Chapter 40-A Pretty Interesting Dream

"DOA: Delirious on Arrival"

Francine stood watching Lee as she held onto the grips of the wheelchair and how his attitude toward Amanda had drastically changed since discovering that the toxin meant for him was now potentially going to affect Amanda. His demeanor even changed when addressing Billy and acknowledging the information that one of his contacts had called to when he turned his attention back to Amanda.

"Look, everything is going to be all right, but I promise you before this day is out, we're gonna' nail that creep and get your antidote."

Francine also couldn't help noticing the shy smile on Amanda's face when she replied, "Sure"

Francine shook her head slightly as she watched Lee walk away, knowing that as much as he protested, there was a whole lot more going on with him than just his normal self-deprecating guilt. It seemed, at least to her that he'd developed an unhealthy emotional attachment to his unorthodox partner.

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At finally getting Amanda off of the ledge where she'd be safe, Lee released the breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding as he gripped her tightly. He and Francine helped the loopy Amanda into the building and they walked back toward her hospital room. "Francine, can you grab her purse and her coat for me," Lee said in a still shaky voice not yet ready to relinquish his tight hold on Amanda.

"Lee, what's the matter," Amanda said as she struggled to turn in his arms facing him. "Your heart's racing. Are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" Lee said with an incredulous shake of his head looking into her eyes for any sign of the Amanda King that he knew and not this hopped-up version.

Amanda her hand on his chest, feeling his rapidly beating beneath her hand and said in a low, raspy voice, "I know what this is about," as she slid her hands up his chest, pressing herself against him as she planted a firm kiss to his lips. "I know what you want," she said as she pulled back.

Before he knew what was happening, Amanda had pushed hard on his chest and he found himself toppling onto the narrow hospital bed and her above him, nipping at his neck while she tugged at his tie. "Amanda," Lee said in a warning voice as he tried to stop her wandering hands.

"We never have done it in a bed, you know," Amanda whispered in his ear.

"Amanda, stop," Lee said as he finally gripped both of her hands in his and pushed her to her feet.

"You've never wanted me to stop before," Amanda pouted.

"Hey, hey, hey," Francine said as she grabbed her from behind giving Lee a you-ought-to-be-ashamed-of-yourself look as she tossed Amanda's things at him.

"What?" he said to Francine in an exasperated tone.

"You know what," she hissed back at him before turning Amanda around to walk her out the door, "Come on, Amanda, let's get you someplace safer," she said then fixed Lee with an icy glare as they left the room.

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"Now, we want to make you feel at home," Francine said as she finally got Amanda to sit on the couch after a few minutes of struggling with her. "How can we make you comfortable," She said in a gentle singsong voice that was totally against her nature.

Amanda replied, "Let's light some candles," as she picked up a baseball off the table and lobbed it at the other woman.

Francine instinctively caught it and said, "candles," as she set the ball back down.

"Good catch, Francine," Amanda said a little impressed.

In her normal voice, Francine asked, "Lee have you over for...uh...candlelight dinners?" She couldn't resist asking since her previous attempt to ask Amanda about the nature of her relationship with Lee during their undercover assignment together had gone nowhere.

Francine's eyes widened in shock when Amanda replied instantly, "All the time."

"Oh, uh, sure," she said not sure what she expected, but it wasn't that. She distracted herself by turning to find a pair of tapers, "Candles, here we go." She was completely thrown by Amanda's candor. Clearly, if Lee was having her over on a regular basis for candlelight dinners, Amanda was more than just a passing fancy for him like most of his relationships were. She wasn't sure if she should be relieved by that or more worried. As she fussed with the candles, she fidgeted nervously as she tried to talk Amanda into going to sleep, relief flooding through her when she finally dropped. She sank wearily onto the other side of Lee's sectional sofa as she contemplated the events of the day and Lee's reactions to them. What exactly was going on between these two?

"Here's looking at you, Kid," Lee's sexy voice said just before he pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately, her champagne spilling on the floor as she reached for him. She finally dropped both the glass and the baseball as she linked her arms around his neck and he lowered both of them to the floor. They tore at each other's clothing until there were no barriers between them, both needing something that they couldn't put into words as they shared fiery kisses, tender touches, longing caresses while they made love to one another for what might be the last time. The feelings that he invoked in her, she never wanted to end as she clung tightly to him while her drew her closer and closer to the release that she desperately craved.

"Oh, Boy," Amanda cried as she sat bolt upright on Lee's sofa.

"Well, that must have been a pretty interesting dream, huh?" Francine said with a salacious grin.

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Amanda glanced warily at Billy, Francine and Lee, "You're all looking at me awfully strangely. I certainly hope I didn't do anything embarrassing."

Lee was the only one to reply, saying "Oh, no, no. Everything is just fine," with a warm smile at her.

"Oh, Good," Amanda said smiling back at Lee.

At seeing the exchange between the two, Billy and Francine quickly made excuses to leave, Francine handing Amanda her purse on the way out, stopped by Lee for a moment asking about a baseball while she rooted through her purse, finding said baseball.

Lee glanced at the baseball now in his hand, shook his head and decided he'd better not ask. It's not as if Amanda would be able to answer his questions anyway. "Come on, let's get you out of here," Lee said as he reached for her arm to guide her out of the room.

"Home?" Amanda said.

"No, Amanda, I'm afraid not," Lee said. "Not yet, anyway. Fronan thinks that you shouldn't be alone just yet, not without some supervision from someone at the agency, not for a couple of hours at least. You know, just to...uh... make sure that the antidote has done its job properly and that there are no side effects." He paused for a moment and then said, "And I figured that, you know...since it was my chicken sandwich that...you know started all this mess, that I...well, I feel...sort of responsible. You should...you know...hand out at my place for a while...just to be safe."

"I understand," Amanda said with a slight smile at his nervousness as they walked together through the agency.

"You must be starving. The only thing you had to eat all day was that damn sandwich and then you had to have your stomach pumped, so..."

"Now, that you mention it, I am pretty hungry," Amanda said as they stepped into the outside elevator together.

"I figured you might be," Lee said. "How about we stop and get a pizza on the way to my place?"

"Sounds great. Extra pepperoni?"

"Whatever you want," Lee said.

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An hour later with the tapers once again lit, Lee and Amanda relaxed together on his sofa, champagne flutes in their hands, and the remainder of the pizza on the coffee table in front of them, Lee's Ty Cobb baseball back in its home. They'd both kicked off their shoes and Lee had removed his jacket and tie. "Thanks for the pizza," Amanda said, "but you know the champagne wasn't really necessary."

"Sure, it was," Lee replied as he sipped at his champagne. He felt more relaxed now than he had all day now that he knew that Amanda was going to be okay. "We needed to celebrate bagging Retzig and getting your cure. You know, it's funny, though. I don't remember Fronan saying anything about the poison causing any kind of memory loss." He smiled at her and then said, "Are you...uh...sure you don't remember anything that happened today?" he asked wondering if she recalled the way she'd thrown herself at him today and how for just a moment, it seemed that she was willing to lift her bed ban.

"Nothing," Amanda said with a shake of her head as she sipped at her champagne. "Complete blank slate, except..."

"Except?" Lee probed.

"Well, I seem to remember having this dream," Amanda said as she rose from the couch, grabbing the baseball as she went.

"A dream, huh?" Lee said as he moved to follow her. "Hmm, did I appear in this dream at all?"

"Yeah, and you know, I was thinking, maybe if you could...um...help me reenact it. well...you know...it might just make my memory come flooding back."

"Okay, I'm game," Lee said as he smiled at the flirty look in her eyes. "Where do we start?' He asked as he wondered just what she was up to.

Amanda reached for his arm and guided him to the place he'd been standing in her dream. "Okay, so you were standing right about here and I was here," Amanda said as she maneuvered them into position.

"And was is it we were doing in this dream," Lee asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Well, it...um...it was sort of like Casablanca," Amanda explained. "In my dream, we were talking about having a job to do and..."

"And?" Lee said as he edged closer to her, sliding his free hand to her waist.

"Well, in the dream," she said with a smile as she held up the baseball, "You'd given me this to remember you by, knowing that we'd never see each other again."

"Oh, how generous of me," Lee said as he pulled her closer. "I guess that explains how it ended up in your purse," he added with a slight chuckle. "So, what happened next?"

"This," Amanda answered as she released her hold on the baseball, letting it drop to the floor as she used her now-freed hand to tug on the back of his head as she lightly brushed her lips with his. "And this," she said as she pressed her lips firmly against his, teasing his lips with her tongue.

"Mmm," He sighed as he responded to her kiss by pulling her tightly against him, opening his mouth to hers and letting her take the lead. He let out a low groan when he felt her tongue darting into his mouth in exploration, the flavor of the spicy pepperoni combined with the sweet champagne driving him wild. No longer content to be passive, he dropped his champagne flute to wrap his arms around her, just as he heard hers also dropping to the floor, their bodies soon joining the discarded champagne flutes.

"Lee," Amanda gasped at feeling his reassuring weight above her as he trailed kisses down the column of her throat.

"Did you dream about this," Lee murmured against her skin.

'Mm-hmm," she hummed as she yanked the tails of his dress shirt from his pants ran her hands under it to caress the bare skin of his back. "And this."

"Maybe this was in your dream too," Lee suggested as he began to work the buttons of her blouse loose one by one, placing warm, wet kisses to each new patch of skin he exposed.

"Oh, yes, that too," Amanda said breathily as she soon felt his hands caressing her breasts through the lace of her bra while he continued to work his mouth downward to her stomach before working his way back up again, stopping to nip at the tender pulse point at her neck. "And this," she said as she moved her hands to his chest and began undoing his shirt buttons the way he'd done hers, soon pushing it off his shoulders and planting kisses to his exposed shoulder, then his chest, her fingers running over his nipples.

Lee moaned against her as her touch began to drive him crazy with need for her. He pulled back for a moment to gaze into her eyes wanting so much to tell her everything that was in his heart, but he knew he lacked the courage to say the words out loud. Instead, he captured her lips in a smoldering kiss and skimmed his hands down her sides, reaching between them to flick open the button on her slacks, then sliding the zipper down. Lee pulled back from her and Amanda taking his cue, raised her hips up enough to allow him to slide her pants down her legs, dragging her panties with them.

When Lee made a move to return to her, she shook her head and said, "Uh-uh," with a nod to his pants.

"Oh, you mean this?" he said glancing down at the bulge in his pants with a teasing grin.

"Mm-hmm," she said.

"Did I do this in your dream too," He questioned his eyes alight as he dropped his pants in front of her and stepped out of them.

"Maybe," she said in a low husky voice.. When Lee once again started to return to his position, she said, "Uh-uh. All the way," as she unhooked her bra and tossed it aside, leaving her fully exposed to him, but she wanted him the same way.

"In a hurry, are you?" He said with a chuckle as her removed the last garment from his body and stood naked before her.

"No, no hurry," Amanda answered her eyes widening in appreciation as she sat up, ran her hands up his inner thighs to cup his balls with one hand and his shaft with the other before wrapping her lips around him, gently suckling him.

"Oh, God, Amanda, do you have any idea what you do to me," Lee said in a hoarse whisper.

"Mm-hmm," she murmured as she took him deeper. Feeling him growing harder in her mouth, she knew exactly what she did to him.

Lee groaned in delight at the feeling of being encased by her warm, wet mouth, struggling for control as she suckled him, pulling him in and out of her mouth. It felt so good, but he knew he couldn't last much longer if he didn't put a stop to it. "Amanda," he said as he reached for her shoulder and lowered her back to the floor. He then began again the path he'd traces with his mouth earlier beginning with a nip at her earlobe, then ran his tongue down her throat, capturing one breast in his mouth while his hand found the other.

"Lee," she hissed. "Oh, Lee, I need you."

"Patience, my love," he whispered as he continued his journey downward to her ribcage, her flat stomach, then planted a tender kiss to each hip, moving even lower to nip at the tender skin of her inner thigh.

"Lee," she cried again as his brutal teasing of her.

Lee glanced up at her flushed face, her passion-filled eyes darker than normal. He couldn't resist teasing her a little more. "So, what did I do next in the dream."

"Lee," she whimpered.

"Well, if we're reenacting it, I just want to make sure I'm doing it right. I mean, it was your dream, after all."

"Lee, please don't tease me anymore," Amanda pleaded.

"Is this what I did in the dream," Lee said as he lowered his head, parting her folds and delved into her with his mouth.

"Yes," she cried, "Oh, yes," as she cradled his head to her raising her hips up to meet his questing mouth as he devoured her, licking and nipping at her tender skin until she screamed his name. "Lee!"

Feeling her writhing, hearing her screaming his name, he knew he'd done the job he'd set out to do and began to slowly work his way back up her body, retracing the same pace along her warm skin. When he got back to her collarbone and then her neck, he noticed that she had her eyes closed. He kissed her firmly as he slid one hand into her hair and said, "Amanda, look at me. This isn't a dream anymore." He wanted her to look at him, no longer caring what she'd dreamed about. He wanted her to know without a doubt that he was the one making love to her. When her eyes fluttered open, he looked deeply into her eyes as he gripped himself with his free hand and slowly sank into her, watching the reaction in her eyes as he pushed deeper inside her.

"Ohhhh," she sighed at the feeling of him buried within her. "This is better than the dream," she said as locked her legs around him and pushed her hips against his to urge him on.

Lee had wanted to savor the moment after his worry for her safety, the guilt he felt over putting her in danger had been plaguing him all day, but at her movements, he could no longer hold back. "Amanda," he whispered as he pulled back and plunged into her again, locking his eyes with hers as they began to move together. He found that with every thrust, she was right there to meet him, telling him that this was exactly how she wanted it. He soon felt his control completely slipping as she clutched his bottom and arched her back, crying out his name. "Amanda!' he cried out as he felt himself erupting within her, driving into her at a furious pace, pumping his seed into her until he had nothing left and collapsed weakly above her, worried that his weight might crush her slender body, only to feel her arms sliding up his back cradling him to her, welcoming him. He lay there sputtering and gasping in her arms at the intensity of their coupling, desperately trying to calm himself.

"So much better than the dream," Amanda said with a giggle as she rained kisses on his face and neck.

"Yeah?" Lee said as he raised his head to look at her.

"Oh, yeah," she said as she lightly kissed him.

"So, was there really a dream or was this all some scheme of your to get me like this," He teased.

"Oh, there was really a dream,' Amanda said. "More than one, I think. I seem to remember something about the bed in...I think it was in a hospital room, maybe?"

Lee pulled back from her and stood, his eyes wide with surprise. "Amanda King, you little minx!'

"What?" She said her eyes dancing in amusement.

"You remember it all, don't you?"

She laughed and said, "Don't tell anyone, okay? I'd never get over the embarrassment, especially with Francine, the way I practically attacked you in front of her?"

Lee couldn't help laughing and said, "It'll be our secret."

"You promise you won't say anything?" she said.

"Hey, I'm a spy, remember? I keep secrets for a living." He shook his head at how easily she'd fooled them all with her innocent act at the lab, even the slight blush in her cheeks when she'd said she hoped she hadn't done anything embarrassing. "Besides, I have a little confession to make of my own. Fronan didn't say anything about keeping an eye on you. The antidote doesn't have any side effects. It counteracts the poison instantly."

"I knew that," Amanda said.

"You knew th-" He shook his head. "Then why'd you agree to come with me?"

"Maybe I wanted to be with you tonight, at least for a little while, before I have to go home to my boys."

"Yeah, I...uh...I should probably get you there, huh?" He said sadly as he reached for his boxers and pulled them on.

She nodded, rose from her spot on the floor and said, "I wish I could stay longer, but Mother will be bringing them home from Goofy Golf anytime now and I want to be there to say goodnight to them before they go to bed, make sure they've done their homework, you know..."

"The normal Mom stuff that you do," Lee said with an understanding nod.

"Yeah," Amanda said as she also began to get dressed.

Amanda has just finished pulling her blouse back on when there was a knock at the door. Lee and Amanda looked at each other quizzically as Lee quickly finished the buttons on his shirt, glanced back for a moment to make sure that Amanda was decent, then turned to the door and opened it. While he did this, Amanda picked up the fallen champagne flutes and the baseball, putting them both back on the table, just as Francine pushed her way past Lee. saying, "Did you by any chance see a little red compact? I think I left it here by mista-" but then halted as she saw Amanda putting on her shoes.

"A compact?" Lee questioned. "Why would you have had it out here?"

"Well, after Amanda..." Francine paused, unsure she should finish in front of her since she didn't remember what had happened. "...Um...after I finished cleaning up the broken vase, I had it out to check..." she trailed off again at seeing the scene in front of her, the champagne bottle on the table, the glowing candles, the empty champagne flutes

"Right, 'cause God forbid you have a hair out of place when Amanda's life may have been in danger," Lee said testily.

Francine rolled her eyes, ignored Lee's jibe and gestured toward the coffee table, "Well, isn't this cozy."

"Just dinner, Francine," Amanda said as she stifled a giggle as she recalled Francine's reaction earlier when she'd questioned her about candlelight dinners. "You know, Lee felt bad about the fact that since I had to have my stomach pumped, I really hadn't had anything to eat all day."

"Oh? What was for dessert?" Francine said with an arched eyebrow.

"You know what, Francine, if I find your compact, I'll bring it to you at the office," Lee said as he gripped her by the shoulders and steered her toward the door. "I was just getting ready to take Amanda home, so if you don't mind," he said with a gesture to the open door.

"Fine, fine, I can take a hint," Francine said with a pout, but took one last glance at the two of them before exiting. She shook her head as she made her way down the hall, wondering again just what was going on between the two of them, determined that someday she'd find out for sure.