Author's Note: This chapter ended up being much longer than I had intended it to be, but there was so much I wanted to include in it, and I couldn't find a good stopping point. I hope you all enjoy it.
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The event for the day was a set of field day games, relay race, three-legged race and other physically demanding challenges. As Lee and Amanda walked through the woods and approached the site of the games, Lee looked at Amanda worriedly and said, "Are you sure that you're up for this?"
"Lee, I'll be fine. Don't worry," Amanda said.
"I can't help it," he said as he stopped walking and reached for her hands. "I was so worried about you when you were so sick the other day."
"And I'm fine now. I can do this," she assured him. "If there's anything that I think will get too rough, or might hurt that baby, I'll get out right away, ok?"
"You promise?"Lee said not willing to give an inch when it came to his wife's safely.
"I promise," she said sealing the deal with a quick kiss to his lips. "Now, come on, let's get there so we can figure out what's going on."
As they moved on, Robert Murdoch stepped from behind the tree that he'd been using for cover to eavesdrop on them, "Baby, huh?" he said to himself with a smile thinking that could work to his advantage.
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Agents Grayson and Newton trudged up a hill on the outskirts of the state park both dressed in full hiking gear, packs on their backs. When they reached the peak of the hill, they both pulled binoculars out of their packs and looked down onto where it looked like field games were set up. "So, what do you think?"Grayson asked his partner as he lowered hi s binoculars and turned to her.
"What do you mean, what do I think?" Stephanie said lowering her own binoculars and staring at him. "You're the one who always thinks he knows it all."
"Oh, come on, Steph, you know that's not true. It's just..." He looked at her and realized he couldn't spit out the words he wanted to say. He quickly turned away and became suddenly very interested in the goings-on below them.
Stephanie shook her head, peered back through her binoculars and said, "From what Mr. Melrose told us about this vase, I'd say that down there is the place we're looking for. He said that Ms Desmond told him on the phone that there was going to be a field day kind of setup going on today."
"Speaking of which, I wonder where she is and Beaman."
"Why do you care? We were sent as backup to Scarecrow and Mrs. King."
"Don't you mean, Mrs. Stetson? I mean, it's all over the agency."
"Thanks to you," she snapped glaring at him again.
"Look, I was really just wondering where Beaman was more than anything and since he's partnered with her on this case, that's what makes me wonder. He is our trainer, after all. Doing a good job on this case could really score us some brownie points, don't you think?"
Stephanie snorted at his last comment and said, "That's not what we're here for. We are here to back up one of the best teams in the agency. It's an honor to be trusted for that kind of assignment." She then once more attempted to scan the scene below, but was once again interrupted by her overly-confident and somewhat cocky colleague.
"Well, if they're so damn good, why do they need us rookies?"
"Haven't you learned anything after being lectured twice today by Mr. Melrose and a third time by Dr. Smyth? Our job is to follow orders, Adam, and right now our orders are to back them up and look for signs of trouble."
"You know, it's probably because she's knocked up. The big boss probably wants us as their backup to keep her out of harm's way."
"Have you heard a word I said," She asked him in exasperation.
"I heard every word," he said. "Lectures, following orders, blah, blah, blah." He then turned his attention back to the lower level of the park. "You're right, this is definitely the place. Look."
Stephanie turned her attention back to the grounds below and spotted instantly what her partner had seen. The two agents they were sent to back up and it appeared they were being stalked by one of their suspects. "That's Murdoch." She paused for a moment, lowered her binoculars one more time and looked at her partner worriedly. They don't know he's there, do they?"
"Makes me wonder even more where Desmond and Beaman are," Adam Grayson said glumly, "And why they aren't backing them up."
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Francine and Efraim at that moment could have used some back up of their own, having been busted breaking into Klein's cabin by Klein himself, his wife and Amelie Gertrude, the elusive information broker. Francine was fending off Klein and his wife while Efraim had his hands full with Gertrude. He could see why she'd never been caught. She was an expert at hand-to hand and martial arts. She'd already relived him of his weapon and knocked him on his ass. He was just rising to his feet when she was coming at him again.
Francine had just shaken off Mrs Klein for the third time knocking her back against the wall and hearing a loud crack as the woman's head made contact with it. Francine smiled smugly, but her satisfaction didn't last long as Klein came after her with a vengeance after that. She expertly dodged his charge, causing him to be off-balance. She seized the opportunity to aim a well-placed kick at the back of his knee causing him to falter. She was about to move in for the kill when she heard Efraim yelp. She glanced over and found he'd been knocked to the ground again. When she wasn't being attacked herself, she'd noticed that he seemed reluctant to really hit his opponent.
"Oh, for God's sake, Efraim, forget she's a woman. Just knock her damn lights out," she shouted at him. The momentary distraction was all Klein needed to rise to his feet and charge her again. This time she wasn't able to dodge as she had the last time and found her arms in Klein's grasp as he tried to pin them behind her back. "Oh, you wanna' play that way," she said. "Fine!" She stomped on his foot as hard as she could, freeing one of her arms as he cried out in pain. She used all the force she could muster to drive her elbow into his windpipe causing him to gag, clutching his throat. Now that she was free, she wasted no time in planting a solid right hook to his jaw, knocking him against the same wall his unconscious wife was slumped against. When she was sure he wasn't getting up again, she turned back to her partner who'd finally managed to get the jump on Gertrude, knocking her to the ground and holding her there with once foot planted firmly on her chest. Francine scrambled to pick up their fallen firearms, handing Efraim's to him.
"Thanks," he said as he wiped the sweat from his brow with one hand and reached for his pistol with the other.
"You got this?"She questioned.
"Yeah," he said as he pointed his weapon toward the downed woman but while still keeping her down with his foot. He wasn't about to let her blindside him again. "Now, we know you're just the middle man, so who are you supposed to be meeting?"
"Screw you," Gertrude said defiantly as Francine quickly cuffed the other two before they could come to.
"That's what you like, isn't it? Screwing?" he said. "You screw men all the time to get what you want, don't you? Like that idiot Chambers. He fell right into your trap, didn't he?"
"It wasn't my trap," she spat out. "I just played my part. Just like I played my part with that dumb-ass security guard at the tech company. Poor guy never knew what hit him. The plans and the prototype were gone before he ever even knew that I'd gotten in the building."
Efraim looked pleased that she was now spilling her guts, causing her to laugh uproariously. "You think this is funny?"
"Look at you," she said in a pitying tone, "thinking you're the big man getting me to talk, but I haven't told you anything that you people couldn't have figured out all on your own."
"She makes a good point, Efraim," Francine said. "We already knew the deal with Chambers and most of what happened at the lab."
"You'll get nothing else from me either," Gertrude snarled.
"Nothing? We'll see about that," Francine said holstering her weapon as she gestured for Efraim to step away and hauled Amelie Gertrude roughly to her feet just before slamming her into the wall, cracking her head loudly against it while Efraim still kept his weapon trained on her to keep her from making any sudden moves. "Feel like talking now?"
"Go to hell, Bitch," the other woman snarled.
"Bitch, really?"Francine said smiling sweetly. "You haven't seen the half of it." She then soundly backhanded the thief knocking her head sideways. "Who's your contact?"
"Nothing! You get nothing!" she shouted. "I get paid a lot of money for the information I provide and you haven't offered anything!"
Francine decided to take a different tack. "That may be, but how are you going to spend all that money from a federal prison? Or better yet, maybe we'll just extradite your ass back to West Germany and let them deal with you. I hear they have a lot of fun with traitors. I wonder what they'd do once they got their hands on you. I mean, they already know that you've been playing footsie with half the Eastern Bloc, So, who is it this time, the Libyans?" She paused as she tried to gauge the woman's reaction. No, not the Libyans, Francine thought as that got no reaction. "The Hungarians?" No reaction again. "The East Germans." At the mention of the East Germans, Francine smiled smugly as seeing just the tiniest flinch from her suspect, barely perceptible to the untrained eye, but it was there. "So, it's the East Germans. Now, the only thing we have to figure out is who your contact is. We don't need you for that." She pulled her fist back and slammed it into the side of the other woman's face, knocking her out, and then nodded to Efraim who quickly cuffed her. The two of them together then dragged all three unconscious bodies into the closet of the main room propping a chair against the doorknob to prevent their escape until an agency retrieval team could collect them.
"Why'd you do that? We could have gotten more information out of her," Efraim said testily.
"Not that would have made any difference, I know what I'm doing, Efraim. I'm not one of your rookies," Francine said. "When I was being tag-teamed by the Kleins, I heard the misses say something to him about the bathhouse, so I'm pretty sure that's where the meet's going down."
"We should get on the horn to Billy and have him send a team out," Efraim said with a nod toward the closet door.
"You do that, Efraim. I'm going to go find Lee and Amanda. They're going to need backup."
"No, Francine, this is getting dicey. None of us should be alone now that our cover's been blown. It'll only take a second to make the call. Then we'll go find Lee and Amanda together."
Francine started to protest, but then thought better of it. He may have been an annoyance to her during this case, but his logical mind was what made him a good agent. "Yeah, okay," she conceded.
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Lee and Amanda had made it through the first two events of the day, the couples long jump, and the 100-meter dash and still had not spotted any of their three suspects or David Chambers for that matter. They walked hand in hand to the next event. Lee slipped and arm around her waist, pulled her closer and whispered in her ear, "You see anything yet," smiling as he did so in order to make everyone around them believe they were nothing more than a normal married couple as he hoped that one day soon, they would be.
"Not right now, Sweetheart," she said smiling sweetly and pushing him away slightly as if she were just resisting his advances.
Lee looked at her and couldn't help noticing how weary she appeared. "Are you ok?"
"Yes, Lee, I'm fine," she said in a confident tone. "I'm just...you know...a little tired."
"We should get you out of here, then," Lee said worriedly.
"No, not until we see this through," Amanda replied firmly.
"That's the spirit," Jim Patterson said from behind her as he and his wife, Irene caught up to them. "I never could quite figure out why the two of you are here though."
"Me either," Irene chimed in. "I mean, it's obvious how in love the two of you are, so it doesn't quite make sense to me, especially since you're newlyweds. You don't have the issues that those of us who've been married longer do."
"Well, it's like I said that first night," Amanda said. "My first marriage ended in divorce and I don't want that to happen again. What's wrong with trying to preempt problems before they start?"
"Nothing at all," Irene replied. "I think that's a very healthy attitude."
At this point, they had reached the next task and Jim said, "Well, here we are."
Lee and Amanda found themselves facing a large stone wall approximately ten feet high. "What the hell is this," Lee said. "This doesn't look like part of any field game."
"That's part of the challenge of these events. David's always very clever about throwing things in that you don't expect."
"So, I'm guessing we're supposed to scale this thing?"
"That's the plan," Jim answered. "We're supposed to get over the wall by helping each other."
"I don't suppose you know what we're gonna' find on the other side of it," Lee inquired.
"No, they never keep it the same." He glanced at his wife. "Since you're so curious, why don't you guys go first?"
Lee glared at the other man and thought, Of course. He sighed and said, "Come on, Amanda, I'll boost you up."
"Mm-mm," Amanda said with a shake of her head.
"What's wrong? We've done this kind of thing before."
"You have?"Irene Patterson asked with a curious look on her face. "I thought this was your first time here."
"It is, but when we been researching for the documentaries that we make, we've sometimes ended up in some challenging situations," Amanda said covering quickly with a glare at Lee for nearly blowing their cover.
"Come on, Amanda, let's just get this done," Lee said.
"NO, Lee, not that way," Amanda protested.
"Don't you trust me?"Lee asked looking a little hurt. "I won't let you fall."
"Of course, I trust you, Sweetheart. I know you wouldn't let me fall. That's not the problem. The problem is that it'll never work that way. That was must be ten or twelve feet high. You can give me a boost up there, sure, but then how are you going to get over it? You're too heavy for me to pull you up."
"I was just thinking I'd take a running jump at it," he replied.
"No, it's better the other way."
"What, you boosting me up? How do you think that's going to work?"
"Look, I've done this with the boys when they were in the Junior Trailblazers. Just trust me. While I may not be able to pull you up from the top of the wall, I can help you from here on the ground where there's a little more leverage, then I can be the one to take the running jump. You can help pull me up a lot easier than I can with you."
"Okay, I guess we can try it that way," Lee said skeptically.
"Just trust me," Amanda said planting a quick kiss to his lips before linking her hands together to form a step and nodding to him.
"Here goes nothing," Lee said, bracing one hand on Amanda's shoulder and the other on the wall, locking eyes with her to ensure they'd get the timing right. When Amanda nodded, He used her linked hands as a step as she'd intended and feeling just a little push upward from her, grabbed the top of the wall and quickly scrambled up to the top of it. He quickly hooked one leg over the other side of the wall to brace himself and turned the upper part of his body to face her. "Okay, Amanda, whenever you're ready," he called down to her, relieved that the first part of her plan had worked, but still nervous about the second part. It would require precision time or they'd be risking her getting hurt.
"Okay, here goes nothing," Amanda said. She then walked a few feet back, looked up at Lee who smiled at her indicating he was set. She then ran toward the wall with all the speed she could muster, then jumped with her hands outstretched for her husband's who caught them expertly with his own. With him holding her, she quickly planted her feet up against the wall, scaling it with ease now that she knew she was securely within his grasp.
Lee laughed and said, "I guess you were right. Ok, now we need to get down." Lee and Amanda both glanced down and saw that on the other side below them was a sand pit.
"Well, at least the landing should be easy," Amanda said.
"Alright, so I'll go first and then I'll catch you," he said wondering if she'd argue again or have a better plan.
"Go for it," Amanda said with a firm nod.
Lee shifted his other leg so that both were on the same side of the wall and leapt down bracing himself for the impact as he rolled into the landing on the soft sand with an "Oof."
"You okay?" Amanda called down to him.
"Yep," Lee said as he got to his feet and brushed the sand from his clothes. "Your turn," he said as he nodded to her.
Amanda took a deep breath and prepared to jump just as the force of an explosion knocked her off the wall, into the sandpit and covered them both in flying debris.
"Amanda!" Lee cried at seeing her motionless just as a piece of cinderblock from the wall cracked him in the head and he saw black.
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Adam Grayson and Stephanie Newton had been slowly picking their way through the dense foliage to get to their suspect before he could harm their fellow agents and had almost made it to the event site when the sound of an explosion rocked both of them. They were close enough to hear Lee calling out Amanda's name. "Crap!" Grayson said. "We're too late."
"Maybe not," Newton replied as she scanned the grounds looking for the location of the explosion, but now that they were on lower ground, her view was not as good. She slipped off her pack, dropped it to the ground, slunk her binoculars around her neck and said to her partner, "Give me a boost," indicating the tree next to them.
"What?"
"I want to get a better look at what happened so we can find out where they are. Come on, we don't have much time. They may be hurt."
'Oh, I get it," Adam said as he helped her to climb up into the tree.
Stephanie shook her head at how dense he could be sometimes for a guy who was at the top of their class from Station One. Peering through her binoculars, she spotted the downed stone wall and the prone bodies of the agents they were looking for. "Got 'em," she said as she scrambled down the tree. "This way," she pointed the direction that she'd seen them, grabbed her pack and tugged on her partner's arm to urge him along. She bit down on her lower lip to try to calm her worries as she hadn't seen any movement out of either of them and couldn't help but wonder if they were still alive.
When they got close enough to see the fallen wall without binoculars, they crouched down in the trees to stay hidden long enough to see what was going on. That was when they saw Murdoch's beefy frame as he bent to pick Lee up, slinging his seemingly lifeless body over his shoulder. "You too grab her," he said to the couple that was with him.
"Who the hell are they," Adam whispered to his partner.
"I don't know, but we'd better find out," Stephanie replied as they watched the couple lift Amanda to her feet and drag her along behind Murdoch. The two young agents crept through the shaded area surrounding the event site, to keep themselves out of sight while still keeping their quarry in their sight, only stopping when they reached a clearing and watched as their fellow agents were taken inside the currently closed bathhouse.
Adam started to make his way toward the building when Stephanie's hand on his arm stopped him. "Adam, wait!"
"What? You said yourself we don't have much time," he argued.
"Yes, but we don't know what we may be walking into in there. There may be more than just those three in there. Besides, did you see the size of Murdoch? He makes Goliath look tiny and we don't have any backup."
"We do now," Adam said with a nod to the other side of the bathhouse. "Look, it's Desmond and Beaman."
Stephanie looked the direction he'd pointed and saw that the other pair was creeping their way up from the other side of the building. "Come on," she said tugging on his arm. We should let them know what's going on before they just go charging in there." Both pulled off their packs, extracted their guns from them, leaving the packs on the ground as they approached the other pair of agents. "Mr. Beaman," she said softly to get his attention.
Efraim, looking startled at the use of his real name, turned toward them gun drawn until he realized who had spoken. He lowered his weapon and said, "What are you two doing here?"
"Mr. Melrose sent us to back you guys up," Adam replied. "They've got Scarecrow and Mrs. King, or I should say, Mrs. Stetson."
"You know about that?"Francine said with an arched eyebrow.
"Yeah, it's all over the agency how they got married in secret and that she's pregnant," Adam replied.
"Wow, Lee is not going to be happy to hear that," Francine said. "In fact, he's going to be downright pissed about it."
"Well, let's just make sure that he lives long enough to be pissed about it," Stephanie replied with a nod toward the bathhouse.
"Yeah," Efraim said. "Ok, here's the plan. Our cover's already been blown, but they don't know about the two of you, so we'll go in first and you wait a few minutes and come in behind us. We'll see if we can't catch them by surprise."
"Good plan, I'll go first," Francine said as she cautiously opened the door, gun drawn then motioned to Efraim to follow. Hearing the sounds of voices around the corner, they slowly moved toward the sound.
As they rounded the corner, they saw Lee and Amanda both looking bruised and battered, cuffed to pipes and heard Murdoch saying to Lee ho was struggling against his restraints, "Stay calm, Mr. Stetson. This will all be over soon. We're just going to make our nice, quiet little exchange and be on our way."
"Like hell you will," Lee said as he pulled his now freed hands loose and lunged for Murdoch. Already being injured from the explosion, he was no match for the larger man and was quickly knocked to the ground with a loud groan of pain. Despite the pain, Lee made a move to get up.
"I'd stay put if I were you," Irene Patterson said maliciously as she pointed a gun at the unconscious Amanda's head, "Unless you want to say good-bye to your wife and unborn child."
"You keep your hands off her, you bitch!"
"I second that," Francine said as she and Efraim launched into action, Francine firing a bullet into Irene Patterson's shoulder while Efraim trained his weapon on Murdoch.
"Don't move," Efraim said. "And drop your weapon."
Murdoch complied, his gun clattering to the ground, but when Efraim moved to cuff him, he spun quickly swinging wildly at Efraim's head.
Efraim expertly dodged the blow, then landed a punch to Murdoch's beefy middle, however, it didn't slow the larger man down. He attempted another swing, but was caught off-guard when Lee plowed into him from behind, knocking him into a wall and cracking his face against a showerhead.
Efraim using the new injury to Murdoch to his advantage quickly cuffed him. He and Lee together pushed him with enough force to knock him on his ass. "Thanks," he said to Lee.
"No, thank you for getting here on time," Lee said as he quickly rushed to his wife's side where Francine had released her from her bonds and had laid her out on the floor.
"She's still breathing, Lee," Francine said to reassure him at seeing the worried look on his face.
"Oh, thank God," he said breathing a sigh of relief as he clasped Amanda's hand and used his other hand to brush her sweat-soaked hair from her face. He then looked up at the now handcuffed Irene Patterson. The sound of gunfire and a scuffle got all their attention. "Go," Lee said as he rose to check on the injured Irene Patterson as Francine and Efraim sprinted out of the room.
He hauled the woman to her feet, turned her to face the wall as he used the cuffs he'd discarded to restrain her. "I'd never have guessed that you were in on this whole thing," he said with a shake of his head. He turned her back to face him causing her to cry out as her injured shoulder made contact with the wall. He fixed her with a steely gaze and said, "And you should know that if you'd hurt her, I would have killed you."
Lee then turned his attention back to his wife and gently lifted her into his arms, making his way around the corner toward the exit. The sounds of the struggle ceased abruptly just as he rounded the corner and he was met by Efraim, Francine and the two younger agents, who were each escorting a suspect, Jim Patterson among them.
"Well, our rookies here found our mysterious contacts," Efraim said beaming with pride at his students.