Duty Calls

*The characters only belong to us in our hearts... Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Enterprises own them. Story for entertainment purposes.*

Chapter 1

The door to Q Bureau was locked when Lee got there first thing in the morning. He wasn't in the best of moods. His alarm hadn't gone off for starters. Then he had dropped his coffee just before he got in his car, barely missing his shoes and pants with the splash back. Of course he hit every red light and managed to end up behind every school bus the entire way there. Now, finding the door locked, he figured Amanda was late too.

Opening the door, he realized the lights were on as was his computer. "Amanda? Amanda?" he called, trying to figure out why the door was locked but everything was on.

"In here," she called from inside the vault.

Stepping inside, he saw her and instantly smiled. "I thought you weren't here but then I saw the lights. Why was the door locked?" he stopped and looked at her strangely.

Standing inside the vault, Amanda was dressed in a pale pink skirt, white blouse and sensible pink heels. Her arms were loaded with files that she was taking out of the drawers. As she walked past him, she stopped to give him a light kiss on his cheek. Putting the files down she let out a sigh. "I didn't want anyone to open it and hit me on the way by," she teased.

Looking around, Lee realized almost every surface was piled with files. Looking between Amanda and the vault, he finally asked, "Amanda, what are you doing?"

"Well, if we were at home, I would call it spring cleaning but since we are here…. Let's call it re-organization. Every time I try to figure out the old filing system it never makes sense, so, I'm going to refile everything so it does make sense," she explained.

Shaking his head, Lee carefully stepped around the piles she had placed on the floor in front of her desk. "Amanda, some of those files have been in there for years. I'm not even sure what's in them."

Sitting down at his desk, he noticed she hadn't put anything on it. His own pile of files on the keyboard were there from yesterday. He needed to finish signing off on them before giving them to Amanda to put away. On top of the files was a simple cream colored envelope. His name was written in calligraphy on the front. Opening it, he pulled out the contents. "Amanda, he's not serious is he?" Lee called to her.

She knew exactly what he was talking about. "Lee, he just thought it was the right thing to do," Amanda replied, not understanding why he was upset.

"Amanda, the right thing to do? Joe King decides to get remarried , practically rubbing our noses in it and you say he thought it was the right thing to invite me to the wedding?" Lee was frustrated. Here was Amanda's ex-husband practically flaunting his engagement and now his wedding in front of them.

"Will you calm down, please. He just thought it was a nice gesture since you and I are now openly 'involved'." Amanda tried to calm him down.

"Openly involved? Is that what we are resigned to calling it?" Lee's voice was getting louder but he didn't care. Right this minute, he didn't care who heard him.

"Lee! Lower your voice or someone is going to hear you!" Amanda snapped at him. She usually held her own tongue but today he was unbelievable.

"Amanda..." he started loudly, then softened his voice considerably, "I just hate that Joe King can be open about his wedding to Carrie and you and I have been married for 6 months yet we can barely spend a night together as husband and wife."

"Lee, I know, I don't know how much longer I can do this either but we have the boys to consider. And mother. I know they have really warmed up to you since what happened in California but I think it's still too soon," Amanda said calmly.

"You're right, you're right." Lee stood up and walked over to her, putting his arms around her. "I just want to have my wife in my bed every morning when I wake up, not 15 miles away."

Amanda ran her hands over his lapels, "I want that too. You don't know how much it bothers me to have to sneak out of the house to have a few quiet moments with you. But we decided, for now, it was best." Amanda couldn't even begin to explain her frustration to her husband.

Lee looked at Amanda's face. He could see the strain it was putting on her even though she tried to hide it. Kissing her on the forehead, he sighed, "I'm sorry, it's just already been a bad morning. The alarm didn't…"

"Oh sorry, that was my fault. I think I hit the switch yesterday when I was cleaning," Amanda admitted.

"That's ok. It happens. Then I dropped my coffee…" he started again.

"Fresh pot waiting for you, new container of half and half in the fridge," she smiled, knowing he was going to need that coffee now. "I'd ask if you had breakfast but I know the answer to that one," she laughed.

Stepping back, Amanda walked around and poured him a cup. She handed it to him as she walked back into the vault to get another armful of files. "I'm almost done with this section. Then I'll sort them out, refile them and move on to the next. I don't have anything on my schedule for today so I'm sure I can get it all done by the end of the day."

Lee looked around the room, shaking his head. "Amanda? How in the world are you going to get this all done today?"

"One file at a time. Besides that, I found a bunch of them were actually empty. No labels or anything," she indicated toward a stack on her chair. "It looks like someone just emptied a box of file folders in the drawers.

"That's weird. Do you know which drawer they came from?" Lee sensed something wasn't right. Everything in the vault was supposed to be old case files.

Amanda's eyebrow went up. She knew that tone in his voice. "Um, yeah. Here, I'll show you," she said as she walked back into the vault, indicating Lee to follow her. Inside the vault, she turned and knelt down in front of one of the filing cabinets. Lee followed her, stopping on one side of the cabinet, blocking the doorway to the vault. "They were in here," Amanda said, as she tried to pull the drawer open.

Neither one of them heard Francine open the door to Q Bureau and she could barely see into the vault as she walked in the room but she could hear them.

"I can't get it out," Amanda said as she tried yanking on the drawer to open it.

Lee stood there with his coffee cup in hand still, "Just give it a good hard pull."

Francine tried to peer around the door and all she could see was Lee's back and Amanda's skirt pooled on the ground in front of his feet. Covering her mouth with her hands, she leaned in to try to hear more.

"Lee, I'm telling you, I've tried pulling it several times, I just can't get it out," Amanda emphasized pulling on the drawer again.

Francine's eyes widening, her mind racing to all the wrong places.

"Amanda, here, let me try. I have more experience with these than you do. Sometimes it can be hard to handle," Lee said as he started to lean forward.

Francine couldn't take any more, "Stop right there, Scarecrow. You know if Dr. Smyth finds you two in there doing…. I don't want to know what…"

Lee turned around to face Francine, her face bright pink as she blushed, "And what exactly do you think we are doing in here, huh Francine?" he questioned. Seeing her face, he tried hard to suppress the grin he felt coming.

Stammering Francine looked at him, then at Amanda on the floor trying to pull the drawer open, "I… I…. I just heard Amanda saying she couldn't…. Oh damn." Francine realized it was totally innocent and once again she had put her foot in it. Trying to cover herself, she picked her head up, gave herself a quick shake and said, "Billy is looking for the report on the Ponte Allen case."

Amanda looked up at her, also trying hard not to smile, "Please tell Mr. Melrose I'll have it for him this morning. Lee just needs to go over it, which he will as soon as he helps me get this drawer open."

Francine once again looked at Lee and then Amanda. "I'll do that," she said as she turned and walked out of the office as quickly as she could.

Lee and Amanda looked at each other and immediately started laughing. "I don't even want to know what she thought we were doing," Amanda said.

Lee just looked at her strangely for a moment, "Amanda, you know that thing you do…" he started as he winked at her.

"Lee, I would never do that here… That's for… only when we are alone…" Amanda tried to shush him.

Laughing, Lee leaned down to give her a quick kiss. "And I look forward to the time when we are alone," he teased.

Now it was Amanda's turn to blush. "Stop and help me," she said, dramatically trying to pull the drawer loose again. Lee reached down and gave the drawer a firm tug. It finally opened. He pulled it out completely to see if something was stuck behind it. As he peered into the space left behind by the missing drawer, he saw it. Reaching in, he pulled out a very dusty, wrinkled shirt and under it a large sealed envelope.