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Spys’R'Us Chapter 1

Title: Spys-R-Us
Summary: Lee goes undercover as a dad and marketing executive for a new toy company that has three Soviet Inteligence Opperatives on the board. It seems that the Russians are attempting to infiltrate average American homes with a new toy that will emit a toxic gas on Christmas Morning. Can Amanda help him with his parenting skills before he blows his cover?
Timeframe: This story takes place between Stemwinder and Nightcrawler.
Rating: PG
Copyright Info: Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and most of the characters contained herein, are copyright Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Production Company. The plot is all mine - Please do not distribute this story without my permission. Thanks!

Lee Stetson walked into the office with an exasperated look on his face. He threw the offending file on the desk, barely missing the cup of coffee.

“Billy, you can’t do this to me!”

William Melrose was, by now, used to these mild explosions from his top agent. He sighed and looked up from his morning paper. “What is it this time Scarecrow?”

“The Kenny Toy’s job! What do I know about toys? This isn’t a job for me - this is a job for, for…” Lee ran his hand through his hair in agitation. “Oh I don’t know - Francine!”

“Francine?!?” Billy choked on his coffee at the thought. “Lee the computer brought up the profile of a single parent for this job. You stand a chance - Francine would pat a child on the head and run to go sterilize her hands. And - before you say anything - we can’t trust this job to a rookie agent because there are three known KGB opperatives on the board. We need to find out what they are up to and why. I’m sorry Lee but you’re on this one.”

“Billy surely there is someone who is better qualified than me to - “

“Good morning Sir! Good morning Lee,” Amanda King breezed into Billy’s office holding a bright pink potted plant. “I thought you might like something to brighten up your office and these just opened up this morning. I hope you like geraniums sir.”

Amanda looked up and caught the expressions on their faces. “Oh. I’m sorry. I should really knock, well I have to get going too - Beaman has me working on some new survailence exercises. Excuse me.”

Amanda placed the plant on the corner of Billy’s desk and then turned to leave. Billy stopped her. “Amanda. Why don’t you stay for a while - I think you might be able to help Scarecrow prepare for his next assignment.”

“Really sir?” Amanda’s lips quirked into a smile. “What kind of assignment is it?”

Billy sat back down in his chair. “Oh nothing dangerous - for you at least - it’s just that Lee needs a little training.”

Lee held up his hands in denial. “Now wait a second Billy…”

Billy glared at Lee to be quiet.

“Sir? I don’t understand. What could I possibly train Lee in?” She raised her eyebrows inquisitively.

Billy picked up the newspaper and flipped it to the third page. “Lee needs to know how to be a father.”

Lee escorted Amanda up to their office in the Q bureau. They had been working together for three years now and he had come to respect her work at the agency. Recently he had come to terms with his less professional feelings for her also. A few weeks ago the Stemwinder incident had caused his feelings to come to the surface - he loved this quirky housewife.

She had risked her life and her family to help him clear his name. And that meant a lot to him. Not to mention all of those endearing little gestures that she had about her. An innocence, a strong sense of self, and an enthusiasm that was sometimes a little scary. He chuckled at the thought of some of their escapades.

Amanda looked up from the paperwork on her desk. “What?”

Lee didn’t realize that he had chuckled aloud. “Oh… nothing.”

“Well if it’s nothing maybe you can fill me in on this new case Billy has you working on.”

“Oh it’s nothing really… just another assignment.”

“It didn’t sound like nothing from what Billy said - and you obviously thought it was more.”

Lee sighed. She knew him too well. “Billy wants me to be the inside man on the Kenny Toys job.”

“Those are the people that make those toy robots right? Um what were they called again… Animatrons! Philip has one from the original set. It took forever to get one, nearly every store was sold out - why do they need investigating?”

Lee walked over to the file cabinets across from his desk and started filing some of the old reports that had accumulated on his desk. “It seems as if the company had been having some financial difficulties over the last few years. So they put out some feelers looking for additional funding. What they got was foreign money - three known KGB opperatives are posing as venture capitalists and have secured places on the board. Of course we’re concerned about the reasons behind this sudden move.”

Amanda stopped writing and looked over at Lee. “Well you should be great for this job. What seems to be the problem?” Her eyebrows arched as she remembered. “Oh it’s your cover story isn’t it?”

Lee walked over to Amanda’s desk and sat on it. He ran his thumb absently over the corner of his file folders. “Amanda, I barely knew my father and the Colonel wasn’t much of a role model either. And what do I know about kids? I mean, I would have screwed up that whole thing with Alexi a few years ago if it wasn’t for you.”

“Well you were a kid once.”

“And that qualifies me?” Lee sniffed in contempt. “My childhood was filled with bases and lonely days. Jumping around from place to place - that was no childhood. I went straight from baby to adult. No, Amanda. I don’t think I’m the right person for this job at all.”

Amanda placed a comforting hand on Lee’s knee. “Well maybe Billy is right - maybe I can help. I mean I know I have all of this stuff for Beaman’s class, but I think we can pull something together. You don’t actually have to work with children do you? You just need the background right?”

Lee smiled and placed his hand on hers. Amanda always had answers to his problems. “Right. No children - just a background. I just don’t know where to start.”

Amanda gathered up the files on her desk and put them in her bag. “Well I have a few ideas. Let’s go.”

Lee looked at her in confusion. “Where are we going?”

Amanda grinned. “My house. It’s time you learned about children.”

“Nicolai are you sure they will go for it?” The attractive blond looked up from the blue prints with a slight frown.

The thin tall man merely laughed. “Well Lora, they have no choice do they? If we pull out our backing now Kenny Toys will go bankrupt. Simon wouldn’t think twice about making these changes to the new Animatron. And tomorrow we have someone new coming in to help out on the marketing campaign. With the new publicity and increased interest he won’t be able to turn us down. Not for the profits that this new toy will deliver.”

The other man frowned at the papers on the table, his thick fingers druming the table. “I don’t know. It still seems awfully risky.”

Nicolai slammed his hand on the table. “Boris there are times that we must take risks. When the sacrifices that others have made call out for justice. My wife and children deserve revenge. They did not ask to be shot down like dogs in their sleep. It was American greed that caused them to die and it is American greed that will allow our plan to succeed. Thousands of children will flock to the unveiling of this new toy - and when they do thousands of them will die.”