Scarecrow and Mrs. King- The First Time for the Stetsons'
DISCLAIMER AND FYI: This story takes place between the wedding and the part in the hospital of Secrets Can't Be Kept Forever, but doesn't really contain spoilers. Maybe little ones, but not major. If you don't know, right now, the exchange rate of an American dollar and a pound is about 1 and a half, it was probably quite a bit less in 1988, when this story takes place. I was only five, I couldn't tell you. Likewise the typical price of a cassette back then, I took a stab at it. A CD would have been unrealistic, I didn't get my first CD/CD player until I was twelve, while Lee and Amanda did lead unusual lives, they weren't by any means rich, so they probably wouldn't have had a CD player when I was only five. I don't own the characters, except Eric, he's all mine. Elvis Costello sings the song She. Enjoy.
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"Billy, give me a break!" Lee shouted in his boss's office. "Can't you give this to someone else!" Lee paced back and forth in front of Billy's desk, occasionally running his hands through his lose brown hair.
"Lee, if I could I would, I need you to go over to England, it's just for two weeks, Amanda won't have the baby for another couple of months." Billy told him calmly, rationalizing with this man would be difficult, especially now that he was married.
"You don't think I don't know when my wife is going to have her baby? I know perfectly well. That isn't the problem here."
"Then, what is it?"
"Philip and Jamie, Amanda's hormone's are going every where lately, she really can't handle Philip and Jamie right now, they're teenagers and their hormone's are going every where. Dotty and Curt are taking a few weeks off to go down to Florida, this will not work at all Billy."
"Lee, I'm sorry, I have no one else, plus, Scotland Yards requested we send you. Now, if you'll just listen to me, and go, I don't think it'll be that bad." Billy tried to reason.
"I'll have to talk to Amanda, I'll get back with you tomorrow." Lee said. He hastily left the office and shook his head.
"Good-bye." Amanda said as she hung up the phone. Turning in the kitchen, she looked out the back door and saw Lee. He preferred coming in from the back, while the front door was appealing, he enjoyed the memories that were harbored through the back. "Hey Handsome." Amanda said opening the door to her husband leaning against the frame and rubbing his nose. "What's wrong?" Amanda asked wrapping her arms around him.
Lee sighed and hugged her tightly. "You don't want to know." He rested his chin on the top of her head. Amanda stepped back.
"That bad huh?" Amanda asked him. Lee nodded and pulled her back into the close embrace. "Hey, tell me." Amanda said stepping back once more.
"Billy wants me to go to England for a few weeks." Lee said as he grabbed her hand to lead her into the kitchen.
"Lee, I know, what's the matter." Amanda said as she walked through the door. Lee turned to her with a stunned face.
"How, how do you know?" Lee asked.
"Lee, what's the matter?"
"I asked first." Lee argued.
"Actually, I did." Amanda argued back, Lee sighed in resignation, Amanda always won.
"Yeah. Manda, I don't want to leave you, you're five months pregnant, and the boys are both being a handful right now, it's not even like your mother can come over if you need any help. I don't want to leave you alone." Lee said, trying to reinforce his argument.
"Lee, I have been five months pregnant and alone before." Amanda said walking closer to him.
"Damn it Amanda, I'm not Joe, I don't just want to pick up and leave you alone." Lee yelled. "I'm not going to go tracing the paths of Magellan while you're carrying my child."
"Lee, England is a straight shot across the Atlantic, that's hardly tracing the paths of Magellan. I know you are not Joe, and that you'll be back from England in two weeks, not seven months." Amanda said as she kissed his cheek sweetly. Lee was still fuming.
"I'm not leaving you."
"I want you to go."
"Amanda, this agrument is over, finito, finished. I refuse to leave you with two teenage boys and one on the way, boy or girl, whatever it is." Lee calmed and corrected himself with the last half of the sentence.
"Lee, I took care of myself with a two-year-old, and one on the way." Amanda said trying to break his defenses.
"I don't care, you were carrying Jamie, and as much as I love him, as much as I would have been there for you when you were carrying him, he wasn't my child, this is my child, and I don't want anything to happen to it." Lee said as he took her hand and headed for the kitchen table. "I love you Mrs. Stetson." Lee said pulling her into his lap.
"I love you too." Amanda whispered, kissing his lips lightly. "So, since we're both agreed that we love each other, and the little baby inside of me, and the two boys that are at school at the moment, will you do me a favor?" Amanda asked.
"What, do you need more pickles?" Lee asked her. Amanda shook her head.
"No, I'm fine on the pickles. This child is going to hate pickles, but that doesn't matter. I want you to go to England." Amanda said as she grasped his lips in hers.
"You really want me to go huh?" Lee asked. Amanda nodded.
"I'll be fine, don't worry about me, you can call me every night. Lee, your assignment is a piece of cake, you just have to guard the Prime Minister and his wife for two weeks, plus, you only have to take the day shift, and you'll be off on Fridays and Saturdays." Amanda said pulling back from his embrace.
"Alright, I'll go, but I want this recorded, that I'm only going because you wanted me to. I don't want this to be thrown in my face in two weeks."
"Honey, no one, will throw this in your face."
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"I miss you." This was the opening line Lee chose the first night, in his England hotel, and the second, and the third, and all those to follow.
"Miss you too." Amanda answered him on the phone. "Philip says 'hi'." Amanda laughed as Jamie shouted through the walls. "Jamie wants to know what you're up to, so does your wife for that matter."
"You knew Emily was going to be here didn't you." Lee asked her.
Amanda laughed, that had been who she was talking to on the phone that day. "How else did you think I got my information?"
"She sends her love. She wants us to name the baby Emily if it's a girl." Lee told her.
"We can't, my sister named her daughter Emily, the names taken." Amanda replied.
"I love you." Lee said, trying to find a pleasant way to end the conversation, he'd heard people coming from outside the doorway.
"Love you." Amanda said smiling. "Philip and Jamie send their love too." Amanda told him, she knew his intention in saying 'I love you'.
"I'll be home in a few weeks."
"I know, I'm looking forward to it, and so is this baby."
"Oh, before I go, let me hear her." Lee said, he so hopped they'd have a baby girl for Amanda, a boy would be just as nice, but a girl would be perfect, they could have a boy later he figured.
"You know Mr. Stetson, you're the only man in America that wants a girl before a boy." Amanda said before she moved the phone down to her stomach that protruded her normally tiny figure.
Lee listened intently to the churns and gurgles that came from the stomach, he was probably just hearing silence over the phone, but he was allowed little pleasures like this one, and wished he could be at home with Amanda, sitting on the couch, with their hands resting upon her ever growing belly. A few seconds passed and Amanda lifted the phone up to her ear. "I'm going to go look at the catalogs for baby stuff." Amanda told him.
"Alright, but you promised…." Lee stopped as Amanda interrupted him.
"I won't order anything until you get here, I'll just circle what I like, the boy's will have the room ready for us to attack when you get back."
"Okay, I'm going to go, the sooner we get this over with the sooner I can be with you and my family."
They hung up the phone after exchanging 'I love you's once more. Amanda left with a feeling of emptiness that Lee shared, however his was mixed with uncertainty, the future left so much to the imagination, and Lee prayed that it would all turn out perfectly.
Two weeks passed rather slowly for the two, Philip and Jamie had been just fine, despite Lee's constant worries. Ironically, the car broke down while Amanda was coming back from taking them to school the day before Lee's flight came in and she was unable to pick him up from the airport. Neighbors had agreed to take Philip and Jamie back and forth from school, but until Lee got back, they were without transportation, seen as how Amanda was unable to drive the Corvette with her overly large tummy. Lee didn't mind taking a cab to the agency, filling out a report, and then taking a second cab home.
He stood outside 4247 Maplewood, staring at the house that he now called home, and he could hardly believe it. It didn't seem real to him, coming home from assignments had always been terribly depressing, but he couldn't have been happier for this homecoming. He walked up the front walk and expected to see Amanda standing at the other side of that door. But as he opened it, he learned he was mistaken.
"Manda!" Lee called as he sat his suitcase inside the door and headed to the kitchen. 'Where could she be?' "Amanda? Where are you?" He asked as he headed into the den. 'If anything happened to her…' His mind began to threaten thoughts of the negative. "Amanda, answer me!" He yelled once more, he looked in their bedroom and she wasn't there. He came out into the hallway and saw Philip and Jamie's bedroom door closed, he was about to go back down stairs and make a few phone calls when he saw that the nursery door was opened and the light was on.
He let out an easy sigh and walked toward the room shaking his head. He stepped in and saw Amanda sitting on the floor painting the room yellow with a Walkman clipped to her overalls. He laughed softly and walked up behind her. He tapped her shoulder and cleared his throat. Amanda jumped slightly startled by the tap and turned. She took the headphones off her ears and smiled at Lee. She leaped into his arms.
"I missed you." She said cheerfully.
"I missed you too." Lee said willingly allowing her into his arms. "But, I thought I said something about this."
"You said I couldn't pick out furniture." Lee took a step out of her arms. "This, is called painting."
"I really don't want you to paint."
"Why, I've done it before?"
"The fumes might not be good for the baby."
"The window's open."
"I'm just concerned." Lee said as he pulled her into his arms.
"I know." Amanda said as she slyly moved her arm down from his shoulder and lifted up the brush with yellow paint. "But you don't have to worry so much." Amanda said, she quickly lifted the brush and painted his cheek with yellow.
"That wasn't very fair Mrs. Stetson." Lee said in dispute. He slowly moved his finger along her side and dipped it in the paint. Then, brought it up, careful not to get it on anything else, he dotted her nose. Amanda dropped her mouth in shock. "Pay backs are hell." Lee told her. Amanda nodded and touched his nose with hers. "What were you listening to?" Lee asked as he lifted the headphones from over her head.
"Nothing that great." Amanda said as she pulled her head back for him.
"Well, I bought something in England, you'll love it, it's all about you." Lee said as he took her hand and led her to their bedroom so she could hear the tape. He lifted it out of his jacket pocket and put it in the radio. He sat her on the bed, and lay down next to her as the song started out.
She may be the face I can't forget. The trace of pleasure or regret. May be my treasure or the price I have to pay. She may be the song the summer sings maybe the chill the autumn brings. May be a hundred different things, within the measure of a day. She maybe the beauty or the beast, maybe the famine or the feast may turn each day into a heaven or hell. She may be the mirror of my dreams, a smile reflected in a stream, she may not be what she may seem, inside her shell. She, who always so happy in a crowd, who's eyes can be so prattled and so proud, no ones allowed to see them when they cry. She may be the love that cannot hope to last, may come to me from shadows of the past, but I'll remember till the day I die. She may be the reason I survive, though I am wakeful, I'm alive, though I don't care for through the rough and ready years. Me I'll take her laughter and her tears, and make them all my souvenirs, for when she goes I've got to be, the meaning of my life is she, she, ohhh, she.
"It's beautiful." Amanda said as she brushed her husband's hair. "I just have one question."
"What's that?" Lee asked as he turned to her.
"When do I make your life a hell?"
"Never, but I didn't get to write the song, I just paid 8 pounds for the tape. Maybe they needed something to rhyme with 'shell'." Lee gave her his dimpled smile and rubbed her stomach.
Four months later, they happily welcomed Eric Lee Stetson into their home. His nursery was filled with ducks, and his family filled with love.
The more detailed version of Eric's birth is in Secrets Can't Be Kept Forever.