Disclaimer: I own nothing but the ideas.
[A/N: This oneshot arose from Kate's ask on Tumblr: "imagine for an instance cc's doctor didn't violate all sorts of patient privacy laws and cc got to tell niles herself that she was pregnant. how would that go down?" I therefore dedicate this fic to her, my muse and my literary agent.]
Quite Common but Still Wonderful
As the rest of the Sheffield/Fine group continued towards Fran's labor room, Niles took CC aside. She looked at him and smiled in a way that Niles had recently identified as CC's goofy smile—she bared almost all of her teeth and her eyes and nose crinkled and Niles fell a little bit more in love with her. He returned her smile and said, "I take it back."
She turned to look at him again, for her head had started to turn away, and asked, "You take what back?"
"My proposal," he responded.
CC smirked and asked, "Which one?"
Niles waved this off and said, "Yeah, yeah. This latest one." At this point, CC took a small step away from him, a little defensive, but Niles just moved close again and explained, "I want to marry you and spend the rest of my life annoying and pestering and irritating you and making you happy and satisfied all the ways I know how. I know this without a shadow of a doubt."
CC raised an eyebrow and remarked, "That sounds a lot like another proposal."
Niles nodded and agreed. "It does, but it isn't."
"Why?"
He reached over and lightly touched right below her left eye. With a smile that was somewhere between wry and wistful, Niles told her quietly, "I see shadows in here."
CC opened her mouth to reassure him (and likely herself), but he held up a hand to stop her. He did so calmly, and looked at her knowingly, and CC understood that he'd paid enough attention to her and less to himself—that what was happening now was so different from what had happened then.
"I'm not angry or upset. I'll wait. It turns out proposing marriage right in the middle of moving to California and you switching careers might not have been the best move."
CC laughed a little, recognizing that he'd told her the truth and that there was no pressure or ulterior motive here. A new, weightless ease slipped over her and she shifted a little closer to him. "So let me get this straight. Are you…taking back a thing?"
Niles laughed, a delightful sound to her, for it fully proved that he'd meant what he said. "Absolutely. I fully intend for this to take over everyone's lives for at least a year."
"Naturally. Hey, bright side, maybe we'd get to wrestle on the terrace again," CC said, bumping her shoulder against his.
But despite this new ease and reassurance, CC's nausea reasserted herself just as they returned to Fran's hospital room. Grace glanced over, concern flickering over her face, and walked to stand next to CC.
"Miss Babcock, are you ok?" the little one—who really wasn't so little anymore—asked.
This question caused several faces in the room to turn to her and CC's stomach flipped with the extra attention.
"I'm fine," she insisted, trying to smile but only grimacing. "Just feeling a little unsettled."
"It has been a while, though," Niles said, looking at her as Grace had. "Perhaps we should find a doctor?"
CC dismissed the thought, helped along by Fran's latest (and loudest) contraction, which diverted everyone's attention once again. But as the evening wore on, CC felt waves of powerful nausea wash over her again and despite her statements to the contrary, she started to feel nervous. She'd never felt like this before; this was no hangover or food poisoning or even stomach flu.
She had just turned to Niles to ask if brain tumors could cause nausea when he said to her, "Let's go get a doctor." She smiled at him gratefully and followed him from the room, where they walked back to the emergency room and checked CC in as a patient. Niles left the room for privacy as the nurse administered a variety of tests.
A couple of hours later, as Niles and CC once more found themselves in Fran's room for what felt like the world's longest labor, the same nurse approached CC and quietly told her that her results were in and that the doctor wanted to speak with her. Eager to get away from the nanny's intermittent wails, CC slipped away from the group and grabbed Niles's hand without a second thought. He smiled to himself, recognizing her nerves and understanding that she worried it was something serious. The butler, however, had his own quiet suspicions that he'd never share lest they weren't true.
The nurse led them to the doctor's office—or at least an office, for it seemed far too impersonal to be someone's actual office—and promised that the doctor would be with them shortly. For once, this actually happened, and CC took this as an indication of her certain and imminent death. The doctor paused when he saw Niles seated next to CC, but she said, "I want him to hear the results, whatever they are." Still, his pause unnerved her, so she glanced around at the stark office and missed the smile the doctor gave when he saw their interlocked hands. Niles didn't miss it, though, and actually held his breath in anticipation. CC gnawed at her lip and hoped the diagnosis wasn't something really rare and awful.
As it happened, though, the diagnosis was something quite common but still wonderful. CC stared at the doctor and froze in her seat. Niles beamed happily, his suspicions confirmed, and turned to CC. His excitement stepped aside to make room for a little concern over how she'd react.
"I'll give you two a moment and then I'll return to answer any immediate questions you might have," the doctor said, stepping out of the office and closing the door quietly behind him.
Niles sat in silence for as long as he could bear it. Which turned out to be twenty-two seconds.
"Miss Babcock?" he asked, staring at (and admiring) her profile.
"Niles."
Though she didn't say it like a question, he sensed it still was one, so he replied, "Yes?"
"You've proposed to me, what is it, 12 times now, and in several months, I'll be the mother of your child, so I think it's appropriate for you to call me CC."
Niles blushed, as he ought to blush, and began blabbering, "Of course, my apologies, I seem to revert to old habits when I get nervous or uncertain or, frankly, if I'm not paying close attention and so I—"
He stopped when he felt the warm weight of CC's hand atop his. He turned to face her and saw a smile—not the goofy CC smile but one a little softer and smaller.
"I'm excited," she admitted quietly, and Niles's huge, stupid grin told her that he was, too. She leaned forward to kiss him, but this one felt different; it wasn't the forceful, stubborn kiss after she'd gotten off the elevator but a peaceful kiss that held things like contentment and the future in it. "Who knows, I might even marry you one day," she told him after the kiss ended.
"I'm counting on it," Niles replied. And though he knew it was too early and that it was entirely too corny, he couldn't resist reaching over and placing his palm against her abdomen. But CC didn't mind.
The doctor returned a few moments later and asked if they had any questions at the moment. Niles could think of none, having lived through Sara's and now Fran's pregnancies, but CC leaned forward in her chair and fired off dozens of questions, badgering the doctor with inquiries of varying magnitude and specifications.
"You should really make an appointment with your ob/gyn," the doctor insisted after answering CC's fourteenth question, glancing down at the pager clipped to his belt. "I suggest you write your question down," the doctor recommended before hastily exiting the room.
The couple left the office shortly after, heading in the direction of Fran's room. Niles slipped his arm around CC's waist and asked, "Do you want to tell everyone or do you want to wait?" In this moment, as they rounded the corner and passed a variety of hospital chaos in the rooms, CC realized that Niles had pushed aside whatever it was he wanted to do (which, incidentally, was to get on the hospital intercom and announce to everyone that the love of his life, the light of his days, the thorn in his side, was carrying his baby and he hoped that he/she would look just like CC and have all of her characteristics that he couldn't imagine living without so naturally he wanted to duplicate all of them in another tiny human that he already loved beyond measure) and prioritized what she wanted. She felt the doubts that had clung to her on a daily basis slip away to be replaced by a tentative, glowing optimism.
So she reached her right arm over to rest against his chest as they continued walking and suggested that they keep it a secret, for now, for practical and personal reasons. Niles agreed, never more ecstatic to have a secret and never more likely to keep it.
They returned to the battleground that was Fran's labor room and the Fine family, always interested in medical diagnoses and never in privacy, asked what CC's test results were.
"Oh, just a bad bout of food poisoning," CC explained, her traitorous hand gently resting against her lower torso.
But the Fine family exploded as one, recalling everything they'd consumed at the party and proclaiming, simultaneously, to feel nauseous themselves. This led to a mass exodus to the hospital cafeteria, where the group hoped to find something light like crackers "or mashed potatoes and gravy." This ultimately proved to be yet another blessing on this fabulous day, as the room settled into silence once more between Fran's contractions and the happy couple shared sporadic smiles, co-conspirators with a wonderful secret.