The initial giddiness that he felt when he discovered that his mom had returned home safely had quickly evaporated. Jamie was awash in a sea of emotions, too many to identify and process in anything that remotely resembled a rational process. The additional relief that he'd felt when Lee also returned safely was supplanted by shock as his eyes were riveted on his stepfather's blood drenched attire. It wasn't the first time that he'd seen blood stains on someone's clothing, but the only place where he'd seen that level of gore was in a horror movie, and truth be told, that genre was more Phillip's taste than his.

Mom and Lee are safe, and everything is going to be okay. Well, not really okay, an innocent person is dead…I shouldn't be surprised…how could someone have suffered so much blood loss and survive? When Mom was shot in California, were Lee's clothes soaked with her blood?

The color slowly drained from his face, while he turned away from his mother and unsteadily made his way back to the table. A very concerned Amanda quickly followed him, and knelt down at his side.

"Sweetie, what's the matter?"

"You could've died," he stated quietly, seemingly looking in her direction, while not really focusing on her presence beside him.

"Jamie, look at me!" She raised his chin and continued, "I'm fine, and I was never in the line of fire."

"You were shot," he uttered brokenly, as tears started to slowly roll down his cheeks.

Oh my gosh, he's not reacting to what happened last night, he's thinking about when I was shot in California. She gently enfolded him in her arms, and held him as he silently cried. After a few minutes had passed, he pulled out of her embrace and roughly swiped a hand across his red-rimmed eyes.

"I'm sorry that I acted like such a wimp…I'm okay, really…I usually try not to think back to…you know. When Grandma told us what had happened to you she looked so sad and almost frightened, and you know that nothing scares her. She called Dad, and he came right over to stay with us. Phillip asked him if you might…die, but I didn't stick around to hear his answer because if I didn't hear him say 'yes', than maybe it wouldn't happen."

"Jamie, I'm so sorry that you boys had to go through that. I wish you had leaned on your dad more, that's what he was here for."

"What about Lee," he asked, seemingly out of left-field. "Who did he have to turn to? Was he covered in your blood then?"

They'd been seated in the cramped confines of the Corvette for several hours and her legs had begun to cramp. She could only imagine how uncomfortable her much taller husband must have been feeling. This wasn't technically an Agency case, yet they'd been waiting in the mostly darkened parking lot of an out of business supermarket to witness the hand-off of incriminating documents in a drug case. Their conversation about Phillip's poor grades was suddenly interrupted by gunshots, and the unmistakable sound of a windshield shattering, as two cars entered the lot from the opposite side. She was stunned by the all too familiar sounds, and as she shook off the briefest of flashbacks she turned to her partner-only to find that he had bolted from the car and was running into the line of fire. She knew in an instant that she shouldn't follow him. She removed her own weapon from its holster, aimed it to potentially cover him, and radioed for backup. The gunplay ended quickly and one of the cars pealed out of the lot. Sensing that the danger had passed, she rushed from the Corvette and ran to her partner who was cradling the mortally wounded body of a civilian who shouldn't even have been there. How had things gone so terribly wrong?

"Mom, Mom?" She was still next to him, but she appeared to be focused on some place miles away. "You're scaring me…you look even more out of it than Lee did before. What happened to you guys last night?"

"It didn't happen to us, it happened to a pair of sisters who trusted us to help them and we let them down. If Lee hadn't listened to me-"

"Don't go there, Amanda," her husband warned, as he reentered the room. He'd cleaned up, but didn't look any less haunted by their shared experience. "I'm the senior agent, and I made the ultimate decision about how we'd proceed…it's just that I didn't follow my own rules along the way."

Jamie watched the couple eyeing each other guardedly, and quickly decided that it was more important for them to talk through their experience privately, his concerns could wait.

"Mom, Lee, I just remembered that I have homework to do. I'll be up in my room- with the radio playing very loudly. See 'ya later."

Author's note: I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my friend, Luz. She accepted an early retirement package that was offered by the company that we've both worked for over twenty years. This was her last week at work, and it was bittersweet. I'm very happy for her, but I'll miss her terribly.

In Spanish, her name means light, and she truly lit up the lives of everyone that she worked with. Like Amanda, she reached out to others automatically, and was relentlessly upbeat and supportive. She was genuinely surprised by the outpouring of affection that she received during this past week because she doesn't think that she'd done anything extraordinary. I'm very glad that there are people like her in the world.

Thank you, readers, for waiting for this chapter and indulging my melancholy mood.