Lee and Amanda exchanged first bewildered, then worried looks after Dotty had left the room. Lee looked at Amanda quizzically as they said together, "Did you say something to her?"
"Amanda, how would I have said something to her? I just met her," Lee stated.
"I know, but you said you told her and the boys about us being a couple and then you invited her here for lunch so I didn't know what else you might have already told her. Why would you think I said something when I just said that I've been lying to her for years?"
"Well, then how did she find out?" Lee asked worriedly.
"I don't know," she nodded toward the kitchen, "But we better get in there and find out."
"Yeah," Lee said with a grimace as he pulled himself from the couch and reached for Amanda's hand to help her to her feet. They walked hesitantly toward the kitchen wondering just what kind of mood they'd find Dotty in when they got there. As they reached the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen, they looked at each other in surprise to hear laughter.
"Thanks for the tip, Mrs. West. I think the lemon pepper made all the difference," Francine was saying.
"Well, I'm surprised Moline never told you about it," Dotty replied. "You know, fresh lemon juice works better with just a dash of fresh ground pepper, but lemon pepper will work in a pinch as long as you don't use too much of it."
"Mother," Amanda began warily. "What's...Um...What's going on in here."
"Oh, I was just giving Miss Desmond here some tips in the kitchen," Dotty answered cheerily.
"She needs all the help she can get there," Lee quipped earning him a scowl from Amanda.
"Hey!' Francine said in an affronted tone as she walked by him with a fist full of silverware, slugging him in the arm on her way past him.
"Francine, do you mind?" Lee huffed. "I've already been belted once today."
"So, you have," Dotty commented as she studied the bruise on his face intently. "That wasn't there when you came by the house yesterday, was it?"
"No. No, it wasn't," He glanced at Amanda who looked back at him apologetically.
Lee's gaze to Amanda drew Dotty's there as well, "Amanda!' She exclaimed. "You're bruised too." She grasped her daughter's chin, turning her head to take a good look at the bruise on her face in a motherly fashion.
Amanda stiffened when her mother's touch sent a shiver up her spine as it caused her to recall Birol gripping her face in much the same fashion, only much more violently. She pulled her head from her mother's hand and said sharply, "Don't!"
At seeing the panicked look in Amanda's eyes, Lee gripped her hand tightly and whispered, "Amanda, you're safe." Feeling her grip his hand back just as tightly and seeing her nod in acknowledgement allowed him to relax a little.
Amanda let out a deep breath and nodded again as she looked at Lee with a slight smile, saying, "I'm okay."
"You sure," He asked in concern as he took both of her hands in his, lightly caressing them.
Amanda swallowed hard and nodded, then pasted on a bright smile, "I'm fine."
"Amanda..." Lee said skeptically as seeing her smile not quite reaching her eyes.
"Really, I'm fine, but I'm starving! What have you two been cooking up in the kitchen?" She asked as Francine breezed by and back into the kitchen.
Francine returned with a platter of sandwiches. "Homemade chicken salad," she answered with a bright smile of her own as she carried it into the dining room.
Dotty stood watching silently, the interaction between Lee and Amanda not lost on her and she asked bluntly, "So, does someone wanna' let me in on what's really been going on?" When Lee opened his mouth to speak, she held up a hand to stop him, "And I mean the truth, not one of those cockamamie stories about your film crews and documentaries on the mating habits of gazelles or something else like that."
"Hey, listen, why don't we all just sit down and talk about this, huh?" Lee suggested with a gesture to the dining table.
"You two go ahead. I'll be there in a minute," Dotty replied as she returned to the kitchen while Amanda made her way back into the living room to retrieve her glass of milk. Lee was just finishing helping Amanda to her seat when Dotty returned with the coffee service.
Amanda perused the table. "We need mayonnaise," She said.
"There's mayo in the chicken salad," Francine said in a bit of a huff that Amanda hadn't even tried it and was already complaining.
"Not for me, Francine," Amanda explained. "You and I both know that Lee likes extra mayo on his chicken salad."
"Listen, I'll get it," Lee said. "You're all already sitting."
Dotty watched as Amanda took a cup from the coffee service, poured coffee and added a dollop of cream to it. As she stirred it, Dotty nodded toward the cup and inquired, "Amanda, since when do you take cream in your coffee?"
"I don't," Amanda answered. "Just sugar. You know that, Mother." She finished her task just as Lee returned with the jar of mayo and handed him the cup as he sat down.
"Thank you," Lee smiled at her.
"Well, everybody dig in," Francine said cheerily, trying to combat the awkwardness in the room.
As they began to help themselves, Dotty having caught sight of the diamond ring that Amanda was wearing while Lee had been trying to console her, blurted out, "So, when's the wedding?" She nodded toward Amanda's left hand.
Lee cleared his throat loudly, looked to Amanda for help, he stammered, "Well, Mrs. West...we...Um..."
"Enough with the Mrs. West," Dotty scolded Lee. "It's Dotty. I mean, if you're going to be my son-in-law, we really should be on a first name basis." She then fixed her daughter with a pointed look, "So, exactly when is he going to be my son-in-law?"
"Um...we...Actually, Mother, we haven't really set a date yet, but soon, we hope." She reached for Lee's hand to reassure him, sensing his nervousness.
"Good," Dotty said with a firm nod, and then with a knowing smile added, "After all, you'll want it to be before my new grandchild arrives."
"Definitely," Lee agreed with a warm smile at his fiancee'.
"Oh, so you're no longer denying it," Dotty replied pointedly to Lee. "I distinctly recall asking you about it yesterday and you couldn't get out of the house fast enough."
"Mother, it's complicated," Amanda rushed to Lee's defense.
"Because of the spy life?" Dotty questioned.
"How do you know about that anyway?"
"Are you kidding? It's been obvious ever since the terrible business with Mrs. Welch being arrested."
Lee and Amanda exchanged questioning looks and Amanda queried, "Okay. But how? How did you put the pieces together?"
"Mrs. Welch's arrest was all over the news," Dotty explained. "How she was using her recipes to signal the Russians, her arrest, they even showed the feds dragged her off her property in handcuffs. Then when they were panning the cameras over the grounds of her home, I spotted a suspiciously familiar looking car all smashed to bits. That night, you came home in a cab, with that crazy story about how you got in a wreck, and then the next week you had a new car without ever reporting your "wreck" to the insurance company. Remember, that's when you got the Oldsmobile, instead of the Ford that you had been driving. Then I remember your trip to the TV station, how you were asking me about Mrs. Welch's recipes, and I knew from the news report that Mrs. Welch had been arrested by federal agents, not police. It all fit."
"Wow," Amanda said softly once her mother had finished her ramble.
Francine laughed and quipped, "I see where Amanda gets her gift of gab from."
Lee laughed, earning him a scowl from Amanda, who turned her attention to Francine for a moment and at seeing the slight swelling on the other woman's face by her own hand, a wave of guilt hit her, "Francine, I want to-"
"Amanda, Don't," Francine stopped Amanda's attempt at an apology with a wave of her hand. "It's no big deal. It's hardly the worst thing that's ever happened to me in this job. If you recall, I once took a bullet in the leg for you, so a little slap in the face is nothing worth crying over."
"Thank you, Francine," Amanda replied. "For everything." She sighed and thought for a moment. Turning back to her mother, she asked, "So, I have to ask you something that doesn't make sense. If you figured this out three years ago, why did you act like I was being ridiculous when I actually told you that I was a spy?"
"When did you tell her?" Lee questioned.
"When we were working with Yuri to stop that bomb," Amanda explained. "I was trying to get her and the boys out of town and-"
"Amanda, don't you grasp the concept of sarcasm?" Dotty asked her in exasperation, cutting off her explanation to Lee. When Amanda just stared blankly at her, she added, "Why else do you think I'd have gone so easily if I didn't believe you?"
"There's something that I don't understand," Lee told Dotty. "I get you figuring out that something was going on by all the stuff with Mrs. Welch, but aside from Amanda's car being trashed, how did you come up with the spy part? Not all federal agents are spies."
"For one thing, how secretive Amanda became after that," Dotty answered. She nodded toward Francine, "Meeting Miss Desmond here." She then looked back at Amanda. "Did you honestly think that as coiffed and well-manicured as she is, that I would believe she was the owner of a chimpanzee? How stupid do you think I am, Amanda?" Dotty gestured wildly at Francine who gave her back a sheepish look for having gone along with Amanda's ridiculous lie.
"A chimpanzee? Lee questioned, amusement dancing in his eyes as he looked first at Amanda, then at Francine.
"What?' Francine snapped. "I like animals. It could happen."
"I would love to see that," Lee replied with a laugh. He looked at Amanda and asked, "A chimp, really? What made you think of that?"
"I don't know," Amanda responded. "I...Uh...I was on the spot, okay? I had just been rescued from those guys who thought I was you and the last thing that I expected was for someone from the agency to show up at my front door. Then when she was telling me that you were in trouble for rescuing me, I-" She broke off abruptly as another thought occurred to her.
"What?" When Amanda was silent, Lee clasped her hand again, looking at her in concern, hoping that she wasn't on her way toward another paranoid episode. "Amanda, Honey, what is it?"
Amanda pulled her hand from his and patted his arm affectionately, "I'm fine, Lee." When he looked dubious, she insisted, "Really. I'm just worried about you. You're not in trouble for rescuing me this time, are you? With the agency, I mean?"
"A-ha!" Dotty exclaimed. "So, you do work for the agency. I thought so."
Amanda looked at her curiously and said, "I thought you had it all figured out."
"Oh, I did," Dotty confirmed. "It's just nice to hear you confirm it and be honest for a change. There were just too many things that didn't make sense, you know? What really clinched it for me in knowing where you actually worked even though I suspected before then was that incident with Dr. Zernov," Dotty continued as she recalled how brave her daughter had been when she herself had been terrified. She was immensely proud of how she'd thought of a plan to get them out of trouble and had executed that plan without an ounce of fear showing. "The way you handled yourself when we were being held hostage and of course, meeting your Mr. Melrose after all of that happened. Did you think that I'd forget that a Mr. Melrose had called the house for you to call you into work? That couldn't have been coincidence."
"Huh," was Lee's reply as he and Amanda exchanged another look. "To answer your question, Amanda, no, I'm not in trouble with the agency. I don't think Billy would have been willing to recommend me for that job at the state department if I were."
"State department?" Francine questioned. "You're not thinking of leaving the agency?"
"Yes, Francine, I am," Lee answered honestly. "That's what that call to Billy was all about earlier."
"I was wondering about that, the way it seemed that you were speaking to Billy in some kind of code, asking him about what you'd talked about before all the crap with Birol started." She paused for a beat and then asked, "You're really thinking about quitting and going somewhere else?"
"If that's what it takes to look after my family, yes," Lee replied firmly. "I have a responsibility-"
"Lee, we talked about this," Amanda inserted in a warning tone.
"I know and I said I'd sleep on it, but I still think-"
Dotty interrupted before they could start arguing again by clearing her throat loudly to get their attention. "So, now that you know how I know what I know, how about you tell me what I don't know?" She gave Lee a stern, scolding look.
"I don't know what you mean," Lee hedged.
"Well, for starters, this rescue you two were just talking about. What exactly happened to my daughter?" She nodded toward the bruise on Amanda's face and asked, "What or whom did you rescue her from and why does she act as if she's scared of her own shadow?"