Keeping Secrets
Disclaimer: The characters of this show are not mine, and I am not making any money from them. Just having a little fun.
"Wow, that dinner was fantastic." Lee and Amanda headed into kitchen to clean up the dinner dishes. They had just shared a quiet evening together, a rare occurrence in their lives. "I guess Billy was right," he added as he stopped behind Amanda, encircling her in his arms.
"About what?" Amanda asked as she turned to face him. She couldn't figure out what Billy would know about her and Lee having dinner.
"We are a pretty effective team, both in the field and in the kitchen," Lee answered, giving her a quick peck on the cheek before releasing her from his arms and grabbing a dishtowel.
Having the dishes done the couple settled in front of the fire with a glass of wine to enjoy the rarity of a quiet evening spent as husband and wife.
"So are you sure you want to do this?" Amanda started the conversation they knew they had both been waiting to have.
"Absolutely!"
"How do you think we should do it?"
"Billy and Francine first, then your family."
"You sound like you've really thought this out. When do you think we should tell them?"
"If we tell Billy and Francine tomorrow, we can tell your family on Tuesday after dinner. Depending on how everything turns out we could be a family by next weekend."
"That would be nice. What do you think Billy will say?" Amanda knew that Billy approved of their relationship. He had told them as much. However, she was worried about hurting his feelings since they had kept the marriage a secret.
"He'll understand, I think," Lee answered a little uncertainly. He and Billy had been good friends for some time and Billy had dropped hints to Lee about settling down. But Lee knew Billy would be a little disappointed about being kept in the dark about the marriage.
"You know Francine is going to be so mad at us. I know you were alone when you led her to believe that you broke things off with me," Lee said with a mischievous grin. "But I want us to be together when we tell her about us. I can't wait to see the look on her face."
Amanda shook her head and they enjoyed a laugh at Francine's expense.
"What about your mother and the boys?" Lee asked.
"I'm not sure. Mother will certainly be disappointed, but she loves you about as much as I do and has already come to see you as part of the family. I don't think she will stay mad for too long. The boys on the other hand will be somewhat surprised about everything. They think you're wonderful, but it may come as a shock that we went off and got married without telling them. I think your becoming a constant presence in their lives these past five months will help their adjustment to you being with us all the time. Overall, I think by doing this now, we will all have the summer to adjust to being a family, without having the rushed schedule we have when the boys are in school."
Lee sat amazed at both the speed Amanda was able to say all that and the fact that he was actually able to keep up with her. He had learned two things in the years he had known Amanda. One was that she only spoke quickly when she nervous or excited and figured there was probably a mixture of both in this latest ramble. The other thing he learned was that when Amanda got started in one of her rambles, he needed to listen carefully if he was going to really hear what she was saying. Yes, Lee Stetson had gotten to know his Amanda over the past four and a half years as well as she had gotten to know him.
Having made plans of how they were going to let everyone in on their little secret, the couple sat back relishing the next few hours of their last weekend as a secretly married couple. They knew they would not be spending too many more weekends in uninterrupted marital bliss.
"Ok everyone, you have your assignments. Let's get on it." Billy said dismissing the group.
Lee and Amanda stayed back to let the other agents leave the room before approaching Billy, who was giving last minute instructions to Francine.
"Uh, Billy," Lee spoke up, while Amanda studied one of the buttons on her blouse. "Could Amanda and I have a few minutes of your time ?"
"Francine, too," Amanda added looking up from her blouse.
"Something wrong with your assignment?" Billy questioned looking from one to the other.
"No, sir."
"Just a personal matter we want to discuss with you," Lee said suddenly nervous about what he and Amanda were about to do.
"Oh, I see. I'll meet you at my office in ten minutes," Billy conceded.
"Yes, sir, thank you." Leaving the conference room, Lee and Amanda missed the knowing look exchanged between Billy and Francine.
Sitting in Billy's office, Billy and Francine waited with expectant expressions while Lee and Amanda summoned up the courage to come clean about their marriage.
"How can we help you two?" Billy inquired.
"Well Billy, Amanda and I have a confession to make." Lee said. 'This was so much easier when we were talking about it last night.'
Sensing Lee's discomfort, Amanda decided to come to his rescue. "You see, sir, what Lee and I want to tell you is that we're married."
This time the smirks and looks between Billy and Francine did not go unnoticed by Lee and Amanda, who in turn looked at each other in curiosity
"What's so funny?" Lee asked, not seeing the humor in the situation.
"We already know you two are married," Billy added with a big grin. "What we're curious about is why you're telling us now? Is there something else you want to tell us?"
After considering Billy's question the true meaning finally came to Amanda who volunteered "No, sir," almost too emphatically. "We're not. I'm not. no, sir."
Catching on to what Amanda was trying to say Lee came to her rescue this time. "We're just tired of keeping our marriage a secret. We want to live like normal people." This statement brought out a groan from Francine.
"Why were you keeping it a secret?" Francine's curiosity was getting the best of her now.
"We thought it would be safer for our family if no one knew we were married," Amanda volunteered.
"Yeah, I've made plenty of enemies and after what happened to Kai's family, I thought it would be best if we just kept it a secret. How did you find out?"
"Well, when one of my best agents gets shot on vacation," Billy said looking pointedly at Amanda. "I start to get a little curious about what kind of vacation she's taking."
"It didn't take too long to dig up the information we were looking for." Francine added. "You didn't exactly do a good job of hiding the evidence."
Lee and Amanda looked at each other like two children who'd gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
"Have you told your family yet?" Billy addressed the question to Amanda.
"We are planning on telling them tonight. We're going to have a lot of explaining to do," Amanda said.
"We're going to have to tell them about our job, Billy."
"Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Now get to work."
"Yes, sir." Lee and Amanda got up and headed out of Billy's office when he stopped them.
"Oh," the agents turned to face him, "congratulations." He said with a smile.
"Thank you, Billy."
"Thank you, sir."
The agents shared smile and headed for the elevator, while Billy watched them with a grin and a shake of his head.
"They must feel a lot better having that out in the open." Francine's voice had reminded Billy that he was not alone in his office. "Although, I'm having a hard time picturing Lee 'normal'"
"Francine, can I have my office back?" Billy was not going to listen to Francine criticize his best agents.
With that, Francine left Billy's office. She decided on a quick trip up to the Q-Bureau to privately offer her congratulations to Lee and Amanda.
Amanda arrived home from work early the next day to help her mother prepare dinner. She was determined to have everything perfect when they broke the news to her family.
Amanda's extra effort did not go unnoticed by Dotty. "Amanda is there something I should know about?" Dotty was determined to find out what was going on.
"What do you mean, Mother?"
"Well, you're home early and preparing everything as if someone special where coming for dinner. Is someone special coming for dinner?"
"Lee's coming over."
"Lee has been here for hamburgers on paper plates, Amanda. You're practically getting out the fine china. What's going on?"
Motioning her mother towards the couch in the family room, Amanda invited her mother to sit down. "Mother everything in here is fine for now. Let's talk."
Dotty sat on the couch followed by Amanda who sat next to her. "Mother, Lee and I wanted to talk to you and the boys tonight, but it may be better if I talk to you first."
"Amanda, what's going on? Is everything all right?"
"Yes, Mother, everything is fine. What Lee and I wanted to tell you all tonight is that we're married." Amanda waited nervously for her mother to get upset. She also knew she would have a million questions. What she didn't expect was what she heard from her mother.
"Ok, Amanda."
"Mother we're sorry...? Did you just say 'Ok'?"
"Yes, Amanda, ok. I would like to know something though."
'Here it goes! the million questions.'
"What took you so long to tell me?" Again, that was not what Amanda was expecting. "You have been married since February, haven't you?" Dotty asked at Amanda's questioning look.
"How did you find out? And, why didn't you say anything?" Dotty was enjoying the fact that she had turned the tables on her own daughter.
"Well dear, a mother learns a lot from sitting by her daughters bed in a hospital room. I heard the doctor refer to you as Lee's wife. I still don't understand why the big secret." Dotty was willing to answer questions, but she wanted to ask a few of her own.
"Well, Mother, it has a lot to do with my and Lee's jobs." Amanda decided since she started, she may as well go ahead and finish this conversation with her mother, even if Lee wasn't there.
"You mean your jobs at IFF, or your jobs as spies?" Dotty again relished the expression on Amanda's face.
This conversation was not going at all the way Amanda had expected it to. Her mother had already known about her marriage and her job. She was starting to wish Lee had been there, after all.
"How did you find out about that?" Amanda almost spat the words out in surprise. She was now wondering what else her mother knew.
"A mother tends to notice these things, Amanda. Things like phone calls at odd hours, phony excuses about where you've been or where you're going. Amanda, I could always tell when you weren't telling the truth. And you have not been telling the truth for quite a while now. There are also the times when lee would pop up in the kitchen window when he thought I wasn't looking, the trampled flowers and the many times I've come downstairs to find you talking to someone in the backyard." At Amanda's dumbfounded look, Dotty asked, "Amanda did you really think I could have had all that going on around me and not notice?"
"I guess not, Mother." Amanda was ashamed to think that she had tried to fool her mother all this time. "Why didn't you say anything."
"Darling, remember when you told me you were a spy and I didn't believe you?" Amanda nodded. "I knew, or I had my suspicions, anyway. I also knew that you weren't supposed to be telling me so I acted like I didn't believe you." Amanda was amazed at how perceptive her mother was. "I also noticed how happy you were whenever Lee would come around, or how angry he made you. I decided if you wanted to talk to me about it you would, but you never did until now. But, why now?"
"Well, Mother, we're tired of saying goodbye at the door every night. We want to be a family. We've been wanting this for a while, but we wanted to give the boys a chance to get to know Lee first. We've decided the time is right now."
"I think so too, darling. Is that why you're working so hard on dinner tonight?"
Amanda nodded, "I wanted everything to nice. In case you all got angry with us, at least we would all have had a good dinner." Dotty leaned in to give Amanda a hug.
"Amanda, I'm just thrilled to see you so happy and in love. I've known for quite a while that Lee was right for you. I'm not sure what the boys are going to think. But, if we don't get in there to finish that dinner, all your hard work will be ruined." With that, Dotty got up to head back into the kitchen.
"Mother," Dotty stopped and turned to face Amanda. Amanda stood and embraced her mother. "Thank you. I love you." The look in Amanda's eyes expressed everything else she wanted her mother to know.
"I love you too, Amanda, and you're welcome."
The two women were working side by side and talking more about what had been going on in Amanda's life the past four years when the back door opened. "Hello, Lee." Dotty greeted her son-in-law, while Amanda went to give him a proper greeting.
After kissing his wife, Lee turned his attention to Dotty. "Hello Dotty, these are for you." Lee extended his hand to offer Dotty a bouquet of flowers similar to the ones he had given her the night he had come to take Amanda on their first date. "And this is for dinner." In Lee's other hand was a bottle of wine.
"Thank you, Lee." Dotty accepted the flower's and the wine. "I'll take care of these." Dotty said as she went to get a vase from the other room.
"How are things?" Lee whispered in Amanda's ear as he pulled her in for a hug and another kiss.
"She knows."
"She knows?"
"She's known all the time. About our jobs too."
"How? When?" Lee was amazed that Dotty had know all this time and had never said anything.
"About our marriage, since California. Seems she overheard the doctor call me your wife. About our jobs, seems I'm not a very good liar, and you're not very good about popping up out of the bushes unnoticed."
"Are we in trouble?" Lee wasn't sure how he should be behaving around Dotty after hearing what Amanda had just told him.
"We don't appear to be. As I told you before, Mother loves you." She kissed him again. "And so do I." Lee couldn't resist another kiss.
"You aren't going to get dinner done that way." Startled by Dotty's voice, Lee and Amanda jumped apart.
Lee decided now was as good a time as any to pay the piper. "Dotty, Amanda tells me that you know about us. Please let me say how sorry I..."
"Lee do you love my daughter? Of course you do." Dotty answered the question for him. "Take care of her and keep her happy." She kissed his cheek. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather have for a son-in law."
"Thank you, Dotty. I will definitely take care of her." He hugged his mother-in-law. "I'll take care of all of you." He kissed her cheek before he let her go.
Dinner had gone quite well, or as well as any other dinner in the King house. Lee had become a regular fixture at the dinner table, so the boys weren't the least bit suspicious that their worlds were about to be changed.
Philip and Jamie rose from the table with dishes in their hands prepared to clear the table and load the dishwasher. However they were stopped by their grandmother who offered to do the chore for them instead.
"Boys, how about you two go into the den, I'll do the dishes tonight." Philip and Jamie looked at each other then to their mother.
"It's all right boys. You can have the night off." That was all the confirmation the boys needed. They each let out a holler, kissed their grandmother's cheeks and ran off to the den.
Lee and Amanda followed close behind the boys to the den. Now would be a good time to have that talk. "Philip? Jamie?" Amanda got their attention. "Lee and I would like to talk to the both of you."
Again, Philip and Jamie looked from one to another before sitting down on the couch. This was turning into one weird evening. First the fancy dinner, then their grandmother offering to do the dishes, now their mother and Lee wanted to talk. This could only mean one thing, and the boys knew what it was.
Philip was the first to speak. "What's up, Mom?"
"Is everything ok?" Jamie added.
Lee stood near Amanda and took hold of her hand. This was not going to be easy for her, and he wanted to remind her that he was here to help.
"Yes, everything is fine, Jamie. Lee and I just have a few things to discuss with you. You know that Lee and I have been seeing a lot of each other these past several months." The boys nodded. "Well you see it's really been a bit more than that." Amanda struggled at how to actually tell the boys that her and Lee were in fact married.
"You mean that you two are married," Philip stated matter-of-factly. Amanda's head shot up and looked straight at the boys who were waiting for her response. This time it was Lee and Amanda's turn to exchange looks.
"Yes." It was Lee's voice that Amanda heard next.
Dotty who had been listening from the kitchen could no longer hold back her curiosity. "How long have you two known?" she asked. It seemed Amanda had not yet found her voice.
"Well, it's been a while actually." Philip was the first to respond.
"Yeah, we found out one day when we were at Lee's apartment." Jamie decided to fill them in on how they found out. "Mom wasn't there and Lee went to help a friend with his car. He left Philip and I there alone and told us we could play video games. I needed to use the bathroom and went looking for it when I found a picture of Mom and Lee on the TV in the bedroom. I wasn't trying to be nosy, really." Jamie didn't want them to think he had been snooping around Lee's apartment.
Lee, Amanda and Dotty sat and listened while the boys finished their explanation.
"Jamie showed the picture to me too. We started fighting over the picture. That's when the marriage certificate fell out. We looked at it. But we put it back, honest." The boys were starting to worry that they had been to nosy and would be in trouble for going through Lee's things. "Anyway, it all made sense after that. We kept seeing Mom's things around the apartment, and we knew why."
"Why didn't you come to me?" Amanda was finally able to pull herself out of the shock she had just been in.
"Well," Jamie ducked his head. "I was still jealous of Lee back then, so I called Dad." Again, Lee and Amanda exchanged looks. "It's ok, he knows."
"Yes, sweetheart, I know he does."
"He does?" It was Dotty's turn to be surprised.
"What did your father tell you?" Amanda was curious about how Joe had handled the situation, and why he had never mentioned it to her.
"He explained that Lee was a nice man and that we should give him a chance. He said that your jobs dealt with a lot of secrets and that you both had a good reason for not telling us."
Lee and Amanda exchanged smiles. They were going to have to remember to thank Joe later.
"So, Lee, when are you moving in?" Philip had interrupted their thoughts.
"Well, we thought that if we told you all early in the week, that maybe I could move in by this weekend. Would that be all right with you two?" Lee looked back and forth between the two boys as he asked the question.
"Cool!" the boys shouted.
"Welcome to the family, Lee." Jamie extended his hand to his new step-dad. The fact that Jamie had welcomed him first meant a lot to Lee.
"Thank you." Lee shook Jamie's hand and then Philip's when he had echoed Jamie's welcome.
"Can we play video games now?" Philip asked.
The adults shook their heads and laughed. "Yes, you can play for a while before bed. You still have school tomorrow." Amanda rustled the boys' hair and kissed each of her sons on the cheek. The three then adults made their way into the kitchen.
Amanda helped her mother finish the dishes while Lee helped himself to a cup of coffee. They talked about their plans for moving Lee in to the house over the weekend.
The next two days crawled by for Lee and Amanda. Billy had purposely kept them busy with filing so they wouldn't be involved in a big case over the weekend. On Thursday evening, he made a special visit to the Q-Bureau to tell them they could have the next day off.
Friday was spent at the apartment packing boxes. Saturday was moving day. Lee had, in the past few months, gotten over his jealousy of Joe, and was now grateful of that fact, as Joe and Carrie spent the weekend helping Lee and Amanda get settled.
With furniture sorted and moved, boxes unloaded, and a quick dinner of pizza, everyone was thoroughly exhausted. The boys and Dotty had turned in early leaving Lee and Amanda downstairs alone for the first time all day.
"I didn't know moving could be this exhausting." Lee sighed as he leaned his head back on the couch.
"It is a lot harder when you don't have movers doing it for you," Amanda teased.
"I now have a new respect for moving men. To have to do that all day everyday."
"What do you say we go up to bed?" Amanda was beginning to feel her body shut down.
"I think that's the best thing I've heard all day." Lee rose from the couch and extended his hand to his wife.
Together they walked to the stairs. Amanda stopped on the bottom step and turned to look at Lee.
"Welcome home," she whispered as she leaned in to kiss him. She turned back around and resumed her assent up the stairs as.
Her words echoed in Lee's ears, "Welcome home". He didn't know if he had ever heard such nicer words.
Disclaimer: The characters of this show are not mine, and I am not making any money from them. Just having a little fun.
"Wow, that dinner was fantastic." Lee and Amanda headed into kitchen to clean up the dinner dishes. They had just shared a quiet evening together, a rare occurrence in their lives. "I guess Billy was right," he added as he stopped behind Amanda, encircling her in his arms.
"About what?" Amanda asked as she turned to face him. She couldn't figure out what Billy would know about her and Lee having dinner.
"We are a pretty effective team, both in the field and in the kitchen," Lee answered, giving her a quick peck on the cheek before releasing her from his arms and grabbing a dishtowel.
Having the dishes done the couple settled in front of the fire with a glass of wine to enjoy the rarity of a quiet evening spent as husband and wife.
"So are you sure you want to do this?" Amanda started the conversation they knew they had both been waiting to have.
"Absolutely!"
"How do you think we should do it?"
"Billy and Francine first, then your family."
"You sound like you've really thought this out. When do you think we should tell them?"
"If we tell Billy and Francine tomorrow, we can tell your family on Tuesday after dinner. Depending on how everything turns out we could be a family by next weekend."
"That would be nice. What do you think Billy will say?" Amanda knew that Billy approved of their relationship. He had told them as much. However, she was worried about hurting his feelings since they had kept the marriage a secret.
"He'll understand, I think," Lee answered a little uncertainly. He and Billy had been good friends for some time and Billy had dropped hints to Lee about settling down. But Lee knew Billy would be a little disappointed about being kept in the dark about the marriage.
"You know Francine is going to be so mad at us. I know you were alone when you led her to believe that you broke things off with me," Lee said with a mischievous grin. "But I want us to be together when we tell her about us. I can't wait to see the look on her face."
Amanda shook her head and they enjoyed a laugh at Francine's expense.
"What about your mother and the boys?" Lee asked.
"I'm not sure. Mother will certainly be disappointed, but she loves you about as much as I do and has already come to see you as part of the family. I don't think she will stay mad for too long. The boys on the other hand will be somewhat surprised about everything. They think you're wonderful, but it may come as a shock that we went off and got married without telling them. I think your becoming a constant presence in their lives these past five months will help their adjustment to you being with us all the time. Overall, I think by doing this now, we will all have the summer to adjust to being a family, without having the rushed schedule we have when the boys are in school."
Lee sat amazed at both the speed Amanda was able to say all that and the fact that he was actually able to keep up with her. He had learned two things in the years he had known Amanda. One was that she only spoke quickly when she nervous or excited and figured there was probably a mixture of both in this latest ramble. The other thing he learned was that when Amanda got started in one of her rambles, he needed to listen carefully if he was going to really hear what she was saying. Yes, Lee Stetson had gotten to know his Amanda over the past four and a half years as well as she had gotten to know him.
Having made plans of how they were going to let everyone in on their little secret, the couple sat back relishing the next few hours of their last weekend as a secretly married couple. They knew they would not be spending too many more weekends in uninterrupted marital bliss.
"Ok everyone, you have your assignments. Let's get on it." Billy said dismissing the group.
Lee and Amanda stayed back to let the other agents leave the room before approaching Billy, who was giving last minute instructions to Francine.
"Uh, Billy," Lee spoke up, while Amanda studied one of the buttons on her blouse. "Could Amanda and I have a few minutes of your time ?"
"Francine, too," Amanda added looking up from her blouse.
"Something wrong with your assignment?" Billy questioned looking from one to the other.
"No, sir."
"Just a personal matter we want to discuss with you," Lee said suddenly nervous about what he and Amanda were about to do.
"Oh, I see. I'll meet you at my office in ten minutes," Billy conceded.
"Yes, sir, thank you." Leaving the conference room, Lee and Amanda missed the knowing look exchanged between Billy and Francine.
Sitting in Billy's office, Billy and Francine waited with expectant expressions while Lee and Amanda summoned up the courage to come clean about their marriage.
"How can we help you two?" Billy inquired.
"Well Billy, Amanda and I have a confession to make." Lee said. 'This was so much easier when we were talking about it last night.'
Sensing Lee's discomfort, Amanda decided to come to his rescue. "You see, sir, what Lee and I want to tell you is that we're married."
This time the smirks and looks between Billy and Francine did not go unnoticed by Lee and Amanda, who in turn looked at each other in curiosity
"What's so funny?" Lee asked, not seeing the humor in the situation.
"We already know you two are married," Billy added with a big grin. "What we're curious about is why you're telling us now? Is there something else you want to tell us?"
After considering Billy's question the true meaning finally came to Amanda who volunteered "No, sir," almost too emphatically. "We're not. I'm not. no, sir."
Catching on to what Amanda was trying to say Lee came to her rescue this time. "We're just tired of keeping our marriage a secret. We want to live like normal people." This statement brought out a groan from Francine.
"Why were you keeping it a secret?" Francine's curiosity was getting the best of her now.
"We thought it would be safer for our family if no one knew we were married," Amanda volunteered.
"Yeah, I've made plenty of enemies and after what happened to Kai's family, I thought it would be best if we just kept it a secret. How did you find out?"
"Well, when one of my best agents gets shot on vacation," Billy said looking pointedly at Amanda. "I start to get a little curious about what kind of vacation she's taking."
"It didn't take too long to dig up the information we were looking for." Francine added. "You didn't exactly do a good job of hiding the evidence."
Lee and Amanda looked at each other like two children who'd gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
"Have you told your family yet?" Billy addressed the question to Amanda.
"We are planning on telling them tonight. We're going to have a lot of explaining to do," Amanda said.
"We're going to have to tell them about our job, Billy."
"Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Now get to work."
"Yes, sir." Lee and Amanda got up and headed out of Billy's office when he stopped them.
"Oh," the agents turned to face him, "congratulations." He said with a smile.
"Thank you, Billy."
"Thank you, sir."
The agents shared smile and headed for the elevator, while Billy watched them with a grin and a shake of his head.
"They must feel a lot better having that out in the open." Francine's voice had reminded Billy that he was not alone in his office. "Although, I'm having a hard time picturing Lee 'normal'"
"Francine, can I have my office back?" Billy was not going to listen to Francine criticize his best agents.
With that, Francine left Billy's office. She decided on a quick trip up to the Q-Bureau to privately offer her congratulations to Lee and Amanda.
Amanda arrived home from work early the next day to help her mother prepare dinner. She was determined to have everything perfect when they broke the news to her family.
Amanda's extra effort did not go unnoticed by Dotty. "Amanda is there something I should know about?" Dotty was determined to find out what was going on.
"What do you mean, Mother?"
"Well, you're home early and preparing everything as if someone special where coming for dinner. Is someone special coming for dinner?"
"Lee's coming over."
"Lee has been here for hamburgers on paper plates, Amanda. You're practically getting out the fine china. What's going on?"
Motioning her mother towards the couch in the family room, Amanda invited her mother to sit down. "Mother everything in here is fine for now. Let's talk."
Dotty sat on the couch followed by Amanda who sat next to her. "Mother, Lee and I wanted to talk to you and the boys tonight, but it may be better if I talk to you first."
"Amanda, what's going on? Is everything all right?"
"Yes, Mother, everything is fine. What Lee and I wanted to tell you all tonight is that we're married." Amanda waited nervously for her mother to get upset. She also knew she would have a million questions. What she didn't expect was what she heard from her mother.
"Ok, Amanda."
"Mother we're sorry...? Did you just say 'Ok'?"
"Yes, Amanda, ok. I would like to know something though."
'Here it goes! the million questions.'
"What took you so long to tell me?" Again, that was not what Amanda was expecting. "You have been married since February, haven't you?" Dotty asked at Amanda's questioning look.
"How did you find out? And, why didn't you say anything?" Dotty was enjoying the fact that she had turned the tables on her own daughter.
"Well dear, a mother learns a lot from sitting by her daughters bed in a hospital room. I heard the doctor refer to you as Lee's wife. I still don't understand why the big secret." Dotty was willing to answer questions, but she wanted to ask a few of her own.
"Well, Mother, it has a lot to do with my and Lee's jobs." Amanda decided since she started, she may as well go ahead and finish this conversation with her mother, even if Lee wasn't there.
"You mean your jobs at IFF, or your jobs as spies?" Dotty again relished the expression on Amanda's face.
This conversation was not going at all the way Amanda had expected it to. Her mother had already known about her marriage and her job. She was starting to wish Lee had been there, after all.
"How did you find out about that?" Amanda almost spat the words out in surprise. She was now wondering what else her mother knew.
"A mother tends to notice these things, Amanda. Things like phone calls at odd hours, phony excuses about where you've been or where you're going. Amanda, I could always tell when you weren't telling the truth. And you have not been telling the truth for quite a while now. There are also the times when lee would pop up in the kitchen window when he thought I wasn't looking, the trampled flowers and the many times I've come downstairs to find you talking to someone in the backyard." At Amanda's dumbfounded look, Dotty asked, "Amanda did you really think I could have had all that going on around me and not notice?"
"I guess not, Mother." Amanda was ashamed to think that she had tried to fool her mother all this time. "Why didn't you say anything."
"Darling, remember when you told me you were a spy and I didn't believe you?" Amanda nodded. "I knew, or I had my suspicions, anyway. I also knew that you weren't supposed to be telling me so I acted like I didn't believe you." Amanda was amazed at how perceptive her mother was. "I also noticed how happy you were whenever Lee would come around, or how angry he made you. I decided if you wanted to talk to me about it you would, but you never did until now. But, why now?"
"Well, Mother, we're tired of saying goodbye at the door every night. We want to be a family. We've been wanting this for a while, but we wanted to give the boys a chance to get to know Lee first. We've decided the time is right now."
"I think so too, darling. Is that why you're working so hard on dinner tonight?"
Amanda nodded, "I wanted everything to nice. In case you all got angry with us, at least we would all have had a good dinner." Dotty leaned in to give Amanda a hug.
"Amanda, I'm just thrilled to see you so happy and in love. I've known for quite a while that Lee was right for you. I'm not sure what the boys are going to think. But, if we don't get in there to finish that dinner, all your hard work will be ruined." With that, Dotty got up to head back into the kitchen.
"Mother," Dotty stopped and turned to face Amanda. Amanda stood and embraced her mother. "Thank you. I love you." The look in Amanda's eyes expressed everything else she wanted her mother to know.
"I love you too, Amanda, and you're welcome."
The two women were working side by side and talking more about what had been going on in Amanda's life the past four years when the back door opened. "Hello, Lee." Dotty greeted her son-in-law, while Amanda went to give him a proper greeting.
After kissing his wife, Lee turned his attention to Dotty. "Hello Dotty, these are for you." Lee extended his hand to offer Dotty a bouquet of flowers similar to the ones he had given her the night he had come to take Amanda on their first date. "And this is for dinner." In Lee's other hand was a bottle of wine.
"Thank you, Lee." Dotty accepted the flower's and the wine. "I'll take care of these." Dotty said as she went to get a vase from the other room.
"How are things?" Lee whispered in Amanda's ear as he pulled her in for a hug and another kiss.
"She knows."
"She knows?"
"She's known all the time. About our jobs too."
"How? When?" Lee was amazed that Dotty had know all this time and had never said anything.
"About our marriage, since California. Seems she overheard the doctor call me your wife. About our jobs, seems I'm not a very good liar, and you're not very good about popping up out of the bushes unnoticed."
"Are we in trouble?" Lee wasn't sure how he should be behaving around Dotty after hearing what Amanda had just told him.
"We don't appear to be. As I told you before, Mother loves you." She kissed him again. "And so do I." Lee couldn't resist another kiss.
"You aren't going to get dinner done that way." Startled by Dotty's voice, Lee and Amanda jumped apart.
Lee decided now was as good a time as any to pay the piper. "Dotty, Amanda tells me that you know about us. Please let me say how sorry I..."
"Lee do you love my daughter? Of course you do." Dotty answered the question for him. "Take care of her and keep her happy." She kissed his cheek. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather have for a son-in law."
"Thank you, Dotty. I will definitely take care of her." He hugged his mother-in-law. "I'll take care of all of you." He kissed her cheek before he let her go.
Dinner had gone quite well, or as well as any other dinner in the King house. Lee had become a regular fixture at the dinner table, so the boys weren't the least bit suspicious that their worlds were about to be changed.
Philip and Jamie rose from the table with dishes in their hands prepared to clear the table and load the dishwasher. However they were stopped by their grandmother who offered to do the chore for them instead.
"Boys, how about you two go into the den, I'll do the dishes tonight." Philip and Jamie looked at each other then to their mother.
"It's all right boys. You can have the night off." That was all the confirmation the boys needed. They each let out a holler, kissed their grandmother's cheeks and ran off to the den.
Lee and Amanda followed close behind the boys to the den. Now would be a good time to have that talk. "Philip? Jamie?" Amanda got their attention. "Lee and I would like to talk to the both of you."
Again, Philip and Jamie looked from one to another before sitting down on the couch. This was turning into one weird evening. First the fancy dinner, then their grandmother offering to do the dishes, now their mother and Lee wanted to talk. This could only mean one thing, and the boys knew what it was.
Philip was the first to speak. "What's up, Mom?"
"Is everything ok?" Jamie added.
Lee stood near Amanda and took hold of her hand. This was not going to be easy for her, and he wanted to remind her that he was here to help.
"Yes, everything is fine, Jamie. Lee and I just have a few things to discuss with you. You know that Lee and I have been seeing a lot of each other these past several months." The boys nodded. "Well you see it's really been a bit more than that." Amanda struggled at how to actually tell the boys that her and Lee were in fact married.
"You mean that you two are married," Philip stated matter-of-factly. Amanda's head shot up and looked straight at the boys who were waiting for her response. This time it was Lee and Amanda's turn to exchange looks.
"Yes." It was Lee's voice that Amanda heard next.
Dotty who had been listening from the kitchen could no longer hold back her curiosity. "How long have you two known?" she asked. It seemed Amanda had not yet found her voice.
"Well, it's been a while actually." Philip was the first to respond.
"Yeah, we found out one day when we were at Lee's apartment." Jamie decided to fill them in on how they found out. "Mom wasn't there and Lee went to help a friend with his car. He left Philip and I there alone and told us we could play video games. I needed to use the bathroom and went looking for it when I found a picture of Mom and Lee on the TV in the bedroom. I wasn't trying to be nosy, really." Jamie didn't want them to think he had been snooping around Lee's apartment.
Lee, Amanda and Dotty sat and listened while the boys finished their explanation.
"Jamie showed the picture to me too. We started fighting over the picture. That's when the marriage certificate fell out. We looked at it. But we put it back, honest." The boys were starting to worry that they had been to nosy and would be in trouble for going through Lee's things. "Anyway, it all made sense after that. We kept seeing Mom's things around the apartment, and we knew why."
"Why didn't you come to me?" Amanda was finally able to pull herself out of the shock she had just been in.
"Well," Jamie ducked his head. "I was still jealous of Lee back then, so I called Dad." Again, Lee and Amanda exchanged looks. "It's ok, he knows."
"Yes, sweetheart, I know he does."
"He does?" It was Dotty's turn to be surprised.
"What did your father tell you?" Amanda was curious about how Joe had handled the situation, and why he had never mentioned it to her.
"He explained that Lee was a nice man and that we should give him a chance. He said that your jobs dealt with a lot of secrets and that you both had a good reason for not telling us."
Lee and Amanda exchanged smiles. They were going to have to remember to thank Joe later.
"So, Lee, when are you moving in?" Philip had interrupted their thoughts.
"Well, we thought that if we told you all early in the week, that maybe I could move in by this weekend. Would that be all right with you two?" Lee looked back and forth between the two boys as he asked the question.
"Cool!" the boys shouted.
"Welcome to the family, Lee." Jamie extended his hand to his new step-dad. The fact that Jamie had welcomed him first meant a lot to Lee.
"Thank you." Lee shook Jamie's hand and then Philip's when he had echoed Jamie's welcome.
"Can we play video games now?" Philip asked.
The adults shook their heads and laughed. "Yes, you can play for a while before bed. You still have school tomorrow." Amanda rustled the boys' hair and kissed each of her sons on the cheek. The three then adults made their way into the kitchen.
Amanda helped her mother finish the dishes while Lee helped himself to a cup of coffee. They talked about their plans for moving Lee in to the house over the weekend.
The next two days crawled by for Lee and Amanda. Billy had purposely kept them busy with filing so they wouldn't be involved in a big case over the weekend. On Thursday evening, he made a special visit to the Q-Bureau to tell them they could have the next day off.
Friday was spent at the apartment packing boxes. Saturday was moving day. Lee had, in the past few months, gotten over his jealousy of Joe, and was now grateful of that fact, as Joe and Carrie spent the weekend helping Lee and Amanda get settled.
With furniture sorted and moved, boxes unloaded, and a quick dinner of pizza, everyone was thoroughly exhausted. The boys and Dotty had turned in early leaving Lee and Amanda downstairs alone for the first time all day.
"I didn't know moving could be this exhausting." Lee sighed as he leaned his head back on the couch.
"It is a lot harder when you don't have movers doing it for you," Amanda teased.
"I now have a new respect for moving men. To have to do that all day everyday."
"What do you say we go up to bed?" Amanda was beginning to feel her body shut down.
"I think that's the best thing I've heard all day." Lee rose from the couch and extended his hand to his wife.
Together they walked to the stairs. Amanda stopped on the bottom step and turned to look at Lee.
"Welcome home," she whispered as she leaned in to kiss him. She turned back around and resumed her assent up the stairs as.
Her words echoed in Lee's ears, "Welcome home". He didn't know if he had ever heard such nicer words.