Lee Stetson and Amanda King were endeavoring to finish the final report on a case that they had closed that morning. It was after 8:00 p.m.; Amanda was typing the last page, as Lee was proofreading the rest.

The telephone rang, “Q Bureau” Amanda answered. “Yes sir, we will be right there sir.” Hanging up the phone Amanda looked over to Lee at his desk. “Mr. Melrose wants to see us in his office right away.”

Lee pitched the papers down on the desk thinking, ‘ am I ever going to get a break.’ “Amanda all I wanted to do tonight was be alone with my wife. We’ve been working this case non-stop for over a week now. I was hoping that we might have a late dinner and go back to my apartment for dessert,” Lee said with a wink.

Lee rose from his desk walking around to Amanda. “Well so much for best laid plans,” he replied kissing her gently on the lips.

“We’d better get down to the bullpen before Mr. Melrose comes looking for us Lee. Why don’t we find out what he wants before we declare the entire evening a total loss,” Amanda said.

“You’re right,” Lee stated as he put his hand on the small of her back to guide her out of the office.

As they entered the bullpen, they saw Billy pouring a cup of coffee and walked over to him. “Lee, Amanda I’m sorry to have to ask you, but I really need your help tonight. I know you’ve just finished a major case. I’ve been ordered to the White House for an emergency meeting Zulu Blue Priority, and I need fifty files pulled from the Dead File Room,” Billy said.

“Sir, what is the Dead File Room?” Amanda asked.

“The Dead File Room is actually half a floor of filing cabinets in the sub-basement of the Agency. We are still in the process of having all the files transferred to computer, but the data processors have not gotten that far yet. The files I need are over twenty years old and are stored down there.” Billy replied.

“Billy why can’t Francine or someone else do this?” I was just getting ready to take Amanda home,” Lee said.

“Francine is on a stakeout with Fred Fielder, everyone else is either on a case or has already left for the day. You and Amanda are the only ones here that can do this. I have to be in Dr. Smyth’s office in ten minutes for a briefing, otherwise I’d do this myself. I’ll take you off the duty roster for twenty four hours after you’ve pulled the files and turned in your final case report,” Billy said.

Lee and Amanda answered at the same time, “You’ve got a deal.”

“Okay then let me get the file numbers from my desk,” said Billy as he walked to his office to retrieve the papers. “Here you go, I’ve got to get to Smyth’s office before he issues a D-1 manhunt for me. Have fun down there,” Billy chuckled as he exited the bullpen.

Lee and Amanda rode the elevator down to the sub-basement. Upon exiting the elevator, Amanda noticed that hallway was empty. “Lee doesn’t anyone work down here?”

“Not really, this floor is used for evidence storage and the dead files.” Lee took her hand in his and started walking down the empty corridor. “Lets go. The quicker we get this done, the sooner we can start our twenty four hour leave.”

Amanda wholeheartedly agreed, until Lee opened the door to the Dead File Room. Upon entering Amanda saw row upon row of filing cabinets. “Lee!” Amanda exclaimed with apprehension “We’re going to be here all night searching for these files.”

“We’ll split the list in half. We should be done in no time,” Lee stated hopefully. Amanda still was not certain it wasn’t going to take half the night. She had been looking forward to the late dinner and dessert Lee had proposed earlier. As he handed her a sheet of paper with the file numbers listed he leaned in to give her a quick kiss, but Amanda clasped her hands around his neck and drew him closer. The kiss at first was gentle, but quickly turned passionate. As their lips parted Amanda whispered breathlessly. “That was a little taste of what is to come later.”

Lee in a husky voice stated, “Lets get the show on the road then. I’ll meet you back here as soon as I’m finished.” He gave her a quick kiss on the lips… not trusting himself to do anymore than that, and quickly proceeded down one of the aisles of cabinets.

Amanda in turn went in the opposite direction, her lips still tingling from the kisses he had bestowed upon her. Soon she found the first file on her list. As she glanced down at the files numbers she realized that most of what she had to pull were generally in the same small area. ‘This might not take as long as we thought,’ she contemplated.

Amanda finished her list and went back to meet Lee. Not seeing him she yelled, “Lee do you need any help?”

Lee yelled back from across the immense room, “No I’m almost done, I only have ten more files to find.”

Amanda stood there for a moment thinking about going to help him anyway. Just as she was going to help she spied a door. On the door was a nameplate stating it was the employee break room. She decided to have a look inside, so opened the door. Inside she saw boxes piled up almost to the ceiling against one wall. On the other side were a snack, soda, and hot drink machines. But what she really noticed was an old huge couch on one side.

Longingly Amanda eyed the couch ‘it sure would be nice to sit down for a few minutes and rest a moment,’ she thought to herself. In a blink of an eye she made her decision “Lee” she called out.

“Yes,” she heard from the far side of the room.

“Theres a break room over here, I’m going to sit down for a few minutes,” she replied.

“Okay. I’m almost done, I just have a few more files to pull!” replied Lee.

Amanda crossed over to the couch and sat down. Taking off her shoes she let out a sigh ‘It sure is nice to get these heels off, they are killing my feet. That will teach to me wear new shoes to work without stretching them out first,’ she thought to herself while she massaged her aching feet.

Amanda sat there for a minute and laid back on the couch. ‘It wouldn’t hurt to rest my eyes for a few minutes either,’ she mused. Within moments Amanda was sound asleep.

Lee entered the break room and saw Amanda curled up on the couch sleeping. ‘She looks like Sleeping Beauty, I do think her Prince Charming is going to have to kiss her awake,’ he thought to himself. Leaning down beside her he started placing feather light kisses all over her face. “Wake up Sleeping Beauty,” he whispered into her ear as he lightly nibbled on her earlobe.

Amanda’s hand reached up to Lee’s neck pulling him to her lips. “Has my Prince Charming come to rescue his Sleeping Beauty from eternal sleep?” she whispered before their lips locked in a passionate embrace.

Suddenly off in the distance they heard a crash, breaking apart Amanda said, “What was that Lee?”

Lee got up from the couch and opened the door. A security guard saw him. “Sorry Mr. Stetson, someone left a coffee cup on the top of one of the cabinets and I accidentally knocked it over. I didn’t mean to scare anyone. I’ll being going back to my rounds now, have a nice evening,” he replied.

Lee went back to where Amanda was now sitting up on the couch and told her what had happened.

“We’d better get these files back up to Mr. Melrose’s office. I don’t want the security guard to come back and catch us,” Amanda said while putting her shoes back on.

“Amanda where is your sense of adventure, danger, intrigue?” Lee said secretly hoping they could continue this here and now.

“How about I make you a counter offer and we go back to your apartment, light some candles, put on some soft music and follow all of our hearts desires?” asked Amanda getting up from the couch.

“Mrs. Stetson you drive a hard bargain, but I am open to negotiations,” Lee answered Amanda with a hungry kiss.

“The sooner we leave here, the sooner we can start negotiating Mr. Stetson,” Amanda replied returning his kiss.

Picking up the files they exited the break room, neither of them noticing the camera in the corner, its red light blinking on and off, partially hidden behind the boxes.

In the Control Room, a deep voice could be heard chuckling, ‘I’m glad I came in here to check on another tape, this would have been all over the Agency tomorrow morning if anyone else had found this. I always knew it was a great idea to partner Amanda King and the Scarecrow, I always suspected there was more to their relationship than they were letting on. I wonder when they plan on telling everyone they are married?’ thought Billy Melrose as he pushed the erase button on the recorder.

The End