Insecurities

Lee hung up the phone in the "Q" Bureau as Amanda came in. Seeing the grin on his face she smiled at him remarking, "What's going on?"

He smiled stating, "Oh, I just managed to score tickets to the O's last season game this weekend. You think the boys will wanna go?"

Amanda nodded replying, "Oh sure, Sweetheart. They'll love it. You gonna tell them tonight?"

Lee beamed as he said, "No. I want to surprise them tomorrow since the game is Sunday. I know how disappointed they were when Joe called the other night saying he had to go to Honduras for the rest of the month. I thought it might be something we could all do-"

Amanda shook her head sadly, "I'm sorry Lee, but Mother is going on that trip with Aunt Edna to Philadelphia to see the Flower Show and I have that charity drive in Manassas."

Lee shrugged and sighed stating, "Okay. Maybe next season for their opening game-"

But Amanda cut in remarking, "Wait. There's no reason you can't take them. Honey, this can be another way of bonding with them. And Jamie would love taking pictures at the game with the camera you gave him."

Lee looked uneasily at his wife of a few months and replied, "Are you sure? I mean, things have gotten slightly better with Jamie but I don't want to push it-"

Amanda waved it away stating, "I promise it'll be fine, okay? They'll love it. You'll have a great time. But you have two extra tickets. Maybe Billy or Beaman would want them?"

Lee shrugged remarking as he picked up his phone and dialed an extension, "Or Leatherneck even."

Amanda putting files away stated, "There you go."

The phone at Amanda's desk rang then and she answered it while Lee was talking to Billy. "Amanda King. Oh. Hello, Mother. What's up?"

As she talked, Lee was on his phone and queried to Billy, "You sure? Oh, okay. No, I understand. Yeah. Let me call Leatherneck now."

He hung up and dialed Leatherneck's extension. When Leatherneck answered, Lee inquired, "Got any plans for the weekend? I scored two extra tickets for the O's last game. You up for that? No, no. They're free, Pal. I did the guy in Crypto a favor and he gave them to me. Yeah? Okay. I'll drop them on your desk on the way out. I have a meeting across town anyway. No problem."

Just as Lee hung up his phone rang. He picked up and stated, "Stetson."

The teary voice on the other end was not what Lee expected. He queried with surprise, "It's been a long time. Uh, are you okay? You sound funny."

Amanda had just said goodbye to her mother and hung up and questioningly looked over at Lee as she heard his question to the caller.

As he listened to the caller he caught Amanda's glance and held up a hand. "Uh, where are you? Okay, why don't I meet you there and we'll talk. No, I promise it's not a problem. I'm heading that way for a meeting anyway. See you soon. Bye."

Hanging up he stated looking at Amanda, "Um, Amanda. That was an old friend-"

Amanda nodded, "Let me guess. Girlfriend?"

Seeing the hesitation on his face she responded, "It's okay. Really. Remember, we talked about our past relationships? So, which damsel in distress is it?"

Lee replied, "Margo."

Amanda was bewildered and inquired, "Wait. The one that left you for a pilot? Why does she want to see you? I'm not jealous. Just curious."

Lee shrugged, "I dunno, Honey. But I promise it won't take long because I have that meeting with the D.C. Mayor."

Looking at his watch he got up from his desk and sighed stating, "I'd better get going."

Getting to the door he bent down to kiss Amanda and queried, "Want me to swing by the school and pick the boys up after my second meeting?"

Amanda shook her head. "No. They're on that field trip to the Smithsonian today and then Mrs. Barton's going to pick them up after school, but thank you for thinking of that."

Lee nodded, "See you later."

He left and headed out of the Agency wondering what Margo wanted to talk to him about.

As he got downtown, he had to park down the street from the cafe where he was to meet Margo. Hopefully, it wouldn't take too long.

He reached the cafe and went in, scoping the area. Then he saw her sitting at a back table with an iced tea.

He was surprised at her rather demure appearance. When they dated a few years ago, she was known for her sense of style which was at times a bit too flashy.

Shaking his head, he couldn't believe his taste in women back then. But at the time he didn't take to anyone seriously enough to think about commitment. Until Amanda King came along, that is.

She was all that he needed and then some. Sighing as he remembered why he was there, he went to the table and touched her shoulder as he sat down. "Hi."

Margo nodded and replied, "Hi. Thanks for coming. I almost thought about leaving not because you're late or anything. You never are, but-"

Lee responded, "What can I do for you?"

Margo chuckled as she sipped her tea and put the glass down. "Same old Lee. Never pulling any punches-"

Lee queried, "Margo, please? What's going on?"

Margo sighed and slowly stated, "Brad dumped me. We're finished. I can't believe it. I really thought we had a good thing going-"

Lee snorted and replied, "Brad? The guy that you left me for? You gotta be kidding me. Why would I even care about this?"

Margo looked genuinely hurt by his comment and retorted, "Lee, c'mon! You have to admit that you and I had it good for a while-"

Lee scoffed, "Right. Until you decided that I wasn't enough. You and I both agreed not to get serious about things and then you started in on the house stuff-"

Margo shook her head sadly and responded, "It was much better for entertaining than your apartment which quite frankly was a bit too small-"

Lee shook his head at her replying, "Oh, give me a break! I didn't need that big place! You just wanted something to show off to your friends. I wasn't part of the grand scheme and you already knew that. That's why we ended. Why are we rehashing this anyway? What do you want?"

Margo sighed and stated slowly, "I know I don't have the right to ask this, but could you talk to him for me? Get him to see that I'm not so bad?"

Lee shook his head disbelievingly at her and got up from the seat across from her stating, "Goodbye, Margo. Best of luck to you."

He turned and walked out of the cafe thinking, What did I ever see in her anyway?

As he reached the curb where his car was parked, he felt a hand grab at his arm! It was Margo who pleaded with him remarking, "Please, Lee! You're my only hope! He-he won't take my phone calls and I've been turned away at the airfield where he flys his plane."

Lee wrested his arm away from her as her tears fell! "Margo, get off of me! I'm not helping you with this. Let go!"

Just then as traffic was passing them, a school bus was also moving and it was Phillip and Jamie's class in it. Phillip happened to see Lee at that moment as he was at a window seat and couldn't believe what he saw.

It was Lee with another woman and she looked like she was crying and Lee looked mad. But he couldn't see much else because the bus kept moving.

A classmate saw what Phillip was looking at and queried, "Who's that?"

Phillip shrugged and replied, "I don't know-"

Jamie then came over and queried, "Hey. Wasn't that Lee, Phillip?"

Phillip glared at him and remarked harshly, "No it wasn't, Wormbrain! Go back to your seat!"

The teacher came back then to ask, "Is there a problem we need to talk about?"

Phillip shook his head sullenly and the teacher then said, "Fine. Tommy and Phillip, switch seats with Jamie and Billy and stay in your seats until we get back to the school. Is that understood?"

The boys nodded and that was that.

When the boys returned to school, Mrs. Barton was waiting for them and they got in her car.

As she drove back to her place she asked, "So, did you have a good day? Did you get to see a lot of exhibits?"

Billy piped up, "Yeah. The Smithsonian is really cool, Mom. We were gonna go to the Monument, but we didn't have enough time. Then on our way back, Phillip thought he saw someone he knew-"

Phillip shook his head and retorted to Billy, "I didn't know, okay? I thought I did-"

Mrs. Barton commented, "Oh by the way, Phillip. Your mother called me before I left and told me that Mr. Stetson would be by early tomorrow to spend the day with you and Jamie since she would be in Manassas. That will be nice, won't it?"

Phillip shrugged and replied, "I guess, but I still have some homework I gotta do-"

Jamie spoke up then and stated, "He's kidding, Mrs. Barton. We finished ours on the bus-"

Phillip poked his brother in the ribs and glared at him. Why was he stuck with him? He never knew when to keep quiet.

Changing the subject Billy said, "Mom, what's for dinner? "

Mrs. Barton smiled and replied, "I was thinking about meatloaf-"

As the three boys groaned Mrs. Barton exclaimed, "Gotcha! How do hamburgers sound?"

Three joyous whoops sounded then and Mrs. Barton nodded, "I thought so. Billy, your dad's home right now getting things ready. Let's not keep him waiting."

Later as Phillip and Jamie came home Amanda greeted them and stated, "Hi, Fellas. How was the trip?'

Phillip shrugged and answered softly, "Aw, no big deal. I'm tired. I'm gonna go up. Goodnight, Mom."

He started to go up and Amanda stated, "Hey. No kiss?"

Phillip rolled his eyes but came back to kiss her cheek and remarked, "Night."

He headed up and Amanda put her arm around Jamie and inquired softly, "What happened today? "

Jamie shrugged. "I dunno. We were having a good time all day but when we were on the bus leaving the Smithsonian we passed this food place that was outside and-"

Amanda cut in stating, "A cafe you mean, right?"

Jamie nodded and replied, "Yeah. Anyway, I think Phillip saw Lee-"

Amanda looked concerned and commented, "Really? Well, he did have a meeting in D.C. so it's possible."

Jamie shrugged and responded, "Yeah I thought it was him too even though I only saw for a second. But Phillip then said he didn't know who it was. If it was Lee, why would he say he didn't know, Mom?"

Amanda sighed and answered, "I dunno, Sweetheart. Look, why don't you head up now and I'll be right there, okay?"

Jamie nodded and kissed her. "Okay. Night, Mom."

As Jamie got in the bedroom he queried to Phillip, "What's wrong? I thought you liked Lee-"

Phillip shook his head and responded, "I do. It's just- oh, forget it. You wouldn't get it. Go to bed."

As the boys settled in Amanda came in and stated, "So, tomorrow's gonna be nice. You both get to spend the day with Lee while I'm at the charity drive."

Phillip yawned and stated, "Well, Jamie can. I already promised Tommy I'd go skateboarding with him-"

Amanda shook her head remarking, "Well you can just unpromise him, Young Man-"

Phillip began to protest but Amanda stopped him and stated, "Look. The weekend is the only time Lee gets to relax and I think it would be rude of you to brush him off when all he talked about this week was spending the weekend with you and your brother. I don't want you hurting his feelings. Now if you knew you had plans already, you should have said something sooner. But it's too late because he'll be here early in the morning."

Sighing Amanda kissed both boys and stated as she was leaving, "Goodnight, Boys."

They uttered their goodnights and Amanda headed back to her room. Shaking her head as she got into bed, she wondered what was wrong with Phillip. He usually got on well with Lee.

She decided to talk to him later about it...

TBC