Author's Note: So, for this one, I decided to have Lee and Amanda properly christen the Q Bureau, which fit perfectly into the late night scene when Amanda gets Lee on the phone when trying to reach Harry.

Chapter 46-Resetting the Search Grid

"Tail of the Dancing Weasel"

"Come on, Harry," Amanda hissed into the phone, praying that he'd answer. When the phone was answered, she was surprised to hear not Harry's but Lee's voice. "Lee, what are you doing there?"

"Wait, Amanda, hold on, hold on. I'm getting some feedback here," Lee replied as he began to examine the recorder attached to the phone.

Before he could get much further, he heard Amanda saying awkwardly, "Uh, Look, I'll see you tomorrow," then the line went dead.

Amanda sat on her couch in her cotton nightgown, pondering what had just happened. Why would Lee be at Harry's when he'd already been there during the day and knew he wasn't there? She bit down on her lower lip as she thought back to how sad, how distraught Lee had sounded when talking about Harry, his comment about him not being anywhere breaking her heart. Had he gone back there looking for him again or was he maybe looking for clues as to his whereabouts? No, she decided. He would have already done that before leaving the scene after Crawford's attack on him. That's why he was delayed in getting back to the office, but then why and how was he answering Harry's private phone line?

The office? That thought got her thinking. She and Francine had been working in the office for a while before Lee had returned and they'd been rooting through the mess that Crawford and left behind. The mess? She remembered the first time Lee had left her alone there and how there was a tape recorder that had switched on when a specific line of the phone rang. She hadn't had much time to think about it because Crawford had burst in on her, but now it got her wondering leading her to think about the weird "Kolinsky" calls when the recorder setup in the Q Bureau kicked on and a thought struck her. She wanted to try an experiment with the phone line to prove her theory. She hurried to her foyer, reached for her purse, dug her car keys out of it and pulled her coat on over her nightgown.

"What the-" Lee shook his head after hanging up the phone after Amanda had abruptly disconnected wondering once again why she was acting so weird lately. He knew she had feelings for him, but was she resorting to stalking him now? She'd followed him all day and now this weird phone call. Granted, she'd saved his skin, but still what was up with her? He'd asked her earlier why she'd been sticking to him like glue and had even given her his best roguish smile when asking her for an explanation, hinting that it might have something to do with all the private time they'd spent together, but she'd refused to give him an answer. This was not like Amanda. Yes, she lied to her mother to protect the agency's cover, but she never lied to him Did she?

With another shake of his head, he glanced at the phone setup thinking about the events of the day, the strange calls asking for Kolinsky and the even stranger call from Amanda. Why had she been surprised to hear his voice and why has she asked what he was doing there. Hadn't she been calling for him? He leaned his head on his hands and sighed in frustration. He'd thought, probably with a little more hope in his heart than he should have, that she'd been calling for him, calling to tell him what was really going on with her, but remembering how startled she'd sounded when he'd answered the phone, he knew that wasn't true.

He rewound the tape and began to listen to the recordings on it, startled to hear a voice that he was sure was Harry's on the tape answering to the name "Kolinsky," followed by the call Francine had taken and then his own voice answered by Amanda's from just a few minutes ago. He rewound and listened again and tried to put the pieces together, replaying them over and over again, now certain that the Kolinsky voice was Harry's. It seemed Crawford had been monitoring Harry's phone line. What the hell was going on? Had Amanda been calling for Harry and not him? However, if that were true, how would she even know Harry? Maybe that's why she had suddenly started asking about him this morning. He leaned back in his chair as he thought about it, the movement knocking his discarded tie onto the floor.

Just as he was sitting back up, tie in hand, the object of his obsessive thoughts walked in and at seeing him, quickly tried to back out the door. "Hold it," Lee snapped as he tossed the wayward tie onto the desk, leapt from his chair, catching up to her quickly just before she made it to the outer door, gripping her arm firmly and pulling her back down the hall with him into the Q Bureau.

"Lee, what are you doing," Amanda protested as Lee closed the door behind them finally managing to free her arm from his grasp.

"That's the same question I have for you. What exactly was that phone call about and what exactly are you doing her in the middle of the night?"

"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Amanda fired back.

"Oh, no, don't you start that again. We had this conversation earlier over that damned baseball you lobbed through Harry's window." He knew her evasion tactics all too well by now.

"That was Harry's window?" Amanda questioned innocently.

"Don't, Amanda. Don't try that innocent act with me. That may fool your mother, but not me. I know you too well and I know that you know damn well that was Harry's window, just like I know that you called Harry's number tonight when you got me on the phone in here!"

"In here? Have you been here all this time? You know, that's really not healthy. You oughtta' go home and get some rest."

"Oh, look who's talking," Lee retorted as he pulled at the lapels of her coat to further reveal her nightgown peeking out of it. "And don't try to change the subject on me again. I wanna' know what you're up to and I wanna' know now!"

"Up to? Me? I'm not up to anything. I was just concerned when I realized you were still here this late and I came here to try to talk some sense into you."

"Then why'd you try to run and if you're so damn concerned about me, why'd you hang up on me?"

Amanda thought fast and answered, "Well, I...uh...I, you know, felt bad about our fight today and I was calling to apologize, so I called to see if you were still here, which I figured you would be because I know how you are when you sink your teeth into something. You're like a pit bull with a death grip and I...got a little worried because it's awfully late and I decided to come here to make you listen to reason and I thought that while I was at it, it would be better to apologize in person." She then placed her hands soothingly on the lapels of his shirt to rest on his chest, trying to soothe the savage beast within. She then added in her conciliatory tone, "I mean, I really do owe you an apology for ignoring your explicit instructions not to follow you."

"An apology? An apology, Amanda?" Lee answered incredulously as he stepped back from her, trying to cool his reaction to her touch, not wanting to let her distract him the way she was so good at doing. "You owe me a hell of a lot more than an apology. What you owe me is an explanation. A real one, this time." As Amanda started to open her mouth, he added. "And don't you start that thing you do."

"That thing I do?"

"Yes, that thing! That thing where you try to babble me to death until I get so confused that I forget what I was ever mad about to start with."

"Oh, now, Lee, I would never try to babble you to death, but you know me, I'm a motor-mouth. You know, my mother always said that I had the gift of gab and that I was a natural born-chatterbox. I sometimes just can't help myself, especially when I get nervous, you know." Lee groaned at Amanda beginning yet another long-winded ramble. "You know, you just never know what might come out of my mouth nex-" Her words were cut off by Lee grabbing her wrists forcefully and his mouth descending on hers in a crushing kiss.

Lee smiled inwardly at Amanda's instant response as she gripped his shoulders tightly, making a mental note that this was one sure-fire way to shut her up. As she moaned against him, he thought, maybe not, but at least this was for a different reason. He'd learned over the past two years that she was just as vocal during sex as she was everywhere else. At least in this instance, it would be something that they would both enjoy, instead of her maddening rambling driving him to want to down the entire contents of his liquor cabinet. He lowered his hands to her waist and guided her backward toward the couch on the opposite side of the room,, groaning in frustration as he realized it was still covered in boxes and files. He broke their kiss long enough to sweep the mess aside knocking most of it into the floor as he untied the belt of her coat. "It's a little warm for this, isn't it?" he said in a low voice as he pushed her coat to the floor.

"Oh, yes, I'm suddenly feeling very warm," Amanda replied seductively as she yanked the tails of his shirt from his pants and quickly undid all the buttons of his shirt, glad that he'd already had the sleeves rolled up so she didn't have to mess with the cuffs. His shirt joined her coat on the floor while Lee reached for the hem of her gown, roughly yanking it up, Amanda raising her arms over her head to facilitate its removal.

"You know, I'm thinking that I'm starting to like these cotton gowns," Lee said as he balled it up and tossed it across the room, "Easier to remove than most of the sexy ones."

"You just haven't seen the right kind of sexy lingerie yet," Amanda replied in a husky voice as she began to trail kisses down his chest while she worked on freeing him from his pants, while he in turn slipped his hand inside her panties to caress her.

"Ohhhh," Lee groaned in delight as Amanda's nimble fingers closed around his shaft and began stroking him exasperatingly slowly. He stepped out of his dress shoes, kicked the pants and boxers now pooled around his ankles aside, reached for the satin panties resting on her hips, yanking them down, and then pushed her back on to the couch her back bowed against the arm as he plunged into her hard.

"Lee," she squealed at the feeling of his hard length insider her. She had not time to adjust before he was pulling back and driving into her again harder than before.

"Manda," he growled as the thoughts of how maddening, infuriating, and confounding she could be, yet also soft, yielding, giving and loving all at the same time, Every time that he thought he'd figure out they mystery that was Amanda King, he found himself re-evaluating everything he thought he knew. This, though, the way the completed each other, this was one area where nothing was confusing, no gray areas, just the two of them fulfilling each other's needs with need for verbal communication. Their bodies, their sighs, moans and groans of pleasure, the way they responded to each other said more than any words could. Feeling himself about to lose control and that she wasn't, he slowed his movements a bit as he slipped one hand between them to caress her, eliciting another loud series of moans from her. "Yes, Amanda," He rasped. "Yes, Amanda, come on, let go."

"LEE!' Amanda screeched as her climax ripped through her, just as Lee picked up the pace and once again began pumping into her hard and fast. She clung tightly to him as he called out her name, both of them panting and sweating, quaking together as they rode out the wave of their mutual pleasure together.

"'Manda," Lee whispered softly through his heavy breathing. "I-" He broke off, turned his head toward the door and abruptly pulled away from him.

"What is it?" Amanda asked as she sat up. "Don't tell me you're still mad at me after that."

"Shh," Lee said listening hard, as he hurriedly yanked his underwear and pants back on and tossed her nightgown at her. "Get dressed. Someone's coming up the stairs.

Amanda quickly pulled her gown back over her head and searched frantically for her underwear. Not finding them and hearing the footsteps growing closer, she reached for her coat, slipped into it. She had just cinched the belt on it as Lee finished buttoning his shirt.

"Come here," Lee said scooping up a handful of files, tossing a couple her direction as he pulled her to a sitting position on the couch beside him. Lee and Amanda had just settled in to making a good shoe of perusing the files when Francine entered the room.

Francine surveyed the office. At seeing the tossed-aside boxes and files, raised an eyebrow, eyed the pair and said, "This place looks worse than when I left and you ruined the search grid I worked so hard to set."

"So, we'll reset it. It's not as bad as it looks, Francine," Lee responded. "We just moved the stuff off the couch so we could be more comfortable. What are you doing here this late anyway?"

"Couldn't sleep, so I thought since you shuffled me out of here earlier before all the much-needed work was done, I'd take another crack at it. You too?" She gestured to the neck of Amanda's nightgown showing above the collar of her coat.

"Yeah, but you know, I really should be going. I should try to get some sleep since my boys will be up at the crack of dawn," Amanda answered as she rose from the sofa, tossed the files in her hands in it, picked up her fallen purse and hurried out the door.

"Well, what was that all about?"Francine asked after Amanda's abrupt departure.

"What? You think I have the inside track on how Amanda's mind works? I don't think anyone is that lucky." He paused for a moment. "You wanna' help, knock yourself out. You might start with the boxes." Lee nodded toward the boxes that he'd knocked off the couch.

"Sure," Francine sighed as she picked up one of the boxes and set in on the floor in front of the couch as she plopped down into the seat that Amanda had just vacated, peering into the box. "Ugh," she said with a grimace shrinking back from the box.

"What is it?" Lee queried as he looked over.

"See for yourself," Francine replied with a gesture at the box.

Lee laughed as he saw the pair of white satin-and-lace panties lying atop the other contents of the box. "Maybe Crawford had more going on here than just espionage."

"Eww" Francine shuddered and then jumped up in alarm as a thought struck her, frowning. "You know, I'm thinking we should have that couch steam-cleaned and maybe I don't know...sanitized or something. And you know, I'm suddenly thinking that I should follow Amanda's cue and just go home and get some sleep."

Lee laughed even harder as he watched Francine's rapid departure, wondering just how she'd react if she knew the underwear that had set her off were not left behind by Crawford. He bent to pick them up, walked to his new desk where his suit jacket was draped over the back of his desk chair. As he held them up by one side, he shook his head in amusement at what a contradiction Amanda was, sedate cotton granny gowns, with sexy underwear underneath. He shook his head, shoved them into his coat pocket intending to give them back to her the next time he saw her. He reached for his tie and stuck it in there as well before pulling it on, deciding he'd go home to shower and change clothes before making another trip to the State Department to look at Harry's files. As he reached the door, he took a backward glance at the defiled sofa, smiling as he wondered if he'd ever fully unravel the mystery surrounding the woman who'd taken over his life and made it better.