TSK

Chapter Twenty-two

Part 1

6:40 AM

Lee Stetson had finished with his shower and shaving but he had not gotten dressed yet. Wearing nothing but the towel wrapped around his waist, he headed back out to the bedroom. If he'd finished just a moment earlier, he would have heard the telephone downstairs ringing.

He sat down on the bed, next to Amanda, and stroked her cheek lightly with his hand.

"Manda," he whispered her name softly.

"Hmm," she mumbled.

"Sweetheart, you might want to think about waking up," he told her.

"No," she replied, pulling the cover all the way up, hiding her beautiful face from her husband.

"Hey," he chuckled. "Come on Manda. The sooner I take you into Kelford's office, the sooner I can bring you home and tuck you right back into bed."

The muffled response she gave him was incomprehensible but Lee was positive that she was not agreeing with his logic.

"Amanda."

"Go..away," she told him.

"Gee, and after last night, I thought meant something to you," he told her teasingly.

That brought her back out from beneath the blanket, wearing the saddest expression Lee swore he had ever seen.

"I'm sorry," she sniffled. "I just want to sleep."

Lee leaned down and kissed her lips lightly.

"I know you do, but trust me, by this evening you'll be feeling better. Kelford's always got good drugs."

Slowly, she struggled to sit up and Lee helped her, until she was cradled against his chest. He frowned as he could feel her slender body shake from coughing.

"You must feel miserable," he told her as he rubbed her back.

"Yeah," she told him.

"Why don't I go start a hot shower for you, okay?"

She raised her face and looked at him.

"I love you."

"Mrs. Stetson, I love you. Now let me go get that shower started for you."

Part 2

William Melrose sighed in frustration. He wasn't against personal time and he certainly had nothing against Lee and Amanda's private relationship, whatever it might be. But this, this was ridiculous.

Then he smiled to himself as an old memory of how he and Jeannie had been when they had first married.

Okay, so maybe Lee and Amanda weren't married, but this was the eighties and young people did do things differently. There was no doubt to the Section Chief that those two were hopelessly, far past gone, head-over-heels in love with one another.

If there had been any doubt in his mind, the changes that he had seen between them since Amanda's accident in California had erased them, certifying to him, at least, the true nature of the relationship.

Billy gave them credit. They tried, very hard, to maintain an aura of professionalism within the work place. There were very limited displays of public affection and even then, those were usually when they both believed nobody was looking.

But, all one had to do was look a little deeper and the signs were all there. Lee's persistence in keeping Amanda out of the field, their concern for one another, the fact that nine times out of ten Scarecrow was reachable at Amanda's house and not his apartment.

The only thing missing, as far as Billy was concerned, were the wedding rings. And even that, he didn't think was too far down the road. Billy wasn't exactly sure when it had happened, but, at some point, those two had finally come to their senses and acknowledged what he had seen a long time ago.

Maybe it had been during the Stemwinder case, when Amanda had, much to the surprise of many, gone right along with Scarecrow when he went on the run. If not, then Billy knew it had to have been either shortly before or after, because by the time Birol had kidnapped Amanda, there had been no doubt, in his eyes, that Lee Stetson was in love with the pretty brunette.

Along the way, after all of that, there had been other little signs, but the biggest telltale had to have been their simultaneous vacations in February.

"Nothing short of the end of civilization," Billy chuckled. "I believe he said something similar when I suggested pairing them together. It was only a matter of time."

And, speaking of time, Billy thought, they've had as much as I can give them. They either answer the phone this time around or I am sending an escort to bring them, in whatever condition the escort finds them.

"I just hope they're dressed," Billy mumbled as he picked up the phone and began dialing the number, yet again.