A/N: With this segment of the story we begin at the beginning of Over the Limit. Amanda is in the bullpen with Francine about to receive her Spring cleaning assignment. And Lee, well, he's...

Lee Stetson, aka Scarecrow, super secret agent, able to stare down the barrel of a gun without flinching, endure torture, lie his way through any situation with absolutely no problem, sat in his car in the IFF parking lot, staring blankly at the steering wheel of his Corvette. The prospect of having to face his partner, gluing him to his seat. Maybe he should have called in sick. He certainly felt like it. He hadn't had a decent night's sleep in nearly a week, and last night had been the worst. In fact, last night had been an unmitigated disaster as far as his personal life was concerned.

Leslie had been working so Lee stayed late at the office. He was tired when he left and drove to get something to eat. At some point his mind must have switched to auto-pilot because he suddenly discovered he was parking down the street from 4247 Maplewood Dr. His breath had caught in his throat as he looked up at the Cape Cod with its white picket fence. Why had he come here? And how could it be that the one place that used to make him feel such a sense of peace now created a dread in the pit of his stomach?

He glanced at the clock on the dash. It was 8:00 p.m. The boys would be getting to bed now. Amanda and her mother would be in the family room, most likely, maybe having some tea or just relaxing and reading. Lee felt his palms grow moist and his throat dry at the prospect of seeing her. How long had it been since he'd had an uninterrupted moment with her, alone? It had been a long time. His chest tightened and he was surprised at his sudden need to see her, to touch her, to take her hand in his.

He glanced up at the house and decided he'd wait about an hour before he tried knocking at her back door. They could talk. He could tell her about Leslie. At that thought he panicked. Why, he had no idea. It shouldn't be such an issue to tell his best friend about his new girlfriend. It wasn't as if there was anything romantic between him and Amanda. OK, so he had wanted something, but he knew he couldn't have that so it was time to be a man about this and just deal with it.

Looking back at the house he saw Amanda's bedroom light come on. He could see her silhouette as she came to shut the curtains. After a while the light went out again. Knowing Amanda's habits, Lee suspected that she had gone to bed. This both perturbed and relieved him. He rested his head against the seat back and stared longingly at her bedroom window.

Lee thought back to just a few weeks ago, when he felt things were moving along nicely. He'd been in her room, on her bed. They were just talking about the case they were working on but Lee had thought there had been something more. They'd shook hands on their agreement and at her touch Lee had felt something so strong, like an electric current pulsing through his body. He'd looked at Amanda to see if she'd felt it too, but she had instead blushed and put her hand up to cover the skin her nightgown had left revealed. Lee closed his eyes and realized he should have seen it then, the not-so subtle hint with which she tried to convey exactly what she thought of him. Sure, she could be his friend. He knew she cared for him. But more than that? No, it was obvious she could never trust him that way.

As Lee finally drove away, he thought to himself, 'Why does doing the right thing feel so wrong?'

He'd been certain he'd have a good night's sleep that night. He hadn't stayed out late with Leslie again. He went home after his "visit" to Amanda's and had gone straight to bed. He hadn't been very hungry anymore, for some reason. But he tossed and turned instead. He'd sleep intermittently, but only for a few minutes at a time. Finally, mercifully, his body gave out from the exhaustion from the past few days and fell into a deep sleep some time after 3am.

Lee shook his head, thinking of it now. It hadn't turned out to be so merciful after all. He had dreamed of Amanda. Not one of the dreams he'd had in the past week, but one that was similar to what he'd dreamed of before the whole mess with the Oz Network. Right now, he couldn't think of a worse possible thing that could happen to him.

In his dream, instead of going home, Lee had climbed the trellis outside Amanda's window and knocked. She opened the window for him and helped him in. She was wearing the same nightgown he remembered, only this time when he held her hand, she didn't look embarrassed, or try to cover herself. This time, she took a step toward him. He raised his hand and touched her face, then leaned in to kiss her. The instant his lips met hers it was if someone had poured fuel onto the flames of his passion. He pulled her tightly to him, her light moan only serving to encourage him. His lips never leaving hers, he guided them to her bed and she pulled him down with her as she fell. He trailed kisses across her cheek and down to her neck. She sighed his name in pleasure and he began to explore her body with his hands. His hand was on her thigh, slipping under her nightgown, when he was startled by a loud noise.

He awoke to the beeping of the alarm in his bedroom. His body was shaking and the pads on his fingers and hands buzzed as if he had truly been touching her. Turning off the alarm, he threw off the covers and made his way quickly to the shower. He didn't even bother with any amount of hot water to take the sting off the cold. But all the good the cold did was to quench his desire, he still shook visibly.

Dammit, this was ridiculous, he thought as he made his way to the bar in the living room. He was going to need something stronger than coffee if he planned to face his partner today. Sitting down on the sofa, whiskey in one hand, the other hand running through his hair, Lee shook his head. He had been positive things were getting better. Sure, he'd dreamed about Amanda lately, but it had been nothing like this. What was different last night?

That's when genius struck him. He'd visited Amanda and, even though he hadn't seen her, it had affected him. The other days he'd barely seen her. He had to wean himself off of her. Lee laughed at that thought. As if Amanda was some sort of addiction he had. But as he sat there he slowly realized it might not be so far from the truth as he'd like to believe. Wasn't she some kind of addiction, some kind of need? How many times had he gone by her house and just sat out front. Sure, he'd told himself he was just checking up on her, making sure everything was OK. But now that he was being honest with himself, he might as well admit that just looking at her house gave him some sort of peace. Even if he didn't go up to the window and look in to see her, he could imagine her inside, maybe helping the boys with their homework on a school night, or laughing as her mother read her the jokes from the Reader's Digest. Or playing a game with the boys and her mother if it was a Saturday night. For several months before he'd stopped dating entirely, Lee had cut short many dates when he just felt a little "off." Claiming his instincts and the propensity Amanda had for attracting trouble, he'd rush over to her house, and keep an eye on things for an hour or two, or he might go tap on her back door and she'd come out on the patio and they'd talk.

Lee groaned. He had to stop this. He had a girlfriend now, one with whom he wanted things to work out the way they couldn't with Amanda. He was going to cut himself off. He didn't know how much he could avoid her at work, but he could definitely avoid her outside the office. And, to be honest, lately, since Amanda was becoming more proficient at her job, they'd been working together slightly less.

Then genius struck him again. Leslie was going to go back to New York in a few days. If Lee could just refrain from getting involved in anything important, maybe he could convince Billy to send him up to Manhattan for, well, for what he didn't know, but he was sure he could come up with something. Amanda worked fairly well on her own and Billy could always find other ways to keep her busy. Maybe he could assign her with another agent.

Lee's mind froze for a moment as he saw red, and the ugly head of jealousy began to rear its head again. Shaking his head he thought, maybe Billy could assign her with another female agent.

Feeling somewhat relieved at his solution, and ignoring the pressure in his chest that told him that it would nearly kill him not to see his best friend and partner for that long, he glanced at his watch. He still had another hour before he needed to be at work. Getting up, he walked into his bedroom and proceeded to get dressed. He was about to put on his tie when the phone rang. He picked up the receiver.

"Hello," he answered.

A soft voice replied from the other end.

"I missed you yesterday, Lee," Leslie said.

Lee refused to give place to the still annoying voice in the back of his head that told him that he wasn't nearly as thrilled to hear Leslie's real voice say his name as he been to hear the Amanda of his dream.

"I missed you, too," he smiled, as he sat down on the bed.

"What did you do last night?" she asked.

It was an innocent enough question, but Lee's blood pressure began to sky rocket. He thought briefly of what could happen if he actually told her about Amanda. No, he couldn't do that. It would mess everything up if she found out about Amanda.

"Nothing," he managed to sound nonchalant. "Just worked late, then came home and went to bed."

"That sounds terribly boring," Leslie consoled.

"Yeah, it was," Lee said as he looked at the clock.

There was still time, so he laid back on the bed and continued his conversation with Leslie.

"How about I make it up to you later," she said.

"I like the sound of that," Lee replied, and he honestly did. He needed to see Leslie. When he was with her he worked harder at keeping thoughts of Amanda out of his head.

"Why don't you give me a call when you are done this afternoon," she told him. "We can go do something fun together."

"That would be great," he said. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Wonderful, I'll wait your call."

And with that they said their good-bye's and Lee hung up the phone. He laid on the bed and tried to think of some place they could go together tonight. Maybe a movie to change their usual restaurant dates. Lee really wanted to see the new Schwarzenegger movie, Commando. That didn't sound like something Leslie would like. Though he really wasn't sure. They hadn't discussed movie preferences yet. Lee remembered seeing an ad on TV earlier in the week for a Patsy Cline biography film. Maybe she'd like that. He'd look at the paper later and see what was playing.

Staring at the ceiling, he tried to imagine the date tonight. Slowly, the adrenaline that had driven him since waking ebbed, and his eyes began to droop. His mind briefly thought that maybe laying down on the bed hadn't been such a good idea. But then he succumbed to his body's need for sleep, and he dreamed again.

This dream had been different, and if he had to admit which dream bothered him the most, it would be the latter. He was in a field, or a park, he wasn't sure which. It was a wide open space with grass and a few trees. It should be a peaceful setting and the chaos surrounding him was out of place. There were bodies scattered all around him. Each covered with a cloth. It looked as if a morgue had been moved outside. He walked to each body, lifting the cloth from each face. The more bodies he looked at, the greater his panic became. While he couldn't say how he knew, he was looking for Amanda. She was supposed to be here, his mind told him. He started to run, crying out her name uselessly among the dead. Finally he came to a body, and he knew instinctively it was her. With a trembling hand he pulled back the cloth to see Amanda's still, grey face. Pain tore through him like nothing he'd ever experienced.

Suddenly, Lee was back in his bedroom. His breaths were coming in short bursts and he was tangled up in the bedclothes. He looked at the clock and saw that it was already 9:30. He groaned. He was late again. Not bothering to change his rumpled clothes, Lee grabbed his tie and slipped on his shoes before he ran out the door.

And now, he sat in the parking lot, preparing himself to face the inevitable. He had to see her again some time. It was foolish to think he could avoid her 100%. They worked together. She was his partner.

Lee sighed as he contemplated the meaning of the dream. He had convinced himself that it was just his subconscious reacting to his decision to stay away from Amanda in order to get her out of his system. He'd thought he'd had premonitions of her being in trouble before but they'd always just been an excuse to go to her and see her. This was nothing more than the same. If he gave in today, he'd fall back into his old patterns and things would never work with Leslie.

He finally opened the Corvette's door and climbed out. He didn't even bother to straighten the tie he'd done such a bad job tying while he was driving. Then he walked to the entrance feeling somewhat like a man going to the gallows. Between his co-workers "knowing" looks and his need to stay away from Amanda, this was going to be a lousy day.

"Mr. Melrose would like to see you downstairs right away," were the only words the receptionist said as she handed him his badge.

Strike that, it was going to be a miserable day.

In the bullpen, Billy was in the middle of handing out files for the ill-named "Spring Cleaning," (It was Fall, but this was what it had always been called and who was he to break tradition?) when he was interrupted by Francine's rather syrupy sweet, "Oh, it's the midnight rambler." He didn't have to guess who had just walked through the doors. Turning his eyes landed briefly on his top agent. Inwardly he cringed. The man looked as if he'd slept in his clothes. Francine's description could not have been more apt.

"I need to speak with you," he mouthed at Lee, who rolled his eyes in reply.

With practiced ease, Billy returned to his administrative duties, no one in the office aware of his concern over what was going on with his top agent, or his top team, for that matter. After passing around the files, and letting Amanda know about the appointment he'd set for her at the firing range,he stepped to the side and waited for Scarecrow who was deflecting Francine's accusations. From the looks of things, though, neither Francine, nor Amanda, were buying his excuse of insomnia.

Lee walked over and Billy said, "Insonmia, huh?"

He wasn't buying it either.

"Chronic, too," he let the sarcasm drip into his voice. "Same problem for the last four days."

Lee looked as if he was going to protest with more excuses so Billy hurried to his reason for summoning him.

"There's a way you can make it up to me," he said. "Amanda's never been Spring Cleaning."

"Ah, now, wait a minute Billy," Lee started, a slight whine to his voice. "Amanda doesn't need a nursemaid. She's been around enough to know how to handle a few crackpots, come on."

"Handling is one thing, but Amanda gets...enthused," Billy reminded him. "Like any other day in DC, anything can happen.

"Listen," he went on. "I've got a mill full of funny rumors. Who makes rumors?"

"Crackpots," Lee answered at the same time as Billy replied to his own question.

"Take. Care. Of. Her," Billy emphasized with his voice and his look, then turned and walked back to his office.

As he sat down at his desk, he watched Lee follow Amanda out of the bullpen rather sullenly. Billy sighed and let his shoulders droop with the weight he had felt growing on them the past few days.

What the hell was going on with Lee? Billy had only been mildly surprised after the events of this week that Lee had all but refused to go out with Amanda. Was this the same man who had, less than three months ago, all but begged him to send Amanda to "help" him in a simple overseas assignment? Was it the same one Billy could tell was seething inwardly with jealousy when Amanda was "dating" a man undercover to find out information about a terrorist?

He had wondered if there might be something more to their relationship. But things didn't really seem any different. Over the previous year they had become a solid team. Their fighting over Amanda's ability to do her job, and Lee's stubbornness, seemed to have dissipated and was replaced by serious discussions about their cases. They didn't always agree, but there were none of the explosive and heated debates they'd had at the beginning of their partnership.

Partnership, Billy thought. Lee had finally accepted Amanda as his partner. From there things had immediately improved. They listened better to each other. Their work before had been good, but now it was almost seamless. He had rarely seen two partners work together so well. In all his years as an agent, Billy, himself, had only had one such partner.

Thinking back to that time, Billy groaned mentally. That had been ruined by an outside love interest as well. Not his, but his partner's. While Billy knew what was going on with Lee was nothing near what had happened with his partner, he still understood where Amanda might feel slighted and Lee wasn't doing anything to try to help that. Good partners had a tendency to become best friends. And when the partnership was mixed, as it had been in Billy's case, and it was with Lee and Amanda, a love interest by either of the parties could really start to wreak havoc on that friendship, especially one that was as close Billy suspected Lee's and Amanda's.

Billy had held off Spring Cleaning until today when Amanda was in because he'd hoped that by sending Lee out with Amanda, and reminding him of what he had thought Lee knew, Amanda was basically a magnet for trouble, he might rouse some of Lee's waning interest in their partnership.

The section chief shook the thoughts from his head and tried to mentally get back to his work. Maybe today, with some time alone out in the field, Lee would be reminded just how valuable he'd previously thought Amanda.