It wasn't the same now. The bullpen used to be comfortable, but the past few days, it had been a place he skulked in and out of, trying to stay under the radar and out of Amanda's way.

Billy had been right up to a point about the whole thing blowing over. Efraim and Francine seemed to have grudgingly accepted his apologies, agreeing that they could kind of understand why it had been necessary to keep everyone in the dark at first, although Francine had been annoyed for a little longer – not unexpectedly.

But Amanda – that was another kettle of fish entirely. After their conversation that was supposed to make it better, it seemed worse. She had stopped being visibly angry and now there was a sort of brittle politeness on her part that held him at arm's length. Billy had told him that he'd had to have a long talk with her, convincing her to stay at the Agency at all. Unlike Francine, it wasn't just about hurt feelings that she'd been left out of the loop; for Amanda, the problem had been the wake-up call of realizing exactly how far the Agency would go in pursuit of a suspect. When he'd told Billy that it didn't seem like a good idea to not tell her the truth up front, he'd been hazy on why, but now he knew – she'd made it perfectly clear in words even he could understand. He'd taken advantage of her trust in their friendship for a case, and even if his intentions had been good, the result had been the same as if he'd set out to hurt her on purpose.

Sometimes it felt like he was making inroads on rebuilding that broken trust, but then someone would come up to his desk to congratulate him on not being dead or for having captured the killer. And every time someone made a joke about needing tips on how to fake their death to avoid the IRS or paperwork or their spouse, Amanda's face would go blank and her head would go down as she concentrated on her work.

Even Billy noticed and after a few days, he called Lee into his office.

"Still a bit frosty out there, isn't it, Scarecrow?" he commented, sympathy evident.

"You could say that," Lee sighed.

"Well, good news then. You're off to a warmer climate."

"Really? What's up?"

Billy passed him a file. "It's all in here. They need you in Sri Lanka by the day after tomorrow."

"Sri Lanka? Wow – for how long?"

"A week or two." Billy caught his glance out into the bullpen. "And yes, I'll keep an eye on Amanda and keep her out of trouble. In fact, I think I can use her particular set of skills."

"Her particular…?" Lee's eyes narrowed. "What are you up to, Billy?"

"Nothing, Scarecrow." Billy shrugged and opened his hands wide. "There's a rumor we have a defector coming in through sea shipment next week and we need to set them up with a new identity, get them used to life in America, you know the drill."

"Uh-huh. And?"

"And Amanda seems like a good choice to help someone adjust – she's friendly, she's patient, she can explain regular day-to-day stuff that regular agents tend to miss."

Lee considered that. "Yeah, she would be good at that," he admitted. "And it wouldn't be dangerous?"

"From what I'm told, not this one. I hear this guy's some kind of scientist, sounds pretty harmless."

Lee drummed his fingers in the side of the chair for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah it does. Okay, when do I leave?"

Billy pointed at the file. "Your tickets are in there; you leave from Dulles this afternoon."

Lee pulled himself out of the chair and held out his hand. "See you in a few weeks then."

"Good luck, Scarecrow," said Billy, shaking it. "And who knows, maybe a little absence will make the heart grow fonder again."

Lee paused in the office doorway with a wry smile. "I doubt that. It was absence that caused this in the first place, remember?"

Billy grimaced his acknowledgement. "Yeah. Maybe I should have gone with 'time heals all wounds'."

Lee walked across the bullpen to his desk and began to rifle through it for anything he might need to take with him. He turned to reach for his coat on the rack and pulled it on, only to find Amanda standing by his desk when he turned back around. She looked faintly nervous, chewing her lip and holding her hands in front of her like a penitent.

"Oh! Hi!" he said. "Did you need something?"

"No. It's just that we haven't… since that whole thing last week… I just wondered… I wanted to see if you maybe you'd like to go for lunch? Maybe just grab a burger?" Her eye fell on the passport he'd just picked up off the desk. "Oh. You're going away?" she asked with disappointment.

Lee winced. The first olive branch and he couldn't even take it. "Yeah, just for a little while."

"Working by yourself? I mean, will you have someone to help you… wherever you're going?"

"Oh yeah – the guys on the ground there are always good." He realized what she was asking. "I won't be working alone."

Amanda nodded. "Good." She started to turn away and Lee seized desperately on anything that would keep her there talking to him.

"Billy says he's got an idea for something you can do. You know, while I'm gone. Sounds like your kind of thing. It would get you out of the office more"

"It would?" Her eyes had brightened with interest. "Not a desk job?"

"Well, a kind of out-of-the-office desk job," Lee amended. "Nothing dangerous."

"No, of course not." He could hear the resigned disappointment in her voice.

"But can I get a raincheck on that burger?" he asked. "For when I get back? I've… well, I've missed our lunches, Kid."

"Yeah sure, Butch," she nodded, smiling, and evoking an answering beam from Lee. "When you get back."

To be continued in "Lost Without You"