SMK – In Due Time: Chapter 2

Journal Entry:

Tuesday, April 28, 1981

It seems my nightlight may not be as bright as I thought it was, but I could be wrong. Before I change the battery, I'll try again tonight with the brainless one and his wolf.

Monday, December 21, 1987 (Day 1)

The Agency

"Well," Dr. Kelford wrapped his stethoscope back around his neck and patted Amanda's hand. "Everything's looking good!"

Lee and Amanda grinned at each other as her doctor took her by the hand and placed his other hand behind her shoulders to help her sit up.

"Now, are you all sure you don't want to know if this baby is a boy or a girl?"

Lee glanced over at Amanda; they'd had this discussion so many times in the past five months. He really, really, really wanted to know. That was probably his more impulsive personality speaking. "It's tempting, Doc." Lee reached up and ran his hand over his hair and scratched the back of his head. "But we're going to wait and be surprised."

"Alrighty, then." Dr. Kelford smiled and closed the file in his hand. "Go ahead and get dressed, Amanda. Then the two of you can meet me in my office, and we'll talk about what to expect next.

"I'll come with you, Doc." At the door, Lee turned back and winked at his wife. "See you in a moment."

Impatient to get out of the doctor's office gown, Amanda waved her fingers and lifted an eyebrow. "Bye."

Dr. Kelford checked Amanda's chart. "So, it looks like we've got about five to six weeks left." He returned his gaze to them and leaned forward, planting his forearms on his desk. "The Agency hospital isn't set up as a maternity ward, so I think Parker General is your best bet. I don't anticipate any problems; your blood pressure has stabilized well, you're healthy, and you're under forty. Except for the hypertension associated with PTSD, and barring the tumbles the two of you took on your last assignment, you haven't had any physical complications with this pregnancy." He leaned back into his desk chair. "All said, I think if you keep up the low-stress lifestyle, then at this point we just sit back, wait for nature to take its course, and enjoy your last few weeks of a full night's sleep."

Indicating the appointment was over, Dr. Kelford stood, came out from behind his desk, and clapped Lee on his shoulder. "You bring her back here in two weeks..." He turned toward Amanda. "...then after that I want to see you every week. Understood?"

"Understood, Doctor." Amanda smiled as he patted her on the back. "Thank you."

Heading out the door, Lee took Amanda's hand. "Hey listen. Since your appointment with Dr. Pfaf is private, I thought I might poke my head into Dr. Joyce's office and see if she's busy."

Reaching around to rub her back with her other hand, Amanda cast him a quizzical glance and squeezed the hand that held hers. "Sure, Sweetheart. See you back at the Q-Bureau?"

"Absolutely." Lee leaned down to press his lips briefly against hers, smiled, and turned away to head toward Claudia's office.

"Lee?"

Spinning at the sound of his name, he smiled affectionately at his very pregnant wife. "Yeah?"

"Anything I need to know?"

She sounded concerned, and that was the last thing he wanted. His smile softened as he gazed at her. "No, Darling. I just need to stop in and ask her about something. Don't worry."

Not looking convinced, Amanda nodded her head and offered a doubtful smile. "Alright."

She was too intuitive for her own good. Lee walked back over to her, wrapped his arms around her, and dropped a kiss on her forehead. Ducking down just a little to make his face more level with hers, he gazed deeply into her eyes. "I'll see you in about an hour, okay?" He smiled. "I'll probably be back in the office before you are." With the tip of his index finger, he tapped her on the end of her nose, smiled softly, and turned to leave.

She watched him walk away, then turned to head down the hallway to her second appointment of the morning. Lee would tell her when he was ready, but until then she would most definitely worry...just a little.

Dr. Claudia Joyce's Office – The Agency

"So, your dreams about the night Bateman snapped have returned and you're wondering why?"

"No..." Lee sat across from Claudia on a flowery sofa in a small sitting room adjacent to her office. He looked down at his hands clasped between his knees. "Well, yes; they have returned. But no, I think I already know what triggered the dreams and why I keep having them. That's what I want to talk to you about." He looked up at Claudia, distress pinching his eyebrows together over his hazel eyes.

Claudia leaned back in her chair, arms resting at her sides and hands clasped lightly in her lap – a posture of acceptance and peace. "I'm listening, Lee."

He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Today is Jim's birthday."

Smiling softly, Claudia nodded her head. "Yes. His fiftieth."

Surprised she remembered, Lee smiled sadly. "Right. His fiftieth." He looked back down at his hands. "I received a card from Sherrie last Friday with a handwritten note in it. She was really sweet. She told me she knew how much Jim cared about me, and that she hoped I was doing well."

"That was thoughtful. I know he was your best friend for a long time."

Again, Lee smiled. "Yes." Taking a deep breath, he leaned back in his chair and looked directly at Claudia. "But I got another card on Friday as well." Reaching inside his suitcoat, he pulled an envelope from the pocket and held it out to Claudia. "I've already had it checked for prints – it's clean except for mine and the mailman's. Go ahead."

Still looking at Lee, Claudia slowly reached out and took the envelope. She opened it and read it out loud. "I know what you did that day, Scarecrow." She looked up at Lee, concern etched on her face. "And you think this is connected to Max Bateman because...?"

Lee nodded his head toward the card. "Check out the date on the inside."

She looked down at the card, spotted the date, and snapped her eyes back up to Lee's. "September 14, 1981."

"Exactly. The day Max Bateman tried to kill our entire team...and the day I had to kill him."

"And the day you almost died..."

"Yes."

Clearly thinking, Claudia tapped the back of the card against the palm of her hand as her gaze drifted past Lee to the empty wall behind him. Still tapping, her eyes came back to rest on his. "Have you shown this to Billy?"

"No, not yet." Lee leaned back in his chair and reached up to rub his hand over the back of his neck. "As you probably know, Amanda and I are on light duty for the next five months. I'd really like to talk some things over with you before I make a big deal out of this."

Slowly, Claudia nodded her head. "Alright..." She gave him a pointed look. "But you do know, if this ratchets up, you're going to have to bring Melrose into it."

Lee let out a long sigh and inclined his head forward. "Yes. I'm aware of that."

"So, what did you want to discuss with me?"

Lee leaned forward again and anchored his elbows on his knees. Clasping his hands in front of him, he knocked his fists softly against his chin. "I feel like there's something important I'm forgetting about this whole Max Bateman thing, Claudia." He lifted distressed eyes to hers; she waited patiently for him to continue. "I mean, we know he went missing for 15 minutes that night in April while we were in Bulgaria, but he seemed fine at first." Lee stood up and, running his hand over his hair, paced across the room. He stopped, stared at the bookshelf, then turned back toward Claudia. "But about a week after we got back to D.C., something changed." Never taking his eyes away from hers, he slowly shook his head. "I never understood it. I mean, Max and I were never pals, but we worked well together – trusted one another – and then all of a sudden...I don't know..." He rubbed his hand over his face. "...it was like we were strangers."

Expecting to have some time alone in the Q-Bureau to think before Amanda returned from her appointment, Lee sighed as he opened the door only to find his wife sitting at his desk.

"Hey." Her welcoming smile had the ability to make him feel like he was getting a much needed, cleansing breath of fresh air.

Closing the door slowly behind him while he returned her smile, his gaze drifted down to his desk. He desk-calendar was sitting smack dab in the middle of it. He raised his eyes back to hers and paused with his hand still on the doorknob. "How're you feeling, Darling?"

"Tired, as usual." Amanda sat back in the chair and, closing her eyes, rested her hands on her belly.

"Takes a lot out of you, doesn't it?" Slowly, Lee approached the desk, walked around it, and stood behind her. Gently, he set his hands on her shoulders and slowly began to knead away some of the tension.

"Just a bit, yeah."

"And Dr. Pfaf is sure this therapy will work?"

She nodded her head. "It's some kind of break through therapy just discovered by some doctor somewhere. Her work hasn't even hit the medical journals yet; the government is experimenting with it first." She reached up to squeeze one of his hands. "Dr. Pfaf says it's done wonders for VETS with PTSD. But yes. It wears me out for a little while afterward."

"Sounds like a bunch of psychobabble to me, if I'm being honest. How does moving your eyes from side-to-side help you process your memories differently?"

"Well, you'll have to ask Dr. Pfaf about that. I understand it when he's explaining it to me, but don't ask me to explain it to you."

Lee chuckled. "Still not sure I'd understand it, but I have noticed you're having fewer nightmares."

Amanda smiled gently and nodded her head. "Yeah; I've noticed that, too. And it's almost like the vividness of the memories themselves are kind of..." She wrinkled her nose. "...dimming?" She patted his hand then lifted it. "Anyway..." Bringing his hand around her cheek, she dropped a kiss on it then laid her cheek against it. "I was sitting here waiting for you to get back and noticed your calendar." She tapped on today's date. "Who is Jim, why do you have his birthday circled, and does this have anything to do with why you were up so early this morning?"

"Oh." Amused, Lee reached over her other shoulder and grabbed his desk-calendar. "So, you've been snooping while I've been gone, huh?"

"I'm your wife; I'd hardly call it snooping anymore."

"Point taken." Lee took the calendar and walked over to the sofa at the back of the room.

Amanda stood, followed him, and sat down on the edge, turning so she could look at him more easily. Laying her hand on his thigh, she waited for an explanation.

Lee looked at the calendar, closed it, and sighed. "Remember when we first met, and you asked me about working with a partner?"

"Yes..." She had a feeling she knew where this was going, but she wanted to give him a chance to get there when he was ready.

"And I told you that you weren't my partner? That a partner was someone who laughed at your jokes, let you borrow his socks, and took a bullet in the head for you?" Dead serious, he turned to look at her. "Don't ever do that, by the way."

"What? Let you borrow my socks?" Lee tucked his chin and drew his eyebrows down in rebuke of her flippant question. "Oh, come on..." She patted his leg. "...Of course, I know you're talking about laughing at your jokes."

Lee rolled his eyes at the ceiling. "Amanda..." Truly exasperated, he stood and walked half-way across the room before pausing to control his emotions. Turning, he looked down at her with a sad smile. "His name was Jim Beckett. He was my partner for five years before he was killed when he took a bullet for me."

"Lee, I'm sorry." She reached out a hand to him, asking him to sit with her. He sucked in a deep breath, blew it out slowly, and walked over to take her hand and sit next to her again. Compassion radiating from her gaze, she squeezed his fingers. "You know, I never quite understood why you could tell me about a couple of tumblers from the Moscow Circus, but you could never bring yourself to talk about the partner you had before we started working together."

Running his hand over his hair, Lee leaned back against the sofa, wrapped his arm around Amanda's shoulder, and drew her against his side. He chuckled. "Jim was larger than life, Amanda. A legend, really." He patted her shoulder. "After Dorothy died, I wasn't much use for a little while." He paused and thought a moment. "Well, maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration. I worked, and I worked hard, but I just felt, I don't know... lost, I guess you could say."

"I know Dorothy was very special to you, and that you were awfully young when you lost her."

"I was vulnerable. I delved into my work, took the most difficult assignments that meant months of undercover work..." He looked down at her raised face and smiled softly. "That's when I was in Italy and met Ava."

"Only to lose her to Angelo."

"Yeah. I think Billy sensed I needed stability and paired me up with Jim." He squeezed her shoulder again. "He seems to be pretty good at putting me with people I need whether I realize it or not." Looking down, he found her eyes on his face again and winked. "Anyway..." He breathed out another deep breath. "...Jim became like a big brother to me. I hung out at his place with him and his wife, Sherrie..." He smiled back down into her eyes. "You'd like her."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. You'd have liked both of them." His smile became wistful. "He kept me grounded."

"And let you borrow his socks..."

Lee chuckled. "Yeah, so one night, we were on a stake-out. It was just the two of us watching this dirt-bag's business. We had pretty good intel it was a front for a Russian human trafficking ring, and Jim and I were sent in to watch the comings and goings for a couple of nights. So, we were sitting there watching, and this girl comes out..." Sadly, he shook his head. "...she couldn't have been more than fourteen or fifteen. She was stumbling around like she was drunk or high on something, but she looked terrified." Lee looked into the empty space of the office as if he were back in that alley watching the scene unfold all over again. "Suddenly, this guy...half dressed...comes running out after her, and she took off right toward us. Well, there was just no way I was going to let that swine get his hands back on her, so I opened the door to take off after him and stepped into six inches of muck so thick, it sucked my sneakers right off my feet."

"No way..."

Eyebrows raised and eyes wide, Lee looked down at her. "What, you don't believe me?"

"No, actually, this time I think I do believe you. This sounds a bit more believable than your dried sheep stomach story..."

"Well, you'd better believe me. It's the absolute truth. But then, so was the dried sheep stomach..."

Amanda snickered and shook her head. "Continue, please."

"Well, anyway, I took off in my stockinged feet and went to tackle the guy, but he saw me coming and was able to get his gun up. So, I changed directions to throw him off and tackled the girl instead just as Jim got off a shot and took the guy down." He shook his head. "Poor girl didn't know what hit her. When I tried to help her up, she vomited all over the ground – right where my feet happened to be."

Amanda's hand clapped over her mouth, and her wide eyes laughed up at him.

"Yeah, you go ahead and laugh." He shook his head at the memory. "Jim sure did."

"Poor girl!"

"Yes. I picked her up, carried her to the car, and we took her to the hospital. When we arrived, I carried her in, and Jim told them some story about finding her lying in a parking lot. Anyway, we got back to the car, and Jim decided he couldn't stand the smell of my socks. He insisted I throw them out the window, but he just happened to carry an extra pair in his glove compartment of all places. When we got back to the agency, I didn't have any shoes on, but at least my socks were clean."

As soon as Amanda looked up to say something, the hallway sensors beeped indicating Billy or Francine was in the hallway. The knock at the door told them it was Francine. She popped her head in and smiled. "Oh, don't you two look all cozy."

Knowing her friend was simply teasing them, Amanda smiled. "Hey Francine. You need something?"

"Yeah." She smiled and turned her gaze toward Lee. "Billy wants to see us down in his office..." She glanced between the two of them and winked. "...unless you want me to tell him your too busy."

"I'm too exhausted to be that busy." Amanda looked at Lee. "I think I'll go home and and start those cookies for the Christmas party. Dr. Pfaf said it's perfectly normal for me to need a nap after one of those EMDR sessions."

Lee leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Alright, Darling. I can't imagine I'll be all that long." He stood and headed for the door. "I'll call when I'm done."

"Tell me more later?" Amanda called after him.

He turned and smiled, happy to have finally shared his best friend with her. "You bet." He winked. "See you later."