The Morning After

By Amy (amydekanter@yahoo.com)



The door swung open. Roz could tell immediately from her friend's face that she was expecting someone else. It didn't take a genius to know who that might be.

"So, he's not here yet?"

"I'm sorry, I'm a bundle of nerves." Daphne laughed self-consciously. "I feel like a teenager on her first date." She stood aside to let them pass. Roz set the wedding gifts on the table then turned to give Daphne a hug. Simon dumped his boxes with a lot less ceremony onto the floor.

"You got some smashing gifts, Stilts," he told her. "Worth getting married for." Daphne ignored him.

"Simon, honey, be a dear and get the rest of the stuff, okay?"

"Right-o, Rose, your wish is my command." Roz wondered about his willingness to be a beast of burden but decided not to ask. There were more important questions in her mind, all for Daphne.

"Okay, spill." Roz said as soon as the door slammed behind Simon. "Tell me everything."

Daphne smiled into her clasped hands. "Can you believe it? I can't."

"It's an effort," Roz admitted. It certainly was not a match she would have predicted. Daphne was what in her crowds was known as a hot babe and Niles was what in her crowds was known as a stick-up-the-butt dork. On the other hand, Daphne had never had that hot babe attitude and if Roz were going to be truly, truly honest, she had always kind of liked that stick-up-the-butt dork. "Oh my god, you look so happy," Roz said wistfully.

"I am. I didn't know it was possible to be this happy. I mean, I'm a lot of things, especially since yesterday because yesterday was just..."

"I know, I was there, remember? It's good you left when you left. I think most guests stayed an extra day just to keep blowing all that hot air out their exhaust pipe."

Daphne sighed.

"How's Donny?" She asked.

"Not great. But at least he knows you're not pregnant. He may be the only one who believes it but..."

"That's fine. He's the only one I care about."

"Hey..." Roz hesitated. "I'm so sorry about what happened at the wedding. You know, with Donny's mother."

"Oh, no." Daphne suddenly looked very nervous. "Who told you?" she asked. The question answered itself as Simon burst in with a fresh armload of presents. Roz jumped up to take them from him before he could drop them on top of the last bunch.

"Still got loads to go," he said, departing as noisily as he had entered.

Just as the door slammed behind Simon, Martin came in from the back rooms and made a beeline for the breakfast table.

"Good morning, good morning. Hey, Roz, how are you today? What do we have here? Corn muffins? Ooooh, yummy. Thanks Daph. And juice. Wow. Nothing like a fresh glass of juice in the morning."

"Good morning, Mr. Crane. I'll get your coffee," Daphne's eyes had not left Roz's. "Roz, would you give me a hand?"

"Okay, what's up?" Roz asked as soon as they were out of earshot.

"Roz, you haven't told Dr. Crane, have you? Or anyone?"

"You mean they don't know? Not even Niles?"

"No, and I want it to stay that way. Please Roz."

"But ..."

"Please."

"But, why?"

"Because it's not important."

"Not important!" Was she kidding? Roz had been furious since she heard the news. Mostly because this had happened to Daphne, but also because... well, because what could she do about it? Rough up the old lady? Roz had figured she would talk it over with the Crane brothers and that they would plot adequate revenge together. Now not only was Daphne swearing her to secrecy, she even had the nerve to say it was not important!

"It's not!" Daphne insisted. "Roz, it's not."

"But she slapped you." Roz said angrily. "In front of all those people."

"Oh, Roz." Roz couldn't believe it. Daphne was actually smiling. "Niles is the most marvelous thing that's ever happened to me. That he came into my life at all feels like a miracle. That we got together yesterday, despite so many things, both of us giving up so much... The slap hurt, but it didn't hurt as much as what I did to Donny, or as much as knowing that I broke up a marriage. Lots of things hurt yesterday, but in the end Niles and I got together and that's the only thing that really matters."

Another crash from the living room announced Simon's return. Daphne waited until it was quiet again.

"I can't let Dr. Crane know because you know how he is. He wouldn't let something like this go. He would keep dragging it into the present when it belongs to the past."

"Yeah, I know how he is..." Roz was exactly the same way. She hung her head.

"And I can't tell Niles," Daphne's voice became softer. "Because he wouldn't forgive himself. I don't want him to think for a minute that anything should have been different. I don't want him to have any regrets... I have none. All I want is for him to be as happy as I am."

Daphne looked like a kid at who just got a pony for Christmas. Who was Roz to decide whether or not there was a Santa Claus?

"Oh, all right." Roz said. Daphne relaxed but Roz wasn't going to let her of the hook that easy. "Just one more question." She said. Daphne nodded, visibly bracing herself. "Does he wipe your mouth with his idiotic handkerchief before kissing you?"

"No," Daphne laughed, blushing. "Nothing like that. He's wonderful. Just... wonderful." Daphne's far off smile told Roz she had retreated to some dippy sort of Never Never Land. But it wasn't the kids' stuff Roz was interested in.

"So... how far have you gone?"

"Roz!" Daphne turned and busied herself with making coffee, but not soon enough for Roz to miss the pink blush turn crimson.

"Aw, come on," Roz wheedled. "You've got to tell me."

"Not far enough," Daphne admitted, beet red.

"So... you've kissed, that much I know. And...?"

"And what?"

"Exactly. And what?"

"We...er..." Daphne stirred the cup nervously. "We held hands in the car on the drive back."

"Oh god. How very Romper Room. How about the serious stuff? Mel and Donny were both making noise about the fact that you guys never came back the night before the wedding. What were did Niles do to you in that Winnebago that made you change your mind?"

Daphne was looking more and more uncomfortable. By now Roz could actually feel the heat coming off her friends face. She was tempted to splash water on her to see whether it would fizzle.

"Nothing... we sat by the lake. Just sat. With a very big distance between us."

"How big?"

"Niles didn't even know I was there."

"You're kidding."

More crashing from the living room. Simon gave no signs of tiring out.

"But we did kiss," Daphne sounded defensive. "After that. Lots of times."

"Lots as in more than three, right?" Daphne glared at her. Roz shrugged. "Well, I need to hand it to you. You did say you'd never sleep with a married man and Niles is too much of a prude to engage in extramarital sex."

"Well, technically he's separated. That's almost divorced." Daphne said quickly. Very quickly. Ah-ha, Roz thought.

"Oh, please. Do you think that will matter to him? Niles and Frasier are both rejects from the dark ages. Niles has such an idealised view of you; I'll bet he's lapping up this whole virginal thing. No pun intended. He probably wants to protect your honour by keeping you pure until the divorce comes through."

"Do you really think so?" Now Daphne looked worried. "I mean, a divorce could take forever."

"It sounds like someone has the hots for Dr. Niles." Roz teased. That was so sweet. Bizarre, but sweet. Roz had had more than her fair share of men, including an embarrassing array of losers, but Niles was so...let's just say the only thing he aroused in Roz was morbid curiosity. After all, he'd twice married bloodless insects and his one big affair had been with Frasier's ghoulish ex-Frankenspouse, Lilith. Daphne had a figure, a pulse and moving parts. Would Niles even know what to do with her?

"We may have just kissed, but I know he wanted more. I do too. And we've already waited so long." Hallelujah, Roz thought. Finally. "But..."

"But?" Oh-oh.

"But maybe you're right." Daphne sounded a bit doubtful. "Maybe we should take things slow."

Aww, man, now she had gone too far. Niles was going to kill her.

"You'd better put that in the microwave. It's probably freezing by now." Roz pointed at Martin's cup of coffee, which Daphne had been stirring for over ten minutes. She was surprised Marty hadn't come in looking for them. "Look, about Niles, it's not a decision you have to make right now."

"You're right. I'll just play it by ear, see whether he says anything, or if anything just happens." Daphne's tone left no question as to which one she'd prefer so Roz did not believe her for a second when she added: "Whatever it is, I'll go with it." She took the reheated coffee out of the microwave. Roz tried again.

"I was just kidding earlier. I've seen the way Niles looks at you and it's not always suitable for young viewers. I think something needs to happen between you before he starts getting frisky with the dragon." Daphne looked shocked.

"I've never heard it called that before," she said. Roz burst out laughing.

"Daphne, the gutter isn't big enough for both our minds: I meant a real dragon. Well, a real statue of a dragon. The one I gave him a few weeks ago."

"You got him a dragon?" Daphne stared at Roz with a different kind of shock.

"It was just a thank you gift for helping me get Alice into this really good pre-school," Roz explained. "Actually, I was going to get him a red bow tie because I wanted the gift to have meaning - I found out that he and Frasier used to wear them as part of the uniform at their pre-school alma mater." God, could there be anyone geekier? "Anyway, I realised he probably wouldn't get it so in the end I just flipped through a catalogue and let Alice point. She liked the dragon." Roz shrugged, as she started out of the kitchen. "Sometimes you just have to trust in these things."

She realised Daphne was not following. Roz turned and saw her still standing there, frozen with a strange little smile on her face.

"What? Are you okay?" Roz asked. Slowly, Daphne nodded. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Daphne answered. Her smile widened as she got that dreamy, faraway look again. "I'm just listening."