Screen Captures Courtesy of Swoopes For personal use and select distribution only © May 2002 by Amber Stockton Murder Between Friends - tagalogueWritten by Bill Froehlich & Mark Lisson (excerpts from the episode belong to them)
"We have some other good news," Lee informed her, then shared a look with Billy, who silently told him that he should be the one to tell Amanda. "How would you ... like your old job back?" "Oh!" she exclaimed, raising her fists in obvious excitement. "With a raise?" he added. "With a raise!" she exclaimed, hardly able to believe what she was hearing. "My old job with a raise! That's really wonderful, I really appreciate this. Thank you so much, Lee. Sir, thank you. Oooh, thank you! I really appreciate it. Oh, Lee. Listen, I don't want to be too, you know, nosy or anything, but how in the world did you manage to get me my old job back with a raise with all of the expense cuts and everything..." "Well..." Lee hedged. "Have you seen this?" Francine interrupted, snapping a folded piece of paper. Her voice held an obvious note of disdain. "What is it? "It's a memo," Francine explained, "cutting my undercover wardrobe budget in half. Now, I just bought an original Chesley gown for the Siki Ambassador Gala, and if I have to pay for that gown myself.....I'm talking to Billy, right now!" Lee and Amanda watched Francine storm off in a huff, like a woman on a mission, and Amanda shifted her eyes to follow Francine's progress from where they stood to Billy's office. She waited until she heard the door close before turning back to face Lee with a grin. "My raise." "Your raise." They both spoke at once, shared a grin, then chuckled. Amanda had a hard time controlling her mirth, so she closed her eyes. She knew if she looked up at Lee, she wouldn't be able to keep from laughing, so when her eyes opened, she intentionally kept them lowered until she was under control. "Poor Francine," she remarked, her voice full of remorse. "I don't know how she's going to take it." Glancing up at Lee, Amanda noticed that his face reflected surprise, so she hurried to continue. "I mean, this new wardrobe cut means she may have to wear the same dress a second time!" With a shake of her head and a grin that tugged at the corner of her lips, she knew the moment Lee realized she was joking. "Yeah! You're not kidding!" Lee agreed with a smile. "You know, we really didn't want to have to do that, but when Billy and I realized that you would be needing work again and wouldn't be able to come back at the same pay, we had to do something. So, the most logical thing was to tighten the reins a bit on Francine's elaborate wardrobe spending." He paused and leaned in closer to her, then lowered his voice. "To be honest, we've been looking for a reason to cut her budget for a while, but we could never come up with anything. So, in more ways than one, we owe you our thanks." She ducked her head. "Oh, it was nothing." "Maybe not to you," Lee countered, "but you managed to help provide us with a legitimate reason to cut back while also gaining back a very valuable employee." Amanda looked up at him in surprise at his words. Had he just complimented her without any prompting? One look at him told her that he had, and she felt a small amount of heat rush into her face. In an attempt to hide how touched she was, she shrugged and tried to brush it off as unimportant. "Well, I'm glad to be back. As much as I did enjoy working for Mr. Jordan, it just wasn't the same as working here at the Agency." "What? Not enough danger, excitement, intrigue?" he teased, lifting his eyebrows with that last word. "Very funny," she retorted. "No, I mean as nice as Mr. Jordan was, and even though I only worked for him for one day, there was something different about it all. It wasn't that I couldn't handle the job. It was more that something was missing." She paused as she tried to put into words exactly what it was that she had found lacking. "Mr. Jordan was very kind and didn't place any demands on me that would cause me to second-guess my decision." She looked up and met Lee's gaze. "But, he just wasn't..." All thoughts flew from her mind at the look in Lee's eyes. She couldn't believe what she had almost said, and it was obvious he had come to his own conclusions about how she would have finished her last statement. Mortified, she tried to backtrack and figure out a way to get around what had the potential to be a very awkward situation. "Wasn't what, Amanda?" Lee's voice startled her from her thoughts, and she searched for a suitable reply. "He just wasn't Mr. Melrose," she inserted. He nodded, barely containing the smirk from his lips. "Ah, yes. No one's like Billy, that's for sure!" Thankful he let it drop and wasn't going to pursue the previous topic, she continued. "Not only that, but I missed so much about working here." She gestured vaguely at the area of the bullpen. "The people, the atmosphere, the variety...." "The paperwork!" Lee added with a grimace. "Well, yes, paperwork, but I really don't mind. Since my typing skills are so high, it's something I can do well." Lee nodded. "You have a point, but you do have some other qualities which make you a necessity around here." "I do?" She feigned ignorance, more because she wanted to hear Lee actually say it than because she really wanted to know. "Well, yeah." He paused for a moment, and Amanda watched him shift his weight from one foot to the other as he appeared to grapple in his mind to come up with her other qualities. "For instance, with this case with President Nabouti, you kept your ears open after only working one day with Byron and learned enough to help us crack the case and nail Tucker. If you hadn't known that Byron kept all of the access codes in his head or about that bypass switch, we most likely wouldn't have gotten to him in time." She shrugged again. "All part of the job." "A job you do very well, Amanda," Lee replied. Then, as if he realized things were getting a little too serious, he changed his tone. "Of course, even in the simplest things, you do have a knack for getting into trouble. Who would have thought you'd end up framed for Byron's murder, let alone having to spend most of the day in jail?" She lowered her head. "Yeah, that's not exactly something I'd want to relive anytime soon." "Aw, come on, Amanda. I thought you and Wilma got along really well," he teased. "She certainly seemed nice enough!" "That's because she called you a hunk and found you attractive!" she retorted. At his smirk, she shook her head and continued. "Do you realize she actually offered to teach me some things about how to do away with men in better ways?" That thought caused her to cringe and close her eyes, unable to even imagine what that woman would have said if Lee hadn't arrived when he did. "If nothing else, it would have been an interesting conversation." "Interesting isn't exactly how I would describe what she would have told me," Amanda countered. "Which reminds me," she started to say, then paused. "Well, it doesn't exactly remind me, since being in jail doesn't really have anything to do with what I'm about to say, and there really is no connection to Wilma and what I was thinking...." "Amanda...." Lee interrupted with a tone that told her she was doing it again. With a sheepish grin, she looked up at him. "I'm sorry. Anyway, I was thinking about this case, and what you said earlier about me being framed, and that got me wondering. How did you happen to come by my house that night you found me in the garage?" She focused her full attention on him and saw him avert his eyes for a moment as he shifted, seemingly uncomfortable with her question, or at least with the answer to her question. A part of her wanted to fill in the blanks that he was worried about her and coming to check on her, although she knew he'd never admit to that. It was just like his reaction when she had first announced her plans to resign. He had tried to hide it, but she saw how shaken he was. Sure, he put on a good show, but she had come to know him very well over the past two years, and she knew he had struggled with the reality of her leaving just as much as she had. The look on his face when she made her announcement made it look like someone had just given him a swift kick to the gut, and it nearly broke her own resolve. However, the look passed as quickly as it came, and she figured if he could hide it, so could she. He finally found his voice, or at least had finally come up with what he thought was a good explanation, and she waited expectantly for him to reply. "Well, you were technically still in my custody, and the cops can be real strict when they want to be about sticking to the rules. I knew you would want some time to talk to your mother and take care of some things at home, but I figured it was a good time to come and talk to you about Jordan and see if there was anything else you knew. Turns out you had a lot of helpful information." "Oh," she replied, trying hard to hide her disappointment that he would yet again hedge what she knew was the truth. "So, how did you find me in the garage?" "When I first arrived at your house, I parked across the street. Your car wasn't in the driveway, but the lights were on inside the house. I walked around back, heard a car running and headed for the garage. The door was locked, and I had to bust it open, almost choking at the carbon monoxide that came pouring out. When I saw you in the car and realized you weren't responding, I shut off the car and carried you outside," he explained. "You carried me," she repeated with a slight grin. He grinned as well, but his grin also held a mixture of teasing and self-satisfaction. "Yeah. Haven't we had this conversation before?" Again, Amanda felt a blush warm her cheeks, but she managed to maintain her composure. "Yes, only this time I was awake enough to remember it," she retorted with a smile. After a moment, she situated the strap to her purse and turned to leave. "Well, I should probably get on back home. Mother and the boys are most likely wondering how everything went with my being arrested and everything, so I should get home and fill them in on the details." She started to walk away, but his voice stopped her. "So?" She looked over her shoulder at him. "So, what?" "So, how was it?" "How was what?" she asked, confused. He placed one hand in his pocket, the other facing out, palm up. "When I carried you? You said you were awake this time, so how was it?" "Oh!" She turned to leave. "Well, I wasn't that awake!" she replied, tossing a saucy grin over her shoulder at him. "Mm-hm," she heard him say. "Why don't you take that extra pay and go out and get your boys that Wizard Whopper thing you mentioned a few days ago?" She turned around to face him, and he grinned. "Wouldn't want them to be deprived or anything," he added, reminding her of what she had said just last week to him. At his wink, she smiled and turned back towards the doors. She stepped into the corridor and paused just outside the doors, unable to keep her smile from widening at the thought of how Lee really did care and was a lot more aware of her than he pretended to be. He always seemed to have the right words to reassure her when she needed it, and he always seemed to know just when to appear or make a remark about something she had said when she had thought he wasn't listening. Yesterday, he had told her to stay close to him when they were headed to the Nabouti Mansion. In her current state of mind, if he asked that again, she would have no problem at all adhering to his request, although like him, she would never admit it. He had said on more than one occasion that just when he thought he had her figured out, she would do something to add an additional page or chapter to what he believed was a good book on who she was. Well, it went both ways. They'd been working together for almost two years, and he always seemed to find a way to distort the picture she had painted of him. He may complain about her being hard to figure out, but in her opinion, he deserved it! A sudden touch of mischief gave her an idea. She pivoted and stepped towards the bullpen. Good fortune prevailed when Lee approached the desk just inside the doors to hand the agent a folder. "Lee?" He stopped and turned to look at her. "Yeah?" "It was not bad!" He straightened and stared at her. "Not..." A moment later, a slow smile formed on his lips as the reference she made became clear to him. He winked again, then held her gaze. It seemed to almost be a dare to her to continue the conversation and see where it would lead. Amanda glanced around the bullpen and noticed that one or two other agents had looked up to watch them. She didn't want to be the subject of office gossip ... any more than she already was ... so she let it drop. With a nod, she spun around and headed towards the elevator. Mentally, she placed a tally mark on the invisible chalkboard that kept score of their neverending quest to get one up on each other. She was in the lead ... for now, but the score would no doubt change tomorrow. Until then, she would enjoy her lead. (THE END) |
