Beyond His Scope
Chapter 1
As Lee Stetson that moment sat in the Los Palmas CA hospital waiting for word about his partner and now new bride Amanda King Stetson's tragic shooting injury, he felt angry and cheated out of the best thing that ever happened to him!
After everything they'd gone through over the years, Lee never expected anything of this magnitude to touch them!
Why now?! he lamented to himself.
They had everything going for them as a professional team and then as a couple.
Sure... Their coming together was slow, but Amanda was different than any woman Lee had known before and he originally didn't want attachments of any kind.
In fact he resented Billy for a time of even suggesting that he work with a partner again after the first one he'd had was killed on assignment.
But now for the first time since that incident, he felt truly scared.
Shaking his head then he thought, No...There was one other time that really shook you up, Stetson. And you know when that was, don't you?
Swallowing hard he recalled the case he and Amanda worked on a month after they'd met involving James Delano...
While Lee and the Agency investigated Delano and his co-hort Curt Hollander she'd played the jet-setter role to the hilt to distract Delano with a few slip-ups along the way but Lee recalled changing his attitude slightly on how well she might do as a real agent then...With proper training from him of course.
But all hell had broken loose when he found himself rescuing her from Curt Hollander who'd discovered her snooping and planned to kill her!
Knocking out Hollander, he took the syringe out of Amanda's arm and carrying her down the stairs he knew time would be running out for her as he confronted Delano demanding to know what Hollander had given her!
Lee saw nothing but red as Delano confessed to the drug dose and Lee scrambled to get an ambulance immediately!
In the ambulance on the way to Galilee General he was told by the attending paramedic after a time,"She's stabilized, Mr. Stetson...She'll be all right."
But as they got her into the hospital that night they told him it would take several hours for the drug to leave her system and he'd just have to wait.
As he waited however, he began to do a slow burn about what almost happened realizing that it was his fault...and Billy's, for even suggesting that Amanda King join the Agency!
Just then the nurse's station paged him to the phone.
The nurse answered when he approached, "Line two, Mr. Stetson."
Lee picked up stating, "Hello?"
It was Billy. "Lee? How's Amanda?"
Lee swallowed and commented somberly, "She's uh, okay. She's gonna be fine. The drug has to leave her system first before she's released."
Billy sighed relief and remarked, "Thank God! If her mother should call, I'll just give the editing room speech..."
Lee nodded slowly and gave a curt response, "Yeah, you do that."
Hearing something in Lee's voice he asked, "Scarecrow? What is it?"
Lee chuckled sardonically, "Picture this, all right? We're at this woman's funeral someday where her ex-husband and mother and two sons will want to know what the hell happened! What do we tell them? Or are we just gonna "wing it" when the time comes?"
Billy clearing his throat answered slowly, "Lee, I know how upsetting this is. But we do have contingency plans for all of us. Remember, we can't take things like this personally-"
Lee choked out his response, "Oh, of course not! Well, Billy... It became personal when I asked her to help that day at the train station. It became personal when you asked her to stay on to help me as a partner, and it became REAL personal when I had to pull a syringe out of her arm containing 10cc's of Muscarine courtesy of our slimeball friend Curt Hollander! But no, Billy! I won't take any of what happened tonight personally. I'll debrief you later!"
Hanging up he strode back over to the waiting room and sat once more on the couch shaking his head thinking, Yeah. You survived this one, Amanda King. But what about the next time? I can't let this happen again...
But he never actually got around to talking her into leaving.
Because the more they worked together the more in rhythm they seemed to be and Lee realized over time that he liked having a partner again.
And now as he sat in the Los Palmas Hospital waiting room four years later he prayed like he never had before that he and Amanda would get another chance at a real future this time thinking silently, Please God. Bring her back to her family...Bring her back to me...
Then slowly he rose from the couch sighing deeply as he looked at the phone on the wall knowing this next step would be the hardest thing he ever had to do.
Walking over woodenly, he picked up the receiver and dialed the Virginia number going over in his head just how to break it to the woman he barely knew but who was now his mother in-law!
The phone picked up as Dotty stated, "Hello?"
Lee found his voice and commented, "Hello, Mrs. West. It's Lee Stetson calling."
As she asked how he was his throat became tight as he responded tearfully, "I'm uh, not so good right now...It's Amanda. There's been an accident..."
The End