TITLE: Mexico 2/9
AUTHOR: Rari Coss
E-MAIL ADDRESS: RariCoss1956@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: It all belongs to Joss, the WB, UPN, Fox, Mutant Enemy and anybody else who feels they own it. Oh, and I have no idea who owns Scarecrow and Mrs. King but I’m sure they have much more money than I do and I’m only playing.
FEEDBACK: Absolutely.

“Yeah, Billy.” Lee stuck his head in his boss’ office.

Billy Melrose looked up. “Ah, Lee, come on in. Have a seat.”

“Ooh, this sounds serious.”

Billy lifted his eyes heavenward in mock exasperation. “Is Amanda still around?”

Lee frowned. “No, she’s out on a date.”

Billy tried not to grin at the tone in Lee's voice. He wasn’t sure what it was going to take for this man sitting across from him to realize what he had in Amanda and stop pussyfooting around. Biting the inside of his cheek to keep a smirk off his face, he nodded seriously. "I need to ask you for a favor. This would be strictly off the record.

Lee sat down, concerned. "What is it, Billy? I'll do anything you need."

"I appreciate that, but wait until you hear me out, then decide. I'll understand if you want to say no."

"I'm all ears. And the answer is still yes, and I'm sure Amanda will feel the same way."

Billy smiled in response, then he let loose a sigh. "I got a call a couple of weeks ago from an old friend. His son's disappeared. He didn't really give it much thought at first because he and his son haven't been that close for a while. But when he hadn't seen or heard from him for a little too long, he went to the house where he had been living with two other friends, and it had been destroyed."

Lee's eyebrows rose. "Destroyed?"

"As if it had been torn apart. He did a little checking and it seems as if all three boys are gone. He called me to see if I could run his name through our system, see if his name cropped up."

"Did you find anything?"

"Not a thing. Francine happened to be in California on vacation, and I asked her to take a couple of extra days and see if she could find any leads."

"I was wondering how she was managing to take such a long vacation."

Billy rolled his eyes at his top agent. "She's spooked, Lee. She was trying to hide it, but something has her scared. I want you to go see what's going on, what she's found."

"I can't imagine anything scaring Francine. Usually it's the other way around."

A chill went down Billy's spine. "Maybe you should leave Amanda out of this one."

Lee didn't like the idea of that. He'd gotten used to working with Amanda. He felt weird when he worked on cases without her now. He found her presence soothing. He smiled to himself. He even liked it when she babbled. "She won't stand for that. Besides, she has such a different way of looking at things. Her perspective might be just what we need."

Billy's lips tightened and then he nodded. "Be careful. This whole thing makes me nervous for some reason. I wouldn't even ask you to help, but he's a good friend."

"We'll find his son. Don't worry." Lee stood up. "Where exactly are we going?"

"Sunnydale."

"Never heard of it."

Billy handed him a file. "Here's all the information the research department could pull on the place, and on Jonathan."

Lee took it and stuck it under his arm. "I guess I'll go tell Amanda."

"I thought you said she was on a date."

Lee scowled. "I'll wait for her to get home."

Billy bit back another grin. "Okay." His gaze softened. "Thanks Scarecrow."

"You've been there for me, more times than I can count. It's about time I got to even up the score."

Billy handled the emotion with his usual gruffness. "Fine, then get out of here, already. I've got work to do."

Lee grinned and with a jaunty salute he sailed out of his boss' office.

***

Lee looked at his watch again, his expression growing ever darker. Amanda should have been home a while ago. That is if this was anything like any of her other dates. Dinner, maybe a movie, and then straight home. Amanda was an old-fashioned woman, and that was fine with Lee. Especially when she was with another man.

His fingers tapped impatiently on the steering wheel of his silver Corvette. He looked at his watch again. "Damn." Lee hated these dates. He hated that Amanda wasn't around when he needed to talk to her. He hated that someone else might be touching…Lee shook his head. He didn't want to go there. His relationship with Amanda was just what it needed to be. A professional friendship. That's all.

Lee looked at his watch again. He wondered if he should go track her down. Maybe the guy was getting frisky. Maybe he needed to have his teeth knocked in. Lee was grinding his own teeth when a car pulled into Amanda's driveway. "Jesus, it's about time." He watched as the man got out of the car and walked around to open Amanda's door. He walked her up the sidewalk to the front door. Lee winced and looked away when the man leaned in to give Amanda a kiss.

Then it was over and she was in the house. Lee waited until the man drove away, making mental note of his license plate number. Then he got out of his car and made his way to the back of Amanda's house, back to where the kitchen was. That was inevitably where she ended up. He was getting to be an expert on her habits.

He smiled when he saw her and he quietly tapped on the window. He didn't want to alert Amanda's mother and he had no idea where she might be. Amanda saw him and gave him a wide smile, her brown eyes twinkling. God, he loved that smile. He smiled back.

She snuck out the back door. "Hey! What are you doing here so late?"

That reminded Lee. He scowled. "I could ask you the same thing."

Amanda shook her head at him, gently chiding him with her expression. "Did you come all this way just to scold me?"

"No, but while we're on the subject, why are you home so late?"

"That, Mr. Stetson, is none of your business." She grew concerned. "Did you need me? Is there something wrong?"

Lee scrunched his face up. "Maybe. We need to go to California."

Amanda's eyes grew wide. "Really? California?"

"We need to go meet Francine."

Amanda grimaced. "Oh."

"I know, I know. I’m not crazy about it either, but Billy needs our help."

Amanda stood a little taller. "Then I'm in."

Lee grinned. "I knew you would be." He gestured into the house. "Can you make arrangements to get away? I'm not sure how long we'll need."

"Sure. I'll tell my mom we're going on a last minute location scout for IFF. She'll be glad to watch the boys."

"Great. I've got us tickets for tomorrow morning, 10 am."

Her eyebrows rose. "You aren't giving me much time."

Lee shrugged. "I know, but Billy thinks it's important."

Amanda gave him her lopsided smile. He bit back a sigh. He loved that smile too. He realized she was talking and paid attention. "I'll be ready. You'll pick me up?"

"Of course."

"Okay, then." She turned to go back in the house when their eyes caught. Amanda thought her stomach would turn inside out with all the butterflies she had. These moments kept happening, moments when she was sure Lee would kiss her, but then he didn't. It was making her crazy. When the moment had grown into something uncomfortable and Amanda couldn't take it anymore she took a step toward the house. "Well, good night Lee."

Lee let out a breath. "Good night, Amanda." He took a couple of steps back until he blended into the darkness but he stood there for a long time until the kitchen light went out.

NEXT