The tension mounted as Lee and his mother stepped into the backyard together. He gesture toward the gazebo that they'd had moved over from the backyard of the old house. "Have a seat," he said as he did so himself.

Jennie sat on the bench across from him and an awkward silence followed both just looking at each other, neither sure what to say. Jennie was the first to break their stalemate. "You have a lovely home," she said nervously.

Lee shook his head, laughed sardonically and said, "Thirty-plus years and that's all you have to say to me?"

"I'm sor-"

Lee held up his hand to cut her off. "Don't," he said testily. "Don't apologize to me."

"What would you have me do?" Jennie asked wearily. While she'd enjoyed very much spending time with her infant grandchildren and getting to know her daughter-in-law, she was at a loss for what to say to her son. In all the times that she'd imagined seeing him again, she'd known he'd be hurt, angry even, but she wasn't quite prepared for the intensity of his initial reaction.

"How about you start by explaining where you've been my whole damn life? What the hell have you been doing that you couldn't contact me at least once? Or Grandma Stetson during the year I lived with her before she died? Or any one of the dozen or so foster homes I lived in for another year? Or the Colonel after he took me in?"

"For the first two years after the car accident, I didn't even know who I was, let alone who you were."

"OK, what about after that?" he probed suddenly feeling like he was questioning a suspect rather than trying to learn more about his own mother.

"I wanted to," she said sadly. "You have no idea how much I wanted to, but I couldn't. Once I remembered everything about what had put me in that position, I knew I had to stay in hiding. It was much too dangerous. Thomas Blackthorne killed your father." Lee cast his eyes downward at the confirmation that his father was indeed dead. "He tried to kill me along with him and thought he succeeded. It was better, safer to let him believe that he did."

"Well, Thomas Blackthorne is dead. I put a bullet in him myself almost two years ago when he tried to kill me."

"He tried to kill you?" Jennie said in horror. That was exactly what she had tried to keep from happening. Silent tears slid down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry. That's exactly what I was trying to avoid by staying hidden. I had already lost my husband and I didn't want to lose my child too. All I ever wanted was for you to be safe." I believed that with being labeled a traitor by my own people, your uncle, being a military man, was in a better position to keep you safe from harm."

"Physical harm, maybe," Lee said bitterly. At seeing the pained look on her face, he softened and said, "Look, if your goal was to protect me as a child, you succeeded in that. I was never in any danger growing up. Blackthorne never bothered me until I started investigating him. When Amanda and I began to uncover all the same stuff that you and Dad did and confronted him with it, that's when he tried to kill me. He would have too if it hadn't been for Amanda's quick thinking," he said reflecting back on that day with a smile. Amanda had her own way of doing things. It still amazed him that her throwing a decorative plate across the room had made the difference between life and death.

"You obviously love her very much," Jennie said as she recalled their playful interaction in the kitchen, and took in the reverent look on his face now.

"I do," he confirmed with a nod. "She's my lifeline. Although, the agency shrinks seem to think that the only reason I was drawn to her was because she's so motherly and that I was looking for some kind of Freudian replacement mother figure."

"Do you really believe that?"

"I don't know. I've never taken much stock in shrinks and all their psychobabble. I only go because the job requires it and even then, I try to dodge them for as long as I can until Amanda makes me go. She sometimes just won't take no for an answer."

"I've only just met her today and I've already learned that about her. She reminds me very much of myself when I was about her age."

"Maybe there's something to that Freudian theory, after all," Lee mused. "Didn't Freud say that men look for women just like their mothers?"

"Well, Freud was a bloody idiot, if you ask me," she said.

Lee couldn't help but laugh. "I couldn't agree more," he said with a slight smile. He then turned serious again. "So, Blackthorne's been out of the picture for a while. Why are you just coming out of hiding now?"

"I only just learned of his death recently. I heard through one of the CIA contacts I have left, that some brash agent codenamed Scarecrow finally brought him down. Once I learned of his death, I had two goals in mind, to find this Scarecrow and to find you. Of course, I had no idea that the two men I was looking for were one and the same, that my boy was the famous Scarecrow."

"That's me," He said dryly, "the famous Scarecrow."

"I've heard of you, you know. After the accident, I was helped by a handful of people within the intelligence community, CIA, MI6, Army Intelligence, people who didn't believe Blackthorne's lies about your father and me. Once in particular, was an agent named Evan Carpenter who was a good friend of your father's in the army, then moved to the CIA when he left the army. He helped more than you will ever know until his death in 1980, but he passed his secrets on to his son, Kevin, though he has nothing of his father's skill or finesse. The elder Agent Carpenter looked after me for years, kept me in the know about Blackthorne, but he was never able to gather enough evidence against him."

"What about all the evidence Amanda and I found in our old house?"

"Blackthorne had it under surveillance constantly. It was too risky," she explained "Aside from that, how would it have looked to his superiors if he were found to be investigating the man who everyone was calling a hero for turning us in as traitors?"

"I get it," Lee said remembering the trouble he'd gotten into with Billy for investigating Blackthorne himself. "I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around this though. All this time..." his voice trailed off as it became choked with emotion and he hung his head once again.

Jennie seeing the sorrow on her son's face decided to take a chance. She rose from her seat across from to sit beside him, placed a hand on his shoulder. "My darling boy," she said. "I'm so sorry for all that you've suffered. I really believed I was doing the right thing for you."

Lee looked up at her and replied, "I understand that, but how would you feel if you were in my position?"

"I imagine I'd feel the same as you're feeling, but let's look at it the other way. How would you feel if you were in mine, if it were your own children? You obviously love them very much. Wouldn't you do everything in your power to protect them? Wouldn't Amanda?"

Lee shook his head and chuckled slightly. "You have no idea," he said.

"I think I do. Amanda mentioned earlier that you'd kept your marriage a secret at first when she was talking to her mother."

"Yeah, we did. It was six months of sheer torture. We thought we were doing the right thing to keep Phillip and Jamie safe, but all it did was hurt both of us not being able to live like a normal husband and wife."

"So, what changed? What made you come out of hiding?"

"Finding out that I was going to be a father," Lee said as he began to tell her the story. "It was our six month anniversary."

August 13, 1987

"I'm pregnant," Amanda said.

"You're..."

"Pregnant," Amanda answered.

"Oh, Amanda," Lee said pulling her into his arms and kissing her fiercely. He pulled back abruptly, happy tears glistening in his eyes. "I'm gonna' be a dad?"

"You're happy about this?"Amanda said looking surprised.

"Of course, I am. My wife, the woman I love, is carrying my child. Why wouldn't I be happy?" When Amanda didn't answer and he saw that she still had a worried look on her face, he got concerned. "You're happy about this too, aren't you?"

"Oh, yes, I am, but I'm worried too. How are we going to deal with this?"

"What do you mean, how are we going to deal with this? We're going to have a baby." When Amanda was silent again, he said, "You are going to have it. I mean, you're not thinking of..." He found he couldn't even say the words aloud. It was too horrifying to think about.

"NO," Amanda answered immediately. "I think you know me better than that. I just meant that this is going to be a challenge since no one knows that we're married."

"No, no challenge at all," Lee said matter-of-factly. "The mystery marriage just stops being a mystery, simple as that."

"Simple as that?"Amanda said incredulously."It's not as simple as that and you know it. Dr. McJohn has to report this to Billy right away and he has to report it to Dr. Smyth. You know how the agency rumor mill is. It'll be all over the place by the time we go back to work on Monday. Then, there's my family to deal with."

"Your family will be fine. They've all been after us to get married anyway. We'll just tell them the truth. They'll be hurt at first, but they'll get over it. It's what we all want anyway, for all of us to be a real family."

"When did you become so optimistic?"

"I guess being married to you, your optimism is rubbing off on me," he replied with a grin.

"What about the agency?"

"This is Thursday. We don't go back to work until Monday. I say we just let the rumors fly all weekend and deal with Monday when we have to. I don't give a damn what any of them think anyway. I've been ready to stop hiding how I feel about you for a long time, ready to stop pretending that I'm not in love with you. Aren't you?"

"Oh, yes," she said as she kissed him.

Lee pulled back for a moment and said, "Hold that thought." He rose, crossed the room to the fireplace, opened the hidden safe above it and returned with the ring box he kept hidden there. He removed her rings from it, slid them onto her finger, kissed her hand and said, "Don't ever take these off again." He then reached for his own wedding band, but Amanda stopped him.

"No, let me," she said softly as she reached for his ring and slipped onto his finger just like she'd done on their wedding day six months earlier. "Don't ever take yours off again either."

"Agreed," He replied with a smile as they sealed the deal with another kiss.

Jennie Stetson listened raptly and was disappointed when he stopped talking, asking him, "So, what happened next?"

"What happened next is private," Lee said with a grin as he reflected back on the rest of the evening's events; how they'd made love well into the early morning hours and planned how to break the news to the family.

"Oh, honestly, Lee," His mother said with a hint of exasperation in her voice. "I wasn't asking for intimate details, just wanted to know how it turned out. How everyone reacted."

Their conversation was interrupted by Amanda, "Is everything ok out here," She asked nervously.

Lee sighed and said, "It's not bad."

"Well, dinner's on the table and the boys are already digging in, so if you want to eat, you'd better get in there while there's still food left."

"Ok," Lee said then turned to his mother. "Can you give us a minute?"

"Certainly," Jennie said as she made her way back to the house. She turned for a moment just to watch the two of them together, pleased to see him take his wife in his arms and hold her tight, the tension between them that she had caused seeming to have disappeared. She smiled and left husband and wife alone as she re-entered the house they shared.