Title: Q is for… Quibble
Disclosure:
Warner Brothers Television Distribution and Shoot The Moon Productions owns
these characters, as well as to the writers, and actors who created and
portrayed them. I'll put them back when
I'm done playing…
Author's
Notes/Summary/timing/etc: my first ABC
story – for the 2nd round…
Author: WhizGidget :D
Written: March 10-14, 2001
Rating: G
Archive: with all
the other ABC stories; at fanfiction.net, and I'd be honored to be elsewhere,
just email me and let me know where (astolzman@yahoo.com)
My ego loves
praise. The realist in me needs
truthful comments (good and bad). I can
handle flames too – after all, in order to barbecue, the flames have to get
rather hot, and I like my steak really thick…
"Amanda!"
"Sorry, sorry… I…
oh, Lee, um, sorry."
Francine Desmond
shook her head. She was surprised that
Amanda King had lasted at The Agency as long as she had. No one could ever elicit such an exasperated
reaction from Lee Stetson and still survive. He usually drove people to quit.
Amanda King was
no quitter, Francine thought sourly, but at least *she* didn't have to be
cooped up in the Q-Bureau with Lee all day. Then again, with the exception of the last few minutes, he had been in a
rather quirky mood lately. Francine
would have thought, well, that Stetson was in love. She laughed to herself, 'Yeah, right. Stetson in love… and I'd
wear something off-the-rack.'
They were
gathered in the lobby of the Quartermaster's office, waiting for him to show
up. Amanda had picked up some arrows
and had managed to get one speared through the tail of Lee's suit jacket,
without harm to him, but that jacket would never be wearable again.
"Good afternoon,
Mrs. King, Scarecrow… Francine." Leatherneck arrived, and noticing the situation – Amanda trying to pull
at the arrow and Lee trying to convince her not to – pulled out a pair of
pliers, and gently moving Amanda aside, snapped the arrow in two. The two pieces fell from the jacket on the
basis of their own weight. "Mrs. King,
you need to be careful around this sort of equipment."
"Oh, Leatherneck,
I'm sorry. I've just never seen a full
quiver before, and, well… Oh Lee, I'm so sorry…" She still looked worried about
having ruined Lee's jacket.
"A brand new jacket,
Amanda. Brand new. Specifically tailored for me. In London. Did I mention that it was brand new?" Lee looked over at Amanda, who was busy looking at her feet. Gone
was the self-confident agent, and in her place was the housewife of years past.
"Lee, I'm so
sorry." Amanda said this so quietly
that her companions hardly heard her.
"Scarecrow, give
Mrs. K a break, it's just a jacket." Leatherneck immediately was met with a cold hard stare, and quickly
picked up the destroyed arrow.
An hour later,
over lunch, Amanda was still trying to apologize to Lee. She had offered to buy lunch, and he was
busy quenching his appetite, while Amanda simply picked at her spinach
quiche.
"Lee, I'm so
sorry about your jacket. And I know it
was brand new, there was no reason to remind me of that. I still don't understand how I could have
managed to spear your jacket without hurting you-"
"Just lucky I
guess," Lee interrupted her rambling. He was still steamed, but the roast quail he was eating seemed to
temporarily quell his anger.
"I suppose I
could find a way to replace it. If I
pass the next round of exams, I'll qualify for a promotion and a raise." There was no arguing about the quantitative
and qualitative exam work of Amanda King – she had more experience than most
field agents, and she deserved the grades she received.
"Amanda, you know
as well as I do that you couldn't possibly afford to replace that jacket. But I still can't believe that you speared
it like you did. Didn't your mother teach
you to keep your hands to yourself?" Lee looked up in time to see a hurt look pass across Amanda's face. He had just stepped into the quicksand, and
thought quickly as to how to get out. She looked back down quickly to her lunch, and that's when he first
noticed that she had barely touched her food. "Amanda, you need to eat. Don't
worry about the jacket. I wasn't hurt,
so all's well that ends well, right?" He went back to picking apart the quail to try and avoid looking back
up.
Amanda was pretty
concerned that this wasn't ending well, but Lee was finishing off his meal fairly
quickly, and seemed to be in a hurry to return to The Agency. Amanda was determined that they were going
to continue this conversation later.
"Lee, I need to
run a few errands, so I'm just going to go home from here. Is there anything you need? I'd be happy to pick it up for you." 'Like a plane ticket to London to replace
that jacket I ruined," Amanda thought.
"No. Not really. Oh, um, could you pick up a quart of milk for the fridge in the
Q-Bureau?" When Amanda had errands to
run, inevitably, one of those errands had to be to the grocery store, and in
the guilty mood she was in, he knew that even if she wasn't going, she would
because he had asked.
Later that night,
Amanda was just finishing up the dinner dishes when a quiet knock sounded at
the back door. Before she knew what was
happening, her mother had come into the room, opened the door, and started
querying Lee as to why he was always compelled to knock on the door when he had
been dating her daughter for two years and was perfectly welcome to come in the
front door.
Amanda watched
the two adults quarrel for a few minutes before she interrupted. "Mother, Lee, please stop. Mother, Lee comes to the back door when the
house is dark so that he doesn't disturb anyone with the doorbell. You know as well as I do that you can't hear
someone knocking at the front door when you're back here in the kitchen."
"Amanda, darling,
that's nonsense. He can use the
doorbell, I don't mind being disturbed by Lee's late night visits, and I know
you aren't either. And don't look so
shocked, I know all about them." With
that, Dotty West turned and quickly went back up the stairs to bed.
Lee stared after
Dotty, his mouth slightly open. "Uh,
how… Amanda… she…" He gave up trying to communicate his astonishment.
"Oh Lee, I'm so
sorry about -"
"Amanda, Amanda,
don't worry about it. I'm just
concerned that if your mother has caught our little meetings on the q.t., who
else might have?" Lee looked genuinely
concerned about this situation, but Amanda waved that away.
"Lee, I was going
to say how sorry I am about your jacket. I really could have hurt you this morning at Leatherneck's, and I will
replace the jacket, and-"
"Amanda. Enough. What's your fixation with the jacket? It's just a jacket." Lee found
himself saying this as much for his benefit as for hers. "By the way, did you pick up that quart of
milk for the Q-Bureau?"
"Yes, I did. Lee, we need to talk about this."
"What's there to
talk about? It's done. The jacket is ruined, I'm not hurt. And thank you for picking up the milk."
"Lee, that jacket
was quite expensive, and it wasn't easy arranging with Emily halfway across the
world to surprise you for that fitting. And before you say anything more, buster," she held one finger up for
emphasis, as she closed her eyes and shook her head once, "I will find a way to
replace that jacket. I ruined it, and
it's my responsibility. And what's so
important, for that matter, about the milk? And is that what we've been doing, meeting on the q.t.?"
"Amanda, listen
to me. It's just milk. It's not important." That's when Lee took note of that old
familiar hurt look in his wife's eyes. He sank further into the quagmire that he had stepped into earlier that
day at lunch. "Oh, I've really
screwed up now, haven't I?"
Before either of
them could speak, Dotty was back down the stairs. "Yes, you have. Now you
two are going to explain to me why you're quibbling over milk? Whatever is so important about milk?" Dotty had a look on her face that would
rival any cat looking over it's rodent quarry. "And why are you, how did you put it, 'meeting on the q.t.' After all, that's the sort of things spies
would say." She stood and folded her
arms across her chest, waiting for an answer.
Lee and Amanda
looked at each other and started laughing uncontrollably. Amanda almost doubled over, and Lee leaned
his arm over her shoulders for balance. Dotty looked from one to the other, wondering who had gone mad, and what
she had said that was so funny.
Amanda gasped for
breath. "Not exactly," was about all
she could manage before another spasm of laughter hit her. Lee helped her straighten up, his face red
from laughing, and stated as seriously as he could, "Coffee." Amanda looked at him, immediately
understood why he wanted the milk, and nodded. Still laughing, they headed out the back door.
Dotty stood
there, shaking her head, looking after the two for a moment. "They're quibbling over coffee? I am never going to understand those two."