It was so quiet in the basement after Jamie and Phillip left. She missed them already. Gosh she regretted sending her boys away. She should have let them stay. It really was wonderful seeing all three of her boys together again even if it was just for a few minutes.

Jamie was such a sweetheart coming back like he did. In a couple of days all four of her children would be together for the first time ever. Jamie was going to have to take lots of pictures. She needed some of Matty & Leann together and all four of her children together.

Matty was sitting on the love seat in the office. He looked deep in thought and she could tell he was missing someone. She was guessing it was Phillip. It wasn't the same sad look as when he was thinking about the man who had been taking care of him.

His mom spoke, "You are thinking about something. You miss Phillip? He will be back. Both of your brother's will. They love you so much, sweet boy. I just think Phillip can do more good working with your Aunt Francine. Then staying here. I probably should have had Jamie stay here so you could have gotten some time alone with him. But honestly your Aunt Carrie and Phillip alone is always trouble. And well your Uncle Joe is usually not helpful because he is so scared of losing Phillip again, so he just tries to not take sides or get in the middle."

"C'mon it should be quiet for at least a day. Let's go into the other room." She gave him some cookies and milk. And they sat on the couch. Then she walked over to the cabinet and opened one of the doors and pulled out a couple of photo albums. "Think I should show you some pictures. So, you will know who everyone is."

She opened the photo album. "This one has all your baby pictures in them and there are a lot. Actually, these pictures might even be worth something. Most of them were taken by the famous James King the NY Times's youngest photojournalist and one of NYC's top 10 hottest up and coming young artists. "

She opened to the first page. There was a picture of her and Lee smiling. She had a baby bump in the picture. They were so happy back then. "That's you in there. Your daddy was so funny when I was pregnant. He was so scared he was going to be a terrible father and that you were not going to like him. Jamie and Phillip teased him mercilessly about it after you were born. Especially because he was so good to you and them. He loved you so much"

She flipped to the next page. And there was a picture of Lee holding Matty. Lee looked so happy in the picture. Then there was one of Phillip holding him. But he had a big bruise on his head.

Matty looked at the bruise on Phillip's head, "You're wondering why Phillip has a big bruise on his head. Well, it is a long story, and Phillip tells it much better than I do. It involves Russians, Camp Raccoon, you being born and is why Lee gave him his Corvette. If Phillip starts talking about Vetty. That's his car. She's not his actual girlfriend."

She was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing. "The phone is ringing. I will be right back."

Amanda went back into the office and answered the phone.
"Hi Amanda, it's Joe. The DNA tests results came back. He is your son. I'm still working out a deal on your behalf with the Agency. But you should be alright to leave the basement. I wouldn't take him out of the house for a couple of days though. Everyone should still stay at my house tonight. Jamie is going to go pickup your Mother and Leann from the train station whenever they get in. Sounds like there was a delay in Boston but your Mother will call us when she gets in. Everyone should be able to go home tomorrow."

Amanda smiled, "Thank you so much, Joe. I appreciate everything you are doing. Thank Carrie for me too. I know having everyone at your house isn't easy for her. Especially having Phillip."

Joe sighed, "Well when we got home. Phillip and Jamie left almost immediately to go see Francine and TP Aquinas. I went to the Agency. I'm actually calling you from your desk. I'm going to meet with Billy & Doctor Smyth in a few minutes. I'll see what I can do about saving your job."

"My job doesn't matter. Let them know I will cooperate with them but under no circumstances am I bringing him into the Agency. Only Pfaff, Francine or Billy can talk to him right now. And only at my house."

Joe spoke, "Of course. Do you actually want to sue?"

Amanda didn't. She had plenty of money because of Lee. The Agency had enough money issues. She didn't want to take down the Agency. "No, of course not. But go ahead and play that card if you need to for Phillip."

She smiled, "I will. You take care of yourself. Give Matty a hug from me. I really am happy for you, Amanda."

"Thanks again for everything, Joe."

She came back into the game room with a huge smile on her face. "That was your Uncle Joe. Dr Smyth lit a fire under the lab instead of our house. The test results came back. You are Alexander Matthew Stetson officially now. Feel better?"

She saw a wave of relief wash over her son. He smiled at her. God, he had such a cute smile. She loved that he smiled like Lee.

She sat next to him and put her arm around him "Phillip and Jamie went to see your Aunt Francine. And your Grandma and Leann's train got delayed so they won't be at Uncle Joe's until later tonight. So, it is still just you and I, and it looks like the Agents have already left. It should be safe for us to go upstairs if you would like to see the rest of the house."

Matty looked a little nervous about leaving the basement. "If you get scared and need to come down here by yourself. The code for the outer doors is 10031983. The code for the hallway doors and secret entrance is 02131987. It's almost 4PM. C'mon sweet boy, I will give you the tour of the rest of the house. Then you can lay down a little bit while I take a shower."

He followed her up the stairs. She showed him the living room, dining room, den, and the kitchen.

"Oh, I almost forgot all about these fellas. I better feed them." She went over to the fish tank in the living room and fed the fish.

Then she took him upstairs. He saw four doors. She opened the first door to a very pink room with cute little animal decals on the wall. "This was your bedroom before Leann was born. It was not this pink when it was your room. Your grandmother is responsible for the design of this room."

Then they went to the next room. "This is going to be your room." She opened the door and there were two twin beds. One on each side of the room. Each side of the room was decorated completely differently. There were pretty girls posing with cars and sports posters in no type of order whatsoever on one side.

The other side of the room was the complete opposite. The posters on the walls were very neatly organized in contrast. There were art posters, music posters, and some really beautiful, framed photos that Jamie had taken.

"Jamie lives in NYC now. He won't mind if you take his bed. You will have to share this room with Phillip. Technically he does not live here either. He has his own apartment in Georgetown. But he gets lonely living there all by himself. So, he stays here most of the time. He just pretty much only uses his apartment when he has dates. Anyway, when everyone is here tomorrow. You can just stay with me in my room until Jamie goes back to NYC. "

Then she showed him her bedroom. It was also very neat and organized. "Well, I'm going to bring all the stuff from downstairs back upstairs."

Matty tried to indicate that he wanted to help. "No sweet boy. I don't want you making your arm worse. How about you go lie down for a little bit in your future room? Get used to it. I am going to grab all the stuff. Take a shower then we can figure out what to do about dinner. I am thinking about risking ordering a pizza."

Matty smiled and nodded yes. She hugged him. None of her children ever said no to pizza.

She walked him back to the boy's room. He looked at the bookshelf and grabbed a book called Sky Chief Rides again.

She loved that he picked that book. "That's a good one. Most of the books on the bookshelf are Jamie's. But that one is Phillip's. That was my favorite book when I was your age. I'm glad you still like to read. Jamie bought you some books at the train station. He will bring them when he comes home. He used to read to you all the time. He taught you how to read. Both of your older brothers love you so much."

Matty took the book and laid down on the bed. He yawned. She guessed he would fall asleep pretty quickly. She kissed the top of his head. She started bringing things back upstairs. When she was finished. Matty was fast asleep with the book on his chest. She moved the book to the nightstand.

She was pretty sure Jamie would not mind giving up his bed to him. He could always sleep downstairs when he came home for Christmas. She was guessing her three boys would all sleep together in the same room for the holidays though.

Then she went and took a shower. It felt good to be out of the basement. She got out of the shower and got dressed. Then she started to open the door and saw the camera light was on. Had Matty gone downstairs? Was he playing with the monitors? She turned the water on the sink on. Maybe not all of the Agents had cleared out. Had she left the door open? She was pretty sure she had closed it behind her when she brought the last load upstairs. But what if she hadn't? It had been a crazy couple of days.

She went to the little safe in her underwear drawer and put in the code to open it. She got out her gun. She hated guns but she was still an agent. Lee had gotten her this gun and the safe. She put it in her underwear drawer because she knew it was the one drawer her boys would never go in. The camera light wasn't on in the hallway. She crept out of her room and slowly walked down the hallway. She looked in her daughter's room. She saw the camera light click off. Someone was going room by room. Please let it just be Matty. But she looked in the boy's room and saw him still fast asleep in Jamie's bed.

Someone was downstairs. She slowly crept down the stairs and went to the basement door. She opened the door slowly. The door was closed. She had closed the door. Who was down there? Nobody knew the code. Unless someone had talked to Leatherneck. Maybe Leatherneck was checking to make sure she was alright. But she doubted he would do that.

She punched in the code to the game room door and went inside slowly. The door to the hallway was open and she saw the light on in the office. She slowly crept down the hallway.

She saw a man sitting in the office chair in front of the monitors but only one monitor was on. The man had long dark hair and a beard. He was wearing a flannel jacket and khaki pants that were a little short on him. Who was this man? He was just watching her son sleep. Why was he watching her son?

She put the gun to the back of his head. She hadn't loaded the gun but he didn't need to know that. "You have thirty seconds to explain who you are and why you are watching my son before I splatter your brains against the wall."

He started turning around. Then she saw very familiar hazel eyes. His hair was dark long, and scraggly. He had a big greying beard. God he was good looking even with all that hair.

"Amanda? It's me. Please don't splatter my brains against the wall."

God it was wonderful to hear that voice again.
"Lee? I must have fallen asleep. I'm dreaming."

"You aren't the one that's dreaming. I am."

She walked over and started touching his face and playing with his beard, "You feel so real. I don't know why I gave you so much hair in this dream."

God this was a good dream. It felt like she was really touching him. She could feel the electricity in her fingers from touching his face. God, he smelled so good. She usually couldn't smell him in his dreams. He felt so real.

"I miss you so much. Our baby's home. He's finally home." she said.

He touched her face face started tingling from his touches. This usually didn't feel so good in her dreams.

He spoke, "Yes. This is a dream though. It has to be. Our son needs me. I have to go to him. I can't stay with you right now. I have to wake up. I promised you that I would keep him safe. That's what I'm going to do."

Everything made so much more sense. Lee would never have trusted anyone else with their son. The explosion. If he thought she was dead. That all made so much more sense, "Oh my gosh. I am so stupid. It was so obvious. The silly Star Wars code. You wanted the boys to know it was really you. That you were alive. This isn't a dream. You are alive and so am I."

Lee's eyes filled with guilt. He didn't say anything. She felt tears forming in her eyes.

She felt anger build up "Five years Lee! Five! You never checked on home in five years!"

"I was a mess after I thought you were gone. I thought they would be safer without me. That if the bad guys thought I was really gone they would have no reason to target my family. Matty was just so vulnerable especially after the warehouse. I'm so sorry. If Phillip or Jamie had called that number. I was monitoring that. I would've helped them myself. Come back for them anytime if they needed me."

Amanda started crying, "You could have sent a signal that Matty was alive. Even if you thought I was dead. You should have let them know he was alright."

She was more upset with herself than him. All of this was just like him. She could've found them both so easily. Gosh why hadn't she even checked the possibility that Lee was alive. That would explain the dreams she had that Matty was with Lee and happy. Because her son had actually been with him. She could have found them so easily. They lost five years. Five years they could never get back.

He hung his head "I was going to send a message that he was safe. Just time kept passing. I was a mess in the beginning. All I cared about was our son. He was so vulnerable when we were first on the run. He had just lost his hearing. What those bastards did to him? He never talks about it but when you see his scars. They make me sick every time I see them. He was not even five years old when they took him."

He touched the side of her face again it felt so good, "Amanda, I know. Matty was just so little. I was going to get the boys to come over when he was a little older. Maybe when he had one or two more black belts. It wasn't safe. I also knew that if I saw them. It would make your dying more real."

She looked at him, "Lee, I'm not dead."

Lee looked at her, "Amanda I saw you die. Nobody could've survived that fireball."

She looked at him, "Unless they were in a sub-basement. I almost didn't. I was down there for three days before they found me. We are both really dumb. Aren't we? I just assumed the worst. I needed you to see the silver lining."

She grabbed him, pulled him to her and she kissed him hard. No dream kiss ever felt this good. Her mouth moved with his perfectly. The connection between them was so strong. She felt all her anger just dissipate in that kiss. She never wanted to stop kissing him. God, she hoped this was real and that she wasn't going to wake up. That Lee was really alive.

She put her hands on his chest underneath his jacket and felt something wet. She pulled her off his chest and broke the kiss. "Why is your chest wet? Oh my gosh you're bleeding. You better not have come back to life just to die on me again What happened? Matty thinks you are dead."

Lee spoke, "It was my own fault. I let my security guard go on vacation. It's just him now. I didn't think we really needed security anymore. My Grandfather died almost a year ago now. There's never been an incident at the house since Matty & I moved there. There was a home invasion at the estate. I got shot again."

She was staring at him, "Your Grandfather actually let you stay with him?"

Lee smiled, "Yeah, I was surprised too. I was going to take Matty to New Zealand or something. I was going to use his network instead of Barnstorm."

She put her forehead against his and her arms around him, "You changed his name to Matty. I like it. It fits him."

Lee smiled, "That's his middle name anyway. I mean just reversing his name probably wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do. I just didn't want to change his name completely. Make it so it would be easier if he went home one day. People that were close to my father called him that. It fits him. He likes his name."

She smiled, "I know. That's one of the first things he told Phillip and I in Morse code."

Lee smiled, "He can sign too. It's British sign language which is different from American Sign language. He's really smart though. I'm sure he will pick up ASL in no time. We made a great kid, Amanda. You are going to love him."

She was lifting up his shirt. She wanted to see how badly he was hurt. There was blood seeping through the white bandages. She needed to get him to the hospital. "I never stopped loving him. Oh my gosh, Lee. You must have popped some stitches. You traveled here from London like this? We need to get you to the hospital."

He looked at her. "I need to see Matty first."

She nodded, "Well he has to come with us. I didn't want to take him out of the house. I should've let the boys stay here. They could've taken care of him while we went to the hospital."

He got up and went with her up the stairs. She could tell the stairs were really painful for him. She guessed that he hadn't taken any medication. He put his arm around her and she helped steady him as they went up the stairs. She never thought she would feel his arm around her again. It felt wonderful.

They got to the boy's room. He went over to the bed and sat down. She watched him tap on Matty's forehead. She could see the pure love in Lee's eyes for their child.

Matty opened his eyes and it took him a second to adjust. His eyes got big when he saw Lee. Then all of the sudden Matty just hugged him really hard. Lee winced in pain as Matty attached himself to him. But Lee was smiling.

"Whoa, go easy on me, kid. Not so tight. Loosen your grip just a tiny bit. I missed you too, buddy. I'm so proud of you. You were so brave."

He kissed the top of his son's head. Matty was smiling back at him. Then she noticed they really did have the same smile. Their daughter did too. Oh my gosh. Their daughter. Lee had no idea that he had another child. She would tell him later once she got him to the hospital.

Lee stood up from Matty's bed and he wobbled. Amanda came over and steadied him. She started petting his hair and felt his forehead, "You are burning up. Okay, hospital now. My car is still at the park. I'm going to go get it and pick you two up in the driveway. I am going to be so angry with you if you came back to life just to die on me again."

She grabbed her car keys and purse and headed to the park. So many thoughts and emotions were going through her head. She needed to call Phillip at some point. She needed his help with this. Phillip was going to be so happy Lee was alive.

The walk to the car seemed to take forever. But she got in the Wagoneer and drove it back to her driveway. Matty had just attached himself to Lee. He was so cute. He had always been a Daddy's boy. He was the first of her children that she had that issue with. She was guessing Leann was going to drop her too the second she met her real Daddy. Except if Doctor Smyth found out Lee was alive. Lee had committed treason that day. They had seized her computer. The Agency knew it was Lee that had given the orders that day. He had impersonated Doctor Smyth and an Army General to order the raids.

Then she pulled up the Wagoneer into the driveway. Lee and their son got in the back seat.

Matty started tapping on Lee. They were having a whole conversation. She wished she could talk to her son like that. She would have to learn Morse code. She wanted to have a real conversation with her son. There's so much she still wanted to ask him.

Lee started talking as he tapped back. She could tell he wanted her to be involved, "Your mom understands kiddo. You don't have to apologize to her for that."

Amanda interjected from the driver's seat. "What is he apologizing for?"

Lee sighed. "He's apologizing for not telling you who I really was. That he did not know how."

She didn't want Matty to feel bad for that. She understood, "Well, you are right, I understand. He does not need to apologize for that. I don't know how he could have. With his broken arm and fingers."

Lee spoke "What happened to him? Why is his arm broken?"

Matty tapped on him.

Lee sounded agitated when he responded to him "Karbala got you again? Nothing is your fault, whatever happened. I'm very proud of you for being so brave and making it to your mother."

Amanda needed to tell Lee some of it. "No, it was not Karbala this time Lee. It was the Agency. Billy's been getting death threats. There was an Agency guard around Billy's home when Matty went to see him. Matty tried to run away from them. That's how he got hurt."

Lee looked angry. "Damn it! I should have sent him to Francine. I didn't because she moves almost as often as I used to. And Billy's lived in the same house for almost 30 years. Who broke his arm? So, I can return the favor."

Amanda needed to calm him down. "Look Lee, it was a misunderstanding. Matty fought hard and well he is so small that when he was trying to get away. He got tackled. Then Henderson interrogated him. It was all a big mess but he's home now. We are working through it."

Lee looked like he was ready to kill someone. "That asshole Henderson is still at the agency? And they are letting him near kids? They let him near my kid?"

Amanda spoke to him very calmly. They didn't have time for this. They were pulling into the hospital. She would tell him everything later.

"Lee, it's all worked out now for the most part. And we are about to pull into the hospital. I will tell you everything later. Let's just get you checked into the Emergency Room first"

They pulled into the Gallilee Emergency Room parking lot. She helped Lee get out of the car. Matty helped him too. He attached himself to Lee again. Having Matty attached to him like that was not making it any easier for him to walk but when she tried to signal Matty to let go. Lee nodded no and put his arm around the boy to pull him closer to him. They got into the ER and she helped him check in.

They couldn't believe that he had flown over from London in his condition. If they knew her husband. They would understand how it was possible. The staff then wheeled Lee into the back. Lee signed and spoke and the same time, "I'll be back. Stay with your Mom."

Matty looked at her with his big brown eyes. She could tell he wanted to go with him. "They will come get us when we can see him again. They just have to stitch him up and make sure he's alright. I have to call your brother Phillip. We need his help right now."

Matty nodded. She saw the vending machines and went to her purse. She gave him some money. "Get yourself whatever you want from the machines. Also get a Chewy Chubby bar for your father."

Matty nodded and went over to the vending machines. She walked over to the phone bank. She dialed Phillip's cell phone.
Phillip answered, "Phillip King speaking."

"Hi sweetheart pretend you aren't speaking with me. If your brother or father are near you. I need you not to react with what I'm about to tell you."

"Yeah ok. I mean there probably is not much I can do. I'm pretty sure I'm facing a suspension right now."

"Matty & I are at Gallillee."

"Is it serious?"

"Matty's fine and I'm fine. A man came to the house. He was hurt. I had to take him to Galilee."

"What man?"

"Phillip I'll explain everything when you get here. I know it's going to be hard for you to lose Jamie. But it's better just for right now if it's just you. You'll understand when you get here."

"Yeah, I'm on my way. I'll see you in a few. I can't stay long. I have some family issues going on. But I'll be there."

Notes:

Next Chapter: Phillip goes to the hospital and reunites with Lee.