A/N: Thanks for all your reviews! I've now finished writing this story and will start posting chapters every other day ;) but please keep reviewing. That being said, here's a message to the person who keeps leaving rather unconstructive comments. I generally tend to do research for my stories so you can believe me when I write about Niles being fit enough for sexual activities again. I've mentioned a few times in my chapters that several weeks have passed since the heart attack and you're cleared for sexual activity between 4-6 weeks after the incident...depending on the severity, of course, but since we know that it was just a minor event and there was no damage to the heart muscle either, Niles will be fit enough. Alcohol, while not advised, can be consumed as well. I'll be happy to provide you with links...in the meantime, have a little faith in the effort I actually put into my stories.

Chapter 10:

Niles' words and the whole situation were playing on her mind more than she had expected. She had never regretted her one night stands, not even the ones that had led to truly awful sex but she did regret sleeping with Niles. Not that it had been bad, on the contrary, but it had been the wrong time for them. Maybe things were generally too complicated between them for there to ever be a right time. Niles wanted a relationship, a commitment, while she wanted sex or so she thought. After all, wasn't it exactly the other way round with Maxwell? Not quite, she reminded herself bitterly, that particular Brit wouldn't even settle for the sex part.

She was feeling far too guilty for giving into something that they both wanted. Niles had been as much into this as she, C.C. told herself. If he had been so certain about her emotional unavailability it had been his own fault for sleeping with her nonetheless. And so she went back and forth between blaming him and feeling guilty.

Several days later, still keeping mostly to herself in the house, there was a knock on the door. Whoever it was entered without awaiting a response and C.C. half expected Niles to stride in. But it was D.D.

"Should I draw the curtains and pour you a glass of Whiskey?" she asked dryly and C.C. slowly looked up, a quizzical look on her face. "Well, to complete the whole grandma image," her sister explained with a grin.

She dismissively waved a hand at her and re-directed her gaze to the page of her book she'd been trying to read for the past half hour now.

"In case you've forgotten I'm leaving tomorrow."

C.C. blinked, she hadn't realised that so much time had passed already. "Well, I hope you enjoyed your holiday."

"I did, it was as eventful as I expected it to be." D.D. responded and then joined her on the bed "So where's that hunky butler of yours?"

"He isn't my butler," she replied testily and closed her book "and why do you want to know?"

"Because I've noticed that he hasn't been around for a while and ever since his mysterious disappearance you have been in a worse mood than usual. So I've reached the conclusion that one thing's linked to the other."

"Your powers of deduction astound me, Sherlock." C.C. commented dryly "But since I know you won't stop yapping unless I tell you. Niles and I had sex."

"And?" D.D. asked, drumming her fingers excitedly against her leg.

"And what?"

"Well, were you so bad that he decided to leave?" D.D. grinned. She winced unintentionally and looked away. "Chastity?" her sister sounded concerned now "What happened?"

She had composed herself enough to face Deirdre again. "We just had sex, D.D. It's all I wanted and I told him so."

"And he didn't react well to that?"

"No," she shrugged.

"Well, that's his problem, right? Not like you made any promises." She chuckled but then sobered again when C.C. remained unresponsive "Hey, what's bothering you?"

"Nothing," she shrugged.

"Then why do you look like mommy just kicked the bucket and left you nothing?"

At this she could finally bring herself to chuckle. "I don't know, D.D. Things between us are more complicated than ever now."

"So?" her sister arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow "You're a Babcock, we grew up dealing with complicated situations every day. And he's just a guy," she nudged her gently "how bad can it be?"

"What time are you leaving tomorrow?" C.C. changed the topic, letting herself relax against the pillows.

"8.30 am," D.D. rolled her eyes "mommy's demanded that she'd have the jet back later that day."

"In that case don't expect me to get up early to see you off." C.C. grinned.

"Of course not. Nobody would expect you out and about before noon."

"Your wit never ceases to amaze me," C.C. replied dryly.

"You're heading back to New York soon?"

She sighed and twisted her hands. "I'm not sure I'm heading back there at all."

"Oh come on, sis, don't let that little butler force you out of your working environment."

C.C. smiled tiredly, if only it was so simple. But her sister only took her silence as encouragement.

"Listen, just enjoy a few more days of the sunshine here and then head back to the Sheffields and get your routine back. Whatever doubts you have," she shrugged "just silence them and get on with life. You know if anyone can handle this it's you, C.C."

Surprised to hear such words from her sister C.C. tried pulling her into an embrace but D.D. backed away and got up from the bed. "Don't turn too mushy though. I'll be in touch, bye," and blowing her a kiss she fled the room.

As bizarre as it had been getting decent advice by her sister for once, C.C. did take her words seriously and returned to New York a few days later.


Once back she gave herself some time to adjust to the different weather again and to get her head straight before returning to the Sheffield mansion. Despite her best attempts though she arrived feeling just as nervous as she had done on her first ever working day. And really in a way it felt as if she'd gone back to the beginning, about to enter a house filled with strangers. Raising her hand to ring the doorbell she was suddenly overcome by a queasy feeling. No doubt it would be Niles she'd be confronted with first. As the seconds ticked by silently she reminded herself again of her sister's words, steeling herself for their first encounter since they had woken up the night after.

"Miss Babcock," At least his greeting was natural if also not a single muscle seemed to move in his face.

"Niles," she nodded and slipped past him. If only he knew how difficult it was to make her actions look so effortless.

Out of habit she tossed her coat at him and he caught it without further comment. "That's not unusual," she told herself "even before his heart attack he didn't engage with you." Still, for a short while things had been back to normal between them on the island and she would be lying to herself if she said that she didn't yearn for that normalcy now. Leaving him behind, she walked the familiar path to the office and entered without knocking.

"C.C.!" at least Maxwell looked delighted as well as surprised to see her.

"Max," she nodded and sat down on the green love seat.

"I assume your vacation has come to an end?"

"One would think so seeing as I'm back in the office," she commented, fishing for a notebook in her briefcase.

"Yes…uh…welcome back," he muttered quietly and then pushed a stack of papers forward "this is what I've been working on and this," he reached in his drawer for yet another pile of papers "are all the issues various people have communicated in the past few weeks."

"How thoughtful to keep a hold of them until my return," she sighed and stood up to collect them.

His apologies barely registered as she was too busy reading through the material he had just provided her with. With a deep sigh she realised that that was how life had always been and would in all likelihood continue to be for her. A secretary to the man she had crushed on once, otherwise stuck in complicated relationships and solely work-oriented.


A few weeks later C.C. had adjusted herself to the whole situation again and would've been able to deal with it all much better if it hadn't been for the persistent queasiness bugging her every day. It seemed to get particularly bad whenever she'd set foot into the Sheffield mansion which was why she sought out her doctor in the end to prescribe her some antiemetic tablets as the regular over-the-counter drugs just didn't seem to help at all. Her doctor couldn't be persuaded to simply hand over the pills and instead began asking her a series of questions. When did the nausea first appear? How often did it occur? Had she been losing weight? Had she been travelling lately? Once he had worked his way through this never-ending catalogue of questions he had finally examined her as well and then left for a few moments to evaluate the results of her urine sample.

"So? Can you help me?" she asked impatiently when he finally returned to the room.

"Yes," he nodded and smiled "but please sit back down."

She frowned, confused and reluctantly did so. "What's going on? Is it a virus or something?"

"No," he shook his head "Miss Babcock, following your descriptions I've carried out a pregnancy test and it came back positive."

She blinked, stunned, unable to hear the words that followed over the sound of her racing heart. Who was the father? That was the first question that presented itself to her. And despite having slept with several men on Guadeloupe there was only one she'd had unprotected sex with, one man where her desire had shut down all rational functioning.

"Miss Babcock? Are you alright?"

"Yes, it's just a little bit of a surprise." She answered, forcing a polite smile and nodding as the doctor continued talking.

He didn't think she was capable of being in a mature relationship. Then he would also doubt her skills as a mother. And just like that C.C. came to realise that Niles could never find out that she was pregnant.