Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, just brought them out for this story. I wish I did. I believe that honor goes to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Industries but I could be wrong about that.
Time frame: Late Season three or early season four...unless you think it should go somewhere else. Thanks to the awesome person who beta'd this for me (you know who you are); any other errors are solely mine. All comments, even bad ones, are welcomed as long as they aren't nasty. Here it is. Hope you enjoy!
The day from HELL
'I give up! I give up!' Amanda King thought as yet another cake that she had been attempting to make for the PTA fell flat. She hadn't had a day like this in...well she couldn't think of another day she'd had like this for quite awhile.
Ever have one of those days where you wish you had never gotten out of bed? Amanda found herself wishing that in spades. She wished the world would just go away and leave her alone for a while.
The day had started out bad and gotten steadily worse. The car needed to go to the shop, again. She'd had to take a taxi home. The taxi driver had taken more twists and turns than necessary on the way back, causing a chunk of Amanda's hard earned money to go up in smoke. The plumber who was due that morning, to fix the pipes on the kitchen sink, never showed up. After three phone calls, they lackadaisically responded that they'd send someone right out. Four hours later he showed up, looking no older than her sons, and promised to get right to work.
Amanda had been working on the first cake for the PTA when he arrived. She decided to keep right on going with her project while he worked. Bad decision. Almost as soon as the boy set foot in her kitchen things went from bad to worse. He bumped into her AND the cake she was preparing, causing the sweet, yellow mixture to cover her from her chestnut curls to her tennis shoes.
"I'm so sorry, ma'am," the boy had responded, attempting to help her clean up, but making the mess so much worse.
"Please," Amanda said, trying not to get mad at the boy. "Just work on the plumbing. I'll clean up."
The boy set his equipment noisily on the floor and settled in under the sink. Amanda cleaned up the mess and headed up stairs to attempt to make herself look better. She came back downstairs and tried to start her cake project again. This time the cake actually made it into the oven. The boy, who had been clanging and banging around under her sink, finally crawled out and threw some tools into his box, banging the lid loudly. Amanda jumped and checked the oven. Sure enough, the cake was flatter than a pancake. Amanda sighed loudly.
Finally the boy was done and she'd thankfully sent him on his way. She knew she should have checked the work before she let him leave, for as soon as she tried to turn on the sink, she was doused in water. She had promised her mother and the boys that after her last attempt at fixing the sink, she'd leave it to the professionals. Looked like she was going to have to break that promise.
She turned back to the cake and realized that because it had been messed up yet again, that she was going to have to run to the store to get some ingredients. Amanda decided that the little store a few blocks away would be ok and she could walk to it. That went well enough until she got closer to her house. The Ferguson's dog trotted up the sidewalk running back and forth in front of her.
"Go home, boy. Shoo!" She tried to sound commanding but the dog just wouldn't listen. Amanda set down the bag she was carrying and tried to reason with the animal. The dog looked at her and raised his leg.
"No don't!" she commanded trying to get away before he did his job. She managed to get around him but not before the bottom of her pant legs were completely wet. 'Geez, what else is going to go wrong today?' she thought.
The only good thing about today was that the boys were spending the night at a friend's house and her mother was away with a lady friend doing something. She had told Amanda what it was, but for the life of her she couldn't remember at the moment.
She wished Lee were there. He always made her feel better. Lee was out of the country on a top secret assignment, and even though Amanda had used all her usual charms to find out where he was, nobody would budge. Amanda hadn't heard from him in weeks and had no idea when he would be back. Her head was pounding and she went in search of some aspirin to alleviate the pain. Finding some, she went to the kitchen to call the plumbers again. She explained the situation and they gave her excuse after excuse before yelling at her that she should have checked before their worker left and they'd send someone out when they could.
Amanda felt like crying. She wasn't one to cry easily but she felt very close to it today. She grabbed a rug and decided to head out to the yard to hang it over the line and beat out her frustrations. She had just gotten the rug on the line when she thought she heard something. It was very quiet and she wasn't sure she'd really heard it so she started to beat the rug.
"OOOOWWW," came the voice again, only louder this time. Amanda peeked around the rug to see Lee standing there looking confused at having been pummeled. Amanda stool looking at him in shock. He wasn't really there was he?
"Oh Lee!" she exclaimed, "I'm so sorry!"
"You look like you've had a bad day," he said, smiling at her.
"Bad doesn't even begin to describe it," she said. His hazel eyes were conveying the love he felt for her as he moved closer and pulled her into a warm, comforting hug.
"Wanna tell me about it?" he asked.
Suddenly, in Lee's arms, the day wasn't so bad after all.
