Niles couldn't help smiling when he came home and was greeted with a kiss by Daphne. It was what he'd dreamed of for so long, and now the reality was far better than he'd imagined.

"Where were you last night?" Daphne asked. She wasn't grilling him, just curious. "I tried calling you, but you didn't answer. That's not like you."

Niles nodded. He was so ashamed of what he and Frasier had been doing. He sighed at the thought of telling her, but he knew there was no choice. She deserved his honesty. "I was out."

"Well, yes, I'd gathered that," Daphne said, taking a seat beside him on the fainting couch. "But why? I hope you weren't sneaking out to buy me another present. I love you for you, not for what you can buy me."

Her words touched Niles a great deal. Surely no woman he'd known before her had ever said that. But would she still love him when he told her what he'd done? "I wasn't out buying you a gift, although I certainly wish I had been."

Now Daphne was beginning to worry. "Niles, what happened?" She hoped he could hear in her voice that she wanted the truth.

Once again, Niles sighed. "Remember the other day, when Frasier and I were talking at Nervosa about our old house being for sale? Well, we went over there with Dad to see it. It brought back so many memories for us. Back when we lived there, Mom was still here."

Daphne patted his arm consolingly. She knew this wasn't the end of the story, but she also knew how difficult the loss had been for all three of the Crane men.

"Well, Frasier and I suddenly remembered we had buried a memory box under a loose board in the floor. We asked Mr. Laskoff if we could look for it, but he said no. It was quite a disappointment for us. We don't have many things from our childhood. So, Frasier talked me in to going back to the house last night, under cover of darkness, to retrieve the box."

Daphne was appalled. "You broke into someone's house?!"

"Well, we snuck in through a window. But that wasn't the worst of it. When we were looking under the floorboards, we found a skull. Remembering our 'Crane Boys Mysteries,' we began trying to reconstruct the murder. While we were living in that house, Mrs. Laskoff stopped coming by for some reason. Frasier and I believed we'd found that reason. Soon, we had opened up a huge hole in the floor, gone through the contents of the garage, and called the cops."

"Mr Laskoff was a murderer?" Daphne asked in shock.

Feeling even greater shame now, Niles shook his head. "The police brought Mr. Laskoff over to the house to question him. He was rather appalled by what we'd done. That's when Frasier opened the memory box for which we'd come. In it, we found programs for our childhood production of Hamlet. One of the props we used for the play was a skull we found in the science lab at school."

Slowly, Daphne began to put the pieces together. The skull must have been from Hamlet, meaning their former landlord had never killed anyone. "What happened then?"

"Well, the next thing we knew, the police were bringing us down to the station. We had to promise we'd pay to have Mr. Laskoff's floor fixed. He still wanted to file charges, until we informed one of the officers that we were Martin Crane's sons. Luckily, the police were able to convince him not to press charges. But I'm so humiliated, Daphne. There Frasier and I were, sneaking around like common thieves!"

Daphne put her arms around Niles, pulling him close. "It's all right," she whispered soothingly. "You and Frasier just got a bit carried away, that's all. Why, anyone would've been frightened if they found a skull hidden beneath the floor!"

Niles was grateful for the way she rubbed his back. He had to admit he felt better. But he still couldn't let go of what he'd done. "Daphne, I nearly spent the night in jail! I'm a man with a PhD. I'm not supposed to do things like this!"

Daphne couldn't resist kissing his forehead. "Don't be so hard on yourself. Me brothers have done much worse than this, and I still love them. Most of the time, anyway." She grinned. "Yes, what you and Frasier did was wrong, but at least you learned not to jump to conclusions."

"Well, that's true," Niles said, finally looking up at her. "I spent last night at Frasier's. I was just too ashamed to come home to you. I thought you'd be disappointed in me."

"Niles, after all we've been through, how can you ever think I would feel that way? No one is perfect. I've known for years now how you and Frasier can go overboard from time to time. And I still love you," Daphne said.

"Thank you, my love," Niles replied kissing her. "I suppose I was just thinking of Maris and Mel. They both would've been afraid of what something like this might do to their reputations."

"I'm not them. I'm just glad that you and Frasier are OK. I was a bit worried about you last night, but I knew you would tell me what was going on. You need to trust that I love you, no matter what."

Niles kissed her again. "I do trust you," he said, caressing her cheek. "I'll never know how I got so lucky as to have you here beside me."

"That's simple," Daphne said, smiling at him. "You're the sweetest, kindest man I've ever known. I love you, and I'm not going anywhere."

Overcome with love for her, Niles took Daphne in his arms, kissing her deeply. He'd always known Daphne was the person he'd love for the rest of his life. But, until now, he'd never known what unconditional love really was. It was just one more reason he thanked God for her with every heartbeat.

The End