Disclaimer: I don't own the situations or characters portrayed herein. I'm just playing with them for a while.

Our Man in Tegernsee

When Billy put Amanda up for the job of solo courier to Germany, Lee had balked at the idea. What would Amanda get herself into, alone in another country?

Last time she had been out of the country, she had been kidnapped and forced to work for a hitman, and that had been with him there to watch over her. Oh, and "her Connie" (how he hated that possessive!) had confessed to her that he had always loved her, and she hadn't discouraged it.

But Billy said it would be safe, simple, and easy - and that it would be much cheaper for the agency and give Amanda the trip of a lifetime.

And by all accounts it had been safe, and it had been simple, and it had been easy, and it had been cheaper for the agency, and it had given Amanda the trip of a lifetime - until now.

It had given him the chance to get away for a while, too. He had jumped at the chance to spend some time with someone less wholesome than Amanda. She was all he thought about, these days. If he spent any more time with her he was liable to turn into a full-blown homebody who stayed in on Friday nights for an exciting Scrabble game.

But it turned out that she had taken over his life to the point that he couldn't even really enjoy a long weekend at Gillian's lodge in the Poconos. And that was before Billy had called to tell him he had to go to Germany to bail Amanda out of jail for passing counterfeit money.

"You're angry with me," she said, and he was, he really was, for reasons he didn't want to understand himself, and which he certainly didn't want to explain.

A torrent of ugly words spewed out of him, surprising even him with their vehemence. "Now why should I be angry? Hmm? Why should I even be surprised?"

That was a low blow, more worthy of Francine than of him, but he couldn't seem to stop the floodgates. "You were sent over here to do some agency business. All you had to do is deliver an envelope. That's all. And you get yourself arrested for passing counterfeit money?"

She tried to get him to see reason, and he didn't want to see reason. He wanted to be home, without having to babysit this surprisingly intelligent woman who didn't even bother to check if her money was counterfeit.

"I didn't know that money was counterfeit. Lee, you know I would never do a thing like that."

Yeah, he did, but he had a full head of steam here and by golly he was going to use it.

"The German government is very, very unhappy. And the American government is very unhappy."

Her voice broke. "I am very unhappy!"

He went on as if he hadn't heard her, even though he was losing the heart to keep scolding her. "Counterfeiting louses up everybody's economy," he added, as his final shot.

Amanda threw the blanket off herself in a fit of frustration, and came over to him. "I know you're disappointed."

He sighed.

"I'm a little disappointed myself."

She would not crack him like this. "Mm-hm."

She was so upset that her voice began to crack. "Doris Semple was supposed to pick me up at Dulles International Airport. My mother and Philip and Jamie are probably worried sick about me. I'm in jail. In Germany. I've never been in jail before. And I don't even speak German. The only word I know is Edelweiss." Her voice broke completely on the last word, and he broke along with it.

He didn't want her to cry, alone in a jail cell in Germany, when he was separated from her by iron bars.

His anger evaporated. "Okay, okay."

"And I learned that from 'The Sound of Music'. I saw it seven times."

His voice took on that incredibly Amanda-specific soothing tone that it had been missing ever since he saw her last at the agency. "Yeah, take it easy, huh? Just take it easy."