Glory of Love
by: Jessica Walker
Summary: This is letter G in the ABC Song Fiction Challenge. Lee and Amanda are undercover, but how comfortable is he at allowing her to be the bait?
Disclaimer:
The characters in the fan fictions are based on the characters from the TV
series Scarecrow and Mrs. King. By Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon
Productions. Glory Of Love was performed beautifully by the multi-talented Peter Cetera and I thank him.
All plots are original stories by the author. Only the characters are
borrowed. The characters in the fan fictions are based on the characters from the TV series. This fan fiction is set in the Third Season probably a little before the time of All The World's A Stage but.okay it's going to probably break canon but I hope that you will be forgiving. There is a teeny tiny reference to Ship of Spies but I think that's all.
This is my first time attempt at a fan fiction. Any comments are welcome but please don't make me cry.
Special Thanks to Michelle for staying up with me all night while I wrote this instead of studying for finals.there are just some times when you have to have something to take your mind off of finals and this challenge helped me out a lot with that. Who needs Psychology when you can have SMK!
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Staring across the room, Lee was finding it hard to remember how he had
been talked into this assignment. Perhaps it had been the opportunity to
spend some time with Amanda, far away from the agency and everyday life
situations that always seemed to interfere; however, he knew from the
beginning he was not going to like this and yet had agreed to it anyway. Now
he was left to watch her putting on the performance of a lifetime, playing
herself into the hands of the same types of men that would normally cause
her to step in closer to him whenever they passed by. And where was he
while she was flirting? He was sitting at the bar waiting for her signal so
he could give her an excuse to leave if things got too carried away.
The case was simple enough, women had been disappearing from the Atmore
Resort over the course of the last few months and were being found a few
days later drugged, with no memories of what had happened to them. All of
the women had been of a flirtatious nature and normally made more of a
nuisance out of themselves than anything, so the owner of the establishment
had chosen to overlook the incidences. That was fine with everyone else too,
until Senator Taplin's daughter became one of the victims and the first one
to be found dead. Taplin placed a call into the agency himself and demanded
that someone go to the resort and find out what had happened to his
daughter.
When Billy had presented the case to Lee and suggested that he use Amanda
as the bait, Lee thought he was joking. "Francine has much more experience
in this particular area, Billy. Why not have her do it?" But Billy was
having none of it and informed Lee that he had full confidence in Amanda's
abilities to pull this off. This was not necessarily something Lee wanted to
find true, but in the end he had conceded and now here they were. As it
turned out, Billy was right about Amanda. She had the full attention of
every one of the men she was near, but was still managing to keep a safe
distance when the attention was more than she was comfortable with. And so
he sat at the bar, finishing his drink and trying to act casual.
Finally around 2:00am, Lee heard her begin her goodbyes and prepared
himself to assist her should she need it. There was the normal round of
"just stay for one more drink" pleas but other than that it went completely
smooth. Lee threw some money on the bar and walked out just a few paces
ahead of Amanda. He walked across the lobby to a phone booth and picked up
the receiver. Amanda leaned down to get a drink out of the fountain beside
the phone booth.
" You looked like you were having a good time." Lee said, grinning toward
her.
" I feel like a piece of meat and smell like a cigarette. The only good
time I had was while one of them talked about his line of work. While he was enthusiastically telling us about the drama in marketing and sales, I was able to picture getting out of these smelly clothes and taking a long bubble bath in
my room. I just don't understand how women are able to do this night after
night. There is nothing even slightly enjoyable about it," Amanda whispered
while stepping out of her heels for a moment to give her feet some relief
after four hours of standing.
" I don't know. I could see something enjoyable in picturing you taking a
long bubble bath in your room."
Amanda responded by shaking her head and flashing him a 'give me a break'
look. " Alright, alright...Seriously though, if you're not too tired I would
like to hear about anything that came up in the conversation. How about you
go take your bath and then you can come over to my room for a cup of coffee
and we'll go over it?" Lee flashed her his best puppy dog face hoping to
override her desires to go to bed.
Amanda thought for a moment about asking if they could just rendezvous in
the morning, but she couldn't resist that look. " It's not fair when you
make that face," she said in a playfully annoyed tone. "Alright...but I am
not going to stay for very long," she stated matter-of-factly, knowing full
well that she should not plan on getting much sleep. With that she turned
and walked out the door and down the pathway to her room. Lee followed not
too far behind to make sure that she got back safely and then went in his
own room across the path from hers.
Twenty minutes later, a very tired but clean Amanda knocked on the front
door of Lee's room. The door opened and she walked in to the smell of fresh
coffee brewing in the pot. Lee gestured toward the sofa and she made no
hesitations in sitting down. He handed her a cup, brushing her fingers
lightly with his own as she took it. She looked up at him, tilting her head
to the side a little and smiled, " Thanks." Lee stood gazing at her for a
moment before getting himself a cup and sitting down beside her. He turned
his body so that he was facing hers and noticed that she had slipped out of
her shoes and had her legs pulled up under her as she laid her head on the
couch facing him. She looked absolutely beautiful...and absolutely
exhausted. He began to feel guilty for pressuring her to join him for this
nightcap.
" Amanda, why don't I walk you back to your room and we can do this in the
morning?"
" No, no, I'm fine really. I just need to drink this coffee and I'll be
ready for anything," she said with a twinkle in her eye that was almost
successful in covering her fatigue. Lee decided to let it go, but promised
himself that he would keep this short. Although his mind kept telling him to
insist that she go to bed, he really had missed her company this evening and
didn't want her to leave. They talked a little about what she had been told
by the men in the bar, but none of it really seemed to pertain to the case
so they decided to try again the next night. Amanda asked Lee about what he
had been able to find out from his end, but sometime as he was talking and
pouring himself his third cup of coffee, she finally lost the battle with
her exhaustion and fell asleep.
When Lee turned around and saw her sleeping comfortably, her feet still
wrapped up underneath her and her head leaned against the couch, he debated
moving her at all. In the end, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her
across the way to her own room. Amanda stirred a little when he picked her
up, but feeling complete security in Lee's strong arms, wrapped her own arms
around his neck and made no objections to the trip. He laid her down gently
in her bed, pulling the comforter up and tucking her in. He allowed himself
one last quick look at her before he turned off the lights and locked the
door behind him. Then he went back to his own room and got ready for bed,
trying to pinpoint the exact moment when Amanda King had become so important
in his life.
The sound of a telephone ringing pulled Lee out of his dreams and back into
reality. "Hello," he mumbled.
" Lee, it's me..." Amanda started.
"Amanda, are you okay," Lee, asked while ripping the covers off of himself
and standing up. He was already pulling his jeans up before she was able to
reassure him that she was fine, she had just called to find out if he wanted
to get breakfast. He thought he heard a bit of laughter in her voice but she
was nice enough to not make a big deal out of his jumping to conclusions.
"Um, yeah Amanda. Just give me fifteen minutes and I'll be right over." He
hung up the phone and went to take a shower.
Amanda was just about to knock when he opened the door to leave. "Oh, uh, I
got tired of waiting," she said lowering her head in an attempt to hide her
embarrassment at being so impatient. Lee smiled at her and placed his arms
on her shoulders to turn her in the direction of the restaurant. He then
released her shoulders but placed his left hand on the small of her back
saying, "Well then, let's go." "Alright," she responded with a tiny smile
tugging at the sides of her mouth. This day was already looking better than
the last.
Before they entered the restaurant, Lee pulled her aside and whispered,
"Now Amanda, it's important that we not blow our cover, so you just keep up
the flirtations while we're in sight of other people."
Amanda smiled up at him, "Flirt with you. Oh, I think I can handle that." She started to walk in, but turned around and quickly added, "But you blow one smoke ring in my face and I'm outta there mister." Lee laughed and led her over to a nice table.
Amanda put on a nice show and Lee enjoyed every minute of it. It was fun
being able to openly flirt with one another and it gave him an opportunity
to say things he'd wanted to for a long time. " Have I told you how beautiful you are? You're the kind of woman men write songs about." Amanda wanted to laugh at the thought of Lee Stetson giving her a line, but before she could react at all, one of his hands lifted up and gently brushed away a stray lock of hair that had fallen in her face and she was suddenly paralyzed. Her breath caught in her throat and all she could do was stare into those beautiful hazel eyes of his as his hand traveled down outlining her face and then slowly coming to rest on top of her own hand laying on the table. She didn't dare blink for fear of losing the moment and could hardly contain herself when he started to lean forward. She felt herself leaning forward but it was as if in slow motion. Her head was screaming at her to just go for it but her heart still wasn't sure if she was ready. Well in actuality her heart had been sure that she was ready for
a long time, it wasn't sure that he was ready. The look in his eyes seemed to signal that he was and so she let the rest of her reservations slip away as she felt his lips beginning to lightly touch hers.
"Here you a.." the waitress caught herself as she realized what she was
interrupting. She sat the entire tray down and walked off. Lee and Amanda
jerked apart, both suddenly remembering what it was they were supposed to be
doing. Amanda was already preparing herself for the 'we're just friends'
speech when Lee leaned down to whisper, " I don't know about you but I'm
getting tired of all these damn interruptions." He then started to move
their breakfast off of the tray pretending that he didn't notice the red
that was covering his companion's face.
The rest of breakfast went smoothly as did the rest of the day as they went
around searching for anything that might help them break the case. Hand in
hand they headed back from the tennis courts at seven to start getting ready
for dinner. As Amanda stepped into her room, she noticed a note that had
been slid under the door. She opened it and immediately called Lee.
" Amanda, I told you that you'll look beautiful in whatever you decide to
wear," Lee said jokingly into the phone as soon as she said his name.
" Well thank you for that, but that's not...Lee there was a note under my door and I think it's warning me to stay away from you," she replied.
"Wait a second, Amanda. What does the note say exactly?"
Amanda picked the note up off of the bedside table. " Stop playing around
with Mr. Perfect. You're just like all the rest. You dance with everyone but
when it's time to go home, you pick the best looking one. You'll pay just
like the last one. That's all it says," Amanda told him.
"Okay, now you just relax. I'm here so no one is going to be able to do
anything to you without going through me first. Now we're just going to
stick with the plans that we had and go to dinner at eight, followed by some
dancing and then take it from there in the bar, okay? You trust me, don't
you?"
" Of course I trust you. I was just being silly. I'm sorry," she said.
" No, don't be sorry. At least we know for sure that you've gotten the
attention of our killer and we need to proceed with caution from now on."
"Yeah," she said quietly in response.
"Hey, you've done an amazing job. You even surprised me on this one," he
said remembering how well she'd handled herself the night before. He almost
wished he'd been given an excuse to rescue her, but she'd pulled it off
without a single problem. Once he was sure she was okay, they said their
goodbyes and then prepared for the evening's events.
Amanda chose a sleeveless champagne colored dress with straps that tied
around her neck to wear for dinner. It seemed fitting because it had the
perfect mix of sophistication in the color and cut, and excitement in the
way that it showed off her bare shoulders and back and stopped just above
her knee, giving a nice view of her legs. She pulled her hair up partially
with combs, pulling some curls down to shape her face. She wore tiny diamond
earrings and her heart necklace as her only accessories.
Promptly at eight, Lee knocked on her door wearing a black tux and looking
very handsome. Amanda checked one last time in the mirror to make sure
everything looked like it was in place, grabbed her wrap, and opened the
door. Lee literally felt his heart pounding when he saw her. He'd always
known she was a beautiful woman but there had never been another time that
he could remember her looking like this. The moon shone around her hair and
face and the diamonds' sparkles from her necklace were reflecting in her
eyes. The dress was beautiful and seemed to envelop her in a way that
accentuated everything that should be seen in a woman but still left a
feeling of mystery and class. The way that her eyes had a slight hint of
nervousness at the outfit only made it that much more alluring. He knew he
needed to say something but nothing seemed appropriate to let this woman
know how beautiful she was.
Amanda was becoming more and more nervous the longer he stood there. Maybe
the dress had been a mistake after all, but she had thought that it looked
fine. Thousands of thoughts were running through her head as she waited for
some sign from Lee, anything at all. She looked down toward the walk, unable
to keep her eyes locked with his in the intense stare he was giving her. She
thought about turning around and going back inside, but as she started to
step, she felt his hand under her chin lifting it up. " You look beautiful,"
he said almost in a whisper as he held out his arm for her to take. Amanda
smiled shyly and linked her arm with his as they headed for dinner.
After a nice dinner, Lee suggested that they see if they could hear
anything while out on the dance floor. The death of the senator's daughter
had become the topic of most discussions at the resort and everyone seemed
to have a different opinion. One of the groundskeepers told them that she
hadn't acted any different than any of the other girls that liked to hang
out around the bar at night. He didn't seem to think anyone even knew who
she was until it came out in the papers. Elizabeth Taplin had been known to
be quite a partier and so it wasn't unusual to find her around the bars and
she liked men, so it wasn't unusual to find her around them either. It was
beginning to become obvious to both Lee and Amanda that this case wasn't
about the daughter of a senator being killed any more than it was about any
of the other victims. This person wasn't trying to make a political
statement; he or she was aiming for what the employees of Atmore referred to
as the Bar Broads.
As they were dancing, Lee began to try to come up with a plan. They knew
they had to lure the guy out into physically going after Amanda so that they
could catch him. " Okay so I think that you need to go back to the bar
tonight to do some more of that routine you were doing last night," Lee said
in a low voice to Amanda to prevent those around them from hearing.
" Won't it look a little odd for me to have been spending all this time with you and then to suddenly start flirting with other men while you're sitting at the bar," she questioned. "Well, we'll just have to come up with a distraction
then," Lee told her.
" What kind of distraction?"
" Uh...Let's get into a fight. Then I can take off out of here and go to
the bar. You can follow me there only start doing the flirty thing to get
back at me for whatever and we'll see if we can get our man to try to follow
after you when you leave."
Amanda looked a little unsure about the idea. " What are we going to fight
about? I mean I know we've fought about really stupid things in the past,
but we haven't really argued for a while now, unless you count the thing in
Billy's office about...well I don't really think we should count that
because it was just taken out of context or something. I mean, I didn't
really think much about it at all after it happened until now and I think
that maybe we just shouldn't bring it up. I mean I know that I..." Amanda
was interrupted by Lee's turning away toward one of the men from the bar the
night before.
"Excuse me, but do you think perhaps I could have this dance," Vic asked
while pushing Lee to the side and talking Amanda's arms in his. Amanda
mouthed "I'm sorry" to him as Vic led her across the dance floor in case the
tall guy tried to take Amanda back. Lee mouthed back, "It's okay. I'll talk
to you later."
Amanda squinted up her nose and shook her head while she mouthed, "What?"
back to him. Vic stared at her and she immediately released the expression
from her face and smiled back at him. Lee tried again but other dancers kept
going in front of him. Amanda tried to rearrange herself over Vic's other
shoulder thinking it would give her a better view of Lee, but he'd moved
toward the other side thinking that she would be able to see him better from
there.
As Lee was trying to discretely wave his arm to get Amanda's attention on
his new location, one of the single ladies in the room walked up and asked
him to dance. Lee agreed, taking it as an opportunity to position himself
closer to Amanda. " This is ridiculous," he thought to himself, "All I'm
trying to tell her is I'll talk to her later," but he continued on in his
attempts to get close enough to tell her. Amanda in turn had taken over the
role of leader from Vic and was moving them toward Lee and the other woman.
Finally they were almost side-by-side and Amanda again mouthed, "What?"
Lee grinned as he watched her shove Vic's head down on her shoulder so she
wouldn't have to mess with looking around him anymore. " I said, I'll talk
to you later," he mouthed.
"Oh," Amanda said out loud causing Vic to look up at her. She looked down
at the weird little man and thinking on her feet said, "Um...my head hurts
really bad. I think I'm just going to go back to my room." She brought a
hand up to her forehead and attempted a look of pain. Lee started to laugh
to himself as he watched her trying to hide her little slip up, but
something about Vic's change in demeanor told him that he needed to keep a
close eye on this man.
" Let me walk you back to your room," Vic offered. Amanda smiled at him but
unintentionally glancing up toward Lee, declined saying that she would be
fine. As she walked off, Vic cast an angry look toward Lee and began to
follow after her anyway. Lee continued dancing for a moment so that Vic
wouldn't realize that he too was being followed. After allowing Amanda to
walk completely out of the building and Vic to get close to the door, Lee
excused himself and followed behind. He assumed that Vic would try to follow
Amanda all the way back down the path and into her room and so was taken by
surprise when he heard her scream as soon as he walked out into the night
air.
Lee turned in the direction of the scream, immediately removing his gun and
running up the hill. He could hear Vic saying something to Amanda but
couldn't understand what it was. All he did know was that Amanda was scared.
He could see it written all over her face and he knew she didn't know that
he was there yet. She was looking all around for him while trying to say
nice things to calm Vic down. But the man had a tight hold of her arm and
gave no signs of letting go. He made comments about her parading herself in
front of all the men in the room so that they would notice her and then only
going after the best looking ones. Amanda tried to assure him that she
hadn't gone after anyone and that she didn't care what a man looked like,
but Vic didn't believe any of it.
Vic turned so that he was blocking Lee's view of Amanda. Lee began to
slowly move around so that when the time came, she would be able to see him.
As soon as he was in an area that he was sure she would spot him easily in,
he called out to Vic. " Let her go! There is no reason why anyone needs to
get hurt here!"
Vic spun around in the direction of the Lee's voice and saw the gun pointed
right at him. He hadn't planned on this, but he knew his only means of
negotiation was Amanda. He tightened his grip on her and brought her around
in front of him. He pulled out a knife and held it at her throat. " Okay
now, you're going to put down your gun or I'm going to kill the tramp." Lee
silently cursed himself for not taking the shot earlier, but there would
have been no reason at that point to justify shooting this man and now he
couldn't be absolutely sure he wouldn't hit Amanda.
He started to lower his gun to the ground when he looked into her eyes and
saw the trust in them. In a split second, he pulled the gun back up into a
shooting stance and Amanda dug her heel into Vic's foot causing him to
loosen his grip on her enough for his left shoulder to be exposed and Lee to
hit it dead on. He fell to the ground at Amanda's feet.
Lee ran up to him and checked to make sure that he was still alive. As soon
as he found a pulse he left Vic and went to Amanda, wrapping her in his arms
and holding her there tightly while the people in the restaurant came out to
see what was going on. Somewhere in the middle of it, someone called the
police and went after the resort's doctor, but neither Lee nor Amanda knew
anything except the feel of each other at that moment.
When the police arrived, Lee showed them his badge and he and Amanda each
gave their statements. During the questioning, Lee noticed Amanda rubbing
her arm a lot and could see the beginning of what he was sure would become a
huge bruise from where Vic had held her so tightly. The thought of a man
putting a mark on her skin made him sick to his stomach. As soon as the
police were through with them, he suggested they go back to their rooms and
pack so that they could leave first thing in the morning. Amanda closed her
eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath and releasing it, then nodded her
head in agreement.
When they reached her room, Lee offered to come in and make sure no one had
been able to break into it. " Don't worry about it. I'm sure no one came in
here. The letter was slid under the door." Amanda told him. Lee knew she was
probably right but wanted to see for himself.
" I must have left the radio on," she said as she opened the door and suddenly filled the awkward silence with the soft music of a song finishing.
" I'll see you in the morning, okay?"
As the next song began, Lee was desperately trying to come up with a way to prolong the evening. He knew she was probably exhausted after everything that had gone on, but he needed to be with her for just a while longer.
Tonight it's very clear as we're both lyin here
There's so many things I wanna say
I will always love you I would never leave you alone
" I really think I should check it out Amanda."
" Lee, I'm tired and I just want to go to bed..." Amanda started but was
cut off by Lee.
" Amanda, why do I have to fight with you about things like this? I am
only trying to do what's best for you and it's almost like you want bad
things to happen to you sometimes. I mean how is it possible for one person
to have all of this happen!?!" He was getting more upset and louder with every second, and even though he knew that he shouldn't be yelling at her, he couldn't seem to stop it either.
"Sometimes I just get so frustrated, constantly having to worry about where
you are and if you're..." He stopped when he saw the tears welling up in her
eyes.
Sometimes I just forget say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you cryin
I don't wanna lose you I could never make it alone
Amanda didn't know where this had come from. One minute everything was
finally calming down and the next he was mad at her. It was suddenly too much
and all she could do was try to keep from crying, which she wasn't doing
very well at the moment. She wanted to go in and close the door on the whole
world until it started to make sense again. She opened her mouth to say
something but no sound came out as her emotions threatened to take over
completely.
Inside Lee's mind, thousands of apologies were going around but none seemed
right considering what he'd just done. Here she was completely shaken up,
only an hour after having a knife pressed against her throat and almost
being shot, and he was yelling at her for no reason other than he had never
been so scared in his life as he was when he saw that knife. He knew he had
to say something before she turned around and went inside.
You keep me standing tall you help me through it all
I'm always strong when your beside me
I have always needed you I could never make it alone
He lightly gripped her arms with his hands. " Oh Amanda, I'm sorry. I
didn't mean any of that...what I just said there. That was just, well, that
wasn't anything really. I mean, it was something but I didn't mean any of
it. I never should have said...well what I meant to say was..." He couldn't
think of anything that sounded right so he threw caution to the wind and
pulled her in for a kiss. At first it was light but as they both began to
release all the fear and tension that had been building up inside of them,
it became more intense and more demanding. They both wrapped their arms
around the other and held on as tightly as they could, not wanting any
distance to be between them. Eventually they both began to loosen their
grips on each other as the kiss turned less desperate and more into the
thing they'd both been dreaming about since their "wedding" over a year
before. It became softer and more sensual as they moved out of the doorway
and into her room.
I am the man who will fight for your honor
I'll be the hero you keep dreaming of
We'll live forever knowing together that we did it all for the Glory of love
When they finally ended the kiss, they stood gazing into each other's eyes
for a moment before Lee finally said, "That's what I meant to say." She
smiled up at him and he pulled her forward, kissing her forehead as they began to unconsciously move together to the words of the song.
Like a knight in shining armor from a long time ago
Just in time I will save the day
Take you to my castle far away
I am the man who will fight for your honor
I'll be the hero that your dreaming of
We're gonna live forever
Knowing together that we did it all for the Glory of love
We'll live forever
Knowing together that we did it all for the Glory of love
We did it all for love
We did it all for love
We did it all for love
We did it all for love
by: Jessica Walker
Summary: This is letter G in the ABC Song Fiction Challenge. Lee and Amanda are undercover, but how comfortable is he at allowing her to be the bait?
Disclaimer:
The characters in the fan fictions are based on the characters from the TV
series Scarecrow and Mrs. King. By Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon
Productions. Glory Of Love was performed beautifully by the multi-talented Peter Cetera and I thank him.
All plots are original stories by the author. Only the characters are
borrowed. The characters in the fan fictions are based on the characters from the TV series. This fan fiction is set in the Third Season probably a little before the time of All The World's A Stage but.okay it's going to probably break canon but I hope that you will be forgiving. There is a teeny tiny reference to Ship of Spies but I think that's all.
This is my first time attempt at a fan fiction. Any comments are welcome but please don't make me cry.
Special Thanks to Michelle for staying up with me all night while I wrote this instead of studying for finals.there are just some times when you have to have something to take your mind off of finals and this challenge helped me out a lot with that. Who needs Psychology when you can have SMK!
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Staring across the room, Lee was finding it hard to remember how he had
been talked into this assignment. Perhaps it had been the opportunity to
spend some time with Amanda, far away from the agency and everyday life
situations that always seemed to interfere; however, he knew from the
beginning he was not going to like this and yet had agreed to it anyway. Now
he was left to watch her putting on the performance of a lifetime, playing
herself into the hands of the same types of men that would normally cause
her to step in closer to him whenever they passed by. And where was he
while she was flirting? He was sitting at the bar waiting for her signal so
he could give her an excuse to leave if things got too carried away.
The case was simple enough, women had been disappearing from the Atmore
Resort over the course of the last few months and were being found a few
days later drugged, with no memories of what had happened to them. All of
the women had been of a flirtatious nature and normally made more of a
nuisance out of themselves than anything, so the owner of the establishment
had chosen to overlook the incidences. That was fine with everyone else too,
until Senator Taplin's daughter became one of the victims and the first one
to be found dead. Taplin placed a call into the agency himself and demanded
that someone go to the resort and find out what had happened to his
daughter.
When Billy had presented the case to Lee and suggested that he use Amanda
as the bait, Lee thought he was joking. "Francine has much more experience
in this particular area, Billy. Why not have her do it?" But Billy was
having none of it and informed Lee that he had full confidence in Amanda's
abilities to pull this off. This was not necessarily something Lee wanted to
find true, but in the end he had conceded and now here they were. As it
turned out, Billy was right about Amanda. She had the full attention of
every one of the men she was near, but was still managing to keep a safe
distance when the attention was more than she was comfortable with. And so
he sat at the bar, finishing his drink and trying to act casual.
Finally around 2:00am, Lee heard her begin her goodbyes and prepared
himself to assist her should she need it. There was the normal round of
"just stay for one more drink" pleas but other than that it went completely
smooth. Lee threw some money on the bar and walked out just a few paces
ahead of Amanda. He walked across the lobby to a phone booth and picked up
the receiver. Amanda leaned down to get a drink out of the fountain beside
the phone booth.
" You looked like you were having a good time." Lee said, grinning toward
her.
" I feel like a piece of meat and smell like a cigarette. The only good
time I had was while one of them talked about his line of work. While he was enthusiastically telling us about the drama in marketing and sales, I was able to picture getting out of these smelly clothes and taking a long bubble bath in
my room. I just don't understand how women are able to do this night after
night. There is nothing even slightly enjoyable about it," Amanda whispered
while stepping out of her heels for a moment to give her feet some relief
after four hours of standing.
" I don't know. I could see something enjoyable in picturing you taking a
long bubble bath in your room."
Amanda responded by shaking her head and flashing him a 'give me a break'
look. " Alright, alright...Seriously though, if you're not too tired I would
like to hear about anything that came up in the conversation. How about you
go take your bath and then you can come over to my room for a cup of coffee
and we'll go over it?" Lee flashed her his best puppy dog face hoping to
override her desires to go to bed.
Amanda thought for a moment about asking if they could just rendezvous in
the morning, but she couldn't resist that look. " It's not fair when you
make that face," she said in a playfully annoyed tone. "Alright...but I am
not going to stay for very long," she stated matter-of-factly, knowing full
well that she should not plan on getting much sleep. With that she turned
and walked out the door and down the pathway to her room. Lee followed not
too far behind to make sure that she got back safely and then went in his
own room across the path from hers.
Twenty minutes later, a very tired but clean Amanda knocked on the front
door of Lee's room. The door opened and she walked in to the smell of fresh
coffee brewing in the pot. Lee gestured toward the sofa and she made no
hesitations in sitting down. He handed her a cup, brushing her fingers
lightly with his own as she took it. She looked up at him, tilting her head
to the side a little and smiled, " Thanks." Lee stood gazing at her for a
moment before getting himself a cup and sitting down beside her. He turned
his body so that he was facing hers and noticed that she had slipped out of
her shoes and had her legs pulled up under her as she laid her head on the
couch facing him. She looked absolutely beautiful...and absolutely
exhausted. He began to feel guilty for pressuring her to join him for this
nightcap.
" Amanda, why don't I walk you back to your room and we can do this in the
morning?"
" No, no, I'm fine really. I just need to drink this coffee and I'll be
ready for anything," she said with a twinkle in her eye that was almost
successful in covering her fatigue. Lee decided to let it go, but promised
himself that he would keep this short. Although his mind kept telling him to
insist that she go to bed, he really had missed her company this evening and
didn't want her to leave. They talked a little about what she had been told
by the men in the bar, but none of it really seemed to pertain to the case
so they decided to try again the next night. Amanda asked Lee about what he
had been able to find out from his end, but sometime as he was talking and
pouring himself his third cup of coffee, she finally lost the battle with
her exhaustion and fell asleep.
When Lee turned around and saw her sleeping comfortably, her feet still
wrapped up underneath her and her head leaned against the couch, he debated
moving her at all. In the end, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her
across the way to her own room. Amanda stirred a little when he picked her
up, but feeling complete security in Lee's strong arms, wrapped her own arms
around his neck and made no objections to the trip. He laid her down gently
in her bed, pulling the comforter up and tucking her in. He allowed himself
one last quick look at her before he turned off the lights and locked the
door behind him. Then he went back to his own room and got ready for bed,
trying to pinpoint the exact moment when Amanda King had become so important
in his life.
The sound of a telephone ringing pulled Lee out of his dreams and back into
reality. "Hello," he mumbled.
" Lee, it's me..." Amanda started.
"Amanda, are you okay," Lee, asked while ripping the covers off of himself
and standing up. He was already pulling his jeans up before she was able to
reassure him that she was fine, she had just called to find out if he wanted
to get breakfast. He thought he heard a bit of laughter in her voice but she
was nice enough to not make a big deal out of his jumping to conclusions.
"Um, yeah Amanda. Just give me fifteen minutes and I'll be right over." He
hung up the phone and went to take a shower.
Amanda was just about to knock when he opened the door to leave. "Oh, uh, I
got tired of waiting," she said lowering her head in an attempt to hide her
embarrassment at being so impatient. Lee smiled at her and placed his arms
on her shoulders to turn her in the direction of the restaurant. He then
released her shoulders but placed his left hand on the small of her back
saying, "Well then, let's go." "Alright," she responded with a tiny smile
tugging at the sides of her mouth. This day was already looking better than
the last.
Before they entered the restaurant, Lee pulled her aside and whispered,
"Now Amanda, it's important that we not blow our cover, so you just keep up
the flirtations while we're in sight of other people."
Amanda smiled up at him, "Flirt with you. Oh, I think I can handle that." She started to walk in, but turned around and quickly added, "But you blow one smoke ring in my face and I'm outta there mister." Lee laughed and led her over to a nice table.
Amanda put on a nice show and Lee enjoyed every minute of it. It was fun
being able to openly flirt with one another and it gave him an opportunity
to say things he'd wanted to for a long time. " Have I told you how beautiful you are? You're the kind of woman men write songs about." Amanda wanted to laugh at the thought of Lee Stetson giving her a line, but before she could react at all, one of his hands lifted up and gently brushed away a stray lock of hair that had fallen in her face and she was suddenly paralyzed. Her breath caught in her throat and all she could do was stare into those beautiful hazel eyes of his as his hand traveled down outlining her face and then slowly coming to rest on top of her own hand laying on the table. She didn't dare blink for fear of losing the moment and could hardly contain herself when he started to lean forward. She felt herself leaning forward but it was as if in slow motion. Her head was screaming at her to just go for it but her heart still wasn't sure if she was ready. Well in actuality her heart had been sure that she was ready for
a long time, it wasn't sure that he was ready. The look in his eyes seemed to signal that he was and so she let the rest of her reservations slip away as she felt his lips beginning to lightly touch hers.
"Here you a.." the waitress caught herself as she realized what she was
interrupting. She sat the entire tray down and walked off. Lee and Amanda
jerked apart, both suddenly remembering what it was they were supposed to be
doing. Amanda was already preparing herself for the 'we're just friends'
speech when Lee leaned down to whisper, " I don't know about you but I'm
getting tired of all these damn interruptions." He then started to move
their breakfast off of the tray pretending that he didn't notice the red
that was covering his companion's face.
The rest of breakfast went smoothly as did the rest of the day as they went
around searching for anything that might help them break the case. Hand in
hand they headed back from the tennis courts at seven to start getting ready
for dinner. As Amanda stepped into her room, she noticed a note that had
been slid under the door. She opened it and immediately called Lee.
" Amanda, I told you that you'll look beautiful in whatever you decide to
wear," Lee said jokingly into the phone as soon as she said his name.
" Well thank you for that, but that's not...Lee there was a note under my door and I think it's warning me to stay away from you," she replied.
"Wait a second, Amanda. What does the note say exactly?"
Amanda picked the note up off of the bedside table. " Stop playing around
with Mr. Perfect. You're just like all the rest. You dance with everyone but
when it's time to go home, you pick the best looking one. You'll pay just
like the last one. That's all it says," Amanda told him.
"Okay, now you just relax. I'm here so no one is going to be able to do
anything to you without going through me first. Now we're just going to
stick with the plans that we had and go to dinner at eight, followed by some
dancing and then take it from there in the bar, okay? You trust me, don't
you?"
" Of course I trust you. I was just being silly. I'm sorry," she said.
" No, don't be sorry. At least we know for sure that you've gotten the
attention of our killer and we need to proceed with caution from now on."
"Yeah," she said quietly in response.
"Hey, you've done an amazing job. You even surprised me on this one," he
said remembering how well she'd handled herself the night before. He almost
wished he'd been given an excuse to rescue her, but she'd pulled it off
without a single problem. Once he was sure she was okay, they said their
goodbyes and then prepared for the evening's events.
Amanda chose a sleeveless champagne colored dress with straps that tied
around her neck to wear for dinner. It seemed fitting because it had the
perfect mix of sophistication in the color and cut, and excitement in the
way that it showed off her bare shoulders and back and stopped just above
her knee, giving a nice view of her legs. She pulled her hair up partially
with combs, pulling some curls down to shape her face. She wore tiny diamond
earrings and her heart necklace as her only accessories.
Promptly at eight, Lee knocked on her door wearing a black tux and looking
very handsome. Amanda checked one last time in the mirror to make sure
everything looked like it was in place, grabbed her wrap, and opened the
door. Lee literally felt his heart pounding when he saw her. He'd always
known she was a beautiful woman but there had never been another time that
he could remember her looking like this. The moon shone around her hair and
face and the diamonds' sparkles from her necklace were reflecting in her
eyes. The dress was beautiful and seemed to envelop her in a way that
accentuated everything that should be seen in a woman but still left a
feeling of mystery and class. The way that her eyes had a slight hint of
nervousness at the outfit only made it that much more alluring. He knew he
needed to say something but nothing seemed appropriate to let this woman
know how beautiful she was.
Amanda was becoming more and more nervous the longer he stood there. Maybe
the dress had been a mistake after all, but she had thought that it looked
fine. Thousands of thoughts were running through her head as she waited for
some sign from Lee, anything at all. She looked down toward the walk, unable
to keep her eyes locked with his in the intense stare he was giving her. She
thought about turning around and going back inside, but as she started to
step, she felt his hand under her chin lifting it up. " You look beautiful,"
he said almost in a whisper as he held out his arm for her to take. Amanda
smiled shyly and linked her arm with his as they headed for dinner.
After a nice dinner, Lee suggested that they see if they could hear
anything while out on the dance floor. The death of the senator's daughter
had become the topic of most discussions at the resort and everyone seemed
to have a different opinion. One of the groundskeepers told them that she
hadn't acted any different than any of the other girls that liked to hang
out around the bar at night. He didn't seem to think anyone even knew who
she was until it came out in the papers. Elizabeth Taplin had been known to
be quite a partier and so it wasn't unusual to find her around the bars and
she liked men, so it wasn't unusual to find her around them either. It was
beginning to become obvious to both Lee and Amanda that this case wasn't
about the daughter of a senator being killed any more than it was about any
of the other victims. This person wasn't trying to make a political
statement; he or she was aiming for what the employees of Atmore referred to
as the Bar Broads.
As they were dancing, Lee began to try to come up with a plan. They knew
they had to lure the guy out into physically going after Amanda so that they
could catch him. " Okay so I think that you need to go back to the bar
tonight to do some more of that routine you were doing last night," Lee said
in a low voice to Amanda to prevent those around them from hearing.
" Won't it look a little odd for me to have been spending all this time with you and then to suddenly start flirting with other men while you're sitting at the bar," she questioned. "Well, we'll just have to come up with a distraction
then," Lee told her.
" What kind of distraction?"
" Uh...Let's get into a fight. Then I can take off out of here and go to
the bar. You can follow me there only start doing the flirty thing to get
back at me for whatever and we'll see if we can get our man to try to follow
after you when you leave."
Amanda looked a little unsure about the idea. " What are we going to fight
about? I mean I know we've fought about really stupid things in the past,
but we haven't really argued for a while now, unless you count the thing in
Billy's office about...well I don't really think we should count that
because it was just taken out of context or something. I mean, I didn't
really think much about it at all after it happened until now and I think
that maybe we just shouldn't bring it up. I mean I know that I..." Amanda
was interrupted by Lee's turning away toward one of the men from the bar the
night before.
"Excuse me, but do you think perhaps I could have this dance," Vic asked
while pushing Lee to the side and talking Amanda's arms in his. Amanda
mouthed "I'm sorry" to him as Vic led her across the dance floor in case the
tall guy tried to take Amanda back. Lee mouthed back, "It's okay. I'll talk
to you later."
Amanda squinted up her nose and shook her head while she mouthed, "What?"
back to him. Vic stared at her and she immediately released the expression
from her face and smiled back at him. Lee tried again but other dancers kept
going in front of him. Amanda tried to rearrange herself over Vic's other
shoulder thinking it would give her a better view of Lee, but he'd moved
toward the other side thinking that she would be able to see him better from
there.
As Lee was trying to discretely wave his arm to get Amanda's attention on
his new location, one of the single ladies in the room walked up and asked
him to dance. Lee agreed, taking it as an opportunity to position himself
closer to Amanda. " This is ridiculous," he thought to himself, "All I'm
trying to tell her is I'll talk to her later," but he continued on in his
attempts to get close enough to tell her. Amanda in turn had taken over the
role of leader from Vic and was moving them toward Lee and the other woman.
Finally they were almost side-by-side and Amanda again mouthed, "What?"
Lee grinned as he watched her shove Vic's head down on her shoulder so she
wouldn't have to mess with looking around him anymore. " I said, I'll talk
to you later," he mouthed.
"Oh," Amanda said out loud causing Vic to look up at her. She looked down
at the weird little man and thinking on her feet said, "Um...my head hurts
really bad. I think I'm just going to go back to my room." She brought a
hand up to her forehead and attempted a look of pain. Lee started to laugh
to himself as he watched her trying to hide her little slip up, but
something about Vic's change in demeanor told him that he needed to keep a
close eye on this man.
" Let me walk you back to your room," Vic offered. Amanda smiled at him but
unintentionally glancing up toward Lee, declined saying that she would be
fine. As she walked off, Vic cast an angry look toward Lee and began to
follow after her anyway. Lee continued dancing for a moment so that Vic
wouldn't realize that he too was being followed. After allowing Amanda to
walk completely out of the building and Vic to get close to the door, Lee
excused himself and followed behind. He assumed that Vic would try to follow
Amanda all the way back down the path and into her room and so was taken by
surprise when he heard her scream as soon as he walked out into the night
air.
Lee turned in the direction of the scream, immediately removing his gun and
running up the hill. He could hear Vic saying something to Amanda but
couldn't understand what it was. All he did know was that Amanda was scared.
He could see it written all over her face and he knew she didn't know that
he was there yet. She was looking all around for him while trying to say
nice things to calm Vic down. But the man had a tight hold of her arm and
gave no signs of letting go. He made comments about her parading herself in
front of all the men in the room so that they would notice her and then only
going after the best looking ones. Amanda tried to assure him that she
hadn't gone after anyone and that she didn't care what a man looked like,
but Vic didn't believe any of it.
Vic turned so that he was blocking Lee's view of Amanda. Lee began to
slowly move around so that when the time came, she would be able to see him.
As soon as he was in an area that he was sure she would spot him easily in,
he called out to Vic. " Let her go! There is no reason why anyone needs to
get hurt here!"
Vic spun around in the direction of the Lee's voice and saw the gun pointed
right at him. He hadn't planned on this, but he knew his only means of
negotiation was Amanda. He tightened his grip on her and brought her around
in front of him. He pulled out a knife and held it at her throat. " Okay
now, you're going to put down your gun or I'm going to kill the tramp." Lee
silently cursed himself for not taking the shot earlier, but there would
have been no reason at that point to justify shooting this man and now he
couldn't be absolutely sure he wouldn't hit Amanda.
He started to lower his gun to the ground when he looked into her eyes and
saw the trust in them. In a split second, he pulled the gun back up into a
shooting stance and Amanda dug her heel into Vic's foot causing him to
loosen his grip on her enough for his left shoulder to be exposed and Lee to
hit it dead on. He fell to the ground at Amanda's feet.
Lee ran up to him and checked to make sure that he was still alive. As soon
as he found a pulse he left Vic and went to Amanda, wrapping her in his arms
and holding her there tightly while the people in the restaurant came out to
see what was going on. Somewhere in the middle of it, someone called the
police and went after the resort's doctor, but neither Lee nor Amanda knew
anything except the feel of each other at that moment.
When the police arrived, Lee showed them his badge and he and Amanda each
gave their statements. During the questioning, Lee noticed Amanda rubbing
her arm a lot and could see the beginning of what he was sure would become a
huge bruise from where Vic had held her so tightly. The thought of a man
putting a mark on her skin made him sick to his stomach. As soon as the
police were through with them, he suggested they go back to their rooms and
pack so that they could leave first thing in the morning. Amanda closed her
eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath and releasing it, then nodded her
head in agreement.
When they reached her room, Lee offered to come in and make sure no one had
been able to break into it. " Don't worry about it. I'm sure no one came in
here. The letter was slid under the door." Amanda told him. Lee knew she was
probably right but wanted to see for himself.
" I must have left the radio on," she said as she opened the door and suddenly filled the awkward silence with the soft music of a song finishing.
" I'll see you in the morning, okay?"
As the next song began, Lee was desperately trying to come up with a way to prolong the evening. He knew she was probably exhausted after everything that had gone on, but he needed to be with her for just a while longer.
Tonight it's very clear as we're both lyin here
There's so many things I wanna say
I will always love you I would never leave you alone
" I really think I should check it out Amanda."
" Lee, I'm tired and I just want to go to bed..." Amanda started but was
cut off by Lee.
" Amanda, why do I have to fight with you about things like this? I am
only trying to do what's best for you and it's almost like you want bad
things to happen to you sometimes. I mean how is it possible for one person
to have all of this happen!?!" He was getting more upset and louder with every second, and even though he knew that he shouldn't be yelling at her, he couldn't seem to stop it either.
"Sometimes I just get so frustrated, constantly having to worry about where
you are and if you're..." He stopped when he saw the tears welling up in her
eyes.
Sometimes I just forget say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you cryin
I don't wanna lose you I could never make it alone
Amanda didn't know where this had come from. One minute everything was
finally calming down and the next he was mad at her. It was suddenly too much
and all she could do was try to keep from crying, which she wasn't doing
very well at the moment. She wanted to go in and close the door on the whole
world until it started to make sense again. She opened her mouth to say
something but no sound came out as her emotions threatened to take over
completely.
Inside Lee's mind, thousands of apologies were going around but none seemed
right considering what he'd just done. Here she was completely shaken up,
only an hour after having a knife pressed against her throat and almost
being shot, and he was yelling at her for no reason other than he had never
been so scared in his life as he was when he saw that knife. He knew he had
to say something before she turned around and went inside.
You keep me standing tall you help me through it all
I'm always strong when your beside me
I have always needed you I could never make it alone
He lightly gripped her arms with his hands. " Oh Amanda, I'm sorry. I
didn't mean any of that...what I just said there. That was just, well, that
wasn't anything really. I mean, it was something but I didn't mean any of
it. I never should have said...well what I meant to say was..." He couldn't
think of anything that sounded right so he threw caution to the wind and
pulled her in for a kiss. At first it was light but as they both began to
release all the fear and tension that had been building up inside of them,
it became more intense and more demanding. They both wrapped their arms
around the other and held on as tightly as they could, not wanting any
distance to be between them. Eventually they both began to loosen their
grips on each other as the kiss turned less desperate and more into the
thing they'd both been dreaming about since their "wedding" over a year
before. It became softer and more sensual as they moved out of the doorway
and into her room.
I am the man who will fight for your honor
I'll be the hero you keep dreaming of
We'll live forever knowing together that we did it all for the Glory of love
When they finally ended the kiss, they stood gazing into each other's eyes
for a moment before Lee finally said, "That's what I meant to say." She
smiled up at him and he pulled her forward, kissing her forehead as they began to unconsciously move together to the words of the song.
Like a knight in shining armor from a long time ago
Just in time I will save the day
Take you to my castle far away
I am the man who will fight for your honor
I'll be the hero that your dreaming of
We're gonna live forever
Knowing together that we did it all for the Glory of love
We'll live forever
Knowing together that we did it all for the Glory of love
We did it all for love
We did it all for love
We did it all for love
We did it all for love