Twenty Four Hours Ago….

"Mother, don't worry, we will find your necklace." Amanda tried reassuring her mother for about the twentieth time in the last hour.

Ringing her hands together Dotty looked at her daughter and said, "Amanda Jean how can you be so calm? Do you have any idea what that necklace means to me?"

"Yes I do Mother. I just meant that if we calm down then we can look at the situation better and then try to retrace your steps to when you last had the necklace. I can't wait to see you wear it tomorrow."

Lee, more out of habit than anything else, stood outside the back door not wanting to disrupt the conversation between the two women. He knew he was the cause of the issue and if he went in now they would read him like one of their spy novels.

"Lee, what are you doing out here? I mean you have only lived here for almost four years, no need to hide in the backyard any longer." Jamie said.

"I wasn't hiding. I heard your mother and grandmother talking and I didn't want to interrupt."

"What are they talking about?" Jamie asked as he placed his back pack on the picnic table.

"Your grandmother's necklace, she can't find it." Lee said.

"Imagine that." Jamie stated while rolling his eyes.

"I could use less sarcasm." Lee felt as if that was his go to phrase with Jamie lately as the two walked in together.

Dinner, as well as the rest of the evening, felt like a roller coaster ride. Dotty would be fine one minute, the next in tears running around the house while Amanda and baby Victoria went running after her.

Lee and Jamie sat watching the three females of the house run around. Dotty yelling and tearing things apart, Amanda going behind her trying her best to calm her down while Amanda tried putting things back up. The youngest, three year old Victoria was behind both yelling, "Slow down I have little legs."

"Why can't we just tell them?" Jamie asked after hearing his sister trip once again on the stairs. "I mean can't we at least get Vic out of the way, she will get hurt."

"You want to try and stop your sister from following them, which I have already told her not to do, go right ahead and try stopping that train. She is like your mother; she doesn't stay put when you tell her."

"I heard that Stetson!" Amanda yelled while stopping briefly on the stairs to catch her breath.

"Amanda if I'm lying I'm dying. You don't stay put. OOF." Lee said as he threw his hands up in the air just as his daughter landed on his gut.

"No dying Daddy against the rules."

Amanda walked up behind her husband and said, "I did stay put once, remember?"

"No, I tend to block out bad timing."

Jamie saw them smiling at each other and knew it was another one of their private jokes. He thought it was strange but at these times they seemed to look the most in love with one another.

"AMANDA! What in the sam hill are you doing? I thought you were helping me retrace my steps?" Dotty yelled from the top of the stairs.

"Which steps would that be now Mother? Would it be the ordinal steps we were retracing or the fifty million we have made since we started. You have to calm down or we are never going to find your necklace."

"Are you being smart with me?"

"No Mother I would never dream of it." Amanda said as she pinched the bridge of her nose shaking her head.

"I don't need any sarcasm Amanda."

Lee looked at Jamie with his eyebrows raised and Jamie just held his hands up in surrender, shrugging and laughing as he told Lee, "I guess I come by it naturally. Come on Victoria, I think I promised you a tea party before I went to school today."

Dotty came in to sit in the chair across from Lee asking, "Lee you haven't seen my necklace have you?"

"You have a number of necklaces, which necklace are you talking about?" Lee avoided as much of eye contact that he could.

"It is a gold locket necklace on a box chain. It has faded rose ornamentation on the outside of it. I know that I am marring Curt tomorrow, but this necklace is very important to me. Carl got it for me on our last anniversary together and it has a picture of my parents on one side and Amanda and Carl on the other side. I wanted it for my something old. I asked Curt if he would be hurt or upset by my wearing the necklace and he said he could think of a nicer necklace to compliment his bride."

Lee looked at her over his coffee mug and almost caved in by telling her that he and Jamie had taken the necklace to have it cleaned and restored to its original finish. Swallowing his drink he did what he said he would never do to her since coming clean about him and Amanda, Lee lied to Dotty.

"No, I haven't, but like Amanda said it will turn up if we all just keep calm and keep looking for it." He stood and kissed her forehead as he walked to rinse his mug and head upstairs to check in on the tea party.

The next morning found Dotty in a bubble bath, Amanda on the phone with Phillip explaining that if he didn't make it to the wedding his CO was the last person he would have to worry about, Victoria was watching a video and Lee and Jamie were already up and out of the house.

"Lee I really don't think this is a good idea. What if we get caught?" Jamie said as he stood on Lee's back looking through the open window of the corner lot brownstone.

"Jamie I know TP is in there, I heard him talking to his damn bird. I just need you to get his attention because for a skinny white kid you are killing my back."

"Don't get mad at me because you have weird friends."

"I do not have weird friends." Lee said as he started to wobble some from being on his hands and knees causing Jamie to fall forward into the open window. Lee got to his feet to check on Jamie just as he heard a woman scream, Jamie scream as the woman began hitting him with a book, and the police yell, "Freeze!"

Before Lee could explain anything he and Jamie were in the back of a police are on the way to the station for breaking into Senator McAdams mother's house.

At the station Lee tried to explain that he and his step son wasn't trying to break into the McAdams house. "I just must have gotten the wrong address."

"So it was another house in the neighborhood you wanted to get into?" The policeman asked.

Nodding his head and ignoring Jamie's pleas for his silence Lee said, "Yeah."

"Whose home did you want to break into then Mr. Stetson?"

"Don't answer that." Jamie said.

"I didn't want to break in I was meeting a friend and mixed up the addresses. He just moved in a few weeks ago. I wasn't here when he moved so I must have just mixed up the address. All those houses look the same ya know."

"Once again, who were you looking for?"

"TP Aquinas. Here is his phone number you can call and check with him that we were to meet him this morning to pick up a necklace that he was helping to restore."

"We really need to get to him and get the necklace back, my Grandmother will be even more mad if she finds out we took it."

Lee looked at Jamie and Jamie said, "What we have to get that back for grandma."

A younger officer escorted them to the cell when Lee asked, "What happened to your idea of being silent? Now you have them thinking we stole the necklace from your grandmother. They probably don't believe that I am a Federal Agent, until they talk to work, who will probably call your mother and ruin your grandmother's wedding."

"So, you got anymore brilliant ideas?" Jamie King asked as he stared at Lee Stetson.

"I could use a little less sarcasm if you don't mind. All I wanted to do was make today wonderful for your grandmother. Even you thought it was a great idea."

"Sure, I thought it was a great idea, until you, Mr. Agent Man, went and got us thrown in jail on her wedding day! Right now all I can think about is when we get to make our one phone call that mine is going to have to be to my dad! Who are you calling?"

Lee gave him a sideway glance and then ran his hand through his hair. Expelling a large breath of air, Lee said, "I guess I will call…"

"Call who, Stetson? I would really love to hear the story behind this one." Lee's face fell as he heard the voice of his wife behind them.

Lee and Jamie both turned to see Amanda, Dotty, and Joe all there staring at the two of them. Jamie turned to Lee and whispered, "No, really Lee, you got anything?"

"Hi, uh, we haven't even been allowed phone calls yet, how did you get here so fast?

"Lucky for you, TP saw the whole arrest and called in your back up. TP is talking to the officers now and you should be released. He is apparently friendly with some woman named Alma McAdams. Don't you two have anything to say for yourself?" Amanda asked with her hands placed firmly on her hips.

Lee looked at Dotty who just shook her head and walked away with Joe going after her. Amanda looked at Lee and Jamie and said, "This is her wedding day. It was supposed to be fun and wonderful; instead it is filled with sadness and hurt. I hope you two had fun with whatever was more important than my mother on her special day."

An officer came and let them out, "You are free to go the charges have been dropped."

Jamie and Lee sighed in relief as they left the cell. Amanda watched them walk over to TP and talk for a few minutes before they came to the car.

"Amanda, I need to go get my car before I head back home."

"Fine where is it?"

Tensions were still running high at the church as Phillip and the Colonel both gave Jamie a tough time for getting arrested on the day of Dotty's wedding. "I'm surprised Grandma didn't kill you both right there in the cell."

"I'm surprised that Skip even involved him in the first place."

Jamie stood silently taking their ribbing; he knew it would all work out.

Lee silently knocked on the door to the bridal room. When Amanda opened the door he realized she still wasn't talking to him.

"I need to talk to her alone please." He stated as he came in the door and saw Dotty sitting in front of the mirror.

"Five minutes is all you get and don't wake your daughter yet."

"Yes, Ma'am, uh, Dotty, I uh have something for you." He waved her back to sit as she started to stand.

"What Lee, what do you have for me a jury summons? See that would just make everything that happened this morning so much better."

"I deserve that, I suppose. No I have this." He pulled the necklace out from behind his back and began to place it around her neck.

"I know how important this was to you so Jamie and I took it to a friend of mine that does restorations of fine jewelry. He was able to re-emboss the rose and cleaned it up. I know that last night and for the last few days you have been going crazy trying to find this, I couldn't tell you or that would ruin the surprise. Dotty you said it yourself last night; I have been part of this family for eight years that means you have been in my life three years longer than my own mother. I have more memories of you than I do her. I wanted to day to be perfect for you, I'm sorry if I ruined it." Lee leaned over to kiss her cheek and as he did he felt the tears on her cheeks.

"Why are you crying?"

"I thought I lost a piece of my family by losing this necklace and like with my daughter you made this family whole. Thank you Lee."

"I love this family I would do anything for it."

Standing and pulling him into a big hug then she said, "Will you walk me down the aisle?"

"It would be my honor."

Amanda came in a saw her mother and her husband in an embrace and said, "Okay, since I take it that things are all okay in here it is now time to get you dressed and ready to go mother. " Grabbing her husband by the waist she said, "Now, out with you Stetson."

The End