Chapter 6
"I'm ready honey," Amanda came back down the stairs, "did you say goodbye to Jennifer? She will be upset if you didn't. She's going to the museum today with her class," she grabbed the suit jacket out of his hands and held it out to help him into it.
He slid his arms into the jacket, "Yeah," he mumbled, then hesitantly followed her into the room her mother disappeared into, touched by the gestures of both women in this world he was in.
Her mother. He couldn't for the life of him remember her name. He had seen it once on a background check he'd done on Amanda back in nineteen eighty-three at the time he had handed off a package to her but that was ten years ago…wasn't it? The room they entered was a kitchen on one side and a family room on the other. Taking in his surroundings, there were toys everywhere but it wasn't dirty. It was very well kept. He stepped to the left and looked at all of the family photos on the book shelves.
He was in most of them, moments he knew didn't happen. She had two sons, he was reminded now as he looked at the photos. There was a picture of him with them, he had his arms wrapped around them both. He couldn't determine the age of them.
He was startled out of his thoughts when Amanda's mother handed him a travel mug and a set of keys, "just the way you like it – cream no sugar," he took it with a hesitant smile, "good luck today, uh and just what did you say it was you two were working on?" His eyes flew to Amanda who was holding the baby, who was now dressed and staring at him intently. She started toward him and handed the baby over to him awkwardly. He wasn't sure he had ever held a baby before.
"Mother," Amanda said exasperatedly, "you know that IFF does work for the government and sometimes we can't tell you what we are working on….at the same time you know that today is Lee's last day at IFF, so he won't be working on much but tying up loose ends," she turned at looked her mother in the eye, "and you know with his new job at the State Department, odds are he won't be able to tell you much there be-"
"Because it has to do with the government," her mother interrupted, "I know, I know…Dotty, I don't know why you even ask," she mumbled to herself and to Lee it sounded like a conversation they'd had before. Dotty, he made note of her name.
"Right," Amanda said kissing her cheek and grabbing her purse, "you ready?" she asked him.
"Yeah," he looked to Amanda's mother and awkwardly held out the child, "thank you. Dotty," he said her name purposefully.
"You two have a good day doing whatever it is you're doing, don't worry about us," she said sitting on the couch with the child as they left out the back door.
"Did you want to ride together or separately," Amanda asked as they walked quickly through the backyard. He stopped short when he saw a silver corvette sitting there.
"Uh…oh," he said stumped, was this his? Ten years ago he had sixty-three Porsche. At the moment he couldn't remember what happened to it but the last few years he mostly used a car service. He rarely drove himself anymore.
"You're right," she said, "you should take your car and I will take the Wagoneer in case I need to run out to the training station later, the 'vette doesn't like the roads out there," she kissed him soundly and said, "be careful, I know we're running a little late but I'd rather us get there then get in an accident on the way," she said quickly as she was climbing up into her vehicle.
"Amanda, I know how to drive fast carefully," he said in a smug tone, realizing after watching her pull down the drive that that was the first full, normal sentence he'd said to her since he woke up. She just smiled and pulled away. He flipped the keys over in his hands and found one for the corvette and smiled, well at least in this universe he still had good taste in cars.
He decided he needed to catch up to her. He wasn't sure why it wouldn't be but what if the agency wasn't in the same place. He got in and quickly caught up, settling in behind Amanda's Wagoneer. It wasn't long before he was pulling into the same old lot, being waved through by the attendant without incident and parking in the spot next to her.
He was damn glad she waited for him on the sidewalk because he wasn't expecting the stern looking woman at the desk in the foyer of the obscure Georgetown building. They used to just scan their badges in the elevator.
"Good morning Mrs. Marston," Amanda said cheerfully, where she got the code word she provided he has no idea.
The woman didn't smile but said cordially, "Good morning agents," and handed them their ID tags. He clipped it to his lapel and stepped toward the elevator.
"Are you not coming up?" Amanda asked, dropping her tone low. She had started up the stairs, "maybe if you don't go blowing into the bullpen, Billy won't notice we were late," she said with a nod. He frowned, why would they be upstairs? He wondered.
"Don't count on it," he heard an irritated voice from above say, "you're late." Billy was standing on the landing upstairs.
"Billy," he said in relief, he could talk to Billy. Billy was his friend, his mentor. He could find out what was happening, "I need to talk to you," he said urgently.