Author's Note: For this one, I couldn't resist playing with the fact that the character of Glen Tucker was played by Sam Melville, who later played Joe King. Hope you all like what I've done. One more of season two, then it's on to season three.

Chapter 43-Ruined Dessert

"Murder Between Friends"

Lee shook his head at Amanda's rapid departure after being told by Billy that he couldn't give her a raise. "I wish there was something I could to," he said feeling a little sad at having seen the dejected look on Amanda's face.

"Hopefully, thing will change. Just takes a little time," Byron Jordan replied with a smile.

Lee scowled at the look on Jordan's face. He'd seen the way he'd been looking at Amanda when she exited as well and while he trusted Amanda, he definitely didn't trust the leering look he'd seen on the guy's face or the way that he'd followed her movements with his eyes. He just hoped to God for his sake that he wasn't thinking of making a move on his girl.

Amanda couldn't help smiling at Byron Jordan's effusive praise of her as he showed her into his office, telling her what he'd learned about her from her co-workers. She took a seat, slinging her purse over the arm of the chair and said, "Well, this is really very flattering, but I don't know anything about security systems."

"I do, any questions, ask me," Jordan replied confidently as he leaned against the edge of his desk. He gazed at her and added in a softer tone, "You'll learn. Besides, you're nice to have around and I like that."

"Thank you," Amanda said as she looked down at her hands. While she was flattered by his obvious interest in her, she felt it best to keep things to a professional level. When she looked back up at him, she changed the subject, saying, "I think the agency needs people pretty badly right now."

After Jordan's further attempts to persuade her, she left his office with her thoughts in a whirl, her comment to him about leaving some pretty good friends behind playing over and over again in her mind. In truth, there was one particular "friend" that she was worried about leaving behind above all the others. "Lee," she said in a whisper as she walked to her car. As she slid behind the wheel, she couldn't help wondering what he'd think, how he'd react if she chose to leave. Would he miss her? Would he ask her not to go? She sighed as she started the car trying to shake off those nagging thoughts as Mr. Jordan had told her that she's still be working in conjunction with the agency, so it's not as if she'd never see him again and it was double her current salary. That was a definite plus as she could really use the money for her children. Her decision made, she nodded firmly and pulled her car out into the DC traffic to head back to the agency.

When she arrived just as Lee's meeting was breaking up and the agents in it were dispersing, she found that explaining it to them was harder than she thought it was going to be. Francine had scoffed at the idea of Byron Jordan offering her double her present salary, Billy commenting that Jordan was a good man while Lee stood there silently looking as if he'd been sucker-punched, but he looked down and refused to make eye contact with her. When he looked up at her for a moment, she said "I need the money," as a justification for her actions and he dropped his head again, not looking at her. She looked back at him for any sign that he didn't want her to go, but he still just stared at the folder in his hands. Unable to bear it any longer, she turned her gaze to Billy, saying, "I guess this means...I'll be resigning from the agency."

"Oh," Lee replied, Amanda's words like a knife cutting through his heart. He couldn't look at her, knowing that the pain he felt would show on his face.

The following morning while Amanda bustled around her kitchen, her mother rambled on and on about this new opportunity and how she never liked the idea of her working for IFF, giving her the occasional pointed look that Amanda knew were not just about her change in careers, but about leaving behind the man her mother knew she'd been involved with. While she knew she wouldn't be blunt enough to say anything about it in front of the boys, she knew all too well what was behind her crack about starting a whole new life had more to do with Lee than it did the job. She knew her mother didn't approve of her tumultuous relationship with Lee and was endlessly irked by the fact that she refused to bring him around to meet the family or even provide her with his last name. She hurried to get out the door before her mother could get her alone to grill her about it, kissing her boys and then her mother, hollering a "Have a good day!" as she sailed out the front door breathing a sigh of relief that she'd escaped unscathed.

Lee smiled warmly with an exuberant, "Hi," at seeing Amanda in the bullpen, but then quickly caught himself and turned his attention back to the weapon in his hand.

"What happened, Jordan fire you already," Francine quipped as she looked up at her.

When Amanda explained that she'd just come to turn her things into Billy, she found herself irritated by Lee's nonchalant attitude when asking about how things were going with her new job and his noncommittal, "It's great to see you," belying the feeling behind the smile she'd seen on his face when she'd first walked in.

After chatting for a moment about the mission that they were gearing up for, Lee feeling a little bad about the hurt look he'd seen on Amanda's face, approached her and said, "I'm glad everything's working out with Jordan."

"Lee, you know...I...Um...I took this job because I had to," she tried to explain.

"I know, I know," Lee said as he desperately wished that he could do something to help her out of her financial crunch so that she wouldn't have to leave the agency. Above all, he wished he'd told her long before now how he felt about her, but now it was too late. If he told her now, it would only seem as if he were trying to convince her to stay, but he still wanted to let her know in some way that he cared, Beaming brightly at her, he offered, "You take care of yourself, huh?"

"Yeah, you take care of yourself," Amanda replied stiffly, not sure how to take Lee's rapidly shifting moods, frowning as she watched him walk away.

That afternoon as her new boss walked her to her car, she was taken aback for a moment by his dinner invitation, but accepted anyway, figuring what harm could dinner cause? Besides, it was strictly business, wasn't it? Even if it wasn't, she was single, wasn't she? Her thoughts drifted for a moment to Lee, wondering again what he was really thinking. She sighed and decided not to dwell on it as she pulled her car out of the driveway.

Amanda found herself surprised by the enjoyable dinner she'd had with Byron and had turned the conversation toward business, but he didn't allow her to keep the topic to business for very long.

"Look, Amanda, I like you," He said giving her a warm smile. "I like you a lot. I've liked you from the first moment I laid eyes on you." Amanda couldn't help the small smile and the slight blush that crept into her cheeks as he talked about not being pushy and just letting things go with the flow. She thought how nice it was to have a man be that open with his feelings, which caused her thoughts to turn back to Lee and his reluctance to tell her how he really felt about her. Why couldn't the man that she really wanted be that open? The evening ended on a somewhat positive note, saying pleasant good-byes.

Less than twenty-four hours later, she couldn't believe her luck, she was sitting in a jail cell listening to her call mate, Wilma, talking about the man she'd done in and assuming she was guilty of Jordan's murder.

When Lee arrived, Amanda cringed slightly at Wilma's, "Is this the one you keep on the side?" She quickly introduced them as she thought about the fact that there was no one on the side of anything. Lee was the only one for her. She just wished she could get him to own up to the fact that he felt the same way about her.

Once Wilma was gone and she'd told Lee that she didn't do it, and he acknowledged that he knew that, the conversation took on a whole different tone when Lee asked her pointedly, "What were you doing there?"

"Having dinner," she answered succinctly.

"Just dinner?" Lee questioned.

"Just dinner," Amanda repeated. "Just dinner and we discussed a little business."

"Business?" Lee said skeptically.

"Business,"

"At his house?"

"Right."

"With candles," Lee added with a shake of his head, his temper rising at the idea that Amanda had replaced him after only one day on the job as he reflected back on the candlelight dinner they'd shared just a few weeks ago. He'd thought at the time that it had meant as much to her as it had to him, but now he wasn't so sure.

"Yeah, with ca-" Amanda broke off at the hardened look on Lee's face as she realized how it sounded, suddenly feeling as if she'd cheated on him just by being there. "Look, he told me that he liked me."

Lee shook his head and explained to her that by being honest with the police about that fact, she'd just made herself look more guilty by handing them the motive.

"I didn't resist it," Off Lee's look of disdain, she continued, "He didn't pressure me. I didn't have to resist."

Early that evening at her house, Amanda felt the most incredible sense of déjà vu as she ended up having virtually the same conversation with her mother, having to explain that she wasn't fighting off her boss' advances because he didn't make any and that he was a very nice man. When her mother tried to press her further, she made an excuse about bringing the wash in and hurried outside to find Lee waiting for her to tell her that he'd found her a good lawyer. She couldn't help but notice in the ensuing conversation that he seemed a lot more relaxed than he had at the police station and when he was ready to leave, he'd even left her with that adorable, dimpled grin that she'd grown to love so much. His promise to her to get her out of the mess she was in ringing through her ears as she finished up with the laundry.

Later, that night, Lee breathed an immense sigh of relief when Amanda's coughing had subsided and she'd begun breathing normally again. He found himself now extremely grateful that he'd come by on the pretense of seeing how she'd liked her lawyer. Honestly, though, he'd just wanted to see her again, knowing that now that she'd resigned from the agency and Byron Jordan was dead, her path may never cross his again.

The following day, Amanda got a bit of a chill as she watched Tucker and Lee fighting, Tucker's resemblance to Joe, creeping her out a little. When she'd first met him in Byron Jordan's office, she'd not really thought much about his strange similarity to her ex-husband as she figured it was just one of those things and didn't they say everyone in the world has a double somewhere? While it had been very scary to have a man who was a dead ringer for the father of her children, chasing her and then capturing her, this was much scarier. Now, as she watched the two men scuffling, a thought crossed her mind of what might happen if Lee and Joe ever met face to face. Joe knew her well enough that if he ever saw her and Lee together, he'd instantly realize that she was in love with him and Lee... Well, he'd already displayed a few moments of jealousy when she'd mentioned Joe's name, especially the last time that Emily had been in town when he'd asked her about the Georgetown sweatshirts she wore. She also knew Lee's temper and wondered if Lee would end up wanting to fight Joe like he was his double.

Amanda quickly jumped aside as they approached her, letting out a tiny gasp as she watched Lee fling Tucker over the railing and into the cake below. They glanced at each other for a moment, then down at Billy and Francine pulling Tucker out of the destroyed cake. They then looked back at each other as Lee said with an impish grin, "I think I ruined the dessert."

They both smiled warmly, chuckling softly and Lee wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close as they looked back down at the chaos below. Amanda shook her head slightly as she watched Tucker being led away in handcuffs. Lee dropped his arm and turned her to face him and said, "Amanda, what is it?"

"Oh, it's...it's..."Amanda hedged wondering if she should even bring it up.

"What?" Lee pressed.

"It's just the strangest thing. That man, that Mr. Tucker, he...he looks identical to Joe."

"Joe?" Lee questioned searching his memory banks for that name. He was silent for a moment and then it hit him, "Oh, your Joe."

"Well, no, not my Joe. I mean, not anymore," Amanda answered.

"Oh, no, of course not your Joe...I mean, you're...uh...divorced, right? So, it's...um...it's over, isn't it?" Lee queried searching her eyes for confirmation.

"Oh, yes," she answered quickly at seeing the fear in his eyes tinged with a hint of jealousy. They were both silent for a moment as they stared awkwardly at one another. Seeing the apprehensive look in Lee's eyes, Amanda felt the need to emphasize it. "It is really, really over and you don't have to be jealous." She gently laid her hand on his shoulder.

"Jealous? Who's jealous?" Lee said turning from her and making a big show of straightening the panting around the corner than had been knocked askew during the fight with Tucker.

"You are," Amanda said as she placed her hands on his shoulders from behind. "It's okay. I understand it. I...um...I mean, we've been, well, you know and I..."

"Look, I'm not jealous, Amanda," Lee argued as he turned to face her, unnerved by the direction the conversation was heading and even more unnerved by her standing so close to him with that knowing look in her eyes. "You just said there's nothing there anymore, right? So, I don't have anything to be jealous about."

"Right. There's nothing there," Amanda confirmed as she edged closer to him.

"Just like there's nothing between you and-" his words were cut off by their lips meeting, first gently and then more firmly as they locked their arms around each other. Lee backed them up into the bathroom that had just been vacated by Augie right before he'd gone sailing over the balcony. As he did so, he kept a firm grip on Amanda's waist, his lips locked with hers and was delighted to hear the loud click of the door closing behind them. He pulled back to look at her for a moment and the blazing look in her eyes that was directed only at him told him all that he needed to know. He captured her lips with his own as he pressed her against the door while his hand slid under her skirt.

Amanda gasped as Lee caressed her intimately, her passion for him only increased by the guilt that had been plaguing her for days over her decision to leave the agency, thereby leaving him behind. Now, that he was here in her arms again, she wanted all of him that she could get. She reached to undo his pants, quickly slipping her and inside to stroke him. When Lee emitted a loud groan and tore his mouth from hers, she whispered, "Now."

That one word was all that Lee needed to hear. He used the hand beneath her skirt, to slide her panties aside and the other to lift one of her legs to rest on his hip then immersed himself in her, his eyes never leaving hers as he did so. They both cried out at the renewed connection between them as he began to move deeper into her while she in turn, pushed against him. "Amanda," he growled as he felt her closing around him, welcoming him the way that she always did. The events of the past few days had made him realize how much he would miss that if it were gone. With that thought on his mind, he picked up the pace, needing her to know it too, driving into her hard and fast, elated that she matched him thrust for thrust, all the while looking into his eyes, the fire burning within them telling him that she felt the same way. Maybe he didn't need to tell her how he felt. Surely, she should know because he knew the same fire he felt for her had to be showing on his own face. As they moved together, he began anew his stroking her wanting to make sure that she got just as much pleasure out of their union as he did. He was rewarded within seconds, hearing her primal cry of release and feeling her tightening around him. "Amanda," he cried again as her climax brought on his own as he felt himself once again exploding within her warmth, his seed filling her the way that she filled his mind and his heart.

"Oh, Lee," she rasped as she locked her hands behind his neck, pulling him in for a long, lingering kiss as they both came down from their high. clinging to each other tightly. When they were both a little calmer and their kiss finally ended, she teased, "So, not jealous, huh?"

"No," Lee said softly. "Not when I know it's me you keep coming back to."

Here it is, Amanda thought, The perfect moment to come clean. "Lee, I keep coming back to you becau-" her statement was halted by the sounds of shouting coming their direction.

"Save that thought for another time," Lee said with a smile as he pulled back from her and they both scrambled to straighten their clothing. He couldn't help the wide smirk crossing his face thought as they slipped out of the room once they were sure the coast was clear. While she may not have spit the words out, he knew she felt them and that was enough...for now.