If Lee had thought the day had started badly, it had only gotten worse with the realization that Steven Sallee was still alive and in Washington. No matter Billy's doubts on the matter, Lee had already been pretty certain that Amanda had stumbled into something as usual, even before they'd found poor Millicent MacDonald strangled, a broken doll abandoned in the middle of a mundane suburban house.

No, he thought, sadly, not just a house, a home.

For all that he teased Amanda so often about normal people, it had really hit hard when he'd found her pale and trembling in the living room. It still never failed to tear her up when innocents were involved; from that first time when Frank Bodine had died in her arms to poor Marianna and then Cheryl, Amanda had never developed the hard shell that most agents did, even after all this time. Maybe it was because she hadn't had to do the training they had, the training that made killing and death part of her 'normal' life.

Would encouraging her to take further training help her, he wondered, or would it just make her hardened and as apparently unfeeling as the rest of them? No, he thought, wincing – she's been an innocent victim of violence herself, she'd always carry the burden of that knowledge and empathize with the victims. And she'd made him better that way too – since Andy, he'd let himself get cut off from caring about people, about how their work affected people. Real people, he mentally corrected himself.

But Amanda, she was like his mirror image, caring the most about those intersections. In so many ways, that made her the perfect complement to him, she cared about the why of the job while he worried about the how. And now she was sitting in the Q Bureau late at night, staring at Millicent's diary as if it could tell them where Sallee was, with such a dejected look on her face because she knew that as far as the Agency was concerned, they were out of time.

"It's just so sad," she murmured, running her fingers across an open page. "She wanted so little and he took even that away."

He came to sit on the edge of the desk in front of her. "I know."

She leaned back in her chair and looked at him, a troubled look in her expressive eyes. "You know who she reminds me of? Agnes."

It took him a moment to place who she meant. "Agnes Snow?" he asked, waiting for her to nod in confirmation. "Yeah, I know what you mean," he sighed.

"They were both just nice people who wanted a little affection in their lives and suffered for it," Amanda went on quietly. "I mean, if anyone can sympathize, I can – Alan Squires did the same thing to me, so I shouldn't even be surprised but you know what? No matter how long we do this, I'll never understand how there are people who can take advantage of people like Millicent who aren't even part of their plan – she was just his landlady, and all she wanted was for someone to care about her and have someone to care about in return. She was so happy with the tiniest gestures and now I just read them and wonder why he was setting her up that way." She held up the diary and let the pages flick along her thumb. "Why couldn't he just be the boarder who lived upstairs and kept to himself? Why did he have to bring her chocolates and sheet music and make her think he cared? It was so cruel when he must have known he was never going to stay. That's the part I don't get – he gained nothing from it, and she lost everything."

"He saw her as a means to an end, I'm afraid. He might have had a plan to use her to help him get away before anyone could make the connection to where he was hiding." He paused at the pained expression that went across her face. "Amanda, you know that even if you hadn't tracked him to her house, he still would have killed her, right? Sallee's a dangerous man and he didn't get to be the most untraceable guy on the most-wanted list without making sure he scrubbed every trail clean behind him."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," her voice was cracking with emotion. "We might have caught him before he could do whatever it is he's planning, or while he was doing it or any other time and she'd still be alive."

"I know," Lee nodded. "But we wouldn't have even had the chance to do that if you hadn't run into him and at least now we do know he's here and planning something – and Billy believes you, which he might not have if she hadn't been killed."

"That's pretty cold comfort, Lee, but I guess it's something." Amanda stood up, still holding the diary. "It's just so frustrating – we can do our job every day and men like Sallee and Nick Cross still find a way to victimize the most vulnerable people!"

Lee stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, rubbing circles on her back until she relaxed. ""I know – it's unfair," he agreed. "But we can at least try and stop him, right?"

"Yeah," her response was muffled against his chest. She pushed herself back and ran the heel of her hand across her eyes before taking a deep breath. "Do you think anyone would mind if I took this home and looked at it some more? I feel like I could get more out of it if I just keep looking."

"Yeah sure," Lee answered, searching her face, trying to decide how upset she still was and if he should let her leave yet.

"Thanks," she sighed. "I'll bring it back in the morning." She turned to pick up her purse and walked to the door.

For a split second, he was tempted to call her back, to try and tease her about leaving without saying goodbye properly the way they'd joked just that morning, see if he couldn't lighten her mood just a little bit, but caught himself. "Goodnight Amanda," he said softly instead as she went out the door, apparently lost in thought.

He walked to lift his jacket off the coat rack when he heard her footsteps slow in the hallway, then turn back to the Q Bureau. He looked at her quizzically as she re-appeared in the doorway, serious expression on her face. Without a word, she rested a hand on his shoulder and tipped up slightly on her toes and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Goodnight Lee." She dropped back and looked at him with a firm nod.

Before he could react, she'd turned and disappeared back down the hall.