Lee Stetson was a man with a problem. A serious problem. He'd faced every conceivable danger known to man but now he was in real trouble. Until that precise moment, he had always believed that there was nothing worse in the world than a woman's tears.
Amanda wasn't crying though. If she had been, he'd have manned-up, patted her on the shoulder and said there-there. At first he'd tried not to let her see him look her way, but it was obvious now that she was deliberately avoiding looking in his direction.
She stood by the car with her raincoat folded over her arm, looking for all the world like someone had just kicked her puppy. Lee suddenly realised that Amanda being brave was just that much worse than any other woman's wailing and tears. He would need to do something, and fast! If he didn't, the guilt of remembering what he'd said to her was going to kill him. It was that much worse when he remembered how he'd felt the first time he'd been used by an enemy of the Agency. It was never a good feeling to know you had been used. It had sure given his pride a beating. Glancing over to where Alan Spires was being loaded into a police cruiser, he wanted to walk over and punch the guy again, twice. Once for his callous use of Amanda and another as a proxy for Lee's own guilt.
"The longer you wait, the worse it'll be." Billy said quietly.
"The worse what will be?"
"Apologising."
"What makes you think I'm going to apologise?" Lee growled, desperately hoping Billy would just offer to do it for him.
"Because you were pretty hard on her and you're not that kind of guy, Scarecrow. She's a nice person and so are you and there's no way you want to have this between you both." Considering for a moment how it might go the next time he called to ask for her help if this still hadn't been sorted, Lee nodded and walked over to his partner.
"Amanda?"
"Yes?" She answered in a small voice. Just that quickly, Lee knew that it would be a damn sight easier to smooth things over with her than have her use that pitiful, defeated tone with him again.
"I was wondering if you're free tonight? Maybe we could go to Spencer's?" Amanda finally met his gaze.
"What about your lip? You won't be able to eat like that."
"I'll ice it for a while and it'll be fine. Please?"
"If you're sure?"
"I'm sure. We've both had a tough week and deserve a treat."
"Thanks Lee. I'm really sorry for everything. I guess I really messed up, huh?"
"Me too." Lee answered, leaving the implied apology there for her to pick up. When she smiled at him, he knew everything was okay again.
