Chapter Three – Sunday

Amanda woke again after just a few hours. She tried to get back to sleep, but her thoughts turned to the case. What if she could discover some key information?

Finally she gave up, and got dressed while Lee was still sleeping. Eventually he got up and into the shower. Amanda was gazing out the window when she saw Dr. Tucker being abducted from the tennis court. She yelled for Lee, but by the time he came out of the shower everyone had gone.

With no clues about where Dr. Tucker had been carried off to, Lee decided the likeliest thing was they had taken him in a car. He was glad the roadblock was in place; he rushed off to hopefully get this case wrapped up.

After Lee left, Amanda decided she may as well get some breakfast. While eating, she saw Valerie come into the dining room alone. Amanda pondered the situation. What if she could help Lee out by getting more information on the case? As she turned it over in her mind, she remembered an overheard conversation at during her massage – the masseuse said Valerie was getting her dress delivered by 8am so she could make her 10am flight. Lee wouldn't want her to confront Valerie directly, but Amanda could pretend to be Valerie's assistant and deliver the dress to her room while Valerie was still having breakfast, and hopefully find some useful information. Proud of herself, she hurried over to guest services to pick up the dress.

Amanda and Dr. Tucker were banging on pipes, both staying remarkably calm for having been kidnapped. Amanda had a moment of worry about what Lee would say when he found out she'd been taken, but at least she'd found Dr. Tucker and put a kink in the kidnapping plans. And hopefully they would manage to escape before Dr. Tucker got taken to wherever they were planning to take him.

Unfortunately Amanda's ruminations were interrupted by Cuddy and Tony. The captors manhandled Amanda and Tuck out the back of the resort, and drove them to a waiting helicopter. Amanda's blood ran cold – she had terrible luck with helicopters. She closed her eyes for a moment and gathered her mental resources. Soon Tuck was put in the front with the pilot, and Amanda in the back with Jay Armin.

They were about to take off when Amanda caught sight of Lee running across the grass. Amanda bit her lip and watched nervously as the helicopter lifted off, and her anxiety increased when the helicopter dipped. Lee must've grabbed onto the skid. Amanda watched the pilot as he tried to maneuver with Lee's weight throwing the helicopter out of balance. She couldn't see Lee from where she was sitting, but Armin could, and he kept telling the pilot to shake him loose. A shock went through her when Armin pulled a gun, but his attention was so focused on Lee that Amanda figured she had an opportunity. When Armin opened the door, Amanda gave him a couple good shoves and he lost the gun.

Amanda took a breath of relief, but Lee was still hanging off the skid. Then suddenly Lee was opening the pilot's door and holding a gun, demanding that the pilot land the helicopter.

Once the helicopter landed, Lee went to help Amanda down. He untied her wrists and rubbed the marks left from the rope.

Billy was there with the roadblock team, and they arrested Armin and the pilot, and took care of Dr. Tucker. Billy started to direct his team to go after Valerie at the resort.

"Sir, she's at the airport," Amanda piped up, giving Billy the information she'd overheard.

After Billy and the team headed out to find Valerie and get things wrapped up, Lee and Amanda were left standing alone by the helicopter. Lee was still rubbing Amanda's wrists and suddenly the impact of everything that had just happened hit Amanda like a wave. It was overwhelming and she felt for a moment like she might fall down. She enveloped Lee in a big hug.

"Lee, thank god you had a good grip! That was terrifying," she gasped into his ear. He rubbed her back soothingly.

"It's okay now," he comforted her. "Everyone's safe."

"You shouldn't take risks like that."

"That's my job, catching the bad guys."

"Lee. Billy does not expect you to catch helicopters," she scolded, loosening her grip on him and stepping back slightly. She looked into his eyes and saw his bravado, and concern for her, but he didn't seem concerned for himself. And Billy certainly had taken things in stride; maybe she was overreacting.

"Well, even if you aren't going to worry about yourself, I'm still going to worry."

"Oh, Amanda, you shouldn't worry about me. I can take care of myself, honestly."

Amanda eyed him skeptically and squeezed his hand. She looked around and saw one car left on the road, and decided to change the subject.

"Why don't we get out of here. Do you think they left keys for us in that car?"

"Yeah, I think they probably did. Let's go." Lee put his arm around her and they walked together to the Agency car.

Back home, Amanda's family had returned and gone upstairs. Lee popped in the back door.

"You forgot your toothbrush."

"You didn't have to come back just for that."

"No, I know," he looked at the floor and then back up to her, and Amanda's heart jumped a little at the intensity of the look in his eyes. "I thought we'd have a chance to talk some on the drive home, but you slept the whole way."

"Sorry about that; I didn't sleep very well last night."

"Oh, it's fine," he smiled, then, and continued, "It's just that I never thanked you for playing your role so well. It makes the work go a lot smoother when we have a partner we can trust." He blinked at her, self-deprecating smile still on his lips.

"You're welcome. I'm glad I could help."

Lee looked skittish and stepped towards her, clearing his throat. "Me too. And I'm glad we had that talk. I imagine we'll be undercover together again in the future."

Amanda smiled back, struck momentarily silent by his awkwardness. Heartfelt compliments were difficult for him, so she took his discomfort as a compliment.

"I'm looking forward to it, partner."

Author's Postscript

Author's notes: I know it was for comedic effect, but they made Amanda too much of a caricature in certain episodes. My headcanon is that she may have tended to take things too literally or jumped to incorrect conclusions at times, but she wasn't as clueless as she occasionally appeared.

Also, this episode signaled a shift from heavy reliance on the first season "Lee's annoyed/Amanda's bumbling" trope into the more cozy camaraderie of Waiting for Godorsky and the first part of the second season. They were so comfortable with each other in those episodes; something must have changed between them.

The term 'friends with benefits' was running through my head writing this, but the phrase apparently was coined around 1995 by Alanis Morissette. Perhaps that will be a future story. ; )