Lee leaned up against the wall just outside Amanda's hospital room and sighed. 'Why didn't I tell her that it was me that brought all this back on her? She nearly died because of me.' He was just about to sneak back into her room when he heard the distinct clearing of a throat behind him and turned around.

"Don't even think about it, Mr. Stetson."

"I thought you had gone home, Nurse," he glanced to her name tag, "Kelly," he added charmingly.

"Oh, I am but I wanted to make sure all of my patients were taken care of before I left." She moved to put herself between Amanda's door and himself. "Mrs. King needs her rest if she's going to get better, I'm sure you don't want her to regress and have to stay longer," she coaxed him down the hall with a hand behind his elbow. "You can come back during regular visiting hours in the morning." When they made it to the elevator, she reached out with her other hand and pressed the call button.

When he finally realized what was happening, the doors opened behind him and she pushed him in. "But I just needed to speak with Mrs. King for –"

"Tomorrow, Mr. Stetson," she called back with raised brows. Just as the doors closed, he could hear her call out, "Goodnight!"

"Damnit," he groused before kicking the door.

SMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMK

"Yeah, Billy. I stopped by the hospital last night," he took a sip of his coffee and listened to his boss on the other end of the phone. "She's sore, but her color's returned," he nodded. "Yeah, her eyes have the tell-tale signs," he nodded again and exhaled as an image of her lying, small and wounded in the hospital bed before him floated past. The area around her eyes was black and blue, a direct result of the over pressurization waves of the explosion. He hated like hell that she'd had to go through that, not once, but twice. "Hmm? Oh, sorry. Yeah, I'm here," he waited for Billy to repeat himself and then responded, "No, we didn't get a lot of time to talk but we cleared the air a bit," he shook his head in frustration. "No, it was that damn nurse. She kicked me out," he said appalled at the memory. Rolling his eyes, he listened to his supervisor's lecture. "Rules are meant to be broken, Billy," he interrupted as he picked up his coffee mug to take another swig but stopped when he heard a knock at his front door. "Uh, listen I need to go. Someone's at the door." He nodded, "thanks for the update on the case. I'll fill Amanda in later this morning." He walked over to the phone base and signed off, "Will do. Bye, Billy."

After taking a peek through the peep hole, Lee mumbled, "Not unexpected," and opened his front door to his guest.

"Lee, My Boy. I just heard. How's our girl doing?"

"Morning, Harry. She's going to be okay," Lee eyed the founder of the Agency suspiciously. "Want some tea?" he asked moving toward the kitchen to start the kettle.

"Sure." Harry followed him in, "Since when do you have tea in your place?"

"Amanda brought some over so she could have it when she's visiting," he added water to the kettle and turned on the burner before catching Harry's raised brow. "When we're working late on a case," he felt the need to explain.

Harry nodded with a knowing grin. "So, what happened exactly? I heard there was an explosion?"

"You heard?" Lee eyed his former mentor skeptically and grabbed a cup and saucer off the shelf. "How exactly did you hear?"

"What do you mean? I'm the founder of that infernal place; I still have my sources. Now, what the hell happened? Were you injured as well?"

"No, I wasn't with her," he grimaced at that realization. "It was after hours and she was running an errand." He pulled the box of tea from the drawer and placed a bag in the empty cup. "Her car exploded with the help of a bomb." Just then the kettle whistled and Lee turned off the burner and poured the water into the cup.

"Did you get whomever did it?" He asked reaching for the proffered cup and saucer.

Lee inhaled deeply and gave his old friend and mentor a pinched expression as he exhaled. "Cut the crap, Harry. You and I both know exactly who did this and why." Off the grey-haired man's shocked expression, Lee continued, "Your buddy Ward filled you in, like he always has. Right, Harry?"

"Scarecrow, I don't know what you think you know but I –"

"Save it," he snapped as he raised his hand in exasperation. "I've had enough of the bullshit to last me a lifetime." Lee refilled his mug of coffee, splashed some cream in, and sauntered past Harry, who seemed to be momentarily dumbfounded.

Lee could hear Harry doctoring his tea in the kitchen as he got comfortable on the couch in the living room.

From behind him, he heard the rich baritone of his friend, "So, what is it that you think you know exactly?"

Lee watched Harry as he gingerly maneuvered his way over to the couch with his tea. He waited until the other man sat down across from him before he started his diatribe. "Well, for starters I know you asked this Ward character to find me a babysitter, like I was some troublesome child –"

"I simply asked a friend if he had any agents that would be a compliment to your more . . . spontaneous style," he gave Lee a wink as he finished. When Lee didn't respond, Harry continued, "Oh come on, Scarecrow! You know you were wild and reckless before Amanda came along." He held up his hand when Lee tried to argue. "She was the best thing to ever happen to you and you can't deny it," he looked on expectantly.

"I'm not denying that fact. But you two old coots playing us behind the scenes is what's stuck in my craw."

"How so?"

"According to Amanda, Ward attempted to bring her out of retirement in order to pair up with me in '83. Of course, she didn't know it was me until well after we met. Which she says was completely coincidental," Lee held his breath waiting for Harry to either confirm or deny his last statement. He let it out slowly when he saw Harry nod his head in agreement.

"Yes, that's very true. We were both quite surprised when the one person we thought would be a good match for you, ended up being the same person you pulled out of crowd to help you," he shook his head in amazement. "Talk about fate stepping in."

"That's what Amanda called it," he couldn't help the smile that started to form.

"She's quite a special lady, Lee. I hope you know what you've found in her?" his fatherly tone didn't go unnoticed by Lee and he didn't argue.

"That she is, Harry," Lee's stomach knotted when his thoughts naturally drifted to her recent near miss. 'They didn't miss,' his mind argued. 'She almost died because of you!'

"Hey, what's wrong," Harry questioned as he placed his cup and saucer on the coffee table in front of him. "You had a haunted look just now. What is it, Son?"

Lee exhaled loudly. "Ah, Harry. It's my fault she's in the hospital!"

"Did you place that bomb in her car?"

"Of course not! But I may as well have. I drove those bastards right to her!"

"Son, I read the reports," off Lee's surprised look, he added, "Founder privilege. You investigated your partner, like anyone would after having this dropped on them. You did what I taught you to do."

"Yeah, but if I'd just talked to her, let her explain –"

"Come on, you're telling me, the great Scarecrow would have settled with hearing one side of the story? Hardly," he harrumphed.

Lee ran his hands through his hair and leaned back against the couch. "How do I tell her she was nearly killed because of me?"

"I think Amanda would be the first to tell you that you're not to blame. That it's the terrorists that did this and I think she'd also be glad that those involved have been caught and will do time," he squeezed Lee's knee to get his attention. "Now, fill me in on what's happened this morning. I heard you talking to Billy Melrose. What's the latest?"

As if he could turn off Lee-mode and turn on Scarecrow-mode, Lee switched gears and began to relay the status to his superior. "To start, Caputo's girlfriend was brought in and will likely serve time in prison," he stretched his leg absently and straightened his pantleg. "She of course rolled over on her cousin, who worked as a subcontractor to the NSA. He's the one that hacked into the system and gave her my address . . . and Amanda's. According to Billy, this isn't the first time he's abused his system access, so he too, will be spending time behind bars. As for Friedman, our little bomb maker, he's being charged with attempted murder."

"What's going to happen to Caputo? He's already doing a life sentence," Harry sipped at his tea waiting for Lee to continue.

"Likely, they'll add time to his sentence," when the older man opened his mouth to protest, Lee continued, "I've already called in a favor. Let's just say, Mr. Caputo is about to find out what doing 'hard time' really means," he smirked.