A/N: (belated) birthday fic for Andrea (iloveromance); a wonderful person and awesome writer! I'm so sorry it took me so long; life can be so cruel sometimes (and add laziness in the mix and here we go). Anyway, I hope this is still good – despite being late. As for the story: goes completely AU in "To Tell The Truth".

Eventually they gave up trying to make Niles leave his place from under the piano. Frasier was the first to throw up his hands in the air, yell at his brother and disappear into his room. Martin tried it a few more times. After all this was his son and he could hardly bear to see him this devastated.

"You don't have to go home," he told him, "but you can sleep on the couch. Sleep somewhere comfortable."

"I don't want to sleep." Niles sighed. As soon as he closed his eyes, he was certain, nightmarish visions of Daphne and Donny would haunt him. He wanted to stay right there under the piano. It was the only place left on earth where he felt safe.

"This can't be good for your back, Niles. Not to mention your sanity." Martin tried again.

"I'm fine, dad."

"No, you're not. This isn't normal!" The first times Niles had hidden under the piano when he was just a boy, Hester had assured Martin it was nothing to worry about. By then he had accepted that both his sons were different; Niles, however, seemed like a fragile bird sometimes. It had taken Martin many, many years to accept that about his son. Even nowadays it was sometimes hard to bear. Not because he was embarrassed or annoyed, but because he would always have to worry a little more about his youngest son.

"It's the only place I can… breathe right now, dad. Please." Martin's hip reminded him that he couldn't keep standing there, watching his son. Exhaustion demanded that he went to bed – even if his mind and his heart had other ideas. He picked up a blanket from the couch and put it under the piano.

"At least be warm if you can't be reasonable. Good night, Niles."

"Thank you, dad. Good night." Niles listened to the familiar sound of his father walking away. When he heard his bedroom door close, he took a deep breath. He'd told the truth: this was the only place where he felt like he could breathe. His breath caught up there in the real world where heartbreak and loss loomed. Not down here. Never under a piano. Niles wrapped the blanket around his back and realized once again how restrictive his hiding place was. As a child it had felt as big as a castle. Niles remembered several instances where he had hidden under the piano when he was young. Sometimes Frasier had played his favorite songs and Niles had absorbed every beat, every note. Now it was silent. Frasier had gone to bed a while ago and Niles was all alone out here. The silence, however, felt just as comforting to him now. The sound of a key turning in the door disrupted his thoughts and his sense of safety. He knew it had to be Daphne. How he wished she didn't have to see him like this.

"Dr. Crane? Is that you?" Daphne asked and a moment later her face appeared before his.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled.

"But what are you sorry for, Dr. Crane? None of this is your fault."

"You had to go with Donny because of me. I- I am sorry for that." And he was sorry for so much more, but there was no way to explain it to her.

"It wasn't too bad," she surprised him by sitting down on the ground so they were facing each other. They looked like two school children ready to share a secret.

"Donny is really nice." Niles didn't like the way she pronounced nice. It sounded too much as if she meant it.

"Oh, is he?"

"You picked a fine lawyer, Dr. Crane! You don't need to worry about anything. I explained it all to him. That night at the Snow Ball? I told him how we were putting on a show for these snobbish – I mean your friends."

"That's what you told him."

"Yes, of course. It's the truth."

"Is it?" Niles mumbled.

"Are you all right, Dr. Crane?" Daphne put a hand on his knee. Niles stared at it for a moment and decided it couldn't go on like this. He couldn't spend his whole life under a piano. He was no longer a child. No one else could solve his problems. Heartbreak would find him here just as it would anywhere else. The truth would come out either way. He could either be a man about it or hide from it like the kid he used to be.

"I told Donny that you being in love with me is nothing but a silly idea." Daphne misinterpreted Niles' silence.

"That's just the thing, though, Daphne." If it had to come out anyway, Niles decided, he wanted to be the one to utter the words. He owed her that much.

"What is it, Dr. Crane?"

"I don't- I don't know how to tell you this, but… you see, ever since I first saw you I – well, I guess you could say that I do love you because – "

"Oh, but Dr. Crane I love you, too, you know that! Just like I love your father and your brother. As bothersome as they can be sometimes." Daphne giggled.

"My feelings for you run deeper than that. You see, I have been trying to tell you for a long time how I feel. It was never the right time, or the right place. I never knew how to tell you. I love you, Daphne. But not as a friend. I am in love with you." Once the words rolled off his tongue, Niles realized he was no longer scared. Oh, if only he'd known how easy it was to say all of this to her!

"Dr. Crane, what are you saying?" She pronounced every word dangerously slow as if she were talking to a small child, who had done something wrong. Something bad. Her voice was testament of her disbelief of what he'd just admitted to her.

"Just that. The accusation is true, Daphne. I am in love with you and I have been for a long, long time."

"When we were dancing at the Snow Ball – you weren't acting then?"

"No. It broke my heart when you thought I was, because there I was foolishly thinking you could feel anything but friendship for me." With horror Niles watched how Daphne tried to grapple the situation. He could almost feel how she went through every encounter with him, the memories changing, being painted anew with tainted colors.

"You never said anything. You never… what I've told Donny was actually a lie then and…" She trailed off and got up. Niles feared he had completely destroyed their relationship now; slowly he began to crawl from under the piano, his beautiful hiding place. Now that his greatest secret, his worst fear, was out there, the need to hide seemed to vanish with every passing second. Niles' back protested as he stretched. Daphne was pacing, turned to look at him and the moment he saw the tears in her eyes, his own pain was forgotten.

But Daphne stopped him before he could reach her. Her rejection of his comfort was a blow he felt throughout his whole body.

"I don't understand any of this, Dr. Crane." How he wished she would just call him Niles. Especially now that she knew. She clung to the familiar distance of professionalism like it was an anchor.

"I'm sorry you had to find out like this. I just didn't want you to hear it from anyone else."

"How do you expect me to react to this?" The anger in Daphne's voice surprised Niles. All this time he had come up with so many possibilities of how she could react should he ever find the nerve to tell her about his feelings. Confusion had been among them, anger maybe, too, but not in this intensity. Just like he'd always feared, he was losing her as a friend. And even worse, he didn't know how to stop this spiral. She was slipping away and he was frozen to the spot.

"I-I-I just wanted you to know."

"I can't deal with this right now. Not when Donny-"

"What did Donny do?" Niles didn't mean for it to sound so demanding and he saw Daphne slip further and further away from him.

"He asked me out on a date. I told him I wasn't sure, what with your case and all." There was a 'but' that Niles didn't want to inquire. She wanted to go out with Donny. Once again he was too late. The timing was wrong; each step he'd taken had been a mistake. The need to crawl back under the piano almost overwhelmed him.

"Do you want to – I mean is that something you want? To go out with Donny?" Daphne didn't answer. She crossed her arms in front of her and turned away from Niles.

"I'm asking as a friend, Daphne." Niles said softly.

"I was considering it."

"You were? As in past tense?" She was still turned away from him; he could not see her face and try to read it. Despite everything, Niles felt hope dwell inside him. He wanted to ask her what this meant and whether she was still angry. He felt bubbly with his secret out in the open. There were questions to be answered, but he was scared that any question might drive her into Donny's arms – not his.

"I – no. I meant I was considering it earlier when he asked me. I'm still considering it."

"Oh." And just like that his hope shattered. Like a piece of expensive glass against an average, thick rock.

"What did you expect me to do, Dr. Crane? Confess my undying love for you? Kiss you and live happily ever after?" He wanted to say 'yes'. Because that was exactly what he'd always hoped; he'd dreamed about her and all of this. This, however, had to be a nightmare.

"I need time to think, Dr. Crane."

"Why don't you call me Niles?" He blurted and regretted it the moment that the words were out.

"I need time," she repeated with more emphasis, "alone." Niles nodded, defeated. He gave her a sad smile and despite his need to crawl back under the piano, he left and gently closed the door behind him.

Tbc