"How did you get away from Jack Harris?" Francine asked, riveted. As was often the case, Amanda thought maybe they were crossing the line between debriefing and gossip session. Still, Lee couldn't do it because his report would need to corroborate Amanda's debriefing so she had to recount what happened to Francine.
"He heard a noise behind him. At the time, we didn't know it was Lee of course. But he turned around and I grabbed a piece of wood on the ground and whacked him with it! Well, he dropped his gun and rolled down the hill and I grabbed the gun but I didn't know what I was going to do because I had a flat on my car and I didn't know how long Harris would be out for. But then, Lee said something I think it was just 'Hi!' or something. You know Lee, he just laughed at what I'd done. He probably thought I was silly for holding the gun like it was a dead ferret or something; but you know I really do hate guns! Well anyways, he told me he'd put the spare on my car and told me where to meet him after that and then when I met him… Well he was just right back to his old self!" Francine nodded.
"And so he just broke his cover. For you?" Francine couldn't help the tinge of bitterness in her voice. Here she was a highly trained, highly qualified professional and Lee and Billy had kept her out of the loop while Amanda Oops King was in on the entire thing, almost from the beginning. It was unbelievable how much Amanda was in on that Francine was kept out of.
"Well, I don't think he had much of a choice, Francine. You know how Lee is. He wanted to keep me safe and the only way to do that was to keep me away from…" Amanda paused, remembering that it wasn't the only way Lee had tried to keep her out of things. They'd both been so shocked when he'd slapped her. It hadn't really hurt, but it had been hard enough to upset them both. Lee had apologised, first at Nedlingers' and then more insistently at Chez Nouvelle. She'd forgiven him, of course. And there was no need for that part of the story to make it into the official record. No one needed to know that particular piece of information.
Across the bullpen, in Billy's office, a similar scene was playing out. "You should have seen her, Billy. Amanda never lost her cool. She didn't even flinch when I shot at her. She just trusted me." Lee laughed. "I couldn't believe it when I saw that semi coming down the road. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Brakin and Harris's faces when they realised just how much they'd underestimated Amanda." Lee shook his head. "She was amazing."
Billy nodded. He'd noticed a real change in Lee's attitude to Amanda. "You know, you couldn't ask for a better partner." Billy pointed out. "She even made a point of defending you to me."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. Haven't you noticed that your backlog of paperwork magically disappeared while you were visiting skid row? Amanda got them done for you and when I asked her about it, she just listed your qualities for me and reminded me not to forget any of them."
"That's my Amanda." Lee chuckled. Billy didn't comment on what was probably just a slip of the tongue. It seemed that maybe Lee's feelings had vaulted right past friend and partner into something a bit more exceptional. Billy was looking forward to seeing how that panned out for them.
"I'll back up your recommendation for recognition and make sure it gets the right people's attention." Billy promised.