Time in the Country

Author's Note: This is set sometime in season six or thereabouts. That is, it would be if there had of been a season six but of course there wasn't a season six. But if there had of been a season six, this is my view of what might have happened or at least could have happened if there had of been a sixth season. Good Lord, I've watched this show so much that Amanda's got me to rambling now. ;)

Oh… and, I don't own these characters; I just like to spend time with them. No other profit to be had.

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Lee pulled into the parking lot and looked up proudly at the name emblazoned on a sign above the entrance of the building.

Stetson Investigations

The business card, he carried, identified his agency as the premier private investigation company in Washington DC. Although, that was a bit grandiose yet for the fledgling company; Lee had every intention of one day making that a true statement, in every sense of the word. They had already solved some cases that law enforcement had deemed unsolvable.

Shaking his head in wonder, he thought about what had brought this all about.

He and Amanda had been married for almost a year and their marriage was still a secret when things had started to fall apart at the Agency. Billy had been forced to retire due to his health and though Lee had been offered the now vacant position of section chief, he and Amanda, after a lot of talking, thinking and soul searching had decided it wasn't what they wanted. More importantly, it wasn't what Lee wanted.

Though he did agree to take the reins for a little while, as interim boss, he made it clear to Dr. Smyth that it was ONLY for a little while until someone else could be found to take the position. Smyth easily, perhaps too easily, agreed and Lee moved into the office that Billy had occupied for so many years.

For the next four months Lee literally felt like a caged animal, trapped in a windowless room with nothing but paperwork and headaches all day long. He now understood why Billy kept a large bottle of antacids in his drawer all the time. To make matters worse, he could no longer see Amanda as he was used to.

His move up had meant a new partner for his wife. And although he knew Francine would look out for Amanda, as Amanda would Francine, he nevertheless spent part of each day worrying about her, anytime she and Francine would leave the office to work a case.

Several times Lee had asked Smyth about his replacement and the odious man, with the cigarette holder firmly clamped in his teeth, always gave a vague answer and found something terribly important to do. Something that would take him as far from Lee's presence as he could get.

Lee had just about decided that he would be the permanent section chief, whether he liked it or not. But that notion changed the day that Amanda and Francine had come close to being killed.

He had sent them out on a routine surveillance, supposedly low risk as the man they were watching was a low level accountant with no criminal record. They were watching him in the hopes that he would lead them to someone higher up on the food chain.

But criminal record or not, he somehow discovered they were watching him and decided to end their shadowing permanently. Getting in his car, he had led them around town until he got them on a high bridge over the river. With a couple of swift maneuvers, he managed to get beside them and then tried ramming their car with his as they were going over the bridge.

It was only by Amanda's quick thinking that he'd missed. She had been driving and had seen him coming from the corner of her eye. Stomping her foot on the gas pedal, she was able to move out of the way mere seconds before he plowed into the space they had occupied. His momentum carried him through the guard rail on the side of the bridge and down to the river below.

That was the final straw. Lee could take no more. He wanted to get back into the field. He was not a paper pusher by nature and never had been. It wasn't in his nature to sit behind a desk and command others to go out and put themselves in danger, while he sat in a quiet office behind a large desk and ate antacids by the bottle.

The next time Lee saw Dr. Smyth, he literally pinned him against the wall and demanded that a replacement be found and he be allowed to go back to his job and his partner.

Smyth owlishly studied Lee for several seconds before pulling away and squaring his shoulders. "Now, now, Scarecrow." He made a show of straightening his jacket. "No need to display your caveman like tendencies. I am well aware of your wishes but I am also well aware that there is no one else to fill this position." Taking one daring step closer to the glowering agent, Smyth literally poked his finger into Lee's chest. "You are it!"

Lee lost it, grabbing the blond braggart's offending finger; he pushed it away and back, coming close to breaking it. "You Are Wrong." He leaned into Smyth. "I QUIT!"

Releasing him suddenly, Lee turned and stormed away. He knew Smyth would most likely retaliate against him for this, and he knew he should've talked to Amanda about it, before he quit. But he'd had all he could take.

Marching back to his office, he grabbed a box from the copier area, and dropped his few personal possessions into it. Then rushing upstairs, he quickly left a short note on Amanda's desk and left, before Smyth could call the guards on him.

Later, in his apartment, Lee and Amanda talked until on into the night. Although a little alarmed at his actions, she agreed wholeheartedly with his reasons and told him if he truly did want out of the Agency than she supported him in every way. That was what Lee expected and needed to hear from her.

It was near midnight when Amanda noticed the time and mentioned that she needed to go home, so she could be there in the morning for the boys.

"You should already be home." Lee remarked hugging her close to him. "And I should be there with you."

Amanda pulled back to look at him. "Are you saying what I think you are?"

Lee nodded, watching her face closely for any sign that she disagreed. He didn't find it. "I think it's time." He said, pulling her back to him. "With me no longer at the Agency, you and I won't be able to work together anyway, so there's no need to worry about what they know. And with me out of the intelligence business, it won't be as dangerous. It's going to be hard to tell your mother and the boys though."

Amanda nodded, laying her head against his chest as she thought about the changes they would soon be undergoing. "We'll get through it." She sighed.

Thinking about her words, Lee realized that was the same thing she'd said when he started his short stent with the state department. A job he detested from the beginning and only kept as long as he did, because it paid well.

And she'd said it again when, two months later, she had resigned from the Agency herself due to her being reassigned to the steno pool by Dr. Smyth. He declared her skills 'not up to snuff' as an agent. They both knew the truth behind his decision but they also knew there'd be no fighting it.

And she told him the same thing again when his uncle had died a month after that and then a month after that, when her son Jamie declared that he wanted to live with his father because he found life at home with her and her husband insufferable.

And as always, Amanda had been right. Their coming clean about their secret marriage and formerly secret lives as undercover operatives had been difficult for them. Dotty was furious and hurt, the boys were as well. Phillip eventually accepted and understood their reasons. But Jamie still had a certain amount of anger over it, usually unleashed only with his brother or the occasional snipe at Lee. Amanda just prayed that what he'd shown so far was the worst of it.

They had gone through a lot of turmoil, both individually and as a couple, during that time, but through it all, they had stuck together.

And now here he was, sitting in front of their own company, financed with the money Lee's uncle had so wisely invested years ago and left to him upon his death. And it was kept busy because of the many contacts Lee and his part time investigators, Billy and Harry Thornton, had.

Lee knew there were still challenges ahead for he and Amanda but he felt confident that together, they could tackle whatever came their way.

Of course, he didn't know, on that bright early fall morning, just how soon that 'whatever' would arrive.

TBC