Lee “Scarecrow” Stetson
Jamie made a face at Amanda. “I already told you I’m fine and I don’t need to go to the hospital.”
“I heard you,” she replied, with more patience than Lee would have had. “I know you don’t feel like you need to go, but sweetheart, you need to go anyway. Sometimes there’s an injury you don’t realize you have until later.”
He cast his eyes down to the ground. “Except that I remember what happened the last time I went.”
Before Amanda could respond, Nancy Zusterakos, who’d been sitting next to him on the stretcher, threw an arm around Jamie’s shoulders and pulled him close enough to give him a knuckle rub. “C’mon, small fry, do like she says. I’ll be in the next ambulance over anyway. Unless you’re too afraid —”
Jamie shoved her hand away. “That’s not gonna work on me. I’m too old for that.”
“Well, all right then, old man. Do like she says anyway.”
With the kind of exaggerated sigh that only a middle-schooler could produce, Jamie gave in, kicked up his feet, and twisted around so that he could lie back on the stretcher. Anxious eyes fell on Amanda’s and Joe’s faces. “You’re gonna be there, too, right, Mom and Dad? Comin’ in right behind the ambulance or at least Nancy’s?”
“Actually,” said one of the paramedics, “your parents can ride with you, if you’d like.”
“I’m not a baby.” But before anyone could react to that, he sighed again. This one was softer than the first. “But it’d be nice.”
After Jamie was loaded, Joe crawled in first before holding a hand out for Amanda. “It’s a little tight in here.”
She levered herself up. “I’m sure it’s fine. Where are we going?”
“Queenstown Memorial,” said one of the paramedics. He glanced at Lee. “You know the address?”
Lee shook his head.
The paramedic rattled it off. “You, ah, you don’t have to stay and give any more information, do you?”
“Not right now.” He’d submitted a preliminary field report already, and he could file his final report when he went back to the Agency on Monday. Billy had explicitly told them both to take tomorrow to rest and recuperate. Lee was still running on adrenaline and caffeine, but he knew it to be a temporary fix at best. “We’ll see you there.”
“Oh,” said Carrie as they began to turn away. “I almost forgot.” Taking something out of her cardigan’s pocket, she handed it to Amanda. “Here you go. I guess I won’t need these after all.”
The other woman’s lips twisted into a sardonic smile. “Thanks.”
“What was that you gave Amanda?” Lee asked Carrie as they made their way back to the minivan.
“Her handcuffs.”
He momentarily stopped in his tracks to stare at her. “Her handcuffs? What were you doing with those?”
Carrie’s tone was matter of fact. “She wouldn’t stay in the van any other way.” Then, seeing the look on his face, she joined his laughter. “I didn’t actually do anything, Lee. The threat was enough.”
He shook his head as he unlocked the minivan’s passenger door. “Lady, I’m sure glad you’re on our side. Do you know, that’s the one thing I never thought about doing during all that time when Amanda wouldn’t stay in the car?”
She continued the conversation after they settled into their seats. “Maybe that’s a good thing. That you never even threatened to handcuff her, I mean. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Amanda so angry. If she’d gotten that angry with you before you began dating, you might not have ever gotten so far.”
“Maybe,” he allowed as he pulled onto the asphalt behind the two ambulances. “But not for the reason you think. She’s saved my life after ignoring those orders. More than once.”
“Perhaps you subconsciously knew she could, so that’s why you never thought of restraining her.” Carrie shrugged. “She and I have a different dynamic than you and I do. A lot of times, there’s open animosity between mother and stepmother. She and I have kept that from happening, thank goodness, and I think we can go on keeping it pretty cordial. But it does mean that, if we feel we need to, we’ll cross each other without thinking twice. And I needed to this time.”
“Hm,” he answered as he turned the minivan onto Romancoke Road. “That never occurred to me. But you’re right; I couldn’t call Joe a friend. We still have to be really careful how we talk to each other. We’re trying, though. It might get to friendly, perhaps, given some time, but I doubt it’ll ever be comfortable. I…” he trailed off, shaking his head. “I’ve seen Amanda in pain from his decisions too many times.”
“And I’ve seen him in pain from her decisions more often than either one of us would admit,” she replied softly. “But, Lee, you and I don’t have that sort of history. If you and I became friends, it might help them both.”
Lee made the effort to keep himself from retorting that Joe’s pain was of his own making, instead giving her a sidelong look. “Does it matter? You two aren’t going to be around much longer. You’re heading out to Côte d’Ivoire after the holidays, right?”
There was a long pause before she took a deep breath. “Actually, we need to talk to you and Amanda about that. We meant to wait until we had you together, but…no. There’s been — we asked for another offer. If we could be stationed stateside, at least for a few years.” She continued with the details, and the longer she spoke, the more he found himself smiling.
It probably wouldn’t ever be a close friendship, and it would take work. But maybe the two of them could be friends after all.
By the time they got back to his bed, Jamie had already been assessed and hooked up to an IV. He was also feeling better enough to complain about it. “But why can’t you let me eat?” he kept asking. “Because I’m hungry. They never gave us food.”
Carrie glanced over at Lee and Amanda. “I thought your agent said —”
“It was a coded message,” he replied. “The ones we arrested don’t speak English very well. Zeta told me she’d figured that out pretty early on, so she was willing to take the chance. All she had to do was keep her tone even and cheerful.”
“Are you talking about Nancy?” asked Jamie.
“Yes,” Lee replied. “That is her name. We call her Zeta because it’s easier.”
He frowned. “‘Nancy’ isn’t that hard.”
Amanda jumped in before he could reply. “It’s a little more complicated than that, sweetheart, but nothing you need to worry about. You can keep on calling her Nancy if she’s okay with it.”
The last response Lee had expected to that was a small, dopey smile.
“Look, sport,” he started. “You need to concentrate on getting better, all right? Because, when you’re out of the hospital, we — ah, the people that Nancy and the other operatives work with — they’ll need you to go in and answer some questions.”
“Tomorrow, then?”
“You’re getting out that soon?”
Joe was the one who spoke up this time. “Yeah, tomorrow. He’s bruised and dehydrated, but it doesn’t look like there’s any permanent damage. They’re keeping him overnight to be sure, but if he’s still feeling fine in the morning, they’ll let him go home.”
He glanced over toward Amanda. “And Zeta?”
“A little worse,” she replied smoothly. “But there’s a decent possibility she’ll be discharged tomorrow as well.”
“In that case, could Nancy be the person who asked me the questions? Her being there with me helped a lot.”
“We’ll ask,” Lee told him. “They might say no.”
“But they might not.” The smile was spreading now, reaching all the way up to his eyes. “And I owe her a ‘thank you.’ I hope I get the chance to say it to her. You are going to let me do that, right?”
“Of course we will, sweetheart. We may not be right there when you get the chance,” Amanda continued, “but we won’t be far away.”
“Good. ’Cause I kind of like her.”
At least, thought Lee, he was admitting it.
Carrie managed to hold her chuckle until they were far enough away not to be overheard. “I suppose it’s about the right time for that to start.”
“She treated him like a little brother, though,” he observed. “Didn’t he realize?”
“At his age? Probably not.” She pointed toward the waiting room. “Why don’t you go see your operative, and I’ll see about getting us something to eat at the cafeteria. If I don’t get to sleep, I at least want to do that.”
“Why wouldn’t you get to sleep?”
“Lee,” she chided gently. “Do you really think any of us is going home tonight? Even though all four of us need rest?”
“We might.” But then he relented with a nod. She was as right about this as she’d been about them becoming friends. It seemed like a distinct possibility, at least. Lee found himself looking forward to finding out how that would go.
Zeta tried to sit up when he came up to her bed. “Mr. Stetson. Sir.”
He gave her a faux-scolding look. “Don’t start with that, Zusterakos. I’m not that old. Besides, Billy’s your supervisor. Not Francine, and definitely not me.”
She glanced around, but it was Francine who asked the next question from where she was sitting on the other side of the bed. “Where is Billy, anyway?”
“Still doing cleanup,” he told her. “They’re going to be out there for a while yet, going back over the scene.” He dragged a nearby stool over so he could sit down himself. “We won’t need to give our formal statements until tomorrow at the earliest, and it’ll be at least Monday for Amanda and me. I imagine we’re going to end up staying the night here.”
“That’ll be two all-nighters in a row,” Francine pointed out.
“And I’m feeling every minute of them.” It was already taking a tremendous effort not to yawn. “I might even be able to actually sleep in the waiting room for a change.” He looked back at Zeta. “I’m also going to apologize in advance.”
“For what?”
“Looks like you have a schoolboy crush on your hands.”
She started to laugh, but her expression contorted with pain, and her breath hitched painfully.
“It’s all right,” Zeta finally gasped after a few moments. “Bruised ribs. Not broken.”
He frowned at her. “You pulled Jamie over next to you on the stretcher.”
“He needed it more than I needed to be still.” She was still trying to breathe through the pain. “He’s a good kid, Scarecrow. He really held it together, even when they were in there waving weapons around and threatening to hurt or kill one or both of us. Have you put him through the agency family classes yet?”
“Not yet.” Doing that would mean having to tell Jamie what, exactly, he and Amanda did for a living. He wasn’t sure it was quite the right time for that yet. He suspected it might be soon, though.
“Scarecrow.” Francine broke into his thoughts, her tone acerbic even though the smile on her face ruined the effect. “I would appreciate it if you had a little consideration for my partner.”
“Partner?” That was news. To his knowledge, Francine had never had a regular partner.
The women exchanged a glance before they shrugged in unison.
“And don’t worry about Jamie, sir — Scarecrow,” Zeta added. “I have a nephew and niece his age. I’ve just been treating him the same way I would treat them if I needed to keep their spirits up. If I keep on doing that, he’ll refocus the minute he comes across someone more appropriate.”
Lee scrubbed his hand over his eyes. “Oh, goodness. You mean this isn’t going to just vanish completely? Jamie’s more resourceful than Phillip ever was, and we’ve caught Phillip sneaking at least once. Which means he may do more. Or worse.”
At that, both Francine and Zeta began chuckling, though Zeta didn’t last very long.
“Time for more pain meds?” asked Francine.
“I’m fine,” the younger agent muttered past the tears in her eyes.
“Ugh,” was the response. “What is it about you kids that you always want to be so macho? There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking pain medication if you need it. Scarecrow, since you’re the one that keeps making her laugh, you can be the one to go to the nurse’s station and ask for it.”
“Why me?”
That earned him one of Francine’s prettiest smiles, though it was full of teeth. “Because I asked you to? Nicely?”
Shaking his head again, Lee ducked out of the curtained-off area and stopped by the desk to pass the message along before heading out to the waiting area. Carrie, he saw, had already returned with coffee and a sandwich for him. Lee smiled again. It was a BLT. His favorite.