Title: The Price We Pay
Disclosure: Warner Brothers Television Distribution and Shoot The
Moon Productions owns these characters, as well as to the writers,
and actors who created and portrayed them. Generous references to
the past and the events of the 4th season… I don't make any money off
of this - my only reward is my personal satisfaction at having
written a decent story (and the story is all mine). Oh, and any new
characters that you meet along the way - those are creations from my
own twisted imagination, so hands off, unless you ask for permission
to play with them.
See Chapter 1 for more information on timing and all that other good
stuff...
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Lee spent much of the next day with a visitor's pass and an armed
guard walking him through The Agency with Billy. It would have been
fine under normal circumstances, but considering that Smyth was in
the building the extra security was thought to be a good idea. As he
was driving home, Lee wondered for whose protection was the guard
there for - his own or for Dr. Smyth's (should the older man happen
by to antagonize him). This thought and a few others ran through
Lee's mind as he drove through the Arlington streets that had finally
become his home. As he pulled into the driveway, a once familiar
van drove up to the front of the house. Lee got out of the Corvette
and walked around the back to head off the pizza guy heading for the
front door.
"Didn't expect to see you around these parts for a while? What do
you have tonight?"
"Two large pizzas. Everything on it." The guy smiled as Lee pulled
out his wallet and handed over a twenty and two fives. The guy
handed over the pizza boxes. "Thanks, Mr. King!"
"Stetson."
"Excuse me?"
"Stetson. It's Mr. Stetson."
"I thought it was Mrs. King who ordered the pizzas."
"It was. Now she's Mrs. Stetson." Lee looked back at the pizza guy
who was looking rather skeptical about the whole situation. "Look,
if it makes you feel better, we can ring the doorbell and ask her
yourself…"
"No, that's o.k., I guess." The pizza guy looked down at the cash in
his hands and shrugs. "I guess that's the way it is sometimes."
"Hey, maybe she ordered under King so you wouldn't get confused."
"Yeah, yeah… maybe that's it. Thanks Mr. K- er - Stetson." The
pizza guy turned and headed back to his van. Lee juggled his keys
and headed into the house.
"Amanda!"
"Back here!" Amanda was calling from the kitchen. On his way back
to the kitchen, Lee notices that the den is housing quite a few of
Philip and Jaime's friends.
"2 pizzas, Amanda?"
"Hi. You grabbed the food. Yes, 2. I wasn't expecting the extra
kids, but they didn't have anywhere else in the neighborhood to go
tonight, and I managed to scrape together the cash and a coupon, and
we might actually have a little bit of leftovers. What did you pay
the guy?"
Lee shook his head. She never ceased to amaze him with her nonstop
chatter-all-in-one- breath way of communication. "I gave him $30."
"30 dollars? Lee, when are you going to learn to pay for things like
a normal person does? I had a coupon. You could have given him the
coupon and $15 and it would have been plenty." Amanda wrinkled her
brow at her husband's spending habits and started pulling down plates
for the boys to use.
"We can afford it."
"We can afford it? After the washing machine, the dishwasher, and
now the vacuum-"
"Vacuum? What happened to the vacuum?"
Amanda looked over at Lee, realizing that she'd been home all day
without him around. "I accidentally knocked it down the stairs. It
didn't live."
"Ah, so it wasn't suicide. It was manslaughter." Lee chuckled as
Amanda's face reddened at her clumsy act.
"Vacuum slaughter, thank you, and don't change the subject! How can
we afford you paying $30 for two pizzas that are worth $15?" Amanda
looked over at Lee with the plates balanced on top of one of the
pizza boxes.
They both looked over at the phone when it started to ring. Lee held
up a finger and picked up the receiver without saying a thing. The
caller immediately hung up. Lee switched on the answering machine
and turned down the ringer before continuing. He pulled an envelope
out of his jacket with a large smile. "Reinstatement. Effective
immediately. Old job, same position, higher pay. Least the country
could do, according to the President." Lee reaches into his jacket
and pulls out another envelope with Amanda's name on it. "I've got a
matching one for you, whoa there!" Lee reached out to grab the pizza
box from his wife who was ready to drop them on the floor in shock,
and places it on the counter. "I've got the same for you.
Reinstatement at your old clearance, and the same position too, but
not the same partnership. You're temporarily in the bullpen pending
further ruling on our partnership."
Amanda finally found her voice. "Well, it's a start." She reached
over to wrap her arms around Lee's waist and bury her head into his
shoulder. She made a muffled sound that closely resembled a
contented sigh. Lee stepped back, placed his hands on Amanda's
upper arms and bent down slightly so that they were eye to eye. He
waited patiently, watching Amanda until she spoke. "What, Lee?"
"It's a start? Where's the Amanda I know who'd follow `It's a start'
with `what do we need to do now to get this thing in gear'?" Lee
cocked his head to the side, still keeping level eye-to-eye contact
with Amanda.
"Lee, it's a start. We don't know what Smyth was up to with bugging
your apartment, and we may never know. And we don't know if we're
going to get our partnership back, but for now, we both have jobs
again. It's a start. It's a very good start." Amanda reached over
and patted the middle of his chest. "You don't think it's a good
start?"
Lee straightened up before answering. "Yes, I do. It's a very good
start." He drew her into a hug, placing each of his feet on the
outside of hers. It made him feel more protective of her, and he
knew that she loved it. She snuggled into him a little more, and he
knew that there was a content smile on her face at that moment. He
hated to disturb it, but… "Amanda?"
"Hmmm?"
"Did you bring in the mail today?" She stiffened against him even in
the comfortable position. He ran a hand lightly up and down the
middle of her back and she relaxed back into the snuggle.
"No, I didn't. Why don't you head out to get it and I'll bring the
pizza to the boys." Amanda pulled away and turned so he couldn't see
her face. She grabbed the box with the plates on top and turned
towards the den. Lee felt his shoulders sag at her reaction. These
letters were taking a toll on her and she wasn't sharing it with
anyone. He headed outside to get the mail, but waited to get inside
before flipping through any of it. He sat down at the kitchen table
to start going through the mail, and Amanda came over with the other
pizza box and a couple of plates. She peered across the table as he
flipped the envelopes into piles. There were the usual bills, junk
mail, PTA newsletters, and one lone envelope that matched all the
others that had been addressed to Amanda. Lee looked up to see that
she had gone a little pale, but wasn't shaken up over its
appearance. That was a good sign.
"Amanda?" She looked up quickly to meet his eyes. "Do you want me to
open it?" She nodded her assent. He picked up the envelope and
slowly slit it open with the knife she'd brought to the table. The
Agency lab techs had gone over every other envelope and they'd found
nothing. Lee suspected that it didn't matter how he handled the
contents, the result would be the same. Nothing. He quickly
unfolded the sheet of paper and read aloud:
`You've been carefully watching his behind… so have I. And it's
been quite pleasurable.'
A taunt. This time it was a taunt. Amanda put her head into her
hands before Lee could say anything further about it, and stayed
absolutely still for a moment. Then she raised her head and looked
at Lee. "It's an agent. I just know it's an agent. And I don't
like it one bit."
Lee set down the letter and reached over to open the pizza box to
grab a slice. "Amanda, we don't know it's an agent."
"It says I've been watching your behind. That's what partners do.
Watch each other's backs. I swear on a stack of Bibles that this is
an agent." She picked up the letter to take a good look at it, as if
she could find something else about it by looking. "Lee, did you
notice this before?" She pointed at the letter `s'
in `his'. "The `s' is drooping a little under the rest of the
letters. Do you think that this could help us figure out where this
came from?"
"Amanda, there must be a few thousand typewriters in the region. It
isn't against the law to own a Smith-Corona, and owners don't have to
register them."
"Yes, but they have to get them fixed. I wonder if this typewriter
is going to see some service sometime soon." Amanda plucked her
fingers at her necklace and her eyes drifted to somewhere else on the
page, away from the lettering. She quickly shook her head, knowing
that the answer wasn't going to come this night with this letter.
Reached for a piece of pizza in the box, she decided it was time for
a change of topic. "What made Smyth change his mind?"
"More like `who' made him change his mind, Amanda. I still don't
know the whole story, except that Smyth got lots of pressure from
Pennsylvania Avenue about this, and that they were getting pressure
from some international sources about our being out of a job."
"International sources, Lee? Who?" Amanda's forehead furrowed
slightly as she took a bite of the quickly cooling pizza.
"I don't know. I've done enough favors to other Agencies around the
world, and you've made enough friends in the last few years that it
could be anyone. Heck, for all I know, it could be Alexi Makarov
himself calling for our reinstatement just so he could try and
discredit us again." Amanda started coughing after this statement,
prompting Lee to administer a quick blow to her back while holding
out a glass of water that had been left on the table. Amanda waved
her hand to show that she was fine and slowed her coughing fit.
"Well, whoever it was, I'd really like to thank them. I was starting
to go nuts being at home all the time with just mom stuff to do."
She smiled and winked as she took another bite of pizza.
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Despite the situation with their partnership, it didn't stop the
partners from carpooling into work together, or getting coffee
together, or stopping into the staff meeting together. The meeting
was filled with the usual madness, with the exception of the agents
who were extremely grateful to see Amanda and Lee. They were
especially happy to hear that Lee would be back in the Q, as things
up there had seemed to grow a little disorganized with `Boo-Boo', as
she was now being called, running the show.
Lee headed up to the Q after the meeting, with Billy following.
Becca had been absent from the morning meeting, and Lee was wary of
that. As soon as he walked in, he knew he'd been away three weeks
too long. There were piles of files everywhere, no apparent order to
any of them, and no Becca there to explain them. Billy assured him
that they would get Amanda up there as soon as possible. Until that
happened, Lee would be alone in paradise, and Amanda would be
scuttling administrative paperwork, security clearances, scouting,
and some light Embassy work. He would have to wade his way through
the piles and reports by himself. Billy left the room with a
parting comment that no reports had been turned in since Lee left;
then again, no cases had been completely closed to his satisfaction
either. This added an even more unpleasant pallor to the day.
By the time the sun was sitting high in the noontime sky, Lee had
made significant inroads into organizing the piles that were on his
desk. He wondered why there were older files about some of his
earlier cases with Amanda, but figured that Becca might have needed
something out of them or was using them for cross-reference. He had
just finished clearing the top of the desk off, when Becca finally
breezed in for the day, saying nothing verbally, but communicating
instead with a smile and a wink, and a locking of the door.
Noticing that Lee had reinstated himself back at his own desk, she
made herself at home at Amanda's desk.
"Move." It was a harshly delivered command while Lee made his way
back to the Q Bureau door to unlock it.
"I'm sorry, Lee. What was that?" Becca smiled ever so sweetly.
"Move. That's Amanda's desk." He headed back to his own desk
without looking at her.
"She's not using it."
"She will soon. Move."
Becca looked up at this command and decided from the look on Lee's
face that he wasn't kidding. She got up and sat down at the extra
table that was perpendicular to his desk. "You know, Lee, a
partner's desk would be cozy in here."
"A partner's desk would take up a lot of room, and be a big
distraction."
Becca smiled her pleasure at his response. "A distraction?"
"Yes, when Amanda's back up here permanently." Lee looked up and
smiled, despite himself, at the thought of his wife.
Becca took that as a good sign to continue her thoughts. "You're
right. She'd be there in her little corner, and we'd be here across
from each othe-"
"Don't flatter yourself, Boo. She'd be sitting across from me and
all I'd want to do is watch her work." Lee smiled again as he looked
over to Amanda's desk, and then turned his attention back to the file
open in front of him on the desk.
Becca pouted and decided to work one of the oldest tricks she had in
her book. She stretched out, her arms wide above her head, which
accented the cleavage she had from the low cut white silk blouse she
was wearing. Lee didn't move a muscle, instead turning a page in the
file. "Lee, how about a drink? I'll buy?"
"No thanks. Besides, you know the rules about working hours and
barhopping."
"After work?"
"Nope. Plans after work."
"Plans?" Becca looked confused at this statement. What plans could
Lee possibly already have? He'd have to have spent the entire
morning in the Q clearing up the files. She already knew, looking at
the pile that was in front of her, that they weren't in the order she
had left them. At least, she didn't think that they were.
"Yes, Becca, plans. Dinner, wine, soft music?"
"Got room for one more?"
At this statement, Lee finally looked up, and smiled, thinking of the
lingerie sitting in the box under his bed. Becca shifted her
position, slightly, falsely realizing that she had gotten somewhere
with Lee.
"Sorry. Just enough room for Amanda and me tonight. No kids, no
mom, no interruptions."
Becca immediately started to feel her emotions rising to the surface,
and to avoid losing her composure; she picked up the file in front of
her and headed into the vault. Lee shook his head, and with a wry
smile, went back to the file that he had been trying to concentrate
on for the last 10 minutes.
Just then, Amanda opened the door and peeked her head into the
office, and noticed Lee was running his fingers through the sides of
his hair while trying to read. She stood, leaning against the
doorjamb for a minute, taking in the sight of her husband back at
being frustrated with the never-ending paperwork. "Hi there,
handsome."
Lee looked up, surprised at first, and then smiling. He immediately
got up and headed over to properly greet his wife, but before he got
there, Becca walked out of the vault.
"Oh, hello. And *who* might you be?"
"Amanda, this is Rebecca Dobson. Becca, this is Amanda Stetson."
The big emphasis on the `Stetson' part of her name wasn't lost on
Becca, but she decided to play on it anyway. "Lee, I didn't know you
had a sister?"
"Becca," Lee growled, "This is my wife and partner, Amanda Stet-"
"Oh, I know. I'm just playing with you. Amanda," at this Becca
extended her hand in greeting, "It's so nice to finally meet you.
I've heard so much about you."
"Nice to meet you, Becca." Amanda simply grasped the other woman's
hand for a very short moment, while Becca's gaze swept over her.
Amanda had the fleeting thought that she would have been hit on if
Becca were a man.
"Well, I should be going. Congratulations, Amanda. You've got
yourself a real keeper there. I'm off to have lunch with Francine.
Ta!" With that Becca moved out the door. Amanda watched her go
down the hall for a moment before shutting the door and engaging the
lock.
"Well. *That* was Becca. Pretty. Nice piece of work, Stetson."
Amanda winked at Lee slyly, while sliding her arms around his waist
for a hug. As he pulled her tighter into him, she leaned her head
back to look him in the eye. Liking what she saw there, she lightly
kissed him on the lips and moved out of his embrace to sit at her own
desk. "I don't trust her."
"What makes you say that?"
"I don't know. I just don't trust her." She held a finger up at
Lee's look. "Before you go any further, I am *not* jealous. There's
just something about her that I don't like."
"Well, you don't have to worry about that. There's a lot more about
you that I like than I ever liked about her." Lee leaned forward on
Amanda's desk to give her a little kiss on the nose. Amanda smiled
and then got up from the desk.
"You're sweet. Listen, I just wanted you to know that I was going to
head home early. I finished up downstairs, and Billy doesn't have
anything else for me to do, so I thought I'd take advantage of the
afternoon and-"
"..and do mom things?" Lee teased her, recalling the words of the
night before.
"No. Make a big celebratory dinner that we're back."
"Ah, ah, ah. No making dinner for you, young lady. Don't make
dinner."
"Lee, we're not going out tonight."
"No, we're not. We're staying home. And we're not having pizza
leftovers either."
"What do you have up your sleeve, Lee?"
"Oh, just a little surprise. Now, could you go home and relax so
that I could get some work done?"
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Home, Amanda found, was nothing even remotely related to relaxing.
The boys immediately started asking if they could stay at a friend's
house for the night, and Dotty was moving around the house packing
for some time away with Captain Kurt. After a few minutes of
constant chattering in the house, Amanda couldn't take it any longer,
placed two fingers in her mouth, and gave her best umpire's whistle.
Everything around her stopped.
"Ok. I've been home 5 minutes, and I feel like someone put me into
the washing machine on ultra fast spin dry. One thing at a time.
Philip and Jaime - are you going to be staying at the same house, or
at different houses?"
Philip spoke up. "We're going to be at Alex's, around the corner."
"Ok then, you can go." The boys cheered and raced upstairs to get
the last of their necessary items for the night together. Amanda
just shook her head watching after them, and then turned to her
mother. "Mother, do you need some help?"
"With what, dear?"
"With whatever it is that you've seemed to have lost and have been
looking for, for the last few days. You've been distracted, bumping
into everyone, and Lee told me about you walking in on him while he
was dressing."
Dotty turned slightly red, physically admitting her guilt. "I didn't
think anyone was home."
"Beside the point. Do you want some help? I'm starting to worry
about you Mother."
Dotty waved her hand off into the air. "Don't worry, darling. I'm
fine. Just enjoy your night off with Lee. After all, it isn't every
night that both your boys and your mother are off on sleepovers, is
it?"
"Mo-ther!"
"Just being realistic, Amanda." Dotty walked off towards the stairs,
still looking around her for the mysterious missing object.
Amanda shook her head and sighed, knowing full well that she made an
excellent point. She wandered over to the bookcase, pulling out a
large volume that she hadn't read in a long time, and settled down on
the couch. Within a few minutes she was asleep, worn out from the
events (though few) of the day so far. She was out cold, and didn't
even hear the phone ring a couple of minutes later.
Philip picked up the phone, forgetting the hang-ups that they often
got as he was hoping that a female friend of his would call. It
wasn't the female he expected it would be, but it certainly was a
female who was on the other end of the line. A very husky, sexy
voice asked for his stepfather.
"Lee? No, he's not available. Leave a message?"
"Mm. He's not off sulking somewhere is he?"
"No. He's at work."
"Pity. I was feeling a little lonely and wondered if he wanted to
come over and play. I'll just call back later." With that, the call
was disconnected. Philip was feeling a little more than disconnected
over the phone call. He was respectful of the fact that his
stepfather truly seemed devoted to his mother; on the other hand, why
do all these strange women keep calling the house? Rather than try
to figure it all out in the short amount of time before Lee would be
home, Philip opted to go play basketball instead.
~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK
Dinner was another quiet affair. Jaime seemed a little tired, and
said as much. Philip shot dark looks over at Lee most of the night.
Lee tried to ignore him, hoping that no one would notice the dark
colored box that he had placed at the bottom of the bookcase and pull
it open before its time, but that was a challenge in and of itself.
Dotty was pre-occupied, and Amanda was left to wonder in the silence
why there was so much of it lately around her once lively table.
The majority of noise in the house came from the telephone and the
answering machine, which rang and clicked on fairly regularly until
Lee got up and unplugged the phone from the wall.
Amanda finished up dinner, and filled the newly repaired
dishwasher. The boys had already left - Jaime with a promise to
behave, and Philip without a word to Lee. Dotty was still looking
around a little bit, but Kurt had just pulled up and they were
working on getting Dotty's bags into his car. While they were
moving in and out of the house, Lee had set Amanda up with a glass of
wine, two candles, and some soft relaxing music in the living room.
"Lee, I know it's harmless, but I just wish that this harassment
would just stop as quickly as it started. It's un-nerving."
"Tell me about it. You won't even fetch the mail anymore. Women.
You give them a gun, and they just figure you're their servant." Lee
looked over at Amanda and winked. He was rewarded with a pillow in
the face for his efforts. "I'm sorry. Tell you what, you just
relax here, and I have just the thing to take your mind off the whole
situation."
"What could you possibl- Ooooohh." Lee had picked up her feet and
started to massage them gently. They were interrupted for a moment
by Dotty who stopped to say one last goodnight before heading off
with Captain Kurt. He waited until he heard the car door slam
before stopping the massage and getting up from the couch. "Lee,
where are you going?"
Lee moved over to the bookcase and shifted a couple of things around
before coming up with the Rebecca's Fantasies box he had hidden
earlier while Amanda was asleep and the rest of the house was
otherwise distracted with their evening plans. He opened up an edge
of the box and pulled out the tasteful, medium length, very lacy
black silk and satin teddy that had been tucked inside.
Amanda's eyes went as wide as saucers. "WOW. Nice taste."
"Thank you for the lovely present you got me." Lee smiled, holding
the teddy up by the straps across his index fingers, wiggled it and
moved closer to Amanda.
"What are you talking about, Lee?" Amanda cocked he head slightly to
the side. "Didn't you order this for me?"
"No, I thought you ordered it." They both heard the front door
open and Dotty came back into the house, calling out that she had
left a book she wanted behind. She walked into the living room, saw
Lee holding the black teddy and grabs it from him.
"Where did you find this? I've been looking every- oh, never mind.
Thank you very much for finding it." With that, Dotty turned around
and left the house. Amanda remained standing, but dropped her head
down.
"Amanda, um, that was your Mother!"
"Shhh, I know Lee, don't remind me." Amanda pulled her head back up,
but had shut her eyes and was shaking her head as if to wipe out the
image that had sprung into her mind.
Lee continued on, ignoring Amanda's comment, almost talking to
himself. "*That* must have been what she was looking for all this
time. No wonder she didn't want my help."
"Or anyone else's, for that matter," continued Amanda. "Where did you
find that, anyway?"
"It was on the table, with the mail a couple of weeks ago. There
wasn't any wrapping, and it was still sealed. I knew you'd been home
earlier in the day, and thought you'd gotten it, but hadn't hidden it
away. So I peeked, and then hid it away upstairs when I heard
someone come in the house. I thought it was something you'd picked
up, and I thought I'd use it to my advantage one night." His voice
dropped in volume slightly. "I guess that's what your mother thought
too."
"Lee!" Amanda reprimanded him sharply.
"Sorry."
Lee looked a little sheepish, and placed his hands in his pockets.
He started to rock back and forth from the balls of his feet to his
heels and back again, whistling softly and staring up at the
ceiling.
"What is it, Lee?"
"Well, I was just thinking a cold shower might be in order-"
"Lee! That was my *Mother*!"
Lee stopped rocking and stared at Amanda. "Thank you, Amanda. I was
just thinking about you in that little piece of lace, but you've
ruined that image for me now." He sighed, and ran his hand through
his hair before settling down on the couch. "Now, what do you want
to do for the rest of the night?"
"Go to bed." Amanda had moved to stand in front of where Lee was
sitting on the couch.
"It's early, Amanda." Lee looked up to see a very mischevious smile
on his wife's face.
"I didn't say we were going to sleep." That being said, Amanda
turned on her heel and headed for the stairs without looking back.
Lee sat for two seconds longer, and started chasing her up the
stairs.
TBC
Disclosure: Warner Brothers Television Distribution and Shoot The
Moon Productions owns these characters, as well as to the writers,
and actors who created and portrayed them. Generous references to
the past and the events of the 4th season… I don't make any money off
of this - my only reward is my personal satisfaction at having
written a decent story (and the story is all mine). Oh, and any new
characters that you meet along the way - those are creations from my
own twisted imagination, so hands off, unless you ask for permission
to play with them.
See Chapter 1 for more information on timing and all that other good
stuff...
~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK
Lee spent much of the next day with a visitor's pass and an armed
guard walking him through The Agency with Billy. It would have been
fine under normal circumstances, but considering that Smyth was in
the building the extra security was thought to be a good idea. As he
was driving home, Lee wondered for whose protection was the guard
there for - his own or for Dr. Smyth's (should the older man happen
by to antagonize him). This thought and a few others ran through
Lee's mind as he drove through the Arlington streets that had finally
become his home. As he pulled into the driveway, a once familiar
van drove up to the front of the house. Lee got out of the Corvette
and walked around the back to head off the pizza guy heading for the
front door.
"Didn't expect to see you around these parts for a while? What do
you have tonight?"
"Two large pizzas. Everything on it." The guy smiled as Lee pulled
out his wallet and handed over a twenty and two fives. The guy
handed over the pizza boxes. "Thanks, Mr. King!"
"Stetson."
"Excuse me?"
"Stetson. It's Mr. Stetson."
"I thought it was Mrs. King who ordered the pizzas."
"It was. Now she's Mrs. Stetson." Lee looked back at the pizza guy
who was looking rather skeptical about the whole situation. "Look,
if it makes you feel better, we can ring the doorbell and ask her
yourself…"
"No, that's o.k., I guess." The pizza guy looked down at the cash in
his hands and shrugs. "I guess that's the way it is sometimes."
"Hey, maybe she ordered under King so you wouldn't get confused."
"Yeah, yeah… maybe that's it. Thanks Mr. K- er - Stetson." The
pizza guy turned and headed back to his van. Lee juggled his keys
and headed into the house.
"Amanda!"
"Back here!" Amanda was calling from the kitchen. On his way back
to the kitchen, Lee notices that the den is housing quite a few of
Philip and Jaime's friends.
"2 pizzas, Amanda?"
"Hi. You grabbed the food. Yes, 2. I wasn't expecting the extra
kids, but they didn't have anywhere else in the neighborhood to go
tonight, and I managed to scrape together the cash and a coupon, and
we might actually have a little bit of leftovers. What did you pay
the guy?"
Lee shook his head. She never ceased to amaze him with her nonstop
chatter-all-in-one- breath way of communication. "I gave him $30."
"30 dollars? Lee, when are you going to learn to pay for things like
a normal person does? I had a coupon. You could have given him the
coupon and $15 and it would have been plenty." Amanda wrinkled her
brow at her husband's spending habits and started pulling down plates
for the boys to use.
"We can afford it."
"We can afford it? After the washing machine, the dishwasher, and
now the vacuum-"
"Vacuum? What happened to the vacuum?"
Amanda looked over at Lee, realizing that she'd been home all day
without him around. "I accidentally knocked it down the stairs. It
didn't live."
"Ah, so it wasn't suicide. It was manslaughter." Lee chuckled as
Amanda's face reddened at her clumsy act.
"Vacuum slaughter, thank you, and don't change the subject! How can
we afford you paying $30 for two pizzas that are worth $15?" Amanda
looked over at Lee with the plates balanced on top of one of the
pizza boxes.
They both looked over at the phone when it started to ring. Lee held
up a finger and picked up the receiver without saying a thing. The
caller immediately hung up. Lee switched on the answering machine
and turned down the ringer before continuing. He pulled an envelope
out of his jacket with a large smile. "Reinstatement. Effective
immediately. Old job, same position, higher pay. Least the country
could do, according to the President." Lee reaches into his jacket
and pulls out another envelope with Amanda's name on it. "I've got a
matching one for you, whoa there!" Lee reached out to grab the pizza
box from his wife who was ready to drop them on the floor in shock,
and places it on the counter. "I've got the same for you.
Reinstatement at your old clearance, and the same position too, but
not the same partnership. You're temporarily in the bullpen pending
further ruling on our partnership."
Amanda finally found her voice. "Well, it's a start." She reached
over to wrap her arms around Lee's waist and bury her head into his
shoulder. She made a muffled sound that closely resembled a
contented sigh. Lee stepped back, placed his hands on Amanda's
upper arms and bent down slightly so that they were eye to eye. He
waited patiently, watching Amanda until she spoke. "What, Lee?"
"It's a start? Where's the Amanda I know who'd follow `It's a start'
with `what do we need to do now to get this thing in gear'?" Lee
cocked his head to the side, still keeping level eye-to-eye contact
with Amanda.
"Lee, it's a start. We don't know what Smyth was up to with bugging
your apartment, and we may never know. And we don't know if we're
going to get our partnership back, but for now, we both have jobs
again. It's a start. It's a very good start." Amanda reached over
and patted the middle of his chest. "You don't think it's a good
start?"
Lee straightened up before answering. "Yes, I do. It's a very good
start." He drew her into a hug, placing each of his feet on the
outside of hers. It made him feel more protective of her, and he
knew that she loved it. She snuggled into him a little more, and he
knew that there was a content smile on her face at that moment. He
hated to disturb it, but… "Amanda?"
"Hmmm?"
"Did you bring in the mail today?" She stiffened against him even in
the comfortable position. He ran a hand lightly up and down the
middle of her back and she relaxed back into the snuggle.
"No, I didn't. Why don't you head out to get it and I'll bring the
pizza to the boys." Amanda pulled away and turned so he couldn't see
her face. She grabbed the box with the plates on top and turned
towards the den. Lee felt his shoulders sag at her reaction. These
letters were taking a toll on her and she wasn't sharing it with
anyone. He headed outside to get the mail, but waited to get inside
before flipping through any of it. He sat down at the kitchen table
to start going through the mail, and Amanda came over with the other
pizza box and a couple of plates. She peered across the table as he
flipped the envelopes into piles. There were the usual bills, junk
mail, PTA newsletters, and one lone envelope that matched all the
others that had been addressed to Amanda. Lee looked up to see that
she had gone a little pale, but wasn't shaken up over its
appearance. That was a good sign.
"Amanda?" She looked up quickly to meet his eyes. "Do you want me to
open it?" She nodded her assent. He picked up the envelope and
slowly slit it open with the knife she'd brought to the table. The
Agency lab techs had gone over every other envelope and they'd found
nothing. Lee suspected that it didn't matter how he handled the
contents, the result would be the same. Nothing. He quickly
unfolded the sheet of paper and read aloud:
`You've been carefully watching his behind… so have I. And it's
been quite pleasurable.'
A taunt. This time it was a taunt. Amanda put her head into her
hands before Lee could say anything further about it, and stayed
absolutely still for a moment. Then she raised her head and looked
at Lee. "It's an agent. I just know it's an agent. And I don't
like it one bit."
Lee set down the letter and reached over to open the pizza box to
grab a slice. "Amanda, we don't know it's an agent."
"It says I've been watching your behind. That's what partners do.
Watch each other's backs. I swear on a stack of Bibles that this is
an agent." She picked up the letter to take a good look at it, as if
she could find something else about it by looking. "Lee, did you
notice this before?" She pointed at the letter `s'
in `his'. "The `s' is drooping a little under the rest of the
letters. Do you think that this could help us figure out where this
came from?"
"Amanda, there must be a few thousand typewriters in the region. It
isn't against the law to own a Smith-Corona, and owners don't have to
register them."
"Yes, but they have to get them fixed. I wonder if this typewriter
is going to see some service sometime soon." Amanda plucked her
fingers at her necklace and her eyes drifted to somewhere else on the
page, away from the lettering. She quickly shook her head, knowing
that the answer wasn't going to come this night with this letter.
Reached for a piece of pizza in the box, she decided it was time for
a change of topic. "What made Smyth change his mind?"
"More like `who' made him change his mind, Amanda. I still don't
know the whole story, except that Smyth got lots of pressure from
Pennsylvania Avenue about this, and that they were getting pressure
from some international sources about our being out of a job."
"International sources, Lee? Who?" Amanda's forehead furrowed
slightly as she took a bite of the quickly cooling pizza.
"I don't know. I've done enough favors to other Agencies around the
world, and you've made enough friends in the last few years that it
could be anyone. Heck, for all I know, it could be Alexi Makarov
himself calling for our reinstatement just so he could try and
discredit us again." Amanda started coughing after this statement,
prompting Lee to administer a quick blow to her back while holding
out a glass of water that had been left on the table. Amanda waved
her hand to show that she was fine and slowed her coughing fit.
"Well, whoever it was, I'd really like to thank them. I was starting
to go nuts being at home all the time with just mom stuff to do."
She smiled and winked as she took another bite of pizza.
~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK
Despite the situation with their partnership, it didn't stop the
partners from carpooling into work together, or getting coffee
together, or stopping into the staff meeting together. The meeting
was filled with the usual madness, with the exception of the agents
who were extremely grateful to see Amanda and Lee. They were
especially happy to hear that Lee would be back in the Q, as things
up there had seemed to grow a little disorganized with `Boo-Boo', as
she was now being called, running the show.
Lee headed up to the Q after the meeting, with Billy following.
Becca had been absent from the morning meeting, and Lee was wary of
that. As soon as he walked in, he knew he'd been away three weeks
too long. There were piles of files everywhere, no apparent order to
any of them, and no Becca there to explain them. Billy assured him
that they would get Amanda up there as soon as possible. Until that
happened, Lee would be alone in paradise, and Amanda would be
scuttling administrative paperwork, security clearances, scouting,
and some light Embassy work. He would have to wade his way through
the piles and reports by himself. Billy left the room with a
parting comment that no reports had been turned in since Lee left;
then again, no cases had been completely closed to his satisfaction
either. This added an even more unpleasant pallor to the day.
By the time the sun was sitting high in the noontime sky, Lee had
made significant inroads into organizing the piles that were on his
desk. He wondered why there were older files about some of his
earlier cases with Amanda, but figured that Becca might have needed
something out of them or was using them for cross-reference. He had
just finished clearing the top of the desk off, when Becca finally
breezed in for the day, saying nothing verbally, but communicating
instead with a smile and a wink, and a locking of the door.
Noticing that Lee had reinstated himself back at his own desk, she
made herself at home at Amanda's desk.
"Move." It was a harshly delivered command while Lee made his way
back to the Q Bureau door to unlock it.
"I'm sorry, Lee. What was that?" Becca smiled ever so sweetly.
"Move. That's Amanda's desk." He headed back to his own desk
without looking at her.
"She's not using it."
"She will soon. Move."
Becca looked up at this command and decided from the look on Lee's
face that he wasn't kidding. She got up and sat down at the extra
table that was perpendicular to his desk. "You know, Lee, a
partner's desk would be cozy in here."
"A partner's desk would take up a lot of room, and be a big
distraction."
Becca smiled her pleasure at his response. "A distraction?"
"Yes, when Amanda's back up here permanently." Lee looked up and
smiled, despite himself, at the thought of his wife.
Becca took that as a good sign to continue her thoughts. "You're
right. She'd be there in her little corner, and we'd be here across
from each othe-"
"Don't flatter yourself, Boo. She'd be sitting across from me and
all I'd want to do is watch her work." Lee smiled again as he looked
over to Amanda's desk, and then turned his attention back to the file
open in front of him on the desk.
Becca pouted and decided to work one of the oldest tricks she had in
her book. She stretched out, her arms wide above her head, which
accented the cleavage she had from the low cut white silk blouse she
was wearing. Lee didn't move a muscle, instead turning a page in the
file. "Lee, how about a drink? I'll buy?"
"No thanks. Besides, you know the rules about working hours and
barhopping."
"After work?"
"Nope. Plans after work."
"Plans?" Becca looked confused at this statement. What plans could
Lee possibly already have? He'd have to have spent the entire
morning in the Q clearing up the files. She already knew, looking at
the pile that was in front of her, that they weren't in the order she
had left them. At least, she didn't think that they were.
"Yes, Becca, plans. Dinner, wine, soft music?"
"Got room for one more?"
At this statement, Lee finally looked up, and smiled, thinking of the
lingerie sitting in the box under his bed. Becca shifted her
position, slightly, falsely realizing that she had gotten somewhere
with Lee.
"Sorry. Just enough room for Amanda and me tonight. No kids, no
mom, no interruptions."
Becca immediately started to feel her emotions rising to the surface,
and to avoid losing her composure; she picked up the file in front of
her and headed into the vault. Lee shook his head, and with a wry
smile, went back to the file that he had been trying to concentrate
on for the last 10 minutes.
Just then, Amanda opened the door and peeked her head into the
office, and noticed Lee was running his fingers through the sides of
his hair while trying to read. She stood, leaning against the
doorjamb for a minute, taking in the sight of her husband back at
being frustrated with the never-ending paperwork. "Hi there,
handsome."
Lee looked up, surprised at first, and then smiling. He immediately
got up and headed over to properly greet his wife, but before he got
there, Becca walked out of the vault.
"Oh, hello. And *who* might you be?"
"Amanda, this is Rebecca Dobson. Becca, this is Amanda Stetson."
The big emphasis on the `Stetson' part of her name wasn't lost on
Becca, but she decided to play on it anyway. "Lee, I didn't know you
had a sister?"
"Becca," Lee growled, "This is my wife and partner, Amanda Stet-"
"Oh, I know. I'm just playing with you. Amanda," at this Becca
extended her hand in greeting, "It's so nice to finally meet you.
I've heard so much about you."
"Nice to meet you, Becca." Amanda simply grasped the other woman's
hand for a very short moment, while Becca's gaze swept over her.
Amanda had the fleeting thought that she would have been hit on if
Becca were a man.
"Well, I should be going. Congratulations, Amanda. You've got
yourself a real keeper there. I'm off to have lunch with Francine.
Ta!" With that Becca moved out the door. Amanda watched her go
down the hall for a moment before shutting the door and engaging the
lock.
"Well. *That* was Becca. Pretty. Nice piece of work, Stetson."
Amanda winked at Lee slyly, while sliding her arms around his waist
for a hug. As he pulled her tighter into him, she leaned her head
back to look him in the eye. Liking what she saw there, she lightly
kissed him on the lips and moved out of his embrace to sit at her own
desk. "I don't trust her."
"What makes you say that?"
"I don't know. I just don't trust her." She held a finger up at
Lee's look. "Before you go any further, I am *not* jealous. There's
just something about her that I don't like."
"Well, you don't have to worry about that. There's a lot more about
you that I like than I ever liked about her." Lee leaned forward on
Amanda's desk to give her a little kiss on the nose. Amanda smiled
and then got up from the desk.
"You're sweet. Listen, I just wanted you to know that I was going to
head home early. I finished up downstairs, and Billy doesn't have
anything else for me to do, so I thought I'd take advantage of the
afternoon and-"
"..and do mom things?" Lee teased her, recalling the words of the
night before.
"No. Make a big celebratory dinner that we're back."
"Ah, ah, ah. No making dinner for you, young lady. Don't make
dinner."
"Lee, we're not going out tonight."
"No, we're not. We're staying home. And we're not having pizza
leftovers either."
"What do you have up your sleeve, Lee?"
"Oh, just a little surprise. Now, could you go home and relax so
that I could get some work done?"
~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK
Home, Amanda found, was nothing even remotely related to relaxing.
The boys immediately started asking if they could stay at a friend's
house for the night, and Dotty was moving around the house packing
for some time away with Captain Kurt. After a few minutes of
constant chattering in the house, Amanda couldn't take it any longer,
placed two fingers in her mouth, and gave her best umpire's whistle.
Everything around her stopped.
"Ok. I've been home 5 minutes, and I feel like someone put me into
the washing machine on ultra fast spin dry. One thing at a time.
Philip and Jaime - are you going to be staying at the same house, or
at different houses?"
Philip spoke up. "We're going to be at Alex's, around the corner."
"Ok then, you can go." The boys cheered and raced upstairs to get
the last of their necessary items for the night together. Amanda
just shook her head watching after them, and then turned to her
mother. "Mother, do you need some help?"
"With what, dear?"
"With whatever it is that you've seemed to have lost and have been
looking for, for the last few days. You've been distracted, bumping
into everyone, and Lee told me about you walking in on him while he
was dressing."
Dotty turned slightly red, physically admitting her guilt. "I didn't
think anyone was home."
"Beside the point. Do you want some help? I'm starting to worry
about you Mother."
Dotty waved her hand off into the air. "Don't worry, darling. I'm
fine. Just enjoy your night off with Lee. After all, it isn't every
night that both your boys and your mother are off on sleepovers, is
it?"
"Mo-ther!"
"Just being realistic, Amanda." Dotty walked off towards the stairs,
still looking around her for the mysterious missing object.
Amanda shook her head and sighed, knowing full well that she made an
excellent point. She wandered over to the bookcase, pulling out a
large volume that she hadn't read in a long time, and settled down on
the couch. Within a few minutes she was asleep, worn out from the
events (though few) of the day so far. She was out cold, and didn't
even hear the phone ring a couple of minutes later.
Philip picked up the phone, forgetting the hang-ups that they often
got as he was hoping that a female friend of his would call. It
wasn't the female he expected it would be, but it certainly was a
female who was on the other end of the line. A very husky, sexy
voice asked for his stepfather.
"Lee? No, he's not available. Leave a message?"
"Mm. He's not off sulking somewhere is he?"
"No. He's at work."
"Pity. I was feeling a little lonely and wondered if he wanted to
come over and play. I'll just call back later." With that, the call
was disconnected. Philip was feeling a little more than disconnected
over the phone call. He was respectful of the fact that his
stepfather truly seemed devoted to his mother; on the other hand, why
do all these strange women keep calling the house? Rather than try
to figure it all out in the short amount of time before Lee would be
home, Philip opted to go play basketball instead.
~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK
Dinner was another quiet affair. Jaime seemed a little tired, and
said as much. Philip shot dark looks over at Lee most of the night.
Lee tried to ignore him, hoping that no one would notice the dark
colored box that he had placed at the bottom of the bookcase and pull
it open before its time, but that was a challenge in and of itself.
Dotty was pre-occupied, and Amanda was left to wonder in the silence
why there was so much of it lately around her once lively table.
The majority of noise in the house came from the telephone and the
answering machine, which rang and clicked on fairly regularly until
Lee got up and unplugged the phone from the wall.
Amanda finished up dinner, and filled the newly repaired
dishwasher. The boys had already left - Jaime with a promise to
behave, and Philip without a word to Lee. Dotty was still looking
around a little bit, but Kurt had just pulled up and they were
working on getting Dotty's bags into his car. While they were
moving in and out of the house, Lee had set Amanda up with a glass of
wine, two candles, and some soft relaxing music in the living room.
"Lee, I know it's harmless, but I just wish that this harassment
would just stop as quickly as it started. It's un-nerving."
"Tell me about it. You won't even fetch the mail anymore. Women.
You give them a gun, and they just figure you're their servant." Lee
looked over at Amanda and winked. He was rewarded with a pillow in
the face for his efforts. "I'm sorry. Tell you what, you just
relax here, and I have just the thing to take your mind off the whole
situation."
"What could you possibl- Ooooohh." Lee had picked up her feet and
started to massage them gently. They were interrupted for a moment
by Dotty who stopped to say one last goodnight before heading off
with Captain Kurt. He waited until he heard the car door slam
before stopping the massage and getting up from the couch. "Lee,
where are you going?"
Lee moved over to the bookcase and shifted a couple of things around
before coming up with the Rebecca's Fantasies box he had hidden
earlier while Amanda was asleep and the rest of the house was
otherwise distracted with their evening plans. He opened up an edge
of the box and pulled out the tasteful, medium length, very lacy
black silk and satin teddy that had been tucked inside.
Amanda's eyes went as wide as saucers. "WOW. Nice taste."
"Thank you for the lovely present you got me." Lee smiled, holding
the teddy up by the straps across his index fingers, wiggled it and
moved closer to Amanda.
"What are you talking about, Lee?" Amanda cocked he head slightly to
the side. "Didn't you order this for me?"
"No, I thought you ordered it." They both heard the front door
open and Dotty came back into the house, calling out that she had
left a book she wanted behind. She walked into the living room, saw
Lee holding the black teddy and grabs it from him.
"Where did you find this? I've been looking every- oh, never mind.
Thank you very much for finding it." With that, Dotty turned around
and left the house. Amanda remained standing, but dropped her head
down.
"Amanda, um, that was your Mother!"
"Shhh, I know Lee, don't remind me." Amanda pulled her head back up,
but had shut her eyes and was shaking her head as if to wipe out the
image that had sprung into her mind.
Lee continued on, ignoring Amanda's comment, almost talking to
himself. "*That* must have been what she was looking for all this
time. No wonder she didn't want my help."
"Or anyone else's, for that matter," continued Amanda. "Where did you
find that, anyway?"
"It was on the table, with the mail a couple of weeks ago. There
wasn't any wrapping, and it was still sealed. I knew you'd been home
earlier in the day, and thought you'd gotten it, but hadn't hidden it
away. So I peeked, and then hid it away upstairs when I heard
someone come in the house. I thought it was something you'd picked
up, and I thought I'd use it to my advantage one night." His voice
dropped in volume slightly. "I guess that's what your mother thought
too."
"Lee!" Amanda reprimanded him sharply.
"Sorry."
Lee looked a little sheepish, and placed his hands in his pockets.
He started to rock back and forth from the balls of his feet to his
heels and back again, whistling softly and staring up at the
ceiling.
"What is it, Lee?"
"Well, I was just thinking a cold shower might be in order-"
"Lee! That was my *Mother*!"
Lee stopped rocking and stared at Amanda. "Thank you, Amanda. I was
just thinking about you in that little piece of lace, but you've
ruined that image for me now." He sighed, and ran his hand through
his hair before settling down on the couch. "Now, what do you want
to do for the rest of the night?"
"Go to bed." Amanda had moved to stand in front of where Lee was
sitting on the couch.
"It's early, Amanda." Lee looked up to see a very mischevious smile
on his wife's face.
"I didn't say we were going to sleep." That being said, Amanda
turned on her heel and headed for the stairs without looking back.
Lee sat for two seconds longer, and started chasing her up the
stairs.
TBC
