Chapter 5

Monday Morning

Billy and Francine were huddled around the coffee maker, discussing their weekends, when Lee walked up to them with a smile that reached his ears. He grabbed his favorite cup, poured himself some coffee, and added just the tiniest bit of cream as he spoke out loud to no one in particular, "I like my coffee black… just not this black."

"Good Morning, Scarecrow," Billy greeted him.

"Yes, it is, Billy." He nodded in Francine's direction. "Francine."

"Well, look who decided to come home. When did you drag yourself back to the States?"

"I got back Friday evening."

"Then that would mean the smile on your face was put there by one of your many lady friends. You didn't waste any time getting back into the swing of things. Who was it this time? Oh wait, please don't tell me it was Celeste? I never did like her."

"Did you ever like any of them, Francine?" Lee retorted. Francine raised her eyes to the ceiling and thought about it for a while, then shook her head no. "Not that it's any of your business, but yes, this smile on my face was put there by a woman."

"I knew it!"

"Stop it, you two. You can discuss this later and not on company time. Scarecrow, I need you to go see Congressman Harris today. He's been receiving threats against his family, and we need to look into them."

"Come on, Billy. I thought I could have a relaxing morning to catch up on things. Send Fielder. He can handle this."

"Sorry, Scarecrow. The President himself requested you. He said Harris has been bugging him, and he won't stop until we, I mean you, look into it." Francine handed him a piece of paper along with a smirk. "You have a ten o'clock meeting scheduled with him."

"Great!" Lee snatched the paper from Francine's hand.

"Why don't you take Mrs. King with you? You may need her...specialty, for this one."

Francine snorted at Billy's comment. "What specialty is that, Billy? Her super housewife powers."

Lee ignored her comment and searched the bullpen, then spoke, "Speaking of Amanda. Where is she? I'm surprised she's not in yet?"

"She's in the file room. I asked her to help me out this morning. She should be back any minute." As if on cue, Amanda walked down the hallway, headed for the bullpen. "There she is now." Billy pointed to the hallway.

Amanda walked through the glass doors, saw the three of them, and strolled towards them with a massive smile on her face. "Lee, you're back. When did you get home? I was so worried about you."

"That's an understatement," Francine softly stated.

Lee glared at Francine then turned his attention back to Amanda. "Friday evening. Say, what are you doing later this morning? Billy wants you to go with me to hold a Congressman's hand." Lee snarled at Billy while he just smiled.

"Nothing. I'm almost done with the filing Mr. Melrose asked me to help him with. When do we have to leave?"

Lee took a quick glimpse at his watch and answered, "In about forty-five minutes."

"That should be fine. I'll come find you when I'm done."

"Good. Now we have that settled, can we all get back to work," Billy commanded and strode to his office.

Lee followed after him, asking, "Hey, Billy. You got a minute?" Billy didn't respond but made a motion with his hand to follow him.

Lee closed the door to his office and stood in front of Billy's desk. "Hey, Billy. I know I just got back into town, but I was wondering-"

Billy interrupted him, "Yes, you can have Friday off."

"What? How did you know that's what I was going to ask?"

"I just assumed you would want to go to the boy's tournament this weekend as well. I'm correct in that, aren't I?"

Lee just smiled and replied, "Yes. The boys invited me on Saturday. I would like to go, especially since I missed most of their season."

"It's alright, Lee. I was expecting you to bring it up as soon as you got back on Friday."

"Thanks, Billy."

"It sounds like things are going well with the family."

Lee smiled. "It's going great. I never really saw myself as a family man, but I like the way this feels. I think this weekend will be a good test. Dotty's not going, so it will just be the four of us."

Billy chuckled. "I never thought I'd see the day when the Scarecrow talked about being a family man. I like it." Lee grinned back at him as he continued. "It will be nice, just the four of you with no interruptions."

"Well, I'm going to go clear some things off my desk while I wait for Amanda. Thanks again, Billy."

"You're welcome, Lee."

Lee watched Amanda as she made her way down the hallway towards the bullpen. He had to fight the urge to smile at the sight of her. To him, she appeared to almost float through the doors the guards held open as she made a bee-line straight to his desk. "Hi, Lee. Are you ready to go see Congressman Harris?"

"Yes, I am."

"Great. I'll grab my purse. Then we can leave."

Amanda walked over to grab her purse as Lee stood from his desk and waited for her return. She joined him again as they both turned towards the doors, with Lee leading her to the elevators with his hand at the small of her back. Once the two of them made it to the Georgetown foyer, they handed their badges to Mrs. Marston and headed to Lee's car. As they approached Lee's car, Lee scanned around the garage to make sure no one was around. Before he opened the door for Amanda, he turned her around and possessively kissed her. When they broke the kiss, Lee stated, "Good Morning."

"Well, good morning to you too, sweetheart." Lee opened her door, and as he assisted her in, she continued. "So, tell me about our assignment."

Lee made his way to the driver's side and slid into the driver's seat. As he pulled out of the garage, he replied, "Billy told me the Congressman has been getting some threats against his family. It doesn't sound too serious. However, it's enough that it's scaring him, and he wants it looked into. He's been bothering the President for some kind of action. We need to talk to him and try and determine if the threats are legitimate or not. We also need to try to calm the Congressman down to where he will hopefully stop bugging the President." The last part was said with his dimples showing.

Amanda smiled back. "So, I assume that is where I come in?"

"Yes, I believe that's what Billy had in mind." He reached over and took her hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed her knuckles. "When we get done, it will be around lunch. How about we stop at Ned's for a quick bite to eat?"

"That sounds great."

An hour and a half later, Lee and Amanda left Congressman Harris' office with copies of all the documents they needed to investigate his family's impending threats. They sat at a table at Ned's to enjoy their lunch.

"Amanda, you did fabulous with Harris. I can't believe how calm you had him by the time we left. When we walked in, I didn't think he would ever calm down."

"Lee, it's not what you say. It's how you say it, and you have to empathize with them. That's all they want to hear."

Lee proudly smiled and stated, "Well, it was a textbook Class C Interrogation technique. I think I'll have to mention it to Billy. Maybe, you can teach the next class."

Amanda stared blankly at him, then asked, "What's a Class C Interrogation?"

"There's different clarifications of interrogation. Class C is a soft interrogation. A lot of hand-holding and understanding. Something, you naturally have."

"Thank you. I'm just being polite."

"You're just being yourself." Lee reached under the table for her hand. Finding it, he gave it a light squeeze. "Billy gave me Friday off. What time do you want to leave?"

"That's great news. The boys will be ecstatic." With her hand still under the table, she released his hand and rubbed his thigh. "I was hoping we could leave early Thursday afternoon. It's almost a two-hour drive to Richmond, and I don't want to be too late getting to the hotel."

"Sounds good. We'll have to leave work at different times, so we don't raise any suspicions. It won't have to be too far apart, but just enough so it doesn't look planned," Lee explained.

"That shouldn't be a problem, Lee. Just don't be too far behind me." She leaned in close and softly spoke, "Oh, and don't forget to pack pajamas. At least pants. It wouldn't be appropriate to sleep in your boxers."

"And what will you be packing for jammies?" Lee curiously hinted at.

"I've got some kid-friendly jammies I think you will still like."

"I can't wait."

"Lee Stetson, you will have to behave yourself. The boys will be in the bed next to us."

"I know, I know. As long as you know, I can't be held responsible for how my body naturally responds to you lying next to me."

"As long as it's kept under the covers and discreet, we should be okay," Amanda came back with a smirk on her face.

Lee placed his napkin on his plate and commented, "What do you say we get back to the office and start looking into these threats. The sooner we get working on them, the quicker we can be done with it."

"That sounds like a great idea."

Lee placed some money down on the table for their meal as they walked out. Lee grabbed her hand as soon as they were out of sight of any prying eyes as they strolled back to the 'Vette.