Niles' eyes flew open and his words froze in his throat. "I mean, that, is, Miss Babcock, I -"But CC had thrown her arms around his back, and she was kissing him.

Her lips were cold as well and served to create a tantalizing mix when combined with his hot mouth. Their lips kept meeting again and again and soon her icy body was leaning fully against his. Little droplets of water slipped off her blouse and slid down his chest, accumulating somewhere at the rim of his boxers and making him shiver deliciously.

"I think the witch is melting." He whispered teasingly and broke away a bit to place a small kiss on her nose.

"I think I better change," she replied and before he could utter another word she had fled back upstairs.
Whatever brief moment of joy and triumph he had experienced disappeared as quickly with her into the dark corridor. One step forward, two steps back. That was the choreography of the dance they had been engaging in ever since their meeting 20 years ago. He sighed deeply and sank down on the floor in front of the fireplace. Good thing he hadn't come as far as confessing his love. Although it had been a pretty close call and C.C. was a smart woman. Perhaps she had finally done the math. Great, another depressing thought. He sighed again and continued to stare into the fire.

"It's pathological, it's the worst kind of self-deluding denial. I put up with all that violence from you, and I enjoyed it. Because it meant you were thinking about me. The worse the prank, the more you had to plot and plan it. No one has ever thought about me so much, or so carefully. It turns out I wanted your undivided attention so badly that I barely noticed a bump on the head or two. Or three."

Her words kept swirling around in his mind. She craved his attention almost as badly as he craved hers. They really were the ultimate odd couple and self-destructive to the bone. Perhaps it was for the best that C.C. had run away before any real damage had been done. Still he dreaded thinking how their little encounter would affect their future now. C.C. would hide herself away again, that much was clear, and their situation would be made further uncomfortable because of his vow to never prank her again. He knew her views, knew that she wanted him to continue as before. But was that view still the same after their kiss? He rubbed his face tiredly and curled up in front of the fire, completely at a loss of how to act from now on.

C.C. in the meantime had fled into the bathroom, peeled off her wet clothes and sought refuge under the hot stream of the shower.

"I think the witch is melting."
He was right as always and of course it was him who was melting her. Always him… She sat down in the shower, with her back against the wall, her eyes closed and while the water kept massaging her shoulders she tried to replay the events of the past few minutes again. She had gone downstairs driven by the feeling of loss that had befallen her since his sudden announcement that he would never prank her again. She had felt scared, scared of losing their only way of communication since the day that they'd met. And before she'd known just how it had happened they had both started spilling out secret after secret until she had forgotten everything around her and only her need to kiss him had existed.

The last thing that she was aware of thinking before taking the plunge was "Maybe I should take matters into my own hands and find out if that dreamed portrayed my secret desire to be with him."
Breakfast the next morning in the main lodge was an awkward affair. Niles and C.C. were dancing around each other like teenagers who had been caught snogging at a house party and because Niles had sworn not to prank her anymore an uncomfortable silence was filling the dining room. The silence was occasionally interrupted by Maggie's whining and complaints because she wasn't able to reach her boyfriend and the other children's excited suggestions of daily activities. On top of it all the big-haired, brunette Nanny was berating Maxwell Sheffield, because he had voiced the idea that she'd do something alone with the kids, while he relaxed all by himself.

"This is a family vacation, Mr. Sheffield." Fran was pointing out for the hundredth time "You can't just hand the kids to me."

"Oh-ho, of course I can. I am your boss and you are the nanny!"

Fran sighed and gave a deep "oy".

"Trust me, Mr. Sheffield, I know my job description by now, but this is a family vacation, I still think-"

"Alright, alright!" Maxwell interrupted her, throwing his arms in the air "I give up, just stop repeating that phrase over and over again! Margaret, you're going to stop complaining all the time and Brighton and Grace, there will be no further discussion: today the entire family is going canoeing and that's that!"
And throwing his napkin dramatically on the table he made his exit.

A few hours later the entire family reunited at the dock by the lake.

"What are you doing here?" Niles frowned suspiciously at C.C., while Maxwell was busy helping his kids into the boats.

"I'm going canoeing," she replied matter-of-factly and reached for the orange life-vest which Fran had placed by her side.

"You what?" Niles snorted "You can't swim."

"Hence the vest." She pointed out dryly.

"You are crazy, Babcock, do you know that?" he growled and leaned in a little "You would do absolutely anything just to get away from me, wouldn't you?"

C.C. turned to look at him, her eyes showing contempt, but she couldn't bring herself to deny it.

"Well, I don't think so." Niles continued and impulsively reached for a life-vest too "I'm not letting you run away again. You want to go canoeing? Fine, we'll go canoeing."

C.C. opened her mouth to argue, but was interrupted by Maxwell.

"You changed your mind, old man?"

"Yes, Sir." Niles bit back and pulled another boat closer to the dock.

"Well, that's marvellous. You can take C.C. then."

"But Maxwell, I thought-"

"Yes, I know and I'm sorry, C.C. but Miss Fine and Grace want to have some girl time alone and I'm sharing a boat with Margaret and Brighton."

Once again she opened her mouth and then closed it again and finally, shooting an angry look at Niles she climbed into his boat.