A Fourth Season story... Part of the Sabrina Series and follows One of the Good Guys exactly one year later. (The story is not a stand alone story and will not make sense without first reading One of the Good Guys.)

Victoria's Secret

by Lynn

Lee Crane was walking a well-worn path in a DC suburb park. He didn't know what he was picking up from the ONI Courier or just why he was called all the way from the West Coast to make the pick-up. It all seemed rather odd. It was apparently a low level assignment as his mission briefing had come direct from the Handlers, he hadn't seen Admiral Johnson or even the Deputy Director. Well, the package must be important, he reasoned. He didn't know what his contact looked like and he hadn't been given a code word. He was told he would know once contact had been made.

So here he was, taking a walk in the park. His white open collared shirt was neatly tucked into his denim blue jeans and he looked the part of a relaxed walker enjoying the fresh air. He passed walkers, joggers and mothers pushing strollers, but so far hadn't been approached. Maybe his contact had missed the drop-off. A myriad of scenarios as to what could have delayed the operative passed through his mind from the innocent “missed the bus” idea to “been caught by bad guys”; it was unsettling, but not exactly unheard of. As he walked along he heard several walkers behind him, pushing a stroller he deduced from the sound of it. He was perfectly aware of who was around him at all times; that's why he was caught so totally off guard when he heard her voice.

“Hi Richie.”

Lee stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes shifting from side to side. Did he really just hear her voice? And she called him Richie. His cover name had been Rich but she never called him that, preferring to embarrass him with the “pet” name. But it couldn't be her, she was dead. He wheeled about to see who had spoken, surely it was just some sort of bizarre coincidence. He gazed into the eyes of a beautiful woman with long auburn brown hair, she was pushing a stroller with a sleeping baby inside and walking along with what he surmised to be the child's grandmother. But as he gazed into her face he caught her eyes, and he knew he'd looked into those eyes before.

He blinked and composed himself. “I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else,” he said effectively hiding his confusion even though he had been shaken. It was her voice and her eyes though not her face.

“I am someone else,” she said as Lee's eyes widened and his gaze deepened.

“Sabrina?” he whispered out.

“My name is Victoria,” she corrected. “And this is Caitlin,” she said looking down with pride to the baby just now stirring in the stroller.

Lee composed himself and took a deep breath in. “It is you, isn't it?” He asked. The more she spoke, the more he was sure.

“It's me Lee,” she said as the baby began to cry and the older woman leaned down to pick her up.

“Come to Grandma and we'll let Mommy talk to Lee here.”

Victoria smiled. “Thank you Edna,” she said appreciatively as Edna inserted a pacifier seeming to satisfy the baby and walked a few feet away to give them privacy.

Edna? How could he have missed that? He'd seen Admiral Johnson's wife at formal gatherings before. What was going on?

“Let's sit Lee, and I'll explain everything,” she said as Victoria guided him over to a park bench.

Lee sat staring out to the woods before him. “I saw all the blood, I thought you were dead,” he said absently not knowing just how to feel just now.

“I know and I'm sorry.”

“Why?” He asked as he turned toward her, searching her eyes for answers.

“My death was staged as part of the witness protection program. I couldn't just disappear, I had too many contacts. I knew too many people. They had to believe I was dead.”

“You turned evidence?” He asked quietly.

“Yes. In exchange for a new life.” Lee inquired with his eyes but she continued before he could speak. “I found myself pregnant Lee, they said I'd never have children. I never thought it mattered, it didn't fit my life anyway; but when I found out I was carrying her, I knew I wanted something different... something better for her. I could give her any material thing she could ever hope for or want, you know I had plenty of money to do that,” she stated rather than asked as Lee nodded. “What I couldn't give her was a chance to live a good and decent life, not one running from the law or looking for the next big payoff, or wondering who mommy's latest “partner” would be. Sabrina Meadows couldn't give that to her, but Victoria Mason can.”

“You went on the mission knowing that your death was going to be staged?” He asked with a hint of betrayal that she hadn't trusted him enough to bring him in on the deal. “Do you know what I went through after you 'died'?” He asked feeling anger starting to swell within him.

“I know,” she said quietly. “Admiral Johnson wanted it that way. He wasn't sure I could leave the life behind and he didn't want you implicated if I changed my mind and went back to my former life.”

Lee nodded, understanding that she and Johnson were trying to protect him; well-meaning as it was it still hurt.

“So you had plastic surgery?” He probed.

“After Caitlin was born. I couldn't be seen until I could have the surgery and I didn't know the first thing about having or raising a baby,” she laughed as Lee smiled... how he had missed that laugh.

“Edna and Gerald took me into their home for six months, until Caitlin was born. I had the surgery about two months later and I've been Victoria Mason ever since. Mason is Edna's maiden name and I'm their 'niece'. I'm staying in their guest house and Edna is helping me, teaching me. You know I never knew my mother or what it's like to be nurtured. Edna is very special... they both are.”

Lee's anger softened as he chuckled. “I don't think I've ever heard anyone describe Admiral Johnson that way before.”

She smiled and chuckled with him. “He's tough, don't get me wrong, but Lee I've got a family now. It's been an adjustment, that's for sure, but there's nothing I wouldn't do for her,” she said looking over at the baby in Edna Johnson's arms.

She composed herself and took a breath in, “But I'm still on ONI's payroll and the Admiral will be reinstating me soon, that's why he wanted us to meet. We knew you'd figure it out the first time we passed each other in ONI's halls.”

Lee reached up and rubbed his temple trying to wrap his mind around all this information. “You're sure you want to go back into the field? Sa... Victoria, I don't want to have to mourn for you again.”

“Don't worry Lee. Gerald is pretty protective of me these days, I'll probably end up with Courier assignments or something exciting like that,” she said with a grin.

“You think so?” Lee asked rhetorically if not sarcastically, knowing Gerald Johnson wouldn't hold out her considerable skills for long before calling her up.

“No,” she admitted. “I think when I'm the best operative for the job he'll send me. Isn't that why he calls you?”

Lee didn't answer but just nodded as he looked out at Edna walking and talking softly to Caitlin.

“What about Caitlin's father?”

“Someone I met... no relationship... you know how it was.”

Lee sighed. Isn't this what he wanted for her all along, to turn from her previous life and turn her talents for something worthy and good?

“I'm happy for you Victoria, Caitlin is beautiful and I know you'll be a good mom.”

“I'm trying,” she said with a chuckle. “Sometimes I think scaling a thirty story building to crack as safe is much easier, but I think I can do it. I have to do it, I'm not going to let her down.”

“So Victoria Mason,” Lee said emphasizing her name, “What's your next move?”

“Caitlin is only six months old and I'm not in a hurry to return, but you know me... when Johnson needs me I'll be ready.”

Lee nodded, he had no doubt about that.

“Are you angry with me, Lee?”

“I want to be... that was one of the worst nights of my life watching that coroner's van drive away with you in the back... but I don't want to waste any time on anger.” He stopped and looked her in the eyes. “I'm glad to see you again and I hope we'll always be friends.”

“That's what I want too,” she agreed, both knowing that they were better friends than lovers. Nothing had changed in that department and as she had had many lovers and few friends in her life, she realized that she valued his friendship deeply.

Edna began making her way back as Caitlin's fussiness became insistent. “I think Caitlin wants mommy,” she said, the baby growing more restless with each passing moment and obviously ready to nurse. Victoria rose and leaned over speaking softly in Lee's ear.

“Next time, I'm the photographer, and I've already got a pair of Speedos picked out,*” she quipped and smiled a smile he never thought he'd see again.

“I'll be seeing you Lee,” she said out loud as Edna transferred the baby to Victoria and Lee stood to see them off.

“Good bye Victoria. Mrs. Johnson,” he said greeting Edna and watched them walk away.

Lee figured his “assignment” was over and walked the opposite direction towards his car as a flood of emotions hit him at once. Perhaps it was Sabrina Meadows who died that night, the one who would sell her country out for a cool million without batting an eye. She had changed, but the spirit and spunk that made Sabrina so provocative was still alive within Victoria, just in a different package and seasoned with new found purpose and growing integrity; still beautiful, still intriguing and still the best safe cracker around. He believed her intentions were legitimate, and he knew that she could accomplish anything she set her mind to... even motherhood. He smiled as he reached his rental car wondering just how long it would take before the sassy side of Victoria would bleed through and drove off pondering what the next mission would be like with the provocative, high-spirited and extremely talented operative and whether ONI was really ready for Victoria Mason.

The End

Victoria's Secret

* Speedos – An inside joke from my story One of the Good Guys as Sabrina wanted Lee to be the “male model” and joked about the swimsuit she wanted him to wear for the shoot.

Author's Notes: Okay, so I believe in happy endings. Doesn't mean there can't be some great adventures along the way! ; )

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and her main characters belong to Irwin Allen