My challenge, given to me by my roommate and found on The Terrible Crossover Fanfiction Idea Generator, found here: /badfanfiction/, was to write crossover fanfiction combining Heroes and Frasier. The story should use going away to college as a plot device!
As a disclaimer, none of this characters are originally mine and I am writing with my knowledge of Claire and her family from Season two and below so if there are any discrepancies, please don't let me know. And now, without further ado, my masterpiece:
"Hello again, this is Doctor Frasier Crane on KACL and before I sign off today I just wanted to remind my listeners that I will be absent for the next few days on account that my son, Frederick, will be commencing his college adventure at Stanford University in California. And although he will not be at my alma mater, Harvard, I am still immensely proud of him. As a result, I will be gallivanting down to the University for move in weekend in order to get him settled into his new life and will not be back to this happy town until next Tuesday. Now never fear all, my spot will be taken for the next three shows by none other than Gil Chesterton, our food critic with his program "Restaurant Beat." Well that's all the time we have for today, thank you for listening to KACL 780. Stay tuned for the News and then next up, Bob Bulldog Brisco and the Gonzo Sport Show. This is Doctor Frasier Crane, wishing you all good mental health."
Frasier took off his headphones, as Roz, his producer, entered into his booth. "So what time are you leaving tomorrow to meet Frederick and Lilith in California?" Roz asked.
"My flight leaves at 8:00 am. Niles is driving me down to the airport. Oh what a day."
"Oh fun." Roz sarcastically remarks back, "I'm aware of how much you love mornings and how excited you must be to see old Lilith again."
"If it wasn't for Frederick I would gladly never see that black hole of a woman again." Frasier said as he grabbed his keys and made his way to his car.
The next morning, as Frasier was finishing up his low fat, high fiber bran muffin and enjoying his cup of coffee, the knock came at the door.
"It's open Niles." Frasier called.
Niles walked through the door, looking quite cheerful, much to Frasier's distaste. "Good morning Frasier, are you ready to depart?"
"Just as soon as I finish my coffee. You and Daphne will take care of Dad until I get back in a few days?"
"Yes, yes, we'll be back after I drop you off to pick him up for the weekend."
"Oh good, thank you Niles. Shall we go?"
"Lets."
Frasier collected his suitcase and his jacket and followed Niles down to the garage to make their way to the airport. On the drive to the airport, Frasier once again asked Niles to fill in on his radio show for him while he was gone. "Oh come on Niles, I'd feel so much better leaving my spot to you than letting Gil and his pompous "Restaurant Beat" fill my spot. It would just be for a few days."
"No Frasier, you know what I think about pop psychiatry."
"I know what you think about everything. When was the last time you had an unexpressed thought?"
"I'm having one now." Niles smirked back over at his brother as he pulled into the airport drop off area.
Frasier bid his brother farewell and, after getting through security (Do I really have to take off my shoes? But these are Armani, please, watch your fingerprints!), and boarding the plane; he was finally on his way to California.
When his plane landed, Frasier gathered his things to find Lilith and Fredrick waiting for him at the baggage check.
"Fredrick!" Frasier called, as he pulled his son into a hug.
"Hi Dad." Fredrick said as he returned his dad's embrace half-heartedly.
Frasier then looked at his ex-wife and they exchanged cursory acknowledgements of, "Lilith" and, "Frasier."
They made their way to the car Lilith had already rented for the weekend and tried to make small talk on the way to their hotel in Palo Alto.
"So Frasier, are you still doling out worthless little advice pellets from your psychiatric pez dispenser?"
"You're having some fun at my expense aren't you?"
"Not much." Lilith answered.
"I think it's best if we refrain from insults, even if Frederick can't hear us because he has his mepod on or whatever it's called. Perhaps the radio?" Frasier suggested.
Frasier and Lilith continued to disagree on radio stations until they reached the Hotel they would be staying in for the night. Lilith checked them into their separate rooms and they bid each other goodnight.
The next morning, Frasier woke up early, much to his distaste, and joined Lilith and Frederick for the hotel's continental breakfast before they were to head to Frederick's new dorm room.
As he, Lilith and Frederick entered into the dinning area, Frasier was already complaining about not being able to read his paper in quiet, and the fact that the maid walked into his room as he was showering earlier since he had failed to put the little plastic "Do not disturb" sign on his door handle.
"Well how am I supposed to remember to put a tiny card on my door just to signify that I do not wish to have my room entered at 8:00 am in the morning? Why is the maid even starting so ear- Oh dear God, is this the breakfast selection?" Frasier asked in disbelief as he scanned the array of chaffing dishes in front of him. "Where are the bran muffins? What all this has is eggs and bacon and pancakes? I can feel my left ventricle slamming shut already."
Frederick looked over at his dad, and held up a plate of pancakes he had prepared. "Hey, Dad do you want some syrup on your pancakes?"
"No, I would like to leave some blood flow, so the clot can go straight to my brain."
"Frasier," Lilith interrupted, "why are you being so flustered by this morning's events?"
"I must not be robbed of my morning routine. It is the magic that is me. Lilith, why are you making that ridiculous noise? Are you sniveling at me?"
"I'm sorry if my noise of suppressed laughter is offensive to you, I was simply responding with the genuine spontaneous emotion I was feeling at the moment."
"Oh, this is hopeless." Frasier said, taking his plate from Frederick and resigning himself to his breakfast.
After breakfast, they piled back into Lilith's rental car and drove to the freshman dorms in Stanford to check Frederick in and begin the move in process. Later that day, as Frasier was heaving the umpteenth box through the door of Frederick's dorm, he noticed the people moving in across the hall.
"Frederick you didn't tell me these dorms are co-ed? Why, there's girl moving in right across the hall!"
"Is she pretty?"
"Well I don't know she's blond... I guess she's pretty- Frederick that is not the point. This is unheard of."
"Yeah, in 1957. Dad, it's the 21st century, chill out."
"I will not chill out, Lilith what do you think of this?"
"Well Frasier, I think that Frederick is responsible enough to handle himself with the opposite sex without getting into trouble. We've, or I've, raised him well."
Frasier, exasperated, gives his box a final push and gets it through the door. "Well," he said, straightening up, "I'm at least going to go meet the family of my son's future drunk hook up." He turned around and walked out of the room and across the hall where he cleared his throat and gave a slight knock on the door as he entered the other room."
"Hello, I am Dr. Frasier Crane. I was just moving my son in across the hall when I noticed you all moving in here and I thought I'd come and introduce myself. Get to know the neighbors."
The family, who was also in the middle of arranging their oldest daughter's boxes, turned to greet Frasier with a smile. The father, who was standing closest to Frasier, reached out his hand and said, "Hello Frasier, I'm Noah. This is my wife Sandra, who is holding our dog, Mr. Muggles, our son Lyle, and our daughter Claire."
"It's nice to meet all of you, my son, Frederick is just getting settled as well. I'll leave you to unpacking then." Frasier then rejoined Lilith and Frederick in his dorm.
"I think these are all the boxes Dad, thanks for helping today. I'll finish unpacking tonight and we can get lunch tomorrow before your plane leaves in the afternoon?"
"Oh, okay Freddie, be safe and we'll be back tomorrow to say goodbye."
Frasier and Lilith left to allow Frederick some time to finish settling in and unpacking and make room for his other roommate to move in.
When it came time for dinner, Frederick wandered out into the hallway, amongst the other students and families moving in, he noticed that the family next door had left, leaving the girl by herself to unpack as well. He walked up to the open door and said, "Hi, I'm Frederick, I moved in across the hall and I noticed neither of our roommates had moved in yet, so I was wondering if you wanted to get some pizza together for dinner or something?"
"Sure, pizza sounds good. I'm Claire by the way." She said, walking over to him and extending her hand. "It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too." Frederick responded, shaking her hand. "So um, when do you want to go?"
"How about now? Let me grab my purse and we can walk down there."
They walked downstairs together, talking about where they'd come from and their lives. Frederick learned that Claire had moved around a lot, but was glad to finally be able to stay in one place for a few years until she finished college. She was majoring in Biology and wanted to be a doctor. She said, "healing is kinda my thing."
Frederick smiled back at her and told her that he was majoring in Aeronautics and had grown up with his mom since he was a baby. They continued to talk over dinner until they made their way back to their new home. As they were about to cross the street in order to get back to their dorms, Claire stepped out into the street too early.
"Claire! No!" Frederick shouted, as a car swerved to try and miss Claire. The driver couldn't react in time, and the passenger's side mirror plowed into Claire's shoulder, knocking her to the ground. Frederick reacted on instinct as he ran to where Claire was lying and scooped her up and, in one movement, bounded straight up into the air.
Claire screamed in shock as she looked around at the Stanford campus disappearing beneath her. "What are you doing?" She demanded.
"Getting you to an emergency room."
"No, I don't need it, I'm fine. But you! You can fly!"
"What do you mean you're fine, that car practically ran you over! Are you in shock or something?"
"Yeah I'm in shock, shock from being pulled 50 feet into the air. Look." she said, turning her knee around so it was facing the right direction, and tilting her arm towards him so he could see the wounds heal themselves and disappear from her exposed skin. "All better."
"Whoa."
"Told ya healing was my thing."
"No kidding. Now I'm the one in shock. I've never met anyone else before who could do something, more than human... someone like me." Frederick said, starring at Claire as he descended onto a rooftop.
"It's pretty cool huh?" Claire said, smiling back. "So when did you discover you could fly?"
"When I was a child in elementary school, I was a scrawny thing, not into sports at all and many of the other kids would beat me up at school. Then one day, when I was running from a couple bullies, I found myself on a rooftop. I had no idea what happened and I was scared. When I tried to get down, I didn't fall, I kind of floated and that's when I realized what I could do. After that, the kids could never find me to beat me up. A few times I even used it to hide from my mom to escape getting in trouble."
Claire laughed, and they continued to grow into each other's lives, building a friendship and a relationship that would not only last through their first year of college, but would last for their lifetimes as well.
~ The End. ~