"What the hell is going on in here?" Lee demanded again.
Francine nodded to the pistol in his hand, "It's okay, Dirty Harry, you could put the gun away. You don't need it. Help me with her." Francine nodded again to Amanda's stiff form.
Lee breathed a sigh of relief as he tucked his gun away and helped Francine lower an immobile Amanda to the bed. "I...I thought..."
"You thought what?" Francine inquired. "What the hell did you think you needed the gun for?"
"I-I...I don't know what I thought, okay?" He raked his hand through his hair and let out a long breath. "I just know that I heard her screaming all the way from outside, heard you scream..."
"You didn't hear me scream," Francine denied.
"Yes, Francine I did. It was clearly your voice. You have a distinctly different voice from Amanda's."
"I..." Francine paused and thought for a moment. Had she screamed when Amanda had slapped her, or when she'd swung the lamp at her repeatedly? It had all happened so fast and she'd been trying as hard as she could just to resist the urge to pop Amanda a good one and put her lights out, but she knew that would only make Lee mad, so instead, she'd fought her off until she could get her to calm down. "I don't know, Lee. Maybe I did scream and it didn't register. It just all happened so fast."
"What all happened so fast? What exactly happened?" He knelt beside his prone fiancee' and was startled by what he saw. She was lying stock-still, her breathing shallow, but her eyes wide open, not even blinking. "What's wrong with her?" He turned on Francine. "Did you do something to her? I trusted you to take care of her! I wasn't gone ten minutes and you-"
"Now, just hold on one dame minute! I didn't do anything to her. She's the one who attacked me! I was just doing all I could to defend myself without hurting her!" She couldn't believe this. Lee as accusing her of hurting his precious Amanda after she'd busted her ass to help rescue her?
"That's impossible, Francine, I gave her a sedative two hours ago that should have knocked her out for at least four!"
"Well, it didn't! I don't know why it didn't, but it didn't! I mean, look at her. She may not be moving, but she's wide awake." The longer that Francine stared at her, the more she became creeped out by Amanda's stillness and by her unblinking eyes.
Lee turned back to Amanda, sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, and lightly caressed her cheek, unnerved by seeing not only no physical response, but zero response in her eyes. She was stock-still, her unmoving, unblinking eyes aimed at the ceiling. "Amanda?" He said softly. "Amanda, look at me," he repeated, panic creeping into his voice at her unresponsiveness. "I think she's in some kind of shock. We need to get her to a hospital."
"No, I don't think so," Francine said with a shake of her head. "I'm not a doctor, but I don't think this is shock."
"Amanda," he pleaded. "Amanda, please."
"Give it up, Lee," Francine said quietly. "You're not going to get a response out of her." She glanced at her watch. "Not for probably at least ten minutes."
"What?" Lee turned to Francine questioningly. "What do you know that I don't?"
Francine sighed. "What happened while you were gone, she...she was having a nightmare, mumbling about not being able to move. When I tried to snap her out of it, she jumped me, tried to take me out with your lamp." She nodded toward the lamp that was still behind her on the desk. "She thought I was Magda and I think she thought that Magda tried to hurt her,"
she explained. "I don't think she's quite coherent enough to realize that Magda was on our side, helping us."
"The zap gas, Magda was the one who set off the zap gas grenade" Lee nodded.
"That makes more sense now," Francine supposed. "It would have stunned her and Magda being the one who set it off, when she saw me, she...she thought it was me because Magda looks so much like me. She was still reliving her nightmare."
"Something in the paperwork Doc Kelford gave me said something about the mental stresses potentially having a physical impact." He looked at Amanda who was still lying there eerily still. "You think that maybe she's remembering the zap gas and acting like she's still under its effects?"
"Yeah."
"Can you...?" He gestured toward the bedroom door. When Francine nodded and exited the room, closing the door behind her, he turned back to Amanda and in a soothing tone, tried again to rouse her. "Amanda? Amanda, Honey, can you hear me? It's Lee." He clasped her hand in his, disturbed by her not clasping his in return the way that she normally would. "Listen, it is all over, there's no zap gas, no Magda, no Birol, no white room, no terrorists. He leaned in and lightly brushed his lips against hers. "It's just us, Amanda." He brushed her disheveled hair from her face. "I don't know what to do to make you see that this is real, that you're safe now, that our baby's safe now and that I'm never, ever going to let anybody hurt you again, but I'm not giving up until you do." He brought her hand to his lips and bowed his head against it, closed his eyes and whispered "I love you so much. This is killing me."
Amanda looked at Lee, his bowed head, hearing his words, remembering one of her hallucinations of Lee rescuing her, of him saying the same words, assuring her that he was coming to get her just before he turned into Birol who then had backhanded her. She closed her eyes finally, silent tears sliding down her cheeks. That wasn't real, this is, she told herself as she relished the warm pressure of Lee's hand in hers. That wasn't real, this is, she repeated again and again in her mind. She had to do something to ease Lee's pain, if only she could make herself move. That wasn't real, this is. The phrase became her mantra as she gathered her strength.
Lee's head snapped up at feeling Amanda's hand relaxing in his, the gentle pressure of her squeezing his back. "Amanda?"He said hopefully.
"Lee," she replied, but it came out no more that a raspy, hoarse whisper.
"You with me?" He squeezed her hand again, elated when she squeezed it back, smiled and nodded.
"Throat...hurts." She swallowed hard trying to moisten her dry, raw throat.
Lee nodded. "You were screaming. Don't try to talk. Let me get you something to drink."
"No," she replied with a firm shake of her head as she tried to pull herself to a sitting position.
"You don't want a drink?" He looked at her in confusion. "You should try to drink something to soothe your throat...unless...unless...Is your stomach still upset?"
"No," she repeated a bit louder as she tried to force her voice to cooperate with her, finally sitting up fully. "My...my stomach's fine. I...I do want a drink, but I want to get up and get it myself."
"Amanda, no, you should be resting," Lee argued as he pulled his hand from hers and used both hands on her shoulders to gently to push her back to lie down.
"NO," she snapped as she fought against his efforts, pushing her hands against his chest. At seeing the pained look on his face. "I'm sorry," she said sheepishly. "I...I'm tired of resting. I've rested enough."
"Amanda, you were kept awake for three days," Lee countered.
"And I've slept for almost a whole day to make up for it. What I need right now is to get up and get active to get my bearings back. I need to be doing something."
Lee chuckled softly as he recalled his own manic activity of the morning that had driven Francine nuts. "Okay," he responded with a smile as he rose from the bed and reached for her hand to help her up. "We'll get you some juice or something for your throat and maybe an ice pack for that wicked right hook of yours." He nodded toward her slightly swollen knuckles.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that too," Amanda apologized as she glanced down at her hand, and then raised her hand to caress his swollen face. "Really sorry."
"Don't sweat it," Lee answered with a shrug. He lightly touched the bruise on her face and quipped, "Now. we match."
Amanda couldn't help the soft chuckle that escaped her at his attempt at humor "Perfect couple," she mused as she linked her fingers with his and they strolled leisurely into the living room together. "You know I should apologize to Francine too. Is she still here?"
"Yeah, she said she'd stick around in case we needed her. Here," Lee gestured to the couch. "If you won't lie down and relax, will you at least sit down and relax?" When Amanda gave him a look. "Humor me, okay? It'll make me worry less."
"Really?" She said skeptically, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Okay, maybe it won't make me worry less, but it'll make me feel better to know that you're at least taking it a little easy."
"Lee..." she began in a warning tone.
"Okay, how would you feel if it were me? If our positions were reversed?"
"Our positions couldn't be reversed. You can't get pregnant," Amanda fired back with a smirk.
"All the more reason for you to take it easy, now just don't argue with me for once, huh?" He guided her toward the couch.
"Okay, okay," Amanda said holding her hands up in mock surrender as she sat. "But you're going to have to stop babying me some time."
"I'll remember that you said that the next time Billy decides to up your rank to make me take care of myself," Lee countered, a mirthful grin on his face at seeing her sense of humor returning. "What do you want to drink?" Juice? Tea?"
"Milk." Off his surprised look, she explained, "It'll help soothe my sore throat, plus it's good for the baby."
"I know, but the instructions from the doctor said to lay off dairy until we knew how your stomach would react."
"My stomach's fine," Amanda stated firmly. "Not even queasy."
"Amanda, you were just tossing your cookies all over the place a couple of hours ago." He looked at her in concern, not wanting to see her sick again.
"I know," she sighed. "But that was a...Um...a-a fear response. Dr. Kelford said that might happen until I stop having nightmares and weird visions; that it might bring on the nausea associated with my pregnancy when I normally wouldn't be sick."
Lee nodded as he recalled the doctor saying something similar to him, about her psychological trauma making the pregnancy symptoms worse. "Are you sure you wanna' risk it?"
"I'm sure. I need to start drinking more milk for the baby's sake. Besides, if it does make me sick, the bathroom's not that far away."
"Okay," Lee replied with a shake of his head, still skeptical, but also wanting to keep her calm and happy to avoid another episode. He walked into his kitchen to find his dishes had been done and put away and that Francine was at the cutting board, chopping furiously."What are you doing?"he asked as he retried the milk from the fridge and poured Amanda a glass.
"Playing backgammon," She replied with her typical sarcasm and a roll of her eyes. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm chopping celery."
"I see that, but why?" Setting the glass down, he rummaged through his cupboards until he found his ice pack, then began filling it with ice.
"Well, you invited Amanda's mom for lunch and since you have your hands full with Amanda, I thought I'd help out."
"I don't know how much help that will be once Mrs. West samples your cooking," He quipped.
"Ha-ha. I will have you know that I do know how to do some things in the kitchen. Chicken salad happens to be one of them and you had all this leftover chicken in the fridge so..."
"I appreciate the effort, Francine, really, but I don't know that chicken salad's the best idea...for Amanda, I mean, not when she's still reliving memories from the past."
"Well, if she jumps off the deep end again, we'll both be there to throw her a life preserver," Francine replied with a stern look. "Besides, don't the shrinks always say that it's better to face your fears anyway? Who knows? Maybe it'll be good for her."
Lee shrugged. "Who knows? At this point, I'm not sure anymore what'll set her off and what won't. I just know that I have to keep trying to keep her focused on reality." He put the milk carton away and picked up the glass and the ice pack. "I...uh...I should get back to her."
"I'll be here if you need me," Francine answered as she turned back to her task while Lee re-entered the living room.
"Here you go," He said as he handed Amanda her glass and sat beside her. "You should probably take it kinda' slow, just to be safe." He set the ice pack down on the coffee table with a nod toward it. "In case you need it.
Amanda nodded as she sipped at it and then fixed Lee with a stern look. "Lee, we need to have a talk."
"About what?"
"About the sedative you gave me when I specifically said that I didn't want to take it."
"Amanda, you needed the sleep," Lee argued.
"No, what I needed was you...just you. I think the sedative just made my mind go a little more crazy, make it a little more mixed-up."
"Amanda..."
"Don't, Lee, please. I'm not mad, but I want you to understand that while I appreciate the thought and love that you want to take care of me, if I ask you not to do something, please respect that, no matter what you think is best for me."
"Amanda, what was I supposed to do, huh? You were acting like a lunatic, talking about how Quidd was trying to hurt you, trying to hurt the baby, you hurled accusations at me as if I were Birol. I-I-I didn't know what else to do to keep you calm."
Amanda looked at him for a moment lost in thought as she sipped at her milk. After a moment, she set the glass aside and slid her arms around his neck and answered, "You wanna' keep me calm?" She lightly brushed her lips against his. "This keeps me calm. Having you here with me keeps me calm. Sleeping in that bed alone doesn't, not without you beside me." She removed her left hand from his neck, gazing for a moment at the diamond ring there and added, "I think we should work as fast as we can to make sure that you're sleeping beside me every night."
"Yeah?" he said as he slipped his hands around her waist.
"Yeah." Amanda nodded and tugged on the back of his head to meet him for another kiss. Their lips had just met when there was a knock on the door.
"Hold that thought," Lee said as he rose from the couch. He couldn't help noticing how Amanda tensed at the sound of the knock. "It's okay, Amanda. I invited your mom for lunch. That's probably her. I thought that maybe she could help you too. I thought it's time she knew the truth."