Title: Better Days.
Rating: T - though I'm not sure.
Spoiler: Picks up somewhat 6 years after the show ended. The month is January. Someone died.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from The Nanny.
As she stood watching his body being lowered in the ground, CC knew she'd definitely had better days. She couldn't deny that there were times in her life when she'd wished he would just die, but she knew deep down in her heart that she'd never truly meant it.
She bit her lower lip to prevent a tear from falling as she thought of the moments she'd shared with him. In that same moment, she pulled her children a little closer to her, comforting them as they cried over their loss. She'd stay strong for them.
It had been a shock to everyone when Niles and CC had discovered that they were having triplets. Everyone, including CC, had wondered about her abilities to be a mother to three children at the same time. Except for Niles. He'd been her rock throughout her pregnancy, and not for one moment thought that she'd be anything but a good mother.
And she was. Even to her own surprise. She was still a tough business woman, and could make grown men cry. She was definitely a force to be reckoned with when it came to business, and could plaster on fake smiles and dish out fake endearments when she needed money from backers. But she was an entirely different person when she was with her children.
She had never really enjoyed spending time with Maxwell's oldest children when they were growing up, and in truth she never thought she even liked children. But feeling her own children grown inside of her, and babysitting Jonah and Eve with Niles when Maxwell and Fran were out for the evening, had helped her prepare her for motherhood. Since the triplets were born, she'd enjoyed spending every minute with them with everything it entailed. Even changing their smelly diapers, when they were babies.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard Fran sobbing even louder.
"It's just not fair. He was too young to die." Maxwell hugged her tighter and tried to comfort her, the best he could, though it was hard. Fran was a total wreck.
"There, there darling. I know he was one of your best friends and how much you miss him." Fran nodded as she buried her head in his shoulder.
"I really do miss him." He kissed her head.
"We all miss him."
As Fran's nasal sobs got louder, CC's body tensed by the sound. Even though they'd become friends over the years and considered each other family, CC couldn't help but find Fran's nasal voice annoying at times. But at the same time she couldn't help but be thankful to Fran. Since the last couple of days had been a bit chaotic, she was glad that Fran had arranged everything in regards to the funeral. Even the wake afterwards was at Maxwell and Fran's house seeing as her own home was a bit of a mess. She and the children had been too out of it to clean.
When the funeral was over and almost everyone was gone, Fran walked over to CC and hugged her.
"Oh, I can't believe he's gone. I just can't believe he's gone."
"Me either, Fran."
"I mean, he was too young to die. He had so much to live for and it's just not fair. It's just not fair."
Fran threw her arms around CC one more time and hugged her tightly. Sensing it was best to get his wife home, and let CC and her children have a few moments alone at the gravesite, he pulled Fran away from CC.
"Darling, I think I better get you home. We should allow CC and the children some time alone." Fran nodded.
"Yeah okay." She walked over to Jonah and Eve, who were waiting to leave with their parents. "Come on, angels." She pulled them close to her as they walked away. Maxwell gave them one last glance before looking back at CC.
"Take as much time as you need and I'll see you at the house." CC nodded and Maxwell left.
She stood with her children each deep in their own thoughts, but no one said anything. After several minutes of silence, CC looked at her children.
"Are you ready to leave?" The each nodded. "Okay, then let's go." They each took one last look at the gravesite and left.
Fran had gone to great lengths to plan a beautiful wake to honor her friend, and the day was spent with everyone sharing stories about their favorite memories with their lost friend.
A few hours later when evening had arrived, Maggie walked over to CC.
"CC, I hope you don't mind me going to bed now. I'm just really tired." CC stood up from her seat and hugged Maggie.
"Not at all, Maggie. I remember all too well what it's like to be pregnant." They both looked down at Maggie's stomach and then back at each other smiling.
"Yeah, being seven months pregnant is not easy. And today has been exhausting." CC nodded her understanding. "I'm really going to miss him." Michael walked up to them.
"We're all going to miss him." CC smiled at Michael too.
"Thank you both." She gave Maggie another hug and Michael one too, and then looked at her watch. "I think, I should head home. It's getting late, and I need to put the kids to bed." She looked over to the couch where her children were almost asleep. She chuckled softly. "Yeah, I think it's definitely best to get them home." She shared another chuckle with Maggie and Michael before they went in separate directions.
Once CC and her children had walked around the room saying their goodbyes and thanks, they stood by the front door with Maxwell and Fran. Fran hugged the triplets simultaneously and started to cry again.
"Oh Ben, Emily, and Caitlin. I'm so sorry for your loss."
"We know, aunt Fran." Fran smiled at them and gave them each a kiss goodbye.
"If you need anything just ask, okay? We're all here for you."
"We will, aunt Fran." Fran looked at CC.
"CC, are you sure you're going to be alright?" CC nodded.
"I'm sure, Fran."
"Do you need someone to walk to home?"
"Thank you, Maxwell, but it won't be necessary. You know we only live just a couple minutes away." He nodded.
When they'd all moved to California, Niles and CC had stayed with Maxwell and Fran for the first couple of months until they'd found the perfect house. Their house was only less then a ten minute walk away from Maxwell and Fran's house, which was perfect in many ways. Niles and CC were close to work, but at the same time they lived far enough away that Fran couldn't look over the hedges and interrupt their privacy.
"Still. Call us when you get home." CC wanted to object and tell them that they'd be fine, but knowing that they cared, she nodded instead.
"I'll call." She gave Maxwell and Fran a hug goodbye. "Thank you for everything. I really appreciate it." Maxwell shook his head.
"Don't mention it. We were only happy to help." With one more around of goodbyes and hugs for the triplets, CC and her children went home.
When they got home, they triplets went upstairs and got ready for bed while CC called Maxwell and Fran to tell them, they'd gotten home alright. After the phone call ended, she headed upstairs to read the kids a story in Emily's room, and then tucked them each into their own beds.
Ben was the last one she tucked in.
"Mommy?"
"Yes, sweetheart."
"I miss daddy." She caressed him over the head and smiled at him. He looked so much like his father, and CC just looked at him for a few moments before answering him.
"I miss him too." She leaned in and gave him one more kiss. "Goodnight, sweetheart. I love you."
"Night, mommy. I love you too." Seconds later he was fast asleep and she left and went to her own bedroom.
Once inside her bedroom she got ready for bed. She tossed her clothes on the ground not feeling like putting them away properly, and then found Niles' pajamas under the covers. She breathed in his scent that still lingered on them before putting them on. When she was under the covers, she hugged his pillow close to her, and for the first time that day she allowed herself to cry at what she'd lost.
She had definitely had better days.
Three nights after the funeral CC woke up sensing she wasn't alone. She blinked a few times to see what time it was, and was surprised to see that it was 2.37 a.m. Sensing even more now that she wasn't alone, confusion hit her as she was certain that it wasn't one of the children. She was about to reach for the lights to turn them on when a whisper stopped her.
"Don't turn on the lights." She froze in shock by the sound of his voice.
"Niles?"
"Yes." She became even more awake as she felt him come nearer. "Everything is alright. Now go back to sleep." She ignored him and turned on the lights anyway.
After blinking a few times having to adjust to the light, she was finally able to look in his direction, and gasped slightly at the sight of him.
"You're here." He smiled at her and sat down on the bed.
"Yes, I am." She shook her head in amazement and reached out her hand to lightly caress his cheek.
"I can't believe you're really here."
"Believe it. Now tell me. How are you feeling?" She took her hand back and shrugged.
"I feel just fine." He smirked at her.
"Don't lie to me. I know you too well, remember?" She rolled her eyes at him, hating when he was right. And he was right more times than she cared to think of.
"Okay, okay." She sighed and gave up trying to be strong. She knew it never worked on him anyway. He could see right through her. "Honestly, I miss him. As much as I've said I wished he'd get run over by a car, I never meant it. Chester might've been a pain in the ass a lot of the time, but he was still my first baby."
For the first time since Chester had died, she allowed herself to cry in front of someone. Niles moved closer and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly as she cried. She wrapped her arms around him, and already felt better just by being in his arms again.
He kissed the side of her head.
"I miss him too."
Two days before Chester's funeral, Fran, Maxwell, Jonah, Eve, CC, Ben, Emily, Caitlin, and Chester had gone to the park to relax for the afternoon seeing as it was Sunday. Not thinking it would do any harm, Fran and CC had decided it would be alright for Chester to be taken off his leash.
Everything had been fine at first when they'd played fetch with him. However, a few minutes later Chester ran passed them without a ball in his mouth but with a Rottweiler on his tail. Fran and CC stayed with their children while Maxwell ran after Chester. Unfortunately, Maxwell wasn't able to stop Chester in time as he ran out of the park and into traffic, where he was run over by a car.
After a few moments of being comforted, CC's cries turned to sniffles, and she started to dry her eyes and Niles helped. When the last of her tears had been dried away, she smiled at him and kissed him.
"Thank you." He smiled back at her.
"You're welcome." She was about to lean in for another kiss when she remembered that she had not expected him to be here.
"How did you get home? I thought there were still no flights out of New York."
Two days before Chester's death, Niles had gone to New York to get together with The Professional Butlers Association for the weekend. He was supposed to have returned on the day Chester died, but a severe snowstorm had kept him in New York, and had made it impossible for him to get home for Chester's funeral. It had kept raging all week and from what he'd told her, when they'd last spoken on the phone, it was still raging.
"There weren't. But the weather cleared up enough to drive, so I got a ride to Boston from a friend of one of the other butlers. From there I was able to get a flight to Nashville. From Nashville I got a flight to Kansas City where I was then able to get a flight to San Francisco, and from there finally a flight to Los Angeles. And here I am."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because, I didn't have much time between each flight. I could've easily missed one of them. So in case I did, I didn't want to first tell you that I was coming home, only to then tell you that I wasn't after all." She nodded her understanding.
"That makes sense."
"I just wish I could've been here sooner." She caressed his cheek.
"Me too. But you're home earlier than expected, so I'm happy about that. It's just what I needed."
"Is there anything else you need? Do you want to get a new dog?" She looked at him as if he'd grown an extra head.
"A new dog? You don't think we have enough to deal with, with three children, our jobs, the Sheffields, and especially Fran, who although nice, can also be annoying at times? Not to mention Sylvia, Morty, Yetta, Val and her family, who are all visiting more often than I'd care to think about?" He realized she was right and nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I see your point."
"Besides, Maxwell gave me Chester so that I would have someone to come home to. I don't need a new dog, because I have you and the children to come home to now." He smiled at her but then smirked a little.
"Technically, we come home together on most days, and when we don't, I end up coming home more to you than you do to me." She rolled her eyes at him and smacked him lightly on the arm.
"You know what I meant." He nodded.
"Have the children asked for a new dog since last we spoke on the phone?" She shook her head.
"No, they haven't. They all miss Chester, but they haven't at any point said that they'd like a new dog."
"That's good."
"Do you want a new dog?"
"Well, Chester's death was unexpected. But as much as I am going to miss him, I'm not going to miss cleaning up after him, or finding him eating my shoes or the newspaper." She smirked a little at him.
"Those days might not be over." He gave her a curious look.
"What are you talking about?"
"Fran has spent practically the entire day trying to convince Maxwell to get a dog." Niles groaned.
"Good god, she hasn't."
"I'm afraid so."
"I'm going to have to talk her out of it."
"Good luck with that, Butler Boy." Niles nodded in defeat, knowing that it would be a hopeless task already.
"I'm going to get ready for bed." He stood up from the bed, grabbed his toilet bag from his suitcase and went to the bathroom.
A few moments later he came back into the bedroom and started taking off his clothes and folding them neatly and putting them on the chair. When he was about to unbuckle his belt to take off his pants, CC had had enough.
"Can't you wait until tomorrow to do that, Merry Maid?"
"My clothes are new. If I don't fold them now they'll get wrinkled by tomorrow. So no, this can't wait. You, on the other hand, are old and wrinkled already, so you can stand to wait a few more moments."
"Listen, Tidy Bowl, we haven't had sex in a week. During that week you've been off relaxing with your butler buddies. You might be exhausted from traveling all day, but that's nothing compared to my week. I've spent the week taken care of the kids, my job, the house, the cooking, the cleaning, and Chester's death. On top of that I've had to deal with Fran before and after Chester's death. She insisted we spent as much of last weekend together as possible, because she thought the kids and I needed the company since you weren't home. And you know that once she insists on us spending time together, it's impossible to change her mind. Then after Chester's death she's been a total wreck, and her crying has been driving me crazy. As if all of that weren't bad enough, today she put me on the phone with Sylvia, who talked my ear off for two hours. Sylvia then put me on the phone with Yetta for one hour, which really felt more like five hours because she kept forgetting everything and then repeating herself. I am exhausted. So if you think that you can just take your pretty little time getting to bed and still get some sweet loving, you're seriously mistaken. If you're not in bed within the next five seconds, I'm just going to go to sleep."
"You're bluffing."
"Am I really?"
He smirked at her.
"Yes, you are. I know you too well, remember?"
"Fine." She picked up her watch and counted the seconds. "Five, four, three, two, one." He still hadn't moved and she put her watch down. "I'll leave the lights on, so you can see where you put your precious clothes."
CC started to lie back down, but before she even had the chance, Niles pushed her back into the bed and got on top of her.
They smirked at each other.
"I knew you were bluffing."
"And yet you didn't want to take your chances."
"No, because you can be evil when you want to, Babcock. And as you said it has been a week." He started kissing her throat and she let a moan.
"You do know that I only use my maiden name when dealing with business. So what you really should've said was…" He captured her lips in a passionate kiss, not wanting to hear her say his last name.
He smiled down at her.
"I think I better show you just how much I've missed you." She smiled back at him and reached for his belt buckle to help him get the rest of his clothes off.
Four rounds of lovemaking later, they were wrapped in each others arms close to falling asleep. CC snuggled closer to Niles and kissed his chest.
"I'm glad you're finally home."
He hugged her tighter and kissed the top of her head.
"Me too."
CC smiled. This was definitely one of her better days.
The End.