Amanda rolled her eyes at Lee and muttered under her breath, "Oh no, here we go again." Lee looked up and followed the direction of her gaze across the bullpen. Francine was weaving her way towards them, a smile on her lips that didn't bode well.
"What is up with that woman lately?" Lee answered her.
"I don't know. Does she think we're dating again?" Amanda suggested thoughtfully.
Lee couldn't help grinning at his wife. "I'd be telling the truth if I told her we weren't."
"No, even bringing it up just gives her ammunition. I just don't understand why she suddenly cares."
Lee stood up as Francine entered Billy's office and offered her the chair he'd been sitting in. As he went to lean against the window, she greeted them with bright eyes. "Morning Mickey, morning, Rocky."
Lee met Amanda's glance seeing his own confused expression reflected on her face. They all looked up as Billy came in, carrying a printout which he handed to Lee. Lee studied it for a moment, giving a low whistle and looking up with a grimace of concern.
"Is it credible intelligence?" he asked, passing it to Francine who moved closer to Amanda so they could read it together.
"Credible enough for Smyth to want at least two teams on it."
Francine looked up and smiled evilly. "So Darren and Samantha and who else?"
"What's our cover going to be?" asked Amanda, ignoring her.
Billy looked at her gratefully and gestured towards the paper she was holding. "I don't know what would work since I've only seen this much of the story yet. You and Lee take the lead on this one - go do the research now and come back this afternoon with suggestions for any team members you want and a list of everything you think you'll need."
"Yes, Sir," Amanda got to her feet and walked out deep in thought already.
Haven't you forgotten something, Speedy?" called Francine after her. Amanda turned to look at her questioningly. Francine grinned at Lee who hadn't moved from his spot against the window yet. "Well go on, Slowpoke, go catch up! Andale, andale, arriba, arriba!"
Lee stared at her, before looking at Billy to see if he understood what was going on. Billy had every appearance of a man absorbed in the paperwork on his desk, but Lee still got the feeling he knew what Francine was up to. He pushed himself upright slowly and turned to follow Amanda across the bullpen.
Billy waited until they were out of earshot before beginning to laugh. "They're going to figure it out eventually," he finally managed to say, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe his streaming eyes.
Francine had leaned back in the chair to watch her friends leave. As they watched, Lee's hand dropped to Amanda's back out of habit to guide her through the desks.
"I don't know - they are being remarkably dense," she laughed. "I spent all yesterday calling them Rob and Laura after Lee fell over that garbage can chasing Dmitri and they still didn't figure it out."
Billy couldn't help the guffaw that burst out of him, so loud that Lee turned back from the bullpen doors to look at him.
"I'd still like to know why they're keeping it a secret. That's the part that doesn't make sense to me. A year ago, he was studying the suburban real estate section of the paper, so they must have been planning it then, but then what happened?"
Francine tilted her head and looked at him thoughtfully. "As long ago as that? They were all Elizabeth and Darcy when TP was having that trouble, telling me they'd broken up…" Her voice drifted off and suddenly her gaze sharpened. "They were trying to throw us off the scent even then. I am so going to enjoy busting them."
"You're going to keep it between us, aren't you?" he asked worriedly. "They must have a good reason not to have told anyone."
"Of course I am since I actually think they're adorable together, but I still want to know why they didn't tell us."
Billy sighed. "Well, if you figure out Boris and Natasha, let me know."
Francine couldn't help laughing. "I've been calling them Mickey and Rocky for days – they haven't figured that out yet either."
"Mickey and Rocky?"
"Mouse and Squirrel."
Heads turned in the bullpen at the bellow of laughter that erupted from Billy's office.
Upstairs in the lobby, the objects of that laughter were exiting the elevator, deep in conversation about the mission.
"There's a lot more possibilities for covers if we have four of us. Do you think it's better to go in as two couples or keep one pair separate?" Amanda was asking.
"Let's send Francine in as a couple with Beaman. It'll give me something to bug her about for a while instead of the other way around," grumbled Lee.
They both turned at the unladylike snort that came from Mrs. Marston's desk. Lee and Amanda exchanged looks and immediately walked to her desk, Amanda pulling up the chair that rested against the wall, while Lee dragged one from across the lobby to sit directly in front of her.
Mrs. Marston attempted to look stern. "Mr. Stetson? Mrs. Stetson?" Her lips twitched and both agents grinned back at her.
"Okay, Mrs. Marston, spill it," smiled Amanda.
"Spill it? How delightfully colloquial," said Mrs. Marston mildly. "Is that something your boys taught you?"
"Yes," chuckled Amanda. "And having children has also taught me to spot when someone knows something, so tell us what you know about the bee Francine has in her bonnet."
"Just Ms. Desmond?"
"No, Billy too," said Lee unexpectedly. "But why?"
"Mice."
"Mice?"
"Well, one mouse. That day you caught the mouse upstairs?" Amanda nodded, while Lee shuddered. "They'd gone upstairs and I don't know what they overheard, but when they came down, they knew about you."
There was a long silence while Lee and Amanda thought back and then realization dawned on their faces at the same time. "For better or worse, and this is my worse," muttered Lee as Amanda nodded. They both sat back in their chairs, looking guilty.
"Were they upset?" asked Amanda quietly.
"Only that you hadn't told them." Mavis watched both of them sag further and added, "I should warn you - Billy figured out I knew and made me tell him how long."
"Oh God," Lee ran a hand over his face.
"No wonder they're bugging us," said Amanda glumly. "And we can't even claim not to deserve it."
"And why exactly haven't you told them?" asked Mavis mildly.
"It wasn't supposed to go on this long, honestly, but after California, we couldn't just come out and tell my family and since we couldn't tell them, it didn't seem right to tell anyone else, and then our cases just kept getting in the way."
"And the longer it went on, the harder it's been to tell them."
"Until they found out on their own," said Mavis pointedly.
"Yeah," sighed Amanda. "At least now we know why we were Speedy and Slowpoke this morning."
"And Darren and Samantha."
"Ozzie and Harriet."
"Tom and Jerry." They both turned to look at Mrs. Marston at this contribution. "She hasn't used that one in front of you yet? Must be saving it up."
"That one doesn't even work," said Amanda glumly. "Apparently we've been the mouse and she's been the cat for the last two weeks."
"Yeah, but now that we know what she's up to, we can build a better mousetrap," grinned Lee, suddenly cheerful at the idea of toying with Francine in revenge.
"Do mice build mousetraps?" asked Mrs. Marston.
"I suppose traps built by mice would be mousetraps," said Amanda momentarily diverted. "They could build stuff – their paws are like little hands."
"Do you think they could use their tails the way monkeys do?" Mrs. Marston was enjoying watching Lee squirm through the conversation.
"Can we please stop talking about mice and their tiny hands and tails?" begged Lee in a pained tone. The two women exchanged small smiles as he closed his eyes, looking pale.
"Okay then Stuart Little, what did you have in mind?"
"Let's go have a look at the file and see if we can't kill two birds with one stone."
"Okay Scarecrow, Amanda, what have you come up with?"
Amanda leaned forward and laid the briefing file in front of Billy. "We ran with a couple of ideas, but we think the first option listed is the best."
Billy flipped open the file and read for a few minutes. Finally he leaned back and stared up at them, eyes narrowed.
"All right, walk me though it."
Amanda took the lead since she had put together the plan. "Efraim Beaman is an excellent analyst, Sir. It makes sense to have him in place on site to help interpret any data. If we set him up as a hotel guest, he'd be virtually invisible, and so would the other team member set up as hotel staff."
"I understand that part. But what about the other team, the society couple?"
"Well, Sir, we know that Decker is a people collector – if he thinks he has an "in" with a possible Washington power couple, he'll find it irresistible to try and befriend them. And with the election coming up next year, he'll be doing his best to make friends with anyone who might be friends with the next President."
"And you think he'll buy you two as a power couple?"
"Oh no, Mr. Melrose! I'm going in as hotel staff. Lee and Francine will be going in as the couple."
Amanda and Lee carefully schooled their expressions to give nothing away as Billy's eyes widened and Francine's jaw dropped.
"I'm not as good at those society jobs as Francine and our files say Decker has a thing for blondes – and it never seems to go well when she tries to work in the service industry, does it?"
Billy couldn't hold back the yelp of laughter, but finally got himself back under control. "But why are you two working separately? You're my strongest team when you work together."
"Well, that's the thing, Sir. We've realized lately that perhaps it's better if we work separately from now on. Lee was just explaining to me that he thinks our relationship is getting stale."
Lee chimed in, sounding annoyed, "Our working relationship. All I said was that we should step away from each other and give some thought to our partnership."
"What you said was we should divorce our work lives from our personal lives." Amanda was biting her lip by now, but only Lee realized it was to keep from laughing at the appalled expressions on Billy and Francine's faces.
"Well, maybe if you would stop taking constructive criticism so personally-." Lee stopped and stared at his feet, knowing he wasn't going to be able to keep this up without laughing as well.
"Fine," said Billy finally. "If you're sure that's the best way forward, go set it up and bring me the paperwork to sign off on."
The three agents stood up and as Francine and Amanda began to leave through the door Lee was holding open, Billy suddenly barked, "Not you Scarecrow. I want to talk to you." Amanda paused and looked up to meet Lee's eyes. Busy staring down at his desk, Billy missed their wordless exchange of smiles.
With a wink, Lee closed the door after the two women and sat down in one of the chairs in front of Billy's desk.
"Lee, you'll probably try and tell me this is none of my business, but damn it, your partnership with Amanda is my business and if you two are having problems-." He stopped as Lee reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a sheaf of papers and laid them on the desk. "Oh my God, you're not resigning, are you?"
Lee couldn't hide the grin anymore. "No, Billy, neither of us are resigning and we're not breaking up our partnership. This is the paperwork you've been expecting for Personnel to adjust our files – to, well, reflect our two-salary hike."
Billy stared at him for a moment, then reached out to pick up the paperwork and unfolded it slowly as if he was still expecting it to be bad news. The smile spread across his face as he read and he looked up at Lee, eyes twinkling. "You know, part of me didn't really believe you'd done it, even after I heard you say it myself." He leaned back, still chuckling. "So why didn't you tell me until now?"
Lee spread his hands apologetically. "We were still muddling through how to make this work – work and personal life – and how to keep the family safe. After that run on Khai's son last year – well, that kind of put the brakes on bringing on the rice as Edna would say."
"Didn't bring it to a complete stop though," said Billy, lips twitching.
"No, it didn't," Lee smiled at his friend before turning serious again. "And then when Amanda got – injured – there never seemed to be a good time to come out and admit it. Believe me, we wanted to tell you, but every time it started to seem like we could, Dr. Smyth would appear like an evil genie and make it impossible. That little run-in Francine and I had with Sergei was the last straw – how much worse would that have been if Smyth had known Amanda and I were personally involved? It just seemed better to keep it quiet – until we realized you'd found out on your own. We're really sorry it came out that way."
"So what was that whole little act just now? Are you really planning to team with Francine on this?"
"Oh yeah – Amanda wasn't kidding when she said Decker has a thing for blondes." He flashed a grin at Billy. "But Mr. Templeton here is a philanderer with a thing for brunette hotel staff." His grin broadened as Billy fell into helpless laughter.
"And we'll get Decker I promise, but if we can mess with Francine a tiny bit like she's been messing with us the last little while…" He cocked an eyebrow at Billy whose ready smile started to spread further. "Come on, if the last year has proved anything, it's that we can work together and lie through our teeth at the same time."
"That's not exactly something to be proud of, Scarecrow, but okay," Billy waved a hand at him. "Enjoy yourself."
Lee had stood up and paused, hand on the door handle. "A five-star resort on someone else's dime, bugging Francine, saving the world – what's not to enjoy?"
"And Lee? Tell your wife I said congratulations."
For the second time that day, heads turned as Billy's laughter followed Scarecrow out of the office.
