Disclaimer: I do not own of these characters; they are the property of Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Bros. Television. I acknowledge gratefully the hard work of the creators of the series who brought to life characters we like so much we can't let them go.

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"Lee? What's brioche?"

He looked up from his desk, startled. "What?"

Amanda was sitting on the Q Bureau couch, legs curled under her, eating her lunch with a heavy book propped on her lap. "Philip's class is studying France and he has to do a presentation on a famous landmark, so he picked Versailles." She paused and chuckled. "Well, of course he tried to pick the Eiffel Tower, but someone beat him to it, so he got 'stuck with Versailles' as he puts it. Anyway, this book I picked up for him says Marie-Antoinette never said 'Let them eat cake' and that it's just a bad translation of 'Let them eat brioche' but I don't know what that is."

Lee leaned back in his chair and grinned at her. "I'll take you there someday for breakfast in bed and show you, if you like." He went on as Amanda looked up and smiled back at him. "It's a kind of sweet bread bun, so really it was just a better bread than the peasants got to have. But does your book also mention that she never actually said that?"

"Yes, it does, so she wasn't as dumb as the stories makes her sound. On the other hand, this whole description of her pretending to lead a simple peasant life in the little castle at the bottom of the garden makes her sound like Francine's idea of playing housewife."

"The way she'd pretend to be a simple dairy maid, surrounded by her ladies in waiting? Yep, that's definitely Francine's version of perfect domesticity."

"Did I hear my name?" said Francine, walking in the door.

"I was just telling Amanda what a perfect princess you'd have been, given the chance," Lee grinned at her

Francine paused, giving that some thought before nodding in agreement. "I could have been one, you know, but -"

"His country was too small" finished Lee and Amanda in unison.

"Well it was. And it was stuck up in the mountains somewhere nowhere near any good stores – honestly, no wonder he spent so much time in America. Anyway, I'm the bearer of a new job for you: security detail at the Rosenberg Foundation charity event next week. It should be fun, it's a costume party and with no actual threats expected, just a lot of VIPs."

Amanda glanced over the file Francine had just handed her and winced. "Hallowe'en night? Ugh."

"Is that a problem?"

"Not really, it's just that the boys are outgrowing their trick-or-treating years and it would have been nice to go out with them." She sighed and started to read further into the file. "I guess Joe gets to go this year since he missed all the other ones."

Lee came and looked over her shoulder at the brief. "Well, we don't have to do any of the prep work, we just have to attend, and the party doesn't start until 8:00, so wouldn't you have time to go out with them for a little while at least? You could go out in whatever you're going to wear to the party and then just come straight there to meet me."

Amanda looked up at him and beamed, pleased that he understood how important to her these times with her boys were. "I guess I could, if Mr. Melrose is okay with that."

"He'll be fine with it" said Francine. "There's going to be a dozen of us there anyway, and you can get briefed for most of it during the day." She paused, looking at the raised eyebrows of the partners looking at her. "What? Oh, don't think this is me being nice – Billy already made a comment about you not wanting to work that night, so if we can get you at all, he'll be happy."

"Well, I guess he's a father, so he'd understand. I'll make sure to thank him later." As Amanda spoke, the book on her lap slid off and landed on the sofa.

"What are you reading?" asked Francine, leaning forward to pick it up and flip through the pages. "Ooooh Versailles! Now that's the kind of life I should have been born into."

"Maybe you were, in a past life" said Amanda.

"Like Victoria Greenwich?" Lee grinned down at her from his perch on the back of the sofa.

Amanda smiled back at him. "Exactly. And Victoria definitely did have nine lives."

Lee winced at the memory of that ambulance ride. "Don't remind me."

Amanda patted his arm. "Hey it wasn't all bad – she had great taste in clothes. Not to mention a smoking hot chauffeur."

Francine rolled her eyes. "OK you two, break it up. It's creepy when you pretend to flirt for my benefit. Now, Amanda, do you have something to wear for this or do we need to get you down to wardrobe?"

"No, I have something in mind and I can wear it to go out with the boys too. How about you, Lee? Going as James Bond as usual?"

"Nah, I'll come up with something. What are you going as? I could try and match it."

Amanda laughed and said "Oh no, mine's a surprise. You'll know why when you see it."

Lee looked at her speculatively; he could tell from her smile that she was up to some kind of mischief, but then he relaxed. How bad could it be if she was planning to wear the same costume out with Philip and Jamie?

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Lee was feeling a little bit more like the hunted than the hunter at this party. When he'd decided to dress as Indiana Jones for the party, he had been thinking solely of the advantages of acting as security as a character who openly carried a sidearm, but he realized now that he had not factored in how many women apparently had a thing for a guy in a bomber jacket and a five o'clock shadow. He had only walked in five minutes ago and already he was beginning to wonder if he was actually going to have to use his prop bullwhip on the next Washington socialite coming at him. To his relief, he saw Billy and Jeanie walk in and go to the bar. "Thank goodness. Safety in numbers" he thought to himself and walked over to join them.

"You guys look great" he greeted them. Jeanie, who was slim and just slightly taller than Billy was dressed as Stan Laurel to Billy's Oliver Hardy. He had to laugh at the way the bowler hat perched on Billy's head.

"You're not so bad yourself, handsome" laughed Jeanie, beaming as he leaned down to give her a kiss on the cheek. "You must be beating off all the loveliest archeologist wannabees."

Lee grinned at the compliment as Billy rolled his eyes. "Thanks Jeanie. I wasn't expecting to see you two here tonight."

"Well, I knew you'd be short-handed until Amanda got here and it's always nice to have an excuse to go to a party with a woman you love." Billy took Jeanie's hand in his and kissed it, winking at her.

Lee leaned back on the bar and watched the couple in front of him exchange looks as if they had forgotten he was there. He wondered what it would be like to spend an evening openly with Amanda like this. They were still so much in the habit of sneaking around as Amanda put it that he wondered if they'd ever be able to transition to being "regular people".

Jeanie turned back towards him with a smile. "So is your partner ever getting here? I haven't seen her in far too long."

"Yeah, she called me on the car phone about fifteen minutes ago when I was on my way here to say she'd dropped the boys at her ex's house for a second round of trick-or-treating so she shouldn't be too much longer."

"What's her costume? Is she going to be Marion to your Indy?"

"I have no idea – she wouldn't tell me. Well, she did say she was coming as a housewife but I'm fairly sure she was kidding." Lee chuckled as he thought back to the first party he'd ever invited Amanda to, without thinking to mention it was a costume party. He'd been in a tux purposely trying to overwhelm her and she'd been in a bad mood because she was 'hideously under-dressed'. Looking back, it was a wonder she'd ever wanted to see him again, let alone ended up rescuing him from Mrs. Welch. He silently sent up a prayer of thanks, not for the first time, that he'd picked her out of the crowd on the platform that morning.

He glanced around the room wondering how much longer it would be until she arrived and then he saw her and started to laugh. She had obviously missed seeing him and was walking away from him across the room towards Dave and Fred at the bar on the far side of the ballroom. He knew now why she'd looked so mischievous that morning in the Q Bureau as he watched her try to work her way through the crowd, because it was a joke only the two of them would understand. She was dressed as Marie-Antoinette, hair hidden under a powdered wig, her slim figure enhanced by the corseted dress, but the width of the skirts meant that she had to keep twisting as she walked past knots of people which made her hips sway attractively.

"Excuse me, Jeanie," he said straightening up hurriedly. "I think I see someone I know" and he headed off in pursuit, hoping to catch her before she reached the other agents.

Jeanie grinned at his departing back. "That's the look of a man after a little something-something, if you know what I mean."

Billy shook his head, hating that he was in agreement with his wife's assessment. "I don't know when that boy is ever going to grow up. I have a job posting from State Department on my desk that I think would be right up his alley but he's not going to be interested until he finds the woman who wants to make him settle down and get out of the field."

Like when you found me?"

Billy beamed at his wife and lifted her hand to kiss it again. "Like when I found you. At least I had the sense to recognize a good thing when I saw it. Lee is so set in his Scarecrow ways sometimes that I don't think he'd recognize it if it stood up and punched him the nose."

"Well, Amanda's a softball coach so I bet her throwing arm could throw a pretty good right hook if she had to."

Billy's yelp of laughter was so infectious it brought smiles out in everyone nearby.

The subject of their conversation meanwhile was speeding furiously through the crowd, eye on the unsuspecting prize in front of him, politely brushing aside the women who kept stepping out in front of him to try and get his attention. He finally caught up with her about three-quarters of the way around the room and slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her back into his chest and growling "Bonsoir, mon amour" into her ear while surreptitiously squeezing her breast. With horror, even before the words were completely out of his mouth, he knew he'd made a mistake.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He wasn't sure whether he was relieved or not at the familiar voice screeching at him as the woman in the Marie-Antoinette costume pivoted on the spot, grabbed his hand and began to bend his fingers backwards.

"Ow! Ow! OW! Francine! Stop! I'm sorry! I thought you were - ow! - an old girlfriend!".

Francine let go of his hand and started pinching him as hard as she could in the fleshy part of his upper arm. "I AM an old girlfriend, you moron!"

"Owwwww, yeah, okay! Just stop pinching me!" He rubbed his arm vigorously once Francine finally released him. He couldn't help the quick grin as she stood glaring in front of him, hands now on her hips. "I should have guessed you'd come as a princess. Sorry about copping a feel just now, but hey, if it makes you feel better, ya still got it Desmond." His dimples got deeper as he watched the slightly mollified expression that crossed her face at his words.

"Well, thank you for that at least. Who did you think I was anyway?"

"Oh, just a French girl I used to date."

"Well, she must have been a real winner if that's a greeting she'd appreciate."

"Oh she was – that's why I was so happy to see her again."

"You are such a sexist jerk, Lee Stetson and you're supposed to be working, not playing. Where's Amanda anyway?"

"I don't know if she's here yet, or at least I haven't seen her." He spun slowly on his heel scanning the room for Amanda, wondering what her costume was going to be now that he had been so completely wrong on his first guess. When he finally saw her, propping up the bar beside Billy and Jeanie, all three of them laughing helplessly, he knew she'd seen the whole thing. As she raised her glass in a toast to him and he took in what she was wearing, he couldn't help exploding in laughter.

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It was nearing the end of the evening and they were slow dancing to the jazz band, trying their best to look simply like two good friends enjoying a night out and giving nothing away to any observers about how they really felt about each other.

Amanda was looking up at him, still grinning at the image of Lee being forced almost to his knees by Francine's grip on his upper arm. "I still can't believe you tried to cop a feel in the middle of a job, and from Francine of all people! I'll bet she left a bruise. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking she was you!" He closed his eyes and groaned. "I knew it wasn't you the second I leaned down to whisper in her ear but unfortunately I was over-committed by then." He ran his hand down the bare skin of Amanda's back that was exposed by the keyhole cutout in the back of her dress, the movement of his fingers hidden under the long wig she was wearing, and felt her shiver with desire under his touch, even as she giggled. "I thought I was so smart. We'd had that conversation about Marie-Antoinette in the office that day and when you said you were coming as a housewife, I thought it was a joke about how she pretended to be one. And of course, I thought you were making a joke about Marie." He paused and looked her up and down, taking in the long form-fitting gown that showed of all her assets in just the right way. "I can't believe I never even thought of this."

Amanda laughed up at him. "I can't believe you didn't either. Morticia Addams is the ultimate housewife – she loves her kids, she loves her husband, she manages an entire household of crazy people…"

"And she drives her beloved crazy with French," chuckled Lee, sorely tempted to kiss her right there in the middle of the dance floor but knowing they were surrounded by people who knew them.

"How soon can we get out of here, ma chère?" asked Amanda in a jokey seductive tone "Joe's keeping the boys at his place and I'm past the age where my mother waits up for me."

"Well Morticia, based on the way the room is clearing, we won't have to be here much longer and then the night is ours."

"Thanks goodness. I can hardly wait to get out of this dress. It's too tight."

Lee tried to hide his grin as he murmured into her hair. "Believe me, it's not too tight but I can hardly wait to get you out of it either."