"Where the hell is Maxwell?" CC asked, pushing her way into the kitchen.

Niles looked up from the newspaper he was reading and took off his glasses. "He's at Miss Grace's school. He's taken over the school's pageant."

CC groaned, leaning against the counter. "Oh this is ridiculous! We have work that needs to get done!"

"Wouldn't be the first time he left you hanging," Niles replied, watching as she poured herself a drink. Something about that drink told him that he would be driving her home that night.

"Oh can it, Niles!" CC downed the shot and poured herself another. "This whole thing with the children is ridiculous. He hired a nanny to do this kind of crap!"

Niles got up from the table and pulled out a tray. If CC was going to be there all night doing work, he figured he may as well make something to eat for both of them. He ignored her comment about the children, knowing she would never understand what it was like to have children. Sometimes he wondered if she was that bitter or if she truly didn't understand the duty a father should have to his children. "Dinner, Miss Babcock?"

"I could eat," she replied.

"Sit down and I'll make something."

CC took to the chair at the kitchen table, mindlessly playing with the edge of the paper. Niles got out just enough ingredients to put a salad and some sandwiches together. It wasn't the first time they had been alone in the house while Maxwell was out. Many a night CC had stayed late to work in the office, and Niles believed that she didn't want to go home to an empty house. He couldn't blame her. Even CC couldn't like to be alone all the time. This home was the only place she had. That much he knew and he could sympathize with her.

"Thanks," she said after a few moments.

He smiled slightly, cutting up a few carrots. "If I let you starve then that means I'll have to bury you to hide the evidence. I don't feel up to digging any holes this evening."

CC laughed. "I mean it, you know."

"So do I," he chimed in.

"You're impossible to communicate with sometimes."

Niles laughed as well, more to himself than aloud. "Well, I do pride myself on being able to do the impossible."

"Just cut your vegetables!" she exclaimed.

Throwing the carrots into the salad bowl, Niles held back a snarky reply. "What do you want on your sandwich, Miss Babcock?"

"Surprise me," she muttered, resting her head on the table so her hair spread across the wood.

Niles pulled out the lunchmeat and put something together for each of them and took a seat beside her. "I even put it on a plate. I know you're used to eating out of a bowl, so I thought it would be a nice treat."

CC took a bite and leaned back in the seat. "Tonight couldn't get any worse."

"Don't insult me, Babs. I'm just getting started."