Chapter three

To say Lee was restless was a gross understatement. After the week from hell he had, he couldn't wait to leave work and go somewhere, anywhere and start the weekend off right. Usually, a nice meal with a beautiful woman at his place was all it took. Tonight, however, he decided eating out would be a welcome change to the four walls of his apartment.

After giving it some thought, he phoned Mindi first at home, then at work where she worked as an aerobics instructor and they agreed to meet at the restaurant once her shift at the studio was over. Instead of heading home, he went straight to the restaurant and prepared himself for an hour's wait. After ordering a scotch on the rocks, he sat back and allowed his thoughts to go where they had been traveling every day and every night since a particular German arrived in the United States and invaded HIS partner's entire life. Well, that may not be entirely true, that Dieter encroached every part of Amanda's life, but he certainly took up a good chunk of her time.

Lately, she was constantly out of the office for one reason or another. At first, Amanda was away and taking time off so she could show Dieter around Washington. He overheard a conversation about their trip to the zoo and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and, to his chagrin, the Lincoln Memorial. Not the Lincoln Memorial! Memories of Amanda getting Lee to open up about his partner and actually inviting him over to Thanksgiving when they first met flooded him. He downed his drink and motioned to the server to bring him another.

Then he discovered earlier that week, quite by chance, during a conversation between Francine and a co-worker that Amanda wasn't coming in that day. Apparently, except for Amanda, her entire family was sick with the flu, so she stayed home to nurse everyone back to health. On his way home, Lee thought it would be nice to stop by and see if she needed anything and to his dismay, Dieter was walking up to the front door, something that Lee could never do, which ticked him off. Dieter was carrying a large paper bag containing what Lee presumed were items to help nurse their cold symptoms. After several minutes of waiting outside, just out of sight, so he wouldn't be seen and Dieter hadn't left, Lee sped off and headed home in a huff.

That was a few days ago. Yesterday and today, there was no sign of Dieter, thank God, at the office, but Amanda was kept at a desk working on paperwork and Lee barely had a chance to see her. When he saw her in the hallway, he tried to catch up with her for a chat, but one of the other agents stepped up, needing her to type up something. Lee never thought he would miss seeing Amanda, working with her, hanging out before and after work sometimes. But what he missed most, surprisingly, were their chats through her window.

As he took several swallows of his drink and looked around the room, every woman in the place seemed to have brunette hair and brown eyes that reminded him of Amanda. Nowadays, Amanda haunted his thoughts constantly; Lee hadn't even realized just how much he relied on Amanda until Dieter came to town and started monopolizing her time. Not only was there most definitely more than a passing interest in Amanda from the Lieutenant, but Lee had to admit that maybe Amanda was starting to become interested in Volkenauer from what Lee had witnessed over two weeks.

Lee acknowledged a certain amount of chemistry between himself and Amanda over the years; things were beginning to increase more since their trips abroad in the Fall. His attraction and fondness of her had grown. Over the last year, his jealousy spiked when it came to Amanda when they were out on an assignment or when someone showed even the slightest interest in her, but lately, there seemed to be even more defined chemistry between them. But this thing with the Lieutenant was really beginning to stick in his crow, though he couldn't honestly see that there was any future in it, yet Dieter didn't seem to be in a rush to go home either. Lee waved the bartender over for another drink.

By the time Mindi arrived, Lee was "three sheets to the wind."

"Hi, Lee darling," Mindi cooed, reaching in to kiss Lee but stepping back at the smell from his breath. "Naughty boy, I see you started before me," she said, her smile dimming, but she added spiritedly, "But I'm sure I can catch up."

Mindi knew from experience with Lee that he was quite the player and knew how to show a girl a good time, but as the evening wore on, she was beginning to wonder what happened to the good old fun Lee. From where she was sitting, the fun had been sucked out of him. Since she arrived, he was either glaring at other women, primarily brunettes, or staring out into no man's land. Brunettes! Hmpf! Her hair was red; at least this week, it was.

No amount of her moving in closer, breathing against his ear, or leaning in to show off her expensive boob job was making any difference. She was on her third drink to God, only knew how many Lee had consumed. Between Lee, going from watching every brunette in the place to looking out towards an innate object across the room and the service being slower than molasses, she'd had enough. By the time the food arrived, Mindi could see that she was fighting a losing battle. Tossing her napkin on the table, she stood up. "Lee, I've had enough. I'm going home."

"But Mindi," Lee stammered. "You haven't had your food."

"No, I haven't. Call me when you want to have some fun."

"But Mindi—" Lee attempting to move towards Mindi, nearly fell into the table.

"Hmpf! Why don't you go and find the woman you've been thinking about all night." Tossing her drink in his face, "If I wanted someone to ignore me all night, I would've called my ex!"

Mumbling, Lee reached towards the table to catch himself. At the rate he was going, he wasn't going to have anyone to go out with if word got around. Lee thought to himself.

***SMK SMK SMK***

Amanda and Dieter stood just outside her front door. From their vantage point, they could see that all the lights were out, which was, thankfully, a great indicator that everyone was asleep. At least, that is what Amanda hoped.

"Sorry to have to call it an early night," Amanda said as she arrived home after another date with Dieter. "The boys have an early game and if I don't get enough sleep, I won't be up early enough to get them up," Amanda said with a slight laugh. It turned out that what they thought was a bad case of the flu was a slight case of food poisoning and the reason Amanda hadn't gotten it at all was that she went out with Dieter that night while the family ordered Chinese from a new place.

"It's fine; you make it up to me tomorrow night, yes?"

That smile! He had the most amazing smile, very boyish good looks. "Yes."

"Thank you for another wonderful evening. The more we go out, I am most impressed at how much fun we have. I think each time that it could not be as much fun as the time before, but then…"

"I had a great time as well and it has been such fun showing you around."

"And, the food I've had."

They chatted a few more minutes about the evening, then Dieter said, "I suppose I better let you go."

Amanda, too was reluctant to let him go. Dieter leaned in and, pulling Amanda into his arms, kissed her on the lips.

The kiss wasn't their first kiss, but it was by far the most intense one. After several minutes, they both pulled back to catch their breath.

"Goodnight, Amanda!"

"Goodnight, Dieter!"

"You sure I can't walk you inside?"

Usually, he insisted that he should walk her inside and make sure everything was alright. "No, I'm sure, if you come in, you'll never leave, not if my mother just happens to come down."

"Okay, if you say so."

Dieter kissed her once more then Amanda stepped inside the house.

Amanda breathed a sigh of relief that neither the boys nor her mother had come down. It seemed to her that her mother, in particular, was prone to coming down just as Amanda arrived home. So far, Dotty had missed Dieter when he'd come by, but she knew that her luck might be running out soon. Amanda tiptoed further into the house and then up the stairs, taking her wandering thoughts with her. Once she was safely in her bedroom, the real cause of her thoughts came to fruition as she undressed and readied herself for bed. Laying down and calming her body, Amanda attempted to sleep, but her mind wouldn't cooperate. Each night that she returned from going out to some event with the handsome German brought her closer and closer to having restless night sleeps.

First off, there was Lee, for whom she couldn't figure out. If she didn't know any better, she would think that he was jealous of her relationship with Dieter. But why he would be, she couldn't understand. There was no way that there ever could be anything between herself and Lee. She was a mother of two children and divorced. Of course, Lee cared for her and her family; he was always doing everything possible to keep them safe, but he never would entertain a relationship between them.

Then there was the matter of Dieter and where their relationship was going. She found him thoroughly charming, funny, a real gentleman. But what now? Although he was still on vacation, he would undoubtedly be returning to Germany soon. It was a surprise that he was there as long as he had been. Dieter said he had some vacation he had to use up, but she got the impression that there was a little more to the story than what he was saying. She didn't doubt he had the vacation time; he seemed to be a hard worker, but the fact that he had to use it up quickly made her curious. Was she trying to have a lover? God only knew it had been a while. There certainly wasn't anything intimate with Dean or any other man since her divorce.

There were the boys to consider too, but, well, right now, she was having the time of her life. Why give it too much thought? And, Lee, well, that was a thought for another night. Amanda thought as she closed her eyes and attempted to go to sleep.

!***SMK SMK SMK***

Robert sat back watching the exchange between his nephew Lee and the beautiful redhead for a few minutes and was midway in getting up to say hello when he saw the drink the young woman had been holding dumped on Lee's head, which even caused him to jerk back a little.

He waited until the woman had walked away before he paid for his drink and walked towards Lee, who was attempting to clean off his face with a napkin. A waiter was trying to assist him, but Lee waved him away as he tried to remain steady on his feet.

"I don't need any help—" Lee stammered, plopping back down on the seat.

The waiter, shrugging, walked away.

"Hey, son—" Robert said as he approached Lee's table. "How's it going?"

Even in his stupor, Lee knew his condition was less than presentable for a chance meeting with his uncle. Lee stood up on wobbly legs and said, "Hi, Colonel. Whacha doing here?"

"I came to DC for an impromptu meeting earlier today. I didn't have a chance to call you till late and by then, I couldn't reach you at IFF or your home. I stopped in here for some food and was going to catch up with you later."

Colonel Clayton gave Lee a once over. His tie was crooked. He could smell the alcohol from where he stood and his hair looked a mess.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, what?" Lee stammered, nearly falling back down, the colonel catching him with his left arm. "Just a little bit of a disagreement with my, uh, date."

"Come on, think it's time I got you home and you can tell me all about it then."

Lee began to argue, but besides the fact that it was his uncle helping him, he was starting to feel quite a headache coming on. "But my car, you don't—"

"We'll leave it here and you can come back and get it tomorrow."

Lee muttered something unintelligible but unsteadily walked out with his uncle.

***SMK SMK SMK***

By the time they made it back to Lee's apartment, Lee was flailing his arms about and muttering snatches of words as Robert Clayton helped Lee get undressed, making the task less than an easy feat. Finally, he finally managed to get him down to his socks, underwear and undershirt. Lee was mumbling nearly the entire time, snatches of words that Robert could barely make out.

Once Lee was situated on his bed, Clayton stood back by the bedroom door and said out loud, "What has you so upset, son?" Not expecting an answer, Clayton knowing that his nephew would be embarrassed the next morning finding him there, was debating whether or not to stay or leave. He was heading towards the door when he heard Lee say, "Amanda! What would you say if I told you I loved you?"

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More to come!

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