Disclaimer: This story is based on characters that are copyrighted by Warner Brothers and Shoot The Moon Productions. It is meant for enjoyment purposes. I retain the rights to the plot and not the characters

Timeline: October 1999

Location: Third Annual Scarecrow and Mrs. King Convention, Arlington, Virginia
 
 

Amanda Stetson came back into the Q Bureau with a binder tucked under her arm. "Hi," she said distractedly, sitting at her desk.

"Hi," Lee Stetson greeted, smiling. "Get all the errands done?"

She shook her head. "I’d just gotten out of the dry cleaners and was driving past the Quality Inn hotel when I spotted something a little strange," she answered slowly.

"Not another group of terrorists," he moaned unhappily, coming over and sitting on the edge of her desk.

"Nope. Not terrorists." She handed the binder to him.

He took it from her and peered at the front. "What the..." he trailed off, stunned. The cover of the binder read Third Annual Scarecrow and Mrs. King Get Together.

"I know," she agreed sympathetically. "I thought the same thing. I can’t believe they actually have a convention about us."

He started flipping through the binder. "They have a ton of stuff in here too. Puzzles, games, fan fiction – " he paused for a minute. "What’s fan fiction?"

"Just regular people writing stories," she explained. "No one gets paid or anything. They just do it to share their ideas with other people. I went through that section over breakfast this morning. Some of the stories are very good."

He stared at her dumbfounded.

"I didn’t know either," she laughed, seeing the expression on his face. "I had to call Jamie this morning when I got home."

"A lot of hard work went into this too," Lee observed. "There’s even a CD-rom I here."

"And a cassette with music on it," she added. "And..." She handed a check over to him."

"What the – " he broke off, staring at it in amazement. "It’s one of our checks. Where did they get these?" He held it up to the light. "It’s a pretty good forgery."

She nodded. "Do you think they have a contact here at the Agency?"

"Nah, anyone caught leaking any kind of confidential information out of here would lose their jobs in two seconds. I just can’t believe that there’s this much interest in us after 15 years." He shook his head in amazement. "Ann, Bridget, Robin, Lanie, Kim..." he trailed off, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "You sure this isn’t something Dr. Smyth cooked up just to yank our chains?"

She shook her head. "I’m sure. I checked them out this morning. They’re real. Kim flew in from Chicago, Bridget from New York – Ann even flew in from Canada just for the week-end."

"You checked them out alone?!" He repeated, affronted.

"How do you think I got that?" She asked in surprise, raising her eyebrows.

"How did you get this, anyway?" He asked curiously, attention momentarily diverted.

"I just pretended to be the maid, slipped into one of their rooms and borrowed it," she explained logically.

"Why didn’t you call me?" He asked sharply.

"I wasn’t sure if it was an integrity test of some kind," she explained. "Apparently this is the third convention they’ve had. Someone was wearing a shirt with our picture on it. That’s what caught my eye in the first place."

"If I didn’t know better I’d think you were playing a practical joke on me," he said thoughtfully.

"Lee Stetson!" She exclaimed sharply. "You and I haven’t been apart very much for the past few years. How could I have time to put all that together? Do you know how much work goes into something like that?"

"I know, I know," he reassured her quickly. "I said if I didn’t know better." He thought for a few seconds. "Do you think Francine had anything to do with this?"

"No, everything there’s pretty tame," Amanda answered. "If it were her there would be a few comments about ‘housewives’ and what their places were in the world."

"I thought you two were getting along better," he commented in amusement, chuckling.

"Oh, we do, but she still makes her feelings known every now and then," she remarked honestly.

He nodded. Typical Francine.

"Do you think we should mention this to Mr. Melrose? I mean, what if it’s some kind of rogue operation or something?" She asked hesitantly.

"Not a chance! If it were rogue they wouldn’t be so obvious about it."

She nodded. It made sense.

"I do think that we should find out where they’re meeting next year and maybe drop in. Undercover, of course. Just to check things out."

"Of course." She smiled. He was just as curious as she was! "Besides, they apparently care a great deal about us."

"Why wouldn’t they? I’m handsome, charming, the American version of James Bond, if you think about it..."

"You’re modest," she added teasingly.

"That too," he agreed readily, leaning over and kissing her. "And you’re still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met."

She sighed contentedly. He could still melt her heart after all these years. "I noticed a few E-mail addresses there, you know. I could always write someone to find out more about them – use a pen name or something. They seem friendly enough."

"Mmmm hmmm," he agreed, kissing her again. "Look for a webpage."

"Webpage?!" She exclaimed, breaking away in surprise.

"I’m sure there must be one," he answered innocently. "Most groups have them any more."

"I don’t know if I like that or not," she confessed.

"Look at the bright side," he countered. "If they do have a webpage it makes it that much easier to keep track of them."

"I didn’t think of it that way," she answered thoughtfully. "But if we can keep track of them that easily so can Dr. Smyth."

"We can always tell him that it’s just a prank of some kind," Lee explained after a few seconds. "In the meantime I think they do bear some closer investigation."

"I thought you’d say that."

He grinned. "If nothing else we can get away for a few days next year by ourselves, have a good time."

"I like the way you think, Stetson," she grinned warmly.

"I thought you would."

Go to: What If Year 2000

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