Lee Stetson, intelligence agent, is standing at the
ready with his target in sight, but there is an
obstacle in his way. He lines up his sight and misses.
He aims a second time and again he misses. He looks
over at his partner and wife and sees her giggling at
him.

"What's so funny?" He asks.

"Lee, it's only a little hole."

"Amanda, I can't get it in the hole! That stupid
windmill is in the way!"

"Another fun day at Golfy Golf with the King and
Stetson family," Amanda says, walking away and
laughing at her husband.

Amanda checked her watch for the third time in the last ten minutes. If Lee
didn't come downstairs soon, they were going to be late.

Since they were the hosts of this little shindig, it wasn't a good idea for
them to show up after the other guests arrived.

She'd just have to go up and see what was keeping him. Climbing the stairs
she called, "Lee, what's taking so long?"

"I can't get it in the hole," he answered. "Why do they have to make these
buttons so tiny?"

She walked up beside him and nudges his fingers away. "Here, let me do that.
You go down and warm up the car."

He kissed her on the nose before heading out. She leaned over the railing of
the crib and quickly slipped the tiny pearl buttons through the small holes.
When she was finished, she scooped up her daughter, making sure to hold the
baby under the slippery silk of her Baptism dress.

Amanda slung the diaper bag over her shoulder, picked up her purse, and
carried her daughter out to the car, where Lee waited to escort them to the first
of many special occasions to come.

End

"It's not fair. I'm the only one who hasn't been able to do it."

Amanda laughed at the sight of her husband as he pouted. "You just
need more practice."

"I can't get it in the hole. At all."

"Practice."

His brow knit as he concentrated on his task.

"But I should be able to get it in. It's not that hard. It's not
like I haven't done this before."

"Sweetheart, not everyone can get a hole in one in Goofy Golf."

Lee putted the golf ball again and for the fourth time in a row he
missed the hole.

"Damn it," Lee growled.

Amanda heard the sound of frustration in her husband's voice as she
came out of the bathroom. If he'd waited until she had finished
getting ready, she would've been more than happy to help him. But
no, he had to be stubborn and say he could do it himself.

As she walked to her dresser to decide which earrings to wear, she
eyed Lee out of the corner of her eye. He stood in front of the full-
length mirror attempting to dress himself. She noticed he'd gotten
his pants and shirt on with no problem. But the cuffs were giving
him a major headache.

"Would you like me to help?" She asked as she chose her earrings and
put them on.

"No. I can do this."

"Okay." She placed the matching bracelet on her wrist and closed the
clasp, all the time keeping a watchful eye on his struggles. Sitting
on the bed she put her shoes on and waited. She could tell by his
facial expressions that he was about to blow.

"Do we really have to go?" He ran his hand through his hair.

"Yes."

"Couldn't we cancel?"

"No."

"Please," he whined in a voice that reminded her of Phillip and Jamie
when they didn't want to do something.

"We're going. Penny and Rheza don't get to the states often and I
for one want to see them."

"Okay. I can do this."

Several minutes passed with mumbled curses coming from his direction.

"Damn it! I can't get it in the hole."

"Will you let me help you now." She rose from the bed and went to
him.

"You know I hate being helpless." He stared at the ceiling.

Amanda caressed his cheek. "You aren't helpless. You have a
disability. A temporary one, thankfully."

"You're right."

Quickly, Amanda buttoned the cuffs of his shirt.

"Thank you." He kissed her lightly on the lips and picked up his
jacket.

"You know you are getting better at buttoning than you were last
week." Amanda silently laughed as she recalled Lee coming downstairs
in a shirt where the buttons didn't match the holes or only a couple
of buttons were buttoned over the last few days.

Lee shouldered into the jacket and placed the left sleeve over his
shoulder. "I'm ready. I have one request."

"What's that sweetheart? Amanda straightened his lapels the best she
could.

"Can we tell Penny and Rheza I got this broken arm on an
assignment." He lifted his left arm slightly that was in a cast.

Amanda laughed. "You don't want them to know you fell off your
horse?"

Lee looked deep into her eyes. "If you leave the horse out of the
story I promise to find the right hole later tonight." He wiggled
his eyebrow at her.

"What horse," Amanda replied as she took his good arm and they left
for the party.

The End

Lee and Amanda walked into the warm and loving place they called home.
However, when they reached the top of the landing, they were frozen in place when
upon hearing voices coming from the living room.

"I'm very sorry, Dotty, I can't get it in the hole."

"Kurt, I will just have to find someone capable of doing it." The door
opened before Amanda could mask her stunned face. The look on Lee's face was
priceless. "Oh, hi, Lee, Amanda, thank heavens you're here!"

"Mother?"

Lee looked from one one to the next and clenched his fists until Kurt
appeared holding up a small sewing needle between his thumb and fingers.

"Amanda, I can't find my glasses and Kurt's top button fell off. Would you
please thread this needle? We simply can't go to this fancy shindig with that
button missing, he has to wear a tie there, you know, and. . .

end

Lee Stetson wore a wide smile on his face while approaching the Q
door, but his step came to an abrupt halt when he heard Leatherneck's
voice in the room.

"I can't get it in the hole, Mrs. King, I don't know how Scarecrow
manage to work in such a tight spot."

"I'm not sure, but from what I saw he wiggle it a little and it is
working."

"Ok, let me try from the other side, maybe it is just an angle
problem."

"You're, right, the size it the same, I mean with what he use. I
don't like to do that but I really need what's there, and Lee isn't
here, so, I had to call you."

"I know Mrs. King, no problem, I'm sure ....."

At this point Lee was furious beyond any limits. How dare she asked
Leatherneck's help for that!!! What did she thought? He worked there,
for God sakes and he wasn't too late!
His thoughts and hand sprung at the same time and the door just
burst open. The Scarecrow enter full gear in the bureau.

But what he saw wasn't what he imagined. Leatherneck was kneeled
behind his desk, trying to open one of his drawers, and Amanda keep
giving him different lock picks.

What warm his heart beyond words, was the smile Amanda gave him,and
that was all he needed to forget all the anger.

All Keyed Up

"Hurry up, Amanda! This isn't going to hold much longer," Lee
exclaimed in exasperation as the rain continued to pour and drench
the both of them.

"I can't get it in the hole. I'm trying!" She was really getting
annoyed now.

She was annoyed that she couldn't get the darned key in the hole, and
annoyed that Lee was rushing her, which was making the task at hand
even more difficult. She was also annoyed that everything that could
go wrong with tonight's plans had.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~START FLASHBACK~~

First, before her mother left to meet Capt. Kurt at the airport for
their weekend getaway, she had grilled Amanda about why she had
gotten home from "work" so late last night. Then, Joe had been 25
minutes late picking up the boys for their weekend visit. That had,
in turn, made her late meeting Lee at the market.

When she had finally arrived in the parking area, she could tell by
the look on his face that he had been worried. She didn't like to
make him worry about her.

The bad vibes hadn't ended there. The store had been sold out of
several of the items she had on her grocery list for the perfect
romantic dinner. When they finally reached the checkout area, they
discovered that there were only two lanes open and each had lines
that stretched back into the aisles. Then, to boot, once they had
checked out and were finally on their way out of the store, Amanda
discovered they had been grossly overcharged on several items. She
had to go back to customer service to get that corrected.

Up to this point, Lee had been very patient with her and with
everything that had been going wrong. Amanda figured his patience
was bound to be wearing thin.

As she and Lee came back out of the grocery store, it began to pour
the rain. "Oh, great, just what we need—to load the groceries in the
car in the pouring rain." Amanda told Lee. "What else can go wrong?"

"Don't even go there, Manda. I am not going to let all these trivial
little problems ruin our first chance in a long time to spend some
time together alone," Lee reassured her as they quickly loaded
everything in the car and headed over to Amanda's place.

~~END FLASHBACK~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next thing Amanda heard was the ripping of one of the grocery
bags. She looked behind her to see Lee holding what was left of the
wet paper bag that had once held some of the ingredients of the
romantic dinner she had planned to cook together with Lee. Those
items were now scattered around their feet on Amanda's side porch and
in the mulched area around the porch.

Lee dropped the rest of the bag and took the key from her hand. He
made quick work of the lock that had been giving Amanda such a fit
and quickly opened the door. He ushered her inside and helped her
place the remaining bags on the counter.

He could see that she was almost to the point of tears and gently
pulled her into his arms. "Hey, it's ok, but I think our homemade
dinner was doomed from the start. Why don't you call Chan's and have
some Chinese delivered? I'll go and clean up the porch."

Amanda smiled up thankfully at him, and then gave him a quick
kiss. "I'm sorry about all of this, but I think you're right!
Chinese sounds wonderful right now!"

End

She tried wiggling it.

She tried cramming it in.

She tried everything she could think of.

Nothing worked. It refused to go back in.

Why was she all of a sudden having trouble with such a simple task?
One that she'd done a thousand times before.

Finally, she gave up trying and looked towards the den.

"Lee, Amanda could one of you please help me."

"What's wrong, mother?"

"This." She held up a cork. "I can't get it in the hole. You try."

She handed them the cork and bottle. Picked up her glass and went to
enjoy her bath.

"Ok, Lee, let's see if we can find one that will fit you," Amanda
urged.

"A-man-da, I told you I don't wanna do that!"

"C'mon Lee, I told you that you're going to look out of place if you
are just standing around waiting for someone from the Agency to
contact us. People come to the bowling alley to bowl, not to just
stand around."

"Alright, alright. Let's just get this over with," Lee said in
irritation as Amanda dragged him towards the racks along the back
wall that held all the loaner balls.

"Ok, here's a 15 pounder. Give this one a try," Amanda suggested as
she thrust the beat-up black bowling ball into Lee's gut causing him
to grunt.

"Careful, Amanda…" Lee chastised as he tried to stuff his fingers in
the generic holes.

"That one looks perfect." Amanda said.

"Perfect, Amanda?? I can't get it in the hole. The thumb hole is
way too small. Ah, I can't believe I am trying to find a bowling
ball," Lee said in disgust.

"Now, come on, Lee. You'll see bowling can be a lot of fun if you
give it a chance!" Amanda exclaimed as she attempted to move him to
the next rack of abused bowling balls.

Lee just rolled his eyes and slowly followed her knowing he didn't
have much choice otherwise.

"I can't get it in the hole" Amanda exclaimed she had been at it for
a while no with no luck at all.

"Let me try" Lee said taking over and trying.

"See it is not as easy as it looks."

"Stop distracting me I can do this" Lee said getting agitated.

Amanda watched with great intent until Lee turned and glared at her.
"It was almost as bad as someone talking not to mention having someone
looking over your shoulder."

"I'm sorry I just want to learn how to this I can't always rely on you
being around to help me out of things especially when it comes to
picking locks."

"Okay here you do it then I shall watch and not make any comments.

Amanda started to pick the lock of the Q Bureau she managed to get
both pins in this time and within seconds the lock clicked open.

"See watching you really did help."

Lee smiled and opened the door for Amanda and let her go into the Q
bureau first then followed behind.

"Now that you have opened the door how about locking it."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Do I have to explain myself." Lee Asked

Amanda blushed as she closed the door behind her and locked it.

Lee took her in his arms and gave her a long lingering kiss on the lips.

"Urm I should learn more skills if this is what I get for a reward."

He leaned back against the bar stool enjoying the view. The way she
wiggled her ass as she lined up her shot.

She pulled back the cue stick and did that little wiggle. Oh how he
loved watching her wiggle in those tight jeans.

"I can't get it in the hole." Amanda put the stick down on the table
and turned to Lee.

"Practice makes perfect. Better luck tomorrow." He made a mental note
to make sure he tilted the table slightly in the other direction for
their next game. Sneaky but worth it.

Time for another type of game.

After dropping Dean off Amanda walked quickly along the platform
hugging her coat tightly to her in the hope that it would not open
showing her blue nightgown below. She was feeling rather vulnerable
not being fully dressed with only a trench coat between her and the
eyes of the world. She was so preoccupied she did not see a man in a
waiter outfit running towards her with a package in his arm. He was
almost upon her when another man suddenly came out of nowhere and
pushed Lee out of her path and caused her to jump back in shock and
fall over. Amanda automatically trying to help picked up the package,
stood up and looked at the violent scene of two men fighting before
her. Lee managed hit the guy square in the jaw sending him flying and
signalled to Amanda to get onto the train while the other man was
distracted. Amanda hesitated only long enough to see two more men
come out of nowhere and floor both Lee and his attacker. She decided
it was too dangerous to hang around and jumped on the train. She
managed to hear Lee shout “the man in the red hat” before he was
punched in the stomach.

After an embarrassing moment in front of the train conductor and a
carriage full of men in red hats she finally arrived home and went
straight upstairs to shower and get changed. If she was fully dressed
and feeling refreshed she might actually be able to make sense of what
had just happened at the train station. Amanda grabbed the package
and tried to hide it "I can't get it in the hole." She said to
herself as she tried to push it into a hole in the airing cupboard.
She finally gave up and left it on kitchen table not sure what she
should do with it.

+++++++++++++

At school Philip was in class and had raised his hand to answer a
question. His face suddenly went bright red and he froze. “Philip
since you have your arm up and you look like you were going to answer
the question please go ahead, don’t let us stop you.” The teacher
said bringing the whole classrooms attention on Philip

“Philip looked around him at the class room and mumbled “Oh Boy”