Dotty stood up and stretched in the warm spring Californian sunshine. The nurses had encouraged her to take Amanda outside to enjoy the weather. It had been a good idea since they were both going stir-crazy inside the hospital and Amanda's mood had not been improved by Lee going AWOL. All week he'd talked about coming back by the weekend and here it was Saturday afternoon and they'd heard nothing from him since Thursday morning. He'd told Amanda he'd seen Joe and the boys, collected the suitcase for her and then there'd been nothing except a crazy message he'd left with Barney about being in Oklahoma. She was just about ready to kill him – didn't he know Amanda didn't need this added stress? On the outside Amanda seemed calm, explaining it away as probably work related, that he'd call when he could but she could see the worried look increasing on Amanda's face with every passing hour she didn't hear from him.

"I'm going to get a cup of tea. Would you like anything?"

"If they have any sweet tea, that would be nice. It's hot out here." Amanda turned her face into the sun and closed her eyes, basking in the warmth. Somehow being out from under the fluorescent lights of the hospital room made her look even paler, her mother thought to herself.

"Nothing to eat?" asked Dotty with concern. Amanda has lost so much weight since the accident but her appetite had been decreasing in the last few days.

"No thank you, Mother. I'm not hungry."

Another thing to blame Lee Stetson for fumed Dotty to herself, stalking towards the hospital cafeteria. I can't believe I ever thought he was an eleven. She just couldn't understand how he could have disappeared off the face of the earth like this. She knew Amanda had done it before when she'd been on a crazy film location, but surely Lee wouldn't have let himself get sent off on a job now, would he? Not without properly calling first, surely?

She stopped dead in the hallway, struck by a horrible thought. What if something had happened to him? Amanda had mentioned that no one at work knew they were dating because of rules against it – if something had happened to him, would anyone think to contact her and tell her? Who would they tell? Lee had told her he had no family outside of his uncle, and Amanda had only met him once months ago. Would this uncle think to tell her? Or would he assume she'd know from working with him? Or would he even know she cared? Dotty realized she had no idea if Lee's uncle even knew his nephew was dating her daughter.

She collected the drinks robotically and headed back down the corridor to the exit, her mind still churning with all the worst possible scenarios for why Lee hadn't been in contact. She was so worked up by the time she reached the door to the hospital gardens, she knew she had to calm down before going back to Amanda, concerned she'd see something in her face. She walked outside and put the drinks down on a table by the door, and stood for a moment watching her daughter stare across the grounds, anxious expression back in place now that she thought her mother couldn't see her. But then as Dotty watched, Amanda had struggled to her feet, her face transformed and a heartbeat later, she was in Lee's arms. Slumping with relief, she watched them cling together, arms wrapped around each other, faces buried in each other's shoulders before pulling back to begin a long passionate kiss. Even from a distance though, Dotty could read Amanda's lips when the kiss had finally ended and she'd leaned back to swat him and say "Where have you been?"

"Where have you been indeed?" she said out loud, relieved to see Lee was alright but back to feeling annoyed that he'd worried them.

"Well, Mi Amor, I wasn't the one that ran out of town so fast, so I don't know why you're asking," said a familiar voice, just as two hands grabbed her waist and spun her around.

"Curt! What on earth are you doing here? When did you get here? How did you get here?" Dotty managed to splutter out as Curt lifted her off the ground in a tight hug.

"Lee called and suggested I come back with him. And then I suggested we fly back out, so we've been flying ever since, sky-hopping all the way out here just so I could do this." Curt began to kiss her repeatedly.

"Oh Curt darling! I've missed you so much!" Dotty leaned into his embrace for a moment before leaning back and swatting him in much the same manner Amanda had just done to Lee. "But you couldn't call? Amanda's been worried sick about Lee!"

"We've been in the air for most of the last 24 hours, Darling. Except for stopping for fuel and six-hour sleep break in Tulsa, we've just been taking turns flying and sleeping since yesterday. It's a good thing Lee still has his pilot's licence or we never could have done it so fast."

"Lee has a pilot's licence?" asked Dotty distractedly. "He never mentioned that."

"Is that really what you want to talk about right now?" asked Curt. "Wouldn't you rather come and find somewhere we can be alone? I stopped and got a room at the Hilton on my way here." He grinned at her lasciviously.

Dotty looked back to where Amanda was now curled up in Lee's lap, looking like she'd forgotten all about the rest of the world. She turned back to Curt and reached up to drop a kiss on his lips. "Oh, Calgon, take me away," she answered.

.

"And then Billy worked some magic with the paperwork so that all the stuff I did with Brockett counted as work, so I have all my vacation time back and I'm off work for another two weeks! So I got hold of Curt to tell him to come and bring your mother home and the next thing I knew, we had his plane loaded up and we've been flying since yesterday."

"That's fantastic and even better -," Amanda gave a small gasp of pain as she shifted slightly in Lee's arms.

"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" asked Lee with concern, loosening his grip slightly.

"No, I just still forget to think before I move." Amanda snuggled closer to him "Don't you let me go."

"Never," said Lee, embracing her again gently.

"And call me next time! I was worried Billy had sent you off on something and the fact he didn't call to tell me made me think it was pretty bad. You should have called."

"I should have called. The wife is always right."

"You sound like Joe." Amanda paused and leaned back to look up at him. "Speaking of Joe, he says Jamie gave you a hard time when you went by the house."

"Not a hard time, just the silent treatment. It'll be better when you're home."

Amanda wriggled with excitement. "Oh my gosh – I haven't even told you! Although if you'd called like you should have…"

"I get it! I should have called!" Lee surrendered. "What would I have known if I'd called?"

"I'm getting released for good behaviour! They're letting me out of here on Monday if I pass all my tests and Dr. Neely says I should be safe to fly home! Doctor Kelford contacted him and said I could be released into his care, although of course Mother doesn't know that."

"You're coming home?"

"I'm coming home! But I want to go the fast way back, not with Curt."

Lee started to laugh. "I'll see if I can get the Concorde out here just for you, my Amanda."

"I still can't believe you flew all the way out here," said Amanda. "Or that you thought to bring Curt with you."

"It kind of snowballed," Lee admitted. "She needed distracting and when I called, he got all gung-ho about flying out by himself. And then all I could picture was how mad she'd be if anything happened to him making such a long trip, so I thought I should go along for the ride and once we got going, we both just wanted to get here as fast as possible."

"It wasn't fast enough," grumbled Amanda, caressing his cheek.

"No, it wasn't," agreed Lee. "From now on, I promise – only the fastest way home."

'But you weren't headed home," laughed Amanda.

"Now that's where you're wrong," said Lee seriously. "Wherever you are, that's home."

"I love you, Lee."

"I love you too, my Amanda."

Tuesday afternoon

Lee bent down and carefully lifted Amanda out of the front seat of the Corvette.

"I can walk, you know."

"You can walk, but this way I get to carry you over the threshold," winked Lee.

"Well, since you put it that way," smiled Amanda. "Good thing you can park in the driveway now and not halfway down the block anymore."

Lee turned his body so that he could reach the door handle and push it open. He stepped into the house and gently set her on her feet. "There you go, Mrs. Stetson" he whispered in her ear. He looked around at the quiet house. "Are you even sure the boys are home? They might have made other plans if they didn't know you were coming."

"I thought it would be better this way, in case anything happened to delay me coming back."

"Good thinking," he answered, dropping a light kiss on her lips.

They moved apart as Joe appeared in the doorway from the kitchen, a smile lighting up his face. "You made it! Welcome home Sweetheart! You look wonderful!"

Amanda moved forward to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you for looking after everything here, Joe. You really got thrown in the deep end this time." She took a deep breath and looked around. "Are Phillip and Jamie home yet?"

"Of course, do you want me to call them?"

"Oh no, let me." Amanda walked to the bottom of the stairs and raised her voice. "Hey Fellas! Can a mom get a hug around here?"

There was a short pause and then the sound of yells and stampeding feet racing down the hallway and the boys appeared at the top of the stairs.

"MOM!" Phillip was the first one down, taking the stairs three at a time. Amanda suddenly realized her tactical error and took a step backwards just as Phillip was brought to a dead stop by both Lee and Joe springing forward with outstretched hands and shouts of "Careful!"

"Come here, Sweetheart – you just need to be gentle with me for a while." Amanda reached out and grabbed Phillip in as tight a hug as she could manage. She looked up to see Jamie coming down the stairs more slowly. "Come here, you," she said holding out her hand to him. With that, he broke and ran into her embrace as well. "Oh I have missed this!" she said. "Let's go sit down and you can tell me everything that's happened while I've been gone."

She turned to walk slowly down the steps into the family room and lowered herself onto the sofa, patting the cushions on either side of her. "C'mere, Fellas," she said and sighed with happiness as Phillip and Jamie arranged themselves gently under her arms, cuddling in as close as they could get without hurting her, while she alternated kissing each of their heads. Back in the hallway, Lee and Joe exchanged rueful grins, knowing they'd been completely forgotten.

"Now she's home," murmured Lee to Joe, who nodded in agreement.

"Ahhhhhh," sighed Amanda happily, unaware she was echoing him, "Now I'm home."