Author's Note: The organization mentioned in the flashback scene, Brothers to the Rescue, is a real group based in Miami and the mention of the FBI paying a Cuban spy was a real incident in February 1996 as was the shooting down of the planes mentioned.

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Amanda paced the Q Bureau restlessly as far as the cord on her desk phone would let her, her mind running in twelve directions at once as she dialed her eldest child's cell phone for the third time and got no answer. Where was Phillip? She'd already done some investigating, found out that he'd never registered for school this semester and had run a check for all local hotels and apartment complexes, and found nothing with his name on it, indicating that wherever he was living now, it was in someone else's name.

Her thoughts were also filled with worry for Leah and curiosity with what was going on with her. Was this just normal teenage girl behavior? She had only gone through the teenage years with boys before, so maybe she was worrying for nothing. Although, she also couldn't recall a time that as a teenage girl herself that she'd been blatantly disrespectful to her own mother. Yes, she'd had her moments of rebellion, like the time she'd been so mad about her mother accusing her of smoking, that she went right out and did it. Leah's stinging words of Thursday night still rang in her ears, She's not my real mother! Even days later, the words still bruised her heart. It was true, yes, but it didn't make it any less painful.

"Damn!" she swore, something that she rarely did as she got Phillip's voicemail again, slammed the phone down and began pacing the full length of the office. She had to find her son. As she paced, her mind drifted to Lee's hurtful actions and couldn't help wondering what it was about. Yes, they'd fought on Thursday and again on Saturday when he'd insisted on going by himself to talk to one of his contacts, one that he said would be skittish and likely bolt or worse if he didn't come alone. She tried to shake off those nagging thoughts and focus on the task at hand, finding Phillip.

She hurried out of the office, down the stairs past Mrs. Marston who tried to stop her. "Mrs. Stetson, you have-"

"Later, Mrs. Marston," Amanda cut her off without even looking her direction. "Whatever, it is, it can wait until later." She then stepped into the elevator to take her downstairs to the Electronic Surveillance division, her thoughts still tormenting her. She reflected back on the fight that she and Lee had had in the office on Saturday.

Saturday, February 8, 1997, 10:00AM

Amanda was typing furiously on the computer while Lee was on the phone, both of them trying to track down more information on the escaped prisoner from Guantanamo Bay. It had been reported to them on Thursday morning and the military had asked for the agency's help since it was rumored that he was headed for DC and under questioning while still a prisoner, he'd confessed to a plot against President Clinton over his refusal to negotiate regarding the long-standing trade embargo.

"Yeah, I understand," Lee said just before he hung up the phone. He glanced over Amanda's shoulder and asked, "Anything?"

"Nothing concrete so far, but I think I may have a lead. I just need to access a few more computer records and see where they take me. You?"

"Maybe. I just got off the phone with one of my contacts at the Cuban Interests Section. I need to go meet him in a half hour," Lee answered.

"Well, just give me a minute and I'll do with you," Amanda suggested.

"Uh...Amanda..." Lee hedged causing his wife to halt in her typing and look up at him curiously.

"What? What is it?"

"This guy...he...uh...he's not one for company since he's inside Castro's inner circle. He insisted that I meet him alone."

"Sounds like it could be dangerous," Amanda replied worriedly.

"Not if I go alone like he asked," Lee fired back. "This guy's really skittish, the kind of skittish that if he sees anyone else around, he may just take of or he may start shooting and ask questions later."

"All the more reason for you to have some backup," she argued.

"Amanda, no!" Lee stated firmly. "You just keep doing what you're doing. You sounded like you might be onto something in the computer records." He nodded toward the computer. "Besides, you're much better with that thing than I ever will be." He smiled at her.

"Don't you try to butter me up," Amanda scolded. "You're going out there, taking a chance with your life and you shouldn't do it alone."

"Amanda, will you just listen to me for once? I'm still the senior agent here and I'm telling you to stay put!"

"Oho, you're telling me! Did I just hear you right? Don't you try that pulling rank on me bit! I've been watching your back for almost fourteen years now and I'm not about to stop now!"

Lee took a deep breath and said in a calmer tone, "And I appreciate that, but seriously, my back doesn't need to be watched right now, but it will if I don't meet him on time. Now, please, just stay put and follow your own lead, okay?"

Amanda nodded. "Who is this guy anyway?"

"Uh-uh," Lee shook his head. "I know you, Amanda. If I tell you who he is, the next thing I know, you'll be tracking him down, or worse, showing up at the meet and that's the worst thing you could do with this guy. He's just too twitchy. Please, for both our sakes, just trust me, hmm?"

Amanda sighed and conceded. "I trust you..." she paused for a beat and then added, "Call me in an hour just so I know you're okay."

"You got it," Lee responded with a smile. "But I shouldn't be gone longer than that." He planted a quick kiss to her lips and left the office.

Amanda sighed again before sitting down and continuing her task. She worked silently on her research while sipping at the cup of coffee beside her when a tidbit about their escaped prisoner caught her eye. "Two hundred thousand dollars? Where was he transferring that kind of money?" she mused aloud. She quickly jotted down the bank account information and after a few more keystrokes, let out a sigh of frustration and muttered, "Great, a numbered account in Switzerland." Undeterred, she kept typing away to investigate who owned the account that had received the wire transfer.

"A-ha," Amanda stated triumphantly. "Brothers to the Rescue. That makes sense." She was familiar with the organization that used questionable tactics to rescue Cuban exiles and with the fact that they had been trying for years to bring down the socialist regime in Cuba. She also knew that just a year ago, the FBI had been under investigation for paying for information from one of their members, a man named Roque, who had turned out to be just a spy for the Cuban government and had infiltrated the Brothers in an attempt to take them down. It was believed that Roque had also been responsible for the Cuban Air Force shooting down two of the Brothers' planes around that same time.

"So, what's the connection?" Amanda questioned aloud. She decided to cross-reference the information that she had with the FBI's files from a year ago and that was when she found herself startled by what she found. "Oh my gosh." She printed the pages from the computer files and began to gather them all together in one large file. She was about to leave to report this to Internal Affairs, but then thought better of it worried about what would happen if someone from there was involved. "Think, Amanda think!' She thought about telling Billy what she'd found, but then he'd insist on getting internal affairs involved since it looked as if one of their own might be crooked. "No," she said firmly.

"I got it." She gathered up her things, deciding that since it was entirely possible that someone within the FBI were involved as well, that she'd go straight to the DoJ and hope someone would take her seriously.

Amanda was snapped back to the present by Leatherneck's cheerful voice saying, "What can I do you for, Mrs. S.?"

"Hi, Leatherneck. I need a little help tracking someone down. You can do that with their cell phone signal, right?" She smiled pleasantly. She wasn't about to tell him that it was her own son she wanted to track down as that would raise too many questions. She already didn't like the fact that people upstairs in the bullpen were gossiping about her and Lee, making speculations about their marriage falling apart and if it were related to the fact that she'd obviously been thrown by the news that her son had applied to the agency.

He nodded, "Sure can. As long as they haven't got it turned off. You have the serial number of the phone?"

"No," Amanda answered with a frown.

"No problem," Leatherneck answered at seeing the dejected look on her face. "We can just do it the old-fashioned way by just tracing a call. You have the number, right?"

"But what if he doesn't answer? I've been calling, but all I get is his voicemail. Doesn't a call have to be connected for you to trace it?"

"Piece of cake," He told her with a smile. "The voicemail answering it will connect a call too and it can't hang up on you as long as there's not a dead silence. You just let the voicemail answer and keep talking to it 'til we get a trace on the location." He took her by the arm leading her to a table with a phone hooked into a computer system. "Here, use this phone to call. It's already set up for tracing. Just gimme' a thumbs-up when the voicemail picks up."

Amanda nodded and began dialing, doing as she was told and when she once again, got the dreaded voicemail, she gave Leatherneck a sign and launched into her best ramble, "Hi, Phillip. It's Mom. I...um...I was just calling to check in on you. You haven't called home in a while and you know me...I...uh...I was getting a bit worried about you. I hope school is going okay for you. I know it's gotta' be a stressful time for you with this being your last semester of law school and all, so I understand why you haven't called in a while, but still it would be nice to hear your voice." When she saw Leatherneck giving her a thumbs up, she wrapped it up. "So, I...um...I'm probably going to be out of the office today, but if you could give me a call on my cell, I'd appreciate it. I love you." She hung up the phone and gulped in a lungful of air.

"Your boy, huh?" Off Amanda's gloomy look, he said, "I heard about it."

"Why am I not surprised?" she replied a little sarcastically and then immediately apologized. "I'm sorry, Leatherneck. it's not you. I appreciate your help, really, I do. I'm just...you know...a little worried."

"Yeah, I know, but now you can stop worrying," Leatherneck gestured to the computer screen. "There's your boy, right there."

"Great! Thank you so much," She said sincerely as she jotted down the address, stuffed the slip of paper into the pocket of her suit jacket and hurried back toward the elevator.

As she rode the elevator back upstairs, she once again found her mind drifting to the events of Saturday.

Saturday, May 8, 1997, 1:00PM

Compiling all her evidence into one neat file had taken her the better part of an hour. She'd spent another hour and a half trying to convince a bored and skeptical-looking agent at the Department of Justice that there was an elaborate conspiracy within the US intelligence community and another thirty minutes in lunchtime traffic to get back to the office. All the while, she was worrying about her husband as he'd never called as he said he would.

To make matters worse, she'd no more than entered through the Georgetown foyer and had headed toward her office when she was stopped by Mrs. Marston's voice, "Mrs. Stetson, before you go up there, you should stop by the infirmary first."

"Why?" she asked warily, her worry for Lee increasing. "What's going on?"

"Mr. Melrose just told me to deliver the message when I saw you," the matron answered with a noncommittal shrug.

Amanda sighed and replied wearily, "Thank you, Mrs. Marston," as she changed directions to follow her boss' instructions.

Upon entering the infirmary and seeing her husband with his ribs being taped up by Dr. McJohn, she let out a loud cry of, "Oh my gosh! You're hurt!" She rushed to his side and slid an arm around him comfortingly.

"Relax, Amanda, I'm okay," Lee said testily. "It's just a couple of busted ribs." His protests were belied by him letting out sharp hiss of pain as Dr. McJohn worked. "Hey, are you about done there?" He growled at McJohn.

"All finished," McJohn answered. "You're free to go now."

"Thank God," Lee grumbled as he reached for his discarded shirt but winced in pain as he did so.

"Here, let me help you with that," Amanda took his shirt from his hands and helped him to put it back on. While she did so, she asked, "So, your skittish contact. Did he do this to you?"

"No, the steering wheel of the agency car I borrowed did this when I rear-ended the escaped lunatic," Lee answered.

"That's why you should wear a seatbelt," she scolded as she finished with the buttons on his shirt. "And why you should have had backup."

"I DID have backup. I called it in when I got the location of his hideout from my contact. I got there right as he was leaving and tried to apprehend him but then he took off like a bat out of hell. I had no choice but to follow him."

"Why didn't you call me?"

"I did. You didn't answer," Lee explained as he gingerly scooted himself from the examining table, mindful of his broken ribs. "You must have stepped out of the office. When the switchboard said you weren't answering, I had them patch me through to Billy instead so I could get some help."

"Why didn't you try my cell?" she questioned.

"Amanda, there wasn't time. I was already on the line with the agency and the creep was going to get away if I didn't pursue him."

"This is why I should have gone with you," Amanda countered.

"Where the hell were you anyway?" Lee turned the tables on her as they exited the infirmary together. "I thought I told you to stay in the office and dig through the computer records.

"I did. I mean, I was, but I found something-"

Their conversation was interrupted by Billy walking toward them with a loud, "Scarecrow! My office! Now!"

Amanda shook her head as she exited the elevator at the fact that she'd never had another opportunity to share her suspicions with Lee, between him being lectured for another two hours by Billy and them returning home to their very busy household. They'd made a pact several years ago not to discuss work at home unless it was absolutely necessary. She was about to head up the stairs to retrieve her purse and head out to find Phillip when she was halted again by Mrs. Marston.

"Mrs. Stetson," the older woman said sternly.

"What is it, Mrs. Marston," Amanda asked in irritation finally turning toward the foyer and that was when she noticed her ex-husband sitting on one of the chairs waiting. "Joe?" she said questioningly looking at him and then at Mrs. Marston.

"That's what I was trying to tell you a few minutes ago," Mrs. Marston stated coolly.

Amanda turned her attention back to her ex. "Joe, what are you doing here?"

Joe rose, glanced briefly at the matron at the desk and replied, "I think it's best if we talk in private."

"Okay," Amanda answered warily, not liking the look on his face at all. "I was just heading upstairs. Come on." They ascended the stairs together. With the bleak look on his face, Amanda was wondering if Joe had somehow already found out about Phillip. It didn't really matter to her. If he didn't already know, she knew she needed to tell him. She unlocked the door to her office and ushered him inside. "So, what's going on?"

Joe took a deep breath. "Amanda...uh...You...uh...you might want to sit down for this. I'm afraid I've got some bad news."

"You've heard about Phillip, haven't you?" she asked with a worried look on her face.

"No, I mean, yes, I heard, but no, that's not what this is about," Joe replied. "Please, Amanda, you should sit down."

"It's about Jamie, isn't it? Whatever it is that he's been hiding, you know what it is, don't you?"

"No, I wish I did. All I know is that he withdrew a large sum of cash from his college fund today and no one knows why. I don't, you obviously don't and Lee doesn't."

"When did you talk to Lee?" Amanda questioned.

"He came to see me today," Joe answered grimly. "That's what I came to talk to you about. If you could just sit down..."

"I'll stand, thanks," Amanda said as she folded her arms across her chest. "Joe, just tell me what's going on."

Joe took another deep breath and pulled out a copy of the documents from his coat pocket that he knew she'd get her own copy of soon enough. "This..." he swallowed hard and handed them to her. "This is what's going on."

Amanda unfolded them and felt a sharp stab of pain slice through her once she realized what she was holding, however, didn't let it show on her face, simply tossed the vile papers on her desk and then looked at Joe. "Thank you for telling me," she said blandly.

Joe frowned at the blank expression on her face. He'd expected more of a reaction from her. "That's not officially your copy, you'll get your own the normal way, but I-" He broke off at seeing her expression still hadn't changed.

"You what?" she queried.

"Boy, they really train you well in spy school, don't they?" Joe said jokingly, trying to at least get some kind of reaction from her.

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Come on, Joe, I know you don't approve of what I do for a living-"

"I don't care about that right now," Joe interrupted. "What I care about is you. I wanted to bring those to you in person because I didn't want you to be surprised the way I was fifteen years ago."

"Oh, Joe, that was an entirely different situation. It's not as if you were home for me to discuss it with you and I couldn't-' Tears began sliding down her cheeks at the horrible thought of history repeating itself and found she had to steady herself on the edge of her desk.

Joe quickly caught her before she could fall, wrapped his arms around her and let her cry against him. "It's okay, Amanda, let it out." She continued her heartbroken sobbing as he held her tightly and whispered, "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," trying to do anything he could to comfort her.

Amanda clung to Joe as she felt her heart breaking, all her hopes that Lee was just undercover and playing up to Amie because of it dashed by seeing his signature on the hated documents now on her desk. When she had no more tears to cry, she pulled back, hastily wiped her tears away and said, "Thank you...for being here."

Joe nodded. "Anytime," He smiled weakly and brushed her rumpled hair from her face. "You know, we may not be together anymore, but I still care what happens to-"

Joe didn't get to finish his sentences due to the door being opened. There stood Amie taking in the scene before her and said snootily, "Well, it didn't take you long to move on. Guess it wasn't true love, after all."