MB Chapter 12

"Amanda, Lee, can I come in?" Dotty tapped lightly on the partially opened bedroom door. She stopped just inside when she saw Lee with his arms around Amanda while trying to stop her tears. "Oh, darling; I take it that I have another grandchild on the way?" Lee took the test from Amanda's hand and said, "Uh, it would seem so; at least according to this plastic stick."

Dotty looked at Amanda and said, "It will be okay, I promise. You aren't alone; you have me and I hope I am correct when I say that you have this young man next to you to help you out. Now all we have to do is make a plan and everything will be fine. It will be completely fine."

Amanda smiled at her mother's attempt to comfort her. "Mother, I know I am not alone; I just have a lot of things to consider. I have the boys, you, Lee, my job…"

"You don't have a thing to worry about where work is concerned because you aren't going anywhere near that place ever again." Lee said his voice sounding very challenging toward Amanda.

Standing to face Lee, Amanda's own voice sounding very determined said, "You can't seriously think that you are going to stand here and tell me that you think I am going to quit my job because I am pregnant?"

"I most certainly am. Now Amanda King that is my baby too and I should have a say in his or her safety and I am not going to stand here and fight about this."

"Why not we fight about everything else where work in concerned why not this too because I am not giving up my job and beside I still need to go to a doctor and confirm it before I go guns blazing into work and announcing that the great and powerful Scarecrow knocked me up!"

"Amanda King this is exactly what I am talking about; why can't you just listen to me for once." Running his hands through his hair and pinching his nose.

"Because as usual you are not making any sense; tomorrow I am going to call my doctor and make an appointment to confirm this baby, then I am going to come into work and type your report for our last case so it will be in on time, then I am going to the briefing so I can take notes so you will know what is going on because you have a security briefing at the Capitol building for the fundraiser next week and then finally I am going to come home and make dinner for the boys because Mother has her card club tomorrow and start all over the next day." The whole time she was saying all this Dotty watched as Amanda gently smoothed out Lee's tie or touched him in some way that seemed to calm him as she spoke and by the time Amanda was done with her check list Lee seemed a lot more calm to Dotty than at the beginning.

"Now, Lee we can't get overworked about work or this baby until we have confirmed everything. How would it look if you went into Billy's office passing out cigars and I have a false positive from that little plastic stick in your hand; which by the way you might want to throw away and wash your hands; it does have pee on it."

Lee walked over to the bathroom and dropped the test stick in the trash and washed his hands. He closed the door and locked it; leaving the older woman in the room looking to her daughter for answers.

"What was that?"

"That, Mother, is Lee Stetson, he is passionate and hot headed but reasonable. You just have to know how to calm him down."

"You certainly know how to do that; maybe your boss knows what he is talking about. That is the second time in less than an hour I have seen you calm that man down just by talking to him and barely touching his arm. I watched twice as you calmed that man down; I don't know why you are so worried about where his obligation lies; it is with you not a child." Dotty stood and left the room and Amanda decided there was no time like the present she picked the phone up and dialed her OB/GYN.

"Hello, Miranda, this is Amanda King and I need to make an appointment to see Cindy as soon as possible. Well the best guess I have is I am either going into early menopause or I am pregnant. Really that soon; yes I can be there in an hour; yes, I know with my history and all. Thank you I will see you in an hour."

Lee came out of the bathroom and Amanda looked at him and asked, "Do you want to go to the doctor with me?"

"My schedule tomorrow is very busy but you know my schedule better than I do so if you make it for a time…"

"Lee, you have the day off to work on reports and I have an appointment in an hour. I have to get ready and get going so if you want to go you can if you don't I will understand."

"I want to go with you; I will just let you get ready." He left the room to let her get ready.

Four hours later Lee and Amanda returned to find Jamie and Philip playing in the backyard. Amanda looked at Lee as they sat in his silver Porsha, "You don't have to meet them yet; you have months before the baby gets here for you to get to know them."

"Thanks, I think I just need to go and process the fact that I am going to be a father shortly after the New Year. I would like to come over tomorrow for dinner if you don't care."

"I think that would be great; see you after your meeting tomorrow." Amanda started to get out of the car when simultaneously Lee pulled her back toward him for a kiss just as the boys came out from the backyard to witness it. Lee finished kissing Amanda and noticed his audience watching as their mom got out of the fancy car and walked toward them. Lee did the only thing he thought he needed to do, he turned off the car and got out of the car, "Uh, Amanda, I changed my mind is that okay?"

Smiling she nodded and said, "Ok, fellas I want you to meet a friend and co-worker of mine, Lee Stetson."

"Hi." Was the welcome he got from both boys at the same time.

"Hi, your mom really talks about you two a lot at work. She is really proud of your baseball team."

Jamie said, "I don't know why we lose against a team that has girls on it."

He didn't have a response for that one he only shook his head and smiled at the younger King boy.

"You have a really cool looking car, what do you do at the film company?"

"I am a producer and at times director when I need to be." Before Lee knew what had happened he was in the backyard with the boys tossing a baseball and talking cars with them.

"Dinner is ready you three come in and wash up." Dotty called out of the door at the group of guys in the yard. "Lee, are you staying?" She asked.

"No, not tonight, Mrs. West; I will be by tomorrow for dinner, I have some work to do tonight."

Upon hearing this Jamie asked, "What would you have to produce or direct at this time of the night?"

Dotty raised her eyebrows and then watched Lee as he said, "There is a lot of paperwork that goes along with producing the productions we do at work. Amanda, I will see you tomorrow."

"Let me walk you out." She said smiling at him as they walked out to his car. Once they got to his car, she placed her hands on her hips and asked, "Are you in full sensory overload yet, Scarecrow?"

Smiling he said, "You noticed, huh, but I do need to go back into the Agency. I never really planned on being gone all day; I have those reports and all."

"Okay, I'll see you in the morning after the briefing. Be careful." She turned to go as Lee pulled her back into his arms and held her, "Stop walking away from me so fast; it makes it very hard to kiss you when you do that." To prove his point he leaned in to kiss her as Philip came around the corner and said, "Mom, Dad is on the phone and wants to talk to you about something he says it is important."

"Okay, tell him I am on my way. Bye." She quickly gave Lee a quick kiss on the cheek and then turned and walked back into the house with Philip asking, "Is he your new boyfriend?" Lee heard her soft laughter unfortunately he couldn't hear the response. He got into his car and went into the Agency and went his desk at the bullpen.

"What are you doing here so late Lee? I thought you had plans with Jillian tonight." Francine Desmond asked.

"Damn it, I forgot all about that with everything that happened today."

"What happened? I have been here all day and nothing happened."

"No, I went over to Amanda's to ask with some help with this report and well…" Lee stopped himself remembering what Amanda had mentioned at lunch about letting information about the baby out yet.

"What happened at Amanda's? The PTA planning a massive bake sale, rummage sale, no let me guess Amanda got a new microwave oven."

"Francine, why do you have to that?" The anger in his voice began to show.

"Do what?"

"Make fun of Amanda; she works very hard and it isn't easy doing all she does at home, around here, and she does it without complaining; just because she isn't coming up the ranks like you did does not mean she is any less capable of doing what needs to be done around here." Lee didn't realize how loud his voice was until Billy Melrose walked out of his office and began to watch the exchange between two of his best agents. "I suggest you just get used to her being around and get whatever you have against her out of your system."

"Scarecrow, will you get in my office; now!" Lee walked toward the office door and paused to look at Francine's shocked face watching him as if he had grown two horns out of his head.

"Lee, would you like to tell me what that was all about out there? I can't say that I am not happy to hear you finally giving Amanda credit but why now? Wasn't it you last week that was telling her that if she didn't learn to stay put you would duct tape her to the seat of your passenger seat?"

"I am sorry; I will apologize to Francine for yelling at her; but Amanda does work hard and Francine just needs to get off her ass."

"Yeah, it wouldn't do to have both of you on her ass huh."

Lee looked at Billy and said, "What is that supposed to mean; I think I have been treating her pretty fairly lately."

"You have and I want to know, off the record, if Florida had anything to do with that?"

Lee now knew he looked like a child being caught red handed with his hand in the cookie jar. He swallowed hard and then before he knew what was happening he was spilling his guts to Billy about what happened in Florida with him and Amanda.

"So you two are involved now?"

"No, yes, uh hell I don't know; it was in Florida and once at my apartment before I took her home after we got back and agreed to be just friends."

"You have some of the most interesting friendships in this business, Lee. Are you sure you can handle still working with Amanda now that you two have slept together? I mean the last few weeks your work together has been some of the best you two have done; I just need to know if there are going to be any problems between the two of you."

Lee sat and thought how in this business you didn't get to many friends and he had a great one in William Melrose but he also knew that he was his boss and even Lee knew if he told about the baby now Billy would have Amanda chained before she gave the password in the morning.

"No, I think our working relationship will be fine. We talked a lot about it when we got back and I think so far no one suspects that anything is different between us." They will in a few months though he thought.

"I noticed the change immediately but the two of you have remained professional about it; not like some of the other women around here that still drool when you walk by them around here; as long as you aren't open about what happened or it doesn't become a problem then I see no need to call you two out on it." Billy left out that fact that Amanda might be the best thing for him in and out of the office; feeling his friend wasn't ready to hear that.

"What if it does become a problem?"

"Then I will separate you; why do you ask?"

Lee didn't say anything he just stood and went back to his desk and when he didn't see Francine he left her a note on her desk telling her he was sorry for snapping at her and he would see her the next day. Lee drove home and thought about all that had happened during the day. He walked in his apartment and walked to the table to see his message light flashing, pushing the button he started to listen to the messages; the first one was from his uncle telling him he would be in town in a few weeks and wanted to see Lee, delete; the next one was from Jillian reminding him that he was late but the wine was still chilling, delete, and the last one was from Amanda reminding him that he needed to go to the office before his meeting for a file he needed to take with him; he replayed her message again and then hit save.

Lee picked up the phone and dialed his uncle to set plans for his visit. The next call he made was to Jillian explaining that he wouldn't be by and he didn't think it was a great idea if they saw each other again, he had some personal stuff arise and he needed to deal with that at the moment and even though she didn't take it real well he didn't feel a loss as he hung up the phone. He got ready for bed and as he climbed into bed he looked at the clock and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi. What did you tell Philip when he asked if I was your new boyfriend?"

"The truth; you are a friend and co-worker and at the moment I am not your girlfriend."

"What did he say to that?"

"He wanted to know more about male and female friendships that involve kissing."

"The birds and bees talk; how did it go?'

"We tabled the conversation until after dinner and it went fine. He had questions and I answered them honestly. I think he would have rather talked with Joe but he got me."

"Speaking of Joe; what did he want if you don't mind me asking?"

"He wanted to let me know that he would be in town for his annual review at work and he wanted to know what games and plans the boys had going on while he was here so he could see them."

"What about you; does he want to see you too?"

"Lee he will see me; every time he drops off and picks up the boys. Now I have to go to sleep I will see you tomorrow, goodnight."

"Goodnight, Manda."