Dotty walked in from the back yard. "Lee said you might need my help with something," She said as she pulled off her gardening gloves.

"Yeah, I need help doing some rearranging around here to make room for Lee," Amanda replied.

"Of course, Darling. Where do you want to start?"

"There are still a couple of bags in the foyer that need to be taken upstairs and unpacked," She stepped across the landing to the foyer, her mother following."Now, I can grab the overnight case and the garment bag, since neither of them are very heavy, if you wouldn't mind getting the garment bag."

"Sure," Dotty replied. They made their way upstairs to Amanda's bedroom, dropping their respective loads on the bed. "Amanda started unzipping the garment bag."

"What's in that? I wouldn't have thought you'd need a garment bag for you honeymoon since you're be wearing mostly casual clothes," Dotty said then as an afterthought added "Or no clothes at all."

"Mother," she said in exasperation as she continued her task pulling out the suit Lee had worn on their wedding day. She gazed at it for a moment as she recalled how handsome he'd looked that day and the smile that had never left his face during the entire ceremony.

"Oh, come on , Amanda, I was a newlywed once. I know what it's like. I don't think your daddy and I left our hotel room for the first three days we were married."

"Are you gonna help or are you gonna talk?" Amanda asked as she hung Lee's suit in the closet.

"Both, "Dotty said as she unzipped the suitcase on the bed and glanced over at the garment bag spying Amanda's white suit. "That's very pretty. Is it new? I don't recall ever seeing it before."

Amanda turned back toward the bed having finished with Lee's suit and pulling her own out of the bag. "I bought it for our wedding," she said with a smile as she held it up for a moment and recalled how nervous she'd been that day, staying in the ladies room far longer than she'd needed to because she wanted to make sure she looked completely perfect.

"Oh, that's what you wore when you married Lee? I'll bet you looked absolutely beautiful in it," Dotty said her voice tinged with sadness at not being there to see it.

Hearing the edge in her mother's voice, Amanda looked over at her and saw her tearing up. She dropped the suit on the bed, and walked around to the other side of it to embrace her mother. "Oh, mother," She said. "Don't be sad."

"I can't help it, Amanda," Dotty said pulling out of her daughter's grasp blinking back the tears. "A mother has a right to be there for her daughter's wedding. I should have been allowed to help you plan and do all the silly, girlie things that a mother and daughter are supposed to do together in planning a wedding, But you and Lee had this whirlwind romance that I wasn't even aware was going on and the next thing I know, I find out that you're married." She sat on the bed next to the suitcase she yet done anything with.

Amanda sighed realizing in that moment that this was the first time she and her mother had really had a chance to talk a lone since the secret had come out. She sat next to her mother. "I understand that this has hurt you, Mother, but this wasn't really a whirlwind romance. Lee and I have known each for four years and it took a long time for the two of us to gain the courage to admit our true feelings for each other. Once we did, though, once we both knew that it was real, we didn't want to wait any longer. It was only a month after Lee told me he loved me for the first time, that he asked me to marry him."

"And you were married four months later, I know."

"How do you know that?"

"When I confronted Lee at the hospital after Dr. Neely gave me your things, he admitted that he bought you the engagement ring four months ago."

"He really told you a lot of stuff, didn't he?"

Dotty nodded. "Once he started talking, he didn't seem like he wanted to stop."

"Well, when I'm able to go back to work, I'm going to talk to Billy about giving him a refresher course on resistance training."

"Resistance training?"

"It's a course for agents where they put you through all these interrogation techniques to teach you how keep your mouth shut if you're ever captured by the enemy."

"Like you were in October? Lee told me you were taken hostage by a terrorist. It was funny because at the time, I thought how nice it was to finally meet your gentleman friend that you'd talked about so many times. I had no idea until last week that if you hadn't been, what was the term you used, 'captured by the enemy,' I'd probably never have met him at all."

"Please, don't blame Lee for that."

"I don't, Amanda, I blame you. It's not like you were in a hurry to introduce your family to him or have him over for dinner or let him come to the door to pick you up for a date. I missed out on your whole courtship with him. When he came here that day, I knew by the way he looked around the room, that he'd been here before. All those times that the boys and I went camping or I was out on a date and came home early to catch you in here looking guilty, giving me yet another completely pathetic story about how you spent your evening, I knew there was something more going on, but I could never get you to open up and tell me about it. I'm not just hurt by the fact that you kept your engagement a secret or you wedding. You've kept your whole relationship with Lee from me. I share everything with you about my relationships."

"I know you do, Mother, sometimes more that I want to know," she said with a grin.

"You used to be the same way. When you were in high school, you used to tell me every time you had a crush on a new boy, when you were in college, you told me about every guy you ever went out on even the worst date with, you even confessed to me when and how you lost your virginity, everything. What changed, Amanda?" Why do you feel you can no longer trust me?"

"It's not that I don't trust you, Mother, it's just that working for IFF, keeping secrets kind of comes with the territory."

"I get that when it comes to matters of national security and I would never expect you to violate your oath to protect this country's secrets, but we're not talking about national security, we're talking about your marriage, your life. You've had this whole life with Lee that I knew nothing about. That's a huge thing to keep from your mother."

"I know it is, but I don't have a time machine I can just jump in and undo all that. I kept the secrets I did to try to keep you and the boys safe. The work that Lee and I do is extremely dangerous. But I promise you, I will never keep secrets from you again, but I want you to understand that after four years of being in the habit of keeping secrets, it may take me some time to get used to sharing things with you again. I need you to be patient with me on that front, ok?"

"Ok, I can accept that."

"Good, now let's get back to work. We've got a lot to do before the guys get back"

"Ok," Dotty nodded as they both rose from the bed and went back to the task at hand. Amanda went back to hanging up her wedding suit in the closet while Dotty finished opening the suitcase. She smiled a wicked smile as she saw the lacy concoction lying right on top. "Oh my, Amanda," she said as she picked it up. Amanda turned to find her mother holding up a sheer black negligee. "Care to share?"Dotty smiled devilishly. When Amanda just gave her a look, she said, "So, this must be your other outfit from your wedding day. There's not much to it. Weren't you the one lecturing me about wearing things you could read through?"

Amanda knew that if she were going to regain her mother's trust, she'd have to stop being evasive. "If it makes you feel any better, I didn't wear it for very long."

"I imagine not with a man like Lee. So, come on, details."

"What details? It was our wedding night. You know as well as I do what newly married couples do on their honeymoon. Weren't you just telling me about you and Daddy not leaving your room for three days?"

"There's one thing I'm just dying to know. Is Lee as good as he looks?"

"Mother!"she said in exasperation. No, Amanda, stop withholding, she chided herself. "no, he's not as good as he looks." When her mother looked disappointed before Amanda added with a devilish grin, "He's even better than he looks."

"So, is that what kept you two up here for over an hour earlier?"

"What do you think?"Amanda fired back.

"I just hope that Lee's not pressuring you to do something you're not ready for."

"You make it sound like I'm some sixteen-year-old virgin. I have been married before, you know," Amanda reminded her.

"That's not what I meant and you know it, "Her mother said in annoyance. "Now, you're just purposely being obtuse. I'm just concerned because you're still recovering from a life-threatening injury."

"I know that and that's exactly why I pressured him into it, not the other way around. He wanted to wait to make sure that he wouldn't hurt me, but I didn't let him. Nearly dying made me need to feel like I was in the land of the living again and Lee makes me feel very, very alive, more alive than I've ever felt before."

"Well, he is a very attractive man. When he came downstairs this morning without his shirt on, I thought what a lucky lady my daughter is."

"I am very lucky, but it's more than just he looks that make me lucky. It's the way he kisses me, the way he touches me, or sometimes he doesn't even have to be touching me in any way at all. There have been many times at work when we've just been sitting at our desks doing paperwork or whatever and I'll look over at him to find that he's already looking at me. Then he'll give me this look...'Her voice trailed off.

"Yes? What kind of look?"

"It's kind of hard to describe. It's this look that tells me everything he feels for me, how much he needs me, how much he loves me, how much he wants me. It reminds me that he can't live without me. Every time I see that look on his face, it takes all the strength I have not to lock the office door and have my way with him right then and there."

"Have you and Lee ever..." Dotty paused for emphasis raising her eyebrows, "...at the office?"

"No, but I won't say I haven't been tempted many times. I have never felt the kind of desire for any other man that I feel for Lee. Even before we were a couple, I fantasized about what it would be like to be with him."

"Is that why you broke up with Dean? From what I've been hearing from you and Lee the past few days, I get the idea that you met Lee right around that time."

"Yeah, That's exactly why I broke up with Dean. I tried to love Dean, I really did. I kept thinking there must be something wrong with me for not being able to love him. There was no reason for me not to. He was a good man who loved me, loved the boys, was dependable, had a good job and wanted to take care of me and the kids. He asked me to marry him several times and I kept saying no. It took me a while to figure out why."

"No spark?"

"Mm-mm. Nothing. I think it really hit me when I got in that wreck and had amnesia. Some of the things that I'd forgotten were related to the job, but they were mostly about Lee. When all those memories came flooding back to me I remembered what the doctor had said about forgetting things that were emotionally complicated. I knew then that I couldn't see Dean anymore because I'd forgotten everything about Lee, but nothing about him. I didn't know if I'd ever have a chance with anyone like Lee, but I knew that I couldn't keep pretending with Dean when he never had a chance with me. I had to let him go so he could have a shot at finding someone who could love him the way he deserved to be loved."

"So, you broke his heart?"

"Mother, I had to. I felt incredibly guilty for doing it because he'd never done anything to deserve to have his heart broken but I had no other choice. I would have hurt him a lot more if I'd stayed with him and kept leading him on, giving him hope for a future with me that I knew was never going to happen."

"Amanda, you shouldn't feel guilty. If the feeling's not there, it's just not there. You can't force yourself to feel something that you don't."

"With Lee, it was just the opposite. Falling in love with him just came so easily. As cliché as it sounds, I feel like he's the one I've been waiting for my entire life."

"Good, I'm glad," she said with a smile. "Now, let's get this finished, so we can get your husband moved in here and you two can start building your life together."