Strained Impairments

Chapter 4

Around 2 PM, Amanda wrote to Lee that she was going upstairs to lay down for a while, and asked if he needed anything before she headed up.

Upon reading the note, Lee shook his head stating, "No, I'll be fine. I'll just settle in here with a movie-"

As Amanda nodded and turned toward the stairs, Lee touched her arm hesitantly answering, "Wa-Wait a second, please?"

Amanda gave him a curious look, and wrote concernedly, "What is it?"

Lee sighed, and faltering a bit, then gestured saying,"I want to say thanks... I really do appreciate everything you're doing for me here. I-I know I can be a real pain sometimes, and-"

Amanda smiled patiently at Lee, knowing how hard it was for him to accept help, but nodded, urging him to continue, as he added, "Um, I need another favor though. Would you mind?"

Amanda sighed, and pointed to the paper where she wrote, "What is it?"

Lee nodded grinning, "Okay, uh, the TV...I just realized I won't be able to hear it, so how do I do this?"

Amanda, smiling, took his hand and leading him to the family room couch, took the TV remote, and showed him by turning on the TV, and "walked" him through how to set the captioning on the TV, and then wrote on her notepad, "And when you're finished watching, please take off the captioning mode. Thank you."

Lee, reading her request, nodded and replied warmly as he patted her shoulder, "I will. Thanks. You have a good rest, huh?

Amanda smiled at him and headed upstairs, as Lee sat down on the couch to find a movie.

After going through several channels, he found the movie, "Cool Hand Luke", and sighed happily, replying, "Perfect!"

-SMK-

It was close to 5 PM when Amanda came back downstairs, and seeing the TV still in captioning mode, walked over to the couch, finding Lee asleep.

She shook her head, and resetting the TV back to normal mode, put her hand on his shoulder gently shaking it to try to awaken him.

But before she knew what was happening, Lee was startled and in a lightning fast move, tackled her underneath him on the couch, thinking she was an intruder!

When he realized finally that it was Amanda, he let out a breath, and gulped, seeing her nervous expression, shakily helped her up, and as they both stood next to the couch he remarked quickly to her, "I'm-I'm sorry! Nature of my job, and of course, my hearing's out as you know-"

Just then, there was a knock at the back door, and Amanda was surprised to see Dean come in.

Lee looked at Amanda as he gestured asking her, "Is this-" Amanda nodded as she went to Dean's side.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you had company." Dean remarked as he looked at Amanda and the stranger he saw over by the couch.

Amanda sighed, and going to get her notepad wrote with a gesture, "Hello, Dean. It's alright, but I have laryngitis at the moment. This is Lee Steadman from my new job at IFF. Did you call? I didn't get a message on the machine. Did we have plans tonight? "

Dean puzzled, looked at her note replying with a nod, "Just dinner. Did you forget?"

Amanda shook her head thinking as she glanced at Lee, Shoot! I did forget. What do I do now?

Lee, thinking of a distraction, responded as he went to shake Dean's hand and gestured towards the couch, "Dean, is it? Lee Steadman...Amanda must have forgotten you were coming because we had a location accident earlier today. I, unfortunately can't hear because of the explosion-I was too close to the set lights when they malfunctioned, and threw everything off, and we had to shut down-"

Dean looked at Amanda commenting worriedly, "You know, maybe you should find a safer job. You never did tell me why you didn't get that job at Honeycutt Typewriter?"

Amanda wrote simply, "Interviewer made me uncomfortable, so I left."

Dean, after reading her response, asked, "Uncomfortable? How?"

Amanda shrugged lightly as she wrote on her notepad, "Just something about what I was wearing, and how I should stay with the color of it because he really liked it-"

When Lee saw what she wrote, he fumed answering, "What?! Why didn't you tell me?! I could've gone back there and straightened that slimeball out!"

But Amanda put a hand up to Lee to calm him as Dean looked confusedly at the two and asked, "Wait. How long have you known Mr. Steadman anyway?"

Amanda shook her head, writing with a shrug, "Not long. I found the IFF job soon after I gave up my pet sitting job. Besides, today was just an accident. I'll be alright soon."

As Dean gave a speculative look at her, he asked, "And how was it you were injured?"

Amanda swallowed, feeling his gaze on her, and wondering what exactly to tell him when they heard a car honking, and Dean replied going to the front door, "That must be Dotty and the kids! I'll go help them bring their stuff in."

When Dean headed out, Lee and Amanda looked at each other uneasily as Amanda wrote on her notepad quickly to Lee, " Oh, my gosh! Dean's here for dinner, and Mother and the boys are home now! What do we do?!"

Lee sighed looking at her question, and stated, "We don't have a lot of options here, Amanda. Maybe we should just come clean-"

Amanda shook her head and wrote to him quickly asking, "What?! Are you insane?!"

But Lee had no time to respond, as Dotty and the boys suddenly appeared greeting Amanda, with a smiling Dean behind them answering, "Honey, the kids are starved. Let's eat!"

TBC