Disclaimer: I don't own the situations or characters portrayed herein. I'm just playing with them for a while.
Playing Possum
She was radiant, repeating over and over her trust in him and her delight at a job well done.
He reached for her and hugged her fiercely, almost forgetting that Billy and two Soviet agents were still standing there, watching the unemotional Scarecrow overflow with emotions. He was breathless with almost hysterical laughter, and her own triumphant laugh rang in his ear.
Oh, he loved her and her stupid dishwasher so, so much. First it had been the helicopter that had been like that dishwasher, and now it was a nuclear bomb.
If it weren't for that loose blue wire on Amanda's awful dishwasher, he wouldn't be here now, feeling her breath ruffle his hair, clasping her so tightly that he didn't know if he could bring himself to let go.
But Billy and two Soviet agents were watching, and so he released her, unwillingly. He still kept clinging onto her sleeves.
"Try the blue wire," he told Francine, and he couldn't help laughing a little at her dumbfounded expression.
He turned to Amanda, realizing that they had their own inside jokes now. They had become real, actual friends.
She gave him a scrunch-nosed grin of absolute delight that he was pretty sure he'd never seen her give anyone else.
He felt oddly proud to be the one who could make her grin that way.