I Am Not Now Nor Have I Ever Been, Jealous
I don't own these characters; I just like to spend time with them. No other profit to be had.
(Set sometime around the end of Season 1)
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Lee sat nursing a scotch at a small corner table in the Lucky Spot Lounge, seething, while he watched one man after another approach Amanda, while she leaned against the bar, sipping a glass of white wine. And he was getting woefully tired of it.
Amanda was supposed to be waiting there for an envelope to be handed to her. Not trolling for men.
However, it wasn't quite working the way he expected. Stationing Amanda at the bar, he'd told her to stay put and keep her eyes out for a tall balding man, wearing wire rimmed glasses and sporting a red carnation in his lapel. That man was to hand her an envelope, which she was to put into her purse and then signal Lee that she had it.
So far, that man hadn't shown up.
But just every other man in the place had.
Although, Amanda had, so far, been effective in deflecting the unwanted attention to other women or places, he could tell they were beginning to wear her down. The current clown had been standing there for close to five minutes and Lee was getting irritated. But just as he was about to go and confront the jerk, he felt someone behind him.
"Hi, handsome." A sultry voice whispered into his left ear. "All alone tonight?"
Lee looked up into the eyes of a gorgeous blonde with deep green eyes and a tight dress which left little to the imagination. In another time and place, he'd be sorely tempted to take her up on her unspoken invitation, but not tonight. Tonight he was on assignment and his assignment wasn't going well.
"Uh, hi." He smiled at the beautiful woman beside him. "How are you tonight?"
"Oh, I'm fine." She grinned. "But I'd be even better if you'd buy me a drink."
'Perfect', Lee thought. 'I'll buy her a drink over at the bar, where I can get close to Amanda and hopefully put an end to the parade of men after her.'
"Uh, sure." Lee smiled graciously. "Why don't we just go on over to the bar and…"
"Why not just stay here?" She woman bent down and placed a kiss on his dimpled cheek.
Standing by the bar, Amanda swallowed hard when she saw the blonde bend down and kiss Lee. Face flushed, she turned around, putting her back to the scene, not wanting to see any more. Although Lee wasn't her boyfriend, and sometimes he didn't even seem to be her friend, she still didn't want to see him making out with the flaxen haired bombshell while she had to stand there and fend off every letch in the country.
"Uh, hi." A male voice said from behind her. "I think you're here for me."
Amanda closed her eyes in exasperation for a moment and dropped her head. 'Oh, God, another one.' She thought. Taking a deep breath, she raised her head, pasted on a fake smile and turned around to see a bald headed man with wire rimmed glasses and a red carnation in his lapel, staring at her. "Oh, uh, hello." Her fake smile turned into one of genuine relief.
"Where can we talk?" The man whispered as he apprehensively looked around the bar room.
"Well, we can talk right here." Amanda answered, glancing anxiously past him to where Lee still sat with the blonde practically in his lap.
"No, we can't." The man said as he grabbed Amanda's arm and started to pull her away from the bar and towards the exit.
Amanda's eyes shot over to Lee, wondering should she scream for him, thereby bringing not only his attention and help but that of everyone else in the lounge, or should she just calmly go with this man and pray he had nothing more planned for her, than simply handing her the expected envelope.
Lee looked awfully busy.
Amanda nodded, carefully set her drink on the bar and reached for her clutch, taking one more look at Lee.
He still looked awfully busy. Besides, Amanda wanted to prove to him that she could do this without him, seeing as how he seemed to be more interested the fair-haired vixen than in their assignment.
"Alright then," she smiled at the perspiring man in front of her. "Let's go."
Lee had never wrestled with an octopus before in his life, but he just knew, this blond, who was currently hanging on him like a cheap suit, would probably win in just such a contest. Several times, he'd had to grab her hand before it went to certain sensitive parts of his anatomy; all while trying to peel her lips from his face and neck.
It was only by the barest of chances that he saw Amanda picking up her purse and following the tall, balding man out of the bar. "Damn it." He groaned pushing the blonde leach back one more time.
"What's wrong, baby?" Her roaming hands started down one more time.
Lee grabbed her hand and literally flung her back from him. "I'm sorry, Miss." He said. "But I've got to go." Without giving the furious woman another glance or a second thought, Lee hurried out of the bar hoping to catch sight of Amanda and the man she'd walked out with.
Rushing through the lounge, Lee reached into his jacket and placed his hand on the butt of his gun, ready to draw and fire, should he need to, in order to save Amanda's life. Though he still didn't think of her as a partner, no matter what she and Billy seemed to think, she was still his responsibility and he wasn't about to let anybody hurt her.
Running outside, Lee rounded the corner and came to a dead stop, confused by what he saw. There, on a bus bench, Amanda and the man she'd left with were sitting awfully close and the man's head was on Amanda's shoulder as they quietly talked. Though the man looked upset, Amanda was calm and collected, with no obvious distress.
"What the hell's going on here?" He asked as he approached the bench.
Instantly the man's head jerked up and with a frightened bleat, he jumped to his feet and took off, hurriedly running down the street as fast as his long legs would carry him. Lee reached into his jacket again and this time did draw his weapon, aiming it at the man as he fled the scene.
"Lee!" Amanda cried out as she got up quickly and grabbed his arm. "Don't shoot him. He didn't do anything. Look, I got the envelope." Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a plain white envelope and waved it in front of him. "Don't shoot!"
For several seconds, Lee stood dumbfounded, looking at first the man who was almost out of sight and then back to the anxious brunette beside him. Finally shoving his gun back into his holster, he whirled on Amanda, anger clouding his normally good sense.
"What was going on here, Amanda, huh?" He demanded. "I mean, I look up and you're walking out with that creep, like you weren't supposed to, and then when I get out here, you're almost making out with him. Are you that hard up?"
Amanda was all set to apologize and explain everything, until Lee asked that one last question. Instantly her head shot up and she shot him a furious glare. "Hard up? Me? In case you didn't notice it, Mister Hot Shot Spy, I could've had my pick of any man in that place tonight. But I didn't. I was doing my job. You're the one who had the bleached blonde nymphomaniac in his lap."
"I did not." Lee's voice rose with his already volcanic temper. "She came onto me, Amanda. I was trying to get rid of her so I could watch over you. But apparently you didn't want me to watch over you. What was it, huh? He offer you something more than what's in this envelope? Maybe he had a little better package?"
Amanda started to give him a heated retort when it suddenly struck her as funny and she took a step back from him, her glare turned into a wide grin as she began to laugh. "Oh, Lee." She guffawed. "Oh, you… we…"
"I, we, what?" His anger was now joined by confusion as he wondered what she suddenly found so amusing. "What are you laughing at?"
When Amanda could finally get herself under control, she looked back up at Lee with a soft, contrite expression. "I'm sorry, Lee. I'm not laughing at you, honestly. I'm just laughing at the situation. We're acting like two jealous married people, rather than partners working a case together. And it's silly. I mean. Think about it. This is like that night I went out with James Delano and you followed me into the bathroom. I mean it's the same type of thing and just like then, you have no reason to be jealous of me. I mean it's not like we're together or anything and…"
"Now, wait a minute." Lee protested. "What do mean jealous? If anything you sounded jealous of me. But I'm not jealous of you, Amanda King. I am looking out for you. You are my responsibility."
"Me jealous? Not on your life, big fella. And what do you mean, you're responsible? Since when?" The glare returned.
"Since I got you involved in this business, Amanda." Lee answered with a matter of fact tone. "That makes you my responsibility."
Amanda's smoking irritation was growing again and she had to forcefully tamp it down before it erupted into a full fledged fire. "Lee, you are not responsible for me." She said in as level a tone as she could muster. "I am a grown woman. I am responsible for myself. You make it sound like I'm some little kid you got stuck babysitting."
For just a second, Lee started to say that she was and he did. But at the look on her face he changed his mind. "Ah, I'm sorry, Amanda." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean those things I said. It's… well, it's just that, I worry about you. I mean, you don't know what that man might've done to you. He could've…" He stopped with a puzzled expression. "By the way, what was he doing?"
Amanda tried hard not to laugh again as she thought of Fred, the funny little man who'd given her the envelope. "He was crying." She answered.
"Crying?" Lee gave her a look of pure astonishment. "You're kidding me."
"Nope," Amanda shook her head allowing herself a grin. "It seems he's never done anything like this before and he was scared. When he came into the lounge, he thought he was being followed and was too afraid to give me the envelope inside where anyone could see him, so he brought me out here to hand it over."
"And that caused him to cry?" Lee looked down the street in the direction the man had run sure he'd see him cowering somewhere.
"No, but a backfire from a pickup that passed us did. He thought someone was shooting at us and when I explained to him that it was just a car's exhaust, he collapsed into tears. I made him sit down on the bench and he put his head on my shoulder until he calmed down."
He couldn't hold the laughter back. "Oh… Oh, Amanda, you have no idea how it looked to me when I came out and saw you two."
Amanda smiled sagely. "Oh, I think I do." She muttered. 'Same as it looked to me with you and the blonde.' She thought.
"Huh?" He didn't quite hear her.
"Oh, nothing." Amanda smiled genially. "Look, we've got the envelope and it's late and I need to get home. So how about you walking me to my car?"
Lee nodded with a smile. "Yeah, alright, come on." He said, as he placed his hand in the small of her back and urged her forward.
When they reached her car, Amanda reached up and kissed Lee on the cheek. "Thank you for looking out after me, Lee." She smiled, suspecting another reason for his concern and loving it.
"You're welcome." Lee smiled, still remembering her reaction to the blonde and relishing it.
Once she was seated in her station wagon, she rolled the window down. "Good night, Lee."
"Good night, Amanda." Lee grinned as she raised her window back up and drove off. Tossing his keys in his hand, Lee turned and headed for his car all the while remembering her irritation at the woman who'd come onto him in the bar. 'Jealous'. He thought with a slight smirk. 'Amanda King was jealous.' Not willing to examine why exactly that it pleased him, Lee was content in simply knowing that it did.
As Amanda drove off, she looked in her rear view mirror and grinned. Lee Stetson wasn't willing to admit it, may never be willing to admit it, but she knew, he had been jealous. Lee Stetson, super-agent, talented ladies' man and complete loner, had been jealous of a middle class housewife from Arlington, Virginia. Amanda King was that housewife and the thought made her giddy.
That night, the housewife from Virginia and the counterintelligence operative from Washington, each drove home with identical smiles on their faces.
The End.