Chapter 70-Classy Interrogation

"No Thanks For the Memory"

AN: For this one, I decided to take another tiny little liberty with Amanda's "cover" at the hospital just to fit this story.

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Lee sighed in frustration at Amanda's news that she had to break another lunch date, but he still couldn't help smiling at her enthusiasm as she put her arms around him and excitedly told him, "It's my first Class C interrogation."

"Oho, now a Class C is a soft interrogation," he reminded her. "Lots of hand-holding, sweet-talking." He slipped his arms around her and suggested in a low, seductive tone, "Maybe we can make up for lost time by practicing on me."

"I don't think you need any..." her statement was interrupted by his attempt to kiss her, "...practice."

"Amanda, I don't see you enough," he complained.

"I'm sorry, but it's work," she argued. "Now, you know that when we are at work, we have to behave like we are at work."

"Mm-hmm," he grumbled petulantly.

"Somebody could walk in the door any minute," she pointed out, thinking of all the times that they'd nearly been caught in the throes of passion over the last three years.

"How very practical of you," he fired back sarcastically. "Except when we are not at work, we are not together enough to suit me," he groused as he punctuated each word for emphasis. "How about dinner tomorrow night at my place?"

"You don't have any food at your place," she teased with a soft chuckle.

He grinned impishly. "Exactly." What he didn't want to tell her is that he'd been dying for them to have a real date night so he could finally ask her the burning question that had been on his mind for weeks. Maybe tomorrow night could be the night.

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Lee let out another sigh of frustration as he entered the hospital in search of his girlfriend. When he found her, he couldn't help smiling as he spotted her in her Bedside Bluebell uniform, fussing with a cart outside their phony Finn's room, bringing to mind the last time he'd seen her in that getup. "What's going on," he whispered behind her causing her to jump.

She turned and slapped him hard on the chest. "Don't do that!" she admonished him.

He chuckled at her reaction, but his laughter quickly died when she pushed him into a nearby storage room with a harsh, "Shh!"

When she closed the door behind them, he couldn't resist teasing her a bit, "Hmm...I remember the last time you dragged me into this room." He placed his hands at her waist and waggled his eyebrows at her. "You were complying with my request to get me a woman after that thing with the Chewy Chubby Bar."

She rolled her eyes at him. "You didn't have any complaints about your..." she gave a pointed look the direction of his pants, "...chewy chubby bar after that, if I recall."

"You just wanted to get me alone in this room again, didn't you?" he teased as he lightly fingered the edge of the blue smock she wore for her cover. "You know how I like you in blue." He leaned into her as he spoke, his voice dropping lower.

She wriggled out of his grasp and moved to the other side of him to avoid being pinned against the door as she sensed was his intention by the look in his eyes. When he turned to face her, she scolded, "Would you be serious? That is not why I dragged you in here. I just didn't think we should be discussing this out in the open since I'm supposed to be just an innocent Bedside Bluebell. Now, look, we don't have much time. Mr. Strengall is about to be released any minute now."

"If that's even his real name," Lee muttered.

"Well, I think we can be pretty sure it's not," Amanda pointed out. "But that's not the point. The point is that I'm pretty sure the guy who was talking to him was KGB. "Listen to this." She pulled the tape recorder out of her pocket and pushed play.

Lee nodded as he listened. "Yeah," he replied as he took the recorder from her and snapped it off. He sighed. So much for their date night the next evening. "Okay, okay," Lee grumbled. "What do you need from me?"

"Well, I already called the office for backup and a surveillance team and I managed to shuffle a bit of paperwork around here at the hospital to delay his release, but that won't stop them for long. The guy was pretty determined to get him out of here."

"So, what's the problem?"

"The problem is that I don't know that they're going to honor my request. When dispatch put Beaman on the phone, he seemed awfully mad and I-"

"I'll take care of Beaman," Lee interrupted with a nod.

"I don't want you to take care of Beaman. I can handle him, but I need to make sure that we don't lose Mr. Strengall before we can figure out what's going on. Since you're the senior agent, I was hoping that you could...you know...make sure they listen to me." She looked up at him with pleading eyes as she tugged at his tie to straighten it.

"Yeah. I can do that," he promised with a warm smile.

"Good." She smiled back and yanked on his tie that she still held to pull him to her for a sweet, lingering kiss. She then brushed by him, opened the door, peeked out for a moment to make sure the coast was clear, and then returned to her cart, slipping right back into her cover.

Lee shook his head as he watched her and mumbled, "Bluebell or blue balls?" He just hoped that whatever was going on, they'd be able to wrap it up so he could still have his moment with her to ask her to be his wife.

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As luck would have it, that was not to be the case, neither was his promise to Amanda not to go to bat for her with Beaman once the younger man had started mouthing off about how she'd overstepped her bounds. He'd had to say something when he began second-guessing Amanda's instincts. After all, she'd proven time and time again, that her instincts were usually dead on.

After solving the case, capturing Tolst and getting Zhmed into the defector's relocation program, they were finally, blissfully alone. He had dinner ready, Amanda was here, the boys were with Joe, Dotty with her new beau and no urgent cases that needed to be worked on. "I think we are long overdue for some celebrating," he was saying as he poured two glasses of champagne. "Especially the kind that includes just the two of us. So, with that thought in mind," he glanced toward the kitchen, "some romantic candlelight..." he held up the two glasses, "A little bubbly..." He walked around to her side of the sofa, "And a little romance." He couldn't help the slight smile when he saw that she was peacefully dozing on the very sofa that she'd helped him pick out. He set the glasses down, knelt beside her and whispered, "A very little romance."

He brushed a soft kiss to her lips and was about to leave to let her rest when she grabbed his arm. When he looked at her curiously, she grinned at him, "I may be sleepy, but I'm not dead," and pulled him back to her for a more lingering kiss.

He chuckled at the contented look on her face. "You feel up to dinner?" he inquired.

"Mm-hmm," she answered as she sat up and stretched. "Can't let all that effort of yours go to waste. Besides, I'm starving."

He picked up the glasses, handed one to her, took her hand in his and led her into the dining room.

They took their time as they ate dinner together, just basking in each other's company. Amanda told him all about her mother's new obsession, supposedly with flight school.

"Your mother?" he laughed. "The woman who couldn't parallel park even if she had the whole block to park on?"

While Amanda laughed with him, it became clearer what Dotty was up to, once she had fully explained to him about the instructor. "Well, maybe he'll be as good a teacher to her as you have been to me."

"It helps when you have a good student." He couldn't stop beaming over the pride he felt in her for the job she'd done. "You know, you were amazing through this whole thing," he complimented her while he rose to begin clearing the table a bit later.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, you really were," he praised her. "You accomplished exactly what a Class C interrogation is supposed to accomplish. You gained Zhmed's trust just by sweet-talking and sharing personal stuff. If you'd never showed him that picture of the boys, he'd never have known where to find you, he'd never have shared the truth about his abilities with you and we would never have known what Tolst was up to." He walked into the kitchen carrying the now-empty champagne bottle and their glasses. As he set them down on the counter, he smiled as she saw the blue box that he'd placed there earlier in anticipation of surprising her with it.

"Well, thank you," she responded with a smile as she stepped into the doorway, dinner plates in hand, but then stifled a yawn.

He took the plates from her hands and steered her back out of the kitchen, not wanting to her to see the box. "Come on, let's get you to bed. You look like you're ready to fall asleep standing up."

"Oh, Lee, I'm fine," she argued as he guided her toward his bedroom. "I'm just tired. I bet you are too. You haven't had any more sleep than I have in the past two days. Let me at least help you clean up since you cooked."

"No," he stated adamantly. "You go on. I'll take care of it." He then nudged her toward the bedroom, refusing to take no for an answer. Once assured that she was safely tucked away in his bedroom, he returned to the dining room to finish the job he'd started of clearing the table from their late dinner.

Upon walking back into the kitchen and setting down the remaining dishes, he cast a forlorn glance at the abandoned gift box and shook his head. "Another time," he mumbled as he quickly stowed it away in a drawer so that Amanda wouldn't find it in the morning when she got up. Knowing her, she'd be up before him and insist on making him breakfast. What he wouldn't give to have that every day, even though he wasn't much of a breakfast person. Just to wake up next to her on a daily basis would be enough for him.

He stifled those thoughts for now and turned back to his cleanup. As he washed the dishes, he reflected back on the many times he'd seen her doing the same at her house, and how he'd longed to be a part of her domestic life. That longing was growing with every thwarted opportunity that presented itself. Would they ever have anything normal? Would The Agency always come before their personal life? He hoped not. That was why he was so antsy about making it official. They'd already wasted too much time in trying to pretend that they weren't in love.

He was so lost in his thoughts that before he knew it, he'd run out of dishes to wash. He drained the dishwater, dried his hands and snapped off the kitchen light as he made his way to his bedroom. When he entered the room, he couldn't help another smile forming on his face as he saw that even as tired as she was, she'd still cracked open the window just the way she liked it and had left the bathroom light on for him with the door slightly ajar the way that he liked it so that the room wouldn't be completely dark. God, I love this woman! He couldn't wait to spend the rest of his life with her.

He got undressed quietly, tossing his clothes into the hamper, something she'd insisted on buying during their shopping trip for the apartment because he didn't have one. He'd known, of course, that she'd had an ulterior motive in suggesting it. She'd wanted to keep him from tossing his clothes everywhere which, more than anything, came from years of habit. He'd never had anyone since his uncle telling him how to keep house. His habit of just leaving things where they landed had become a silent rebellion against the strict, rigid way he'd been raised.

Down to only his boxers, he crept quietly into the bathroom to brush his teeth, and then as he returned to the bedroom, he spotted her overnight bag planted on the chair in the corner of the room. He let out a deep sigh. He'd meant to clear out some room for her in his apartment, but with wrapping up the chaos after Stemwinder and the recent chaos involving Zhmed, he just hadn't had time. I've got to do that, he reminded himself as he slid into bed beside Amanda, sidled up behind her sleeping form, lightly wrapped an arm around her and whispered, "I love you." He wanted her here as often as possible now that she was finally willing to spend the whole night and he wanted her to be comfortable when she was...to feel as if his home was her home. After all, if he had his way, they'd one day be sharing a home on a permanent basis.

"Mmm," she sighed as she gently patted the hand on her hip. "Love you too," she murmured.

His heart leapt at her words and her quiet acknowledgement of his presence. He still remembered the five days she'd spent at his old place when she'd been looking after his health on Billy's orders. That first night, she had awakened startled in the middle of the night, a bit disoriented upon waking to find him wrapped around her. She'd instantly apologized and explained that she was just so used to sleeping alone, she'd forgotten where she was for a moment. Now, here she was contentedly sleeping in his bed without a care in the world. He'd gotten so used to sleeping next to her when during that brief stay and when they'd been on the run that he missed her; so badly, in fact, that he found it hard to sleep without her beside him.

His thoughts were interrupted by her turning to face him, her dark brown eyes fluttering open to gaze lovingly into his as she ran her long slender fingers up his bare chest, sending shockwaves through him. "Hi, Sailor," she teased lightly, a reminder of their brief cruise on the Mata Hari II when she'd insisted she be the captain and he be the crew.

"Hi," his hoarse voice responded as he captured one of her wandering hands with his own and kissed the tips of her fingers. This didn't stop her though as she trailed the fingers of her other hand down his torso to the waistband of his boxers. He quickly repeated his earlier action as he grabbed that hand too. Shifting slightly to hold both of her hands in one of his, he used the other to brush her sleep-tousled hair from her face. "You need to get some real sleep," he scolded lightly.

"I'll sleep, but first..." she pulled one of her hands from his and caressed his face. "I know you gave me a nice compliment on my work and while you may not need it, I think I could use some more practice on my Class C interrogation technique. After all this was my first one." She linked the fingers of her other hand with his. "Hand-holding, right?"

"That's right," he confirmed as he squeezed her hand.

"And sweet-talking," she continued as she scooted closer to him, took his face in both of her hands and began trailing light kisses along his jaw and up to his ear, and them whispered in a low, husky voice. "I love you." She nipped at his earlobe. "And I love being in your bed with you." She moved her mouth down his neck and murmured against his skin and lowered her hands to the bulge in his boxers. "I love making love to you."

Lee hummed in approval and responded in a raspy voice, "I think you've got the sweet talking down." He captured her hands in his again; placing light kisses to each one. "But this...this isn't necessary. I'm just happy you're here. As much as I love making love to you too, I love just spending time with you." He brushed a soft kiss to her lips. "And I love having you in my bed too, not only for that, but just to be close to you. All those times in the past that I tried to get you to spend the whole night with me, it wasn't just about sex, but about having you with me," he confessed.

Amanda nodded. "Oh, I'm not done yet, though." She pulled her hands from his again and rested them against the solid wall of his chest, her fingers, lightly grazing his nipples. "If I remember right, there was also that piece about sharing something personal..." She brushed her lips against his. "I have a confession of my own to make. All those times that I refused to spend the night...it wasn't because I thought you were only after sex." She looked him in the eye then. "It's because, like I said the first time I spent the night with you, I got so used to sleeping alone..."

"You were afraid," he concluded.

"No...well, yes, but not in the way that you mean. I have loved you for so long, I was afraid of getting used to NOT sleeping alone again."

A guilty expression crossed his face then. "That's my fault then. If only I hadn't been so scared to tell you how crazy in love with you I am. I knew you loved me...or at least I thought I did...for...well...ever and I just..."

Amanda smiled. "I think I'm gonna' like this Class C interrogation stuff," she chuckled at his admission of his own cowardice that had rivaled her own.

"Oh?" He ran a hand down her side and then reached to cup her bottom to pull her closer.

"Mm-hmm," she responded, a little shiver of excitement shooting up her spine at his erection pressed against her.

"Well, I think you've got it down, the whole shebang." She always had though. She'd always had the ability to coax things out of him and didn't need any special training for that.

She ran her leg along his and hooked it across his hip needing to be as close to him as she could get. "Are you sure? 'Cause, you know, I always feel like practice makes perfect."

Lee shook his head as he ran his hands under her nightgown. "No, you and I...we don't need more practice. We spent too much time just practicing. Now, it's time for the real thing."

"Yes," she sighed in a throaty whisper as his fingers slipped inside her panties and began to tease her. She closed her eyes and basked in the sensations for a moment before she placed a hand over his to stop him.

"Wha-" Lee began to question, but quieted down when she sat up for a moment to pull her cotton gown over her head. He watched, licking his lips in anticipation as her pert breasts bounced free. The ache he felt for her only grew as he took in the sight of her shimmying out of her panties.

"No more practicing," she stated firmly as she lay back down on her side facing him and once again reached for the waistband of his boxers.

"Let me," he said as he yanked them off, tossed them aside and returned to her waiting arms capturing her lips in a fierce kiss while she slid one leg between his, draped the other across him and guided him into her. "'Manda," he whispered as she began to push against him.

"Lee," she sighed in response as she felt his hand grasping her bottom. She braced her hands on his shoulders as he pushed deeper into her.

Lying face to face, they moved ever so slowly together, neither feeling the need to rush things. Their confessions to one another about how much they enjoyed just being together now that there were no longer any emotional barriers between them only heightened the experience. They kissed, touched, and teased until the longing became too much for them to bear; both of them on the edge of release, Lee finally rolled her over onto her back and with one final thrust, sent the two of them spiraling over the precipice as they whispered words of love to each other.

"I love you," Lee whispered one final time as rolled back over and cradled her against him.

"Thank you," Amanda replied with a cheeky grin. He laughed at that and then laughed even harder when she added, "Now, I really do need to go to sleep."

"Goodnight, My Love." he brushed a soft kiss against her head that was now resting on his chest as they drifted off into a peaceful sleep together, his last thought of her words about getting used to not sleeping alone. Better get used to it.