Scarecrow and Mrs. King is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Production. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author: Microdotty

Written: May 2004 - January 2008

Time setting: 1986, flashbacks to 1976

Rating: PG-13

Summary: The real story of Jim Cernin and why he and Amanda were together at Hilton Head in 1976.

Author's notes: The idea for this little story came from a line in the episode Need to Know, by Nancy Eddo and Joan Brooker, when Lee and Amanda were trying to decide whether or not to share secrets from the past. He brought up the name, the place and the time; my imagination filled in the blanks. Why would Amanda be at a resort with another man while she was still married to Joe?

The Hilton Head Affair

Chapter 1 - I Think I'm Developing Selective Memory or Something

Q Bureau, 1986

Lee perched on the edge of his desk, daring Amanda to answer his question, "Who was Jim Cernin?"

Amanda sat at her desk looking embarrassed, bringing a hand up to her face to shield it from Lee's gaze.

Lee glanced at the folder in his hand and then back at her. "Jim Cernin. Hmm – Hilton Head, 1976," he recited flatly, treating the matter like any other interrogation.

"I haven't got a clue," she blurted out, squirming in her chair. Lee smiled at her discomfort. She struggled to find something to say, finally replying, "Uh, you know I think I'm developing selective memory or something."

Amanda lay back on her pillows as she reran the conversation she and Lee had that morning. How he had dug up Jim Cernin's name she had no idea. But it brought back to memory a series of events she had successfully blocked for ten years.