One Mistake


By: Rachel

Disclaimer: The character's don't belong to me, except for Ms. Witita.
Rating: PG
Synopsis: Amanda feels guilty when she has to lie to her son.

Part 1
"Great job Scarecrow, Mrs. King." Billy smiled from where he sat behind his desk.

"So it's safe to say, ‘case closed'?" Lee quipped.

Amanda smiled at them. She and Lee had been working on this case for over a month, checking out lead's, making phone calls, and scanning old files. They hadn't had a real lead until this afternoon when they got an anonymous tip that had turned out to be real. It was a good thing too, since they had had to work many late nights, and her mother had been practically begging for some reason as to why.

She sighed softly as Lee and Billy continued to ramble on about the case. Ever since she had missed Jamie's play, mother had been reminding her every day not to forget Parent's Night at school. ‘Parent's Night!' Amanda looked at her watch in horror, she was late!

"Uh, excuse me, I've gotta go!"

Lee stopped mid-sentence. "What?"

"I've gotta go! It's Parent's Night at the school, and Jamie and mother have been reminding me about it all week, and I'm late!"

"That was tonight?" Lee asked in surprise.

"Yes, I'm sorry sir, I've got to -"

"Go, Amanda!" Billy commanded.

Amanda sighed, relieved, "thank you sir." Then she remembered "Lee, I don't have my car!"

Lee pulled out his keys. "I'll take you. Let's go." He then led her gently out the door.

~-~-~


"Hurry Lee!"

"Amanda, I'm going the speed limit."

"I know, but they're doing a presentation, and Jamie is so excited because he's first, and if I miss it . . ."

"Amanda," Lee interrupted, "we're here."

Amanda looked out the window to see herself staring at the front steps. "Thank you."

She jumped out of the car leaving Lee to stare longingly after her. He wished that he could go inside with her, but he knew that wasn't possible.

He shook his head and sighed, then putting the car into gear, he drove away.

~-~-~


Ms. Witita was the first person Amanda saw when she entered the lobby.

"Oh, Ms. Witita, have they started the presentations yet?"

Ms. Witita gave her a fake smile. "Mrs. King, how nice of you to come. Yes, they started the presentations about twenty minutes ago. Your son was wonderful."

Amanda groaned "I'm late."

"Yes, well, we always like to start on time. It teaches the children punctuality." She gave a small chuckle, "as well as the parents."

She stomped off, leaving Amanda at a cross between seething anger, and horrible sorrow. She had missed it again! Ever since she had taken the job at ‘IFF' she had missed one thing after another. This job really wasn't for people with families.

She watched the rest of the kids from the doorway, trying to come up with something resonable to say to her mother and Jamie.

"Mom! Mom! Did you see me? Wasn't it great?"

Jamie came flying towards her at top speed with dotty and Philip trailing behind at a much slower pace.

"Uh, well actually, I heard-"

"How long have you been standing there Amanda? I had a seat saved for you." Dotty interrupted.

"Well, I-"

"What did you think mom? Honestly?"

Amanda looked at how excited he was and didn't have the heart to tell him that she had been late, . . again. "It was great Jamie."

The answer satisfied him, and he and his brother took off for the refreshment stands. Amanda smiled at her mother, but it quickly faded when she saw Ms. Witita glaring at her.

Ms. Witita was the only one who knew she had lied . . . . .


Part 2
Amanda was cleaning the kitchen when she heard the tap at the back door. She hurried over to open it, and wasn't surprised to see Lee standing there.

He peeked around her shoulder, saying, "are you busy?"

"Actually, yes. I have to finish the dishes, sweep the floor, and it desperately needs to be mopped, not to mention the piles of laundry that I haven't even started on."

"Where are your mother and the boys?"

She sighed, "they went to a party that one of the boys from school invited them to. Mother went along to help chaperone."

He smiled, "so you're alone?"

She unconsciously gripped the door harder, "yes. Look, is there a reason why you came."

Noticing the annoyance in her voice, he looked at her in concern, and had to ask, "are you okay?"

"Fine. Listen Lee, I have a lot that needs to be done, and I'm not accomplishing anything by standing here making small talk with you."

His eyes narrowed slightly, and he pushed her backwards gently, stepping into the house after her.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"What happened?"

"What do you mean, ‘what happened'?"

"What happened between the time that I dropped you off at the school, and now, that made you so upset?"

She sat down on the couch and put her head in her hands. After a minute, she looked up at him, and he was surprised to see tears forming in her eyes.

"I was too late, Lee."

Realization dawned, and he nodded sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Amanda. Is Jamie mad?"

"He doesn't know."

"What?"

"He doesn't know that I wasn't there in time. In fact, he thinks I was." She chuckled with no humor. "When he asked what I thought, I lied, and one of his teachers caught me."

"What did his teacher say?" He asked, finally moving from his spot by the door to sit next to her on the couch.

"She didn't say a word, but she sure glared."

"Amanda, I'm sorry."

The tone of his voice made her look at him in surprise. He gave a small smile. "I'm sorry that you were late tonight, and that you missed his play before."

"How did you know about the play?"

His smile widened, "we have out ways."

"Lee, I feel-"

"Amanda! We're Home!" Dotty yelled from the front door.

Amanda's look turned to panic. "You've gotta get out of here!" She whispered frantically.

He jumped from the couch and was out the door just before the kids came rushing in.

"Hi guys!"

"Mom! Guess what! . . ."


Part 3
Amanda tried to sound encouraging as she responded with a quick, "what?"

As Philip started off on a long account of what had happened at the party, Amanda looked nervously at the back door, and around the room to make sure that there was no sigh that she had had a visitor.

When she noticed that Philip had concluded his story, she smiled, then looked at her watch. "Guess what time it is?"

The two boys groaned, "mom!"

"Bed time. Scoot."

They groaned again, but headed up the stairs.

"Goodnight boys."

"‘Night mom!" Came the loud reply.

After they had left the room, Amanda turned to her mother. "Was the party fun?"

"Well, it was okay. How was your night?"

Amanda smiled wearily at her. "Busy."

"Well I'm just glad that IFF let you leave in time for Jamie's presentation. It really meant a lot to him."

"Mother-"

"I know, I won't say another word. Goodnight dear."

"Goodnight mother." Amanda sat in her chair fora couple minutes before her conscience finally got the best of her.

She practically ran up the stairs and into her son's room. "Jamie?"

Jamie sat up in bed, and turned on his lamp. "What is it mom?"

"Jamie, I need to tell you something." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I was late for your presentation tonight, I didn't get to see you."

"What?" He looked confused, "but mom, you said-"

"I heard from Ms. Witita that you did a great job tonight, so I guess I, . . I-"

"You lied, mom." He looked out the window dejectedly.

"It was just one mistake son," Amanda struggled to hold her tears back. "I promise it won't ever happen again."

"It wasn't just ‘one mistake'. You also missed my play, or have you forgotten that all ready? You're never there for me."

Amanda felt tears running down her face as she pulled him into a embrace. "I'm so sorry."

He started crying, "don't make promises that you can't keep."

"Well," she gave a small smile, "as long as I'm not tied up, or get kidnaped-"

He gave a small chuckle, not realizing how honest she was being.

"I promise you that I won't miss another thing."

He smiled. "Okay," then waited a minute before asking, "can I give you my presentation now, since you missed it?"

Amanda smiled back, "that would be great."

"Okay, see, back in the time of cavemen, they had these machines-"

"Machines?" She looked at him strangely.

"Well, not really machines," he grinned, then gave her another hug. "I love you, mom."

"I love you too, Jamie," she whispered. "I love you too."


The End