DISCLAIMER: Scarecrow and Mrs. King are the property of Warner Brothers and Shoot The Moon Productions. The author as for pure entertainment purposes copyrights this story.

AUTHOR: angelsslave
 
DATE: 22nd June 2002

SYNOPSIS: Lee looks back over the years that he has been partnered to Amanda King, watching her develop and grow into the woman he has hopelessly falling in love with.

TIMELINE: I've placed this in season 4, as I want Lee to look back while he watches his partner at work, at the romance and humor that brought them together.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: As with the last fan fiction I created, this one is no different. Heard a song and bingo the story came together. I wanted to look inside Lee's head while he is at work, just to see it from his point of view how a certain housewife turned spy has changed and made his world a better place for him to live in.

FEEDBACK: As always – hey we only crash and burn once…don't we?

RATING: A quiet but happy awwwww followed by a U.

SUMMARY: A little bit of fun on a dull and cloudy day…love is always the answer! Song from

a little Irish group called WESTLIFE – `When You Come Around'

WHEN YOU COME AROUND…

`The day I was leaving, I was feeling insecure
I thought that I'd thrown away – all of those days,
And what we had before…'


WASHINGTON, D.C.

"Oh sorry excuse me?"

Lee Stetson along with three file boxes, piled into the Georgetown foyer and right smack into a group of `first year agents'. He had been away for two days in Los Angeles doing an undercover assignment, and had just stepped off the red-eye equally frazzled, equally tired.

That's when he caught a glimpse of her straight ahead – twelve o'clock, the one he missed the most – a tall brunette with deep brown eyes and long, long legs…

`Easy Stetson you have only been gone two days - and already she has your head buzzing!' why was that? How could a woman with two children and a live in mother spin his head around on his shoulders and make him forget who he was? Because she was Amanda King that's why!

She had entered his life over three years ago not by choice but by necessity – a sort of life or death emergency. A young divorced just over a year mother of two little boys with all the baggage that Lee Stetson at the time thought – `suburban life was dullsville' well she was certainly not dull that's for sure. Coming in fresh and annoying, `did he think that? Yes he did, well exasperating – frustrating go for guts and glory type of person. That either tried to get herself killed with her enthusiasm or as most cases him or both.

She had slipped into the Bullpen, and with Lee not due to report to Billy for at least another half hour, skipped following her and headed towards the Q Bureau to off load his boxes.

SMK

`And now I believe it, after what you had to say now baby,
You don't have to worry – `cos everything's all right.
I know that you'll get me – that you'll get me through the night…'

His office had a fragrance that was unique and masculine, but yet feminine at the same time, just like their partnership. He the worldly traveled government agent who had been in this business of `spies catching spies' since he was a rookie fresh of the training field at twenty-four. She the suburban housewife, with station wagon and a license in `black-belt confusion. He brought in the paper work and distraction; she brought in her womanly charm and flowers. Smelling the fragrant bouquet from her garden, he slipped out a pale pink rose and put it into the buttonhole of his jacket. Humming to a tune as he left the office once again clean and tidy – shaking his head as he closed the door,

`Just like my life, she comes along and cleans it up!'

SMK

`When you come around, you know you pick me up,
When I'm feeling down – and I want you to know,
Baby how can I show – do I have to scream and shout!
When you come around, you only have to smile,
And you knock me out – and I'm here on the floor,
Begging for more – baby's that's what love's about…'

Amanda sat at the large conference table awaiting Lee's entrance. She had spoken to him briefly last night before he caught his flight; she hated it when he had to go away on his own. It didn't happen that often but when it did – she felt like the light had gone out in her, counting the minutes down until he came back.

Lee entered fixing Amanda with one of his sly smiles; he kept only for her and sat between Francine and Beamen who was eyeing her up again, with the look of a hungry wolf…poor sap.  Amanda lowered her eyes to the files in front of her; he loved it when she did that, the beautiful skin on her cheeks tinged with pink. In all his adult life he had never come across a woman who affected him like she did. Even sitting when he should be listening to his boss, he was instead staring at his partner – every now and again catching the odd questionable look from Francine.

Amanda smiled a slow happy smile…he was looking at her again and she loved the attention, especially when she caught him off guard. She felt the temperature in the room tilt slightly to the warmer setting; he had a way of affecting her like no other person in the room mattered, except she and him.

He on the other hand was playing with the collar of his shirt, which seemed to tighten around his neck over a space of a few seconds. How was he to have known that grabbing an unsuspecting woman in the middle of a train station, from a New York bound train – would have a cataclysmic effect on the rest of his life?

She had slowly warmed his heart with her charm and wit; he had sat back and watched her grow with confidence more and more each day – still with the same gusto he now admired as one of her strengths. He had watched her face off with Francine and dreaded the outcome - to his amazement and intrigue, Amanda came out of them virtually unscathed…Francine always came out of them spitting nails.

SMK

`There's so many reasons, why our love is guaranteed,
So many reasons why – I can't hide just what you mean to me?
So say what you're thinking, while your sitting next to me.
Let all your feelings show – just let me know,
Just how it's meant to be now baby…'

Yes as certain as he knew that night was day and black was the opposite to white, his life had turned a full 360. He had always sworn off relationships like they had a plague attached to them, always maintaining a cool but professional distance.

Pleasure was simply bought with a string of pearls or a bottle of vintage champagne – a weekend in the Austrian Alps was always a firm favorite on the cards. Amanda King on the other hand, didn't go into that sort of thing. He had learnt that very early on in the non-but maybe relationship, she preferred watching old movies curled up with a bowl of popcorn. Or sitting in `Dooley's' the favorite hot spot for the once very young Amanda West, slipping coins into the old jukebox and being swept back in time.

SMK

Finally The meeting was over and Lee didn't think he had heard a word Billy had been saying, luckily Amanda always took notes or he would be lost – another advantage of having a partner that didn't miss a thing. They stepped into the Q Bureau and Lee slipped the catch that looked the door, without question she was in his arms and letting him know just how much she had missed him. Drowning in her arms and lips, there was nowhere else in the world that Lee Stetson aka Scarecrow would rather have been.

Life was so complete now for him, no longer did he have nightmares that he had suffered as a child. No longer frightened to let people inside to see the real him. She had done so much in so little time and when he was in her arms like just now, he knew he had come home.


`When you come around, you know that you pick me up
When I'm feeling down – and I want you to know baby,
How can I show – do I have to scream and shout?
When you come around - you only have to smile
And you knock me out, and I'm there on the floor,
Begging for more – baby that's what love's about!'


THE END