Lee looked toward the doorway of his dining room and could help smiling at the sight in front of him. Amanda stood there in the new robe he'd bought her and it was clear from the way it clung to her figure that she wore nothing beneath it; her damp hair was pulled back in a large clip at the back of her head except for a few curly tendrils that framed her lovely face. In spite of the bruise, she was a vision. He couldn't help the wave of desire that coursed through him at seeing her, but now was not the time for that, not when she needed healing. He crossed to her, brushed a light kiss to her lips and said, "It looks good on you.' He kissed her again and then smiled brightly at her.
Amanda flushed slightly at his intense scrutiny of her then smiled warmly at him. "Well, you know, the doctor said I should wear loose-fitting clothing to help keep me from getting dehydrated again and you were thoughtful enough to give me this, so I..."
Lee slid his arm behind her and said, "Come on, let's get something in your stomach," as he guided her to her seat at the table helping her into it before taking his own. "Now, in the instructions Dr. Kelford gave me, he said you oughtta' take it slow, little sips until we know that your stomach can handle it."
Amanda nodded and reached for her spoon and that was when she saw the small velvet box next to her drinking glass. Her eyes widened and she turned to Lee with a coy smile and said, "What's that?"
"What's what?" Lee replied obtusely as he took a bite of the sandwich he'd made for himself with the chicken he'd used to make the broth for her. He gave her a wink as he chewed slowly.
Amanda gave him her scolding mom look and replied insistently, "That," with a nod toward the ring box.
Lee slid from his seat, scooping up the ring box as he did and teased, "Oh, you mean this?"
"Yes, that," Amanda answered, trying her best to look irritated with him, but found that she couldn't with the way he was grinning at her.
"Oh, well, this...this is something else that I bought for you, only this I bought more than a week ago. In fact, I bought it more than a month ago," Lee explained as he opened the box to show her the contents, his smile only widening at the look of delight in her eyes."...Before I even told you that I love you." He needed her to know that he hadn't bought it on a whim as he had with the robe; that he'd wanted to marry her for a long time. "I...um...was originally going to give it to you that night at Emelio's, that night that Norman called us regulars, but then Sonya showed up and that kind of ruined it."
"Oh," she replied softly, her eyes transfixed on the diamond ring. "So...um...the question that I asked you earlier about us being engaged..." She paused, took in a breath and finally tearing her eyes from the ring and looking into his, she asked, "Does this mean we are? You never did answer my question."
"Well, that depends on you and how you answer my question," Lee answered. He then pulled the ring from the box, set the box aside, knelt before her, taking her left hand in his right and trying to get the words right to spark her memory, said, "Amanda King, you are the best, the bravest, most beautiful woman I have ever known."
Amanda's eyes lit up at Lee's words, happy tears stinging her eyes as the memory washed over her. "It was real!" she exclaimed. "You did ask me to marry you!' She launched herself at him, flinging her arms around his neck, peppering his face with kisses, knocking them both to the floor.
Lee breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't lost his grip on her ring and that she was now remembering their brief time together in Addi Birol's hideout. He used his free hand to pull her head down for a long, lingering kiss and once their kiss ended, he told her, "Yes, I asked you to marry me, but if you need me to ask again, I will. I'll ask as many times as it takes to get you to say yes."
"No, Lee," Amanda said with a firm nod as she lightly brushed her lips against his, "You don't need to ask me again. I already said yes once and I meant it."
"Good." Lee nodded and then reached for her hand again, sliding the ring that he'd so carefully picked out for her onto her finger.
"It's beautiful," Amanda mused gazing at her hand for just a moment before planting a firm kiss to his lips. When it ended, she gushed, "We're the luckiest two people on the face of the earth."
Lee laughed heartily and was about to respond, but was interrupted by her stomach growling loudly again. "We better get you and our baby fed."
"Yeah," Amanda agreed as they picked themselves up off the floor and returned to their seats.
"I brought you some crackers to go with that too," Lee indicated with a nod of his head. "If you think your stomach can handle them, that is. Crackers are supposed to help with nausea."
"I'll give it a try," Amanda responded as she reached for one of them and took a tiny nibble. "I feel like I haven't eaten in a year."
Lee watched her for a moment as she took little sips of her broth and minute bites of her crackers, wondering if he should ask her the question that was now plaguing him at her response to his repeating the words he'd said to her during his first proposal. He took another bite of his chicken sandwich, chewing thoughtfully as he worked out in his mind how to phrase the question that he wanted to ask. "Amanda?"
"Hmm?" She looked at him inquisitively.
"There's something that I don't understand. You...um...you said a minute ago, 'it was real,' but...um...Francine said that you...that you didn't remember me asking you to marry me."
Amanda rolled her eyes at the thought of her conversation with Francine and explained, "I never told her any such thing."
"You didn't?" Lee asked hopefully.
"No, I didn't," Amanda stated firmly, looking him square in the eye. "What I told her and Billy was that I didn't know if you proposed or not. I never once said that I didn't remember it. I remembered every word you said and I hoped it was real, but everything...everything has been so scrambled in my mind that it's taking me some time to sort out what's real and what's not. Do you remember when you got there how I reacted?'
"Yeah, you said you could actually feel me and that it was the best hallucination yet." The realization of her words hit him like a ton of bricks. "Oh, you thought my proposal was just another hallucination."
Amanda nodded. "I hoped it wasn't, but you don't know what it was like for me. I kept trying and trying to cling to the hope that you'd come for me, that you'd somehow get me out of there and save the day. The longer I was there and the more that Birol kept me deprived of my senses, the more my thoughts of you turned into visions of you." She paused and took a deep shuddering breath, turning her attention back to her broth for a moment, taking another small sip of it as she tried to compose herself from the panic that was beginning to set in again. Without looking up, she continued her explanation. "But then he'd be there and your face became his, the sound of your voice became the sound of his and by the time you really were there, I-I-I just couldn't quite believe that it was real, that you were really there, that you really asked me to marry you. I kept waiting for you to turn into him again." Lee nodded and just kept his gaze on her, his sandwich forgotten. "Then when Dr. Quidd kept asking me questions about my experience and I was telling him about my hallucinations, I explained it to him just like I'm explaining it to you now and he told me that I had to block out those fantasy images of you and just focus on what Birol did to me because I might be needed to testify against him in the future and I had to be able to do that with a clear mind. He told me that none of those images were real and I had to focus on what was."
"That son of a bitch," Lee growled.
"Lee, don't," Amanda said as she placed a calming hand on his arm. "He was just doing his job. You know, we're both kind of to blame for his thinking that way. If we hadn't been sneaking around as if we have something to be ashamed of, there wouldn't have been a question of whether your proposal was real or not."
"I guess," Lee replied dubiously. "I'm just glad we got that all straightened out." He smiled affectionately at her and nodded toward the ring he'd placed on her finger. "You know your mom will be happy to see that when I take you home. She...uh...she gave me kind of a hard time when I went to get your things."
"Yeah, I can see that. She's been bending my ear about you more than ever since we ran off together. She...um...she knows...about the baby, I mean."
"You told her before you told me?" Lee blurted out without thinking.
At seeing the hurt look on his face, Amanda again patted his arm and explained, "No, I didn't tell her, she just knows. She's been questioning me about it for the past two weeks, but I...um...I only found out for sure myself right before all this mess started. I wanted to tell you so badly, but then when Mrs. D'Angelo showed up talking about how you'd requested your pension and benefits information and how bachelors only do that when they're thinking of getting married, I...um...I wanted to wait. I didn't want to rush you or make you think that we had to get married because of the baby. I...um...I've been down that road before and it didn't end well."
"Yeah, I know. I've seen all your background stuff, remember? Speaking of which, we're gonna' have to figure out what to tell the boys. When I was at the house, Phillip asked me very bluntly if I was your boyfriend." Having finished his sandwich and seeing that Amanda had finished her broth, he nodded to her empty bowl, "There's more on the stove if you want it."
Amanda shook her head. "I'm good. Let's just make sure this stays down first. I don't want to overdo it by filling my stomach too much."
"Okay," He replied and began clearing the table.
Amanda rose to help him, following him into the kitchen, "So, what did you tell Phillip?"
"The truth," Lee answered honestly. "Or, well, sort of, I was kind of on the spot. Joe was there giving me this...this look, then your mother got involved and it was...I was thinking that with a baby on the way, I had to tell them something about us, you know?"
"I'm glad you did," Amanda replied. "I've been trying to figure out how to bring up the subject to my family ever since we...ever since I got home after that whole Stemwinder mess. I knew that if it turned out that I was pregnant, they'd have to know about you, about us."
"Now that we're getting married, they'll have to get used to me being around."
"I know," Amanda replied as she stifled a yawn. "We'll have to figure that out."
"Well, we'll figure it out another time," Lee stated. "Right now, we should get you to bed. You're exhausted and to tell you the truth, so am I. I...um...I haven't slept since Birol took you."
"Yeah, that sounds like a plan. We can talk more in the morning about what we're gonna' do."
"Good." Lee took her hand and they walked to the bedroom together. As they began to get undressed for bed, Lee's eyes flared in anger at the ugly bruise on just above Amanda's right elbow. "Did Birol do that to you?"
Amanda nodded slowly and replied, "Yeah, the day he took me. When I was in the van, he...uh...he grabbed my arm hard and shoved a gun in my face. I-I-I tried to get away, but I...Um...I wasn't quick enough. It...it all happened so fast and I-I-I was so scared."
Lee folded her in his arms and lightly kissed her forehead. "Shh, you don't have to be scared anymore. You're safe now and we're together."
"And we have a great future to look forward to," Amanda added with an elated smile as she gazed fondly at her engagement ring.
They finished getting ready for bed in silence. Once Lee got Amanda settled into bed, turned out the light and walked away from her side of the bed, she realized that he was not getting in beside her.
"Lee, wait, don't go," she cried in a panic just as she had when held prisoner and her visions of him disappeared.
Lee turned toward her and said, gently, "Amanda, I'm not going anywhere. I was just going to crack the window open the way you like it. I'll be right there." He did as he said he would and slid under the covers beside her.
Amanda wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him tightly. "Don't go," she pleaded. She was just starting to feel as if she were getting her head together, but she couldn't help the nagging feeling that if she let him go, she would wake up to find that she was still in Addi Birol's lair and that him rescuing her had been just one more figment of her imagination.