Disclaimer: I don't own any of these wonderful characters or this wonderful show. Believe me, I wish I did! I would love feedback for this story; it's my first Nanny fic so I'm a little nervous! :)

A Happy Ending

By

Kate

Imagine hell: a torturous place designed to inflict agony and suffering on those unfortunate enough to be trapped there for all eternity. The flames surround you, there's nowhere to escape to, and Satan makes it his personal mission to make your life, for lack of a better phrase, a living hell.

This stereotypical version of hell seemed like paradise to CC Babcock, for the hell she was experiencing was far worse and far more agonizing. Sure, there was no fire, just cold, damp air and stone walls. There would be an escape eventually, when someone decided to let her out. And naturally, there was no Satan, just Nanny Fine talking CC's ear off about something completely idiotic.

CC and Fran were stuck in the Sheffield wine cellar. It had already been a few hours since the two were trapped together, and CC was almost completely convinced that no one would ever find her, and that this confinement would finally be her undoing.

She could deal with a lot of things. She could deal with creepy backers trying to grope her while Maxwell had his back turned. She could deal with walking into the Sheffield mansion and hearing the children screaming and fighting before she even had her first cup of coffee. She could even deal with going to the Sheffield kitchen for some of her emergency hidden stash of chocolate chip cookies, only to find Sylvia happily shoveling them down her throat. However, being stuck listening to Nanny Fine babble on about the parallels between Funny Girl and Funny Lady was the last straw for CC.

"…So anyway, when I was a little girl, Ma would put a white pillow case on my head and dance me around to Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady. I think she was hoping it was some magical voodoo that would get me married off to some rich guy by the time I was 25 … whew, luckily I still got another year and a half left to fulfill THAT wish!"

CC rolled her eyes at Fran, took another long swig of her nearly empty bottle of wine, and recited the same thing she'd been saying quietly to herself for the last half hour: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…"

"Oy will ya quit sayin that! And would ya stop guzzling down that bottle. I'd hate to have to take care of your drunken tuchkas!"

"Well, you know what they say," CC slurred, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" And with that, she tossed a bottle of wine to Fran.

"Oooh no, there is NO way I'm joining you on this. I'm not really a fan of what the stuff does to me. I never really saw the point in drinking anyway, I mean, why would I need to?"

"Nanny Fine. You're over thirty and single."

Fran pondered this for a moment, frowned, popped the cork off her bottle, and started chugging.

Twenty minutes later, the two were on their way to being totally, as Fran called it, shnockered, with CC on the floor leaning against a wall and Fran standing on a stool attempting to do what looked like a cross between the Macarena and The Chicken Dance.

CC looked up at Fran. "Fran I'm booooredddd."

"Well pull up a chair and dance with me!" Fran squealed.

"I can't, the floor's too comfy!" And with that, the two burst out into hysterical laughter, as if CC had just said the funniest thing in the world.

"Oh boy," Fran said as she plopped down next to CC, "what are we gonna dooooooo?"

A light bulb went off in CC's cloudy, alcohol-soaked mind. "I've got it! Let's go back to what we were doing earlier!"

"Ohhh no! Not again!" Fran said as she shook her head a little too hard and toppled over to the side, her forehead landing smack-dab on CC's shoulder.

CC nudged Fran off of her and looked at her with big, pleading, puppy-dog eyes. "Pweeease Franny! We were having so much fun earlier! Remember, it's what got you up on that chair dancing!

Fran rolled her eyes, "Yeah, but that was the only high point of the whole game."

"Frannnnn why won't you play truth or dare?"

"Because all your truths are so boring!" Fran moaned.

"Come on…" CC tried egging Fran on.

"No!" Fran said, putting her foot down.

CC may have been drunk, but she was not stupid. She knew she had an offer Fran could not refuse: "I'll let you do my makeup."

It was music to Fran's ears. "Okay!"

"Okie dokie! Ask me!" CC sat down in the chair while Fran got her makeup supplies ready.

Fran asked the magic question, "Truth, or dare?"

Realizing that they had all ready done pretty much all the dares one could possibly dream up while being drunk and trapped in a wine cellar, (if the broken wine bottles that Fran tried to juggle and CC tried to balance on her nose like a seal were any indication) CC made the logical choice, "I pick… truth."

"Okay, if you could spend the night with anyone, who would it be? We both know, game's over, suck in your cheeks!" Fran said knowingly, not even really paying attention to CC, or to the ridiculous make-up she was drunkenly applying to CC's face.

"You never know," CC said smugly, "my answer may surprise you…"

"All right, spill." Fran knew without a doubt CC's answer was going to be their boss. Maxwell Sheffield had been the object of CC's affection long before Fran had gotten the job as the nanny, and it was obvious to blind and deaf people living on different hemispheres that CC had her eye on the handsome millionaire producer.

"It's… NILES!" CC stood up and threw her arms in the air, as if she was saying "Tada!"

"Get out of town." Fran still wasn't listening, when finally the realization of CC's declaration permeated into her mind, knocked the wind out of her, and shocked her into dropping her makeup supplies onto the cold, concrete floor.

There was a loud clatter as the makeup hit the floor, followed by complete silence. Fran leaned on the stool that was previously occupied by CC and tried to catch her breath while CC still held her arms high in the air, beaming like a model in a toothpaste ad.

When Fran finally had enough air in her lungs, she practically bellowed, "WHATTTTTTT?!"

CC dropped her arms and turned to look at Fran, a confused expression worn on her face, "What? What's the big deal over wanting to spend the night with Maxwell?"

"Yeah, that wouldn't be a big deal AT ALL. In fact, I wouldn't have even looked up from what I was doing because of what a big deal it wouldn't have been, except for the small fact that YOU SAID NILES!" Fran still looked like she had seen a ghost, and she quickly grabbed for the closest bottle of wine and began chugging.

CC froze like a deer caught in headlights.

"I said… what?" She practically whispered.

"Ni-yuls." Fran carefully enunciated both syllables of his name.

"Niles?! NILES?! There is no way I said that lowlife, Alice Brady-wannabe instead of Maxwell."

"First of all, you did in fact say Niles. Second of all, Alice Brady?" Fran asked confusedly.

"You know, Alice Brady, the annoying housekeeper on The Brady Bunch!" CC said, as if Fran should have already known that.

Fran rolled her eyes and lightly smacked CC on the back of her head. "No no no! Alice wasn't a Brady! Her last name was Nelson. She wasn't related to the Brady's and she was NOT annoying. She was helpful and kept the house in line and was fun and perky and wanted to get married and worked in her boyfriends bridal shop and got dumped and fired…Drifting! I'm drifting! Anyway, the point is, YOU LIKE NILES!"

"I do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

The two glared at each other for a while before CC backed off and sank down against a wall and Fran did the same against the wall across from her. CC opened her mouth as if she was about to say something, but then abruptly closed it. She did this again multiple times and then put her face into her hands. When Fran noticed her shaking she quickly got up, picked up a new bottle for CC, sat down next to her and handed her the bottle. It was only when CC looked up to take the bottle that Fran realized CC wasn't crying, and was actually laughing quite hysterically.

"Miss Babcock? What's so funny?"

When her laughter finally subsided and the tears stopped rolling down her face, CC opened the new wine bottle and took a very long chug. Fran looked on in awe as CC downed a good portion of the bottle in record timing.

CC chuckled. "It figures. I've spent years and thousands of dollars in therapy denying any sort of emotional attachment to that lousy butler. One night of drunken confinement with you and all of a sudden it's like somebody slipped me some sodium pentothal. Unless…" A thought suddenly occurred to CC and she whipped her head in Fran's direction.

Fran cut her off before she could say anything else. "Yeah right, who would trust a Fine with Truth Serum? We're lucky they even let us buy cough syrup! Oy! I tell ya, one mistake at my cousin Ira's prom with the punch bowl, and all of a sudden we're banned from Robitussin at every drug store within a twenty mile radius of Flushing!"

Fran glanced at CC, whose wine bottle was now completely empty. CC sighed.

"Any chance you're not going to remember this tomorrow?"

Fran shook her head. "I'm afraid not. I've got the memory of a steel elephant!"

CC burst out laughing. "That's not how it goes!"

Fran joined in her laughter. "Well how's it go then?!"

"…Uhh, well, I don't remember now actually. Wait what were we talking about?" CC yawned and began sliding down the wall, until she was lying on the floor using her rolled up jacket as a pillow.

"How I've got the memory of a …um, metal animal, or something." Fran laid down next to CC and let out a big yawn as well.

The wine finally caught up with them, knocking them out into a deep sleep.