Chapter 17

Bombshell

The next morning Amanda woke up late. She was not feeling herself and a bit nauseated for the second day in a row. She did not want breakfast, and was just trying to get out of the house. Her first stop was with Dr. Kelford where she had to undergo one final blood test for final medical clearance after the Addi Birol incident. After the blood draw, she went to the Q Bureau where she was going to meet up with Kristen to discuss their joint assignment of the Statik Aerospace review. When she arrived, Kristen was waiting outside the Q Bureau door.

"You okay?" Kristen asked. She noticed Amanda did seem her normal chipper self.

"Yeah, sorry" Amanda said, unlocking the door. "Just feeling a bit run down."

"We all have days like that." Kristen replied.

The two women entered the office and were pulling out their materials.

"I meant to ask you, do you have plans for Thanksgiving?" Amanda asked.

"Well," Kristen said. "I was going to go to New Jersey with my roommate, but I'm on the duty roster, so I can't go. I'm kind of bummed because they have a full Jewish feast for the day after Thanksgiving and I was kind of looking forward to it. Now I'm just hoping that weekend is quiet."

"Come on over to our place then," Amanda said. "Lee will be there. The boys would be overjoyed to have you over for Thanksgiving dinner."

"That would be great," Kristen replied. "It's my first Thanksgiving away from my family so it was going to be kind of a downer. Thank you so much."

Kristen made herself comfortable on the couch and pulled out a notebook and her calendar so they could schedule follow up inspections at satellite offices.

"Ok, today is…." Amanda looked at her calendar. Suddenly a wave a nausea overcame her. She stopped for a moment.

"Amanda, are you okay?" Kristen asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "Just a bad morning. I think I ate something last night that didn't agree with me. Anyway, let's set the appointments to inspect the satellite offices."

- SMK -

A couple hours later, Lee had arrived and Amanda was working on her piece of the Statik Aerospace evaluation in the Q Bureau. It was a relaxed afternoon and they were just enjoying some quiet time working near each other. The phone rang and Lee answered.

"Stetson….. Yes, Dr. Kelford…. Yeah, I can send her down, is everything ok? Alright, I'll send her now." Lee looked up at Amanda, a look of concern on his face. "Dr. Kelford said he wanted to see you about something in your bloodwork."

"Did he say what it was?" She asked.

"No," Lee responded, looking a bit concerned. "He just asked you to come down there."

"Huh? That's strange." Amanda said. "Well, I felt a little off the past day or two so who knows. I'll be back." Amanda made her way down to the Agency hospital.

"Mrs. King" Dr. Kelford said. "Come on into my office so we can chat." Amanda was not concerned before, but now he was taking her in his office she was getting panicked. Was there something else that Birol had given her? Dr. Kelford continued. "First of all, relax. This is just to inform you of some test results, but nothing is wrong. After an incident when an agent is drugged, we do a full blood panel and then a second is done a few weeks later just to make certain everything goes back to normal. There is no evidence whatsoever of the hallucinogens in your system. Now, for women, because of the potential after effects of a sexual assault, which we know did not happen, standard practice is to include an hCG panel. Mrs. King, your panel came up noticeably elevated from the first test."

Amanda stopped for a beat to understand what he was saying. "Dr. Kelford, wait a minute. Are you telling me I'm pregnant?"

"According to these results, it appears most definitely," he grinned. She could tell he did not want to mention Lee but that was where his brain was going. "I ran the test a second time just to make certain. It's clearly early, so I am only passing this on so you can meet with your OB/GYN. Also, please note that I will keep these results confidential. No one else will be made aware."

"Thank you, Dr. Kelford." Amanda said, clearly still in shock as she stood up to leave.

"Are you alright, Mrs. King?" He was clearly noticing she was in a bit of shock.

"Yes," Amanda replied, trying to change her expression. "I'm alright." She turned to walk out the door.

"Oh, Mrs. King," he said. She turned to look at him. "Congratulations."

"Thank you," she said, smiling politely.

- SMK -

Amanda walked back up to the Q Bureau. Lee was on the phone and noticed Amanda looked distracted. Even a bit worried. His stomach dropped wondering what Doc Kelford could have told her.

"Hey Billy," Lee said into the phone. "Can I call you back?" He hung up, and immediately walked to Amanda. "Hey, what happened? Are you okay? Did Birol put something else in your system?"

"No," Amanda responded, clearly distracted. "This did not come from Birol. More like something you put there." She started tearing up and looking more worried.

"From me.? Amanda, what are you talking abo…?" Before he could finish his words Amanda blurted out.

"Lee, I'm pregnant."

She looked at Lee as her announcement stopped his words immediately. She held her breath waiting for a response. He'd asked her to marry him, and he had been spending a lot more time with Phillip and Jamie, so he was ready to take on a stepfather role, but they'd never discussed children of their own. For what seemed like an eternity, but was actually maybe five seconds, Lee stood dumfounded and did not move. A blank look on his face as he was trying to process what she told him. Careful what you wish for, Stetson. He scooped her up into his arms.

"Oh my God, I thought something terrible had happened." He didn't know why he said that, except that that he was not mentally ready yet to address the proverbial elephant in the living room.

"You did hear what I said, right? I'm pregnant." Amanda repeated it, frankly a little annoyed. Was he going to just ignore it?

"I heard you. I'm just processing that right now." He said in a calm voice.

"I thought you would freak out." Amanda said, still clearly in shock.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm freaked out." he said, but realizing he needed to comfort her he continued, looking her eyes. "I love you, and you just told me we're having a baby, so I need a minute, or two, or more…" He hugged her tightly to let her know, even if he could not say it yet, that everything would be okay.

"Lee, we were not planning this," Amanda said. "The first morning after I was rescued from Birol, after that amazing night, I realized I'd missed three days on my birth control pills. I called my doctor and she told me to just keep taking them and I might miss my period. I missed it but I still assumed that everything was ok. I didn't want to worry you, so I didn't say anything and was totally not expecting this when it showed up on my blood test. Dr. Kelford is keeping this confidential by the way."

"Amanda, it's okay,." Lee looked at her., smiling at her quintessential Amanda ramble and trying to make sense of the giant download of information. "I'm stunned, but we'll figure this out." He held her face and looked into her eyes so she would understand. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I thought you might be angry," Amanda teared up.

"Why would I be angry?"

"Because I was the one who skipped the pills.,"Amanda said.

"You were literally high on hallucinogens, I could have taken precautions too. I'm not angry."

RING! The phone rang.

"Dammit! We need to get the hell out of here. There's too many interruptions." RING! Lee grabbed the phone, clearly annoyed. "Stetson…. Hey Francine…. Listen, something's come up, can I get back to you in a little bit. Thanks." He turned to Amanda, grabbed her hand. "Let's get out of here so we can talk, okay?"

It was a lovely fall day, so they decided to go to a park up the street to talk. They walked through the park holding hands, both quiet as they were trying to get a grip on this new curveball the pitcher of life had thrown their way. As they came upon an empty park bench, Lee motioned and the two sat. Lee was the first to speak.

"You know, when I told you about that conversation I had with Billy the night before the Birol interview?"

"Yeah," Amanda replied.

"Well, what I didn't tell you was that the thought of having our own children crossed my mind. I kind of liked the idea, but I never brought it up because I had assumed we'd talk about it later. I guess fate had something else in mind."

"I guess so. You're not upset then?" Amanda asked, trying to gauge how to felt about having a baby.

"Upset? No." He smiled at her. "A little terrified, yes." He chuckled lightly. Amanda leaned into him and laughed with him

"I remember my daddy used to tell me that life never turns out the way you plan, sometimes it's better, sometimes it's not." Amanda rested her hand on her belly and was for the first time accepting the reality. Tears started to form in her eyes as she sat up and looked in his eyes. "I've only known about this for about thirty minutes, but this is our baby, and life is definitely better." Lee took her in his arms and kissed her firmly right there on the park bench, not caring if anyone from the Agency might be lunching in the park.

"Well," Lee said "I already asked you to marry me, so now I suppose we just add another element to the plan."

"We'll need to tell Billy and Efraim, but I want to tell my family first." Amanda said.

"I agree." Lee said. "Why don't we talk about it to them this evening?" Amanda just nodded, smiling. He leaned forward and kissed her again. "I guess I'm gonna be a dad." He smiled.

- SMK -

What Amanda didn't know what there there was already a plan in place as to officially propose to her even before the bombshell. While Lee had bought her an engagement ring, he didn't want to just put it on her desk. It had to be more special. He had started the wheels in motion with Phillip and Jamie, but it now they just needed to do this sooner.

That evening Lee came over to Amanda's for dinner, which had become a regular occurrence the last couple of weeks. The bike incident was truly a watershed moment for Lee and Jamie. Jamie realized that Lee might actually be trustworthy. When he needed help, Lee was there for him. Lee also didn't judge him or push him into studies or activities he didn't want to do. Mom had talked to the counselor and had him moved from AP Physics to the regular class where he understood the material better. Since then, his demeanor seemed to improve. Lee brought his camera, as promised, for Jamie. They worked with the settings on the camera while Jamie took some test shots. The evenings over the last couple weeks and Lee and the boys been throwing baseballs, practicing soccer moves or watching a football game. Lee had to admit, he was having fun with them. After Jamie had asked Lee about his plans for marrying his mother, Lee revealed he did and had, unbeknownst to Amanda, discussed it with Phillip as well. They were both happy about it and hatched a plan with Lee for a little impromptu romance.

When Lee arrived that evening, he motioned for the boys to meet him in the gazebo.

Meanwhile, Amanda had been getting dinner ready with her mother. "Lee and I wanted to talk to the family about something," she said to Dotty.

"You're getting married," Dotty became so excited. "I knew it, I knew he was the one. When he picked up Jamie the other day I just knew it. Shall I book the church?"

"Mother," Amanda said. "Slow down. It's kind of complicated so we wanted to discuss some things as a family." As if on cue, a wave a nausea came over Amanda. She took a few deeps breaths and it subsided. Dotty looked and her and grinned.

"Yeah, this may be complicated." Dotty said in her motherly all-knowing way.

Amanda tilted her head and grimaced as she looked at her mother.

Phillip told Amanda earlier that Lee was helping them with a project outside and they would be in shortly. Jamie remained near the back door to make certain his mother or grandmother did not come outside. Meanwhile, Lee and Phillip were sprinkling flower petals in the gazebo. Then they put out some candles which made for a romantic setting. He told them they were going to have a family meeting, and knew he was planning to propose, but did not tell them yet they that they were expecting. He figured he and Amanda would do that together.

Amanda came to the door and saw Jamie there.

"Jamie, can you tell Lee and Phillip that dinner will be ready in about 15 minutes," she said. "Right now, we need to have a quick family meeting." Jamie smiled at her.

"We know that, Mom. Can you come outside? You too, Grandma." He came in the house and pulled them outside. When they came out, Amanda gasped as the sight. The gazebo was filled with flower petals and candles. Dotty was clearly excited.

"Oh, Amanda." She said.

"Were all three of you in on this?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, we were." Said Phillip smiling.

"Oh wait," Jamie said, picking up his camera from the table in the backyard.

Lee took Amanda by the hand and brought her over into the gazebo. "I have been talking to your sons, and told them I wanted to marry you. I asked them for their blessing."

"And we said yes," Phillip responded.

"Yes, we gave him our blessing." Jamie chimed in. Lee bent down on one knee and took her hand.

"Amanda King," He knelt down in front of her. "You are the best, the bravest, the smartest, most beautiful woman I have ever known. Will you marry me?"

"Oh yeah, I'll marry you," Amanda said with tears forming in her eyes. Lee put the ring on her finger and stood up. He kissed her as everyone clapped. She looked down at the gorgeous princess cut solitaire diamond engagement ring. "Oh Lee, it's beautiful."

Jamie snapped pictures and captured the moment.

"Well," Amanda said. "I guess there's some other news to share."

"I knew it!" Dotty called out.

"Yes, Mother." Amanda said. "You guessed it. We just learned today that we're expecting a baby."

"Way to go, Lee!" Phillip blurted out.

"Phillip!" Amanda and Dotty barked at him together. Lee's face became a bit red, and he looked away trying not to laugh.

Jamie burst out laughing. "Dude, that was funny." He said to his brother.

Amanda could not remember a time she had been happier. She hugged Lee and kissed him again.

"Okay then, let's have dinner."

"Oh Amanda," Dotty said hugging her daughter. "On a scale of one to ten, you picked an eleven. Well done."

Lee hugged the boys. "Ok, fellas," Lee said. "I'm new at this so I'm going to need your help. Can you do that?"

"Of course," Phillip said. "The first thing is that we can have dessert for breakfast."

"Very funny," Amanda chided.

"Phillip," Jamie laughed. "At least start off with something believable."

They finished getting dinner on the table and the new, extended family ate and enjoyed an evening together.

Outside the home, the same car in front of the ice cream shop the other day stopped. It sat for several seconds, and then pulled away.