Lee walked purposefully into the bullpen, a man on a mission. He strode quickly to Francine's desk and questioned impatiently, "Have you seen Amanda?"

The blonde chuckled and replied archly, "You've been married for what - ten minutes - and you've already lost track of the little woman? Maybe you should put a leash on her. Or maybe one of those little collars with the bells so you can always hear her coming. Now that I think about it, that might be useful for all of us around here."

Lee rolled his eyes. "Knock it off, Francine. I just wanted to see if you knew where she was. She was supposed to meet me upstairs half an hour ago after her class ended so we could go to lunch together and I haven't seen hide nor hair of her since we got to work this morning."

"Like I said, a collar with a bell," she teased.

"Francine-" he huffed irritably.

"Okay, okay, she came in this morning and asked Billy if she could set up some time with Dr. Pain during her lunch hour."

"Again?" Lee's brow furrowed in concern. "That's the third time this week she's wanted extra sessions with him."

Francine nodded. "Yep. You know, I have to admire her determination to get back into full form after her shooting, signing up for extra classes with Beaman, going extra rounds with Stanley, working all the overtime she can on even the most mundane of surveillance assignments..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all about it, Francine. That's what's bothering me," he explained. "I see her less now than I did when we were still keeping our marriage a secret."

"Well, you know what they say, 'absence makes the heart grow fonder,' so maybe this will be a good thing for the two of you and prove the gossip hounds wrong on the pool they've got going over how long it will be before you end up in divorce court."

"Really, Francine?"

"Hey, I didn't take part in it," she defended herself. "But, come on, Lee, when you made your big announcement a couple of weeks ago, you had to know people around here would talk."

"Well, I don't care about their talk. What I do care about is my wife and her running herself ragged trying to do too much too soon. You may have come to visit a couple of times during her recovery, but you weren't there for the really bad stuff when she couldn't even dress herself."

"Look, Lee, I know it was rough, but I see this as a good thing. It means that she's feeling comfortable enough to dive back in. That should make you happy because you'll finally have your partner back instead of being stuck with me all the time for the really big jobs. Once she gets her approval to get back to full-time agent status, we can all get back to normal. You and Amanda together and me doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Plus, Billy can stop driving the poor Steno girls nuts when I'm not around to help him like I normally do."

"I just don't want her to hurt herself," he replied worriedly. "I wish she'd slow down a bit."

"You're talking to the wrong person here, Lee. You should talk to her about that."

"Right, as if she ever listens to me," he chuckled.

"True, but still it couldn't hurt to try."

"Yeah, you're right. I think I'll go pay a visit to Stanley, talk to her and maybe make sure he's not abusing her too much while I'm at it."

"Good plan. We both know all too well how Stanley can be," she chuckled.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Stewing all the way there, Lee finally walked into Stanley's makeshift dojo just in time to see his wife land flat on her back with an "Oof!"

"Amanda!" Lee cried just as she was getting to her feet. "God, are you okay?"

She glanced over to him and in a reassuring tone, explained, "I'm fine. I just didn't block that last kick in time," then immediately turned her attention back to her sparring partner ready to square off again.

"Very good, Mrs. Stetson," Stanley complimented her as he resumed his fighting stance. "You're learning quickly."

"Hold it!" Lee made a time-out sign with his hands. "Time-out here."

"Mr. Stetson, how many times must I say this; a trained killer will not give you a time-out."

"I know, I know, but I need a moment with my wife if you don't mind."

Stanley nodded and retreated to his adjoining office space, closing the door behind him.

"Amanda, what the hell are you doing?" Lee hissed once they were alone.

"What does it look like? I'm training."

"At lunch time? What about our plans?" When she stared at him blankly, he replied more insistently, "Randy's...lunch...that red velvet cake you like so much for dessert? We talked about this just yesterday."

"Oh, was that today? Lee, Sweetheart, I'm so sorry. I thought that was for Friday and I thought I had my lunch time free to get in a little more practice at my hand-to-hand."

"For the third time this week," he pointed out. "And that was after you didn't come home until 2AM because you were out on a surveillance job half the night, which you didn't tell me about until the last minute. THEN you were back up at 5 to get the boys off to school and in Beaman's class by 7, and now this? Amanda, what's going on with you?"

"Nothing," she replied with a shrug, but wouldn't meet his eyes as she reached for a towel to mop the sweat from her brow. "I just want to get back to where I was. You know that. I lost so much momentum in my training with my recovery and taking so long to heal."

"You're still healing Amanda. Dr. Kelford said himself that you're not 100% yet and should still take things a little easy."

"He also said I should keep physically active to get my muscles back into shape. All those weeks of not being able to use my left arm very well because of my injury left me with some muscle atrophy setting in and while the physical therapy is helping, it's not quite enough for Agency standards to get me back to full-time status."

"But why are you so worried about it? I've told you, Billy's told you, Francine's told you - hell, even Dr. Smyth told you - that you should take as much time as you need to get your full strength back."

"I just want things back to normal," she answered in a clipped tone. "Look, I know you're all being so patient with me, but look at the strain it's putting on everybody else. With Francine helping you, she's not available to help Billy as much which means a strain on the Steno Pool for temps to fill in and they don't know this place as well as Francine does. Plus, you're getting irritated with having her instead of me because she doesn't think the way I do and make the same kind of intuitive leaps that I do and-"

"Which is why it's good to have you in the Q as a backup, so if Francine and I need that kind of intuitive leap, we can call you. Not to mention, there's no reason that you couldn't help Billy when he needs it instead of him making the Steno girls nuts. You do type 90 words a minute, after all."

Amanda shook her head. "Not so much anymore. I don't type quite as well as I used to either. Why do you think I've been taking on extra work from Steno to help out whenever they pull one of those girls to assist Billy? I need more practice there too." She hung her head sadly. "I've lost so much since I was shot, Lee. I need to get it all back."

"I know that, Amanda, and I admire your go-get-'em attitude, but the firing range at lunch yesterday, the surveillance job last night, this today...when are you going to start practicing being a wife and mother again? Do you know how many questions from the boys I had to dodge last night when you weren't home for dinner and I was?"

"I'm sorry I wasn't home last night, but you know just as well as I do that with the Agency, sometimes things just come up at the last minute."

"I know they do, but don't you think you're pushing yourself just a little too hard? I know how badly you want to get back in shape-"

"Do you?" She glowered at him. "I don't think you do. You don't know what it's like from my perspective. I worked so hard for three years here to prove myself; to prove that I was more than just a housewife, that I have what it takes to do this job. Then Dr. Smyth finally offered me a full-time job and I was enrolled in the Agent Candidate program and I was excelling at it, even beating your test scores and now, I feel like I'm right back where I started and having to prove myself all over again."

"No, Amanda, you're not. Everyone around here knows how capable you are and not one person in this building expects you to be at the top of your game when you nearly died just a little over three months ago. Every single field agent that you see in the bullpen every day has been injured in one way or another on the job and they all know how hard it is to bounce back from and some never fully bounce back. Look at Fred, he was shot once, in the leg of all things, 5 years ago and he's still skittish. Why do you think he runs from confrontation instead of fighting?"

"Well, I don't run. You know that. I never have."

"Oh, believe me, I know," he snorted. "I can't count the number of times I've told you to stay behind when you didn't, but you just made my point for me. You're braver than any ten agents out there, but you don't need to do this to yourself. No one's going to hold it against you for taking more time to get back to full-time status. Yes, it's a challenge right now with you on light duty only, but we're managing. Please, don't make me worry about you any more than I already have been."

"I'm sorry if I've worried you, but I need to get back to full-time status where I can do more than just these little hands-off surveillance jobs. I have to. And you know very well that to get there, I have to re-qualify with Stanley. That's the next step and Dr. Kelford approved my training sessions with him as long as I don't overdo it."

"But don't you think three times in one week IS overdoing it?"

"Not if I want to get back to where I was. I HAVE to do this!"

"Why? Why is this so damned important to you that you'd take a chance of risking your health over it?"

Again, she averted her eyes from his and replied softly, "It just...is." Quickly shifting gears, she gave him a shove toward the door. "Listen, I appreciate your concern. It's really very sweet, but I should get Stanley out here so I can get back to work. I've got a lot of ground to cover if I want to get back in shape."

"But-" He attempted to argue, but was cut off by the door being closed in his face. "Amanda!"

He shook his head as he wondered just what was going on with her. It was clear that she was doing this for more than just maintaining her reputation, but whatever it was, it was also obvious she didn't want to talk about it. He didn't like having his wife keeping secrets from him. He made up his mind to get to the bottom of it once and for all.