A Spooky Little Girl Like You, Part III
By Christine
A Halloween Tale
DISCLAIMER: Scarecrow and Mrs. King is the property of Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. My use of these characters is intended purely for fun.
Daniel and Amanda had been plotting their strategy for the better part of an hour, and they were now ready to begin looking at the diaries. Daniel excused himself to go retrieve the first set from a box on the back seat of his car. On his way out, Daniel smiled and whistled. "So far, so good. Amanda is as charming and as agreeable as I'd dreamed," he thought to himself, "Well, she'd have to be to work with Stetson. No wonder he's gone to so much trouble to keep her all to himself." As if speaking of the devil, Lee Stetson came trudging up the hallway on his way in the building. "Well, look what the cat dragged in," though Daniel with a wicked grin, "Once Amanda sees him like this, it will help my cause more than I could have hoped for. Go right ahead, Loverboy, cat around all you want. The worse you look, the further you push Amanda from you," Daniel though gleefully. "This is indeed a beautiful morning." Daniel continued to grin from ear to ear and he raised a hand to salute Scarecrow mockingly.
"Paulson," Lee muttered warily in way of greeting. He felt even less sociable than usual this morning. He hadn't slept much at all the past night. He'd been plagued by nightmares he didn't understand, and they had caused him to have an awful fight with Leslie. After she stormed out of his apartment, he'd dressed and wandered the streets of DC until after sunrise. It was now close to 9:30. He had missed a staff meeting and Billy would be mad. Not that he cared that much, but his head hurt too badly to listen to Billy scream for very long. All he really wanted was to see Amanda. She always seemed to make everything OK, and he desperately needed a little bit of that right now. He thought he could find some little chore for her to do and then sit quietly in her company while pretending to read files. He knew from experience that when she wasn't actively driving him crazy, she had a remarkably calming influence on him. Lee found comfort in the way Amanda cared for him and about him. He needed the security of her company to be able to sort out his confused and conflicting emotions, so he headed toward the bullpen, toward Amanda. But a nagging little thought tugged at the corner of his mind. Paulson looked almost too cheerful for this early in the morning. Hadn't he watched Paulson watching Amanda yesterday? He prided himself in thinking he could see right through Daniel. "Well, you're barking up the wrong tree, Mister, because staring at her across a crowded room is as close to Amanda as you're gonna get," Lee sneered under his breath. As the guards opened the bullpen doors for him, he made a mental note to watch Paulson very closely.
As soon as Lee spied Amanda across the room, his focus narrowed and the whole world seemed to darken. He was once again transported to the shadow-land of his dream in terrifying detail. He and Amanda were dancing happily together. She was radiant in the pink silk Colonial gown. It still seemed so real. He could actually hear the rustle of her skirts, smell her unmistakable scent wafting towards him, and feel the gentle breeze on his face as he danced her around. He was truly happy in this moment, and he felt like he and Amanda were the only two people in the whole world. Then, his vision widened slightly and Lee saw that they were dancing on a high cliff. He began to get nervous as Amanda swayed closer and closer to the edge. She was smiling happily, oblivious to the danger around her. He tried with all his might to pull her back towards him, but he was unable. His mind began to race frantically and his heart pounded in his chest. He couldn't let Amanda get any closer to the edge! Lee focused all his energy into swinging her around toward the cliff wall and safety, his breathing becoming labored with the effort. Lee began to feel truly terrified. His Amanda was too close to danger and no matter how hard he fought, he couldn't help her. He struggled to call her name, to warn her, but he had no voice. It was as if he were screaming with his whole being, but he made no sound. He could only watch helplessly as Amanda danced closer and closer to oblivion. A sickening feeling began to take shape in the pit of his soul as Amanda's little satin slipper tumbled off the roof and into the abyss. His horror was complete as Amanda herself made one last twirl and then stepped off into nothingness. She hovered there for a few fleeting moments, looking very much like a baby bird who realizes too late that it's still too small to fly. And then she was gone. As she disappeared from sight, Lee could finally move. He heaved himself over to the edge to watch in fascinated horror as all his hopes and dreams fell to their deaths surrounded by billowing pink silk.
He had finally found his voice and had screamed her name over and over again with all the strength he could muster. The sound of his own voice screaming for Amanda awoke him, and he bolted upright in bed panting heavily and sweating profusely. It took him a full two minutes to shake off the shackles of the nightmare. Reality hit him dead in the face when he saw Leslie pulling on her clothes in a corner of his bedroom, tears streaming from her eyes. The look of anger and betrayal lit her face with a red glow. "Oh, God," Lee thought, "What am I doing?"
There had been a horrible scene with Leslie ranting for the better part of an hour. Lee made no attempt to defend himself; he deserved everything Leslie was throwing at him. He had toyed with the affections of two women - both beautiful, both very special. He may have shared his bed with one, but the other had possession of much more. And so Lee stood steadfast as Leslie raged, almost relishing the punishment. He had told Leslie that he was very sorry about what happened, that he had never meant to use or cheapen her. Lee told Leslie that while his nightmare had left many unanswered questions, it made one thing clear: He could not see her anymore. He breathed a deep sigh of relief when Leslie finally slammed his door behind her, then he pulled on his clothes and prepared to face a very long night. It was a little after 2am when Lee began prowling the streets pondering the deepest recesses of his heart. It was an activity he rarely participated in as it made him unsure and panicky. And as always, he marveled at the amount of mayhem one little housewife from Arlington could cause.
But, now it was morning, he was here in the bullpen, and all was normal. The terror of his dream was beginning to fade and confusion reared its ugly head as it had so often these last few weeks. But at least it was just a dream; Amanda was safe. For the first time that morning, a small smile played across Lee's lips as he watched Amanda bent over her work, concentrating intently. Then he realized Amanda wasn't at her usual desk. She was at Paulson's desk! What the hell was she doing there? "Doesn't she know I need her today? This is just like Amanda to go off on a tangent when I need her for something important! Well, we'll just have to see about all this," Lee muttered angrily. But then he stopped himself. Maybe a nonchalant attitude would be best. Maybe he would get better results if he played it cool and didn't appear to notice that anything was out of the ordinary. So, he dropped all expression from his face and sauntered toward her.
Amanda was deep in thought, her head bent over a steno pad on Paulson's desk. She didn't see Lee come in, didn't see him pause for a minute at the door with a far-off look in his eyes, and didn't see him watching her. Although Lee had a pretty good poker face, Amanda could read him like a book. Even in this nest of spies, she was the only one who could fathom Lee's emotional states. She was one of the few people who realized the great Scarecrow had any emotions at all. If she had been watching, she would have seen his eyes go from sad to surprised to angry and now to their present air of watchfulness. And she would have known instinctively what those changes meant. She would have seen the subtle shift that indicated he was feeling upset and vulnerable, and would have recognized its importance. She would have excused herself from her assignment with Daniel Paulson and would have protectively encircled Lee, all the while pretending not to notice anything was wrong. And within the span of two days' time, he would have been spilling his guts to her, telling her he loved her and begging her not to leave him lonely, for he didn't think he could stand it another minute. But she didn't see him enter the bullpen. She didn't see him approaching her at Paulson's desk. She didn't see the shifting emotions in his eyes. And so things turned out very differently...