By: Amber
Disclaimer: These characters are not owned by
me, nor are most of the stories written about them. But this story, in
pieces and in its parts, is owned by me and on that only, I hold creative
license. I'm not making any money off of this piece of fiction, and wouldn't
take it if it were offered. The story is just for fun, and in answer to
the challenge the Emily Ann Meyer posted to the list.
Summary:Amanda finds out about her code name
Rating:G
Timeline:About a year and a half after the end
of the series
"Lee?" Amanda asked, looking up from a file she was reading at her desk in the Q Bureau. While she'd been out on maternity leave, Lee had been left to do the reports and she was taking this first day back to catch up on what she'd missed while she was out. Even though she had been out for almost six months -- four months of complete bedrest before she had her beautiful baby girl, and two months at home after she was born-- she thought she knew almost everything that would have been in them anyway, because of the way Lee would talk about them with her at home. But there was one little thing that kept popping up that she needed to ask about.
Her husband was engrossed in a report he was writing from their latest assignment. "Yeah?" he answered distractedly, and then looked up to ask her, "Is unintenionalness a word?"
Amanda shook her head. She sometimes wondered how he managed to get through reports before he pulled her into Agency life with that fated meeting at the train station. His spelling could be atrocious, and some of the words he thought of... But, the important thing was he had good instincts as an Agent. Compared to that, spelling and grammar were nothing.
"No, sweetheart, it's not a word. Try rearranging the sentence a little. Do you want me to do it for you?" she asked with a smile.
Lee smiled at her when he told her "No need. I'm almost done anyway." He bent his head back to his work.
Amanda called his name again. This time he looked up with a start. Amanda tapped the report in front of her. "I have a question about a couple of these reports."
Lee sat back in his chair, a puzzled look on his face. "What's wrong with the reports? I had Francine read them over for me before I turned them in to Billy, so it shouldn't have anything missing."
Amanda broke in. "Who's Cleopatra?"
The look on Lee's face was priceless -- first it showed shock, then embarrassment. "Um... Cleopatra?"
Amanda nodded her head across the room. "Cleopatra. Who is she? I'd think it was a code name for someone you were chasing, but the name appears in several of these reports."
Lee stood up and walk over to his wife and sat on the edge of her desk. "I thought I'd told you about Cleopatra. While you were on leave. Cleopatra's an Agent."
Amanda looked up at him, "I figured that much out, Lee. Who is she? Is she an agent that I've met before, or someone new to the Agency?"
Lee looked uncomfortably at her. He had planned on telling her this while she was home on maternity leave, but somehow, he never got the time. This wasn't how he wanted her to find out. "Well, yes. You know her. Pretty well in fact."
Amanda knew he was stalling, and knew the reason why. But she was tired of waiting for him to answer her. "Lee..." she warned him, using the tone she'd often used with her boys when they were growing up and found, much to her surprise, that it usually worked on her husband as well.
"Cleopatra is you." Lee's shoulders slumped, and he looked at his wife to see if she would be angry that he hadn't told her she had acquired a code name before now. But instead, he saw laughter in her eyes, matching the smile on her lips. He sat back up straight, again a look of shock on his face. "You knew."
Amanda nodded. "I guessed. When I read the reports, and there were references to clues that 'Cleopatra' had given you, and they matched conversations we'd had at home about the cases you were working on... well, it wasn't that hard to put two and two together. What I want to know," she continued with mock seriousness as she stood up and put her arms around her husband, "is why YOU didn't tell me. Why I had to find out reading it in the reports. I'm sure this can't be the way it's usually done in the Agency. I can't imagine you sitting down and reading a report about your activities and seeing 'Scarecrow' written where 'Lee Stetson' used to be."
Lee kissed her before answering. As usually happened when they kissed, it was several minutes before Lee was able to answer her. "Well, I didn't plan on not telling you. It's been really hectic while you've been out on maternity leave, both here and at home. Every time I sat down to tell you, something new would come up and it would get pushed to the side. Forgive me for not telling you sooner?" he asked as he bent down to kiss her again.
This kiss lasted even longer than the last one, and when they finally broke apart, Amanda was flushed with the heat of it. She turned around in his arms, snuggling up against him, after making sure the door to their office was locked. While everyone at the Agency now knew about their marriage -- it was kind of hard to keep it secret after the pregnancy -- it would still cause a lot less embarrrassment if they weren't interrupted.
"I forgive you," Amanda said as she settled her back against her husband's chest and pulled his arms around her. "What I want to know, though, is why Cleopatra? And how did it come about?"
"Well," Lee answered, moving slightly into a more comfortable position, "Dr Smyth called Billy and I into his office one day, not long after you went out on maternity leave. He had one of my reports. Then he called us on the carpet for not getting you a code name before now. Somehow, probably because of the different way that you became an agent, no one ever got around to picking out a code name for you. So in all the reports, even though you're a full agent, you've been appearing as 'Amanda'. Smyth didn't like the way it compromised you, or the Agency. So, he told Billy and I to come up with a code name for you within 48 hours, or Smyth would come up with one himself."
Amanda turned to look at her husband. "Is Dr Smyth the one who picked out my code name?"
"No. Billy is actually the one that came up with that one. And it fits, too."
Amanda looked at him quizzically. "How does it fit? I'm not Egyptian, and I know I don't have a lover named Antony." She said the last with a provocative smile on her face.
"You better not," Lee growled as he kissed the tip of her nose. "Anyway," he continued while Amanda snuggled back into his embrace, "Billy and I were brainstorming ideas in his office. We thought something that played off of 'King' would be perfect."
Amanda interrupted with a smile. "Even if that isn't my last name now?"
Lee chuckled. "Even if that isn't your last name now. But you've been Amanda King here for so long that, even though they know we're married, they still think of you as Amanda King."
"So, since Cleopatra was a queen, and that matches with King, that's how I became Cleopatra?" Amanda asked grinning.
"No... well, that's part of it, but not all of it. Who's telling this story, anyway?" he asked. Amanda's only answer was to press herself closer to her husband. "Back to my story. Billy and I were trying to think of a good code name for you, bringing up lots of royalty related names. And, we started talking about some of the old cases you'd been on. Somehow, we brought up a lot of them in which you're refusal to believe the bad in someone... like me when I was pretending to be burnt out to find the leak in the Agency, or Billy and Francine when I thought they were trying to kill me*. Remembering all of these cases, I told Billy, 'That's my wife, Queen of Denial.' That's when Billy looked at me and said, 'Scarecrow, you're partner now has a code name. You're now working with Cleopatra.' It seemed perfect to me, with the added bonus," he said, turning Amanda around and standing up to look at her from above, "that Cleopatra was supposed to be a beautiful woman, and I know for a fact that my wife is a beautiful woman." He looked at her seriously for a moment, his eyes clouding with concern. "You do like it, though, don't you? Its too late to change it, but I want to know I helped Billy pick out a code name you can live with."
Amanda stepped closer to her husband and put her arms around his waist. As she was reaching up to kiss him again, she told him "Cleopatra is perfect, as long as I can call you Antony."
END