Lee
Tearing through the streets of D.C., Lee felt smugly justified in having sprung for the turbo-charged engine on his Corvette. Barely noticing each intersection as he flew through, Lee clenched his jaw and banged his palm on the steering wheel.
He'd worked hard to avoid emotional attachments to anyone - especially women and partners. Dorothy had set the gold standard for that. But his heart had been broken by Eva and he'd been gutted when Joel was shot just the same.
'This is why I don't work with a partner. It's too risky.'
He wasn't entirely sure if it was too risky for him or for them - Amanda would never have been in this situation if he hadn't gotten her involved in Agency business in the first place.
Kissing Amanda shouldn't have been any different than any of the dozens of attractive women he'd made out with. A nice distraction. Something pleasurable for both parties. Nothing more, nothing less.
That night in their Munich hotel room, Lee had heard Amanda toss and turn for a while before her breathing finally shifted into the deep, regular respiration of sleep. He'd rolled over quietly and watched her in the darkness, able to make out her relaxed face and slightly parted lips, and the dark tousled of her hair across the pillow. She'd looked so beautiful.
'More than a nice distraction,' Lee thought as he swerved his Corvette into a parking spot as close as possible to the mansion where the charity event was being held. He needed to get to Amanda, and fast.
Walking with purpose, Lee's eyes scanned the crowd with practiced expertise. Each moment that slipped by without seeing Amanda made his heart rate tick up - things just didn't feel right. As he rounded a corner at the back of the house, Lee recognized Amanda instantly from the split second glimpse he'd gotten of her being shoved into a light blue van. Within another couple of seconds, the sliding door slammed shut and the vehicle took off.
Lee sprung up a series of piled stones to the top of the garden wall, from which he took a flying leap. Fortunately, he landed squarely on top of the van. Unfortunately, it was with a loud thud.
The van swerved violently from side to side, and then the driver hit the brakes hard. Lee was flung forward from the roof of the van, crashed through a fence, and rolled to a stop on the ground. He was out cold.
The next thing he knew, he was sick with worry and handcuffed to a pipe. He could tell he was somewhere on a boat, and there was a woman on the bed across the room from him. She was drugged - probably another piece of 'merchandise.' Lee's stomach turned at the thought.
Suddenly, a blindfolded Amanda was shoved into the room. Her captor ripped the scarf from her eyes, slammed the door, and locked it again. Relief flushed through Lee's body at seeing her alive and seemingly well.
He hated having to tell her that Gail was drugged and passed out. Hated that it'd happened in the first place. And was irate that it could've happened to Amanda. "Look, if we don't get a move on you're gonna be next!"
"Lee.. they were after me the whole time. They were never after the microdot." Fear made her voice shaky.
"I know," Lee said, nodding. That was all the time they had for any kind of truce. Knowing she wasn't already drugged and sold off made it more than enough for now.
Amanda plowed on in her usual no-nonsense way. "My purse is upstairs on the desk and it didn't look like they'd gone through it. I bet the sock's still in there. I'm gonna get you out of those handcuffs."
While Amanda started to look around the room for some kind of tool, Lee tried to get her to listen to his plan. Finally, she wrapped a towel around the pipe and they dangled their weight to pull it free.
Feeling not nearly as in control of the situation as he'd have liked, Lee had to say something - this was too close of a call. "Amanda… You know what we were talking about before? Maybe it's a good idea that you do leave the Agency."
"Oh, no, I don't think so."
'Great,' he thought. 'She was practically begging me to tell her to resign yesterday!' "Look, if you weren't working for the Agency, you wouldn't be in a mess like this," he reasoned.
"Yeah… but I wouldn't have you to save me either, then would I?" Amanda spun away as she hung from the towel on the pipe.
There was no time for Lee to absorb her rationale. The door opened and the pipe came down just in time to deliver a scalding spray of steam into the goon's face.
Free and, thanks to Amanda's memory of the route, back in the wheelhouse, they quickly found the microdot. It was in the sock in Amanda's purse, as she'd predicted.
Lee handed it to her for safe keeping. "Putting the sock in your purse really was a good idea under the circumstances."
Amanda smiled as she placed the microdot inside the locket on her necklace. "I assumed if anyone were after the microdot, they'd go for the laundry, not my purse."
"It was a logical assumption. You're a very logical person." Lee reached for the locket hanging at her neck, fiddled with it briefly, then looked up at her softly.
A sudden movement alerted them to Sinclair's other thug coming their way - with an axe.
"Amanda, find the radio!" Lee instructed urgently. "Frequency zero-one. Use code 1-X-Y-2! I'll hold this guy off."
She radioed the code in to Billy who activated an agency team while Lee knocked out the axe-wielding bully. Now they had Sinclair to contend with. But Amanda's purse saved the day again - she knocked knocked with it but good. Lee finished him off using the chain of his wrist shackles.
Law enforcement and emergency personnel and vehicles were everywhere mopping up the aftermath. Sinclair and his guys were in handcuffs and Gail was being attended to by paramedics. Amanda handed the microdot to Francine who dashed off with Billy to get working on extracting their agents from Leningrad.
Lee stepped forward while rubbing his now free but chafed wrists. The past couple of days had been a hell of an emotional rollercoaster, but when they were in the hold of the ship, Lee felt them click back into sync. Amanda's flurry of words and activity, paired with his training and tactical mind… that was the dynamic that worked so well for them. He really didn't want her to quit.
"Look, Aman-"
Before he could get her name all the way out, she launched a hail of words.
"You know I'm very proud of my job and… and I've been doing a lot of thinking. I really don't think it was my fault that the microdot got stolen."
"No, no you're right-" Lee agreed.
"I... I know I'm right," Amanda interrupted.
As they stumbled their words over one another, he felt certain that they'd be okay - professionally and personally. They just had one thing to clear up. "You're right. And you know that part about your, uh…"
"My resignation?"
Lee nodded. "Amanda, I think… I think you ought to give it a little more thought." He wasn't going to tell her what to do, it needed to be her decision. He just hoped she'd get what he was trying to convey.
"I think you're right. The only trouble is, I already-"
Smirking a little, Lee pulled an envelope from the inside pocket of his jacket. "I happened to intercept this envelope earlier today."
Amanda's eyes widened, recognizing her resignation letter. "What should we do with it?"
"Well…" Lee looked at the envelope and pretended to be stumped. "How about…"
"The circular file?" Amanda and Lee said in concert, smiling broadly.
Lee crumpled the whole thing into a ball and nailed a hookshot into a nearby trash can. He then stuck out his hand to seal the deal. "Partner?"
Amanda took his hand and shook it firmly. "Partner."
They beamed at each other, eyes locked and shining. Lee glanced around, noting that the agents and other law officers had mostly moved away. He tugged on Amanda's hand and she let him draw her closer, even as she tipped her head quizzically.
"Just one more question…" Lee said, mischief in his eyes.
"Yes?" Amanda said, matching his tone.
"What are you doing this evening? Perhaps a typical D.C. meal?"
"That sounds great."
End Chapter Four
