The Gift
Walking into the bullpen, Lee headed toward Billy's office, he
noticed the area seemed more festive than usual. He began to notice
flower bouquets on several desks, a balloon bouquet on another, even
some of the steno pool girls were wearing red or pink clothing, then
it dawned on him what today was, Valentine's Day. Arriving back
into town last night after being in the Middle East on assignment
for a month he hadn't thought about what day it was. And he didn't
even have a date for tonight, he would have to rectify that problem
before the end of the day.
Seeing Francine scowling at her desk, Lee walked up to her.
"No flowers from your valentines?" He asked, needling her
about the flowerless desk.
"Just this stupid gift from Beaman!" she gestured at a
brightly decorated Valentine's coffee cup filled with little candy
hearts, wrapped in red cellophane and tied with white ribbon.
"The least he could have given me was chocolate, not this cheap
crappy candy!" she huffed.
"Mmm . . Candy hearts, they were my favorite when I was a kid, the
girls loved getting them from me, HUG ME . . , KISS ME. . , BE
MINE." Lee said as he lifted the gift off the desk and eyed it
trying to read the little hearts inside the cup; but the red
cellophane made it impossible to read them. "Those were the
days."
"Take them. I don't want them," Francine snapped, shoving
the gift back into his hands as he tried to give it back.
"Really? Thanks Francine, Happy Valentine`s Day " Lee
chuckled as he headed towards Billy's office with the gift.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Later leaving Billy's office, Lee bumped into Cheryl, the
receptionist, as she got up from her desk. Seeing him standing
there with a valentine's gift in his hand, she gushed profusely,
"Is that for me, Lee?" as she reached out to take the gift
from him. He jerked his hand back slightly, "Ah, no... ," he
stuttered, wondering where she could have possibly gotten that idea
from.
"Then who's it for? I bet its Lynda, isn't it?" she
sniffed, then watching him shake his head no, she started listing
the steno pool, "Kristine?, Sarah?, Calicia?, Rita?, Ange?", she got
frustrated as he still shook his head no. "Then WHO, if not one
of us?" She huffed.
He gave a little laugh as he said, "I`m not telling."
The candy was his and he wasn't going to share it with anyone
else.
"I know WHO you're giving it to, . . . I bet its Amanda,
isn`t it?" Cheryl said drawing out the name sarcastically.
Lee cocked his head and thought for a second, "Hmm, maybe
you're right Cheryl. Maybe I should give it to Amanda. Thanks!" he
grinned as he walked away leaving her with her mouth hanging wide
open.
Walking down the corridor toward the elevator, several women eyed
the gift Lee carried in his hand. Each smiling brightly at him and
hoping the gift was for them, then frowning as he passed them by
without a glance. He was happily lost in his thoughts of how
surprised Amanda would be that he had brought her a gift for
Valentine's. Waiting for the elevator, he laughed to himself as
he thought about how clever he was, without spending any money he
had a gift for Amanda and would probably be able to eat most of the
candy himself, knowing she would more than likely share it with him
and eat very little of it herself.
Getting on the elevator, he was proud of himself, last year it
hadn't even crossed his mind to buy Amanda a Valentine's
gift. He had felt slightly embarrassed when she had presented him
with a Valentine's tin of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Nodding
to Mrs. Marsten as he got off the elevator and headed up the steps
to the Q-Bureau, he smiled to himself. Yes, this year he was ahead
of the game. He had a cute little gift that was safe, it wasn't too
romantic like flowers or chocolates, that might give her the wrong
idea, but nice enough for her to realize he had thought about her.
It was perfect!
Unlocking the bureau door, he hid the gift behind his back as he
stepped into the room. Amanda glanced up as Lee entered with a
silly grin on his face, "Hi Lee, what are you up to?"
"Oh nothing, just thought I'd give you a little something for
Valentines."
"Aw, you didn't have to," she said taking the offered
gift from his hand.
"Well you know, I just wanted to let you know I was thinking
about you."
"That's sweet, Lee." She replied, blushing slightly at
his comment. "You have a little gift from me on your desk, its not
much,just some homemade treats." Setting the cup down on her desk,
she returned to working on the report she had been proofreading when
Lee had entered.
"Thanks, why don't you open yours?"
"No, I'll open it later, I need to finish this report by
twelve-thirty for Mr. Melrose to have at his one o'clock meeting.
Which…," glancing at her watch, "gives me less than fifteen minutes
to get it done. Two of which I have already spent talking to you."
Giving him a reproachful look, "Okay?"
"Okay, I'll leave you alone, but you let me know when you
open it, deal?"
"It`s a deal," she said with a grin, knowing all he
probably wanted was some of the candy when she opened it.
Lee sat down at his desk, and opened the tin hoping maybe she had
stuck some candy hearts in with the homemade cookies and chocolates,
no such luck. Disappointed, he started looking through one of his
black books, to find a date for the evening. As he looked through
the book, he realized a lot of the faces that went with the names
didn't appeal to him any more; he couldn't quite put his
finger on the reason, maybe he had been out of town too long. At
last he found a possibility, he would give her a call.
Finishing her report, Amanda got up from her desk and headed for the
door, as an after thought she glanced back at Lee and saw him
staring at her Valentine's gift. "Don't touch my candy
while I'm gone, I'll know if you do."
Embarrassed at being caught , he replied, "I won't, promise.
I have some phone calls to make any way."
xoxoxoxoxoxox
An hour later, having struck out with several women, mostly for
asking at the last minute, he eyed the unopened gift on Amanda's
desk and contemplated how he could get her to open it without being
too obvious that he wanted some of the candy. He had already run
several scenarios through his head and hadn't been able to come
up with a good one yet. Just as he was about to decide to go the
pitiful route and beg her for some candy, Billy came through the
door.
"Scarecrow, I need you to take over surveillance for Johnson and
Carruthers in thirty minutes. The team that was supposed to replace
them, is still checking out another lead in Doswell, and just now
called in. So now I need a replacement for them. Sorry its such
short notice but it will only be until 6:30 when Cross and Gordan
will be able to take over. You'll need to head over there
immediately, here's the address." He handed Lee a slip of
paper.
"Billy this is something a rookie agent could handle, why
don't' you let one of Beaman's trainees go?" Lee said, thinking about
his unfinished plans for the upcoming evening.
"You're right Scarecrow," he turned with a grin to
Amanda, " Amanda,I need you to take over surveillance for…."
"Billy that's not…" Lee interrupted.
"No? and Scarecrow," Billy turned giving Lee a reproachful
look, "Why don't you accompany Mrs. King to make sure she doesn't
get into any trouble." Billy then hurried out the door.
Lee stood up, sighing heavily "Come on Amanda, let's go."
Amanda grabbed her purse from the desk and headed for the door. Lee
slipped on his suit jacket and adjusted his tie, as he passed by
Amanda's desk he noticed the gift and snatched it up as he
headed for the door. Aware that Amanda had seen him pick up the
gift, he gave a little shrug explaining, "You never know, we might
need a little snack later."
Rolling her eyes and nodding her head knowingly, " Scarecrow, its
candy not a snack, pure sugar, nothing nutritional about it."
"And that's exactly what we may need a couple of hours from
now, especially if this surveillance is as boring as the last couple
we've done."
"Okay, bring it, but you can't have any until later."
"Fine, fine." He said agreeing, knowing he would finally get
to have his candy.
xoxoxoxoxoxox
A couple of hours later, sitting in the car, slowly being bored to
death, Lee decided it was time for the candy.
"Amanda, do you like your Valentine's present?" He asked,
gesturing toward the wrapped cup sitting between them on the console.
"Oh! Yeah I do, it's really sweet, " she said picking up
the cup and turning it in her hand. " And candy hearts are my
favorites."
"Really? They're my favorites too."
"Yeah, I remember we used to play some of the silliest games with
them. We would try to make sentences with them and they would
always come out so funny. What kind of games did you play with
them?"
"I used to pick out all the "I LOVE YOU's" and
"BE MINE's" and give them to the prettiest girls in class."
"All of them, huh."
"Yep," he said smugly, " and then the ones I didn't
like, I would give those to the girls I didn't like, and they never
knew the difference."
"Must not have been many."
"Nope, not many, the only ones I didn't like were the green
ones," he paused, "Hey! You're making fun of me aren't you."
"Who Me? Never!" she laughed.
"Okay, what other games did you play with them?" he asked
slightly irritated at her needling him.
"Well, about the same thing just not with EVERY boy in class,
just the cutest," she replied, needling him again. "I would pick
out a special heart and put it on his desk when he wasn't looking.
Also, I would pick out all the "HUGS" and give them to my best
friends."
"Oh! I remember something we boys would do that would embarrass
the girls to death. We would get a "KISS ME" heart and stick it
on the end of our tongue, then wiggle it at them till they looked,
then popped it in our mouth and swallowed it," he laughed
uproariously, "that got them every time. Mmm, and that little
red-headed girl in 8th grade, she could do the most amazing things
with them, she taught me how to French kiss. . .," he trailed off
and glanced at Amanda, realizing what he was admitting to, "with . .
them."
They held each others gaze for a second as they each had a similar
image run through their minds. Both shaken at the possibility that
wasn't possible, they each started fidgeting in the small
confines of the car. Amanda started untying the ribbon on the
wrapping and Lee found something interesting out his car window.
Wanting to quickly break the silence between them, Lee
suggested, "Why don't we play the game."
"Game? What . . . Game?" Her eyes grew wide, as her
imagination ran wild.
"Ah, you know the sentence game, with the candy," he said
gesturing toward the unwrapped cup of candy.
"OH!, yeah, here take some," she said, quickly pouring some
candy into his hand, then poured some into hers.
"Remember you have to use at least four hearts to make a
sentence." she said, shifting the candy in her hand.
Lee quickly popped a candy into his mouth, sucking on it he
mumbled, "Doesn't taste quite like I remember."
Lee started shifting through the hearts as he crunched on his piece
of candy. Turning over the hearts to read them, he slowly stopped
crunching and swallowed roughly, as his brain started comprehending
the sayings, "I'M HORNY", "BLOW ME","LET'S BALL", "SUCK THIS",
"FUCK ME", and "CUM HERE". Taking a deep breath, he slowly
turned to look at Amanda. She looked almost in total shock, her
mouth gaping open, her eyes, large, staring down into her candy
filled hand.
"Amanda , I… I didn't realize…"
She looked up at him in amazement, then caught herself, shutting her
eyes tight, she shook her head to gain control of herself, then
stared straight ahead without looking at him. Tersely she
began, "Lee, where did you get these? Did you get these from Augie?"
"Ah, no . . I didn't", he began slowly, " I can explain."
"OH, I think you'd better!"
"Francine gave them to me," he sputtered.
Amanda whipped her head around to look at him, "She did? Oh!
She DID!"
"NO! Not like that! She didn't give them to me as a gift.
Beaman gave them to her, so she didn't want them and gave them to
me!"
"And you decided to give them to me!"
"Yeah, but" he said shaking his head, "I didn't know
they were like. . . LIKE THIS! Honest!" holding up his candy-filled
hand to emphasize his point.
"Here, you can have these, I can't eat them, I won`t eat
them." she said, pouring the candy from her hand into the cellophane
wrapping, then dumping the remainder of the cup also, then grabbed
it up and shoved it into Lee's hands, then stared straight ahead
again.
After a minute of silence he began quietly, "I'm in trouble
aren't I."
"You better believe it buster!" she huffed.
Lee sat back in his seat, leaning his head back against the head
rest, contemplating his predicament.
Realizing he had seriously hurt her feelings and embarrassed her, he
slowly turned to her and hoarsely whispered, "I'm sorry.
I'll make it up to you, how about dinner tonight at La' Maison?"
Amanda thought about it for a minute, "It's a start, but
you'll never get reservations for tonight, its Valentine's,
remember." she said pointedly.
"You just watch and see, I'll pick you up at eight tonight." He
answered.
"Then I'll be ready and waiting." She replied,with a bemused look,
wondering how he would pull this off, but knowing he probably could.
He gave her a big smile, knowing he already had reservations, he
just didn't have a date.
They both sat back with a contented sigh, maybe the night
wouldn't be a waste after all.
Little Tagalogue:
Next Day:
"Hey Francine, did you like the gift I gave you?"
"Why Beaman, I liked it so much I gave it to Scarecrow."
"Scarecrow? You opened it didn't you."
"No, actually I didn't."
Beaman gulped, "Did Scarecrow open it?"
"Hmmm, now that I think about it, I heard a rumor that he gave it
to Amanda."
"Ah, Mrs. King? He gave it to her?"
"Yes that's what I heard."
"OH no!" Beaman paled instantly, looking around furtively, he
didn't want to be anywhere near Scarecrow for the next couple of
days. He knew the Scarecrow's wrath and he didn't want to be
anywhere near it. Quickly knocking on Mr. Melrose's door and
opening it, "Mr. Melrose, I'm not feeling well, I think
I'm coming down with the flu...."
End
Story Notes:
Disclaimer: Scarecrow and Mrs. King and its characters belong to WB
and Shoot the Moon Productions. No infringement is intended. This
is written for entertainment purposes only. Please do not
redistribute or reproduce this story without my permission.
Third Season
and Shoot the Moon Productions. No infringement is intended. This
is written for entertainment purposes only. Please do not
redistribute or reproduce this story without my permission.
Third Season