CHAPTER EIGHT
Wednesday 22 July, 6:55pm
The after-dinner table resembled one of that guy Dean's weather maps. A definite cold front had fallen across the table with Philip and Jamie sitting on either side of it. Philip sat under blue sky and sunshine – his face beaming at the other members of his family. They were spies. How cool was that? Jamie, however, was under a thundercloud. His face was red – nearing purple – and he was fighting to keep his emotions under control, to keep the tears that were filling his eyes from falling down his face. He glared at his stepfather.
"Lighten up, man," said Philip. "This stuff is cool."
Jamie switched his glare to his brother. "Are you kidding? Don't you know how dangerous this is? Mom's been shot, Grandma's been held at gunpoint. How is that cool? You need your head examined, worm-brain."
"Can it, Jamie!" Philip retorted.
"You can it! Don't you see? None of this…none of this would have happened if it wasn't for this…this…this jerk!" Jamie yelled, returning his attention to his arch nemesis.
"Jamie!" admonished Amanda, but Lee caught her eye and almost imperceptibly shook his head. He figured Jamie had a point.
"But Jamie," Philip tried again, "mom's shooting was an accident, and Lee wasn't even in the country when Grandma was held up." Philip's eyes canvassed the support of the adults at the dinner table. "How can that be Lee's fault?" He turned his attention back to his brother. "Get a grip, dude."
"Philip's right, Jamie," said Amanda, calmly.
"Yes, Jamie," agreed his grandmother.
Jamie continued to glare all the other table occupants. So I'm on my own. Figures. "We were fine before he came along," he nodded his head at Lee. "Mom was always around, we did stuff together. Now it's all Lee, Lee, Lee!"
"Now Jamie," said Amanda, her own eyes filled with hurt at her son's remarks, "you know that's not true."
"Right, dufus. We still do stuff all the time."
Jamie's face had now reached purple. He looked at everyone then glared at his mother. "Well, you've got a choice, Mom. Either he goes, or I go!" Jamie yelled. He jumped to his feet. "I'm not staying under the same roof with him." He pointed at his stepfather. "I'll go live with my dad! At least he's not a jerk!"
Lee's face paled at the onslaught. He remained silent, but his face betrayed the hurt he felt. Amanda quietly and calmly took her husband's hand. "Jamie," she began. "Lee and I love each other." She looked at Dotty, "and we both love your Grandmother," she switched her gaze to her eldest, "we both love Philip," then she returned her gaze to her baby, "and we both love you, Jamie. I love my work, too, Jamie, I really do. And I can't make guarantees for the future. I can't promise I won't get hurt….Accidents happen, and my getting shot was just that, an accident. It wasn't Lee's fault, it was fate. And if Lee hadn't been there to call an ambulance and look after me, maybe I wouldn't have survived." She paused to look at her husband, who gripped her hand firmly. "And what happened to your Grandmother wasn't Lee's fault either. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, like I was. Without Lee, I wouldn't have been in a position to go in and save her. Who knows what might have happened if I'd never met Lee? So Jamie, you should apologize."
Jamie was frustrated and losing the battle to control himself. A couple of tears had escaped his eyes. He resorted to unbridled anger. "Well, if he's staying, I'm leaving!"
Amanda looked calmly at her son. "You're going to have to do what you have to do, Jamie." Lee felt Amanda's nails dig into his hand as she spoke.
Jamie's mouth fell open as he stared at his so-called family. They're all against me. He pushed back his chair and it fell over. "Then I'm gonna go live with Dad!" he yelled. Tears began to stream down his face as Hurricane Jamie swept through the kitchen, deliberately knocking a vase of flowers off the counter as he charged through the backdoor, slamming it behind him. They heard a flowerpot crash as he stomped past the window. The family stared in stunned silence at the devastation he'd left in his wake.
Eventually Dotty looked at Philip. "I think now would be a good time to go do your homework, Philip."
Philip nodded, then looked to his mother. "Don't worry about Jamie, Mom. He's just a kid. He'll come around. You know what he's like – he's a dufus! He doesn't know what's good for him. Lee," he turned his attention to his stepfather. "I think this stuff's cool." He held out his hand to Lee as he stood up. Lee stood up too, and shook his stepson's hand. "I think you're a great stepdad," Philip said and hugged Lee.
Nonplussed at Philip's show of emotion, Lee returned the hug and said, "I think you're great too, Philip." Then Philip let go and brushed his hand through his hair in a familiar way, mirroring the man he hero-worshipped. He looked sheepishly at his mom and ran upstairs before the situation got too mushy.
Lee sighed and pushed his hand through his own hair, causing Amanda to smile and exchange glances with her own mother. "Well, that went better than expected, huh?" Lee said. Amanda stepped into Lee's arms and hugged him.
"I'm sorry Lee," she spoke into her husband's chest. "He's just young, you know?"
"I remember teen-Lee," he replied. "I know the type."
"He's angry." Amanda sighed. "He'll come around; we just have to give him time."
Dotty started to collect the dishes from the table.
~~SMK~~
Wednesday 22 July, 8:45pm
It was getting dark outside, cooler since the sun had gone down, and Jamie was still sulking in the tree house when Lee decided he should try to talk to him. He hoped Jamie had had time to cool off by now. They'd had a rocky start when he and Amanda had started dating publicly, but over the last few months, he thought they'd been getting closer. Until now.
As Lee peered into the tree house, with his head at floor level, he saw Jamie sitting on the far side. He'd obviously been crying, but now he was sitting calmly, just looking dejected and staring at the floor, picking at the wood floor with his fingernail.
"Can I come in?" There was no answer. "Jamie?" Jamie shrugged. Lee pulled himself up and stood, towering over Amanda's youngest. Lee surveyed his choice of seat. Lee remembered the very small Cookie Monster chair from the Zmed case. As he recalled, it wasn't very comfortable for a person as tall as him, so he decided to sit, like Jamie, on the floor with his back to the wall, in close proximity to his stepson. "How're you doing?" Lee asked. Jamie didn't respond. "Don't be hard on your mother, Jamie. It's not like she wanted to lie to you. It was just…necessary."
"Hmph," was Jamie's only response.
"Jamie. You've watched enough TV and movies to know about spies and secrets and stuff, haven't you?" Silence. "Haven't you?" Lee's voice was firmer this time.
"I guess," Jamie said sullenly.
It's a start. "When your mom got involved with The Agency she was sworn to secrecy - she still is. There are things that we are just not allowed to talk about. You know? National Security? So, Amanda, your mom, just followed those orders."
"But she said there'd be no more secrets."
Looking guilty, Lee replied, "I know." Jamie's withdrawal tugged at Lee's heart and he had no idea what would be the best method to reach him. He tried another tack. "Look, Jamie. I know you're upset. Do you want me to tell you how your mom got started in all of this?"
Jamie looked up for a second, a glimmer of curiosity on his face, until he remembered he was very angry at the world, particularly the man sitting beside him. His eyes returned to the floor and his interest in the floorboard intensified. He said nothing. Lee, however, had seen the look and thought this was the chink in Jamie's armor that might allow him to reach the boy. Lee sighed and Jamie looked up, but Lee didn't leave like Jamie had expected. Instead, Lee shuffled a little to make himself as comfortable as possible on the wooden floor, then he leaned back against the treehouse wall and stretched out his legs before him. Lee's legs now blocked Jamie's line of sight to the floorboard he'd found so fascinating.
"It happened in October, 1983," Lee began. "Just an accident really. Who'd have thought what it would lead to? I was at the train station in Arlington, being chased by some bad guys, and I had some information for a man on the train. I needed to find a way to get it to him and then I saw her." Jamie took a quick glance at Lee, then resumed his disinterest. "Your mom was walking toward me and, I still don't really know why I picked her, but I stopped her and I asked her to help me. She refused of course." Lee laughed.
This time when Jamie looked at him, with a puzzled expression on his face, he didn't look away. Lee smiled at Jamie. "Well, she refused at first. But I kept on at her, begged her. Even chased her down the platform. Then finally she just agreed. She took the package and got on the train. I figured I'd never see her again." Lee could now see that Jamie's curiosity was getting the better of his animosity.
"I told her to give it to the man in the red hat. I thought it was easy. That's all she had to do. Only it wasn't easy." Lee smiled to himself and drifted off into his own thoughts, closing his eyes and resting his head back to the wall.
After a couple of seconds, Lee heard Jamie utter a very quiet, "Why?"
Lee opened his eyes and allowed his head to lean forward. He laughed again. "Virtually everybody on the train was wearing a red hat apparently. There was a Shriners convention on board. Your mother has a knack for making the simplest of instructions complicated. Anyway, she refused to walk away. She ended up solving the case."
"Solving it?"
"Absolutely! You and Philip helped too."
Now Jamie was really confused. "We did? How?"
"Do you remember the broken music box? The one that Philip opened and you made him tell your mom?" Amanda had told him the story. Jamie nodded, but his puzzled expression remained. "Well there was a card in there with some words on it and your mom just wouldn't let it go. She found out what the words meant and then came looking for me. She knew I was on assignment. The Agency wasn't expecting to hear from me so they hadn't even missed me. Well, she found me."
"Where?"
"I was locked in a cellar. I didn't even know where I was. And as the bad guys were about to put me on a helicopter, I looked up and there she was."
"Were you surprised?"
"Surprised? I was stunned. I wondered what the hell," Lee cleared his throat and Jamie smiled, "I mean heck was she doing there?"
By now Jamie was engrossed in the story. "So what happened next?" he asked eagerly.
"You'll never believe it." Again, Lee laughed, as the memories played in his head.
"Lee, what?"
"She ran across the lawn, pointed her purse at the bad guys and yelled 'Freeze!'"
"What?"
"Yeah, freeze. Like she'd seen in the movies. Except she didn't have a gun."
"Did it work?"
"Well, it distracted them enough long enough that we were able to get away. In the helicopter. We just flew away."
"Wow! You can fly a helicopter?"
"Well, yes." Lee smiled at Jamie's enthusiasm. "But it wasn't me that flew us outta there."
"Mom?"
"Yeah."
"But she can't do that. I mean, she's just…well…she's Mom…she's not a pilot."
"Well she flew like a pro that day. Well, sort of. Anyway, we got away. Without your mom, I wouldn't even be here."
"Why? What would have happened to y`ou?"
"Oh, I don't know." Suddenly Lee became self-conscious. How much should he tell his sensitive stepson?
"Would they have killed you?" Jamie looked concerned.
Torn between lying and protecting Jamie, Lee said, "It's a possibility."
"Then I'm glad she helped you."
"I am, too. Although I wasn't so sure about that at the time." Lee chuckled.
Curious, Jamie asked, "Why not? Didn't you like Mom?"
"Well…I liked her well enough, I guess, but she was a mom, you know, from the suburbs. And I was a risk taker, a loner, a spy. I didn't care what happened to me as long as I got the job done. I was a different man back then."
"Why?"
"Boy, those questions keep on coming, huh, Jamie?"
It was Jamie's turn to look guilty. "Sorry." He looked back to the floor.
Lee reached over and pushed up Jamie's chin with his finger, making his stepson look at him. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. Ask whatever you want. There are some things I can't tell you, but I'll answer what I can. What do you want to know?"
"Why didn't you want to work with mom? Because she was a woman?"
"Not exactly. Your mom was a mother, an ordinary suburban mother. What did she know about being a spy? And by the way, I prefer the term agent. I didn't think she should be getting involved in this kind of stuff. Besides, I was Lee Stetson, man of steel. I didn't need a mom rescuing me!"
"So how come she's still working with you?"
"Ah, yes, the million dollar question. You see, I was determined never to work with a partner. But my boss, and your mother, had other ideas. She was tenacious." Jamie looked puzzled. "Persistent, you know? Billy, my boss, asked her to help out now and again, just simple stuff. But, as I said before, your mother has the most amazing knack for making the simplest assignments complicated. I don't think any of us realized how useful she'd turn out to be, though. Including her."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Billy figured we worked well together and he was right. I'm sure glad he was. Without Billy, we wouldn't be here today, and you'd probably be off on a camping trip with Dan, Dan the Weatherman."
"You mean Dean?"
"Yeah, something like that." Lee had never been able to bring himself to say that weather guy's name correctly. He chose not to question why.
"Dean was okay. I guess," said Jamie. He paused for a second, weighing what to say next. "But you're better." Jamie looked up at his stepdad and smiled.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Good enough to get a hug?" Lee asked. His chest swelled and his face beamed as all the day's barriers between him and his stepson fell away and Jamie hugged Lee. Admittedly not as tightly as Amanda had done the previous day, but a hug was a hug, right?
Suddenly, Jamie remembered he was almost a teenager and almost-teenagers don't hug. He pulled away from Lee and stood up. Immediately, Lee felt the loss. He also caught the guilty expression on Jamie's face, as his stepson now stood over him. Looking up at Jamie, he said, "Getting too big to hug, huh Sport?"
"Well…" said Jamie, slightly uncomfortable.
"You too big for ice cream, too?" Amusement was now playing across Lee's face.
Lee watched as Jamie's face betrayed his internal struggle between childish desserts and sugary goodness. "I guess ice cream's okay."
Lee held out his hand to Jamie, inviting the boy to help him up. Jamie obliged and Lee stiffly got back to his feet. Putting his hand between Jamie's shoulder blades, Lee guided him to the tree house ladder. "Let's go." As he vanished down the ladder, Lee heard Jamie exclaim, "Spies! Wow!"
Lee felt a stinging sensation in his eyes. Funny, I didn't think it was that windy up here in the tree house. Maybe it's pollen? He had a really stupid grin on his face. When did I get so emotional? He shook his head. As he stepped onto the ladder, he smiled and said, "Amanda."
~~SMK~~SMK~~SMK~~
TAG
Wednesday 22 July, 9:25pm
When Lee reached the ground he walked around the side of the house, to find Philip in the garage, with his head under the hood of the 'Vette, again. "What ya doin' there, Chief?" He tried to maintain a neutral, fatherly expression while all his nerves were immediately on edge and the hairs were standing up on the back of his neck. It's a good thing I've had all that Agency training, he thought as he watched his stepson tweak various parts of his beloved car. Why is this so much easier when I'm up against the KGB?
"Oh, I just wanted to see if I could get you a little more power out of her. There's this article in my magazine that said if you make a slight adjustment here," he pointed into the engine, "it really makes a difference."
Lee cleared his throat to cover up his discomfort at Philip's experiments, even though he knew that Philip probably knew more about cars than he did. He thought a reverse-psychology approach was the way to go. He wouldn't say a word about the car. Mentally he repeated his new mantra, Don't mention the car, the car will be fine. Don't mention the car, the car will be fine. Aloud, he said, "Well, be careful. I'm heading in for ice cream."
Philip's head shot up, nearly catching it on the open hood. "Ice cream?"
"Yeah," said Lee, continuing towards the house without another glance in Philip's direction, or that of his precious car.
"Wait for me!"
Lee stopped and turned to look to his stepson, desperately trying to keep the expression of intense relief off his face. His baby was safe. This time at least, although he knew it was only a temporary reprieve.
~~SMK~~
As the guys entered the kitchen, Amanda looked up from the dishes she'd been washing to take her mind off the gloom that had fallen over the household. She had wondered how long it would take for the normally positive aura of the house to be restored, but figured it would be at least several days. Instead, her guys, all of them, were coming into her once again cheery kitchen, laughing and joking with each other as though the last couple hours had never happened. Have I stepped into some kind of time warp?
"Ice cream time," said Lee to his wife, as he headed straight for the freezer. He caught her questioning look and shrugged. Then he smiled and returned his attention to the hunt for the Rocky Road while Jamie grabbed the spoons. Placing the tub on the counter, Lee, Philip, and Jamie all started to eat straight out of it, as though by waiting for dishes they'd miss out on their share.
"Moth-er! If you want any ice cream you'd better come now!" Amanda called up the stairs. "It seems we have locusts in town again. Fellas, you might want to try using these," she said as she placed the dishes on the counter next to the guys. Then she laughed as they tried to beat each other to the biggest dishful.
As the competition heated up, Philip stole ice cream from Jamie's dish, supplementing that which he himself had already taken from the tub. "Hey! That's not fair!" yelled Jamie as he saw what happened.
Lee and Amanda exchanged a glance and simultaneously said, "Who ever promised you fair?" They laughed.
While Lee was distracted, Philip reached toward his dish to take some of Lee's ice cream but Lee had been on the Agency's course to counter sneak attacks. He managed to grab the dish out of Philip's reach. "I don't think so, buster!"
Leaning against the sink, Amanda just watched in amusement at the family's banter and competitiveness occurring in her kitchen. Seeing an opening, she suddenly reached across the counter and grabbed the ice cream tub for herself. As she stood away from the fray, she proclaimed, "Mine, I think!" She took two spoons from the drawer, and walked around to sit on the couch. "I've got you a spoon, Mother," she said as Dotty entered the room. Her mother sat beside her.
"For a second I thought we were back in Khartoum again," said Dotty. Amanda laughed as she dipped into what was left of the ice cream.
As Lee, Philip and Jamie continued their attempted sneak attacks on the others' ice cream, and behaved in a generally rowdy manner, Amanda just looked at her mother and raised her eyes. "Boys will be boys, I guess."
The End