"You all settled in and comfortable?" asked Lee tenderly, sitting beside Amanda on the bed, and carefully tucking blankets around her.
"Yes," she answered, reaching up to run a finger down his cheek. "You know, I can actually walk, you don't have to keep carrying me up the stairs every night."
Lee shook his head, a small smile chasing across his lips. "Nope - can't take the risk. Gunshot wounds need to be treated very carefully. Are you complaining about this hotel's turndown service, Mrs. Stetson?"
Amanda gave a weak chuckle, wincing slightly even from that. "I'm really not ever going to complain about getting to spend any time at all in your arms, you know that, but you don't need to treat me like I'm fragile."
"I know you're not," said Lee, leaning down to kiss her. "But I am going to treat you like you are until you get the all-clear from the doctors and we can take up married life the way it should be."
"I'm looking forward to that," she agreed with a smile of her own. "I was hoping to spend a lot of time in bed on our honeymoon, but this wasn't what I had in mind at all." She gave an enormous yawn, which left Lee grinning. "I especially didn't think I'd be sound asleep by 8 o'clock every night."
"Well, you'll be amazed at how fast you recover now that you're home in your own bed," said Lee. "You'll be back to your old self in no time, letting me drag you around chasing bad guys."
"I'm looking forward to that too," she replied sleepily, her eyes already beginning to drift closed.
"Good night," Lee whispered, dropping another light kiss on her lips. "I love you and I'll see you in the morning."
"G'night," she mumbled into her pillow. "Love you too."
Lee stood and watched her sleep for a few moments, sending up yet another thank you to whatever merciful higher power that had let Amanda live. Convinced that she was fully asleep, he carefully tucked one loose curl over her ear, and quietly headed back downstairs. He could hear the boys talking in their room; he paused and cocked an ear, then decided the chatter wasn't enough to be disrupting the homework they were doing.
He stopped dead at the top of the family room steps when he realized he'd forgotten that Joe was still there, and not only that, he was in the kitchen cleaning up the remains of the family dinner. "Aw, Joe, you didn't need to do that. I was going to get to that next."
"I don't mind," said Joe, shrugging. "I got in the habit when I was staying here with the boys while Amanda was…" He grimaced and Lee did the same. "Anyway, Dotty headed out to the movies with Curt, so I just figured I'd get started on it for you." He nodded to the dish rack. "I'll wash, you can dry."
"Done," agreed Lee, picking up a towel and reaching for a plate. They worked in silence for a moment before Lee finally said, "I know it meant a lot to Amanda that you were here with the boys during all of that. I don't know if she's really had a chance to tell you that."
Joe cocked an eye at him. "Where else was I going to be? They're my kids."
Lee bobbed his head up and down rapidly in apologetic agreement. "No, I know, I know, I didn't mean it that way, I meant…" He paused to gather his thoughts. "It meant a lot that she knows she can depend on you – that you're a good dad – it took a lot of strain off her, knowing that they'd be okay even with both her and Dotty gone."
Joe nodded. "It was the same for me when I was away. I worried about a lot of things, but never about Phillip and Jamie."
"You and Dotty – you've been real lifesavers… not just these past few weeks, but last fall too," Lee forged on. "It's not just Amanda, I owe you a lot too."
"Well, I owe you too, don't forget – you saved me and the boys when I had to leave Estoccia."
"Well, it's not really a competition," Lee replied, wryly. "And that was literally my job."
Joe made a scoffing sound. "Any other agent wouldn't have believed me, let alone pursued anything to try and prove my innocence."
"Well, Amanda can be pretty persuasive," Lee joked. "And you were a pretty unlikely assassin, so how about we call it even?"
"Done," Joe smiled at him. He waited a beat. "I'm glad we have some time with just us because I did have something I wanted to ask you about."
Lee's heart sank. "Yeah?"
Joe kept his eyes on the dishes in the sink. "Yeah. I, uh, had to look through some of Amanda's paperwork – just for some insurance stuff Dotty asked me to find for the hospital," he rushed to add. "I didn't just go through it being nosy."
"Uh huh," Lee said. He wondered what could be in there that would make Joe sound so serious.
"And, well, I found some stuff with your name on it… and I know the two of you have known each other a lot longer than you pretend, but I was still a little surprised and kind of hurt, if I'm being honest. I would have thought Amanda would have shared something like that with me. I mean, I know we're not married anymore, and maybe it's not my place anymore, but I thought she still trusted me enough-"
"She does trust you, Joe, you know she does," Lee interrupted him. "It's just that she was waiting for the right time to tell you."
"About the fact you now partly own the house my kids live in?" asked Joe.
"I… what?" said Lee, completely off kilter.
"I saw the paperwork for a loan you took out. The memo line said it was for the house?"
Lee's face cleared with relief. "Oh! That! No, no, I didn't give her any money! That was a short-term loan she took out with Agency credit union to cover some taxes and stuff. She was stuck because her car broke down at the same time as she needed to pay the taxes and she just needed a bit to float her over."
"But then why is your name on it?" Joe asked.
"Joe, believe me, it's just on there because she needed a full-time agent to co-sign to get the loan," Lee exclaimed. "I never gave her a penny! I mean, I would have loaned her the money, but she wouldn't take it. You know what she's like," he added ruefully.
"Boy, do I," Joe responded. "She's so determined to prove herself and it makes me crazy sometimes. I love her, but 'stubborn' ought to be her middle name."
"Tell me about it! There was one time with a paperwork mix-up where the bank froze her account because they thought she was dead and I had to strong arm her to even let me buy groceries until it got sorted out," Lee commiserated with him.
"When we were getting divorced, our biggest fight was about her not taking any alimony - my lawyer thought I was crazy to try and insist on it, but I just wanted to know she was going to be alright when I was going to be overseas so much." He glanced sideways at Lee. "I guess that's why my feelings were hurt – that she'd take financial help from you, but never came to me. I was right here in DC – she should know I would have given her anything to do with the house or the boys."
"She knows that," Lee reassured him. "She really does – and if I hadn't done something that meant she missed her bank appointment, I never would have heard about it either. And you know, she paid that loan back within a few weeks – it really was just a lot of bills hitting at once and she needed a bit of help. If it had been worse, I'm sure she would have told you."
"If you say so," laughed Joe. "But like I said – she's stubborn."
"Wouldn't have her any other way though," Lee grinned.
"Nope," Joe nodded. He handed Lee the last plate to dry, then turned to lean against the counter. "You know, I may never hear the full story of how she got ended up at an intelligence agency, but I want you to know – I'm really glad she has you – you seem really happy together."
"Well, I love her, and she says the same about me, so I guess we are," Lee answered. "You're not-"
"Jealous?" laughed Joe. "Yes and no. I mean, I love Carrie obviously, so it's not like I'm jealous of that, but I still love Amanda as one of my best friends in the world and I want her to be happy." He gave Lee a grin. "I guess I wish she didn't look quite so happy. Especially when Carrie is also way too happy to constantly remind me how good-looking and charming you are."
Lee laughed and blushed. "Sorry."
"Yeah, sure you are," Joe teased him. "Good thing I already had her locked down to marry me before she caught sight of you. Good old regular Joe here wouldn't have looked so great."
"How does Carrie feel about how much time you had to spend over here the past month?" asked Lee.
"She gets it," Joe answered with a smile. "And she was over here a lot too - she really likes the boys and Amanda too. She would have been here tonight, but she had to work. She was mad she missed the boys' game too, but I told her there'll always be others."
Lee turned and leaned back against the fridge so that he was fully facing Joe. "You know, I don't think I've ever met such a happily divorced couple as you and Amanda. How do you do it? And why did you divorce anyway?"
Joe lifted a brow. "She hasn't told you?"
Lee shook his head. "Well, a little bit about how you grew apart and wanted different things, but it's hard to fathom how two people who say they still love each other, love their kids, look after each other without question… I mean, even your ex-mother-in-law still adores you – how does that end in divorce?"
Joe started to laugh. "Well, when you put it like that, it does sound crazy," he admitted. "I guess it's really just the old cliché – we're much better at being best friends than we were at being married. She never stopped supporting my dream to do overseas charity work, even while we were splitting, and I understood why that life wasn't for her, even if I regretted it. Don't you have any exes like that? Ones where you just kind of realized it was good, but not good enough for either of you?"
Lee immediately flashed to a mental image of Francine. "Yeah, I guess, I do," he replied, nodding slowly.
"Amanda made it easy, of course, because that's just how it is with her. But you know you don't need to worry about it, right? I love her, but I'm not in love with her anymore, if that makes sense."
Lee laughed sheepishly. "Amanda told me the same thing about you, pretty much word for word, but I guess it's hard to understand how anyone could not be in love with her, when I'm so crazy about her."
Joe barked out a laugh. "Oh man – everyone loves her! It used to drive me nuts – I couldn't leave her alone for two minutes at a party without somebody hitting on her!"
"That still happens," Lee grinned sympathetically. "Dotty knew what she was doing when she named her – she has the knack of making everyone love her."
"That she does," agreed Joe. "But only a few of us are lucky enough to get her to love us back. Congratulations on making the cut." He pointed a finger at him and added sternly, "Try not to screw it up like I did."
"Thanks, Joe." Lee stared at his feet for a moment, then back up at him. "You know, I know she wants to tell you about it herself, so I won't get into details but um, let's just say for argument's sake, that if you had been paying Amanda alimony all this time, well, that wouldn't be an expense you'd still have."
Joe blinked, then grinned. "Glad to hear it – congratulations. I'm really happy for you both."
Lee gave an embarrassed smile, still finding it hard to believe that Joe really seemed to mean that. "Well, maybe keep that to yourself for now. The boys have only just met me and now, with everything that's happened..."
"Wedding's going to have to wait a while longer, huh?" said Joe sympathetically.
"Something like that," said Lee. "Not that it's stopped Dotty from dropping hints."
"I bet," Joe chuckled. He glanced at his watch and whistled. "I guess I should be heading out. Carrie'll be getting home soon and I'd like to be there. I'll just go up and say goodbye to the boys first. You're staying, I assume?"
Lee nodded. "Just until Dotty gets home. There needs to be somebody around for Amanda if she needs anything. I'll just get the dishes put away and do some paperwork until it's time to head back to my place."
"Your place," Joe nodded, then flashed Lee a grin. "You know, you may not have invested any money in this house like I thought, but it seems like this is your place too. I guess that's another bit of the past closing a door behind me now."
"Aw Joe, you know Amanda and the boys will always want you to treat this like home – you'll always have a place here." Lee ran his hand through his hair and looked at Joe with a sheepish expression. "You know, I used to be pretty jealous of the relationship you still had with Amanda, but when I watch how friendly she is with Carrie, well, I hope maybe we could be friends like that too."
"Thanks Lee, I'd like that too." Joe held out his hand to shake. "Welcome to the family - officially."
Lee shook his hand, then watched as Joe jogged upstairs. He could hear the low voices of conversation between him and the boys and hoped it wouldn't be enough to wake Amanda. Deciding it wasn't, he turned back to survey the family room where he'd spent so much time in the last few years. A framed snapshot caught his eye, a photo Dotty had taken of him and Amanda that now stood firmly among all the other family photos, the two of them beaming and obviously starry-eyed about each other as they sat by the Christmas tree in this very room.
Your place or mine? he'd teased Amanda not so long ago. He laughed quietly and shook his head. As long as he had a place beside Amanda – well, nothing else mattered.