"Quarantined

Monday

Lee awakened early the next morning, eager to share the good news with Amanda but sad to see the weekend come to a close. He knocked on her closed door and waited a few moments until it opened partway and she stuck her head out.

"What is it, Lee?" she wanted to know. "I was just getting up." She opened the door a little wider, tightening the belt of her blue terrycloth robe. The lace collar of her nightgown peeked at him from between the robe's lapels, and Lee couldn't help but smile.

"It's over, Amanda," he told her. "It's safe for us to go home. Doc Kelford called last night with the news. I suppose I should have told you then, but it was really late, and you were already sound asleep."

"Oh, that's okay," she replied with a look of delight. "Just knowing that we can leave is the important thing. The boys will be leaving for school soon, and Mother's bridge group meets on Monday morning, so I wouldn't have been able to see them until later today in any case." She broke into a grin. "Give me a minute to call Mother and get dressed, and then I'll be right out."

Breakfast was a festive event that morning. Hutchins, now dressed only in street clothes, appeared a short time later, whistling as he rolled the cart into the room. "Good morning," he greeted them cheerfully. "How does it feel to be free?"

"Better than you could imagine," Amanda answered. "It'll be a relief for things to get back to normal." She looked at the eager young agent with a smile. "And it's nice to finally see what you look like."

"I'm just glad that it's all over now," Hutchins replied. "Listen, I've gotta go to the Agency for a couple of hours, but I'll be back after that to take you both home. That should give you plenty of time to enjoy breakfast before you get packed and ready to go. Okay?" At their nods, he continued. "Then I'll see you around 11." With a final wink at Amanda and a nod to Lee, he left them on their own.

An hour later, Lee sat alone in the living room, waiting for Amanda to finish her preparations. He stared through the window, watching the clouds drift by overhead and found himself pensively replaying scenes from the weekend in his mind.

Who would have thought that the Scarecrow could find such contentment in a weekend spent playing games and watching old movies? And with his partner, not one of the buxom bombshells with whom he previously had been inclined to spend his nights and weekends. He pursed his lips and gave a humorless chuckle. He couldn't imagine many, if any, of his former lady friends enjoying such pastimes. He knew that they were after him for the same reason that he pursued them, and it wasn't for their intellectual or conversational abilities.

What was it that Hutchins had said? Something about getting so caught up in the job that you forget what's really important. Two days ago, Lee would have strenuously disagreed with him; now he wasn't quite as sure of himself. The real difference between this weekend and any other, he finally determined, was that his companion had been a person, not just a body to satisfy his libido.

He had thought he knew Amanda King pretty well. After all, they'd been working together for nearly two years. And she was his best friend. But the time spent with her this weekend had made him realize that there was far more that he wanted to know. For so long he'd fought to keep himself emotionally distanced from her, and he'd succeed, at least in part. His brain was still fighting the battle, more or less. But while he'd worked so hard to stay intellectually detached, something unexpected had happened: totally without his knowledge or permission, she had found her way into his heart. There was no point in trying to go back now, even if he'd wanted to. It just might be time to drop some of the barriers, to explore the attraction, to really get to know her.

"Lee? Lee, is anything wrong?" Amanda's voice broke into his reverie.

"Hmm? No, everything's fine," he answered, a little embarrassed. From the look on her face, it wasn't the first time Amanda had called his name. "I was just thinking."

"Must've been something important," she opined. "You were a million miles away."

Opting not to respond to that comment, he turned to face her. "All ready to go home?" he asked.

"You bet," she replied happily. "And I suppose you're ready to get back to your version of a normal life, too. I'll bet you were bored to death all weekend."

She looked surprised when, before answering, he took both her hands in his and smiled down at her. "Not by a long shot," came his soft reply. "Thank you again, Amanda," he continued a moment later. "You turned a potential disaster into a weekend that was more enjoyable than it had any right to be." He gave her hands a gentle squeeze as she looked up at him, her expression an endearing mixture of wonder and hope.

She dropped her eyes. "I had fun, too," she admitted sheepishly, working her eyes slowly upward until she was looking at him again. He felt his heart speed up when her eyes met his; it was all he could do to keep from leaning in to her. "And I –" She was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Lee reluctantly let go of her hands. "Come on in, Hutchins," he called with a heavy sigh. "We're ready to go."

The young man stepped into the room and, spotting Amanda's bags, picked them up and gestured her out the door. Lee followed close behind them as they walked to the elevators. Amanda looked back once and gave Lee an apologetic shrug, then turned her full attention back to Hutchins.

'What was she going to say?' he wondered. 'She almost seemed relieved to be interrupted.' He watched her lively conversation with Hutchins. He wasn't the only one who knew how to pull away when things started getting uncomfortable. He had to smile at the irony of the situation. Usually, he was the one putting obstacles in her way.

So they wouldn't talk today. The thought hit him like a glass of cold water to his face. He didn't want to talk. Did he? No, of course he didn't. And even if he did . . .

He had slowed his steps and now watched as she and Hutchins entered the elevator. Of course they'd talk; how else was he supposed to find out just who his partner really was. But it was too soon. He needed a chance to get a little more comfortable to this radical idea. "Not yet, Amanda King," he whispered, "but soon." The corners of his lips edged up in a smile that projected more confidence than he felt. "Soon."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several weeks later

He turned onto Lee Highway after what may have been the best evening of his life – his first dinner with Amanda, alone, just the two of them, without any shop talk. He thanked his lucky stars that he'd finally found a way to take that next important step in their relationship. After they were released from their quarantine, he'd had every intention of finding an opportunity to speak with her. But, once they were back among familiar people and places, it had been all too easy for him to slip back into old habits. His habitual self-protection instincts had come back to life, and he'd found one reason after another not to act on his earlier resolve to get to know his partner better.

As he crossed the Key Bridge, he thought about the worst part of it -- the whole Leslie fiasco. At first, he hadn't even known what he'd been doing. It wasn't until he'd seen them side-by-side, until he'd called her by Amanda's name, that he had finally realized that he'd been trying to create a surrogate Amanda. He shook his head now, still not really believing that he'd been so foolish.

At least it had given him the kick in the pants that he needed to approach Amanda. Asking her out this afternoon at the marina had been one of the hardest and most important things he'd ever done. And thank God she had been as forgiving as ever. After the last few days, he'd not been at all certain that she'd be interested in spending any more time with him. He needn't have worried, he now knew. The look in her eyes had told him everything he'd needed to know.

Pulling into an empty space down the block from his apartment, he let his thoughts return to Leslie one last time. He'd almost felt guilty when he'd told her this morning that he'd not be seeing her again, but she'd acted as though she'd been expecting it. On her way out of the apartment, she'd said that she'd known that he'd only be around for a little while; men like him never put down roots. Then she'd stopped and looked at him appraisingly before continuing, "Well . . . hardly ever."

Putting down roots – not an image that his friends and co-workers would associate with the Lee Stetson they knew. But tonight he felt like a whole new person, and it seemed that the only one who knew him was Amanda. Putting down roots? Not him, at least not just now.

He exited the car and headed for his front door, a grin across his face. "But maybe someday . . ."

The End