Arlington Part 4
"Lee, you could always stay at the house." Amanda suggested.
"Amanda, I can't, your family?" He started in with his protest but Amanda stopped him saying, "You were bleeding to death in my bedroom; they know about you now. It is either that or I get Francine or the Colonel to stay with you."
Lee looked at her and said, "Those are my only options?"
"No, you could always stay here in the hospital for the whole time." She offered smiling; knowing that her house was the only appealing offer he would consider.
"Amanda King, you don't play fair." He said as he tried to adjust to get more comfortable. She leaned forward and placed her arms around him carefully helping him adjust his position. "I can't ever get comfortable; not with this stupid IV in."
Smiling at him she said, "Well, that IV is going to stay in for the next two days while they give you your strong non-penicillin antibiotic before you come home. Besides, Lee, the Constitution doesn't say anything about playing fair."
Lee closed his eyes telling Amanda, "Stay with me until I fall back to sleep. I am really tired. I promise I just want to sleep and I think the doctor slipped me something to help with that."
Brushing his hair from his forehead she leaned over and whispered, "Sleep well, Lee Stetson. I will stay with you for a while and then I will be back first thing in the morning."
"Okay, hey, Amanda thanks." He gently squeezed her hand as he spoke.
"That is what partners are for."
"Manda, you are more than my partner." Lee said as he drifted off to sleep.
Amanda waited an hour before she left; making sure Lee was well asleep. Billy had shown up with the two of them meeting in the lobby.
"Amanda, where are you going? I thought you said Lee was awake?"
"He was, Sir, but after the doctor looked him over and changed his bandages, he went back to sleep. He more than likely will sleep until morning, unless the nurses wake him when they come in for vitals and to change his bandage."
"I see, I was hoping to talk to him but it can wait. Did the doctor give Lee any instructions that I will have to make an official order for him to follow?"
"Not really, he will be here for at least two full days and then he will be moved to my house for 24 hour care for another week." Amanda answered, blushing slightly.
"Will that even be possible?"
"It is that or he gets Francine, the Colonel, or he stays right here."
"I would love to be a fly on that wall when your mother gets a hold of him. Are you positive we cannot recruit her for KGB interrogations?"
Smiling Amanda said, "Let me check with her and see if I still have a home to bring Lee too in a couple of days. I also have damage control with the boys. I just can't figure out why Lee would come to the house if he was hurt as badly as he was."
Looking at the woman in front of him Billy Melrose had an answer for her question, but wasn't sure he should be the one to tell her. Lee went to the one person he knew he had to see before he died, the woman he loved.
"Maybe it was just a partner thing. He was hurt and needed his partner to help him out."
"Yes, but now I have to explain all of this to my family. They are going to hate me."
"Amanda, I know it is going to be hard, maybe one of the hardest things you have ever done. At least you won't be lying to them any longer. I already have security in place at your home. They will be posted there now until Lee is back at his house or until we know it is safe."
"Do you think they are in danger at the moment? The boys are with…"
"Joe, I have them under surveillance as well."
Amanda smiled at her boss and knew he would protect her family. How many times in the last three years has he proven that? Amanda knew he was a great boss but she was starting to think he was an even better friend. "Yes, of course, thank you, Billy."
"Did you just call me Billy?"
Smiling she said, "That is your name, isn't it?" They talked a few more minutes and Billy gave her a ride home.
Amanda walked into the house and heard her mother laughing at something.
"Mother, I am back. Are you okay?" She asked as she walked into the kitchen to see her mother and Lee's uncle at the table together.
"Colonel, I didn't expect to see you here." She said joining them.
"I asked him to stay. I wanted to know more about your friend and seeing as how Bob here is his uncle I thought he could give me some insight in to the matter."
"How is Skip by the way, Amanda?"
"He woke up for a brief moment. The doctor looked him over and changed his bandage before he fell back out. He will be in the hospital for at least two days."
"I will check on him in the morning before my briefing." He stated.
"Mother, I need to talk to you about Lee myself. Why don't you tell me what you know about him so far? Colonel, would you like some more coffee?"
"No, I need to be going; besides, I think you and your mother have a lot to discuss." Dotty stood and walked the Colonel to the door. Amanda sat at the table and waited for her mother to come back.
"Amanda, are you ready to tell me about Mr. Stetson?"
"It is like I told you at the hospital; Lee and I work together. We are partners."
"You also said that he was a Federal agent; does that mean you are as well?"
"I am not an official agent, but I do have formal training. I haven't taken the Agency candidate classes. You have to be a full time agent to take those."
"When did you start working for them?"
"Do you remember the morning I took Dean to the train station?"
"Yes, I do. That was right before you started that business with pets and plants."
Shaking her head Amanda looked at her apolitically. "You never had a pet and plant business?"
"No I never did. The only job I have had in the last three years since that morning was with Lee and the Agency. There were a few times I tried telling you the truth and you just never believed me. It seemed easier to get you to believe the lie than it was the truth. I want you to know that I hated lying to you and the boys all this time. I can't do that any longer, Lee made sure of that this afternoon."
"Amanda, this sounds very dangerous." The worry in her mother's voice and eyes Amanda knew she was going to face.
"Mother, at times it is very dangerous; although I am rarely out in the field. I am usually trying to figure out Lee's expense report; this next one should be interesting. I type his reports, so they are accurate and on time."
"When are you out in the field, so to speak?" Dotty asked.
"When Lee needs me; like for an Embassy party, a sports reporter, a cover story really; well, maybe a distraction from him is more like it."
"Bait; it sounds like to me you are bait."
"No; very rarely am I bait; Lee gets jealous, but won't admit it."
"How am I supposed to feel about all this, Amanda?" Dotty asked.
"I don't have an answer for you maybe Lee will have answers for you."
"You want me to go and visit a man in a hospital that almost died in our house to find out how I am to feel about my daughter being a spy?"
Amanda saw the hurt and anger starting to build but she knew it had to run its course for her and her mother to completely heal from the deception of the last three years.
"No, Mother, he is going to need 24 hour care for about a week after he gets out of the hospital. I offered for him to stay here." Amanda said as she went to rinse the dishes in the sink to fill the dishwasher.
"Stay here; he can't stay here. What will people say?" Dotty sputtered out, standing and facing her daughter. "Opposed to what, Mother; seeing a man leaving here in an ambulance, bleeding to death? What questions have you already fielded on the subject with his uncle here with you? To be real honest, Lee is a concern to me, not what these damn neighbors think." Amanda felt the fear of earlier come back and Dotty could see the real fear in her daughter; her daughter was in love with this man.
Walking over to her daughter, Dotty placed her arms around her daughter and while comforting her as best she could Dotty asked, "Amanda, how long have you been in love with this man?"
"Always I suppose; I have run the gambit of emotions with that man, Mother. When I first met him, I did see how handsome he was and when he held me during that first dance, yes I got carried away. I had such a fascination about the job; you know the whole James Bond thing; but that crush ended when I saw the reality of some of the job. I had my crush on him, I had admiration for him, and before I knew what happened I fell in love with him."
"How does he feel about you?"
"I know he respects me, I know he cares about me, the boys and you and…"
"Me; what on Earth are you taking about?" Dotty asked taken aback some.
Smiling she said, "He cares about what happens in this family and the people in it. He has had to protect us so many times; even now the Agency has a protection detail at Joe's and here. We will have one while Lee is here too."
"Amanda, what are you going to tell Joe and the boys?"
"Joe knows and hopefully he will be able to help me tomorrow as I talk more with them and you. Mother, I know you have a lot of questions but I am really tired. Can you hold them off until the boys get here and I will answer more then? I have a lot to take care of tomorrow."
"No, Amanda, you do not have a lot to take care of tomorrow for your partner; we have a lot to do for his arrival here." Dotty said making Amanda smile brightly and saying, "Thank you, Mother."
Colonel Robert Clayton walked through the doors of his nephew's room and sat in the chair that Amanda had occupied not one hour before. In the silence of the room, he realized that the monitors were loud and obtrusive. He knew the necessary need for them but hospitals gave his nephew fits. He will be fighting hard to get out Robert thought to himself. He would still need care after his release; Robert was trying to figure that out when he heard, "Colonel?"
Robert looked at his nephew and said, "I didn't mean to disturb you."
"You didn't; the stiches pull if I move too much and that wakes me up. Can I ask why you are here?"
Looking his nephew in the eyes he said, "Lee, I don't think that you would believe me if I said I am very worried about you, would you?"
"Did you just call me Lee?"
"That is your name."
"I know my name, but you have never called me by it before. Yes, I do believe you are worried about me. Thank you, for everything."
"Are we having a moment here?"
"We have lots of moments; just usually from a different point of view. Why did you do it?"
"Do what?" The Colonel knew what Lee was asking.
"Okay, we will do it your way, as always, why did you take on the responsibility of a young boy when one you had no experience and two you had no desire?"
"You are right I had no experience but my desire to keep you with family was very important to me."
Lee sat waiting and hoping he had more than that to say; he did.
"I remember when my mother told me I was getting a new father. My father died when I was younger than you when you lost Matty. Daniel Davis Stetson was a man who terrified me when I first meet him. He was tall, tough and as I found out one of the most caring men I would ever know. He didn't have to love me and I didn't make it easy on him, but he did it anyway. I asked him once why he loved me when I wasn't his, like Matty was. He asked me what made me think I wasn't his. Love and responsibility doesn't go hand in hand. Responsibility you take on; love is never ending. He loved me because I was an important extension of my mother. I did feel a responsibility to you but never think I didn't love you."
"I hate to say this without it sounding shocked or ungrateful, but I really didn't get a loving vibe from you growing up."
"I thought if I didn't show you I could better handle your parent's death. I got a call today telling me that you were brought in here, losing a lot of blood, and had already been brought back from the dead in the ambulance. I came in as soon as I heard and donated the blood you were going to need during surgery."
"Do you get a call every time I am hospitalized?" Lee asked.
Colonel Robert Clayton sat looking at his nephew and finally said, "Being of high rank has its privileges at times."
"So you just sit and judge me and what I do for a living while getting report cards on me? Unbelievable."
"What is so unbelievable about me keeping eyes on someone that I care for?"
Lee sat thinking about what he had just learned as a nurse came in and said, "Who are you? No one is supposed to be in here."
"That is okay I was just leaving."
Lee looked at the nurse and said, "No, he can stay as long as he wants to and you can leave."
"I have to check your vitals and change your bandage, Mr. Stetson."
"I am alive and awake so I would say my vitals are working and my bandage is fine. Now you will leave my room or I will have the agent on duty outside of my room remove you." Lee said in a not so friendly tone.
"It is okay, I really should be going. Jeffrey Palmer's wife Kitty set me up on a date tonight, actually it was with Mrs. West."
"Dotty West, Amanda's mother; how did that go?"
"We never made the date; we were both taking care of other business. You see, she was taking care of her daughter who happens to find my nephew in her bed. I never got a chance to let them know I wasn't going to make it, but I did spend some nice time with her and would like to see her again. It has been a few months since I have dated."
"A few months; I have never known you to date ever."
"Just because you never knew, didn't mean it never happened. Did you think that it would be a good example to parade a slew of different women in front a young boy?"
Lee laughed and before he realized what he was saying Lee said, "It might have shown him what a normal relationship between a man and woman was like so he didn't mess his own relationships up."
"I guess I taught you more about distance than devotion. That falls on me; I guess it is my turn to say sorry."
Lee looked at the man that raised him and running his hand through his hair took a page from the Amanda King file, "How about we just stop being sorry and start being a better family?"
"I like the sound of that, Skip."
"Lee, remember my name is Lee."