Chapter 7

Lee unlocked his apartment door and, stepping inside, prayed that his wife was there. He had gotten back to the Agency after his shift on the stakeout had ended, and after getting properly chewed out again for showing up in Alexandria, he had gotten an update from Billy on Amanda's case. He had been overjoyed to hear that his wife had gotten Richmond to talk in just under an hour, and that they had enough information to stop the assassination. He had then raced to his car and driven over here as fast as he could. He hoped that she had come to the apartment like she had mentioned earlier, and that she hadn't gone home. Her car out front was a good sign, but since it had been there all day, she could just as easily have had a cab take her home to Arlington, rather than here to the apartment. He really needed his wife to be here so that he could wrap his arms around her and apologize for being an ass. Closing the door behind him, he locked it and began searching his apartment for any telltale signs that Amanda was home.

Not seeing any sign of her in the living room, he entered his bedroom and breathed a sigh of relief. Her clothes were lying in a heap on the floor and he could hear the shower running. He moved over to the bathroom and as soon as he opened the door he was assaulted by the steam and heat of the shower. From the moisture on the mirror and the fact that his bathroom resembled a sauna, his wife had obviously been in the shower for a very long time. He opened his mouth to alert his wife to his presence when he caught the faint sound of sobbing coming from within the shower. "Amanda…are you okay?"

"Lee?" Amanda choked back another sob and continued to urgently rub soap all over her body.

"Yes, honey, it's me." Lee kept the bathroom door open to let some of the heat leave the room. "How long have you been in here?"

"Not long enough." She lathered her hands again and rubbed some more soap across her chest and shoulders. Then, for what was probably the twentieth time since she'd gotten into the shower, she let the tears continue to flow and she stood under the hot spray trying to cleanse her sins away.

Lee moved closer to the tub. "What do you mean not long enough? Amanda, exactly how long have you been in the shower?"

"Since I got home." Amanda reached for the soap again. "And I don't plan on coming out until I stop feeling so dirty. I keep scrubbing and scrubbing but the feeling just won't go away. I can't face you until I've washed the feeling of his lips on me away."

Lee reached into the shower and shut off the water. "Amanda, I think you've been in here way too long." He grabbed the towel from the rack and pulled the shower curtain open.

"What did you do that for?" Amanda grabbed the shower curtain with one hand intent on pulling it closed, and reached out to turn the water back on with the other. "I'm not finished."

Lee immediately placed his hand on hers to stop her from turning the water back on. "Yes, you are. You're starting to look like a withered prune." He then opened the oversized towel and wrapped it around his wife, taking note of her bloodshot eyes. Lifting her out of the shower, he carried her into their bedroom, her sobs echoing in his ear. As he sat down on the bed, he placed her in his lap, enveloping her in his arms, and hugged her tightly to him. "Shh…it's going to be okay." He whispered into her ear as he began to slowly rock her back and forth.

Amanda brought a hand to her face and began to wipe away the tears, as she tried to get her emotions under control. "I'm sorry, Lee. I didn't want you to see me this way. I know how much you hate tears."

Lee pulled back slightly, so he could look directly at his wife. "They don't scare me as much as they used to." He smiled lightly as he leaned in and placed a tender kiss on her cheek, where a few stray tears still lingered.

Amanda looked down at her lack of attire and noticed the water still present on her legs and in her hair. "Lee, I'm getting you all wet." She protested as she tried to push herself out of her husband's arms.

Lee responded by tightening his arms around her and pulling her closer to him. "I'm not letting you out of my arms until we've talked about why you felt like you had to turn our bathroom into a sauna." He gazed in the direction of the small room. "Besides, I'm afraid if I let you go, you're going to run right back in there. I don't want to risk management turning off my water because I've reached my quota for the month." He looked back at his wife with a teasing grin on his face.

Amanda looked away from him and tried once again to push herself off of her husband's lap. "Lee, please, let me go. I'm not worthy of your love and understanding right now, at least not until I stop feeling so guilty."

Lee relaxed his arms slightly and looked at his wife apprehensively. "Amanda…just exactly how far did you end up going with Richmond?"

Amanda looked into his eyes and saw the worry and fear of betrayal in them. She swallowed hard and looked away from his intense hazel gaze. "Not as far as some agents would have, but enough to make me feel like I cheated on you." She tried once more to extricate herself from her husband's embrace, and with his arms slightly relaxed, she was able to successfully remove herself from his lap. Holding onto the towel tightly, she tied it at her chest and walked over to the window. "I should have listened to you. We should have found a way to tell everyone that we're married so that I had a valid reason for not taking this assignment."

Lee noticed the slight slump in his wife's shoulders and could hear the tightness in her voice. No matter how jealous he had gotten, he should have had more trust in his wife's feelings for him. The mental beating she was putting herself through was enough to make him realize just how much she loved him and that it was killing her knowing that she'd betrayed him, even a little. That knowledge was enough to wipe away all doubts and insecurities he'd allowed himself to have all evening.

Rising from the bed, Lee walked over to his wife and placed his hands gently on her shoulders guiding her to turn around and look at him. He put his finger under her chin and forced her to gaze up at him. "Amanda, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that knowing that you had to do things with Richmond that only I should get the pleasure of doing with you, doesn't bother me, because it does. And I'm not going to say that it didn't affect me in the least, because it did. It hurt like hell to think about what was going on in his apartment tonight. But I love and respect you, and I always will." He looked directly into her eyes. "I know that while Richmond was kissing your lips and your body, he never had a chance of touching your heart, or your soul."

Lee leaned forward and placed a tender kiss on her lips. "The important thing is that we both know, deep down, that our hearts and souls have been pledged to each other." He placed a kiss on her nose. "Your heart belongs to me," he placed a kiss on her left eye, "just as mine belongs to you." He placed another kiss on her right eye. "Nothing either one of us has to do in the line of duty will ever change that."

Amanda wrapped her arms around her husband and buried her face into his chest. "I love you, so much. I don't know what I did to deserve someone as wonderful and understanding as you."

Lee returned her embrace. "I love you, too. Just remember that." He felt his wife nod against him. "Because what's done is done and we can't go back, but we'll find a way to make things better for our future. As long as we have each other, we can get through anything."

Amanda leaned back and looked into her husband's eyes. "Because we work best as a team."

Lee smiled. "In every aspect of our lives." He removed his arms from around her and led her back over to the bed. "Now, do you feel better?"

Amanda shrugged her shoulders slightly as she sat back down on the mattress. "A little."

Lee sat down on the bed beside her. "Well, do you still feel like you want to rub your skin raw?" He leaned down and placed a kiss on her shoulder. "Because I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of that idea. I happen to like your skin just the way it is."

Amanda chuckled. "No, I think I'm done showering for tonight." She looked over and noticed something white sticking out of the pocket of his jacket. "Lee, what's that?"

Lee followed her gaze and smiled. He pulled the envelope from its resting place and then removed his jacket. "This is a present from Billy, for a job well done." He let his jacket fall to the floor, but kept the envelope at a teasing distance from his wife's grasp. "Before I give it to you, I thought you'd like an update."

Amanda shook her head and tried to grab the envelope. "The update can wait, I want to know what's in the envelope."

Lee scooted a little further away from his wife and shook his head. "Good things come to those who wait."

"Well you know, I could say the same thing." She opened her towel and gave him a tantalizing view of her bare body. Noting that her husband was either not affected or doing a very good job of pretending that he wasn't, she retied the towel. "Fine, if that's the way you want to play." She leaned back slightly on the bed, letting him think that she was giving up, however, she would be ready to pounce the minute he dropped his guard.

"Billy told me that with the taped confession you obtained, we had enough to go to the head of the Secret Service and have Richmond arrested for conspiracy to commit treason. However, because we don't want to tip Stoev's hand too soon, they're going to wait until Friday morning." Lee tried not to focus on the creamy skin of his wife's thigh that was now peeking out from under her towel. "Then they'll arrest both Richmond and the driver that he mentioned, about ten minutes before Bush walks out to take the oath of office. That way Stoev and whoever he's working with won't have enough time to put another plan into place. In the meantime, Billy's putting a couple of very discreet tails on both Stoev and Richmond, just to make sure that nothing unexpected happens between now and Friday."

Amanda gazed over at her husband with a very concerned expression. "What about St…Richmond's little boy. If they stop the assassination, Stoev will kill John and his mother without a second thought."

"Billy's taken care of that, too." Lee took his wife's hand in his and began caressing it tenderly with his thumb. Knowing his wife as well as he did, Billy knew that she would be concerned for Richmond's little boy, and made sure Lee had been informed about that part of the plan as well. "Stoev is bound to leave the Embassy to watch the inauguration in person, the minute he steps off of Embassy property, the Agency is going to take him into custody and force him to give up their location. Since he's on American soil, they'll threaten him with deportation for planning such an obvious act of terrorism. If everything goes according to plan, Richmond's son and the boy's mother will be free before Bush places his hand on the Bible."

"I sure hope that everything works out, because I don't even want to think about what could happen to that little boy." Amanda sighed and leaned her head against her husband's shoulder. "I keep thinking about what I would do if it were Phillip or Jamie being held captive, and I remember why we decided to keep our marriage a secret."

Lee placed the letter on the bed behind him, and then tenderly placed a hand on either side of her face. Turning slightly on the bed, he looked at her with an expression of love and compassion. "I know, I've been thinking the same thing ever since Billy told me about Richmond's son. But then I realized that we're not alone, not like Richmond is. I have you, and you have me, and we'd find a way to get our sons back. There was a time, not too long ago that I'd have acted on my own, but you've shown me that I can trust my friends to be there for me and that I'm not alone."

Amanda nodded slightly as she remembered hearing that Lee had gone to Francine for help in trying to rescue her from Birol. "That's what I realized too, that we aren't alone." Then, since her husband's attention was focused on her, she quickly reached behind him, grabbed the letter and was off of the bed and out of her husband's reach before he had a chance to react.

"Why you little vixen." Lee laughed as he shook his head. "Was all that talk about the boys just a diversion?"

"Of course not. I meant every word." Amanda shook her head as she pulled out the invitation. "However, it's not my fault you dropped your guard." She began reading the gold embossed letters. "Oh my gosh." She looked up at her husband, excitement and disbelief written on her face. "Is this real?"

Lee stood up from the bed and walked over to his wife. "Oh, it's real all right. So, any idea who you want to take?" He smiled slyly at his wife.

Amanda brought a finger to her lips. "Hmmm, that's a really tough choice. I could take Mother, she'd love to meet the President. Then there's always Phillip or Jamie, just think of all the papers they could write about it for school, and if they don't want to go," she gazed up at him with a hint of mischief in her eyes, "there's always Buck, my next door neighbor…"

Lee reached out and slipped his hands through the fold of the towel. Placing his hands on the bare skin of her waist, he began to slide them up towards her breasts. "I don't suppose I could persuade you to take a very tall, very handsome spy who is madly in love with you?"

Amanda closed her eyes as her husband's hands found their destination. "It might take a whole lot of persuading…" She brought her arms up and wrapped them around his neck.

"I'm prepared to use every one of my very persuasive techniques." Lee leaned down and began to nibble on her ear while his thumbs massaged the underside of each breast. "Even if it takes all night." He whispered seductively.

"Well considering the fact that we have to be back at the office pretty early tomorrow, I don't know if you'll have enough time." Enjoying the feelings her husband's fingers were stirring in her, Amanda ran her fingers through his hair.

Lee slid his hands up a little further, causing the towel to untie and fall off her slender body. "Actually, Billy gave us tomorrow and Friday off and ordered us to enjoy our very long weekend." Then as he gazed admiringly at her body, he trailed one hand lightly down her body to her legs, and slid his hand under her knees. Picking her up into his arms, he carried her over towards the bed.

"Well then, my handsome spy," Amanda nibbled her husband's neck playfully, "I believe you have plenty of time to persuade me to let you escort me to the Inaugural Ball."

Lee placed her gently down on the bed, letting his eyes once again gaze over her luscious body. "And I plan on using every last moment, too." As his wife reached out to remove his shirt from his pants, a thought struck him and he looked at her curiously. "Amanda, exactly what did you tell Francine about our relationship?"

Amanda let out a little chuckle as she pulled her husband's shirt up and over his head. She wrapped her hands around his neck, and forced his head closer to hers. "Later, Scarecrow, much, much later." She then planted a very heated kiss on his lips.

Lee realized, as he felt the passion emanating from his wife's lips, that it was pointless pursuing the issue and his mind began to concentrate on matters of a more sensual nature. He laid her back on the bed, and decided that finding out how much Francine knew could wait. They would have plenty of time for that discussion and talk of plans for the future, later. Tonight he was going to show his wife exactly how much he loved her and wipe away any remaining memories of this evening's more unpleasant experiences.

To Be Concluded…