Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the characters of 'The Nanny'…yet.
A/N Kind of a 'Wonderful Life' story with a twist. Three part series. Let me know what you think. - FoG
Time To Tell - Niles
"Niles…come on, Sweetie, you need to wake up." The voice was familiar but distant. Niles wasn't sure he'd really heard anything. "Niles Andrew Brightmore, I said wake up!" Niles popped up in his bed and looked around his room.
"Who's there?" Niles wasn't really afraid, but so very few people knew his full name he had to run the short list through his head. "Maman, Dad, Max, Sara, that's it."
"It's ok, Sweetie, don't be afraid. It's just a dream, but you need to pay attention." The familiar voice spoke softly to him again.
"I don't understand, why can't I see you?" Niles spoke to the darkness.
"Are you sure you're ready? I don't want you to freak out." The voice said with almost comic tone.
Niles eyes grew large as the faint vision became fuller and clearer at the foot of his bed. "Hey, Sweetie, I've missed you."
"I must have gotten some bad pork or something." Niles blinked several times and the vision didn't change. "This isn't happening."
The spirit before him was familiar and had been very dear to him. The spirit, which now seemed very real, sat on the edge of Niles' bed. "No, Sweetie, you didn't have any bad pork. You know very well that Mr. Wong's has the best Chinese food in the city." Niles shook his head still not sure about what he saw sitting next to him. "Look behind you, Sweetie."
Niles turned and looked behind where he sat and saw himself asleep in his bed. "I feel sick," Niles said flatly.
"Niles, come on, I have another appointment. We need to get to started." The figure announced quietly.
"You still have to keep appointments?" Niles was shocked.
"Yes, but only on special occasions." The figure answered.
"If I'm still…" Niles paused and pointed over his shoulder. "…there, then how can I be here, too?"
"I told you, Sweetie, it's just a dream. But an important dream, that's why all the dramatics. You know I don't usually go for this sort of thing." The figure put its hand on Niles' leg. "Now are you ready?"
Niles nodded. "I'm not going to have to fly around 18th century London or anything am I? I'm not really dressed for that kind of trip."
The figure smiled at him. "I really have missed you, Niles. No, we're not even leaving this room. We're just going to watch a little…home movie if you will."
"Ok, let 'er rip!" Niles smiled at his odd companion. "I wish I'd made some popcorn."
The figure sat with Niles and watched at faint pictures moved across the wall. "Do you remember this day?" Niles watched two young boys he knew to be Max and himself kick the soccer ball around the park near their childhood home in England. Niles smiled at the memory. "I couldn't have been more than twelve."
"That's right. It was you're birthday." Niles nodded. The picture changed to a little blonde girl in a sailor suit. She was being pushed around by another group of girls. Niles watched as the younger version of him went to her rescue.
"Hey…leave her alone!" The other girls ran off and Niles extended his hand to help her up from the ground. "Are you alright?" She looked up at him and he saw the tear slip out of her clear blue eyes. Niles watched himself in amazement.
The little girl spoke. "They said that I have a nanny 'cause no one loves me and no one ever will."
"Hey, don't let them bother you." He brushed the tear away. "And don't ever let anyone push you around. No one can tell you who you are. You're strong and you're beautiful. You make your own way." The little girl smiled at him.
"You're very handsome," She said and giggled.
The young Niles blushed and lowered his eyes. "Thanks, but my friend is the handsome one."
The little girl looked over the boys shoulder and lifted his chin. "Nah…to pretty." They laughed. Young Niles was just about to invite the little girl to play when her nanny came up and pulled her off.
The figure spoke. "You changed that little girl's life in that one moment, Niles. She never let anyone ever pick on her again…almost. Let's watch the next one, shall we?"
Niles just nodded still thinking about that little girl. Then he saw Max in his college graduation robe.
"Congratulations Max!" Niles shook his friend's hand. "I knew you'd get through it without me." Niles grinned.
"Just barely, old man," Max answered. "If you hadn't traveled back and forth from Oxford and the… the training academy every weekend to help me study, I'd have failed for sure." A pretty blonde girl came up to them both.
"Niles! I'm so glad to see you!" She threw her arms around his neck.
Niles blushed. "Hi, Sara. How have you been?"
"Getting along, Sweetie, what about you?" Sara asked him.
"I'm quite well, Sara. If you'll excuse me, I see a former professor, and I'd like to say hello." Niles excused himself and left them.
The figure patted Niles' back. "Remember, Niles. You got Max through school. It doesn't matter how you came to be there."
"I guess." Niles shrugged.
When the next pictures started to flash on the wall Niles shook his head. "No, please don't make me watch these. I barely survived it. I can't go through it again."
"Alright, Niles. I won't make you watch it all, but this one part, you must see." The figure lifted Niles' chin and made him watch.
"Mr. Sheffield, Sir…Mr. Sheffield…Max!" Niles nearly screamed to the barely recognizable man sitting behind the big wooden desk.
"Go away, Niles. Leave me alone! I don't want to see anyone." Max let his head drop onto his desk and he sobbed.
Niles took a deep cleansing breath and looked skyward and whispered. "Forgive me, Sara." Niles crossed around to Max and dragged him up out of the chair. "Now you listen to me Max. I'm your best friend and I know you're suffering. We're all suffering. I loved Sara, too, and so did the children. So I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and watch you wallow in your drunken world of self pity while your children need you. And they do need you, Max, now more than ever before. So you get your ass upstairs; shower, shave and sober up so you can grieve with your children."
"Wow, that was pretty severe don't you think, given the situation?" The familiar voice asked Niles.
Niles sat very still. "No."
"You're right, he cleaned up his act after that didn't he?" The figure asked. Niles just nodded.
"This is the last part, Niles, I promise. But most of it will be painful, just remember they're shadows, lessons you must learn." The figure stood and stepped away. "Do you remember all the pictures we've seen tonight?" Niles nods. "This is how different the world would've been had you not been a part of those pictures…
The little girl being picked on in the park that day…her name is Chastity Claire… That's right Niles…CC… If you hadn't been there to stop those girls and to say what you did… This is where CC Babcock would be today…
"Hey! I'm home!" He was a large and angry looking man in a very expensive suit. "Chastity, where the hell are you! Why aren't you here with my damn drink?"
A very different looking CC runs into the room. She's still beautiful, but the spark, the fire is gone. Her eyes are dull and she looks desperately sad. "I'm sorry, John, I'm sorry. The delivery man was at the back door and I…" CC didn't get to finish before his hand came across her face with a loud crack taking CC to the floor.
Niles nearly leapt off the bed. "Shadows, my friend," The figure said.
CC's mouth was bleeding and she was shaking as she looked up and begged the man. "Please, John, I'm sorry. I won't do it again."
"Screwing the delivery man? You're nothing but a whore. Chastity… what a joke. If it wasn't for your money I'd have been gone a long time ago." John hauled CC up off the floor and tossed her into a chair. "Don't bother with dinner, I've got a date. Don't wait up." The ape left the room and CC crumbled into a ball and sobbed.
Niles sat in his bed and shook with fear and anger. He couldn't believe that was his CC. Not all those years ago and certainly not in the pictures he just saw. She's right down the hall, isn't she? Please God let her be right down the hall. Niles thought to himself.
The figure touched Niles' shoulder. "I'm sorry, Niles. But you had to see…they're just shadows, lessons…" The figure stepped away again.
"You remember what Max said about your traveling back and forth to help him study?" Niles nods. "Well this is where Max would be today, if you hadn't been there to get him through school.
The next set of pictures started flashing up on the wall. Andrew Lloyd Webber paced in his office. "Sheffield!...Sheffield, where are you with those scripts!"
Max came running into the office carrying a large pile of scripts and managed to trip on his way to putting them on the desk. "I'm sorry, Mr. Webber. I'll get this mess cleaned up straight away."
"You know, Sheffield, I had hoped you'd over come failing out of school. I mean, it's been quite some time. But you've been here for years and you're still not doing very well." Andrew Lloyd-Webber wasn't cross with Max more embarrassed for him.
Max was stacking the scripts on Mr. Webber's desk. "I'm sorry, Mr. Webber, I'll try harder. I really love my work. And my wife, you've met her, Sara? We've just had another baby, that's three and I can't afford to lose this job."
"If your father hadn't invested a huge amount of money in my company, I'd have never given you the job. Why don't you just ask your father for money?" Webber practically scoffed.
Max looked at the floor. "My parents cut me off and rescinded my trust fund when I failed out of school. After all, according to them it wasn't rocket science it was a theatre program."
"Well," Webber started. "I suppose you can stay on as long as you don't get in anyone's way."
"Oh, thank you, Sir. I'll keep out of the way, Sir. Thank you, Sir." Max backed out of the office.
Niles wasn't sobbing anymore, but he still sniffled. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"Don't worry, Niles, it's alright." The figure assured him. "This next part will be difficult, but please, remember; it's a shadow, a lesson that's all." Niles nodded that he understood. "You remember that day in Max's office, when you told him off…after…"
"Yes, please don't say it. I remember." Niles couldn't bare even the mention of Sara's death. "You saved them all that day. If you hadn't been there to…chat with Max, this is the fate that awaited them…"
The pictures flashed across the wall. And Niles nearly gasped at what he saw. It was a cemetery. There was a large headstone that read 'Sheffield' and listed below it were Sara, the date of her birth and that other terrible date. Then there was Maxwell and again two dates. The date of his birth and another date, a month after Niles 'didn't' confront Max in his office.
Then the picture changed to some New York City streetscape. There was a young woman about Maggie's age. She was dressed quite inappropriately. A car pulled up and the girl leaned in the window. "Hey, Mister, ya wanna party?" Then she got in the car and it pulled away.
The picture changed again. It was a court room. And the judge was just about to speak. "Will the juvenile and his representative please rise. "Brighton Millhouse Sheffield, you are found guilty of armed robbery with intent to do bodily harm. Since you are underage you will be sent to a juvenile detention center until your eighteenth birthday at which time your sentence will be revisited."
The next picture was back at the cemetery. It was that same headstone. Sheffield, Sara and Max, then the camera panned to another smaller headstone which read Grace Elizabeth Sheffield her birth date and the date of her death.
Niles sobbed openly. "She was only a baby." The figure touched his shoulder and Niles jumped. "Go away, why are you showing me these things?"
The voice whispered. "You have to know your value, Niles." The figure was beginning to fade. "We've come to the last of them Niles. Now if you weren't ever around, weren't ever born maybe, you've seen what would've happened to everyone else, this is what Fran would be doing now…"
"I know, Ma. I thought it was going well too. How was I to know that Danny was just a pig?" Fran sat next to Sylvia on the plastic covered sofa.
"Maybe you could win him back?" Sylvia took nearly the entire Twinkie into her mouth. "I mean it's not like selling cosmetics door to door is gonna help ya find a man. You should count yourself lucky, Francine."
"I know Ma. I went to a really big house today and the maid who answered the door wouldn't even let me in. She said something about 'the Misses wouldn't be caught speaking to gutter trash like me. Can you imagine, Ma? I'm never leaving Flushin' again. There's nothin' on that side of the bridge that interests me."
"You're a good girl, Franny. You'll find your prince some day." Sylvia got up and left Fran in the living room.
"I'll be you if the butler had answered the door I'd have gotten in!" Fran stood and followed her mother into the kitchen.
Niles smiled at Fran's last comment. "You surely would have, Miss Fine."
"Now do you understand you're value, Niles?" The figure was nearly transparent now. "I'll leave you with something else you should see. Take care of them for me. Take care of you for me, too. It's time for you to be happy now, Niles. It's time to tell. Tell her. Good bye, my friend. I'll miss you, Sweetie, always."
Niles turned toward the voice. "Good bye, Sara."
After Sara's spirit finally faded the pictures on the wall changed again this time to the very recent past. Niles gasped when he saw his own face on the wall.
His face went ghostly white and his eyes rolled back as he collapsed. Then he saw CC, his CC sobbing at his side. "Please, God, no. Don't you dare die on me, Niles." The paramedics had no choice but to allow CC to ride with him in the ambulance, she refused to release his hand. "Maggie," CC called. "Call your parents in London and drive Brighton and Gracie to the hospital."
"Did she just refer to Dad and Fran as our parents?" Brighton asked. Still in shock at everything that happened.
Gracie sobbed. "Maggie, Niles is going to be alright, isn't he?"
Maggie tried to control her tears. "I hope so Gracie, I hope so."
The pictures changed again to CC in the ambulance with the unresponsive Niles. The paramedics worked quickly taking Niles' vital signs and putting in his IV. CC wept, like he'd never seen her before, not even when Sara… "Niles…please don't die." CC whispered. CC bent down next to his ear and whispered again. "Don't give up Niles. I need you…I…love you." CC wept again.
Niles sat in shock. "She loves me?"
The picture changed a little and Fran and Max were in a hospital corridor. "I can't believe Niles had a heart attack. Why did I ever leave home? Why did I ever go to London?" Fran cried softly.
Max tried to comfort her. "Miss Fine, you can't blame yourself."
"Was I talkin' to you?" Fran shrugged him off.
CC came out of a room, beautiful as ever, but she looked distraught. "Oh you're here."
"Oh, CC, thank God, where is he is he alright?"
CC tried to explain. "He's in there." CC waves back to the room. "I don't know. Oh Maxwell everything was perfectly normal. I said to Niles I'd wished I'd gone to England with you and he said, 'Oh sure you could've visited your old neighborhood, Stonehenge. And I said, 'Oh, you mean the place where the rocks are older than yours?" Fran and Max nod knowingly. "Which I thought was so clever. And then the scariest thing happened…"
Fran whined, "He had the heart attack?"
"No, no, not yet. There I was waiting for a zinger." CC paused, then whispered, "and nothing." Fran gasped. "I even set him up again. I said, 'don't make me get ugly.' But his eyes just rolled up into his head and he collapsed on the floor." CC started sobbing.
The picture changes and the doctor comes out of Niles' room and finds Max and Fran. "Oh, Doctor, I'm Maxwell Sheffield, Niles' employer how is he?"
"Well, he suffered a mild heart attack, but I'm very optimistic. Come on you can see him." The doctor responded and took them into the room.
Fran cried again. "Oh, Mr. Sheffield look, he looks so helpless."
"Oh, Doctor listen this man has stood by me my whole life. You have to help him, whatever it takes. Money is no object."
Niles doesn't remember when he lay back down or if he'd ever actually been sitting up in the first place. But he remembered her, Sara. She was there, as real to him as she'd ever been. And she wanted him to know how important he was in the lives of the people he loved. The remainder of the night was quite restful.
"Niles!" Gracie bounded into his room. "Merry Christmas, Niles!" Grace grabbed Niles' hand and started pulling him out of his bed.
When Grace finally got him to his feet, Niles wrapped her in a huge hug. "Merry Christmas, to you, my dear Miss Grace." Then he placed a little kiss on her head and a single tear slipped from his eye.