~~ III ~~
The dull grey clouds covering the sky were a perfect match to Lee's mood. He leaned against the cool glass of the car window and watched M Street's bars and shops sliding quickly by. The hum of the tires against the roadway rose an octave as they crossed the Key Bridge and headed into Virginia.
Amanda let out a small sigh, and he stole a glance at the woman sitting beside him. She hadn't said a word since they'd left the hospital. Instead, she'd stared moodily through the plexi-glass that separated them from the Agency driver Billy had assigned to take them home.
Home. Even the word sounded foreign to him.
Nervously he clutched the head of his cane, its smooth surface slick between his slightly sweaty hands. This was crazy. Here he was, sitting beside a woman he barely knew, a woman who was supposed to be his . . . his wife.
He ran his right hand over the still bare fingers of his left. Every time the car turned a corner, he could feel the edges of the ring he'd stuffed into his pocket pressing into his leg. Apparently Amanda hadn't felt any more comfortable than he, as she'd quickly stowed the envelope and its contents in her purse.
The silence stretching out between them was finally interrupted by the driver. "We'll be home soon, Mr. and Mrs. Stetson. I bet you'll be glad to get something besides hospital food."
Lee flinched involuntarily at the careless words. Mr. and Mrs. Stetson. Home. Home was a small apartment in a brownstone building in Georgetown. It most certainly was not a house encircled by a white picket fence in the suburbs of Virginia.
"Yes, thank you," he said to the driver, quickly reaching out and shutting off the intercom. The last thing he wanted to do right now was make small talk.
"Emily's birthday is December 15th," Amanda said stiffly. "In case you're interested. I had a long talk with Mother yesterday afternoon."
"What?" he asked, startled and vainly trying to follow her line of thought.
"Back in the hospital you were wondering why we got married," she continued in the same brittle tone. "Emily was born ten months after our wedding, so your theory doesn't hold water." She turned her head to the window, apparently fascinated by the piles of half melted snow and slush lining the roadway.
"Amanda." She didn't turn around. "Amanda, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I was just trying to make sense of everything. Look, I know this isn't easy for you, either. But at least you're going home to a place you remember. Last I knew I was a bachelor living in an apartment in Georgetown." He gestured as the buildings of D.C. rapidly receded into the distance. "But now suddenly I'm going home to two step-sons, a mother-in-law and a daughter."
"A daughter," she echoed turning back towards him. Her expression softened. "I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and find this is all a dream."
"Me, too." He sighed. "I'm not sure I can do this."
She reached out and put a tentative hand on his arm. "Of course you can," she said. "You're one of the 'top agents in the country', remember. I thought nothing scared you." She smiled, breaking the tension at last. "I seem to remember you coped with Alexi just fine."
"God, that feels like just the other week." He shook his head. "This is unbelievable."
"I know." There was a faint tremor in her voice.
"It's going to be okay, Amanda." He tried to inject considerably more confidence into his voice than he actually felt. If she could play along with this, then so could he. "Dr. McJohn'll have an antidote for us in no time."
"And then we'll remember that we're a happily married couple." The words died on her lips as their eyes met. "Somehow that doesn't feel all that reassuring."
They turned the corner onto Maplewood Drive. Lee licked his lips, his mouth suddenly as dry as the Sahara. "Maybe I shouldn't stay at the house," he said hoarsely. "I could go back to the Agency and have Billy set me up in a safe house or something."
His words trailed off as the car pulled to a stop in front of Amanda's house. Their house, he mentally corrected himself, but the words made no sense at all.
Feeling the driver's impatient stare, he got out of the car and stretched stiffly to work the kinks out of his leg. From somewhere not too far away he could hear the sound of a dog barking and children shouting. Dogs . . . children . . . suburbia . . . the collar on his shirt suddenly seemed a little too tight. "Amanda," he began again, his voice taking on a note of desperation, "I really think I should . . ."
The front door opened abruptly as if someone had been watching for their arrival. A small brown haired missile hurtled over the lawn towards them.
"Daddy!" The young girl flung herself against his sore leg, causing him to wince in pain.
He watched wide-eyed as Amanda hurried around the car, stooped down and scooped up the child. The little girl buried her face against her mother's neck. "Mommy, I missed you so much."
"I missed you, too." Amanda hugged her tightly.
Amazing. Amanda seemed to have developed an instant bond with the child, while he felt like an astronaut who had set foot on another planet.
Before either of them could say anything else, Emily twisted in Amanda's grasp and threw her arms around Lee's neck, pulling him close enough for a kiss. "Daddy, Daddy," she murmured as Lee and Amanda's eyes met over the tousled brown curls of their daughter's hair.
*SMK*SMK*SMK*SMK*SMK*
"Lee, dear, are you sure I can't get you something else to eat?"
"No, thanks, Mrs. . . . uh, Dotty," he quickly corrected, his face flushing slightly at his gaffe. He sent a nervous smile in her mother's direction. "I couldn't eat another bite."
Amanda looked at the remains of the dinner feast spread out across the coffee table. At Emily's insistence, they were having a picnic in the den. She wasn't sure if she was breaking some hard-and-fast house rule or not, but when she'd caught sight of the look on Emily's face when she begged to eat in here instead of at the dining room table, Amanda didn't have the heart to say no.
Lee seemed to find the impromptu party a welcome relief. Not only had he managed to pack away two helpings of pot roast and an enormous serving of mashed potatoes, but he'd also topped it off with a huge slice of poppyseed cake. He'd evidently come to the conclusion that eating was the better part of valor – if his mouth was full, he couldn't be expected to talk.
"You've hardly touched your food, darling."
Amanda looked up into her mother's sympathetic eyes.
"Well, it'll keep until later," Dotty continued, removing her plate. She placed it on top of Lee's and headed into the kitchen. "I'll just finish up these dishes."
"I'll help you, Mother." Amanda quickly got up, hoping her eagerness to get out of the room wasn't too apparent.
"No, no," Dotty insisted. "You just got home from the . . . you just got home," she quickly amended, her eyes resting on Emily. "You sit and relax a bit."
Amanda sank back into the chair. Relax. If only she could.
"Mom, I promised a few of the guys I'd meet them for a quick game of basketball. Is it okay?"
"Sure, sweetheart," she said without thinking.
"Then I can take the Jeep?"
The Jeep? Startled, Amanda looked up into Jamie's clear blue eyes. He was standing by her chair, expectantly holding the car keys. The car keys . . . her baby was holding the car keys. She shook herself lightly. Of course he wouldn't be riding his bike; he wasn't eight years old anymore. And he wasn't her baby, either. Her 'baby' was sitting cross-legged on the floor by her father's knee, holding court with three dolls and a host of rubber ponies with long, flowing manes.
"Is it okay?" Jamie asked again. "I know the car's new, but I'll be careful, I promise."
She heard Phillip's ready laugh. "I'll go with him, Mom, you don't have to worry."
She shot a quick glance at Lee, who looked as confused as she felt. "No, it's fine. Sure, you can take the, uh, Jeep."
"'I'll go with him,'" she heard Jamie mimic sarcastically as he and Phillip headed out the door. "As if I was the one who dented Lee's 'Vette . . ."
She saw Lee's eyes widen; he'd obviously overheard the comment. He'd had a Corvette? What happened to that Porsche he'd always been so fond of? Oh, my gosh . . . maybe one of her boys had finished that car off, too. Driving, both of them . . . she bit her lip. At least Phillip and Jamie were old enough to understand what had happened to them. But Emily was practically a baby.
"Look, Daddy." She saw Lee stiffen as Emily crawled up on the sofa beside him, a Barbie doll clutched in her hand. Her tiny face broke out in a grin that looked remarkably like Lee's as she began to walk the doll up and down her father's leg. Lee shifted uneasily in his seat. Without saying a word, he took hold of the doll's plastic head and guided Emily's hand away from him toward the sofa.
Emily seemed unfazed. She held the doll up in front of Lee's face and pressed a chubby finger into its back. "You look so cool," Barbie exclaimed in appropriately canned tones.
As Amanda fought to hold in her snicker, Lee shot her a pained look. Ignoring him, she moved over to sit beside her daughter on the sofa. "What is that, sweetheart?"
"It's 'Teen Talk Barbie,' Mommy," Emily answered with a roll of her hazel eyes. "You know that."
"Of course I do," she quickly parried. Amanda thought back to the large collection of dolls she'd had as a child. "You just have so many dolls, it's hard to keep track."
Emily nodded solemnly. "She's my favorite. She's only five days old. Daddy gave her to me for Christmas."
Amanda bit her lip as she watched her small daughter prance the voluptuous doll across the sofa. Of course 'Daddy' gave it to her. It bore an uncanny resemblance to that girl he'd been dating.
"Come on, Em," Dotty called as she suddenly reappeared in the den. "You've had a lot of excitement today; I think maybe it's time for bed."
Her tiny forehead scrunched up into thunderous frown. "I'm not tired, Gramma, really I'm not."
Amanda caught her mother's eye. "She was up at the crack of dawn this morning," Dotty quickly explained, including Lee in her glance, "waiting for the two of you. Tell you what," she continued, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper as she reached for Emily's hand. "If you hop into bed early for the next couple of nights like Grandma's good girl, I'll bet Mommy and Daddy will let you stay up on Thursday to see in the New Year."
Emily tilted her head for a moment as she considered this. "Okay. And then I can see the big ball drop. 'Night, Mommy, 'night, Daddy," she cried, bestowing a big hug on both of them before she jumped off the sofa and bounded toward the stairs. Dotty followed quickly, leaving a heavy silence in her wake.
Amanda let out a deep breath as she glanced at Lee. "Emily's really something, isn't she?"
"Yeah," he said, his fingers toying with the edge of the small sofa pillow. Abruptly he stood up and grabbed his cane. "I need some air."
Amanda frowned as she followed him into the hall. "Are you still thinking of going to that safe house?" She couldn't help but wonder which answer she'd rather hear. Either way was bound to be . . . unsettling.
Shouldering into his jacket, Lee pulled up the zipper with deliberate care. "No," he said at last, his eyes drifting up the staircase that Emily had just climbed. For a moment his face took on a slightly wistful expression. "No," he repeated, sobering again as he looked at her. "I'm just . . . going for a walk."
Flashing her a tight smile, he turned and hobbled out the door.
TBC
