March 30, 1985

Lee and his uncle sat in a booth in the brightly-decorated pizza place and Lee shook his head as he picked idly at the remnants of his pizza, "I'm just still amazed that you're here and that you even managed it."

"Well, I really started thinking about what you said, you know, about me being more involved." He gestured with his head to the ongoing birthday party across the room. "Besides, being a colonel has some advantages, like being able to pull the right strings at times." He gave his nephew a knowing smile.

Lee nodded in understanding. "I never did really thank you for what you did a year ago, did I?"

"The pictures you sent were thanks enough. You lived up to your end of the bargain." Both men glanced across the way to the excited children as Phillip ripped into his presents and the busy adults manning the party and trying to keep the mess at bay. "Though I still have to wonder how you got such sharp pictures from a distance. With things the way they are between you and Amanda, it didn't take much for me to figure out that you didn't actually attend last year's party."

"Well, being a spy has its advantages too," Lee quipped, but then his smile faded when he heard Phillip's elated cry of "Thanks, Dad!" and watched in dismay as his son hugged Amanda's ex-husband tightly. He quickly averted his eyes and took a long drink from the beer in front of him.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" his uncle questioned sympathetically. Lee clenched his jaw and nodded, unable to form words at the moment. "I assume he's the man she married in her youth instead of you? The one who gave your child his name?"

"Yeah." Lee let out a breath slowly as he tried to compose himself. To combat his own pain, he tried to focus on the costume-clad servers as they brought out a large birthday cake and the whole crowd broke into a round of Happy Birthday. He couldn't help himself in murmuring along with the song and turned back long enough to watch his twelve-year-old son blow out the candles once it concluded.

"Why'd you let him?" Robert asked worriedly. While it was true that he and his nephew hadn't always seen eye-to-eye on a great many things, he still never wished to see him in the kind of pain he was in now. "Furthermore, why do you put yourself through..." he again gestured to the party. "...this?"

"What other choice do I have? For that matter, what other choice did I have then? Amanda was determined that she was going to marry him whether I liked it or not and I couldn't talk her out of it. God, if I'd known she was carrying my baby then, I'd have...I'd have done anything to get her to change her mind...kidnapped her if I had to."

"Oh, come on, Lee, you don't mean that," his uncle chided him.

"Don't I?" He glanced across the room to Joe King and made a sour face. "I mean, there had to be something there, something he had that I didn't if she still married him after he broke her heart." He still wondered at times if the fierce envy he felt toward the lawyer was simply because of his son...or because of Amanda.

"But she's with you now," the colonel pointed out. When Lee snorted in response, he looked at the younger man curiously. "Isn't she?"

"Not so you'd notice," Lee grumbled as he reflected back on the events of the past few weeks, his argument with Billy over Amanda going undercover with Francine, the fight they'd had over the stupid car, and more worrisome, how he'd come so close to losing her permanently, not once, but twice recently. First it had been with that lookalike who'd tried to kill him and had gotten herself killed in the process and had very nearly taken Amanda with her all because of his own failure to capture Redding seven years ago. Then just last week his own actions had put her in danger again when he'd taken off with her orange and in an apologetic gesture had given her his own lunch.

He'd thought he was doing right by her, but then all it had done was put her in danger again. He'd never been so afraid as when he'd seen her on that ledge at the hospital, so terrified that it was going to be a repeat of events from two weeks prior to that when she'd been dangling from the edge of a building alongside her double. One thing that he'd learned by having her doppelganger around though was just how much he felt for her and not just because of what she looked like, but because of who she was inside. Try as she may, that was something Karen Brinkman just couldn't duplicate.

"That bad, huh?" He frowned at his nephew's comment. "It seems to me that the two of you seemed pretty...close the last time I saw you."

Lee flushed slightly at the memory of his uncle interrupting their lovemaking a little over a month ago. "It's my fault," he confessed. "Things have gotten a bit...sticky on the work front and she's been...she's been put into a couple of tight spots because of her association with me and I-" He swallowed hard, his chest tightening as the fear of seeing her nearly die threatened to overwhelm him again.

"Naturally, you backed off again," Robert finished scornfully with a shake of his head. "Has it ever occurred to you that the best way to keep her safe is not to keep your distance, but to do just the opposite? As you've pointed out for years, you're a highly-trained, highly-skilled operative." Lee rolled his eyes at the mocking tone in his uncle's voice as the older man continued, "So if you really are as good as you say you are, wouldn't she be safer if you never left her side?"

"I don't know...maybe," Lee replied as he stared into his beer mug.

"God, you're stubborn, just like..." Robert broke off and looked down into his own glass to cover his near-outburst of emotion.

Lee looked up at his uncle and scrutinized him closely, trying to discern what it was that had caused him to stop talking so hastily. By the colonel's tone, he'd thought he was in for another lecture, but now he could swear he saw a hint of something different. Was it pain? Grief? He couldn't quite tell. He just wished he had Amanda's innate knack for reading people's emotions. "Just like what?" he gently probed.

"Nothing. Doesn't matter," Robert said as he averted his eyes by looking back at the party and changed the subject. "He's a good-looking boy. Looks a bit like you, you know."

"And my dad," Lee added pointedly, sure that's what he'd seen on his uncle's face a moment ago, the pain of their shared loss.

"Yeah," the older man nodded. "You're more like him than you know. My brother, he...he had that same stubborn streak that you've got."

"Hmm...I wouldn't know," Lee commented sadly. "I don't...I don't have enough memories to really know what he was like...or my mother for that matter."

"She was actually a lot like Amanda. A loving, devoted mother, but fiery, with a stubborn will that used to make your father nuts. But God, he was so crazy in love with her. I can see a bit why you fell for Amanda. You have so much of Matt in you it's no wonder that you'd be attracted to the same kind of woman that he was."

Lee took a shuddering breath as the pain of losing his parents hit him all over again and he sensed something that he never had before, that just as he had himself, his uncle had tried to bury his own pain over their deaths. He wondered if that might be a starting point for the two of them to repair their strained relationship. "Amanda's pretty amazing, but she does make me pretty damn nuts at times," Lee acknowledged with a bit of a chuckle to lighten the mood a bit.

"Excuse me, Gentlemen," a familiar raspy voice sounded and both men turned to see Amanda approaching them with a plate of cake in each of her hands. "You can probably see that it's my son's birthday and I...um...I'm afraid I ordered a cake that was just a bit too large for the party guests, so I thought I might share it so it doesn't go to waste." She smiled at both of them as she set one plate down in front of each of them. She then edged in closer and lowered her voice. "I also wanted to tell you that Phillip really loves the new skateboard you got him." She gave a nod to the gaming area where the children had scattered to play.

"Good. I knew he needed a new one ever since that Dan guy tried to fix his old one," Lee beamed at her as he took a small bite of his cake.

"Oh, come on, Lee, you know very well by now that his name was Dean," she scolded.

Lee laughed. "I never did understand what you saw in that guy...or that guy." He nodded tensely to Joe who was now approaching their table.

"Hey," Joe said to get Amanda's attention. "I just wanted to let you know I'm taking off. I've got a plane to catch in the morning."

"Imagine that," Lee muttered earning him a scowl from Amanda and a matching one from Joe.

"Where are you off to this time?" Amanda asked when she sense the tension between her former lover and her current one.

"Estoccia,. It's this little out-of-the-way country in Africa and in dire need of help," he explained. "I already said goodbye to the boys, but just wanted to say goodbye to you too and thank you for letting me hang around the house so much lately to spend time with the boys."

"Of course. You have a safe trip and don't forget to write."

"I won't," Joe promised and with a quick kiss to her lips, he departed.

Lee felt a stab of jealously cut through him and turned his attention to his cake. "Not as good as your homemade cake," he told her as a reminder that he'd been around more lately than her ex had.

Amanda shrugged off his attempt at making her feel guilty. "Well, you know, this is where Phillip wanted to have his party," she explained. "He's getting a bit too old for the little kid stuff." She gave him a pointed look to remind him of just how fast their son was growing up.

"He is growing up fast," Lee agreed with a note of sadness that he'd missed so much of his son's formative years.

"Mom, Mom! Look!" Phillip came running up to her excitedly with his fists full of game tickets. "Look how many tickets I got from Skee-ball!"

"That's great, Sweetheart!"

"Yeah, great, Bozo!" Jamie jeered from behind his older brother. "Now, you only need ten-thousand more to get anything good with them."

"Hey, hey, hey," Amanda scolded. "Don't call your brother names. Maybe the two of you could combine your tickets to share one prize or something."

"No way! Let him earn his own." Phillip stuck his tongue out at Jamie while Amanda rolled her eyes.

"Well, if you want more tickets, you need to play some more, so come on." She cast an apologetic look at Lee and his uncle as she steered her children back to the gaming area.

Robert laughed at the antics of the boys and commented, "He's more like you than I thought, even without you being a real part of his life."

"Yeah," Lee replied sadly and let out a deep sigh as he reached for his wallet. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

Robert stopped him and said, "This one's on me."

"I can pay for my own meal," he protested.

"I know you can, but just let me do this. Consider it a birthday gift for my great-nephew. After all, I've been there for him even less than you have."

"Sure," Lee surrendered as he put his wallet away.

Once his uncle had paid for their bill, the two men walked out of the restaurant in silence neither knowing quite what to say to the other, the tension thick enough to cut it with a knife. "Uh..." Lee broke the silence. "I-"

"Yes?"

"Thanks," he finally spit out. "For coming here today, for keeping me company. The older he gets, the...the harder it is to...you know..."

"Be on the outside looking in?" the colonel suggested.

"Yeah," Lee admitted.

"I know the feeling." He paused mid-step to look at his nephew. "I've felt that way about you a few times." Off Lee's incredulous look, he held up a hand to stop him from interrupting. "I know it's mostly my own fault, so don't give me that look. The truth is, while I enjoyed being here to spend a little time with you, there's more to it than just your son's party. I have a meeting on Monday at the Pentagon."

"Oh?" Lee replied curiously as he too paused in his walking.

"I have an opportunity here. After what happened last month with Sergeant Ballard and me working side-by-side with the intelligence community, I've been offered a position within the Air Force's intelligence division."

The younger man couldn't help laughing. "You? After all the 'James Bond' jokes you've made at my expense over the years?"

"Don't be a smartass, Son. It wouldn't be like anything you do. It actually wouldn't be that much different than what I do now. I'd still be running training exercises, but with an emphasis on the more covert side of it. With all these new stealth aircraft they keep coming up with, it's something to think about. Of course, if it works out, I'd be doing a bit more in an office as well, coordinating training ops and the like, so I'd be splitting my time between the Pentagon and Bolling."

"Are you sure that's what you want? You're not exactly a desk jockey," Lee pointed out.

"I'm getting old, Skip," he sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it, I can't always do all the things I used to do. Some parts of the job are just better suited to the younger guys. Something you oughtta' think about in your line of work too."

"Maybe." He reflected back on their talk of a few weeks ago when his uncle had told him that someday he'd have to choose between his family and his career and couldn't help wondering if that's what the colonel was doing now in his thinking of taking this job. "And I suppose it's just convenient that if you take this job, it would mean a move to D.C."

"I'm tired," he confessed. "Like you said the last time I was here, we spent a lot of time moving all over the place when you were a kid. Taking this position would mean I'd have a permanent home. "Or at least as permanent as you can get in the military. So, what do you think?"

"Why do you care what I think? It's never mattered to you before. You've always just done whatever you wanted to do anyway."

"Sounds like someone else I know," he teased.

"Touché."

"Seriously, though, I want your opinion. Do you think you could handle having me around more often?"

"I suppose I could..." He grinned at his uncle. "...On one condition."

"What's that?"

"Stay the hell out of my...private life."

"Ahh...yes. I never did apologize for interrupting...your...um...private life, did I?"

Lee raised an eyebrow in surprise. Was the other man actually apologizing for something? "No, you didn't, but it's...um...it's not necessary. I should never have let things go that far with Amanda knowing you were in the next room."

"Nonsense. It's your home and I was the interloper. Believe me, I learned my lesson. I saw stuff I never wanted to see."

"Exactly how much did you see?"

"Not a lot, but just enough to know that you were being a bit careless again," he lightly scolded.

Lee flushed at the memory. "Uh...yeah...about that. Amanda's on the pill these days... so, it wasn't as reckless as it seemed. I've learned a few lessons too, you know."

"Good, because the last thing you want to do if you expect the woman to ever marry you is to force her hand by getting her pregnant again."

"Trust me, even that wouldn't force her hand," Lee scoffed.

"Do I even want to know what that means?"

"No, definitely not." He shook his head as he recalled the memories of last fall when he'd panicked over the fear that he and Amanda had conceived another child together without the benefit of being a real couple.

"I won't ask then."

"Good. So, what do you say we go grab a real drink somewhere instead of the watery beer they had at this kiddie pizza joint?" He glanced through the windows scanning the arcade area for one more glimpse of his family. He let out a deep sigh as he watched the boys side-by-side beating the pop-up moles to death, wishing he could be there with them. He averted his eyes and continued to his uncle, "Let me buy this time and you can tell me all about this job you're thinking of taking."

"Sounds good, Son," Robert clapped his nephew on the shoulder as they walked to the 'Vette parked at the curb. "Just make sure you don't kill us in that death trap of yours."

Lee laughed as he got into the driver's side of his car. While they were starting to mend fences, he realized that some things would still never change, but he was beginning to be okay with that.

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April 2, 1985

Feeling that familiar tightness in his chest, Lee raced into the hospital out of breath and heart pounding. He quickly flashed his badge at the uniformed metro cops at the entrance of the morgue. "I-I-I got...a...a call. I-" He took a deep breath as he found himself almost unable to get the words out. "A-a-a- woman was brought in," he explained shakily. "A-a-Amanda K-king...m-my partner. Is it...is it true? Is it her?"

One of the officers nodded sympathetically. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid so. That's the ID we found on the body."

Lee swallowed hard and found that just taking a breath was becoming more difficult. He felt like he'd been gut-punched. "No..." he moaned. "I-I-I n-n-need to see her."

"I don't think that's a good idea. It's not pretty."

His pain soon turned to anger. "Well, you know what, Pal? I don't give a damn if you think it's a good idea or not. She's my partner! I need to see her so move aside before I move you myself!"

The two men quickly stepped aside and cleared a path to the double doors. Lee took a deep breath to steel himself, feeling as if he were moving in slow-motion as he walked through the doors, his worst nightmare coming true. Again, he flashed his badge, this time for the benefit of the medical examiner on duty. "Amanda King," he requested tersely as he steadied himself on a nearby vacant autopsy table, willing his stomach to calm down so he wouldn't throw up all over the place.

"This way," the ME indicated as she moved to another table in the room where a sheet-covered body lay. She glanced back at him as he numbly followed her. "Do you need a minute?"

Lee shook his head and gestured for her to continue. When the sheet was pulled back, he breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, thank God." When the doctor looked at him strangely, he quickly added, "I mean not that she's dead, of course." He felt guilty for being grateful that it was Sylvia on the autopsy table, but he couldn't help the elation and profound sense of relief that it wasn't Amanda as he'd been led to believe, but then that led to the question of just how the dead agent had ended up with Amanda's ID on her.

April 4, 1985

Lee fidgeted nervously as he stepped off the internal elevator to the uppermost floor of the Agency's underground levels, an area that he knew very few agents were ever invited to visit. In his twelve years of employment, he'd only ever been up here one time and that was when Harry V. Thornton had personally invited him to offer him a job. A personal invitation from Austin Smyth wasn't nearly as welcoming. "Just get it over with," he ordered himself as he opened the door to the outer office and stepped inside. "Lee Stetson," he told the woman at the desk. "I was told-"

"Come in, Scarecrow," a voice crowed to his left and he quickly turned to see the man himself staring at him from the doorway of his private office, his ever-present cigarette holder in one hand.

"Sure," he replied as he quickly did what he was told and closed the door behind him. He glanced nervously around the office as the director took a seat, not behind his desk as he'd expected, but at a round table similar to the one downstairs in Billy's office. He noticed there was a decanter and a pair of glasses on the table.

"Well, go on. Make yourself comfortable. After all, there aren't many in your position who get personally invited into my Fortress of Solitude." Smyth grinned at him.

"So, what? You're Superman now?" Lee scoffed as he took a seat on the opposite side of the table.

"In a manner of speaking," the director answered. "Drink?" He indicated the setup on the table. "You look as if you could use one."

"Yeah. Maybe more than one," Lee concurred as he poured the amber liquid into the waiting glass and took a swig to calm his jangled nerves. "So what makes you think you're Superman?"

Smyth picked up a newspaper from the surface of the table and tossed it Lee's direction. "This, for one. Like the man of steel, I see and hear everything."

Lee shrugged as he glanced at the paper, which was folded just right to highlight Amanda's obituary. "I've already seen it. So what?"

Smyth nodded curtly as he puffed on his cigarette. "But didn't you wonder how it got there when you personally made a more accurate identification of the body in question?"

As realization dawned on Lee, he tossed the paper violently back at his superior. "Why the hell would you do something like that? Do you have any idea the kind of hell you've put Amanda through?" he spat angrily.

"Indeed, I do," Smyth acknowledged. "But it's a minor nuisance compared to allowing it to be known that she's not dead by those who wished to kill her...or the facsimile of her at least. Look at this as the inconvenience of a hangnail in comparison to the blinding pain of having a limb amputated."

"I don't follow you." Lee shook his head in confusion.

Smyth leaned forward in his seat to meet the younger man's gaze and tapped the paper. "Whoever did this is working under the belief that the dearly departed really is your lady love. They have no idea of her true identity or that she was working for us and we need to keep it that way. I planted the seed with the local ambulance chasers to ensure it, not only to protect this Agency, but the mother of your child as well. What do you think they'd do to her if they knew she were still alive?"

Lee nodded in understanding. "Sure, if they really believed that Sylvia was Amanda and they found out she wasn't dead..."

Smyth's grin widened. "Ahh...I knew Paul Barnes misnamed you when he gave you your codename. There is a brain in there."

"Alright, alright," Lee frowned. "It's not like I haven't heard that joke a million times." He gave Smyth a questioning look. "So, you really invited me up here just to tell me this? For what reason?" He reached for his drink and sipped at it again.

"To get you to stop trying to resurrect her for the moment," Smyth stated bluntly. "Until this is resolved, she needs to stay six feet under for her own protection."

"But why? Why would you care? I mean, she's not even an agent."

"Surprised? That I'm not as heartless as the Tin Woodman, Scarecrow?" He arched an eyebrow and explained, "Putting your very own Glinda, the Good Witch at risk puts her munchkins at risk...and yours."

"I get that, I just don't get why you would care."

"Because, like I said, I see everything, including how you've changed since she started working here." When Lee looked at him questioningly, he clarified, "In a good way."

"Huh." Lee shook his head.

"As for her not being an agent...well, that may be something we'll have to think about changing in the future." He nodded toward the door. "That's all."

Lee rose from his seat, knowing Dr. Smyth well enough to know when he was being dismissed. As he reached for the door, he was stopped by the older man's voice.

"Oh, and Scarecrow?"

"Yes?" He turned his head to meet the other man's eyes.

"We never had this conversation."

He flinched slightly under the stern gaze of his boss' steel-colored eyes that made him look much gruffer than he was. "Understood," Lee nodded and exited the room.

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May 10, 1985

Lee paced the floor of Billy's office as he listened to his boss drone on and on about how there just wasn't enough money to give him what he wanted. "I don't care, Billy! Whatever you have to do, just do it! Don't you understand? Amanda nearly died...again! All because of her association with the Agency and I'm asking..." He halted and jabbed a finger at Billy. "No, I demand that you do whatever it takes to get her back here where I can keep an eye on her!"

"You can't blame this latest incident on her association with the Agency, Lee. She wasn't even working for us at the time."

"Because she wasn't making enough money here, so that one falls squarely on the Agency. Besides, she never would have met Jordan if it hadn't been for her association with the Agency! Even if you don't count that one, there's still the poisoned chicken salad and the lookalike and Sylvia taking her ID and-" He broke off, not wanting to mention that he could have killed her himself just a couple of weeks ago when he was pretending to be a head case. He only thanked the heavens that Amanda had trusted him so much and hadn't moved a muscle when he'd shot at her, and for his Agency training that made him a good shot.

"I understand all that and I would love to do exactly what you're asking, Lee," Billy argued sympathetically. "Lord knows, we need her around here just to keep you in check..."

"Hey!"

"...But tell me where we're going to get the money," Billy continued as he ignored Lee's outburst.

"Take it out of my pay," Lee blurted out.

"What? Lee, you can't be serious."

"I am serious, Billy! It's partially my fault she went to work for Jordan as it is." Lee let out a deep sigh and looked down at the floor guiltily.

"You're not still feeling guilty about that incident that happened when you were pretending to be a burnout, are you?"

"A little," he admitted as he met his friend's eyes. He'd agreed to that assignment solely because it gave him the much-needed opportunity to keep Amanda at a distance so he could keep her out of danger. Three attempts had been made on her life in recent months prior to that and now this almost-successful attempt in her garage made four just in two months' time; all due to her association with him, five if he included when he'd shot at her to protect his cover. "But it's more than that Billy. She's struggling for money and that's on me too. If I were doing my duty to her..." He looked back down at the floor. "If I were being a real father to my kid." He shook his head, rose from his seat and began pacing again. "All this time, I've kept thinking that if I stayed out of his life to protect him, even though it hurts like hell, I figured I was doing right by him. I mean, that's what a father is supposed to do, protect his kids, right? Besides, if she's back here, I can not only protect her, but the kids too. And if, God forbid, something were to happen to her, I'd be in a lot better position to look after the boys if I were her partner again." His uncle's words about never leaving her side kept haunting him after witnessing her near-death three more times since then, one of them at his own hands.

"Lee, I know how you feel," Billy replied. He couldn't help noticing that rather than just referring to his own child with Amanda, he'd begun referring to them both. He smiled inwardly as that was some definite progress.

"How can you? You get to go home to your kids every night! You know they're protected and that they're provided for!" He lobbed a violent kick at the chair in front of Billy's desk. "But I didn't know...How the hell did I not know that she needed more money to take care of Phillip and Jamie? What kind of lousy father am I if I'm not even providing for my kid, huh?"

"You really want to do this?"

"No, Billy, I need to do this," he insisted as he paused again in his pacing.

The section chief nodded and conceded, "I'll make a call down to payroll," and reached for the phone.

"Wait!" Billy looked at him expectantly. "I-I-I don't want Amanda to know the money's coming from me."

"What do you suggest?"

"I don't know, but since she already knows about the budget cutbacks, it has to look like the money came from somewhere else, expense accounts, undercover budgets, office supplies... I don't give a damn, but she can't know it's coming from me."

"I'll see what I can do," Billy promised.

"Thank you," Lee replied sincerely.

That afternoon, he couldn't help laughing once he'd discovered just how Billy had honored his request to keep Amanda out of the loop on where her pay raise had come from. He supposed that his boss had done it as retribution for all the times Francine had been unnecessarily hostile to Amanda. He glanced through the window of Billy's office as he watched the irate blonde waving around the paper in her hand and laughed even harder when his friend caught his eye and gave him a subtle wink.

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May 15, 1985

"Hey," Amanda's voice sounded behind Lee, making him jump.

"Don't do that," he demanded. This was the third time in as many days that she'd startled him like that.

Amanda laughed and teased, "How's it feel? I just came over to see if you needed any help packing."

"How'd you get in here anyway?"

She held up the key she'd used to let herself into the house. "I know where the hidden keys are, remember? It is my neighborhood, after all."

"Yeah, it is," Lee responded with a hint of sadness in his tone as he turned his attention back to his packing. While it had been for the job, he'd immensely enjoyed the time he'd spent being a part of the community, mingling with the neighbors and seeing them through fresh eyes. For once, he didn't feel like an outsider and no longer saw the neighbors as people to avoid so they wouldn't notice him slipping in and out of her backyard. He had to admit that he was going to miss it, miss being that close to her.

As if reading his thoughts, she piped up. "You know, I am going to miss having you as a neighbor. It was kind of nice having you so close by and you know, if I wanted to talk to you, just being able to tell my mother that I was going for a walk."

"Yeah?" He turned and smiled at her.

"Yeah," she smiled back at him. "You know, she wanted me to invite 'Mr. Sampson' over for dinner one night and I...uh...I really, really wanted to, but-"

"So, why didn't you?"

"Well, I thought about it and I-I just didn't know how it could work, not when she's met you a couple of times. I mean, I know when you call the house you use the name Simpson, not Sampson, but I-I don't know. It just felt...wrong. For one thing, if she recognized you, then it would just be a big lie that I'd have to explain later."

"Not necessarily since she doesn't know my real last name anyway," he pointed out.

"I meant..." She licked her lips nervously. "If you and I-" She let out a deep sigh. "Let's face it, Lee, you've asked me to marry you three times now and what if...well, let's say...just for the sake of argument that one day you do come up with this perfect proposal you're looking for and I finally say yes, well, then what? She'd have already been introduced to you with another name and there'd be no way to explain that without explaining about the Agency and everything and I-"

"Amanda, I understand," he stopped her with a sincere smile. "You're right. It wouldn't have worked. I don't think we're ready for me to be invited over for dinner yet, but..." He flashed her an impish grin. "We could go to dinner," he echoed her words from a couple of days ago.

"You're teasing me," she said in dismay with a shake of her head. "Look, I admit that I misunderstood what you were getting at the other day in Billy's office, but really what was I supposed to think? You'd been so distant, but then you seemed really jealous that I had that dinner date with Byron Jordan and you seemed really excited that I was back at the Agency and I-'

Lee silenced her with a tender kiss to her lips. "Amanda, stop. Yes, I was teasing you, but not about the dinner. I really would like to take you out, just the two of us. Dinner...maybe even a little dancing."

"Yeah?" She felt that familiar flutter in her stomach as she recalled the last time they'd danced together and how he couldn't seem to keep his hands off of her. When he nodded, she beamed. "I'd like that."