Summary: Lee is impatient for Jenny to get home from her first real date. Can Amanda show him a better way to watch and wait?
 

Amanda Stetson smiled as she silently crept across the den and behind her husband’s back as he peered intently through one of their front windows. "Whatcha see?" she whispered in his ear before jumping back.

Startled, Lee whipped around. "Uh…," He fumbled guiltily with the blinds. "One of the slats was bent so I was checking it out."

"Hmm, did you bend it one of the other three times you looked out that window in the last fifteen minutes?" she questioned innocently.

Looking back and forth between his wife and the window, Lee shrugged his shoulders. No way out of this one.

"All that time I spent training you as a spy is coming back to haunt me," he grumbled. "You’re supposed to be using it on the bad guys, not your husband."

"Yeah, but they don’t have such a cute guilty look when I catching ‘em doing something they don’t want to fess up to," she teased, kissing his cheek.

Lee tried to frown, but failed. "Aren’t you the least bit anxious about Jenny getting home?"

For a moment he didn’t think he’d receive a verbal answer. Why should he when her beautiful expressive eyes so clearly stated "Are you out of your mind"?

"Of course I am." She stated shaking her head. "I’m the one who never gets to sleep before everyone who’s supposed to be home gets here, but both Jenny and Chase are responsible kids." Then reaching her hand out in reassurance, she gave his upper arm a light stroke with her forefinger. "She’ll be home on time. This isn’t her first date."

Lee’s grumble wasn’t as gravelly as he attempted to make it. Time had not diminished an immediate response to whatever message his wife’s touch held. "No, but it’s the first time it isn’t a double date or a bunch of her friends going out."

Amanda crossed her arms and looked at him sternly. "Lee Stetson, are you saying you don’t trust your own daughter?"

"No, I’m saying I don’t trust sixteen year old boys with hormones . . . especially when they look at our cute daughter with too much interest. I’m sure a lot of the girls I dated had their father’s trust, but…" He grimaced. Once again he had inadvertently reminded his wife of his legendary dating history.

"But they were no match for your charm?" Amanda finished knowingly.

"Yeah, something like that," he muttered. Billy had been right. There were probably many dads who’d gleefully watch him sweat out his own daughter’s dating years.

"Yeah, well let me remind you that our cute daughter has me for a mother." Amanda stated with mocked seriousness as she sauntered slowly towards him.

"And?" Lee eyed his wife cautiously.

"And I’ve taught her my techniques for handling charming men, and if they kept you in line then that boy doesn’t stand a chance." Her lips twitched teasingly as she grasped the front of Lee’s shirt and drew him close.

Lee laughed as he willingly entered her embrace. "Your avoidance maneuvers were impressive."

She wrapped her arms around him and whispered. "You’re going about this waiting and watching thing all wrong."

"Oh?" Lee’s arms automatically tightened at the sultriness in her voice. Pulling her closer, he silently appreciated all those aforementioned techniques. He’d respected the ones that had defined their dating and now reveled in the ones that kept him a happy and interested husband. After her conservative approach to dating, he’d been delightfully surprised at her response to the freedom of marriage, but in retrospect he didn’t know why. She’d been surprising him with something from their very first encounter. So much for his original characterization of the average American housewife.

"Umhmm," she murmured as she brushed her lips lightly against his. "I’ve watched and waited up for you many nights when you’ve worked late. You wanna know what I’ve discovered?"

For just a moment his previous vigil was forgotten as he found himself once again mesmerized by twinkle in the liquid pools of her brown eyes. He loved that twinkle. It always hinted at something fun.

"I’ve found that if I fluff up the pillows on the our bed," she paused to kiss him gently, "turn on the small reading light and curl up with a book," another pause and a little less gentle kiss, "that I can see a car’s headlights about a half mile further down the road." She smiled privately as his arms tightened in anticipation of the next kiss, which she made stronger, but still tightly controlled. Distracting him could be so much fun. "Wanna come replace the book?" she finished invitingly as she abandoned any restraint and pressed her body and lips tightly against his.

His previous concerns totally shoved aside, Lee lost himself in the warmth of his wife as he eagerly responded to her overtures with his undivided attention.

BAM! Lee’s head jerked up as the front door slammed shut and his daughter called out, "Mom, Dad, I’m home." They heard the entry hall closet door open and shut as she hung up her coat before bounding up the stairs and proclaiming, "You can go to sleep now."

Amanda untangled herself from her husband and looked at her watch. "Right on time." Then her eye’s gleamed. "Good thing you’re not in the field anymore. You’re too easy to distract on a stake out." Raising her hand to ward off his response, she continued with a grin. "See, I told ya. You were doing this watching and waiting all wrong. You just gotta know how to use the time wisely."

Lee looked at her in amazed amusement. The agent in him marveled at her abilities to accomplish her objective. The husband in him looked forward to completing her described mission.

Amanda reached out and played with his top button before tracing the others down to his belt. "Tell ya what." She smiled as she moved slowly backwards towards the entry hall. "Why don’t I see if Jenny’s interested in being "debriefed" while you lock up down here, and then we’ll think about picking up on that book thing?"

As Lee watched his wife climb the stairs, Amanda’s remark about teaching Jenny to follow in her footsteps came to mind. A few minutes ago it had brought him a lot of comfort, but now he remembered how his daughter’s eyes had sparkled when she’d told them Chase had called and wanted to take her to a movie. "Oh, man," he muttered as he raked his fingers through his hair and started closing up the house for the night. "Definitely not ready to go there."

THE END

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