A week later, sitting down to catch his breath after retrieving the disk containing the Kalihari list, Billy beamed with pride at watching the way that Amanda handled herself, training her revolver on Rashidi, while Lee had been busy cuffing Kimambo, Her recovery from the torture inflicted upon her at the hands of Addi Birol, now a distant memory. In watching her, he believed it to have made her that much better an agent, her apprehension to handling a gun even seeming to have faded. When she handed over the disk and the gun, then ran off to call an ambulance, he looked at Lee and said, "She's gonna' be just fine." Lee nodded and smiled back, Billy's double meaning clear as day, as he thought of just how right he was. He too beamed with pride at how far his partner come and was now counting down the days until they'd become partners for life.

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At the beginning of the new year, returning from their honeymoon, Lee and Amanda walked happily into the bullpen hand in hand heading for the conference room for their morning briefing, amid cries of "Welcome back" and "Congratulations." Upon entering the conference room and seeing Dr. Quidd there, Lee tightened his grip on his wife's hand wondering how she'd react since this would be the first time she'd been in the same room with Quidd since that day in his old apartment that he'd now vacated to begin his new life with his new family. Amanda gently squeezed his hand in return and smiled at her husband, saying softly enough for only him to hear, "I'm okay," and then sliding her free hand to the slight bulge in abdomen, amended her statement, "We're okay." She then glanced at Quidd who hadn't yet seemed to notice the entrance of the pair as he was embroiled in a conversation with another agent.

Lee couldn't help noticing Amanda watching Quidd and the way she bit down on her lower lip as she did so. "Amanda," he said in a low warning tone. "I don't like this. You've got that look." He knew that look of hers all too well, it was the one that said she was about to use her sweet, friendly nature to completely humiliate someone.

Amanda smiled innocently. "Look? What look?" Lee rolled his eyes as Amanda released his hand and marched straight over to Dr. Quidd. "I hate to interrupt your conversation, but I wondering if I couldn't have a moment of your time, Dr. Quidd."

"What is it, Amanda? Are you still having nightmares?" He asked and then shot a smug look Lee's direction. "Maybe we should set up an appointment for you to come and see me if your sessions with Claudia aren't helping you on that front."

"Oh, no, that's not it at all, Dr. Quidd, Claudia's been a tremendous help," Amanda replied sweetly with a loving gaze at her new husband, "And with my husband by my side, the nightmares are long gone. In fact, it's just the opposite. My life right now is a dream come true and it just occurred to me in seeing you sitting here that I have you to thank for that."

"Oh, Lord, here we go again," Francine muttered under her breath. She'd learned by now just when Amanda was about to unleash, only unlike her, she'd do it in such a sweet non-threatening way that it would take the insulted party a moment or two to realize that they'd been insulted. She, herself, preferred the more direct approach of a well-placed barb or two to make her point, but she had to admit that she got a tremendous amount of entertainment at observing Amanda's more subtle tactics.

"Oh?" Quidd gave her a questioning look, wondering how on earth she could think that when he'd been telling her all along that the man she'd just been foolish enough to marry would never be the type to stay committed. It was only a matter of time before she found herself in divorce court again.

"Well, really it all goes back to Stemwinder," Amanda began to explain.

"Stemwinder," Quidd questioned as he leaned slightly back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "How so?"

Quidd glanced at Lee looking for an answer just as Billy entered the room ready to start the meeting. Billy glanced first at Quidd, then at Lee, giving him a curious look who leaned toward him and said softly in his friend's ear, "Wait for it."

Amanda keeping her tone light and even answered Quidd by saying, "Well, you know, all the trauma I went through after I was abducted and all the time off that I had to take because of it, really got me to thinking and when I was, I thought about how and when things between Lee and me really changed and became more serious. I mean, we'd been seeing each other for almost a year, but we'd gotten into this kind of holding pattern, only without any real holding." She gave her husband a pointed look as a reminder of how dense he'd been in those days when she'd been dropping boulder-sized hints that she was ready to move forward and take the next step and he'd missed every one of them.

"It wasn't until you forced Lee into that peacock dance with Sonja Chenko and the aftermath of that, that things really progressed in our relationship and put us on the path that we're on now. Lee told me that he loved me for the first time during that whole stressful time, which of course, I reciprocated and then when we were on the run being treated like criminals by our own people, including you, that was when we...well, that was when our holding pattern ended, if you know what I mean. That was when this baby was conceived, after all." She winked at Lee from across the room before turning back to Quidd and continuing.

"Then after I was abducted by Addi Birol and was just trying to get my bearings, the way you treated me as if I were delusional when I told you that Lee asked me to marry him, the way that you insisted that I needed drug therapy to recover, well..." She glanced around to the other occupants of the conference room, "We all know Lee and how bad his temper can be at times. That just set him off because he's very protective of me and now that he knows he's going to be a father, he's just as protective of our baby, which makes him even more protective of me. He would never have let you do anything to hurt our child and now, here we are, two months later, fresh from our honeymoon, happily married, with a healthy baby on the way and we owe it all to you and your sheer stubbornness. I just want you to know that whatever happens between us from here on out is all because of you and your single-mindedness, so, thank you." She gave him a serene smile and then turned on her heel and strode back to the other side of the room where Lee was holding out her chair for her.

As Amanda settled into her seat and Lee took his seat beside her, clasping her hand in his as he beamed at her, Dr. Quidd gaped at them and sputtered, "But-but-"

"All right, People," Billy bellowed. "Let's cool the chit-chat and get down to business." He glanced at Amanda and couldn't help the wide grin the spread across his face at the way she'd put Quidd in his place far better than even Dr. Smyth had. He smiled at his favorite couple, happier than ever that he'd made the decision to hire Amanda and pair them together in the hopes that she'd be the one to fill in the missing pieces of the Scarecrow puzzle. What he hadn't counted on was him filling the missing pieces of hers as well, creating one complete picture.