Lee's proclamation was met with a knowing smile from Billy, an arched eyebrow from Quidd, a worried frown from Kelford, and a stunned wide-eyed look from Francine as they stood in silence, all eyes on Lee.
The awkward silence was finally broken by Francine with, "I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?" when she finally found her voice again.
"You heard me, Francine. The baby Amanda's carrying; it's mine. That's why you..." he nodded his head toward Dr. Kelford and then pointed an accusing finger at Dr. Quidd, "...and especially you, aren't laying a hand on her. You got me?"
"You do realize that if we don't give her the antidote, that's only going to prolong her recovery, make her suffer longer," Quidd stated plainly.
"Well, let me ask you this; will she recover without them and still keep our baby safe?"
"Yes," Dr. Kelford answered before Quidd could answer with something negative that would set Lee off again.
"Eventually," Quidd added. "That is, if we can somehow bring her back to reality and help her to separate her delusions from the reality, but that's a-'
"Knowing what we know now, you might be helpful in doing that," Kelford said, cutting Quidd off before he could fully voice his pessimism.
"Then I don't care as long as she recovers," Lee countered. He knew that with the way Amanda loved her children, the way that she'd told him there was only one option for her if she were pregnant, that she'd never forgive him for allowing something to happen to their unborn child if he could do something to prevent it. "You're not doing anything that's going to harm my child. Do you hear me?" He had promised Amanda that he'd live up to his responsibility and that was exactly what he was doing.
"Lee, are you sure that's what's best for her," Billy asked him, his dark eyes seeming even darker with worry.
"I made a promise to her, to stand by her and damn it, Billy, that's what I'm going to do! I already let her down once by not protecting her. God, what kind of father am I going to be if I can't protect my family?"
"Lee, you can't keep blaming yourself."
"Why not? It's my fault. You put me in charge of this operation and I failed. Not only did we not get Birol, but he got Amanda and did God knows what to her, did God knows what to our son or daughter."
"Lee, stop it, Man. Don't do this to yourself. You put Amanda where you thought she'd be safe. None of us could have predicted what Birol was going to do, especially when his own people didn't even know what he was up to."
"I should have known, should have known something wasn't right about it, should have done something. He began pacing, running a hand through his hair as he talked. "God, look at me. My child isn't even born yet and I'm already failing as a father."
"I'm sorry. One more time," Francine said still thrown by the bombshell Lee had just dropped. "I'm just still having trouble hearing you referring to yourself as a father."
"Come on, Francine. How many ways can I say it? That's my child in there," He gestured wildly toward the room on the opposite side of the hall, "Amanda's and mine."
"O-kay," she said looking at him skeptically. "You mean that you and Amanda-" she broke off abruptly unable to even finish thinking what she was about to say.
"What?" Lee snapped. "Go ahead and finish!'
"You slept with her," Francine said softly.
Lee glared at the blonde and said, "How else do you think it would have happened?"
"Does that really surprise you given Scarecrow's reputation?" Quidd interjected, earning him a murderous look from Lee much like the one he'd word in Billy's office a few days ago after Amanda had first been taken when Quidd had threatened him with a medical order to keep him off Amanda's case.
"Hey, hey, hey," Billy cut in before the debate could escalate, recognizing that look in Lee's eyes. He then turned toward Lee and questioned with a concerned look of his own. "Did you know that she was pregnant?"
"No, not until just now. I'd never have risked putting her anywhere close to the line of fire if I had," Lee answered. "I...Um...I mean, we...we both knew that it was a possibility, but we didn't know for sure." He was silent for a beat as he thought back to Birol's words, how he'd taunted him about Amanda pleading for the life of her unborn child. "Or at least, I didn't"
"You think Amanda knew and didn't tell you?"
Lee raked a hand through his hand and let out a sigh, "I don't know. I-I just don't know, okay? Birol said something..." he trailed off.
"How did this happen?" Francine asked with the stunned look still on her face.
"How do you think it happened, Francine?" Lee asked incredulously. "What, do you want a play by play? Surely, as much as you've been around, you know how babies are made."
Billy chuckled and said, "He makes a good point."
Francine rolled her eyes at her boss, and then turned a cool glare on Lee. "Yes, I know and you know something, I may have been around the block a few times, but you've been around that whole damn world!" She jabbed a finger into his chest.
"Francine, cool it," Billy warned.
Francine took a deep breath and in a softer tone, "You know what I mean, Billy. Typically, it's not like Lee to be reckless in that type of situation."
"You oughtta' know," Lee fired back. Francine shot him another icy glare. Lee sighed and said, "Look, you're right. I've never typically let my guard down before, but our situation wasn't typical," Lee said as he thought of how similar this conversation was to the one he'd had with Amanda about it on her back porch. "We were on the run from our own people, being hunted down by the KGB and not knowing if we'd ever get out of the mess we were in, we...Um... Well, neither one of us was prepared and we...we got a little careless."
"Stemwinder," Billy said softly.
"Yeah." Lee nodded.
"Huh," Was Francine's reply. "Now, it makes total sense. I can just picture the whole scene. You, Amanda, on the run together in your cozy little hideout, with her scared out of her mind and you, lothario that you are, telling her how desperate your situation is and that you might die or end up in prison: pleading with her that you just might not have another chance."
Lee shook his head and laughed dryly, "Not bad, Francine, except for one thing..." He paused for a beat, gave her his best Romeo grin and said, "I wasn't the one doing the pleading, Amanda was."
"Mm-mm, I don't believe it," Francine said with a shake of her head.
"Believe it or don't, Francine. I don't care, but it's the truth," Lee retorted, his face hardened again.
"Even if it is, did you have to take advantage of the situation? I mean, come on, this is Amanda we're talking about."
"I didn't take advantage of anything," Lee said his voice rising as his anger flared again at her accusations. "This wasn't some tawdry one-night stand like you're making it out to be. I care very deeply about Amanda."
"Oh, I'm sure you do now that you know that she'll sleep with you," Francine fired back caustically.
"You want proof that I care about her as more than just a fling." He dug in his pocket, pulled out the ring box, and thrust it into her hand. "Here!"
"What's this?" Francine questioned, a bit awed. Surely, it couldn't be what she thought it was.
"Go on! Open it and find out!' Lee demanded.
Francine opened the box and gaped at the ring inside while Billy looked on in amusement. "It's...It's..."
"Yeah," Lee huffed. "I've been carrying that thing around with me for damn near six weeks straight looking for the perfect opportunity to give it to her, to ask her to be my wife."
"Does she know this?" Quidd asked.
"Not about the ring," Lee answered, "but after I was captured, I knew I might never have another chance to let her know how I feel about her. It was stupid, but I asked her to marry me then and there."
"You did?" Francine asked the surprise evident in her voice.
"Yes, I did," Lee said as he took the ring box back from her, glanced at the diamond within it for a moment. "I just didn't have this with me at the time because of the gear I was wearing when I broke into Birol's place to rescue her." He closed the box, put it back in his pocket and with a sneer toward Francine, said, "Now, do you see how serious I am about her?"
"Yeah," she replied softly. "I-I just...I'm surprised, that's all."
"I don't know why you're so surprised," Billy cut in. "You saw how upset, how worried he was when Birol nabbed her."
"Yeah, I know but I...I don't know. I guess I thought that it was still residual guilt over losing his previous partner. You know how Lee is with the self-induced guilt trip."
"That's not what this was about and don't you dare bring Andy into this!"Lee said testily. "What happened to him..." He clenched his jaw. "It...it wasn't fair. This isn't even close to the same thing!"
Billy, feeling the need to step in again and steer the conversation into safer territory, said to Francine, "Think about when we were investigating during that whole mess, we found out that they'd been seen numerous times together at Emelio's. You interviewed the bartender yourself who called them regulars. That tells me and should tell you too, that they've been seeing each other for awhile." He then turned his attention to Lee and asked, "Exactly how long have you been seeing each other. Socially, I mean."
Lee sighed and responded, "A little over a year now. Things just started getting really serious between us in May. We spent almost every night this summer going to movies or out to dinner or just hanging out spending time together."
As he described the evolution of his relationship with Amanda, his mind flashed back to one particular night during the summer.
"Mmm," Lee sighed in contentment on his sofa as he snaked his arms around his girlfriend, the kisses that they'd been sharing growing more heated by the minute, Amanda's hands locked behind his neck as they devoured one another.
When they finally broke apart both gasping for breath, Amanda rasped, "Wow."
"Mm-hmm," Lee concurred as he lightly grazed her lips again with his own.
Amanda leaned her head against his and said, "Thanks for dinner"
"Did you like it?" He asked as he idly stroked her back.
"Very much," she answered, kissed him once more and added, "but I think I like the dessert even better." She then scooted over into his lap and nibbled at the pulse point of his neck.
"Ohhh," Lee sighed at the contact.
Amanda trailed tiny kisses up his neck, then nipped at his earlobe and whispered huskily into his ear, "You know, Joe has the boys for two whole weeks of their summer vacation, so I don't have to be home anytime soon."
Alarm bells began sounding loudly in Lee's head at her words. She couldn't possibly mean what it sounded like she meant, could it? "Amanda, I...As nice as this is...You know, we do have to be at the office early in the morning." He then gently pushed her off his lap as he tried to control his raging desire for her not wanting to push her too far too fast and risk ruining things between them. He'd made that kind of mistake in the past and Amanda was too special to him to go down that road again. "It's...um...it's getting kind of late." He stood up and reached for her hand to pull her to her feet. "I...um...I mean, we... should get some rest." He walked to the door and opened it. "I'll walk you to your car."
"Um...Okay," Amanda said the disappointment evident in her voice.
As the memories washed over him, Lee realized just how dense he'd been in hurrying her out the door as he thought of the afternoon a few months later when she said she'd been dropping hints. How could he have been so stupid not to realize how much she had wanted to take their relationship to the next level? Of course, he didn't tell Billy or Francine any of that as he continued. "Then when we had to run, that was the first time that we-" he broke off, blushing slightly.
"And you weren't seeing anyone else during that whole time?" Francine queried, her voice still dripping with skepticism.
"No, Francine. I haven't even looked at another woman since-"
Lee's words were cut off by a loud shriek from Amanda's room of "LEE!"
"Amanda!' He cried as he made his way to her room, but found his path blocked by Quidd.