Francine sat fidgeting nervously in her car as she checked her reflection in the rearview mirror for the millionth time since arriving at the touristy resort for what could be the best first date of her life...or the worst. "Why did I ever agree to this?' she muttered. She knew why. Beaman had been after her for four years now, ever since he'd first begun at the agency. She'd never taken him seriously because he'd only ever approached after he'd tied one on, but this time...this time he had shocked her to her core by making a blatant pass at her while stone cold sober when he'd let her into the Q Bureau after losing her keys. She recalled with some amusement how she'd called him out on it and had watched his demeanor change from one of faux cockiness to one of pure fear when she'd approached him with a taunt about "fogging up the windows."
She'd thought that was the end of it until he'd approached her after clearing her name and he had genuinely asked her out on a date. This time there was no talk of running off to Greece or Fiji or Jamaica, just dinner and dancing. She'd been so utterly thrown that she'd agreed before she'd even realized what was happening. Now, she was wondering what the hell she was thinking. She let out a deep sigh as she scanned the parking lot for his car, spotted it three spaces away, and saw that he wasn't in it, indicating that he must be waiting for her inside. She recalled how she'd tried to backpedal seconds after saying yes, and then seeing the disappointed look on his face, had relented, but only with the understanding that she be allowed to pick the place and that they take separate cars. Having her own car there was her security blanket.
As she got out of her car and approached the lavishly decorated building, she thought again of how perfect this place was. It was right on the beach and one of those places that locals to the area never frequented, but yet it was always busy, full of tourists who didn't mind paying the exorbitantly jacked-up drink prices. She had to admit that it was a beautiful spot, but not a place she would ever go just because it was your typical tourist trap. She also knew that no one else she knew would ever set foot in the place either for the same reason. That's why she had chosen it; it was far away from city limits. If their first date turned out to be disastrous, no one else needed to know that it had ever taken place and she, being a long-time, highly-trained intelligence operative, knew how to keep a secret and she knew that Beaman would never risk incurring her wrath by spilling the details of their encounter either.
She paused with her hand on the door handle, not sure that she was ready for this as she reflected back on what had led to this. She wondered if it was because she'd nearly been tossed out of the agency that had caused Beaman to finally man up and ask her out properly. She thought of how close she and Lee had come to losing their careers and the partially overheard conversation Lee had had with Amanda in his apartment and his talk of a "normal" life. She had teased him about not letting him be normal, but afterward had been left with a feeling that contrary to his outward, devil-may-care attitude, the normal life just might be appealing to him.
She'd often wondered if he and Amanda were still seeing each other on the sly, but keeping it hidden just to keep her out of it after the debacle in January when she'd caught them in a clinch for the umpteenth time. If so, they didn't outwardly show it, but she recalled how she'd been walking behind him and Billy in the corridors of the agency and had watched her friend try to weasel out of going to New York, pleading that he had plans. Between that and the phone call to Amanda, she couldn't help being curious if his weekend plans had been with his partner. She hoped not, just for Amanda's sake, because while Lee may be tiring of the wild life he'd been living and looking for something different, she was concerned that it may be, like many things in Lee's life, only a passing fancy. She had grown too fond of her to want to see her get hurt, not that she'd ever admit that to Amanda.
Taking one more deep breath to steel herself for what may come, she stepped into the lobby of the lavish resort. She scanned the crowd and found him off to the left near the entrance to the hotel's nightclub. She paused and couldn't help the grin that spread across her face when she saw his shy smile at her arrival...and could it be a bit of relief too that she'd actually showed? Belying the nervousness that she felt, she strode purposefully across the lobby and was delighted when he met her halfway.
"Hi," Beaman greeted her as he tentatively took her hand in his and searched her eyes as if gauging her reaction. Taking a deep breath and with much more confidence than he felt, he said, "You look beautiful. Is that a new dress?"
It was, but she wasn't sure she should let him know just how many hours she'd spent scouring the racks at store after store looking for the perfect dress for their first date. Instead, she fired back with the old standby, "What? This old thing?" and smiled brightly at him. Damn, she thought as she saw the knowing look he gave her in response. She knew she'd blown it with that one and that he now knew that she was more excited about their date than she let on. She should have known better than to give herself away like that. She felt the butterflies...no, not butterflies...more like bats whirling around in the pit of her stomach. "So...um...are you hungry? I...uh...I mean, we talked about dinner..." she stammered anxiously.
"I...uh...are you? Hungry, I mean?" He squeezed her hand gently and was elated that she squeezed his back and didn't back away. "I mean, I'm...I'm cool with whatever. I-I-I just..."
They were both silent for a moment, their hands still tenuously linked together. As the opening strains of "Nothing's Gonna Stop us Now," filtered into the room from the club's glass doors, she said, "You know, that's a great song," gesturing toward the double doors that led into the club, "One of my favorites." She cringed slightly at admitting that she liked a romantic duet, but relaxed a little at seeing him smile, not a teasing smile that she was sure to see on the face of anyone else at the agency, but a warm, glowing smile with just a hint of flirtatiousness.
Taking her cue, Beaman suggested more assertively, "Then maybe we should dance to it. Can't let your favorite song go to waste, now can we?"
"No, we sure can't," she answered as she linked her fingers with his and they entered the nightclub together. Once inside, she allowed her date to lead her onto the crowded dance floor, paying no mind to the other couples.
Once in his arms and gently swaying to the music, she caught the faint sound of him softly singing along, "Looking in your eyes, I see a paradise, this world that I found is too good to be true." She couldn't help smiling at the words and the sincere look on his face as he held her closely, but when he caught her gaze just as it got to the part about love, he stopped abruptly under her scrutiny, blushed furiously and looked away.
"Don't stop," Francine said gently as she slid one hand to his cheek to get him to face her again. Seeing the intense emotion etched on his face, she blurted out, "It was nice." She looked down, now blushing herself.
"Yeah?" he questioned hopefully, as he hooked one finger under her chin so he could look at her again.
She nodded and replied with a smile, "Yeah." She linked her arms behind his neck and began singing along herself, "Let 'em say we're crazy. I don't care about that. Put your hand in my-" Just as he'd wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer, she halted suddenly and said, "I'll be damned!"
Efraim pulled back from her, released his hold on her and in an agitated tone stammered, "Wh-wh-what is it? Did I..." He looked down in embarrassment as his voice trailed off.
She grabbed him firmly and turned him to the spectacle that had caught her eye. "It's not you. Look!"
Beaman looked in the direction she was pointing, spotted Lee and Amanda dancing a short distance away, dancing very closely at that, obviously lost in one another and shrugged. "So much for not running into anyone we know," he said with a touch of melancholy in his voice.
"What does THAT mean," Francine questioned him with her hands on her hips and a look of disdain.
"Oh, come on, Francine," he parried. "Don't think I don't know that the reason you picked this place is because you know that nobody we know comes here and you didn't want to be seen in public with me."
"That's not true!" she argued. "I...um...I just..." Damn, busted, she thought. Think, Desmond, think. "I just...um...I wanted us to have some privacy on our first date, someplace where no one would find us." She then tried to turn attention away from herself with a nod of her head toward the other couple, "What I wanna' know is, what are THEY doing here...and together?"
"Maybe they came here for the same reason...to have some privacy," Beaman surmised logically.
"Maybe..." she responded, but she found that thought immensely disturbing. She stared open-mouthed at the pair; how they were so close that you couldn't have slid a credit card between them.
"It makes sense. I mean, everyone at the office knows they've been sneaking around for months," Efraim added. "It's not as if they're hiding it very we-" his words were cut off by Francine yanking him behind a large square support pillar pressing him against it. "Francine..." he began, his heart pounding at her nearness. "Isn't this a little sud-" He was silenced by her hand over his mouth.
"Shh," she hissed. "They're coming toward us."
"I knew it," he whispered back accusingly. "I knew you didn't want anyone to see us together."
"Would you just shut up? It's not about that! I wanna' hear what they're say-" She quieted as she heard them getting closer and started a bit when there was a thump against the other side of the pillar. Francine cringed as they heard the smacking sounds of kissing. She cautiously peered around the pillar and instantly wished she hadn't when she saw the pair locked in a passionate kiss.
She quickly ducked back to her hiding place and Efraim looked at her with amusement dancing in his eyes. "I don't think you're going to hear much in the way of conversation," he whispered.
Francine rolled her eyes at him and strained to hear what was happening on the other side of the post as the kissing sounds had stopped. She could just make out Amanda's familiar raspy voice, but not the words she was saying, but then very clearly heard Lee say in his low, seductive growl, "My goodness, Mrs. Stetson, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
She and Efraim looked at one another in confusion and both mouthed, "Mrs. Stetson?"
They both listened intently as Amanda responded flirtatiously, "Well, you know it's you I prefer kissing," followed by more smacking sounds.
A moment later, an out-of-breath Lee said, "I...uh...I thought you wanted to dance."
"Oh, I did," Amanda's seductive tone continued, "I just didn't specify what kind of dancing I had in mind." Francine's mouth dropped open at Amanda's statement, stunned by the housewife's boldness.
"I see," Lee answered mirthfully, "Then I suggest we take our "dance" upstairs."
"Exactly what I was thinking," Amanda's voice sounded in a tone that set Francine's teeth on edge. Was she actually trying to seduce Lee and not the other way around?
As they heard the other couples' footsteps moving away, Francine and Efraim poked their heads around the corner of the pillar just in time to see the groping couple heading toward the glass doors. Once she was sure they were out of earshot, Francine asked, "Okay, so...this Mrs. Stetson thing. What do you think?" Efraim simply shrugged. "Hmm...Are they on some kind of undercover assignment that I don't know about? You would think Billy would have learned by now to keep me in the loop."
Beaman shook his head and stated firmly, "No, because I would know about it too. I'm her trainer and I'm supposed to be informed about all of her assignments."
They walked toward the doors, both glowering after the departing couple, "Well, if they are undercover, that means that Amanda's gotten much more comfortable with playing THAT kind of cover," Francine continued staring after them worriedly wondering if Lee was up to his old tricks, but then she thought about what she'd heard Amanda say and shook her head.
"I don't know," Beaman replied skeptically as he watched the other pair groping each other as they walked through the doors to the lobby. "She's good, but she's not THAT good."
"I think we should find out, don't you?" Without waiting for a response, she darted toward the doors that Lee and Amanda had just exited through.
"Francine, wait!' Beaman called as he hurried to follow her, catching up with her at the elevator, just in time to see a passionately embracing Lee and Amanda entering it and Francine standing there behind a large potted plant with a look of astonishment on her face. As the elevator doors closed on the oblivious couple and Amanda was wrapping her arms behind Lee's neck, he spotted a glint of gold and the sparkle of a diamond just before the doors closed completely.
"What the hell is going on?" Francine hissed.
"I don't know, but did you catch the rock that Amanda's wearing? That's not agency issue."
"How do you know that?" Francine challenged him.
"Have you forgotten that I used to set up covers when I worked in Fabrications?"
"But I've been on cover assignments where expensive jewelry was part of the cover," she argued.
"I get that, but that's not what I mean," he explained. "Even when the more expensive pieces are used, they're not that shiny because they've been used multiple times. The wedding set she's wearing looks brand-new."
"Maybe The Agency updated its collection," she suggested, trying to find any explanation other than what she was really thinking.
"Not likely with the budget cutbacks we've been having lately," Beaman countered.
"Well, I, for one am going to get to the bottom of this here and now," Francine stated firmly.
"But what about our...," Francine took off toward the front desk, "...date?" He let out a deep sigh and realized that he had no choice but to follow her.
Beaman reached her just as she was whipping out her badge and berating the desk clerk. "I don't care what your privacy policy is," she snapped. "Do you see this?" She waved the badge in the man's face. "This is a federal ID and those two are the subject of an investigation." Of course, she wasn't going to tell the clerk that it was a personal investigation. On a need-to-know basis, he didn't need to know.
"Y-yes, Ma'am," the clerk stammered as he began typing. "They're...uh...in room 203...registered as...uh...Mr. and Mrs. Stetson."
Beaman chuckled softly as he saw Francine's jaw drop, "So, much for your theory of them being undercover. Stetson's too smart to use his own name on a cover assignment."
"That's what I was afraid of," Francine sighed. Damn you, Lee Stetson, she thought.
"What are you thinking?" Beaman inquired of her curiously.
"What I'm thinking is that snake in the grass used his considerable charms to worm his way back into Amanda's life after she dumped him. Damn! I thought she was smarter than that."
Beaman laughed at her. "Don't tell me you actually bought that break-up story of theirs?" He snorted incredulously.
"Story?" she questioned.
"Oh, yeah," Beaman replied with a smug grin. "Come on, Francine, think about it. I told you she's good and you fell for it, hook, line and sinker."
"You know, insulting your date's intelligence is not really a great way to win points," she responded coolly. "Or get you to a second date." She then put her badge away and strode purposefully toward the elevator.
Second date? He thought hopefully, but then realized she was off again. "Wait," Beaman called as he chased after her, grabbed her arm and spun her to face him. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to stop Amanda from making the biggest mistake of her life before it's too late," she declared as she jabbed the up button.