Setting: Filler for "The Pharaoh's Engineers" S3 E15

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Enterprises own these wonderful characters. All I get from writing about them is the chance to visit with Lee and Amanda from time to time. The story is my own.

Dance Lessons at the Polish Embassy – by AlaskanFan

Lee urged her to move away from his desk chair so that he could get to work. "I have to clear my calendar and get out in the field." Amanda took the organizer from his hands and turned to the correct day.

"Today you have Polish Embassy – 10:00."

"That's a dance lesson. I can skip that."

"Okay, skip." She made a note on the page and continued reading. "You have lunch with Kelso at noon."

"Forget that. He won't show."

"I'll call anyway, just to be polite."

"He won't show, Amanda. He was deported last week."

She crossed off the entry and read the next one. "Birchwood at 1:00."

"Oh, yeah. No, I've gotta go there. I missed last week."

The hours sped by as Lee made contact with his family and squeezed in a short visit to the retirees at Birchwood. Throughout the day, the idea of Lee taking dance lessons at the Polish Embassy kept crossing her mind. They were heading back towards the Agency when she finally found the opportunity to ask about it.

"Dance lessons, Lee? At the Polish Embassy?"

Lee glanced at her briefly in surprise. His thoughts had been on the explosives and the scrap of blueprint they had been investigating. It took him a moment to mentally shift gears in response to her question and then another moment to remember why she hadn't heard about this particular thorn in his side.

"Oh, right. That came up in the staff meeting on Wednesday when you and your mom had your eye appointments."

"Is it related to a new case? Are you being sent to Poland?" Amanda had considered several theories about these dance lessons in the course of the day, and discarded most of her ideas.

"No, it's not a case. It's a diplomatic waste of time designed to annoy people who work for a living. Every now and then someone thinks it would lead to world harmony and international understanding to force intelligence professionals to "play nicely" for an afternoon of culture. All the intelligence agencies and embassies are supposed to send someone." He snorted in disgust.

"And Mr. Melrose picked you?"

"No, he tricked me into volunteering. You'll remember I was assisting Dr. Pain with a training class just after lunch Wednesday. We were teaching new recruits how to flip an attacker and my shoulder got quite a workout. During the meeting, my shoulder was getting stiff so I was flexing and stretching to get some relief. Billy could tell I wasn't paying attention, and just as I rotated my shoulder back and my hand rose in the air, he asked for a volunteer to represent the Agency at this ridiculous Day of Culture and Peace at the Polish Embassy. He thanked me for volunteering and nearly ran out of the meeting while the other agents laughed. It took twenty minutes to find out what I'd accidentally volunteered to do. The assignment included two dance lessons plus the whole day next Friday for the actual event."

Amanda laughed at his chagrin. "You were supposed to go to that lesson today. What will Mr. Melrose say when he finds out you missed the first lesson?"

"Oh, that. It shouldn't be a problem, because Fred Fielder attended instead."

"Fred Fielder volunteered to go in your place?" Amanda's lovely eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Not exactly volunteered – he lost a bet," Lee explained smugly. "My primary reason for going to the poker game this weekend was to sucker him into taking this assignment off my hands. He's a lousy poker player."

Amanda chuckled, "Poor Fred."

"Oh, I don't pity Fred. I pity his partner. Not only is he a lousy poker player, he's a lousy dancer, too. He can't dance in English; I doubt he'll do any better in Polish."