Author: Merel
Time Frame: Takes place after the show ended, the marriage is common knowledge
Author's Notes: Thank you, Pam, for taking the time to beta-read for me. Your feedback and interest in this story is much appreciated.
A more mature version (NC-17) of this story will be archived at Blue Boxers and Beyond www.geocities.com/blueboxersandbeyond
Great Expectations 13/15
Lee sat at his desk in the Q-Bureau, thumbing through his address book. It was past noon and he'd been meaning to make this call all morning. Strike that. He'd been dreading making this call all morning. But to continue with the plans he had in mind, he'd have to pick up that phone.
Dial that number.
And ask Amanda's OB-GYN if he could make love to his wife.
It vaguely reminded him of when he had to ask his uncle if he could borrow the car when he was sixteen.
He'd thought briefly of asking one of the other guys in the office. Ted Jensen came to mind. The guy had six kids. If anyone would know about it, he would. However, Lee'd chickened out at the last minute. Not that he didn't trust Ted's discretion, but if this should ever get out… he'd never live it down. Nope, better to make the call to Penny.
*******
He waited until the bathroom door clicked shut. She was going to take a long, hot shower, she'd told him. Long enough, he hoped, to set his plan in motion.
Lee raced downstairs to fetch the silver champagne bucket and ice, along with the sparkling cider and chocolate covered strawberries he'd picked up at the gourmet supermarket earlier in the afternoon. Taking the stairs two at a time, he raced back to the master bedroom. The shower wasn't running yet, so he knew he still had time.
He turned down the covers of the newly made bed, spritzing them with the lavender spray that Amanda always used when she was trying to 'set the mood.' He stood back, smiling. The bed reminded him of the one that he and Amanda had spent their wedding night in. He purchased the large, antique, four-poster as an anniversary present for Amanda. It was a bed you had to climb up into, and one you never wanted to get out of. It was the bed they conceived their child in. The bed that held the secrets of countless nights of passion and tears and laughter. And soon it would be the bed where Amanda would rest to nurse their child and where this child would find comfort when the night was filled with bad dreams and thunderstorms. Always it would be the bed that held their future.... beginning with tonight.
He pulled a shopping bag out of the closet and dug into it, pulling out an assortment of candles, which he placed about the room. After he had lit them all, he walked to the wall switch to turn off the overhead light, making sure he'd achieved the needed atmosphere. He then moved the ice bucket with the chilling cider to the nightstand, along with the silver plate of chocolate covered strawberries.
From under the bed he pulled a Rebecca's Fantasy box. Opening it, he removed a deep blue silk nightgown that the sales lady assured him would fit Amanda's current stage of pregnancy while still making her feel sexy and alluring. The woman had been about eighty, so he wasn't entirely sure he trusted her judgment, but he bought the gown anyway, along with a matching pair of dark blue silk boxers for himself.
He draped the gown over the ottoman and quickly stripped out of his sweat pants and T-shirt to don his new boxers. They were chilled from being in the box under the bed and he suck in a breath as the cold fabric made contact with the most intimate part of his anatomy. He stretched the elastic waistband out and took a quick peek down below, grimacing. Shrinkage happens. Hopefully it would thaw before Amanda emerged from her shower.
As if on cue, he heard the shower cut off and the glass shower doors slide open. He sat down on the edge of the bed. He lounged back on the bed, attempting to strike a seductive pose, but then sat bolt upright again. Then he stood, hands at his sides. Then he tried it with his hands on his hips. He looked across at the full length mirror on the back of the closet door. Clad only in the silk boxers, his arms akimbo, he looked like some tawdry Superman stripper from Chippendales. He tried sitting again, this time crossing his leg. Oh, no. Now he looked like Stan down in accounting. He finally settled on sitting back, propped against the headboard of the king-size bed, his legs crossed at the ankles. Lacing his fingers over the exposed expanse of stomach above his boxers, he sat back and waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
He was just getting ready to knock on the bathroom door and see if Amanda was okay, when he saw the knob move. He took a deep breath and leveled his deadliest bedroom eyes at the bathroom door.
Amanda emerged from the bathroom in a puff of fog and a flannel nightgown, her hair held atop her head in a slightly off center ponytail. Much to Lee's dismay she walked right past him and his bedroom eyes, stopping to adjust the window, opening it just a crack.
She flipped back the comforter and snuggled into bed. That's when she noticed the candles. "Lee, why are all these candles burning?"
Lee looked over at her. "Oh, I don't know," he said in exasperation. "I thought the electric bill was a little high last month and that we should switch to candle power."
It was then she glanced over at him and noticed his attire. Looking back at the candles, her eyes continued to scan the room. They fell at last on the champagne bucket and strawberries, then snapped back to her husband.
"Are you…?" she gulped. "Are you –"
"Trying to seduce you?" he finished for her. "What gave me away?"
She dropped her face into her hands. "Oh, Lee," came her muffled voice.
He rolled over towards her, pulling her hands away from her face to find her giggling. "I'm glad you think this is so funny." At her look he continued. "It's supposed to be romantic… sexy… evocative… "
"It's wonderful, " Amanda breathed. "But, Lee, you don't have to… "
"I know I don't have to," he said sincerely. "I want to. I always want to." His smile broadened, his cheek dimpling. "I always will, Amanda. Until the day I draw my last breath." His eyes had grown serious, the green deepening to gray, as he pressed her hands to his bare chest. "When we stopped having sex, I thought it was just normal." He released her hands and rose from the bed. Walking to her side of the bed, he stood over her. "You're pregnant, Amanda. I thought the last thing you'd want was me groping you."
"I like your groping." She smiled at him.
"I just had to make sure it was okay. Safe," he continued explaining.
"Lee, I'm always safe with you." Amanda stood up, placing her hands on his chest. "You didn't have to do all this. I was just being silly. Hormonal." She struggled to find the right word. "Pregnant."
Lee chuckled, pulling the ponytail holder from her hair, watching as the chestnut curls bounced and swung about her shoulders. "Boy, I wish you'd told me that before I bought these boxers… and put them on." He plucked at the waistband taking another peek.
"They look great," Amanda grinned, wiggling her eyebrows at him.
"I called Penny," he blurted out.
"You did what?" Amanda's eyes widened.
"I called Penny. I figured why not go to the horse's mouth." He shrugged.
"Good turn of phrase, Stetson," Amanda chuckled, shaking her head and wrapping her arms around her husband's neck. "So, what did she tell you?"
"Did you know that sex can bring on labor?" He leveled a serious look at her.
Amanda frowned, bringing her hands back down to his chest.
"But you're only a week from your due date so she didn't seem to think that would be a problem, even if it did."
Smiling, Amanda's arms traveled back up around his neck.
"And did you know that having an orgasm can actually speed up the labor process… "
Her eyes narrowed and she brought her hands back down to his chest.
"Which means less hours in labor."
Her arms once again traveled back up and around his neck.
"And, did you knows that sperm softens the cervix?"
She started to draw her arms away again but paused. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Oh, it's a good thing." Lee nodded. "It makes you dilate faster and easier."
"Faster and easier… sound like two good things when it comes to labor." She nodded back.
Lee reached up to run a finger down her cheek. His mouth dropped to nibble on her bottom lip.
"What else did Penny say, Lee?" Amanda asked as his tongue followed the contour of her upper lip.
"She said," he murmured into her mouth,
"to go for it."
To Be Continued