This is my answer to the Compromising
position challenge. My subjects were
Phillip and Jamie.
I'd like to thank Lynda for all help, her
time patience, and helpful suggestions
while Beta reading this for me. I also want
to thank Ange for Listening to my crazy
zaniness while I write, late at night.
I don't own these Characters. This story is
for fun and no type of infringement is intended.
Scarecrow's Unveiling
It was a nightmare. A waking nightmare in
the daytime ran rampant for the owner of
the house at 4247 Maplewood Drive. What
started out as a morning of sexual horseplay with her
husband of four months for the woman who owned
the house went from an innocent bit of teasing to the
hellish situation of being caught by her two teenage
sons in nothing but a very short baby doll nightgown.
"No, This isn't happening," moaned Amanda
king Stetson as she sat on the foot of her
bed face in her hands, shaking her head
from side to side while rocking back and
forth. Hearing the distraught tone of his
wife's voice and seeing the dejected
posture of her body, her tall handsome
husband finished tucking his T shirt into
his jeans, buttoned then zipped them up
before walking over to where his wife sat
on the bed and putting his arms around his
wife.
Next he leaned over just enough to place a
kiss on her forehead before saying, "it's
alright honey, we'll get through this
together, somehow."
"How can you say it going to be alright!"
yelled his brunette wife as she surged up
off the bed so quickly and with so much
force that it caught him off guard causing
him to stumble back a few steps. "I have to
go downstairs and explain to my 12 and 14
year old sons why their mother was running
around the house half naked with a naked
man they barely know."
"Amanda" sighed her spouse as he followed
the progress of his agitated lover, who had
now begun to indulge in what she referred
to as "the bad habit of pacing" that she'd
recently picked up from him. "You don't
have to do this alone. I'm going to be
right by your side the whole time. As to
what you were doing, Jaime may or may not
have put all of the pieces of the puzzle
together to come up with the whole picture
but at 14, I'm pretty sure Phillip knows
the score."
"Lee Stetson, you take that back. My babies
are to young to know about sex" his wife
fumed as she stopped mid pace, drew her
self up to her full 5'7" height and glared
at him.
"Come on Amanda," laughed Lee. "You can't
seriously think the boys have absolutely no
idea what goes on between a man and a woman
when they make love. I mean in this day and
age it's all around them. They are exposed
to it on tv, in magazines, and let's not
forget school sex education classes. You
can't really believe they have not picked
up some idea of the concept, even if they
don't fully understand the intricate
details."
Turning away from him, she walked over to
her closet and took out a pair of Black
linen slacks and a black U VA T-shirt and
started to dress before she whispered, "I
don't want to talk about this now Lee. We
have to concentrate on what we are going to
say to the boys when we face them not to
mention my mother."
This time it was Lee's turn to groan as he
thought about the accidental view his
mother-in -law had gotten before he hastily
retreated upstairs to the safe haven of his
wife's bedroom.
Amanda couldn't help but laugh at the
expression on the love of her life's face.
It mirrored the one he wore when she first
came upstairs behind him almost 10 min ago,
only this time his face hadn't quite
reached the same deep shade of red as
earlier when she handed him the towel he
had abandoned on the staircase.
Having finished dressing Amanda reached out
and took Lee's stronger, larger, lightly
calloused hand in hers, "Come on Lee, the
longer we stay up here the worse it's going
to be. Besides I know my mother's patience
and we only have about two more minutes
before she'll be up here knocking on the
door demanding an explanation. You really
don't want that now do you," she said
pointedly looking at the still unmade bed.
Lee followed her gaze and was quick to
respond, "Ah no, un un, no way."
"That's what I thought," replied Amanda
giving his hand a firm but gentle tug as
she slowly led him out the door of their
bedroom down the staircase and into to the
living room to face the inquisition from
her loved ones whom she knew awaited Lee
and her.
As he descended the top step behind his
wife Lee Stetson, know as the great
intelligence operative "Scarecrow" to the
people involved in the world of espionage
and counter espionage both on a national
and international level, couldn't believe
that neither he nor his wife and fellow
agent partner Amanda had been able to come
up with a working plan of just what they
were going to say to her family, before
they left the bedroom.
Stepping on the third step from the top
Lee's mind drifted back to the events of
earlier that morning.
************************
The alarm had awoken him at 6:00 that
morning. He was reluctant to crawl out of
bed that early on Saturday morning,
especially since last night Amanda's mother
had taken the boys on a weekend camping
trip, meaning he and Amanda had the house
all to themselves for the whole weekend,
but knew if he didn't they wouldn't make it
to the task force meeting Dr. Smyth had
called for 8:00 am sharp this morning.
He had complained about the earliness of
the hour the night before telling her they
could sleep in until 7:00 and still make it
to the office by 8:00 with the drive only
taking a half an hour at that time on a
Saturday morning.
Amanda being her ever efficient self had
started rattling off her preplanned
schedule informing him that she had
allotted twenty minutes a piece for them
both to shower and get ready, fifteen
minutes to make coffee and breakfast, which
she reminded him she ate even if he didn't,
a half an hour for the drive, ten minutes
to park walk into the agency, get their
badges and walk up to the Q Bureau, another
fifteen minutes to sign off on the finished
reports, their expense accounts and gather
the files they need to bring to the
meeting, which would give them ten minutes
to walk down the stairs from the Q Bureau
to the elevator down to the ground floor,
walk across the Bullpen and take a seat in
the conference room before the meeting
started.
Shaking his head in amusement as he
remembered the conversation, Lee rolled
over on his side and kissed his wife
swiftly on the lips. When the only response
he received from his wife was a sweet
smile, he leaned back down and gave her a
firmer, longer smooch. His second kiss
evoked a soft moan from his still
slumbering wife. She must be really tired
if that didn't wake her up thought Lee.
Placing the lightest of kisses on both
eyelids, Lee advanced his mission by moving
back to Amanda's lips. As he brushed his
luscious lips across hers, his wife began
her ascension back to the land of
consciousness.
Seeing that she was finally waking up, Lee
dove in for a kiss. As Amanda Stetson
opened her brown eyes to gaze upon the face
of her beloved husband, he intensified the
kiss and drank from the well of his wife's
lips as if they were precious drops of
water and he hadn't had a drink in three
days.
When she was able to form coherent speech
again, Amanda glanced up into
her husband's hazel eyes and said, and "You
sure know how to wake a gal up in the
morning."
"All a part of the Stetson bedside service,
my love. One of the many perks of having me
for a husband," he told her flashing one of
his most endearing smiles.
"Well big fella, why don't you fill me in
on some of the other benefits," said
Amanda.
"I'd love to Mrs. Stetson and believe you
me I plan to fill you...in too your heart's
delight when we get back home this
afternoon, but if we don't get up and get a
move on we're going to be late to the task
force meeting. Now I personally don't mind
but I seemed to recall when we were late
for the last one, you blamed me for
distracting you and were mad at me for most
of the day."
"Oh my gosh. I completely forgot about the
meeting," screeched Amanda as she gently
pushed her husband away and bounded out of
bed.
Throwing the covers off and sliding his
long, hard, muscular body off the bed, Lee
stood up and watched his wife in motion for
a few minutes, before telling her to slow
down, and that they had plenty of time.
"Hey do you mind if I shower first?" said
Lee as he laid a fresh pair of boxers out
on the bed for after his shower, "That way
I can be making breakfast while you finish
dressing and putting on your makeup."
"No go ahead," replied Amanda as she
finished gathering her clothes and
toiletry items.
Having finished his shower and shave Lee
emerged from the bathroom with a large
white bath towel wrapped around his waist.
"All yours" he told his wife.
"Thank you sweetheart," replied Amanda as
she looked her husband's beautiful body up
and down.
Seeing his wife lick her lips when she had
finished her slow perusal of his semi naked
body, Scarecrow leered at her and decided
to tease her a little. "Do you like what
you see Mrs. Stetson?" he asked, giving her
a wicked grin.
"Oh yeah big fella. I'd like to see even
more of it too," she replied.
"I guess I'm just going to have to give you
a little show then," Lee said. He began to
undulate around the room, lifting the
corner of the towel and showing Amanda a
little more leg as he came near her. As she
would reach out toward the towel, he d move
back just out of her grasp.
"Come on sexy daddy take it all off,"
cheered Amanda after Lee pull the towel
almost all the way up on the right side,
revealing everything but the "main
attraction."
Strutting his stuff to the other side of
the room, he continued to tease and
titillate his wife with his sexy gyrations.
As Lee reached for the knot on the bath
towel, Amanda let out a low whistle. Lee's
eyes fell on the alarm clock that now
showed the time to be 6:50 a.m. "Sweetheart
I'm afraid the show's over," sighed Lee as
he reached over to grab his boxers and get
dressed.
Amanda, being closer to where the blue
undergarments were laying, managed to
snatch them up a fraction of a second
before Lee had them in his grasp.
"Oh no Scarecrow," she said shaking her
head, you're not going to get these, she
held the boxers up in front of her and
jiggled them for effect, "Until you finish
what you started."
"Amanda, it's ten minutes to seven and you
haven't even had your shower. We're running
way behind your," and here he stressed the
word your, " Schedule."
"Schedule, schmedule, you're not getting
anywhere near these boxers, buster, until I
get my gander at the goods," Amanda
informed him, as she crossed her arms and
gave him a defiant look.
"Come on Amanda, be serious would you? You
know how you hate being late. It always
causes trouble when we are."
"First you forget something because you are
in a rush, and then you say it's my fault
you forgot it."
"Once we get on the road you tell me to
drive faster one minute and in the next
breath you tell me to slow down before we
get killed. When I remind you of the fact
that you told me to drive faster, you get
mad and tell me to just be quiet and drive.
I ask you what's wrong with you and you say
"nothing." It's easy to see that isn't true
from the way you roll your eyes, place your
hand under your chin and turn your back to
me. When I reach out touch your hand and
try to apologize, you pull away, edge even
closer to the passenger door and angrily
tell me to leave you alone; you don't want
to talk to me "right now". Taking the hint,
I keep quiet the rest of the drive, trying
to figure out exactly where I went wrong,
which for some inexplicable reason only
seems to make you even madder," as he
finished the sentence, Lee threw his hands
up in the air, in frustration.
Lee saw he had unintentionally hurt his
wife's feelings by the moisture forming in
the corner of her brown eyes, the rapid
blinking and soft sniffling as she fought
hard not to let the teardrops fall and the
tell-tale quiver of her bottom lip.
Lee approached her and began to apologize.
"Sweetheart, don't cry. I didn't mean to
hurt you. I'm sorry," said Lee softly as he
tenderly reached up and wiped a tear away
with his index finger.
Taking a step back Amanda uttered in a hurt
tone, "I'm sorry to be such an imposition
to you, Lee."
"Whoa, wait a minute, where in the world
did that come from. You are not an
imposition to me, Amanda Stetson. You are
my wife, my love, and my reason for living.
Lee reached down and took both of her hands
in his. He brought first the right one and
then the left one reverently to his lips
and kissed the back of it. Still not
releasing her hands as he gazed into her
eyes with such intensity, that, if she had
been a piece of paper, she would have
spontaneously combusted.
Releasing her hands before enveloping her
in an almost desperate embrace, he said, "I
love you with all my heart, Amanda
Stetson".
Amanda was the first to pull back but she
didn't leave his strong embrace. She
reached up and placed a soft kiss on his
lips. I know how much you love me. You
don't have to worry about losing my love.
It belongs to you and only you beyond the
end of time. As much as you say I've given
you, You've given me that much and a
thousand times more.
Lee opened his mouth to interrupt but
Amanda silenced him with a finger to his
lips.
"Lee," she said, "Don't you realize what a
profound impact you have had on not just my
life but the life of my whole family? You
are always telling me how strong a woman I
am. A great deal of that strength comes
from you. And let's not forget what
stability you've brought to my sons', our
sons', lives. They may not know you are
their stepfather, but you've done an
admirable job of being a father figure to
them. If you haven't noticed it your
opinion is very important to them. They
love you almost as much as their mom does."
"They're great kids, sweetheart. I can't
help but love them; after all they're a
part of you."
Lee said as he smiled and leaned down to
kiss his wife. As the kiss ended, Lee made
a mental note to call the florist later on
to order an 'I love you bouquet' for
Amanda.
"So, does this mean that my best gal
forgives me?" he asked.
Hearing the lightly teasing tone of her
husband's voice Amanda replied, "What do
you mean best gal, Stetson? I better be the
only one."
Lee pretended to look thoughtful for a
moment before he said, "Well my love, there
is this blonde who seems to have me wrapped
around her finger."
"Do tell," said Amanda, who by now was
standing with her feet apart, hands on her
hips.
"Yeah, she's figured out that I would do
almost anything to please her. She knows
all she has to do is say, 'Oh Lee could
you' and I'll do it. She's very special to
me."
"And just who, prey tell, is this very
special blonde, Scarecrow?"
"Just a wonderful lady who treats me like a
king. Truth be told, She fusses over me
sometimes more than you do."
"Oh she does, does she?" quipped Amanda.
Lee was enjoying this little game but
didn't want to take it too far. He said,
"Yeah she's always concerned that I have a
good meal, she never forgets to remind me
to drive carefully when we part, she treats
me just like I was her son. "She's the best
mother-in law a guy could ask for."
"My mother? You were talking about my
mother all this time?" Amanda asked him as
she chucked him in the arm.
"Who else would I, a deliriously happy
married man, be talking about, Mrs.
Stetson," inquired Lee.
"I'm going to get you for that one
Stetson."
"Those are some pretty brave words Mrs.
Stetson, are you sure you're going to be
able to back them up," asked Lee as he
slowly began to stalk Amanda with a
devilish gleam in his eye.
Amanda, knowing that look all too well,
realized that she had better do some fast
talking or there was no way they'd make
that meeting before 10:00.
"Lee sweetheart, she said glancing quickly
over her right shoulder at the alarm clock
on the bedside table, while backing away
hurriedly before Lee could pounce on her,
"It's now 7:10 and like you kept reminding
me we're already behind schedule. If we
don't hurry we're going to be late. We
don't have time for what you are planning."
"In a hurry now, are we Amanda? You fanned
this flame, my dear and now you're going to
have to deal with the fire."
Before he got close enough to reach out and
grab her, Amanda shrieked, turned tail and
ran down the hallway towards the stairs.
As this was going on, a black and white
taxi cab had pulled up in front of the two
story, white Cape Cod style home, and two
of its three passengers wearily climbed
out, grabbed their stuff out of the trunk
and headed towards the front door of the
house, glad to be back home after riding
all night back to Arlington. They'd arrived
to their campground and found out the whole
area had been sitting under three feet of
water for the last four days. The third
passenger lingered behind just long enough
to take the money out of her purse and pay
the cab driver.
Inside the house, Amanda reached the
staircase and started running down at the
same time that her oldest son Phillip
inserted his key into the lock on the door.
She glanced back to see how close Lee was.
He was right behind her, about to grab her
around the waist. She screamed and moved
even quicker down the stairs.
Because the clicking of the lock occurred
simultaneously with Amanda's scream, it
took a few seconds for them to realize the
door had been unlocked.
The shock of the door opening caused Lee,
who was on the third step from the bottom
and Amanda, whose feet had just touched the
floor to hesitate slightly before
retreating back up the stairs. That brief
time period was enough to drag the skeleton
of Amanda and Lee's secret marriage out
of the closet.
Upon hearing their mother scream, Phillip
and Jaime, shouting, "Mom, are you ok,"
threw open the front door, bravely ready to
rush to their Mother's aid. The site that
met their eyes was quite a shock to their
adolescent psyches.
"Oh my gosh!" cried Amanda.
"Oh shit," muttered Lee.
Amanda, obvlious to the fact that she had
dropped the boxers she had been holding in
her hand, stood rooted to the spot, with
her hands on the side of her face, eyes
wide, mouth slightly agape, as she stood
stareing at her two teenage sons and her
mother who had come in the door behind
them.
Lee, whose agent instincts by this time had
kicked in, turned quickly and started a
hasty exit back up the stairs.
Unfortunately for Scarecrow, he didn't
check to see if his towel was secure
earlier when he had started to unfasten it
while teasing Amanda. As he turned around,
his towel hit the floor, right along with
Dotty's jaw.
"Ah hell," said Lee as he felt the
temperature change and realized what had
happened. Instead of retrieving the towel,
Lee Stetson continued his flight to the
safety of Amanda's bedroom.
The sight of their "stepfather" being ass-
out brought Phillip and Jaime out of the
near catatonic state and they began to howl
with laughter.
Amanda King Stetson was so embarrassed that
not only had she been caught in a
compromising situation by her two sons, but
that they, along with her mother, had also
witnessed Scarecrow's unveiling, was for
the first time in her adult life, rendered
speechless.
Not able to look her children, or her
mother, in the eye as she passed by them,
she slowly slunk her way upstairs towards
her bedroom, pausing to pick up her
husband's abandoned towel on the way. Just
as Amanda's hand reached for the knob to
open her bedroom door that Lee had closed
after he reentered it, she heard Dotty tell
the boys that by the time they put their
bags upstairs in their room, that Amanda
and Lee would be back downstairs wanting to
have a family meeting.
As she started up he stairs, Dotty spied
the forgotten underwear, She discreetly
picked them up. Hmm, she said to herself,
light blue, cotton, size 42, just like the
ones that turned up in our laundry, and
then vanished a few months ago, I think
I'll ask Amanda about that little
coincidence next time we're alone.
Amanda came into her bedroom, closed the
door, walked over to her red-faced husband,
who was now fully dressed, handed him the
towel and said, "I believe you dropped
this, Streak." After handing Lee the towel
she sat on the foot of her bed face in her
hands, shaking her head from side to side
while rocking back and forth, moaning, "No,
This isn't happening."
******************************************
Lee was so caught up in reliving the events
from earlier that morning that he didn't
realize that Amanda and he had reached the
living room, until he felt her not so
gently tugging on his arm, telling him to
take a seat.
Amanda and Lee spent ten minutes doing
their best to completely and honestly
answer their family's questions about their
relationship, reassuring Phillip and Jamie
that they loved each other and were fully
committed to each other. Unfortunately that
brought up the question of marriage.
Knowing that, that question was a can of
worms in itself and that they still had to
go to the task force meeting, Amanda and
Lee told the family that they knew they had
a lot more questions but they really had to
get going to work before they got fired but
they promised to finally address the
subject of marriage and answer the rest of
their questions when they got off work.
Lee and Amanda lucked out for once that
day, as traffic on the way to the office
was unusually light. Scarecrow brought the
Vette to a screeching halt in front of IFF
as he and Amanda quickly exited the car,
and raced inside the building. Throwing out
the word of the day at the same time as
they greeted Mrs. Marston, they retrieved
their ids. Next they made a mad dash up to
the Q Bureau, where Amanda grabbed the
files and Lee snatched up the reports to be
signed and they rushed back out the door.
They just made it to the conference room as
Billy and Dr. Smyth walked in.
"Nice of the two of you to show up," Dr.
Smyth, sneered at Lee and Amanda. Out of
breath, neither one of them responded to
the verbal jab.
Dissatisfied with not getting rise out of
Lee, Dr. Smyth said, "It seems your
partnership with Mrs. King is slowing you
down Scarecrow, or all those rumors about
the legendary Scarecrow's stamina are
greatly exaggerated." The few snickers
Smyth's comment elicited from the room,
were immediately silence by one look from
their section chief, Billy Melrose, who
hurried to start the meting before his
hotheaded agent blew his top.
Lee for his part, after receiving an almost
imperceptible shake of the head from
Amanda, only gave Dr. Smyth a scalding
look. Billy was surprised, as he began to
go over the agenda for the meeting, that
Scarecrow's temper hadn't erupted. Well,
well, well he thought to himself, maybe the
influence of Lee being partnered with
Amanda is finally causing the Scarecrow to
grow up.
What Billy and the rest of the room's
occupants didn't know was that it wasn't
Amanda's influence on their partnership
that was keeping Scarecrow from responding
to Smyth's taunts, but the firm influence
of her right hand, that had unnoticeably
made its way under the table, on his male
anatomy. Needless to say, throughout the
meeting, Scarecrow was on his best
behavior.
THE END
The B5 Alley Cat
position challenge. My subjects were
Phillip and Jamie.
I'd like to thank Lynda for all help, her
time patience, and helpful suggestions
while Beta reading this for me. I also want
to thank Ange for Listening to my crazy
zaniness while I write, late at night.
I don't own these Characters. This story is
for fun and no type of infringement is intended.
Scarecrow's Unveiling
It was a nightmare. A waking nightmare in
the daytime ran rampant for the owner of
the house at 4247 Maplewood Drive. What
started out as a morning of sexual horseplay with her
husband of four months for the woman who owned
the house went from an innocent bit of teasing to the
hellish situation of being caught by her two teenage
sons in nothing but a very short baby doll nightgown.
"No, This isn't happening," moaned Amanda
king Stetson as she sat on the foot of her
bed face in her hands, shaking her head
from side to side while rocking back and
forth. Hearing the distraught tone of his
wife's voice and seeing the dejected
posture of her body, her tall handsome
husband finished tucking his T shirt into
his jeans, buttoned then zipped them up
before walking over to where his wife sat
on the bed and putting his arms around his
wife.
Next he leaned over just enough to place a
kiss on her forehead before saying, "it's
alright honey, we'll get through this
together, somehow."
"How can you say it going to be alright!"
yelled his brunette wife as she surged up
off the bed so quickly and with so much
force that it caught him off guard causing
him to stumble back a few steps. "I have to
go downstairs and explain to my 12 and 14
year old sons why their mother was running
around the house half naked with a naked
man they barely know."
"Amanda" sighed her spouse as he followed
the progress of his agitated lover, who had
now begun to indulge in what she referred
to as "the bad habit of pacing" that she'd
recently picked up from him. "You don't
have to do this alone. I'm going to be
right by your side the whole time. As to
what you were doing, Jaime may or may not
have put all of the pieces of the puzzle
together to come up with the whole picture
but at 14, I'm pretty sure Phillip knows
the score."
"Lee Stetson, you take that back. My babies
are to young to know about sex" his wife
fumed as she stopped mid pace, drew her
self up to her full 5'7" height and glared
at him.
"Come on Amanda," laughed Lee. "You can't
seriously think the boys have absolutely no
idea what goes on between a man and a woman
when they make love. I mean in this day and
age it's all around them. They are exposed
to it on tv, in magazines, and let's not
forget school sex education classes. You
can't really believe they have not picked
up some idea of the concept, even if they
don't fully understand the intricate
details."
Turning away from him, she walked over to
her closet and took out a pair of Black
linen slacks and a black U VA T-shirt and
started to dress before she whispered, "I
don't want to talk about this now Lee. We
have to concentrate on what we are going to
say to the boys when we face them not to
mention my mother."
This time it was Lee's turn to groan as he
thought about the accidental view his
mother-in -law had gotten before he hastily
retreated upstairs to the safe haven of his
wife's bedroom.
Amanda couldn't help but laugh at the
expression on the love of her life's face.
It mirrored the one he wore when she first
came upstairs behind him almost 10 min ago,
only this time his face hadn't quite
reached the same deep shade of red as
earlier when she handed him the towel he
had abandoned on the staircase.
Having finished dressing Amanda reached out
and took Lee's stronger, larger, lightly
calloused hand in hers, "Come on Lee, the
longer we stay up here the worse it's going
to be. Besides I know my mother's patience
and we only have about two more minutes
before she'll be up here knocking on the
door demanding an explanation. You really
don't want that now do you," she said
pointedly looking at the still unmade bed.
Lee followed her gaze and was quick to
respond, "Ah no, un un, no way."
"That's what I thought," replied Amanda
giving his hand a firm but gentle tug as
she slowly led him out the door of their
bedroom down the staircase and into to the
living room to face the inquisition from
her loved ones whom she knew awaited Lee
and her.
As he descended the top step behind his
wife Lee Stetson, know as the great
intelligence operative "Scarecrow" to the
people involved in the world of espionage
and counter espionage both on a national
and international level, couldn't believe
that neither he nor his wife and fellow
agent partner Amanda had been able to come
up with a working plan of just what they
were going to say to her family, before
they left the bedroom.
Stepping on the third step from the top
Lee's mind drifted back to the events of
earlier that morning.
************************
The alarm had awoken him at 6:00 that
morning. He was reluctant to crawl out of
bed that early on Saturday morning,
especially since last night Amanda's mother
had taken the boys on a weekend camping
trip, meaning he and Amanda had the house
all to themselves for the whole weekend,
but knew if he didn't they wouldn't make it
to the task force meeting Dr. Smyth had
called for 8:00 am sharp this morning.
He had complained about the earliness of
the hour the night before telling her they
could sleep in until 7:00 and still make it
to the office by 8:00 with the drive only
taking a half an hour at that time on a
Saturday morning.
Amanda being her ever efficient self had
started rattling off her preplanned
schedule informing him that she had
allotted twenty minutes a piece for them
both to shower and get ready, fifteen
minutes to make coffee and breakfast, which
she reminded him she ate even if he didn't,
a half an hour for the drive, ten minutes
to park walk into the agency, get their
badges and walk up to the Q Bureau, another
fifteen minutes to sign off on the finished
reports, their expense accounts and gather
the files they need to bring to the
meeting, which would give them ten minutes
to walk down the stairs from the Q Bureau
to the elevator down to the ground floor,
walk across the Bullpen and take a seat in
the conference room before the meeting
started.
Shaking his head in amusement as he
remembered the conversation, Lee rolled
over on his side and kissed his wife
swiftly on the lips. When the only response
he received from his wife was a sweet
smile, he leaned back down and gave her a
firmer, longer smooch. His second kiss
evoked a soft moan from his still
slumbering wife. She must be really tired
if that didn't wake her up thought Lee.
Placing the lightest of kisses on both
eyelids, Lee advanced his mission by moving
back to Amanda's lips. As he brushed his
luscious lips across hers, his wife began
her ascension back to the land of
consciousness.
Seeing that she was finally waking up, Lee
dove in for a kiss. As Amanda Stetson
opened her brown eyes to gaze upon the face
of her beloved husband, he intensified the
kiss and drank from the well of his wife's
lips as if they were precious drops of
water and he hadn't had a drink in three
days.
When she was able to form coherent speech
again, Amanda glanced up into
her husband's hazel eyes and said, and "You
sure know how to wake a gal up in the
morning."
"All a part of the Stetson bedside service,
my love. One of the many perks of having me
for a husband," he told her flashing one of
his most endearing smiles.
"Well big fella, why don't you fill me in
on some of the other benefits," said
Amanda.
"I'd love to Mrs. Stetson and believe you
me I plan to fill you...in too your heart's
delight when we get back home this
afternoon, but if we don't get up and get a
move on we're going to be late to the task
force meeting. Now I personally don't mind
but I seemed to recall when we were late
for the last one, you blamed me for
distracting you and were mad at me for most
of the day."
"Oh my gosh. I completely forgot about the
meeting," screeched Amanda as she gently
pushed her husband away and bounded out of
bed.
Throwing the covers off and sliding his
long, hard, muscular body off the bed, Lee
stood up and watched his wife in motion for
a few minutes, before telling her to slow
down, and that they had plenty of time.
"Hey do you mind if I shower first?" said
Lee as he laid a fresh pair of boxers out
on the bed for after his shower, "That way
I can be making breakfast while you finish
dressing and putting on your makeup."
"No go ahead," replied Amanda as she
finished gathering her clothes and
toiletry items.
Having finished his shower and shave Lee
emerged from the bathroom with a large
white bath towel wrapped around his waist.
"All yours" he told his wife.
"Thank you sweetheart," replied Amanda as
she looked her husband's beautiful body up
and down.
Seeing his wife lick her lips when she had
finished her slow perusal of his semi naked
body, Scarecrow leered at her and decided
to tease her a little. "Do you like what
you see Mrs. Stetson?" he asked, giving her
a wicked grin.
"Oh yeah big fella. I'd like to see even
more of it too," she replied.
"I guess I'm just going to have to give you
a little show then," Lee said. He began to
undulate around the room, lifting the
corner of the towel and showing Amanda a
little more leg as he came near her. As she
would reach out toward the towel, he d move
back just out of her grasp.
"Come on sexy daddy take it all off,"
cheered Amanda after Lee pull the towel
almost all the way up on the right side,
revealing everything but the "main
attraction."
Strutting his stuff to the other side of
the room, he continued to tease and
titillate his wife with his sexy gyrations.
As Lee reached for the knot on the bath
towel, Amanda let out a low whistle. Lee's
eyes fell on the alarm clock that now
showed the time to be 6:50 a.m. "Sweetheart
I'm afraid the show's over," sighed Lee as
he reached over to grab his boxers and get
dressed.
Amanda, being closer to where the blue
undergarments were laying, managed to
snatch them up a fraction of a second
before Lee had them in his grasp.
"Oh no Scarecrow," she said shaking her
head, you're not going to get these, she
held the boxers up in front of her and
jiggled them for effect, "Until you finish
what you started."
"Amanda, it's ten minutes to seven and you
haven't even had your shower. We're running
way behind your," and here he stressed the
word your, " Schedule."
"Schedule, schmedule, you're not getting
anywhere near these boxers, buster, until I
get my gander at the goods," Amanda
informed him, as she crossed her arms and
gave him a defiant look.
"Come on Amanda, be serious would you? You
know how you hate being late. It always
causes trouble when we are."
"First you forget something because you are
in a rush, and then you say it's my fault
you forgot it."
"Once we get on the road you tell me to
drive faster one minute and in the next
breath you tell me to slow down before we
get killed. When I remind you of the fact
that you told me to drive faster, you get
mad and tell me to just be quiet and drive.
I ask you what's wrong with you and you say
"nothing." It's easy to see that isn't true
from the way you roll your eyes, place your
hand under your chin and turn your back to
me. When I reach out touch your hand and
try to apologize, you pull away, edge even
closer to the passenger door and angrily
tell me to leave you alone; you don't want
to talk to me "right now". Taking the hint,
I keep quiet the rest of the drive, trying
to figure out exactly where I went wrong,
which for some inexplicable reason only
seems to make you even madder," as he
finished the sentence, Lee threw his hands
up in the air, in frustration.
Lee saw he had unintentionally hurt his
wife's feelings by the moisture forming in
the corner of her brown eyes, the rapid
blinking and soft sniffling as she fought
hard not to let the teardrops fall and the
tell-tale quiver of her bottom lip.
Lee approached her and began to apologize.
"Sweetheart, don't cry. I didn't mean to
hurt you. I'm sorry," said Lee softly as he
tenderly reached up and wiped a tear away
with his index finger.
Taking a step back Amanda uttered in a hurt
tone, "I'm sorry to be such an imposition
to you, Lee."
"Whoa, wait a minute, where in the world
did that come from. You are not an
imposition to me, Amanda Stetson. You are
my wife, my love, and my reason for living.
Lee reached down and took both of her hands
in his. He brought first the right one and
then the left one reverently to his lips
and kissed the back of it. Still not
releasing her hands as he gazed into her
eyes with such intensity, that, if she had
been a piece of paper, she would have
spontaneously combusted.
Releasing her hands before enveloping her
in an almost desperate embrace, he said, "I
love you with all my heart, Amanda
Stetson".
Amanda was the first to pull back but she
didn't leave his strong embrace. She
reached up and placed a soft kiss on his
lips. I know how much you love me. You
don't have to worry about losing my love.
It belongs to you and only you beyond the
end of time. As much as you say I've given
you, You've given me that much and a
thousand times more.
Lee opened his mouth to interrupt but
Amanda silenced him with a finger to his
lips.
"Lee," she said, "Don't you realize what a
profound impact you have had on not just my
life but the life of my whole family? You
are always telling me how strong a woman I
am. A great deal of that strength comes
from you. And let's not forget what
stability you've brought to my sons', our
sons', lives. They may not know you are
their stepfather, but you've done an
admirable job of being a father figure to
them. If you haven't noticed it your
opinion is very important to them. They
love you almost as much as their mom does."
"They're great kids, sweetheart. I can't
help but love them; after all they're a
part of you."
Lee said as he smiled and leaned down to
kiss his wife. As the kiss ended, Lee made
a mental note to call the florist later on
to order an 'I love you bouquet' for
Amanda.
"So, does this mean that my best gal
forgives me?" he asked.
Hearing the lightly teasing tone of her
husband's voice Amanda replied, "What do
you mean best gal, Stetson? I better be the
only one."
Lee pretended to look thoughtful for a
moment before he said, "Well my love, there
is this blonde who seems to have me wrapped
around her finger."
"Do tell," said Amanda, who by now was
standing with her feet apart, hands on her
hips.
"Yeah, she's figured out that I would do
almost anything to please her. She knows
all she has to do is say, 'Oh Lee could
you' and I'll do it. She's very special to
me."
"And just who, prey tell, is this very
special blonde, Scarecrow?"
"Just a wonderful lady who treats me like a
king. Truth be told, She fusses over me
sometimes more than you do."
"Oh she does, does she?" quipped Amanda.
Lee was enjoying this little game but
didn't want to take it too far. He said,
"Yeah she's always concerned that I have a
good meal, she never forgets to remind me
to drive carefully when we part, she treats
me just like I was her son. "She's the best
mother-in law a guy could ask for."
"My mother? You were talking about my
mother all this time?" Amanda asked him as
she chucked him in the arm.
"Who else would I, a deliriously happy
married man, be talking about, Mrs.
Stetson," inquired Lee.
"I'm going to get you for that one
Stetson."
"Those are some pretty brave words Mrs.
Stetson, are you sure you're going to be
able to back them up," asked Lee as he
slowly began to stalk Amanda with a
devilish gleam in his eye.
Amanda, knowing that look all too well,
realized that she had better do some fast
talking or there was no way they'd make
that meeting before 10:00.
"Lee sweetheart, she said glancing quickly
over her right shoulder at the alarm clock
on the bedside table, while backing away
hurriedly before Lee could pounce on her,
"It's now 7:10 and like you kept reminding
me we're already behind schedule. If we
don't hurry we're going to be late. We
don't have time for what you are planning."
"In a hurry now, are we Amanda? You fanned
this flame, my dear and now you're going to
have to deal with the fire."
Before he got close enough to reach out and
grab her, Amanda shrieked, turned tail and
ran down the hallway towards the stairs.
As this was going on, a black and white
taxi cab had pulled up in front of the two
story, white Cape Cod style home, and two
of its three passengers wearily climbed
out, grabbed their stuff out of the trunk
and headed towards the front door of the
house, glad to be back home after riding
all night back to Arlington. They'd arrived
to their campground and found out the whole
area had been sitting under three feet of
water for the last four days. The third
passenger lingered behind just long enough
to take the money out of her purse and pay
the cab driver.
Inside the house, Amanda reached the
staircase and started running down at the
same time that her oldest son Phillip
inserted his key into the lock on the door.
She glanced back to see how close Lee was.
He was right behind her, about to grab her
around the waist. She screamed and moved
even quicker down the stairs.
Because the clicking of the lock occurred
simultaneously with Amanda's scream, it
took a few seconds for them to realize the
door had been unlocked.
The shock of the door opening caused Lee,
who was on the third step from the bottom
and Amanda, whose feet had just touched the
floor to hesitate slightly before
retreating back up the stairs. That brief
time period was enough to drag the skeleton
of Amanda and Lee's secret marriage out
of the closet.
Upon hearing their mother scream, Phillip
and Jaime, shouting, "Mom, are you ok,"
threw open the front door, bravely ready to
rush to their Mother's aid. The site that
met their eyes was quite a shock to their
adolescent psyches.
"Oh my gosh!" cried Amanda.
"Oh shit," muttered Lee.
Amanda, obvlious to the fact that she had
dropped the boxers she had been holding in
her hand, stood rooted to the spot, with
her hands on the side of her face, eyes
wide, mouth slightly agape, as she stood
stareing at her two teenage sons and her
mother who had come in the door behind
them.
Lee, whose agent instincts by this time had
kicked in, turned quickly and started a
hasty exit back up the stairs.
Unfortunately for Scarecrow, he didn't
check to see if his towel was secure
earlier when he had started to unfasten it
while teasing Amanda. As he turned around,
his towel hit the floor, right along with
Dotty's jaw.
"Ah hell," said Lee as he felt the
temperature change and realized what had
happened. Instead of retrieving the towel,
Lee Stetson continued his flight to the
safety of Amanda's bedroom.
The sight of their "stepfather" being ass-
out brought Phillip and Jaime out of the
near catatonic state and they began to howl
with laughter.
Amanda King Stetson was so embarrassed that
not only had she been caught in a
compromising situation by her two sons, but
that they, along with her mother, had also
witnessed Scarecrow's unveiling, was for
the first time in her adult life, rendered
speechless.
Not able to look her children, or her
mother, in the eye as she passed by them,
she slowly slunk her way upstairs towards
her bedroom, pausing to pick up her
husband's abandoned towel on the way. Just
as Amanda's hand reached for the knob to
open her bedroom door that Lee had closed
after he reentered it, she heard Dotty tell
the boys that by the time they put their
bags upstairs in their room, that Amanda
and Lee would be back downstairs wanting to
have a family meeting.
As she started up he stairs, Dotty spied
the forgotten underwear, She discreetly
picked them up. Hmm, she said to herself,
light blue, cotton, size 42, just like the
ones that turned up in our laundry, and
then vanished a few months ago, I think
I'll ask Amanda about that little
coincidence next time we're alone.
Amanda came into her bedroom, closed the
door, walked over to her red-faced husband,
who was now fully dressed, handed him the
towel and said, "I believe you dropped
this, Streak." After handing Lee the towel
she sat on the foot of her bed face in her
hands, shaking her head from side to side
while rocking back and forth, moaning, "No,
This isn't happening."
******************************************
Lee was so caught up in reliving the events
from earlier that morning that he didn't
realize that Amanda and he had reached the
living room, until he felt her not so
gently tugging on his arm, telling him to
take a seat.
Amanda and Lee spent ten minutes doing
their best to completely and honestly
answer their family's questions about their
relationship, reassuring Phillip and Jamie
that they loved each other and were fully
committed to each other. Unfortunately that
brought up the question of marriage.
Knowing that, that question was a can of
worms in itself and that they still had to
go to the task force meeting, Amanda and
Lee told the family that they knew they had
a lot more questions but they really had to
get going to work before they got fired but
they promised to finally address the
subject of marriage and answer the rest of
their questions when they got off work.
Lee and Amanda lucked out for once that
day, as traffic on the way to the office
was unusually light. Scarecrow brought the
Vette to a screeching halt in front of IFF
as he and Amanda quickly exited the car,
and raced inside the building. Throwing out
the word of the day at the same time as
they greeted Mrs. Marston, they retrieved
their ids. Next they made a mad dash up to
the Q Bureau, where Amanda grabbed the
files and Lee snatched up the reports to be
signed and they rushed back out the door.
They just made it to the conference room as
Billy and Dr. Smyth walked in.
"Nice of the two of you to show up," Dr.
Smyth, sneered at Lee and Amanda. Out of
breath, neither one of them responded to
the verbal jab.
Dissatisfied with not getting rise out of
Lee, Dr. Smyth said, "It seems your
partnership with Mrs. King is slowing you
down Scarecrow, or all those rumors about
the legendary Scarecrow's stamina are
greatly exaggerated." The few snickers
Smyth's comment elicited from the room,
were immediately silence by one look from
their section chief, Billy Melrose, who
hurried to start the meting before his
hotheaded agent blew his top.
Lee for his part, after receiving an almost
imperceptible shake of the head from
Amanda, only gave Dr. Smyth a scalding
look. Billy was surprised, as he began to
go over the agenda for the meeting, that
Scarecrow's temper hadn't erupted. Well,
well, well he thought to himself, maybe the
influence of Lee being partnered with
Amanda is finally causing the Scarecrow to
grow up.
What Billy and the rest of the room's
occupants didn't know was that it wasn't
Amanda's influence on their partnership
that was keeping Scarecrow from responding
to Smyth's taunts, but the firm influence
of her right hand, that had unnoticeably
made its way under the table, on his male
anatomy. Needless to say, throughout the
meeting, Scarecrow was on his best
behavior.
THE END
The B5 Alley Cat