Work Text:
"Have you seen Mrs. King?" Billy asked Duffy as he passed him the hallway.
"Break room," Duffy gestured behind him. "She finished up with her statement about ten minutes ago."
"Scarecrow with her?"
Duffy shook his head. "Nope – once he finished with his statement, he went down to watch them interrogate that scumbag Sinclair."
"They didn't let Lee in the room with him, I trust?"
"Oh no," Duffy replied with a rueful laugh. "Francine has him locked up on the other side of the two-way mirror, but I'm surprised the glass hasn't melted the way Scarecrow's steaming." He paused and shook his head. "Amanda was sure amazing though, wasn't she? Kept so calm and collected even when she found out what that dirtbag was up to."
Billy nodded his smile widening. "She certainly was."
"Scarecrow sure lucked out recruiting her as a partner," Duffy went on.
Billy's smile dimmed slightly. "He certainly did. Smartest move he ever made," he agreed somberly.
He carried on down the hall to the break room, where Amanda was standing watching the coffee machine drip the last few drops onto the pot. Lost in thought, she didn't notice him arrive, until he coughed quietly to get her attention.
"Oh hello, Sir," she said turning and smiling at him. "Would you like a cup? Freshly brewed!"
"That would be lovely, Amanda. Two cream-"
"And three sugar," she finished for him. "Yes, I know." She shrugged when he raised his eyebrows. "I just noticed how you make it. Not the most useful thing to notice, I guess, but sometimes remembering the little things comes in handy, even for a spy. Not that I'm a spy," she added quickly. "I just meant-"
"I know what you meant, Amanda," he smiled genially. "And you're right. You never know what's going to be important to observe."
He waited for her to finish fixing the two coffees, and then gestured for her to sit down, settling in opposite her. "Funnily enough, that's just what I wanted to talk to you about." He sat back, hands folded across his chest. "First off I wanted to tell you that we did get the microdot back in time and those agents are all safe, thanks to you."
"Oh that's wonderful Sir! But it's not thanks to me!" she exclaimed. "If I hadn't lost it in the first place… I should never have put the sock in my purse. I should have done exactly what you told me to do, but that man in the laundromat was so scared and-"
She stopped as Billy held up a hand.
"No, Amanda, that was excellent thinking on your part. If he was being followed and they saw him talk to you, they certainly would have assumed any messages were in that laundry. You did exactly the right thing to put it somewhere you thought was safer."
"But it wasn't safer," she answered wretchedly. "And it almost cost those men their lives."
"But it didn't," he said gently. "You couldn't possibly have known – none of us could have known - that there were other people involved. But in the end today, you kept a cool head, you thought ahead for an escape route to lead Lee out of that boat hold and you helped recover the microdot in time by noticing that Sinclair still had your purse. Not many people could have stayed calm in that situation, not once they realized they were the real target. You did excellent work, Amanda"
Amanda nodded shyly. "Thank you, Sir. I'm glad I could help."
"You helped a great deal. You always do," he answered. He leaned forward and crossed his arms on the table. "Which is why I wanted to talk to you about that resignation letter you gave me."
"Oh that," said Amanda. "Well, Sir, the thing is…"
"I'd really like you to reconsider, Amanda," Billy continued, speaking over her. "I think you have a good future here. And if necessary," he went on when it looked like she was going to interrupt, "I can partner you with someone other than Scarecrow. I know you two haven't been seeing eye to eye lately and I probably shouldn't have asked him to talk to you about it instead of talking to you myself. So, would you give it some second thought– please?"
"Well to be honest, Sir," Amanda replied, starting to smile. "I already have – and I decided to stay."
"Well, thank goodness for that," Billy blew out a breath of relief. "You had me worried." He leaned back again, his expression still serious. "But what made you write it in the first place? Is there anything I can do to help make things easier for you?"
"Well, it was rash of me to write it, Sir. Lee and I had just had an argument over me losing the microdot and he said I shouldn't be here and with the way everything had gone that day, I thought he was probably right."
"But he wasn't right!" Billy argued.
"Well, at that moment, I thought he was. I mean, I'd lost the microdot and it was going to get people killed because I'd tried to do something other than what I'd been told to, and he was frustrated and I was frustrated and well, it just seemed like it was the right thing to do."
"What changed your mind?" he asked.
"Lee did," she said simply.
"Lee did?" he repeated in an amazed tone. "I mean, I know I asked him to talk to you, but honestly the most I hoped for was that he'd apologize for whatever he'd done, not that he'd persuade you to change your mind."
Amanda laughed. "Well, he didn't exactly persuade me."
Billy looked confused. "So what did he do?"
Amanda took a sip of her coffee while she formulated her answer. "Well, you know better than anyone what Lee's like. Right from the start, he's had a million reasons why I shouldn't be here and he's let me know every single one of them. He gets mad at me about not staying in the car, or acting without thinking or rushing into things. He's always telling me I'm too naïve for this line of work and that I trust the wrong people. Or that I have the boys and I shouldn't be putting myself in danger all the time – not that I try to be in anything dangerous, you know, that just seems to happen."
Billy grinned. "It certainly does seem to happen to you a lot."
"And he did sort of apologize once it was obvious that it wasn't the bad guys who had the microdot. Well, not your bad guys, I mean," she amended. "Turns out I had my own bad guys." Her expression turned a little bleak.
Billy reached out rest his hand on hers. "But you stopped them too. You not only saved our agents, you saved your friend and all the other women they would have targeted. You should be proud of yourself."
Amanda nodded shakily. "Thank you, Sir."
Billy paused to study her to make sure she was fine to continue. "But everything you've said so far sounds like reasons Lee gave for why you shouldn't stay at the Agency."
"That's true, but Lee doesn't get to tell me what to do with my life, even if he has strong opinions on it" she answered. She smiled as Billy rolled his eyes in agreement. "Because you know what? I am proud of the things I've done for the Agency and I think I do help him and I think sometimes he needs someone who sees differently than he does even when he's too grumpy to always admit it."
"And that's what changed your mind?"
"Oh no, not completely. I mean, I had already decided that I was going to tell you all that and discuss it with you properly and I told Lee that too. And I told him that it was unfair of him to be mad about me losing the microdot when it really hadn't been my fault." She paused. "I mean, it was because they were trying to get me, but it wasn't because they weren't the bad guys you expected, but…"
"I know what you mean, Amanda," Billy interrupted her gently. "That's the way our business goes sometimes – always the unexpected."
"Yes Sir," she agreed. "That's what I told Lee too."
Billy's eyebrows went up but he didn't say anything, waiting for her to go on.
"You see, like I said, he's always had a million reason why I shouldn't stay, but then he came up with just one for why I should."
"Just one?"
"Just one," she confirmed. "He said I should stay."
"That was all it took?" asked Billy.
There was a slight beat before she answered. "That was all it took," she said, although there was a faint smile on her face that made Billy wonder what she was leaving out. "We agreed that we had both overreacted and he said he thought I should stay."
Billy studied her for a moment, waiting to see if silence would bring out any more details, but when she sipped her coffee and stayed quiet, he nodded to himself and stood up. "Well, I'm very glad to hear that, Amanda. Like I said, I've always thought you had a future here."
"Thank you, Sir. That means a lot to me," she replied with a shy dip of her head.
Billy walked back out of the break room, waiting until he was out of earshot to break into a broad smile and let out a guffaw of laughter. "Well done Scarecrow," he muttered to himself. "You might just live down that codename yet!"