"Here's the report on today," Francine said as she dropped the folder into Billy's inbox.

Billy leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers on his chest. "That was good work the two of you did today. I think even Dr. Smyth is impressed how quickly you wrapped this up."

Francine shrugged. "It really wasn't anything more than beating the bushes and a healthy dose of Amanda's usual luck."

"Amanda's luck?"

"You know what I mean. We followed up one dead lead after another and then we stumble onto the perp right back at the scene of the crime."

"Oh I see," said Billy grinning. "That kind of luck."

"I really shouldn't call it that," said Francine. "I mean, she's turned into a good agent and the only reason McGill was there at all is because we'd panicked her with all the stuff we'd been doing all day, but it does somehow seem like having Amanda along means we catch the lucky break when we need to."

"I know what you mean," Billy nodded. "So how did you two end up back there in the evening anyway?"

Francine shrugged. "We went back to get a full guest list, Elisa invited us to stay for dinner. She'd been stood up and wanted a distraction."

"I just bet she did," Billy huffed off a laugh.

Francine eyed him, then sat down in one of the chairs opposite his desk. "Okay, what do you know that I don't?"

"Elisa slid up to me at lunch today," he confided with a wide smile. "Wanted to know why Lee had dropped off the social circuit. I said he was off the market and was letting the other boys have a chance to play. And then she went off with a very determined glint in her eye."

"That doesn't surprise me at all," cracked Francine. "His name came up more than once during our chats with her today."

"How did Amanda handle that?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"Well, she knew the worst of the stories going in," said Francine. "The office gossips made sure of that as soon as we heard about the assignment. Oh, don't worry," she rushed to say when Billy grimaced. "Elisa Danton was no match for Amanda."

"Really?"

"Oh believe me, it was delightful." She repeated some of the verbal sparring that had gone on and soon had Billy wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

"I wish I could have seen it," he chortled.

"It wasn't a fair fight," Francine conceded with a grin. "Amanda knew who Elisa was, so that was a bit of an unfair advantage, although Elisa was far from subtle, and Amanda always had her other secret weapon."

Bill raised a brow inquiringly.

"She knows Lee adores her," she said simply. "Elisa doesn't know it, but she's a million miles in his rearview."

---

"Hello everyone, I'm home! Sorry I'm so late!" Amanda swing in the back door to the loud greetings of her family.

"Oh Amanda! Have you eaten yet? I can do you up a plate – we were just getting ready to put it all away but there's pot roast!"

"No don't worry, Mother, I had a bite to eat with Francine while we were working." Amanda hugged the boys and dropped kisses on their heads. "How was everyone's day? Got your homework done yet?"

"Yeah, Lee had to help me with my math," said Phillip. "I don't know why I have to learn this stuff though – it's not like I'll ever use any of it in real life."

"Oh, I think you might be surprised at what kinds of things you might need to know when you grow up, Sweetheart. You just never know where life is going to take you." She smiled at Lee over Phillip's head and he winked back.

"Are you sure you had enough dinner, Amanda?"

"Yes, Mother, I'm sure." She walked around the sofa to sit beside Lee and gave him a light kiss. "Hello handsome, how's the invalid today?"

"Well, I missed you, of course, and now I know how your mother always felt when I kept you out in the field for all hours. But my day was pretty good, considering I'm stuck at home," he smiled at her as he wrapped an arm around her. "I had a pretty interesting talk with your mother though."

"Oh really?" Amanda looked at hm quizzically. "Anything I should be concerned about?"

"Concerned? No," he answered. "But I should probably fill you in when it's a bit less chaotic."

The two of them glanced in unison at the mayhem in the kitchen as the boys continued to help Dotty clear up.

"How was your day?" he asked, a wistful look on his face. "Anything interesting?"

"Oh my, yes," she said. "It's amazing how much I can get done in a day when you're not around to distract me."

"I can imagine," Lee grinned at her. "But when dinner's over, can I distract you just a little bit?"

"I think I'll want more than a little bit of distracting," she murmured against his cheek, before reaching to nip his earlobe gently. "It's been a very… long… hard… day."

"Suddenly I'm feeling a lot less invalidish," he chuckled.

"Then you should definitely be in bed," she laughed softly against his lips before kissing him.

"Moooooom!" chorused Phillip and Jamie from the kitchen. "Gross! You promised no more making out in front of us!"

"Hold that thought," Amanda whispered to Lee. She shifted away to study his face – and to appease the boys' mock horror at any display of affection. "You're looking better," she decided. "You have some color in your cheeks."

"I sat out in the garden for a long time and got some sun," he said. "Although some of the color may just be residual from your mother making me blush."

"Was it very bad?" she grinned. "Did she grill you?"

"Like a KGB expert," he smiled back. "But I survived. Now tell me about your day – you looked like you were girding your loins for battle when you left this morning and you're home later than you said you would be."

"It turned out to be a minor skirmish at most," she answered with a smile. "And it took longer because we had to double back on some leads. But that worked out well in the end."

"How so?" he asked, pulling her in to snuggle again.

"Well, we were trying to track down who showed up at a birthday party last night with a stolen earring."

"A stolen earring? How is that Agency business?" he asked, confused.

"It was stolen out of a safe in Grenada during the invasion, along with a lot of other sensitive information," she answered.

"Ah – so you find who has the earring, you find who has the information."

"Exactly. And most of the party attendees were military so it took some narrowing down since so many of them had connections to that action."

"I take it the birthday party was in Kalorama?" he asked. "That's why you had to go there?"

She nodded.

"And who was the party for?" he asked. "Some congressman's trophy wife?"

"Something like that," she replied, eyes twinkling.

"Well, I certainly don't envy you that job," he said with feeling.

"How come?" she tilted her head and ran her hand along the shell of his ear.

"That whole set are so dull," he said. "And dealing with them for a case is like swimming in molasses. All they care about is their wealth and their reputations."

"Seems to me you used to spend a lot of time with that set," she reminded him. "When we met, you said they were your friends. And you were out all the time at all the embassy parties."

"And the endless rubber chicken dinners," he said. "Yeah, I was," he went on "but I never really liked any of those people – it was just a way to fill the days. And I was good at working the social circuit duty – hostesses like have a nice-looking single guy there, but I was wrong about one thing: they weren't my friends – they were just people I knew."

"You didn't like any of them?" she questioned. "Not even the beautiful girls in beautiful dresses? They certainly liked you." Her teasing smile took the edge of the comment.

Lee considered that for a moment. "You know, I can't think of a single one who was worth the time I spent on them. But you know what? That's okay, because I was just killing time until I met you." He leaned in to drop a light kiss on her nose.

"You say the nicest things," she said when they kiss broke off.

"It's true," he replied. "I was looking for love in all the wrong places. And I was lucky enough to find it. And it wasn't at one of those parties!"

"I love you," Amanda murmured, snuggling in to rest her head on his shoulder and laying her hand gently over his injury.

"I love you too," he answered. They sat quietly for a moment before Lee shifted to look at her. "So what happened with the earring thing?" he asked.

"Oh well, that all got wrapped up in one day," she answered. "Francine and I spent half our day running around the Pentagon trying to figure out who might have any connections, and getting shut down by a Code Vermillion on the Grenada files –"

"A Code Vermillion?" Lee repeated in amazement. "I've only ever seen two of those in my whole career!"

"Well, then you know what a dead end that turned out to be," Amanda commented. "So, then we were back to plain old detective work on as many of the guests as Dr. Smyth could remember being there, and that wasn't really going anywhere either, but then we caught a break."

"Of course, you did," Lee grinned. "You and your lucky breaks."

"We went back to get a more complete guest list from the hostess and she invited us to join her for dinner."

"That was nice of her," said Lee.

"Mmm," Amanda said, blandly. "She said she'd hoped to have someone else over that night but hadn't been able to track them down in time, so she just wanted the company. Poor little thing."

"Someone else?" he asked, picking up on the mischief in her tone.

"There were oysters and champagne chilling in the ice bucket," said Amanda, eyes crinkling with laughter at the memory. "And she was dressed in something very comfortable."

"Oh my," Lee grinned. "That kind of someone."

"Also a lot of chocolate-dipped strawberries," she went on, "so Francine was very happy."

"I bet she was," agreed Lee. "So you got a free seduction dinner that was going to waste, but what was the lucky break?"

"Francine went to use the powder room upstairs because the downstairs one was having plumbing problems and would you believe, there was someone in the master bedroom ransacking it? Francine had her down and cuffed before she knew what hit her."

"Her?" Lee repeated, eyes widening.

"Yep – the aide-de-camp for General Garrett. Turns out she had a partner who had a massive crush on Elisa and he'd left the other earring in the bedroom to try and win her over. When I left, they were in separate interrogation rooms, racing to see who could turn on the other one faster."

"That's great," said Lee in a slightly strangled voice. "Uhhh, did you say Elisa?"

"Yes, Elisa Danton," said Amanda, in her most innocent voice. "Do you know her?"

"We, um, well, we might have met once or twice," he stammered.

"Well, if I see her again, I'll be sure to pass along your regards," said Amanda.

She looked away for a moment to hide her smile and allow Lee time to compose himself and found her gaze drawn to the television.

"What on earth are you watching?"

"It's a Doris Day movie," he said quickly, obviously relieved that she had changed the subject. "Your mother insisted it was one of her favorites but I think she was messing with me."

"Why is she singing about Geiger counters?" asked Amanda in an awed tone.

"Beats me," said Lee. "These movies were never known for their intricate plots. I think she's in love with one of those guys, but they all look alike in the suits and hats."

"Hopefully she can tell them apart and gets the right one," Amanda twinkled at him.

"I think the right girl always gets the right guy in the end, don't you?" said Lee, squeezing her gently.

"Oh, I do," she agreed. "I really do."