Oh My Gosh

Chapter 2

At the Agency that following Monday morning, Lee was in the "Q" Bureau trying to get through his growing pile of paperwork, some of which Amanda would need to help him with, when his phone rang.

Picking the receiver up, he answered, "Stetson."

It was Mrs. Marston stating, "Mr. Stetson, Mrs. King is at a doctor's appointment, but she'll be in as soon as she's through there-"

Lee, puzzled, asked, "What doctor? She didn't mention it to me-"

Mrs. Marston replied, "Of course not. Do you tell her if you need a prostate exam or anything like that?"

Lee groaned, commenting tersely, "Okay, okay! Cut the comedy! I get it now. If she wanted me to know she would've told me...Thanks a lot!"

Mrs. Marston then asked, "And what rule do we also go by here?"

Lee sighed as she chimed with him, "Don't shoot the messenger!"

They hung up, and Lee, shaking his head, muttered, "And that's her attempt at humor..."

Looking back at his paperwork in front of him, the phone once again rang, and he barked picking the receiver up, "What?!"

Francine, on the other end of the line blanched and shot back, "Yikes! Who got on your bad side today, Scarecrow?"

Lee sighed and replied, "S-Sorry, tough morning. What is it, Francine?"

Francine queried, "Have you seen Amanda?"

Lee chuckled and responded with a quip, "Oh, yeah...She's out in the parking lot playing jacks! You wanna join her?"

Francine replied, biting back, "Geez! Just say no, and I'll leave you alone!"

Before Lee could answer, Francine had hung up!

Lee, looking up at the ceiling answered, "What did I do to deserve this crap today? Where the hell are you, Amanda?!"

-SMK-

Meanwhile, Amanda sat in Dr. Goodman's exam room , as Dr. Goodman gave her the pregnancy test results , and blinking, answered slowly, "F-False positive? Are- Are you sure?"

Dr. Goodman sighed and stated, "Yes, Amanda. I checked three times on these results...Now, what exactly made you think you may be pregnant?"

Amanda, irritated, deadpanned to him, "Oh, I dunno...Maybe because my symptoms were very much like when I was going to have both of my boys...I know the tell tale signs, Doctor! I'm not stupid!"

Dr. Goodman put up a hand stating, "I-I never said you were, but these home pregnancy tests can be deceiving and give a false reading...So, here's what we'll do. We'll run every test imaginable, short of using an actual rabbit...Ha-ha... Now, stress can also give you a false positive. Have you been abnormally stressed lately?"

Amanda, thinking of her recent engagement to Lee, and their career, which were both being kept under wraps, answered quickly, "No more than usual."

The doctor replied, "Okay...Well, we have your blood work and urine sample already, so let's move on from there...I'll have the nurse pull out your file and we'll get to the bottom of this, hmm?"

Amanda nodded, and checking her watch, muttered, " Okay, let me go call IFF, and tell them I'll be a while..."

-SMK-

Later that afternoon, Amanda came into IFF, and giving the password to Mrs. Marston, asked, "Is Mr. Stetson upstairs by any chance?"

Mrs. Marston nodded and giving her the I.D. answered, "Yes, but it generally isn't a good idea to poke an angry bear if you know what I mean?"

Amanda sighed replying lightly, "Oh, I think I can handle it...My family and I go camping a lot. No sudden moves or they strike, right?"

Just then, a door closed upstairs, and Lee appeared, and looking down at the two women queried angrily, "Just where the hell have you been all day?!"

Mrs. Marston, unfazed at Lee's tone, and looking at Amanda, commented, "I've been here all day, so he must be directing that question to you, Mrs. King."

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Amanda, looking up at Lee, replied carefully, "I believe I left a message saying I would be at my doctor appointment-"

Lee, cutting her off, answered crisply, "All day?! Give me a break, Lady-"

Amanda, by this time, had had enough!

Thanking Mrs. Marston, Amanda, turning towards the stairs began climbing up the staircase and while holding onto the banister, in her no-nonsense motherly tone while staring at Lee, answered, "You will turn yourself around, and march right back into that office, Mister, so we can discuss this obnoxious mood of yours...Now, move it!"

Lee then got the real sense by her face and tone that she clearly was serious, and not afraid of his anger, and gulping, slowly turned around, doing what she asked!

Watching the scene from below, was not only Mrs. Marston, but Francine, who had just exited the elevator, bewildered by what she had witnessed, and asided to Mrs. Marston, "Whoa! The only woman besides me that can stand up to Scarecrow's belligerence! Way to go, Amanda!"

-SMK-

Unlocking the office door, Lee gestured to Amanda to enter ahead of him, and as she sat down in her desk chair, she got on the phone to Mrs. Marston, and in a manner much like Billy, remarked, "No calls."

Hanging up, she watched Lee go slowly to his desk to also sit, and queried after a moment of silence, "Alright, Lee...Just what is your problem today?"

Lee, staring at her confounded, and sputtered with a gesture at the pile of paperwork on his desk, "Are-Are you joking?! Look at this mess! It'll take three days at least to get caught up, never mind all the legwork it'll entail to follow up on half of it! And you just come waltzing in like it's just another day at the beach?"

Amanda stood up haughtily, answering, "A day at the beach? A doctor appointment? You gotta be kidding me-"

Lee quickly responded, "Sure! You give a blood sample, a urine sample, and it's hasta la vista for another year! Simple!"

Amanda, shaking her head, scoffed at his interpretation of a so-called doctor check-up, and commented, "You just have no clue what women go through for a checkup! Particularly this one!"

Lee chuckled lightly and replied, "Go ahead. Try me..."

Amanda then responded slowly with, "O-Okay...Remember the weekend about a month ago we finally were able to use Crump's cabin?"

As Lee nodded carefully, Amanda commented, "Well, a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't feeling all that great, and..."

-SMK-

Meanwhile, Phillip and Jamie let Dotty know after school that they were going to the library to check on some things for their homework assignments and they would be home soon, but in actuality, they had already completed their assignments in their study periods.

Once reaching the library, they decided to do some investigating and research what they found at the house over the weekend.

Sitting at a back corner of the library, they engrossed themselves with the books they needed, and Phillip remarked to Jamie, "Okay, now... If you see something that kinda makes sense, but that you're not sure of, show it to me, and I'll do the same for you, alright? And we gotta do this quick, because we told Grandma we'd be home in an hour..."

Within half an hour, the boys finished, and Phillip said, looking at his brother, "Alright...So, what did you find?"

Jamie answered slowly, "Well, Grandma's how old?"

Phillip replied, "Sixty, I think...Why?"

Jamie queried, "And Mom's thirty something, right?"

Phillip, impatient by now, stated, "Yeah! So, what do their ages have to do with this?"

Jamie sighed and responded, "Think about it! Grandma may be too old to have a baby, and Mom's gotta be too young for meno-whatever it is, but they both had those test boxes at home!"

Phillip mused, commenting, "Mom had a doctor thing today..."

Jamie nodding, said, "Yeah, Grandma has one tomorrow! Phillip, I don't like this! I don't like it at all!"

Phillip sighed, and nodding also, commented, "I know. Me neither. And they're still not talking about it to us."

Looking at his watch, Phillip then stated, "Okay, well. We've done as much as we could on our own...The rest is up to them. We gotta get home...C'mon. Let's clean up this stuff and get outta here..."

-SMK-

Dotty, at that moment, was home, pulling out leftovers from the refrigerator to start dinner when the phone rang. and answering it, stated, "Hello? Oh, hello, Dr. Engel...Yes? Well, I had blood work done over a month ago. Why?"

Then incredulous, she asked slowly, "Wh-What did you just say?!"

Continuing to listen, she then interrupted with, "Th-That's impossible! Then do run more tests, because there is no way...Yes, I have an appointment tomorrow morning anyway, so I will see you then!"

Hanging up, she shook her head, muttering as she went about fixing the leftover meatloaf for the family's dinner that evening, "And that man has a medical degree?! Heh!"

TBC