It took Lee a moment to catch his breath after seeing Amanda lip to lip with Paul. He quickly realized that he could easily blow his cover if he wasn't careful. He cleared his throat loudly and jumped back into character.

"Hanna! Hanna, honey! Wait! Don't run off!" He shouted after Hanna as he jogged away from Amanda and Paul and down the path.

Amanda jumped at the sound of Lee's voice. She could feel her cheeks flush as she realized that she had been lost in the moment while kissing Paul. Paul released his grip on Amanda's shoulders and took a step back. He noticed Lee running down the path after Hanna. He was quite sure that Hanna had not taken notice of the necking couple almost directly in her escape path.

"Well, Lee has finally made contact with Hanna…..Hopefully we will get some answers soon." Paul said.

"Yeah, he's made contact alright…..." Amanda said as her voice trailed off.

"Let's take a look at the note Francine slipped us."

Amanda fished the napkin out of her small purse and opened it. The words written upon it were a bit smudged and the handwriting was terrible but still legible.

"M. Lincoln Saturday" Amanda read aloud from the napkin. She looked up at Paul with a confused look on her face. "Is that some kind of code?"

Paul took the napkin from her hand and examined the message to see if there was something that they were missing. "M. Lincoln Saturday" he muttered under his breath as he began to pace.

"Well? Any idea what that means?" Amanda asked.

"Hell if I know. It doesn't match any of our codes."

Amanda noticed others staring down the garden path. She thought it was better if they vacated their little hideaway.

"Sweetheart, why don't we worry about this later, huh?" She said indicating with her eyes that they were no longer alone. "I thought you promised me a glass of wine!"

"That I did, darling. Shall we go and find one?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK

Hanna was well out of sight by the time Lee stopped jogging down the path. He could have caught her if he wanted to, he was more concerned with getting away from Amanda and Paul.

"Damn it!" he screamed inside his own mind. He knew he didn't have anything to be mad about. After all, he was just kissing Hanna. He knew in his head that this was just an assignment, and Amanda kissing Paul was nothing more than that…or at least that is what he hoped. His heart, however was a different story. He couldn't get the image of the two of them out of his mind. "It should be ME holding her like that and kissing her like that! Why can't I just tell her how I feel? DAMN IT!" Lee dialogued with himself as he paced back and forth kicking the ground as he traveled.

"Easy there, cowboy!" a voice said.

Lee looked up to see Francine standing before him.

"Franc…" Lee stopped himself before he finished her name. Again, he could have blown his cover if he wasn't careful.

"I have been looking everywhere for you, sir. Here is the drink you ordered." Francine said as she handed him a glass.

"Oh…..right. Thank you little lady. Appreciate it." Lee sniffed the beverage within the glass and then drank it right down in one gulp.

"Easy Lee!" Francine said in a hushed whisper. "What's got you all hot and bothered?"

Lee looked at her with fire in his eyes. He was clenching his jaw so tightly that his temple muscles were dancing with each grinding of the teeth. He inhaled deeply as he prepared to answer her, but she beat him to it. A devilish smirk broke out across her face and her eyes began to twinkle.

"Ooooh! I know what has gotten you so upset!" Francine said with a saccharine sweetness to her voice-gesturing to something behind Lee. "They really do make a nice couple, don't they?"

Lee spun around to see what Francine was talking about. There he saw Paul and Amanda walking out of the garden, arm in arm. Lee looked down at the ground for a moment and recomposed himself. The only thing he knew to do was to throw himself deeper into his character and push his feelings for Amanda aside.

"Well, well. If it isn't my neighbors! Ya'll goin' to the shin dig tonight? I sure would like a chance to dance with you pretty lady!" Lee said to Amanda as he grabbed her hand and held it between his own.

"Oh! Yes! We'll be going Mr…"

"Honey, I done told you that my daddy is Mr., I am just plain ol' Bob!"

"I'm sorry, I forgot…Bob. Yes we'll be going."

"How about that dance?"

"We'll see. Didn't I see you with another woman a few moments ago?" Amanda said with an edge to her tone.

"Well, that may be true but that don't mean that there ain't room on my dance card for you, too. Well that is if it is ok with the hubby."

Lee looked at Paul. Without realizing it, he attempted to make his chest as broad as he could as you would see one animal do to another when they were fighting over a mate.

"I'm sure something can be arranged, Bob. My wife can make her own decisions." Paul then turned to Francine. "I'm glad to see you here….could you please get my wife a glass of chardonnay and a 7 and 7 for me? Oh, and could you throw this away for me?"

"Right away, sir." Francine said as she walked away.

"Paul….why did you give Francine back the napkin? Don't we want to have it analyzed or something?" Amanda asked with a bit of panic in her voice.

"It's not the same napkin. I wrote her a message on the new one." Paul replied.

"You did? When did you do that? And what if she doesn't notice that you did and throws that one away? You know that one time, Jamie left me a note that he wrote on the back of his lunch bag. I saw this wrinkled old lunch bag just sitting there on the counter and I thought to myself "Why can't that child ever throw anything away for himself"…well little did I know that…."

"Amanda!" Lee interjected causing her to stop in mid sentence. "She'll look at the napkin, don't worry."

"But how do you KNOW she will, she might just throw it away."

"She won't throw it away!" Lee shot back.

"But how do you KNOW?"

"BECAUSE" Lee began to shout at her. His abrupt sternness startled Amanda and she visibly tensed up. He was not annoyed at her rambling or her questions, but rather that she had been in the arms of Paul Barnes.

"Because….."Paul said in a calm voice attempting to put Amanda at ease, "I gave her the code before I handed her the napkin." Paul gave Lee a reprimanding look.

"What code? I didn't see you give her a code." Amanda questioned as she slightly turned away from Lee.

"7 and 7" Lee snapped. "THAT was the code" ,he said in an aggravated but hushed tone.

Amanda looked at Lee with hurt written all over her face. He knew immediately that he was letting his emotions get the better of him. Paul looked at both of them and tried to read the situation.

"Darling, why don't you try and go get some details about tonight's dinner and meet me back in the room in about 20 minutes." Paul said to Amanda.

"Ok, sweetheart. I think I can manage that ok. See you then." Amanda walked away without making eye contact with Lee.

Lee put his hands in his pockets and kicked at the ground.

"What the hell is the matter with you, Scarecrow?" Paul said getting very close to Lee's face.

"Nothing! Nothing is the matter."

"Really? Is that why you just bit Amanda's head off? If seeing Hanna again has stirred up old feelings for her, then deal with it! We are here to do a job and it is going to take us all to do it…..working as a TEAM."

"Hanna? You think that seeing Hanna again has put me in a bad mood?"

"Well, something has. If not her, then what?

Lee looked at Paul. He so desperately wanted to blurt out to him that seeing him kissing Amanda was what put him in this state.

"Ok…fine. Maybe you're right. Seeing Hanna definitely stirred something up."

"Well pull it together. What did you find out from her?"

Lee inhaled deeply and ran his hand through his hair. "Not a whole lot. She was afraid to talk to me. She thought that I was dead. That's all she would say. She told me to meet her again tonight in the garden at 9."

"Think it's a trap?"

"Could be….only one way to find out. I will be meeting her later tonight. Did Francine have anything for you?"

Paul took out the napkin and showed it to Lee.

"M. Lincoln Saturday" Lee looked up at Paul perplexed. "Any idea what the hell that means?"

"Nope, not yet. I am hoping that it means we have at least 24 hours to figure it out given that today is Friday."

"What did you ask Francine for in the message you slipped her?"

"I asked her for a listing of everything that is going on here on the grounds tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully we can find something in that list. I have the party guest list in my room. Amanda and I will go through it and look for M. Lincoln."

"You know it's not going to be that easy, don't you?"

"Yup. It never is."

"Well let's head back up to your room and I will help you and Amanda look through the names."

"No, Scarecrow. You need to stay down here and mingle. See what you can find out. Amanda and I can handle this."

Lee clenched his teeth again and stared at Paul. His mind brought him back to the soft kiss he shared with Amanda on her back porch…..the moment when he came so close to telling her he loved her. Paul's voice brought him out of his daydream.

"Besides, a man wants to spend some alone time with his wife…..if you know what I am saying." Paul said as he began to chuckle.

The words were barely out of Paul's mouth before Lee reacted with a fist to Paul's jaw. Paul fell to the ground. Lee looked at his fist in horror realizing what he had done.

"Oh shit!"

To be continued….