Disclaimer: none of these characters belong to me; they belong to Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Bros to whom I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to take them out for a spin and bit of light humour.

A/N: I can't really claim a lot of credit for this except for putting it together in SMK land because this conversation actually happened to a friend of mine with a group of 12-year olds!

I have marked this story, along with a few other older ones, as a Love Lessons story, which revolve around the theme of Lee trying to figure out what this "normal" thing is.

French Twist - A Love Lessons story

Lee peered in the kitchen window trying to get a glimpse of Amanda. She was supposed to be coming out with him on a simple surveillance job, just to keep him company really, not because she was assigned, but just because she said she wanted to - for the field experience, she said. She'd been looking particularly mischievous when she'd said that, but he hadn't been about to turn down her company. The thing was, the job had been scrubbed but he hadn't been able to get hold of her to tell her.

It was almost a guarantee that Philip had been hogging the phone all night with whoever the latest girlfriend was. Amanda teased him that he must have been just like that at that age, but in fact, he'd changed schools so often that sometimes he'd barely learned anyone's name before they were off again. Philip at 13 was way ahead of him on that front, not that he'd ever admit that to Amanda. There was probably evidence somewhere in class photos of his awkward youth, but if there was, he'd never seen it, rarely still at the same school to collect a yearbook and with an uncle who certainly never got that Picture Day photo.

Still, in the long run, it had all worked out in his favour because when he shot up in height and filled out the summer he was 15, the girls at the new school in September had no clue about his dorky past. He'd been unstoppable from that moment on, cutting a swath through the rest of his high school years and on. Unstoppable until now, he mentally corrected himself. He still wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do about his growing attraction for Amanda, but he certainly had no interest in the rest of the field until he figured it out.

He could see a thermos on the counter so he knew she must still be planning to join him for the now aborted mission, but he wasn't sure where she was. Then suddenly, through the closed windows, he could hear the upraised voices of both boys and inched his way along the house to peer in at the breakfast nook. From his spot in the shadows, he could see that indeed both boys were yelling, while Amanda and Dotty tried to calm them down. Philip was now half out of his chair, and Lee could just make out the "Shut up!" through the glass. Despite Amanda's best efforts, the argument raged for another few minutes, but finally Jamie must have landed a mighty Parthian shot because when Philip responded, both Amanda and her mother slumped back in their chairs and stared at each other with a shocked expression. Then, in a mirror-like motion they both covered their mouths with their hands and turned beet red, and began to look anywhere but at each other.

The boys had both gone quiet – whatever had been said had obviously affected their mother and grandmother so powerfully that even they could sense the shift in atmosphere. Lee watched, fascinated by the silent movie playing out in the brightly lit room and wondered if he was going to find out what had happened. He couldn't imagine he wouldn't, but then, horror-struck, he could see tears were spilling down Amanda's cheeks. Dotty had dropped her head in her hands, but she appeared to be shaking as well. Philip and Jamie locked glances and came to some kind of silent agreement because they both got up, carried their plates to the kitchen, and scuttled upstairs.

Amanda finally managed to calm down enough to look at her watch, then jumped to her feet and ran into the kitchen to grab the thermos. Walking to the back door, she opened it and then called back to Dotty, "I have to go out – are you going to be alright?" Dotty simply waved a hand at her and Amanda shot out the back door, headed for the driveway to where she obviously assumed he'd be waiting. She made it all the way past him, missing him in the darkness because she was wiping her eyes on her sleeve. He scrambled to follow her, watching her swallow the scream of surprise when she realized he was directly behind her.

"Is everything okay? Are you alright?" he asked. "I could see the fight through the window but I couldn't hear anything."

She was still walking towards the side of the house at high speed, gulping. "Thank goodness you're here," she told him. "I couldn't stay there after that one."

"Amanda! A-MAN-DA!" he had to repeat her name loudly to get her to stop racing for the street. "Look, I only came to tell you the surveillance job got scrapped – if you need to stay here and talk with the boys about whatever's going on…"

She lifted a hand to stop him, in the gesture she'd obviously picked up from him. "Lee! Just get me out of here. Now. Before I lose it again and the boys hear me." She turned back towards the street, moving towards the Corvette like it was the last lifeboat on the Titanic. He moved quickly to catch up, opening the car door for her, then swinging around to climb in his side.

"Where to?"

"Doesn't matter," she said, although he could barely make it out since she had dropped her face in her hands again and appeared to be gasping for breath.

He turned over the ignition and moves off slowly down the street. "Want to talk about it?" he asked finally as Amanda continued to rock back and forth silently in her seat.

"Yes, but not while you're driving,"came the muffled response. "I don't want to cause an accident when I tell you."

Now seriously worried, Lee drove for a few miles, finally pulling into the dark parking lot of the baseball field where Jamie and Philip used to play with the Bombers. He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to stop somewhere so connected to the boys but he couldn't stand not knowing what was going on anymore.

As soon as the car stopped, Amanda flung the door open and walked to the front of the car, leaning back against the hood, wiping the tears that appeared to have no end from her face. Lee got out more slowly, still uncomfortable around tears, but desperate to give her some comfort.

She looked up and saw his expression in the dim light of the street lamps and held out a hand. "Oh Lee! I'm sorry! I'm not crying because I'm upset – I just can't stop laughing and I had to get away from Mother before we both lost it in front of the boys."

Lee relaxed as he realized she really was grinning from ear to ear. "Okay, so what was the argument about? The boys were really going at it when I got there."

"Well!" said Amanda. "Jamie was mad at Philip because he missed getting a call to go to the movies with his friend Sam…"

"Because Philip was hogging the phone line," finished Lee. "That's why I didn't call you to tell you about the cancellation."

Amanda nodded, still smiling. "Right! So he's all mad at Philip and Philip is doing his big brother thing and telling Jamie he's just jealous that he isn't old enough to have a girlfriend yet."

"He's not interested in girls already, is he?" asked Lee curiously. "He's only 10!"

Amanda smiled more broadly at that unwitting admission that Lee knew how old the boys were. "No, he's not interested, but it annoys him that Philip is because he doesn't spend as much time with him as he used to, and it's always been just us, for so long, you know?" She waited for Lee to nod before going on. "So anyway, they're going back and forth like that and Mother and I are trying to get them to stop and suddenly Jamie drops the bombshell that the whole school knows what Philip and his girlfriend have been up to behind the sports shed!"

Lee stared at Amanda, not sure why she was still laughing. "He's already doing stuff with girls behind the sports shed at 13?"

Amanda nodded. "Oh not just stuff, Lee! Serious stuff!"

"Serious stuff," he repeated. "What kind of serious stuff?"

Amanda smothered another laugh and managed to sound almost calm when she said solemnly, "French kissing!"

Now Lee was completely confused. It made no sense to him that Amanda of all people would be laughing this hard at the idea of her barely teenage son French kissing girls. "Seriously?" he managed to splutter out.

"Oh wait, it gets better." Amanda took a deep breath and looked up at him. "Mother played dumb and said 'French kissing? What's that?'"

"I bet that took the wind out of their sails," said Lee beginning to laugh now too.

"Oh it did," chuckled Amanda. "They just looked at each other waiting for the other one to explain and finally Jamie says, 'Well I'm not the one doing it – you explain it!' and Philip is just glaring at him."

"I saw this part," interrupted Lee, "but I couldn't hear what was going on."

"Well, you missed the best part because that's when Philip finally finishes umm-ing and ahh-ing and says 'You must know, Grandma! It's when a boy and a girl kiss and – " she stopped, already laughing so hard again that she couldn't get out the words. Lee waited impatiently while she rested her hands on her knees for a moment to catch her breath before straightening up and looking up at him, her face alight with glee.

"It's when a boy and a girl kiss and they stick their fingers down each other's throats at the same time!" she managed to get it out all in one rushed breath.

There was a moment of silence as he took in what she'd said and then he completely fell apart. Watching him collapse laughing against the car set Amanda off again and every time they looked up and their eyes met, they'd go off again.

"I thought Mother was going to die!" Amanda finally managed to gasp out. "We certainly couldn't look at each other, but I could feel the table moving because we were both shaking so hard, trying not to laugh in front of the boys!"

"Oh my God!" Lee finally managed to get out. "Where do they get this stuff?"

"I don't know!" admitted Amanda "But I'm not going to explain it to him until I know I can do it without laughing this hard."

"So don't explain it to him," said Lee. He met her enquiring look with one of mischief. "Make Joe explain it."

"Lee Stetson, you are evil!" Amanda was giggling again now. "But that is pure genius!"

They had both caught their breath now and stood just grinning at each other in the semi-darkness.

"So, no surveillance job?" asked Amanda. "Guess I've got a free evening after all."

"You sound almost disappointed," cracked Lee. "You were looking forward to a night of coffee and NPR in the car?"

"Well, you know, when a girl doesn't get out much, she'll take what she can get." Amanda's soft smile was accompanied by an absent-minded pat on his chest.

Without pausing to think, Lee lifted his own hand to capture hers before she could pull it away. "Well, there's no reason we can't still go out, is there? It's not like we have anything else planned and your mother would just be confused if you came home too quickly, right?"

Amanda had stilled, still smiling up at him. "I think you're right. She would be very confused. It's probably best for maintaining my cover if I don't go home right away."

"Cheesecake over at Dinah's Diner?" said Lee, still holding her hand against his chest.

"Sounds perfect," she answered shyly, but neither of them moved.

Lee's other hand came up to gently brush against her cheek where there was still one errant tear of laughter glinting in the light. He heard the involuntary breath she took in as he traced her cheekbone, and without pausing for thought, he dropped his head towards her upturned face and pressed his lips gently against hers. He pulled back for a moment, long enough to see that she was still swaying slightly against him, eyes closed, then quickly wrapping his arms around her, he leaned in to kiss her again, giving in at last to the temptation that had been baiting him for weeks.

Her arms tightened around his waist and as her lips opened slightly under the pressure from his, a small breathy moan escaped from her into his mouth. He deepened the kiss, lifting a hand to the back of her head to entangle his fingers in her soft curls. Her hands had moved up his back and she was pulling him closer with equal fervour.

A frisson of delight ran up his spine as he felt her tongue run lightly along his upper lip, then she bit gently down on his lower lip, and he felt her smile against his lips when he groaned in appreciation. He began to reciprocate, probing her mouth gently with his tongue until she opened enough to let him lightly sweep it along the roof of her mouth.

It was then, on the verge of being completely swept away, that they paused for breath and began to laugh as they both recalled Philip's confession, but neither of them pulled back, their lips still pressed together, their tongues still darting out to caress as the warm breath of their laughter moved between them.

"I am never going to explain this to the boys. They are never going to be old enough to understand this," Amanda murmured against the corner of his mouth finally.

"No," agreed Lee. "They're much too young to know about this kind of thing." His lips were tracing the contours of her face as he spoke.

"Good thing we're not," said Amanda breathlessly.

"Good thing," agreed Lee again. He paused, lips now brushing the sensitive spot he'd just discovered below her earlobe. "Still want that cheesecake at Dinah's?" he asked, enjoying the involuntary shudder she gave as his tongue flicked against that spot again.

"No," she gasped.

"No?" He felt himself give an identical tremor when her hand began tickling the back of his neck, fingernails scratching along the base of his scalp.

"Lee" He loved the way she was breathing out his name against his hair, but his heart really began to pound when she repeated her words from earlier. "Lee... Just get me out of here… Now... Before I lose it."

"Yes, Amanda."