Seeking clarification from his forlorn looking partner he asked her, "Are you saying that you felt the need to escape from your own family?"

"Yes…no, that sounds so awful…I just needed a little breathing space and now that I've had that I should go home."

"No, you shouldn't," he countered while trying to physically herd her back towards his apartment.

"They need me," she argued while not allowing herself to be corralled by him.

"And what about what you need? I've never seen you look so stressed out. You're freezing and you aren't in any condition to drive back home. Come inside with me. You need to warm up and have something to eat-" She opened her mouth to argue, but he gently placed a finger against her lips before she could say a word. "If you aren't hungry than you can keep me company while I have my dinner, and if you don't feel like talking than you can listen while I tell you all about my day, but you aren't leaving now."

She marveled at his ability to cajole her into doing what he wanted her to do. He seemed to instinctively know just what to say. How had he gotten to know her so well? Did anyone else know her as well? She doubted it, and he had become the only person with whom she could discuss all the disparate facets of her life. With that thought in mind, she reached out a hand which he clasped and wordlessly led her back into his apartment.

While Lee closed and locked the door, Amanda perched at the edge of his sofa and crossed her arms at chest level, hugging herself as she began to feel the full effects of her exposure to the frigid weather. Lee quickly closed the distance between them and draped the jacket that he had discarded earlier over her shoulders and then went in search of a blanket. Returning with it, he began to retrieve his jacket only to have Amanda refuse to relinquish the garment.

"Please," she appealed to him, her brown eyes meeting his concerned hazel orbs as she snuggled deeper into the jacket. "Let me keep it a little bit longer…it feels so good."

"This blanket will feel even better." He carefully wrapped it around her but made no further attempt to reclaim the jacket that she clearly didn't want to give up. "Make yourself comfortable here while I start to prepare a light dinner." She nodded and then leaned back against the sofa cushions as he headed to the kitchen.

Several minutes later, Lee was meticulously chopping vegetables when he sensed that he was being watched and so he looked up. Amanda was standing in the doorway-now actually wearing his jacket-and smiling at him.

"Hey, I thought that you were supposed to be resting."

"I thought that I was supposed to be keeping you company," she parried playfully. "I've missed you the past couple of days."

"Really? Billy said that you wanted to spend time with your family."

Crossing the small room, she replied, "I needed to be there for the boys, their dad's return has turned our lives upside down. Emotionally, they've been allover the place."

"It's no wonder-unlike us, they aren't accustomed to being held at gunpoint- and I'm so sorry that it came to that," he replied solemnly as his chin dropped.

"You," she began with a poke to his chest, "have nothing to be sorry about. You risked your life to save theirs and you helped me clear their father's name. And don't you dare tell me that you were just doing your job because I know that you care about my family."

"How could I not care about them? You've got a great family and I feel like I kinda know them through you. Does that make any sense to you?"

"Of course it does," she replied with a smile that quickly faded. "I only wish that Joe knew the boys as well as you do. He loves them and he's trying to reconnect with them, but it's not going to happen overnight…no matter how much he wants it to. Phillip has vague memories of before Joe left and he's glad to have him back, yet he's not convinced that he'll stick around for the long haul."

"And Jamie," Lee prompted.

"Jamie thinks of us as a family of four, the problem is that he counts himself, Phillip, Mother and me, Joe doesn't fit into his calculation. He can count the amount of time that he remembers spending with his father in the days and weeks that Joe spent visiting over the years that he was away. He barely knows his dad and it doesn't help that Joe is largely treating them like the little boys he left behind. Jamie is torn between wanting to get to know him and feeling that he's done just fine without a dad."

"I can understand where they're both coming from…and you're trapped in the middle. It's no wonder that you needed to get away for a while and I'm glad that you came here, but there's something that I don't understand. You drove all the way here and came up to my door, but then you seemed to have regretted coming to me. Why?"

"I felt guilty about coming to you with my problems after I abandoned you," she responded quietly without meeting his eyes. "We cleared Joe's name together but then I devoted all my time to my family and left you to deal with all the loose ends at the Agency." And all the unanswered questions about where we stand with each other.

"Don't worry about that, I wrapped it up pretty quickly and doing my own paperwork for a change didn't do me any harm. Billy has me working on something new already. It would have been right up your alley…well actually; it would be more accurate to say that it's in your neighborhood."

Her curiosity peaked, she pushed up the sleeves of the jacket that had enveloped her hands and asked, "Where exactly?"

"Arlington Crossing, where you buy most of your groceries. We think the Russians have set up shop there."

"Oh my gosh!"

"You would have been a big help on this case." Once again overwhelmed by melancholy, Lee tried to refocus his attention on his meal preparations.

"Would have been? If you need me, I can meet you at Arlington Crossing first thing tomorrow morning," the suburban mom turned spy volunteered enthusiastically.

"You can," he questioned as his head snapped up and the vegetables before him were once again forgotten. "What about the boys and Joe?"

"They're going to have to learn to deal with each other without my having to constantly be there. You need me too…we're partners. I'm not going to let Joe's return come between us because I can't imagine my life without you in it."

"Really?" Was she saying what he hoped that she was? He studied her with an even mix of relief and trepidation evident on his face.

"Yes, really," she quickly assured him with a bright smile. Amanda meant what she'd told Joe about moving forward with her life, but she wasn't prepared to rush her growing relationship with Lee. "Now, tell me more about our new case while I help you make our dinner."

To be continued...