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The Energy of Sun Rays

Amanda: Sunlight

Despite the fact that they treasured their early mornings together in the Q-Bureau, after they'd come in but before the morning briefing, Amanda's mood was currently taking a nosedive. "In other words, we still have no idea who shot out that tire."

"No. We know it's not the Russians or Bulgarians now, but there's still nothing that confirms it being linked to the East Germans." Lee sighed as he closed the folder that lay open on his desk. "And all of our evidence is circumstantial." He slid the file into the tray he used to keep his most important documents handy. "Manny couldn't get anything off the ballistics besides what's already in the report."

"Well, at least we have that. We might not have gotten anything from Mr. Trudeau at all."

"It's still damned annoying, especially since there's been no chatter."

"Which is what we'd expect if it was an unsanctioned operation instead of Stasi."

He eyed her. "Are you all right?"

"All right?"

"You're awfully calm. You sure you're not disconnecting again?"

Now she was the one who sighed. "No. I just…remember how after I was shot, you eventually went from being sorry to being mad? That that was what pushed you to keep investigating instead of staying at the hospital? Well, I'm beyond just mad; I'm furious, and I want answers!" She paused, seeing the look on his face. "All right. I wasn't sure either, so I talked things through with Claudia on Friday. She confirmed I'm using my anger to maintain focus, and even gave me a few more tips and tricks for that."

"Okay." He had been fiddling with his pen, but now he laid it down and leaned back to stretch. The action pulled his face into a grimace.

"That looked like it hurt."

"Nothing to worry about. I'm just stiff from moving boxes this weekend. It'll pass." He reached into his desk for a bottle of painkillers and shook two pills out. "You'd think I was in better shape, given how much we train."

"Yeah, but you were moving boxes all day on Saturday and most of yesterday afternoon." She got out of her desk chair and came around to rub his shoulders. "It's done, though, which is good. I'll give you a full massage tonight."

"Jamie's coming over for dinner, isn't he?"

"After he walks back over to Joe and Carrie's." She trailed her fingers through the hair on the nape of his neck, thrilling to hear his breath catch. "I unpacked the kitchen and our bedroom yesterday while you all were going back and forth."

"Is that so? Were you anticipating something, Mrs. Stetson?"

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"Mm-hmm." Catching her hands, he spun around to face her. "We have ways of getting people to admit things."

"Yeah? Well, I'm getting pretty immune to your Class C interrogations, at least when we're at work."

"You sure about that?" He began to pull her down toward him. "It could be I just need to turn up the —"

A short clatter of heels was their only warning before the Q-Bureau's door opened. "Good morning. I need to get some files out of the Vault and — oh. Um, sorry to interrupt."

"It's all right," she stammered. "Ah, good morning, Francine. You weren't interrupting anything. We were just —"

"Don't bother. Those wedding rings mean you don't need any excuses anymore. Nobody thinks you're up here 'playing backgammon' anyway, not with your efficiency ratings."

Amanda felt her face flush and she made a point of keeping her eyes away from Lee. "Do you need any help pulling those files?"

"It's just a few of them," she called back, having already vanished into the Vault. "I've got it."

"All right." Still taking care where she looked, she sat back down and reached for the transcript she'd been annotating. She'd almost forgotten her embarrassment by the time Francine came back out.

"Actually," came the other woman's voice, "I've been meaning to say something about that."

"About what?" asked Lee. "Backgammon?"

"No. It's been…" she trailed off. "It's good to see you back, Amanda. Really back, I mean, and to hear the two of you bouncing off each other about your cases, both up here and during the staff meetings. You're…" she took a breath. "Amanda, you bring in a kind of…oh, I don't know, sunlight even when everything else seems to have gone all cloudy and stormy. I hadn't realized that until you were out after being shot, but it didn't truly hit me until you came back from…" she hesitated. "From, um, this."

"It's all right," she answered. "You can say it. From half of my family being murdered."

"Yeah."

"Francine. Look at me." She waited for eye contact. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you, too, and that's 'thank you.'"

"Thank you? For what?"

"You opened up that file, even though it was marked confidential, even though you knew it might make either Lee or me or both of us mad. Which means you were able to guess who might have shot that tire out."

"It's only circumstantial —"

"I knew that," she said. "Even if I hadn't, Lee reminded me a few minutes ago. But it's also all we've got, and I'm grateful for it. Any answer, no matter how small, is better than nothing, and you risked our friendship to give us this one."

Francine's gaze dropped to the toes of her shoes. "Um, well, it seemed like the right thing to do. But, ah, thank you for telling me. Now, if you don't mind, I should probably —"

"Wait," interrupted Lee. "That's it."

"That's what?" asked Amanda and Francine together.

"We've been needing a code name for you, Amanda. A standard one, I mean, not just something for a specific op. Remember how everyone was tossing around possibilities before all this happened? I think I just heard it." He paused. "Sunlight."

"Sunlight?"

"Yeah. Francine's right. You bring that to this entire Agency, not just me. Sunlight and a breath of fresh air."

"Oh, it's perfect, Amanda. It's quick, and it's easy, and it fits you. It even works in combination. You know, 'Scarecrow and Sunlight'? That's not hard to remember, and scarecrows work best with sunlight."

"I guess I could talk to Mr. Melrose about it."

As if on cue, the door opened again. "Talk to me about what?"

"Amanda's code name," said Francine. "How about 'Sunlight'?"

Billy's expression became thoughtful as he came into the office. He was followed by a dark-haired man that Amanda hadn't seen before.

Lee, though, apparently had, since he stood up to offer his hand. "Hey, Trent. We haven't scared you off yet?"

"Takes a bit more than a minor scrape or two to do that, chap." The newcomer spoke with a British accent. Seeing them together, Amanda was struck by the similarities in their appearances: heights within an inch or so of each other, faces both fine-boned without being delicate, and hands that were nearly identical in terms of both shape and size. When the newcomer smiled, he even had dimples in the same places as Lee, although they weren't as deep.

She shook her head, realizing she'd missed part of the conversation. "They're extending you? For how long?"

"Three months, although it could be longer or shorter as needs be." He sketched a bow before taking Amanda's hand. "You must be Mrs. King. I've heard so much about you from the fellows downstairs. I'm Douglas Trent with MI6, on secondment to your Agency."

"Please call me Amanda." His eyes were a very light blue, almost clear.

"Amanda, then, but only if you'll call me Douglas." His momentary grasp of her hand had been firm, though not crushing. "So, this is the Questions Bureau I've heard so much about."

"Yes. Lee's been in charge of it since — how long has it been now? A little over two years?"

"Something like that. What brings you two up?"

"You do," said Billy. "And Francine. I'd figured this was where she was heading when I saw her leave the bullpen." He motioned them back to their seats, indicating that Francine and Douglas should sit on the couch while he remained standing. "I like 'Sunlight.' It suits you, Amanda. What do you think of it, though? You're the one who'd have to live with it."

She managed a smile. "It's…simple and sweet, but not too much."

"Good. Then we'll record it in the files and make it official."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now," he continued once everyone had settled in. "I'm up here about the…well, the West/King case, for lack of anything better to call it. I take it there's nothing new since yesterday?"

"No," said Lee, irritation plain in his tone. "Unless you count being able to rule out the Russians and Bulgarians."

"That's something," observed Douglas.

"Maybe, but we're nowhere closer to specifics than we were before." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We don't even have enough to start digging."

"Then we shall just have to continue using processes of elimination."

"'We'?" asked Lee. "Since when have you been on this?"

"That's why we came up here," said Billy. "I don't want you to be surprised when I announce it in the staff meeting. The approval to make this a full Agency op came through yesterday afternoon, but I can't assign either one of you to the case since you're now both related to the murdered civilians." He barked a short laugh. "Getting married will do that to you. So I'd asked if Trent could stay on and take it. He's had experience with the East Germans, and Francine can partner with him as the Agency's operative."

"Now, wait just a minute —"

"It's all right," said Amanda. She spoke quickly, trying to head Lee off before he worked himself into a full-blown lather. "I understand. And Phillip was a minor, so I was also his legal guardian, not just a relative." Underneath her desk, her fists had clenched, but she forced herself to ignore them. "Will we be able to get status updates?"

"It's the reason I named Francine as the Agency operative." He glanced over. "Feel free to keep them in the loop, but absolutely do not use them for any leg work. It'd be a potential conflict of interest, and I don't want anyone slithering out on a technicality." His expression changed, making his full intent clear. "You'll have to interview both of them as part of the investigation anyway."

Francine nodded. "Got it." Then she flicked her eyes to Amanda, confirming the unspoken instruction they'd both heard. "We might as well do that this afternoon, if one or both of you have time."

"We could even interview them together," suggested Douglas.

"Not and keep it airtight, you can't," Lee said tightly. "But we'll both be here whenever you're ready. Just tell us who needs to be in which conference room and when."

Author's Note: I did some Google searching about British speech patterns, but since I'm American, there may still be errors. If you spot any, please let me know.