Another Crazy Christmas by Jenn
Summary: Lee and Amanda search for a missing scientist. Will they find him before Christmas?
Categories: Scarecrow and Mrs. King Characters: Amanda King, Lee Stetson
Genres: Comedy
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: Yes Word count: 3023 Read: 3501 Published: 26/11/08 Updated: 26/11/08
Story Notes:
Disclaimer: You all know the drill… I don't own `em; the WB and
Shoot the Moon productions have that honor. I'm just taking them out
of the box to play for the holidays.

Author's note: I hope everyone has a great holiday and enjoys my
little contribution to the 12 days of Christmas. This story is
written in jest and is not intended to make light of mental illness.
I see it's effects every day in my job and know how serious of
subject matter it is. I just wanted to write something that I hoped
people would find funny and this is what came to me, so please don't
yell at me for belittling this issue cause that was not my purpose.
Thanks to Julie for all her help in getting to together.
Chapter 1 by Jenn
Part One

"Okay people listen up!" Billy called from his office door. After
getting their attention, he began to brief the agents who were
present. "This is a picture of Dr. Richard Brace; he's a scientist
working on the latest phase of the Star Wars Defense Initiative. Dr.
Brace did nott show up for work this week, and the Pentagon has
requested our assistance in locating him. It seems that he is our
leading scientist in the field of defense programming and has been
identified as a top acquisition by the Russians for several years
now. We have to assume that they may have finally succeeded in
getting their hands on him, but our sources haven't turned up
anything to substantiate that idea. That's it people, let's get to
work!" After turning to go back into his office, Billy added, "Oh,
one more thing, until Dr. Brace is located all off assignment time is
cancelled." He quickly tried to close his office door, as he knew
that this would ruffle the feathers of several of his agents, and he
wanted to try and avoid the fall out.

Too late—he heard Scarecrow calling out, "Now hold on a second,
Billy. You can't be serious. Amanda and I are off for the next two
weeks to spend Christmas with the family. "Lee said as he and
Amanda followed Billy into his office hoping to get more information
on the case that was now threatening their family Christmas.

"Afraid so, Scarecrow. Dr. Smith's orders straight from the White
House to his ear." Billy justified. "I wish there was something that
I could do about it, but you know that when Dr. Smith bellows, I
don't have much choice."

"I swear that man has it in for me. I've finally stopped putting my
name on the holiday duty roster and now this. How are we supposed to
explain to Dotty and the boys that Christmas might be disrupted
again?" Lee pleaded his case, knowing that there was little that
Billy could do about it.

Deciding that it was time to move on and focus on the task at hand,
Amanda grabbed Lee's hand, "Come on Lee. We have a couple of days
until Christmas, so maybe we can find the doctor and still get our
time off. "

Relieved that Amanda had come to his aid, Billy quickly handed off
the case file to her, "Thank you, Amanda. Here is the file on Dr.
Brace. It has all the pertinent information about the man and the
contact information over at the testing facility he was assigned to.
Maybe you can find something there that can clear this up quickly."
Watching Scarecrow head out of the office, he could only hope that
this statement would prove true. If not, it was going to be a very
long holiday season.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part Two

After entering the Q Bureau, Lee was still fuming about another
disruption to their time off with the family. He said
angrily, "Amanda, there are sometimes when I really hate this job."

"I know...but there's nothing we can do about it now. Let's just get
to work and hopefully we can figure this out quickly," Amanda replied
calmly knowing that she needed to keep her feelings in check or Lee
would never get to work. She was also upset about possibly missing
their first Christmas as a family, but duty called.

"Okay, you're right. How about this—you start looking through that
file, and I'll call some of my family to see if they have heard
anything about the good doctor." Lee suggested sitting down at his
desk as he picked up the phone.

Sifting through the file, Amanda was not sure that there was anything
that could possibly help them find Dr. Brace. She was beginning to
think that Dr. Brace was possibly the most boring man alive when
something in his medical record caught her eye. Amanda wondered
aloud, "The medical report says that Dr. Brace is schizophrenic.
Doesn't that mean he's got multiple personalities or something? If
that is true, how in the world could he be one of the leading
scientists in the country in the area of strategic defense?"

"I have no clue, but maybe if he is crazy or mentally unstable, that
has something to do with his disappearance. I just don't know how.
No one I called seems to have heard anything about a missing doctor,
and the Russians seem to be behaving themselves this holiday season.
So, let's go over to the testing facility and see what we can turn
up." Lee suggested, running his hand through his hair in frustration.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part Three

After getting cleared through security, Lee and Amanda were directed
to the office of Dr. Tucei. "Thank you for meeting with us, Dr.
Tucei. As you know, we have been assigned locate Dr. Richard Brace."

"I'm really worried about Richard. He is the lead developer on our
current project, and we can't move forward without him." Dr. Tucei
explained. "I want to help any way I can."

Deciding that they really didn't have time for small talk, Lee jumped
right to the point. "Have you noticed anything odd about Dr. Brace's
behavior lately?"

Laughing to himself, Dr. Tucei explained, "Odd and Dr. Brace are two
terms that pretty much go hand-in-hand. You have read his medical
record, right? The man is schizophrenic—he attends to hallucinations
and delusions. If that isn't odd, I don't know what is."

"What kind of hallucinations or delusions are you talking about?" Lee
questioned not really knowing much about schizophrenia and hoping
that maybe it wasn't as bad as it was beginning to sound.

"Specifically, he attends to thought he picks up from the radio."
Dr. Tucei stated.

"WHAT?" the partners exclaimed in unison.

"You know, if he hears a car commercial, he might go out and try to
buy the car mentioned. He has run up some serious debt in the past.
Around here, we know to keep the radios turned off. With one
exception, we have a new intern named Sara who didn't know any
better. And she really likes Christmas music. She had it playing at
her desk pretty regularly until one of us noticed it and explained
the situation to her. "

"Was Dr. Brace working around her desk while she had the radio on?"
Lee questioned as he wondered what kind of guy this Dr. Brace really
was.

"I know he was working in the area, but I can't be sure. You might
want to ask her." Dr. Tucei suggested to the agents.

Amanda who had thus far remained silent, voiced something that had
been bothering her since she read Dr. Brace's medical file, "Wasn't
Dr. Brace on sort of medication to help with these delusions or
hallucinations?"

"Of course, but when he's close to a break through here, he will
sometimes stop taking his haldol so he can think clearly."

"Let me guess, he was getting close to a break through," Lee hazarded
a guess, already knowing the answer.

"You got it. I would guess that he has been off his meds for a couple
of weeks now. There's no telling what he's been thinking." Dr Tucei
surmised, now realizing what had probably happened to his lost
coworker.

Reaching the same conclusion, Lee decided to eliminate the main
reason that the Agency had been called in, "One last question, do you
think the Russians had anything to do with his disappearance?"

"No, I don't, now that I think about it. At this point, they are not
that far behind us in the field of strategic defense. I would guess
that Dr. Brace is off playing Santa or thinking he's one of the three
wise men right about now. Good luck finding him, though. I can show
you where Sara works and introduce you if you want to talk with her."
Dr. Tucei offered as he led the agents out of his office.

"That would be great. Thanks for your help," Amanda said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part Four

"Hello, Sara. We're with the Agency, and we're trying to locate Dr.
Brace." Amanda said in introduction to the young intern.

"Did you happen to work with him recently?" Lee questioned the young
lady.

"Kinda. Dr. Brace had been working in this area but I wasn't working
with him. His stuff is way over my head." Sara hedged nervously.

Taking up the questioning, Amanda asked, "Sara, did you know that Dr.
Brace hears voices, and that he thinks the radio talks to him?"

"I didn't when I first got here. I've only been here a couple of
weeks. I was so excited when I got this internship." Sara explained.

"Did you have the radio on when Dr. Brace was working around here?"
Lee asked.

"Yeah, I really like holiday music so I would have it playing at my
desk. I didn't know it was an issue until Dr. Tucei mentioned it. I'm
really sorry if I caused Dr. Brace any problems. You don't think I'll
lose my internship do you?" Sara asked, fearful of the answer.

"No, it was an honest mistake." Amanda told her. "Can you remember
any of the songs that Dr. Brace might have heard recently?"

"Yeah, I remember he got really excited when he heard a couple of
Christmas songs. One was `Oh Come, All Ye Faithful', and the other
was `Frosty the Snowman'." Sara recalled.

"What do mean by excited?" both Lee and Amanda asked quickly.

"Well, he just started talking to himself more. I really didn't
think anything of it since Dr. Brace talked to himself quite a bit
anyway. Ya' know, the day after he heard the `Frosty' song, he came
dressed in all white and wearing a black hat…it was the funniest
thing! I guess maybe he thought he was `Frosty' or something. After
he heard, `Oh Come, All Ye Faithful', he talked about needing to find
the baby or something like that. He was really odd, but so smart that
we all just kind of looked past it." Sara explained hoping that she
could provide some useful information to help find Dr. Brace and save
her job.

"I wonder what he meant by needing go find the baby?" Lee speculated,
growing more and more frustrated by the minute. Trying to find a guy
who thinks he's "Frosty the Snowman" was really getting on his last
nerve right about now.

Realizing the implications of Sara's words, Amanda exclaimed, "Oh,
Lee! It's Christmas time! You don't think he meant finding the Baby
Jesus do you?"

"I have no clue. I guess we'll have to explore that possibility.
Maybe we should head back to the Agency and fill Billy in on what we
found out here. It doesn't sound like Dr. Brace has been kidnapped,
so it really isn't an agency matter anymore." Lee suggested as they
left the training facility.

Part Five

Trying to stifle laughs, both Billy and Francine sat listening to all
that Lee and Amanda had learned about the renowned Dr. Brace.

"So, you're saying that Dr. Brace might be acting on a song or
commercial that he heard on the radio?" Billy questioned, not quite
believing that such things were possible.

"That's exactly what we're telling you. Come on Billy, this obviously
isn't agency business. The guy left on his own. The Russians didn't
take him. Hell, with his mental state, they would have probably
brought him back by now."

"As true as that may be, Dr. Smith still wants you to find the man.
He is too valuable to have wandering around, even if he does think
he's `Frosty the Snowman'." Billy said in jest.

"What I don't understand is how in the world this guy is our best
hope at beating the Russians in Star Wars." Lee challenged, hoping
that he could find a way to have Billy hand off the case to another
team so they could start their family Christmas.

"I don't have an answer for that. I guess the powers that be know
something that we don't. Just got out there and find him so we can
all get on with our holiday. Francine, I want you to check any
possible flights overseas that could have transported Dr. Brace to
Bethlehem." Billy directed all the while silently laughing at the
absurdity of the whole situation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part Six

Entering the Q Bureau, Francine reported, "So, I checked the flight
information, and there have been no reservations for Dr. Brace or
Frosty anywhere near Bethlehem. Are you sure that is where he was
heading?"

"No, Francine, I'm not sure." Lee responded in an irritated
tone. "The man is certifiable. He could be anywhere at this point.
Who knows what other songs he might have heard while that radio was
playing. He could be trying to catch a flight to the North Pole to
help Santa Claus pack his sleigh, or maybe he thinks he's `Rudolph
the Red Nosed Reindeer'!"

"I agree with you. But we both know that, until we locate Dr. Brace,
none of us can get on with our holiday plans. Good luck." Francine
replied as she quickly exited the office.

"Okay, Let's say Dr. Brace was talking about finding Baby Jesus. We
know he didn't catch a plane, so he still has to be in the area,
right?" Lee asked rhetorically.

"Are there any streets or businesses in the DC area named Bethlehem?"
Lee wondered.

After searching through several phone books, Amanda reported her
findings, which were nil. "You know, there is a Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania. I wonder if he might have gone there looking for a
baby. In his confused state, he might not know the difference."

"That's not a bad idea. Do you think you could find a phone number
for the Bethlehem police? We can give them a call to see if they
have seen anyone fitting Dr. Brace's description." Lee directed,
thankful that they might finally have a lead on the wayward doctor.

Lee called the number Amanda found for him, and after identifying
himself to the desk sergeant who answered the phone, Lee got to the
heart of the matter, "Sergeant Walker, we are trying to locate an
individual who went missing from D.C. several days ago. He reportedly
hears voices and thinks that the radio talks to him. Someone familiar
with him suggested that he might be trying to find Baby Jesus in
Bethlehem."

"Ya' know, Stetson, if you hadn't introduced yourself as an agent, I
would have thought you were a crackpot with a story like that. But we
picked up a guy at the hospital yesterday who was up in the labor and
delivery area wandering around the halls and scaring everyone. He
kept rambling on about needing to find the baby in Bethlehem. He
would look at each baby and say `Nope you're not the one' or
something like that" the sergeant informed Lee.

"That definitely sounds like our guy! Please tell me you still have
him in custody." Lee asked, hopeful that the end to this whole case
might be in sight and their vacation could still go on as planned.

"Yep, we have him locked up tight. We were hoping that one of the
docs could look at him and tell us what's wrong with him. Right now,
when we ask him his name, he tells us he's `Frosty the Snowman'.
Unfortunately he didn't have any ID on him. He seems harmless, but he
sure had those folks at the hospital pretty scared." the sergeant
said, chuckling.

"His name is Dr. Richard Brace. Dr. Brace has been diagnosed as
schizophrenic. If you have a doctor who could see him, maybe he
could start to get him stabilized with his medications." Lee offered.

"That guy's a doctor?!?! You could have fooled me. Do you think you
could send over some information on what meds he needs so that the
doc has something to work with?" the sergeant asked.

"Yeah, we can send you his current medical information. Please don't
release him until we can make arrangements to get him back to DC."
Lee pleaded with the sergeant.

"Not a problem. At this point, if we let him go he would probably
just head back to the hospital to stare at the new babies and tell
everyone he's `Frosty'. The guy really got this idea listening to a
radio? The guys will never believe this one." Sergeant Walker joked
before hanging up.

"Come on, Amanda! Let's go inform Billy that we've found the missing
doctor. He can arrange for some rookie to go and pick him up. We've
done our part. " Lee suggested, excited that their Christmas vacation
had been salvaged just in the nick of time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part Seven

Without bothering to knock, Lee headed right into Billy's office
announcing, "Well, we found the good doctor. It seems that he headed
to Bethlehem, PA to look for a baby. The cops picked him up at the
hospital after he was found wandering around the maternity ward
looking for the Baby Jesus and scaring everyone. He still thinks
he's `Frosty the Snowman', so he's probably pretty harmless. The
cops are willing to hold onto him until you can send someone up to
get him."

"Are you offering to run up there and get him, Scarecrow? I mean you
were curious about type of guy the doctor really is. I'm sure you
could figure that out during the long drive back to D.C." Billy
teased, knowing full well that Lee would have no part in that idea.

"No way, Billy, not on your life! Our job was to find the fruitcake,
and we did that. There are plenty of names on the duty roster than
can make that trip. We have plans with our family, and
despite `Frosty's' best efforts, we plan to keep them!" With that he
grabbed Amanda's hand and headed for the door. "Oh, and don't
forget, we're on vacation for the next two weeks!"

"Merry Christmas, sir!" Amanda called out, as Lee practically dragged
her out of Billy's office.

The End
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