"Hi, Billy."

Billy Melrose could hear the exhaustion in Lee's voice all the way down the phone line. "Lee? Thank God! What the hell is going on out there? The telexes are piling up on my desk like confetti! When did you taking some time off to sort out a personal matter turn into an international incident?"

"It's a long story," sighed Lee, leaning forward on the desk at the police station and letting his head sink into his hand to block the setting sun that was blinding him through a nearby window. "But Boris Volkov is in custody and his goon Sergei is missing most of his arm."

"I gathered that but why are all these police reports full of stuff about your partner and your wife when you don't have either of those? And who the hell is this Amanda King they all keep mentioning?"

Lee huffed out a tired laugh. "The patron saint of lone wolves apparently." He pulled himself upright and stared at his watch. "Look Billy, if you can get these guys to spring us, we could be on the red-eye home and at least Amanda would be there when her sons wake up."

"Should you be travelling?" asked Billy doubtfully. "You were just in a plane crash, for God's sake!"

"I just have to get her home, Billy. I promise I'll tell you the whole story and spend the rest of the month doing the paperwork if you'll just order these guys to let us out of here."

"I can try, but they're not going to be happy about being left cleaning up all of your mess."

"Tell them they can have all the credit for capturing one of the top guys on America's enemies list, tell them I'll personally recommend everyone in Clark County PD for a Congressional Medal of Honor – honestly I don't care what you tell them as long as I can get Amanda on a plane home like I promised."

"You never did tell me – who the hell is she?"

Lee leaned back and looked across the station where he could see Amanda sipping juice and chatting animatedly to one of the policewomen who'd conducted her interview. She was miraculously uninjured, outside of slight scrapes and a ton of bruises – bruises he knew they'd both be feeling even more tomorrow. They let her shower off the blood in the locker room and someone had found her a t-shirt to replace the blood soaked blouse she'd been wearing, but it was much too big and hung loosely on her willowy frame. He laughed when she moved and he realized the front was emblazoned with 'Future Rookie of the Year'. "She's… amazing. You'll love her."

Billy paused, silent at hearing that tone in Lee's voice. "If these reports are accurate, I'm sure I will," he said, finally. "Have you really found yourself a new partner?" he went on, hopefully.

"Something like that," Lee chuckled. "So you'll bust us out of here?"

"As soon as I hang up, I'll be on it," Billy promised.

"Thanks Billy," said Lee with real gratitude. "I'll see you tomorrow." He hung up and dragged himself to his feet, crossing the room to plunk himself down beside Amanda and take her hand. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes with a tired sigh.

"Was your boss mad?" she asked immediately after the detective had left them alone.

"That I'm alive and helped capture one of the Soviets' top agents? No, he's not mad." Lee opened one eye and grinned at her. "Maybe a little. I told him it was your fault."

"My fault?" squeaked Amanda "How is it my fault? You were the one with the great idea!" He could tell she wasn't really mad though, by the way she couldn't quite hide the dimple in her cheeks as she pressed her lips together.

"Still seems like a great idea." He leaned in and nuzzled her collarbone where the too-big t-shirt dipped. "But Billy's working on getting us out of here and we should be able to catch the red eye home."

"Really?" Amanda sounded hopeful, but not quite like she believed him. "This seems like a lot of stuff for them to just let us walk out of here."

"Trust me," he murmured against her neck where he was now kissing the pulse point that fluttered there. "You've seen the movies: James Bond always just walks away from the exploding building straightening his cuffs and heading off to bed with the girl."

"Is your life really like that?" Now he could really hear the doubt in her voice and pulled back to look at her properly.

"Not even the littlest bit," he admitted. "But Billy's going to pull some strings and get us home ASAP."

"Okay, good." Amanda sounded relieved, not surprisingly. "Do you think they'd mind if I called my mother to let her know I won't be home until morning?"

"You can't tell her anything – everything that happened today is going to be classified," Lee cautioned. "You'll have to tell her some other excuse for why we're back later than expected."

Amanda looked stricken for a moment at the idea of lying to her mother, before giving one of the low husky chortling laughs he already loved. "No I won't."

"You won't?"

"Nope. I just have to remind her I'm with you and she'll fill in the rest just the way she wants." She glanced down at the bruises on her hands and arms. "But I'm going to have to explain these. I don't want her thinking you caused these."

"In these situations, always stick as close to the truth as you can," Lee counseled her. "You were in a crash. She doesn't need to know you flipped an airplane while being chased by the KGB and twenty squad cars full of Las Vegas' finest."

Amanda looked up at him wide-eyed. "I really did that, didn't I? And here I thought getting accidentally married was going to be the craziest thing that happened to me this week."

"You really did," he grinned. "Boring Dean's really just a blip in your rear view mirror now, I bet."

Amanda stared at him in amazement. "You got his name right! How hard did you hit your head?"

They were both still laughing when the division captain came up to let them know they'd been cleared to leave and that the Agency would be handling the rest of the debrief back in Washington. Lee hustled Amanda out of there before they could change their minds and after a quick trip to the hotel to claim their belongings, they were back en route to the airport with minutes to spare to catch the last flight to Washington that night.

It wasn't until they were approaching the gate that Amanda stopped dead in her tracks and looked at Lee wildly. "Oh my gosh!"

"What?" he asked, honestly confused.

"We never applied for the annulment!" she hissed at him, trying not to be overheard by the bustling crowd. "We can't go home yet!"

"Oh." He looked back at the gate which now had its Boarding sign flashing, then back at Amanda. "Or…"

"Or?" she repeated. "Or what?"

He shrugged. "Or we could just go home and take it from there. I mean, we don't have to rush into anything, do we?"

Amanda gazed at him in shock. "Are you kidding me? We don't have to rush into anything?" she repeated in disbelief. "Like we didn't rush into getting married in the first place?"

Lee looked at her sheepishly. "Well, it hasn't been all bad, has it? We could just… y'know… not get the annulment and maybe keep seeing each other?"

Amanda didn't move, except for the tiny details he could see like the dilating pupils and the quickening breath as she took in what he was saying.

Lee held out his hand. "Come on," he said quietly. "Let's just go home."

For a long horrible second he thought she was going to refuse and then, a beat later, she launched herself into his arms, pulling his head down to kiss him. "You are going to be an impossible husband," she said, beaming up at him when they finally came up for breath.

"You're already the impossible wife," he said cheerfully, dropping his arm around her shoulders and steering her back toward the gate. "No one who knows me is going to believe it." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Do you think your kids will like me?"

"Hard to say," she answered, giving him a demure look from under her lashes. "Dean was going to get Pretzel the Clown to come for Jamie's birthday party – you'll have to top that."

"Getting a clown to a birthday party? Easy-peasy," said Lee, suddenly feeling more cheerful. "We have our ways."

"I thought only Nazis and spies said that."

Lee squeezed her closer as they walked down the jetway to the plane. "Well, at least you know I'm not a Nazi."