Disclaimer - "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" are copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. This story is for entertainment only. I will not make any money off it but do hope that at least some people will enjoy it. The Characters are not mine, I only took them out to play with them for awhile so they could help me tell the story. All the credit goes to Bruce and Kate and their wonderful supporting staff for portraying these wonderful characters so well that so many of us still love them so much today. The additional characters and this story are mine.
Chapter 1 - I Want a Woman
"A bottle of Scotch, a whole Cheesecake, a woman! I want a Woman!" Those were the treats that he had told Amanda King he wanted when he was stuck in the hospital after she gave him a stupid candy bar. She had refused to get any of them for him at the time. Now he had less than 12 hours before he had to go back to that Hell hole and he sure was going to make the most of it. Amanda told him that she would be by to pick him up at 6am sharp the next morning. He wasted no time and made a trip over to the Steno Pool to see who might like to keep his company that night. As he entered, Marilyn looked up at him. Good ole Marilyn, he could always count on her. He smiled and said "Hi Marilyn. I just found out that I have to go back to do more tests in the hospital tomorrow. I was wondering if you would like to help me practice by playing Nurse and Patient with me tonight?"
Marilyn giggled as her blonde curls bounced against her shoulder. "I would love to Lee. Then later on, maybe you can be the doctor and I'll be the patient."
Lee Stetson smiled one of his most charming smiles and said "That sounds perfect. Can you come to my apartment at 7pm tonight? I'll chill a bottle of wine and we'll have some dessert together."
Marilyn giggled again and said "I'll be there."
Lee could always count on Marilyn. She was always good for a hot night of passion on a moment's notice. She had recently joined the Steno Pool and still lived with her parents so she was always looking for some fun.
Lee headed home. It had been a stressful week. An agent that he considered to be a friend had been put into a highly suggestive state by the evil Dr. Glaser and had set out to kill Billy Melrose. No one realized at the time that it was why he suddenly appeared in Lee's department. Lee had jumped into action when he saw that Walt had a gun and intended to use it but he had hurt his leg in the process and ended up in the hospital. He was lucky that there was only a minor tear in his lateral collateral ligament so he just had to ice his leg, stay off it and wear a leg brace. It could have been much worse and he would have needed surgery and had to be in the hospital even longer. He hated hospitals. They were such creepy, horrible places. He knew that the experience had put him in a bad mood but that Nurse Chapman aka Nurse Ratchet hadn't helped. Then just when he thought Billy was going to get him a buddy to help him, in walked Amanda King. The problem with Amanda was that she liked to do everything by the book. How could you get anywhere if you didn't break the rules now and then? After all, he had managed to avoid his mandatory yearly physical for 3 years and was aiming for another 3 years until this happened. The worse part is that he never actually had the physical while he was there; Dr. Glaser had instead used the time to brainwash him to finish the job of killing Billy. It almost worked too but Amanda figured it all out and stopped him from doing it. He didn't understand how this everyday housewife managed to get in the middle of these situations and then solve them. It didn't matter, at least Billy was safe. Now he had to go spend 3 more days in the hospital to do this stupid physical.
Lee arrived home and walked into the lobby of his apartment building. Floyd tipped his hat to him and said "Good afternoon Mr. Stetson. You are home early. I'll bet you have a hot date for tonight, don't you?"
Lee winked at Floyd and said "You know me too well my friend."
At Lee's retreating back, Floyd rolled his eyes and said under his breath "Yes, sadly I know your type too well Mr. Stetson."
Lee let himself into his apartment and grabbed a pad. He had to make a list of what needed to be done before Marilyn arrived.
1. Straighten the apartment
2. Pull the cheesecake out of the freezer
3. Chill a bottle of wine
4. Light candles in the bedroom
5. Turn down the bed covers
6. Take a shower
7. Dress in jeans and a t-shirt
He felt better knowing that he had a list to guide him. It was important to be organized. Wait; did he just say that to himself? He was a little worried about all this brainwashing they did on him. He didn't seem to have completely shaken it. Could he still be influenced to kill Billy? He was going to have to talk to the doctor tomorrow about that. At that moment, he noticed Lester the duck sitting on his desk. That stupid duck had almost caused him to kill one of his best friends. He really hated that stupid duck. He needed to get rid of it because like the hospital, it gave him the creeps. At this moment, he needed to get ready for Marilyn. Awww, Marilyn, she would make the whole world better.
SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK
Jennifer from the hospital had asked Amanda to come in to take the very pregnant Beth's place while she was on maternity leave and was happy that Amanda greed. Amanda hadn't expected any excitement. Her job was to give comfort, make people happy and help out the sick. There hadn't been any need for her at the agency lately so she had volunteered to work at the hospital for the past week. She had enjoyed playing checkers with the jolly Mr. Rogers who had broken his hip. She had felt great that she was able to get some smiles out of poor sick Lizzie who at only 8 years of age was facing a long journey of chemo treatments. She had also loved hearing the stories of the past that 80 year old Gwen had shared with her especially the one where she once had to pop out of cake during a Bachelor Party. Amanda loved helping people so this volunteer position was one of her favorites. She was surprised when she had arrived the other morning and almost ran right into Billy Melrose. He was definitely surprised to see her and asked her what she was doing there.
"Hi Sir, Mr. Melrose. I volunteer here at the hospital as a Bedside Bluebelle and help cheer up the patients."
Billy suddenly got a huge smile on his face. "Mrs. King, you are exactly what I'm looking for. Is it possible for me to enlist your help with just one patient or do you have to cater to the whole floor?"
"Sir, if you need me for one patient and he really needs me to stay with him, I can arrange that."
"Very good Amanda! I need you to help me keep him calm and stop him from driving the nurses crazy. Since he has been here, he has complained that his tv doesn't work, that he doesn't like the food, he doesn't like his nurse and the worse part is that I can't keep him off his leg which is what I'm mostly worried about. He is a very grumpy patient and likely will take all your patience. Are you up for the challenge Amanda?"
"Yes Sir. I would be happy to help out. Is this an agent or a friend?"
"Both. Thank you Amanda, please give me 10 minutes and then come wait by that room over there."
Suddenly there was some loud arguing from that room.
"Sir? Is that Lee's voice? Oh no, Lee got hurt? Is he okay?"
"Yes, Amanda it is Lee and he is okay or he will be if he lets his leg heal. He hates hospitals though so he is making this much more difficult than he needs to and now he is being forced to stay because he hasn't done his annual physical for a long time and he has to do it while he is here. Can I count on you to help me calm him down and keep him out of trouble?"
"I'll do my best Sir."
"I know you will Amanda. Thank you." Billy smiled and walked toward the room where Lee was still yelling at his nurse.
Amanda had done her best. She had tried to keep him out of trouble, had tried to entertain him and take care of his basic needs and she had tried to cheer him up. She had never encountered him this grumpy before but then suddenly he began acting strange. He started making lists, being organized, and being worried about her hem being uneven. This was not the Lee she knew. Something wasn't right and she was worried. When Lee talked about his dreams and how he had a sinking feeling with hot steam, it just popped out that it was sexual. He had been in the hospital for a few days and she knew how much he liked dating those "girls" of his. He wasn't used to going so long in between women but when he demanded one, she was totally shocked. She had no intentions on helping Lee with his sex life. It was bad enough when she saw that silly duck that she thought the Steno Pool had sent to him. It had made sense since so many of those girls were probably young enough to still play with stuffed animals. She was a little surprised when she saw the same duck in Dr. Glaser's lab and then found out that it had been used to control Lee's mind. She went cold when she realized that they had programmed him to kill Mr. Melrose. She had to stop Lee before he did it. She knew that if Lee did kill Billy, he would never forgive himself. She had never stolen a vehicle before but the ambulance was the only way to get away from Dr. Glaser so she had jumped in with the duck and headed to the hospital. There was something wrong with the steering though as the wheel bounced her all over the place and it took all she had to keep the vehicle on the road as she twisted the steering wheel back and forth. She hoped they would have the thing repaired before using it in the future. She had busted in to where Billy was giving his talk and ran up to Lee. He already had his gun out and it was aimed right at Billy. One look at his face and she could tell that whatever they had done, it was working well because he was totally focused on his task of killing Billy. She pleaded with him to stop but when she looked at him, all she saw was a blank look. She had to make the stupid duck talk. In hurrying to stop Lee, she broke the string in the duck and she knew the end was near so she started pounding the duck on the table in frustration begging for it to talk. It finally did. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do to get Lee to focus on her and not kill Billy so she simply repeated what the duck had said "Success Comes One Step at a Time". She repeated it with a little more confidence a second time when she realized that he was looking at her and stopped looking at Billy. She pleaded with him not to kill Billy and he lowered the gun and she could see that he had come back to her. He seemed totally out of it but at the same time, he looked relieved and smiled at her as a silent thank you. She smiled back and then realized that everyone was staring at them. She didn't want them all to know what had just happened and she remembered good ole Gwen's story about jumping out of the cake so she decided it would be the perfect way to lighten the mood in the room by saying she was an hour early for jumping out of the cake.
She was worried about Lee. He had seemed okay later when he told her that the lab had been dismantled but she had previously seen the records they had kept on him and she knew that they had programmed him to be violent. What if that programming kicked back in at any time and he thought he was still supposed to kill Billy. She was going to have to talk to someone and make sure that Lee was okay.
In the meantime, she had stopped by the Dry Cleaners and asked them to press her uniform which she would stop for early the next morning before picking up Lee for his physical. She then headed home.
Her family still blamed her for Dr. Bain's broken toes because of not being home when Dean came to surprise her. She was hoping that if she came home early and made a special dinner, that maybe they would begin to forgive her. The house was quiet when she got there since the boys hadn't come home from school yet and Dotty was out shopping so Amanda started making a homemade pizza. It wasn't often that she made it from scratch and she thought it might help make amends. She had just finished preparing it for the oven when the family arrived home. They were shocked to see her home so early and the boys ran up and gave her hugs. Always to the point, Dotty said "Why aren't you still at the hospital? One day they have you working all hours and the next you are home in the middle of the day? Now Amanda darling, I don't want to beat a dead horse but I think they are using you."
"It's okay Mother, my patient was released for a day. He is going back in tomorrow for more tests though so I have to leave early and I might be late tomorrow night but at least I got to come home early tonight to be with my family."
"Does Dean know you are here? You know Amanda; he barely gets to see you these days. I'm sure he is wondering if you are seeing another man since you are never around anymore."
"M-o-t-h-E-R! I'm not seeing anyone else. I just have been really busy trying to cheer this patient up and keep him from doing more damage to his leg."
"I see, well I hope he appreciates all you are doing for him."
"I'm sure he does Mother. Okay, boys, the pizza is going into the oven now so why don't you go get washed up and come down and tell me all about your day?"
The rest of the evening was uneventful. Amanda enjoyed being with her boys and watching them do their homework. She was so proud of both of them. After she tucked them into bed, she called Dean so he could talk about his day to her and then she told her Mother that she was tired and was going to turn in since she had to be out of the house by 5am. Dotty just shook her head as Amanda went upstairs and then went back to reading her copy of this month's Cosmopolitan.
TBC
