Chapter 72-Rules of Engagement
"Nightcrawler"
Author's Note: Once again, I am using scenes from the unfilmed portions of this script to add a bit more depth to parts of this episode. The car scene between Lee and Amanda is based on a bit of dialogue from the script in which Lee was hungover due to celebrating with the gang, I just added my own preceding scene to it. Part of the scene between Lee and Dotty as Lee is leaving is also from the script.
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After leaving the airport, once everyone had cleaned themselves up and changed out of their disguises, Yusef had insisted on celebrating their small victory over Addi Birol. Amanda held onto a tipsy Lee as they made their way out of the bullpen, Yusef and the others cheering behind them. "Amanda, I'm not that drunk," Lee protested as she guided him into the elevator. "I can walk just fine on my own."
She laughed and responded, "Well, maybe I just like having my arms around you."
"Yeah?" He gave her a flirtatious smile.
"Mm-hmm..." she confirmed.
He leaned in to kiss her, but she stopped him with a shake of her head and a nod toward the camera in the corner. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," he grumbled. He remembered all too well what had happened the last night they'd gotten close in the elevator.
They rode together in silence while passing charged looks back and forth between them until the elevator opened at the parking garage level where Amanda had left her car. "Come on." She took his hand in hers and gestured toward the Wagoneer. "I'll drive you home."
She had just opened the passenger door of the car when he inquired, "You coming home with me?" he whispered as he pressed against her and nipped at her neck.
"I can't tonight. I need to spend some time with the boys before they go off to Joe's for the weekend." She leaned her head back to allow him better access to her neck, a sigh escaping her lips as he plundered the soft skin there with his mouth.
"What can I do to convince you," he murmured into her ear while he pushed her into the passenger seat and reached for the lever to lower it to a reclining position.
"Lee!" she squealed but before she could protest much further, he was in the seat with her, hovering above her. Unable to resist the dark look of desire in his eyes illuminated by the faint glow of the garage lights, she pulled him down to her and then it became a frenzied tug-of-war as the pair fumbled with buttons and zippers, all the while kissing feverishly.
Lee pulled back from their kiss for a moment, breathing heavily as he slipped his hand between them and under her skirt. When she let out a gasp, he teased in a low, gravelly voice, "Convinced yet?"
"Lee, please," she implored, the plea in her tone and in her eyes, a contradictory mix of begging him to continue and not to make her choose between him and her children.
"I understand," he acknowledged. He cupped her face with his free hand and whispered, "I love you," as he pushed himself inside her.
"I love you," she returned and pulled him down to her for another scorching kiss as he began to rock slowly into her, as this is all the small space would allow.
He let out a loud groan as she braced one high-heeled foot against the dashboard to allow him deeper penetration. He tore his mouth from hers and cried out her name as he felt her begin to tremble beneath him. "Yes, Amanda!"
Unable to form words any longer through her rapid breathing and pounding heart, Amanda let out a sharp, strangled cry as her release hit her full force, the look in his eyes as he soon followed sent her emotions reeling. She pulled him down to her once more. As she came down from her high with his heaving panting in her ear, her only thought was that she couldn't possibly love this man any more than she already did.
"Convinced...yet?" he growled as he lifted his head to look her in the eye, an impish twinkle in his own.
"Okay, okay, for a little while." When his expression turned to one of gloating, she quickly added, "But only for a little while. I can't stay."
True to her word, she stayed and kept him company for a while, but was surprised the next morning when she walked into the Q Bureau with her morning flowers and an envelope that Mrs. Marston had handed her and took a look at the drink he was mixing as he stood at his desk. She deposited her flowers in the vase on her desk, taking a moment to make sure they were straight and inquired, "How's the hangover?"
He looked at her sheepishly. "What are the chances of me denying it?"
"Zero." She nodded to the glass as she dropped her purse on her desk and the envelope on his. "When you're mixing a Virgin Mary at nine in the morning, you're whipped." She moved behind him and pressed him into his chair with a hand on each of his shoulders and then began to gently massage his temples.
"Mmm," he let out a contented sigh as he closed his eyes. "You're right. Remember being twenty-five? I'd go all night and shake it off with a cold shower and a strong pot of black coffee?"
"When I was twenty-five, I'd go all night with a crying baby. I wasn't pub-crawling through the Casbah like you were."
He opened his eyes then and looked up at her. "I'm not entirely to blame for my condition. Yusef kept handing out cigars and calling for another toast. I couldn't insult him." He leaned into her touch and closed his eyes again.
"Easy for Yusef. All he drinks is sparkling cider," she pointed out as she moved her hands to rub his closed eyes. "Do you even remember when I left?"
He reached up to clasp her hands, holding them in place over his eyes. "Ten," he stated firmly. "We walked out to your car." He grinned then. "It was dark...the seat goes WAY back...We-"
"I believe you," she cut him off, but then couldn't help smiling. "The seat does go way back, doesn't it?" She paused for a beat as the pair took a silent moment to smile at the shared memory. She let out a sigh that she knew it couldn't last. There was still work to be done. "If you feel up to focusing your eyes, they pulled some good stills off of the surveillance tape."
Lee nodded, took a moment to bring her hand to his lips and kissed her palm before sitting upright. "Thanks." He gave her an affectionate smile as she moved from behind his chair.
They went through the photos together, Lee pinning them to the board, one at a time as they discussed them and tried to plan their next move against Birol.
The conversation about Birol and Night Crawler came to a halt for a moment as Lee paused to study Amanda as she sat in his chair, fixing her with a long gaze directly into her eyes. "What are you looking at?" she questioned.
"You...I was thinking..." Could he do it now with so much on the line? No, he sternly told himself. Not the right time. Better to wait until Birol was behind bars where he belonged.
"What?"
"You...you're a whole lot better for a hangover than tomato juice."
"Flatterer." She smiled sweetly, but when he approached her, she held up one finger, shot him a cheeky grin and added, "Almost makes up for the fact that you begged me to come home with you, passed out ten minutes later, and now this morning, you've got the order of events all mixed up."
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"When a bachelor starts thinking about his pension, bring on the rice," Edna D'Angelo's words kept ringing through Amanda's head as she watched Lee at his desk going through the paperwork the older woman had left for him. As if feeling her gaze on him, he turned his head her way and gave her an nervous smile.
She quickly looked back at her completed class work, giving it a once over to make sure she hadn't missed anything. With a glowing smile on her face, she thought, You may be right, Mrs. D'Angelo. Of course, she'd had her suspicions for a while now; at least a couple of weeks since she'd seen the beautiful blue gift box in his kitchen drawer when she'd spent the night after wrapping the case with Zhmed. She hadn't opened it because that would have been an invasion of his privacy, but she could guess what was inside after his probing about her call with Sally Boyer last week. Now, that combined with Mrs. D'Angelo's comments, she was certain of what was on his mind.
Lee caught Amanda staring at him again and finally put the papers down, strolled over to her desk, sat on the edge of it facing her, took her hand in his and softly whispered, "Amanda..."
Her breath caught in her throat, a shiver of anticipation shooting up her spine, "Y-y-yes," she stammered. Was this it?
Lee was reaching into his pocket for the ring box he'd been carrying around when the door opened. He quickly released Amanda's hand and jumped up from his perch when Beaman walked in with a stern look at Amanda, "Amanda, you got your assignment done yet?"
"Oh, yes, here it is," Amanda chirped as she handed it to him.
"Humph, it was due yesterday," he reminded her.
"Billy gave her an extension, you know," Lee barked at Beaman. "Since she's helping me on the ATAC team, he thought that was more important. You know, actual work instead of theorized simulations."
Beaman's jaw clenched at Lee's words, but he bit back the retort on his lips at seeing the hard expression on the older agent's face. He nodded curtly to Amanda and said a clipped, "Thank you," before rapidly departing.
The mood broken, Lee sighed and flung himself back into his chair. When were they ever going to catch a break?
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Standing in the doorway between Amanda's kitchen and den, Lee couldn't help all the memories of her that washed over him. He saw her in everything around him, even the most mundane, the refrigerator that he'd rummaged through in search of half-and-half for his coffee, the kitchen island where they'd once made love, the sofa he'd slept on when he'd pretended to be dead, the breakfast table where he'd watched her interacting with her family so many times while he'd been lurking in the backyard. He let out a deep sigh. The time for lurking was over. He had wanted so badly for so long to be a part of her everyday life and just when he thought that they were getting closer... He shook his head to shake off those thoughts and that was when he caught the curious, probing look that Dotty West was giving him. He cleared his throat loudly and apologized. "I'm sorry. I was just..." He gestured ineffectually. "I was just thinking."
"I was just staring," Dotty responded baldly while still looking him up and down. So, this is my daughter's long-time lover, she thought. She could most definitely see why he'd captured her non-stop attention and why she'd found it so hard to stay away from him. "You have no idea how many times I've wondered about you."
Lee smiled, a bit pleased with her comment and amused by her forthrightness. He could see where Amanda came by that trait. "Well, the feeling's mutual," he replied honestly. He'd wanted to meet her mother face-to-face for a long time now. He'd just never imagined that it would be under these circumstances. He was more determined now than ever that the next time he saw Amanda, he'd bite the bullet and propose to her then and there. If you see her again, the skeptic in him taunted.
"Hmm," Dotty commented with a warm smile. Maybe her suspicion that it was only the nature of the job that had kept him from properly meeting the family and having an open relationship with her daughter was accurate and not her original thought of a couple of years ago that he was just a Romeo looking to score. He certainly didn't seem like the ruthless cad type. Not to mention that Amanda was generally a good judge of character, so it was likely that she wouldn't have continued carrying on with him in a romantic sense if she didn't trust him with her heart.
"I...um...I wanted to let you know that Amanda will be gone...um...at least another day." He hadn't realized that it would be this difficult to talk to Dotty face to face. After all, he'd spoken to her numerous times on the phone and courtesy of Amanda, he knew practically everything about her. But unlike the lie he'd told her, this was no social call. He needed to let her know, without letting her know, that Amanda wasn't going to be coming home tonight. He tried to keep his expression neutral and not let her see how terrified he was that she might not come home at all.
The phone rang then, giving him a blissful reprieve from the awkwardness that he felt. "Well, maybe that's her," Dotty suggested. "She usually calls when she goes out of town." She walked toward the ringing phone. "Fact is, she's usually with you," she added pointedly just before she picked up the phone. "It's for you, Mr. Stetson." She handed him the phone, rolled her eyes and in a voice dripping with sarcasm added, "I wonder why that doesn't surprise me."
As she listened to his phone conversation, her curiosity only grew. Clearly, he was trying to speak in code so she wouldn't know what was really going on. She couldn't help noticing the way he fidgeted nervously as he spoke in clipped tones to whoever the woman was on the other end of the line. Was she another agent? She'd identified herself as Francine Desmond from "IFF," but that didn't mean she was a spy. She could be just a receptionist or something, she supposed. She could swear the name sounded familiar to her, but she couldn't quite place it. Had Amanda mentioned her before?
When he turned with an obviously forced laugh about the crazy people at the office, she wondered what was really going on. Was Amanda in some kind of trouble? She thought of her words to him about how Amanda was usually with him on out-of-town assignments. She'd figured out that the two of them must be partners on the job as well in their personal life, so why wasn't he with her, wherever she was? Was this visit a precursor to preparing her for the news that her daughter might not be coming home at all? That thought disturbed her more than she cared to contemplate.
When he finished his phone call, he turned back to her, but before he could say anything, she jumped in with, "So, the office knows you're here apparently."
"Oh, yeah...uh...I told them I'd be stopping by to let you know that there was an equipment malfunction on the set of the new film Amanda's working on," he explained, using the carefully plotted-out cover story he'd come up with to justify Amanda's absence. "You know how modern technology can be. I'm actually going to be heading out with another crew to give them a hand, but production is halted until then."
"I see," she replied disbelievingly and folded her arms across her chest. "Exactly what kind of film are you working on this time?"
"Sorry, I can't give you any details. You know, since we work for the government, some of the stuff we do is classified."
"Humph," she snorted. "You know, you and Amanda, you sound an awful lot like that...that Mr. Melrose who was here when the two of you took off together."
"I...you know, that...um...that was just a mix-up," he sputtered awkwardly. "I...uh...I should go. We've got a deadline to meet." Did they ever, he thought grimly. If they didn't get to Birol before he actually tried to hurt her...or trade her...or worse, sell her... No, it's not gonna' happen. I'm not gonna' LET it happen, he argued with himself. He glanced at Dotty to find her staring at him again and hurried toward the landing to escape her intense gaze. Dammit! He cursed himself for letting his fear show on his face.
"I'll walk you out," Dotty offered.
Great. "Great," he replied with a cheerier disposition that he felt and quickly made his way across the landing and into the foyer, Dotty hot on his heels.
"Next time, I want to hear all the details of the grand adventure you went on with my daughter," Dotty gushed, thrilled at finally meeting the man who'd captured her daughter's attention for the past three years.
"It was all a big mistake," Lee answered as he shuffled his feet nervously at the front door of the King house.
"You sound just like Amanda. She hasn't told me enough about her job in the last three years to fill a post card." She put her hands on her hips and gave him a perturbed look as she thought of all the danger he and Amanda must have faced during their time together, yet neither seemed willing to share any details.
"It's pretty routine..." he hedged, but then in his mind questioned the use of that word. How he wished it was routine, or at least they could have some semblance of a routine life in between their harrowing adventures. Hell, he couldn't even find time to propose to her properly.
"But what routine?" When Dotty pounced on that word just as Lee had in his own thoughts, he couldn't help but smile slightly."She comes home soaking wet, scorched...sometimes she doesn't come home at all..." Dotty paused for a moment and gave him a pointed look. "I tell her to get married, put on a few extra pounds...There's a routine...Not a thrill a minute, but you don't get scorched."
"Sounds pretty good," Lee agreed with a smile. This time, he really did agree with her. He'd love to see Amanda get married, as long as he was the one she was marrying. He wouldn't even mind her adding a bit of weight to her svelte frame, especially if it were due to her carrying his child. Don't go there, Stetson, he scolded himself. You still haven't even asked her to marry you yet, let alone talked to her about the possibility of more children. Not to mention that the children she already has don't even know you.
He was pulled from his reverie by Dotty's exuberant voice. "Then you tell her," she stated emphatically with an all-too knowing look. "Maybe she listens to you better than she listens to me." She was pleased with the fact that he seemed to agree that marriage sounded good to him. Maybe it wasn't the job at all that had been keeping him away. Maybe it was her stubborn daughter playing cautious when she should be diving right in.
Lee laughed despite the dire situation, "Yeah, that'll be the day."
"You too, huh?" Dotty scrutinized his face, trying to discern what he was hiding behind his dimpled grin. "Between you and me, since Amanda won't say a word, are things serious between the two of you?" Lee opened his mouth to speak, but Dotty held up her hands to stop him. "And before you go telling me that you're not involved, you just work together, it's all business, or any other such nonsense, let me tell you...I've heard it all from Amanda and I don't believe a word of it from her either. I mean, I've seen the ruined clothes, grass stains on her nightgowns, torn to shreds pantyhose and underwear...or sometimes just missing..."
"I...um...I really can't talk about that." Lee flushed at Dotty's bluntness as he thought of all the times he was responsible for those things, including just last week.
"Why can't you?"
"I'm not the kind of guy to kiss and tell," Lee countered equally as bluntly as Dotty.
"So, you admit there's been kissing, at least? I've seen it with my own eyes, you know." She glanced out the door and nodded to his car at the curb. "For example, the two of you were out there one night...oh, about a year and half ago or so, leaned up against the very car you're driving right now, kissing so passionately that I thought that I might have to turn the hose on you."
"Um...listen, I've gotta' go if I'm gonna' meet Amanda. It was very nice to meet you finally." He reached to shake her hand as he had when he'd first arrived and trotted down the walk toward his car.
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Billy's words about how he should marry, and how he'd been a lone wolf too long, kept running through Lee's head as he and Amanda talked about how dire their situation was. He mentally cursed himself for letting his fear of it being the wrong time take over. It's now or never, he commanded himself as he knelt before Amanda and took her hands in his. "We might not make it out of this one."
Amanda shook her head as she fought back the tears that threatened. "Yeah, I know and that really stinks, doesn't it." She hung her head.
"Hey," Lee cajoled softly to get her attention as he gently lifted her head to face him. When she met his eyes, he continued with the speech he'd been practicing for weeks. "Amanda King, you are the best, the bravest, the smartest, most beautiful woman I have ever known..."
"I love you," she interrupted, touched by his words.
"Then will you marry me?" he finally asked.
Her eyes widened in surprise. She'd believed at first that he'd just been trying to boost her spirits as was his habit when they were in trouble. "Will I...marry you?" She repeated to be sure she wasn't hallucinating again. When he gave her a shy smile and a nod, she felt her heart soaring despite the danger they were in and couldn't help mimicking his infectious smile. "Oh, yeah, I'll marry you. We're the luckiest two people on the face of the earth." They shared a laugh and several sweet kisses to take a moment to celebrate before Lee got back to the list and then cuddled happily in one another's arms.
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A few days later after having some time to recover from their ordeal, Amanda sat down at her desk to find the blue box she'd seen in Lee's kitchen drawer a couple of weeks ago sitting in the center of it. She held her breath in anticipation as she untied the satin ribbon, not releasing it until she'd opened the velvet box inside. Her heart gave a little leap as she removed the ring from its cushioning, holding it aloft and watching the sparkling of the diamond as it caught the morning sunlight streaming in through the windows.
He'd picked the perfect ring for her, simple, classic and elegant. Once more, she thought she couldn't love him more if she tried. She didn't even care that his proposal hadn't been a traditional one; it was fitting to their relationship. Nothing about them from the beginning had been traditional, so why should their engagement be? She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even realize that he'd entered the room until he was in front of her and took the ring from her hand and wordlessly slipped in onto her finger. Awestruck, she gazed at it the entire time and marveled at the coolness of the metal against her skin. Finally, they beamed at one another as Lee held her hand and they shared a long, lingering kiss.