Bring on the Rice

Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. The plot is mine, but not the characters. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

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After Edna D'Angelo had left, Lee gave a quick glance to the post-it she'd stuck to his tie and shook his head as he made his way to his desk to peruse the precious documents she'd left for him. He'd overheard Edna's last comment to Amanda about bringing on the rice and he had to admit that she wasn't wrong. He just hoped that she hadn't figured out that it was Amanda he wanted to spend his life with. He mentally kicked himself for not telling her ahead of time to keep her research into his retirement and benefits information to herself.

As he began reviewing the paperwork, he couldn't help casting a glance Amanda's way and found her with a timid and obviously curious smile on her face. He silently smiled back, a bit nervously at the knowing look she was giving him. When she hastily looked away and pretended suddenly to be very engrossed in work, he breathed a sigh of relief and returned to his task, but he found it nearly impossible to focus with her right there. He glanced over at her again and found she was still looking down at the paperwork on her desk.

Lee couldn't help smiling as he thought of her and what a contradiction she could be. One on hand, she was this tough-as-nails agent-in-training who could use her withering "Mom" look on a bad guy just as easily as she could on her children. On the other, she was the very definition of the mythological earth mother, caring, nurturing, and often wearing her heart on her sleeve, one who could be easily hurt by seeing others, even total strangers, in pain. That was just one more piece of her that made her such a good agent and a good partner, not to mention made her the best n the business at Class C interrogations.

He scratched his head and let out another deep sigh as he turned back to his benefits paperwork, drawing her attention to him again. "What?" she said with a look of both concern and curiosity on her expressive face.

"Nothing," He replied and averted his eyes from hers knowing that if he stared too long into her warm chocolate eyes, he'd be lost and blow the whole thing and he wanted to surprise her the way that she was always surprising him.

Silence once again filled the room as he tried to force himself to concentrate, but found his thoughts drifting again, to just how contradictory she was. She believed in being honest and having integrity, but yet she could spin a yarn to her mother about what she really did for a living, justifying the lies she told her by arguing that she was protecting her. As much as she valued honesty, she could also play a cover with the best of them and make it completely convincing. He knew that skill would come in handy in the upcoming mission to nab Addi Birol once and for all. He beamed with pride at how far she'd come in her time at The Agency. No longer were the cover stories awkward for her; instead they seemed to be just another part of her.

His mind continued to wander as he mentally put his plan in motion to take the next step in his relationship with her. He wondered what new things he might learn about her in that process. Every time that he thought he knew everything there was to know about her, something new completely floored him. There were times that he marveled at her child-like naiveté...no, not naiveté, he corrected himself. Innocence was a better word. She always wanted to believe the best about people, trust that they were on the level, even the bad guys. There were times that her innocence had gotten her into trouble, like the time she'd been dating Alan Squires. He chuckled softly to himself about that one as he thought that he himself wouldn't be giving her a "friendship" ring.

Lee sneaked a glance at her again engrossed in her task and couldn't help thinking of the moments that her seeming innocence completely disappeared. When they were alone in the privacy of him home, there was nothing at all innocent about her, no child-like nature there. She was all woman; more than that, she was a fierce tigress devouring her prey. She had many times consumed him until he felt there would be nothing left of him. She was a raging forest fire, setting him alight, leaving him with a feeling that he'd be burned alive. He'd never imagined when he first met her that she'd be so explosive, that the two of them together would be so much like the nuclear bomb they'd once had to defuse. There was no defusing this one though. The best thing to do was let it detonate and deal with the fallout.

He shifted a little uncomfortably in his seat as the thought of their nights of passion began a stirring in his loins that he couldn't control, finding himself very grateful that he was seated behind his desk. He forced his attention back to the documents in front of him and nearly jumped out of his skin at feeling her hand on his shoulder. He had been so lost in his own little world that he hadn't even heard her get up. "Don't do that!" he yelped as he tried to hide the contents of the envelope Edna had delivered from her prying eyes.

Amusement playing across her lips, Amanda teased, "Now, you know how it feels."

"Yeah," He replied conceding defeat, something he should have done when he'd first met her. He'd known from the beginning that there was something different about her. He'd contemplated over and over again what had made him choose her out of all the people in the train station and he'd finally figured out that he'd had this sense...some unexplainable sense that told him that he could trust her with his life. Now, he was trusting her not only with his life, but something much more fragile...his heart. The same sense that had told him that he could place his life in her hands, told him that his heart would be safe in her gentle hands as well.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm heading downstairs to turn this class assignment into Beaman," Amanda told him.

"Yeah, okay," He nodded in acknowledgement with a slight smile.

"Seeya' later," she said as she leaned in to brush a soft kiss to his lips before departing.

"Seeya'" he replied softly after she'd left. Yes, he would. He knew it and she knew it. He dug his keys out of his pocket, unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk, gently extracted the small, blue box from it, opened it and stared for a long moment at the sparking diamond within. "I'm gonna' marry you, Amanda King," he said to the empty office.

How and when he was going to give her that ring, he didn't quite know yet, though he knew it would have to be after they wrapped up the Birol case. He didn't want anything work-related intruding on the moment. He let out a deep sigh as he carefully put the ring back in its box and re-tied the white satin ribbon, and then placed it back under lock and key. He set about reviewing his paperwork in earnest and couldn't help replaying Edna's words in his head once again. "Bring on the rice," he stated firmly. "Bring on the rice."