Screen Captures Courtesy of Swoopes For personal use and select distribution only © May 2002 by Amber Stockton Reach for the Sky - tagalogueWritten by Tom Biener & Ron Landry (excerpts from the episode belong to them)
"Well, Francine, look, don't worry. Just explain it to Mr. Melrose. I'm sure he'll understand." Amanda closed the expense voucher folder and held it in front of her. Lee stood with his hands casually in his pockets and gave her a nonchalant smile. "You know Billy." The door to Billy's office opened. "Desmond! My office! On the double!" he barked. They all jumped to attention at Billy's voice. Francine nodded, took the folders from Amanda and straightened her shoulders. "Excuse me," she said to them both and walked towards Billy's office. "Leave this place for ten minutes, and all hell breaks loose!" he bellowed as Francine slipped past him into his office. Amanda and Lee both watched the scene in front of them, and Lee tried to keep a straight face. "Uh, sir..." he heard Amanda say beside him. Billy looked at them both and winked, a partial grin on his face to show that he wasn't as angry as he sounded. Once he closed the door, Lee and Amanda both slowly turned to glance at each other, grins forming on their lips as they shared a knowing look. For a moment, they both stood there and watched Billy characteristically close the blinds to his office, the unspoken signal that what was happening behind his closed door was not something he wanted to be known to everyone in the bullpen. "So, do you think he'll go easy on her?" Lee turned to face her and shrugged. "Ahh, you know Billy." He turned and extended his arm, silently encouraging her to turn and walk with him. "He has to maintain his position as section chief, so he'll lay into her a bit to make her feel contrite, then he'll thank her for stepping in and tell her what a great job she does." "You seem to know Mr. Melrose's tactics pretty well," Amanda remarked as they stepped into the corridor. "Does this mean you've been on the receiving end of what Francine's now getting?" Lee glanced down when he heard the smile in her voice and saw the twinkle in her eyes. He couldn't help but chuckle, and he pressed lightly at the small of her back where his hand rested to guide her toward the elevator. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. Let's just say that Billy's bark is far worse than his bite, but..." "But he's the type of dog you don't want to cross," Amanda finished for him. "Right." He glanced down at her with a knowing grin. "You seem to know Billy pretty well yourself." "I only know that he doesn't let rules interfere with doing what's right, and he would risk everything to help someone he believed in." "He proved that by risking his job for Igheney." "That takes a lot of guts, and I really respect Mr. Melrose for that." "Yeah, can't argue with you, there. Billy's got his own ways of doing things, but his instincts are usually right." He paused to push the button for the elevator and glanced out of the corner of his eye at Amanda. "Like someone else I know." "Really? And who would that be?" The doors to the elevator opened, and he gestured for her to enter ahead of him, then followed behind, rearranging the coats on the hangers. "Who would that be?" Lee repeated once the elevator began to ascend. "Well, she's a brunette," he began, ticking off each detail in succession on his fingers, "a housewife, has two boys and her mother at home, has a distinct talent for being a blackbelt confuser, and has become quite adept at getting others to agree to her ideas, no matter how bizarre they are," he finished with a grin. She shrugged. "I do my best!" "And for that, I know I and many others are grateful." Lee sobered. "You really did a great job with that research you did on Omega Resources and Canaan, Amanda." He chuckled, then shook his head in amazement. "You know, I usually send you to do things like that more to keep you out of harm's way, but you always seem to find something important." "That's because you never think I will." "What do you mean by that?" "Just that you send me back to the office or back home, believing that I'll stay out of the way..." She caught his amused glance but continued, "Only it's when I'm not really working on the case that I manage to make a connection." The elevator stopped at the Georgetown Foyer, and Lee turned the knob, then held open the door for Amanda to step out first. "Care to repeat that in plain English?" he asked, following her into the foyer and towards the stairs. "I just talk like that," she retorted, walking past the front desk. Lee rolled his eyes and grinned, remembering when she had accused him of the exact same thing when they were talking to Elizabeth and her husband about the Trans_Oceanic case. "Hello, Mrs. Marston." Amanda acknowledged the woman who sat at the desk, and Lee nodded and smiled. Only a nod signaled that she had even heard them, and Lee had to marvel again at how unemotional Mrs. Marston was. Then again, she was good at her job, and that's why the Agency had her working the foyer. He didn't have time to contemplate anything else, because Amanda began to answer his question. "What I meant was that when I'm removed from the situation, my mind usually remembers certain things that were said or things I saw in connection with the case, so I start to follow those leads in my mind." "That could be dangerous," Lee muttered and fought a grin when Amanda glanced back over her shoulder at him as they ascended the stairs to the second floor. "As I was saying..." Her voice held a touch of impatience. "I think about other odd coincidences or situations, do a little research, and usually come up with something I think you or the Agency can use to help in a case. Then, I come back and tell you." She shrugged. "Simple as that!" Lee reached around her to open the door into the hallway that led to the Q-Bureau, undercover as the Film Library. "Yeah, you tell us, and then it's up to us to try to decipher your meaning or follow your train of thought, and that's no easy task!" "I never said that the things I figured out would be easy to understand. That's why you get paid the big bucks..." "Medium bucks," he corrected. "...and have all of those fancy clearance codes," she continued, as if he hadn't interrupted. "I'm just a civilian." Lee opened the door to the Q-Bureau and followed Amanda inside, closing the door behind them. "Yeah," he replied, walking over to his desk and tossing his keys on the surface before stepping behind it, "a civilian with a nose that gets her in trouble." "And as I recall, that nose has saved your skin more than once!" She held a paper cup under the dispenser of the water cooler and lifted the handle. "For which you have my undying gratitude," he replied sarcastically. Amanda took a drink of water and approached his desk. "You know, you could be a little bit more appreciative." He placed his hands in the pockets of his pants and looked across the desk at her. "What, and actually admit that you're an asset to the Agency, that you've developed your skills pretty well over the past two years, that you're the best partner I've had?" He paused and leveled his gaze at her for a moment or two. "Nah," he added with a slight grin. She shook her head, took the final drink of water from her cup then tossed the cup in the trashcan next to the desk. "You know, you're about as good at avoidance tactics as you are at pretending to be other people just so you can get the information you need to solve a case." She paused a second, then added, "Except with this recent one, that is." "Why, thank y..." He paused when he realized what she had added at the end. She didn't appear to be teasing him, but with Amanda, he was never sure. She had gotten as good at hiding her feelings as any seasoned agent, and that didn't bode well for him. "And just what is that supposed to mean?" he demanded. "I thought I was pretty convincing in my role as the bank examiner." "I wasn't talking about that role," she corrected. "I was talking about the security guard." "The security guard?" He didn't bother to hide the fact that he was completely confused, now. "Yes, when you changed into that guard's uniform and approached the front desk." She walked towards the vault on the other side of the room. "It's a good thing no one was looking from behind, or they would have seen how badly you were holding my hands behind my back." He saw her place her arms behind her and keep her back to him, so he quietly stepped out from behind the desk and walked over to her. "Care to demonstrate how I should have held them?" he said as he reached out to grab her wrists. She jumped a little when he touched her, and he grinned, although he knew she couldn't see his face. "Well, since you already have my hands, you need to imagine how they would be held if they were handcuffed or shackled together, then use just one hand to hold them together where the bindings would be, since your other hand would be holding your gun." Lee thought he detected a slightly airy quality to her voice, but shrugged and told himself he imagined it as he extended the fingers of his left hand around her wrists and held them tightly. "Better?" "Almost," she replied, and he could definitely hear the smile in her voice. "Now, you need to pull me back against you as you get ready to push me forward, supposedly by force." He did as she instructed, and when her back was firmly against his chest, he couldn't help but notice the sweet smell of her perfume or the overwhelming sense of protection he felt for her. Leaning his head forward and allowing her hair to lightly caress his cheek, he caught himself when he realized what he was doing. "How's that?" he managed to croak. She didn't immediately reply, either, and he couldn't help but wonder if she also felt what he was feeling at that moment. "You're learning." Her voice sounded a bit forced. "Well, at least I rely on my training with the Agency instead of using tactics I read about in a romance novel," he retorted, more in an attempt to distance himself than to diminish the importance those books had played in a number of cases. To soften his reply, he forced a slight grin to his lips. She glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled, and he realized how close their faces were. His hands immediately released her, and he stepped away as if bitten. He needed to put a little space between them, or he'd end up doing something he might regret. As much as he wanted to remain close to her, there was a lot they needed to talk about and get out in the open before anything went any further. With their adventure at New Utopia still quite fresh in his mind, he knew a lot of things were changing in their relationship, and for once, he intended to take things slowly. Not sure if he could trust himself to find a way to get their conversation back on track, he was grateful when she did it for him. She turned around to face him. He forced his mind to focus on what she was saying and not on how he had felt a moment ago. "Now that we've covered another lesson in Diversionary Tactics 101, I think I should at least compliment you on successfully triggering the key lock that got us up to that floor in the first place." Leaning back against his desk, he crossed his arms and grinned. "Well, thank you." He nodded, silently sighing in relief that the awkward moment had passed. "I'll admit, I had my doubts about getting to Canaan and finally obliterating the Cyclops organization once and for all, but thanks to Zorbell's carelessness, and your research skills, we succeeded." Amanda walked over to glance out the window of the office and spoke over her shoulder. "Don't forget Mr. Aquinas." "T.P.?" Lee asked. "No, I'd never forget him. He's an excellent source of information, and he's been great for helping me over the years, even though he's not officially one of my sources." He paused, then pushed himself away from the desk. "Speaking of T.P., I just realized that I need to make a trip to Records and get a file." "So we can get our report on this case written?" She turned from the window to face him again, her right hand casually resting in her pocket. "Yeah. It'll finally close the book on Cyclops...at least, I hope it will. Sometimes, you just never know with these groups, whether someone else was involved and will open it again." "Well, let's just hope it stays closed, and for what it's worth, I'm glad you let me come along on this case." He raised his eyebrows, and she grinned as she ducked her head. "All right, glad I persuaded you to let me come on this case," she amended. "If I hadn't, you would have had trouble getting onto that extra floor, let alone even knowing about it. I also never would have met Mr. Aquinas, and that was quite a pleasure." "He said he enjoyed meeting you, as well. Also said it's not easy finding a good checkers opponent, so he instructed me to keep you around." Lee crossed to the door and opened it, then turned back to face her. "I said I'd think about it," he added, delivering his parting remark as he stepped into the hall and closed the door behind him. He knew she'd continue the conversation when he returned from Records with the files they needed to complete their report, but at least for now, he had the upper hand. (THE END) |
