CHAPTER 49

NOTE:

Now that I'm going back in and fleshing and tweaking, I have to keep going back and rereading to make sure who I have and haven't used.

And y'all know that TS does not possess the most efficient hard drive around. Anyhow, never fear, if you don't appear in this work of fiction, I've decided that my newest modis operandi (sp??) will be to include a GG girl or two in each of my upcoming more, uhm, dramatic pieces.

Just please don't go creating more aliases so that you can appear more and more. I just don't have the funds to employ a personal assistant, yet.

And on that note, onward we plague!

Lee made his way through the corridor, eager to see Amanda and hoping that he might just be able to reassure her a little in regards to the boys' safety. As he neared Doc Kelford's office, he heard the hushed sounds of female voices.

Always the agent and always curious, Lee Stetson just had to check it out.

Poking his head in the doorway, he found Francine Desmond sitting huddled in a blanket and chatting with one of the freshman trainees, a Sue something or other. Right now the last name was escaping him, but, if memory served him right, she was a transplant from New York and he recalled Amanda saying something about the girl still being a little homesick.

So, he gave them his best smile.

"Evenin' little ladies," he greeted them, pretending to tip an imaginary cowboy hat.

Francine practically snorted her reply.

"That was so awful," she mumbled.

Lee shrugged. "Can you do better?"

Francine's reply consisted of a sniffle, a cough, and a look that, when she was healthy, probably would have sent Lee back on the fast path towards the Q-Bureau. Right now it only succeeded in making him feel a little sorry for her.

She then looked at Sue and gave her what Lee assumed to be an imaginary pseudo whisper.

"Sometimes he has these little fantasies of being a cowboy. You know he rides a horse now and then and thinks he's John Wayne. We just smile at him pleasantly and let him carry on."

Sue laughed.

It was, Lee thought, probably the first good laugh he'd heard in what seemed like a lifetime. And it sounded pretty darn good to him.

He looked at Sue and grinned.

"I won't tell you about her little fantasies, they scare even Phaff."

"Please," Francine drew out her favorite phrase quite slowly, giving it her best annoyance beyond all belief sound.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the blonde returned to full agent mode.

"So, what's our latest?"

"They've got a pretty efficient team upstairs working on compiling the information, I still haven't heard how Marsten is doing, and I think Billy's plotting an early retirement to Hawaii if Dirk resurfaces."

"Oh my God," Francine moaned. "Well, if I wasn't sick to begin with, I will be now. They would not even think of bringing him back."

"Whose Dirk?" Sue asked.

"Ah," Lee began.

"Oh, uhm," Francine stammered.

Both agents knew that beyond less than a handful of people, nobody knew that Dr. Smyth had passed away earlier in the day. Telling someone else within the Agency, especially a trainee, the circumstances as to why Dirk would be pulled back in was probably not something that either of them could get away with and still keep their jobs.

Francine ever so slightly nodded towards Lee, passing the ball into his court and he grudgingly acknowledged the pass with just a blink of his hazel eyes.

"Dirk used to be a director here and he, well, he was given an early retirement package of sorts."

"That doesn't sound good," Sue told them.

"Oh, well, it," Lee grimaced. "It wasn't."

"Is there a story behind this?" Sue asked eagerly.

Francine closed her eyes and moaned.

"You would ask, wouldn't you?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, it does pay to have a know of everything going on, right? And that probably means even knowing some of the stuff that's already happened, even though we weren't here but since it happened it was probably pretty important right? So, you can tell me, right? I mean, I am a trainee."

Lee and Francine both looked at one another and then laughed.

"Do you have any relatives in your family tree with the last name King?" Francine asked the younger girl softly.

"More importantly," Lee chuckled, "how are you with a lamp?"

"Huh?"

The younger woman looked dumbfounded at both of them.

"Never mind," both Lee and Francine said at the same time.

Sue gave them both a look.

"Fine, fine, fine. I'll find out eventually, if not from you two, from somewhere else."

"Ooh," Francine said. "You know, I think I'm going to like this one."

Lee nodded.

"You know, I think she'll do just fine."

Sue sat back in her chair and smiled. She folded her hands primly, sat there with her back straight and then looked Lee square in the eyes.

"So, do I hear about it from you or do I get it from a source that might just, how shall we say, twist the facts to make certain parties not look as pure as the driven snow?"

Francine raised an eyebrow.

"You have the honors," Lee indicated to Francine as he sniffled and cleared his throat.

"You need to get some rest," she replied back to him.

"I gotta check on Amanda."

"Get some rest," Francine insisted.

"I will, once I know that a team is on the way to get Amanda's sons. Then, I will rest."

"Macho," Francine told him.

"Button it, sweetheart," Lee told her with a chuckle. "It was nice meeting you, Sue."

With that Lee existed the office, positive that his every stride was being watched by two sets of eyes until he disappeared off their radar.

"Wonder if that one has ever broken into a post office," he mumbled to himself.