As they walked down the Haydens' driveway, Lee saw how much the conversation with them had bothered her. He reached for her hand and linked his fingers with hers. "And you thought our Francine was bad," he joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

She let out a dry chuckle as he opened the passenger door of the 'Vette for her and helped her in. "I promise, I'll never complain about her again."

Lee laughed as he got into the driver's side. "Somehow I doubt that. She'll make one of her patented sarcastic comments and it'll get you two kicking the verbal ball around again."

"Okay, you're probably right," Amanda sighed. "But maybe I should buy her another box of chocolates just to let her know that I appreciate her not being like that." She gave a nod to the house as Lee started the car and pulled away. "I find it so sad that they want nothing to do with their own grandchild."

"I can relate to that," Lee commented with a hint of sadness in his tone, both at the memories of his own childhood and that his attempt to cheer her up hadn't lasted long.

"I know you can," she absently patted his arm comfortingly, knowing all too well how strained his relationship with his uncle and only living family member was. "I can too, but in a different way."

"Oh?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow. "How so? Your mom is just as much involved in your kids' lives as you are."

Amanda nodded in agreement. "Oh, she is, absolutely and so was my dad when he was still with us when the boys were little. It's their other grandparents I was referring to. They don't really visit them much since the divorce, not that they really did when Joe and I were still married. They usually expected us to come to their house...you know, for holidays and such... They do send gifts for Phillip and Jamie...for birthdays and Christmas, but they don't come to their birthday parties or any of their school events or Little League games...or-or-or...anything. I doubt they even know how old the boys are now." She let out a deep sigh. "You know, talking to Francine Hayden just now, it was almost like talking to my ex-mother-in-law again. She was always a bit...well, a bit snobbish. Not only that, but very much like Mr. and Mrs. Hayden are with Lorelai, I think she blamed me for getting pregnant and 'ruining' their son's life."

"Huh," was Lee's only reply at Amanda's revelations. He'd always assumed that she'd had the perfect suburban life prior to Joe starting the job that took him away from his family, but listening to her talk, he realized how stupid that sounded. Obviously, if they'd gotten divorced, there had to be more to it. While he'd balked at taking this case, he couldn't help thinking that it was definitely helping him to achieve his goal of getting to know more about her without even really trying. He finally spoke up again with a sympathetic, "I'm sorry to hear that. People like that make me crazy."

She looked at him curiously. "Really?" she questioned disbelievingly. "I'm surprised to hear you say that. I thought fancy parties and hobnobbing with the idle rich was right up your alley. In fact, I've been wondering just what you see in a simple housewife like me."

"Okay, first of all, there is nothing simple about you. You're the most complicated damn woman I've ever known. Second, I hate people like that. I always have, but in this business, you can't help having to be at least somewhat involved with the movers and shakers of the world."

"Oh, come on!"

"No, Amanda, it's true. You've only been with the Agency for three years and you've already experienced it for yourself."

"What? You're crazy. I don't hang out with people like that."

"No?"

"No," she stated firmly.

"Okay, who has the princess of Zakir as a pen pal?"

"Well, that was different. She was lonely, despite being married to a prince. Besides, she married into that life and she hated a lot of it and really needed a friend."

"Alright, then how about Princess Valosky?"

"You can't count her either," Amanda argued. "I didn't even meet her through the Agency. I just went to her estate sale and she seemed...I don't know...like she needed help."

"Which she did, but still you charmed the pants right off of her before you even knew she was a princess and aren't you still keeping in contact with her too?"

"Okay, yes, but it's hardly the same thing as what you're talking about."

"How about this then? The Prime Minister of Estoccia invited you to their big Independence Day party a couple of months from now, didn't he?"

"You were invited too," she argued.

"I was invited because I helped him solve the mystery of the disappearing aid to his country. You were invited because you were so friendly to him."

"Oh, stop, I helped with that case too. Joe was in trouble, remember? Besides, he's really more Joe's friend than mine."

"Hmm..." He thought for a moment and then grinned at her before turning his eyes back to the road. "I got a good one. Prince Terry of Cap D'Far."

"What?" she rolled her eyes. "That was definitely different. I just saw him as a scared little boy and I know he's not really little since he's a teenager, but when he was being followed...well, being a mother to two boys myself, I just jumped in when I saw that he needed help." She gave Lee a slight smile as she thought of just how often she'd seen that same 'scared little boy' look on his face.

"As only you can," he chuckled as he recalled her wildly swinging her purse at Terry's would-be assailant. "And made a fast friend of his father, King Eddie, in the process and his mother, the former queen."

"You're really exaggerating now. If anyone's a close friend to King Eddie, it's Billy. As for Sandra, she and I connected because I know what it's like to be a single mom. Besides that, she really wasn't a queen anymore or for that matter, queen-like at all. I admit that I was a bit awed when I realized she was once a soap star too, but that was years ago and the more I talked to her the more I realized that she was just like me, a suburban mom trying to do the best she could for her son, although, I don't agree with her keeping the boy's father from him. I would never do that to Joe."

"No, Joe did that all on his own just like that Hayden kid," Lee muttered and when he caught a scolding look from Amanda out of the corner of his eye, he switched back to the topic at hand, "You're missing my point, Amanda. You were tied in to all these people because of your connection to the Agency."

"Mm-mm," she shook her head. "Not Princess Valosky. The estate sale, remember?"

"Okay, maybe you didn't meet her because of the Agency, but you stayed involved in her life because of the job."

"Well, I don't look at it that way. She was just a very nice lady who needed help."

"The kind of help that only the Agency can offer," he countered. "But all the others, Princess Penny, Terry, Sandra, King Eddie, the Prime Minister...all those came about because of the Agency."

"No, not the Prime Minister. That was because of Joe."

"Because Joe was part of an Agency investigation," he reminded her.

"But who's to say that I wouldn't have met him through Joe anyway, even if I hadn't been working for the Agency?"

"Bo Johnson," Lee put in.

"He turned out to be an attempted murderer," she fired back.

"Randall Skylar."

"I think someone needs to tell him the revolution is over," she laughed.

"True, but still he's a famous musician and you met him because of the Agency."

"I think 'musician' is a bit of a stretch. Have you heard his music?" She shook her head. "The boys love him though."

"So he's not John Lennon, but still, he's a famous person and you met him through the Agency."

"Okay, but I didn't really meet him as much as I did his staff; those people who were working on his charity. I wasn't hanging out with him or anything. Besides, even if I had, it's not as if he'd even know who I was since there were so many people there."

"Okay, maybe not, but you were still around his people...because of the job, which just illustrates my point. Sometimes, we have no choice but to 'hobnob,' to use your word, with people we don't necessarily like for the sake of the job. Look at this case we're on now. Do you really think you would have been consoling someone like Emily Gilmore and offering her Kleenex when she was crying if it weren't for her Agency connection? Would you approach her on the street and say hello to her or be invited to one of her fancy parties?"

"Okay, no, mostly because someone like that wouldn't give someone like me the time of day under normal circumstances."

"Which is exactly my point."

"Hmmm...so, what you're telling me is that in all the time I've known you, you've only gone to all those parties and hung out with all those rich people because of your connection to the Agency?"

"That's right," he asserted.

"And it couldn't have had anything to do with the fact that you enjoyed having all those dumb, bored socialites hanging all over you," she teased.

"Boring is more like it," he corrected her. He reached for her hand and added with an affectionate smile, "I have someone much more exciting in my life now."

"Oh, sure," she scoffed. "My PTA meetings and Little League coaching sessions with the Bombers are a thrill a minute for you, I'm sure."

"Beats the hell out of the life I've been living," he responded sincerely.

"Spoken by the man who once said he'd never ever be a Bomber father," she reminded him pointedly as she pulled her hand from his. "You know, if you and I...well, if we do really move forward, you're not just getting me. I have children and that makes me a package deal. You want me, you have to take them too." When he didn't respond, she cast a worried glance at him, wondering if she might have said too much too soon. While they were on the brink of starting something, he hadn't actually said for sure how he really felt about her. She knew that he struggled with openly expressing his emotions because of all he'd been through in his life, but he showed it in other ways and even though he'd never said the words aloud, she was well aware that he was every bit as in love with her as she was with him. The trouble was that they came from vastly different worlds and even though, as he had just pointed out, she had managed to fit in well in his world of spies, intrigue and glamorous parties, she couldn't help the twinge of doubt about how well he'd fit into hers. Could he be happy with a normal, everyday existence or would he one day find her boring as well?

There was silence between them during the remainder of their drive to Stars Hollow, Amanda worrying about what Lee was thinking since she'd brought up her children while Lee was lost in his own thoughts about it. He wondered what she'd meant by it. Did she think he didn't know that she came with strings attached? Did she think he couldn't handle it? Or that he was unwilling to? He'd just been thinking more positively about being on this investigation that he thought they had no business being involved in, but now his thoughts had turned sour again. He'd tried to show her since it started that he didn't at all approve of Christopher Hayden abandoning his child or Joe abandoning his. Didn't she understand that he was trying to tell her that he would never do that to her the way her ex-husband had? He knew that despite having worked together for three years, they were still getting to know one another on a more personal level, but didn't she already know enough about him to know just how important family was to him since he had none; more importantly, that he understood how important family was to her? It was the whole reason he'd reluctantly agreed to take on this case in the first place. He just didn't know what more he could do to prove to her that he was serious about her.