"Courage is grace under pressure" - Ernest Hemingway

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Billy was back in his office by 7:00 a.m. after only six hours of sleep. Francine had caught him on his way out the night before from getting debriefed from a drop that had ended with Fred Fielder in the medical unit. "Again" he thought to himself, although at least this time it actually wasn't Fred's fault. He'd just been in the wrong place when a vagrant had decided the drop going down outside his cardboard box was some kind of police raid and had clocked Fred with an iron bar before taking off. Nevertheless, once again Billy found himself doing insurance paperwork for Fred less than a few weeks after the last time. His lips twitched recalling Amanda's description of the stun gun accident and he rather suspected Leatherneck would manage to find the video of it in time for the Christmas party this year. As he completed the familiar forms, he was thinking about what Francine had suggested the night before. It was a good idea, a very good idea, but he couldn't figure out how to swing it without ending up with at least one agent mad at him and possibly two.

"Hello sir"

Billy looked up, startled to find one of the objects of his thoughts standing in his doorway. "Amanda? What are you doing here? I thought you were at Station One until at least the end of the weekend? Not that it's not always a pleasure to see you, of course. Come on in and sit down. I'm just finishing the medical paperwork on Fred's latest run-in."

Amanda crossed the room and sat gracefully in one of the chairs facing him. "Still? I would have thought all that would have been filed weeks ago."

"Oh no, this is new stuff. He's moved on from annoying his fellow agents; now the homeless population of Washington are trying to kill him too."

"Poor Fred". To her credit, she sounded like she meant it, even though she couldn't hide a slight smile.

"But what's brought you back so early? Beaman's daily updates all suggested it was going very well this time."

Amanda chuckled at his oblique reference to her original attempt at the Agency course. "I did much better this time, sir. Efraim even complimented me on how much I'd improved my evasive manoeuvres since the whole Stemwinder thing. And then outside of a few things like final gun range tests to go through with Leatherneck, I was all set to move onto the next round of courses when we hit a snag."

"A snag?" Knowing Amanda, Billy was worried that what she called a snag would be a major headache for him.

She took a deep breath and went on,"Yes, well, the next part of this round was pressure testing." She stopped and stared at her hands in her lap, absentmindedly rubbing the fingers on her left hand as if she was playing with a ring that wasn't there.

"Oh" It was suddenly all clear to Billy. "Pressure testing as in resistance to drugs and –." He stopped as suddenly as Amanda had seconds previously.

"Psychological pressure, yes sir." He noticed she couldn't say the word "torture" although that was certainly what Birol had put her through.

"That's not going to be a problem Amanda. You've proved yourself invaluable to the Agency so we'll figure out something to get you qualified."

"Thank you sir. I was hoping you'd say that. You see, Dr. McJohn wouldn't give permission for me to undergo any drug tests this soon but he and Dr. Pfaff both said they'd agree to sign off on me as exempted from having to complete it, if you'd agree." She said all this at high speed, still staring at her hands.

"I certainly agree you've already proven yourself under much worse pressure than the tests we do here, so I'll be happy to."

She finally lifted her eyes to smile at him, relief written all over her face. "Thank you sir, I'd appreciate that."

"Actually Amanda, the timing of this couldn't be more perfect. I was trying to think of a way of getting you out of Station One without annoying Beaman. Does your family still think you're away?"

"Yes sir. Philip is on a school trip until Sunday and Jamie is spending the week getting to know his dad better, and my mother is away in New York on a seniors Christmas shopping bus tour so nobody's expecting to see me for a few more days. I assume Lee is away as well? I tried calling him last night but he wasn't home. Is there something you need help with in the office?"

Billy hid a smile at the way she'd slid the question about Lee into the rest of the ramble. He could hardly wait to see her reaction to what was coming next. "Not office work, no; in fact, just the opposite. We're going to revive an old friend of yours and I need you to go on vacation, all expenses paid and I need you to leave this morning."

Whatever she'd been expecting to hear, it wasn't that. "Ok, I think. What am I expected to do?"

Billy leaned forward and began explaining Francine's idea and grinned to himself as Amanda's face lit up.

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