The next morning, Lee picked her up for work. She could feel his frustration radiating off of him. The tension of their current situation was beginning to wear on both of them. Amanda loved spending time with Lee, but knowing that they were being listened to in her house made their interactions stilted and unnatural. However, one of the benefits of this situation was they didn’t have to hide their relationship from anyone since Billy told Lee to be her boyfriend.

While reviewing their cases they had talked not only about the professional ramifications but personal ones as well. They realized that so much of their friendship and love were forged by those cases. More often than not during the review they would end up on the couch in the Q Bureau cuddling as they read reports. They had been able to narrow down the prospects after September of ’84. Amanda had not been part of IFF until then.

“Would you have left me?” Amanda heard Lee ask out of the blue.

“Left you where?” She queried confused.

“Would you have quit the Agency after our fight about the microdot during the Sinclair case?” His baritone voice sounded slightly strained.

“That’s not what you asked first. To answer your question, yes, I would have left the Agency had you not stopped me.” She looked him in the eye. “I don’t think I could ever have left you behind though, a least not emotionally.”

“I almost lost you twice.” He sounded miserable.

“Yes.” Her voice was soft.

“I was an ass.”

Amanda laughed. “Yes, you were.”

Lee growled. “Aren’t you supposed to be trying to make me feel better, Amanda? Where’s all your vaunted kindness and understanding?”

She smiled indulgently at him. “Sweetheart, what happened?”

“What do you mean?” He looked confused.

“Go beyond the fight.”

“I had to find you to stop them from taking you. We were captured. We broke the pipe together. You guided us out of there. We found the microdot. We got Billy there. We arrested the bad guys.”

“Yes…you also acknowledged me as your partner for the first time. We’ve been together ever since. I think our partnership has been fairly productive.”

“What’s your point?” Lee asked.

Making sure the door was locked; she got up from her desk and walked to his. She pulled his chair out a little and settled herself in his lap. She pulled his arms around her waist and wrapped her arms around his neck. When she was satisfied that they were both comfortable she stated.  “We lived, we thrived, and we learned to love each other. We also learned a lesson in listening to each other. Not only what we say but what we don’t say. That was a milestone for us. Go beyond the fight, Lee, I’m not going anywhere. I’m with you always.” She leaned in for a kiss. He responded by bringing her closer and deepening their kiss until it threatened to overtake them. They sat for a moment together just enjoying the closeness. Suddenly, Lee sat up straighter.

“You may have said something useful. Check Francine’s files. What happened to Sinclair?” Lee inquired.

Amanda removed herself from her husband’s lap and examined the files Francine had given them. “Hmmmm…he was convicted of Human Trafficking and Murder, sentenced to life without parole.” She let out a mirthless laugh.  “At his sentencing he said that the whole thing was a simple business transaction. Here it is.  Says here he was killed in a prison fight two months after starting his sentence.” Amanda looked at other files.  “Lee, this is strange the other three men, Kurtz, Rollo, and Dagget are all dead as well.”

“All of them? How?”

“Kurtz died of a drug overdose, Dagget committed suicide and Rollo was shot trying to escape.”

“Prisons are a dangerous, Amanda.” He paused. “Do you think it’s a coincidence?”

“No.” Amanda answered.

Lee continued. “Me neither. But they died over two years ago. What does this have to do with your frame-up now? Why would someone want them dead?”

“There were a lot of women who they victimized.” Amanda countered. “I don’t believe they…we… ever found all the buyers.” Amanda felt haunted by the nameless and faceless women those men sold into white slavery. 

Amanda saw the look on his face; it seemed to reflect what she felt. She suddenly felt overwhelmed with sorrow. He took her hand and guided her back to his lap. They had talked about how repulsed he was by the idea that Amanda almost became one of those lost women. She needed to be assured that he was with her to help push back all the memories and regrets. He wrapped his arms around her and brought her closer she rested her head on his shoulder as he tilted his head until she felt the contact with her. “I love you, Amanda.” He whispered.

“I love you too, Lee.” She replied reaching up to stroke his face. They held each other for a few moments more until reality set in once again in the form of heels sounding down the hall. Amanda stood and resumed her place at her desk waiting for the inevitable knock on their door.

 Francine wafted through the door once Amanda had opened it. “Billy wanted me to see if you had come up with any possibilities.”

“Possibilities, yes. Probabilities, no.” Amanda reported.

Francine looked at their faces. “What’s going on with you two? You both look like you’ve just lost your best friend.”

“We almost did.” Lee stated. Francine looked at him curiously. He pushed his hand through his hair. “Oh, we just were looking at some cases and ran across one where we couldn’t do everything we wanted.” Lee responded.

“Which one?”

“The Sinclair case with the human trafficking ring,” Lee answered, “we never found all the women they took. Sinclair and his cronies never talked.”

“That was the one we pulled the con on Rollo, right?” Francine asked.

“Yeah. We just found out all four men are dead.”

“All four? That’s odd.”

“That’s what we thought. Why are they dead?” Lee asked again.

“They knew too much?” Amanda responded. “That’s often the answer.”

“Maybe,” Francine looked at Amanda, “let me see that Sinclair file for a minute.”

Amanda handed her the file. Francine perused the file murmuring to herself. “when I was pulling updates I thought I saw … where is it…the inquiry was there…hmmmm… Federal prosecutors….ahhhh… here it is.” She walked behind Amanda’s desk and waited until Lee joined them. “There was a notation by the prosecutor’s office that Sinclair’s attorney had made an inquiry about a sentence reduction for the names of his buyers.”

“But that’s a dead end now, so to speak.” Lee responded. “Does it help us?”

“Not really. If only we could have gotten the name of the buyers, that would have made that whole experience worthwhile.” Amanda admitted tapping a pencil against her lips. “This is so frustrating. The waiting is killing me. We need to do something.”

Lee smiled at her. “Hey, I thought I was the action person in this partnership. You know brawn versus brains.” He looked up at Francine and stopped her with a raised finger before she could voice her thought. “Before you say anything, Francine, remember I know where your bodies are buried.”

“Ahhh…yes, I know you do, Scarecrow.” Francine acquiesced and changed the subject. “I was going to order in for lunch. Do you two want something?”

Lee and Amanda looked at each other for a moment. No words were said. Lee replied “No thanks, I think Amanda and I would like some fresh air. We will probably go out today and play our cover.”

They noticed the questioning look on Francine’s face.

“What’s wrong?” Amanda asked.

“It’s almost like you can read each other’s minds. I was watching you.  I really didn’t notice anything other than a slight widening of Amanda’s eyes and a tilt of Scarecrow’s eyebrow. “How do you do that?” She asked.

Amanda smiled, shrugged her shoulders and stated. “We’ve been partners a long time.”

Francine nodded vaguely and left for the Bullpen.

Before they left for lunch, Leatherneck called to tell them that he had managed to make the bracelet tracker for Amanda and would they stop in his office to test it. Lee and Amanda promised they would be right down. They both complimented Leatherneck on the job. He demonstrated the clasp mechanism and even pointed out the half rake he had secreted around the design. The tracker had about a half mile range but that was optimal. Lee put the bracelet on her arm and said that they would test the signal capability in 15 minutes outside the Agency.