Disclaimer - "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" are copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. This story is for entertainment only. I will not make any money off it but do hope that at least some people will enjoy it. The Characters are not mine, I only took them out to play with them for awhile so they could help me tell the story. All the credit goes to Bruce and Kate for portraying these wonderful characters so well that so many of us still love them so much today. The additional characters and this story are mine.

Chapter 1 - Rain, Rain, Go Away

It had been raining for several days now and he was just tired of it. The weatherman had said it was supposed to rain but not like this. Gloomy days always put him in a bad mood. Billy certainly wasn't helping either. What difference did it make if he had a partner or not? The other agents mostly liked working with him unless of course he was in a foul mood. He had always been able to find backup when he needed it, he didn't need a steady partner, and he sure didn't want one. After Eric's death, he preferred to work alone. Thinking back though, if he had had a partner at that party, maybe he could have gotten the package away easier and stopped the bad guys from following him. Having a partner to watch your tail had its benefits. In the end, he had gone without any help that night and it had forced him to put a civilian's life in jeopardy. He did feel bad about that but he never expected Billy to offer her a chance to help the agency out. He admitted to himself that if he had had a real partner that night, none of this would have ever happened.

Since that day in Billy's office when Amanda had explained about flying the helicopter, Billy hadn't left Lee alone. He insisted that Lee meet with Amanda and give her the paperwork she would need to fill out so that they could do the background checks on her. Lee rolled his eyes and said "Bill-Y! You can't be serious! She got lucky with figuring out about Mrs. Welch. That sort of thing happens once in a lifetime."

Billy replied "Well Lee, I think she has spunk and she might make you slow down and help keep you out of trouble. Now I want you to go meet her and give her the paperwork so we can begin her background checks. And Lee; that is an order!"

Lee sighed and said "Fine but I don't have to like it."

After leaving Billy's office, Lee went to his desk in the Bullpen and sat down to think. He just couldn't figure out any way out of this so he finally picked up the phone and called Amanda's house. When she picked up the phone she heard "Can you meet me in an hour?"

"Let me guess who this is. Let me see, you can't be the mailman because he doesn't have my phone number and you can't be Dean because he would say hello first. Oh yeah, this must be Lee?"

"Sorry, hello Amanda, can you meet me in an hour?"

"Why?"

"It was Billy's idea. He wanted me to meet you so I could go over the paperwork you need to fill out so you can work for the agency. You know, the usual authorization forms so we can check your background, your financial history and any criminal activity you have had. But hey; if you have changed your mind, I'll just let Billy know."

"WAIT a minute Buster. I never said I wouldn't meet you. Where do you want to meet?"

"Well okay then, how about if we meet at the Lincoln Memorial."

"That will be fine. I'm leaving now and should be there in 30 minutes."

Lee sighed "Okay, I'll see you in 30 minutes. Goodbye"

"Bye Lee"

Amanda was excited. When she was younger, she used to daydream about spies and think that it would be so exciting to be involved in espionage. Of course those were dreams and one never expected them to come true though she still loved reading romantic spy novels. Now look at her, not only did she get to be a part of a case where she helped catch the bad guys, but she was being given an opportunity to continue working for the agency. She would never have believed it would happen to her. It had been scary but thrilling to see Lee all tied up and being pushed into that helicopter. She knew she had to save him. She had no idea that she was going to have to fly a helicopter though. Imagine, Amanda King flying a helicopter. Her Mother sure wouldn't believe her if she told her. But Amanda knew she could never tell her Mother. She could never tell anyone. It was definitely one of the drawbacks. In this line of duty, you could never tell anyone what you did. You had to just be proud that you helped your country and keep it to yourself. She could do it though, she knew she could. It was important to make the world a little safer for her 2 sons so she was eager to help out if she could.

Amanda put on her coat, grabbed her umbrella and headed to D.C. still wrapped up in her thoughts. She wondered what kind of work she would be asked to do at the agency if they hired her. She didn't worry about passing a background check because she knew that she had always led a pretty simple life and she didn't have any secrets. She was hoping the checks wouldn't take long though because she needed a job and this seemed to be a perfect fit.

The rain had continued pretty steadily and was making travel a little slick from all the wet roads. As Amanda neared the Memorial, she noticed the car in front of her was driving erratically. At first, Amanda thought it was just because of the roads but something just didn't seem right so she started observing the occupants. It appeared that the person in the passenger seat kept trying to take control of the steering wheel. Soon Amanda was watching the car more than the road as she realized that the passenger's hands were bound together. What should she do? She could only tell that it looked like it was a woman who was bound and a man who was driving. Amanda decided that she had to follow the car until she could figure out how to alert the authorities that something was wrong. As they neared downtown DC, the car suddenly veered off on a side road and headed out to some old warehouse buildings. Amanda decided she had no choice but to follow the car. It soon pulled into the parking lot in front of a very run down old Mill building. Amanda slowed her car and watched from a distance as the other car pulled into an open Garage doorway. As soon as the car was safely inside, the door slowly descended and shut. Amanda wondered what she should do. In the end, she decided she needed to tell Lee about this so she slowly backed up and headed to the Memorial.

The rain tapered off as she exited her car but she still grabbed her umbrella just in case. As she began walking to the Memorial, she could see Lee pacing and running his hand through his hair. She went as quickly as she could to him and said "LEE, you have to come quick! Someone is in trouble and needs your help!"

"Oh Amanda, it is okay that you were late. I'm late all the time. You don't have to make up a story as an excuse."

"No, you don't understand. I just watched what looked to be a kidnapping."

"So you saw someone grab someone?"

"Well no, I didn't actually see the kidnapping, but the woman was all tied up in the front seat of a car"

"Tied up? Ummm, Amanda, that doesn't really mean it was a kidnapping. Some people enjoy playing games like this. Chances are that you just saw some sort of innocent fantasy being played out by two lovers."

Amanda blushed and said "Lee, that's awful! No I know it was more than that because she kept trying to grab the wheel and the car was going all over the road. I doubt she would do that if she wanted to be with him. Please, can I take you to where he brought her?"

Lee looked at his watch and saw that he still had a couple of hours before his next meeting so he sighed and said "okay, we'll take my car."

Amanda directed him to the old warehouse and he pulled the car over and out of sight. "So this is where the car went?"

"Yes, right inside the garage where the door is now shut."

"Okay, Amanda. I want you to wait in the car and I'm going to go take a look around and see if I can see anything."

"Thanks Lee. I'll wait right here."

Suddenly it began pouring again just as Lee got out. Amanda offered him her umbrella but he pulled his jacket hood up over his head and waved her off. She watched as he walked to the warehouse and began looking into the windows. She could see that his hand was resting on the gun that he had hidden under his coat. She wondered if he could see the car and if he could see the poor woman who appeared to have been kidnapped.

Lee, meanwhile, couldn't believe this was happening. He had just wanted to give the paperwork to Amanda, make sure she didn't have any questions and then go have a nice long lunch while he waited for his 2pm meeting with one of his contacts. Instead, Amanda had convinced him to go on this wild goose chase. It was okay though because when it turned out to be a waste of time, it would give him more ammunition to convince Billy that she just got lucky the first time out and was just going to keep living this fantasy world and waste their times with things she thought she saw that actually were all innocent. He had gotten out of the car just as the rain started again and he knew on top of everything else, he was going to get soaked. She offered him an umbrella but he wanted to make sure she felt guilty about putting him through all of this for nothing so he had refused it. As he neared the warehouse, he could definitely hear some noises inside which meant that this building, which should have been empty, was actually being used for something. He peered into the first window and saw a car. When he looked into the second window, he was shocked to see a young woman totally bound up sitting in a chair. No one was near her as they were too busy looking at something in another part of the warehouse. Lee observed that the woman appeared to be in her 20's, was nice looking and looked scared to death. She also seemed to be unharmed at the moment. So Amanda had been right. He shook his head as he thought about it. His hand immediately reached to feel his gun and he kept it there as a kind of security blanket. The rain continued to pour on him as he tried to figure out what was going on and how many people were involved. He could see two men in the downstairs level but wasn't sure who was upstairs. His head screamed to go get backup but he could see that the men were starting to prepare to leave and he knew he didn't have much time. Lee crept to a side door and found it unlocked. He slowly began turning the knob hoping to surprise them.

In the meantime, Amanda sat out in the car watching all of this from a distance. She wasn't sure what he had found but she saw him slowly move to a side door and he made his way into the building. It was driving her crazy to stay in the car. She knew she didn't have any training and she likely would be no use to him but her curiosity got the better of her and soon she decided she had to get out and check out the situation. She followed the same path that Lee had taken and even started to look into the first window. That was when she heard the gunfire. Amanda ducked under the window and held her breath. Six more shots were fired and she heard the woman scream and then there was silence. Meanwhile, the garage door suddenly opened and the car came flying out and sped back down towards the DC area. Amanda could see 2 men in the car but couldn't tell if anyone else was with them or not. She ran over to the garage door and looked inside. The woman was bound to a chair in the back and then she saw that Lee was lying in a heap on the floor near her.

In looking back, Lee couldn't believe how stupid he had been. The men had just finished piling money into a suitcase and one of them had walked to the car to set the case down in the backseat. Lee decided it was time to make his presence known so he had simply said "hi". The man closest to him pulled out his revolver and shot at him. Lee dived behind a barrel and returned gunfire but the men had already gotten behind some crates to use as protection. Lee yelled out that he was a Federal Agent and they should give themselves up only to hear them laugh at him. They then shot in his general direction as they jumped into the car and took off. The final shot managed to ricochet off a piece of metal and hit him in the thigh. His last memory was hearing the woman scream as the shock and pain threw him to the floor which is where he was when Amanda found him.

She ran to Lee first and checked to see if he was alive. She was so relieved to feel a pulse and hear his heart beating. There was blood on his jeans but not near any vital organs. He seemed to be okay, just knocked unconscious. She knew she needed to call him an ambulance though but first she ran over to the hostage to untie her. The woman looked scared as Amanda approached her but Amanda smiled as cheerily as she could and said "Let me untie those." She gratefully held out her hands so Amanda could. After she was untied, the woman asked her how they had found her. Amanda replied "My car was behind the car you were in and I could see you trying to take control of the steering wheel and saw that you were tired up. I followed you here and then went and got Lee and convinced him to come with me. I'm glad I did." She smiled at the woman. "What is your name?"

The woman smiled back and said "My friends call me Rita."

"Okay Rita, my friends call me Amanda." Amanda offered Rita another encouraging smile. "I have to call an ambulance for Lee. Can you wait right here?"

"Yes, I'll tend to him" she answered.

Amanda drove to the closet pay phone and first called for an ambulance and then called the agency. She tried to get a line directly to Billy's office but the person who answered the phone played dumb and refused to admit that she knew anyone by the name of Billy. Amanda realized that she needed to find out what codes she needed in order to get by this phone operator in the future. For now, she left a message saying simply that Scarecrow had been shot while trying to rescue a hostage and that Amanda was the one leaving the message. She had no idea if he would actually get the message or not.

When Amanda returned to the warehouse, Rita was kneeling beside Lee who was just waking up. Amanda rushed to Lee's side and asked him how he felt. He looked at her and said "Like I have been shot." Amanda shook her head and said that the ambulance was on the way and that she had left a message for Billy.

"Thank you for saving my life." Rita told him. At this point, Amanda's curiosity got the better of her and she asked Rita "What did those men want with you anyway?"

Rita sighed and said "They were hoping to get to my dad through me. They had been paid a large sum of money to kidnap me so they could convince my father to take my place. He is usually surrounded by so much security that they knew they couldn't just grab him. Unfortunately Dad never thought about keeping me safe. Once Dad agreed to come take my place, they were supposed to get even more money."

"Oh my gosh, why would they want to do that?" Amanda asked.

"My father is a top scientist in the NASA space exploration department. He helped design the new F-15 jet aircraft that has an advanced, digitally controlled engine which improves the operability and performance of the engine. This engine is said to achieve stall-free performance, air start capability, and an increase of 10,000 feet of altitude in afterburner capability. This jet is going to help us so much and so of course the KGB wants it. These people would become very rich if they could detain my father and ship both him and the designs for this jet back to Moscow."

Lee was fully awake by now and listening to all of this in amazement. How did Amanda manage to find this kind of trouble? He ran his hand through his hair and hoped the ambulance would hurry up because he obviously had a lot to worry about now. Thankfully right at that moment it did along with an agency car. Amanda went out to talk to the agent that arrived and told him the situation and asked if he could bring Rita back to the agency. She told the agent that she would go with Lee to the hospital and that she was sure Lee would be in touch with Billy in a few hours.