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 use the time to fill in holes in the episode before and then tell a story that can fit in between the aired stories of the show. Since I have made them meld into the series like they really existed, I will be using references from them in future stories. I don't think you need to read each of the stories in order to understand the story being told but hopefully you will read all of them anyway. Thanks again for all your support.
Chapter 1- Friday Night
Amanda was so glad to finally be rid of her cast. She had not had an easy time of it while she helped Lee out during the Chess Tournament so as soon as that case was over, she called her Doctor's office and got an appointment for the following day. It wasn't often they could fit a patient in on a Friday but Amanda had gotten lucky since they had just had a cancellation. Her Doctor gave her a brace to wear at night and anytime during the day when she would be doing a lot of walking or put a lot of stress on her leg but otherwise, he said it was healing nicely.
Amanda went home and picked up the boys for their baseball game. They were playing the Gators and she knew the boys were already worried about this game. They had been on a bit of a losing streak lately but this team was considered to be the worse team of the league so if they lost this afternoon, the boys would be really upset. It didn't help that Sara Trist had predicted their loss. Apparently Sara had all the power to see who won and lost games and the boys held her in high regard. Amanda knew that this was all in their heads and she had spent the last couple of days trying to encourage her sons to believe in themselves and to just do their best and that it would all work out the way it was meant to. The boys just sighed and said "We are going to lose."
Amanda knew as soon as she arrived at the field that all the boys were convinced they were going to lose so their morale was at an all-time low. No matter what she did, she couldn't get them to believe in themselves and in the end, they struggled the whole game with not even 1 run. The Gators blew by them in a 21 - 0 final score. All the Gators hugged each other at the end of the game. They had needed a victory to bring up their morale and to help them give their two female teammates a chance. The boys hadn't wanted girls on their team but when there was a shortfall of players, they had had no choice and let 2 girls join. They ended up being really good players and now having won this game, the guys realized that they had played a valuable role in their win. There would be a lot of celebrating in the days to come for the Gators and their coach hoped this win would make them realize that they could achieve great things if they tried, even with females helping.
The Bombers on the other hand felt like they had been bombed. Sara's prediction had come true and they were just annihilated by the worse team in the league. Phillip and Jamie rode back to Maplewood Drive in silence. As they entered through the front door, their Grandmother yelled out "Dinner is ready, come eat boys." They sat down and stared at their food while moving it back and forth with their forks. None of it looked appealing and they both felt like the world was crashing down around them. How could you be beat by the worse team especially when they had girls on the team? It was going to be a long night. They were thankful that their Mother let them be excused without eating. They went upstairs to their room and both laid down on their beds to relive the whole game and sulk about the outcome.
When Amanda walked in and saw her boys sitting there staring glumly at their food, she knew they were taking the loss hard but she knew they would bounce back. They were good kids. Her ankle was really killing her though and she wished that she had worn the brace to the game. Since she had been home so little, her Mother had forgotten all about her injury and questioned why she was limping. Amanda really didn't need a lecture about how little she was home these days so she just chose to explain how she had hurt it demonstrating the Hook slide in hopes of jarring her Mother's memory but it didn't seem to. Sometimes Amanda wondered if her Mother was experiencing some short term memory losses but maybe that was a good thing since lately she had had to lie so much to her.
After the boys had been excused, Dotty asked Amanda if she was seeing Dean. Amanda realized afterward that she sounded a little too happy when she told her Mother that he was out of town. She really didn't feel like spending her Friday Night with him. She had decided as she was driving back from the game that she just wanted a quiet night. She was going to pamper herself by soaking her foot, wash her hair and then curl up with that Novel that she still hadn't had time to finish. She had been so busy with the Chess Tournament case that she still didn't how Victoria Greenich was going to save her husband before he was executed and she was dying to find out. Meanwhile, she knew her Mother was going to pull out a Carey Grant Video and enjoy it by herself. Her Mother's comment about seeing the movie with Richard Gere taking his clothes off took her by surprise. Amanda remembered that when her father was alive, her Mother had been so conservative but now that Daddy was gone, her Mother seemed to be trying to spread her wings more and more.
As Amanda was limping to head upstairs, the phone rang and it was him and he actually said "hi". Of course that was because he was demanding that she cancel her plans and go with him but in looking back, she realized that he said hi. Did that mean she was finally getting Lee to have some phone manners? The jury was still out on that one. He not only told her to break her Friday night plans but then wouldn't tell her why. He just insisted that she wear something nice and meet him at 9pm by the Reflecting Pool. She was going to insist on more details but turned around and saw her Mother listening to the conversation so she cut it off. She realized that she had to come up with a cover story quickly but a last minute alumni party? Wow, her excuses were becoming more and more lame. If she stayed with the agency, she was going to have to come up with some excuses that she could use in an emergency that sounded more legitimate. She wondered how much longer her Mother was going to believe her or had she already stopped believing her?
Amanda limped upstairs and looked at her wardrobe. Lee didn't tell her where they were going to go. She wished she knew how dressy the dress should be. In the end, she decided the low cut black dress that she had worn to Prince Reza's party should be fine. She quickly got dressed and headed to the reflecting pool. Her ankle was killing her but she knew wearing the brace wouldn't look good with the dress so she had put on her high heels. It was only one night, somehow she would get through it. She found Lee by the reflecting pool but he was very distracted. She wasn't that late but he sure was acting like she was. Most men would acknowledge right away if she looked nice or was dressed appropriately, even Dean's manners seemed better than Lee's somedays. She didn't expect a compliment on her look from Lee, she just wanted to make sure that her dress would be suitable for where they were going. She also thought it would lead him to tell her where they were going but in the end, she had to ask him. Her sons would squeal if they heard that their Mother got to go to a Quickie Chickie party because they loved Quickie Chickie Snack Shack. She thought that she would be given an important role in this assignment but then Lee said she was just to be his pretend date. She remembered thinking during Reza and Penelope's Party that he probably didn't care if he went to things alone but apparently Mr. Macho was worried about his reputation, especially on a Friday night. Well at least she could go have some fun; a nice drink, some dancing and the night wouldn't be a total waste.
Lee helped her into the Porsche and drove to where the party was being held. The Valet took his car and Lee escorted Amanda to the front door. It was 9:45 so they had 15 minutes before Lee needed to meet Singer in the Men's room so he sat down with Amanda. Amanda tried to get him to talk to her but instead he kept surveying the room. She wasn't sure what he was looking for but he was definitely not paying much attention to her. She finally asked if it was okay if they danced and he said he had to go meet his contact. Amanda asked what she was supposed to do while he was gone and he said to keep having fun. She smiled at him but thought that watching chess had been almost more fun. Shortly after Lee left and Amanda put off the advances of several men, James Delano took the stage and explained that Quickie Chickie was expanding to both sides of the Berlin Wall. While he was talking, he caught her eye and she couldn't help but blush. It had been awhile since a man had looked at her like that. Once he was done speaking, he made his way over to Amanda and asked why she looked so abandoned. Amanda explained that she was with someone and she was only temporarily abandoned. He was a very charming man and knew all the right things to say. Meanwhile her evening wouldn't be a total waste of time after all.
TBC
