Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. The plot is mine, but not the characters. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

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"Humf," she huffed for what seemed like the ninetieth time since she'd laid her head on her pillow and tried to go to sleep. She violently flipped over and punched her pillow hard in a vain attempt to find some semblance of comfort that would allow her to rest. She let out a deep sigh and argued with herself that no amount of nice, warm blankets or fluffy pillows would ease her troubled mind. "Can I really do this again?" she questioned herself.

Knowing sleep was far from coming, she finally sat up and snapped on the lamp that sat on her nightstand. "What's wrong with me?" she admonished herself. She was engaged to a sweet, charming, wonderful man. She should be over the moon and yet all she could think about was what if it went wrong? She had spent the whole night reflecting on her first attempt at happily ever after and how it had gone horribly wrong, leaving her wounded and questioning why she wasn't good enough for the man she loved to stick around. When he'd come back to town, they'd had a frank conversation about it in which she'd point-blank asked him if the problem was her and he'd assured her that it was all on himself, but what if he'd said that just to spare her feelings? Maybe it really was her fault and maybe she just wasn't meant to have the fairy-tale princess ending. She felt for sure that she was about to chase her new love off if she couldn't get control of her thoughts and alleviate her doubts and fears.

She thought back to the day the proposal had come and how she'd had to verify that he'd said what she thought he had because it had come out of nowhere. Once it had registered in her addled mind that he was indeed asking her to marry him, she had immediately said yes, but now she was questioning everything. "What was I thinking?" she moaned aloud to her empty bedroom. "What was HE thinking?" Why did he wait until they were in serious danger of losing their lives to a terrorist before he made his intentions known? The even more important question was why had she accepted under those circumstances?

You know why, a small voice in her head reminded her. You've always known he had real trouble expressing his feelings unless pushed. How many times had you seen it over the past three years or so? He'd make a move to inch closer and then rapidly backpedal when he realized his heart was in danger of being exposed. "Then the second I would make a move, he'd run even further away and once more would try to pretend we were only coworkers. What's it going to be like when we're married? How is this even going to come close to working out? I can't even-" She broke off abruptly when she realized her internal rant had turned into a verbal tirade to no one. "Huh, I'm talking to myself like a crazy person; worse, I'm arguing with myself."

She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the positive. That she loved him, there was no question. Oh, sure, he'd annoyed her at first and she'd seen the not-so-pleasant side of him plenty of times when he could be a real jerk, but she also knew he could be sweet…and charming…and so lovable and sometimes so vulnerable when he wore his heart on his sleeve that she just wanted to squeeze him like an oversized teddy bear. But then it also seemed he was a bit naïve about how on earth they were going to make things work where the Agency was concerned.

So much for focusing on the positive, she scolded herself. She shook her head. "The good things," she reminded herself out loud. She couldn't help smiling as she remembered the way he'd gushed about their future plans, what kind of wedding they were going to have, a house and kids, maybe even some animals for the kids. She vividly recalled how his beautiful eyes lit up as he mused to her about all the possibilities, but then she'd ruined it by reminding him of how dangerous their profession is. He'd sniffed in a wounded way and she'd felt a pang of guilt at the lost puppy look on his face, but could she help it if she was trying to be realistic and bring him down to earth a bit?

She had to admit though, the things he'd talked about sounded nice and she'd be lying to herself if she tried to say that she wasn't also excited about their possible future. The smile on her face grew as she thought of how happy her mother would be that she was finally "settling down," whatever that might mean in her eyes and she could stop worrying about her only daughter being lonely for the rest of her life. "My mother," she groaned as the negativity crept in again. She just knew her well-meaning, but pushy mother would have endless ideas about everything – the dress, the venue, the cake, maybe even the honeymoon – and she'd expect to have her hand in all of it.

She shook her head. "I'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she told herself with a determined nod of her head. She just wished she had someone she could talk to about her apprehension, but since her job at the Agency had pretty much taken over her life, she had no close girlfriends she could confide in and it was for sure that her mother would just tell her she was being silly. "Well, there is one person I could call…" She glanced at the clock and realized that it wasn't quite as late as she'd thought. She was just about to reach for the phone when it rang.

She hesitated before answering it, hoping it wasn't her overzealous fiancé when she'd just been worrying about her possible future with him. She didn't want to hurt him and she wasn't sure she was up to another conversation about where they should live with her present state of mind being what it was. She threw back the covers and wandered to the living room hoping that the caller would leave a message and if it was someone, she did want to talk to, she could just pick up.

Just as she got to the table that held her machine, the voice of the very person she'd just been thinking of calling rang out, "Hi, it's me-"

She scrambled to pick up the phone and said hurriedly, "I'm here," over the loud squeal of the machine at its message-taking being interrupted. She quickly jabbed at the button to shut it up. "I'm glad you called. I need a friend to talk to."

"I know," the other woman replied in her all-too-knowing voice. "I saw the look of panic all over your face when you two announced your engagement over dinner tonight. Let me tell you, I know exactly what that look means."

"You can't possibly-" Her argument was interrupted by a loud knock on her door. "Gimme a sec, someone's here," she said as she put the phone down to answer see who was there.

She beamed as she saw her fiancé before her on bended knee with an open ring box held out to her. "What are you doing?" she blurted out without thinking.

"Well, it occurred to me that the reason you didn't want to nail down any definite plans was that you hadn't had a proper proposal, so here I am," he explained.

She laughed and held up one finger. "That's so sweet but hold that thought for a moment." She rushed to the phone and told her friend, "Sorry, Amanda, I'll have to call you back. Efraim's here."

"Okay. I understand. Just remind some time to tell you all about when Lee and I first got engaged."

AN: To my readers: I hope you enjoyed this little journey into Francine's mind. I would like to ask you to please attempt to avoid giving away key plot points in reviews, especially the fact that it IS about Francine. Also, many thanks to my beta readers for their help.