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 a while 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.

A/N #1 – For those who are familiar with my In Between Series, you know that I accomplish two things with them. First, I try to fill in all the holes that were missing from the aired version. Then Amanda and Lee help me tell what happened in between the aired episodes. Since I meld them into the series like they really were aired (because we know that Amanda and Lee are real so the stories really do exist), I will be using references from them in future stories. I think that it might be difficult for you to understand some of the characters if you are not reading my past stories as I am going to begin using some of the past into my current stories. Since I don't want to bore my readers who do read my stories, I will not be explaining that history so hopefully you will read my past stories so you understand. Thanks again for all your support.

Chapter 1 - Mt. Rushmore

Lee let himself out of Amanda's back yard and headed for his car. As he drove away from her block, he could hear the car do a weird loud grinding noise.

"Oh come on!" Lee exclaimed as he slammed the steering wheel. "You know car, it is good that I love you because you seem to always be needy with having things go wrong. I guess I should be thankful that you made it to NH and back though. Okay, fine, I guess Leatherneck will have to take a look at you and see what your problem is now."

Lee drove to the agency and stopped at the underground garage where Leatherneck could be found at certain times during the day. Luckily he was there and Lee parked the Porsche and walked over to where he was sitting at a desk in the corner while listening to music from a walkman.

Leatherneck was really enjoying the song and didn't notice Lee until it was over. He suddenly looked up and saw Lee was standing in front of him.

"Lee! I heard you made it back and that you saved the lovely Mrs. King from freezing to death. So what brings you down here?" As Leatherneck looked at Lee's face; it became clear why he was there again. "Is that car acting up on you again Lee?"

Lee immediately became defensive and said "Well it did just drive all the way to NH and back. That's a lot on a classic car like the Porsche."

Leatherneck began laughing and said "Okay okay, we'll use that excuse. I'll take a look at it and see if I can figure out what is wrong. I don't have a car for you right now though. If I can't fix yours today, I'm sure I can round you up something for tomorrow. Can you get by today without a car?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Fine, fine Leatherneck, just see what you can do about fixing the car. And be gentle with her okay?"

"So you don't want me to spank her for leaving you without wheels again?" Leatherneck asked as he began laughing again. Lee shook his head as he walked away and headed for the Georgetown entrance to the agency.

He let himself into the front door and then said out loud "Hi Mrs. Marsten. I'm back. I hope you didn't miss me too much." As he got into the elevator, Mrs. Marsten's voice was heard from the speaker in the elevator "It is nice to have you back Mr. Stetson. I heard you saved Mrs. King. Good job. I guess that means she will be showing up back at work soon?"

"Oh yeah, she should be here tomorrow. Everything will be able to turn to normal now.

"That is great news. Well enjoy the rest of your day." Mrs. Marsten said as she shut down the conversation. Lee nodded and pushed the button to go down to the bullpen.

As he left the elevator, Francine came flying out of nowhere and gave him a huge hug and then immediately let go and looked around to see if anyone had seen her do it.

"Francine, I'm fine. It was Amanda who almost died."

"I know, I know but I was still worried about you too. Lee, we have more trouble though. Follow me to Billy's office so we can tell you what has been happening since you have been gone."

"OH, more trouble? This agency sure seems to have its hands full of trouble lately."

"It's not just this agency this time Lee." Francine said as they approached Billy's office. She knocked on the door and Billy yelled "Come in" but then got up to meet them when he saw who it was.

"So nice to have you back Lee. I trust Mrs. King is okay?"

"Yes and eager to return to work. I think she will probably come in for a few hours to do some typing tomorrow."

"That's fine. Lee we have had some trouble while you were gone. I didn't want to burden you with it but now that you are back, you need to know."

"Know what Billy?"

"Well while you have been gone, there have been a steady stream of agents being killed. They are from all over the world, not just our agents. So far at least 20 have been identified to being linked to whoever this serial killer is."

"How do they know the same person is killing them?"

"Well the victim always gets a note first. It's usually a simple warning that doesn't say they will be killed but instead that they are being watched. Then usually within hours the agent is found with knife wounds dead somewhere."

Francine continued "We have been trying to figure out who would be doing this but since none of the agents seem to have any connection to each other, we can't determine why it is being done. We have run numerous scenarios through Crypto but so far we haven't come up with any leads. Until recently, none of the agents were letting their superiors know about receiving the warning notes. Most of the time we don't know there is a problem until it is nearly too late and we have been unsuccessful with getting protection for them before the murderer strikes."

"So no connections on age, nationality, knew each other somehow prior to becoming an operative? Nothing?" Lee asked

"Not at the moment. We are still working on what connections they all might have. Right now, it is still a huge mystery. They are all agents. That seems to be the only real connection." Francine answered.

"So Lee, now that you are back; please be careful and report anything suspicious right away. Do you understand?"

"Of course Billy. I'll start looking into the murders tomorrow to see if I can see anything that others have missed."

"That sounds like a great idea." Billy responded. "Now get out of here. I'll see you tomorrow."

Lee smiled at Billy's pretend gruffness and headed to the elevator. He needed to go grab a bite to eat before Amanda showed up. He walked down to the corner cafe and ordered a burger. He sighed when he saw that Shari was working. Maybe he should stop dating for awhile. It seemed like all his dates lately had been messes. Shari was one of those. She had seemed normal at first and they had had fun at the night clubs on 2 different dates. On the third date, she insisted on going back to his place. When they arrived, she pulled a suitcase out of her car and began to follow him.

Seeing a suitcase made Lee nervous because it gave the impression that she intended to move in. "What's with the suitcase?" he asked as he brought her through the lobby.

"Oh nothing, it is just full of my toys."

"Toys? What kind of toys?"

"Oh nothing special, just some belts, whips, handcuffs and blindfolds."

Lee had made a 360 degree turn while grabbing Shari by the shoulder and guiding her back outside.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" She demanded. "Lee, take your hands off me please."

"You know, I changed my mind. I'm weird like that; I change my mind at times. I'm sorry I wasted your time Shari. This is really not my life style."

"Don't tell me that you are a normal guy Lee?"

"No, not normal but more normal than that I'm afraid. Goodbye Shari."

He hadn't seen her since and had forgotten that she still worked at the cafe. While he was eating his burger, she came up to him and ran her fingers down his face. "Are you still playing a normal guy Lee?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"That's too bad. You and I could have had a lot of fun together. Well if you ever get bored with that life; come look me up" She ran her fingers down his shirt and started to go lower but Lee pulled her hand away and said "I'll be sure to do that Shari."

Lee finished his burger and then threw down some money for the bill and headed out. He walked back to the agency just as Amanda was pulling in so he hopped into her car and directed her where to park. They were lucky that there was a parking spot right in the back of Monk's. Lee guided Amanda into the place and helped her sit down at a table near the back. A barmaid came over and said "What are you drinking tonight Lee? The usual?"

"Yeah and Amanda what do you want?"

"I think I'll have a Mai Tai" she answered "Something a little more like what a spy would drink."

Lee chuckled at her comment.

The barmaid smiled and then headed off to get their drinks. She returned a few minutes later with them. Lee downed his in one gulp so Amanda took a big swig of hers too. It was too strong for her though and she began taking smaller sips.

Lee said "So now you've seen where we spend our spare time. Are you disappointed? Out of all the things you could have asked for, this was what you asked to see."

"I wish you wouldn't treat me like a tourist visiting Mt. Rushmore" Amanda responded. "I just wanted to see where you spent your Spare time when you aren't working, that's all. It isn't always easy to get you to share these types of things with me."

Lee looked pained as she responded. Okay, okay, maybe he didn't include her all the time but it wasn't like she was an agent either. He had to have a few secrets from her. Since they were there though, Lee continued to explain how the place served as a neutral grounds location where anyone who made a buck off the international power game was welcomed. At that moment a woman and man walked in and Amanda asked who they were. Lee explained that they were reporters and that sometimes agents used them to leak things to other governments. Marcia headed right for Lee and was happy to be the one who got to tell Lee about Jean Claude being murdered. She always liked to get under his skin.

After talking for a few minutes about past murders, Lee decided that Amanda had heard enough and said they had to go. He then made up an excuse that she needed to catch a plane. As he walked her back out to her car, he apologized for making them leave suddenly. He really hated reporters because they were always trying to stir things up. As he was talking, Amanda realized that she hadn't seen the Porsche.

"Lee? Where is your car?"

"Well you know after such a long trip, I thought it best if it went in for a tune-up."

"So you don't have any way home?"

"I'll take a cab."

"I can drop you off. It isn't a problem."

"Amanda, I'll take a cab. Anyway, here we are." Lee said as they reached Amanda's car. "Drive safely" he said as he began to open her driver's door.

As they were arguing about Amanda giving him a lift home, a man who appeared to be blind walked over with a pencil cup that held a note for Lee. Lee's expression didn't change much as he read it but Amanda had a feeling it wasn't good so she made him give it to her. She knew right away that this must be one of the warning notes that were being given to agents before they were killed. She insisted that Lee let her drive him home and he reluctantly agreed and even offered to drive.

He pulled up in front of his apartment building and Amanda watched him go inside. Once she saw the light go on in his apartment, she slid into the driver's seat and headed for Maplewood Drive. She knew Lee could take care of himself but it did worry her that he had received a note like the others. When she arrived home, she found that her family had already gone to bed so she made sure the kitchen was clean and then headed upstairs. She checked on the boys and found them both sound asleep. She went to her room, stripped down and took a shower. She came out in just her robe and sat down on her bed. This spy business was sure stressful. She didn't know if she could ever act unconcerned like all of the others did. This killer made it so that no agent was safe but they all seemed to act like it was no big deal. She could only hope they all kept each other safe and that of course meant mostly Lee.

TBC