Amanda was looking outside the passenger side window as the scenery went by. There was an uncomfortable silence in the car. Lee was upset and she knew it.

"You know Amanda when I tell you to stay in the car, I mean it." Lee said angrily.

"I can take care of myself Lee. There is no need to worry about me." She responded

He glanced at her. "I can't help worrying. Anything... anything could happen."

"You know I don't like it when you tell me what to do or when you cut me out of a case. We are partners," she said aggravated.

"We are partners, but I'm the partner with more experience so you should do what I say." His voice became louder.

Amanda shuttered in the seat next to her, for the first time, she was afraid of him. She had never seen Lee like this before, well she had, but not directed at herself.

*************

Most of the next few days went exactly as above, Lee getting upset, and taking it out on Amanda. She was at the end of her rope, something had to change otherwise she was going to be forced to make some rash decisions, she wasn’t sure she wanted to make.

**************

Amanda opened the door, wiping her hand on a dishtowel. She had gotten home earlier that afternoon and changed into more comfortable jeans and a shirt. Over the last few days, Lee had been ignoring her, and pushing her away. She knew something was going on, but he wouldn't talk to her, and he was doing what he could to stay away from her. Since there was nothing needing her attention at the Agency, she left for the afternoon, came home and reveled in the quite. No one was home; her mother took the boys up to a camp about two hours west. She was alone.

With a sigh she made a cup of tea and looked out the window, silently wishing that Lee would show up and quietly knock on the window. But she knew it wouldn’t happen.

Why did things like this always happen to her? Amanda sat at the edge of the sofa and curled up. She had survived being a single mother, a divorce; she was an agent, dealing with hardened criminals on a regular basis, and Amanda King could get over Lee.

Suddenly she had an idea. She got up and headed to her bedroom to pack.

Lee walked into Billy's office without knocking. He was upset; he needed Amanda for something and couldn’t find her. Lee was upset at himself, with his relationship with Amanda…with the way everything in his life was going. He wanted his relationship to move forward with Amanda, he needed it to; then at the same time, he was afraid that changing their relationship, making her more than just a partner and a good friend, even though Lee's closeness with his partner wasn't what got him killed.

"Where is she?" he demanded.

"Where is who?" Billy replied still looking over paperwork at his desk. As he looked up, he noticed how terrible Lee looked, "You look awful, Scarecrow. What is going on?"

"Amanda," Lee let his voice rise a bit with his answer.

Billy stood up and looked at him, "She took a few days off."

"But she can't, I... She need her here to finish this paperwork." He finished lamely.

"Well, off the record, with the way things have been between you two lately I am surprised she didn’t ask for a transfer. You can finish the paperwork, then take a few days off yourself. That's an order."

"But, Billy." He started to protest.

"Look, Lee," Billy began in a softer tone, he reached up and shut the door, "I saw the way you were avoiding Amanda. It’s not like you."

"No, Scarecrow," Billy said, sitting back down at his desk. "No arguments. I know what date is coming up, and I can understand. Take a few days, do what you have to do, but get yourself together. When you are like this, I worry about you. Especially when you won't even let Amanda help." He smiled at his best agent. "Now get whatever paperwork you have left to do done, and get yourself on leave so you’re back to one hundred percent."

Lee returned to his office. As he unlocked the door he half expected to see Amanda sitting at her desk working. He expected to hear her greeting, but all he was greeted with was silence.

Suddenly everything that happened over the last week came hurling back at him at full force, and he rested his head in his hands, wishing for this nightmare to be over once and for all.

It had started out when he lost his partner, his one true friend, and his whole world came down around him, and so he immersed himself into his work. Nothing mattered anymore, he relied on, and lived for, his work. Then he met Amanda King, and everything changed.

Lee looked at the date book on his desk, July 17th. The day was quickly coming, what did he have to show for it? It was as if he were back at square one.

He slowly opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out a photo. Lee looked at it for a long while, and then found his gaze sliding over to the empty seat across from his.

Suddenly he knew what he had to do. Lee went off in search of Billy once more.

Lee knocked on Billy’s door.

"Come in," Billy responded, stopping his conservation with Francine.

"Billy, I need your help with something..." He stopped short when he noticed Francine was looking at him.

"Francine," Lee nodded to her.

"What did you need, Stetson? Are your reports finished?" Billy asked him.

"I ah... I need to find Amanda, Billy."

"I'll leave you two alone then," Francine said, making her exit.

"Lee, I have no idea where she went. Amanda came in and asked for a few days off. She said she was going away for the weekend."

"Are you sure she didn’t mention anything? Anything at all?"

“Lee, if she’d said anything, I would of told you. I don’t know anything more than she was going away for the weekend.”

"Thanks, Billy," Lee sighed and walked back out of the office. He was a trained Agent, why couldn’t he find his own partner? Suddenly he walked back in and shut the door again. "I just can't stand still, Billy. I can't stand by and watch the best thing in my life disappear." He finished sinking down into Billy’s office sofa.

"We will find her, Lee," he said, trying to reassure Lee. But knowing all to well that it wouldn’t help.

"Yeah," was all he said as he walked to the door, "Thanks, Billy."

'Maybe it’s because you treated her like dirt for the last.. what.. five days, why would she want you to find her?' His conscience told him.

Once Lee made it back to their office, he sat down and he looked over to where his partner usually sat. He let out a sigh and really began to think. Images past through his mind of Amanda sitting at her desk arguing a point with him over a case, or when he had caught her watching him from her desk. ‘There has to be a way to find her.’ He thought to himself; 'Why did I have to be so isolated during the past five days?' he let out a audible sigh and dropped his head into his hands.