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

Car Wars

He backed off after the Karen Brinkman case. He solved a few cases on his own, and kept Amanda out of it. She was still processing and healing, and, to be perfectly honest, so was he.

Where Amanda was concerned, there were two emotions in particular that he had trouble processing: guilt, and something much more powerful that didn't have a name.

Every single thing he did or got involved in nowadays seemed to affect her in some way. She would never have been in danger from Redding if it had not been for him. He had violated her privacy and sense of self, all to get to Lee.

So he had backed off. He didn't want her in any more danger because of him.

But a budget is a budget, and costs had to come down, so he called her to come in and deliver some files for him.

It was easy. Cut and dried. Harmless. Absolutely safe.

Until it wasn't. Why hadn't he just given her his car, or rented a car like she'd asked him to?

If he had just listened to her, they wouldn't be in this fix.

The hood wouldn't have been dented. The tires wouldn't have been stolen. The muffler wouldn't have needed to be replaced. The car itself wouldn't have been stolen.

Amanda wouldn't have been kidnapped.

He had to go to Billy. He was the only one who could really help.

"Break him," Billy had said, and he was trying, but he felt like he was breaking instead.

"So did you find what you were looking for?" Mario the pond scum asked, unconcerned.

His voice was low, gravelly. "I don't care about what's in the car anymore, Mario."

Mario laughed a little. "Well, you guys really make a big deal out of something you don't really care about."

He was trying so very hard to not show how desperate he was to get answers. "Let me make this simpler for you, huh? Up until a little while ago we didn't have much on you, just a couple of minor raps. Well, things have changed. Now it's a whole new ball game...lowlife."

"What're you talking about?"

"What am I talking about? What I'm talking about is...your friends out there in the street, they took the car back again. Only this time they took somebody with them."

And not just somebody - they took Amanda. And oh, they would pay.

"So what has that got to do with me? That's none of my business!"

He was on his feet before he knew it. "It's not business anymore, Mario! It is personal! You understand me? Personal! Now they took a lady with that car!"

"So?!"

"So?!" He echoed back, furiously. "That lady happens to be a very, very good friend of mine!"

Very, very good did not go far enough; she was far more dear to him than that. Nick Falcone would have hell to pay if he harmed so much as a hair of Amanda's head.

"Hey, look!" Mario was blustering now, and all he wanted to know was where Amanda was. "I don't know anything about a lady being kidnapped, and you ain't got nothing on me, and I'm outta here in a couple of days—"

He forgot protocol. He forgot all his prior training. This was personal.

"Let me tell you reality, pal! Anything happens to her - anything at all - and I hope you do get out! Because I'm going to let every agent on this planet know who you are, and sooner or later, my friend Mario, sooner or later they are gonna find you, and guess what?! You will not be coming back to jail!"

He had friends in high and low places alike. He had his family, and Billy, and Francine. He could probably get Fritz the Cat to break into Falcone's hiding place so he could skin this cringing excuse for a man, if it came down to that.

Clearly something of his intentions broke through Mario's thick skull.

"Hey, look, man, all I did was put the dope in the muffler and drive the car."

Muffler? Muffler!

He had to get to her. Once Falcone had his hands on the cocaine, it was all over for Amanda.

He rushed past Francine, yelling to her to meet him at McLean's Muffler Shop, and sprinted for his car.

She had walked into the lions' den for him often enough. It was time for him to do it for her.