Filming Raul - tagalogue

Written by Rudolph Borchert (excerpts from the episode belong to him)

"You see, I knew you didn't mean it." Amanda laughed with smug satisfaction.

"Mean what?"

"Oh, all that stuff about never helping a friend get a job again."

Lee's smile disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. "I -- I just did that, didn't I?" Amanda looked at him and raised her eyebrows, then grinned knowingly and turned back to face the direction where Scotty had run, but glanced at Lee out of the corner of her eye. As he realized what he had just done, his smile slowly reappeared. "Yeah, I..." He stopped and was obviously at a loss for words, so he just grinned at her and shrugged.

She smiled as she watched his dimples appear and thought about how cute he was when he tried to deny how easily he could be persuaded to help someone in need. All it had taken was a few words about how crestfallen Scotty was, and Lee had immediately jumped in to bring a smile to the young man's face. Leaning back against her car, she crossed her arms and sighed. "You know, you really are a softy."

Lee turned to her in disbelief. "I'm a what?"

"A softy."

"Amanda." He groaned and rolled his eyes.

"No, I mean it! Just look at what you did for Scotty, and you managed to convince Mr. Melrose that it was an Agency matter that caused my car to be damaged, not to mention how you reassured me at that little café when I was worried about those men having my registration card and Mother and boys being in danger." She paused for a moment but quickly continued when she noticed he was about to make a comment. "And this isn't the first time, either. You make certain my house is surrounded for protection, you take me to dinner or a second Embassy party to apologize, and you usually risk your life to save someone else from danger and even sometimes embarrassment." She shrugged her shoulders and grinned. "You're a softy."

"Are you done now?" His voice held a trace of impatience.

"Yes."

"All of what you said can be explained in three short words." She raised her eyebrows, and he continued. "It's my job." He rocked back on his heels, his hands still ensconced in his pockets. "It's what I do for a living. In answer to your statements, I do most of what I do because this is not anything you're used to doing, and I feel bad when things get out of hand. It's not the same for me. I'm in the business of making sure that everyone who shouldn't be involved stays uninvolved, and everyone who gets involved when they shouldn't..." he gave her a pointed glance, "doesn't get into any more trouble than they already are."

She wasn't buying his explanation, so she shook her head. "Call it what you like, but I know a softy when I see one. You can't admit it, just like you can't admit when someone helps you or when you need the help."

"Amanda..." He started to protest, but she threw him a look that said she wasn't going to change her mind, and he stopped. Instead, he removed his hands from his pockets and crossed his arms as he leaned back against the side of his Porsche. "Speaking of getting involved when you shouldn't, when we went to that warehouse to apprehend Levick, why didn't you stay in the car like I told you?"

"See what I mean? You can't admit that by me getting out of the car and making it to Levick's car first, you were able to capture him. If I hadn't been there to remove those wires, he most likely would have gotten away from you, but you can't admit that you needed the help." She threw up her hands. "As always."

He sighed and shook his head, and she could tell she was trying his patience. "How did you know which wires to pull, anyway?"

"I didn't. I just lifted the hood and unhooked a few things that I thought looked important. Like I said back at the warehouse, looks like I pulled the right wires!" She gave him a self-satisfied grin.

Lee smiled and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, just don't let it go to your head." He looked away then immediately turned his eyes back to hers. "And don't get any bright ideas about pulling stunts like that all the time. If I tell you to stay in the car, you need to stay in the car. Dealing with guns and apprehending the enemy is out of your league, so please stick to what we ask you to do from now on?"

"Yeah, okay," she replied, although she knew she couldn't promise to stick to it. "You know, I still don't know what I'm going to tell my mother about last night. After I spoke with you outside and those men called, I told her I would be back in an hour, and I wasn't. When I finally came home, she had that look in her eyes that told me she didn't believe a word I told her about where I was, and she still thinks I'm involved in some clandestine affair or something like it."

He sighed and ran his hand haphazardly through his hair. "Oh, no, are we back to that again?"

She pushed herself away from her car at his presumptuous tone of voice and became very indignant. "You know, I don't see how you can stand there and make a passing judgment about the type of person I am as if you know me so well." She crossed her arms and glared at him. "You may have ten thousand things about me in those computers of yours, but that doesn't tell a whit about who I really am! And like I said last night, you never would have guessed that I had it in me to be a spy, but I'm working with the Agency, so you can't make a blanket statement that I'm not the type to do or not do something."

Shifting positions and crossing his right leg over his left, he put his left hand in his pocket and gestured with his right. "All right, you have a point. I never would have pegged you for getting involved in the spy business, but I do think I'm right in saying that you wouldn't be involved in some one-night stand."

"She doesn't think it's a one-night stand, she thinks it's an ongoing affair."

"No matter what she thinks it is, I don't think you're the type to do it."

She placed her hands on her hips. "And why not?"

"Well, for starters, your face usually reveals everything, even when you try to hide it, and you have a knack for talking a lot when you get nervous or feel that you're in a precarious situation." She started to refute his observations, but he held up a hand to stop her and his voice noticeably softened. "Most of all, you're a caring mother with two boys, who's very involved in their lives, and I don't think you'd do anything that would risk causing harm to them if what you were doing was discovered."

Amanda didn't know what to say. She had expected him to point out her faults, but she never would have expected to hear him bring up her commitment and love for her sons, and that really threw her for a moment. It was just like when he had pulled her close to him in her car to give off the appearance that they were two lovers sharing a private embrace, or even when he had put a reassuring arm around her last night after she had expressed her fear. Just when she thought she was getting to know him and anticipate his actions, he changed direction and confused her all over again.

Thinking of last night brought back the words she had said to him in her back yard. I don't want the best there is, I want you. She still couldn't believe she had said that aloud, and even now, with him standing across from her, she could feel the heat creep into her cheeks. At least last night, she had been protected by the cover of darkness. "Yes, well, I suppose you're right," she conceded as she tried to cover her embarrassing thoughts. At his look of superiority at having her pegged, she turned towards her car and got in, then closed the door and rolled down the window. "I still think you're a softy."

Lee chuckled and walked around his car to the driver's side. Just before he got in, he looked at her over the roof of the car and smiled. "Just don't let it get out." He winked as he got into his car, started the engine and put it in gear, then backed out of the space and waved as he left.

Amanda started her own car and shook her head. "He didn't even say good-bye," she muttered to herself. "His manners still need a lot of work." She sighed and put her car in gear to back out and head home, but the small grin from her lips belied her .

(THE END)

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