DISCLAIMER:  Lee Stetson, Amanda King, and any other prominent character related to the television series Scarecrow and
Mrs. King do not belong to me. I only wish I could create such chemistry on my own - and try every day. The concept of the
story is mine, but I make no profit (except for the personal one) by writing it.
 
AUTHOR:  Gail Delaney 
 
RATING:  PG-13
 
SUMMARY:  Lee and Amanda have finally given in to what they both feel.  But after almost three weeks apart, was it real or
just a dream?
 
GENRE:  AU – kind of.  Barely.  This is based off the story I wrote “Fatal Flaw”.
 
TIMELINE:  Summer between season 3 and season 4.
 
NOTES:  In answer to Nightwings contest challenge at http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/ldsgirl3000/smkcontest.html
 
FEEDBACK:  Absolutely
 
 
WHEN I AM WITH YOU
 
 
IFF – 8:30 am
 
Amanda parked her car along the curb outside IFF and reached for her purse in the passenger seat.  She glanced at the brick
face building, and her eyes immediately traveled up to the second floor – one set of windows in particular.  Her stomach
flipped.
 
She took a deep breath.  Lee was coming back today.  He had been gone for almost three weeks on an assignment in London. 
The last time they spoke was by phone just before he left – the morning after the most incredible kiss Amanda had ever
shared with him.  The first kiss that wasn’t part of the job, or out of friendship, or for any other reason than that they both 
wanted it.  Wanted it very much.  Just the memory of it made her cheeks warm and her skin tingle.
 
Amanda took a deep breath and pushed it out through clenched teeth.  She had relived that kiss many, many times in the last
nineteen days.  But now that his return was eminent, Amanda wondered if she remembered with more intensity than Lee. 
Having not seen him since the night he snuck out her back door, with a wink and a soft kiss blown in her direction, she
wondered what would happen when she saw him today.
 
It had been a tumultuous month, to say the least.  Things had happened that Amanda had never imagined, and in some cases,
had never dared hope for.  Lee had been set up by one of his contacts to be lured into an empty warehouse.  Once there,
Anthony Mancini – a man who wanted Lee out of the way of his weapons smuggling business, jumped him.  Before it was done,
Mancini had gotten away and Amanda had taken a bullet – from Lee’s gun.
 
It had torn Lee apart to know he had been the one to shoot Amanda.  It hadn’t been his fault.  Amanda would never blame
him.  He blamed himself enough for both of them.  But that event had brought to a head some changes that had been taking
place in their relationship for many, many months.  When Lee brought her home from the hospital, standing in her living room,
he had finally admitted to the one thing she always wanted to hear.
 
He couldn’t lose her.  And he wanted her.
 
But that had been almost three weeks ago, and immediately after a very traumatic experience.  The kiss had shaken Amanda
to her core, and she thought it had the same effect on Lee, but things were different now.  Time had passed.  Time they
didn’t spend together.
 
Taking a fortifying breath, Amanda opened her door and slipped out.  She did her best to quell the tremble in her hand when
she took her ID badge from Mrs. Marston in the Georgetown foyer.
 
“Good morning, Mrs. Marston,” Amanda said, hoping the older woman didn’t notice the quiver in her voice.  “How are you
today?”
 
“Just fine, Mrs. King,” she answered with disinterest.
 
“Oh, that’s nice.  Um, Mrs. Marston, do you know if --.”
 
“No, Mr. Stetson has not returned yet.”  Mrs. Marston’s voice was flat and emotionless as she looked at Amanda over the top
of her bifocals.
 
“Oh.  Yes.  Well, thank you!” Amanda said with a quick nod and headed for the closet elevator.
 
Once behind the closed doors, she took a deep breath and leaned back against the elevator wall.  All too quickly, the elevator
reached the floor she wanted and Amanda stepped out into the hall.  Business seemed to be proceeding as usual, nothing out
of the ordinary.  Amanda did her best to put on a calm face and headed toward the bullpen.  She nodded to the two MP 
officers standing guard as they opened the doors for her.
 
Mr. Melrose and Francine stood near the coffee machine, and Amanda smiled as she approached them.
 
“Good morning, sir.  Good morning, Francine,” she said as she approached.  She only hoped neither of them would notice the
burning color in her cheeks or her nervousness.  All she needed was Francine to hone in on her anxiety and use it to blackmail
her later.
 
“Good morning, Amanda,” Mr. Melrose greeted.  “You’re here early today.”
 
Amanda motioned outward with her hands, palm out, then brought them together in a death grip in front of her.  If she didn’t
find something to do soon, she’d fidget herself to death.  “Oh, well, I had some reports I wanted to finish typing, sir.  And I
find it so much easier to make it through Georgetown if I can hit it right before morning rush hour really hits.  Five minutes
one way or another can make all the difference in the world.  You know me, sir.  I’d rather be early than be late.”
 
“An, of course, we wouldn’t want to miss Lee’s return after such a long assignment, would we Amanda?” Francine mumbled as
she lifted a styrofoam cup of coffee to her red painted lips.
 
Billy shot Francine a look, and Amanda did her best to appear nonplussed.  “Oh?  Is Lee back today?”
 
Francine smiled, but it was more of a smirk, and laughed sardonically.  “Working in that play did nothing for your acting
skills, Amanda.”
 
“Can it, Francine,” Billy snapped.
 
“I’m just going to go sit at my desk and get to work,” Amanda said as she pointed across the bullpen to the small cubicle
allocated her.
 
The next few hours passed at an excruciatingly slow pace.  Every time the glass doors to the bullpen opened, Amanda’s head
shot up seemingly out of its own free will.  Each time her heart leaped into her throat and her chest restricted, and each time
she had to force her breathing to return to a normal pace when she realized it wasn’t him.
 
Lunchtime came, and Amanda reluctantly stood from her desk and headed out of the bullpen.  She hadn’t brought anything to
eat with her, and wondered now if she could really eat, but decided a walk might be what she needed to calm her nerves. 
Amanda took her time walking to the local farmer’s market, picked herself up an apple, and took her time walking by the
nearby park on the way back to IFF.
 
At the end of the hour, Amanda ended up back at her desk and sank down into her chair to finish the final report Mr. Melrose
wanted.  Just as she was about to open the file, she heard Mr. Melrose call her name across the bullpen.  She looked up.
 
“Yes, sir?”
 
“Could you come in my office, please?”
 
Amanda closed the file on her desk and made her way to Mr. Melrose’s door, weaving in and out of the other cubicles.  Mr.
Melrose had already retreated into his office and partially closed the door.  When Amanda reached it, she swung the door
open and stepped inside.
 
“Yes, sir,” she said, but the words caught in her throat.
 
Lee sat with his back to the door, and as she came in, he turned slowly to look at her over his shoulder.  A small smile, almost
not there at all, bowed his lips and created just a hint of a dimple in his cheek.
 
“Oh, hello Lee,” she managed to say.  “I see you made it back from London.  Did you have a nice trip?”
 
Before Lee could answer, Mr. Melrose motioned Amanda inside.  “Come on in, Amanda.  Shut the door and sit down.  I was just
going over a quick assignment with Lee, and we thought you might be able to help him out on it.”
 
“Oh!  Well, certainly!” Amanda said and moved into the room.  She slid between the two chairs in front of Mr. Melrose’s desk
to sit down, and her hip brushed Lee’s shoulder as she moved past him.  Once again, Amanda felt the heat rush to her cheeks.
 
“This is going to be easy and simple,” Mr. Melrose explained.  “One of our people at the Yugoslavian Embassy has some
information to pass on to us, and I want the two of you to take care of it.  Nothing dangerous, but it’ll get you out of the
office for the afternoon.”
 
Amanda thought she detected a slight smirk in Billy’s smile as he glanced between them.  She wanted to look to Lee, to see
what his reaction was to being stuck on what appeared to be a milk run, but wasn’t sure she could trust her expression so she
kept her gaze intently on Mr. Melrose.
 
“Where is it, Billy?” Lee asked, and Amanda’s skin warmed at the smooth baritone of his voice.
 
“There’s an antiques road show in Arlington, and our contact will meet you there.  You are to go to the booth marked Maritime
Ghost and you’ll receive further instructions from there.  Here are the recognition and response codes.”
 
Mr. Melrose slid a piece of paper across the desk and Lee leaned forward to retrieve it, immediately slipping it into his
pocket.  “We’ll take care of it, Billy,” he assured.
 
Billy smiled.  “I know you will.  The meet is set for two-thirty this afternoon, so you’ve got some time yet.”
 
Lee stood, and Amanda followed suit.  She was doing her best to avoid speaking or looking directly at Lee.  There was
something different.  Something strange about the way he was acting.  A tension she didn’t like. Was he uncomfortable
because of what happened between them before he left?  Amanda flexed her fingers at her side, never realizing at that
moment how much she had become accustomed to Lee’s hand being offered to her whenever she stood from a chair.  Small
things like that.
 
“Do you need us to check in after the pick-up?” Lee asked.
 
“Look the information over.  If you feel it’s something we need to act on ASAP, bring it back in.  If not, it can wait until
morning.”
 
“Fine,” Lee said and walked around his chair to head for the door.  “Amanda, why don’t you come up to the Q Bureau with
me?  I’ve got to write up a report for the London trip and maybe you can help me sort it out.”
 
“Sure,” Amanda said with a strangled voice.  Back to business, so it seemed.
 
They left Billy’s office and walked through the bullpen side by side.  Lee strolled with his hands held behind his back,
nodding hello to several people as they went.  Amanda fought the urge to cross her arms over her body to stop the clenching. 
The silence sat between them like a wall, and Amanda found herself embarrassed at all the thoughts that had haunted her the
last several days.  Obviously, things weren’t as she had imagined.
 
The ride up in the elevator was just as silent.  Lee stood on one side of the cramped space with his hands folded in front of
him and Amanda stared down at her shoes as the motion of the elevator made her stomach tumble.  As the doors opened again,
Amanda decided she wasn’t going to let him know how much it bothered her.  Save them both the embarrassment.
 
“So, you didn’t say how your trip was,” she said as they walked up the stairs and down the hall to the Q Bureau.
 
“Long and boring,” Lee said as they reached the office door.  He pulled a set of keys from his pocket to unlock the door and
looked at her over his shoulder.  “I would have had more fun here, believe me.”
 
He opened the door for her and she brushed past him.  The smell of his cologne wrapped around her and Amanda felt woozy
from the intense effect it had on her.  She moved away quickly to stand near his desk, her nervous fingers pulling a pen from
his pencil holder to twirl on the desktop.
 
“Oh, I have a hard time believing that!”
 
“It’s true,” Lee said, walking slowly toward her, his hands pushed into the pockets of his slacks.  The memory of the last time
they were in his office, and he walked towards her like that, came back to Amanda and she had to look away.  “London just
wasn’t the same this time.”
 
“This time?”
 
“Well, last time I was in London I was with you.”
 
The slow, husky tone of his voice forced Amanda to look up, and the warm heat of his hazel stare hit her square in the chest. 
Amanda turned enough to lean her hips against his desk, and her fingers curled around the edge.
 
“Oh,” was the only sound that would escape her throat.  Her pulse fluttered madly at the base of her throat.
 
Lee closed the space between them; standing so close their bodies brushed each other.  Amanda’s chest burned as she held
her breath and looked up into the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.  He lifted his hands and laid his palm against her
cheeks, his thumbs rubbing across her skin.
 
“I missed you,” he said in a whisper, his breath warming her skin.
 
“I missed you, too,” Amanda managed to say before his lips covered hers.
 
The intensity shocked her, and seemed to pull any strength she had from her limbs to the point that she needed to curl her
fingers into the front of his jacket to stay standing.  One of them made a small sound of pleasure, something between a groan
and a cry, but Amanda wasn’t sure whom it was.  She didn’t really care.  Lee’s fingers pushed back into the hair around her 
ears and his fingertips pressed into her scalp as he deepened the kiss and they shifted back against the desk.
 
After an eternity, yet all too soon, Lee pulled back and they both fought to pull air into burning lungs.  But Lee didn’t move
far, still holding Amanda close.  She thought that he must be able to feel her heart pounding against her chest.  Lee’s eyelids
hung heavily over his eyes as he looked down at her.
 
“Wow,” Amanda whispered.
 
Lee smiled, his thumb running across her lower lip.  “Yah.  Wow.”
 
Amanda slipped her hands up his chest and linked her fingers behind his neck, urging him to come back down to her. 
“Welcome home, Lee.”

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