Niles and Daphne walked to their son's room hand in hand. Daphne was grateful she had Niles there with her. She had no idea what she would've done if he wasn't there to comfort her. The thought made her shudder. But she reminded herself that she didn't have to face this alone. She had Niles, and Martin. Though she and Martin fought regularly over his diet and his reluctance to do his excercises, Daphne loved him as much as she did her own father. Or possibly even more, since he was the whole reason she met Niles, and therefore, she had him to thank for all the wonderful things that had followed.
Just before they walked in to see thier son, Niles stopped and quickly faced Daphne. "My love," he said, touching his forehead to hers. "We can't let David see how worried we were. He's going to be just fine, so the last thing we want to do is scare him."
"You're right," Daphne agreed. She took a deep breath, hoping to calm herself down. David had never been in a hospital before, other than shortly after his birth. The last thing she wanted to do was give him the idea that hospitals were horrible, scary places. She quickly kissed Niles. "Thank you."
"For what?" Niles asked.
"Everything. I don't know what I'd have done if you weren't here to get me through this," Daphne replied.
"Don't think about that," Niles said, gently caressing her cheek. "What matters is, I am here, and I'm always going to be here for you and David."
Daphne squeezed his hand, then kissed the back of it. In that small gesture, she told Niles how much she loved him, and let him know that once they were home, she would find a way to remind him one more time.
Niles held Daphne's hand as they finally made their way into their son's room.
David's face lit up at the sight of his parents. Immediately Daphne went to him and kissed his cheek. She began to gently stroke his hair as she asked him how he was feeling.
"I'm OK, I guess," David said. "Other than this." He pointed to a bandage on his head. "My head sort of hurts, but it's not too bad."
Daphne kissed her son once more, glad that he seemed to be suffering no ill effects from what had happened. She looked at Niles and saw that he was also relieved at their son's condition.
As Niles watched his wife and son, he was once again overwhelmed with gratitude for the kind of mother Daphne was. It was obvious just how much she loved her son. Niles had spent a lot of time teaching David and helping with his homework, but there were certain things he knew Daphne would always be better at. Handling sickness or injury was definitely one of them. Not only was Niles still just as squeamish as ever, but Daphne had a natural ability to care for others. That quality never ceased to amaze Niles, especially when compared to other women he'd been with. Suddenly, David's voice brought Niles out of his thoughts.
"Hey, Dad, is Grandpa here?"
Niles nodded. "Sure is. You want to see him?"
"Yeah," David said. "I want to say I'm sorry I screwed up in my very first Little League practice." He looked down, clearly ashamed of himself. Niles immediately went back out into the hall to retrieve his father.
Daphne smiled sympathetically at her son. "I'm sure your grandfather is proud of you just for trying your best to play baseball. He loves you, and he knows this wasn't your fault. It was just an accident, sweetheart."
Just then, Martin and Niles came into the room. "Hey, David," Martin said. "How are you feeling?"
"OK, I guess. My head hurts a little," David replied with a shrug.
"Well, that's good. I'm sure you'll be good as new soon, and you'll be right out there on the ballfield," Martin said. When Daphne caught his eye and gave him a warning look, Martin continued. "I mean, if you want to play again. But...sports aren't everything...I guess."
"See?" Daphne said to her son. "I told you your grandfather wouldn't be upset."
"No, David, I'm not disappointed in you at all," Martin said. "Your dad and your Uncle Frasier were never great athletes, but I still love them."
"I know," David said. "But Dad was telling me how excited you were that time he made the shot at the Sonic's game."
"Well, yeah, I was proud of your dad for that. But I lived with your Uncle Frasier for eleven years, and one of the things I learned from that is that it doesn't really matter whether or not somebody's good at sports," Martin said. "It took me a lot of years to learn that, but I finally did."
Daphne found herself blinking back tears when she heard what her father-in-law said. She'd been an eyewitness to the change in Martin's relationships with his two sons. Sometimes she forgot how far he'd come since she first took that job as his physical therapist. But at times like this, the memories came flooding back. She reached over and took his hand, squeezing it slightly.
Martin looked over at her, smiled and squeezed her hand in return.