Double Trouble with a Golden Pole
Part 1
One would think that on such a beautiful day, with the sun shining and a warm breeze tickling the earth, a good mood would have prevailed inside the Stetson household. Quite the contrary, so it would seem.
Seated on the sofa in the living room inside Amanda's brand new house, the two of them sat. Their eyes were focused on one object not too far from them, placed where the coffee table had been earlier in the day. The poor coffee table had been resigned to take up temporary residence in front of the fireplace.
Not that the focal point of their gazes could have cared if watched or not. For inside of it, the two little occupants slept peacefully away and blissfully unaware of the dour mood that prevailed.
"Amanda, was it like this for you?"
"Was what like what?"
"You know, after the baby? I mean, after I got over the initial shock of being pregnant, I was so excited. Excited about being pregnant, excited for the baby to arrive and now, now look at me."
"There's nothing wrong with you, Francine," Amanda gently told the other woman.
"Nothing wrong!"
Francine practically snorted.
"I stay at home all day, well except when I'm over here. I don't feel like I get out of the house at all and Tony, well he trots off to work every day and leaves me with the baby."
"Francine, you're on maternity leave," Amanda reminded her.
"And don't I know it! The only time I get out of the house is when I come here, and don't get me wrong Amanda, I love coming over and I love the fact that the babies spend so much time together but I'm bored out of mind. I miss work."
She turned to look at Amanda.
"Not to mention the fact that our love life is going downhill faster than Billy pops Rolaids."
Francine paused for just a moment to sip at her tea.
"Was it like this for you? I mean, you've already had two babies Amanda. You're the perfect mother."
Francine twisted on the couch and then looked the brunette straight in the eye.
"I want the truth, now. Details Amanda, details."
Amanda shrugged.
"It isn't always easy after you've had a baby. Everything changes. Before I had Philip, it was just me and Joe and it was nice. I think I was home from the hospital about two days after having Philip and, seriously, I got up in the middle of the night to repack my suitcase. I was set on running away and leaving Philip with his father."
"No?"
Francine seemed aghast as Amanda merely nodded admission of the truth.
"But in the end, after some very long talks with my Mother and after setting Joe down for a long conversation, things seemed to work out better. By the time Jamie came along, I was so busy chasing after Philip that I didn't even have time to think, let alone dwell upon everything that wasn't going exactly right."
"But you had Jamie, so that means you eventually got your sex life in order, right?"
Amanda practically laughed.
"Is that what you're worried about?"
"That and a million other things," Francine admitted. "I mean, Tony wants to and I want to, but by the time we get things settled at night, I'm just too tired to enjoy it. I don't think I'll ever have
a climax again, let alone feel sexy enough to seduce him."
"Francine, you've had a baby. Adjustments have to be made for everything, including your sex life."
"So, your sex life is back to normal?"
At that Amanda let out a soft sigh.
"No," she grumbled under her breath.
"Oh dear," Francine uttered. "How is Lee handling that?"
"Oh, let me tell you," Amanda began. "He comes home at night, grumbling about the traffic in the metro area, harping about how Beaman is the world's biggest idiot, rambling on and on about Smyth's latest and stupidest nursery rhyme, expects me to have dinner ready for him and then stomps off to his office in the basement because he claims he can't think when the baby's crying. And then, after he stomps back upstairs, he expects me to be all excited and willing and able."
Amanda huffed as she got up from the couch and went to kneel beside the playpen to check on the latest addition to the Stetson-King household.
"I warned him about all of this, before we had the baby. I told him the first few months would be more about making adjustments and focusing all of our attention on the baby instead of on each other, but did he listen to me? Nooooooooo."
Francine shook her head in disgust.
"Men, they're all alike. They expect us to look sexy and seduce them into marriage. Then, after we've done that and they've gotten us pregnant, they expect us to be the perfect June Beaver. And then, to top it all off, they want us to go back to being sexy again."
Francine thumped her hand down on her thigh.
"Do you know how sexy I feel right now? About as sexy as the Washington Monument."
"Ah, Francine, I think it was June Cleaver and no, you really don't look like the Washington Monument. You're too short."
"Thanks Amanda, I knew I could count on you to cheer me up. Okay then, I'm the Jefferson Memorial."
The babies chose that moment, in unison to wake up and begin their crying ritual that led to changed diapers and fresh bottles. For the moment, it seemed the lament on changed lives would have to wait until a later time.
*** SMK ***
Lee Stetson sat at the table in the break room looking rather bleary eyed. He hardly noticed Leatherneck come in the door.
"Hey Scarecrow, wake up."
"I am awake."
"You look as if you're out half the night on a stakeout."
"If you want to call smelly diapers, colicky cries and bottles a stakeout," Lee quipped.
"Yeah," Leatherneck agreed as he poured himself a cup of coffee that he knew was going to be wretched before he even tasted it
Then he sat down at the table with Lee.
"If I had known it was going to be like this, I would have signed up for a vasectomy," he told Scarecrow.
"Me too."
Billy chose that moment to enter into the room.
"You would have what too?" he asked as he made his way to the coffeepot.
"Oh, nothing," Lee quickly said.
Billy poured a cup of coffee then held the cup up to his nose. One sniff was followed by a look that signified shock. He dumped the cup's contents down the drain.
"Don't tell me that you're drinking this stuff," he said as he looked at the two younger men.
"Might keep me awake," Leatherneck replied.
"Might kill us too."
There was something about Lee's tone that indicated that the agent might be about half-serious on that one.
"What's the matter Scarecrow? Two in the morning feedings too much for you to handle?"
"Why don't we say that this whole baby thing is too much for me to handle?"
"Sorry I asked," Billy said before turning to look at Leatherneck. "Is that you're problem too?"
Leatherneck shrugged.
"Well men, let me give you a little piece of advice. You met them, you fell in love with them and now you've got babies. Little ones who depend on you. But don't forget about the women who had a part in this. Think about what it's like to be in their shoes these days."
"I pity Francine's shoes," Leatherneck stated.
"Oh, it can't be that bad."
"It's worse than that. You'd have thought hell had gone through a deep freeze and sent all the evil weevils to our house. She's not the same girl I fell in love with you. Heck, she isn't even the same
Frannie that used to work here, before we got together."
"I'd rather drive all day through the metro in rush hour traffic then go home," Lee added. "Just once I'd like to have a good night's sleep instead of being woken up by the crying formula inhaler."
"You do not call your baby that?" Billy asked in horror.
"No, that's Jamie's nickname for her."
"Ah," Billy said with understanding. He'd been there himself, after all he was a father. Maybe, with some careful thought, he could pass some advice on to the two younger men. After he went back to his desk and maybe after he'd found some good coffee to drink. Oh, and after he'd eaten the donut that he had smuggled in this morning.
*** SMK ***
Later that afternoon, in Amanda's kitchen, the two mothers were now in the midst of going through their calendars in an effort to schedule the upcoming week. From the time that they had both had suspicions that they had been pregnant, everything with the babies had become a team effort. Same doctor's, same day appointments, you name it.
If someone would have told them two years earlier that they'd be practically joined at the hip, both would have scoffed at the notion, not to mention the fact that both of them would have found the whole idea of being mothers crazy enough to warrant a trip to Phaff's office.
But, instead of being out in the field chasing the bad guys they were in the kitchen comparing notes on diaper rash cream and clipping coupons for Pampers.
That's when Dotty chose to blow in like a hurricane through Amanda's back door.
"Oh, Amanda, Amanda, Amanda," she cried out.
"Hello Mother."
Dotty bent down to give her daughter a kiss and then made dopey eyes and funny noises to the babies who both were seated in their little bouncer chairs in the middle of the tables.
"Oh, they get more adorable every day," Dotty gushed. Then she straightened up and looked at the two younger women.
"Oh, you'll never guess what happened today. I told you about that class that I was taking, for computers? Well, the Captain and I decided that he's going to expand his business. We're going to buy a new computer and set up an office and I'm going to do all the office stuff, paperwork and all of that, you know how it is Amanda, and he's going to be able to take in more customers. Ooh, we're so excited."
"That sounds really nice, Mother."
"Oh, and here's the best part. You know all about it. It will be a lot of work, never ending, I may end up spending lots of late nights at the office."
With this, she winked at Amanda.
"Don't bother buying the pea flavored baby food yet, dear. You never ate it at that age and we ended up giving most of it to the Fletcher's dog."
Dotty tossed all of her junk onto the only empty spot of the table and then sailed about the kitchen in a flurry, pouring herself a glass of milk and putting together a sandwich.
"Oh, I picked up the summer class schedules from the community college for the boys. There's two of them, one for courses for credit and the other is the classes for community interest. I know
Jamie was asking about the photography courses."
"Thank you mother."
"You should see that one section. I never, in all of my life, thought that they would offer such classes. Do you girls know that not only are they offering belly dancing classes, they're offering
pick your proper tattoo and how to pole dance as well. I just never, imagine if they'd offered all of this when your Daddy was still alive? He would have had fits."
"I'm sure he would have," Francine said as she watched in amazement the older woman's energy.
"Well, darling, if you still want me to baby-sit tomorrow night, just let me know."
"I don't think so," Amanda said.
"What?"
"I don't think we're going to go out now. I think we'll just stay at home, you know a nice quiet night at home."
"Amanda, you had a baby, you aren't dead yet. Lord, I don't know what gets into you sometimes Missy. You and Lee have hardly gone out at all since the baby, that can't be good for a relationship, you know. You both have to have time for yourselves."
"Mother, maybe some other night."
Dotty shook her head.
"Amanda Elise Stetson, I know you know better. But hey, I'm just your mother, what do I know? Ooh, look at the time. I've got to be going, I'm meeting Kurt and we're going computer shopping. Top of the line, too!"
Dotty quickly gave both of the babies light kisses, the girls hugs and then out the door she flew, just as quickly as she had breezed in.
"Whew, she tires me out," Francine said.
"I know."
"You know, maybe she's right. You and Lee should go out."
"Hell will freeze over first," Amanda replied. "You didn't see the mood Lee was in this morning before he left. And besides, I can't fit into any of my dresses and he wanted to go to that nice new
restaurant that opened up over by the campus."
"I know the feeling," Francine said as she nodded in agreement.
With little more than half-interest, she picked up one of the brochures that Dotty had left on the table and began thumbing through it.
"Oh my," she suddenly exclaimed.
"What?"
"They really do offer a pole dancing class."
"You're kidding?"
"No, listen to this. Pole dancing offers a unique exercise experience, guaranteed to not only boost your physical fitness but will enhance your self-image and your sexual confidence. All muscle
groups are used and not only will it provide a wonderful and fun new way to work out, pole dancing enhances your music appreciation, targets key muscle groups, and can help enhance your sex life in ways never you've probably never thought of."
Amanda laughed.
"Lugging diapers up and down to the laundry room targets key muscle groups."
Francine tapped a perfectly manicured nail on the page.
"You know, Amanda, maybe we should try this."
"You've got to be joking!"
"No, it could be fun. You like to dance, right?"
"Well, yeah."
"Why not then? It's only two nights a week. Jamie wants to earn extra money for that video recorder that he wants and he's so good with the babies. We can just tell the fellows that we've signed up for an exercise class to lose those few extra pounds."
"I don't know," Amanda hesitated.
"Says here we can try it and if we don't like it, we can get a refund after the first class."
"A refund huh?"
Francine nodded.
"Hmmm…"
To be continued on Saturday
Will the girls like their new excerise class?
Will Lee and Leatherneck suffer stomach problems from drinking the Agency brew?
And, will Billy be able to continue sneaking those donuts into the Agency without Jeannie finding out?
Stay tuned, as only TS knows for sure where this is heading....mwhahaha!
Story Notes:
Instructions: You must use all the words somewhere in your story, and you must incorporate the scenario into your story as well. You can use them in any order - you may even use them more than once. But you MUST use them all AT LEAST ONCE. Don't forget your submission can be any length - from one line to a full-length story - and it can be SMK, B5 or anything else as long as it has a link to either SMK or B5.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Summary: A new exercise class may be just what the doctor ordered to put some zing back into the love lives of some of our favorite spies.
Setting: obviously sometime after the series ended.
Rating: Hopefully double the heat!
Disclaimer: the usual SMK legalese applies. I don't own `em, I get nothing except for the fun of taking them off the dusty shelf and seeing what kind of havoc I can whip up for them. I always put them back too, unharmed and just waiting until the next bell for recess rings again.
I typed fast and furiously, hopefully there's not too many errors. I'll give you the second part probably tomorrow morning. Enjoy!
Setting: obviously sometime after the series ended.
Rating: Hopefully double the heat!
Disclaimer: the usual SMK legalese applies. I don't own `em, I get nothing except for the fun of taking them off the dusty shelf and seeing what kind of havoc I can whip up for them. I always put them back too, unharmed and just waiting until the next bell for recess rings again.
I typed fast and furiously, hopefully there's not too many errors. I'll give you the second part probably tomorrow morning. Enjoy!