Chapter 6

Michael smiled and gently slapped Sam on the back. "I guess you're one of those lucky guys who gets a second chance."

"I don't deserve it."

"Sam. One thing I know about you is that you learn from your mistakes. You're not going to be the same man you were thirty years ago." He nodded toward the house. "So you need to go in there and just think about nursing her back to health for now. Show her you love her by doing that."

"Oh yeah, it's just as easy as that. Sounds like something Fi would say."

Michael gave him a look. "Do this for her, Sam." He grasped Sam's arm before he could stand. "She needs you now, and just think of this as payback for what you couldn't do before."

Sam nodded. "Okay. I'll try."

"I know you. You can do this."

"When Amanda regains her memory, she's not going to be happy that it was me beside her all the way."

"By then she'll have seen that you're not the man you were. You've changed." Michael smiled. "Then maybe you two can work things out."

Sam snorted. "Like you and your Ma?"

"That was different." Michael stood and pulled on Sam's sleeve to get him to stand with him. "Just go in there. Talk to her."

A long, heavy sigh escaped Sam. He let his head fall back and he rolled it to get rid of the tension. He wasn't even in the same room with Amanda and he was already feeling nervous about the next encounter. A brief flashback to how he felt on his second date with her. A little smile crossed his lips. Then he wiped it away, turned and nodded at Michael, and went into the house.

He didn't expect the warm smile Amanda gave him when he reappeared. "Hello, Sam. I didn't think you were coming back. I thought maybe I scared you off or something."

"No, it was just me. I have some issues..."

She frowned as she interrupted him. "I remind you of someone."

Damn, he'd forgotten how perceptive she could be. He fought the urge to bolt again and sat in the chair beside her bed. "Yeah, but that's okay. It doesn't matter."

Then she nodded like she used to when she didn't believe him, and he felt like he'd been punched.

"Where am I?"

As Sam started talking to Amanda about safe subjects like where she was and he told her about his friends, it became easier to be with her. It was almost like when the two first dated, and all those old feelings came rushing back at him. He tried to fight it, but it was impossible to resist. He knew the signs: he was falling in love with Amanda all over again, and by doing so he was taking a big risk. But he didn't care, because this time he was going to do it right if this was a second chance that he'd been given.

Meanwhile, Michael and Fiona worked on the leads and sources that hopefully would give them information on how Amanda wound up on the boat. The usual channels came up with nothing, and the team was beginning to think that they would never know unless Amanda's memory returned.

A couple of days later, she was well enough to take short hobbling trips around the house with Sam's support. Virgil found some crutches in the garage from one of Michael's spills as a teen, and he adjusted them for Amanda's use. It made getting around much easier.

Since she had nothing to wear, and Amanda was itching to get outdoors, Fiona brought her some things from her own collection. Amanda was the same size but taller. She came out wearing a sundress that reached above her knees and Fiona grimaced.

"I think we need to take you clothes shopping," Fiona said.

"Fi, do you think that's safe," Sam asked.

"She'll be with me, Sam. You know I'll take good care of her."

"Okay. Just watch yourselves. Maybe I should come along and..."

"We'll be fine!" Fiona shook her head, guided Amanda by the elbow and turned her toward the back door. "We'll be at the Galleria, and you can call to check in if you're so concerned. Sheesh."

Amanda laughed. At the door she turned and gave him a look. Her brown eyes were warm and sparkled with life along with her smile. He waved, and when she was gone, he knew his stomach would feel jittery and unsettled until she returned.

Just outside the door, he heard Amanda say, "You'd think he was married to me."

Fiona responded with a laugh, but the statement hit Sam in the chest. What would she think if he told her that she was?

When the ladies were gone, Michael said, "Sam, we need to talk."

"Sure. What's up?"

"Sit down." Michael got up as Sam sat at the dining room table. He went into the kitchen, brought out two beers, and sat across from his friend. He tapped a file folder. "This is what we've collected. Amanda is an NSA agent, as you already discovered, only she hasn't been working for the NSA for a couple of years now." He paused and took a sip of his beer. "She went rogue, Sam."

"Rogue? Amanda?" He snorted. "It's pretty hard to believe she's even an agent. A support staff member or a secretary, maybe, but an agent?"

"Obviously, she changed too, Sammy." Virgil spoke as he joined the conversation and sat at the end of the table.

Sam shook his head. "No. Something isn't right."

Michael opened the folder and showed Sam the evidence. Photographs and reports linked her to several activities that were not sanctioned by the U.S. Government. By the time he reached the last page, a newspaper clipping about a mass shooting at a community center, Sam felt sick to his stomach. His beer was warm, barely touched.

"Mike, do you think she had something to do with the people who burned you," he asked after Michael pulled the file back to his side of the table and closed it.

"I don't know. She could have just gone deep undercover on an assignment, or she actually worked with Anson's people. For all we know, she may never have had anything to do with this. You know how spies can be given credit where credit isn't due." His eyes sparkled along with a remorseful smile, recalling his own situation. "She doesn't appear to be any danger now, so I say we hang onto her. When her memory returns, if she shows herself as a rogue, then we'll deal with that problem."

"What if she never regains her memory," Virgil asked. He glanced at Michael, then Sam.

"We might still have to turn her in," Michael answered with an apology in his eyes as he looked at Sam. "Until then, I don't know how long my Ma will want to keep her around."

"Maybe there'd be less pressure on her to get back to normal if she's isolated a little," Sam suggested. He saw the question in Michael's eyes. "I mean, if I were to get a place where it would be just Amanda and me, separate bedrooms of course. I mean, you said yourself that she trusts me more than any one of you."

Virgil spoke. "Don't worry. As long as nobody brings up this Anson character and her possible link to him, Madeline will have no problem keeping Amanda around."

"Virgil, I can't keep this from her."

"Mike's right. If this goes south, she's gonna hate him and us all over again."

"I hate to say it, boys, but you're right." Virgil sighed and drained his beer. "She's at her aqua aerobics class right now, but when she gets back, we'll get this settled."

When Michael told Maddie everything, she paled and her eyes stared at Michael, immovable. "You want to keep a traitor in my house? After what happened with Nate?"

"Ma, we don't know for sure that she is." Michael reached for her, but Maddie's hands batted him away.

"No!" She screamed at him. "I won't have her here anymore!"

Virgil tried to reason with her. "Madeline, we think that if she was on the wrong side, maybe she was trying to make things right. She's the only one who survived off that boat."

"So?" Her eyes filled with tears and she tried to get away, but Virgil wrapped his arms around her.

"Ma, Fi and I found out that the yacht held a team, a remnant of Anson's organization. They were on a mission. We think that somehow they knew that I was going to be out on Virgil's boat that day, and they were heading out to kill me. Probably Sam too, and Virgil would have just been collateral damage."

Maddie glanced at them all as if they were crazy. Her voice came out in a whisper as she asked, "When is this going to end, Michael?"

"It might be like fighting cockroaches, Maddie," Sam said from where he stood by Michael. "We'll probably come upon them for years, now and then."

"I don't know how you can stand to live like this," she said. She sniffled, and Virgil, still holding onto her with one arm, gave her his handkerchief.

"Come on, Madeline. Let's go sit down for a bit and you can settle down. Then we'll talk about this some more."

"No, there's nothing more to discuss." Her eyes locked on two figures standing in the kitchen, and her eyes threw ice at one. "You, get out of my house before I kill you! You're not getting my son, you hear me!" She took a step toward Amanda, but Virgil held her back.

"Madeline." Virgil tried to soothe her with a soft voice, but she struggled against him.

Michael handed Sam his keys. "Get her out of here, now."

"Will do, Mikey." His eyes conveyed his apology to Maddie before he turned away from the scene and approached Amanda and Fiona. Maddie's voice faded away as Virgil took her into the solar room, but the shock remained. Sam laid a hand on Amanda's elbow. "Come on, we'll find you a place to stay for awhile."

Amanda was close to tears. "What did I do?"

"Nothing. It's okay. Fi, can you bring the stuff you bought for Amanda and put it into the Charger?"

"Sure, Sam." Fiona led the way to the car and threw the bags into the back seat. She unfolded the seat and Sam helped Amanda into it, and Amanda winced at the contact of her stitches with the vinyl. It reminded him that he needed to look at that and see how it was healing.

"Tell Mike I'll let him know where we wind up."

"Good. If we had room at the loft..."

"I know." Sam smiled. "If you can stay with her later, I'll come back and get my stuff." Fiona nodded. Sam closed the door for Amanda and trotted around to the driver's side. He pulled out of the driveway with no idea where to go, but he had an idea. He got on his phone. "Hey Barry, remember how I saved your butt and helped you get your ledgers? Well, I need a favor..."

It wasn't the Taj Mahal, but it wasn't some two-bit sleazy motel, either. Barry had a small house in Boca, a piece of investment property he obtained from a client. It would keep Amanda out of the main city, yet the police station wasn't far away in case something went down. It had two bedrooms, one bath, a living/dining/kitchen area, and it was fully furnished. Michael and Fiona came to visit and watch Amanda while Sam went back to Maddie's to retrieve his things. Virgil had everything packed and waiting for him.

"Maddie's so hot right now, she barely allows me in the house." He waved Sam away from the back door. "Don't worry, she'll get over it."

"This is my fault. If I hadn't had Mike bring Amanda here..."

"You didn't know, Sammy." Virgil looked at him with a hard expression. "Mercy, I don't know about you two boys. Between you and Michael, you're both blaming yourselves. It was nobody's fault. Just keep movin' forward and let Michael and Fiona get to the bottom of this mystery, and you take care of that little lady, because if she's innocent, you've got a second chance at happiness with her." His eyes softened and he grinned. "Don't blow it, son."

Sam mirrored the grin. "Thanks, Virg. I'll try not to."

Amanda was not the same woman Sam married. She was still sweet but more worldly-wise, charming and fun-loving, but she'd gained a strength she didn't have before. If Sam suddenly went away, she would be able to take care of herself. She was capable of dressing without his assistance, which was just as well because he didn't think he would be able to assist without temptation rearing its head. She limped around without crutches now and then to strengthen her leg which Sam tried to discourage, but she gave him a look he'd never seen before. It was cold and tough, daring him to defy her desire to get better in her own way.

"Amanda, I need to look at that leg. It's probably time I took out those stitches."

"Would you? I'll be so glad to get them out!"

"Sure. After lunch."

When she finished, Amanda went to her room and waited for Sam. The two of them were alone, except for brief visits from Michael and Fiona. Michael would always go outside to talk to Sam and Fiona stayed inside to keep her company. Amanda liked Fiona. She was tough like her, and she could tell the woman had a lot of scars, just like her. How Amanda knew that, she wasn't sure. She told Fiona how now and then she dreamed something, only it didn't seem like a fantastical thing. Amanda was certain that it was real.

She told Fiona that she was starting to remember, so on the last visit her new friend brought a pen and notebook for her. Amanda wrote things down during the day when she closed her eyes and saw flashes of memories. They didn't always make sense, but she recorded it anyway. Sometimes she sketched what she saw. She shared her recollections with Sam because she trusted him and hoped that maybe he would be able to help her put the pieces together and give her enough to find her way back to herself.

Today, she and Sam would be alone all day. He cleaned up the kitchen from lunch and she listened to the sounds of domesticity. It should have been her job. She used to do those things for a man... a man with dark brown hair, brown eyes like Sam's... who wore a uniform. She shook her head when the memory left her. It was a memory, of that she was sure. When Sam entered the room she was jotting it down in the notebook.

"You had another one?"

Her head whipped around. She lay on the bed on her stomach, facing away from the door. She didn't know why his entrance startled her for a moment, but it did. He saw it too, and his face registered his concern.

"Yeah. It's okay." She smiled. "I think it was kind of a good memory, but it wasn't around long enough to determine if it was or not."

He nodded. In one hand he held a container with some medical supplies in it and he set it on a chair which he pushed over to the side of the bed. "Okay, let me take a look at this first." He cut off the bandage and nodded. "You've healed up enough. I'm taking the stitches out. This might hurt a little."

"It's okay. I'd rather not have them in my leg, thanks." She rested on her elbows and forearms and twisted her head around to give him a sweet smile. He returned it, then went to work.

He snipped the stitches and removed them as carefully as he could to avoid causing her pain. God knows he'd given her enough of that for a lifetime. He glanced up now and then. Amanda continued writing in her notebook while he plucked thread out of her skin. She sucked in a breath.

"Sorry."

"It's okay."

The last stitch was gone, and there was a little irritation around the wound but the operation went well. He massaged some aloe into the red area and put a small adhesive bandage on it. "There, all done." His hand rested on the back of her thigh. The skin was still soft and smooth and it did things to him, things he had no business thinking about when it was possible that he was harboring an assassin in Barry's home. He would freak if he knew! Sam pulled away, shot up to his feet, and snatched up the supplies, threw them into the container and turned toward the door.

"Sam, is something wrong?"

He froze at the threshold. He blinked, unsure if he could turn around and not expose the desire in his eyes. Maybe if he reminded himself that their marriage was over, even if they were still legally married, maybe then he could douse the flame in his heart.

"Sam?"

He turned, half hiding behind the door frame. "Nothing's wrong. I'm, uh, I'm just going to do some stuff for Mike. If you need anything, let me know."

"I'll probably just get up and get it myself, thanks." A dimple rose in her right cheek when she smiled. "You're really being a super guy. I don't understand why no woman has snatched you up." She shook her head and went back to her notebook.

Sam returned the supplies to the bathroom, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and retreated to the back yard.