Screen Captures Courtesy of Swoopes For personal use and select distribution only © April 2002 by Amber Stockton Burnout - tagalogueWritten by Lisa Seidman (excerpts from the episode belong to her)
Lee held the plaque Amanda had just received for service to her country on their recent case. "Amanda you really should be proud of this." "I am." She shrugged. "I just wish I had some place to hang it." "Oh yeah!" He gave her a look of apology. "Your mother and the boys." "They can never see it." A twinge of regret marked her words. "Well, look, I'll talk to Billy, and maybe we can find some place here at the Agency, huh?" "That would be nice." She smiled, seemingly embarrassed, but obviously pleased at his offer. "You deserve it. You did a good job, especially faking at getting shot!" Amanda turned to reach for the sweater she had been wearing when Lee shot her. "You know," she said as she began running her fingers across the edges of the material, "you really came awfully close with that bullet." For a moment, he stumbled over his words. "Well, I uh...I had to, you know, otherwise they would have never bought it." "Yeah, I know." She finally found the hole. Her finger poked through it as she continued. "You think maybe the Agency can reimburse me for this sweater?" She looked up to smile at Lee. Lee gave his head a toss and smirked, then reached out to grab hold of her finger and raise it to his lips. "I'll see what I can do about it." He winked and placed a kiss on the finger that poked through the bullet hole. "Aww," she intoned with a smile. Lee grinned, but when curious looks were sent in their direction, he straightened and dropped his hold of her hand. "Walk with me?" he quietly invited. Amanda nodded, tossed the sweater on the desk, then turned and preceded him around the desk towards the doors. Lee placed his hand at the small of her back and guided them from the bullpen, then turned them both to the right. Once they entered the corridor, they spoke at once. "Amanda, I really wanted..." "So, what led..." They both stopped and laughed, and Lee watched Amanda duck her head. "You first," he conceded, turning to start them walking again. "So, what led you and Mr. Melrose to get involved with this case?" Lee nodded at a fellow agent as they passed, then turned his head back to Amanda. "Well, once we got the reports on the three botched cases, then found out the agents on those cases were burnouts and had either turned up missing or dead, we knew we had to get a man on the inside. I volunteered, so Billy and I cooked up my burnout scheme, and..." he shrugged, "the rest you know." "Did you have any idea it was Brackin?" "I was as surprised to see him as I was to find out Jack was tailing you," he answered. "Once Brackin came to my apartment, though, and told me a little about what he did, I knew it was right up his alley." He guided them around the corner to the right to continue walking down another hallway. "I never would have guessed he was going to ask me to kill you, though." "You're not kidding!" Amanda exclaimed. "When Mother took the phone call that morning and told me Mr. Melrose wanted me at the office early, then gave a different address, I had a feeling something was up." She smiled as they passed a woman she knew from the steno pool. "It's a good thing you're so convincing. I have to admit, right up until you actually fired the gun, I was wondering what you were going to do." Lee looked down at her in surprise. "You didn't actually think I'd shoot you, did you?" "No," she answered, a little too quickly. "I completely trusted you to do what was necessary." Lightly squeezing her waist, he grinned. "Completely trusted?" He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She ducked her head, and he could see a slight pink tinge creep into her cheeks. "Well..." "Uh-huh, that's what I thought," he replied with self-satisfaction. They turned right again, nodded at two couriers who passed and continued walking. "One thing I gotta know, though." "Yes?" "Where did you find that Travis guy?" He shook his head. "He was a real character!" Amanda laughed, and Lee smiled in response. "Well, once you and Jack and Brackin left, I made my way up the hill and to the road. He just happened to drive by, so I flagged him down and asked him for a lift." "How'd you get him to come roaring into where we were?" "Oh, that was easy. I told him that it was a matter of national security, and he was more than willing to help!" "Sure glad he was. I don't know that I could have handled Jack and Brackin myself," Lee admitted. "All right, your turn." She looked up at him, and he turned to her with a blank stare. "My turn?" "Yes, your turn to say what you were going to say when we first started walking." "Oh, right." He nodded and looked straight ahead again, then paused as he tried to think of how to say what he wanted to say. They took another right, then a left and a roight as they walked around the records office. Running his right hand haphazardly through his hair, he sighed. "Amanda, I know I've told you that you did a hell of a job with this assignment, although you weren't even supposed to get involved, but I really can't say it enough." "Oh, Lee," she began, "it's really not...." "Yes, it is," Lee interrupted her. "So, hear me out." She nodded. "All right." "You went far and above what anyone else was willing to do for me. Not even Francine bothered to waste her time trying to help. She may as well have thrown me to the dogs for as much as she seemed to care," he muttered in frustration. "But you! You stuck by me and believed in me, even when I treated you like a real jerk." He stopped walking, then turned to look at her, and she paused as well to look up at him. "Amanda, that really meant a lot to me." "Well, you've become a very good friend to me, and I don't like to see my friends in trouble." Lee led her to a little nook in the wall to the side of the corridor, then reached out and took her hands in his. "You know, in a way, you may have even saved my life with this case," he confessed. "Now, how could I have done that?" she asked him, obviously doubting his words. "Well, for starters, you gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going. For a while, I was actually wondering if anyone cared enough about my situation to do anything about it. As you saw, everyone stared and shook their heads, or I became the source of bullpen gossip." Unconsciously, his thumbs began stroking the tips of her fingers as he continued. "When I saw that you were concerned, and that you weren't turned off by my rude behavior, not to mention your reaction when I slapped you, I knew I had no choice but to let you in on the case. You really were a pro, and you didn't deserve what I gave you." "Lee," she stated, her voice taking on a tone that she most likely used when scolding her two boys, "as I told you in the restaurant, I do understand. There's really no need to apologize. I'm glad that it was a cover, though, and I do appreciate your thanks." She glanced down at their joined hands, and Lee thought he heard her take a deep breath before continuing. "It's very ... nice that you would think it's important." Lee smiled and realized that she was trying very hard not to show how truly affected she was by his sincere words, not to mention the obvious reaction she was having to him holding her hands in his. He was amazed she was able to maintain her cool, especially when he had known other women who had wilted at much less. It was just another way that Amanda continued to surprise him. Just when he thought he had her figured out, she would do something else to make him change his mind about her. Deciding to let a little bit of his devilish nature come out, he caught Amanda's gaze and slowly lifted her hands to his lips. "You know, this friendship goes both ways, and I really am grateful," he admitted. Pausing just before placing a kiss on the backs of her fingers, he grinned when he saw the telltale rise and fall of her chest indicating that her breathing had quickened. He watched her lower her eyes and his grin spread to a full smile. She wasn't as unaffected as she pretended to be, and in a small way, it made him feel a little more confident about his own abilities. He placed a quick kiss on the back of both hands, then released her hands and watched as she once again raised her eyes to look at him. "So..." he started, stepping away from the wall and turning her to walk beside him once again, "what do you say we get back to the bullpen, get our report written, then cut out early and celebrate?" "Celebrate?" she managed, although her voice was barely above a whisper. Lee fought the grin that tugged at his lips. "Yeah, me for cracking this case, with your help of course, and you for the award you got." "Oh." She nodded. "That sounds like a nice idea. I'll have to call home and tell Mother that she'll have to get the boys and herself some dinner." They turned the final corner and found themselves outside the bullpen once more. "By all means!" He gestured with his free hand in a wide arc. "We can't have your boys going hungry, now, can we?" he teased. "Of course not," she replied. "Goodness, I wouldn't want them to be deprived of anything in their childhood. They may grow up just as ornery and difficult as you!" she retorted, breaking free from his light touch at her waist as she stepped in front of the doors to the bullpen. The guards opened the doors, and she murmured a thanks to them as she entered and walked to her desk, leaving Lee standing in the corridor, dumbfounded by her remark. He watched her take her seat at the computer and begin working on what he presumed was their report. She appeared to have recovered from her momentary discomfort a moment ago when they were talking, but he never expected her to deliver such a well-placed remark. Once again, she had managed to leave him speechless, and Lee had a definite feeling it wouldn't be the last time it happened. Shaking his head, he sighed and stepped towards the doors, nodding his thanks as the guards opened them for him as well, then squared his shoulders as he approached Amanda's desk. He had to give her credit. She did an excellent job at bouncing back. (THE END) |
