"Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship" – Willa Cather
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Lee was on his fourth day at the Glenfield and was amazed how bored he could be in such a slice of paradise. The food and drink was excellent, the rooms luxurious, the views magnificent, but the company was stultifying and he missed Amanda more than he thought possible. He was happy it wasn't a zero contact mission but until she was finished her classes at Station One, she was the one out of reach. He knew she'd be back in DC by the end of the weekend and hoped against hope he and Francine could be done here by then.
It didn't look good since his part of the mission was going nowhere. There were a number of men who hung around the hotel pool and bars on a regular basis, and an equal number of high society wives, bored and ignored by their absent husbands. It was apparent that many of the women were steady visitors and had steady boy toys that they favoured although some of them had eyed Lee with interest as he propped up the bar as Billy had ordered. It had only taken him the first two days to figure out where the problem lay with his cover as the new guy in town, that he was seen as competition by those he'd mentally christened the Dog Squad so he was in no position to gain the confidence of any of the men who might be involved. It was a good thing he wasn't actually trying to seduce anyone because he had to settle into a routine of being as charming as possible to all the women equally and then graciously withdrawing if it became apparent there was an existing relationship.
It had started to make the dogs a bit friendlier but Lee bit back a sardonic laugh at the idea that any of these people had something they thought was a relationship. He could remember when he'd seen this life as the epitome of good time until he'd been blindsided by Hurricane Amanda. No, he stopped himself, she wasn't a hurricane, she was more like one of those quiet trickles of water who ended up carving out the Grand Canyon – an unstoppable force that slowly took the walls out from around you before you knew what was happening – and thank heavens for that. He hadn't had much in his life to be thankful for when they'd met but even before they'd become romantically involved, she had made him realize how important it was to know you had someone who absolutely had your back.
'Speaking of which' he thought to himself and straightened up to sweep his gaze over the pool area. Francine had arrived that morning and he was expecting her to show up for cocktail hour anytime. Her cover was that of a much younger third wife of a senior member of Congress, one on the Arms Committee which they hoped would make her attractive as a target. It was certainly a cover that was going to work in Lee's favour tonight since she was the one 'lonely wife' in the room he could guarantee didn't have a guy already on the string and he could cement his cover by flirting with her. He finally caught a glimpse of her crossing the room and whistled to himself. She had outdone herself, dressed to the nines in a slinky blue dress that brought out the colour of her eyes, and her blonde hair in a loose updo that gave the impression that the removal of just the right hair pin would send it cascading down her shoulders. To anyone else she looked completely the part of woman on the prowl but Lee knew that the slit in the side of her dress stopped just above the knee in order to hide the scar from the bullet wound on her leg, a bullet she had taken defending Amanda and only he could read the flicker of relief in her face when he had finally made eye contact with her as she reached the bar. Seeing it, he was glad he hadn't given Billy a hard time about this mission after all. From dealing with the Triumvirate to Addi Birol, Francine had proven to be a loyal friend and he owed her a lot, least of all this simple backup job.
He watched with some amusement as ripples of conversation and stares went across the crowd at her entrance. What was it he'd said to her a few weeks ago at the costume party? "Ya still got it Desmond" and boy did she ever. Glancing around, he made mental notes on whose interest she'd attracted among their targets, and then started across the room to join her at the bar.
"Good evening – it's Mrs. Delahanty isn't it? My name is Lee Steadman, I believe we've met back in D.C." He lifted her hand to kiss it and grinned as Francine gave him her best doubtful expression.
"Have we? I'm sure I would have remembered someone like you" she cooed.
"Oh yes, we've met on Bumpy Holcomb's yacht. And we spoke at the Rosenberg Foundation party last month – I'm wounded you could so easily forget such a memorable occasion."
Francine's lips twitched despite herself at the mental image of that accidental groping, when Lee had mistaken her for someone else. "Are you sure it was me? You seem like the kind of man who'd know a lot of women at parties."
"Oh I'm sure. I can show you the bruises you left if you like."
"I think I'd enjoy that, but maybe you'd like to buy me a drink first?"
To any outsiders watching it was a perfect flirtation between two people who appeared to rely entirely on their looks to get through life.
"I can't think of anything I would rather do," Lee gave her a wink and tuned to the barman.
They strolled into the dining room shortly after, still arm in arm and in the privacy of their booth, Lee spent the meal pointing out all the players in the room, both the dogs and the birds they were hunting while Francine let him in on all the information they'd managed to pick up in Washington since he'd left. It was very little unfortunately, just a few more stories on the wind of women who may have been drugged or who might simply have drunk themselves into oblivion. Whoever was picking their targets was choosing very well, or had up until they chose Elisa.
It was 10 o'clock by the time they finished dinner and Francine was doing a remarkable job of appearing just drunk enough to be overly friendly, allowing Lee to help her to her feet and loudly and enthusiastically accepting his offer to walk her back to her room. It was a good act and one that she maintained as the door closed behind them as they entered her suite. She continued speaking in cooing tones as she dug through her handbag and handed Lee a handheld unit for sweeping the room for bugs.
"So Lee, how about you see what's on that room service menu in the way of chocolate while I mix us some drinkies?"
"Sure darling, I'm assuming you'd like something with whipped cream?" He grinned at her as she stuck her tongue out at him from across the room where she was doing the same sweep with another tracker. The sweep didn't take long, and finding nothing, Lee made his way to the minibar to grab a soft drink. "Do you want anything?" he asked over his shoulder.
"Is it too much to hope there's ginger ale in there? I need to settle my stomach or I'm going to popping antacids like Billy before this is all over."
Lee dug some ice out of the freezer and poured them each a tumbler of soda, and then flopped back in a chair and watched absentmindedly while Francine shimmied out of her dress and pulled on silk pajamas completely unselfconsciously. As she climbed on the bed and sat cross legged facing him, she finished pulling the pins out of her hair and brushing it out, then looked up startled when he started to laugh.
"It's not you, it's me" he managed to say at last. "I'm so used to Amanda, I'd forgotten what it used to be like working away missions with you." Off her questioning look he went on, "Sleeping in a box under the Beltway when we were on the run was probably the first time in three years I hadn't had to think about whether the cover allowed for getting separate rooms."
Francine looked surprised by this glimpse into his partnership with Amanda. "Seriously? After playing married covers how many times?"
Lee shrugged. "We haven't actually done that many that were overnight jobs. She's just a really private person. You know, like normal people are."
"Well thanks a lot for suggesting I'm not normal." Francine paused while he laughed and then looked down at herself and back at him. "On the other hand, I am starting to feel old."
Lee laughed harder. "Old? What makes you say that?"
"Well, we're alone in a five-star hotel room and you're still dressed, I'm in pajamas and we're sipping soft drinks and discussing Arlington housewives – seriously, when did we get so old?" She pouted in mock sorrow.
"Oh we're not old, we're just old friends. Besides, I had floor seats for your arrival in the bar tonight and trust me, not one man in the room was thinking 'old'. I thought I was going to have to beat them off with a stick."
"Well thank you for that ego boost, but tomorrow you're going to have to leave the beatings to me or we'll never get anywhere. So what were you thinking as a plan for tomorrow anyway?"
"I'll leave here in an hour or so looking suitably rumpled and that will cement my lothario image and tomorrow you can play woman on the prowl who wants a different guy every day. That'll free me up to go back to playing background bodyguard. I'll have to figure out a way to look like I'm still cruising the talent pool while I keep an eye on you. It's going to be suspicious if this much handsomeness can't score again." He grinned when Francine rolled her eyes at him.
"Good point. Now take off your shirt."
"What?" Lee almost spilled his drink, he was so startled by the request.
"Get your mind out of the gutter Stetson" Francine was laughing at him now. "I need to take off my makeup and I may as well spread some of it around on your shirt before I start. You know, for the cover."
Lee grinned and started unbuttoning his shirt. "Okay, but the dry cleaning goes on your expense report not mine." He started to laugh as it reminded him of something. "Say, have I ever told you about the time Amanda and I were handcuffed in a burning building and all she kept saying was 'Take off your belt'?"
Francine caught the shirt as he tossed it to her and began pressing her lips against the collar and top buttons. "Nope, but it bet it didn't end up as fun as it sounded." She looked critically at his shirt and then tossed it back.
"It had its moments." He began telling Francine all the funniest stories from his missions with Amanda and soon both of them were exhausted from laughing.
"She's been good for you" said Francine finally when the stories ran out. She rarely saw Lee as relaxed and happy as he was now, talking about his partner. She wondered if he realized how much his face had given away while he'd told the stories.
"She's my best friend, present company excepted and despite my best efforts sometimes. And having someone around who sees things like a normal person is pretty useful when it's so easy to fall into rabbit holes like this," he gestured around the luxuriously appointed room.
"Who'da thunk it, Scarecrow and his housewife, best team in the Agency."
Lee cocked one eye at her before deciding it wasn't one of her usual swipes at Amanda. "Yeah, who'da thunk it. You know, Amanda and me, we're –." He stopped suddenly, obviously changing his mind about whatever he'd been about to say. "Well, I guess we're a pretty good team. And now it's strange when she's not around – I bet she'd have a suspect in this pegged in two seconds."
"You think her touchy-feely intuition is that good?"
"It's saved my life often enough, so yeah. I do. I don't know how she does it – it's like she's some kind of human tuning fork. She picks up on vibrations or something and has some innate sense of people's basic self. It's great when she picks up on something being off in a person like Eva Spinelli, but not so much when you're trying to convince people you're a traitorous arms dealer or a burnout."
"But I thought she knew all along you weren't a burnout? She let you shoot at her, for heaven's sake."
"Oh no, she really didn't, not the whole time. She only figured it out for sure when Jack Harris tried to kill her and I had to come clean. Up until then she'd just been a pain in my ass, showing up at Ned's and trying to get me to sober up. I just about went out of my mind trying to think of ways to get her to lay off so she didn't blow my cover." Lee got up, suddenly restless and walked over to the window and stood staring out at the pool area below.
Francine grinned. "I bet. She's been a burr under my saddle often enough and I haven't even had as much to do with her. How'd you finally get her to leave you alone? Insult her brownies?"
"I hit her."
He'd said it so quietly Francine didn't even believe she could have heard him right until he turned back around and she saw the expression on his face. "Oh," she whispered, suddenly regretting her joke seconds ago.
Lee walked back to his chair and slumped down in it. "I know but it seemed like a good idea at the time. That's the thing with this job, you get used to using your fists instead of your brain sometimes." He looked up and saw the appalled expression on Francine's face. "Oh God, I don't mean I punched her, I slapped her but way harder than I meant to. I don't think I'll ever forget the look on her face." He stared down at the glass of ice cubes he was still clutching and absent-mindedly swirled them around.
"I can't believe Billy didn't kill you," said Francine, still almost unable to process the story.
Lee laughed bitterly and answered, "Oh he would have if he'd known. But she didn't tell him – she went back to the office, finished off all the paperwork I'd been letting pile up as part of my cover, and told him I'd done it all myself. He told me later that he called her on it, trying to pretend to be angry, and she just told him that she thought I was still a good person. And then she forgave me." He snapped his fingers. "Just like that – forgiven, forgotten and oh yeah, I still trust you enough to let you shoot directly at me the next day." He stopped and smiled tiredly at Francine. "So yeah, I trust her touchy-feely intuition thing. Her ability to see what people are really like is pretty unique. She sees right through you and your sniping you know; that's why I get ticked when you do it because people like us need people like her who see the good things."
"Like that math geek Gregory wanted to trade me for," said Francine, trying to lighten the mood.
Lee managed to smile at the memory. "Boy, every floor in the Agency must have been able to hear that fight in Billy's office. She's never been as pissed at me as she was over my dismissing her evaluation of Will Towne."
"I should be impressed but her enthusiasm for him almost got me killed."
"Well, we didn't know it was you that Gregory had until after she figured out the stunt he was pulling. And it was her insights that helped us find Tuttle so we had someone to trade you for."
"It was?"
"It was. She was really torn up about it – you'd only just gone on vacation after saving her at the Cumberland that night."
Francine unconsciously rubbed the spot on her upper leg where the bullet had hit her and then started to laugh. "Yeah, the one time she actually went to the car when one of us told her to and it was the worst idea ever. No wonder she complains when you tell her to stay in the car all the time."
"Maybe someday something will happen to make me stop thinking that's a good idea but in the meantime, I keep thinking it'll keep her out of trouble. Like that'll ever happen". They both started to laugh when Francine said the last sentence at the exact same time.
They were both silent for a moment before Francine said, "You know, I don't really mean it when I snipe at her anymore. I just don't know what to do with someone so, so…" She paused trying to find the right word.
"Nice?" supplied Lee, with a smile. "Don't worry, it took me a while too. Anyway, like I said, she sees right through it anyway and actually, I think she kind of enjoys it. It lets her know who her friends are."
"She thinks we're friends?"
Lee cocked his head and smiled at her. "You think you're not?"
Francine thought about it for a moment. "Damn. When did that happen?" She found herself yawning and glanced at her watch. "God, it's past midnight already. Two hours should be enough to cement your reputation as a lover right? I'll call Billy and leave an update on his machine. So I'll see you and ignore you at breakfast?"
"You're not going to walk me to the door darling?" Lee was already halfway to the door and looked back grinning.
"Why Mr Steadman, you don't seem like the kind of man who would leave a girl able to walk after two hours," she replied as she picked up the phone and started dialling Billy's office number.
Lee stopped in the doorway and blew her a kiss. "Good night Mrs. Delahanty. It's been a real pleasure getting to know you. Don't forget to bolt the door behind me." She could hear him walking off whistling as the phone began to ring in Billy's office.
"Oh! Hi Billy – I thought I'd get your machine at this time of night. Seriously? Again? What an idiot. Well I won't keep you long since we don't have much to report yet, but since I've got you I just thought of something and wanted to run it by you."
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SMK**SMK**SMK**SMK
