Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. The plot is mine, but not the characters. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

Author's note: This is a story that I began writing a couple of months ago and had meant to publish before "Guilty Until Proven Innocent," but then that one took hold for a while before I went back to this one. Now that I have more of this one fleshed out and have two chapters done and three more in progress, it's time for this one to see the light of day instead of just sitting on my flash drive. This is set just after Amanda's rescue from Addi Birol, but before the tag scene with her finding the ring on her desk, which will not happen in this tale as it will be AU. Many thanks to Sheila for providing me much-needed feedback on this. I hope you enjoy it. It is M-rated for one flashback scene in Chapter 2.

Inside The Puzzle-Chapter One

Lee Stetson paced relentlessly in his boss' office anxiously awaiting news of Amanda's condition now that she was safe and sound after her rescue from Addi Birol's clutches or so he had thought. "What the hell is taking them so long, Billy? And why the hell won't they let any of us in to see her?"

"Scarecrow, you've got to calm down," Billy said. "They told us they'd call as soon as there was any news. Wearing a hole in my carpet isn't going to do you or Amanda any good. Why don't you go home and get some rest? You haven't had any sleep since this whole thing started."

"I'll rest when I know Amanda's going to be okay and not before," Lee said angrily as he continued his pacing. He paused at seeing the pained look on his friend's face. "I'm sorry, Billy," he said pausing in his pacing and running a hand through his hair.

"No, I get that you're worried, but driving yourself into exhaustion isn't going to alleviate that worry. Go on, go home. Get some sleep and come back in the morning."

"Billy's right, you know," Francine interjected. "Worrying is only going to make it worse. You know how strong Amanda is. She's going to be fine. You should listen to Billy and get some rest."

"I could say the same to you," Lee fired back. "You were right there with me, going in after Amanda."

"Not the whole time I wasn't," Francine countered. "You got captured and I didn't. I've had time to rest."

"Oh, great, that's just great," Lee said. "You were off in dreamland while Amanda was-"

"Scarecrow, that's enough!" Billy said firmly in his booming voice. "Are you forgetting that Francine put her own life and her career on the line for you and Amanda?"

"No..." Lee sighed and sank down into one of the chairs in front of the desk, "No, I haven't forgotten, but...if...if anything happens to Amanda...It'll be my fault. Birol nabbed her because of me."

"You can't think that way, Lee," Francine said. "Amanda signed on for this job, knowing exactly what the risks were, just like the rest of us." At seeing the icy look Lee shot her way at that comment, she added, "I'm not saying that to be insensitive. It's just a fact. We all know there are risks involved in this job, even Amanda. She knew when she agreed to take this on full-time after the Stemwinder mess that something like this could happen. You can't blame yourself for this."

"But it's my fault. I'm the one who got her involved in this business, me!"

"But you didn't force her to stay in this business," Billy argued. "If you wanna' blame anyone, blame me. I'm the one who offered her the part-time job three years ago."

"No," Lee said.

"Or you could blame Dr. Smyth," Francine suggested. "He's the one who offered her the full-time job in the agent candidate program."

"Or you could put the blame where it belongs, with psychos like Birol," Billy said. "Without guys like him, it wouldn't be necessary for any of us to do the job that we do."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Lee said unable to argue with Billy's logic. He sighed, rose from his seat and began pacing again. "I...I just wish I knew what was going on. This is killing me...the not knowing. Billy, I..." he paused, his voice becoming choked with emotion, "...I can't lose her."

"I know, Lee," Billy said. "But you just have to-" His thought was interrupted by the ringing of the phone. Lee immediately halted in his pacing as he listened intently to Billy's end of the conversation. "Yes, I understand," Billy said with a grim look on his face as he hung up the phone.

"What is it, Billy?"

In a somber tone, Billy began, "That was Doc Kelford. I'm afraid the news isn't good."

"What is it?" Lee repeated. "I mean, she's going to be okay, isn't she?"

Billy sighed, not wanting to agitate Lee further, but knowing that he needed to know what was going on or he'd go crazy. "The fact is, they just don't know. He said that they're having some trouble with counteracting the drugs Birol used on her and Quidd's been down there with her too and he said her mental state is...well...to put it mildly...unstable. They want me down there. You're welcome to come along."

Lee stared at Billy in silence and said, "No."

"But I thought you were dying to see her," Francine said in surprise.

"Oh, I am, believe me, but first I'm going to have a little chat with our guest," Lee said as his anger with Birol flared again.

"I think that's a bad idea, Lee," Billy said.

"No, it's the perfect idea," Lee said firmly. "You said put the blame where it belongs, right? Well, that's exactly what I intend to do!" He then yanked open the door forcefully and quickly made his way through the bullpen toward the internal elevator to the lower level containing the holding cells where he knew Birol was housed.

When Lee reached his destination, he jabbed a thumb at the guard who took one look at the perturbed look on the infamous Scarecrow's face and hightailed it for the door. Lee had barely closed the door when the prisoner taunted, "My, my, Scarecrow, to what to I owe the pleasure?"

Lee crossed the room to his quarry in two long strides, pinning Birol against the far wall and spat out, "Cut the shit, Birol! I'm not your prisoner anymore and neither is Amanda! You're on MY turf now!" He jammed his forearm against Birol's throat and then demanded, "I wanna' know what you dosed Amanda with and I wanna' know NOW!"

Birol only laughed heartily at the pained expression on Lee's face and replied, "Your wonderful American doctors can't figure out what's wrong with her, can they? You...you Americans...You all think you're so smart, don't you? But you don't know...Do you?"

Lee's face fell at the knowing look on Birol's and slackened his grip on him slightly. "What do you know?" He said in a calmer tone. When Birol just laughed again, Lee shouted, "Tell me!"

"You doctors could tell you...If they were looking for the right thing, that is." He wrenched himself loose from Lee's grasp and sank lazily into one of the chairs propping his feet nonchalantly on the table linking his cuffed hands together. "Your Amanda could tell you, if she were coherent enough to answer any questions. I have to give her credit. I'd always heard that American women were soft. Too many luxuries and not enough hard work, but her? Not her. She never broke. I starved her, deprived her of necessary sleep, left her to her own devices in a plain white room and still she maintained her cover." He paused, stared Lee straight in the eyes and said, "Until I hurt her. I barely had to touch her. Slapped her just once and she was cowering in the corner begging me not to hurt her..." he paused again and then added, "...not to hurt her unborn child."

"What?" Lee gaped at Birol.

Birol grinned at the look of utter shock on Lee's face. "Yours, I assume? She is your lover, isn't she?"

"You're lying!" Lee snapped. Surely, Amanda would have told him something like that, would have shared with him the news that he was going to be a father.

"Perhaps," Birol said with a shrug. "Or perhaps she was lying when she said it to avoid having me hurt her some more."

"You will never, NEVER, hurt her again. You hear me, Pal!" With one smooth sweep of his foot, Lee kicked the chair out from under Birol, turned on his heel toward the door, satisfied by the resounding thunk of Birol's head hitting the floor. As he exited the room, he gestured to the guard and said, "He may need some medical attention in there." Without another word, he made a beeline toward the elevator to take him to the infirmary to check on Amanda. He had to know if what Birol had said was true.

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Dr. Kelford stepped back into the room housing Amanda after making his call to Billy upstairs.

He approached his patient where Dr. Quidd was speaking to her, "Now, Amanda, I want you to tell me again what you saw when Lee arrived. You said earlier that he was dressed in a tuxedo."

"He was, but he... but then h-he wasn't," Amanda stammered. "I...It's all mixed up in my head."

"I know and we want to help you get it un-mixed. For now though, just try to get some rest," Quid responded gently. Having heard Dr. Kelford's footsteps behind him, he stood and turned toward the other doctor, nodding toward the door.

The two men stepped out into the hallway and once the door was closed behind them, the older man questioned, "No change?"

Quidd shook his head and replied, "She still has this image of Scarecrow in her head as this grand movie hero rushing in and sweeping her off her feet. It's a classic defense mechanism while undergoing a trauma like hers. Her mind probably created that imagery to keep herself from going crazy while she was imprisoned. You combine that with starvation, sleep deprivation and the hallucinogens he pumped into her and we've got a mess in her mind. She can't sort out what's real and what's not."

Kelford nodded in understanding, "Well, I called Billy to get him down here. Since he's her immediate supervisor, it's up to him to contact her next of kin for the authorization we need to administer that antidote to clear up that head of hers. I just wish this weren't so complicated." He peered at the closed door of Amanda's room.

"I know, but we can't act without contacting someone. I know how strongly she feels about her children and if giving her the antidote would harm her-"

"I know," Kelford cut in. "You already said that it could do even more damage to her psyche once she's coherent enough to understand it. This is why I hate psychology, hate mind games. Just give me a good old-fashioned disease any day. It's much easier to handle that this."

"Look, I know you don't like me being down here involved in her case, but it's necessary. You saw her and how's she was babbling about champagne and roses and Scarecrow proposing to her. She's clearly living in a fantasy world that I can't seem to snap her out of, not without counteracting the drugs."

"That's what I don't get," Kelford argued. "I've isolated the drug he gave her and it's one of the milder ones. It shouldn't have been anywhere near potent enough to cause this kind of damage."

"Now, come on, you know as well as I do that drugs can affect different people differently." When it looked as if Kelford was going to argue with him again, Quidd snapped, "Look, you just take care of her physical recovery and let me worry about her mental recovery. That's MY job." Kelford nodded. Quidd turned back toward Amanda's room, peered through the glass and said with a sigh, "I just hope Billy gets here soon so he can help us figure out what to do. The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that the effects will be irreversible and that we may lose her to her delusions forever."