Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. We retain rights to the plot, but not the characters. this story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

This is a repost of a story I wrote more than fifteen years ago. I'm just re-posting it under some minor editing. I will eventually be posting an M-Rated version under my newer pen name. This is a missing scene from All That Glitters. What Lee did between the time he left Elisa's house in flames and when he turned up at the Pentagon early the next morning.

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Lee walked into his apartment and heaved a deep sigh. He hated this assignment. Why did Dr. Smyth have to ask him to "get next to" Elisa? He stripped his coat and tie off and threw them haphazardly on the couch. He walked into the bedroom and stopped short. He looked down and saw his wife sound asleep in his bed. Wife, he thought to himself. Sometimes it amazed him that Amanda was his wife, that he, Lee Stetson who was known as the playboy of playboys around The Agency, was married. The sad thing was, as much as he loved his wife, he didn't really feel like her husband. They didn't live together. They didn't share anything that typical married couples did; No home, no joint bank account, no sharing of household chores, no sharing of the Sunday paper or the TV remote and no children. He felt a stab of pain as he thought of the children he so desperately wanted with her, knowing that with their lives the way they were, it was impossible. He wondered if she would even want children with him. She had her two boys who were young teenagers and as much as he cared for Phillip and Jamie and would do anything to protect them, he wasn't their father. He'd thought many times in the few months they'd been married of talking to her about it, but he didn't know what her reaction would be. They'd only briefly touched on the subject once when they were engaged and talking about their future, but the idea had been quickly quashed when they'd seen the trouble one of their fellow spies had gotten into when his young son had been used as a pawn in the vicious espionage game they played. No, he firmly told himself. It would never work. Any children we would have would instantly be in danger from the moment of conception. Someday, maybe, but not now, his tormented mind added, though he knew if they were ever going to have children together, it would have to be soon as neither of them was getting any younger. They were both nearly 37 already.

He let out another heavy sigh as he looked down at his sleeping wife and then at his bare left hand when he noticed as she lay there with her arms clutching his pillow that she was wearing both of her rings. She must have taken them out of the safe in the living room where they kept the rings and all other evidence of their secret marriage carefully hidden away from the rest of the world. He smiled a little at seeing the gold band on her hand alongside the diamond ring he'd bought her right after his impromptu proposal when they were once again facing certain death as they had many times over the last four years. He hadn't expected Amanda to be here tonight. He guessed she must have been missing him as much as he'd been missing her, or at least he hoped so. It was ironic to him that they spent less time together now that they were married than they had before they were even a couple. He wanted nothing more right now than to take her in his arms and show her just how much he'd been missing her, but she looked so peaceful that he didn't have the heart to disturb her sleep. He tried to tiptoe past the bed toward the bathroom without waking her up.

"Lee?" A sleepy voice called stopping him in his tracks.

Too late, Lee thought as he turned to look at Amanda. "Hi. I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's ok. I didn't mean to fall asleep. I just thought I'd wait for you." She released her grip on his pillow, sat up in bed and held out her arms to him. He moved toward her and wrapped his arms around her. Amanda pulled back a little as she noticed the smell on him immediately. It was a combination of expensive perfume and smoke. "What happened?"

"Someone broke in and set fire to Elisa's house."

"You're kidding. Are you ok?" She reached for the lamp on the nightstand and turned it on. She was worried about him now. She always worried about him being out in the field without her. They looked after each other and without her there, she worried about what kind of danger he might find himself in.

"I'm fine, but Elisa's in the hospital. She inhaled a lot of smoke. It was a close call."

"I see. Looks like that wasn't the only close call tonight," She said as she pointed the lipstick smudges on his collar. She felt a stab of jealousy, knowing that he'd been spending the past few days with a woman that she'd read about for years in the society column, a woman she knew that her husband had once been intimate with, a woman who was rich, glamorous, and beautiful, all the things that she was not. How could she compete with that?

The look on his wife's face was not lost on Lee. "Amanda, you don't have anything to worry about." He said as he took off his shirt and dropped it to the floor.

"Uh-huh." she said, not convinced.

"Look, Amanda. Elisa is part of my past, ok? She's someone that I had a meaningless fling with."

"She obviously doesn't think it was so meaningless," She retorted as she picked up his lipstick-stained shirt. He took the shirt from her and threw it violently toward the chair in the corner in frustration. He gently took her hands in his.

"Look, Amanda. You're the one I married, for better or for worse, remember? Elisa's the type that wants to be there for the better part, but not the worse part. You are the one I want to spend my life with."

"Yeah?" He nodded silently. "Prove it."

"I don't know how to prove it to you except to tell you how much I love you." He kissed her softly. She pulled him closer to her running her hands across his bare chest, longing to be close to him.

"That's a start," She said as she linked he hands behind his neck urging him closer. She pressed a kiss to his kips which he responded to eagerly as they fell back on the bed together.

An hour later, they lay wrapped in each other's arms and Amanda was ready to drift off to sleep again. Lee nudged her gently.

"Amanda," he whispered. "I hate to do this to you, but I need to go. I have some more investigating to do."

"That's ok," she said disappointed, but understanding as she tried to stifle a ywan. "The sooner this case is wrapped up, the sooner you don't have to see Elisa anymore."

"Amen to that." He kissed his wife before he slipped out of bed. "I love you." Amanda turned over and drifted back to sleep with a satisfied smile on her face.