Billy had been overly optimistic in hoping that Lee would calm down overnight. If anything, he seemed to have gotten angrier since the night before and his belligerence was on full display now as he stood in Billy's office.
"Scarecrow, I'm sorry but your actions bordered on treason and you know it!" Billy could already tell he wasn't getting through to an implacable Lee. "And Beaman knows it too – you're lucky you're not both being hauled up in front of IA – again!"
"They were going to just leave them there, Billy. I couldn't live with that." Lee's gaze was hard as he stared back at his boss.
"We had our orders," replied Billy. "We don't always like them but that's the nature of the business, as you well know. The investment on capturing Rostov was too big for some people to just let him go, especially for a civilian auxiliary." He loathed repeating the party line over this, but he needed to make Lee understand the seriousness of what he'd done. He was already enough of a lone wolf without condoning this most recent escapade.
"I think you mean some people just thought Amanda and Francine weren't important enough to bargain for?" Lee shot back. "There had to be a hundred ways to prove to Zinoviev he had an innocent civilian as hostage instead of just abandoning her there." He leaned forward, voice quiet as he tried to control his anger. "A civilian who has been responsible for saving my life half a dozen times and yours too, for that matter!"
"Do you think I don't know that? Or that I was happy about any of this?" Billy retorted. "But contrary to your opinion, I don't get to run this place as my own little private army! But I take my orders from the people who do – and when Dirk Fredericks told me we had orders to back off, I had no choice!"
"I don't really care what Dirk Fredericks thinks, I'd do it again," snarled Lee.
"Well you won't have to worry about what he thinks anymore," answered Billy. "This entire debacle has gotten him a transfer over to the basement of the Department of Agriculture where he'll get to investigate corrupt soybean farmers for the foreseeable future." He paused and studied Lee's furious expression. "There are people higher up who weren't impressed that he wasn't truthful about what was at stake."
"He wasn't truthful?" Lee questioned. "What the hell does that mean?"
"He didn't tell them it was a civilian that had been taken – he let them think it was just a pair of low-level agents." He watched as the muscle began to tic in Lee's jaw and tried to gentle his tone "Lee, you can't think I'm any happier about that than you are! I've known Francine almost as long as I've known you! And Amanda may be new around here, but if last night proved anything, it's that everyone in here thinks she's something special, just like you do." He sighed and leaned back in his chair, gazing up at his most hot-headed agent. "But to go off half-cocked the way you did and without backup…"
"I had Beaman," Lee replied tersely.
"Who is not a field agent, despite all the things you and Francine drag him into," Billy countered. "Look, I understand why you did it, but you know this was inexcusable! I've let you roam without a leash long enough, Scarecrow – you obviously need someone to keep you on the straight and narrow – you've been without a partner for too long."
"No." Lee's voice was icy as he stared down at his boss.
"You're a good agent, Lee – hell, you're my best agent – but you know you do better with someone to work with, to bounce off of. Look at all the good work you've done with Amanda lately…" Billy trailed off and looked at him speculatively.
"Oh hell, no!" Lee interrupted him before he could get any further with that train of thought. "This isn't about having a partner, Billy and it sure as hell isn't about trying to make Amanda one. She is my friend, but she isn't my partner. You know how I know that?" He leaned forward and placed his hands on the edge of Billy's desk so that they were more eye to eye. "Because I've had a partner – a partner's a guy who laughs at your jokes, loans you his socks, and one day, takes a bullet through the head for you!" He sucked in a deep breath as Billy flinched, then went on with increasing volume. "And that almost happened again – and no one was even going to tell me about it! You would have let me stay on that beach and never said a word because some idiot up at the top of the food chain thought I was too important an asset to lose. More important than an innocent mother of two who is the centre of the universe to her family!"
He straightened again and reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out an envelope and tossing it on Billy's desk. "And it's all moot anyway because you still lose me. I resign, effective immediately." He turned to walk to the office door, pulling up short when he realized Amanda was hovering just outside, maternal concern written all over her face. He wasn't sure how much she'd heard but it didn't matter anymore.
"Lee." He heard her soft plea as he pushed by her, but he kept moving, ignoring the shocked expressions of everyone in the bullpen as he stormed out.