment when you get here – we're back here now while we wait for him to get out of surgery."

A few moments later, he hung up and stretched to reach the coffee cup and push it into Amanda's hands. "He'll be here as soon as he can. The base is only a few hours' drive away."

"Thank you," she murmured.

"Do you want to put off calling your boss until tomorrow?" he asked. "You might have more information about Lee's condition by then."

"No, he'll have been alerted by now," said Amanda. "The sheriff knows Lee's an agent – he'll have sent a report automatically, and Billy will be worried and I don't know what I'm going to tell him! I still don't know who or why or…" She gulped and looked at Barney. "What happened, Barney? Why did they do it?"

"It was probably Brockett," he sighed. "Gus has been riling him up, interfering with his treasure hunting. Looks like he poked the bear one too many times"

"La Bodega," said Amanda. "You mentioned that."

Barney nodded. Quickly and concisely he filled her in on everything Gus had found out about Brockett's supposed treasure trove.

"And now they're shooting at you?" she questioned. "Mr. Dorsey, that sounds like your friend has gotten himself into something a lot more serious than just treasure hunting."

"Amanda, first off, you need to call me Barney – we're practically family now, aren't we?" Off her nod, he went on. "And you're right – Gus already thought there was something hinky about this whole thing, but the police aren't interested."

"I bet they're interested now," she said wryly.

"Too little, too late," answered Barney. "Sheriff Waterhouse is a good man but he has no imagination and he lives by the rules. And that chip on his shoulder will be a little bit bigger if he thinks federal agents are going to come interfering in his patch."

"Oh!" Amanda gasped. "I haven't called Billy yet!" She glanced at her watch. "It's late there – I don't even know how to contact him."

"You just call his office –someone will find him for you," Barney counselled her. "You said the sheriff would have sent him a report right? He'll be expecting your call."

"You're right – of course, you're right," Amanda nodded. She reached for the phone, pausing to take a deep breath before she dialed.

To her surprise, Billy answered on the first ring.

"Sir? It's me, I mean, it's Amanda…" she began

"Amanda? Where are you?" he interrupted her. "We've been trying to get hold of you."

"What?" It hadn't occurred to her that he didn't know. "I'm in Las Palmas, Sir. In California."

"Yes, of course you are. Are you at the hospital now?"

"No Sir," she replied, then swallowed to fight the tightening in her throat. "I'm with one of Lee's friends, Barney Dorsey."

"Thank God," she could almost hear him slumping with relief. "No one could find you at the hospital and the sheriff's report didn't say where you were staying." His voice gentled. "How is he, Amanda?"

"Well, Sir, I flew out here as soon as I heard…"

"Amanda," he reprimanded her gently. "You're mentioned in the sheriff's report."

He didn't have to say anything else – it hit her how ridiculous it must seem that she'd still be trying to hide that they were here together. She closed her eyes at the memory of Lee laughing as he told her how Billy had teased him about their supposedly separate trips.

"He's… It's pretty bad," she choked out. "They operated all day – the doctor said they won't know for certain for at least 48 hours."

"What happened? I have the sheriff's report but it's so damn full of holes, I can't make heads or tails of it."

"I'm still not really sure. Lee's friend, Mr. Dorsey," she looked up and met Barney's comforting gaze. "Barney… he says it's something to do with gold smugglers or treasure hunters or…" Her voice cracked as she finally lost strength. "Oh Sir, we were just supposed to be on our… our… vacation and now Lee's… Lee's…" The sob hiccupped out of her and then she couldn't speak at all.

Billy's fingers tightened on the receiver as he listened to her break down. Those two had been through so much together and never lost faith; he couldn't comprehend how the universe could be this cruel to them.

"We'll have a team out there by tomorrow, Amanda. Francine's already working on it," he managed to say gruffly, his own emotions obviously barely in check. "Hang on, she's just arrived with the details. I'm going to put you on speaker."

"Oh, you don't need to send anyone, Sir. I've called his uncle and he'll be here tonight. I'm not sure what you could do here…"

Back in Washington, Billy's startled gaze met Francine's identical one. She'd called his uncle? Francine had gone pale at the implication of that.

"Amanda, one of my agents – and my friend - has been injured, not in the line of duty but definitely during a crime. You must know I can't just leave it to the local police."

Amanda fell silent. It felt somehow like, if the situation was reversed, that Lee would tell them not to come, that he'd handle it by himself, but she felt so overwhelmed. "Thank you, Sir," she said finally. "But this is a very small town – I think if Mr. Dorsey's friend is right, all of you showing up will attract a lot of attention."

"I see." Billy thought for a moment. "How about if I send just one agent out?"

"That would be… I'd like that. It's normally the two of us, you know? I don't know if I can do this alone." Amanda struggled for a moment. "Francine, would you…?"

Billy looked at Francine who was already nodding firmly.

"Of course I will," said Francine promptly. "And Amanda? Lee's strong, he'll be fine," Francine said.

The determination in her voice, as if by saying it, she could simply order Lee to be better, made Amanda smile. "Thank you, Francine. I'm sure he will. He's never let me down yet, has he?"

"No he hasn't," said Billy softly. "And we won't let him down either."


"Amanda? Bob's here."

Amanda roused herself from the light sleep she'd fallen into on the couch and struggled to her feet.

Colonel Clayton was standing in front of her, haggard with worry. Without thinking, she stepped forward and pulled him into an embrace.

"Oh Colonel, it's good to see you."

After a moment of stiffness, the Colonel relaxed and hugged her back. "My dear girl, thank goodness you were with him." He stepped back, with his hands still on her upper arms, maintaining that physical contact with her the way Lee so often did. "How is he? What would they tell you?"

"Well, there still wasn't much to say when they sent us home. He was in recovery, they were going to move him to ICU soon… he hadn't regained consciousness. They said they'd know better in the morning."

"Well, that's ridiculous! I'm going to head down there right now!" The Colonel began to pace around the room. "They might not have been willing to tell you everything, but by God, they'll have to tell me!"

Barney attempted to calm him down. "Bob, it's late at night, they promised to call if anything changed and you charging in there like a bull in a china shop isn't going to make them have any more information than they have now."

"Yes, they will, by God, because they have to! I'm his next of kin and they'll give me answers!"

Amanda and Barney's eyes met, both startled. Barney raised an eyebrow, silently questioning her and after a beat, Amanda gave her head a minute shake. Not now, she mouthed.

"Well, Bob," Barney said slowly. "The thing is… once they realized he was a federal agent and that Amanda was there with him, they really did give us all the information they could. Now, you're tired from the drive up here, you're worried and there really isn't anything you can do tonight, so how about I make you up a plate of dinner and then you catch a few hours of sleep before we go back to the hospital in the morning?"

Colonel Clayton glared at him for a moment, then sagged in exhaustion. "You're right." He looked around the small apartment. "But I'll go find a hotel room – if Amanda is already settled here, you don't really have room for me too."

"Oh no, Sir!" said Amanda, reaching to touch his arm. "I'm not staying here. We... I mean, I already have a hotel room from when we got here last night." She paused, taken aback for a moment at the realization of how much had changed in the last 24 hours. She sucked in a breath and blinked back tears. Just that morning, she and Lee had been in bed at the hotel, spooned together, fingers laced discussing their plans for the future and now…

"In fact," she managed to get out in an almost normal voice, "if you could call me a cab, I should head back there and call my mother. Let her know my trip will be a little longer."

"Are you sure?" Barney asked.

"Yes, I… I need to get my thoughts together and let our boss know everything that's happened too. You can fill in the Colonel on everything just as well as I can." She looked into Barney's eyes, willing him to say nothing about her earlier call to Billy and, after a beat, he nodded.

"I'll do you one better – I'll drive you back there myself. It's only a few minutes away," he said. "Bob, you can unpack and settle in the guest room. There's stew on the stove, help yourself if you're done before I get back."

The Colonel looked back and forth between them as if he sensed something wasn't being said before turning and putting his arm around Amanda's shoulders. "You get some rest and we'll come get you in the morning to go to the hospital, how does that sound? I'm sure Skip will want to see you – times like this you want your friends and family around, right?"

"Yes." Amanda closed her eyes. "You do."


"Mother? It's me."

"Amanda?" Her mother's voice which had been sleepy when she answered was now full on alert with maternal concern. Late night phone calls were never for good news, after all. "What's happened? What's wrong?"

"It's Lee. There was an accident…" She managed to get that out before her throat closed up and she could no longer speak.

"What kind of accident? Is he alright? Are you alright? Where are you? Did you really go to California or did the two of you go somewhere else? You were together weren't you? I know you kept trying to distract me but you know, you never fooled me, not one bit." The questions came rattling down the line and it was all oddly reassuring. For once, she could tell her mother everything and not lie even once.

"Yes, we're in California, yes I'm okay, and yes, we were on vacation together. But this morning…" Amanda closed her eyes and took long breaths to try and calm herself again. "This morning, there was an incident down at the harbour and Lee was shot."

"Shot!?" Dotty's voice was both horrified and unbelieving. "What do you mean 'shot'?"

"Exactly what you think it means, Mother," she sighed. "We don't know what happened – just that there was gunfire and Lee was caught in it."

"How is he?"

"He's… well, he's not good. They operated most of the day and we won't really know anything until tomorrow."

"I'll come out there," declared Dotty. "I can be on a plane first thing in the morning. You shouldn't be alone, Amanda."

"No, Mother, no." Amanda massaged her temples while she tried to gather her thought. "I need you to stay with the boys because I don't know how long I'll be out here with him. We were here to visit one of Lee's old friends and his uncle just arrived a few hours ago – I'm not alone and neither is he."

"Are you sure?" Dotty sounded fretful. "I can't bear the idea of you dealing with this by yourself. That's Lee's family but you need someone too."

"I'm sure," Amanda said softly. "The best thing for me right now is knowing the boys are looked after."

"If you say so, Darling."

"I'll call you as soon as we have any news. And Mother, give the boys big hugs from me, will you? And tell them I miss them more than anything."

"Of course I will, my darling girl. And you give Lee a kiss from me too and tell him that I expect him for dinner just as soon as the two of you get home."

"I will. And Mother... I love you."

"I love you too, Darling. Now go get some sleep so you can look after that man of yours."

Amanda hung up and looked around the hotel room. The maid had tidied up, of course, but Lee's suitcases were still piled nearby and his shirts hung in the open closet where she'd placed them the night before.

"I can't believe we're alone in a hotel room and you're spending time putting clothes away." He walked across the room and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.

"I can't believe you think I don't know that if I let you distract me now, these clothes will just stay in the suitcases the entire time we're here."

"Would that be so bad?" His lips nuzzled her neck, his hands now roaming with intent. "We're on our honeymoon- we don't really need clothes, do we?"

"I'm not meeting your friend Barney for the first time in a wrinkled blouse and skirt, Mr. Stetson!"

"You make a good point, Mrs. Stetson. And I can tell I'm not going to get your full attention until we deal with this." Lee took the last few shirts from her hands, hung them up quickly, then turned back to her, pulling off his t-shirt as he did so. "There. All done," he growled seductively. "Now come here."

Amanda stood up and walked over to the suitcase rack, opening the case and searching for the shirt Lee had been wearing the night before. She carried it back to the bed, sitting down, then bringing it up to her face to inhale deeply. The scent soothed and broke her at the same time. She sank down onto the pillow, clutching it to her chest and finally, completely gave in to tears.