Disclaimer: Scarecrow and Mrs. King and its characters are property of Warner Bros. and Shoot the Moon Productions. No copyright infringement is intended
Time: Post Season 4- a few weeks after "Baubles, Bangles and Thieves" ends
"Sweetheart, don't forget that I have a doctor's appointment this morning and I won't be riding in with you." Amanda called to Lee from their cheery kitchen.
"Boys! Don't forget your lunches! They are all packed. Better hurry up! The bus will be here any minute!" ,she then called to her sons as she put the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher. Patiently, she waited for some kind of reply that the men in her life had just heard anything that she had just said. She let out a heavy sigh not having heard any reply to her bellows. Taking in a deep breath she spun around to call them all once again only to find Lee standing silently behind her.
"Oh! Lee! You know I HATE when you do that!" Amanda screeched.
"Hate when I do what?" Lee said through that knee buckling grin of his.
"You know exactly what I mean! I hate when you sneak up on me!"
"It's good to see that I can still surprise you after all this time!"
Lee leaned over and gave Amanda a soft good morning kiss. She returned the greeting and smiled up at him.
"Don't forget that I have a doctor's appointment this morning and I will be in later. Hopefully I won't be late for the staff meeting. Anything big going on today?"
"Thankfully, no. And I didn't forget you have the appointment. I told the boys I would drop them off at school so you will need to take my car."
"Ok, sweetheart."
Lee poured himself a cup of coffee and leaned back against the counter. Amanda suddenly reached over to him and grabbed him by the tie.
"Before I forget, Scarecrow….this week is Thanksgiving. Do not even THINK about putting yourself on the duty roster. If you do, I PROMISE you that that couch will be your best friend for the rest of the year. Got it? And no ifs, ands or buts about it! We are spending Thanksgiving as a FAMILY this year. NO agency business. At least none voluntarily."
She looked at Lee deeply in the eyes and pulled the neck tie a little tighter. Lee's eyes began to laugh at the sudden burst of aggression his wife was displaying.
"I got it! NO active duty roster. I already know! Besides, that couch is too short for me to sleep on until the New Year."
The tone of Amanda's voice suddenly got very hushed but intense. "Lee….I am serious. No work this Thanksgiving."
"I know, Amanda. I just like pressing your buttons. I promise…..no work. Besides, I already have told Williams that he is covering."
"Haven't you tortured that poor man enough?" Amanda said with a giggle.
"Nope! Not nearly! "
Lee winked at Amanda as he took a sip from his coffee mug. Checking his watch, he dumped out the rest of the coffee in the sink and called to the boys.
"Come on guys! We gotta go now!"
The growing boys sounded like a herd of elephants coming down the stairs. Each ran into the kitchen with their backpacks and grabbed their lunches.
"Bye, Mom!" "Love you, Mom" they each said in succession as they ran out the door.
"Good luck at the doctor's today! I will see you later. Love you!"
Lee held Amanda in his arms and kissed her passionately. She returned the kiss with just as much fervor. The ringing telephone brought them both back to reality.
"That is probably Mother. Bye sweetheart, drive safely. I should be there by 10:30."
Lee blew her a kiss as he closed the kitchen door behind him.
"Hello? Oh, good morning, Joe. I thought you were going to be Mother. How are you?...good! Glad to hear it. What time do you think you and Carrie will be here on Thanksgiving?...ok, what do you want to talk about?...well don't you think it is a little last minute to tell me all this?...That's because I AM upset, Joe! You don't call me a few days before Thanksgiving and tell me that you and Carrie are hosting her family and want Philip and Jamie there, too and think that I am not going to be upset!...All of a sudden? Really? You and Carrie just suddenly decided spur of the moment that you were going to have her entire family over to your house for Thanksgiving. Please, Joe. I think it is more like you all of a sudden remembered that you were supposed to talk to me about this…..This is just like you, Joe…No I will not calm down! I wanted my while family here together on Thanksgiving which is two days away. And now, you are telling me that that is not going to happen…Yes, Joe. I know that the boys are supposed to spend Thanksgiving with you!...What kind of compromise?...What time?...Let me talk it over with Lee and see what he says….Because he is my husband! And this affects him, too…..yes. …..yes! I will call you back later tonight…ok. Bye! "
Amanda slammed down the phone and let out a grunt of frustration.
"What did I ever see in that man?" She screamed out loud!
SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK
Amanda snuck into the back of the meeting room around 10:45. She was 15 minutes late for the meeting. She was not surprised to see it had started without her. Lee made eye contact with her as she entered the room. His expression was asking her how things went and was the baby ok. Amanda smiled and nodded at him giving him the reassurance that everything was just fine. Lee seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and smiled at her. Francine was giving a report on the training of the new agents. It would soon be time for a new group of recruits to attend Station One and Francine was looking for a volunteer to act as the ringer.
"Oh, I think that Williams should act as the ringer this go-round. Don't you, Williams?" Lee questioned.
Williams looked up at Lee with a shocked look on his face. He then quickly changed his focus to Francine who was staring him down as well.
"Oh, um….sure. Absolutely, Mr. Stetson. I would be happy to be the ringer." Williams replied in a very nervous and sheepish tone.
Amanda silently shook her head and smiled to herself. "Poor kid!" she thought. "Put the wrong call through to Scarecrow and get picked on for the next two months."
Lee looked at Amanda and shot her a smile. He knew he was torturing Williams and he loved to see him squirm. Amanda also knew that Lee wouldn't keep this up much longer. He had made his point and most likely after Station One, Williams would be off the hook.
"Ok, so thank you, Francine. Next up we have Amanda Stetson to give us the debriefing report of Nick Grant and the whole jewel fiasco." Lee flatly stated to the room of agents.
Amanda made her way up to the front of the room and stood behind the podium.
"Thank you, Lee. It has taken a few weeks to get all of the intelligence reports in and put them together but I think we finally have a pretty good idea of what was going on with Nick Grant."
Amanda hit the button on the slide projector and brought up a picture of Nick.
"Nick was sent back to Turkey to continue serving his sentence there when the British Intelligence agent, Logan Dunsworth, came to visit Nick in prison and made a with the Turkish government to have Nick released in his custody. The details of this transaction are unknown at this time. They were looking to use Nick's expertise of years as a master thief and con man to get into the mind of the big league thieves. Nick was hired to track down a jewel thief that seemed to be working her way through Europe. All the cities that Nick had visited were because he was tracking this woman, "Amanda again clicked the button on the slide projector. The picture changed to a familiar face. "Sophia DuBois. Nick didn't realize at the time who he was following, only that precious gems from every country were disappearing. Nick met Sophia quite by accident and the two became an item. She did not know he was part of MI5 and he did not know that she was the thief he had been looking for. Once she was exposed and the gems were recovered, Nick returned to London and continues to work for MI5. We are told to expect them to ask us to corroborate from time to time on cases with Nick. Are there any questions?"
Amanda scanned the room full of agents, no questions were raised.
"Thank you very much." She said as she returned to her seat.
Lee returned to the podium to speak.
"Well, it is a light work week this week. You all know which of you are on duty over the holiday. I am able to be reached in extreme emergencies, but please try not to need me, huh? I am attempting to take my first real holiday in the last….well my first real holiday. If there is nothing else, meeting adjourned! "
As the agents filed out of the room, Amanda made her way up to see Lee.
"Everything go OK today? Both of you are healthy?"
Amanda smiled and patted her stomach.
"Oh we are just fine! Great in fact! Dr. Kesselman had a machine called an ultrasound machine and I was actually able to see the baby! Kind of looked like a little gray blob but I saw it never the less!"
"You saw our baby?" Lee grinned from ear to ear.
"Yes I did and it looks great! I could see the little heart beating and everything! Next appointment, you need to come with me so you can see it, too."
"You can bet on that!"
"I wish they had that when I was pregnant with Philip and Jamie! It was so exciting to see that there really is a baby in there. Right now, I can't feel anything and sometimes I think I am imagining the whole thing."
Lee pulled Amanda close to him and kissed the top of her head. Amanda spoke into Lee's chest as he held her close.
"She said everything looks great! Textbook!"
Lee squeezed Amanda tighter.
"Good…good." He said in a hushed tone.
"Yeah, it really cheered me up after my phone call with Joe this morning!"
Lee released his grip on Amanda and looked at her face to face.
"What happened with Joe this morning?"
"Well, that was him calling when you left. He called to tell me that he and Carrie 'suddenly' decided to have Carrie's family over for Thanksgiving and wouldn't be joining us….which in itself wouldn't be bad except that he wants Philip and Jamie to come over there and not eat with us. Lee, it makes me so mad! He always only thinks about himself!"
"Why can't you just say no? Keep Philip and Jamie home with us?"
"Because if they don't go with him for Thanksgiving, then he will ask for them at Christmas and I am NOT letting them go for Christmas! NO WAY!"
"Ok, so what are we going to do?"
"Well, Joe suggested a compromise. They will eat earlier, about 1:00pm and them bring the boys back home for dessert and board games with us. I told him that I would have to talk to you first. "
"How do you feel about it, Amanda?"
"Upset, but I guess it is not horrible. It will still be us and Mother and Harry. What do you think?"
"I think it will all work out. Sounds like a plan. Besides, now you can relax a little more on Thursday instead of cooking for 8, you will be cooking for 4."
"Oh, I don't care about that. I just wanted us all together, that's all. I guess I will tell Joe that that compromise will be fine with us. But they had better be home by 4!"
Lee sat on the edge of the conference table and held Amanda's hands in his.
"Amanda, Francine came to talk to me this morning."
Amanda's ears perked up at the sound of Francine's name.
"Oh, really? Did she come to insult me some more? Or perhaps insult my mother?"
"A-MAN-daaa. You haven't spoken one word to Francine since the embassy ball and that was two weeks ago."
"Well, she hasn't said anything to me either! And I wasn't the one being rude to HER, Lee. She was the one slinging verbal arrows at ME and at my mother. I am not speaking to her until I get an apology from her. I think that is not too much to ask after how nasty she was to me….and before you say anything, I don't care how much she had to drink that night. It is still not an excuse to be rude and mean. Lee, she was being mean! She was behaving like the Francine I met five years ago."
"I know she was Amanda. She came to me this morning to apologize and she wants to apologize to you, too. I think she is sincere about it, too."
"Really? Did she want something?"
"No Amanda, she doesn't want anything. She realizes how badly she behaved and wants to say that she's sorry but she is afraid that you won't listen to her."
"Lee, what are we? High school students? She had to pass my boyfriend a note at gym to see if he thinks his girlfriend will listen to her?"
"Amanda, stop. She just wants to talk to you. SO please be open to it when she approaches you, that's all. Ok?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Good! I have to run. I have a meeting with Billy in a half hour. Meet me for lunch around 1?"
"Absolutely, Scarecrow! Pick me up here?"
"Yes!" Lee leaned in and kissed his wife. "I love you!"
"Love you, too, sweetheart. Give my best to Billy."
Francine watched Lee walk out of the conference room. She could see through the door that Lee left open that Amanda was the only one left in there. Eating a big slice of humble pie was not something that Francine did well. If she was going to talk to Amanda, it was now or never. Cautiously, Francine made her way over to the door and walked into the conference room.
"Amanda? Do you mind if we talk for a few minutes? I have a few things that I really need to say to you."
Amanda looked coldly at Francine.
"That's fine, Francine. I have a few things that I need to say to you too."
To be continued…..