Disclaimer: Scarecrow and Mrs. King and its characters belong to WB and Shoot the Moon Productions. No infringement is intended. This is written for entertainment purposes only. Please do not redistribute or reproduce this story without my permission.
Title: Making the bed – 1 year later
Genre: General
Rating –Teen/Mature for some innuendo
Timeline –late Season 2
Author – Charlie
The early morning sunshine streamed in the window, across the floor and onto the bed. The covers were rumpled and the beams of light created an interesting pattern as they touched upon the mountains and skipped over the valleys of the wrinkled surface. Faintly in the background, the hissing of water from a shower could be heard, accompanied by snatches of a tune being enthusiastically sung by a female voice.
Lee impatiently surveyed the room. He rocked back and forth on his heels, put his hands in and out of his pocket then adjusted a family photo on the dresser while he waited for the singer to exit the bathroom. Billy wanted all expense accounts on his desk by the end of the day and Lee was hoping Amanda could help him get his receipts in order. She was a whiz at paperwork.
Checking his watch, Lee paced the length of the room. He didn't know when Amanda had entered the shower but he'd been waiting 15 minutes and she'd already been in there when he'd climbed through the window. 'Doesn't she know all that hot water will dry out her skin?' he muttered to himself.
Sighing in relief, he finally heard the shower shut off and turned expectantly towards the bathroom door. It opened and a cloud of steam wafted out followed by a woman clad in a short terry cloth bathrobe. Her head was bent as she rubbed a towel through her hair and wandered over to the closet completely unaware of the visitor in the room. Lee opened his mouth to announce his presence but then got a good look at her legs and found himself momentarily speechless. The terry cloth robe barely reached mid-thigh and the expanse of shapely limbs before him had his mind wandering down a somewhat unfamiliar path. He found himself wondering if her skin would feel as smooth and silky as it looked.
Amanda tossed the towel from her hair in the general direction of the bed, opened the closet door and pulled out a pair of jeans and a sweat shirt. She loosen the knot in the sash of the robe and was about to slip it off when Lee suddenly came to his senses and cleared his throat.
"Hi there!"
With a screech Amanda whirled around, clutching the robe tightly shut in front of her. She stared at him open mouthed and Lee watched a myriad of emotions wash over her face: shock, embarrassment, indignation, anger. The anger seemed to be winning out and he braced himself for a tongue lashing.
"Lee Stetson, how dare you! What do you think you are doing sneaking into my bedroom while I'm in the shower?" In her anger and surprise she had forgotten to lower her voice. Barely had she finished speaking when another voice could be heard calling from down stairs.
"Amanda?" her mother called. "Did you say something?"
"No Mother." She shouted back, glaring at Lee. He gave her an impish grin and shrugged.
Footsteps could be heard ascending the stairs. Her mother called out again. "Amanda, are you all right?"
"Yes, I'm fine," Amanda hollered back. Lee winced at the volume of her voice.
"I thought I heard you screaming—are you sure everything is okay?" Dotty's voice was right outside the bedroom door now and Amanda shot a panicked look at Lee, glanced around the room and then gestured wildly for him to hide on the far side of the bed. Just in time, he vaulted over the end and ducked out of sight as Amanda's mother opened the bedroom door.
"Nothing is wrong, Mother." Amanda calmly said walking to the door and trying unsuccessfully to stop her parent from entering.
"Well something must have been wrong or you wouldn't have screamed."
"Umm...It was the bed Mother."
"The bed?"
"Yes, the bed. You see I was going to make it and I stubbed my toe on the leg."
"Oh! Well, you know you really shouldn't be walking around in bare feet. That's how accidents happen. God gave us slippers and shoes for a reason."
"I'll try to be more careful, Mother."
"Well since I'm up here, I'll help you finish making the bed." Dotty walked purposefully towards the bed and Amanda side-stepped hoping to block her way.
"Oh you don't have to bother—I can do it."
"Amanda, it's no trouble at all." Dotty agilely avoided her daughter and grabbed the sheets.
"All right then. I'll just help with the other side," Amanda's voice held only a trace of panic as she scurried to the far side of the bed, casting furtive glances down at the agent who was lying on the floor. He ruefully smiled up at her. Amanda leaned over him to grab the corner of the sheet. Her robe gaped open and Lee caught a tantalizing glimpse of flesh before she quickly pulled it shut. With her foot, she firmly prodded him in the side and he glared up at her before scooting sideways under the bed. This allowed Amanda to step closer to the mattress as she tried to help her mother complete the task of straightening the covers.
Under the bed, Lee rubbed his side where Amanda had poked him and plotted his revenge. 'She needn't have been so forceful,' he thought to himself. 'A gentle tap or a wave of the hand would have sufficed.'
From his floor level vantage point, Lee found himself with a great view of Amanda's trim ankles and bare feet. Unable to resist, he mischievously reached out and ran a finger across the arch of her foot, jerking his hand back when she gave a slight squeak and jumped. He smirked in satisfaction thinking, 'Serves her right for kicking me.'
"What was that for?" Lee heard Dotty ask.
"Oh, just some annoying bug crawling out from under the bed. It ran across my foot." He could tell by her voice that she was not amused.
"A bug?" Dotty exclaimed. "I'll get a broom and poke it out. You grab a shoe and be ready to whack the filthy creature when it appears." Lee stiffened but then relaxed as he heard Amanda's reply.
"As much as I'd like to do that Mother, I think it ran under the baseboards."
"Ahh...Well we'll just keep a look out and if it appears again, smack it."
"Oh I plan to Mother." Amanda's tone left Lee in no doubt as to the sincerity of her words.
The covers rustled over his head and a bit of pink floral material swished by his face. He frowned. It was certainly hanging at an uneven angle. 'You'd think two grown women would know enough to straighten the sheet first.' he said to himself, shaking his head in disbelief.
"There now, the bed's all made." Lee could see Dotty's feet start to move towards the door. Then her feet paused and turned. "Amanda, are you done with that book that I gave you a few nights ago? You know, when you said you couldn't sleep and I gave you that trashy novel to read? I marked all the pages with the good smutty bits and I thought I'd reread it while I had a bubble bath."
"Isn't it on the nightstand in that pile of books?" Lee observed Amanda's toes clench. He could tell that she was getting quite anxious for her mother to leave the room.
He turned his head back towards where Dotty was standing and saw her feet approach the bed again. The sound of books being picked up and set down reached his ears.
"No it's not here. Maybe it fell on the floor and you kicked it under the bed. I'll just look underneath and find it." Lee felt his heart begin to pound as he saw Dotty shift her feet in preparation for kneeling on the ground. His mind raced trying to think of a way out of the situation.
Suddenly the mattress over Lee's head s bounced dramatically, nearly brushing against his nose. He quickly pressed his body as flat as possible against the floor.
"No!" Amanda's cry had accompanied the movement of the mattress. Her voice had started as a shout and then ended with a bit of a grunt. Lee assumed she had just dove across the bed in an attempt to stop her mother and had landed in a belly flop.
"Amanda! What has gotten in to you?"
"Mother—don't look under the bed--please! I'll do it. It...It...it might be all dusty under there and I wouldn't want your allergies to start to act up."
"Amanda, I don't have dust allergies."
"But sometimes, Mother, allergies can just pop up out of nowhere. One day you don't have any and the next day, there they are. I wouldn't want that to happen to you."
"Well, that's sweet of you dear. If you really want to look under the bed for me, I'll let you. "
"Believe me, Mother. This is something that I really need to do."
Again, the mattress bounced wildly and Lee imagined Amanda was crawling across it and onto the ground. He briefly wondered if Amanda's mattress ever bounced for another reason and found himself clenching his jaw at the very idea. He consciously made himself relax. After all, it really wasn't any of his business what Amanda did in her bed.
"Okay Mother, I'm going to bend over now and find that book" Amanda announced in a loud voice. Lee took this as his cue to have the book ready and turned his head in the confined space, trying to find it. Ah-ha! It was just over top of his head. He carefully worked his arm up from his side and grabbed the desired object. Glancing at the cover, he felt his eye brows raise in surprise. An almost naked man was pictured with a scantily clad, voluptuous woman draped over his arm. He had her breast cupped in one hand and was leaning in for an open mouthed kiss. Hmm—he'd never thought of Amanda reading that type of a book before....
Suddenly, Amanda's head appeared under the bed. Her arm reached out towards him and he handed the book to her. She took it from his hand but he didn't immediately let go. Instead he made eye-contact with her, stared purposefully at the front cover and then glanced back her way. Lifting his eyebrows, he gave her an inquiring look before frowning and shaking his head in feigned disapproval. She scowled back at him, tugged the book from his hand and scooted back out from under the bed. Lee grinned. He'd pay for that later but it had been worth it. Teasing Amanda was way too much fun.
"Here's your book, Mother." Amanda sounded somewhat out of breath. The mattress sagged again and Lee knew that she was sitting on the bed, possibly guarding him from her mother. Her feet dangled temptingly in front of him but he knew better than to try to tickle them again.
"Thank you, dear. You know, I was thinking...why don't I go and get the vacuum. If there's enough dust under that bed that you think it could cause an allergy attack then we should clean it up."
"What a good idea, Mother." Amanda said in a loud voice. "I'll just go downstairs with you and help you carry the vacuum. And you know, if that bug is still under my bed, we can get it too."
The bedroom door closed and Lee scrambled out from under Amanda's bed. His work as an intelligence operative had given him finely honed survival instincts. At this moment they were telling him that it wouldn't be a good idea to still be here when Amanda got back. Somehow he just knew that she probably wasn't in the mood to help him figure out his expense account anyway.
As he stood and worked the kinks out of his back, he glanced at the bed. The sheet was still hanging unevenly along the one side. His palms itched to make the bed properly. He took half a step in that direction but then thought better of it. After all, Amanda's bed was no concern of his. He eyed the surface and his mind drifted back to the mattress bouncing up and down over his head. A vision formed in his mind of the mattress bouncing for another reason. He was naked and lying overtop of Amanda while she ran a foot up and down his leg...
The sound of voices in the hallway stopped his train of thought and he gave himself a mental shake while clambering out the window. Where had that ridiculous idea come from? As is he would ever be spending time in Amanda's bed.