Oh My Gosh

Chapter 15

After the clean up of the dinner dishes and their good nights to Lee and Amanda, the family went upstairs, and Lee and Amanda went to the family room couch.

As they sat down, Amanda looked at Lee asking, "Something wrong?"

Lee looked a bit nervous, a bit keyed up, the way Amanda saw it, but Lee shook his head, stating quickly, "No, no! I'm fine...You?"

Amanda gave a half smile, replying, "I've been fine as well, considering all that Phillip went through the last couple of days."

When Lee sighed and swallowed, Amanda shook her head, querying gently, "Honey, what is it? Is it Mother? The boys? Me-"

Lee got up and stated firmly, "A-man-da! Stop!"

Amanda gulped answering, with a hand up, "O-Okay, I'm sorry! But please just tell me...I can't help you if you don't tell me, huh?"

Lee sighed once more, and started to slowly pace, which meant to Amanda that he was truly worried about something!

-SMK-

Looking at Amanda, he queried, "Alright...What did Joe do when he wanted to propose to you?"

Amanda shook her head confusedly, stating with a smirk, "We went out to dinner, and-"

But Lee answered quickly with a hand up, replying, "No! I-I mean, did he talk to Dotty before that, or what? I mean, I know your dad was gone already, but-"

Amanda, feeling bewildered, responding carefully, "Y-Yes, he talked to Mother first, and then...Lee, what is your point?"

Lee gulped, commenting, "I-I'm sorry...It's just that I haven't told the Colonel anything about us yet-I-mean, he already knows we work together, but I want to figure out the best way to tell him the rest of it... You know, us being engaged, and the baby and all, and given the tense history, he's liable to disown me-not that he ever really had me, except as a noose around his neck, and-"

Amanda, rising from the couch, went to Lee, and putting her arms around him, remarked, "Sweetheart, stop! Look, let's just go out to lunch or dinner with him, and tell him then-"

But Lee shook his head stating, "Uh uh! No way! Tell him in a public place, where he could blow his stack?!"

Amanda responded quickly, "Alright! Here, then-"

Lee asked, "Where here?"

Amanda sighed replying with a gesture, "Here! Right in my house-"

But when Lee shook his head once more, Amanda answered, "Yes! I will have my family go out somewhere-to a movie and dinner, and-and we will have privacy! We have to tell him, and once that's done, we can move on, okay?"

When Lee still looked unsure of the idea, Amanda answered with a gesture towards the phone, "C'mon...Give me his number, and I'll call to invite him over."

When Lee then went silent with uncertainty, Amanda, seeing his expression, shook her head, and sitting back down on the couch, replied quietly, "Whew...Guess you really don't want us to move forward after all-"

But Lee, coming back to the couch, sat down and grasping her hands with his, commented quickly, "N-No, I do, Honey! Really! But the Colonel takes a lot of getting used to, and my telling him something like this so late in the game, when you're already preg-"

Amanda, cutting him off, stated pointedly, "Lee! C'mon! We're certainly not teenagers any more, and it's not like this is my first rodeo, either-"

Lee argued back, "Exactly! He will berate us up and down for not being the responsible adults we should be, and-"

Amanda, putting up a hand to stop him, stated quickly, "Wait a minute, Lee Stetson! We both used protection that night, didn't we?"

Lee shrugged replying, "Yeah, but-"

Amanda remarked sadly, "Look, when I went to Dr. Goodman and Dr. Kelford, they both told me that contraceptives aren't always fool proof! So, stop trying to make me feel like our first time together was a mistake...And this child we're going to have is a mistake!"

-SMK-

Lee, hearing Amanda's comments, knew in a sense that she was right, but knowing the Colonel as he did, it would just be one more failure, as his getting thrown out of three different colleges was...Before Lee finally decided to actually grow the hell up, and take his life seriously!

But when Lee was about to speak once more, Amanda put up a hand replying, "Wait! Before you say anything else here, I want to tell you something I've never told another living soul...not even Mother..."

Lee, taken aback by Amanda's words, simply nodded, and Amanda commented, "Okay...You know how much I love those boys, right?"

Lee nodded once more, and Amanda took a deep breath, and letting it out, responded shakily, "Alright...As much as I love my boys...If I could've looked through a crystal ball back then, before I married Joe, and seen what was ahead for me...The EAO job and all that he surprised me with-"

Lee, seeing the pain in her eyes, began to rub small circles in her back soothingly as he whispered then, "What, Sweetheart?"

Amanda gulped, and she responded tearfully, "I-I never would've married him! But then I never would've had those beautiful boys that are upstairs right now, and my heart aches just admitting that out loud!"

As Amanda began to cry, Lee held her tight, and kissing her temple, whispered, "It's alright, Honey...They know what a terrific mom you are, and how much you love them...Shh...Shh..."

And after a while, once Amanda was a bit calmer, Lee, clearing his throat, remarked finally, "Okay...Amanda, can you hand me the phone, please?...I should have done this a while ago, but I'm doing it now, so-"

Amanda queried with a sniffle, "Really? You want to call him? Just because I fell apart a little-"

But Lee stopped her with a tender kiss, and pulling back a bit, commented, " Hey...I have in front of me, the smartest, bravest, most beautiful woman in the world, and that says to me, that if I don't fix this, I will lose her, and that would destroy me completely, okay?"

Amanda, becoming teary again, nodded as she handed him the phone then, and kissed him, answering, "I love you," and Lee, dialing, stated chuckling with a gesture and smiled, "Y-Yeah, I love you, too...Now, go fix your face while I talk to the old man, huh?"

And as Amanda got up from the sofa to go freshen up, she thought of the long road that she and Lee had been on up to this point in their lives, and suddenly felt as if they could actually beat the odds this time, and succeed in having a normal life for a change...

TBC