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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Walking side by side, stride for stride, Francine and Billy headed down the long hallway where Austin Smyth's office was located. Francine could feel the anger pouring off Billy, and in all her years working with the man, she had never let his feelings affect the way she did her job. Today was the exception to that rule. Not only did she want to go a few rounds with Dr. Smyth in The Agency karate training rooms, but she also wanted to take Becca there too. 'What the hell was she thinking, taking an order like this from Dr. Smyth,' she thought to herself. "I know, she was thinking that she'd get Lee back, that's what."
"And she thought wrong," Billy responded between clenched teeth. "And so did Smyth." They stopped outside the doors to the reception area, and Billy turned to his trusted assistant who looked more than a little surprised. "Yes, Francine, you did say that out loud. You're not losing your mind. And I have a few choice words for Boo when I'm done with Smyth. Ready?"
Francine nodded. "Billy? What am I doing here? I'm not questioning your judgment, and I'll back you up 100%, but I don't understand why you want me here with Smyth."
Billy looked back at her and immediately moved into agent mode. "You're my backup. You're here to keep Smyth from getting out of the office. You're here as the 'agent of record' for the letters and harassment that Amanda Stetson has been receiving." Billy took a deep breath as he put his hand on the door handle and spoke once last time before opening the door. "You're here to keep me from jumping over the desk and throttling Smyth with my bare hands." With that, he turned the handle of the door.
Billy held up a hand to the receptionist when she looked up sharply at the intrusion of the Section Chief and his assistant. She rose to move in front of the oak door, but Billy was already there with his hand on the handle of the door. "I'm going in to see Smyth, and you're not going to stop us." She looked from Billy to Francine, and after receiving a threatening and cold look from the blonde woman; she sat weakly back down in her chair.
As they entered the room and shut the door behind them, the receptionist sighed and opened her bottom desk drawer to pull out her purse. She picked up the phone and called down to personnel requesting her own replacement. After the rather loud admonishment from Dr. Smyth the previous afternoon for letting Becca through, she knew that she wouldn't keep her position in Smyth's office after today's intrusion. Especially not after how Billy Melrose looked when he stampeded through the reception area. 'I'll be lucky if I get to keep my job here at The Agency,' she thought to herself, 'but if I do, I'll request to work in Field Section for Mr. Melrose.' Knowing that she'd stand a chance there after the ground that Amanda King had broken, she smiled to herself as she heard the voices rise in Smyth's office.
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Meanwhile, up in the Q Bureau, Lee Stetson slammed the door behind him. And then, not satisfied with the fact that the door hadn't rattled in the frame, he opened it only to slam it again. This time, the frosted window in the door rattled a bit, and that seemed to placate the agent temporarily. He crossed the office to stand and stare out the window. Suddenly he picked up the first thing that his hand laid on, which happened to be a 700-page volume on the Civil War, and flung it across the room. It hit the vault door with a clang, and landed facedown, open on the floor. He threw a couple more small ones, but he didn't feel the same satisfaction as he had with the first.
"AARGGH!" Lee spun around and grabbed another heavy volume and spun around to throw it. As it left his hand, he noticed that it was headed straight for someone who had just walked into the Q, and he didn't have time to utter a warning. He saw a flash of yellow as the person ducked back into the hallway hoping to avoid getting bruised by the book. As it landed, Becca peeked around the corner.
"Is it safe?" She smiled tentatively at Lee.
"What do *you* want?" Lee turned back towards the window. He heard Becca behind him, picking up the books that had landed around the office, and placing them down on his desk with a resounding 'thud'. Lee figured she must not be too happy either. 'Tough. She helped cause the problem.'
"Just to talk." He felt her come up behind him, and she placed her hands softly at the base of his neck, and moved them out towards his shoulders and back. He shrugged her hands off, and then turned around to look directly into her dark blue eyes, not three inches from his.
"*Talking*, Becca, does not involve you touching me, nor does it involve you needing to me right on top of me while you talk to me." Lee took a step forward, which required Becca to move back away from the desk or risk being pushed onto it as Lee moved back towards the middle of the office. As she moved, she let out an exasperated sigh. "Problem, Dobson?" Lee fired a look towards her filled with ice and steel, and Becca figured that it was going to be a longer road than she had anticipated.
"Lee. Relax. Billy and Francine are taking care of Austin, there's no need to worry about that. You and I need to talk." She moved forward to grab his hand on its way up to run through his hair and pulled him towards the couch. She sat down and tucked her legs under her, and by default, he ended up sitting next to her. He pulled his hand from hers, and crossed his arms waiting for her to speak. "Oh, you're not going to make this easy for me, are you Lee?" The twitching muscle in his jaw gave her his answer, and he continued to stare straight ahead at his wife's desk across the room.
Becca noticed the distraction and placed a manicured fingertip on Lee's chin and failed at getting his head to turn towards her. She dropped her hand down back into her lap and snorted. "I can't believe that you actually are in love with a suburban mom. Whatever happened to the dashing and debonair Lee Stetson I used to know?" Becca started to pout and slouched back against the arm of the couch.
Lee took this opportunity to get up and get away from Becca. He crossed the small room in a couple of steps and turned to lean against Amanda's desk, folding his arms across his chest as he kicked one foot behind the other, and sighed heavily. "What is the point of all this, Becca? You know, I'm tired of justifying my marriage to everyone. Why can't you just take it at face value: I'm in love with Amanda, and she is my wife. End of story." As he made his last statement, he pointedly looked at Becca with an annoyed expression.
Becca got up and swung her hips as she headed straight for Lee, and stepped as close as she could to him. "End of story, huh?" She ran her tongue across her lips before settling the tip against her top lip, and then shifting to lightly bite her bottom lip. She slowly let it slide out of the grasp of her teeth, and noticed that Lee watched every move. She moved her mouth closer to his, her chest pressing into his still-crossed arms. "Sure, Stetson. I'll be seeing you around." With that she stepped away slightly, and turned to leave. She took one last look over her shoulder, and raised an eyebrow at Lee. He continued to look at her with that same annoyed expression on his face. She shrugged, and walked towards the door. "Well, you can't blame a girl for trying."
After she left, Lee's posture sagged slightly. 'Damn,' he thought to himself, 'when is that lady going to learn to take 'no' for an answer?' He smiled wryly. 'Probably never.' Lee relaxed and sat down at his own desk. After shuffling a couple of piles of paper, he picked up the phone and dialed his Arlington home once again. The phone rang a few times before the machine picked up, and he hung up after leaving a quick message for Amanda to call him. 'What could she be possibly doing that's keeping her away from the phone? Probably hasn't even noticed any messages.' With that, he swiveled his chair away from the desk and towards the windows and looked out on the summer day, with thoughts of his wife and his family.
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Amanda sat still in the darkness in an attempt to figure out where she might be, but there were no clues to assist her. The floor was cool and smooth beneath her tied hands - it could be well laid concrete, or very fine linoleum. The temperature was comfortable - it could be a room inside a building, or a well-maintained warehouse or office building. It was perfectly quiet as well - the rooms around her could be soundproofed, or she could be completely alone in the place. And there wasn't a rough edge that she could find so far that could help her get out of her bonds.
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~~~
Walking side by side, stride for stride, Francine and Billy headed down the long hallway where Austin Smyth's office was located. Francine could feel the anger pouring off Billy, and in all her years working with the man, she had never let his feelings affect the way she did her job. Today was the exception to that rule. Not only did she want to go a few rounds with Dr. Smyth in The Agency karate training rooms, but she also wanted to take Becca there too. 'What the hell was she thinking, taking an order like this from Dr. Smyth,' she thought to herself. "I know, she was thinking that she'd get Lee back, that's what."
"And she thought wrong," Billy responded between clenched teeth. "And so did Smyth." They stopped outside the doors to the reception area, and Billy turned to his trusted assistant who looked more than a little surprised. "Yes, Francine, you did say that out loud. You're not losing your mind. And I have a few choice words for Boo when I'm done with Smyth. Ready?"
Francine nodded. "Billy? What am I doing here? I'm not questioning your judgment, and I'll back you up 100%, but I don't understand why you want me here with Smyth."
Billy looked back at her and immediately moved into agent mode. "You're my backup. You're here to keep Smyth from getting out of the office. You're here as the 'agent of record' for the letters and harassment that Amanda Stetson has been receiving." Billy took a deep breath as he put his hand on the door handle and spoke once last time before opening the door. "You're here to keep me from jumping over the desk and throttling Smyth with my bare hands." With that, he turned the handle of the door.
Billy held up a hand to the receptionist when she looked up sharply at the intrusion of the Section Chief and his assistant. She rose to move in front of the oak door, but Billy was already there with his hand on the handle of the door. "I'm going in to see Smyth, and you're not going to stop us." She looked from Billy to Francine, and after receiving a threatening and cold look from the blonde woman; she sat weakly back down in her chair.
As they entered the room and shut the door behind them, the receptionist sighed and opened her bottom desk drawer to pull out her purse. She picked up the phone and called down to personnel requesting her own replacement. After the rather loud admonishment from Dr. Smyth the previous afternoon for letting Becca through, she knew that she wouldn't keep her position in Smyth's office after today's intrusion. Especially not after how Billy Melrose looked when he stampeded through the reception area. 'I'll be lucky if I get to keep my job here at The Agency,' she thought to herself, 'but if I do, I'll request to work in Field Section for Mr. Melrose.' Knowing that she'd stand a chance there after the ground that Amanda King had broken, she smiled to herself as she heard the voices rise in Smyth's office.
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Meanwhile, up in the Q Bureau, Lee Stetson slammed the door behind him. And then, not satisfied with the fact that the door hadn't rattled in the frame, he opened it only to slam it again. This time, the frosted window in the door rattled a bit, and that seemed to placate the agent temporarily. He crossed the office to stand and stare out the window. Suddenly he picked up the first thing that his hand laid on, which happened to be a 700-page volume on the Civil War, and flung it across the room. It hit the vault door with a clang, and landed facedown, open on the floor. He threw a couple more small ones, but he didn't feel the same satisfaction as he had with the first.
"AARGGH!" Lee spun around and grabbed another heavy volume and spun around to throw it. As it left his hand, he noticed that it was headed straight for someone who had just walked into the Q, and he didn't have time to utter a warning. He saw a flash of yellow as the person ducked back into the hallway hoping to avoid getting bruised by the book. As it landed, Becca peeked around the corner.
"Is it safe?" She smiled tentatively at Lee.
"What do *you* want?" Lee turned back towards the window. He heard Becca behind him, picking up the books that had landed around the office, and placing them down on his desk with a resounding 'thud'. Lee figured she must not be too happy either. 'Tough. She helped cause the problem.'
"Just to talk." He felt her come up behind him, and she placed her hands softly at the base of his neck, and moved them out towards his shoulders and back. He shrugged her hands off, and then turned around to look directly into her dark blue eyes, not three inches from his.
"*Talking*, Becca, does not involve you touching me, nor does it involve you needing to me right on top of me while you talk to me." Lee took a step forward, which required Becca to move back away from the desk or risk being pushed onto it as Lee moved back towards the middle of the office. As she moved, she let out an exasperated sigh. "Problem, Dobson?" Lee fired a look towards her filled with ice and steel, and Becca figured that it was going to be a longer road than she had anticipated.
"Lee. Relax. Billy and Francine are taking care of Austin, there's no need to worry about that. You and I need to talk." She moved forward to grab his hand on its way up to run through his hair and pulled him towards the couch. She sat down and tucked her legs under her, and by default, he ended up sitting next to her. He pulled his hand from hers, and crossed his arms waiting for her to speak. "Oh, you're not going to make this easy for me, are you Lee?" The twitching muscle in his jaw gave her his answer, and he continued to stare straight ahead at his wife's desk across the room.
Becca noticed the distraction and placed a manicured fingertip on Lee's chin and failed at getting his head to turn towards her. She dropped her hand down back into her lap and snorted. "I can't believe that you actually are in love with a suburban mom. Whatever happened to the dashing and debonair Lee Stetson I used to know?" Becca started to pout and slouched back against the arm of the couch.
Lee took this opportunity to get up and get away from Becca. He crossed the small room in a couple of steps and turned to lean against Amanda's desk, folding his arms across his chest as he kicked one foot behind the other, and sighed heavily. "What is the point of all this, Becca? You know, I'm tired of justifying my marriage to everyone. Why can't you just take it at face value: I'm in love with Amanda, and she is my wife. End of story." As he made his last statement, he pointedly looked at Becca with an annoyed expression.
Becca got up and swung her hips as she headed straight for Lee, and stepped as close as she could to him. "End of story, huh?" She ran her tongue across her lips before settling the tip against her top lip, and then shifting to lightly bite her bottom lip. She slowly let it slide out of the grasp of her teeth, and noticed that Lee watched every move. She moved her mouth closer to his, her chest pressing into his still-crossed arms. "Sure, Stetson. I'll be seeing you around." With that she stepped away slightly, and turned to leave. She took one last look over her shoulder, and raised an eyebrow at Lee. He continued to look at her with that same annoyed expression on his face. She shrugged, and walked towards the door. "Well, you can't blame a girl for trying."
After she left, Lee's posture sagged slightly. 'Damn,' he thought to himself, 'when is that lady going to learn to take 'no' for an answer?' He smiled wryly. 'Probably never.' Lee relaxed and sat down at his own desk. After shuffling a couple of piles of paper, he picked up the phone and dialed his Arlington home once again. The phone rang a few times before the machine picked up, and he hung up after leaving a quick message for Amanda to call him. 'What could she be possibly doing that's keeping her away from the phone? Probably hasn't even noticed any messages.' With that, he swiveled his chair away from the desk and towards the windows and looked out on the summer day, with thoughts of his wife and his family.
~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~SMK~~~
Amanda sat still in the darkness in an attempt to figure out where she might be, but there were no clues to assist her. The floor was cool and smooth beneath her tied hands - it could be well laid concrete, or very fine linoleum. The temperature was comfortable - it could be a room inside a building, or a well-maintained warehouse or office building. It was perfectly quiet as well - the rooms around her could be soundproofed, or she could be completely alone in the place. And there wasn't a rough edge that she could find so far that could help her get out of her bonds.
TBC...
